Operation Move
Online Running Coaching
This workout is demanding but fun and gives you plenty of breaks (my kind of quality work!)
1km Warm Up
1km Easy
200m Sprint
200m Recovery
400m Fast
200m Recovery
1km Tempo
200m Recovery
400m Fast
200m Recovery
200m Sprint
1km Cool Down
This run is a total of 6km, but you can halve the distances if you’d like a shorter run. Don’t skimp on the warm up! You’ll enjoy your run a whole lot more if you take the time to be properly ready to go.
If you ask any coach what they would check out if an athlete isn’t progressing, it’s sleep. I heard Allie Keefer talk about her pillars of training the other day and I really loved it. It was character, sleep, nutrition, training, racing. It’s from the book: Chasing Excellence by Ben Bergeron.
Although training is possibly the more exciting part of that equation, the low hanging fruit for most people is sleep. Here are five ways to supercharge your sleep.
Get as much sunlight as you can in the morning, without sunglasses on. This is going to help your body to know it’s morning time and keep your body clocks ticking along.
Get up at the same time and go to bed at the same time every day. This is a hard one! But often, even a Saturday sleep in can act like jet lag because your body likes routine.
If you are going to nap, keep it short. If you need a nap stick to 20 minutes in between about 2 and 4pm.
Have predictable bedtime routines, so your body knows when you are going to sleep. This can be really simple, but just giving your body cues for what is happening.
Sleep in the foetal position. Sleeping on your back or on your stomach isn’t ideal for quality sleep.
Put down the screens in the evening. Especially phone screens.
Have a small carby snack before bed. Turns out the fact that people often crave carbs before bed is actually backed up by science. A small serve of carbs (fruit or some toast or a bowl of cereal) will help you get a good night sleep.
When you feel sleepy don’t do one more thing – go to bed! It’s tempting to just finish that one thing you were doing, but you could miss your sleep cycle window. It’s nothing that can’t wait until morning.
And finally, never stay up late for something you wouldn’t get up early for. Sleep is important!
In honour of all of the sales on at the moment, I thought I’d come up with a super quick run down on what the main differences are between popular watches.
Vivomove HR vs VivoActive 3
The VivoMove HR isn’t a GPS watch, whereas the VivoActive actually is. The VivoActive does have advanced workouts and has profiles and metrics for running, swimming and cycling.
Verdict: The VivoMove HR is an activity tracker, not a running watch.
VivoActive 3 vs Garmin 235
These are both great options for a runninng watch and although the VivoActive has slightly more battery life, it’s a much of a muchness. The VivoActive has a few additional features like Garmin Pay, a Thermometre, a Barometre, a Compass, Move IQ and allows for a whole lot more activity profiles and rep counting. And it has more options for golfing, swimming and cycling. Where it misses out is on some of the more advanced running features like cadence, recovery time, training effect, audio prompts and manual lap. Plus, it’s only capable of keeping a history of 7 activities.
Verdict: If you are looking for a smart watch which does most things that you need in a running watch, the VivoActive is a great choice. But for full running geek effect pick the 235.
VivoActive 3 vs Garmin Fenix 5S
The battery life is similar, but where the VivoActive can only keep a history of 7 activities, the Fenix has memory for a whole lot more. The Fenix doesn’t have Garmin Pay, but it does have all the advanced running features of the Garmin 235 and then some. Some of the additions include training status, training load and performance condition.
Verdict: Again it comes down to smart watch vs running watch. If you want a running watch, grab the Fenix.
Garmin Fenix 5S vs 5
The Garmin Fenix 5 has about double the battery life of the 5S. Other than that the features are all pretty much the same.
Verdict: You can pick the one you like the look of here, unless you are running ultras and the battery life is important.
Garmin Fenix 5s v Garmin 235
In terms of battery life these are similar, and the Garmin 235 has a whole range of advanced features like custom workouts and running dynamics that make it an awesome running watch. But the Fenix builds on this with a whole bunch of extras including: additional activity profiles, training effect, strava segments, virtual partner, training status and load, workout effect and performance condition.
Verdict: The 235 does pretty much all you would need, but if you want a full range of running dynamics, analysis and stats, get the Fenix.
For people who are newer to this blog and the operation move community, you might not even know that it used to be a partnership. For others, it only becomes obvious maybe if you are listening to the podcast from the beginning and you are obviously listening to two people instead of one.
The other day a friend of mine asked me how I was adapting to being solo. And the answer is, I’m adapting.
Sometimes I get reminded, like when people send me an email or a facebook message and address it to “Dear Ladies”. Well, there’s just one of me now.
Some weeks I feel like I have it all together, and other weeks it feels like there’s too much to do and I’m barely hanging on. The other day I was going back looking for a particular post I’d written on one of my different websites and I was struck by how many other things I used to do with writing and how they’ve all fallen by the wayside. It’s not that I don’t have time. Everyone has time, you know? But I choose to prioritise my time for Operation Move rather than other projects. But you have more leeway when you aren’t a solo act, and that became obvious looking back through my archives. I’m glad they are still there, though. It’s not a painful reminder so much as a revelation of ‘wow. I used to do that.’
Sometimes it feels like the elephant in the room, that I’m not talking about. But then I’m not sure if I’m the only one who feels that way. The truth is that separating out any partnership is a thousand different things, not just one decision. It’s email addresses and passwords and old blog posts and header photos and covers of e-bboks and administrative remnants and messages about old podcast episodes. It’s a million reminders that pop up in your Timehop. And it’s dates that are no longer recognised. I end up feeling like an adoptive mother because I didn’t create the sisterhood: but I nurtured it, defended it, protected it and advocated for it like no one else would.
I’ve been in a few business partnerships and I always tend to settle into the behind the scenes type role. I do a lot of the grunt work and the technical stuff. And someone else worries about the presentation. So although I was hidden to a certain extent, it also meant I was protected from some of the harder decision making parts and some of the harsher realities of running a business as well. Being on my own, I had to get really good at a whole heap of things that I didn’t know how to do, really fast. And I had to get REALLY good at managing my own stress levels so I didn’t implode.
But now the things I like about it is I get to pursue my own vision, if I make a mistake I’m the only one who suffers for it and it feels more mine now than it did before. In the past when I’d take over for periods, it always felt like limbo, like I was a placeholder. And it feels different now.
In a sense, I think going solo has allowed me to be more unapologetically myself.
My friend said to me she thought that with the logo redesign a website-redesign might be cathartic for me. And I think she is probably right.
If the response of the last (more advanced) half marathon training plan was anything to go by, what everyone would really like is a beginner plan. Don’t worry I’ve got you covered! And I’ve got options for anywhere from 3-6 days depending on what your preference is for training. Don’t worry, even the more days per week plans are very achievable because the extra days focus on recovery and easy sessions, rather than anything taxing – but you can pick a plan that’s going to work best with your schedule.
Enjoy!