Couch to half marathon - Week 3

It's interesting the stuff that motivates me to go for my runs. I had a dip in motivation to get out there on Monday morning this week, the new school plus kindy run takes more time and it was tempting to just head on home.

It made me realise that it's kind of perverse what gets me out there. All I had to think about is how I'd feel after the run is finished, and off I went.

Of note this week is that after my long run on Wednesday I decided to switch from the couch to 5km program I was following to one of the Garmin Coach half marathon training programs.

While I'm progressing well with the c25k, I'm a little dissatisfied with only doing run/walk intervals as my only training.  I'm sure that if I'm to run 21.1km in July, I need to mix it up and do speed drills, work on cadence, and so on.  Just run/walking is not going to get me there.

I've picked Coach Jeff Galloway since he does use a run/walk method as the basis of his training, so it's not a massive change from what I've been doing.  He is also the only coach who offers just three workouts per week, which suits me since I only have three days during the week on which I can run. Plus it means if I miss a workout during the week, there's a chance of making it up on the weekend.

I set my goal in the Garmin app for a half marathon in July, with a time goal of 2 hours 40 minutes. It's the longest time goal you can set within the program and it looks achievable but challenging for me.

Something that clicked for me this week as I increase my mileage is to sloowww down... Which sounds paradoxical when I'm talking about setting a time goal for my race.

But, as I wrote last week, comparison can get me in a low mood (see also lack of motivation above).  I need to find the pace that is comfortable for me right now, not what I think I should be doing.  Slowing down, and not caring what my watch tells me about my pace, has made such a difference. I can run comfortably for five minutes. I could definitely run for longer than that. It was an exciting realisation.

Monday
5km along local walkway. Average pace 7:48/km.

Wednesday
"Long" run.  I put long in inverted commas because for now "long" means only 5.69km.



Friday
Lake walk with friend. A very fast walking friend!! It was a truly stunning location (see photo at the top of this post), which made the sweaty toil easier to take and I'll definitely be back there for some runs.



Saturday
Quick benchmark run in the mid-afternoon, to set up the Garmin half-marathon program. Not my most brilliant idea running at that time of day, but I had to squeeze it into a busy day and even in the boiling sun I still managed to shave about 30 seconds/km off my pace from the last benchmark run I completed only two weeks ago. Definitely happy with that.



My next run is on Monday, and it's the first workout in my new Garmin program. I should be happy because, guess what, it's cadence drills and hill repeats! I'm a little nervous but also looking forward to the challenge...

Couch to half marathon - Week 2

Checking the calendar just now I realised I've been running not quite three weeks. That was the reality check I needed to calm down a bit regarding my progress.



The great thing about having a Garmin and apps like Strava is that you can track your progress to a breathtaking degree. The problem with having a Garmin and apps like Strava is that you can see everyone else's progress as well and get very discouraged by their speed and distance, conveniently forgetting that 99% of the people you're looking at have been running for months, if not years.

I don't need to be running a 5 minute kilometre less than three weeks in, and if I was I would probably be on track for an injury.

So how are things actually progressing then?

I've just completed Week 4 of my C25K Garmin app, with six weeks to go. Assuming I don't skip forward again, that has me running 5km in late March/early April. Then I have about fourteen weeks to get to the half marathon. Seems tight to me, but we'll see.



I have been lengthening the runs on the app, or adding in another one at the end of the session, so I'm probably further along than the app would say.  I can (somewhat...) comfortably run for 5 minutes at a time now, with a pace varying from about 6:30 to 7:00 minutes per kilometre. For the non-runners, that means I'm running at about 8kph.

This past week I had to skip Monday's run as one of my kids was home sick from kindy, so I only got in two runs. I also didn't do my long run on Sunday morning as me leaving the house seems to wake the kids and ruins my husband's sleep in! I wouldn't normally care but he has to get up early during the week for work, so I guess he deserves one lie in. I suppose.

Most people seem to do their long run on the weekend, but I may have to fit in my long run on a weekday when I have time after kindy and school drop off - yes, our now five year old started school today! - and then I can just do a short run on Saturday mornings before swimming.  I'm envious of runners who don't have to juggle their runs around family commitments.  Just lace up whenever and head home whenever! One day, one day.

I cracked 5km last Friday, still with run/walk intervals, but it was good to remind myself how far it is. I did another 5km this morning and I'll try to keep that up, time permitting, and just increase the amount of it I'm actually running as opposed to walking.

So, that's the update for this week!  Onwards...

Couch to half-marathon

Okay so after the revelation the other day that I'm going to try and run a half-marathon in six months' time, let's break this down a bit.

Maybe one day I can look back at how far I've come?!  ...Which means recording the ugly truth about where I am right now.

