Marathon Moggs

Sub-zero training

2012-02-05T11:56:00.002Z

It had been a fairly bitter ride home on the scooter the night before, so I'd been expecting a nippy start to the Saturday. Sure enough, the low morning sun exposed the deep frost which had bitten the garden and my watch's thermometer revealed that the air temperature was a refreshing -4.9℃. It was most definitely a tights day.

A few years back, I wouldn't have been seen dead in tights, or lycra of any description but, since then, I've clearly become less image conscious and more rational and a sucker for comfort. They're eminently sensible for training in this sort of weather, especially for the pre-dawn and post-dusk hours, when you don't even get the mild benefit of the winter sun. Admittedly, your body can warm itself up quite quickly, but if you're only out for 30-45 minutes and intend on training relatively intensely throughout, you've got to give your muscles a chance to make it through the session in one piece. For the longer runs, you could argue that full tights aren't necessary and, despite Saturday's temperatures, I did feel, at times, a little too warm. That said, had I been forced to stop for any period of time, in the middle of nowhere and, let's face it, when you head out for a 2.5-3 hour run, anything could happen, I would have been glad not to have been facing being stuck in just my shorts.

Other items I pulled on for warmth yesterday included a long sleeve thermal icebreaker top, an additional running t-shirt, a Buff, to wear around my neck, a pair of running shorts over my tights, thickish smartwool running socks, cotton gloves and a fleecy running hat.

I always carry a lightweight backpack with me on long runs, to carry my water, a phone, some money, gels and cereal bars. There was a stark contrast between the temperature when running into a chilly Easterly in the shade, versus being sheltered from the wind and in full sun. Having the backpack to hand, meant I could remove, or put back on, hat, gloves, buff as required to regulate my temperature, keeping them within easy reach in the elasticated side pockets.

Saturday's run was an 18 miler at MP (target marathon pace) plus 45 seconds [per mile], it took me around 2h25m. I didn't find the pace too tough, although I had taken it a bit easier during the week, due to a slight injury (banging my knee on a kitchen unit!), so my energy levels were probably slightly higher than what they would have been. Nevertheless, 18 miles is still a long way and I was suitably exhausted at the end of my uphill finish and struggled to keep up with my children who'd come to meet me at the finish and were demanding piggy back rides and tree climbing! I think it's called a warm down...

Completing the Kielder Marathon without taking the bus

2011-10-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

On Sunday 9th October, I lined up with two friends and another 1,200 or so people for the second running of the Kielder Marathon, billed as Britain's most beautiful marathon. I'm not convinced that beauty is an appropriate characteristic to focus on when describing such an event, certainly it wasn't top of my list during the last 8 miles, which were gruelling, seriously painful, pretty lonely and seemingly unending. Undoubtably, the trail's quality and setting is pretty spectacular and, despite its arduous nature, neither I, nor my friends, gave up and caught the bus, unlike the chap who came in third, only to be found out and then have his story plastered over the national news.

Kielder and specifically Kielder Water, around which we ran, is in Northumberland, a few miles from the Scottish border and miles from anywhere. The area is so remote, it boasts absolutely no mobile reception and some of the darkest skies in the country with even a possibility of catching the Northern Lights, so long as the conditions are right.There was certainly no chance of any Northern Lights action on marathon day, as we lined up in a penguin-like huddle, shielding one another from the ripping wind and constant drizzle.

The photos within the review of a previous edition of Runners World, showed no sign of rain, having enjoyed autumnal sunshine throughout, neither did they give much away about the sort of terrain that required "steep incline" signposts dotted along at000 all too regular intervals. It's fair to say that the three of us hadn't really done our research and had seen the pictures, read that it was around a lake and come to the conclusion that it would be flat and relaxing, in an amazing setting. Oh how wrong we were, about the first two bits at least.

I picked a position a hundred or so yards from the start, having decided my initial target time, of as close to 3:30 as possible, might have been a little ambitious after hearing that the 2010's women's event was won in just under 3 hours by Lizzy Hawker, the recently crowned ultra running world champion having outperformed all men and women in a 24 hour endurance event.

Despite my newly tempered target time, of anything under 3:40, and the immediate 200+ metre climb out from the start, I went off with a spring in my step and completed the first mile in a little over 8 minutes. The next couple of miles were a little quicker still, due to being largely downhill. By mile 3, the field had spread out and we were off the roads and onto the trail.

Coming round about mile 4 or 5, the route ahead was being traced out by a string of quicker runners snaking their way round an inlet, across a bridge, before winding up into the forest ahead. This happened to be a relatively small inlet, unlike some further round the course which could place you tantalisingly close to a point 3 miles, or so, further round, before doubling you back on a long trawl inland. It's fair to say that the trail is seldom flat or uninteresting.

The miles ticked by and the mood was buoyant. I found my pace within the field although discovered the tactics of those around me weren't all like mine. I'd decided to walk the steeper of the inclines and make up time by letting my legs cartwheel down the other side. The tactic seemed to be working. I'd keep sight of runners (well, joggers at this point) making their way up the hill ahead of me and then thunder past them on the downhills and try to keep the momentum going on the flats. I was using gravity and not fighting it, but I could tell the thighs were beginning to suffer as a result.

Around mile 12, just before half way, my legs felt about as punished as they tend to around 17/18 miles on a training run. This did not bode well for the last 7 or 8 miles of the race but there was no point worrying about it, I'd made my bed and there was no way I was going to pull up now.

Crossing the half way point gave the whole pack a bit of a lift and, consequently, the general pace notched up a little. I also realised we'd maintained the spritely start pace and were actually on target for a sub-3:30 finish, but with 13 miles to go, it wasn't time to start counting chickens. Soon after half way, we could see the dam at the end of the reservoir agonisingly close but for a huge inlet ahead of us. Nothing to do but to get your head down and get on with it.

Rounding the inlet and undulating through the forest for a while further, we came thundering down a hill towards a road and could see the dam ahead of us. There was a decent crowd of spectators at this point and a chap on a megaphone reading out some of the runner's names as they came past. My name was read out and this, the crowd, the aforementioned stretch of downhill and the prospect of a long flat stretch of road ahead, the only flat stretch on the course, all led to my pace being ratcheted up yet further. In fact, as I hit the dam and glanced at my watch I was clocking not much above 7 minute miles.

I ran close to the dam wall to shelter from the cross wind and kept my head down, determined to maintain the pace. I reached the other end of the dam having clocked what would be my fastest mile of the race, overtaking a number of people along the way. Another crowd was waiting for us at the other side of the dam and that helped me maintain the momentum to take me into the final 5 or so miles.

A half mile further, the crowd was out of sight, my legs were pounding and my energy levels slumped. I felt as if I'd used all my reserves to speed through the last couple of miles, when I'd felt the finish was within touching distance. 5 miles is still a long way and with what feels like no energy, it can seem like an eternity.

I'm loathe to write much about the last 4 or so miles, for fear of digging up terrible memories and making me never want to run one of these things ever again. To pass time, I started to count my steps, 1, 2, 3, 4...300, quarter mile marker passed. Ok, I was running about 1200 paces to a mile, that's a lot of counting, but it did keep my mind off of the pain, sort of.

3:30 was still in sight, but it would take some doing. I managed, somehow, to ignore the pain of my now leaden quads but was starting to be overtaken by one or two folk, who'd clearly judged their race a little better. About a mile out, I knew I had to put in a sub-8 mile to get in in under 3:30. The past few miles had been nearer 8:15, so this was still touch and go.

I raised the tempo and then decided to try one of my flat out finishes from around the 300 metre mark, it seemed to take forever, then I emerged from the forest and could see the finish gantry...up a hill. Thanks race organisers, just what we needed for the final 50 metre push.

I finished the race in 3:29:34, after pulling a 7:30 minute last mile. I was over the moon with that result. Not sure whether I'll be back next year, it took several days before I was able to walk properly again, my legs had taken such a pounding. I'm very happy to have taken part in such a great event around such a unique course and let's just leave it at that!

Course as mapped by my Garmin 310XT

Breaking 1h30 in the Stratford Half Marathon

2011-05-09T22:17:00.000+01:00

Anything under 1h40, with half an eye on 1h35 had been the target. Of course, race time predictor said otherwise and, based on my current 5 and 10k times, had me a couple of minutes under 1h30 for the half marathon, but my times have always been relatively slower in longer events, probably due to a lack of time spent on longer runs.

I'd pushed hard in my interval training and tempo runs, but always dropped down a gear or two on the longer runs, for fear of blowing up 5 miles from nowhere. The thought of turning up to the race and running for an hour and a half at under 6:55 min/mile seemed ridiculous. The fastest long training run I'd clocked prior to the half marathon, was at 7:40 min/mile pace. Almost a minute per mile slower.

The Race

As the horn sounded, at the start of the Shakespeare Half (and Full) Marathon, the adrenalin kicked in and, predictable as ever, I sped off way quicker than intended, only to find myself sitting in a group who rounded the first 4 corners of the race to finish the first mile in near enough 6 mins 30 seconds. I'm yet to start a race where I've not gone off a little faster than I'd anticipated, I know I'm not alone. It's partly due to the excitement, partly due to a voice inside you persuading you that of course you can squeeze a couple more minutes off your target time. That and you're feeling fresh, fresher than for any of your training runs, assuming you've tapered, makes it tricky to tune your body into a sensible, and sustainable, race pace.

After completing mile one 40 seconds quicker than planned, I pulled back to around a 6:50 pace, as did many of the folk around me. I still felt very comfortable and thought I'd try and hold the pace to mile 4 or 5 and see how I felt. Having run some long training runs and completed a few marathons, I feel capable of visualising how my body will react over the course of 5 or so miles. Beyond that, it's a little more uncertain. I know when I reached 18 miles in my last marathon, I stepped the pace up a notch as I felt comfortable I could sustain it to 23/24 miles, and get myself the last couple of miles on sheer determination. It worked.

A couple of small hills behind us, we hit mile 5 and my average pace was around 6:55. I felt I could sustain this, at a push, so I kept it going. The course had flattened out a little by this stage and I knew there was only one long hill left around the 9 mile mark. We passed through a couple of villages, with pockets of cheerful and welcoming support out along the route, which always picks you up and made for a pleasant middle section of the race.

The miles were passing quickly and soon enough the long drag up around mile 9 was upon us. I slowed a little, focused on the ground a few metres in front of me and just kept the legs turning. The hill wasn't difficult, just quite long and I quickly made up for the slow down in pace on the descent.

I've never done a few hilly courses previously and have never been one to hold back on descents, preferring just to lean forward and let the legs go. The thighs do take a bit of a pounding, but it's a sure fire way to make up for any lost time on the ascents. By the time you reach the bottom, your legs have gotten used to moving more quickly and you find it easier to sustain a higher pace, even when the ground's levelled out.

The mile or so after the descent, I was running a little quicker than 6:40 per mile. I eased off a little through mile 11, having bought my average right back down and, despite my fuzzy running brain, I managed to work out that a quick finish might just get me home in under 1h30.

The 12 mile marker was close to a 180 degree turn down off the main road and onto a track. I checked my watch, which was showing 1:23 something. A little over 1 mile to go and less than 7 minutes remaining. I caught up with the man in front and encouraged him to join me in attempting a quick finish to get in under 1h30. We slogged it out and at 200m to go, I went flat out, realising there were literally seconds in it.

I completed mile 13 in 6:20 and the final 0.1 mile in under 30 seconds, to finish happily in a time of 1h29m56s.

As happy as I was with it, I hadn't set out to achieve this time, it was about 5 minutes up on what I thought I could do, but then you never do really know what you can achieve until you truly push yourself. And that I will keep doing.

Pre-half post

2011-05-04T20:36:00.000+01:00

So I fired up the blog and noticed that I hadn't actually posted anything since the 1st January. That's kids for you!

Well, to summarise, I kept the engine ticking over through winter and more recently stepped back into the FIRST 3 plus 2 plan to train up for this weekend's Shakespeare Half in Stratford-upon-Avon, the first of 4 events over the course of the next 5 weeks. The other events consist of 2 sprint triathlons, Crystal Palace and Blenheim Palace and the Denbies 10, a beautiful but hilly cross-country jaunt in the North Downs.

By this time last year, I'd already set my 5km PB and broken my 10km PB twice in the space of 3 weeks. I'm feeling some way off of that over the shorter distances this year, due to lack of speedwork training and general lack of running at points, but I don't feel in too bad a shape for my first half marathon on Sunday.

The target time for Sunday is anything below 1:40, with an outside chance of breaking 1:35 if I'm feeling fighting fit and have managed to rack up a few good nights' sleep, something that's not all that common at present due to our monkey of a 15 month old waking us up every 2 hours!

Statistics for 2010

2011-01-01T16:56:00.000Z

As it's the start of a new year, I thought I'd pull out the cumulative stats for 2010, at least those I've registered through the Garmin connect website. So here they are:

	Running	Cycling	Swimming	Other	Total
Activity Count	117	73	63	10	263
Distance (km)	1,023	2,305	52	118	3,498
Time (hrs)	87.5	96	20.5	19	223
Elevation Gain (m)	6,364	10,008	-	9,895	26,267
Avg Speed (km/h)	12.0	24.0	3.2	-	16.5
Avg HR (bpm)	149	148	-	-	149
Calories	60,643	29,525	-	-	90,187

Looking at this, a few obvious and potentially interesting observations are that:

I run at half the speed that I cycle and burn twice the amount of calories per hour
Despite burning more energy, my heart rate while running and cycling are very similar
On average I exercise 5 times a week and my average session lasts for 35 minutes

I'm keeping this post short, as December's been a bit of a non-month, exercise wise at least. However, as I'm sure many of use will be saying at this point, January is a chance to put that one right.

As a final statistic of current interest, is that I have put on nearly 2kg during the month of December. Hopefully I'll be able to lose it just as quickly in January!

Setting a new PB in the Berlin Marathon

2010-10-05T23:19:00.004+01:00

It's done. Marathon number 3 is complete and a new PB is set.

The final run up

The final week's preparation consisted of carb loading, an intervals session and a final 3 miler at marathon pace, to get the legs used to the tempo.

I don't know whether it was all the pasta and rice I was eating weighing me down, or the nerves of the upcoming race, but that final 3 mile run felt way tougher than it ought. Such a short run at this stage, should have been a breeze, a final confidence booster. Instead, it was a slog and I had to put it to the back of my mind before heading out to Berlin the next morning.

Changeable weather and walking paranoia

The Berlin Marathon has a reputation for having warmer than desirable conditions, and Friday afternoon was a mild 25 degrees with blue skies, warm for running indeed.

We wandered down to the expo, got a bit lost, walked to registration, queued, walked a bit more and arrived back at the hotel having felt we'd walked a couple of miles too many. My legs were feeling it already, although, so close to a marathon you've spent weeks preparing for, any slight abnormality feels like it spells disaster. Your mind tricks you into worrying about everything. Stairs, standing around, pretty much any time you've not got your feet up makes you feel like you could be just about to waste 100s of hours of training in the space of a few misspent minutes, a day or two before the race.

Of course, that's rubbish. We walked a fair distance, you tend to when you have to register for these events, and with my legs not being used to walking much of late (just running...), I felt it, but it was still Friday and the race was on Sunday.

Friday evening remained warm enough to eat outside but, come Saturday, it all changed. 25 degrees became 13 and the rain looked like it was set for the long haul.

Today was the day of the inline skating marathon. Running in the wet is bearable, sometimes quite refreshing, soggy feet are a pain, and if the wind picks up it can be nasty, but you can generally avoid puddles and built up cities tend not to suffer too much from strong winds. Skating, however, does not like something to be doing on greasy road surfaces in relentless rain, so fair play to them.

A bad night's sleep followed, but that's always the way the night before a race, for me, at least. Fortunately, the Friday night I'd managed to get plenty in and was still feeling quite refreshed and ready for the race ahead.

The wet race ahead. It was tipping it down outside. Still, nothing to do but get on with it. Right, what next?

Breakfast

Pre-race breakfast was as follows:

2 x bowls of Bircher muesli with extra banana and honey (the honey didn't go so well with the other fruit, but I felt I needed it, as it was what I was used to)
3 x cups of coffee, not too much milk
1 x orange juice
2 x small slices of granary bread with jam
1/2 x bottle of lucozade sport drunk on the way to the race

We were staying pretty close to the centre of town, right by the halfway point, and getting to the start area was simple. Getting into the start pen, however, was a different matter. We were funneled down various paths, too narrow to cope with the amount of people and gradually the crowds were forced to disperse into the woods and find any means possible to get to the start.

