Thursday, 31 January 2008

Running with Tommy

Today was supposed to be a rest day, but I have decided to do my long run on Saturday rather than Sunday this weekend. Therefore I have trained today, but will rest tomorrow.

Tonight was scheduled to be a 60 minute run at a comfortable pace. Tommy offered to join me this evening and he pushed the pace along, we rattled through the first four miles in 30 minutes and they were uphill miles! We then slowed to a more comfortable pace after Tommy moaned at me for pushing him too fast?!

Tommy will be joining me for a couple of jogs next week as well.

Run stats: 58:45 minutes, 7.4 miles - 7:56 minutes/mile

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Gym

I was back in the Gym today for the first time in two weeks to do some interval training.

Louise was working this evening and Gill was looking after Kane until I returned from work. I finished work a bit early and cycled to the gym straight from work.
When I got to the gym, Blair and Jacko were already there.

I did four three minute intervals with three minute recoveries in between, I did my intervals at 17 km/hr.

I finished the session with 2000 metres on the rowing machine and then a tired cycle home.

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

New route

This evening's run was scheduled to be a 45 minute steady run. I chose a new route and ran primarily through Carshalton and Wallington. I had measured the route to be a little over 6.5 miles, so to complete the run in 45 minutes I would have to run at quite a brisk pace. It was more enjoyable doing a new route and was suitably hilly. My legs felt a bit heavy thoughout the run, but at the end I was pleased with my overall pace.

Run stats: 46:53 minutes, 6.77 miles - 6:56 minutes/mile

Monday, 28 January 2008

Recovery jog

A short 25 min recovery jog today. I felt fine apart from a blister on my right foot. I probably need to think about getting a new pair of running shoes.

I didn't have time to work out a new route, so did the usual run from home, I will have a new route for tomorrow.

Run stats: 27:14 minutes, 3.53 miles - 7:43 minutes per mile

Sunday, 27 January 2008

Dulwich and back

I was scheduled for a 120 minute slow run today. Louise was working all day, so I needed a babysitter for Kane. Luckily Gill returned from holiday in China yesterday and she offered.

Dave also wanted to do a long run today, so we arranged for Dave to get the train to Sutton then we would run back to his house in East Dulwich. I worked out a 12 mile route, my only concern was that it wouldn't be long enough to take up 120 minutes. To counter this I decided to run from Dave's to Tulse Hill train station and get a direct train back to Sutton from there, this would add another 2.5 miles and make up the run time to near two hours.

The run itself was quite pleasant, we managed to run through quite a bit of parkland, through Carshalton Park, Beddington Common, Mitcham Common, Streatham Common and Dulwich Park. We got to Dave's after 99 minutes, I had a glass of water, then set off for Tulse Hill, mindful that the train left at 15:31. I timed it well and made it to the station with three minutes to spare.

The total run time was 118 minutes, so it was a very successful run.

Run stats: 118:39 minutes, 14.7 miles - 8:04 minutes per miles pace

Friday, 25 January 2008

Friday night jog

Tonight was an easy 45 minute jog. Even though I rested yesterday, my legs were still tired from Weds night Fartlek - i was glad it was an easy jog. All of the runs that I am doing from home are essentially variations of the same route and I'm becoming a bit bored by it. I am going to work out another couple of loops from my house, but heading off in opposite directions.

Run stats: 47:06 minutes, 5.9 miles - 7:59 minutes per mile

Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Fartlek

Today's session was supposed to be "60 minute off-road and hilly fartlek session". Of course it was dark by the time I was ready to run so I did the session on the roads. I wasn't 100% sure exactly what a Fartlek session was. After a bit of internet browsing, I found out that Fartlek was originally devised by a swedish guy and is swedish for "speed play". The general idea is to go for an off-road run, preferably where it is hilly and to vary your pace as much as possible, with lots of sprints and effort runs and recovery jogs in between. The other key is that it is a personal session in that you judge the distance and intensity of your efforts as the body allows it as opposed to interval sessions of set distances and pace.

