Balancing the balance

Every website, and their subscriber, on lifestyle / fitness will at some point start to describe how to can achieve balance. I, however, can't provide a definition of my own, or a formula, or a roadmap 10 point list, to achieving balance. I can however point out some observations from my experience that might, or indeed might not, illuminate a small corner of the subject.

The first and most important observation is to me an obvious one, and one that is often overlooked in the name of compelling content or salesperson-ship... we are all different. And with that said though we can put ourselves into associations or groups that can provide direction in how best to achieve some balance... the early risers, the late night work fiends, the long slow eaters, the grazing snackers, the all day I dreamers, the all day I doers. So the art of balance starts first in identifying, well, you. What is it that makes you move and gets you started? There is little point subscribing to a fitness regimen that expounds "get your workout done before breakfast!" if you have never ever functioned well before 11am. Similarly there is perhaps little point joining a club in the evenings if you get up before everyone else and have pretty much completed your day by mid-afternoon.

So behind my punchy little blogpost title is this message... in identifying a way of balancing your life look at systems, training groups, session timetables, meal plans, team sports, etc. that fit your own physical / psychological balance, your basic make-up. Going against your own innate tendencies will only make you unhappy with your efforts, much less likely to stick with them, and ultimately further out of balance than when you started.

One final caveat is to look at your balance over time and reassess now and then. I had a whole different balance and pattern to my days during my University degree than I do now as a working, married, father of two busy kids. Balance is fluid through life's path, but try to identify patterns in order to work with them rather than in opposition to them. I absolutely can not claim to have found a perfect Zen like balance (and frankly who but a full time Zen practitioner genuinely can), but I have found things that work for me over different periods of time.

Milton Keynes Half marathon 2016 - my race review

Crickey, I just found this lurking in my drafts folder. Given that Milton Keynes 2017 is not far away I thought I had better fling this out there before I end up over a year out of date...

My race review (Monday 2nd May 2016)

General impressions -
Course: 8/10 - simple, quick, well sign-posted and marshalled. Couple of sections where the footing was a bit rough moving between road and park land paths.
Marshalling: 9/10 - great, cheery and friendly team. Though not particularly evident around the start area which seemed a little odd given the congestion.
Facilities: 8/10 - The stadium facilities are great. Though I did have to play hunt the shortest bathroom queue a couple of times, which is tricky when they are spread around the perimeter of the stands.
Organisation: 9/10 - I didn't enjoy the lack of marshalling in the start zones, but the overall experience from sign up to finish line is very well done. The team clearly benefit from the experience of becoming a calendar regular.
Crowd / support: 8/10 - always an enthusiastic and supportive crowd in Milton Keynes. Even the car drivers put out by road closures were relatively jolly, or at least that was what I told myself as I smiled and waved a "thank you" to them.
My effort: 10/10 - I could not fault my effort on the day (I could fault my pre-race training), my pacing was spot on and I was realistic about my target.

Half-marathon #11

How my run went: 

"It went really well, curbed my enthusiasm at the start, enjoyed the middle, and only really entered the hurt locker for the last 2km. Time not stellar but a good improvement on four weeks ago. The half marathon course at least was definitely an improvement on past years - only two major underpasses that I remember, and no gradients that went on long enough or were steep enough to cause much discomfort."

Small steps = many steps

Small steps are required to build anything and in my case the small increments towards getting back to running a 'good' marathon really are small. I am walking and moving a lot more than I was and feeling the benefit. In getting my day to day activity back on track I have had to make sure that I don't cram on top of it a mass of run (or any other) training sessions. It is very much that case that in the past I started a running training programme at the same time as massively increasing my daily activity levels - walking every staircase, walking to work, doing extra bits and pieces every which way leading to 'burn out'. So for now I am laying lots of small steps down in order to ensure that a training plan will have a better chance of injury free success, and it is taking patience.

