Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Starting a 5K Running program

(Day 9 of the 365 day photo challenge)

I took this photo at the gym I go to this morning after a long Holiday brake.  It's a bike rack, though I have yet to use it, because who wants to bike home after a spinning class?  Maybe this Summer when I'm in better shape I'll be up to the challenge.

So one of my goals is to run in a 5k.  It seems daunting, and a little crazy, because even when I was a kid doing track and field I could never run a mile without stopping once.  And here I'm going to try for a full 3.3 miles without stopping, and all in a couple months!  There's quite a few programs online and in magazines that say, even if you're just starting out, you only need two months to prepare.  It seems a bit unrealistic, but Sparkpeople.com has a 5k your way rookie training program, and it seems plausible.

The first week all you have to do is walk four minutes then run a minute, repeat three times.  Next week the plan is to walk three minutes, run two, repeat four times, and so on for a full eight weeks. There's a couple races I'm looking at, one in three months, the other in four, and with this plan I should be running a full thirty minutes in no time, no stopping for breaths.

To help with my training I put together a playlist for my ipod, because it's a little hard keeping track of time and intervals, remembering if you're on the 2nd or 3rd repeat.  This way there's no thinking involved, just running and walking!  but when I put the playlist together I realized how there really isn't that many one minute songs.  

So this morning I was rocking it to Inside Outs "Never Tell a Lie," which is quiet silly, the "Finland/Fisch Schlapping Dance" from Monty Python's Spamalot, another out right silly song, and "Dance of the Bellossom" from Pokemon 2000 the movie: I actually wanted to just skip this song, but completed the interval regardless.  At least "Come On Get Happy" from the Partridge Family was only a minute.  It's a nice song to sprint to.  

So one workout down, many to go.  Mastering the 5k is this years goal, and thankfully Utah has so many races each month I can participate in.  Maybe next year I'll tackle a 10k, and get in fantastic shape in the process.

Good luck on all your goals!
Sarah

2 comments:

  1. Awesome! I did my first 5K thingy on Thanksgiving (kicked my trash), and now I'm hoping to do one of the muddy runs they here in Utah in the summer. You should do it with me! It's more of an obstical course than a run, but it sounds super fun! :)

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  2. BTW, I still can't believe you managed the 5k and nanowrimo at the same time! You're amazing. Can't wait for the mud!!

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