Category: Running

The JogBlog Guide To Training For Your First 5k

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A friend on Twitter recently challenged himself to train for his first 5k in just 14 days. On top of this, he further challenged himself to run it in under 30 minutes. And guess what? He did it! Hardcore.

However, us mere mortals tend to take more than 14 days to train for our first 5k, so here’s my guide for new runners.

Get a training plan

In the olden days, before smartphones (yes kids there was such a time), we couldn’t download apps like the Kiqplan coaching app and had to make do with plans in books or printed off from the internet. I can’t remember where I got my first training plan from but it was one of those Couch to 5k plans that starts off with run/walk and progresses to 5k at the end of the plan. These plans usually last for 8 weeks or so but it took me twice as long to get through mine, so if you have to redo a week, don’t worry about it. Everyone progresses at different speeds.

If you want a laugh, go to the beginning of my blog and you can read all about my early running days back in January 2006, including endearing little snippets such as:

It was the first of the 3 minutes running / 1 minute walking (repeated 6 times) schedule today and doing 3 minutes non-stop was surprisingly easy, seeing as when I first attempted to run a few weeks ago, a minute nearly killed me.

As you can see, we all started somewhere.

Get comfortable kit

There’s no need to go out and buy the most expensive kit, especially if you’ve just started running as who knows if you’re going to continue with it? I would advise not doing what I did when I started running though and buy something more comfortable than thick, heavy tracksuit bottoms, a normal cotton t-shirt, two normal bras worn at the same time, a thick, heavy, hooded fleece, and a stiff pair of trainers that cost £10 from Shoezone. You can get perfectly decent kit at bargain prices from Sports Direct although you should probably go to a specialist running shop and get them to advise you on the right running shoes for you. Be warned though – proper running shoes aren’t cheap, although Decathlon‘s own make, Kalenji, are reasonably priced and I was very happy with the ones I had a couple of years ago.

Get gadgets

Running is more fun when you know you’re going to get home and see pretty charts and graphs and stats and stuff. There are millions of fitness apps to download and try and you can even run away from Zombies if Zombies are your thing, or you can just be old school and get a good old Garmin like my Garmin Forerunner 405 (other GPS watches are available, such as the Tom Tom Runner also pictured below).

Garmin and Tom Tom Runner

Or you can be even more old school like I was in the early days and just use a stopwatch and pedometer. Or you can be really really really old school and not use anything. That would be weird though.

The other gadget I don’t run without is my iPod. Lots of people don’t listen to music when they run but maybe they sound more elegant than I do when I’m running.

Get a race booked

You could do a parkrun, but it might be more rewarding to do a ‘proper’ race and get a medal at the end for all your hard work.

5k medal

Will run for bling

You will be nervous and you will be scared but, trust me, you’re going to fucking love it and you’ll cross that finish line with a massive grin. My first race was the Crisis Square Mile Run and I still smile when I remember how I felt when I’d finished.

Get clued up on nutrition

I’m joking. It’s 5k; eat what you want.

So, that’s my tips for new runners. Enjoy your first 5k!

Juneathon Day 25 – SKINS Running Tights Review

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As I said earlier this week, I’d planned to do this Saturday’s scheduled 7 miles today because I’d decided at the beginning of Juneathon to do a parkrun/spin challenge this Saturday instead of sticking diligently to my marathon training schedule.

I woke up feeling rested, the sun was shining, my new pink running shoes were waiting for me and I also had the added motivation of a pair of SKINS A400 ¾ running tights that had been sent to me to try out.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of SKINS but, in case you haven’t, SKINS make compression clothing using something called Dynamic Gradient Compression which apparently means you can workout for longer and have less muscle pain the next day. This works by controlling the pressure over the ITB and TFL muscle groups and I’m not going to pretend I know about this kind of thing (as far as I’m concerned, TFL stands for Transport for London), so if you want to read about the science behind SKINS, you can fill your boots with all the techy stuff here.

Upon opening the packaging – a fancy box inside a cardboard sleeve, which undoubtedly ups the price of these running tights, which aren’t cheap at £90 – the first thing I noticed about the SKINS were that they were tiny. Like teeny-tiny. Like teeny-weeny-teeny-tiny. Like DO I LOOK LIKE I’M THE SIZE OF CHERYL COLE tiny.

Skins A400 women's running tights

You can’t tell from the photo just how tiny they are; I should have put my cat next to them for scale.

