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...