Another goal complete – 5 miles

I have been pondering all day if I should push to do 5 miles or just settle for 4.5 miles or even do another 4 miles. What has not helped today is that I have had a pain just above the ankle (inside of the leg) for the last couple of days and to top that off I did not sleep very well last night.

When I got home I thought ‘sod it… I am going to set the Garmin for a 5 mile run, so I will have to do it’. I have opened the windows for some ventilation and to keep the room as cool as I can get it, I have filled up my bottle with water, found some running music on the iPod that lasts an hour and set the Garmin ready to start the workout.

I found the 5 minute warm-up walk went by very quickly as I was still wondering if I was being too ambitious running for 5 miles, this is going to take 50 minutes which will be the most I have every done. Up to now I have run 40 minutes twice and found it not too bad, but would I find the extra 10 minutes a bit too much?

The Garmin beeped a few times and then vibrated to let me know that it is time to run. I settled down in to the run after a few minutes and tried to loose myself in the music to stop me thinking of the task I have set myself.

When I had been running for 25 minutes, I did a check in the mirror at how my feet where landing and then checked to see how tired I was looking. I was surprised that I was still looking reasonably fresh. I had a flick through the Garmin to check the heart rate, I was a steady 160 bpm. I was fairly happy at this point and thought that I might just complete the 5 mile target.

After a further 15 minutes I had a quick check, similar to the previous check. I had now got to the 4 mile point and had been running for 40 minutes. I have been at this point twice before so anything more is new territory for me and a personal best.

I tried to forget how far I had run and kept focused on staying calm and keeping the breathing as steady as I could. I checked the Garmin and found that my heart rate was now at 170 bpm. I also started to check the countdown on the mileage, I was nearly there, just a few tenths of a mile to go.

The beeping started followed by the vibration from the Garmin, this was to tell me it was time to slow down for the cool-down walk. I had done it, a full 5 mile run that took just under 48 minutes. I have never in my life run that far or run for that amount of time. It did not seem to take very long for the cool-down walk to be over, but I suppose I had a lot on my mind at that point with the achievement that I had just done.

I was very pleased that I had accomplished the 5 mile goal, but thought ‘now that I have done it once, I will have to do it again next week’.

I now plan to have a day rest followed by a 5k run on Wednesday and Thursday, then repeat this next week. My next goal would be to achieve a 10k before I go on holiday in June, I will have to wait and see how I am in the next 2-3 weeks.

Garmin Connect
Treadmill - 5min-5mile-5min

Pondering if to extend the run on Monday

I have got to the stage of wondering if I should extend the longer run on Monday from 4 miles to 4.5 or even 5 miles.

What I am thinking is that a half a mile more is not that much more but another mile means that I would be running for another 10 minutes will this be too much for me.

Will a couple of 4 mile runs enough to progress to the next stage.

Over the last 2 weeks I have done:
Week 2
Thursday - 5k run
Wednesday - 5k run
Monday - 5 Mile run

Week 1
Thursday - 5k run
Wednesday - 5k run
Monday - 5 Mile run

4 mile goal now achieved

I have been thinking if I should try running 3.5 miles or push it to 4 miles all day. I came to the decision of doing 4 miles based on that last week I ran for 3.1 miles so I am doing another 9 minutes to get to my goal. The other thought was that last week when I completed the runs I was not that much out of breath and felt I still had a little more in me. My only concern was can I do this without any injuries. I had not run since Thursday so I thought today would be the best day being I have had 3 days rest.

Soon as I got home I grabbed the Garmin and created a workout that consisted of a 5 minute walk, 4 miles run, followed by another 5 minute walk. I got myself ready and then jumped on the treadmill. I had opened a couple of windows for ventilation and to cool the room down, but the temperature was still 21.5c (10c outside temperature).

I started the treadmill of at 4 mph which is the standard speed I use to warm up with and carried on until the Garmin beeped and vibrated, this was the signal that the 5 minutes were up and it was time to start the run.
The first 5 minutes in to the run went by fairly quickly as I got carried away listening to a Formula 1 podcast, this was a talk about the Chinese Grand Prix that happened on Sunday. 7 minutes in to the run I started to feel a twinge in my left foot, I am thinking to myself ‘marvellous, that is all I need now’. I started to concentrate on how I was landing on the foot and trying slightly different positions to land, but within 2-3 minutes that twinge went away.

I found that about every 5 minutes I was taking a sip of water as I was getting a dry mouth, even though I was not breathing very heavy. I found that time went by fairly quickly while I was zoned out listening to the podcast, I felt like a mechanical machine just going through the motions until it was time to finish the run and start the 5 minute cool down walk.

