My Couch to 5k Training Plan—and My Initial Foray into RunBet

I actually already ran 5k: twice.

I did it last Saturday. Like Forrest Gump, I started running out of my driveway and figured I might have to stop and walk after a mile or two—but I kept it up for over 3.1 miles.

I got some running shoes that afternoon and did it again Sunday.

On Monday I rested. But on Tuesday I signed up for this RunBet. It was a $40 fee.

So what I had to do the first week is get four runs in within the seven days of that week—in my case, 6 days, as I already had Monday allocated as a rest day.

Each run had to be on a different day. I had to do the lengths in order. And I had to maintain a 15 minute per mile pace or better.

That last one, on Friday, was the best. I almost ran 5k again. I actually did an alternating sequence of fast sprints and walks. I was following a 5k training program on the Runkeeper app, and got the result you see there. 2.93 miles is only 0.17 miles short of 5 kilometers. But I stopped early because I had to shower and dress for work that morning.

The RunBet app interface is very pretty. Waybetter generally does a better job than Healthy Wage of displaying challenge data.

There is also a game board which shows the ranking of each player; and who is on track and who is behind. At the time of this writing, the second week has started; yet, the game board shows how many runs everybody got in last week. Most everyone got all 4 in, so they are still eligible to win going into Week 2. However, we have 6 people with only 3 runs and one person with only 1 run. By tomorrow morning these 7 should be ineligible. At least I think they should be—need to see how the app actually tracks this stuff.

The RunBet aside, this running is something I didn’t see myself doing merely a month ago. By Thanksgiving or so I would like to be much better at it. I suppose I’ll do a 10k next after doing the 5k properly.

The odds associated with the RunBet are to be determined—once I finish with this, I’ll have some idea of what to expect for the next one.

9/30/19 Update: 5 weeks down and 1 week to go. I have 4 runs remaining and I am going to make it.

I do walk these days. My knees are protesting and I am wearing braces. I will switch to strength training after I’m done here. But I will make it.