Running 5 km Is Easy Now! February 15, 2007
Since doing that 10 km run last week, I’m now finding 5 km runs fairly comfortable.
In the past week I managed to complete a 5 km course I’ve struggled with in the past. The course goes up and over several coastal headlands, with a particularly hard hill leading up and around the lighthouse at the half-way point. I’ve never been able to run all the way up that hill; I have to walk for a minute or two and catch my breath.
This week, though, I ran right up and over the hill without a problem. I completed the 5 km in 29:45, which I was pretty happy with. I felt great afterwards, coming home and telling my wife what I’d been able to achieve.
Last night, I ran the same course again and did it in 26:45! I knocked a whole 3 minutes off my time! As I mentioned in Breaking Barriers, it seems that once you get it into your head that you can break a barrier, you really smash it. (Note that the 5 km run I mentioned in that post was mostly flat – I’m now running a very hilly course in close to the same time!)
I Ran 10 KM! February 7, 2007
In my Power Of Focus article, I stated my two health goals for the next 3 to 6 months. One is to get my weight down to 80 kg, and the other is to run 10 km in 1 hour.
Last night, I achieved the 10 km one! I never would have guessed I’d be able to do that so soon!
We’d had my parents and my in-laws over for dinner, and after they left I decided to go for a short 3 km run.
I ran a little bit slower than normal, but when I got to the 3 km mark I decided to continue on to 4.2 km, getting ready for Thursday’s run with a workmate.
At the 4.2 km mark, I was feeling pretty good so I continued on to 5 km (the longest non-stop run I’d done to date).
Still feeling like I had some energy left, I figured I’d push out for 6 km. That came and went, then 7 km, then 8km and 9 km. I felt like I could just keep running continuously!
I finally reached the 10 km mark, and the time was just about exactly an hour. I couldn’t believe it!
The strange thing was, I felt great afterwards. Not tired at all. This must be what it’s like to be fit 
.
World’s Strongest Dad October 24, 2006
Check out this inspiring story. Make sure you watch the YouTube video at the bottom!
Dick Hoyt was a self-described “porker” who had never run more than a mile at a time. Then one day, his wheelchair-bound 11-year-old son wanted to enter a 5-mile charity run to benefit an injured classmate. He struggled, but he managed to push Rick all the way. Rick loved it.
Today, Dick is 65 and Rick is 43. They have run the Boston Marathon 24 times. They’ve completed 212 triathlons, including four 15-hour Ironman events in Hawaii.
Theirs has got to be one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever read about a father’s love for his child. I was pretty pleased with myself to have jogged 5 km (3 miles) pushing G in a stroller until I read that! I think I’ve got some work to do…
Jogging With A Pram September 29, 2006
As promised a few days ago, I’ve now given the jogging pram a couple of runs. It’s actually not too bad!
On Tuesday I ran 3km in 17:45, which is about two minutes slower than when I run without it. It was definitely harder work than a normal jog, especially since my town is quite hilly. The main reason I was slower was because I had to stop running and walk up two of the worst hills.
I just walked with the pram on Wednesday morning, as I was a little sore still. I’ve only started the jogging again this week!
This morning, though, I ran with the pram again. This time I chose a route that cut out one of the hills, and it was a lot better. I took 16:24 to run 3km this time, which is only a little slower than when I run normally.
I think I’ll keep jogging every second morning, as it’s working well. G loves it, too! I’m going to try building up the distance to 4km over the next couple of weeks, and then 5km (3 miles) over the following couple of weeks.
Breaking Barriers June 28, 2006
Have you ever noticed that when you have a perceived performance barrier you’re working at, you keep coming close to it day after day, week after week, and you start to wonder if you’ll ever beat it? Then one day you break through it, then you beat it again during the next couple of attempts, and pretty soon you’re beating it every time. You then wonder what it was that was stopping you from reaching that limit all that time.
This morning I ran 5 km (3 miles) in 26 minutes 22 seconds, beating my previous personal best (from 2 days ago) by 23 seconds. My previous best before that was around 27 minutes 45 seconds.
I’d been running the 5 km in around 27:40 to 28:00 every time. My times haven’t been improving for weeks, and I was wondering how I was ever going to beat the 27:30 barrier. This time corresponds to 5:30 per km, so I’d been using my GPS to keep an eye on my pace and try to keep it under that level. I did pretty well for the first 3 km or so, but every time I’d run out of energy towards the end and my time would come in at just over 27:30.
Two days ago everything seemed to go right. The temperature was nice, the hills didn’t seem quite as hard, I was breathing and stepping comfortably, and my pace was good. I realised towards the end of the run that I was making very good time, so I put in as much extra effort as I could muster and really ran in the last 300 m or so. My final time was 26:45, a whole minute faster than what I was previously doing!
This morning I did the run again, and this time I came in at 26:22!
It seems that once a barrier is broken, it’s shattered. A switch is flipped in your mind that suddenly removes whatever thoughts were holding you back. You know you can beat it and so you do, again and again and again.
The hard part is beating that barrier for the first time.
