In light of my recent “get in shape” kick, I thought now would be the perfect time to attempt running again! I went for my first jog in probably 5 years (since my knee injury) this morning. My knee was only slightly wobbly – I was happy about that, especially since I was not wearing a knee brace. Even though I’ve lost a decent amount of weight this past year, I’m still very out of shape, so I am starting slow. I was never a good runner to begin with, my shortest mile time being around 8.5min. I’m just not built for it. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try!
So I am going to attempt a Couch 2 5k program (C25K) to get myself back on track. I got up at 5:45, splashed some cold water on my face, laced up my sneaks and was out the door by 5:55 (this is VERY impressive for me!). I decided to run for time instead of distance, so at least 3x a week, more if possible, I am going to train a minimum of 30 minutes. Today was the first workout, so I just wanted to test the waters a bit rather than jump right into the interval training in the program. I was able to jog 1/2 mile without stopping, which may not sound like much, but it was better than I expected. I walked for 1-2 minutes, and jogged the second 1/2 mile. Less than a 15 minute workout, but I was pleased nonetheless, especially since I wasn’t sure what to expect from my knee. I’m going to keep track of my miles run, too. Because I like tracking things 🙂 And hopefully come fall I will be ready to run my first 5k since high school!
Part of me really wants to get a pair of these… 
They just look like they would make running so much more fun!
On a less positive note, I think I might need to get my wisdom teeth (tooth?) out. Yesterday my jaw was aching a little bit on the left side, but I assumed this was because of grinding my teeth (stress habit). This morning however, as I was washing my face, I noticed that the left side of my jaw felt and looked swollen, and was still feeling sore. It feels like a wisdom tooth thing, which isn’t good because I don’t have dental insurance and not much in the way of money to pay for the surgery. I wonder if they will let me pay in monthly installments or something…worth looking into.
I’ve also done 10 more hours of my 100 hours of art project, so I will be posting on that sometime this week!
muddledsoul 
Ugh, I know the pain of a wisdom too all too well. I had a broken wisdom tooth with the nerve exposed that I dealt with for months because I didn’t have insurance. I woke up one morning with the gum around the tooth filled with pus. Yuck.
I looked online for any medical centers for people without insurance and found one that would extract the tooth for $100. It’s still kind of expensive, but it might be more maneagable. You should try looking for a similar place.
It’s great that you’re working out despite your knee injury! Every step is progress. 🙂 If you don’t mind my asking, how did you hurt your knee?
Thanks for sharing.
That’s kind of embarassing 😛
The version I told my doctor and that I tell most curious people is that I hurt it playing ultimate frisbee (which is half true…after the initial injury, I injured it *again* playing frisbee) but the true story is my friend and I were doing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6TLK7DxhYU
Only the result was me twisting my knee and tearing either my ACL or meniscus…and being a stupid, poor college kid I never got it x-rayed or anything and have been living with the consequences since. Such is life!
[…] I wanted to write out the progress I have made since my original C25k post back in May. I was just getting ready to start the Couch to 5k interval training program. In […]