I've just turned 39 years old.  I'm what fitness apps like to call "essentially sedentary" - other than housework and lifting my kids occasionally, I do no physical activity whatsoever.  Occasionally I might go for a walk with a friend or my mum when she's here visiting.  Sometimes I ride my bike on the driveway with the kids.  I load firewood in winter.  That's it.  I suppose it's worth noting but of no relevance whatsoever that I am a "healthy" weight.  And that's hopefully the last time you'll hear me mention that topic.

My fitness history is patchy at best.  I'm no athlete.  I was never good at sports at school, although I did enjoy cross country despite never being the fastest or actually, you know, joining the team or anything.  Through my adult life I've had periods of time where I've been a committed gym member, and of course I did do that 5K back in 2013 as previous mentioned.  But for the past eight or so years I've done basically no exercise, and I wouldn't describe myself as a naturally active person at all.

So long story short, I am very definitely starting from zero.  The half-marathon is in July.

My goal is to finish.  To run 99% of it.

So that covers my history and my goal.  Where are we at today?

As of today, I've been running for basically two weeks.  I'm doing run/walk intervals to increase my endurance in the time-honoured C25K method.  Today I ran for five minutes to set a benchmark for my shiny new Garmin watch (it's a Forerunner 245 for those of you taking notes).  I ran a pace of 7:42/km, which means it's going to take me at least 2-3 hours to run the half-marathon... if my very poor maths hasn't failed me.

For the past two weeks I've been doing three runs per week but I'm hoping to increase it to four, running while my girls are at kindy/school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with a long run early on Sunday mornings.

At this early stage I really can't picture how I will achieve my goal.  I find running very hard.  There's no "easy conversational pace" for me, it's all just very hard work.  I'm motivated by the idea of achieving something that feels impossible right now.  Although it's difficult I do enjoy the challenge and of course it feels great knowing you're doing something good for your wellbeing.  On the days I run I get more stuff done, I eat better, and I drink more water.

I'll try to update here once a week or so.  Apologies to those of you who are here for the trees and the knitting posts.  It's going to be a lot about running for a while...

Running

In a totally unexpected turn of events, I seem to be training for a half marathon.

I haven't run more than ten steps since 2013 when I did The Color Run, a 5km race, back when we lived in Perth.  I trained for the race for about two or three months, enjoyed every moment, made plans for all these other events I was going to do that year... and then promptly lost all motivation after the race, and that was that.

Until now!

I have this friend who runs, like really runs.  I mean, she runs 25km at 5am.  On a Sunday.  I know.

Even though I think she's demented, I can't get enough of hearing about her running. I love everything about it.  Finally, last week she and her other demented runner friend gave me the perfectly timed prod I needed to just go for a run myself.

Very bloody dark

I downloaded a "couch to 5km" (C25K) app, and set off at 5.30am.  It was extremely bloody dark and I was packing my daks a bit, but I think that just made me run faster.  And I loved it.  By the afternoon I was already dying to go for my next run.

Less dark. More better

I knew I needed a goal though.  Since I'd already done a 5km race, I thought I'd aim a little higher and go for a 10K race. By my calculations I would be ready by about May, which it turns out is not a great time of year for races locally.  My friend recommended the Cape Egmont Half Marathon in July, which also has an option to run it as a team, taking half the distance each.  I could do that, she slyly pointed out, or I could go for the whole 21.1km.

Could I??

Is it really physically possible for a total non-athlete like me to go from essentially sedentary to running a half-marathon in barely six months?

I guess I'm about to find out...

Life since July

It's been almost a month since I started writing this post so I'd better get it finished before the end of the year races up to meet me.

Brace yourself for a massive news dump...

Let's divide this into categories, and we'll start with the youngest member of the family.

A - now three years old, dammit, and don't you forget it.  Anytime she hears the number three she exclaims, "That's how many I'm are!"

I remember that with J the jump from two to three felt big, and I've noticed it again this time.  She's using the toilet full time (still in nappies at night), pedals her big girl bike, tells me, "Leave now!" when I drop her off to kindy, and generally believes herself to be in charge of the household.  When I tell her, "You are not the boss here," she puts her pudgy hands on her hips and retorts, "Yes, I, are!"

I'm enjoying her more than ever.  If you can't tell from the above exchange she's bossy and funny and independent.  She adores her big sister and one of her favourite things to do is to list off everyone she loves, ticking them off on her fingers: "I love myself, and Daddy, and Mummy, and J, and Poppa, and Nan, and Grandpa, and..." The list is long and I think how lucky she is to have so many people to count.

Giving the Japanese garden exhibit at Pukekura Park a going over

Next up let's discuss J, my sweet and enquiring girl whose brain has gone berserk these last few months.  Boy is that girl ready for school.  All day long she peppers me with questions and facts.   "Do rubbish truck drivers enjoy collecting rubbish?  How high is the sky?  Did you know, pelicans are water birds.  What happens when we die?  How do plants make flowers?  What is air made of?  Does Father Christmas go to South Africa?  Did you know, the wind is caused when air heats or cools." And on, and on, and on ALL DAY.

