I don’t feel like writing about running today, I feel like writing about other stuff which I will do shortly but I’m all for celebrating successes and I like a pat on the back etc. We had a rest day yesterday and did a 35 minute run today. Pace: 11.55 minutes per mile. Distance 2.94 miles. So just to be clear – PACE 11.55 -as in UNDER 12 MINUTES PER MILE. Just saying
Tag: Jeff Galloway
A month to our first race
A month exactly to our first race – The Leeds run for all 10km. Can’t decide if I am looking forward to it or not. I am sort of keen to see our progress and whether we can post a half decent (by my standards, not by actual runner’s standards!) time. I don’t like crowds though, particularly not at the moment, and I’m a bit worried about how I’ll cope being surrounded by people who actually know what they’re doing. However, I am holding on to the notion that maybe, just maybe we also know what we’re doing. Or at least we are trying to follow the guidance of someone who does by following the RunDisney plans designed by Jeff Galloway.
That brings me to another little rant about Runner’s World (I am actually beginning to quite enjoy reading the magazine and would actually recommend it – my rants say more about me than the mag!). I was looking at the April issue which had something about training which has easy runs/sections and hard sections and less of the middle ground. All sort of made sense (except that ‘easy’ in my case would have to be walking) until I looked at the table for a sample week. According to that table a 6 miles ‘easy’ run would result in 50 minutes of easy running. 8 miles in 65 minutes. What? 6 miles in 50 minutes? I know that’s doable. I’ve seen people do it but that IS NOT an easy pace; that’s an impossible pace for me. Runner’s World is full of stuff that to me just seems impossible. And when everything in a magazine is just so far out of reach it is easy to get completely disillusioned with the whole thing. So I stopped reading and instead took another look at the Jeff Galloway website. Ok, looking at this I do feel a little bit like a runner. Here the numbers make sense, they are possible, even now. We haven’t quite stuck to the run/walk ratio suggested and we haven’t really done the magic mile measurement since the beginning but we are working with the principle of walk breaks from the start and not worrying about having to keep running for long stretches. We are comfortable at 2 minutes running and 30 secs walking for now. It gets me to the end of the longer distances without injury and without feeling that I can’t do it. It means I finish each run strongly and usually feel pretty positive about it even where I’ve had a wobble along the way. Other than when I had my little calf niggle the other day, there hasn’t been a run I couldn’t finish or one I could barely finish.
I also love the fact that his advice is to not worry about time for a first time marathon. He says:
“I don’t recommend that first-time marathon participants try for a time goal. Do the first one to finish, running/walking at a comfortable training pace.”
Yes! I can do that. I actually believe I can do that. And what is even better, the examples he lists include the sort of pace we’ve been working at. Jeff Galloway also says:
“You are the one who determines how much you run and how much you walk. One of the wonderful aspects of running is that there is no definition of a “runner” that you must live up to“
Oh my – is it possible that I am a runner after all?
Bank Holiday Weekend Running
We’ve done a fair bit of running over the bank holiday weekend. We did 4.25 miles on Saturday and 30 minutes on Sunday and for good measure another 30 minutes this morning. As I mentioned a few days ago I struggled on the last 30 minute run before the weekend.I was therefore absolutely dreading the 4.25 miles. I had lined up every excuse I could think of but then decided that it was just as well to get it over with. It won’t do to be scared of 4.25 miles when I’ll have to do a marathon in 7 month’s time.
We are still running on the flat along the canal rather than risking setting my calf off with hills. So, with the watch set for 30 repetitions of intervals of our 90 second running/30 seconds walking we set off. I hated it. Kath tells me there was lots to see. Lots of ducklings, a few goslings and a heron. I didn’t really take any of them in. I just wheezed my way along. We turned round at 2.12 miles and turning round and heading back gave me a bit of a boost. I think my posture improved and I felt like I just might be able to make it. More wheezing along. With a mile to go my lower legs felt really tight, tight but not painful or twingy – so onwards. We started a running interval again just as we hit the 4 mile mark and I felt ok, in fact I felt pretty strong so I decided that we should try and run to the end – the end I knew would be pretty much bang on at the next bridge. Complete focus on the bridge pulled me towards the end and then suddenly we were there, done. 4.25 miles. Just over 56 minutes with an average pace of 13.13minute per mile.
