End of the Month

Today was my weekly long run and it was back to 8 miles after the tiredness of last week. This run is getting better according to my HRM my pulse kept to the 145 limit fairly easily whereas in the past it strayed upto 150 and above and I had to practically walk to get it back down. The pace is also a bit quicker by a couple of seconds per mile, So I must be improving.

Today was also my last run for October and I've managed 86 miles in the month which is quite pleasing. I'll only have to run about 160 miles in the last 4 week before the marathon. Best not think about that for the time being....

Cheque Cashed

Excellent News - my cheque has finally cashed. Although I've had confirmation that I'm for a few weeks I've been a little nervous that something might go wrong and there be a problem with my payment. No worries the money went out the bank this morning. Following the discussion at the Runners World forums all the successfully entries had their cheques cashed today. This unfortunately means that there are a lot of disappointed people and the usual complaints that Flora London Marathon (FLM) has got to do better. I suppose with over 100,000 chasing about 35,000 places there always will be complaints.

On matters of training I managed another 4 miles at Marathon pace and don't feel anything like as tired as I did last week. Maybe this training thing is having an effect :-)

Two for the price of one

For some reason I forgot to post last night so I'll have to bore you with 2 runs today instead. Yesterday morning's run was another slow easy one, which was only supposed to be 3 miles but turned into 3.5 but who is counting? My running log actually. I did however use my new Mizuno Wave Creations and they were great, not a single problem and I had a definite spring in my step. Another couple of shortish runs and I can start using them in anger.

This mornings run was a different kettle of fish. This was the Brisk/Threshold run. In the past I've done these on a treadmill but I ventured outdoors for this one. The run was tough, but then its supposed to be coming at the end of 3 days of running. I started off slowly enough for my warm up which didn't last half as long as it should off, before hitting the accelerator. I managed to hold on for about 4 miles before having to slow down. The good news is that I averaged less than 8 min/miles for the 5 miles (inc warm up/down). This is the pace I need to be for a sub 3:30 marathon, only need to add another 21.2 miles....

Hills and Shoes

I've got a couple of days off so I'm running in the morning instead of my usual lunchtime runs. For this mornings run I decided I'd better start doing some hill sprints to get my speed up. Hill sprints aren't normally long, about 150 metres for this morning, but as their suggests they are done at a sprint, with a walk/jog back before repeating the lung busting experience. I was quite pleased with myself when I managed 5, however I knew I had been running.

To celebrate I took myself off to the local running shop, as opposed to sports shop, to get a new pair of shoes. My old shoes are a pair of Asic Gel Nimbus and serve me well and I was planning to get a new pair. However the shop assistant introduced me to the new Mizuno Wave Creation put them on my feet and asked me to do a quick run up and down the street. They were fantastic, better than my Asics. I'll be giving them their first proper run-out tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it.

My fears realised

Everything people say about overtraining is right and my fears were realised this morning. I suppose it didn't help that it was a horrible wet and windy day, but I just felt tired and struggled on what should have been a slow steady pace. I only went for a little under 6 miles but it felt a lot worse than the other longer runs I've done. Anyway looking on the bright side tomorrow is a rest day!

Too much too soon

Somebody in the gym at lunchtime asked me if I was going running. I should have had the common sense and said "No" and walk away but stupid me says "I hadn't been planning to" and looked longingly at the empty treadmills. I then did the compulsive thing and leapt on one and run for a couple of miles (or 4) at a reasonable pace.

This in itself isn't bad until I count up the weekly miles. As part of my build-up I've been increasing my mileage by 2 or 3 miles a week. If I do my full long run tomorrow I will have increased it by 7 miles and be 4 miles over my target for the week. This is far too fast an increase and is likely to get me hurt. My legs actually feel a little tired at the moment. To compensate I'm planning to reduce the length of my long run tomorrow to make sure the mileage isn't too bad.