As the starting horn sounded, people were still trapped on the wrong side of barriers. I'd managed to jump them with about 30 seconds to spare. It wasn't ideal, but spirits were high, bolstered further by Chariots of Fire playing out over the loud speakers. It was on.

The race

At the start of any popular marathon, it's incredibly difficult to settle into a rhythm, but it's so important to force yourself to try and avoid the temptation of bolting out of the gate and zig-zagging your way through the crowds. No matter how good you feel and how tempting it might be, save all the energy you can, this is not a short race.

I set out intending to run the first half averaging a little over 8 minute miles. 4-5 miles in I was a little ahead of myself but the pre-race drinks were catching up with me so I decided to make a quick pitstop.

I ran the next couple of miles a little quicker to get back on the pace but then found myself not wanting to slow back down again and had started to clock 7:45s. With around 18 miles still left to run, I was wading into uncharted waters and realised this was likely too fast to maintain, so I forced myself to slow a little.

Soon after, I struck up conversation with a fellow racer. We both admitted we'd set off too fast and were worried about sustaining it, so we decided to chat and pull up on the pace a little. It was a great distraction, the next few miles flew past and the temptation to keep accelerating in the first half of the race had gone.

We parted one another somewhere after mile 10, I picked the pace back up a little and passed the half way point in 1 hour 46 minutes.

Half way point - Split 1:46:26; Pace 8:00 min/mile

You set yourself goals and decision points in a race, I do at least, and I knew it was now that I was going to decide whether to increase, maintain or pull up on the pace. Of course I'd hoped I would feel like increasing pace and, fortunately, I was still feeling strong, so I decided to up it a little.

I crept the pace up, so that my Garmin was reading about 7:55. I then began the near impossible task of working out pacing tables in my head, to figure out how to get me round in under 3:30. Anyone who's not attempted simple mathematic problems while running long distance, might not appreciate just how hard this is. Take it from me, it's weird how stupid running turns you.

By mile 14, I'd roughly worked out that I needed to knock off about 10 seconds a mile from my first half's pace, so that's what I did and, amazingly, managed to stick with it mile after mile.

I kept hydrating and eating through my gels regularly, taking on a gel every 35-40 minutes and only taking on up to 1/2 a cup of water every other water station, or 3-4 miles. At no point did I feel dehydrated or lacking in energy, so I felt I'd struck an optimum with this strategy.

No wall. A first for me

I was expecting it the whole time. Here I was clocking 7:50 minute miles, a full 30-40 seconds per mile quicker than my last marathon, and fully prepared, at any moment, for my body to tell me enough is enough.

That moment never came. Sure, I felt pain, it's still a marathon, my legs were getting gradually heavier, my feet were screaming at me to stop but I never felt that I couldn't make it nor did I have any desire to stop. In fact, the overwhelming desire was to gradually edge ever so slightly quicker, to make the finish come round just that bit faster!

So that's what I did and my last few miles ranged between 7:35 and 7:50, resulting in me finishing the marathon in 3 hours 28 minutes.

Finish time - 3:28:42; Pace 7:58 min/mile

N.B. To anyone running the Berlin Marathon, when you reach the final mile, you'll see the Brandenburg Gate in the distance and will likely begin to accelerate towards it, as did I. Not only does it seem to take forever to reach the gate, but when you do, you're actually still around 300 metres from the finish, which is another agonising minute of running, just when you thought you were done! It's all worth it though, as with every marathon I've taken part in, the pain is worth it in the end.

1 week to Berlin / Team Challenge Triathlon

2010-09-19T19:41:00.009+01:00

Last week's 13 miler at 8 min/mile has left me with a minor injury hangover, the first in many weeks of training. With hindsight, it probably wasn't the best route to have chosen for my marathon pace long run. Throwing in unnecessary steep hills on top of the exhaustion levels I was running at, 14 weeks into my training, was just that, unnecessary.

The pain is completely bearable, at least it has been for the sub-hour sessions I've put in this week. Best bet I feel is to not overdo it and apply the usual combination of ibuprofen gel and ice. I think I strained something pushing up onto my toes, while running up a steep hill. The pain runs from my achilles, down across the ball of my foot until it reaches my big toe. But, as I say, it's not severe and too late to worry about it now anyway. Always good to get your pre-race excuses in anyway!

The taper is in full effect and this week's training was certainly less intense than last week's. Intervals were based around 1k reps and Thursday's tempo run was a 10km river loop with the first 2 miles easy and then a 3 mile blast at 6:45 min/mile, which was challenging to maintain.

More photos...

I rounded off the first week of taper with a triathlon. No, I'm not insane, it was a relatively short triathlon and, more than that, it was a team event (The Fix's TRI Challenge Team Triathlon). This meant that, while we all completed every event, we had ample time to recover between legs. It's a good race to introduce triathlon to novices as you get to do all the events, don't have to worry about transitions and get to catch up with your mates and take in the atmosphere, while the other member of your team is off doing their bit.

It's the first training plan run I've missed, since switching onto the FIRST training program about 7 weeks ago. I was supposed to have done 10 miles, instead I exercised for about an hour at a greater intensity, but only ran for 5km. It's going to have to do and it's probably rested my injury more than a 10 miler would have.

Boy am I looking forward to that cold pint of lager this time next week!

Race Result: 2:59:03 - 32nd (out of 91); distances 3 x 400m swim, 3 x 15km cycle, 3 x 5km run (results...)

Week commencing Sunday 12th September

Total exercise: 4h 48m
Distance covered: 85km

60km cycling (incl. 15km in triathlon)
1.7km swimming (incl. 400m in triathlon)
23.3km running (incl. 5km in triathlon)

Breakdown:

5 x 1km reps @ 3:40 min/km, with 400m jog recoveries
2M easy; 6M @ 6:45 min/mile; 1M easy
5km @ 4 min/km (as run leg of triathlon)

Final push before the taper

2010-09-11T19:36:00.005+01:00

Following on from Saturday's 20 miler, I knew I had to get through a few more serious training sessions, before I would finally be on the taper. As I write this, I'm thankful those are now behind me and look forward to easing off a bit and allowing my body to replenish itself in time for the big event.

Tuesday's interval session was, without question, the toughest sub-hour training session I've put myself through. I'd already run 20 miles at 8:10 min/mile 3 days beforehand, so I wasn't exactly coming into this fresh. The daunting task of having to run 8 x 800m back-to-back, at pace, with only a 1m 30s to recover in between sounded particularly unpleasant and the reality didn't disappoint. For the last few, it was all I could do, in the the recovery intervals, to collapse on the floor and look skyward as I regained my breath. Then, no sooner had my heart rate returned to closed to some form of normality than we were off again. It was relentless, let's hope it's all been in a good cause.

Thursday's run was a slightly more relaxed short tempo session at sub-7:15 min/mile pace. It still took me to the edge of what felt comfortable, as most of these sessions tend to be, and the 5 miles went quickly but I did struggle to hold on to the pace. Any longer and I don't think I could have maintained it.

My final run over 10 miles, before the race, was Saturday's half marathon at marathon pace. An exhausting week of fast paced run sessions, swimming and a couple of bad nights' sleep made this feel more difficult than I'd hoped. At least, that's what I'm putting it down to.

It's said that the most important night's sleep is that 2 nights before the event. You get what sleep you can the night before, but the urge to keep checking your alarm's set and then dreaming you've just woken up to miss the start of the race, tends to put pay to any attempts on a sound night's kip. Hence why it's even more important to get several hours in the night before. It'll be an early night on the Friday, then.

Week commencing Sunday 5th September

Total exercise: 3h 52m
Longest run: 13 miles
Distance covered: 39.9km

No cycling
2.4km swimming
37.5km running

Breakdown:

8 x 800m reps @ 3:40 min/km, with 1m 30s recoveries
5M @ sub-7:15 min/mile
13M @ MP (8:00 min/mile)

3 weeks to Berlin: Last of the long runs

2010-09-05T19:18:00.006+01:00

This was the last of the big mileage weeks in the run up to Berlin and the training plan had popped in a sneaky load of short, sharp intervals just for good measure.

With a bank holiday on the Monday, I took the opportunity to slip in my first outing on the road bike, since returning from France. A few weeks off the bike had had a noticeable effect and the legs felt nowhere near what they had been. I guess it was to be expected really, my cycling thighs have already visibly reduced, since piling on the running miles and leaving the bike at home. I can't stop being amazed at how quickly your body can transform, when you improve your regularity and turn up the intensity of your running. Everything starts to slim down as your body starts to tell you, "you won't be needing this, and these can definitely go and, while you're about it, you may as well have a haircut, don't leave anything to chance!"

It was good to have been back on the bike, but this month is all about running, we're only 3 weeks away now, so of course it is. So back to those intervals...

Ten reps of any running sounds, well, repetitive and, probably quite tiring and time-consuming. It wasn't so much the fast bits that worried me, but the recovery runs were at a steady pace and with those and the warm ups and cool downs, this was going to be anything but quick for a mid-week, post-work, post-kids going to bed session.

The other worry was that the last time I'd run 400m at pace, I unsettled an old injury in my lower back. It had taken me 6 months of rest and gentle running to get back to full strength and I wasn't keen on popping my back with the marathon in clear sight. Fortunately, the pace wasn't too full on and my core strength is much improved on what it was when I injured myself, a little over a year ago, so I came through unscathed. The session was repetitive, obviously, but intervals always feel quite rewarding and like you're forcing a real change to the physiology of your body, at least that's what I convince myself.

Thursday night's marathon pace run was tiring, I'd cycled 30km the day previous, to get into work and back and so hadn't had much rest between this and Tuesday's intervals. I got myself through it by remembering that, on marathon week, I'll be mostly resting and not doing back-to-back exercise and that this was why I was finding the pace tough going.

The same mind tricks had to be used for Saturday's 20 mile session, this was always going to be the toughest training run, 20 miles at 15 seconds per mile over marathon pace. I'm not going to lie to anyone and pretend that the last 7 miles didn't hurt. But that's just it, a half-marathon feels relatively comfortable, anything more starts to put real strain on your body, that's the challenge of the marathon, it requires dedication to training over several months to reach the form you require. If you're going to run it, that is. For one, once you've run for more than 2 hours straight, you've burnt off your body's natural store of glycogen, running beyond here is uncharted territory for your body and the point from which you have to keep taking on more fuel, or you'll drop. Getting this right, both in terms of what to take on and when, can be key to maintaining a level head and keeping the negative thoughts at bay. I've not figured out the perfect balance just yet but, through experimenting with different gels, bananas and sports drinks, I'm building up a reasonable picture.

Whatever I did, I managed to get through the training run at a pace just marginally slower than race pace, and felt I had a couple more miles in me. Without a week's worth of back-to-back exercise the preceding week, surely those extra 4-5 miles are within reach.

Week commencing Sunday 29th August

Total exercise: 7h 33m
Longest run: 20 miles
Distance covered: 111.9km

55km cycling (including a commute and a Richmond Park session)
800m swimming
47.35km running (400m reps; 8M @ MP; 20M @ MP + 15sec/mile)

Breakdown:

10 x 400m reps @ 3:35 min/km, with 400m recoveries @ 6:30 min/km
8M @ 7:53 min/mile
20M @ 8:09 min/mile

4 weeks to Berlin: The long runs are getting easier

2010-08-28T19:26:00.008+01:00

I'm still struggling to summon enough energy on a Monday to cycle in to work as a gentle piece of cross-training. The legs just feel drained from the week's activity and the intensity of the sessions. My body's adjusting, that's for sure. I've always maintained that running has got to be one of the quickest ways to burn off excess fat and drop a couple of kilos, but I've never shed weight so quickly as I am having shifted onto FIRST's 3plus2 training plan.

The key seems to be the intensity of the workouts. Previously, I've undertaken one intense weekly session of a timed 5k, say, as my speed workout and then run 2-3 times more in the week at a far lower intensity. On my current plan, there's no let up, even the long runs are only 10-30 seconds per mile off marathon pace and the midweek tempo run really take you right to the edge. Consequently, I've dropped 2.5kg in 4 weeks, 2.5kg less to worry about dragging around Berlin.

One difference is that the plan's pacing tables key off of your current 5k race form and extrapolate, whereas other plans tend to work back from your projected marathon time. And if you don't have a current 5k time to work from, the first thing you're prompted to do is go out and run flat out to get one!

Over the past couple of years, I've managed to get my 5k times down to a reasonable level, but I know I've not got the endurance, yet, at least. So I have to cheat, ever-so slightly. I stick to the fierce paced midweek sessions, which take me to the brink of exhaustion over 45 to 75 minutes, and pace my long runs halfway between my last marathon time and my projected time, according to the tables. A fair compromise, I feel, given I've joined the program quite late in the day.

Whatever the plan makes me feel like during the speed sessions, something must be working. Compared with the 15 mile run I did 2 weeks back, today's session was noticeably more comfortable. It wasn't quite so hilly, granted, but it was a quicker pace and still had its share of hills over the last 5 miles through Richmond Park. To top it off, the sun finally decided it was going to make an appearance in August, which made for a pleasant backdrop to my post-race coffee and banana in the park.

Week commencing Sunday 22nd August

Total exercise: 4h 57m
Longest run: 15 miles
Distance covered: 50.35km

3km swimming (incl. 2 laps of Heron Lake)
47.35km running (1600m reps; 10M tempo; 15M @ MP + 10sec/mile)

Breakdown:

3 x 1600m reps @ 3:45 min/km, with 400m/2-3 min jog recoveries
10M @ 7:45 min/mile
15M @ 8:10 min/mile

5 weeks to Berlin: First 20 miler in 18 months

2010-08-22T10:58:00.004+01:00

After the previous Saturday's 15 mile effort up to Newland's Corner, my legs were saying no to any more exercise for Sunday and Monday. So I went for a lap and half around Heron Lake on Sunday morning, to get a bit of a cardio workout but couldn't stomach my planned cycle to work on Monday. I'm sure I could have made it, but I knew what Tuesday had in store, so I held off and took a rest day.

On my current training plan, FIRST's "3plus2", see my previous post, Tuesdays are speedwork days. These are no ordinary speedwork sessions, not for a hobbyist like me at least, these are intense, pushing my mental and physical boundaries and designed to promote the necessary physiological changes in my body to improve performance. In short, they hurt.

I'd experienced doing 800m reps at a track before, they also hurt, but these were elongated reps at a similar pace, namely the following:

- 1k, 2k, 1k, 1k, with 400m walk/jog recovery intervals in between

The pace for each is calculated based on your current 5k race form. I plugged in 20 minutes for that and ended up having to run the 1k stretches at 3:40/km pace and the 2k at 3:50/km. Some simple maths tells you that means finishing 5k in 18:40, with the benefit of interspersed 2-3 minute breathers. It felt pretty tough.

I swam on Wednesday, for 1 of my 2 cross-training sessions and Thurday required me to perform a mid-tempo run, translating to a 1 mile warm up, followed by 5 miles at sub-7 min/mile pace. Again, this felt right up there in terms of effort.

Saturday was a monster 20 mile session, I threw in a couple of hills too, for good measure. I ran with a couple of friends, also taking part in the Berlin marathon, and we took off at a steady 9:30/mile pace and thank goodness we did. The first 12 miles felt very comfortable, then the wheels started to fall off, so to speak.

Mile 16 was probably the point at which I really could have done with stopping, the point at which mind has to take over matter, or you've had it. The addition of a steep-ish hill at 17 miles just made this worse.

By this point, we were two, neither of us really feeling like holding conversation. It was all we could do to to focus every ounce of energy into keeping the mind focused and the legs turning. 17.5 miles in, the hills, the steep ones at least, were behind us and we admitted to one another that we felt beaten. But, of course, we weren't, at least our legs were still moving, sort of, so the feeling was purely mental and could be beaten. I motioned that we'd best get used to it as there wouldn't be any let up over 26.2 miles on the day. Anyone who's run the distance before will know what I mean when by the dark miles from 19-23.

We pushed on, every 100yds a tacitly acknowledged milestone, until we reached mile 19 and were lifted by the thought of only 1 mile to go. It's strange how your body does that, it obviously holds something back and then when it knows you're ok and can finish, the reserves flood in and you lift yourself to the finish.

A solid run, nothing too pacey, but anything quicker probably would have broken us. The hills will have probably burnt the energy of another mile or two on the flat, which is always something to draw on for the event.

Bring on Berlin!

