Be Excellent To Each Other

Done. Shins hurt more than they have done for a while though, I think I really need to leave 2 days rest between runs till my legs get stronger.

Don't feel too bad, according to runkeeper i'm running at 9.5kph for 5 minutes at a time at the moment, and you are way older than I am

When I went for my interview on Wednesday I managed to get into my old black trousers - my super fatty trousers have gone in the bin!

Had my PT session yesterday too, and wasn't tired after it!

I have to keep hitching my jeans up.

Just been to fat club and I've lost another 2lbs, one more and that's my first stone gone, so fingers crossed for next week!

I can see it in my face now too.

Brilliant! That first stone is such a great milestone, and starting to get comments from people is incredible as well. Make sure you take photos, it really helped me to be able to look back at photos of myself at particular times and see how much I was changing It's also great to look at photos from when you had started to feel really positive about your body shape again, only to now find that you have made the same sort of improvements again. I felt incredible last Christmas when I had my first shopping trip for smaller sized clothes, but now they don't fit me either. Such a great motivator. Glad you're enjoying the gym, I really need to get my ass in gear and start working out.

Thanks Gilly. I'll definitely do the photo thing, will be interesting to see when it's all gone.

Excellent stuff, GJ!

Thank you.

I went out with the running club again tonight we did 11 miles as a pose to the normal 6-7

I managed to run all but the most mental hills on the route

So knackered now but feel great as well, didn't think I could do anything like that distance.

'As opposed'.

Good work though!

I'm pretty sure JBR can pose for 11 miles while running.

How was week 5 run 2?

Didn't get out of work until 8, so it'll be tomorrow. Annoyingly.

Nice one asfish!

Same for me too, then Sunday for the big one.

Being on a strong anti-inflammatory is brilliant for digging at the allotment, which I've managed to build a head of steam about recently. Wrench my shoulder quite hard at the tip? Fuck it, already anti-inflamed, bro!

Hopefully that and drinking less will help counter my escalating weight, for the next month at least. One of these days I'll finish getting my bike ready too.

Off out for a run in a bit, today is the day I blow the dust off the Garmin and record my heart rate too, should be interesting. Last year was the last time I used it (or did any running) and for my current route my heart rate was

Avg HR: 155 bpm
Max HR: 189 bpm

However I did the route faster than I'm currently doing it on the course.

Remember, as a guide your max heartrate should be no higher than 220 minus your age.

My resting and max heartrate have always been over what is considered average and expected/healthy, regardless of my age or fitness level at the time.
But then I guess that is averages for you!

That was quite tricky! Not sure i'm going to manage the full 20 minute run next time. This run was 8 minutes running, 5 walking, 8 minutes running.

Elapsed Time: 21:29
Avg Pace: 7:27 min/km
Avg Moving Pace: 7:16 min/km
Avg Speed: 8.0 km/h
Avg Moving Speed: 8.3 km/h
Avg HR: 162 bpm
Max HR: 182 bpm

Not too bad, considering when I started I could barely run 90 seconds at a time! Weird to think that was only 5 weeks ago.

Not sure if anyone is going to find this interesting, but what the hell, I have the tech, i'm going to use it

I have a 3k loop which I use whenever I feel like running, which has a 20m elevation difference between the bottom and top. Not massively hilly, but enough to notice the up and down bits in the short distance. Over a year ago I bought a Forerunner, used it a couple of times then stopped running as I hated it, I was unfit and it made me feel like crap. Fast forward a year and as mentioned i'm halfway through the couch-to-5k course at the moment, but i'm still using the same 3k loop to run on.

So I have some data, one of the last runs I did when I had no idea what I was doing, and the run I did today on the couch-to-5k course.

Old run:

Distance: 3.05 km
Time: 21:01
Moving Time: 20:26
Elapsed Time: 21:01
Avg Pace: 6:53 min/km
Avg Moving Pace: 6:41 min/km
Avg Speed: 8.7 km/h
Avg Moving Speed: 9.0 km/h

Latest run:

Distance: 2.88 km
Time: 21:28
Moving Time: 20:54
Elapsed Time: 21:29
Avg Pace: 7:27 min/km
Avg Moving Pace: 7:16 min/km
Avg Speed: 8.0 km/h
Avg Moving Speed: 8.3 km/h

So i'm a bit slower than I was before, which is interesting.
However, look at this, top graph is the run from today, bottom is the run from a year ago

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/V8FU37ov[/url]

A massive difference in the amount of times I had to stop, the speed at which it hit my limit, and the time it takes me to recover.
The most impressive thing is how long is how much longer it takes for me heart rate to hit peak, and this is only after just over a month of regular running. Quite a distinct improvement I think.

