13 weeks to the Lausanne Marathon.
11 weeks to the Phedippidations World Half Marathon Challenge (at Henley on Thames)
7 weeks to the Robin Hood Nottingham Half Marathon.
2 weeks to the Regents Park Summer 10k.
I've been a bit remiss with the blog for the past 3 weeks. My excuse is a tough work schedule, not something unexpected, but it has played a bit of havoc with my pre-written 18 week schedule.
It also seems to be over 30 degrees every day - normally I'd love being permanently in shorts and t-shirt, but it makes running long distances extra hard.
In terms of mileage here is where I am
Week 1 - 40.
Week 2 - 39
Week 3 - 36
Week 4 - 31
Week 5 - 19.
My weight is now 87.8 kg (down 4.3 kgs in 5 weeks)
Last week was pretty terrible. After a fantastic "run with a view" up Cleeve Hill above Cheltenham at the end of the hottest day of the year, I had to put running second to my work committments, finally getting out again yesterday for a seven miler and this morning for about 12.5 miles.
Unfortunately I got a sharp pain in my left calf after about 45 mins this morning and, although I finished the run mostly running slowly with occasional walk breaks, the calf is now pretty sore. I've compensated for the sorrow with a really nice glass of good South Australian Red to wash down my sampling of some Fallow deer venison eye fillet steaks. Not bad as compensation.
I have been getting worried about the persistent achilles tendonitis in my right leg this past wek or two and I decided to get some new shoes to alternate runs with my Asics 2110's. A random train transit through Reading took me to Sweatshop and I emerged 20 minutes later with a brand new pair of Mizuno Nirvanas for the knock down price of 55 quid. Maybe the slight change in biomechanics is what caused the problem.
In the middle of week 6, Im feeling a bit sorry for myself, especially as our heatwave continues in the UK, making morning running the only real alternative to getting cooked out on the tarmac. At the ripe old age of 50 my slightly overtrained legs are not quite so willing at 6.30 am as they used to be, but what can I do? I need a big mileage week as a confidence booster. Next week then ........ maybe.
The time for all my race entries is fast approaching and I even have to start thinking of flights to Switzerland in October. That means it is getting real and I must get my fund-raising on track
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Monday, July 03, 2006
Marathon Training begins in Earnest
16 weeks to the Lausanne Marathon.
14 weeks to the Phedippidations World Half Marathon Challenge (at Henley on Thames)
10 weeks to the Robin Hood Nottingham Half Marathon.
5 weeks to the Regents Park Summer 10k.
Today the first day of the third week of my 18 week marathon training schedule.
Week 1 mileage was 35.
Week 2 mileage was 37.
Weight is now 90.5 kgs (down 1.6 kgs from the start)
I've managed to keep more or less on schedule this first two weeks despite :
the World Cup.
some very un-British hot weather.
...my penchant for procrastination around any training schedule I write for myself.
In fact in the past the very act of writing a schedule has usually been an automatic stimulus for an injury or illness. This time around I'm even more or less sticking to my diet rules as well and slowly but surely I'm shedding a few hundred grams of weight without really feeling it.
The legs are starting to protest a little, particularly the onset of some nagging tendonitis in my right achilles which is particularly stiff early in the morning. Ice and anti-inflammatories have already been on the agenda twice this week.
Although it is glorious in the English countryside in June when the sun shines and my long runs in the lee of the Chiltern Hills give some wonderful pastoral vistas, running in the heat brings problems. It's pointless (nay positively dangerous) to push the pace on a long run and hydration becomes a real issue. On the hot days I've resumed an old habit of weighing myself immediately before and after a run - the assumption being that the weight difference reflects a water deficit. The results can be quite frightening. This morning I went for a steady 7 miler consisting of tow laps of our village and I drank a litre of sports dring during the 63 minutes I was out. Despite this I still "lost" 1.2 kgs and was chugging water down with the muesli 20 minutes later. In the fear that this won't be enough I also try to drink at least another 2 litres through the day. I am sure it is a good body maintenance habit, but my memory is not tuned to it fully yet.
I also know I should be running at 6 am to avoid the heat, but I'm nearly as bad at getting mobile in the morning as I am at going to be early - so plenty of adjustment to this heat will still be needed. I also hate running in the breakfast-time / rush to work / school run / late for my train period between 7.30 and 9 am. Despite apparently living in the middle of the countryside, our rural roads are full of people who care nothing for runners on their nearside and even the few trails have dog walkers in my way. My intolerance barometer rises to unjustifiable levels which make the burning sun of early afternoon seem like a decent trade-off most days. Either way I never seem to see any other runners. Where are they I wonder?
Anyway digressions aside here are some of the personal highlight from my last two weeks of running.....
Saturday 24th June - I ran my "5 steady" in a fine drizzle on a golf course in Tewkesbury at 5.30 in the morning before getting my breakfast brought on a tray. And there was a golfer on the coarse. Never tell me that runners are crazy. Never! The reason I was there was that we had a night in a hotel before working a 32 hour shift at the event we were working on. Well - I had to get the scheduled run in somehow.
