This morning it rained. A lot. It's one of those funny weather weeks here in the UK. Everyone's been waiting for Spring to arrive - Winter has been pretty long this year, not really very cold, just, well long. Now Nature is packing all of April's rain into a couple of weeks in the back-end of May so Summer can get started.
I was ready to hit the pavements this morning if the weatherman had got it all wrong, but also knew that things were slated to improve through the morning and, as I'm working from home today, I could head out at lunchtime.
So this is what I did. At 12:30pm I strapped on Mr. Garmin, hung Mr Brand-New-Delivered-This-Morning-iPod-shuffle round my neck and headed out, kicking off Garmin's Interval Training Assistant. 1 minute running, 2 minutes walking.
It all went pretty well. I heard most of the beeps telling me to start and stop. I was out for just over 30 minutes, I had to tack a bit on the end of the run to get me home. I covered 2.86 miles in total and arrived back feeling pretty good. No pain whilst running, although I did find the walking part strangely difficult as both calf muscles ached - which went away when I ran.
This does seem a bit back-to-front but I suppose it's just my legs complaining that they haven't done this much work in a long time.
Between then and now (12 hours), there've been a couple of twinges, but nothing to make me hobble at all. It's early days but this plan might just work!
Mr Stumble.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Birthday bonanza!
It's been a busy week. Two family birthdays, and one of them - mine! Last year, my birthday was all about sailing, as I'd set a target of learning to sail before year end. So, that birthday was full of wetsuits and sailing books.
By the end of July last year I had completed my 2 sailing courses and passed the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) courses for dinghy sailing 1 & 2 and spent a pleasant Summer crewing and helming Larks and GP14s at our local sailing club.
Sailing year 2 starts to get expensive as you really need to buy a boat. I'm putting this off until next year, due to "exceptional circumstances" and this was one of the contribution factors in looking for, or perhaps being available for alternatives. Like running.
This year, you can guess the gift theme. And I know that non of these things really make that much of a difference, but I just love my gadgets.
First up, the Garmin Forerunner 101. We had a really good deal on this from an Amazon seller and I think this is going to really help me understand how long and far I'll be running, as I'd rather not be measuring miles in my car as time goes on. Mind you, "Map My Run" is pretty good for outline planning.
It's also got some really good interval training function which is just what I need for the old walk/run plan.
Following on from my previous post, I've got an iPod Shuffle on the way too, which will please my daughter as I won't be stealing here MuVo any more.
As to actual training, well I'm really close to restarting the running. I am being pretty cautious - it's now 10 days since I last ran and still had some calf pain then, but in the intervening time I've stayed with the swimming, aiming to keep a steady pace over 30 minutes and build a bit of stamina without the road-impact.
It is 3 weeks ago today that I did the main injury. I suspect, all being well, I'll be back on the pavements tomorrow.
With only 3 weeks to go to my initial target, a 10K is going to be beyond me. However, there is a 4k fun run too ......
Mr Stumble.
By the end of July last year I had completed my 2 sailing courses and passed the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) courses for dinghy sailing 1 & 2 and spent a pleasant Summer crewing and helming Larks and GP14s at our local sailing club.
Sailing year 2 starts to get expensive as you really need to buy a boat. I'm putting this off until next year, due to "exceptional circumstances" and this was one of the contribution factors in looking for, or perhaps being available for alternatives. Like running.
This year, you can guess the gift theme. And I know that non of these things really make that much of a difference, but I just love my gadgets.
First up, the Garmin Forerunner 101. We had a really good deal on this from an Amazon seller and I think this is going to really help me understand how long and far I'll be running, as I'd rather not be measuring miles in my car as time goes on. Mind you, "Map My Run" is pretty good for outline planning.
It's also got some really good interval training function which is just what I need for the old walk/run plan.
Following on from my previous post, I've got an iPod Shuffle on the way too, which will please my daughter as I won't be stealing here MuVo any more.
As to actual training, well I'm really close to restarting the running. I am being pretty cautious - it's now 10 days since I last ran and still had some calf pain then, but in the intervening time I've stayed with the swimming, aiming to keep a steady pace over 30 minutes and build a bit of stamina without the road-impact.
