Over the last week I have been very lazy. Repeatedly putting off doing exercise (gym/run) with no real excuse in fact baring a fairly intense spin session on Monday I have done nothing else even though I think I have taken gym kit into work every day! I decided that I wasn’t going to miss out on a long(ish) run as well so as I was at Laura’s I opted for the hill run upto her nans.

I have done this route once before, last time I only did the uphill stage and got a lift back, this time I was going to do both stages, after all the down should be the easier part! After a 3.5k incline (first 1.5k high gradient) I reached the summit At this point I decided that I would run this as a 10k so added a loop at the top (and at the bottom). » Continue reading “Hill running”

Once again Bob Crow and his cronies decided that it was time for London to once again be held over a barrel and live without the London Underground for best part of 3 successive days.

Whilst in my hay day when training for the marathon I may have taken this opportunity for a run home but aware that the distance hadn’t been covered for a few months and also the knowledge that if I ran home on one of the strike days I would still have to get back again, I decided this wasn’t an option. Instead I decided that Victoria station was a manageable distance from work at 4/5 Miles depending on the route so I would run there and head back to Laura’s which required an over ground train so all was fine.

It’s funny how my running has subsided over recent months, it was clearly obvious after the morning run (run no 2) that long gone were the days where I could put in multiple runs in a short span and still do fine. I’m not going to lie by run number 4 in 36hs I really struggled. A 6k ish run suddenly was really hard. I think that it may have been a case of lack of energy amongst other things but regardless it was a tough run. » Continue reading “Tube Strikes :”

Almost a year after heading to Florida Laura and I were back on a plane heading to the west coast of America this time, in particular California. Much the same as last year my running shoes were packed and I was going to ensure I did at least one run whilst I was out there, this I did, albeit on the day we left!

Los Angeles offers some what appear to be lovely running routes the path that runs alongside Venice beach upto Santa Monica looks amazing but if I’m totally honest the club sandwiches with huge portions of food and the general attitude I seem to adopt when heading to the States makes me struggle for motivation to want to run! Anyway as my trainers had traveled thousands of miles I was going to wear them…

On the final morning I set up my kit and left for a short jog around Pasadena, this was no race, far from it. Having put on what felt like a stone in the last 7 days, it was more about getting moving and stopping my legs going to sleep. A short 5k was decided heading round in familiar territory near to the hotel. The Garmin took a while to work out where we were – I assume there is some form of intelligence that says ‘I was here last time so see if I’m nearby to that point still’. All I can imagine is walking out of the hotel and the watch going “ahhhhhh where the hell am I!!”, or something like that. » Continue reading “Running in the USA”

Since ‘the Big One’ my runs have been few and far between. I have done one 10k and a tough hill run but that’s about it. This is fine, this is the time for recovery and in perfectly aware of that. However, that hasn’t stopped me getting itchy feet entering a couple of ballots NYC Marathon (unsuccessful) and the 2010 London one as well as signing up for a 10k with a few mates. It is with this 10k in mind I clean off my shoes and start retraining.

The Niketown run is nothing new for me ( to any of you who subscribed to my marathon blog apologies for the repetition) however I think it’s probably a good time to advertise the concept again – not that it is under subscribed! If you head over to the nikeplus site make sure you are on the UK site (union jack on the bottom right), then click community, niketown runners, sign up (free) select your preference 3/4/7 miles then turn up at NikeTown Oxford Circus at 6:15 Monday(for girls) / Tuesday night ready to run! I will also make in the next few posts a conceited effort to write a review of my Nike+. If you want to go for a free run on a weeknight it’s a good wheez in my humble opinion.

This week I opted for a seven miler and had the previously rare benefit of having a running buddy. Soo, who is also doing the 10k in July decided he would join me for my first lap. I really enjoy running with others as it tends to push me a bit more, I’m a bloke hence I’m naturally competitive. Anyway we set off and the pace creeps up, I’m breathing fairly heavily after 3k I was aware this wasn’t going go be a gentle one. My problem is when someone drops back a bit I slow myself a bit to let them catchup but then tend to find myself speeding up when they do cause I feel like I’ve dropped too much, viscious circle. After the first lap Soo dropped off and headed back to the shop, by this point I was aware that it was going to be a fast one realising we had put in some 4:35min kms. I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain the same pace on my own on the second lap but endeveaoured to stay at a faster than 5:00 km pace which it turns out from looking at my garmin data I managed.

Over the next few blogs I really want to pull out some info from both my watch and my nikeplus to embedd on the right and in posts. There is some really cool stuff including heart rate / pace info which I don’t feel the way garmin presents it does it much justice. I think I have found some graphing software that looks good and a way of extracting the info so hopefully it should all fall into place a lot better!

Much like last week, I decided it would be nice to run part of the course and having done the second half it seemed only sensible to attempt the first half.

I don’t know Greenwich at all or to be honest any of that part of the course, fortunately however Laura’s dad volunteered to get his bike out and ride alongside me. At 1030 on a dull and wet Good Friday we were all set to go, stood in Blackheath Common.

Perhaps much like the second half of the route there are long areas of dullish and scenery-less roads, it is also very flat which is nice! The only hill I really encountered was on a street aptly names “Hillreach” a few miles in but following that it descended again and remained flat.

