18 August 2015
It was back to the treadmill and the sub-130 HR run today for 45 minutes - just as well it was an easy session because I am tired today! Proper bone-achingly, eye-closingly, brain-numbingly tired ... I'm sure it's just a reaction from the weekend but I can't wait to hit bed tonight! One of my goals for this week was to go to bed at 21:00 at least four times to try and rebuild and recover from both the lack of sleep over my holiday and the extra strain I'm throwing at my body by increasing my running volume with these longer runs. Worryingly, I did go to bed at 21:00 both last night and Monday, so I have no idea what I'd have been like otherwise!
The good news is that this morning's run was brilliant - I only had to slow to a walk twice to lower my heart rate and one of those was right at the end. Otherwise my heart rate behaved itself beautifully, staying down at between about 125 and about 129 bpm. I'm pleased about this because I'm hoping it means that my training is actually doing some good!
That's it for today - tomorrow is back to Battersea and 800m reps. I'm hoping I've recovered much better by then and can really give it some welly, because it's my last Battersea session for a couple of weeks, and when I go back it'll be to do some technique work. Therefore I'd really like to smash it tomorrow but we'll see!
Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Sunday, 16 August 2015
12. The One Where I Hit The Wall
16 August 2015
I had such a lovely rest day yesterday! My lovely friend Romy organised a day in Suffolk for us, since that's where she and my other lovely friend (Harri) are from, but I'd never been. We started off in Ely (okay, that's Cambridgeshire, but still) and had a wander round the town, followed lunch with some other friends (Henrietta and her brother and stepmother, and Tom, Harri's brother). Ely is absolutely stunning - it looks exactly like a picture postcard!
How pretty is that?! Then we pootled over to Bury St Edmunds, where Tom lives, for a walk through town and then a visit to the Abbey Gardens and along the river (also an icecream, don't tell anyone). Bury was so cute, exactly like you'd imagine an English market town to be. Finally, we headed over to Harri and Tom's parents' for supper - her mom had cooked a feast! It was the perfect rest day (even though I had actually intended to run in Suffolk, but too much time had to be devoted to having fun).
I had such a lovely rest day yesterday! My lovely friend Romy organised a day in Suffolk for us, since that's where she and my other lovely friend (Harri) are from, but I'd never been. We started off in Ely (okay, that's Cambridgeshire, but still) and had a wander round the town, followed lunch with some other friends (Henrietta and her brother and stepmother, and Tom, Harri's brother). Ely is absolutely stunning - it looks exactly like a picture postcard!
How pretty is that?! Then we pootled over to Bury St Edmunds, where Tom lives, for a walk through town and then a visit to the Abbey Gardens and along the river (also an icecream, don't tell anyone). Bury was so cute, exactly like you'd imagine an English market town to be. Finally, we headed over to Harri and Tom's parents' for supper - her mom had cooked a feast! It was the perfect rest day (even though I had actually intended to run in Suffolk, but too much time had to be devoted to having fun).
Today it was back to the grindstone though - a run in Brighton. I'd had a pretty intense headache all day yesterday but I'd slept it off thank God ... however that was where the good news ended for this run. Here's a list of what went wrong ...!
- Slept through alarm
- Left remote phone charger in the car (parked 1km away)
- Managed to get to Victoria on time (complete with charger), only to find that the ticket machines were broken and only one actual cashier was open, so missed the train
- Got the next train, only to find it was cancelled half-way so had to spend a freezing cold 50 minutes at East Croydon (which is as horrible as it sounds)
- By the time I FINALLY got to Brighton (two hours late) my porridge had already digested so I wasn't especially fuelled
- Started off the run so cold that I was almost blue, since I hadn't managed to warm up on the train down
- Got blisters after 12K and even my magic balm didn't calm them
- Got absolutely exhausted after 14K but still had to make it back home (ummm!!)
- It absolutely hurled rain down about 3/4 of the way through
- Did not manage nutrition, and completely bonked about 23K and only just managed to crawl the last hour or so back to Brighton
- Ran out of water with about 45 minutes to go
- Had to visit Sports Direct (the horror) to get a new jumper as mine was soaking!
 |
| Blister maintenance |
Apart from that, it was a lovely run ...!!!!!!!!!!
