Progress Report: Week 6

WOO! Six weeks in to Operation Marathon, and a mighty 12% completed on my marathon training plan. My last update was a bit negative, but with Real World, running and roller derby I've not had much time for writing, sorry about that.

Happily, my accident a couple of weeks ago just left me a bit battered but not actually injured (skaters will understand the difference here). I'm still super-sensitive to getting injured again and Sunday was spent freaking out a bit about the whole thing but I went for a gentle jog around the park the next day and it seemed to be OK, and the pain pretty much disappeared over the next few days. Yay!

However, it has chipped a little bit more off my skating confidence. I'm really struggling with the derby head game at the moment. I dread scrimmages in case I or someone else gets hurt. I'm hesitating in situations that a year ago I wouldn't have thought twice about. Scrum derby strategies leave me feeling very uneasy and unhappy. I'd like to think that with every training I attend where nobody gets hurt my confidence will return, but at the moment it's hard. Really hard. We have a bout next weekend so watch this space I guess.

I guess another thing that's making derby hard is that while I grapple with it my running is coming on great. Every week brings new progress and I can feel it both physically and mentally. I can now comfortably run for well over an hour, intervals and speedwork are an enjoyable challenge rather than something to be feared, and I'm making personal best times on 5 and 10k runs almost every time I put sole to sidewalk. I'm losing the derby mental game but it feels like I'm winning the running game.

Today I faced my first milestone, a 10k race as part of the wildly popular Run Auckland series. I'd run a few of their 5k races a couple of years ago when I first dabbled in running, and the location of today's race was almost on my doorstop and the timing made a perfect checkpoint. I'd managed to comfortably run a few 10ks in the last couple of weeks so I definitely felt ready when I went to bed last night. The goals for today were:
1) Finish the race
2) Run the entire course
3) Complete in under 70 minutes
4) Average a speed of 9km/h

As I've said before, I'm not fast. I'm getting faster, but I've got a long way to go! The day before I'd run 5k at an average speed of 9.1km so I thought that goal 4 would be a good thing to aim for, even if I wasn't successful. I was confident of 1 and 2, 4 was an "it would be nice if..." but 3 was the one to work for. The fastest I'd run a 10k before was 74 minutes. Could I take 4 off that? I had a horrible stomach bug last weekend and as a result had missed a few training runs, I wasn't sure how I'd go.

This morning was COLD. Seriously cold. The race was a couple of k from my house so I decided to warm up for it by walking and there was thick frost on the ground at 8am (a very rare occurrence for Auckland). I hung on to my jacket until about 5 minutes before the race but my fingers and hands took about twenty minutes before I got any feeling into them and the air was so cold it made my lungs hurt.

The race was 4 laps around the park and I am damned if I'm doing another race where it's short laps like that. The first one I did fine, 9.1km/h and felt great. By lap 2 I was flagging a little but felt OK and passed the finish chute just as the men's winner completed the race (I expect to see me in the photos, cheering and clapping the guy). Lap 3, however, was a grind. I'd done it twice already, I knew the course now, and yet had to do it all over again. Twice. I was starting to feel tired, legs were starting to feel heavy. It became a head game. "Once I get to the top of this wee hilly bit, I only have to do it once more" "There's that woman with the weird run/walk stride, overtake her again" (we traded places about eight times, she beat me to the finish by about 30 seconds which is impressive given competitive walking looks about as unnatural a gait as it's possible for humans to have without going backwards on a pogo stick). I was a full minute behind my first lap time and felt I had a lot of work to do if I was make 70 minutes.

Recovery bath, those feets had worked hard

Happily, by then, the head games were being won. I was just under 9k done when I passed the 1 hour mark, and that was the spur I needed. It was hard going but I stopped my watch at 1:09:07. I'd beaten my goal time by a minute, and run an average speed of 8.7km/h. I was over the bloody moon and ran over that line like I'd won the damn thing (people should be happier crossing finish lines I think). My walk home was much slower than my walk out but much more satisfied.

