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I finally finished the Couch to 5k running plan last week and have to say it was a major success.  By the end I was running a straight three miles in about 30 minutes which is better than I had hoped for with no experience running as of 10 weeks ago. HERE is the plan that I used and would suggest it for anyone that's considering running.

People keep asking me how I stay motivated to run consistently and the truth is I do enjoy it, though I hated running when I was younger.  A lot of it was learning to run properly and building my endurance safely.  But, here is what I go through on EVERY run:

First Mile: My legs hurt and I feel like I'm going to hurt the whole time
Second Mile: The pain is mainly gone, but now I feel run down and question why I'm doing this.  I consider just walking but always push through.
Third Mile: I forget all of the pain and quitting and now feel like I could run forever!  I usually increase my pace a bit here and push hard to finish the mile.

As I begin increasing my distance to eventually be around 5, 5, 8 for my normal runs...i'll be curious to see how the feelings change.

Next up...training for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon at Disney World! I have 21 full weeks to train and have spent the last few weeks researching and modifying my plan to be ready for 13.1 miles on November 10th.  I have some friends that are going to be running with me, so there's lots of motivation to keep going.

I've been doing three miles, three times a week recently and am now adding an additional EZ run on Sundays along with 2 days of cross training(elliptical).  I've also added in 2-3 days of upper body and ab workouts each week so by the time I get to Orlando I should be ripped ;)

My Tuesday and Thursday runs will slowly increase to about 4 miles each at my normal running pace of 10 min/mi then my Saturday runs slowly increase in distance until I get to the 13.1 adding about a mile every other week.  The long run will be at a little slower pace at first until I discover what kind of pace I can keep up for that long of a distance.  I'm nervous, so wish me luck.