My normal weekend routine of a long Sunday run had to be switched round this week as a while back I decided to enter a new 10k run starting locally and heading into the Olympic Village. A few months ago I did a couple of sessions running along the Greenway and by the Olympic Stadium and love the fact that the olympics will literally be around the corner so decided this run maybe fun and unique.

A 10k run was not however helpful with regards to my training schedule so I had to bring my long run forward to the Saturday. 18miles was the distance required according to the schedule and on a blue sky morning I set off for a local 7M loop before proceeding onwards towards my nans flat in Kennington, 11M away and the other side of the river. Following Thursdays run to my dads office he suggested I run and keep my heart rate down which may allow me to push further as historically I’m not great at maintaining speed. Taking that into account I said my garmin onto ‘Heart Rate’ mode with a max H/r of 164 and a min of 155 (I think!). For the next 2hrs40 mins, bating the first mile or so stayed within the zones only dropping low whilst waiting to cross at traffic lights. The run itself went pretty well with every mile coming in at sub 8min 50, some by quite a bit. The 19th mile was a bit lethargic and slow but I think that’s cause I hadn’t prepared my brain for it! It was great to be out in the sun even though it wad still cold – I think that’s the first blue sky running I’ve done since this marathon training began! 19M conquered leaving only 3M more to do in training and 7 on the day with a few weeks to go. Amazingly this week I managed to run 55 miles at varying speeds and intensities, this was because I had to switch the days of the long run over otherwise it would have dropped down to 36 miles (guess next week will be less ) I find that incredible and I think that is the most I have run in a week.

See 19Mile Splits

Sundays 10k was a race and against my what my brain told me I should do I went for it pushed on by my male ego (plus I was running with a friend who I know wouldn’t go slow)! Another week, another race and another PB with my 10k time coming in at 46:07 taking off about 40seconds off my previous best – running 6Miles at a sub 7min32sec pace – guess you could call that a threshold run! Awesome stuff – think the next stage (sub 45) is a little way off, taking off 67 seconds over 10k is a big push – I would need to have a constant pace of 7min 15sec miles and none of my splits hit that – even the first one which felt mentally fast! Oh well, 10k’s aren’t really for now so back to the long runs! Well done for Soo on that one, incredible running coming in just behind me by about 10 seconds and also having the stamina left in his body for a 200m sprint at the end! Good Effort.

See Newham 10k Splits

Till Next time

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…”

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”