Met Big Chris 9am. Reason for missing run yesterday with no contact 'phone alarm was on silent'. I'll give him that, he's young and the force is strong in this one.
Started off our run at Clarkies (24 hour bakery), which as a lot of you know, is my home away from home. We didn't buy any food in case your thinking that, I was dropping my car of at the garage that happens to be right beside it. Honest.
Basically we ran from Clarkies onto Perth Road, up Glamis Rd, past Lochee park, through pentland and down to start. Actually, forgot to say, at the start, I gave BC the choice of running down or up Glamis Rd - he chose up. This meant that, for the first time, I had to stop about a third of the way up Glamis. It is ridiculously steep. Aim for half way up next time. Felt wimpish for having to stop but I couldn't keep going and the heart rate monitor was flashing 227 bpm. Started running again half way up it then made it to the top no bother, hit quite a good pace on the flat and ended up doing 3.92 miles in 41m 58 secs. Not bad considering the huge, steep hill and the couple minutes walking.
Wore my wee budgie smuggler running shorts for the first time today as it was scorching. Not sure if I prefer them or the leggings. Time will tell.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Heart
Bit worried about my heart. Not wanting to sound too dramatic for effect or anything but my heart rate monitor after my run today read: Average Heart Rate - 154, Max Heart Rate - 235. 235 beats per minute seems a lot to me. Will check on tinterweb.
Big Chris M.I.A this morning, waited 20 mins for him then headed up for a bit of off road trail running at Camperdown park today. Glorious sunshine and was feeling good. Decided to do a short run at a much higher pace. Even though the run was only for 22m 38secs, I think it was the hardest one yet. Really, really struggled up the hill and off road at the higher pace. Nearly stopped and walked several times and looking back, probably should have. Every time I was about to stop, someone appeared either on their bike, running or walking their dog, so really, it was vanity that kept me moving. Shallow.
Got a bit brave getting ready for work and put on a shirt that had previously been too small for me as I was sure I felt thinner today. Thought I fitted into it quite well - until I got into work and realised that, in fact, it WAS still too small. Vain.
Big Chris M.I.A this morning, waited 20 mins for him then headed up for a bit of off road trail running at Camperdown park today. Glorious sunshine and was feeling good. Decided to do a short run at a much higher pace. Even though the run was only for 22m 38secs, I think it was the hardest one yet. Really, really struggled up the hill and off road at the higher pace. Nearly stopped and walked several times and looking back, probably should have. Every time I was about to stop, someone appeared either on their bike, running or walking their dog, so really, it was vanity that kept me moving. Shallow.
Got a bit brave getting ready for work and put on a shirt that had previously been too small for me as I was sure I felt thinner today. Thought I fitted into it quite well - until I got into work and realised that, in fact, it WAS still too small. Vain.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
First 5 mile run
Met Jeff and the force of nature that is Greg 'Pose' Boland at 10am for a scheduled 5 miler. Big Ronnie Smith called off with 'sare knees'.
Jeff and Pose are self confessed 3 mile specialists, so we took off at what I thought was a blistering pace. Very quickly I feel slightly behind and started to get a little bit angry at their laughing and joking with each other when I was unable to breathe properly. Made an executive decision to slow down and run at my own pace and let the athletes go on ahead. Hit quite a steep hill and about a mile in my pins in needles came back.
Nearly got minced from a canary yellow mini cooper whilst crossing a road, learning experience. Boys were pretty far ahead again and actually did find it really hard running on my own. Need Big Chris back.
Stopped for about 40 seconds as the pain from my pins and needles was all the way up my calf and got too much. First time I've stopped on any run so far. Got into a good rhythm and pins and needles died down a bit at mile 4 and last mile actually quite enjoyable. Finished in 51mins 43secs. Boys finished about 45 mins. They looked fine.
Went out for breakfast and a walk and now, 4 hours later, my legs feel fine, not stiff at all.
