I\'ve completed a fair number of the 5km races at the Richmond parkrun but, again, not as regularly. My average time has increased by over a minute but that doesn\'t bother me. One of my initial aims is to start running them a bit more often and hopefully knock the seconds back off.
Last week was my first major race since London, the Windsor Half Marathon. I wasn\'t going for a time, just wanted to enjoy the run but even though I was taking it easy it was a tough one\; the hilliest course I\'ve ever done, on another unseasonably warm day. My performance there certainly gave me something to think about. This weekend I\'m doing RunKingston, a 16 mile run along the Thames which I\'ve done before it\'s flat and scenic so I\'m hoping to do a bit better but it\'s mainly just to get a feel for my fitness before serious training begins.
"; } else { document.getElementById("news_oct").innerHTML=""; document.getElementById("news_oct").style.border="1px solid white"; document.getElementById("loct").style.color = "#000000"; } } //November 2009 function setNovText() { if (document.getElementById("news_nov").innerHTML==""){ document.getElementById("lnov").style.color = "#FA6601"; document.getElementById("news_nov").innerHTML="I was getting a little bored with running and running all the time and I won\'t start on a proper marathon training plan until January, so Mandy decided to show me an unorthodox training method.I was exhausted after that. You can tell me what you think of my moves on the Message Board but remember...I\'m a runner, not a dancer.
RunKingston, a few weekends ago, went very well. 16 miles was the furthest I\'d run since the marathon and I was pleased to realise I had the stamina to keep up the same steady pace all the way through. I didn\'t set myself a time target, that\'s something I want to try and get away from, but I was very close to when I ran the same course in April. That tells me I\'ve still got the fitness I had then, more or less, which is very encouraging.
My plan over the next couple of months is to build up even more mileage but without going overboard. I want to see if I can make my body think that a 20 mile run every 2 weeks or so is normal, without burning myself out. It may seem a bit early to be running that far but I think I\'m fit enough to maintain it and I already feel I\'m recovering quicker than I did a few months ago. I think slowing myself down, especially in the first half and letting the speed increase naturally as time goes on, is the key to keeping that up.
We\'ll see anyway. Depending on how that goes will shape the training plan I\'ll start on in January.
"; } else { document.getElementById("news_nov").innerHTML=""; document.getElementById("news_nov").style.border="1px solid white"; document.getElementById("lnov").style.color = "#000000"; } } //December 2009 function setDecText() { if (document.getElementById("news_dec").innerHTML==""){ document.getElementById("ldec").style.color = "#FA6601"; document.getElementById("news_dec").innerHTML="A couple of weeks ago I was presented with my 50 Club parkrun t-shirt. I missed the main week they were given out because I was on holiday and apparently that morning saw terrible weather conditions. The race director started of the announcements by offering congratulations to the people who showed up and jokingly berating the \'fair weather\' runners for staying in bed! Then she said, I\'ve got one last t-shirt to give out for someone who wasn\'t here last week....then called out my name. Cheek! Made me sound like I was scared of a bit of rain! Not true, I\'ve certainly done my fair share of running in the hail, gales and mud.I hope you\'ve noticed that I\'ve made a few improvements and additions to the site, just before things start to get serious after Christmas. I\'ve added a mileometer page to keep track of how many miles I\'ll end up running in 2010, put a few more pictures in the gallery and yes, your eyes are not mistaken, the pages are wider! So I can fit more cool stuff on
Yes, it was a bit cold  | For the people running behind me  | The first 5 miles of 2010.....done!  |
These pictures were taken before and after the very first miles of the year, on New Year\'s Day. The mileometer has started ticking, check out my progress here.
Although I haven\'t been on a structured training plan up until now, I\'ve more than held my own recently I think. Last weekend I ran my fastest parkrun since mid April and I can already comfortably run 16 miles. \'Comfortably\' of course, being a relative term. I\'ve been thinking carefully about how I\'m going to train this time. I don\'t want to take the same approach as I did last year, partly because I didn\'t quite get the result I wanted, partly because it kinda took over my life a little bit and partly because 4 weeks after London I\'ll be running the second marathon and I\'ll need to have some legs left. So here\'s the plan...
I\'m going to try and completely forget about time and pace and just concentrate on putting in the miles. I\'ll only be doing 3 running sessions a week, made up of the long steady run, a recovery run a day or 2 after that, plus one other quality session - either the 5km parkrun or maybe up to 10km on the treadmill, depending how I feel. In addition, I\'ll be doing one cross training session a week, pilates or weights. That means no speed work. No mile reps, no hill repeats, no fartleks. What a shame.
And I want to do more 20+ mile runs than I did last year. Most plans recommend 2-4 runs of 20-22 miles. I\'m planning on doing at least 6, maybe getting up to 24 miles. But I\'ll have to take each week as it comes because it\'ll be very easy to burn myself out so to compensate for the extra miles, I\'m going to slow myself down. Time is secondary. Hopefully, gradually building up to this distance, will mean I\'ll not only have the stamina to run 2 marathons in a month but I'll also be stronger at the end of each race and not end up slowing down so much towards the end as I did last year. So the side affect could be, dare I say it, achieving a better marathon time. Yeah I know I said I wanted to try and ignore time, but \'try\' is the key word there. It still lingers in the back of my mind. The important thing is to learn from last year\'s experience.
"; } else { document.getElementById("news_jan").innerHTML=""; document.getElementById("news_jan").style.border="1px solid white"; document.getElementById("ljan").style.color = "#000000"; } } //February function setFebText() { if (document.getElementById("news_feb").innerHTML==""){ document.getElementById("lfeb").style.color = "#FA6601"; document.getElementById("news_feb").innerHTML="You\'ll never hear a true marathon runner complaining about the weather. Well, you will but they\'ll still be out running in whatever the UK\'s current allocation of atmospheric imbalances happen to be. Take the first two weeks of January for example, when the entire country was covered in snow. Training didn't stop. Admittedly it was affected; the parkrun was cancelled for the first time ever and then I had to do a 15 mile run on the treadmill. |  |
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It must have been bad in the park for the parkrun organisers to have called it off but I went to check it out anyway to see if it would be possible to run in there. It looked totally different and slightly eerie, all covered in snow with dark clouds overhead, I wasn\'t sure where I was at times. Believe it or not there were actually a few runners out and I asked one how he was finding it. Not too bad, he said, but very cold. Ok, right! I was still in two minds whether or not to run on the snow until I saw the next two runners go past, slipping around all over the place. The treadmill it would be then.
The longest I\'ve ever run on the \'dread'mill\' is two hours I think and that was ages ago. I set myself the target of two and a half for this session. And...I almost made it, losing the mental battle after 2hrs16mins. It\'s easy to think now that after all that time slogging away, surely I could have held out for another 14 minutes??? But I was seriously knackered after that. Sitting in the changing rooms afterwards, trying to muster up the energy to get in the shower, I knew I couldn\'t have gone any further that day.
Since then though, things have been much better. I realised I needed to take my diet a bit more seriously, I don\'t want to go as far as I did last year with the things I gave up but it still had to improve if I was going to have the energy to run 16-24 miles every weekend. So, time to get back on the brown rice which makes a big difference to my energy levels. That last couple of long runs have gone pretty well - earlier today I covered 19 miles and don\'t feel anywhere near as bad as I did after 15 miles 3 weeks ago.
My mileometer has got off to a great start. During January, I racked up 120 miles - 32 in the last week alone. The intensity of my training will vary throughout the year but if that turns out to be an average month I\'ll make my 1400 target.....no bother at all :0)
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