from Diary of a Rubbish marathon Runner There is one thing I did not mention about Tuesday’s school evening, though it was very much on my mind. Niamh noticed it as well, and that’s when I realised just how big a deal it is: the number of overweight children is just staggering.
All of the children on stage were between 6 and 12 years old and thinking back to my own school years, there were maybe one or two overweight kids in my class, and none of them would have been what I call obese. How things have changed! My own impression was that the majority of heavy kids were girls, but I’m not sure if that’s generally the case. I found it pretty shocking, especially as this was a school in rural Kerry where outdoor pursuits and sport are still valued highly. If we could get those children to exercise more it would make such a difference to their lives. Instead the politicians are talking about getting rid of PE altogether.
Anyway, my own training is continuing nicely. Another nice and easy run on Thursday once more got close to 7:30 pace. I’m getting used to this. Today I did another “Fast Friday” but with the preliminary speed phase just around the corner I was very careful not to overdo it. As a result I ran it at a slightly lower average HR than last week; in fact, most of the time I did not even get out of the 140s. Despite that constraint it was still faster than last week. For a while the average pace was a tad faster than 7:00, only to drop back on a couple of uphill miles after the halfway point. I was tempted to put in a stronger effort over the last 2 miles to get back under 7:00 again but thought the better of it to avoid the wrath of The Coach. At all times I was relaxed and comfortable and felt like I could have run at that effort for much, much longer.
The weather is cold and clear at the moment, with temperatures a little below freezing point in the morning and lovely and sunny during the day. I love it. Maybe I get reminded of the Alpine winters of my youth, sans the skiing of course. It did cross my mind that the faster running pace might be related to the lower outside temperatures because the last time I ran that fast was back in November when we had equally cold mornings, but that may well be complete coincidence.
Right now I’m looking forward to being allowed to run fast again a bit more often, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I may come to regret these words.
20 Jan
8+ miles, 1:01:08, 7:36 pace, HR 144
21 Jan
10 miles, 1:10:25, 7:03 pace, HR 151
https://rubbishrunner.blogspot.com/
All of the children on stage were between 6 and 12 years old and thinking back to my own school years, there were maybe one or two overweight kids in my class, and none of them would have been what I call obese. How things have changed! My own impression was that the majority of heavy kids were girls, but I’m not sure if that’s generally the case. I found it pretty shocking, especially as this was a school in rural Kerry where outdoor pursuits and sport are still valued highly. If we could get those children to exercise more it would make such a difference to their lives. Instead the politicians are talking about getting rid of PE altogether.
Anyway, my own training is continuing nicely. Another nice and easy run on Thursday once more got close to 7:30 pace. I’m getting used to this. Today I did another “Fast Friday” but with the preliminary speed phase just around the corner I was very careful not to overdo it. As a result I ran it at a slightly lower average HR than last week; in fact, most of the time I did not even get out of the 140s. Despite that constraint it was still faster than last week. For a while the average pace was a tad faster than 7:00, only to drop back on a couple of uphill miles after the halfway point. I was tempted to put in a stronger effort over the last 2 miles to get back under 7:00 again but thought the better of it to avoid the wrath of The Coach. At all times I was relaxed and comfortable and felt like I could have run at that effort for much, much longer.
The weather is cold and clear at the moment, with temperatures a little below freezing point in the morning and lovely and sunny during the day. I love it. Maybe I get reminded of the Alpine winters of my youth, sans the skiing of course. It did cross my mind that the faster running pace might be related to the lower outside temperatures because the last time I ran that fast was back in November when we had equally cold mornings, but that may well be complete coincidence.
Right now I’m looking forward to being allowed to run fast again a bit more often, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I may come to regret these words.
20 Jan
8+ miles, 1:01:08, 7:36 pace, HR 144
21 Jan
10 miles, 1:10:25, 7:03 pace, HR 151
https://rubbishrunner.blogspot.com/
