Running Goals

So my last blog outlined my goals for the rest of the running year, and last night I ticked another of them off my list.

(Thursday 17th Nov) 

I joined a running group, well tried it out, but loved it so potentially joined.

It’s something I’m super nervous about, I don’t run well at the best of times, let alone with other people.  I feel pressure of being slow, as well as the self-consciousness of being as red as lobster at the end of the run (particularly bad at the moment as it’s so cold), I also feel very intimidated by people that look the part (there are groups out there that look all serious and boast of fastness, that intimidates me (as I’m sure it would any new runners, sadly), but I do feel like there has to be something out there for me. I would really would love to join a group for the social side (I don’t really have any ‘running friends’, on top of that I know that running with people could make me faster.

So on the weekend I popped into my local running store, and chatted to them about their run group, the guy that runs the group was there, and he was very enthusiastic and very nice about it (it turned out later that he’s my friend’s husband, so that was really encouraging).  So last night I overcame my fears and pottered along. I was doubly scared too, as it was peeing down with rain - I’ve literally never run in the rain before as I hate being in the rain and I’m scared of slipping over- plus I thought other new runners probably wouldn’t bother if it’s raining, and I’ll be even slower  as I’d be cautious about slipping, double pressure.  But I so wanted to go, so I just did it.

There were about 10-15 people and quite a mixture, everyone seemed really nice, and I found a couple of people who weren’t ‘whippets’ (not that anyone looked too intimidating).   Everyone did seem to zip off pretty fast though, luckily one of the team stayed towards the back, I sort of felt bad as running with me meant he was out in the rain far longer than he needed to be, but he seemed quite happy to potter (walk) along with me, and was telling me all about his ultra-marathon adventures (wow!). When I started running I did get a bit panicky with my breathing, after a mile it was going ok (and I hadn’t stopped).  By the time we came into the finish, I felt like I could have gone another 5k (always the way with me).  But I was so happy to have kept it up, and done it.  Again like the park run experience I’ve proved that I can do it.  I didn’t track, but one of the girls I was running with recorded just over 34 minutes which isn’t bad for me.

I’m so pleased I did it, I just have to remind myself that I can do it, when it comes to running on my own next time.  I will go back to this group, I think it will be so good for me (I hope I don’t annoy them too much with my slowness).

App, Rant, Confession

App

I’ve used the Nike App for a few years now my runs are logged back from 2013 (although not many back then).  I’ve always really liked it, and love that I could write notes on my runs, and also like that I can connect with my running friends (albeit just the two of them).

Rant

However, have not been impressed with this year’s radical update. In fact I’m growing to hate it more and more. It has a mind of its own and crashes regularly, including when I’m running, including on the day of my first ever half marathon  - not impressed -  and even crashed my phone yesterday.   It logs me out regularly and resets all my settings (which I don’t realise until I start running), sometimes it changes its settings for no reason, which is a pain to realise after you start running. It doesn’t record things consistently either, some days  it’s happy to record pace, elevation and then some days not.  And I hate that they’ve taken away the notes feature which means I can’t write helpful comments on each of my runs (which helps me when I look back) and also means I’ve lost all my comments from the last 12 months. Grr x 2

So I’ve been looking at alternatives. It might be time to buy a watch.

Confession (well actually 2 confessions)

I hate wearing watches (that’s not the confession) but feel the need for it is great now. I was looking at the fancy Garmin ones, although they’re pricey if I’m to continue in my serious running it would be a worthwhile investment.

But (and here’s confession 1) I did actually buy a running watch (a TomTom) a few months ago, I used it a couple of times but wasn’t keen and couldn’t get it to sync to Nike properly so gave up using it and threw it in a drawer to be forgotten.  But I can’t justify going out and buying a Garmin, when I have a perfectly good running watch that I never use.  So I’ve made a deal with myself, I will use the Tomtom until the beginning of May and if I use it enough I’ll treat myself to a Garmin (unless of course I’ve got so used to TomTom that I don’t need a new gadget).

There’s another reason I desperately need to start using a watch for running (here’s confession 2) I’ve got into a very bad habit of shoving the phone down my sports bra when running (I hate those arm band things).  My sports bra makes a perfect pocket, easy access, secure and good distance for the headphones, but it does make a very sweaty pocket, and I’m getting more and more concerned that my lovely iphone might not put up with such abuse for too much longer. 