Week commencing Sunday 15th August

Total exercise: 5h 35m
Longest run: 20 miles (3:07)
Distance covered: 53km

50km running
3km swimming

6 weeks to Berlin: Last minute switch onto FIRST training plan

2010-08-15T10:59:00.006+01:00

A big run week, doubly so as I chose to switch my long run day from Sunday to Saturday. Touch wood, I still appear to be injury free, despite putting in the high mileage (40+ miles). The week's runs culminated in a hilly ascent up to Newlands Corner, okay, so it's not the alps, but 300m of ascent in the Surrey Hills is still 300m of ascent. Perhaps this wasn't the best route to have chosen for my first week of switching onto the FIRST training plan.

Boiled down, the FIRST training plan is about quality over quantity, about how you can achieve better times on just 3 runs and 2 cross-training workouts per week, in contrast to the high mileage 5 and 6 day-a-week plans, one ordinarily subscribes to. I picked up "RUN LESS, RUN FASTER" off Amazon last week and have had a first skim through it and dived into some of the sessions in more detail. So far, it's been a good read and sounds convincing, but the proof will be in the pudding. Given Berlin is only 6 weeks away, I'm not going to hold them to that race for results and will hang on until London 2011 to see just how well it works.

The plan emerged when the two main authors, both sports scientists, took up triathlon and couldn't find the time, or more to the point the energy, to fit in 6 runs as well as the cycling and swimming. They cut their running down to just 3 sessions, but saw no decrease in performance, as a result. Was there any reason this wouldn't work for others? Several studies later and there is a growing number of people subscribing to their plan. As someone who's been training predominantly for triathlon for the past several weeks, it felt like an ideal plan for me to hop onto and frees up more time to spend with the family, while still allowing me to fit in the occasional cycle and swim as a part of the plan. And that's all good in my book.

Week commencing Sunday 8th August

Total exercise: 7h 16m
Longest run: 15 miles
Distance covered: 96.5km

30km cycling (one commute to and from work)
65.8km running (swapped long run day to Saturday, hence extra high mileage)
700m swimming

7 weeks until Berlin

2010-08-07T12:02:00.016+01:00

The most recent week involved a fair bit of travelling in the car as we headed home from the French Alps. With two young'uns in tow, stops are frequent and the service areas, as good as many of them are, aren't ideal spots to get your training in, they don't even let Dads on the bouncy castle!

The week started with a fantastic ride out of Megeve, down into the valley around Sallanches, up the other side, back down and across into a climb up through St Gervais and on to Megeve. A blue sky, sunshine day, meant it would be hot, but we set off before 9, so it wasn't too bad and the crystal clear views across to Mont-Blanc were stunning. The Garmin failed to transfer data, gutting, so I mapped the ride out on map my ride instead.

The first 20 minutes were all downhill, as we descended into the valley. We took in the Côte de Domancy, used as a circuit in races as well as for hill rep training by the likes of Lance Armstrong.

St. Gervais; Seen across the valley, beneath the Mont-Blanc range

It's a 2.4km road at an average of 9.2%, so not too severe, but I believe the pros make it so by sprinting up it. We were on the way down, so it was a cinch.

We then climbed the other side of the valley, stopped to take in the views and then I turned round to head back. We'd been out for an hour and I had the kids and wife to attend to and a nasty climb ahead of me. I felt like I'd almost fully recovered from Thursday's triathlon already, far quicker than the recovery from a marathon, so I pushed myself on the way home and tackled the remaining 650m of vertical ascent, without too much trouble. If only Alpe d'Huez had felt like that on Thursday...

The next day was less exercise focused as I had a forced day out of action with an obligatory holiday tummy bug. I'm sure it was nothing to do with the food, since the rest of the family had also had something similar over the previous week, fortunately it didn't strike me on triathlon day.

Once back in the UK, I've managed to sneak in a couple of short runs and an easy swim, other than that, it's been quiet. Next week it's all on and time to get serious.

Here's a summary of the last 2 weeks' exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 1st August

Total exercise: 3h 20m
Top speed: 55.0 km/h [34.2 mph]
Distance covered: 60.2km

48.4km cycling (1 recreational ride...v hilly though as it was still in the Alps)
11km running
800m swimming

Week commencing Sunday 25th July

Total exercise: 8h 40m
Top speed: 55.4 km/h [34.4 mph]
Distance covered: 96.2km

82km cycling (1 x race; 2 x training rides)
13km running
1.2km swimming

Finishing the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon 2010 (short course)

2010-07-30T11:40:00.007+01:00

The weather all week has been amazing and, for the long distance triathlon, which took place the day before, it was a scorcher. Of course, weather changes quickly in the mountains and we woke to the sound of rain and a misty outlook down the valley.

Conflicting information around registration and shoe check-in, meant that we had to make an extra journey to ADH on the morning of the race to set up our trainers in T2, as we'd been unable to leave them there the day before. We drove via the 21 hairpins just to familiarise ourselves once again with the course that lay ahead. It must have taken us all of an effortless 20 minutes in the car, it didn't bear thinking what our equivalent two wheeled effort might take.

Back in the apartment, we watched the rain continue to fall and reckoned to allow a few additional minutes for the descent to T1 and the start of the swim down at Lac du Verney. Needn't have, whether it was the adrenalin, or stupidity, we rocketed down the hairpins from Vaujany down to the lake, despite neither of us having ridden our, or any for that matter, road bikes in the wet. Yes, we really were quite wet behind the ears!

On reaching T1, there was a real buzz. Inevitable really, this race is set in the most spectacular surroundings and takes in one of the most famous cycle climbs in the world. And what's more, the sun had come out! Of course, we'd forgotten to bother with suncream, having only seen clouds and rain up until then. There were 1,200 of us penned into the transition area, and we'd been plonked firmly in the middle of little Britain. As had every other nation been lumped together, creating a sense of national pride and good humoured international rivalry, which would continue through the race.

Then it hit me, I'd not read or heard anything about a waved start, surely they wouldn't set 1,200 people off at the same time, that would be mayhem, wouldn't it? The question was quickly answered, of course we'd all set of together and it would be complete mayhem, but that's all part of the experience, isn't it?

At 2pm, 1,200 people headed off from a treading water start towards the first white buoy, some 500 metres in the distance, not that I could see it. A melee of thrashing, gargling, ducking and frantic breathing ensued and didn't really stop until we left the water some 20 minutes and 1.2km later. We could easily have been part of a natural history program, the whole thing had a very primal feel to it, although what Attenborough would have figured we'd been up to is anyone's guess. What an experience. Despite the constant thrashing about you and the fight for your life style of swimming, I did take a moment or two to take in the surroundings. The steep valley walls, the fresh turquoise mountain water (an unexpected addition to my hydration strategy) and the safety helicopter hovering just feet above our heads.

The transition was relaxed, I was spent from the 20 minute fight I'd just felt I'd lost. The first part of the cycle to the base of the Alp was quick, very quick for a relative newbie to this cycling game. In hindsight, I probably went off a little too fast, but haring round mountain bends and racing through quaint French villages was just too tempting to ignore. On reaching the base of the climb, my average speed read 23.3mph, very quick for me, but I still felt fine. That feeling wouldn't last long.

The first few ramps up the climb are steep, I dropped into my lowest gear, not low enough but it'd have to do. Around me, people steadily rolled past, somehow finding an extra mile per hour more than me. Some were emptying their water bottles onto the road, to free up an extra kilo or two, I kept mine intact. By the 3rd switchback, bend number 19 (the signs at every bend count down), I was already feeling beaten. Three days earlier I'd almost bounced up here, but the swim and the fast first cycle leg were taking their toll. This was going to be tough.

I can't really draw on specifics for much of the climb, as it was a case of head down and focusing on keeping mentally strong, despite the constant wave of people passing me. I reckon a couple of hundred people, at least, must have passed me on the climb. I passed 3. One had a puncture and the others were resting, and probably passed me later anyway!

I will mention the support along the hill, it was fantastic, people at nearly every bend, passing slowly in cars, lining the road, "Allez, allez David!". It helps, a lot. Our race numbers had our names and country flags on them, which meant the crowds could join in the support and give an extra cheer to their countrymen.

I passed the "4km to go" sign, glanced at my current speed and time taken so far on the bike, 8km/h and 1h25m, and realised that, so long as I could keep this up, I'd come in in under 2 hours for the bike, which would give me a fighting chance of finishing the whole course in under 3 hours, a goal I'd inwardly set myself as an ambitious but achievable target. It was now everything I could do to just keep going and not stop. The trail of people passing me had slowed, I'd found my rhythm and natural position in the pack.

Hairpin 1 grew steadily closer. It was a done deal, there's no way I'd be giving up now, nor would I need to take a breather and 3 hours was still looking possible, providing I could find extra reserves for the run. Slightly frustratingly, but not entirely unsuspected, were the additional 3 bends following the finish of the traditional Alpe d'Huez climb, to get us to the transition area. Everyone rolled into the transition, we'd had enough of pedalling.

The rain started up again as I came to put on my trainers for the run and headed out for the 7km loop to finish this thing off. My hopes of clocking sub-4:45 minute kilometres for the run vanished as soon as we started to climb and a stitch started to grab hold. I settled for a 5:30 pace, which I could just about maintain at the edge of my pain threshold. This meant settling for a finish time outside the 3 hour mark, but wouldn't kill me in the process. 3km in, I saw Jules (my partner in crime for this event) on his return leg, it gave me a boost and I stepped up the pace a little.

Maths and endurance activities don't mix, it takes for ever to do the most basic of sums. That said, I'd convinced myself that if I lifted it a little, I could still get in sub-3 hours. Just then, another climb came out of nowhere and my pace slowed to over 6 min per km. The 3 hour goal immediately began to slip away again, until one of the supporters took it onto his responsibility to run alongside a couple of us to get us up the hill and reassure us that there were no more climbs, only downhills and to let it fly. Whoever that was, thank you!

We reached the summit of the final climb of the course and I could just about make out the finish some 3km in the distance. Just under 15 minutes left to go, I had to pull out some sub-5 minuters to get home in target time. I used the downhill to get my pace down to sub 4:30, to give me a bit of padding for the flat sections. It hurt but, with the finish in sight, it was acceptable pain.

I ran over the line in 2:57.51 (official). It was over. What a day, what an experience. Don't expect to see me next year though! Although that might all change tomorrow...

Catching a cold 1.5 weeks out from Alpe d'Huez

2010-07-24T12:32:00.001+01:00

The week started off brightly on the Sunday with a 20km run through Bushy and Richmond Parks. I completed the distance in a little under 1h 48m, so a relatively steady pace, but it still felt like a reasonable distance to have covered.

From then on the week went quickly downhill. After a rest day on Monday, around Tuesday lunchtime I could feel my throat starting to go and by the afternoon I'd succumb to taking Lemsip. I contemplated heading out for a run or a cycle on Tuesday evening, but soon felt this was a bad idea. Tuesday night was restless and my condition wasn't improving.

These things happen when you're training over such a long period for an endurance event. With hindsight, the best decision I made was to respect my condition, take it easy and not to have bounded on regardless, no matter how gutting it felt to be missing out on a crucial week of training. With a little over 1 week left to Alpe d'Huez, this wasn't ideal timing, but what can you do? After missing much of work, not all mind, on Wednesday, my last day, Thursday, before heading out to the Alps was hectic at work and I was still not recovered.

Come Friday morning, I was in much brighter spirits and we headed away from the house, with the car packed to bursting, at 6am, to catch an early ferry across to France. I restrained from doing any exercise until we'd properly arrived in the Alps, so in all I had 6 rest days, recuperating from a cold. Annoying, but necessary.

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 18th July

Total exercise: 1h 48m
Distance covered: 20km

20km running

10 weeks to Berlin / 2 weeks to Alpe d'Huez

2010-07-17T19:51:00.008+01:00

Not a bad week all things considered. Another summer's weekend, another wedding, and plenty of long motorway traffic jams as we joined the rest of the population in an assault on the West Country. As has been the theme over the last several posts, it's been about fitting in training around social engagements and helping bring up a young family, not to mention work.

How I managed to work my training around the weekend.

No training on The previous Saturday, due to 4 hours travelling, followed by the wedding until 2am
Pre-breakfast (7:30am) swim in the hotel pool in Exeter on Sunday
50km cycle on Sunday afternoon from Kidderminster to Stratford-upon-Avon
Ran 10 miles home after work on Monday

Arrived at Stratford-upon-Avon after a 1h 50m cycle from Kidderminster

One mistake I won't be repeating is forgetting to eat anything but a bowl of soup at work, on the day you've planned to run the 10 miles home. Not clever. Doubly unclever, was not packing a banana, gel or nutrigrain, all of which I'd remembered to do the fortnight earlier, when I first ran home.

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 11th July

Total exercise: 6h 03m
Top speed: 54.3 km/h [33.7 mph]
Distance covered: 106.8km

74.4km cycling (2 x training rides)
28km running
4.4km swimming

11 weeks to Berlin / 3 weeks to Alpe d'Huez

2010-07-12T20:55:00.004+01:00

Another tough week to fit in training. A week sandwiched by two weddings and consisting of two days where I had to travel with work, meaning I was up at the crack of dawn and back late, not leaving much time for training. So I did the best I could.

Running dominated this week, highlighted by a not too hungover 12.5 mile run on a very hot Sunday morning and a 3.5 mile race on the Thursday evening as a part of the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. I finished 680th out of over 25,000, so I was quite pleased, especially given the traffic on the course as people had clearly gone off too fast and shouldn't really have been at the front. But, it being a "fun run", I shouldn't grumble. I got round in 23:01, averaging 4min/km and pleasantly surprised to have notched up the fastest time out of the 25 or so strong team we'd put out from Universal Music. It was a great evening out and I'll be back next year for sure.

Friday and Saturday were days for multiple train and car journeys and not conducive to training, so I planned to hold that back for the Sunday.

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 4th July

Total exercise: 4h 19m
Distance covered: 70.2km
Race result: 3.5 miles in 23:01 (680/>25,000)

38km cycling (one commute to work and back)
31km running
1.2km swimming (single session in pool)

12 weeks to Berlin / 4 weeks to Alpe d'Huez

2010-07-03T14:38:00.003+01:00

Following Saturday's ride up to Oxford and the subsequent late night out, I wasn't fit for much on Sunday. I did manage a few not too lazy laps of the hotel pool and covered about a kilometer but, despite having my trainers with me, I admitted defeat to tiredness and mild hangover and opted instead for a lazy Sunday, enjoying a BBQ, great company, a first chance in 3 days of playing with the kids and a not so great game of football on the telly (4 - 1, not to England, although beaten by a rather on form Germany).

Come Monday, I was back to form. Or as much form as a Dad of 2 young children is afforded, at least. I chose to take my kit into work with me with the notion of running home. Leaving the offices around 6pm, I was struck by the heat, it still being 27 degrees. I made it home and felt I'd made up for my lazy weekend, you can read the full post for more.

I took Tuesday as a rest day and Wednesday became a rest day by default as I had to travel to Paris with work, which meant leaving home at ridiculous o'clock and arriving back home at ridiculously late o'clock. Two days' rest then, so I attempted to balance this out with running back-to-back days for the rest of the week, which wasn't too bad.

Saturday saw me lying in, no I mean, leaving the house at 6am to go for a couple of laps of Heron Lake. Even at that time in the morning, the air temperature was quite warm and the water even warmer. I was positively roasting in my wetsuit and, had I had the time, would have done my training then opted for a splash around sans wetsuit to cool off, as this seemed to be the thing to do. No rest, I had to get back...and then go for a little run, and then off to a wedding. So I'm still managing to fit it all in, with a few shifts in plan here and there, just.

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 27th June

Total exercise: 5h 04m
Top speed: 31.25 mph
Distance covered: 72km

35.8km cycling (all training, one early session in Richmond Park)
33km running
3.2km swimming (incl. 2.2km round Heron Lake in 38 mins)

Fitting it all in - Running home from work

2010-07-01T20:45:00.003+01:00

As if training for a marathon, or triathlon, or both weren't demanding enough, Summer brings with it a whole set of additional challenges with which to contend. Weddings, dinners, evening drinks by the river, new job, being there to support my wife in bringing up our two little ones, not to mention the heat which, for the last few weeks, has been in abundance.

