Are We Crazy??

This blog has been dormant for a while, but I think it's time to start up again. We are going to run a half-marathon!!!

We started a training program designed by Hal Higdon. We'll start with the "Novice" 5K training program for the first 7 weeks, then when we're comfortable going 3 miles at a time easily, we'll ratchet it up to the "Novice" half-marathon training program for the next 12 weeks.

Stay tuned!

Dry Run

I'm in Phoenix--my birthday present from Robyn this year was a long weekend visiting my good friend Chris and his wife Aimee without my kids. Today since Chris and Aimee had some work they needed to do in the morning, I decided (after sleeping in) I'd go for a run before it got too hot. Of course, being Phoenix, it was already in the 80s at 9:30 when I got outside. When I called Chris to ask about a spare key he reminded me to bring some water, because Phoenix is very dry. It's a good thing, too: without water I don't know if I would have lasted ten minutes. Western Kansas has been pretty dry, too, but not quite as hot, and most days when we go out for a run I don't sweat too much. Today by the end I was pretty gross.

The run itself wasn't bad. I put my earbuds on and listened to an episode of "This American Life" while I ran. I don't have the spiffy armband holster that Robyn has for her Treo so my Palm was just in my gym shorts pocket, which is not great, and my earbuds aren't really made for running so I had to adjust them often. But it gave me something to listen to while I ran around the neighborhood, trying to remember which street Chris' house was on so I wouldn't get totally lost. It was a little confusing because of some cul-de-sacs and streets that didn't go all the way through where I expected them to, but I didn't stray too far and managed to run for about 35 minutes before heading back.

We missed several runs this past week because of Robyn's work and my movie theater meetings, but we're hoping to get a few in while we're in Portland if possible.

We Are Officially Off The Couch!

I wanted to post some pictures from our first joint 5K running experience. For what it's worth, our official chip time was 42:29.55. Jonathan placed 102 out of 110 male runners (he could've gone MUCH faster without his chubby wife, trust me), and I placed 138 out of 170 females. Also, please take into account that due to my needing to stand in the port-a-potty line until just about 60 seconds before race time, we started at the very back of the pack, and so you could probably take about 2 minutes off that race time to be completely accurate.


Here we are pre-race. Note my extraordinary hodgepodge of clothing layers: Tights, running skort, technical long-sleeve shirt, official race T-shirt, and cushy hoodie sweatshirt. Note Jonathan's extraordinarly inappropriate legwear. After the race I took him to R.E.I. and we bought some sporting pants for his birthday.


We took this pre-race from the parking lot across the street. We jog/walked over there thinking we might get lucky and find open potties in the Visitor's Center, rather than stand in line for the Port-a-Johns. Sadly, no, but we did get this awesome view.


The obligatory "here we are!" self-taken photo


Robyn feels STRONG as she starts the race. Once again, notice how far back in the pack we are.


Another pic of the amazing scenery, and the miles and miles of people in front of us.


The rocks here make a formation called "Kissing Camels." If you can't figure out why, well, you have no imagination. Sorry. Jonathan took this one while jogging backwards in front of his huffing-and-puffing wife.


And, a photo of huffing-and-puffing wife, taken while kneeling. Yes, he had time to stop and kneel while I chugged along. :-)


Some gorgeous rocks.


More gorgeous rocks. At some point the 5-mile race branched off down into this canyon (which I knew you ran down and then turned around to come back up) -- we figure the scenery on that route was probably even more amazing than what we got. But we DID want to finish before lunch...


The only photo we have of Jonathan in the race. Note how he handed me the camera, then jogged a ways ahead so I could snap the photo (which is blurry because I did not pause my chugging).


More beauty!


Here, Robyn is really, really happy to be on the downhill slope. One thing I noticed, though, was that once I got into my rhythm I really didn't want to break it, even to go faster on the downhills. Grannies were passing me as I slowly just went along at the same pace I had had all along, and I was OK with that. I was still running, after all, and it felt comfortable. I wasn't about to mess with that just to break the pride of an active old lady or two.


The home stretch is in sight, here. The red rocks in front of us are the same Kissing Camels rocks we saw as we started the race. The route comes around that curve you see and goes downhill back to where the race started.


