Getting Started! Week 1
Although I'm still busy tweaking the plan for my training, I'm counting this week as my first with 14 weeks (now 13) until Manchester Marathon and 24 weeks to Comrades. The first part of my training will be similar to Marathon training, but there's just a slightly different focus - the long runs will be longer and slower, and there'll be more hills; Strength and Conditioning will focus on preparing my legs for the impact of all the downhills at Comrades as well as building strength for the uphills and of course on injury prevention to get a consistent block of training in.
I was still off work at the start of the week, in that lovely lazy Twixmas period, but the less I do the less I want to do! We were supposed to go to Bristol from Monday to Wednesday (NYD) but as Guy was not feeling well, we stayed at home on Monday travelling on Tuesday, which meant I was free to go to club on Monday and do the club run, albeit at a steady 10 minute mile pace.
Wednesday was New Year's Day and therefore time for the traditional NYD double parkrun! We travelled to Lydney (where the photographer, Graham Douglas Worthy took some great action shots like the above one as we all vaulted a fallen tree on the course) and then Forest of Dean for a couple of muddy runs with the usual camaraderie. I wasn't really intending to go for it on either run, which was just as well as I lined up terribly and spent the first mile of both of them trying to pass people as both were very busy events. It was great fun though and certainly felt like I'd put enough effort in afterwards!
I was still off work at the start of the week, in that lovely lazy Twixmas period, but the less I do the less I want to do! We were supposed to go to Bristol from Monday to Wednesday (NYD) but as Guy was not feeling well, we stayed at home on Monday travelling on Tuesday, which meant I was free to go to club on Monday and do the club run, albeit at a steady 10 minute mile pace.
Wednesday was New Year's Day and therefore time for the traditional NYD double parkrun! We travelled to Lydney (where the photographer, Graham Douglas Worthy took some great action shots like the above one as we all vaulted a fallen tree on the course) and then Forest of Dean for a couple of muddy runs with the usual camaraderie. I wasn't really intending to go for it on either run, which was just as well as I lined up terribly and spent the first mile of both of them trying to pass people as both were very busy events. It was great fun though and certainly felt like I'd put enough effort in afterwards!
Unfortunately I'd made a bit of a mess of my feet with the new shoes I wore on NYE (although there was no dancing, sadly) and as a result I started really worrying about how easily my feet blister, I already have a couple of ongoing blisters on my feet from running and I haven't yet increased my distance. A bit of research with my clubmates and I was recommended a book which I think is going to be quite useful in my Comrades build up; 'Fixing Your Feet' by John Vonhof.
I went to club reps on Thursday intending to choose the Hills session, but owing to a couple of coaches being unavailable it turned into a sandwich session with everyone doing three sets, so for me I did hills, flats then hills again at the end. I felt like I worked quite hard and it was great to be back at reps again, thanks to Dave and Stewart for the session and the other reppers who always help to give you that extra push!
Back to work on Friday, which meant I was also back to my Personal Trainer, Michelle. We usually do upper body and core exercises on Fridays but for a change we did some boxing with the pads and gloves; it was a great workout and really energised me for the day at work. I'm annoyed with myself I didn't do any yoga this week, but I will hopefully get back to that next week as I return to work properly and get back to my usual routine.
Back to parkrun on Saturday (parkrunday!) and this time Mallards Pike, a lovely forest one again but this time without the mud as we ran on hard packed trails for one lap, with a steady incline for the first two miles and then a lovely descent for the final mile. I warmed up with my friend and then thought I would give it a bit of a go, not quite racing but certainly putting in more effort than in recent weeks. I was pleased to finish with 26:30; nowhere near my best times but an improvement on recent weeks. Running my warmdown around the lake I got that feeling that I haven't had for ages, feeling like a runner, everything moving nice and easy, so I felt really positive going into today’s long run.
Today I headed out for a 17 mile long run, taking it really steady and enjoying the company of a clubmate John, who also showed me a route I haven't tried before in my eight years of running in Birmingham. I do like to vary my routes and I'm looking forward to doing some interesting long runs in the coming weeks, we're really blessed here in Birmingham with lots of choices for long run day. I had to walk a few times in the last couple of miles, just felt a bit fatigued but generally I was happy with how the run went and I’m not worried about the pace at this stage.
So, onto next week and finalising the plan over the next couple of days. I'm going to try to get back into Yoga and also work on improving my nutrition, now that the Christmas chocolate and cheese have been eaten! I’m feeling positive and excited about the coming weeks.
I went to club reps on Thursday intending to choose the Hills session, but owing to a couple of coaches being unavailable it turned into a sandwich session with everyone doing three sets, so for me I did hills, flats then hills again at the end. I felt like I worked quite hard and it was great to be back at reps again, thanks to Dave and Stewart for the session and the other reppers who always help to give you that extra push!
Back to work on Friday, which meant I was also back to my Personal Trainer, Michelle. We usually do upper body and core exercises on Fridays but for a change we did some boxing with the pads and gloves; it was a great workout and really energised me for the day at work. I'm annoyed with myself I didn't do any yoga this week, but I will hopefully get back to that next week as I return to work properly and get back to my usual routine.
Back to parkrun on Saturday (parkrunday!) and this time Mallards Pike, a lovely forest one again but this time without the mud as we ran on hard packed trails for one lap, with a steady incline for the first two miles and then a lovely descent for the final mile. I warmed up with my friend and then thought I would give it a bit of a go, not quite racing but certainly putting in more effort than in recent weeks. I was pleased to finish with 26:30; nowhere near my best times but an improvement on recent weeks. Running my warmdown around the lake I got that feeling that I haven't had for ages, feeling like a runner, everything moving nice and easy, so I felt really positive going into today’s long run.
Today I headed out for a 17 mile long run, taking it really steady and enjoying the company of a clubmate John, who also showed me a route I haven't tried before in my eight years of running in Birmingham. I do like to vary my routes and I'm looking forward to doing some interesting long runs in the coming weeks, we're really blessed here in Birmingham with lots of choices for long run day. I had to walk a few times in the last couple of miles, just felt a bit fatigued but generally I was happy with how the run went and I’m not worried about the pace at this stage.
So, onto next week and finalising the plan over the next couple of days. I'm going to try to get back into Yoga and also work on improving my nutrition, now that the Christmas chocolate and cheese have been eaten! I’m feeling positive and excited about the coming weeks.
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