The harsh reality of…well, reality

As a wise man once said to me “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans”.   Juggling the responsibilities of two small children, a time intensive job and the chaos of a recent move makes it challenging to find a consistent time to run. I am very much a creature of routine (as I suspect most are), and not having one makes it difficult to stick to “the plan”.  To top off that "self-excuse sunday" with a juicy cherry, three days ago I caught a stomach virus from one/or both of my boys and have been laid-low since.  All this prompts a training question:  if you miss a workout, do you a) skip it and keep on “the plan” or b) push back “the plan” to be sure and get every training session in?  Seems to be a question of when you want to feel the pain:  skip a work out and feel it as you push harder the next, or stick on the regime and feel the pain come race day as you run a race you’re not quite prepared for.  I welcome any sage advice on the topic.  On another note, my good friend Chris offered to run the 5k with me, which is a good motivator to get back to pounding the mean streets ASAIFB (as-soon-as-I-feel-better).

I’ve Found a 5k

So the first effort wasn’t too bad.  A little huffin’ and puffin’, and lots of walking.  The hardest part is getting a body at rest to be a body in motion…which I’ve done…so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

I’ve emailed a link to this site to a number of my friends, and asked them to check in from time to time to keep me honest about training (nothing quite like the specter of shame to motive you).

In an effort to keep the ball rolling, I’ve decided to find a 5k in 9 weeks to commit to running.  I’ve found a good list of resources at http://www.c25k.com/, one of which is http://www.runnersworld.com where you can find a pretty cool “Race Finder” tool under the “Races and Places” tab.  So I’ve found a race in my area on Nov 13th and emailed the race coordinator to get registration info…provided there is still availability (and why wouldn’t there be) I’m there!

Step 1: Get a plan

Where to start?  If you look up “Marathon Training for Beginners” online, there are a wealth of training regimes that show up.  But as you dig a little deeper, you find they all seem to share one common disclaimer: “Before you begin marathon training, you should be able to run for at least 2-3 miles or 30 minutes without stopping.”  That’s just not me.


 “Couch Potato to 5k” is more my speed.  So, my first benchmark towards accomplishing “the big goal” is to run a 5k (roughly three miles).  I figure that will satisfy the ubiquitous “2-3mile/30min” disclaimer for all the other training I'm going to eventually do.

9 weeks…5k…got a plan and I’m out the door for my first walk/jog!

C25K Plan

Week	Workout 1	Workout 2	Workout 3
1	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
2	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
3	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
4	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
5	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes) Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.
6	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2-1/4 miles (or 25 minutes) with no walking.
7	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).
8	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).
9	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).	The final workout! Congratulations! Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).

Day 1

The mission: put down the beer, turn off the tv, get off the couch, go outside and run a marathon. Seems simple enough. The furthest I’ve ever run was 10 miles, and that was 20 years/60 pounds ago. Minus the occasional saunter through a gym, I’ve not spent any serious time working out for a very long time. I am, to put it bluntly, in sad enough shape to make the statement “I’m going to run a marathon” make those around me smirk at the mental picture of my huffing and puffing down the street.




I am going to run a marathon, and I’m going to write about my journey from zero to hero.


I once read a general critique of blogs which asserted the majority of them were poorly written, self-indulgent dribble. This one will be no different (just to set expectations). So why do it? Two reasons:

1. I’ve been threatening to run a marathon for several years now, but it’s time to put my money where my mouth has been. Keeping a journal available for public consumption is a great motivator to keep me brutally honest about training (or lack there-of).
2. If I guy like me can do it, anyone can. If the good/bad/ugly of my tale helps anyone else…than I’ve done a little good in the world (and that has to count for something…right?).