Time to hit the roads (well pavements)
So I'm training to take part in the 5k bubble run that I've signed myself and Harrison up for.
In my effort to get fit enough to complete the 5k course I'd started off by getting up in he mornings before work and going for a bike ride, gradually building up the distances. I'd been doing this for a month (including some commutes to and from work) in the back of my mind I knew at some point I'd have to leave the bike at home and have a crack at a 5k run.
There are 2 friends of mine, lets call them Hayley and Michelle (I'm not changing names to protect the innocent) who I've known since we were all about 14 years old and as mentioned in a previous post they'd been running and doing 5k runs for a little while and had both been encouraging me in my efforts. They were brilliant and very enthusiastic when I said I was going to start running and were telling me that once I felt ready I should go with them and do a park run on a Saturday morning.
All very positive but I knew straight away that there was no way I'd be able to just run 5k without stopping. I'm not sure I could have done when I was at my peak of fitness the best part of two decades previous!! So I invented a new word to describe what I'd do - 'ralk'. A ralk is a mixture of running and walking (in a posh voice) 'look at that chap over there - he's ralking' You get the idea.
Next I had to plan the route. After having a play on google earth I had the route planned - roughly down the road to the beach lawns, along to the beach huts and then all the way along the promenade (told you - posh) to the entrance to Knightstone Island and then work my way back home. 5k pretty much exactly. The route also had the added bonus of staying close enough to home that if at any point I felt like it wasn't happening I wouldn't have to far to walk back home!!
Early in the morning of Sunday 25th June I woke and decided it was as good as time as any to test the route out. So I got out of bed went downstairs had a cereal bar and get ready to go out. As I've mentioned before one of my goals in getting fitter was to be able to wear a rugby shirt that didn't look like it'd been sprayed on to me. Luckily at the moment they do so I wore my Bristol Rugby training shirt as my first layer. It did look like it had been painted on but it was tight enough that I could wear it as a control top - it could control my large belly and moobs but I could still breath in it. I had to put a lighter top on as my route would take me down near the beach, if I stopped running I didn't need some do-gooder trying to roll me back to the sea!!! If I'm honest the only mistake I made in my ensemble was, as the blisters can confirm, was not wearing socks under my trainers. Something that Hayley and Michelle said was a 'bit daft'.
As with all my rides and ralks it was early enough that the only people I would come across would be dog walkers and hookers. Perfect. Now this was the first run I'd attempted since pre-season rugby training in the summer of 2000. In my head I thought I'd glide along the pavements with the grace of Mo Farah a the start of one of his 5,000 metre races. So with Strava turned on my phone in one of those holders you see joggers wearing I headed out - I wasn't as graceful as I'd imagined. I think I had the grace of a drunk man with emphysema stumbling home after a night on the Thatchers as I puffed and panted my way along the peaceful seaside streets of Weston super Mare.
I headed out along my route. It seemed to take forever before I reached the beach huts at one end of the promenade. I knew that this next stretch was going to be the longest part of the ralk. From the beech huts along to Knightstone Island would be approaching half the distance in total of my ralk. As it was my first ralk I really wasn't sure how to pace myself. Luckily there are a lot of lamp posts along the promenade and they are evenly spaced so I decided to run to the first one, walk to the next one, run to the next one - you get the idea.
One advantage of the route I was taking was that I would be able to see whatever weather was coming in off the Severn Estuary. This Sunday morning all I could see was rain and wind coming down the estuary in my direction. As I reached the entrance to the pier I knew from my bike rides that I still had a half mile before I reached the turnaround point. Between there and Knightstone Island all I could see, with increasing frequency, was spray from waves hitting the sea wall and coming up over the top. To be honest with how hot and sweaty I was getting I headed towards the sea wall to catch some of the refreshing spray forgetting that the water would make my trainers rub blisters and make my clothes heavier. Pillock.
With my head down - to maintain an aerodynamic position (sorry - I couldn't type that without laughing) I eventually reached the turnaround point and looked back towards town and realised just how far I was from home. I kept trying to pace myself on my ralk but by now the pacing was getting more ragged. I ran as far as I felt I could and then walked a bit to recover. Part of the way back I was coming towards an older chap out for his morning walk he said to me 'Morning, keep going it'll get easier!!' I smiled back at him and tried to say 'thanks mate, nearly done' but with my laboured breathing after 4k of ralking I'm not sue that the noise that came out of my mouth was even proper syllables let alone the words I intended!
Eventually I turned into the road I live in and arrived rather damply outside my house and quickly stopped the time on the Strava app, opened the front door and headed for the kitchen to sit down and recover and review my effort on Strava. If I'm honest I was really chuffed with my effort - I'd completed the ralk and done it in 49 minutes 20 seconds. Best of all I'd burned 1,093 calories!!
I now knew I'd could safely complete a 5k. I showered and changed and had some breakfast. I started to get a bit annoyed with myself as I reflected on my effort that morning. As I replayed the ralk in my head I convinced myself that I could have probably run more and bought my time down. I convinced myself that this was a good way to feel as I knew I could improve next time.
Since that first early morning ralk I've done 13 more ralks and covered 34 miles - including 2 park runs at Ashton Court that Hayley and Michelle bullied (they'll say encouraged) me to do and completed the bubble run. More about those another time.
