AglaeaC wrote: »

Ugh, forgot to ask a question to everyone. I wonder how warming up is included in your programmes? When the task is to run for instance 7K, is the warm-up included or not?

The stats I post each time are just for the running portion and don't include the warm up and cool down. Yesterday, when I ran 5.07 miles, the total distance was 6.37 miles. I do log the entire distance in MapMyWalk, because I use their Gear Tracker feature to keep track of how many miles I've put on my shoes.

Thanks everyone! I just came back from my walking for cross-training, and it was a good walk. 30 minutes is a decent time to get the heart working, but it isn't that much effort wise. I haven't yet decided what to do about tomorrow's strength training that should follow the 3.2 km run, though.

@maggiekat my problem when starting to run was that I doubted myself heavily and didn't completely trust the programme. The only thing I can say in terms of advice is that it might help to consider the programme of your choice as a certain kind of personal trainer, who knows running better than you do.
If it's been developed by professionals, and you're in acceptable health, there's no reason why you will fail, provided you're at the starting point they have outlined for W1D1. I recall the much dreaded W5D3 of C25K as a turning point for me, when I just had to succumb, accept the programme. Not stop questioning per se, but easing into trust, having faith in the "system", and realising that a lot of internal struggles have more to do with mind than body. Often the body can keep performing even when we think it can't, which is why I've focussed on the mental aspect in this reply

maggiekat7 wrote: »

@Just_Ceci, what do you think of Zombies, Run! - do you recommend it?

I think it's a good distraction. Unfortunately, I discovered today after Episode 5, you have to wait days to unlock the next episode, or buy the premium prescription.

Nice Ceci! I did the 3.2 km, 4.1 km total with walking before and after. Feels good to have some kimd of plan to stick with again. Makes the internal debate less tedious.

Had a hard drive crash on Monday evening, so missed posting on Tuesday, so I have two updates.

On Tuesday, I did a 5K to 10K Week 3 run. I ended up walking on more than one of the steeper sections, but still posted a really good time (for me). My stats for Tuesday: 5.57 miles in 70:38 for a pace of 12:40. Again, a faster pace than my last run! The last time I did the same run, back on July 24, my pace was 13:19.

Today, I did 5K to 10K Week 4 Day 1. Again, I walked on the steep sections but still had a good pace (which actually makes sense, since I can walk up those steep sections as fast, or faster, than I can run them). I did try to make up for it a little by running during half of the prescribed walk interval. Stats for today: 5.67 miles in 71:37 for a pace of 12:38.

I have a question about something that's been happening lately. After I've been running for a while, my fingers start tingling (today I noticed it a little before halfway, so about 2.5 miles into the run - I was running downhill at the time). It isn't bad, but I'm guessing it means I'm a little short on oxygen or something. Is there anything I should do about it and should I worry at all?

This weekend has been all about the bike, so no running to report. I completed my 4th ADA Tour deCure yesterday, riding just over 65 miles. I raised almost $1,300!

Today, I went for a hike at my national park. The weather was too perfect to stay inside!

Just_Ceci wrote: »

This weekend has been all about the bike, so no running to report. I completed my 4th ADA Tour deCure yesterday, riding just over 65 miles. I raised almost $1,300!

Amazing! Well done!

I was slow today. I don't know why and it doesn't really matter, since I'm still amazed that I can run at all, much less this far on our hills. I'm still walking occasionally, on the steeper parts, but I think I walked less today than on my last run.

Today's stats: 5K to 10K W4D3: 5.67 miles in 74:29 for a pace of 13:08.

I achieved my 21 km goal this morning. It was deadly hot, and the last 9 km were tackled one painful km at a time. At about 12 km in I wanted to quit. I'd finished all my water and my route was taking me through patches of scorching pavement. Somehow I kept going, and didn't stop until the end.

I'm feeling rather miserable at the moment. Too much hard work on too hot a day, I guess. Happily, beneath my dazed and exhausted exterior I'm absolutely beside myself with what I accomplished.

