Running 26.2 miles around New York

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!