The cold has finally gone, I've managed two good runs and a couple of longish walks this week. No ill effects, I even managed to drink and run at the same time without choking:-)
So where am I in terms of my training?
I can readily run 10km, I can run at full pelt on up to about 5 miles. I've not gone further than 10km and I've not done much speed training.
Oh, and I'm two weeks away from a half-marathon and 4 weeks away from an off-road marathon.
My every rule in the book I should be a little worried, but this is where all of the run last year come into play. I know these runs are going to hurt, I know I can do them and stay hale and healthy and I know that thoughts of PB's and good times are will of the wisps. These runs are now probably what they should have been from when I booked them, staging posts on to the rest of the year and the madness that is yet to come.
At various points last year I was knocking off half marathons for fun, 2 in one weekend, one an evening after work. It is that confidence I need to channel over the next couple of weeks, paced and focused running - two runs in the week and then an offroad jolly next weekend. Then a gentle taper, one of the quirks of my running is that I've got my best times when I haven't tapered, my strength and confidence seem to be linked more than the normal carbohydrate and muscle tiredness regimes others use successfully.
So, miles to do (and an essay to finish)... This weeks run were fun, both while I was in London - the first makes a delightful walk...
The second one was a trip to a favourite place... and a trot around a fine old lady with a shiny bottom
So, gym in the morning...
TTFN
Paul
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Sunday, 17 February 2013
There's a me shaped indent in the beach...
The nightrunner series on the face of it is a little bit mad....
Take a trail or fell run... Take some runners... Make sure they have headtorches... wait until after dark... and let them go!
The most local one of these to me was yesterday on Formby beach, part of the Sefton dune system. During the day I'd be (in warmer weather) looking out for Natterjack toads, a local speciality and a national rare species.
In February, any self-respecting toad is going to be hibernating and the local wildlife was best described as human (probably) and gobby (definitely) AKA scallies... Their dulcet tones greeted us during one stage of the run.
There were three distinct types of terrain I either ran on, jog/stumbled on or walked through slowly... That'll be trails, the beach and sand, deep sand! On the trails I was keeping up with the group of friendly runners I'd started with at the back of the pack, on the beach I was doing fine until I went flying... Splat... I tripped over a washed up brick... Dusting (sanding?) myself off and plodding along was the order of the day, until the next brick... Ho Hum!
The soft sand was a nightmare, I sank in it... often up to my ankles, adding to the fun, honest;-)
My vague target was something around 65 min - I was allowing 10min for the terrain and for the night running thing... 67:50 was the final scores on the Garmin's doors, so I'll live with that:-)
The cold and lurgy finally seem to have shifted, my evidence is my appetite is not longer on hyper-drive and I'm irritated that because tomorrow is complicated I won't be getting to the gym first thing! Hey ho, such is life...
TTFN
Paul
Take a trail or fell run... Take some runners... Make sure they have headtorches... wait until after dark... and let them go!
The most local one of these to me was yesterday on Formby beach, part of the Sefton dune system. During the day I'd be (in warmer weather) looking out for Natterjack toads, a local speciality and a national rare species.
In February, any self-respecting toad is going to be hibernating and the local wildlife was best described as human (probably) and gobby (definitely) AKA scallies... Their dulcet tones greeted us during one stage of the run.
There were three distinct types of terrain I either ran on, jog/stumbled on or walked through slowly... That'll be trails, the beach and sand, deep sand! On the trails I was keeping up with the group of friendly runners I'd started with at the back of the pack, on the beach I was doing fine until I went flying... Splat... I tripped over a washed up brick... Dusting (sanding?) myself off and plodding along was the order of the day, until the next brick... Ho Hum!
The soft sand was a nightmare, I sank in it... often up to my ankles, adding to the fun, honest;-)
My vague target was something around 65 min - I was allowing 10min for the terrain and for the night running thing... 67:50 was the final scores on the Garmin's doors, so I'll live with that:-)
The cold and lurgy finally seem to have shifted, my evidence is my appetite is not longer on hyper-drive and I'm irritated that because tomorrow is complicated I won't be getting to the gym first thing! Hey ho, such is life...
TTFN
Paul
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Progress... A tail of three Mad Dogs
I love the Mad Dog 10k...
It's early enough in the year that I don't put myself under too much pressure... And at just the right point to give me an indication for the half, full and Ultra's to come.
