Archives for Slow Runs category
Posted on Jan 18, 2012 under 5-10k, nutrition, Regular Runs, Slow Runs |
As the deadline looms for my latest Uni assignment I have been putting the finishing touches to it and have developed a sort of tunnel vision, in order to fully concentrate on getting it done. Unfortunately this means I have not been eating quite as well as I might normally – been snacking quite a bit today and having forgotten to eat something in between frantic research, ended up eating a chocolate bar…
All of which was not good for my run, I knew I wanted to get a run in to clear my head after a day handcuffed to the laptop, and felt OK as I got out into the cold and set off. Felt fine for a couple of kilometres and then started to just sense that something wasn’t quite right. I had a plan of doing 7k in my head, but by the time I got to 4k I was starting to get really puffy and feel very hungry. I had to stop and walk a few times, and did consider trying to get through to 7k by hook or by crook. I revised this down to 4 miles but as I was going to pass my house on reaching 6k, with cupboards full of food, I decided to call it a day and settle for the 6k.
Felt fairly puffed out and tired from the run, but knew it was down to not having eaten properly, so will try not to make that mistake again!
Posted on Nov 22, 2011 under 5-10k, Milestones, Slow Runs |
Evening running seems to be my thing at the moment and running in the dark has its charms – though one of these days I will go flying when looking up to admire the stars or a passing aeroplane flashing in the sky!
Ran this at a slow and steady pace, averaging just over 6 mins 30 per km, trying not to feel any pressure to try to run fast, but at least finding that kind of pace very easy and was hardly out of breath all the way. May try to up the pace once I can comfortably run 10k, but there’s no rush – can build base miles in over the winter and then look for speedier stuff as spring and race season approaches, then think about potential races or time trials in addition to the Great Manchester Run 2012.
Posted on Nov 06, 2011 under Easy Runs, Regular Runs, Slow Runs, Swimming |
Well I am slowly on the comeback trail at a rate of 2.5 miles a week at the moment! Have been swimming during the week, as after last week’s run, gosh, did I know I had legs – talk about aches! Took several days to walk easy again! A 50 length swim session helped, and doing front crawl is helping with the cardiovascular fitness I think, or at least maintaining what the runs do without further impact on the legs.
Today it seemed pretty cold albeit sunny so put on the jogging pants for the first time with my long sleeve technical top. There was certainly a nip in the air and I could smell smoke from the fireworks of the night before! Once the Garmin picked up a signal I set off and maintained a steady pace, oddly enough running past the same lady and dog as last week, in the same place, though this time it left me alone!
Was breathing hard at 1k and rather than go out of my comfort area I kept a slow pace and also circled through streets to keep close to home. At 2k I was still going, and after deciding to do 2 miles and see how I felt, I started to envisage doing 4k. At 2.6k I took a bit of a walk break to cross a road, and then another when a car blocked the pavement, but apart from that there was much less walking than last week, and I didn’t feel quite as dead when I finished. I pretty much ran the last KM, and clocked the 4k in 26:09, so a minute quicker than last week.
I hope the aches and pains go away more quickly this time too!!!!!
Posted on Jul 31, 2011 under 5 miles, Lancing Runs, Regular Runs, Slow Runs |
Not run since last Sunday and had a bit of a hectic week and staying in Lancing for the weekend.
Wanted a nice gentle run along the sea front, felt Ok at first but soon started to wilt in the direct sunlight even though I’d left it till gone 6PM and was running ever so slowly, drank 750ml of water en route… got to 3k out towards Shoreham and turned back, and had to run walk, didn’t feel quite right all the way – may have just been a bit of rust due to not running all week, hopefully cobwebs will be gone by next run. Legs felt OK and no sign of little niggle I had after intervals session last Sunday.
Maybe that salt in the sea air makes it harder! Lol, now I will have to get used to the traffic fumes of urban Manchester again upon my return!
Posted on Jul 18, 2011 under 10-15k, Long Runs, Milestones, Slow Runs |
I should get money to make the sun come out, I really should! It had been chucking it down all day and the skies were pure November – ideal conditions for a a long run! This time I was not to be fooled though, so took baseball cap, shades, and dabbed a bit of sun cream on my arms – and sure enough, no sooner had I started the Garmin, there was this big ball of heat in the sky, burning the clouds away! So the shades went on for a while.
