Nerdy way to get through Week 4 Run 2 - Couch to 5K

Couch to 5K

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Nerdy way to get through Week 4 Run 2

iain-strachan profile image
iain-strachanGraduate
14 Replies

Hi! I'm back again!

I graduated a couple of years ago - went through the program without a hitch and loved it ... and then put my back out. It may have been a combination of being too ambitious at a Yoga class before my first (and only!) Parkrun, or the fact I was so elated at finshing that nearly ran into a post and pulled up sharply, but my back was agony for several months and I had to have physio. Then a combination of difficult circumstances (moving my mother to a care home, selling the house and clearing it out) led to a gradual decline in all the gains (lots of meals out and alcohol after a stressy day!) I had a couple of attempts to re-do C25K - my physio said do it on a treadmill to start with as it was kinder on the feet. But I didn't really like the treadmill, and the final straw was that the touch screen I used on one in the gym to slow down to walking pace malfunctioned and kept pumping the speed up, further each time till I was flat out, gasping and had to hit the emergency stop!

Then it's the usual thing of getting the motivation to start again.

The wake-up call was a blood test revealing high-ish blood sugar, and being told to go on the "healthier you" NHS diabetes prevention program.

So here I am, having just completed Week 4 Run 2 with Laura, and loving it again & wondering why the heck I didn't get back into it earlier! Lost a stone since March, but BMI is still 30.9 so a long way to go!

I've discovered a very good way of making the running phases pass, which shows what a complete nerd I am. The other day I was listening to an automated Spotify playlist, and came upon a song where Kate Bush was singing a sequence of numbers. I recognised immediately that she was singing the digits of the number pi in order! And when I noticed it wasn't at the start, it was about 15 digits in that I recognised her singing 32384626433 etc! I had learnt about 30 digits when I was in my teens, just for the sake of it and the sequence has never left me. The song is called "Pi" by Kate Bush, and was about a child who had a fascination for the digits of Pi - just like I did! She really does sing the digits beautifully, as if they meant something! Which of course they do, but not in the usual sense of a song lyric.

The song is a bit slow-paced for running, but I found today that if you recite the digits in your head, with a new one every fourth stride of e.g. the left foot, that it makes the time fly by! You end up reciting them quite slowly, but you have to concentrate - and that means you don't have time for your mind to wander and say "when's this torture going to end!"

Of course, you have to have the digits memorised, and I think I have a peculiar sort of mind where I can memorise long strings of digits (like my national insurance number, credit card number etc), but am hopeless at names!

Guess I'm going to have to memorize a whole bunch more for Week 5 Run 3 and onwards! I think the world record for memorising digits of pi is over 60,000.

No doubt you'll all think I'm really weird now!!! :-)

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iain-strachan profile image
iain-strachan
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14 Replies
iain-strachan profile image
iain-strachanGraduate

Ha ha! The web site spotted my sequence of pi digits and thought I was giving away personal information like a phone number - asked if I wanted to edit it!

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate in reply toiain-strachan

The site obviously thinks pi starts with a 0 🤣

Maybe they should code in “it seems you’re typing pi” and then drop a few thousand places of it in for you.

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate

I used to love a pie... of course in run pi is better! Great thing to be thinking of, and that brain is sure gonna get a workout if you go for the record! Distracting the mind is a great way to run... in time you’ll be able to clear it and get some headspace. Happy running.

Buddy34 profile image
Buddy34Graduate

Whatever works for you and well done on coming back to c25k good luck 😊😊

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate

Would you believe there’s a few songs like this!? Here’s the first 100 places music.apple.com/gb/album/th...

iain-strachan profile image
iain-strachanGraduate in reply toUnfitNoMore

I suppose it's a good song for running round in circles ;-)

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate in reply toiain-strachan

🤣 for sure... but can you run the same route twice as its non recurring?

iain-strachan profile image
iain-strachanGraduate in reply toUnfitNoMore

Well my route today was a wonky figure of 8! The Kate Bush pi song has the lyric "And they run they run they him in a great big circle". Very appropriate!

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate in reply toiain-strachan

Maybe it was an infinity shaped course? ♾

iain-strachan profile image
iain-strachanGraduate in reply toUnfitNoMore

Actually that's the next line in the song!

And they run they run they run him in a great big circle

The circle of infinity.

Might be quite a good song to run to but you'd have to put it on repeat as it's only six minutes long.

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate in reply toiain-strachan

Kate is also great when it comes to running up that hill... it’s no problem apparently

Debston profile image
DebstonGraduate

Laughing here at how many digits you'll need to memorise for Week 9! 😂 Good on you, it's great to be an eccentric in a world of boring.

Eatrun profile image
EatrunGraduate

I shall try this song. Like you, I need a distraction while running. I have found TED talks on YouTube a life saver especially '20 most watched ted talks'. I will start the 'pi' song soon. Welcome back though 😊

Tulipcat profile image
TulipcatGraduate

I count in 4s as I run. Distraction is definitely the thing that gets me through. Glad you’re back at it. I’ve also had a back related hiatus, but have just completed W4R2 for the second time this year (a slight achilles hiccup sent me back to week 1 - it’s like snakes and ladders!). Going to try your Kate Bush method!

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