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Well I guess that proves that no matter how fat and unfit you may be, a few months training and self-discipline can get you into some kind of shape! At the end of June/early July last year I was touching 19 stone and hadn't laced a training shoe in anger since 1997 - 9 months or so later and my time of 4.31:50 in yesterday's marathon was only slightly slower than my average time all those years ago. 

Of course being so overweight and unfit has meant i've had to concentrate on endurance more than any kind of speed work so I can now take some time to reduce the weekly mileage and get in some of that speed training and try to get down to 4.15 by October or with a bit of luck 4.00 dead!

I have to say that the marathon itself was a great experience with the crowds making a huge contribution to that, I don't know if it was better organised this year but I was jogging at a fair pace as soon as I went over the start line and can say that apart from one bit of congestion - that was handy because I used it to ditch the iPod which had been getting on my nerves - I had a pretty straightforward run. But it definitely isn't the greatest marathon in the world, that honour still goes to the Comrades in South Africa, sorry London but there you go, second isn't always such a bad place to be.

During the run itself there was a stage at around the 25 km point where I looked ahead of me and saw a bloke running with a sandwich board and I thought to myself 'you're not coming in ahead of me mate', and as that thought went through my head Orinoco the Womble jogged past me, which I thought was quite ironic really!

Anyway, I hope you all achieved your personal targets and raised the funds you wanted to raise; My own target was almost reached but as I always planned to contribute something anyway it's no big deal that I have to do so, but as i've said previously, it's the ballot or bust next year.

Comrades marathon 2009 is looking like it's achievable so will be training hard once the qualifying period opens, which is after June 19th this year so can look around for a marathon to qualify in, the Dublin is looking favourite at the moment and is apparently a fairly easy one.

Cheers, Dave

 

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18 km last Sunday as the last long-ish run and after spending 4 hours driving didn't do enough stretching or warm-up, much as I thought I had done, and ended up pulling a muscle in the lumbar region of my back.  Not impressed! Consequently have managed 22 minutes on the treadmill yesterday  and, with just over a week to go I finally got out for a short run tonight, 3.7 km in 20 minutes, dead slow as planned.

This isn't exactly how I planned the last couple of weeks but at least I felt pretty good during the run tonight and will see how I feel tomorrow when I am going to do 13 km slow.  I had planned to start tapering as per the schedule but feel I need to do 3, maybe 4, 10 km between now and next Wednesday and see how the back's holding up once those are completed.

Other than that little problem i'm feeling pretty good, a nice win on the national on Saturday would be nice!

Hope you're all injury free and looking forward to the big day.

Cheers

 

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Well well, after a few scares along the way it's only two weeks before the London marathon and everything seems to be coming together nicely. Did a fantastic 15 km run the other night from Towersey to Aylesbury running at around 5:30 per km and felt I was holding myself back and could have gone quicker - I even did Fartlek for the last 1.5 km between lamposts! Whatever i've been eating I hope I can get some of it on the day! 

Also done a couple of 10 - 12 km and a 3.7 km recovery jog last night after the 15 km and have no injuries or worries to speak of, with any luck i'll hit the sub-5:00 hour time I had as an objective when I first started running again in 2007 after the ten year gap.

I am reliably informed by a mate who has run this a couple of times that i'm going to be frustrated by imbeciles who have put their times down as something way beyond their actual ability, and will be held up by them.  As this chap ran a few races with me a decade and more ago I guess he knows what he's talking about, so will have to see what it's like on the day. Not being the most patient bloke in Christendom will probably not help as these idiots will just stress me out, as my boss said in my annual report a while back, 'Dave doesn't suffer fools gladly'! And before anyone starts, please, if you're going to exaggerate your capability then you should expect to be treated like an idiot!

Otherwise, I hope everyone is feeling well and your individual training has gone as well as mine has - I never expected to be pushing a 50 minute 10 km at this stage when I started so to all those who've encouraged me - Duda, Janis, SeeAnnieRun, Bruce, Alex, James, Elaine, Steve the carpet and the others, thanks a lot, your support really has helped get me to this stage.

I hope you all enjoy your run and achieve your aims, whether they be personal or for a charity (still way short of my target BTW, LOL).

Cheers

 

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Well, after the nice comments from Janis and Duda I decided to take Saturday as a rest day in-line with the program and Easter Sunday's run was much better because of that rest. 

I decided on doing 13 km or so which was completed in +/- 70 minutes which wasn't bad considering the calves were still only about 80% and that it was snowing and blowing a gale when I set off! The weather got slightly better about 5 km in though and te countryside around Stole Mandeville and Bishopstone was really quite picturesque after all that overnight snow. 

We have loads of Red Kites in this area following a very successful re-intro program some years ago and they are always nice to see gliding around, but whatever iot was I saw in a field outside Bishopstone I am convinced wasn't a Red Kite, and was very big! Something had obviously been caught for breakfast, I regretted not having the binoculars with me, not that I normally have them or am a Brid-watcher of any kind, those sights though are just one of the reasons tha jogging in the local countryside is so nice.