After a few detours off the route, to avoid a busy Cutty Sark area and also a one-way road system that Martin could not go down on his bike we arrived at Surrey Quays, unfortunately having missed the earlier right and thus the extra 2mile loop. After 10 miles I decided it was fine to call it a day, my legs were fine I had energy in me and all was promising. Just another 25 mins and I would be at Tower Bridge and heading over for the second half I did last week…

See below the route I took. This will most likely be the last route I publish before the big day as baring a NikeTown Run which is already featured I wont be doing many more street runs.
» Continue reading “10 Mile – First half(ish) of Marathon route…”

I just logged onto Nike+ and got told I hit the 1000km mark and am 3 runs away from 100 over the last year and a month give or take all of those runs that didn’t log due to tech issues…

It’s a weekend so that means its run day. Since starting my training I was set on running the last half of the marathon so I knew what, after Tower Bridge was awaiting me. With only a few more weeks to go (3 weeks and a day!) the opportunity to run this was dwindling. Hence, I decided today was the day.

After arriving in Victoria I dumped my kit in the local fitness first (a gym I appear to be using more and more just for its shower facilities!) and set off. Maybe, given hindsight a Sunny Saturday during school holidays was not the best time to head to Buckingham Palace! Trying to avoid the mental crowds that were out I just put my head down and went for it – crossing a road when the little man was on red. This is the first time in my training I have ever been pulled over by a policeman! The guy told me not to cross on a red man as apparently it encourages others to do the same! It was early in my run, I couldnt be bothered to be lippy, and he was a policeman so I nodded and got on my way!

The first few miles flew by and running along the Thames with the sun in my face has to be one of the better reasons to run! Around docklands it was stunning and really nice to be out…that was before mile 10(ish).

At about mile ten my right quad started to feel a bit tight. The pain continued on in a similar vain for the next 7miles. However, I pushed on and actually maintained a fairly reasonable speed with most of the following miles averaging around the 9min mile kind of time.

So 17miles later I have run the last half of the Marathon (and some!). I know what is coming up, what things to look out for and milestones along the route. I ran past where I suspect my family will be standing twice and also ran part of the canary wharf bit (albeit slightly different).

Next weekend I *think* I may attempt the first half of the course as a 13miler so I have in essence completed the whole route. The miles need to start dropping now so that means I have, before the big day completed:

• 1 Twenty Mile Run
• 1 Eighteen Mile Run
• 1 Seventeen Mile Run
• 2 Sixteen Mile Runs
• Plus many many more shorter ones…

21 days to go…both exciting and scary!
» Continue reading “One sunny Saturday in London, and the last half of the marathon…”

A repeat of a route I have done before. Almost a whole month later, and over 90miles of running, it was time to repeat the run.

Having only just finished a 20miler a few days before I was a little cautious – my legs at the start felt a few twinges but with hindsight I believe that maybe more to do with not doing any proper stretches and it being a bit colder than I had, in my head, thought it would be!

Anyway as there was nothing new to my route there is not much to describe really – a couple of weeks ago I went past what I thought was a Banksy on Essex Road, I watched out for it again and was correct in my thinking – Sadly it doesnt quite look like that anymore as the owner of the shop has added perspex to the front, to provide vandalism I assume?!

The last few miles went pretty well – sun was out and all was grand! I was certainly not done (which i suppose is a good thing!) and had a few more miles in my legs… bring on the next run!
» Continue reading “Home – Dads Office…again!”

Having completed an 18milers a few weeks ago the next stage was to get to 20miles and today was the day to accomplish that! Heading down to southend at silly-o’clock on a wet and dreary saturday morning I was aware that I was about to put myself through a challenge, reffering back to my blog in January…

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. Fair Havens Training Run 12.5 Miles

The route had the same ending but another 7.5miles added onto it! Anyway, I was in Southend, short of runing with another group 20miles is what I was set to do…8:30 start, quite a pleasing 8miles, from my garmin data it appears this was all downhill so its not suprising! Running upto the Southend seafront, past the infamous Pier, beyond Peter Pans Playground (or whatever its called nowadays!) with a turnaround point about a mile beyound the Sea Life center. This was the good part of the run, the hard stuff started just beyond this point!

At about 14 miles I started to realise this wasn’t going to be easy, but it wasn’t until the big hill at 17 it really hit me. That is one tough end to a run so at the point I realised I would be able to get up quicker walking than running so I walked up.

At 18miles one of the Fairhavens support people caught up with me on their bike, this was a blessing in disguise as I had someone to talk through the last 2 miles with and in next to no time I was back at Littlehavens having completed 20miles with the knowledge that I certainly had a few more miles in my legs! All very promising really!!
» Continue reading “Southend – 20 miles…The Long One”

Its a Tuesday, that means run day…with a long run scheduled for Saturday I opted against the full distance to work and went for the halfway house – about 13/14 miles.

Beautiful day, albeit a little windy. Did opt for the sexy leggings and long sleeve top though as it was a little chilly out there. Also tried out a new waist water bottle holster:

It was a little awkward to begin with, and also its amazing how only a small amount of liquid weighs quite a lot, but after a bit I got used to it, and having a source of liquid with me appeared to be a great help!

Run went pretty well I thought – came in at half marathon in 1:56 and got back to the office feeling pretty good all things considered! Mile Marker: 14….Time Taken: 2:06:17

Bring on the hills of Southend on Saturday! » Continue reading “Home – Work the ‘shorter’ route”