Well, I've paid an entry fee and I've put together a modified training plan which I've stuck to for 3 days now and I'll be on board with it tomorrow too (I know this because it is a rest day.) I had 4miles on the calendar for today and went out with heavy legs. After 12 minutes in I decided to walk and gave myself a minute rest. I also decided to allow for walking breaks after a defined interval, which in this case was the 12 minutes. So I started for my 2nd round of running for 12 more minutes, but then I allowed for 2 minutes of rest. I ran the third and then allowed for 3 minutes of rest. At this point I was about 5 1/2 to 6 minutes from home and just ran. In fact when I rounded the corner onto 317, I got a second wind because this is the final .3 miles. I also look at this as my dash to the finish. I pushed it out and ended at the stop sign like always. I've put so much pressure on myself to run x numb er of minutes or miles without stopping. As if having to take a walking break is tantamount to failure. What I'm realizing is that even if I take 100 walking breaks, I'm out there. I'm on the road putting one foot in front of the other. It has always been difficult for me to follow through with anything that is remotely healthy, but I do have a habit of jumping in way over my head. I don't want my first race to be a 5k; I have a marathon on my calendar! Is this what they mean when your are told that you are setting yourself up for failure? I'm not going to be so hard on myself for stopping and taking a walk break. I will set appropriate goals and go out and try to achieve them. I would like to be an 8 - 9 minute miler, right now I am at 10. The way to reach that goal is to run and drop a significant amount of weight. Right now I'm weighing in at around 280 and am carrying 60 lbs too much. I can only imagine what my running efficiency would be minus the 60 lbs.
Joining the rugby club (www.cgrfc.org) has been the best for my overall fitness. It has provided a tremendous amount of incentive to put in the miles. In fact I have to put in more than miles to get to the level of fitness to be a really effective player. Steve Runner's latest podcast (www.steverunner.com) was on exercise addiction. On of the things he mentioned was that you have to listen to your body and get rest etc. If you over train you could do some serious damage to your body. I think if you're just starting out, you need to overtrain because it is too easy to slip back into the couch.
Well, the long and the short of it is. I am through week one of my 5K prep. When I get through the 5K I plan on making a 10K. I do plan on getting one on the calendar which will allow me to work through a full 12 week training session. I don't want to just finish the races, I want to run them in a time that will challenge me to acheive things that I would have never thought possible. An 8 minute mile is the equivalent of 4 2 minute laps around a track. At my fastest in school I never brok a 2 minute lap sprinting and I think at 37 I can maintain a pace of 2 minute laps for some time to finish a race. Well I think it is within reach, especially if I loose the extra 60 I'm running with! My goal for the 5 K is to run 9:30 miles. It did take me a second to come to the realization that shooting for a 9 minute mile is too much of a reach for my first 5 k which is only 4 weeks away and to take off a full 30 seconds per mile is challenging enough, taking a whole minute off is crazy ( I write this but I don't believe it. I do think I can run 9 minute miles, you know make it my 5K pace from which I can base my subsequent race training.)
I will keep on running, oh and I did modify my training routine that I outlined 2 posts ago. I am making it so that I am only increasing my milage by 10% each week. I've read somewhere that 10% is safe. I will be doing some speedwork (fartleks and hill runs). So this week I ran 12 miles, next week is 14 (I know it's more than 10% but it's close enough), the next is 15 and the week before the race is 16. The week of the race I'm running 12. I can't wait to see what happens.
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