would you believe it!?

I will get there…

I am so shattered! I have had the worst run these last few weeks…and I don’t mean an actual run…more like a series of ridiculous events which are getting in the way of my running and completing the Couch to 5K (C25K)!!

First Ridiculous Event:

Helping my brother move house which is always good fun, until you have to move the mattress! I ‘did’ my back lifting the mattress! Great! It was quite scary not being able to walk, at all! So there I am laid up in bed for a few days on some pretty full-on painkillers.

Fortunately I bounced back quite quickly from this, a few visits to the Osteo and Myotherapist and I was as right as rain, but it really gave me a better understanding of people who have back pain. My mum injured her back many years ago when she was nursing, (and isn’t that just the way things go? People who are in the ‘helping people’ industry getting hurt themselves because they put others first?), and she has had chronic back pain ever since. I feel so much for her, and others, who are in this situation. It’s not a nice way to spend a few days and must be an awful way to spend your life.

Second Ridiculous Event:

I got the flu…not one week later and laid low by the stoopid flu!!!! There is no way I am going to go running the way I am feeling right now, which is somewhere between death warmed up and hell! I have had this thing for two weeks now and feel like I cannot shake the last vestiges of crappiness…and I refuse to make it worse by putting my body under pressure it obviously doesn’t need…

So I am cramming in as much good and healthy food as I can, loads of rest and a few days off work.

Missing running.

running like the wind …ok, truthfully, more like a gentle breeze…

Week 7 Day 1 So it seems that maybe I’ve been going like a bull at a gate with this running caper…walking with my partner the other night and we jokingly started to do the Cliffy or the ‘Cliff Young Shuffle’…for those who don’t know… Cliff Young is a legend in marathon running in Australia…

Cliff was a potato farmer who won the first Sydney to Melbourne ultra marathon (875km/543miles) at the age of 61! That’s pretty rad…but wait there’s more…He had never run an ultra marathon in his life before! He beat 10 other top athletes! And broke the record for that distance by two days!! Cliff Young started the race behind the leaders but when they all stopped and slept over night, he kept running! This was when he took the lead in the race and kept it and came in first … 10 hours ahead of the rest!

What kept Cliff going through the 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes of that race? He imagined He was running after sheep and was trying to outrun a storm! And I think, just quietly, an enormous competitive spirit that his competitors just couldn’t match in that particular race.

So for my first day of Week 7, with a bit of classic NLP behavioural modelling (basic outside modelling), I busted out with the ‘Cliffy’ and completely surprised myself! I didn’t get puffed, I didn’t get stitches and i didn’t run out of energy!! (On the flip side I didn’t feel like I was running! It was just too slow And clearly not painful enough to feel like I was doing anything…is that crazy?? Haha!)

I was keeping my eye on the ‘run average pace’ which drifted right out to around 10 min per km (my average has always been around 6.2ish) so I figured in the last 3 minutes I would go all out and really run! Wow! It was great! I felt like I really got to stretch out and expend a bunch of energy .. and it got my run average pace to 6.3per km. and only 870km’s to go to be truly anywhere near Cliffy ..Never going to happen!

I don’t know if that’s the ‘right’ way (or if there is a ‘right’ way), I just know that it felt awesome to run and not tire but to have a lovely rhythm but also to really stretch out at the end and run like the wind! …Ok, maybe more like a gentle breeze! At least I’m not exhausting myself and struggling the whole time now haha!

Which are you most interested in…a comfortable run or average pace, time or distance? What is a good measure of a run in your eyes or legs!

oh and here is a little youtube clip of Cliffy.

Cliffy the Legend

Cliff Young

www.youtube.com/watch?v=isJxMhRI6v8

Running is very beneficial

Good for all of us

Osteo, Osteo! Wherefore art thou Osteo?

the time will pass anyway

I know! It’s been ages!!!

So you know how I repeated Week 4 (because I loved it so much!) shortly after that I started getting this crazy hip pain! It felt as though I was getting around with a giant knife sticking out of my hip! All. The. Time. Ouch.

So I took a bit of time away from the C25K and just stuck with gentle walks…..Boring!!

My partner (beautiful & amazing man that he is!) also reminded me that things/life goes in ups and downs that sometimes we need to just go with the flow and not push too hard…and… then a few weeks later said…’Didn’t you used to be a runner?”

