The Virtual Runner Running Blog

Front of the cottage

I’m really sorry that I haven’t written in a while.  Juneathon was going so well for me as well!  Oh well, there is always next year.

I’ve had a lot of things going on lately an my focus just hasn’t been on writing.  I’ve managed to keep running though and if you look at my running log for my virtual run across Canada you’ll see all of my runs there.  Because it’s been so long and so many runs I won’t sit here and type them all out for you because it’s boring reading and boring to type all of it.

Moving

We have moved to our new place and it is one of four cottages owned by nearby farm.  Ours is semi-detached (to the another cottage of course) and that means we only have one neighbor.  The new house is near the motorway but we don’t really mind at all.  We’ve been there since 1st July and we’re loving it!  The outside of the cottage (grass, borders, trees, outbuildings etc) were/are pretty run down but we have done a lot to them already in the couple of weeks we’ve been living there. 

It took a couple of days to mow the whole lawn because the mower was cutting the grass so short the bag kept filling quickly (the mower wouldn’t go any higher – it was a gift from friends).  Unfortunately the mower broke before we could even finish the lawn so we decided to go and buy a new one which finished the lawn nicely.  Now it seems like the grass has all grown back already!  If it is nice this weekend I’ll be out mowing again…

Gate & back garden

It took two days to move into our new house and all of our stuff fit perfectly.  We had a clear-out over the few weeks before moving anyway because we went from a four bedroom detached house to a two bedroom semi-detached cottage.  Thankfully the new house has the outbuildings so we had a place to store all of our crap!  Usually that is what people use their garages for in this country.

We rented a nice big VW van for our move and I was looking forward to putting my little boy’s booster seat in the middle and letting him come with Daddy.  He loved driving in the van so high up. 

I’ve put some photos of our new home on Flickr and you can find them by clicking here or by clicking on one of the photos on this post.

Lasers

“You know, I have one simple request…and that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads. Now evidently, my cycloptic colleague informs me that that can’t be done. Ah, can you please remind me what I pay you people for? Honestly, throw me a bone here…what do we have?” – Dr Evil

Garden facing cottage

We recently got a bit of money and my wife has said that I should consider getting laser eye surgery.  So, I went and booked my “free” consultation for Wednesday, 12 August 2009 in Reading.  To tell you the truth, I’m both excited and scared.  I’m excited about begin able to do things without having to wear glasses all the time!  To wear sunglasses!  To be able to see when I come into a warm building from the cold outside!  To be able to run in the rain without feeling like a blind man!  Oh the joy of it all.  However, I’m scared that I won’t be suitable and I’ll have been excited for nothing.  I’m scared something might go wrong (even though statistically this is slim).

I am interested in hearing from people who have had laser eye surgery or know of those who have had it so please feel free to comment or send me an email [jamie (a) thevirtualrunner dot org].  I’m using Optimax so if you have any information or experiences with them in particular I’ll be even more interested to know.

Stress

With a death in the family, my dad going in and out of the hospital and moving house; I’ve been a bit stressed.  I think this (along with my generaly laziness) has contributed to…

Excess

I’ve been over-eating quite a bit lately.  I think it is mostly comfort eating but it’s certainly making me fat(ter).  I haven’t weighed myself in quite a while because I’m afraid it will just confirm what I already feel.

I mowed the lawn too short.

I’ve decided that I need to have a bit more focus when it comes to running/training because I’m just kind of plodding along on some sort of virtual plateau at the moment and I need to boost things.  I’m thinking that maybe I should register for a half marathon in October somewhere so it will give me something to aim for and will give me a bit more focus.  Training for general fitness just isn’t doing it.

I wish I had the common sense and willpower to stop eating so damn much but I just love food… yummy!

Friends

It has been a good few weeks now since my friend Robby (he’s like my brother) finished his trek across the arctic with a team of dogs and I haven’t really heard from him at all.  Thankfully I got to speak to him a couple of weeks ago when he was at my parents place in Canada and I managed to track him down and speak to him again last night.  I’ve really missed the guy and I’ve been stressing about how he is and why I haven’t heard from him.  Turns out it is a perfectly legitimate reason, however it would have been nice if he had kept me in the picture instead of letting me worry.

He’s talking about setting up a blog himself over the next couple of months and it that actually happens I’ll let you know.  For now, I’m just glad he’s safe and sound and taking care of himself.

food & diet, non running, robby kilborn, training, weight

I’m happy to report that I ran yesterday morning (Friday) and did 10.57km (6.56 miles) in a 05:41 min/km (09:08 min/mile).

The run felt okay, even though I was really congested before I started.  The running helped clear my head and I went to work as well.  Generally I was feeling okay and also in much better spirits because I knew that I had maintained a head cold and it wasn’t going to progress to my chest (relief).

Today I’m feeling good again and still blowing my nose every few minutes.  No running today.  Today it is just me and my son (mummy is at work all day).

My son is currently covered in chocolate and playing with his wooden train set.  Bath tonight I think…

Tomorrow I’ve got my long run and I’m glad that I feel I can do it.  I want to keep up the weekly mileage.

The only thing I’m debating is where to do the run.  The weather currently shows that there will be heavy rain tomorrow (remember, I’m a fair-weather runner) but it looks like it doesn’t arrive until about midday.   What I might do is get up nice and early (I get up at 5:20am weekdays anyway) and see what the weather is like then.  If it looks like it is going to remain clear then I might head up to Dinton Pastures again and run around the two lakes.  Besides, the miles in the great outdoors will certainly be better for my training then miles on a treadmill.

On another note, I was talking to a guy at work (I don’t know his name because he works at the other end of the building and we met in the kitchen) and he was asking about my running (everyone at work knows I run because of previous charity drives).  It turns out he is a runner too and we have even been in a couple of the same events.  Small world.

