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Right from the start. Unable to run for a minute ----> To a Marathon.
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Hey Pageant... just a quick +1 for this thread. I admit I zoned out once you started talking about longer runs... my longest is still only 6 mins, and looking to do 8 mins tonight on the c25k plan... eek! Still, will keep plugging away. Threads like this will definitely keep me motivated, so thanks again for the inspiration
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Hi davenewt,
Thanks for that. This log has evolved so much from it's original purpose but that evolving has come very naturally. I am / was the exact same as yourself. An extra 2 minutes onto your run is a big deal when you're only 5 weeks into your journey. I remember it well. The plan I followed (as laid out in the first post) had a step up from 5 minutes to 8 minutes at a time on week 5 and it was a petrifying challenge. It was 2 x 8 minute runs with a 5 minute walk between. Then came a a 20 minute run all in one go. Then a 25. Each and every time I felt they were monumental jumps but when I got to them I was more than capable of doing it.
The ground work you are doing now though is the foundation of what will come. The couch to 5k programme is a journey in it's own right but once you've done it and are capable of a 5k run (which you will be if you stick with it!) you will want to plot out your next journey and this will most likely be towards a further distance. In my case I've gone from targeting at a 5 Mile race to doing this years Marathon. But I'm as far away now from being able to run a marathon as I was when I was starting off week 1 of the couch to 5k aiming to run 5k. In other words for any beginners reading this who suddenly see this log as not being relevant to them, it's as relevant now as it was back at the start. I'm still very much a beginner and still struggling towards an end goal. I'd equate getting off your couch and getting yourself to being able to run 5k with being able to run 5k and getting yourself to run a marathon. That may sound like a lunatic thing to say but it really isn't. I know how hard it is to get off that couch and not only get active but get running more than a couple of minutes at a time. Once you are active and are bitten by the running bug it's a lot easier to motivate yourself to get out there and run.
This log will hopefully serve as inspiration to those at the start as it is an insight warts and all into a pure beginners journey - enjoying running, making mistakes, learning from them, learning from others more experienced, having lots of trial and error, changing goals, changing plans, worrying about my pace etc. It's certainly not a recommended pathway so far
but what I do hope it does is shows that a) anyone can do the couch to 5k program, b) once they've done it they can continue to make progress and c) that there are so many things that keep you motivated and enjoying running. I quite simply love it.
If anyone reading my log has any questions or wants to chat about the couch to 5k program, or pushing on from the couch to 5k program they're more than welcome to post here. Don't feel that your 5 minute run is irrelvant because I'm logging about a 5 mile one. If anything it encourages me to keep the log going.
So thanks again for your post davenewt - very much appreciate it.0 -
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(Cross posted here and in marathon novice thread - Except here has added goodies like splits :P )
Just back from a 5 mile run in 48:13 (on the exact 5 mile course for the upcoming race series) - a new personal best but what a strange run.
I didn't really fancy it today. Felt tired and sore from the last few days running. Actually had to remind myself tomorrow was a rest day to give myself some sort of carrot to go out. Went out - didn't enjoy the first couple of k at all. Stopped to walk after 2k without even realising I was doing it. Even thought about taking a short cut and cutting the run in half. Then a bout of stubborness took over and I went off down the kyber and onto the bitch of a hill back up from it without stopping driven by anger more than anything else although I did end up stopping for a quick walk after I got up the hill. That one was planned though
Suddenly it was 6k and I realised that despite all the messing around I was acutally ahead of my PB time so I made an impromptu decision to push hard over the last couple of K knowing that a personal best was achievable. Ended up taking 47 seconds off my 5 mile time but the run didn't really deserve it.
I think it's a sign of the extra mileage both taking it's toll (the tiredness and soreness) but at the same time improving my all round pace / fitness.
Splits (bearing in mind second half is uphill):
1 - 5:44
2 - 5:37
3 - 5:49
4 - 6:00
5 - 6:05
6 - 6:18
7 - 6:08
8 - 6:23
Tomorrow will be a well earned rest day to give my aching legs a chance to recover. 0 -
Short 5k run yesterday at what felt like a very comfortable and leisurely pace until I decided to take a spin around the druids glen in the phoenix park and was defeated by what seemed like a hill that would require mountain climbing equipment to get up it.
