Sponsor Will! A running update
As mentioned briefly in passing to some people last night, I have taken up running again and I've signed up to do the Royal Parks Half Marathon for UNICEF in October. Whether I'll be able to run the whole course by then is looking debatable (I have , but I'm actually hoping to do it in 2 hours. It's just under 16 weeks away now, and a lot of training plans I've seen since signing up suggest 12 weeks to do a 5k race is reasonable, and this is 4 times further!
So, please, do sponsor me at my Just Giving page.
I've started with the Runners' World beginners training guide, doing a run-walk beginners program. I'm now at week 3, so I'm doing 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking.
I was hoping to do a run yesterday (it had been 3 days) but traffic, Ikea, Tesco and house-warming party preparation got in the way. It says something about how I'm feeling about running at the moment that I was genuinely grumpy about missing out, but it made me all the more determined to get a run in today. Once the worst of the post-party hangover had subsided (about 5pm), Peta and I walked down to the river to take the photo for my JustGiving page and this icon, and after a pre-run stretch I headed along the south bank (which isn't paved, and has no pubs, so is less popular with the crowds). My original plan was to head upriver towards Barnes, and turn back when I'd done half the run. However, at the halfway point, Barnes Bridge was looking pretty close, so I figured I'd keep going, cross the river and then head downstream. This worked great, I didn't complete the circuit doing the run (in fact I still had 1.5 miles to go) but it was a lovely day for a post-run stroll.
A great way to keep track of the actual runs in terms of distance, effort, etc. is a GPS with Heart Rate Monitor. As the new Garmin Forerunner 405 is now out, it was an obvious choice as it provides all of those things in quite a small package. Also, I can create training sessions on the computer (only my PC, unfortunately, Apple support is due later this year), send them to the watch (wirelessly) and then use them on my runs. Today I thought it made me run a little fast and walk a little slow, but otherwise pretty good. The connectivity and update software is terrible, I had to try all manner of things to get the PC and watch to talk, and it won't upload data to the PC while the training software is running! I also find the watch interface a little unintuitive, but for my actual requirements, that it should know position, speed, time, etc. and be able to record that and send it to some software (and even to the web) for analysis etc, it does a great job.
One thing expensive toys can't do is to track how I'm actually feeling during the run - am I having fun, is it a bit too hard, hence the need for post-race blogging. However, I'm not planning on bombarding my friends list with such things, a private post will do for now!
I'd also like to blog a bit more about technology, and with a more public face than my LJ profile, does anyone have any recommendations of good blog hosts?
I want something like http://willsblog/tech and http://willsblog/run, so I'm not sure how many providers can manage that?
So, please, do sponsor me at my Just Giving page.
I've started with the Runners' World beginners training guide, doing a run-walk beginners program. I'm now at week 3, so I'm doing 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking.
I was hoping to do a run yesterday (it had been 3 days) but traffic, Ikea, Tesco and house-warming party preparation got in the way. It says something about how I'm feeling about running at the moment that I was genuinely grumpy about missing out, but it made me all the more determined to get a run in today. Once the worst of the post-party hangover had subsided (about 5pm), Peta and I walked down to the river to take the photo for my JustGiving page and this icon, and after a pre-run stretch I headed along the south bank (which isn't paved, and has no pubs, so is less popular with the crowds). My original plan was to head upriver towards Barnes, and turn back when I'd done half the run. However, at the halfway point, Barnes Bridge was looking pretty close, so I figured I'd keep going, cross the river and then head downstream. This worked great, I didn't complete the circuit doing the run (in fact I still had 1.5 miles to go) but it was a lovely day for a post-run stroll.
A great way to keep track of the actual runs in terms of distance, effort, etc. is a GPS with Heart Rate Monitor. As the new Garmin Forerunner 405 is now out, it was an obvious choice as it provides all of those things in quite a small package. Also, I can create training sessions on the computer (only my PC, unfortunately, Apple support is due later this year), send them to the watch (wirelessly) and then use them on my runs. Today I thought it made me run a little fast and walk a little slow, but otherwise pretty good. The connectivity and update software is terrible, I had to try all manner of things to get the PC and watch to talk, and it won't upload data to the PC while the training software is running! I also find the watch interface a little unintuitive, but for my actual requirements, that it should know position, speed, time, etc. and be able to record that and send it to some software (and even to the web) for analysis etc, it does a great job.
One thing expensive toys can't do is to track how I'm actually feeling during the run - am I having fun, is it a bit too hard, hence the need for post-race blogging. However, I'm not planning on bombarding my friends list with such things, a private post will do for now!
I'd also like to blog a bit more about technology, and with a more public face than my LJ profile, does anyone have any recommendations of good blog hosts?
I want something like http://willsblog/tech and http://willsblog/run, so I'm not sure how many providers can manage that?