Sudden Attack Of Logorrhoea!

Holy Jesus! Sorry about my sudden propensity to be verbose. Where did that come from?! For those who can't be bothered to read on I'll just sum up here - I finished the marathon in 2 hours 29 minutes but I'm a bit stiff now. Hooray! Please leave notes of gushing congratulations in the comments...

I Feel Sleepy Just Thinking About It...

I'm a bit worried about next week. I start my new job on Monday which I am a little nervous about, but what I'm far more nervous about is my running! Specifically I'm a bit worried about how much my running schedule is going to have to change in order to accomodate work into my day. At the moment I live a beautiful life of leisure. I roll out of bed in the middle of the morning and go running at the gym. I get back late in the morning and spend a few hours blogging and reading blog after blog after blog. I usually take a break for lunch and to shred my bills. Sometimes my bliss is interrupted by angry calls from my bank manager. I let my PA take those - it's a fancy electronic one that takes a message which I can then delete ;-) Ok. I'm just joking about all of this financial angst. But you get my point - I have a pretty easy time fitting running into my day but I'm broke!

So from next week I have to work :-( I knew that at some point in my life this dreaful day would arrive but it's still a terrible shock to be here ;-) I'll have to leave for work at about 7:40am. God knows when I'll get back. In my interview they asked me how I felt about all-nighters... yes seriously. In my wisdom I've chosen a career path with a pre-requisite of having no life outside of work and an unusual ability to survive without sleep. For the record I can pretty much check box number one but box number two is definitely blank. I need like 9 hours a night or my eyelids don't open all day.

Anyway, I'm drifting off point. So essentially my 10am gym visits and subsequent 4 hour blog binges are out. I've been quite pre-occupied with drawing up schedules to work out when I'm going to fit running into my new day. In terms of the mornings my major problem is that my gym doesn't open until 6:30am. Crap. Obviously I don't have time to go there at 6:30 and leave for work at 7:40. I could run outside... err... no! I've just got to be realistic. It's really cold and wet and dark here now and I just know that I wouldn't get out of bed and go out running in that. If it was summer I'd consider it, but it's not. I have no tolerance of cold by the way - I think I'm descended from bears; when the winter gets here I just want to hibernate.

So that leaves the evening. I hate exercising in the evening. I've been here before. I get back from work/college/whatever and it's dark and I'm tired and I want to eat dinner and slump in front of the tv. The last thing I feel like is going to the gym. But I'm stuck. I'm going to have to do this. I know that between the two I'm more likely to run in the evening than run outside in the morning. God it's going to be hard though. This might sound like nothing to those who do it already but I've been a student for years and I am not used to all of this activity!

Damn employment!! Don't employers have any idea how hard it is for lazy, cold-hating people like me to run when I have to spend most of my day working! LOL

Picture - panache-yes.com

Week 8, Day 3 - Glorious Return To Running Joy!

Hooray! I feel back up to par. I just had a great run. It was really hard but it's the first time in 12 days that I've come back from a run feeling good about my running! My theory is that the first day back after a break must be really hard - thus explaining my last two runs which each had quite a few 'rest' days before them. Today I did run 9,walk 1 and it went quite well. I ran at 8kmh for the first two lots of 9 then upped the speed through the last set to finish at 10kmh completely exhausted. I ran far too hard of course. I love running as fast as I can when I'm on the treadmill but then I end up dreading the next trip to the gym because I anticipate that it will be really hard. But I keep doing it!! For some reason I just find it easier to run faster - I'm thinking psychological here. It seems harder to run at a slower speed. When it got tough then I found myself thinking about the Chicago marathon RBF and in particular I remembered Zeke's report and how there was a spot that he found hard but he pushed through it and finished in such a great time. I just thought "even the best runners have tough moments, just get through it" and I did! It's only a shame that my tough moment was about 2 miles into a 2 and a half mile run instead of 22 miles into a 26.2 mile run! LOL

The treadmills were busy today which was fun. So often I go in there and there's not that many people on them and half of them are just walking. Today I had a runner on each side of me and three more further away. Oh course they all kicked my ass! Ahh well. Actually I say they all kicked my ass but I lasted the longest. The two on either side of me ran faster but they only ran for about 20 minutes. The ones further away also seemed to run faster but not for as long as me. There was one guy who ran faster than me, and he did also seem to run for 30 minutes... but my cool down was longer so I win! Haha! It does surprise me how few people seem to warm-up/cool-down/run for a decent length of time at my gym. I think that once I increase my distances I'm going to seem like some kind of elite runner compared to these 20 minute light-weights!

