Probably the last run of the decade.....

I went out for the last run of the decade today, barring any last minute dashes to the bar when last orders is called tonight!  Unfortunately, the battery on the Garmin ran out after 2.1 miles (I hadn't charged it since before our 12 mile walk the other day), but I've done the route before and it is aprox 4.3 miles.

Much to do in January and the early months of next year....!

A few pounds extra to the charity...

I mentioned my favourite sport is F1 in my last post.  Another dirty secret of mine is that I love watching and playing poker.  I've never stepped foot inside a casino, and don't play for money online, but a few friends of mine have been running a small poker league this year, and yesterday was the final game of the year.  I won the league and the side pot, so have made a profit of £18 this year.  It's not exactly high stakes poker, but every little helps, and this is going towards the charity for the London Marathon.  Next year when I inevitably win the league again, I'll spend my winnings more recklessly!

I went to the gym this morning, and the place was packed with a lot of new people I haven't seen there before.  I've often wondered what the business model is for gyms, but it must be based on knowing that a large number of people will join in December/January, but not use the facilities that much the rest of the year.

My favourite song at the moment is another Muse song called 'Unnatural Selection'.  I'm really into my music, and now have got to the stage where I can't run without music.  Muse are one of my favourite bands and I've been lucky enough to see them live three times.  The first time was when they were promoting their first album, the second time was when they were the first band to play at the new Wembley and the third time was this summer when they played a home coming gig in Teignmouth.  It's those memories, together with the fact that the sound is a "full" sound, which makes it great music for me to run to. 

A few musings

I was looking back over my Blog yesterday and I hope it is showing the progress I've been making.  I think it does, and I'm really enjoying keeping it going.  I really do think that for me, the Garmin GPS/Heart Rate Monitor and the RunSaturday sites are really motiviating and I'm planning on continuing on using those into the new year and up to the race.  I need to find out if I'm permitted to use the device on the race day itself, because it would be great to have a map of the actual route I ran on the day.  I can't really see a reason why I can't use it, but it would be good to check.

My Father In Law (who has several marathons under his belt himself) has leant me the Haile Gebrselassie book, which I've started to read.  Googling his name is really interesting reading and this phenomenal athlete still holds the world record for the marathon with a staggering time of 2h03:59, at the age of 35.  I was listening to a Podcast of him the other day and he is planning on running the event in London 2012, as he was saying that he has never won London.

I've got a few targets in my mind over the next weeks and I really need to start increasing the running if I can, but obviously stay injury free.  I'm not sure if I'm over doing it, but since I've been training I've had two minor niggles that have kept me from training (one in my right heel, and one in my left knee) but I'm very aware I need to keep up the miles, so it is a dilemma.  Reading back over my training, and comparing it with training schedules I've seen, I don't think I've been overdoing it so I'll have to keep going and keep an eye out for any injury flare ups.  Although my current trainers are proper runner shoes and are fine, I do need a new pair for the event, so I'm hoping that a new pair will help keep any injuries away.

My favourite sport is F1....I really love it, and have been fortunate to be at Silvertone a couple of times on the F1 race weekend.  The big news in the run up to Xmas was that Michael Schumacher is returning to race in the new Mercedes team at the age of 41.  Watching the interview to me seems that he is really hungry for it and I hope he mixes it up at the top next year.  Why am I mentioning this on a running blog?  Well, I remember reading a few years ago about the training and preparation Schumacher went through to keep in top form in his Ferrari days and it was astounding.  These guys are top class athletes, but Schumacher took it to another level, and the rest of the field had to follow in order to have a chance of staying in touch.  It will be really interesting to see if Schumacher still has that fitness, or at least can get back to near that fitness, after retiring in 2006.  One of my favourite videos on YouTube is of him flying around the Top Gear track in his own £1m Ferrari FXX...what a driver!

