Getting into the groove again

OK, I haven't posted an entry for what, two or three weeks? I was getting along fine, gradually extending my distance until I was managing about 7km non stop. Pretty damned good I thought. In fact, things were going so well that I let myself be talked into signing up for a 10k on Easter Saturday. Yikes! That is now 5 days away!
So, 7km up, and looking good. And then, I went skiing with Mark and Luke in Switzerland, staying at Mark and Nadine's place in Zurich. The skiing was great, weather variable and hospitality second to none of course.
When I returned, I thought that it was time to start extending the 7km. First day out, was Tuesday 31st March. Oh my god, it was RUBBISH! I was gasping for breath, no stamina, completely out of the groove. I was despondent, I had forgotten how to do it.
Next day out was Thursday. RUBBISH again. Couldn't breathe, sweating, everywhere! Head swimming, disaster.
I decided to go out again on Friday even though I had set myself a rule to avoid two consecutive days. First thing I did was slow down again. Really slow this time. Breathing was OK, stamina, well not bad. Managed 6km non stop. Hallelujah! Got it back.
Nothing over the weekend but out again this evening (Monday). But, it was raining and I wasn't really very keen so just did 2 km. So out again Tuesday to start building the distance ready for the weekend. Eek!

No stopping now

Beginning to see real progress! OK, it's modest, but for me it's awesome. On Monday, I ran from Overcombe to the King's Statue and today, (Wednesday), to the Pavilion and back of course, and non stop of course. These are landmarks that are known to those of you who know Weymouth. To those who don't, Overcombe to the Pavilion and back is about 6km/4 miles approx. This took me about 50 minutes which is pretty leisurely I guess. One of the regulars overtook me at eye watering speed. Something to aspire to.
OK, it is still a little way from the 10kms that I need to work up to for the London run, but I have it in my sights now. I know I can do it. This link takes you to the BUPA 10k http://www.london10000.co.uk/site/?pageID=3.
Once I start running, I don't want to stop because I am concerned that it will be too hard to start again. And, at my new slower speed, I have no reason to stop. OK, my legs started to feel a bit tired on the last half mile or so but I've sorted out the breathing and that was the whole problem to start with. It isn't any more. Hooray!
I did say that I ran non stop but there was a bit of an, err . . . involuntary hesitation. As I approached the pier on the return (about 2km from Overcombe), I looked up to see a small boy lying on the footpath with his scooter laying on the ground nearby. I watched him as I approached, willing him to get up. He remained motionless. Can I just run past and ignore him, I thought. Obviously not. I silently cursed as I drew level and stopped. "Are you OK"? I asked. If he's hurt or dead, it's going to ruin my run, I thought. Thankfully, his head popped up and he said, "Yeah, I'm OK". "Sure"? I checked. He nodded. I was off. No problem but maybe that's why runners don't speak or acknowledge each other. I tried Candice's approach, i.e. if you can make eye contact, just smile. It worked once but most of them seem to be a bit of a miserable bunch.
John, who was the original inspiration for this madness, is staying with us at the weekend, and suggested that we go out running together. That will be quite a novelty. I haven't actually run with anyone else yet. I'm not sure that John is going to be able to run slowly enough though. It will be interesting to see.

One small step - one giant leap

Well, many small steps actually, but did achieve a giant leap forward. I can't quite believe this but I went out again last night using the slower running technique as explained the previous two or three posts. I decided I would run as far as possible before stopping to walk. I started at Overcombe as always, and ran towards the pier (1.25 miles). I thought, "I'll see if I can get to the pier without stopping."

I did get to the pier without stopping, amazingly. And, when I got there, I thought, "Why do I want to stop?" So, the Forest Gump thing kicked in and I ran around a flower border to face back the other way, and . . . just kept running. Half way back I even noticed that my breathing was entirely normal. I didn't feel puffed at all but I did feel a bit tired. When I reached Overcombe, I could easily have run further. I can't tell you what a sense of achievement I felt and I couldn't stop grinning as I walked back to the car. This is me when I arrived back at Overcombe.

And, now there is a new imperative. Boredom. I am going to need music. So, I called at Currys on the way home to pick up a Bluetooth adaptor so that I can get some music onto my phone.

