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. ↩
I am coming back, I promise; I’ve been tackled by the great Sloth these last few months, but I only have about 15 weeks until the BUPA 10K – which I am running for charity again – so I need to get my house in order.
The Virtual Runner mentioned in a comment on a previous post that one should set goals. Now, I’ve always set goals as far as my weightloss goes (even if I’ve not set them lately), so decided I would sketch out the goals I have in mind for the rest of this year and next.
The first goal is, as my recent posts suggest, simply being able to run properly. Despite having four 10Ks behind me, I have never been able to run for more than 2km without needing to stop to walk. Also, since the BUPA 10k in May, I hadn’t run hardly at all until 3 weeks ago.
So, right now I’m doing the Couch to 5k plan, and my first goal is, by the end of October(ish), to be able to run for 5km non-stop. At the moment I’m simply aiming for time, but once I get to week 6 or so of the C25K plan I will take my Garmin out with me to measure the distance I’m plodding.
After that, the next goal is to manage 10K without stopping. This will be a HUGE feat, and I am wary – but excited – of attempting it. If I can manage a full 10K without stopping by February 2010 I will be a happy bloke.
Once that is in place, I’ll be aiming for a sub-60 10K. That’s goal 3.
Once I manage that, what then? Will I go on to 10 Mile, half-marathons, or even full marathons? No idea. I’ve often said in the last year that once I hit a sub-60 10k I’ll retire, but we’ll have to see 1. how effective running is on my weightloss, and 2. how much I’m enjoying it.
Finally, weightloss-wise: I am over 19st right now. By May 2010 (for the BUPA 10k) I want to be 16st or under. That’s 8 months to lose 3+ stone. That must certainly be doable!!!
So, that looming 10k that was I dreading for months due to lack of training is now behind me, and I recovered much better than I thought I would (hobbling for only 2 days instead of 4). Now comes the time to take a look at what I am going to do for the next 3, 6, 12 months and set some fitness goals. I am still very much a big runner: while in the last year I have lost around 15-20lbs of fat (and put on around 10lbs of muscle), I still want to lose at least another 40lbs of fat to be in the condition I want to be in.
Half of my training schedule is now being taken up with strength training using compound lifts (a 5×5 format: see Strong Lifts for more information). The other half was meant to be simple interval training, however I hate doing cardio in the gym – the treadmill is like slowly running yourself into your grave, dead from boredom. So the natural alternative is to run outside.
Here’s the deal – I like to have an aim with everything I do fitness-wise other than “get fit”. My strength training is, natch, to get stronger and have a solid foundation of muscle (as opposed to the bodybuilding routines I’ve been doing the last year, which while helpful did nothing for my strength). The aim there is to be absolutely stronger than I have ever been in my life.
With the running, again I need an aim other than to get fit; it could be to be able to actually run for 20 minutes without stopping (I think I’m at about 10 minutes now, after running for a year!). Dropping my weight will help with that, of course, but what will it enable me to do?
So I’ve decided my running aim for this year is to lay the foundation for the ability to run – completely run – a 10k by early next year, and a complete half-marathon by mid next year.
And to do this, I’m starting from scratch… i.e., as if I’ve never run before in my life.
I guess the main issue now is to find a “newbie’s guide to running a half marathon without having to walk, given a year’s training (and hopefully without dying, either)”. Maybe Runner’s World has one…
Posted: May 2nd, 2009 | Author:Mark | Filed under:General | Comments Off
It be only a mere three weeks until the BUPA London 10k on May 25, and here I am not having gone for a trundle since February. I have to admit it was only this past week that I cam to realise just how soon the race was on (although I may not be running at all if they don’t hurry up and send me my pack!).
The archivists amongst you will remember my first ever entry was bemoaning my poor performance at last year’s BUPA 10k – my first ever race. Since then I have knocked 15 minutes off my 10k PB, but I am not holding much hope that I will have another PB this time (but who knows, eh?).
So, I need to get out there and put some asphalt under my feet before then I think. It being a lovely long weekend this weekend gives me no room for excuses!
Fresh from my Brighton 10k and the huge success of actually running a lot (more than 20%) of it, this week I decided I was ready to stretch beyond the 10k and try my hand at something longer (that’s what she said…). So obviously, my mind turned to a marathon.
Whoa, steady on, said my boss, maybe be a little more gradual. Try a half at least, or perhaps a 10 miler.
So I have picked out a half-marathon in March, which will give me 12 weeks or so to train, although it’s the Steyning Stinger which is on the South Downs, very hilly and muddy and right up my street really.
So, before then I actually need to train and get some shorter-than-a-half runs in as additional training and goody-bag-grabbers under my belt before then. Boss is trying to get me to do an 8-or-so-miler in December. I think it’s the Duck Pond Waddle down in Worthing, but I’m put off because I can’t sign up online, and I don’t have a cheque book, and why won’t they let me sign up online? This is the internet age for goodness sake!
But the ultimate aim is for a marathon sometime after June. I have an 18-week training schedule to start with next week, although I’ll stretch it out a bit as we’re going to Australia for 3 weeks in March/April, during which I’ll probably do no training at all (let’s be honest), so June might be doable?
I’ve been spending the last week or so in the gym, trying to build up my muskels, and also walking to/from work/station to build up my legs. I’m at the point now where I think they have finally recovered from whatever ailment crippled (yes crippled!) me last month. Now I just need to get out the door and run.
This is not an update per se, but more of a ‘hey, yeah, so I’m gonna run soon’ notice.
I forgot to note in the last entry that my pack arrived from Cancer Research UK for my next 10k, the Hampton Court Palace 10k in September. It’s a nice low runner number of 944, which makes me feel super speedy considering my London 10k number was 6000-and-something. Sure, it’s probably because I was 944th to sign up, but I do not care for I am a man of self-delusion!
It also came with a nice girly-blue t-shirt to run in, although why they think anyone could survive a 10k in a cotton t-shirt is beyond me. It’s also an XL, so unless my dieting and fitness regime actually pays off, I won’t be even close to wearing it come September. I’ll wear my nice, light, but fat-bulge-clinging running shirt instead.
More walking this week, with two more walks to and from the station, so that’s 3 miles for my unofficial Juneathon. That leaves me with 15 days to do 97 more – easy!
Here I am. If in doubt, start a blog – that’s my motto. With a week gone since my first ever race, a 10k through the streets of London which I struggled through for ninety – 90! – painful minutes, I have begun to get the itch again. Also, my legs have slowly stopped hurting enough for the idea of going for a trundle around Tooting Bec Common not to strike me as insane.
Tomorrow I am planning to begin a “5-week to 5k” training plan provided by the good folks at Runner’s World (since, honestly, I was nowhere near ready for the 10k to begin with!). I plan to attend a 5k time trial in Banstead with some workmates at the end of July, and have a 10k booked at Hampton Court at the end of September (paid for and all, so I have to do it).
JogBlog is what inspired to start this blogging-me-jogging lark, funny gal she is too.
This is me. Hello.
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!
Meanwhile, I’m trying to raise money for charity; again, something I only do when running this event.
Recent Comments