Be Excellent To Each Other

No such thing as a bad run...

Beex is getting fit..

Just got to persuade him to do it again now

Encourage him to fly his quadcopter.

Fasten a gadget to your back...

Go pro camera + quadcopter + first person view goggles = 3rd person over the shoulder running game, with ultrarealistic controller.

I actually thought about taking my car to a big empty car park, placing the camera and video transmitter overlooking it and then driving around wearing the goggles so it would be like driving a giant RC car but from inside. I've already tried walking round with the camera but looking through the goggles and pretending to be a terminator. I came to the conclusion that terminators would actually just trip up on things, walk into walls and fall over a lot.

I've been using the Garmin Forerunner 110 with the heart rate monitor. I think it's kept me interested in running* as I can see how hard and where I've run in some great detail. The Garmin website's a bit crappy though even with it's redesign.

Running by heart rate also seems to help me control my runs. Although I'm still shit and need to get a few more sessions in.

* coming up to a year of fairly consistent routine.

Did another run. Week Five Day Two of C25K. That's the first one with two 8 minute jogs. Went surprisingly easily, to be honest! I think I have learned how to pace myself!

Still just 4k in half an hour, but that's 250 metres more than my last half hour outing.

Next one is on Thursday and is the dreaded 'Run Twenty Minutes' one. That'll test my pacing!

So I am:

Running 2-3 times a week

Doing a short workout with planks, squats, star jumps etc most mornings

Restricted calorie diet (circa 1500 most days, occasional binge at ~2000) with no alcohol for the entire of July


Still can't lose any weight

Weight has little bearing on fitness (I keep telling myself that). I am a lot fitter than I was, but not a lot lighter. The fear for a skydive is not making me want to lose weight.

Well done on the runs, you will have to show me the runs round town.

I know, I do keep reminding myself that. I can run an easy 6km or more without stopping now (including bursts of sprinting just to vary things a bit) so it's obviously making a difference but it's making sod all difference to body shape (specifically my wobbly belly) and it's bloody depressing

It will in time, I still have a wobbly belly too

I can barely do a 5k with out stopping now. The track work with MsKovs tri club has helped a lot, seems to have pushed back the acid build up in my legs now.

Sub half hour for 3 miles along that route. Getting there.

Now, all I haev to do is flatten out those two peaks and drop the main line a bit. The "pump your arms harder" thing worked well for me, as did "focus on a point a bit in front of you". I did that and imagined elastic pulling me toward it, then onto the next one.

As you can see form the graph, crossing the road, to get to the next bit of the hill I had a bit of a breather, and then again when it kicked up.

Nice work. I feel a little lazy - had a day off, totally. Maybe a little running tomorrow.

I got my 400m swim down to 15 mins. Need to shave off 5 more mins.

Oofah!

Did the big step up run today. Longest had been 8 minutes at a time, but I managed the 20 minute one without taking a break. Was pretty comfortable until the last three minutes, which really hurt. Very happy with myself for pushing through.

My half hour covered 4.07km. Average pace 7.23 per k, and that's with one third walking. Once my endurance is up, getting sub-35 should be an absolute doddle. Then the goal is sub-30.

Getting there!

Well done.

That was a bit better Park run number 2 done, and I stopped my forerunner as I crossed the line dead on 35 minutes! Very pleased with that Will have to see what the official time turns out to be.

Uploaded to Garmin and it says I did 5.07km in 35m 08s. Transfer that exact same data across to Nike+ and it says I did just over 5k (it only goes up in 100m increments) in 35m 02s, with a fastest 5k time of 34m 37s.
Unsurprisingly the Garmin is a lot more accurate than the phone was last week. Surprisingly, even with the same more accurate data, the various services still interpret it differently.

I also ran with my heart monitor on this time, and it seems that what my head tells me is my legs seizing up, is actually my heart rate climbing above my personal threshold of "oh shit" which is interesting.
Sub 180bpm i'm pretty comfortable and can just keep going, 180-185bpm is where my head is telling me to stop, but it's possible to ignore it and keep going if I want to. 185-190bpm is painful, but if I manage to block it out I can keep going. 190bpm+ is where I pretty much have to stop.

I managed to run the first 3k without stopping, then had 3 short walks in the final 2k. If I wasn't such a pussy, I'm sure I could run the whole thing, or at least only stop once.

Well done.

I have just done my 2nd park run. I had to walk a bit, still getting too much pain in my calves. Did 5.2km in 33.49, my 3rd best time. A bit disappointed need to put the miles in.

Pretty sure my Nike+ goes up in 10m increments.

Anyway, good work, sir. I tip my hat to you!

