5km barrier broken!

[Bluerockdragon]

I wasn't aiming to run 5km this morning, I was planning to do my usual 30 minutes. Going further was my plan for next week. However, I got to 3 minutes to go (which was a surprise) and realised I had less than 700m to go before hitting the magic 5km mark. I picked up the pace and decided to go for it. The last bit of my route was down a small hill and round the duck pond so not challenging. I reached the pond with 400m to go and was hoping that the duck pond was about 400m in circumference, ideally a little bit more so I wouldn't need to finish on the hill.

The duck pond is less than 400m so I ran up the hill - no point in stopping half way up and it really isn't a big hill (though it was huge in the first few weeks of c25k). At the top I looked at my watch - 5.01 km Barrier broken.

So, my next challenge is to figure out how to get my TomTom watch to measure km and not time, a nice challenge to have.

[neuropsycsci Graduate]

Congrats!! Sounds like you did it in a great time too

[Bluerockdragon Graduate in reply to neuropsycsci]

Did it in 31:03, which I am really pleased with. Amazing to think I struggled with week 1 run 1 just 3 months ago.

[neuropsycsci Graduate in reply to Bluerockdragon]

It's a great feeling to surprise yourself isn't it!

[Millsie-J Graduate]

Fantastic run, well done a real achievement 🏃🏻👟😉

[Hidden]

Well done it's great when you achieve your target. Bet you can't stop smiling ! I did when I did my 30 minutes and then my +5K. Now regularly running nearly to 6K.

When done that everyone will notice me by my big Cheesy grin that will stick with me all day !

Also you find that running can suddenly come on in leaps and bounds. similar to you I regularly do a roughly 7.5 K lap of a local lake and planned to build up by increasing by quarters and half laps.

Then one day I felt good without any planning and said to myself "why waste time stopping at half a lap and walk half" I felt good and did the whole lap taking me to nearly 6K which became my new benchmark for future runs.

Metric and Imperial measures always a quandary. I mostly work things out in "old money" as they say. Only since doing C25K have started to get into KM mode.

Let us know how your next challenge goes.

[Bluerockdragon Graduate in reply to Hidden]

I think increasing speed/distance is a lot about confidence as as well as ability. I hadn't speeded up at the end of a run since probably mid C25k but on Monday I had forgotten I'd set my watch differently, to time my warmup as well as run. Feeling good, I speeded up and then realised I still had the final 5 mins to go when it didn't tell me to stop running. I just kept the same pace for the final 5 mins.

That confidence definitely helped me go longer and faster today.

Good luck with reaching 6km, I have no aspirations in that direction. 5km is good for me, though I will work on speed.