Starting Over: Rookie 5K RUN Day 1 (week 5)

I am continuing my training by moving to the rookie training which is an 8 week training program that prepares us to run a 5K. I skipped to week 5 because the first four weeks are basically what I did in the 5 wk walk/run training. This week is a repeat of the previous week: 6 sets of walk 2/run 3.

Quite frankly I was in a funk this morning and had no desire to get my butt off the bed and do anything but veg. In the process I ended up discovering a possibility that got me all excited. Suddenly I didn't mind getting off the bed and exercising. As odd as it seems, one of the things that sometimes creates a mental hurdle is the idea of changing my clothes. I needed to do laundry today anyway, so I decided to run on the treadmill and not change out of my pajamas. Good enough (except for the dog who feels a little cheated and wanted a treat for my efforts afterward as if we had just done our normal routine).

I decided to start the 4mph/20 min program on the treadmill for a warmup, stop it when I was ready, and begin a manual program following the 2 walk/3 run training. It worked well enough. I realized this on Saturday, but it surprised me again to find that the 6 sets = 2 miles. Kind of disappointing because I was going further out in the neighborhood but I recognize I was actually going somewhere too and had to get back which of course adds more time. I read an article this morning about the differences between treadmill and outdoor running and it explained a lot about why I found the treadmill so much easier. Maybe I wasn't as bad off as I thought I was in the beginning - it just really is harder to run outdoors (which means a better workout too).  

Because of my hodge-podge run on Saturday, I have been trying to figure out my time for the 5K and realized the timing was working out on today's run to mimic it. So when I was at 1.80 miles I was on my last set. I kicked it up to 5 mph and ran until I made it to the 2 mile mark. Surprisingly, I hit it before my 3 minutes were up. I actually had 30 seconds to spare! So, if each set is 5 minutes and it takes 3 sets per mile, my time was approximately 45 minutes. Not bad for my first 5K :)