Archive for March, 2007
March 31, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Event, Running
Yay - two pb’s today.
It seems that each time I turn up for the run at Bushy Park my heart throws in an extra couple of beats for good measure. Hollywood and John were cracking the whip on the final straight this week and the result: my new HRmax is now 189 bpm and my new 5 km record is 34:35
I still haven’t got the hang of the new watch, I managed to press the wrong button at the end of the race again and the timer didn’t stop. Thankfully its pretty clear on the pace chart where I collapsed over the finish line.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: BPTT
March 26, 2007 at 8:51 pm · Filed under Swimming, Triathlon
I took advantage of my extra light hour this evening and cycled down to Pools in the Park for a little paddle.
Seems I can still remember how to float but forward progress is slow and quite painful actually. The front of my ankle hurts after a few lengths so I had to give up on the leg kick and just tickle my way forward with the arms. My lower back hurts as well but that’ll be because I’m bent in the middle trying to keep my head in the breathing zone.
I did 20 leisurely lengths in about 20 mins so that suggests my predicted time of 40 mins for 400m was a little pessimistic. If I can suss out how to handle the head in the water breathing I should improve matters a little.
I’ve been thinking about triathlon logistics recently, particulalry the transition stage. I reckon I could lose an hour at T1 and T2 if todays attempt to leave the house was anything to go by. I had to nip in and out twice to collect missing items from rucksac, like money and bra. I was half way down the road when I realised I’d forgotten my helmet. At the pool I was in my costume before I discovered I needed to purchase a token to retrieve the key from the locker so I had to get dressed again and go back out to the reception. Dizzy ***!
Popularity: 50% [?]
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Tags: Triathlon
March 25, 2007 at 10:35 pm · Filed under Event, Running
I dragged myself out of bed at some ungodly hour this morning so I could get to the registration desk for The Great Escape run. Arrived too early as usual and then had to perform jumping jacks for about 2 hours to ward off hypothermia while we waited for the finance society to organise 400 runners who had pre-registered anyway.
I think its a bad idea to do races organised by finance societies but my excuse is that I misread the flyer and thought it said fitness society, a group that I expect would know something about running and routes and the importance of water and goody bags with goodies in.
The start was shambolic, they insisted on splitting the tiny running crowd into 2 waves thereby seperating running buddies, not that my buddy had any intention of hanging around me - the speedy git! The first km marker appeared at 750m which irritates me but seems like a common ploy on these charity runs. The 5km marker with the promised water never materialised, thankfully I carried my own anyway but I wouldn’t have minded a top up.
The 6km zone was populated by the St Johns Ambulance crew but no one to point the way which led to runners heading off in three different directions. I realised my choice was wrong because I only had about 500 m left to the start/finish and my watch was still at 7km, at this point I headed off-road and tried to pick up another track where I found runners moving in both directions. In the end I gave up and just headed for the finish to get it over and done with. I had a slight panic that I would actually be the first one in and I’d be awarded a medal and then have to admit to only running 8km and pushing into the first wave rather than my allotted 2nd but I needn’t have worried - there were plenty of grumbling runners milling around arguing about the route and the complete lack of organisation.
No cheering or support at the finish line but I think thats because the marshalls hadn’t got a clue which direction to expect the runners to be coming from. In fairness they were friendly enough but I would recommend they go and volunteer at BPTT and see how the real organisers manage a race before they think about repeating it next year.
Now the goody bag:
- Capital - The Official Magazine of The Imperial College Finance Society
- A biro
- 2 rubber bracelets thingy’s
- A leaflet explaining how I could impress an attractive person at dinner who claims to be an investment banker
- A sweet - v.small
- A chocolate biscuit that tasted of aniseed although it might have been OGB’s lynx as he was spraying his pits as I was eating
- Oh and a t-shirt which was just too impressive for words, but lets say it hasn’t inspired me to start my own t-shirt page.
I can only hope that a good proportion of my £22 entry fee went to the charity.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, OGB, t-shirt
March 24, 2007 at 4:08 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I’m feeling pretty guilty and a bit slovenly.
I skipped BPTT today so that I could wait for the postman to bring me my new toy. When it arrived I took it back to bed with me so I could check out its functions, but I didn’t mean for anyone to feel rejected! I hinted at my new love affair in the gadgets page, but I thought we’d all be able to get along fine and just co-habit. You can’t always have your cake and eat it though - someone always gets hurt.
