Health, health, health darling!

Saturday 28 January 2012

Still going strong

Easy half hour by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

An easy half hour session today, to take the sting and stiffness of this week's more intense runs away. An if I'm honest, there wasn't a lot of either - it really is true that the more you do, the easier it gets!

It's important for this to be the case, as tomorrow I am attempting 10 miles. My first double-figure distance for many years. But only if the weather holds. I ran the Brighton half marathon in 2010 in a blizzard, and I'm not repeating that experience no matter good my progress is at the moment.

A significant milestone passed with this morning's run - I have covered 3 full marathons in training! And AND along the way I've burned over 11 THOUSAND calories. Going to have pizza now.

Updated Training Plan

Friday 27 January 2012

Icy and slippy - and crap drivers everywhere!

Interval Session by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

It didn't feel any colder this morning than the last couple, but the roofs were all sparkly and I nearly went monumental-arse over shouldn't-even-have-them-tits getting down the drive. Good start, then. After that, though, it actually went fairly well. Ploddy, slow-paced bits were less ploddy than they have been and the harder intervals didn't strain my legs or breathing as much as similar levels of effort have been doing. Overall, the pace on this session was significantly better than recent runs have made me think I was capable of. Better, in fact, than the session I supposedly did at threshold pace. Added risk introduced by the inability of people driving at that time in the morning to anticipate the presence of people on foot. I know it's perhaps unusual and my slightly disturbing body shape and attire may not help, but open your bloody eyes and engage your brains, for god's sake. Getting up and down kerbs is not fun at the best of times, but bouncing up and down the same one multiple times because some half asleep, drooling fool in a bad suit who clearly can't be in that much of a hurry to get to work because he hates his job else why would he have to drink himself to sleep at night and look like that in the morning..sorry, where am I in this sentence? - oh, yes, right - isn't sure whether he's turning this corner or not or whether he's going to let me go first or make me wait, is a confounded nuisance.

I'm also starting to see an encouraging trend in the body measurements. The weight's not exactly falling off, but I am losing it, and body fat. Deeply rude software still classifies me as 'Overfat', though.

This week is pretty packed with running - 5 sessions required all together, so this is sparing me the humiliating experience of further Zumba. Tomorrow's a low intensity session, followed by the 10 miler on Sunday. I'm hoping another couple of pounds could take flight before Monday! Getting up at 6 each day has posed no problems at all, so Zumba will be reinserting itself into my life next week on the non-running days. Maybe I'll get back my core strength and be able to change direction in a couple of weeks! It's all good and getting better. Yay.

Updated Training Plan

Thursday 26 January 2012

Hills, hills, hills sweetie

Hills, hills, hills sweetie by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

I thought today's session (which I had originally planned to do yesterday) was an interval one. It wasn't, which came as something of a relief after my rather gallumphing performance on Tuesday's Fartlek. The relief soon faded when I realised it was actually a hill session. Hills and I do not get on. But there are some fairly sharp, if quite short, inclines on the Brighton marathon course. As well as some very slight but interminably long ones. So I know this kind of training is pretty essential. An off I trolled at stupid o'clock to tackle some of the ups and downs near my home.

I actually failed spectacularly on the first uphill section, walking part of it. The top end of Chalky Road is ridiculously steep and hard to deal with after only about two minutes of warm-up running - on a footpath that is itself one of the long, gradually upwards bits. It's actually quite similar in incline and length to the horrid bit of the Brighton marathon course in Ovingdean, which I think they may actually have dropped in this year's course change. But I can't be bothered researching, so won't actually find out until I do the thing in April.

After that, it all went quite well. Not blisteringly fast, natch, but I did manage the return leg all the way up Foredown Drive (the other major slope I tackled) without stopping. As ever, the hilliness contributed to higher than usual levels of bosom ache.

TOMORROW is the interval session, with something else on Saturday and the 10 miles on Sunday. A 5 run week! Eeek.

