My mission

I am a woman on a mission ... well at least that's what the song says.

A few days ago I was issued a challenge. I accepted, whilst trying to fight the panic that was rising in my body. The challenge? To run the Gold Coast 10km marathon. I can hear you all gasping because as you know, I am a little challenged myself when it comes to hardcore physical exercise. However, as I said, I did accept the challenge. So how do I begin to scale the mountain now in front of me? Well, I was given the name of a podcast "Couch to 5km" that if I follow right, in 10 weeks I should be able to run 5kms WITHOUT STOPPING! The way it works is that you train 3 days a week (so for eg mon wed fri, tues & thurs as your 'free' days, with sat & sun as your big break) for 9 weeks. The system is set to pumping music and you do a 5 min warm up walk, then do bursts of run, walk, run, walk etc until you have done 8 run bursts, then you finish with a 5min warm down walk. The whole thing is done is done for you (voiced over the music is someone who tells you when to start running and when to slow down to walk) all you have to do is follow the instructions.

I decided that wed (24th Feb) would be my first session. I set my alarm for 6:17am (if you're wondering about the odd time it's because I have this thing about setting it for a common time eg 6:15. I feel as though I get that extra couple of minutes sleep whilst still awake before 6:20am. Don't ask). Anyway, the alarm went off and I opened my eyes. My first thought was, 'no one would know that I didn't get up and do my run' but I forced myself to get out of bed. In this situation I usually find myself thinking like Trinity from the Matrix, when in the opening scene she flies Superman style through the window and lands on her back at the bottom of the stairs, whipping out her guns she says "Get up Trinity, get up" (conquering the fear and stuff like that). Anyway, I digress. So, I get my gear on and set out. I start with the warm up walk and then start my first 60sec run. I felt quite good. I slowed down for my 90sec break, and that's when the heavy breathing kicked in. Then I started my second 60sec run ... more heavy breathing. By the end of it I was wishing I had stayed in bed. The 3rd run burst I just walked, but I ran for the 4th & 5th, resting in the 6th, ran the 7th but was really unable to do the 8th. I was sweating like crazy, gulping down air and praying for it to end. But ... I did it. I ran for a total of 5mins! I have no idea what distance it was, but I felt good.

Tomorrow will be my second session. And I'm hoping that I can do 6 out of the 8 runs this time. When I do cross that finish line in July (the GC marathon) I know I will have accomplished something great. But first I have to get through tomorrow's session. Lord give me strength!!