Yesterday I was surprise attacked by my running plan… Seriously, it happened and I was not happy… But let me give you some background.
Because I am a sucker for punishment, this year on my list I have included at spot no. 9 complete a half marathon… Now one of the reasons I have popped it on the list is because I have done it before and I want to do it better this time… Last time I was slow… And I walked a lot… And so now when I say to people oh yeah I’ve done a half marathon, I feel like a bit of a fraud, it’s true I entered, started and finished the event, but not they way people imagine when you tell them… So this time around even though it will still be slow I want to give it a better crack, I want to actually run the majority of the event, not just the first bit and then the odd minute here and there.
So this time, because I am a list and rules kinda girl I have come up with a plan… And until last Thursday it was working really well… I decided that I should start with the basics… So I have started with a couch to 10km program on my trusty iPhone… Once I have done that, the same company has a 10km to half marathon for me to continue on with… so I have my plan of attack sorted… Anyway, I am now up to week 5… So far so good… Until Thursday… To date the program has had 3runs a week, and each week the intensity got harder… Bit by bit teaching me how to run… the runs within the week were all the same, so by the end you felt good and ready for the next challenge.
At the beginning of week 5 I wasn’t expecting any different, run 1 asked me to run for 5mins, walk for 3mins and repeat a couple of times… Now even though it doesn’t sound that hard… To be honest I was nervous about this week… For me, 5mins was a long time… Multiple lots of 5mins was a daunting task… After run 1 I was feeling pretty flat, but in my mind that was ok because I thought I had two more runs to master it before I had to step it up… Turns out I didn’t.
On Thursday I started my run, did my warm up and then braced myself for my first lot of 5mins… But when I got to it… This is what I saw…
I was not happy… 5mins was about to be tough enough.. But 8… Up the hill, without any warning… Needless to say I whinged the whole way… But I did do it. I just didn’t appreciate the nasty surprise during the run… I will now be looking much closer at all the runs in the week just to get my head ready… My running plan will not get away with a second surprise attack!
The Most Curious George 