I'll be honest, I find this running thing incredibly hard. I've lost a fair bit of fat since I started but I'm still an "Athena" class runner (they have a name for us, bigger guys are called "clydesdales". Draw your own conclusions) and it doesn't matter how charitable you're being, 81kg is still a lot to haul over 6 miles. True fact: When I use the runner's world shoe finder it makes picks based almost solely on my weight/BMI, regardless of my gait or mileage. I can run a 6 minute k but only one at this stage. However, I know I'm improving. I can feel my body changing as it copes with new demands placed on it. Where skating works the  quads really hard but neglects the hamstrings, running does the opposite and I can now feel muscles down the backs of my legs where they weren't before. The unevenness that comes from skating predominantly one direction is being rectified by hours on the road. My backside now has MUSCLE underneath the fat. My core is tightening. Even my skin is looking better as I spend hours outside (though my lips are now permanently chapped in this weather). I have to say, I like where this journey is taking me.

Next checkpoint race is at the end of August/start of September (either North Shore half marathon on the Whangamata Running Festival half). I'll be ready.

Week 3: Progress and Setbacks

It's a long weekend here in Aotearoa (some monarch having a birthday or something) and the dance card was looking pretty packed. However, it's never plain sailing in Bruja's World and I'm feeling a kind of horrible nerviness. 

Yesterday I bowed to the twin gods of running and rampant commercialism and got myself fitted for a new pair of road running shoes. The shoes I believed to be right for my gait were tearing strips off my arches whenever I ran more than a few kilometres, and I felt my stride was different to when it had last been analysed (a diagnosis of horrible overpronation, heelstrike and flat footedness was given) and if I wanted to start packing on the k's a better set of gear was needed. Interestingly, it looks like my gait has indeed changed. I'm still flat-footed but my gait is very neutral, I no longer overpronate and that's really good news for running distance and not injuring my knees. Historically I've had real issues with my kneecaps dislocating, causing intense pain and lots of dire warnings from doctors, including the memorable response to the question "How do I stop this happening when I exercise?" "Stop exercising". Cue years of feeling like I couldn't and shouldn't and rampant obesity and a total lack of faith in my body. Nice.

My running shoe family. Top left, the overpronate-correcting sole shredders.
Bottom right, the most expensive shoes I have ever bought.
I never in my life thought I'd have a trainer collection.

New shoes in my possession, I decided that rest day and hot weather be damned. I was going for a run. The afternoon had that really nice, loose feel to it that made me think running 10k was a possibility. The longest I'd run since I started training was 5k (when I'd finished my intervals on the treadmill and decided to push on for the 5. Personal best yo) and as a wise man once said "If you can run 5 comfortably, you can run 10. Just run a bit slower" (thanks dad!). I planned a route out, one I'd never done before that took me to the waterfront then up a murderous hill but that came in just shy of the ten, and off I went. 

It was great. My fancy GPS timing watch ran out of power about 3k in, so I sailed on without the carrot and stick that is the time. Having just got used to having a timer, it was strange going without. At one point I took a wrong turn which led to a dead end at the bottom of a ferocious incline but I was enjoying myself so much at that point I didn't care going all the way back up, it meant I was running for longer. 

I pushed myself all the way up the hill (West End Road for you locals), and the final few k along a Saturday afternoon shopping street felt almost surreal. I was running in a little bubble of isolation, dodging past sleek-looking middle-aged women and pudgy kids. At one point, a small child ran alongside me for about three shop lengths, racing me to a bakery where a little dog was tied up. She pointed out as we ran that my cap was the same colour as her shoes. It was all I could do to grin and gesture, saving my energy for a final mad sprint down the hill towards my house. 

On wobbly legs I wandered around the block to cool down, gulping back water and feeling a weird mixture of exhaustion and freshness. The marathon has never felt more close, more achievable than it did at that moment. From checking the time when I got in the house with when I started my watch, it turned out I did the lot in 1 hour 18 minutes, hardly an Olympic qualifying time but still better than I'd thought. 

Route went past this. Then went up. A lot.

I had enough time to inhale a couple of sandwiches and wash the salt off my face before it was in the car to go to team training. We were learning a couple of new tricks and tips and I was feeling pretty good physically until during a scrum start one of the skaters went down and landed hard on my left leg. It's almost 100% but still doesn't like being over-extended and this overextended it a LOT. I also twisted at the trapped knee from being taken down. The pain was intense. Hell, for a few seconds I felt like I'd broken it again. The pain shot up from ankle to knee but after the initial impact it mercifully lacked the gut-wrenching pain of a break. I got some ice, took my skate off, and limped off the track. Just a little bang-up, I told myself. Really, no biggie. It'd be fine. I cancelled a dive trip today and turned down the offer of a cycle ride just to make sure.

