Progressing

I've been trying to write this post for a few months now, but all I seemed to do was just add ideas or notes that I wanted to mention so I thought it was high time that I actually composed the damn thing.

Running

I have had a steady few months of running since my last Blog in March.  I managed 48 miles in March and 35 miles in April compared with a total of just 55 miles for November 14 through to February 15 combined!

Although I don't like running fast I have tried in the last few runs to lengthen my stride and increase my cadence (number of steps per minute) to try and start pushing myself a little bit more.

This should help reduce the amount of time on my feet for when I want to run longer distances and in reducing my waistline down to 34" although I need to ensure that I strike the right balance so that running doesn't become a chore and a slog each time.

I have applied this strategy to the last 2 runs so far; it was hard as I'm not used to sustaining that level of effort but its going well and it helped me to complete a 10km yesterday in under hour with times not seen since 2012.

Running Tech

I almost purchased an additional step counter in the first quarter of this year to count steps but as I'm already pretty active with running and walking I didn't see the point in the end.

Since March I have also tried to find whether there are any other running apps out there that are better that the one I currently use (Endomondo) which could provide me with more motivational audio cues like I used to get with Nike+ whilst still providing a similar amount of detail about my runs that I currently receive and like to review to see how well I'm progressing.

Over a few weeks I tried Runkeeper, Strava, Runtastic, Nike+, Micoach and then gave up as it seems that the features I would like are either on poor apps such as Nike + which its really inaccurate compared to the others or behind pay walls requiring monthly subscriptions to access; something that I'm not prepared to paid for.  So for now I'm sticking with Endomondo and if I wish to analyse my information further, then I can just add it to an Excel Spreadsheet and produce graphs like the following relatively easily:

I'm still using Spotify for my running music playlists as I'm still on a Student subscription but I'm almost at that point that I want to try something else as there are a couple of niggles with Spotify that I'm starting to find a little annoying.  These include its continued poor integration with local files, its inability at times to play sound and for some reason local files keep disappearing / become blanked out from my play lists.

At the moment though I'm waiting for Itunes to release their streaming service over here so I can try that.  If that fails I'm going to have to trial all the others I think until I find something that I'm happy with.

Lets try that again....

No sooner than the ink was drying on my first blog post of 2015 stating my aims and objectives for the coming year, I was struck down with not 1 but, 2 bouts of illness which after my first foray back into my running shoes basically set my progress right back.

In the latter stages of my recovery I was in the dangerous state of enjoying the fact that I wasn't running.  Thankfully though I managed to overcome that state of mind and start again.  However, if I can draw anything following the last few runs, it tells me is that its going to take a few more weeks until I am ready to tackle anything more significant.

I don’t know what it is but every time I stop for what ever reason it seems much harder than the time before to get back into running, to build stamina, to start pushing the distances and in getting my breathing back under control!  

It doesn't help that its still cold despite some early signs of spring and that the wind that has been around the last few days has really been punishing when running into it.  Bring on warmer and calmer weather!

Lets hope it doesn't take too long this time around and that I can remain injury and illness free long enough to accomplish the objectives I set myself at the start of this year at the very least.

Back to blogging

I completed my first run this year and my longest since Christmas Eve.  I know my better half told me to take it easy but when you are having a good run it’s hard to stop, well I was having a good run up until the point I turned back towards base; then it felt like a real slog to keep going.  

Anyway I completed the run and managed constant running for over 35 minutes so let’s hope I can keep the momentum up this time and remain free from illness and injury that plagued me in 2014 for long enough to at least allow me to meet some of my fitness goals in 2015 that I have had since I started this blog.

My main one being to reach a size 34” waist, then I can get into all the clothing I bought myself on the cusp of reaching this target before injury stuck probably sometime back in 2013.  Since then and due to Christmas, the resultant chocolate/cake stash that is still going strong and a glut of birthdays at work meaning lots of Cake, I have probably drifted to about 37”.  Still lower then when I started running but not where I want to be when I've got half my wardrobe devoted to clothing that's a little on the tight side.

Therefore, to help me with my goals and now that I have nothing to study following completion of MSc last year, I am recommencing my blog, hoping that they will provide me with added motivation in the coming months, especially through days like today when it was a nice temperature in my cosy office but bloody cold outside.