What intrigued me more than the Cheryl Cole-esque size was a label which said it mustn’t be removed. I have absolutely no idea why this label shouldn’t be removed. Any ideas?

Skins label

Why???????

I liked the smooth, shiny material but I had a bit of trouble pulling the tights up so the waistband wasn’t hugging my hips, but after my run, I read on the website that the ‘lower rise sits comfortably on hips’, which isn’t great for those of us with a bit of a belly. I prefer a higher waist on my running tights, otherwise I find they keep slipping down.

SKINS A400 women's running tights

So, now I was dressed in my new fancy running tights, it was time for my run.

SKINS A400 women's running tights

It didn’t start well. I spent the first mile tugging at one of my bra straps that had decided to be uncomfortable (I think it was irritating my sunburnt shoulder) and the SKINS running tights were the most uncomfortable things I had ever worn; they were too tight on my legs, the waistband kept slipping down and the bands at the bottom of the legs were threatening to cut the circulation off from my calves.

After the first mile though, my clothing stopped annoying me. My bra strap stopped irritating my sunburn and the SKINS got comfier. A lot comfier. Maybe they need breaking in or something but after a while they stopped being the most uncomfortable thing I’d ever worn and even the waistband stopped slipping down and decided to stay in place, and a waistband that doesn’t keep slipping down is really all I want from a pair of running tights.

So now I’d started going, I decided my goal for today’s run would be to run under 13 minute miles. I decided this when I kept stopping to walk because I thought it would spur me on to stop walking quite so much and, yay, it worked. Because the Dymchurch Marathon has a cut off of 6 hours, I reckoned if I can average 13 minute miles or under, I should make the cut off time but, according to Running Free Online, if I run the marathon like I ran today, I’m not going to make that cut off time. Dammit. Still, I have months and months to get fitter and faster.

marathon-estimate

Something that did make me smile, however, was the Great Kent Bike Ride pack that was waiting for me when I got back. It contained this year’s t-shirt that I’d ordered and IT’S BRIGHT FUCKING ORANGE.

Great Kent Bike Ride 2015 t-shirt

I love orange. I love orange so much that, many years ago, I thought about joining the Hare Krishnas when I saw them skipping down Oxford Street one day. I’m not sure if they were actually skipping but they looked so happy in their flowing orange robes, banging their tambourines, I wanted to join them and be happy and wear orange and bang tambourines down Oxford Street and stuff. But then I found out they didn’t eat garlic or onions and I thought fuck that.

Tomorrow is a rest day but, obviously, Juneathon doesn’t allow for proper rest days so I’ll go for a walk or something and I’ll also report back on whether the SKINS did their reduce DOMS thing or not. I can tell you this though; as I’m writing this post – 5 hours after returning from my run – my legs feel good. Maybe they do work after all.

Stats

Running: 7 miles
Pairs of posh new running tights: 1
Bright orange t-shirts: 1
Current thoughts of joining the Hare Krishnas: 0

 

 

Juneathon Day 24: Practically A Rest Day And A Question About Nutrition

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My marathon training schedule said, Bike: 30 minutes. It hardly seemed worth getting my bike out of the garage just to go on a 30 minute ride, then I thought but what about people without bikes? Surely most runners aren’t cyclists too? Perhaps it meant 30 minutes on a stationary bike but I didn’t want to go to the gym just to do 30 minutes on a stationary bike (if you want to know my thoughts on stationary bikes, you can read my stationary bike haiku here), so I decided to ponce about the countryside for half an hour on my pretty Lady of the Manor Bike.

Pashley Poppy

My beautiful Lady of the Manor bike

Before I ponced about the countryside (where I saw a crow peck at the remains of a squished pigeon, ick), I’d been to Tesco to buy a Trek Bar for Sunday’s Great Kent Bike Ride; not that a leisurely 30 mile bike ride needs any particular fuelling but because I don’t usually (for ‘usually’, read ‘ever’) have breakfast and so I knew I’d be starving well before lunchtime and, anyway, Trek Bars are yum.

This got me thinking about sports nutrition and supplements in general, especially as I’m *cough* marathon training (this is only the second week, the novelty will soon wear off, I promise) and nutrition will have to play a part in that somewhere.

I took running really seriously when I first started. I read all the books and even before I’d run my first 5k, I’d started looking at gels and protein shakes. I know, I know… stop laughing… I was an enthusiastic beginner, all excited about my new hobby. I’ve still never had a gel, but when I started running home from work, I fuelled up beforehand with a Trek Bar (like I said, any excuse) and then I discovered MaxiNutrition vanilla protein shakes in Holland & Barrett, which tasted like ice cream, so I decided I needed one of those on completion of each running commute.