It's over 24 hours since the "little bang-up" and I am not feeling fine. My knee won't bend without a sharp pain and my ankle doesn't like having my full weight on it. I went for coffee with someone and did little other than be annoyed about it (sorry dude). I want to go to a night out tonight but if I'm honest I'm in pain and cranky and PISSED OFF and probably not the kind of company wanted at a party. I was planning on going for a trail run tomorrow before this weekend's XTERRA 12k race but I'm not sure if that'll happen now. I'm actually getting a little teary writing this at the idea of not being able to make my training commitments this week while it heals. I'm even googling for a physio open on a bank holiday so I can get it looked at tomorrow. 

I'm trying to be rational about it, I'm hoping it's nothing but the pain is pretty bad. If I'm out for a week or so I'm going to be bloody furious. I'm really hitting my stride (literally and figuratively) and to be laid up now would be positively cruel. 

So here's the thing. Running isn't hurting me, skating is. This is the second training in two weeks where I've left the track prematurely with an icepack and a grimace (a big hit at scrimmage the other week gave me whiplash-like neck pains for about a week. Total game time: 5 minutes) I had entertained the notion that the derby fates were done with me and I would stop getting hurt. It looks like I was wrong. 

I don't get it. I'm certainly fitter than the average skater. I run four times a week. I take my offskates seriously. I eat well. I listen to the "We're all really unfit and that's why we get injured" rhetoric and think hell, that's not me. So what is it? Because I have a feeling there's a decision coming that I'm going to have to make, and if I do then the shoes will beat the skates. I am going to run this bloody marathon, and if derby won't share me with it then the sport will have to go. 

Digging in

I announced to the world that I had entered the Auckland Marathon two and a half weeks ago. There was lots of YAY and AWESOME and GO YOU to start with, and then I'd run out of people to tell and there's nothing left but me, training and the occasional stranger who gets within earshot. It's dark almost all the time I'm not in work, the rain is frequent and the mornings frosty. It comes down to a mental game now, the first challenge of whether I can stick to my training program once the novelty has worn off and I have to find time to put my runs into my everyday life. It's time to dig in.

I decided at the start of this that the best way to make this whole adventure happen was to have no excuses. If the planner says run, I run. So if it says I need to run on a day I'm skating, I get to the rink early and run as a warm up. If I've no time, I run after training. Monday saw me running at quarter to ten at night, grinding it up a bastard of a hill in the kind of drizzle that chills to the bone. Today I was up at 5-ish, flew the length of the north island for an all day meeting, flew back, did my grocery shopping, came home, and went straight out for a 20 minute "easy" run. Tomorrow I need to either get up before 6am to get my run in or squish it in after coaching somewhere.

Great documentary about a bunch of unfit types training for Boston. 

What I'm discovering though, is that this discipline is bringing benefits, even at this early stage. There was no doubt in my mind on my flight home today that I was going to run when I got home. By the time I got home from training on Monday I'd mapped out a route in my head that I was fairly confident would take me half an hour at my "long run" pace (I was on the money, too). I'm discovering interesting little side roads, back streets and shortcuts. I used to take music with me but recently discovered that I run better and more efficiently when I don't have headphones in. That short period between starting to run and feeling out of breath is gradually increasing, and even when I'm breathing heavily I feel more comfortable with it. I'm feeling progress happening.

According to my planner, I'm 4% of the way through. This is oddly comforting. I like knowing that if I feel this good at 4%, 40% is going to feel awesome, let alone 100%!

The Big One: Week One

Looking very cold on the T42

Dear readers, I feel I have reached a crossroads in this blog of mine. I've not updated much because I was too busy skating, coaching, answering emails related to coaching, or going to meetings (about coaching). The last thing I wanted to do when derby was eating so much of my time and brain was to then sit and write this blog, so I'm sorry. I've missed you.

Truth is, I'm suffering a little from derby burn out (derburnout?). There have been some horrible accidents in the league this year and they've hit me pretty hard mentally (though not nearly as hard as the victims of course), the admin involved in making sure coaches are where they need to be, when they need to be there is immense and there are a lot of people out there who need information from me ASAP is not before. It was taking the shine off the sport for me and I was losing sight of my goals. I'd stopped working out outside of derby, rediscovered spending weekends with hangovers in and generally lost my edge. Eeek.

