It was a good session which clearly highlighted areas that I need to work on. I shall be back again on Friday to join in a class session.
Deborah and I did have a good chat afterwards and she did mention something that I particularly found interesting. She mentioned about getting chest problems during the cold winter months, which is something I do suffer with. I usually end up having a few days off work because of a chesty cough in late January or February, and for someone who spends a lot of his working day on the phone, it isn't good when I'm having a coughing fit, and after a run in the cold air I usually have a coughing fit as soon as I stop, so Deborah advised me to use something to cover my nose and mouth when I'm running, this would help she said.
Warming up before a run is something I haven't really done much of before, and when I have it has usually consisted of a slow jog with knee raises, some side steps, and butt kicks, but now I'm going to spend more time before a run warming up those muscles instead of just exerting a heavy load on them whilst they are cold.
Extended Parkrun
Saturday was going to be my 50th Parkrun, and so I thought that I would include this into my weekly long run and run to the Riverfront.
I drew my bedroom curtains and the cars parked on the road were very frosty and there was also some frost on the grass, so I needed to dress warmly. As I walked out of the door, I was wearing leggings, a base layer, T shirt, jacket, gloves, a buff around my neck and another on my head. I plugged some music into my ears and went through my new warm up routine before beginning a comfortable 3 miles to the Wave at the Riverfront.
Due to Newport (Tredegar House) Parkrun being cancelled due to poor ground conditions, the Riverfront exceeded it's 350 runner limit with a total of 374 runners. Still, I didn't find it a problem. It was maybe a little slow as we began and negotiated the Z bend by the theatre, but the crowd soon spread out and it felt no different to any other Saturday.
I enjoyed this section of my run, being careful not to push too hard as I still had the run home to do, but I did finish in a respectable time.
Afterwards I went into the Riverfront cafe for a coffee and toasted teacake with a few friends before starting my run home.
Running along the canal I was nearing Bettws Lane and so I had to make a decision at this point. Do I cross the lane and continue along the canal for a total of 10 miles or, do I turn right and follow Malpas Rd, then Newport Rd down to Pentre Lane by the Three Blackbirds pub, then back along the canal for 12 miles? I opted for the later.
There is a bit of an incline in the last mile as I leave the the canal and head into the estate, and I was feeling it in my legs by then, but I just had to grit my teeth and push slowly up it, and I was thankful once I'd reached the top of the hill and the road had leveled out. This last bit then was easy, but I was still glad that I didn't have to run any further, and glad that I'd been sensible in my distance choice and didn't try to run further than that.
I finished off spending 10 minutes with some good stretching, some outside of my front door, and the others laying on my living room rug stretching my hamstring and piriformis, which have been groaning a little lately.
I did try pulling the buff around my neck, up and over my nose and breathing through that as Deborah had suggested on Friday. Wow, it really did work and I didn't have a coughing fit at all once I'd finished running. So I know what to do now in colder weather, even though I look like a running bandit.
GLCL XC Race 3 - 5 hosted this month by Spirit of Monmouth running club and held at TV presenter Kate Humble's farm, Humble by Nature at Penallt near Monmouth.
It was flippin cold with temperatures around 2°C. Puddles at the side of the road were frozen, the ground had a crunchy top at first, but was soft underneath, although the crunchy top had disappeared after the first lap. There were a few muddy patches, (it wouldn't be a cross country if there wasn't some mud), some sharp turns, mole hills and long but gentle inclines.
The race is 4 laps for the guys and 3 laps for the girls. Why? In this day and age of sexual equality, why is that? Many of the girls are as strong as the guys, and many of them stronger than me, which isn't hard.
The race covers three fields for a total distance of 5.45 miles, and my legs were really feeling it after only two laps from my previous days 12 miler. All I could do was dig in and try to keep up the 10 minute mile pace I'd set myself.
Tis me!
Tuesday's club run - The Estate Run
I decided to go out with the earlier 6:45PM group instead of the 7PM group, for two reasons really. Firstly, some of my favourite running buddies were coming back to club for a run after not being able to run due to work and family commitments, and illness also, and I fancied running with them. Also, the 7PM group are just too damned fast for me. Most of them are doing 7 or 8 minute miles, whereas I'm a 9 - 10 minute mile runner, so I find that I end up running alone. Michelle arrived at the last minute and she asked me to hang on a minute and she'd run with me.
We caught up with the back markers in the pack who were running at a shade over a 11 minute pace and slowly we picked up our pace until we reached the first long hill on College Glade. I had a nice, slow pace up the hill, and I didn't walk at all, and we pushed on to the long downhill section on Lodge Hill where I was able to recover before tackling the steep climb on Trinity View.
Michelle dropped back here and so I pushed on up to the top of the hill where I had caught up with Tania. We had a nice chat as we ran down the hill and around Wentwood Rd where we caught up with another group who, some I'm sure, I had passed previously on College Glade. Now I wonder how that happened? 😉 Running with this group was Lowenna, (I hope I've spelled her name correctly), and we began chatting as we rounded the bend and the short hill leading us up onto Lodge Rd, and before we realised, we'd left the others behind and our pace had quickened to a comfortable 9 minute mile, and there we stayed for the rest of the run.
I have to say that I really enjoyed that run, more than I was expecting to when I began it, and it was due to being able to chat to several people along the way and not pushing myself too hard.
This Wednesday's Fartlek session with Jenny was a foggy one at the Riverfront where we just ran laps from the Wave, over the footbridge, along the path on the opposite side, then back over Castle Bridge to our starting point, running at a moderate pace and then speeding up for maybe 300m at a time.
You can see from the heart rate graph how my heart rate fluctuates up and down, and also the amount of time spent in each of the heart rate zones
And this graph shows how my pace fluctuates and the time spent in each zone
Thursday plod
As I'd done a speed session with Jenny the previous evening, I didn't want to do another one tonight, instead a nice, comfortable plod seemed like the right thing to do. This meant that I could also get out at 6 PM and be home by 7 ish instead of starting the club session at 7, which gave me time to do other things I needed to do at home, such as laundry, (yayyyyy, clean socks and underwear again 😂).
Well the 7 PM finish didn't happen because I decided to run 10 miles instead of 6, but it was a route I hadn't done before and I did enjoy it. The route I chose stuck mostly to well lit streets and had undulations instead of hills.
En-route I bumped into Michelle and her daughter Maddy who were out running in the opposite direction, then just as I made the turn home out of Llanfrechfa Way in Cwmbran, I saw a bunch of about 20 runners in front of me, probably from Griffithstown Harriers. It probably took me a mile to catch their tail runners, who I scared to death as she didn't hear me catching her up, and the first she knew of my presence was when I spoke, "do you mind if a Caerleon runner joins you"? Well, she practically jumped out of her skin. At the top of the hill they all turned off Newport Rd into Malthouse Lane and I continued straight ahead towards Malpas Rd for the final 3 miles of my run.
Tonight I have a core class at the gym, then Saturday morning I'm going to run an extended Parkrun for about 6 miles. Then on Sunday I'm running the Welsh Buff Trail 10k, which I am looking forward too as I do enjoy trail runs, and there are a few of us from the club running together.
This is the view looking down the final hill of the Buff 10k, which we have to run up.
I shall be reporting on this race in next weeks Running Roundup. Until then, keeeeeeep running 😁
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