Holidays

I'm writing this from a balcony in a hotel in Cyprus. So far I have not missed a single training session but this may well change over the next 10 days. Running on holiday is a curious thing. The intention is always to get out and carry on with the schedule as if nothing has changed but as more drinks are consumed in the evening it becomes more and more clear that things are not the same. Namely that I wouldn't normally be waking up at 6am nursing a hangover in order to go for an 8 mile run to avoid the heat of the sun.

Here in Cyprus there appears to be a very small window in which it is comfortable to be able to run (for me at least). The humidity is incredible. I have put a pair of swimming shorts out on the balcony to dry and by the morning they are still damp! The temperature is around 24C at 6am and this rapidly rises to 30C by 9am. This means I have to either a) get up in the middle of the night to go running or b) adjust my expectations of what I think will be achievable while I am here.

I am sure that if I can get out and run 4 or 5 miles every other day (or more) then my fitness will be maintained and I can get back on the schedule when I return home next week.

There is always the option of using the running machines in the hotel gym but I'm not a fan.

As I write this I can see a path between my hotel and the beach that is being used by many runners. I'm not sure if any of them are training for a marathon or not but at least it's a popular route. It's always good to run on holiday when possible as it gives you a different viewpoint of the place you are saying (I'm pretty sure I've said that before on this blog somewhere). The problem is getting the legs out of bed to do it.

Up until now my training has been going brilliantly. I've got two 20 mile runs in the bag. The second of which I ran 5 minutes faster than the first one which is always a good sign of progress. Last week was my biggest training week so far, 55 miles. Even the mid-week medium long runs don't seem that long anymore. Which must mean my fitness is building up. Lets just hope that I don't lose it during this holiday!

Location:Pafos,Cyprus

Summer Breeze, Makes Me Feel Boiling Hot!

I'm writing this from my garden. The barbecue is on the go, I have a beer in front of me and the cricket on my ipad (England vs Australia, although with all due respect to my Aussie friends, it's not much of a contest at the moment).

The weather has been glorious. Maybe a little bit too glorious. Britain is in the middle of a heatwave. I feel sorry for those runners who like to run in the evening. The radiation heat off the pavement built up during the day must be dreadful. Fortunately I run in the morning. It's generally cool although the thermometer has topped out at 20C at 6am which is basically unheard of in the UK. Even so, I've not missed one training run yet which makes a difference from my last marathon where I must have missed about two weeks' worth of running in the 16 week programme.

My runs are getting longer and longer, even in midweek. This week I had to run an 11 mile midweek run which meant me having to get up at 5:15am just to get out of the door by 5:45am. These extra miles have made a noticeable difference though. Normally a long weekend run would seem quite daunting but due to the midweek runs being in double figures mileage-wise the weekend runs are not really much of a deal.

This morning I had to run 18 miles. I had a bit of a hangover (went out for lunch yesterday and then stopped off in a pub on the way home and got sidetracked by a blues festival in our local park which we stopped to watch for a couple of hours with more beers naturally!). My back has also been a bit poorly this week. I have pulled a muscle on the left shoulder blade and it has been annoying me for the last four days. It does that clicking noise every time I rotate my shoulder when I think it should be helping to sort out the pain but probably does nothing at all.

Anyway, I set off this morning on an 18 miler. I had planned a route to take me down to cross Kew Bridge run along the south Thames Path all the way to Putney Bridge, cross over and head back to Ealing via Hammersmith and Chiswick. The first two miles were a bit of a struggle as I had a bit of difficulty finding my pace. Once I did though it clicked. And not just in "Oh this is a nice pace" but in the way that you want to run for ages. You feel like this is the best run you've ever done and what a great day to choose to come out and run along the Thames to see it in the morning when it is at it's best. I ran over Putney Bridge and decided then and there to come back along the north Thames Path to take me back along the Thames to Kew Bridge and home to Ealing. I love those sort of runs and I really feel that it's because of the new training plan that my fitness is greater and why this run felt so great. I'm looking forward to next week's 20 miler. I just have to decide what route I want to take. If I can make it as half as good as this morning's route then I will be one happy camper.

Here's the route map:

Parks and Recreation (and Canals)

Sleep, run, eat. And repeat. That's how it's felt for the past few weeks. The P+D training plan is really kicking in on the distances. After four weeks my weekly distance is about as much as it was during the height of my previous training plan. And I like it! I must be a masochist.

