My first run of the couch to 5k was 20 minutes of intervals. 20 minutes 3 times a week. It all started with 20 minutes, 6 weeks in I ran my first 20 minutes solid block of running.
My first 5k run took about 34 minutes, today I ran 5k in 23:16. This got me thinking about what can be achieved in 10 minutes.
10 minutes with the kids is priceless, 10 minutes at work can seem like a lifetime, 10 minutes can be 2k's of running time or 10 minutes in a marathon can seem like 2 lifetimes.
This blog post has taken weeks to write due to insane work load and a very active home life.
Since starting this post I have developed a new issue. My running mojo has taken a hit, I have health problems and it all seems to be stress related.
For the last 2 weeks I have been performing the tasks of 2-3 people, things like this just happen in IT from time to time and it comes with the territory but this time I haven't done so well coping with the stress. After 2 weeks of long days, no breaks and worst of all mo lunchtime runs I was about ready to collapse. I set myself up for a 28k run on a Sunday, arranged for the wife and kids to meet me at the end and drive me back to the car, all was good.
5ks in I felt sluggish, I just felt like it was way harder than it should be at this point. I persevered and by 17k just knew something was not right. I called my ever understanding wife and arranged to cut my run short. It went from being a 28k to a 19.5k. That was ok by me as I had come to terms with cutting it short from the first k.
The wife and kids met me at a playground where we had a play for a bit. While there I had the first symptoms of a migraine, flashy lights in my vision. At this point I ushered everyone into the car, as I knew what came next.
I got home and collapsed on the bed, covered my head with a pillow and rode the waves of pain that would not abate for anything. I had to drag myself into the shower before I could get into bed proper because 20k of sweat, dust and grime has no home in our bed.
Showered and cleansed, but still wanting to die because of the pain I crawled into bed, and there I stayed for 4 hours after which I felt ok, my brain felt bruised but the majority of the pain was gone.
Monday, I didn't feel too bad, still brain bruised, but not too bad. (brain bruising is how I describe when there is no pain except when you cough or move quickly)
Tuesday saw the return of my headache, this was not so much like a migraine, more like a nasty headache, but I decided to run, and see if that helped. A strange thing happened on my run, I started seeing flashy lights in the periphery of my field of view, the colleague I was running with became invisible as he ran next to me. This lasted for the last 2k of my run and fir about 20 minutes after. Then my headache got angry with me, so I smacked it with some panadene, and all was well.
Wednesday I decided to try and sleep it off. Things weren't going too bad until I got stressed about a trivial matter and then the flashy peripheral vision came back. I slept for a couple of hours and was ok again.
Apart from some short periods of headache, and brain bruising I seem to be ok now. I haven't run since last Tuesday, and I plan to run today with some colleagues incase something happens.
The worst bit is that I'm scared to run, I'm worried about what this means to my marathon preparation and to general wellbeing.
When you drop a lot of weight, and become active something in your psyche tells you that you have become invincible, You see people around you getting sick and your enhanced runner immune system shakes off all but the worst if what's going around.
Then you get sick, and it scares the crap out of you that running might make it worse, and not running might make it worse, all you can see is things getting worse so it's hard to get back on the horse, but you do it all the same.