Now I've got one good run under my belt I can confess that I've been feeling quite concerned about my running recently. It all went wrong when I had that interview - I took a bit of time off before and then even more after. The more I didn't go running the more I felt I couldn't. Ultimately there really are no excuses though. There's always time in the day to squeeze in a run. Even when I was preparing for my interview it would have been worth taking an hour out to go and run because I would have come back feeling full of energy and enthusiasm again. I felt so depressed at the thought that all my hard work would end up being for nothing if I didn't continue running. Also I just couldn't stand the thought of going back to being even more unfit than I am now so I persisted but damn those two first-runs-back were hard though. I just don't want to take any more breaks like that because they're so hard to come back from. I can only imagine how hard it must be to come back to running after taking a serious length of time off rather than just a few days!

One odd aspect of my running drought was that I felt unable to post anything about it. I kind of feel a duty not to be negative on my blog because I know that when I love something, if I read something negative about that thing then it makes me feel really sad and I didn't really want to do that to you guys! I know it's great to share and I would have loved some advice and encouragement when I was having a hard time... actually maybe I should have said something. It's not like I was disillusioned with running itself I was just finding it hard going. Yes, I think from here on in I'm going to aim to blog about the black dog days as well as the good days. Look forward to more miserable, whinging posts!!

Stats:
Total Distance - 3.88kms /2.41 miles
Avg Speed - 7.76kph/ 4.82mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.44
Hours so far this week - 1.00
Miles so far this week - 4.63

Week 8, Day 1 - My Fitness Ran Away With My Virtue!

Check out today's stats and tell me what's happened to my speed and stamina? Very poor show. I just had no energy again. The week before last week I ran three times but last week I only ran once but I feel as though my fitness has jumped back about three or four weeks. I can only hope that it will be easier tomorrow.

Stats:
Distance - 3.57km / 2.22 miles
Avg Speed - 7.14 kmh/4.44 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.52
Hours so far this week - 0.30
Miles so far this week - 2.22

Week 7, Day 4 - Wretched Cookie Hurling Adventure

Urgh... I knew it was going to be bad but it was terrible. 6 days without exercise and far too much wine last night made for a truly wretched treadmill ride today. After scoffing down a breakfast of shortbread cookies and scraping the day-old "I applied my make-up with a shotgun" look off my face I lifted my fragile body into the car and headed for the gym. Mid-warm up I broke into a cold-sweat and started to regret the choice of a window-side treadmill as the sun reduced my pupils to the size of a pin-head. By the end of the warm-up Evil Jenny was contemplating how she was going to get out of completing the rest of the work-out whilst Virtuous Jenny was brandishing a whip and thrashing Evil Jenny's lazy bum. I jumped back a couple of weeks to the run 8/walk 2 option and crawled through my running sections at 8.5 kmh before breaking-down half-way through the last 8 and walking to the finish line. This collapse was largely the result of being told that I had an urgent phone-call to take in the bathroom... ahem. Throw in a dash of nausea making the prospect of literally hurling my cookies a real one and it was quite an experience.

BUT, the important thing is that I got back on the treadmill-pony after I fell off :-) I'm sure tomorrow will be better and so on and so on until my glorious completion on an ultra-marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds... bite my dust Paula.


Stats:
Distance - 3.57 km/2.22 miles
Avg Speed -7.14kph / 4.44mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.52
Hours so far this week - 0.30
Miles so far this week - 2.22

Where Hath My Virtue Gone???