Jeff and Pose are self confessed 3 mile specialists, so we took off at what I thought was a blistering pace. Very quickly I feel slightly behind and started to get a little bit angry at their laughing and joking with each other when I was unable to breathe properly. Made an executive decision to slow down and run at my own pace and let the athletes go on ahead. Hit quite a steep hill and about a mile in my pins in needles came back.
Nearly got minced from a canary yellow mini cooper whilst crossing a road, learning experience. Boys were pretty far ahead again and actually did find it really hard running on my own. Need Big Chris back.
Stopped for about 40 seconds as the pain from my pins and needles was all the way up my calf and got too much. First time I've stopped on any run so far. Got into a good rhythm and pins and needles died down a bit at mile 4 and last mile actually quite enjoyable. Finished in 51mins 43secs. Boys finished about 45 mins. They looked fine.
Went out for breakfast and a walk and now, 4 hours later, my legs feel fine, not stiff at all.
Friday, 18 March 2011
Food, Stitches, Wind, Beer and OWNED by my mother
Arranged to meet Big Chris outside work at 4pm today for a 4 miler.
Let me start again.....got up at 8am and first thing that popped and stayed in my mind was the run at 4. Now, for some reason, I woke up bright, alert and actually......looking forward to the run! Got into work early, got a lot of work done, had a wee laugh and carry on as usual. Then, for want of a better term. - It. All. Went. Tits. Up.
As I missed breakfast, was starving early, so headed to canteen for lunch just before the rush at 12. A stall was set up selling raffle tickets and cakes 'for Comic Relief'. Ordered a pork sausage and brown sauce baguette and headed over to buy a raffle ticket and a couple of cakes. Long story short- bought 4 cakes, can of coke, went back and bought soup and said to myself, 100% seriously and definitely belived it, 'massive run at 4 o'clock Stevie son, need to get some food in you, you'll need it'.
Had a wee (fire) evacuation chair training course in afternoon and when we were doing the practical part with the chair on the stairs, sweat was lashing off me. Brushed it off. Got the dry mouth then dry heaves. Didn't feel great.
Met Chris back of 4. By that time I was feeling like a fat James Corden. Oh yeah, if you haven't guessed, I ate all the cakes. We started off running to airport from work into a big wind. Chris had to stop to take care of some business, I went on manfully. Into the wind, dust in my mouth, developed a stitch, then another one in my neck/shoulder. Ears were freezing and I couldn't breathe properly. My head was thumping and my vision was becoming blurry. Looked at my watch, been running for '00:02:45'.
Chris caught up and we were both F@@@@@. Dindn't realise it is no use running with someone if they are having an off day too. Anyway, we plodded on, turned at half way and then.....THE WIND WAS BEHIND US. Everything felt great. Took off for home, even started chatting. Due to a slight techinical error on my part, we ended up running into a dead end (actually the RSS Discovery/ River Tay), so not sure of distance but my stopwatch said '00:54:38'. Longest run yet.
Nipped up to my mum's for tea in full running gear. Had a great afterglow, happy, proud of myself feeling. She opened the door and instead of her usual cheery greeting she gasped in horror and half shouted 'My God, I didn't realise your legs are so skinny'. Now, as quite a few of you know, I am known for my Chris Hoy like, footballers thighs and my calfs are bigger than most shot putters necks, but....but....I have noticed recently that my legs are losing the definition and girth of old. 1- nil Mum.
Arranged to meet Scrobe for a couple of beers. On leaving my mums after a good mum tea, bath and chill out, she asked if I could drop something into hers tomorrow morning. Conversation went like this:
Mum - See you back of 10 then?
Me - Easy Mum, I'm out for a few beers tonight.
Mum - Ok. Back of 12?
Me - (Big smile and a huge shrug) Mum, can't promise anything, I may strike it lucky tonight and you'll not see me all weekend (wink).
Mum - (shutting door and under her breath) We can only live in hope.......
