Back to the long runs

Apologies for not posting much lately well its been a while i know glad 2007 is over it was a rotten year not getting regular running in through various niggles and minor injuries and  a virus (flu type) in November Work interfered in December.

Anyhow have got in the Ballot for the London Marathon and am raring to go managed 40 miles last week, about 34 miles this week, managed 10 miles both weekends, todays run was a good 7 minutes quicker but was frightfully windy but good

Time Distance Split time Avg. HR
0:10:45 1.00 10:45 136 (62%)
0:21:35 2.00 10:50 141 (65%)
0:32:00 3.00 10:25 142 (66%)
0:43:11 4.00 11:10 147 (69%)
0:54:25 5.00 11:14 146 (69%)
1:05:16 6.00 10:50 142 (66%)
1:15:46 7.00 10:30 144 (68%)
1:26:51 8.00 11:04 147 (69%)
1:38:00 9.00 11:09 144 (68%)
1:48:57 10.00 10:56 161 (79%)
1:49:40 10.06 0:42 142 (66%)

I am well pleased with my 68%whr avg and my plans are loads of easy miles keeping HR low try and improve my aerobic capacity using the ideas of Hadd.

1st plan is to be able to run 10 miles so it feels easy with no loss of HR/pace i have a little work to do namely with the pace this helped me in the past this type of training but hoping to do a few more miles once i get past 50 miles i will try the infamous Hadd test something i haven’t done in a few years

TTFN

Make Kev Kendal a Star

Hi there. another running website i visit is http://www.fetcheveryone.com/ and on it is a campaign to make one of the members a star. His name is Kev  Kendal and if you go to the link below and vote for Kev. You can actually scroll down the list He is currently 22nd and needs your votes. His song is called Ruby and i think it is pretty good.

http://www.instantpopstar.co.uk/

Another 5km

Not sure how today was going to turn out i had a slight heaviness in my legs which i did feel in the latter stages of todays race, put it down partly to not fully recovered from Mondays race.
Was a tad nervous did a warm up of just under a mile saw a few regulars.

Did focus on trying to keep pace with those around me. first 2km went really well, saw my namesake ahead she runs around 25 mins so tried to keep her in sight for as long as possible. This worked for the first 3km. Then decided to keep pace with guy from Road runners club, well thats what it said on his shirt. TBH can’t remember much after 4km except seeing a squirrel cross the road. Why did he cross the road, sorry i didn’t ask. I was to puffed to speak. It was a bit busy around the Diana fountain, but not as crowded as we were expecting. Before we turn into the home straight there is an incline some may say its undulating, but it feels like Mount Everest. At this point see my club mate, hes quick and had already finished but always comes back to offer a cheer of encouragement. Into the home straight, feel really sick but am i going to stop? No. Is there anyone behind me? I haven’t the foggiest. I mean you don’t look behind you. Do you? But no-one is going to pass me now so i sprint for the line
5;03 (157)
5;03 (169)
started to lose it a bit
5:21 (170)
5:19 (172)
concentrated on trying to pick up pace only 5 minutes (or so) to run made final km
5;05 (173) entered the puke zone

Finish time 25:52 (a bit symmetrical)

Am i happy? You Betcha
5 seconds quicker than Monday
39 seconds faster than last months outing
But i need to do some longer runs haven’t really run further than 5 miles in quite a few weeks

34 seconds

I ran another 5km race today. This is my pb course from 2 years ago and have done this race every year since 2003. Not quite pb shape at the moment but i’m moving in the right direction
It is a twisty 2 lap course but produces fast times the snooker player Ronnie o Sullivan has been known to race this and he is pretty quick himself.
It doesn’t have any markers but i think this is a good thing, sometimes you realise you started too fast but then slow down, whos to know you can’t carry on at the same pace, until you try reached the end of first lap in around 12:45 did struggle a bit in the second lap but managed to find my second wind near the end thanks to shouts of encouragement from various people and finished in 25:57. Whats the 34 seconds well i set my previous seasons best two weeks ago and today i smashed this by 34 seconds. Cool or What?

Training for the mile

My first specific workout for the mile, wasn’t easy sure i can do better. Will see how this helps with my mile race and the 5km races i’ll be doing as well.

Did a good warm up then started with 3 x 800metres, 3 minute recovery @ mile pace. What is mile pace i don’t know not run it before. But mcmillian reckons 7:38 so 3;49 per 800

• 3:50
• 4;01
• 4;04     

 Then a 10 minute break to recover then 6 x 200metres with reducing recoveries of 30, 25, 20, 15 and 10 minutes this was the toughie

• 50
• 55
• 54
• 58
• 55
• 61

 There was a strong wind in the back straight. Guess i went a bit too fast in the first 800.    And the first 200

A brand new day

Today much better went for a run 3.17 miles kept it nice and easy i’ve been training by heartrate for a good few weeks now and have notice the improvement Today ran at 65% of my working heart rate, some of you may know it more as heart rate reserve. All at 10:18 avg pace which is the best in a long time

Today is also a new day as i will concentrate on training for a mile race in 5 weeks time, so a lot of shorter intervals but won’t be forgetting the endurance runs

I have no idea what time to go for i would love a seven minute mile but fear i could be asking a lot

Bad toes

Was expected to do 10km today a race in Victoria Park (London) Things started ok with a 5;01 opening km. Then slowed down after. It was a 3 lap course, and on the second lap my toes on my left foot, started throbbing, i was thinking should i bail out. No don’t be silly but as time went on, the pain got worse. and in the end decided to be sensible before matters got worse. I was slowing down very quickly the last km i did (6th) i ran in 6:31. And i finished just before the 7th km. The last 100metres or so i ended up walking.