Updated Training Plan

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Knackering day started with apparently rubbish run

No way! by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

Short but challenging run this morning, only 20 minutes but at 'threshold' levels. And I honestly pushed, pushed, pushed. Much harder than Sunday, I was out of breath very quickly and continued to run at that level throughout, concentrating on striding properly with high knee lift, etc. I wasn't exactly floating over the ground, but there was, I imagined, some power and dynamism. Like...a hippo? In water, obviously. But according to the GPS, and I can see nothing in the course map stored on Garmin for the session to contradict this, I did only 2.08 miles. 9:37 per mile. Which is, clearly, a bit on the chronic side and more like a hippo out of water. Very disappointed, even allowing for the minute or so I spent waiting for some daft old bint to work out what her steering wheel was for and actually turn the corner I was patiently waiting to run across.

An interval run should follow tomorrow morning. I'm obviously looking forward to it very much.

On a lighter note. Zumba. Colin was late home this evening, so I took the opportunity to watch and learn with the instructional DVD in the set I ordered and Amazon, damn them, delivered. In summary, if I don't die laughing I may get some benefit from it.

I'm not entirely uncoordinated, but I seem to have left all my core strength somewhere and have no control whatsoever over my direction of travel in a dancing scenario. They're going 'and now the other side' and I'm looking over my shoulder at the telly with my mouth wide open careering head first for the patio doors. It's embarrassing. It all sounds very fluffy, burning calories while doing what should be a lovely fun dance to some actually great music. But my arms don't talk to my legs, my chest does not stick out under any circumstances and I don't know what a booty is, or whether I ever had one. I looked like a member of Madness, or perhaps that bloke who gormed about the stage with the Happy Mondays. They even give the moves some exotic sounding names. I believe I only managed to absorb the 'Oh Really', the 'Avinga Larfa' and the 'Fuckiu say' before I gave in to the laughter. Which at least gave my lungs and diaphragm a damn good seeing to.

I will be trying to get up at 6 every morning either to run or to Zumba. Lovely colleagues, if I'm late for work I'm probably sedated in the Royal Sussex. Come find me, they kill people in there!

Updated Training Plan

Sunday 22 January 2012

Slow (very) and steady (not really)

8 miles!!! by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

Blimey and crikey. Today's run was more an attempt to get back on track with the adding-a-mile-a-week build-up training plan than one I actually expected to go well or deliver a particularly great experience. So in actual fact, it has served its purpose. It was still surprisingly hard on the legs (although, surprisingly, no trouble for the lungs at all). I think what it really proved to me was how much of this marathon running thing is mental rather than physical. Which really does beg the question, given my history, how the hell I have managed to complete not just 1 but 3 of these bitches in the past!!! About a mile into today's session, I was already questioning whether I'd finish it.

I have noticed during the longer sessions over the past couple of weeks that my body seems to go through a kind of 'reset' process a certain distance in. It's as if, once it's realised I'm not stopping, it pulls itself together and delivers me some previously unfound knee lift and great big bucketful of lung capacity. Last weekend, this happened about 3 miles into the 5 mile session. Today it kicked in around 2 miles. This may come as a surprise to anyone who saw me during today's training, as I'm fairly certain I wasn't striding out all that impressively. I set out a deliberately conservative pace to make sure I got round without stopping or walking today, and I think my technique changes at lower speeds rather than my stride length or turnover speed.

The first 4 miles passed without any great pain once I'd got over the doubt. It was quite busy down on the prom today, with lots of people out enjoying a crisp, clear day and lots of smiling and waving as I passed. Then, when I turned round to come home, there suddenly appeared this horrendous headwind, which I am 100,000,000% sure did not exist as a helpful backwind on the way out. Miles 5, 6 and half of mile 7 where spent head down, struggling to make any progress against (hyperbole alert) the most sever hurricane to have hit the South coast in many a long year. Honestly, it was really difficult and I'm sure is the main factor behind the stark contrast in pace between the outward and return legs of this run.

The main thing is that I've now done it. I might attempt 10 miles rather than 9 next weekend, to continue running at the harder end of the programme I'm following, but having added 3 to last week's long run today, I think I'll be able to avoid any more of these self-doubt episodes. I'm definitely 'getting back into' this whole running thing now. I'm entering the part of the programme where there a lot of weeks that require 5 sessions. One of these is next week, with a session in the plan for tomorrow. I'm really not sure about the wisdom of this, or any Monday sessions. I'll set the alarm and see what happens in the morning - I may swap the run (20 minute threshold thing) for my induction into Zumba or something if my legs are still feeling sorry for themselves.

