Once I reached 20 minutes I decided to try one of the Hal Higdon 5k training plans, but I've stalled out on it several times. However, I've learned an important lesson in the past few days: I've become mildly obsessed with distance and pace, which causes me to poop out and want to lay down on the trail about halfway through a 1.5 or 2-mile run, and turns me into a zombie for the rest of the day. The plan started out something like this:
Week 1: 1.5 mi / 1.5 mi / 1.5 mi
Week 2: 1.75 mi / 1.5 mi / 1.75 mi
Week 3: 2 mi / 1.5 mi / 1.75 mi
Week 4: 2.25 mi / 1.5 mi / 2.25 mi
Week 5: 2.5 mi / 2 mi / 2.5 mi
...and so on, until you reach 3 miles. I was supposed to do Week 5 this week, but I struggled with last week's long runs (ok, so it's long for me, anyway), and my legs are SO sore today from doing squats and lunges yesterday that Andy suggested that I revisit interval running...and I did! And guess what? It felt pretty good! I did 2 minutes running + 1 minute walking for 10 rounds, which still gave me 20 minutes of running time (only a minute or two more than my 1.5 mile runs have been averaging). Lesson learned.
I think that for now I am going to continue to "revisit" interval training, and focus more on gradually being able to comfortably run for 30 minutes or so instead of frantically trying to improve my pace or distance. Plus, we've just started adding strength training into the mix, and I don't want to injure myself. I'll continue with the 2 + 1 ratio next time, then probably follow a schedule that looks something like the mess posted below, and go up a level every two runs or so. Who knows: I might feel good enough to progress faster after a while. It will take approximately eight million years to get to 30 minutes, but that's okay. :)
2 min run, 1 min walk x 10 (20 minutes running)
3 min run, 1 min walk x 7 (21 minutes running)
4 min run, 1 min walk x 6 (24 minutes running)
5 min run, 1 min walk x 5 (25 minutes running)
6 min run, 1 min walk x 4 + 2 min run (26 minutes
running)
7 min run, 1 min walk x 4 (28 minutes running)
8 min run, 1 min walk x 3 + 6 min run (30
minutes of running from this point)
9 min run, 1 min walk x 3 + 3 min run
10 min run, 1 min walk x 3
11 min run, 1 min walk x 2 + 8 min run
12 min run, 1 min walk x 2 + 6 min run
13 min run, 1 min walk x 2 + 4 min run
14 min run, 1 min walk x 2 + 2 min run
15 min run, 1 min walk x 2
16 min run, 1 min walk + 14 min run
17 min run, 1 min walk + 13 min run
18 min run, 1 min walk + 12 min run
19 min run, 1 min walk + 11 min run
20 min run, 1 min walk + 10 min run
21 min run, 1 min walk + 9 min run
22 min run, 1 min walk + 8 min run
23 min run, 1 min walk + 7 min run
24 min run, 1 min walk + 6 min run
25 min run, 1 min walk + 5 min run
26 min run, 1 min walk + 4 min run
27 min run, 1 min walk + 3 min run
28 min run, 1 min walk + 2 min run
29 min run, 1 min walk + 1 min run
30
min run!So, that's the plan. Any suggestions are welcome!
