6k Milestone

Today I ran the first run of week 10 and covered 6km. (I'm not sure what happened to the big 5K milestone, I didn't seem to notice it.) Today I ran longer and further than I ever have before. The intervals were: Run 20 mins, Walk 2mins, Run 20 mins. The picture on the left was taken after I arrived back at work (excuse the hat hair).

So as I continue on this training plan I continue to surprise myself. Just a few weeks ago running 6km was a laughable concept, but I just managed it without much difficulty. It's not particularly impressive running 6k in 40 minutes, but it's impressive for me! As long as I keep seeing improvements in my fitness and endurance I'm not too fussed about speed. I'll worry about that later. There is still 19 weeks until the Derby 10K, so plenty of time for improvement.

I'm off now for a cup of tea. I'm still rather dazed after running for 40 minutes. The 25 minute short run this week suddenly seems a bit tame. I'm not getting complacent though. Those short runs can be nasty. It'll probably knock me back a few pegs.

A good short run!

I completed week 9 today, and although the temperature outside was absolutely freezing, I was at least rewarded with the view above. This week I finally had a good short run. After 8 weeks of terrible short runs it has now been proven that a good short run is possible. If you haven't been following this blog, ever since I started my running training the second run of each week is a designated short run. This has always been the least enjoyable (until this week), as I have always felt tired, my legs always hurt and felt heavy, and I usually struggled to breathe comfortably.

End of week 8

I've reached the end of week 8 and ran for 20 uninterrupted minutes today for the first time. Yay!

Next week is the second "easy" week, which just means I'm not expected to add any more distance to my training. During the last easy week I decided to experiment with cadence, because mine is pretty low (definitely more a jogging pace than running). I'll probably do that again because today I was experiencing some shin pain, which I'm pretty sure is due to my slow pace.

This article explains how increasing running cadence reduces the stress on bones and soft tissues, and ultimately the pain you experience while running. It also explains the danger of making any drastic changes, so a very gradual approach seems to be the way forward.

A good run!

Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

I had a good run today! So there is such a thing. 

Today was the first run of week 8. The intervals were:

Run 15 Walk 5 x 2

It wasn't easy motivating myself to do it, especially when I stepped out of my warm office and into the cold breeze. However, my training plan assured me that one day there would come a time when I felt "fitter", and today I definitely did.

There were no objections from my leg muscles or lungs, the rest buzzer came earlier than expected, the hills weren't an issue, and I was actually annoyed when a car appeared and I had to get off the single track to let it past (in previous weeks cars were great because they forced you to take a sneaky unscheduled break).

I finished the run feeling like I could have run longer. 

Hill Running

Photo by Jeremy Lapak on Unsplash

I bring up hill running in this post because 1) there are a lot of hills in the Scottish Highlands, 2) there are hills on all of my road running routes, and 3) the short run of week 7 featured a particularly unpleasant hill-running experience.

Week 7 is done and dusted and everything went fine. There was only one point where I considered quitting and turning back and that was on the first interval of run number 2. The second run is always the "short" run of the week, and for some reason for me it's always the hardest (I'm trying very hard not to develop a psychological fear of the short run, but it has to be said it 's always the one that makes me suffer most). 

What didn't help was a hill climb early on in the run. I've run up this hill a few times now. It's nothing to write home about. It isn't huge and doesn't have a massive gradient. What it did have that day though was a very strong head wind trying to push me back down again. This meant more effort and more pain reaching the top. When I did reach the top I was so tired and achy I seriously doubted whether I'd complete the run. But, after a pause of 10 seconds or so I carried on. I reached a tree-lined bit of road and the shelter it offered helped me complete the run, plus I was assisted by the tail wind on the way back. 

Week 7

The first run of Week 7 was as follows:
Run 9 walk 3  x 3

This wasn't a big leap from Week 6 but it was the first time I went running in the dark. The route I ran had no street lighting, it was a road alongside the river, one I've run several times before. The photo on the left was taken in the village where I finished the run.

Running at night was quite nice. Because the river has no lighting there was absolutely nothing to look at but the bit of road lit up by my head torch. There were no distractions. No cars. No dog walkers. No scenery. Just the sound of my own breathing and my feet on the road. I say it was nice. This was partly because it was one of the mildest nights we'd had in a long time. If I hadn't needed to wear something reflective, I wouldn't have bothered with the jacket it was that warm, which is saying something in Scotland in early November. Had the weather being a little more typical the run may not have been so fun.

Made it to half way

Photo by morgan sarkissian on Unsplash

Well, I'm now officially halfway through my training, which I'm really chuffed with on the one hand, and slightly anxious about on the other. 

Looking at the weeks ahead, training seems to really ramp up the running durations. Now I've been sceptical about whether I could last the prescribed number of minutes before and have been pleasantly surprised, but before I was increasing in increments of 1 or 2 minutes.  I'm about to embark on the next 6 weeks of training, and I'm noticing increasing increments of 5, 10, and even 20 minutes. Week 10, for example looks like this: 

Day 1: Run 20, Walk 2, Run 20

Day 2: Run 25

Day 3: Run 40

...which, at this moment, looks a bit intimidating.