Earlier this year she was very excited for school, but I didn't think she was actually intellectually ready.  Now, however, OH YES SHE IS READY.  That brain is so thirsty for knowledge it's exhausting.

The school has a fantastic transition program where the new entrants attend a program for an hour each week to get to know the school, their teachers, and their classmates, in the term before they start school.  We started attending the transition program a few weeks ago, although she won't be starting until late February next year (after her fifth birthday).  She adores her school visits and asks me every day when it's time to go back.  They've been handing out readers and she earnestly sits on the couch at home, pointing at the words with her finger as she was shown as she "reads".  Of course, what's actually happening that she's got the book memorised, but as an avid reader myself it's lovely to see this happy introduction to the world of reading.

She also loves to sit down with a sheet of paper and a pencil and draw any letters she knows the shape of, and then asks me what they are.  So when I say she's ready for school, the kid is ready.  Just three months to wait...

She's a prolific and (to my highly biased eye) quite talented artist.  She's able to add small numbers together, loves witches - her favourite character in Sleeping Beauty is Maleficent, would happily spend all day outside pottering around watering plants, picking flowers or walking through the paddocks.  She - in fact both girls - love to bake and I can't start even the smallest task in the kitchen without both of them dragging up a stool each to help.  It's worthwhile remembering that I dreamt of this stuff when they were babies and I was exhausted and a bit miserable.

Let's talk garden.  Since the weather has finally warmed up of course everything has sprung into life, including the weeds.

We've planted out a few veggies but after being super organised very early in the piece and raising some seeds, I kind of took my eye off the ball and now it's almost summer with not much actually in the ground. 

At the moment we've got onions and leeks left over from winter, beetroot, beans, peas, rainbow chard, broccoli, a couple of tiny tomato plants, and that's it.  Oh and the raspberry, which is covered in tiny green fruit and I'm beside myself at the thought of the bounty in a month or two.

Yes that is a lamb standing on its mother. This ewe is the most patient attentive mother you've ever seen.

This is Emily, my orphan lamb from last year.  In case you can't tell from that look, we love each other very much.

We've had numerous calves, including several fostered onto existing mothers which if I'm honest was a massive pain in the ass.

...But they are very cute so sign me up again for next year.

Gosh this is a very long ago photo of the vegetable garden. It's nowhere near this neat at the moment.

Another very exciting thing that happened (sort of) recently is my sister, who we'll call Auntie A, came to visit.  This was back in September and it feels so long ago now I can't believe it was only a couple of months.

She was only here for four days and the girls managed to both come down with conjunctivitis right in time for her visit, but we had a FAB.U.LOUS time, even with the kids in tow.  I'm not ashamed to admit we started drinking mid-morning although in hindsight maybe it wasn't the best idea because now I can hardly remember anything from our time together.

I do remember fun though!

And she was suitably appreciative of B's cooking

We managed one leisurely breakfast at the Federal Store

And of course I took her to Back Beach during a flying tour around New Plymouth where I permitted her to take photos out the window of a moving vehicle.

More exciting developments in my life recently include leaving the house!  In heels sometimes!  And make up!  As the girls get older it seems so much easier to leave them and actually have a bit of a social life.

It's no secret that I love being at home, and I really love my alone time.  But it's been nice to mix it up with some time out and about amongst grown ups too.

In the past month or two I've been to the races twice, and out to dinner three times, I think?  I even put a dress on for the races!  Novel.  As I said, it's been nice to re-enter the adult world, to have a reason to put on make up and curate an outfit.  Now I just need to work on my conversational skills so I have something to talk about besides my kids.

Is it worse to talk about your kids or your pets I wonder?

Last item on the agenda, and well done for making it this far if you're still with me, is knitting!  Yay!  Everyone's favourite topic!

I'm still click clacking away, and really enjoying myself.  I've even started selling some small items to a local baby shop. I'm not going to make my fortune but it's a nice way to have my hobby pay for itself.

At the moment they have two of my rompers available, you can find them here and here, NZ residents only, sorry!  I'm working on some more colours as we speak.

Since July I've made a sweater for myself, a dress for J, a couple of dolls' baskets for the girls, a dolls' sweater (and released the pattern!), a rainbow sweater for Auntie A, and another sweater for myself.  Whew!

Currently on my needles is another, ahem, sweater for myself, and as mentioned above more baby rompers for the shop.

One of the sweaters I made for myself. Terrible photo and I am actually happy with it, don't let the facial expression fool you!

Ok!  I think we're all caught up.

Next post will probably be following Christmas which, to be a total cliche, I can't believe is less than a month away.

Ok A is hassling me nonstop for some lunch so I'd really better go.  Hope you are well and looking forward to the end of the year and all that that entails. 