I’ve also been on Runners World (.co.uk) a lot more lately to see what people are chatting about in the forums and there was one post that caught my eye:-

Is there anyone out there who has the same problem as me and can offer advice/help.

I am overweight and am too embarrassed to wear a vest or t shirt as my man boobs are all over the place when I run. I always wear a lightweight jacket or if the weather is too hot it stops me going running.

I have done a bit of researching and have come across compression vests and am thinking of buying one to wear under my t shirt. Anyone else tried these or know something about them, do the t shirt cling to them etc.

Any advice gratefully receive.

This is how I still feel a lot of the time now.  Even though I have lost quite a lot of weight since I also still suffer with the self-conscious crap from time to time.

Needless to say, he had many responses in the forum and the general consensus was the same from everyone: At least you’re running!  Keep it up!

long run, training, weather, weight

Yesterday was my easy run and it was easy, however I was hurting as a result of the session I had at the track on Wed night.

The muscles in my inner thighs were sore and my calves felt a bit tight as well. I plowed on and did 10.36km at a 05:47 (per km) pace. For you imperial minded people that is a 09:18 (per mile) pace.

My long run is tomorrow and I’m going to go for 18km (11.18 miles) again. Hopefully my pace will be about the same as my last long run which was 05:39 (per km) or 09:05 (per mile). I want to do the Reading Half Marathon in under 2 hours and I don’t care if I do it in 1 hour 59 mins and 59 secs! I’ve worked out that if I run at about a 05:38 (per km) pace or 09:05 (per mile) pace that I should finish in just under two hours.

I haven’t mentioned my weight in a long time but I will today because I went in to town to buy some new running shorts.

I was trying on some new shorts (I bought Nike) and I tried on a large for the first time in ages. I’m usually an XL and have been for some time (as far as I can remember). They fit. I couldn’t believe it. I tried on a pair of L shorts (waist 34/36) and they fit perfectly fine and even felt loose. Considering my waist was about 40/42 at it’s biggest, buying those shorts today felt amazing. Last time I weighed myself I was still hovering around 99/100kg (218 pounds).

Now for the push ups training that I’m becoming obsessed with…

You’ll see from my last post that the previous training session didn’t go well and I didn’t manage to achieve many of the goals for each set. This time it was different:-

Set 1: 25 (okay)
Set 2: 29 (hard, but I did it)
Set 3: 25 (hard, but I did it)
Set 4: 25 (very hard, but I did it)
Set 5: To failure (at least 36) – I only did 21

I wasn’t that bothered about the impossible 5th set this time. I thought “Screw it! I’ll just rest a minute and do another 15!”. And that’s what I did. So, I did the 36 but not all in one go. To top it off, I did two more sets of 15 with short rests in between. I was extremely weak afterwards!

As for non-running related matters, nothing much to report. My fiance and I took our son on a train in to town this morning (to get me shorts) and he loved it. We’ve taken him on the train a couple of times now and he just loves it. His little face just lights up.

I’m sure he won’t be like that when he’s older and if he has to commute to work every day on the train. Oh, how the enthusiasm will wain.

100 push ups, non running, training, weight

Runnersworld.co.uk had a competition which offered a prize for 6 individuals which would provide the following:-

• One-to-one coaching and support from one of three top coaches – Steve Smythe, GB Olympic athlete Liz Yelling or Nick Anderson
• Personalised nutrition advice from the Lucozade Sport Performance Team, as well as a four-month supply of Lucozade Sport products
• Entry and return travel to key warm-up events
• Opportunity to attend two hands-on training seminars with Liz Yelling
• Lucozade Sport Super Six adidas running kit (including trainers) and a state-of-the-art Garmin Forerunner 405
• A night’s luxury hotel accommodation, travel costs to and from London and VIP hospitality on race day

You don’t even need a place in the race (done by ballot); they can take care of this as well!

In return, I would have to commit to following a marathon schedules/training plan and share my experiences with Runner’s World for the duration of the project.

I entered on the 7th and decisions were going to be made by today… I’ve heard nothing. Oh well. Life goes on!

My current training is going okay, however I did some speedwork on Wednesday which consisted of 1 min fast run, 1 min slow recovery jog, 2 min fast, 2 min slow, 3 min fast, 3 min slow, 4 min fast, 4 min slow, 5 min fast and 5 min slow (30 mins in total). I had a 10 minute jog to warm up and some stretches beforehand.

The next day (Thursday) my achilles on my left foot (it’s always my left foot) was kind of tender again and stiff, which means this injury of mine isn’t going to go away anytime soon! I took a day off from training on Thursday and stayed at home. I have always continued to do stretches for my legs of every shape and size as well as strengthening exercises and I’ll keep doing these.

I don’t want it to get so bad that I need physio or anything because I’ve been to physiotherapists before for other things and they seem to make them much worse before they make them better! I don’t have good experiences with them.

Ran today (an hour – 10.3 km) and will have a long slow run on Sunday.

My weight is still hovering around the 100.5 kg mark and I’m pushing for the big drop to the double digits! I’ll let you know when it happens.

Achilles/Calf Stretches

Step1 – Gastroc stretch. Lean into wall, keeping affected leg back straight, heel on floor and turned slightly outward. Stretch should be felt in calf.

Step2 – Soleus stretch. Similar to above with affected leg back but knees slightly bent; lean into wall until stretch is felt in lower calf.

Step3 – Achilles tendon stretch. Stand with toes on stair, heels off the edge. Raise up on toes, then down as far as possible. Return to starting position.

pains and niggles, stretching, super six, weight