Couch to 5K
Sep. 4th, 2012 09:47 am...or in my case 4K.
In the name, more or less, of not getting any younger, I have taken up running.
I got the idea from, of all places, a Charlie Brooker article. He mentioned an iPhone app which would take you through a running program starting with short runs broken up by periods of walking and working up to a long half hour run. So when I finally broke and purchased a second hand iPhone the "Get Running" app was one of the first I purchased and installed. This probably entirely demonstrates the power of suggesting to someone that they get to "level up". It turns out "Get Running" was just an instantiation of the (possibly NHS) Couch to 5K program which you can also download for free from the NHS website though not, I think, in a form that allows you to play your own music while the nice lady tells you to run, or walk, and so forth.
Today I reached the final half hour run. One of our local parks has a handily laid out 2K circuit which is how I know I've only hit the 4K, not the 5K mark distance wise. I've not really decided whether I think the distance or the time is the important part here. I have downloaded an NHS podcast for "Couch to 5K graduates" which claims to improve running speed but it would mean listening to their choice of music - not that random slow ballads and odd bits of plain song or whatever iTunes shuffle decides to serve up today are necessarily the best things to run to!
( Wibbling about Running )
In the name, more or less, of not getting any younger, I have taken up running.
I got the idea from, of all places, a Charlie Brooker article. He mentioned an iPhone app which would take you through a running program starting with short runs broken up by periods of walking and working up to a long half hour run. So when I finally broke and purchased a second hand iPhone the "Get Running" app was one of the first I purchased and installed. This probably entirely demonstrates the power of suggesting to someone that they get to "level up". It turns out "Get Running" was just an instantiation of the (possibly NHS) Couch to 5K program which you can also download for free from the NHS website though not, I think, in a form that allows you to play your own music while the nice lady tells you to run, or walk, and so forth.
Today I reached the final half hour run. One of our local parks has a handily laid out 2K circuit which is how I know I've only hit the 4K, not the 5K mark distance wise. I've not really decided whether I think the distance or the time is the important part here. I have downloaded an NHS podcast for "Couch to 5K graduates" which claims to improve running speed but it would mean listening to their choice of music - not that random slow ballads and odd bits of plain song or whatever iTunes shuffle decides to serve up today are necessarily the best things to run to!
( Wibbling about Running )