Went for a quarter marathon run last night. 7.1 miles in 1 hour and 2 minutes. Pleased with that sort of pace which is about the 7mph mark. If I could have kept that pace up for another hour (and there was plenty of running left in me by the time I had finished) I would have got my half marathon time under the two hour mark. I did slow towards the end though as several very unpleasant blisters had formed in the arch of my foot. These blisters are a testament to 1000mile socks that I was wearing for the Great North Run but had not got on last night. Must invest in more 1000mile socks.
I have decided to increase the distances that I am running because I have now set my sights on a full marathon at some point in 2010 and I have half a mind on tacking an ultra marathon at some point in the future too.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
I gave myself a full week off to recover from the Great North Run and by the end of the week I was starting to really need to do something again. I could almost feel my muscles starting to atrophy while I sat there playing the playstation.
Saturday was a light run with the wife. My old favourite route of 4.2miles took us about 50 minutes which was a slow pace but I didn’t want to push too hard straight after my little rest.
Sunday I got the bike out for the cardio. Went out for an hour and a half and covered about twenty miles. A week after a half marathon and my legs were not back up to full capacity, after about an hour I had burned through the glycogen stores, the last 5 miles home were slow and painful.
Over the weekend I also had a chance to chat with Nigel, my proposed crewmate for the DW, he is finding it hard to keep up with any kind of training regime with his workloads at the moment, and his getting married next year is putting further strains on his time and wallet so he has decided to pull out of any plans to take part in the DW next year. So what to do? Find a replacement? Do the single crew event? Postpone until 2011? I’m not sure at the moment.
I’m also thinking about changing the name and the URL of the blog (be warned that some day soon I might move). When I first started this, the only reason for it being was to chart my preparations to get ready for the Devizes to Westminster canoe race but now it has become more like a fitness diary. I don’t know what to change it to yet but I might even give the page a full makeover.
Saturday was a light run with the wife. My old favourite route of 4.2miles took us about 50 minutes which was a slow pace but I didn’t want to push too hard straight after my little rest.
Sunday I got the bike out for the cardio. Went out for an hour and a half and covered about twenty miles. A week after a half marathon and my legs were not back up to full capacity, after about an hour I had burned through the glycogen stores, the last 5 miles home were slow and painful.
Over the weekend I also had a chance to chat with Nigel, my proposed crewmate for the DW, he is finding it hard to keep up with any kind of training regime with his workloads at the moment, and his getting married next year is putting further strains on his time and wallet so he has decided to pull out of any plans to take part in the DW next year. So what to do? Find a replacement? Do the single crew event? Postpone until 2011? I’m not sure at the moment.
I’m also thinking about changing the name and the URL of the blog (be warned that some day soon I might move). When I first started this, the only reason for it being was to chart my preparations to get ready for the Devizes to Westminster canoe race but now it has become more like a fitness diary. I don’t know what to change it to yet but I might even give the page a full makeover.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Great North Swim and Great North Run
My Great North week, really was pretty great. Starting out with the Great North Swim and finishing with the Great North Run.
At the beginning of the week it was the Great North Swim. We were staying in a self catering lodge not far from Windermere to use as a base. All the advice on the day was to not drive and try to park at the event so we decided to walk the 3 miles to Windermere which proved to be a pleasant warm up for the swim.
We were there pretty early, time enough to mill around watching the organisers going through the safety briefings and things. I was in the first wave on the first day and I felt pretty privileged to be the first one out. It seems that most people in the first wave were all new to this outdoor swimming malarkey and after going through into the holding pen we all just stood around nervously, not sure what was going on. A couple of people dipped into the lake to acclimatise but most of us (including me) just nervously waited for the starters gun.
I wish I did have a pre-race dip into the water though because the moment I hit the water my breath was taken away, and for the first quarter of a mile my chest felt tight and I felt like I was going to drown. I didn’t though, and eventually I started to enjoy myself.
I’m a confident swimmer but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than breast stroke. It is my strongest stroke and when I was younger I won several races with it but alas, the front crawl is faster and over the distance people who I thought I might beat thrashed past me. Dr. Hillary Jones (of GMTV fame) was one of those people who went past me at about the half mile mark, I tried to keep with him but I couldn’t bring myself to front crawl.
In the end I finished in 00:41:43. A time I am pretty pleased with. When I was training in the pool I was covering the mile distance in about 45 – 50 minutes. I finished overall 2777th fastest person out of 4581 people who completed the swim over the two days.
