Today’s jog wasn’t my first run of the new year, last week on the two Sundays over the Xmas break I tested my body to see whether I still had miles in my legs. I run an identical 13.5mile course with a sub 2hr half mara time which is a bit of a reassurance. Sure I have a long way to go still and I know this based on last year but I’ll be the first to admit I have been lazy since finding out I had a place and was concerned I may struggle a lot more.

The 13miler I found is a fun and interesting route, from my flat I head towards Stratford and then head around the perimeter of the 2012 Olympic Park, it’s amazing to see how far it’s come along and I suspect this route may crop up over the next few months (and years!) as I’m sure each time there will be something new! One day in the daylight I’ll take my camera over there and get some good photos, can’t wait to see the Olympics there as I think it will be amazing.




Anyway, I digress, according to the RW schedule today was to be a 4 mile slow jog (~38min), which was fine. The only issue I really had was trying to get it converted into kms as this is what’s on the treadmill. Turns out I miscalculated and did the first two miles at 11km/h and second at 10.7km/h and still came in too soon at 36 mins. Really need to convert before getting to the gym!

Apparently tomorrow is a ‘rest’ day, will see how I feel and perhaps do as they say and rest! I think sticking to this timetable is going to be a challenge in itself but let’s see whether it helps over last years routine!

On a side note, for all the havensrunners out there who maybe reading, if any of you are Londoners or work in London let me know if you fancy a jog or session one evening as would be good to meet up!

For all of my friends this race was the furthest distance they had ‘formally’ run but even before we had started they showed the spirit of true amateur runners forming their excuses as to why they didn’t get the time they hoped for…

I am going to start this post by doing my stats etc then move on to my whinging about the course as I suspect there are a number of people who really couldn’t care about the poor organisation. Due to the flat course I new a personal best was entirely possible, the only concern was due to the large number of people, how much weaving I would have to do. As it turns out I would have to do a lot, racking up an extra 400meters on my watch as well as being on the curbside a lot more than I would like. Fortunately I still managed a time of 46:02 my fastest yet and the knowledge that probably given the right conditions I could make 45mins…my mates also did awesome coming in at 48mins(Soo), 55 mins(Kev), 1hr6(Jackie) and 1hr20(Kul). As Soo was the only one to wear a chip there is an element of trust on those times esp as 2 of them didn’t even wear a watch! To be honest though it really didn’t matter what time they got as ultimately they all finished and when I sat waiting and listening I could tell all of them had had that adrenaline buzz I have had crossing the finish line. Some said never again but I wouldn’t be surprised if they all try again as I think they all found it slightly better than they imagined…I think on that note if anyone wants to run another one I will willingly run with you to keep you company…

Bits of the course followed the marathon course taking in the infamous underpass on the embankment, one of the few bits of privacy that the London marathon runners will see. It was nice to do these bits and take in some of the sights and not have just run 23miles beforehand. The support was pretty good which to be honest makes sense assuming for every 2 or 3 runners they bring a guest. With better organisation I think this run has real potential, running past some amazing sights, sadly this year (and from reading some other forums) and previous years this poor organisation is a common factor.

Congrats and kudos to all my mates. 4 years ago I didn’t expect to be sitting on a pavement having run 10km with them (then again I suspect that is a mutual thought!) however now it’s time to do what I’m good at and moan, maybe this blog will come high up on google for British 10k and the race organisers may read it!

Having done a fair few paid for runs in the last year I thought the Paris half was the poorest organised until now. This event has to come fairly close to it faltering on several places. The event itself has to be one of the biggest 10k’s in London and with that the organisation should be on par to cope with that but it wasn’t…

Having rocked up into town at what I thought to be an early time I decided that I could avoid the portaloos by heading up Shaftesbury Av to McD’s when I arrived I clearly wasn’t the only person to have this idea as there was a queue. This queue however, as we were about to find out, was about 30 mins (at least) shorter than the portaloos in an incredibly bottle-necked baggage drop of area. I didn’t have to drop off a bag but for those who did it was a good job it didn’t rain as it didn’t look like there would be any coverage for the bags. Also this whole area was far to small for the shear number of people here.

Having found a couple of my mates due to him having his mobile on him we decided to walk to the start. This brings me on to issue number 2, the walk from the drop off point to Hyde park corner must be getting on for at least a km if not more. There must be places nearer to the start, to make matters worse they can’t even justify the bag drop being there as it’s close to the end as it was a similar distance from the finish lines to the bags…move the start or finish I’m sure it can’t be too difficult, that way you maybe able to avoid the u-turns which I’ll come onto later….