Because I’ve barely ran over the last few years, I haven’t taken any notice of what I’ve eaten afterwards but, I suppose with my mileage hopefully increasing over the next few weeks, I’m going to have to start thinking about pre-, during- and post-run nutrition. Any tips? What do you eat and drink when you’re marathon training?

Stats

Cycling: 30-ish minutes / 6-ish miles

 

 

 

Juneathon Day 23 – Bad Mood

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Flowers, Willesborough Dykes footpath

Pretty flowers seen on today’s run (although this pic was taken a couple of weeks ago)

Yesterday, I said I was going to do this coming Saturday’s long run tomorrow, but today I changed my mind as I decided doing 7 miles the day after doing 4 miles wasn’t a good idea. Not because I’d be overdoing it but because I would undoubtedly end up walking 6.5 miles of the 7 miles and there wouldn’t even be a pub lunch at the end of it and I only walk for lunch.

So, the 7 miles will be done on Thursday and I’m not sure why I didn’t think of doing it on Thursday in the first place (and in case you’re wondering why I don’t do it on Friday, I’m going out Thursday night and no running ever takes place when I’ve been out the night before).

Back to today though. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that, if you go to bed with the hump but without any dinner, you’re not going to have much energy in the morning. But, although I woke up still in a bad mood, when even the thought of trying out my new running shoes didn’t cheer me up, I wasn’t in a bad enough mood to tell my marathon training schedule to fuck off, so I decided to do an out and back to get my 4 miles in.

While I was out, I wondered why I’d chosen to do an out and back, seeing as I hate out and backs. Then I realised it would be good training for the marathon because, not only is Dymchurch marathon an out and back, it’s an out and back and out and back and out again which made me wonder why I’d signed up to it in the first place, then I remembered the goody bag contains beer, crisps and chocolate.

Dymchurch goody bag

Will run for chocolate, crisps and cider

I’ve got to admit though, after being in Dymchurch on Sunday and looking up the sea wall at the route, I’m not looking forward to running up and down it for six hours in the freezing cold end-of-November weather.

Stats

Running: 4 miles
Bad moods: 1

 

 

 

 

Juneathon Days 21 and 22 – No Slactivities For Me

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Friends of Pilgrim Hospice Social Rides

I’m fourth from left in the pink top and pink shoes. A lovely summer’s day at the seaside. Brr.

Ha, you thought I’d slacked off yesterday, didn’t you? Well, I’m here to tell all you disbelievers that I didn’t slack off, so there. In fact, I went on a 30 mile bike ride yesterday (after getting the day right). I couldn’t be bothered to blog when I got in and sat and read my book in the conservatory instead (Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky by Patrick Hamilton, in case you’re interested. I love Patrick Hamilton. If you haven’t already, read Hangover Square, it’s brilliant.) and then later on, I sort of forgot. That’s ‘sort of forgot’, as in ‘totally forgot because I ate pizza and drank wine and then watched crap all night on telly instead’.

This morning I went to the gym and did 20 minutes on the rowing machine, 22 minutes on the treadmill doing Audiofuel’s 180 Pyramid Max interval session, then 20 minutes on the cross-trainer. I also booked spin classes for tomorrow evening and Saturday morning. As you’ll remember (if you’ve been paying attention that is but, if not why not, hmm?), I challenged myself to a parkrun/spin challenge. The challenge involves running parkrun quick enough, then cycling back quick enough to get to the spin class in time. To be honest, although the timing is quite tight, it’s nowhere near impossible and unless my legs or wheels fall off or an unlikely but extremely unlucky combination of both, it should be fine. Touch wood, fingers crossed, stroke a black cat, etc.

Also this morning, Carla, Rachel and I have been discussing arrangements for Sunday’s Great Kent Bike Ride (where fellow Juneathoner Helen will also be joining us). It didn’t take long for the discussion to turn to where we’ll be eating and drinking after the ride and we are all now looking forward to our Wetherspoon roast. Yum.

You may be wondering where my marathon training is going to fit into all this spinning and cycling. I’ve been wondering the same thing myself and have decided Saturday’s long run of 7 miles is going to happen on Wednesday, although I’m supposed to be doing 4 miles tomorrow, so it’ll probably be more of a 7 mile walk.