5k in 30:47 - bar the one slow down / walk my pace was around 6 min per kilometre. It does feel like my base pace is starting to increase. 6 min kilometres are starting to feel comfortable rather than being pushed for.0 -
Today called for a 6 mile long short run which I rounded up to 10k.
10k is the furthest I have ever run (have done so just twice before)
I went off not aiming to do anything but complete 10k without stopping. My recent runs have involved walk breaks along the way and I wanted to prove I was still capable of a long run without stopping. Went off therefore relatively slowly. I set out to run 5k then turn back. The course can be summarised as
1st Kilometre: uphill
2 -4 Kilometres: flat sections but mainly downhill
5 -9 Kilometres: flat sections but mainly uphill
Last kilometre: downhill.
Splits:
1 - 6:17
2 - 6:23
3 - 6:18
4 - 6:24
5 - 6:43
6 - 6:52
7 - 6:54
8 - 7:00
9 - 6:51
10 - 6:19
Throughout I kept my pace comfortable enough. When the hills came my pace dropped back a bit.
End result was a 66 minute non stop 10k which was only 2 minutes outside my personal best for the distance. However I could have happily kept going which is the important part. When I ran it in 64 minutes a couple of months ago I was in far worse shape afterwards.
I am very happy with the progress.0 -
Today called for a 5k run.
With one eye on the upcoming 5 mile race I decided to test myself today by running a very fast pace for 2km and then seeing if I could hang on and bring home 5k at a good pace Unfortunately I couldn't hang on for anything more than 1km
and ended up slowed down for a walk on K4.
1 - 5:16
2 - 5:09
3 - 6:00
4 - 7:38
5 - 5.59
Total 30:01
Despite my going off at warp speed I still ended up ouside my best 5k time by a minute and a half. Considering the first 2K would still be outside my original target I'm officially writing off any hope of a 40 minute 5 miler at the end of the month. :pac:
That will be my last mad dash and from now on will be taking the slow and steady approach as advocated by ...It's certainly a good sign that you can already run a KM under 5 minutes and keep going, so the speed is there. You just need to work on endurnace and to do this you need to run at a relaxed pace that you can maintain for the whole run.
Once you can do this you will soon find you can combine both your speed and endurance and run 8 5minute kilometers in a row in a race with a little adrenaline.0 -
Pageant Messiah wrote: »Today called for a 5k run.
With one eye on the upcoming 5 mile race I decided to test myself today by running a very fast pace for 2km and then seeing if I could hang on and bring home 5k at a good pace Unfortunately I couldn't hang on for anything more than 1km and ended up slowed down for a walk on K4.
1 - 5:16
2 - 5:09
3 - 6:00
4 - 7:38
5 - 5.59
Total 30:01
Despite my going off at warp speed I still ended up ouside my best 5k time by a minute and a half. Considering the first 2K would still be outside my original target I'm officially writing off any hope of a 40 minute 5 miler at the end of the month. :pac:
That will be my last mad dash and from now on will be taking the slow and steady approach as advocated by ...
I think you might just have reinforced the concept of starting off slowly and building up the pace, rather that starting off too fast and trying to hang on...its a lesson we all have to learn, so well done for recognising it and learning from it...forget about times and enjoy the running for now, you pace will improve naturally as you mileage levels increase ie endurance. 0 -
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Wednesday 13th
5 K in 29:23
Average pace 5:51 per km
Short run today - pushed it a bit knowing that it was only 5k (ha just saying "only" when talking about 5k sounds very funny but is a brilliant feeling to think it as a short run when a few months ago it was a mammoth task)
It was great to go out knowing that I was doing less than half the distance of my previous run and I felt confident in pushing the pace a bit. A little too confident perhaps - ran the first 2k in 11 min but this wasn't a sustainable pace and I had to ease back a bit. Didn't have a whole lot left in the tank at the end but that was part of the plan and was happy enough all things considered. 0 -
this morning I did 3 milesPageant Messiah wrote: »Wednesday 13th
5 K in 29:23
Average pace 5:51 per km
Short run today - pushed it a bit knowing that it was only 5k (ha just saying "only" when talking about 5k sounds very funny but is a brilliant feeling to think it as a short run when a few months ago it was a mammoth task)
It was great to go out knowing that I was doing less than half the distance of my previous run and I felt confident in pushing the pace a bit. A little too confident perhaps - ran the first 2k in 11 min but this wasn't a sustainable pace and I had to ease back a bit. Didn't have a whole lot left in the tank at the end but that was part of the plan and was happy enough all things considered.
