Five Five Five for Five

So its W5R1 today and I have to say I felt pretty good about it.  You can see from the HR graph that I was nice and relaxed on the walk over to the gym (why I'm not sure as my new boss has me run ragged).  I started with a decision to keep the same pace I finished the last week run on, 7.9 km/h.  Rather than alternating shorter and longer runs, today's was three 5 minute intervals. 

For the first time, I finished an interval (the first one) thinking "that was easy.'  Actually perhaps it's fairer to say I finished it "with ease".  A difference of nuance I grant you but probably a more accurate statement.  I felt good.  No pain in the legs, no struggling for breath, and the 5 minutes went by quickly.  Brilliant.  The graph shows the first interval barely getting in to Z4 (80-90% MHR). 

Also obvious is the very familiar trending upward over the course of the runs.  Both the peaks and the recoveries. I also developed a new meditative 'dirty trick' today.  I found that while in Z3 territory (aerobic) I could maintain a rhythm of breathing in for 4 strides (L-R-L-R) and out for 4.  Three rounds of that was pretty close to 10 seconds.  Once I got into Z4 territory (anaerobic) I would drop it to 3 strides to breathe in and 3 strides to breathe out. The same pace 7.9 km/h but now 4 rounds was the same number of strides and also about 10 seconds.  So when the Get Running C25K iPhone app lady says "you're already half way through your run" and I know then that there is only 2 min 30 secs to go I can count "IN-2-3 OUT-2-3 IN-2-3 OUT-2-3 IN-2-3 OUT-2-3 IN-2-3 OUT-2-3" and think that's only 2 min 20 now. Rinse and repeat.  Its just enough mental activity to keep the mind busy and distracted from the things that sabotage your focus.  In fact I was so focused I missed a gym bunny sighting! Oh the humanity.

In the last run a bit of muscular discomfort in the right leg, but other than that I am feeling very good about it, and so pleased that I pushed through all that pain in the first 4 weeks.  I am actually looking forward to testing my resolve on Sunday's 8 minute run.  I confess a certain trepidation about the huge jump to 20 mins on Tuesday, but I will start with the pace dialled right back to say 7.5 km/h and hope that I can maintain my HR in the Z3 aerobic range throughout.

I haven't been for a swim for a few days (Monday I think) so I might try to get that in tomorrow too. Though it looks like a few days rest has done some good on the HR graph.

Every Buddhist knows this...
LESSON:  Suffering is transitory, so aversion to suffering makes no sense...it won't last anyway!

In my case, 4 weeks of (admittedly fairly bad) pain in my knees has now all but stopped.  And they are now stronger than they have been in years.  If I had succumbed to the aversion of knee pain I would never have made it to this stage at which I could enjoy a run.  Even a relatively short one.

I also want to take a moment to give two thumbs up to my mate 'wrong fuel' Steve who is back on track with his personal journey.  We are both finding it tough to change personal habits, even though we know they are bad for us.  It's a fight against yourself and the problem is your opponent knows all your weaknesses and exploits them. 

Which, by the way, is why I like the show Californication.  Many are happy to dismiss the show as being about a feckless man who 'gets lucky' a lot when he should be loving his wife and caring for his daughter.  It is my belief that it's a show about a man who is slave to his addictions and own self destructive nature.  Intelligent enough to know that it's self destructive and damaging to the ones he loves the most, but powerless before his own nature.  It's all back to perspective again...

A Full Month

This is a run down on W4R3, the last run of week 4.  I think this deserves a little celebration as I have now completed 4 weeks of the C25K Programme without missing a scheduled day.  So for an entire month I have run when I said I would.  That's 12 times I've done something uncomfortable (or indeed painful) and not let myself down.  I feel incredibly empowered by this. It reminds me of something my 'executive coach' taught me about using meditation techniques in the office.  It doesn't matter how often you get distracted.  When you do, practice focussing your mind al la meditation and every time you do that you have won a victory over your own mind.  Powerful stuff.

Anyway...W4R3 is another of the pattern 3min-5min-3min-5min with short walks in between.  As you can see from the graph, it follows the familiar pattern of peaks for the runs followed be recovery.  Also familiar by now is the fact that each recovery phase doesn't recover as much as the one before resulting in an increasig trend in the heights of the peaks.  For this run I stuck to 8.0 km/h for all but the last run in which i dropped it to 7.9.  Up 0.1 from the run before for the finish. 

There was a good solid block (actually exactly 3 minutes) in Zone 5 there for the last interval.  I felt pretty good though getting a bit short of breath by the end.  The other intervals were relatively comfortable.

