Eclectic Views

    
In which a pre.vue host tries to improve his fitness by taking up running.
  

    
So in the past I kept fit by climbing mountains, or walking, or spending my
spare time doing technical work with all the heavy lifting and carrying
stuff around that entails. Today, however, at the ripe age of 31 I'm not as
fit as I was, and am starting to get some alarming.. spread around my
midriff.

In an attempt to fix this situation, I've decided to take up running, bought
a pair of running shoes, and am trying to work myself up to being fitter
than I am at the moment. This topic is part of the job - a place to log my
runs and for people to shout at me if I seem like losing interest.

So, here's the first entry, from my very first run:
3km, 28 minutes, halfway to Kingston and back via the Thames towpath.
  

    
Sounds like a historic route!  What was it like?
  

    
Not bad. I could probably have done a bit more, but pushing yourself too
much at the beginning is a great way to injure yourself. Had a nice healthy-
feeling glow at the end of it.
  

    
First run, 28 minutes is great!

Good luck with your programme.  

â‰
  

    
Mike, how great that you're doing something about that spreading-waistline
problem before you get so used to it the situation is too daunting to
address. Are you doing any measuring? Like, do you plan to lose X number of
inches off your waistline? Or a fave pair of trousers that you can't
squeeze into now but hope to don by Xmas or something?
  

    
Good luck, Mike.
  

    
The only target right now is to work my way towards 5km in 30mins without
dropping dead - a modest aim. After that, we'll see what happens.

Various muscles are still complaining at me after Saturday, which kind of
shows off how pathetically out of shape I am.
  

    
Your muscles will continue to complain as long as you keep exercising.
The more you get into condition, the more important it will be to do
warm-up stretching to relieve muscle stiffness and prevent muscle tears.

Make sure that you can tell the difference between muscle stiffness
and complaints from the ligaments that hold your joints together.
  

    
How do you tell the difference?
  

    
I thought that current thinking was that pre-exercise stretching does
nothing to prevent injury?  (Though I think the studies say that stretching
after warmup or post-exercise does increase flexibility/range of motion
(which can be a valuable goal in its own right.))
  

    
In mu experience it helps to prevent cramping that would otherwise
interfere with the activity.
  

    
And hey, it also makes me feel all righteous and exercisey. I can't get the
stretches right, though - the stretch always appears in some completely
different part of my legs, so at least they get a good stretching. It
doesn't make too much difference at the moment anyway, but I figure it's a
good plan to get into the habit. I should probably get my brother (who's a
rather serious runner) to walk me through the stretches I can't figure out.

This evening - same course (just over 3km), but 25:35 - 2.5 minutes faster
than last time, but more accurately measured as well. I'm aiming to
gradually improve the walk:run ratio around this course until I can run it
more or less completely without having to walk, then gradually increase the
distance and see what happens. 'Gradually' is a word which pops up a lot here.
  

    
Wow, I ache. I'd been told to expect a bit of DOMP (that's Delayed Onset
Muscle Pain - in other words, it hurts a day or so after exercise) the first
few times out, but it's interesting how while my legs feel okay (if a bit
stiff sometimes), the muscles in my shoulders and hips are really making
themselves known. My arms are pretty painful too. I guess that all this will
go away (it's definitely muscle pain rather than anything else) over the
next 2-3 weeks as my body gets used to this whole "vigorous exercise" bit.

The main thing which has slowed me down so far, though, is my asthma, which
doesn't react well to exercise even though it rarely gives me any trouble at
all otherwise. Fortunately, this is hopefully manageable with judicious use
of inhalers pre-exercise and I've put myself back on the corticosteroid
("preventer") inhaler as well. The next step is to make an appointment to
see my GP next week to discuss the best management regime.
  

    
That's tough. Does it kick in for walking, or just with running?
  

    
Mike, please be careful not to hurt yourself by doing too much too soon.
Take your time and let your body get used to running.

Have you been to <fit.>, the Fitness conference?  It's a good place to ask
questions and I've found posting about my workouts in <fit.170> helps keep
me motivated.
  

