Health, health, health darling!

Sunday 26 February 2012

Another stunning Spring day. Ruined.

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

Just kidding!

Pace-wise, today's run ended up being identical (to within a second a mile) to last week's nightmare. But the experience could not have been more different.

At no stage this week did I feel like I was running particularly slowly, or labouring just to put one foot in front of the other. Last week, I never felt I was running particularly quickly and every step was an effort. This week, my pace and the effort I felt I was putting in felt very steady and consistent throughout ( the numbers back up this impression). Last week, I could barely move for about the last 3 miles and knew I was slowing down, despite never having felt I was pushing that hard.

I'm not going to claim to have enjoyed it, but it's definitely a step (or several thousand) in the right direction! I actually managed to notice people I knew this week, and raise a smile and a wave, rather than being locked in an isolation tank of pain and misery.

And, oh my god, what a beautiful day it is out there! It brought out the hordes onto the seafront, which did create some issues. Especially towards the end, when both my steering and breaking capabilities were rapidly running out and I almost stepped on THE SMALLEST DOG ON THE PLANET. But, this gave me the practice I usually get doing a competitive half marathon, which is actually quite important. When you're sharing a course with 15 thousand other runners (35 thousand if you're running London), you cannot ever, no matter how much you want to, run the shortest distance or anything approaching a direct course. You're hoppity-skippy-jumping constantly to avoid people, thrown bottles, etc. And negotiating the seafront today was the perfect rehearsal for all that.

All in all, much less horrible than it could have been and, if not quite convincing me a PB is on the cards this year, at least I now feel I won't humiliate myself. Beyond being out in public in lycra, obviously. And I passed another milestone this week at some point - training runs so far have totalled over a full day's worth of running!!! 24 hours plus!!! And the long Sunday runs are almost burning 2000 calories each. Just in time for Easter. Hurrah.

Updated Training Plan

Saturday 25 February 2012

Another half hour interval run. Nice!

Another half hour interval run by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

Got shopping out of the way early this morning - bummer that 24 hour opening doesn't include Sunday, it would be great to be able to do this before the long runs - and drove down to Hove Lagoon again for another interval session this morning. By the time I got there, the rain had thankfully stopped and all that remained was a refreshingly light breeze.

To begin with, it didn't feel all that great. My last run was only just over half a day previously, so there was probably some residual tiredness still hanging about, despite extensive and repeated stretching sessions. And the first 3 minutes proved to be, on reviewing the session data, the slowest bit. After that, again, there's a pleasing and surprising consistency throughout. I'm definitely getting fitter and recovering more quickly from the high intensity blasts in these runs. This was different to Wednesday's, which was a 1-minute-sprint-1-minute-recover, with some 5 minute jogs. Today, it was 3-minute-sprint-3-minute-recover, 6 times, no extended jogging. And I did cover about as much additional distance as I was hoping I would. Overall pace almost down to 9-minute miling.

A restful day with plenty of food ahead, I hope, ready for the 14 miles tomorrow. I REALLY hope that goes better than last Sunday. Almost couldn't bear another run that horrible.

Updated Training Plan

Friday 24 February 2012

1 hour again - not quite as good as last time

1 hour again by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

Felt really good again, though! I think the difference was running in the evening this time, after a full day (week, indeed) of work and multiple cigarettes. Last time it was a morning run and I seem to perform better in the mornings - which is good, given the start time of the Marathon itself.

I've had 2 decent runs this week, which have somewhat restored my faith after last Sunday's nightmare session. I'm hoping for another encouraging interval session tomorrow morning, to set me up for this Sunday's 14 miles.

Settling down for Friday-night-type things now. Basically, watching telly and sipping (to start with at least) brandy. While keeping an eye on work e-mail for some weekend outsourcing excitement. I like weekends, I do.

