Thursday, September 30, 2010

5K?

I have been giving much thought to attempting a 5K. I volunteered to help at a 5K event this past weekend. This was my first experience even witnessing one up front and personal. It was so interesting to see all the different types of runners and I am sure they all had different reason for running the event. It gave me a weird desire to attempt one.
I have never been a runner and never had much desire to do so. Cardio was cardio and that is all it has been for me. But could it be something different?
Many of you may not know my story and I am hoping to tell it soon on my blog along with photos. Anyway... about five years ago I had a normal fall on the ice with devastating results. I feel and broke my patella(kneecap). I never ever thought it a millions years that I would be able to run on it. I have done interval training most of the time not pushing the knee to much. But the last few days I have been attempting to run on it. I have not yet attempt pavement and not sure how the knee will do with that. I have been running on the treadmill and am working toward being able to do a 5K on the treadmill with out stopping. I also plan on attempting to run on the pavement. I am considering doing this Saturday. I have been wearing my knee brace for the longer amounts of time running with out stopping and that seems to be helping a lot.
So this week I am attempting to run 1.5 miles with out stopping three times this week. I made my first attempt on Tuesday and it went well. I was able to set the pace on the treadmill for a 10 minute mile and was able to complete it in a little over 15 minutes. Was it easy? Oh heck no several times during the run I wanted to stop and tell myself that I couldn't do it but I keep at it and felt good when I complete it.
So the my ultimate goal: to run a 5K without stopping in under 30 minutes. But I must be patient and kind to myself and take it slow and easy and see how the knee does. There is a 5K that my son's girlfriend is organizing and I thought that might be a great thing to shoot for. It will be held some time in the spring so I have plenty of time to work on it.
Have any of you done a 5K? How was it? How did you prepare for it? I am eager to hear from you .

2 comments:

Debi said...

My fashion was to hop on the treadmill and run the pre-programmed 5K to get my starting base. Then I went backwards & starting running the full distance but working on pushing my body!
I hope you can do it - I think you will do great with it! Keep me posted

Unknown said...

I was over 200 pounds when I started running with a local team. I thought I was going to die! We were training for a 5 mile race (started in June & the race was in September.) It was the hardest yet most rewarding thing I ever did! We trained with the Jeff Galloway program of a walk/run & I would encourage you to do that! I have friends who do their marathons with that method & have posted their best times ever!

BTW, not only did I finish that race that year (did a 5K first), I went on to complete several half marathons, 2 full marathons & numerous others ranging from 5K to 10 miles!

I still run with my hubby & love it (most days!)

Do it girl!!!!!