So after a couple of weeks where watching a tight calf muscle and completing the Wokingham Half Marathon were the focus, this has been another regular training week.
I began on Tuesday with 6 miles, including a tempo 5K in the middle.
With Richmond Park closed in the evenings at the moment, Thursday night saw a run round the course of the Cabbage Patch 10 mile race, not especially quick given some awkward pavement stretches, but all good miles.
Saturday was the long run this week. Beginning with 3 miles from home to the start of the Kingston Parkrun, I then ran the race (5K) in 22 minutes 14 seconds. My best for that course is 21:09, but that was run in the dry and not as part of what became a 14 mile training run.
The 8 miles home were not run in particularly fun conditions. Heavy rain and a cold wind made it something of a grind – we like to call it character building. On morning’s like these, much as you’d like to grumble, maybe even take a short cut, that would be cheating. More importantly, there’s always the chance it might be cold and wet on marathon day, and quitting simply isn’t an option then.
Its seven weeks to go until Marathon day.
Showing posts with label Parkrun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parkrun. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Bother! Said Pooh
I’ve been told one of the biggest challenges of marathon training is getting to the start line in one piece. A stat one of my running partners gave me the other week was that I can expect to cover 400 miles between then (end of January) and race day on April 17. So I guess niggles along the way are inevitable. That said, they’re still frustrating when they appear.
Having fended off the issues I was having at the top of my left leg and left hip before Christmas, focus has moved down the leg to a sore calf. I tore the same muscle about a year ago, and this morning, being a bit paranoid with the bigger picture in mind, I aborted a Parkrun at the 4K mark being aware of discomfort at the back of my lower left leg. It took about a month to recover from the tare and, although it wouldn’t be an absolute disaster at this stage, it’s a lay off I could do without.
I confess I can be a bit of a careless runner, and by my usual standards I think I’ve been very well behaved these past couple of months.
Things like not running in shorts when the temperature is minus something. I’ve done the most stretching since I got my marathon place since the days of explosive track work ten years ago. I bought new trainers around New Year, giving myself plenty of time to wear them in, doing so as I was increasing the miles by only about five per week. Then there’s one of my favourite tricks, the hot water bottle treatment. Rather than sitting in a hot bath to relax tired limbs, I hate baths, I’ll rest a hot water bottle on the part of the body that’s feeling stiff and the same effect is achieved.
Given that this is the most amount of running I’ve done in terms of miles per week, ever, I think I’d have done extremely well not to have broken at all before April, and in the grand scheme of things, this niggle isn’t a worry.
I’m due to run Wokingham Half Marathon next Sunday, and given how my training has been going, am looking good for a decent performance. If, and it remains if, I don’t make it, it won’t be the end of the world, we’ll see how the leg is as the week goes on. That's the pragmatic line of course, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about next Sunday and it would also be untrue if I said were I to miss it that I wasn't disappointed given my current form.
Of more immediate concern is tomorrow. I won’t be going for the eighteen miler that was planned. Not getting up for a bit of an epic will seem odd, what do non runners do with their Sundays?
Looking at an online TV guide if they’ve got any sense it won’t be spent in front of the box. Aside from the perfectly reasonable option of ‘Goals on Sunday’ (Sky Sports), choices appear to include two and a half hours of ‘Hollyoaks’ (Channel 4), I’ve not watched that since
Finn sailed off into the sunset on a barge with Cat Deeley, or the uninspiring combination offered by ITV of ‘May the Best House Win’ which sounds rubbish, followed by something called ‘The Biggest Loser’ which I expect is even worse.
Given that I shan't be posting my weekly miles, Tuesday was another five, a good intervals session once again. Thursday was the standard ten mile lap of Richmond Park, and, like this morning, a very windy place it was too. To close on a Pooh Bear reference (like the title of this post), it certainly wasn't the time to be going to wish your friend Owl a "very happy Thursday" because, as you'll know if you're familiar with the Pooh books (if not, why not?) it was on just such a blustery Thursday that Owl's house blew down.
Having fended off the issues I was having at the top of my left leg and left hip before Christmas, focus has moved down the leg to a sore calf. I tore the same muscle about a year ago, and this morning, being a bit paranoid with the bigger picture in mind, I aborted a Parkrun at the 4K mark being aware of discomfort at the back of my lower left leg. It took about a month to recover from the tare and, although it wouldn’t be an absolute disaster at this stage, it’s a lay off I could do without.