Instagram photos from the last couple of productive weeks

So what are the many steps? Well in a quick list they are:

1. shedding some timber - losing unnecessary fat mass, which is going well having lost 7 lb in the last two weeks - there is no point training hard and losing weight at the same time it is too much stress on the body and in my experience that way deep fatigue and illness lie. Giving up chocolate and cheese for lent has certainly helped hugely (!).
2. walking in lieu of run sessions - building time on my feet to strengthen my musculoskeletal system gradually. Over time I will convert some to runs and mix them up.
3. joining a running group / club - I have tried out one (Maindy Harriers Running Club) and try another one tonight (Pegasus Running Club) . It looks like I'm being choosy but there are several good groups nearby and each have different pros and cons, both groups have been incredibly kind when I have approached them. This time next week I hope to have settled upon one and 'signed up'.
4. laying off my marathon ambitions to next year - I will still run one or two this year but for the fun and not for goals.
5. finding variety - backing up recent swimming classes with some semi-regular swims.
6. enjoying and not 'racing' parkrun 5k runs.
7. relaxing - giving myself permission to be flexible and not tied to a fixed programme for the time being.

Running slow... really slow

I have run a lot and I have hurt a lot this year, I started the year with some monumental ideas and a training plan that took an age to craft but then I got injured. And so goes the story for so many runners, and moreover so goes the story for me on a pretty regular basis (you won't have to click too far back in this blog for proof of that).

So 2016 sucked, it sucked real bad! No, I am not about to launch into how many idols died, or start on about geo-political shifts... it was for me at a fundamental level awful. I now weigh more than I have in years, so much so that my body is hurting from the burden, and any life / work / activity balance has gone up in smoke. Hence a New Year uber-plan that went so spectacularly wrong, and looking at it in the cool light of reflection I know exactly why - I did not go slow, so now I have to go really slow.

I started out on the plan as if I had been running decent miles already (which I hadn't), it presumed fitness would return overnight (which it didn't), it assumed that I would see issues coming and fix them before any damage was done (which I didn't). Seeing as I have read so many running books and magazines which explain frequently about returning to running, the importance of incremental adaptation, the crucial need to take accurate stock of where you are in life before you start a running program of any kind, you'd think I might have avoided this phenomenon? No!

Looking at my 'running' now I have to slow done, so much so, in fact I have to... walk. I am trying to steadily increase my very basic fitness, upping my day to day walking, stairs climbed, and better food volume choices. Happily I am enjoying walking and have taken several 'power' walks in the last week or so. The other part of this approach is not running fast, I have now completed two parkruns staying deliberately within zone 2 aerobic heart rate, reasoning that if I run fast this heavy I it won't be a case of if I get injured but when.

All of this means that this years late spring marathon will now be a stepping stone to 2018, when I hope to be firmly back on track with running and a whole lot of other things.

A toe in the water - wherein I learn to swim (again)

Four weeks ago I literally took the plunge and took up an adult swimming class after quite some period of hmm'ing and haw'ing. Now at this early point my vanity feels the need to point out that I can swim, I was blessed to have had the opportunity to learn in school and even spent what felt like an age treading water in a pair of pyjamas as a test of the ability to 'survive' falling in water fully clothed! My swimming, then and since, consists of breast-stroke and not a great deal else. Front-crawl, or freestyle swimming, was always a mystery to me and I never completed any more than 25m without having to stop have a coughing fit, put large volumes of the pool back in its proper place, and catch my breath.

So my reasons for joining a class were more about improvement, and essentially so that I could keep up with my children and wife who are all 'regulars'. My notion was that if I learned to know what I was talking about with the different strokes then I would be able to engage with and encourage the kids even more than I already do. My wife is not perhaps entirely keen as it might look like I am trying to cross into something that is very much her thing, but I have promised that once I deem myself proficient I will stop classes and use it only as an aid to my running training (my friendly neighbourhood physiotherapist keeps insisting swimming will do me the power of good - and to be fair so far it looks like he knows his stuff).

So I have been going along on Thursday evenings to the Cardiff International Pool adult swimming lessons and experiencing into a whole new exercise world. It has been hard from a point of view of base fitness particularly was in the first week I swam easily more front crawl than I have in the whole rest of my life previously. The atmosphere is great, we are all newbies together, and the coaching team are super experienced and moreover good fun. After four weeks I can't say that I love front crawl yet, but I am getting there. My biggest challenge has been explaining why I am pretty proficient at all the other strokes, though this now is a source of humour as I get gently teased about it each week.