And we're done!!! Robyn still feels strong, but is craving a banana. :)

YES!!!

Pictures soon to follow, but I couldn't wait to post this for our faithful reader(s?) - we did it! The 5K was more difficult than what we had done before in training, and it took us close to 40 minutes to complete. But despite hills and altitude and a very early morning, we ran the whole way! For the first 1.5-2 miles, we were apace with the "sporadic runners" - those who would run a ways at a pace too fast for them (and thus pass us), and then have to stop and walk (thus allowing us to pass them). Finally, though, we got by them and finished with other runners. The scenery was GORGEOUS (as you'll see when we get home to post the photos) and the weather was perfect, if a tad on the chilly side. Can't wait until next year!

Counting Down

We had a great 30-minute+ run in the Kansas wind this afternoon while the girls played at a friend's house (actually, we imposed on some very nice fellow runners to allow the girls to "stay late" after a birthday party so we could go out). I'm finding it really, really impressive that I'm now able to sustain a jogging pace for more than 30 minutes without even really a noticeable stitch in my side. I am noticing now a lot of the things I read about in books about running - like how running on asphalt is kinda tough on my shins, and how stopping without a sufficient cool-down walk made my plantar fascia start to clench up.

Rhythm

Today was beautiful, sunny, and HOT in western Kansas. High of 83! Finally, a Thursday worth running in. We are pretty much off the C25k program since my podcast-playing palm pilot died, but since we were pretty close to the end and doing well it doesn't matter so much. Today we once again took off for Horace, just with a timer to tell us when it'd been 14 minutes so we could turn back. We may have run about 30 minutes, since we were probably slower coming back than we were going out. We also got a good deal further down the road than we did last time, both because of the slightly increased running time and also my well-rested status which did wonders for our pace. The other exciting bit of news is I got some new running gear, including a very cute running skort from REI.

I hope we can squeeze in a run this weekend and one more early next week, and then rest up for race day May 3. We'll have friends and family there to cheer us on, and I'm very excited.

Catchin' Up

Still no photos, because our digital camera has yet to be replaced. We ran Friday evening, later than usual, after dropping the kids off at a friends' house. In full electronic rebellion, my Treo also has died and so we didn't even have our Podcast to listen to. (To be fair, the Treo's death is entirely my fault: I dropped it on the street, smashing its screen, and my noble knight in armor bravely tried to repair it with a replacement screen but to no avail.) So we ran around town, not sticking to a track or any particular path, just taking streets as they occurred to us, and using a timer on J's phone to mark about 27 minutes, which we figured was probably about the Week 8 duration. I have had a really long week at work and have been really, really tired, so it was a difficult run for me. J is a champ and talked me through the whole thing, which helps so much.

It's raining...

...again. And windy. And cold.

I guess my only day off is determined to be nasty to me. :P

Barenaked Ladies song?

It's been, ONE WEEK since you ran with me...

I had declared that I would be an official slob if I went longer than a week without running. Since we ran today, and it was therefore NOT longer than a week, I am maybe only a temporary slob (the way my 4-year-old is a "temporary fairy" when she puts on her dress-ups with wings). My excuses, in chronological order:
1) Wednesday: Only one day after last run; not in the training program!
2) Thursday: Icky, awful weather with rain, hail, snow, and 40 mph winds. I'm totally
excused here.
3) Friday: Beginning of my worst call weekend since arriving in Tribune.
4) Saturday: See 3).
5) Sunday: See 3).
6) Monday: Fallout from 3), 4), and 5).
Seriously, I was seriously wiped out yesterday. For that matter, I'm seriously wiped out today. But I feel really, really good that we went out running. Today we ran over toward Horace and back. It was uphill going there, downhill coming back. That was a good way to do it, I think. :)

I am really happy to have Jonathan as my running partner. He doesn't mind slowing down for me (as earlier pointed out, he knows I'm allowing him to finish without burning out early), and we actually have time to TALK to each other. Heck, I think I would keep doing a running program 3 days a week just to have the time with my husband.

