Couch-to-5K (C25K), a beginner's review

Very beginning, because I only just finished Week 4, and it's a 9 week program.

But I mentioned about a month ago that I was giving C25K a try, and promised I'd write about it more, and since I'm still at it now (how'd that happen?), I figured now I can talk about it without feeling like a total fake.

The first half of the program
You can see the whole program here (scroll down), and you can see that it's really simple. That's what attracted me to it: it's simple, and it's slow.

I've wanted to get into running for a while now, but I wanted to get into it with injuring myself. Like many women, I have the odd ache and pain from old injuries. (The fun one is the ankle that complains when I swim. Why is that fun? Because it has a good story: I injured it when I missed the mat on a pole vault. And I just have to say: I do not recommend missing the mat as a desirable pole-vaulting technique.) I also have a knee that complains when I run, and when I've tried to "just go out for a run" in the past, I've re-injured that knee.

C25K? I haven't re-injured the knee yet. It still hurts when I run, but it's not getting any worse. Actually, at this point, it feels like it's getting just a tad better. Or, at least, stronger.

The second half of the program
But now I'm staring down Week 5, and I admit that I'm a little nervous. By the end of next week, I'm supposed to be running 20 minutes without stopping. And running 30 minutes without stopping is the goal, right? so I should be happy to be getting so close.


But running is still hard. Each workout still feels like it takes me right to the edge of my I-can-do-this space. Could I go out and jog 20 minutes? Sure. But I want to run.

But I'm gonna trust the process. I've been able to do every workout so far, even if not quite as fast as I'd like to. I've been able to do it, and if I don't like how I feel during (and boy, I surely don't, I miss the feeling of having enough oxygen in my lungs), I really like how I feel after. I'm finding it's almost impossible to feel stressed while I'm running.

For that alone, the burning in my lungs and my legs is well worth it.

Anyone else out there a C25K-er?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1.
I really like this new music from Gray Havens, and right now it's free! I especially like the Narnia-inspired "Silver" and the sweet, upbeat "Let's Get Married". "Where They Go" is good, too.

2.
I've been trying the Couch-to-5K program. I'll probably write a longer blog about it sometime, but right now I have to say that it's the most sensible start-running program I've ever encountered. I'm beginning to hope I might be able to become a runner without injuring myself! (Injuring myself is what I normally do when I think, "hey, I should go for a run!" I start out too fast and my body says, "hey, idiot, knock it off!")

3.
Something else I want to write a blog post on sometime is the difference between reading scripture and hearing scripture. I've become fonder and fonder of listening to the Bible. It seems to seep into my heart in a different way when it comes through my ears (sorry, that's a terrible mix of the metaphorical and the literal).

But reading it engages my attention, too. Just differently. I've been trying to figure out what the difference is. Anyone have any thoughts?

4.
You've probably seen the beautiful animated short "Paperman", but what you might not have seen is this sharp analysis by Lars Walker. I had the same problem he did with "Paperman"'s narrative arc, and I like his solution to the difficulty.

5. Lent starts next week! I'm just saying.

6. Actually, my preparations for Lent this year feel really different, because this is the first year I'm preparing for Lent as an Altar Guild director. Yes, I'm figuring out what I'm going to take on personally for Lent, what sort of fast I'm doing . . . but I'm also collecting last year's palm crosses to burn for Ash Wednesday and making sure our priest's Lenten chausible is ironed and that we have people signed up to serve at the various Lenten services . . . it's a really different perspective on the season.

7. I really like being a part of our church's volunteer staff. Talk about work worth doing! All of our lives are part of the life of the church, but getting to participate in the actual church-service-related work makes it all feel so much more literal than it usually does.

I'm not expressing that well, I don't think. I guess that means I need to think about it more; muddled expression usually means muddled thought. But there is something so good and sweet about liturgical work, and I'm sure there's some connection between that work and my day-to-day life as a Christian. Some connection between washing the chalice after communion and washing the dishes after my family has supper.

