Let The Training Begin: Pre-C25K

Before I was a fat girl, I thoroughly enjoyed running. Believe it or not, I miss it. I miss it a lot. There's just something about the rhythmic sound of your feet against the pavement, the running mix of music coming through the earbuds, and knowing that it's just me and the track/road/trail. There's the sense of accomplishment when I've pushed myself a little harder than I ever have before. There's a feeling of release when I've come running after being frustrated, and am able to "work it out" in the run. There's something wonderful about being able to have that period of time to live in my own thoughts, with no distraction, and no interruptions.

Enter weight gain.

At the size that I am, running is an impossibility. During this ordeal, my orthopedic doctor noticed that I already have arthritis in both of them. Yay. I can walk, but it's totally not the same, no matter how much I "power walk" or how hard I push myself. People try to convince me it is, but it's just not. A year ago, I tore two different ligaments in one of my knees.

I had attempted to being the Couch to 5K (C25K) Training Program, but within a couple weeks, it was painfully obvious that I wasn't going anywhere with it any time soon. During the jogging intervals, I was reaching exhaustion before the end of the allotted time period that I was supposed to jog. After the jogging intervals, I was not recovering to the point that I could begin another jogging interval during the allotted recovery periods. Within a few cycles, I was spent.

I decided recently, with the restart of my journey, that I wanted to try to work back into running again. Since I know that the C25K is a little over the top for my abilities, I began searching online for any Pre-C25K programs. I hit several forums, and did some googling, and came back with NOTHING. I asked a good friend of mine, who is a fitness and nutrition junkie, if she knew of any programs in existence, and while she didn't know the answer, she did throw out a line to see if any of her friends knew of one.

The bad news? There doesn't seem to be one already in place. The good news? Until now. :)

A sweet lady named Cheryl, whom I've never met, went on a search for a program. When she also found that one didn't seem to exist, she was kind enough to take further time out of her day to create a program, just because I asked if one existed.  I'm so humbled by her kindness and generosity towards me, a complete stranger.

With her permission, I am sharing a link to the program here. Please check out her blog, her amazing weight loss success story, and of course, the apparently very first Pre-C25K Program that she created. Drop her a line, and let her know that I sent you.

I won't be boring you with anything insane, like daily updates, but I will be putting some updates about my progress on my Wednesday Weigh-In & Goals Updates posts (New GOAL for August!). I'm looking forward to the day that I'm able to report that I'm running *insert Forest Gump quote "I was running!" here* 5Ks and 10Ks and half marathons and marathons, even. And then I can link back to this point, and say, it all started here...with a pre-C25K program.