marathonmummy

This week has been full of coughing, sneezing, and generally feeling grim. I don’t believe in exercising when I feel ill, so there hasn’t been much to say. I’m hoping to get back to a bit of running at the beginning of the week, although I’ll be utterly miserable then, because my lovely friend and inspiring marathon goddess, Jessica, is off to live in Aberdeen with her husband and 3 children. We’re still running the marathon together, but we’ll be doing our training separately. In November we’re meeting up for a girly weekend in York and I’ll be taking my trainers!

I must run, as have to be up at hideous o’clock to take the children out for the day tomorrow, but I just popped in to say today I ran for

13 minutes and 30 seconds!

(with a little walk break after 8:30, but that’s okay by me)

7 mph is quite fast. I was like the roadrunner today, trying an experimental minute at speed. My legs were going round in circles and the kittens were standing by the side of the treadmill looking confused. As for the floorboards, they may never be the same again.

Anyway, my inner nerd is enjoying looking at my pulse and recovery rates (goes back to weekends spent acting as crew for endurance horses) and seeing I really am getting fitter, despite the fact that it’s soooo hard.

Today’s run: 30 minutes, 2 min run, 3 min fast walk, 4 min run, 5 min fast walk, 1 min faster run (6.5mph), 3 min fast walk, 1 min Roadrunner run (7mph!), 5 min fast walk, 1 min run, however many mins cool down to = 30 mins. I was feeling a bit despondent today about being utterly hopeless and never being fit enough to run a marathon, but you know what? I’m getting fitter, aren’t I?

It’s a sweaty business, this running lark. Particularly in summer, in humid weather, in a house that’s been heating up all day just in time for me to run at 7.30 at night. Luckily I have my new running vest of attractiveness to help cool me down. It’s not a good look, but so far nothing running related has been a good look for me, apart from the trainers, maybe.

Lessons in treadmilling: must keep an eye on the time. Due to my advanced uselessness, I have hit the cool down button every time I’ve run, because trying to co-ordinate slowing down and dying of puffed-outness is too complicated for my tiny brain. Consequently I can’t remember how long I’ve run for, so my running totals are a bit wonky. I’ve been doing run a bit, walk a bit, run a bit, walk a longer bit, run a bit more. Runs are about 2-3 minutes long and at between 5 (the patented Moore shuffle) and 6 (neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeom!)mph. Walks are the same, and vary between 3 (I’m dying here, help me) and 4 (I’m so FAST) mph. Gradient is currently 0%, which will have to be altered to reflect reality. However I’m planning to hit the roads this week, too, at some point. I can’t spend all my time boinging up and down watching television, can I?

One week in, and the treadmill is a success. Today’s interesting treadmill facts: 6.5mph is quite fast, actually, for a plodder like me. Inclines are hard work. I can’t subtract mentally, so having a countdown from 30 minutes to zero means I have no idea how long I’ve been running, or how long till I can stop and walk. Our heartrate monitor from the rowing machine (does anyone want to buy a Reebok rowing machine before we list it on eBay?) works on the treadmill. I have the stamina of a sloth.

Seriously though, I really do have the stamina of a sloth. This week I managed to run for 5 minutes before having to stop and walk, which is a lot hairier on a treadmill than it is on the road, given that you have to reach forward and press buttons and I am slightly challenged in the co-ordination department so there’s always a slight risk I might fall off. Talking of which, I’m pleased to announce (to the world, hahaha) that the first person to fall off was none other than my lovely husband. Tee hee. The children all had a turn, uneventfully, then he got on in the wrong shoes, and gracefully slithered off the end into a heap.

It is a bit of a learned skill though, staying upright on the treadmill whilst simultaneously walking and using the controls. Our friend N came round for a turn and proved herself to be possibly the most unco-ordinated person in the world…she claims that she hadn’t been drinking beforehand, so I’ll take her word for it that she is just slightly challenged in the balance department. My heart was in my mouth and all she was doing was walking. Given how graceful she is in water (she’s an ex-competitive swimmer), I can only assume she’s part fish.

Anyway, back to the running bit. So the first two times I set it to 30 minutes and combined jogging at 5.5mph with brisk walking at 4mph without worrying too much about how much time I was spending on either, and I was absolutely pouring with sweat at the end of it, so that’s got to be a good thing, although I suspect some of that was fear I was about to shoot off the end into the piano. I couldn’t work out what to watch on tv to distract myself – I have the attention span of a gnat so I finally settled on watching the London Marathon from this year, which we recorded on Sky, so I was running along with the lead men, looking at the scenery and imagining how it’d feel to run there in less than a year. Argh.

Yesterday I tried something different – I watched Twilight and ran and walked for 40 minutes, including slow jogs of 5 – 5.5mph, and a couple of faster minutes of 6.5mph. Weirdly, the faster ones seemed easier. Also, watching something I liked meant I wasn’t constantly looking at the seconds tick by, which was always my problem when running outside. My plan is to get to a level of fitness where I can run a reasonable distance on the treadmill at an incline of 3%, then hit the roads when the children go back to school in 7 weeks.