It was just over a year ago that I wasn't capable of comfortably running even 1km in a row without thinking about how much I want to stop the entire time. I kept at it though, figured out a good pace, and trained trained trained. Here we are a year or so later and I can quite easily run a 10k. I don't even feel tired afterwards and normally will only stop because of two reasons: It is extremely cold where I live this time of year and being out and about while sweaty is a very bad idea and also because I have at that point run out of water.
I am now making plans for how I can extend my hydration so that I can extend my runs because now that a 10k is easy, why not work on making a 15k easy, a 20k?
Now when I say that it is easy, it is still more difficult than doing nothing, but at no point during a 10k do I feel like I absolutely must stop. I feel like this is something that isn't really even affecting me all that much in a muscular or cardiovascular way, and this makes me very happy about my progress.
When I started doing cardio more seriously it was because of a scare I had when although I looked great from bodybuilding, I discovered that I had virtually zero cardio capabilities and at my age (in my 40's) I feel as though good cardiovascular health is a lot more important than trying to stay ripped... which is something that becomes increasingly impossible the older you get anyway.
In the past when I attempted 10k runs, if I actually did manage to complete it, there was always this notion of the last 500 meters just being punishing. These days, when I get to the 10k mark I will continue to run the rest of the way back to my house beyond the 10k plan and I do this without huffing and puffing and without an ache of really wanting to stop.
I do not have a fast pace as you can see with my 7.5 minutes per km, but I have figured through trial and error that this is the pace that I can maintain for a very long time.
I also pay close attention to my heart rate more than anything else with the idea being that I just barely enter the zone 4 or orange BPM zone. I like that the more often I do this, the more time my body naturally spends in the yellow or zone 3 zone. The idea here now is that I want more and more of it to result in me staying in zone 3, and perhaps at some point at this pace ALL OF IT will be in zone 3. What this will mean at that point is that if I do increase to zone 4, that I will be able to do these distances at an even faster pace, should I choose to do so.
Right now my goal is that I want to be able to comfortably be able to run a half marathon at this pace, which is just over 21 km. I think I am most of the way there already with the only problem being hydration. I could solve this by keeping another water bottle stashed at my house or hiding it along the trail where I normally start my run. The people on the trail are kind enough that if I had a note on it stating that I am coming back for this, that it most likely wouldn't move. I would probably still hide it though just in case some kids want to play a trick on me. Actually, nevermind, I think I will just keep it back on the porch of my house. it will be safer there because I don't want my drink getting spiked by some pranksters.
The main reason why I am writing this is because this is something I never really thought I would be able to accomplish and now I am feeling like the sky is the limit. Going from not being able to run 1km to being able to comfortably run 10 is something I am just so stoked about. I had a plan and I stuck with it and I am going to pat myself on the back a little bit because of this.