On Sunday I somehow forced myself out of the door for a run. I don’t really know how this happened as when I woke up even though I had prepared my kit the night before had my routine breakfast almost everything was telling me not to bother! I think had I had done a few more miles during the week I would have had an excuse to use but because of the snow I hadn’t.

At 945 am I couldn’t put it off any longer and headed out of the door still uncertain what type of run I would do. During the first 10 minutes my body sulked, a high heart rate made it appear like the run was not going to be fun. However, shortly after things seemed to settle and I realised I was going at a respectable pace. Knowing I only had an hour I opted to push myself with some hills in further practice for next weekend. The route consisted of every hill I could think of bar one and all of them fairly substantial hills. There was one which was a steady incline for a long distance and the others short(ish) and sharp hill in chingford as well as other inclines.

Anyway – it turned out to be a tough but rewarding  session.

Its midweek and since my long run on Friday night my running trainers have been sitting idle enjoying a rest. Obviously I was on my feet on Sunday for the Leadership in Running Course and I did do a spin session on Monday, however there has been no running.

On Tuesday I went out with my ipod loaded up with a new audiofuel track (review to follow shortly). This was a 43 minute stepped intervals session. After a 155 BPM warm up, you get 3 mins at 160 BPM, then a recovery, 3 mins at 170 BPM, then a recovery, and a 3 min sprint at 180 BPM, then a recovery. This pattern repeats twice. As you can imagine by the second time round things are getting tough and the final 180bpm pushed me HARD.

I tried to push myself equally throughout the run but with roads and crossing and evidently working on a gradient that didn’t turn out to be entirely consistent. That said I pushed my heart rate upto the high 160′s on 5/6 sessions so not too bad! At the end of the run I was suitably destroyed so I was happy!

Wednesday is “club” night and whilst we branched off from the club I still took the opportunity to use the routine of a run. I met up with Rich at his office in Horse Gaurds and having a quick tour whilst we waited for Ath. We set off for a 10miler at an 8:30-8:45 pace, heading around Hyde Park and the onto Sloane Square before heading back along the river. Looking at the splits at the end of the run it looks like we were certainly faster than the 8:30 average and baring a couple of outliers for traffic etc most splits were sub 8:15. Looking back to March time I seem to have done a lot more sub 8 runs however my heart rate now is a lot more stable and up until 8 miles my HR was below 160 in comparison to high 160′s from before.

Rest day today (Thursday) and i’m taking on lemsip to try to force away the cold that seems to be looming. Hope to go out tomorrow or the weekend and have a sports massage booked in for Saturday to get some of the rubbish out of my legs.

Till next time!

N

As I write this post it feels like my week has been relatively quiet Having missed out on a long run last weekend and most likely will again this week I have had a relatively low mileage month-as the stats box on the right shows! However, whilst I haven’t done any long runs I have managed to get out and do some shorter distances, a couple of which were at high tempo.

On Monday I had the day off work as I was traveling back from a weekend break. Arriving back at the flat at about 2pm I took the opportunity to grab my shoes and go out for a 10k. The weather was HOT and I was running at the warmest part of the day. I had forgotten basic rules of fueling up having only had a couple of cups of tea all day – I would soon learn to regret this. Setting off at a fast pace I had intended on pushing myself and my Garmin suggested I was doing this, however I ran out of energy about 4miles in. My mouth dried up and I seriously needed liquid. From a sub 7:45min/mi average I dropped to 8min/mi in the last mile. Still a respectable time but considering the effort factor vs result it didn’t feel that great a run.

Tuesday morning, as routine, saw me head to the pool and so some weight work beforehand. Nothing substantial just trying to work on my core muscles a bit more to help with the running. I also went out with a colleague for a jog during the lunch break. As always was a nice plod for me at a very comfortable pace – I think during these runs my heart rate is below the +80% meaning I am in the fat burn zone as opposed to lactic zone.