@taeliesyn - I don't know how you do it, man. Just - WOW.

@NancyN795 - Good idea on the re-try, sometimes it happens. You still did the distance though

@maggiekat7 Great work and well done on pushing through to the end! Yeah it would be the effort that has left you wrecked, but you'll recover and be fine!
Training!! lots of training for me, and finding people to run with

@Just_Ceci WHOOO!!! Glad to see you running again!

After a rather hard parkrun yesterday, pushing a friend to a course PB for her 50th parkrun, we actually headed out for a nice recovery long run this morning. It was a little cold at the start, then a bit of drizzle and then it fined up. Beautiful morning for a run, pushed my week out to just over 70K.
It finally feels like I'm on the right side of my injury/niggle woes. Although the ankle isn't perfect yet, it's getting there.

Last weekend was the Bad Cow Weekender, an event over Saturday and Sunday with back to back marathons, Saturday and Sunday, a 10K on Saturday evening and a Half on Sunday morning. I ran the HM, but loads of runners did two or three races, with back to back fulls. Two runners did all four races.

The route was a circuit of just over 5K, so repeated loops of that. So about 200 runners going round and around on coastal heathland. A short video done by one of the other runners, I'm visible about 40 seconds in; black Inov-8 race vest on the left of the shot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZts_RzQCE4

I hadn't done anything particularly long since the Giants Head eight weeks ago, and was using this as a bit of a warm up to this weekend when I've got a 12 hour race on Sunday, where I'm raising money for the Veterans Mental Welfare Charity, Combat Stress.

The first time I've done a lapped route like this, but at over 5K it didn't feel all that repetitive. The big advantage was that having been round once I was able to plan my subsequent runs. Two points where I walked up slopes, but knowing when they were appearing allowed me to pace myself more effectively than a larger route.

Once we were out on the route it was good as there was no way to tell whether someone was on the half or the full, and everyone was, as ever with trail races, quite chatty and friendly. It was a fairly frequent case of passing and being passed throughout, and we had no idea whether we were being lapped or not, some of the time. A few people stood out and personally I lapped maybe half a dozen people over the four repetitions on the half.

The aid station was very good, as ever well stocked and I took a slightly different approach to nutrition and hydration. I grabbed a cup of water on each circuit, and had water melon, flapjack and jelly babies from the aid station, rather than using gels. I felt ok, so there is a bit of improved conditioning as I needed less hydration and fuel than normal.

In terms of shoes I opted for my Inov-8 Race Ultras. As you can see from the video a very dry, hard packed, trail surface. Road shoe would probably have been alright on much of it, but the trail shoes worked well and I felt pretty comfortable in them. The longest I've run in those shoes now. Unfortunately Inov-8 are retiring the design and replacing it, although the new model is getting good reviews.

So a fun race, that despite not pushing hard it gained me a Half Marathon PB of 2:06:58 and I'm feeling pretty confident about the Frolic on Sunday. So, the bling...

W5D2 of 5K to 10K today. I'm still walking more often than I'd like. I think I'm going to finish the 5K to 10K program and then cut back to a shorter distance and work on not dropping to a walk on the steep parts.

Stats: 6.3 miles in 81:29 for a pace of 12:56.

rusgolden wrote: »

Great job @NancyN795 !! Since my 5K race earlier this month, I've kind of felt like I'm in limbo with my running program. I don't have time in the mornings during the week for longer than 5k runs, so have been doing 3-5k on Tu/Th and a longer run on the weekend. Today I was successful in running a full 5 miles without walking in 51:30.

Anyone know of a good program that can fit in that type of schedule? I'm thinking maybe about doing interval runs for the Tu/Th and slowly increasing my distance for the weekend run. I'm doing another 5K run in the middle of September.

I can't imagine how I'd do this if I had a job and a family to take care of. Being retired has its perks and being able to find time to exercise is one of them. But, it still takes more time than I really like. Plus, I've learned that, for me, during the summer it has to happen before breakfast or not at all. So, I think your shorter runs during the week and a longer run on the weekend sounds like a reasonable compromise.

