My I.E.P. (Individualized. Exercise. Plan.)

I have decided to design my personal I.E.P. (Individualized. Exercise. Plan.).  Hey, I'm a special education teacher! What do you expect?  I know how to modify as needed.  It was during my walking and jogging this evening that I suddenly had a plan form in my mind.
GOAL:  To jog 3 miles

As I thought about this new goal of mine I immediately thought of, what else, an I.E.P. and decided to add objectives with it.  So, objective 1 will begin with being able to jog 1/2 a mile.  I'm going on week 3 of my exercise goal and am happy to say that I was able to jog to the end of my street today!!!  Now this is not quite 1/2 mile, but it's getting closer. I know that walking up and down my street once is half a mile, and I originally started out walking 1 1/2 miles.  My entire workout always begins with a 5 minute warm-up walk and always ends with a 5-10 minute cool down walk.  During week 1, I started out by jogging for 30 seconds then walking 30 seconds and continued this for the remainder 1.5 mile stretch.  I thought I was going to die when I finished my first day as this all occurred in 90% humidity. (And, it does not matter what time it is, the humidity is always there!)  I carried on and finished the week out with this routine every other day.

Week 2 brought about a new challenge.  I was feeling so confident in my exercise plan that I decided to increase my walking to 2 miles.  I replaced the 30 second jog and 30 second walk with my ipod.  Music is a much better motivator!  Anyway, I decided to just jog as long as I could and then walk about the same distance.  I noticed that I was able to jog a little bit further this week, about halfway down the street without passing out.

I am now on week 3 of my plan.  This week I decided to increase my distance further to 2 1/2 miles.  The first day I really noticed how I was able to do more jogging than walking down the street.  Today, I was able to jog down one side of my street without stopping!  As I was jogging down the street I decided not to listen to music this time and to concentrate more on my breathing.  During this time I also became aware of different spot checks.  When my breathing became more heavier, I started paying attention to what I was running past.  My goal was to get past these points until the end of the street.  Check point 1:  Run past the house with the sprinkler and through the sprinkler.  It did cool me off for a second.  Check point 2:  Run past the fire hydrant.  Thank goodness I didn't have to pee!  Check point 3:  Run past the house for sale with the sign, Gorgeous Inside!  That made me feel good!  At last I could see the end of the street, and I ran to it with all I could give it.  I was so proud!  I walked down the other side of the street and then completed this again 2 more times! 

As I finished my cool down walk I thought to myself, I think I just may be able to reach my goal one day.