I ran with Britney Spears.

There’s Britney after our workout. You can’t see me in the picture because I hid from all that paparazzi. My life is so hard.

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I couldn’t think of just ONE title for this post, so here are the other ones I thought of:

Leslie Sansone is full of shit. (more on this later)

I almost died during a 31 minute workout. (enough said)

Screw this. (a smidge negative, eh?)

I did it! Week 1, Day 1 (Woohoo! BSUMA!)

And out of all of the ones in my head, I chose I ran with Britney Spears.

Technically, I did…kindaish, not really, but it’s catchy and I am not changing the title, and I hope for some crazy reason it ends up bringing more people to my blog.

What the hell am I talking about?

I am talking about week 1, day of my C25K workout (Couch to 5K). It’s a 9-week program that basically takes you from the couch (or in my case, my comfy office chair) to a 5K in 9 weeks.

I know I have a couple of friends that are joining me on my mission to run a half-marathon on November 14th, 2010 in San Antonio, TX. If you’re not in SA, you can still train with me and keep up with my tweets. I’ll be posting a blog post after every workout.

You can view the C25K training schedule at www.c25k.com and I downloaded the app from the iTunes store for my iPhone for $2.99. It was the best $2.99 I have spent lately.

Disclaimer: the above links/apps are based on my personal experience and I did not get paid to put them on my blog. :-)

Jill from Baby Rabies recently had a post about her second marathon and she basically broke up the 26.2 mile race into stages. Stages of labor to be exact, and I thought it was a really good post, and I found it motivating.

And I went through the exact same stages in the 26ish minutes of my workout. 26 minutes, 26.2 miles- yeah, they don’t really compare, but whatever.

I started my workout and Britney Spears’ “Toy Soldier” was the first song. I LOVE THIS SONG! Would have made a great single and she could have worn all sorts of cute military outfits while dancing with buff cute guys.

But back to my point… So, I am walking, still looking cute, bangs still in place, no shiny forehead. It’s the warm-up, and I am feeling STRONG. I can do this. Hell, I may even look like Britney Spears by the end of this workout if you squint really hard and are legally blind.

Then starts the first 60 second run- I do okay, nothing too bad. I am feeling good, and now Britney’s song “3” is on.

Got 180 degrees and I’m caught in-between.

ANYWAY.

Then the second run comes up, and the next song is “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. I am trying to think of happy thoughts when I was in NYC about a month ago. Happy thoughts, Happy thoughts. Ow, this hurts.

And the third and fourth runs are to “Party in the USA” and “Beat It” by Miley Cyrus and Michael Jackson, respectively. I built quite the eclectic playlist, I know.

I. AM. HURTING. LIKE A _______ <---- insert curse word of any sort there.

My left calf is like, “WTF are you doing?” and my right knee is like, “STFU I hurt WAY more than you do lefty!” and my brain is saying, “MAKE IT WORK!” Tim Gunn style because he totally WOULD say that and then make fun of my velour pants and fleece jacket look. A hot mess.

And finally I lost count of how many times I had ran, and I do remember my iPhone app saying I was over halfway done, so I just focused. And my bangs were more like curly antennas from Frizz-Hell and my forehead was most likely shiny, and I knew I did NOT look cute anymore. I also knew I shouldn’t wear dangly earrings next time because when I ran I sounded like those annoying cats who wear bells.

It’s nearing the end, and I am just exhausted- mentally and physically. I, for a split moment, decided to say screw this. But I know and I KNEW that going into this sort of thing was going to be hard. Painful. Tiring. Odd. But overall, I knew it was going to be rewarding.

I will admit that the last 1.5 runs I just couldn’t. I walked/hobbled through those spurts, but I am proud to say I completed week 1, day 1 of the C25K workout.

And I am also wanting to say that Leslie Sansone is full of shit. I am a HUGE fan of her Walk Away the Pounds workouts (which are uber cheap on www.amazon.com) and I do her 5-mile one and it’s easy peasy. In about an hour, I have “power walked” my way through 5-miles according to her, with minimal sweat and minimal pain all while tweeting and sipping a margarita.

Running/walking outside is a WHOLE different story, and I think her workouts are good, but they’re nowhere near the type of workout you’d get if you did it outside. Soooo, I am not saying do not use her workouts, but do know that if you can do her 5-mile walk doesn’t mean you will be able to do so outside.

Things I learned today:

-Do not wear dangly earrings while running

-It’s impossible to look cute when exercising

-Take sunglasses next time so you won’t be the fool squinting

-Stretch more

-Be positive

-Keep going

Tomorrow is supposed to be a non-running day, so I am going to do a moderate 3-mile walk tomorrow just to keep the legs moving and prevent soreness.