Maintaining for winter

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My ITB niggles have subsided and have been replaced by the start of lower back problems, especially noticeable following my recent intense interval sessions at the track.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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.