It is 3 weeks ago today that I did the main injury. I suspect, all being well, I'll be back on the pavements tomorrow.
With only 3 weeks to go to my initial target, a 10K is going to be beyond me. However, there is a 4k fun run too ......
Mr Stumble.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Cause and effect.
I was considering the other day the string of events that led to me getting off my backside and trying to get fitter. What can I trace this all back to? Was there a singular event that knocked me onto this new pathway?
As it turns out, it's all the fault of my job. It's probably not a big surprise that I work in the IT sector. It's what makes me blubbersome and slothful. Following what we managed to define as a successful "end" to a particular project (which I'm still working on), a bunch of us were nominated for a little local recognition in a "reward your staff with small consumer gifts rather than manage them properly" sort of initiative. Of course, non of us refused our points based bounty, and I duly headed off for the company reward-partner website and converted points to cold, hard, difficult to spend vouchers; the other stuff on offer was generally pointless or lame.
These vouchers then sat in a desk drawer for weeks until I suddenly had an urge to replace the MP3 capability of my Palm Zire handheld, with a proper music player. One that could store everything I had so I could choose my musical poison on lengthy train rides across the country.
So, an iPod was purchased with said vouchers. A 4th gen 20GB model, easily enough for my very modest collection of music. And just beautiful.
That was all fine until Apple released the iTunes update which included Podcast subscriptions. This really interested me, as up to that point, I'd been pulling BBC content down by FTP every week, stuff like Mark Kermode's film reviews and various other nonsense; occasionally I might have recorded stuff with Audio Recorder Pro from the BBC "listen again" features which meant I actually got to listen to "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" last 2 series and "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue" at a time that was good for me rather than the broadcast time.
Lots of BBC content was just there for the taking in iTunes. And lots of other stuff too....
So you can probably guess the way this went. Adam Curry's podcast led to Dawn & Drew. Dawn & Drew and Curry led to Phedippidations through Steve's promos and then I heard Steve do Boston 110. From there, I just couldn't help myself. Running is something I've thought about doing for years, including a (not so) secret (now) goal of running a marathon. As the years have gone by, this little life ambition has got a little buried. I've never spoken about it with anyone, except perhaps to D. in an unguarded moment.
So that's how I got here and I hope this story has a happy ending. I'm sure your story is better and I'd like to know how you started, if it's not prying!
Problem I have now is that I need a new MP3 player coz I don't want to mash the iPod disk on a pavement out there. Anyone want to nominate me for an award .........? :)
Mr Stumble.
As it turns out, it's all the fault of my job. It's probably not a big surprise that I work in the IT sector. It's what makes me blubbersome and slothful. Following what we managed to define as a successful "end" to a particular project (which I'm still working on), a bunch of us were nominated for a little local recognition in a "reward your staff with small consumer gifts rather than manage them properly" sort of initiative. Of course, non of us refused our points based bounty, and I duly headed off for the company reward-partner website and converted points to cold, hard, difficult to spend vouchers; the other stuff on offer was generally pointless or lame.
These vouchers then sat in a desk drawer for weeks until I suddenly had an urge to replace the MP3 capability of my Palm Zire handheld, with a proper music player. One that could store everything I had so I could choose my musical poison on lengthy train rides across the country.
So, an iPod was purchased with said vouchers. A 4th gen 20GB model, easily enough for my very modest collection of music. And just beautiful.
That was all fine until Apple released the iTunes update which included Podcast subscriptions. This really interested me, as up to that point, I'd been pulling BBC content down by FTP every week, stuff like Mark Kermode's film reviews and various other nonsense; occasionally I might have recorded stuff with Audio Recorder Pro from the BBC "listen again" features which meant I actually got to listen to "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" last 2 series and "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue" at a time that was good for me rather than the broadcast time.
Lots of BBC content was just there for the taking in iTunes. And lots of other stuff too....
So you can probably guess the way this went. Adam Curry's podcast led to Dawn & Drew. Dawn & Drew and Curry led to Phedippidations through Steve's promos and then I heard Steve do Boston 110. From there, I just couldn't help myself. Running is something I've thought about doing for years, including a (not so) secret (now) goal of running a marathon. As the years have gone by, this little life ambition has got a little buried. I've never spoken about it with anyone, except perhaps to D. in an unguarded moment.
