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Last month I ran my first 5K and I was barely in shape since I finished it in 32:24. Today I ran my second 5K and I finished in 21:07! I won second place amongst men in my age group!
Thank you for the congrats on my race. I’m still on cloud nine today, even though my glutes, thighs and hamstrings are sore. My training plans? There really isn’t anything special in them. I lifted weights of course. I also ran three times a week with a day of rest in between. When I first started off I followed the Podcasts for Running workout plan. So for 9 weeks I slowly built up to being able to run for 30 minutes. Most of these runs were at no more than 5 mph on the treadmill. After the nine weeks I set a goal of running three miles, three times a week on the treadmill. I pushed up past the 5 mph speed as much as possible, which is as often as I felt comfortable and able to maintain my speed without being forced to go back into a walking pace. I worked at running 5.5 mph at least and I pushed for speeds of 6, 7 and even 8 mph at various times. The 7 and 8 I did for just a few minutes to see how I would feel and to see if I could do it.
Then there are the mental aspects of training. These are very important, especially on race day. You must train your mind to not give up when you’re feeling tired. How do you do this? By visualizing the race and winning it often. I do this when I train at least, which is three days a week. Also I walk to work and listen to my MP3 player on the way, which is loaded with my workout music. My player is set to play songs at random. So when a certain song hits from my workout list, then I start to visualize my performance in the race and winning at the end. I used to do this with just one song, but recently I started using two songs for this purpose. My first song is One Moment in Time by Whitney Houston and the second is I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly.
Then there is what I listen to at home to boost my attitude and change from the fearful, pessimistic guy I used to be. Other than the Motivation to Move programs, including the premium ones, I listen to Joel Osteen’s podcast. You can get the most recent episode of it through itunes. The rest can be found on the internet by doing a Google search for Joel Osteen and podcast.
The morning of the race I prayed for a few people. I also prayed that I would do well and come out without getting hurt. I did this in between listening to my workout music on my walk to the designated place for the race, which was just a 30 minute walk from my home. Eventually I set my player to just play I Believe I Can Fly. I listened to that song three times before I got to the spot. I alternated between letting the lyrics pump me up and picturing my success.
Thanks for sharing the details of your physical and mental training. I just subscribed to Joel Osteens podcast.
I know that the mental aspect of training is important, I haven’t made it a priority. I appreciate your insight and I am going to add mental training to my program.
Thank you Julie. I was thinking about adding this before, but clearly I didn’t do it yet. So here is some info I shared with everyone at another message board I visit. This shows what my race day attitude was on Saturday:
1. I ran every step of the way again, even though I felt like walking at various points. (I want to win the entire race and the only way to do that is to run every step of they way of course.)
2. At the beginning line the guy who was starting the race said that faster runners should be up front and slower ones in the back. I was already at the front and I watched a couple of people move back. I thought about doing it myself, but then I asked myself ‘well, do you WANT to be slow, or do you want to be fast?’ I stayed in the front.
3. At the end, almost at the finish line, I saw a guy getting ready to pass me on the right out of the corner of my eye. I had seen a handful of people pass me up at one point. Upon seeing this guy I said to myself ‘Oh no you don’t, not again! I’m NOT letting anyone else pass me buy!’ I was tired, exhausted and winded at that point. But somehow I found the energy to reach down and put on a burst of speed that brought me across the finish line before him.
Thank you for the feedback Striving Runner. My next challenge is to get my diet back on track so I can lose more weight and reach my goal of weighing 155 pounds. I am also aiming for being able to run 5 miles straight. Next month I will be running the Jingle Bell 5K Run on December 15th. So I have quite a few goals lined up to keep me busy for the next few weeks. So what are your goals right now?
I’ve done one of the Jingle bell runs a few years ago and it was loads of fun. They gave us bells on shoe strings and a nice long sleeve t shirt. I too would like to do better with my eating and lose a few pounds. I read that for every pound you are over your optimun running weight you slow down 2 seconds a mile. Right now I am training for Ironman Florida, November 1st and I haven’t decided what kind of racing to do between now and then. This will be my first IM.
Ironman is a great goal. It is one of my many and is probably the ultimate at this point. But first I need to build up to marathon shape of course. I just took advantage of a deal at amazon’s Black Friday that allowed me to get an 8 GB MP3 player for just $20 more than I paid for a 2 GB one from the same brand last spring. So I know that I’ll have plenty of music to keep me company for when I finally run my first marathon.
