Training Day 26 - 5K!

Today had kind of a rocky start but a rockstar finish.  As I have mentioned, wifey is on a business trip for the majority of this week so I am flying solo day & night and need to squeeze in runs wherever I can.  Since I was hoping not to have to try to run after 9pm, when the boy took a nap after lunch I jumped on the chance to knock a run out.

I thought I felt fine.  Sleep hasn't been the easiest, especially when you spend the majority of a night in a twin bed with a child pinning you down on either side, but I didn't feel exhausted.  I fueled well the past few days and I was also well hydrated.  However, nearing 10:00 in I started cramping in my right side.  I slowed down to a slow jog and hoped that it would subside.  I am happy that I never stopped running, but disappointed that I had to go so slow and for quite a bit of time.  I picked it back up again, but the cramp wouldn't go away.  I resigned myself to dealing with the cramp for as long as possible and staying at a slow pace.  I figured I wouldn't get very far but I would finish out my 30:00.  As I approached 20:00, the cramp eased a little bit and I was able to pick up some more speed, but my distance was a joke.  20:00 in and I was barely over 1.6 miles!

I decided then and there that I was tired of this BS!  I grabbed my towel and threw it over the clock on the treadmill so I could not see the time, but I left the mileage visible.  I should mention here that since wifey was gone, the iPad was gone as well so I had to keep track of my time myself, which I already proved I am horrible at when my 5:00 warm-up walked turned into an 8:00 warm-up walk because there was no voice to tell me to run.  Yes, I have the attention span of a goldfish.  Especially when the girl is next to me watching Beauty & The Beast.  Anyway...up until this point, the furthest I have run was 2.71 miles.  I have one more training day left on this program.  I will not stop this program until I have completed a 5K!  I think the idea is that I'm supposed to be running faster, but since this doesn't seem to be happening for me, I am throwing caution to the wind and ignoring the time and completing the friggin' 3.1 miles already!!  So I brought my speed back up to a 5.5 and hunkered down.  "I am going to DO this!" 

I don't know at what point, but I sped up to a 5.7 for a bit and was ready to finish this!  At 3.04 miles I removed the towel and was actually pretty happy with my time!  I sped up to a 6.5 just to finish with that extra oomph, and I hit 3.1 miles just shy of 35:00!  34:58 to be exact!

I did it.  I ran a 5K.  I ran a 5K.  I RAN a 5K.  I RAN A 5K!!!  In my basement on a treadmill.  But I did it nonetheless.  I will have a similar game plan the next time I run as well, which will probably not be until Thursday, though if I am able to fit it in tomorrow I will give it a shot!  One more run to go until my program is complete, though I think I will continue to blog about my running experiences on here.  Especially the day of the race since I can't really say I've met my goal until I actually run a 5K race outside with other people present!  lol.