1 11.04
2 10.49
3 10.55
best times I have done! Not sure what the equates to in kmph0 -
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Posted most of this in the main marathon thread ....
I had a very strange experience today and I wonder if this is normal ...
Background to this which may be relevant is I run my LSR's on Mondays as it suits my work life. On Saturday night I went out to a cousins 40th party with the honest intention of only having 4 beers and taking it easy - one thing led to another and I overshot by about 4 beers
- add in a family barbecue on Sunday and I came out of the weekend with zero excercise and a couple of belly fulls of food and drink. (Typical couch potato style ) I decided that I needed to work off those extra calories and opted to extend my LSR to 10 miles / 16 Kilometres today. My longest ever run prior to this was 12K last Monday. I was following the 10 mile race route for the race series in the phoenix park.
So off I went today at a slow enough pace fully intent on running 10 miles and wanting to save energy. Big issue though - left shin was hurting, not sharp pain just a dull ache and tightness. Over the course of the first 2k the calf and ankle joined in (probably compensating in some way for the pain in the shin by running slightly differently) Ended up having to walk a bit trying to see if short walk break would ease it out. It didn't seem to be and I was contemplating calling the entire run off early as I didn't want to cause long term injury for short term goal gain. Anyway things improved around the 5k mark and any aches and pains were normal and in line with the rest of the body so I kept going. By K7 I was back running the downhill of the main phoenix park road. I had come back past my car and had grabbed a bottle of water which was a great help and I felt strong enough to do the second half.
Around 12 / 13 K into the run I'm feeling like I normally would after a long run. I'm hot, I'm a bit thirsty, I'm tired and I'm concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and focused on making it back to the car. I've just come up one of the steep hills on the chapelizood side of the park And here comes the strange bit.
Out of nowhere I suddenly became aware that I was cold. I'm wondering how / why I'd be cold this far into a run. Then I realised that I wasn't sore anywhere - not even the left leg which gave trouble early in the run. Not only was there no background pain but I felt like there was no effort in running. Breathing was as if I was walking. The second big hill of that section arrives and I powered up it like it was downhill. Again no pain, no distress, absolutely nothing - but still cold and possibly getting colder. As bizarre as this sounds I felt so comfortable bar the cold that I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong so I stopped for a walk. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't in shock or something. After a couple of minutes walking I decided to keep going and finish off the run. I covered the last 2k as I had the previous 2k comfortable, pain and reasonably effort free at the same pace and ended up covering the 10 miles in 1 hour 45 minutes (10.5 minute miles) This is quite a fast pace for me LSR wise. Now 15 minutes after the run - all aches and pains were back with vengeance.
I'm wondering did the extra calories etc over the weekend provide for more energy to use up late in the run or was that just a coincidence. Was it adrenalin kicking in ? I honestly could have kept going after the 10 miles but as it was already a 4k step up from my previous longest run I felt it best to stop.
Average pace 6:35 per kilometre - slightly faster than last LSR and expected time of approx 4hr 39 min for marathon if ran at same pace.
Milestones Achieved:
First ever 10 Mile Run
1 Hr 45 Min on feet.
Got to be happy with that. 0 -
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Nothing too fancy to report.
Wed 20th
5K Run in the Phoenix Park.
Not very enjoyable - even a bit frustrating. Wasn't loving it at all. Despite it being a short run I just didn't feel comfortable at all. Stopped and started quite a bit.
Total time 30:38 Avg Speed 6:06
Thurs 21st
6K Run around the local area to include a mini mount everest. (3k out and then back so went down said mini mountain too) Made a concious decision to run this more like a LSR after yesterdays blow up at the higher pace. A lot more comfortable on this although the hill nearly killed me on the way back up
Total time 38:39 Avg Speed 6:270 -
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So tomorrow is the 5 mile race that I first posted about in the OP of this log. Back then I confidently predicted I would show all my fellow coach potatoes that a sub 40 min 5 mile was possible. I'm therefore a little bit disappointed to go into this race not expecting to do this.
I've learned a lot in the past 6 months - about running in general, about my own abilities and indeed my own limitations. Limitations may not be the best word to use - I'm still carrying well over a stone of excess weight which if not there would vastly improve my times. So I certainly stand by my original statement that a sub 40 min 5 mile is possible within 6 months but I might need a little bit longer.
