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Category: Fitness & Health
Adnams Southwold 10k 2012
Yesterday was my second 10k race. The one with the free beer as it was sponsored by Adnams around the Suffolk village of Southwold where Adnams is based.
As promised Sunday was bright and sunny, if cold, so pretty good running weather really. Southwold is about an hours drive from where I live, but there was no need for registration on the day as numbers and race timing chips were all sent out in advance. We parked a little way along the seafront, and when we arrived at the pavillion where there was official parking the place was packed! At 10:45 the ladies toilet queue was full of panicky Women worried they would miss the start, especially as without warning the actual start line turned out to be about half a miles walk from the Pavillion where the parking was, I think a lot of people would have arrived earlier if they’d known that!
Ready to run:
* Sweaty Betty Top * Thoosa Swift Capris * Karrimor Socks * Asics Gel 13 Running Shoes ** Belkin Easefit Armband * Shock Absorber Run Bra *The race actually started 10 minutes late, probably to allow for all the panicky people running down from their cars. This meant I got to spend a lonely 10 minutes standing alone in the cold while everyone around me seemed to know each other and a woman in an orange jacket jumped repeatedly on my foot while moaning about being at the back with the “slowbies”. I don’t know who you are, woman in orange, but you are responsible for me starting my second 10k race in the foulest mood, if the start had been delayed another 5 minutes you might well have received a slap, or at the very least a loud tutting and an evil stare.
The start was arranged so they actually had little signs up for your estimated finish times to give you an idea where to start, whch was helpful, though they could have been a little higher off the ground as with 700 runners milling around they were hard to see.
I have to say I didn’t enjoy running this one as much as the Marriotts Way 10k. The course covered 2 1/2 laps before shooting off to a finish line in a square (and up a hill, why always up a hill at the end?). I was quite looking forward to some lovely sea views and the sound of lapping waves, but the only part that went along the harbour was also so rutted and covered in gravel and large rocks that it was impossible to look up from the ground to enjoy the view, and even if I had it was directly into the low winter sun so I was almost blinded by it. You had to go across this section, which was about half a mile long, 3 times and it was a misery each time. The first time I really hurt my ankle, for about a half mile I thought I’d had it, but I ran through it and by the time I’d hit 2 miles it had eased off, thankfully!
A nice touch was that race numbers had names printed on them, so some of the supporters were reading peoples names off of their bibs and shouting encouragement, which was lovely if you didn’t have anyone there to cheer you on personally. By about 5 miles I was seriously flagging and I think the only thing that kept me going was the thought of free beer!
The finish line had a nicely festive atmosphere, with a loudspeaker announcing finishers names as they approached the line. Though it was a shame previous finishers didn’t seem to be cheering on the late finishers as much as they did at the Marriotts Way, possibly because there was too much going on behind the finish line to come back out and stand by the road!
Looking shinier and less bouncy at the finish:
Race Timing Systems did the chip times and you were able to go and enter your bib number and get a print out of your times immediately, which was nice. They were also up online within about 4 hours of the end of the race.
We have nice sturdy bag for life goodie bags containing a packet of crispy pasta things, some Percy Pigs, a bottle of Gatorade, a bottle of Adnams beer and a fetching pink medal shaped like a bottle top. There were also water and bananas available.
My final time was 1 hour 2 minutes and 35 seconds. Still outside of that elusive hour but quicker than October! Mr Chick also managed a personal best coming in under 51 minutes, so had a nice 10 minutes to recover and come back round to cheer me on at the end! I’m at the bottom of page 11 on the official results.
If you’re interested there’s also some more photos on my Facebook Page
Motion X Sleep Review
Sleep by Motion X is an app aimed at encouraging you to both get more rest, and more exercise.
I downloaded it ages ago as a sleep tracker, the app uses your iPhones built in accelerometer to track your sleep patterns. You can either wear it in an armband or put it in the bed next to your pillow and it tracks your movements and in the morning presents you with a graph showing you periods of deep sleep, light sleep and wakefulness. It also features an alarm clock that will monitor your sleep and wake you gradually within a half hour window of your chosen time when you are sleeping at your lightest. In theory this means you start the day feeling more refreshed, though I guess that still depends on what time you went to bed and how much alcohol you consumed the night before.
The app isn’t just a genius way of being able to prove to people that you really did have a rubbish nights sleep. It’s also an activity tracker. Completing a profile of your age, weight and height enables the app to use the accelerometer to function as a pedometer. It can run in the background and track the number of steps you take each day and calories burned, as well as assessing how many of those steps were “aerobic steps”. It also has the function to record a walk, so you can also use it to track distance and time.
