Running Update

It's a couple of months into 2008 and I figured I'd give a quick update on my new year's resolution to run a 5k this year.

January
Starting out 2008 barely able to run a full mile, by the end of January I had worked my way up to nearly 1.25 miles. And then I got Bronchitis at the end of January and didn't run again for over a week.

February
The good news is, I bounced back pretty quickly from Bronchitis. When I started running again a week into February, I was still able to run 1.25 miles. So I didn't lose any distance at least, only time. And I was able to work up to 1.5 miles.

And then a couple of weeks later, I got sick again. Flu this time. And that knocked me OUT. This time it was almost 2 weeks before I ran again. I was able to go 1.5 miles when I returned, but I had to do so in intervals. I wasn't able to go more than the first 0.5 miles without having to stop to walk a bit. So the remaining mile I split up into quarter miles where I would sprint for 0.2 miles, walking 0.05 mile, etc until I reached 1.5 miles total. I did at least push myself sprinting at an 11 min/mile pace instead of my normal 12:15 min/mile pace.

A couple days later, now almost the end of February, I was hopeful to be able to get back to running 1.5 miles straight through again. But I was discouraged that I still could not run more than 0.75 miles without having to stop and walk a bit. I was able to finish out the rest of the 1.5 miles after walking only 0.1 or 0.2 miles, but I was still disappointed that I could not run it straight through.

I think the flu really knocked out any endurance I had built up.

March
So, after battling some discouragement over lost endurance, I went online to gather some other training ideas. The "increase your distance little by little" strategy, with some interval training thrown in on more than one occasion, just wasn't doing it after all. That is when I came across an article that I wish I would have come across sooner. The section of greatest interest to me said this:

"...try running for two minutes and walking for four minutes five times consecutively for a total of 30 minutes.

Do this routine three times per week until you feel comfortable. Each week as you are ready add one minute to the running time and subtract one minute from the walking time. Increase each week until you are running comfortably for the full 30 minutes...."

http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitfacts_display.aspx?itemid=147

Something like that I can probably do, particularly in my state of low endurance where I keep wanting to stop and walk. This includes stopping to walk as part of the plan!

Since I had already been running for a couple of months, I decided to skip past the "2 min run/4 min walk" stage, and skip the "3 min run/3 min walk" stage, and start with the "4 min run/2 min walk."

I am happy to say that I was able to complete that cycle through to the end of the 30 minutes, and that got me to a distance 2.3 miles. After that, I decided I wanted to see what 3.1 miles feels like in some capacity, so I finished another 0.8 miles by running 2 minutes, walking 1 minute, etc. until I reached 3.1 miles. I am sure I will need to rest tomorrow after that, maybe some Yoga. My goal next time I run is to try a 4.5 min run/1.5 min walk cycle.

I'm pretty encouraged by this plan because I think it will train me in a couple of things not accomplished with what I was doing before:

• It trains my body to feel what it's like to be moving (whether walking or running) for more than 30 minutes in a row, rather than the runs I was doing before in order to try to slowly increase distance that ended up only lasting 15 minutes or so.
• It trains my body to recover quickly if (and when) I have to stop to walk, as I will probably have to do more than once when I run my first 5k.
  
• It seems like a more effective way to increase endurance.
  

Well, the first 5k of 2008 that my friends are signed up for is on March 16th. I still have time to sign up, and I am still seriously considering it. After getting sick I was leaning away from signing up for this one, and leaning toward just waiting till the next one. But thanks to the encouragement of several of my friends, and my brother from Chicago who said he would sign up and come down for the weekend to join us if I signed up, and tonight's run going decently well, I am now leaning toward probably signing up. Thanks everyone! And wish me luck, it could still be a rough couple weeks of training :)