All of the above tend to put little spanners into the works of your otherwise faultless training regime. Admittedly, I'm perhaps not being disciplined enough, or perhaps I am, only that my ethos, where training's concerned, is not to let it completely take over my life. Hence the allowance of the odd drink here and there. Hence also my increasing fatigue, as I try to fit in training around everything, generally meaning that exercise begins before the day really starts. Mostly this is fine, just sometimes, burning the candle at both ends, gets the better of me.

One way to get around this is to run home from work, obviously. At 11.5 miles, via the scenic route, it's not really an everyday activity. Setting off at 6pm, I hadn't quite expected it to still be 27°C...in the shade, of which there's too little on my route home. Nevertheless, it's a superb route, so I really can't complain, taking in the river Thames and Richmond Park, with some superb views across London on the way. I made it back home, but was fit for nothing thereafter, that'll teach me for having a few too many on the Saturday, so as to miss my Sunday slot!

Cycling to Oxford [13 wks to Berlin, 5 wks to Alpe d'Huez]

2010-06-27T21:44:00.007+01:00

Lots of riding this week, which consequently meant I didn't quite get the running or swimming in that I'd have liked, but you can't have it all. Since the triathlon is going to be largely about cycling, the ratios aren't too out of kilter. 10 hours of exercise over the past 7 days, which has to be my record, and nearly 4 of which were spent on a 100km cycle from home to Oxford.

I've never ridden for as long, or for so many miles, or in such heat (30 C) before, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Two of us did the route and made full use of swapping turns out in front and drafting behind, to save the legs as much as possible. It obviously worked as, even 3 hours in, we were still able to maintain a steady 22 mph on the flat, although our energy levels were beginning to fade fast. Come the finish, about 3.5 hours after we set off, it's fair to say we were both completely shattered and it was all we could do to muster enough energy to polish off some of the best tasting bitter shandies ever and a bowl of cheese, potatoes and pasta.

We might have got a little lost on the way...

It's worth noting that we'd done all this on mild hangovers and little sleep, having foolishly been out for several summer evening drinks the night before. All good mental training for contesting with the Alp!

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 20th June

Total exercise: 9h 36m
Top speed: 39.8 mph
Distance covered: 188km

164km cycling (all training, including a 100km ride to Oxford)
22.5km running
1.8km swimming

14 weeks to Berlin, 6 weeks to Alpe d'Huez

2010-06-20T11:06:00.003+01:00

Another fairly consistent week of training, managing to up the run mileage to about 20 miles, which feels about right for now based on my target time for Berlin of sub-3:45 (with a hopeful sub-3:30!).

Got up early on Sunday for swim around Heron Lake. I managed to complete 2 laps, about 2.3km, in 37 minutes, which worked out as a better average speed than my effort at Blenheim, over 3 times the distance. I clearly wasn't on form on the day of the triathlon, or went off too quickly and suffered from stitch.

Off for a long weekend away this weekend with friends, so it's going to be tough to fit in a normal training routine. That's the trick of training for a marathon though, overcoming these little hurdles along the way to balance a normal life with training is all part of the challenge!

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 13th June

Total exercise: 5h 58m
Distance covered: 96km

75km cycling (35km training; 30km commuting)
30km running
3km swimming

Blenheim Triathlon, 15 weeks to Berlin, 7 weeks to Alpe d'Huez

2010-06-13T09:53:00.008+01:00

I'm one week into a 16 week countdown to the Berlin Marathon, and 7 weeks away from taking part in the short course Alpe d'Huez triathlon.

Last week saw team 'Sports Casual' place 14th out of 244 in the Blenheim Palace Triathlon Team Relay, where I picked up the swim leg, Jules steamed round on his bike and Rich finished it off with a cracking run. Total time, 1h 17m. (Download the relay results)

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 6th June

Total exercise: 7h 22m
Distance covered: 132km

104km cycling (73km training; 31km commuting)
23km running
1 hour of five-a-side football
600m swimming

Slightly cheating there on distance as I did my long cycle on Sunday last week and on Saturday this week, so I expect next week's distance to drop a little, although I hope to add in an extra mid-week session.

The year so far

2010-04-30T20:00:00.000+01:00

The first 4 months of 2010 have not been uneventful, anything but, but finding time to jot down anything in this blog has been few and far between. So, here are the highlights and a brief summary:

Highlights:

Sub-39 minute 10k (38:54)
Debut into the world of proper cross-country running...with hills
Longest cycle ride to date - 75km in 3h 20m

February

Baby Robin arrives 5 weeks early on the 1st
On the 7th, I ran my first, very hilly, cross-country race, the Bookham 10k, finishing 25th (of approx. 250) in 50 minutes dead
Spent the rest of February, not getting much sleep due to new baby and an energetic 2 year old to keep tabs on. Training for anything, holding down a job and attempting to help your wife look after two little ones is tough

March

Ran my first sub-40 10k in the Bushy Park 10k on the 7th, finishing 2 seconds outside the top ten, in 11th place (out of ~300) in 39m 47s
On the 28th, I managed to better that PB, breaking 39 minutes and finishing 12th (of ~320) in the Brooklands 10k, official time 38m 54s. Worth noting that this is an extremely flat and fast, tarmac'd course, perfect territory for a PB

April

Started a new job on the 1st which has meant having to let my training drop off while I'm finding my feet
Sunday the 11th, I took part in the Denbies 10, a fantastic cross-country race through the North Downs, starting and finishing in the beautiful Denbies Vineyard. I was very happy to finish in 26th place (of ~350) in 1:09.28, but realised just how punishing hills can be and think there's quite a bit of work to be done there
Completed my longest cycle ride ever (having only ever really commuted on a bike before) on the 17th. This took the form of a 75km loop starting in the heart of East Sussex, heading towards the North Downs before turning back towards Brighton and stopping to take in the view from the top of Ditchling Beacon. It also racked up over a kilometre of ascent over the 3 hours something, which is something I was keen to try out, given the climb I have ahead in the Alpe d'Huez triathlon!
Finally, I entered the ballot for next year's London marathon, just before the end of the month

Maintaining for winter

2009-11-15T09:18:00.003Z

With the next event a 10k months away and no spring marathon planned due to the arrival of our second baby in March, my winter training looks to be more about maintaining a good level of all round fitness, than building up mileage.

My ITB niggles have subsided and have been replaced by the start of lower back problems, especially noticeable following my recent intense interval sessions at the track. A little research confirmed I wasn't alone. It seems that a lot of casual longer distance runners suffer the same trouble when doing sessions at mile race pace and quicker. I suppose it's not entirely surprising, when you look at the differing physiques of short and long distance runners.

I've trained my body to accept running at a reasonable pace over distances of 5k and above, without picking up injuries, but introduce some pacier short distance work and I can almost guarantee something will go. Speaking with a physio and reading various articles, it all points to the same cause, my core's too weak. How many times does a runner hear that?

Solution? I've joined a Pilates class! I'd never considered a gym class in the past, aside from weekly runs with the running club, I've done the majority of my training alone and wasn't sure how I'd feel about it. Of course, it was totally fine and, although heavily outnumbered, I wasn't the only man. It was an intense workout, with no real let up throughout the hour...It felt like it was doing me good and I'll keep you posted on whether it actually works.

Track sessions and ITB niggles

2009-11-02T21:43:00.016Z

I launched myself back into running two weeks ago, having felt I'd been a bit lax in letting it slip back to only going out for a couple of 5k runs a week. The result was a fun, run-filled week including a sub-20 5k on our regular Tuesday lunchtime run and a track session of Yasso 800s.

This was my first experience of a track session, in fact, I realised it was the first time I'd run round a proper running track! School runs took place either on grass, with whitewashed lane markings, or through woods and fields for cross-country. The track was made out of something similar to the kind of surface they lay down in children's playgrounds these days, adding a real spring to your step. It felt set up for speed and it was definitely the environment to test yourself.

We took off for 5 sets of 800 metres at 6 minute intervals, it being lunchtime on a work day, we couldn't fit in much more than that, nor could we have probably taken it to be fair. The idea with the Yasso 800 is that if you can do 6-10 of them, at an even pace, without going flat out, then the time you complete the lap in minutes and seconds, is a rough indicator as to your potential marathon time in hours and minutes. Of course, it's entirely reliant on you putting in the adequate training for the distance and if you go too flat out, it won't scale up fairly. So, if you complete our laps consistently in 3:00 minutes, then you could theoretically be on for a 3 hour marathon.

Needless to say, I pushed myself, probably a little quicker than I should have and came out as 2:48 on average. I was consistent but I'm not sure I'd have managed another 2-4 laps at that pace. This is significantly inside my marathon PB of 3:51, but it's got me fired up to train for another to at least have a crack at 3:30!

Open water swimming in the River Lyd, Dartmoor, Devon
A chilly 13℃

After a week of getting back into running and enjoying it, I had the realisation I'd pushed myself too hard and that a 20 mile week off the back of running 5-10 on average, was too much. I stumbled into the beginning of the following week with knee trouble. I related the pain back to some trouble I'd had previously with my ITB (Ilio Tibial Band) and I've been RICE-ing, stretching and strengthening it since and the pain seems to be diminishing. Fortunately, I'm many months away from my next event, so a week of just swimming (not in a river this time! see above) to keep up fitness, was no bad thing.

TIP (and note to self): Don't increase pace and volume so quickly. 10% per week, as a guide. Lesson learned...again.

Back again...another triathlon of larger proportions

2009-10-07T20:28:00.007+01:00

Darker evenings and a new long term objective have given me good reason to start writing my blog again. So here goes.

Over the summer

Summer was busy and productive, managing to set two PBs in the 5k (18:57) and 10k (42:02) and some firsts, namely a sprint triathlon and relay and two open water swimming races, and in one of which (1km Great Big Open Water Swim at Dorney lake) I was 3rd fastest male finisher!

Managing to break 19 mins in the 5k was definitely a major milestone for me and something I never would have thought possible just 12 months ago. Finding someone similarly competitive, running at around my pace for a regular 5k lunchtime run was absolutely the reason I was able to achieve this. I just started to get used to running faster than I usually do, recognising the pain and going with it, there's a lot of psychology at play. I never really knew how fast I could actually run, I just used to ease off when I felt a bit uncomfortable. Now I'm targeting 18:30 as my next goal in the 5k.

Triathlons

I really enjoyed the training towards the triathlon, the mix of cycling and swimming complimented the running training I'd done to date. The event atmosphere was great too and it's something I'd thoroughly recommend to anyone considering it.

Our Tri Relay Team -
"We'd Rather Be Crown Green Bowling"

I'd managed to convince a friend to sign up too, so we did some training together and compared notes, which is always helpful, especially when you're venturing into the unknown. We both had a great experience, realised we were both reasonable all-rounders and decided to sign up for another, this time a team relay, where each member would complete every leg. We had to bully a 3rd team member into joining us, but think he's now a convert and will be back for more!

More?

Oh yes. Much more. Two months after completing a first sprint triathlon, I read an article in 220 magazine on the top 20 triathlons in the world and saw the photos of the Lac Vevey (near Alpe d'Huez, France), surrounded by mountains, crystal clear water awash with swimmers steadily making their way towards the start of the bike leg, which climbs up the famous 21 hairpin Alp (that's over 1km of vert), before demounting and running back down to the lake! It's the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon and it's fair to say I'm slightly nervous, but excited at the same time and I've got plenty of time to train, so watch this space for an update.

What next?

2009-05-08T20:13:00.003+01:00

Well, I've just signed up for my first Sprint Triathlon. I've definitely caught the exercise bug and looking for my next challenge.

It's taking place at Eton College's Rowing Lake, Dorney Lake at the end of June. Just planning to get round it, have no idea what sort of time to be aiming for. Looking forward to purchasing some new technical kit, getting my swimming up to scratch and finding out whether my marathon training can be transfered, hopefully the answer to that is yes...

So, this is what I've got to do:
- 750m open water swim
- 20km cycle
- 5km run

Doesn't sound too bad. I've done all this things exclusively at separate times at least. Guess it might be a little harder doing them back to back. Well, of course it is, that's the point. It'll be fun.

Oh, and feel free to join me by all means http://bit.ly/QOBVx

It's done. Thank you everyone for your support

2009-04-27T11:51:00.005+01:00

Couldn't have asked for a better day!

Slickly organised, tremendous support, inspiring surroundings and thoroughly exhausting, but in a good way. The London Marathon has to be one of the world's most spectacular events and I'm thrilled to have taken part in it.

I made it round the course in 3:51.28, just inside my predicted time of 3:53.

I have managed to raise in excess of £1750 for CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA (money is still coming in, so total not confirmed yet). The figure has way exceeded my expectations and will be a tremendous help to the continuation of the charity's fantastic work and means a great deal to our family, so thanks to everyone for your generosity.

You'll be glad to hear I'm injury free, but those of you who've run long distances in the past will appreciate that doesn't mean I'm exactly walking right and suffering severely from a fear of staircases (something Ralph certainly doesn't seem to have!). So it's feet up for now and back to work tomorrow.

Carb loading and last minute nerves

2009-04-25T08:26:00.007+01:00

25 hours to go.

Too late to worry whether the work you've put in is enough, but that doesn't stop you starting to feel a little nervous. Remembering back to New York the day before the marathon, I don't recall feeling that until a few hours before. My mind must have been suitably distracted by a number of things, the imminent arrival of our first baby, who we would end up spending the rest of the day clothes shopping for, the jet lag and the general excitement of being in a new city. All of this, meant I had little time to spend worrying about the next day's events. Here in London, it's on the news, the weather, texts and emails are flying in and friends and relatives are making arrangements to come and watch. So you could say, it feels like the pressure's on! Which of course it isn't, it's just going to be a great day out and I'll make it round one way or another.

The average daily intake of food provides enough energy to fuel the body for about 90 minutes of exercise. The marathon will take me somewhere bertween 210 and 240 minutes, which is why you're advised to take on board a lot more carbohydrates than usual. The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding (mmm...puddings). So this week, I've been focusing on the taper and carb loading and, even I, am starting to get a little tired of pasta, although I'm sure that won't be long lived. Apparently, you can put on 2-3kg over the 3-4 days preceding the race and not worry about it, as it's stored away as glycogen to fuel the muscles for as long as possible and will be burnt off by the time you reach the finish!

Final week

2009-04-21T13:59:00.002+01:00

It's been a rollercoaster ride and now it's time to relax, fitness training is either in the bag or it's not, it's too late to make any difference.

Do I feel prepared? Yes.

Could things have gone smoother? Yes.

What would I change? I'd start anti-histamines at the start of February and wait longer before restarting training following a fever.

Will I get a faster time than in New York? At this stage, I'm feeling confident that I will.

So what time is that then? I'm going to try for 3:53, although the forecast is to be warm, which could throw things a little. I reckon I've got the cardio fitness for it and believe I'm better mentally conditioned to circumvent the wall than I was at the start of the NYC marathon. I'll be encouraging my legs not to fail me along miles 19-23. Once you hit 23, you've made it, you're never going to drop out or walk it in from there.

Thanks again for everyone's support and good luck me!

Sinuses? Cleared. Phew. Feeling positive

2009-04-17T19:34:00.007+01:00

Years back, I used to suffer from sinus problems following colds or bouts of hayfever, but this hadn't happened for some time. So when I felt a slight pain above my right eye, I didn't really think twice about going for a swim. Bad idea. I'd obviously forgotten what not to do and how to keep sinuses under control. Even a few inches below the surface, the pressure was causing acute pain to my forehead.

I got out after 15 lengths and decided to put swimming on hold and stay focused on my running. The following day, the pain had worsened and I wasn't sure I really felt like running. So close to the event you've been focused on for so many months, it doesn't take much for you to start worrying whether this could be the reason you don't get the time you're after, or worse still have to pull out. Of course, I'm never going to pull out, even if I have to walk the whole thing, I'll finish it. But you know what I mean.

While swimming is obviously not helpful to sinus problems, running when they're acutely inflamed is also a very bad idea. I have never had such a bad headache as returing from a 10 mile run where with every step I may as well have been tapping my head with a hammer. Seriously painful, all I could do when I got back was lie down, curl up and concentrate on not feeling sick.

You'll be happy to hear it's not all doom and gloom, I've pretty much cleared up the problem. The remedy? A mixture of the following: Steam inhalation with sea salt or Olbas Oil (strong menthol scent), inhaling Olbas Oil regularly throughout the day and a homeopathic remedy called Combination Q (New Era). Sudafed and Sinex didn't touch it and I'd decided I wasn't ready to go on another course of antibiotics and to try and tackle it naturally. Luckily it seems to have worked.

So, what about my training?