I confess I can be a bit of a careless runner, and by my usual standards I think I’ve been very well behaved these past couple of months.
Things like not running in shorts when the temperature is minus something. I’ve done the most stretching since I got my marathon place since the days of explosive track work ten years ago. I bought new trainers around New Year, giving myself plenty of time to wear them in, doing so as I was increasing the miles by only about five per week. Then there’s one of my favourite tricks, the hot water bottle treatment. Rather than sitting in a hot bath to relax tired limbs, I hate baths, I’ll rest a hot water bottle on the part of the body that’s feeling stiff and the same effect is achieved.
Given that this is the most amount of running I’ve done in terms of miles per week, ever, I think I’d have done extremely well not to have broken at all before April, and in the grand scheme of things, this niggle isn’t a worry.
I’m due to run Wokingham Half Marathon next Sunday, and given how my training has been going, am looking good for a decent performance. If, and it remains if, I don’t make it, it won’t be the end of the world, we’ll see how the leg is as the week goes on. That's the pragmatic line of course, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about next Sunday and it would also be untrue if I said were I to miss it that I wasn't disappointed given my current form.
Of more immediate concern is tomorrow. I won’t be going for the eighteen miler that was planned. Not getting up for a bit of an epic will seem odd, what do non runners do with their Sundays?
Looking at an online TV guide if they’ve got any sense it won’t be spent in front of the box. Aside from the perfectly reasonable option of ‘Goals on Sunday’ (Sky Sports), choices appear to include two and a half hours of ‘Hollyoaks’ (Channel 4), I’ve not watched that since
Finn sailed off into the sunset on a barge with Cat Deeley, or the uninspiring combination offered by ITV of ‘May the Best House Win’ which sounds rubbish, followed by something called ‘The Biggest Loser’ which I expect is even worse.
Given that I shan't be posting my weekly miles, Tuesday was another five, a good intervals session once again. Thursday was the standard ten mile lap of Richmond Park, and, like this morning, a very windy place it was too. To close on a Pooh Bear reference (like the title of this post), it certainly wasn't the time to be going to wish your friend Owl a "very happy Thursday" because, as you'll know if you're familiar with the Pooh books (if not, why not?) it was on just such a blustery Thursday that Owl's house blew down.
Sunday, 30 January 2011
This Week's Miles: January 30
As I like to remind the, let’s call them senior, more experienced members of the Stragglers, I have a number of years to wait before the big four zero becomes a reality.
A milestone of a different nature for that number, is one which many of those same, senior runners, have reached on countless occasions, and it’s one which I can now say I have also achieved. That being, miles run in a week.
I’ve also managed to get my head round the idea of how to incorporate some speed work into my marathon training, in a way which is doing me good, but not putting my body at any unnecessary risk.
My Tuesday night run involves a 1K triangle course, in Bushy Park close to where I live.
This week was as enjoyable a speed session I can remember, since the days of speed endurance work during the winter while at
Leeds City AC ten years ago.
Six laps of the 1K circuit, alternating between jog and tempo running, changing speed at each turn on the course. Add in the warm up and warm down and this came to 5 miles.
Thursday night is also falling very much into the category labelled routine, our usual 10 miler including a lap of Richmond Park. We’re all about keeping it fresh and varied though, one week we’ll go clockwise, the next anti clockwise: variety being the spice of life and all that. Incidentally, the hardest part of that run is passing the excellent curry house in Ham at the beginning of the night.
This week was one of those moments when the stats make you realise you’re running well. There was some discussion as to exactly how long we took, some clocked 72 minutes, we had 74 – I’ll stick with ours. As I’ve probably mentioned before, Richmond Park ain’t flat, with a couple of hills that certainly make you put the effort in. This 74 minute training run is not far off the 73:23 I did the Cabbage Patch 10 in, and that course is almost as flat as the proverbial pancake. This sets me up nicely for Wokingham Half in two weeks, and does make me wonder what I’d run Cabbage Patch in now.
Friday saw an hour on the bike, there are plans forming about what we might enter the tandem into later in the year.
