8 weeks to become a runner: Week 1

I just decided to take on a new challenge. When I start this it´s 8 weeks left of 2024 and I want to see how good of a runner I can become before the end of the year.

Those of you who know me, knows I´m not a runner. But I see the benefits of this training, for the mountains and it´s easy to do anywhere.

I run maybe 5 times per year, not more. So I don´t have consistency at all. My last run before this was probably in Finale Ligure during May/June. However I still have my hiking endurance. Even if hiking and running are two very different things and you use different muscles and technique.

Starting this challenge I´m in Kalymnos. First one week of vacation so it´s easy to find time and motivation to go for a run. The only thing is, it has to be done during the morning because otherwise it will be too hot for me. I can´t run in over 20 degrees and sun. I become destroyed and have to take a nap the rest of the day to get rid of headache and feeling terrible.

Kalymnos is a little bit hilly and the trails are quite steep, loose rocks and a lot of sticky bushes. So I will stick to road running. It will still be hilly but much easier.

The first week I did four runs. I felt I had a hard time to stay in lower heart rate zones. I was aiming to run slow but my heart rate still got pretty high. Here is all the runs I did:

1. 15 minutes one way. 15 minutes back. I wanted to start easy and slow.
   Total distance: 3,74 km
   Total elevation gain: 53 m
   Pace: 08:02
   Time: 30 minutes
2. Z4-5 intervals uphill. I started with a warmup for 10 minutes. I had a hard time to get up to Z5 in the short distance I had energy to run uphill. I could only do 30 seconds for each intervals. I had to walk back because my legs were destroyed after.
   Total distance: 2,64 km
   Total elevation gain: 70 m
   Pace: 12:07
   Time: 32 minutes
3. I decided to run 35 minutes. I wanted to increase the time just a little bit.
   Total distance: 4,49 km
   Total elevation gain: 63 m
   Pace: 7:48
   Time: 35 minutes
4. Me and my husband were going climbing so I decided to run the first half of the approach (the other half was too much uphill). I ran from Masouri to Arginonta.
   Total distance: 5,29 km
   Total elevation gain: 62 m
   Pace: 7:46
   Time: 41 minutes

Totals for week 1:
Distance: 16,16 km
Total elevation gain: 248
Time: 2 hours 18 min