The start of the race was a complete shambles. Due to the fact that there were no pens to place similar paced runners I got to the back and realised there were several thousand runners of all shapes and sizes in front of me. Don’t get me wrong they all deserved a spot and they had clearly arrived earlier than me but I had paid money to do a run and with this number in front of people I couldn’t see that being possible for the first couple of kms. I decided to keep pushing forward. Eventually giving up when it was clear there was no way I could push further forward it was clear I still had a few thousand in front. The immensely underwhelming klaxon marked the start of the run yet we appeared to be standing still. We seemed to edge forward about 4 at a time and it wasn’t until I reached the “front” did I learn why. For some reason, they had decided to start the queue on one side and make runners cross to start but the gap to go through to cross couldn’t have been more than 5 people wide meaning the 30 or 40 person wide road had to bottlekneck through to the start. As I was on my own I could squeeze through but would hate to think what it was like to maintain a group at the start! Needless to say once through the start line I did indeed spend the first 10 mins weaving in and out past people that in any other race wouldn’t have started. On the plus side the roads on the whole were quite wide meaning that there was normally room to pass.

As I mentioned the route had some nice focal points but the last 3k in particular had bits of it that felt they were tacked on for an extra 200meters, with the number of people involved doing a complete 180 from one side of the road to the other didn’t feel ideal. This happened twice, being forced to go halfway across Westminster bridge then turn then past the Houses of Parliament up a bit then u-turn. I can understand road closures must be a nightmare but I’m sure that 500m could easily have been added without the need for these 180′s! Perhaps look at where the race starts and finishes and move a tiny bit!

I suspect most will be bored by now but if you are still here the course is certainly flat so if you can avoid weaving then there is certainly a pb chance.

I already put in a session on the treadmill on Thursday but with the weekend 10k coming up and also having a far from healthy diet this weekend (revolving around alcohol snacks and an Indian) I didn’t really want to skip another run opportunity but Mondays are also spinning days – oh the dilemma! Given the title of this blog I guess you can probably guess what I did!

At 1230 there is a spin class (annoyingly the only lunchtime spin during the week), leaving the office as late as possible to avoid using more lunch break than was really nesc I got to the class to find the instructor was different. John, who has been likened by others to one of the sissor sisters, had been replaced by Emma (I think that’s her name anyway) so I was already slightly off guard – nevermind, I have done her classes before too and I know for certain she is not a mentalist! The session today felt odd, I don’t know whether my Sunday runs loosen my joints a bit hence helping these classes, but today my legs where achy and not for lack of trying I really struggled to be able to find the strength in them to either break to much of a sweat or raise my heartrate. I normally find it difficult to get my heart rate in spinning over 170bpm but today it was a challenge to even break 160bpm. I don’t know why I found it difficult part d me thinks I should go back to basics and read up about the body, I feel perhaps the time spent messing around in biology as a kid was perhaps foolish! anyone know any good books on health, body, muscles etc?

Spin class out of the way I had to still go for a run so after a late finish at work trying to put final touches on a project I went back to the gym for session no 2, the treadmill run. I was not intending on doing anything others than the treadmill and steam room meaning it was to be a relatively short session. 5k ish was decided and like the other day I set the mode to random, which appears to mean hills and racked the speed upto 12km/h and away I went. I didn’t stay at 12 for long, over the next few kms it was to be my base speed.

The program went upto an incline of 8% and over the next few kms i fluttered between 12km-15km, I attempted 14km/h at an incline of 7.8% – that is tough! I did 5kms in 22mins and 6km at just over 26mins. That’s a fast time – I know for certain i couldn’t maintain that pace for 10kms but maybe I can based on that hit 48mins on a good day…oh well, will find out in a few days time if I really push myself!

Anyway Ad and I did get a sneaky game in early on in my training but today was a time for a rematch, he beat me last time (3 games to 2 I think) but we were both at a very similar level so thought it should be quite fun to play again, plus I have been promising it for months now!

Rocking up to London Bridge Fitness First at 830 I was already hot and bothered, the central line stopped at Stratford so had to change route and ultimately arrived late even though I had given myself a good 15/20 min extra time. Quick change and we were on the court…

I guess it should be fairly obvious that an enclosed room was going to be hot given the temperature outside but I don’t think either of us were totally prepared for the heat in there which was obvious from the start! I was already warmed up following a brisk walk from the station so let Ad hit about whilst I sorted out some fluid for during the game. Got back to the court and did a bit of racket / hand-eye calibration, I was shockingly bad and I am sure Ad must have been thinking that this morning was going to be a walkover (I was thinking the exact opposite)!

I won the racket-spin and elected to serve, lost the first game but I think it was a close one (I can’t believe I genuinely can’t remember – worrying!). However, after game one I managed to win 3 games in a row (again with very close scoring). At 3-1(best of 5) Adam suggested to play another game, not really sure why – I’m pretty sure he was as shattered and as hot as I was! He won this bringing the score to 3:2 to me and a reverse of last time. That brings the match score to 1:1 meaning a rematch is definitely on the cards!

