Track-right

This is the running track where I train for the 5K run. I’m starting the 6th week of the 13-week walk/run program soon. In my last session, I ran 3 minutes, walk 1 minute, and repeated that 9 times. I’m amazed that I’ve come so far. I can still remember I couldn’t complete my first session. Nowadays, I don’t usually run with the feeling that I have to give up soon, I am now pretty confident that I can complete the session but knowing that it’ll still be tiring. My legs and feet still hurt but they don’t feel like they are going to break. My lungs are OK. It’s funny, one of the advice in the book is to run slow enough that I can carry on a 1 or 2 sentences conversation, there’s no way I can run, no matter how slow, and talk at the same time now.

In the coming session, I’ll have to run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute, and repeat that 8 times.

I found out about this 13-Week Walk-Run Program and after reading the reviews, I thought perhaps I could do this too. So I ordered a used copy. While waiting for the book to arrive, I thought I could start my training by following what some of reviewers said was the first week’s training schedule: Run 30 seconds, walk 4:30 minutes, and repeat 7 times. That seems doable. And during my first two “training” sessions, that’s what I did. And guess what? I felt great, it wasn’t too demanding and at the end of the seventh repetitions, I was still in one piece and hardly felt tired. “Sup sup sui,” I thought.
And then the book arrived…

I searched the book for the second week’s schedule since no reviewers wrote anything about the second week. And to my utmost surprise, I couldn’t find the “run 30secs and walk 4:30 minutes” anywhere in the book. Instead in the book, the first day’s schedule was run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes, and repeat 12 times. And straight away I knew it was going to be a struggle and I was right. My first try at Day 1, after the 6th repetition, my legs were aching and my lungs felt like it was going to burst. I couldn’t get to the 12 repetition. I managed 9 and then walked all the way home. I was apprehensive about trying out Day 1 again but I want to run the 5K race so I gave it another try. And I succeeded on my second try, I managed the 12 repetitions…YAY!!

And that’s only Day 1 of the 13 week program…

Last weekend, I went out for run/walks on the Lehigh’s cross-country trail. I even ran a non-stop complete lap (400m) on the rubberized running track. That’s the longest distance that I’ve ran in the past 13 years maybe. Right now I’m planning to take part in the Komen NYC Race for the Cure on September 10th. It’s a 5K run and that means I need to run at least 12 laps So I have loooooooooooots (each o symbolizing one lap..hehehe) of training ahead of me.

And today is April 18…

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Saucon Bridge
It was a nice “warm” 11C Saturday. I took the opportunity to go for a nice walk along Lehigh’s cross-country trail near the apartment. Go to my flickr page to see some of the nicer pictures that I took.