Boxing Day walk

No run today, but my wife and I did go and do some kind of well needed exercise following the usual eating and drinking on Xmas Day.  We ended up walking about 12 miles, interspersed with a quick chat with my Sister in Law (who is in Singapore at the moment as part of her 6 months of travelling), a bite to eat that consisted of a turkey leg and a scotch egg and also 3 "pub stops" for liquid refreshment!  I've uploaded the route to RunSaturday for info, but it was really nice just to get out now that the pavements have thawed out.

I'm kind of itching to get back into the training properly.  I've been looking at half marathons in the run up to the April London Marathon, which could be a good idea to enter...I'll have a think about that.  There's lots going on between now and before I go back to work, but I'm going to try and get out at least once for either a gym session or a road run.

Chin + wall = embarassment

What with the icy conditions and also the fact that we've been away for a few days, there hasn't been much update in terms of running.  I'm desperately trying to stay away from the "See Food" diet, and am planning a run between Xmas and New Year if I can, and then back into it properly in January.  That was always the 'plan', and I'm pleased that I did the long run before Xmas.

I had a bit of an 'incident' yesterday on the icy conditions outside my house.  It was icy, and had rained in the night, so there was black ice on the slope in front of my house, which I didn't see.  I was being carfeul, but I just slid, hit my chin on the wall (requiring an A&E visit) and slid down the path.  I have also bruised my right hip and lower back quite badly, making it uncomfortable to walk.  I'm sure it will be fine though.

I do need a new pair of trainers, so that needs sorting out soon.  I currently have a pair of Brooks, which have been great, but they have a few miles in them now (I've had them 18 months or so) and they won't be suitable for the London Marathon.  I need to get a new pair in January, which I'm planning on being the pair that I use for the event in April.

Really looking to Xmas and New Year, but I know I have a lot to do in terms of upping the training in January.  I'm nervous, but looking forward to it too!

14.5 miles today ! Furthest I've ever ran....so far.

I haven't been out as much as I'd have liked to recently, because my wife hasn't been very well for the last couple of weeks.  However, it was a really nice morning today, although it was very cold, so I thought I'd go out for a run.

I was feeling great for the first 8 miles or so, so decided to push on and ended up doing 14.5 miles, which is the most I've ever ran!  Therefore, today is a bit of a milestone for me.  It wasn't too bad, although I was very tired at the end.  I have tweaked my left knee a little bit, but I think it'll be fine.  My pace was pretty slow today, but it's the miles I'm concerned about rather than the pace.  There's obviously alot I still have to do to be able to run the full marathon, but today was a good session so I'm very pleased.

There were lots of other runners out today.  I saw one Dad who had obviously recently had a baby.  He was all dressed up in his running gear, running along the street and pushing a pram!  That's dedication.  There were also a couple of runners out running with their dogs.....

Blowing a gale....

I was in the car on the sea front enjoying some fish and chips and the weather was truly awful. Windy, cold and  raining heavily.

There were still loads of runners out as part of a local running club and to be honest I just thought 'Nutters!!'.

My fish and chips were nice though!


Sent from my iPhone

Cold and wet

Went out for a run in the cold and wet this morning....not pleasant!  I still did what I went out to do though, which was 6.5 miles or so in about 1 hour.

Fund raising is going well, so thanks a lot to everyone who has sponsored me already.  It's most appreciated!  I've got a few things on eBay at the moment as well, the proceeds for which will go towards ChildLine.  I've also approached one of the managers at my local, with a view of getting some kind of raffle or collection box going, and she seemed keen on the idea.  She's got to check with her boss, so I'll catch up with her when I'm next in the pub to see if it's a possibility or not.

All in all, things are ticking along quite nicely so far.

13 miles

I went out and ran 13-miles yesterday, and I'm feeling it a bit today.  It's the first session I've completed where I feel I couldn't have done too much more.  This gives me a sense of what I've got left to do in terms of training, but it is motivating me at the moment.

