Oh look what I’ve found in my own blog! My “21 days challenges“!
I have to confess that this time I didn’t count 21, I don’t remember exactly when I started, but it was february and since it’s march I think I can write about this with ease.

It all started from this thought: “I can’t be 27 and panting after walking up the stairs!“. That’s when I started doing some physical activity, yoga, free body exercises or “areobics” or “gymnastics”, basically I played a cd, lay a mat on the floor and kicked my own butt (while Clothilde tried to sleep on me when I did crunches, she quickly changed her mind).

Then I decided that I like running, I liked it since I was “young” and I still do. I remember freezing cold november mornings, running in the park for my school (hey, competitions were free passes out of school!) and the “tea” brought by volounteers (hot water and loads of sugar, the tea? I don’t know where it was…).

Anyway, cutting memories short, yesterday I was saying to my friend Lanterna that I managed to bring Sa with me and I must say we’re doing pretty well. And we owe it to a free program you can find online, it’s called “Couch to 5k“.
It’s a workout plan, it lasts nine weeks and each week is made by three workouts, designed to make you able to run 5k straight or run for 30 minutes straight.

I.E. the first week workouts are a minute running and 90 seconds power walking, repeat untill you reach 20 minutes of working out. The second week workout it’s 90 seconds running and two minutes power walking. Basically the running time increases and, at some point, the walking time diminishes, untill you’ll be but running.
Of course it’s up to you to stick to some workouts untill you feel like you can step up to the next.

And of course it’s also up to you to push yourself a little: maybe you’re not 100% sure you’ll be able to run 3 min straight yet, but try anyway, you might surprise yourself!

And most of all we love going running to the park, it’s oxigen for the brain, we can birdwatch and animalwatch, our knees are kept safe and it’s such a let our/endorphines inducer. It might sound crazy but we do want to go running!

You can study the program and carry a chronometer to time yourself, or if you have a smartphone you can download their free app, it has a lady who tells you when to “begin running” and when to “start walking”. She also says “you’re halfway”, and trust me, that’s really nice to hear!

So, highly recommended program, it’s free and effective, what would you want more?
Did you know about this? Have you ever tried it? Any other tips and tricks to keep healthy?
On my behalf, other than this handy dandy program, I can just say to go running (or doing whatever) with someone, so to have company and compell eachother to stay committed to your workouts

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