One interesting phenomenon has been how the bit that hurts has changed over time.  I am now feeling quite sure that my knees are past the worst.  Still not 100% but by the next day they are barely noticable as far as discomfort goes.  A bit achy in bed of a night to be sure, but the recovery is definitely better and quicker than say a couple of weeks ago.  Up until the last week I was still worrying that I was doing the wrong thing and that I was doing significant damage to them.  I'm glad I pushed on.  Now it seems that leg muscles are the bits that are failing me.  Weirdly the bit that has hurt the most during the last two runs has been a sort of muscular pain/cramping at the base of the shin where the leg joins the top of the foot.  I don't even know what its called but its been hurting.

Friday of course is R1 of W5.  I had a look at the programme for W5 and was astounded by what I saw.  A short recap is required as background info.  W1 max run interval = 1 min.  W2 it was 1 1/2 mins.  W3 was 3mins.  W4 was 5mins.  Ok so lets look at the W5 runs.  R1 is 3 intervals of 5 mins.  Ok rather than 3-5-3-5 it is 5-5-5.  That seems very doable. R2 is 5min - 8 min - 5 min.  Ok that sounds intimidating but doable right?  R3 is 20 min.  WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM? 

I am thinking I have to keep my HR down around the top of Z3 bottom of Z4 to have any chance of doing 20 mins.  This obviously means running very slow.  I am thinking of starting off in the low 7's.  7.3 maybe.  I'll have to keep a close eye on how my HR creeps up over the cpurse of 20 mins.

I had a regular appointment at the hospital this morning for immunology treatment.  So I get my 'obs' done every month (for the first yeare it was every week).  I've become quite proficient at it now.  I can work the machine and I know where all the bits and pieces are kept.  I just help myself to the peak flow meter and the box of mouth pieces in the second drawer of the immunology trolley, etc.  Anyway.  After a month of running between the last session and this one I notice this morning my resting HR was between 56 and 60 on the monitor.  I am fairly sure over the last couple of years it has always been up in the 70s.  It may have just been an anomoly but I'll be very interested in seeing what it is next month.

The ludicrously organised swim school called the other day offering me a place on a Wed night class at 6.30.  I explained I have no hope of ever making THAT class, which is why I joined a Sat morning one.  Looks like I'll be on my own to work on my swimming for some time to come.

Here is some more interesting data and a graph (can you tell I'm in middle management?)

This shows 'time in heart zones' by week.  Bear in mind there is not an exact correlation between calendar week and the C25K programme week (in that I started on a Fri).  So each of these weeks (which start on a Monday) have the last run of one week and the first two runs of the next.  But in any case show some indicative change of the effort for the runs.  The small (thinner) bar indicates an incomplete week.  In this case it only shows the one run, Tuesday's W4R3.

There is another way to interpret this data.  By weighting the zones.  I have a book on Heart Zones training (for cycling) and it uses the following simple method of weighting the 'training effort'.  Z1 min x 1, Z2 min x 2, and so on.  And now some MS Excel!

	Z1	Z2	Z3	Z4	Z5	Training Effort
31-Jan	30	29	41	20	6	321
7-Feb	17	50	23	23	10	328
14-Feb	3	23	11	9	3	133

This becomes interesting because there is no significant change between the first two weeks.  Now I have to acknowledge that some of the numbers are a bit wishy washy as I  don't have a consistent time for turning the recording on.  Sometimes I do it in the change rooms 5-10 mins before getting out of the building.  Sometimes on the walk over to the gym etc.  The other interesting piece of data is that even though I spend more time in Z2 I actually reduced the time in Z3.  I think this is a result of actually getting fitter.  Some of the easy bits are even easier for me now because of fitness, so my heart doesn't work as hard.  Got to be good right? 

I've been faced with a dilemma.  Friday lunch is W5R1 but I have a monthly lunch I usually go to (my lodge's 'stonecutters lunch').  Despite the fact that this is always a lovely experience with good company I have decided that I must go to the gym instead.  I think that part of the reason I have been so successful so far is that I haven't bargained my commitment away with myself. 

LESSON: No compromise on commitments you make to yourself is a key to success.

A Tragedy

A short post today for reasons that will become obvious.  I went to the gym and here is the graph. 

The run went pretty well.  The biggest problem I had was a bit of muscular discomfort in the legs.  I am sure knees are coping better with running and recovering faster though.

