7.5 miles slow to steady

I was going to head for the deer park trail again but since I'm running the Cardiff Bay 5 on Monday (last-minute decision), I wanted to hold back today and 10% gradients didn't really fit the bill! I followed the comparatively flat town trail and bypass instead. I felt tired and sluggish for the first couple of miles -- couldn't tell you why -- but eventually got into the swing of things and felt the endorphins kick in. It struck me how much I'd missed (relatively) long, slow runs. They can leave you feeling really refreshed.

The entire 7.55 miles took me 57m 53s, but the time was irrelevant: I just wanted to get a few miles in my legs.

Distance: 7.55 miles
Avg pace: 7m 40s / mile
Avg HR: 161 bpm
Conditions: Sunny, 15°C, 17mph wind (NE)

Steady 4

This evening I went on a steady 4-mile run, speeding up gradually towards the end. I didn't intend to go at it quite so hard but saw another runner and had to overtake him as emphatically as possible. Really need to work on my discipline or I'm just going to end up with shin splints again a couple of weeks into my marathon training!

Largely flat route, albeit it with a mile-long 120ft incline at 2.5 miles. Felt good overall. Legs strong, heart and lungs fine. Could tell I had passed the anaerobic threshold by the top of that hill, though ;-)

Distance: 4.16 miles
Avg Pace: 7m 06s / mile
Avg HR: 164 bpm
Conditions: Sunny, 16°C

Runkeeper and HR data from Garmin devices

I have a Garmin 405 but rarely use the heart-rate monitor. I find the chest band constricting and besides, I tend to gauge the intensity of my runs myself rather than train to HR zones.

I also use Runkeeper to chart my progress and when I joined the site there was no option to upload HR data from Garmin devices, so there really was little incentive for me ever to use my HR monitor.

I really must keep with the times, though. Apparently Runkeeper enabled users to upload HR data from Garmin devices months ago. You just have to transfer your run from Garmin Connect or upload the TCX file manually (curiously, no HR data is displayed for the GPX file extension).

On finding this out from a friend, I went for an easy 3-miler this evening, averaging 7m 34s per mile and 156 BPM. I felt fresh and invigorated. Great weather out there: bright and sunny but not too hot.

Blowing the cobwebs away

It's happened already. I've gone against my own advice and hammered it for 3.5 miles. I just get so impatient. It had been quite a while since I'd run fast in training and while I felt invigorated afterwards, I really should be taking it easier than this. My calf muscles think so, too! I'll have to behave myself from now on. Unless I end up running the Cardiff Bay 5 on Monday (distinct possibility) :-/

2012 London Marathon ballot

The online ballot for the 2012 London Marathon opens tomorrow and I think I'll enter just for the craic. If I actually get a place (unlikely), it'll be my fourth marathon in two years. I was intending to concentrate on shorter distances after Berlin, but I figured it's worth entering the ballot this year on the off chance that I get a place. After all, London is consistently ranked among the top marathons in the world. I think you're guaranteed a place if you get turned down four consecutive times, too. Anyway, we'll see what happens on the morrow...

Hello, hills. Bye bye, speed.

This morning I took the footpath out to Eastnor then on to the deer park and, ultimately, the obelisk. The route was immediately hilly: the first mile comprised a 300 ft ascent. I'm still not sure how to handle this kind of terrain, so I invariably head out too quickly and send my heart rate rocketing to an unsustainable level. Today was no exception :-)

Miles 2 and 3 were largely downhill and a welcome break! The climb to the obelisk began at about 2.7 miles and lasted for just over two-thirds of a mile at an average gradient of 9%. I dropped my pace considerably to start with but lost patience at the steepest section and pumped my arms and legs hard until the path levelled out a little. This was a mistake: there were still a few feet left to climb and I was spent. I walked momentarily before dragging myself to the peak of the hill to admire the view, even if it was spinning around my head at a rate of knots by that point!

