Milestones and Promises... #run2012miles

After the barrier breaking epic that was last week...(I think my auto DM weekly round up called it Stellar!) I knew I was going to have to take it easy and I could hear my body groaning right from the off on Monday.  In summary...

Mondays run was far from ace
Tuesdays run was full of pace
Wednesdays run lacked get and go
Thursdays run went slow fast slow
Fridays run had a frightful mile
Saturdays run just brought me bile
But the route that was run on at the end of the week
Made me glad for this challenge, there's no place for the meak

So that sees me through day 50 of my running streak and the fact that it wasn't the longest or fastest, the wettest or the coldest got me thinking about what makes a streak special, and more importantly why I feel I should carry on doing it at the expense of hard training sessions that need more rest afterwards. 

Well I'm not sure why other people do streaks, some say it's a good base training, others think this is just mad, but what I've noticed is that it is forcing me to try and understand and listen to my body a little more.

In the past when training for events such as the London marathon I have religiously followed the programmes given to me by others.  These are inevitably generic, and although they often come with a number of caveats, warnings and some might say promises (Get you round, Intermediate, Sub 3-hr!) none of them are designed for me and none of them really should be followed to the letter.

Whilst the times, targets and techniques outlined in many of these programmes are very well researched, have a very good grounding in respected training practices and may even on occasion work, they do also encourage a rather one dimensional aspect to training, that could if not compensated with a gooddose of level headedness leave you feeling like you're always chasing goals and feeling guilty if you don't manage to meet your daily quota.

I think the key thing here is motivation.

If this long to-do list motivates you to get out and train, then it must be a useful tool.  However if you don't listen to your body and either push yourself too far because you're being told to, maybe causing you to feel too tired and miss a session later in the week, or cut a run short when you have plenty in the tank then I'm not sure you are going to getting as much from your efforts as you possibly good.

By having the goal to run every day, I'm forced to listen to my body on a daily basis and make judgement calls as to when I can go longer and when I just have to put in a mile.  The motivation is there to get out even when feeling lazy or under the weather and whilst I may only do a mile or two to keep the streak alive, it's a mental victory that I will be able to call upon when the going gets tough at the later stages of longer runs.

I have also found that because I'm listening to my body (with my Garmin, quite literally my heart!) I'm able to tailor runs that push me when I need it but enable me to tick over and recover in between.

So whilst others may say it is a daft idea to run every day, I have to say that I have never loved running as much as I do at the moment.  I'm never going to win any races, but I win every day I get out there and keep the streak alive.  It's a baby at the moment, but as it grows I'm sure I will become quite proud of the achievements we will have shared along the way.

It works for Ron Hill...

So, who fancies meeting up on Easter Monday for day 100?

Happy running!

The best laid plans of geese and men

Today was always going to be a bit of a rush. Up with the @6am club and trying to squeeze a 5mile recovery run in before a 8:50 train to London may have been optimistic given my late interval session at the gym yesterday (they were locking the doors behind me) and me not feeling 100% nor sleeping well this week. But the only other option would have been to scratch my streak and well, I don't think I am going to enjoy telling people that I ALMOST ran every day in the year we hosted the Olympics. It's a bit like saying Paula Radcliffe almost won an Olympic medal....

Well I certainly know that Paula will do her absolute best to take the Olympic gold and I know that I need to do my best to keep my streak alive.

Anyway, I digress.

So bag packed I decided to drive to the gym, do a loop around then I could shower, change and drop the car home before walking to the station. The fact that we currently don't have a bathroom (bad time of year for DIY I know!) makes the gym leg of this plan a necessity. Otherwise I'm sure I'll upset a few of my fellow astronomers when I take my seat at Astrofest later today. Perfect I thought. A little late out the door but arriving at the gym at around 6:45 I estimated that I could probably get a hours run in and still get back for around 8:15; plenty of time to walk to the station!

The white stuff that had appeared over night wasn't going to deter me from executing my perfect plan...and anyway it was easily cleared of the car and the drizzle that was now precipitating would take care of the rest.

It was whilst stuffing my locker with my change of clothes that I realised flaw number one in my plan. No Garmin. Not a major issue some might say, except if you want to demonstrate beyond all doubt to the naysayers that you did indeed run every day! The failure to pick up this much loved bit of kit was made all the more embarrassing by the fact that I was wearing the quick release strap firmly around the outside of my running jacket. A bizarrely minimalistic accessory that was somewhat devoid of and useful function.

I was going to have to run home. Not a massive inconvenience, but would certainly add some interest to the mix explaining to MHW what a numpty I had been!

But worse than that I would probably run it too fast because I was ever so slightly nervous going out with a time piece.

Needless to say the run itself was fairly uneventful and after a 30sec pit stop back home I was able to complete another 4 miles to make up the early morning 5. It wasn't anywhere nearly as cold as it had been and so although there was some drizzle, some icy rain that stung my cheeks and some confident looking snowflakes, I was wet but not as chilled as previous runs had left me.

So imaging my feelings when I got back to the gym and saw the signs declaring "NO HOT WATER"...gutted to say the least. But then somewhat philosophical. I was obviously meant to have a cold shower...and anyway surely that would suit my Spartan regime. In fact I started to convince myself so completely that this would in fact be the equivalent to the endurance pros and their ice baths that I was positively disappointed when it was its usual piping hot.

Great recovery, it was 8:15 when I left the gym so I'd managed to get my 5 miles in and just needed to swap out my rucksack contents and I'd be on my way.

