Stepping Stones

No preamble, not waxing lyrical, straight to brass tacks.

GOAL #1 – complete a 5km running event by the end of April 2011.

This is one of those ‘SMART’ goals.  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.  Not only is it doable, but it allows me some leeway in measuring success.  Success is not dependant on running the entire 5km, that would be “run an entire 5km running event by the end of April 2011”.  I'm going to finish the race and run for as much of it as I can.

You’ll also notice that this is goal #1.  The implication is, of course, that there will be other goals.  I have these in mind of course, but I am deliberately not specifying them yet.  One goal at a time. They are stepping stones.  You must first be standing on one stone to reach the next.  I’m standing on the shore and this is the first stone.  And it’s doable.  I can reach this stone from ‘here’.

I used to run every morning.  Of course I was 16 or 17 then.  I kept it up for a little while when I returned home from boarding school but in principal lets agree that I haven’t run since I was 18.  That’s 22 years and some change.  I’m also at least 25 kilos heavier.

Over the last few months I have tried to start running again.  I began by interspersing bursts of running into lunchtime walks.  But soon found my knees were not up to the task.  Indeed I thought that after a couple of days I had done some severe damage to them but they came right after a couple of weeks of rest.  This made me think that perhaps it was more that the ligaments/tendons just weren’t used to it.  This called for a deliberate strategy.  A planned approach.  Enter the Couch to 5k programme.

Couch to 5k (C25K) works on the premise that you can already walk.  If you can walk you can probably run a few steps.  So start by mostly walking with a little bit of running and slowly over time gently shift the balance from walking to running.

The C25K week follows this pattern:

• Day 1 - Run/Walk
• Day 2 - Rest
• Day 3 - Run/Walk
• Day 4 - Rest
• Day 5 - Run/Walk
• Day 6 - Rest
• Day 7 - Rest

Those of you who follow things on facebook will realise that I am already into week 2 of the programme so the first few posts will come quickly and act as a catchup.