What running music?

Tomorrow I am looking forward to running with music once again. Having checked out the Runner's World rating for the race, I can see that the PB potential is judged as from 20 to 60 per cent possibility.

So! I think I'll hit my watch for a 42:30 10k. That isn't too much slower than my fastest effort. If I can keep faster than 6:50 or so, then I'll be happy.

The race is uphill for the first 2 and 1/2 miles, so I be quite happy to run that slower. I have three Mumford and Sons sons for that lasting 12 minutes or so.

And so this is my timing plan:

1 Sigh no more - very very slow start to keep me slow.
2 The Cave - This version starts and ends with some seagulls stock sound. Again, designed to make me run slow.
3 Little Lion Man - To speed me up somewhat and begin to rile me.
4 Metallica Sad But True - recommended for a 40minute 10k. We'll see!
5 Dog Days - normally my first song, this will lead into the second 5k.
6 Rabbit Heart - fast beat song. Should this be before Dog Days? I think so...
7 Howl - A song about running with bloody feet. Amen!
8 Drumming Song - Massive beat, massive running?
9 Fade to Black - As with last time, another effort built up with the final part?
10 Gonna Fly Now - Terrible memories of this being played in the middle part of a race - of lacking in any explosive power. How will it be for me when played as the final part?

It is almost 1am. I look forward to running this music tomorrow. I've paid enough money to do so :-D

Before the 10k tomorrow...

I wonder if tomorrow I will run as hard as I did last year.

Last year I ran this 10k, and I wrote about my feelings of aiming for a sub 50-minute 10k. According to my thoughts then, I wanted to stop running after three miles.

This side of things, I can run under 43 minutes with effort. I expect, even though it is a hilly course, to achieve less than 43 minutes. However, I mostly want to enjoy running with music again.

Strangely enough, I haven't run with music for many months. Someone who ran rather seriously told me of how her running colleagues consider those who run with music to be joggers.

That I do not dedicate running to be my major hobby is something of which I am rather pleased.

In addition, I certainly found that my best time so far (41:30 at the Scarborough 10k in 2010) came through running without music.

However, I wonder if I will run tomorrow my absolute hardest. My will does not appear to be so strong this side of things, not least because my other interests and responsibilities (to my job and my exam classes, for one) have caught my attention. Yet things were not always so.

Training in Wolverhampton in 1995, I remember telling me coach that I was willing to run my absolute hardest every time. And, from that, if I could improve (but still try my hardest) then my times would improve too.

Truth is, I feel a sense of wanting to hold back because of my legs - my ankles.

I even wonder whether I'll wear my flats, or my marathon shoes.

But thinking of these things does not make me angsty. I have reached a point, perhaps, where I should not expect a PB every time I run. But does that mean that I shouldn't drop below a minimum effort of running?

We'll see.

40 minutes

I used to only run cardio (albeit on the cross-trainer) for 19 minutes at a time. I would burn my legs and my arms for 19 minutes, hitting my heart-rate up to 170 and keeping it there.

As part of my (sporadic) marathon training, I have begun to train for 40 minutes. There have been times in the near past where I have attempted to even run at only 40% resistance on the cardio and struggled immensely. The spirit, the body and the will have simply not been there.

Today, though, I hit a 40 minute cardio with remarkable ease. My heart-rate was 160 throughout the first 20 minutes, and hit 180+ for the last 20 minutes.

The thing is, and this surprises me, I felt comfortable. My heart-rate meant I should not have been comfortable.

The truth is, my body will struggle with the impact of 40 minutes of running. But the cardio doesn't seem too much of a problem.

And so I have the 10k in two days. I wonder...

Resting

Resting is something that I don't do so well. Right now my cardio is strong, as are my thighs and my left foot. My calves and the top of my right foot, though, feel weak. They are tight, and ache to tense or stretch.

As always, I want to move. And, with all such things, I wonder how they will feel come the 10k this Sunday. Will the adrenaline fix them?

My ankles

Today was the first day back after Easter for moderation. In three weeks my exam class decide their future, while I run a marathon. I have yet to say much to people, but I am thinking of creating a justgiving.co.uk page.

I have not wanted to run for a charity because, frankly, I am not sure if I will actually manage to complete the run. I might. I might.

