Category: Uncategorized

From Screen Potato to 5k

running blogWeek One

A week now of doing the  NHS From Couch Potato to 5k running programme.  So, I downloaded the podcasts and started the first at the beginning of the week.  So, in summary, the week 1 podcast starts with 5 minutes ‘brisk walking’ to warm up, then 90 seconds ‘brisk walking’ and 60 seconds running until you’ve completed 8 minutes running in total, and finally, another 5 minutes ‘brisk walking’.

The first day I went out with headphones on, I was shocked to find how hard I found it to do 30 minutes non-stop brisk walking, let alone running.  I tried 60 seconds of the running which seemed interminably long.  In fact, I couldn’t even make it to 60 seconds.  I managed about 30 seconds, and gave up after that.  The other seven times I was told to run I just walked as fast as I could.    Now I have lived a long life of trying to get fit and it never lasting longer than a few weeks – probably three at the most.  So this time, I have decided to make my struggle, pain and hopefully achievment public, by writing about it here, in a blog.

Now one of the problems I have is the weather.  Like most people, I don’t want to go out when it’s cloudy, cold or raining, but even though it’s June, there are too many of those days.  I have some experience of facing the elements because I have to walk my dog but on those occasions, I can get away with walking a bit, resting a bit, talking a lot and throwing a stick.  It’s easy to ‘walk’ a dog without getting much exercise.  I’m a past master at it.   So, this weather and exercise thing, I don’t see there’s any other way of dealing with it than just gritting my teeth, stop whingeing, and getting on with it.  It’s just logical.  But it hasn’t happened (yet).

The running programme suggests that you take a day’s break following each ‘run’ and there’s all sorts of reasons why one day should develop into two days.  This week it was (of course) the  inclement weather,  urgent things that had to be done for the radio station and assignments  and a house that had to be tidied and clothes that had to be ironed.  I could add more  – a myriad of excuses.

On the positive side, however, I have had another go at the week 1 podcast – twice.  Of course, the sun was out and it is so much easier to pluck up courage to face the world in unfamiliar guise when the sun is out.  So the good news is that the second time I jogged for 2 of the 8 minutes and today, I jogged for 4 of the 8 minutes.  I don’t know if I would call it a ‘run’ because I was jogging so slowly that it was practically walking, but I didn’t give up after 30 seconds so I guess, for me at least, slow jogging is the trick to lasting for 60 seconds.

What next?  The programme suggests that you should go on to week 2 after 3 times of completing the week 1 podcast, but in both theory and practice, I haven’t yet successfully completed the week 1 podcast.  So it looks like week 1 might be two weeks’ long.  The next step is to complete the 8 runs before I go onto week 2.  Let’s see how it goes…

Week Two

Sunday

Well gone mad today,  but guess why?  It’s the weather again – so frightfully English!  Two days in a row with sunshine – amazing and such a spirit lifter.  So, I didn’t follow the rules and take a day off.  I hope an achy body doesn’t make me regret that tomorrow.  5 slow jogs this time and in view of  walking people as opposed to solitarily in a  semi-derelict playground.  I’m disappointed that yet again, I couldn’t manage 8 slow jogs but I want always to show some progress, so I walked/jogged ‘at  a brisk pace’ for 45 minutes.

Being an Old University Student

This isn’t easy being a very mature student; there’s a (what feels like) a massive generation chasm between me and the other students and there are occasions that I feel completely invisible and quite isolated.  However, this might be a sympton of being an old woman; I’ve heard others describe that feeling of being invisible once they reach their fifties.  I notice I introduce myself at times as being a very old student so that the other person doesn’t think I’m a member of staff.

It’s been a big week this week.  Our class had a playback of 5-7 minute dramas we had written and produced and I was, quite frankly, terrified.  In the process of making the drama I have been on a roller coaster of totally euphoric to completely depressed.  I have some amendments to make, but I will post it once they are done.  Feedback was actually quite good, despite the fact that the download created a version with glitches which was somewhat frustrating.  Luckily, the original maintained its perfections.

I’m Executive Producer for Speech at our student/community radio station and as part of this, I’m involved in setting up a new speech programme centred on local and national news.  Studying on this course there are so many ‘firsts’ for me and I feel that I should be logging or blogging them.  Despite my age, I find them just as frightening/exciting as I did at school.  So, the new news radio show starts next Tuesday.  I’m in the background trying to make sure it happens as best it can rather than presenting.  Nevertheless, I feel responsible for its success and its quality.

So, I’ve decided to use my blog to express the experience of being a mature students AND I am also going to be having a go at writing reviews of radio and maybe audio drama.  Watch this space.

Writing and Radio

I’m a very mature student studying for an MA in Radio in the North East.  I came to this through wanting to write radio dramas.

I’m finding on the course that I get caught up in the production side of making programmes because that is all so new to me and I’m on a steep learning curve, particularly with technology and I forget to write at all, let alone anything vaguely story-like or dramatic.  Everyone tells me I should have a blog and eventually this could turn into a blog which includes podcasts and maybe the odd produced radio drama.  So here I am, hoping that this will get me back into writing.  I’m making a start on the blog and let’s see where it leads.