@Calee – brilliant. But it would be less brilliant if used in the other directions (e.g. your daughter was texting YOU to bring her shoes or some such.)

Ha! That literal approach wouldn’t appeal to me either, but Dr. Mama’s use of the phrase seems pretty figurative. The very condensed summary of the approach is (a) buy decent running shoes and a good sports bra, if applicable; (b) start running, really slowly. No! Slower than that! (c) stop when you need to, or after 30 minutes, whichever comes first; (d) wait 48 hours, repeat. Do this over and over and over again, ad infinitum (well, don’t get new running shoes every 48 hours…). I think it worked better for me than C25K when I was closer to the C end of that because I only had to decide to start running once every 48 hours (whereas C25K is tiny intervals with lots of breaks and thus, lots of resumptions). One ends up in pretty much the same place (the “No! Slower than that!” bit being relative), but I found Dr. Mama a much more tolerable route.

@Margot – I believe they will use the same interview, with some AMR content around it. So you’ll likely need something else to get you through either the housework or the long run!

@Alexicographer – I think I would have trouble with anything remotely close to “listen up maggots!” — but obviously, your mileage may vary 🙂

I tried (and did) C25K and Could. Not. Stand. It. Though millions, it seems, of internet users do, and there are apps, and … on, and on. So if it works for you, great. And it probably will! As for me, I clicked with the somewhat similar, though also somewhat different, Dr. Mama’s “Listen Up Maggots!” approach.

Another really key thing for me was embracing the reality that I will not run before noon, never mind @5:30 a.m. I will, however, run at 10 or 11 o’clock at night if I need to, to get it in.

@Sister_of_Angela – thanks for your comment! SHU will have to answer on the hormonal issues – she’s the endocrinologist. I think she also wound up cutting back on running in order to have her first child. After that, well, lots of little kids wind up cutting down the time available for high-mileage weeks right there!

@Deckled Edges – I think just start slow and small. Run for a minute (slowly!) then walk for a minute. A lot of people have praised the Couch to 5K program for its gentle introduction to running (getting up to 3.1 miles after a few months). It’s tough for the first few weeks but gets a lot easier after that.