I started running after a successful knee operation to fix my knee injury and since the operation, it's never felt better. I decided that this is as good a time as any to start running, to improve fitness, lose weight and eventually complete a marathon.
So armed with the 100% Army Fit training app and the RunKeeper GPS tracking and logging app for I went out for a short run doing interval based training. I mapped out a short circuit which takes me on a few back roads by my house which works out to about 2.6 miles. My first time out I completed the circuit in 35 minutes, not bad considering I haven't run in nearly 20 years.
The next day it felt like every muscle in my body was complaining, but it felt good in a weird way. After a few days recovery I went out again and it hurt a little less. I got into a pattern of running on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings, the same circuit, each time getting faster and faster until I got bored and turned left instead of straight on. This new route would take me way out past my previous circuits so I just carried on with the intervals. 40 seconds running, 1.40 walking, over and over. It wasn't long until the voice cues were telling me I'd passed 3 miles and I'd just got into town, ready to head back home. Coming back through a different road I carried on, now feeling some pain and fatigue but only a few miles till I was back home. At the 5-mile voice cue, I was nearly home, ready to slow down and thinking about cooling down and taking in my protein shake when a curious thing happened.
I'm at 5 miles, another mile and a bit and that's a 10k run. So I dug deep and found the motivation and energy to run past my house, running uphill along another road, up to the top. When the voice cue informed me of 7 miles completed, that was it - my first 10k run complete in 1 hour 17 minutes. And surprisingly, I didn't feel all that bad.
Completed my first 10k run
I've since upped my game to run 10k every weekend, with a 5k midweek. When I can get my 10k time to less than an hour I'll look to make it more challenging.
