Week C day 3

[liv]

Saturday I was very busy, but had just an hour free between finishing urgent tasks and guests arriving. It would have been easy for me to tell myself I didn't have time to run, but I saw rmc28's tweet about her run and that was enough to tip the balance. And I did want to be able to say I had (against expectations) completed three runs a week for the whole Christmas break while I've been completely out of my normal routine.

According to my post-programme scheme, the goal was to run for 40 minutes continuously. This meant a couple of times round Coldham's Common, as I don't know the Barnwell / Fen Ditton area well enough to be able to find an obvious place for a longer run and if I'd taken the time to investigate I would have missed my opportunity. It was pretty enjoyable; the weather was actually good rather than not awful, I was almost too warm running in a light, long-sleeved shirt. My breathing was fine so I could really take pleasure in working my muscles and developing a good rhythm. And 40 minutes, my longest run yet, felt entirely doable, if rather a long time to be without much intellectual stimulation.

4.9 km in 45 minutes, including the warmup, woot! I almost should've run a further hundred metres just so I could call it 5 km, but I'd psyched myself up to stop when Runkeeper gave me the 40 minute time signal. 9' 11' /km, so a decent pace.

The only thing that prevented me from going further or faster was that my thighs were chafing really badly. I think this is the point where I actually need to buy something specifically to deal with this problem, because inappropriate clothing is definitely holding me back, I'm not just buying equipment in order to pretend I'm more serious than I am. The really infuriating thing is that the skin hasn't properly healed in the three days since (due to continuing to wear not very well fitting tights which irritated me further), so I'm genuinely not going to be able to run today, and I'm so disappointed to break my streak of seven consecutive weeks without missing a single run.

I feel silly being halted by such a little thing as chafing thighs, especially when everyone else in the community has more serious body limitations to deal with. But there you go. I'm looking forward to starting Week D when I can, and I'm pleased to be going into the next phase of running with 5 km in one go actually looking like a realistic target.

Week 1

[lavendersparkle]

I completed my second run of week one this evening. I've been using the NHS podcasts on my ipod. Both runs were quite fun and I managed them, but yesterday I was so stiff from the run that my manager at work noticed that I was limping. Luckily this is all muscles not being used to exercise pain rather than doing myself a mischief pain. Today's run already felt a bit easier than my first run and I stretched after this run, so hopefully I'll be less stiff tomorrow.

So far I've run near my flat and luckily there is a sort of round cul-de-sac thing near where I live so I can run round and round it without having to cross any roads. I think today I covered about 3.7 km including the warm up and warm down. I'm going to try running at different times and in different places to see what I like, so on Thursday I'm going to take my running clothes into work and run in the park nearby either at lunchtime or before work.

I'm finding it fun.

Week 2, Day 2, and shin pain

[ewt]

This morning despite a good walking warm-up I was into serious shin pain about three seconds into the first running interval. I wasn't able to shift it with stretching or longer walking intervals: whatever I did, as soon as I started running again, it hurt.

So I walked fast/slow for the intervals, and thought about how I want to handle this.

I'd not had a great time of joint stuff over the weekend, which probably wasn't helping me. Yesterday was an extremely long day (up at 5am, bed well after midnight), which also didn't help.

I've already said I will keep trying to run for the rest of January, and I think I want to stick with that: my body is inconsistent enough, and sensitive enough to things like sleep levels, that I am not certain this morning's pain means I simply shouldn't run. However, I reserve the right to walk instead at any point if the shin pain (or joint pain, but so far shin pain seems to be the thing that really limits me) is like it was today -- I am not in this to hurt myself! Rather I would like to find out, gently, whether I can run, or how running might be sustainable for me. This morning was not a failure, just a data point.

I did enjoy the walk, and even if subsequent runs are all "unsuccessful" in terms of actually running, I think that establishing a habit of walking outside twice a week could do me good. Much of my day-to-day walking happens when I am carrying something (which will distort my posture) or in a slight hurry, and it's pleasant to be able to move around without encumbrance and to walk for the sake of it rather than on the way to somewhere. I'm uncertain whether posts about my walks would be within the scope of this community if I were to switch to walking as a long-term strategy, but for now I will consider them running attempts (as they are).