Giving up the booze

Well done Sinbad - that's a good decision to have made, stick with it.  Proper friends will support you and not expect you to drink   You can always combine having a meal with your friend and his choice of venue.  

Hi Cinders, yep just been busy busy busy as usual.  Lots of running though, a pace training run on Tuesday - we had to run for 9 mins easy then try to get back to the start in the same time or less - but it was uphill going back, then run 9 mins back again and try to get to the same point - truly knackering!  Yesterday I did 6.5 miles with 2 ladies from the club and walked 3 miles to and from school.  I decided to have an extra rest day today 

If you think I'm nuts with my raw food and running take a look at this   http://www.runningrawaroundaustralia.com/index.html

Morning everyone   Well done Sinbad, you're doing great and should be proud of yourself.  What sort of places does your friend like to go to?

Lots of running there SL!  I did a 'see how far I could go before something hurt' run on Monday - managed 14 minutes - and then did a run 8, walk 2 one on Wednesday but had to quit part way through the third set as I hadn't planned my route very well and my knee became agony when I had to go up a small hill.  Pennance was having to walk the rest of the way home with it chucking it down!!

Not good about the cough Cinders, hope you all feel better soon

Tried out the boxing club on Tuesday night and loved it!   Hard work as we did a warm up, skipping, learning left jab and right defence, punch bag work, then some fitness stuff like we'd do at circuits, then a cool down.  Was 1.5 hours and we worked hard for all of it!  My friend and I were having problems a bit co-ordinating our left and right when learning the punches so he gave up one red glove (punch) and one black one (defend) although we still couldn't get co-ordinated!   We are going back next week though and am calling a place today about ordering our own gloves, the ones the club owns are a bit old I think and made my hands stinky for ages   Am looking at some nice girlie pink ones!!

Lots of house stuff to do over the weekend as my friends are coming on 1st for my little celebration run.  Have ordered the medals and they are being engraved so hope that will be a nice surprise for them

Hi All,

Thanks for the well dones. He likes places with real ale, and wants to start wandering away from the town centre pubs, I think were both bored withthe town pubs.He works in the local wetherspoons, and he gets 10% staff discount, so will probable start there, and work our way outwards from there on in, he's a real ale drinker, so will be interesting to see what happens.

SL that sounds like some tough training your doing there, keep at it .

TST the boxing thing sounds tough, they have it at my lesuire centre, but I'm too nervous to go, I'm not very good at fitting into groups.

Cinders hop you slept well.

I tried a little experiment this week. I spent 3 days without the tv on for. I got up and did things and 3 runs, then three days with tv on all the time. I found that I got a hell of a lot more done without the tv on.

As you do more training, and stopping drinking did and do you all find that your body does not know which way to jump? by that I mean is it tired through training or is it because of cutting down on the beer? Or a mixture of the 2?

Hope your ok. And that my many questions are not too much?

It's not the sort of boxing class you'd do at a leisure centre Sinbad, this is proper boxing, in a boxing ring!  Well, not in a ring yet as we have to learn how to do it properly first, it's very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.  You don't need to fit into a group as you are either doing stuff on your own or you're paired up to learn how to punch and defend, but that was only for about 20 minutes of the 1.5 hour session.  I've ordered my gloves today, they'll be coming on Wednesday just before our next session.  Going to see if Mr TST will come and take some photos of me in the ring wearing them with my bunny ears on.  Should make a good shot and it's about time for a change Cycle Gym Bunny

I didn't find I was ever tired through stopping drinking as such, but I was tired from eating too much crappy food as a substitute for the drink.  I also didn't increase my training, in fact I backed right off and did naff all for about 6 weeks after I quit so I can't answer if that might be making you tired.  You may be feeling tired if you've increased your training, but it could also be because you don't sleep properly when drinking so your body may be trying to catch up on some of it.  Try listening to what your body is telling you, if you genuinely feel tired then don't train and go to bed earlier as recovery is as important as actually training.

Hello all,

Running has been going steadily this week. I managed 31 miles last week and i'm up to 23 this week, with another 10 ish planned at the weekend, including a parkrun tomorrow morning, in which I hope to smash my PB (let's see how cocky I am on the starting line in the pouring rain tomorrow morning).

