Training Week 1

I've talked some friends into joining me in my quest for survival in the zombie evasion/obstacle course/5k : Runforyourlives.  That is, they've expressed solid interest. It sounds like they're joining in, which is fantastic. 

My plan is to be in better shape by then (ingenious, right?).  Then, those in worse shape will be the slow stragglers that are easy zombie pickings, and the athletic, marathon-running friends of mine will be in front, and they will be picked off in the front in zombie ambushes.  I will be snug in the center of the pack, and will finish the 5k as a survivor.  Easy-peasy.

   

So how do I shape up at the end of my first week of training?   

Below is a truthful account of my measurable physical activity. 

 

It is totally normal that I'm using a pivot table made from a purchasing spreadsheet



As you can see, I am on track to fail to adhere to the basic steps laid out in the Couch-to-5K Training Plan. The plan has a schedule which recommends you begin the first week with 3 jog/walk sessions of 20 continuous minutes.  I am close though.  I do have two cardio sets, but one was abbreviated at 10 minutes (it was raining).  If I stay on target this evening on the bike (I plan to do 45 minutes) and then jog Friday morning, I will have completed Week One of the schedule, on schedule.  

Do-able. 

I had a busy week and dance and an old friend in town from Frisco, so the evenings were kinda booked. So for training, mornings were it.  I got up on time this week for the purpose of jogging but the overcast weather made the mornings so dark.  I felt uncomfortable jogging alone.  Instead I lay in bed Monday and Tuesday, awake and knowing I could be running, not wanting to be running by myself, and not feeling right about the whole situation.  With the hours of daylight becoming fewer as autumn stretches on, I'm going to have less opportunity to train in the sun.   

Jogging in the dark, alone?  Not me.  Do you know how many true crime stories begin that way?  The victim is a woman either jogged the same seemingly-safe route as she always had (hence unknowingly establishing a traceable pattern for her killer/rapist/kidnapper), or the woman had decided to try a new jogging route (hence putting herself in a heretofore unkown area which turned out to be the last mistake she ever made). 

If you google "woman jogger killed" there are 4.23 million results. 

(There was a spate of killing perpetrated by falling treebranches. 

Shameful.  Need to do something about them trees.  Think of the children.  The joggers. 

Other culprits include drunk people, bicycles, trucks, and alligators.)

(You know what that means.  If I jog alone at night I could be killed by an alligator.)

The lesson appears to be that if you are a lone woman jogger you will be killed (note: that was hyperbole).  So it's best not to jog at all.  Let's get back in our jam-jams and eat some haagen dasz. (no. can't.)

So I timidly approached my husband and asked for his help.  I told him the truth, that I am a giant scaredy-cat (perhaps I did not use those words) and would he run with me from now on.  My dignity took a solid hit there, but there you have it.  I have a jogging buddy/bodyguard, and D has no reason to not do the 5k with me.  Win-win.