Following Dublin Marathon last Monday I have done nothing but eat and bum around. I haven’t put anything on that resemble sports kit, very odd for me – I don’t recall a time since Xmas where I have done NOTHING, even after April I had to go out for a run.

I say nothing, that is technically a lie – a while back I got sent a copy of Just Dance 2 for the Wii to play and review, I guess it relates to the fitness side of the blog which I rarely focus on. It has been on my side waiting for an opportune moment to come and on Sunday afternoon it happened. Anyone who knows me well will be aware that I am a legend on the dance floor and this game is a little bit beneath my ability. Strutting my stuff around the living room to all of the best tunes ranging from Avril to Britney through to the Monster Mash (rather apt as it was Halloween). I’m pretty certain my dance coach would be well chuffed at my ability to hit perfect almost all of the time, he will be ringing me any time soon to add me to the Justin Timberlake backing crew I’m sure.

Anyway, if you have made it to now I’d like to think you have seen through my sarcasm, when it comes to dance I have two left feet and have learnt all my moves from the movie Hitch (make the pizza, chalk the snooker cue etc). Actually that’s a lie, that insinuated I would actually get up to dance in the first place, which I wouldn’t. However, I did play this game and when in ‘duet’ mode with Laura it was actually quite good fun even if she clearly tried a lot more than me (apparently you are supposed to move your legs even if the Wii doesn’t know this!) I can also see how it would be quite good for keeping fit. On a couple of dances, even with my limited ability, I was breaking a sweat. Most of my Wii games get played and go back into the draw. I think this one will be out for Xmas Day 2010 in all its glory – that gives me about 50 days to get good at it

Anyways, think I’ll stick to running in the future, I *think* I’m a little bit better at that!

How do I start…over the last few months I have had my own little secret and on Monday 26th October I managed to exorcise the demons that have followed me around since that day in April.

Following the Test Adidas place at the Thunder Run, where I had the fortune of meeting Gemma and Ath, I was given the opportunity of a place in the Dublin Marathon for myself and Rich (my Weds eve Serpentine training buddy). After a lot of soul searching, I decided that it maybe an ideal event to regain some confidence in this distance and took the place. This was back at the beginning of August and I have been marathon training ever since.

Obviously I had kept my miles up pretty high following London maintaining at least one 7miler a week and a couple of other runs but now I would have to build on top of that a 3 month schedule with 2 holidays in between. At this point the runs in Spain and the 10miler in Miami may make a lot more sense – not that I needed an excuse to run abroad!

I had blogged about 16milers but failed to go into details, I definitely didn’t blog about my 20miler following a day at work and come to think of it the evening after a work meal, I ran to mum and dads and it was this day I told them following enquiries as to why I was running so far! I think I managed a couple of 18′s, a few 16′s and one 20. It was certainly less than Jan-Apr but still consistent. Factoring at least one ‘fast’ session a week to help with the limited training schedule.

The negative split at the Royal Parks was deliberate to test my legs for the second half of a marathon. That weekend would typically be the longest run but having booked into the half months ago I had to take any opportunity I could from it but racing it so late would not have been a wise idea. What I failed to mention on that blog post was the fact at the end of the race we tacked on another 3miles to make it a 16mile session which one of my colleagues actually spotted me doing!

I have trained with Rich a number of times for this race, I have been up at silly o’clock in the morning to get long runs out of the way and whilst he isn’t massively faster than me, I suspect at any race he would beat me to the finish line! As well as this I have been out with colleagues who didn’t realise I was tapering with them and other friends including a jog in Manchester!

On Saturday morning at 5o’clock the alarm went off and Laura and I headed to Stansted. A few hours later we landed in a cold but sunny Dublin and headed to our hotel. We had to pick up our numbers from the expo on Saturday so after a quick bagel we headed over to the conference centre. Saturday was always going to be a non-sightseeing day, reserving those for the bus tour on Sunday (to keep me off my feet) and then Tuesday.

Adidas and Lifestyle sports had set up a ‘Breakfast Run’ predominantly for international runners. Fortunately (and due to Laura’s great planning) this started right outside our hotel and on Sunday morning we headed down and I went for a v gentle 2mile run to stretch out my legs. The run was pleasant and after this we were treated to breakfast (hence the name) and they also put on a show of Irish Dance and Folk Songs. A perfect start to another gloriously sunny morning. After returning to the hotel to get changed we then headed to the bus tour and saw what Dublin had to offer. At about 4pm we headed back to the hotel and used the jacuzzi/pool and generally relaxed in preparation for the marathon.

