Archive for January, 2008
January 31, 2008 at 12:20 am · Filed under Running
There seems to be a new and somewhat concerning military theme developing on this blog, not content to just run along with the US Marine Corps choir, yesterday I decided to head out and run with the SAS. That’s SAS as in Sweet as Swans rather than Special Air Service but it’s almost the same thing.
Jogblog introduced me to the concept of running with a friendly drinking group and if you’ve seen her post on last weeks SAS run, you may notice a tiny little difference between her route map and mine.
What can I say? They run too fast and I was tired.
Actually they ran very slowly but I was still tired and holding people back is such a pressure and they weren’t running through the park and so they missed the great swan photo opportunity and my way was quicker and the pub was waiting.
I’ll be back next week and attempt a slightly longer short cut, and I’ll bring my own milk - £4 a pint in that pub! Worked out considerably cheaper to stick to the Stella, so I did. It’s going to make my one day a week drink fest pretty tricky now that the week starts on Tuesday.
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: SAS, Stella
January 27, 2008 at 10:48 pm · Filed under Running
I wasn’t on top form when my alarm went off on Saturday morning but by lunchtime I was beginning to contemplate an intermediate distance run along the river. By 3 in the afternoon as I started seeing signs of everyone else’s stronger commitment, I felt it was time to take the Garmin out for some fresh air.
I gave blood on Thursday evening and was intrigued to see what affect it would have on my running. I always feel good after blood doning but I suppose it’s going to impair my oxygen carrying ability for a while and that run was awful!
Awful I say.
My shins were screaming all the way and at the 3k mark I had to bail out. My stomach was in a terrible bad way as well and I just had to crawl back home to my bathroom. Now I’m sure my stomach issue probably had a lot to do with the previous evenings hydration choices but the shin pains could be related to the blood donation.
I had a hang dog attitude for the rest of the day, I hate bailing on runs. I’ve just checked it out though and apparently it take 4 weeks to replace all the red blood cells and eight weeks to restore the iron lost after donating so maybe I could cut myself some slack.
This morning I intended to make amends but I started the day playing with a little chum. After a couple of hours of the exciting door pushing game, he looked like this. I would have liked to look like that but had to go out and run around the hilliest park in the universe.
Darn half-marathon training.
I left the hypnosis tapes at home but unfortunately I messed up with my recording of the Archers and had to fall back on some emergency running motivation.
Feel free to have the soundtrack running in the background - go on you’ll love it!
It’s got quite a catchy beat and it nicely matched the rattling coming from my rucksac. For some reason I have taken to running with a book and a puncture repair kit in my bag and the overall effect left me convinced that I had a bunch of marines running behind me.
44 tracks of that ilk drove me absolutely nuts but I couldn’t really moan too much about my poorly shins with the drill instructor threatening to call me a pussy if I dropped the pace. If I’d been running with a rifle though I’d probably have blasted the iPod. New inspiration required for next week.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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Tags: Garmin
January 20, 2008 at 5:10 pm · Filed under Running
I bought a pack of jelly tots to act as a replacement for those noxious gels on todays long run. Unfortunately I finished the pack before I even left the flat. As punishment I loaded Paul McKenna’s “I Can Make You Thin” hypnotic track onto the iPod and set off.
So I’m kitted up, eager to go and in fact I have already assumed the running pose and motion, when Paul kicks in and starts telling me to breathe sloooooowly, innnnnnn annnnd ooooouuuutttttttt - for the count of 6 each way. Tying up my shoelaces causes me to hyperventilate, running in Richmond Park has me breathing so loudly and rapidly that complete strangers start handing me paper bags to breath in. I’m on about 60 breaths a second and Paul hasn’t even finished his first inhalation. I resist Paul’s instructions for fear of my brain cells switching down one by one til I end in an unconscious heap.
This guy really is going to have his work cut out with me. I can barely hear him over the gale force 5 swirling in the park but when he speaks up I get the impression I have Darth Vader growling from one ear to another. I tune in and catch him telling my left ear that I’m a super svelte racing whippet who only eats good foods and never ever eats her recovery snacks before she has done anything to recover from. Then he switches to the other ear and tells me about hunger and how good it is.
