No Middle Name

I forgot to push the "clear" button before starting my run this morning, meaning that trailguru dutifully added it on to the end of Monday's run. A 6km run that took two days - not even I am that unfit. But here is where Trailguru brings out the awesome: it has a "split track" option. Which is cool in itself, but it also recognised where to split it (those two days where I was stationary must have been a give-away). I pushed the button, clicked the link, hit save and it was all done. Awesomeness.

I learnt two things in my run this morning. One: iPhone GPS doesn't seem to work when it is misty/drizzly/cloudy. This sort of makes sense to me; our satellite TV reception in the UK used to go to shit when it rained. Of course, I could be wrong. More experiments are needed. Anyway, this meant I couldn't upload my run data to trailguru and get some nice graphs. Two: running faster makes me slower. I was trying to speed up a little on this run, doing the same distance as I ran on Monday, but just a little bit faster. I must have gone a bit too fast, because I had to stop and walk after about 9 minutes, something I haven't had to do for a few weeks. To improve my speed I think I need to monitor my pace via the trailguru thing as I'm running, and make sure that I'm only increasing it slightly. Altogether this run took me about a minute longer than Monday, although without the GPS data I can't really tell how much faster I was running in the first half or how much s...

I downloaded a great little app for my iPhone: Trailguru . It uses the GPS thingy to map your run, and you can post it to their site, where it will make a map for you: round the school (Running) | VIC, Australia It also generates a load of statistics: how long you ran for, average speed, pace, etc. Very cool. The site is also a lot easier to use than MapMyRun , which I found really confusing. I tried to delete my mapmyrun account this morning, and it took ages to find the tiny little link. Clicking that link just popped up a javscript alert that said "Click on contact us page to request a removal of your account". Request a removal? Twats. Anyway. This morning I ran for 16 minutes, a distance of 2.61km at a pace of 6mins/km. I need to work on going a bit faster, I think.

Today: 5 mins running, 1 min walking, 4.5 mins running. I was puffing along like Ivor the Engine , thanks to my new breathing rhythm thing. Seems to be working, though. Knee integrity: 80% and falling, sir. Noticeable pain in the right mid-leg area. Recommend going to a non-running status until pain abates.

Today's run: 4 mins running, 1 min walking, 4 mins running, 1 min walking. I got into a little rhythm with my breathing, in time to my footsteps, and that seemed to help. Plus my ipod was out of batteries, so I wasn't subconsciously trying to match the rhythm of the music. Progress has been made. Knee integrity: 95% and holding, Captain. I get the occasional twinge, but I suspect that's just instrument noise, sir.

I'm getting a bit tubby, no -really, I am. Well, thank you, this dress is slimming, but really I am getting tubby. Current weight: 13st 4lb (or 84.4kg). Which is a bit too much; love handles, spare tyres, man-boobs, etc. So, I'm running. I can manage about 3km without needing medical assistance at the moment, in a combination of running and walking. Current combination: 3mins running, 2 mins walking and wheezing, 2 mins running, 1 min walking, 1 min running, 1 min walking, 1 min running, 1 min walking. Then I sit at home, sweating and trembling for a while until I turn a less frightening shade of purple. When I can manage to run most of the way, I'll start increasing the distance. I'm going to do this every morning that my legs aren't hurting (looks like every other morning so far). I'll record here what I manage, mostly for my own benefit so that I don't forget and then give up.