I'm going to wait on my first parkrun until I think I can do it in one go, or by the end of the month. Whichever comes first. But then again, I have no mornings free other than the last weekend of the month, so I guess that's my decision made for me!

Why wait? I can't do it in one go, neither can a lot of folks.

Bolded the important bit!

But I want to do it properly. The first of my goals for the year was to run a whole parkrun. I want to put myself in a position to do that before going to do it, lest I get disheartened by walking after 1k! This way I should at least get near to the end before collapsing, and then I'll just have a small improvement needed instead of a ton.

Parkrun says 35:04 dammit!

Mine said 34.12. 3 seconds off my pb....

I always think it's worth having a good couple of steps over the finish line before you stop your watch-that seems like way too much to allow for the reaction time at the start, but works out more often than not.

And good on you, Curio-the atmosphere and encouragement they find, for people doing their first, walk or run or a combination, sometimes is enough to give them the bug at parkrun, but if you've a goal in mind, that probably won't work for you. Graves parkrun in Sheffield for me today, the hills damn near did for me, but it's a lovely park, and the forecast heavy rain never came.

Ugh.

Doing a run tonight. Started off feeling rubbish, but got into a good rhythm and was all set to smash my record. Was feeling grand, but then an uphill bit slowed me down, and then suddenly my heart just did a massive 'WTF!' and it actually knocked me sideways. Not really sure what it was, like a big palpitation or something. So I stopped running. Now just warming down on the static bikes in the park.

Working theory:

I forgot to take my inhaler. My heart was going rather quick and not getting enough oxygen as my lungs weren't working properly, so it told me to stop.

I probably shouldn't run alongside the A2...

Doing my first parkrun on Saturday, not sure if it's a bit ambitious to aim for a sub 30 minute time... normal pace would probably put me at around 32-33 mins so I just need to push it a bit harder. Not run since last Wednesday though

The element of competition - or of there being other people there - might just carry you along. And you've tapered and rested nicely, that's all. Enjoy it.

Or alternatively, as happened to me the first time, might make you run quicker than you mean to, and drop off massively at the end.

(Although admittedly, this had more to do with the loud, bitey looking dog which was following me, the beginning was more akin to a sprint.)

Just went for a slow run around the block. 3k at a smidge over 7m/k pace without stopping and I felt fine the whole way round.
Hopefully this bodes well for a non-stop 5k on saturday

I have a running friend who's going to help me keep a reasonable pace - hoping this will prevent a crazy fast start and me dying by 3k

My time is 34 min. You should smash that.

My time is 34 min. You should smash that.

All right, Keys.

Richard?

That was the joke.

Oh yeah.

I don't upload these fuckers for fun, you know!

My recommendation if you want to do a non-stop would be to make a point of running really slowly. It will feel counter intuitive, and you'll feel pressure to speed up as others pass you, but I always thought it was better to go non-stop than burst early to the point of needing to walk.

When I was doing my first marathon training and I had to do 16 mile runs, I really wanted to go non-stop. So my speed was soooo slow, probably over 13 minute miles deliberately. The thing with 16 miles is that even going at a snail's pace, you're dying by the end, but you feel like a fucking champion because you didn't stop to walk.

So I'd say go for a baseline of speed where you can do 5k non-stop. It might be slow, feel slow, but even slow running is better than walking (and might end up being faster). Watch your GPS and know if you're going too fast or slow (Garmins have 'Virtual Partners' that are great for this, it tells you how far ahead or behind you are from your target pace). I've used that to run absolutely equal splits for each mile to keep my pace bang on target.

Then, if in the last 500m you feel like there's something still left in the tank, hit it. Sprinting over the line with your last gasp is also an awesome feeling, particularly if your target is to overtake that fucker in front of you.

There were 3 middle aged women about 100m in front of me with around 500m to go last time. No fucking way they were beating me!

On my slow run last night at 7m/k pace, my heart rate didn't top 170, which is well within my comfort level, so i'm going to try and stick at that speed tomorrow, and do a 35 minute non stop run.

Bit annoyed with myself, managed 4k of the parkrun, then walked for 100m or so, but when I finished I had enough left to sprint the last 50m or so. I should have done it in one go.
I was purposely running slower too, to make sure I could get round in one go, garmin says 35:07 for the run.

Next time!

Official time 34:57!

Is that a best? Congrats!

4k is still pretty good, 5k next week for sure. Every run can only make you better.

I'm just about to get my lumbering arse out for a run, probably my first for at least 3 weeks. Urgh.

It was indeed

Nice one!

Lot of runners today, 520 in total. I came 404th.
I need a 29 minute run to get in the top half, that's not going to happen for a while...

That is brilliant.

Wunderbar!