Shit is getting real!!!

So as you should know if you are a regular reader of this blog, I recently ran my first 5k and I am looking forward to my next one.  I am starting to think about pushing myself to finish with a little better time.  I ran my first one in 36 minutes and 9 seconds, and  during my afternoon runs I am starting to really push myelf to run at a faster pace.  Well today I ran my regular 2.5 mile training run in 23min 20sec, or at about a 9min 20sec per mile pace.

That is fast enough that I am starting to think doing my next 5k in less than 30 minutes might be realistic!

Sept 15th 2015

This is the first digital watch I have owned in years.  As soon as I got done with my first 5k, I got the itch to run faster.  So yesterday I went out and invested in a new digital watch to help me keep track of my times more accurately.

Since I ran the 5k I have been doing a quick run every morning of about 1 mile, followed by a longer run later in the day of about 2.5 miles.  I don’t go that fast in the morning, but in the afternoon I have been getting steadily faster over the past 7 days.  The day after I ran the 5k I ran the 2.5 miles pretty slow, it took me roughly 40 minutes.  Definitely more of a slow jog than a run.  But I ran the distance faster every day, and yesterday I ran it in 24min and 25 seconds.  That is below a 10 min mile pace, and that milestone is what prompted me to go out and buy a new digital watch.

My friends know how tight I am with money, and they will understand how big a deal this was to me to prompt me to go out and buy something like a new watch.

I am now anxiously awaiting my second 5k, and hoping to complete it with a pace of less than 10 minutes per mile!

 

Ran my first ever 5k today.

I feel like i completed the conversion from weightlifter to runner today.  I really do not like to run, but in the interest of health I think that at this point in  my life I need to concentrate on something besides being big and strong.  This Journey started in December of 2013 when I had a stroke that left me in a coma for almost 2 months.  I was very lucky and escaped that experience with very few lasting side effects, but I realized that I needed to lose weight and worry more about my blood pressure than my squat numbers.

When I had the stroke I was about 310lbs.  I lost a lot of weight during the coma, but most of it was muscle because that is what happens when you lay in bed for months at a time.  When I first woke up, walking was quite a challenge.  I started equating again right away, and used a C2 rower a ton.  Once I got strong enough to walk easily I started trying to run a little.  At first it was just 10 oe 20 steps but pretty soon I was jogging half a mile, then a mile,then 2 miles.

This morning I ran my first 5k, the labor day 5k in Matthews, NC.  My time was 36.09  Not a great time, but I will admit I had more fun than I thought I would, and this first one will definitely not by my last.