A weak week. First run was just 2,84 km and without much enthusiasm at all, just felt wrong and difficult. Then on wednesday another runt that went 6,2 km and in a little better tempo as well, I was pretty happy with that one. After that I just screwed up the rest of the week unfortunately.
Better luck Wk 19!
Here is my 60 minutes podrunning Spotify link. This version includes also a warmup phase 6:03 and a cooldown phase that is 4:36 with softer music.
This is the list I currently keep in my android phone for a good outdoor run. The songs are a strange mix between soft and hard with a lot of love for Electronic Body Music of course.
(Yes the photo above was taken by me.)
All in one glorious running package!
Week got completely shot out the window with the schedule and there was really just one day of good training, monday.
Regard wk 17 as a recovery and rest week but now I am ready for wk 18 to keep running my 6 km both indoor and outdoor.
6k done! Now two more weeks trying to make that my standard distance and then another increase with about 1800 meters that will take me to 7k8 and then another couple of weeks on that distance before attempting 9k7 which will be very close to my 10k goal for August.
I think it is possible. I have increased training dose a bit but allow for rest in the weeks also. After a long run outdoors I generally schedule a short one on the treadmill, I have noticed that short runs (2 km or thereabout) increase the blood flow and lowers the recovery time after a long run. While in the gym I also do general strengthening exercises for stomach, back, arms, shoulders and upper back which seems to be helping also.
This week has seen a bit more rest than usual mostly depending on the really bad weather and I am going to make one more run tonight aiming at the 6k again.
I have not written much here for a while, been to busy elsewhere. Training wise I have had a good week this week and I might still do yet another run today or tomorrow.
But I also got a great motivator this week, my new sports watch. A Suunto T6c runner’s watch with pulse belt and foot pod measuring heart rates as well as speed and distance. The best thing about it is that is has a very advanced way of measuring the heart rate, it does not just measure the number of beats in a minute, but it also measures the time variance between the beats. By sophisticated methods it is thereby able to calculate VO2 profiles as you work out and using them it can tell you the quality of the work out.
If you are working out too hard for a period it will tell you to schedule a few workouts with lower intensity. If you are slacking off and not developing your strength, endurance, speed or cardiovascular functions it will tell you to step it up.
It also has a really great interval timer which is great, you can set it for any kind of intervals and it will alarm you to start or stop your intervals based on time or distance.
It also has a very accurate barometric altimeter that shows you the terrain profile of the track you run, much more accurate than any GPS based measurement I have seen, in fact it is accurate to within a couple of meters providing the barometric pressure does not change too much.
The software for this training partner is among the best I have seen. It is great for a stats buff like myself who loves, and finds motivation from, statistics on how I am doing. I love running the same track over and over and note if I am doing the first or second lap faster than last time and so on. Really great stuff that.
The watch also changes your parameters over time, it just recently told me my condition was a step better than I thought when I entered the initial parameters so it has automatically notched it up meaning that to achieve the same training effect as before I have to run longer or faster. Depressing stuff but probably true. In the process I have also lost another couple of kg of excess weight.
Above is the heart rate curve for my last 5 km run. It shows also clearly the intervals that I was doing (6 speed intervals with jogging between) and that my heart rate was varying quite a bit at the start, this happens if I have not been sleeping well the night before and then does workout.
The next is the speed/distance curve where ther intervals are even more pronouced. The first little plateay is a warmup walk before starting to run. The pace is very even as well which indicates that I am running on a treadmill, outdoors the speed varies much more with the ascent of the track.
EPOC is the Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption graph. This is an interesting graph. By measuring the heart rate, speed and distance, time and the variance between the heart beats (the harder you work out the more even the heart beats) the system can calculate how much stress you put on the system and graph how well your workout was in terms of cardiovascular stress.
This was a level 4,8 workout which is a highly improving level. After such a work out it is recommended to make a more low profile workout as a recovery, keeping to an EPOC level of 2-3 rather. If you go as high as level 5 you need several days of rest before training again.
Level 1 is very low intensity training building a base but not stressing the cardio-vascular system really.
Level 2 is a maintaining level, you will maintain what you got but not improve your endurance much. However you are still improving muscles and building up to be able to take more stressing workouts.
Level 3 is improving rate, you are now improving your cardio and endurance quite a bit.