Well, I managed the 10 second most painful miles of my life on Sunday ("the hammerhead run", which made me think whatever I feel like at mile 17/18, I can definitely get myself to the finish!), 20 mins on a cross-trainer (low impact = no headache), 15 mins quick run on Wednesday and a pint of Guinness last night. Oops.

I'll knock out a couple of 10k runs at the weekend, a 5k and an 8k mid-week and then a couple of days rest before the marathon on Sunday.

Thank you. Now let's smash that sponsorship target!

2009-04-11T10:51:00.007+01:00

On Thursday 9th April, total donations received passed the initial target of £1,200. I am absolutely thrilled with the generous response from everyone, especially given the gloomy financial climate we can't help but avoid hearing about these days.

I know this money will make a huge difference to CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA's work, as well as it being a real source of motivation for me at times when I've really needed it. But let's not stop there.

As of 11am on Sunday 11th April, the total had reached:

£1,296.19

A huge thank you once more and please keep it coming.

16M Kingston Breakfast Run

2009-04-07T21:45:00.006+01:00

If you do some running and you're going to enter any race at all, it'll be the one that passes your doorstep twice a year. This is the 4th time I've run in the Kingston event and the second time I've tackled the 16 mile, the previous being prior to the New York marathon.

I set myself a new PB of 2:08:27, which I was very pleased with especially as I'd tried not to treat it as a race and purposefully held back until about 14.5 miles in. I thought there could be no harm in winding it up for the last 1.5 miles and enjoyed a spell of passing a number of people before turning into the finish.

My first attempt, back in October 2007, I managed 2:12:30 and felt absolutely spent at the finish. This time round, I made sure I had plenty left in the tank and I'm stockpiling those reserves for 3 weeks' time! Touch wood, I'm niggle free, cold free and really looking forward to the big day.

Running up mountains

2009-04-03T13:03:00.005+01:00

A week ago today, I woke up early and decided to go for a jog. We were staying in the Austrian Alps, in a resort at 1500 metres, which always makes sleeping a little tricky for the first few nights, you tend to find yourself in vivid dream mode all night and I'd woken to feel like I'd barely slept. It was cold and, thankfully, snowy outside. I'd never run on snow before, not proper snow anyway, and thought it would be a good way to wake myself up.

It was a few degrees below zero (centigrade), but I figured not to overdo the layers as running though the snow should warm me up. I wore a hat of course, beanie variety, not trilby. Stepping outside was refreshing. It was overcast and I was standing at the bottom of a steep sided valley, and my GPS struggled, but eventually got a fix.

I set off at a very steady pace toward the head of the valley along the recently cleared road. In no time, I was feeling the altitude. My heart was working about 10-15% harder than back home and I'd barely started to climb. Approaching the village at the head of the valley, I darted across to the other side of the road when I realised that an old chap had decided it was an opportune moment to dislodge 2 metre icicles from his hotel roof and that I was heading straight into the strike zone. Reaching a point where the road went no further, I turned onto a snowy path heading up.

5 minutes into the climb, I was peaking at 85% of max heart rate, without really trying. This was hard, but I trudged on. The snow had been trodden into a path, but was still deep enough to cover my shoes, and it felt that for every two steps forward, you're losing half a step in slippage.

A few minutes further along a reach a recently groomed piste. No tracks, no-one around, a blank canvas. I pointed myself uphill and began to scale the piste. It was a red run and significantly steeper than the footpath, as anyone who's been skiing would understand. I wouldn't be able to maintain this for long, so I decided to give it everything for about a hundred yards and then enjoy the descent. The heart rose to 90%+ of max on the climb and I took a deserved 30 second break at the top.

While running up mountains has its place, running back down a freshly groomed piste was one of the best running experiences I've had. I took my first few paces steadily, but gradually allowed my legs to turn over progressively quicker, the freshly compressed snow propelling me even faster. Nearing the bottom, I was at full pelt and precariously just on balance.

It was only a 25 minute run in all, but it's a whole new ball game up in those mountains.

21 mile jaunt

2009-03-24T07:38:00.006Z

Blue sky, sunshine, around 15C with a refreshing breeze. Running conditions don't really get much better than this. Spirits were high and I was feeling on form for taking on the longest training run I would do before the race.

A group of us headed off at 9:30 from Roehampton Gate in Richmond Park, on a course which would take us on a long and, in places, hilly but picturesque route through two parks and along a stretch of the Thames. It was partly an out and back route, something I've tried to avoid on long runs in an attempt to keep things fresh. It didn't matter and, at times, it helped the mind visualise and prepare for what was ahead, so long as you hadn't depreciated the size of the hills and distances in the miles in between.

It was the first time, probably since school cross-country, that I'd run in a group. The longer training runs, in preparation for New York, had been in the company of my wife, cycling alongside. This time round, I don't have that luxury, so the group was a welcome break from the monotony of the long solo runs I'd completed in the weeks before. And I'm not 100% sure I would have run the whole distance if it hadn't been for the people around me.

After 16 miles, not being physically or mentally used to such long distances, the psychological battle began. Strangely, my pace had quickened. I checked my watch several times around the 15-17 mile distance, to discover we had started to clock at 8 min/mile pace. We'd set out at just over 9. At some point, my legs had decided they either wanted this to be over as quickly as possible or to stop and that an in between state of a slow jog was unacceptable. Of course, this took it's toll and I could feel my heart rate rising and my legs getting seemingly heavier. My mind eventually won the battle over the legs as I managed to slow the pace down to around the 8:30 min/mile mark for the remaining 4 miles. I certainly wasn't prepared for that, legs wanting to stop yes, legs wanting to go faster than I knew was sensible, well I'm glad I learnt that one now and not on race day.

Good week

2009-03-20T07:00:00.008Z

Bouncing back after losing the best part of 3 weeks to illness, I've managed to run 4 times this week already and still planning on putting in a steady 20 mile run on Sunday. I haven't completed anything extraordinarily long or quick, purposefully easing back into it gently to try and avoid injury. Easing back in is mentally tough. Having been out for a stretch, all your mind wants to do is make up for lost time and prove to yourself that you haven't lost power and fitness, despite the break. Of course, your body will have declined a little over this time, so exercise restraint.

That said, I did get a circuit PB of 21:13 on the local 5k loop next to our house. It's quite a hilly route, more so than the regular 5k I've been running on Tuesday lunchtimes at work. On a good day, I reckon I might be able to crack the 20 minute barrier on this route, whether I want to attempt that in the run up to the marathon is another matter. I'll probably leave it for now.

Out of interest, I've pulled together some data to show the average distance covered per week, by month. I'm not decided on what is the best data to display, but I quite liked this one as it's easy to spot a trend and explain away the dips. I began to wind up training in November and December, although took a break over Christmas. I missed a long run in February, due to skiing, which made for a slight dip after January's faultless month. And the toll of the recent illness can be seen in March.

Keeping positive

2009-03-14T15:48:00.006Z

The last few weeks have been tough. Cold, virus, cold again. It's bad luck, but the support and constant stream of donations coming through is a real motivator and reminds me of why I'm doing this.

Realistically, I've got to reassess my target time and am probably not looking at breaking 4 hours, but you never know how I might fare on the day. For one, I'm sure the start can't possibly be as hard as New York. No 5am coach to Statten Island followed by a 5 hour wait, sitting on a cold pavement (sidewalk), waiting for the off.

With 5 training weekends to go until the big day, theory says I need to clock up a couple of 18+ mile runs in the next 3-4, to allow me to taper in the final 2-3 weeks. Not sure what the theory is when you've not much to taper from, but I'll ignore that for now. So I plan on putting in a 20 mile run next Sunday, and I'm skiing the week after, so I'll miss that one. The 5th April is the Kingston Breakfast Run, a flat and fast 16M race along the banks of the Thames, very popular with London Marathoners wanting to get a last practice race under their belt.

Depending on what the legs feel like after that, I may try and squeeze in a 22 miler on the 12th and then ease off a little for a couple of weeks. One thing I felt last time was that I eased off too dramatically, and my legs weren't feeling race fit on the day. So I'm going to try to keep knocking out a couple of 5-10k runs in the closing stages, to keep them warm.

Getting back on the road

2009-03-10T09:31:00.002Z

I've all but seen the back of the virus and now looking forward to kicking off the training again. As suspected, you come out of something like this feeling weakened and disappointed to have interrupted an otherwise promising training schedule. But I'm not disheartened.

The forced rest has allowed the shin splints to repair themselves and, despite slight cardio-vascular fatigue, physically, I'm feeling solid and niggle free. Mentally, having already got a decent 16 miler under my belt, and with 4.5 weeks of training left before tapering, I'm confident of achieving my goal of completing a near marathon pace 22 mile run in training.

I'm tempted to hold off one more day before starting again, just to be sure I'm clear, but I'll see how I feel this evening and perhaps I'll be able to take on a gentle 3-4k.

Tackling a virus

2009-03-05T18:40:00.004Z

Training was all going well, then I got a cold, plenty of sneezing and the like. Not suspecting that anything untoward, I ploughed on with training, albeit at a slightly reduced level of intensity, but nevertheless completing nearly 12 miles on my Sunday run.

Come Monday, the sneezes had stopped, I didn't feel 100% but felt well enough to go out for a gentle jog. 4k later I had to call it a day, I was pooped. I passed on my regular Tuesday lunchtime run with the folks from work for the first time in weeks, barely able to scale the stairs without losing breath.

Wednesday morning, nothing had improved and I figured it should have, so I took myself to the doctor's. I got a veiled ticking off for not listening to my body and trying to run my way through it and instructed that the only cure was complete rest. So that's what I've been up to for the last few days, sleeping mainly and not even contemplating going for a run.

It's just reinforced that when you're training for months for a big event, you have to factor in something going wrong. If you start out assuming you will be able to train week in week out, you'll be disappointed. In 4-6 months of preparation, you will miss some sessions, some will be planned/reduced, due to the constraints of a holiday for example, others won't be planned and will be because of injury or illness of some kind. It's the facts. The odds are stacked against you, an average person will have 2 colds per year, I think the trick is to not let it get you down and to keep your goals realistic. So much for that sub-3:00 marathon then...;-)

Ramping up with 3 months to go

2009-01-25T07:51:00.006Z

While I'm not following any marathon training schedule in particular, I have read through plenty and have picked and chosen ideas from several. To summarise, there are a few key elements which every schedule seems to contain, and it's on these that I have based my loose training structure.

I'll come back to this in a moment, but first I want to highlight one major change in my approach from last time round. Last time, intimidated by the prospect of running my first marathon, I printed off one of the first training schedules I found on the Internet and stuck to it, as best I could, religiously. It involved running 5 times a week (5 times a week more than I was used to) and, frankly, took over my life. I also, on advice, bought some running magazines and digested as much information on the topic as I felt appropriate, taking on board tips on a healthy diet, the importance stretching, when your body will respond to it and when not and numerous other niche facts which would set me up for a better life. And it was a better life in many regards, but I kind of let it take over a little, and that was a problem.

So this time round, I've decided I'm not running my life around running and that my training schedule can be less strict. Will this mean I'll beat my New York time in the London Marathon? Yes. Indirectly. At least I hope so. Albeit a small amount, I now have experience and experience tells me that the schedule I settled on last time was always going to injure me at some point due to its intensity and my unconditioned body. I know now, that getting injured in the 4 months prior to a marathon, is the one biggest hurdle the marathon runner has to overcome. If you can follow some sort of training plan and get to the start without an injury, you're most of the way there.

And, more to the point, I'll have part of my life back. I knocked drinking and, consequently, much socialising on the head last time, and that was hard and made running less enjoyable. Because it was new, it wasn't that bad, but if I sacrificed everything this time round because "I've got to do a long run in a couple of days", then I think I'd start to look at running as a chore. So my stance is less strict, although I am far more conscious of my (much reduced) tolerance these days!

Back to the key elements that I'm focusing on for training for London:

- Aim to run at least 80%-90% of the race distance in a training run before the race
- Gradually increase distance run per week by around 10%, not more
- Run no less than 3 times per week
- Fit in a longer run at the weekend
- Don't run the day after a long run, either rest or cross-train
- Exercise at least 5 times per week for a minimum of 30 mins per session
- Do everything not miss the long run session at the weekend
- Enjoy a beer and a glass of wine or two, but keep it at that and don't feel guilty

I'll let you know how it goes.

Stomach bug

2008-11-04T07:20:00.005Z

Without wanting to come across as someone forever making excuses, both my wife and I genuinely got hit by a rather violent stomach bug and it ruled me out of yet another weekend's training. In fact, it took such a swing at me that it caused me to miss my last day at work and cancel my leaving party! Without venturing too heavily into details, it took 3-4 days before you could say you felt better and left us both unhealthily skinnier as a result. Fortunately, we have a week to recover before heading back to work.

I did manage to fit in the following before the bug took over:

60 miles cycling
0.5 km swimming
5 km running

Another Sunday missed

2008-10-27T22:19:00.006Z

No excuses this time, well, only lame ones. Lame in the nature of the excuse, nothing to do with not being able to run either. We went to a wedding out of town on the Saturday and I forgot to pack my running kit, so I decided I'd make the most of it and enjoy the bubbly. One slight consolation is that I exercised for nearly three hours solidly on the wedding disco dance floor!

Missing the Sunday long run aside, I cycled into work three out of a possible four days and sneaked in a couple of mid-week runs and a swim, so I'm not feeling entirely useless. In summary for the week then:

60 miles cycling
1 km swimming
8 km running
No gym work...again

The right time to kick into training hasn't presented itself yet. Plenty on in the calendar with weddings, announcements and changing jobs, it suddenly dropping to zero degrees outside (in October!) and then there's our son starting at the childminder's and deciding to come down with every bug possible.

It'll get easier I know, it already is. But I won't be kidding myself, training for London is not going to be straightforward, having to fit it in around looking after a baby and it coinciding with winter. Makes New York's summer training seem idyllic by comparison. But still, I figure that once I have a routine set and my body starts to recognise what it's supposed to be doing, aside from being woken up every 3-4 hours through the night, then the whole process will seem that much easier.

I strongly believe it's all about routine and sticking to it. Writing up what you're going to do, doing it and ticking the box to show you've done it. If you don't do it, write up why to remind yourself. Of course, don't be harsh on yourself either, as with everything, there's a balance to be struck.

Week missed!

2008-10-20T22:32:00.005+01:00

It's Monday now and I'm feeling the guilt for not having gone for a single run in the last week. Until this weekend, I'd at least managed to run a long run every Sunday for the past 9 weeks, so I'm a bit gutted to have let it slip.

I did have an excuse, I woke up on Saturday morning with a fluey ache thing and the previous night's intention of doing some interval training amounted to nothing. Why it had to wait until the weekend to make its appearance, I don't know. Still, I managed to hold it together to attend a wedding in the afternoon and evening, an altogether new experience learning to turn down top ups of Moët and wandering and registered a rare alcohol free attendance to an otherwise indulgent and such an occasion.

Sunday was a better day for me, but still had to be kick-started with a lemsip, which doesn't mix well with running, so I made the decision that, this weekend, it wasn't going to happen.

Summary for the week:

40 miles cycling
0.5 hours swimming
0 miles running
No resistance training

The Mogford

2008-10-14T19:37:00.005+01:00

Another week down and another long Sunday run not missed. It was the week of the Asics Run Kingston race on Sunday, where you can either run 8.2 miles or choose the 16 mile double loop option, which is what I did last year, prior to running the NYC marathon. This year, I stuck to the 8.2 miles and I smashed my PB by nearly 5 minutes, despite moderate training of 1-2 runs per week.

I crossed the line in 57:21, although the race results tell another story. In fact, Mr Mogford crossed the line in 57:21 and Mr Moggs finished in 1:08:07. You'll just have to take my word, my watch and my iPod for it that, for that particular race, I was actually Mr Mogford. I don't know what happened, I guess the timing chips got posted out to the wrong people or something.

Anyway, I was pretty chuffed and now just contemplating what that means I have to try and run the marathon in. Of course, that's a different ball game and I'm not getting any delusions about how I'll fair at more than 3 times the distance.

In summary for the week:

40 miles cycling
1 hour swimming
8.2 miles running
4 hours shopping!
No resistance training

Five in a row

2008-10-05T11:16:00.009+01:00

I've just completed an 8.5 mile run in the pouring rain, a little taster for what training through winter for a spring marathon is going to be like. Of course, it's totally fine, it does make your step slightly heavier, but it can be quite refreshing too.