My game plan was to start a bit slower today so that I didn't peak too soon.  I stuck to a speed of 8.0 which kept me mostly in Zone 4 and I didn't have too much problem regulating my breathing and distracting myself from the doubts that creep into my mind telling me to stop.  In fact the first 3 minute run went very quickly.  The 5 minute runs where a bit harder but I made it through ok.  On the last one I dropped the speed to 7.8 which plataeud the HR at about 166.  This was the only time I got into Zone 5 and I was relatively comfortable maintaining this.  As my HR got up into the high 160s I dropped the speed and it steadied out.  That was about halfway through the 5 mins.  Not too much problem seeing it through (leg discomfort aside).

I might have been a bit flat as I realised about half way through the run that I hadn't eaten any breakfast.  What, you may wonder, would make a man like me forget to eat breakfast?  Well try having someone shot dead in your front yard.  That will take your mind off your Cheerios, trust me.   

The Better Part of Valour

My apologies faithful reader for the long time between drinks.  I have been very busy this week.  But even though I haven't eaten lunch since Wednesday I did make sure I MADE the time to do my scheduled run on Friday and a swim on Thursday. 

First though, the graph from Tuesdays run (W3R3) as promised.  Fairly similar shape to the previous one but my perception was it was a bit easier going.  I can't preceisely remember what speed I was going so the comparisons now are not super reliable.  In any case the interesting stuff is in the next two exercies.

So Wednesday was rest day as previously mentioned.

Which leaves Thursday as swim day.  Once again  exchanging the office for the sunshine, blue skies, green grass and crystal waters of the Phillip Pool was no strain on the spirit, let me tell you.  I was having a bit of trouble with my honker and I suspect that I have a touch of a cold.  I've been sneezing this week and had some congestion.  Nothing much at all but just enough to cause some issues in the pool and keep exercise performance a bit flat.  Having said that I set myself the goal of doing 12 laps (600m) this time seeing how I'd managed 11 laps on Monday.  I struggled through 8 laps in my usual 'form' and then had a break through. 

By way of explanation, let me tell you that as I am currently without a swimming class to teach me this stuff, I have been experimenting in the great tradition of science everywhere.  I'd try to modify something based on vague memories of what swimmers look like, something the instructor at my one and only swim class said, or pure supposition of what seems reasonable.  On lap 9 I had a breakthrough.  I combined the roll your head way over with you body rather than try to lift it technique....with going even slower (and thus not buggering myself halfway through a lap).  I swam an entire 50 meter lap non-stop.  The last few yards I thought my lungs were going to explode but I could see the shadow of the flags on the bottom of the pool and that reinforced my resolve.  Then I did it three more times for my 12 laps. 

So I want to take a moment to reflect that back in the Wet Behind the Ears post I set myself the Mini Swim Goal #1 to swim 50m freestyle without stopping by the end of Feb.

Mini Swim Goal #1: ACHIEVED.   Win.

Lets move on to Friday.  Its W4R1 and I am feeling quite daunted by it.  I have only just been making it through 3 min runs in the W3 sessions and 5 mins seems completely unattainable.  First let's look at the the chart so you can see what I was experiencing.

Ok, the first thing I want to point out is the erratically high peaks during the beginning period.  Often in Zone 3 and even skyrocketing into Zone 5 (90-100% of my Maximum Heart Rate).  What you, gentle reader, won't realise until I point it out, is that this is the period in which I am WALKING to the gym.  Compare this with Tues in which the same period doesn't get higher than Zone 2.  This leads me to beleive that I am in fact a little bit sick.

You must also understand that I didn't have this information to hand at the time (if I'd seem this chart when I got to the gym I might have been too scared of having a heart attack to exercise!)   But, I was worried about the length of the intervals in W4 3min-5min-3min-5min.  Discretion being the better part of valour my plan was to drop the run rate back to 8.3 (.2 down from 8.5 which I think was what I was doing for the W3 runs).

I was struggling from the outset, even on the 3 min runs.  By the last 5 min run I had peaked into Zone 5 within about a min and knew I couldn't sustain it.  The Get Running iPhone app lady reminds you to reduce your pace if you are struggling from time to time when you move to a longer interval run, and when my HR was at 167 (well into Z5) I decided that I would try to stabilise it from going any higher.  I progressively dropped the speed of the treadmill.  First to 8.1, then 7.9, then 7.7 and my HR stabilised at about 165-166.  Still in Z5 but I think it gave me some sort of mental dirty trick that made me think "see it isn't going to get any harder than this" even though I knew intellectually that at this intensity my body wasn't replacing oxygen as fast as I was using it and it obviously WAS going to get a lot harder than 'this'.  In any case the dirty trick kept my going for a bit longer. 