Not being one who uses the car a great deal I obviously hadn't counted upon what is termed 'Rush Hour' traffic (although it didn't exactly seem as though many people were rushing)

Still I was almost home, in fact in the very next parallel street working around our one-way system when I noticed the flashing lights ahead. They were orange. Now whilst this might seem good that there were no emergencies being tended to, it became apparent that I wasn't going to be moving anywhere soon. At least until the lorry that was displaying these amber beacons had successfully of loaded the delivery of building materials it has just started to crane off. 8min wasn't going to be long enough...I needed to change my plan.

So, having noticed a parking spot a few cars back I switched on my hazard lights and slowly reversed, hoping that the line of vehicles behind me would do the same. Thankfully they complied and I was able to ditch the car (quite possibly my worse parking effort ever!) and run around the corner on foot.

Well thankfully the rest of the journey has gone to plan so far. I'm comfortably tucked away at the rear of the quiet coach supping my latte and writing this blog.

The weekend isn't going to be a high mileage one as we're catching up with some of our best friends and want to spend some time with them rather than out on my own. However I will be running my first parkrun with them at the original Bushy Park, so that should be fun and if the snow is around still a long run with Bernie on the bike may be called for. We'll see...but whatever happens I'm sure it will energise me a little and have me ready to pound out a few longer ones next week.

Oh I almost forgot...there were no Geese of any variety to be seen out this morning...they're obviously fair weather fowl and/or are too busy terrorising my friend John up in York. Check out the link to his blog in my profile (who I'm following) and you'll find many a fowl fact follows.

Keep on running all you #2012in2012 folks!

Well it seems to be working...so far!

One of the motivations for beginning this running frenzy was the plain and simple fact that I thought that it would help shift some weight.  This wasn't the main reason I should point out, that was a desire for sanity that had been lost through inactivity, but lets say that weight loss, being a happy side-effect of regular exercise was a fairly easy thing for me to aim at given that I'm not likely to be breaking any records any time soon!

Whilst I'm not exactly massive, I have since stopping running in Feb 2011 put on over 10kg and started to fill out a little too much.  So to get myself back into shape i decided a little running was called for....and it seems to be working!

Towards the end of last year we purchased a rather snazzy set of Withings scales that not only measures body fat %, but also automatically uploads the data to a website and a free iPhone app.

Now whilst scales that measure body fat are not exactly revolutionary, the fact that these wirelessly transmit the data to a website and allow you to link this to 3rd party software (such as SportTracks, Runkeeper or Training peaks to name but a few) results in a very convenient and almost seamless way of keeping track of these body metrics.

I'm not about to start diving into a full product review as Ray has an excellent in-depth review here and I agree totally.  This is a quality and useful piece of kit that really lives up to it's desire to look like an apple product.  It functions well and despite a few issues that Withings have had with recent server attacks, I haven't lost any data and their customer and tech support crew have been great at keeping users informed of what has been going on.

One of the great features is that the scales auto sense users by intelligently matching to previous weights, thus enabling multiple people to use the same device without any complex menu interactions or button assignments.

Anyway, the long at the short of it is that the running seems to be doing it's job. 

Weight in Blue, Fat Mass in Red

So through January both my weight and my fat mass have shown a downward trend.  I'm not quite sure why there are so many spikes, but suspect it is due to the variety of workouts and me not being brilliant and always maintaining optimum hydration.

Fingers crossed this will continue.  I know I need to start looking a little more at nutrition...and stop all of the biscuit and haribo munching that I can be prone to, particularly after a long run...but it's heading in the right direction, and along with the gradual increase in mileage I hope that this will continue to improve as the year goes on.

How slow can you go...(say it with me)...How sl...

When friends and family members who are getting into running ask me for any pointers, one of the first things I normally tell them is to slow down.  Running too fast and pushing yourself over into the anaerobic zone is a common problem for many runners.  One which leaves them feeling exhausted and often lethargic because they are simply pushing too far.   

Why is it I can't take my own advice?

My understanding of any form of training is that it is about balance, and those who train using heart rate zones will know that the most efficient training for fat burning is within the recovery zone of around 60-70% of your working heart rate. 

Generally I've always aimed to combine workouts within the following zones:

• Recovery: 60-70&
• Steady aerobic: 70-80%
• Efforts: 80-90%

I won't go into all the figures as Brian Mac does an excellent job on his website, but for me this is gives me a recovery run target HR zone of between 143 & 156 bpm.

So if I want to burn fat that is where I need to be aiming...and now for the shocking part!

At the moment, I'm so out of shape that I'm hitting these bpm at around 12min/mile pace.  This doesn't mean I'm not capable of running faster, just that running faster is moving me into aerobic exercise and encroaching on the Anaerobic zone that will leave me sore in the morning...and I don't have time for that at the minute!

Since for now the target is building a strong base, I'm going to really try and stick to keeping my HR down, even if it means I'm being overtaken by purposeful mums with strollers!  I may start to pick up again when February comes around and I have to start my Edinburgh Marathon training in earnest!

As my family will tell you, I can on occasion be fiercely competitive (one of the reasons Monopoly gets hidden away at Christmas!), which makes slowing down very difficult for me.  So I need someone to compete with me at who can run the slowest mile during January...whilst still maintaining a running gait (of sorts!).

Find me on dailymile.com or tweet me @mgossage #2012in2012 if you fancy giving it a go!

Lets build some bases!

Run number 011: 6.7km out around the Gladiators ground up to Gloucester Rd and looping back home
Run number 012: 4.1km out and around GCCC again, shorter loop home.