Haven't we been here before ? Well let's do it better this time !

Pacing Mule

Hello and welcome to a new log for a new year following the same path of an old journey.

Background and quick recap:

I started running early in 2012. I was overweight (still am to be honest but we will get to that shortly ) I originally started off with a time goal for a 5 mile race but as time progressed turned my sights to last years Dublin marathon. An injury sustained about 6 weeks out knackered my training at a critical point but I went ahead and ran anyway (ran / walked to be more accurate) covering the distance in 5 hours 36 minutes. A much longer version of this story can be read in my old log here.

Current status:

I've been laid up since the DCM. The injury in question has kept me off my feet completely. I got out for one small run a few days ago and that's it. I've put on quite a bit of weight in the last 2 months. Bit of a shocker actually as I've just weighed in at 15 Stone 13lbs not much lighter than when I started running last year. The run itself was hard - managed less than 2km running over a 4km distance. I feel like a beginner again but I do know that there is a base underneath which a few weeks work will uncover.

The Goals:

1. Lose a lot of weight. Aiming to be at 13 stone for DCM 13
2. Run DCM 13 in a much improved time. I'm not going to peg myself to a time goal just yet but it will be around 4:00 to 4:30. One thing I did learn from last year was not to set goals too early !
3. Beat my 5 mile, 10k, 10 mile and half marathon PB's during the build up.

The Plan:

1. I'm going back to the start and restarting the couch to 5k program that I followed last January. I will however be running this a good bit faster than last time with the aim being to set a base that is comfortable running faster. I may even skip a few runs / weeks if I find that the fitness level is better than expected. The end goal of this section will be to run a 5k in 25 minutes and my pacing for the weeks up to this will be based on a 5min per kilometre pace.
2. From there I'm going onto Hal Higdons intermediate spring training program.
3. Finally I will be following a mixture of the Hal Higdon Novice 1 and 2 programs (If all goes according to plan I will be mentoring this years novice thread so I want to stay close to what the group will be running)
4. Weight loss goal of 1lb per week. This is totally doable but will involve a big diet change and cutting down if not altogether of beer etc. My current weight includes the christmas excesses so I do expect to get a bit of a headstart / bank some lbs in the coming weeks.

This log will serve as tracker for the year. On a personal level I know it will motivate me to stick to my plan. I will post my weight on a weekly basis which again will encourage me to stick to the diet or else face instant shame I'm also hoping it will serve as inspiration for others in the same boat, be that of total beginners, those carrying a few extra lbs or lapsed beginners like myself.



Thanks for reading and as with the last log please feel free to post any advice or thoughts you may have for me along the way.

tang1

Good to see you back PM, best of luck with the new log.

career_move

Brilliant. I love it! Best of luck PM

docjewel

Best of luck PM, glad to hear your back logging again :-)

blockic

Almost missed this! Best of luck PM and here is to an injury free new year!!:)

Pacing Mule

Couch To 5K - Week 1 Day 1

Today calls for 5 min warmup walk, 8 x 1 minute runs with 1.5 minutes brisk walking inbetween and then a 5 min cool down walk.

As mentioned in the OP I'm aiming to increase the pace on these runs over last year so that not only do I regain the fitness buried under 2 months of inactivity, but that I come out of the 9 week program running at a faster pace over the shorter runs. I'm hoping that this will give me a better base to push on from for this years DCM.

Things went reasonably well if you forget about the fact I stopped for a mini hurl after run 5 It's very hard - nigh on impossible to nail the correct pace in a one minute burst. My watch (and all GPS watches I suspect) calculates your current pace based on pace over a previous period which I think for mine is at least 30 seconds if not more. So I was off and running but looking down at a lot slower pace than I was covering as some of the previous 30 seconds was spent walking. A glance at the more indepth data once home confirmed this. The first and fifth sets in particular were ran faster than 5 min/km pace whilst the 6th set was slower than the targetted pace and I was in danger of not making the full minute. No great surprise given set 5 had my stomach churning.

