Up and running (well, shuffling along anyway)

rainglow

As the title of this thread suggests, I'm a newbie runner and not a particularly good one! I've started running (if you could call it that) in the past few weeks, and have registered to take part in the women's mini-marathon on June 4th - 6 weeks from tomorrow. I have a poor track record when it comes to actually achieving my goals, so I'm hoping that public documentation will inspire/humiliate me across the finish line.

Me:
Female, 26 y/o
5' 3.5" (that half inch is VITAL!)
9st 3lbs this morning
No idea of body fat, but I know it's not good
I practise Ashtanga yoga and Pilates regularly and am pretty good at both, but despite how tough they are they're not much use for this challenge. Bah.

So, my primary goal is to run the full 10k on June 4th. Right now the longest training run I've done is 2.6miles, and I'm trying to train three times a week, maybe four if I can fit it in.

I'd love to lose some weight along the way as a secondary goal. I hold my hands up now and admit that my diet isn't great, and I have a really, really hard time controlling it. I have issues with food (not self-diagnosed, by a medical professional), particulary sugary food, and this has always been my downfall in weight loss endeavours. But I realise that if I put good stuff into my body, I'll get good stuff out of it....and I need to have my body on board if I'm going to get from running 2.6 miles to 6.2 miles in the next six weeks. Jesus, when I write it like that it's a bit :eek:

Today's run:
sucked. 2.5 miles.

I started out and thought "wow, I feel full of beans", and proceeded to absolutely leg it for the first half of my route. As a result of this, I was completely knackered and had to stop and walk for a bit about four times on the way home. By the time I got home, I was sweating and gasping like an asthmatic racehorse post-steeplechase. I could actually feel my pulse in my cheeks, and after getting out of the shower proceeded to break into another sweat! Not nice. And rather embarassing having a red face like this :mad: when you're running in public!! But I guess I should get used to it if I'm planning on running with 30,000 other people in the mini-marathon

rainglow

No running today. Had my yoga class after work which was hot, sweaty, intense, and all round fantastic If only I could achieve the mythical "runners high" as easily as I get a "yoga high" - then I might actually start to enjoy running!

I'm not sure when I'm going to get my next run in. I'm never able to get up early after a tough yoga class, then tomorrow evening I have tag rugby training, and then the following evening I have pilates after work. Maybe I'll try to get out Wednesday morning...I'll see how tough tag training is.

Oh and no sweets so far today. Go me. I think I might have a square of 75% cocoa after my dinner for my efforts

rainglow

No running again - had my first tag rugby practise after work though, which was fantastic! I enjoyed it way more than I expected and I got a pretty decent workout as well.

I'm going to get up for a run in the morning but evaluate how much pain I'm in at that point...I have a feeling I'm going to ache all over tomorrow. All that twisting and turning and sprinting, never mind throwing and catching has definitely worked long-forgotten muscles!

Odysseus

There is nothing mythical about the runners high, if you don't experience on your training runs as your distance expands, I reckon you will when you cross the finish on the day of the mini-marathon. With saying that, you need to be aware that tolerance develops, and you find yourself having to run more Km to experience it. Best of luck with your training, the best thing I can say is try to enjoy the feeling you get each time you push yourself that little bit further, your training runs are a important part of the journey. Best of luck with it.

aoa321

rainglow wrote:

registered to take part in the women's mini-marathon on June 4th - 6 weeks from tomorrow. I have a poor track record when it comes to actually achieving my goals

Hi,

I don't keep a log but I love reading them !! I'm also a tag rugby playing road runner. You have done the most important which is actually setting yourself a clear aim, I hope you stick to it. You still have six weeks, so aim for a time - why not push yourself and try to do it in under an hour. On the day you'll get caught up in the positive atmosphere and you'll love it.

I went back to road running 2 years ago after a 15 year hiatus, I announced in the pub that I was gonna do a 10K race and everybody at the table started rolling around laughing (with me not at me??). Since then most of them have joined me in doing one race or another, my wife and I now have to organise our evening time around minding the babies and getting our training runs in.

