End of the week

Distance: 9 miles
Time: 1:14
Route: ArthurA x2

Tonight I felt quite good while on a circuit of my Arthur A route, so I decided to go round again for a 9 mile run. Interestingly my splits for the two halves were both bang on 37 mins for what was a very comfortable run.

This week I broke the 40 mile barrier for the first time, and did my first half into the bargain. Next week brings a planned 20 miler, and hopefully another low 40's week. Next race is a 10k on a hilly course in Edinburgh in just over a month's time.

Saturday: football
Sunday: 13.1 (half marathon)
Monday: 4.5
Tuesday: 3.5
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 12 miles
Friday: 9 miles
Total: 42 miles

12 miles

Distance: 12 miles
Time: 1:41

My hamstring was feeling better today so I decided to stick to the JD schedule and do a semi-long run: 3 miles easy, 6 miles of 8 min threshold + 1 min easy, and 3 miles easy to finish. I felt surprisingly good and recorded a pretty reasonable time despite deliberatley taking things very easy in the first and last 3 miles.

Rest

My left hamstring is still fairly tight so I decided to take a rest day. If there's an improvement tomorrow I'm planning a sem-long run, with a mixture of slow running and bursts of threshold running, as per the JD schedule.

Although the results of Sunday's half still aren't available, the pictures are . There's three of me, and judging by the way my number was flapping about there may be others floating about. Two of them are very clearly toward the end of the run, although at least I look like I retained reasonable form (whatever that means).....

More easy miles

Distance: 3-4 miles
Time: 40 minutes

My legs are still a bit stiff from Sunday's run, and my left hamstring in particular is a little on the tender side. So today was essentially a jog, just to get some blood through the legs. I did the run with a colleague who has just started training for his first 10k, so the pace was ideal for the two of us.

Recovery run

Time: 39
Distance: 4.5miles
Route: Arthur A

After yesterday's half, tonight's run was with the brakes fully applied and was very much a recover run - 5 minutes slower than my most recent times for this route. My legs felt OK today - a bit tight (not surprising really as I had to wait for ages for my number to be taken at the end of yesterday's race, with nowhere to warm down or stretch), but nothing too bad, and they loosened up once I was out on the road.

I've revisited my planned races between now and the Edinburgh Marathon. I'm going to do a 10k in Edinburgh on 7 May and need to find another half between now and June. There is a half in nearby Dunfermline, but its only a couple of weeks before the marathon and that feels just a bit too close.

Edinburgh City Half Marathon - 1:47:13

Just outside the time I had been hoping for, but not a complete disaster for my first half. I'm going to stay positive and use it as a target to aim for next time. I managed to stay relatively close to my 8 minute mile intended pace and it generally felt OK. The first 8 miles were relatively comfortable, the next 3 I felt it more difficult to hold the pace, and in the last couple it just slipped away on me.

Lessons learned:

(1) increase training mileage and get a 2nd longer run into my week

Since starting to run again in January I have been very conservative in increasing my mileage - from mid-20s to my current high 30s over a period of three months - and now is probably a good time to bump it up a little again to break into the 40s. A semi-long run during the week would probably also be beneficial. My average week has usually consisted of a long run at the weekend with nothing longer than 6 miles during the week, and I am sure this had something to do with my fading away at the end of this race. Funnily enought, the JD marathon training plan I am following calls for the dropping of the mid-week interval session I had been doing and replacing it with a semi-long run.

(2) unless the weather is bad, go with the minimum of clothing

I could probably have done with a layer less of clothing today as the sun came out in bits and I felt positively roasting. I doubt it would have had much impact on my time, but I expect I would have felt a lot more comfortable with just a t-shirt.

(3) when marathon time comes in June, don't set off at 8 minute mile pace (or it'll all end in tears!)

Splits from my Garmin are below.

