Today I decided to run one of my first runs that really had a purpose. My parents were heading over to my nans so I thought I would sort a route out and run over there. It’s not a stupidly long distance (about12miles) and I have already ran the first 7or so miles before on previous sessions.

The route is actually fairly flat see here and also fairly straight.

The run went well, i’m sure its not record breaking pace but I continually ran for the whole distance. I quite liked the route apart from busy bits around Aldgate and The Elephant and Castle.

No amusing anecdotes – earphones remained in one piece…all good

Its that time of the week again, back to niketown regent street to run round regents park a couple of times. Less of a turnout than last week – new years resolutions starting to end again….

Standard run really, first lap was on my own, no music – until about 3/4s of the way round. Second lap did not pass without an event….

Neil Lock vs Tree…

…tree wins

To cut a long story short earphones caught round an overhanging tree, ripped off my head and proceeded to break – i guess if there is any consolation my ipod carried on going! just need to buy a new set of earphones now!

Second lap was actually pretty good – one of the nike team members ran with me, meant had someone to talk to and when the loop is 3 miles thats pretty damn useful.

Next NTR on tuesday – next long run at the weekend. maybe get an interval session in on thurs/fri.

It’s a Monday again – and its time for a spin. These blogs are going to become very dull soon – if not already!!! Did an evening spin so i could spend lunch with Laura – just made it to the class in time, but not many bikes left and the one i chose was broken.

Foolishly I persevered on the broken bike instead of moving – the gear on the bike only rotated one revolution meaning that it was very difficult to ramp up the settings – it was either tough, extremely tough or nothing at all with nothing in between. Meant that i did stick the setting on tough/ext tough all night and hence probably was beneficial but all in all a little annoying.

Was too late to get the heart rate monitor on so no idea whether it was a particularly stressful one or not?

Tuesday night marks the return of my “Mid Distance” runs. 7-8 mile distances with either my dad (who is currently on hold on running training) or with the NikeTownRunners(ntr).

The ntr setup involves rocking up to NikeTown Oxford Circus at 630 on a Tuesday night and running with a group of other people. Unfortunately im not quick enough to keep up with the front batch of runners so it has the potential to be an individual run. However, it is a routine event meaning that I can calendar it in and hopefully maintain a run at a time i probably wouldn’t normally bother with!

From a physical perspective this run was again a testing one following the long distance Sunday run, the back of my legs were a little tense at the end of it and I also didn’t really have the best preparatory food for it at lunch (pizza!) so had a bit of a stitch for the first lap. Perseverance is the key though and the second loop went by quite easily. Darren from work came along with me too so managed to have a chat as we went round which always helps the run fly by a lot quicker.

I have attached the map of the route here7mile_map_web. Its fairly simple and has a massive plus to it – its FLAT! Awesome. The course is a little dull on the whole but at the end of the day its miles in the legs…

As per the schedule, monday is spinning day. Shuffled the event to lunch time as have evening plans to see Avenue Q. The lunch spin session is taken by John, the guy who took my first spin lesson, so I quite like it for that reason…

Class went pretty well, my legs were a little tender following the 12.5miler the day before but still felt like good exercise and ultimately a healthy way to spend my lunch break.

Just so you are aware. My Nike+ kit is consistently out. Just to make things fair – my 12.5mile run with Fair Havens came in at 13.5miles, hence an innacuracy of about 1 mile per 12.5.

I could probably improve the accuracy of this device if i went out and properly callibrated it – maybe a job for the next few weeks! If not maybe I should buy myself a garmin forerunner

On Friday evening I headed down to Rayleigh and had a meal with a number of the people running in this years FLM for the havens group. It was a good evening and I managed to have a chat with a few people who it turns out were all hoping to run a similar time to me as well as a physios and masseur.

The group have 3 scheduled training runs from now until the marathon. I am away for the next one so thought it would be a good idea to head down this morning and see how it was. The run was good – we stuck as a pack for 80% of the route running at what was apparently 9min mile pace (sub 4 hour marathon time). It was a VERY early start for me, especially as I had to drive down to Rayleigh, hence the alarm was set for 6:45 (almost an hour earlier than my normal work day start time!) and had hit the road by 730.

The Course

The course started off quite nice. The first 8/9 miles were actually fairly enjoyable. The group was running together and at a pace where we could hold conversation. I have never been to Rayleigh, so the route was a complete unknown to me other than the passing comments from others to expect some hills at the end. This was by no means an understatement. At about mile 9 I believe it was, we hit a fairly steep incline and from that point on it felt that there was a consistent rise in gradient. The last 3.5 miles certainly tested me. I think I’m going to have to routinely put in half marathon distances as 10miles seems to be the cut point from what seems “easy”.

All in all though a good run, testing, but what I need. Also fairly happy that there a group of runners for FH all running around my pace.

No rest for me it looks like though – hence a day off running tomorrow but back to the roads on Tuesday…

MSE Running Club™ has started again. This was the first run of ‘09 and possibly the first run with these guys since probably about November. The group was started about a year ago to help Archie get round her first marathon and runs have happened once a week fairly regularly. Its good to get out again with the others from the team – its only short as we are limited by the lunch break but hopefully the goal is to get a 10k in during the lunch break with a bit of time to play.

This week Dan and Darren accompanied me in a 4mile ish route round Olympia way. Route can be seen here:
http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=mapit,478360489 (Graph to follow).

Run was quite pleasant – my ability has evidently improved – ran at talking pace which was a pleasant change from the faster type. Look forward to more of these short impromptu runs in the next few months.

Lets just say – my quads and calves ached. Lots of squats and leg work all with the intention to improve core and build up leg muscles.

First interval training session of the new year – a 5km job using the ok go playlist.

What is interval training

‘Interval’ training is broadly defined as repetitions of high-speed/intensity work followed by periods (the periods that are the actual intervals) of rest or low activity.

The Ok Go soundtrack walk through the intervals but allow you to set your running pace to whatever you want. Today was one of my fastest interval sets. A base speed of 12k/h was set but fluctuated between that and 13km/h with interval jumps up to 18km.

I’m definitely improving on these and its actually very easy to compare the differences using my nike+. Ill get this info out at some point, as its interesting (for me anyway!).