I enjoyed the day, and the experience of the whole event was brilliant but the competitive side off me is not happy about finishing in the bottom half of the grid. I have already applied to do it again next year and vowed to have an open water front crawl I am confident with next time.
The Great North Run was at the other end of the week was something awesome, I have never taken part in anything so special. Fifty thousand other people all taking part in the same event was pretty amazing and I felt proud to be there.
Driving early in the morning to park the car at the finish line, my Satnav guided me down the route of the run. It made me really nervous to see the route that we would be running but it did help me visualise what was upcoming, where the water stations where, where the hills where, and most importantly where the finish was. Parking up we bussed back to the start to join thousands of runners and spectators all being whipped up into some kind of running frenzy by the announcer.
As I mentioned in earlier blog posts, I was in the green group at the back which was, (I’m told) almost a kilometre from the starting line, certainly it took me nearly twenty minutes to walk to the start line from the green zone pen after the gun had gone. The green group was not filled with the fastest runners in the world either and once we finally got underway I did get bogged down with slow movers who were not as keen to get to South Shields as I was.
My leg was a constant worry during the build up to this event, and I hadn’t really run on it for two or three weeks prior. The leg ached a bit in the morning so I made sure I warmed up thoroughly and also took the warming up short cut with lashings of Deep Heat slathered all over. The leg muscle tightened up during the first few miles but eventually I forgot about it and was able to do the distance without another twinge.
I was really surprised how many people were badly prepared for the half marathon. All the information provided by the great run people had outlined how hard the event was: Don’t run if you haven’t run any more than 8 miles, keep hydrated, don’t drink booze the night before etc. etc. (I have to be honest I broke many of the rules on being fit to run, and had I not been as stubborn as I am I might have not run this year) but at about the 3 mile mark people were already walking and it wasn’t much long after that there were fallen runners being tended to by paramedics. I remember one man who looked to be of a similar fitness, build and age to me stumbling off the road and into a tree completely delirious with fatigue or heat exhaustion (a pack of paramedics pounced on him so I guess he survived).
The final mile dropped down onto the coast and along the sea front and was lined by so many cheering people it was a real boost, I decided to go for a fast finish. I saw the “800 metres to go” boards and I stepped up a gear, and was running for ages before the 400 metre boards came up. I hadn’t really appreciated that 800 metres was half a mile, I had just got wrapped up with the joy of seeing the first sign that was in metres not miles. I nearly killed myself with that half mile sprint finish.
In the end my time was 02:04:57 which is a time I am happy with. I finished overall 14,244th out of 37,541 finishers. Top half of the grid is much more pleasing.
They also had several timing mats over the course and my times recorded were.
5k 00:28:41
10k 00:58:18
15k 01:28:14
Which means at the first mat I was doing 9.2 minutes per mile (or 6.5mph) second mat I was slowing and doing 9.38 minutes per mile (6.4mph) and by the third mat at 15 kilometres I was doing 9.46 minutes per mile (6.34mph). So much for trying to run negative splits. I am pleased I kept my speed above 6mph though because often during training I would trundle along at 5mph.
The experience was amazing. Going over the Tyne bridge with the sun shining, fifty thousand other people all doing the same thing, and the Red Arrows flying overhead, was one of those moments I won’t forget. It is difficult to sum up my feelings at that moment in words but it was brilliant and something I am going to have to do again.
Two days later and the aches have arrived. Nothing too bad, though it has taken most of the day for the seized muscles to cooperate. I’m going to give myself the rest of the week off and then I am getting back into the training. With a couple of half marathons under my belt it is probably time to set my sights on a full one.
At the beginning of the week it was the Great North Swim. We were staying in a self catering lodge not far from Windermere to use as a base. All the advice on the day was to not drive and try to park at the event so we decided to walk the 3 miles to Windermere which proved to be a pleasant warm up for the swim.
We were there pretty early, time enough to mill around watching the organisers going through the safety briefings and things. I was in the first wave on the first day and I felt pretty privileged to be the first one out. It seems that most people in the first wave were all new to this outdoor swimming malarkey and after going through into the holding pen we all just stood around nervously, not sure what was going on. A couple of people dipped into the lake to acclimatise but most of us (including me) just nervously waited for the starters gun.
