Couch to half marathon - Week 2

Checking the calendar just now I realised I've been running not quite three weeks. That was the reality check I needed to calm down a bit regarding my progress.



The great thing about having a Garmin and apps like Strava is that you can track your progress to a breathtaking degree. The problem with having a Garmin and apps like Strava is that you can see everyone else's progress as well and get very discouraged by their speed and distance, conveniently forgetting that 99% of the people you're looking at have been running for months, if not years.

I don't need to be running a 5 minute kilometre less than three weeks in, and if I was I would probably be on track for an injury.

So how are things actually progressing then?

I've just completed Week 4 of my C25K Garmin app, with six weeks to go. Assuming I don't skip forward again, that has me running 5km in late March/early April. Then I have about fourteen weeks to get to the half marathon. Seems tight to me, but we'll see.



I have been lengthening the runs on the app, or adding in another one at the end of the session, so I'm probably further along than the app would say.  I can (somewhat...) comfortably run for 5 minutes at a time now, with a pace varying from about 6:30 to 7:00 minutes per kilometre. For the non-runners, that means I'm running at about 8kph.

This past week I had to skip Monday's run as one of my kids was home sick from kindy, so I only got in two runs. I also didn't do my long run on Sunday morning as me leaving the house seems to wake the kids and ruins my husband's sleep in! I wouldn't normally care but he has to get up early during the week for work, so I guess he deserves one lie in. I suppose.

Most people seem to do their long run on the weekend, but I may have to fit in my long run on a weekday when I have time after kindy and school drop off - yes, our now five year old started school today! - and then I can just do a short run on Saturday mornings before swimming.  I'm envious of runners who don't have to juggle their runs around family commitments.  Just lace up whenever and head home whenever! One day, one day.

I cracked 5km last Friday, still with run/walk intervals, but it was good to remind myself how far it is. I did another 5km this morning and I'll try to keep that up, time permitting, and just increase the amount of it I'm actually running as opposed to walking.

So, that's the update for this week!  Onwards...

Couch to half-marathon

Okay so after the revelation the other day that I'm going to try and run a half-marathon in six months' time, let's break this down a bit.

Maybe one day I can look back at how far I've come?!  ...Which means recording the ugly truth about where I am right now.

I've just turned 39 years old.  I'm what fitness apps like to call "essentially sedentary" - other than housework and lifting my kids occasionally, I do no physical activity whatsoever.  Occasionally I might go for a walk with a friend or my mum when she's here visiting.  Sometimes I ride my bike on the driveway with the kids.  I load firewood in winter.  That's it.  I suppose it's worth noting but of no relevance whatsoever that I am a "healthy" weight.  And that's hopefully the last time you'll hear me mention that topic.

My fitness history is patchy at best.  I'm no athlete.  I was never good at sports at school, although I did enjoy cross country despite never being the fastest or actually, you know, joining the team or anything.  Through my adult life I've had periods of time where I've been a committed gym member, and of course I did do that 5K back in 2013 as previous mentioned.  But for the past eight or so years I've done basically no exercise, and I wouldn't describe myself as a naturally active person at all.

So long story short, I am very definitely starting from zero.  The half-marathon is in July.

My goal is to finish.  To run 99% of it.

So that covers my history and my goal.  Where are we at today?

As of today, I've been running for basically two weeks.  I'm doing run/walk intervals to increase my endurance in the time-honoured C25K method.  Today I ran for five minutes to set a benchmark for my shiny new Garmin watch (it's a Forerunner 245 for those of you taking notes).  I ran a pace of 7:42/km, which means it's going to take me at least 2-3 hours to run the half-marathon... if my very poor maths hasn't failed me.

For the past two weeks I've been doing three runs per week but I'm hoping to increase it to four, running while my girls are at kindy/school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with a long run early on Sunday mornings.

At this early stage I really can't picture how I will achieve my goal.  I find running very hard.  There's no "easy conversational pace" for me, it's all just very hard work.  I'm motivated by the idea of achieving something that feels impossible right now.  Although it's difficult I do enjoy the challenge and of course it feels great knowing you're doing something good for your wellbeing.  On the days I run I get more stuff done, I eat better, and I drink more water.

I'll try to update here once a week or so.  Apologies to those of you who are here for the trees and the knitting posts.  It's going to be a lot about running for a while...

Running

In a totally unexpected turn of events, I seem to be training for a half marathon.

I haven't run more than ten steps since 2013 when I did The Color Run, a 5km race, back when we lived in Perth.  I trained for the race for about two or three months, enjoyed every moment, made plans for all these other events I was going to do that year... and then promptly lost all motivation after the race, and that was that.

Until now!

I have this friend who runs, like really runs.  I mean, she runs 25km at 5am.  On a Sunday.  I know.

Even though I think she's demented, I can't get enough of hearing about her running. I love everything about it.  Finally, last week she and her other demented runner friend gave me the perfectly timed prod I needed to just go for a run myself.

Very bloody dark

I downloaded a "couch to 5km" (C25K) app, and set off at 5.30am.  It was extremely bloody dark and I was packing my daks a bit, but I think that just made me run faster.  And I loved it.  By the afternoon I was already dying to go for my next run.

Less dark. More better

I knew I needed a goal though.  Since I'd already done a 5km race, I thought I'd aim a little higher and go for a 10K race. By my calculations I would be ready by about May, which it turns out is not a great time of year for races locally.  My friend recommended the Cape Egmont Half Marathon in July, which also has an option to run it as a team, taking half the distance each.  I could do that, she slyly pointed out, or I could go for the whole 21.1km.

Could I??

Is it really physically possible for a total non-athlete like me to go from essentially sedentary to running a half-marathon in barely six months?

I guess I'm about to find out...