Ready......Steady......GO.....

Training Session

Ok so it's taken a week or Two to synchronize diaries with Mark. I would keep calling him Cardiosaurus, but it takes too long to type & check the spelling so from here on in it's Mark or CM for Cardiosaurus Mark or maybe that should be Coach Mark.

The date and plan is set, we will meet and go for a nice brisk walk up and down some fairly steep hills, then into some fields to do repeats of 1 minute running then 90 seconds walking to recover, repeated for 20 minutes...........Ok so this all sounds like a pretty good plan.

The day arrives & I have to admit I was feeling a little nervous and questioning if maybe I might just be a little mad. But the Garmin is set GPS signal found and we are off..........I soon found that those fairly steep hills were doing a pretty good impression of Mount Everest.  Mark kept up a slow but steady pace, reminding me all the way to keep my breathing going and shorten my stride, now being rather vertically challenged scraping in at 5 foot long strides are never going to be my thing so all was good.

Hills conquered, we arrive at the field and Mark takes some time to explain to me all about correct posture and landing on the front part or forefoot rather heel striking. If you followed my link from my earlier post to Mark's blog you will have already learnt that Mark is a "Barefoot Runner" now although barefoot can indeed mean naked feet, when said in quotes usually refers to minimalist shoes or in Marks case Lunar Sandals.

I would love to say that I will be following literally in Mark's footsteps but for now, I haven't quite decided what I will wear to do my running in, so I am going to be trying out various options and see which seems to work for me.
For this first lesson I just dug out my favorite trainers, not completely zero drop infact I believe they are closer to about 6-8mm. 

Back to the lesson......Right, Mark gives me my instructions to run for 1 minute, not to go for speed but relax and concentrate on form and controlled breathing........and we're off 5 seconds.....yep I'm ok.....10 seconds I'm starting to breathe more rapidly.........20 seconds.....OK my lungs are on FIRE, legs feel like lead.......30 seconds........right that's my lot.... I suddenly got the message of just how unfit I had let myself become and how long 60 seconds is when you just want to cough up a lung. Think we may need to adjust the training plan, so we walked for a few minutes till I had my breathing back in control which to be honest didn't take long. We did a few more repeats of 30 seconds running and then walk to recover. Then finished off with the walk back up and over the hills rounding our lesson off to complete 5K I was knackered but pleased with myself for finally getting up off the couch and doing something to take back control of my life....

Stats for 2nd July 2013



 5K = Total 1hrs 11mins = 23 min mile
Repeats of 30 seconds running, Several minutes walking
Gear: Primark Trainers with Injinji socks.
 

Till the next time.................