I've gone a bit quiet on the social media front, I don't do Facebook and I've gone right off Twitter where I would regularly tweet about my running and my football team Newcastle United......I checked in the other day after a couple of months away....I havent been missed..ha ha. Anyway it's nice in the real world not worrying if I got a retweet or a favourite! But hey, we all want to feel loved...right?
But I do enjoy my blog, and need to get back to regular posting. It's a great personal scrapbook to look back on, and once in a while I may post something that someone else out there may find a bit interesting (not just my Mum!)
Right now I'm in a great place with my running. I'm really enjoying it, being relaxed about when and how far to run and not beating myself up if I have a couple days off and enjoy the odd beer and slice of cheesecake!
That's not to say that I'm taking things easy when I do run...no siree! I'm running regular at work and mixing up how I run my lunchtime 4 miles. I'm now throwing in progressive runs, fartleks, hills and tempo runs.
Hills, kill; fartleks and tempos hurt, but the one I enjoy the most is the progressive session. Progression runs steadily increase in pace, so I will usually start at 9:00 min/mile pace, the next mile hit 8:30, then 8:00 and then finish with the last mile at 7:30 min/mile pace. If I'm particularly feeling like I want to smash myself, then I will run 8:30, 8:00, 7:30, and 7:00.....but my God...that hurts!
I think this is a great session as it warms you up with starting out slow, and also gets you used to judging how your pace feels.
One evening a week I run with friend Brian on the trails. We're running around 8 miles but quite a tough hilly route that we hope will help build the strength in our legs for our 3 peaks challenge in July with our other work colleagues.
After the run, we then change into our walking boots, put on our headtorches and rucksacks and head out for a hilly hour walk so we get used to walking whilst feeling tired. To be honest though walking hills is a hell of a lot easier than running up them and the walk has become quite a nice warm down after the run.
....and that's about it. Im really looking forward to the walking challenge in July and happy to keep the running where it is at the moment. If I can get back to my 13 mile to work every Friday in April, keep up the midweek trail run and the lunchtime running, then I think I've found my perfect running formula.
I start at 9 minute miles, then go 9.30, 10, 10.30 and so on...
ReplyDeleteHa ha...Think I may try that one.
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