Thursday 29th June - long (12.5 miler) run along the ridgeway at 2 pm in the afternoon. Good planning for once resulted in me placing water bottles at a strategic mid point on a gloriously hot day. Having seen The Who in concert in Bristol the evening before I listened to the whole of "Tommy" on my mp3 player, before slipping into the latest edition of Phedippidations. The memory of the intensely private adolescent wonder of hearing Tommy for the first time when I was 14 was acute. Then I pored through the lyrics on the album sleeve at a friend's house - this time I realised I still knew every word, note, chord and into absolutely by heart. It's amazing what the human brain decides to retain. I had to once again marvel at the sheer poetry of Pete Townshend's masterpiece as a I sweated and panted my way through the countryside. What a great idea - running to rock opera.
Friday 30th June - a "discovery out and back" of about 6 miles near Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire. One of the great joys of running is that, provided you do the minimum amount of map checking first, you can more or less run from anywhere that you can park your car in the countryside. It is so much fun to discover somewhere minding only the minimum information needed to retrace steps and the time on your stopwatch. However this time I nearly got myself into trouble as the run started with a mile of gentle downhill and then another half mile down a steep hill. It was a very, very hot late afternoon and inevitably my run ended with 15 minutes of gasping for breath, pouring with sweat and with my thighs burning as if I'd just turned into The Mall in "the London". I just got back to my car in time to hear Germany win another football match on penalties. A bit surreal.
Maybe I should actually enter one of those races at the top of this posting now - do you think?
14 weeks to the Phedippidations World Half Marathon Challenge (at Henley on Thames)
10 weeks to the Robin Hood Nottingham Half Marathon.
5 weeks to the Regents Park Summer 10k.
Today the first day of the third week of my 18 week marathon training schedule.
Week 1 mileage was 35.
Week 2 mileage was 37.
Weight is now 90.5 kgs (down 1.6 kgs from the start)
I've managed to keep more or less on schedule this first two weeks despite :
the World Cup.
some very un-British hot weather.
...my penchant for procrastination around any training schedule I write for myself.
In fact in the past the very act of writing a schedule has usually been an automatic stimulus for an injury or illness. This time around I'm even more or less sticking to my diet rules as well and slowly but surely I'm shedding a few hundred grams of weight without really feeling it.
The legs are starting to protest a little, particularly the onset of some nagging tendonitis in my right achilles which is particularly stiff early in the morning. Ice and anti-inflammatories have already been on the agenda twice this week.
Although it is glorious in the English countryside in June when the sun shines and my long runs in the lee of the Chiltern Hills give some wonderful pastoral vistas, running in the heat brings problems. It's pointless (nay positively dangerous) to push the pace on a long run and hydration becomes a real issue. On the hot days I've resumed an old habit of weighing myself immediately before and after a run - the assumption being that the weight difference reflects a water deficit. The results can be quite frightening. This morning I went for a steady 7 miler consisting of tow laps of our village and I drank a litre of sports dring during the 63 minutes I was out. Despite this I still "lost" 1.2 kgs and was chugging water down with the muesli 20 minutes later. In the fear that this won't be enough I also try to drink at least another 2 litres through the day. I am sure it is a good body maintenance habit, but my memory is not tuned to it fully yet.
I also know I should be running at 6 am to avoid the heat, but I'm nearly as bad at getting mobile in the morning as I am at going to be early - so plenty of adjustment to this heat will still be needed. I also hate running in the breakfast-time / rush to work / school run / late for my train period between 7.30 and 9 am. Despite apparently living in the middle of the countryside, our rural roads are full of people who care nothing for runners on their nearside and even the few trails have dog walkers in my way. My intolerance barometer rises to unjustifiable levels which make the burning sun of early afternoon seem like a decent trade-off most days. Either way I never seem to see any other runners. Where are they I wonder?
Anyway digressions aside here are some of the personal highlight from my last two weeks of running.....
Saturday 24th June - I ran my "5 steady" in a fine drizzle on a golf course in Tewkesbury at 5.30 in the morning before getting my breakfast brought on a tray. And there was a golfer on the coarse. Never tell me that runners are crazy. Never! The reason I was there was that we had a night in a hotel before working a 32 hour shift at the event we were working on. Well - I had to get the scheduled run in somehow.
Thursday 29th June - long (12.5 miler) run along the ridgeway at 2 pm in the afternoon. Good planning for once resulted in me placing water bottles at a strategic mid point on a gloriously hot day. Having seen The Who in concert in Bristol the evening before I listened to the whole of "Tommy" on my mp3 player, before slipping into the latest edition of Phedippidations. The memory of the intensely private adolescent wonder of hearing Tommy for the first time when I was 14 was acute. Then I pored through the lyrics on the album sleeve at a friend's house - this time I realised I still knew every word, note, chord and into absolutely by heart. It's amazing what the human brain decides to retain. I had to once again marvel at the sheer poetry of Pete Townshend's masterpiece as a I sweated and panted my way through the countryside. What a great idea - running to rock opera.
Friday 30th June - a "discovery out and back" of about 6 miles near Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire. One of the great joys of running is that, provided you do the minimum amount of map checking first, you can more or less run from anywhere that you can park your car in the countryside. It is so much fun to discover somewhere minding only the minimum information needed to retrace steps and the time on your stopwatch. However this time I nearly got myself into trouble as the run started with a mile of gentle downhill and then another half mile down a steep hill. It was a very, very hot late afternoon and inevitably my run ended with 15 minutes of gasping for breath, pouring with sweat and with my thighs burning as if I'd just turned into The Mall in "the London". I just got back to my car in time to hear Germany win another football match on penalties. A bit surreal.
Maybe I should actually enter one of those races at the top of this posting now - do you think?
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