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.