Enter dirty (and serendipitous) trick #2.  I think I was pretty much done at about 90 seconds to go.  I'd been focussing visually on a smudge on the wall just over the drinking fountain and struggling with Tibetan Buddhist meditation techniques for focussing my mind away from the 'distractions' of my body screaming at me.   Frankly I was failing.  I'd been in Z5 for what seemed an eternity and I really don't think I'd have made it if a gym bunny in skin tight pants hadn't chosen that moment to rehydrate.  Forget Tibetan Buddhist masters, you want to be distracted for 40 seconds at the height of your discomfort, that's the ticket.  That got me to about 40 seconds to go, and even though I was not long ago thinking "I can't do another 90 seconds" now I was thinking "just 40 seconds, I can do that."

So I limped over the line and completed the longest 5 mins ever. 

A note on knees.  I am still experiencing pain and this morning as I tyoe this they are quite stiff again.  But I feel that they are getting stronger and that they are starting to recover better between runs.  I haven't felt the need to take NSAIDs to manage them, nor have I needed pain killers to sleep for about a week.  The rest of my legs are feeling punished though.  But overall a success.

In deference to my slightly off state I am making a conscious decision this morning to not swim today.  I will rest for the day and aim to complete W4R2 tomorrow as scheduled.

Even Deities Rest One Day a Week

Well let's start with acknowledging an achievement.

Mini Run Goal #3: Achieved!
So for three full weeks of the Couch to 5km programme i have done every scheduled run. I am pretty pleased with myself.

Yesterday at lunch I did W3R3. So that is 9 runs so far. My knees were feeling I think slightly stronger going in but still very sore. I am still hobbling stiffly after runs and for several days but my impression is that they are recovering a little better over the last couple of days. I am bouyed by the idea that they could be getting a little stronger. They still hurt plenty though! Last night for example I had to get up and take pain killers in order to get to sleep.

I was out late last night so I'll try to post W3R3 heart rate graph with some momentary tonight. Today (Wednesday) is rest day. Two days off from running and with a swim tomorrow.

Maybe tonight I'll recount for you Lama Choedak Rinpoche's metaphor of the old sofa as requested by my loyal readers!

Life in the Slow Lane

Just a very quick blog this morning from my iPhone. I went out for dinner and Billy Connelly show last night so no time to blog.

Yesterday at lunch I went to the local pool and swam 11 laps. 550 metres. Not all at once you understand. My record dorcontinuous swimming is about half a lap. I think I made another insight into technique. Every now and again for a few metres I managed to breathe almost like I knew what I was doing.

It's a fine thing that I can make these discoveries myself because the whole swim school issue has not been resolved. To recap, the swim school gave my spot away to some one else while I was IN the freaking class. The swim school lady was suitably embarrassed and apologetic and so I am on a waiting list with no readily identifiable possible outcome.

Excuses are to be found everywhere however, and I chose not to be constrained by this setback. So i went to the pool to swim laps. Those of you who are like me find it takes a great deal of willpower to get out the door to exercise but find it uplifting once you've done it. Think of that feeling and multiply it by 100. Hold that thought.

I am at work with lots to do saying "just do it! Get off your butt and go to the pool. Make the damn time!" So I do. I walk to the pool and what do I find instead of whatever it was my mind was afraid of? Blue skies, warm sun, green grass, and warm crystal waters. Not only was it not as bad as my sabotaging mind was making me believe. It was 1000 times better than staying in the office. I can't wait until my next lunch time pool session.

LESSON: don't let your mind sabotage you out of a truly joyous experience.

Thank You Lama

Some of you may know that a few years ago I went to a Tai Chi and Meditation retreat at the SIBA Buddhist Retreat Centre in Gippsland.  I went on a whim really which made it all the more remarkable how life changing it was.  Now a couple of disclaimers first. 

1)  I'm not Buddhist -- Meat is tasty and I like to eat it.  Having said that the 5 days of vegetarian fare I had at the centre was very tasty too and I enjoyed every meal.  They are not doing it tough food wise let me tell you.
2)  On first glance those Tibetan buddhists look a bit like they're practicing magic, idolatry and so forth -- but they're not.  You have to free your mind from the things holding it back, look past the first impressions and just listen and learn.  Trust me no one is twisting your arm there.  And they are funny guys.  I mean REALLY funny.  They love to laugh.

