Monday, November 4, 2013

Weeks 1 & 2 roundup

Steps on Otley Chevin
Steps on Otley Chevin by Tim Green aka atoach, on Flickr. Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0

 So, here I am, first two weeks done. How's it going?

Week 1: Three runs: tick. Progression: tick. Feeling good: tick.
Monday, 8 x (2 min run + 1 min walk). Wednesday, 9 x (2+1). Sunday, 10 x (2+1).


Week 2 (and a tiny bit): Three runs: bzzzt. Progression: tick. Feeling good: tentative tick.

Wednesday, 7 x (3+1). Monday, 9 x (3+1).


With storms outside and a million things to do inside, then a tweaked lower back, week 2 kind of unravelled a bit on me. But I'm not too far behind. Total running time is up to 27 minutes, and I'll aim to get that up to 30 next time (Wednesday), then start consolidating the runs and losing the walks.
I'm discovering all sorts of cut throughs and alleyways on the estate - not that I use them on night runs, but if I get a weekend daytime excursion it's quite fun to take a magical mystery tour and pop off down paths when I see them. Anything to keep me interested and stop me looking at my watch!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Do, or do not, there is no tri

The Road Ahead 
The Road Ahead, by Michael Krigsman (mkrigsman) on Flickr. Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 

No tri on the horizon for me, at least not the near horizon. So, according to the little green guy, it's "do, or do not" - and I chose "do".

Starting from near-scratch with a nearly 9-month old baby, you do the maths and work out if I'd "really earned a rest" after my last entry! Perhaps not quite as much of a rest as I gave myself, though.

Anyway, here I am. Time to turn this around (think oil tanker rather than handbrake turns), and I've got to start somewhere. That somewhere is: 8 x run 2 mins, walk 1. I got out and did it tonight after Small's bedtime, and it felt good both to move and to get some "me time". I didn't deliberately wait until it was dark in the early evening to start running again, but I can't say I mind ;) Next is to repeat that twice this week (aiming for Weds/Thurs and Sat, maybe adding an extra rep), and then step up next week. I might check out Couch to 5k and see where I fit in, not week 1 at least!

My short term aim is a sub-30 parkrun by Christmas. Longer term, it would be good to get back to running with my club one day a week, and longer longer term I would like to get back to triathlon - whether the training demands stack up with other commitments, we'll see, but a girl (mum) can dream...