It's also a crackingly well organised run, all for charity as well!!!
The Garmin does provide some simple analyticals - and when I look across the years I smile, and frown...
The smile, I'm quicker than I was last year.
The frown - if I'd run the last 2km of last year I'd have been knocking on the door of a PB... Bugger... However, by that point I'd had to stop to drink and eat... Running with a blocked nose may be possible, and up to 5km seemed good (hell a 30min 5km is good!)... Trying to drink, and run at the same time, is not such a good idea... I did wheeze, and I did try and breathe water, and I did go red!
Ho hum...
Positives - I was faster than last year... It was cold, I had a cold, I finished and I got a cracking t-shirt and stunning medal:
It's early enough in the year that I don't put myself under too much pressure... And at just the right point to give me an indication for the half, full and Ultra's to come.
It's also a crackingly well organised run, all for charity as well!!!
The Garmin does provide some simple analyticals - and when I look across the years I smile, and frown...
The smile, I'm quicker than I was last year.
The frown - if I'd run the last 2km of last year I'd have been knocking on the door of a PB... Bugger... However, by that point I'd had to stop to drink and eat... Running with a blocked nose may be possible, and up to 5km seemed good (hell a 30min 5km is good!)... Trying to drink, and run at the same time, is not such a good idea... I did wheeze, and I did try and breathe water, and I did go red!
Ho hum...
Positives - I was faster than last year... It was cold, I had a cold, I finished and I got a cracking t-shirt and stunning medal:
I also made youtube... linky to youtube - I'm at about 3:10...
Right enough navel gazing, I've a half marathon in Cambridge to get ready for, and an offroad marathon... Both in March... Hmmmm....
TTFN
Paul
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Fitbit - gadget & customer service!
I don't often write reviews... Occasionally my run writes ups are like reviews, occasionally a company does something nice for the cause and gets a thank you...
This is a bit of a review and a lot of a thank you!
The idea behind Fitbit is simple - a total activity monitor... How many steps a day, how many flights of stairs, how many calories... It's a pedometer with bells and whistles. It's not a GPS watch (got one of them) it is nice and small (think USB stick).
And so it clips on to your belt, or bra (their advice not mine!) and just monitors you day in day out and the real selling point for me monitors your sleep - simple stuff on how many times you wake up and how long for. But a data point I've not been able to access before, and as regular readers know I'm a data junkie as well as a run junkie...
Now what's clever, and addictive, is that Fitbit adds at least two layers of "gamefication" (I do jargon... ) the first is the flowers, the helicopter emails, the badges - you do something, you get a reward - a power up in gaming speak. The second is the competitive element... You can play against your friends - a little league table of steps taken...
I love it, it would be very easy for me to focus solely on the running and forget I can do stuff during the day - the normal activity guidelines for anyone - walking a bit more, walking up a few more flights of stairs (yes even I get the lift from time to time)...
The Fitbit has been out on runs, on walks and even around the shops (Seriously, don't like exercise - hit the shops, plenty of things to distract as you wander around!!!!). And then I took it for a fell run... and somewhere on the banks of Derwent Water it fell off!
Which left me genuinely upset, odd that a small bit of electronics came to be so useful in less than a month... and being at heart a cheeky chappy I wrote to Fitbit and explained my predicament, offering to cough up if they had a refurbished one, or a returned one and explained that it was helping me towards Challenge 25 ... and they very, very kindly sent me a brand new one!
So a cracking bit of kit, and excellent customer service. You can find Fitbit here - I'm loving it and I'm only at the basic side of using it, there's groups and calories counters and everything else to try yet!
So a review and a thank you - neither of them asked for by Fitbit, as ever I'm a genuine soul... Now to double check my kit for the MadDog 10k in the morning, a cold but good race (it has a number, its a race) hopefully the cold in my nose is dead, the Fitbit will stay in my bumbag and all will be good in the world!
TTFN
Paul
This is a bit of a review and a lot of a thank you!
The idea behind Fitbit is simple - a total activity monitor... How many steps a day, how many flights of stairs, how many calories... It's a pedometer with bells and whistles. It's not a GPS watch (got one of them) it is nice and small (think USB stick).
And so it clips on to your belt, or bra (their advice not mine!) and just monitors you day in day out and the real selling point for me monitors your sleep - simple stuff on how many times you wake up and how long for. But a data point I've not been able to access before, and as regular readers know I'm a data junkie as well as a run junkie...
