I Ran A Half Marathon With No Training

A couple of weeks ago I went for a run. I didn’t really volunteer to go – but I wasn’t co-erced either. Basically what happened was this: A friend turned 21. He enjoys a challenge. I think he enjoys challenging people more. So he challenged his friends to come to his party which was…. a 21km run. Thats 13 miles. That is a half marathon.

I’d just got back into running – like JUST. I’d run 5km maybe 3 times in 2 weeks? But Elliot and I said yes without really thinking about it. On the day we broke our normal rules and ate cereal and porridge for breakfast. I have to say it was really nice… then lunch time we broke rules again and went to a bakery! Porridge and sandwiches in one day…

So we got to the start line – a little beach at the end of a peninsula. Its funny how your stomach anticipates stuff… mine was slightly butterfly-ish and so was Elliots apparently. I was the only girl at the start. A little bit intimidating but I wanted to prove I could do it! We set off… it was a wintery day but the sun was so hot. And running along a beach with no wind just makes it extra hot!

The first kilometre or so I was plodding along behind all the guys thinking up ways to remove myself from the race smartly. I didn’t wanna look like a loser or failure (ha!)… I was thinking should I injure myself? But while I was thinking this, we were still travelling and soon it kinda got to the point where I was thinking ‘I’ve come this far, what’s the point of stopping now?’ Even though it was only about 5km into it.

Soon the guys left Elliot and I for dirt. We did say they could go on… but still we felt rather unfit at that point! The scenery was really nice so we walked up the really big hill that apparently was ‘gentle’. We ambled along, jogging for quite a long portion of it. We reached the halfway point and stretched, then continued. The others were long gone. We were quite enjoying ourselves. Once you get into the rhythm, you get into it!

However, at the bottom of a hill, we suddenly realised we were damaging ourselves. My feet were killing me cos my shoes are a teensy bit small. Elliots feet simply were not made for running and our joints were aching. We walked along the flat and tried to run again. But it just hurt so much! It really wasn’t a question of fitness anymore – it was our joints and limbs wearing out. We decided to skip out the extra hill that made the distance add up to 21km and were debating whether to call someone to pick us up. Then the birthday boy called us and told us we only had a short distance to go.

That lifted our spirits – but just after the call we saw the guy who had cycled the distance! He was behind us – and the other guys were also behind us. That renewed our vigor even more and we walked a little more briskly up the last hill. Being first we were able to stop and look at the view on the way – we saw how far we had actually come! Finally at the destination we flopped down and man – my feet! I just sat down for about half an hour. Not puffed, just resting my bruised feet.

When I had to stand up again, oooh it hurt. While sitting down I felt like I could run some more – but sitting down for a while must have made my muscles contract and my knees and lower gut were really sore.

Later that evening after resting them some more, I was really feeling the pain in my knees. We worked out we ran about 18kms which was really encouraging! The next day was the killer though – if I thought I was sore that evening, it was nearly agony the next day. Surprisingly my muscles weren’t sore, it was my knees that gave me grief. I was finding it hard to get up and down stairs and even just walking. I strapped one up and that helped a lot but I was still limping all day.

Is there a lesson in all this? Well Elliot and I found another interesting way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Neither of us really trained for it so we consider ourselves to be in reasonable condition! We did it in 2 1/2 hours which wasn’t too bad either, considering we walked a lot. Ha!

But I wouldn’t recommend going and running a half marathon if you are invited to. You really do need to work yourself up to it – for the sake of your knees and joints and feet. These are soo vital to everyday life and if you go and stuff them up with just one run – its a little silly. You don’t want one run to stuff up the rest of your life. So I would recommend good shoes – REALLY good shoes – and really good training. And be sure to keep hydrated and limber. One thing is for sure though – I’m so NOT going to be there for this guys’ 42nd birthday!

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Map Your Run

Recently a friend of mine decided we would all run with him for his party. He turned 21 – so that meant we were to run 21 kilometers. Thats 13 miles – half a marathon. I’m glad he didn’t say 21 miles. Anyway the invite was a map of the run. I thought he was just being really clever and using Microsoft Paint to draw in lovely colored lines along the route and that he had taken a huge amount of time plotting the course and knowing exactly where the mile marks were.

Well we finished the run (Ok so I walked a fair bit of it!) and got to talking. Somewhere in the evening the term ‘map my run’ came up. Now for YEARS I have wanted to do something like this. If I wanted to know how far I was running, I’d get in my car and waste precious diesel to find out the distance. Not only did it waste diesel, it isn’t really that accurate – because I don’t run in the center of the road!

When I got home, I Googled ‘map my run’ and it comes up with www.mapmyrun.com . I love it! Basically you become a member for free – then you put in your details. You could be really specific – like down to heart rate and all that – I just put in my location and approximate weight… but thats not the fun part. I typed in the starting address of the run and then followed along where we ran. I had to use the pointer as we didn’t stick to the road the whole time. Every now and again it would come up with a little marker point – every km to be precise. Its fantastic. When you’re done, you select the stop key and place it on your finish line – and hey presto – the distance is calculated. Then you have the option of saving it and making if public or keeping it private. You can chuck in a few keywords to help you remember what the run was like.

