Archives for Regular Runs category
Posted on Mar 11, 2011 under Regular Runs |
Bit of a crap run. Set off, checked Garmin after a bit – Garmin had switched itself off after finding the signal and starting to count 
Switched it on again, walked until it found a signal once more, and off I went again. Started to feel tired and breathless and rather unmotivated. So my planned 5k was aborted at 2.5k (approx cos of on the blink Garmin) and couldn’t go on any more really.
Am uncertain whether it had to do with change in breakfast – ate bowl of new sugarless porridge, and didn’t have banana(s) today – my body really felt like it was missing out something,and I just couldn’t get in gear.
Oh well. 
Posted on Mar 03, 2011 under 5k, Milestones, Regular Runs |
It seems to be the benchmark for when I am starting to achieve some kind of fitness again – or at least one of them. The 5k milestone always seems significant – I have gone from running a couple of miles, to running over 3 miles, and to me means my basic fitness level has been achieved, and that 5k can now be a platform to start increasing speed a little and gradually adding more distance. I’m not running that quick at the moment – time today was 31:31, but I wasn’t trying to run too quickly, just settling into a comfortable (relatively speaking – I was breathing very hard by the end!) pace and going with it.
To run 5k in under 30 minutes will be the next milestone, but may take a few more runs to get there, I also hope to get above 5k in terms of distance soon too, and keep fingers crossed I stay injury free and can run 10k by May 15th! 
Posted on Feb 28, 2011 under Regular Runs |
Left the house to find normality turned upside down as the gas mains work begins in earnest. Diversion signs everywhere, tractors, steam rollers, men with pneumatic drills (why are women never part of these wrecking crews, you see male nurses, female cops, female firepersons, etc, and I even had a female gas engineer fix my boiler once, but I have yet to see a woman digging up the road..?). Anyway, rather than play chicken with the steamrollers and turn my route into a steeplechase of molten tarmac for waterjumps and diversion signs for hurdles, I headed away from it all and found some relatively quiet streets and did a few loop-de-loops to make up my target distance of 4.5k.
Again, I planned to do at least 4k, and at 2.5k was ready to use my getout clause, but somehow mustered the strength to carry on and complete the 4.5k – and without incident with tractors, steamrollers, molten tarmac, or pneumatic drill-wielding wrecking crews 
Posted on Feb 26, 2011 under Regular Runs |
Time to slowly build up the distance, so planned 3.5k-4k today – of course whenever I set out the lower figure is to help with the psychological side of running – it gives the lazy part of me a get out clause Almost invariably however, I end up running the max distance I have set myself, in this case 4k, and it felt good to reach that barrier. I even injected a little pace in places, but was certainly struggling by the end. Next target is 5k and then onwards and upwards – am just taking things in stages at the moment, hoping to be able to run 10k by May and not even thinking of a target time for the Great Manchester Run!
Posted on Feb 23, 2011 under Misc, Musings, Regular Runs |
Planned to do 2 miles, which eventually panned out to 3.5k as I felt I had some left in the tank, plus some interesting thoughts accompanied me on today’s run.
Less than 1km into the run, as often happens, I saw a funeral cortege pulling away from a house ahead of me. I had no idea who it was, whether they had lived to a ripe old age, or whether it was a tragic loss, but there seemed to be a lot of cars pulling out after the hearse; it was obviously someone whose friends and family had suffered a significant loss.
But it coincided with the point in a run where I usually start to suffer as my heart and lungs begin to struggle to pump oxygen to my hard working legs, and it struck me that as much as people often describe struggling during a run as “feeling like they are dying”, it is very much the opposite – it is a sign of being vibrantly, crucially, exquisitely alive. Rather then try to distract myself from the growing distress, I let my awareness rest on it, and wondered about that person in the coffin – what would they give to feel their lungs struggling like this, breathing hard, beginning to hurt, but so very much alive? And I realised that every moment can be like this – on day I will be that person in the coffin, no longer breathing, gone… But this is my time to be conscious, to savour every sensation, every moment, to not shun experience but drink it in for what it is, the glorious, visceral, beautiful feeling of being alive.
Posted on Jan 22, 2011 under 5k, Regular Runs, Tempo Runs |
Got some sleep last night, and had a bit of a lazy morning, but actually decided to do some meditation for the first time in ages, which really made me feel quite relaxed and expansive. Then it was time for the run. It looked pretty cold outside, so I put my Nike running beanie on, and went out, and by heck it was freezing, I ended up shivering as I walked along while the Garmin found a signal.
As I set off a bloke and his dog on the other side of the street appeared to try to start racing me, so I set off quite quick – but to my suprise I was able to maintain this pace (6mins per k) without going into shock so it ended up as a bit of a tempo run. I did slow later on, but managed to stay well under 6:30, and by the end, even though I was starting to tire, I was able to inject some pace and did the last k in 5:45. I had hoped at one stage to get sub 30 for this 5k, but was to miss that by 20 seconds coming in at 30:20. Still, it was over a minute off my 5k in the week, so the fitness seems to be coming back in leaps and bounds – just need to keep gently upping the distance and the speed and hopefully can think about maybe doing the Salford 10k, which is a bit of an emotionally charged race for me in more ways than one.
It certainly was cold today – normally I take off the beanie at about 2k, this time it felt cold enough to keep on all the way round, and only whipped it off when I’d stopped!
Posted on Jan 19, 2011 under 5k, Milestones, Regular Runs |
Finally got a few hours of sleep last night after a rotten few days where I didn’t sleep for 3 nights Had meant to go for this run yesterday, but was a bit worried about running when feeling exhausted and I had an important event to get to so didn’t want to feel even tireder (even though running usually wakes me up a bit, I was feeling VERY tired).
