I took Monday off in terms of excecise as despite my poor performance on my activities, I was feeling quite pleased with myself that I got up off my backside and set some benchmarks to start from.
Tuesday was to be another trip to the park. Last outing was nothing to be impressed about and I was not expecting anything too special this time either so the target was simple - finish the 4k in less than 30.
After my Map My Run distaster last time, I was more prepared and set up my account to track my progress before I left. Also changed Kenny Rogers for a bit of Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison with its train a coming would hopefully get me there a bit quicker.
Driving home from work, getting ready in my head for my run and the weather is teaming it down. Been kind of strange weather in Glasgow of late - scorchio one day, raining the next but that's Glasgow - not going to let it spoil my run. Maybe the rain would help cool me down a bit?
I get home and announce that I am going for my run to an immediate glare out of the window, then a glare back at me, then a glare out the window - yes I'm doing it folks so if you want to join me you can, otherwise, I'll see you when I get back!
As luck would have it, the rain stopped just as we [the good lady conceded to the run!] were ready, so we had a wet track but dry conditions to run in. I wore a breathable windbreaker, just in case it rained but I was soon going to regret it.
Got to the park, and another quick warm up, start the tunes, set the app to record and off we go.
Not going to go into too much detail on the actual run this time but I did learn a couple of lessons on the way that I would like to share...
- Don't wear a windbreaker unless you want to sweat like a pig (or the weather is really cold). I ended up running with it unzipped most of the way and felt really uncomfortable.
- Wear your headphones in such a way that the cable runs down your back. Because I has the windbreaker on this time, I did it down the front of my T-Shirt and up again into the pocket of my jacket. It just kept tugging and popping the earphones out of my ears which becomes something of an itritation when it happens 6 times in the first Km.
- Choose the earphones carefully. I used the handsfree kit from my phone but because I wired myself up incorrectly, I kept putting my music into mute (the buttons being knocked about left right and centre!). Another technical disaster that I did not want to stop the run to fix so I actually ended up disconnecting them after my first Km so I was on my own for the rest of it!
So, in summary, not the best experience but I did complete the run, and I did complete it in under 30. I also managed to log the data and Mr. Starfish was not going to be a feature today!
At the end of the run, once I got breath back, I actually really started to feel good about myself and for the first time, was begining to enjoy the experience!
Stats below from Map My Run - this really is a great app once its set up!
Looking at the analyis, a few things become immediately obvious...
- Nice healthy start - maybe a little to fast to start with but settling to a good pace on the flat
- Struggling on the hills - can easily spot the decline in performance as the hills set in and see where I was clearly walking.
- Need to set some short range targets (1 - get to 1 km before taking a walking bread, 2 - Get to a place where I am not walking down hills at all 3 - make it up the hill on the first lap without stopping).
- Check out the sprint at the end - final burst of energy to burn the calories, make up some time on the last lap.
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