Although my chosen route was on the road it was a suitably hilly route. I started with ten minutes of easy jogging to warm up, then as I was at the bottom of a hill, I ran at a fast pace for 1.8km to the top of the hill. Following this, I jogged to the bottom of Beeches Walk in Carshalton Beeches, I then ran hard up this road and jogged back down The Warren to make a 1200m loop, I repeated this another two times. I then did another two loops, but I varied it by sprinting to the next lampost, then jogging slowly to the next, then sprint, then jog and so on. After this I jogged on home.

The session lasted 63 minutes and was hard but it felt rewarding and was similar to the sort of sessions I used to do at the running club.

I should imagine I will be aching tomorrow.

Run stats: 63:01 minutes, 7.53 miles - pace is irrelevant

Tuesday, 22 January 2008

45 minute steady run

I did exactly the same run today as I did on Friday, today was about 30 seconds slower.

For the first two thirds of the run I felt very fresh, after that I had an acute stitch which came and went until I finished. I very rarely get stitches - so it was a bit of a shock and was quite painful.

Run stats: 49:46 minutes, 6.7 miles - 7:26 minutes per mile

Monday, 21 January 2008

Recovery

A nice short relaxed run tonight which helped run the aches out of my legs from yesterday.

I did a little 3.5 mile circuit from home.

I weighed myself at work this morning and I lost another 3 pounds last week.

Run stats: 29:11 minutes, 3.5 miles - 8:20 minutes/mile

Sunday, 20 January 2008

Quick run

Today's run was scheduled as 50 minutes fast (race?). I checked out races for today and none were really of a suitable distance in the South East of England area.

I decided to do a circular run from my house. I did a different run from normal, out to Cheam, across Nonsuch Park, up to North Cheam and round th back of Sutton, it measured 7.6 miles. I treated the run as a race, I did a proper warm up and wore running shorts and vest.

I ran it hard and was tired at the end. However I was quicker than I thought I would be and I'm glad to see the progress.

The worst thing about today's run was the chafing on the inside of my thighs. I forgot how much it hurts if I run in running shorts and forget the vaseline.

I won't be making that mistake again!

Run stats: 48:46 minutes, 7.6 miles - 6:25 minutes per mile

Saturday, 19 January 2008

Ashtead Common

Louisa collected Kane, Ronnie and me this morning and we headed over to Ashtead to see George and Tommy.

Once there, Louisa, Tommy, Ronnie and me went for a run on Ashtead Common, whilst George went to the local shops with Kane.

Today was supposed to be a 35 minute jog. The common was very muddy, but we slopped on through and ran round the perimeter of the common, the run lasted 34:22 so it was about perfect length.

Run stats: 34:22 minutes, 3.75 miles - 9:10 minutes per mile

Friday, 18 January 2008

Friday night

Tonight was the first night of my training when I didn't really feel like going for a run.

Once I was out and running it was quite enjoyable, even though my legs were aching from the treadmill yesterday. I was scheduled for a 50 minute steady run tonight, so I did the same run that I did with Dave last week, but cut out a loop at the end. The run lasted for just over 49 minutes, so it was abou perfect length.

Run stats: 49:20 minutes, 6.7 miles - 7:22 minutes per mile

Thursday, 17 January 2008

Gym

I went to the Gym this evening to do some interval work. Jacko was already there when I arrived and he was still there when I left, it felt like I was slacking a bit. Especially as it is only my second session of the week. If I stick to my schedule I will be training for the next seven consecutive days, so I probably shouldn't moan about a lack of action.

The schedule called for 3 x 10 minute intervals with 3 minute recoveries, this is a repeat of the session I did two weeks ago. I ran the intervals at 14 km/hr (which is 6.52 minute/mile pace), this is considerably quicker than the 12 km/hr intervals I was running a fortnight ago and did not feel any harder.

Tuesday, 15 January 2008

Rainy Tuesday

It rained all day today, but by the time I got out for a run at about 19:50 the rain was easing off although it was still very windy.

Tonight's schedule called for a 35 minute steady run. I ran from home and ran it reasonably hard. I was a bit disappointed when I fininshed to find I was only clocking 7.5 minute miles.