Our First Run After The Jayhawks Became National Champions

We finally remembered to take Jonathan's Razr phone out with us so we could post a photo this time! It was a beautiful, sunny Spring day in Tribune, if a little cold, and we began Week 7 of our Couch to 5K program. We finished Week 6 on Sunday with a 25-minute run, and then this week we'll do that 3 more times before once again increasing the duration for week 8. This program assumes you're not running very fast, expecting about a 10-minute mile (or 6 mph), so 25 minutes comes to just about 2.5 miles. A 5K in miles is about 3.1, so we're very close! It's hard to track exactly how far we're running when we do this out on the streets instead of on the track, but it's just more fun and challenging to encounter a slope every so often and get to pick your scenery rather than going around in circles. Plus, we never have to see a feedlot if we don't want to!

I'm definitely getting tired in doing these runs. Jonathan still has me beat in the natural skill department, and is a great motivating partner for me. One thing that worries me is that even though we've done a great job of keeping up with the program when we're both home, it's not habitual yet. We don't have a really set routine of how it's supposed to go every time. Like, we always sort of have to figure out whether the girls will eat dinner before or after we run (answer, for Hania anyway: before AND after!). We discuss almost every time whether or not we'll call one of the high-school girls over to come watch them, or take them with us in the stroller (Babysitting pro: No whining! Con: We're out $5-6 per run). Ridley in particular seems to really prefer playing at home with an energetic, pretty girl like Madison or Haylie or Monica to sitting in the ladybug while Mom and Dad jog around for half an hour. I want to include them in this endeavor because I want them to grow up thinking exercise is a normal part of family life. But at the same time, I don't want to force Ridley into it so much against her will that it backfires and she declares she'll never run. We need to figure out some way that we can run and enjoy it, and she can actually have fun with it, too. Either that, or we get her into some other exercise routine that's fun (Jonathan has tried, unsuccessfully so far, to teach her to jump rope) and hope for the best while we make her put up with ours.

Week 6

We did our Week 6 Day 2 on Friday afternoon, and today we went for Day 3: a 25-minute run. We went north on the highway up to the golf course, and then took a meandering jog throughout the golf course. The weather has been quite a bit warmer (though a little windier today) so it's been good weather for running. The golf course was a nice change of scenery but most of the paths we were on are dirt and gravel, which is not necessarily the best for running.

I think it went pretty well, although I've got a sore bit on the right side of my lower back now. I'm wondering if it's from the run or just bad posture from reading books and playing Xbox recently.

Still no pictures this time--our camera is having some issues, which we think (hope) are battery-related. I've ordered a new battery, so hopefully we'll actually be able to take photos again.

Yesterday, week 6 day 1

Week 6 is kind of like week 5 in that there are three different programs for the three days of the week. The first program, which we did yesterday, was running intervals of 5 minutes, 8 minutes, and 5 minutes again, with 3-minute walking intervals between each one. Tomorrow we'll do two 10-minute intervals with a 3-minute walk, and then on Sunday we get a 25-minute long haul. The run was harder than I thought, but then I remembered that I had gone to bed at 3 a.m. the night before, woken up at 7, worked a very long day, and was then running near sunset when I hadn't eaten in about six hours. Yeah, so, that would explain my fatigue.

We're getting excited about our first 5K, coming up on May 3 which also happens to be my Dear Husband's 30-somethingith birthday. Read about it here!

5.3

As Robyn said, it was cold and wet here in Tribune yesterday so I didn't do my 20-minute run until this afternoon. I picked up Ridley from preschool, called the babysitter, and then went out. It had been chilly when I'd been outside, but I overestimated the amount of clothing I needed and was pretty hot and sweaty by the time I was done. And since today I decided to run the "walking circuit" around town instead of the high school track, I couldn't take off my sweatshirt and leave it somewhere.

Instead of using the podcast, I listened to an episode of "This American Life" on my Palm, and then checked my time with my cell phone clock. The first story was about basketball, and I think in my enthusiasm listening to the story, I started off too fast. By around 12 minutes in I was getting really tired and on the verge of slowing to a walk to get a breather. But I did manage to keep jogging and kept it up the rest of the time. When I did finally slow down to a walk, though, my legs felt a bit wobbly at first and it was difficult to keep up a brisk walking pace.

