Month: March 2011

Slogging

I went to the gym last night for a cross-training/short run session, then was out again at 6am this morning for a 4 mile “easy run”. After my weedy efforts on the x-trainer and bike at the gym, the already complaining thighs had stepped it up to screaming level  as I slogged around the drizzly streets of Crouch End.

I did a good deal more pavement contemplation than usual. On a good run I observe the passing flowers, birds or clouds. I ponder the lives of weary strangers waiting for the bus; I redecorate front rooms and re-plant gardens. Today the only things I saw were litter and dogshit.

Some of the litter was in fact blossom, dropped from nearby heights to die prettily in the gutter. I could identify with it.

10k or 12 mile?

Ever since I realised that someone I had been calling Tim “Joss” with a hard “J”, actually pronounced his name Tim “Yoss”, I can’t think of my blog without muttering, “not a yogger”. I don’t think I’m a yogger. It does sound like fun though –  perhaps involving a yomp through a Danone factory.

Yesterday I yogged a series of 6 km intervals at 10k pace, with recovery periods of half the time. For ease of adding up I went for 4min 20 secs at 10k pace, 2mins 10 secs recovery (6mins 30 secs per set). I ran around Regent’s Park so don’t really know whether I stuck to the pace, however I did note the start and finish locations of my third interval and using mapmyrun I can tell you that it was 1.06km, so that’s pretty damn close.

Having had a fairly hard week last week, including a hefty run on Sunday, my legs were seriously feeling the pain. In total contrast to Sunday, when I felt like my legs were writing cheques my lungs could happily cash, yesterday my whole system was overdrawn and bankruptcy felt imminent at the end of each fast km.

To spin out this spurious metaphor, I have a dilemma for this Sunday: do I keep withdrawing cash from the bank of the “Ryan Hall Training Plan“, and get both a 6 mile tempo run and a 12 mile run under my belt this week, or should I keep the money in the bank and save it up for a Regent’s Park 10k on Sunday morning?

I have free entry to the race, which is the only reason I’m feeling guilty for pulling out, if I’m honest. I’m really enjoying the training plan and don’t want to miss out on this week’s sessions, which I’d have to do if wanted to prepare properly for a race. Also, I don’t want to have to get up early on Sunday morning. I think the 12 miles is just edging ahead…

Whoop!

I am really happy to report that last week I ran a total of 32 miles, over 5 days, and that my final run of the week was the best of the lot.

We ran 10 miles as a ‘race-sim’, with 6 miles at an easy pace (for us, this was 8 minute miles), and 4 miles at race pace plus 20 seconds (which was supposed to be 7 and a half minute miles, but was actually 7m 15 secs). I am permitting myself an exclamation mark in the title in recognition of this pace. I am so impressed my legs managed to turn out that kind of speed without my heart feeling like it was going to burst. This is particularly notable as the 4 miles at the end of the run was mostly uphill.

Elevation

I’m not sure I even need to add the other good things about the run:

  1. no hangover
  2. sun was shining
  3. saw a heron in Regent’s Park
  4. blossom galore

It was such a good run, it’s made me want to ignore my day off today and go out again anyway. I won’t of course.

Booze Britain

Last night I drank 3 glasses of wine, ate half a bowl of chips and went to bed drunk. As preparation for a run, it wasn’t the best.

Thankfully I’d already decided to switch today’s 10 mile ‘race sim’ for tomorrow’s 5 mile ‘easy run and, amazingly given the headache and acid stomach I have now at 6.41pm, the run was great.

The sun was shining, a day off had put some power back in my legs and I ran past Simon Pegg. A classic saturday morning run in Crouch End.

I used to rely on the hangover curing powers of running and extol them to friends in a self-righteous fashion. I’m not sure if this is karma or old age but lately I’ve found I feel better for about 3 hours after a run and then I’m straight back to feeling seedy. However, I’m not going to allow the memory of my perfect run to be spoiled by the pain of the present.

Booze is bad, kids.

Tempus Fug It

I wonder how long it’s going to take me to run out of tempo-related puns.  Not very long if today’s effort is anything to go by.

Yesterday I ran home from work, incorporating a 25 minute “hard” tempo run section into a 6 mile route around Islington. I ran about half of the tempo section up and down Liverpool Road because it’s over a mile long and relatively traffic, people and crossing free. It’s not the most beautiful of streets, but scenery wasn’t high on my list of priorities as I scoured the paving slabs with my eyes, longing for the 25 minutes to be up.

Despite my moaning, I coped better with the tempo element than I did on a similar run 2 weeks’ ago, averaging 7 minute miles and feeling a lot more comfortable in the process. Is this progress? It’s possible.