Oh forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been 6 days since my last treadmill confessional, 6 DAYS FATHER oh and I have been sooo wicked on each and every one of those days.

I was filled with pride when I landed my new job and I spent hours consumed with greed thinking about how I would spend my new income. I spent many a lust-y moment having inappropriate thoughts about cake and feeling envy-ous of those who had cakes when I had none. But this absence of cakes didn't last for long Father, gluttony was my next pit-stop on the demolition derby of shame. Father, there were simply too many cheese-covered, chocolate-coated and cream-filled moments to recall. And Father it won't surprise you to hear that sloth overcame me each and every hour of the subsequent days; the only time my heart-rate was raised was in the presence of cakes... which let me tell you Father was far too often. Father, just when I thought I had committed all the evil I had in me I unleashed a can of whoop-ass wrath on my body this morning by dragging it along some evil never-ending rubber belt of doom while it was ravaged by cake-less sugar withdrawal and the cold sweat of a terrible hangover.

Oh Father what is my penance? Anything but fasting Father, ANYTHING but that... that or celibacy Father, I'll take anything but fasting or celibacy... oh and Father please remember how much I hate charitable work...

Oh Father one thing confuses me terribly - I committed all these wicked sins and yet I did not see Brad Pitt once. Oh Father the devil taunts us so cruelly.

Employment Status Update...

I GOT THE JOB!!! WAHOOOOOOOO!!! I can't believe it! More later - too excited to write at the moment!

Week 6, Day 7 - Another Bleedin' Rest Day!

Ok, I took ANOTHER rest day! Partly my hip was hurting, partly I was busy preparing for my interview, either way I didn't run :-(

End of week stats -
Total distance - 7.89 miles
Total time - 01:41:04
Avg min/mile pace - 12.8
Avg Speed - 4.7 mph

Week 6, Day 6 - Rest Day

Rest day today. I thought I'd take my rest day today so as to give my hip maximum rest. I'm hoping it won't be hurting for my last run of the week tomorrow morning. I am in peak interview preparation mode at the moment. I've spent the day ironing and preening my interview outfit, practicing saying "hello, Jenny RB, how do you do", and sticking my hand out to receive imaginary handshakes with important people. I'm feeling pretty good about it all at the moment. I really want this job badly and I'm hoping that this will come across in the interview as rampant enthusiasm rather than desperation! I keep thinking that I don't mind if I don't get this because there'll be other great opportunities, and then I think, hang on a second... I'd love to work at this firm, I love the people I've met there, it's really going places, it would be amazing on my CV, I could really be great at this job, I WANT THIS JOB, I don't want any other job!! I realise that this current mindset might make my interview a bit like a scene from The Apprentice!

Progress Report: Day 40 of 70

My performance hasn't really improved in the last week but I have been trying to take it easier than the week before so this is as expected. My 5k run didn't really fit into this chart so I put in the distance at 30 and 40 minutes which shows that there is an improvement in my 40 minute distance - the purple crosses. We'll just quietly forget that the original 40 minute run involved rather a lot of walking due to a stitch, a very muddy path and an urgent bathroom call! LOL

Week 6, Day 5 - Crying Off Sick

This is the reason I'm not running today:
My left hip hurts really badly. Funnily enough the pain usually goes away when I start running but it's just too bad today - it even hurts to stand on the leg. Any suggestions as to what it might be/what to do about it will be greatly received :-)

Diagram - www.train.tcu.edu

Week 6, Day 4 - and I'm drunk... hic!

I just got back from an afternoon/evening out in Bath and I'm a little tipsy. We did a little sightseeing, didn't take enough photos (as usual), and ate in a great little restaurant. I was lucky enough not to be the designated driver tonight :-))))) That's either me smiling a lot or I've eaten so much that I have lots of double chins! I didn't get a chance to post about my run earlier so thought I'd just nip on and give the details before I go back to eating some more chocolate cake... I seem to mention cake an awful lot in my blog which is making me aware of quite how much of it I eat!

