The New Fit Me! – Running 5km

Posted on October 27, 2021 by KJ Eastwick

Day 10

I had every intention of running on the treadmill this morning. The complex I live in comes with a gym. It’s a little better than basic, but it works for me. One reason I wanted to run on the treadmill is because then I could vary the incline of my running. Louisiana is flat. I have said it before and I will say it again, but the small hills of the other day are rare, especially where I live. Thus, treadmill running allows for greater terrain variation (just as long as you don’t want to practice running downhill 😊).

Unfortunately, the weather got in the road. It was a beautiful morning when I stepped outside for my run. Instead of my feet heading to the gym, they headed the other way. This actually worked out in my favour as, after a warm-up, I discovered myself jogging despite my brain (it was arguing strongly for just a walk today seeing as I wasn’t going to the gym!). And then my body kept on jogging, long after what I would normally do as a long run. I actually stopped my tracker after I had done 4 kilometers of walking and jogging and retraced my steps to measure my distance. Wow! 900 meters. I have never jogged this far as an adult and probably not as a kid either.

To say I was happy would be an understatement. Finding out the distance for my longest run ever came just after my tracker informed me I had a split time of 11 minutes even for my previous kilometer, This translates to an average speed of 5.5km/hr for 1km. But when you put that in perspective that I actually ran half of it and slowly walked the rest, I must have been flying (relative to my normal pace 😊).

Today was a very successful exercise session. Overall, I am completing 5.3km each official run. This includes warm ups and warm downs. I have managed to run 900 meters, do something faster than what I started out at for 500 meters (approximate distance only). I think I might actually make this 5km in 100 days goal. Not sure what I will do if I succeed prior to 100 days. Perhaps I will continue and try out running in cold weather. Never done that before, Brisbane, Queensland, where I used to roam from does not get close to freezing.