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tawneypup.
Just got back from this evening's late night run. In terms of distance and speed, this was unambiguously my best run ever! A major milestone was achieved -- for the first time, I made it past the 10km mark!
Following on from last Autumn's adventures with the Couch-to-5K plan, I started the six week Bridge-to-10K on New Year's Day. The plan was to be running a continuous 10km by sometime in early February.
Well, we all know what a certain Scottish poet says about plans.
After three successful weeks of Bridge-to-10K running, I tore a calf muscle at the end of the Week 4 Run 1 workout, back in late January. I was in Japan, having a fantastic run. Knowing there were only sixty seconds left, I decided to go all out. I broke into a sprint... and immediately felt a searing RIIIIIIIP in my right leg.
Ooops.
And ouch!
Being overseas, with no access to the ever-awesome NHS, I did some web research to self-diagnose. Upon returning to Merry Olde England, a visit to the sports physio confirmed my diagnosis. Three weeks sans running were mandated, with a slow recovery programme to follow.
It was, of course, frustrating. However, I have learned that this is more or less what one can expect as a runner. I did some reading, and it seems that the average injury rate for runners is about one injury per runner per year. Better get used to it!
Anyway, that was then. Let's fast forward back to tonight!
Tonight, I set out from Chiron Beta Prime to attempt Week 4 Run 1 here in Oxford. Yes, gentle readers, that's the same run where I injured myself back in January. Since then, however, I have been doing daily strengthening exercises, plus a regimen of pre- and post-run stretches. They seem to be paying off, as tonight I ran for 10.167km, passing the 10K mark for the first time!
Now, to be clear, this was not a continuous 10K run. Week 4 of the Bridge-to-10K plan is a 5 minute warm-up walk, then three 18 minute runs separated from each other by 1 minute walks, ending with a 5 minute cool-down walk. So tonight's workout was:
According to the RunKeeper app, the total distance covered in this 66 minute workout was 11.5 kilometers. That counts everything, though -- warm up and cool down and walking breaks. Not so useful.
Upon returning to Chiron Beta Prime (and after doing my stretches), I added up the distance from only the three running segments:
Running 10.167km in 54 minutes means that my average running speed was 11.3 km/hour (or 7.0 miles per hour, or 8:33 per mile). Not too shabby -- especially when you consider, dear friends, that my speed upon finishing Couch-to-5K was a pretty consistent 8.7 km/hour. I've gotten a full 30% faster since then!
Whilst this is all very exciting, running 10km in three 18 minute segments is not the same as one continuous run. I still have about a fortnight to go before I reach the final week of Bridge-to-10K, when I should be running for 60 minutes straight. Very much looking forward to hitting that milestone. Won't be long now!
Speaking of milestones, there are some other Big Things happening. Though those should get separate entries... and will have to wait until some time when it isn't two o'clock in the morning! Just wait until y'all hear about how your friendly neighbourhood Nomad celebrated becoming British. It was the focus of last weekend... and, wowza, did we have a great time!
Stay tuned, dear friends!
tawneypup.Just got back from this evening's late night run. In terms of distance and speed, this was unambiguously my best run ever! A major milestone was achieved -- for the first time, I made it past the 10km mark!
Following on from last Autumn's adventures with the Couch-to-5K plan, I started the six week Bridge-to-10K on New Year's Day. The plan was to be running a continuous 10km by sometime in early February.
Well, we all know what a certain Scottish poet says about plans.
After three successful weeks of Bridge-to-10K running, I tore a calf muscle at the end of the Week 4 Run 1 workout, back in late January. I was in Japan, having a fantastic run. Knowing there were only sixty seconds left, I decided to go all out. I broke into a sprint... and immediately felt a searing RIIIIIIIP in my right leg.
Ooops.
And ouch!
Being overseas, with no access to the ever-awesome NHS, I did some web research to self-diagnose. Upon returning to Merry Olde England, a visit to the sports physio confirmed my diagnosis. Three weeks sans running were mandated, with a slow recovery programme to follow.
It was, of course, frustrating. However, I have learned that this is more or less what one can expect as a runner. I did some reading, and it seems that the average injury rate for runners is about one injury per runner per year. Better get used to it!
Anyway, that was then. Let's fast forward back to tonight!
Tonight, I set out from Chiron Beta Prime to attempt Week 4 Run 1 here in Oxford. Yes, gentle readers, that's the same run where I injured myself back in January. Since then, however, I have been doing daily strengthening exercises, plus a regimen of pre- and post-run stretches. They seem to be paying off, as tonight I ran for 10.167km, passing the 10K mark for the first time!
Now, to be clear, this was not a continuous 10K run. Week 4 of the Bridge-to-10K plan is a 5 minute warm-up walk, then three 18 minute runs separated from each other by 1 minute walks, ending with a 5 minute cool-down walk. So tonight's workout was:
- 5 minutes walking
- 18 minutes running
- 1 minute walking
- 18 minutes running
- 1 minute walking
- 18 minutes running
- 5 minutes walking
According to the RunKeeper app, the total distance covered in this 66 minute workout was 11.5 kilometers. That counts everything, though -- warm up and cool down and walking breaks. Not so useful.
Upon returning to Chiron Beta Prime (and after doing my stretches), I added up the distance from only the three running segments:
3.375km + 3.396km + 3.396km = 10.167km!
Running 10.167km in 54 minutes means that my average running speed was 11.3 km/hour (or 7.0 miles per hour, or 8:33 per mile). Not too shabby -- especially when you consider, dear friends, that my speed upon finishing Couch-to-5K was a pretty consistent 8.7 km/hour. I've gotten a full 30% faster since then!
Whilst this is all very exciting, running 10km in three 18 minute segments is not the same as one continuous run. I still have about a fortnight to go before I reach the final week of Bridge-to-10K, when I should be running for 60 minutes straight. Very much looking forward to hitting that milestone. Won't be long now!
Speaking of milestones, there are some other Big Things happening. Though those should get separate entries... and will have to wait until some time when it isn't two o'clock in the morning! Just wait until y'all hear about how your friendly neighbourhood Nomad celebrated becoming British. It was the focus of last weekend... and, wowza, did we have a great time!
Stay tuned, dear friends!
