Hey everyone,

I started walking months ago when I weighed over 200. I would walk three days a week if not more and now I still walk. I like to skip actually and have a lot of fun doing that. Even though around my neighborhood it looks a little strange. xD

What I really want to do is jog. I have a couple of problems though. First is that I wanted to start with the Couch to 5 K, but I haven't got a timer thingy. I would also like to listen to my own music so I didn't want to get any podcasts. So, I was just thinking about starting with doing walking with short jogging intervals. Anyone else who has done this or something similar that doesn't need to be timed?
Any advice to a brand spanking new wannabe jogger?

Intervals are a great idea. Don't worry about timing your walk/run intervals, just use outside idicators, like trees or mailboxes, to judge if you're going far enough with your run/walk. Pretty soon you'll catch yourself getting antsy for your run portions and realize that you don't want to walk. Good luck and make sure you pick new songs when you get sick of one. New music is a HUGE motivator for me during runs!

Telephone poles are also good ways to keep track of your intervals. Of course, this will depend on the area that you live in.

I agree ..... do intervals with telephone polls, then blocks, then mutiple blocks ... (then if your like me ... jog anywhere except up hill) before you know it you will be just jogging .... that is how I built up to jogging ....

You can also do songs ... walk one ... jog one .... or walk the song jog the chorus ...

Thank you so much for the suggestions and support, everyone! I truly appreciate the help! So far so good...did my first day of it and I didn't pass out before I got home.
I had trouble with figuring out the best way to breathe during the jogging parts and developed a cramp in my side. The running wasn't so bad except for not being able to breathe and my heart pounding out of my chest. I slowed it down a notch and seemed to get better results though.

Have you any suggestions about the breathing issue? I want to do this right and fear that I shall scare myself away from the whole jogging thing if it is a continuous battle just to suck in some air.

Music has been a huge motivation with me too! Every time I get a new song I want to go for a walk so I can play it without distraction. xD

For the side stitch, try breathing with every third footfall-- RIGHT left right LEFT right left. It's usually related to breathing with the "wrong" foot.

breath from both mouth and nose, since breathing only from nose won't be enough when you're jogging.

I breathe completely from my mouth (I look like an idiot!) and don't have a problem with getting enough air. As for the side stitch, I only get it if I run within a couple hours of eating. My best jogs are on an empty stomach

Thank you so much for the responses! I feel better about doing my second walk/jog.

Today I woke up feeling like I was ninety. My legs ached and were so stiff. I know I didn't stretch properly after the work out...I did try to stretch though.
The workout effected me more than my last hiking trip.

Try counting in your head for the walking, maybe, if you're planning to jog more than walk. I'll sometimes time myself for 5 minutes by my watch then count to 30 in my head while walking and then start jogging again.

Are you jogging indoors or outside? If you're indoors are you near to or within earshot of a computer? There are a lot of online tabata interval timers that you can set to whatever time you want.

For breathing I usually start by breathing in for 3 steps, then out for three steps. As my heart rate goes up I do breathe-in for 3, out for 2. I try to go as long as I can just breathing in through my nose, then in-nose, out-mouth, and try not to get to a point where I'm gasping for air through my mouth.

For side stitches I've been experimenting, but the following has worked for me some times but not all times:

1) Raise up the hand on the side that the stitch is on and lean back (while trying to keep running). If the pain doesn't start to go away I'll stop, put both hands together over the top of my head and then bend backwards and away from the side the pain is on in order to stretch that 'side' of my stomach out.
2) Breathe in to max capacity and then out very quickly a couple of times...but not to the point where you hyperventilate, haha!
3) If all else fails, I'll alter my run so that I'm not coming down so hard with each step...more like a shuffle forward with my feet low to the ground but trying to maintain speed (looks pretty awkward, but helps with the pain) and massage the spot until it becomes bearable, even if it doesn't go away.

It definitely gets better, I used to get side stitches after the first minute of running, now I get them sometime between 20 and 30 minutes, like clockwork (if I even get one at ALL) and then I don't get another one. You just have to push through it. I've also started the habit of not eating within 2 hours of running, and not drinking within an hour of running (and I don't drink while running either, but I'm indoors and I only run for an hour, tops so that's probably not advisable if you run outside in the sun). I've found that if I eat and then run within the next half-hour to an hour, I'm guaranteed to get a side stitch very quickly, possibly because of the extra weight of food in my stomach.

Thank you for the suggestions! I shall definitely try them. I pushed through the stitch but it was uncomfortable.

I jog outdoors so I can't use Abby (my computer xD ). I was pretty self conscious outside though, but see no way around it. Sort of felt like I was making a spectacle out of myself. Especially with more experienced around the area. Also because I could barely breathe. xD

I TRULY appreciate all the advice! It really helps me, everyone. Thank you.

i really want to jog too but i have exercise-induced asthma....i cant get my Advair preventive inhalers because my insurance wont cover them, there are no generics available, and i cant afford that on my own...does anyone know how to jog and prevent an asthma attack without those expensive inhalers?

Ah, absolutely wonderful results from the tips, everyone! Thank you so much!!

alaskanlaughter I wish I could help. The worst I get is allergies, though...

I used to make my own interval playlists (basically one large mp3 with all the songs I wanted and the interval-changing alerts) on a free program called Audacity. It can take a little figuring out and it can take a while to get everything lined up right though. But then I could set whatever intervals I wanted, follow c25k's plan or make my own.

I can't find the webpage I looked at when I got started, but if you google 'c25k audacity lucashammer' I see a blog entry that covers the same kind of stuff if you decide it's worth the extra time.

talking about audacity, there's this site: http://diy-c25k-mp3s.com/
I used it to create my own c25k podcast