So I've started today with a renewed enthusiasm. I'm putting Easter behind me and bringing my focus back to the task at hand - increasing my running.

The race at the end of May is a 5k or 10k, and I'm trying to decide whether to stick with the safe option of 5k or to try to push myself to basically double my mileage over the next 4 weeks. To get a good feel for it, I decided to do a 5km run today to see how challenging that was for me. Part of me wants to set the barre high and sign up for 10k. But too much too soon could lead to an injury. I know that I don't have to be able to run the full 10k, that walking some is allowed, but I would love to be able to run the entire race, and I know that I would be able to do that if I ran the 5k.

The 5k was a bit of a challenge - on the machine I can either see my mileage or time, not both at the same time, so seeing the kms creep up slowly was slightly discouraging compared to the ticking by of the minutes and seconds. But not being so focused on the display let my mind wander to other things, mainly how I was feeling throughout the run. With a distance as the goal I didn't feel as rigid in my speed, I went up and down slightly with the music and how I was feeling. I did slow to a walk for a short time, to catch my breath as well as take a drink (my lovely nalgene is crap for drinking out of while moving, unless I want a wet shirt). All in all the 5k went by without any issues, and I definitely got into the groove near the end and was loving it. As I did slow for a bit, I know I have room to progress, so if I do do the 5k it will still be challenging. Just in a different capacity than the 10k.

I'm still not completely settled on just doing 5k, so I'm going to try for longer runs over the next week to see how hard the 10k will be to achieve. Thankfully I the decision isn't rushed, as I can register for the run up to a few days before the event!


5km run
Time - 35:24
Incline - 1.0
Speed - 8.5 to 9.0km/h for most of it

148 Days till the race