My first solo run!

So it has finally come time to go for a run on my own. I'd like to say this was planned, but I'd be lying. I meant to check with Ant during the week what his plans were, but I forgot. And by the time I thought about it, he'd already been out. So I sat and looked at the local OS map for a little while, picking out a few possible routes.

And there are quite a few as it turns out, more than I had expected really. Or more options for terrain and distance at least. But I finally settled on a route that wasn't too long or too strenuous for my first time solo. As I had no idea how well I'd be able to pace myself I just wanted to have a successful first go out rather than try for a record breaking one. So I decided to run down to the local reservoir, do a loop round it and then head back up the hill to home. The reservoir is somewhere we go to walk our son as it's a good place to go and watch the sailing boats, fishermen and local bird life. There is also our local wind turbine to watch go round and round and round and round..........

As I don't have a Smart phone, in fact it barely even counts as a phone now a days, I don't have anything as handy as a running app to log my route or time. I just looked at the time when I left and then again when I got back. The route I can map afterwards to get a pretty good idea of the distance, as well as a rough idea of an expected time.

So my time was, roughly, 42 mins for a 3.75 mile course with the usual sprint finish. Given the average pace of 11 mins 12 secs a mile, I'm quite happy with that for my first go on my own. I had feared I would either go out too hard and ruin myself, or not push hard enough and take all day over it. Whilst I do feel I could have gone a bit faster as the ground was fairly good, or a bit further, I think I got it right for today. I know what pace I can manage and I can start to build up to putting in another 1.7 mile lap of the reservoir.

I just hope it's a little warmer next time, as it was a tad chilly in the shade under the trees!

Sunday 21st's run, albeit a little late!

Sorry for the delay in getting this update done. It's been a rather busy week, in case Christmas has totally passed you by! But I now have the log times and the spare time to sit down and right the update.

Last Sunday's run was the last one before Christmas and we wanted to make it a good one before all the chocolate and booze took it's toll. However, I was also on call for work so we weren't sure if I would be able to join Ant or not ahead of time. Thankfully (in a way, as it means less money) I didn't get called out on the Sunday morning, so off we went on the 4 mile cross country run.

As Ant and myself are both asthmatics, running into a freezing cold head wind doesn't do us any favours. So guess what we were running into for most of the 4 miles? That's right, a freezing cold head wind! I didn't think to take a muff/neck warmer or anything like that with me so the left hand side of my neck was getting quite crampy and uncomfortable at times. Just breathing was tough going at some points.

Being so cold also mean the conditions underfoot weren't great either. It hadn't been cold enough to freeze the mud, but just enough to give it a coating of ice. So every soft bit was really cold AND muddy. Which wears thin very, very quickly.

There was one point on the big hill that I was half way thinking that I wasn't going to make it at all and that I'd need to turn back. My laces had come undone, my chest had gone all cold and felt weird but watching Ant run on round the next bend was enough to make me stand, suck it up and get on with it. It's just as well that I'm competitive!

We managed to keep plodding on. Due to it being such hard work, no photos were taken as we were both concentrating on just keeping going. We didn't even speak much for the first time. By the time we made it back to Ant's I was knackered and sure we'd been slow. I was certain we'd gone back above the 50 minute mark, and was bracing myself for a disappointing time.

Some how, that wasn't to be! I was genuinely surprised when Ant said we'd been quicker than the last run and come in at 46 mins 9 secs! This is now my quickest cross country run, and given that it felt so slow and had been such hard work I am really pleased with the time. I am also amazed at the time, but if I can do that time and in such crappy conditions then it can only bode well.

Running, but not the kind I want.......

So another week has passed, but this week there's been no running or any exercising at all really. I've no idea why, but Thursday I wasn't well and had to take the day off work so I could practice running to the loo a lot. Not quite what I wanted, but I was hoping it would be over quickly. Especially since I had my Kayak club Xmas dinner Friday evening.

Sadly, that wasn't the case and I was still feeling bad by Saturday so Ant went out for a run on his own. I suspect he was showing off a bit as he managed a 37 min 10 sec run of the 4 mile cross country route! I was still hoping that I would wake up on Sunday and feel better.

