Those who remember me as a keen runner, coach and parkrun event director may have missed my blog posts, I am happy to say I am getting the running bug once again.
I have no vision of running marathons or getting up early every Saturday to get a parkrun setup, but to get fit and enjoy running once more, who knows I will be a marshal, timekeeper or even run director once more.
Thus far I have completed a parkrun (Oldham) over the Christmas break 35 mins and somewhere near the back, but happy to have got around all be it with the a few walking stints.
The run director gleefully announced "Mark Kelly is back" on the run brief, which as usual embarrassed me but was grateful for the acknowledgement, Oldham parkrun is now a huge success and the team I left in place have done a fantastic job. I managed a whole 2K before my chest needed a rest, a total lack of fitness mixed with the ability to know how to run efficiently was bizarre but kept fairly even splits and was overjoyed to get over the finishing line.
Helping me get back into running is my latest piece of tech is the Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular, wow it is the coolest gadget I have ever had. My first "smart" running watch was a Timex Ironman that I had to ship from the US many years ago. It had a block you strapped to your arm for GPS (2 x AA batteries) took ages to lock onto satellites, a chest strap for your heart rate and a small triangular data recorder to clip onto your shorts, which you plugged into you PC and downloaded the data.
Put that into context now, instant GPS data, heart rate built into watch, automatic data sync to iPhone, not need to carry phone as the watch is cellular and lastly Apple Pay if I need to buy a drink, food or even get a taxi back!
The only issue I had at parkrun was starting the watch when the event kicked off, traditionally you get your watch ready, click a physical button to start the timer, then the same button to stop... on this watch it is all touch screen. I used the Nike Running Club app which was ok at giving audio prompts at each 1k split etc but to start you get a 3 second countdown as if you a doing a training run...not starting an event or race!
I used my Bose QC35 headset to listen to music and get the audio splits, not ideal for running as they are bulky (Great sound and turned the noise cancelling down as these days I being overtaken... a lot) , so I have purchased some cheap (£16) but very good bluetooth earphones from Amazon which work great Anker SoundBuds.
So the watch has been great at reminding me to exercise and, as I sit at a desk most of the day, stand up every hour and move about.
On Friday 5th Jan I went for a lunch time run with a colleague (Steve) and we are both trying to get back into running after a break so we both struggled with fitness and niggles, in my case knee pain. The reason I had to stop running years ago was my left knee and a broken metatarsal on my left foot, at parkrun and on this run neither gave me any bother which was my main concern, however 3k in my right knee was giving me pain and I believe this to be down to my "old" trainers which were not bought with my "over pronation" in mind.
Steve convinced me to give the Strava app a try and have to say it worked well (still touch screen to start/stop timer) and synced straight to phone on return and then onto the website.
You can check out the run (walks included) here:
With this in mind I headed to Up and Running in Oldham, setup by Dave Emmanuel and Bryan Lawton of Royton Road Runners fame. Not only was it great to catch up with running friends of old but to have trust that the product I was going to buy had advice from a knowledgable person. It is often quoted and cliched that the best running salesperson is also a runner! But I cannot stress enough "An internet review or kid in a department store" is a poor choice compared to what these guys can do for you.
So I now have a pair of Saucony Guide Iso to trot around in, it has been a long time since being on a treadmill and have never enjoyed seeing my running in slow motion, my coaching hat comes on and rebukes my running style but hey we can't all be perfect.
The shoes are great and the colour is perfect, Bryan and I are Oldham Athletic fans so there can be only blue as the colour of choice.
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| Dave Emmanuel courtesy of The SaddleWorth Independent |
So tomorrow I am going to have a bimble around Royton to break the shoes in and next week I am in London all week so will be using the hotel gym before breakfast, just like days of old.
Have a good week all, keep running and remember, "Be good, but if you can't be good... be safe"
Mark
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