Updated Training Plan

P.S. Don't know if it was just me, but all the public toilets seemed to be closed this evening. Before 6pm. They're usually open much later, I think. The start of things to come? Green Party 'you make us freeze council tax, we're cutting back on services' kicking off?

Wednesday 22 February 2012

30 minute interval session - wet and wild

30 minute interval session by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

Actually, not that wet, but REALLY wild. Man, is the wind blowing this evening. I drove down to Hove lagoon to do this evening's run, which probably put me in the teeth of the worst of the wind. But on interval sessions, it's nice to 1. be on the flat and 2. not have to cross any roads. Nothing worse than doing your best Usain Bolt impression and having to stop to let a car go by.

And there were loads and loads of brave and (fool)hardy souls out training this evening! I'm well impressed. And I have decided to give up for Lent...finding excuses not to run! Timing is perfect, as it takes me right up to the start of April, by when I will be on the cutting-down-in-preparation-for-the-real-deal bit of the training!

Pace-wise, it was not too bad this evening. It seems my 'Level 4' pace these days is on a par with my 'I can keep this up all day' pace from my teens, but that's no huge surprise. At least I remained consistent, rather than getting slower and slower, which kind of suggests my body's getting better at recovering. As suggested in a previous post, I will be giving this week's Fartlek a miss, so the next session will be on Friday - an 'easy' hour. I'm not sure I can possibly bring myself to get out of bed early enough to fit this in before work, but this Friday is the monthly finish-early-for-a-drink-and-socialise Friday at work, so I may miss the drink and socialise and just come home to do it in the evening. I have enjoyed the early morning runs I've managed to do and they've really perked me up for the start of the day, but tonight's was a refreshing change and perhaps a bit of variety will help with the not looking for excuses thing.

On the weight loss front, no change. Although I am fairly sure I look a different shape head on. I definitely taper a bit from shoulders to hips, where previously I was all slab-sided and straight up and down. It's just when I turn sideways on, there's still this 'what the hell are my nipples doing down there and where the hell did all THAT come from' metamorphosis into some saggy, baggy, lardy heifer thing. Will keep exercising and monitoring.

Updated Training Plan

Sunday 19 February 2012

Half marathon hell on Earth

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

So, I didn't enter the Brighton Half Marathon that happened today. As previously mentioned, I have run it twice, in appalling conditions both times, and wanted the option this time not to do it if it was nasty again. ANd it turned out to be the nicest day of the year so far. Typical. Like it or not, however, I absolutely had to do a minimum of 13 miles today to get back on track with the programme. I've missed the last 2 long runs and the last one I did was 10 miles, 3 weeks ago.

But I was very optimistic about today, after yesterday's session went really rather gorgeously. Today's run was a bonanza of shattered illusions, crushed hopes, pain and childish tears. I absolutely hated it. I ran West along the coast today, to avoid getting caught up in any of the madness that can accompany the official, organised events. The pavements out that way, I have to say, are in appalling condition. In some areas, they're missing altogether, which is when being six foot wide and wearing a pink Diabetes UK top comes in handy.

Anyway. I never at any stage reached the blissful state of floatiness that made yesterday's run such a pleasure and a success. It felt ploddy from the start and got worse from there. Mile 9...GOD how I hated mile 9. Once I passed 10 miles, my previous furthest distance, I got a bit of a lift for mile 11, but miles 12 and 13 were unmitigated vileness. Knee lift non-existent, knees and quads a mess, calves spasming and, yes, tears streaming. Also, big toes on both feet were agonisingly painful and numb AT THE SAME TIME from about 7 miles in. Sounds impossible, but I swear it's true. Almost 3 hours later, they still hurt and sensation is just returning. Does anyone know what I mean and can you tell me what's going on?

The only thing I am really proud of today is that I completed the fucking thing. 12 minutes slower than the last time I did this distance, and 20 minutes slower than my PB.

Tomorrow there's supposed to be an interval run. I can't really see this happening. It's another 5-run week, but one of the sessions is a '50 minute Fartlek of your choice' and, given my opinion of Fartleks and the interval session to start the week, my choice is likely to be sitting down drinking coffee.

