Biking rowing and running

This week hasn’t been too bad, training wise. So things looking good. Have decided am going to try and get to the gym 3 times a week (4 visits this week) and use the rowing machine and use it to compliment my running, hopefully this will make me stronger, its low impact so less weight bearing, good for my joints. The running i’m going to do is now going by Heart Rate try and keep it under 70% WHR keep my runs easy, i want to get back running for an hour most days if i can (this worked for me before) and then when i can do that i’ll introduce some quicker stuff. At the moment my Hard Training to coin a phrase will be on the rower. Another decision made when at the gym i will do my warm up on the bike i’m sure that will help too. So here is what i’ve done this week

Monday Bike 7.34km Row 4043metres Run 3.2km

Tuesday Bike 6.7km Row 2518metres

Wednesday Run 5.1km

Thursday Bike 7.65km Row 6405metres

Friday Run 5.09km

Saturday Bike 14.7km Row 4914metres

Sunday Run 5.1km

so 36.39km bike, 17880metres rowing (thats just over 11 miles) and 11½ miles Run

What did i say

Ok what did i say i was going to do today. Oh that was it 2 minute run walk 1 min repeat for around 20 minutes. What did i actually do i ran 2 miles in  about 22½ minutes. It was on  the treadmill. It was slow, 8.5 km/hr upping it to 8.6 after the 1st km. felt ok no adverse reaction from ankle truth will be told tomorrow morning, but it feels ok, not 100% but a whole lot better than it was.

Of course it being in the gym 7½km warm up on the bike folled by 25 minutes on rower about 3543metres, rested and did a further 500metres concentrating on form. As my form isn’t perfect and with the right form i can get further on  each stroke than i currently am.

Baby steps

Baby steps, thats my new phrase, motto whatever you like to call it, taking small steps don’t run before you can walk and all that.

On Thursday about 12 days since my last run i went out to test my ankle planned on running 1 minute, walking 1 minute (x 10) i managed about 6 before decided to leave it for the day. Ankle was hurting slighyly. That afternoon i went to a running shop that does a video gait analysis, to see how i run. It was interesting watching my running on the tv screen. Yes my right foot does over pronate but only slightly not much to worry about i’ve come to the conclusion that the cause of my problem is a pair of shoes shoes i did my interval session in plus the 5km race in. So i’m not wearing them anymore.

On Friday i went to the gym and warmed up on the bike for 20 minutes, moved onto the rower for another 20 minutes and finished on the rower for (10 x) run 1 minute walk 1 minute. Mission accomplished. felt good easier on the treadmill no reaction from ankle till i accidently hit the speed button making the treadmill go at 9km/hr.

Tomorrow back to gym, will try 2 min reps, but will try and keep up with the rowing even when ankle is completely healed

still no running

Today is my eighth day of no running. But have been able to walk about a bit more still hurts a bit but not as much as yesterday which was better than the day before. I think the combination of  rest plus the inserts (gel heel cradles) have been helping. At least today my calf hasn’t been reacting have been giving foot and calf self massage don’t know if thats helped it seems to though.

Been practicing on my wobble board too which has been  a lot of fun determined to get strong and get running again but i know i have to be patient and hope i’m not off running too long. Well thats all i can think of to say I guess the best bit of advice i can give myself is wit till i can walk pain free before even starting to run. That is what i have to do.

overpronating

I’ve always been lead to believe i’m a neutral runner. but finally got to see the physio today. No real injury, i’m told i over pronate, more so on my right foot. The problems seem to have started since i got new shoes. The physio she gave me some gel inserts to put into my neutral shoes to try. Nothing they can do physio wise. If things do not work out with these inserts i will have to see the pod man. So see how things go for the next 2 weeks. She even suggested going to a different place to buy my shoes in future. I’ve got to build up the running again and not run 3-4 miles straight away using these inserts. Well thats it, i’ve entered the world of the pronators

LFOTM Hyde Park 5KM – 25th May 2007

Another race report, sorry its been a few days coming.

It was warm very warm depending on your view point. Supposedly it was 25 degrees. Met up with some RW forumites plus a guy from my club, and we went on a warm up. In hindsight i shouldn’t have done this race because i had a few aches in the ankle area, had a few warning signs i suppose on Tuesday at the track. But we aometimes ignore thesae things, its only a little niggle. But anrway had a good warm up and was very keen to start the race and looking forward to some food afterwards.

My splits were

5:24 way too fast

5:45 paying for the fast start

5:50 still paying

5:52 wanting the race to end

5:34 a little quicker but just couldn’t summon up energy to finish

Finished in 28:33. But later on ankle really throbbing and i’ve paid the price, not run since then though it feels slightly better each day

Then had chicken and rice, i’m not usually a rice eater, as i find its often bland tasting not this rice it was delicious, saffron and lemon i believe. The chicken was Harold, so we were told

Intervals- Do you just love them

Well as i’ve decided to follow the Pete Pfitzinger plan to improve my 5km time. It was suggested to me to start it 2 weeks early and repeat the first 2 weeks. So thats what i’ve done. Except i have 2 races this weekend so  just did the interval session, rest of the time just easy running. Mileage will be down on last week but thats ok.

