Thursday 31 March 2005

short plod

not even a couple of miles tonight :<(

went out with club partner hamstrings really tight and hadn't loosened much after 23 minute lap,

so called it a day and just did lots of stretches,

after which I felt much better and should have gone out for another lap


but didn't

ah well

a piddling 73 miles this month - not exactly ideal prep for FLM


but it will have to do :<(

Wednesday 30 March 2005

still weary

I think our 17.5 miler took more out of us than we realised

I am still weary and have not run today - planned to gym tonight but just cannot face it

plan to run tomorrow evening at the club

Tuesday 29 March 2005

recovering

after a cold (but not ice) bath and warm shower I was rather stiff last night

a little trouble sleeping owing to sore knee

however up early for a gentle swim followe dby NOT gentle massage

phyzz found all sorts of points on my ITB that benefitted from her viscious thumbs

now it all feels loads better - better than for a week in fact :>))

will not plod at club this evening - let the massage take effect

Monday 28 March 2005

A grand day out

Picked up plodding hippo at the station and went back home to dump gear etc

then we were off on our adventure

the plan is to plod the cloud trail to Worthington in Leicstershire and find a pub for grub

after a slight hiccup where we plod up an unexpectedly steep hill, we find the river and plod out of Derby in a generally southerly direction

after a few phone callls from evil pixie on her bike, who unaccountably seems to think we can run much faster than we are doing, we meet up

so now there's three running peeps chatting away about this and that and the miles fly by - garmin prompts us for a one minute walk every mile and they seem to come much more quickly than when I am running alone

we identify a PH on the OS map and aim for there - only to discover it is CLOSED on a BAnk Holiday Monday afternoon!!

at last we find one that is open - only to discover that it stopped servinfg the 'all day' food at 3 pm (Its now 3.20)

but they manage to supply drinks and crisps, and I supply geo bars so we remain moderately happy

mrbeanz has arrived to ferry hippo and me back to Derby [he later tells the teenbeanzes that he sat listenting to three like-minded mad women talking about running 145 mile races - who us??]

a phone conversation with running teenbeanz reveals that he has won an Easter Egg and more importantly, a cup, for first young athlete (and second overall) in club Easter Handicap!!

what a greta end ot a perfect running day

thanks hippo and pix for making it such a great long slow run

and the stats:

where: cloud trail
what: 17.5 miles
time: 4:02:48
pace: 13:51 mm
AHR: 137

tomorrow: swim and massage

Saturday 26 March 2005

good plod with garmin

up and out early - short sleeves and shorts in the sunshine

took the garmin for a longer plod, and decided to not include the 5 minutes walk at start and the warm down up the steep hill at the end

legs still stiff - stopped to stretch a couiple of times on outward half

pace reflects the fact that is mostly downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back - the last 0.6 miles includes some uphill bits in the park I cannot imagine ever being able to run!!

13.08
13.18
13.17
13.38
14.28


where: road and park
what: 4.6 miles
time: 1:02:17
pace: 13.29 mm
AHR: 135

tomorrow : rest day and outlaws here for lunch

Friday 25 March 2005

club runners

was on local radio Thursday morning - talking about FLM

there were three of us - another chap from the club a V46 hoping to run sub 3 hours and a young chap - not sure of his target time, but pretty quick; both done FLM before, so I guess we made a good mix of peeps

it went ok I guess

went to the club in the evening and ran for 45 minutes - first 20 were hard going - leg aching - but by second lap it was much better as I had warmed up

had not zeroed garmin so it added the laps onto the previous run - seems pretty acurate in mapping since all 3 laps overlapped completely


where: road
what: 3.4 miles
time: 44:43
pace: 13.04 mm
AHR: 142

Today - cross training - gardening!

Wednesday 23 March 2005

back to the gym

stiff today after yesterdays bruising phyzz session and then a short plod at the club

been to the gym this evening - 15 minutes cross trainer and 25 minutes incline walking on the tready.

and tretched properly afterwards too!

chatted to a whippet in the changing rooms who is doing FLM too - conversation started over same asics 2090s

garmin worked fine last night - drew a beautiful little map - now need to sort out some mapping software to make more sense of it.

more money!

club run tomorrow - must do 45 minutes minimum

Tuesday 22 March 2005

two plusses (sp?)

yesterday I received a garmin 301 from a grateful client!

I have been lusting after one for a while - just so I can compare splits with all the others on here, on training and half marathon!!

I shall take it out tonight at the club and see how it does.

The other good thing today was a visit to the physio, she gave me a fairly thorough going over and was pretty positive about my prospects.

Found lots of tight muscle and knotty bits and dug deep.

However she was impressed by my flexibility - I discovered I can touch my toes - have not been able to do that for years! Also said something about good neural flexibility (?) and has encouraged me to stretch every day between now and THE DAY. And to ICE Bath after long runs - eek!

Going back next week for more torture.