I've noticed on my midweek runs that I don't venture far from home. Even if I'm running 10 miles I will choose a familiar circular route that keeps me within a couple of miles from my front door. Yet on the weekend I will happily forge a new route that takes me miles away. I take my Oystercard and some money just in case I get injured or have to stop for some reason. I used to take my iPhone with me to listen to podcasts which meant I could call my wife to come and pick me up should I get into trouble (not that I did!). But now I use an iPod Nano because it's much lighter so leave the phone at home. Anyway, I think the midweek runs top out at 14 miles so maybe I'll be forced to go far from home. Maybe it's just a psychological thing but it's worth mentioning.

I used to have issues on about 90% of my runs where I would feel the need to take a "comfort break" for want of a better euphemism. I'd either have to stop to compose myself or find a nearby hotel, both of which were a major disruption. In my quest to prevent this I've started getting out of bed about 15 minutes earlier and having a cup of coffee. So far this has done the trick and I'm able to go out on my run a happier, lighter man!

Two long runs since my last blog. The first was 14 miles and I mapped out a route that took me around the Grand Union Canal that surrounds Ealing. I managed to plan it such that 10 of the 14 miles were on the canal itself. The advantage of that being that it's flat as a pancake. At that time in the morning (6am on a Sunday) there were three other types of people sharing the canal path - runners, anglers and drinkers on the way home from a late night party. It's a beautiful time to run the canals. All the water birds are out. Coots, moorhens, herons, ducks, geese and swans. Although the swans and geese tend to sit in a big group together on the path which can be quite alarming and requires a bit of careful negotiation to wend a path through them, especially as a lot of them have young. A duck with a little gaggle of ducklings - cute, a swan with a gaggle of cygnets - potential death!

Here's the route (you'll notice that my watch's battery died just at the end during the last mile):

The second long run (today) took me down to Richmond Park for the first time since the marathon two months ago. It was a 15 mile run on a beautiful summer morning. There's a bit of a climb to get into Richmond Park but apart from that it's a flat route. It was one of those mornings were I didn't know precisely where I was going to run. I'd thought of three of four potential routes and in the end just went where my feet took me. Richmond Park on a day like this seemed like perfect sense although I didn't see any deer this time. My fitness is definitely improving and hopefully it will improve again over the next three or four weeks.

Here's the Richmond Park route:

Next week I'm going to be in Chester and will need to find a 16 mile route to run either on the Saturday or Sunday morning. At the moment we don't know which family member we will be staying with so I can't start planning any routes yet.

New marathon, new training plan

Chester marathon is on the 6th October. That is 16 weeks away which is the usual amount of time given by pretty much all the marathon training plans. All except the Pfitzinger and Douglas training plan which is 18 weeks long.

Why change training plans for this marathon? Couple of reasons.

1. I've used the Runner's World training plan for the past couple of years. Familiarity breeds not exactly contempt but I know it too well and needed to do something different to keep things interesting.
2. A lot, and I mean a lot, of people online swear by it as the training plan that gave them the big boost that enabled them to run a PB.
3. I bought their book a couple of years ago and always wanted to try out the plan.

They have a couple of plans based on varying amount of experience and time available. I've chosen the up to 55 miles per week plan because I've looked at the others and they require a hell of a lot of commitment timewise that I don't think I can give at the moment.

So what's it been like for the first two weeks? At the moment, great. The biggest difference I've noticed is that I run fewer days per week (4 or 5 as compared to 6 in the Runner's World plan) but the runs tend to be longer and at a faster pace. My midweek medium-long runs are currently 10 miles which means I have to get up at 5:30am in order to fit them in before work. Also, the runs tend to be broken up into more speed variations. So for example I may run 8 miles but in the middle will be 4 miles run at half marathon pace. Or on my weekend long run I may run 13 miles but the last 8 will be at marathon pace. This is supposed to get the body more used to running faster and in a tired state. I'm hoping the benefits will show as the weeks go on.

I've also decided to run according to heart rate this time instead of pace. From comparing the runs I've done I can see that my pace is still pretty much the same as if I was running to pace. But since this is early days I am hoping that as I get fitter I am able to run at the same heart rate but a faster pace. Time will tell.

The new Ealing half marathon course was published this week so since my run this morning was a 13 miler (last 8 at marathon pace, see above) I thought I'd give it a go. It's still as hilly as last year but I like the slight alterations they've done from the previous course. Anyway, here it is:

Recovering and getting fat

The period of time after running a marathon I find is often the most frustrating. Once the initial aches and pains have gone, which takes me about three days, it is a slow reintroduction back into running. They say it takes a day per mile to fully recover from a marathon during which time the body should be under no stress.

