Yay, a birthday run! I’m 27 today, and rather tired now. Today’s run entailed another early lonely start, but all went well. More self-motivation! I’ll be a guru in no time at this rate.

The run was pretty much the same as Monday’s but easier on the lungs. Legs were ok but ache now. The step up from week 2’s runs to week 3’s had looked to me to be a rather large jump and I was thinking I might need to repeat week 2 before making the transition, but the two runs this week have both been easier than I expected. The jump to week 4 is another big one, but now I’m looking forward to it rather than being worried about it.

I saw a fox this morning. Very exciting stuff. Unfortunately, I had no camera so can’t share with you. In future, I may see if taking a camera is an option. I don’t really want to have carry it by hand, and a pocket is out of the question - would be too annoying. I’ll see if I can work something out though. I’d also like to be able to take keys without them being annoying in my pocket - I’m sure there are things you can buy to help with this.

I get 2 days off now - running with my previous running partner on Saturday. We decided that in order to continue to help motivate each other we would run together once a week. It should be obvious if one of us hasn’t been running the previous two days in the plan, so should keep us both on the straight and narrow.

Today was the first day of week 3 of the Couch to 5k plan and the first run where I’ve not met my running partner in the morning. Self-motivation all the way baby!

Getting up and out was no problem. I started a few minutes later than usual - all my stuff is still in boxes from the move. I ached all over as well from lifting and so on all weekend. Not the best start. I also took music with me today - an iPod shuffle and some light, rubbish, expendable headphones. I didn’t specifically select the music - it was already filled so all surprises.

And it was a different experience altogether. Running alone allowed me to concentrate on the running and get into my own rhythm. Going at my own pace is probably a smart move as the distances start increasing. I missed the banter, but all things considered this is probably a good thing for the remainder of the plan.

The music wasn’t bad, but I’m definitely going to sort out a “running playlist” to populate the shuffle from. I’m thinking soundtrack music would be best (aside: StreamingSoundtracks.com is the best internet radio for listening to at work) - Chariots of Fire being a good place to start.

I also had a new route. Though I still live by the sea, the seaside path where I am now is nowhere near as picturesque as Hove Lawns, so I run inland, through a massive parkland area. Very idyllic and quiet and an acceptable substitute.

The run itself was a serious lung-burner. I’ll spare the more graphic details but I left most of a lung along the way today. Felt very good to finish the run though. This was the first run I’ve done that I feel I wouldn’t have been able to do before I started this plan.

Today was the last run of week 2 of the Couch to 5k running plan. My running partner and I both found it relatively painless. Tiring, yes, but easier than earlier runs without a shadow of doubt. It’s another milestone as well, and takes us to a quarter of the way to our first 5k run at the beginning of week 9.

Weather was fine - sunny and no breeze to speak of (a shame - I like running with a bit of wind to keep me cool) - and shoes were fine too. I’ve noticed a marked difference between running on grass and on a tarmac surface, the latter being easier by far.

Things will be interesting next week. I am moving home this afternoon and over the weekend (I’ll be writing my posts but won’t be able to get them online until next week) and will be living too far from my current running partner to go running with her in the mornings. Having to meet someone at 6am has been a major help getting me to actually get up and run in the mornings - I hope that having started I (and she) will be able to carry on despite having to run separately. We shall see.

I’ve been reading up on caffeine recently (rather enjoyed Top Reasons to be Caffeine-Free and How Much Caffeine is Too Much? recently), and am currently umming and ahhing about going caffeine free. Apparently caffeine can interfere with weight loss (increases your appetite) and certainly isn’t any good for stress levels and sleep patterns. On the other hand, tea is awesome.

Since I decided to do something about my health, I’ve tried to ensure that any changes I made were sustainable. No crash diets, no avoiding things I liked because they had a few too many calories. I wanted to eat better and at better times. I wanted to do exercise I could enjoy and keep up. I wanted to eat pizza and ice cream and drink beer once in a while, but be more conscious of the effects of doing so.