AND it has a handy almanac that will tell you sunrise and sunset times. Phew.
The Plus Side
I’ve been looking for a good easy way to keep an eye on how active I am each day. I had eyed up the Nike Fuelband, but at £150 it seemed a little pricey for what is essentially a pedometer! Motion X Sleep costs a far more reasonable 69p in the app store. You can set yourself targets for steps to take each day (it defaults to 5000) and you can even set it to alert you if you’ve been inactive for a certain amount of time and ought to get up and go for a wander round. It also provides you with stats so you can look back over the last week or month and assess your activity levels.
The sleep portion of the app is interesting. If you look at the graphs and you can see differences in your sleep pattern on days you’ve been active, days you’ve been drinking (if you’re still sober enough to turn the app on at bed time) and see how much sleep on average you get a night over a week or month, which might help you explain why you feel so tired all the time.
The alarm is also a much more pleasant way to wake up than a klaxon sounding in your ear, though I don’t recommend the bells as I just managed to integrate them into a dream and sleep right through.
The Down Side
It only tracks your steps if you’re carrying the phone around. Sounds obvious, but it is a downside if you really want to see how active you are. Although it works in a pocket or handbag when you go outside it will miss all those little steps you take around the house or office unless you pick it up and take it with you. I also found that it didn’t work when I was actually running and using Nike + at the same time. So those steps weren’t counted, though Nike + tracks that bit, so how much tracking do I really need?!
I’ve also frequently turned the app off from running in the background without realising, meaning that nothing I did that day was counted and I look like a lazy old moo on my stats.
I have no idea of the accuracy of the sleep counter, or what some of the stats mean. Apparently my sleep was 82% efficient last night. Is that good? How much deep sleep SHOULD I have vs Light sleep? I have no idea of the answers to these questions which means that there’s not much I can do to resolve the problems, if there even is a problem. Do I sleep enough? Who knows?
The last downside is one that iPhone users will be familiar with. Having the app running in the background eats battery like the cookie monster eats cookies, and with the iPhones stupidly low battery life that can be a problem if you’re out and about all day. You’ll spend all your time desperately looking for plug sockets.
What do I think?
I think that for 69p it’s a good starting point to keep an eye on your activity levels. It might not capture everything, but if you’re aware of it and keep it in your pocket then it can give you a good idea wether you’re even hitting their 5000 steps a day target (10,000 steps a day is recommended by the NHS and Zest magazine the other month suggested I should be taking 15,000, which is a lot of steps!)
It makes you more aware of your activity levels, lets you wave a graph at people to prove you had a rubbish nights sleep and tells you what time the sun comes up. And it’s an alarm clock. You can’t go wrong for 69p really.
You can buy the Sleep by Motion X app from the iTunes store.
Muscles I Never Knew I Had
When you read all the running magazines and the running books and all the running websites they all tell you that you ought to do cross training.
This basically means “Something that isn’t running”, or more specifically it means “an exercise regimen that uses several modes of training to develop a specific component of fitness.”
Frankly, when in May you were achieving the grand total of the occasional brisk walk and now you’re going running at least 3 times a week you tend to think “pfft, I have to do OTHER STUFF?” well, you do if you’re me. I’m having a go at a few press ups and doing some squats and planks and all that stuff. I can feel muscles in my thighs tightening up, my posture is better and my stomach is (a bit) flatter. Surely that covers it?
Last week I left my running shoes in the car. So I decided to pull out an old Davina exercise program I had saved on iTunes to get some exercise because I’m THAT dedicated (and I keep eating like a pig). I did the Buff Boxing and Buff Abs sections from the Body Buff DVD
. It didn’t feel that hard really. Nicely out of breath, but not as hard as running.
Then I tried to get out of bed the day after. Turns out there are muscles in my rib cage. Who knew? There are also muscles in my inner thighs, but not the ones I already knew about, oh no. These are whole new inner thigh muscles, just toward the back of my inner thighs, ones that really hurt when you walk.
So it seems that if you just do the same sorts of exercise all the time, eventually you stop getting better at them and you only work the same muscles and maintain your fitness levels rather than improving. It also seems that despite feeling all smug about all this running I am just as much of a muscle free slug as I always was. I have therefore made one of my winter fitness goals to commit 45 minutes each week to some additional cross training.
Does Bouncy Castle count as cross training? I’ve discovered I love running, but that doesn’t mean I’m immune from ever getting bored, or not wanting to go out in the cold. I’m also still quite a slow runner by the standards of most runners! My fastest pace over a 5k is just under 9:30 a mile, but I can’t sustain that over long distance and I mostly plod happily somewhere around the 10:30 minute mile mark. I don’t mind this, but I would like to be faster, just because I’m sure I can be. To do that I need to not only run, but work on some muscles running doesn’t. I also run partly because I want to enjoy those toning and slimming effects, and to keep those going I need to do other stuff too.