Saturday saw me return to the Bushy Parkrun. There’s something about trying to be fast at 9 AM, I can’t quite seem to get myself moving. I set my alarm extra early this week and everything! Even a particularly energising
AC/DC track which
Planet Rock played before I left the house didn’t make much difference, I think I may need to study the lyrics of ‘Thunderstruck’ and see if I can sneak it onto the London music list, that said, I don’t want to tempt fate and have actual thunder on the day.
All this grumbling about early mornings, I still set a new personal best for Bushy, 21:35, an improvement of 8 seconds. Its 30 seconds down on my quickest 5K time though.
The Parkrun was part of a longer run, 2 miles before and, once the time had been registered and other Stragglers talked to for a few minutes, another 9 or so after, giving a Saturday morning total of 14.
With another 11 today, and my fairly shabby adding up skills tell me that my weekly total comes to 40.
I am fairly tired now though: must be the age.
A milestone of a different nature for that number, is one which many of those same, senior runners, have reached on countless occasions, and it’s one which I can now say I have also achieved. That being, miles run in a week.
I’ve also managed to get my head round the idea of how to incorporate some speed work into my marathon training, in a way which is doing me good, but not putting my body at any unnecessary risk.
My Tuesday night run involves a 1K triangle course, in Bushy Park close to where I live.
This week was as enjoyable a speed session I can remember, since the days of speed endurance work during the winter while at
Leeds City AC ten years ago.
Six laps of the 1K circuit, alternating between jog and tempo running, changing speed at each turn on the course. Add in the warm up and warm down and this came to 5 miles.
Thursday night is also falling very much into the category labelled routine, our usual 10 miler including a lap of Richmond Park. We’re all about keeping it fresh and varied though, one week we’ll go clockwise, the next anti clockwise: variety being the spice of life and all that. Incidentally, the hardest part of that run is passing the excellent curry house in Ham at the beginning of the night.
This week was one of those moments when the stats make you realise you’re running well. There was some discussion as to exactly how long we took, some clocked 72 minutes, we had 74 – I’ll stick with ours. As I’ve probably mentioned before, Richmond Park ain’t flat, with a couple of hills that certainly make you put the effort in. This 74 minute training run is not far off the 73:23 I did the Cabbage Patch 10 in, and that course is almost as flat as the proverbial pancake. This sets me up nicely for Wokingham Half in two weeks, and does make me wonder what I’d run Cabbage Patch in now.
Friday saw an hour on the bike, there are plans forming about what we might enter the tandem into later in the year.
Saturday saw me return to the Bushy Parkrun. There’s something about trying to be fast at 9 AM, I can’t quite seem to get myself moving. I set my alarm extra early this week and everything! Even a particularly energising
AC/DC track which
Planet Rock played before I left the house didn’t make much difference, I think I may need to study the lyrics of ‘Thunderstruck’ and see if I can sneak it onto the London music list, that said, I don’t want to tempt fate and have actual thunder on the day.
All this grumbling about early mornings, I still set a new personal best for Bushy, 21:35, an improvement of 8 seconds. Its 30 seconds down on my quickest 5K time though.
The Parkrun was part of a longer run, 2 miles before and, once the time had been registered and other Stragglers talked to for a few minutes, another 9 or so after, giving a Saturday morning total of 14.
With another 11 today, and my fairly shabby adding up skills tell me that my weekly total comes to 40.
I am fairly tired now though: must be the age.
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Nothing Says Merry Christmas Like A 5K Race in the Freezing Cold
Nothing says Merry Christmas like a 5K race in sub-zero temperatures.
Actually, the
Bushy Park Parkrun has become as much a part of my Christmas Day rutine as eating lots, opening presents and avoiding the Queen’s speech.
Although I don’t watch the Queen, I think the subject matter of her 2010 message is very important, especially with Parkrun in mind.
"In the parks of towns and cities, and on village greens up and down the country, countless thousands of people every week give up their time to participate in sport and exercise of all sorts, or simply encourage others to do so.” Parkrun, take your bow!
This morning, 530 ran the original course, supporting each other, and in turn given the opportunity to do so by a team of volunteers who will have been far colder than us.
Although there will have been personal best performances, including
the day’s winner, for me this was never going to be anything other than a leg stretcher/apitite builder. Running on left over snow is one thing, trying to avoid significant ice patches on the paths is another, I can think of lots of things I’d rather do with Christmas Day than sit in A and E. We gave up and ran on the grass most of the way.
