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/

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

Biking rowing and running

This week hasn’t been too bad, training wise. So things looking good. Have decided am going to try and get to the gym 3 times a week (4 visits this week) and use the rowing machine and use it to compliment my running, hopefully this will make me stronger, its low impact so less weight bearing, good for my joints. The running i’m going to do is now going by Heart Rate try and keep it under 70% WHR keep my runs easy, i want to get back running for an hour most days if i can (this worked for me before) and then when i can do that i’ll introduce some quicker stuff. At the moment my Hard Training to coin a phrase will be on the rower. Another decision made when at the gym i will do my warm up on the bike i’m sure that will help too. So here is what i’ve done this week

Monday Bike 7.34km Row 4043metres Run 3.2km

Tuesday Bike 6.7km Row 2518metres

Wednesday Run 5.1km

Thursday Bike 7.65km Row 6405metres

Friday Run 5.09km

Saturday Bike 14.7km Row 4914metres

Sunday Run 5.1km

so 36.39km bike, 17880metres rowing (thats just over 11 miles) and 11½ miles Run

Baby steps

Baby steps, thats my new phrase, motto whatever you like to call it, taking small steps don’t run before you can walk and all that.

On Thursday about 12 days since my last run i went out to test my ankle planned on running 1 minute, walking 1 minute (x 10) i managed about 6 before decided to leave it for the day. Ankle was hurting slighyly. That afternoon i went to a running shop that does a video gait analysis, to see how i run. It was interesting watching my running on the tv screen. Yes my right foot does over pronate but only slightly not much to worry about i’ve come to the conclusion that the cause of my problem is a pair of shoes shoes i did my interval session in plus the 5km race in. So i’m not wearing them anymore.

On Friday i went to the gym and warmed up on the bike for 20 minutes, moved onto the rower for another 20 minutes and finished on the rower for (10 x) run 1 minute walk 1 minute. Mission accomplished. felt good easier on the treadmill no reaction from ankle till i accidently hit the speed button making the treadmill go at 9km/hr.

Tomorrow back to gym, will try 2 min reps, but will try and keep up with the rowing even when ankle is completely healed

still no running

Today is my eighth day of no running. But have been able to walk about a bit more still hurts a bit but not as much as yesterday which was better than the day before. I think the combination of  rest plus the inserts (gel heel cradles) have been helping. At least today my calf hasn’t been reacting have been giving foot and calf self massage don’t know if thats helped it seems to though.

Been practicing on my wobble board too which has been  a lot of fun determined to get strong and get running again but i know i have to be patient and hope i’m not off running too long. Well thats all i can think of to say I guess the best bit of advice i can give myself is wit till i can walk pain free before even starting to run. That is what i have to do.