Toughening up
On Sunday Dave and I ran the Great South Run. It's a lovely flat 10 mile race around Portsmouth; we did it last year in 1 hr 52 (speedy I am not) and in the thrill of finishing, entered for this year with great plans of doing much training and getting a better time.
And did we? Well. Dave has had knee problems and done no running for most of the year - he has only just started getting back into it (see his blog!). I got distracted by bodyjam training and kettlebells and have been filling my cardio requirements quite nicely, thank you very much, without doing any running at all. I did Race for Life (5km) in July and one 5 mile jog in August, and no running since then. Compared to last year, when we were running 2-3 times a week and did several 8-10 mile runs to prepare us for the distance, we were hopelessly, hopelessly underprepared.
So how did we do? 4 minutes faster than 2008. Faster!! Huh????!!!! I attribute this to two things......
1) My general cardio fitness is much, much improved. So despite the lack of "sports specific" training I had enough in the tank to get me round. I felt the lack of actual running training the next day when my legs refused to work, though :-)
2) I have toughened up! Yes, all this kettlebelling may indeed be turning me into a "man among men" as Pavel would say (woman among women? doesn't have quite the same ring to it!). I was in pain from about mile 6 onwards and I know that given the same circumstances last year, I would have given up and walked. But this time, with lots of encouragement from my lovely husband, I dug deep and plodded on, with just the occasional stop to stretch out my aching piriformis. I have learned that sore muscles will not kill me. I knew that when I got to the end without giving up it would be worth the painful legs and the inability to climb stairs the next day. I am not a quitter!
I guess kettlebell training is toughening up my brain, as well as my hands. Yay :-)
Here we are at the end with Goldie the Hearing Dog:
And did we? Well. Dave has had knee problems and done no running for most of the year - he has only just started getting back into it (see his blog!). I got distracted by bodyjam training and kettlebells and have been filling my cardio requirements quite nicely, thank you very much, without doing any running at all. I did Race for Life (5km) in July and one 5 mile jog in August, and no running since then. Compared to last year, when we were running 2-3 times a week and did several 8-10 mile runs to prepare us for the distance, we were hopelessly, hopelessly underprepared.
So how did we do? 4 minutes faster than 2008. Faster!! Huh????!!!! I attribute this to two things......
1) My general cardio fitness is much, much improved. So despite the lack of "sports specific" training I had enough in the tank to get me round. I felt the lack of actual running training the next day when my legs refused to work, though :-)
2) I have toughened up! Yes, all this kettlebelling may indeed be turning me into a "man among men" as Pavel would say (woman among women? doesn't have quite the same ring to it!). I was in pain from about mile 6 onwards and I know that given the same circumstances last year, I would have given up and walked. But this time, with lots of encouragement from my lovely husband, I dug deep and plodded on, with just the occasional stop to stretch out my aching piriformis. I have learned that sore muscles will not kill me. I knew that when I got to the end without giving up it would be worth the painful legs and the inability to climb stairs the next day. I am not a quitter!
I guess kettlebell training is toughening up my brain, as well as my hands. Yay :-)
Here we are at the end with Goldie the Hearing Dog:
posted by Beth Currie at
2:03 PM
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