Insanity = Running: From Couch Potato to 5K

Sometimes I think I am actually insane. Okay so maybe exercising is not insane but running when my body is clearly not made for running seems a little insane. I mean, come on, I have a bad knee. I mean a horrible horrible knee that keeps going out on me and hurts every time I breathe it seems like. So why would I chose running as my activity? One reason: Rob. Why else? Sometimes you do crazy things for the people you love and this is my crazy thing.

He's a Marine. (I know news flash!) And as a Marine he has to run and pass tests that involving running. I guess they want to know that he can outrun the enemy or at least a hungry bear if they were in the woods. But regardless he has to be able to run and in a certain time. So it helps if he runs year long so he doesn't get out of shape and can get an awesome time and not get in a trouble and all that jazz.

Well, being the lovely and amazing wife that I am, I agreed to run with him. But on my terms. My sister had talked about From Couch Potato to 5K. It's a program that she was doing before my wedding to lose some of the baby weight. And I figured you're a runner or a couch potato and in this respect I'm a couch potato. I'm not a runner. I hate running. It's exhausting and sometimes it just downright hurts.

The funny part is I'm exhausted and sore and I kinda feel like I'm dying. But Rob ran with ankle weights and talked about getting more weights too. He ran up and down hills when we saw them. He would run ahead of me then run back to me then run it again with me. Apparently it's too easy. But to be fair, I warned him. I told him that I wasn't a runner and he would bored but he was all about this whole thing. I think just so I would actually be doing it. But if he can run with ankle weights on then the PFT he will feel like he's flying because he'll be so light. So it works out well.

So I looked up the program and found information on it and even found an app for my phone which is pretty cool. And as of Tuesday I lost my couch potato reputation. Okay, so maybe not yet. I've only run one day and let's just be honest, I feel like I'm going to die. I'm sore, I'm exhausted, I can't breathe out of my nose and my throat hurts. Although I'm fairly certain the last two have nothing to do with running, but I'm blaming it anyway because it's better than me getting a cold.

Well, today is day two. We have worked out a system. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Lots of work going into when we do this and I'm glad it's every other day. I told him straight that there is no way in the world you are getting me to run every day. But now the challenge is finding food for those days. We have decided that we will run as soon as he gets home because it we wait until after dinner then we're full but also tired and don't want to go. But if we go first thing then we can move on with our evening and have actually done it. So tonight, I realized that I had no plan for food. And running first means that we are eating later, so I have to start having a better plan to make healthy, light, fast, but filling foods. So today we're having clam chowder. Why? Because it sounds good and it's all I can think about now. I found a recipe for it and I'm so pumped. (Of course you'll see a post about my clam chowder).

The moral of all this: sometimes we do crazy things for the people we love. And to me, this is as crazy as it gets. But if it helps him and gets him running and helps him kick butt on his PFTs and CFTs then I'll run.