Do the Couch-to-5k running plan at half speed

i’m so proud of myself i can’t quite believe it! i feel like some kind of olympic champion. my first ever official run with thousands of other ladies around tiergarten… i was really nervous beforehand, my legs felt wobbly and everything, i was sure i was going to be last…

but then i thought i’d get into the spirit of things, participated in the warm-up session, decided against madness and for green day as my music, and even worked out at the last moment how the stopwatch on my mp3 player works. things started off slowly—lots of ladies, not a very wide path. i was weaving in and out, finding it hard to get into my stride. but then the path widened out and things got going. i felt good. long, strong strides and, though within myself, enjoyed having others running alongside me.

i’d thought that finishing would be fab, and that finishing under 40 mins would be quite respectable—so couldn’t quite believe it when i looked at my stopwatch at the end and saw i’d arrived in 32 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! really, i can’t quite get over it. must rush off again now but, wow, i’m so proud of myself.

i was out for an hour. minus 5 min warm up and cool down—can that really mean i’m now running for 50 minutes without thinking about it?? or did i fall asleep on a bench for 20 minutes and not notice? ELO today, easier to jog to than kate bush, who keeps breaking off in mad waltzes
she makes me run lopsididly. and sing like a mad woman:

“Suddenly my feet are feet of mud
It all goes slo-mo
I don’t know why I’m crying
Am I suspended in Gaffa?”

what is she on?

i love this goal. the sun is shining away but there are still patches of snow from yesterday’s flurry. the park was full of little kids with bunny bags dancing around trees and looking for eggs. there was even an easter rabbit—about 1.65 tall and with a cute fluffy tail. the bedding plants have been planted in the formal bit at the front, the woody bit at the back is full of snowdrops. the trees are getting greener by the day and i am in an excellent mood.

i have come from couch (very couch) to 5k, and it is entirely thanks to this site! hooray! i started as i finished—entirely unplanned. got to the park and thought, hmm, this is going well, maybe i’ll go a bit further… and ran a whole new route around the back. united runners tells me that the route was about 5.2 km, and i was running for over 40 minutes so… i’ve done it. i can’t quite believe it.

interesting news story here

it’s been too long again…

around the lake again. the weather was just too good to sit at my desk splitting and pulling hairs all day.

the sky is pure blue. half of berlin was out running and walking. the runners out today seemed to be a lot faster than the midweek runners—or maybe i was just slower. whatever, i went all the way around the lake in 30 mins plus.

right, i really want to nail this goal this month and do the 5k route in tiergarten i have mapped out. at the moment i don’t really know how far i’m running—wow, 5k, just imagine.

first run in 9 days—a combination of scheduling problems and bad weather. and the absence of running really made itself known in the form of bad moods and general glumnity. so very glad to have got back going again.

• because the deep web course turned out so crap i’m not going tomorrow morning, meaning that i’ve reclaimed a big chunk of time, can work at home tomorrow, and can go running.
• i’ve lost at least 3 kilos since starting C25K proper—and that’s despite building up amazing muscles, hahah!
• just saw that the empty shop front downstairs has turned into a very stylish-looking pan-asian restaurant, opening tomorrow—with half-price sushi, vietnamese soup and mint/cinnamon tea! how incredibly excellent!

in the sun! 33 minutes, whoopee. this running thing is a real lesson in carpe diem. you just try to catch the good weather and see where it takes you.

i seem to have found the perfect structure for my days: work from 9 to about 1pm, when i’m getting tired and achey, then run, then cool down while catching up on 43t and mails, then shower and lunch, then have the rest of the day off. hmm that would be the perfect structure, but in the real world, work needs doing in the afternoon too….

alb is so great at encouraging me to just get up and go. in the old days, i’d have gone straight from my frustrating morning at the computer to the fridge—now i can be proud of myself all day for having accomplished something. the park was an ice rink, but i found a good alternative route (and just about avoided falling on slap my arse at the end of it).

interestingly, and this is probably purely coincidental, since i have taken up running (which alb has been telling me to do for 15 years), alb has taken up reading books (which i have been telling him to do for 15 years). he used to be a two-books-per-year-on-holiday type chap, but this year he’s already finished Hotel New Hampshire! we have been sitting around reading books together—the stuff of dreams.