1- 8:13
2- 7:41
3- 8:22
4- 7:56
5- 7:47
6- 7:39
7- 7:57
8- 8:07
9- 8:14
10- 8:10
11- 8:00
12- 5:51 (obviously a problem with the Garmin here and in the next mile)
13- 11:03
13+- 2:07
Total: 1:47:13

Leasons for the organisers:

There are already a lot of unhappy comments on the runnersworld website from people who ran today. The event wasn't "bad", but there were a number of organisation problems which stopped it being a "good" event.

Lack of toilets; unclear holding pens at start mixing up runners of varying abilities; too narrow route on first mile meant a number of bottle-necks- not enough marshals on the water stations; the promised energy drink wasn't available; terrible lane system at finish meant that runners were backed up over the finish line as they waited for their number to be taken (I have no idea what my clock time will be and frankly I don't care - it took me two minutes to cross the start line, and about 5 minutes after corssing the finishing line before my number was taken); and the worst "goody bag" I have ever seen (a bottle of water, a nutrition bar, and a bunch of advertising leaflets - I jest you not).

Would I do it again? Probably, but only because I happen to live in Edinburgh.

Ready, steady...

Recap for last week:

Saturday: football
Sunday: 18 miles
Monday 4.5 miles
Tuesday: rest (enforced by travel)
Wednesday: 6 miles
Thursday: 4.5 miles
Friday: rest
Total: 33 miles

The last 3 weeks have gone: 37; 37; and 33. So once tomorrow's race is out of the way I plan to raise the bar slightly to 40 mile weeks.


Today I played about 20 minutes of football and didn't feel great. Not sure why, but I just had a general lack of energy and a feeling of lactic build-up in my muscles. It was much milder today (even warm at times) and I wonder if the change in temperature was a factor.

Anyway, tomorrow is half-marathon day and I hope I'll be reporting back with something sub-1:45 (even if only by a few seconds).

Changing weather

Distance: 4.5
Time: 34:15
Route: Arthur A

It was still cold today, but overall the weather was much better - a nice, sunny spring-time day. Which makes a pleasant change from the weather we've had.

I felt a bit too energetic today and ended up doing a steady rather than an easy run, but I did manage to keep the brakes on just enough to stop it becoming a hard run.

Tomorrow and Saturday I'll rest, and then its the half (barring any more weather disasters on Sunday). I think my strategy will be to try to do the first 6 miles as close to 8 minutes as I can i.e. t orun at about 1:45 pace. If I feel good close to half way I'll try and speed it up. If I don't I'll just try to hang in and break the 1:45.

Working away

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 50 mins

I've been workinga way from home for the last couple of days - Tuesday was an enforced rest day because of travel, and today I did an early morning 6 miles. 2 miles easy, 2 miles threshold, and 2 miles easy. Felt OK but a little lethargic - not sure if that was caused by the time of my run or by Sunday's 18 miles. A bit of both perhaps. Anyway, tomorrow I plan a very easy 3-4 miles and then I'll probably just rest up until Sunday....

Recovery miles

Distance: 4.5
Time: 36:30
Route: Arthur A

Today's run was relatively easy after yesterday's long run. My legs actually felt OK once I got out running after having felt stiff during the day. That bit of stiffness was the only reaction to the 18 miler and was to be expected.

18 miles

Distance: 18 miles
Time: 2:43:34

Today I extended my longest ever training run to 18 miles. My pace was deliberately slow - almost a minute per mile slower than when I did my 14 miler last week - but wasn't quite dead slow. I felt pretty good for the first 12 miles, not bad for the next three miles, and then, as might be expected, a little tired for the final three. Anyway, it is always nice to get a run like that out of the way, and now I can put my feet up for a little while!

