W8R1 podcast on fast forward or just me?

[Idolitorus]

Week 8 run 1 this evening.

Started with a smile. Ended with a grimace.

Crikey it was hard going. Oddly, this is the first time in a while where I actually wanted to stop and found the whole affair very difficult.

Technically I was supposed to run yesterday but it was an odd day yesterday – it was also my wedding anniversary. Silver, 25 years. I know, I know – I don’t look old enough. I was a child bride.

It wasn’t the anniversary that made it odd; unfortunately it coincided with a fasting blood test in the morning. Yuk. Both of us managed to work from home so we could be ‘ladies wot lunch’ but had to be back sharpish for the kids and get back to our respective work.

So out this evening it was.

Is it just me or is the music BPM on week 8 faster than other weeks? What happened was…..I thought as I am a proper runner now, I should try and run like a proper runner. Until now, because of the advice in about week 3 or 4 about trying not to be too bouncy, I have run in a loping motion, almost like running with skis on. This week (after being lapped by Mercury last week) I thought I would try to alter my style a little and adopt a more classic running gait.

Now I think this may have caused me to up the pace a little because I found it really hard work. It didn’t help that I altered my route slightly again this evening, so I didn’t have my usual landmarks to judge how far I had travelled in the time. I just felt like I was running quicker than usual (not fast, just quicker than usual). I tried to concentrate on my pace and I felt I was sticking to the beats of the music from the podcast, which is my usual way of doing it.

As usual I got to half-way and thought, actually, maybe I will be OK. I've got over the hump. It usually settles down now. It didn't though. I had a minute or two where it felt OK then it became a struggle again. Not horrible, just a real effort.

It didn't help that it was a lot warmer than I had bargained for too. We've had torrential downpours all day, until about 4pm, when it came over quite nice. I reasoned that it would be quite pleasant and still quite cool for the run. Hmmmph. Not on your nelly. At one point, I remmeber running through the shade and realising how nice it was.

I got to the end and to be honest I was more than a little glad. I was sucking in fair lungfuls of air and had a face that could curdle milk.

I followed the 5 minute warm down which by chance got me directly back to the house but I was not very satisfied with how it went. Once I had stretched out a little and felt more normal, I decided to put the route I had run into WalkJogRun. There! That’s the problem. 3.5 miles or 5.6km. The whole podcast, including the warm up and warm down is 40 minutes. I had covered 5.6km in that time, including walking. My running pace must have been right up. No wonder I felt like a balloon with half the air let out.

Again, I wonder if the BPM for the music are subtly increased on this week. Either that or I just went off too quick with the running style. I am usually pretty good on my pace though. What do you guys think? Is the podcast designed to put a little speed increase in for the last weeks to get us to that 5k in the 30 minutes?

For run 2 I will be definitely monitoring my pace and reining it in slightly. I am happy with that distance but crikey that was hard work. Only 5 more to go……..

[gary_bart]

I've seen videos claiming that you can do all your walking and running at one cadence (and that it's good to do so). All you do is adjust your "tilt at the feet" to suit the required pace. Sometimes to keep myself from giving up I've tried this out on sections of a run. I'm pretty sure it's not a universal principle from what I've experienced. Up hills it seemed to work less well (but then it's harder to feel how much you're "leaning in" to a hill). It worked quite nicely on flatter patches. Downhill, I found that I couldn't find a fast enough cadence. It does seem to work with walking. I find now that I like to step quickly, and breaking into a run doesn't entail greatly increasing the cadence.

So the link between speed and cadence is complicated by stride length, basically. It might be an idea to experiment with less forward lean, but the same cadence as the music at some patches on the run, and feel your own way round this.

[Hidden]

I don't know about the bpm but I did really enjoy the music this week I have to say. Some of the songs did give me a real spring in my step. And I met Julie, which I was most looking forward to!

Do you think the blood test threw you off a bit? Or maybe you're just a bit tired with repeating earlier weeks with your son? To be fair, if you were running at a faster pace that's enough to make you tired, it has with me. I've tried out a new running styele, I think it may have been Bazza who shared a video a while back, but can't be sure. Little quick paces I'd describe 'em as. I find I just tend to revert back to my own method without realising though.

[GoogleMe Graduate]

Did you accidentally change the speed the podcast was playing at? I had that problem with one run.

It's very common to have at least one really tough unenjoyable run in weeks 7-9 so that's another hurdle ticked off, well done.

[Redfraggle1 Graduate]

I had a couple of rubbishy runs whilst away but went out and redid run 1+2 of week 8 and they went ok, planning on doing run 3 today...

Maybe it was just one of 'those' runs for you...they happen...

Not many left to run now so try again and just see what happens...

Good luck x