Whatever it is you’re doing, if things seem to be going really well it’s a sign that this might be the day. Dig deep, put in as much extra effort as you can, and make the most of whatever is going right for you today. Tell yourself that this is the day you smash the barrier. Think about what you’re doing, strive to keep up your pace, and focus on the end result you’re hoping for. If you truly believe you can do it, chances are good that you will.
If it doesn’t come together this time, think about what went wrong. Did you have energy left at the end that you could have used earlier? Did you do anything differently? Did it work or hold you back? What part of your performance could you improve? What’s the one thing that’s holding you back the most? Work on these things, and eventually they’ll all come together on the same day.
Once you’ve broken that barrier, think about what it was that allowed you to achieve a new personal best. Did you do anything differently? Did you use any new techniques? Did you prepare differently beforehand? Did you pace yourself differently throughout the activity? Did you go hard towards the end? Did you start out hard, or save your energy for the end when you really needed it? What did you focus on or think about? How did you feel during the activity? How did you feel afterwards?
Next time out for that activity, remember all these details. Go over them in your mind before starting. Think of them during the activity, and try to repeat the same thoughts and actions throughout. You know you can do it, and you know how you did it last time, so chances are good that you’ll do it again this time. Once you’ve beaten the barrier a few more times, it’ll seem easy and you’ll be enjoying operating at your higher performance level.
And pretty soon you’ll encounter a new performance barrier, and you’ll get to repeat the whole process again!
Technorati Tags: jogging, running, exercise, performance, breaking barriers, personal best
I Ran 5 km In Under 27 Minutes! June 26, 2006
This morning the front light wasn’t on at A’s house (our signal to each other when one of us is not running this morning), so I ran alone.
This was not a bad thing, as I had a few podcasts I wanted to listen to (Tips From The Top Floor (photography), Up To The Top Floor (digital media business), and Part II of a great interview by Yaro Starak with an Australian eBook writer named Daryl Grant).
Maybe it’s because I was distracted by the great podcasts, or maybe it was because I’d had a couple of days of no running and was rested up, but I felt great running this morning and broke my old personal best for 5 km (3 miles) by about a minute! I ran it in 26:45, which is an average pace of around 5:21 per km. I had a lot of energy left towards the end, and was able to really push hard for the last few hundred metres, shaving valuable seconds off my time.
I need to start increasing my distance a bit now, especially if I’m going to run in the 14 km Sydney City To Surf race in mid-August. I don’t expect to be able to run the whole thing non-stop, but I figure if I approach it in stages of 2 to 3 km each, with a walking rest in between each stage, I should be able to put in a respectable time.
Technorati Tags: jogging, running, exercise, Yaro Starak, Tips From The Top Floor, Up To The Top Floor, Daryl Grant, podcasts
Running With A Friend April 9, 2006
Yesterday at H’s first birthday party, I got talking to a mate (we’ll call him ‘A’) who lives just down the street from me. He has been talking about losing weight and getting fitter for a while now, and has been through a few fads trying to find something that works.
For example, at the start of summer he bought a surf ski with good intentions of taking it paddling every morning. I think he’d been watching the Iron Man races on TV! He stopped after about 3 or 4 weeks, mainly because of the hassle of loading it onto his car, driving to the river, and cleaning it off when he came home. A session on the ski takes 1 to 1.5 hours, and he found that wasn’t sustainable every day of the week.
So he asked me if I’d mind if he tagged along on my jog the next morning. “No problem,” I said, “but you’ve got to be waiting out the front at 5:45 am!” I knew he wanted to come, but I honestly didn’t really expect him to be there. Night-guy is very good at making commitments that morning-guy can’t keep, especially after a few beers!
A is about the same height as me, but he’s roughly 10 kg (22 lbs) heavier than I am. Last December, I was nearly 5 kg (11 lbs) heavier than him, so he knows that whatever I’m doing is working. I think he wanted to pick my brains as much as join me for exercise!
To my surprise, on Sunday morning when I walked out the front door, he was waiting in the driveway!
A isn’t the fittest of people, but that wasn’t a big problem. We decided to just do 60 second run/60 second walk intervals and see how he went. He was able to maintain that pace for much of the 3 km course, occasionally needing to go a bit longer walking or to stop running a bit earlier. Mostly it was the hills that were getting him.
I found it fairly easy to jog beside him, and actually enjoyed the shorter run/walk intervals. I was rarely out of breath, and was able to chat most of the way around. His contributions to the conversation were mostly monosyllabic .
The experience was almost like going back and running with the ‘me’ of a few months ago. I was around the same weight and level of fitness then as he is now, and would have barely been able to go at the same 60 second walk/60 second run rate. It really made me aware of how far I’ve come in such a short time, and I think it was motivating for him to see where he’d be in a couple of months if he keeps it up.
After we’d finished, A was weary but feeling pretty pleased with himself. He did better than I thought he would, and he’s keen to join me again on Tuesday morning.
When I got home, I checked the stats on my heart monitor. Normally, I’d take about 28 minutes to do my run (including walking for a bit both before and after) and I’d burn around 470 calories. I’d spend about 7 minutes in my target heart rate zone for weight loss – the heart monitor usually told me 30% of my calories were “fat burning”.