As a new challenge it is fantastic, and I certainly see the sport from a whole new angle. Even though I have sat on the side watching my kids classes for the past three years or so it isn't the same as getting in the water and experiencing the process. Six more weeks to go in this block of lessons, and I think I will need perhaps one more block to get to where I want to be... but I guess we'll just see.

The marathon that is coming back, though not just yet...

So there was a lot of noise around the return of the Cardiff marathon next spring with an announcement by Run 4 Wales on the day of the recent Cardiff Half marathon. Over the days after there was a call for a register of interested runner which I duly signed up to, and anticipation built. Groups of runners were getting their teeth into the idea, parkrunners feverishly chatting about the route on facebook, and charity runners getting excited about a marathon on their doorstep after London marathon rejection letters began hitting postboxes.

2015 Cardiff half - Gareth James

For me it sounded brilliant as I was one of those turned down by the London marathon ballot (I am losing count of my 10+ rejections), and hoped it would be a 'no-brainer' replacement as a spring marathon... and then the news broke... not the new route, not date of the race... an announcement that unfortunately they couldn't square away the organisation of the event for 2017, but hoped to get the permissions in place for 2018. 2018 sounded all the sweeter for the suggestion that the great run series team may be involved in creating a Cardiff and Vale marathon.

I ripped up my rapidly forming plans, and I am now looking for that spring 2017 target. Beyond 13.1 miles would be great, but at the moment it is looking like more of the 'short' stuff going into 2017.

2016 despite its rollercoaster of fitness and emotional lows has been the year when I managed to complete the most half marathons in a calendar year, so perhaps I shall just stick with those and build another year around them adding in some other events. Thus, my 2017 plan is still incubating and when it is hatched I shall share it.

Post-cardiff10k blues + my biggest post-race positive

I suppose it was inevitable after enjoying a race and setting aside the poor (for me*) time that I would get around to thinking about the time. So it was that a bout of the post-race "I could do better" blues set in. It could not have gone a lot better on the day of the cardiff10k but somehow I started with the "what if"s and it was all downhill from there really.

Yes I is my second slowest recorded time for 10k but given the year I have had and the weight that I am now carrying after so many comfort eating snacks could I really beat myself up about it? Well, yes, because my body and my brain knows how it feels to go quicker (for me*).

It took a couple of days for the blues to strike so I had a goodly while to enjoy the glow of enjoying the event. What I am left with is a fresh resolve, and the very real feeling that I should not expect miracle returns to old event times.

The truth of it is that I have tried to change my running form and the I am still in the transition period (or so I tell myself). That I completed the whole 10k in mass participation crowds of enforced pace changes and avoided the inevitable possible collisions of big group running without breaking form was perhaps the biggest single take away from the run.

I have now the half marathon in two weeks two to try and build into. The main aim there will be to come away with the same big achievement - will I be able to run 22+k without falling back into heal striking?

* I know all times are relative and that speedier and slower runners alike will be cross with me unless I try to set things as far as I can in proper context.

Time, meh! Complete, yeah!

In the end I completed my seventh Cardiff 10k in good shape, and even with a reasonable negative split. The time was not special and I am really not that bothered as it was just a huge buzz to get out there running in a crowd. A time of 01:00:59 represents my second slowest recorded 10k, but I simply am not bothered. I find myself wishing that I could bottle the post-race buzz and save it for the likely dark phases of the half-marathon in under three weeks time.

Post-race 'glow'

Five runs in a week while on holiday - well not quite!

I am well versed now in the ways of holiday running, packing the kit, making sure my running shoes are included along with run watch, hat (!!), bright clothes, and snood (mostly for carrying and wiping sweat away with rather than wearing as a warming device). So this holiday I was absolutely ready, and then it seemed so was the rest of the family which was an interesting twist. Our two kids wanted to join in and come for runs too.

Although I hadn't managed to Google Earth the place out fully to find routes, the area looked like it might produce some good loop runs and when we were driving in it certainly looked better than I'd hoped... so did I run five times in a week? Well yes, and no... I did three of my own (one longer, two shorter) and then there were two extra ones each with a different offspring along for the journey. The two accompanied runs were frankly just brilliant fun, non-stop chatterboxes all the way around a simple yet varied 2k loop. So varied was the loop it included pumpkins, sheep, goats, friendly sheep dogs, lovely ponds, and rather fabulously no cars.

