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.