Haha! He knows me too well! I am a big fan of trying to listen to my body and understanding what it needs, and yes sometimes I still try to trick myself by saying that chocolate is exactly what my body needs right now!! Then there is listening to your head and what it has to say about everything…all the thoughts that are not necessarily useful or supportive…we humans are so complex!

Anyway…the hip pain had slowly disappeared so I went back to Week 5 and repeated a couple of the runs and then did a few free runs, just because I was so stoked to be back moving again!

Then I hit up Week 6 which I really enjoyed! Knowing that there are only 3 weeks left you can really feel the ramping up of the energy and commitment!

Oh! And big news in my world… Week 6 Day 2 run I finally broke my old distance record! I hit 4.59km! I have been hovering just below that mark ever since…which raises the question…can one complete the C25K if they haven’t actually run an entire 5km distance?!

Eeeeep!

I guess technically I haven’t exactly followed the schedule anyway so I’m not going to get all het up about it! Maybe by the time Week 9 comes around I’ll be up there at 5kms? I am just so happy that I have started and have kept going and going and going. Yay!

How is everyone’s progress whichever week you are at? Has anyone made it through and run the 5km distance by the end even if they weren’t hitting the distance through the program?

More importantly … who is just loving running?!

I’m so ‘appy with my App!

some motivation is required

Before I started the Couch to 5K program I was pretty much making it up as I went along. I would go for a walk and then run for about 1 minute and reward myself with walking for the next 20 minutes, to recover from the 1 minute run you understand. I tried this haphazard approach for about 3 weeks before realising I simultaneously congratulating myself on starting running and cheating myself by only actually running for maybe 5 minutes total in a 1 hour walk! I knew I probably needed something a little more structured! So I decided to research a few Apps for the C25K and eventually settled on this one:

c25k Active

Things I really like about this app:

* It’s a 9 week program – 3 days a week, 30 minutes each day – I pretty much can’t go wrong! I follow the program life is good!

* It automatically logs all results – walk distance, run distance, time, average pace – improvement, no matter how small, is still improvement – one of the greatest motivators ever!

* Tracks your run by GPS so you know exactly where you have been and how far you have run (and it shows on a little map in the log!) – more of a nice to know I suppose. But then again I wouldn’t mind one day logging some runs in Venice, Paris, New York … any other suggestions?

* I can create my playlist – Thank God for this! I honestly don’t think I would have continued running if I had to listen to my sad little whimpers when it gets difficult! Instead I have a lot of Gwen Stefani, selections from the Great Gatsby soundtrack, a little Franz Ferdinand, some Bad Religion…the playlist goes on! When I begin to struggle I turn up the volume and magically get a huge boost of energy!

* I can choose my ‘trainer’ … I’ll introduce you in a minute…;)

* There is a ‘free run’ option – sometimes it’s nice to freestyle it and break from the program but still run for fun!

* there is an option to join with other runners via facebook/twitter – I have tweeted my results to the twitterverse but I have no followers so that’s kinda pointless! haha!!

So! This is by no means a paid plug for the Active app but I am really enjoying using it…and if you are looking for an app to track your progress put this one on the list and try it out. (I think it was free, I can’t remember).

Oh, that’s right, who is my trainer? Well I went for …   Johnny Dead – the Zombie trainer! After a long-standing obsession with Resident Evil and then The Walking Dead and more recently World War Z, turns out I just like zombies!! haha!

ridiculous zombie collage

What App do you use for your C25K? How do you find it? (And on a non-running note…is anyone else completely caught up in the Walking Dead etc? What other television has completely caught your attention/imagination?)

C25K Week 4 – I loved you so much I did you twice!

Yep! It’s true! Twice!

Well, most of that title is true. It wasn’t that I loved Week 4 the first time around so much that it made me want to do it again…it was those crazy sore shins! I was just too sore to run boo! (I think you were right @ The Blogrunner ….shin splints).

Week 4 Part 1

So I decided to take it easy and spaced the three runs out over about 2 weeks. This worked really well and took a bit of the strain off my shins.

These runs were really enjoyable! Which I didn’t actually expect, in fact, I was quite sure they would be the death of me! Run/jog for 5 minutes in a row!! Are you kidding!!