I planned on pitting the two against each other on my familiar 3.5km river track, a sort of duel for my affections. The Polar took pride of place on my left wrist and the Garmin was shifted across to my right but it wasn’t to be. The Garmin just sort of sputtered and powered down. I tried the cardiac restart but no use, it opened its eyes once or twice but gave up when it saw the Polar was still around. I tried reinstalling the latest bio-rhthym software version 2.6 but it was too late. The Forerunner 305 appears to have just given up on me.
So it was just me, the Polar RS800SD and the river. First impressions were not good. The speed and distance readings were half what I knew they jolly well ought to be. I looked to see if I had some irritating credit card man dragging by my ankle but there was no such excuse for going so slow. Decided I would have to calibrate the speed sensor but when I got home and investigated it seems the previous owner had already done it and set the calibration to 0.5. Why would you do that, what sort of crazy running style would require you to make such a drastic step. I wonder if anyone has ever tried one of these watches on their dog, perhaps having extra feet would make the difference.
Can’t wow you with any amazing stats yet because running at 4km/h is just not very amazing and also because I need the optional IR port to connect to my pc. I thought I’d be able to use the sonic link function with my microphone but apparently this model doesn’t use it.
I haven’t given up on the Garmin of course, the support centre have already got back to me about the automatic powering down of the unit and are suggesting that I will need to return it to base. Sounds like a fault with the internal battery. Either that or a broken heart.
Popularity: 37% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, Forerunner, Garmin, polar, RS800SD
March 21, 2007 at 11:06 pm · Filed under Triathlon
Oh good grief, not sure what has possessed me but I’ve just pressed submit on an entry form for the Stratford Sprint Triathlon.
I think I am going to be asking myself why for quite some time to come.
I can’t remember how to swim so I’m going to immerse myself in Hampton outdoor pool after the Bushy Park TT this Saturday. I wonder if I’ve got a swimming costume?
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Tags: Swimming, Triathlon
March 20, 2007 at 10:50 pm · Filed under Running
Grief it was cold today and windy, but I shouldn’t complain - it seems the wind was in my favour for most of the route and that never normally happens. I felt really strong at the end, my hip was hurting but I had stacks of puff left and finished with my fastest time so far for the commute:
10km in 1:17:22 which is an av pace of 7:43 mins/km
My heart rate av/max was 155/166bpm
I was ticking along listening to a new podcast I’ve found, it’s called Get Your Geek On and is put together by two blogging triathletes Iron Will and Tri-Geek Kahuna. I’ve got a huge backlog of episodes to get through and it should keep me good for the next years worth of running commutes. Mind you I’ve just heard that I’m going to be shipped off to Broadmoor for a month or so which will play havoc with commuting plans - too far for cycling never mind running. It will be cool to get a gps running route around the perimeter though if I can sneak my gadgets past the security check.
It’s The Great Escape run this Sunday in Hyde Park, from the confirmation emails sent out it looks like me and OGB will be in a pack of about six other runners!
Popularity: 13% [?]
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Tags: Broadmoor, commute, GPS, OGB
March 18, 2007 at 10:46 pm · Filed under Rambling, Technical stuff
This post is surely asking for trouble but here goes. A recent plugin - Firestats - has opened my eyes to the wonders of google searches and more specifically the search terms that lead visitors to this site.
Some are quite painful:
- Iliac crest pain in back and hip
but others are darn right uncomfortable:
- Pictures of Bushy legs of Women
- Very Big Girls Bums
- Bulging Underwear
- Women’s blogs of underwear
Popularity: 19% [?]
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March 17, 2007 at 8:14 pm · Filed under Event, Running
I nearly turned around and went home before I’d even started today. My hip was hurting and my stomach was threatening to misbehave because of last nights festivities. I’ve run on a hangover before though and I think the result was quite positive so I hung around and tried to stretch my hip out before the start was called.
Turned out to be an unusually exciting race today, normally I’m just out there doing my thing and there just happens to be a stack of runners ahead of me, seemingly doing their thing too. Today at 3km I felt that I still had a few people in my sight and whats more, they appeared to be suffering - the race was on! I started reeling the first runner in, visualising a rope around her waist I pulled myself up to her and moved past. I think she must have been sharing my visualisation cos she just seemed to give up after being lasooed.
In the final straight I was trying to pull up to another runner, she was a lot faster than me but kept stopping to walk, sprinting off again as I joined her. It was the traditional case of the tortoise and hare though and the fact that she was being hampered a bit by her support cyclist who was telling her she had only 7 minutes to go when it was actually only 5! I think this broke her as she let me pass the next time. I meant to tell her not to let me get me away but I didn’t have the breath and anyway Hollywood was shouting at her to catch me. Aaargh! I hate being chased it scares me, so yet again Hollywood managed to push my heart rate to sick inducing levels as I crossed the finish line.
