I started jogging following a plan to go from the couch to a 10K in 13 weeks. I realized a few weeks ago that when I would start jogging again, I’d push myself too hard and burn out too soon. You don’t do that with anything else you do. You build up to certain abilities, you never just jump in and instantly have results. So why did I think I could do that here too?

I’ve learned a couple things while jogging. Last week I spent a bit more than 30 minutes on five of the seven mornings on the road. To the average person, that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to me it is at least a medium-sized one. I covered more miles last week than I have all year – including the 10K – up to that point. The first day was because I was up and I figured “why not?” By the end of the week, I realized that I can actually sustain that for a while. It wasn’t much – jog a minute then walk two, 6 to 8 times depending on the day. I did notice a difference between Sunday and Saturday, and I *also* noticed my body had gotten used to the two miles I stopped at during the week as it was struggling to finish the third I stretched out on Saturday. Last week, this was my schedule:

Monday – Walk 5 mins to warm up. Jog 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Repeat 8 times. Walk 5 minutes to cool down.
Tuesday – Same as Monday, repeating 6 times.
Thursday – Same as Monday, repeating 7 times.
Saturday – Bonus day. Same as Monday, repeating until 3 miles was covered.

By Saturday I was in a groove. I was glad I started small, but it was starting to get easy. Today I started week two. I have a feeling I’ll be on week two for a couple weeks. Running for 2 consecutive minutes and walking for two is easy the first two iterations. By the 7th, I’m ready to sit down.

If I can get past this week and continue jogging, I think I can continue jogging until the training program is over. At that point I think it should be time to train for the half-marathon, so I can conceivably see myself jogging until the end of the year. By then I’m hoping it will be a habit and will just keep going. Also by then I should be considerably lighter.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. – Philippians 4:13

-j

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• Half Marathon Update
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A friend told me he already signed up for the Suntrust Richmond Half Marathon in November and that entry fees were already increasing. I went to go see and sign up. The fee is now $65. There’s one thing that’s keeping me from signing up – there’s a time limit to the race. The training team isn’t even for you if you can’t *already* mostly run a 5K. Dang…

The price increase is June 30. I’ll give it until then. I think that’s enough time to get my run on enough to be used to mostly running a 5K. The training team starts in August, so if I’m almost there by late June, I’ll be even more almost there by August. The *other* only problem is the training team fee is about $135. Yeah, you get good instruction, motivation, and a “technical singlet”, but that’s hefty.

We shall see. I want to run it. It’s a worthy goal, and if I can actually complete 13.1 miles, maybe I could even one day do 26.2….

“You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”.

-j

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• Did I Finally Find It?
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