For me, the last 2 years have been on and off, but since this Christmas I have really been consistent. I have a 10K race coming up at the weekend and I hope to do a personal best. After that I'll be laying off the running a little bit to play tag, and do some sea kayaking for the summer, to be honest my enthusiasm for the running is waning a little bit, but I won't let my fitness slip back as far as I had at Christmas.

Unlike your tag rugby team - who sound very organised - our first training session will be about 15 minutes before the first match and will probably consist of the old hands being told the new players' names and the new players being told the rules !!

Good luck with your goals. Even if you don't keep you log updated for the next 6 weeks sign in to let us know how you got on in the mini marathon.

aoa

rainglow

aoa321 -I think if I'd given myself more time to train I could have aimed for a goal time in the 10k, but I'm finding the running so hard that the primary aim is just to get around the course without walking! I'll see how my training progresses though and re-evaulate as I go. And isn't tag rugby deadly?! It's the first time I've enjoyed sport in YEARS (sad, I know). I think the last time I actually enjoyed sport was skiing 8 years ago, and before that horseriding as a teenager.

Odysseus - thanks for the good wishes I think you're right and that I'll definitely get that elated it-was-all-worth-it feeling on the day...right now I'm too preoccupied with how much more progress I need to make to actually enjoy the running.

2.5 mile run this morning, no runner's high First half was tough but by the time I was getting back to my apartment I felt like I could have gone on a bit longer. I think I'll try for 3 miles on my next time out.

Pilates class tonight

rainglow

Pilates on Wednesday was incredibly painful due to how stiff I was. I thought my flexibility was ok in general, but my hamstrings seemed to shorten to about half their length by Wed night, despite my extensive stretching after running and tag

Then no exercise Thurs or Fri due to a work function (Thurs) and a hangover (Fri ), but I got out this morning for a 3-mile run. I wasn't entirely sure if I'd make it as I've never run that far outdoors before, but I did!! Go me As always the first 1-2 miles were painful, but then I hit my stride. It was pretty warm out and it's disgusting running around Dublin city centre with all the trucks and pollution, but I'm so happy I did it. And now I won't feel as guilty at this party tonight when the canapes are passed around

My thinking at the moment is that if I can do 5k now with 5 weeks to go, I should be able to build up to 9k by the day of the race, and then pray that the atmosphere/adrenaline will carry me through that extra km. Does that sound manageable, or likely?

rainglow

Did a 2-mile jog this evening just because I felt like doing something. It had been two hours since I last ate, and the almighty stitch that I had the whole time was the only bad thing about the run. Weather was nice and cool, and it didn't feel particularly difficult.

I'm going spinning tomorrow evening so I'll probably be too stiff to run Tuesday morning, and then I have yoga Tuesday night. I'm going to try 5.5k on Wednesday morning...fingers crossed.

Oh and my diet was shocking this week. I wouldn't even begin to post what I ate because I would probably be banned from this forum for life.

rainglow

45 minute spin class this evening - it wasn't as tough as previous classes I've done, so I'll have to push myself harder next time. I think I'm going to add a class a week to my current routine just for some different cardio. Jesus, with all this exercise I'd be a bloody whippet if I could get my eating under control!! That said, my diet was good today. That said, it was only day one back on the wagon

rainglow

1 hour ashtanga yoga class last night, 6k run this morning. Pretty good run...I decided to run around the city centre this morning, and it's surprising how many people are around at 6.30am! I thought I was the only lunatic

My right foot started to hurt like it used to when I ran on the treadmill (after 30 mins running), which is very annoying. It hasn't hurt me at all so far in my outdoor training, so I'm bummed that it's back. I can't even describe it - it's like my three outer toes get really sore but the rest of my foot is fine, and the second I stop running they stop hurting. I have a recommendation for a physio, but I'm not sure if I should go straight down that road or go for a gait analysis/new runners first.

Pilates class tonight.

hunnymonster

I'd check you're in the correct trainers first. You need plenty of room in the box of the shoe or it will pinch which sound very like the pain you're describing.

rainglow

How would I check that - I mean, would I get a physio to check that because surely I can't go into Elvery's with my own shoes, get them to check me over and leave without buying anything!