I wish I did have a pre-race dip into the water though because the moment I hit the water my breath was taken away, and for the first quarter of a mile my chest felt tight and I felt like I was going to drown. I didn’t though, and eventually I started to enjoy myself.
I’m a confident swimmer but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than breast stroke. It is my strongest stroke and when I was younger I won several races with it but alas, the front crawl is faster and over the distance people who I thought I might beat thrashed past me. Dr. Hillary Jones (of GMTV fame) was one of those people who went past me at about the half mile mark, I tried to keep with him but I couldn’t bring myself to front crawl.
In the end I finished in 00:41:43. A time I am pretty pleased with. When I was training in the pool I was covering the mile distance in about 45 – 50 minutes. I finished overall 2777th fastest person out of 4581 people who completed the swim over the two days.
I enjoyed the day, and the experience of the whole event was brilliant but the competitive side off me is not happy about finishing in the bottom half of the grid. I have already applied to do it again next year and vowed to have an open water front crawl I am confident with next time.
The Great North Run was at the other end of the week was something awesome, I have never taken part in anything so special. Fifty thousand other people all taking part in the same event was pretty amazing and I felt proud to be there.
Driving early in the morning to park the car at the finish line, my Satnav guided me down the route of the run. It made me really nervous to see the route that we would be running but it did help me visualise what was upcoming, where the water stations where, where the hills where, and most importantly where the finish was. Parking up we bussed back to the start to join thousands of runners and spectators all being whipped up into some kind of running frenzy by the announcer.
As I mentioned in earlier blog posts, I was in the green group at the back which was, (I’m told) almost a kilometre from the starting line, certainly it took me nearly twenty minutes to walk to the start line from the green zone pen after the gun had gone. The green group was not filled with the fastest runners in the world either and once we finally got underway I did get bogged down with slow movers who were not as keen to get to South Shields as I was.
My leg was a constant worry during the build up to this event, and I hadn’t really run on it for two or three weeks prior. The leg ached a bit in the morning so I made sure I warmed up thoroughly and also took the warming up short cut with lashings of Deep Heat slathered all over. The leg muscle tightened up during the first few miles but eventually I forgot about it and was able to do the distance without another twinge.
I was really surprised how many people were badly prepared for the half marathon. All the information provided by the great run people had outlined how hard the event was: Don’t run if you haven’t run any more than 8 miles, keep hydrated, don’t drink booze the night before etc. etc. (I have to be honest I broke many of the rules on being fit to run, and had I not been as stubborn as I am I might have not run this year) but at about the 3 mile mark people were already walking and it wasn’t much long after that there were fallen runners being tended to by paramedics. I remember one man who looked to be of a similar fitness, build and age to me stumbling off the road and into a tree completely delirious with fatigue or heat exhaustion (a pack of paramedics pounced on him so I guess he survived).
The final mile dropped down onto the coast and along the sea front and was lined by so many cheering people it was a real boost, I decided to go for a fast finish. I saw the “800 metres to go” boards and I stepped up a gear, and was running for ages before the 400 metre boards came up. I hadn’t really appreciated that 800 metres was half a mile, I had just got wrapped up with the joy of seeing the first sign that was in metres not miles. I nearly killed myself with that half mile sprint finish.
In the end my time was 02:04:57 which is a time I am happy with. I finished overall 14,244th out of 37,541 finishers. Top half of the grid is much more pleasing.
They also had several timing mats over the course and my times recorded were.
5k 00:28:41
10k 00:58:18
15k 01:28:14
Which means at the first mat I was doing 9.2 minutes per mile (or 6.5mph) second mat I was slowing and doing 9.38 minutes per mile (6.4mph) and by the third mat at 15 kilometres I was doing 9.46 minutes per mile (6.34mph). So much for trying to run negative splits. I am pleased I kept my speed above 6mph though because often during training I would trundle along at 5mph.
The experience was amazing. Going over the Tyne bridge with the sun shining, fifty thousand other people all doing the same thing, and the Red Arrows flying overhead, was one of those moments I won’t forget. It is difficult to sum up my feelings at that moment in words but it was brilliant and something I am going to have to do again.
Two days later and the aches have arrived. Nothing too bad, though it has taken most of the day for the seized muscles to cooperate. I’m going to give myself the rest of the week off and then I am getting back into the training. With a couple of half marathons under my belt it is probably time to set my sights on a full one.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Right. This is it. The last entry on my blog before I head off up north to take part in the Swim and Run.
