Running For My Life

I'm sore.

Sore because I started running again. The 35th Capitol 10K is March 25th, and since I hadn't run it in a couple of years I decided to bite the bullet and get back into shape. That means I have 8 weeks to get into shape well enough so officials don't think I'm having a full seizure down the route. The last time I ran it my friends were adamant that I was imagining it, but I swear the standby ambulance was following me.

Also the Mighty Texas Dog Walk is 2 weeks after, so running/walking with the pooch will train his lazy ass as well.

So I decided to train. I looked around and found an 8-week beginner's running plan on RunnersWorld, apparently designed by Nazi war doctors. To be honest it's kind of reasonable, although it requires a 6 day/week schedule. Regardless, I've never backed away from a challenge, so have at it.

Here's my plan.

I took the program, and like any proper geek put it together in an Excel file. It's available here, in case anyone cares.

To add to the geekiness, I downloaded the Impetus Android app for my phone.

I looked at quite a few and chose this for a few reasons. First, it's free. It's very configurable as an interval trainer, and since most of the days involve "Run x minutes/Walk x minutes, repeat X times," it's quite easy to work it out. Secondly, it will actually mute my music at the designated time, so I don't miss the signal during a bitchin' guitar solo.

Now all it takes is to get my ass off the couch and do it.