Perth City to Surf Half Marathon yesterday for me. Lead up during the week for it was great, but probably a little intense to truly race it, which is fine as I was using it as a fitness test and not a race. Saturday however was definitely NOT the way to spend a day before a race. One of my non running activities is being a member of the Mounted Section of our SES, so Saturday was spent with a 4am start. Out of the house by 4:45am and I wasn't home until 6pm. Several hours of driving, several hours of standing around and several hours of horse riding, is not the relaxing pre-race day that I should have had.

Anyway, woke up on Sunday with a massive feeling of "Feck it, I'm going back to sleep, screw the race" Finally dragged myself out of bed, got a few mouthfulls of breakfast in, about half a can of rockstar and out the door. With almost nothing going like I had planned. Couldn't find my bag for drop bag usage and stuff, so no warm clothes for the finish, and all sorts. I ended up taking my hydration pack, without the bladder in it, to carry my gels, my phone, finishers shirt and my jacket (waterproof, mostly windproof, but super breathable, so not warm!). Leave the house for my 4k warmup run to the train station, cruise that through, hang around freezing, get the train in no worries and then hang around the start line freezing for over an hour as I had over estimated travel times.

Finally we marshal and I put my jacket in my pack, and then we're off. Started the first few hundred metres way too fast as always, especially when near the front of the pack. Headed in to Kings Park pretty much on my soft target pace, which would still have given me a PB by a few minutes. 2k in, we'd hit the first downhill and people had thinned enough that it wasn't dodgem's any more. Not clear running, but easy enough to find space. Chatted with one dude for a bit, who I ended up playing leapfrog with for probably the next 7 or 8k. Out of Kings park, I had a chic shoot past me, either she slowed a little or I sped up (Yeah I sped up lol) and I caught her, we ended up running together for a few km's at probably 20s+/km faster than I thought for my A target. Some banter, including a comment from my about going to fast, followed by "stuff it, it feels good I'll stick to it" she replied that she liked my attitude. I think we were together for a good few km's she eventually dropped me with about 5 or 6k to go. I found even though my legs felt exhausted I was still powering up the hills, a bit of banter and some singing with another lady for a few km's and then it was through Perry Lakes.. I was narly half way through and the brain tried to screw me.. I thought about how empty my legs felt.. and BANG it felt like I was cooked.. I took a moment to re-*kitten* and started the positive thinking, mentally saying I felt fine, I felt strong, not even 15 minutes left etc, and it worked after a few positive mantra's I felt good again.

Up the last set of hills and I kept gaining on people, up and up and down and up and down and up and then DOWN... Knowing there was just over 1k left I started to push on the second last down, I knew there was a little rise to still get over but I felt strong enough, over the rise and down and down some more, round the corner to the 600m or so long finish 'chute' I was digging deep trying to mow down people in front of me, but the legs were empty.. I was gaining but I wasn't gaining in my usual finish line sprint fashion. The dude I'd been leapfrogging in Kings park came up along side me and then shot past. I tried to find something to hold him off, or hammer after him, but I was smoked.

I crossed the line in 98min (1:38) and change. Absolutely blitzing what I thought and what I was hoping for. Soft target was 1:45, happy target was low 1:40, and over the moon was 1:39.5x.
I haven't raced a half for a while, so it's about an 11min PB for official time, about 9min over the HM distance set during a training run, and somewhere in the region of a 20min course PB. So totally beyond stoked. And although I'm sore this morning, I've had a lot worse legs before.

So Sunday was the big day, 12 hours of trails. A fuller report later, but I managed 62km, 39 miles, in 9:23 total and 8:05 moving.

I was near comatose most of yesterday, and worked from home today.

Brutally hard work, but a lot of fun. A colleague asked me about it on the phone today and I found myself saying that it's six weeks until the next Marathon. Hadn't even made a conscious decision yet.