Since the Nike 10k race at the end of August, I've completed a run of at least an hour every Sunday, in an effort to build up a good base on which to start my proper marathon training. I've not managed to fit in much in between, but with six months to go, I figured I've still got time.

I had a first attempt at interval style training yesterday, running one lap of the local field, followed by a two minute recovery. I managed the following, loosely based on Yasso 800s:

2 x 800m at pace (approx. 3m 15s) followed by 2 minute walking recovery
2 x 400m at same pace followed by 1 minute walking recovery

My first goal is not to increase the pace, but to sustain it for longer and do 4 x 800m, rather than having to step down to the 400s. We'll see how that goes and take it from there.

In summary for the week:

40 miles cycling
1 hour swimming
18km running
30 min resistance training

A gentle week finishing in Bushy Park again

2008-09-14T18:07:00.002+01:00

With the potential marathon still at least seven months away, I'm completely fine with putting in a gentle week, providing I still get the long run in. Ok, so I might have had a couple of beers this week too, but the two things I learnt, or decided to remember, from last year's marathon was not to let training completely take over your life and to build your training up gradually.

I ran 14.5k this morning, at a reasonably brisk pace. I felt a very slight niggle in the shin as I set off, but the pain soon dulled and I settled into an 8 minute mile pace for the 9 mile route. It felt fine, good even. But I'd stop short of thinking I could keep that up for any length of time, i.e. a marathon. Half maybe, but no more.

A bit of an update

2008-09-08T14:44:00.006+01:00

It's been a little over five months since my last post and, although I've not stopped running entirely, it has been on the back burner while I've been getting to grips with fatherhood.

That all being sorted now, in so much as I'm coming to terms with life without sleep, I'm donning a new pair of trainers and slowly going to notch up the miles to prepare myself for a potential 26.2 mile jog round London next year. Fingers crossed.

I'm not feeling in bad shape this year. I've not been running much but I've kept up with cycling to work and have recently added a dose of swimming into the mix. And, on the odd occasion I've taken myself out for a little test drive, the outlook is not unpromising. In fact, I've clocked a PB for the 10,000m (in olympic speak) twice consecutively and am now down to 44'08".

So this weekend I decided to kick off my pre-training training, if you like, with a warm up 5k on Saturday and an 13.5km run through Bushy Park and along the river on Sunday. It's good to be back!

Another city. Another marathon.

2008-09-07T12:00:00.004+01:00

On 26th April, I will be taking part in the 2009 London Marathon and running on behalf of Children with Leukaemia. Please help me raise money for this very worthy cause.

Inspired by everyone taking part in last year's London Marathon and suitably numb to the more painful memories from the previous year's NYC Marathon, I decided it was time to give it another go.

In April 2008, I approached Children with Leukaemia to ask if I could run for them in the 2009 London Marathon. They raise money for a very worthy cause, and one that is close to our hearts. I was fortunate enough to be offered one of their places back in August and have been keeping my running going since, although training in earnest didn't begin until January this year.

So here we are

2008-03-28T07:47:00.003Z

Well, we're nearly at the weekend of the race and this is only the second blog entry. Compared with the amount of training I did for the marathon and the number of posts that produced, two entries for this sounds about right.

I dropped a 7 miler on Monday, been cycling to work and had a game of 5-a-side last night which, all in all, has left me stiff as a board! Two days' rest now until the race should see me fine though, so I'm not worried.

I always had 1:05 as a target time in my head. I won't pretend that'll be easy. In October I did nearly double the distance in 2:12 but was probably much fitter, despite the achilles injury I was carrying. I should finish somewhere below 1:10 and if I beat 1:05, I'll be dead chuffed and will donate another £10 to my charity!

At it again!

2008-03-09T08:20:00.005Z

Not wanting to let Christmas and the winter months undo every ounce of training, I've decided to sign up for a couple of events in 2008 to keep things ticking along.

For now I'm sticking to running, but I've picked myself up a smart little bike so, who knows, perhaps I'll find myself on the starting line for a triathlon one day...

I really appreciate all the support everyone gave KIDS and me for the marathon, both in forms of donations and general encouragement and am hoping there's a little of that left in you to help me raise some money for Leukaemia Research, as I take on the Kingston Breakfast Run in March.

It's only 8.2 miles. I say only, in my pre-marathon days that would have still been a significant achievement but I'm hoping now it shouldn't be too taxing. That said, it does start at 7am on a Sunday morning, the 30th in fact which neatly happens to be our wedding anniversary, the first, arguably the most important, definitely one of those events you really mustn't forget. If I've gone and double booked our wedding anniversary, the very least I can do is to try and raise some funds for a very worthwhile cause.

Running 26.2 miles around New York

2007-11-07T07:58:00.000Z

We arrived in New York late on Friday and spent Saturday walking to the runners' registration centre and taking in a number of shops en route. Probably not the most sensible option to cover 5 miles on foot the day before a marathon, but when it's over 2 dollars to the pound, what else are you going to do?

With an out of kilter body clock and the anticipation of the run being the next morning, the last night's sleep was never going to be a good one. An hour after falling asleep I woke up completely confused thinking I'd overslept and missed the whole thing and cursing my two alarms for not working. Fortunately, the support unit was there to calm me down and inform me that it was only 10:30pm and that I'd got a few hours more to go yet. Phew...

After a restless night, I eventually gave up on trying to sleep at 4:30am. I'd prepared all my kit the night before, including some instant porridge and I was downstairs filling up on coffee not long after. It was pitch black and freezing cold when I stepped out of the hotel and started to walk down to the public library to pick up the transit bus to the start.

We got our first taste of the atmosphere at the bus stop and it never really disappeared from that point. The journey took us across to Brooklyn, over the Verrazano Bridge and onto Staten Island, where the race would start from, albeit, in 4 hours time.

Those 4 hours don't pass very quickly. There's food and coffee on offer, but there's only so many plain bagels you can eat and cups of coffee you want to drink before running 26 miles. I eventually made it over the start at about 10:30, by which time the sun was out and spirits were high. I'll be honest, I felt pretty tired, but psyched up for the race.

The first stretch is an uphill climb over the Verazanno Bridge. I set off at a steady pace and took in the amazing views over the bay. The bridge drops you down into Brooklyn, the first of the five boroughs the run takes in. Brooklyn was bustling with supporters 3-5 deep most of the way, interspersed with bands, DJs and cops. I kept a steady 4 hour pace through this section but I could still feel my thighs starting to lock up. By around mile 10, the legs were pretty heavy making the regular hills, the course throws at you, that much more punishing. The course then skips through Queens aiming for the Queensborough Bridge at mile 15. This bridge was the first of many mental barriers to overcome in the rest of the race.

You travel along the lower deck of the bridge and it's dark and it just climbs and climbs. There are no crowds to spur you on and the brief elation of reaching the half-way point has gone and you can only think about the 10 miles you've still got to run. I knew that my lone supporter would be in Manhattan, around the 17 mile mark, so I tried to focus on this. Sure enough, seeing a familiar face (well my wife in fact!) in the crowd gave me a lift and I ran on until I reached the 19 mile mark, where I started to walk.

I'd been determined, throughout my training, not to walk. I'd been told I probably would, which made me more determined. I'd been told I shouldn't worry about walking as most people do a bit of walking. Still, I was hoping I wouldn't have to. But I had to, I felt physically and mentally drained. I didn't stop running completely and I got myself into a routine of running for about 9 minutes and then walking for 2 and getting through the miles like that. all the time keeping one eye on finishing within my original target time of 4 hours 30. Mental arithmetic isn't easy when you've just run 20 odd miles, but the calculations kept me occupied and served to distract me, momentarily, from the pain in my right foot which had given me a limp.

At about mile 20, the route takes you across for a brief visit into the Bronx. I was still run/walking at this point and almost psychologically beaten. I don't know whether this was the "wall" that is so often talked about, but I was finding it increasingly difficult to stick to my routine and was regularly breaking into a walk.

A mile before heading back across to Manhattan, we turned a corner and found ourselves in front of a big brass band blasting out the theme from Rocky. Now I now it must sound cheesy, but this was one of the most uplifting moments of the run, I was pulled up from a very low point and got myself back into a jog. I kept this up for a good mile and then back to my walk/run combo.

Mile 22/23 is a long steady climb up 5th Ave into Central Park. The hill doesn't seem to end, but the sight of the park and knowing that the finish is within reach, keeps you going. I was struggling, but not as badly as some others, I'd found a 2nd wind, did I say 2nd? I think I must have meant 15th... The supporters were out in force in the park, 5-7 deep all egging you on to get tot he finish. I'd passed the 1/2 mile mark and could see a gantry over the road. I turned on a last ditch effort at a sprint and put all pain to the back of my mind. The gantry turned out to mark 200yds to go! Oops. My wife was just at the side and I had all the momentum I needed to carry myself over the line.

I can't remember ever doing anything so physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting in my life. You can't take it all in at the end, you want to jump up and down but you can't, all you are capable of is feeling sick and almost crying and all you want to do is sit down. This, I'm told, is a bad move, everyone is actively encouraged to walk for another 20 minutes. 20 minutes!!! I've just run a marathon mate! Give me a break. Well, there was no option, we had to queue, in a standing and shuffling way, to get our bags, for about half an hour. That was like torture.

I finally met up with my wife and told her that if I should ever mention a desire to do another marathon, to remind me of how I felt at that point and what we'd all just put ourselves through. No way was I going to do another one of those! Well, that thought lasted until the morning after. The elation kicked in, the feeling of nausea had gone, the pain, well that was still there, but easing. So, why not then, it wasn't all that bad was it?

Finished!

2007-11-05T19:18:00.000Z

Just a very quick entry to let anyone know who is interested that I finished the New York City marathon in 4:27, a couple of minutes inside my targetted time. So I'm very happy!

The whole event was amazing but I found the course a lot harder than I'd expected. Partly due to having to get up 5 hours before you run at 4:30am, must have had something to do with it. None of my previous injuries raised their heads during the course, although something did go crack in my foot around mile 18. Hopefully I'll have nothing more to report on that one and that another night's rest will have helped it recover...

So here we are

2007-11-01T20:27:00.001Z

That's it, it's too late now, pens down and stop the clock. I've just got back from my last training run and the next time I put on my trainers, will be at around 5:30am on Sunday, to make my way to the start.

Right, I'd better start packing...

Clock weekend & Final week preparation

2007-10-29T19:31:00.000Z

Sprint finish!
Kingston 16 miler

Consolidating my position as a 30 something striving for the suburban family lifestyle, the clocks going back didn't mean an extra hour out drinking into the early hours. Far from it, I was just up and out on an 8 mile run and back in time for brunch!

Final week injury update...

The going is good. The achilles is a little stiff but completely bearable but the knee started to give me grief at around the 4 mile mark. I decided to push on through and the pain gradually dulled. It was a gamble but, with only days left, I wanted to make sure I could run through it on the day, so I had to trial it. It paid off. By mile 7, I could barely feel it and after the run it felt like it was back to normal. I can't explain it, but I like it!

With a cut in training, I've tried to reduce my calorie intake. Not dramatically, but I'm not feeling as hungry as I was, so I've just obeyed my hunger. I've been taking on a lot of orange juice, in an attempt to keep colds at bay, and eating plenty of pasta.

I'm really looking forward to the marathon experience and, however I do, I know that all my training has been worth it.

The Taper

2007-10-24T20:43:00.000+01:00

I'm officially tapering right down. I went out for a 5k easy run tonight and that'll probably be it until the weekend. Part of the advice I'm working on is that, in the final two weeks, you can only over train. Well, I'm not cycling to work, fortunately a work placement in Reading has taken care of that for me.

Injury-wise, the achilles is loads better, but I can still feel it when I run. Annoyingly I've set something off in my other knee. It's much like the pain I had right at the start which I put down to mild ITB syndrome. Assuming it's similar, the cure, aside from RICE, is to work on building up the glutes, which I'll attempt to do through a few pilates floor exercises I've been taught.

Outlook is good and I'm getting fully psyched up for 10 days time!

Penultimate long run

2007-10-21T21:11:00.000+01:00

A perfect blue sky autumn morning and an almost recovered achilles tendon, was just the nudge I needed to get back into training. I'm officially in the taper period of my schedule now, but it still means heading out for a 12 mile run on a Sunday. A slight twinge in the tendon as I set off, but nothing worth pulling up and turning back for, which is exactly what I had to do two weeks ago.

I headed down the river and up into Richmond Park. I was taking it steady, so much so that, at one point, I was overtaken by a pushchair. That said, my average pace was sub 5'30" per km and felt very comfortable. Cardio-wise, my stamina for long distance, is probably ready for the 26 miles. The danger's always going to be with the tendons or my muscles turning to lead, as they felt following the Kingston 16 miler. Time will tell.

Easing back in and hopefully waving goodbye to another injury

2007-10-18T07:41:00.000+01:00

It's been two weeks since I first pulled up on a training run with a pain in my achilles tendon. Since then, the only exercise I've been getting is my regular cycle to work and the Kingston 16 mile race. Other than that, I've been resting it and massaging around the injury and the calf muscle above it, which had completely tensed up, as well as icing and elevating it whenever I can at home.

I went for a gentle 3 mile jog this morning and noted that someone has turned off the heating since I last went for an early morning run! Genuine signs of a frost. As for the achilles, well I could feel it, but it was a definite improvement on Sunday. I didn't want to risk damaging it further, having almost nursed it back to health, so 3 miles was my limit. I'm not feeling any more pain now than when I set out, so it's given me the confidence that I can go for another run on Saturday and a 10-12 miler on Sunday.

The Kingston 16 mile race

2007-10-14T12:36:00.000+01:00

Avoiding every temptation to go down to the pub to watch the rugby on the Saturday (what a result!), I kept myself firmly sat on the sofa, drank some water and enjoyed the game. While getting up before 7 is bad enough any day of the week, there's something particularly nasty about doing this on a Sunday. I'd better get used to it, as the marathon day will be no different, in fact, slightly worse.

The 16 mile race takes in two circuits of the Hampton Court-Kingston river loop, which I've run on several occasions during my training, but never twice! I felt prepared for it though. A week of rest had helped, but not cured, my achilles and the new aerodynamic marathon hair cut was bound to help. But I hadn't banked on my running watch/heart rate monitor running out of batteries on the morning of the event! Fortunately, I had a backup one on my bike, so I carried that round with me (not the bike).

We started at 8:30am and I was aiming to cross the finish line at 11am, I went off with the pack and a couple of miles in realised we were pacing it. I'd read about this sort of thing, going off early and suffering the consequences later. I checked my pulse and I was only in the 150s, so I decided to stick with it. I'd set off near the front, by fluke, and was now being passed by people who looked like proper runners. I didn't mind and I stuck with the 5min to 5min 30sec kilometre pace we were travelling at.

One lap and 8.5 miles in, I felt strong enough to pick up my pace closer to 5min pace and begin slowly overtaking some folk along the stretch back to Hampton Court. I think I was on a bit of a high after running through the town with the crowds as my strength began to dissolve rapidly around the 12 mile mark. This is where I had to dig really deep. When you start feeling like that, every pain and niggle prompts your brain to think whether you should stop, start walking or even sit down for a while. Admittedly, I hope not to reach this point so early in the full marathon, but I'll be ready for it. I'd not run at such a pace for such a distance before and it took all my mental strength to take me through to the final couple of miles.

Strength in style!

With two miles to go, you know you're going to make it. And to help me along some uplifting tunes popped onto my ipod. I'd created the playlist so that I'd get a lift at about this point. Problem was, my body reacted by picking up my pace further still! With 1.5 miles to go, I was starting to stride past people who'd passed me earlier in the race. It would have been too embarrassing to admit I'd gone off too early and see them pass me back, so I stuck with it until the finish. A real mental dig.

I finished in 2hrs 12mins. I was very pleased with this time, given I thought I'd be closer to the 2:30 mark. However, I do not expect to set this pace for the marathon as there's no way I could have slogged out another 10 miles!

Still resting up

2007-10-11T08:05:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, the niggle in my achilles has failed to disappear and, since a little 5k on Sunday, I've not dared venture out. I'm going to try and give it a run out at lunchtime today but if it's still given me grief, I've decided the only option is to join the local gym and get myself on the cross-trainer. Cycling is ok, but it's not great, the cross-trainer is as close as you can get to running without the impact.

I'm told that if I concentrate on getting my 16 mile race completed on Sunday, then there is no real need for me to run in the two weeks leading up to the big one. But of course, I need to maintain my fitness, hence access to a cross-trainer and a swimming pool would be ideal. Fingers crossed I can get out along the river at lunchtime without any bother.