Now what's clever, and addictive, is that Fitbit adds at least two layers of "gamefication" (I do jargon... ) the first is the flowers, the helicopter emails, the badges - you do something, you get a reward - a power up in gaming speak. The second is the competitive element... You can play against your friends - a little league table of steps taken...
I love it, it would be very easy for me to focus solely on the running and forget I can do stuff during the day - the normal activity guidelines for anyone - walking a bit more, walking up a few more flights of stairs (yes even I get the lift from time to time)...
The Fitbit has been out on runs, on walks and even around the shops (Seriously, don't like exercise - hit the shops, plenty of things to distract as you wander around!!!!). And then I took it for a fell run... and somewhere on the banks of Derwent Water it fell off!
Which left me genuinely upset, odd that a small bit of electronics came to be so useful in less than a month... and being at heart a cheeky chappy I wrote to Fitbit and explained my predicament, offering to cough up if they had a refurbished one, or a returned one and explained that it was helping me towards Challenge 25 ... and they very, very kindly sent me a brand new one!
So a cracking bit of kit, and excellent customer service. You can find Fitbit here - I'm loving it and I'm only at the basic side of using it, there's groups and calories counters and everything else to try yet!
So a review and a thank you - neither of them asked for by Fitbit, as ever I'm a genuine soul... Now to double check my kit for the MadDog 10k in the morning, a cold but good race (it has a number, its a race) hopefully the cold in my nose is dead, the Fitbit will stay in my bumbag and all will be good in the world!
TTFN
Paul
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Going loopy in The Lakes
I booked this trip back in December...
Two night, 3 trips out...
I thought it would be a chance to practice my winter walking skills and if I was lucky get some endurance training in...
So much for the Great British Winter...
Friday night - cool and damp, wet for periods
Saturday - Glorious, dangerously glorious
Sunday - dank and overcast
My plans changed with the weather - Friday night became a 10 mile trot around Derwent Water - mostly offroad, rough trails and slippy boardwalks. Not fast, but it was a night run by the time I finished.
Saturday was all about control - the weather was stunning, the hills were almost empty. It would've been the easiest thing in the world to carry on walking, but I'd started to encounter ice on the trails around Catbells, and I was walking on my own... So I did the sensible thing and ducked down to see somewhere I never had before - Newlands Church, and very pretty it was too!
Sunday was a power walk to the top of Latrigg, a lovely little hill and then a jog down the over side and along the railway track back to Keswick.
Throw in decent food, a decent Youth Hostel, a gratuitous attempt to keep the Keswick shops open singlehandedly (most was stuff I knew I needed, some was a result of planning while running) and an excellent weekend. The only down (other than it ending) was losing my fitbit:-(
Totals = 45km along, 1342m up & down in 10h worth of doing stuff... For the imperials - 28 miles & 4400ft
Oh, and my diabetic eye test came back good:-) A rather good weekend then!
TTFN
Paul
Two night, 3 trips out...
I thought it would be a chance to practice my winter walking skills and if I was lucky get some endurance training in...
So much for the Great British Winter...
Friday night - cool and damp, wet for periods
Saturday - Glorious, dangerously glorious
Sunday - dank and overcast
My plans changed with the weather - Friday night became a 10 mile trot around Derwent Water - mostly offroad, rough trails and slippy boardwalks. Not fast, but it was a night run by the time I finished.
Saturday was all about control - the weather was stunning, the hills were almost empty. It would've been the easiest thing in the world to carry on walking, but I'd started to encounter ice on the trails around Catbells, and I was walking on my own... So I did the sensible thing and ducked down to see somewhere I never had before - Newlands Church, and very pretty it was too!
Sunday was a power walk to the top of Latrigg, a lovely little hill and then a jog down the over side and along the railway track back to Keswick.
Throw in decent food, a decent Youth Hostel, a gratuitous attempt to keep the Keswick shops open singlehandedly (most was stuff I knew I needed, some was a result of planning while running) and an excellent weekend. The only down (other than it ending) was losing my fitbit:-(
Totals = 45km along, 1342m up & down in 10h worth of doing stuff... For the imperials - 28 miles & 4400ft
Oh, and my diabetic eye test came back good:-) A rather good weekend then!
TTFN
Paul
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