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[personal profile] naath2014-04-13 08:07 pm

(no subject)

13 miles, 2 and a half hours. Breathing problems and felt sick. Probably somewhat dehydrated as weather very hot, should have takes sun glasses. Still have stupid snot disease (nasty snot all down my throat, if anyone has any remedies????). However did get there eventually. This with a lot of run/walk.

Need better backpack, and to take MORE HYDRATION. But no solid food, as apparently I can't eat even tasty cake whilst running.
rmc28: Photo of me shortly before starting my first half-marathon (half-marathon)
[personal profile] rmc282014-04-04 04:46 pm

More training, slight change of plan

8 March: 10k (DONE)
15 March 5k (DONE)
22 March 15k (DONE)
29 March 5k (DONE)
5th April - travelling to France for six days
3rd April 17k (DONE)
12 April 10k 5k
19 April 25k
26 April 5k
4th May HALF MARATHON
10 May 5k
17 May 25k
24 May 5k
1st June HALF MARATHON

Yesterday's 17k was going to be 20k but I didn't leave work for my half-day early enough to complete 20k before 4pm, when the window opened for signing C up for swimming lessons.  That's right, I took a half-day off work to queue for swimming lessons; the queue is usually popular enough that I didn't dare leave it to a normal working day departure, but decided to make good use of the leave by RUNNING . 

Anyway, because of leaving work late, I planned a 16k run as better than nothing, but in the event ran consistently above my training pace so managed to squeeze in an extra km at the end.

My route was very simple: leaving my bike parked at the sports centre, and ran from there to the busway and kept running until I'd covered 8km (this turned out to be a bit north of Oakington) then turned around and went back.  I got my extra km in by going up and down residential streets as I got near to Gilbert Road.
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc282014-02-16 10:12 pm

18.3k and two weeks to go

The goal for today was 20k, but my legs started seriously aching around about 15k, and where I could have put in some extra looping down local residential streets to add in the extra distance, I decided to sod it and just go straight home.

I went from home, through Girton and Oakington, down the busway all the way to Milton Road (passing a [personal profile] naath heading the other way somewhere north of Histon), then back up the busway to the easy crossing to Northfield Avenue and then home down Carlton Way.

The Boundary Run is in two weeks, so that was my last long run before the event.  It's not as good as I'd have liked, but in mitigation, I have been ill and not running a lot of the last three weeks, and far from carb-loading, I'd spent a few days at my mother's where they mostly eat lean protein and veg and thus so did I.  My plan is to do a couple of short runs this week and next, a gentle5k next weekend, and to eat as much porridge, pasta and rice as I can bear the Thu-Sat before the big event.  Finishing is success, and I'm almost certain I can do it.

naath: (Default)
[personal profile] naath2014-01-19 07:11 pm

(no subject)

11.5miles, 2h10. Legs huuuuuurt from all-day Scottish dancing yesterday. Busway path still flooded N. of Swavesey; some if it may now be passable on a bike but I elected to return to Longstanton.
rmc28: Rachel, in running tshirt and leggings, holding phone and smiling into mirror (runner5)
[personal profile] rmc282014-01-12 09:42 pm

12k slow run

I decided to try a completely new route, and ran from home through Girton, along the bridlepath to the busway, along the busway to CRC and from there home.  I only had to add a little wiggle along Windsor Road near home to make the distance.

This was another slow walk/run - my new training pace is 9:31 min/km and despite consciously trying to run slowly and walk steadily, I averaged just under 9 min/km.   Looking at the splits, every single km was under 09:31 min except the last one, and that one included waiting for the lights to change on Histon Road.

The Cambridge Boundary Run is 7 weeks away.  I realised this on Monday and also that my training plan was out of sync with the actual race date, so had to rewrite it a bit.  I have the worst jump in distance next week, and then it's more sensibly-incremented short-long-short-long-short-RACE.  I think next weekend I'll add the extra distance by going all the way to Oakington - any suggestion as to whether that's best done going up-and-down the busway, or by running on from Girton to Oakington?


Hanging alongside the busway at Histon was a huge poster for the "Flaming June Half-Marathon" which starts and ends in Histon.   I will probably register for it in a month or two (there are other things queuing up for my spending money which I care about more).  It's 4 weeks after the Neolithic, which ought to be enough recovery time if I do a Neolithic half-marathon.  I've given up on the Cheltenham Challenge for this year - if I stick to my training plan with no setbacks, I will only just be ready for a marathon distance by the event date, and it's a hilly course whereas my training is basically flat.   I think it's more realistic to keep working on my stamina and look for a marathon event in Aug-Oct time.
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[personal profile] naath2014-01-12 04:43 pm

(no subject)

After a week filled with snot and lazy; ran out to Swavesy (9 1/2 miles) to discover busway further North shut due to floods (ran up to flood; looked very deep) took bus back on account of snot and cold weather.
naath: (Default)
[personal profile] naath2014-01-05 03:49 pm

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Busway path flooded between Fen Drayton and St Ives; looked really bad from the bus (flood gates closed). Took bus back to Fen Drayton. Ran to Oakington, at which point my foot was hurting :( and I was cold :( so took bus home. Measly 10km :(

On up side did get up in morning and go to Pilates at the gym.
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc282013-12-30 10:08 am

Week 7/30: 12k "run"

I have mostly managed to stick to the training plan over the past few weeks and two days ago notched up the longest run yet, 12k.  It feels very strange to be consciously going very slowly, and doing more walking than running, but there's no doubt that it makes it much easier to feel confident of finishing, and to recover quickly.

Next week is another "magic mile" time trial which will update my training pace.  I'm obviously hoping to see a time improvement but trying not to care too much if I do.