This morning’s jog took about 33 minutes, but 19 of those minutes were within my weight loss target heart rate zone. Although the exercise was a fair bit easier, we took longer to cover the course, so I still burned around 420 calories. But the most interesting bit was that the heart monitor told me 45% of those calories were “fat burning”. So I actually burned off more fat during this easier jog than I do when I run faster!
My friend enjoyed the jog and is planning to join me every second day until he builds up his fitness some more. He doesn’t want to push himself too hard and says he needs a day’s break after each run to recuperate, but I think he also feels like he’s holding me back. But according to the heart monitor he’s actually helping me to burn more fat!
Running with A on alternate days will work out well. I still want to do the harder runs, as they build my fitness more than easy runs will. It just means that now I’ll be doing a “fitness” run every second day, and a “fat burning” run on the days in between. I think that will work out really well. If nothing else, knowing that A is waiting for me out in the chilly darkness will stop me from turning off the alarm and going back to sleep!
Technorati Tags: running, jogging, walking, exercise, health, fitness, endurance
Matt Starts Running April 6, 2006
Matt over at PhysicsDiet.com has recently started running for exercise. He’s posted a bit of info about how he’s going so far – Running – Getting Started.
Matt is using a similar approach to how I started – alternate periods of running and walking, going for about 30 minutes at a time. He started about a week ago with run 30 seconds/walk 60 seconds (or sometimes a little longer), and has already built it up to run 45 seconds/walk 60 seconds.
It’s a little concerning to read about Matt’s trouble with his Achilles Tendon, although it sounds like it’s responding to rest/ice/elevation and the soreness is reducing with each run. Hopefully it’s just a matter of strengthening it up over time.
Although I can now run all the way around my 3 km course, I find that it’s pretty heavy going and pushes me well out of my aerobic heartbeat range. I now run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute most days, and run the complete course only once per week to see how well I’m improving.
The interval training method does seem to increase my fitness faster than just running to exhaustion, and it only adds about 1 minute or so to my total time for the course. Those little walking rests allow my body to recover a bit, and I make up most of the walking time by being able to run faster afterwards. Besides, it’s easier than running to exhaustion .
It’ll be interesting to follow Matt’s progress and see how he improves in the coming weeks.
I Ran 3 Kilometers! March 18, 2006
I’ve been thinking about Thursday’s run, and realised that what really stopped me at the 1.7 km mark was the hill looming in front of me. It wasn’t that the hill itself stopped me, it was just the thought of running up that hill.
So this morning, I determined to run the same route again, and this time to make it to the top of that hill. If nothing else, I’d add another .1 or .2 km to my personal best distance.
It was hard, but I made it to the top of the hill this morning! I kept going down the gentle slope on the other side, and found that I regained a bit of energy running downhill. So I kept going. And going. And going!
I ended up running all the way to my 3 km (1.9 mile) marker!
This is the first time in more than 7 years that I’ve run 3 km without walking or stopping. This is huge for me.
My time was 16:10, which isn’t great by competitive standards but it’s something to work with. At least now I’m running the whole distance, I can work on improving my pace. Previously, I was just trying to run for longer and walk for less.
My plan now is to keep running 3 km for a couple of weeks, and see if I can get the times down. I’d also like to build my endurance up, so I’m not quite so out of breath at the end .
Once I’m happy with my time and endurance over 3 km, I’ll build up to 3.5 km, then 4 km, then 4.5 km, and finally 5 km. My goal is to be running 5 km (3 miles) at least 3 mornings per week. By the time I’m fit enough to go that distance I should be getting times of under 24 minutes, which fits nicely into a half hour timeslot with 3 minutes each of warm up and warm down.
The only question now is how many weeks will it take me to get there?
I Ran A Mile! March 16, 2006
Actually, I ran slightly more than a mile this morning – 1.7 km, or 1.06 miles.
When I first started running, I just ran for as far as I could, then walked until I could run again, then ran as far as I could, then walked, etc. That’s a pretty undisciplined way to exercise, and I tended to be lazy and walk for longer than I should have, so I don’t think I was getting as much out of the exercise time as possible. I was covering 3 km in about 20 minutes or so.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been running for 2 minutes, walking for 1 minute, running for 2 minutes, etc. I do this for 3 km (I drove the route in the car to make sure it was accurate). I found I was less sore when doing this, but I was covering the 3 km in a faster time than the ad-hoc way (around 18 minutes).
I usually have some steam left when I get to the 2 minute mark when jogging, so I don’t think I’m pushing myself into the zone where I might strain something or injure myself. And because I have to start jogging again after a minute, I’m not being lazy and walking for longer than I need to.
This week I increased the 2nd and 4th jogging intervals to 3 minutes, which obviously gave me faster times (around 17.5 minutes). I didn’t feel like I was pushing myself too far, so I’m getting fitter.
Today I decided to experiment and see how far I could run in one stretch. I went a lot, lot further than I thought I could, and really surprised myself. I ran for about 9 minutes straight, and when I measured it out later it was 1.7 km (1.06 miles). Wow!
I’ve felt great all day today!
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