Monday, March 12, 2012

0 to 5 K in 13 days

No, the title is not an answer to "How much time does a snail take to travel 5 km?"
I have lapsed into what is politely referred to as sedentary lifestyle. But as the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. I am just going to say it. "I am a couch potato." As part of a new year resolution, I went to the gym on 1st January. I began, full of hope and enthusiasm. But when I started panting at my erstwhile warm-up speed of 4 mph, no amount of peppy or even angry music could make me continue past the 1 mile mark. I crawled to the couch in shame. And stayed there. In an effort to motivate myself, I registered for a 5 km run 3 months down the line. Here we are 2 1/2 months later. With me still on the couch. Except today I've decided will be different. Now I'm tying up my laces and determined not to waste that registration money. The t-shirt just isn't enough to justify the expense. I want my experience.
I have finished a couple of 5 km races before. The 1st time I finished in 39 mins and the 2nd time in 31 mins. If I were to plot a graph of these past times and the next one, i know its going to be two hill peaks with a valley in between (and maybe I could draw the sun rising tween the 2) but, oh well.
I am going to document my progress every day. To discipline myself (and no doubt embarrass myself in the process). But in a couple of months, I hope to look back at the data and sing Fatboy Slim's (pun not intended) song "we've come a long way, baby"

I know 13 days is an unlucky number but I will be unluckier still if i wait for another day. So today it is.
I will update this post with the time taken and distance walked. Today, I start on the treadmill as its a little easier on the knees as well as to monitor speed.
But by the end of this week, I hope to graduate to the Outside with fresh air and sunshine keeping me company. Along with the right mix of peppy/angry music to keep me moving, of course.

UPDATE:-

Completed 2 miles in less than 40 minutes. The vague time is because I took too long to re-tie my shoe and the treadmill reset itself so I lost all timing information.
Did a mixture of walking (mostly at 4 mph) and slow jogging (at 4.6 mph) Its not much compared to my modest glory days. But it is a start.
Lesson learnt:
1) Track time by watch too.
2) Radio is an unpredictable gym companion. There can be slow, depressing songs. (The sublime "Someone Like you" by Adele invokes many, many emotions but a desire to jog faster is not one of them) There are the loooong commercial breaks and, worse, the RJs talk a LOT. I need to get a playlist going or Pandora.
Any recommendations for songs?

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