I suppose I have to be patient as I'm only two weeks into training - hopefully the speed will pick up as the training progresses.

I'll have to have another day off tomorrow as Louise is working all evening. I'll compensate for that by running on Friday.

Run stats: 38:59 minutes, 5.2 miles - 7:30 minutes per mile

Sunday, 13 January 2008

Dorking to home

Matt had expressed an interest in joining me on an off road route to test out his mountain bike. We agreed to do it today, and on Friday we devised a route which entailed catching a train to Dorking and run/cycle back to Sutton - the first half of which would be off-road.

We set out of Dorking along the A24 and at Rykers cafe turned off to take the road to Mickleham - from there we joined the old Roman road called Stane Street. This was a straight (as you'd expect from the Romans) pathway that runs all the way into Langley Vale. It is extremely hilly - it goes over the shoulder of Box Hill and up and down through Mickleham Downs - and was very muddy also. It made for very difficult cycling conditions - difficult to get grip whilst climbing and treacherous on the downslopes.

I thoroughly enjoyed it though and will be looking to incorporate Stane Street into future long runs. Once we arrived at the top of Langley Vale it was a pretty straight forward jog back to Sutton, with the high winds on top of Epsom Downs the only point of note.

According to my schedule I was supposed to do 100 to 110 minutes very slow jog. We were out for 98.5 minutes, the pace was slightly slower than last Sunday, but considering the conditions, this was a considerable improvement and I didn't feel as weary at the end.

Run stats: 98:32 minutes, 12.3 miles - 8.01 minutes/miles

Saturday, 12 January 2008

Running in the mud with Ronnie

Yesterday's session was supposed to be 35 minutes easy and today is a rest day. Yesterday after work I had offered to babysit for Liza and Phil. There wasn't really enough time to run before babysitting and afterwards it was too late and cold. So I swapped day's and ran this afternoon in Oaks Park with Ronnie instead.

It was very muddy today and I was slipping about. My ankle is quite sore after half twisting it - I don't think it has fully recovered since I hurt it playing football in October last year. I think I'll stick to the roads for a while - mind you I will be off the roads tomorrow.

Ronnie barked at and chased a horse apart from that it was quite uneventful!

Looking forward to tomorrow's long run on which I hope to be joined by Tommy and Matt on his bike.

Run stats: 32:07 minutes, 4.08 miles - 7:52 minutes per mile

Thursday, 10 January 2008

Fully refreshed

Felt very fresh all day today. No training yesterday seems to have done the trick, I even felt quite sprightly slogging it out up the hill on my bike on the way home from work.

Today's schedule was "60 minutes steady". My run on Tuesday night lasted 62 minutes, so I decided to replicate that run.

Dave rang earlier and said he was around for a run this evening and that he would come over to Sutton. This worked out nicely as we kept each other going and it seemed to be a good steady pace. The run itself was enjoyable, Dave was making me jealous as he is flying out to New York on Sunday morning for a weeks holiday. He is taking his running gear and is planning to keep up his training in Central Park.

The run was a lot more comfortable than when I ran the same route two days ago, yet we ran it in an almost identical time - only eight seconds slower. (Louise retrieved my watch from George's yesterday).

Run stats: 62:09 minutes, 7.4 miles - 8:24 minutes per mile

Tuesday, 8 January 2008

Avoiding the pub

Last week I arranged to meet Jacko at the Gym in Westcroft to do today's session. It was scheduled to be a 50 minute hilly run with effort on the hills. I figured this could be done on the treadmill.

However, yesterday he realised Chelsea were playing Everton in the League Cup semi-final and decided that was the better option - I can't blame him.

I then had to endure an afternoon of cajoling from Matt to encourage me to join the clan of people who were meeting at The Sutton Arms to watch the match. Now that I've started training it wasn't particularly hard to resist.

I ran out from home for the first time in my training, it is a run I've done many times before and is certainly hilly. I gave plenty of effort on the hills and jogged quite easily in between.
Again I had no stopwatch this evening, Louise timed me with the stopwatch on her mobile - if I'd have had a timer with me, I would have cut out some of the run at the end.

