I have fallen into a pattern of running twice a week for the past three weeks. It’s better than not running at all... but it doesn’t feel quite enough to make improvements.
There is a pattern developing over time - in February and March I ran about 50km each month, then in April, 10km. May, June and July I did about 30km per month, then in August, 8km 😬. September looked healthier, back up to 40km. I might just get away with saying I am taking a planned rest break every three months... but we all know it isn’t that!
I was very pleased to run a nonstop 5k again. I can’t remember which Nike Run Club run I listened to, but it was good. There was something in there about trying to be in the moment. If you are thinking about the best time you ever ran, or how you felt running last week; if you are thinking about the end of your run, or the time you are going to do it in, then your head is occupied with the past or the future, not the now. I was giving it a good go, but was finding ‘the now’ quite uncomfortable and so found myself counting down the metres to the 5k finish line...
I tried to go a bit quicker on the next run and did manage to speed up, but suffered for it. I had to pause several times and felt pretty awful. It wasn’t helped by the fact there was a cross country race for local schools going on with queues of parents having to get their cars round this sweaty, red-faced woman plodding along. I think some weird warped sense of pride interfered with common sense and I found myself striding along, trying to maintain a pleasant poker face, then ducking behind a tree to gulp air, bent double. Ridiculous.
Tonight I went swimming and was very pleased to do 40 lengths of alternating crawl and breaststroke. I can’t quite decide which is harder; swimming or running! But my VO2 max has at last returned to ‘excellent’, which makes it all worth while.
Even more pleasing is that the boyfriend called me to tell me he ran the Ashton Court Parkrun route all by himself today. And get this - he said he ran all the way up the hill (2.5km of uphill!). He said he ran it a bit like the Japanese slow jogging man on YouTube but even so. I am dead impressed. And a bit worried - when we did the Parkrun together I pretended I was walking up the hill to keep him company, rather than walking because I had to! Thankfully he has a slightly dodgy hip so I should be able to take him on the downhill stretch.
😂
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ktsok
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You can be competitive with yourself sometimes and with others occasionally... reining it in is the difficult bit sometimes, which is why I’m not on Strava
Stop giving yourself a hard time!! That’s very naughty of you. You are excercising 3 times a week and that’s brilliant. Also you run a 5km, well done! I can understand how you feel, at the start we progress so fast and then it plateaus and feels like it forever but that’s the same for anything one learns (eg languages) and you are learning / progressing with realising it. Also now we run further it does take more time. So stop thinking about what you are not doing and focus on your achievements which are many (Yes, I can be bossy). There is an nrc podcast that says something like that, turn the negative phrases into positives. You are doing great and wow you swim fast!! Xx
Thanks CP. I was more pleased than disappointed! I guess most people posting in Bridge are taking strides towards longer distances and faster times, so one feels it more when one is stagnating/regressing.
Not sure why one started talking like the Queen just there.
If I swam 1000m, I wouldn’t be able to run for a month 🙃. Now it’s the season, I’ll be playing hockey every other Saturday instead of parkrunning - it’s all good 👍.
There are no rules, only suggestions. 2 runs and a swim each week will see KT OK 😀
Well done for getting back into some sort of routine, twice a week is definitely better than none! I’m struggling at the moment with changing jobs and the changes that inflicts on the whole family, but we’re getting there!
It takes a while to adjust to new routines, doesn’t it? I hope it settles soon. You said the new job means less travelling so hopefully that will leave more time for running, but it’s amazing how the hours fill up, especially at this time of year when the amount of daylight ones is shrinking!
The time thing doesn’t seem to be working out so far! Other things seem to have a way of absorbing my time. But once I’m through my probation I’ve able to work from home most days, so that means I’ll be able to run at lunch time and no-one will know I’m all sweaty after 😂
You are keeping very active and maintaining a great level of fitness. Depending on what your long term goals are you don't really need to do any more if life and time works now.
Good luck with keeping him back now! 👍🏻🤣 I'm quite glad my husband hasn't taken up running 🤣, no extra pressure!
"I think some weird warped sense of pride interfered with common sense and I found myself striding along, trying to maintain a pleasant poker face, then ducking behind a tree to gulp air, bent double. Ridiculous."
I think of this as vanity running 🤣🤣
You are still doing well, and the swimming too!. I'm impressed 🤗
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week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
