Marathon "Training" - Week 15

As I feared there was to be no miraculous recovery. Having rested my calf for over a week I decided to go out for a quick run today and see if it would hold up.

Before I had started I could still feel a slight twinge but hoped that it would not flare up. No such luck. I managed to run about half a mile during which I thought that it was ok. Then, a quick incline later, and my calf began complaining. I stopped immediately before the inevitable happened and slowly walked back to the house.

So, no marathon, no sub 3:30 finish. Not this year at least. What's the plan?

First step, no running until I can feel zero pain in the calf. Especially after waking up when the muscles are still stiff, that is when I can feel the pain more than at any other time.
When there is no pain then I start to follow the return to running schedule (30 seconds running 4 minutes 30 seconds walking, repeat x 4 and then on subsequent runs increase the running and decrease the walking by 30 seconds).
Once I've completed the schedule then I start to slowly increase the distance and speed week by week up to about ten miles.

Hopefully by following this I will be ready to start spring marathon training at the end of December. This won't be the London marathon though as I received my rejection letter this week (just to pile on the misery!). Second year I've been rejected, I'll try again next year as it is where I live so would be nice to be involved. Currently I'm looking at alternatives with Llanelli and Hull being the front runners (pun not intended). Llanelli because it's near my home town of Swansea and Hull because I went to university there and it is flat as a pancake.

First though, I need to get back to fitness. I'll post again once I'm back running. Hopefully in about a month rather than another four month lay-off!

Marathon Training - Week 14

Here are the final words from my last post - "Finger's crossed that I don't pick up any injuries over the next 21 days". To say I may have jinxed things would be an understatement! Oh, the delicious irony!

On Wednesday I ran an innocuous easy paced six miler. I felt no problems during the run and really enjoyed it. Compared to the 22 mile run I had done on the weekend it felt like a little jog around the park. During the day I felt a twinge in my calf. My right calf. The calf that had put me out of action for four months earlier in the year. No worries, I thought, it's just a bit of muscle fatigue. Nothing that a bit of rest won't clear up.

The next day I was due to run 10 miles at marathon pace. I got up at 5:30 and headed out the door. About two hundred yards down the road I could still feel the twinge in my calf. No problem, I decided, I'll abandon today's run and rest it up further. After all I had run all my long training runs and any runs I was now doing was just ticking the old legs over a bit until race day.

On the Friday morning I got up and went for an easy five mile run. I chose to do one of my favourite routes that I hadn't run for quite some time. Halfway through the run I could feel the twinge in my calf again. Bugger, I thought. I was running on a path around a playing field at the time so decided to run on the grass instead to help ease up the pain. This worked until the grass ran out and I had to go back on to the concrete path. The pain shot up my leg and forced me to stop completely. I abandoned the run and walked disconsolately back to my house.

Since then I haven't run at all and have had to seriously consider the fact that I am about 80% certain that I will not be running the Chester marathon in two weeks' time. My leg is currently strapped in a compression tube and I am trying to stay off it as much as possible.

So, what is my plan of attack?

From experience I know that the chances of my leg healing in time for the marathon is very slim indeed. I will rest the leg for a week. If I feel no pain at all at the end of this week and am able to do 20 single calf raises without pain then I will go out for a four or five mile run to see if it holds up. If it does then I will follow the training plan for the final week and do the marathon as planned although I don't think I will be able to go for the 3:30 finish time that I was training for. I would be pleased at this stage just to finish in one piece!

If I still have pain in my leg at the end of the week or there is any recurrence of pain during the build up to the marathon then I will pull out of the marathon. I can't take any risks, especially after being out for four months earlier this year. I will rest the leg for three to four weeks and then follow the return to training plan that I had used previously. Hopefully this will mean that I will be back to full fitness in time to start training for a spring marathon.

Obviously I have a weakness in my right calf so I think that I'm going to have to perform strengthening exercises from now on, no matter how good I think my leg feels.

If you are wondering, I am not that annoyed. This was always a possibility considering that it was previously injured. I'm a bit angry at myself for not strengthening it and I am a bit confused as to the timing. You would have thought that if it was going to go then it would have happened immediately after my longest run, not three runs later!
At the end of the day I run for the enjoyment and use races to help me focus my training. They are not the be all and end all. If I can't run this marathon and it happens again when I'm training for my next marathon then maybe I will have to consider the fact that I can't run marathons any more. But, as I say, as long as I get to a point where I can run again then I will be happy.

Here's my unfinished run from Friday. I will update next week, either after I've completed a four mile run or after I've decided to pull out of the marathon. Stay tuned!

Marathon Training - Week 13

Another enforced break from blogging due to busy weekends.

Since the last blog I have completed three long runs of 20 miles, 20 miles and 22 miles. I had struggled in the 20 mile long run previous to these which I put down to a lack of sleep and possible jet lag so I was worried that I would continue to struggle. Fortunately this wasn't the case. I learnt my lesson and made sure that I had a good night's sleep before each of my runs. Rest is an extremely important aspect of marathon training and one which I have taken to heart, making sure I get at least 7 hours the night before any run.

The first 20 mile run took me down to the Thames and along the path towards Teddington where I crossed the river and came back towards Ealing via Hounslow. I wasn't familiar with the route so used Google Maps and Streetview to help me recognise landmarks where I had to change direction. On this occasion I knew I had to turn where Streetview said there was a pub called the Horse and Groom. Unfortunately since the photo was taken the pub had closed down and been turned into a Tesco Express so I managed to completely miss it. It was lucky I had a general sense of where I was and managed to make it back to the A4 which leads back to Ealing. The upside of this was that I was so concerned with trying to find my way back that I ate up the miles without really noticing and before I knew it I had completed my run! Here's the route as recorded by my Garmin (by the way the turning I missed was the A314, you can see that I ran straight across it!):




