Summer of Strength + 5K
Week 1
Hello there! I'm back with a new training plan
. My next registered race isn't until January so this is mostly filler until it's time to start HM training, but it's filler with a purpose.
For the last few years, I've been having a lot more niggles. This is likely a side effect of being closer to 40 than 30 but that doesn't mean all hope is lost (I hope
). To try to find some of that hope, I'll be spending the next 2.5 months focused on strength training with only a side of running. In the past, I've tried to incorporate strength training, and some efforts were more successful than others, but it never really stuck. It was always the first thing to go when my schedule got jammed.
To accomplish this goal, I'm following JM 90 Day Shred DVDs. Let's face it, I have no idea what I'm doing so might as well follow a program someone else created. I'm sure there are better options, but I already own these DVDs and I can do this in the comfort & privacy of my own home. Plus, the workouts are only 30 min so they should be easy to fit into my schedule.
I'm not completely ditching running though. Instead, I'm reducing my mileage and following a Coach Greg 5K plan on Garmin. This is different than the completely AI programs that Garmin has available now. I followed these when I returned to running a few years ago. They were easy to follow and it was a good fit for my return. Hopefully that is still the case. Since this is just "filler", I didn't want to put a lot of time or effort into finding or creating a plan.
When setting up the plan, it asked for a goal time and I entered 22:45
. I ran 23:01 last year so this isn't that far off, but it still seems ambitious. Especially since I don't even have a real race on the calendar
. Speaking of my race calendar, hopefully I'll find something local that makes sense for evaluating how this plan went.
In the meantime, I set my race date as Sept 12 which is the date I'll be at
Lookout Cay as part of a HOTHS cruise. Disney hasn't hosted a 5K at the new private port, but they've been selling merch for a few months so I'm hopeful. Either way, I could always run on deck if I needed, but hopefully it doesn't come to that.
Btw, I'm sewing my own Halloween costume and I finished up the bottoms this weekend. Very pleased with how they turned out
Anyway, back to training
. I started the 5K plan with a benchmark run on my birthday. It was hot & humid but I guess that's summer running. The benchmark includes a 2 min warm up & cool down with 5 minutes of steady running in between. I wish that it told me what steady should feel like, but I just went with what felt right and managed to cover .65 miles for a 7:45 pace. Last time I did a benchmark was 4 years ago. Back then, my pace was 7:56 & .63 miles so at least I'm not getting worse
.
Wednesday was goal pace repeats and these were brutal. I'm not sure I ever hit the goal. It was so hot and humid. I definitely started questioning all my life choices. However, I survived. This was also my first day of strength training and that went reasonably well. It seemed easier than I remembered, so I guess I'm not totally out of shape.
Thursday AM was my second strength training and this one also seemed easier. It was still chalenging and I was definitely sore for a few days after. But, I could actually do the workout and I wasn't falling all over the place.
Friday was supposed to be another run but it was a holiday and I really wanted a rest day so I pushed the run to Saturday. I went for an easy run Sat morning and snuck in my third strength training session of the week before dinner.
Finally, Sunday was my "long" run of 50 minutes. I find it amusing that my long run was so short, but it's definitely the correct starting point. There's actually optional additional easy miles in a lot of the workouts and I plan to add these on eventually, but right now I'm just getting back into the swing of things. I finished the week with my fourth strength training session just before dinner.
Overall, a very good week back. I covered 13.8 miles, already beating my June mileage
, and managed 2:15 of strength which is also more than my June training time (and more than every month since October).
Happy running y'all!