Updated Training Plan

Saturday 21 January 2012

Recovery phase by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details

Recovery phase by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

A low intensity, 30-minute session today to take the sting out of yesterday and prepare for tomorrow. Well, I say take the sting out, it actually piled pain on pain. But the pace was not hysterically bad - second half slower than first but, and this Garmin has saved properly the data to help me prove it, first half was downhill and second up!!!!!

I have to try to get back on track in terms of building up the long distances now, so I am going to make a concerted effort tomorrow to do an 8-miler. This may not go well.

Colin got up before me today, scuppering my plan to learn Zumba and use that as my warm-up. Will try again tomorrow.

Updated Training Plan

Friday 20 January 2012

First Fartlek

Got up this morning early, again, and for the first time this week the weather and my body clock were in perfect harmony. Yes, it was freezing, but there was little wind and it wasn't raining.

This is the first Fartlek session I've done in this training programme and it was every bit as horrible as I remember. I made it through, though, without throwing up or damaging the pavement. I did set a couple of dogs barking, but you get a different class of woman round here, so no worries.

The worst bit? I connected to my Garmin site when I got back, and got a confirmation message that the session data had been uploaded - it was certainly deleted from my pedometer. Then I had to wash up and leap in the shower. And on accessing my online activity list this evening, I find the details of the run are not there! The fatness data from my body monitor was uploaded fine, but the run information is missing and, as I say, deleted from my pedometer - irretrievable!!! Massive annoyance. I have manually added an activity for today (I remember the distance covered as 2.37 miles) but as you won't be able to guffaw at the slowness of the 'normal' running bits, or gasp in bewildered awe at the speed of the sprint intervals, I'm not bothering to link as I usually do.

The normal stats are below.

Updated Training Plan

Session Details

Sunday 15 January 2012

Um. Ow. by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details

Um. Ow. by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

This should have been 8 miles. But having run yesterday for the first time in, yes, months, my calves and quads this morning were screaming. Ambition and enthusiasm aside, 8 miles was not realistic, so I set out to do 5.

Beautiful weather again, although there was a definite bite in the wind. It wasn't quick and it definitely wasn't pretty, but my main aim today was to regain some confidence in my ability to run significant distances without stopping, puking or crying. On this basis, mission accomplished!!!

I only just scraped under 10:00 minute mile pace, but there's plenty of time to work on that. Calves and quads are now distinctly unhappy again, however. Much stretching and a long soak in a Radox bath coming up.

Next session is due to be tomorrow morning, but is one of the 'cross training' deals scattered throughout the programme. So I may cycle to work, depending on the weather.

Satisfactory outcome from the weekend is that I am running again. Smiling.

Updated Training Plan

Saturday 14 January 2012

REBIRTH by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details

REBIRTH by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

I can't quite believe it was 2nd November that I last went out for a run. I was very conscious during November of the lack of training, counting the days and then the weeks that I 1. Simply could not be bothered and then 2. Was poorly. But where the time has gone since then, I really don't know!

With the marathon now almost exactly 3 months away, all the getting-ahead-of-the-game I did at the end of last year (clearly not at the VERY end) is out the window and I'm again playing catch-up, theoretically 3 weeks into training proper. The weather has provided me no excuses this week, but it has been my first week back at work and, although I've managed to get up in plenty of time to do a run several times this week, the pitch blackness and occasional iciness have persuaded me that coffee in front of the telly was a better option.

No more time for excuses!!! I need to get back on the horse. So I have been out today. Perfect running conditions prevailed - weather-wise, obviously, my physical condition could not be less perfect - and were it not for my extreme lack of fitness, today would have been an absolute pleasure. As it was, I managed to do the 20 minutes without having to stop and walk, although I was already beginning to slow down noticeably towards the end, not a good sign with the mileage I need to be building up to!!!

I really can't see any blockers preventing me getting back into this in the serious way that is now required if I'm going to be ready. Everything is falling into place at work and at home I can't remember being this contented for a long time. So it's onwards and upwards from here.

Usual 'progress' reports below as usual.

Updated Training Plan

Detailed Session Stats