Category Archives: Training

Happy New Year

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It’s 2013 and just over 14 weeks to go until the London Marathon. Eek! I feel woefully unprepared. My training has suffered over the last few weeks due to a mix of injury, illness, weather (well, weather-related road conditions) and travel.

First, I had a tight knot in my calf muscle, which not only cut short a long run but also put me out of action for a few days. My next opportunity for a long run was cut short by weather condition insofar that my chosen route became too slippery and icy to carry on running, cutting a planned 12-miler down to just under 6 miles. Next, I go a cold, while at the same time travelling to the US, so my running for a few days was limited to treadmill running (my thoughts on treadmill running are for another day). My next long run was also cut short, this time due to my chosen route being so flooded that I spent more time dodging more than ankle-deep puddles than actually running.

My last long run was a 10-miler on Christmas Eve. The weather was absolutely horrendous, with torrential rain actually flooding the roads around me but I persevered and finished the full distance I had planned. I did another couple of shorter runs (3.6M and 4.6M, respectively) straight after Christmas (when my running shoes were finally dry), before going on honeymoon to South Africa. I did of course have running gear with me in SA as I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to run in summery weather but due to time and safety considerations, I only managed four short (although truly amazing and enjoyable) runs.

Now I’m back, the marathon is looming large and it’s time to start training again properly but I’ve got yet another cold. I went for an easy 4 miles tonight just to get me out of the house but I feel like I haven’t managed to maintain my pre-holiday fitness level. Provided my cold clears up quickly, my next long run, this coming Saturday, will be the true measure of where I stand. The plan is to do around 11M, at no slower than 11min/M average pace. If I can manage that, I’m still on track, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

 

Long time no see

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Wow, can’t believe it’s over a month since my last post. My hand is doing better, although I’m still not really supposed to do much typing. My knees are still a bit niggly but not to the point where it affects my training.

All in all, training is in fact going rather well. Since I’m doing a TI swimming course, which puts more emphasis on form than effort, I’m going to interval training every week. I also tentatively started back with turbo this week. I still have to take it very easy but as long as I don’t push too hard, my knee holds up for the duration of the session.

Yesterday, I did a 10M run around Stortford. There were a couple too many walking breaks for my liking but overall, I kept my pace reasonably well. I also did my first nutrition test for the Clifbar Shot Blocks, small energy chews that taste quite nice and have a darn side nicer texture than energy gels. My stomach took the test perfectly well. The blocks are still quite big and require more time to chew than I thought – I might have to experiment with biting them in half as the chewing time for a full block interrupts my breathing rhythm.

I’m also very pleased with my new hydration rucksack. The straps snag a bit on technical fabrics but as long as I either wear a body warmer or make some protective sleeves to go around the worst patches, that’s something I can live with. The bouncing of the bag is surprisingly almost unnoticable and so is the weight. The sloshing of the water in the bladder was a little annoying at first but I got used to it. All in all, I’m happy with my kit choices so far. I haven’t posted about my new running shoes yet but I think they deserve a post all to themselves.

Happy running!

Not being lazy!

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My absence of posting this week hasn’t (entirely) been due to lack of training but primarily to a case of tenosynovitis (inflammation of the tendon sheath) in my right hand, which turned nasty on Tuesday. Technically, I’m banned from all typing with my right hand but I really can’t do that, so I’m just trying to limit typing to the essentials. Which alas does not include blogging.

In terms of training, I had my first ever (shame on me!) proper interval session on Tuesday. I know intervals are a great training tool but I’ve just never been able to get myself to do them consistently. BSRC do a 30-40 minute interval session most Tuesday nights – hard but excellent! For my hand’s sake, I shan’t write about the details but I certainly will be back. The plan is to go roughly every two weeks as I have swim training an hour later and don’t want to be knackered for that on a weekly basis.

Tomorrow, I’m planning a 6 mile steady run along the river and on Sunday is the Stortford Tri club duathlon – 3km run, 17km bike, 3km run. Should be good fun, provided the weather holds…

Training update

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First long(ish) run of my pre-training program training program. 7 miles in 1h15mins. Slightly on the fast side for my long-run pace (long run pace should be 40-60s per mile slower than race pace, and my intended race pace is between 10min and 10’15” per mile) but it was after all only a very short long run.

Amongst other things, I tested my new hydration rucksack and I’m quite pleasantly surprised by how little it bothers me. One of the straps rubs a bit against my neck but as long as I wear a shirt with collar, that shouldn’t be a problem. I was a bit disappointed to discover that some of the seams appear to have damaged the technical fabric of my running shirt. I’ll have to find a solution for that. Maybe I can tape them off or something.

Next step for today – get myself a new pair of running shoes.

October TT – 46’59”

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My first proper post here was meant to be about getting my place in the London marathon and about my training plan but since that’s still a work in progress and this blog is meant to be a training diary, I couldn’t not post about tonight!

The first Wednesday of every month is time trial night at my running club, Bishop’s Stortford Running Club. It’s the same 5-mile route around Stortford every time and a great way of tracking progress. I don’t run the TT every month, especially in the summer, when I’d much rather run in the country side than around town but I’m a semi-regular in winter.

I’m not a very fast runner but with an average pace of 10 minutes per mile, I’m also not the slowest person at the club. Slower runners often don’t fancy the time trial though, so there I come last more often than not. I don’t mind – to me, it’s a race against myself more than anything else. If there’s somebody of a similar pace running with me, I’ll try to race them as well but tonight wasn’t one of those nights. I wasn’t feeling overly confident about my pace tonight, especially as I’d had a pretty poor run with people at work yesterday, where I simply couldn’t keep up, but I was determined to try anyway. My personal best for the TT stands at 49’13” (clocked in February) but I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to come in under 50 minutes.

I couldn’t have been more wrong! Not only did I manage to come in under 50 minutes, I beat my PB by over 2 minutes! I may have been the last person by over 3 minutes but I’m absolutely chuffed to bits with my time!

The weather was pretty grotty for the first part of the run which, odd as this may sound, actually helped. I’m weird in that I quite like running in the rain (I hate walking or cycling in the rain) and it was absolutely bucketing it down for a while tonight. It really helped me keep my pace. At the same time, I managed not to get tempted into taking off too fast and overall only lost about 7 or 8 seconds from my average pace during the first, mostly downhill, half of the run to the final 1.5 miles, which sport two fairly tough climbs.

I haven’t had a chance yet to download the data from my Garmin but I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a reasonably even pace throughout the run. That part is as important as the actual time for me as good pacing is going to be vital during the marathon. More on that subject soon!