Week 7 Run 1 - slow compared to last time!

[iain-strachan]

Two years ago I covered 4.1 km on this run (including warm up and cool down). Today a dismal 3.77 km!

Probably because my weight is a lot more than last year.

Back story - completed c25k in 2017 but put my back out after 1st Parkrun. Then domestic problems intervened and all the weight I'd lost (much of it before starting c25k) went back on. I was clearing out my mum's house after having sadly had to put her in a dementia care home. Lots of meals out and alcohol to keep us going. Then ... getting the motivation to start it up again. A few false starts at c25k, including trying to do it on a treadmill (hated it).

Then this year doc told me to jolly well lose some weight and get fit as I'd be at risk of type 2 diabetes. Have lost about 1 1/2 stone since April but a long way to go - still officially "obese"!

Anyway enough of moaning and excuses - the fact is I finished the run without breaking into a walk. A runner overtook me at one point then broke down into a walk, so I overtook her, but then she started running again and zoomed ahead! My goal was to get it finished without walking, and achieved that, so a good result!

I figure once you've got to week 7 you can be pretty confident you can do it, and the practice will improve fitness, stamina and speed gradually.

Not going to push my luck!

Oh, and I have a Strava moan. If anyone knows a way round this I'd be interested to hear.

I have a Galaxy S9 on which I can run Strava, but it's an awfully big phone to strap to my arm so I can observe all the stats Strava is giving you. So I got an iPhone 5c to do c25k that my daughter has passed on, as it's smaller and more comfortable to wear.

It was only this week that I decided to see what Strava was registering. I was most disappointed to find that the Strava app will only work on iOS 11, and the iPhone 5c only runs iOS 10.3 and there are no updates to 11. Every single running app I've found on AppStore requires iOS 11! Grr! It appears you can't download previous versions of Strava (unless anyone knows a sneaky back door for it).

The only way round it I can see is to get a second hand iPhone SE which is similarly small but supports the latest iOS.

My current arrangement (just to record the run) is to have the Samsung in a running belt (where you can't see the display), and the iPhone on my arm. Not entirely satisfactory!

Sorry if that last bit's off-topic. Though I think the large size of modern smartphones is a pain for runners.

[ButtercupKid Graduate]

Well done on the weight loss so far ! So far I’ve never run beyond 3k and I graduated 4 months ago, so you’re getting no sympathy from me. ONLY 3.77k indeed ! Tchah ! 😄

[arbitrarygenius Graduate in reply to ButtercupKid]

I was delighted to get to 3k - this is my first time running for 25 mins though - I'd like to think I'll pick up pace sometime, but I'm also carrying a lot of extra weight.

[ButtercupKid Graduate in reply to arbitrarygenius]

Sounds like you’re doing really well ! Keep me posted 😀

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

You are doing really well. Such a lot of things going on and I completely empathise with you. My own Mum spent the last year of her life in a Care home.. she had dementia too .

You are still working on your weight, and still running... be kind to yourself.. forget speed or distance... just run. Help get that body back where it wants to be and lose the stresses and strains

The phone... just buy a cheap one that will link with Strava... loads out there.. or splash out on a basic second hand Garmin.. Forerunner 10 will do the trick

[Nanarunrun Graduate]

I think the important thing is you did it before, had a really hard time with your dear mum and injury BUT you have the determination to do it again, which is marvellous, so what if you're a little slower than last time?! You're losing weight and getting fit and doing yourself the world of good...

I can't help with the phone problem, all I know is I tried recording a run on my fitbit app, fitbit watch and strava all at the same time and they all came up with different distances and paces, so I'm not sure which one to trust?! (I went with the longest/fastest obviously😊).

[iain-strachan Graduate in reply to Nanarunrun]

For some reason the Fitbit never worked for me - frequently drastically underestimating the heart rate. After a few bike rides of around 6 miles where it said the average heart rate was 80-90 I thought there's something wrong here! Then I checked against my Samsung Galaxy, which has a pulse-oximeter on the back, so measures saturation and pulse and you can see the waveform. It showed 113 bpm, but the Fitbit insisted it was 66!

I think they are all a bit dodgy as it's difficult to count steps.

Actually I just cheered myself up a bit, as I found the Strava run for W6R3 and found that W7R1 was faster by about 30 seconds per k - despite the first one being an easier run straight round a reservoir, without roads to cross. So hopefully the progress continues through W7 and the rest.

[iain-strachan Graduate]

Also it was bloomin' humid last night so had that to cope with as well.