Elvery's have New Balance reps in doing gait analysis this Thursday instore...I might go along to that but I hate the pressure to buy at those things :mad:

rainglow

Wed night - pilates class. It was better than last week, but I'm finding that going to a class on Wednesday's after I've been doing tons of cardio Mon-Wed means that my hamstrings are much tighter than before (when I did zero exercise!). Tight hamstrings = having to do exercises with bent instead of straight legs.

I'm off down the country on holidays for a week and am a bit worried about how I'm going to keep up my running. We're staying in a house on a typical winding country road with no footpath but a decent amount of traffic, and I'm a bit terrified of running on it. However, I'm afraid that if I stop training now I'll find it psychologically hard to get back into it afterwards...anytime I've left the gym for a week or two it's taken me weeks to convince myself to go back.

metaoblivia

Hey! Just wanted to say that I really admire your dedication to running. Running is like the devil for me. I had a friend who decided to run in a marathon last year. She trained for a year. It was tough at first, but she slowly built her way up, got the right trainers and even experienced the runner's high. She was able to not only finish her marathon, but put in a very respectable time. So it can be done!

depadz

a good physio should be able to do gait analysis. Some will have the plates/software to computer analyse it.
you could check that they provide that service before you go and shell out to one.
If you do need gait correction, imo better to have a custom made orthotic than a onefitsall runner solution.

rainglow

Back from my week-long holiday now, where unfortunately I got zero running done. Our house was on the dodgiest country road and there wasn't a road with a hard shoulder for miles around . And I actually wanted to run, that's the crazy thing! I think I've been bitten by the bug despite still being absolutely rubbish

Went out this morning, did 2.7m/4.3km to ease myself back in. I use the word 'ease' loosely - it was no fun. I'm kind of annoyed that I'm back to struggling at this distance when I'd be aiming for an 8km run this week if I hadn't gone off on holidays...but c'est la vie.

My knee was seriously dodgy last week after spinning (no previous problems) so I'm going to rest tomorrow and try for a longer run on Tuesday morning. Think I'll give 6km a go and see how I get on. Oh, and if I have time today I'm going to head out to that specialist running store and look into getting new shoes.

rainglow

5.5k run this morning - I had intended to do 6k but it was drizzling and I was tired, so I cut a corner. My "long" run of 7k will be on Saturday anyway, and then I'll rest until the Docklands fun run of 7.5k on Tuesday evening.

Yoga this evening...not much else to say today!

rainglow

Pilates this evening. It was a tough class, I'm going to feel it tomorrow morning!

I had planned on going for a v short run tomorrow morning, but my right knee is really at me so I'm going to rest it until Saturday, apart from tag rugby tomorrow evening. It's hard to describe what's wrong with it....it's not a sharp pain, but I'm aware of my knee with every step, whereas I don't notice my left knee. I hope to God it's nothing serious with the mini-marathon only 2.5 weeks away, but since a week's rest hasn't cured it I'm a little worried

Covenline

Best of luck with this. Just started runninmg myself and its very inspiring:)

rainglow

Good luck! I don't know that my distances or time are particularly inspirational, but I guess I am proof that you can go from a couch potato to enjoying running

On a different note: I've been trying to lower my calorie intake with the hope of shifting a bit of weight. My daily caloric requirements are 1917, so I've dropped to 1417 and am using fitday.com to track what I eat. I've noticed that my diet is carb-heavy so I'm trying to get more protein in at the moment. My fat intake is poor since I would tend to snack on fruit, don't like fullfat dairy/ oily fish, and cook without oil, but I'll work on it.

rainglow

First thing this morning: 7.25km run in 46.26. I'm a pretty slow runner, but I can't believe I was actually able to do this so that's what counts. Go me . Am definitely going to be able to do the 7.75k route for the Docklands run on Tuesday, and will rest up between now and then.