I know enough about this hypnosis stuff to realise he’s not just trying to mess with my head but he is trying to mess with a particular side of my head. Trouble is, I never check which speaker is meant for which ear when I put my headphones on. What happens if he’s putting my left brain into a right brain trance? Oh god, I could finish this run convinced that I am huge sugar monster.
Earphones whipped out and re-assembled, I continue with the run. And its a tough run. Why am I doing my long runs in the hilliest park in the metropolis when I live slap bang on the banks of a flat river route?
The park is full again, I’m an hour later than last week and my first impression is that there are more walkers than runners at this relaxed hour. Then I get caught in a stampede of crazed runners one of whom tries to scare me half to death with a new years sweaty greeting, they may be friendly but they are ridiculously fast. I would bet that none of them were running round in a hypnotic trance but there must be more to it than that. I’m going to go back to Archers next week. See if I can pull a bit more pace out of the hat then.
13.32 km 1:48:51
Popularity: 19% [?]
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Tags: hypnosis, Paul McKenna, Richmond Park
January 19, 2008 at 4:23 pm · Filed under Rambling
For those folk that enjoyed the tale of the early morning wake up call by the nearly naked runner, here’s a quick update to show you that she still hasn’t learned her lesson.
I was out of the house early this morning as I was volunteering at the running (RPTT). My plan was to do a minor sweep of the neighbourhood collecting food scraps for the allotment compost bins so I rang Shakti to make sure her bin was at the front of the house as I passed. She was still sleeping and I obviously flustered her a bit. As I passed by with the trailer I found her hovering on her doorstep, wrapped in a towel and pushing on her firmly shut door.
At least she had the foresight to take a towel with her this time, you never know, she may take the house key next time. I refused to hand over my spare key til I had taken photographic evidence. It’s a tough life having a friend with a blog - no privacy.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Tags: allotment, RPTT
January 14, 2008 at 9:12 am · Filed under Running
I have just woken from a solid 13 hour sleep and I would still be soundly snoring if it weren’t for the third rather persistent alarm bouncing on my ear drum. Yesterdays long run knocked me flat and I feel I could sleep for a minimum of a week - waking just in time for the next lsr.
The day started with me persuading myself that I really did want to leave the confines of my fluffy duvet and head out into the howling wind for a two hour slog in the park. Having conquered myself I moved on to Shakti and even managed to persuade her that she wanted to come out on the bike and act as my Mr Motivator.
Mr Motivator isn’t the worlds best personal trainer, she bailed on me at the second hill and went home for a warm bath. Now that’s just cruel! I continued into the wind, running on the spot between blusters. I started cutting corners but it didn’t help me much, its a weird park and trusting my innate bearings doesn’t help. If I’d stuck to the perimeter route I’d have covered off 7 miles, my short cut came out at 8 miles - doh!
Every runner in London must have headed for Richmond Park yesterday, I was on a conveyor belt of running bods (many of whom kept lapping me!). They surely can’t all have entries to the marathon. The only time I had a clear stretch in front of me was on one of those wrong turns I made. I ended up in a near vertical quagmire, trying my best to stay upright. This was fun at Grim 8 but at that point I just wanted to be sitting in the coffee shop reading my paper, not sitting in a waist high deer pat wondering if I would ever be found.
Still, that’s my first LongSloooooowRun completed in this years half marathon training plan.
It was truly slow.
I’ve started recording my runs on the Fetcheveryone site again and have noticed that it now gives a prediction of you half marathon and marathon times based on the last run. After Saturdays time trial run my predicted time for a half was 2:45:06 not bad compared to my GNR time of 2:56:00 but not good enough for beating the Wilmslow cutoff. Todays prediction was 3:13:00. good grief perhaps I should have stayed in bed!
Popularity: 22% [?]
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Tags: fetcheveryone, GNR, Richmond Park
January 13, 2008 at 12:46 am · Filed under Event, Running
Having been accused, quite outrageously, of not actually doing any training, I thought I ought to set the record straight!
I went for a run. Today.
It wasn’t pretty but then these 5k time trials are not meant to pretty.
I would have been last, only the tail end canine - a fairly stout little scotty, was tripped up by a runner with a stitch and I managed to divert his attention with a strip of jerky and beat him over the line.
Popularity: 16% [?]