I’m pleased to report I didn’t land on my arse at any stage of the run. Father Christmas went over in the snow at one point, but really, all that sherry and a long night travelling round the world, the man done well to be in South West London for 9.
Including the mile or so there and back, the five mile run set me up nicely for a day spent eating my own body weight. The beauty of the Parkrun is it’s 9 AM start means it doesn’t write off your morning – I was home, showered and eating breakfast before 11.
When I’ve mentioned to people I was planning on running on Christmas Day, and have done before, the reaction I get often suggests people think I’m mad! This is something I don’t really understand. Why should it be any different from any other day? Especially considering I love my running. It’s not as if I’ve had to spend Christmas Day doing a twelve hour shift in hospital, treating idiots who fell over on the ice when running.
Training on Christmas Day is something countless professional sports people do. Last year, while out for the family post lunch walk in the park, we saw
Mo Farah run past.
“That’s commitment, training on Christmas Day,” someone commented. Naturally I pointed out I’d already been for my run earlier.
Articles about the dedication shown by one of Britain’s all time greats, decathlete
Daley Thompson, often make reference to the fact that December 25th was never a rest day for him.
“I train every single day, and I think the reason why I had to train every day is because I never wanted to leave any stone unturned. I can actually take not being the best, but what I couldn't do is take not having tried as hard as I possibly could. I think that whenever you go into anything, and you're serious about it and you're committed to it, you do those kinds of things because you have to do the hard yards and you have to go the extra mile.”
Quote from an article on the
BBC Wales website.
If an athlete and their coach are doing their jobs properly, then the athlete will want to train on Christmas Day. If they, not unreasonably, might want to be somewhere else, then the training session should be structured to make the athlete want to be there: alter the time to fit in with family commitments, design the session to make it more fun than usual or, if this is what motivates them, make sure the athlete believes this will be the day that will make the difference in achieving their goals.
Although you can’t compare Daley Thompson’s level with me doing a Parkrun, the same principals apply. The atmosphere at Bushy is always great, but especially so on Christmas Day. It’s an opportunity for some fresh air and exercise before the festive asult on the digestive system begins. Plus, with recent illness and injury in mind, it’s was a good way to get back into running while the pressure’s off. I plan to do a four mile race in Twickenham on Boxing Day, meaning a total of nine miles over this weekend, exactly the test I need to see where the bodies at ahead of Tadworth Ten next Sunday.
It’s also far more civilised than a trip to our local open air pool which has been done in previous years, I resisted the invite to go for a dip post run. If you think my few miles was madness, check out
this picture gallery from the Metro’s website sshowing the Christmas Day tradition of a dip in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. At least we just ran round ice patches rather than swam between them!
Actually, the
Bushy Park Parkrun has become as much a part of my Christmas Day rutine as eating lots, opening presents and avoiding the Queen’s speech.
Although I don’t watch the Queen, I think the subject matter of her 2010 message is very important, especially with Parkrun in mind.
"In the parks of towns and cities, and on village greens up and down the country, countless thousands of people every week give up their time to participate in sport and exercise of all sorts, or simply encourage others to do so.” Parkrun, take your bow!
This morning, 530 ran the original course, supporting each other, and in turn given the opportunity to do so by a team of volunteers who will have been far colder than us.
Although there will have been personal best performances, including
the day’s winner, for me this was never going to be anything other than a leg stretcher/apitite builder. Running on left over snow is one thing, trying to avoid significant ice patches on the paths is another, I can think of lots of things I’d rather do with Christmas Day than sit in A and E. We gave up and ran on the grass most of the way.
I’m pleased to report I didn’t land on my arse at any stage of the run. Father Christmas went over in the snow at one point, but really, all that sherry and a long night travelling round the world, the man done well to be in South West London for 9.
Including the mile or so there and back, the five mile run set me up nicely for a day spent eating my own body weight. The beauty of the Parkrun is it’s 9 AM start means it doesn’t write off your morning – I was home, showered and eating breakfast before 11.