The next 20 miler I stayed on more familiar ground and ran through northwest London down towards Paddington then turned round at Baker Street and back along the Uxbridge Road to Ealing. This time I didn't get lost but did run into a bit of trouble trying to find a toilet! Without going into too much detail running does have a habit of moving things about inside. On this occasion I realised after 3 miles that I would need to stop off for a toilet break. Could I find a toilet at 7am on the Harrow Road? Could I hell! I tried petrol stations and supermarkets and had no joy. Usually when this happens I look for a hotel but there wasn't a single one, not a Premier Inn or Holiday Express anywhere! It wasn't until another 8 miles when I got to Paddington that I managed to stop at the Hilton Metropole. A rather posh place to stop but any port in a storm etc. etc. My run back to Ealing was rather less eventful and I managed to finish in a quicker time than the week before. Here's the route:




My final long run, a 22 miler, was to be the longest run I will do before the marathon and I was looking forward to it for a couple of reasons. The first being that it would be the best test of my fitness and would let me know what sort of form I was in for the marathon. The second reason was that I would do a route that I did 18 months ago when training for the Brighton marathon. It would take me down Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, across the Thames to the London Eye, over Blackfriar's Bridge and back via Hammersmith. This time I didn't get lost and I didn't have to look for any hotels for an unscheduled stop! It seems odd to enjoy a 22 mile run but I really did. I managed to finish strong and pushed my heart rate up a bit more than I was happy with but I figured this was because I don't take any water with me on training runs so was becoming a bit dehydrated towards the end. I do take a couple of gels though so I can practice my fuelling strategy. I reckon I will need to take 3 gels on the day of the marathon, taking one every 10km. I may take an extra one just in case I'm flagging at the end. Here's the route:




Again, I managed to increase my pace compared to the previous week so this is promising.

There is a rule of thumb that says that a 22 mile training run takes about as long as the marathon when run at race pace. If so then I'd be ecstatic since it would give me a qualifying time for the Boston marathon, although I think it might be a bit ambitious. Finishing under 3:30 would be brilliant and just to get under 4 hours would be pleasing.

Anyway, that's caught up with what's happened in the last three weeks and now I enter the three week taper period before the marathon where I reduce the mileage bit by bit although I maintain the intensity. Next week I will run an 18 mile long run which is pretty much the only long run I've got left to do before the marathon on the 9th October. Finger's crossed that I don't pick up any injuries over the next 21 days.

Marathon Training - Week 10

This week has been a week of decisions.

There's a fine line between running to your best ability without a) causing yourself an injury and b) running becoming a chore rather than something enjoyable. This week I felt my training schedule was coming close to ticking both boxes.

On Tuesday I was due to run some intervals but didn't feel right as I left the house at 6am. My hip was still hurting from the long run on Sunday and I didn't feel right in the head. It had all the hallmarks of over training. I ran about half a mile down the road and stopped. I sat on a wall and thought about what I was trying to do. My plan has been to run a marathon in under 3 hours 30 minutes. I wondered if this was a step too far considering that my previous best was 3 hours 44 minutes and that I had been injured only a couple of months ago. So, I cancelled my session for the day and decided to re-think my goal.

I decided that I would reset my objective for the marathon and would aim for sub 3 hour 45 minutes with the intention of beating my previous personal best. So I uploaded a new training schedule into my Garmin watch. This schedule was still based on pace rather than heart rate and the biggest difference I noticed was that although the training schedule required the same distances to be run the pace that they were to be run at was significantly slower.

New schedule in hand I started the training on Wednesday morning. This was a 9 mile run at a slow pace. I was much happier with the new schedule as it took some pressure off me. That was until I finished the run and realised that I had paced it at exactly the same pace as before I had changed schedules. Basically I could have run the same run using the old schedule and probably would have thought that it was tough but just because I had changed to an "easier" training schedule I enjoyed the run even though both would have been run at the same pace. This made me think that it was all psychological and hatched another plan.

This time I decided to revert to the 3 hour 30 minute schedule but instead of training by pace I am going to train by heart rate. This means that no matter how I feel my pace will be limited by how well my heart is pumping. As I improve then my pace will improve although my heart rate will stay the same. That is this week's plan anyway! With only six weeks to go until the marathon I haven't got time to be messing about with the schedule.

Staying over at friends for a barbecue on Saturday evening meant that I had to run my long run on the Saturday morning rather than the Sunday. It was meant to be a half marathon race but I couldn't find one locally being run on the Saturday morning so I had to go out on my own and just knock out a fast half marathon time. I managed to go sub 1 hour 40 minutes which I am pleased with and I think that under race conditions I could have gone up to 5 minutes quicker. That's what I like to think, the truth may be somewhat less. Here's the Garmin link to the half marathon.



This week I have to run another 20 mile long run. I will be running this on a Friday because I am away for a friend's 40th birthday weekend. I am hoping it doesn't go as badly as the last 20 miler that I did!

Marathon Training - Week 9

An enforced break from blogging whilst I have been away on holiday.

Managed to miss only three training sessions whilst on holiday. Due to being on a fly-drive of the western parts of the US I had to move a lot of the sessions around to match up with locations and temperatures. This meant that I had to do an 18 mile run on the Friday morning that we were due to fly out to LA. I followed this up with 5 miles near the LA airport hotel, another 4 miles in Lake Havasu City (amazingly hot, even at 6am), 10 miles in Williams near the Grand Canyon, 7 miles in Las Vegas (up and down the Strip), 5 miles in Sequoia and another 5 miles in Yosemite. I then did a 20 mile long run on the Tuesday in San Francisco where it was much, much cooler. Considering that in the afternoon we went sightseeing (on segways no less) and went out drinking in the evening I felt fine. My last run was a 5 mile run, in Oxnard, near LA. It was meant to be an 11 mile run but I had stomach problems and had to cut the run short!

Running abroad was both a challenge and exciting. The challenge was trying to fit all the training into the schedule. This involved getting up early (around 6am) so I could get back to the hotel in time to check out and drive to the next location. It also meant that I had to be aware of what I was drinking the night before and couldn't exactly hit the town, but since I was doing pretty much all of the driving I didn't want to be driving in a foreign country on the "wrong" side of the road with a hangover! The exciting aspect was in the variety of the running. In one holiday I have run in the Yosemite and Sequoia national forests, up and down the Las Vegas Strip and across the Golden Gate Bridge. I got to see things that I didn't have a chance to when sightseeing.

