Just ran 10+K for first time! unexpectedly easy

Fishshtick · May 2014

i have only been running since mid-March 2014) and am blown away by gains in distance and speed. It only took me a few weeks to go from 0 to 5k. Today I ran over 10k (actually 11.1 k based in fitbit and ismoothrun) for the first time just to see if I could and it was almost too easy. I finished the 10k in 54 minutes and wasn't hardly breathing heavy. I even bumped my cadence from 80 to 83 in the last bit to 11k just to see if I could. I was doing 5k+ three times per week for just a few weeks and noticing it was getting much easier and faster (from 32 minutes to 26 minutes) lately. I also did one 5 mile run last week on my long run day and so I figured 10K was in striking distance, this easy finish definitely surprised me.

I was going to say that I'm not bragging...but that would be a lie. I feel amazing and am loving becoming a runner. I always wanted to run but thought that was all behind me given my age and weight. I never ran regularly before at any point in my life.

I will say, however, that I don't mean this to undermine the challenge experienced by others. I failed repeatedly to start running at multiple times in my life. Rather, I think I found a strategy that paid off and wanted to pass it on. Simply put, my strategy was a two prong approach ) lose most of my intended weight-loss pounds before starting to run, and 2) get my body used to the mileage before getting it used to running. I started at 220 and took off nearly 50 lbs through diet and walking over the last year. When I say walking...I mean WALKING. I used a fitbit and set out to beat 10000 steps most days of the week. My feet swelled tingled and ached for the first month of those walks, but they got easier and low intensity exercise allowed me to burn some extra calories without the major hunger that comes with intense exercise for me. This allowed me to stick to my myfitnesspal daily calorie goal. It still took more than an hour of walking on an indoor track on most days. But by covering those miles by walking my body became comfortable with distance. By not running while very overweight I also avoided injury. Not saying this strategy is for everyone, but I think it may explain why I am making faster progress than I think is typical for a couch-2-5K scenario for my age (early 40s).

Now I just need to keep my ambitions in check long enough to avoid an injury. I am guessing I should probably hold my weekly long run to around 10k for a month.

Anyone else find success with a similar strategy?

joakool · May 2014

I finished 30DS before I started c25k and I think that gave me a good cardio base to begin with. When I started running, I ran really SLOW but soon ditched the c25k program because it was too easy (and I had never run before in my life). I can still remember how proud I was of myself for running one mile without stopping and now I am signed up for my first marathon. You will be one day to I bet! Congratulations on your success!

Fishshtick · May 2014

Thanks for the vote of confidence for an eventual marathon. I do want to get there. Like your C25K experience, I started running using Zombies 5K and it was way too easy. and I gave it up for training purposes. So I now just listen to the training sessions for the story while I run the full 5K.

Tanya949 · May 2014

I never thought I would be able to run... ever. I was the one who wanted to puke after 30 seconds and would get a good wheeze going, and turn beet red. And that was in grade 9 when I was slim and more in shape. Now I'm almost 41, down to 210 lb from 251 lbs last year. I've always been an avid hiker, long distances, lots of hills. I think that is my base. As well, I work with a trainer and in the past few months, progressed from stopping after doing 10 jumping jacks to doing them/combo of butt kicks, jogging in place etc for 8 minutes straight. I also do top incline on treadmill for 8 min, where my HR reaches 175-180. At that point I thought maybe I could try a C25K. It was more out of curiosity, just to see if I could do it. Well, I am finding it quite easy.

I did week 1 and 2, the last 2 days back to back. Then I did week 3 day 1, then went straight to week 4 day 1. I could have kept running after that 5 minute interval for sure. I am going to do week 4 day 2, if I can continue the second interval, I will. If it's long enough, I will skip to week 5. My breathing is so nice and easy now, which is what I thought would be the hardest part for me. My legs feel great, I have no fatigue. I am also running on trails, up and down moderate hills which is supposed to make it more difficult still, but I don't find them that much of a challenge. (again, the hiking base) I hate the flat pavement. I'm still a bit scared of running more than 5 minutes, but I felt scared for 90 sec and 3 min and 5 min, and my fears were quite unfounded. I think if I had started running at 251 lbs, and with a lesser cardio endurance I may have failed, or at least found it very difficult.

sarafischbach9 · May 2014

Congrats! A 10K is nothing to sneeze at, but it's also not a hard run once you've been doing it for a little while ( like in your case ). I'm running at the 10K and higher. Yesterday I did 7.3 miles and I've been running for about five weeks now. However, the first day I went out running in early April I did the 5K my first time running in 3 years. I used to run a few years ago, but stopped for some reason. I don't know why, because its so much fun. I guess I became overwhelmed with my school and work load.

I will be trying to push 7.5-8 milers soon. I'm done with school for the summer and just have work to worry about, so I have more time to plan my runs.

Also, it's really cool you finished the 10K in under an hour. It takes me a little over an hour to do a 10K, so I'm a little bit slower than you.

It is really amazing to see how far we can push ourselves

Fishshtick · May 2014

I can still remember how proud I was of myself for running one mile without stopping and now I am signed up for my first marathon. You will be one day to I bet! Congratulations on your success!

