Work Run

Ran to and from work today passing the 30 mile mark for this week, which is usually a missed target! Not the greatest of runs, still feeling the tiredness in my legs from Tuesday night. There is something nice about hitting the deserted streets at 05:50 in the morning, I'll let you know what that is when I figure it out ;) Most of my colleagues think it is very strange that a) I run b) I run to work c) I run to work that early in the morning. They just don't understand!

Can't quite seem to get my clothing right at the moment, generally wearing too much and overheating. I'd rather the weather be freezing cold, at least you can then layer up and stay at a constant temperature. This morning the wind was quite chilly but the air temperature was mild so it felt cold at first, but after a mile or so it was quite warm. English weather!

Talking of weather, not a great forecast for the weekend - it'll be a wet & muddy run whatever whereever I go!

Later!

R.

Tuesday Night with the Harriers

Long run last night - 12.3 miles. A bit longer than expected but good leg training as my recent runs haven't been of any great distance. Fitness wise, I felt fine last night but my legs stiffened after about 10 miles so the final 2.3 were a bit of a struggle. Still, I stayed with the others for longer than my first outing! A visiting runner called David joined us (Hi David) and he announced that he's a 39 min 10Ker - ahem, I think he may be a little bit faster than that!

So Battledown Hill is a bugger, going up anyway! By the time we went over the top my legs were in shuffle mode and stayed that way down the other side. My bike ride in to work today was a little slower than normal - a nice headwind to boot!

Here's the route we followed last night:

Keeping it in the family

This weekend we had my wife's sister & her husband staying with us and knowing they are ardent 'out and about'ers' I took them for a spot of XC. Unfortunately (for them), they only had their normal road shoes so it was a bit slippery in places but otherwise they had a great time. The four of us (Rusty came too) went for an hour or so, much needed after a glass or two of wine on Saturday night. So today (Monday) was a rest day and I'm planning to go out for a blast with Dave & the local running club tomorrow. Talking of which, Dave sent me a great link for creating your own running routes. Have a look at:

http://www.runningmap.com/

Local Loop

Good run last night around my local 4.3 mile loop. A nice route for a tempo run and I improved my PB on this route by 20 seconds which surprised me as I started with a 6.58 & 7.01 / mile and then sped up to a 6.25 & 6.21. Actually I think this is the way to approach runs around 10k, start steady (bit quicker than 7.0/mile) and then try and go each mile a bit quicker than the last. Very difficult to do in race conditions as you have to conciously rein yourself in and let the others sprint off in to the distance, safe in the knowledge that you will catch and pass most of them later in the race. That's the theory anyway!

Talking of tempo runs, interesting article in this month's runners world:

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=3176&v=3

Cross Country

Me and trusty Rusty the border collie went for a 5.5 mile XC run today. Unlike Sunday, no driving snow and sleet today. Great run today, just getting dark and we were up on the hill looking down over the valleys and towns of Gloucestershire. I thought Rusty was a bit tired today as he was struggling to keep up but it was just a ploy. He was soon sprinting after rabbits and chasing around everywhere.

Worst Run / Best Run

My worst ever run? Easy. It was earlier this year and we were on holiday near Toronto, Canada. I had been recovering from a sciatic nerve injury and was just starting to get some miles back in to my legs. I needed to keep my training/recovery momentum up so I went out for what I thought would be a gentle 6 miler. Well, to start with I was running along trails based on a small map that I collected. The first trail was flooded and although I managed to get about 50 metres in, the trail turned a bend and I could see the flood water continuing so I turned back. So within the first 1/4 mile, my feet were already waterlogged. Plus the weather - really hot (90s) and very humid (80+ humidity). The next 2-3 miles were ok, steady pace on roads & pavements but then I darted back in to some wooded trails and things went horribly askew. There were a maze of trails, again mostly flooded, and I seemed to sample all of them at some point. Mozzies were everywhere and I was running through knee deep standing water. By now the humidity was really telling and I knew I had a couple more miles. Eventually I burst out of the trees on to a golf course. I must have looked like the Yeti as I laboured around the edge of the course back to the hotel. My Garmin Forerunner told me the entire route was a pathetic 6 miles (surely GPS must be wrong sometimes!) and it took nearly an hour!! The expression on my wife's face told me how bad I must have looked!

Helen (my wife) also features in my best ever run. While we were living in the US I was running regularly at the weekends and had a really good route set-up for a particular December morning. When we woke that Sunday, Helen did a pregnancy test as we had been trying for a baby for over 2 years and regularly tested when we thought there was the faintest of chances. Miraculously, that morning the stick read positive! We were pregnant. So after an excited breakfast I donned my running kit, Helen got on her bike and we went out together for a 10 miler. We talked all the way around about being pregnant and how unbelievable it was after all that time. As I ran the miles ticked by and before we knew it, we were back home. Probably not a fast 10 miler, but it could have been the quickest!

Running Pedigree

or lack of! A bit of background on my running history. I'm 39 and have been 'running' to a certain degree since my teens although for the majority of this time it was a means to and end, a way to keep fit for the other sports I enjoyed playing such as footy and rugby. It also helped maintain overall fitness and weight control etc. Then, in the summer of 2005 I had a little boy, Joshua. The arrival of a little baby really restricted the opportunities for running so I started going out at lunchtimes at work with two chaps Dave & Nick. To start with, I couldn't maintain their pace around a 4.3 mile trail looping around a golf course. Gradually, over the next few weeks I managed to haul Nick in, but Dave was still that person ahead of me, always with an extra gear. Dave & I ran a half marathon, my time was 1.27 his was 1.25 again, just too far ahead.

A smallish 5k gave me a surprise, I came 15th with a 18.44 time, I beat Dave & Nick. However, I still maintain it a bit of a fluke!

So I've only been seriously running and racing for 2 years, my PBs are:

5k 18:44
10k 39:15
Half Marathon 1:27:05

All the above times recorded in the last two years. I ran a half again this year in 1:28:15, so my PB remained.

My first entry.

Well this is going to be the start of my running diary, charting my various training runs, social runs, painful runs & races. Today, I ran at lunchtime with my trusted running partner Dave. We were running a new time-trial route so we took it reasonably easy and only managed a 6.59/mile pace over 6 miles. Still, it was a fairly interesting route comprising B roads, crossing the M5 a couple of times, some footpaths and more B roads. Weather wasn't great, but better than the near blizzard conditions of yesterday. Time for some stretching now and start preparing for the painful Club run scheduled for tomorrow. See ya.