It was a good run. I took it a bit easier today which was nice. I actually ran 5k. I started out doing 3.795km in 30 minutes and then started my cool down but then a song I like came on the music channel so I thought I'd just run through that; then I saw I was nearly at 40 minutes and thought I'd walk to then; and then realised I was nearly at 5k so thought I may as well continue to then. If I'd set out to run 5k I could certainly have done it in a faster time but it's fun to now have a time that I can chip away at :-)

Stats:
Time - 41:04
Distance - 5km /3.11 miles
Avg Speed - 7.31kmh/ 4.54mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.22
Hours so far this week - 1:41
Miles so far this week - 7.89

Week 6, Day 3 - I've Found My First Race :-)

I think I've found my first race! I'm planning to follow a Hal Higdon 5k training programme once I finish my current programme. I put the schedule into my running log and figured out when I would be ready to run my first race. Armed with this information I went to the Runner's World website and plugged in "5k race" and "December" and found the perfect race that would align with the 5k test race half-way through Hal's programme. It's the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's Reindeer Run! The first of those links is to the RNLI but because they don't have the race up yet the second is to the Runner's World event page giving the race details. I'm a little concerned that the race description mentions that most feared of four letter words - H-I-L-L - but from what I've read on someone's blog a few weeks ago (can't remember whose I'm afraid) I just have to think "I love hills" and I'll get through it :-) Sounds like a cakewalk! I can't wait to get my first race t-shirt and then get drunk on the free mulled wine. Now I just have to figure out an appropriately festive costume... hmmmm...

Photo credit and Mrs Claus outfit - lalalingerie.com

Week 6, Day 2 - No Beans :-(

Ugh, I just had no beans in me today. Tough run. I set out at a moderate pace which became even more moderate in the second 9 minute slot and more moderate still in the last. I managed a sprint finish though when I saw I might not match yesterday's distance! I checked my heart rate in the final 9 minute slot and it was 186. I was only running at 7.5 km/h by this point so that seems surprisingly high. I just had no energy at all. Ahh well. I think I'll take a day off tomorrow and hopefully my beans can regroup in time for Thursday :-)

The races were on while I was at the gym. My gym actually overlooks the racecourse and while I was there I saw a couple of races. As the horses were running down to the starting gate for the second race I was totally fading on the treadmill and to motivate myself to keep running I thought "Right, if I stop running before I hit 30 minutes then one of those horses is going to keel over and DIE!". Luckily for the horses I managed to keep going! LOL!



Stats:
Distance - 3.85 km /2.39 miles
Avg Speed - 7.70 kph/4.75 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.54
Hours so far this week - 1.00
Miles so far this week - 4.78

Photo Credit - (C) Me 2004 :-)

Special Announcement Re: My Impending Bankruptcy

I figured this news warranted a seperate post all of it's own. It's great news! While I still don't actually have a job yet I've heard back from the place I had the interview at the other day and they'd like me to go back in for a second and final interview! They also said that they'd like me to meet some of the other team members... eek! I think this is all very positive. They only interviewed 3 candidates for the job so I'm guessing my odds are very good at this stage :-) This would be such a great job for me, both in terms of my future career and also in terms of my bank balance! I shouldn't joke about bankruptcy but if only you knew the trouble I'm in! :-S

Week 6, Day 1 - I Ran Outside in the Rain!

Wow! Such a good run today but the day didn't start out looking so good. In fact it had been a rather inauspicious start to the running week. I was pretty disappointed to only get in three runs last week so I wanted to make sure I ran today. I headed out to the gym this morning but got there only to find out that the air-con was broken. The place was like a sauna and I just couldn't handle running there; I was sweating as soon as I walked through the door! I reluctantly headed home and pondered what to do next. In the end I arranged to run outside tonight with Mr JRB. I spent the whole day itching to get out and run but then as five o'clock approached it started clouding over... uh-oh.