There are 4 types of training listed Basic Speed, VO2 max, Lactate threshold ans Pure Endurance. For 5km training the VO2 type intervals are the no.1 priority. So thats what i started with. I’m still learning about the VO2 max but what i have learnt the intervals have to be long enough, too short and it will be an anaerobic session, too long and you might finish the session but you won’t recover in time for your next session.  The intewrvals will be 600-2000metres depending on your fitness.

I had to do 5 x 800metres (approx 2½miles, the minimum suggested) with 3 minutes recovery @ current 5km pace my pace requires each 800 in 4:32, recovery is supposed to be 50-90% of your hard efforts. I did a mile warm up could have done more i suppose. Here are my times with MHR%’s in brackets

4;32 (81)

4:33 (81)

4:29 (82)

4:21 (85)

4:24 (86)

Guess HR is low or looking positively a lot of scope for improvement. Next week Tempo running

A Matter of Style

Had a blip midweek, felt a bit downhearted looking at photos of me running towards end of race, just race photos of me in general. Looking at pictures of faster runners noticing they pick their feet of the ground more than i do. So after i started reading a bit in Bob Glovers book “The competitive runners handbook” all about running form. I tend to shuffle my feet, from what i’ve read a lot of long distance runners do this to preserve energy. So on Fridays run concentrated a bit more used my arms more tried to pick my feet of the floor more.  The result was a run 30-40 seconds faster than normal.

As for the rest of the week

Thursday 5.36 miles Last 5km race pace was 5:39 (avg) so on todays run along this pathway which i learned was 1.21km or 0.75miles. Nice warm up almost 2 miles then run @ the above 5km pace, only it has a very steep about 80metre incline, managed the outward journey @ 5:47 pace, rest 3 minutes before doing it again the other way 5:37 pace. Nice run overall maybe a bit on the long side but flt ever so good

Friday 3.75 milesTried to focus on my running style. Judging on previous race photo my style looks terrible. I tend to shuffle rather than picking up my feet more. Though i didn’t raise them up that much and used my arms more result was i went 30-40 seconds a mile faster. Not sure how it effected my HR as i left the HRM at home

Saturday 2.87 miles A warm up and warm down with some drills (to improve form) in the park in the middle. 2 sets of High knees, Butt kicks, Skipping and fast feet. Drills that are supposed to help make your feet go faster, which i think that most of us want.

Somehow i managed to run 31 miles  things seem back to normal now. Will start my first interval session this week hopefully this will kick start my running and get faster, we can all hope

new shoes

Went and bought myself some new shoes on Monday, not just one pair but 2 pairs could have been 3 but that would be silly now wouldn’t it.

a pair of Asics Nimbus Gel VIII and a Mizuno wave rider 10. I was not going to run on Monday keep it as a rest day but i couldn’t resist could i. well no work today so what excuse could i have for not running so off i went with Mizuno for a short 2.75 miler.

Tuesday morning i went with Asics just to keep things fair and to do proper shoe rotation started logging my runs now on http://www.fetcheveryone.com/ i’ve been a member a long time but just started using it to log my training etc and i can see at a glance how many miles my shoes have done. Tried doing it before using a normally diary but you forget to do a few runs and soon you let it slide

Today i went out long, well long for me currently went and ran 6.93 miles and felt pretty good averaged 75%mhr just wanted to keep it steady and last the distance

Essex PB 5

Bit of delay at the start, not exactly sure what occured there, but anyway we were soon off, remembering “this is just a training run” But what exactly is that in a race situation what does it mean because you hear it all the time i’ve used it others have said it Anyway, off we went down the road up to the roundabout back again past the start head doen the road towards the town centre back again past the start and around the so called picturesque industrial estate, ok i’ve never heard anyone call it picturesque. But i admit this year was the first year i hardly noticed it kept concentrating on the person in front of me but at this stage the person ahead just merely resembled a dot, kept thinking can we catch them yes i had a little company around i was ahead slightly at around 4 miles this man just glided passed us like a gazelle as fresh as a daisy, i’m thinking where did he come from, but someone to chase. I remember from years before that the finish is almost one lap of the athletics track, just beyond the car park. Reached the carpark and here 2 different things someone thought i looked fresh as if i’ve just gone out for a jog, not that i felt it, and the other the finish is at the end of the carpark. So thinking i didn’t have far to run maybe they changed the finish somewhat i made a beeline for the finish, only to find out we did have to do a circuit of the track. I started to feel quite sick (again) and was breathing quite heavily now hoping and praying no-one would overtake me (they didn’t)and what a relief to get round to the finish without decorating the track. Surprised the way i felt my HR only peaked at 91% certainly felt higher. But maybe its because i haven’t done high intensity work yet. Stats and figures mile pace MHR% 9:16 —– 82 9:09 —– 85 9:34 —– 85 9:37 —– 85 9:05 —– 87 Total time 46:44 Starting a new schedule in 3 weeks time going to aim for the Barking Park 5km Bank Holiday Monday