I'm not sure you can compare them, considering that this time around you're enforcing a 5 minute walk - which is probably more than you would have done if you were just waiting until you weren't winded any more.

Sure, there is that, but I don't hit 180bpm until 5 minutes in now, when it was 3 minutes before, and the slope back to 140 is steeper, and the max is lower.

Well, that was bloody hard work. May need to rethink my route - elevation change on my run is 1400m, and managed to time it so it was uphill on both the running sections and downhill on the walk. Done though. Not looking forward to Sunday.

You're climbing over a kilometre in height? Are you sure?

Blimey, that must be pretty much straight up!

No, that's elevation change total - so ups plus downs. I think.

Hmmm... I think that must be the total of all parts of the run that have some sort of incline, as even ups plus downs that is a massive elevation change over 3k, every step would have to be on a 1:2 hill.

Good job on the run though dude, it was a bastard, Sunday is going to kill me.

This* was taken at the BB2;

Beexbee2 by Goddess Jasmine, on Flickr

This was taken last night;

MeandDarryl by Goddess Jasmine, on Flickr

13lbs difference.

*I know it's an awful photo anyway, but it was the first one that I could find and will do for comparison purposes.

Good work!

Well done guys

I only managed to do exactly the same 30 min + 5 min warm down run as last time (11 to 11.5kph), i.e. no improvement at all
I did manage a hefty weights session on Fri and a 40 min + 5 min warm down stepper session (Level 17 'Round the World') on Wed, rest day Thur. If I train tomorrow, which I plan to, I would've hit the gym six days out of seven this week, which is good going for me - even though I'm only training between 35min and 45min per session.

Strength is improving further (I always was biased heavily towards weights rather than CV), but negligible weight loss (only about 2lb in two weeks lol). I can tell I'm developing more muscle though from the fit of my clothes.


Sacked off the gym this morning then took Mrs C on the Harley to the Fox and Barrel for a massive Ploughmans Lunch and pint of ale

Thanks MA, getting there.

Nice one Cavey, sounds like you're keeping at it.

Done! 20 minutes running non-stop. Sure I was slow as fuck, but the jump from 8 minutes to 20 minutes wasn't actually that bad Week 6 of the plan starts on Tuesday.
First 12 minutes of my run is all moderately uphill, so once I got through that I knew it was possible, next 6 are all steeper downhill, then final 2 are uphill again to get me back to the start. I even sped up for the final 60 seconds.

Distance: 2.84 km
Moving Time: 20:45
Avg Moving Pace: 7:18 min/km
Avg Moving Speed: 8.2 km/h
Avg HR: 151 bpm
Max HR: 177 bpm


Look at this bad boy

Done. Fuck, that was hard work. Glad it was the hottest day of the year, too.

I don't have fancy graphs and shit, so I've used my phone, science, and a mirror to demonstrate how much fucking hard work this was. Not for the faint of heart:

I was sweatier than that after 3.5 hours at the allotment yesterday.

You are looking thinner though, Cras.

My first game back in my 6-a-side league is Wednesday.

Meep.

Craster, we are now about the same size. Many congrats!

Also you too Jazzy (although you are hiding your body in the 2nd pic, so I can only go on the change in your face).

That's bloody good going, friends. Well done. You should be very proud of yourselves.

Good job dude

I think it really helped that I went out at 7:30am, it was hot but not too muggy. This evening has just been awful, I wouldn't have liked to have run in it!

Craster, knackeredness aside you're looking great!

Myp, thanks. I can see a difference on my body now too, but I'm not convinced you can see it when I'm clothed just yet.

No.

Amazing work. And Craster, get some proper running tops.

Aye, I got a couple from the local chav shop for a fiver each, and they are much nicer to run in. Cooler, lighter, and they don't soak up the sweat and get even heavier as you run.

I still don't think that the world is ready for Craster in a running top.

You don't have to buy lycra singlets, you can get t-shirts made out of the same material and still get the same benefits

Well done folks....

... but?

I just get Karrimor stuff from Sports Direct, cheap and decent.

Nothing I have got into a silly habit of putting more full stops than I need...

...for?

Ok I will go cold turkey and stop.