Then came my birthday. 29. There was a party, and an almighty hangover to follow. Then the realisation that I'd been telling people for a long time that I had a dream to run a marathon before I hit 30. Bugger. No big deal, surely? People have "things to do before I'm x" lists and I bet that most of them never go anywhere. There's no shame in saying "Actually, the idea of running 42km non-stop and having my toenails fall off and nipples bleed doesn't appeal that much". Is there?

Not if you're me, it would seem. The idea just wouldn't go away. MARATHON! To follow in my dad's footsteps and run the 26 miles. To put myself through months of training, sacrifice even more hours of my time, to do something which I enjoy in theory but find extremely hard just so I can have another story to bore people with on long car rides.



Harbour bridge on race day.

 Naturally I signed up. In 23 and a half weeks I'll be lining up with 9,999 other lunatics (and half lunatics) in Devonport at 6am on a Sunday morning. I'll run along Lake road to Takapuna, over the harbour bridge (cool!), down towards Victoria park, along Tamaki drive all the way to St Heliers, and then all the back to finish at Victoria Park. 42 kilometres. Up to a quarter of a day of running.

I'm incredibly excited.

Why excited about early morning training runs and a house that permanently smells of feet?

I'm excited because, well, how many of us stop talking about "Someday I'll do X" and actually make steps to do it? I remember the feeling when I stopped saying "some day I'll lose weight" and actually started changing my diet and working out so I started to lose weight. I just woke up knowing that to reach a destination you have to start the journey (yeah, that sounds like a motivational poster. It's still true). I think that's what puts people off starting on something like this, they don't see the journey as having any value. Bollocks, I say. I think there's as much value in learning the discipline of having to train four days a week as there is in crossing the finish line. I like the idea of this because I want to test myself, to see if I have the mental strength to push myself hard enough physically that I can run that far. I don't want to run this and then lapse back into unfitness, I want this to be like my weightloss epiphany. This is when I go from being fit-ish to actually FIT.

So far I've been on two training runs (I'm using the Map My Run app for iPod). One was in torrential winter rain, and I went only marginally faster than if I'd just walked but you know what? It didn't matter. I loved every minute of it. I loved feeling like I was pushing myself, that I'd overcome all the excuses I'd made up to not get out the house (TORRENTIAL. RAIN) and had done something. Like quitting smoking, this is acheiveable as long as I just don't deviate. Don't find excuses not to run.

I recently read on a yoga blog (yeah, I still do that) something that really resonated with me. It suggested that instead of saying "I don't have time to do that", say "That's not a priority". Once I started attaching that prefix, I was able to have a good look at how I spend my time. Do I really not have time time to go running for half an hour a few times a week, or is it just not a priority? What did I actually want to make a priority in my life?

This. I want this to be a priority. I'll still be skating, but I'll be training for the marathon as a priority. I've made sure my running plan has me taking days "off" (or crosstraining) on the days I'm skating, and I have proper full on rest days with no fitness obligations whatsoever. I'm going to be as smart as I can about it, but also determined as I think sheer bloody-mindedness is what's needed to get me through.

As extra incentive, I'm fundraising for the New Zealand Red Cross. It was bloody hard to decide on a charity to raise money for, ultimately I wanted one that helped people around the world and in the most desperate need. I've done a little bit of work with them in humanitarian education and what I learned about them I liked, so it seems a logical choice for support. If you'd like to donate to the NZRC and give me an extra, amazingly positive incentive to lace up my running shoes, you can at http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/RozSimpson/ . My target is $1000, and so far I've raised $55 in my first day. Unreal!

Anyway, off to bed. Tomorrow's a rest day and I'm feeling knackered after this morning's run and an 11 hour day at work...

Milestones

As I've no relevant pictures, today's post will be illustrated with what google comes up with if you do an image search for "Chinaman's Hill Auckland"

Today I did something I had a sneaky feeling I could do but hadn't had the courage to actually attempt before. I successfully ran ten kilometres, stopping only for traffic lights (and then I was running on the spot). I'm sure for quite a few of you, running 10k ain't no thang, but for me it felt pretty special!

knitting!

I didn't actually wake up this morning with any big running-related ideas (though I was going to run at some point) but when someone invited me to go skating outdoors (which I can't do now as I'm outdoorwheelless!), I replied with "I'm going for a run instead, might try and do 10k today!". Challenge made, I figured I actually had to go run the bloody thing now, or at least try. I went to MapMyFitness and plotted out a route that was a mashup of two of my more regular runs (including "Chinaman's Hill" which is a bit fierce). It looked huge on the map, but not intimidating. I've written here before that I run better when I stop planning and just go, but with the triathlon in a few weeks and a half marathon in the distance, it feels time to up the game a little.

