And they're off

Tonight was the start of Couch to 5K with my friend Lizzy. The plan looks easy until you get done with the first day and then you think "Holy moly i've got to do this 3 times a week!" Now I know that this doesn't sound like a lot, but for novice runners and those of us who have gone to seed a bit, even though we used to run; it is a lot.

Here's what Day one looks like. Brisk 5 Minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of brisk walking for a total of 20 minutes. Now it should be noted that every work out there is also a cool down walk of about 4 to 5 minutes. This is a short work out of only 30 minutes. Its not a huge chunk of time. 30 minutes is killer though for two reasons: A. I haven't worked out in a while and B. I forgot to stretch.

Lets talk for a minute about the importance of stretching before a run or any strenuous exercise. Stretching is absolutely necessary. I don't care what you say. You're going to feel it with in moments of that first take off of jogging if you don't stretch. This is exactly the way I felt.

When stretching you should make sure to stretch all parts of your legs this includes your toes! Mine have a propensity for falling asleep if I forget to stretch. My whole leg from my ass to the end of my big toe tightens up and then they fall asleep. Yeah yeah I'm sure there's some medical reason for this due to my weight, size, and what not but what i know is that I didn't stretch.

When you stretch start by going from flat foot to standing on the tips of your toes as if you were walking in heels for 10 second intervals for about a minute. That should stretch out the balls of your feet and toes. Next you should sit on the ground and put one leg with your heal pointed into your groin your other leg pointed out straight at a 90 degree angle to your body. Reach for your toes. Its ok if you can't reach your toes, because heaven knows i'm not that flexible and i can't. This will help to stretch your hangstrings and quads. Do this for about 10 second intervals until you feel limber. Switch legs and repeat.

After that you should stand up and put your toes of one leg on the wall and your other leg behind you like your doing a lunge into the wall. This stretch, will help to stretch most parts of your uppers legs and calves.

So back to tonight. I didn't stretch. Boy did I feel it afterwards. My calves and shins were burning, but no pain no gain right. Wrong, you should stretch and then its a good burn not a bad burn. The run was good alternating between walking and running. I have to say that while I was running I felt like Santa Clause for a little bit with my tummy bouncing around like bowl full of jelly! I also had the William Tell Overature playing in my head at the time which I found quite humorous as I felt like I was off to the races even though i wasn't going anywhere because I was on a treadmill.

So in total we ran about 1.77 miles during our intervals and that's pretty good in only 20 minutes of actual work out. My next day is probably going to be Wednesday. We repeat day one again except that its day two! 9 weeks to go with one of 27 work outs down. In a few weeks we'll talk about finding a race!

What did I learn today? Don't forget to stretch and have fun.