Run home from work / Achilles trouble

2007-10-07T19:25:00.001+01:00

From the start of the training schedule, I'd always known that the longest mid-week run would be last week's 10 miler. In fact, last week was pretty tough all round, 20 miles on Sunday, followed by 4, 7 and 10 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I ran the 4 and 7 miles at lunchtimes at work, but there's no way I could have fitted in 10, so I chose to run home.

I cycled my wife's bike into work and she came and met me to cycle alongside me on my run home, which is pretty much bang on 10 miles. About 1.5 miles in, I could feel my achilles tendon starting to play up. I stopped, stetched it out and continued on to finish the 10 miles. One thing I've been grateful for in my training is that I've not yet hit an injury to completely put me out of action, but I've had my fair share of niggles. In fact, if you listed off the top 5 running injuries, I've had a taster for them all.

I'm conscious that many, preparing for their first marathon, injure themselves out of the race, or have to walk it. So I'm probably just a little paranoid, especially when you hear how long achilles tendinitis can put you out of action. So I'm resting it. Not entirely, but for the first time in my training, I pulled out of my long Sunday run and jogged a gentle 5k instead. I can still feel the tendon, so I'm going to let the inflammation subside and start out on it again on Tuesday.

Autumn Training

2007-10-02T20:42:00.001+01:00

I take my hat off to all those who train for the London Marathon, or any springtime marathon in the northern hemisphere. The gentle run along the towpath on a pleasant summer's evening, is a now just a distant memory. It's not really cold but the endless drizzle is not exactly inviting either. That said, once you're out in it, it's totally fine and, once you're back, you feel that bit more smug for having braved it.

I did a 6k flat tempo run this evening and managed to clock my fastest training 5k, in the process. Just a little over 23 mins for 5k, averaging 4m 38s per km for the whole thing. It's not astonishingly quick, nor is it much faster than I could do previously, but I wasn't puffing at the end and I have to remember that my training's been focusing on distance, not speed.

Only 6.2 miles to go

2007-09-30T13:08:00.000+01:00

7am is a nasty time to get up on a Sunday but it was all important for preparing my breakfast and giving myself enough time to eat it before heading out on a 2h55m run. The Bircher Muesli preparation takes a good 20 minutes but it's all worth it. Plenty of oats, bran and fruit to keep you going for the morning.

The run felt good until I was about 22km in, at which point my legs were starting to feel heavy and tired. I took on board the second sports gel of the run and 5 minutes later, whether coincidence or not, I broke through a barrier and picked up the pace to take me through the last 5 miles.

I completed roughly 32km (20 miles) in total, leaving a mere 10km to finish off the marathon distance. I'm walking around without much trouble now and feel pretty confident that I could have jogged a final 10km, especially with the support of a crowd and a pack of other runners around me.

It's an amazing feeling to have built up from running zero miles per week, aside from the odd occasion, to completing the best part of 40 miles in a single week. Today's run is the longest I'll do before heading out to New York and the last time I'll have the support unit in tow. I'm not sure I could have done it without my wife's (aka support unit) support on these long runs, both for encouragement, company and as an en route technical energy refuel and rehydration facility.

I've still 4 weeks of hard training to go and my next long run will be when I take part in the 16 mile Kingston race in two weeks' time.

20 mile barrier on the horizon

2007-09-29T11:34:00.000+01:00

My task for the week returning from our holiday was to run 3 times before the weekend amassing 17 miles in the process. I'm pleased to say I fell only 0.7 miles shy of that goal and cycled a further 100 miles commuting to and from work.

Tuesday and Wednesday I got my trainers out at work and went for a 4.5 mile jog both lunchtimes. What with the evenings drawing in and temperatures dropping, a lunchtime run is made even more appealing.

As it had been a while since I'd last run this route, I decided to see if my fitness had improved. I stuck my heart monitor on and kept my bpm between 140 and 150 (75%-80% of max), as I had several weeks previously. This time round, I was consistently clocking in under 5min/km, whereas previously I'd been 5m10s or slower. I'm taking that as a minor improvement.

Friday night, I avoided heading down to the pub, cycled home and ran nearly 11k. Feeling fine today, I'll knock out a little 4k this afternoon in preparation for tomorrow when I take on the longest run I have to do in my training schedule, namely 20 miles, or 32k.

Tackling the Tuscan Hills

2007-09-23T20:12:00.000+01:00

Just because I've been without an internet for a week, I don't want you to think that I've been shirking my training as well. Of course I made sure I didn't miss out on the usual holiday delights of sleeping in, sitting by the pool and keeping the palette in check with the local vineyard produce, I also managed to fit in a couple of training runs.

We arrived late and tired on Friday night a few lengths of the pool was all I managed to muster on the Saturday, not wanting to tire myself out before the big one on Sunday.

Sunday, got up at 8, took on a litre of water, a bowl of cereal and half a banana. As I was to be running without the support unit, I filled my camelbak with 1.5 litres of water and stuffed two halves of bananas in the side pockets. When I'd been used to running with support in tow, staring out over my route into the hills of Tuscany with an extra 2 kilos on my back, worried me a little. The prospect improved as I'd luckily picked up a running partner for the first 10k, or so, of the route.

We set off up the hill from the Villa at 8:45, ran 2k into the village of Chianni and started to descend into the valley. By the time we'd reached the valley floor, we'd run 5k. Not being used to running such steep hills, the thighs were working over time on the descent but I'd not felt any twinges to say that I was doing any damage.

About 8k in, I said goodbye to my running partner as I left him to tackle the 3-4k left to take him back up to the villa. Yes, the downside (or upside...) to running down into a valley for 4k, is that you have to get back to where you started.

I carried on for another 1.75 hours, silently jogging my way past men with shotguns out hunting presumably and numerous angry dogs, fortunately stuck behind fencing. Despite this, the route was spectacular. I was in the middle of the Tuscan hills, miles from any sizable town and motoring under my own power. Quite a way to kick off the Sunday morning.

About 24k and 2.25 hours into my run, I realised that I wasn't going to make it back to the villa as it was least 6k away and mostly uphill. I'd only been sipping on the water, but I'd run out and the late morning sun was starting to take its toll. Many of the roads I'd been running on didn't appear on the maps I had to hand, so I'd had to make a lot of it up and estimated the distances from one place to another. I decided to run to the bottom of the home stretch, where I'd left my friend nearly two hours earlier and call it a day. And why not. I'd completed 26k and run for 2hrs 34mins in increasing heat and hilly conditions, with a backpack on. My best effort yet and probably the toughest run I'll do before the marathon. Thankfully, I'd packed my mobile in my backpack and called for the support unit to come and take me home!

During the rest of the week I managed to fit in a 4k interval session and another 13k loop, taking in that killer uphill home stretch I'd not managed on the Sunday. I didn't crack my 5 sessions but made up in part by getting a few lengths in the pool in everyday.

Back to standard training this week...starting tomorrow.

6:30 start

2007-09-13T22:16:00.000+01:00

So 6:30 might sound like a lie in to a proper real life athlete, but it felt pretty early to me. And yes, I got up and did my 5 mile run as I'd planned. Stunning morning to do it on too, fresh enough that you know it but not so cold you want to do nothing but turn round and get back inside.

Off to Italy tomorrow. There's no such thing as too much pasta.

Making the heart pump

2007-09-12T21:37:00.000+01:00

Spent another evening interval training on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I'd left it too late to head out onto the local park, it was pitch black and I didn't fancy the odds on potholes vs. my ankles. So I ran my original 5k around the streets, 2m30s minutes quick, followed by 2 minutes slow, over and over until I made it home. It resulted in me finishing the 5k in just over 25 minutes. Given how slow I ran the recovery sections, I'm pretty pleased with that.

As for tonight, I'm resting up my left shin again. I'm not totally comfortable with it at the moment and want to give it my best shot at 18 miles on Sunday. Instead, I cycled home 15% quicker than I would normally, to give myself a bit of a work out.

Planning on going for a jog round the park tomorrow morning before work...

Stourport 10 Miler

2007-09-09T22:08:00.000+01:00

Went for another run along the Stourport Canal today, from Kidderminster to Stourport and back. The river wasn't about to burst its banks this time and there was no wading through flood water along the towpath. Finished in a relaxed 1hr 32mins, trying not to aggravate my shins. Was I successful? Well, I can still feel some pain in the shin, but it doesn't really bother me when I'm running, so I guess I'm not making it any worse and I can live with that.

Mid-week Update

2007-09-06T21:18:00.000+01:00

I've gone a little quiet on the blog, but the training's still pretty much in shape. I missed one run this week but, on the flip-side, I've swapped in a few pints instead. No, it's not that bad, just that trying to juggle the social commitments with the training regime can be tough.

I knocked off 4k of interval training yesterday morning before breakfast, which left me shattered. I hadn't realised what a difference there is between long distance stamina and really giving your heart a work out. I jogged down to the local park (the 0.5 mile in circumference one) and ran 3/4 lap hard and then 1/4 lap at a very slow jog and repeated this 5 times. For the hard sessions, I was pushing my heart rate up around 175-185bpm, or 90-95% of max. 9 weeks of training suddenly felt like it had had no effect, or rather I'd hate to think what I would have been like had I tried that 9 weeks ago.

Tonight, I ran 11k around the Hampton Court-Kingston circuit without the support unit but with a backpack instead, carrying my water. It was dark and I found myself in several tricky games of chicken with runners coming in the opposite direction. I also suffered a few heart jumping moments as shadows popped out of the bushes in front of me, until I caught the silhouette of one of the bunny rabbits in the light of a distant street lamp.

Three Commons Run (14.5 miles)

2007-09-02T16:45:00.000+01:00

Got up first thing this morning to prepare for the 16 mile run I was about to undertake. Traditional run day breakfast ingredients of Bircher Muesli and Banana Smoothie with a couple of slices of toast and a coffee thrown in for good measure. 45 minutes after this lot had gone down, we (runner + support unit) set off in the opposite direction, from normal, to take in three commons.

Within 15 minutes, we found ourselves running through woodland. That pretty much set the tone for the whole run. It was fantastic. Hardly a saw a soul, the ground was soft and the tree cover made for a refreshing temperature.

It wasn't without incident though. As the more astute readers will have noticed, I only completed 14.5 out of the intended 16 miles. This was because we got blocked from going any further through the forest due to it being protected land. A large section of forest around Oxshott, home to some of the world's richest footballers, has been designated as for permit holders only. Real shame, because it looked stunning beyond the gate but I guess you wouldn't want to feel the that local residents were restricted to their 10 bedroom mansions, tennis courts and swimming pools, so best give them the forest too.

Injury wise. I think the week off, followed by gentle training on grass, was the best move I could have made as my shin pains have almost disappeared completely. Fingers crossed I won't wake up with a new injury tomorrow.

Back in the game!

2007-08-30T23:05:00.000+01:00

I'm walking around the house, up and down stairs and I can't feel the shin splints. What's more, I ran nearly 7.5 miles earlier this evening, the first real test for my legs since resting the injury.

I took it very steadily, trying to keep my heart rate below 140 bpm, which kept my pace just over 5m 30s per kilometre throughout. I'd be very happy if I could keep that up for the marathon, but that's another story. I'm just chuffed to be back in action and that all my efforts to date weren't just for the sake of losing an inch round my waist.

Laps

2007-08-29T07:59:00.000+01:00

Not wanting to worsen my injury, I'm sticking to grass and running round the local park, doing laps. It's not as interesting as a running a route and taking in the river but it's not as bad as I'd thought it might be and it's very soft underfoot.

The other aspect of running laps is being able to see exactly how far you've run, how far you've got left and monitor your pace without having to keep listening in to your ipod. That said, it can be a bit demoralising to turn up, run around it once and realise you've got to repeat that another ten, or so, times. So I tend not to think about that at the start and focus on my heart rate and pace.

I've gone back to training at 75% of my max heart rate, to reduce the chance of further injury and rebuild my stamina. I may have been getting carried away with myself, when the injury occurred, and running to try and beat my times rather than focusing on pacing myself. You find, that after a few weeks of running at 75%, your pace naturally increases anyway, as your muscular and cardio fitness improve.

I'll stick with laps for this week and, providing the pain doesn't worsen, get back onto my routes in time for my 16 mile session on Sunday.

4 mile warm up

2007-08-26T10:23:00.000+01:00

OK, so I didn't make the 10k but, importantly, I'm not in pain. A half hour jog on soft grass didn't seem to set off any real pain in my left shin, just the same slight niggle I currently feel when walking.

I'll take it steadily from here and hope that I can get my training back on track.

Giving it another go

2007-08-26T08:01:00.000+01:00

I've given the shin nearly a complete week off and the pain appears to have gone. I'm hoping I caught the injury early enough not to be in the position of having to wait weeks before doing anything.

To be on the safe side, for my first run, I'm going to do laps of the local playing field. The ground will be softer than roads and if I'm in any pain, I can stop and walk home easy enough. It's half a mile around the field and I'm aiming to complete 13 circuits to notch up 10k. Let's see how it goes...

Recuperation

2007-08-22T07:31:00.000+01:00

Although I'm sure it didn't improve the situation, it wasn't the 15 mile run that gave me the pain in my left shin, I've had it for about a week now. I've decided to rest it for a few days and stick with the cycling to keep up with some of my cardiovascular exercise at least.

Walking down stairs is painful, running less so, strangely, but it does seem increasingly likely that I'm getting shin splints. Rest, ice, elevation, proper shoes, softer surfaces and, most importantly, not increasing the mileage too quickly. I've been doing most of these quite well, I'd thought. The mileage increase is the one factor I can't control so well as, to run a marathon, you have to build up the mileage in time for the race.

C'est la vie. I'll pick up my training again on Thursday, or leave it until the weekend and just start it off with a gentle jog and see how it goes.

Non-stop for 141 minutes

2007-08-18T17:29:00.000+01:00

Today I took on the first run that would take me comfortably past the half marathon mark and give me a glimpse into what's to come in the second half. I wasn't wired up to my ipod, having left it at work, so I'm not sure of the exact distance covered, but it's somewhere between 14 and 15 miles. On sections, where I knew the distance I was covering, I seemed to be keeping my pace at a steady 5m 50s per kilometre, which suggests that I ran at least 24km.

I just about managed to walk round the supermarket after the run, having dunked myself into an ice cold bath, which I've read can help your muscles recover more quickly. My guess is that I'll still be hobbling down the stairs tomorrow and taking the lift at every opportunity.

Passing the half marathon barrier has definitely boosted my confidence, but at the same time, reinforced exactly what you take on when you choose to run a marathon. The lead weight excuse for legs that I'm shuffling around with now, would definitely not have endured another 2 hours of running.

All in though, I've had a great week, the pasta and muesli are back in the diet, I'm sleeping better and I've racked up 31 training miles, so I'm pretty happy.

7 miles on a school night

2007-08-17T07:37:00.000+01:00

The training's definitely back on track this week with a hilly 3.5 mile, a lunchtime 4.5 mile and an evening 7 mile run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

I've quit cycling. For the time being, at least. Ever since the 12 mile run a couple of weeks back, I don't really feel like I've regained my energy. I think a number of contributing factors are at play which have lead to my diet and sleeping patterns being disrupted. Dump 80 miles cycling a week on top of already flagging energy levels and you haven't exactly got the most conducive base for putting in a few miles on foot in between.

So, cycling, chocolate flavoured cereal (said the diet had got a little disrupted!) and ready meals are on hold and the district line, muesli and more pasta are back in. As soon as I feel I can swap the cereal options back the way they were, I will. Did I say cereal? I meant to say transport, of course.

Not so fair weather jogger

2007-08-14T20:22:00.000+01:00

Well, I've quickly turned my fair weather jogger status around. Put in a quick and hilly 5k run this evening and got drenched in the process. Lovely.

All eyes on the 14 mile run I have to take on on Sunday. Not completely tiring myself out before then is going to be key.

Fair weather jogger

2007-08-13T07:26:00.000+01:00

Running at the weekend gets really tricky when you're away, visiting people. For starters, excuses such as "I need to get an early night" and "No wine for me, thanks" don't seem to roll off the tongue and may seem a little rude at the time, so of course you oblige. Combine that with waking up in unfamiliar surroundings with a gale blowing outside and the rain beating down and you've got a recipe for no action.

