If you've been following my Big Anklevich on Health videos (and I know that most of you don't), you might have heard about how I am following a program called Couch to 5K to get myself in to shape for running. It looks like this:
So, I started out slow, and then I started to grow. It was tough, and I often wanted to quit, but I've been a runner before, so I knew that I could do it. I just had to stick to it.
Before you know it, I had worked my way through the whole program and I was a day away from running the 5K. That was when my wife's sister's family was in town visiting us. We took them to New Braunfels to tube down the Comal River. While we were there, I got a horrible sunburn, and when the day came to run the 5K, I had to wimp out.
The sunburn was really bad, particularly in my armpits, which is a spot that doesn't get a lot of sun, but that day I laid on my back with my arms behind my head for most of the time, so they got it good. Moving my arms hurt something fierce, so I decided to delay the 5K one week, and just rest that day.
Well, that one week is up. Today was my day, I was to the last green square on that chart: RUN 5K! So, that's what I went out and did today.
It was kind of anti-climactic. It was just like every other day running, really, except that I went longer than I usually do. In the past, I've done actual organized 5K races, and that would have been a much better culmination of the process, but here in Houston, they don't even bother to put on races in the summer. No one would come. It's just too hot.
I'm not really sure how I did compared to other runs either, because I changed my distance calculation from miles to kilometers just for today. My average pace is usually kept in miles, but today it was in kilometers.
I tried to work it out to miles per hour pace, and if I did it correctly, then my pace was pretty terrible, but it usually is. Of course it's only going to get worse if I run much longer than I usually do.
I did get some congrats from my Runkeeper app that I use to track this stuff. At the end of runs that are noteworthy it will give me little award things. Today I got an award for running my longest run:
A new personal record! I also got this award which makes me chuckle:
My fastest 5K! Wow! Also my only 5K...at least that Runkeeper knows about. I've done 5K countless times before, and I'm pretty sure that most of them were better than today's run, but that's okay. I'm ramping up. Eventually I'll get there.
Now it's time to move on to the next part of the process, 5K to 10K. I'm moving straight into that training on Tuesday. I won't be able to run the 10K as a race as well, because the training should end on August 27th, which is usually the worst part of the summer down here. So, still no organized races.
Doesn't matter though, 5K wasn't my final goal and neither is 10K. I'm not even shooting for a half-marathon (although there may be one I could run in when I get to that point in my training). I've done all those things before.
On my bucket list that I made when I was a 20-year-old, I wrote: Run a Marathon. That's what I'm finally going to get around to finishing. In 2013, I tried to get to that point, but I only made it as far as the half-marathon, and then I got lazy and didn't keep my training up for the marathon. This time, barring any injury, I'm going for it. I'm going to make it.
The Houston Marathon is in January, and that's what I am shooting for. So, in the end, I will get to run in a race, and it will be the biggest one around these parts. I am determined to finally achieve what I started and mark it off my list forever.
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