In fairness, with the 10miles that I completed on Thursday and the 13 miles I did on Sunday, I think this is the furthest I've ever ran in that period of time.  Onwards and upwards...

"No, I can't come out for a curry and beer because I'm going for a run...."

A couple of mates of mine were going out for a curry tonight, but I had a training session planned.  Believe it or not, I turned down the chance of a curry and kept the training session!  The session itself was pretty good and I'm glad I went out.  I did 10miles in about 90mins.

The training session itself wasn't the only reason I said no to the curry.  We've got the outlaws coming down to stay, and if I had a drink tonight, it would have meant drinking Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which isn't ideal (I'll save that extravagence for Xmas and New Year....!).  Also, I'm going out for a beer with a work mate on Monday and seeing the FiL on Tuesday which isn't ideal marathon training.

Anyway, back to tonights session.  It was the first 'proper' evening run I've done, and I really enjoyed it.  There were loads of other runners out and about, which is always nice.  It was really windy though, but I ploughed on through it and enjoyed the session.  I'm actually beginning to think that this Marathon may just about be possible!  I need to stay injury free, and keep up the training, but I'm now beginning to think I've got it in me, which is great.

I found a new 'toy' on RunSaturday.  If you go to this link, it should take you to a map of my route.  In the bottom right hand corner of the map, there are controls to 'play' the route again, and it shows my heart rate, pace and altitude along the route. Great stuff!

First run out since injury

First run out since my calf injury, and it was great to be out again!  I only did about 48-mins (4.3 miles) at lunch time and it was really good to get out.  Looking at RunSaturday is interesting.  I wasn't pushing it this lunchtime, as I was easing myself back in, but my pace seems to have gone up and my average heart rate down a little bit.
Todays run:
Pace: 8mins 54secs
Av HR: 170

29th Oct run:
Pace: 9mins 42secs
Av HR: 175

It's not a true reflection as the routes on the two sessions were different, but interesting anyway.

I have lost a few pounds since I've only been doing gym work, which is another motivation for me to keep up the membership.  I've lost 6 pounds over the last 2 or 3 weeks, which is a great side effect of this training!  My aim is to get to 14st (or slighty below), if I can....I'm currently at 14st 7.

I'm a member of the Virgin London Marathon Facebook Group and there is lots of good stuff going on on there, along with the Virgin emails that are sent every so often too.  One recent discussion on the Facebook group was from someone who is suffering with knee pain, and an orthopaedic surgeon with an interest in knees replied with a lot of advice, including:

If you are overweight lose a few pounds. This...will reduce the forces across the knee by up to 10 fold. So every one pound off the waist is equivalent to [up to]10 pounds off your knees while running.  Less weight on the knees = less pain in the knees.

Whether that is strcitly accurate or not I'm not sure.  However, losing weight is definately a motivator in terms of me getting into a bit better shape for this event, and keeping up the training.  I'm pleased with how the training is going (apart from the injury I had), so fingers crossed I'll keep it up.

Calf seems to be getting better, plus brekkie!

Another gym session today which included a small run on the treadmill for 10-mins.  My calf injury seems to be clearing up a bit so I really hope that I'll be back on the road soon.  There's still time to make my 13-mile November target.....!

Where I work, there are some really good internal newsgroups that cover all types of things from general ramblings to specific things like cycling, home entertainment, cars etc.  Someone posted something about feeling peckish before lunch on the cyclist newsgoup and a sub-thread started about the merrits of porridge (yes, porridge!!) for brekkie.  As a kid, I used to love porridge so I thought I'd give it a go again.  I bought some Sainsbury's own porridge (I think it was something like 50p for 500g, where 50g is a single portion) and I'm having that in the mornings now, and I'm really enjoying it!  Everyone seems to have a favourite porridge 'recipe', but mine is pretty simple.  It's porridge mixed with semi-skimmed milk, cooked on the hob (microwaved porridge didn't taste 'right' somehow....I did try), with a dollop of honey.  Gorgeous!