Mile 1 - 9:26
Mile 2 - 8:39
Mile 3 - 9:15
Mile 4 - 9:19
Mile 5 - 9:05
Mile 6 - 9:21
Mile 7 - 9:18
Mile 8 - 9:17
Mile 9 - 9:33
Mile 10 - 9:23
Mile 11 - 8:51
Mile 12 - 9:11
Mile 13 - 9:19
Mile 14 - 9:03
Mile 15 - 8:39
Mile 16 - 9:06
Mile 17 - 9:36
Mile 18 - 7:06 (my garmin once again droped 0.1 of a mile on the way back)

Av pace: 9:08/mi

10-0

Activity - 11 a-side-football

10-0 was the size of our victory at football today. I played 45 minutes and, to be honest, didn't need to do that much running. Our opponents are bottom of the league, but even by their standards I think they had a bad day.

CJ made the point about the need for easy running to avoid injury and burn-out. I totally agree - yesterday was the first time in two and a half months that my legs felt sore after a run. I think that reflects the fact that I've been following a structured programme which combines easy runs with a couple of 'quality' sessions a week, and that I have been building up the mileage gradually. What I have noticed is that my 'easy' pace has steadily increased since 1 January - so I am running faster, but it is only comparatively so (i.e. other than the one quality session per week the running is all aerobic), and I would argue that the relative stresses and strains being put on my system now are no worse (and probably less) than they were when I was running the same route several minutes slower. I think the main causes of the soreness of my legs on Friday werethe close proximity of my 14 miler on the Monday to the intervals on the Thursday (ordinarily I would have had another easy day in between) and a slightly quicker pace than normal - but not hugely so - on my easy runs. Having said all of that, I think CJ's reminder that I need to ensure that I don't try to do too much too soon is extremely useful - I think it is probably important to take a long-term view of running development, and in that context easy runs are very important. So, thank you CJ for the input and I will be bearing it in mind!

With regards to tapering for the half, the answer is yes and no. I have work commitments which will of necessity cap my mileage next week, and I will be making sure that Thursday and Friday are very easy, with no exercise at all on the Saturday, but as this is only a race in the build up to June's marathon I do not plan a major decrease in mileage for the week overall.

Tired

Distance: 6.5 miles
Time: 56:30

Tonight my legs felt tight and a little sore for the first time since I started running regularly again. I think this is as a result of a combination of last night's intervals and a number of quicker than normal runs during the week. So tonight was just an easy run which I was glad to get finished, particularly as it was cold and windy once more.

The soreness does come as a handy lesson in advance of next week's half marathon - I definitely don't want my legs feeling like they did today going into a race, so I will need to make sure the second half of next week's training is nice and easy.

Summary of the week:

Sunday (6 miles)
Monday (14 miles)
Tuesday (0 miles)
Wednesday (4.5 miles)
Thursday (6 miles)
Friday (6.5 miles)
Total: 37 miles

For Sunday I am planning a very slow 18 miler as I seek to extend my long run once more, and I expect to be running close to 40 miles next week, which would also represent a new high.

Intervals, baby

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 44:36
Route: Portobello

It was that time of the week again, when the JD schedule called for intervals - 4 min hard, 3 min recovery, although my recovery tends just to be normal running pace. It was wet, windy and cold, but I managed to shave another minute off my previous fastest time for this route. The Portobello route is an out and back route, and I find the interval sessions tend to have three parts - first couple of miles I enjoy getting out and running and moving fast, second couple of miles the intervals begin to hurt and I realise there's still a long way to go, last couple of miles I know I'm heading home and I have the incentive of checking my watch for a possible new fast time.

Speaking of which, since the new year my times have been steadily falling each time I've pushed the pace on a particular route - on the Portobello route and the Arthur A route I've effectively shaped 5-6 minutes off each. The times can't keep falling so rapidly so quickly (at the moment I'm cutting time on an almost fortnightly basis) - there will come a point before too long where I will plateau at a certain level of fitness, and it will take much longer to see much smaller drops in time I'm sure. When will that point arrive? I don't know, but hopefully I'm not quite there yet.