Cutting out all caffeine doesn’t fit into that pattern. Some things are easy to cut out … for example, I only drink coke with Jack Daniel’s, on the rare occasions I do drink it at all, and that’s easy to change in a sustainable way - there are plenty of other great mixers out there. So coke is no problem (and I should really cut it out completely anyway - it’s full of sugar). The problem is tea and coffee.

I like coffee best after meals, and used to rarely drink it otherwise (pretty much only drank it in restaurants). Over the last few months, I’ve been drinking more coffee instead of tea (black coffee with no sugar was better, I figured, than tea with milk and 1 sugar). At work, I’ll go through anything up to 5 to 8 cups of tea and coffee a day, all the way through to 5:30pm. I still enjoy a decent cup of tea, and the idea of cutting tea out completely is not an idea I’m completely happy with.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences dealing with these issues? I’d love to hear what other people decided. Is it even worth trying to cut down on, or cut out entirely, caffeine? Personally, my current favoured option, and what I’m going to try for the next few weeks, is just drinking less coffee and tea, and not drinking anything caffeinated at all after midday.

Week 2 continued in fine style today. No problem getting up - I was up well before my alarm, which was set for 5:30 for a 6am run, went off. Perhaps there is something to this exercise lark after all. I’ve certainly been feeling better than usual for the last few days, though that could easily be my imagination.

No rain today. Suits me! And a repeat of Monday’s run. Strangely, while the second run of week 1 was easier than the first, this run (the second of week 2) was harder than Monday’s run. Both myself and my running partner found today’s run tougher than Monday’s, which was confusing (but both finished the run as planned). We’ve both pretty much put the difference down to our bodies not recovering from Monday as much as we might have liked. If anyone has any idea of alternative reasons for this, I’d be happy to hear them!

If the same happens next week, I think we may have to leave an extra day after the first run of each week. We’re running Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the moment - maybe Monday, Thursday and Saturday would be better.

And once again, my ankles, shins and kness found the whole experience much better than previously. Decent running shoes really do make a huge difference!

About ten years ago, I started smoking. Looking back on it now, I reckon is was a fairly stupid thing to do. Didn’t seem that way at the time. Looking back, if I had the same choice, I wouldn’t start again. I don’t know anyone who can say honestly that they would start smoking if given the choice all over again.

And finally, in October last year, I stopped smoking. It wasn’t my first attempt at stopping, but it was the last.

And for the last few months, I’ve been wondering what was different about this time. Every time I tried before and lasted for any length of time, I still wanted to smoke. I’d get cravings in the pub, or on the way to work … several times a day, even four months after quitting. This time, after week one, I’ve not seriously entertained the notion of smoking at all. No cravings. Stopping, this time, was a piece of cake.

So as I said, I’ve been wondering what was different this time. My best previous attempt was 4 months, without so much as a drag. Like this time, I wanted to stop. Like this time, I felt proud of myself after just a few days. My motives were for the most part the same. I didn’t have noticably more or less stress this time. I was socialising with the same group of people as now, and of them the same ones still smoke.

I did read a book though, in the meantime. And no just any book (scientists have yet to prove the effectiveness of Tolkien’s The Hobbit as an effective anti-smoking tool). No, I read Easyway, by the late Allen Carr. And it has taken me this long to realise that that was the catalyst - the difference that made the difference.

I read the book rather grudgingly. A friend of mine had quit for about a year and attributed her success to the book, and she lent me her copy. As it happens, she’s smoking again, so perhaps I should give it back. I read it, and promptly forgot about it. I didn’t quit at the end. I didn’t quit for another 3 months.

October came around, and I came to the realisation that I didn’t want to smoke any more, and so I stopped. Over the last few months, I have realised that in the meantime - between reading the book and quitting - the book was sinking in. I was realising that smoking is nicotine addiction. I was realising that I hated the fact that I was addicted. I was realising that I was making excuses for myself to smoke.