Feeling great....

....but still a few more days before I'm back on the road I think.  It's a shame really as I'm raring to go! Calf is still playing up and I want it to settle down properly before I start again.

Enjoying the gym though. I've decided that I'm going to keep the membership going....

Sent from my iPhone

A bit of a dilemma

Since I've injured my calf a week or so ago, I've been going to the gym again instead, and I've actually been enjoying it.  The lure of the steam room and sauna is too much to resist....!

Anyway, it's gym membership renewal time very soon and I was planning on ditching the membership to just concentrate on road running, but I'm having second thoughts now.  I'm obviously commited to making most of my training sessions on the road, and I obviously do need to concentrate on getting the miles up.  However, could this be complimented by a session or two a week at the gym?

Decisions, decisions....

Gym session with Garmin

I'm suffering from a slight right calf strain so I thought it best not to go running today or yesterday.  I went to the gym today for a session with the Garmin, which was okay.

Hopefully I'll be back on the road in a few days or so.

Final run out of the month

Final run out of the month today.  I covered about 8.7miles today which is great, but I did need a toilet stop after about 6 miles.

I've had the Garmin Forerunner for a month now and according to RunSaturday I've:
- been out 11 times
- covered 62 miles
- been running for 9.8 hours.

I'm quite pleased with that and I'm really glad I've purchased the device.  My goal for next month (November) is to run 13 miles without stopping, so we'll see how I get on.

Still on me hols....

....but I was a bit annoyed with myself yesterday, as the run wasn't great.  Therefore, I decided to go out again this morning for another run and did about 7 miles, on the Torbay Half Marathon route and felt quite good today so I'm glad I went out.

I'm going to have to look into water carriers (like CamelBak's) as I do drink a lot of water when out running.  I carry a water bottle with me currently, but I may need some more water for when I run longer distances.  On the event day, there will be plenty of water stations, but when I need water I need it straight away, even if it's only for a sip.  I've heard good and bad thing about them, but I think I'm going to buy one and give it a go.

Back from my short break

Had a great long weekend in London (Saturday to Tuesday) where any thoughts of a healthy lifestyle went out the window!  I love London, and all the different choices of food and drink it has to offer.  Whilst there I got myself some brightly colours running tops to keep me going through the winter months now the clocks have gone back.

We stayed near Paddington and on the last day we took a walk around Kensington Gardens for half an hour or so.  There were loads of runners out (office workers on their lunch break possibly?) and I kind of wished I'd thought to take my running stuff with me.  Maybe next time.

I got up this morning and I wanted to go out for a run.....it was hard work unfortunately, but I'm glad I went out.  The food and drink I've consumed over the last few days probably haven't helped.  For example:

• ribs and wings at an American soul food place in Bayswater, and a few beers and cocktails.
  
• a great belly pork meal at a The Bridge House pub in Little Venice.  We saw the actor from the BBC Sit-Com, Keeping Up Appearences, called Clive Swift.  A quick Google shows him here.
  
• a ploughmans lunch, followed by a few pints of Fuller's Discovery at The Victoria, which is a cracking little pub near to our hotel in Paddington.
• a few pints of Guinness and steak burger at a great Irish Bar near Leicester Square.
• a few pints of Guinness Red in another Irish Bar, which I'd never tried before....

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my week off work and may go out once or twice more.  Then it's back into the training again properly next week.

One sad thing for my wife and I is that next years Torbay Half Marathon has been cancelled due to ill health of one of the organisers.  That's a real shame, and I hope the event comes back bigger and better in 2011.

Disconnecting

Looking forward to a few days holiday, so not much training planned.  Will probably go for a training session tomorrow morning (it may well be a gym session rather than a run) but that will be it for a few days
I think. Need to recharge the batteries so looking forward to getting away from things for a bit. I'll come back a changed man......!!

I'm even going to turn the mobile off....

