5th July Virtually running


For the past couple of months I have been trying to follow a half marathon running program that came as part of my new all singin' all dancin' Garmin running watch. It's one that sets different runs four times a week and then offers 'feedback' as to how well things are going. Or not as the case may be...read on

It's been a fun thing to try despite not quite being what I wanted. A program designed for a trail half marathon that involved some hills would have been good but hey it's better than nothing. So its got me out and about 4 times a week, either on my own or as part of one of the local runnning groups, which is certainly more than I would normally do and has added variety to my usual pedestrian plodding pace. Amazingly on occasions the watch has even told me to slow down!!!

There have been easy runs (which have never been easy), long runs (which have never been long) speed repeats (which have not been particularly speedy) progression runs (which have seen limited progress) and various other settings.

The main issue has been that the run set for a particular day has rarely combined with how I have felt mentally of physically. whenever I have felt like getting out into the hills its been a speed day. Whenever I felt a bit drained, its been a long run thats been planned. There has been the option to reschedule prscribed runs but in the main I have tried to stick to it as best as I can.

Half way through the program I am not sure how much progress I have made. At the start, Greg, my virtual coach was ebuliant in his praise and seemed very confident that I would smash my target time for the 13 miles (not that I have a 13 mile run planned!). Now I think it's fair to say that reality has dawned and now Greg is a little less optomistic that his star pupil will be shattering any records anytime soon. 

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