I have learned 3 valuable lessons today, if we're going to try to find a positive.

1. Long runs on an empty stomach DO NOT WORK.

Simple solution here. I watched a programme earlier in the week about how milk aids muscle recovery more than these sports drinks thingies. So I will make sure at the very least on the morning of these Sunday slogs, to have a smoothie of milk, bananas and some Options hot chocolate powder.

2. On a gorgeous sunny day (another positive!!!) 500 mls of fluid is not enough to get you round.

Ditto on the simplicity. I will pour my sports drinks into one of my 750 ml bottles and take that.

3. I really hate long runs.

There could be a teensy tiny issue here. And, to be honest, I hate them a bit less now I've had a long soak in a Radox bath. But expect more Sunday whingery.

Updated Training Plan

Saturday 18 February 2012

GREAT 1 hour

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

That went REALLY well. I know there's rain due later, so headed out earlyish this morning. There was a blustery wind blowing, changing direction all the time and making things a little unsteady - I'd just get used to leaning into the wind to make any progress at all and it would die, or swing around and I'd be leaning on nothing and almost go head over heels. However, the pace I managed to set today was really, really pleasing and didn't strain me at all. As on Thursday, all smooth and co-ordinated and, if obviously not effortless, really easy.

I almost broke 9 minute mile pace and it's the longest run I've managed to sustain anywhere near that kind of pace on. It bodes really well for tomorrow's half marathon, which I should complete now in something close to 2 hours. Given the patchiness of my recent training, this is hugely encouraging as I enter the last 2 months leading up to April's big event!

Updated Training Plan

Thursday 16 February 2012

Finally made it out!

40 minute jog by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

I've been suffering with a horrendous gum infection all week. I think the antibiotics have finally kicked in, as the painkillers are finally starting to work, but they're also playing merry hell with my digestion. The less said about that, though, the better.

So this week's going to be very backloaded and busy, rather than the easy 4-session week I've been looking forward to after a couple of heavyish 5-run ones. This morning's session actually went very well. My legs have obviously had plenty of time to recover from the last run and it was all nice and fluid if not blisteringly fast. I'm not seeing any noticeable weight loss right now, but I definitely feel trimmer and there's a lot more co-ordination between the various bits of my body that should be contributing to my progress - including, finally, my arms and torso. I'm getting a twist through my previously frozen-facing-forward waist that should help my waistline return from wherever the hell it's been for the last couple of years and my arms are driving me forward rather than flopping around uselessly.

The next session is a cross-training (i.e. not running) one that I'll complete tomorrow morning before work. In my own unique and deeply special way, I will be approximating Zumba. Then it's an easy hour on Saturday. And on Sunday I WILL WITHOUT ANY SHADOW OF A DOUBT BE ATTEMPTING 13 MILES. I'm not running the Brighton Half as I usually would as part of my build up to the big day. I've done it twice and, while the first time was just Februarily cold, last time was a full on blizzard with snow, hail and howling winds. Typically, the forecast for this Sunday is actually pretty good. In order not to get caught up in the event and shouted at by marshalls who fail to realise I'm not wearing a number, I shall head West for a change and inflict myself on the unsuspecting residents of Shoreham and, possibly, Lancing and Worthing. I'm not really sure how far along the coast I will get.

Good luck to all the fundraising charity-running heroes on Sunday!!!!

Updated Training Plan

Sunday 12 February 2012

The agony and the agony

Another 25 minute threshold session by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

Late post about yesterday's run. Less bitterly cold than other recent sessions, partly I guess because it was later in the day than the 6am ones I'm squeezing in before work. And blimey, what an improvement. Sub 9 minute miling. Sub, in fact, 8 minute 30 miling!!! A great boost and really made me hopeful for today's long run.