Wednesday was an unexpected rest day due to unplanned circumstances so on Thursday I headed to Shep Bush Fitness First for a long gym session. I was unsure at the time whether to head outside for a run in the sun but eventually opted to push myself on the machines. First off the treadmill – I pushed myself for a sub 20min 5km, I don’t think I have done that before. Setting the base speed at 15km/h this would see me hit bang on 20mins. However, I opted to push myself even more adding half mile intervals ramping up to 18-20km/h. Needless to say this was tough and a challenge but not wanting to stop my session after 20mins I moved to the rowers. I had decided 10mins on these. As it turns out I did 2.5k in slightly over 10mins. Still heavily perspiring from the run I looked round the gym – what next? May as well do a mini tri and jump on the bike. Only a short stint on that racking up 10km. I don’t like exercise bikes as the mechanism seems so clunky and unsmooth. By the end of this ride I had formed a small pond around the bike and looking at my kit it looked like I had jumped into it too! Felt good though so guess that’s what really matters.

As I said at the start unsure when my next run is. I will be out with the serps next Wednesday as I have missed the last two runs. I need to start putting the miles in a bit more as I have been a bit naughty!

Till next time.
N

I very rarely find myself going out and taking it easy. Going at a steady pace and just holding a conversation with my running partner. This evenings serp run gave me that opportunity.

Having raced on Sunday I was always intending on today’s run being a gentle one. I had set myself up to do a 2.5 park (4.5 miles) run at a 8:30-9min pace, a recovery run! As usual I had my arm twisted and agreed to the 3 parks but I wasn’t going to budge on pace. We set off with the correct pack and plodded along at a nice and steady pace. The conversation was easy and I wasn’t finding it too tough, a breath of fresh air from the previous 3 runs all done at sub 7:30 average pace!

About 3 miles in my running partner complained about needing the toilet and as I was happy enough to do the 2.5parks before turning up I didn’t mind cutting the route short and heading back through Hyde Park to speakers corner. We did a short section at the end at a faster intensity which increased my heart rate a bit but other than that a good little 35min ‘jog’.

This jog followed on from a relatively long swimming session in the pool this morning covering over 50 lengths crawl or over 1km. Not since I was a small child have I swam that far, I’m pretty sure I got a 1000m badge having gone up and down the pool at ‘The Bubble’. Sadly I don’t know how long it took me back then but today it didn’t seem too much of a problem and a good routine to add to my training schedule. Plus Baker St Fitness First is a cracking gym and it seems that after 815 or so the pool clears out to only have one or two people in it! Bonus

Till next time.

N

The last post I wrote had me complaining about having heavy legs following the 10k, since that point I did a fastish treadmill session in the gym on Thursday clocking up 6kms which was again felt heavy and on Saturday morning I went for my 3M ‘easy’ run around the block as a warmup. Fortunately the rest day on Friday seemed to go someway to help with the recovery of my legs and Saturdays run felt much better. However as a bonus I was booked into see Chris over at the sports clinic for a 20min session on my legs – perfect pre race massage!

The massage was excellent and left my legs feeling a lot better than earlier and with the added knowledge that I wasn’t showing any real signs of damage I left the clinic ready for Sundays run, although at that point I hadn’t decided whether to race or just take it as a training run, although Chris did say as I left – go and crack 1:45, i’m sure you can.

Sunday arrived and with all the negative press that Silverstone seems to receive I don’t think I was looking forward to it as much as I possibly should – reports of difficulties getting in and out of the course on top of a dull circuit filled me with a bit of dread on the 1 and a bit hour drive. Fortunately, as always, Laura offered to come along and do the driving as well as watch from the sidelines and take photos, this is always a blessing – to have company before and after an event is perfect as it stops me stressing and getting worked up, not what you need before a race!

We got to Silverstone at about 1015 ish, plenty early for the noon start. We pottered down to the start areas and had a look at the shops before I started the lengthy process of sorting out my kit. Gel belt, heart rate monitor, pre-race isotonic drink, toilet break, banana….this routine takes almost as long as running the race but I find it works so I may as well stick to it. At 11:15 over the tannoy we were ushered into the pens, so I left my hoody with Laura and headed in – bad move. It was actually pretty damn cold still and I realised at this point I would be hanging around for 45mins without a jumper – did they really need 45mins to enter pens? On top of this because I got cold my body decided it needed the loo but I decided to hold it, if I needed to go during the route I would grudgingly have to stop!