Stats

Cycling: 30 miles
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 22 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
parkrun/spin challenges coming up: 1
Great Kent Bike Rides coming up: 1
Wetherspoon roasts looking forward to: 1

Juneathon Day 20 – A Run And A Pair Of New Shoes

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DAMMIT, I thought, when I woke up. I’d had a sleepless night and when I woke up I thought I’d slept too late to make it on time to meet up with a group to go on a bike ride to the seaside. So I jumped out of bed to get on Facebook and hoped they’d see my ‘sorry I’m not going to make it on time’ message before they left, then I realised it was Saturday, not Sunday and I didn’t have to be anywhere. Duh.

But, I did have to run 6 miles and so I drank my tea and got into my running gear and attempted to run 6 miles. My ‘attempt’ turned into a bit of a stroll, listening to my music but at least I made it out the door.

When I got home, I decided because I’d ran 6 miles, my running shoes were probably worn out and therefore I needed a new pair. I pondered this out loud on Twitter and Twitter agreed with me:

And so I cycled off to the Designer Outlet and bought myself some pretty pink Asics Cumulus 15.

Asics Cumulus 15

These totally say ‘serious athlete in training’ eh?

I’m not entirely convinced they’re bright enough or pink enough though. What do you think?

Stats

Running: 6 miles
Cycling: 4 miles
Pairs of bright pink running shoes: 1

Juneathon Day 19 – Slacking and Skull Disco Balls

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Running Free Online calendar showing the Juneathon activity so far

Running Free Online calendar showing the Juneathon activity so far

Last time I posted, I said I was off to London the next day and my activity would probably be a bar press up. Although I did visit a few bars – my favourite being the one with the skull disco ball, safari wallpaper and cocktails in teacups – I forgot to do a bar press up.

Skull disco ball in Simmons Bar, King's Cross

Skull disco ball pleases my inner goth

I did, however, walk the two miles to the station in the morning instead of getting a lift. That definitely counts.

On Sunday I did fuck all except walk to Tesco to buy wine. I’m not sure that counts.

On Monday I didn’t even walk to Tesco. That doesn’t count no matter how many ways I try to change ‘didn’t even walk to Tesco’ into something more strenuous.

Tuesday should have been the start of my marathon training but after three hours of trying unsuccessfully to tell myself to get out the door and go for a run, I decided I’d rather get dressed instead. I’m not sure ‘getting dressed’ counts.

Wednesday I cycled seven miles and walked seven miles. That even more definitely counts than ‘walked two miles to the station’.

Thursday was another ‘can’t be fucking arsed’ day, although I did go to the designer outlet and look at Asics running shoes, so maybe that counts?

Today – Friday – my marathon training schedule said I had to run three miles and I decided I would really hate myself if I slacked off another marathon training run, especially in the very first week, so I forced myself out the door and although I mostly walked the three miles, at least I did it.

Tomorrow, my marathon training schedule says I have to run six miles, so I’m hoping the motivation fairies visit me in the night.

Stats

Running: 3 miles (most of it walking)
Juneathons completed: some of them

Juneathon Day 9 – A Magic Bracelet (and you could have one too)

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A few months ago, I sensed Cassie needed some motivation to get back into running, so I made her a bracelet.

Running braceletAnd as Helen had a couple of marathons coming up, I made her a bracelet too.

Running jewellery

Then I realised that I needed some motivation as well, so I made myself a bracelet. My one embraced my inner goth.

Skull bracelet

It also matches my Fitbit (sorry for fuzzy photo – trying to take a photo one-handed with your non-dominant hand isn’t easy).

Run bracelet

And, I’ll tell you what – this bracelet is made of magic because I wore it for the first time today as I was going for a run and I ran 5 miles without stopping, WAHOO. I even did sub-12 m/m which, yes, is horrifically slow, but I don’t care. I DID 5 MILES WITHOUT STOPPING AND IT’S ALL THANKS TO MY MAGIC BRACELET.

run-skull-bracelet

Giveaway – Win A Magic Bracelet! 

As I came back from my run endorphined-up on a runner’s high, I’ve decided to share the magic and give away two bracelets (purely because I have two ‘run’ beads left). You have the choice of a skull one like mine (although I haven’t got many pink or purple ones left but I have green, red, blue and yellow skull beads so you can choose a combination of those), or you can have a black and red one like the one at the beginning of this post (or you can have black and pink, or pink and red, as I have pink beads). Or you can have a pot-luck one and leave me to decide what to make from my collection of beads.