It only became apparent to me that I had run further when I finally stopped the treadmill to do a few stretches, I did feel a bit more tired than normal. I uploaded the data from the Garmin to the Garmin Connect website to have a look at the data. I think what I will aim to do is another 4 mile run next Monday and then compare the data to see if I have improved enough to run a little bit further.

Garmin Connect
Treadmill - 5min-4mile-5min

A true 5k on the treadmill

I have been pondering if I should run to the Couch to 5k podcast week 9 again but thought I will need to break away at some point so why not now.

I logged on to the Garmin Connect website and created a workout then downloaded it to the Garmin Forerunner 610.

The workout consisted of:

• 5 Minute warm up walk
• 3.1 Mile run
• 5 Minute cool down walk

Got myself ready with my running kit on and filled up the water bottle as usual, then jumped on the treadmill. One last thought if I should do this programme or just repeat week 9. I thought sod it, let’s do the Garmin workout.

Still feeling a bit groggy with the tail end of a cold like virus, I started off with the 5 minute brisk walk at 4mph. The Garmin beeped a few times and then vibrated to signal the next stage of the workout.

I pressed the up arrow on the control panel to 6mph which is what I normally run at. I was now thinking to myself that I normally run for 30 minutes which would make the mileage 3 miles, so I adjusted the speed to 6.1mph and thought that should make the difference of 0.1 mile in a 30 minute timeframe. I found that time went by fairly quickly as I had been thinking of some things I had been doing at work.

Before I knew it the Garmin beeped a few times followed by a vibrate to tell me to slow down to 4mph for 5 minutes.

Once the workout was over I realised just how much the workout had taken it out of me, so I had to miss out on doing 30 minutes of some weights. My legs don’t feel too bad so another run is on the cards tomorrow.

Garmin Connect
Treadmill - 5min-3.1mile-5min

Couch to 5k now complete

I have had a cold/bug that started at the beginning of this week and still have it now. Yesterday I was pondering all day if I should complete my goal of doing W9D1. I got home and thought sod it, I will feel worse if I haven’t done it as I will feel there is yet another delay in getting to the 5k goal.

I jumped on the treadmill and started doing the warm up walk and thought this seems okay. Once the 5 minutes were up I speeded up to a run of 6 mph as normal and still felt okay. Once I had done 10 minutes I was starting to get a little tired and wondered if I would be able to finish. Another 10 minutes went by, I felt tired but okay. So I am now thinking well I only have 10 minutes to go an then this will be over. I finally completed the 5k run and slowed the treadmill down to start a 5 minute cool down, I felt relived that the run was over but very happy that I had run the 5k.

Today I have been coughing and sniffing for most of the day and thought that I’m just not going to be able to run when I get home. Towards the end of the day I felt a bit better and was more positive to do the 5k run again. I completed the 5k (W9D2) run today a lot easier than yesterday which seemed very strange as I have felt worse today than yesterday.

That was the last run for this week, but my goal is to do more 5k runs next week and find some music with a beat that I can run too. I idea is that once I have found the correct beat for me, I will like to try running outside again and run to the beat. I think this will help me keep a steady pace that I am used to running at on the treadmill. I can then confirm the speed using the Garmin Forerunner 610.

This is the 2^nd time I have completed the Couch to 5k and find that it really does work. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is interested in starting up running or just wants to get a bit fitter.

Garmin Connect
Couch to 5k - W9D1
Couch to 5k - W9D2

1st Run Outside

31-March-2010

Through the week I had been debating if I should do a run outside on the Saturday morning as I wouldn’t be running until Tuesday late afternoon. I decided to set the alarm and get up in the morning, have a look out of the window to see what the weather was doing.

Once the alarm went off and I had enough I pressing the snooze button I got up and had a look out of the window. It was dry outside but looked a bit gloomy. I went downstairs and checked the temperature and found it was 10c. At this point I knew I was going to do the first outside run. I didn’t bother with anything to eat as it was only going to be two small runs and wouldn’t take long to complete.

I pondered on what to wear and decide it would be too cold for running tights with no pants on, well you can’t take the chance being in that state if a woman is jogging in the opposite direction can you? I put the heart rate monitor belt on and a long sleeved running top.

What I had in mind was to have a 3-5 minute warm-up walk, run a mile along the path, have a rest and run a mile back followed by a 3-5 minute cool down walk. This would be a nice easy first run outside so nothing could go wrong.

I logged on to the Garmin Connect website and created a 1 mile workout, then downloaded that to the Garmin Forerunner 610. I got half a small bottle of water as I was not going to be long. I am now ready at this point and just going over a check list in my head.