I had been doing a bit of tai chi with the local Tai Chi Academy (who are fabulous people) and work had been very stressful, so I thought 5 days away in some peace would be nice.  Meditation sounded relaxing (but trust me it's not) and tai chi with the fun people (Brett and Fontaine) from the Tai Chi Academy always good value. 

Where am I going with this.  Well two places.  Firstly a note about meditation.  It hurts.  A lot.  You say "it hurts" and the Lama smiles enthusiastically and says "excellent!  It has to hurt for you to be able to train your mind to ignore pain!"  It took me four days to finally get enough control over my mind to be able to think "My leg is killing me but the pain is transitory and shortly after I stop meditating the pain will go."  And then simply ignore it (actually acknowledge it and then ignore it) by focussing on the object of meditation.  The second year I went I managed to get to that point much quicker and got a whole pile of other things out of it too.  But I digress. 

Here is another interesting side effect of learning about the tranistory nature of suffering.  It applies to cigarette cravings too.  They too are transitory.  I smoked a packet of cigarettes on the drive down to Gippsland that first year (3 or 4 years ago) and haven't smoked a single cigarette since.  Cravings are transitory, pain is transitory.  I found myself able to acknowledge that I REALLY wanted a cigarette, but that the craving that was so overwhelming would pass.  That it should have no power over me because it was transitory.  I need to point out here that I had no intention of giving up smoking, no one talked to me about giving up smoking, or talked about cravings as a form of transitory suffering.  I just gave up.  Right there after nearly 20 years of smoking.

So suffering is transitory.  And more than that, suffering is merely one view of the event of pain in my knee.  Another view is, for example, the joy that my knee is adapting to the new demands I have placed upon it.

So....today I think my knee was hurting more than it ever has so far (that perspective is pretty clear today hehe).  I could barely move it at all during the first interval.  But I used the 'qualified round of breathing' meditation to focus my mind away from the pain and on strict control over the breath.  Breathing in for three strides and out for three strides.  Visualising the breath as white energy coming in through the top of my head, mixing with the red pain I imagined drawing up from my knee into my abdomen, and then expelling it as blue energy out the top of my head as I exhaled. I don't pretend to know if I was magically drawing pain out of my knee and expelling it from my body but that sort of mindfulness sure 'takes your mind off it'!

I stuck to the 8.5 km/h game plan for both the 3 min intervals this week and my perception was that I was coping better this time.  Interestingly, even though my perception was for an easier run, my HRM was showing a different story.

As you can see I got WAY up into Zone 5 and peaked at HR of 174.  Thats very close to "maximum heart rate" for me.  Once again the 4 intervals are clearly seen.  Two short ones of 1.5 mins and two longer ones of 3 mins.  I was definitely starting to labour during the second one and there is a noticable trend upwards when you look at the four intervals together.  I think this shows that I was not recovering fully in the alloted time between intervals.  The recovery between the 3rd and final interval was pronouncably high.  I didn't get out of Z4 (the anaerobic threshold zone) so it looks to me like I spent about 10 straight minutes in anaerobic exercise. 

As Lama Choedak Rinpoche would say, it's all about how you choose to percieve the situation (he has a wonderful metaphor involving an old sofa - but that is for another time).  I could choose to view this data as a step backwards.  After all my heart rate didn't go as high last time even though I was actually running faster at 8.6 km/h.  Or, I can view this as a tremendous success as I stayed in anaerobic exercse zones for 10 straight minutes with less percieved exertion than Friday's run. 

So thank you Lama Choedak Rinpoche.  For 'Qualified Round of Breathing', meditative running, pain as opportunity, and helping me find the success when I could have chosen to look for failure.

Oh and when I recount my time at SIBA I like to tell people I went to 'Buddhist Camp'... pretty much because it sounds funnier.

Wet Behind the Ears

What to do with dodgy knees?  I think we have by now established that I am currently running at the absolute limit of my knees endurance. I had originally had in mind that on the non-running days I would continue to get some form of exercise by walking.  I had formed the habit some time ago (and lost it again) of walking up Mt Oakey every day at lunch time.  This is pretty close to exactly an hour round trip from my office and is very satisfying as you can walk along some of Canerra's wonderful network of bike paths through these lovely green belts even though you are in the middle of suburbia.  I could quite literally walk out the door of my 22 storey office building, wak 100 feet, cross a road (on a pedestrian crossing) and be on the path. Up to the trig station, do the Rocky dance and walk back down again. 

But I can barely walk at all between sessions.  I shuffle along in these half strides trying to protect my knees.  What to do?

