Let me start with this, "running" an official 5k was on my bucket list. It actually seems kind of silly now that I have accomplished it, but then I realized I had forgotten from where I came.
Over eight years ago at my heaviest bodyweight of 328.5 lbs, I could not walk all the way around the half mile block my house was on. I was with Jess and at around the quarter mile mark I had to stop. My back was locking up, I was covered in sweat, and gasping for breath. It was not good. As I look back, it was that coupled with losing my brother to a weight related issue shortly thereafter that lead to the genesis of Operation Be Less Fat.
A couple of years later I entered my first 5k. My school was getting a team together for a race in honor of Vicki Soto, a teacher killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. As a teacher, no matter how much I wanted no part in a road race, I could not refuse participating in such a worthy cause. I ran about the first couple hundred feet and petered out pretty quickly. I ended up walking the rest of the way. I remember feeling defeated. It was then that running a 5k got on my bucket list.
Two years ago I trained eight weeks for a 5k on my treadmill. I did that in just over 45 minutes. It wasn't an official race and was only on the treadmill, but at least I was able to run the entire time. Progress.
At that time, I had a conversation with Wendler about running. He told me that I didn't need to run to be able to run. His point was, just condition hard and you'll be able to run. Jim has never steered me wrong, well, once with gas station extenze pills, but that's another story for another day. Ok then, I didn't really need a plan, I just needed to work hard. I can do that.
Only once in a great while will I run for any appreciable amount of time. There's no rhyme or reason to it, other than I just feel like it. I'd say no more than once every two to three months. Most of my conditioning is spent doing hiit work in the form of Tabatas or lower intensity work such as walks, hiking, and rukking.
So a couple of weeks ago on Facebook I saw a 5k being held in honor of James Mattioli, a child killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting. They raise money in his name for scholarships and playgrounds. Kind of full circle huh? I couldn't pass it up.
This time without any specified training under my belt I was still able to run the entire course. I finished with a 31:15. That put my miles at 10:04. I feel I could have comfortably gotten under 30 minutes if I paid better attention to the course. Interestingly, I pretty much run with my eyes closed. I do that with lifting a lot also. Anyway, the only mile marker I saw was #3 and I wasn't sure whether that meant I was just about to finish or I had another mile to go. I had some good gas in the tank and could have pushed had I known where I was in the race.
Of course I had to look up what an average 5k time was. A quick search showed 11:47 gathered from over 10,000 race participants. For a broken down powerlifter and ex fat dude I'll take beating that.
Clearly this new healthy lifestyle has really been paying off. In all of this I forgot to mention, I have been a life long asthmatic. I have been on medication since I was a little kid and no, I wasn't fat back then. But back a bunch of years ago when I started pushing my conditioning I told my pulmonologist at the time, I wanted to stop taking medication. He didn't advise it, but said if I felt that strongly I should try. Although I suffered some at the beginning I haven't puffed an inhaler or taken a pill for my asthma since.
All of this said, I am not fooling myself into thinking I am a decent runner. This simply told me that I was in good enough shape to run a 5k. It affirms my conditioning program suits my needs and I can just keep doing what I'm doing.
I didn't think I'd want to run anymore 5K's, but now I believe I will. Maybe one or two a year to keep my conditioning honest. Plus, I felt very alive doing it. I spent a lot of time smiling just being grateful for having functioning legs and lungs, along with everything else. Maybe I'll even break that 30 minute mark.
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