Thanks for the help with "warm up" walking - I've basically shifted to just starting off running slowly on my short runs and that seems to be working out.  On the longer runs, the pace is so slow that I don't feel the need to.
naath: (Default)
[personal profile] naath2013-12-08 05:07 pm

(no subject)

11.6 miles, just over 2 hours. Mostly in daylight (yay for being organised about leaving!) stupid mp3 player crashed (now revived) so had to run with no Women's Hour (horror!). Slower than last week :(

Must make plan for adding distance. Perhaps a lap of the Lakes? Should check the path. Maybe leave that for when days are longer...
naath: (Default)
[personal profile] naath2013-12-01 05:30 pm

(no subject)

ah, Advent. Cold and dark.

Successfully ran all the way back from St Ives; 11.5 miles according to my watch, 1h57. Pretty happy with that.
rmc28: Rachel, in running tshirt and leggings, holding phone and smiling into mirror (runner5)
[personal profile] rmc282013-11-30 05:11 pm

Week 3/30: long run 8k

I did a 30min run on Monday but failed to do my second short run because of a studying deadline and forgetting to take my kit to work.

Today I ran from home over to the West Cambridge site and around the lake a few times and then back the way I'd come.  The ratio today was 2.5:1 running:walking and my overall pace was 7:50/km.  In terms of pacing, this mostly felt at the "hard work but I can keep this up for a while yet" level; the walking breaks definitely work for me.

I have been thinking about my starts - I've carried over from C25k a habit of walking for 5 minutes to warm up first, and I do seem to need at least some of this when it is actually cold, but both my Zombies, Run game and presumably actual running events expect me to start off running.   It would reduce the time pressure on my lunchtime runs if I could cut out the 5 minute warm-up walk and just have a 30 minute run and then a walk to cool down.

How do you more experienced people warm up for a run? Do you do anything different between long runs and short runs?

How do you cool down? Again, do you do different things for long and short runs?
naath: (Default)
[personal profile] naath2013-11-25 09:47 am

(no subject)

So, last Sunday having rather overindulged on atreic's GIN I felt so thoroughly miserable I stayed in bed all day.

I spent most of the week feeling rather miserable, I think I might have a cold because the aftereffects of GIN usually do not last quite that long!

This Sunday I took the bus to St Ives intending to run home; I gave up at Oakington after about 13km of run/walk; meh. But at least I got out early enough to get coffee at St Ives Waitrose; was getting dark by Oakington though, need to start much earlier to get home in light (have head torch though).
rmc28: Rachel, in running tshirt and leggings, holding phone and smiling into mirror (runner5)
[personal profile] rmc282013-11-23 05:45 pm

Week 2/30: long run 6.5k

So, I got all excited about my marathon training plan from Jeff Galloway, I made a spreadsheet translating the distances and paces, and set up a new workout in RunKeeper and was all set ...

And then I was in bed with a filthy cold from Saturday to Tuesday and though feeling mostly better on Thursday decided that a gentle lunchtime walk was more in order than a 30 minute run.

However, today I felt fully back to normal, and decided to jump in with my week 2 long run of 6.5km, also trying out the run:walk split (using the RunKeeper workout to do the timing for me). I ran during my son's gymnastic lesson, so my route was simply around the residential streets between Victoria Road and Gilbert Road, finally making a direct run back from Gilbert Road towards the end.

Taking walking breaks was less irritating than I'd expected, with RunKeeper's notifications dialled down to the minimum, and it definitely made it easier to cope mentally when I started getting tired. My overall pace over the 6.5k was 7:40 min/km compared with my last three 5ks which were 8:20, 8:05, 7:55. I'm clearly still on the upswing of easy improvements as a beginner, but that's more of an improvement than I'd have expected, especially over a longer distance, after 8 days off.

The funniest bit of today was running past some small children in a quiet road, who decided to hide behind a parked car and jump out at me making monster noises. I was well aware they were doing this, so wasn't very surprised and made monster noises back; when I turned around and ran back down the road toward them, one of them asked why I was running and I said "to practice running!" which they clearly found very strange.

I have updated my spreadsheet to push everything back a week.
naath: (Default)
[personal profile] naath2013-11-15 04:48 pm

(no subject)

Hi. I'm Naath and I want to run marathons and further.

Current longest distance race: half marathon
longest distance run in training: 15 miles

Goal at this point: finish a marathon

Training frequency: I run 6 days a week, two short three medium and one long (Wednesday I do "strength training" or as I more usually call it "climbing")

Expected check-ins: Sundays, after my long run.

Events I am interested in:
Sun 2nd March 2014: Cambridge Boundary Run (marathon). Registration open soon.
? May ? 2014: Neolithic Marathon (marathon). Registration opens January.
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc282013-11-15 04:42 pm

Hello

Hi.  I'm Rachel and I want to run longer distances.  I completed Couch-2-5k earlier this year, and after a summer break have started running regularly again.  I find myself thinking big.

Current longest distance run: 5k

Goal at this point:
run a marathon some time next year (I said I was thinking big)

Training frequency: I'm following Jeff Galloway's marathon training for beginners, which consists of 2x 30 minutes run, an "easy walk" day and a long run day each week.  Galloway is also keen on walking breaks; I'm not sure about this and definitely not thrilled by the run:walk ratio he suggests for my slow running pace, but his is the only plan I've found that fits the time I actually have to spend on training, so I'm going to give it a try.  At the moment, I'm in week 2 of the plan which assumes the marathon race is week 30.

Expected check-ins: Weekly, after my long run

Events I am interested in:
Sun 2nd March 2014: Cambridge Boundary Run (half marathon).  Registration open now.
? May ? 2014: Neolithic Marathon (marathon). Registration opens January.
Sat 22nd June 2014: Cheltenham Circular Challenge (marathon). Registration opens January.