This means only running at most four times a week for the next month starting with short distances and slow pace and build up to longer distances with some speed work involved. I'm used to running five or six times a week and instead of welcoming this reduction I just want to go out there and run. Doing so would be a disaster as this is also the easiest time to get injured. Stick to the schedule and it'll see you through to the other side. That's what I have to keep telling myself.

In the meantime I'm eating like it's going out of fashion. Combine this with less running and the old calories in/calories out scale tips in the wrong direction. It doesn't bother me much as I know that as soon as I start the next training schedule for my next marathon (in just over two weeks' time) I'll soon be tipping those scales the other weigh (see what I did there!).

On another note I had to go to the doctor's the other day and as part of a general health check she took my blood pressure. It came in at 160/110 which is stupidly high. She told me to relax and took it again. Same outcome. She knew I was a runner and am not overweight so didn't seem that bothered but told me to monitor it regularly using the machine they have in reception. As soon as I got home I ordered a home monitor off Amazon (£16, not bad) and started researching everything I could about high blood pressure. Turns out I could have had "white coat syndrome" which is the act of being in the doctors having your blood pressure measured actually increases your blood pressure! The irony.

The home monitor kit arrived yesterday so I used it as soon as I was able. 130/80, which is much better. The ideal is 120/80 so I'll keep monitoring myself to see if it comes down over the next few weeks.
Now it's back to the slow runs. I can't wait to start training for the Chester marathon.

Richmond Park Marathon

I have never been more ill prepared for a race. I reckon I have missed about two weeks of training including 2 half marathon sessions, a 22 mile run and an 18 mile run not to mention the quality tempo and interval runs I've had to postpone. They say it's better to be under trained than over trained when you toe the starting line but I reckon I was pushing that saying to the limit.

Nevertheless, I arrived at Richmond Park with about an hour to spare so my wife and I decided to soak in the atmosphere and avail myself of the toilet as many times as I could fit in before the gun went off.

We started promptly at 9:30am and began the first of three loops of the park (the first loop being a long 12 mile meander followed by two 7 mile circumference loops). I had adjusted my expectations of my finishing time and now hoped to complete the race in about 3:40. I really should have looked at the course profile before making this estimate! The first two or three miles were simple enough, a slight up and down but nothing serious. My pace was good and everything felt fine. Most of the run was on trails rather than road but they were compacted trails and the weather was sunny so it wasn't like running through a bog. Then we passed through the five mile marker and hit the steepest hill on the race. It wasn't long, probably about 200 metres in total but it was steep and must have risen about 50 metres. It was tough and I could certainly feel it in my thighs but I was determined not to walk. Besides, I would be running up this hill three times in total so I was certainly not going to throw in the towel now!

After the hill from hell the course plateaued followed by some nice downhill sections (what goes up must come down after all!). There was a bit of grass running and before I knew it we had covered 9 miles. I also needed a pee. It was a sunny day and I had drunk about 500ml of water before the race and had taken a swig of water at each station (about every 3 miles). There was no getting round it, I would have to stop for a quick Jimmy Riddle. I found a well placed tree and took my relief. Looking at my timing splits it didn't take me more than 30 seconds so no harm done and I could continue running with a bit more comfort.

Another steep hill (which we would only run up once fortunately) brought us to mile 10 and then it was a relatively easy final 2 miles to bring us back to the starting area to begin the first of the 7 mile loops. My wife was waiting for me to see if I wanted to get rid of the running cap I was wearing but since the sun kept peaking out of the clouds every now and again I decided to keep hold of it.

This first 7 mile loop was almost pleasant. I knew my pace was slower than expected due to the trails and the hills and the heat but I was enjoying it. I went up hell hill a second time (still didn't walk) but had to stop at the top to take a drink from the drinks station. They were supplying water in plastic cups and it is nigh on impossible to drink from them while running. The best strategy is to stop for 5 seconds and swig it down. The benefits outweigh the losses.

I quite liked the idea of the two 7 mile loops. It meant I would know what to expect on the final loop. No surprises and I would be able to imagine landmarks that I can tick off as I pass them. Hell hill? Tick. Crossing the road? Tick. Up the slope? Tick. Past the coffee shop? Tick. You get the idea. It helps psychologically.

