Gone in 60 Seconds

Mini Goal #1 – Complete the 3 week 1 runs on the scheduled days (Friday, Sunday, Tuesday)

Week one of the C25K programme is simple:  

•  Walk for 5 minutes
•  Run for 1 minute (x8 times) with a 1½ minute walk in between
•  Walk for 5 minutes

This proved to be very achievable.  On the first run I started with a pace of 8.0 km/h for the run and increased it by 0.1 on each of the runs.  No problems there.  For the second run I started on 8.0 and increased it 0.2 each interval finishing on a speed of 9.4 km/h for the last interval.  No problems there either.  On the third run of Week One I peaked at 9.6 km/h.  The old knees started to stiffen after the 3^rd run and were beginning to ache.  This was a warning sign (or if you are a PRINCE2 certified project manager a 'signpost of danger').  I needed to adjust my strategy of ever increasing the pace.

I did a bit of reading and one suggestion was to make the walks in between the run intervals less brisk.  The theory here is that a leisurely walk reduces the stress and gives the bits a pieces in your legs a chance to recover in between the intervals, stopping them from tiring or becoming exhausted.  Exhusted leg muscles give less support and put more strain on the tendons/ligaments.  Ok that makes sense.  So rather than belting along at 5.5km/h during the walking phases (which feels like a vigourous walk to my 5'8" frame) I reduced to 5.2 km/h.  This small reduction turned out to be enough to make it a comfortable pace.

I had also been taking longer strides as I was increasing the pace.  This was a natural response to the treadmill moving faster.  As the pace increased I would stride out more to keep up.  My reading revealed however, that this too increases the strain on your knees and that the way to increase pace without compromising your knee health is to increase the tempo of your strides but keep them short.  This reduces the impact and stretching strain on your muscles and other bits and pieces.  Ok, that made sense too.  I had a plan for the next few runs.

But the important thing was that I had completed Week 1 of the programme, on the days I said I would.

Mini Goal #1 – Achieved!

Stepping Stones

No preamble, not waxing lyrical, straight to brass tacks.

GOAL #1 – complete a 5km running event by the end of April 2011.

This is one of those ‘SMART’ goals.  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.  Not only is it doable, but it allows me some leeway in measuring success.  Success is not dependant on running the entire 5km, that would be “run an entire 5km running event by the end of April 2011”.  I'm going to finish the race and run for as much of it as I can.

You’ll also notice that this is goal #1.  The implication is, of course, that there will be other goals.  I have these in mind of course, but I am deliberately not specifying them yet.  One goal at a time. They are stepping stones.  You must first be standing on one stone to reach the next.  I’m standing on the shore and this is the first stone.  And it’s doable.  I can reach this stone from ‘here’.

I used to run every morning.  Of course I was 16 or 17 then.  I kept it up for a little while when I returned home from boarding school but in principal lets agree that I haven’t run since I was 18.  That’s 22 years and some change.  I’m also at least 25 kilos heavier.

Over the last few months I have tried to start running again.  I began by interspersing bursts of running into lunchtime walks.  But soon found my knees were not up to the task.  Indeed I thought that after a couple of days I had done some severe damage to them but they came right after a couple of weeks of rest.  This made me think that perhaps it was more that the ligaments/tendons just weren’t used to it.  This called for a deliberate strategy.  A planned approach.  Enter the Couch to 5k programme.

Couch to 5k (C25K) works on the premise that you can already walk.  If you can walk you can probably run a few steps.  So start by mostly walking with a little bit of running and slowly over time gently shift the balance from walking to running.

The C25K week follows this pattern:

• Day 1 - Run/Walk
• Day 2 - Rest
• Day 3 - Run/Walk
• Day 4 - Rest
• Day 5 - Run/Walk
• Day 6 - Rest
• Day 7 - Rest

Those of you who follow things on facebook will realise that I am already into week 2 of the programme so the first few posts will come quickly and act as a catchup.