Since landing back in the UK I have been following my running schedule closely. The difficulty has been trying to adjust to jet lag. On Tuesday I did not sleep at all overnight so just went out and did some speed work at 5:30 in the morning! I have noticed that as the week has gone on my heart rate is about 10 bpm more than it should be. I'm not sure if this is due to the jet lag, overtraining or just an anomaly. This morning I went for another 20 mile long run. It was a bit of a struggle to say the least. A number of issues conspired against me. Firstly I had a serious bout of insomnia last night (not jet lag related, just pure insomnia). Secondly I had plotted a route through Richmond Park. Richmond Park is beautiful and I saw lots of deer and parokeets but it is not at all flat. This pushed my heart rate right up and also meant I expended more energy than normal. I had to stop with 10k to go just to pop into a garage to buy some water. Now, I'm not sure if this is a continuation of the issues I noticed at the end of the last week or just a one-off based on the circumstances described. Anyhow, by the end of the run I was as shattered as I normally am after running a marathon. And this was at a slower pace. I am going to have to monitor how I feel during this week's training very closely indeed. If I think that I am overtraining then I will have to reduce my levels of training as well as reset my expectations for the marathon. I'm hoping it's a one-off!

On a more positive note I haven't gained any weight from being on holiday. So every cloud etc. etc.

Anyway here's my run from this morning, if you drill into it you can see how my heart rate shoots up quite significantly once I started climbing the hill to Richmond Park.

Marathon Training - Week 5

Only five days of running this week because the training schedule allowed for an extra rest day after last week's 10k race. Still managed to clock up 40 miles in total with a 15 mile long run this morning.

This week sees me jiggling with my training schedule to allow for my flying to the States on Friday. This means I am going to be doing my long run of 18 miles on the Friday morning. My next rest day will be next Sunday which means 8 days straight of running. Could be quite tough but at least I'm hoping it will make sure I fall asleep on the 11 hour flight to LA.

This week will also see me doing some hill training on Tuesday morning. It's probably the most boring of the training types but helps build strength and will be the biggest test of my calf muscles so far. It's held up well to all my training up to this point so I'm quietly confident, although this could be the very definition of hubris!

I've achieved my race weight of 78.3kg three months before the start of the race. I now need to reduce my body fat content by another 2%. Not sure how I'm going to do this without losing more weight. I may need to alter my diet further. To be honest though, travelling around the States for two weeks on holiday will probably see my weight go up more than down.

 

Here's my 15 mile long run from this morning. I ran a new route down the Grand Union Canal to Notting Hill and then ran back along the Uxbridge Road towards Ealing. I've looked at the breakdown of the stats and I managed to keep my heart rate under 140 bpm for the first 10 miles, then it moved significantly towards the 150 bpm range. I think this is due to not taking on any water or fuel. I'll take some running gels with me for my 18 mile run on Friday.

Marathon Training - Week 4, Richmond 10k

This week's training culminated in the Richmond 10k. My first race since the Cardiff half marathon last October and my first race since getting injured last November and missing four months training. The course started at the far end of Old Deer Park and ran up the road towards Kew Bridge. Then it veered onto the path alongside the Thames toward Richmond before doubling back on itself and finishing back where it started in Old Deer Park. I would guess there were about 500 entrants which meant that the pack had spread out nicely by the time everyone reached the Thames path where it was two abreast at most for much of the way. It was overcast and cool with a light breeze, perfect running conditions.

I managed to finish in an unofficial time of 44 minutes exactly which is under the 45 minutes I was aiming for so am well pleased. I thought I had a chance to beat my PB (43:06) and ran the first 5km exactly to plan but my lack of fitness told in the second half and I had to concentrate on just finishing within the 45.

Apart from that my running this week has gone well. I did my first session of track work on Tuesday with some 800 repeats and followed this up with an 8 miler on the Wednesday and a 3 mile threshold run on Thursday with a 1 mile warm up and cool down either side. Monday and Saturday were the usual 4 and 5 mile easy pace runs respectively.

I'm off to the States a week on Friday and have managed to re-arrange my training schedule so that I'm able to pretty much run all of the sessions I'm required to. The only sessions that will probably drop out are two hill training sessions. Only because it may be tricky finding hills to run them on depending on where I am. I may substitute those with six or seven mile steady pace runs, or just miss them out altogether since I am supposed to be on holiday after all! The one run I am really hoping to do is a twenty miler when I am in San Francisco. If I do no other running on holiday but this one then I'll be happy. My girlfriend is happy if I do the runs early in the morning before she gets out of bed so they shouldn't impinge on the holiday that much. I'm just a bit wary of the temperatures that it might reach when I'm in places like Las Vegas. I hope it's not too hot first thing in the morning.

Here's the Richmond 10k run from this morning. Note - no podcast. I'm trying to run races without listening to anything, it should help me understand how I feel during the race itself.

Marathon Training - Week 3

It's been a long while since I've run 40 miles in a week but this week I did just that. My calf has held up well to the demands I'm making of it although on Thursday I had to run 4 miles at a steady pace and could feel my right hamstring tightening all the time. It's always on my right side. Whether it's a foot injury, my calf, my knee or my hamstring it is always the right hand side that any pain or tweak is felt. Must be down to my biomechanics I suppose. I had a rest day on Friday, ran an easy run on Saturday and a 13 mile slow run this morning and have had no hamstring pain so I'm hoping it's just my legs getting used to the extended distance and time on my feet. On Tuesday I will be doing interval training so I'll find out then if there's any hidden issues!

When I was marathon training last year I ended up losing four toenails in the process. This isn't as bad or as painful as it might sound. With repeatedly pounding the pavement the flesh beneath the toenail hardens and desensitises. Eventually the toenail itself falls off. This year I am predicting at least four more will go. My little toes already appear to be on their way out. I'd give them both no more than a month. I will update as and when they eventually go.

