Not Too Fast, But Not Really Slow

I ran in another organized 5k this weekend. I set out with a goal of getting my minutes per mile down, and finishing below 40 minutes. I managed to do both!

I have been in a groove here lately with the help of some friends. I have been running 3 days a week and lifting weights 2 days a week. The other days I just stay active around the house. Quite frankly, I was getting a bit perplexed with my running for awhile. My first 5k I ran in, finished in 40 minutes 58 seconds. I ran one two weeks later and actually got slower, I think like 41 minutes 25 seconds. I was also having terrible times in my training runs! And I can't explain exactly what happened, but last Thursday, out of nowhere, my legs suddenly got froggy, and I had a great training run! I think I averaged 12 minutes and 24 seconds a mile. By Saturday I was feeling pretty good about getting my best 5k time on this pass. I pushed and pushed and by the time I crossed the finish line, I had finished with a time of 38 minutes 25 seconds! That put my miles per minute at 12:15!! Now that is not fast, but it also isn't slow. At my worst, I was running a 14:01 minutes per mile. That is pretty slow, at least in my eyes.

I think that this Saturday's race is a bit representative of my current lifestyle change. It isn't going real fast (I ain't losing tons of mass quickly) but it also isn't going slow ( I can run, I can fit into a few new shirts I had put back to work towards). And frankly, that is where I want to be. I am convinced I just went to fast and worked too hard at weight loss last time, and ultimately that was not a plan for success for me. I think not being Type A personality in this aspect of my life will ultimately lead to success. I think going slow and changing things gradually will be what makes the lifestyle change stick on this go around. It lets me learn new things, it lets my body get used to the changes and not go into freak out mode, and the changes I make are more ingrained in me.

I like where I am right now. And just like in my running, I plan to keep on training to get better, but not overtraining and risking injury(failure). I will get my distance and speeds back up in running by training sensibly and I will make this lifestyle change stick, by making small changes a little at a time, and making them my norm rather than a change.