How are you all doing this week? It’s been getting warmer and this is the time of year I was really looking forward to running in, especially with trips away and the opportunity to run through forests and on beaches. It all sounds so idyllic. In fact my sprain is retreating fast, still a bit sore but now I can walk easily and hope to be running soon.
So, who’s actually running? Here are your questions:
- What progress have you made in the last fortnight?
- Are you planning to run anywhere nice over the summer?
- Why are you doing this? – training for a specific event, just to get fit, or something else?
Two runs in the last fortnight, a 1.7km (approx 1 mile), and a longer 3.42km and planning on another run tonight.
Glastonbury is my summer holiday and it sure ain’t built for running! Most of day on my feet walking about anyway…
I’m trying to get back into jogging because I enjoyed it when I was last able to do it, and if I can get back to 5km distance I’ll be quite happy. The immediacy of pulling on shoes and just going out appeals, I love my bike but top floor flat means a lot of lifting it up and down stairs (plus a lot more prep, checking tyres, cables etc). Ultimately, looking to tackle a local park run and make that a regular part of my healthy lifestyle.
1/ Not as much as I had hoped! I took my running gear on honeymoon with me and everything, but trip timings and general tiredness meant that we got to Friday with running shoes never having been put on. But, I did still get my highest ever Nike Fuel week, so it’s still a win of sorts.
Yesterday I got the shoes back on and completed run 2 of c25k week 5: two 8 minute runs, my longest continual runs to date. The actual running is definitely getting easier, but I have to work on upping my pace, as a brisk walk is still almost as (if not faster than) my jogging pace.
2/ If you can call Bromley nice…
3/ I’ve wanted to be more active for a long time, for health and ability reasons more than weight loss reasons. Current crappy commute has been proving a barrier to that, but the 5 mile race that I’ve signed up to has given me the kick up the arse I rightly needed. And I’m enjoying it all much more than I thought I would. Who’s up for a Uborka team entry to a race at the end of the summer? I’ll be ready for the next stage of motivation by then.
What progress have you made in the last fortnight?
None whatsoever. I have done 5k on a cross-trainer (which everybody knows are for wimps) twice, at weekly intervals, when the children have their tennis lessons at the gym. Apart from that 45-minute session, Cameron continues to be away which allows me precisely 9 hours per week of child-free time and running has not been at the top of my priority list. I think I am going to write it in my sodding diary for next week then I might put it first.
Are you planning to run anywhere nice over the summer?
Not especially – we are going to portugal for 2 weeks and if my luggage is well under the limit I might pack my trainers but it will be hot and I don’t know if I fancy that. Though running joyfully along a sandy beach in the morning sounds quite idyllic, so we will see.
Why are you doing this? – training for a specific event, just to get fit, or something else?
Just to get fit and to not be beaten by the c25k which, as I have mentioned before, I’ve been doing for the best part of 18 months. I had hoped it might shift the spare tyre I was starting to develop (middle aged spread? I’m not 40 yet, wah!) but it has had the opposite effect and I am actually a stone heavier and a dress size larger than I was before I began to exercise. Has anybody else experienced this? What is to be done apart from a diet, which does not appeal? I have this *tummy* which I never had before.
*(45 minutes *including* a shower. ‘Tis rubbish.)
What progress have you made in the last fortnight?
Nada. Zip. Zilch. Fuck all.
Are you planning to run anywhere nice over the summer?
What is this summer you speak of?
Why are you doing this? – training for a specific event, just to get fit, or something else?
Supposed to be training for the JPMC Corporate Challenge in Battersea Park in early July.
Failing.
Also to try and get fitter.
Clair, I’m all for an Uborka team entry into something, but I can’t help feeling that this summer might be ambitious for some of us!
Ok, call it autumn then 😉
What progress have you made in the last fortnight?
I was late responding to the last post, but I’ve started! I’ve been out twice since then, for 3 times in the last week. The first time I went out without music, phone, C25K mix or gadgetry of any kind and I think I may have hit what works for me. That first time out I was running and walking fast, a la C25K but trying to figure out what was going on with my responses, breathing etc, and that was pretty tough. Second and third time out I abandoned the park and took to the streets. I came up with a system (for this early stage) of walking on the avenues and running on the streets. The street:avenue ratio is about 3:1 so it works pretty well to be running 75% of the time. Also with a visual/physical framework, without music or a timed announcement telling me when to start or stop, I found myself just thinking, rather than estimating how much longer I’d have to run. Somehow it meant I wasn’t focusing on the effort so much. Going out again tonight, and bizarrely, looking forward to it.
Are you planning to run anywhere nice over the summer?
Not especially. After a while I might start doing laps of the nearby Green-Wood cemetery, which is pretty, but also 5K, so in a little while yet.
Why are you doing this? – training for a specific event, just to get fit, or something else?
I know, eventually, I will love running. I just need to get there.
Good evening everyone. Looks like some good progress being made so far. Remember the hardest step is the one that takes you out the door!
-> What progress have you made in the last fortnight?
I’ve cut my 3 runs a week down to just the one over the last couple of months as I attempt to allow my poor, broken body to recover. 3 miles a week and it’s surprising how quickly that cardiovascular fitness seems to drop away. I did reward myself by going out for an extra 4 mile run this evening though. The weather was appalling, but I just really fancied it. Put on an album of Nick Drake covers and took my time. Dare I say that – although it still hurt – I actually rather enjoyed it.
-> Are you planning to run anywhere nice over the summer?
Not really. I just relish the long evenings at this time of year and hope I get to make the most of them. Some people loathe it, I know, but I love running in the heat too. Sunglasses hide the pain in your eyes!
-> Why are you doing this? – training for a specific event, just to get fit, or something else?
Because I hate not doing it. My body isn’t up to any events this year, but I’m in too deep to just stop now. Even the mileage cut has been killing me. It’s funny how much running is bound up in my internal sense of wellbeing as well as my physical one.
Keep running, everyone!
I’d be up for a 5K in the Autumn I think but no further! (Clair, I’ve never heard of a 5 mile run, not sure my knee would last that long!)
Swisslet, your report makes me *ache* to be running again.
The 5 miler is the National Lottery Anniversary Run, finishing in the Olympic stadium. It will be awesome.
How so, Karen? What’s stopping you? Every runner knows that running is hard and every single person who does it, to whatever standard, is AMAZING.
(Not meaning to patronise you, or anyone else worth that comment, btw. Or, indeed, sound excessively zealous. I’ve had it brought home to me recently how much I vaue running when it suddenly became much harder. It’s never been exactly fun, but now I’m struggling to do it a lot more, I’ve realised how much it means to me)
(That comment was *almost* written in English….)
Ah. The sprain *slaps forehead*
Yeah, the sprain. If I’d written the above post this morning it would have sounded more pessimistic. Think I was on it too much yesterday 🙁
I just need to bounce in very briefly to say that I completed my week 5 run 3 this morning. 20 minutes continuous running. I think I can safely say that is definitely the longest I have run in over 15 years.
*Bounce*
Well done you, that’s the first long run and it feels amazing to complete it!
Well done all
Well done Clair!
Well done everyone. This is working out very well.