My previous diatribes and rants to non-smoking friends about the freedom to choose, nanny states, and being in complete control of my smoking - even going to far as to claim I enjoyed it, which I’m now not sure even I believed - rang hollow. I found less and less excuses for other people, and started to find it harder and harder to explain to myself why I was smoking in the first place.

And so I gave the addiction the boot. Once I made than mental leap and understood why I was smoking and why I had been unable to stop, then ditching the weed was easy. It was that key step that I needed - the realisation that I was addicted to nicotine, and it wasn’t a hobby or a habit.

That realisation also helped me understand why nicotine replacement doesn’t really work. Patches, inhalers, gum … none of these help the smoker address their addiction. They’re being weened off the nicotine but they’re still nicotine addicts and most will eventually start smoking again.

This realisation had some side effects. I now do not think of myself as an ex-smoker, but rather as a non-smoker. And I know I’m never going to start smoking. There is no such thing as just one cigarrette, I now know - because one would inevitably lead to more.

It was about three weeks in to stopping that I realised that I wasn’t counting days or weeks any more - essentially, at that point, I was finished with stopping smoking. The process was complete. I’d never experienced that before when stopping - I’d always just kept counting. I was thinking in terms of the time I’d spent without cigarrettes so far. I referred to it as “quitting”. But this time, I had stopped. Past tense.

I’ve started to notice the physical effects now. I don’t have my cough any more. I can play squash and go running without my chest burning as badly and as quickly as it used to. I can taste my food (and I like it!) and wine is a whole new experience. I’m loaded too - saving £200 per month. According to people who know me, I look healthier. I certainly feel a lot better.

Finally, I now understand why I disliked ex-smokers so much when I was a smoker. It was 2 things - the pity they had for me, and the knowledge that they had done what I still had not been able to.

All of which brings me to the reason for the title of this post. Stopping smoking is easy. Really really easy. Trying to beat it without understanding what it is you’re trying to beat is like climbing a mountain. But if you think critically, and are honest with yourself - and in doing so realise that you’re addicted to the cigarrettes - then that mountain becomes a molehill. And in a few weeks, when you wake up in the morning and realise that you aren’t a smoker any more, you will wonder what the fuss was all about.

Another wet day today - seems that’s par for the course for my Couch to 5k saga, and the first time we’ve experienced a week-on-week increase in the running. The last run of last week was relatively easy, actually - far better than the first run. Today, unsurprisingly, was significantly tougher, though it didn’t sound on paper as though it would be.

Today’s run was 20 minutes again (with a 5 minute walk for a warm-up, of course), split into 6 sections of 90 seconds running and 2 minutes walking (so technically 21 minutes total). The last 30 seconds of each run were taxing on the lungs and the legs, though playing an hour and a half of racketball yesterday probably didn’t help matters.

I felt better after the run today than I did after the first run of last week, which I suppose is a good thing. I don’t know if that bodes well for next week or not.

I usually play squash 3 times a week - tuesday and thursday mornings before work (too hot in the evenings and I like starting the day with a bit of a run now) and sunday mornings. Yesterday, my squash partner and I decided to try something a little different: racketball.

I’ve not played racketball since school, and all I remember from then was running for what felt like hours for a single rally. Good fun.

So, we started poorly - both of us only just able to hit the ball. And it took a while to get used to the bounce and the rackets. However, once we were comfortable, we had a great game. Our squash can be a little one-sided (my opponent hasn’t played much before and I played for years at school), but this was much more even and we both got a good run around.

My aching legs are telling me that it was well worth it. I think we’ll be doing this again.

Racketball is usually played on a squash court in the UK (I understand the American version is rather different), and lots of squash clubs allow racketball on their courts. Most decent ones will also have rackets for hire. It’s also a great way to improve your squash game.