I'll leave you with this sentiment on that note:

My first knitting pattern!

I recently passed my second anniversary of the day I started knitting.  Or, to be accurate, the day I re-started knitting, having learned the absolute basics in primary school.



Anyway, over this past two years I've knitted quite a few sweaters both for myself and for my kids.  In fact my first ever knitting project was a top down sweater for myself.  Remember that?

Although she never wears anything I knit for her, my four year old frequently nags me to make clothes for her dolls.  And frankly I'm not sure why I don't, since dolls' clothes are projects which are quick to make, AND they don't have to be perfect.

This kind of making suits my style down to the ground!

Anyway, since she nags me about this so much, I often go hunting for a quick and easy dolls' sweater pattern but come up with nothing.  I've long been frustrated with the dearth (great word, right!!) of anything easy.  They all require seaming or finishing of some sort which I just cannot be bothered with when the recipient isn't even, you know, a living person.

I've made some fantastically simple sweaters for me and the kids, and after a while it dawned on me that surely it wouldn't be that hard to make one up for the dolls.  Right?!  How hard could it be?  I was definitely comfortable with the techniques involved in making a sweater, so all I had to do was dial the measurements right down.  And keep it as SIMPLE as possible.

Then J was given a toy dinosaur promptly named Dinosaur T-Rex (I know, super creative) which she insisted needed a sweater to keep him/her warm.  Well, dinosaurs are cold blooded.  They probably do need sweaters in our climate.  I also probably do need a real job because I thought, "Sure. Why not?"

I fiddled around and jotted some notes, ripped back many a time (and we all know how I despise ripping back), and came up with something.

Then, just to be sure, I knit another one with sleeves for A's dinosaur Queetie (don't ask me), and now... here we are.

I humbly present my first ever (free!) knitting pattern.  I've sensibly named it the Quick 11" Doll Sweater, but since the first recipient was Dinosaur T-Rex, I think of it as the Cold Blooded Sweater myself.

Enjoy, and if you knit it please let me know what you think!

You can find the Ravelry pattern page here.

Click here to download PDF now!

Quick 11” Doll Sweater (aka Cold Blooded Sweater)                        

A seamless pullover sweater in a small doll’s size

(to suit a doll of approx. 30cm/11” height).

Worked from top down, including a rolled neck, raglan shaping for yoke/sleeves, and seamless construction in the round, with either a ribbed or rolled hem. It can be worked on DPNs or using magic loop. The pattern offers variations for cap or long sleeves.

Needles, Yarn, Notions, and Gauge:                                       

·     3.75mm circular (at least 60cm/32”) for magic loop, or DPNs (or size needed to achieve gauge)

·     approx. 50g or 80m/87yd of DK/8ply

·     1x stitch marker in one colour (BOR marker), 3x stitch markers in diff colour

·     Waste yarn to hold sleeve stitches (for long sleeve version)

·     Tapestry needle

Gauge: 22 st x 30 rows = 10cm/4” in stockinette in the round

Abbreviations:                                                                                                      

CO – cast on	pm – place marker
st – stitch/es	kfb – knit front and back
BOR – beginning of round	sm – slip marker
k – knit	BO – bind off

Directions:                                                                                                            

Neckhole

Using long-tail cast on (or your preferred stretchy cast on), CO 50 st.

Rnd 1: Join in round, place BOR marker, k10, pm, k15, pm, k10, pm, k15.

Rnds 2-6: K.

Yoke

Rnd 7: *k to 1 st before marker, kfb, sm, kfb*, repeat between ** to end of round.

Rnd 8: K.

Repeat Rnds 7 & 8 five times more. St counts between markers should be: 22/27/22/27 for a total of 98 st.

Separate Sleeves

Rnd 19: remove BOR marker, move 22 sleeve st to waste yarn (or bind off for cap sleeves), CO 4 using backwards loop cast on, place BOR marker, CO 3, k27, move 22 sleeve st to waste yarn (or bind off for cap sleeves), CO 7, knit to BOR marker. You should have 68 st left on your needles.

Body

Work in the round to desired length less 1cm/½in.

Work four rounds of k1p1 rib, or five rounds more of stockinette for rolled hem.

BO using a stretchy bind off (I like Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off)

Sleeves

Move 22 sleeve st back onto needles, and pick up the 7 st under the arm, placing BOR marker between third and fourth picked up st, for a total of 29 st.

Work in the round to desired length less 1cm/½in. For tapered sleeve, work every eighth row as follows: k2tog, k to 2st before marker, k2tog.

Work four rounds of k1p1 rib, or five rounds more of stockinette for rolled cuff.

BO using a stretchy bind off (I like Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off)

Finishing

Weave in ends, using yarn ends where you joined sleeves to close holes in underarm if needed. Wet block.

Click here to download PDF now!