I left the house and walked up the road to the point where I was to start the run. I set the Garmin for the 1 mile workout and started to run. 5 minutes in to the run I found that I really getting out of breath, I couldn’t believe it and wondered what was going wrong. I looked down at the Garmin and found that I was doing 7.5mph, I normally run at 6mph on the treadmill, so I came to a walk for a couple of minutes. I started to run again and found I was battling with finding a pace to settle down with, but completed the mile run. I thought to myself ‘thank God that’s over, but hang on, I have to get back home’. I stopped at the bus shelter for a 5 minute rest and thought over the run that I had just done.

I started the 1 mile workout on the Garmin again at still found it very difficult to keep to a steady comfortable pace, I ended up coming to a walking pace out of breath again for a few minutes before carrying on with the run again. This continued for the rest of the mile, I just could wait for the run to be finished and get back. I was completely knackered.

Once I got back I uploaded the data from the Garmin to the website to analyse what had happened. I found my pace was all over the place and I had run a lot faster than I normally would.

What I have learnt is that running outside is completely different to running on a treadmill. This is going to be a new challenge I will have to master if I am going to find a 5k event to run.

Garmin Connect
1 Mile Run - 1
1 Mile Run - 2

Couch to 5k running programme

Last year (2011) I put on weight and decided to go on a WeightWatchers diet. I found the Couch to 5k running programme which really suited me well. Once I completed the running programme I built the distance up to 4 miles which was taking me 40 minutes.

I was running Monday-Thursday (4 days) on the treadmill (Reebok iRun), I was really pleased with my progress. I was fitter and had lost all the weight that I wanted to lose. I started to get shin splints and knee aches which were becoming very painful, so I backed off the amount I was running. I even had to take time off and just found that the aches and pains were just too much. I went to a running shop to be fitted with the right shoes using the gait analyst, I even had a better treadmill. I just could not shake away the aches and pains, so I ended up losing my way.

This year (2012) my goals are to run 5k injury free and to lose 1.5 stone before my holiday in June. I started to post on the Runners Forum to look for tips and keep the motivation up. I started right from the beginning W1D1 and found it too easy, but thought I will benefit in the long run (no pun intended).

We had a new carpet fitted, so I folded the treadmill up to make it easy to move around on the wheels as it weighs 100kg. When the carpet had been laid I got ready to do a run and found that the bracket on the console of the treadmill had been broken, I was really annoyed as the treadmill cost a fair amount and it would put me behind in my training schedule. I looked on eBay and was going to purchase another Reebok iRun with the motor burned out so that I could just use the motor, I was out bid. The next day I rang a company that sourced parts for Reebok fitness equipment and told them what I needed. They said they could send the part free of charge as the treadmill was under 2 years old. Once the part arrived I fitted it immediately and got back on with the running programme, I had been put back 1.5 weeks.

I was going through the weeks nicely and with no injuries, so at this point I am feeling great. I thought nothing can now go wrong, it’s all mapped out for me to achieve my goals.

On W6D2 I found I started to get shin splints, I just could believe it. All I was doing was 2 x 10 minutes runs, simple enough.

I started to research in to what the issue was. I thought ‘I’m running on a treadmill, my running shoes don’t have many miles on them, running at a 6 mph pace which is easy enough to finish the distances in the programme, what can be wrong?’ I just could not see what the issue was. I started to watch some running technique videos on YouTube and noticed that most of the people were landing on the ball of their foot. I thought about the way I ran and found that I was landing on my heel.

I came down with sickness and diarrhoea, I just could not believe what was going on, and this is just putting my running programme and weight loss on hold. During this time I watched a few more videos and read some articles to find out a bit more about running technique. I found a technique called POSE. Using this technique you land on the ball of the foot opposed to landing on the heel causing a breaking effect. This all made sense and I could really see why I need to adopt this new way of running.

Once I was well enough I repeated the W6D2 and found that it worked for me, my shins were not hurting, but I felt a bit of aching from the calf and hamstrings which were to be expected. My new Garmin Forerunner 610 (with heart rate strap) arrived that I had ordered from Amazon, my motivation to run was very high at this point. I soon realised that I needed the Garmin Foot Pod as I was running on a treadmill. I also ordered some running tights as I found I was getting too hot with the shell-suit type trousers on. After reading on the Running Forum I found that a large number of people don’t wear any underwear underneath. So there I am with all my new kit and tights on without any pants underneath… oh ah kinky. Strangely I found the tights just feel like pants and soon forgot there is nothing on underneath. At this point I just couldn’t wait to get back on with the running.

During Week 7 I found that my Achilles tendon started to ache and found that if I landed on ball of my foot and followed through with foot flat on the ground this eased the pain. This modification to the technique is worked all though Week 8. So now I am feeling happy that I am back on track with my goals.