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Tags: RPTT
January 11, 2008 at 12:47 am · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
What a question - of course I do!
Just check out the ring of light, how have I managed to live so long without it?
It’s not too clear how the new Garmin Forerunner 405 compares to our trusty friend the 305. Sure there are the beauty enhancements and some wizadry that enables wireless upload to the PC as you stagger in from the streets, but I want to know if the satellite reception is going to be improved. It is going to be hard to improve on the Forerunner 305 but speedy satellite lock on is the way to go.
I’m still having one though - just tell me when. I might even consider entering a good ole US event if it means I could get it earlier.
*UPDATE*
Here’s a link to an important FAQ on the new forerunner 405, I’m a little disappointed that Garmin didn’t take the opportunity to make some obvious improvements to the forerunner series. It’s waterproof rating is still only sufficient for coping with sweat and possibly splashing in a particularly shallow puddle. Why didn’t they fully waterproof this beast so that it could become the clear option for triathletes? As it is, swimmers are going to go elsewhere for their gadget fix or continue to shove the unit under their swimming caps.
I can’t pick out any functional improvements at all, it’s just in a different box - quite a pretty one though.
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Tags: Forerunner, Forerunner 305, Forerunner 405, gadget, Garmin, Swimming
January 11, 2008 at 12:37 am · Filed under Swimming
Can someone remind me why I thought accountancy would be such a good wheeze? I feel like a gerbil trapped in a wheel, spinning it relentlessly from month end to month end. My days seem to be an endless cycle of prepare for month end, month end, recover from month end, prepare for month end, month end, recover from month end…… I’m going to blink one day and find myself aged 65.
At least now that I’ve recovered from my cold, I can break free a bit in the evening and run home again.
I joined the gym just before Christmas. My intention was to use the weights for a bit of serious muscle building but I got scared off by the hoards of inflated popeyes that preen on the mats. Having paid for 6 months in advance I’ve had to find some use for the place. Not much point using the treadmills, so that leaves me with the pool. I am now swimming and then running home and will therefore be a wafer thin racing whippet in no time!
I’ve forgotten all my immersion technique prowess of last year and am back to floundering. Managed a bit of a desperate sinking doggy paddle today as well. I have a near phobia of unattached hairs, a bit of an occupational hazard in communal showering/swimming areas, and every time I swim I go through a period when I feel sure that a hairball is just grazing my lips.
Immediately I flip onto my back, clawing frenziedly at my mouth. Then begins the death roll and flailing that invariably propels me to the bottom of the pool.
Soon enough I bob back up, decide I was probably thrown into a panic by a stray bubble and wonder why all the life guards seem to have sprung into action.
40 lengths today - enough to leave me roaring with hunger. What is it with swimming, I always come out of the pool feeling as though someone whipped out my stomach?
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: Swimming
January 2, 2008 at 11:30 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
It’s true, my Garmin is trying to kill me. While the BBC are issuing warnings for the UK softies to stay indoors for fear of catching a chill in the forecast cold spell, my Garmin thinks it would be fun to give me hypothermia. It has me standing outside, scantily clad in running gear, hopping from foot to foot while it lethargically glances from one satellite to another. I wouldn’t mind so much but the N82 locked onto a signal from indoors, and I don’t mean indoors but dangling from out of a window either - I was in the basement changing room of the gym. How does it do that?
I’m sneezing now.
New Years Eve turned into a productive, if quite expensive, evening, I was stone cold sober as I’ve gone tee total-ish (6 out of 7 days) and I spent the evening scouring the net for interesting races. I’ve signed myself up for the next 6 months. The next biggy is the Wilmslow half marathon at the end of March, so just as I was feeling smug that Jogblog had to stick to a punishing 1/2 mara schedule, I find myself needing to get up close and personal to the weekly long slow run myself. Aargh!
I signed up first and did my research later, which explains how I managed to enter a half marathon with a cut off time of 2:35:00. Flip! That also explains my rash decision to ditch the Stella, I don’t think I will knock 20 mins off my time through training alone, but surely life will be easier if I ditch a couple of stone by the wayside. I’m leaving 1 day of Stella in the mix to celebrate my weekly lsr, lets call it motivation.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, n82, OGB, Stella
