I’m writing a post detailing the Garmin 5k training plan and putting it through its paces (pun intended), so you can read more about the plan and how it stacks up.
Otherwise, join me on my completely injury-free 5k training (putting the good vibes out there) where I build back up to running and hopefully I’ll smash some PBs along the way!
PS. The furthest distance I have run prior to this plan is a half marathon so the 5k distance isn’t a total stranger to me, I’m just a LOT out of practice when it comes to running, following injury.
Oh PPS. I made the decision to reset the PBs on my Garmin so these are only PBs for this plan and not my all-time records.
Week 2 | Monday – Rest Day/ Yoga
Today was my first day back after being furloughed for a few weeks and I felt oddly nervous about logging back on.
I got up at 6am (my old get up time when I had a commute) and did Yoga with Adrienne ‘Yoga for Focus and Productivity’ because, I felt like I might need it.
It was definitely the calm before the storm as I had a crazy busy day!
Decided to delete some of the obscene runs on the 5k plan to see what else it would generate.
At the moment I have two 6 mile runs this week on the plan, which just seems crazy to me.
Anyone following a 5k plan isn’t heading for a 10k run in week 2 surely!
When I deleted these 2 runs (which by the way were actually called ‘run’ with no real direction except ‘run 6 miles at an easy pace’) a Time Trial appeared!
How exciting! I can’t wait to give it a whirl and see if I’ve managed to improve in 2 weeks.
2.52 miles | 52 minutes (walking)
After a totally hectic first day back, had a lovely evening stroll to clear my mind.
Week 2 | Tuesday – Run #5 – Speed Repeats
1 mile warm up — 2 minute run @ 8:39-9:09 + 2 minute recovery x 5 — 1 mile cool down
3.75 miles | 47 minutes | 8:31/ average mile pace (running)
Difficulty for me —> Hard
Today’s speed repeats felt much harder than last week’s run. My average pace was only slightly faster.
Speed repeat 1: 8:35 (slightly fast)
Speed repeat 2: 8:46 (that’s more like it)
Speed repeat 3: 8:49 (the goldilocks of paces)
Speed repeat 4: 8:47 (I’m starting to really feel this pace now)
Speed repeat 5: 7:46 (steady on Flash)
I seem to do this thing where I’m worried about missing the pace so I go all out and just hope for the best!
My watch is not terrible at buzzing to let me know I’m out of pace but if I’m going through areas with lots of trees it can’t seem to get it right.
One moment it will be 13-something and the next 8-something so I’m overcompensating just in case I’m not running quite quick enough.
Finally the spin bike arrived today and I had a cheeky go on it. While it’s no Les Mills spin bike from my gym (I miss you gym) it ran pretty well. I look forward to many Trip sessions in the future.
Week 2 | Wednesday – Rest Day/ Spin
12.35km miles | 35 minutes (spin bike)
Oh yeah! I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do the Les Mills Trip ever again but lo and behold I had a free trial for 60 days from my gym so I jumped at the chance to get all of the classes now that the gym is closed.
That means I got to do my all time favourite Trip #13 which is a jungle-theme.
My favourite part about it is when you go through the cave and shrink and there’s a giant leopard. The instructor says ‘I know you’re seeing what I’m seeing’ and it makes me smile every time. It’s the little things right!
Didn’t go all out as I’d run yesterday and I’m trying to avoid injury by not overdoing it.
2.00 miles | 40 minutes (walking)
Went for a little walk tonight. The weather has definitely taken a downturn. I knew it was too good to be true for it to be so hot and sunny with blue sky for so many days in a row!
Week 2 | Thursday – Run #6 – Easy Run
2 minute warm up — 2.5 mile run @ 11:09-11:39 — 2 minute cool down
2.74 miles | 30 minutes | 10:37/mile average pace (running)
Difficulty for me —> hard
This run should have felt so easy but surprisingly it was pretty difficult!