We are travelling up to Windermere tomorrow for the Great North Swim which takes place at the weekend. We’re staying in a lodge not far from the start line which should make life a bit easier on the day for me. I’m not too worried about the swim and I am quite looking forward to it in a nervous sort of way. I’m in the first wave on the first day with a shoal of other swimmers in our blue/black hats and by about half past ten in the morning it should all be over for me.
Then the following weekend is the Great North Run. I am more concerned about this one. I have an injury on my left leg which is causing me some concern. It could be anything from a stress fracture to a muscle strain but no matter what the cause of the pain, all advice is to not do the half marathon next week. All I can do at the moment is rest the limb and hope it gets better. Currently I am wearing a compression bandage during the day which may help and trust that it gets better. Currently I am pretty confident that I will be fit to take part but I think my push to smash a world record is in jeopardy.
I’m going to be away from the internet for 12 days so expect a fulsome writeup on my Northern exploits when I get back but I will almost certainly tweet my race times and things through the week so if you care you can still find out how I got on.
We are travelling up to Windermere tomorrow for the Great North Swim which takes place at the weekend. We’re staying in a lodge not far from the start line which should make life a bit easier on the day for me. I’m not too worried about the swim and I am quite looking forward to it in a nervous sort of way. I’m in the first wave on the first day with a shoal of other swimmers in our blue/black hats and by about half past ten in the morning it should all be over for me.
Then the following weekend is the Great North Run. I am more concerned about this one. I have an injury on my left leg which is causing me some concern. It could be anything from a stress fracture to a muscle strain but no matter what the cause of the pain, all advice is to not do the half marathon next week. All I can do at the moment is rest the limb and hope it gets better. Currently I am wearing a compression bandage during the day which may help and trust that it gets better. Currently I am pretty confident that I will be fit to take part but I think my push to smash a world record is in jeopardy.
I’m going to be away from the internet for 12 days so expect a fulsome writeup on my Northern exploits when I get back but I will almost certainly tweet my race times and things through the week so if you care you can still find out how I got on.
Monday, 7 September 2009
I have had ten days of forced rest because of these bloody legs of mine. I have two weeks to go before this Great North Run and the shin pain has morphed into something more painful now.
My shin splints pain feels like the shin bone is going to snap. This pain has gone from both my legs, I am no longer suffering from this probably because I have rested. I now have a stabbing pain that is centred in the middle of my left leg (right leg is fine) deep in the muscle. It’s okay at rest but if I move the leg it really hurts and running is difficult.
I went off to have my gait looked at to see if this is the root of my leg problem. There is a specialist running shop nearby which have a treadmill/camera/laptop combo to analyse your running gait. One cause of shin pain is overpronation, where your foot rolls inward too much. My internet diagnosis had me suspecting that I might overpronate but after a quick jog on the treadmill in a pair of neutral trainers that was ruled out. I have a neutral gait and am a forefoot striker. The landing on my forefoot I knew about but I was pleased to see I have a good running cycle.
I have now invested in a new pair of trainers that cushion the forefoot and they have made a marked improvement in comfort while running. I went out for a light run (50 minutes) and was surprised with how much I needed cushioning at the front of my foot.
So now I am on countdown. 5 days until the Great North Swim. 13 days until the Great North Run. I am starting to get a touch nervous about both.
My shin splints pain feels like the shin bone is going to snap. This pain has gone from both my legs, I am no longer suffering from this probably because I have rested. I now have a stabbing pain that is centred in the middle of my left leg (right leg is fine) deep in the muscle. It’s okay at rest but if I move the leg it really hurts and running is difficult.
I went off to have my gait looked at to see if this is the root of my leg problem. There is a specialist running shop nearby which have a treadmill/camera/laptop combo to analyse your running gait. One cause of shin pain is overpronation, where your foot rolls inward too much. My internet diagnosis had me suspecting that I might overpronate but after a quick jog on the treadmill in a pair of neutral trainers that was ruled out. I have a neutral gait and am a forefoot striker. The landing on my forefoot I knew about but I was pleased to see I have a good running cycle.
I have now invested in a new pair of trainers that cushion the forefoot and they have made a marked improvement in comfort while running. I went out for a light run (50 minutes) and was surprised with how much I needed cushioning at the front of my foot.
So now I am on countdown. 5 days until the Great North Swim. 13 days until the Great North Run. I am starting to get a touch nervous about both.
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