Longer and Quicker

Today was my weekly Tempo or Threshold Run, where I'm supposed to run at a pace which is hard work but not exhausting. I also see these runs as character building because when you are operating at the upper levels of your endurance the temptation to slow down is extreme. That's why running these things on a treadmill or with training partner are good.

Today's run was on the treadmill. It started off nice and easy with gentle jogging to warm up for a mile with gentle increases in both elevation and speed. Then it was 3 miles @7:30 min/miles. This was hard work but I managed to find ways of over coming it. To keep my mind off the effort I started working out how long I had to go in seconds as the distance clicked up.

Since the run I've been worrying that I'm too slow, but I've just checked one of the training plans I'm thinking about following and I'm not that far off the pace and I still have more than 25 weeks to go. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

Getting passed

Today's Lunchtime run was a very slow, easy, 3 mile run. The object of this is to recovery from the harder interval session the day before and prepare for the tough tempo run coming the following day.

The only problem with slow runs is you passed by other runners. I've always found this demoralising. Today was no exception. I had just started when another runner went past me . I did think about speeding up to catch them, but then my Heart Rate Monitor started its annoying slow down bleep, so I gave up on that idea. Tomorrow's run is going to be tough a warm jog followed by 3 miles at a pace I haven't run at for nearly a year. However in some strange way I'm looking forward to it...

The quest for speed

I've been told that speedwork is an important part of Marathon preperation especially in the early stages when you haven't started the really long runs. So today's intervals session was all about speed and being able to recover quickly from 400m of quick running. Unfortunately I didn't have the luxury of a 400m rest only 100 metres and it went soon. I managed 5 repetitions before I resorted to the easy jog to finish. Apparently I may doing 10 of these todays the end of training. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that.....

trading Sunday for Saturday

The thought about getting up really early on a Sunday Morning to do my long run before the kids Rugby training has been bothering me of later. I decided to try doing my long run on Saturday morning instead. Saturday morning always seems to get wasted anyway with lying in bed.This was much better I could get up later and not be bothered about rushing to get back home.

I've come to the conclusion that my heart rate monitor is right after all, or at least after 5 mins into a run. I set it for an easy to slow pace of 145 and I surprised myself by being able to keep to this for the vast majority of my run. I have to credit where it is due at this rate I never struggled during the run and had plenty of steam to open up in the last 1/2 mile.

Sports Massage

I visited a Sports masseur yesterday to have a bit of work down on my knee and legs in general. His opinion is my knee problem is a ligament strain, which I think is good news. Its actually getting slowly better, perhaps because I'm building back up the strength in my legs. I'm planning to have a massage every couple of weeks to try and make sure any aches and pains don't become anything worse.

My workmates are beginning to think I'm a bit odd, yesterday lunchtime it was raining but I ran outside, today it was a nice dry day but I ran inside on the treadmill. I tried to explain to them I wanted to do a paced run and I'm not yet up to the standard where I can do that on my own. They didn't get it so I left them shaking their heads.

Anyway my lunchtime run was another 4 miler, but it is the 3rd day in succession that I've been running. I can't remember the last time I ran 3 days in a row. The reason for the treadmill was that I wanted to do a Tempo run where I do a warm up mile then 2 miles at about what my half marathon pace would be (something like 7:20 min/miles) followed by a mile warm down. These are in fact one of the core sessions of any training schedule, some I'm quite glad I got through it without any serious problems.

If you go down to the woods today

Someone in the office has mapped out several running routes through the woods next to the office, so I decided to try one. A nice easy 3 miler as I'd been doing intervals yesterday and its an increase in the number of runs I'm doing a week from 3 to 4.

The run started off very nice in amongst the trees and ferns with maybe a light shower. I followed the route round only getting lost once and then suddenly came to a stream. The stream didn't worry me it was only 18 inchs across, it was the 3 foot deep 4 foot across valley that worried me. I could try and jump it but the far side was just a mud slope and I didn't fancy my chances of not ending face down in the mud, or worse. Discretion got the better of valour and I decided to hop down into the stream and climb up the other side. The rest of the run just became one large muddy path after that.

