Observations of an occasional runner
After yesterday’s sudden jolt back into running, I thought I would give my legs a ‘hair of the dog’ run this morning. It turned out to be a painful idea and although I completed a mile in a shade over 11 minutes, I’ve been walking around the rest of the day as if I’m on a pair of stilts!
Which is worrying since the worst impact for me is usually on the second day after a run! Maybe I should order a crane to get me out of bed tomorrow morning?
I was a bit miserable this morning, having missed a 40th birthday party that I was really looking forward to last night. Kim thought it was later in the month and I didn’t realise until too late.
My neighbour’s wonderful cats cheered me up a little (I occasionally act as their food-on-feet service when my neighbours are away), a quadespresso and a little guitar playing brightened me further still and finally a great friend called from the other side of the world for a catch up, which was top banana and improved my morning no end!
It was raining persistently outside which, though GREAT for the garden and water-table, since we’ve been on drought alert, was not so appealing to run in. So, risking the mirth of Cliff & Co, I opted for a run on the machine.
I’d still not had breakfast at this point so I downed a banana (the largest I’ve seen in an age) by way of sustenance before jumping straight on and winding the speed up… somewhat against Kim’s advice. As normal I moved the speed up, up, up or down at each quarter-mile and by the time I reached 9mph had decided that I would complete 6 miles… which is about the time that I got the stitch, that big banana fighting back against being digested!
My plans for greater speed disrupted, I was adamant that I wasn’t going to acquiesce to my subconscious by stopping at 4 miles and calling it a day. Instead I just lowered the speed until I managed to catch my breath and then started increasing it again, this time every eighth of a mile.
I crossed the 6-mile line in 48 minutes, an average of 7.5mph on the nose, before cooling down for a quarter mile at a sedentary 3mph.
Cooling down is a misnomer… I was so wet with sweat when I finally stepped off that I looked like I had just stepped out of the shower. Realising that I wasn’t going to cool down for quite some time, I capitalised on the rain outside by going to wash Kim’s car… using less water than normal in the process and saving me the effort of rinsing or drying it!
I’m now finally back down to normal working temperature and am also actually really glad that I didn’t go to the party last night. I’m pretty certain that it would have been a tediously boring evening…
…without all those people, including the host, who will be attending it next weekend! Needless to say that I’ve not yet told Kim… I reckon I’m going to get six of the well-deserved best when she reads this!
Slightly unfair, I feel, the comment from Cliff on last Monday’s post, but the least I can do is to roll with it when I’ve blatantly blanked his excellent advice for such a long time.
This week I had a moment to celebrate. In the past I have, on possibly two occasions, half-heartedly set out to write something longer than a post… and even longer than a letter to the Right Honourable Nicholas Soames MP containing yet more of my ideas that he really doesn’t want. On each occasion my effort has fizzled out and quite rightly so.
However, at 3pm on 10th February, I set fingers to keyboard to write the inaugural words of my first proper book, on a subject that I have been teaching and writing about for a couple of years. I know how long the book will be (thanks to Aidan Berry, Dean of Brighton Business School), have created the structure of sections and chapters, and in a little over 11 hours writing, over the last three days, have already clocked up 3,419 words.
I have also already had half a dozen helpful tips from my fellow alumni at London Business School, having replied to a fortuitously-timed post from someone else in the community who also just started writing a book.
There’s a long, long way to go, and writing it is only a small part of the challenge, but it feels great to have finally reached clarity about this project… I’ve effectively been preparing myself from it since 2007!
So my run this morning had to be shoehorned into a busy day, which is why (here comes the crux of the excuse that you were waiting for) I chose to run on the machine again rather than facing the seemingly sub-zero temperatures outside!
Based on my experience last Sunday, I didn’t bother to even put a tee-shirt on today, but I equally didn’t open the door either. It’s FAR too cold outside! I set the fan to blow air at me, filled a bottle with water and set off in the general direction of the cheese plant.
My approach mirrored that of last week, starting at 6mph and increasing by 0.5mph every quarter mile until I reached a mile. Then I reduced by 1mph and repeated, eventually reaching a terminal speed of 9.5mph as I ran towards the 5 mile mark.
The Monday circuits have definitely improved my footing and although the last half mile was undoubtedly hard work, I was quick to feel a sense of recovery afterwards… albeit through a thick layer of sweat that even a shower couldn’t abate!
So 5 miles in 39.28, an average of 7.6mph. And if nothing else, all this exercise is at least increasing the speed of my writing!
I always love the way that a covering of snow on the ground outside reflects the day onto the ceilings inside the house and enhances the quality of the light. I would be a very happy guineapig for a dimmable ceiling full of LED lights, but in the meantime I enjoy our occasional snowy days all the more for the change in light.
I’m not averse to running in the snow, but only if it’s off-road. There is far too little traction on snowy pavements and the risk of injury outweighs any other considerations… including any adverse comments from my more… er, manly friends.
So instead I put on my shorts and climbed aboard the running machine. I’m sure that visitors think it’s an odd piece of furniture to have in the middle of an otherwise Zen-ish environment like ours, but I think more houses should have one… in fact, one of my neighbours clearly agrees and has recently bought one, albeit a bit flashier than our rather purposeful machine.
The downside of its location is that it faces a wall with only the leaves of a cheese plant to break the view. Two winters ago when I was training for the Brighton marathon and the world outside was deep with snow, I clocked up a number of long runs including one at 20 miles. It seems odd in retrospect that the subsequent marathon would break my mind in under two hours, when my mental muscle was strong enough to keep running whilst staring at the leaves of a cheese plant for three hours!