    
I'm definitely being careful - while I'm basically fairly fit (not owning a
car means plenty of walking) and therefore unlikely to injure myself doing
3k run/walks every other day, some of the muscles used in running are a bit,
ah, unused, especially in the upper body. I should call into <fit.> at some
point, but I'm skeeered of all those healthy people..

(Gail - I can walk until the cows come home, but the extra exertion of
running is the problem as far as the asthma's concerned.)
  

    
Somehow it sounds like the aches you're feeling right now are in some way
kind of pleasing. Like, you know you're goin' in the right direction because
if you weren't experiencing any discomfort you wouldn't have been pushing
the envelope and building muscle.
  

    
Sharp pains would be bad (all that "no pain, no gain" bullshit is,
mercifully, completely and utterly discredited now and believed only by
the macho), but the gentle, dull aches I'm getting tell me that my body's
starting to take notice and put some work into improving those long-
neglected, stiff muscle groups.

Two things are making me smug this evening - first, I actually measured the
loop I've been running properly and it's 3.6km rather than 3.0km. That's
er.. 2.24 miles, according to units(1). Secondly, my timings over the first
three runs I've ever been on were 0:28:00 (approx), 0:25:38 and 0:21:52,
so it's possible to see some improvement already. Which is kind of heartening.

I put it down to bananas and taking a couple of puffs on my inhaler *before*
exercise rather than *during*.

One of the best things about running is that you get to eat lots of 
bananas. Unfortunately, my local supermarket was out of the superior
Caribbean bananas last time I was there, so I'm having to put up with
Costa Rican.
  

    
This weekend I've learned two things:

a) Only morons go out on a Saturday morning just after having breakfast, and
morons who do that generally have to cut their routes short. Most peoples'
bodies just aren't in a mood for running early in the morning, and
especially on a full stomach.

b) Running on a Sunday afternoon in full sun is really, really tiring when
it's 28C. It's therefore just as satisfying to do my 3.6km circuit in
0:22:40 under these conditions as it is to do it in 0:21:52 on a relatively 
cool evening.

It's starting to get easier to run already. It's kind of a bit early for
this to be a result of physical adaptation, so I think it's more
psychological than physical - I've run this route already, I know I can
finish in in a good (for me) time, so it's more a matter of building
confidence over the next couple of weeks.

And I've now got hold of some superior Caribbean bananas, so I expect my
performance to improve accordingly.
  

    
>> superior Caribbean banana

I SO wish i could take that as a pseud. ;-)

Very glad to hear how much progress you're making, Mike. The experts
will be along, but I'll bet some of the time improvement really is
attributable to physical improvements.
  

    
Just for fun, I went out again last night and did my usual circuit in the
opposite direction to that in which I usually do it. This time it came in at
0:20:34 - it was frustrating not to get under 20 minutes, but my asthma kind
of snuck up and clobbered me on the head a few hundred metres from home
which forced me to a walk for a bit.

Still, a lot more running than walking last night.
  

    
Do you think the exercise might help your asthma somewhat indirectly by
making your lungs stronger?
  

    
This evening, the same circuit took me 0:19:34, which is a minute better
than last time. What I'm most pleased about is that I ran the entire course
with no walking other than when crossing roads.

HOWEVER, this was fairly hard work, and I'm not going to try to improve on
this for a while as I certainly don't want to cause myself injury through
overtraining. My calves ache a little as it is.

As a result of this, I had a craving for a fish finger sandwich. So I had
one, and very nice it was too.
  

    
Slipped by (cdb) - it's possible, but my lungs are pretty strong already
when they aren't being asthmatic at me. If anything, I'm likely to get a
little better at managing it if I pay attention.
  

    
You have enough on your plate right now, but let me put in a good word
for calisthenics as a warm-up for running. Research suggests that for
simple repetitious movements like running getting the muscles warm
prevents injury better than stretching does. A couple of sets of knee
bends, toe raises, pushups, and crunches warms one nicely, and makes
one look good too. They take next to no time if one just goes from one
exercise to another without pause.

But wait. Get the running nailed down first.