Spoke too soon!

Since I last posted I have had a cold...not impressed!

Getting there!

I thought it was definitely time to give you an update on how my training is going. As I mentioned in my previous post I am following the Hal Higden Novice training schedule which is essentially 4 runs a week and one day of cross training. So far, so good although I did stub my toe quite badly just after I last posted which meant I had a slow start to my new training regime! I have been able to manage the frequency of runs although I am still a bit down on the distance of the long run. I've also done a couple of races, races 1 and 2 of the Stevenage 5k series. I finished the first race in just over 30 minutes and knocked a minute and half off the time in the second race 2 weeks later, hurrah!
As I have struggled with getting going with my training I have been pondering the following:

Getting fit is hard

Getting fit when you are overweight is hard

If I didn't already know I could get do it ('cos I've done it before) I would have stopped by now. Over the last few years I noticed that you get people coming to North Herts Road Runners to come and get fit. A lot of them come a long for a few weeks and then stop, I can now see why, getting fit is super hard work!
That said, I have noticed over the last week or two that running is starting to get a bit easier, I am getting there at last!

A new challenge

Right, at the end of my last post I mentioned I needed a new challenge. I am not one to do things by halves so a few weeks ago I entered the Rutland Water Marathon at the beginning of November. Yes, this is madness but I feel like I need something big to get my teeth into! I looked at a few training plans online and decided that the Hal Higden Novice training schedule would be a good place to start. Although I've done 13 marathons (the 12 mentioned in that link plus New York, I haven't trained consistently for around a year now so I would consider myself as a novice. It's quite a simple schedule (essentially 4 runs a week and one day of cross training) which is a frequency I think is achievable.

So the plan for next week is a couple of 3 mile runs, a 5 mile and a 10 mile. The 10 mile could be a bit challenging but I just need to grit my teeth and see how it goes.

Watch this space!

New beginnings!

As you can maybe guess from my lack of blogging, training has been somewhat intermittent of late (there is a positive correlation between frequency of training and frequency of blogging). Essentially, I am still struggling to get going although things are definitely improving, here's a summary:

For those of you know me, we've been homeless for 6 weeks and have been nomadically moving from place to place, I have been getting some training runs in, but nothing much more than a few 40ish minute runs

I've done a couple of Midweek League races, namely the 10k at Royston and the 9k mob match at Trent Park. I was particularly pleased with my trent park race as I managed to run a hilly off road course without having to stop for a walk :-) Of course, it goes without saying that the times for these 2 races are not worth reporting so I won't!


Mob Match @ Trent Park

I guess the important thing here is that although I am horrible unfit at the moment, I have been here before (many years ago!) and I know I can get fit again. But it's very hard and if I didn't already know I could do it I might have given up already.

So where next for this overweight, unfit, motivationless runner? What about a new challenge? Yep, I think that'll do the trick!

2 steps forwards and 1 step back

Around Christmas time, I was able to do a bit of running and I started to feel I was able to get a little bit fit again. Sadly after Christmas a combination of poor sleeping by mini-cook and a nasty cold meant I never quite got going. A couple of weeks ago, we went on holiday on a canal boat (ll;">from Foulridge to Sowerby Bridge) which provided me with the perfect opportunity to get going again. That week I managed to run for 30 minutes 4 times and although it was hard, I started to feel I was getting back to some sort of fitness. Since then, I managed a few more 3-4 mile runs and I really started to think I might be turning a corner...
Sadly, I am currently sitting on the sofa watching the London Marathon with another nasty cold (I really think I have had more than my fair share of colds this winter, I suspect mini-cook is to blame!), I feel like I can hardly get up the stairs, let alone go for a run. However, I am plotting my next steps so watch this space!

Herts XC fun

Yesterday saw the rerunning of the cancelled Herts XC (cancelled due to snow in January) in Cassiobury Park, Watford. The Herts XC championships are usually a low key affair and this year they were even lower key than usual. However, it was a lovely day for a run, the sun was shining and the daffodils were out, very spring-like indeed. I've not run that much recently, laziness and illness being the main reasons and as a result I had a bad day at the office...I did come 17th...out of 17 finishers. Oops.
The main issue of the day was how to co-ordinate looking after mini-cook. There were only 45 minutes between the start of the ladies race and the start of the men's race and it took me just under 55 minutes to complete the course. We had a couple of options, Gary could start the men's race when I finished or we could find someone to mini-cook-sit. Luckily we knew one of the timing people so when I finished, mini-cook was waiting for me at the finish line. (Looking at the results, Gary finished 16 minutes ahead of the last placed runner so if he had waited for me he would have caught 10 men, not bad eh?)

Impending veteran status

I can hardly believe it but on Thursday I'll be a veteran! A few years ago I used to say I was looking forwards to this milestone so I could finally win some prizes but that didn't take into account 2 things: the fact that my fellow seniors age at the same rate I do and that often veteran road runners are faster than seniors! I suppose that if I keep going another 30 years I might win something as a V65...
There are some plus points to being a vet, mainly that I get to take part in the vet-specific events that I wasn't old enough to take part in before. It also gives me the opportunity to set myself some new running objectives, any ideas anyone?