Two years ago this week, I made the decision to start running again.
I had been getting my physical activity from cycling, and in fact had just finished my first 100 mile ride at Bike MS in New Bern. On the way home after that weekend, I decided to start a couch to 10K running program. I had been running a couple of days a week for the previous few years, but only as a way to keep some aerobic fitness during the winter when it was too dark to ride after work. For those brief runs, I just ran what I could for around 30 to 45 minutes two or three times a week, then when it was light enough to go back to cycling, the running stopped. I thought maybe it was time to start running a little more consistently, and keep it up year round. In fact, I used to run year round in the past, and only stopped about 20 years ago when my knees started giving me issues.
So, after the Bike MS weekend in 2010, I downloaded the podrunner.com freeway to 10K podcast, used that as my guide, and targeted running a 10K by the spring. I thought it would take that long to build up to a 10K.
Week one of the podcast had a 5 minute warmup, followed by 5 intervals of 4 minutes running and 2 minutes walking, followed by a 3 minute cooldown. My logs show I did three runs that week, and averaged just short of 3 miles each run. Not a bad start. For comparison, this week I've run twice so far, a progressive one hour run of 6.4 miles, and a slow 1.5 hour run of 8 miles.
I continued with the program, and moved my target goal of doing a 10K by the spring, to running one by the first of the year. I wound up running an 8K Thanksgiving weekend, and a 10K the first weekend in December. It felt good, so I decided to sign up for my first half Marathon.
That was 2 years ago, and I'm still running. Haven't gotten back on my bike. The first 12 months after staring to run again I went on 191 runs for a total of 965 miles. The next 12 months I went on 246 runs for a total of 1,332 miles, which is a pace I am continuing.
The goal of finished my first 10K in 20 years now has me targeting my first marathon this fall.
Looking back at the past 2 years, I was able to finish 24 events. 7 5K's, 1 7K, 5 8K's, 3 10K's, and 8 Half Marathons. All in all, a total I'm happy with. I think of all my events, the Half Marathon distance has been my favorite so far. Not sure yet about the longer distance events, that's still up for discussion as the miles pile up. But, if all goes well, longer events will be in my future.
Till then, see you on the road.