The longest run I've done prior to this was 7k, and always felt destroyed after those, so how would that extra 3k feel?

Slug!

This evening was a triumph of positive thinking. I had told people I was going to, I knew I could do it, and I kept telling myself I could all the way around. I'm quite pleased that I can now run a good 6+km without feeling especially tired or winded. At about the 7km mark (fastest time for that little marker too), I started to feel it. Not gasping for air, just...fatigued. Legs getting heavy, my feet starting to chafe in my shoes, stomach feeling a bit sick. By the time I hit The Hill, I was running at snails pace. This is when the positive thinking went up a gear. I kept thinking about how awesome it would be to say I could run 10k, what nonsense I'd write in my blog after I'd got home, how if I could do a sprint tri I could definitely GET THE HELL UP THAT HILL! I grimaced a grin at all the lithe, toned runners sailing down it. I gritted teeth, focused on breathing in time with my steps. On not finding an excuse to walk. And I did it.

Of course, after The Hill, comes.....another hill! By then, though, I was all good. Blisters? Tiredness? Who cares! I was on the home stretch and though I wouldn't say I was flying up it I certainly put in the effort. I even took a slightly less direct route to my flat so I knew I'd definitely done 10k.

Rally cars!

I feel like I can say I'm a runner now. The first time I did 5k was memorable, but ten? That's a quarter of a marathon (15 April, folks, Orewa). That's Actual Fitness territory. It's left me feeling good that I've spent the last few months wisely and my training is moving in the right direction. My Marathon at 30 idea actually seems fairly reasonable tonight.

Whatever this is!

I also noticed today (thanks, summer evening shadows) that my backside wobbles a lot when I run. Like, wow. Now I know why all those cars full of drunk guys yell shit at me from time to time! I knew about the boobs (my sports bras be awesome but there are limits to all engineered structures) but the behind as well? Lordy. It struck me as I ran along one of Auckland's busiest roads, backside wibbling all the way, that there would have been a time that such a revelation would have made me slink back to my flat for a cry and (probably) a snack to feel better about having a large bum and it being seen to be working out in public. Today? Fuck it, went my line of reasoning. I'm out here running (10k!), fat ass or no. That automatically makes me above ridicule to anyone not exercising. And one thing I have noticed? People who work out don't hate on other people working out. And people who don't work out aren't really in a position to call you on your working out. So there.

Now, after all the life-affirming non-derby stuff, I received my bearings and new lid from One Woman 8 Wheels today (actually, they'd arrived on Saturday but my next door neighbour forgot to give them to me). The helmet's awesome, I look weirdly...professional? Serious? In a black helmet. The Qube 8-ball bearings are also black, and spin with ninja-like stealth. Reviews of both once the season gets underway (so close now!)

SHAMELESS PLUG: If you have a roller derby, triathlon/running or vegan-related (or all 3!) related product or service you'd like me to road/rink test for you, please get in touch by leaving me some details in the comments and I'll get right back to you!

Success, failure, progress.

Basically this.

Today started off a nothing day and stayed that way for some time. It's school holidays and the days get quite directionless quite quickly (unless you have lots of money to throw around, in which case it's foreign holidays and trips to the...I dunno, what would rich teachers go to? Dive shops?). As has become the standard physical response for "I have nothing to do and I've looked at five youtube videos by the same person and the jokes are starting to merge together" I slung on my running gear and headed out into what was a surprisingly hot, sticky day (hermitism = lack of weather understandings). As I wrote about before, I run better when I'm just running so I ended up in a park a few k's away, going "aw!" at ducklings and baby pukeko (pukekolings?), avoiding children on tricycles and feeling really rather good. I ran for about an hour all in, only stopping for traffic lights (and doing my dancing-on-the-spot-I'm-like-a-shark-and-if-I-stop-I'm-doomed thing), and figured (hoped?) that even with a right bastard of a hill in there I must have run 8km, had to have. Man, was I disappointed when I mapped the route to find I'd only gone 7km. 7km? That all? Really? REALLY? I was a bit down to tell you the truth. Then I had A Think, and realised I'd actually done pretty damn good. Because:

• I'd run longer than I ever have before (50 minutes being my previous record)
• I'd not stopped, even when my body hit that "you have got to be taking the piss" point about two thirds of the way up the bastard of a hill
• I know I can run farther, faster than that. 