Just leave a comment below telling me what magic power you would like to have and I’ll pick two at random after the closing date of Tuesday 30 June 2015.

UK entries only, sorry (unless you want to pay the postage).

Stats

Running:
Distance: 5.1 muthafucking miles, baby
Time: 1:01:28
Pace: 11:57 m/m

 

Juneathon Day 8 – A New Week In Which To Redeem Myself

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Sennheiser Thru the Gears

The first week of Juneathon is over and now begins a whole new fresh week – a week in which I can hopefully redeem myself after the slackathon that began the first week.

I had planned to run today but when I got up, my legs were still aching from last week’s run (although I don’t think they can still be aching from last week’s run; it must be from something else. What that something else is though, I haven’t a clue. Maybe lack of crisps or something.) so I decided to go to the gym and go on the rowing machine which usually sorts any DOMS out.

But because I had planned to run though, and because I am supposed to be marathon training training – especially as marathon training singular starts next week, eek – I thought I’d do some intervals on the treadmill when I got to the gym. Intervals are an integral part of training, after all.

So, I did 30 minutes on the rowing machine, then as I was scrolling through my Audiofuel playlist looking for the Pyramid Max 180 interval session, I saw the Sennheiser Thru The Gears track which is my absolute favourite Audiofuel track as it gives you such a fantastic workout on the treadmill, so I gave that a blast, then I went on the cross-trainer for 20 minutes.

Not a bad workout for a Monday, eh?

Well done everyone on your efforts throughout the first week of Juneathon – I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves. Personally, it’s given me the boost I needed to motivate me to get back into exercising as I’ve been a bit slack over the last few weeks. Hopefully it’ll give me a good base for the beginning of my marathon training too.

Oh, and I promise to run tomorrow. Punky promise. (That’s pinky promise as autocorrected by my phone.)

Stats

Rowing machine: 30 minutes
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Juneathon’s completed: 6/30

Juneathon Day 5: A Run! Yes, I Said A Run!

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You know I said yesterday I might do a run today but don’t hold your breath? Well, after posting the link to yesterday’s walk on the Juneathon Facebook Page, fellow Juneathoner David Lewis berated me and said this was called JogBlog, not WalkTalk, and so I said okay, I’ll do a run tomorrow and so, DAMMIT, that meant I had to run today.

So, yeah, I ran. And not only did I run but, because I had a whole three or four hours of uninterrupted sleep at some point after 1am, my brain or body or whatever part of me is responsible for this type of thing, decided that 5am was a perfectly reasonable time for me to be wide awake, so I got up about 5:30am, left the house at 6:30am-ish and went for a run.

Anita Extreme Control Sports Bra

As I pondered what to wear, I remembered I had a new Anita Extreme Control Sports Bra to try out. This bra is great and I’m not sure what I like best about it – the way it does up easily like a normal bra (i.e. none of that twenty-three clips and straps and hooks malarky), the comfort and support, or that it comes in Black Grape colour, which isn’t to be confused with the indie dance rockers of the same name. Which is just as well, as I really don’t want Shaun Ryder anywhere near my tits.

As soon as I stepped outside the house and before I’d even taken my hand off the door handle, someone was pouring water on my head and I thought WHO THE FUCK IS POURING WATER ON MY HEAD? Then I realised it was probably raining and not someone pouring water on my head and I looked around and saw that, yes, indeed, it was raining all over the local neighbourhood and not just on my head.

Being a sane and rational person, I turned to go back inside but, although I still had my hand on the door handle, the door had shut and so I thought I’d be hard and go for a run anyway. Plus, although I’m no Michael Fish, I reckoned it was only going to be a shower anyway. But it turned out I am Michael Fish after all because it was only a shower. Get me and my weather forecasting skillz.

I was doing really well, running (I use the term loosely) without stopping to walk until I got to about 1.85 miles and thought I’d have a bit of a rest. But then I remembered I was marathon training training and a marathon is longer than 1.85 miles (my maths is rubbish and at the time I couldn’t work out just how much longer it is, which is probably just as well), so I carried on shuffling along in my own approximation of running and although before I’d left the house I’d planned to do 3 miles, it only turned out to be 2.6 miles, I’m happy with that. It’s a start, isn’t it?

Stats

Run:

Distance: 2.6 miles
Time: mind your own business (or look on Strava)
Pace: as above
Juneathons completed: 3/30

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