Couch to 5K Training

As I posted previously, I have registered to compete in the Pittsburgh 1/2 Marathon in May 2011.

This week I have begun my training. First goal. Run a mile. I can walk a mile but I can’t run or jog hardly at all. I found a site that gives a schedule for going from couch potato to 5K runner/jogger in 8 weeks. Basically you run/walk in intervals. It’s actually called Couch-to-5K or C25K.  The intervals go like this to start with.

Week 1 Intervals

• Five minute brisk warm-up walk
• 60 seconds of jobbing
• 90 seconds of walking
• Keeping this up for 20 minutes and then doing a 5 minutes cool down walk.

While that seems pretty simple, it is not. Well, not for me. I jog for a few seconds and can barely breath and end up walking the rest of the 30 minutes.

So, this week I have been upping my walking game. I’m walking for 30 minutes but trying to walk a faster pace. I’m using my Nike+ Sensor. Yesterday I walked 30 minutes at lunch and was able to cover 1.44 miles. That’s definite improvement on what I’ve been doing on the treadmill even.

I found another source that has a suggestion for moving from couch to 5K running. This came from a book by Jeff Galloway. I’ve never heard of him but I’ve seen his articles in several running magazines (yes, I’ve started reading them online and in paper). He apparently is the source and has been running and winning marathons for a long time. His run/walk intervals look a little easier to manage so today I’m going to begin doing his method of run/walk. Here is how his intervals go.

For a 20 minute mile

• Five minute brisk warm-up walk
• Run 30 sec/Walk 60 sec
• Run the last few minutes/miles of the race.

This sounds much more doable. I can certainly run for 30 seconds.  Not sure how many intervals I can do but I'm definitely going to give it a shot.

So, today after work we’ll be giving this a shot and see how things go.