So, duly buoyed up with my success, I saw that a few skaters from the league were heading out to the waterfront for a skate and decided it was time to change my indoor wheels for outdoor and head to the beach. I wasnt sure how my ankle would hold up to it, but hell, if I could run for an hour I could skate for a bit, no worries!

Badass Hangtimes Fun Crew!

It took a bit of getting used to, being back on fat, soft, cheap-ass wheels in the great outdoors. Although I've done a good job strengthening and conditioning myself in the last few months, skate muscles are different to the ones used for cycling and running, and I was SLOOOOOW. Not out of breath, not "kill me now", just..not very fast. But, I managed it, my ankle was fine, and I think if I'd eaten more than half a bowl of rice between run and skate I might have done a little better. (nutrition is something I really need to learn more about next year).

So, all in all I have earned my sleep today and no mistake. Tomorrow's plan is to cycle to a far-away swimming pool, try to work on my front crawl technique (swimming not drowning), and cycle back. Maybe some more skating in the evening. I've also suggested running an off-skates fitness group for the fresh meat starting in the new year, which has seen some enthusiasm already. I'm pretty excited about the idea actually, would be nice to mix it up and work out with others.

Skate season starts in February, next triathlon is in early March, the season opener is in late March, and I'm entered in the Orewa 10.5k in mid April. Plenty to be working towards!

An exciting week....

...and a good one, mostly. Wednesday was scrimmage night and I was finally told whether I'd made it into the travel team. On the rubric we use to score skater's competency, I scored a respectable 61.5 out of 105, which means that I'm in the training squad. Where in that squad I don't know at this stage, but I'm happy to have made it. 

Just happy I (don't really) hear you ask? Well, due to lots of different reasons the decision was delayed to the point that finding out how I did seemed almost anti-climactic. Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased to be considered good enough to represent the league, but the jumping-up-and-down-oh-my-god-yay feeling just isn't there this time. Still, it's great as it means more bouts and more challenges to come. Knowing that the derby adventure isn't over for me yet is very heartening and has given me renewed energy to throw into it. 

I continue to run, hitting the pavement three times and the treadmill once this week. Tonight (I know, I went running on a Saturday night. Life? I have none) I made a personal best of 4.6km in 32 minutes. Again, it might not sound like much to you but to me that's a real achievement and I still feel I could have gone further if I hadn't turned up at my house when I did (going past it and then going back is still uncharted territory). I'm also keeping an eye on my food intake using mapmyfitness's nutrition tracker (No. Life.) so that I don't accidentally starve myself or carboload into oblivion (both have potential to happen, I know what I'm like). Looking at the plan I'm using, I'm well on track to kick some ass at the Quarter marathon, and I'm looking to find a 5km to run in as a warm-up that doesn't clash with a bout (harder than you think). There's one the day after our bout against Richter City (Wellington) but as I don't know if I'll be playing, I'll hold off on registering just yet. I'm absolutely LOVING running, finding it to be almost meditative. There's been a lot written and said about running, more I think than any other physical endeavour, and I'm starting to understand why. Seeing a tangible improvement in my times and distances helps too of course!

Sadly, no good week can happen without the occasional bit of bad news. A car did a u-turn into mine last night as I was giving some friends a lift and trashed the front of my car. It could have been a lot worse of course, nobody was injured and the car is (just about) driveable, but it meant that I couldn't attend the NZRDT training today as I was busy running around after insurance companies. Still, that meant that I suddenly had a day with no commitments. Result? Washing done, motorbike re-registered (well, I need something to get about on!), good friend met for lunch, and some proper, no-guilt down time. And it feels awesome. I think I might spend the rest of the night reading a book and listening to something gentle...

A new goal

So, running. Monday I did indeed get out of bed at 6am and hit the pavement. I had worked out a route of about 2km, and figured it'd be a nice wee start. My aim was to try and run the entire way, no walking, no stopping. I put on some bangin' choons, hardened up and out I went. And it was honestly, surprisingly easy. Compared to when I last tried running, it felt effortless. I missed the turnoff I was originally going to take, so kept going and figured that I must have done about 2.5km without stopping (including a final sprint up the steep hill to my house). I was out for just over 20 minutes, and figured that was a good start.

