So, I’ve just registered for the 10 mile BUPA Great South Run being held in October. This will be a good distance to train for after I finish my 10K, especially after my mid-July holiday where no doubt I’ll do nothing fitness related!
It’s expensive – £36!! – but it’s a big event; a friend of mine did this in 2007, which is what inspired me to sign-up for my first race.
Another very-early-morning workout this morning; awake at 4.45am, dragging myself out of bed at 5.05, and out the door at 5.20. I was seriously tempted to pass on this morning’s run, promising myself I’d do it tomorrow, but instead I realised that would mean my weekend run would be on a Sunday which has become my do nothing but sit around like a fat slob day. Important!
Anyway, today’s workout was scheduled to be 55 minutes long, with intervals of 1 minute running and 5 minutes walking, repeated 8 times. I will come clean and admit I skipped the last running break, as I was close to home and absolutely knackered.
The first couple of running break were cold and painful. After this, I loosened up a little and they were merely cold. However, after 40 minutes, I was now no longer cold, merely in pain. So, you know, swings and roundabouts.
I have a niggle in my lower left calf which I’m hoping will go away. It wasn’t constant today, but it was there much of the time. Right hamstrings were tight but soon loosened up.
All in all, it was a good workout which I was glad to see the end of!
With all this talk of Couch to 10K, I feel I should discuss my goals and plans a little more.
10K Goal
On May 31 I will be competing in the BUPA London 10,000. This was my first ever 10K race back in 2008, and I did it again last year; I have told myself that, while I can, I will do this every year.
It’s a big (read: crowded) race, and the staged start tends to kick things off quite slowly, but it gets a decent number of people there supporting the runners 1 and the route itself, through the heart of London and the City of London, is a great environment to run in free of traffic.
My plan, time-wise, is to get under an hour. If my 10K training plan goes as it should, this will hopefully be doable. As you can see on the Events page, my current PB for a 10K is 1hr 14m, so I will need to be quite a bit quicker.
For my own esteem, breaking the hour would be a tremendous achievement for me, but even managing a PB will make me happy.
Fundraising
Meanwhile, I’m trying to raise money for charity; again, something I only do when running this event.
This year, I’ve chosen Macmillan Cancer Care. They always seem to be at this race offering their support, and they also do great work in supporting those with cancer both as far as ongoing care and support goes, but also in petitioning the government to provide for those suffering long-term with cancer.
If you would like to sponsor me, I would greatly appreciate it! Donations are taken by JustGiving.com, who pass the funds almost immediately on to the chosen charity.
Nothing like the London Marathon, of course, since most people don’t even know this race is on, but there are plenty of charity groups offering their support, and a decent-sized crowd is usually there to cheer the general race crowd on. ↩
So, Day 2 of Week 1 for my Couch to 10K program; this morning, I took a lesson from Tuesday and headed off earlier so I could have my run done without then having to rush to get ready for work. So, at 5.20am I was out the door and done by 6.10.
Doing this meant I was also able to complete the entire session, and boy what a difference that last 10 minutes make; the final running break – even though it was only 30 seconds long – wore me down and I could really feel the fatigue in my legs after the entire session was over.
The total distance for this morning is around 4km, but I need to map it out to make sure that’s accurate; considering Tuesday’s was just over 3km, I’m sure 4km won’t be far off.
There is one more session this week, on Saturday, then next week starts Week 2 which is 1 min running w/ 5 mins walking, repeated 9 times for a total session time of 55 minutes.
Update
It was actually 4.4km this morning, after being able to map it out on Google properly. Go me!
As referenced in my video from this morning, I started a Couch to 10K plan this morning.
The reason for this is that, running through my head the last week or so was the knowledge that my 10K is 13 weeks away, yet the Couch to 5K plan only runs for 9 weeks. Was I to be left to my own devices for 4 weeks? What then?
So, I looked for a 10K plan and found an iPhone app for one by the same folks who make the 5K plan app I was using. This is a 13-week program (how fortuitous!), and will take me up to 3 days before my 10K; I plan to miss the last workout to allow me some additional days rest before the big day.
The Training Itself
This morning was my first day doing it, and it was easy going (again, see the video for a brief overview). I’m looking forward to the coming weeks.