Sent from my iPhone

Just over 8 miles

Ran just over 8 miles today in about 1hr 20 (see RunSaturday.com) and felt pretty good afterwards, which is the main thing.  Quite pleased really, as although I'll never be at a lightening fast pace, I feel I'm making some progress.

I mentioned on my last blog entry that I had a rough schedule in mind.  This is subject to change, but roughly I'm aiming to be able to do the following distances in the timescales mentioned:

• end of October (8 miles)....done!
• end of November (13 miles).
• end of December (13 miles).  If I can still run 13 miles into the New Year I'll be happy....
• end of January (15 miles).
• end of February (18 miles).
• end of March (22 miles).
• 25th April, race day.

These are only rough milestones and if at any point I feel I can run past the target, I will do.

Run out in Blandford.

Am I getting into this training stuff, or am I just going slightly mad?

We're in Blandford visiting my sister-in-law as she's recently had a
baby. We're staying at a hotel in the town and I was prepared and I
brought my running stuff with me, 'just in case'.....

It turns out that it was a nice morning, but a bit cold. I woke up and
decided to go for a jog around the town before brekkie and did just
over 4 miles, which wasn't too bad. It was a nice route, but as I
didn't know the route that well I did have to double back a couple of
times where the pavement ran out. The route will be on RunSaturday.com
soon.

I did allow myself to have a nice fry up when I got back to the hotel,
so I haven't completely changed!

I've got a very rough training schedule sorted out, with the long run
every week slowly increasing. I'm planning to run 8 miles next
weekend, which should be achieveable I hope!

A couple of people have asked me what my favourite track to run to is
and for the record it's currently 'Map of the problematique' by Muse....

Sent from my iPhone

A first run out in the rain

I think it can be safely said that I'm a 'fair weather' runner.  However, as part of the training for this event I need to run in all conditions (from wet and cold, to very hot), because I obviously don't know what the conditions will be like on the day of the event itself.

Today was a scheduled running day and it was raining and quite cold, but I decided to go out.  I did quite a short run of just over 4 miles, but it went okay and it was actually quite refreshing.  I know in the past that I've really not enjoyed very hot weather whilst running, but running in the rain wasn't too bad at all.

I've uploaded the results to RunSaturday.

First run with the Garmin

In my last post I talked about some devices that can help track progress over time.  After some advice from a guy at work and some other people who recommended the Garmin Forerunner, I went with the 305.  It arrived from Amazon this morning, so I took the opportunity to set up what was required.

• I downlaoded SportTracks which is some free software to help analyse the data that the Forerunner generates when in use.  The device does come with some software, but I've read that the SportTracks software is better.
• I set up a free account with RunSaturday.com and got my own account here.  There is not much on there in the way of profile information at the moment, but it currently shows the results of my first run which is great.  You have to click on 'analyse training' from that page, to see my data from the first run.

It looks really good.  It integrates with Google Maps and Google Earth and shows things including:

• heart rate
• altitude
• speed etc.

From my first run with the device, where I really wasn't pushing it, I managed about 6.47 miles (very nearly 1/4 of  a marathon) in 0:58:38, which isn't too bad for me.  The particular route is about half the Torbay Half Maraton route, and it is a great route with some nice scenary to take away the thought of actually running.....

I guess, moving forward through the training, this will be the benchmark I'll try and impove against.  It will be interesting to see if my heart rate improves over time, whilst running the same distance.  It will also be interesting to see if I start running the same distance quicker over time.

I love my gadgets, and I'm pleased I bought this one!

I've made a start

I'm officially part of the ChildLine team now, so my JustGiving account is working, and I've made a start on figuring out how I'm going to get around this course.  Thanks to those who have sponsored me already - it is really appreciated!

The event is about 7 months away, which seems like plenty of time, but it soon passes and I don't want to be on the starting line wishing that I'd done more to prepare.

