Week 6

The start of another week, and another snow storm, so once again I wasn’t able to make it to Spin class on Monday night. Was back at Body Balance on Tuesday thought, and have booked in for both this week. Looking forward to going back to Spin after a two week break from it, there’s a sentence I thought I’d never say!

Saturday was a busy day, I was getting taken out for a meal for Valentine’s Day at night so made sure I did plenty of exercise in the morning! The other half was meeting a friend he often goes running with for a run at 9.30 in the morning so I thought I may as well go also, though they run 10k’s at 45mins (and are attempting the half marathon at the GSR in Sept for the first time!) so I started off first knowing they would soon overtake me. I was pleasantly surprised to make it well over the mile before they passed me! Good to know I’m not the only one struggling!! I did a 5k again, same as last Saturday, this time I did it in 28mins 50secs! It was a push but I could tell as I was approaching the 5k that I would be under 29mins as long as I didn’t slow down so I was determined to do it!

One problem I have had since I started running is that I am often sick after a run, or worse during a run! I haven’t yet been able to compete in a race without throwing up over the finish line, sometimes quite discreetly, others quite spectacularly! I know a lot of people do it through nerves on the day, but I am sometimes sick also when doing training runs so I know it isn’t just that with me. I threw up on Saturday as soon as I reached the 5k, I would have liked to have run a bit beyond it without stopping but no chance! Apparently it is a build up of lactic acid but I really have no idea how to stop it! I’ve tried loads of different things, not eating before running, eating two hours before, changing what I drink, I think I just have to accept it’s a part of my running style! Would be interesting to hear if other people have had similar experiences so I welcome any comments on this!

Anyway, after the 5k, and the throwing up, I was a wee bit away from the car and didn’t want to just walk all the way back so ended up doing some fartleking – where you combine sprints with slow jogs, apparently it is great training and also great for your recovery times! My favourite way to do it is sprint to a lampost, walk/jog to the next one, then sprint to the next again, and if people are passing you make sure you sprint past them so you look like you’re a really good runner!! (not that I do that of course….!) After the run we went swimming (more a relaxing soak than exercise!) and tried out the sauna and steam room, and then I did my weights so was well deserving of my meal I would say!

Sometimes with running I feel great, like I could run forever, whereas other times I feel it’s such a struggle. Last week was a struggle, my 5k was not easy and after such runs I do think that I will never be able to achieve my target 10k time. I was really pleased with my 5k time on Saturday at just over 30 secs quicker than last week, however it still wasn’t anywhere near target. I went out for a run again on Sunday, but I wasn’t able to go out till just before teatime. I was completely hyper, having just booked my wedding cars (getting married in April next year!) at the wedding show at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall so decided since it was a bit later than usual I would just go and try run a short, faster run. I ended up doing 2.5k in 13 and a half mins, averaging 11.2kph! I felt great, yet that pace would have been a 27min 5k, nearly 2 mins quicker than the day before! Ok admittedly I probably would have been unlikely to run a full 5k at that pace, but the more my body gets used to running faster, the better!

All in all it felt a good week of training! I did a 5k which had improved on the week before, then a 2.5k at above target pace, with still 3 months to go to the big day! I have to say I feel at lot more optimistic than I did this time last week!!