5k training has officially begun…

I know, I know a 5k is only 3.1 miles so you are probably wondering why anyone would need to train for that short distance. Although I am an amazing walker and could easily knock out a 5k walking, heck I could do a 10k walking, the simple fact is that I don’t want to walk it, I want to run it. And no I don’t want to do anything crazy like 6 minute miles. My goal for my first 5k is to finish in 37.2 minutes, which is running at a 12 minute mile pace or 5 mph.

Here is my week 1 training schedule:

Tuesday – Walk 5 minutes, run 1 minute
Repeat 4 times
Wednesday – Walk for 30 minutes
Thursday – Walk 5 minutes, run 1 minute
Repeat 4 times
Friday – Walk for 30 minutes
Saturday – Rest day
Sunday – Walk 5 minutes, run 1 minute
Repeat 6 times

Each day has a 5 minute warm up and cool down too.

OK so I did the Tuesday workout. I must admit that first 1 minute run was a bit of a pain, literally. My knee felts a small twinge right at the beginning, however being an active person in a previous lifetime I knew it wasn’t anything serious and just pushed through it. By the third interval my running got a bit quicker and I remembered how to breathe. And by the 4th interval everything felt good. For my first 24 minute session I was able to cover 1.58 miles, figured this was a pretty good start since last week I was walking a mile in about 18 minutes.

To assist me in this new endeavor I rounded up a few tool. The first is an amazing pair of Nike Scoops. I absolutely love these shoes. They are lightweight, fit my foot very well and are super breathable. The second is the Gymboss interval training timer. For $15 this thing was perfect. You are able to program two time intervals into the device, set the volume of the tone, the duration of the tone, and the vibration level. I attached the Gymboss to the same band that my Bodybugg is attached to, which in on my upper left arm, and it was quite easy to hear and feel. The third is my iPod. Until yesterday I’d nearly forgotten the type of music I had on there. I started out with a bit of Eminem, moved into some Green Day, No Doubt, Dixie Chicks, Dr. Dre, Christina Aguilera, and wrapped up the walk/run with a little Paula Abdul (not sure how that got on there).

Overall, it was a great experience and I felt really free. Although I really have enjoyed running with my kid a bit over the past few weeks, it is nice to now have a routine in place where I feel comfortable doing all by myself. Today is a nice easy 30 minute walk, which for me will probably turn into at least a 1 hour walk. Tomorrow I’ll be back on to the intervals. Next week I think the intervals are 2 and 2. Hmmm… doesn’t sound like a lot of recovery time. :-)