Sunday, July 7, 2013

And you don't stop

Not a bad week for running.

Monday- recovery jog. 5.43km in 41:08, or 7:34min/ km.
Tuesday- 6.47km in 31:23, or 4:51min/ km. My fastest run so far.
Thursday- 6.23km in 34:13, or 5:30min/km.
Sunday- 9.82km in 54:47, or 5:35min/km.

Looking over the training notes for the City2Surf 'intermediate' program, I am still a little behind. The program calls for 5 sessions a week and I am only doing four, so I need to up it a bit this week coming. This is the plan:

Monday- recovery jog
Tuesday- 30 minute run, zombie chases enabled
Wednesday- rest
Thursday- 30 minute run, zombie chases enabled
Friday- recovery jog
Saturday- rest
Sunday- Long run. Around both Centennial and Moore Parks, this should be around 12km.

This is by far the biggest week I have had for running for a long time, so I'll need to take good care. Stay true.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Ups and Downs

I didn't post anything, or really do anything much last week. Instead, I ran on Tuesday, got drunk on Thursday, and the rest of the week is a little bit blurry in my recollection. Alcohol, you are my curse.

This week was better. My runs went like this:

Tuesday- 6.12km in 31:03, or 5:04min/km.
Thursday- 6.07km in 30:17, or 4:59min/km. This is my fastest run so far.
Sunday- 10.11km in 56:23, or 5:34min/km. This is my longest run so far.

According to the people who know about these things, the best thing to do in order to increase fitness is to increase the frequency of training and rest more, so earlier nights and running four times per week are probably my best goals. The idea is that I needn't bother trying to run faster, or longer at this stage, because I haven't reached peak training frequency. Without reaching peak training frequency, the likelihood of injuring yourself goes up faster than the training benefit.

I am using the Zombies, Run! app religiously now, the two runs on Tuesday and Thursday are 30 minute zombie missions with zombie chases enabled, i.e. storyline moments of terrified sprinting in order that I don't get my brains eaten. I am running an out-and-back curcuit around the opera House and Botanical gardens which is exactly 6km long.

The Sunday run is a 60 minute zombie mission with no chases. I am running around Centennial Park, adding in a few side streets to increase the distance.

I reckon I can add in another 30 minute mission, no chases to optimize my current workout regimen. Perhaps Monday is the best time for this, so I might go in the morning and call it a recovery session. Now that I wrote that, let me rewrite it. I WILL go in the morning and call it a recovery session.

On the off chance that anyone out there in the blogosphere stumbles across this blog and actually reads it, please donate to my fundraising for the Fred Hollows foundation. Saving Human eyeballs is my whole reason for doing this in the first place.

 Please follow this link to donate and save some eyeballs.
 

Monday, June 17, 2013

Strength and Honour

I finished off last week reasonably strongly with a run for 45 minutes averaging 9.73 km/h, a total of 7.5 km. (Thanks for those statistics, Zombies, Run!)


Ok. So here is the idea for this week:

Monday- Rest.
Tuesday- 30 minute Zombie run, chases active.
Wednesday- Rest
Thursday- 30 minute Zombie Run, chases active.
Friday- 30 minute Zombie run, no chases.
Saturday- Rest
Sunday- 60 minute Zombie run, no chases.

I have Friday off work this week, hence the extra push shouldn't be too much of a shock to the system. I completed Tuesday's run this morning and with the added incentive of sprinting in terror away from the approaching undead, I ran for 34 minutes and averaged 11.53 km/h, totalling 6.63 km.

My intention is to stick with this program for this week and next. After that, I will add in a slow jog for 30 minutes on Mondays as well.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Running Apocalypse

If there is anyone alive there just run.... run!

After the last couple of weeks' worth of rather modest effort I decided I needed an extra kick to my motivation, so I downloaded an iPhone app called Zombies, Run!

Zombies, Run! is an audio game where you run with your headphones in and the game tells you a story where you feature as a supply runner in a post-zombie-apocalypse world, running around a zombie infested city in search of medical supplies, food, water, fuel and information.

If you enable the 'zombie chase' mode the story includes sections where you are chased by packs of zombies who want to eat your brains and you have to run faster to outpace them or drop all the supplies you have collected to get away. It's awesome.

So this is the week so far:

Tuesday: ran on the treadmill at 11km/h for 40 minutes.
Thursday: ran outside for 6km in 32 minutes.

On Sunday I will do another run 'mission' for around half an hour. Next week I'll see if I can pick it up a bit more.


Monday, June 3, 2013

A New Day Dawns

Last week I didn't exactly do what I planned.

On Tuesday I ran for 20 minutes at 11kph, a little faster than I planned.

On Thursday I didn't go in to the gym, so I ran outside instead. I kept a pretty brisk pace, I think about 11kph, and did 5 x 100m sprints at the end.

On Sunday I did nothing- It was pouring with rain, so I missed this main-run-of-the-week altogether.

As a result, I feel great! I am so well rested...

This is the plan for this week: 

Monday- rest
Tuesday- 20 minutes treadmill at 11 kph.
Wednesday- rest
Thursday- 30 minutes treadmill at 9kph.
Friday- rest
Saturday- rest
Sunday- 60 minutes in the park, jogging at around 10kph.

 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Heroism of Participation

Let me just start by saying one thing- I do not like running. I do not find it particularly enjoyable, and I don't understand people who do. I sometimes see people running with a strange look of rapture on their faces and I think "what the hell is wrong with that person?".

I am one of those people you might see jogging who look like they are in penance for some kind of social crime, punishing themselves for kicking the cat or yelling at their children or something. Headphones in, half asleep, grim, masochistic look on their faces. Not really loving it.

Nevertheless, I am in training. The city2surf is just over 11 weeks away and I have not run 14km in many years. So I have picked up the training program from the Fred Hollows Foundation and I will follow it to race day. The heroism is not in the results. The heroism is in getting out of bed in the first place and having a crack at it. Never forget that.

Next week looks like this:

Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 20 minute treadmill, 10kph
Wed- Rest
Thursday- 30 minutes treadmill, 11kph, followed by 5 minutes 12kph.
Friday- Rest
Saturday- Rest
Sunday- 50 minute jog outdoors. This is the endurance and stamina session.


Let's see how that goes...