I have plotted my run on http://mapness.net/journey/6778 and will update as I progress. Watch the Mapness space.

The tortoise and the hare . . . .

Of course, I always look for advise, read the tips, listen to the voices of experience and seek the views of those who know about the topic in question. Do I heed the advise? Well, er . . not very often. One of the first tips mentioned on http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=815 is, be a tortoise, not a hare. I saw that and took note way back at the beginning.

So, when I started running, I thought that if I was going to make the effort of putting one foot in front of the other in a sort of energetic fashion, it makes sense to put that foot as far in front of the other as I can. Simple. I figured that this may require a teensy bit more energy but, you get to your destination in half the time. That makes good sense, doesn't it?

Well, no. I have got that completely wrong. As I have been explaining in the previous two posts, Luke suggested I try the slower approach. My excuse so far is that I didn't realise that I was actually trying to run too fast but yesterday evening I set out to run slowly. EUREKA! It works. I passed my usual slow down to a walk places with ease and was just about to pass the first 1km mark (1km!) when I was interrupted by the phone ringing. I pulled it out of my glove, (I know, this wounds weird, but I take it in my glove thinking that if I collapse, at least I can call an ambulance) and tried to press the answer button with my gloves still on. I could see that it was Teresa calling and wondered why on earth she would need to reach me. It stopped ringing, but I thought I had better call back, so I de-gloved and tried to call. The line was busy. Tried the other number, no reply. So, I gave up, walked a little further and then started my slow running again. This took me about another 1km or just under and I turned around and walked a little way. Teresa called back to tell me that the guy who is quoting for the new dining room floor had arrived to measure up as agreed and I had forgotten he was coming. Hey ho.

Started running again and miraculously ran about 1.5, maybe 2km all the way back without stopping, and feeling as if I could carry on if I wanted. Amazing!

So, thank you Luke for your words of wisdom. Apologies to everybody whose advise I probably ignored. And, my advise to any oldies out there is, take it v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y S-L-O-W-L-Y. This is echoed by Candice, another reluctant runner at http://www.reluctantrunner.net/2008/11/. Candice's story is an inspiration. I urge any wannabe runners out there to read it. Candice is running huge distances. Maybe it's easier in a huge country like South Africa.

Anyway, I think that, at last, I am on my way.

Bit of a breakthrough?

Had a very tight schedule yesterday evening. By the time I reached Overcombe, I only had about 20 minutes to spare before I needed to get back home, in the shower and ready to go out. The only parking space was, of course, way up the hill. Marched down to the promenade taking big strides to loosen up. Saw an exhausted male runner hanging onto the gate. Wasn't sure whether he was stretching or, um . . . dying.

I started running but after a short distance, saw a woman ahead doing the shuffling thing (see previous post). The usual dilemma arose. Do I slow down and walk before I am really ready to, or do I power past her and then end up slowing down to a walk a short distance past. I decided on the latter and loped effortlessly (or at least, tried to make it look effortless) past her. There are a series of posts along the beach and I can sort of gauge how far I have run from these. I have done three posts on a good day but here was post number three looming and I was still going. So, I just kept running. I felt a bit like Forest Gump . . just kept going. Wow! By the time post number four appeared, I was beginning to falter and staggered on until I came level, at which point I slowed to a walk, gasping for air.

Shortly after, the shuffling woman shuffled past. I walked for a while while as she disappeared into the distance, and then, when she was about 30 metres ahead, decided to start running again. Now, I would look daft if I tried the same stunt again so I tried running slowly, attempting to keep her roughly 30 metres ahead. It is quite hard to run that slowly but I discovered that Luke was right, (see previous post). You don't wear out as fast.

She reached the end of the road section of the promenade and slowed to a walk. Due to my time constraint, I decided to turn around and run back, but slowly. It is not so easy when you don't have a shuffler to gauge your speed by but I think I ran almost the complete length of the promenade (about 1km) with only a very short walk in the middle. I was pretty damned pleased with that. So back out later to try again.

Constructive advice

What a rubbish week! Managed to get out on Wednesday but we had heavy snow on Thursday (feeble excuse) and then something else on Friday (can't remember what that was) and Saturday, I intended to go Saturday, but didn't. Sunday was out because we went to Brighton to see Luke. So, here we are at Monday and I intend going out this evening after my piano lesson. Phew!

