Week 1 Day 3(a)
Oct. 30th, 2012 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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c25kI was dithering about going out this morning, again partly because of being quite tired after a weekend with too much travel in it, and partly because of quite legitimate concerns regarding joint pain and so on.
I'm still on sixty seconds of running to ninety seconds of walking, and feeling slightly irritated with the apparent lack of progress. The running is still not desperately challenging in cardio-vascular terms, but my shins are still complaining. I don't like that I'm not much in control of the progress of this, can't make it better by just showing up and giving it my best shot, and don't even really know when I can expect some improvement. I want to deal with this the way I deal with learning difficult music, but I don't have enough information to put it into context. I should remember this feeling when my own music students get frustrated!
This morning I decided that I would do all the running intervals, on the grass, but walk longer or do (shin-splint oriented) stretches in between if necessary: I wouldn't start a running interval with shin pain bad enough to slow down my walking beyond the speed I would normally walk if pain-free. Obviously this is all a bit estimated, I'm not out there measuring exactly how far I walk in the ninety seconds, but seeing what feels "about right". After the first two running intervals I recovered quickly enough to manage starting on time. After the third, fourth, fifth and sixth runs I needed longer breaks, but seemed better again between 7th and 8th, though the walk home was not wonderful (back onto pavement for that).
I'm pleased with this method. It takes longer, and I will have to leave more time for runs than I would if I were following the programme more strictly, but I feel better about completing the running portions, even if I needed longer breaks, than I did about not finishing last week. I also hope that it might allow me to gradually lengthen my running time. Some of the stretches provided much more immediate pain relief than during the week, which is both encouraging and useful; and another advantage of stretching, as well as walking, between intervals is that it makes me pay attention to the stretch. My lower legs (not just shins) have been a bit complainy the rest of the day, getting worse as the day has gone on, but I did do a lot of pedalwork when practising organ this evening too, so I can't only blame running for that.
Other things:
-I found myself un-earwormed, which is very unusual for me. But I also found myself counting in my head during the running intervals, trying to pace my counting to exactly 60bpm so that I'd get to sixty just as my phone beeped. I was within one second on five of the eight intervals. This has nothing to do with running really, but amuses me as a musician. Maybe next time I will try 72bpm, or something like 40 which I think will be hard.
-Lots of mushrooms again: fairy ring champignons, boletes of some kind, charcoal burner russulas. I didn't get back to the park during daylight to collect any, though. And I love the fallen and falling leaves.
-I wore the hiker/trainer hybrid shoes, and had dry socks for the duration, hurrah!
I'm still on sixty seconds of running to ninety seconds of walking, and feeling slightly irritated with the apparent lack of progress. The running is still not desperately challenging in cardio-vascular terms, but my shins are still complaining. I don't like that I'm not much in control of the progress of this, can't make it better by just showing up and giving it my best shot, and don't even really know when I can expect some improvement. I want to deal with this the way I deal with learning difficult music, but I don't have enough information to put it into context. I should remember this feeling when my own music students get frustrated!
This morning I decided that I would do all the running intervals, on the grass, but walk longer or do (shin-splint oriented) stretches in between if necessary: I wouldn't start a running interval with shin pain bad enough to slow down my walking beyond the speed I would normally walk if pain-free. Obviously this is all a bit estimated, I'm not out there measuring exactly how far I walk in the ninety seconds, but seeing what feels "about right". After the first two running intervals I recovered quickly enough to manage starting on time. After the third, fourth, fifth and sixth runs I needed longer breaks, but seemed better again between 7th and 8th, though the walk home was not wonderful (back onto pavement for that).
I'm pleased with this method. It takes longer, and I will have to leave more time for runs than I would if I were following the programme more strictly, but I feel better about completing the running portions, even if I needed longer breaks, than I did about not finishing last week. I also hope that it might allow me to gradually lengthen my running time. Some of the stretches provided much more immediate pain relief than during the week, which is both encouraging and useful; and another advantage of stretching, as well as walking, between intervals is that it makes me pay attention to the stretch. My lower legs (not just shins) have been a bit complainy the rest of the day, getting worse as the day has gone on, but I did do a lot of pedalwork when practising organ this evening too, so I can't only blame running for that.
Other things:
-I found myself un-earwormed, which is very unusual for me. But I also found myself counting in my head during the running intervals, trying to pace my counting to exactly 60bpm so that I'd get to sixty just as my phone beeped. I was within one second on five of the eight intervals. This has nothing to do with running really, but amuses me as a musician. Maybe next time I will try 72bpm, or something like 40 which I think will be hard.
-Lots of mushrooms again: fairy ring champignons, boletes of some kind, charcoal burner russulas. I didn't get back to the park during daylight to collect any, though. And I love the fallen and falling leaves.
-I wore the hiker/trainer hybrid shoes, and had dry socks for the duration, hurrah!
(no subject)
Date: 31/10/2012 10:16 am (UTC)I can really sympathize with the frustration of not making progress; that's why I started running in the first place, cos I'd hit a serious plateau with the other types of cardio I was doing (exercise bikes, elliptical trainer, rowing machine, a bit of power-walking). But in your case you're limited by pain rather than by actual fitness, which has got to be more annoying.
It sounds like a really good idea to extend the recovery periods. If you're not actually needing them for your heart and lungs to recover, then you're not losing anything by taking more time. And I'm also really impressed you found useful stretches for the shin pain.
I've been counting a bit too. In the gym, where there is lots of background music I could in theory listen to, I blocked it out and just counted paces. I found I was naturally counting in bars of 8, and 5 minutes goes much faster when it's a thousand paces than when I'm clockwatching.
(no subject)
Date: 31/10/2012 12:32 pm (UTC)