Incidentally, we had walked or run on portions of the circuit before; there are just arrows spray painted on the ground to point you when you should turn on a road (sometimes hard to see), and we'd seen the "1 mile" line. But today while following the arrows, I came to a "Finish" line which was probably half a mile or so from the "1 mile" mark. I'm really not sure how the two lines connect, or where the "Start" is, so that doesn't help me gauge how far I've been running.

Intervals Away!

Day 3 of week 5 is a solid 20-minute run, the first of the training sequence without a walking interval (except the warm-up and cool-down stuff of course). The other first today is that I got up and ran first thing this morning, instead of later in the day. At first I lay in bed convincing myself that I could hear rain and see lightning outside my hotel room window. But eventually I remembered that my window actually overlooks an indoor courtyard with lots of fountains and light features.... What really did it is that I couldn't decide whether or not I'd shower this morning before the conference sessions if I decided to run later. I really felt like I could use a shower, but if I was just going to go out and sweat later... the decision was too complicated. I got up and ran rather than try to puzzle it out.

And sweat I did! I'm down here in Dallas at a conference, and although the elevation is a good 3000 feet lower, the humidity is immeasurably higher. It was OK as long as I was running into the wind, but whenever I turned around my glasses fogged over completely. And my clothing was totally soaked by the time I was done. Speaking of soaked, it was rainy and COLD in Tribune today, so we don't know if Jonathan will get his run in or not. Hope he'll post about it when he does.

5.2

First of all, if you haven't heard of Jonathan Coulton, go listen to his music RIGHT NOW. www.jonathancoulton.com

All right, now that's out of the way, on to today's run. It was #2 of the week, since Wednesday and Thursday I got home too late from work to do it. Today I was home too late too, actually, but it was such a horrible afternoon at work that we prioritized this over some other stuff we might've done this evening. Here in the photo you see Jonathan pushing the stroller, which he usually does. I feel it handicaps him somewhat to even the playing field.

Today we ran two 8-minute intervals, and I have to say that for the first time since starting the program I was actually tired at the end. Actually tired. Tomorrow I leave for a conference in Dallas, so the plan is that we'll do the 20-minute run (which is the third stage of Week 5) on our own on Sunday. Then next Wednesday it's on to Week 6! (I think if you do Weds-Fri-Sun it still counts, don't you?)

Jonathan's note: You'll also notice, comparing this photo to Monday's, that I was wearing shorts and short sleeves on Monday and this time I'm wearing jeans, sweatshirt, scarf, gloves, and I'm in the process of putting my hat back on. That's Western Kansas weather for you--sometimes a 20-degree difference from one day to the next!

Blazing Forward!

So this is the second post in a day, just because last week every time I tried to post about our week 4 run my computer decided to crash. For some reason, my work laptop doesn't like Blogger! Anyway, this picture should have gone with THAT post because today we didn't take the kiddos with us. (Which, I might add, greatly disappointed Hania. When we got back home she pointed at the door and shouted "Out! OUT!" until I took her out. Then she grabbed my hand, pointed to the end of the driveway and said "Go!" "Go where?" I foolishly asked. "GOOOOOO!" So we walked around the house and then came back inside.)

Anyway, we decided this evening the heck with repeating week 4 and let's get going! On to week five! I had done two of the three week 4 runs already, and Jonathan, well, this just hasn't been challenging for his natural runner's physique. Week 5 is actually three different runs on the three days. Starting each day with a 5-minute warm-up walk, it goes like so:
Day 1: Three intervals of a 5-minute run and a 3-minute walk
Day 2: Two intervals of an 8-minute run and a 5-minute walk
Day 3: One long 20-minute run, with no walking

We did Day 1 today, and for the first time we ran on the streets instead of the high school track (it was being painted). My body was a little bit shocked to find itself actually running up a small hill at one point! (Note: in any other part of our great nation, this "hill" would not even register as such. Here where we live, it counts, OK?) Running out in the community brought us into contact with a lot more people, who were also out running or walking, some with families, and it was pretty fun. We also got to give cheery waves to the people driving by in their big ol' cars. I bet they were jealous of us.

Easter Weak

So now that I know there's at least one person out there besides me reading this, I need to catch up on the posting.

