Where to start?

I have never had a blog people may actually read before although I think it is unlikely that people will read this but still I feel nervous about where to start. The first thing to mention I suppose is that I don't *currently* class myself as a runner, jogger, fitness finatic or anything similar to this. In the past I perhaps preferred the term outdoor enthusiast. I climbed a lot and sailed a fair amount, dabbled in kayaking and even dared the dreaded gym rather too regularly hoping for leaner meaner thighs. I never truly enjoyed the gym though. Being indoors didn't ever appeal but when I ran outside it hurt, oh my how it hurt. Truth be told I didn't make life easy for myself though as the few times I tried running outside I went down the hills behind my family home and of course when there is a down there is also an up... I walked up those hills again and wrote the whole experience off as a failure! More recently since moving in with my hubby I have become more and more lazy and lost that craving to exercise I used to feel! At first we both attempted going to the gym, but the big commercial DW gym in Derby seemed far more intimidating and going climbing in the Peaks became more effort as it was no longer a stones throw away, so I lost my enthusiasm to exercise. A couple of job moves and house moves later, life has settled down and I have been feeling a need to get fitter, run, feel that adrenaline rush.



I have been feeling a desire to run since last autumn but it has taken some time to get the confidence up to give it a try.  A few things have been stopping me from trying including the darker winter nights, not very inviting even for the average runner. I also have a terrible running style, I think "proper runners" call it gait, or is that something else? I have flat feet and climbing induced bunions and end up hurting my knees and back after a short run. Finally I am asthmatic, as in the steroid pumping, tablet taking type of asthmatic. So all in all I have been terrified of failure and have a lot to learn, mainly about how to correct my running style and most importantly I need to learn how to breath correctly when I run.



So to learn to run, I am starting with the NHS Couch Potato to 5K podcasts, I have "run' three times now and am enjoying it! I believe the C25K plan is quite common but the NHS podcasts are really good. They come with motivational music and a lady persuading you to keep going. After my first time I ached a fair bit. Not quite to the same degree as the first time I did body pump but enough that my husband enjoyed poking my thighs to make me screw my face up and yelp. The second and third times were interestingly a little harder when running but I ached far less after and I even found myself throwing in an extra running minute at the end.



So I propose a toast and raise my plastic water bottle to learning to run and not chickening out along the way!



Here is a cheeky selfie just to prove I did get off my couch (before climbing back on to write this!!)