Before I knew it I was on the final 7 mile loop. Just over 11km. A decent morning training run. No biggy. I was kidding myself of course.

By now I was tiring. It would be take each mile as it comes.

I went up hell hill for the final time and although I was running up it like a snail I was at least running. The miles went by, my psychological landmarks ticked off. Then I hit mile 23 and my groin decided that enough was enough.

I could feel it pulling and pulling. I thought that if I carry on it will snap and I will be out of action for two or three months minimum. I had to make a choice and my decision was to adopt a run/walk strategy for the final 5km. I would run for between 400m and 1km until my groin started complaining and then I would walk for 100m. And repeat. I figured this would get me to the finish line in one piece. I wasn't the only one adopting a run/walk strategy by this point but I'm not sure if others were doing it because of injury or fatigue or a bit of both.

Finally I passed the 26 mile marker and could see the finishing line. I tried to summon up a steady pace to look good for the public but I doubt it actually looked that good in the flesh. Stumbling over the finish line there was the lady mayoress of Richmond handing out the medals and shaking the hand of every finisher which was a lovely touch. Then I picked up my goody bag (technical top and a coffee mug - pretty good!) and collapsed on the floor by my wife who had been to the supermarket and brought milkshakes and flapjacks (I knew I married her for a reason). I had run the marathon in 3:54 something which given the toughness of the course I am very pleased about.

Twenty minutes later we were in the car and on the way home. Job done. Time to think of the next marathon. Chester, October 6th. It will be flatter and I'm hoping for a sub 3:30 finish. This may sound optimistic but given that a) this marathon was much tougher than the average , b) Chester is relatively flat and c) I haven't got a wedding or a honeymoon to disrupt my training, I think it is achievable.

The next few weeks are going to be recovery sessions and then I will choose a new training schedule. I'm thinking of going with P+D rather than the Runner's World schedule that I've used for the past three years. A lot of people like P+D so it may be time to give them a try.

Here's my Garmin readout of the marathon:

Marathon Training Week 14

Sometimes real life gets in the way of updating this blog not to mention fitting in my training runs.

Since the last time I updated this blog I have had a mysterious illness that came and went without warning, got married, been on honeymoon and have had to cope with the effects of jet lag. My training has suffered a bit throughout all of this but I'm still on track (ish) to run the Richmond Park Marathon in two weeks' time, albeit with a slightly adjusted finish time expectancy (more of which later).

Let's start where I left off. The week of my marriage I was hoping to get everything back in order and hit all my training runs. I knew I'd have to jiggle them about, what with the wedding and the honeymoon but still hoped to get them all in. On the Wednesday before the wedding I woke up at 6am to go for an 11 mile steady paced run. Nothing too difficult in that. As I made my way to the toilet for a quick pee before heading downstairs I noticed that something was wrong. Essentially I felt as though I was on the deck of a ship in the high seas. My balance was all wrong and I kept walking into the wall. It was a little bit frightening because there were no warning signs the previous day or night, I hadn't drunk the night before nor had I come into contact with anyone who was ill (at least I didn't think I had). Fortunately I was due to work from home that day so I was able to spend most of it sitting on the sofa trying to make the world stop spinning. By about lunchtime it did but I didn't want to risk going out for the run in case I made it worse. I'm guessing that it was some inner ear infection that cleared itself up. Whatever it was it had gone by the evening and everything was back to normal.

Due to my wedding on the Saturday I had to run my Sunday run on the Friday once again. This time I headed down towards Kingston along the Thames footpath. It's a brilliant route to run winding down past Richmond and Teddington. It was a cold morning as it has been for most of this year so far. Spring had not yet sprung. I headed back through Bushy Park and tried to find a route to Twickenham. This time I was able to make it to the rugby stadium and ran the last five miles down through Brentford and back home to Ealing.

On my actual wedding day I ran an easy four miles in the morning taking a route that led past Pitzhanger Manor where the ceremony would take place about 7 hours later. The wedding itself was amazing, much more fun than I had thought it would be. Everything went to plan, even my bride-to-be turned up which was a bonus!

Obviously on the Sunday I was nursing a raging hangover so wasn't able to run and then on the Monday we were on a plane to New Orleans for our honeymoon. I managed a quick run in the morning as I didn't know what sort of city New Orleans was going to be to run in.