When people talk about cross training they always talk about exercise bikes, cycling, rowing machines and elliptical trainers. Quite where I’m supposed to get one of those I don’t know. Even if I wanted to buy one I don’t have room in my house and I’m not paying extortionate gym fees to go once a week and use a rowing machine for 45 minutes. Basically I want to do something else with a cardio element that will work some different muscles than I already use, so the obvious choice, especially at this time of year, is to turn to the trusty exercise DVD.
I have 3 or 4 old Davina McCall exercise DVDs kicking around which I plan to rotate. Plus if I ever get my living room in a decent state then the EA Sports Active and Wii Fit can be fun when I’m at home.
If you’ve got any more suggestions for cross training that doesn’t involve expensive equipment then I’m all ears!
My Running Playlist
I’m fairly confident that I have now mastered the art of running without music. After my stresses pre the Marriotts Way 10k I am now trying to run without music fairly regularly, it helps to listen to my breathing and I concentrate on my pace more. But for long, slower runs, where there’s nothing to concentrate on, or, like I did last night properly for the first time, running on a treadmill it’s nice to have some distracting musical entertainment. If you’re using Zombies, Run! then you’ll also need it to break up the story line!
When I first made a running playlist I put a load of songs on it I liked. Some of them turned out to make running a misery as they were too fast, too slow or had varying beats that made my feet go all over the place. Gradually, with the help of a bit of searching and a manul BPM counter app on my iPhone, where you tap along to the music, I have created a running playlist of songs I actually like that are around the 160-180 BPM mark.
It’s not an exact science, they’re just songs with an easy running pace. The list works out at about 54 minutes, so when interspersed with Zombies, Run! comes to over an hour, meaning I can do an easy 10k to it for training.
I’ve included handy download links for Amazon and iTunes, in case there’s any you think should be on YOUR running playlist!
- Candyman – Christina Aguilera (Amazon, iTunes)
- Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous – Good Charlotte (Amazon, iTunes)
- Basket Case – Green Day (Amazon, iTunes)
- Paint it Black – The Rolling Stones (Amazon, iTunes)
- Lose Yourself – Eminem (Amazon, iTunes)
- Movin’ On – Good Charlotte (Amazon, iTunes)
- Time Warp – The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Amazon, iTunes)
- Having a Blast – Green Day (Amazon, iTunes)
- One Way or Another – Blondie (Amazon, iTunes)
- National Express – The Divine Comedy (Amazon, iTunes)
- Burnout – Green Day (Amazon, iTunes)
- Country House – Blur (Amazon, iTunes)
- Feel Good Inc – Gorrilaz (Amazon, iTunes)
- Chump – Green Day (Amazon, iTunes)
- Riot Girl – Good Charlotte (Amazon, iTunes)
- All the Small Things – Blink 182 (Amazon, iTunes)
You’ll notice a lot of Green Day in there. I imported Dookie from the CD I’ve had since I was a teenager into my iTunes library and it turns out mid 90s punk is excellent to run too, who knew?
My top two tunes on the list, the ones that made it to my Nike + power song status and can always be relied upon to perk me are Candyman by Christina Aguilera and Lose Yourself by Eminem. If you don’t add any other songs to a running playlist, I recommend adding those two, and if you don’t shuffle put them a few songs in so they’ll turn up just as you’re thinking “oh, my gawd, how long does this go on for!”
Do you run? Are there any must have songs on your running playlist?
Marriotts Way 10k 2012
Well, that’s my first ever 10k race over and done with, and I had no need to be nervous at all!
I carefully laid everything out the night before. I have some new capris from Thoosa, but thought it best to stick with what I know on the day. I shall try out the new capris soon!
* Ronhill Aspiration Windlite Jacket * Shock Absorber Run Bra * Pro Fit Vest * No Balls Capris * Karrimor Socks *
* Belkin Easefit Armband * Asics Gel 13 trainers *
Because the Marriotts Way 10k is a point to point race we decided to park at the start and get the mini bus back at the end. This meant quite a lot of hanging around in the cold at the beginning outside the Bure Valley Railway. I decided to wear my windlite jacket and tie it round my waist to run, but when you’re standing around for 45 minutes it’s still very nippy!
The run was along the Marriotts Way path, which is all unpaved trail and quite narrow. There were about 200 runners there, and they all looked very serious. So I steeled myself even more for an embarrasing last place.
