Running through the winter

I have been running around the local block which is 5k and found that I couldn’t complete without stopping and more importantly I was coming back with injuries most of the time.

I started the Couch to 5k to get myself in a programme which I could follow without over training. I have gone through January, February, and March, doing the programme and just can’t get past Week 6. I have found the couple of hills just too much and feel this is now stopping my progress. I am also getting a little fed up of the route now and feel I need a different route to keep me interested.

Over the course of the winter I have also put weight on and have now got to 14 stone, which is 1.5 stone overweight. This is really down to eating too much of the fattening foods and also not enough exercise to burn it off.

The goal now is to find another route that I can put in to my routine and eat a bit healthier to drop the weight down bit. I am hoping this will keep me motivated more than I have been.

Been running outside in the cold

I have been running on and off, but in the last month I have been running around the block. I have got a route that I can do 5k so I am trying to run that without stopping to walk.

I am finding the motivation very difficult as the days as got very short. I generally go out about 6pm, it is dark at this point and recently has been getting colder.

 

I have just recently bought a Nike Vapor Light jacket, this has helped in keeping the cold air and wind off me, but it does have a couple of areas where it allows to breath. I is shower proof, but being a dry weather runner I am not going to test that part of it out.

 

I can’t run the 5k without stopping to walk a good handful of times, this is a bit annoying but it is the best I can do at the moment. I am also finding that I have very sore lower legs after the run and find it very difficult to walk around for the first 30 minutes when I get home.

 

I am aiming at running 3 times a week the same circuit with the first goal of not stopping to walk as many times and the final goal is to run without stopping to walk at all.

 

I went out yesterday and found that once I had uploaded the data to the Garmin Connect site I had done a 5k in a 30:30 which is very good for me. I don’t think I can better that at the moment, but you never know.

Garmin Connect – Run around the block (5k)

It’s been a long time since the last blog

It has been 2 months since the last time I blogged, my life has changed since the last blog. I have had the redundancy confirmed and my last day was 31-Jul-2012. There are IT jobs about but not the type of job I can apply generally, there has only been a couple that I could apply for.

During this time I have been mainly doing 5k runs on the treadmill, this has been very difficult due to the heat in the room. I have had all the windows open and a fan blowing air around, but it has been just too hot resulting in me feeling a bit faint at times after the run. I have managed to do a 4 mile run when the temperature was a bit lower but that has been the furthest I have run in the last couple of months.

For the last couple of weeks I have been doing a 3.5 mile walk around the block in the evening with my partner, these have been fairly slow going which has taken just slightly over the hour to complete. I few nights ago I did the same circuit on my own and completed in 45 minutes, which for a walk was as fast as I could possibly go.

I plucked up the courage last night to try a run. The last time I ran outside was ages ago and couldn’t even run a mile without stopping and I ran too quickly. Last night I got ready and set my Garmin for a 3 mile run, now I am fully expecting to stop for a walk on a number of occasions during this run, but the main thing was to run at a steady 6 mph (same speed I run at on the treadmill) to see how I get on.

I started off and run out the estate and on to a path that ran alongside a main road. I kept checking the Garmin for the speed and before I knew it I had completed a mile, I carried on running and concentrated on the speed and my breathing.

The second mile came along and I found I was getting a bit out of breath, but this was a record for me I had never run 2 miles outside before non-stop. I decided to carry on and see if I could complete the 3 miles that I had set on the Garmin. I was finding it fairly difficult at this point as there was a bit of up hill running which I am not used to doing, this did tire me out but I still carried on.

When the Garmin beeped and buzzed I had a sense of relief that the run was over but an over whelming sense of achievement that I had completed at 3 mile run without stopping. The next stage for me is to do this same run a few more times before even thinking of extending the mileage or running faster.

Garmin Connect – Walk around the block with my partner

Garmin Connect – Walk around the block on my own

Garmin Connect – Run around the block (3 miles)

1st week back from holiday, its been a difficult one

This week was all about running 5ks to get back in to it. I started the week off on a high. I went to work on Monday and spent most of the day going through emails and catching up with where I left off before going on holiday. I came home eager to get on the treadmill and knock a 5k out. I found myself running with fresh thoughts of the holiday which made the run go fairly quickly.

I went in to work in the Tuesday and went to a 9:30am meeting to find out that I am now on a 30 day consultation period as my job is at risk of redundancy. This is the time when you think ‘oh Christ, that’s all I need’. I was told during the 30 days consultation period that I will not be required to go in to work. I went home in disbelief that this was happening and decided to jump on the treadmill to do a 5k run, I’m sure you can appreciate this run was not full of thoughts of the nice views at Santorini, it was full of work. I found that run went by quickly but was hard due to the heat.

The following two days I have done 5k runs with thoughts full of work. Both runs were hard due to the heat but went by fairly quickly. I have now put a fan in the room to try and get some air movement as just having the windows open is not having much effect on its own.

Until the temperature gets a bit cooler then I can’t see myself getting past 5k. I really have found them difficult with not much energy left afterwards.

I wonder what next week brings.

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 1)

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 2)

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 3)

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 4)

1st run since coming back from a break at Santorini

I have spent a couple of weeks away from the treadmill and found the first couple of days in Santorini (Greek Island) I had aches and pains. During the course of the holiday the aches and pains went away. I did notice that a few people were running early in the morning, but even in the morning it was still hot. I did take my running gear out there just in case I wanted to do just a couple of miles, but looking at the people running it just looked too painful and they looked a lot fitter than me. I did quite a bit of walking around and swimming so I was reasonably active as I only put on 4-5 pounds of weight over the two weeks.

