I’ve already made sure to schedule in time half an hour on Saturday morning to run, but I’ll not be able to spare any more time than that, so: No blogging, no commenting and I’ll skip swimming on Sunday. After she leaves on Tuesday morning I’ll be back on the horse and so will write up W9D2 and W9D3 together on Tuesday evening, at which point I’ll also have to figure out exactly what happens after c25k…

…whatever it is, I know I’m going to keep on running.

Well, this would probably have been more of a milestone if I hadn’t ruined it by going ahead and running 30 minutes about a week ago… But I did it again!

The difference this time is that it was not hard! After running 30 minutes during week 7, my legs ached and my lungs were burning. Today I actually enjoyed the run, my breathing was regular, nothing in particular ached (although I was generally tired at the end). I just ran, daydreaming, for half an hour… It was actually really, well, peaceful.

Run Stats: 3.16 miles, 9min 17 sec per mil

What most consider healthy for a man is between 60 and 75 beats per minute and for women it should be between 60 and 80 beats per minute.

Although I was just inside the healthy zone, other studies have suggested that heart rates above 70bpm in men lead to increased risks for various diseases. Just out of interest I have measured my heart rate a few times over the past couple of days, and…

57

Turns out I’ve become healthy and dropped all the way to below average! I remember seeing a documentary a while ago about a bunch of sedentary people who all trained together for the Boston marathon. The documentary is available legally and for free online here and actually makes for an enjoyable watch in a ‘tearjerky inspiring sort of way’, and also shows a bit about the science of what is happening to our bodies as we become more fit. The one thing that really struck me at the time was that all of the participants started out extremely, extremely out of shape, but after just two months of running a few times a week they all began to register as ‘above average’ to ‘superior’ in tests of endurance and cardiovascular function, even if they were still significantly overweight.

They never mention exactly what training the participants in the program did, but I’d wager quite a lot of money that it wasn’t very different at all from the c25k program in the initial weeks. All of the marathon training programs I’ve found online, as well as all of the research I’ve read suggest that running 3-4 times a week and gradually building endurance is the best way to train, and this is precisely what c25k does for us.

So, this means that… Those of us in the process of finishing c25k should have undergone huge gains in fitness, which is a nice feeling. In all truth I don’t really feel too much different throughout the day unless I’m actually in the process of running. I guess I just don’t push myself very hard in front of the computer! but it’s still nice to have my heart rate there to remind me that there have actually been large, significant changes occur inside of my body!!

Just to put this into perspective: In just one hour in front of the computer my heart now needs 900 less beats than it did just eight weeks ago to keep me alive.

This run was pretty unremarkable so there’s not so much to put in a post, instead I’ll talk about different things.

Today I decided to find out how quickly I could run one mile, and the answer is 8 minutes 43 seconds. Not so good, but then again not so bad either. I’m happy with where I am at the moment, and am sure that I’ll be able to improve this time over the coming weeks and months. My one mile run also served as a calibration run for my pedometer, which claimed that I had actually run 0.96 miles, so it was quite close to correct without even being calibrated correctly.

My running wardrobe is now fully stocked: one t-shirt, one long sleeved top (both made of whatever that stuff is that helps take moisture away from your body), two pairs of shorts and four pairs of running socks. As horribly shallow as it sounds I really do feel more confident running around now that I actually look a bit more like a runner and hopefully a bit less like a little tubby guy pretending to be a runner

Not a good run today. This is the first time I have ever really, really, really struggled with a c25k workout. Over the last five minutes I was within a hairbreadth of walking, but I just managed to keep stumbling along at an embarrassingly low pace, and felt like I was nearly dying. I didn’t actually walk, but I am not happy with my performance

I think this happened because I have had a terribly busy few days exercise-wise (my first swim in, well, as long as I remember, as well as long bike rides and a couple of ‘extra’ runs that I just did for fun) and social-wise (I went out and had a fair few too many beers the night before the run).

I really do need to listen to advice like “rest days are important for beginners”, I know I’m not doing myself any good by over-reaching like this, so today I’m going to write a note to myself:

Dear CMB,

You are not superman. Be sensible. Also don’t run hungover. Idiot.

Love, CMB

Oh well… Learning, right?