This morning I went on a run down to Richmond via Kew Gardens and back up to Ealing via the Grand Union Canal. It's a route I've run quite a few times before but not since at least 8 months ago, so it was nice to run it again. I managed to take a quick photo on the way:

On the path next to Kew Gardens heading toward Richmond

Next week my mileage will be less as I will be running a 10k race on the Sunday. I've entered the Richmond 10k and was hoping to finish in around 45 minutes. This may be optimistic, but to be honest anything between 50 minutes and 45 minutes would be good. Under 45 minutes would be excellent considering that I'm coming back from injury. We'll see.

Here's my run from this morning. I'm pleased with my average heart rate of 75% although it didn't feel quite as easy as the statistics make it look!

Marathon Training - Week 2

38 miles this week culminating in a 11 mile long run this morning. The training week is starting to take shape. Monday is a short easy run, Tuesday interval or threshold training, Wednesday is a medium distance run, Thursday tempo run, Friday is a rest day, Saturday is a short easy run and Sunday is a slow long run. Each week the long runs get longer or are interspersed with races (10k or half marathons).
In two weeks I have to run a 10k race as my Sunday long run. I think I'll run the Richmond 10k as it's pretty close to my house and I've already run the route that it takes. It'll be the first race I've run since the Cardiff half in October and the first 10k race since the Swansea 10k in September. If I can get under 45 minutes or thereabouts I'll be pleased.

I bought myself some "proper" running shorts this week. I already have proper running shorts, i.e. they wick away sweat and are light and comfortable but they aren't "proper" running shorts. My "proper" running shorts are very short and have a split up the sides to allow the legs to move completely unhindered and allow the air to circulate properly to cool the thighs down (or something like that). What I do know is that they are very short and the first time I wore them outside I felt a little bit indecent. This feeling passed quite quickly which either says something about the shorts or a lot about me!

Went for a nice run down by the Thames this morning from Kew bridge towards Hammersmith and back along Chiswick. I took my new compact camera with me which I keep in the rear pocket of my running shorts (in a sandwich bag to protect it from sweat!). I managed to take a few shots of the river first thing in the morning:

Old Father Thames first thing in the mornng

Some swans enjoying the early light

Houses along the Thames path. How much must they be worth?

Chiswick House. I was running past and noticed the gate was open so popped in to take a photo. Nice place.

Here's my run from this morning, I managed to keep my average heart rate really low so was well pleased. Next week I will be talking about toenails and how many I think I will be losing!

Marathon Training - Week 1

My first week of marathon training at last. Six days of running and 31 miles (sessions of 4,4,5,3,5 and 10 miles). Only fifteen more weeks to go!

I'm glad to have started training. I love running but I prefer having a focus, it's much harder to skip a session if I'm tired or just don't feel like it when you know that all the training goes to how I will perform come October.

My longest run this week was 10 miles this morning (Sunday). The weather forecast was for scorching hot weather so I got myself out of bed at 6:30am so I could beat the heat. I've bought a small, light-weight digital camera so I can take photos when I'm out on a run. It's not too difficult to run with it and when I'm finished I can slip it into my pocket. I took a couple of photos this morning down by the canal. They varied in quality but I didn't stop running to take any photos so had to rely on a bit of luck and hope that they didn't come out too fuzzy. This one was the best quality, it's not too bad if a little bit fuzzy:

My plan has been to cut out alcohol as much as possible except for special occasions such as weddings or fancy meals out. This hasn't been entirely successful. At the moment I'm not drinking during the week which is good but then I'm drinking normally on the weekend which is not so good. The main problem is drinking on the Saturday night before my long run on Sunday morning. Last night I drank a bottle and a half of red wine and then had to get up for a 10 mile run this morning! I managed a decent pace but as the long runs get longer I don't think this strategy can be maintained nor is it particularly helpful for getting up early! I think I will allow myself to drink normally on Friday and Sunday and then restrict myself to two glasses of wine (or equivalent) on the Saturday. The rest of the time I won't drink. Maybe nearer to race day I will actually stop altogether.

My wieght-loss is going well. This morning my weight dropped below 80kg for the first time in over a year. Next step is to get it down to about 78kg and maintain it. I was calorie counting but since I've started running 5 or 6 days a week I've not had to worry too much about it. If I see my weight creeping up again and I may have to rethink what I'm eating and drinking.

Here's my 10 mile run from this morning. My heart rate is higher than I'd like it to be but I think that's down to the extra alcohol!

T minus 1 week

It's now one week until my marathon training starts. I've posted two runs of six miles this week and next week will run a seven miler and eight miler before going away for the weekend before the start of my 16 weeks of marathon training.

Whilst running a nice four mile circuit through a wooded area near my house I ran past a man in his fifties drinking from a can of super strength cider. At 6:30 in the morning! I mean, at 7am I could understand but 6:30 is too early even for me.

On the weekend I went to a wedding in Chester so took the opportunity to get a six mile run around the canals and cycle path of Chester. It's a great place to go running, a nice mixture of history and countryside. I'm looking forward to running the marathon there in 5 months time.

Here's my run from this morning, it's a 7 mile circular route from my house to Greenford and back via the A40. Loads of traffic and people around even at 6:30 in the morning. On Thursday I fly to Budapest for a weekend away, I'm hoping to get an 8 mile run in first thing, although I think this will mean getting up at 5:30!

4 miles, easy pace around Ealing

5 mile morning run, easy pace

T minus 2 weeks

It's two weeks to go until I start my marathon training. Between now and then I will have increased my running to 8 miles. This will be just before I go on a weekend break to Budapest, where I will not be running. Drinking, yes. Running, no.

My marathon training schedule manages to collide with my summer holiday at the start of August when I am going with my girlfriend to the US on a fly-drive holiday. I don't reckon I'll be able to fit in all my training sessions but I am planning to do at least three per week. I definitely want to run up and down the Strip in Las Vegas and I plan to run across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. How I fit in the others will remain to be seen, depending on a) how tired I am from driving and b) how much I can run while keeping my girlfriend sweet. We'll see!

