Sunday, November 4, 2007

The Couch-to-5K Running Plan


When hubby was still in his late teens and early twenties, he ran for hours in Greenhills and Roxas Blvd., along with fellow runners every weekend. He would wake up as early as 4 in the morning. He had participated in and finished a couple of half marathons. His physique or built was that of a runner. He was slim but fit, athletic looking and really sexy. He would sport this really tiny Botak shorts and I thought it was cute on him. He should really wear more of those kind because in my very biased opinion, he still has a very gorgeous pair of legs.


He had stopped running long before we met and got married. He altogether dropped running and waking up early and took on the habit of loving our couch, the TV and a bowl of chips. He does not drink nor smoke and I'll have to say I'm proud of him for that. But his routine of eating chips every single day and not doing any form of exercise is very alarming. He was gaining weight and he looked especially heavy around the waist.


For unknown reasons, he turned the table around -- he wanted to run again. He said he was uncertain about how he would perform or if he would even be able to run for 5 minutes but he was determined to do it. We started frequenting the park and the gym 3 times a week.


He adapted the couch-to-5K running plan. It is a beginner's running schedule where he has to ease himself into a running program gradually. The first few days were really tough for him. He said it was way too easy to run when he was still lighter and it's extremely difficult now that he's heavy. The 60 seconds of jogging alone would make him breathless. My heart would go out for him seeing him like that. There were times when he would want to skip a day but I was adamant that he stop being wimpy and strictly remain on the program.


It was May last year when he started on the couch-to 5K running plan. When previously a 60 second jogging was a killer for him, now he can easily finish a 3 mile run. It wasn't easy getting where he is now. It took him a lot of determination to finish a workout. I'm so proud of him. I hope someday I will be able to accomplish at least half of what he did.


His next goal is to join the Third Annual Valley Forge Revolutionary 5-Mile Run - April 20, 2008.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Additional trivia, your hubby (my dear bro) almost had polio. Our parents had to carry him all the time to prevent it from happening. They brought him to the used to be pollution free Roxas Blvd. To our surprise, at a young age he got into running. The family will have to go with him in Greenhills and even in PICC area for his runs. Good that he is back running, good for his health. "Keep on running, do not let age nor weight catch up with you". - MMAggabao

iamghines said...

It must have been tough on nanay and tatay dealing with the polio thing. That's why I'm thankful for polio vaccines ... that's one less worry for me.

I'm also glad he's running again, but I wish he'd stop eating chips and drinking too much soda altogether -- he'd be healthier.