Yesterday I finally went back to the gym after a long hiatus. I decided to try out the couch to 5k challenge(c25k)...again... and followed the first day challenge. Initially I thought it was a brisk walk for a 5 minute warm up then an interval of 60 seconds of jogging then 90 seconds of walking for a span of 30 minutes then a cool down walk of 5 minutes.  When I went back to the www.c25k.com, it said:
 

Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

I felt better this morning because I was beating myself up for "falling short" of the directions. In reality I exceeded the recommended time by 5 minutes. You can say I successfully completed the first day.

The workout was actually  more mentally exhausting than physically exhausting. What was going through my mind was "Can I do this?" "Should I be pushing this hard right after I battled a cold?" I haven't jogged/walked more than a mile for a month and a half.  Another part of me was complaining that this time around on this program is much harder than before. The last time I did this was a piece of cake that I just want to skip the next 3 lessons and jump into week 2.

At the 10 minute mark of my jog/walk, I was having a battle within my self. A part of me says to stop now and attempt again next time, and another part of me says to keep on going and I will make it.  The longer and longer I went, the 90 seconds of walking felt twice as long as the 60 seconds of jogging if that makes any sense.  Another part of me was cringing because my run was at the 4.3 speed on the tredmill and it was saying "It is too slow! Push faster!" The part of me that has common sense retaliated "SHUT UP! The body is weak from having a cold and needs to take it easy or else relapse happens!" I listened to the latter part of me. I kept on going, I focused on the gym music so I would be distracted from saying running is getting boring, I looked at anything but the time lapse.

Then it happened. I reached the end of the workout and started my cool down. I took my time in cooling down then did some stretches before heading to the weights area. My legs felt like jelly but I felt really good for I completed the first day of the challenge. I made sure I stretched some more near the very end of lifting weights. I'm glad I did or else I would be unbareably sore compared to feeling good sore I am today.

I decided Im not going to follow the time table the program has set. I will go at my own pace. I'll just used the program as my guide.  All I can say now is that I can cross out week one, day one, off the list of my things to do.