I love it! I can now see – very easily – how far I run. It takes a simple click of the mouse and I can map my run and save it. Even better, it logs all my running and gives me a grand total anytime I want. Whats more, I can track usage of my gear. I can also create groups and invite others to run my routes. I can document my sleeping patterns, my morale, my weight. The site can calculate so many things that are important to people who like to track their progress – like body mass index, pace and splits, heart rate zones – and so many more are being added to that list regularly.

I think mapmyrun.com is a great site. It is comprehensible and easy to use. I can very quickly load in a new run or find out if I need to replace my shoes. And better yet – it is also able to be used for hikes, cycles, swims – etc etc etc. It is being updated all the time and you won’t be stopped short looking for an address that the map outdates because it uses Google Earth.

Try it today and see – maybe you even want to find a shortcut to work – or if you could ride your bike to work… its a great site – such an awesome tool – I just can’t believe I have only found it now!

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High Intensity Interval Training Part One

I’ve run on and off for years now. I think I started in my early teens. Maybe younger. I joined an athletics club at around 11 and the girls there were quite fast! While I knew I would never be a sprinter because of my build, (and sheer impossibility of getting my legs to move faster!) I started quite liking long distance running. At 11, the 1500m race seemed to take forever. And I’m sure it did!

 

But now, running 1.5km (almost 1 mile) seems like a sprint around the block. I’m older and I guess more fit and able to take longer distances. I used to run about 3kms (1.8 mi) in my early teens. So it’s not really that far, but in terms of keeping up fitness it’s not too bad.

 

The only trouble is – running long distance takes up a lot of time. When you’re studying or working full time, time is of the essence. A lot of us can’t afford to go out and pound the pavement for an hour or two everyday. Say you travel an hour to work every day. That’s two hours gone. You’re at work for 8.5 ish hours. That’s 10.5 nearly 11 hours gone. You sleep for 6/7 ish hours. That’s 17/18 hours gone. That leaves 6 hours to do your own thing. And not even – because some of that is spent in the morning getting ready for work, and some is spent preparing and eating dinner. So you really only have 4 hours to do as you please. Who would waste half of it on running?

 

I know I wouldn’t as there are more things to life than running and eating. There are hobbies and other commitments. I wouldn’t spend half my free time running but I might spend a quarter or an eighth of it. In fact, I could possibly spend an eighth of my free time running – as effectively as using half of it. This is not about maths here – not completely – but in a quarter of the time, I can get the same intensity workout in 30 mins as I can in 2 hours.

 

It may sound like a rich claim – but I’ve done it. I learned a technique – and improved it – that allowed me to have more free time, yet still be able to workout and maintain fitness.

 

Come back next week for part two!

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Do you run? Check out the advantages (and disadvantages) of this fitness activity

Running is a very popular fitness activity.  It is one of the first things people think about when they think of losing weight.  It is not the only way, and a lot of people would argue it is nowhere near the best way.  I personally feel it is a good method that can be included in one’s routine.  Of course we are all made up slightly differently, so take a look at the following pros and cons to decide whether buying some running shoes might be a good investment for you.

Advantages

It’s easy!

Put on some appropriate clothes, lace up your running shoes and you’re off – that’s all there is to it.  It’s much easier than getting to a local gym, and even easier than most home workouts.

It’s rejuvenating

Breathing in some fresh air early in the morning or after a spending the day at work in an air-conditioned building can be as great for you mentally as it is physically.

It’s able to be done anywhere

It doesn’t matter where you happen to be, at home, on a work trip or on holiday you will always be able to run.  You can’t take your bench press with you for your weekend away, nor can you take your gym membership!  In fact running, along with other body weight exercises is the only type of fitness training that you can do absolutely anywhere.  As portable as equipment (like dumbbells, chinning bars, kettlebells etc) can be, there will always be some circumstances were you won’t have access to it.

It’s easy to track your progress

How do you know if your improving?  Just make sure you beat your previous day’s time.  Once you get the time down you can increase your distance.

It’s effective
Have you ever seen an overweight runner in the Olympic games?  If you continually do a lot of running while eating even just a moderately healthy diet, your body will eventually start stripping the fat.

Disadvantages

It’s bad on your joints
Knees, ankles, feet, back.  Continuous running is going to eventually take it’s toll.

It’s weather dependent
This may not apply for all runners but many will rarely have the motivation to start running when the weather is bad (too windy, too hot, too wet, too dark… the excuses can go on and on).

It’s Monotonous
Running the same way in the same location can get pretty boring.  A good way to counter this is by switching it up and changing the way you run (HIIT training for instance) and the places you run (beach, road, park etc).

Running tip: Getting past a plateau through variety!

One thing to watch with running (maybe more than other fitness methods) is hitting that plateau.  You may run 5 days a week for a month and manage to really get your body fat percentage down, then as you continue running for after that first month you hardly make any progress – or worse, you gain weight!  Our bodies are extremely good at adapting to new routines, in order to continue to make good progress with running (or anything for that matter) you need to mix things up.

As mentioned earlier, HIIT training is one way of getting through a plateau.  With HIIT training you change the intensity of your training at set intervals.  For instance you can go to a local park and run the length at jogging pace, run again at running speed, then sprint it.  After this go back to jogging and complete for however many intervals.  To add even more variety you can start and do push ups or crunches in between intervals.  Once you have done HIIT running for a period you can go back to your previous run and see what kind of difference it has made.  And of course, don’t forget to check the mirror!

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