Anyway, wanted to reach the 5k milestone after a couple of 4k runs recently, so this was my goal. Set off at a gentle pace, without any weights or situps as a warmup today. Slowly started to breathe harder, but was determined to keep the pace slowish and not go for speed, but just to get my body used to running a little further again.
Did start to struggle at 4k, had to force myself to keep going – have not run 5k for some time, so knew it wasn’t going to be a fantastic time. By the end was petering out, 5k was my limit today, but good that I reached it, in 31:26. So my next target is to run 5k under 30 minutes and then take it from there
Posted on Jan 15, 2011 under Milestones, Regular Runs, Season's Best |
One of the many things I like about running, is that usually (not always, of course), the perceived effort produces rewarding results. This can give a real psychological boost. You put the work in, you get the reward. Bit like with lab rats… But anyway, today I had to force myself out again, it’s a grim day, rain, clouds, and while I was warming up it was pouring down, but I wasn’t going to let that deter me – I needed to wake up somehow!
So out I went and trudged the streets until the Garmin found its satellites and locked in, and then set off, just wanting to get the run over with so I could get back to the house. It had stopped raining by now. Don’t get me wrong, I love running in the rain, I especially love long runs in the rain, but rain at the start of a run, before you’ve warmed up, can be more of an annoyance. In any case, I set off, and felt good, and noticed that I was breathing hard by about half a kilometre – checked Garmin, and I was going a bit quick, and I ended up doing the first k in under 6 minutes, which is what my last k had been in my last run (I often seem to start off as I left off!). I tried not to slow, but inevitably a bit of a faster paced start had got me into oxygen debt, so I just tried to maintain pace and complete the 4k. Some rain would have been good at that point!
At 2k, I was breathing very hard and wondering if I would even make 4k, but I also knew if I did make 4k, I was going to run it in sub 25 and quite a bit quicker than the 4k effort I did in the week (25:11). That kept me going, even though I had to grit my teeth and was grimacing. I just kept going, kept going, no pain, no pain, whispering the Mantra of Rocky
By the last K I was starting to feel an endorphin rush, I passed a woman I had already passed once in my looping route, and at that point my legs felt like feathers, I sped up to near 40 minute 10k pace, feeling like I was flying, before dwindling down to a jog and stopping the Garmin at 24:02. I was really pleased to knock a minute off the time for the same distance from only a few days ago, and pleased that my effort had paid off. I worked hard, and got my little reward. I also beat the downpour that started just after I got in!
Of course one of the other things I like about running is that, I will soon be running that kind of time with far less effort, and increasing the effort will result in faster times, and I hope some longer runs too.
One thing is for sure, running wakes me up, which is one of my biggest perceived daily efforts
Posted on Nov 28, 2010 under 5-10k, Milestones, Regular Runs |
A very cold day – frost still on the road outside at 12pm. Didn’t sleep too well, but wanted a run today. Donned the running clobber and the beanie Louise gave me for my birthday. Breath was pluming like smoke!
Set off and felt good straightaway, then hit a bit of a wall at Crown Point North shopping centre, – a wall of shoppers! Dodged through them but I was under the glass awning and this seemed to affect my Garmin, for once I was out from under the awning, it shot up to 1.6k when I done 1.2 at the most. That made the pacing of the run confusing thereafter, so I just tried to settle into a rhythm and run and added half a km on to the target to make sure I did the 4 miles. Soon got warm enough to remove running beanie. Big hill over Guide Bridge negotiated OK, then a long sloping ascent up the road that leads back to Corporation Road, then coasting in a straight line for a while before getting back to my neck of the woods.
Felt I was running faster at times but couldn’t really sustain it and the splits show I was just over 10 minute mile pace, but running in the cold didn’t help. I’ve done 14.62 miles this week, if I include last Sunday’s run, 20 miles, which is more than I have run in a week for quite some time. I am going to need a couple of rest days now as I could feel the miles in my legs a bit – need to take a step back and just let my legs strengthen up and the CV system have a break before coming back fresh again. Wish I could run every day, it would help with the SAD etc – but I need to be sensible as the last thing I need right now is overdoing the running and getting yet another 2 month disabling injury!
Posted on Nov 23, 2010 under 5 miles, Regular Runs |
After Sunday’s run really seemed to help me physically and mentally, I decided to attempt another 5 miler, and maybe run a new route, so I took my bus pass with me again just in case. I was going to run up to Guide Bridge and around back via Corporation Road, but traffic was heavy and couldn’t cross where I wanted so ended up going opposite route – then wound out to Droylsden and the snipe retail park before heading back into Denton via Guide Bridge.
Started off at a fair pace and felt good, under 10 minute mile pace, but soon settled into something slower as my lungs started to work hard. After a while settled into a pace I could keep going, and had a burst of pace when I saw another runner on the other side of the road. I won that little silly battle before the long stretch back, and as I crested the Guide Bridge hill, I felt the chill of an endorphin rush starting to happen, and gritten my teeth. Towards the end I thought I might get close to doing a sub 50 five miles, but didn’t really have much left – though I didn run the last k the quickest of all, in 5:59, and recovered quite quickly.
I plan to have 2 days rest now before deciding what to do next. It seems nice slow 5 milers are enough to get my teeth into, whereas a quick 5k hardly seems the bother of getting ready and going out for, when it’s cold and miserable. Have to be careful I don’t up the weekly mileage too quickly, but at the moment 5 miles seems to be working for me, in terms of enhancing my mood as much as anything else.