The weakest part of my body, as it always has been, are my ankles. The muscle used to knit away from them when I was younger. In fact, I suffered from desperate shin-splints. I remember even now trying to qualify for English schools, and being unable to even run my strides due to the pain in my legs.

Right now, I have little to no pain in my thighs. Even the top of my right foot, which has felt dubious for a while, doesn't hurt so much. However, my ankles and calves mean I do not feel like I have the explosive stamina needed for any concerted running. I feel that I could head to the gym, but not for long. I also feel that my 10k at Kirkymoorside seems like it might be a bit of a dangerous proposition.

We'll see...

Some metaphors

I typed out an extensive post yesterday that was lost. No matter, though: if the metaphors meant something then surely I will remember them.

The first: the way you feel before you do something will not necessarily be how you feel during it.

Prior to my 18 mile run, I felt extremely tired. In fact, I feel tired now. But I didn't suffer the debilitating pain of my top foot pain as I did before. When I was running, I felt the energy of determination and possibility. And so, prior to my desires to work, to travel and to do a variety of things, I often feel like doing none of them.


The second: Vary life, vary the way you run.

I have altered my running style to forefoot running under the guise that it would make me faster. It does. It also takes some of the stress from my knees and hips and I absorb the impact of my stocky frame. However, it also causes the stress to hit my calves and ankles - two parts of my body that are weak and tight in equal measure. Therefore, on my 18 mile run I varied how my foot hit the floor to spread the pain out over my body. It seemed to work.

The third: Ambition and striving feed themselves.

There is nothing inherently worthy in running. In Scarborough, as in other cities in which I have lived, people who do not run do not seem to know how to respond to runners running past. The usual response is to ignore or to laugh. This does closely reflect the response of the general public to the ambitions of the faceless minority.

The fourth: Rest is a good as rigor.

I am resting a little more now. I have a headache, a jaw ache and some footache. I walk on the beach in the morning (rather than intensely run in the gym). I intend to keep myself as much out of harm's way before the marathon as I do to push myself in it.

Finally, I should like to add that I am happy with the Garmin upload that you can now see in my blog update. More for my sakes than anything else. I am not even considering the 10k in Kirbymoorside next week.

3 hours of running

As you might have read yesterday, I was a frankly terrified before today of my marathon. I had struggled to run even 20 minute with my new shoes. Having intended to run three 5ks, I struggled to see myself running more than one.

Today, though, I managed to run for three hours, and for eighteen miles. Longer than I have ever done in my life. The fact that I did this four weeks before my marathon show that despite all my problems with my feet and my fitness, I am on track.

There are many metaphors about this that I want to express. But not right now.

Plan?

I am not ready for the marathon, and I seem to be doing many things in my power to avoid being ready, too.

Tomorrow I need to do my 3 hour run. All the lark about waking up to early is silly, too. Run past your car.

What music? Who knows!

If my feet do not kill me, I look forward to my run tomorrow. I also need to take a plan about what kind of run I expect...

15 minutes with new shoes

Disconcertingly, even somewhat depressingly, I only managed 15 minutes yesterday in my new trainers. I had no explosive energy in my body, for one. And also, the lower parts of my calves could not take any strain at all.

I was thinking of taking on a 2:30 hour run. I haven't run for that long for a few weeks, and each day that passes without attempting that kind of run chips away at both my confidence, and my fitness...

But what will I do? Attempt another longer run this evening. I can feel the tenderness of the backs of my calves... I wonder if the gym should be the thing, instead?

Five weeks

I have not posted for several weeks, but I have still been training.

Firstly, new shoes have been purchased. In doing so, I have committed myself to my forefoot running. I didn't negotiate a price on them, but I did have my running style analysed. My right foot hits on the outside, but overpronates naturally. The support of my (new) shoes seems to do something about that. My right foot, though, aims at an outward angle. Finally, my right foot (thanks to football) is clearly dominant. It feels lighter, and the leg must be more dominant.

I have not managed a two hour run for a while. However, I have been maintaining some regular training. Of particular note should be my 5k yesterday. I ran 20:11 - while I thought I maintained form, I was running slower than my 10k time for the last few miles. Still, I was happy to have attempted the run. And, in doing so, I felt that all those who 'beat' me deserved to do so in the sense that they tried harder.

Sometimes, though, I think that by trying too hard, I don't want to run the race anymore. It is almost too painful.

Will I run my long-run today? I think I doubt it. But tomorrow sounds like a better option.