Run Zippy! Run!

My mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. – Forrest Gump.

This morning as I look at my calender I realize I have exactly 64 days until D-day arrives. Two months ago, Valentine’s day to be exactly, I decided to enroll myself for the 5km Ladiesrun 2015 supporting the Pink Ribbon cause!

Last year I intended to participate but when I finally tried to enroll all the available spots for the 5k run were already filled and because I didn’t think I was able to do the 7.5km (lazy plus vacation to the Caribbean), I promised myself to be on time this year and not wait for anyone!

With 4 months ahead of me, I had to come up with a plan. A plan that will help me to prepare for a 5km run. In the past I had some “great” days when I decided to run a 5km run without any preparation and I must say it was hard but I managed to finish under 40 minutes but this wasn’t the most healthy way to prepare myself.

In order to achieve my goals and prepare my body I promised myself to do at least the following things:

1. Train 2-3 times a week
When I looked up training schedules online, I discovered that they all had one thing in common: average 3 times a week training. Most of them talk about a 1 day training – 1 day rest cycle and they advise you to start with 1 minute running followed by 1 walking.

When I started training 3 weeks ago, I tried to do the 1 minute walking/running but that wasn’t really working out for me. I didn’t have a stopwatch to beep at every minute and I really didn’t have the patience to look at my phone to see whether I went over 1 minute or not. So I decided to go to a market square near my house where they created a fictive track and walk a straight line then ran 1 lap and continued that pattern. Before I knew it I run/walked 2.6k on my first day.

XP-RACER by LIDL

Since that first day I’m trying to raise the bar for myself. I’ll use coming 4 weeks to prepare my body to run 5k within 40 minutes. In the following 4 weeks I’ll be working towards 5k within 25-30 minutes. I will share my progress in the coming weeks with you and I hope it will motivate you to get yourself some running shoes and run! And for those who want to know which app I use to track my runs.  I use the Nike Run app. I tried another one but I used it in the past so why not keep on using it. It works for me.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

2. Eat more healthy food
Where do I start?! I have a love and hate relationship with candy. My body just craves for soft and gummy candy…chocolate with an oreo filling. Guess instead via a box of chocolate life has to surprise me with some salads these days because if I want my old body back, I’ll have to leave the sweetness in the past.

My goal for June, 14th is not only to finish my 5k run in less then 30 minutes but also eat more healthy food, drink more water, stop eating candy or junk food and achieve some weight loss in the process of getting there.

I’ll keep you updated how my journey goes while trying to write my Master thesis, work and do a little bit of dating….