Beat the Hour

I got out for two sessions over the weekend. I am still mainly walking but I have changed to finding routes with some incline on them so that I can run up hill and get more out of the exercise.

I realize that I have problems with motivation when I am out running. I just don’t push myself enough and that has to change.

One of the routes I did this weekend is below.

The results below are taken from the official results on the respective web sites, most of the times in previous posts were my own observations on passing the finish line. I think in all cases the official results are slightly faster. Most of the 10k races I am running this year will use ‘chip’ timing to the results should be more accurate.

It was a warm afternoon today and I had a good run. I covered 2.4km again but this time it was a lot more comfortable and my legs and lungs recovered very quickly after I stopped. If I get the chance to get out again tomorrow then I will make a serious attempt at a third lap and 3.6km.

My second run of the week went well. I completed two circuits of Maxwell Park without stopping so I can more or less comfortably run 2.4km. My best continuous run last year was about 4.5km during the Clydebank 10K.

Today after work I got my ass in gear and went for a jog. I set myself the target of completing a circuit of Maxwell Park, map below, at a steady pace without stopping and I managed it. I am concious that when I start running I usually start at too fast a pace that I cannot keep up so I made an effort to strt and stay at a managable rate. If I can do this over increasing distances then I hope to improve my times over 10k.

Well I did get out, not a run but I did walk almost 10K. If I had remembered the route I had planed correctly I would have done a full 10K. At least I have started some training.

Thanks to a timely email from a friend I have my entry in for the Polaroid Series 2007 in May.

Tomorrow I am getting out for my first run of the year, long overdue I know. I aim to start regular runs from now on, I have never managed this before but this year thing must change.

The New Year has rolled around and my last post here was in October After that post things did not get better and I ended up on antibiotics for a couple of weeks, however the toe is now well healed.

I plan to do a few light training runs in the coming weeks, I know that until now my non-existent training has prevented me from greatly improving my times in the 10K. I will not repeat last years nonsense when I ran the 10K in Helensburgh without having done any training.

I had hoped to do some walking if not running in the past week, however the problem with my toe has returned. The cut seemed to have healed and was fine for several weeks but I managed to knock it and it started bleeding again. This time I didn’t want too use plasters on it as they caused blistering last time and resulted in more pain and problems than the cut.

I decided to try the spray-on plaster stuff but that has also resulted in blistering of the skin and more than a bit of pain. I have used a spray I have for burns and that has taken most of the pain away, the spray-on plaster has now dissolved as it is supposed to do after two days.

With any luck by next weekend it will be back to normal, fingers crossed.

First of all I arrived far too early for the race, I must remember that Stirling is not as far from Glasgow as I think.

During the first kilometre I thought I was going to have to give up as my lungs just wouldn’t work, it was a damp and misty morning and I think I have a cold coming on so that may explain it. After 2.5K they seemed to clear and I was able to do a couple of the next K’s running without walking.

I finished in 1 hour and 7 minutes which is about my average. If I am to improve on this I must start training and get my weight down.