I went out around 5pm and it was scorching hot (my least favourite running condition) but I’m not sure why it felt so hard!
Pacing seemed to be nearly impossible today and my watch was telling me too fast/ slow constantly (hence the 10:37 average pace, which is way faster than the plan was calling for).
I had 3 minutes added on for watch stops for social distancing. I knew it was a gamble going down the lane this time of day so it was my own fault.
Even with 3 minutes ‘rest’ time it was still difficult *sigh*
I had a bit of foot pain before and after today’s run so I looked up some exercises online and did them all!
My foot hurt even more afterwards so I used the foam roller on my foot and it wasn’t painful at all after this. Clearly I need to up my foam rolling and strength training workouts.
I find it really difficult to find time in between the runs. My legs are usually in recovery on my rest days!
I ordered some new running shoes on Tuesday and they arrived today! I finally took the plunge so that I can ditch my really old (and never really fit for purpose) trainers.
They are pretty comfortable already but I’m going to be wearing them around the house for a little while to really break them in. Teddy, my house bunny, was VERY interested in them and followed me around the entire time I was wearing them.
Now, you have to be careful around him because he LOVES to chew shoes and shoelaces and I wasn’t going to let him get his furry paws on these new babies!
They’re nothing new, in fact they’re the 2018 version of the shoe, but aren’t they just the most snazzy things!
Week 2 | Friday – Rest Day
Today is one of the first days I haven’t gone out for a walk in quite some time.
I logged off from work and then got straight on with the housework and cleaned it top to bottom so the house was clean for the weekend. Hello relaxation!
Week 2 | Saturday – Run #7 – Tempo Run
2 minute warm up — 0.63 mile easy pace @ 11:24-11:54 — 1.25 mile race goal pace @ 9:24-9:54 — 0.63 mile easy pace @ 11:24-11:54 — 2 minute cool down
2.74 miles | 29 minutes | 10:15/mile average pace (running)
Difficulty for me —> Hard
This second tempo run felt wayyyy better than the first one.
The wind was pretty brutal though so I sort of cheated and turned back around to run the other way I’d just come so that I was running away from it again.
Is that cheating?? I really hate wind….
I ended up fairly far away from home because of my windy detour so I walked the rest of the way back but my foot felt pretty sore afterwards – it was feeling good during the run.
I’ve made the conscious decision to increase my strength training workouts so I headed over to The Running Channel’s YouTube and found a great workout on there ‘Ultimate 20 minute Home Workout’.
It definitely wasn’t easy and by the third round I was knackered!
Also spent a little bit of time with the foam roller. Even though I’m rubbish at it. Everyone else makes it look so darn easy but I can’t seem to stretch myself that way.
As the evening wore on I started to get a little sharp pain in the side of my foot which I’d never had before. I’m a little bit worried about it, I’m crossing all of my fingers that it’s just a minor niggle and a good night’s sleep will ‘heal’ it.
I’m still trying to work out the Garmin 5k plan from my watch to be honest. On the main data screen it’s got a giant dial with a green middle section with a red section either side.
Now at first I thought this was telling me my ‘real time’ pace so I was super confused when I kept getting alerts that I was too fast/ slow when it appeared I was right in the green zone.
Unfortunately for me, I’m now of the opinion that it doesn’t mean that at all. My next best guess is that it’s my average pace across the ‘run’ parts of the workout.
I tried asking Mr Google but I didn’t find anything much useful. It’s a real pain not having the pacing on that screen because I have to switch between the data screen which tells me the remaining time on the section you’re on and my main pacing screen.
More investigation is needed and I’ll report back when I’ve become smart enough to figure it out!
Each mile and pace:-
Run 1 – 6 min 57 sec @ 11:10 pace (a tad too fast)
Run 2 – 12 min @ 9:36 average pace (right on target!)