By the way, I would say good luck on your first marathon, but it sounds like you have more than luck going for you. So I'll just say have fun and congrats on even getting to the point of attempting a marathon!

joakool · May 2014

Thank You! I start training in less than two weeks. Very excited. I really believe you will be there too, one day. Probably sooner than later the rate you are going.

Fishshtick · May 2014

Congrats! A 10K is nothing to sneeze at, but it's also not a hard run once you've been doing it for a little while ( like in your case ). I'm running at the 10K and higher. Yesterday I did 7.3 miles and I've been running for about five weeks now. However, the first day I went out running in early April I did the 5K my first time running in 3 years. I used to run a few years ago, but stopped for some reason. I don't know why, because its so much fun. I guess I became overwhelmed with my school and work load.

I will be trying to push 7.5-8 milers soon. I'm done with school for the summer and just have work to worry about, so I have more time to plan my runs.

Also, it's really cool you finished the 10K in under an hour. It takes me a little over an hour to do a 10K, so I'm a little bit slower than you.

It is really amazing to see how far we can push ourselves

I guess I was just surprised that going from 5k to 10k was not nearly as hard as I anticipated, but looking back on it I was probably under the impression that adding 5k more would add the same challenges of the first 5k again, but that probably is not the case. Likewise, I am probably a bit wary given my history of running being so hard and am thus expecting more pain than is realistic for me under my current conditioning.

My comfortable pace for running went quickly from 11 minute miles to 8 and change (around 8:20). Its almost harder to run slower and in most of my runs I end up with negative splits. Based on my one 10k thus far, that seems to be the same whether I do a 5k or a 10k.

Fishshtick · May 2014

I never thought I would be able to run... ever. I was the one who wanted to puke after 30 seconds and would get a good wheeze going, and turn beet red. And that was in grade 9 when I was slim and more in shape. Now I'm almost 41, down to 210 lb from 251 lbs last year. I've always been an avid hiker, long distances, lots of hills. I think that is my base. As well, I work with a trainer and in the past few months, progressed from stopping after doing 10 jumping jacks to doing them/combo of butt kicks, jogging in place etc for 8 minutes straight. I also do top incline on treadmill for 8 min, where my HR reaches 175-180. At that point I thought maybe I could try a C25K. It was more out of curiosity, just to see if I could do it. Well, I am finding it quite easy.

I did week 1 and 2, the last 2 days back to back. Then I did week 3 day 1, then went straight to week 4 day 1. I could have kept running after that 5 minute interval for sure. I am going to do week 4 day 2, if I can continue the second interval, I will. If it's long enough, I will skip to week 5. My breathing is so nice and easy now, which is what I thought would be the hardest part for me. My legs feel great, I have no fatigue. I am also running on trails, up and down moderate hills which is supposed to make it more difficult still, but I don't find them that much of a challenge. (again, the hiking base) I hate the flat pavement. I'm still a bit scared of running more than 5 minutes, but I felt scared for 90 sec and 3 min and 5 min, and my fears were quite unfounded. I think if I had started running at 251 lbs, and with a lesser cardio endurance I may have failed, or at least found it very difficult.

Sounds like you are coming along quickly as well. I'm no expert would suggest that while you are able to progress quickly in the intensity of your workouts I would recommend against pushing the frequency too much. If you are like me you are finding that your endurance is better than you expected, but I suspect we are both at higher risk of overuse injuries because of it. I still take my days off to between runs to heal and will probably take two off after today's 11K.

Fishshtick · October 2014

just an update. Its now mid-October and a bit over a week ago I finished my first half marathon. It was much harder going from 10k to the half and I could at times feel my body being stressed to near breaking on some of the longest training runs, but it got easier and with only a couple minor setback (one from falling in a hole while working on my house), I ran my half with my brother (also his first) with no problems. Indeed we probably annoyed a lot of people by chatting the whole 13.1 miles while running faster and faster splits. What a great culmination to my first season as a runner. Next year my goal is to run a half marathon in under 2 hours.

Tonight I ran a leisurely 10K at sunset to wind down after a long day. It was a beautifully warm night when it should have been much colder and I was so happy to be able to enjoy it running. I got a bit nostalgic about how far I have come this year, both figuratively and literally, and remembered this posting about my first 10K. I had to go back and read it and thought some folks might find it encouraging to know you can probably take your running or overall fitness much further than you ever thought if you just keep looking forward to the next milestone.

By the way, I was not nearly as fast as my original post indicated. Turns out my running app was not very good on the track I trained on at the beginning, but speed did continue to develop with more running and my brother and I were amazed at how many people we passed at the half marathon. We had to have passed hundreds of other runners and we came in exactly at our projected pace. I now suspect a lot of people are unrealistic about their actual pace and see themselves too high in the corrals at the start of the race.

MeanderingMammal · October 2014

Well done. What was your HM time?

eldamiano · October 2014

Yeah I agree. 10k is mega easy.

I just did races. Good motiviation as race day is a great experience.

Just ran 10+K for first time! unexpectedly easy

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