Couch to 5 km... or to 30 mins running

[samvara]

My plan for this year was to get back into running. the woofer likes it, I like being outside and I find it easy-ish to want to do.

Couch to 5 km seemed pretty doable although I've had people say it steps up a bit enthusiastically from week to week. I pretty much ignored the 3 times per week schedule and just ran when I could.

I started in January but the house moving and flying to Melbourne was very distracting so I started again from Week 1 day 1 on the 19th. I got in a solid four runs before life intervened and I took a week off to sell my house and start back at uni. These runs were very easy, short bursts with lots of interspersed walking.



February took me from

• Week 2 Day 2 (run 1.5 mins, walk 2 mins, repeat for 20 mins) to
• Week 6 Day 2 (run 10 mins, walk 3 mins, run 10 mins)

I started weekly Feldenkrais classes on the 7th which made a big difference to how I understand my balance, hips, knees and ankles. Sara, the instructor, is a runner and tuned the class a little for the runners participating.

I lost a week when my grandmother died, between that and one of those periods where I'm almost willing to believe in a vengeful god, a week of rest was essential.

I also saw a physiotherapist on the 27th who got me to walk and run a lot and gave me corrections to my posture and technique. I'm getting a lot of hip pain on the left which is a very old injury and it's floating just below 'injured,' in the 'stressed' zone. I'm hoping changing my walking and running technique along with strengthening exercises means the pain will eventually cease although at this point I'd take 'decrease a bit' and be grateful.



March was

• Week 6 Day 3 (run 25 mins) to
• Week 8 Day 3 (run 30 mins)

Work flew me to Sydney for a week, and while I ran once in the gym it was not fun or physically easy, and most of my trip was spent working. I found the longer runs physically pretty easy and mentally a bit boring. I'm concentrating very hard on technique not speed right now and I find I lose concentration and drift off reasonably easily. A selection of fast songs to listen to is helping and I'm fine-tuning to remove ones that slow me down.



Things that worked for me:

1. Being outside with the woofer - he thought every trip was AWESOME
2. 'urgent' music in the background
3. the c25k application - I didn't have to plan, just follow instructions
4. technique over speed
5. chaosmanor pointing out how to weave the headphone cord through my clothes for less flapping
6. arm holster thingo for device - so much nicer than using a pocket plus I glow in the dark!
7. my local park; it has a wide variety of people and woofers in it who smile and make eye contact (or sniff Kenobi) and I feel comfortable and safe running there
8. vast amounts of support from my father (I texted him my run results a lot and got wonderful encouragement back)
9. vast amounts of support from the collective who listened to me debrief and stretch each evening

Things that didn't work for me

1. life events, that life, it just keeps on happening
2. running too fast early in the run and wearing myself out
3. woofer limped badly after one of the early March runs - he hasn't since but I worry
4. periods; it's very hard to run when I'm bleeding (lethargy, pain, nausea, cramps etc.) so realistically I'm going to lose a week every month

Father resting right now due to some unpleasant running related heel injury (he was running 10-12km each morning) but assuming that heals up OK we're hoping to do the 12km City to Surf in August so that's my next goal.

Comments

[callistra]

When you're periody, what about walking instead? I find doing *something* eases my crampy periody feelings, but doing what I usually would do at the gym is just way too much.

I like reading this sort of thing.
:)

[samvara]

I've not had good experiences with physical activities and periods :( It tends to increase the nausea and accentuate the back / neck pain.

I've found the best possible solution for me is painkillers + anti-inflamatories + hot bath + good chocolate. Usually that means nurofen, a heatpack and lindt milk balls.

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

2.running too fast early in the run and wearing myself out

My best running advice is to go much more slowly than you think you should at first (and don't run so often that you don't give your body time to recover in between). I always find it pleasantly surprising how easy it feels when I go really slowly!

[samvara]

Yes! it feels very slow but I can comfortably do my 5km now :)

For the next leg (5km - 10km) the reading I've been doing says do one long run a week, one set of speed intervals and one sort of medium-ish set alternating medium speed with recovery speed legs... any advice?

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

I've never really done any speed work, since if running feels hard I don't do it at all! I only aim for number of times a week and distance. I've read quite a few things lately that say you can get more fit doing shorter distances faster than longer distances slow, though.

Enjoy!

[samvara]

I'm finding trotting around parks very enjoyable - it's almost mediative! I am also feeling a bit competitive and would like to get my running speed up a bit so I'll see about folding in some speed work... somehow!