This was a planned 8 miler, on a route with some serious hills, plenty of declines but some nasty inclines too. Last time I attempted this route was a sunny evening and I came a cropper at 4k ish feeling quite ill, and did start to feel a bit puffy early on, which is possibly due to the long spiral incline early on. This time I nearly came a cropper at a junction, I could see a car some way down the road on my left, but felt I had plenty of time to cut in front of it. Don’t know what the driver was playing at, as instead of slowing as he came to the junction, he sped up, which resulted in a near collision and me practically rolling over the bonnet of the vehicle while having the horn blasted at me. This reminds me to be more careful, as the driver was obviously lost in conversation with the passenger and only saw me at the very last moment. For the rest of the run I stopped and tip toed across every junction…
Anyway, it may have been a burst of adrenaline from this that led to a 5:33 km and then a sudden drop in my motivation. Felt like I was blowing up, and stopped the clock at 5k and went in a shop for some gatorade. Drank some and set off, having to walk in phases, and then tackled the big hills on this route, and was glad it started to rain again. I recovered on the long downward stretches and started to wonder if I could maybe do 9 miles. I was feeling better than earlier in the run, so decided to just keep going.
As I went over 13km, I felt I could get to the 14.5km mark, but I hit some kind of wall at that point and started to feel really depleted, presumably my glycogen stores were starting to run out, I felt a little sick, and my legs were feeling heavy. I forced myself to keep going and it hurt so much I almost had tears in my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and finally ran down the last km, and was really, really, really glad when I staggered to a stop and hit the stop button on the Garmin, 9 miles in 1 hr 34 minutes, longest on my feet this season, and longest distance.
I think I will have a few rest days now!! 
Posted on Apr 29, 2011 under 10-15k, Injuries, Long Runs, Milestones, Slow Runs |
Lovely late afternoon sunshine was the setting for a planned 7 mile long run to get some distance in my legs, though I was a bit concerned as I had been experiencing shooting pains at rest in my left knee, which was odd as there was no pain running. As my mum always used to say, probably a bit of arthritis or something…
In any case I set off at a sedate pace and straight away started to wonder if I would be able to last for 7 miles, but kept the pace slow and steady. At about 2k I got the pain in my knee again and slowed, almost calling the run off, but just decided to keep going slowly. Ran all the way out to Debdale Park, then through the park and up past the reservoirs, before turning back and going back through the park again. I was feeling strong in a cardiovascualar sense, but as I left the park and started to think I might reach 7 miles after all, the knee started to complain and I still had a way to get home. It was either carry on or abort and get the bus. I slowed considerably, and started to flag in every way, but set myself a target of 5 miles, and when I crossed that set 10k, and finally, as I was really flagging and my knee was really protesting, I just did another half a k for good measure, and ended up at home feeling very tired and depleted, and needed to eat half a packet of biscuits to replenish energy…
Update: thankfully over the weekend there was no comeback knee-wise from the run, so it may just be the joint working to strengthen itself as i increase the mileage, but am not going to go too hard on it with the first race in a year only 2 weeks away…
Posted on Jan 11, 2011 under Jogs, Milestones, Slow Runs |
Had to get up early for a delivery, almost fell back asleep once it had arrived! Since assignment and hectic Uni stuff been feeling very tired lately and going to bed too late and getting up too early (for me!) Anyway forced myself out for a run as I had planned to do 4k today. Really didn’t feeling like running but it woke me up a bit, just ran slow and completed 4k without any heroics, though did speed up to sub 6 minute/k pace in last k which wasn’t bad… considering I was just about at my limit of endurance by then!
Still, onwards and upwards, 5k is next target!
Posted on Nov 21, 2010 under 5 miles, Long Runs, Slow Runs |
In my previous post I talked about my struggle with life and running lately. So I’ve made a kind of resolution to get out there at least twice a week, and more if possible – the running was becoming intermittent, and a stop start approach is never really good for something where you probably have to keep up a consistent habit to maintain motivation. I hear so many people say “It’s hard to get back into the habit” etc – it feels like I’ve been trying to get back into the habit on every run lately, and not really getting there.