Friday 18 March 2005

so it's really happening then!

well the mag has arrived

race number 24592 - blue start I'll be near the back

and I have not plodded all week

will try and get out today, but hamstring still stiff so will need to do lots of warm up walking before plodding

the sports masseur that was recommended has not called back, so will try another recommendation, really would like some massage

Wednesday 16 March 2005

catching up

still sore from long plod - getting anxious about the last 10 miles now!

at yesterday's meeting I was asked to go to a meeting on 19th April - told them I might not be able to drive to the station, let alone catch a train!

went to the gym last night and did 25 minutes cross trainer and 25 minute walking on a steep incline on the tready - by the end of it i was much looser and did my stretching

today not quite so stiiff - calves ok just hamstring (I think, never did anatomy) tight now - loads of work, so will settle for a bit of gardening and lots of stretching I think

off to Cambridge again tonight, will take kit, butnot sure if i will plod.

need to do short long plod on Friday this week, cos of visitors all weekend

Sunday 13 March 2005

that was hard

ok so today it was to be 3:30 on the feet, which works out as about 16 miles at 13:30 mm

breakfast at 9.30 - porage and toast

at 1.00 off I set with 2 bottles of lucozade (no gels in the house)

first 20 minutes were ok then my calves began to seize up so several pauses to lean against lamposts and stretch

gradually got into it, by an hour in I was fairly happy and notching off the miles at the right sort of pace of run 12 walk 1 and legs ok

NB right sort of pace is BT pace - which I do usually try to do, but just not enough days to really class as BT Happy

sipping the lucozade at each walk a minute

by 6 miles I've finished a bottle of lucozade and ditched the empty, feeling a bit sloshy inside and not wanting to drink anymore!

continue past my last farthest mark of 2 weeks ago and trundle on to 1:45 onthe watch and turn for home

still feeling ok, if a little tired, but managingto maintain run 12 walk 1 up until about 12 miles

now feeling a bit cold and needing some energy but canot bear the thought of any more lucozade

fortunately I pass the coop and i have money!

I go in and look at jelly babies- too much like LZ, and remember someone saying that a mini mrs bar had done it for them in a long race

can't carry a bag of mini mars bars, so buy a normal sized mars bar and eat that as I plod along

it seems to do the trick and I keep going, but now running 5 walk 1 until I get to 1.5 miles out when the hill faces me - I remember someone here suggesting taking this last hill as a walk and warm down - seem sensible and I walk up the hill, jog along the flat bit and then turn into the park for a respite from Sunday afternoon traffic. I walk home finishing in 3:41:33, not counting the time queuing in the coop!

mrbeanz has gone out in the car to see where I am - and of course missed me as I detoured! sorry he got worried

now I am very stiff!

where: road
what: 15.9 miles
time: 3:41:33
pace: 13.93 mm
AHR: 138


tomorrow: swim and find out about massage





Saturday 12 March 2005

back home

another couple of days away but a little running

Thursday night is club night - and this week I aquired a running partner! The Dad of one of the lads in teenbeanz's traingin group wants to do the Derby 10K, but hasn't run apart from teh tready fro 20 years.

So we went out together with a quicker chap who appointed himself as our coach!

Dad is quicker than me but not as quicka s coach. We went out togetehr and they gradually wased away, but looped back wheneve they got to be out of sight - which was really nice. I did inevitably run at a quicker HR than I would have done alone, but hey I am not BT at the moment anyway.

Then we reached the long boring road on the 'back straight' of the run and Coach decided we should do fartlek between the lamposts - Dad sprinted 2 lamposts, and then jogged back to meet me, I sprinted one lampost, then we jogged two and repeated. It certainly made the route less boring and I did enjoy lengthening my stride and going quicker than my usual plod. Warmed down going back tot he clubhouse and opverall it was my second fastest time for the route - but by far the highest AHR!


where: club
what: 3.8 miles
time: 47:47
pace: 12.58 mm
AHR: 147!

After the club night I drove to Peterborough ready for meetings Friday and Saturday. Good place to run - plenty of cycle paths, but never sure how safe in a strange town.

Friday morning and up early for a run - but only a small loop and after 20 minutes I was back at the start and wimped out of a second loop - which was really stupid because after 20 minutes it actually begins to feel better - so was really cross with myself, as I have not done the miles this week.
Weak Kneed Mamby Pamby
where: trail
what: 1.75 miles
time: 20:27
pace: 11.7 mm
AHR: 130

Tomorrow - longest run to date 3:30 - eeek Scared 2





Thursday 10 March 2005

London:<(

No runnign since Sunday

two days in London with no kit - did plenty of walking on the concrete though.

Club tomorrow night and then away again for 2 days - will be able to take kit this time.

Sunday 6 March 2005

Mother's Day

Flowers and cards were the order of the day - then a normal Sunday

step back week this week, so just a 90 minute run, but as I did not go out until 1 o'clock it was rather warm - could have worn shorts!

mrbeanz and running teenbeanz went out for a run together - first time for ages - supposed to be an LSD - and keeping each other in check

they seemed to enjoy it and agreed it would be good to do it most Sundays

both training for Derby 10k - I shall do it too - 5 weeks after FLM so not even thinking about it yet - at least it will be a PB - only done 5ks and half marathons so far!

where: road
what: 7 miles
time: 1:31:46
pace: 13.06 mm
AHR: 138

tomorrow: swim with teenbeanzes

Saturday 5 March 2005

working away

the trouble with working away is that it messes up my runnign no end

ran at the club on Thursday evening, but not as long as I planned

then drove to Peterborough, to avoid driving in the forecast snow and ice on Friday morning

woke up on Friday morning to snow - so did not run, had a lie-in!

This morning everyone wanted to start the meeting early, so they could get away (fair enough) so I just managed a short run before breakfast.

where: trail
what: 2.8 km
time: 21:56
pace: 12.5 mm
AHR: 136

tomorrow: long slow run

Wednesday 2 March 2005

flat running again

Did not run on Tuesday at the club - work and family got in the way.

So ran in Cambridge again this morning - cold but not rainign or sleeting, as it was an hour later!

Was out a little later than last week so saw a couple of other runners - and they spoke so more friendly than the folk I saw last week.

I have decided to allow myself to go a couple of bpm higher on the HR as I can run more comfortably at a max of 142 than 140. I know it does not seem much but I found at 140 I have to keep slowing down or even walking whereas at 142 max I can keep chugging along.


where: road
what: 3.4 miles
time: 3:04:34
pace: 12.3
AHR: 138