Thursday, April 28, 2016

Week Two Recap: Niggles

If you want to learn more about my challenge: Running a 5k in every borough in London in one weekend, please go here! I am running for CrisisUK, and you can donate to the cause here. Interested to run a borough with me? Email me at moosenshoes[at]gmail[dot]com (slightly obfuscated to confuse the bots!)

Well week two was pretty good, although not so much weather wise! My stats look pretty good for distance and pace, although I do wish I went a bit faster pace wise. I am still under my 10 minute mile limit but I know it will get harder in my challenge was the distance racks up. May need to sneak in a speed/temp session into my weekly run.

Day Value (mi)
Mon 6.06
Wed 6.21
Fri 6.22
Sat 10.9
Sun 8
Total Distance 37.39
Date Column1 Pace
18/04/2016 8:41 min/mi
20/04/2016 8:55 min/mi
22/04/2016 9:45 min/mi
23/04/2016 9:47 min/mi
23/04/2016 9:52 min/mi
24/04/2016 9:26 min/mi

I also tried to do a GoodGym mission on Saturday, which unfortunately fell through, but still meet a lovely group of people and had a chat over a coffee. If you have never heard of GoodGym, highly recommend you look them up. They are all over the UK and basically combine volunteer work with exercise. Amazing concept! 

However, at the end of week two I got a niggle. This is always a dread in the running world, because you never know if it is something that will go away with a rest day or two or if it is the sign of something bigger. 

So after my yoga/stretch session on Monday I hit my hill training with a bit of trepidation.  The niggle was still there... disconcerting. I felt it behind my knee, and let me tell you, the foam roller got some usage that night! 

I am deciding to let it rest for a couple of days before I continue, skipping a 10k in the process. I feel it's important to realise missing one or two training days is OK if you really feel it would improve your health overall. That being said, it's also important to know when you need to seek professional help, so if it comes back I will be calling a physio. I do not want to have to pull out so early on in training, but at least I can fix it now where I have more maneuverability, rather than a week or two before the big day.  

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Domain up and running :D

If you want to learn more about my challenge: Running a 5k in every borough in London in one weekend, please go here! I am running for CrisisUK, and you can donate to the cause here

Quick update I now have some officialness! I purchased the domain moosenshoes[dot]co[dot]uk so feel free to bookmark it to keep up with my training. I also now have an email moosenshoes{at}gmail.com.

If you are interested in running one of the 5k's with me, just shoot me an email. If you have already expressed an interested-- no worries I will be contacting you shortly :)

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Week One Training: Running the Boroughs

If you want to learn more about my challenge: Running a 5k in every borough in London in one weekend, please go here! I am running for CrisisUK, and you can donate to the cause here

I came back from Japan on Monday and definitely wanted a snooze. However, I read the book "Don't Stop Me Now" by Vassos Alexander on my travels, and he swears by running to break the jetlag. Seeing as how I needed to start running, figured I would give it a try.

Classic View 
The weather did not look like it was going to cooperate, it was raining the entire way home (yay England!) but the running gods smiled on me and the rain stopped long enough for me to get out into the Big Smoke for a run.

I am happy to report that running did the trick! Not only did I feel very refreshed and broke the jetlag (or at least wounded it greatly) I got to soak in some killer views-one of the reasons why London is so brilliant.

Beauty & the Beigel 
I also got to do my Beigel Run on Friday, a 10k off which takes off every Friday morning from Beigel Bake on Brick Lane. This is the with group Advent Runners, a wonderfully fun running group who also does track sessions and long runs during the week. You gotta wake up quite early with a start time of 7am, but to be able to bite into a lovely, chewy, beigel after a run is such a great feeling.

I only had to do one run this weekend, which was good as I went to Brighton on Sunday to support my friend running her first marathon. It was fun to be on the other side of the coin-- cheering runners on rathers than being the runner. I hope people understood my sign of 'Worse Parade Ever' was a joke! The weather was gorgeous too-- and it really made me want to lace up my trainers as well. I was enviously looking at the trails I could see from the train, but managed to convince myself that rest days are just as important as workout days and made a note of the location (Three Bridges) for later on in training.

I didn't run as far as I was hoping to and I blame the treadmill. I did a hill session on Tuesday which really did a number on me, and I just couldn't put in the extra miles afterwards. Does that mean it was a good session? The weather was brutal on Thursday and I was running low on time so it was back on the dreadmill to squeeze in a 5k rather than the 10k I had planned along the canal.

Running Distance for Week One

Thanks to those sessions I told myself I will ALWAYS go running outside unless really forced otherwise. Also, I need to get accustomed to running in all sorts of weather.

Best of luck to everyone running the London Marathon-- insanely jealous of you and I will be out there to cheer you on!


Friday, April 1, 2016

Running the Boroughs: My Personal London Challenge

TLDR -> I am running a lot August 6 & 7 in London and want you to run with me. Check out the Google Doc and sign up!

I have listened to many inspirational people these last couple of months. Marathon Talk, Tough Girl, and Advent Running all highlight exceptional people doing exceptional things. However, after listening to them and the initial sense of motivation, I would have this little niggling sense of "..you can't do that.. you have rent/social obligations/job..."

Everyone has these voices. It just depends on how you respond.

So being a computer nerd I tackled the problem logically. What is something that would be considered a challenge, not require a lot of time off from work, get me seeing parts of the world I never saw before, and still allow me to justify eating a massive Sunday Roast?

I live in London, and I love it. It would make sense to have a challenge center around it. Also with its massive transportation links (*cough* when they work *cough*) getting around is quite easy.

Did you know London has 32 boroughs (the City of London does not count apparently) and were officially created on April 1, 1965? I wonder if people thought it was all a big joke when they announced it. I did not know all the borough names, and could maybe name 15-18 of them. Maybe it's like naming all the counties... no one seems to know them all.

Typically we barely stray from the boroughs closest to where we live, and that is a shame as there is so much of London to explore and discover.

So I thought... could I run in every borough? 

The answer is of course yes of course I can, but this has to be a challenge so how will I make it... challenging but yet still obtainable to me, someone who has run at most 15 miles in one go.

How about a 5k in every borough over a weekend?

160 kilometers. Approximately 100 miles. Over two days.

It's like my own personal ultra!

The dates have been set, August 6 & 7. AND I have the logistics mostly figured out, so if you want to run a borough with me, you can see whats available by checking out My Google Doc. It has maps, information, and my email so you can get in touch!

I will be sharing my experiences and exasperations on my blog; talking a bit more about my training (or lack thereof), and hopefully inspiring others to get out there and explore the world, no matter where they are.

The point of this is not only a challenge to myself but I figure may as well fundraise for a good cause. I have chosen CrisisUK as the beneficiary. CrisisUK is a national charity for helping single homeless people. Tackling homelessness is a huge issue, and nowhere in the UK is that more prevalent than London. If you feel so inclined, please donate to my cause here.

So today, 51 years after the boroughs of London were created, I am putting forth this challenge to myself.

And no, I am not joking.

I will not be posting videos every time... but figure good to start with a bang :)