On Sunday I move into Stage III of the JD marathon training plan - this is where things are supposed to get tough. The weekly long run really is long, and includes more threshold running. And the schedule introduces an semi-long run into the week which I am please about (at least in principle - I suspect when I'm actually doing it I won't be quite so happy) as I have not really progressed any of my runs (apart from my Sunday long run) beyond 6 miles. On the other hand, this new semi-long run takes the place of my interval session, which I will kind of be sad to see disappear.

Today my number arrived for the Edinburgh half marathon (yes, that's right - no pre-registration and no chip timing...). Its only a week away and I'm starting to wonder what strategy I should adoptt. The conservative 8 minute+ early miles, aiming just to creep under 1:45, or straight into 7 minute miles and hang on for dear life as things get tough. Both have their attractions and at the moment I have no strong preference.

Still cold

Distance: 4.5
Time: 34:45
Route: Arthur A

Sometimes too much information can be a bad thing:

(i) there are quite a few people having a grump on the runnersworld website that the Edinburgh half marathon in a couple of weeks time is not a chipped event. With over 3,500 entrants so far that raises the real prospect of a considerable discrepancy between 'official' time and 'watch' time. So, instead of concentrating on the run itself I'm busy worrying about that. Not that it really matters I guess.

(ii) i was reading my Jack Daniel's training book last night and flicked over the pages talking about running stride. Seemingly a lot of 'average runners' have too long, and hence inefficient, a run stride and he recommends magining 'running on eggshells' as a way to get a proper turnover. Now, I have no idea if my run stride is too long, too short, or just perfect, but I thought I'd give this slightly shorter stride lark a go. Outcome? I probably just ended up running a bit faster than normal as today's time was only 30 seconds outside of my best time for Arthur A.

14 miles

Distance: 14 miles
Time: 1:55:00

After my aborted drive north yesterday I couldn't bring myself to go out in the blizzard conditions so, after failing to get up before work this morning to do it, I had no option but to run my weekly long run after work tonight. It was fairly breezy so some bits were wind behind, some bits wind against but it was nice and cold, which is just the way I like it when running a longer distance.

I have run this route twice before, on 19 Jan 2:08:12, on on 19 Feb 2:00:40 so today's run represents another welcome cut in time. I definitely pushed this run harder than previously, particularly on the homeward half, and I definitely finished stronger than I have before on a run of this distance. My 13.1 split was between 1:48 and 1:49, so hopefully with the adrenalin of competition I will be able to break my target time of 1:45 in a fortnight at the Edinburgh half marathon. Next Sunday I plan a dead slow 18 miler, which would be my longest training run ever.

The route is a simple out and back and, having measured it with my Garmin on 3 occasions I am confident it is precisely 7 out and 7 back, but today my Garmin went a bit Pete Tong on the way back and dropped 0.1 messing up my final split.

1. 8:22
2. 8:28
3. 8:27
4. 7:56 (miles 4 to 7 inclusive were 5 min threshold 2 min recovery)
5. 8:06
6. 8:09
7. 8:39
8. 8:23
9. 8:32
10. 8:11
11. 7:56
12. 8:22
13. 8:50
14. 6:49

Average pace: 8:17/mile

Another race missed

Distance: 6 miles (treadmill)

Last weekend I missed out on the Nairn 10k after it was postponed because of bad weather (and I look unlikely to be able to run on the rearranged date).

Today I was due to run in the Inverness half marathon, but there had been plenty of warnings that the weather might effect this race as well. I woke up this morning to snow in Edinburgh but, having checked via the website that the race was still going ahead, I headed north. After a few power slides and much wheel spinning I made it to the Forth Road Bridge just outside of Edinburgh only to find out via a road sign and the radio that a couple of snow gates on the main road noth (over an hour's drive further north) were closed. So, after checking with relatives in the Inverness area I decided to admit defeat and crawled back to my flat and hit the treadmill instead. (Inverness from Edinburgh is about a 2 and a half hour drive due north, and if you know your Scottish geography you will know that if it is snowing in Edinburgh there's a more than fair chance the weather further north will be even grimmer - simply because of the high ground which has to be navigated).

