Week 5 – C25k
Writen by: Hank WethingtonPosted on 29 March 2010
I’ve made it over half way! The Couch to 5k program is supposed to take you from the couch to running in a 5k in only 9 weeks. For some of us non-normal sized people, 9 weeks may be a little aggressive, but Basketball gave me a little bit of a head start. If you’re contemplating doing the C25k yourself, consider your general health. Many people maybe better off starting with 2-3 weeks of walking before beginning to run. You might even be encouraged by this great group I found doing the C25k.
As for my week, I was amazed to have finished, and finished strong! For tracking purposes, I stopped counting my warm up and cool down walk for my totals. For those of you comparing to the actual plan, I did modify this week heavily, except for Saturday and will return to the normal plan on tomorrow.
On Tuesday, I did a 5 min, 8 min, 5 min run and completed 1.86 miles. I had planned to only walk 1 minuted between each, but after the 8 minute run, I needed more time. I felt completely dead and was wondering about the rest of the week. Playing basketball on Monday/Wednesday/Friday makes my Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday runs difficult sometimes, and this was certainly one of those times.
For Thursdays run, I my goal was simply 2×8 min runs. I ended up making the second run a little over 10 minutes and completed my first full mile run! My total was 2.07, the same distance I did a few weeks ago in more time! It was crazy. Again, I felt completely dead after my run. My dog, while normally assistive, was a pain! She stopped and pooped 3 times, of course, only during the run, not during walks. After I finished, mentally, I began dreading Saturdays run. Why… 20 MINUTES.
Yep, Saturday was a 20 minute run, or 2 miles. I asked Heather as I was getting ready to walk out the door, “is it bad that I already believe I’m going to fail?” Of course it was bad. I don’t recommend the negative mental gymnastics. For this run, you’re just going to have to take my word. My GPS decided it didn’t want to start, so I just set my phone timer to 20 minutes. When it went off, I decided to finish at the next corner, and I’m so glad I did. By reaching the corner, Google says I completed 2 miles in just over 20 minutes (21ish?). I must say, I was shocked. I felt like my pace was extremely slow and that I didn’t run all that well, so what a fantastic surprise to see I did great.
Well, just a few short weeks to go for the 10k, but I’m looking for an actual 5k so that I can finish what I started out to do. Perhaps the Strawberry Stampede? See ya on the road!
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