Back in 2019, I posted about my challenge to finish a marathon in under 5 hours. In hindsight it was a ridiculous premise. I would walk and run my way into shape. It didn’t happen.
The last time I posted in early October of that year, I was still thinking I could do it. Then a few days later, I injured my hip. It was so bad I made an appointment with my physician hoping she would put me out of my misery and advise me not to attempt the marathon. I was diagnosed with an IT band injury. She told me, “I know how much you have trained for this, so I am not going to talk you out of it.” In my head I was screaming, “No!! I made this appointment hoping very much I would have a medical excuse to abandon this foolish odyssey!” No such luck, she told me to take it easy, limit any walking to a mile or less and no jogging or running until the race.
I have no idea what I was thinking. I was hoping for a miracle I suppose. I came up with this game plan to walk to the starting line (I knew it would take over 10 minutes, it took almost 20) and then jog for 2 miles. Repeat the process and add a quarter mile to each jogging period. Somehow I would get stronger and faster as the race progressed. I was able to jog that first two miles, but every running unit forward was a quarter mile shorter than the previous one. By the 16th mile, I couldn’t really jog anymore, and ended up walking the rest of the race until the last 150-200 yards. There were a couple of cut off points that runners had to meet to continue the race. I was able to beat those times and finish the race, so at least I accomplished that minor goal. I ended up with a time a little below 6 hours and 30 minutes. This was the end of October 2019.
In September of that year, I had signed up for a half marathon scheduled for February when I was in the euphoria of my progress of the previous 6 weeks or so. Now I had to deal with the fact that my body was in worse shape than when I started in many respects, although I was 15-20 pounds lighter and stronger in some aspects. In November, one of my parents had a serious illness that required hospitalization. I helped my other parent take care of the hospitalized one. I would walk around the hospital late at night and around the parking lot during the day, to keep up some of my fitness. That lasted about 5 weeks, and I was able to get some light jogging of a quarter mile to a third of a mile in from time to time.
In December, I had hoped to start training again for the half marathon, but caught a really bad cold/flu in the middle of the month, which wiped me out for two weeks. I was still under the weather for another two weeks after that period. Now it was MLK weekend, and I had 4 weeks until the half. A rational person would have admitted defeat and accepted the half was out of reach. I’m an idiot.
I was able to get my running up to a mile at a time. My new game plan was to walk a half mile, jog a mile, and repeat the process until the halfway point. Then walk for 5 minutes, jog a mile until I crossed the finish line. It “worked.” I finished with a time just short of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Every mile after the 5th was faster than my any of my first 4 miles. My 11th mile was my fastest and my last half mile 30 seconds faster than that pace. The best part was I felt great the next day and next week. I was jogging lightly by the next weekend.
I was then going to signup for a 15k or a 10 miler in late March or early April. Most people progress from 5k to a marathon, I would do it in the reverse order. It was not to be. With the Covid lockdown, I did not feel comfortable exercising outside. I had tried to bicycle on my favorite path early in the lockdown period. A 70 something cyclist channeling his inner Lance Armstrong just doused me in his sweat when he passed me on the path. I turned around and raced home to take a 20 minute scalding shower. I would not go out of the house until masks were promoted as a protective device. I tried to run some in May, but the mask was too much for my limited fitness. If I was smart, I would have run a little less and easier, until my body adapted. I may have just been a little depressed not having any race to look forward.
By September, I had put back on all the weight I had lost and perhaps another extra pound or two. This was getting ridiculous. My wife had been walking around the neighborhood for a few weeks, when I asked if I could join her. After a few weeks, I was ready to start adding some jogging.
At first I just added a minute of jogging to 10 minutes of walking. I did that a week or two, then progressed to one minute of jogging and 6 minutes of walking. Every week or two I would adjust the ratio from 1/5, 1/4, until I got to 1/3. Then the second week of that specific ratio, I kept the ratio but added another minute and did 2 minutes of jogging and 6 minutes of walking. This week I switched to 2 minutes of jogging and 5 minutes of walking. I try to add 1 minute of jogging every week, and I am currently at 19 minutes of jogging. I do this two times a week and one day I do a lighter day and work on longer running but at a third or half the total. For example, this week I did a 3 minute jog but for only 6 total minutes. I walk with my wife whenever she wants. I wear a mask at all times.
1/10 Sunday- 5.54 miles 2/6 13’52”
Tuesday- Lighter jog 1.74 miles 3/5 13’18” walk 2.06 miles
Wednesday- Walk 1.58miles
Thursday- 5.29 miles 2/5 13’04” walk 1.15 miles
Saturday-5.6 miles 2/5 13’13” walk 1.31 miles
Sunday-Walk 4 miles
I have no grand plans, other than adjusting the ratio every other week to include a little more running in terms of percentage and total. I don’t feel comfortable running a race this year under the current conditions. I would like to be able to get to a level of fitness to jog 5 miles twice a week and a long run of 7-10 miles on the weekend. I feel like that is a decent base to train for a 5k or a marathon in 2022, if I choose and the conditions allow. If not, I would like to find out if I trained long enough, if I can still run 8-9 minute miles for a sustained length.