COMPLETE!!! Finished on October 4th 2020.
In addition to the county-run goal, I’ve also set-up a goal to run a 5k run every other day for at least a year. There have been many goals in the past through my life, but this one has been a mix of easy/hard. Easy in the sense that it is much easier than training for a half marathon; but harder because of the consistency required. It wasn’t uncommon for me to take two days in a row off during training for most years. I have never been this consistent with my running in the past. So happy that I chose this goal for a year.
This all started on October 4th, 2019. I ran a 5k several times in September, but not every run. I ran the Byte Productions 5k race in late September. I was thinking back to training for a half and realized that a 5k or 10k run would be just my normal training. Also, I used to be able to accomplish a 5k in 30 minutes easily. Even after running with this schedule for 9 months, I’m nowhere near being able to run a 30 minute 5k. Now, I can complete this run in about 36 minutes and I can do a 10-minute mile, but not two in a row at this point.
I’ve been introducing a hard run at least once a week by adding either hills or distance. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m leaning towards a goal of 10k and two 5k’s every week for next year. This will allow me to have two rest day’s in a row once a week. It is encouraging to make a doable goal that is harder in distance but much easier in rest.
In the winter I was running for 40 minutes every other day and that was about 3.5 miles. Will probably go back to that when the snow flies.
8-28-20: on my run today I was thinking again how easy this goal has become and I started thinking back to a time when it was the most challenging. I have been doing this challenge for 329 days so far. And I’ve had a few back-to-back runs so I’m probably at 167 5k runs in the past year. That is at least 520 miles! (I say “at least” because many days I extended my runs to 3.5 up to 4 miles). But the most difficult run by far was when I injured my back from pull-ups back in December… There were two runs on the treadmill both were very uncomfortable.
I recovered from that injury with some yoga stretches and was back to running uninjured since. The next worse run was one when a very large stick got stuck in my laces on a run in the Reffitt Nature Preserve. That was painful when I took a tumble finished the 5k but then walked the extra mile home. Rough. Lately, I’ve been introducing more miles, speed, and/or hills and the following runs have been rough. Also, rough because it’s been super hot the last few weeks.
Most runs are great, no too hard, and quickly complete. Only a little over a month left to achieve this goal!
What now that this is complete?
This was a hard goal to finish… Some days I just didn’t want to run, but so glad I had it in my mind to complete this. But what I’m thinking about doing this year is slightly less frequently but more miles once a week. Thinking about trying to do 2 5ks per week and then a long run (slowly getting up to a 10k). I have run 4 miles several times in the last few months, but it’s been years since I’ve done over 6 miles. I have run 4 half marathons in the past, but I’m thinking about trying to eventually do a full. Maybe in 3 or 4 years, once this goal of running every county is complete.