This week I've managed to run 22 miles, including two sessions of 5 miles each. This morning I got up early and went for a 5 mile run that took in a canal and a couple of parks. I find these types of run more interesting than general street running as they take you off the beaten track and I get to see parts of my local area that I just would not see if it weren't for running. This morning I saw a couple of swans, a heron and a rabbit. You don't get to see those on the Uxbridge Road!

Here's the map of my run this morning:

The Running Man

17 miles this week! 5 days of running including two sessions of 4 miles. The only pain I've been feeling is the usual muscle aching that occurs from using muscles that I haven't used properly in the last six months. Next week I'm going to extend the long run sessions to 5 miles. This means I'm going to be able to travel further afield from my house than the usual running around in a circle.

I've been reading about what my optimal running weight and body fat is. Exciting stuff eh! Apparently my current body fat of 15.5% puts me in the 80th percentile for my age. If I reduce this to 12% it will put me close to the 90th percentile and would pretty much be my optimal body fat without giving up work and becoming a full time runner. My estimated weight for this body fat would be 78.3kg (12 stone 6 pounds in old money) which will become my goal in time for the Chester marathon in October. At the moment I'm 81.6kg so it shouldn't be too difficult providing I don't get injured!

Here's my weigh-in from 24th May:

Here's my run from Saturday morning, a nice little run to Ealing Common and back:

Keep on running!

Finally I have managed to run continuously for three miles! Having said last week that I would increase my sessions I decided to increase them even further by running five in five days, increasing the running time each day. This meant that by the Friday I was running twenty minutes non-stop. I had no adverse reaction at all and felt good. Well, not good, but certainly not in any muscular pain. My cardio fitness is way down from where it was six months ago so hopefully this will improve over the next month.

To celebrate finishing my return to running schedule I decided to go out for a three mile run on the Saturday morning and then another on the Monday morning. This week I will run five times, three sessions of three miles and two of four miles. Then the next week I will run three sessions of four miles and two of five miles and so on and so on. Hopefully this will ease my body back to regular running as well as improving my cardio fitness. It feels good to be running instead of run/walking which I’ve always found to be more difficult than just running. Perhaps it’s the stop-start aspect of it that grates with me. Also, I find that you look forward to the walking section and see the running as a bit of a punishment whereas when I am running continuously I can concentrate just on how I am running without thinking about stopping. It’s all in the mind!

Talking of all in the mind I’m currently reading a book called Brain Training for Runners. According to the author our brains try to fool us into thinking that we are in pain to prevent the body depleting it’s resources when in fact we can physically run much further. He cites an example of a person who is running a marathon and no matter how difficult it gets for them or how much their brain is screaming to walk or stop or lie down or do anything other than put one foot in front of the other but as soon as the finishing line comes into sight they are capable of putting in a sprint for 200-300 metres. It is interesting stuff but I think it’s going to take a while for me to stop listening to my brain especially if I start to get pain twinges in my calf.

On Saturday my run took me through Walpole Park next to the Ealing Studios. I saw at least half a dozen other runners there and it was pretty early on Saturday morning, about 7am. I’m sure more people are running these days. Maybe it’s because there’s more coverage on the tv or maybe it’s just because it’s sunny and warm. No matter, the more runners the better as far as I am concerned.

Here’s my run from this morning that I took round Ealing

Speeding up the schedule

My recovery is going well so I'm going to speed up my return to full running by halving my training schedule. This just means that instead of doing two sessions of the same then I will only do one and then step up the amount of time I am running for the next session. This "should" allow me to start my marathon training at the end of June. If I feel any twinges then I'll step back to the previous session until the twinge goes away. Well, that's the plan at least.

My plan to lose 6 kg by the start of July is going well. I've lost just over 3 kg since the start of April so as long as I can keep off the pizzas and curries for the next six weeks then I should hit my goal. Hopefully by running more and more this should become easier.

I was ill at the start of the week with a cold which didn't help. I wasn't able to do my core exercises although I did go running. The rule of thumb is that as long as the cold is not in the chest then you can still run. My heart rate was up a bit but I managed to get all three sessions in.

Friday's run was a nice circular route that I used to do the first time I started running about ten years ago.

GPS AWOL

Sometimes, very rarely, my GPS watch goes nuts. Today it decided that my starting point was somewhere in Hammersmith and took about five minutes before it realised its mistake. The upshot to this is that I can apparently run a kilometer in thirty five seconds! Maybe I should enter the olympics next year. I'm certain I can improve on that time.
Apart from this technical strangeness I had a relatively pleasant, and short, run around west Ealing. Because I can only run for twenty minutes at the moment due to my schedule I have to be more inventive with my routes to make it more interesting. This basically means running down local roads that I've not been down before. It's nice to see a few new places so close to home. Nothing to really shout about mind you, the roads don't vary greatly. They look just like any other roads, but the fact that they are different is enough for my little mind to be happy with the change.
My resting heart rate is now in the lower 50s. Which means I'm either becoming much fitter or my heart rate monitor needs new batteries. Probably the latter, but I can hope for the former.
More good news, my weight is now down to 84.1 kg. Just over 4 kg to go to get to my ideal weight. I've given myself until the start of July to acheive this so I need to shed 1 kg every two weeks. As long as I can keep my booze consumption down then this should be achievable.
Here's my run from this morning, with the aforementioned crazy GPS. I'm up to 1 minute 30 seconds of running per 5 minute interval. Today's podcast was Adam and Joe.

Return to running (take two)

And so begins my next attempt to return from injury.
It's quite tricky just keeping to a schedule of no more than twenty minutes. I want to run more but know that I shouldn't. Experience has told me not to do too much too soon otherwise I'll be sidelined again. Same old, same old. We'll see.
To offset this I've been working on my core strength. All the running textbooks say that a strong core helps prevent injury and can improve running form and efficiency. So now I'm doing core training two times a week. There's an iphone app called ParaFitness that prescribes exercises and a schedule to follow to build up the core.
I've also been massaging my calf as many times in the day as I can as well as strengthening it by performing heel lifts every day.
My original sixteen week marthon training was due to start in June but because I won't have the miles in my legs by then I've found a twelve week plan that will start in mid-July. This gives me three months to get back into fitness as well as increase my mileage to be able to start marathon training. This should still allow me to aim for a sub 3 hour 30 minute marathon although it does feel a bit like the last chance saloon.
Here's my run from Monday, it's a small loop around the streets where I live. I won't be going much further for the next four to six weeks.