I haven't decided yet what i'm going to do today but am thinking of a 10 to 12 km flat route as i'll do hills when on the way home from work during the week.  Whatever it is, it's a bonus that it's not snowing or blowing a gale, when I went out for a newspaper earlier on it was actually quite pleasant.

Well, enjoy the rest of the holiday.

Cheers

 

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Down to earth with a bang today.  After three really good runs of varying distances this week running in the wind today - a 5 - 6 km 'easy' as per the program - I felt like I was running through treacle and not just because of the wind that's blowing fairly strongly.  Maybe the 3.7 km time-trial last night was too fast at 19 minutes, hopefully anyway.

Tomorrow's supposed to be a rest day but may do the 18 - 21 km scheduled for Sunday so I can rest on the Sunday instead then take advantage of the bank holiday Monday for some track work, that's been sorely neglected during the winter months.

Nowhere near the final total the charity wants me to fund-raise for them; ha well, it's not that long ago that it looked like this was going to be the most expensive marathon i've ever entered! I won't be doing this fund-raising nonsense again though, it's the ballot or bust in future years and I still feel it's a brass neck that charities get so many places. Maybe if I train hard enough I can get a GFA place, I guess it just means i'll have to work harder to knock off the 90 minutes that I need on my estimated time, LOL!

Have a nice Easter.

 

 

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 Well, a month and a day to go and training is going quite well.  Gym & treadmill Monday followed by a 10 km Tuesday and 11 km tonight all of which went off well with no injuries.  Rest day today followed by 5 – 6 km at 5 min/km pace tomorrow and LSD on Saturday and loads of Carlsberg in the Bell later on for the final game of a somewhat useless 6-Nations campaign from England’s point of view.  Then on the wagon for the final few weeks before race day, oh noo!

 Horizontal running last night from Wendover station to home – I must learn that the weather forecasters these days are usually quite accurate – I know they say lean into the wind but that was ridiculous! I even stopped and put the beanie on it was so wet, windy and cold.  Anyway, an interesting experience and 57 minutes for 10 km under the circumstances was very good.

Still, i'm a long way from where I was in early July last year, when I was violently ill after my first training run - all of 1 km - and that's no bad thing I guess.

Cheers

 

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Wow! I received the running vest from Arthritis Care and - much as Vince the co-ordinator had warned me in an e-mail - was hugely impressed with how pink it is; fluorescent pink would be a better description of it to be honest.  I think it's safe to say that the AC runners, especially those 6'2", 16 stone 7 pounds ones such as I, won't be difficult to spot on the day of the marathon! My soon to be 10 year old son burst out laughing when I put it on Saturday morning to go out on a training run, speaks volumes really!!

 

Not an especially good weekends training, a couple of relatively short runs was all I managed due to a number of factors not least the knee problem following last Wednesday's exceptional 12.1 km.  Lesson learned there and I won't be going out like that again except maybe on the actual day of the marathon, though it's frustrating that any kind of speedwork is constantly upset by flare-ups in the knee.

 

2 or 3  x 10 km runs this week, plus one short session, gym and treadmill should set me right for the final long training run this weekend, 25 - 30 km LSD I think, something like that anyway but am looking for 3 hours on the road and would be happy with that; I will probably do the Butlers X, Wendover route - 16 km or so - then detour around Halton village and back to Aylesbury through Weston Turville which should give me around 28 km but will map it first on mapmyrun so I know i'm not overdoing it.  Then my schedule has all fairly short runs - none more than 12 km - up until the day of the marathon. 

 

GOT THE VEST, GOT THE NUMBER NOW ALL I HAVE TO DO IS GET OVER THE FINISH LINE!! (preferably in sub 5 hours).

 

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Well, the good old British transport system fell to pieces again yesterday and Chiltern Rail suspended the service, so I walked back home and arranged to work from home with my boss.

This could have had several advantages, nice long runs in (mostly) daylight hours if I left at 5.00 pm, do some hill training after the disappointing effort up the hills at the Berkhamsted half this past weekend, that sort of thing.  Sadly my 12.1 km run on Wednesday was so good that my knee has gone and swollen up again so i'm taking it easy on the training yesterday and today in the hope that I can get out on the scheduled 18 - 20 km LSD tomorrow or Sunday.  Will have to wait and see.

Looks like that knee op is on the cards this summer though; fortunately my company also has a private health care plan so I can sort of plan it around when I want to have it rather than wait 6 or 9 months on the NHS; that's not to knock the NHS who i've had the 'pleasure' of attending several times over the years and it's  always provided a marvellous service, but having private health care is a real benefit.

I've had to laugh recently at the number of runners out wearing hi-vis jackets etc, something i've noted that runners don't do in this area in past postings.  So either they hibernated during winter or they have decided, now that it's getting lighter in the evenings, to start wearing hi-vis clothing. If it's the latter, then to quote Homer (Simpson not the Greek Philospher): D'oh!

Having a little BBQ tomorrow night, followed by an 'explosive' chemistry experiment with the 9 year old Sunday morning involving Vinegar, sand, a cork (got to drink that bottle of wine then,  and a rocket.  Hmm, interesting.

Have a nice one.

Cheers

 

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