Post HM & Park Run

I thought it was time to write what’s been happening since my first half marathon (as always I keep meaning to write but don’t).

The first week or two after the Half (can’t believe it was a month ago) were tough, like the weeks prior to the HM I was still struggling to run, and was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to run again.  I decided to go easy on myself and go back to run walking, take the pressure off.  This was followed by good run one night, and all my confidence came back.   Also when I looked at my post HM stats  I realised that I had picked up speed a bit without realising it, and I think maybe this was why I was struggling to complete planned runs.  But great that I’m getting quicker.  Then I got a hideous cold (which keeps boomeranging back) so it seems to have been one week running, one week off, annoying. 

I’ve used my running as a way of exploring my new area too, which has been pleasant, again it’s a mental battle though actually getting through a planned run, but the run walk thing is helping getting me back to enjoying (rather than enduring) running, but its not easy.

Also because the weather has seriously turned and the chances of heading back out into sub-zero temperatures after getting back home are very very slim, I’ve been doing the odd runcommute.  This seems to work quite well, except, I was doing this on the same route back in January, but now I have to run a km or two past my old house to my new place, mentally my legs are not impressed that they are seemlingly running past 'home', but the last km is a slight incline down, which is helps a bit, and when I get home I do feel great.

So last week after a long time I ticked Park Run off my running bucket list. It’s taken a while to pluck up courage to do it, especially as I’m so self conscious about running with people. I just decided that Saturday was the day, and if I could haul myself out of bed into the sub-zero temperatures it would happen, it also helped as it was a part of exploring the area.  

I sort of didn’t think it through that I would have to run 35 mins without stopping (ok I know its parkrun and you can do it however you like to do it, but you know how hard I am on myself).  I decided the use the 2 miles to the park as a warm up run, and within 10 mins I was walking, how on earth would I run 5km?  When I got there, there were heaps of people milling around and everyone looked professional and fast. I have to confess the night before I had studied the results from the previous week to see who was slowest, just to reassure myself that I had a slim chance of not being the last person back.

It was probably best that I hadn’t really thought it through, as I might not have done it had I thought too much about it.  After the briefing we were pretty much off.  It was sort of three loops of the Park (I hate loops with a passion) I estimated each was about a mile/1.5 km so focused on that and the miles disappearing.  I started off at a steady pace, following a lady and her stroller as my pacer, she was chatting to a guy and about ¾ of the way then zipped off.  I then got chatting to the guy she was chatting to (my second pacer) he informed me in the midst of the conversation that he was usually at 30min 5ker, which made me happy as I thought if I could keep him in sight I’m on to a good thing.  After a while I let him go ahead, mostly because I was struggling to run and keep up conversation, but my pace wasn’t too awful, and the distractions of other people helped the first loop to go quickly.  I keep going and another lap disappeared, phew, 2 down one to go.  In the third lap I managed to pace it a bit (sprinting to certain points, then slowing, then sprinting) I managed to keep going with  no walking.  As I came in towards the finish I tried again to pace it, I was cheered by seeing Mr 30min5k ahead of me, but he really paced the last 300mts.  And then I’d done it, I  collected my token and joined a queue.

Pic courtesy of Tooting Common Park Run (can't believe they snapped me!)

I hadn’t timed it on my app, but had registered for text message results, so that was quite exciting waiting for that to come through.  In the queue I heard a couple who were looking at their watches and say '31 mins' (although they were quite a bit in front of me) but hearing  31 I got excited.

Later that day I got the results, exactly 32.00 wohooo!  Annoyingly though it proved something to me (again) that my running is all psychological, that morning when I had to run walk (in fact every time I run walk) I think I can’t do it (‘it’ being running without stopping) but that park run has proved otherwise, I so need to get over this mental thing. 

I really enjoyed my first PR and am keen to go back, although the weather forecast is for torrential rain tomorrow (so it won’t be tomorrow) on top of that I think I caught a chill walking back from PR and haven’t run all week since.  But aside from that it was just what I needed to motivate me.   It also proves that running with others makes me faster, so I really need to join a running group.

So while I’m writing about goals here are my running goals for the rest of the year:

·         Park Run  - TICK

·         Try at least 3 running groups

·         30minute 5k

·         Run 15 miles

And here are my goals for 2017:

·         Medal a month

·         At least 3 half marathons

·         Marathon

·         Try trail running

·         Secret goal (because it will sound weird out of context, and the context is a future blog post)