Bonking was exceptionally unpleasant - I literally couldn't stop walking (by that time there was no chance of running at all, but I knew if I stopped even for a minute there was no way I was getting back up again), I could barely hear anything and my brain felt like it was wrapped in cotton wool. Even when I made it to Pret for a restorative water and ham and cheese toastie (being the first thing I saw) I couldn't really wrap myself around it, because I couldn't properly swallow it down. It took me half an hour to get it down me!
At least taking that long meant that it kicked in and I could use that energy to get back to the train station where I changed into my new warm Sports Direct sweater (all class) and got myself onto the train. It took me approximately 2.4 seconds to fall asleep on the train and I woke up back in London feeling much better for a good 54 minute sleep. A hot bath and my slippers on and I'm almost good as new (my feet might not agree).
There were a few good things I've taken from it:
1. It was my first run when it rained, so I now know what that's like;
2. I was not not not in the mood, but I still managed to do it, even though I could have quit at any point (including when the trains were cancelled);
3. I ran/walked longer than I've ever gone before - almost 30K I think (my Garmin was playing up and my MapMyRun was being very weird!);
4. I need to manage my nutrition and sleep properly - I think sleep is super-important and I'm not getting enough!
The other good thing was that my depleted body demanded steak and sweet potato for supper. I managed to step up to the plate and cook up the most enormous garlic steak, paprika sweet potato fries and blanched broccoli. Obviously it was tough, but I managed to sacrifice myself for my body and eat it for supper ...! I followed it up with fresh (organic, obvs) berries and a dollop of clotted cream. There are definitely advantages to this running lark.
I'm a bit worried about the fact that in six weeks and five days (not that I'm counting) I've got to do almost double that distance for three days in a row - eeeeeeeeeek. Training training training for me!
Friday, 14 August 2015
11. The One On The Treadmill
13 August 2015
Today it was back to the gym for a 45-minute run (it was meant to be an hour, but I ran out of time) on the treadmill with my heart-rate kept below 130 throughout to train my aerobic system. This is the easiest workout on my schedule from the perspective of actual running, but the hardest mentally in a way! It's soooooooooooo dulllllllllllllll ...
I like to do it on a treadmill for two reasons: first, it's much easier to keep an eye on my heart rate there, because I can take my Garmin off and have it in front of me so that I don't need to bring my arm up to eye level. Secondly, I can watch TV or have a little nose at what's going on around me in the gym to keep me occupied!
The good news about today's run was that I was finally feeling more like myself after a good night's sleep last night (AT LAST!) and that it was much easier to keep my heart rate under 130 than it's ever been before. To keep it that low, I have to run at 7.5kph(!) but even then it creeps up about so that about every six or seven minutes I have to slow to a 6.5kph walk to bring it back down. Today I only had to stop every 10-12 minutes, so hopefully that means I'm getting a little fitter with all this running!
The other good news was that it meant that I could catch up on Mr & Mrs Murder on 5oD. I love that show - definitely one of my favorites! It was the last of the series so it was even more of a treat to watch it. Can't wait for next season!
Today it was back to the gym for a 45-minute run (it was meant to be an hour, but I ran out of time) on the treadmill with my heart-rate kept below 130 throughout to train my aerobic system. This is the easiest workout on my schedule from the perspective of actual running, but the hardest mentally in a way! It's soooooooooooo dulllllllllllllll ...
I like to do it on a treadmill for two reasons: first, it's much easier to keep an eye on my heart rate there, because I can take my Garmin off and have it in front of me so that I don't need to bring my arm up to eye level. Secondly, I can watch TV or have a little nose at what's going on around me in the gym to keep me occupied!
The good news about today's run was that I was finally feeling more like myself after a good night's sleep last night (AT LAST!) and that it was much easier to keep my heart rate under 130 than it's ever been before. To keep it that low, I have to run at 7.5kph(!) but even then it creeps up about so that about every six or seven minutes I have to slow to a 6.5kph walk to bring it back down. Today I only had to stop every 10-12 minutes, so hopefully that means I'm getting a little fitter with all this running!