So that's how I got here and I hope this story has a happy ending. I'm sure your story is better and I'd like to know how you started, if it's not prying!
Problem I have now is that I need a new MP3 player coz I don't want to mash the iPod disk on a pavement out there. Anyone want to nominate me for an award .........? :)
Mr Stumble.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
YATP: Yet another training plan
This is the more intensive hybrid training plan I've come up with as an 8 week "start running" process. I've replaced walking with swimming and cycling as I'm not that much of a walk-around-the-suburbs kind of person. It would be easier if I was in the countryside, but I'm about 15 minutes walk from green-belt here so I'd just see it at the point I needed to turn around!
No doubt, the schedule I eventually follow won't be quite this intensive, but I thought I'd post it up anyway. Someone might use it!
Mr Stumble.
No doubt, the schedule I eventually follow won't be quite this intensive, but I thought I'd post it up anyway. Someone might use it!
Mr Stumble.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Run #5 - Impetuous, impetuous, impetuous
After all that planning, I couldn't stand it any more and needed to try running again. After some stretching, I could feel nothing wrong with my calf muscle on Sunday evening, so I brought forward the plan to start Monday morning. But a different plan of course.
The walk/run programme was always going to be the way back in but having spent a couple of hours jockeying around runnersworld.co.uk and the coolrunners.com web sites, I decided that their plans were probably pretty good, as they are for beginner runners. Like me. And they were agreeing about how to start, which is based on a 1 minute run and 2 minute walk, repeated 10 times over a 30 minute period. This means 10 minutes of running, rather than the 3 I had actually planned over my first half an hour.
So, back to the drawing board I went and planned out an 8 week training plan based on the runnersworld plan, but using a mix of swimming and cycling as cross training. I'll post it up as I still think its a good plan for someone who hasn't already done some damage.
Anyway, on the 2nd 1 minute run, back comes the twinge and I can feel it pulling again, so I stop and just walk. Walking eases the ache, so I start up again after 2 minutes and it's not so bad. I make a total of 7 walk run cycles, totalling 21 minutes for the whole thing.
Once back inside, I pack my leg with ice and Ibuleve for 15 minutes and see what happens. Well, I've been hobbling again, although no-where near as bad as 10 days ago, so I don't think the damage is too extensive. I think I've proved that I started back too early and should have left it for another couple of days at least. In all, I've probably pushed back the recovery by a week.
It's so hard knowing when an injury is actually fixed, something I think will probably come with experience. But, hopefully you'll understand the need I felt to start pounding the pavement again; I so want this to succeed.
So, it's back to the pool for a few weeks, then I'll try again.
Mr Stumble.
The walk/run programme was always going to be the way back in but having spent a couple of hours jockeying around runnersworld.co.uk and the coolrunners.com web sites, I decided that their plans were probably pretty good, as they are for beginner runners. Like me. And they were agreeing about how to start, which is based on a 1 minute run and 2 minute walk, repeated 10 times over a 30 minute period. This means 10 minutes of running, rather than the 3 I had actually planned over my first half an hour.
So, back to the drawing board I went and planned out an 8 week training plan based on the runnersworld plan, but using a mix of swimming and cycling as cross training. I'll post it up as I still think its a good plan for someone who hasn't already done some damage.
Anyway, on the 2nd 1 minute run, back comes the twinge and I can feel it pulling again, so I stop and just walk. Walking eases the ache, so I start up again after 2 minutes and it's not so bad. I make a total of 7 walk run cycles, totalling 21 minutes for the whole thing.
Once back inside, I pack my leg with ice and Ibuleve for 15 minutes and see what happens. Well, I've been hobbling again, although no-where near as bad as 10 days ago, so I don't think the damage is too extensive. I think I've proved that I started back too early and should have left it for another couple of days at least. In all, I've probably pushed back the recovery by a week.
It's so hard knowing when an injury is actually fixed, something I think will probably come with experience. But, hopefully you'll understand the need I felt to start pounding the pavement again; I so want this to succeed.
So, it's back to the pool for a few weeks, then I'll try again.
