Week Eight Run One: YES, We have Technologies Today!

[Miles_Yonder]

Greetings of this (VERY!) warm morn, my dearest fellow C25Kers. I hope all is well and that you're all looking forward to another week of running fun.

Today's run was very uneventful, for a change: absolutely nothing untoward happened. Not a thing. No Wolfman of Montenegro (I don't actually know if he was Montenegrin, I just felt the name suited and he had a Montenegrin air about him. In the same way that my MD at work isn't Welsh, he just looks to me like he should be, hence why I call him Welsh Gordon and my impersonation of him is in a strong South Wales accent. He's not Welsh. Anyway, I do digress....) no shouty drunks: nothing. An uneventful run; I'm not used to this. At all! :-|

So, the morning started at 0339. Well, that's when the alarm went off, I actually stayed in bed for another few minutes having a quick look at the news, seeing if anything's happened overnight, and having a quick look here. Up I get, feeling a bit tired as I slept slightly restlessly, but I'm sure I'll come to in a bit. Down for breakfast now. The usual for me: the peanut butter rice cake and three figs. Plus sparkling water. That done, time to get ready and leave.

Waistbelt on, earphones in, door locked (I've taken to removing from my keyring only the door keys I need as taking the lot with me was both unnecessary and noisy as I rattled along like a jar of vitamins before, jangling away at random, announcing my presence to all) and it's time to see how thins new MP3 player is. Well, let's be reight, it can't be much bloody worse than what I've had to put up with recently, can it?! Oh, this is good. I like this very much. I can actually hear. Through both ears. No sound cutting out. No having to faff with earphone jacks. It just works. Very good; this is nice. I got it on Saturday and put a load of music on as well as the W8 podcast; I only load the one I need at the time as putting more on is just asking for trouble; Laura is rambunctious enough as it is without giving her ammunition to fire.

Off we go then, on our brisk walk. It's a bit warm this morning, even at just gone 0430 and I'm only walking! I head over to Wolfman Park (as it will be forever known to me now) and make my way out to the road. I quite like the first instrumental piece of music Laura has kindly chosen for me today; puts me in mind of music from a zone in a Sonic the Hedgehog game. And I can hear it, clearly. Onto the road and it's time to start a running. As I've mentioned before, I know a lot of people imagine themselves as an animal when they run, panthering along, for example. But in my mind, for running, I'm a Boeing 747. Don't laugh. Lumbering along, they look as though they shouldn't move at speed, but they do; I can identify with that. Beautiful, graceful, powerful. Okay, that's not really me, but what I aspire to be. So, it's running time, so throttles forward, engines roar, speed increases gradually, off we go, gear up and we're in business. Cruising speed attained and it's time to settle into it.

I see a paramedic car parked with lights on to my right; I hope that isn't a sign of what's to come! It really is so peaceful this morning, calm, quiet, a nice pink haze in the sky: it's lovely. A few minutes in and it's time to concentrate on the breathing. It's a bit ragged. Not to worry, it'll sort itself. It's a route almost identical to Friday, except I add another slight hill and a bit more of a meander, to give myself a bit more running distance for the extra three minutes I have to run for. Time to go up the first hill now. The paramedic car passes me; I assume it's the same one from earlier. Up the hill we go. Slowing a bit so I throttle forward a bit to maintain speed. It's hard work already! Oh, what's this? What do I hear? JULIE! So THIS is the Julie song I've heard so much about?! Aha, it's good to finally meet you, Julie Song; your reputation, it proceeds you. With these Fererro Rocher you are spoiling us, the Man from DelMonte, he say YES! (I have no idea, it's still early, remember!) Not sure how I feel about the Julie Song yet: I'll need another listen. Hill levels out and I ease back again but push for the final, very steep bit. Up the hill, round the corner, across the deserted road and it's time to try and get my breath back a bit before the next bit of hill I've added for this run.

Quite breathless now and a stitch is threatening; I try and push it out with deep breaths; it seems to work. I mis-time my breathing for a gulp of water and struggle getting my breath back. This isn't going so well, it's hard work. Well, I'm not stopping now so any thoughts like that can sod right off. The new added stretch takes me along a long, level stretch of road, at a high elevation; quick left turn and I descend down a steep cut-through. Holding back a bit so I don't increase speed too much and go rollin' rollin' rollin'....