Jonathan and I did another Week 4 run on Thursday (the 20th) - my second, his first since he'd been in Belleville with the girls visiting my dad earlier in the week. Then on Friday for some reason I had a big jones to go run, but stuck to the program of taking a resting day in between. Saturday would have been our day to go finish the week, but I woke up with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and body aches. Arrgh! So because I didn't run, and wasn't really up to keeping the girls by myself, Jonathan didn't run either. Yesterday, of course, was Easter Sunday and we had other things to keep us busy.

So we can repeat week 4 starting today (Monday), and if we do go run I'll be sure to post about it this evening. But as I've pointed out to Jonathan, we can't repeat any more weeks or we won't be fully prepared for our first real-live 5K on May 3. What we might do is a week 4 run today, then skip to week 5 for Weds-Fri-Sun, and get back on track that way.

Beginning Week 4

The Week 4 running schedule goes like this:
- 5-minute warm-up walk
- 3-minute run
- 90-second walk
- 5-minute run
- 2.5-minute walk
- Repeat the two run/walk segments
- Cool-down walk

It's quite a jump from Week 3, when there were only 9 minutes of total running and an equal amount of running and walking. This week's is a total of 16 minutes of running, with only half as much walking in between. I could tell a difference, noting that when it was time to run again it didn't seem like I had been walking nearly as long as I expected. The amazing thing to me is that I actually completed all the runs. :-)

3 down, 6 to go!

The Lius are now one-third of the way through the C25k program, having officially completed week 3 (albeit 4 weeks after we started). Jonathan will be traveling with the girls Mon-Weds of this week to visit Grandpa's house, so we'll see if he gets some gravel-road running in or whether we'll have to repeat week 4 next time.

In other news, we decided to celebrate (and anticipate!) our completion of this program by signing up for a 5K in Colorado Springs on Jonathan's birthday. It's going to be hilly, so we'll see how we handle the altitude.

3.2, as two

Today was the second run of Week 3. As Jonathan mentioned, it's adding some longer runs without actually increasing the total running time. We split up and did the runs separately tonight, because even though I had the day off from clinic it was hard to get us motivated to go during the day. By the time we finally realized we'd be running out of daylight soon, Jonathan was in the middle of a labor-intensive dinner preparation. So I ran, and then stirred the soup while he ran. It was interesting to compare our paces - when we don't run together, he covers quite a bit more ground than I do. But he also gets tired faster! He said he was starting to lose steam by the end of the 3-minute runs, but I definitely had the feeling that I could easily continue on for a while longer. However, during that 3 minutes he had covered about 600m while I had gone just over 400m. So in running together, we probably pace each other to mutual advantage: he speeds me up so I get more out of the workout, and I pace him so he can easily finish the whole thing without feeling tired.

I actually am enjoying this quite a bit, and think I'll try to talk my hubby into an actual 5K (probably in the Denver or Colorado Springs area), sometime this spring.

Week Three, Day One

Today we started the Week Three sessions. Thanks to the time change, it's now much brighter out when we do our run, which is nicer. This time we just pushed the girls in the trailer the whole time. Week Three is a 90 second run, 90 second walk, then 3 minute run, 3 minute walk, and then repeat the whole thing. It's the same amount of total running as in Week Two, but with longer stretches. I thought it went all right, although later this evening when I walked downtown for a meeting, I noticed my heels were a bit sore.

End Week 2

Friday was hectic and, in some ways, awful, so we completed Week Two with a run on Saturday afternoon. Here you see Jonathan pushing the ladybug trailer full of two small girls. We traded off, each pushing for about half the time. Ridley was all excited to ride her bike over to the track, but once we got there and started running she did not want to be left alone. So into the trailer she came, and there she stayed until we got back home. (Yes, we pushed the trailer AND the bicycle all the way home. I should've gotten a photo of THAT.)

Tomorrow we'll start Week 3, which has some longer runs alternating with shorter ones.

Syra-cruisin'

Today we mixed up our routine a little bit by running at the high school track in Syracuse instead of Tribune. Syracuse is the town 30 miles to our south where I have clinic on Wednesdays. Luckily this has coincided with Ridley's tumbling class, also in Syracuse on Wednesdays. Today it worked out that tumbling was over just before I finished clinic, so Jonathan and the girls came by to pick me up and we ran on the track down there before heading home.

