My first run.
July 24, 2009So, a little over two weeks ago, I went for my first run. I’m not a fool, I knew I wasn’t going to be running the whole time. I can walk 10 miles, but I could probably run, oooh, quarter of a mile at a guess?
I was right.
I had all the gear. I’ve been researching on-line for the best sort of running shoe for me (I settled on a Nike+ Pegasus, on sale in Lillywhites), bought a running top and shorts, well, a skirt covering up shorts. Reminds me a bit of my PE lessons in fact. And something to hold my new iPhone 3Gs which I was going to use the Nike+ functionality with.
For those of you who don’t know about Nike+, which I would guess would be most people reading this, it’s a little sensor that goes into a Nike+ shoe (or you can attach it to any shoe) which acts a bit like a pedometer. It sends the information to your iPhone (or Nano with a special receiver) and it measures distance and time. Fabulous!
Except.. not. The pains I have gone through trying to get that information off the iPhone (repeated attempts to sync) and then to upload to the terrifically irritating Flash-based Nike site have driven me nuts. And what do you get after you’ve uploaded your information? Depressingly, very little. Even though a lot of information has been stored, all you can view is pretty much how far you went and how fast. Oh, and a very vague graph showing where you ran faster or slower, but without any real markings and no way to divide it into split times or anything remotely useful. Very frustrating and crap. So, I’ve invested in a Garmin which I will pop and out buy in minute which is apparently far superior in every way. And it means I don’t need to have my expensive and highly muggable iPhone on display wherever I run either.
Back to the actual run. I warmed up by walking to the edge of the Thames. We live about half a mile from the river, and there are plenty of great trails alongside the river to run on. The walk was my warm-up. Rather conveniently, the Thames has a series of big red signs which are sort of evenly spaced (anywhere between 50 to 250 yards between them, usually averaging 150 yards) which presumably are used for people to give to the emergency services to help locate them should disaster happen. So I base my run on how many red signs I can run. I manage 3 red signs right off the bat, but as I reach the third one I’m starting to feel dizzy. Okay, I’ll walk for a few. Then run another one. Walk another one.
Thus my first “run”. A run-walk-run-walk-run-walk based on those red signs. After a while I decide I’ve hit my halfway point and head back home, run-walking again. Including the half mile warm-up there (and the half mile warm-up back) I’ve covered 4.21 miles in 57 minutes. See, I’d like to be able to exclude the warm-up and warm-down from my results, but Nike+ won’t let me do that.. unless I exclude it completely and I’d rather not.
I don’t feel too bad after the run – maybe my hips got a little sore towards the end, but not too bad. Sadly, the next day I felt as if I’d been hit by a truck! And the day after.
Four days later I went out again and did the same distance, including warm-up and warm-down in around 51 minutes. I forgot to turn off the stupid Nike+ thing when I got to home so it carried on recording for quite some time when I was stationary. Unhelpful. The next day I felt a bit sore but nothing like as bad as I did.
A week later I went out again.. it would have been sooner but my knee was sore on the day I was planning on it (from dancing with B too enthusiastically at Baby Loves Disco the day before!) so I missed out. So this run I did in 49 minutes. Getting better! I don’t hurt at all today!
I still can’t run any further in one go with each run, but I am able to run further for longer with subsequent goes. In other words, instead of run one red sign, walk one red sign I’m doing run two signs, walk one. I never walk more than one. And I hurt less on the return journey too. Last night I managed to run three twice, and ran lots of twos.
I’ve calculated that my route, after the warm-up, is 3.2 miles. It would take 8 lots of that to do a marathon. Might try that the month before the marathon or something.
Still, so far it’s been enjoyable. Exhausting, but enjoyable. I can see improvements already. And it’s a break from my day to day existence at home looking after the children full time. Of course I am sure that there will be times when I do not want to go out. And that is when I will remember why I am doing this – not just for the marathon, but for those who have suffered miscarriages. If that isn’t an incentive, I don’t know what is.
Running shoes are a waste of money. Over all the years they’ve been sold, there has been not a _single_ study which proves they’ve reduced injury rates.
I run in ‘bare foot shoes’. Running bare foot will force you to run in a style which is right for you. Running shoes tend to force a heel-first run, which generates huge impact forces on your joints. Bare foot style running tends towards forefoot-running, where the front part of your foot touches the floor first and naturally absorbs the shock.
I’m currently running in either Five Fingers (http://vibramfivefingers.com) or Vivo Barefoot (http://www.terraplana.com/vivobarefoot.php) – favouring the five fingers though…
Running in this style of shoe will take a couple of goes getting used to, and expect your calves to hurt, especally if you take the forefoot running quickly, but it’ll soon pass and you’ll feel the benefits.
ref: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/barefoot/
ref: http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/8dno5/the_painful_truth_about_trainers_are_running/ (read the comments, not the article)
I’ve heard of those – they sound fascinating and a very good idea! I have to admit to being a bit wary, as where I’m currently running it’s very lumpy, and there is a *lot* of broken glass.. heaps of it. I don’t know how happy I’d be even if they are puncture resistant.
My calves started hurting for the first few days after running for the first time in years, so what’s more pain!
Thank you for the links – very interesting read. Will definitely consider it!
When I’m in the US (where it’s warmer) I wear the five-fingers all the time, and they’re great on any surface, even very stony/gravelly ones.
I wear the Vivo Barefoot all the time over here – for work (in London), cycling, and occasionally running – the soles are hard wearing and I’ve never had a problem.
Are the lumps when you run not painful in any way? That’s what scares me!! How does it not hurt.. I mean, I walk down the garden barefoot and stand on a stone in the grass, and it hurts! Does the fact there’s a covering there at all really help with stuff like that? Or do you just have to make sure you don’t step on stones?
I admit I am more tempted by the five-fingers than the Vivo ones, but both do look very interesting!
You feel more in both types than you do in regular shoes, due to the sole material and makeup, and if you stand on a big stone, it’s going to hurt, in whatever you wear, so do try and avoid those. But, if you do tread on big stones, it won’t hurt much more than in usual shoes.
Thanks! That’s reassuring to know!