The obelisk from the opposite direction

After another quick breather I started to make my way back downhill. I took a slightly different route and may have inadvertently trespassed. Oops. I headed down a grassy track, disgruntled a parcel of deer (that's a legitimate collective noun, by the way!) and then climbed over a farm gate to rejoin my original route. The next few hundred yards were pretty flat but gave way to a (comparatively) gentle mile-long climb. The final mile or so was fun: after all, what goes up must come down! At times I went so fast that I felt like I was running sideways through the bends à la Sonic the Hedgehog. Alas, I'm not quite that streamline.

The entire 6.8 miles took me just short of an hour. I think I may have to forget running at speed until my schedule kicks in, then I'll try and find a track or at least a flat circuit to follow. For now, I'm quite enjoying the scenery and the challenging terrain. Maybe I'll be brave enough to carry on into the Malvern hills next time. At the very least, it would put things into perspective a bit ;-)

Cricks 'n' cameras

Today I woke up with a crick in my neck -- felt like a pinched nerve or something. I think it's probably because our mattress is like a bag of spanners. Anyway, I tried to loosen myself up and headed out for a slow-to-steady 5 miler. I was pleased to keep up a pretty regular pace despite a reasonable incline towards the end.

It was surprisingly hot for the time of day. Actually, what the hell is this weather all about? It's hit 25°C almost every day since we got back to the UK! Has our little island been floating towards the equator while nobody was looking? I would say I can't complain, but clearly I can -- it's my default setting ;-)

Anyway, my next run will be on Sunday. A few days ago, Annie and I walked (read: hiked) to 'the obelisk' in Eastnor and now I'm going to attempt to run there and back. I say attempt because it's pretty bloody hilly (check out the contour lines on this map!). Ledbury Harriers, the local running club, organises an interesting-looking race called the Magnificent Eastnor Castle Seven which culminates in the so-called 'orrible ascent to the obelisk. Unfortunately I missed it this year, but I'd quite like to do it in the future. We'll see where I am and what's going on when it next rolls around...

Because some of the routes here are so scenic, I'd quite like to film them and stick them on the blog for people to see. I've bought a cheap head cam from Amazon to that end. I'm not sure if the headstrap will work without a helmet, but I don't see why not. Check back soon for footage. If it works and I don't get too many weird looks from judgmental dog walkers, I might film a few routes or even races.

Training schedule

I've devised an 18-week training plan based largely on Hal Higdon's advanced marathon training schedule. I'll spend between now and the start of the plan running short to moderate distances at an easy to steady pace every other day or so. Here's the plan in JPG format (click to enlarge):

He's gone 10k crackers!

You may have noticed I've entered quite a few 10k events. There's a reason for that. I've not run an official 10k event for quite a while, so there is plenty of room for improving my official 10k PB. Some of the runs I've entered are quite hilly, so I don't anticipate running PBs at those, though you never know! I am hoping to get below 40 minutes at Tenby, but we'll see. I don't think the roads are even closed for that run, and it may be hillier than I think once I get there. It will also be midsummer by that point, but we're not talking marathons here so hopefully dehydration will pose only a minor threat.

Race reports to follow...

That's either a mountain or a bloody big mole hill!

Today I did manage to go 'off-road'. I found an at-times-overgrown trail heading through woodland and in between valleys. Really quite scenic. Steep, though! If these hills are going to make up my regular route then I'll have a will of steel within weeks ;-)

In all, I covered just over 5 miles in 43m 38s. A more sensible pace, but no less tiring!

Mutai the magnificent

Today Geoffrey Mutai shaved almost a minute off the marathon world record, but his miraculous feat will not be formally recognised. Neither the Association of Road Racing Statisticians nor the IAAF considers performances on the Boston Marathon course to qualify for world record status as they could be aided by slope and/or tailwinds. Hardly seems fair. Maybe the current record should be scrapped because it was set on the predominantly flat Berlin course. Surely some courses are quicker than others and that's that!


