Adam and I have been doing really well with our new running program. When we returned from our trip to Iowa in late June, we decided to start following the Couch-to-5K plan. Because we started on this plan during the most miserable part of the year in Washington (high temperatures, low air quality), we've been taking our time, doing each level over a period of up to three weeks rather than one week. We are currently on the fourth level and will probably take one more week at that level before moving on. Although I definitely want to continue with the program and will be happy when I can run 5K without passing out, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to handle a program of 5K runs 3-5 times per week when we get to that point.

To that end, we have started incorporating some interval training into our routine, which has been a lot more fun than steady running for a prolonged period of time. We start out with 60 seconds of running as fast as we can, then walk for 90 seconds, and repeat that eight times. We will probably start mixing that up a little at some point and possibly increasing the length of our interval workouts.

We've both started feeling the benefits of a regular workout routine. Saturday will be an acid test: we are planning to ride our bikes to Mount Vernon and back. The hill leading up to Mount Vernon is my current biking arch-nemesis, so we'll see whether the running routine will help me defeat it!