Stress levels are high

Today has not gotten off to a good start, I was late to bed last night after the internet connection at home seemed to pack up - taking last nights blog entry with it and upsetting "She who must be obeyed" ebay watching. I had planned to do an early morning session on the treadmill, but couldn't get out of bed in time.

OK do the session at lunchtime - No, We are handing over a software build to test today and as Chief Software Bod I get asked to sort out any last minute problems. Guess what someone had a problem! OK problem sorted ( must remember to bury the bodies later :-) ) but its now 12:30 and I'm starving and I don't fancy doing 10 *400m at the moment, decide to make use of the fact its my easy week and give myself the day off and plan my running for the rest of the week.

Tuesday 8 miles slow to steady - should be able to do that as nothing on my calendar at the moment. If I get up in time I may even do what was supposed to be today's session instead.

Wednesday 2 miles easy 2 miles brisk 2 miles slow - Uh Oh, Boss has a meeting at 12:30 so no lunchtime running. Morning ain't any good got to go to the boys school for 8am, evening blocked by kids social diaries.

Thursday 5 miles easy Nothing in Calendar should be able to do that, might move my brisk run in there - quality run and all that.

Friday 10 miles easy - Interviewing all morning and through lunch, may have to run into work, but got to be home pronto in the evening.

Saturday Rest - Its Mrs W birthday (front digit changes as well!), run on that day and I will die a painful and horrible death.

Sunday 5 easy - Should be able to fit this in somewhere.

Maybe I will be able to salvage something from this week, keeping my fingers crossed.

Marathon in 2 days

I'm glad todays run is over. Since I had a close look at my training schedule yesterday and todays run have stood out. I have covered 26.5 miles in 2 runs on back to back days. Todays contribution was 17.2 miles today as my weekly LSR (Long Slow Run) in a fraction over 2hr30. This is the furthest I have to run in succesive days with the exception of the weekend in which I have my longest training run of 22 miles in late mid March

I seem to have got through my LSR it in reasonably good shape. Perhaps this is because I changed my fuelling arrangements. I've been reading a couple of threads at Runners World and it became apparent that I wasn't taking in enough carbohydrate during the run. I've been running my LSR with 1 gel at 10 miles and then hanging on. Today I tried 1 gel after an hour and another 45 mins after that. Coupled with me having a bowl of ready break before I went out seemed to keep me going in much better. I was sore when I got back but not exhausted. For this effort I do have a reward next week is an easy week, no LSR and no Steady runs, just a couple of speed sessions and some gentle recovery runs. I'm looking forward to that.

Fartlek

A bit of variation today, instead of the usual steady run today was Fartlek session, the only problems where the fartlek part was 5 miles long and had another 5 miles in warm-up and warm-down. I have come to the very firm conclusion that I hate fartlek, I always run too fast and exhaust myself early and regret it for the rest of the run.

On reflection I actually was lucky my Sometimes Training Partner had been to a talk about marathon training and wanted to put some of the ideas to the test like 3 * 2mile with 2 min recoveries. I had to good sense to say no to that idea! Long run tomorrow then I have a rest week - scaled down mileage and at a slower pace looking forward to that.

1 K reps

This is starting to get tough. Wednesday is normally the end of my 6 days of running, so the effort is beginning to tell. Today was a case in point, early morning start on the treadmill for a 6 * 1K repetitions at 4min/k pace. First couple of repeats were OK but by number 3 it was getting hard work. It was at this point that I have to start keep motavating myself by say things like " half way through", "last minute" and "last 100 metres". By the time I got to number 5 it was countdown to finish and then the "I've come this far I'm not giving up now" determination starts to kick in. So I got to the end knowing that I'm not running tomorrow and can relax a little.
One downside I seem to have a sore left hip, having down a bit of research it may be my ITB tightening up - I've also got a bit of outer left knee pain which would tally. Luckily I'm off for a massage tomorrow - Rest day has come just in time.

And I ran another steady run

Yip another steady run today, in fact it was an exact repeat of last Friday except this time I remembered to put freshly charged batteries in the Garmin so I knew how far I was going (8.36 miles to be precise). My pace is still being wayward. The average was 7:26 which is good - too good, should be nearer 8:00 for Marathon Pace. The trouble is I find it difficult to slow down and maintain that slower speed, its seems to creep back up. I'm going to have to sort this out.

