StarvingMartistRecently started jogging 30 minutes twice a week. When does it stop feeling like I'm dying?
As someone who also drinks … don’t. It is terrible for your cardio and definitely contributes to feeling like death, because your heart is recovering from some toxicity if you’ve drank within 24 hours or maybe more.
Other than that, other people have good advice. The ‘zone 2’ stuff is probably most relevant if you’re already semi-fit.
Other than that, all I can say is, the first ~5 minutes of any heavy cardio are going to suck, roughly for ever. Even in good shape, it takes the body a good long moment to warm up. I’m sure a proper warmup could reduce the, “I’m dying” feeling down to a, “yep, this is work”, but if you drank within a day, the feeling will be very easy to get regardless.
I haven’t found the first 5 mins too bad. It’s the last 5 mins that suck on a 5k. Just did my first running end to end and by the end the only thing keeping me going was determination to keep going as I had already been going for so long.
I know that sounds a little bit stupid but: In a way going faster makes things easier. I recently improved my 5k record by a couple minutes (sub 22) and when I compare it to me 2 years ago it is in a way easier, because I only need to run at my peak speed for less time. I am sure with time you will have a similair experience.
But in general if the ending is hard and the beginning easy then you should start/run at a slower pace at least a couple times on this distance.