Amy Plan – The Most Brutal Start Yet
On June 15th, I officially began the Amy Parkerson-Mitchell 5K Garmin Plan — with a time goal of 22 minutes on 5K.
Honestly? I did not expect this plan to be hard.
I assumed the real difficulty in running plans comes from volume, not intensity.
My intention for this year was to follow a similar structure to the 17-week adaptive plan I’d done before — lots of long runs, up to 17 km even in a 5K plan. And I was ready for that kind of grind.
But this? This started brutally:
- The benchmark had me flying at 95–100% HR for almost 4 minutes.
- The very next day? Speed repeats — six sprints of 1.5 minutes at redline.
- Then came the “tempo” workout, which I completely gave up on pacing-wise.
I was supposed to run at my final goal pace, but I was already crushed. I ran it 30 seconds slower, keeping it in Zone 3 just to finish.
To make things worse, the benchmark revealed the truth:
3:44/km on 1K, a full 10 seconds off my PR.
I secretly hoped I’d hit a new record there.
I had zero chance.
This first week just wrecked me.
- Sleep dropped hard. From Garmin scores of 75–85 down to 65–74.
- HRV dipped to 112 (my range is 118–132).
- Resting heart rate climbed from 41 to 46.
I honestly thought about quitting.
But a few things held me back:
- It’s a new stimulus — I’ve never trained like this.
- Online reviews mention that many people drop out, but those who survive break their PRs. And looking at this brutality, I believe it.
- I know I can grind through pain — I’ve done it before.
But here’s the worry:
Looking back at 2024, I wonder — will this just be another Pyrrhic victory? A new PR… but a broken body?
My strategy:
Don’t be super strict.
Listen to my body.
And try to stay in this game — not just finish it, but grow stronger through it.