Well, I went to a swimming lesson at the local pool today.  Yep at 40 I decided it was time to learn to swim properly. Many of you know my parent's house has a pool and I'd certainly spent a lot of summer days in there, but to be honest I can't really swim.  So I enrolled in a swim class this morning (at least I hope I did as there was some issue of them inexplicably giving my spot away while I was IN the class!)  Hopefully they will call me with good news on Monday.  There are 17 more weeks of class to go ( I missed the first 2 weeks).  So I am  hoping that every Sat morning will see me learning to swim.  After the class I spent another 15 minutes flapping randomly up the slow lane for a little bit extra.  Worked up quite an appetite too!

I was having trouble with water getting in my nose but I think I may have finally figured out was I was doing wrong.  I was breathing out my nose and I think that might have been hampering the formation of a decent seal.  In any case after 15 or so more minutes I finally managed to actually complete a 25 m lap without stopping, inhaling a lung full of water or having to stop to regain my composure.

While I wasn't hurting my knees while swimming I sure was using them cause they were stiff afterwards for about an hour or so.

My aim with the swimming classes is to become proficient enough just to swim laps. 

So here's another 'SMART' goal.

Swim Goal #1: Swim 50m freestyle without stopping by the end of Feb

Technical Genius

After an hour or so cursing my cycling computer the other night, I implemented the radical technical solution of pointing the Infrared dongle thingy at the actual IR window on my CS600x rather than just the face of it (as it shows in the online manual mind).  And what do you know?  It worked instantly.  Who'd have thought it?

Anyway couple of HR charts for your elucidation.

First W2R3 6x 1.5 min intervals.  You can clearly see the 6 intervals in which I slightly increased the speed.

Now look at W3R1 with 2x  1.5 min then 3 min intervals.  Notice how the second peak (8.6km/h is well up into the red zone) whereas the first interval (8.5km/h) isn't quite as high.  Its nice to be able to explain physiologically what I was feeling experientially.  It somehow makes it 'ok'.  Half of this is about tricking your mind that you are succeeding and therefore not self sabotaging.

Small Change Big Effect

First off a goal statement

Mini Goal #3: Finish the 3 scheduled W3 runs on Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday

Today was the first of the week 3 runs (W3R1).  This marks a relatively significant jump in the length of the run intervals.  W1 has 1 minute intervals.  W2 has 1.5 minute intervals. W3, however, jumps to 3 minute intervals and I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope with that. 

My knees were quite sore before the run today.  Last night I didn’t take an anti-inflammatory (I just forgot to as I ate my dinner).  So I decided not to take one this morning and to see how things went.  Last night I couldn’t sleep because of the aching/pain in my knees and in the end after 3 hours I got up and took some panadol to take the edge off enough for me to get a few hours rest. 

As a result I have been quite tired throughout the day, but I was determined to keep my appointment with a treadmill!  I had my previously mentioned plan in mind.  Start the running intervals at a sedate 8.5 km/h to monitor how my heart rate behaved over the 3 minutes.  I didn’t want to exhaust myself and especially my leg muscles as I am relying on them protecting my knees.  Tired muscles equals more strain on the already punished knees.

The first interval after the warm up was very hard as my knees (and especially my left knee) was very painful (limping kind of painful).   It stayed very painful throughout the first 90 second interval. 

The next interval though was one of the aforementioned 3 minute intervals.  Three times as long as those from just 2 weeks ago and twice as long as last weeks.  My plan to start on 8.5 km/h turned out to be the most brilliant guess so far.  My HR climbed steadily for a couple of minutes then started to plateau a bit, finishing off at (I think) 160.  Up there at the top end of Zone 4, definitely anaerobic but before the lactate threshold I think. I turned out to be doable.  A bit of an effort but I got through it without thinking “I can’t do this”.  Also the pain in my knee settled down a bit as it had warmed up to the work it was doing. Or perhaps I was focussing on other things enough that I put it to the back of my mind.

A three minute walk, 90 second run interval, and 90 second walk later I was ready for the last run interval, the second 3 minute challenge.  Riding on a wave of confidence I set the speed to 8.6 km/h rather than 8.5 km/h thinking that I was relatively comfortable for the first 3 mins.  Oh. My. God.  I can still barely believe how much difference 0.1 km/h would make.  My heart rate climbed faster and I begun to really labour for breath as the third minute started.  At the thirty seconds to go mark I thought I would not be able to finish.  I was thinking of reducing the pace so that I could finish the interval but pushed on for the longest 30 seconds so far.  My HR up to 170 when the interval finally finished and I could feel my body not being able to keep up enough oxygen no matter how fast and deep I tried to gulp in air and how fast my heart was trying to shift it around my body. 

