Category: 5K Goal

My first 5K Journey, week 2

Week 2 was an incredibly crappy week. A few times this week my focus was thrown off in some major ways.

Starting off Monday.  So I decided to go to the gym a bit earlier then my usual time.
Why did I do that, hell if I know.

I think in combination with A.) It being earlier in the day then I usually go to the gym and B.) The weather getting warmer. There was a lot more people in the gym then what I expected.

Not a bad thing if everyone who was in the gym was there to truly work out.
Basically I caught a slight attitude when another dude decided to grab the treadmill right next to me (guy code #1, alway leave a space. This rule not only applies to the movie theater but also for the gym) and starts to lazy walk.

What’s lazy walking? Well that’s when you’re on treadmill walking at an incredibly abnormlaly slow pace.. I mean slower then what any person would normally walk.

During this time he’s flipping channels on the tv like a mad man… G-wiz.
When he finally decides on a channel… it’s some cartoons. Why is this dude watching cartoons in the gym.. wtf. But then he starts giggling out loud and this goes on for a good 10-15 minutes.
Now I probably could have gotten past the lazy walking but the fucking giggle was overboard, so I just left having only did a bit more then a mile.
I mean if your not in the gym to train… get the hell on right?

Wednesday, instead of the gym I went to the park to practice on my running, god that sounds funny. But yep you can probably guess it has something to do with what I heard on Youtube again.
So I’m now convinced that the reason I’m not making faster gains (running longer and faster) is because I have a heel strike issue.
The few videos I’ve watched basically stated that in order to reserve more energy and run longer, a runner should land on the forefront of their feet and not the heel.
So I practiced that for like 30 minutes on Wednesday and I still feel awkward while running.

And for Friday, OMG this was both my best and worst day ever at the gym.
So I’m in the gym, totally in the zone, killing it when this random dude knocks on the gym window to get my attention.
I look up and wave him off… I mean I’m now 25 minutes into a 45 minute run and like I previous said I was in my zone I wasn’t about to stop.
Well I guess that pissed him off because a few minutes later he starts banging on the glass like some Wildling (Game of Thrones reference 😉  ). For a second I thought, this fucker is gonna break the glass.

At this point I’m more then pissed because my focus is HELLA GONE. I turned to him, while still running and start screaming back “I CAN’T LET YOU IN!” and “YOUR SCREWING MY RUN UP!” (note it’s 02:30 a.m. when all o f this is going down.)

Well the dude left but my focus never returned. Cause now I’m constantly looking out the window to see if he was ducking behind a corner or messing me my car.

The only positive thing that came from this incident was that after I stop yelling at the weirdo I noticed that I had hit the 1.5 mile mark. This was the first time that I had run 1.5 miles without stopping. If you remembered my format. I usually run 0.5, then walk 0.5, then run 0.5 and so on. So this was a big milestone for me.

So yeah this part was awesome but I can’t stop from thinking what if I was was able to keep my focus? How far would I have gone. That night I came in a bit slower then my last weeks fastest time and finished 2.7 miles in 45 minutes.

Mar.2016
Mon. Tue. Wed.
Week 2 0.0 mi 0.0 mi 2.7 mi

 

My first 5K Journey continues

It’s been about a month since I’ve posted an update on my 5K training. I like to believe there’s a good reason for that.

For the last 3 weeks my training has been all over the place. I have to admit I’ve been getting a lot of my info from YouTube, which has probably led me to more confusion.

I started out trying to break down the 3-mile run into 3 separate miles and focusing on each mile independently. I thought “hey if my goal is to run a 5k in 35/45 minutes then I should first focus on conquering the first mile in at least 11/15 minutes, then the second and the third”.

Then half way through this format I found article that said the best way to train for a 5K is to focus on running 30 minutes continuously. I tried this maybe for 2 days before I decided to switch it up.

The final and current format that I’m on is one that I came up with myself.
I again looked at the total amount of miles, which is 3 and time in which I wanted to complete the run, which is in 45 minutes. I then broke down the run into 6 half mile run and walk sessions.

So basically I run 0.5 miles, then walk 0.5 miles then run 0.5 mile then walk 0.5 miles and so on until either I reach 3 miles or 45 minutes.

I love this format, it works for me, but there is only one problem.

My quickest time so far is a 2.8mile run in 45 minutes and to get that time I was pretty much huffing it.

Mar.2016
Week 1 2.5 mi 2.7 mi 2.8 mi

 

It’s not all bad news I am getting better and faster. I noticed the other day that my mile runs are now under 12 minutes. I didn’t start off that way. In the beginning it was somewhere around 18:00.

I have to admit I’ve made a hella lot of mistakes during this journey. Some include.

  1. Never eat lasagna before a run. That craps painful.
  2. Wear pants that don’t continuously fall down during your run. Instead of focusing on your run you’ll be wondering if your ass showing.

The issue I’m having now is how do I continue with the pace I achieved during the 1st mile for another 2 miles? I’m sure overtime it will come; I just hope it happens before the end of May.

Oh and my goal is to do this run non-stop. For me it’s not a successful run if I can’t do it entirely without stopping.

First 5K Journey – Changing it up a bit

Changing it up a bit!

I’m taking a week off from the Couch to 5k training. I’m doing so because I want to get some pace numbers for myself. Basically each week I have been successfully completing the C25K challenges but I have been pretty conservative with my runs. Meaning I’ve been completing these challenges but at a very slow pace in my opinion.

According to 5k Pace Comparison the average pace for a 5K runner is around 11:47 minutes per mile (give or take) which comes in somewhere around 33 minutes to complete a 5K race. So if that’s average and considering I’ve never done this before I’m hoping to at least complete mine within the 35/45-minute range.

According to my calculations I’m currently running at a 20 minute a mile pace. So at my current pace it would probably take me a hour to complete a 5K. I need to do better and see if I can cut this in half.

So this week I ‘m going take a break from the C25K program and focus on seeing if I can get my numbers down to somewhere within 12/15 minutes per mile range.

2016 Goals – Hoping to run my 1st 5K

One of my goals for 2016 was to run and complete a 5K. For some I’m sure running a 5K is no big deal. But for me this is a bit of a challenge considering I have been sitting behind a desk for the past 4 years.

I officially started working towards this goal last week. What I mean by officially is that I’ve been  going to the gym pretty much ever day since the beginning of the month. It wasn’t until last week when I decided to draw  a line in the sand and said okay I’m doing this.

Based on a recommendation from my previous boss I downloaded the Couch to 5K app. A mobile app that helps beginner prepare for their 1st 5K. (I downloaded the free C25K app. I guess there are multiple versions in the app store)

So far and granted that I’ve only completed my first week I think this app is pretty awesome. In my opinion the app was like having a personal trainer with you during your runs. For me this is great. Most of the time my mind drifts off so the Run and Walk notifications helps a ton.

The Couch to 5K program goes on for 9 weeks. So hopefully if everything goes well I should be done somewhere around the middle of March. Which on another hand would be great because the cold weather should finally be coming to a end.

I’m starting week 2 today so wish me luck. I will post a status update next week around this time.

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