Month: June 2018

5 things I learned from my first ever parkrun

Well people. I did it. My 1st ever Parkrun. It was exhilarating and for the record, I ran 37:22 which I think may be snail pace, but gives me a target to beat next time. I was super impressed with the organisation of it all, and also how many runners turned up. I had done some research on Parkrun the day before and was amazed to discover how many Countries it is being held in, and how truly global it is. There is this whole world out there I didn’t know a thing about until I started running. Loving all the discoveries. I learned a few things along the way I thought I would share.

1. Runners are truly supportive of each other. I got some positive comments along the way such as ‘doing well’ or ‘keep it up’ which was unexpected and really helpful.

2. Other runners are inspirational and aspirational. I was a bit slow today but saw so many quick and awesome runners, and got inspired to do better, and thought that I could get better and quicker and fitter.  No sooner had I finished that I was planning next week and how I would attack it differently.

3. When you plan to do something, at some stage you have to stop planning and just do it whether you think you are ready or not. The fear of failure can stop you in your tracks. I have been planning a 5km run for months, and if it wasn’t for a quote I read during the week, I would probably still be planning.  It popped up in Instagram and was the Nike logo “Just do it” but seemed to be somehow speaking to me and it did propel me to action.

4. How awesome it is to achieve something new and challenging. This is not be underestimated.  I think we go through life and there is a period we are doing lots of new things and kicking new goals, but as life moves on, it seems to happen less and less.  I think we need new challenges all the days of our lives, and we need to work out what they could be, and how to achieve them. It doesn’t have to be physical, it could be mental, learn a new language, do an art appreciation course, something.  It’s mighty good for the soul.

5.  How truly wonderful woman are (men too but this is particularly for all the women out there)  I am blessed to have a couple of daughters and a sisterhood of women around me who support me and are there for me whatever I do.   We laugh (sometimes uproariously or get the giggles) together, we cry, worry, share thoughts and feelings and events and without each other, life would not be as glorious as it is.  I am sure the women reading this will ‘get it’.  Nothing like your girlfriends to hold you up and validate the person you are.

Until next time.  Enjoy your running.

Anne

p.s. Thanks to Sheila for coming today and taking these photos.  You’re a treasure.

 

 

5 Ways to occupy your mind whilst running.

 

When I first took the road my inner voice would pop up; how much longer; are we there yet; I am feeling tired; can we stop soon.   It drove me to distraction and it didn’t need a psychologist to tell me that wasn’t useful. I needed to come up with a better plan, and to distract my mind.
I started to talk to experienced runners about what they did and discovered that they were probably further down the road than I was in controlling their thoughts. The big advantage they have is that running is second nature to them, whereas I was just learning and it was hard, and therefore needed a different strategy.

1. Listening to new music.
I choose a playlist on Spotify with a beat i.e. 150-165bpm, but choose music I had never heard before and set myself the challenge to listen and decipher every word. Its tricky, particularly listening to hip hop (so not my kind of music) but also fun. Fun is good.

2. Choose a different path
As I am using the 5KPro app, and someone is telling me when to walk and when to run, I don’t need to plan my distance. I just go in different directions, sometimes drive somewhere and start from a new location. Just something different to look at. I find it helps to distract my mind.

3. I make up a story about the people I run past. If they’re walking with someone I invent relationships and conversations they are having. I do find this very distracting and also amuses me continually.

4. If I am having trouble making all of the above stick, I challenge myself to mathematical problems. For example, if I keep running at the speed I am, in 4 minutes I would have covered what distance, or if I increase my speed by a X how would that distance vary, or how long would I then take to finish. etc. etc. This usually drives me crazy but has great distracting benefits.

5. I find listening to my breathing works sometimes. I try and breathe to the rhythm created by my feet. Equal measure in and out. When this works for me it is actually incredibly pleasant and relaxing. One of these days it is going to work all the time.

Would love to hear what you do.
Enjoy your running. Until next time.

Yikes … losing hard gained fitness

I’ve been sick this last week. Cold/flu – felt miserable, no energy and didn’t do a thing. Not even a walk. Every day I’d get up and tell myself today was the day I’d at least go for a walk, but no, nothing eventuated. Just sat around like a vegetable.

This morning for the first time this week I felt like doing something, yay, and then I started to think and worry about how much fitness I had lost in the week.  It’s a hard task to build fitness.  It takes consistency, hard work and dedication, and the urban myth I had heard was that particularly women lose half their fitness in the first week of non training.  What does that even mean, half what of their fitness? Cardio fitness, muscle fitness, strength fitness or all three and then some.

I hit the research button and read many articles on the subject.  There is unanimous agreement that there will be a loss of fitness mainly in the cardio area but research shows that in the first 14 days it’s neglible.  One of the articles published by https://runnersconnect.net/losing-running-fitness/  talks about a 5km runner who is running the distance in 20 min (so not me) after 7 days of not training running the distance in 20:10 and after 14 days of not training in 21:05.

I can live with that.  I run at snail’s pace anyway so that is not too bad.  Just means I’ll go a bit slower but it would appear I will still be able to cover the distance.

Bring on the week.  Back to the joy of exercise and the happy endorphins that follow.

Have a great week everyone.

 

I have this dream ……

“Difficult Roads often lead to beautiful destinations”

I started this page in the hope that people from all over the place could join together and strive for a goal, namely running a big event together.

I am working towards this, but am absolutely certain I am going to need help. There will be times I am lacking motivation, or times when I simply don’t feel like going out there, as I am sure the people who join us will too. We can support each other, share in each others successes, pick each other up when we are down, always moving forward.

The first milestone of my dream is where we all meet up at some big running event, we would have matching running shirts, or some matching something, run together, finish together and I can just imagine the feeling at the end. It would be so very wonderful and euphoric.

That’s my dream. There is a lot of work to be done between then and now, but we’re on the path, and that is a brilliant place to be.

I LOVE technology

I love technology. I love all gizmos and widgets and “what is that thing for” gadgets.
I get completely immersed in stats and results and the information provided after any kind of activity with the apps and gadgets I have. I simply love it and I think it is helping my journey in a big way.

For starters I have a Garmin tracker which tracks steps, activities, heart rate and some other cool stuff and also tells me the time which is pretty useful. I have my tracker linked to the Garmin Connect app, and so as soon as I record any kind of activity be it a walk or a run or a fitness session of any description, I sync it all and then go looking at how I did.

Before I run, I turn the activity monitoring on my Garmin, and make sure that it is doing it’s thing. I also use ‘Mapmyrun’ app which records my run and provides me with a cool map at the end so that gets turned on next. I have been using 5K Pro app I mentioned some posts ago and is helping me to run from small beginning to 5km, so that gets turned on. Last of all my music gets turned on, a playlist with a beat and off I go.

The funny thing which does make me smile during all of this, is that these apps talk to you. My 5K Pro app gives me inspirational messages about how well I am doing, and tells me when to walk and when to run. ‘Mapmyrun’ app tells me whenever I have travelled for 1km and gives me some data on that last distance, my playlist is doing it’s thing, so all in all, there is a lot going on.

When I finish, I sync, and then pour over all the stats.  Heart rate is a biggie for me, I really want to know whether I worked hard or whether it was all in my head, love all the data as to how long, how high, what effort, speed etc. etc.  I have read other runners say they have thrown out all technology as it was doing their head in.  I think they must be competing against previous times and distance etc.  I am seriously not at that stage.  Just happy to get it done and all these kind of things help, so will continue to use them and have fun with them.

Enjoy your run.