My Turn ... Running Down A Dream
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@MajorRage Good luck with your marathon. I run a fair few myself but always enjoy hearing about others running. Keep up the good work!
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End of Jan Update:
Running is coming along nicely, although the training plan I'm following has me running way way too fast. December was as expected a bit of an NZ blowout, although I managed to run 113km in the month so not all bad. However, poor diet (from an exercise perspective) and choice of liquids meant I came back a little bloated.
Gained just over a kg in Dec and have lost that plus one more in Jan, so now weighing in around 89 kg. Decent drop from my peak of 95 and a bit ... Although, there has clearly been some muscle built so overall loss of the bad stuff, not too bad. It's now 12 weeks to go and I guess it will depend on how strongly I stick to the plan over that 12 weeks what my running weight will be. I'm aiming for low 80's, and will be disappointed if I remain over 85.
From here on in, the km run go up quite steep. This weeks long run is 20km, and my shortest one will be 18km between now and mid April before pre-run taper. Add minimum 19km during the week onto this and I'm looking at 40-50k per week running plus 3 other workouts. Lots of rolling, yoga stretching and other cardio in those. I also have to do 50 press ups once a week using the press up bars ... First week I managed 8 before needing my first break! Now up to 18 so seeing improvement.
Running improvement - well that's been mixed to be honest. Which apparently is expected as I learn to run in different ways, breath for different periods etc it brings on new muscles. I am starting to accept that sub 4 hours is not realistic unless I hit utter perfection for the rest of the plan. Which I won't. I have the surrey half in 4 weeks which will be a bit of a marker for me. My best time now is just over 1:58 and I'll be aiming to take a few minutes off that. We shall see. There is no doubt that to run at 5:41 pace now (4 hour) feels quite slow however doing that for 4 hours is different gravy. 5:20 is probably my most comfortable pace from an efficiency perspective, but I do use a lot of fuel at that pace. Have good day and bad days thou (although my bad days are now easily much better than October good days). At least now the days are noticeably longer so I can do my post-work runs in some degree of light.
This week is 7.5k Monday, 9k today (striders run), 6k Thursday & then 20k on Saturday. Add them all up and what do you get? That's right, a marathon. Starting to learn more about the mental requirement which is going to be key. I'm probably little too focused on the weight loss as opposed to running side at the moment. I have it in my head that if I drop to my targets, I'll find the running much easier. When I know I should be thinking the other way around - work on the running / diet and the weight loss will just naturally happen.
Sorry, in @RoninWC style, I started on one path and tangent off. Will update in a month or so .. probably after the surrey half on the 8th March - that will be the next market. Off to Devon over school half term which should be nice with some good running trails along the coastline. Will make a nice change from the Basingstoke canal.
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@MajorRage awesome mate. I've only done 1 mara, so have no real advice other than listen to your body on the day. If you have a plan to run 5:20 but your heart rate is up or you're feeling crampy, just accept it and dial it back a touch. I know plenty of people who have ignored the signs and paid the price - the cost otherwise typically isn't a few minutes, its a lost half hour at least.
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@MajorRage said in My Turn ... Running Down A Dream:
Oh and just checked my 2019 running total ... came in at a shade under 1200km. Not bad!
Thats amazing. Its a massive win regardless of how the mara goes.
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You're smashing it, great work
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@mariner4life I just got an email informing me that Ironman 70.3 Melbourne entries open today.
All you bro...
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@voodoo said in My Turn ... Running Down A Dream:
@mariner4life I just got an email informing me that Ironman 70.3 Melbourne entries open today.
All you bro...
a-fuck right off
i did a 7.5km run last night and it was hard.
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Booommmmmmmm ......
Surrey half today, new PB. 1:47:30. That’s a whole 10 mins under my prev best!
Training going well, 190k in Feb alone. No major injuries, just a few niggles as expected for a 42 year old fella with a BMI of 28.
7 weeks to go ... will the corona kill it? I think almost certainly yes .... but I’ll still run one.
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@MajorRage awesome mate! Nothing better than getting a result after a heap of hard work.
That's a lotta kms in a month btw!
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@MajorRage you got it bad bro! Which is awesome! Massive result on that PB! No new Nike shoes?? 😉😁😁
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@Paekakboyz Na, I have just changed from New Balance back to ASICS.
Prefer NB, but they just don’t last.
I wonder what I could do in those pink Nike’s ... prob not much diff honestly!
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So the Corona has killed it. Well, it's delayed it anyway. So what to do ...
Well I'm enjoying it at the moment, so I've decided to push on through (besides, loads of spare time at the moment to run!) and just do one myself. I know there are lot of runners in my area training for the marathon, so I might use some of the networks to allow for a social marathon on the 26th if social distancing restrictions have lifted enough to allow it by then.
