2015 Running Thread Part Two

[Tiredemma]

.... apologies for lack of original title

4 miles tonight

1378.35

Wow, it's cold!!!! Dh and I are off today so we left walking dogs until after school run and stayed in bed a bit longer. Walked to school and back and had a lovely walk to the country park but I'm still not warmed up!!! -4C apparently , so much milder last night at 7pm!

It is cold isn't it! 3.2 from me today, not fast. My excuses are sleep deprivation - ds has sore throat, fever, always at 3 am, and the fact that snow on top of ice is quite slippery! Managed not to fall, just!

1649.4

Cold here as well, we still have thick frost and ice so I wimped out of an.early morning run and will run tomorrow after I.have dropped madthing5 at pre school. Didn't sleep at all well, was all sneezy! Lazy morning then have extra kid after school and pta meeting tonight which I will bike to and.from.

Very impressed at those of you running in this cold!

?You're brave to go out and do it in ice and snow Emummy, I think I'll chicken out if we have any here.
I'm scared of slipping and damaging something ?

It was ok Suzanne as I wore my trail shoes for a bit more grip. Had a few hairy moments, but I just ran a bit slower. It was just nice to get out! And the forecast here is to stay pretty cold for a while, so I don't know when the ice will clear. Don't have a treadmill, so just have to head out.

oh god it will be FREEZING tonight won't it

better get every piece of kit on radiators now . . .

Was -1 at club run last night but not icy so did 6.3 miles with some of the usual group. 3 are marathon training so our usual 4.5ish miles is now a 6 or 7 mile 'recovery run' . My legs definitely hadn't recovered from the 10 mile race on Sunday so it felt like a heavy plod although we were averaging 10min miles which seems to be our 'steady' pace at the moment. Think I will use Mondays as my long run for a while as I'm not doing the 12, 14, 16 miles etc that the marathoners are going to be doing.

Could Mitchy be short for Mitchelin Man at the moment do you think? Wearing your complete running wardrobe must up the effort required and therefore allow you more cake afterwards :)

that is a good point! if I weigh myself in all my running kit and alter the information garmin currently works from will I earn more than 70-80 cals a mile (even when working quite hard, which is admittedly not very often!)?

Love that Mitchy, gaining more post run cals from the clothing weight! Must try it on my long run this week!

I thought I would share my gym humiliation with you. Not strictly running, but I go to the gym to help me run better...(tenuous I know).

Today was the first day I was intending to do the gym programme my personal trainer had given me and do some barbell deadlifts. I walked into the weights room and walked straight back out as I was totally daunted. So as it isn't the gym I work with my PT at, I found an instructor to help me find all the kit in front of all the big weight lifting men. I assumed he would be sympathetic, being the gym manager. Well only to a point. He didn't mind showing me which bar to use, and got the weights. He then pointed to the ladies gym and said I could go in there if I wasn't comfortable (I didn't want to, it doesn't have free weights, I don't mind blokes looking at my bum as I am rather proud of it from all the running .

Still with me?

He then proceeded to demonstrate the deadlift technique. Which is fair enough - health and safety, he didn't want an injured customer, except his technique was different from what I have been doing with my PT. Oh and remember this is in front of all the big guys. I told him I had learnt it slightly differently. He then grabbed another bloke over who was weight lifting champion of the world (or something similar at some point in time ) and got him to critique my technique also.

He then told me that the weights I wanted and had agreed would be part of my programme with my PT were too light and even girls who were new to lifting would use heavier ones. So instead of my feeble 2.5kg on each end, he put 5kg on.

So by this point, I had plucked up the courage to walk into a weights room, found the courage to admit I needed help to the gym manager, been publicly critiqued on my form and then I had to do all my sets because I couldn't just leg it once everything had been set up! However I was so confused by this point, I couldn't work out which technique to use and made a hash of it.

I then dismantled the weights and legged it. I finished half of my workout, so distracted and nearly in pathetic girly tears that I left early.

So lovely running buddies, give me a kick up the backside and tell me to get back to the gym on Friday and give it another go and not to be so silly and cry over something so ridiculous!

Oh actiongirl what a nightmare! Not surprised you ended up confused and unhappy. So next time you know where the stuff is, you don't need his help. You can get in and get the weights you want and do it the way you've been taught by the pt, assuming that it's a safe technique of course. Grit your teeth, March in there, and do your thing! Good luck

grrrrrrrrrrr on your behalf action I would have been in tears too, or very close to it

emummy's advice sounds great, you DO know what to do, you know how much you want to lift for any given um, lift

(I'd probably find another gym but that is not a very good solution is it)

is the gym part of a chain? is hard to imagine a complaint not being taken seriously if it is

if it's a small privately run place I would vote with my feet

Actiongirl, I've been using the weights room in the gym for 20 years or more, I have worked in spit and sawdust gyms, I know exactly what I'm doing in the gym more so that many of the blokes in there.

I still find it intimidating at times, esp when it's busy and I'm the only women, some blokes are friendly, some just stare as if they've never seen a woman before.