Bang on midday Martin Yelling started the race and we were off – as usual I set off faster than I had really intended on and found myself running with the sub 8min runners. I tried to take the pace down a bit but judging by my Garmin that didn’t really happen! I managed to maintain a sub 8min/mi for the whole course – averaging 07:43 min/mi and according to my chip time I came in at 1:41:52 a new PB knocking 6 1/2 mins off my previous PB of 3 weeks prior (Laura – you were right I did a 1:48) and amazingly about 20mins off my Half Mara time of last year. On top of that my 10k chip time was sub 45 mins @ 44:15 another PB for me!

Obviously as I hit PB’s the run was incredible for me – it was tough but it wasn’t a killer I’m not sure I had another half in my legs at that speed but that is to be expected really! Marathon training is going well this year All in all a great run, wide course with no bottlenecks which is perfect! Would I do it again? If i was chasing a PB again then possibly, if I was going for scenery then probably not!See 19Mile Splits

Chip Timer Splits
Split Time
5K 00:23:25
10K 00:44:15
15K 01:11:25
20K 01:35:07

place (total) 671
place (gender) 614
place (cat) 484
finish time 01:41:52
http://silverstone.r.mikatiming.de/2010/index.php?content=detail&type=&id=0000030F5ECC83000005416E&lang=EN&event=SVRM&ageclass=

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

On my last run I talked of a sore ankle, this was a bit of a concern for me – having up’ed my speed a bit introducing faster threshold runs I worried I may have damaged something. I decided to do the sensible thing and take the Thursday off meaning I would have a two day recovery period rather than the scheduled one.

On Saturday, acutely aware there maybe a problem I took to the streets for the scheduled 3M warmup run – fortunately all seemed well no symptoms which matched Wednesdays run and it appeared that all was good

I’m a leap year baby so 28 Feb is when I opt for my birthday presents, according to facebook today is my birthday. On sat eve a load of my mates came over to take part in a murder mystery evening – whilst the food wasn’t entirely unhealthy I’m not sure the circumstances were the best pre-race routine especially the going to bed at 1am bit!

Sunday, my birthday and also the date of the Roding Valley half which I had decided to do as it’s rare to find an event where the start is less than a mile from home! On signing up, I realised the date, and new that I would be doing things the night before, howerver, I hadn’t predicted the wind and rain crashing into the window as my alarm went off – brilliant! I was so close to going, nah I won’t bother but fortunately I didn’t.

The race was wet and reasonably undulating couple of nice downhill recovery sections including a 1mile downhill to the finish line. The perfect thing about racing locally is the insider knowledge – I knew about the last mile, knew there wasn’t anything uphill so I think my final mile I clocked in a 7:40! Anyway, the finished the course in 1:48 according to my watch. The official race time came in at 1:50 but that doesn’t take into consideration at least a minute waited to get through a gap in a hedge as the main route was flooded!

I think 1:48 is a pb on my watch, and I actually think the official race time of 1:50 maybe a pb for me too from memory! The other positive thing was I still had more miles in my legs, wooo!

Haven’t seen the schedule for this week all I do know is i’m scheduled for an 18M on Saturday and I’m booked in for the ‘Newham 10k’ (completely pointless for marathon training). This run goes via the Olympic park which is always cool so looking forward to that!

Till next time.

N

Throwing the schedule out of the window today and to try make up for the slow Sunday run I decided to run much further than required, the plan recommends 6miles slow (sub 47mins).

Following the same routine as last Wednesday I set off a tiny bit earlier on route to a tube stop on the central line, at the time Ox Circus was the plan. The first mile as always seemed quite tough and having a quick glance at my heartrate clearly my body wasn’t quite ready for getting out! From that point on the run seemed fine. I kept to the suggested pace without too much of an issue. This was my first (marathon) run with my camelbak – I did a few summer short distances but always put too much liquid in the pouch! Found it quite nice being able to take on liquid with the gels as I ran…

Decided to carry on a couple of tube stops and goto Marble Arch instead adding on a mile or so. All in all a good run, no issues or niggles, hopefully all is on target!

Till next time.

N