I was tragically excited to get my timing chip, as I’ve never seen one before and was intrigued. It turned out to be a big flat piece of plastic that I tied through my shoe lace at the top and used a plastic tie that was provided to keep it secure at the bottom.
The race started quite promptly at 11am, and I was determined not to head out too fast, so I just focused on keeping a steady pace. For a bit between kilometres 1 and 2 I ran with a lovely lady called Heather who was aiming to do it in under an hour the same as me, I was a little speedier in the end though and decided to pull ahead.
The track was a little narrow in places, so overtaking was a bit difficult, but I just loved running along, enjoying the scenery. I knew by the 5k mark that I was going just a little too slow to make under an hour, but not knowing what was ahead on the course I decided not to push to make up the time, this meant I even had enough energy left to put on a bit of a sprint at the end as the race left the trail and headed to the finish line in Reepham. I even managed to overtake a couple of people I’d been running behind for about the previous 15 minutes.
Mr Chick was waiting for me at the end as he made a super speedy time of around 52 minutes, which meant he managed to get a great action shot of me heading for the finish!
As I headed over the line the clock read about 1:03:09, it took me a few seconds to turn off my nike +, but that says 1:03:13, and I know it took me 11 seconds to get over the start. So in reality I think I managed the 10k in just under 1:03.
The chip timing only had mats at the finish, so I think they go from clock time at start, which will make me a little slower when the official times are finally released, but at the moment I’m just pleased I wasn’t last!
The goodie bag at the end was a little rucksack containing a medal, water bottle and an Oatso Simple “Morning bar”, along with a stack of leaflets. If I keep entering races it is very likely I will be able to build a small house out of water bottles. We also got a free banana, not quite as good as the free cake at the Braydeston 5k, but probably a lot better for me I’m sure.
I had no problems with that little negative voice in my head while I was running and I actually enjoyed every second from beginning to end. The weather was beautiful, the scenery was beautiful, and the marshalls cheered us on at every crossing. Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about the Marriotts Way 10k.
Winter Running Kit Wish List
Running might warm you up more than a gentle amble round the streets, but when the weather starts to cool down you’re still going to need more than a vest and a pair of shorts to save you from frostbite.
I have purchased, with my limited budget, a pair of long grey running leggings from TK Maxx, and a plain black karrimor running top. This will keep me warm, but there’s far cooler stuff out there, if you’ve got the budget for it.
This is my wish list of currently available cool as hell winter running clothing that I really can’t afford. And best of all, there’s none of that bright pink they insist on putting on Women’s sportswear on any of it.
The Tops
Columbia LS Seamless Top £45 Sweaty Betty
It’s like sporty fair isle. What’s not to love?
Another Fair Isle esque print, in a nice wintery white.
The Bottoms
Adidas Sprint Web 3/4 Tights £52
Apparently those funky shiny bits help your muscles. I just think they look funky.
Nike Relay Print Running Capris £35
I’m hoping these will make me look like I’m running faster. I’ll just be a blur.
The Accessories
Run eGlove £22
£22 might be steep for gloves, but not only do these make you look like you might be a cyborg, but they mean you can still work your iphone on the go.
Nike Womens Running Glove & Hat Set £18
Matching hat and gloves, how very stylish. It’s like my vintage fashion world is stalking my running kit.
Zombies Run Review
Zombies Run is the app that I credit with finally getting me properly hooked on running. In the past I’d not had time, not looked forward to it, got fed up with not improving and how hard I found it. I’d never managed to actually run for a full 30 minutes, or probably even a full 5 minutes, sticking to an unsatisfying walk / run routine that I’d give up after a few weeks.
I love a good Zombie story, so when I saw Zombies, Run! tucked into a corner in Zest magazine I immediately went and downloaded it to give it a go.
Zombies, Run! Is essentially a serial story, told between music tracks on a playlist you create yourself, and each episode takes about half an hour to tell. You are Runner#5, the central character in this little narrative, and the people in the story are talking directly to you. The app uses the accelerometer and GPS in your phone to track distance and speed, and you can turn on Zombie chases, which is essentially a form of fartlek or interval training where you need to speed up to outrun the Zombies. During your run an electronic voice tells you when you’ve collected supplies, and after your run you can distribute these to your virtual “township” to grow your population.
The Plus Side
There are 2 ways that Zombies, Run! helped me get into running.
Firstly the storyline was interesting and gripping. I couldn’t wait to get out and do another run to hear the next installment of the story. It was well voiced and I felt attached to the characters and wanted to find out what happened next.