8.5 km/h a challenge but totally doable.  8.6 km/h a real struggle.  So picking 8.5 (just a wildly lucky guess) proved to be the difference between me having my first 3 minute interval with the result “I can do this” rather than “I can’t go any further”.  I wonder how successful I would have been if I had started at 8.6 instead and struggled in the first long interval.  Would I have been as motivated to finish as I was?

So LESSON LEARNED: Its better to start a bit slow and build up to your limit than to push yourself a fraction more and demotivate yourself. 

Speaking of motivation.  Some of you have been following and encouraging me on facebook and I want to tell you that I have gained a great deal of motivation as a result.  And those of you who sent some personal messages describing your own journeys I can only say that they have been uplifting tales that have encouraged me to persevere.   

And finishing with an achievement. Mini Goal #2 – Achieved.  Win.

Putting my Heart Into It

For W2R3 I added a little something to the mix.  I took my fancy cycling computer.  In addition to all the regular things a cycling computer does (speed, distance, cadence, etc) my fancy one is also a heart rate monitor with training zones.  It gives you ‘time in zone’ information and can download it all to my PC and other fancy features.  

Just for reference it is also designed to work the other way.  That is, you can prepare a training plan (10 mins in zone 2, 5 mins in zone 4, 1 min in zone 5, etc) and then upload that to the computer and it gives you audible queues to help you keep in the planned heart rate zones while riding)

Anyway, I took it for W2R3 just for the sake of adding some interesting empirical evidence to complement the perceived effort information I was experiencing.

I have begun to write this post without first consulting the recorded data so that I can give my perception first.  I felt I was pacing pretty well for the 90 second run intervals although as I mentioned in What a Difference 90 Seconds Makes I was starting to flag a bit towards the end of the intervals.  This is reflected in my observations of my heart rate during the intervals.  Starting from a base of about 125–130 bpm at the beginning of the interval, my heart rate climbed at a fairly steady rate throughout the interval to peak at 160+ by the end of the interval.  I was increasing the tempo slightly throughout the intervals: 8.8 for 2 intervals; 8.9 for next 2; and 9.0 for last 2).  The last interval I peaked at 167 and its fair to say my perception was that the rate of increase in heart rate was starting to plateau, however it was continuing to rise throughout the entire 90 second of the last interval.

Why is this important?  Well a combination of two facts.  

Firstly for me heart zone 5 (90%-100% of Maximum Heart Rate) begins somewhere in the low 160s.  Using the (quite dodgy) formula of MHR=220-age gives a figure of 180.  This is a rule of thumb of course and the only way to know with any great certainty is to average a number of threshold tests designed specifically for identifying fitness thresholds.   My fancy heart rate monitor has an inbuilt test that predicts MHR based on resting heart rate and that is what is programmed in at the moment.  In any case 167 bpm is almost certainly into zone 5 for me.  Zone 4 is the anaerobic threshold zone, Zone 5 is flat out (and also anaerobic).  It is simply not possible to sustain extended periods in Z5. Part of the reason is that this zone is also beyond the lactate threshold whereby lactic acid clearance rates from the muscles cannot keep up with the amount of lactic acid being generated.

Secondly, W3 runs herald a significant challenge in that the longest running intervals jump from 1½ minutes to 3 minute intervals.  This means that I could be up in anaerobic zones for the best part of 3 minutes, and if I have a relatively accurate MHR figure, then in Z5 for up to 2 minutes.  This might not be physically possible for a fellow of my dubious fitness.

Knowledge is power, I need a plan.

For W3R1 I will wind the speed of the 3 minute intervals back to say 8.5 for the first 3 minute interval so I can make an assessment about where I can expect my HR to plateau for that particular pace.  Maybe if I can get my HR to plateau out at about 160 bpm by running slightly slower than I have been then that will keep me at the top end of Z4 (still anaerobic for sure) rather than up in the flat out region of Z5.  My theory is that this will give me a chance to complete the 3 minute run interval.  I’ll keep trying to regulate my breathing and cadence with long deep breathes as a focal point for my mind. In for 3 strides, out for 3 strides.

Towards the end of the programme I am hoping that I will have improved my fitness sufficiently that I can run (even at a slow pace) while maintaining a HR in Z3 (which is aerobic).  That is, my cardio respiratory system will be efficient enough to maintain a sufficient supply of oxygen to my body to maintain a slow pace without tripping the anaerobic threshold.  Once that happens, ‘time in zone’ becomes the enemy rather than other limiting factors (like knees or muscle fatigue).

