Awhile back I mentioned that I was just starting the Couch-to-5K running program.
Without wanting to resort to too much hyperbole, Couch-to-5K is the single greatest thing in fitness that I’ve ever come across. By keeping the week-to-week increases slow and manageable, the program is able to make it easy to get your running past the 40-day mark where behaviors become habituated.
I was worried at first because I’ve got asthma that’s been relatively hard to control via medication, but not only did I successfully complete the entire regimen I’ve been able to easily maintain the three-day-a-week running schedule and have even begun to slowly ramp up the speed from the recommended 6 mph.
Currently, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I’m doing five minutes of warmup walking, thirty minutes of running (currently at 6.4 mph), and then five minutes of cooldown walking without killing my breathing.
I’ve lost a lot of flab, strengthened my breathing and greatly increased by endurance all for the cost of a pair of good running sneakers from DSW. Not too shabby.
I’ve got a birthday coming up in October and as a gift to myself I’ve registered for a local 5K run a couple towns over from us. Couch-to-5k is that good.