Secondly it encouraged me to run slower. It might sound silly, but I now know that one of the problems I had on walk / run programs I tried was that on each running interval I would set off as fast as I could run, get tired quickly and be unable to keep it up past about 2 minutes max. When I turned on Zombie chases Zombies, Run! encouraged me to keep my speed down so that I had some energy left if unexpectedly faced with a Zombie mob I needed to outrun. Consequently I found I could run for longer and longer periods, and the Zombie chases increased my fitness a little, even if I needed to walk afterwards.
The app has been updated since I originally bought it and now includes a “zombielink” feature that enables you to upload your runs to the website and see your distance and pace for each mission. Rather brilliantly it also tells you what songs were playing and how fast you ran while they were on.
Once you’ve exhausted the story and supply missions, the app has a “radio mode” that allows you to keep listening, and keep collecting supplies, without the story progressing.
The Down Side
The story can be distracting, once you’re actually a bit better at running, and some people have told me they feel they slow down during the story portions and don’t maintain their speed. Also, if you turn Zombie chases off then the app doesn’t give any motivation to improve or maintain your speed. You could just as easily take it out for a walk, and never start running at all, you need to have the motivation to run for longer yourself as the app isn’t going to help.
If you already use other apps to track your workouts then the Zombies, run! app isn’t necessarily compatible to run in the background. I’ve had problems with the app suddenly not playing music, meaning I run in silence for 5 minutes then get a block of story, suddenly restarting, or playing a playlist from another app behind the story meaning it’s difficult to hear what’s going on.
Of course, the fact that the app needs headphones and music also means it’s more suited for running in park sor other areas with no traffic and you need to be very careful using it for road running.
I also felt that the collecting supplies and building up your township element added very little to the experience. There were a couple of missions where you needed to be at a certain level in the township to continue, but not enough to make it feel like a challenge and motivate you to run longer to collect more supplies.
The app also ins’t that cheap, costing around £5-6 on all platforms.
What Do I Think?
I think Zombies, Run! is a great app for beginner runners who need some distraction and a bit of motivation to get out the door. For more experienced runners it’s probably more for occasional use and could be a bit of entertainment on long runs.
Zombies, Run! is available on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7.
Will Run for Beer
So, after rashly signing up to do a 10k in October, and being quite nervous about it as well actually, it appears that I have just signed up to run another in November.
Why?
Well this one offered me a free bottle of beer after the race. How could I say no?
The Adnams Southwold 10k is on the 18th November and promises me a goodie bag containing not only the aforementioned bottle of Adnams beer but also *gasp* a packet of Percy Pigs. If that’s not worth an £18 entry fee I don’t know what is.
Am I an utter fool? I don’t know, but I’m quite looking forward to the opportunity to see if an extra 5 weeks training can help me improve my time between the 2 races, both of which are chip timed.
Eeek!
Training for a 10k – My Asics Review
It is with some fear that I approach my first 10k on the 14th October. I managed to complete a 10k run on Sunday in a time of 1 hour 10 minutes, so at least I have a baseline time and know I can actually do it, but how do you actually go about training for a 10k, trying to add a little speed to your time and making sure you don’t injure yourself before the big day?
I searched online and found a variety of training plans and suggestions for training in 4 weeks, like this one from Runners World. The problem is they all assume I have some kind of knowledge of pacing, know what “strides”are and am in many other ways not a total dim wit who’s only been running since June.
So far the best I’ve found is My Asics. From the people who made my nice green running shoes comes a great personalised training plan. You enter your race date (though for a 10k it won’t let you enter less than 5 weeks, but I think if you have a base level of running you could skip the first week “pre conditioning” phase?), the speed you would like to run it in, and the speed you have run a previous distance in, along with your age and gender, and it formulates a personalised plan.
You can edit the plan to run between 2-4 times a week, at different intensities. and it gives you an estimated finish time for the final race which changes based on your input. This is great as it allows you to balance a predicted finish time with the time you have available to train. Is an extra day a week worth a few seconds difference, or could you train at a harder level for fewer days?
The 10k I ran on Sunday WASN’T in my training plan, so I obviously have only myself to blame for the ache in my shins. I should be entering the “Getting Faster” phase of my plan with a 3 mile jog and some intervals this week, the pain in my shins has eased, so I’m going to risk it, but go slow.
My Asics also comes with an iPhone app that reminds you of your training and you can use with GPS to track your runs. I already use Nike+ to track my runs, so I’ll stick with that, but the app also contains a function that enables you to manually enter your runs to track them against your training schedule.
So far it seems like a great option for beginners as it doesn’t use too much jargon and is easy to understand. Lets see if it gets me round in under an hour!