Okayyyy, final bit of uphill now; not that I want to tempt fate but nothing has happened. So uneventful. Up the hill. Gulp of water, mis-timed again. Legs feel heavy, breathless too. Do I want to walk? Well I'm not, whether I like it or not, I continue running. Just a bit more hill then it's all level/downhill from here, bar a bit of a short, steep ramp in a bit. Soon enough I settle into it and start to enjoy it. Breathing settles down. I knock the throttles gently forward to increase the pace ever so slightly but decrease a little while later. Ambulance chuggles past me; hmmmmmm, I hope this isn't trying to tell me something.

Just three minutes to go now, I can't believe I've got this far; I really wanted to stop earlier! Final push, keep going! Keep going! There's Laura congratulating me; does she sound surprised or is it just me? No, must just be me - I'm not used to hearing her properly! Back to brisk walking and I can hardly believe it, I've done it. It wasn't easy, but eventually I got there and it was a sight better than last Monday's run at the start of week seven! Still a short way to go before home, so I head for Wolfman Park again and now Laura has finished I'll complete the walk with some of my own music. The new MP3 player is a breeze to work and it's soon tucked back away. The little voice in my head emerges and congratulates me on not stopping. Well why did you tell me to, I enquire: I wanted to see if you'd stop, it replied. You're nasty, I think, as I arrive home.

So, W8R1 complete and totally uneventful! Happy running to all out today; hope you all have equally as enjoyable runs.

The heat though: about halfway through, so not even 0500 I don't think and I was roasting and squirting water over myself. Anyone who runs in the heat of the day, really, I doff my earphones to you!

[spoonierunning Graduate]

Sound like a lovely run and yay for new MP3 player.

I too am amazed at those who run during the warmer parts of the day

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to spoonierunning]

Cheers, Spoonie! Yes, the situation with my phone and its lack of sound couldn't continue really. Should have got an MP3 player ages ago! It'll be quite warm at Parkrun time on Saturday, I assume; hopefully there will be a nice drizzle.

BTW, thanks for the link in your thread; I'll have a proper look at that site a bit later.

[spoonierunning Graduate in reply to Miles_Yonder]

The weather seems to be turning cooler heading to the weekend - well at least according to my weather app so I am keeping my fingers crossed, the park run I picked goes along the canal and looping round to by the River Trent so hoping the presence of water will also be cooling.

It's a great site, really welcoming community.

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to spoonierunning]

That's good to know; I think a Parkrun this week is definitely in order. I'm sold on it. There's two reasonably near me; one's quite flat, I believe and the other one's a bit hilly, but the latter is nearer me. Probably madness but I might go for the hilly one; I can always pace myself, I think!

[Redskins03 Graduate]

Well Done Miles, another run chalked off.

It was not just a struggle for you this morning, at a couple of points I really felt like stopping and giving up. But perseverance held out and it was completed. No extra pace at the end just enough to finish and then more of a stagger warm down rather than a brisk walk. But as I said to myself after only 5 more runs to graduation

Great news on the mp3 player, glad it has worked well for you. As regards the Julie song I'm with you on that, jury is still out

P.S - Pheasant seen on run this morning by old canal so that was nice

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to Redskins03]

WELL DONE Redskins! Sorry to hear you struggled too: I think that's normal though, we're new to this! The main thing is you DID IT! It's not easy, I know but pushing on through is far more rewarding at the end than giving up. No matter how tempting it is at the time to give up, I can't: what's the alternative, going back to being unfit and unhealthy? I can't do it, I'd rather suffer through the run and change my fitness one breathless step at the time! We'll be here after graduation to help gee you on, worry not, my good man. What will you do after; I'm going to tackle B210K, and Kitty started that this morning too, so you're welcome to join us in that little running party!

Signing-up for a race or two (or in my case, four!) will help motivate you and keep you going.

You're doing well, Redskins, and are a credit to Club C25K; keep it up!

[Redskins03 Graduate in reply to Miles_Yonder]

Thanks Miles for those kind words.

There is certainly lots to keep us going after graduation. Like I say at work, all you need is PMT - Positive Mental Thinking

[Treemouse Graduate]

Yay! Well done M_Y! I'm really envious of you and your mp3 player, and after my problems today, I'm going to get one too. The music player on my phone stopped at about 26 minutes, and I wasn't sure if my runkeeper app had crashed too, as my music is accessed via it. For the first time I heard my breathing, and I sounded like the Hogwarts Express...no wonder dogs bark at me when I run past!