I love running in foreign cities as you get to know areas that you would never otherwise discover. The trouble is in finding decent routes that don't have too much traffic as well as not knowing the safer areas of the city.

My first run in New Orleans was on the Wednesday and did not go well. I woke to a thunderstorm. Still, I got my gear on and headed out onto the streets of the French Quarter where our hotel was. I was supposed to by running intervals of 4 x 1.5 miles but the French Quarter is too cramped and dense with streets so I ran down to the river hoping that there was a decent riverside path. There isn't. By the time I had got there and discovered this I was soaked through to the skin and thoroughly miserable. I decided to put an end to my misery and called it a day. 3 miles done. That was enough.

I decided a major rethink would have to take place. My interval and tempo runs would need to be abandoned but as long as I got some decent distance slow runs then that would keep the fitness levels up. The next day I ran 9 miles having found out where the city park was (we had gone to the art museum in the middle of it the previous day - a wet weather day activity), the day after I ran 6 miles past the New Orleans Superdome (a city bus tour had shown me where it was) and the day after that I ran an easy 5 miles through the Treme area (again, the city bus tour helped me find out where this was). Not too shabby.

The Sunday was my long run. By now I had gained better knowledge of the area so was confident of where I could run. I mapped out a route that essentially followed one of the streetcar lines so all I had to do was keep an eye on the where the overhead lines were and I was fine. I hadn't brought any gels with me (I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take them to the US) so by about 16 miles I was getting a bit short of energy. Fortunately by this time I was back in the city park where there were drinking fountains. Not exactly energy gels but needed all the same. This helped me finish the final four miles back to the hotel where we decided to have a pool day (it was Sunday after all) and spent the whole day sitting by the pool giving my muscles a rest.

From then on it became easier to find places to run. I even managed an interval session. As much as there wasn't a riverside path there was at least a 1km strip that was frequented by many runners. I used this to run a session of 5 x 1 mile. Not the most exciting running going backwards and forwards but still better than nothing. On the final day I was due to run a 6 mile tempo session but the weather turned against us and I thought better of it. All in all I managed to run 8 days out of 10 which is not bad. On my honeymoon! My wife is extremely understanding! I'm a very lucky man.

We arrived back in the UK on the Friday and had to deal with jet lag. I suffer quite badly and this time was no different. Going east to west is easy, it's just a slightly longer day. But west to east (which this is) is a nightmare, it messes the body up totally. It usually takes me about 6 days to get over it. We landed early on Friday morning and struggled to stay awake as long as possible. That night I slept till about 10am the next morning and went out for an easy 5 miles. On the Saturday night I could not get to sleep until 5am. I was supposed to run 22 miles, my longest session in the whole of the training schedule but jet lag put paid to that. The Sunday night I was up until 4am. This time though I had to get up at 7am to go to work. I was pretty much like a zombie for the entire day which worked in my favour because on the Monday night I slept like a baby. On Tuesday I commenced running again. 7 x 800m intervals. I struggled due to my ongoing tiredness but at least I was back in the groove. Things got easier as the week went by and I decided to swap this week's long run (an 18 miler) for the 22 mile run that I had missed. It would be 2 weeks until the marathon but I thought that would be ok.

I'll never find out if it would have been ok because I have come down with a cold. Sore throat, blocked nose, swollen tonsils, the lot. So I have missed my long run for the second week running. Not ideal. My latest plan is to run 18 miles on Tuesday morning (it should have been 12 hill reps) when I am due to work from home so I will be able to recover. This will be my last long run before the marathon in two weeks' time so I really have to get it in.

Because of all the missed training, re-jigged training and general chaos that has gone on in the last month or so I have had to alter my expectations of what I want to achieve in the marathon. I had been training for a 3:20 finish with the hope that because it is a hilly course I could break 3:30. This now is very unlikely. I've adjusted my training schedule to be that of a 3:30 finish with a hope of breaking my previous best which is 3:44:46, which considering the course and the training chaos would still be a great achievement.Failing this I would still like to get in under 4 hours and I think that is definitely achievable.

The moral of the story is don't train for a marathon and get married and go on honeymoon at the same time. One of those things will lose out and it won't be the marriage!

I did think that I wouldn't do another marathon after this one (which will be my third) but due to the slight disappointment I'm feeling about how my training has gone I am thinking of doing an autumn marathon, perhaps Chester again. Hopefully I will be able to follow a schedule to the letter and hit every session. As long as nothing gets in the way. I'm certainly not planning on getting married again!