Run on holiday - a change is as good as a rest!

That wasn't meant to be a fartlek - and other worries about changes

I went out on Tuesday night for a run that was supposed to be another heart rate running experiment. 7.3km later and I completed what could best be called a fartlek run, with some hefty pace variations and not a stick of heart rate running (except for looking at it occasionally on my watch and cringing). Actually I enjoyed myself, and finished the session with a smile on my face. During the past run sit down and run watch upload I reflected that I have some hard thinking to do before the Cardiff half marathon.

Basically having made a foot placement switch off of my heels, and changing shoes for once and for all, I am firmly in an in-between state where I could happily run a 5k or 10k this way but have no idea how a 21k would look. I would like to run the distance and find out but I know that that way madness lies. Whereas I was not patient with the heart rate running this week I am going to have to be with my half marathon progress - only finding out if I can do it in low profile shoes, on my midfoot, running with a different running form on the actual day. I am more than a little bit scared of the challenge, as realistically I need at least another 12 months or more to work through the changes and make them a comfortable 'default' setting.

The event in 6 weeks or so is rapidly looking like an day out running rather than an attempt at any sort of time.

Watch out - he's got all the gear!

I liked the way the salesperson in the shop said "this GPS watch is for runners who want to take their training to the next level" in a way that at the same time seemed to imply "ha ha ha, all the gear no idea, eh?". The comment followed on from "have you had a look and compared this to other GPS watches"... really I do walk into shops and on a whim buy an expensive GPS device for the sake of it?!?!

Truth be told my current watch is old now, the strap is coming adrift, the battery is going, the charging / computer connecting rig was always a pain, it doesn't seem to want to find a satellite unless it is charged to the brim (and even then only managing a signal about half the time), and I have been thinking about a replacement for at least the last 18 months.

It be fair the salesperson was probably just going through a thorough sales room checklist so that sometime later I don't come back to the shop or write a review to the effect "bought this watch, it's over priced, and I don't know what half of it does!", in other words risking me saying that I wasted my money in their shop. Happily in the end all the salesperson really succeeded in doing was make me more keen to get it out of the box and try it on a run.

I'm only sensitive because once in a race start pen another runner turned and said "blimey, you sure you've got enough stuff!". They probably had a point but I am hardly a speedy runner I am normally out there a long time so being prepared for eating nutrition I know won't make me throw up, prepared to phone my family to let them know I've stopped or am walking, or simply needing something to wipe the copious quantity of salt build up from my face, are all things that either actually or psychological help me. Over recent times I have rationalised my kit a bit as I learn more and more about what gets me around a course the best but having a watch that works, that I'm happier won't switch off around a long run, that gives me tonnes of useful feedback - that will do for me thanks.

One down, around 28 to go

Run one of the plan was logged on Tuesday, it was a slow walk / run affair underscoring my current lack of fitness. I enjoyed it, I tried to focus on relaxed flow, and finishing in a state that would not generate a huge recovery burden. All in all I was quite pleased with my 5km, and I am now a little more up beat about the roughly 28 or so workouts / runs to come in the 10 week plan.

10 weeks to go

So I got an email in my inbox this morning that is essentially from myself - it is from a training plan I started with Strava weeks ago for the Cardiff Half marathon this autumn. The email tells me that I have 10 weeks until the race and that I have a 10 week training block to follow... given I have been running so sporadically and have been laid up with a viral throat infection for the best part of 2 weeks my initial thought was "Ah!!?!?". On second thought I mused "Well maybe this will get me back on track?". I have ditched my initial reaction, although they are often accurate, and gone with the more optimistic one.

The best part is the email told me that day one of training is a... rest day! So I am throwing myself absolutely whole heartedly into day one, and not training... that is one day ticked off as 'complete' 70-odd days to go :-)

3 runs in 5 days!

