5k Training

I feel like I can say that it has officially started. On Wednesday I decided to say in my blog post that I was going to start training for a 5k at the end of August. So, on Wednesday I got on my treadmill and I started to train. I decided to do my training a little differently this time. Although I haven't been running at all in the last almost 1.5 years, I feel like starting with something like the Couch to 5k program is too slow for me. I've actually tried that before and usually get bored with it. I think I get frustrated because in 2012 I was finishing a marathon and now I'm trying to get back to running (or even run/walking) a 5k.

No pictures that relate to this post so instead
enjoy this picture of a deer!

When I was training for the marathon, I had gotten to the point where I was running 3 miles without walk breaks on the treadmill. I decided that this time around I am going to train to run this 5k without walk breaks. This is not to say I won't take walk breaks during the actual race because my plan is to do it with the kids and I will let them dictate the pace and any walk breaks. However, if I am training with the thought of no walk breaks then I'll be ready to do my own 5k with no walk breaks.

So on Wednesday I got on the treadmill and started with walking. I walked until the treadmill read a half mile and then I upped the speed and ran until the treadmill read 1 mile (so I ran for a half mile). At first I was just going to do this and then walk to 3.1 miles. While I was walking again I decided that I was recovering pretty well so I would try it again. I walked to 1.5 miles and then set the treadmill to 5.0 (12 min/mile) and ran to 2 miles. I was feeling really good and the running was feeling so great. I decided to do it again. Walked to 2.5 miles and then ran to 3 miles. I then walked the .1 and was done. I did the 3.1 miles in 50 minutes, but I did it. I ran 1.5 miles of the 3.1 in my first attempt. I am happy with those intervals and it felt really good.

I continued my step streak yesterday with a nice walk in the park with the kids. Today the kids and I went on a very nice 8.4 mile bike ride. It was slightly challenging because there were some hills but we all did awesome. I was contemplating whether or not I wanted to run since I already got activity in with the bike ride, but I eventually decided that I wanted to run every other day to get back on track with running. So after getting home from our bike ride I got on the treadmill and did the same workout I did on Wednesday. It felt pretty amazing.

I am a little nervous that I'm pushing myself too much, but I feel good so I'm going with it. As of right now my plan is to stick with the .5 mile run intervals and eventually decrease the distance of the walk intervals until I am running the entire thing. My plan is to run every other day and to stick with one interval set for 3 days. I have not yet printed out a workout schedule for myself, but I just may be doing that soon! :)