Goals and the 5K

I realized I still needed something more to push me to get back into shape.  I couldn’t figure out what it was until a read a fellow Blogger’s post.

Rosa, over at Stuffing My Feelings wrote a wonderful post about her goal to run one 5K race per month in 2010 here.

I thought to myself, wow, she’s crazy, that’s an amazing goal.  Then I shook my head and thought to myself, I’ve never even done one, and think it would kill me to do one.

Then it hit me.  That’s what I wanted.  I wanted to run a 5K, finish it, and not die doing it.  This was a new goal to add to my 2010 Goal List.

I immediately Googled 5K runs in my area and found a women’s only race at the end of May.  Perfect!  This should be enough time to get myself ready!  I whipped out my wallet and registered before I could talk myself out of it (or let anyone else talk me out of it).  So if all goes well, I will be running the Toronto Women’s Half Marathon and 5k – Sunday May 30, 2010.

I spent some time looking into what I needed to know for running the 5K and the first things I learned was that a very good pair of shoes, fitted by a professional when possible, was pretty much a necessity.

I convinced begged the boyfriend to take me to The Running Room this morning so I could talk to someone about shoes.  A very lovely woman spent quite a bit of time with me, analyzing my feet, how I walk, how I run, etc.  We discover I needed some light stability for my arch and she showed me the shoes I could choose from.  She urged me to try on multiple pairs to ensure I found one with a good fit.  After four pairs I found my babies.

I also invested in two pair of double layer running socks for moisture and blister control (because I am uber prone to blisters).

I also learned about some good clinics they offer I might be interested in taking, as well as free practice running twice a week.  She even threw in some free running magazines.

My last stop in the 5K start-up journey was a trip to Chapters to get some books on running in general and training for the 5K.  Can you tell I’m excited?

When I got home I was so eager to get moving that I ran right to my workout room to complete my normal workout (workout #6 of the EA Active More Workouts 6 week challenge).  I followed that up with a custom workout created for the original EA Active on their 5K Challenge site.  Holy squats and lunges Batman!  My legs were on fire!

All this and I still managed to make this week’s batch of homemade honey peanut granola.  But you’ll have to wait for this week’s Weekend Warrior post for more on that!