You might well wonder what is going on when I report that I have run 3 times in the last five days given my recent terrible posts of fitness woes. Well firstly it wasn't planned, secondly they weren't very long, and thirdly they hardly mark a complete 'return to form'. Of course I am very happy to reflect on three runs and look to build from here. In fact there are now 13 weeks until my autumn 'target' race and so I have 3 weeks until I have a crack at a 10 week Strava training plan. I have my fingers crossed as the last three runs have demonstrated some areas of weakness...

• lack of strength - stride length / running action is awful - my calves have been complaining a lot
• I am way way way too heavy - well, yes, we knew this a few weeks back
• I can't run in my 'old' shoes (they cause almost instance knee pain) and I can't complete the distance in my 'new' lighter shoes (they don't support me as fatigue sets in) - gait analysis and another set of shoes is required
• there will be a need to actually follow advice and follow the plan properly for a change and not think I know better
• realistic goal setting will be critical to my enjoyment not only of the training but of the event itself
• regular parkrun events with my kids will be useful in making sure I don't do too much tempo work (I have a habit of attacking parkrun like a race and wrecking myself for the rest of the training week)

... I will do my best to let you know how this all goes!

Another round the park run

I got myself out for a run last night even though it felt like I had so many other things to do that I shouldn't. It was a very necessary run as I have spent the entire week reflecting on the fact that I the most out of 'shape' I have been in years*. If I had not run the pattern of avoiding the problem might just have carried on festering. Much though I wanted to go out and run fast, hard and angry to tackle the stress with a physical blow out I managed to reign myself in and run with slow measured control - so I wouldn't spend the next few days a broken mess unable to train again (suffering heavy DOMS, sore feet, sore tendons and so on).

The run itself was short, 4.6 km, and in the end pretty sweet. My head was all over the place attention wise but weirdly my body found a good groove in spite of myself. The weather was cooler, as we've been having some over due rain (yep, even in Wales rain can be overdue!), so it was really comfortable to run in. Running was kept to the path, and not the grass, thanks to the fact the uppers on my trainers are a loose weave teabag fabric that says "hey water come on in lets party!!". Fears that my feet would not thank me for running on the hard stuff were unfounded (or at least have been so far - I can walk this morning).

Sticking to MAF-like (see my post from earlier in the week) pace is definitely the way forwards until I can crack my recent unfit habits. It is ultimately fabulous to finish a run session and feel like your body could easily go again - even if time pressures might not let you. This morning, for example, there is a small chance I might even get out for a run again :-)

Ps. seems I am once again chasing the title of "best blogpost title of the year" - I will let you know how I get on in the voting!?!?

* my trousers are too tight, my t-shirts and shirts are 'fitting' in ways that leave me very self-conscious, my waist is doing its very very best impression of middle-aged spread, the stairs in work are not a comfortable climb, my body fat percentage is a number heading in the wrong direction - reasons to find the time to run I think most would agree.

Base! How slow can you go?

Right I am having to build this thing from the ground upwards, I am getting injured to often (I'm probably still carrying one with my last knee issue), I am way too heavy (for me), and training for events has just become a lottery (will I 'lose' my entry fee or not, will I be able to complete the training or not).

I ran for the first time in five and a half weeks the other day, I ran on grass, and I ran very slowly. Basically I opted to base train and thus keep my heart rate somewhere near what would appear to be my MAF (I have just started reading all things - maximum aerobic function). Afterwards my knee was not happy, so it will have to a slow phasing in of the slow running, and likely a trip to the physiotherapists office if I see no 'strengthening' or absence of niggles going forwards.

The joy of my second slow run (also on grass) was that it was a much better story for my legs, with no lingering twinges or aches afterwards. However, the actual heart rate part was a mess, I couldn't find a rhythm and so it was run / walk all the way with no sustaining of the run phases for very long at all. It was a sunnier day so may be that didn't help, perhaps I was stressing more about finding the sweet spot of running a good while at MAF, what it was I was frustrated. That said I am more determined to explore this stuff and carefully build a progressive aerobic base... I have a lot of reading to do.

Struggling to turn around

After turning a few too many degrees in the wrong direction I am trying to get back into the 180degree turn groove. I am literally starting out at first principles, by doing what my blog title tells me and getting Andy on the move. Keeping things outside of training plans, eating plans, and just sticking to simply doing more in my day. So far in the last few days according to my fitness tracker I have covered (mostly walking) 16.8km, 18.67km, 13.5km, and 17.1km.

