h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

#2 to be specific.

She's volunteered to do a sponsored on 29th May. It's up to 20 laps of a 400m track. She rather blithely said "oh, I'll do 20 laps" when I asked her how many she thought, so I could work out how much to sponsor her by.

Being someone who runs - although I'm by no means a runner - fairly regularly, I knew that this would involve some fast talking on my part, because she is going to have to go out at least a few times between now and 29th.

So I finally got her out tonight. Me, her and with #1 on her bike as our coach. And as I expected after 150m she was having a minor tantrum because she started to get breathless and a bit of a stitch. Managed to keep her walking (waving and #1 off into the distance) and gave her a fixed point 20m further on where we would start running again.

And she groaned and grumbled for about another 50m... so we did the same thing, again. Until she had a complete tantrum. And I'm afraid I went all Army on her, and gave her the "you have to look at the target not the journey, don't just give up - it's what people expect..."

I felt mean but... she got so mad at me "I'll show you who's a quitter" that she then ran a little over 1km, perfectly happily, all the way back home.

And said "wow, that was for that last bit no aches and pains..."

I'd been showing her how to breathe in and out with her paces (I do 2 in 2 out - other people have a differnt rhythm) and to pick a point about 20-30m ahead as the next target... we even managed a 15m sprint finish.

And now she's planning her next run, on Monday.

So the trick now is to make sure that either or I (and her sister) get her out on Monday. Not sure about me though, since I plan a Monday lunchtime session beasting myself round the fitness studio.

But still: wooo hoooooo!

There must be something in the air, Nod and Sic went out for a run at 7am this morning. No idea what brought that on.

Mol

blimey! I never run that early unless I'm getting paid for it!

I don't think I'd run even if I am paid! May be it's because I never got a run-education, like the one you provided Sho!

hehe - run education! I like it.

Actually it's just a last chance for me to shout at someone while we're running. One of the things I miss from my Army days

Have you considered becoming a teacher? Then you can shout at people all day if you like

the best thing about the Army was I could shoot the REALLY annoying ones!
(that's a joke)

We went out again today - man oh man she is a whinger though. Driving me mad. I KNOW running hurts and sucks when you've just started - been there, and I KNOW it seems like nobody understands just how much your lungs/chest/side/feet/knees hurt.

But running... a lot of the time it does hurt - but most of the time it's just fantastic. But you have to work at it.

So will we be seeing you guys at the next Brocken Challenge then? --> http://www.brocken-challenge.de/

Y.

oh you're a comedienne!!! I only run here because it's flat - I gave up things like fell-running and hill-running when I left the army.

However, now my is back in training, I might show him that.

Although I must admit it does look like fun.

What I'd really like to train for is this: *warning: it's a w*k* link*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biel

(btw - would you mind if I added you to my friends list?)

corrections - comedian

and you ARE already there...
brain aches
(and what I wanted to say is: how the devil are you??)

As long as you are not thinking "who the hell are you"

Well, about the "how the hell" part, I will refer you to my journal, which now I realize I will have to update so there is something to refer you to... Will do that by - well, let's just say I will do that eventually

And just to ease any concerns you might have: No, I have not yet participated in said challenge. Nor will I next year. But who knows... So far, my goal is to be running regularly. Half the marathon distance seems doable right now. Emphasis on seems, though. I might be at Brocken Challenge next year - providing drinks and blanket to participants, that is. The Lady of the Mice did that this year and was thrilled about the runners. The runners were also thrilled about the Lady (who wouldn't be?), but maybe this was also caused by the runners' not knowing whether the drink station the Lady ran would actually exist. Seeing that this station was set up right after the "Entsafter" stretch of the run (the Entsafter starts right after kilometer 42 - which is the first marathon distance! - and consists of about 20 kilometers of running uphill with no interruption - hence the name), their happiness to find the drink station manned is more than understandable.

Y.

20km uphill with no rest station

I did support for when he did the 100km round Biel and that was a lot of fun. We'll see how he gets on with his training!