In fact, you should plan to invest a little in your early running wardrobe. In the long run [pun intended], it will be money well spent.”

And yeah, that seems reasonable, if I pick up some semi-decent running gear now it’ll probably do we well for a long time.

So what do I need? I reckon that a couple of t-shirts and a couple of pairs of shorts are enough. I already have a nice set of running shoes as recommended by the man in the running shop, and things like socks seem a bit gratuitous.

Length: 3.00 miles
Instructions: Start Hoge Rijndijk, end of Burggravenlaan. Run to Zijlsingel, follow until left turn onto Lage Rijndijk (becomes after a while Van der Valk Boumanweg). Keep canal to right until Leiderdorpbrug, cross, take immediate right back onto Hoge Rijndijk (~2.2 miles), and then after 0.5 miles, left onto Roomburgerweg. Run Roomburgerweg until time/distance is up.

After successfully running 5k on Saturday I didn’t want to drop all the way back to doing 25 minute runs, so I skipped week 7 of the program. I also didn’t feel ready to do regular 30 minute runs, so didn’t skip all the way to week 9. That leaves, yep, week 8. Again, it may not be the safest thing in the world to go skipping big chunks of a training program but if I feel any abnormal pains (i.e. outside of the usual burning lungs, aching legs and sweat-stinging eyes) then I’ll immediately stop…

The run today was fun. It still sounds strange to say that, but it’s true. It was fun. Somehow I’m enjoying it. Two things to take away:

1. Nipples. Ow. Note to self: Sticking plaster.

2. I finally found a hill near my house, it’s pretty much the first hill I’ve seen in this city (indeed in the city the largest hills are pretty much the bridges). The flat landscape here is both a blessing (my morning bike-commute is easy and pleasant) and a curse (a flat, windmill covered landscape can only remain interesting for so long!).

A couple of months ago now I was in a bookshop and, basically on a complete whim, picked up a copy of “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami, this book is half autobiography, half book about running. Murakami describes why he runs, what he gets out of it, how it feels to succeed and fail and he does it without sounding preachy (“Hey you! Fatass! You should run every day or you’ll die of a heart attack”).

I never really had any interest in running. As a child I used to like cross country running at school, but I think that’s mainly because it was something other than being picked last at football. After all, why should somebody enjoy running for the sake of running? It hurts and gets you sweaty. Regardless, I flicked through a few pages and found the writing style engaging, so again, completely on a whim bought the book. After letting it sit on my table for a couple of weeks I finally started reading. The whole book was immediately interesting, but the idea of getting out of breath for enjoyment initially seemed pretty alien. However, by the end of the book, after we have followed the author all the way through the ups and downs of his training for the Boston marathon (his 24th marathon) I felt like I was beginning to understand why somebody might decide to push their body along a lonely, sweaty road. One paragraph in particular really stood out to me, so I’m going to quote it here. On the subject of what Murakami thinks about during runs:

But really as I run, I don’t think much of anything worth mentioning.

I just run. I run in a void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void

In another area of my life this is precisely the reason I enjoy drawing pictures, when I get into the ‘drawing’ mindset, my conscious brain takes to the background and for some time (often a surprisingly long time) I’m completely focused on drawing, or to put it another way, I feel like I’ve acquired a void. This short excerpt about non-thinking really stuck with me, and about a week later, after it had shoved its way back into my head about a dozen times I found myself looking at beginners advice on running websites, reading stories from newbie runners, learning about overpronation, wondering if fancy socks and pedometers were necessary and then, one Saturday I found myself in a running shop trying on shoes. Shortly after that, and before I expected it, I was suddenly staggering, puffing and wheezing my way down the pavement. I don’t recall ever saying to myself “I’m going to start running”, it just sort of, well, happened.

I can’t say yet that I’ve hit the point where my body can carry me around comfortably. Every run digs up a few different aches and pains that I’m not expecting. I do, however, feel myself getting fitter, faster and stronger, which for now keeps me going. What will I manage next? I’m still hoping that down one road I do stumble over the sense of zen-like calm that accidentally started me running.

In order to get a feeling for how the run lengths on each day of the week (Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat are running days) evolve throughout the training scheme I drew a quick graph. I always prefer to see information graphically, and maybe this will be a useful for somebody else…