Blogger ate my post

I wrote a post last night summing up my week and my chilly recoery run yesterday and blogger went and ate it! Not fair the button most definitely says "Publish Post" not "Trash post and give some obscure error about the server being down".


Back to hill sprints today or in my case gentle inclines. Run up jog down repeat 10 times or until sick. I managed to get to the repeat 10 times without being sick but it was a close call. I'm glad BT have got these green metal cabinets dotted around they are absolutely ideal for draping over while wandering if its your heart pounding away inside your chest or something out of Alien trying to make a bid for freedom.

Bye for now

I need a running partner

Long slow run this morning 16 miles by the time I got home, but the last 2.5 miles where a real struggle. I don't know why my pace was fairly much in line with the rest of the run so I don't think I hit the dreaded wall. If anything I was mentally done-in, I suppose after spending 2hr 20 wandering round the streets on your own you do go a bit gaga. So I think I need to find a running partner to keep me company on my LSR or else the men in white coats may be coming for me. Trouble is I don't know anyone that does that kind of distance on a Saturday, most people do there long runs on a Sunday. Perhaps I should just get measured up for that nice white jacket that buckles up at the back.

Hey its the end of the week

Yipee! It's Friday and I'm glad to see the end of this week. Its been a tough week at work. We are due to deliver a big piece of software for testing in the next couple of weeks and people are running around trying to get things sorted.
Of course I have to make time for my running so I took an extended lunchbreak and knocked off another 8 miles in a steady run. I can't be sure what my pace was as my Garmin ran out of battery power half-way round , but it was certainly a lot quicker than what is required for the marathon. Hmm either I going to run a very good marathon or I'm going to blow up. I suspect its the latter so I need to trim down that speed.
Despite my long lunchbreak I had still managed to do my hours by 3:30 so nipped off to get my hair cut. I had an interesting discussion with my barber about Paula Radcliffes head-bobbing running style and that of the Chinese runner how looks as if someone has superglued her arms to her sides. Anyway time for bed - I've got 15+ miles to run in the morning.

I'm impressed Big One

Its nice to now that Big One pays attention to healthy easting habits. At Christmas he decreed that he would only have chocolate from his stash every other day. He even marked it on his calendar to remind him which days they were. He has also decided that he doesn't want sweets after rugby training, though he will quite happily accept his post match hot dog if he has a game. The latest shock came this morning where he read the side of the packet of all the cereals and told Mrs W that he would have wheatabix as that had the lowest sugar content! All this from a 9 year old
We just need to crack this thing about wanting Big Macs if we take him to the McDonalds (or FatDonalds as little one calls it - very appropriate) and we might just have a healthy eater.
Enough of the family on to running matters. Another morning treadmill as my boss was holding a staff meeting at lunchtime, very antisocial of him. This is perhaps no bad thing as the office gym is getting a bit busy, full of People with new year resolutions. It should be interesting to see how busy it is in a couple of weeks time as all the good intentions wear away. I suppose I shouldn't say that - I'm one of the people that does the gym inductions in my spare time!

Is it bedtime yet?

ER is back on Channel 4 which is great because I love it. The only problem the time 10 o'clock. That's my bed-time (or I try to make it). I could video it but then when would I watch it? So I stay up and watch it and take the pain of the 5:45 alarm call. This I can just about handle ( I like my sleep ) but I got a 4 AM alarm call this morning as youngest coming into the bedroom and announced that he had a wet bed. Throw in a hectic workday and a 7 mile run and you have a tired Rob who is looking forward to his bed.

Got some good news about my cousin. Since she had her bone marrow transplant she has been struggling to throw off a fungal infection. After trying a variety of drugs the hospital decided to keep her in for a week or so to allow them to give her intravenous drugs every 6 hours. It seems that this latest round of treatment has done the trick and they have been able to eliminate the infection.

Bringing up the 500

Another run, another milestone this time 500 miles in training. I can't believe how quickly this has come round it. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was struggling to run 4 miles, now my shortest run is 5 miles. I do feel a bit of a fraud today. I was going to speed session outside but it started to rain and the wind picked up so I wimped out and ran the session from the comfort of a treadmill. Nought much more to say really so I'll say night night at that.

