Diary of a surprised evil slacker

[Chocotwit]

Well, i went out today thinking I'd do a simple 30 minute 9-week run, after struggling last week with the 5k+ stepping stone run, and running to my own music on Monday. But discovered that in an ugly ipod-synching accident, I had inadvertently removed w9 and in fact everything except the stamina podcast that I had been assiduously avoiding on account of it sounding just too darn hard.

Oh well, I thought, Stamina it is - but I won't keep up with the ridiculous 20-minute-160 bpm pace, and NO WAY am I going to attempt 165 bpm for the last 5 mins, having never run for 35 mins before.

When Laura talked me through the run during my 5 minute warm-up I chuckled to myself. "Little does she know" I thought and "no blooming way" also crossed my mind when she mentioned the final 5-minute 165 bpm burst.

So off I trotted at 158 bpm, with evil slacker intent in my mind. And indeed, for part of the 20 minutes at 160bpm I zoned out the rhythm and plodded along at a slacker pace (prob about 150-155). But found to my surprise that I had run further than usual by the half way point.

Wanted to get back in time for some lunch, so when Laura picked up the pace after the 30th minute I tried doing the "short stride shuffle", and pumping those arms. At first my arms just refused to go that fast. They have not moved that quickly since the time when my husband found my chocolate stash. But I concentrated and moved those arms, and those short fat little legs twinkled in and out, and before I knew it I had done 5 mins at 165 bpm, AFTER 30 mins running, and in all had run over 4.2 km.

Feeling well chuffed.

Chocotwit.

[notbad Graduate]

Well done chocotwit, seems there were a few of us out running to Laura's merciless 1,2,3,4s today. It's not easy sustaining a pace to that beat, keeping those arms pumping, posture correct etc - no escape for evil slackers.

[swanscot Graduate]

> "At first my arms just refused to go that fast. They have not moved that quickly

> since the time when my husband found my chocolate stash. !

LOL! Well done completing this podcast - even if you hadn't intended to do it today.

I, too, did Stamina for today's run and it's quite a workout, isn't it?! Like you, I found the five minutes at 165 bpm went surprisingly quickly.

[laj1987 Graduate in reply to swanscot]

I was just about to reply to the same quote of chocotwit's - it made me laugh too

Congrats to both of you on doing stamina, I'm still too nervous to try it.

[Chocotwit Graduate]

Well done both!

[shelleymcb Graduate]

great blog. yep, the "chocolate stash" made me chuckle aswell

so tomorrows run for me will be stamina ~ sounds like fun! X

[Chocotwit Graduate]

Thanks Shelleymcb and let us all know how you get on! Also, remember to hide that chocolate

[Chocotwit Graduate]

Thanks Shelleymcb and let us all know how you get on! Also, remember to hide that chocolate

[Chocotwit Graduate]

Thanks Shelleymcb and let us all know how you get on! Also, remember to hide that chocolate

[Chocotwit Graduate]

Thanks Shelleymcb and let us all know how you get on! Also, remember to hide that chocolate

[GoogleMe Graduate]

I have a theory that there is some kind of deliberate bug which arranges to force us into challenges - I ended up doing Stamina yesterday too because everything else had disappeared.