Workout Wednesday out my my junior coach

As per usual in the holidays I find it hard to fit in exercise around the children. This week I made the most of only having one child at home to actually get out and run. My daughter elected to come on her scooter to accompany me:

As were about to set off it started to drizzle so she grabbed a rain coat but I was happy to just get wet, made a change from over heating! My daughter took on the role of coach and her offerings initially included:

• a baby could run faster than you
• you are sooooo slow

After I pointed out that such comments were counter productive she switched to a much more helpful mock commentary style. She did her best BBC impression of covering the Commonwealth Games and adding uplifting remarks. This was much more effective and I managed a non-stop run of 5.3 km which was way better than my Race for Life the weekend before!

It may not have been a record breaking run but I wasn't too much slower on each measured segment:



Now I just need to work out when to get in another run. I have to say that I did get a major workout doing Go Ape yesterday..

Workout Wednesday - Hot stuff!

I need to get used to the warmth again as running in the sun is extra hard I am sure that it must burn so many more calories! A good week for running with the training programme really pushing me but not over extending me. 

I broke my record on my countryside run from Plantation Bridge to Burneside:

That run took me to over 40 km of running in May! Then I had to up my game and run 25 minute non stop (well I sort of did as I only got half way up my nemesis hill..):

Today was thankfully cooler and I ran around Kendal on my town loop:

So I am feeling quite pleased with myself! Not only is my stamina coming back but my overall speed is slowly increasing too - not yet repeated the under 6 minutes per km I managed for part of my last race but I am sure I will get there.... eventually..

Workout Wednesday - Building My Stamina Back

One thing that the Langdale race showed me was how bad my stamina had become with a lack of training! So I have been working back at the 10 km runner programme to work on my intervals. These are currently sets of 10 minutes of running with an increasing amount of walking between each run. I have now done 2 of these and yesterday it was so much better when I went out:

I added some bits on to my route to make the 70 minutes not end up with a boring loop! Some of it was so peaceful and picturesque:

Old canal route near Natland Rd, Kendal

Workout Wednesday A Mixed Bag!

It's been a bit of a mixed week this week. I did apparently manage to do quite well for total workouts recorded on the Garmin:

That was 3 runs and 1 walk to work. I did so some more walking on the Monday that wasn't recorded and on Tuesday thanks to my kids' having activities at opposite ends of the village I clocked up a fair amount of walking (not the ideal 10,000 steps but not too bad!):

Friday's run somehow, despite feeling not brilliant, clocked up some of my best shorter distance times:

It was also a slightly longer one for my town route as I managed to add the section around the Leisure Centre. My run back from Staveley to home on the Monday was marginally longer though not super speedy...

Today I attempted to squeeze in a quick run after I finished work early. Not sure why but I hated most of the run! Nothing really felt right... I cut it short and only did 5.5 km of which around 4 was at a run... Not good when my next event is on the 26th..

Really hope I get to run over next fortnight with my kids both at home. My son likes to run but shouldn't go too far. My daughter prefers to cycle. I am sure we can find a compromise somehow!

Workout Wednesday: February 12th 2014 A Walk/Run around Craggy

So relieved I've finally had a workout after my hamstring injury. It was so frustrating having to wait for my leg to be up to up to exercise... Therefore I donned my running kit and after fuelling up on flapjack at the coffee morning I set off to do a long warm up around Craggy. It was beautiful as I crossed over Barley Bridge:

It's a good climb up the hill on the road so it was a good place to test out my leg without over doing it. I was very lucky that the sun was shining when I got to the top:

Workout Wednesday

Today I started to real feel my running confidence come back, I just went out and ran and it was feeling really good and when my Garmin bleeped each split time I couldn't really believe how much faster I was going without it feeling hard:

OK so I am not going to be running in the Olympics any time soon but it did mean that I knocked off nearly 2 minutes from my best ever 5 km run:

So now I need to work on getting that under the 30 minute mark as well as managing to up my game to complete the 10 km race on the 14th December. As you can see by my face at the end of today's run I finally feel confident that I can do it:

A couple of other runners recommended I used Strava to get better stats to bore everyone with track my progress. So I spent some time uploading all my runs as tracked via the Garmin since I got it in May! It really showed what a good run I had today:

•  Best estimated 5k effort (31:16) 
•  Best estimated 2 mile effort (19:44)
•  Best estimated 1 mile effort (9:46) 
•  Best estimated 1k effort (5:42) 

So if you want to follow my running progress then look out for me on Strava:

Looking at all the leader boards etc. on there shows what a challenge I have in becoming a real runner but at least it feels like I may actually be getting there now!

Worth the effort?

I spent nearly an hour this morning lugging boxes from the 3rd floor attic and bags from out 1st floor bedroom to load up the car for a table sale in Westfield. Then I had to shift them all in to the building and set-up my table. Very kindly I was given a 2nd table for free as I had too much stuff!!

So there I am with loads of baby clothes, toys, adult books and some random surplus stuff already to go and stump up my £6. Kids have stopped being pains in the bottom and are running around having fun. Lots of sellers but where are the buyers?? I eventually sold 4 items of kids clothing, 4 Top Trumps games, 1 baby toy and 2 books!! All that work to just cover the cost...

I was determined that things will not be put back up in the attic so at the suggestion of another stall holder I drove up to the local hospital and donated a huge box of paperbacks to the Friends of the Conquest. These will either be sold to raise money or used on the wards. So my debt mountain may not have gone down but I have a lot less in my attic and I can feel the rosy glow from my charity work!

Some of the clutter is up on Freecycle. The remaining baby things are going to be better sorted and hopefully will go and the children's nearly new in Uckfield on the 7th. Going to sell those as well as have an Usborne book stall and hope that between them they cover the £12 cost!

Oh and when we got back 1/2 of Hastings was blacked out due to a power failure including our house and the main traffic lights! So it was down to Cosmo for dinner...

Currently starting to feel my declutter workout's effect on my body.... not sure I'll be able to walk tomorrow...