Podcasts for Running: Helpful for Non-runners

Let me preface the rest of the article by pointing out that I am not a runner or an athlete. I don't play or follow sports. The extent of exercise I've done in the past six years, up to eight weeks ago, included a yoga video and the occasional game of ping pong.

With that covered, let me divulge another bit of info about myself: on my requisite "Things To Do Before I Die" list I have "Run a marathon."

I don't know why it's there, but it is. Imagine my excitement when I came across Podcasts for Running, which follows CoolRunning.com's Couch to 5K in 9 Weeks running program. The exercise program gently and steadily trains the latent runner in anyone to be running 5K, or three miles, in little more than two months.

In other words, someone like me with no track record (ha, ha) of running or doing any exercise regimen at all can download this podcast and be running 5K, or three miles, after nine weeks of running three times each week. At the beginning of each week, there is a different 30-minute podcast to follow with new instructions. You simply follow the instructions when Robert Ullrey, podcast creator and host, pipes in and listen to the funky techno while you're implementing his instructions.

You may be saying to yourself, "No way I could do that." But listen: I'm writing this to you as I'm about to begin my first day of week nine. WEEK NINE. I'm supposed to run three miles in 30 minutes. And I'm thinking, "I don't know if I can do this." But, to assure myself and you that it is possible for someone out of shape to be running for 30 minutes nonstop in only nine weeks, all I need to do is look back at the previous eight weeks that I've completed.

Each week, the gap between time spent running and time spent walking shortens, and then I begin running more than I'm walking. During Week One, I'm running 60 seconds and then walking for 90 seconds. By Week Four, I'm jogging up to five minutes and walking for two. During week eight, I ran for 28 minutes straight, with only the regular five-minute warm-up walk and then the five-minute cool-down walk.