As soon as i finished it eased of so don’t know what the cause could be

shoelaces too tight

the shoes themslves

someone said my shoes may be too small try the next ½ size up (though i’ve been wearing the same size for years and i’m no youngster

“Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Who said that it was – Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Great quote one to live by, fraid i’ve not been good with updating my blog. But did a race last Sunday another 5km. Getting better at them this one was flatter than the Hyde Park races i’ve been doing there were quite a few runners from my club doing it was great to meet them as i don’t get to go to club nights, as i normally have to work them

Anyway here is my report from that race

Better than pleased… although still almost 2 minutes slower than pb, it is getting there, so must be doing somrthing right
Arrived there mega early, we are talking a good 90 minutes, and there was already someone doing there warm up. Had a little wander around, talk to a few people, saw a few clubmates some who’d i not meet before (due to working committments). So introduced myself by which a few more had arrived. Talking to one of the ladies asking about the time she was expecting to do, a little bit faster than myself by about a minute. So had a dilemma.
Do i do what i did in previous race shoot off like a cannonball at the start and try to hold on. Or do i try and keep up with her.
The start was on a narrow congested part so couldn’t blast off couldn’t run naturally for most of the first km, too many people to try and overtake.
I try and keep pace with clubmate, but she got ahead of me, then i see a male club mate and try and keep pace with him, although i can still see lady runner.
Its a 2 lap course, pretty much flat except for one incline, a lovely route as well. A nice course
2nd lap try and pick up the pace a bit, catching up with female club mate and i get passed her, she gives me a cheer of encouragement, but i can’t speak. Race finishes on the track which i always love, about 10 runners ahead of me so try and run faster but can’t seem to quite catch anyone.

My splits which i’m more excited about and can’t quite believe (with HR)
5:23 (150)
5;17 (162)
5:21 (165)
5:16 (167)
5:11 (170)

Overall 79% WHR, so theres plenty of room for improvement

Next 5km: Bank Holiday Monday

I have a 10km race tomorrow, not knowing what time to expect anything under 55 minutes i’ll be happy with if i can do 53 minutes (same pace as 5km i’d be over the moon, as i felt i had plenty  left at the end of Sundays race we shall see)

UPDATE

Firstly many apologies for not posting in ages, oh many things work, been quite busy really. Hopefully will get back to this

The weather is totally atrocious today plenty of rain high wind this is supposed to be summer

Anyway ankle is much improved now and have done runs on it up to 66 minutes, i am looking to work my long run up to 2 hours. Some people may wonder why and persuade me not to run this far as its not needed but looking back to 2005, my best year to date when i got pbs in 5k and 10k this is what i did on the weeks i wasn’t racing. Its really finding what works for you i would manage about 11 miles in those 2 hours.

Did another 5km at the end of last month weather wasn’t too good i had only about 3 weeks training post ankle and was hoping to get round in 28 minutes so i tried to keep it steady and run at that pace from start to finish. I finished in 28:15 so wasn’t too bad. This month however i caught a bad cold, it always goes to my chest so following the below the neck rule i abstained from running one of these days i’ll survive a whole month without some mishap. I had about a week off altogether.

Last week i managed about 20 miles, have done the same this week so far!!!!

Next week i’m back for another 5km, so will see how i do, have started to do part of some of my runs @ race pace may talk more about that later. So far so good

As for the weight i’m down to 9st 9½lb so a little lighter (down from 10st 4lb at the highest) so hoping i’ll be a little quicker next friday

Pammie’s No crisps or Coke Diet

Two of my favourite things. But not good for you.

Today i weigh 10st 1½ lbs i have been trying to lose the fat for the last 4 weeks via this website http://forums.ausrun.com.au/viewtopic.php?p=47226#47226 it has been encouraging but i haven’t been successful well 2½lbs to date. So the time has come for drastic action. Last Year i did weigh around 8st 10lb (i’m 5′4″ , or rather just a little under) have a small frame so that was quite an ideal weight which i was happy with. But when i stopped running after the Dublin Marathon, till April the weight crept on and have been trying to lose it again. But sensibly

I started the thread on 18th October 2003 and weighed 9st 13½lb Body fat 35% heres the thread here http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?UTN=23336&URN=4&dt=4&srchdte=0&cp=1&v=1&sp= the purpose of me looking back on it is to look for clues to what i did

Main things it seemed is giving up coke and crisps and running long distances (well about an hour most days) i have noticed i did do it in 2002 with no running and lost 10lb lb 6 weeks so guess i have a lot to learn from that.

I’m back running 30-40 minutes 3-4 times a week i need to omprove on that and give up my bad habits