The Dublin Marathon is on a Monday, this is because it’s a bank holiday over there. At 6am my alarm went off, my kit was already prepared so just put it on and headed for some toasty breakfast. At 730 Rich and I left for the start. It was almost time!

At 8am we met up with Ath, who had also decided to run it. It was certainly chilly and for the next hour we tried to keep warm whilst waiting for the race to start. The next thing I knew I was in the starting pen waiting for the gun!

The first few miles where slow, the route was quite windy with some sharp corners. As the pack was still tight it meant coming to a stop and walking in places. Looking at my garmin, the first mile is my slowest by some margin. It took about 3miles for the field to open a bit and then our times started to better. Laura and Liz had planned where they were to be standing and we spotted them at both locations but after 11miles we were on our own until 24/25 miles…

The first half went pretty well for Rich and I but Ath was visibly struggling and just shy of 12 miles he left us to do some stretching. He had helped hold the pace back and this was shown by the next few miles being a fair bit faster.

We hit 13.1miles in 01:56:33.

From halfway through until 20ish miles things were fairly uneventful. A common feature for the run were the inclines and once again we found more and more of them. Unfortunately the downs seemed short and sharp not really prolonging their benefit! At about 22m I first started to feel it in my right leg. Almost instantly I had a throbbing pain in my right quad. I took 20 seconds to head to a wall and stretch it out but didn’t want to hang around for too long incase I started to seize up elsewhere!

Forcing the pain to the back of my head I carried on with Rich not letting me quit. The pain went until someone stopped dead in my tracks and I had to vault a cone to avoid her. Not a good idea 24miles into a run! I was dragged along by Rich who seemed to ignore my sulking – in hindsight he was right too!

The final mile or so was a blur, I think it went by quite quickly but can’t remember it, just the seeing of the finish line and the end in sight!

3 hours 42 minutes. 52 minutes faster than my last completed marathon but more important than that confidence restored. It’s been a tough 6 months, there was a lot of doubt and concern in my mind but this has now been laid to rest!

A great run and a great experience all around.

Thanks to all those who have supported me and believed in me over the last few months I think it would have been a lot easier to jack it all in but right now as I finish this post I’m glad I didn’t.

Rest time

Race Stats

Overall Position: 3181/10700
10km Time: 00:57:19
13.1m Time: 01:56:33
30km Time:02:42:00
26.1m Time: 03:42:50

It’s Saturday and I am taking it easy this weekend. Perhaps will do a little plod on Sunday but nothing too strenuous to allow my legs to recover from last Sunday. They say it takes 1 day to remove a race mile from your legs so hopefully by Monday all will be good because technically we only ‘raced’ 7 miles of it!

Last night I was both fortunate (and in the last 5 minutes unfortunate!) enough to get a leg massage from Chris Domoney of the Sports Clinic Bluewater. Two years ago when I ran The London Marathon for Fairhavens we were introduced at the initial ‘pasta party’. Fortunately for me whilst he helped out in Southend he has a much more local setup in Kent. Chris is a top bloke and tends not to mince his words, if there is any issues he will send you onto Paul the Physio. I have yet to hear any negativity about either. Quite often Physios/Masseurs are quick to take your money but may not be specific enough to your needs or worse still be scaremongering. After-all if they aren’t involved in running they will often miss-advise or suggest to give up running entirely. Chris is a runner, if you head to his clinic you will see medals and numbers from marathons all around the world including all 5 majors (inspirational in itself…Chris I will have my own display like that one day!). Fortunately, I haven’t needed to see Paul the Physio but have close relations that have and have come back with glowing reviews – these chaps aren’t out there to rob you and if you treat them with the respect they deserve I’m sure the treatment will be top notch.

I hadn’t intended on this blog post being an advertisement for Chris but every so often it’s worth shouting out to the people who have helped out along the way. If you have used either Chris or Paul in the past why not write a quick comment or review below – I’m sure they will appreciate it! If you want to get in touch with either of them see info below (copied from elsewhere):

Chris works privately in Essex as well as having clinics in Surrey and Kent. He is on hand to reply to any running,dietary or general fitness enquiries being an Athletics coach and experienced personal trainer. If you would like to get in touch with Chris you can contact him on 07739 765587.

Paul Smith is a Physiotherapist and can be contacted on 07989 282237.

Thats all for now, till next week!

It’s Sunday evening and this morning I ran The Royal Parks Half Marathon in London. Having booked into this run at the end of March it seemed a long time coming and since that point I have done a number of other runs. My training has been pretty busy recently but today’s run was not about PB’s it was about enjoying the VERY scenic course and being in and around lots of runners in London.

