Meanwhile - Down at the track

[Bazza1234]

I have a 400 metre running track in a park aout 2 klms from where I live. It was this track that got me started on this running thing. Around the outside of the track the local Council installed some exercise equipment so, in November last year, I decided I would walk down there and back - and do some exercise on this equipment (rowing machines, stepping machines, etc) . I did this for about a month in the very early mornings around Dawn -- but it started to get a bit boring and I started to jog from one machine to the next. It was a real effort -- but one day I wondered if I could run right around the whole track. I did!!! -- but nearly collapsed from exhaustion. It was then that I initially thought that I had to do something about this. Why was it that, all my long life, I had never been able to run whereas others could ---- and ENTER THE INTERNET (to stage right) which led me to a wealth of training info and training programmes including C25K

I haven't been back there for nearly 4 months - but this morning I thought that I needed some dead flat ground where I could do some experimentation using my heart rate monitor to see if I could definitively decide which running paces I can do or keep up and those which I had to use run/walk breaks with. Quite a successful time of experimentation and I can now basically "feel" what my heart rate is now without looking at the monitor. After I did all this - I walked slowly home. THEN -- it dawned upon me that, during the course of my experimentation, I had run around this track 6 times at different paces -- and hadn't even thought about doing so. I was too busy thinking about other things to even notice that I had run around it 6 times. I think I deserve a beer!!!

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Congratulations - the beer is well deserved. You have put in a lot of hard work to get to this point

[misswobble Graduate]

It's true isn't it that a change of scene, being distracted by your own thoughts, eats up the miles

Well done Bazza. Ice cold beer after an adventure. I think that was an idea for a film! LOL

[no-excuse Graduate]

Most definitely you deserve a beer, or two! Very interesting experiments too. Well done x Oh, you recommended the run/walk for me the other day for my next Parkrun which I may do, but in the meantime I tried it on my 'usual' route and ended up with equalling my previous PB, so that was interesting too, and I wasn't half so puffed out! x

[Bazza1234 Graduate]

I have heard run/walk being described as "just interval training" - and I kind of understood what interval training was/is and the claims that it improves speed. But only tonight I read this very good explanation of how and why.

The example quoted was - you can now run 5K , but can only do it in 40 minutes -- but you want to be able to do it in 30 minutes. How can you train to do that? Well to run 5K in 30 minutes means that you have to run at a pace of 6 minutes per K -- BUT , you can't do that for the whole 5K right now. But you CAN do it for some shorter period - say 2 minutes. So you run 2 minutes at 6 minutes per K and then walk for a minute - do this 10 times over and you have run 20 minutes at 6 minutes per K -- do it 15 times over and you have effectively run a 5ks in 30 minutes ( plus of course, the short walking breaks in between) -- it is then your job to SLOWLY eliminate the walking breaks

[ajwyld Graduate in reply to Bazza1234]

Thanks for the explanation of interval training - that really helps ! I can currently do 5K in 50ish minutes so I've a long way to go. Using the Speed podcast once a week with that in mind !

[Nilzed]

Wow! That is impressive! Very well done!

You probably never thought to tell anyone on the Council, but just like the rest of us, they like hearing a 'thanks' for doing something that worked the way it was supposed to. At whatever cost that equipment was, it helped at least one resident! So you might just cut and paste this into an email addressed to the right department.

(My mum-in-law was a councillor once.)

[ChrisL Graduate]

Nice story & you definitely deserve a beer Bazza. For all my adult life I have rehydrated with beer - ideally proper luke-warm english real ale - after games of tennis etc, much to the amusement of my playing partners who would invariably go for a lime & soda, orange & lemonade or some disgusting 'fitness' drink thing. They would frequently tell me that beer was no good for rehydrating but hey, about 6 months ago I read an article that said that actually beer (or any drink which is mostly water actually) is perfectly good for rehydrating purposes - better in fact than the fizzy sugary drinks my mates have drunk all these years. So raise a glass of the amber nectar!

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to ChrisL]

I have had many trips to UK - and love English Ale. Bit expensive here unfortunately - and only available in bottles. There is some on tap -- but "brewed under licence" -- which breaks the No 1 Rule for beer drinkers -- "NEVER drink beer which has been brewed under licence"

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

Fantastic news. Look how far you have come. It's a great boost when you back to a run like that and just breeze it. Enjoy that beer it is well deserved.