Only a week ago, the two-hour marathon debate resurfaced on the BBC website. Mutai has proved there is still room for improvement. I would love to see the two-hour mark broken in my lifetime -- what a testament it would be to the human spirit.


Elite athletes like Mutai really are on a different plane. As the BBC article says, completing a marathon in two hours would mean running each mile at a 4m 35s pace. By comparison, a decent club runner might run at a seven-minute mile pace, and a casual runner at nine or 10 minutes. I reckon I could just about run half a mile at the pace these guys run 26.2. It really is mind-boggling stuff!

Where did the pavements go?

On Friday we moved back to the UK from Brussels. Annie's parents have kindly offered to put us up for the interim, so I'll have a stable base from which to work and, of course, run.

I'm going to miss my regular routes and the various green spaces in Brussels, despite the omnipresent dog poo. That said, my new surroundings aren't too bad at all -- there are trails heading right out to the Malvern hills. I just have to figure out how to access them! 

Not having had the time to figure that out, I headed up one of the local A-roads for a 5-miler today. It was a bit of an eye-opener at times, what with the lack of pavement, blind bends and dead ground, but I survived! I ran at a steady 7m 13s per mile but could still feel the fatigue in my legs from the marathon exactly a week ago. They reckon it takes about three weeks to fully recover from the exertion of a marathon, whoever 'they' are! So in the meantime I should be taking it relatively easy. By the end of my run today, I was tired but not exhausted, but I could probably have done with easing off a little bit. Good to get out, anyway!

Update

Those of you with a keen eye will notice the blog has had a makeover. Away with the Eiffel Tower and in with the Brandenburg Gate. No longer is it a case of cours, Forrest, cours! but lauf, Forrest, lauf! Tatsächlich werde ich ab jetzt alles auf Deutsch... just kidding ;-) I've also added a log of my current PBs and upcoming races. It's all very exciting!

New look, new objective and renewed enthusiasm. I'll be ready for you, Berlin!

Watch this space...

...for a new, revamped blog charting my progress towards the Berlin Marathon in September -- coming soon!

No, legs, this isn't over!

A few snaps

Champs Elysées - the starting area!

The first bend

 On the final straight

Grimacing

Shut up legs. You're running and that's that.

This evening I went for a couple of laps around the park with my friend Auke. That will be my last run in Brussels. My legs were very achey. It would have been too painful to run any quicker than 9 mins/mile.

Heading back to the UK on Friday morning. From then on it'll be running on A roads. Oh, and a deer park.

Paris Marathon - Race Report

So. Paris, eh? Magnificent city and glorious weather, but unfortunately little time for sightseeing. On our arrival late on Saturday morning, we headed straight to the 'expo' at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre to pick up my race number, and were greeted with the longest queue in the world ever. It snaked out of the exhibition hall for maybe 800 yards and was at least four-a-breadth from start to end. Heads down, we joined the back and murmured about how disorderly and un-British the whole set-up was. But despite my innate pessimism and general grumpiness, it only took 25 minutes or so to reach the front. We got my number, bypassed all the pointless commercial nonsense that was thrust in our faces and made our way to our hotel (about 5 minutes from the marathon starting area!) to check in.

I started my carb-loading early. Club sandwich -- that French classic -- and a side order of fries for lunch. Went down very nicely indeed. A bit of mooching around in the mid afternoon and then a rendezvous (see what I did there?) with a couple of my good friends who happened to be in the capital. Tagliatelle carbonara and garlic bread for dinner and back to the hotel in time for a decent night's sleep. Or so we thought.