Oddly whilst playing yesterday I felt a lot quicker around the court, managing to get to drop shots I don’t think I would have got to before. I can only put this down to my improved fitness. Also today was the first time I have ever really realised how little support squash shoes give. There were shots where I didn’t feel particularly comfortable when running to get the ball. I don’t really want to spend more money on a sport i barely do but I may have to look to see if they sell indoor shoes with feet that pronate in mind…?

Another cool thing about squash is as it’s high intensity my heart rate went through the roof reaching peaks of 184 (see graph below). To give some useful comparison when I go spinning even on the fastest sprints and biggest hills getting my heart rate above 170 is an almost impossible challenge, and during my runs I normally sit around a constant 175. I can’t really remember the last time I broke the 180 mark but apparently I was training in ‘zone 5′. Not really too sure what that means but all I do know was that the morning was tough and knackering so that must be good right??

Having faffed a little and had a relatively long lie in (for me) I didn’t manage to get out the door until about 11am. At this point the demons were already telling me not to bother but fortunately I had the willpower to ignore those ones. Having barely made it to the bottom of the road I knew instantly today was going to be hot (well hot for England anyway) and stuffy and at this point I was trying to work out how I could cut my run short thinking things like “maybe I’ll just do 5km – it doesn’t really matter how far I go anyway, I’m not really working towards anything”.

The route I chose was the much flatter Longfield track along 1 road and then turning back on myself. I ran it once during my marathon training and remember thinking it was a little dull and not quite as flat as you would expect it to be. However, it was this or the hill route of last week an for some reason that route really wasn’t appealing to me that morning.

I got to 4km a couple of km’s short of where I turned on my last attempt and decided that that would be a good turning point. I could add a km at the other end easily taking the run up to a currently respectable 9km and what’s one km between friends anyway! Turning back on myself I reran exactly the same path (Ive never been a fan of tracking back on yourself I’d much rather a loop…) that said it has a little scenery including a few fields with horses, there was also a mirror on the route which provided a rather amusing annecdote but I don’t think I can do the story (or my stupidity) any justice on this blog…



There were a few runners out that morning (hopefully all thinking it was too hot!) including one chap from the ‘Dartford Road Runners’ who overtook me when I least expected it, made me think I should contact the running club in Woodford. I have always been a bit apprehensive as I don’t feel good enough to be a runner in a club but maybe they have a few slower people like yours truely that I maybe able to go out on runs with every so often?

Back at Lauras it was immediately obvious I was hot, it took me absolutely ages to cool down, not even the shower seemed to help. Have a 10km in a few weeks time, 930am start but no doubt the sun will be out, Bluewater was also v hot, blue skies no clouds and I made it round there, hopefully if I can get a bit of liquid in me and down my back to cool I should be able to charge round…

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).



The run itself was fairly non-descript, no amusing things to keep me entertained, saw a number of other runners and walkers out and about. I assume this was because the weather was fairly pleasant and this was further demonstrated by how sweaty my t-shirt was when I got back.

Glad I did the run as it made me feel less guilty about the 2 barbecues I was about to have that day! Going to try be a bit more self-motivated this week. Under a month till the London 10k and with a sub 48min possible I’m certainly not going to get this by being so lazy. I suspect it’s also time to prob start thinking about the next run as come mid July I have nothing to train for which will feel slightly odd!

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.

There were certainly some pro’s to these few days above and beyond the general fitness benefits. I added to my knowledge of the geography of London, suddenly I knew where shepherd bush is in relation to Victoria and hence now having done London running for my marathon training I now know my way in a fairly straight line between a number of points of the city! This is a great thing to know, it means that if for some reason I can’t get a tube I am able to realistically determine where I can get to from a number of places in the center and the East.

It has been a tough few days of running and with an iminent run in the Bluewater 10k on Sunday this week has been a lot more intense than I had ever intended, it actually felt like one of the busier Marathon training weeks….odd, i’m not sure whether I enjoyed it or not! Sometimes I wonder why I do it! Then I book another run or read a blog/book about how others have enjoyed some event and i’m applying and hooked all over again…

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.



Anyway a short 5k in a lovely place albeit lots of traffic lights and crossings. The run was practically over before it began with me thinking why didn’t I run before the last day – lazy git!

There is a reason why I opened this blog with a remincence to Florida ’08. When we were out there I was running around the big lake in the Disney hotel we were in, similar distances to the run in LA however the difference is back then I hadn’t ever run in any race, I had a 10k coming up but that was it. Since then it’s been all a little bit mental entering a number of them including the marathon of course. I’m never going to win but I enjoy it – who knows why and even right now I have a few 10k’s lined up and in the back of my mind another half or more.

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!

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.