Going Through the Motions

These last couple of weeks I do feel a bit like I’ve just been going through the motions. I’ve been busy, tired, and feeling rather run down. On Wednesday, I got home feeling tired and run down and really not wanting to go for a run. And it was bloody cold outside.

“Maybe I could go tomorrow?” I thought.

Then I remembered that that’s what I’d said on Tuesday, too. So, summoning what little motivation I had, I got myself out and ran a boring 5K down the Portway.

Because, sometimes, going through the motions is a better option than just not going through the motions.

Quick Update

Bleurgh. Been a bit too busy to update, mostly because I spent most of the weekend before last either in London in a pub, or in Bristol entertaining people, often in a pub…

As a result, I was completely knackered last week, and haven’t been running much. Also, I think I may be coming down with something — my eczema is playing up, as it often does before I start a cold. And I’m severely overdue, as they’ve been dropping like coughing, spluttery flies in the office.

Still, to try and get back into the swing of things, I struggled out for 3K on Wednesday, and at least ran around the harbour for 5K on Sunday.

And that’s all the update I’m doing today, as I’ve got a bit of a headache, and I think I’m going to have an early night…

Slow, slow, quick quick, slow

Not a terrible effort tonight, though it didn’t go as planned. I’ve got a bit bored with the run/walk combination of the RunKeeper “FitnessPlan” I’m following, so I thought I’d just go out for a normal run.

As it is though, partly because I’m tired today, and partly because I was overambitious with my speed at the start, it turned into a run/walk session anyway. Still, I managed to do 5K in under 35 minutes, which is definitely better than my recent averages.

Next time I try a normal run, I’ll see what I can do to start off at a normal pace!

Sunday Morning Detour

Inspired by Jose’s post about early morning running yesterday, I decided to drag myself out of bed and head out at around 7am this morning. Naturally I failed to do that, but I was underway by about 7:30 🙂

Unfortunately, my plan to head out along the Portway and up Bridge Valley Road to jog around the Downs in the next instalment of my getting-faster-for-the-Bath-Half FitnessClass thingy was scuppered. I’d got about 250 metres into it when I saw that the entire Portway, pavement to pavement, was closed.

D’oh. So, instead, I figured I’d run around the harbourside instead. I wasn’t entirely sure where I’d end up, but at least I’d never be too far from civilisation. My 6‑and-a-bit kilometres took me around the Floating Harbour about one and a half times, and was pretty nice. It started dull, grey and uninspiring, but in the almost-hour I was running for, it brightened up and turned into a lovely day.

Yes, I was running for almost an hour, to do less than 7K. This morning felt like a morning for taking it easy, so I didn’t push myself during the running, and took the opportunity to take some pictures during the walking breaks, which didn’t help my average pace much!

Then home, having popped into Sainsbury’s to buy some ham, to try my hand at making Eggs Benedict for the first time. It turned out pretty good, even if I do say so myself…

Fatter than Santa

Photo on 2010-11-04 at 22.52.jpgWhen someone at work emailed me about Santas on the Run, it didn’t take me long to sign up. I mean, for only a tenner you get to run around Bristol city centre in a Santa costume with a bunch of other nutcases without actually being arrested. And you get to keep the Santa suit afterwards! Bargain!

Unfortunately, this decision ended up dinging my self-confidence. This evening I arrived home from work to find a parcel on the doorstep — it was the race pack from Santas on the Run. In it was their “adult” Santa Suit (no, nothing filthy, it’s just that the only size choices were “adult” and “child”.) And that’s where my problems started.

Because it turns out that running Santa Suits, like most other running clothing, are sized for fit, slim people.

I can’t even get the trousers all the way up my legs. There’s no way I can run in the thing. SAD FACE.

So, yeah, it’s official: I’m lardier than Santa. This made me really rather unhappy. It’s a bit of a bruise to your ego when a charity implies that you’re fatter than the world’s most famous jolly fat bloke. I could have cried. Well, okay, maybe not. But I could have sat down and eaten ice cream all evening with a forlorn look on my face.

Instead I went out and did some more walk/run training. Which I think is working, as I did 6K in 45 minutes, so around 7:30mins/kilometre, which is better than I usually do when I’m running all the way. (And as a bonus I hit the iTunes Genius and for once it generated me a fantastic running playlist, which I’ve now saved.) And I came back feeling a lot happier.

Anyway. When I get over the crushing disappointment of Santa Suitgate, maybe I’ll think of a way to still take part in this race. Although hiring a Santa suit that’s actually Santa sized might be going a bit too far for a 2K run…

Unlikely Speed

Yeah. Not entirely sure I believe the last few kilometres of RunKeeper’s log for today’s run:

RunKeeper.png

Especially considering the pace over the last couple of kilometres measured around 1.5 minutes per kilometre. Although I suppose I would probably have needed that kind of speed to fly over the Avon Gorge and several tall buildings like that.

Still, not a bad run — I’m still doing the FitnessClass thing, which had me set to do just over 10K today, as an alternating run/walk. I reckon I probably did around 9K all told, but I was a bit stymied for knowing when to stop after the GPS gave out around the 7K mark. (It really died quite hard; in the end I had to turn the phone off and on again to get it back and working. Ho hum.)

In fact, I’ve just tried to correct the route manually in RunKeeper and it does seem to have worked out at about 9K. Good enough for me, especially as there was at least another kilometre of walk home on the end of that 🙂

This week I’ll really really try to do the two mid-week runs, rather than just the one I’ve been doing these last few weeks…

Into the Woods

Leigh Tree

A nice five miles through Leigh Woods today. It was another alternating walk/run according to the training plan thingy I’m following with RunKeeper, and that helped me up my running pace a bit. Well, apart from on the steeper hills 🙂

Today’s photo is from Leigh Woods. Leigh Woods is mostly National Trust-owned, and a National Nature Reserve, and therefore seems unlikely to be sold off (Sunday Telegraph article) under the upcoming flog-everything-that’s-not-nailed-down plans. But I’m definitely going to get there and appreciate the woods while I can, just in case.

Starting My Speed Training

I was in London at the weekend. I ate most of it. Well, it felt like it, anyway. My friend Kavey invited me along for the weekend to celebrate her recent birthday, and we went along to Chocolate Unwrapped, and also had a fab afternoon tea at the astoundingly stylish Bob Bob Ricard.

That meant that (a) I missed the start of the RunKeeper FitnessClass programme I’m meant to be doing, and (b) put on about half a stone in the course of two days. Although that may be an exaggeration.

Either way, tonight I tried to catch up with the FitnessClass thingy by doing day 3 of the programme, which I was meant to do yesterday. Then I’ll hopefully catch up with the schedule over the next couple of runs, and get myself roughly in sync with the other people doing the class across the world.

The main difference between tonight’s run and my normal weekday runs was that this was broken up into intervals — four minutes running, one minute walking, repeated six times. This means I can work on my speed a bit without actually killing myself, because I’ve got a chance to take a breather every now and again. It seems to work — I tried to up my pace significantly from my normal running, though not so fast that I was sprinting, and the log shows that I did okay. Even including the walking, my average overall pace was under 7 minutes per km, which is pretty good for me.

So, there will be lots more of this, plus some longer weekend runs with a slower pace, also with some walking breaks, over the next month or two. We’ll see how I get on…