The Beginning

Over the holidays, friends began talking about running a marathon. It sounded wonderful, but not something I'm, interested in, let alone capable of...or am I? My husband ran his first marathon a few years ago and swears to me that I WILL LOVE RUNNING and that all of my ailments will go away. I've tried running in the past, but asthma and tendinitis in my knees never allowed my to give it my all. I am a 32 year old whose knees audibly crackle as I walk up and down stairs. Every year in grade school, after running a mile for the presidential physical fitness award, I'd run to the bathroom to throw up. Inhalers have never helped. So, I gave up.

In college I found that I could run indoors and did so religiously (on a treadmill) for one year; however, once I left Lawrence and my membership at LAC, I quit and used other methods to exercise like biking and walking or nothing at all! Working 24-7 killed my exercise craze and slowly I became more and more out of shape. I joined the gym two years ago and exercised in spurts, getting addicted to the elliptical. I loved it because it gave me the intensity of running without the pressure on my knees...then the gym began to scare me a little and I just could not make myself go anymore. I returned to regular work outs at the gym a few weeks ago.

On December 29th 2008, I started running, a funny coincidence that the 29th is also my husbands birthday. He found a 5K run training guide for beginners and together, we started training. Please see link to the guide (Runner's World). The training consists of 3 days of running alternating with three days of cross-training and one rest day before a long run on Sunday. The emphasis during the week is on time rather than mileage. The final run on Sunday is based on mileage.

Week one went well. I made all my goals. I'm at the end of week two and should run 2.5 miles today; however, I may try to run closer to 3 because I'm going to have to skip ahead a week to be ready to run my first 5K on January 25, 2009--the Groundhog Day Run in the Hunt-Midwest caves in KCMO.

Here is the link to the 5K training plan I am following:
http://www.runnersworld.com/images/cma/beginner5k_table.jpg