Running the red line

LionelNashe

15 minutes of walk-2-jog-3 on Saturday, and same again today. I'd like to be running 5k comfortably with no walking breaks by June 14th. I've entered the 10k Dun Laoghaire Bay run on August 4th to give myself something to aim for. That's 16 weeks away, so there's time for a slow steady buildup, if I have the patience for it.

I've been thinking about publishing a "5k-to-couch plan", because I've done it at least twice now. It would include such tips as "If you feel like running, resist the urge by turning on your laptop and browsing the web". There would be a nutrition section which would include advice on how many battered sausages are needed to keep sodium high at high levels.

LionelNashe

15 minutes of walk-jog-walk-jog on the 16th, 18th and 20th. I was up at 7am to get out before work a couple of times, which is something I'd never managed before. Yesterday had a little less walking and a little more jogging. I want to be rid of the walking breaks around the end of the month.

I've just re-read this log and looked at my posts from 2011 and 2012, and I was increasing the distance or the pace on nearly every single outing. It's no wonder I didn't last longer than a couple of months each time. Patience is the name of the game this time round.

I just discovered parkrun.ie a few days ago, possibly from somebody's posts on boards. I think it's a great idea; a couple of hundred people doing a free 5k run every Saturday morning. I'm going to head along to St Anne's as soon as I'm up to that distance.

LionelNashe

Out on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday morning this week and last week also. If I was doing this in the evenings it just wouldn't happen. It's so much easier to go out before breakfast than to go out after a day of work, with all the things that can get in the way.

Have had some ankle niggles, so I haven't been tempted to push things. Still just 15 minutes each time; today had two 1-minute walking breaks.

Tried running on grass a couple of times. My pace seems to be slower on grass, but on the other hand I don't think the iPhone is very accurate. Mapmyrun today shows me taking a 200m detour down a street that doesn't exist. Apart from this, the site is quite buggy. It doesn't even sort workouts correctly, because it doesn't handle the date format. My Garmin is buried somewhere in the clutter of my apartment.

LionelNashe

Again, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday; 20 min, 15 min & 20 min.

A few niggles, but they're all short-lived. For example yesterday I noticed that I was walking on the outside of my right foot and it hurt to put weight on the ball of my foot, but by night-time it was gone. Sharp pain in my right arch when I started jogging today but it only lasted a hundred meters. Bit of a groin-strain type pain when I'm just walking around some days but it always goes away after a few seconds.

Took a Dublin Bike down to Fairview Park this morning and did my running there because it's the closest bit of decent sized grass. Previous grass outings were in a small park which is only about 150 meters X 75m. Don't know if I have the time to go down to Fairview on weekday mornings but we'll see.

LionelNashe

Monday night I set the alarm for 6.50am and went to bad planning to get down to Fairview Park on Tuesday morning. When my alarm went off, which is the 'ring ring' sound of an old fashioned telephone, there was a second or two where the sound manifested itself as a colour and a sound at the same time. The sound was a rich green colour. I got down to the park anyway and locked the Dublin Bike to a tree and did twenty minutes in the dewy grass.

Thursday morning did 15 minutes around the streets; no walking breaks for the first time this year.

This morning I volunteered at the Parkrun in St Annes and did a barely-competent job of marshalling one of the turns. A good portion of the runners were on the path instead of the road. Ah, well. Went home then and tried to do 20 minutes myself, but my legs were useless. The warm day was part of the problem, but it was mainly that I had been up for 4 or 5 hours at that stage with only two slices of toast for breakfast. Didn't eat a lot yesterday either due to not being able to leave my desk for most of the day. Jogging on an empty stomach works first thing in the morning but I'm not sure it works for me later in the day.

Entering the danger zone soon. Six weeks into a new activity is often where my motivation evaporates.

LionelNashe

Out again three times this week and the week before, mostly on grass. Walking breaks are definitely over with. The distance today was 4.8km. Left ankle hasn't been niggly since last week. Bought a pair of Vivo Barefoot shoes online for day to day wear. Bit of skin chafing off the ball of one foot when I wore them without the insoles yesterday but generally they're comfortable enough.

LionelNashe

Out again 8 times in the last 3 weeks, mostly 3km to 5km on footpaths around the area. Missed two days early in the month due to work & study.

The warm weather makes a bit of a difference, even before 8am. I think there was just one incident of an ankle niggle and like the other ones it wasn't even anything much. The plan I'm following has me doing 4 days a week as of this week just gone, but the individual distances don't increase beyond 5k for another 2 weeks.