Posted on Feb 25, 2010 under Training Diary |
Probably my worst week for a long time this week, really not feeling “athletic” at the moment 
Missed my speedwork last night and tonight’s run, which I had to force myself to do was something of a plod. I think I’m just a bit over tired and suffering from too much junk food and alcohol last week – which I did enjoy at the time but I’m coming round to the idea of needing a bit of a “detox” now!
I’ll hopefully pick things back up at the weekend with a nice long easy run and all my bad daytime snacks are now off the menu so it’s time to restock the desktop fruit supply and replace my excess coffee consumption with spring water – oh well, one does have to make sacrifices for one’s art…
One weekend to go before the next marathon so need to get myself sorted – at least I get a nice long stretch before the one after that so I’m aiming to do some cross training to tone up the rest of my body which is being put to shame by my legs!
Posted on Feb 22, 2010 under Training Diary |
Did my first long run since last weekend’s marathon yesterday – a 14.25 miler which wasn’t at all bad after I’d settled into my pace at around 3 miles. I think a 14-16 mile weekend run is probably the optimal distance for my long runs between marathons as it’s keeping my general endurance level up whilst still allowing me to recover between races. Mixing that with my weekly speedwork sessions and and a short post-weekend recovery run seems to be a formula that works at the moment so I will see how it goes.
This last couple of weeks I’ve noticed that I’m starting to ache in places that never did before so I’ll need to keep an eye on them to prevent any significant injuries developing over time. Joints are all fine but I think the surrounding tendons are starting to complain so I’ll have to concentrate a bit more on stretches and mobility excercises going forward.
Should be a pretty standard couple of training weeks now until the next marathon on the 7th. As always, yesterday’s session is viewable on my Garmin Connect site.
Posted on Feb 20, 2010 under Training Diary |
Just wanted to update you on the progress towards my targets. A flurry of donations towards the end of this week have pushed my overall total to £903 so only another £100 to my first £1000!! A big thank you as always to all those who have donated. Please pass on my details to everyone you know as this isn’t just about the running it’s also about raising awareness and the more people who visit my site and follow the links to the charities I’m supporting the better.
Posted on Feb 17, 2010 under Training Diary |
Just the usual tempo run tonight which thankfully proved that I’m still injury-free as I sailed round my usual 5-mile route in a reasonably quick 40 minutes considering there was supposed to be a mile warmup and mile cooldown either side of a 3 mile run at 8:20!! I think I just got carried away during the warmup and then forgot to slow down towards the end, never mind 
I’ll probably throw myself round a 16 miler this weekend and then ease it back the week after in prep for the Dutchy Marathon on the 7th of March.
Posted on Feb 14, 2010 under Race Days |
This was the marathon I really did not want to do. As I’ve said before, there wasn’t a race that fitted in for Feb so my only option was to do a solo run which also meant no support. Hence this time I had to carry everything I thought I was going to need in the absence of marshals, feed stations and medical services. Added to that, I needed a run that was going to be quiet and traffic free for the same reasons and so I chose a recent half-marathon course I did along the Grand Union canal and ran it as an out & back which made motivation as much of a challenge as the distance.
I completed the run but fell a little short of the sub-4:00 I was aiming for, coming in at 4:07:13 which considering the circumstances wasn’t as bad as I thought it might have been. A couple of bad cramps in my calf dropped me to a walk in a couple of places after I’d completed around 18 miles so that cost me some time while I stretched it out. Also, one of the things I underestimated was despite the canal being nice and flat (apart from the locks) the surface is quite punishing on the ankles and knees being a mix of gravel, mud, tarmac and grass and is pretty rutted in places so there’s quite a bit of skipping and jumping along some of the sections. Doing the 13.1 mile route in one direction is ok but doing it all again on the way back felt twice as bad. Still, minimal blisters as a result but I’m sure my ankles will be complaining in the morning.
All I can say is that I’m glad to have that one ticked off the list now and hope it’s not going to be a bad one to recover from as I’m really looking forward to the Cornish Dutchy Marathon in March which I’m hoping will bring me back into the sub-4:00 bracket.
Thanks to all who have been supporting me on Facebook etc and if you’ve not made a donation to one of my good causes yet please consider doing so as they really need the help in this current economic climate!
Now, time for some (more) food and possibly a beer
Posted on Feb 11, 2010 under Training Diary |
A good speedwork session last night, still maintaining an improved pace on the intervals but the very cold conditions are taking the edge off a little bit.
This Sunday is my second marathon of the year but as I may have mentioned before it’s not a competitive race due to the logistics of having the January and March races at opposite ends of the month, hence I could only realistically do something mid-Feb and as nothing official was available this will be a measured solo run. Hopefully, being a pretty flat course I should still be able to manage a sub 4:00 time even without that competitive urge to maintain my position in the field. The only downside of course will be the fact that I’ll need to carry a water supply with me on the route but at least it will get lighter as I go!
Will post on Sunday after the run to let you know how it went.
Posted on Feb 04, 2010 under Training Diary |
Good speedwork session last night, my pace has definitely improved as I tried using the Forerunner 310XT to manage the tempo interval for a change (I normally just count the miles) and the pace alarm was just going off continuously for going too fast! However I think that is more to do with the way the Forerunner calculates the pace average and when you’re speeding up & slowing down all the time it takes a while for the average to settle – either that or I’m not programming it correctly (highly possible!).
Supposed to do an easy 5 miler tonight but got home and fell asleep! I think I need an early night so I may just get up early and do it then. I’m trying to pack in a couple of extra sessions at the moment – the runners world training calculator can’t really cope with such a short time between marathons so I’m having to improvise a bit at the moment until they fall into a regular pattern from March.