However I am pleased to say I enjoyed today’s run, although it was hard work as usual. Rather than go for a definite circular route leading back to the house, I decided to give myself flexibility by taking my bus pass with me so I could just keep going, and always have to option of making it back on the bus if I wandered too far off the beaten track! When I reached 3k, I knew I could run another 5k, and I just kept myself going with the thought of being able to stop at any time and get the bus back, but not wanting to stop. I went through Gorton and then past the Belle Vue stadium and St Peters school, before connecting with Hyde Road again, and finally coming to a stop at 8.75k – my Garmin freaked out at around 4.3k and clicked over to 5k with a 1k lap time of 2.47 which is obviously an errror – so I added the .7k on to the final distance to make sure I had covered five miles, and rand for about 52 mins which is par for a five miler for me at the moment.
When I had finished I jumped on the bus and the contrast between the cool air and warm inside was amazing, I sweated a lot for a bit, probably to the annoyance of the other passengers. But the other day a woman sat next to me eating a pizza and fries FFS – so each to their own on the bus! And fresh sweat is an aphrodisiac – not so sure about the 3 day old kind, he he…
Anyway, I kind of zoned out on the bus, and when I got off to walk to my house, realised just how cold it was – certainly I was glad to get back into the house for some food and fluids.
Hopefully I can get a few more 5 milers in and make it my regular run – it certainly feels that setting out to run quite slowly for as long/far as possible is what’s suiting me at the moment, as the speed/endurance just isn’t there.
Posted on Sep 16, 2010 under 5-10k, 5k, Easy Runs, Jogs, Milestones, News, PB's, Slow Runs |
I apparently became a veteran of some kind yesterday – in more ways than one. I turned 40. They say life begins at 40, but I wonder how that applies to runners? Certainly, my category positions may go up a little now, but there are plenty of people 10, 20, probably even 30 years older running a heck of a lot faster than me! Still, I had to get out there and prove I can still run, now that I am middle aged officially!
I don’t know if it was the general busyness of the last few days, and a birthday of mixed feelings yesterday (no alcohol, btw) and just generally being in a transition period, together with the fact I hadn’t run since last week, but this run was tough, and that is reflected in my time – very slow, really, but I felt if I’d upped the pace, I wouldn’t have managed the distance. I was teaching my new writing course later in the afternoon so there was no space for heroics.
Still, I got my first PB (in training) as a 40 year old – is a running milestone I will easily surpass! The run also helped me focus on my group work later and helped settle my jitters over starting something new – which helped me get back in touch with the reasons why I started running in the first place 
Posted on Sep 07, 2010 under Easy Runs, Injuries, Slow Runs |
Yesterday I thought I wasn’t going to be be running again for a while… I had a bit of an altercation with a car, it wasn’t going very fast, but it kind of blind sided me while I was fiddling for my phone and it blasted its horn at me, wasn’t even going very fast. Unfortunately this made me wobble the wrong way (for my knee) and my cartilage thing (or kneecap thing, depending on who you listen to) wobbled out of place and my knee locked. Rather than go into contortions on the street I wobbled home and then proceeded to spend the most frustrating hour trying to pop my knee back into place. Usually bending it right back with foot touching arse seems to do the job in a few goes – not this time! Eventually, I lay on my back and gripping my ankle and raised my knee to almost above my ahead, and finally, finally straightened it and it straightened up normally with no pain (trying to straighten it when it’s locked can be agony, and it will buckle under me). My last physio said there wasn’t much wrong with it though and it was probably my kneecap and couldn’t possibly be cartilage. His assistant said it was most likely my cartilage (is it any wonder I stopped the physiotherapy!). Anyway, such is the joy of running and other sports injuries. The odd thing is, my knee never ever seems to go when I am doing something like running, running around, or doing some kind of sport. The recent occasions have been – getting up off my office chair, turning around to look at something in town, in the middle of sex, and now crossing the road
Anyway, after all this messing about my hamstring felt tender, which it has been for a few weeks, and I must have aggravated it with all the knee-popping contortions. So I set off for a run and was very aware of a niggle there. The knee hurt briefly then settled down, I was almost going to stop, but decided to just plod and see how I went, and managed to plod around 2 rather slow miles.
Still, it was a run, and I had only planned an easy run anyway. Hopefully reach the 5k mark this week, hamstring permitting, as long as my dratted knee stays in one piece