Not tonight Josephine

"Not tonight Josephine" is the supposed response by Napoleon Bonaparte when refusing sex with Empress Josephine. It came to mind last night when I went to bed fairly early last night only to be woken an hour or so later by "She who must be obeyed" going on about seeing some youths and a motorised wheelchair. My response was to say "So what" and roll over and went back to sleep.

I had another early start this morning for my recovery run. This was supposed to be about 5 miles but I wanted to try a trail that runs between a golf course and a creek. Might be somewhere interesting to run. Unfortunately I hadn't checked on how long the trail was and got too far away from home before being able to make the turn for home. The route was ok though the creek was a bit grotty as it was low tide, but it was quiet and made a change. By the time I had got home I had actually done 7 miles and was a bit late for taking the kids to rugby.

Oh finally a quick recap on my weeks training.

Miles this Week	48.4
Miles since starting training	498
Parrot predictor	3:23:04

I do like to be beside the seaside

As I right this entry I'm drinking a bottle of McEwans "Champion" which according to the side of the bottle is 7% ABV, so if I appear to start ramble aimlessly you know why!

Long Slow Run this morning the schedule said 13, I wanted to do 14, and ended up doing 15 miles. I was at a tradeshow yesterday up in London and had spent all day on my feet so I didn't want a particularly hard route today. After studying the OS map and ruling out most of the footpaths as they'll be nothing but mud just now I found a route that went off to the seaside. It involved a run down a quiet country road before coming out on the seafront. Then a couple of miles along the front before turning back inland and heading for home. The run along the shore made a nice change but wasn't really that insipring as it was a horrible grey day.

In the end I completed my run in 2hr 13min which is a fairly good time, but more importantly I don't seem to have had a recurrance of the foot problem I had after my 16 miler 2 weeks ago. Perhaps changing the long run shoes back to Asics has down the trick?

Another early morning session

I couldn't go running at lunchtime as I had to go a see the dentist and his sidekick the hygenist for my six monthly check-up. This meant an early morning session on the treadmill. These are not fun, your still half asleep, the gym is cold and you struggle to get into the swing of things. The session was another batch of threshold intervals pushing me up to my VO2 limits. This time instead of 4 * 5 min it was 1*10 + 2 * 5:30. I finished feeling OK but as the day has gone on I've been tiring. Tomorrow is a rest day so I can recoup my energy before Saturdays long slow run.

Long Hill

Did another steady run today, this time over a different route which a bit of a hill in it. The hill isn't particularly steep its just that it keeps on going for over a mile and is relentless. I'm no stranger to the hill I've run it many times before as my old office used to be half way up. But of course with te office being half way up I've only ever needed to run up half the hill at a time. I suspect that I will become very familiar with the full length of this hill in the coming weeks.

Here are my mile split times - can you spot the hill?

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	last .13
7:41	7:42	7:36	7:28	7:25	7:52	7:34	7:24	0:58

I should have taken the shampoo

Very wet run today. Quite literally as I stepped out the down the sky opened and the rain came down in sheets, I was soaked to the skin by the end of the first mile. As it was a steady pace run today once I got wet that was the worst over as I was running fast enough to keep warm. If anything the rain made me run faster so that I could get get back sooner. Once I finished I was so wet I looked if I had been for a shower with my clothes on. In the end I completed the 7 miles in just under 52 minutes - which is an excellent time in those conditions.

Need to work harder

Hill sprints for the first time in a good few weeks. The weather was being unpleasant but only in so far as it was raining, but no howling gales which was a relieve. I was able to find a nice quiet spot up footpath that sort finished in a muddy trail. The sprints themselves went well and I wasn't collapsing halfway through feeling as if I was going to see my breakfast again. It was then that this nasty thought struck me had I pushed myself hard enough? Deep down I know I didn't which is a little discomforting. Maybe I've subconciously got an eye on the back to back steady runs I have lined up in the next 2 days.

Parrott Predictor

To log my miles I'm using David Hays Excel workbook. In it there is a theory from a Coach named George Parrott that you can't run a marathon faster than the combined times of your fastest 26.2 miles in a weeks training. The workbook automatically calculates this. With the addition of my 5 and a bit mile recovery run this morning this figure was 3hr 22min 56secs. Ok this is the fastest theoritical I could run a marathon but at this stage of training I'll quite happily take it. It was especially welcome today as I needed a bit of a lift after yesterday's demoralising run.

