Running on empty

I haven’t done much in the way of a running post lately, and it may lead you to think that I have not done much running lately also. But you’d be wrong.

image source

@dragosroua asked me in a comment the other day how the running was going, so I’ll tell you – pretty good actually.

I’m still experimenting and finding out stuff and trying things out. So my running is not at all hard core yet. I’m also getting to grips with the new Garmin watch and seeing how I can use that to help me run better.

I’m developing a strategy that seems to be working for me so far.

I started off in January running 10kms – just trying to get to the end of it without having a heart attack. Then once I was sure I could do that, I tried to beat my best time each time I went out for a run. That seemed to work fine and January was ticking along just nicely.

Then a friend of my wife’s, who is a marathon runner (has long legs and is about 10 or 15 years younger than me) said she usually does 10km in one hour. That’s pretty fast compared to my usual one hour and ten minutes or so. But it became a target, and each run I got closer and closer.

Then February started.

The goal for February is to increase my base running distance to 15kms. So I decided to try doing the first ten kms pretty quickly and using the last 5kms as a warm down. It didn’t matter how slow I ran the last 5kms as long as I did run them.

That strategy worked well, and on my third run I hit the 10kms in one hour mark.

In your face long legged young person!

Ok, it nearly killed me, and the next 5kms were not fun at all, but I did it.

My runs since then have been slower 15kms, not trying to beat my time, but trying to manage my heart rate and keep it below a certain level, using my watch. Again each 15km circuit is a little bit faster than the last one, but not by a huge amount, just a couple of minutes.

I’m now finding the first 10kms is not nearly as hard as it used to be, and even the 15kms are not challenging me as much as they did. I’d call that an improvement.

I’m also not having knee troubles any more – they are sore at the end of the run, but not like they were. I still have tight hip flexors and quads, which I have to work through, but that’s just down to stretching more. They ache when I run after a while, but not enough to stop me from running.

So for now, I’m sticking with my fast / slow strategy, and next week I’ll be back doing a fast 10kms and slower 5kms (but faster than the previous run). That’s the plan until the end of the month and then my base rate shifts up to 20kms.

So March will be very interesting. If I am effectively running a half marathon three times a week and not pulling up lame, that will give me a lot of confidence that I can do a marathon and not be last across the finish line.

It’s also doing wonders for the rest of my body. Clothes that were tight (like my suit) the last time I put them on, are now baggy and loose, and I can just about, almost, if I squint and the light is just right, see my abs.

My wife is liking that :-)

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