5K training: Day 1

Yesterday was the first day I stepped on my old nemesis, the treadmill, in a little over two years. Now I’ve done other forms of exercising on and off since then, although I’m definitely not in shape. But I’ve always had the most trouble with running.

Back in 2009, I decided to wage war with the treadmill and had felt like I was actually winning. Unfortunately, the war came to a halt (or perhaps the treadmill had won?) because I moved to NYC and no longer had access to a treadmill. Now, not only am I waging war with the treadmill, but with running in general. Like I previously posted, I’ve decided to run a 5k called Run for the Wild to help save the lions. The run takes place at the Bronx Zoo (how cool, right?) in April.

I’ve been hesitant about returning to war, but I finally had no excuse to not jump back in. I’d like to consider yesterday a success. I ran/walked for about 20 mins. After a quick warm-up, I ran for as long as I could (about the length of one song, which may seem like nothing to all you crazy runners, but to me, it’s a lifetime), then I walked for a little bit, then I ran again as long as I could, and so forth, until I reached the cooldown. All-in-all, my total distance was about 1.5 miles. Not bad for a person who hasn’t really run in more than two years, right?

I think it helped to have good, aggressive music, too. My album of choice since high school (meh, I dated myself, eh?) is Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. All of the songs are well-paced (for me), and they’re aggressive, which forces me to be aggressive. I recently bought myself an iPod Nano to help with my training, but I have yet to make awesome playlists, etc. Do you have any songs that help motivate you to run? Please share! Music is sort of crucial to my ability to run.

Photo from amazon.com

I’m also thinking about buying an armband for my nano. Do you use one? I was specifically looking at the AeroSport Active-use Armband, but I’ll probably just go to the store and see if they have any. Let me know if you have one that you absolutely love though!

Photo from: Griffintechnology.com

 I'm hoping to fit in Day 2 tomorrow (assuming I'm not any more sore than I am today). Wish me luck!