Whilst my glass is half full, I should also note that the run was completed to a joyous soundtrack of Kvelertak, by Kvelertak, which is my new favourite metal album to run to. Recent favourites have included The Blue Album, by Baroness, and Blood Mountain by Mastodon (still the king, in my opinion). They just can’t be beaten for motivation – I think it’s the drums, there’s no way you can slow down when all hell is breaking lose inside your head. Oddly, however, my second favourite album to run to, after Blood Mountain, is Tigermilk by Belle & Sebastian. Make of that what you will.

Easy Tiger

This training schedule really means business. I now think that the key to coping with the interval, tempo and race-sim runs is to take the easy runs easier; I must try harder at trying less hard.

This morning I was tired and aching from yesterday’s interval-a-thon. It was going to be a beautiful day –  I noticed frost on a playing field as I plodded by, with a mist hanging low over the grass. The four storey townhouses on Coolhurst Road were looking more than usually majestic in the pearly light as I climbed the hill, panting in an undignified fashion.

About 4 minutes in to my run, I realised that they only way I would be able to run 4 miles today would be to slow down drastically. I was practically crawling by the time I approached the Broadway, put on a bit of a show of speed as I passed the W7 bus queue, but had to stop to walk up Mount Doom after I’d passed Marks and Spencer.

Is it ever ok to walk? I might have to change the name of the blog to “notarunner”, if this keeps up.

…Pain. Fear. Aggression…

Well, that was a fun start to the running week. I’m still red-faced at 1.47pm, and I finished the run at 7.45am. It was an interval training run, Marquis-de-Sade-style.

It was hard enough work trying to understand the instructions: “2 miles at 10k pace, 2 x 1 mile at 5k pace, 2 x 800m at slightly faster than 5k pace, with 5 minutes recovery after the 2 mile and 3 minutes recovery after the miles and the 800”.

This took me about 50 minutes in total, on a treadmill, and I summarise my issues with it herewith:

  1. What is 5k pace? I have never run a 5k race, so plumped for 0.5km/h faster than my 10k pace (so 14.5km/h)
  2. Seriously, you think I can run faster than that 5k pace? 15km/h? Ha ha ha.
  3. Turns out I can (just) over one set of 800m, but not over two.
  4. Can we just agree to use EITHER metric measurements OR miles? It is very confusing, as Mr N can confirm having run 0.8 miles instead of 800 metres for his 4th interval.

This run basically translates as a fast 10k race, broken up into pieces and getting harder as you go along. It is really really tough. By the final two intervals my thighs were burning 20 seconds in. It lulls you into a false sense of security with the 3 minute recoveries but do not be fooled, this is not for the faint-hearted.

Ten Mile Run and the Tempo of Doom

The Tempo of Doom was Friday’s run, followed by a day off on Saturday and a 10 miler this morning.

The tempo run was a ‘moderate’ one, 5 miles with a mile warm up / cool down either side. I had no idea how to gauge the ‘moderate’, I’m still struggling with the ‘tempo’. The best definition I can find is here.

It says that a tempo run should be “Comfortably hard; you know you’re working, but you’re not racing. At the same time, you’d be happy if you could slow down.”

Helpful.

To be honest, I think I do get it, I’m just struggling with it because it’s bloody hard. On Friday I happened to run my 5 miles at my goal half marathon pace (7mins 12s/mile), which is either good or worrying. Could I run 8.1 more miles at that pace? That is indeed the question.

I worked hard on the tempo run and it went pretty well, despite feeling like death on every incline. In comparison, today’s 10 miler was a shocker. I felt like an old lady with thighs made out of Edinburgh rock that could crumble at any time. Still managed 8 minute miles so hardly a write-off, but I’m going to have to get a whole lot faster over the next 7 weeks.

The Secret?

After work today I came home feeling knackered, hung the washing out, stood in my bedroom for about ten minutes vacillating, then finally put my new trainers on and went out for a run.

It was a dull, boring run-of-the-mill-type-run. Not fast. Not long. Nothing exciting happened, well nothing I haven’t seen or experienced in one of the 200 other times I’ve run that exact route. I barely remember doing it. Yet when I unlocked the door and came in the flat for the second time tonight, everything was different. I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t worrying about all the things I had to do or feeling down on myself.

If I achieve nothing else with this day, or this week, tonight I went for a run when I really didn’t want to and that makes me happy. Maybe these runs are the ones that count? The ones in between the races and the fancy training sessions.

Following this Nike-Advertisement-style high, I have rewarded myself with a night of crap TV. Not feeling quite so good about my thighs after The Model Agency, but at least I don’t have to work there.