I'm continuing to smash / break all prior records. After doing 190k in Feb, I'm already through 130k for March and will do another 7k tomorrow and then 30k on Saturday. This does seem quite heavy, but I'm in the semi-peaking part now. Where my longest pre-marathon run (33k) is two weeks away, then I taper for 3 weeks before the big one. So I am now right in the longest run zones. Records broken so far:
- 26k - Longest run (30 due on Saturday)
- 61k - Most km in a calendar week
- 77k - Most km in a 7 day period
- 190k- Most km in a calendar month (if no injury / sickness will be well north of 200k in March
- 1:47:27 - Fastest half marathon (beating previous PB by 10 mins)
- 49:01 - Fastest 10k
- 23:25 - Fastest 5k
Sorry this seems a bit of a blow-arse post, but hey, this is my running journey ((c) Mitchell, John) and I'm sharing it here ... if you don't like it, don't read it!
I do have a few running niggles (which you'd expect) but nothing I'm too unhappy about. I think my core strength is the best its' ever been too, as I do 8 minute abs on every single day I don't run, so these muscles get some real attention.
I'm WFH until further notice now, which means no 130 minutes per day commuting, and a bit more free time ... so will try and blog a bit more here ...
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@JK said in My Turn ... Running Down A Dream:
Keep sharing mate. Its awesome!
Im finding WFH pretty hard as feel so lethargic despite doing the same amount of exercise, so I'm having to do more! Its all that extra activity that you dont immediately recognise as actually being activity.
Yeah, I find these threads very motivating to get off my arse and stop making excuses.
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@JK said in My Turn ... Running Down A Dream:
Keep sharing mate. Its awesome!
Im finding WFH pretty hard as feel so lethargic despite doing the same amount of exercise, so I'm having to do more! Its all that extra activity that you dont immediately recognise as actually being activity.
Yeah, it's a very good point that. Im doing my best to reduce calorie intake as all the additional stuff I'd do now, a lot of it is defunct. As an example, in my commute there would be 2 5 min walks, and 2 12 minute bike rides. Then add in a 15-20 minutes walk at lunch, multiple walks to meeting rooms / other desks at work and the occasional client visit ... It's pretty rare my Garmin would be less than 6-7000 steps by the time I got hime (plus the bike rides).
As of right now (11am), I've done 114 steps in total. I started work at 7 and have taken one break.
Thats a colossal difference which I need to take into account.
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End of March update (no run tomorrow) ...
Now 30k (33k due Saturday) -> 26k - Longest run
Now 64k (66k scheduled this week( -> 61k - Most km in a calendar week
No change -> 77k - Most km in a 7 day period
Now 234k ... if wasn't a leap year would have been 260k! -> 190k- Most km in a calendar month
No change ... ran a 1:51:30 by myself tho which is my fastest non-compete by about 6 mins -> 1:47:27 - Fastest half marathon
No change -> 49:01 - Fastest 10k
No change -> 23:25 - Fastest 5kSo ... what to do now. With Covid, obviously everything has changed. I've been pushing on, although the diet has suffered a bit as mentality changes can only do so much. Not too bad, but having access to snacks all day certainly doesn't help.
The issues I'm facing these days are more mental. And they are proper first world issues to have (from a running perspective). Looking at the distance runs, I have to run on the mental fact that there is NO emergency services. This isn't necessarily true, but if I did need them it's then a) it's a poor use of their time right now b) they should rightly be pissed at me for using this resource un necessarily by pushing myself so hard and c) I'd likely need to go to a covid intense area putting myself at greater risk. It's a bit much I know, but these long distances are a real push on myself.
Secondly, is the increase anxiety around symptoms. It's Spring here now (although you wouldn't know it today, it's bloody freezing) which means hay fever season is starting. I get seasonal hay fever, and occasionally I need an inhaler. So I might hear a wheeze on my breathing, it immediately elevates concern and BOOM, I'm back at the previous paragraph again.
I have no solution at the moment. Just thought I'd write here to see what others thought, if anything. Maintaining fitness is extremely important to me, so stopping running isn't an option. It would be a mental health destroyer. This weekends 33k is the longest training run I have, with the next longest being on the 26th April, the full marathon. So comfortable with all other runs (awesome to be comfortable with a half!), we shall see.
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Two weeks to go til the Surrey marathon.
On the tapering part now, so "only" a half on the weekend. Although I managed to smash it out at 1:50:02 with comfort. So pretty happy with that. The longest run I've done now is 34km which was tough, although at the end of it I know that I could have done another 8.
This weekends long run is 16km for a total of around 35 km this week.
Overall stats now fairly decent. 670km run YTD and around 1100 km in training in total (commenced 1st October). Going to push for 2000km this year. Should be relatively straight forward as long as I don't get an injury. Body is creaking a bit in a few places, but as long as I take care of it this week the marathon should be ok. Then a few days downtime post it should do it a world of good.
Think going to try and maintain a strong half level of fitness through to October 4th for the London one. Then pick up the last 8 weeks of my current plan with perhaps an extra km or two on top of every run. The key thing is keeping the weight off. As when this lockdown ends, I expect there are going to be drinking sessions / socialising opportunities a plenty.
