Tuesday, March 11, 2008

How to Accidentally Run a 5K

It was my second day back at Fitness World West. I warmed up with 10 minutes on the bike, did some abs, pull-ups, weights and inner/outer thighs. Time for the treadmill, I figure I will hit it for 20 minutes to complete my 30 minutes of cardio and head back to the weights.

I get on the brand spanking new treadmill at the far end. I used it yesterday and I like it - it feel a lot like running on the ground AND there's plenty of room to swing your arms. I tend to really pump when I am running and was always hitting myself on rails, now I am cool. (Of course, it also has an LCD TV like every other piece of cardio equipment at FWW, so if you want to catch up on CNN or SoapNet, you are set.)

Anyway, I notice it has many fancy setting including one marked 5K. I think, 'interesting, I am training for a 5K'. I decide to push the button to see what paces it puts me through and figure I will bow out at my planned 20 minutes.

-A two minute warm-up and it pushes me up to 6 miles-an-hour. O.k., I can do this, I have been working my way up to this speed all winter during what little time I spent running.
-Five minutes go by, not bad, I'm pretty good at this speed.
-Another 5 and it's time for a one minute walk to regulate my breathing.
-Back up and going and 6 more go by. I realize if I stop at 20 I will only have run for 17 minutes, so I have to go to 23. All right, 23 it is.
-I hit the 20 and have to slow down for a minute. Whoops, just added another minute I need to run. On to 24.
-24 ticks onto the timer, well, I might as well make it even at 25.
-25, hey, I've made it well over two miles already. A 5K is only 3.1, what the hell, let's push through.

So, I did. Two more 45 second bouts of walking and I finish the run in 34:42. That is a 1 minute, 37 second improvement over my race time in October. I have just proven two things - I can still run 3.1 miles and I can do it in less time.

The thing yet to be proven? Can I do it on the rolling terrain South of Grand? That remains to be seen.

Yours in fitness, Kate

3 comments:

  1. You and me both, I think I can run it, but hills, man, I hate them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been looking at the Fitness World West website and I can't find any pricing info on there. Do you know where it is by any chance? I'm just looking to see what a single membership costs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Annette- I am way nervous about the hills. I am going to try to get a preview of the route and run it about two weeks out. Let me know if you are interested in joining me.

    Webgal - Yea, they don't list prices on the website. They like to get you in the building to talk to you about price.

    ReplyDelete