It is essentially the thing that you will always read in the fitness magazines, tweets, etc. - "move more", "get off the bus one stop early", "take the stairs", or some similar sentiment. I won't be able to get back to my running without first getting on with the simple simple process of sorting out these small things. Through this simplest of first steps I hope to get the snowball rolling down the hillside to generate the unstoppable giant snow boulder that I hope my next phase of my running / fitness journey will be.

It is not going well

I would like to report great feats of fitness endeavour, and of striding towards my target180 challenge... ah, no. Knee injury post-half marathon is lingering, back issue grumbling, and I seem incapable of sensible eating at the moment. There is not a lot else to add, except I am trying to work out how to break the funk and get the ever expanding wagon back on the road.

At this point I am just looking to keep things simple, win a few small fights and then get back into running and target180. I made a good start a few weeks back I need now to reboot and get back at it.

Last week - 'recovery' after a half marathon

I can't say that I have worked out the best way to get over running a half marathon, and last week I tried something different. After running hard on Monday at the Milton Keynes half marathon, and beating my time from a month ago by almost 4 minutes, I opted to keep moving. Not running, but by walking rather than simply putting my feet up. At first it seemed to be working, but then my body let me know what it thought of the plan.

Through last week I began experiencing what I hope is runners knee and nothing more serious. Certainly my symptoms fit and my activities, before the pain and weakness in the joint definitely look like prime causes. After weeks of no running with my back problem I ran the Cardiff half because of an emotional need, and then found I could do some training afterwards, and then I ran another half... too much load to quickly on a body that during my back injury went about expanding in all the wrong ways.

Too much, too soon, well I have never done that before! Generally last week went well, knee aside, and this week whilst trying to curb my enthusiasm I'll be mixing good rest with a couple of sessions (though perhaps cross training and not running).

Target180 weekly sum-up: a week of good progress

So I went and declared much of my intention in my last post around turning my fitness around in roughly six months, and now I am going about working on some of the key elements.

So this week just gone I have been busy racking up as much walking as I could without taking time out of other things. Walking into work one day, taking my lunch out to the park and walking a couple of laps, not taking the lift using the stairs, walking to a meeting across town rather than ordering a taxi - all of which have felt great and haven't left me overly tired.

The bullet-point for the week summary runs something like :-

• everyday this week I crashed through the 10,000 steps mark, topping out at 20,868 one day.
• ran on Tuesday (5km) and Thursday (8.3km)
• ran at a better pace than I have in months in both run sessions
• dropped another 1.5lb of body mass
• my trousers are definitively looser and my back is feeling much better
• generally noting that my face looks less puffy and bloated - even got a complement from Mrs.H. that I was looking better (!! heheh)
• made some great choices around food without feeling that I was depriving myself

So basically without following any of the many many regimes listed on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diets (really there is such a page and such a list), I have eaten sensibly without changing the nature of the food, and moved more. Holy-moly I think I may have hit upon a genius new diet fad system... ah no, wait... "eat less, move more" I've definitely heard that somewhere before.

Fabulous dinner earlier this week - Honey mustard chicken thighs with spinach and peas (something from a BBC Good Food recipe I think)

The next measure of 'progress', or moreover my current fitness, is the Milton Keynes half marathon on Monday. I am really looking forward to it even though my race pack was lost in the post and I have to go to the trouble of queueing for a replacement on the morning of the race (the race pack and number arrived at the eleventh hour, so I'm all kitted up and ready to go). I have a huge soft spot for the town, and the event as it where I ran my first ever marathon four years ago (time flies). We are travelling as a posse and if the weather plays ball a good time will be had by all - I don't mind rain while I run, the family stood watching tend to have a much clearer preference for the dry.

Just have to remember Monday is a half-marathon and not one of these :-)

Pacing wise I have to be careful not to let my head lead the way, and listen to my body instead. The 'plan' is to go out close to my average pace for the Cardiff Half, where I blew up in the last quarter of the course, and take this run more conservatively. The people around the course in Milton Keynes are usually fantastic so I hope to enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy the process of running a half marathon with no pressure or anxiety.

Have a good running weekend and I hope your projects and targets are going well.