Another half-marathon

...in which things are a bit different to last time.

On Friday night I went out to run a half marathon with Amy, who recently ran 53 marathons in 53 days; there were about 30 of us running to start with, and we ran 2 loops around the town. A lot of people stopped after the first loop (I think largely because it was Friday night and halloween), but 8 of us finished the whole thing - there's a picture of us all at the start on the 53.53 Marathons facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/5353-Marathons/188981147892380.

(For some reason I keep typing "marathong" instead of marathon, which sounds like a piece of underwear that it'd be really uncomfortable to run in)!

I have in fact run a half marathon before, but I was 3 or 4 stone heavier and could not train for it; since I'm now running 25 - 30 miles a week (usually 2 "short" (5 - 10 miles) and one longer run (12 miles or more)) the half marathon wasn't really a big issue this time. (I can't believe I just typed that).

The loops were only actually 5.9 miles (someone had one of those posh watches that measures such things) so I ran home to make up the distance; by the time I'd finished I'd run 13.5 miles.

Last time I ran near that distance I was in considerable pain for several days afterwards; I had to walk up the stairs by holding on to the banister rail and pulling myself up one step at a time for 2 - 3 days. This time after running nearly 12 miles I still felt able to run home afterwards, and I still managed to go to the gym on Saturday (although I did take it fairly easy on the lower body stuff).

I'm quite proud of that; I only started training in earnest about 6 - 7 weeks ago and I'm already at a point where I can run a half-marathon in just over 2 hours without struggling.

I'm still at my Slimming World target, although I was very close to the top of my allowed range last Monday, so we've been a bit more sensible this week; we haven't had any alcohol for a couple of weeks now and we've been sticking to the SW plan more closely this week so hopefully I'll be back at target or below today.

I'll be aiming to get back down to the very bottom of the range for Christmas so I can treat myself a bit over the holiday - I may start adding food diaries again. And now I'm off for a little run :).

A tale of two voices

...in which I talk about running. Again.

So, first things first - I'm still in my target weight range (I was exactly at my target on Monday's weigh-in), and still enjoying being fitter and having more energy. Still sticking to the Slimming World plan, with maybe a few extra syns here and there and extra cheese. Mmmm, cheese...

Sorry, drifted off into a bit of a cheese related reverie there. Where was I?

Oh yes, running. Today is a training day. I have to have a proper training plan and stuff if I'm going to run a marathon next year (which I am), so I run 3 times a week; 2 short runs and one longer one at the weekend, although the 2 short runs are always over 5 miles now and today my short run was 7.85 miles. (Side note: it wasn't that long ago that I'd have considered that an insanely long distance).

I always decide on the route I'm going to run before I start so that I know what I'm aiming for, but I've noticed that while I'm running there are two voices in my head. I think the one comes more or less straight from my legs, and says things like "you don't need to go so far today, you already did extra the other day. You can slow down a bit, too, your pace is well over what it needs to be at this point in your training. You can stop now and walk for a bit, it's fine."

The other one tends to say things like "come on, you can do this. You've run further than this before with no problem so there's no reason to stop. Up the pace a bit, you can smash your target for the marathon at this rate. Don't you dare even think about stopping to walk you little maggot."

I think most people probably have analogues of these voices for most activities; I certainly do. The one is the one that says things like "eat the pizza! Drink the wine! Have a cigarette!" when you're trying to lose weight or give up smoking, versus "you had pizza already this week. You've had enough wine for one day. No, you've given up, don't start again."

(Note - if you've ever given up smoking, you know that it's not something that you just do once, you do it every day. The addiction fades, but the desire is still there; what keeps you an ex-smoker is that you don't give in to it).

I suppose you might call the one of them temptation and the other one willpower. What I've found is that the more often you give in to temptation, the harder it is next time; the more often your willpower wins, the easier it gets to resist temptation because you get rewards from the willpower winning that are usually better than what you'd have got if you gave in.

I'm pretty sure there was a point to this post somewhere but it seems to have slipped my mind...

Mild self-torture

...in which I experience the joys of a foam roller.

In a fit of enthusiasm for this whole running thing I have bought one of these things:

This is called a "foam roller" (other brands are available). They are supposed to facilitate "self myofascial release". You put your weight on them at various points and sort of roll along them, as the name implies. There's an article about how to use one here: A runner's guide to foam rollers.

So, you think, (or at least I thought) "it's just foam, it'll be fine". And then I tried to copy some of the suggestions in that article.

Calf...well, not too bad. Bit painful on the arms if you do it for too long because they're supporting most of the weight of your upper body, but no pain, no gain I guess. Same for the Tibialis Anterior (try saying that after a few beers). Front of the thigh, not too bad...and then the Gluteus (the bottom of the buttocks, if you're not sure).

Imagine being kicked by a donkey. No, harder than that. An Arcturan Mega-donkey (thank you, Douglas Adams). A really angry Arcturan Mega-donkey. Now imagine that the pain from the kick is somehow constant rather than a sharp spike followed by relief. 

Got it? Right. That's a bit like what it feels like to attempt to put your weight on one of your buttocks with one of these things underneath you. Really, I have no idea who invented this idea but it must have been someone that really hates people that exercise. Apparently they're a good way of easing out aches and pains in muscles, although I suspect that actually you just feel better after you get off it because it hurts so much when you're on it.

I'm still within my target range at Slimming World, but we're cutting down a little this week (since we might be living on the credit card if a contract doesn't turn up soon, and I've put a couple of pounds on over the last 2 weeks) so I may well lose more weight. 

I'm up to running around 20 - 30 miles a week (two 5 - 7.5 mile runs in the week and one 10 - 12 mile run on a Sunday, along with 2 - 3 visits to the gym a week), so the preparation for April's marathon is going pretty well at least.