Skip to main content

Runner Introduction

 About 8 or 9 years ago, I thought it would be good to get into running, and I tried a little bit - going out and running for a while, then walking, then running to the next lamppost, but it seemed like a massive challenge, that I wasn’t up for. I used to sprint at school - 100m race and relay (very rarely the 200m), and I was one of the fastest when I was at middle school. Then I heard about ParkRun somehow, and I started going along to it in 2018. I was a sporadic attender - getting up to be there for 9am was always rather hit and miss, and if the weather wasn’t so good, I wouldn’t go. But I was up for a challenge - like doing a double ParkRun on New Year’s Day, and doing a 5k cross country Beat the Fox run on Boxing Day (including a nip of port half way round!). I had a Fitbit, and I was just about able to work it - and got better with a new one. Then came that strange pre-lockdown period, in about the second week of March 2020 - a time when many of the groups and activities I did stopped - suddenly I didn’t have anything going on in the day or the evening, and so I started the Couch to 5k programme.


I went out regularly - and I took the dog with me too, and I was delighted when I finally finished it - when I was able to run for 30 minutes without stopping. Then injury struck - my first run after completing the programme and my knee hurt so much. It took 12 weeks until I could tentatively run again, so I started Couch to 5k again - and then I hurt my back, so once more I was out of action. I tried some running in November 2020, and then again in both January and February 2021, but I didn’t want to risk further injury during cold or icy weather.

March 2021 saw me starting to run once again - doing the Couch to 5k programme again, this time I did each run twice, so the 9 week programme took 18 weeks (a bit longer, as I had 3 weeks off due to foot pain / injury), and I also started with an extra warm up walk of about 15 minutes. In May 2021 I completed the London Vitality Virtual 10K, in June the Burrator 5k, August saw me complete the Severn Bridge 10k, September the Bideford 10k, November the Bideford 10 Miler, and December - Beat the Fox 5k. Running has obviously now become a habit for me!







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Critic badge - Review of an Exhibition

  Being a quilter I like to go to local quilt exhibitions, as they can provide great inspiration for future projects. In August 2024 Little Stitches held an exhibition at Littleham. The group Little Stitches have been going since 2011; they meet on a Saturday at Littleham Village Hall once a month, and they have had around 50 members. They hold an exhibition fairly regularly, every 2 or 3 years - and I have attended most of them.  I attended the exhibition with the young adult who lives with us, on a Sunday - the exhibition was on for just 2 days. We received a warm welcome as soon as we walked through the door - helped by knowing the member who greeted us! Coming from North Devon and being a part of the quilting community, it is becoming increasingly common to see people I recoggnise. On entering the room where the quilts were exhibited, we came across the raffle. I bought tickets - I wasn’t lucky on this occasion - but never mind, as the money raised went to North Devon Agai...
Post a Comment
Read more

World Book Day 2025

  The World Book Day badge has a lot of appeal (like all of the monthly badges), and it was a little difficult to try to decide which clauses to do. However, I had to be sensible, and think about what I could realistically manage - and as reading is one of my ‘winding down’ activities at night, I knew I would struggle to get through lots of books.  The first book I read was ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck - a book on the banned reading list. I chose it as it is quite a short book. The language used in it about black people is one of the reasons it is on the banned list. Another reason is the depiction of what George does at the end of the story - which could be argued to be an act of love for his friend - the end result was always going to be the same, but George’s actions were perhaps a kinder way of doing it.  Another clause asked us to read a book which was then made into a film, then watch the film and compare. I chose to read ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ by Joh...
Post a Comment
Read more

Critic Badge - Review of an album

The album I’ve chosen to review by George Ezra - Staying at Tamara’s. I’m a bit late to the party as far as George Ezra is concerned. I knew that I would enjoy at least one of his songs, as it is one that I heard several times whilst chaperoning our local youth theatre show, and is a song that always makes me feel good - reminding me of happy times and the camaraderie of the group - how it was then (it is just as good now, but different!). The album is in general a feel good album - I’d happily listen to it on car journeys. Certainly the first five songs are quite bouncy - and have what I would call the ‘George Ezra vibe’. The feature that comes through in the first song is that lovely deep round sounding voice - I suppose some people may call it a dark brown chocolate voice. It sounds so rich - and reminds me of Rick Astley’s sound. Although the first five songs sound bouncy, there are some darker undertones - talk of anxiety, certain words that prompt some deeper thinking. It surpris...
Post a Comment
Read more