I just need to ponder it a bit more, I think.


More Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links - the year, the time, and the wine

"The Year of Not Putting Up With Things":

Maybe we should blame it on the practice of frugality that seems to have come with my German heritage, but I've put up with a lot of minor inconveniences over the course of my life...little things being not quite right, particularly in my home or in my wardrobe. A belt doesn't fit quite right. A dress rides up funny on one side. A shirt feels a tiny bit too short. The trusty black pumps I've owned and worn for years have started to separate from their strap on one shoe. The toilet in the guest bathroom splashes the lid when you flush. The rug in our living room is too small for the space. Our air conditioning has never worked.

"The Best Wine in the History of the World":

He was about to perform his first public miracle. Let me frame that a different way. He was about to formally and publicly introduce himself to his bride—the church—for the first time. I wonder if Mary’s request sounded to him something like, “Go on, son. Ask that girl to dance.”

"Routine Life":

Some mornings I wake up feeling ready to do it all again. Ready to get out of bed (after drinking coffee, of course), face the day, clean, prep meals, homeschool, do laundry, break up fights, nurse the baby. But some days, I just feel do not feel it. I do not feel like getting up and doing it all. Those days generally do not go well. But sometimes, something happens to arrest me mid-day and change everything.

 Usually, that thing is . . . work.

"how do I Run a Micro business and homeschool?": this whole thing was interesting, but I love, love, love Christine's observation about her home:

 I don’t decorate the house – it’s the lab for making projects in, it isn’t itself a project. 

Hey, I've got one of those project-lab houses, too! :D

"I love this bar (and a recipe)":

Houston, we have a problem. Even though I know that I can make something akin to a Larabar in my food processor and have a great granola bar recipe that most of our family will eat, even though I no longer buy boxes of granola bars or nutri grain bars for the children I cannot resist the lure of the bar.

There is something about the presentation, the bright colors, the many flavors, that seems to beckon. Eat me! They cry. I am interesting and fun and come in my own individual wrapper. I have as much protein as a chicken breast but taste like fake cookie dough coated in fake chocolate. Eat me and you can skip taking your multivitamin! I can make you happy!

"Op-Ed: An Ode to Ordinary Time": I'm not quoting from this one, because the fun is in the scroll-down reveal.

"Guinevere and Julia: The Platypus Reads Part CCX":

. . . it's a necessary part of all romance and adventure that we not be allowed to weasel out every time our beliefs land us in hard places. 

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

I went for a run!

And this is novel enough to deserve its own blog entry apparently.

I learned:

-That I'm in shape enough to go off and run a 5K, just because I want to.

-If by "run" you mean "run most of the time, but stop and walk every five or ten minutes."

-Nonetheless, it was a run and not a walk.

-That it only takes half an hour to give myself blisters.

-That my town is full of lots of friendly people.

-That most of them are not stupid enough to go running when the sun's blazing.

-That, instead, these hours are properly to be spent sitting in the shade and eating something.

-Or, at the most, slowly walking one's dog.

-That, nonetheless, they will smile and wave at the crazy, sweaty running person.

-That I am no spring chicken.

-That my legs especially want me to know that I am No Spring Chicken.

-"You are No Spring Chicken" my legs say to me.

-That I still have a knee that complains when I run.

-That when my knee complains, it makes my hip complain.

-That running gives me just as much of an endorphin high as weight-lifting does.

-That it might be better than weight-lifting because I can stare at the trees and sky and birds while I run. No trees and birds and sky when I weight-lift.

-That I still want to weight-lift because I don't want to turn into a puny runner person with bad joints.

-That running is a great way to get alone time.

-That I have an awesome husband, who's okay with me going off for a 5k run, even though it's Father's Day.

Peace of Christ to you,

(and happy Trinity Sunday!)

Jessica Snell