I even promised myself this time that the next thing I put up on this damn website would not be about running. This isn’t a running blog and nor will it ever turn into a running blog (as much as I suspect some of you would like it to for the sake of old times).
This time, though, I’ve genuinely found that I’ve forgotten/did not write down anywhere all of the suggestions for content that I was given when I first mooted the idea of subjecting you all to this a few months ago. I promise to myself and to all of you this time that there will be some variation soon. However, you did miss out on this last week (I was the one that had to go through it so you’re the lucky ones in more ways than one), so now you can have two helpings of Dry Dry January all rolled into one.
The week you missed
I don’t think I’d got around to mentioning before this week that I’d decided to just do three lots of 5km every week rather than following an app or whatever – so that’s what I’m doing now.
I think one of my main problems with running, particularly in the fads I’ve had of it in the last couple of years, has been accepting being comfortable as an effective way of doing it. Sometimes that’s fine, for example if you’re only doing it as a means of getting out the house and getting some fresh air. This time, though, I’m actually doing it to try and get fitter and get back to the stage I was at almost six years ago.
On the Monday of this week, I’d just had my first shift at my new job – one that involves getting up at 4.30am (something I’m sure I’ll be complaining about a lot in future blogs) – and this involves being on my feet a lot and doing plenty of walking around. My phone told me I’d already walked more than 5km at work before I started this run, but I tried to ignore it and instead powered through the first 2km (pretty much all uphill) in 13-and-a-half minutes. Error.
Stumbled and suffered through the rest of it, while still setting a decent time by way of the first 2km, and as such both of my times fell behind again on Wednesday and Friday of that week.
While that’s annoying, it doesn’t actually matter – what matters is I’m getting out and doing it, and still knocking seconds off my times from the first week.
The week just passed
Hooo boy, this week was good.
Before everyone starts shouting at me, I KNOW there are much better times out there, and I KNOW there are people that don’t feel like their lungs are caving in at the end of a 5km run, but this week was even enough to make me consider stopping the self-deprecating comments.
This was the week where I decided that if this was going to be worth it and not just something I write about for a month and then give up on, then I really needed to push it – and Monday was a good start by knocking almost two minutes off what I had done the previous Friday.
I actually felt good after I had finished (sort of, anyway) and knew that, really, there were bits where I could’ve maintained a previous pace rather than slowing down.
So, that’s what I did on Wednesday, and I knocked off over another minute. And then on Friday, another 35-odd seconds.
I’m now at 32:25 as a best score for the year so far, which really is about where I wanted to be by the end of this silly experiment rather than three quarters of the way through. It also means that since the first time recorded of 38:59, I’ve now chopped off roughly seven minutes (I’ve rounded that up, obviously) in just three weeks. Madness.
The other bits
The race around Iceland is heating up.
I’ve now firmly left Reykjavik and have crossed over the first fjord onto another peninsula, close to the enormous port and industry centre named Grundartangi.
According to the map, I’m a little bit behind the pace that I should be doing given the distance and the time I’ve given myself to do it, but that should all catch up later in the year when I start doing longer distances.
It also says that my nearest competitor at the moment is a man by the name of Jason Burns. He’s 1.3km ahead of me. I’m coming, Jason.
The less said about the medicine ball the better. I know that running isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to fitness. That’s not to say it’s pointless, like many Instagram and TikTok fitness gurus will try to tell you, but supplementing it with something else is important.
I need to find something else. The medicine ball is boring.
I did feel quite annoyed with myself for missing the second day of it on the week you missed, but when it got to the next day I was meant to do it and I still didn’t have the motivation, I guessed it probably wasn’t working for me.
So, I bought one of these.
I think it’s fairly self-explanatory, but just in case – it’s all done in the press-up position, and the position of the handles changes what muscles you work.
While I haven’t had a proper go yet, I’ve done a couple of each and you can definitely feel the change on each one. I’ll start using it from next week as a replacement for the ball.
Diet-wise, I think I’m doing alright. I don’t really know as my only firm commitments with the diet side of this were with drinks, and I’ve stuck to them all so far. I haven’t really missed alcohol, which I expected, and although I’d really like a Dr Pepper at some point, I’ve not been that fussed about any of the other fizzy stuff.
The only thing I’ve found slightly difficult is fully restricting it to all water and one coffee in the morning (trust me, I would not wake up at 4.30 without one). That’s meant no squash or juice or whatever, which has been a bit meh at times when you just want something that doesn’t taste of nothing.
Overall, though, I’d say the entire experiment is going well. It’s definitely tiring (more so as I never planned to be working while I was doing this) and I would certainly say I’m stretching my comfort zones more than I’m used to.
With one more week to go, it’s time to start thinking about whether I want to do any challenges for February. If you have any ideas, tell me. I’ll do almost anything if I can write and whinge about it on a blog.
Well done for nearly getting through January. It’s been shit and the world is still a shit place, but we’re getting there. Keep going. See you again.
natgoodlad.com 