All of this will even out though as the set of runs lengthens over the next couple of weeks as well as my body getting used to the pace. For the moment any increase in pace over my previously comfortable 6-7 min/km feels like a sprint.

All things considered a good run. It feels a bit like a stepback from where I was at one point but it's good to ease back into things and the fact it is at an increased pace feels like progress is being made.

menoscemo

Which garmin do you have? Does it have a 'lap' button?
If you manually hit the 'lap' button before the fast bit your pace be displayed as part of your current lap only.....you can hit the lap button again at the end of your fast bit so that when you see the data afterwards you will see the details for that section seperately....

Pacing Mule

Hi Meno

It's actualy a Soleus 2.0 but I hear what you're saying. It does have the facility to do manual splits. I will give that a go on the next one and see if pace is tracked more accurately. Thanks for the tip.

RunningKing

Best of luck, will be watching, following and supporting !

Deedee2012

Good luck, nice to see you back at it.

Pacing Mule

Couch to 5k Week 1 Run 2

Session wise this is a carbon copy of run 1.

Wasn't in the mood for this at all. I was tired, hungry and nursing a thumping headache. All the result of withdrawal from junk food / dieting. That said I was never in danger of skipping it. PM is back and focused !

Quite happy with how things went. A marked improvement on Tuesday. Not a hint of sickness at all during the runs, reasonably comfortable running (was struggling just a little bit towards the end of the last few intervals but was well capable of it)

@Meno - I tapped the watch for a new split for each 1 minute run. Although it didn't help with the "live" pace data (this still took 20-30 seconds to stabilise after the increase in pace) the split data that downloaded from the watch afterwards showed average pace for each split at 4:58 to 5:25 min per km. I'm not too sure if this data is being calculated as a separate calculation from start of split to end of split only or if it is an average of the "current" pace the watch showed for that minute. Obviously the former is more accurate. Either way as the weeks go by the runs increase time wise so it will even out.

The good thing was that the headache disappeared within 30 seconds of getting out there and I felt great for it. The bad thing - I referred to myself in the 3rd person earlier in this post. Won't happen again ! :pac:

menoscemo

Current pace is very unreliable in the Garmins also and I rarely use it. Have a look at the watch and see if you can display the pace as the average of the current lap (on my garmin you chose 'Pace-Lap')...
I am pretty sure the data on the upload would refer to the average pace of that lap...

blockic

Great to see you back PM, I missed those posts!

Finally able to use your own spreadsheet again also after having to create a tabs for us shower for a few months!

Younganne

best of luck with the return to running, good to see you back at it.
Don't be worrying about pace at the minute, give yourself a week or two of regular running before worring about the paces yet.

Pacing Mule

Younganne wrote: »

best of luck with the return to running, good to see you back at it.
Don't be worrying about pace at the minute, give yourself a week or two of regular running before worring about the paces yet.

Hi Younganne - thanks for stopping by

Not too fixated on hitting exact pacing targets. I just want to set a faster base pace for the shorter runs than I did first time round. Blockic is being mean to me you see. I mentioned running the DCM this year with him if he was pacing one of the slower groups (let's face it - it's the only time I will be running a marathon alongside him ) and suddenly that fecker says he is is going to apply for the 4 hour group. :mad:

Pacing Mule

Week 1 Run 3

Carbon copy again of run 1.

Continued improvement comfort wise, pace wise and distance wise (it's a time based session so the faster you go the further you cover)

Actually was looking forward to and was excited to run today. Great to get that buzz back.

blockic

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

I mentioned running the DCM this year with him if he was pacing one of the slower groups (let's face it - it's the only time I will be running a marathon alongside him ) and suddenly that fecker says he is is going to apply for the 4 hour group. :mad:

OI!! Don't be blaming your fast runs in training on me!:mad::D;)

Pacing Mule

blockic wrote: »

OI!! Don't be blaming your fast runs in training on me!:mad::D;)

Ha was wondering if you'd spot that.