I was pretty damn chuffed to discover when I mapped it on MapMyFitness (great website, worth checking out) that I'd actually done 3.23km non-stop! OK, it may not sound like much to you, but being able to run two miles without stopping and with plenty left in the tank is a huge achievement for me and I had a smug little glow about me for the rest of the day.

I figured that I do quite well with goals, in particular goals that aren't totally ridiculous or too far in the future. I enjoy running, and it'd be great to have something I can work towards and aim for.

So, here's the goal

The Auckland Marathon is on the 30th October. That's 17 weeks away. I can't get ready for a full marathon or (realistically) a half marathon in 17 weeks, but I can get ready for a 10k in that time. The Auckland marathon also offers a Quarter Marathon option, 10.6km. So, I'm going to sign up. I 've had the quaint notion to run a marathon by the time I'm 30, a notion which I've not done a huge amount about until now, but then I've never been as fit or healthy as I am now. So, let's aim for the Quarter Marathon and go from there, yes?

I'm going to spend the first eight weeks training to run 5km in a good time (aiming for under 30 minutes). I'll be using the Running Time's 5k Beginner programme, but starting at week 5 as that seems to be where I am at currently. From there I'll be using their 10k Beginner 2 programme, depending on how things have gone before. As an obsessive note-taker and chart-maker, I've put together this as a way of logging my times, distances and progress. Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm doing weights in the gym, Saturday will be a full rest day (unless there's a bout on).

So yeah, that's the goal. Please do keep an eye on me, faithful reader(s) of this blog, and prod me if it looks like I'm flagging. I CAN do this, it'll be amazing when I cross that finish line, and I'm figuring the more people I tell the less chance I have to duck out of it.

Mudrunning

Yesterday was the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge at Woodhill, a 6km off-road race held every year in the middle of winter. It's a course dotted with mud traps, fences, barbed wire and cargo nets and definitely not for people who like their whites to be a brilliant white.

I got roped into it at my gym by my personal trainer, who pretty much dared me to do it. As it was on a very rare weekend when I had no league commitments, it was like nothing I'd ever done before and I'd been told "this sounds like you, though it's really hard going" there was no way I wasn't going to go!

My enforced skating holiday and dire words of the physio meant that my training for the run was somewhere between none and zero, but that didn't deter me on the day. We were blessed with some absolutely beautiful weather and it didn't actually seem cold enough to merit the polyprop longsleeve the website had advised me to wear. The mood at the start was jubilant, which was a welcome change from some 5km runs I was on last year (serious runners are serious). Lots of people in fancy dress (though nothing too restricting), lots of whooping and yelling as we got underway.

It started off fairly easily, and I was feeling pretty good (and clean) until I heard screaming ahead and saw a bottleneck of runners. There was a huge ditch filled waist-deep with freezing watery mud, and I realised that maybe my goal time of completing the course in under an hour miiiight be a little optimistic. Running on rough ground is tough, running on rough ground when you're soaked in dirty water un to your chest is harder.

Weirdly though, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Everyone on the course was so friendly and encouraging, that not once did I feel too grossed-out, disheartened or even that tired. The course got very narrow in places and there were actually queues to get into certain parts of the course, but everyone was laughing and joking the whole time and cheering on the insane brave 12km frontrunners as they went past us, leaping over filthy ditches and gazelling their way over fences. I finished up in the middle of the pack and had gas in the tank to spare (the discovery of carbo-loading may have helped a little). I completed in a time of 58.34, less than an hour, inside my goal time and I can't help but wonder what time I'd have got if there hadn't been all the queuing!

It was a fantastic day out and well worth the aching muscles and huge amount of washing. I felt like I'd really accomplished something by doing it and getting inside my goal time.

As a little side-effect, I've rediscovered running as something worth doing. My base level of fitness is much higher now than it was when I was running at the end of 2009, and there's something about running outside that treadmills can't really compete with. My gym is great for some things, but lack of air conditioning means that doing cardio in there is not the most pleasant.

So, to running! I'm going to try and start getting out of bed a bit earlier and going for a wee run in the mornings, just 20 minutes or so. I was lucky enough to bag a couple of new pairs of shorts at half price in the Warehouse (my leggings from yesterday are destroyed) and I finally got round to replacing the sports socks that had gone the way of all socks, so I don't really have an excuse beyond my own laziness. I'll let you know how I get on (as ever)

PS thank you so much for all the kind words and support after my last post. It was quite something to have so many people I care about read what I had to say and be so positive about it. Cheers!