musings | Matt Gets Running

Hard Work

That was really hard work. All I did was my normal weekday 5K, but I just felt completely energyless. Hmph. And my hip’s aching again.

I’m starting to wonder if I might need to replace my running shoes. I bought them pretty much exactly six months ago, so they must have travelled a fair distance. And of course, they’ve had seventeen stone of Matt pounding into them for all those kilometres…

Also, looking back, I said “my left hip is sore” in my final entry of the C25K — just three days before I bought my trusty Mizunos, and I don’t remember my hip troubling me again much after that until now.

I’m sure it’s not all to do with the shoes. I’m a bit knackered anyway, I’ve not been going to bed early enough. But I think there may be some link. So, on Saturday, I think I might pop along to Moti and buy myself a pair of new running shoes…

Simple Seven

I went to a cocktail party last night. Even though I don’t drink, it meant I was up until about 2am, so I didn’t drag myself out for a jog until about half past one today. Bit of a contrast from last week’s 7am enthusiasm!

Anyway, to get myself going, I downloaded Lady Gaga’s album The Fame Monster — currently on Amazon UK at the bargain price of £3 — and got out into the spring sunshine.

As I was tired and a bit headachey — must have been the guava juice — I kept it slow and steady and didn’t go too far. It felt pretty good, though, once I’d got up Bridge Valley Road and got going, and I decided to do a bit more than I’d planned, looping around Durdham Down to finish at just a smidge over 7km.

This makes up a bit for not running on Friday, I suppose. Looking at my stats over the last six months, Friday is the day of the week on which I tend to run least, coming in just below Monday. I think I should therefore be a bit more realistic about planning to run on Fridays, and maybe try heading out on Tuesday and Thursday if I want to go out twice during the week…

Anyway. Finished my 7K, went and got some lunch from Boston Tea Party, who are always lovely and friendly and do great coffee, and then wandered home along Royal York Crescent, which is today’s picture. This came straight from the iPhone, put together in camera from three shots, using Debacle Software’s Pano App.

I Love the Taste of Croissant in the Morning

IMG_0609 2.jpg I don’t exercise in the morning. I’m just not a morning person. Virtually all my running is done in the evening, or, at the very earliest, lunchtime, at the weekends.

So. A bit odd, then, that this morning I woke up just before the alarm clock did that quiet little *clonk* it does when the alarm’s not actually switched on, and thought, “Hmm. I fancy a jog.”

Even more odd, I actually went and did it. None of the stats look unusual on the RunKeeper log. 7K in 56 minutes, a little under 8 minutes per kilometre — slow, but not unusual when Bridge Valley Road is involved. What’s unusual is that the run started at just past 7am on a Sunday morning.

It made a nice change, actually. I think I suffered a bit more towards the end than usual — there’s a final little incline I have to get up, and it seemed harder today. Maybe I was lacking blood sugar.

But on the whole, it was a pretty nice experience. I was out early enough to disturb some wildlife I don’t normally see — a cormorant, for example, flapping away to the other side of the river as I bounded past, and the crows, yet to be relegated to the sidelines by the Sunday football leagues, pulling their stringy breakfast from the Downs.

And I finished on an unexpected bonus, too: I’d expected a pitfall of the early start to be a lack of coffee at the finish line, but once I’d passed my three usual suspects for a post-run drink — Coffee #1, Chandos Deli, and Boston Tea Party — I stumbled across Caffe Nero, who open at 8am every Sunday. Not only were they open, they wished me a happy Valentine’s Day as soon as I walked in, which was a nice touch.

So, in the absence of any decent photos — it was a dull, grey dawn this morning — here’s some product placement. I think they deserve it 🙂

PS: I went out for a simple 5K on Wednesday, but didn’t have time to blog about it. But I’m keeping up the momentum, honest!

Illness and Fatigue

It’s a lovely day out there. Perfect running weather. Sunny and cold.

Not sure if I’m going, though. I seem to be ill with some cold‑y thing that’s sapping my energy. I just slept for ten hours, got up, had breakfast, coffee and Lemsip, and I still don’t feel like I want to do anything.

I know that running can actually make you feel better when you’re ill, but I’ve never really had that get-up-and-go attitude to illness. Not like my friend Chris, for example. I tend to prefer to get underneath a quilt and watch episodes of Columbo until I’m feeling better, then gradually ease my way back into the world.

Maybe there’s a compromise here. This is a weekend, and I would normally be getting out there right about now, planning to do 7K or more. Maybe I’ll leave it to later, see how I feel, and perhaps get out and do 5K or less (or fewer? Hmm. Grammar advice welcome.)

We shall see. Either way, I think the important thing is probably to make the decision, and stick to it, without feeling guilty if the decision happens to be “cling to a quilt while semi-consciously watching a rumpled detective asking people one more question.”

And I’m absolutely not kidding, by the way. Columbo is on at quarter to two on ITV today, if you’re interested…

Break in the Clouds

I was lucky enough to be on a nice, heated, covered boat this morning while my colleague Chris was cycling to work through what I think I can only describe as “torrential sleet”.