Pacing Mule

Weekly weigh in time:

15 Stone 9.8 lbs

Guts of 4 lbs down on last Monday which is a good start. You'd obviously expect a bigger loss on the first week but still nice to bank an extra 3lbs above the weekly target.

docjewel

Well done PM,a nice steady start to the year.:)

Pacing Mule

Week 2 Run 1 and 2

Got out for run 1 on Tuesday and run 2 tonight.

Sessions are a small step up - 6 x 1.5 min with 2 min walking inbetween.

Nothing too major to report. Tonight I wasn't feeling great and my old nemesis the left leg was starting to niggle a bit so slowed the pace down. Got through it quite easily once the pace was dropped.

dechol

Will be following thread with interest.glad u are back.also trying to lose weight so hoping you inspire me!!

Pacing Mule

dechol wrote: »

Will be following thread with interest.glad u are back.also trying to lose weight so hoping you inspire me!!

Best of luck yourself dechol.

Am going to fall off the wagon a bit this evening - trip to cinema to see Les Mis is on the cards which means a bucket of popcorn and possibly a beer afterwards. :eek: Might sneak in an extra run tomorrow to burn off a few calories. Am determined to chalk up a loss on Monday morning.

career_move

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Am going to fall off the wagon a bit this evening - trip to cinema to see Les Mis is on the cards which means a bucket of popcorn and possibly a beer afterwards. :eek: Might sneak in an extra run tomorrow to burn off a few calories. Am determined to chalk up a loss on Monday morning.

I've heard its excellent........jealous much!!!

Pacing Mule

Stand by for worse ...

Booked seats before Christmas as a pressie for Mrs Messiah. Front and centre of the premier seats in the isense screen in Blanch. Should be spectacular.

career_move

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Stand by for worse ...

Booked seats before Christmas as a pressie for Mrs Messiah. Front and centre of the premier seats in the isense screen in Blanch. Should be spectacular.

Wow....I hate hope you have an amazing time

guinang

Only seeing this log now. Great to see you back running pm. Good luck with the log.

Pacing Mule

Week 2 Day 3 - with an added bit at the end.

Couch to 5k program calls once again for 6 x 1.5 mins interspersed with a 2 min walk break in between.

After falling off the wagon a little bit on Friday and eating some Pizza yesterday :eek: I was super motivated to get out and do the run this morning. I had in the back of my mind skipping the couch to 5k part and just doing a LSR (well maybe not too long!) at a nice and slow comfortable pace run walk run if needed but just do a bit more than 9 min running.

Woke up this morning and it was freezing. I don't even remember running in very cold weather last year at all. Let the dog out for a wee (more like threw him out as I came down to a nice pile of ****e in the middle of the floor :mad:) and it was icy. Brief thought of holding off the run until this evening and then thought about the pizza and popcorn and the fact tomorrow morning is weekly weigh in time so HTFU and went off looking for a hat and gloves to put on. With all the messing around I realised I was pushing it time wise to do a LSR as I was due in work today. Decided to do the C25K program as dictated but rather than turn around half way through keep going. Knocked out session 4 and 5 before turning back which meant that as session 6 (the last one) was kicking in I was still a good bit away from home. I decided to take the pace down a notch and see if I could hang on until home. Delighted with myself 8 min later to make it home without stopping.

Although it feels a little silly to be celebrating an 8 min run after being capable of runnng miles and miles a few months ago, it does represent a leap of progress on the way back from injury. Speaking of injury - as mentioned in last update that leg is niggling again so I've been to the doc and we're getting an MRI organised just to completely rule out that stress fracture. I don't want to mess up this years DCM by doing too much too soon either.

Roll on tomorrows weigh in !

blockic

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Stand by for worse ...

Booked seats before Christmas as a pressie for Mrs Messiah. Front and centre of the premier seats in the isense screen in Blanch. Should be spectacular.