Mr Stumble.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Revised training plan.
This is the revised training plan. It still shows the start day and target days, and where I plan to pick up running, all being well on Thursday 18th May. "@2r8w" means run for 2 minutes and walk for 8 minutes.
This may well mean I'm not in the correct shape for the Stumble by June 17th, but we'll see how things go. I've based this on Phil's advice in his comments to Run #4 - it all seemed pretty damn sensible. I am allowing myself to break some of the rules, like not doing all of the "swim" entries if I think I need a rest day, and if the calf injury threatens again, I'll be backing off a little longer!
Go see Phil in his "Running in the Sun" blog, linked on the right ->
Weight increasing; Sleep decreasing
I thought, as I'm doing this to get in better shape, it might be a good idea to keep tabs on my weight through the programme. Daily weight-taking is not really going to help as micro-increments are not at all inspiring and shortly after my first weigh in, my daughter flooded the bathroom and shorted out the scales.
Having taken the scales apart and fixed them with a blunt instrument, my next weigh in a few days ago gave me a bit of a shock. 3 lb weight gain. Now there were some mitigating factors. I wasn't weighing myself at the normal time, normal being first thing in the morning before I eat anything. It was in the evening after a particularly delicious steak pie - really-calorific-highly-saturated-fatty food and exactly what I should be avoiding. But I was hungry having been swimming the previous day.
And the scales could be lying, having been in pieces not 10 minutes earlier.
However, given that 2 days later, re-weighing showed me 2lbs lighter than this all time high, I think the scales are probably right.
My wife, D, tried to console me by saying that muscle is denser than fat, and that it might be down to a miraculous conversion of blubber to sinew. Pie to blubber is closer to fact.
I had thought that I might just try to keep everything else normal, like diet, whilst I get the basic fitness and stamina bits sorted out, but I don't think that it can work this way. The more effort I put in, the more hungry I'm going to get and the more I need to watch the type of food I ingest.
It's not like I'm a big biscuit (aka cookie across the pond) and chocolate eater. I've still got half of that Toblerone left from Easter. OK, it was a yard long Toblerone, but still that's well less than one chunk every two days. The chunk-rate has been accelerating a bit recently though.
So, on the eats side, we are planning less meat, more fruit, less sweet stuff.
On the sleep side, things have got a bit strange. Fitful is probably the best way of describing it, certainly not proper restive sleep for around half the nights over the past ten days. I'm not sure if this is a result of exercise, work or a touch of a head cold. So, I'll keep an eye on this and see if I can relate it to anything in particular. It might be all the chorine ingested in the local swimming pool keeping me awake.
As for the calf muscle, things have definitely improved. And thanks for all the kind words and wishes attached to previous posts. Just great.
It's not 100% yet and I can still feel the point of injury when I stretch, but just keeping at it with stretching a few times a day and the anti-inflamitory gel have done wonders. All being well I can re-start running later this coming week, with a revised plan.
May get the bike out of the shed in the meantime....
Mr Stumble.
Having taken the scales apart and fixed them with a blunt instrument, my next weigh in a few days ago gave me a bit of a shock. 3 lb weight gain. Now there were some mitigating factors. I wasn't weighing myself at the normal time, normal being first thing in the morning before I eat anything. It was in the evening after a particularly delicious steak pie - really-calorific-highly-saturated-fatty food and exactly what I should be avoiding. But I was hungry having been swimming the previous day.
And the scales could be lying, having been in pieces not 10 minutes earlier.
However, given that 2 days later, re-weighing showed me 2lbs lighter than this all time high, I think the scales are probably right.
My wife, D, tried to console me by saying that muscle is denser than fat, and that it might be down to a miraculous conversion of blubber to sinew. Pie to blubber is closer to fact.
I had thought that I might just try to keep everything else normal, like diet, whilst I get the basic fitness and stamina bits sorted out, but I don't think that it can work this way. The more effort I put in, the more hungry I'm going to get and the more I need to watch the type of food I ingest.
It's not like I'm a big biscuit (aka cookie across the pond) and chocolate eater. I've still got half of that Toblerone left from Easter. OK, it was a yard long Toblerone, but still that's well less than one chunk every two days. The chunk-rate has been accelerating a bit recently though.