Some of them are a little hostile, lifting weights is their thing, it's what makes them feel masculine, if women come in and start doing it it's demeaned and can no longer be used to affirm their masculinity.
Those men are horrible bullies, 20 stone monsters picking on a woman ffs they ought to have been gentlemanly and kind they must have known how uncomfortable that made you feel

can you have a look at you tube videos for deadlift technique, were you doing sumo DL's, straight leg DL's or regular DL's?

the olympic bar is 20kg, so the difference between 5kg per side and 2.5 isnt much, were you using large discs, ie ones that put the bar up to about just over mid shin height?

3.2 from me so 1652.6

Need to try to get out more, only really managing twice a week atm. Struggle to fit it in with the horrible weather, two young children and just generally feeling a bit knackered.

I ran two point eight miles in the rain this morning! That's by far the furthest I've ever run! :o:o:o:o

actiongirl sorry to hear about your gym woes. I imagine it's just as Suzanne says - some men feel it's their little kingdom and are threatened the moment a woman walks through the door. The owner should have known better though. Not that I have ever been in a gym in my life I hasten to add.

Oh

1655.4

well done mayvis and hester :) (am handing out medals during these wintry times, it's not easy even when running is an established habit)

was just about to panic over a notice about no training tonight if temp doesn't get above freezing but luckily that only applies to the junior members, obviously nobody cares if the elderly runners end up needing replacement parts when they've slipped on the ice and broken their hips etc

Oh action soooooo angry for you - what a bunch of total knobbers

Well done Hester!

No running for me today. Quite glad planned rest day as weather has been vile!

actiongirl sorry to hear of your bad experience at the gym. Please don't let it put you off though.

Well done to today's runners. I had a FANTASTIC run along the Thames and over some of the bridges in Central London in the sunshine. So glad I made it out at lunchtime instead of waiting until the evening and going out in the dark.

4 miles, so new total 1659.4

That is horrible Actiongirl1978! I think anywhere new is intimidating and as a manager he should have known better! Dh built his gym in our garage and welcomes anyway who wants to train with him, he lifts heavy weights and it does define him to some extent but he always helps others and would have me out there with him if I'd go so being strong/regular at lifting weights is no excuse!

Sounds lovely OhOneOhTwoOhThree!

Well done cold weather runners! I've just had to go out and do some intervals as I forgot to put the timer on for the heating and it was too blinking cold to be in the house when I came in. So nice 30 min run (wearing a hoody most if the way round - it must be chilly) and back to a nice toasty front room .

actiongirl grr that makes me very annoyed on your behalf. I'm sure you'll get back in there and show them who's boss though!

ohone that sounds lovely. I want to get into central London and do some runs when the evenings get a bit brighter (I live north).

1659.4 + 2.5 = 1661.9

Hi thanks everyone. I knew I would find some moral support here!

Just to put it into a bit more context, it is a council gym which has a sister gym about 30 mins away which is the one I usually use with my PT as the DC's go to school there. However this one is closer to home so I use it for convenience.

The PT I see is a freelance, but used to work at the council gym for years and has an arrangement to use that gym for his client sessions, so he is very much part of the set up.

I have been thinking a lot about it today and honestly all I asked for was some help finding the bar and weights, why couldn't the manager have asked if I needed any more help, I would have said no and he could have left me alone!?

Suzanne thank you, I will have a look on youtube. What irritates me is I have been practicing the technique with my PT who is obsessional about form so I know I was doing it properly. It just knocks your confidence a bit! I think that the weightlifting guy was a bit about why the manager asked for his input. Mind you I probably didn't help my girly cause by wearing a lot of pink and my supershort lululemon running shorts which make me look as far away from the idea of a weightlifting person as you can get. I found everyone so dismissive. Like your idea that it threatens their masculinity! And yes, olympic bar, but I struggled to keep form and finish reps on 5kg last week so dropped it to 2.5kg which are v small and close to the ground.

Mitchy - I read your post on my phone when I was at the side of the pool with the DC's swimming, and I laughed out loud, thank you . I can't see much point in complaining as I suppose he may have thought he was being helpful, but he got so agitated about my technique that's what made me bite my lip and then it got worse from there!

Edith - thank you. I agree! To be fair it was really only the gym manager who was a condescending, blush inducing eejit, the other guys didn't really want to get involved, he dragged them into it!

Hester - well done on your nearly 5k!
Mayvis - it is really a tough time of year to get a routine going. I bet by next winter you will be able to keep going irrespective of the weather.

Everyone, do you think we can petition MNHQ for a medal smiley (great idea mitch) so that runners of all efforts and abilities can indulge in some self-congratulatory behaviour during the chilly months??

ohoneohtwoohthree that is a dream run for me. I once ran around Canary Wharf when I worked there pre dc's but I haven't had the chance to run there in 10 years.

Possibly thinking of signing up for VLM next year for that reason - to see the sights!

Lucky you