Let's be honest here, you got these for yourself!

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

I've been to the doc and we're getting an MRI organised just to completely rule out that stress fracture. I don't want to mess up this years DCM by doing too much too soon either.

Hallelujah!!:) Best thing to do PM, for peace of mind if anything. Looks like you are getting back on track anyway which is great!!

Pacing Mule

Previous weight: 15 Stone 9.8 lbs
Current weight: 15 Stone 7.6 lbs

Loss this week: 2.2 lbs

Very happy with that.

scriba

Just saw this new log now, PM. Congratulations on all the weight loss so far! You'll be back better than ever in no time. You can do it.

zooming

I just found your new thread!
Well done on the loss, you and me are in a similar (fat) boat...lol
I do get the feeling 2013 is going to be our year!!!

Pacing Mule

zooming wrote: »

I just found your new thread!
Well done on the loss, you and me are in a similar (fat) boat...lol
I do get the feeling 2013 is going to be our year!!!

Well one or both of us needs to get out of the boat before it sinks !!

RunningKing

Good man PM, was going to comment on ur other log, but that pic is an apt way to end the log. Love it.

Pacing Mule

Week 3 Day 1

I'm finding that I am outgrowing the program which is positive in itself.

What was meant to happen was:

Run 1.5 min, Walk 1.5 min, Run 3 min, Walk 3 min, Run 1.5 min, Walk 1.5 min, Run 3 min.

What actually happened was I didn't fancy walking the full 3 min in bold so cut the walk short and decided to jog on through the rest of the session and finish it from there. I actually went a bit further and pushed that particular jog out to 10 min.

I think my couch to 5k second trip around might skip quite a few steps along the way !

blockic

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

I think my couch to 5k second trip around might skip quite a few steps along the way !

Looks like you are a step above this program PM and maybe it would be more beneficial for you to start looking further a field to the next one?

You would probably build up your aerobic fitness faster with a step up from C25K.

What would you be thinking of looking at next to you reckon?

ncmc

I'm late to the party PM, only spotting your new log now. Best of luck with the plan and also your upcoming MRI. Hope Mrs PM is also keeping well.

When I started running a few years back, I lapsed after my first c25k so did it a second time. Like yourself, I felt I'd outgrown the plan, so I skipped forward a couple of weeks with no ill effects. Obviously you don't want to push it too soon with your injury, but I'd say you'd be safe enough skipping forward a week or two.

Best of luck.

Pacing Mule

blockic wrote: »

Looks like you are a step above this program PM and maybe it would be more beneficial for you to start looking further a field to the next one?

You would probably build up your aerobic fitness faster with a step up from C25K.

What would you be thinking of looking at next to you reckon?

Yeah I went with this more as a gentle introduction back in and to take it easy whilst building back up but there's no point in taking it way too easy which is why I just went for it tonight. Looks like the underlying fitness is coming back quicker than I expected.

I reckon I should be running 5k within 2-3 weeks not the 6 or 7 that the program would have done. From there I'm not too sure. Bit of research needed.

Pacing Mule

I've had a piss poor week on the fitness front. Snowed under in work - had to take paperwork home with me and ended up working either late in work or at home (until 3am Friday night / sat morning) all week. Running took a back seat and nourishment was provided by take away, bottles of lucozade and chocolate. So tomorrows weigh in is likely to be a bit of a step back.

Good news though is paperwork etc finished and I dragged my ass out of bed early this morning to get in a run before going to work. Decided to abandon the couch to 5k program as it isn't really pushing me enough. Went out this morning with the goal of completing 5k be that running or walking but more in keeping with my current limits as opposed to the program which could be selling me short. Started off with 500m jog then a 200m walk, another 500m jog and 200m walk, then a 600m jog / 200m walk and an 800m jog, 250m walk. At tht point after increasing the distances slightly at each session decided I would rather optimistically aim for a 1.7km jog to finish off the 5k. He shoots but he does not score Legs gave up on me after another 600 metres or so and I had to stop to stretch out - calves were burning at that point. Finished it off to 5k after that in a glorious time of 37 minutes. Stil it is 5k completed, a benchmark to come back from and more importantly a bit of excercise ahead of the weigh in tomorrow.