A rethink

I have come to the conclusion that I need to alter my running goals for this year. Every time I go for a run my right calf flares up and although I can finish my run the pain the following day means I sometimes have to miss my next run. If I continue doing this then there’s only one way this can end and that is in injury.

I am warming up correctly, massaging and stretching but nothing seems to prevent the calf from reacting at some point during my runs, usually half way through.

So, action must be taken! I’m going to a) rest the calf until there’s no pain, b) massage and stretch it to death and c) return to running using a different plan.

The plan I’m going to follow is the Return to Running plan by PhysioAdvisor.com:

http://www.physioadvisor.com.au/7676250/return-to-running-physioadvisor.htm

This suggests running and walking up until a maximum time of twenty minutes. The running sections will increase but if any pain is felt then I drop back to the previous session and continue until no pain is felt.

My marathon training plan was due to start at the end of June but at the moment I’m not sure I will be fit enough and have enough miles under my belt to follow it. I may have to reduce my expectations from getting a sub 3:30 marathon to 4 hours or even just finishing would be an achievement at the moment!

I’ve also bought my third instrument of torture, a foam roller. This will work in a similar way as the Stick. I used one when I was at the physio earlier this year and found it helped enormously. Just like the other instruments of torture it causes large amounts of pain.

More pain

I’ve mentioned it before but four months of not running has meant I’ve put on about 5kg. I topped the scales at 86kg and am now being much more cautious with what I eat as I hope to get down to 80kg within the next couple of months. At the moment I am 84.5kg so it’s going in the right direction! Two things have helped. The first is my weighing scales. They are fancy scales that calculate your BMI and body fat content among other things. It uploads this onto a private website that only I can look at. Here’s a screenshot:

Secondly, I am calorie counting like nobody’s business. I’ve tried this before but found it tedious to work out how many calories each meal consists of. Then I discovered myfitnesspal.com which is brilliant. There’s a website and an iphone app that is ridiculously easy to use. It has a massive database that appears to have pretty much all the food in the major supermarkets and knows their calories, serving sizes and loads of other nutrition information. The upshot of this is that I’ve now become something of a calorie nazi. But if I can keep on top of what I’m eating then all the better.

Here’s my run from Monday, this will be my longest run for quite some time since my new running plan insists on much shorter distances.

Former Crim runner Ed Whitlock sets 80-and-over world marathon record | MLive.com

Former Crim runner Ed Whitlock sets 80-and-over world marathon record | MLive.com

This man is twenty minutes faster than my marathon PB and he's twice my age!!

Putting the Vibrams away, for now

What a difference a week makes. I have decided to shelve my plan to run using the Vibram Five Fingers since it is putting far too much pressure on my calf. It would only be a matter of time before I caused myself a major injury and do not fancy resting for another four months while I lose more and more fitness, saying goodbye to any marathon I want to run this year. This decision came after I had to abandon my run on Friday morning because the strain on my right calf became too much.

My new plan is to carry on running in my normal running shoes (at the moment these are Brooks GTS10 and Asics GT 2150) and to continue following the run/walk plan until I’m back to full fitness.

This morning my run was 65 minutes at 3 mins run/2 mins walk. This covered just over 10k and although I could feel my calf fatiguing towards the end of the run it managed to survive. I’ll stretch it out and use my massage stick to keep it from stiffening up.

I’m writing this on the day after the Brighton marathon. A whole year has gone by since I ran last year’s race and it will be another six months until I run my next marathon in October. I’m hoping to beat my time of 3:44:46 (to be honest I’m hoping to beat 3:30) but that all depends on my calf.

I’ve also been thinking about other challenges. This came about after watching the James Cracknell trilogy on the Discovery channel. He ran the 150 mile Marathon Des Sables and finished twelfth which is the highest placing ever for a Brit. He then followed this up by attempting to run and cycle the entire way across America. Unfortunately he was knocked off his bike five days in to the attempt. He narrowly avoided death and was laid up in a hospital for a month while his brain and body recovered. After this, and still with some frontal lobe brain damage he entered and completed the 430 mile Yukon Arctic Ultra cycle race which is run in insanely cold weather. If you want to understand the limits of what the human body can do I seriously suggest watching this series of programmes.

Anyway, with this in mind I’ve been thinking about what challenges I would like to do. Not necessarily in the next year or two but as a bucket list of challenges I would like to do before I get too old to do any of them. Off the top of my head I came up with this list:

• London Marathon
• Boston Marathon (via qualification, not charity or a sports tour package)
• Cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats via the most southerly, easterly, westerly and northerly mainland points of Britain.
• Compete in an ultra (maybe Comrades in South Africa or even the MDS!)
• Compete in an ironman (not really looking for a finishing time, just to be able to finish)
• New York Marathon
• Marathon du Medoc (where the water stations have wine! What’s not to like)

Runner’s World has an article on its website called “20 Races to do before you die”.  There’s a number in there that I wouldn’t mind doing such as the Ethiopian 10k.

Here’s the link, I think it’s accessible to non-subscribers:

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/20-races-to-do-before-you-die/3594.html

Anyway, here’s my run from this morning.

BBC News - Could a marathon ever be run in under two hours?

BBC News - Could a marathon ever be run in under two hours?

Calf pain, the good kind!

