Tuesday 27 July 2010

My First 5k Run

Well, it has taken several months, several stone of weight loss since I started running, but yesterday evening, I finally ran a full 5k.

It took me a while, 33.57 to be precise, but it finally felt like I could run and had achieved a noted distance in the running world. When I started, I couldn't run for 30 seconds without even stopping to walk. It felt like running 5k was such a long way off, and it took months for me to see any real improvement, but after running a mile non stop, I've progressed to 3.1 quite quickly.

I have around 6 weeks until I run in the Great Yorkshire Run 10k in Sheffield, so somehow, I need to increase the distance up to double what I am currently running. It is important for me to get my food right as well as yesterday when I stopped, I had no energy left and my legs were very shakey which is probably caused by being on a diet so your body has little or no calories to offer you during your exercise meaning you must rely on your bodies reserves.

For me, running seems to be very much a mental thing. I have noticed if I set myself a goal, like running 5k yesterday, I will achieve it, but instantly stop at the 3.1 mile point, regardless of whether I can carry on or not. So, I guess I need to increase my mileage now until I can run the 6.2 miles or 10k for you metric fans out there.

At some point I'll try to improve the 5k time to a respectable time for someone of my age, but before than happens, I'll need to lose around another 3 stone and put in more specific training around endurance/speed. But before that, I would love to run the 6.2 miles without stopping in September, so that will be my aim for now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

last few days our class held a similar discussion about this subject and you illustrate something we have not covered yet, appreciate that.

- Kris