JSランゲージスクールブログ | How I Started Running
> TOP>> JSランゲージブログ>> How I Started Running
by Patrick
Do you exercise regularly? How do you stay fit?
When I was a teenager, I never did any exercise, apart from walking to school and other places. I wasn’t interested in any sports. But I was full of energy every day, so I thought that doing exercise wasn’t really necessary.
However, when I was about 26 or 27 years old, I realised that I was not as energetic as I used to be, and my tummy had gotten bigger, too. I thought, “I need to get fit.” So every once in a while, I would try to start exercising – but I could never make a habit of it. Lifting weights was boring. Doing push-ups was boring and uncomfortable. Running was the worst of all. Any time I tried running, I would feel sick. It was awful.
Now I’m 34 years old. About a year ago I heard about an exercise program called ‘Couch to 5k’, designed to help non-runners to start running. (The name ‘Couch to 5k’ suggests, “From sitting on the couch, to running five kilometres!”) Recently I’ve had some free time, so I decided to learn more about it. It’s a nine-week program, and when I saw the plan for Week 1, I thought, “Well, I’m sure I can do that!” I felt encouraged. That was about two months ago.
For Week 1, I only had to run for one minute, then walk for one-and-a-half minutes (90 seconds), then repeat that for a total of 20 minutes, three times in the week. The first time was a little bit hard, but fun! I didn’t feel sick or tired. The second time actually felt a little bit harder than the first. But the third time felt really easy! I couldn’t wait to begin Week 2.
Each week, I had to run a little more, and walk a little less. It was very gradual. Then, at the end of Week 5, there were no more walking breaks: I ran for a full 20 minutes, non-stop! Wow! That would have been impossible, five weeks earlier. I was amazed that my body could adapt so quickly. Next week is Week 9; the final week. I’m going to run a full five kilometres around the Imperial Palace Grounds in Tokyo. The beautiful autumn colours will be my reward for finishing ‘Couch to 5k’.
If you’re interested in jogging but it seems too hard, I really recommend ‘Couch to 5k’. There’s a Japanese translation of the program (ソファーから５キロまで) at this URL: http://www.c25k.com/c25k_japanese.htm