When I’ve mentioned to people I was planning on running on Christmas Day, and have done before, the reaction I get often suggests people think I’m mad! This is something I don’t really understand. Why should it be any different from any other day? Especially considering I love my running. It’s not as if I’ve had to spend Christmas Day doing a twelve hour shift in hospital, treating idiots who fell over on the ice when running.
Training on Christmas Day is something countless professional sports people do. Last year, while out for the family post lunch walk in the park, we saw
Mo Farah run past.
“That’s commitment, training on Christmas Day,” someone commented. Naturally I pointed out I’d already been for my run earlier.
Articles about the dedication shown by one of Britain’s all time greats, decathlete
Daley Thompson, often make reference to the fact that December 25th was never a rest day for him.
“I train every single day, and I think the reason why I had to train every day is because I never wanted to leave any stone unturned. I can actually take not being the best, but what I couldn't do is take not having tried as hard as I possibly could. I think that whenever you go into anything, and you're serious about it and you're committed to it, you do those kinds of things because you have to do the hard yards and you have to go the extra mile.”
Quote from an article on the
BBC Wales website.
If an athlete and their coach are doing their jobs properly, then the athlete will want to train on Christmas Day. If they, not unreasonably, might want to be somewhere else, then the training session should be structured to make the athlete want to be there: alter the time to fit in with family commitments, design the session to make it more fun than usual or, if this is what motivates them, make sure the athlete believes this will be the day that will make the difference in achieving their goals.
Although you can’t compare Daley Thompson’s level with me doing a Parkrun, the same principals apply. The atmosphere at Bushy is always great, but especially so on Christmas Day. It’s an opportunity for some fresh air and exercise before the festive asult on the digestive system begins. Plus, with recent illness and injury in mind, it’s was a good way to get back into running while the pressure’s off. I plan to do a four mile race in Twickenham on Boxing Day, meaning a total of nine miles over this weekend, exactly the test I need to see where the bodies at ahead of Tadworth Ten next Sunday.
It’s also far more civilised than a trip to our local open air pool which has been done in previous years, I resisted the invite to go for a dip post run. If you think my few miles was madness, check out
this picture gallery from the Metro’s website sshowing the Christmas Day tradition of a dip in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. At least we just ran round ice patches rather than swam between them!
Friday, 17 December 2010
Bah! Humbug!
It occurred to me this week that today, Friday December 17th, is four months from M Day.
As already blogged, I have my race schedule all planned out, I have my guide runners in place and I know what will be required in terms of training.
With Christmas fast approaching, this means for many plenty of time off. That goes for me, and I have two of my four regular guides pretty much free for the duration. Of the other two, one is injured and the other has gone to Australia to supervise
England’s attempts of retaining The Ashes.
There is one problem though.
Since my name came out of the hat in November I have been either ill, injured, or as is currently the case, both.
I’m told the thie problem I’ve been having is due to a twisted hip. This has been seen to once and will get another session on Monday.
As I write this my tempriture has regained some sense of human normality, it was 100 on Wednesday night.
The latter has resulted in my missing of both a work and Stragglers Christmas gatherings in the last couple of days, hense the subject for this blog. Annoying though this is, if the cold was going to make me ill I’d far rather it was while I was injured, hopefully I’ll be rid of both in time for the Christmas Day Parkrun in Bushy Park.
It won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get the running in over Christmas I was aiming for, but it will certainly be mighty frustrating.
As already blogged, I have my race schedule all planned out, I have my guide runners in place and I know what will be required in terms of training.
With Christmas fast approaching, this means for many plenty of time off. That goes for me, and I have two of my four regular guides pretty much free for the duration. Of the other two, one is injured and the other has gone to Australia to supervise
England’s attempts of retaining The Ashes.
There is one problem though.
Since my name came out of the hat in November I have been either ill, injured, or as is currently the case, both.
I’m told the thie problem I’ve been having is due to a twisted hip. This has been seen to once and will get another session on Monday.
As I write this my tempriture has regained some sense of human normality, it was 100 on Wednesday night.
The latter has resulted in my missing of both a work and Stragglers Christmas gatherings in the last couple of days, hense the subject for this blog. Annoying though this is, if the cold was going to make me ill I’d far rather it was while I was injured, hopefully I’ll be rid of both in time for the Christmas Day Parkrun in Bushy Park.
It won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get the running in over Christmas I was aiming for, but it will certainly be mighty frustrating.
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