For God only knows what reason, I had agreed to work Sunday morning in Thame. This isn't much of a bother, except I was working in a 3' high basement of a butchers. And it stank. I felt ok on the way down there, but less well on the drive back. So no running Sunday either. On the plus side though, it was double time!

So nothing at all done in the way of exercise this weekend. I feel a bit bad about it, but there's no way I would have been doing myself any favours by going out and getting cold and probably feeling worse. I expect next weekend to be better, as long as I don't get called out for work.

The Sulgrave Route, take 2

I had initially thought Ant and I weren't going to be manage a run this weekend, and that I would have to go out on my own. I was at work during the morning, and Ant was meant to be at work all day. But he had an appointment move so we found the time to fit a run in.

The week it was my choice of run, either the 4 mile cross country route or the 5.25 mile Sulgrave run. As the weather had been less than ideal, I imagined that the cross country route would be quite hard going in the cold and the mud, so we went on the longer, mainly road, run. It was 5C after all! The previous run we did had a time of 1 hr, 1 min, 13 secs. I asked Ant to push us for a good sub 1 hour time.

So off we went, and things were a bit difficult initially. I was struggling to get my breathing coordinated and keeping a rhythm was hard. My legs felt heavy, and I was beginning to worry a bit about the run. But after about a mile or so, everything seemed to smooth out.

I've been reading up on running with asthma, and quite a lot of folk seem to suggest that something similar happens to them. After something like a warm up period, where breathing is hard, their asthma seems to calm down and let them run normally. Others suggest pushing hard for a short period before backing off to achieve the same thing. I guess it's something I will have to experiment with to see what works best for me.

So once my breathing calmed down, my running seem to be a lot more fluid. I was tempted to say easier, but that's not quite the right word. Running isn't easy, but I felt more in tune with it. I guess that's why I made it to the 2.75 mile mark without stopping, and even when I did stop it was only for 5-10 secs. I was really pleased to have made it further than before, and then when I did stop it was for so little time. The next time I needed to pause was for a quick toilet stop at the end of the first road section at 3.5 miles.

As we had run past Sulgrave Manor, where I am planning on hosting a charity auction next year, Ant decided to take a photo or two. They show both the splendour of the Manor, and that I really need to have shave! Should anyone reading this have something that might be suitable for a charity auction, please get in touch. The wider the selection we have, the more money we can raise for MacMillan!!

Once again, the damp fields were a welcome change from the hard road surface. The first field is more of a paddock, and as such the softer surface is so much nicer to run on and I seemed to speed up quite a bit. I certainly caught Ant up quickly if nothing else!

With the mile or so of cross country, and a new solar farm, done we were back on the roads. This also meant the last short but steep hill into the village. As it's so steep, it's a killer so close to the end. I made it to the top, but only just, before having to drop to a walk for a few seconds. From here it was the fast run that was meant to finish the run the first time, but I knew we'd be going past the turn this time so I was able to keep going a little further. As we made the turn back to Ant's he would normally sprint off up the slope, leaving me to follow on behind. But this time I was able to keep with him for the first 100 yards or so, slightly to his surprise! The last 80-90 yards he did get ahead as my legs were getting wobbly by this point!

Once I had my usual pint of squash in hand, Ant shared the good news with me. We did indeed beat the 1 hour target. In fact, we even beat the 55 minute mark. Not by a massive margin, but the time was much better than I aimed for at 54 min, 53 secs. So that sprint finish really does help! I was really pleased at the time, as it's more than 6 minutes better than last time. This level of progress is really helping with my motivation now it's starting to get cold and dark.

The below charts show two things of note. The first is that the time per mile is down from 11 min 40 sec last time to a much better 10 min 33 sec. That's quite a change in only 3 weeks! It's also pretty much the pace I need to maintain if I want to finish the marathon in 4hr 30mins. The other thing is that the lower chart shows how quickly we set out. And it was a bit too fast really. Whilst some drop off is expected toward the end of the run, setting out at 9 mins a mile is a bit much for my current level of running. That might help explain why I struggled a bit at the start too.