Which, I regret to say, is not now happening. I just can't face it. I was diagnosed in October with advanced periodontal disease and was referred by my dentist for a second opinion before he went ahead and removed what he said was a large number of teeth. The referral never resulted in anything and, after some chasing, the dentist has referred me again. So potentially another 3 months of waiting. And all week one of my back teeth has been giving me serious pain. Eating is actually an eye-watering experience. It's spreading down my neck and up to my ear. Couple this with a tremendously fun but somewhat drunken evening yesterday with my dearest friends and I'm in no fit state.

Will be attempting the weekday runs before work, starting tomorrow, but 12 miles is entirely beyond me and I'm wrapping up on the sofa for some trash telly.

Updated Training Plan

Thursday 9 February 2012

Interval run in sub zero. Fun!?!?!

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

Another bitterly cold early morning. I finally caved in this morning and wore the full-length scare-o-tights. I know I've been whingeing about my hands and face, but that's only because my legs haven't really been able to get cold. They have been sort of moving. A bit. But I wasn't entirely clear this morning how far from the house I should venture in order to finish back close to it - these interval runs are quite complex in the planning and I would no way have been able to keep track of when I hit half time to turn round - so I was left with the prospect of a possibly fairly lengthy walk back from wherever I ended up.

Needn't have worried and, even though I didn't cover as much ground as I thought I might in the 40 minutes, looking at the detailed stats I'm actually pleasantly surprised. Overall, pace is a bit below where I'd like it to be, but my pace during the sprinty bits actually improved with each rep, as did the pace of the recovery phases. I do not remember this ever having happened before! I usually start slow and finish slower. So that's good.

I didn't enjoy it. Not at all. I hate traditional interval sessions and Fartlek sessions and only do them because I know they really, really do help. I cannot possibly fit in a run tomorrow morning, as I have an early meeting in London. Again. And I know that when I get back from London I'll be in no mood to do one. (It took me 3 and a half hours to get from Holborn to Portslade yesterday, just by the by. I mean, WHAT!?!?!?!?!) So, presupposing I can keep the reins on my alcoholic tendencies when my friends are down this weekend, the 2 on Saturday and Sunday will be it for this week. That's still 4 sessions in a week, which is pretty damned good, especially given the schizo weather.

Am feeling really rather good about things and am intending to quit smoking at some point on Sunday, too.

Updated Training Plan

Tuesday 7 February 2012

35 minute jog - ROBBED AGAIN

35 minute jog by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

So after the anticlimax that was the weather at the weekend, back into another 5-run week this morning. About the only thing the snow did round here was take some of the sting out of the cold in the air, but even that has worn off now. It was utterly freezing. I wore the fright hat, so my ears weren't too bad, but my face and hands hurt like buggery. And so did the lungs, I'm really not good breathing sub-zero air, especially gasping for breath as I generally do. Almost finished Allen Carr's second book now, 'The Only Way To Stop Smoking Permanently', so hope to be back off the ciggies very soon.

Anyway, despite the freezing air the run itself did not feel bad at all. Only intensity level 2, basically a relaxed kind of pace, but I seem to be getting the hang of the right posture and the right technique even at low effort levels now and everything felt nicely connected and coordinated. So I was a little disappointed by the distance my pedometer reported. And, having uploaded all the data to the website, I find the dratted thing has robbed me of about a hundred meters. I started the run AND the timer right outside my house, but is that where it says I started? Is it hell. So it also suggests I was only moving for 33 minutes and some seconds, when I absolutely did not stop. Not once. Rude.

Another run tomorrow and one on Thursday, then a day off on Friday - another early morning meeting in London. I should be doing another on Saturday, and then a biggy - 12 miles (or 13 depending how I feel, which may not be great) - on Sunday. I have my loveliest friends from my uni days in Cambridge coming down for dinner and a light alcoholic spasm on Saturday night. More excuses! But I honestly don't think I can afford to miss 2 long runs in a row, so honestly intend to try to do this week's. Depending, it seems, again on the weather.