It was touch and go for a couple of minutes as to whether we went out but luckily we made the right decision. We set out towards the town centre planning to run West along the canal. It started to rain. I can't remember the last time I actually got rained on. I'm always very careful about taking out an umbrella with me but I'm guessing running with an umbrella just isn't going to work!! By the time we got to the town centre it was raining hard. We ducked into a covered car-park and once we hit the other side it was pouring. We stopped and looked at each other and Mr JRB asked if I was sure I really wanted to do this. There was no question at this point - I wasn't going home without running :-)

I changed my plan and we ran East along the canal. I ran the first 9 minutes at a 12.18 min/mile pace which was great. I was worried about setting out too hard like I did the other day so this was good timing. I'm now on the run 9, walk 2 week but it really didn't feel any harder than last week. By the second running segment I was soaked through and had water dripping off my nose and collecting in my eyelashes. It felt great though! I even managed to start running again straight away after we climbed a set of stairs up a bridge. I slightly messed up the timing of the section in the middle but managed to recover ok. I dodged some huge puddles which would have been great to drive though had I been in the car.

Towards the start of the final running segment we hit a slight upward section which I got through fine before we crossed over a railway bridge and entered the racecourse. This was a good part because it was slightly downhill at the start and as the end was in sight I pushed myself harder. It was also fun to run past all the people driving to the gym because I knew they'd be impressed that we were out running in the rain. How hardcore :-) I was really finding it hard by the time we passed the green and was glad to hit 30 minutes and stop. Great result, though not quite a PB... an outdoors PB anyway :-) I'm so proud to have actually run outside in the rain. I feel like a proper runner tonight rather than a fair-weather (treadmill) runner!

Stats -
Total Distance - 3.84 km / 2.39 miles
Avg Speed - 7.68 kph/ 4.77 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.57
Hours so far this week - 0:30
Miles so far this week - 2.39

Interim Update - I'm Half Way!

Well, the first 5 weeks of 10 have been completed. I'm so pleased with my progress so far. Here's the key figures:

Total Time Run For - 11 hours 10 minutes
Total Distance Completed - 73.43 km/ 45.63 miles

Average speed has increased from 3.7 mph to 4.8 mph
Min/mile pace has decreased from an average of 16 min/miles to 12.4 min/miles

I've run in the gym 21 times and outdoors once!

All great stuff, bring on the next 5 weeks!

Week 5, Day 7 - I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok!

Yet another day off! Bit of a poor show this week - I only ran on 3 days. That is officially below my target of 4 so my report card says "must do better!". In my defence I had a stupidly busy day on not very much sleep and just didn't find time when I had energy and didn't have energy when I found the time. We had this huge tree in our garden pruned and I spent hours chopping up branches and lugging them into the back of a van. My arms ache so much. I then spent the rest of the afternoon gardening which to my delight included plenty of violent pruning... my favourite!

End of week stats:
Total time - 1.30
Total distance run - 7.25 miles
Average speed - 4.8 mph
Average min/mile pace - 12.4

Week 5, Day 6 - Day Off

No running today sadly. I was quite keen on getting in another run outside but it just didn't happen. I seem to be so busy at the moment whilst at the same time not actually getting anything done. I did manage to bake a cake today but even that didn't turn out too good... though it didn't turn out so bad that I couldn't eat it! And on that note: I think the greatest thing I've read so far about running is this from a Hal Higdon article on nutrition:

'You can eat (in fact, may need to eat) more total calories without worrying about weight gain. The average runner training for a half marathon and running 20 to 25 miles a week probably needs a daily caloric intake near 2,500 to maintain muscle glycogen stores. As your mileage climbs beyond that, you need to eat more and more food, not less. In all honesty, this is why a lot of runners run, and why they train for marathons. Their common motto is, "I love to eat."'

WOOHOOOOOOOO!!!

Progress Report: Day 33 of 70

Yippeee! Big improvements on last week again. I'm going to try to take it a little easier for the next week. I can't believe I'm almost hitting my target already - the purple dot on the far right - at the time I thought that was pretty ambitious.

And check out my screen-capping progress! It's all thanks to my upgrade from Paint (LOL!) to Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 - this thing is great, and it's free too! Highly recommended.