The only problem was I had to cut it slightly short as I was running out of time; I was supposed to be out the door starting at 5.30, but didn’t manage to until 5.50. Come workout 2 (this Thursday), I’ll just set my alarm to go off earlier.
The early mornings and runs don’t bother me, and as it gets lighter earlier I’ll enjoy them even more, since right now I am sticking to running up and down the high street, since venturing into the park at that time isn’t ideal when it’s pitch black.
Well, at 5.30am this morning I went out to re-re-start the ‘Couch to 5K’ plan after all; I figured I couldn’t really trust myself to wing it.
I’m now officially knackered and need to get ready for work; I managed 1.57 miles, and realised that it’s a good thing I’m actually training now, because if I attempted to race without actually doing any training there would be no way I’d manage a 10K in 13 weeks without needing to walk before the 100 meter point. (Not that 10K races have 100 meter markers, you understand)
Form was good, it was very tiring, and a niggling right calf muscle didn’t bother me too much; the good stretch at the end will hopefully have smoothed it a bit.
I was reading someone’s tweets the other day on Twitter (I won’t say who, since it’s rather inconsequential), when I saw them say that they were trying to lose enough weight to be able to start running again. Now, initial thoughts were along the lines of, “How big is this person?”, when I saw that the weight they wanted to get to was around 170lbs.
This is a guy, who I think is around 5′10″, so while 170lbs might be a little heavy for a non-muscular person of that height, it’s certainly not a weight I imagined would be the cut-off for someone to take up running again, especially since he said he needed to lose another 10lbs to get there. That makes him 180lbs now. I weight 100lbs more than that, and yet I don’t give a second thought to running (or attempting to) at my size.
But am I too big to be a runner?
So the question is: should I even be trying to run at my weight and size?
I’m happy to say that I am carrying a lot of muscle, so I imagine “only” about 70lbs of my overweight-ness is fat, for an average person of my “ideal” (according to BMI) weight, but it’s still weight that would be hitting my joints as I run. Should I be attempting to? Or should I work on losing the weight first, which will take forever?
My response? I walk around every day with this weight. I walk a mile, twice a day, up and down hills with this weight. Shifting to a shuffling run won’t do me any more harm, providing I don’t heel strike excessively, than doing this much walking.
I’m not a fitness professional (in case you were wondering! Ha!), nor do I know any beyond the internet inside my computer, nor have I consulted with any regarding this. I just like to think that I know my body.
It’s All About Heart
In my esteemed opinion, you can do anything providing you’re not going to keel over dead from it. For me, that means ensuring that what I’m doing won’t cause my heart to stop, which is generally an indicator of deadness. So, when I go running, I’m not trying to do 6-minute miles. I’m generally happy with 10-12 minute miles, since it’s not like I’m in a hurry to get anywhere.
But how about you? If you’re a porky plodder, are you comfortable with running even as a “plus-sized” (don’t you hate that expression?) athlete?
So, last week – I think it was Thursday – I did the first day of Couch to 5K. I did well; I focussed on my form, I took it easy, and I made sure my breathing was under control; I actually did much better on Day 1 than I did the last time I started C25K. Plus, I did it at 5.30am.
That was the only good part of the day; for the rest of the day, regardless of what I ate or drank, I was lethargic and headachey, and ended up in bed by 9pm.
It could have been the early start, or it could have been because I’ve done barely any exercising all year (I was even driving to work instead of walking the mile between train station and office; I’ve given up the car now, though, and have been walking again from two weeks ago).
I was planning on doing day 2 on the weekend, but ‘best laid plans’ and all that…
Focus, I needs it
I need to refocus on my plans and stop worrying about minutia I think. I kept telling myself at the start of the year to “keep things simple”, yet this isn’t what I’ve done; even worrying about what music to listen to while doing the Day 1 workout is silly; I never listen to music unless I’m doing this workout, since I use an iPhone app to blare out the running/walking breaks.
Perhaps I should just run for as long as I can, walk enough to recover, and then repeat until I’ve been doing it for 30 minutes?
I'm Mark. I am a new runner, and an overweight, big bloke. Not necessarily a good combination, you may say, and often I (or at least, my ankles) would agree with you. But what the hell, eh? Might as well give it a go!
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