I think I'll avoid the woods until spring now, just to muddy to be enjoyable anymore.

Let the intervals begin

Today was the start of interval training albeit light interval training. It was time for the treadmill again. I had the session planned out:

1 Mile easy 10 Min/mile
4*400 metres @ 7 min/mile pace with 400 metre easy after each fast
1 Mile easy, so a total of 4 miles

The 400 metre rest was a bit excessive for what I was doing it should have been more like 100 metres but I didn't want to be into that kind of hard work at this stage. As it turned out I felt 7 min/mile was too slow so I up the pace to 6:40. I also used a tip from Runners World magazine ( http://www.runnersworld.co.uk ) to set the incline of the treadmill to 1%.

All in all I was pleased with myself and my knee doesn't seem to be to bad either.

More heart rate monitor oddities

Sunday morning run time again. I had to set off earlier than usual as the kids had an away rugby match to play in. I managed to do just under 7 miles in 1hr 2mins and 30 seconds, but yet again me and my Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) disagree.

As my morning run can be within 1/2 hour of getting out of bed I made point of doing some light warm up and gentle stretching for 10 mins before I started running properly. My HRM said 110 Beats/min OK I'll just about buy that. But then I started running and within 5 steps it was saying 162 beats/min. Nah something really strange going on here. After about 30 seconds it decided to suddenly change back to 150 but even this seemed strangely high as I was jogging on the flat. Now I know all the warnings about feeling faint and light-headed etc etc but I was getting no feedback from the rest of my body that anything was wrong. I'll keep an eye on this over the coming weeks.

Running Partners

Today's run was little over 4 miles at 34mins 44secs. I've been out running a couple of times with a colleague. I've found this very helpful as he bugs me into going for a lunchtime run and is also a lot faster and fitter than me. Well for the moment anyway.

Running with someone else can really help your training. This is particularly true of when you are doing a quicker run. I've always found it hard to keep going on quicker runs, I tend to wimp out and slow down when the going gets tough. When running with a training partner, especially someone better than you, they tend to keep the pace up forcing you to do the same. Although this is uncomfortable at the time it certainly builds up your stamina and speed to make you a better runner.

Treadmill training

I was planning to go outside for a run at lunchtime today but I got asked at short notice to show someone round the gym. So I decided I might as well stay in the gym and run on the treadmill. I can't stand running on a treadmill just for the sake of running it is so boring even a couple of minutes I find frustrating.

However all is not bad about treadmills. They are fantastic for doing targeted training session e.g. intervals or paced runs. Today was a paced run. If I want to run the marathon in sub 3:30 I will have to average just under 8 minutes per mile so todays session was about doing just that. A 1 mile warm-up followed by 2 miles at 8 min/mile pace then 1 mile warm-down. So this 4 mile session took me 33:55. This is far short of what will be needed to run a marathon but it is the start of getting my body (and mind) adjusted to run quicker than a gentle jog

So what is an easy heart rate?

Early-ish start for my Morning run, was able to do 5 and half mile in 52 minutes, not the fastest of paces but I was running with my Heart Rate Monitor set to start bleeping at me at 150 Beats per minute which is a very easy pace, for me anyway. A lot of places give the following advice for heart rates

Maximum Heart Rate is 220 - Your age, so in my case 185

Fat burning 60 - 70 %, in may case 111 to 130
Aerobic 70 -80 %, for me 130 - 148
Anaerobic 80 - 90 %, for me 148 - 166

Well for me personally this does not stack up. I trotted around today whereas I ws supposed to be in the Anaerobic zone and that I certainly wsn't in. I suppose as I cycle a bit (50+ miles a week) I have a higher Maximum Heart Rate which is throwing the figures out. Time for some more research.