The other good news was that it meant that I could catch up on Mr & Mrs Murder on 5oD. I love that show - definitely one of my favorites! It was the last of the series so it was even more of a treat to watch it. Can't wait for next season!
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
10. The One Where I Ran Super Slow
12 August 2015
Today's set was a track set - one I do every week. It's basically six sets of 800m with three minutes rest in between ... yet another set that sounds pretty anodyne, but nearly kills me in the event! I'm so lucky - I get to train in Battersea Park at the Millennium Arena which is the most gorgeous setting!
I'd been doing really well at this, managing to drop down my PB to 03.12 on the first rep and then steadily increasing overall to about 03:35. That was a massive improvement on a few weeks ago, when I had been at a PB of about 03:30 for the first rep, with my times climbing up to about 03:50 for the rest of the reps.
For the last couple of weeks though (ie the week before I went to Ibiza and this week) I have massively, massively struggled! My fastest split each week was 03:24, which is a full 12 seconds slower than my PB, and the rest of the reps have been right back to where I started. This is horrific! I partly put it down to the fact that I've done a speed set the day before each time, which is silly, so I'm going to move that back to a Friday because my muscles feel like someone's injected them with lead. I also partly put it down to the fact that I've been sleeping so badly lately - before I went to Ibiza I was generally sleeping badly, in Ibiza I only got about three hours a night, and now I'm back I'm sort of still on Ibiza time. For the next week, therefore, sleep is my massive priority!
I actually only did five reps today because Boris Bike issues meant that I was 15 minutes late and therefore ran out of time. I am mortified by how much I've lost on this though ... the answer has got to be a) sleep; and b) move that sprint set to after a Wednesday.
It's a bit dispiriting to have lost so much when I have been training hard, but I have to bear in mind that my focus has changed and also that things go up and down. I'll keep plugging away and hopefully next week will be a different story!
Today's set was a track set - one I do every week. It's basically six sets of 800m with three minutes rest in between ... yet another set that sounds pretty anodyne, but nearly kills me in the event! I'm so lucky - I get to train in Battersea Park at the Millennium Arena which is the most gorgeous setting!
I'd been doing really well at this, managing to drop down my PB to 03.12 on the first rep and then steadily increasing overall to about 03:35. That was a massive improvement on a few weeks ago, when I had been at a PB of about 03:30 for the first rep, with my times climbing up to about 03:50 for the rest of the reps.
For the last couple of weeks though (ie the week before I went to Ibiza and this week) I have massively, massively struggled! My fastest split each week was 03:24, which is a full 12 seconds slower than my PB, and the rest of the reps have been right back to where I started. This is horrific! I partly put it down to the fact that I've done a speed set the day before each time, which is silly, so I'm going to move that back to a Friday because my muscles feel like someone's injected them with lead. I also partly put it down to the fact that I've been sleeping so badly lately - before I went to Ibiza I was generally sleeping badly, in Ibiza I only got about three hours a night, and now I'm back I'm sort of still on Ibiza time. For the next week, therefore, sleep is my massive priority!
I actually only did five reps today because Boris Bike issues meant that I was 15 minutes late and therefore ran out of time. I am mortified by how much I've lost on this though ... the answer has got to be a) sleep; and b) move that sprint set to after a Wednesday.
It's a bit dispiriting to have lost so much when I have been training hard, but I have to bear in mind that my focus has changed and also that things go up and down. I'll keep plugging away and hopefully next week will be a different story!
Best week (16 July 2015)
|
Today (12 August 2015)
|
|
1.
|
03.12
|
03:24
|
2.
|
03:24
|
03:29
|
3.
|
03:26
|
03:40
|
4.
|
03:46 (oops!)
|
03:43
|
5.
|
03:39
|
03:47
|
6.
|
03:34
|
-
|
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
9. The One Where I Didn't Run Very Fast
11 August 2015
One of my regular sets is to do 15x 30 seconds sprint as hard as possible, then rest for 90 seconds (at a full stop), doing it on the Woodway Curve machine at the gym. This sounds like a perfectly do-able workout. It isn't. It's the hardest one on my schedule, and I've been neglecting it for a couple of weeks while I focus on long distance.