I drifted off at about 11:45 p.m. and then woke up again dazed and confused at 2 a.m. At least five or six cars on the street below were beeping almost continuously. What the hell was going on? An accident? A fire? Nope. Just a traffic jam. And the French way of dealing with that, much like the Belgian way I might add, is to hold down your horn and not let go. Because that's bound to solve it. Bear with me because I'm not finished ranting yet. Once we were awake, we couldn't help but notice the thudding bass practically shaking the light fittings out of our room. Probably some numpty in a Renault 5 with speakers bigger than family-sized pizzas, I thought. But in actual fact, it was the night club next door. Super. I went to reception and explained to the concierge that I was getting up to run a marathon in another four hours but was told my room was as far away from the noise as you could get. Helpfully, he offered me some cotton wool to fashion earplugs out of. Cheers, frog features. Exhausted, I managed to get another measly hour's sleep, making a grand total of three hours for the night.

After breakfast and another argument with reception, I staggered like a zombie to the starting area and waited for the gun, which may as well have been fully loaded and pointing right at me given how I felt. Let's just focus on the task in hand, I thought. A bit more waffle from the announcers and we were away.

Four weeks beforehand I had started a half marathon too fast and crumbled. There was no way I would take that risk with a marathon. I didn't fancy running 20 miles with a stitch. To hit my target time of 3h 15m, I would need to average precisely 7m 27s per mile, so I thought I would start conservatively and run just the other side of 7m 30s per mile for the first few markers. The 3h 15m pacesetters were just ahead of me. I would keep them in sight for at least another 13 miles, then I would never see them again.

The Paris Marathon felt to me like two entirely different half marathons, something which my GPS data seemed to corroborate. For the first 13 miles I felt good, if a little tight around the calves. I chatted with a couple of other runners and took on fluids where the opportunity arose. It was fine. In fact, the first half of the race flew by (if not literally, then at least in my head). According to my Garmin, I had hit the halfway mark in 1h 38m. Not bad at all, and if I could find a spurt from somewhere later on, then I was more or less on track. Easier said than done, of course, but at this point I still felt pretty optimistic.

Then something happened at about mile 16. Someone stole my legs and replaced them with concrete blocks. Bollards! I wasn't counting on this. Heart: fine. Lungs: OK. Come on legs! Wake up! Then I noticed the heat. Who turned up the sun?! I looked at my Garmin and did a few sums. If I could average 8 mins/mile, I might still come in under 3h 20m, beating my PB by four minutes. At least that was the plan. But every mile turned into a complete slog. I was desperately trying to keep dehydration at bay and ignore the rigamortis setting in from the waist down. I must have taken in about a 1.5 litres of water and, in one case, Powerade (not my choice -- that stuff is like liquid candy floss!). But it was no good. I felt like a train running out of steam, a clockwork mouse running out of... clocks? I felt tired.

The more I moved the goalposts, the worse I got, and so I was constantly setting myself new targets. In the end, it became a matter of finishing. I can't emphasise enough how hard the last 4 miles or so were. No fuel in the tank at all. Apart from the lack of sleep and the heat, I can only put my performance down to one other thing: not enough long runs. Training had all been a bit rushed, and I just wasn't prepared enough. Cramp set in 300 yards from the end I hobbled over the line in just over 3h 30m. It didn't help that I had strayed from the racing 'line' and added another 0.2 miles to my total distance. I was hugely disappointed and upset, but at least I'd made it. Official results aren't out yet, but see my GPS data here.

Last long run

Today I set my Garmin to two hours and thought I'd just see how far I ended up running in that time. I set off slow to steady (around 8 mins/mile) and gradually sped up, averaging around 7m 20s over the last few miles. In total I ran 15.41 miles, which I was happy with. I didn't want to do any more than that really. Plus I was pretty tired by the end and could feel a stitch coming on.

I'm a little worried about my residual level of fatigue, so I'm not doing anything for the next week. I'm going to eat lots of carbs and sit on my arse. My legs could do with the rest. Let's see how it pays off when Sunday rolls around :-)

Spring has sprung!

It's awesome out there today. Getting on for 20 degrees and cherry blossom everywhere. A pleasure to be out and about for an easy few miles with Annie. Hope it stays nice for my long run tomorrow!