Preparing for a 10k When You're so Not a Runner

I recently met a whole new group of friends - as will happen when you make a big move - and that new group of friends has a whole new set of activities for me to get involved in.  Woot!  I dig joining a cause - cooking for fundraisers, volunteering at different shindigs, buying crap I don't really need at those product parties, etc. - but the first time I was asked to join their running club, I balked.  I wanted to join, but I was scared, so I voiced some noncommittal interest and left it at that.  My track record for joining in on sporty things is not great.  I usually lose interest and give up or just generally let my team down at the next to last minute because organized, team sports are just not my thing.  I always like my teammates A LOT - probably all the endorphins from working out together makes us bond even faster than usual - but I am a solo creature.  Big time.  I would be an excellent hermit.

A couple of months after they asked me to join, I traveled a few towns over to support our running club at their first half marathon and (after my car broke down, and I was rescued, and we finally made it back to the starting point of the race) remembered how awesome the atmosphere is at a race.  I've only run three 5k's in my life, but all three times made me feel like a superstar because that is how they treat you at the finish line.  They give you free food!  They pass out coupons!  They have massage tents!  Random businesses in the vicinity cook pancakes or whatever!  There are sales on running gear!  There are food trucks!  Beer!  All that, and the music is usually great and inspiring, which really ties the whole thing together.  I was hooked.  I joined the dang running club.

Most of the newbies were signing up for the Veterans Day 5k, but I know myself and decided to sign up for the 10k because I knew I would actually try to train for the longer distance - whereas, for the 5k I would probably just wing it and hope to finish.  I downloaded an app and started training.  When Zach got home, he joined me in training two to three times per week.  (Did I mention I signed him up for the race, too?  I signed him up for the race, too.  Ha!)  Everything started out great, and soon we were running a full 3 miles without stopping - we were halfway there!  

Then the app started breaking our running times down into segments with breaks in between (Run for 10 minutes, Walk for 1 minute, Repeat 4 times), and we hit a HUGE wall in our training.  I got frustrated.    I started to think something was wrong with my legs - people interested in medicine self-diagnose constantly - and I was worried that I was going to embarrass myself at the 10k because with this new interval training I couldn't even make it a full two miles.  What the heck was going on???  Well, it turns out a bunch of sciency stuff with lactic acid and hydrogen ions was going on, but basically, my muscles needed to keep moving until they were ready to quit because once they quit, they were done.  This app was not working for me anymore.  I was ready to take control of my own fitness routine.

I thanked the app for getting us to three miles and deleted it from my phone.  I read up on how expert runners suggest you train and learned that you should never try to increase your running distance by more than about 10% per week - good to know!  We didn't really know what our starting running distance should be since our training was interrupted, but we set up a tentative training plan that we were happy with and got started.  My husband and I began increasing our distance a little at a time with no "rests" in between miles and started to see real progress.  We started with 3 miles one week (too easy), then increased to 3.5 miles, then 4 miles the next week, then 4.5 miles the next, until now, the week before the race, we are able to run almost 5 miles at a pace of around 10:30 minutes per mile.

I'm feeling pleasantly surprised at my progress and am super excited about the race!  Am I prepared?  I think I am.  I'm as prepared as I can be, at least.  My husband is a born athlete, so of course, he's prepared.  Am I nervous?  Uh, yeah.  I don't want to embarrass myself!  And the few weeks there in the middle where we hit a rough patch in our training are still really bothering me, but I think we'll do okay, and I am about 90% sure we'll finish the race together in under 70 minutes, which would be awesome.  I'm hoping that since we found our training rhythm, I can just focus on not getting injured for the next week and hope that the supportive atmosphere of the race inspires me to keep running for the full 6.2 miles.  We'll see how it goes!  Wish us luck!