This week in running – Page 4

Two Weeks’ In

After five days’ straight running I am taking a day off today. Cue sunshine and blue skies. Despite being tired and struggling to run fast this week, I feel really positive about the training plan.

Two weeks’ in, I’m already seeing the logic in the sessions. An interval run with long intervals requires you to understand your limits, choose a sustainable pace and stick to it. In an interval training session with short (2 minute) bursts I tend to run hell-for leather in an uncontrolled way, as fast as I can manage, with no clue whether each burst is faster or slower than the last. This method is helping me become faster over longer periods, which makes sense for the half-marathon distance.

The tempo runs are still a bit of a mystery to me. I wonder if that’s because, when I’m feeling good, I tend to up my tempo anyway?

The “Race-Sim”, an easy few miles followed by a faster few miles, gives me hope that I might be able to speed up over the course of the race, rather than starting out way too fast and then dying in the last 3 miles.

All in all it’s been an enlightening week – 28 miles in total and some serious hard work put in. I also learned a valuable lesson: don’t give blood in the week before a race.

Country Roads (Take Me Home)

Even on a cold March day with no hint of blue sky, 8 miles along country lanes like this will always beat a trot down the Stroud Green Road. I’ve been staying at the parental home this weekend and managed to get out twice, with varying success.

The first run, the dreaded ‘tempo’, is best passed over swiftly. Thanks to a minor stomach complaint it was cut short as I too was caught, um, short. I managed 36 minutes and walked (shuffled) the rest.

Today’s was thankfully untroubled by bowel-related incidents. I did however see a Red Kite, two Buzzards, a live rabbit, several dead ones and a farmer demonstrating the right place to wear a Barbour jacket and Hunter wellies (ie in a field, rather than Dalston). Amid all this nature watching, I also managed to run 8 miles at 7.5 mins/mile without really noticing.

A good run.

25 miles this week, but not a great start to the training really. I felt sluggish then ill on the interval and tempo sessions so plenty to improve on.

Weekly round-up

Drizzle. Not a word I want to hear, unless it’s followed by ‘extra virgin olive oil’. This morning I ran 7 miles in grey, windy, drizzling rain. My legs were quaking on the hills like an old chair about to collapse and I ran 7 miles in the same time it took me to run 8 yesterday.

On the good side, I made it to 25 miles this week, 25.5 to be precise. I ran 15 of them this weekend, so it wasn’t exactly a well balanced week, but let’s gloss over that. Quantity, not quality, is what I’m aiming for at the moment. Quality begins in a fortnight. Mmm quality street. I need chocs.

Weekend (ok, weekly…) round-up

Oooooooops, forgot to write anything after Tuesday last week. Here’s a quick round-up, then normal service will resume.

After my poor mileage the week before, last week was a tiny bit better with 19 miles in total. After 3 in the gym on Monday night, I ran 6 on Wednesday morning, then got too busy at work and didn’t manage anything til Saturday morning, when I ran a good 10, even though I’d drank booze the night before.

I love those long runs when you feel invincible – for me they only ever happen on a weekend morning, when I’ve eaten a good breakfast, drunk a pint of water, two cups of tea, and finished the Guardian crossword. I’m not just a running geek..

Weekend round-up

It’s late, but here’s my weekend round-up and summary of last week’s running.

I had a skirmish with some wine on Friday night so Saturday’s run started out painfully slowly, but after 15 minutes the fug cleared and I felt good, maybe even great. Ran 8 miles in an hour dead on, a 7.5 minute mile average. Buoyed by this success I proceed to clock up a massive zero miles on Sunday. Oops.

At New Year I made a semi-serious promise to myself that my baseline would be 25 miles a week, when not training, and last week’s the first week I haven’t made it – only 17 miles. Proper training for my next race (Ranelagh Half Marathon on 8 May) doesn’t start until the end of February so I’ve got 4 weeks to get serious.