So, on the eats side, we are planning less meat, more fruit, less sweet stuff.
On the sleep side, things have got a bit strange. Fitful is probably the best way of describing it, certainly not proper restive sleep for around half the nights over the past ten days. I'm not sure if this is a result of exercise, work or a touch of a head cold. So, I'll keep an eye on this and see if I can relate it to anything in particular. It might be all the chorine ingested in the local swimming pool keeping me awake.
As for the calf muscle, things have definitely improved. And thanks for all the kind words and wishes attached to previous posts. Just great.
It's not 100% yet and I can still feel the point of injury when I stretch, but just keeping at it with stretching a few times a day and the anti-inflamitory gel have done wonders. All being well I can re-start running later this coming week, with a revised plan.
May get the bike out of the shed in the meantime....
Mr Stumble.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Run #4 - the aftermath
OK. Here's the thing. I've managed to tear my calf muscle - not terribly badly, but enough to make running a bad idea for a few weeks. As we have the NHS (National Health Service) over here and I have a really good local GP practice, I've taken some medical advice on what to do next. And by good, I don't just mean good advice, I mean I call at 9am Monday and have an appointment to attend at 10:30am same day.
So, we assessed the calf muscle for damage. I am able to fully stretch the muscle with only minor discomfort in both directions (toes pointy up and toes pointy down). So it is intact and torn rather than snapped. It is definitely healing, but is likely to take a couple of weeks to get back to a point I can start running again. In the meantime, I don't need any specific physiotherapy; I need to keep *lightly* exercising my leg, especially stretching so that as the muscle re-knits it does so without significant shortening which would reduce flexibility and may lead to future injuries.
This means that the training plan is now out of the window. As Phil pointed out in his comment for "Run #4", it was a bit of a mad plan.
I hadn't considered myself to be desparately unfit and it's probably only natural (for this optimist anyway) to expect to be able to do more. Perhaps I've been kidding myself on the basis that I climb stairs in preference to taking lifts. A couple of sets of stairs a day is not enough! Perhaps my wife is more of a realist than I've given her credit for!
So I'm not going to change the target at the moment (I can always enter the short fun run anyway!), I'll re-assess this in early June. My re-start of running will be when I feel the leg is ready, and this is probably a minimum of a 2 week lay-off from running. The re-start will be to an entirely different plan.
In the meantime, I'm not going to wallow as I can already feel some of the benefits of the exercise coming through, and I need to build stamina and endurance anyway. My local swimming pool opens early and closes late so I've started an interim program of swimming for 30 minutes three times a week, but not pushing it for the moment as this is meant to be the light exercise for my leg, not a session of thrashing up and down the pool and coming out looking like my head's been boiled.
And in any case, even at 9:30 on a Monday evening, my local pool was packed with at least 60 other swimmers, making anything other than a light pace weaving around the supertankers impossible.
I'll post a new plan as soon as I've worked one out, and I'll carry on digging for other runner blogs to see how they're getting on. If you know of one, stick it in the comments and I'll sort out a link in the side bar.
Mr Stumble.
So, we assessed the calf muscle for damage. I am able to fully stretch the muscle with only minor discomfort in both directions (toes pointy up and toes pointy down). So it is intact and torn rather than snapped. It is definitely healing, but is likely to take a couple of weeks to get back to a point I can start running again. In the meantime, I don't need any specific physiotherapy; I need to keep *lightly* exercising my leg, especially stretching so that as the muscle re-knits it does so without significant shortening which would reduce flexibility and may lead to future injuries.
This means that the training plan is now out of the window. As Phil pointed out in his comment for "Run #4", it was a bit of a mad plan.
I hadn't considered myself to be desparately unfit and it's probably only natural (for this optimist anyway) to expect to be able to do more. Perhaps I've been kidding myself on the basis that I climb stairs in preference to taking lifts. A couple of sets of stairs a day is not enough! Perhaps my wife is more of a realist than I've given her credit for!
So I'm not going to change the target at the moment (I can always enter the short fun run anyway!), I'll re-assess this in early June. My re-start of running will be when I feel the leg is ready, and this is probably a minimum of a 2 week lay-off from running. The re-start will be to an entirely different plan.