Slow to Steady

I couldn't get on the computer last night (the wife was doing some window shopping or least I hope it was window shopping!) so there is 2 runs to report on.
Yesterdays was supposed to be 6 miles steady off-road but all the paths around here are just mud and not very good stuff to run on so it had to be on the pavements. My steady pace seems to have picked up dramatically in the last couple of weeks as yesterdays run averaged 7:35. This is encouraging though I mustn't get carried away with myself there is a big difference between 6 and 26.2 miles.
The difference was shown up this morning. In my running schedule the occasional Long Slow Run is replaced by a longish steady paced run. Today was one of those days. Where I had been doing 16 miles last week I was doing only 10 miles this week at a slow to steady pace. This should have been a fun run to do, the weather had other ideas. Most of the Gale/Storm force winds passed through during the night but there was enough left to make running a difficult experience. I hate running in the wind, you can't see it and its a constant battle to fight against it. I came the closest I have to just saying enough was enough and stopping. I actually changed my route just to get out the wind. All I can say is I was glad when it was finished it was an alround unpleasant experience. On the positive side it was a reality check a lot of hardwork lies between now anf the 17th April.

Kinda Nothing Run

I can't remember if I've said this before but my boss has this really anti-social habit of having his fortnightly staff meeting at 12:30. Sorry boss but people have got to run. Anyway it was staff meeting today so a nice early start on the treadmill again. The run was an odd one today - Threshold intervals 4 * 5 min intervals at about 10 mile race pace. Not fast hard intervals where you are glad of the rest periods nor constant running. I understand what the idea is to get used to running harder for the tempo runs to come but the run left me with neither a buzz of exictement of doing a hard session nor refreshed after a recovery run. Anyway rest day tomorrow.

New Running Acquaintence

"There's somebody in the changing rooms wanting to go out running with you" was the message I got from my broken training partner. There was a new chap that had just transfered to the office and wanted to find out where the running routes were. When I met a runner like this I'm always a bit wary because I don't know what their expectations are. So I asked him if he did a lot of running. He said "Oh a little about 40 or 50 miles a week". I was planning to do a 7 mile steady and he was happy with that.
The first mile showed this guy was a bit quicker than me, OK probably a lot quicker than me if you put his mind to it. My target pace was 8 min/mile when it got down 7:30 min/miles I had to say that I was going to slow down a little as today was supposed to be an easier run. He didn't mind after all he needed me to find his way back to the office. Things settled down into a nice pace after that, not slow but not too quick either just perfect for a steady pace.
He's away for the next couple of days but we plan to get out next week.

What can go wrong will go wrong

I don't know what else could have gone wrong this morning. I set off this morning for a fartlek session with my Garmin strapped to my wrist. I had just checked the battery status and it said it had quarter of a charge left. This did last very long as after the first half a mile it bleeped and switched itself off, as I was still in warm up and not that far from home I doubled back and got a new set of batteries.
New batteries fitted I duly set off again. I managed to get a further mile before my stomach started acting up, luckily I was fairly close to the local shopping centre and its conveniences!
OK nothing else can go wrong can it? Wrong, I finally managed to start my fartlek session and was happily doing all sort of distances when my HRM chest strap decided to slip down and no matter how many times it got put back it kept on coming down again. In the end it slipped down to my waist and stayed there till the the run was finished.
So a couple of lessons
1) Never believe the battery readout on a Garmin
2) Don't have red onion tart the evening before a morning run
3) Make sure your chest strap is on properly!

Happy New Year

First run of the new year and it was the longest I've done to date, 16 and a bit miles. The last 2 miles were the toughest I was really suffering. I had been planning a 16 mile run for over a week and was determined to complete the run running not walking. This was put sorely to the test when my garmin bleeped to say I had reached 16 miles I was really tempted to stop and walk. I've not felt like this before. About the only thing that made me keep going was I could look up and see the house at the end of the road.
I may have an explaination to feeling like this - due to Christmas I had moved a couple of runs around, delaying last weeks longish run to the Sunday. The effect is that I've run 50 miles in the past 7 days, 7 days of late nights and early starts. Not the best of ideasgood. I also seem to have a sore foot, though I'm hoping its just tired foot muscles. An early night is called for tonight.