Learning to run.... again.

I've got to be honest - this round of the 12wbt has not been a knock down, out and out 'success' for me because I haven't been a woman of my word.  Simple as that really.

I really appreciated Camilla's post "awkward much?" over on her blog - it seems I am not the only one who has had a challenging experience this round.  One day I hope to be as brave as Camilla and share some actual numbers at the end of the round.

Or not.

But I have been really pleased with my training.  Yes, I call it training unselfconsciously now.  I now feel I belong in that Spin or Pump class and that I can hold my own in the gym.  And get this - I have even started wearing those clingy tight pants and sleeveless running tops in the gym!!  I always thought I would wait until I was slim and nicely rippled to do that.  But then I thought - bugger it, I may be waiting for a while.. 

I must admit it's not pretty, not a look I'd normally recommend for the larger lass - but I just feel better and move more freely, while any jiggly bits seem to be held firmly in place.  Something like

 and        and it makes me feel the part.  It's noice, it's different, it's elegant.


Anyhoo, I hurt my knee in February and after months of it not getting better was advised to not even do walking for exercise.  So this round, my cardio has been limited to the rower, bike and cross trainer.  But guess what?  You can so improve your cardiovascular fitness on these machines.  You can get that heart rate up, hurt like the blazes, sweat like there's no tomorrow and leave the gym feeling completely depleted and yet oddly pleased with yourself. 

But knowing that I hadn't really grabbed this round by the horns - and with my knee really improving - I thought I might start the Couch to 5K program a bit ahead of my plan to start in Round 3.  And it's going well so far.  Admittedly I am onto day 2 of week 2, so this post may be a tad premature...  but I am feeling the benefits of the cardio work I've done for the past two rounds and am able to run comfortably (for a full 90 seconds mind you) at a speed which I am happy with.

The beauty of the Couch to 5 K is that it builds up quite quickly.  I've done it before and before you know it, you are actually a runnist. 

My running goal is to run a 6km fun run in January with hubby, Thing 1 and Thing 2.  And run it in a decent time.  And possibly beat one of them (let's be honest).