Building Back Up

Good Evening Readers.

As I sat here thinking about writing a new post, I realised I have not given any quirky sayings recently, so here it comes....

If you knock a house down, you cannot lay 3 bricks and move in....  You will understand this as you read on....

It has been two weeks since my last post, purely because I didn't have much to tell you about. Literally just after I wrote that post (like 2 hours after) I started getting a sore throat, and then spent a week with a head cold, high temperature and the usual. So I didn't do a great deal that week.

Here is a round up of my training:

Saturday 28th January - 5.68km - 46 minutes.  Managed 15 minutes run, 5 minutes walk, 3 x 5m run 2m walk and finished on a 5m run.  It was hard, my legs were very heavy and I was tired, not surprising considering the lack of training since Christmas.

Tuesday 31st January - 5.39km - 40 minutes.  After not being ble to go longer than 15 minutes in one go on Saturday, I wasn't expecting to do much, but managed 40 minutes constant running.  I was really pleased with this, and the pace was also quite good averaging 7.26m/km.

Thursday 2nd February - Gym session - Power mill, Bike, treadmill walk and a weights session.

Friday 3rd February - Interval session, (refer to update on watch below) started warm up and knew immediately it was not going to plan, my legs felt like lead and I was really tired.  I only managed 3 full intervals of 44 minutes work 90 sec rest.  I started the forth and had to stop, I felt quite dizzy.  I walked some, and then tried jogging then walking then jogging then walking.  I was happy that I managed to stay out and on my feet, even though it was walking but felt disappointed that it was another bad session.  To top it off walking home the winds blasted and sleet came slashing down!

Saturday 4th February - Strength and Conditioning session at home using thera bands, dumb bells, stairs and a chair.

Sunday 5th February - Long Slow Run.... started off and again the legs were really heavy, I manage to hold it until I had run 30 minutes, but then decided to take a walk. I continued walking up the river, so even if I couldn't manage to run again I would have to walk back, therefore still obtaining time on my feet.

I also stopped and sat down to speak to a lovely lady who had already speed walked 6 miles and still had a couple of miles to get home.  She had done a couple of marathons and various half marathons, all walking.  I hope she doesn't mind me saying, but just like me she was a larger lady, and her fitness and determination inspired me.

After we chatted a bit we parted in opposite directions, me on my way back down the river home.  I started off again on a jog, this time legs felt better and I happily ran on for a good 20 minutes, but then I started to tire.  I decided I would try and keep on until I reached the cycle path back up to my house (that dreaded hill) and I managed it getting there about 27.5 minutes, and then my determination kicked in, wanting to do the full 30 minutes, I ran up that hill.

I was really happy with today's effort, whilst it was hard, and I was tired, even though I walked and sat down in between the two sets of 30 minutes, it wasn't a bad effort considering I am building back up.

This is where my quirky saying came from, I cant do no training for a month and then expect to go run a 10k PB.

Garmin - Update

Unfortunately, I have had a disappointing experience with my new watch.  It cannot do intervals, you can set the run to run/walk and set the time to run/walk, but you cannot set a full session.  On my basic TomTom I had previously (and I also know the basic Garmin has the same feature) you can set warm up time, the work/rest time or hr how many sets and cool down time.

So on the VivoActive HR I have to set it to run and wait for GPS, do my warm up, then save it and change it to run with run/walk, wait for GPS off I go, count in my head how many I have done, save it.  Set it to run, wait for GPS start and do cool down, stop and save.  Its a lot of messing around.  Also it is pointless as when it shows on the Garmin connect it only shows you 1km splits, it doesn't show the pace at which you did each interval at.

Also when I got to the forth set, and felt like I couldn't finish it, I want to move it onto the rest lap so I could try and go again, but I couldn't move it on.

I get that this is a smart watch, and it has lots of features, and therefore you wouldn't expect it to have advanced running features, but I would expect, when spending £180, it to have the same features that their £60 basic watch has.

I have therefore reduced my rating to 7.5/10

So before I go, I only have one last thing to mention, I mentioned in my last post how I had joined the 12 week challenge, so over the last few weeks I had lost 6lbs, in the last week I have gained 4!!  Lets hope with this new training regime of 6/7 days and healthier eating it will start to drop again.

Much Love

FBB xx