Final result: 5km in 35:54
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: BPTT
March 17, 2007 at 5:29 pm · Filed under Running
My hip has started to get really vocal in the last few weeks, it is not very happy with me at all. I’m not alone with this one, I’ve noticed a number of bloggers commenting on similar ailments but so far I haven’t picked up any great cure-all tips.
I was hoping to squeeze a couple of running commutes in this week but I was limping for two days after the first so I thought I ought to give it a rest. Trouble is, resting doesn’t seem to be the definative answer either, it improves slightly, only to start twingeing again the moment I start running. The last time my hip was bad was around the time of the Nike 10km back in October, I thought I was going to have to drop out but I just took a few Ibuprofen and managed to keep pushing til the end. I didn’t walk well for a few days and then I started seeing a physio. She reckoned it was ITB pain, which surprised me as the site of greatest pain was right over my iliac crest and not on my thigh at all, but she gave me some stretches to do and got me to invest in some crazily expensive shoes and the problem started to improve.
After a few clear months it’s reappeared and the only thing that has changed is that:
- I’m too bone idle to do stretching at home
- I switched super expensive shoes for a pair of non-slip trail shoes for a few runs
I’ve often heard that leg length discrepancies are fairly common, and can result in pain in the hip on the dominant side. The notes on the coolrunning site had me jumping up and down in front of the mirror, barely clad, trying to determine if this affliction affected me. Trouble is I’d need a couple of rulers, a long spirit level and an assistant to detect differences as small as a cm - and that is just not going to happen, so I have to assume I am perfectly formed.
Sometimes the pain moves from the iliac crest (I think that is the lumpy bit most commonly referred to as the hip bone) into my waist and then into my buttock. I’ve done a few searches and found some interesting pointers on the coolrunning website. Looks like it could be piriformis syndrome or just a simple overuse injury but either way the solution lies in stretching -yawn!
I don’t know what my problem is with stretching but really I cannot be arsed to do it at home. My proposed solution is to check out the local Bikram yoga centre for a week and see if makes any difference. I’ve got a week before my next 10 km event in Hyde Park so I think this is the ideal testing ground. For those that don’t know, Bikram yoga is alternatively referred to as hot yoga, and is similar to Hatha yoga except that it is performed in a heated room - 100′F. The heat helps keep you supple and you can get more involved in your stretch and also means you tend to feel it the next day. You also get very hot, which means while I continue to wear head to foot clothing and nearly pass out by the end of the session, the blokes in the class will typically perform their stretches wearing only a skimpy pair of speedos. Gross!
Popularity: 30% [?]
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Tags: commute, injury, Nike
March 13, 2007 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Running
I love these light nights, it feels like I’m getting my life back and I can run when I feel like it.
I’ve been looking forward to tonights commute as I planned to make use of the extra light to venture down on to the canal for a portion of my route home. Funny, as soon as I mentioned my plans at work I was bombarded with horror stories - you wouldn’t believe what happens to women who enter the canal realm! Now I didn’t completely want to disregard all this local knowledge but at the same time I didn’t get on that smelly bus this morning for nothing. Eventually I got them to compromise on an acceptable point at which I could join the canal without commiting myself to definate happy slapping stardom.
I can’t believe how isolated that canal is, there were 2 people on the 3km stretch I covered and they were both on one titchy motorbike. Where were all the druggies, huddies and happy slappers? What about dog walkers and runners? Bleak.
The little diversion extended my route to 10.86 km, so its my all time maximum run but I need to do something about that .86, it’s disturbing me. I’ve probably got OCD and will have to nip out before I go to sleep and walk the garmin around for 0.14 km.
My overall time and pace was very slow but I was really troubled with my hip pain today, each step was causing a twinge in hip/waist. This seems to be a recurrent problem for me, not sure what to do about it really. I’ve forgotton the exercises that my physio recommended which doesn’t bode well. I may give acupuncture a go, Shakti’s mum had some success with this recently and it was quite a cheap way of getting a good old massage with a few pin pricks thrown in for good measure. What I don’t want to do is lay off the running too much. I don’t think I’ve yet regained my fitness from the first time I eased up with this pain.
If I suggested that I didn’t like running in the last post ignore me - I love it!!!!
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: commute, Garmin
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