Chris Curtis Web Site

I am just back from my first run in weeks. It is the first time for ages that ice and snow, or various commitments, have let me go out to run. It was very cold and dark and my lack of running was extremely obvious, but it was good to be out there.

I realised that slow and short as it was, this was the first run of 2011, so I thought I would do a summary of my running in 2010. Not great but at least I did it.

47 runs in total, amounting to 21 hours and 12 minutes and covering 171.5km at an average pace of 7.5 mins per km. At less than one run  of about 3.5km per week this is not as much as I hoped, but only 1km less than my 2009 total (though my average pace for that year was 7:17 per km). There was no running at all in March and December, and very little in February and November so the average hides a lack of consistency with May, August and October around 30km per month or 1km per day.

Running targets for 2011 (realistic)

• average at least 1km per day so the annual total is more than 365km (more than double what I have done in the last two years.
• run at least twice every week for a total of more than 104 runs
• Achieve an average pace of less than 7:15 mins per km.
• Post new PBs for 5km and 10km

It is very difficult for me to keep running regularly. There are lots of excuses, and they are genuine, but I suffer without that regular exercise, and without the concentrated way that being out there, on your own, pushing your physical limits brings things back to utter simplicity. I do need a programme or plan to follow: it helps to keep the excuses in perspective and raises the priority of getting out there.

I am using “getrunning” on my iPhone. A pleasant sounding, but very bossy (and encouraging), woman’s voice cuts over whatever is playing to tell me when to run and when I can rest. After a long lay-off I have gone from 6 minutes of slow running to 16 minutes of reasonable running within a half-hour framework all in four weeks. Each “step up” is hard but possible and each success makes you more determined. Ten weeks should see me back to running full 5Ks and I will then need a new programme to take me on towards 10K which I want to run for real in the autumn.

It has been hard to run recently. It is dark much earlier in the evenings and this is a very busy time at work. If you miss a run or two, you feel much worse the next time you go out. It is all too easy to lose the running habit.

I decided I had to get out this afternoon and as the weather was calm and pleasant – neither too cool nor too warm – I thought I would run my old 10K route: the first time in many months. I started off gently and let myself have lots of short walk-breaks but also had some good long runs at steady pace. I ran along the pavement for 2K then up a track and through the woods until I came back roadside at about 5K to go through the industrial estate south of Gatwick airport, along a track between the railway and river, underneath the airport itself and back through quiet streets to home.

I was delighted with the run. new PBs for 1K, 1500m, 1 mile, 2K, 8K and 10K. Not threatening any records but respectable “jogger” times – just over the hour for 10K and all the distances now under 3K are at less than 5:30/km. Legs felt great (lack of running recently!) though my nose was runny and I have felt like I have a mild cold for days. Good motivator for more running.

There has been very little orienteering for a while but I have been training – during the summer vacation I have run all the way around Horley, the town where I live, using public footpaths away from roads. I did not do this in one go (four sections actually) but this was really good. Running across fields and through woodlands while doing wayfaring using an ordnance survey map has to be good orienteering training.

Fitness has been improving too. I ran my fastest ever 10km tonight which would have been even faster except that I became  lost in some woodland (I hit the wrong path and ran into the back of a row of gardens, rather than onto the lane I wanted and it took ages to fight my way back). Not an impressive time but the fastest I have ever done it, so I will still feel proud!