The boozing has been gradually declining too, which is good, as i've felt a bit more tired as my weekly mileage has been gradually, slowly increasing, so I can do without the compound effect of a hangover too. As i'm a bit of a statto, I record (amongst other things) the amount of alcohol, in units (rounded up/down to nearest whole number, I'm not a freak ) in my running log. I can see that in July i sunk 89 units, Aug 106, Sept 114, Oct 108, and so far in Nov just 38 units, so assuming I don't go hell for leather between now and next week I'll have my lowest monthly alc intake since the summer, which is my aim, just to reduce the frequency and amount i'm drinking to something more manageable alongside my running, rather than to give it up completely - even if that is the name of this thread

I am however planning to do my long run tomorrow afternoon, so that I can have a drink at the poker night around my mate's tomorrow. I will probably have 3-4 beers as we're playing, so nothing too heavy I hope, as I'd like to have a nice day with the missus on Sunday (she works shifts as a nurse, and is working all day Saturday, and we'll often go ages without spending a full day together, so looking forward to it).

Hi All,

Thanks for that TST.

I'm impressed with the boxing. Hope it continuess to go well.

In time I hope to get back into the gym.

AG sounds like its up and down at the moment, I'm sure you will reach your target at some stage.

Nearly forgot. Its my 5k fun run in the morning. I'm nearly positive that its just a park run that has been turned into a MoRun event for mens health (postrate cancer.

I'm sure I will come last as my PB is 43 mins for 5k. But we all start from somewhere.

Good luck for your run tomorrow Sinbad - enjoy it 

Boxing sounds awesome TST, wish I had more hours in the day to be able to do that too 

Great running AG and even better booze stats - looks like you're on for a record month 

Cinders - the couple are in their 60's - how awesome are they 

I've got a busy day tomorrow - I'll be at the market around 7am, straight off for a 12 mile run afterwards.  I've got to go to a 'baby shower' in the afternoon and haven't got a pressie yet.  I'm not sure if I'm supposed to get something for the baby or the mum .  At some point I've got to pick up another carpet for the allotment from the other side of town - I think I'll sleep well tomorrow night   I was going to do another 12 on Sunday but I'm going to do another cross country with the club, its a Kent  Fitness League race so it all adds points to the team effort - however slow I am   I really want to do it as it's in Oxleas Woods which are the woods I used to play in as a kid.  I grew up just down the road from there and spent all the school holidays playing in the woods with our mates - back in the days when we were kicked out in the morning and came back when we wanted feeding, those were the days   The hill I'll have to run up on sunday is the one I used to sledge down in the winter on the sledge my dad made from an old coffee table - lots of memories.........

Hi All,

SL that sounds like a great trip down memory lane, when kids could go out  and run wild.

I've been in about an hour or so, I left at just after 7am. I could have done the 10k as I walked half of it back to the train station, then standing on train then walking about another quature of a mile to my mums.

Question, when your looking at your Garmin stats, do you take your elapsed  time, as you true time or your actual moving time?

The course was hillier than my route with twisting roads going up a steady hill climb. I'm a little frustrated as although I broke my best 1k time, and subsequent best mile (I'm under 10 mins now), I could have broke my 5k record, but I listened to my body, instead of my brain the last quater of a kilometer.

At least I can start with proper marathon training now, so I can start doing 4.5 miles next week, then increase it by a mile each week (Hal Higdon), with shorter miles during the week.

Hope your all okay.

Well done sinbad

Hi  All,

Thanks Cinders.

I'm just going to have to be more disciplined with training, and increase mileage according to Hl Higdon, and do a mixture of walking and runniing to increase actual moving time.

Well done everyone lots going on here!  Mental note to self - be sure not to upset TST as she could inflict pain!

No running for me since last Saturday - work has been so manic that I've been using it as an excuse not to run when I get home - really don't like running in the dark.  My knee will probably feel better for the rest anyway.  Swam 22 lengths last Sunday (am increasing it by 2 lengths per week).  No run this morning - had a lie in as I spent the evening with Robbie Williams at the 02 last night (ok along with thousands of others)  AMAZING!

