Hey internet people! I’ve got some exciting news (for me) and I wanted to share because, well, I felt like you should all be excited, too. No, it isn’t that we’ve surpassed 6,500 page views (which we HAVE!). It’s that I’ve FINALLY found a motivator that is actually going to keep me running and get me in shape for my next 5K.

Maybe this seems like I’m shamelessly plugging a product, but trust me, I’m not getting paid or anything. If I was, I’d probably not be a starving college student. But one of my friends/coworkers recently introduced me to this app (how is that a word?) called “Couch 2 5K” or “C25K” for short. She had it on her iSomething but luckily we’re in a day and age now where most of the apps you can get on your iThings are also available for Android (because, yeah… I’m one of those).

After the Color Run (and the glorious color cloud)

Let me tell you something. This thing. Is. AMAZING. It’s also a little creepy in that it tracks your run using your phone’s GPS, but most of us have that turned on anyways, and you can always do what I do and only turn it on when you’re getting ready to run. Basically, it tracks you while you run, telling you how far you’ve gone, your average pace, and your calories burned. But as much fun as that is, that isn’t the best part. It’s got a program that actually trains you to be capable of running a 5K without having the near death experience that I always do when I try to run for extended periods of time. It tells you when to begin intervals of running and intervals of “brisk walking,” slowly building you up to more ENDURANCE (which, let’s face it, I kind of lack). 

I’ve only used it a couple of times thus far, but the ability to track my run really helps me to stay on track and stay motivated. And considering the fact that I’ve fallen in love with 5Ks (the atmosphere is so amazing, especially at the Color Run) I would really like to be able to actually RUN one, instead of jogging, walking, limping, and eventually crawling (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating) across the finish line. So if you’re in the market for a way to get in shape or just to track your runs more easily/accurately, I definitely recommend this (FREE) app.