Rich and I had decided during the week we would attempt to run a negative split today, this would be a nice challenge and also test to see our fitness levels. If we could run the first half at a reasonable pace but maintaining a low heart rate and then build up the speed to the end it would prove that our training over the last few months had been good. Having dropped our bags off and done the necessities we made our way to the start pens and made no attempt to go near the front. We were to set off at a 8:45 pace and we figured midway through this pen would suffice. The start was efficient and within a couple of minutes we were off, it was very difficult to force the speed slower and not be pulled along by the runners who set off at a faster pace. Fortunately, the Garmins came to our rescue – if I was going on how I felt no doubt I would have been running a 7min/mi from the start, as it turns out we went through the first mile in 8:30 so not too bad!

The first 6 miles of the course is lovely, taking in a large amounts of the sites of London, as we weren’t going hell for leather I looked up and enjoyed London in all its glory – especially with all the roads closed and lots of runners with huge smiles on there faces (it was the first six miles remember!) We maintained a pace of about 8:30-845 and entered Hyde Park at around 6 miles in 51mins. At 6 miles we opened up looking to increase our pace and hopefully maintain this until the finish. Not quite sure why we started at 6 miles, hardly half way! Anyway, from this point the splits went to about 7:30 average with the fastest being the last mile at a super speedy 7:07 – not too bad considering!

As we approached the final few hundred meters I think both of us thought we maybe able to break 1:45 and we were mighty close, coming in 9 seconds behind. Considering we set off for a 1:50 and the first 6 miles were at at 1:51 pace to reclaim 6 minutes in the second half is pretty good and to be honest those 9 seconds are irrelevant as it wasn’t a “race” for either of us.

Other than the cost, I was really impressed with the event itself and actually don’t have any gripes at all . The market was great and my goody bag is stuffed with treats which is a jackpot. The medal is lovely, and different to all the other ones I have. I would love to do it again but am not sure whether I would want to pay out quite as much for a route that I tend to run on a weekly basis with the Serpies anyway!

All in all though a cracking run, good to take it at a pace where we could have a chat and genuinely enjoy the day. As always, it was great to have Laura (and at the end Rich’s girlfriend Liz) out on the course cheering on, sorry to all those who may have seen me and I ignored, I know there were others out! Well done Soo on completing your first half marathon, hope you enjoyed it a little bit, a sterling achievement!

Gun Time: 01:45:09
First Half Split: 00:55:29
Second Half Split: 00:49:40
Difference between splits: 05:49
Average Speed: 8:00 min/mi
Average Heart Rate: 156bpm.

Thursday night was one of those times. I was ill prepared for a long run, at lunch I went to buy a pre-run energy drink but I got pulled in for a meeting and ended up not drinking anything after lunch. I rushed out of the meeting due to organising to meet with Rich at 5:10 grabbed a flapjack an chucked my kit on as quick as possible. Not the best preparation for a run!

I think the lack of fluid combined with an almost threshold run the day before and an interval session on the Tuesday all meant that this run was going to seem hard. I cocked up with my Garmin (again!) fortunately Rich now has a new watch so I compared information. I ended up doing 13-14 miles by the end, giving up with a stitch at bank station. Looks like we averaged 8:36 which as it turns out wasn’t too bad but during the run it felt like I was running through treacle! Not good.

On Saturday we headed to Manchester for a party. Sam, Laura’s friend is a runner and offered to accompany me on a gentle bimble. Knowing I wasn’t going to be running again till Monday I thought it fine to go for a plod. We hadn’t specified a pace before leaving but agreed to run at a comfortable talking pace. Once again the run didn’t feel easy but we went at a reasonable pace. I logged an average pace of 8:15 for just shy of 10k. Sure it was no pb pace but still tough given everything that is in my legs. All of the splits were sub 8:30 which was good and it was nice to run somewhere different with company. I think I will be back up there in a couple of months for a race in December. That will be interesting as apparently the course is hilly and gets icy, something I’m not used to!!

Sort of recovery day Sunday then trainers back out in order to get to work whilst the tfl go on strike! Fortunately there was a sort of service which meant over the day I only needed to run 6 miles split up over 3 segments. The morning segment was tough my cold is moving south into the lungs and I think that it was showing then. When I got in I took on fruitfruitfruit and fortunately by 5pm I felt much better and my runs were much more comfortable.

Intervals today I think, gentle 7-10miler tomorrow, even gentler shorter run on Thursday then Royal Parks Half on Sunday, this is not a PB race, this is an opportunity to enjoy London and the crowds the plan is to run an 8:30-845 pace which would mean a race time of about 1:50:155. I will be waiting till spring next to push my half PB possibly at Silverstone again! Currently my body is possibly in a better shape than back then with a much lower heart rate on the whole however my speed isn’t where it was back then so there is no point trying!!