In the meantime, I'm not going to wallow as I can already feel some of the benefits of the exercise coming through, and I need to build stamina and endurance anyway. My local swimming pool opens early and closes late so I've started an interim program of swimming for 30 minutes three times a week, but not pushing it for the moment as this is meant to be the light exercise for my leg, not a session of thrashing up and down the pool and coming out looking like my head's been boiled.
And in any case, even at 9:30 on a Monday evening, my local pool was packed with at least 60 other swimmers, making anything other than a light pace weaving around the supertankers impossible.
I'll post a new plan as soon as I've worked one out, and I'll carry on digging for other runner blogs to see how they're getting on. If you know of one, stick it in the comments and I'll sort out a link in the side bar.
Mr Stumble.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Run #4
This is the last of my 2km scheduled runs before I move up to 3 whole km. Things have not gone to plan though. Just over half way round my left calf went into very painful spasm and I had to stop.
I hobbled back, running about 20 meters before having to walk 100. This is not what I'd hoped! So am now in the midst of some research into pulled calf muscles and am planning a 4 day rest period before I try running again on Monday.
=========
Mr Stumble.
I hobbled back, running about 20 meters before having to walk 100. This is not what I'd hoped! So am now in the midst of some research into pulled calf muscles and am planning a 4 day rest period before I try running again on Monday.
=========
Mr Stumble.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Run #3
Strangely, I've been looking forward to this run. I know when I'm out there I'll reconsider this position, but simply having this scheduled time to be doing something different makes me feel good.
This is another 6:45 run. Temperature is 6.1 Celsius today and it's overcast with about 10 to 12 knots of blustery wind. No fleece today, although I could do with something long sleeved. Unfortunately I used my last rugby top whilst decorating over the past few months and it's now horribly crusty with paint, wallpaper paste and tile grout. Not something for the outside world to see.
My left calf has been pretty bothersome over the past 2 days. Stairs were a problem for 24 hours after Run #2 and just uncomfortable after that. We took a leisurely 2 mile stroll with some friends at the Wyre Forest yesterday - mainly to exercise the kids - and I think that has helped.
So with some trepidation, and some more stretching and warm up, I kick off run 3. The main question is "how long can I go before my calf seizes up?" Or maybe it's "how do I get back home when it happens?"
As it turns out, although both legs feel a bit tight, it's only the last 200 meters where it really starts to bother me. So overall an improvement. I almost feel that I can push it to run a little further but I'm glad my training schedule allows me one more 2km run before I move to 3km. I think my chest is a bit less full of pond weed now than my first run
The run took 14 minutes without stops - this is analogue watch time not digital - I'm going to need something a bit more accurate soon. The cats out there are starting to recognise me. One big furry black and white moggy actually moved off the pavement as he saw me coming.
Still gave me that same look as I went by though.
Mr. Stumble
This is another 6:45 run. Temperature is 6.1 Celsius today and it's overcast with about 10 to 12 knots of blustery wind. No fleece today, although I could do with something long sleeved. Unfortunately I used my last rugby top whilst decorating over the past few months and it's now horribly crusty with paint, wallpaper paste and tile grout. Not something for the outside world to see.
My left calf has been pretty bothersome over the past 2 days. Stairs were a problem for 24 hours after Run #2 and just uncomfortable after that. We took a leisurely 2 mile stroll with some friends at the Wyre Forest yesterday - mainly to exercise the kids - and I think that has helped.
So with some trepidation, and some more stretching and warm up, I kick off run 3. The main question is "how long can I go before my calf seizes up?" Or maybe it's "how do I get back home when it happens?"
As it turns out, although both legs feel a bit tight, it's only the last 200 meters where it really starts to bother me. So overall an improvement. I almost feel that I can push it to run a little further but I'm glad my training schedule allows me one more 2km run before I move to 3km. I think my chest is a bit less full of pond weed now than my first run
The run took 14 minutes without stops - this is analogue watch time not digital - I'm going to need something a bit more accurate soon. The cats out there are starting to recognise me. One big furry black and white moggy actually moved off the pavement as he saw me coming.
Still gave me that same look as I went by though.
Mr. Stumble
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