Today my aims were much more modest… a mere five miles. The machine shows progress around a quarter-mile track of LED lights and I decided to change the speed at each completed circuit. Starting at 6mph I increased through 6.5 and 7 to 7.5mph, before dropping back to 6.5 at the start of the next mile and repeating the process again.
This meant that at the end of mile four I was running at 9mph. In the final mile I reduced to 8.5, then to 8 and 7.5, but realising that I had the opportunity to run a sub 40-minute time, then increased the speed to 10mph to sprint to the end in 39.47, averaging just over 7.5mph overall.
Early on, Kim had noticed my get-on-and-run lack of preparation and had opened the door to the snowy garden, turned on the fan and had brought me a bottle of water… just as well since I had shed my shirt within a mile and by the end was dripping as if I was in a sauna.
After I pointed out the extreme clemency of the season yesterday, the weather made a half-hearted effort at producing winter last night.
The sky was so clear that the stars shone like LED’s and there was already a frost on the deck when I went to bed. Likewise this morning at 6am there was a heavy frost on the cars outside, but as I write two hours later it is melting fast, ahead of another week of mild weather and heavy rain… the latter albeit in all parts of the UK except here, where the water companies are already talking about a hosepipe ban!
Despite only running 10km yesterday, my legs had that tell-tale stiffness this morning that suggested that I’d be back to walking like a penguin tomorrow… which is exactly what happened for what felt like a week after my token short run three weeks ago.
The only antidote that I know is to get my legs moving again the morning after the run before, so I duly climbed aboard the machine this morning for a gentle jog.
It’s a good way to warm up on a cold day and I was reminded of the time two years ago when I ran 20 miles whilst staring inanely at the white wall in front of me and the leaves of the overgrown cheese plant!
My barefoot Monday run-off covered a mile and took just over ten minutes.
Have a GREAT week peops!
I had a strange ambivalence towards running this morning. It wasn’t a case that I didn’t want to: more a case of not being bothered about it.
This is possibly something to do with the fact that the hard work is done and the next three weeks is about comprehensively sorting out my niggly injuries and recuperating ahead of the big day.
I stretched comprehensively before I started and then again at the 5-mile mark and ran a total of 8 miles in 1.13 and 22 seconds. It was really no bother, to the extent that I even counted up for a change rather than down. I kept changing the pace slightly each quarter-mile, but kept within the envelope of 6 to 7.2mph. And I stretched out again afterwards.
Of course, my ambivalence may also be something to do with the amount of running I’ve done lately. Further my post on January 31st (in which I highlighted that I had managed to fit in 12 runs, 14 hours of running time and cover 88.1 miles in January), I have had two further bumper months.
In February I had 15 runs, lasting 18 hours 48 minutes and covering 131.9 miles.
In March I have now completed 17 runs, lasting 5 minutes short of a whole day and have covered 157.25 miles.
That means I could reach Birmingham or Yeovil on foot in twenty-four hours of running… if I were allowed to stick to the motorways, of course! Or put another way, I covered almost exactly the distance of six complete marathons.
I have much (much) less planned in the next few weeks up to the marathon, but I already have the subsequent challenge lined up in the summer and this time it’s about running fast, rather than long, so please watch this space!
One last thing… Happy Birthday Debbie!
In contrast to March 15th, the day after the last time I ran 22.95 miles, I decided to take it really easy earlier today.
I set the machine to 6mph and completed 3.25 miles in 32.17, my ankle only twinging lightly in the first half-mile.
Afterwards I marvelled at how relaxed my legs were, although not so now, alas, having been sat back at my desk for an hour!
I had resigned myself to not running today, on account of a painful ankle, knackered legs and a touch of hayfever.
That is, until I spoke to Cliff this afternoon.
Despite running a 50-mile (FIFTY MILE!) race on Saturday in Paris with Pete and Daren, the lune was still seriously contemplating going to Circuit Training tonight!
In the course of trying to persuade him to be more circumspect, he persuaded me of the merits of jogging in order to be able to stretch my legs out properly. So that is what I did earlier this evening.
3 miles took me 29.52 and whilst my ankle is still about as painful as before, my legs are a whole lot less stiff.
Earlier this morning I climbed aboard the magic carpet to do my weekly Friday-five-miler.
I started at 7mph and increased the speed by 0.2mph for each quarter mile until I reached 9mph.
Then I reduced the speed by the same amount until I reached 8mph, where I stuck it out until the end.
My heart rate was only in the low 170’s even running at 9mph, but then it didn’t drop down again as the speed decreased, which suggested that I had had a tough workout. Even as I was running I knew that I could have run faster, but this still turned out to be a personal best.
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 37.23
Average speed 8.02mph, narrowly beating my time on the 3rd February
The downside of having a training program is having to stick to it, whether or not you feel like it.
This morning I did not feel like it.
However, I still jumped on the machine and set to with the specified task of running 10 miles. After a brief warm-up, I varied the speed every quarter-mile within the range 7 to 8.5mph, but more towards the bottom end if the truth be known.
I had no radio on so only my thoughts for company and I forgot to ask Kim to open the door so after 30 minutes I jumped off to open it and got straight back on again.
With 2.5 miles to go I set the speed to a constant 7.6mph, but with a mile to go I realised I was going too slow to come in underneath 80 minutes, so I increased to 8mph.
So ten miles in 79.44, average 7.5mph.