Roughly 8 months ago I was struggling to find my groove losing weight and wanted to find a way to kick my butt into high gear. Enter the Couch to 5k training plan. I had never considered running in my entire life. I was always part of the group of "walkers" when we were supposed to run 1 mile in PE in school - you walk 90% of time and then sprint to finish with the PE teacher yells that you only have a couple minutes to finish under the 12min deadline. I loathed running but started to wonder if maybe I exercised like I never had before I would lose weight like I never had before. The C25k looked totally doable, mostly because I forced myself not to focus on week 3,4,or 5 and just get through the 1st week of running 1min intervals. I still distinctly remember running on the treadmill the first time. I remember when I was 10 seconds into my first minute of running, I thought I was going to die - I watched the seconds tick by for the first full minute in complete agony. I felt like it was torture, but when I was done I felt proud of myself. Each and everytime I completed a day of c25k training I felt like I might literally die it was so hard (I put my cell phone in my sports bra in case I passed out and wouldn't be able to get back up to the phone to call for help). I remember the first time I completed 20minutes of straight running, I had to
yell out loud "you can do this!" for the last 5 minutes in order to finish. I was so proud of myself when I was done - I ran upstairs to tell my husband I had made it and how amazed I was that I ran for 20 minutes straight!
I am not writing this to brag about how awesome I am, I want to remind myself how far I've come and if anyone stumbles across my blog and is contemplating starting a running program, maybe they will be encouraged at how it was not effortless for me At ALL and if they are struggling, just know that you will get through it and one day you might be running a 10k and having the time of your life while running like I just did.
I write this to remind myself at how strong I have become and have this post for me to look back on whenever I fell down on myself for any reason at all. What I accomplished this year is amazing - if I could go back in time and talk to the Amy of 10 years ago, she would NEVER believe me if I told her that I ran 5 miles the other day and had FUN because of a new jogging stroller. I have come along way and I can only hope that I keep going in the right direction.
