Saturday, November 21, 2009

5K Prep Update

The running preparations have been going pretty good since the last time I wrote. I’ve been doing intervals of two minutes of walking and seven minutes of running.
 My record pace so far came on Friday, November 13th when I finished my 3.1 miles in a total time of 32:42. That’s a pace of 10:33 per mile. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I haven’t run outside in quite awhile despite some days of amazingly nice fall weather. The problem is that this time of year it seems like there’s not much daylight other than when I’m at the office.

Yesterday, however, I took the day off work and enjoyed the 52-degree sunny day to return to my original workout spot at Old Fairgrounds Park. I was feeling pretty good after the first seven minutes of my first running interval, so opted to bump all my running intervals up to eight minutes for the day. I had an overall time of 33:45, which isn’t my best, but not too bad for having changed my intervals and having adapted to running on a treadmill instead of out in the real world.

The neat thing about running outside yesterday is it really helped me see just how far I’ve come since my “Fatty to 5K Quest” began. At the 0.75 mile track at the park, I have various landmarks (specific trees or benches) that I make mental notes of when I pass. I’m hitting these markers at totally different times than I was in the beginning. I was totally pumped when I ended my first running interval past where I had started it…that meant that I ran continuously for more than three-quarters of a mile!! Eleven weeks prior I couldn’t even run one minute without thinking I was going to keel over!!

Today I had my first session with the personal trainer. I really enjoyed the hour. My trainer started by taking down some general information and then we really just had an orientation of the equipment involved in the plan that she is developing for me. I’ll meet with her again on Monday after work for what she called a “full-blown workout”. I’m pretty sure my abs will be hurting on Tuesday!!

The workout days will be on two or three of my non-run days and will include some cardio and weight machines. I’ll be mixing up the cardio with an elliptical machine and bike. I will continue to run three days a week, but for one or two of those runs, I’ll be mixing it up a bit. One day I’ll be using a preset program on the treadmill to incorporate some so-called hills and such. On another running day I’ll be incorporating some sprinting intervals. At least that’s the jist of what I’ll be doing. I’ll know more after I meet with the trainer again on Monday for that full-blown workout.

No comments:

Post a Comment