Run 3 – 6 min 47 @ 10:52 page (again way too fast)
It’s not that I’m going over pace goal because I’m finding it easy. If anything I’m finding it challenging and would love to take my foot off the gas just a little but I’m also super competitive and can’t bear the thought of running a section too slow because my watch pacing is having a moment.
Week 2 | Sunday – Rest Day + Harassing Swans (in a nice way of course)
2.94 miles |1hr 5 minutes (walking)
There are a family of newly born swans and cygnets just across the road and they are so cute. We’ve watched them from little fuzzy balls of fluff to pretty sizeable balls of fluff.
They’re always in the same place along the water and I spotted them swimming along. Then on the way back they’d found their little resting place (I always wondered where they went when they weren’t swimming!) and all of the babies were huddled up with the grown ups.
I tried to get as close a possible to them without disturbing them – I’ve seen one of them get really angry at a little girl once when she got too close – however, they were actually right next to a group of teenagers!
I made the rookie mistake of counting how many cygnets there were and now every time I’m just crossing all of my fingers that there are still 7! Phew… still 7.
Other than that I felt pretty tired today. I hope I’m not overdoing the runs at the moment. I usually find once I start a new running routine I get sick. As long as it’s not coronavirus, I don’t really care right now.
I’m so over it all and I’m itching to go out exploring again! But I’m also nervous about leaving the house and going anywhere so it’s a constant mental battle.
Everyone is in exactly the same boat which is reassuring and also not and I’m always grateful that I still have a job and the company I work for has been able to battle through this pandemic.
It’s all a bit surreal and quite scary wondering what things are going to look like in the future. I’m perhaps a little naive and think that eventually we will be able to go on holiday and go to concerts again (gutted that Derren Brown had to be rescheduled) and things will be ‘normal’.
I must have been able to see into the future because I’d stocked up on hand gel way before the pandemic. I had around 6 of them (all delicious flavours) in a drawer so they’ve come in really handy now that they’re in short supply!!
While I’m not a massive fan of working from home, as I really enjoy the social interaction of it – I work with some pretty great people, I have really started to enjoy having a lot more leisure time.
My commute isn’t the worst ever but it’s not a nice journey by any means and usually, I’ll get to work upset that someone has cut me up on a merge lane (hate them) or some other driving misdemeanour.
Now, I’m getting up at the usual time as if I was going to work except instead of sitting in traffic for a half an hour commute, I can do yoga or go for a run or just have a chilled out morning.
I’m starting to really appreciate not having to wear makeup or wash my hair quite so frequently… I’m also saving a fortune in petrol every month (and foundation) and lets face it, I can’t fit into any of my work clothes anyway at the moment because lockdown snacks are REAL!
WEEK 2 SUMMARY
I’ve had some issues with the pacing side of each of the runs but not terribly so. I’ve managed 7 runs and have avoided injury so far and I’m so grateful for that!
Coach Amy is still confident that I’m going to finish the plan to an adequate standard and, I don’t want to blow my own trumpet… I’m on the verge of stepping up into the ‘extremely confident’ rating.
I’m enjoying the variation of the runs each week and learning the next stage of each one as the plan goes along.
I still have a criticism of the two 6 mile planned runs this week as I don’t feel like they are necessary.
If I was starting this plan from scratch as a new runner (my race goal pace is 30 minutes which is totally achievable for a newbie with some hard work) it doesn’t mean that you can just go out and run 6 miles when you may have zero intention to ever want to run that far!
Let’s just see what ridiculous run they’ve thrown into next week’s agenda!!
WEEK 2 RUNS
Speed repeats – 2 min @8:39-9:09 | 2 min recover x 5
Easy run – 2.74 miles @11:09-11:39
Tempo run – 0.63 miles @ 11:24 — 1.25 miles @9:24 — 0.63 miles @11:24
WEEK 2 MILES
Total time –> 1hr 47mins
Total distance –> 9.23 miles
Total run time –> 1hr 2mins
Total run distance –> 6.17 miles
I love reading these =)
Sounds like you’re getting back in form. Rah!