Hello lovely people!
Since starting C25k I have faithfully written up every single run and over-shared with you all in here. I guess when we stop counting our runs in terms of week X, day Y, finishing line Z, the intensity of focus diminishes, or changes. It’s a bit like teenage diaries; January is full of thoughts and scribbles, February is a barren wasteland.
It’s the first day of March today and there are newborn lambs everywhere. They are always a delight to see; leggy little reminders that Spring is here again.
I have been running three times a week and have not found the commitment difficult to sustain. I do feel the effort while I am running, but it isn’t an effort to start. Perhaps that means running is a habit, now.
The gremlins still come to play but they are less running-specific these days. There are a couple of difficult things going on in my life; I’m working on making some changes but it’s a slow process. These worries impact on sleep, mood, energy, appetite; and of course, running.
Two days ago I pulled on my trainers in a high blood pressure distressed state and for 20 minutes ran as hard as I could for 50 metres, or 100 metres. Then I’d walk and gasp and go again. I discovered that I can reach speeds of 2’37” over these short distances. And it’s exhausting, but I can recover and sprint again. This will be useful in an escaped rhino situation, combined with my ability to climb a tree fast.
When I got home I realised I wasn’t wearing my running trainers. Thankfully feet, ankles, shins, calves and knees seemed ok for the pounding.
Two days before that I ran over 5k. My notes say it felt like hard work; I hadn’t slept well and was dehydrated. I had to walk for a few seconds three times, even though I was going at a very steady 6’41”. I remember feeling a bit down about it, wondering if I was going backwards. It felt like it had been ages since I had enjoyed an ‘easy’ run; and my Parkrun time of 32’21” a couple of weeks ago remains my best 5k time. The gremlins told me that not only was I getting slower; the runs were feeling harder.
It’s easy to forget that we don’t improve at a steady rate, isn’t it? It’s like weighing yourself on the scales every day; it’s only over the longer-term that you really see the trend.
Well, today I tried something else. Someone here mentioned nose-breathing as a way of slowing yourself down. So that’s what I did. I didn’t look at pace, or heart rate, or time, or distance; I just kept my mouth closed, flared my nostrils and ran. I took one mouthful of air on a hill at 1.4k (yup, I checked); and then at 3.6k I had to go to mouth-breathing on another incline. I managed to get back to mostly nose on the next flat, then hit yet another incline at 5.5k and had to mouth-breathe those last few minutes to get to 6k.
It was a really, really good run. Until 5.5k I felt like I could run another few kilometres. I was like a metronome on the road, everything was just working, almost mechanically.
I was interested to look at the stats when I had finished, particularly pace and heart rate as the run had felt pretty easy... well, I ran at an average 6’46”/km pace for 40 minutes. So pretty similar to my last longer run, even though they felt miles apart in terms of effort. And bizarrely, my average heartrate was virtually the same for both runs, even though I was calmly breathing through my nose on one run and breathing hard through my mouth on another. Actually, my hard sprint session also generated the same maximum heart rate as my ‘easy’ run.
I need to ponder on these figures. Is it more to do with mental state than physical effort, perhaps?
I don’t think my watch is broken! Actually, I put those images so those of you who have wondered about buying a Garmin could have a little peek at some of the delicious stats you are presented with at the end of a run, like a reward. I love my Forerunner235. I was talking to E27 earlier (she now has one too) and saying what a great motivational tool it is; even when you deliberately ignore it whilst running.
Keep... on... running 🏃♀️
20 minutes of nose breathing
