It doesn’t sound much but I’m pleased to have made it this far! I’ve managed 4 runs per week about half the time and 3 on others.
This week however the plan got a bit tougher. Wednesday’s run was listed as a ‘pace’ run, at about 2 minutes faster than the jog. Now the plan lists the jog as 14-15 mins per mile, and I have been happy ticking along at 13-14. So if pace is a 12 minute per mile on the plan would I have to do it at 11? And to boot, the longest run so far was 4.5 miles and the pace run wasn’t a nice 2 or 3miles, it was 4.5. I’d been thinking about how to tackle it all week and decided that I would go for pace, so I would try to do an 11 minute Mile, jog a bit and then try to do another one.
Tuesday I managed to get my run in despite working away from home. A nice jog around Stanley park in Blackpool. A very typical Victorian park with geometrical flower beds, trellises, a bandstand and a boating lake. Lovely in the evening sun but I was too busy trying to keep running not walking that I didn’t take a picture.
Tuesday night was a late night so although I didn’t drink much I was tired on Wednesday and the pace run didn’t come off on weds evening. Was I deliberately avoiding it? Thursday/Friday I felt a bit off and tried to catch up with work things. Missing a run is really bad for your psyche though. It’s that all or nothing type thinking that does for me – oh I’ve missed one, another one won’t make any difference ……. It does. So I shifted myself on Saturday and forced my weary mind and body to go for the local Parkrun. Running with others would encourage me to run at pace, and I thought that 3 miles at pace would happily replace 4.5 miles at pace and the 3 mile jog I had missed.
So! We have a new Parkrun only a few miles away from where I live. Witton park Parkrun! Very well organised. Just as well, as I turned up not knowing where to meet or what the route was! I had done a 5k race for life there so I thought that the route would be similar. Wrong! The organisers have taken great care to include a nice hill, twice!
Because in Lancashire a Parkrun isn’t a Parkrun without a hill!
This is the view from the top of the hill – those are the tops of trees not bushes!
After the hill there’s a little bit of a trail run through the woods, where someone had kindly sprayed any protruding rocks or tree stumps with bright paint so that you could see (and avoid) them, then a circuit around the path. Halfway around the second lap you get diverted onto the grass where they have done a very organised finishers funnel to get you into single file.
I liked the trail, I liked he grass finish, and I even liked the hill. Yes, honestly! I think that having a change of surface changes the muscles you use and give the others a rest! Second time up the hill I was determined to keep running, but I was done for at the top and was almost sick!
At the end it looks like I did it in just under 38minutes. To be honest I’m a little bit disappointed which brings me onto the second topic in my blog, hidden agendas. In my marathon book chapter 3/week 3 deals with the hidden, or shall we say secondary agenda. The aim of the training plan is to do the runs and then you will be able to complete a marathon. The hidden agendas are the things that can lead to disappointment, de motivation and I suppose ultimately failure if you don’t address them. My secondary agendas are common ones I guess,
1. Hoping to lose some weight
2. Wanting to do a good time
Realistically, if I can keep up the plan for 42 weeks, I have no doubt that in the end I will become slimmer and faster, but these are not the aims, not the goal and not how I should measure my success. The aim is to complete a marathon in April.
Having said how pleased I am with my progress, I didn’t publish this blog last week and I haven’t run for a week. Initially I thought that I should go back to the park and take some pictures to brighten up the blog. But what I didn’t mention was the fact that I had a little bit of chest tightness after my runs on Tuesday and Saturday and on the runs before that some sensations of my heart skipping a few beats. It wasn’t really painful of anything, but it was enough to make me feel a bit nervous about running alone in the early morning. I am a worry wort but my husband would not forgive me if I put myself in danger.
In the end I thought that if I was nervous enough to be put off running I should go to see my GP. She kindly organised some blood tests and an ECG which were normal but suggested that I don’t run until I’d had the tests. I’m also having a treadmill test in a week or so. She thought that is probably just pushed myself a bit hard, which I agree with.
Having had a normal tests I feel greatly reassured. Actually I feel more than reassured, I feel blessed to be so healthy. When I was sitting in the surgery actually saying no I don’t smoke, drink, take any medications I felt like a rare specimen! I had normal blood pressure and cholesterol. My GP even checked my thyroid function ( an overactive thyroid can cause palpitations) and despite my lurking paranoia that I would have an under active thyroid ( I’m always cold, tired and a bit overweight) it was actually slap bang in the middle of the normal range. Now I can reassure myself that my low resting pulse rate is because I’m an athlete!!!lol!!!!
So I went for a run his morning, determined to take it easy, walk if I need to, stop if I get pain. Well I didn’t get any pain, it was a beautiful morning and I did get a lovely slow paced 10k under my belt. As a bonus it felt a lot easier than when I’ve done that route in the past☺️
Do you feel blessed to be a runner?
Wishing you all healthy happy running!
I miss running so much it hurts. I went to the gym today, though. 🙂
So glad your tests were normal! And now that you know you’re healthy, are you going to go full out with your marathon training in a couple of months? I say go for it!! (Says the girl who won’t run more than 13 miles, hehe)
Oh yes hidden agendas, whatever you do don’t go in to the 26.2 miles with a time in mind, not for your first time, horrible to run that far and be disappointed. (Says a voice of experience)
Glad all ok and that you are back out there, you are so ready for this challenge.
Run or walk. Glad your tests are normal. Keep going, you are doing fine!
Thank you!
I sure do feel blessed to be a runner. So glad your tests turned out ok. I’d be nervous about running alone or with someone even until that was checked out. Just keep following that plan, you can do it.
Excellent you’ve been given a clean bill of health. Sometimes if you have very busy and demanding responsibilities and push yourself physically, your body can send you a message you don’t like. Ease up, I think. Walk up a hill. Don’t let your FitBit/Garmin/gizmo thingy become a tyrant.Yes, I do feel blessed to be a runner.
Thanks, had the exercise test today which was ok too. Time to get back to it! Im so pleased to be OK, it must have been awful when you had the MI and had to contemplate the rest of your life wondering what the impact would be.
Complete reassurance. Lovely! I didn’t negatively contemplate what the rest of my life would be like after the MI. I just assumed I would go from strength to strength. I even joked that I doubted I had had an MI (this went down very badly with the person for a number of reasons and I subsequently left it off my repertoire of jokes).