30 minutes of perspective three times a week

I just finished my first workout for Week Two of the Couch to 5K program and contrary to what I would have thought, I did not fall over dead at Mile 2. I highly recommend making a new route each week to help mark the time passing and keep the workouts fresh. Breathing has been my biggest challenge so far. My legs and joints all feel great, but my right lung always feels like it's about to collapse about halfway through. In previous running experiments I would have just quit or turned it into a fast paced walk for forever. But since Robert keeps pushing me onward and telling me how great I'm doing I'm having to come up with alternate coping skills.

I'm breathing deeper, paying attention to my posture and as hokey as it sounds trying to stay positive about the whole thing. I'm pleased to say on my run today I didn't want to perform an emergency lung-ectomy right there on the sidewalk.

I was chatting with Megan about this whole running lark of mine and she said it was too boring for her liking. We also commiserated on how the emptiness of running would leave the door open for 30 minutes of fretting about all the things we should be doing besides running. Amazingly, though, that hasn't been happening for me this time. I spend most of my energy focused on the run itself. While I'm running I'm listening to my body (and that damn right lung) and when I'm walking I am planning for the next run. The biggest distraction I had this morning was when a chihuahua tried to chase me for a bit, but I think I had him beat in strides.

As I work on my five minute cool down walk, I'm amazed each time at just how refreshing the whole run has been. My mind feels much more clear, I feel less stressed and spending 30 minutes expending all my energy on breathing and moving helps me keep the rest of the day in perspective.