Let me start again.....got up at 8am and first thing that popped and stayed in my mind was the run at 4. Now, for some reason, I woke up bright, alert and actually......looking forward to the run! Got into work early, got a lot of work done, had a wee laugh and carry on as usual. Then, for want of a better term. - It. All. Went. Tits. Up.
As I missed breakfast, was starving early, so headed to canteen for lunch just before the rush at 12. A stall was set up selling raffle tickets and cakes 'for Comic Relief'. Ordered a pork sausage and brown sauce baguette and headed over to buy a raffle ticket and a couple of cakes. Long story short- bought 4 cakes, can of coke, went back and bought soup and said to myself, 100% seriously and definitely belived it, 'massive run at 4 o'clock Stevie son, need to get some food in you, you'll need it'.
Had a wee (fire) evacuation chair training course in afternoon and when we were doing the practical part with the chair on the stairs, sweat was lashing off me. Brushed it off. Got the dry mouth then dry heaves. Didn't feel great.
Met Chris back of 4. By that time I was feeling like a fat James Corden. Oh yeah, if you haven't guessed, I ate all the cakes. We started off running to airport from work into a big wind. Chris had to stop to take care of some business, I went on manfully. Into the wind, dust in my mouth, developed a stitch, then another one in my neck/shoulder. Ears were freezing and I couldn't breathe properly. My head was thumping and my vision was becoming blurry. Looked at my watch, been running for '00:02:45'.
Chris caught up and we were both F@@@@@. Dindn't realise it is no use running with someone if they are having an off day too. Anyway, we plodded on, turned at half way and then.....THE WIND WAS BEHIND US. Everything felt great. Took off for home, even started chatting. Due to a slight techinical error on my part, we ended up running into a dead end (actually the RSS Discovery/ River Tay), so not sure of distance but my stopwatch said '00:54:38'. Longest run yet.
Nipped up to my mum's for tea in full running gear. Had a great afterglow, happy, proud of myself feeling. She opened the door and instead of her usual cheery greeting she gasped in horror and half shouted 'My God, I didn't realise your legs are so skinny'. Now, as quite a few of you know, I am known for my Chris Hoy like, footballers thighs and my calfs are bigger than most shot putters necks, but....but....I have noticed recently that my legs are losing the definition and girth of old. 1- nil Mum.
Arranged to meet Scrobe for a couple of beers. On leaving my mums after a good mum tea, bath and chill out, she asked if I could drop something into hers tomorrow morning. Conversation went like this:
Mum - See you back of 10 then?
Me - Easy Mum, I'm out for a few beers tonight.
Mum - Ok. Back of 12?
Me - (Big smile and a huge shrug) Mum, can't promise anything, I may strike it lucky tonight and you'll not see me all weekend (wink).
Mum - (shutting door and under her breath) We can only live in hope.......
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Sick
Met Big Chris and another Chris from work today for a 3.5 miler. Glorious day in the D today but a tad aprehensive as still feeling the affect from the weekends drink/pizza/chinese blow out. Told new Chris the run was flat and 3 miles to make sure he came - lies. MassEEEEVE, long, steep hill 5 mins into the run. Hard. DID NOT ENJOY the hill, at all. Nearly cut away near the top on a short cut but big Chris sais 'No'. Got to the top and was nearly sick. This is the first time I've felt sick, so took a mental note that porridge 1 hour before run may be too soon. Also got a bit confused on the home straight and took off at a 3/4 pace when I thought the end of the run was near, only to realise there was another half mile around the next corner. Again was nearly sick at that point. Big Chris realised that Nutella on toast 10 mins before a hard run, not a good idea. Other Chris totally fine on run.
Week 2. Things I've learned so far:
1. This is going to be harder than I thought.
2. Alcohol and the after effects set me back too many days.
3. Running with someone suits me.
4. Don't tell anyone your planning to run a marathon before you start training for it and find out if it's even possible.
Also, I'm getting ridiculous pins and needles in my right foot. Does anyone any ideas how to stop this happening? Painful and annoying.
