I had my first attempt at purposely running slowly today. One thing it certainly did was to show me how far my running has developed in the past few months.
I managed to keep an average pace of 10:22 per mile (I was aiming for 10:30), which I know was a fast pace for me back in February (I happen to remember a training run where I pushed and kept a pace of 10:30). Also my heart rate was massively lower than it usually is when I run (average 136 bpm compared to 152bpm during my interval session yesterday for example) and I got home feeling like I hadn't exercised at all (I did only run 1.3 miles as it's a short run day, but I wasn't really out of breath). So this has made me feel more confident about keeping a more gentle pace in some of my long runs. From everything I've read recently I do need to work on this aspect of my running as well as my speed work. Tomorrow is ParkRun, then on Sunday I have a 7.8 mile long run planned, so watch this space!
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I'll be honest, when I decided to start my running streak, I wasn't sure if it would suit me or where it would take me (metaphorically), but so far I am loving it. Having picked up injuries in the past, I am very conscious that if I start getting any niggles it will have to stop, but so far so good.
I have found a nice little loop (around 1.25 miles, as you can see) that I have done on my 3 "rest" days, meaning I don't have to plan a route, I just go. I am not planning to extend these runs at all. I have also started running in the mornings again, which used to be my "time" before Will started at college (meaning I now have a school run at 7.45am). I realised that for most of my weekday runs, I can fit them in either by making sure I don't hit snooze at 6 or by setting my alarm a little earlier. Morning exercise suits me really well (sets me up for the day), and some days I've been doing yoga directly after the school run which means I don't have "when am I going to fit my exercise in" on my mind all day. Also with the warmer weather coming it means I don't have to run in the heat, which I hate. Of course, since it's half term this week, that's irrelevant! I've also made a minor adjustment to my long run plan, adding 1.2 miles per week rather than the 1/16th of a marathon that I had planned on. Subject to further adjustments in the future, of course! I ran pyramid intervals this morning (Power Up 2012 from Audio Fuel), which went pretty well (3.29 miles in 30 minutes including warm up and cool down). I was remembering as I did it when I couldn't finish the session or I had to walk between the intervals rather than jogging. It does feel good to improve. I have decided to try a running "streak" - maybe for a month to start with. This means that I will be running at least 1 mile every day. I started on 25th May, so my initial aim is to keep it going until 25th June.
I noticed a distinct lack of streak support groups on Facebook, so decided to create one if anybody is interested in joining me! We turned ParkRun into a bit of a family affair this week. After Pickle's first attempt last week, his eldest 2 brothers decided to give it a go. Eldest bro Will decided to set off on his own, whereas Jamie started with me and Pickle. After about 1km, Jamie decided to head off alone as well. The conditions weren't ideal this week. Although the day had started with rain and thunder, the clouds cleared for 9am leaving it hot and humid. It was really too much for Pickle who struggled to even walk the course this week. The result was a 44:59 finish time and a sad Pickle. Will and Jamie fared much better - Will's time was 30:08 and Jamie's was 36:06. Once we had collected cake, Will said to me "No offence, but I think you're insane - I'm never doing that again!". Insane. I think I'll take that as a compliment :) It's going to sound crazy, and I have spent some time analysing myself, but I actually felt bad about my running after Sunday's 10k.
What it boils down to is that I pushed myself (hence the PB), so the running felt difficult (it was!), leaving me feeling bad because I took a few walk breaks, legs felt shoddy in the final few kms etc etc. It was a weird juxtaposition because I felt awesome about the PB but bad about the actual running. Anyway, today I thought I'd just run and see where it took me. I set out aiming to run for around 4 miles/40 minutes and ended up doing an extra mile. Although it was warm and muggy (I was sweating like a pig by the end), the actual running felt good. I know that for the marathon, endurance is going to be key and speed matters not (except that bit of my brain that currently tells me that if I push a bit I'll get there sooner - must work on that). I'm aiming for strong, longer runs (with some tempo work for variety). Faith restored. Yoga done. Gratitude felt. In 8 weeks, Pickle and I are going to doing Race for Life together, something that he's been very excited about. Now that I've got a few ParkRuns under my belt, I thought I'd see if he fancied giving it a go, so I registered him and off we tootled on Saturday morning.
We had a bit of a wait before the start as he said he'd rather get there early and park closer (!!!), so we looked at the geese and goslings by the river and watched the rowers. What can I say? He kept going - even though his legs "hated him"! We were lucky that a rogue photographer was hiding in the undergrowth, so I have some lovely photos of us running (1st lap) and walking (2nd lap). With the end in sight, his little legs decided to get a second wind and we ran to the finish. Although I let him go through first, we shared a finishing time of 38:44 - not bad for a first time and a non-runner. A PB set...watch this space! Yesterday saw me, Dave and Pickle heading to the Green Park Royal Berkshire 10K and Mini Mile. Poor Dave had a gig on Saturday night, but still dragged himself out of bed after not enough sleep to be chauffeur and to run the Mini Mile (1 mile) with Pickle. Pickle had done his first ever ParkRun with me on Saturday morning (a respectable 38:44) - apparently his legs hated him (during and afterwards). We arrived bright and early at Green Park (before the crowds), but unfortunately the start of the Mini Mile (the first event of the morning) was delayed by about 20 minutes, which was quite frustrating. Nonetheless, Dave and Pickle eventually got underway and ran the course in 12 minutes (probably less as it took them a fair while to reach the start line). Pickle got his first ever running medal which is a weighty beast and should be approached with caution! Due to the delay in starting the first event, the 3k was also delayed, pushing back the start of the 10k run. Eventually at 10.45 we were off. I'd managed to squeeze in just in front of the 55 minute pacer and had a fairly fast start (for me) - my first 3 miles were sub-9 minutes. My aim was to beat my previous PB of 57:28, and I'd decided to aim for an average pace of 9 minute miles, which would have given me a time of 55:54 (I know it's a 10k, but I work better in miles). Just before the 6k mark, I was passed by the 55 minute pacer, and then slowed down by his "entourage" jostling to keep up with him - this was unfortunately at a narrow point in the course, and as much as anything I was aiming not to end up flat on my face! I'll admit that at this point I was pretty demoralised as I was quite hot and tired, and ended up taking my first walk break.
