Runners on your marks

Never one to sit around and contemplate things too much, I decided if I’m serious about training, I’d better get started. Unfortunately, the Running Room’s 5K clinic (the follow-up to the Learn to Run I took in the winter) is already several weeks into its curriculum, so I can’t join.

Instead, I decided to sign up for the Running Room’s online 5K clinic. I’ve selected a goal race for the end of August (which I’ll register for soon) and now I have to start working toward that. My online clinic gives me a training schedule to get through the next 11 weeks, and it’s really pretty easy. Technically, the schedule doesn’t start until next week, but I’m just going to do the first week twice.

I’ve already had to modify it a bit to fit my schedule. I’m supposed to run Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but those days don’t work that well for me. I’ve moved everything back a day to Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I didn’t bother going to the gym this morning, as I really want to make it a point of running outside rather than on a treadmill. If you’ve ever done both, you know there’s a huge difference. Outside is much, much harder. There are variances in temperature, wind speed, hills, etc., that make it far more difficult. I’m going to do my run tonight, when Mike is home and the kids are in bed.

The good thing about this new schedule is that I don’t have to give up any of my classes at the gym. For now, I can still do spinning on Wednesday and Friday mornings, as well as my Tuesday morning muscle class. That will change this summer, when Andrew’s nursery school is over, but for the remaining two weeks, I can at least keep up with it.

For this week and next, I’m to run for 25 minutes, regardless of distance. The pattern, according to my Running Room schedule, is walk for 1 minute, run for 5, walk for 1, etc. That’s what’s known as “Five and ones” in runner-speak. For me, this is the easy part, as I’m already in half-decent shape. I think it’s later, when I get into longer runs, that I will start to really challenge myself.

Which makes today the true starting point of this little “adventure.” Luckily, I’m not really starting from scratch. The Running Room website has my stats from the last race I ran, in March, and according to those stats, I actually ranked 8th out of 63 women in my age category (30-34) who ran that race. Not too bad!

So where am I starting from? I guess I’d better figure that out. The Running Room website has a self-test to help me assess my level of fitness, and since I already do quite a bit of cardio, I seem to be ready to run at least 4-5K.

Of course, this week is already busy… I’m finishing off yet another last minute assignment for the U.S. publication I work for, and I’m having two parties here this week: the preschool executive barbecue on Thursday and the in-laws on Saturday. Plus, Mike has ball hockey on Tuesday and Wednesday night is the Father’s Day dinner at the pre-school AND the Junior Kindergarten meeting at Andrew’s new school. On Friday, a friend and her sons are coming over for a playdate, and Andrew’s soccer pictures are Friday evening. It’s going to be a challenge to fit it all in, but here’s the workout schedule so far:

Monday: Run 25 minutes in evening
Tuesday: 45-minute muscle class at the gym (thank heavens for a gym with a daycare!)
Wednesday: 50-minute spinning class
Thursday: Run 25 minutes in morning, after I drop the kids off at daycare (they currently go one day a week, until the end of June)
Friday: 50-minute spinning class
Saturday: Run 25 minutes in the morning, before Andrew’s soccer
Sunday: Rest. (And it’s Father’s Day!)

There’s also a big nutrition aspect of this, but I’ll probably save that for a later date. For now, it’s off to work I go while the kids are napping. This copy isn’t going to edit itself!

Happy trails…