I started out able to do around 30 seconds of full push-ups before having to drop to my knees to the modified version - and I was unable to get myself up in a sit-up without having my feet held. The 30 second plank I felt was no massive issue - hence using that as a starting point, and in fact immediately after doing push-ups I rapidly realised it did prove to be more of a challenge anyway! MrEH suggested that I worked on the sit-ups using my arms in a sort of pendulum movement to help me swing myself up and forwards - and initially this idea worked very well - until I started suffering from some lower back pain. A bit of scrutiny revealed that I was pulling myself up unevenly probably due to an imbalance in my core, and further investigation also showed that the hamstring in my right leg is a lot tighter than the one in my left - the two things are almost certainly combining to cause the back pain. When I made the connection between the sit-ups and the pain I stepped back to doing them with my feet lightly held instead, but focusing on the form and on ensuring that I kept the motion even. The push-ups weren't without their issues either - upper body strength is incredibly difficult to build up and I found trying to increase these a real challenge. Added to that I had underestimated the effect of doing them every day on a rather weak and prone to strains right wrist - sure enough by 20 days in it had begun to get quite sore, and for a few days towards the end I had to substitute a minute of squats for the push-ups (Not entirely a fail, as until recently I couldn't do squats either!). On the final day of the month though I did indeed manage - just - a minute of full push-ups which felt like a real triumph - just to realise I could do that! The plank built steadily up over the month to the full minute too - and I then started March by doing a 2 minute one at the Gym on Thursday night! I missed just one day - at the start of the final week when I was struggling with health stuff generally and just completely and utterly forgot about the challenge until the following day - and I'm kicking myself about that! I guess technically I shouldn't call it a success regardless - but I am, as in spite of missing the day I did get there with the full minute of both push-ups and plank, and the sit-ups albeit with feet held. I can see a distinct difference in my body shape as a result of the month and feel stronger through my arms and shoulders too.
Another challenge for me this month was to run a "proper" 5k - and before anyone gets affronted and feels as though I'm somehow slighting parkrun, I'm really not - but I did want to do an "entered ahead of time and paid for race with a blingy medal at the end" too. Yeah, cheap I know, but there you go! When I first realised I could actually run a full 5k I decided there and then that at some stage I wanted to run at the Olympic Park - and a bit of Googling revealed a company called RunthroughUK who put on events all across London - they have a winter race series called "Chase the Moon" which happen on Wednesday evenings at the Queen Elizabeth Park once a month through the winter - so I took a deep breath and entered the one on February 14th. The idea of entering something like that simply wouldn't have occurred to me up until a few months ago - I would have convinced myself that it was for "proper" runners, not people like me, but I've done a lot of learning recently - in part from "proper runners" and the one thing that I've kept being told is that if you run, you are a runner - and that's all there is to it. Within that there are fast runners, slow runners, runners who want to compete with others, and runners who want to compete with themselves - all of those are valid and all of those folk are still runners, just the same! The Runthrough series comes with the advantage of giving you a chip-timed result too so you get a proper, accurate picture of your time, and I admit that appealed to me a bit. The weather forecast leading up to the day of the race got steadily worse, and I confess that mid-afternoon, glancing out of the office window to see a steady, heavy drizzle pouring down outside, I was seriously tempted to just bottle out altogether - this of course is where the "paid for" aspect of the race comes in - it puts you off deciding not to bother! Things got steadily worse and by the time I got to the Olympic Park the rain was heavy, the temperature had plummeted and the wind was howling - thank goodness for the lovely folk at the cafe by the meeting point who were happy to have several hundred runners crammed into their premises all desperately trying to keep dry and warm! I skipped doing a proper warm up in favour of staying warmer - not ideal to have to choose but I was clearly going to be drenched and freezing pretty much immediately I stepped outside. As start time approached MrEH arrived having come straight from work - thankfully with a waterproof jacket on and a heavy duty carrier bag so I had somewhere dry to pop my coat and other oddments. The call went up to go to the start - initially those aiming for super-fast times, the sub 20-minute 5k people, then sub 30's...I ignored both and settled in with the other slow people at the back...
Countdown from 10 seconds to go...and we were off. Except the back of the field weren't going anywhere immediately of course as it takes a while to get that many runners, running! The rain was still pouring down and I rapidly realised that all my plans regarding using my phone for timing and pace were going to have to be scrapped as if I'd kept it out it would have drowned by about the first kilometre! Instead I just hit the button to start Strava recording and shoved the phone into my running belt with crossed fingers that it would survive. The next problem was that I'd totally forgotten to pop contact lenses in my bag to run in - and heavy rain + glasses = zero vision every time you approach a brightly lit area! I first encountered this literally as I went through the start line and it kept causing me problems at regular intervals further round the course, too. With my original plan scrapped due to lack of useability of my phone, I changed tack deciding to keep to a steady pace but then kick on a bit at each slightly uphill section - it was a 2 lap course so I knew I could use the first lap to get to grips with it and then on the second I'd know where I wanted to turn the speed up a bit towards the finish - and as a strategy this actually worked well. The course was relatively flat but the few gently upwards sloping patches gave me the chance to push myself a bit and each time I actually passed people who'd slowed a bit giving me (although probably not them!) a bit of a psychological boost. By the time I hit the final one of these - also the steepest and within half a K of the finish - for the second time it was time to start speeding up, and I managed a full on sprint finish sloshing and squelching in my sodden trainers over the line to receive my lovely shiny medal! The time on the clock was 30m30sec which I confess to being a bit disappointed with until MrEH reminded me that the clock had started on the official start, but I'd not passed through the start until later, so my chip time would be different - sure enough on looking a little later I got confirmation of a 29:36 time - very respectable for a first timer particularly in those conditions! Strava in fact recorded my "pure" 5k distance (the race course was very slightly over) as sub-29 - just!
It was without question the hardest run I've done and I was hugely gratified the following day to see serious runners on social media describing the conditions as dreadful, and some of the worst they have run in - firstly it's nice to know that it wasn't just me being wimpy, thinking like that, and secondly I reckon if I can run in that, I can run in anything! It also thoroughly confirmed to me that I really don't enjoy running in the rain - from the trainers filled with freezing cold water to the sopping wet tangled hair, it's really not for me, and while I'd do it again in the same circumstances I certainly won't be popping out for a run in torrential rain any time soon! Well, unless I've paid to do so, obviously...!
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