I started my run at 6.45, although I was awake at 5.30am...I think I was possibly abducted by aliens, as I cannot for the life of me think how I spent the hour before I got dressed and out of the front door! I wish I'd got out for 6am, as it was already pretty warm. I got to the park, which normally completes the warm up, before geting onto the coastal path, but my stupid phone hadn't picked up the GPS signal, so I walked round in circles for about ten minutes, fiddling with my phone until I picked up signal. Then I realised I had left my sunglasses at home, which really threw my confidence, as I like to imagine that I'm running incognito. Already I was telling myself that 'it was going to be one of those days, and I should go home.'

I started off really slowly this morning, and thought to myself, 'bloody hell, this is the speed you normally finish at, so you might as well call it a day now, because you don't go much slower than this' but then I remember someone else saying that a bad run is better than no run, so I plodded on. Well after being thoroughly despondent to hear that my pace was 7.05 I carried on regardless, settled into my snail pace and got to about 26 minutes when music stopped. "Oh Crikey" I told myself...actually that's a complete lie; I swore like a Billingsgate fish porter. Well I told myself to "just carry on going and get to the point on your last run which was about 30 minutes" so on I plod, listening to the sound of my rasping.

Oops, had to go past some builders. I tried to look nonchalant (difficult whilst also doing my cardiac arrest/road traffic accident look) and avoided eye-contact, but I was soon greeted with "You go girl, come on keep those legs going" Firstly, I thought "how bloody original", but then I thought, well to be called a 'girl' when you're pushing 50 is not so bad, so I forgave them. But then a funny thing happened, I seemed to relax and realised that I felt quite comfortable, so just carried on running, albeit slowly. I was informed by runkeeper that I'd been running for 33 minutes, and I'd run 4.5 km. I knew where the 5k point was, so I thought, well let's just see if you can get to there. So I plodded on under no pressure at all and got back to the park where I started and completed the 5K. I ran for 36 minutes and 37 seconds, and broke no records at all in terms of pace, but I seem to have broken through some kind of stamina barrier. Which just goes to show you, that what started off looking like the run from hell, actually turned out okay in the end! W8R1 done.

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to Treemouse]

Again, Mousey (I HAD to reply in your thread too! ) very well done! You did so well carrying on like that. I occasionally do that when I feel up to it; it's amazing but all run it seems a struggle but then toward the last few minutes I settle down into it and don't want to stop. How the hell does that even work?!

At least the builders were complimentary!

Really sorry to hear you struggled with technology too; it really is getting ridiculous now, all these issues we're each having! I'm glad I got an MP3 player; I wish I'd got one weeks ago now! I got one with an FM tuner as it gives me a bit more options when I'm running without Laura.

Great stuff, Mouesy; good luck for two!

[misswobble Graduate]

Well done Miles. Julie!!!! Yay

I'm with you on the three prunes and the keys. We can start a club!

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to misswobble]

Thanks, MissW! The keys: I got sick of the rattling! IWhy I chose to cart the lot around with me before I really couldn't tell you! The C25K Minimal Key Club! (C25KMKC!)

[Hidden]

Well done on a great run - you kept going when it would have been so easy to give up at times. I usually start to feel okay in the last ten minutes of a run - takes me ages to settle into it and then the last 5 minutes can be quite enjoyable. Glad your MP3 player is okay - that's all I've ever used for my podcasts, so much less hassle. As for the Julie song - you'll have plenty of time to come to a decision about it because I think (if my memory serves) that she pops up in week 9 as well. Well, this week is going to fly by and you'll soon be embarking on week BIGGIE! Enjoy your next run, good luck and very best wishes.

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thank you kindly, Fitmo! Ah, so it's not just me! As I just said to Mousey, I don't understand it. At all: I can go for most of the run with it being a struggle, then right toward the end I get into my stride, really enjoy it and don't want to stop: I've no idea even how that works!

I was using just the podcasts too but for some reason my phone really started rebelling, but people seem to have real issues with the app itself. I only used that once and didn't like it at all. The podcast and a stopwatch is all I need! I'll give the Julie song another go and further consideration; I was going uphill at the time and couldn't really give it my full concentration.