One week on and my calf is still holding out! Although I think I have found the tipping point that causes my calves to burn. After two sessions last week where I was running two minutes and walking three minutes my calves were in absolute agony the day after both sessions and for a few days after that too! This is the good type of pain where you know that the muscle that has been underused in everyday shoes and trainers is suddenly asked to do a lot more work. Technically it's known as delayed onset muscle soreness (or DOMS for short). It's just like the sort of pain you get when you decide to lift weights after years of never having lifted so much as a bag of sugar. The muscle is adapting and getting stronger so this initial pain should "hopefully" be the worst of it.
My Stick massage roller has certainly come in handy over the last few days.
This week my sessions increase to two and a half minutes running and two and a half minutes walking. It's feeling easier than before and I don't think I'll get the same level of soreness. I did feel a twinge in my calf muscle this morning but nothing too serious and I was able to continue. To be on the safe side I think I'll run in my normal running shoes on Wednesday just to give it a break. I don't want to tempt fate just yet.
Today was also the first day this year that I was able to wear a short-sleeved running top. It really feels like spring is here when that happens. I always wear shorts, never leggings, even during winter but am not hardy enough to wear the short-sleeved top all year round.
My run was also improved by being able to listen to the podcast of the return of Adam and Joe on 6 Music. They've been away for 15 long months and help make long runs feel much shorter. I only ever listen to podcasts rather than music when I run. I find that the beat of music can interfere with my pace and I end up going faster than I should which completely messes up the training session. By listening to podcasts you get none of this sort of thing but also I find that they can take your mind off the run (in a good way, not a daydreaming-not-paying-attention kind of way). I've also found that I would look forward to the run just because I knew what podcast I would be listening to. So if the training session is going to be the dreaded speed work it would be alleviated by the fact that I knew I would be able to listen to Frank Skinner (for example). Here's a list of my favourite podcasts to listen to whilst running:

• Adam and Joe
• Answer Me This
• Collings and Herrin
• The Danny Baker Show (get well soon Danny)
• Dave Gorman
• Fighting Talk
• Frank Skinner
• Friday Night Comedy on Radio 4
• Iain Lee
• 7 Day Sunday

There's plenty of others but those are the main ones. There's also several great podcasts about running that I listen to in order to get inspiration and some tips:

• Marathon Talk - this is a great podcast for marathon runners (natch) that has interviews with famous runners from around the world such as Paula Radcliffe, highly recommended
• Phedippidations - this is a long running (excuse the pun) podcast by a guy in Boston who talks about everything that occurs to him as he runs. Not that informative but it's worth a listen to hear a normal middle-aged runner being so enthusiastic about running.
• Run Yank Run - I've only just started to listen to this one. It's about an American guy living in London and his thoughts about life and running.
• Running From The Reaper - this one has stopped due to his work commitments but you get the odd sporadic podcast from a guy called Nigel living in Staffordshire running along canals. If you are running a marathon there are a series that he did in the build up to the London marathon a year or two ago that are interesting to listen to as he tries to fit in the training sessions around his work and family life.
• 4 Feet Running - this has also stopped but you get the odd podcast or even vidcast from a married couple in the states. The wife is a marathon runner and her husband is very much a back-of-the-pack non-marathon runner. The dynamic is nice and they seem like a friendly couple.

Anyway, that's enough for now. This is a big post! Here's my run from earlier today. I'll update with another post hopefully during the week or early next week, I'll see how it goes.

Back Up And Running

Managed a 55 minute run on Monday morning (2 mins run/3 mins walk). That's a decent speed and with no pain although it was run in my old "normal" shoes rather than the Vibrams.

This time before I ran I did a lunge matrix warm-up. What is a lunge matrix warm-up I hear you ask? Well ask no more, just click on the video below.


Lunge Warm-Up from CoachJayJohnson on Vimeo.

I also bought a new torture implement. It's called The Stick and is great at a) freeing up my calf muscles and b) causing huge amounts of pain in equal measure. Here's a photo of the cruel implement:

New instrument of torture

Tomorrow I will run a 45 minute session in the Vibrams again. Hopefully the mixture of warm-ups and The Stick will keep any pain at bay. Fingers crossed.

On another note, I found this link that shows the marathon times of famous runners (including celebrities and politicians). Good to see I've run faster than George W Bush and Sarah Palin.

Famous Marathon Runners

Here's my Monday morning run:

Setback!

Went out for a run on Monday morning, increasing my running section to 1 minute 30 seconds. All was going well for the first few repeats until about a mile into the run. I felt a twinge in my right upper calf. As I continued my run I could feel the twinge more and more. Thoughts quickly came to me of the pulled calf that I've been trying to recover from for the past four months. Doom and gloom!
The pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't continue my run but I am concerned that if I continue running as I am then it will make the pain worse and I'll be back at square one. The good news is that although the pain is in my right leg it is not in the same place as before so I think it's just a slight strain caused by overworking it too soon. Ever the optimist!
I spent the evening icing my calf with a bag of frozen peas that I always keep just in case of injuries and using my Omni massage roller ball that is excellent at causing the maximum amount of pain with the tiniest bit of effort!!

Instrument of torture

It's supposed to help break down scar tissue and I don't know if it does but it bloody hurts like hell!
I'll probably miss my next scheduled run or two until the pain subsides and start back again using my normal running shoes until my calf feels strong enough again to use my Vibrams.
To help strengthen my calves and once the pain has gone I will need to do regular stretches (which I've never done enough of!) as well as use my wobble board that should help improve my calf muscles and core strength. I bought it a couple of months ago and became rather good at it. To start with I felt like Bambi on ice but once I got to grips with it then I could stand on it for about 30 seconds at a time and even managed to do it on one foot only. Here's a fuzzy photo of my board:

Wobble board

I've noticed that the blossom is coming out nicely in the trees now and took a photo on one of my regular routes:

Blossom!

Anyway, enough rambling I need to get back to icing and painful massage. Here's my run from Monday, I hope to update another post as soon as my calf pain eases up.