Legs are feeling tired now, and I look forward to a day of inactivity tomorrow.

Run stats: 62:01 minutes, 7.4 miles - 8.23 minutes/mile

Monday, 7 January 2008

Sore legs

Had sore legs this morning, but they loosened up as the day went on.

Weighed myself at work and I weighed in at 12"8', so I had lost four pounds in the first week. I hadn't been watching what I ate; but the non-drinking, non-snacking, running diet was paying off.

After Kane had gone to bed, I met with Olly and we did the same run as last week. We both felt that the the run was easier than last week.

I couldn't find my stopwatch - I think I left it at George's so we had to approximate the run time on Olly's microwave clock.

Run stats: 30 minutes, 3.33 miles - 9 minutes/mile

Sunday, 6 January 2008

First long run

On returning from the South coast, I was scheduled for a 90 minute long, slow run.

Louise and I checked on mapmyrun.com and found that if I ran over Epsom Downs to George's in Ashtead, this would measure nine miles. I thought that maybe roughly the right distance so I arranged for Louise to collect me from there.

I arrived at George's after 70 minutes feeling reasonably fresh, so did an extra loop round Ashtead. The extra loop proved to be difficult especially the last half mile or so.

However overall I was pleased with the run.

Run stats: 94.34 minutes, 12.0 miles - 7.53 minutes/mile

Saturday, 5 January 2008

Tania and Geoff's leaving party

Louise's uncle and family were sailing back to New Zealand after a year in GB

This was a scheduled rest day and a good time was had by all, I didn't touch a drop whilst all around me were making merry.

Stayed overnight in nice hotel in Lymington.

Friday, 4 January 2008

Missed session 04 January

After work today, Louise suprised me by taking me for a meal at a Thai restaurant at the bottom of Sutton. Louise had arranged for Tommy to come over and babysit. This was very welcome as I was hungry and my legs were feeling a bit weary.

I was glad to miss the run.

Thursday, 3 January 2008

03 January 2008

This morning my car didn't start, so I cycled into work. This is probably a good thing as it will help my general fitness levels - officially called cross training!

I finished work and cycled home, got changed and immediately cycled to Olly's. Olly is also suffering from a lack of fitness, so will be joining me for some of my training to help improve his fitness.

This was supposed to be a 25 minute easy jog, but I was feeling a little tired from all the cycling.

After the run, I cycled to Allan and Margaret's where I was due to collect Kane, we had dinner there - before Allan kindly dropped Kane off while I cycled home.

Run stats: 31.22 minute run, 3.33 miles - 9.25 minutes/mile

Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Back to work - 02 January 2008

After Kane had gone to bed I went to the Gym for the first time in the best part of a year.

I stuck entirely to the running machine and did three 10 minute intervals at 12 km/hr with 3 minute recoveries in between at 7 km/hr

Tuesday, 1 January 2008

New Year's Day

Today I rested and recovered from both yesterday's running and yesterday's drinking

Training begins - 31 December 2007

I was at work today, despite it being Hogmanay. I put the quiet time to good use, as I downloaded a marathon training schedule from the official London Marathon website. I selected a schedule that was aimed at runners who were looking to complete the course between 3.5 and 4.5 hours. It is a sixteen week programme for runners with 2 to 3 months of training already behind them. I've got fifteen weeks to go until the marathon on 13 April and I have not training for about ten months, however with a running background I feel experience should help me adjust to the programme relatively easily.

I typed up the training programme in Excel and weighed myself on a set of scales at work and found myself to be 12"12'. This is the heaviest I have ever been and about 20 pounds more than I was a year ago.

With New Years Eve being on a Monday, I finished work and immediately went for a run taking Ronnie to Oaks Park for what was supposed to be an easy jog for 45 minutes. The last ten minutes proved to be very hard - due entirely to my lack of fitness.

That evening I went out with friends to see in the new year and the drink flowed freely. I had previously planned to abstain from alcohol throughout January, now that I was running the marathon, I was more determined to remain teetotal for the month so this would be my last night on the piss.

Run stats: 44:16 minute run, 5.33 miles - 8.18 minute/mile pace