Not been looking forward to jumping back on the treadmill, but I thought the longer I leave it the worse it will be. I got myself ready and jumped on the treadmill for the warm up walk which seemed to go by very quickly. When the Garmin beeped and buzzed I knew it was time to up the speed from 4mph to 6.2mph for a steady running pace.

I found that I was running a bit stiff but after 5 minutes I seemed to relax and found myself thinking ‘this is just great running without any aches or pains, I wonder how long this will last’. The run went by fairly quickly due to getting lost in the thoughts of the place I visited and the views on Santorini. At times I got so lost in the thoughts I felt like I was still there, with short bursts now and then back to reality of the running.

I finished the run feeling quite tired, so I am hoping that as the week goes by the runs will get easier. I am not planning on doing anything more than 5k runs this week to get back in the swing of it.

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 1)

Last week before going on holiday and goals achieved

Today has been sunshine and showers, so I thought will it be cool enough to run 5 miles or should I stick to 5k. If I do 5 miles today and 5k tomorrow and the next day, then will I be injured for my holiday. If I don’t do 5 miles then will I feel I have failed and will it be too long since the last time I have run that distance by the time I get back on the treadmill, I have had all this going around in my head all day long.

As usual I made the decision when I got home and was ready to do the run. I decided to try 5 miles as last week I could not finish the run due to the heat. It was fairly warm in the room at 22.5c (72.5f) even with all the windows open to create a breeze.

I started as normal with the 5 minute brisk warm up walk at 4mph, I noticed my heart rate was slightly higher than normal at 95bpm (average). I thought maybe this is down to the heat and it might also be down to me feel anxious about the 5 mile run, should I be doing it or not.

Once I got to a mile in to the run I felt like I was running at a nice pace (6mph), but felt like I was starting to get a bit hot. I had a sip of water and carried on wondering if I will have to give up due to the heat.
2.5 miles in to the run I felt this was a good time to run through a few checks and have a mouthful of water, I am now half-way through the run and I am on the home straight.

At 3.5 miles in to the run I was feeling really hot, mouth was getting dry and I had to keeping sipping water. I was really hoping that I could carry on to the end, all I had to do was 1.5 miles which is around 15 minutes.

When I reached 4 miles I started to keep checking the Garmin, I was watching the distance remaining slowing diminishing. Every tenth of a mile takes around 1 minute, I just seemed to be willing the time away. I finally finished the run and did a cool-down walk for 5 minutes at 4mph as usual.

I felt good for finishing the 5 miles, but glad the ordeal was over, I felt so hot. After looking at the stats on the Garmin Connect website, I can see my heart rate was higher than normal and I also burned more calories as well.

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5 Mile

I have now completed both 5k runs without any rest days. My legs do feel a bit sore, I expected that and I am sure the aches and pains will disappear in the next couple of days.

Both runs were done in a similar heat to the 5 mile run, I did not find them that easy but I felt I had to complete the goal I set myself.

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 1)

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 2)

My task at the beginning of the year was to lose 1.5 stone and for my waist to go from 40 inches down to 37 inches, this I have achieved. I my other goal was to complete the ‘couch to 5k’ and then to build up to a 4 mile run. I have exceeded that goal by running 5 miles and also gaining a personal best 5k time. I feel happy to have got this far in 6 months and aim to improve on the distance when I come back from holiday and before the year is out.

I have kept a log of all the runs/walks I have done on a spreadsheet so that I can keep an eye on how I am doing.

Here are a few stats:

• Days of exercise: 71
• Total distance run: 159.8 miles
• Total time run: 1 day, 2 hours, 11 minutes
• Total distance walked: 94.5 miles
• Total time walked: 1 day, 50 minutes
• Calories: 26,360

It is now time to relax on holiday for the next couple of weeks.

Another week with a 5 mile run aborted

Today has been fairly hot all day and especially in an office with no air conditioning. I came home and opened all the windows as usual. After I got ready the temperature had come down to 26c (79f), so I started the run with a 5 minute walk as normal.

When the Garmin beeped I knew it was time to speed up and start the run, I wanted to keep the pace steady as my goal is to finish the distance rather than get the time down. After a couple of miles had gone by I checked the way I was landing, breathing, posture, heart rate and started to take on board some water, I was feeling good at this stage.

I was in the zone and listening to a Formula 1 podcast, they were talking about the Monaco Grand Prix. Every so often I would take a sip of water to keep me going. Once I had been running for 30 minutes I started to get very hot, I took some more sips of water swishing it around the mouth trying to cool down. This had not made much difference and I could only last another 7 minutes until I just had to call it a day.

I am now left feeling fairly fed up as this was just down to it being way too hot in the room. I am now wondering if this should be the last attempt at running further than 5k before my holiday as I only have 2 week to go before I fly out to Santorini (Greek Island), I really don’t want to have aches and pains while I am there.

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5 Mile (Did Not Finish)

I have put both of these runs together mainly because they were fairly uneventful. Even though the temperature in the room has been fairly hot, I have still been able to do these runs easily which is reflected on the Garmin Connect uploads.

I have noticed when comparing these runs to other runs of last week and a few weeks ago that my heart rate has fallen as well as the calories burnt.

My maximum heart rate was 162bpm (88%), while the average rate was 137bpm (74%). Calories burnt was 458c.

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 1)

Garmin Connect - Treadmill - 5k (Run 2)