Till next time.

N

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

Whilst I may not have done any LONG runs this weekend has been very running based!

On Friday evening I made my way to Oxford Circus on foot via the longer diverted route. My watch again seems to have played up, however it appears to have logged at 6.4m and I reckon there is a chance of 1/2 mile extra. I got a little bit ‘lost’ once again, failing take the correct left turn I ended up at Fleet St before doubling back on myself. It was a good run, respectable pace and all felt good.

Saturday morning was to be one of those hard runs. After about 6 miles my brain started to tell me to give in, call it a day. Niggles appeared in my right knee, left knee in fact there seemed to be pain wherever I thought about, I got slower and slower and just wasn’t enjoying the run. At 8m I decided to throw in the towel and head back home for the final mile. 9miles eyes bloodshot, I didn’t look or feel good but at least I got a jog in!

A few months back I put my name down to be involved in one of the drinks stations at Nottingham Robin Hood Marathon. Organised by Tom Williams and Martin Yelling of Marathon Talk we were to take the mile 19.5 drink station and turn it into ‘The Motivation Station’.

We left for Nottingham Saturday lunchtime, the chaps had organised a BBQ at the campsite that night, this was a good laugh and great to meet some other marathon talk’ers! There was to be a morning jog on the Sunday and as it was promised to be a slow one I joined. At 7 we left the campsite to start a new route. Heading along the River Trent and into Nottingham we passed the Notts Forest ground before heading up and crossing the finish line. We then plodded back and ended up doing a 7mile jog at av 9min/mi, hardly a recovery run but hey it was enjoyable to be somewhere new with different company!!

After we packed up the tent we made our way over to the National Water Sports Center and started unpacking crates of Lucozade and Water, our volunteer work was beginning and about 2 hours after arriving the first of the runners would start trickling through before the peloton finally arrived, at this point the runners came through thick and fast. The point of the station was not just to supply fluid it was also to help push people through the hardest miles of the marathon and I think we may have done that, as people came through the station they left with a huge smile, impressive especially so far into the run!

I had a cracking day, it was good to be able to give something back as I’m normally the one taking the bottles off of people. It once again made me think how much organisation and preparation goes into something like this! Fortunately the weather was kind for us for both days which made the camping experience all the better. Sometimes it’s nice not to be the runner and be the spectator

Till the next time!!

Neil

On Sunday I had decided to meetup with Rich and tackle a long run. I already had plans to go and support Laura and her mum at the adidas 5k so in order to fit in a session I set my alarm for the crack of dawn and at 6:30 I was heading to the station en route to Kennington.

I arrived after much waiting for non-existent Sunday services at 740 to see Rich standing at the station ready to go. Off we plodded trying much harder to stick to the promised 8:45-9 min mi pace. Heading up through Elephant & Castle towards the Tower before swinging right up to Greenwich. The pace was steady but after about 30minutes I was confused by my watch distance. It was displaying a distance much greater than we had covered – odd as it was normally so accurate. I found it peculiar but just ignored it, however it got a wider and wider gap. It wasn’t till I sat down later that day did I realise that the distance was reporting in metric (kms) whilst every other display in statues (mph).

We headed through the Greenwich foot tunnel crossing us back onto the right side of the river before making our way upto lambeth and Hyde park. Evidently whilst playing around with my watch I also paused it mid run meaning I lost 15 odd minutes of data or almost 2 miles. At the point we separated I think we had covered around 16miles and looking at the information the last few miles were possibly faster than the start! I added on a little bit more probably bringing me upto 17.5/18mi and then went to watch the race.

As official bag carrier of the day it was my duty and honour to spectate and watch Laura run round. She seemed to have a great time this year and she did really well taking a massive amount of time off last years run. Most importantly I think she enjoyed it, which I’m really pleased about

As i’m writing this post so late in the week I suppose I should mention how on Monday I fell out of the office door, twisting over on my foot and hence resulting in a lot of pain. Since then I have taken a few rest days to allow all to recover, fortunately today all felt good.

N

It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog post mainly due to me being out of the country! Anyway before going straight into a post about running in Fort Lauderdale I should quickly mention my 14miler with Rich.

