Seven years ago, I regularly ran between 5 and 10 kilometers a few times a week. I was also at the my lowest adult weight (not my healthiest weight, mind you). I only ever entered 1 official 5k race. Competitive running was not for me.

I enjoyed finding my body’s inner pace, listening to an audiobook, and just running the local rail trails. It wasn’t about coming in first or second or fifty-third (like I did that day in 2011). Running was a moving meditation that gave me strength throughout the rest of my day.

Fast forward seven years, and in 2018, I am a bit grayer, more than a bit heavier, and a lot more sedentary. I’m not sure why I stopped running not long after that race in 2011, but I did. And, I regret it. But, regret has not been enough to get me off the couch, and I really wanted to change that.

My vocation is a sedentary one. I tell stories for a living. I narrate, edit, and produce audiobooks. (Me on Audible and My Production Company) So, I am either sitting in a small padded room, telling stories, or sitting behind a desk, with headphones on, editing stories. Either way, my work does not require much motion to speak of.

Oddly, what finally got me up and moving was needing to take a break from social media. I had gotten tired of the polarizing rants that seemed to blanket Facebook and Twitter these days, and when I tried to cut them out of my life for a while, I need to replace them with something that wasn’t screen related. This is where Couch to 5K comes into the story.

I didn’t want an app because I didn’t want to replace the “dopamine hit” of social media pings with the equivalent hit from an exercise app. And, I know that when running feels good, I can zone out a bit. So, having someone else keep track of when to walk or run, and throw in bits of encouragement, was a good thing. That is how I decided to try out a Couch to 5K Podcast.

There are quite a few out there, just google it and see for yourself. After a bit of poking around, I settled on the NHS Choices Couch to 5K. I subscribed using Google’s new Podcasting app. The music is pleasant enough (encouraging, innocuous lyrics, consistent beats per minute) with some basic bits of coaching (“Time for another 90 second run, you can do it!”). This was all of the structure that I needed. Add to this, a belt with a pouch for my cell phone to make it easier to carry, and I was ready to go.

Week 1

I started by posting that I’d be off social media for a while. The 3 runs during week one took up a lot of mental time. This helped me avoid social media. I only checked in to see if there were any private messages that I needed to respond to and I did reply to one tweet from an author of an important book that I had done.

Stretching on the days between the first two runs was a necessity. Arthritis has started to limit my range of motion in my left knee. This worried me a bit. My feet hurt and I considered adding orthotics to my shoes for my third run.

Instead of buying new orthotics, I put an old pair into my new sneakers before the third run. This was a big mistake. They were too hard and inflexible. So, though, they limited the pain in my feet, they had a negative impact on my running speed. So, this will take some more investigation for me to find the right fit.

Week 2

This morning, before writing this post, I did my first run of week 2. It only extended each run by 30 seconds. I covered about the same distance as I had during the first week. But, it was after the run, while I was rehydrating, that I noticed a difference. The range of motion in my left knee was markedly better than it had been about a week earlier. I hadn’t expected this. I thought I was just going to have to run through the pain. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least.

My social media goals for this week are to figure out if there is a healthy level of use that I can maintain without resorting to apps that limit my access. Expect more on this in next week’s post.

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