And yes, it will very soon be graduation week and the BIG run! I'm actually really looking forward to it! Thanks again and happy running to you!

[Hidden in reply to Miles_Yonder]

No, it's definitely not just you. I've seen plenty of comments from people on the forum who find themselves in exactly the same situation. Oh, when I said I'd only ever used the podcasts, I meant only on an MP3 player. I'm not brilliant with apps on the phone and simply don't trust them so I kept it simple. Have a nice rest day and best wishes.

[AncientMum Graduate]

Great run M_Y in the company of the lovely Julie. I'm impressed by all these hills you're doing, makes me feel a bit of a wimp for picking routes without them. This running in the heat malarkey isn't great is it? Saw a woman this lunchtime running up the BIG hill near where I live -it was 23C out there! Either a certified nutcase or WonderWoman! Good luck with r2, you've almost caught me up.

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to AncientMum]

LOL, I can't really avoid them, AM! There are a couple of flat routes really but they'd get really boring sooner or later and other than that, it's hills! I'd not be so keen though in that heat! I saw a fellow today, at about eleven or so, when it was really hot, running along in heavy looking jogging bottoms and long sleeved top! He MUST have been training for a race he's doing in costume or something, it was the only explanation I could arrive at!

And thank you; there will be a huge graduation party at this rate! Good luck for your next run.

[runner56 Graduate]

Well done MY and redskins on run 1. I am now back in sync with you guys and treemouse and can look forward to not attending graduation on my own, the day after all the cool kids had been

[Redskins03 Graduate in reply to runner56]

Welcome back runner56. It is good to know that although running in different places and at different times on the same day we are running together.

Let's keep going and we can all graduate together.

All the best for run 2 this week

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to Redskins03]

I agree, I really love this forum and the fact that despite different locations and times, we're all running together in our own little club. I do wonder, as I plod along, how you're all getting on!

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to runner56]

Yay, well done, Runner, good to have you back in sync with us! How did the run go today? It's going to be a big old graduation party, isn't it?!

[Redskins03 Graduate]

Thanks KittyKat007

I just seem to plod along everyweek, enjoying the comments and posts. Looking at my runs it seems nothing exciting happens hence just add my little thoughts on others.

The pheasants seem to disappear as soon as they see a big lumbering black and grey elephant pounding the streets

It's the snails that don't get out of the way. I have inadvertently stepped on a few in my runs poor things.

Hopefully I will have the willpower to continue after graduating as I have only had one run which I enjoyed and thinking of carrying on without your support does not seem possible at this time . Hopefully this will change by the end of next week

[Miles_Yonder Graduate]

Awwww, Kitty, thank you! Yes, that's what I like about imagining myself as an aircraft as I run: huge things, they are but the slightest issue can cause catastrophe: much like in running, when you think about it, so it's an incentive to get it right! The hills are such hard work but I always feel better for including one or two. There's always the option of turning round and running back down if things get too tough.

My apologies, Kitty, for having you worried about your run. I do struggle in the heat as am naturally very warm, but that's just me. I need to get used to it though; my first 10K, the BUPA Great Yorkshire Run, is at the end of September when it's bound to be hot still and a few races I want to run next year will be done in the heat so I best start getting used to it. I'm really considering a Parkrun on Saturday so it could well be hot for that too.

Yes, run two on Wednesday morning, which I am, strangely, really looking forward to And thank you, that's so kind of you. I will, of course, keep posting after each run. I do, already, have a big list of races and running related fun I want to do stretching into next year and beyond, so there will be lots to read about, I'm sure! When are you out for B210K W1R2?

[Redskins03 Graduate]

Thanks KittyKat007. I am thinking of changing my route on Wednesday. See if that helps.

I should concentrate on all the positives. Along with watching what I eat I have lost nearly 2 stone and am need of a new wardrobe

Although I still would like to tone my stomach more (still an overhang) that may help to keep running

[dytham Graduate]

Just had to say well done fellow week 8-er. Did my run 1 on Sunday morning. Much too warm. Wasn't very impressed with the pace / distance that I achieved though. I quite liked Julie

[Miles_Yonder Graduate in reply to dytham]

Hi Dytham well done on getting through run one! I hope you're not feeling disheartened as running for 28 minutes is bloody good going regardless of pace or distance, so really, well done! I'll have another listen to Julie in the morning, see how I feel!