I need to figure out a training programme.  I'm starting from an 'OK' level of fitness, but that isn't going to be good enough to get around this course.  I've looked at gadgets in the past that monitor heartrate and distance travelled etc, on training routes.  Something like this has been recommended to me by a few people, so I will look at these again.  It is possible to integrate these devices with sites such as http://www.runsaturday.com/ which record the data and are great motivators for tracking and improving fitness over time. 

I was chatting to my father in law over the weekend who was a keen marathon runner in his time.  He was saying that he was doing 70 miles a week whilst training for his events!  To be totally honest, this is out of my reach.  I'm going for more like 30-40 miles a week, and building up to that fairly gradually.  We'll see how I get on, but some training guides I've seen on the Internet suggest 30-40 miles as acceptable for someone who wants to get around the course.

I've also been looking at training routes from my house.  The 3 half marathons I've done in the past have all been the Torbay Half Marathon.  I live quite close to this route, and most of my road running has been done on this route.  However, as I'm going to need to start upping the amount of runs I go out on, I could do with saving the 40-50min round trip to get to the Torbay Half Marathon course.  I've been looking at things like http://www.mapmyrun.com to find suitable routes, of different distances, from my house.

Finally, today I went for a small road run today and did 4.5miles in about 45mins.  It was my first road run since this years Torbay Half Marathon in June, and it wasn't too bad.  At least I can say I've made a start this week, but I'm not underestimating the amount of work I have to do!

First post from me, and why I've put myself in for the London Marathon!

Hi all.  Welcome to my blog!

I'm hoping that I will get to update this blog quite regularly along the way to hopefully running in the London Marathon on Sunday 25th April 2010.  I've provided a bit of information on the left hand side of the blog as a starter and hopefully this site will grow over the next few weeks/months.

I don't want to overdo this, but I know that this is going to be a big challenge for me.  I've completed 3 half marathons before, but I know that this is a huge step up in terms of commitment to training and the physical and mental aspects of getting around a marathon course.

A few words about what has motivated me to enter.  There are three things really, in no particular order.

Firstly, since I've been running half marathons, there's been a nagging doubt, wondering if I would actually be able to do a full marathon.  Certainly, after each one that I've completed I've thought that people must be mad to consider a full marathon, but having said that I was full of admiration for them.

I trained quite hard for the first half marathon that I completed and actually found it reasonably easy, although I did suffer with a knee problem.  The second and third ones I didn't train as much for, but still got around.  Therefore, I'm hoping that if I get the training in I will be able to get around a full course.  At this point, I can honestly say I'm not even considering a time....I just want to get around.  Alongside this is the fact that I need some kind of goal to help keep me motivated in terms of maintaining a reasonable level fitness, so this probably just what I need.

Secondly, I went to London to watch the Marathon in 2009.  It really is a great event to watch even as a spectator, so being a part of that as a runner must be a great experience.  We were there to watch my Sister-in-Law who ran brilliantly, and it was great to see her at a couple of points in the event, along with the elite runners, the masses and some famous faces along the way.  I love London anyway, and when the first thought of 'I wonder if I can run a Marathon?' came to my mind, the London Marathon was the only choice.  At this point, I can say that this will probably my first and last one, so I may as well make it one to remember!

The third point is an upsetting one initially, but something I'm trying to use as a positive.  My grandmother unfortuantely passed away earlier in the year, which is obviously sad.  She had a great life though and was a fan of sport in general, so I thought it a good idea to use the sad event in a positive and slightly unusual way.  Following that, I've pledged any money that I raise from selling unwanted goods (kitchen applicances, TV's, furniture etc) from my grandmother's house to the NSPCC/ChildLine as part of raising the £1800 required.  As I write this, the spreadsheet I'm keeping is at about £500, which is fantastic.  It is a great cause, and I'm proud to be part of their team.

Anyway, that's a bit about me and why I'm doing this.  There'll be more soon I hope.