60@60 goes sponsored

Saint Ann's Hospice
St Ann's Hospice provide remarkable care and comfort for those in their last days and their families and friends. My efforts in the Great Manchester 10k on 26thMay 2013 will be driven on by the memory of my Mum, Margaret, and also Sheila Waddington, a classmate at primary school who I had just got to know again when she became ill in 2012 and spent her final days in St Ann's care.

60at60 - a reminder
In 5 months time I will be sixty years old and I decided to try to mark the occasion with a better than 60min completion of a 10km run. I began training last April and then lost 6 months with achilles damage due to over enthusiastic beginnings and ignoring my age. Only now am I free enough of pain to feel able to commit to requesting sponsorship toward this charity.

Donate (please)
Donating through Ged's JustGiving page is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
So please dig deep and donate now.

And Then, Another Minute Passed

A positive 2 weeks with definite progress to a new, though still elementary, level.
2 treadmill and swimming sessions each week and I got my 1st road run for 6 months in.

1st Road Trip
The road run on Monday achieved a pathetic 3 x 1 min intervals separated by 2 min walks with 5 min warm up and cool down walks. After the achilles pain and heartache following my runs in April I was staying really safe. 0.5km actual run with 1.5km walk.

On a Roll(er)
Both this week's treadmill sessions included 10 min and 1.33 km of actual run which is the most I've risked since the injury. Yesterday's treadmill session moved up to 5 x 2 min run intervals from the previous 10 x 1 min.
Fitness wise no issues, though I was surprised to note how much more effort 2 minutes continuous was compared to 1 min even with the same overall distance and longer walk intervals.
I did suffer some achilles discomfort in the left leg a few hours afterwards but I iced it when I got home and this morning all seems well.
Hope to get another road run in tomorrow then I guess no sessions 'till after the holiday.

Enjoy the Christmas holiday and I hope 2013 is a great year for anyone who has taken time to read my ramblings.

Now You See Me

Committed to getting out in the street eventually I treated myself today to a pair of running tights with fluorescent yellow flashes and reflective trim for the dark cold nights. They saw me coming.. and you'll see me going.. hopefully.

Knocked Back again
Second Treadmill session of the week week went well moving to 8 x 1 min run intervals with just 1 min walk between. Just about 2km again and all felt well until post exercise stretches when I felt a sting of pain in the calf in one leg and lower achilles in the other, can't recall which, doh! Anyway, 20 lengths of the pool was fine until climbing the steps which felt on the edge of hurting (but not).
Home stretches during the weekend triggered repeat alarming pulls and my hopes for a road run at weekend were put on hold as I kept having calf pain and my achilles felt 'weak'. However, there is no particular tenderness in the tendons themselves so I've delayed my Monday session giving another 24hrs and, rather than progress again along my planned training path, I'll restart as last week with 1/1:30 intervals.

Treadmill Pace
Treadmill pace for last week's second session was 8kph / 4.7kph (up from 7 / 4 previous) which felt about right. I noticed that the auto cool down speed was 4.8 so I think I'll adopt that in future for the walk interval. It also struck me during the cool down, that the gradient is dropped off and logically, my 5 min walking warm-up could start level and increase gradient after a couple of minutes in a reverse fashion.

Another Kilometrestone

OK, so "milestone" is a more familiar term but it's a 10 km not a 6.2137 mile target.
Today's treadmill session reached the pathetic but significant 2 km mark, the same sequence of 7 intervals of 1 min run and 1:30 walk as last week but with a slightly higher pace.

Followed up with a 400 metre swim which is getting easier and 20 minutes of ice when I got home and so far, achilles are holding up.

A Question of Pace
Yesterday, the car was in the garage about 15 min walk from home and I checked my casual road walking pace on Runkeeper which showed 5.5kph. I rechecked again when collecting the car later, also putting in a brief gentle jog, and Runkeeper output averages of 5-5.5kph (3.5mph) walk and 9-10km (6mph) jog.
My previous treadmill efforts were 4 and 7 so I thought I'd up to 5 and 8 initially. Oddly, 5kph proved a fast walk so I wonder about the App' or the Treadmill's accuracy. I settled for 4.7 walk but found 8 a nice steady easy run. I'm clearly going to struggle to cross reference between treadmill and road pace.

Next Steps
Another treadmill and swim later this week then, as long as I have no achilles problems before weekend, I hope to get a very short road run in on Sunday.