I thought we had it bad when I noticed that Tribune's track directly overlooks a feed yard (smelly cows) and is asphalt instead of rubber. But hey - it could be worse! Syracuse's track is GRAVEL. Which meant the stroller veered whenever it hit a soft spot in the dirt. We managed it, though, despite the track and a bitter north wind. I was tired by the end, but unlike previous runs I didn't get a stitch in my side this time.

We have some sort of qi imbalance between us. I almost never remember to wear gloves but my hands are always toasty by the end of the run. Jonathan, conversely, wears ever-warmer layers on his hands but has freezer-fingers by the time we're done.

Week Two, Take 2

Since Robyn only got to do one Week 2 session last week and I did two, we decided tonight to redo Week 2 instead of going ahead to Week 3. Robyn got home while the kids were in the middle of dinner, and we were trying to figure who we could get to come babysit while we did our run, or if we'd have to trade off. Ridley suggested Maddy, so we gave her a call and it turned out she was available right away.

We did our warm-up walk on the way out to the high school track, which works out to just about 5 minutes, and then did the session around the track. It was a cold, clear night, but not too bad. I wore some fuzzy gloves and my hands were still cold throughout, but Robyn (who wasn't wearing gloves) said at the end that her hands were warmed up after the run. My right hip, which had been bugging me after the runs last week, seems to be doing better tonight.

I remarked to Robyn that running isn't really something that I'm enjoying. It's more something that I can do all right and feel is good for me, but it's not something that gives me pleasure the way riding a bike or skiing does. She said that our trip to Hawaii led her to a realization: it's not that she thinks she's going to start enjoying running or other exercise, but that when we do get the chance to do something fun like boogie boarding or hiking on a tough trail with gorgeous views, she doesn't want to miss out or have to quit early because she's out of shape. So here's to getting in shape for those opportunities!

Ew.

Well, thanks to this glorious western Kansas weather, we didn't even THINK about going out to run today. Seriously, even getting ourselves over TO the school to run in the hallways as we did in week 1 would have been a major ordeal for our family. What you can see in the photo is that it's wet and gray - what you can't see are the hard little balls of snow and the 40 mph winds. So it looks like we'll be starting week 2 over again tomorrow, get in three days of that and continue on. This isn't a race (yet!) - we'll just go on along at our own pace.

Like Hitting Yourself With A Bat...

...it feels GREAT when you stop!

Just kidding about the bat - running actually feels pretty good when it's in progress too. But this evening I had about as much trouble convincing myself to run as I would have convincing myself to get hit on the head. I worked all day, I was tired, I'm lonely... oh, the excuses. But Jonathan called this evening while I was (VERY slowly) getting changed into running clothes, which reminded me that they'll be home tomorrow, and that was the boost I needed to get started. Once I was going, it really felt great.

This was, ahem, actually my first day of Week 2 of the C25K program. But it's Friday, you say! Yes, it is. So this should be my third day? Yes, it should. I was traveling for work earlier in the week (Sunday thru yesterday, to be exact), and although I packed my stuff and had all the best intentions, there never seemed to be half an hour available to squeeze it in. The week was probably worth it, work-wise, but I was disappointed not to keep up with the program. Especially because Jonathan has been doing his bit without me!

Jonathan has completed two days of Week 2, and I've now completed one. He'll be traveling all day tomorrow, no time to do his third. So we'll do a Week 2 day together on Sunday and then re-evaluate whether we want to start Week 3 next Tuesday, or repeat Week 2 another time. No shame in that!

Today's run was easier than I expected! After the last group of 60-sec intervals in Week 1, I thought I was in pretty bad shape. Today's run was fewer, longer intervals (6 x 90 sec, instead of 8 x 60 sec), and for some reason it was easier even though it's a minute longer of total running time.

Week Two: Florida

This week I've been visiting my family in Florida and have been able to run outside in much warmer weather. I got myself a pair of Nike Free 5.0 running shoes at Ross; I'd had a pair of Free 1.0 in Portland but I didn't really wear them for running, and I figured these would be worth a try.

Week Two is 90 seconds of running alternating with 2 minutes of brisk walking. I'm noticing that my right hip is getting sore during the runs, but everything else has been okay. Oh, and I've been getting bug bites because, hey, it's Florida.