Week 2. Things I've learned so far:
1. This is going to be harder than I thought.
2. Alcohol and the after effects set me back too many days.
3. Running with someone suits me.
4. Don't tell anyone your planning to run a marathon before you start training for it and find out if it's even possible.
Also, I'm getting ridiculous pins and needles in my right foot. Does anyone any ideas how to stop this happening? Painful and annoying.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
3.25 miles
3.25 miles. 3.25 miles. 3.25 miles. It doesn't seem a lot when you write it but it was HARD. Between 1.5 and 2.5 miles I very nearly jacked the whole thing. Went out with Big Chris and if he wasn't there, I would have definitely stopped. Went through the whole 'why, whats the point?' routine and obviously this will get worse over time - hence the reason I'm going to get in touch with the charity Clic Sargent to keep motivated. Cheers to Lee for recommending them.
Strangely my sore left foot got better AFTER the run. Weird.
Was on a course at work today, learn't that I'm not as assertive as I thought - who knew? Went out after work for first beers in a few weeks. Broke my 'no pint' ban though. Started off in mine with Graham with a couple bottles of beer and a bottle of vodka. Met boxercise class people, Scrobe and Davie from work - great banter. Pished. Felt good after the run.
Rest day today. Pizza and soem films I think. 4 mile run tomorrow. Again it doesn't sound a lot but I'm sure it will be hard. Oh and I met the woman I'm going to marry yesterday too.
Strangely my sore left foot got better AFTER the run. Weird.
Was on a course at work today, learn't that I'm not as assertive as I thought - who knew? Went out after work for first beers in a few weeks. Broke my 'no pint' ban though. Started off in mine with Graham with a couple bottles of beer and a bottle of vodka. Met boxercise class people, Scrobe and Davie from work - great banter. Pished. Felt good after the run.
Rest day today. Pizza and soem films I think. 4 mile run tomorrow. Again it doesn't sound a lot but I'm sure it will be hard. Oh and I met the woman I'm going to marry yesterday too.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Throbber
Day 3: Woke up with a throbbing and very painful left foot today. Doesn't seem to be any reason for it. A tad gutted to be honest. I'm blaming it on the extra timber I'm carrying putting strain on things after the wee run yesterday. Or, could be The Gout back......took some anti-inflamitory's, so fingers crossed.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Bullshit
Woke up this morning, bright, sunny day in the D. Dundee won again last night and had a cup of tea with no sugar yesterday. All is good.
Made a momentous decision not to bullshit myself or this blog. No half truths, wee white lies or exaggarations. Quite a feat for me. So in the interest of full disclosure, I'm actually 14st 4lb and done a couple of Tay Bridge runs and spin classes over the last wee while, so not exactly a standing start. Although I have just gotten over a bout of The Gout, so not exactly in peak physical condition.
Met Big Chris from work 10am. The bright, sunny day turned out to be a bright, freezing, bitting cold wind day. I came in classic 'all the gear, no idea' mode -5'6", dumpy, illuminous jacket, hat, leggings, running trainers. Chris - 6'5" , thin, long shorters, short sleeve T and a pair of Gazzelle.
Took off at a steady pace, bit of chat, quite flat. Knew there was a steep hill coming up, so the chat stopped. The tension started creeping in....who would be the first to stop?.......who would crack first? Lots of spitting and houghing already. Hit the hill, slowed down, breathing hard. Thought the hill finsihed but actually continued around the corner for another couple hundres metres, that was the hardest part. Both kept going though. Flattened out, steady pace. 2 thirds way round we 'picked up the pace'. Mistake. 30 seconds later, back to our plodding pace. Last 120m we 'sprinted' the the bus stop (our end of run).
Result - we never stopped once, we did a big hill and we varied the pace. 2.91 miles in 28min 40 sec. Avg heart rate 183, max heart rate 208. It had turned into a scorching, bright spring day, we felt knackered but good.
