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.