You can see in the photo that Ridley is trying to run with me too. Every so often when I pass by the playground area she joins me for a bit and then heads back. Today she went with me for a lap during my cool down walk.

Run #3

Well, Jonathan and the girls are with his family in Florida, so today's run was a solo affair. I'm proud that I did it! It was kind of difficult, though, maybe because I'm used to running in the afternoon or perhaps just because I didn't have company to distract me.

In any case, I've now completed Week 1 of the C25K. Yay! Jonathan hadn't done his yet when I talked to him, because he needs to go buy new running shoes while he's in Florida. When he's done it maybe he can blog about it, too.

This picture is, obviously, a fake. However, it is TRUE that we did our second day of week 1 of the C25K program. We just didn't get a picture of both of us in action.

Today's run happened in the hallways of the Greeley County Schools, for it is COLD outside! We dropped off the girls at the home of a lovely couple who fed them rare steak, sweet potatoes and broccoli and kept a Chinese cartoon running on the DVD player. Life does not get much better for those two, I swear it. Then we trotted over to the school, broke in through the gym and snuck around the boys' basketball practice, dropped our coats in a corner and headed out. The schools are all connected, high school, junior high, grade school, with hallways that join up, so there's a good bit of space to go back and forth. There would've been more had I had the gumption to scale the stairs too. Next time!

I'm ordering a sports case for my Treo, but for the time being I still carried it in my hand partway. The rest of the way I wore it in my waistband holster but it tended to make my pants sag.

We passed several people in the hallways whilst jogging back and forth. Some of them were teenage girls I've seen in the clinics who aren't always making the best decisions about what's good for their bodies.... Maybe, just maybe, says the eternal optimist, I inspired them a little bit? Or not. Who can say?

The run was marginally easier than Monday's, even given the fact that I have been battling a headache since Tuesday morning. Hooray for progress! :-) I don't want to speak for Jonathan, but he seems to have an inborn runner's physique. This is just not hard for him - he doesn't have to think about it. I, on the other hand, am chunky! So keeping up is my gig, while he just lopes easily along.

First Run

No pictures today, because when we went out for our inaugural run it was DARK! I got home from work a little late, about 5:30. Jonathan was finishing up dinner preparations and by the time we got the girls ready, the church bells tolled six. We walked over to the high school track to begin our workout. We thought maybe we could leave the girls with the ladybug trailer in the football field to play while we just jog/walked circles around them. But it turns out they don't really like us to set them down in the dark in a strange place and then just run off.

Other lessons learned:
- We need a different means of carrying my Treo if we're going to use it as an iPod. We downloaded the C25K Podcasts by Robert Ullrey, which cue the intervals and play upbeat music while you run. Nice, but not if I have to hold it in my hand the entire time!
- It's cold outside! We (especially Jonathan) need warmer gloves!
- Jonathan can kick my butt, even jogging on a lane outside mine and pushing both kids in the stroller. I need to work on that.

Gettin' Started

Greetings! In the interest of fitness and family togetherness, we are going to start a running program. This blog is here to give us a fun place to talk about the experience and help us stay accountable. (If we know you're reading, we'll have to explain ourselves if we don't post!)

Here's the plan: Starting tomorrow (February 18, 2008), we are going to embark on the Couch to 5k new runners' program. We'll jog/walk three times a week as outlined on that page. We want our kids to be a part of this adventure and also to see us doing this, so we'll either take them in the ladybug stroller (on cold days), or if we're jogging on the high school track we can let them run around on the field, or let Ridley ride her bike with us, or something.

This running program is three days a week. On the off days, we hope to do some weight training. I (Robyn) got pretty regularly into this while we were in Portland, and have let my muscles atrophy since living here, despite totally free 24-hour access to a nearby well-equipped weight room.

The program is 9 weeks, which happens to be exactly 2 months. Our first workout will be February 18, and the final 3-mile run will happen on April 18. There will be challenges, no doubt - call nights when I get no sleep, illness which puts one or the other of us (or a child) to bed, travel where we aren't together (next week we'll both be in Florida, but may or may not see one another at all!). Through it all we'll write on the blog and try to post pictures every so often. Thanks for reading.