Saturday, March 1, 2008

Wait… a 5k isn’t 5 miles?

I write this fitness blog, but I am not just a bunch of talk. Fitness happens to be my lifestyle of choice and has been for quite some time. Coming from a family with two older brothers the tomboy in me has always been present.

Baseball or football in the streets with neighbors, was my afternoon activity of choice in elementary school. In junior high and high school, I played basketball in the winter and ran track in the spring for most of my years. I was third in the state in the 220m sprint in tenth grade.

Soon after, a knee injury put a halt to my career as an athlete, but my love of fitness didn't stop. I decided to make it my job at 16 years old, when I became a trainer at a local women's fitness center. I worked there for two years and loved what I did.

In college, I grew to love ESPN and sports but more recently decided to make it a career goal. My ultimate job would be to work for ESPN, Fox Sport, or a fitness magazine. Living in south Florida has brought me the oppurtunities to attend Heat games regularly, along with Dolphins and Marlins games (although now that Zach Thomas and Dontrelle Willis are gone, my team choices may be changing).

So when it comes to sports, health, and fitness its somethinig I love and live. I write my workouts into my planner; it's part of my daily routine.

In December, running long distances became a new fitness goal of mine. I began training in hopes of running a 5k (that means five kilometer not five miles; it is 3.1 miles).


I decided "to try" a 5k to see what it was like, on February 9 (I had been planning to run one on March 1). I ran it in 23:58. Not bad for a first timer right? I was surprised and fell in love instantly.

I started training a little harder and set a goal of 22 minutes for my race on the first.

Well, today was my race, I ran it in 22:24. Not bad, not bad at all. That's an average of 7:14 minute miles. (Remember I was a sprinter, not a cross country runner in high school!)

Setting a new fitness goal for yourself is great motivation to get on a specific track and stay on it. Even if fitness is your life, you have to continue to push yourself to the next level of achievement.

What's next for me? Not too sure yet… 10k? Half marathon?? I'll let you know.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey lauren.. Nice writing. I'm trying to contact you but I can't find your email address anywhere on here. Would you be interested in blogging on fitconnect.com? You can blog about fitness and I'll pay you a little bit per blog entry. If your interested please email me at contact@fitconnect.com

It's not a scam, you don't have to pay anything. We just need a few more female bloggers like yourself.

Christy said...

Holy cow!
You just set out to "try" a 5K and you did it in that amazing time!! Awesome and well done!