Not having been able to do substantial running for the last couple of weeks has been infuriating and made it feel like I’m not doing any exercise; however I topped 1,000 sit-ups and 70 miles cycled for the month today, so I guess it all adds up. Juneathon has been a good motivating factor but if I’m honest the diet’s slipped off and I’m not feeling my best. It’s going to kick back in big style now, down with the biscuit tin of fatty, sugary death.
Oh- today – 11k cycle, 36ish minutes, and 110 sit-ups.
Running long provides a lot of great benefits:
# Strengthens the heart – larger stroke volume.
# Strengthens the leg muscles – endurance is developed.
# Mind Work – mental toughness and coping skills are developed.
# Develops fat burning capacity
# Increases number and size of mitochondria
# Increases capillary growth into muscle fibers.
# Increases aerobic efficiency.
# Increase in Maximum VO2.
I can’t wait to get my knee sorted and get back to these. I’d add:
The LSR helps you develop an enjoyment for running. The LSR is more leisurely, so you can watch the world go by.
If you do it on a Sunday, you sleep well and are better braced for the week ahead…
It shifts your frame of reference for distance running. I don’t think of a 10k as a particularly long run anymore, which is pretty amazing given that 3 months ago I’d never run more than 5…
Knee not quite recovered. Think I need to see a physio (as per Sensei Paul’s and others’ advice), and after three late nights in a row and lots of bad hay fever (not to mention 28 degree heat) I wasn’t on great form today. Managed 6k in about 45 minutes, which is pretty lame by my standards. Hoping that I’ll improve soon and to do a run or two when I’m on vacation next weekend on the Isle of Wight…
15 pushups at an urban golf venue, and four holes of the most surreal street golf you can imagine. It’s my brother-in-law-to-be’s stag do and it’s off the charts. More tomorrow, including pics with any luck.
Broken today by hay fever and limited sleep caused by late night at B2L 10th birthday party, but totally worth it – a magical evening celebrating the 10th birthday of the company I’ve spent the last six years of my life working for. Very much fun.
This morning’s Juneathon effort was a stately 100 sit-ups. I had hoped to do a pre-work run, but my subconscious arm must have hit the snooze button. Damnit.
Which means an early morning start tomorrow after a late night drinks do tonight. Argh! Wish me luck (and willpower).
After a week of doctor mandated non-running, two days of warm up work and back bike rides, and a large number of sit-ups, I was back out running this morning. A beautiful day, I took off at pace, feeling the warm rush of satisfaction at enjoying a form of physical exertion. The pace, needless to say, didn’t sustain itself the whole way through the run but my 5k circuit went OK, completed in about 31 minutes, a couple of minutes off my best time for the distance but by no means slow.
The knee feels OK – slightly tentative and I’m clearly going to need to take it a lot easier than I have been – but hopefully after a week or two of relatively gentle 5k routes I’ll be able to build up to a more substantial LSR. Juneathon stats all here.
I was unequivocally enjoying Juneathon until my injury hit last week and since then I’ve been quietly fuming, doing my sit-ups (100 this morning) until I could get back into the rhythm of it. Cycling (standard 11k there and back today) has resumed, and am going to try a run again tomorrow, but the novelty of daily posts has started to wear thin.
My daily exercise isn’t particularly interesting at the moment – just routine – but that may change once I set my mind, feet and knees to breaking personal bests and ramping up the training for the New Forest half marathon.
That said, my blogging schedule is going to diminish post-Juneathon, you may be relieved to hear -Â down from 7 to 3-4 max posts per week – and will actually be about stuff, like, y’know, barefoot running, running buggies, juggling running training, a commute and a baby (not literally), and the ongoing quest to cut my BMI down to size. In the meantime, I’ll do my best to keep it interesting and will think up as captivating headlines as possible on my early morning runs, I promise.
No run this morning, despite earlier hopes. The pollen count is literally dismantling me. However; day 21 of Juneathon has seen 80 sit-ups and the reintroduction of the (this morning, very gentle) cycle to work (so I’ve done 5.5k and it’ll be 5.3 on the return journey tonight). The knee, whilst slightly tentative, is not too bad, which is pleasing on a number of counts:
One more day off – and I’ll try a run on Weds
Cycling again!
The doctor was right – despite the strictures of the 7 minute NHS diagnosis mandate, he saw, assessed, diagnosed and prescribed the appropriate course of action to lead to recovery
It’s less pleasing because…
The doctor was right – meaning I need to take his advice and reduce my mileage. He said it should take six months of build up before I was doing the kind of distance I was doing (it’d been three) – and I only have 3 months left until the half-marathon, so need to work out an appropriate level of training
I think I’m going to aim for a post Juneathon regimen that involves merely 4 runs a week – three at three or so miles and one longer piece which I’ll vary, between 6.5 and 13 miles over the course of the build-up – my “LSR.” I’m not sure if this is sensible or not, but I hope so… Any Senseis out there with a view? I probably do need to get a running coach…
180 sit-ups. Knee feeling back to where it was, slightly excessive tendon popping notwithstanding, so assuming the hayfever isn’t too awful I might venture a light run tomorrow morning. Will be going GPS free for a few days, so no Runkeeper data, but will keep logging my stats on there.
Also doing a Google Doc with stats including non-RunKeeper tracked data so will have final stats for the month come the 30th. Stag do next weekend I’ll need to make it through, too, so might be a bit of a painful run for the finish, but bring it on…
Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.
