W1R2 - Running on empty but still running.

[Preserved_Moose]

I was worried that one wouldn’t happen. At least not today. At least not during daylight. But here I am, a breathless, sweaty, bearded edam enjoying a cooldown walk around the garden. It was a tough one but I feel good after and I’ve already recovered a lot since I started this paragraph.

The reason this one was harder is because I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast. That wasn’t the plan of course, in fact that was probably the opposite of what I had in mind. After breakfast I was going to wait a few hours and then have a run right before lunch. So when lunch rolled around I made sandwiches for the kids while my partner went out for her run.

Then we remembered there were things we were meant to go out and do today and we were running out of time so we bundled the kids in the car and headed out for some frantic but responsibly masked errands.

That’s fine, I thought. I’ll just run when we get back and have a late lunch. So I ate nothing. And we got delayed. Saturday afternoon isn’t a good time to go out at the best of times if you need something done quickly. And as you all know this is far from the best of times.

(Although as an antisocial night owl I am loving the distancing. I am NOT loving these people in Tesco who get right up in my personal space with zero self awareness and start unloading their stuff on the checkout before I’ve even finished putting mine down.)

So we got back later than planned and it was time to get dinner ready. I had still not eaten but I knew If I ate now it would be hours before I could think about going again. And maybe that was the sensible option. But I didn’t want sensible, dammit, I wanted to RUN. My whole day has literally revolved around getting this run done and I am not missing my chance!

So I got dinner ready for the others, left them to it and headed out to the garden. Despite not eating I was feeling alright but I knew I’d have a bit more of a mountain to climb than usual here.

I’m eating now by the way, as it’s the end of the week and our shopping delivery doesn’t arrive for a few hours, we had to resort to chicken dippers, potato croquets and vegetables. Hey, at least the food groups are more or less represented here. I don’t even like potato croquets but after that run they’re great.

But I had to earn this! The first step of course was choosing my music. I didn’t have anything in mind but I already had Wild Planet by the B-52’s queued up from driving earlier. It’s a really great album and I’ve always been meaning to try running to them so it was perfect really.

Off I headed on the warm up walk, through the ever growing grass. I’ve already started to leave a bit of a flattened track where I’ve been running over it but I really should mow it soon because that’s going to make running difficult if it gets much longer.

But for now it’s workable and when the first run started I was ready for it. It went fine but I did notice that I was already feeling it after just one minute. But this was nothing unexpected so I carried on.

During the run I saw the neighbour in his garden going out to his falcons. He has falcons (and I really hope the cat doesn’t try anything with them because she will regret that instantly). I was hardly in a position to talk running with my headphones in so I gave him a nod and hoped that would do the trick.

Social interaction achieved. I handle them the way an alien would study human behaviour and try to blend in. I can’t even walk across a room convincingly if I think people are watching. I end up looking like someone trying to walk the way they think humans walk after just seeing photos of it. Am I an alien? I’ll have to ask my parents next time they beam down.

So the run went ok in the end but it took a bit more effort than it would’ve if I’d prepared better. I’m not too worried about breaking down though, I have a spare tyre.

I think it was during the second or third run that I started to feel a bit out of breath and a lot warm. Also right on cue the sun came out! I was looking forward to running in the rain earlier, I love doing that. It despite the heat, grass and complete lack of fuel, I carried on.

It wasn’t bad at all though, during these early short runs I can afford to be tired because they’re over before you know it. I walked, I ran, I kept a comfortable pace and there was never a point where I wasn’t enjoying it.

I got the usual pains around the chest and neck but pretty mildly and during the last few runs I still managed to settle in pretty comfortably. By the end I was literally glowing and possibly a little bit on fire but I felt good and recovered pretty quickly.

I hope I can plan a bit better going forwards, especially as the runs get longer, but I’ll take whatever I can fit around everything else. If all goes to plan I’ll finish Week 1 on Monday and start Week 2 on Wednesday. But when does this ever go to plan? I’ve always been making life, work, relationships and parenthood up as I go so running gets to be a part of that chaotic puzzle.

Anyway, I’ve eaten now, I’ve rehydrated and I can almost walk up the stairs like a human again, or something similar to it at least.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

As you hold the record for the longest posts here on C25K, your first post was at least a 2000 word 'essay' the second one the same, I now expect a long report of all your runs of C25K, remember that you can repeat any runs or week's if you wish to, drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration, keep ridgidly to the program, no running on consecutive days as that could cause a injury, onwards and upwards to run 3 of week 1. good luck for your running journey with C25K 😊 🏃🏾. 👍

[Preserved_Moose in reply to AlMorr]

Thanks, this is my fourth attempt now! Although the third one didn’t even last a week so not sure I can count it.

I do have a habit of writing and overwriting these things, I have a lot of unfinished writing projects on the go and these days I rarely have the time to work on them so this writing blog is a bit of an outlet for me.

I’m not sure they’ll all be this long though, there’s only so much I can say about running around the garden before it gets repetitive!

[Jools2020 Graduate]

And I thought MY posts were long! I had plenty of time to enjoy reading your well written, descriptive post.

Well done for W1 R2. I found the first 3 weeks particularly difficult; I was definitely setting off far too quickly for the first few runs, until I read on here that you were supposed to be able to hold a conversation without gasping! I wasn’t really talking while I was running - maybe the occasional expletive for motivation - but I do sing along to the music playing through my headphones. I realised that I was gasping more than singing, so decided to slow down considerably. For a time, my running seemed to be slower than my fast walking, but my singing improved.

I’m not sure that running later in the day when you haven’t eaten all day is necessarily the best thing you could do, so more forward planning may be a good idea! Good luck! Oh, and by the way, I think you are an alien. It’s the way you walk across a room? You haven’t got it quite right 😀😀😀

[Preserved_Moose in reply to Jools2020]

When I first tried this way back in 2018, which seems like forever ago now, it took me a while to figure out a good routine in terms of when to run and how to prepare. I struggled with the first week then, but my second attempt last year went a lot smoother.

Our lives are a bit chaotic here at the moment so I’m not really in a position to plan as carefully, sometimes I’ll see a running window at the last minute so ready or not my choice is to get out and run or just not do it.

Music definitely helps though, I’d find it a lot harder running in silence. I think the right choice makes all the difference.