I watched him gradually move into the distance and annoyingly felt like I'd failed myself, which of course I hadn't - I was still averaging under 9 minutes per mile and was well on course to meet my goal. The last 3k were pretty tough and in retrospect I could have done with starting out a tad slower as my legs were heavy by now and I was feeling shivery. Finally just before the final 1km, we turned back into Green Park - the end was (metaphorically) in sight, although the downside of Green Park is that there is no shade. I will admit to several more short walk "breaks" in the final km, but finally the end was in sight and I caught a glimpse of Dave (the Pickle) waiting to cheer me around the final bend. I found a final burst of speed from somewhere and passed under the gantry with a gun time of 56:11. My chip time was later confirmed as 55:22, so extremely close to my 55 minute target time. Extremely proud of myself, but exhausted, we ambled back to the car, popped home for a quick shower then out for a well-deserved meal. So I started thinking about the fact that I've signed up for a marathon later in the year. Not saying that the idea fills me with dread but...well...after the Shine Walk last year, I did say to Dave "I'll never attempt to run a marathon" - famous last words!! I did some googling of walk-run techniques and stumbled on Jeff Galloway's Run-Walk-Run method. This basically suggests that you can actually travel faster overall if you take timed intervals of running and walking. The walking intervals give the body a chance to recover from the stress of running, and it keeps your core body temperature down. Using his guidelines, I decided on 3 minute run:1 minute walk intervals based on a running pace of 10 minute miles (which was my half marathon pace). I took a route that I'd run on Tuesday (4.7 miles). Here are the results: I was honestly staggered when I looked at the stats.
Even considering that I obviously took off at a faster pace today, that only accounts for 1 minute. This is definitely a technique I will be continuing for longer runs going forward, and I may look at 4 minute run intervals to try to increase my overall pace. On 1st April, I managed a 27:02 ParkRun, which was close to my PB of 26:27 - close but no coconut in this case. I pushed pretty hard, I felt pretty awful (see photo!) and I really didn't think I could have run it any faster. Fast forward a week, back at the start line and my trusty friend Andrew said to me "I reckon you'll go faster this week." My response was quite literally "not a chance" - I'd quite literally given it everything the week before and I didn't think I had any more in me. Added to which, I was feeling groggy and my lower back was stiff and sore. But, as is the way of group running, I set off fast and kept pushing. In fact, I had decided last week that ParkRun was destined to be my "tempo" training run of the week. As with the previous week, I started my FitBit then didn't look at it again as I ran - there was no need to check the distance as it's a set course, and looking at my time might either depress me or make me anxious to push harder. I followed my body and my breath (out of) and...
There is a lot of pressure on people to look a particular way.
Obesity is at all-time high in this country, with 62.9% of the adult population being overweight or obese in 2015 [1]. Sugary foods and drinks are easily accessible to all, and many people are sedentary - the average number of steps taken per day by adults in the UK is 3,000-4,000 [2], well under the recommended 10,000 (although this figure was actually pretty randomly chosen, roughly coinciding with around 5 miles of walking). But still, if you heard someone walk up to an overweight person and say "You're too fat, you need to loose some weight", you'd probably be pretty flabbergasted at their rudeness, and I would imagine the recipient would feel rather bad as well. Last night, I was body shamed. Before I continue, my stats: Height: 5ft 8ins Weight: 9st 7.2lb (this morning) BMI: 20.39
In other words, my weight is perfectly normal, perfect the healthy, and I've worked out that to be classed as underweight I'd need to lose 10lb.
I had no idea how to reposed to an acquaintance coming up to me and saying "you're too skinny, you need to put on weight" (it was midnight, I was tired and it was totally unexpected). Like many people, I have (and have in the past had) doubts about my body shape and size. At my heaviest (having had 5 kids in 7 years), I was around 13st. Like many women (and men, I guess), I had wobbly bits that made me self-conscious, but I don't recall anyone ever commenting on it, and at this time I was definitely overweight. In fact there seems to be a kind of expectation for me to be larger ("you look great for someone who's had 5 kids"). It fascinates me that my body shape and size are of interest to people. But I digress. Last night, I felt bad about myself. The more I thought about it, the more self-conscious I felt. "Too skinny" sounds bad. It's a criticism. I don't look "right" or "good enough". But then it's totally subjective, isn't it? My body shape is probably totally fine to a lot of people, obviously not to others. Why is it anyone else's business? And is it acceptable to comment on someone's weight, no matter what your opinion?
I eat normally (3 meals plus snacks), but relatively healthily (lots of fruit, wholemeal bread, not too much sugar most of the time). I exercise a fair amount (yoga daily, running 3-4 times per week, swimming or cycling maybe once a week, plus walking the doggy).
I also had 2 dinners last night - spaghetti bolognese and fish and chips. Although this isn't the norm, I also don't starve myself. I've spent a lot of hours mulling all of this over (probably more than it deserves), but I guess my take-home message is this: body shaming makes people feel bad about themselves, however well-meant it may be. It's not OK to tell someone they're too fat, and it's not OK to tell someone they're too skinny. In fact, it's none of your business! Reading Half Marathon |
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