That made me worry about the prospects for this evening, but it dried off and maybe even warmed up a bit by the time I got home. Even though I was a bit knackered, I plodded out for a quick 5K, along the Portway and back.

It wasn’t an inspiring run, but maybe it’ll help me get to sleep tonight, at least. I hope so. Tomorrow I’ll wake up to being 37, not 36, and I’d prefer not to spend my birthday in a zombie-like state of tiredness…

“You should watch — watch your step…

“…don’t look out you’re going to break your neck.”

The Primitives’ fab 1988 single, Crash, poured some good advice out into my headphones as I ran this evening. Because it was bloody freezing.

IMG_0532 2.jpg Look, even my WeatherPro iPhone app said it was minus 0ºC. That’s like freezing, only even freezinger. ((Joking aside, WeatherPro is an excellent app, and I recommend it.))

Luckily, the ice seemed to be confined to the beginning bit of the run — I guess today’s sunshine must have melted anything that had built up on the Portway itself. And once I’d warmed up, which took about ten minutes, in my woolly hat and gloves, the running was fine.

I think I’m nearly back to normal, in terms of speed. I’m not sure the RunKeeper stats are particularly accurate today, as the app had to cope with a lot of interruptions — this is the first time I’ve had a phone call, a text, a Twitter mention and some email all come in during the course of a single run — but if it’s to be believed, I did 5K in 35 minutes, which is fine by me.

Anyway. The point of this week was to get the momentum back after the Christmas break, and this third run of the week means I’m back in the usual groove. I’m going to try to get out for three runs in the coming week, too, to make sure of that. But just in case it gets icier, I’ve also dusted off my exercise bike. It’ll be dull, but at least I’ll be keeping up with the exercise…

Activation Energy

IMG_0521 2.jpg Building up momentum again after you’ve taken time off is best done as soon as possible. Given that, I decided to follow through on yesterday’s decision and get out of the door despite the wet weather, and the fact I’m not feeling well.

My concession to illness and the rain was to run only a short 3km, just far enough, really, to say, “yes, I went for a run.” I figure I can build the distance back up easily enough; the difficult bit is getting out of the door in the first place.

So, whatever I feel like, as long as it’s not actually icy and dangerous, and as long as my cold/flu/whatever it is doesn’t get too much worse, I plan to get back out there a few times this week, even if it’s only for short little runs, so that I can build some momentum to start the new year with…

Wee Cough

So, first it was icy on the pavements. Then it was Christmas. And then I was ill. As a result, it’s now been eight days since I last went for a run. Plus, with the amount I’ve eaten, I’ve probably just about doubled my body weight in the last week…

Bleurgh.

So, is there any good news?

Well, yes. For a start, I’ve got this week off work, so I’ve got a lot of daylight hours I can use to get back into the swing of things. Plus, I finally bought some jogging bottoms today, so I can wear something warmer than my shorts when I finally get back out there!

I don’t know much about running when you’re ill. But I figure after a week off, and not feeling on top form, the best thing is to start off with something easy, to rebuild the momentum. So, I may go out and do a really short run tomorrow — maybe just three or four kilometres, nice and easy.

And that — apart from getting a good night’s sleep tonight, and laying out all my running gear ready for whenever I want to get out of the door — is as far as my cold-addled brain has got so far. More tomorrow. Hopefully.

Odd Clothing Combination

This morning, I put on my wooly hat before heading outside, on the grounds that it was ‑1ºC. Then I got out into the street, turned around, and went back for my sunglasses. I definitely needed both, which is a combination I’ve not found necessary since the last time I went snowboarding…

As the rest of the UK gets blanketed with lovely snow, Bristol was being its usual recalcitrant self by having such a lovely clear day that if there were leaves on the trees, you’d have thought it was July. Until your nadgers dropped to the ground with a clang, anyway. I even jogged past a highly-optimistic ice cream van.

Because I did 10K last weekend, I figured I’d just do a simple, short run in the sun today, so I did my shortest Downs-based run, a smidge over 5K, and then went and got an amaretto latte from Coffee #1. Nice and simple.

This week, I’m going to do at least one run before Christmas, and I might make it a harbourside run, just to mix things up a bit. Until then, enjoy the snow, if you’ve got it!

Soggy Slog

Today was a bit crap. It was cold, wet, and I wasn’t in the mood. But I got out and did a desultory 5K anyway, which I guess counts for something.

The first run after a long run is definitely hard work. Certainly I’ve not noticed an exception to that rule yet. I left it an extra day, after Sunday’s 10K, and set out just to do 5K fairly steadily, as I figured it might be bad.

But hey, it wasn’t awful. I just slogged my way through it, and 5K doesn’t seem like a long way, as it used to. Knowing I could do it twice over on a good day makes it easier to get through on a bad one…

Anyway. This post is more for the purposes of record, rather than entertainment, so I’ll leave it here.