Week 5, Day 5 - Stand Back I'm Going to Puke!

Oh god that was so hard! Ok, I've heard it before but I have now physically learnt the lesson of "don't set off too fast"! I got a new PB by 0.01 of a km (lol! I didn't fix that honest guv'ner!) but it was just too hard. I set out at 9kmh which I really regretted because then in my next two running segments I was just f*cked - even 8.5kmh was killing me. I could barely walk the last 2 minutes and when I stopped I actually thought I might throw up. By contrast a few days ago when I set my previous PB I set out slower and then sped up and felt far more comfortable. Lesson learned!

I wore my heart rate monitor today. During my running segments my heart rate was in the mid 170s. I think this is an improvement - my heart rate whilst doing less was a lot higher than that a few years ago. Perhaps I've got an abnormally fast heart but I've actually hit about 210 before at the gym during one of my previous attempts to get fit!

It's a great rain day here today - there's huge puddles everywhere. I know it's bad for your car but I like nothing better than to drive through the biggest puddles as fast as possible and watch the water go everywhere! Hours of fun...

Thanks for all the new comments :-)

Stats:
Distance - 3.92 km /2.44 miles
Avg Speed - 7.84kmh /4.87 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.32
Hours so far this week - 1.30
Distance so far this week - 7.25 miles

Photo - sacbee.com

Week 5, Day 4 - Day Off

Another day off! My training plan is almost too easy really - 4 days a week seems like I'm just a part-time runner. I've been looking at training plans today and 5k races. I think that's what I'll do next - I'm going to train for a 5k and then move on and train for a 10k and then perhaps a half-marathon. After than a marathon perhaps? Not sure at the moment!

I hope everyone is having a great day!

Profile Picture Shopping

I'm trying to pick a new photo to put in my profile. I've picked some contenders...


This is my most recent picture. I look deranged. Probably the lack of makeup/hairbrush.








I like this one because it's odd. Like me. Still not wearing any makeup though - what's up with that?






Me at the races. Yeah. I'm drunk. I'm thinking that's a vodka and diet coke. I like that I'm wearing a hat. You don't see many people wearing hats in their profile pictures.






I like this one but would people realise who Jenny was? And did you notice that every material in the picture is striped or checked? How bizarre.






Ah, here's me in Dubai. I like Dubai. On any given day of the year I would rather be in Dubai than here. This is by the marina. You can see lots of the famous Dubai construction sites in the background.








I like this picture, this is in Paris. I think I look quite Parisien. That hole in my jeans is nothing to do with fashion - I'm just poor. My face looks very square though... and what is up with the hair again! Note to self - start brushing hair.








I like this one because I look thoughtful and I'm eating cake and you know I like eating cake :-) This wasn't a very nice cake though... I'm probably thinking "This hotel is very expensive but this cake is rubbish - what WERE they thinking?"

Week 5, Day 3 - Hard Day at the Office

Jeez. Tough day on the treadmill today. It wasn't great before I even got there - just feeling a bit tired. I didn't sleep very well. It was just a hard run. I felt kind of heavy all the way through. I wasn't gasping for breath I just had nothing in the tank. It was kind of like I felt at the end of my long outdoors run the other day - just no energy left. Still, it's like they say - some runs are good and some aren't. That's it really!

Once I was done I did some synchronised stretching! About 5 seconds after I hit the mats this lady comes along and starts on exactly the same stretch as me. She looks like a proper runner to me, so I become preoccupied with not looking like an amateur - I start carefully timing my stretches on my MP3 player and concentrating on my form. Hard work. Luckily she went onto different stretches. She won though. I was done and she was doing some hip flexor stretches. Screw that I was out the door - it's sunny today! Cold but sunny.