We had decided to see how our legs felt before making a decision on a Sunday run. When I first got up my legs felt a little weary and we wanted to go out anyway so we thought we’d see how we felt later. We went late afternoon, 30 minutes along the canal in the opposite direction to Saturday. It felt awful. It felt worse than the run I complained about last week. It wasn’t so much my legs, I was struggling for air and it just felt like such as huge huge effort. After turning round at 15.5 minutes I was hoping for that boost. It didn’t come. I was just about to give up when I heard a lamb at the farm to our right bleat really loudly. It made me jump and laugh and suddenly stopping wasn’t an option anymore. In fact, we missed the last walk and just ran the last 4 minutes straight off. Our pace was close to pre-injury best. 2.35 miles, pace of 12.47. I should have been thrilled, I was just shattered.
Monday – as we continue the madness, we have stepped up the running time. We’re still following the principles set out by Jeff Galloway as part of the RunDisney training but we are adjusting the intervals/run/walk ratios as we feel comfortable. We will now do 12 repetitions of 2 minutes running and 30 seconds walking for our 30 minute runs and however many repetition it takes for us to cover the required distance on the distance runs. This morning’s run was a funny one. We went out slowly and really, running for 2 minutes didn’t feel much worse or longer than running for 90 seconds and 30 seconds walking is fine. I didn’t hate the running, I remember ducklings, but it felt like really really hard work. We plodded our way to 2.27 miles with a slow pace of 13.13 minutes per mile but I now know what that run/walk ratio feels like and I’m ok with that.
As a little reminder why I am putting my self through this – we’ll be starting our fundraising in earnest soon – we’re raising money for a charity called Panthera. They do amazing conservation work. Have a look at their website and if you can support us it will help us keep going and it will ensure Panthera can keep doing the brilliant work they do. You can donate via our Justgiving site.
I actually enjoyed it…
… said Jess, never ever ever before about running but it is true. I did enjoy our run this afternoon. We are in week 6 of a Jeff Galloway 10km programme. Week 6 was to start on Tuesday but that didn’t happen. As I woke up this morning after a night interrupted by the kitten and having had a few glasses of wine at an evening out with work I wasn’t entirely convinced that week 6 was going to start today, or that it would start on a positive note. I was no more convinced at 3pm when Kath suggested we might get ourselves organised and go for a run. But I went and got changed (ahem, well, dressed really – the benefits(?) of working at home). We walked to feed our sheep (if you’re interested in them check our riddlesdenjacobs.com) and then set off from there. We ran up the little path into the wood and then down Riddlesden golf course and then along the canal. It was a 30 minute run and we stuck to our interval pattern of 1 minute run, 30 seconds walk.
The first two runs were on the path leading into the wood and it’s uphill. Not steep, just a steady little pull. I was puffing a bit (alright alright – a lot) but as we levelled off I felt fine. The downhill was quite fun and by the time we got onto the canal I realised that I was actually looking around. I saw the 11 ducklings, the shy little moorhen, a little bluetit fluffed up on a branch… I was running and noticing things around me!
I had a vague sense that we were pushing the pace a little more than we had previously but I really wasn’t sure and because we hadn’t started from home I didn’t have my usual markers on that route to tell me if I was slower of faster than I had been before.
We did 2.29 miles – so we had gone faster than previously. But much more importantly, it was a really positive run with a strong finish which we both enjoyed. That is a huge step in the right direction and one to file away safely in the memory bank. I’m almost looking forward to the next run! Almost.
Training Programme Week 5
We have just finished week 5 of our training programme. Week 5 finished with a 3 mile run. I hated every step of it. But let’s go back a bit. There were a few weeks of trying out some other programmes and getting to where we were running 8 minutes and walking 2 and doing 3 times or something. I was miserable. Then we moved to the new training programme. For the first 3 weeks we stuck to 30 seconds/30 seconds run/walk and I was quite enjoying myself. For the last two weeks we’ve been running 1 minute and walking 30 seconds. I’ve found this harder but still much better than before.
I’ll post updates as we go – basically you can expect 2 30 mimute runs during the week and then either a timed or distance run at the weekend. As I mentioned, today’s run was 3 miles. We ran it on the flat along the canal from our house towards Bingley and we turned round at half way. I don’t know why I hated this one.
Every step seemed like an effort, every step seemed pointless because let’s be honest here, chances of me making it round a marathon are slim at best. But looking back over the run now I have noticed a couple of things: I recovered quickly and well. By the time we got home I was ok, physically and mentally. I am not sore or achey or even particualrly tired from that run. It also occurs to me that while I hated every step, I took every step including running the last 2.5 minutes ignoring the walk break.
So, 3 miles and just under 42 hideous minutes but a pace of under 14 minutes per mile which is well within the pacing requirement of the runDisney events.
really (not) a runner 