New trainers and a new toy

 This weekend was a slight blip in my training schedule as there was no opportunity for a long run.

As I knew this in advance I ran most of the way home from work on Friday evening as a way of manipulating my schedule to find the opportunity to squeeze in a long run.

The plan worked well and I was then able to rest over the weekend and be ready to train hard again come Monday morning.

My plan for Monday morning (this morning, as I write this) was to get out before work for a 10K, fine I thought I do this quite regularly but that’s not taking into account a busy sleep deprived, rich food filled, heavy alcohol consuming weekend!

Needless to say it was a struggle getting up this morning and I wasn't feeling massively energetic or vibrant as I prepared to go out for a run.

My route his morning was a 10K loop around the Thames crossing at Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge. London was depressingly cloud covered and dull this morning and could have easily been mistaken for a dreary winter morning. London was also strangely quiet and empty this morning, the tubes were far quieter than usual, the gym practically deserted like the week before Christmas and the streets pretty clear of pedestrians.

As a result my runners statistics were particularly low as I only counted 74 runners, so that’s 7.14 runners per Km or 1.45 runners per minute, interesting stuff I know! (I will be compiling a graph or chart to illustrate this information once I have collected some more data, for my own amusement more than anything!)  

Anyway I still managed to tick off 10K in 51 minutes and continued to feel stronger and fitter as I continue to progress with my training. I am aiming to complete a 10K and half marathon at pace in the next few weeks to see what times I am currently capable of.

New trainers and a new toy!

Today was my second run in my new trainers and my first longish run as my first run was only 6K. I am still loving my trainers and still feeling amazing going out running in bright shiny flash new trainers as opposed to dirty, dull and battered old trainers that have seen better days. 

I am still in a period of adjustment though as I don't feel I have quite worn them in fully as they are feeling quite irritable around the heel, time will tell of this sorts its self out or if it develops into more of an issue. 

I also used for the first time a heart rate monitor which I was given as a gift by a friend over the weekend.

I have never really seriously thought about using a heart rate monitor before as I have always been more concerned with my time, distance or pace and recording these statistics to check my progress.

However the prospect of using a new toy to aid my training and having a whole new load of statistics to record and monitor is an exciting prospect! The geek in me has also come to the fore as I am strangely enthusiastic to start regarding this new data in a spread sheet!

Using the heart rate monitor today was fine, it wasn't overly uncomfortable and just needed pulling up after slipping down a couple of times but I didn't actually notice it at all while running.

Monitoring my resting heart rate yesterday I was averaging around 75BPM and my highs during my run were in the 160s with a high of around 173. I have no real idea what this means in terms of my training or how I should start using this but I am excited to find out!  

Pictures

Firstly let me share with you what I think is my favourite photo I have ever taken while running:

So cool, a duck sleeping on the wall by the river Thames with rush hour about to kick into full steam all around, millions of people rushing here and there on trains, buses, cars, bikes and boats and this guy just sat there taking it easy napping!

Secondly my continuing experiment in trying to take a running selfie.

I am not someone who has any interest in taking a lot of selfies as I am pretty sure most people don’t care about seeing my face but it occurred to me that without me or another runner in a photo the photos I take our running aren't really running photos but just photos of the scenery I have ran past. I know they are running photos as I was the one who ran along and took them but without me telling you I was out running at the time they could quite easily have been taken while walking or while out driving or even from a bus or train sometimes.

So as I run on my own I am determined to try and take a decent shot of me running with some kind of reasonably interesting background.