Global bloody warming my arse.

Updated Training Plan

Sunday 5 February 2012

Trainingus interruptus

Could not run Friday morning as, even getting up as usual at 6 a.m. I only had time to wash, iron and dress before having to run out the door to get a train to London for a client meeting.

Did not run yesterday as every weather forecaster was all doom, gloom and cataclysm and I did not want to get caught in what they were sure would be terminal arcticness. What a load of fuss over nothing.

Having been assured we'd all be dead in our beds or at least trapped in our homes today, I pre-decided yesterday that I would not be running today, planning instead a day of sloth, liberally sprinkled with Nintendo. And I'm sticking to it.

ANOTHER 5-run week next week, so will be starting tomorrow morning and getting back on track. This will mean adding 2 miles on the long Sunday run again, but I've done that before.

Right now, Professor Layton, Mario Kart or Ridge Racer? Decisions, decisions.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Half hour plod

Half hour plod by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

Holy cow, it's cold and getting colder. I was so tempted not to bother this morning. In fact, I changed my mind numerous times and ended up not getting out the door until about 6.40. A clear day and a light breeze are lovely running conditions normally, but not when the wind chill factor's about minus 10. When the wind did occasionally gust, it actually hurt.

Fortunately, this was one of the low-intensity half hour sessions scattered liberally through the programme to give you a break without allowing you to return to the vegetative state you used to spend your whole life in. So there was no strenuous breathing going on and no sweat freezing as soon as it reached the surface. But I was so relieved to get home at the end and shut out the weather.

I didn't cover a huge distance, but that really wasn't the point today. I am in London for a meeting tomorrow morning and may well make the executive decision before I go to bed, having seen the scary-mode weather forecast this evening, not to even try another run tomorrow. But then I'm worried about being able to get out on Saturday and Sunday, too. What the hey, I can't be bothered thinking about it just now. There's the prospect of ironing and other looking-like-a-professional type things to get past. Shave, perhaps? No, that would be just silly.

It's a 'que sera sera' week and I don't know what I'll do the next few days. 'Wait and see' is the best policy for now.

Updated Training Plan

Wednesday 1 February 2012

25 minute thrash - bloody freezing!!!

25 minute thrash by leecolgate at Garmin Connect - Details - link to map and stats

I missed yesterday morning's planned interval session. It was to be a 30-minute job, but having got up in plenty of time, actually got into the full kit and stepped out the door, my entire face went numb in about a millisecond and I changed my mind almost as quickly. I had coffee and watched the recording of the mens' final at the Aussie open instead. Side note, either Virgin or Eurosport has a recording protocol that is the very definition of crap. 4 hours and 25 minutes of recording and I therefore missed, allowing for the old lesbian and the personality-free Canadian droning on for an hour before the match started, about 2 and a half hours of actual play, including the bloody ending! Why does this happen? How hard can it possibly be for either the channel or the box, whichever controls these things, to continue recording when a programme is extended?

Anyway, only a supreme desire to keep up the good work of the past two weeks got me out there pounding pavement today. And it was well worth it results-wise, even if it was, if anything, colder than yesterday and breathing was like inhaling knives. This is the first run where my ace has been under 9 minutes per mile! Compare and contrast with the 20-minute session at supposedly the same effort level a little while back. It was quite late by the time I started - I was working from home today, so was able to take my time this morning without the bus commute - and so a lot more people were probably shocked into insensibility by my passing, including many I generally get on the bus with. But no matter, I ran and ran pretty well all things considered.

Much to my horror, this should be another 5-run week, so I could potentially be running every day for the rest of it. No promises though, especially if the weather makes up its mind to go properly cold; the forecasters apparently can't decide just now what is going to happen there.

My weight appears to be yoyoing wildly just now. At some point surely there must be a downward trend? Will just keep monitoring for now.

Updated Training Plan