It was quite an interesting weekend however. On Saturday I was talking briefly to Geoff, whose daughter in law is a keen runner. Geoff said that he was never any good at running because he had a low lung capacity, which sounded like mine. I was beginning to think that it was only me that had lungs the size of a tea bag, whereas others appear to have capacity more in line with a hot air balloon. Although Geoff's words were of some comfort, they don't actually help me to run further, they just give me a better excuse.

On Sunday we visited Luke in Brighton and I asked him how his training schedule was progressing. Luke said that he and Harry, who is also running for Meningitis UK, were both becoming slightly concerned that the fund raising was beginning to stall. Luke said that they had decided to 'up the stakes a little'. Following Camilla's recent birthday party where everybody dressed as Camilla, Luke and Harry have decided to dress for the run in a similar costume. Ballerina tutus. Yep, that's what I said. Those frilly little girly things that don't even cover your bum. Well, it should be summer by 25th May, so they won't get too cold. You can sponsor Luke in his tutu at http://www.justgiving.com/lukeseall. (Photo coming soon). Sorry Harry, I don't have your site address but I will try to find it.

Luke also had some training comments. He was a little shocked to hear how pathetic my running duration actually was. He was telling me how Camilla went out running with him recently and explained that girls run much slower than boys. He said that although she seemed like a honed athlete by comparison to him, she ran really slowly. In fact, he reckoned that he could have covered more ground than her by simply power walking, something that Camilla hotly disputed. Camilla pointed out the length of Luke's legs by comparison to hers'. Point taken Camilla.

I was interested to hear this and told Luke that I recently saw some women out running and that their technique appeared to be more of a hurried shuffle with their bottoms swinging from side to side than a run. Luke said, "Yes, that's what I mean. It doesn't wear you out so quickly." "But," I pointed out, "it takes that much longer to cover the same amount of ground."

Luke said that perhaps I should try it and see. So, if you see me shuffling along, you'll know that I am taking Luke's advise.

Finding a rythm

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Last week, I managed to develop a bit of a routine. I can't get out training on a weekend, it is too complicated, too many other things to deal with. So, Monday to Friday is my plan. Last week, I managed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The weather was fine most of the week and it was very pleasant.
I am starting to run a little further and walk a little less. I reckon something like 0.25 mile running and 0.20 walking - something like that. By the time I have done a 20/25 minute stint however, I am close to collapse. My plan is to gradually increase the running distance and the total time and I hope that in about another 4 weeks, it will be something like 0.50 running and a bit less walking with a total time of 40-60 minutes. We shall see!
It is interesting to see some of the same people out running in the evenings. There seems to be a sort of code of silence though. The form seems to be head down, don't acknowledge any other runners, in fact, don't acknowledge anybody. It is serious stuff. I'm not sure if that is the correct etiquette or perhaps just the ones that I seem to meet. There are the usual dog walkers. They don't seem very friendly either, or perhaps they have learnt the code and understand that runners don't have time to say hello.
One young woman with two crazy dogs on a leash obviously didn't understand this last Tuesday though. As I ran (staggered) by, she cheerily called out to me with a friendly " . . aren't you doing well?" By way of reply, I managed no more than a grunt as I passed, partly from surprise and partly because that was about the only sound emission I was capable of. Ah, that's why nobody speaks. If they do, it would mean: a) wasting precious oxygen and, b) letting on that you are really gasping for breath.
I have to confess though, that it was rather nice to be given a little encouragement and I felt a bit guilty that I had not stopped to return the greeting. I'm not even sure that she would have heard my muffled grunt in acknowledgement. I think I'm going to have to be better prepared for any future offers of encouragement. As I ran on though, I started to think about why she might have said this. I was not wearing my hat for the first time as the weather had been warming up and I thought it best to let the steam out. "Perhaps," I thought, "she is so amazed to see such an old person running that she just felt compelled to say something."
This week has not been so good. It was my intention to go on Monday. Didn't happen. Too many things got in the way. Tuesday? Did you see the weathe? Not likely. That just leaves Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (you are supposed to do 3 runs a week). So, the pressure is on.