Level 4 is greatly improving (doing intervals for example) but you should not work out at this level for more than 2-3 times a week and make sure to rest or have low-intensity workouts between.
Here is my 45 min podrunning list of music. Works great to run to. This list however is without warmup and cooldown so it is just that, 45 minutes of nice jogging music ending with a United States Marines march when you are really tired.
Have fun!
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All in one glorious running package!
Finally gotten the act together again to do some serious workouts. Three workouts this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the treadmill at work. And also one last week, the first one in 8 weeks! Great running actually and does not feel that bad.
As usual the first run after a down-period was terrible, but I soon found my pace back and the condition is growing on me and I managed after just 4 runds to do a 5 km run again. Which is the goal distance of the C25k programme of course. I feel great but need more time to really get into the habit. They say that the workout habit needs about 5 weeks to form so I need to keep doing this.
The really good things is that the running at the gym from work is not bad at all and with the kind of temperatures that we are having and the treacherous ice and snow out there, trying to run trails in these conditions will probably just end with me needing a hip replacement or something, better to stay indoor another couple of months.
The treadmill actually interfaces with my el cheapo pulse watch. Not bad for a 59 SEK watch and HRM band actually, and that’s great. I can set a time, a speed and a target heart rate and the machine will then adjust inclination to achieve the target heart rate, all I need to do is to keep running the distance. When the time is upp there is a cooldown period.
My feet are a little sore after each workout but that’s just to be expected, I’ve gone all ”tenderfoot” again after the break from my workout routine. Back on the bandwagon again is the melody.
Speaking of which, I have designed a Spotify playlist for 30 min running with warmup and cooldown which will be useful both in the gym and in the woods when that day comes. Another playlist for 45 min running and so on will be added.
Apparently there is an interesting form of running and socializing that is called ”hashing” that goes on out there. Hashing is a form of ”chasing the hare” following a trail through woodlands or cityscape that ends with a party where the runners enjoy good food and drinks. Hashing started in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in 1938 when a group of british soldiers started a hare & hounds running group. They named the group after the meeting place the Selangor Club also known as the ”Hash House”. A ”hare” would be given a short head start to blaze a trail, marking his devious way with shreds of paper, soon to be persued by a pack of shouting ”harriers”. Only the hare knows where he is going, the harriers followed his marks to stay on the trail, somtimes the marks where not too easy to spot requiring a bit of problem solving and reaching the end was it’s own reward because at that place thirsty harriers would find a tub of nicely chilled beers. Some call it a drinking club with a running problem. I thought it was quite nice and was wondering if something like this exists here in Stockholm or if we should just get together and start something. How about a 5 km trail that ends up at a nice beer place that would not mind people showing up all worked up and sweaty in their training clothes looking for a meal and drinks. Better wait until summer time hower. Until then check out the New York City hashers. They’re cool!
Here is a mixtape list for running 30 minutes that includes a 5:43 warmup and 7:09 cooldown and 30 min of actual running. I originally had a James Last song live here but it did not fit well with the audience applause and stuff so it has been replaced.
Most of these songs have a really high bpm to get your tempo and step cadence up to close of 180 steps a minute but they vary a little which your running also should.
Warmup: 5:43, running 30:00, cooldown 7:09, total 42.9 minutes
And of course, here is the spotify link. Load your mobile spotify client up, select to use offline for the playlist and then keep running! Off-line mode is great since it does not drain your battery as fast and you can keep running even if your 3G coverages is not so good where you are running.
I’d love more tips on good running songs!
Running taken up again. Two times now on a treadmill at work and that’s actually not bad at all. I thought I would hate it dearly but it does work actually.
Bonus is that the machine can read my pulse belt so it means I can do really good pulse training without effort, it is really easy to regulate speed and incline on the machine whilst running so you can keep the pulse in the zone all the time.
Doing round of about 3.5 km in 30 mins at the moment, will set out to increase over time up to 5 km and my goal is still to run ”Midnattsloppet” in August which is a 10 km run.
A summary of each week’s training will be posted. I am aiming for three runs with one day of rest between them and then two days of rest in the weekend. Right now the runs will be the same all three but I will later divide them into shorter runs with intervals for speed, longer runs with slow tempo for distance and recovery runs.