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!