Tag: newtorunning

Quotes for life, love and laughter…

I collect quotes. Almost every day, something, somewhere gives me an aha moment and I keep them for days when I may need them. Sometimes these quotes are inspirational, humorous, or they just let you know that you are not the only human feeling the way you do. It’s just a human condition. You are not alone in this, whatever it is.

So today, I wanted to share some of my favourites in the hope that some of them will strike a note with you too.

So here goes:—-

On the subject of life:-

 

   

On the subject of running or just taking action, these ones I love.  I came across a gentleman called Alistair Jones on Twitter who writes poetry.  His poems are witty,  encouraging, fun and always a delight.  He has kindly allowed me to include a couple here.

 

And then just for fun, these one always made me smile:-

Have a great week everyone.  Hope it’s a good one for you and yours.

Until soon.  Be happy.

 

Having a great time

 

I didn’t post last week. There were so many new things happening, just needed to get my head around what it was all about.

The last time I posted I was about to join a running Club which I have now done. I joined Intraining Running Club. I thought I was joining a beginners Class. It turns out that it is a class which takes beginners, not just for beginners. What a fabulous opportunity for newbies like me. There are all kinds of runners there with varying experiences and skills. Some have been running for a very long time and have run numerous marathons, some are building up to a marathon, some training for their first 10km to newbies like me, or even newer runners. A lady joined this week who was running 1 minute and then walking for a couple.

There are two sessions per week. Monday nights’ session is a run, just slow and steady and I ran for 44 minutes. First time I had ever done that. I was struggling a bit and one of the trainers came breezing up to me and asked how I was going. I told him I didn’t think I could do it, and felt I would need to stop soon. His response was well, you are breathing well, you’re talking – always a good sign, your rhythm is good, your pace is consistent, I reckon you have this in the bag. I immediately perked up and thought ok, maybe I can do this, and so I did. Its all about the head space isn’t it. The body is willing and able.

The Wednesday night session is about interval training which is also a massive learning curve. We were running 1km bursts with 4 minute rests in between. We were meant to run at a certain pace based on what we are capable of, just didn’t quite know how to figure out what pace I was running. I think I need a new running watch which will tell me all that sort of information 🙂 Christmas is coming.
I ended up running some slow ones and some quick ones. Still it’s all building experience and time out there actually running.

The people at the Club, trainers and fellow runners have been truly welcoming and supportive. I have said it before, but what a great community the running community is. I didn’t know they were out there, would never have found that unless I started running, and am so very glad I did.

I am starting to really enjoy running. Not all the time, not every run, but some of the time. Progress is being made.

Have a great week everyone.

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.