However, after a chat with my PT, who is the ultra-marathon man (he's doing the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in a couple of weeks time), and after some shocking 800m rep results, I've come to the conclusion that doing the speed work is as important as doing the long distance work, not least because I don't want to lose everything I've been working towards! In addition, the Curve is the best training tool around - it's a manual treadmill and the belt is incredibly heavy to push around, so you're adding the weight of the belt to your own weight while you run. Obviously the heavier you are the easier that is, so for a midget like me it's seriously horrible!
Therefore, I hauled myself back onto the curve and completed my sprints. My ultimate aim is to get to 2km in half an hour doing these (seriously) and the best I've ever done is 1.96km.
I was a little nervous about getting on the Curve again, not least because it is HORRIBLE and because I expected to have lost some real speed on it. The set felt appalling, but in terms of overall distance it wasn't too bad - a total of 1.92km which isn't great, but could be worse in the circumstances. Here is the breakdown of my splits:
One of my regular sets is to do 15x 30 seconds sprint as hard as possible, then rest for 90 seconds (at a full stop), doing it on the Woodway Curve machine at the gym. This sounds like a perfectly do-able workout. It isn't. It's the hardest one on my schedule, and I've been neglecting it for a couple of weeks while I focus on long distance.
However, after a chat with my PT, who is the ultra-marathon man (he's doing the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in a couple of weeks time), and after some shocking 800m rep results, I've come to the conclusion that doing the speed work is as important as doing the long distance work, not least because I don't want to lose everything I've been working towards! In addition, the Curve is the best training tool around - it's a manual treadmill and the belt is incredibly heavy to push around, so you're adding the weight of the belt to your own weight while you run. Obviously the heavier you are the easier that is, so for a midget like me it's seriously horrible!
Therefore, I hauled myself back onto the curve and completed my sprints. My ultimate aim is to get to 2km in half an hour doing these (seriously) and the best I've ever done is 1.96km.
I was a little nervous about getting on the Curve again, not least because it is HORRIBLE and because I expected to have lost some real speed on it. The set felt appalling, but in terms of overall distance it wasn't too bad - a total of 1.92km which isn't great, but could be worse in the circumstances. Here is the breakdown of my splits:
1. 0.13
2. 0.27 (+14)
3. 0.40 (+13)
4. 0.53 (+13)
5. 0.66 (+13)
6. 0.78 (+12)
7. 0.91 (+13)
8. 1.04 (+13)
9. 1.17 (+13)
10. 1.29 (+12)
11. 1.42 (+13)
12. 1.54 (+12)
13. 1.67 (+13)
14. 1.79 (+12)
15. 1.92 (+13)
I am looking forward to getting faster again soon ... please!!!!
Saturday, 8 August 2015
8. The One With The DOMS
8 August 2015
I woke up INSANELY stiff this morning! I think a lot of it was to do with the hill sprints yesterday, because I haven't done anything like that for ages, but it wasn't helped by an hour SUPing in the sea in the afternoon, plus a cold fan over my body all night (no a/c in 35*C heat meant the fan was unavoidable!). However, it was a good opportunity to see what running on sore muscles meant and how easy it was to recover once I'd warmed up.
I did the same work out as yesterday because it was really the only option available - but it was a lot slower! Whereas the day before I'd run up the hill in no more than 10 seconds and down in no more than 8, I was running 11s and 12s up and 9s and 10s down. I warmed up a bit after about 10 minutes and started to run faster, but man it hurt! However I got through it which was all good - it meant that I am tough enough to do it two days in a row which is a big relief (even though that's nothing compared to the actually challenge!).
I spent the rest of the day lying in the shallow kids pool, alternating with sliding down the slides. You have to be under 160cm to go on these slides so most of my friends were barred, but luckily I'm such a midget that it was fine for me!! Sadly we have to leave tomorrow to get back to London for work on Monday so it'll be back to the grindstone, but we've had an amazing year - bring on next year!
I woke up INSANELY stiff this morning! I think a lot of it was to do with the hill sprints yesterday, because I haven't done anything like that for ages, but it wasn't helped by an hour SUPing in the sea in the afternoon, plus a cold fan over my body all night (no a/c in 35*C heat meant the fan was unavoidable!). However, it was a good opportunity to see what running on sore muscles meant and how easy it was to recover once I'd warmed up.