They managed to hold the race because Inverness itself had escaped the worst of the weather, but according to another runner on the runnersworld website who was also defeated by the elements, some 650 out of 1500 entrants didn't manage it either.

The Edinburgh half marathon is scheduled for two weeks today, so barring any further disasters that will be my first race of the season and my first ever half marathon....Before then I need to squeeze in a 14 mile run somewhere this week after deciding against trying it in the snow and wind in Edinburgh today. I'm also toying with an 18 miler the following Sunday, which would represent my longest training run ever.

I also found out today that my car (a black Ford Puma the same as that pictured below) is abolutely terrible to drive in the snow. Put it on a winding road in the dry however....

half marathon update

Inverness Half Marathon News . . This site was last updated: March 10, 2006 21:16 Severe Weather Update:Half Marathon Status: (Still scheduled as planned)The Weather forecast for Sunday in the Inverness area is for strong winds, max temp of 5 degrees and snow flurries.

Often Inverness , due to its geography, is missed while blizzards rage around us. We are still optimistic the race will go ahead. What we can say is that it will be cancelled only as a last resort and on the advice of the Police (if we ignore their advice we are in effect uninsured). That decision will be taken as late as possible – probably early Sunday morning. Whether it will be postponed to a later date or cancelled completely will also be decided at the same time. If the event is postponed/cancelled we will update the website immediately and ask Radio Scotland , Moray Firth Radio, and Radio Tay to help us publicise this.

Please note that whatever the outcome on Sunday it is going to be very cold with a high wind-chill factor so come prepared for it and allow more time to get here.

round-up

Today was a rest day after 6 consecutive days running:

Saturday: 4
Sunday: 12
Monday: 4.5
Tuesday: 6.5
Wednesday: 6
Thursday: 4
Total: 37

A fairly good week of running, with some decent times over courses I have run before.

Tomorrow may be football depending on the weather. And all things being well I'll complete my first ever half-marathon Sunday.

Not again!!!!

Latest update for Sunday's race:

Inverness Half Marathon News . . This site was last updated: March 9, 2006 19:55 Sunday's Weather:Half Marathon Status: (Curently still taking place)Please note that the latest weather forecast suggests that snow showers are forecast for race day, but the race is still scheduled to take place at this moment in time.The weather forecast will be monitored constantly, and the position will be continually under review. This website will be regularly updated giving up-to-the-minute information about the current race status, so please check here for regular for updates.

Up the hill

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 33:51
Route: Arthur B

A mistake perhaps with a half marathon on Sunday, but I decided to run my Arthur B route tonight. I haven't run it in a little while and now I remember why. It has an absolute killer of a hill in the first half which saps the energy from the legs. Anyway, I kept a steady pace round the circuit tonight and ended up with pretty much the same time as the fastest I've run it before. I reckon there's at least a minute and probably more like two or three to be shaved from the time by running it at a hard pace. But that'll have to wait.

Tomorrow will be my first rest day in a week.

intervals

Time: 45:36
Distance: 6 miles
Route: Portobello

I knew tonight's run was going to be difficult as I had been feeling pretty tired all day - and the interval session required by the Jack Daniels training programme didn't disappoint. Of the three interval sessions I have done this was by far the hardest, but that was to be expected with the intervals increasing from 4 minutes to 5 minutes at a hard pace. My time tonight was faster than when I did the full route at a hard pace at the beginning of February - so another example of progress I guess.

Tomorrow I plan to do something short and easy, followed by a day off in Friday, to give my legs some rest before the half marathon on Sunday. The main variable likely to impact on Sunday's run is whether or not I have to play football on Saturday.

keep on going

Distance: 6.5
Time: 54:20

I ran my 6.5-ish mile tonight 3 minutes faster than I have done previously. I put in one short threshold spurt on a hill again but apart from that it was a comfortable pace. I had the curious sensation of having my legs feeling a little tired (a consequence of having no rest day after my Sunday long run I expect) but having a pretty comfortable cardio system.