Second thing this morning: went and got fitted for proper running shoes out in Amphibian King. Turns out I'm a neutral runner (which is good, I think!), and that my knee niggle may have come from my old runners being too narrow for my foot. So at the moment I look like a complete nerd going around my apartment in shorts and my blinding-white shoes, trying to break them in before taking them out for a run :pThe guys out there were really great, and I'd definitely recommend them to anybody looking for shoes

Diet-wise I'm doing ok and managing to stick to my calorie limit. I find it really tricky to estimate the calories/components of meals when I eat out though. Like yesterday I went to one of those Italian cafe's that are everywhere in town and had the tuna/cannelli bean salad, but I haven't a breeze what amount of beans/tuna/olive oil was in it. What does anybody else do in this situation? My current approach is to abandon calorie-counting for that day but just eat the rest of my meals as I normally would, rather than throwing caution to the wind as I previously would have!

hunnymonster

I order pizza and measure the diameter. Then I adopt Einstein's calorie to radius formulae to calculate....... no seriously, I guess as best I can and then usually add a little as I tend to underestimate the oil used. Sometimes I may be too low and other times too high. If you're not eating out every day I doubt it will make a huge difference.

ali.c

hi, i tend to count my meals out as cheat meals outside my normal diet. Since there is room built in for me to cheat. In saying that though i'd usually only eat out 1 or 2 times a week so it works okay for me. Another trick is to order food where the ingredients are obvious with the sauce dressing on the side. Stuff like a chicken breast is easy to gauge the nutrional value of.

rainglow

Pilates class this evening, which was pretty good. My lower back is a little tender as we did a lot of work on it, but it's nothing bad.

In diet news, I lost 3lbs in the last week. Now to be fair, I had put ON 3lbs on my holidays, and that weight tends to go on fast and come off fast too. But I'm going to keep up my current 1420calorie a day for the next week (within reason) and see how it goes.

I'm still struggling to up my fat intake. For my lunch tomorrow I roasted carrots and butternut squash with some olive oil over it, and mixed them with rice and broccoli. I think I might throw some chicken in there too, because lunch tomorrow will be my main meal of the day.

rainglow

So I did the Docklands "fun" run last night - it was my first race ever. I didn't particularly enjoy it for a few reasons, none of which were to do with the organisation of the run or anything!. (1) I never run at night, and my legs were like lead the whole way round, (2) it was really hot and sunny which again I'm not used to running in and (3) I started out way too fast and was knackered by 4k. I didn't think I started out that fast since I was just keeping pace with the crowd, but afterwards a few of my friends mentioned how fast the start was, so I felt a bit better. I had to stop three times to walk a little bit because my legs just couldn't go on, so I was really disappointed in that. In the end I really picked up the pace for the last 0.75km, and finished in 51.53.

So I guess the moral of the story is that I need to incorporate non-crack-of-dawn runs into my training, and focus more at setting off at my own pace.

Diet yesterday = bad....new guy on our team in work brought savage belgian chocolates in for us, and they gave us a Mars bar after the race too

rovers_runner

hey rainglow, I only ran my first race a couple of months ago, what I said to myself is "now you have something to compare to".

Invest in a heart monitor watch, it helps you pace yourself as you can have numerous people beside you in a race, some going to be faster than your pace, some slower.
You'll find yourself running on forever after a short time based on a comfortable heart rate.

rainglow

I actually have a HRM - so should I just track what my heart rate is on my regular runs and aim for the same in the race? I get what you mean about running forever, normally after 3k I really hit my stride but this time all I hit was a wall!!

hunnymonster

rainglow, nother tip for races is to start a bit further back than the time you want to do. Passing people is much more satisfying than having people pass you. Congrats on your first race nonetheless.

rainglow

4k run this evening - took me 26 minutes. I'm so slow

hunnymonster

you're not slow, you're steady! And always remember you're out there doing something 90% of the population doesn't, taking care of your bod. It will thank you for it when you're old and still mobile long after others have bought their zimmerframes and cosy slippers.

rainglow

8.2k run this morning which took me an incredibly crap 55:31. But I was pleased to get around the full distance without stopping after the walking debacle that was the Docklands run. It was a nice run though, perfect weather for it and I even saw a squirrel, which amused me greatly

I wore my HRM and kept my heart rate about 162 the whole time, which is a pace I'm really comfortable running at. Whenever I started to feel a bit knackered it was usually because my HR had gone up to 170ish, so I was able to drop back and keep going.

[edit]I just realised that 162 is 84% of my max HRM - that's kind of worrying that I'm so slow at a high heart rate (not a high perceived level of effort though, confusing)[/edit]