I did the same work out as yesterday because it was really the only option available - but it was a lot slower! Whereas the day before I'd run up the hill in no more than 10 seconds and down in no more than 8, I was running 11s and 12s up and 9s and 10s down. I warmed up a bit after about 10 minutes and started to run faster, but man it hurt! However I got through it which was all good - it meant that I am tough enough to do it two days in a row which is a big relief (even though that's nothing compared to the actually challenge!).
I spent the rest of the day lying in the shallow kids pool, alternating with sliding down the slides. You have to be under 160cm to go on these slides so most of my friends were barred, but luckily I'm such a midget that it was fine for me!! Sadly we have to leave tomorrow to get back to London for work on Monday so it'll be back to the grindstone, but we've had an amazing year - bring on next year!
Friday, 7 August 2015
7. The One Where There Was Nowhere To Run
7 August 2015
I was super lucky in that after my epic Ibiza Town run/walk day, I didn't suffer a single bit of stiffness! However ... I was really tired, so I decided to have a rest day yesterday and get back to it once we'd relocated once more - this time to Formentera, a little island off the coast of Ibiza. That worked out fine, because I'd planned to do five runs in the eight days I was away, so missing out the 6th meant two more runs in Formentera.
I'd been a bit worried that we'd have a horrific boat ride over and I'd be incapacitated for a couple of days but luckily we had the BEST BOAT EVER - huge, so we couldn't feel any motion, plus we had the entire outside deck to ourselves! That meant I was in good running form and didn't have to worry about any lingering seasickness.
However ... whilst Formentera sounds like the perfect place to run, actually, there was NOWHERE to run! The resort we were at was on the coast, but the only road near was a main road with no verge (something the Balearics seems to specialise in!) and there was no coastal path. Therefore, I decided that sprint hill sets were the order of the day. I found myself a little path (which was either 40 metres or 50 metres, depending on how my Garmin was feeling on each rep) and did 40 minutes of every-minute-on-the-minute sprints up/down the hill, before resting for the remainder of the minute. I massively enjoyed it! Not only that, but it was perfect for me to work on my hills techniques - I learned that I'm okay going up hill, but down hill is a lot more of a challenge and totally kills my muscles.
I didn't take any pictures of the hill, but here are some of the resort. It was absolutely beautiful - and the best bit was it was all inclusive and it was PROPER all inclusive, being an Italian brand, so there were Italian standards of food and drink. Bliss!!
I was super lucky in that after my epic Ibiza Town run/walk day, I didn't suffer a single bit of stiffness! However ... I was really tired, so I decided to have a rest day yesterday and get back to it once we'd relocated once more - this time to Formentera, a little island off the coast of Ibiza. That worked out fine, because I'd planned to do five runs in the eight days I was away, so missing out the 6th meant two more runs in Formentera.
I'd been a bit worried that we'd have a horrific boat ride over and I'd be incapacitated for a couple of days but luckily we had the BEST BOAT EVER - huge, so we couldn't feel any motion, plus we had the entire outside deck to ourselves! That meant I was in good running form and didn't have to worry about any lingering seasickness.
However ... whilst Formentera sounds like the perfect place to run, actually, there was NOWHERE to run! The resort we were at was on the coast, but the only road near was a main road with no verge (something the Balearics seems to specialise in!) and there was no coastal path. Therefore, I decided that sprint hill sets were the order of the day. I found myself a little path (which was either 40 metres or 50 metres, depending on how my Garmin was feeling on each rep) and did 40 minutes of every-minute-on-the-minute sprints up/down the hill, before resting for the remainder of the minute. I massively enjoyed it! Not only that, but it was perfect for me to work on my hills techniques - I learned that I'm okay going up hill, but down hill is a lot more of a challenge and totally kills my muscles.
I didn't take any pictures of the hill, but here are some of the resort. It was absolutely beautiful - and the best bit was it was all inclusive and it was PROPER all inclusive, being an Italian brand, so there were Italian standards of food and drink. Bliss!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)