Run, Run as Fast as You Can

Kevin asked me to run a 10k with him and a friend on Memorial Day. Those of you who know me, know what a ridiculous request that is, so I’ll pause for a moment to let you compose yourselves again.






So, yeah. The thing is, I want to do it. I want to be a runner. I’ve chronicled my feeble attempts to do the Couch to 5K program here a couple of times. Clearly, I’m not exactly athletic. As I like to say, I’m built for comfort, not speed. Couple that with the fact that I spent almost two months living at sea level (and we live where the air is thin, thin, thin), JRA in both my knees, and a mere 18 weeks to go from couch spud to running stud (studette?) and this could be quite the challenge.

Of course, I do like a challenge. And I’ll be the first to admit that the easiest way to get me to do something is to suggest that I can’t do it. There’s also something to be said for having a concrete goal and deadline.

So, I think I’m training for a 10k.

I found this program that suggests you can go from not running to 10k in just 10 weeks. I’m sort of combining it with the couch to 5k program. For the first 7 weeks I’m doing couch to 5k (with Weeks 1-4 compressed into 2 weeks since my stamina is built up enough to handle it). At Week 7 or so I should be able to run a 5k. I’m taking a rest week and then I’m following the last few weeks of the 10 week program. That should mean I can run 10k by Week 11 or so and with another rest week before the race, I should have 6 more weeks to improve speed, stamina, etc. It sounds so easy....