On the Sunday before last I met Rich in Kennington following a quick meetup with nan and we ran back to my flat via the Olympic Park. The run went well although quite tough. The pace was reasonable, a talking pace for the most, averaging 8:30min/mi for the distance. The run was in reverse for me as I normally run from the flat to nans. It turns out it’s a bit trickier the other way as after Mile End it’s predominantly up hill! Promising nonetheless and the run was rewarded with a pub lunch straight after.

Two days later we jetted of to the States. Like with Spain I packed my kit but wasn’t sure I’d have quite as much time to run. As it turns out I managed 2 runs. The was first early on in the week. Leaving the hotel at about 7am I crossed the road and ran on the pavement along the coastline. Beautiful. One long road runs parallel to the sea for miles in either direction. I headed along for 2miles before turning back. It was very humid but even still I ran just over 6 miles and returned back to the hotel pleased to have got out.

A few weeks before heading out I googled ‘Fort Lauderdale running clubs’ and the GFLRRC website came up. I thought if they would let me run with them running with company would be nice and fortunately they welcomed me with open arms. So at a ridiculous hour in on the Saturday morning I met them in a mall car park nearby and went for a long run.

At 6am I set off with a group of people, my aim was to do 10 miles at an 8:30-9min/mi pace. I knew from the heat the days previously I wasn’t going to achieve anything quicker especially over that distance. With our group we had a couple of chaps new to training but marathon hopefuls and 2011 Miami Tri wannabes who were running 6miles, an 8mile regular who was pretty nimble on his feet and the coach who would be my guide for the day. Robert, originally from Belgium, took me on a Tour of Fort Lauderdale which was lovely. Some coastal running then heading into the city and running by the canals. He was a great runner, from memory I think he said he was in his late 60s and very very good for age. Much like with Des, from our Thunder Run team, I was in the company of one of the top 50 for age runners in the world.

10miles is normally a challenging run but today it seemed more than that, the humidity really affected things and we came in at an average pace of 8:43. However, if you looked at my clothes after you would have thought someone had pushed me into the sea! My tshirt could have been rung out and my shorts resembled swimming trunks! Having run for about 3 years I can safely say my kit was the wettest it has ever been and that includes running in the rain! I think that should probably highlight how warm it was out there!!

Anyway 10miles is 10miles and it felt bloody brilliant to finish and have some Gatorade and the GFLRRCs Iced Capri suns. I had a brilliant run and was so glad they let me join them for the day. Robert made the run fly by even when I was battling with dehydration

That evening, rather aptly but not planned we headed to Bubba Gumps and sat surrounded by Forrest Gump merchandise. I love that movie and rate it as one of my favourite films even if it does bring back memories of this years marathon…

Now I’m home it’s time to get back onto the road and build up some consistency in September. Let’s hope it doesn’t get too cold!

Till next time…

Last week I was fortunate to get a break from work and we headed away for our first (last minute) break of the school summer holiday.

We were off to Andalusia, in particular Marina Duquesa, a resort on the Spanish coast near to Gibraltar. It was to be a chilled holiday with few excursions booked so I took the opportunity to throw in my trainers and kit in the hope I’d get out once or twice.

On the day after arriving I kitted up for the first time. Opting for an afternoon jog i was soon to regret the choice. I think I set off at about 5pm and was running in a temperature of 30+ with the sun overhead and very little shade. Needless to say it was HOT. I ran along the coastal path for as long as possible whilst having to do detours around numerous dead ends. I called it a day at about 4 miles @ an average 8min/mi pace. I saw little point in killing myself in the heat.

A couple of days later I set off in the morning, aiming for 10 or so miles, I was out of the apartment by 8. At the start the temperature was manageable but by 830/9ish the sun was climbing and the heat rising. I cut my run short at 7miles. I figured that would make up for the missed serpentine 3 parks this week . My average pace was quite slow but I’m going to put this down to the heat again. Running in that temperature is certainly more of a challenge than our climate!

The final run I did was an interval session along the beach. Laura had packed her shoes and wanted to use them so I thought intervals would be the best idea. Whilst we wouldn’t be running together, at least we would be within a few hundred meters of each other. This time it was even later in the evening, about 730pm, fortunately the temperature was falling and running seemed easier. I set off doing interval lengths based on objects along the promenade we were running on. However after 15 mins of warmups, I decided to try out my new audiofuel interval track(review to follow). It was a brilliant session in the end. Heart rate tested and whilst only 3 or so miles were covered it was a great challenge.

Running in Spain was great, whilst I may seem to be complaining about the heat I don’t think it would take long to acclimatise out there. It was great to put on a vest and shades and run with the sea right next to me. I love running abroad as it’s totally different scenery and I find I see places I wouldn’t normally go. It’s not long till my next abroad session which I’m really looking forward too!