Long way to go but good start. Away to have lunch - no Cadburys Fingers today.
Made a momentous decision not to bullshit myself or this blog. No half truths, wee white lies or exaggarations. Quite a feat for me. So in the interest of full disclosure, I'm actually 14st 4lb and done a couple of Tay Bridge runs and spin classes over the last wee while, so not exactly a standing start. Although I have just gotten over a bout of The Gout, so not exactly in peak physical condition.
Met Big Chris from work 10am. The bright, sunny day turned out to be a bright, freezing, bitting cold wind day. I came in classic 'all the gear, no idea' mode -5'6", dumpy, illuminous jacket, hat, leggings, running trainers. Chris - 6'5" , thin, long shorters, short sleeve T and a pair of Gazzelle.
Took off at a steady pace, bit of chat, quite flat. Knew there was a steep hill coming up, so the chat stopped. The tension started creeping in....who would be the first to stop?.......who would crack first? Lots of spitting and houghing already. Hit the hill, slowed down, breathing hard. Thought the hill finsihed but actually continued around the corner for another couple hundres metres, that was the hardest part. Both kept going though. Flattened out, steady pace. 2 thirds way round we 'picked up the pace'. Mistake. 30 seconds later, back to our plodding pace. Last 120m we 'sprinted' the the bus stop (our end of run).
Result - we never stopped once, we did a big hill and we varied the pace. 2.91 miles in 28min 40 sec. Avg heart rate 183, max heart rate 208. It had turned into a scorching, bright spring day, we felt knackered but good.
Long way to go but good start. Away to have lunch - no Cadburys Fingers today.
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Day 1 - Motivation, diet and kit
I spent a few hours on Sat and Sun researching marathon training, diet, kit etc on loads of websites. This has (had) given me lots of motivation but after a long lie today and looking out the window and deciding it was too windy - I missed my first official training run.
This was quickly follwed by a massive lunch and a whole tray of cadbury's fingers before work.
My mates Garry and Lee have just completed a 100 mile ultra-marathon in the Arctic, so I had another look at their website for more motivation. It's a real inspiration to see people you know training and completing such a momentous goal. http://www.breakingstrain.co.uk/. After looking at the website, my motivation is back. Going for a 3 mile 'run' tomorrow with a guy from work - hope it's not too windy.
I think I have the correct kit and learned LOADS from this site http://www.marathontraining.com/ just need to get this first run out the way tomorrow.
Diet is obviously hugely important, so I have decided to:
Drink alcohol only twice per month, instead of 4+ (by drink I mean nights out)
Not drink pints of beer
Drink spirits with sugar free mixers
Cut out all sparkling soft drinks
Drink sugar free squash
Stop having sugar with tea
Have only 1 night per week eating take away. Cook everything else fresh.
6 days a week, have my 5-a-day.
Cut back on bread
Cut out fried food altogether
Any other ideas, would be much appreciated.
This was quickly follwed by a massive lunch and a whole tray of cadbury's fingers before work.
My mates Garry and Lee have just completed a 100 mile ultra-marathon in the Arctic, so I had another look at their website for more motivation. It's a real inspiration to see people you know training and completing such a momentous goal. http://www.breakingstrain.co.uk/. After looking at the website, my motivation is back. Going for a 3 mile 'run' tomorrow with a guy from work - hope it's not too windy.
I think I have the correct kit and learned LOADS from this site http://www.marathontraining.com/ just need to get this first run out the way tomorrow.
Diet is obviously hugely important, so I have decided to:
Drink alcohol only twice per month, instead of 4+ (by drink I mean nights out)
Not drink pints of beer
Drink spirits with sugar free mixers
Cut out all sparkling soft drinks
Drink sugar free squash
Stop having sugar with tea
Have only 1 night per week eating take away. Cook everything else fresh.
6 days a week, have my 5-a-day.
Cut back on bread
Cut out fried food altogether
Any other ideas, would be much appreciated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)