Hi All,

Lol with trigger2. It sounds like the swimming is doing you good, and improving overall fitness.

Is it me, or is it when you run somewhere totally new, that it's hard to pace oneself?

I found myself walking even when I was able to jog a little more than 3o seconds walk 30 seconds? It's driving me nuts, as i don't know whether I'm improving or just not pushing myself enough.

Hi All,

I know most of you drive, It's a privalage to. I still don't drive yet, as part of difficulty is spatial awareness.

But I have a moan. Was on a two mile jog (3.39k acocording to Garmin), on way back, a car diliberatly went though a huge pubble built up on the road extremly fast, completly showering me  from head to foot. . I was not amused.

I know you won't do it in here, but it makes me angry. Sorry, I had waited till the rain had stopped before I went for run an all lol 

It's an offence to soak a pedestrian if it was an intended drive through the puddle sinbad. 

I've had it done to me too

Still coughing so no running

Evening all.  I didn't get out for any run today - I overslept and had a headache when I woke up so turned over and went back to sleep.   Must've needed it

That was a rotten of the driver Sinbad but I reckon it's happened to all of us - just remember 'what goes around comes around'  I'm a great believer in karma 

well done on your race Sinbad. I did a parkrun on saturday too, which i am made up with. I was late leaving the house, and ended up running the mile to the park, and getting there just as the gun went off (well, just as the bloke said "go"). i scraped a PB though, so I was pretty pleased with myself. Then i had an 8mile warm down run. Very slowly, through the sodden streets of south London.

Sinbad, I know what you mean about moving time versus elapsed time. I find it pretty frustrating when I'm out for a run and I'm waiting at 4 or 5 sets of traffic lights for 20-30 seconds at a time. Not only does it reduce my overall pace, but the stop/starting breaks up my rhythm. Unfortunately, it's hard to go for a run more than about 20 mins without having to cross a few roads, so I just soak it up. I used to deduct the "waiting time" from my overall times, but I found that gave me a false sense of what my pace was, so when i came to a race day i was slower over the same distances, because I'd not accounted for these mini "rest breaks" I kept giving myself in training. so, my suggestion is just to accept that you might need to stop or walk at times but take the elapsed time to work out your pace etc.

also, i won a few quid on Saturday at the poker. It paid for the booze (4 beers) and the pizza, so I broke even i guess

Afternoon everyone

Well done on your race Sinbad   I've always just counted the time I was going from start to finish of my run/race as my time.  Must admit it's never occured to me to deduct any time I may have spent waiting to cross a road, level crossing or stopping to do up shoe laces etc.  As AG says it gives you false sense of what your time is if you deduct time from your overall time.  Which marathon are you training for?

Looks like those of you who are running are doing really well and those who are recovering from stuff are getting there slowly.  Could you swim or something Cinders while you can't run?

I managed 3.5 miles on Saturday and did a tad under 3 this morning in the pouring rain!  Both times my knee hurt so I'm not impressed, and it's hurt during the day aftewards too.  I tried run 8, walk 2 on Saturday and thought that might be too much, so tried run 6m, walk 2 this morning and still had problems.  Was really hoping to go to running club this week, but doesn't look like that's going to happen now, although I may see what the session is and go for part of it while Mr TST goes shopping.  Starting to get anxious about it now as there's not long before I'm going to really need to start increasing the mileage and I'm seriously worried about hurting myself.   #

trigger2 wrote (see)

Mental note to self - be sure not to upset TST as she could inflict pain!

  Thats made me laugh!  Don't think you have to worry about me inflicting pain on anyone for a while!!

Oh, and well done on winning AG, always good to come away either having broken even or up a bit!

Well done on the pb and the win AG

Must admit that if I'm out with the club I've seen peeps stopping their garmins at junctions whilst waiting for others to catch up.

Take it easy TST, don't do too much in case things flare back up.

Was going to swim yesterday but was just too tired, it's the missing out on sleep at night more than the blinking cough.  Won't do the Thanet 10 miler this weekend though, not a good idea.  So next run will be Brighton half in Feb