This Island Run

Greetings everyone

After a very relaxing weekend with absolutely zero exercise involved (unless you consider attending a 5 year olds birthday party and painting and decorating a form of exercise) I was eager to jump into week 2 of the couch to 5k program.

I was working in Hertford today and was worried that by the time I reached home it would be dark but thanks to the clock gods it was still light at 19:15 when I drove in to the car park of the Dockside Factory Outlet in Chatham.

I was still in my work garb so I jumped in to the back seats of the car and changed in to my running gear.  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your view of things, I spared blushes as my rear windows are tinted :)

I strapped the iPhone into it’s holster fired up the second c25k podcast, pausing it, then launched RunKeeper which locked its GPS position then unpaused the podcast and began the brisk 5 minute walk to warm up.

Week 2 consists of, and I quote:

‘You’ll have a Brisk five-minute warmup walk. You will then have 6 intervals alternating 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of about 20 minutes. We’ll finish up with a 5 minute cool down’

The timing of the podcast and the Route was perfect.  As I finished the 5 minute warm up I hit the path that circles around the island and began the 90 second 120 second sets.

Mid way through set three it was starting to get a little difficult and upon finishing the set I found myself at the scuplture of ‘The Mariners’ at this point, being half way through the sets, I turned around and made my way back along the path.

During set five I found that my breathing was becoming a lot more manageable and I actually felt a lot better so I pressed on and completed the run, ending up where I had started !

The five minute walk back to the car became my cooldown :)

I then stopped off at the local pool on the way home to swim a few lengths.

I have found that my swimming has become a lot more stronger even after a couple of weeks.  I swam ten full lengths quite happily, pausing between each, and then pushed myself to swim a couple more.  Now three weeks ago I was finding myself maybe maxing out at five or six lengths.

I’m very happy with the progress I am making :)

Remember now that this is all about building myself some stamina and generally getting fit for the London to Brighton 2009 Bike Ride in June.

To that end I hope you can take a moment to sponsor me by hitting up the ‘Sponsor Me’ link at the top of the page.

I would be most grateful for your support in this endeavor and even the smallest donation is most welcome.

Thanks

Dave x