Woah! A Monday blog!

I know… I said I would be posting these blogs on Friday, and here we are with a Monday blog. If I don’t post this upcoming Friday, then I think I’m going to re-evaluate when I’m posting. I would really like to be posting on a more consistent basis for you guys.

On the bright side, I’m starting to feel like I’m a better runner than blogger, which was not the case when I first started this project. So, at least there’s progress being made somewhere.

The 5k

So, as promised I am going to tell you all about the 5k I ran last Saturday (4/13). I ran this 5k with my roommate, Kathrine.  I introduced you all to her in last week’s post, so if you need a refresher on how amazing she is, then go read my post from last week. I also mentioned in that post that I had been sick for a few days last week.

My neck started to feel sore last Tuesday, and I also felt extremely tired. Finally, on Friday I went to my school’s on-campus clinic and they told me that I probably had a mild viral infection, because my lymph nodes were inflamed but I had almost no other symptoms. They told me to take a high dose of ibuprofen and to rest for the weekend.

I then told them I was planning on running a 5k the next morning, but since I was sick, I probably shouldn’t do it… right?

No. They said I could still do the 5k, especially if I was feeling up for it in the morning.

So, basically, I was medically advised to run this 5k.

The 5k was hosted by the Behavioral Sciences Association on campus. It was a no headphones run to help promote the #IWILLLISTEN campaign. This campaign is all about listening to people, especially when they are struggling with their mental health.

I thought it was a really cool concept. Especially in today’s world where everyone is constantly looking down at their phones. I know it can be hard to break away from that habit and actually have a conversation with someone, but it could potentially save their lives.

Although, I am also guilty of playing on my phone while waiting for class to start, or when standing around in a hallway. I know it can also be intimidating at times to strike up a conversation with someone that you might not know – I know it is for me! However, that is how you make friends.

In fact, I made one of my very best friends in the entire world just by going up to her in the hallway and telling her I liked her backpack. This happened on like my second day of freshman year in high school, so of course I scurried away after giving the compliment. The next day in English class, though, she turned around and introduced herself. I was at her wedding just a few months ago, so I guess you could say the rest was history.

Anyway… back to the race. We did really well! We finished the race in about 40 minutes, which was a little slower than what I had originally thought we would do, but we still finished with a decent time. Also, our average pace was faster than normal, and the first mile we ran in under ten minutes.

So, how did we run faster than usual, but still end up finishing later than anticipated?

Well, it turns out that my Fitbit does not accurately track distance. So all of this time that I thought we were going for three mile runs, we probably only did two and a half.

When we crossed the finish line, my Fitbit said that we had run 3.67 miles. A 5k is only 3.1 miles. So, my Fitbit is about half a mile off.

Now, you might be wondering two things. 1) Is she going to adjust her Weekly Overview miles? 2) She used to run on a track, shouldn’t she have noticed that her Fitbit was off by now?

To answer the first question: No, I will not be changing my Weekly Overview miles. I don’t really see a reason to. Also, it would be a lot of work to recalculate everything.

I don’t think it’s a big deal that my miles are off. I’m running now, which is more than what I did before. As I begin to more seriously train for the half marathon, I will need to keep it in mind that my Fitbit isn’t accurate so I may need to run a little “further” than what it reads. Other than that, I don’t see a need to change anything else.

Then for the second question: Yes, I did run on an indoor track. However, the track isn’t completely full sized. When I would run four laps my Fitbit registered that as about 0.7 miles, and so I would have to run an extra lap to hit a full mile.

I didn’t think anything of this, because I knew the football field in the fieldhouse was a few yards short and I just assumed the track was a little short as well. Now, maybe it’s not. We already know my Fitbit doesn’t accurately track distance, so maybe that is where the error occurred. Again, I’m not super worried about it.

Wrap Up

If I decide to change when I post my blog, I will let you know in my next post. Also, I know I didn’t cover much about the #IWILLListen campaign, so please go and check out their website to get more information. I honestly didn’t know a lot about the campaign before I participated in the 5k, so I am definitely not an expert on it.

Thank you again for reading! I will be back next week with more updates on my running journey.

Week 9:  
Miles run this week: 7.2
Miles run total: 33.9 
Overall mood: Better than last week