In my effort to get fit enough to complete the 5k course I'd started off by getting up in he mornings before work and going for a bike ride, gradually building up the distances. I'd been doing this for a month (including some commutes to and from work) in the back of my mind I knew at some point I'd have to leave the bike at home and have a crack at a 5k run.
There are 2 friends of mine, lets call them Hayley and Michelle (I'm not changing names to protect the innocent) who I've known since we were all about 14 years old and as mentioned in a previous post they'd been running and doing 5k runs for a little while and had both been encouraging me in my efforts. They were brilliant and very enthusiastic when I said I was going to start running and were telling me that once I felt ready I should go with them and do a park run on a Saturday morning.
All very positive but I knew straight away that there was no way I'd be able to just run 5k without stopping. I'm not sure I could have done when I was at my peak of fitness the best part of two decades previous!! So I invented a new word to describe what I'd do - 'ralk'. A ralk is a mixture of running and walking (in a posh voice) 'look at that chap over there - he's ralking' You get the idea.
Next I had to plan the route. After having a play on google earth I had the route planned - roughly down the road to the beach lawns, along to the beach huts and then all the way along the promenade (told you - posh) to the entrance to Knightstone Island and then work my way back home. 5k pretty much exactly. The route also had the added bonus of staying close enough to home that if at any point I felt like it wasn't happening I wouldn't have to far to walk back home!!
Early in the morning of Sunday 25th June I woke and decided it was as good as time as any to test the route out. So I got out of bed went downstairs had a cereal bar and get ready to go out. As I've mentioned before one of my goals in getting fitter was to be able to wear a rugby shirt that didn't look like it'd been sprayed on to me. Luckily at the moment they do so I wore my Bristol Rugby training shirt as my first layer. It did look like it had been painted on but it was tight enough that I could wear it as a control top - it could control my large belly and moobs but I could still breath in it. I had to put a lighter top on as my route would take me down near the beach, if I stopped running I didn't need some do-gooder trying to roll me back to the sea!!! If I'm honest the only mistake I made in my ensemble was, as the blisters can confirm, was not wearing socks under my trainers. Something that Hayley and Michelle said was a 'bit daft'.
As with all my rides and ralks it was early enough that the only people I would come across would be dog walkers and hookers. Perfect. Now this was the first run I'd attempted since pre-season rugby training in the summer of 2000. In my head I thought I'd glide along the pavements with the grace of Mo Farah a the start of one of his 5,000 metre races. So with Strava turned on my phone in one of those holders you see joggers wearing I headed out - I wasn't as graceful as I'd imagined. I think I had the grace of a drunk man with emphysema stumbling home after a night on the Thatchers as I puffed and panted my way along the peaceful seaside streets of Weston super Mare.
I headed out along my route. It seemed to take forever before I reached the beach huts at one end of the promenade. I knew that this next stretch was going to be the longest part of the ralk. From the beech huts along to Knightstone Island would be approaching half the distance in total of my ralk. As it was my first ralk I really wasn't sure how to pace myself. Luckily there are a lot of lamp posts along the promenade and they are evenly spaced so I decided to run to the first one, walk to the next one, run to the next one - you get the idea.
One advantage of the route I was taking was that I would be able to see whatever weather was coming in off the Severn Estuary. This Sunday morning all I could see was rain and wind coming down the estuary in my direction. As I reached the entrance to the pier I knew from my bike rides that I still had a half mile before I reached the turnaround point. Between there and Knightstone Island all I could see, with increasing frequency, was spray from waves hitting the sea wall and coming up over the top. To be honest with how hot and sweaty I was getting I headed towards the sea wall to catch some of the refreshing spray forgetting that the water would make my trainers rub blisters and make my clothes heavier. Pillock.
With my head down - to maintain an aerodynamic position (sorry - I couldn't type that without laughing) I eventually reached the turnaround point and looked back towards town and realised just how far I was from home. I kept trying to pace myself on my ralk but by now the pacing was getting more ragged. I ran as far as I felt I could and then walked a bit to recover. Part of the way back I was coming towards an older chap out for his morning walk he said to me 'Morning, keep going it'll get easier!!' I smiled back at him and tried to say 'thanks mate, nearly done' but with my laboured breathing after 4k of ralking I'm not sue that the noise that came out of my mouth was even proper syllables let alone the words I intended!
Eventually I turned into the road I live in and arrived rather damply outside my house and quickly stopped the time on the Strava app, opened the front door and headed for the kitchen to sit down and recover and review my effort on Strava. If I'm honest I was really chuffed with my effort - I'd completed the ralk and done it in 49 minutes 20 seconds. Best of all I'd burned 1,093 calories!!
I now knew I'd could safely complete a 5k. I showered and changed and had some breakfast. I started to get a bit annoyed with myself as I reflected on my effort that morning. As I replayed the ralk in my head I convinced myself that I could have probably run more and bought my time down. I convinced myself that this was a good way to feel as I knew I could improve next time.
Since that first early morning ralk I've done 13 more ralks and covered 34 miles - including 2 park runs at Ashton Court that Hayley and Michelle bullied (they'll say encouraged) me to do and completed the bubble run. More about those another time.
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