Now all that said I'm going into the race proud of myself and how far I've come. 6 months ago I couldn't run for a minute at a time. Tomorrow I'm going to run 5 miles - run, not jog, not plod along but really run to the best of my lung and leg capacity for 5 miles. The fact I can even do that I hope serves as an example of progress that can be made in 6 months. I've no idea what my time will be. I will be aiming to beat my PB of 48 min 19 sec by as much as I can. I'd love if it was closer to 40 than 48 of course but anything below 48 will leave a smile on my face. The sub 40min 5 mile will come in time - I've no doubt but in the mean time I'm not going to dwell on not making it in the original time frame. 0 -
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To be honest guys and gals I can't help but feel slightly disapointed with todays run although overall I am happy - if that makes any sense ! I'm the sort of person who calls a spade a spade as the old expression goes so I'm not going to discard the bad completely.
I had a good start to the day. Up early for breakfast and feeling good. My wife and 6 year old daughter accompanied me to the race - they dropped me off and went in search of parking which they found on the left hand side of the north road just before we turned right to head towards the popes cross. They got a great spot parked facing onto and just beside the road which meant they could sit in the car and see me run by before heading for the finish line. You may have seem my little one with her head sticking up out of the sun roof cheering everyone on.
My unofficial PB for this was 48:19 (but that needs to be reviewed - will get to that later !!) As mentioned in previous posts I wanted to beat this and would be going out as hard and fast as I could.
I joined wave 2 - 40-50 min expected time which is where I should have been. However there were clearly people in this wave who shouldn't have been anywhere near it. I was navigating around walkers before we got to the mile 1 marker and I found the congestion all the way to the bottom of the kyber to have cost me time. Now that said I was still running at a pace that was pushing myself so I can't blame the crowd too much on losing time.
Being familiar with the route I knew I would be hitting the hills in the second half of the race. I actually needed to walk a bit on the second big hill which was a bit disappointing but any time lost there was made up for in the quicker starting pace. Endomondo gave me a PB for the first 5K of 26:55 - a 1:29 improvement on previously tracked runs. I was well ahead of my previous personal best splits on the route and very happy to be. However there was a bit of a kick in the teeth to come.
My Endomondo app hit 8K / 5 Miles well before the finish line I knew something was up when I saw the 400 metres to go sign in the distance even though I felt like I had ran 800-900 metres since the last buzz in my ear told me 7K had passed. I threw off my headphones at that stage and went for the finish line with everything I had left not wanting to rely on Endomondos timing if it was off. I wasn't sure of my actual time until I checked the results later on and it wasn't as good as I thought.
My official time for the race was 47:10 which is still a 1 minute 9 second shaving off my PB.
However this PB was based on Endomondos tracking of the same course and appears to have been short. I know apps like this can be off especially when zig zagging aorund crowds etc giving you distance that you haven't acutally covered but it was still a shock to see how far off it was for this race (and indeed in training) I was half expecting to see a few posts about course length but in the absence of them have to accept my app was wrong.
Endomondo clocked me at 45:49 for 8K which was a 2:15 improvement on the same 8k it tracked in 48:04 for my previous PB. (I don't have exact 5 mile figures but can't imagine I would have lost too much on the few metres over 8k making 5 miles)
So my bottom line is this:
Officially a 1:09 improvement which is where the disappointment comes in. I ran a fast for me pace which deserved more than 1 minutes improvement. Realisically though the improvement was more like 2:15 - the issue being my previous PB was not accurate. If I had come on here with a 2:15 improvement off my old PB I'd have been very happy so I am taking it on the chin that I wasn't as fast as I had previously thought and keeping myself happy with the realistic improvement.
Interestingly enough I noticed an anamoly in the results according to TDL. I apparently placed in the top half of men (1435 of 3619) yet in the bottom half overall (2618 of 4046 on chip time and 2185 of 4046 on gun time) That makes no sense. If there were 3619 men that would have left only 427 women in the field which I'm fairly certain there was a lot more. Even if every woman out there beat me home (which a lot did to be fair) that could still only drop me back to 1872nd place at worst so something is wrong with the results.
In summary I've had a good day. My little one saw Daddy out running (and even made me a special medal too) No matter what way I look at it I've had an improvement time wise - and compared to 6 months ago I'm light years ahead. Attention now turns to marathon training for October but I will definitley be back for another crack at my sub 40 5 mile. 0 -
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