Stats:
Distance - 3.84 km /2.39 miles
Avg Speed - 7.68 kmh / 4.77 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.57
Hours so far this week - 1.00
Miles so far this week - 4.82

Picture source - bodybuilding.com

Week 5, Day 2 - Unplanned Rest Day

Rest day today. Not completely planned. I had to stay in to accept delivery of my new dishwasher and then spent the afternoon working out how the hell I was going to plumb it in. Cue lots of angry cursing and red mist. We just managed to get it in at about 8:30pm this evening. This was after four trips to the DIY store and one to a specialist plumbing store. The thing seems great though. I haven't had a dishwasher since I left home years ago. It's going to be great not to have to wash dishes anymore!

I saw runners everywhere today. There seemed to be hundreds of them. There's something about this time of year - the runners seem to come out in force. Perhaps they're training for the London Marathon? Not sure. I was wondering whether I could guage their speed by driving along side them and matching their speed. This wouldn't look as wierd as it sounds as my home town is usually gridlocked!

I've just finished eating some homemade rice-crispie cakes. This reminds me that I really need to work on eating a bit healthier! My dinner tonight was three chocolate bars and the rice crispie cakes - not exactly great running fuel! LOL! It was actually my arch fitness enemy that made them for me. We were talking last night and I was saying about how wierd it would be if I was actually fitter than him. I think I have to stop saying stuff like this because he said he was going to start running to work! That would be so great though - to be fitter than him I mean. The last time I remember actually being fit was either when I lived in Colorado or when I was in primary school... either way it's a long time ago!

100 Beginner Running Tips - Complete Running Network

I just found this great article on the Complete Running Network website which gives 100 tips for beginner runners. Well worth checking out.

My favourites -
12. Don't neglect and irritate your family and friends by spending all your time running and talking about running... yeah sorry about that everyone!

16. It get's easier - yeah, I've spent years of my life thinking I'll never get fitter and after just four weeks of running I have. It really does get easier.

26. Running is not an excuse to triple your intake of doughnuts because runners gain weight too... yeah about that cheesecake I made on Sunday...

28. Each pound you lose makes running a little easier... yeah, about that cheesecake again

63. Always carry i.d. because you just never know - what the hell does that mean? Is it to identify my corpse? Jeez... I'm a little scared about heading out to the treadmill now.

Dammit I knew I meant to add a third thing...

to my improved stats - a new PB!

Week 5, Day 1 - The Treadmill Report

Quite a tough run today but with good results. I moved on up to run 8/walk 2 today - which was fine really. I ran the first 8 mins at 8.5kph, the second at 8.5/9kph and the last at 8.5/9/9.5kph. I also walked my last 2 mins at 5kph instead of my usual 4.5kph - just to squeeze out a few more fractions of a mile!

I just checked my stats and I'm running over 1km more in my 30 minute slot than I was when I started. Woohoo! And also, check out my min/mile pace for today - 12.35! My first run was at 16.76 so that's a great improvement.

When I started out running it was next to this lady who was doing this seriously funny-looking power walking. It was distracting but luckily she left. Far worse than that was when I was just winding up and this lady jumped on the treadmill next to me and straight-off started running at 10kph. I think if I did that I'd have a heart-attack! I was thinking, wow that's a pretty good speed but then I thought that maybe that's just her warm-up... makes you think.

Stats:
Distance - 3.91km/2.43miles
Avg Speed - 7.82kph/4.86mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.35
Distance so far this week - 2.43miles
Hours so far this week - 0.30

Week 4, Day 7 - Rest Day

Planned rest day today. I'm making cheesecake :-) I'm pretty pleased with this week. I can't believe I actually ran outside! Next week I move on to run 8/walk 2. I feel totally ready for this. The last three runs of this week have made me feel like I'm really making progress. I can definitely see an improvement in my running - this week is probably the first week I've felt that since I started. It's week 5 of 10 next week and my thoughts are really turning to what to carry on to once my 10 weeks are up. I want to continue to increase both my distance and my speed but I'm not sure what plan to follow. I can find a lot of total beginner plans but few others.

End of week stats:
Total training time - 2 hours 10 minutes
Total distance - 15.19km / 9.44miles
Avg speed- 4.4mph
Avg min/mile pace - 13.8