Spring is almost here

I love this time of year for running. Everything starts to take on a new colour and it becomes both lighter and warmer in the morning.
I've always been a morning runner, I find it starts off the day in the right way. It's quieter and gives me a chance to get my head right before going to work. My absolute favourite run is an early morning long run on a Sunday. When I trained for the Brighton marathon last year I had to regularly run 19, 20 and 22 miles. From where I live this meant that I was able to run into central London and past all the tourist spots. On a Sunday morning there would hardly be anyone around and it was a bit like that scene at the start of 28 Days Later where the guy is just wandering aimlessly across the Thames. I would run through Hyde Park, down past Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, across the Thames, past the London Eye and back again via the Royal Albert Hall. I'd be back in the house by 9am when most "normal" people were just about getting up. I can't wait until marathon training starts again later this year so I can do some of my favourite routes that take me further afield than the local area.
That is one of the joys I get from running. Finding new routes. I've managed to discover pretty much all the canal paths, parks and general trails around where I live. I spend hours on mapmyrun.com just trying to find a new area that I've never explored before. The great thing about such sites as mapmyrun is seeing routes defined by other people that you've never thought of doing. Maybe I'm just sad!!
Anyway, back to how my "barefoot" running is going. I've increased the run part of the run/walk schedule to 1 minute of running. I have noticed that my calfs and ankles are doing a bit more work as well as the arches and balls of my feet. I'm presuming this is all to be expected as the muscles strengthen. Two more runs later this week on Wednesday and Friday. On the 5th June there's a 10k at Clapham Common so I think I'll enter that as it occurs just at the end of this training schedule. That will then give me two weeks before my marathon training starts.
Here's my first training run of the week:



I'm thinking of taking a camera on my training runs so I can take pictures as I go around and post them on here. Will have to find a decent camera that is lightweight and can take a bit of a battering should I drop it (which I will). Any suggestions welcome!

Finger Feet!

Finished my first week of run/walk with my Vibram Five Fingers.
I could kiss the ground with joy that I haven't had any recurrence of my pulled calf muscle.
My running style has had to change competely in order to run without smacking my heel on the floor. My turnover is quicker and I've noticed that I'm running slightly faster than I used to but this may be because of the fact that I'm only running for 30 seconds at a time. This could change as the running section of the training becomes longer, I'll have to wait a few weeks to find out.
After running in the Bikilas my feet feel like they've been stretched and massaged, especially on the balls of my feet. I guess this is due to the muscles and tendons in my feet becoming used to working more than they were previously in my running shoes. My calf muscle is holding up well. I've not felt any twinge at all which is promising since every time I've previously tried to start running since pulling my calf muscle I've only managed a couple of hundred yards before I had to turn around and perform the sad walk home thinking that my running days were over.
On a slightly more depressing point I've stood on the weighing scales for the first time in four months! Hoping against hope I thought I had somehow managed to maintain my racing weight of 12 stone 9lbs (177lbs for American readers or 81kg for those who deal in metric) even though I hadn't changed my eating habits one bit. Nature has a way of dealing with people like this and the scales showed that I had managed to put on exactly one stone (14lbs or 6kg)!! This works out at about 1lb of weight for each week I wasn't running. Since it takes an extra 3500 calories to gain 1lb of weight this works out as an extra 500 calories per day which would pretty much have been negated by the running that I should have been doing. The pulled calf muscle strikes again!
Anyway, here's a photo of my Vibram Five Fingers Bikilas. They do look odd and feel odd and certainly draw attention from passers-by but if they improve my running and reduce my injuries then they can look as odd as they want.


Here's my third and final run of the week. This was done in Chester which is my girlfriend's home town. There's some great routes around here, taking in the old city as well as the canals and country lanes surrounding it. For this run I just went up the nearby canal and back down the road because my schedule doesn't currently allow me to go further afield.



Next week I will be upping my run/walk to 1 minute running and 4 minutes walking!

First post! Not the last.

Hello. I'm a forty year old runner living in Ealing in West London. I'm hoping that by keeping this blog it will give me both a useful journal of my running activities and general thoughts about the world at large.
I've never kept a blog or even a diary before so will have to see how this goes. I've been reading other runners' blogs and thought how hard can it be? Well, pretty hard since it's taken me months to get from idea to reality. I think the problem is what to write.
Let's start at the beginning. I've been running "properly" for the last three years. Before that I would train for a couple of months for a 10k race and then do nothing else for the rest of the year before the next 10k race the next year. This all stopped in August 2008. I had signed up for the Nike 10k race in London and had trained for three months. Finally crossing the line in 65 minutes my usual pattern would mean hanging up my running shoes for another nine months and digging them out for the next Nike 10k. I have no idea why but this time I decided to carry on running two or three times a week. Before I knew it it was Spring and there were a plethora of races to enter. 10k race times came down and within a few months I was going sub-50 minutes. Progress! After 10k races came the half-marathon which whetted my appetite and I decided to go for the big one. So it came that on April 18th 2010 I found myself lining up for the inaugural Brighton Marathon. All the training came together and 3 hours, 44 minutes and 46 seconds later I found myself crossing the line. I vowed never to run another marathon again. I kept this promise for six weeks and then ran the Chester marathon! In October 2010 I ran the Cardiff Half-Marathon in 1 hour, 35 minutes and 6 seconds.
Then disaster struck.
While on a training run with my girlfriend I pulled my calf muscle. Nothing much I thought! How wrong could I be. Four months later and too many physio sessions to mention I am now able to run again. That's when I thought I could keep a blog to track my road to recovery as well as the road to my next marathon in Chester in October 2011.
The added twist to this is that I am going to change my running style completely and run wearing Vibram Five Fingers Bikila shoes. More on this in a future post but for now let me say that in order to do this I will have to start my training as though I have never run before. From running 6 days a week and averaging about 30 miles I am going to be following a run/walk training programme so my feet, calves and joints all condition themselves slowly. It may get frustrating but I'm hoping that slowly, slowly will indeed catchy monkey.
To that end here's my first training run using the run/walk method in my "finger feet" as my girlfriend calls them:



As you can see I'm not exactly smashing records yet!
That just about wraps up this post. I'm hoping that I'll find more of a style as I write more and more of these posts so if this one feels a little dry then give it time and before you know it I'll be a regular PG Wodehouse!