The most enjoyable run of Week 4 Part 1 was at my parents place in the country accompanied by the craziest dog on the planet..Rufus!

I am quite certain that for every 5 metres I ran he ran approximately 50km! Nose to the ground he was off hunting for rabbits! (the photo below is the only one of about 10 where he isn’t a blur in the distance!)

running with Rufus

Week 4 Part 2

And then life kinda got in the way for a little while…and I didn’t run.

And I missed it.

So.

Much.

(I also may or may not have looked ahead (again!!) at Week 5 and got scared!)

So I did Week 4 again! And it was fantastic! Even though my times were about the same I really enjoyed each run!  My rhythm felt strong and my breathing was well paced. Oh, and the 5 minutes straight running? Not a problem… 🙂

Now! I need to get back to my regular running schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday, knowing perfectly well that life will probably get in the way! For me though, a schedule is good otherwise if it’s not part of what I do every week then it becomes something I might do sometimes. And I definitely don’t want running to become a ‘sometimes’ activity…I love it too much already!

Do you have a regular schedule for your running? What do you do if life ‘gets in the way’?

all posts from now on will be entitled… “And I Thought Last Week Was A Challenge!!”

I really admire the design and intelligence behind the Couch to 5 Km program. It is the perfect blend of:  challenge = to feel pushed physically and mentally each week and achievement = each week you have done measurably more than the week before and you know it!! It’s a rapid ROI I guess! Haha!

I like the fact that I often dread going out for a run and yet when I get back I am absolutely pumped! I am usually so proud of myself for actually getting out there and challenging myself by running!

Pretty much I am bursting out of my skin with happiness when I’m done!

I may even look like this when I come home from a run!

If only that feeling could be bottled and given to everyone!! I had no idea how much I needed it!

Anyway…on to Week 4:

I have one more run to go for this week – which I am guessing I will either do today or perhaps Friday or Saturday..I’m not sure yet.

What I am sure of is that I will do the run. I am so excited that this is something I really enjoy and get such a blast out of doing that I don’t think I’ll ever stop!!

As mentioned in the last post I looked ahead and saw that the Week 4 mission was to basically run for 5 minutes in a row…Yikes!

I thought I was living in Struggletown last week…I was clearly just hanging in the outer suburbs that week! I got a whole lot closer to the city centre this week haha!

The first run I did was in Ballarat – I looked out the window and the weather looked pretty good…(we are approaching winter btw). So on went the gear and out I went!

About 6 minutes in it started to rain and from there on til the end of the run it didn’t stop! haha! And I’m talking relentless, driving rain! Maybe it was a good distraction from the 5 straight minutes for running but  I actually found running in the rain enjoyable!

Yeah!!

After this great and triumphant run, (5 minutes in a row people! I know you know what I’m talking about!!!) I got the craziest sore shins! I have to say my shins had already been making their presence known (as were many muscles!) but this time I put off my second Week 4 run for quite a few days…

do you guys have experience with sore shins? What do you do for the aches and pains?

Week 4 … to be continued!

hey! i’m not done yet!!

stop when you’re done

Just to let you know I haven’t disappeared! I haven’t stopped blogging!

And I haven’t stopped running!

I have a couple of posts to put up of my last couple of weeks … stay tuned 🙂

week 3 – and i thought week 2 was hard! haha!

So i’ve hit week three in the C25K (how cool is that rather than write the whole thing out I can write it like that and it looks waaaaay cooler!).

Week 3 Day 1

Mini Daemons:

Allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll day yesterday I was dreading having to go for my run. This is pretty strange as all the 3 weeks before this I have really been looking forward to the run!

Let’s just pause here, I know I keep harping on about this, but really, it still amazes me….I run now. I never thought that would be something that would ever, ever come out of my mouth!

Anyway, last night was proof to me that this is more of a mental game than a physical game – I didn’t want to run for a variety of reasons:

• It had rained from like 2pm til at least 4pm – therefore in my head I was thinking ‘My god! It will be freezing and horrible and probably it will rain all over me too!! Noo! This is a terrible prospect!’
• I was feeling down – not feeling at all like going out and doing anything – really and truly all I wanted to do was go home and slouch on the couch and smooch around in my comfy trackies and do nothing but eat and watch tv. Somehow I thought this would make me feel better about what I was feeling crap about.
•  But the biggest thing that was stopping me (or almost stopped me) was that last week on my Week3 Day 1 – I slacked right off. I didn’t run anywhere near like I should have. It freaked me out that I had to suddenly run for 3 minutes in a row!! And, in what i think was clever unconscious competence in sabotage I managed to press the button on the thing a number of times and it jumped forward through the workout and then when I tried to go back it skipped too far back and basically the whole thing just went kinda weird. So I didn’t really do the workout properly.

