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!