Pacing Mule

I think I may have banjaxed my left hamstring

rasher_m

How is the original injury PM, are you over that yet or are you threading carefully?

blockic

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Running took a back seat and nourishment was provided by take away, bottles of lucozade and chocolate.

Tut, tut! Those highlighted words will be banned from the 2013 Novice thread. It wll be a dictatorship, not a democracy!

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

I think I may have banjaxed my left hamstring

What's it like, just stiff or is there inflammation? Do you stretch these days after the runs?

I slacked off the stretching there for a couple of weeks and really felt a difference and not in a good way. I find the stretching as important as the runs before and after.

Pacing Mule

blockic wrote: »

Tut, tut! Those highlighted words will be banned from the 2013 Novice thread. It wll be a dictatorship, not a democracy!



What's it like, just stiff or is there inflammation? Do you stretch these days after the runs?

I slacked off the stretching there for a couple of weeks and really felt a difference and not in a good way. I find the stretching as important as the runs before and after.

Sssh don't tell them

It came on rather suddenly yesterday afternoon. Very faint pain gradually increasing. Touch wood it seems ok today ! Yes have been religiously stretching even mid run yesterday I actually suspect an over stretch may have been the problem tbh.

rasher_m wrote: »

How is the original injury PM, are you over that yet or are you threading carefully?

Threading very carefully - it's still niggling at me so am taking things very easy and getting an MRI sorted etc just to be 100% safe.

Pacing Mule

Previous weight: 15 Stone 7.6 lbs
Current weight: 15 Stone 6.0 lbs

Loss this week: 1.6 lbs

Considering I was braced for the possibility of a gain got to be happy with that.

It does beg the question though - how in God's name did I lose it this week ?

Only got out twice and had an appalling half week nutrition wise. Add in a the first set of beers in weeks (paperwork is no fun without a bottle of Miller says he like a true alcoholic :eek:) Not sure if I carried a bigger loss into the second half of the week which got pegged back a bit or if I carried some residual loss in from last week that will bite me for next week. Time will tell but for the moment I've shifted over half a stone in 3 weeks and am staying focused on the positive of that.

Pacing Mule

Been sick as a dog since Monday. Was at docs this morning. Viral infection = no running

career_move

Sorry to hear that PM. Take it easy

tang1

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Been sick as a dog since Monday. Was at docs this morning. Viral infection = no running

Theres a dose going PM, look after yourself and get over it fully.

Pacing Mule

Weekly weigh in:

Previous weight: 15 Stone 6.0 lbs
Current weight: 15 Stone 5.2 lbs

Loss this week: 0.8 lbs

Haven't excercised at all in the week just gone. This week not looking too hot either. Still nursing a viral infection. Stoked though to see a loss on the scales anyway.

blockic

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Weekly weigh in:

Previous weight: 15 Stone 6.0 lbs
Current weight: 15 Stone 5.2 lbs

Loss this week: 0.8 lbs

Haven't excercised at all in the week just gone. This week not looking too hot either. Still nursing a viral infection. Stoked though to see a loss on the scales anyway.

Weight loss is going well PM, keep it up! Sorry to hear about the illness you have been through the ringer between that and the injury. Betteer now than the summer though.

Make sure you are full recovered before you put back on the runners. Mr. Slow's horrible experience is a lesson for us all.

Pacing Mule

Second week with no running. Sickness is so frustrating ! But Mr Slows tale is something to learn from hence my waiting for recovery before getting back out there.

Darren 83

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Second week with no running. Sickness is so frustrating ! But Mr Slows tale is something to learn from hence my waiting for recovery before getting back out there.

Well done on the weight loss pm will be following this log with interest.