Now, because I was disappointed in myself and because I pretty much want a perfect run for this Couch to 5K mission –I re-did the run. I went straight back out the next night and did it properly. (Sidenote: as properly as I could do it at the time because the 3 minute run bit was still killing me!! I found it so difficult to get all the way through it!)

So technically I ran 4 times this week and I am kinda glad my inner perfectionist came out to play because I conquered something in all of that. It is truly a mental game. The body can do the work pretty much, in fact I think most people could do this physically quite easily. But mentally…that’s where the challenge is!

Edit/Update:

Week 3 Day 3 was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy! I even…wait for it…enjoyed it! I really did enjoy it!

Week 3 Day 1: 6/5/13

Walk: .96 kms

Run: 2.39kms

time: 33.53

total distance: 3.35km

Week 3 Day 1 x 2: 7/5/13

Walk: 2.12km

Run: 2.55km

time: 32.11

total distance: 4.67km

(**that’s my all time record by the way!!)

Week 3 Day 2:

Walk: 1.38km

run: 2.59KM

Time: 30.55

total distance: 3.97km

Week 3 Day 3:

Walk: 1.47km

run: 4.94km

time: 27.25

total distance: 3.47km

Then I made the mistake of looking up Week 4 Day 1 … oh. Dear. Not. Good.

Struggle town filled with mini demons

Wow! This was an interesting week.

im into week 2 of the Couchto5K and I conquered a couple of let’s call them mini-demons!

i also gave into a couple of other mini-demons – so I’ll start with them first!

my plan is this:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday = Couch to 5K days

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday = FYM days doing the banish the muffin top workout.

mini-demon attack one:

mini demon attacked on Tuesday and gave me a bunch of reasons not to do anything – eg: my partner would be home soon and I’m embarrassed to be seen doing these exercises. The exercise ball is nearly flat and I forgot the pump. (I didn’t. I found the pump in my bag where I had put it on Sunday night expressly to pump up the exercise ball at the Rock!) also I don’t have any weights at The Rock and so couldn’t do those exercises.

So I fluffed around – watched the video, kinda did a couple of the exercises a few times and then stopped.

Procrastination demon come at me and smothered my ass!! Noooooooooo!

without getting into too much detail the same demon visited again and I did nothing on the Thursday either.

mini-demon vs me : 1-0

this week was week 2 of the Couch to 5K program – where the ante is upped a bit. Week one is walk 1& 1/2 minutes jog 1 minute for 20 minutes. Week two is walk 2 minutes jog 1&1/2 minutes.

thought I was gonna die the first day!

wednesday 1st May I got some bad news – so that night I got home from work, it was cold and looking like rain, I’d been crying quietly for most of the day and then very loudly in my car on the way home, I got stuck in a crappy traffic jam on the way home, I’d booked Gold Class tickets to see Iron Man 3 3D at 8:30 that night … All I wanted to do was snuggle on the couch under a cozy rug and eat my fill of caramel covered popcorn and feel sorry for myself.

I’m pretty proud to say I didn’t. I got home, got my gear on and did my run. And I felt great for doing that! It rained as soon as I finished and it rained heavy too!

mini-demon vs me: 1-1

friday’s run was a tough one – I decided to drive to Mentone because I needed to pick up a few things on my way home so I figured I could run there and have a different place to look at!

Struggle town!! It was soooo tough! usually it’s feeling tough by the end of the minute and there’s more to go (my go this must sound really funny to proper runners but seriously this is the most activity I’ve ever done in my life!).

i kept going though and felt stronger by the end but I nearly quit a bunch of times. I would run and then stop for a couple of seconds and then start again because I didn’t really want to quite.

I was sooooooo relieved that it was over! Haha! Aaaaand guess what? I got my best time ever!!

So in my head the score looks like this:

mini-demon vs me: 1-2

yeah!!