Monday 17 June 2013

Viral haemorrhagic fever sucks

It's been a tough week this week. I began to feel a bit achy on Sunday and by bedtime had a raging sore throat and spent most of the night sweating and shaking (steady!). Monday morning felt worse and really shouldn't have gone to work but frankly it's a disaster if I don't!  Managed to take Tuesday off and stay in bed and started to feel a better by Wednesday. Despite my early fears of Ebola virus it seems it was just a cold. I have been coughing up good volumes of sputum however and was quite breathless at times. All-in-all there was no way I could have exercised. A shame really as I was looking forward to seeing how I coped at a slightly lower pace.  I've just spent the weekend on call - really not sure I want to be doing 56 hour shifts of on-call as I get older but the upside is no opportunity for ale which is all good for the weight loss.

So today I've done my first exercise for over a week. I've decided to for it and step up to the next week's programme, the one that was scaring me a fortnight ago. Anyway, despite still having a good chesty cough it seemed to go OK and, most importantly, I got through it without having to give up. Another "fear" conquered, and I've now managed to run for 6 minutes non-stop at 7kph. I reckon this will be my half-marathon pace so am aiming for a time of 3hrs. Just 2hrs 53mins to go!!

Weight-wise it's been a bit of a milestone week as I got down to 127kg, representing a stone of weight loss since this whole thing began. This morning I was 126.5kg!  I've enjoyed watching England limping through to the ICC Champion's Trophy semi-final but I fear South Africa or India will prove a bridge too far!

So, end of week I've lost count
0km run
126.5kg (over a stone down)
Don't know when I'm going to get all the work I need to get done done over the next few days. Probably shouldn't be writing blog entries!

Sunday 9 June 2013

Making your mind up....

It's been a good learning week this week.  As you may or may not know I'm repeating a week from the programme, having the found the previous week too hard.  Today I decided to do my run outside rather than on the treadmill.  It has been an interesting experience - obviously I'm tracking the run with some smartphone software.  Although the time has been the same I've actually covered an extra 0.5k compared with the treadmill programme - turns out I run slower and walk faster.  I was running at a pace that felt comfortable today, one I think I could run a half marathon at and it turns out it's 7kph, not the 8kph I've been trying to do on the treadmill.  This would work out at a 3hr time for the half-marathon which I'd actually be really pleased at.  Two lessons - run outside wherever possible; run at 7kph on the treadmill.

Have also enjoyed the random iPod today - highlight was probably Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Live) - poor old Ozzy; still sounds good but can't quite hit those high notes any more!  Have also been enjoying Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys, an album I can recommend to anyone.

Spent the weekend clearing out the garage and have managed to fill an entire skip; there's so much space in the garage now I reckon you could get a car in it!  Weather seems to be trying to improve so it's all looking up.

So here it is - end of week whatever!
Weight 127.5kg (over a stone lighter than on New Year's Day 2012)
Ran 7.25km
Drank some beer and champagne
Planning on more outside running!

Monday 3 June 2013

It seems like years since it's been here

If all goes exactly according to schedule I'll be up to half-marathon distance sometime in October.  This presents both a challenge and an opportunity with the Great North Run being in September 2014, almost a year later.  The challenge will be to maintain my level of fitness through that year; something I plan to do by repeating the training programmes with increasing gradient levels on the treadmill.  The opportunity is the ability to be flexible with the programme - repeating weeks I find difficult rather than pushing myself pointlessly on to targets I'll be unable to reach.  I've already exploited this by repeating the week I should've done in Spain (I did do some running there, as I believe I may already have mentioned; just not enough) but this week it came in very handy.  I felt as though I'd finally hit the limit.  This week's scheme was three workouts, each alternating 3 minute and 90 second runs with 2 minutes of walking.  I have now stepped up the pace to 8kph which I realise is pretty pedestrian to any proper runners out there but, as I keep harping on about - fat, unfit, little legs etc.  This is proving a significantly sterner challenge than 6kph (although I was a bit alarmed during my road runs in Spain to learn that my walking pace is faster than my running pace).  Anyway, for the first time I really struggled with my breathing (again, as mentioned before) so decided to repeat the week this week.  Just did the first workout again today and I'm delighted to report that it did actually feel easier.  Managed the whole thing without breaking my breathing rhythm - I think when you do start to get properly breathless and have to drop your rhythm to start gasping, a certain amount of panic sets in and you end up defeating yourself mentally.

The wife did the Woodhall Spa 10K this Sunday in a rather impressive time of 59:32; she ran all the way and actually found it pretty easy, certainly more so than the Lincoln 10K earlier in the year.  I'll be hoping to emulate the feat (although perhaps in not quite so sporting a time) later in the year, perhaps the Great Yorkshire 10K in Sheffield in September?  The winner of the race by the way did it in 32:14. Not human.

In other news, there's a great yellow orb hanging in the cerulean blue sky outside radiating heat and light upon me.  I've no idea what it is and don't recall seeing anything like it for many a year - I'll keep you up to date.

End of Phase Two, Week Three (about to be repeated):

Ran/walked 6.75K total
Still weigh around 128kg - maybe the fat's turning into muscle?
Shin pains seem better with new shoes
Cardiovascular fitness appears to be picking up