Time Management

Time Management
My mother had a favourite phrase “Do It Now”.

All very fine and dandy in its way but not practical. Maybe OK for those multiple multi-taskers amongst us but a recipe for displacement activity.

Working out the priorities is only part of the solution. If routine but non-urgent things are not done regularly they soon become irregular, urgent and potentially overwhelming.

Like my filing.

Newbridge Not Too Far

Managing Running Training
In theory as a retired individual I should have no problem managing my running training. In practice, like all retired folk, I have taken on too many activities to fit into my remaining time.

It is called “Old Man In A Hurry” syndrome.

Part of my problem is that I don’t understand all the technical terms used for running training. Tempo Runs, LSRs, Heart Rate training, Interval Training, Cross Training, or Fartlek. Get it from IKEA?
Or whether any of these techniques would be of any use to me.

Working to my usual KISS principle - keep it simple stupid - I have decided that what I want to do is improve both my stamina and speed - marginally - over what it is now.

Target
Having knocked 6 minutes off my half marathon time during last year I want to complete a half marathon in under 2 hours. That is another 6 minutes off. I need to be able to average 9 minute miles for the whole distance - an improvement of half a minute off every mile. An improvement of 6%. Not marginal.

Techie Techniques
The consensus appears to be that training with only long runs is not sufficient. This may help increase stamina. But issues are:-

• Boring
• Dispiriting
• Tiring - can cause injury through over-tiredness
• Does not increase speed or pace
• No competition from other runners

The view is that even for slow runners there are benefits from speed training. Sprinting between lampposts, for example. Training like this steadily builds the ability to run just a bit faster. There is then a greater margin between average race pace and “flat out” - so that at the average race pace the runner is working less hard to achieve that pace.

Bit like a big engine in a small car can be more fuel efficient than a small one.

Speed and Distance
To improve my speed I am doing the once-a-month 1 mile self-timed time trial on Runners Forum.

I am using a stretch of path between 2 bridges. The outer ends of the bridge parapets are exactly 1 mile apart. To date my fastest time is 7minutes 22 seconds. This month will be the sixth.

To maintain my distance I am also doing the 1000 miles in 2012 on Runners Forum. Allowing for holidays I reckon this will require an average of 20 miles per week. At present I am slightly behind the curve with 35 miles in the first 2 weeks of the year.

Countdown
Eight weeks to go to the Bath Half Marathon.

Time to get moo-ving.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  James 4-14.



Warm Ups and Stretches

Once I thought these were the same thing. Now, after looking at runners’ websites, forums and blogs, I know they are not.

Warm Ups

All the sites stress the importance of warming up before running. Broadly the advice seems to be walk and jog to warm up before running.

So that is what I do. My “running” is no more than a gentle jog anyway.

The beginners guide on the forum suggests a programme of alternating walk-run routines increasing the amount of running and reducing the walking each week. Alternatively your mate down the pub suggests running the distance you feel comfortable with, increasing this slightly each week.

For me, at present, the end result is much the same.


Stretches

It was an old ski buff who first taught me how to “warm up” with stretching exercises prior to flinging ourselves down the mountain. After a long ride up on an open ski lift leg muscles needed warming up - there was a real risk of injury else. Ankles and knees do unnatural things in skis. Mostly these exercises involved awkward postures grasping ski tips and they made the muscles feel the burn almost as much as when crouched in a long low shuss down the piste.

I was neither a fast skier nor an elegant one but I could overtake the train down from Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen. Newton beat Faraday that day.

Clearly these ski stretches are not practical for a runner. On the runners’ websites there is lots of stuff on stretching and how to do it - usually accompanied by pictures of attractive girls. So a bit like looking at the Business pages in the Telegraph.

Most of these sets of stretching routines take from 15 to 20 minutes to complete them all.

To me that’s Yoga not running.

The advice is not consistent. The choices are:-

1. The Do Nothing Option - no stretching 
2. Gently Does It - stretch at least once a week after a run - but not after every run 
3. Keep Regular - stretch only after a run - but for each and every run 
4. Go For It - stretch before and after every run 
5. Measured Max Out - warm up first - stop to stretch - do the run - warm down - stretch.

The accepted wisdom appears to be: 

• Stretching is a Good Thing to do - but only if you Do It Right 
• Stretching From Cold can be harmful - you should always warm up first before stretching

But now there are reports - based on recent research in Australia and the USA - that stretching is a waste of time. See USA Track and Field. 

Or worse.- one study suggested that those runners who do NOT stretch are LESS prone to injury than those who do.

One odd result was that those who changed from their usual routine were more likely to be injured than those who stayed with what they always did - irrespective of what it was. Do the researchers know what they are measuring? Maybe the ritual is of more value than the stretching!

The case FOR stretching at Dr Foot.
The case AGAINST at Paul Ingraham .

  

For me? I tried stretching yesterday. Today my run took more effort and felt harder. So guess which choice I have made.

There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics.
Benjamin Disraeli

The Forum

One of the great things about being human is the ability to communicate with others. Before doing anything new it is possible to ask advice from those who have been there, done it, got the T-shirt. If you get the running bug you can ask your mate down the pub

Or look at a Runners’ Forum on the web

Lurked a bit on the edge to find out what it was about. Read lots of advice for beginners. Signed up. Found out others shared the same misgivings as me. Stepped in to introduce myself. Mentally the equivalent of entering a crowded locker room for the first time. Fantastic welcome and support from lots of people and some more good advice, which I shall follow.

Made a bit of a hash of replying. Site thought I was no longer logged in as a member and came up with an error message. So as to be sure the post had not already gone, I waited to next day to send it again, which worked. Hope I got the etiquette right.

Don’t know if the cause is the <1Mb of our high-speed BTphoneline internet connection, the creaky old desktop, or Internet Explorer. Last time I came across this problem I used the laptop and Firefox with success.

Is this blog about running or computers?