My route takes my through the Meadows - essentially a grassy park in the middle/south of Edinburgh - which attracts a lot of runners on the tracks and pavements which combine to form a large loop around the grass area. There were all sorts of runners out tonight - single slow runners, single fast runners, large groups doing warm-ups and small groups doing sprints. Someone was clearly doing a threshold session tonight as they rattled past me and disappeared off into the distance pretty quickly - one of those reminders that I have a long way to progress with my own speed and stamina.

Recovery run

Distance: 4.5
Time: 36:53
Route: Arthur A

Today was an easy 4.5 miles after yesterday's long run. Nothing much to say beyond that I felt today, as I did about a month ago, that my 'cruising' speed is increasing - that is, the speed at which I can run without feeling that I'm stressing my system does appear to be gradually increasing. I did put in one small threshold spurt today on the hill section of my route - I am one of those people who can't resist running someone down if they are infront of me on a hill.

I also had a new pain today - on the inside toward the back of my left ankle. Hopefully nothing to worry about.

Kudos to Duncan - another impressive marathon performance, and it sounds like he enjoyed this one...

12 miles

Distance: 12 miles
Time: 1:39:30

Most of the snow has melted (in Edinburgh at least) so I ventured out for a semi-long run. Since today's Nairn 10k was cancelled I decided to do my 12 miles at a higher intensity than normal to make up for having missed the race. The Jack Daniel's programme called for an easy warm up, 2 10 minutes threshold runs with a couple of minutes easy in between and then an hour at easy pace. My pace for the last hour was steady rather than easy, and this is reflected in the time.

When I ran this route in mid-January my time was 1:54, but looking back at my notes and comparing times it seems pretty obvious I was still suffering from my cold at the time. 1:39:30 for 12 miles suggests that its going to be touch and go as to whether I break 1:45 for the half marathon in racing conditions.

Next Sunday is scheduled to be the Inverness half marathon and hopefully the weather won't interfere with this run. I'll have to try and find a 10k race to run at some point over the next month as I would like to set some sort of time to aim to beat in the future.

Treadmill

Distance: 4 miles (treadmill)

The pavements round about where I stay were treacherous with ice this morning so I decided to go for a session on the treadmill. 4 miles is near the maximum of what I can manage on those things - I just don't feel good running on them, and I get very bored very quickly.

I am now into week 11 of the Jack Daniel's marathon training schedule. Quality session 1 calls for a run of just over 1:40 to be mostly easy running with a couple of 10 minute threshold efforts thrown in. I have a 12 mile route which I ran in mid-January which I will use for this run.

Last week was a low mileage week after illness - 20.5 miles plus some 5 a-side football, but I should be able to get back to normal this week.

Postponed

Nairn 10K Road Race and Fun Run
Event Date
Sun 5th March 2006
Venue
***POSTPONED*** Due to weather

Colder

Snow storms spread across country
Roads have again been badly affected
Heavy snow storms which have closed roads and schools in the north are beginning to spread across Scotland.

Above is a headline from the news today. If I want to run my 10k on Sunday I have a 3 hour drive through some pretty trecherous conditions, so I'm giving it some serious second thoughts, particularly as I have a half marathon race to look forward to the following week.

Today was a day of rest.

Very cold

Activity - 5 a-side-football
Time - 60 minutes

I decided to take a day off yesterday as I'd run 4 days in row after my illness. Tonight was football which made a nice change, and I think tomorrow will probably be a day off too. Saturday may be 11-a-side football, but if not I'll do a short run.

Sunday's 10k in Nairn looks like being cold. Its freezing in Edinburgh, and its worse up north with severe snow in some areas. Anyway, I'll set off on Sunday morning and see how things go.