Ice, Ice Baby

[ty272]

Ok so I cheated (kinda) - I started with week 2. I thought I could do week 1 pretty easy and I knew I needed to feel like I was pushing myself so I skipped ahead and it wasnt actually too bad. Well it wasnt great either - let me walk you through it.

First, the weather. Mondays run was a complete no go. Despite my saintly intentions to run after work (10pm) the amount of ice on the ground made this impossible. Tbh Tuesday was a similar situation but I could run in the middle of the day and theres a very gravely park near my house so I knew the ice wouldnt be as bad. Problem is it's dusk by 4pm and said park is very dark and 'murdery' at night. Any tips on running in icy weather? I tried grass but apparently ice also equals very slippy mud in surprising place.

The run itself wasnt too bad, the weather was sub-zero but after I got started even my gloveless (rookie mistake I imagine) hands warmed up fine. The intervals werent too bad but I had to do two 'extended' ones which left me exhausted. The first was when I had to pass a rather dashing young man (obviously I couldnt stop till I was out of his sightline) and the second was when I managed to press shuffle on my ipod *doh*. Being totally majorly 100% committed as I am (she said hopefully) I kept running while trying to jiggery pokery it back to the correct position, so bonus points for me.

Not sure about some of the retro 90s dance numbers but not having to time the intervals is AH-Ma-Zing. Only thing that worried me was at the start Laura said: when you run make sure your heel strikes first, which is the absolute worst thing I've ever done while running. I had the worst shin splints the first time I did a running programme because I religiously made myself run heel-toe. Then I read a book called Born to Run (fantastic if you havent read it put it on your Christmas list) which talked about running as you naturally would which is striking the ground with the ball of your foot. It certainly how I ran as a child and ever since I took it up I've had very little problem with my shins so I guess I'll stick to that for now.

Overall a successful run (i think) its the weather thats freaking me out most although im off Thursday so I should be able to repeat my park excapades.

Onward and upward. xx

[tantrumbean Graduate]

Yes, the heel striking is controversial at best, I certainly wouldn't force myself to do it and funnily enough even the NHS C25k advise on running technique on the web warns against it, so it might be an idea to update the podcasts a bit and remove that particular part!

[Fingalo Graduate]

Love the blog Ty, good work.

I also ignored Laura's advice re landing heel first, I seem to naturally land quite flat/ball first and think that makes more sense.

[BigEd]

I follwed Lauras advice about landing heel first and did have shin probs.

I try to land ball first now but it doesnt feel right so i lapse into heel first

again in no time Ed