Well, I'm happy to say that I managed to get 50% of my running done but, sadly, not all. I got up and ran 6 miles, around Kidderminster, before breakfast on Saturday. Sunday morning, we were in North Wales, it was raining, I was exhausted and I didn't make it. I did pass 250km racked up on my ipod, so Nike gave me a certificate (see right)!

It was only supposed to be a 7 miler, not the Sunday long run, that's next weekend. And it's the long ones that are said to be the key to the training.

This week's mileage: 18.5

Red Meat

2007-08-08T20:59:00.001+01:00

Perhaps it's something to do with kicking off the week with a 12 mile run in 30 degree heat, followed by cycling to work for 20 miles a day while keeping up with the strict mid-week running schedule. But I'm tired. And I know you've read this before, but I'm physically exhausting myself. Following a snippet of advice from a friend at work, I sneaked out to buy 4 steaks for tonight's supper to increase my amount of red meat intake. I felt that two steaks should do the trick! The proof is in the eating, well, not entirely true, it will more likely be in whether I'm still struggling to move tomorrow.

Was supposed to run 6 miles last night, but cut myself some slack and ran 4.5 and repeated with another 4.5 at lunchtime today. It leaves me 2 miles adrift of my schedule for the week, but I'm 60 miles up on the cycling front, so if you count 3 miles cycling as 1 mile running, I'm laughing. If...

12 sweet miles

2007-08-05T17:10:00.000+01:00

Another longest run session today. This time, three of us set out on the hottest day of the year to run along rivers¹, up and down mountains² and across a desert³ for a total of 12 miles. The support unit was there, with 3 times the amount of water loaded for the journey, while myself and Uncle Rico paced it out around the course.

The pace was not too fast, not too slow at around the 5m45s per kilometre mark. It was steady enough to sustain throughout excepting a quick sharp hill and the inevitable 500 metre sprint to the finish line. Definitely a mental help having a running partner alongside, although we're going to make sure we have identical tops for the next session as clothing coordination is all important.

It's good to feel that the half marathon is all but achieved and that my initial fears of an injury, haven't yet developed into anything worth noting. I have an array of exercises to keep the injuries in check and they seem to have helped thus far.

¹Actually one river, namely the Thames
²Technically speaking, these were hills
³The tracks through Richmond Park were quite dusty

Still on track

2007-08-02T21:21:00.000+01:00

The blog may be the occasional day behind but the training has not been suffering. Despite not getting home until nearly 8:30 this evening, I did manage to squeeze in a 4 mile run off the back of my 10 mile cycle.

Now it's all attention focused on this weekend's nearly half-marathon around Richmond Park and the surrounds. I've got a 12 mile route all lined up and the weather is throwing 27 degrees of heat my way. The up side of a terrible summer, for a *runner at least, is that it's not too hot to train in. Still, all good things have to come to an end, so I'll just have to put up with the heat and work on my tan.

*Weird. I just referred to myself as a runner. Well, I'm doing a lot of it, but I'm not sure my style would go down well amongst real runners.

Wedding Weekend

2007-07-31T07:49:00.000+01:00

It's always tough to keep up with training when you've got something on at the weekend. Well, for the second one in a row, we were attending a friend's wedding. This time round, it was in Germany, adding a slight twist in the running route stakes.

Thank goodness for gmap-pedometer and it not being restricted to the environs of Kingston and Richmond. This week was "easy" week. I'm not just making that up. Every 3-4 weeks, you're advised to relax your training a little, down to a modest 20 miles in this case and not tackle the long Sunday run. The plan was for two 5 mile runs one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Saturday went well. I managed to get up before breakfast and get 5 miles in before indulging in a huge German style buffet breakfast for nearly 2 hours. Sunday didn't go so well and the couple of drinks I'd allowed myself, combined with two late nights on the trot, meant I didn't actually wake up until there was only 20 minutes of breakfast remaining. I made the hard decision to forgo the run and take on the buffet once more.

Back to training today as well as a quick physio session (thanks Sam!) to try and prevent me damaging my knee any further.

101 miles down. Training run missed shocker!

2007-07-26T07:56:00.000+01:00

Nice morning in Richmond Park

Tuesday was meant to be the day for passing the 100 mile barrier. And what did I do instead? Went out for a few drinks, didn't I. Well, it was a nice evening and it was my birthday, so I'm not going to beat myself up over it. So I put the moment on hold for a day and tackled it after work on Wednesday, once the effects of the night before's wine had had a chance to wear off.

Disappointingly, my iPod, which occasionally talks to me at the end of a session, congratulating me on running the furthest I've ever run, or the fastest I've been and so on, had nothing to offer me for running a hundred miles since starting my training. I suppose I shouldn't be making such a big thing of it either, I've got another 300 to run before the big day.

A 10k run round the Kingston and Hampton Court river circuit to get myself around tonight. Something I would have never considered being able to do after cycling back from work a few weeks ago.

Approaching the 100 mile mark

2007-07-23T07:56:00.000+01:00

Since my training began 4.5 weeks ago, I've racked up the best part of a hundred miles. Aside from the slight nagging in my knees when I go for a longer run, I'm generally feeling pretty positive about the whole thing.

I polished off another 10 miler at the weekend, this time I was in the flooded Midlands. I ran alongside the Stourport canal to the river Severn, where the last lock from the canal to the river was completely submerged. Obviously, the route we'd picked to run along the river for a little way was completely out of bounds.

The 10 mile run was followed up with a glass of wine (after the water, bananas and skimmed milk of course) and a huge Sunday lunch. Needless to say, this combination is lethal, in terms of making you want to sleep. Not an ideal way to spend an afternoon with the in-laws.

It's a rest day today, but Tuesday's run will see me through the 100 mile mark.

Week five fatigue

2007-07-19T08:13:00.000+01:00

I chatted to someone in the running shop, when I was buying my trainers, about the effects of cycling to work and still sticking to the schedule. The answer always seems to be not to sacrifice any of your training runs. So, unless I wanted to get the tube in everyday or fork out to get my scooter back on the road, I'm just going to have to deal with it.

He did point out, however, that he recently started cycling to work and that, for the first 4 weeks, he was absolutely fine. Week 5 and he was suddenly hit by fatigue. I'm there. It's not a show stopper and the runs are going well, perhaps my body just needs more food to help it recover more quickly. Well, I kicked that off last night by going for a bowl of spag bog followed by a whole pizza and garlic bread. Nice.

Mileage so far this week: Tuesday - 3 miles; Wednesday - 3 miles; Today - planning on 4.

A brush with injury

2007-07-17T19:58:00.000+01:00

Looking back on my 10 mile run on Saturday, I was begging for an injury. Didn't give myself the two rest days, ran at pace in two races during the week, picked a route with steep ups and downs and had a few pints the night before. As a consequence, I felt the first twinges of what I self-diagnosed as the much written and moaned about Iliotibial Band Syndrome, or ITBS for short.

Locating the nobble

Without plunging into too much detail, I'll give my understanding of why. The IT band runs down the outside of the leg from your hip to your knee. Its purpose is to assist abduction of your leg which, in this case, is nothing more sinister than the outward motion you would have made while doing star jumps as a kid. When you run and your knee bends, the band slips over a nobble on the outside of your knee. My running style, like many others, isn't perfect. My legs collapse inwards, putting the IT band under extra strain. With gravity assisting, running downhill puts it under even more strain and if it's not strong enough and flexible enough, as it slips to and fro, friction causes the tendon to become inflamed. Hence pain.

The cure? RICE. And cut back on the training. I'm no medic, so please don't take any of this as gospel and do not quote me on the medical term "nobble", I'm pretty sure it's not called that.

Anyway, the result is, after a couple of day's RICE, I'm back to more steady training.

Breaking the 10 mile barrier

2007-07-14T11:18:00.001+01:00

Running 10 miles seemed a long way off when I started my training, but 4 weeks in, I've notched up yet another longest run in my life record. I'm going to hold off from saying that I'm totally fine and injury free, for a couple of days, as the lower right calf is giving me a bit of jip at the moment.

This should have been my Sunday run (tomorrow), but I looked at the weather and decided not to risk running it in heavy rain. Unfortunately, I hadn't had my two days of rest before the long run, nor had the effects of the Friday night ales had time to completely disappear. Without a doubt, both of these factors affected me. Lesson learned.

The 10 mile route is good one. It took in the river, the park, hills and knee-kind tracks. I also had my support vehicle in tow again, although I lost her as she stopped to take in the Kingston regatta. There are a few steep hills on the route, one as you enter the park at Ham Gate and another long one as you turn round and head back towards Kingston Gate. I'm glad I took on board some energy at this point as I was starting to fade and mentally preparing to get the bus home!

Going to get another 10 miles in next weekend, then it's "easy" week!

Easy week, in beginner marathon training terms, means that the long Sunday run is a mere 5 miles. Hardly worth getting out of bed.

Deja Vu

2007-07-13T07:34:00.000+01:00

A number of us got together to take part in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Chall...

At about 5pm yesterday afternoon, I had a call from my still coughing wife asking if I'd take her place in the same race that I'd run the previous day. The event lasts two days so that a total of 25,000 people can have a go running round the park. I was hesitant at first, but since I had to go for a 4 mile jog that evening anyway, I figured I may as well do it in the company of strangers.

Despite setting out determined only to jog it round and not go for a time, at about the half-way point, frustration set in and I began the steeplechase route down the outside of the track. I tired after 3 or 4 bouts of this and decided to relax back into a jog.

The result? I shaved 0.2 seconds off of my time. If only there were prizes for consistency!

Race Day

2007-07-12T07:41:00.000+01:00

A number of us from Universal got together to take part in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, a 3.5 mile charity event, run around Battersea Park for SportAid. 12,700 people running around the paths of Battersea Park makes for an entertaining run. if not that runnable,. You'll invariable come up behind people walking 4 abreast after a kilometre and find yourself zig-zagging, sprinting, jogging and even walking as the path narrows to turn a corner. My recorded pace, for a kilometre, bounced between 10 and 4 minutes throughout! That said, I still managed to get around in 27m 4s, which is nearly 3 minutes quicker than my efforts last year, which I'm going to put down to training.

Of course, we rewarded ourselves with a deserved trip to the pub , a couple of pints and a doner. Despite feeling sure at the time, I still haven't managed to find the training schedule which pointed out the benefits of the pint and doner combo.

Back to training today, with a gentle 4 mile cruise. And a doner.

500 pound mark passed!

2007-07-10T20:16:00.000+01:00

A huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far, it's been a great response. Hopefully the momentum won't die down, we've still got a way to go!

Today was another fartlek (relaxing jog interspersed with pacey running for about a minute) day. I rolled out the lunchtime 4 miler and set off on my way. The key, to the pacey sections in fartlek, is timing. By which I mean, spot a runner in the distance coming towards you and work out when to raise the tempo so that you pass them at optimum speed. You will neither appear to be out of breath, nor breaking a sweat but you will pass your target at a suitably unnerving pace. Obviously, make sure you've turned a corner before you slow it back down.

Another Sunday, another run

2007-07-08T11:01:00.000+01:00

Couldn't have asked for better conditions. No rain, no hayfever and no hangover. Even managed to get the wife to ride alongside me as a support vehicle with inbuilt video camera!

Took on board a good, healthy breakfast before heading out and it gave me plenty of energy for the the whole run. I have to thank Max for his invention of muesli for that one. We've (well, the better half) started making Bircher Muesli, which is almost like a cold porridge but full of fruit. Keeps you going for hours.

The longer distances are definitely getting easier, which has to be good news. I jogged through nearly 12k this morning in just over an hour and kept the heart rate nice and steady. Not like my 10k experience a couple of years ago when I stumbled over the finish line after 50minutes, topping out at a whopping 192bpm! I'd say my fitness was on the up.

Tonight, I mainly ate pasta

2007-07-05T22:18:00.000+01:00

Yes, lots of pasta, in the vague hope it will help me through this Sunday's marathon. Sorry, that was just a metaphor. I merely meant a long distance and not an actual marathon, still a few months away from that one...

Thankfully, it's Friday rest day tomorrow and it couldn't have come any sooner. I'm spent. I'm about to finish my first full week of training. Ok, so it's actually week 3, but I've not skipped a single run, so that's got to count for something.

Running on empty

2007-07-04T21:20:00.000+01:00

I'm shattered. It was bound to happen. I can't pretend I'm an athlete when I spend the majority of my waking life sat at a computer box.

So, I suppose my tip for the day might be not to expect to feel comfortable running 5 miles after one bowl of cereal 5 hours earlier and a 10 mile cycle in between. I'll be sneaking in some mid-morning pies in future!

Took the camera with me today, hoping to catch a massive hail storm or something on the way home. There's not really a niche for attempted retrospective photo journalism and all I ended up with was a snap of me at the top of the hill in Richmond Park with a puncture. Perhaps I'll shoot some deer tomorrow, photographically speaking.

Muddy river runs

2007-07-03T20:29:00.000+01:00

Taking a pair of trainers into work and going for a lunchtime run is a great way to get the necessary training in and get away from the desk for half an hour.

We're pretty fortunate to be able to run along the river pretty much directly out of our office, that is, when the towpath's not a swamp. Of course, once you're 200 yards in and, up until then it's been totally dry, there's no turning back. I'm not sure how many miles I added to the run by side-stepping, zig-zagging and long/triple jumping my way along the south bank of the river, but it certainly got the heart rate up. So, I counted it as my fartlek training. Yes, I've learnt another new word.

Longest run of my life...so far

2007-07-01T19:19:00.000+01:00

Today I ran further than I've ever run in my life. So 12k is not quite, well nowhere near, a marathon, but I didn't collapse at the end of it and I'm still able to walk up and down stairs, so I'm happy.

It's a good route with a couple of good psychological milestones in the form of bridges at about a third and two thirds distance.
It does take you along a route through Kingston which can get crowded with pedestrians in the proper summer, but wasn't really a problem today. It seems like July's taken it up where June left off, with plenty of summer rain.

I did catch 30 minutes sleep not long after I got back off the run, but I blame the lack of bananas in the house, which have now been duly stocked up. One thing I'm really starting to notice about this training malarkey is that the food really counts. If you run to the point of making you exhausted, a banana can genuinely pick you up. And to think I spent all that money on Red Bull through my university days!

Leaving Glasto behind

2007-06-30T10:06:00.000+01:00

Glastonbury is not the ideal training ground for a marathon but you've got to have a life. Question is, how do you make up the lack in running and the excess of pear cider? Well, I'm not going to think about it too hard, I'll just start a proper the next week. I figure that so long as that doesn't become my motto, I'll be ok, I've still got just over 18 weeks left to train.

Back to the training...

Despite coming off the back of a Glastonbury weekend, I have managed to get in 3 runs in the last week, totalling 17k, not ideal, but better than nought.

The general plan for the next few weeks is to chug round my 5k circuit on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and to go for a longer river run at lunchtime on a Wednesday (see left) and an even longer one on Sunday. Sundays are the focus of the training schedule, the time to really start clocking up the miles.

Steadily increasing the distance

2007-06-21T09:48:00.000+01:00

Went for my longest run in my fledgling training program last night. A mere 7.2k but I felt it alright after the usual work cycle.

Wednesday 21st June - 7.2k run - 21 mile cycle

I also realised my iPod was giving me a false reading as to how far and fast I was running. It had me as running 8.6k last night, so it's about 15% out. Time to recalibrate before I start claiming I'm breaking world records!

Training Begins

2007-06-20T21:02:00.000+01:00

Training for a marathon run in November, over one in April, has its benefits. For the majority of the time, you'll be running in daylight and training in milder conditions than you'll run in on the day, which seems to be the preferred way round. And, of course, you're justified in rewarding yourself all through the silly season off the back of your achievement.

Taking those positives on board, I'll have another look at the various marathon training schedules available and tell myself how lucky I am!

So how's it all going?

w/c 11th June
Thursday - Confirm entry into NYC marathon
Friday - 5k run - First training run!
Saturday & Sunday - Rest / Days of eating and drinking at a wedding in Italy...

w/c 18th June
Monday - 5.5k run - 21 mile cycle
Tuesday - 21 mile cycle

It's safe to say, that two runs in, I'm not totally pain free. The pain's partially the standard muscular ache you get when you've not run in a while and go out for that first jog, or DOMS as it is known. Other than that, I'm just generally fatigued, probably as I'm still cycling 20 miles a day and adding my running on top.

Thoughts at the moment are that if I want to increase my running I might have to cut down on cycling to work everyday. It could be time to dig out the scooter. Ciao!