Although I have decided not to focus on heart zone training as a methodology for this programme (I am sticking purely to the programme as planned) it is useful information in understanding my own physiology and aids in planning around what is happening to my body as I put it under this stress 3 times a week.  It also lets me regulate my speed down without guilt, knowing that I am aiming to win the war, not just the battle.

It also gives me cool numbers that act as indicators of fitness. But not today. As it turned out I spent a frustrating hour or so trying to get my cycling computer to sync with my pc using the dodgy it interface. No luck and it delayed this post by a couple of days while I fussed about it. But I'm running again today at lunch so I wanted to get this out first

What a difference a half minute makes

Mini Goal #2 – Complete the 3 week 2 runs on the scheduled days (Friday, Sunday, Tuesday)

Week two pattern: 

• Walk 5 mins
• Run 90 seconds (x6 times) with 2 minute walks in between
• Walk 5 mins

My knees were aching quite a bit by the time for week 2 run 1 came around, even after 2 days of scheduled break.  I was worried about overdoing it, but made the decision to go ahead with the run but employing the strategies my reading had revealed.  Slightly slower walks, slightly slower runs focussing on not letting my stride lengthen too much.
 

I also reluctantly made the decision to let myself take some Diclofenac Sodium tablets.  These are NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs).  Voltaren is an example.  In any case I have a repeat prescription I use for chronic issues I have with my neck and back.  The problem is you can’t take them ad infinitum as they have some nasty side effects (like kidney failure, stomach ulcers and strokes).  But a week or so then off them again is ok.  They definitely have helped reduce the pain in my knees.  I start to get pain again towards the end of the day as the morning one wears and when I wake in the morning as the evening one wears off. 

This decision was made easier by the fact that my neck/shoulder is playing up again and is stiff and painful.  I’d probably have taken them anyway to try to fix that up so it’s a ‘happy’ coincidence. Interestingly, the pain in my neck/shoulder seemed to reduce during the run as my body warmed up.  But sitting here at a desk and keyboard I can really feel it!

I was in for a bit of a surprise though.  Having completed with first week’s 60 second intervals with relative ease (fitness wise) I was a little surprised how much difference the extra 30 seconds made.  I was getting quite puffed towards the end of the 90 second intervals on W2R1 (that’s Week 2 Run 1 – I’ll use this abbreviation system from now on).

As surprising as that was, I was just as surprised during W2R2 to find that I could more comfortably complete the 90 second intervals just 2 days later.  I’ve seen this training effect before in cycling.  At the beginning the improvements are marked and obvious.  After a month or so it starts to plateau out a bit.  The C25K programme increases the ante every week though to keep your fitness under mild strain and ‘outrun’ the training plateau effect.  Hope I can keep up!

I’m trying not to focus on weight loss as a goal, although obviously that is a primary concern, but it’s worth noting that the W1 and W2 sessions seem to burn about 300 calories each time.  So a good contribution to the energy balance equation. Weight Loss as a goal can be demotivating as it can be a bit variable.  Setting my goals around completing the runs scheduled in the programme means I either go to the gym and do the run…or I don’t.  If I crack and eat a cupcake, or have an extra potato it doesn’t compromise anything.  I don’t stand on the wheel of fortune and hope the numbers come up half a kilo lighter this week in order to measure the success of my goal.  If I go to the gym for half an hour 3 times this week on Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday…then I have done what I said I would do and achieved my goal.  Win.

Finished W2R3 at lunchtime today.  Quite a lot of discomfort in the knees and now 8 hours later they are quite stiff again.  Two days rest now should help and then the first of the W3 runs on friday.  W3 definitely ups the ante with two 3 minute run intervals during each session.  That will test me!

Today I focussed on breathing.  I forced myself to breathe deeper as I ran.  Rather than shorter gasping breathes I made myself breathe in deeply for three strides then out for three strides.  I think this helps maintain a rythmic pace and gives the mind something to focus on as you run.  A bit like in meditation.  Rather than let the mind wander and worry about the pain in me knees or whether I am fit enough to keep running, I focus on the act of breathing.  In for 3 strides out for 3.  I toyed with the idea of actually engaging in 'qualified round of breathing' meditation (a Shamatha meditation technique that I suspect is specially designed for us flappy minded westerners).  But that was a bridge too far.  In for 3 out for 3 it was. 

7 weeks to go of the progamme.

I've caught up now (blogwise).  Normal reporting from here on.

Mini Goal #2 achieved.  Win.