LONDON MARATHON TRAINING - 165 miles covered since early October

While blogging is sporadic, training has not been, and yesterday (21 Feb) we completed our first half marathon.  

The snow having gone, I got back out there, but Mac suffered from an interrupted training programme having fallen and cracked three ribs.

Experience is telling us that there is little correlation between prediction and performance.  What on earth does that mean?  One day we'll go out and be feeling a bit jaded, but have a fantastic run where everything seems to flow (everything that should flow that is!), and the next we'll feel really good, and find that running is like wading through treacle.  I think that this is a common dream - you're trying to run at pace but don't seem to get anywhere.  Surely a psychologists bonanza, but we've put the dreamworld into reality, and wish we hadn't started almost as soon as we have.

Our reputation as two fit studs with whom it is cool to be seen has spread, and people are queuing up to train with us.  Well, that's my interpretation of the situation.  An alternative is that we know the local routes, and others are keen to discover them as well.  10 days ago, two Cla(i)res came out with me (Mac dead again) and tried to run me ragged.  These ladies have the advantage both of youth and the appropriate physique, more given to stamina and style than my "fitted-for-comfort" body.  Despite slowing them down, we did 5 miles at an average of 9m 30s per mile, which was a great achievement for me and actually quite enjoyable.

This Thursday, our numbers are being swelled by another female racing snake, although I was encouraged that she also said that Clare was too fast for her, so maybe a cuddly body is not the indicator of performance I thought that it was.

Yesterday, in grey and occasionally wet weather, we ran for 6 miles along the sea-front at Portsmouth/Southsea, and I reminisced on the many entries and exits I had made into Portsmouth Harbour over the years, from sailing in HMS FIFE in 1987 on my first training patrol, to HMS SCYLLA the following year to patrol the Gulf over Xmas 87/88, to taking HMS OTTER, a diesel electric submarine in and out of the harbour on many an occasion en route the Mediterranean, Copenhagen, the Atlantic, Ibiza, Naples, Gibraltar, Catania, and Hull.  Then when HMS SPARTAN, a nuc, broke down and had to come in to be docked, and finally when I was commanding my own ship, crewed by students from Cambridge's Universities.  10 seconds after that, there was still another 5.75 miles to go...and then a further 7.2 miles around Eastney, taking in muddy playing field and shingled beach.

One or two moments of mental catastrophe were offset by regular supplies of Jelly Beans from the Marshalls, and an amazing psychological boost from Jess and the kids and unexpected vantage points along the route - had to keep my strut going for fear of being considered only mortal - resulted in a fantastic time (my own assessment!) of 2hrs 1min - or 9m 24s per mile.

Training with the ladies obviously paid off.  Quite how I will do 26 miles remains a small obstacle to be overcome, but I doubt that it will be quite at this pace.

   

London Marathon - 4 Jan 2010

It's nearly been 2 months since I last updated the blog.  At least my training has been more forthcoming than my blogging.

So here we are in 2010, and April seems a lot closer than it did.  Well, I suppose that is a truism; April is a lot closer than it was in November.  Training has been going well, but has taken a rather backward step over Xmas, and not particulalry for the obvious reason.  What has become apparent is that training does take up a lot of your spare time, and in this period of short days (our training time since we don't do treadmills, sweaty lycra and looking glamorous), any run eats up precious work or play time.  Since the kids have been at home on holiday, it has not been so easy to surrender the 30 minutes (dress, undress, shower, recover, drink gallons of liquid) plus 11 minutes per mile run (1.5 hours for a 5 miler, 2.5 hours for a 10 miler - I am sure you can do the Math (!)), and we have yet to build up to the 15, 20 and 25 mile practice runs.

Freezing weather and icy roads has also presented itself as a challenge, but one which we can shrug off as easily as a politician giving a straight answer, and we now use alternative routes over Army training areas where grit (in both respects) gives sufficient traction to allow safe running.

Since I last wrote, we have covered a further 56 miles, and I am 6 miles off the 100 miles.  I have also entered in to a challenge with a friend of mine living in Tokyo - 365 km in 2010.  There are 13 of us doing it and I am currently in 5th place, having only run once so far this year.  James, the friend and instigator of the challenge has yet to get off his post xmas backside and clock up any runs.  I guess that there is still time!

Thanks for your support and why not have a go yourself?

LONDON MARATHON 6

Another 9.5 miles done, but not nearly as much as we would have wished.

On Friday 6th, Mac and I repeated the course we had first done on Monday.  We started from my house rather than his (misses out the cliff from hell!), but the distance should have been essentially the same, give or take a gnat's whisker.

However there were a number of issues!  Somehow this run was hard work.  Mac started off feeling as if he was running on empty, and I was happy to remain aloof but indulgent, hiding behind his explicit discomfort.  After we had reached the half way point however, another kind of wind arrived and we stepped the pace up a bit.

Being shallow (as mentioned in my previous rant), we had agreed to reserve a little bit of back pocket performance so that we could impress across the last public stretch of the run, across the green where potential admirers could witness and then over the bridge and to the finish.

Despite this, it was only Les and his dog who were able to stand in awe and hurl "encouraging" comments on this occasion (running too fast to really appreciate the content!).  Lovely though his dog is, I feel our strut was rather wasted; There's always next time!

The gnat's whisker was rather disappointing as I actually had us down as running a faster time overall.  Nike + however decided that we had run nearly half a mile less, hence a discrepancy that accounted for my delusion.

Nike + seemed to be pretty accurate overall, and the average time per mile on Monday was 9m40s.  On this Friday it was 10m10s, so perhaps the slow start couldn't be compensated for by the second wind.

On Monday 9th I went out alone as Mac was busy.  I had to force myself to go at the same pace as we had previously and I am still developing the discipline.  An approach that says you have more to give seems to be where you want to be.  Giving it all doesn't seem like the right strategy until the last mile, and since we haven't got further than 5 miles, it is a bit early to up the pace.

Half way round I was delighted that the calf pull seemed to have settled down, and I was back to that model of excellence that I cast myself in.  And it was at that very moment that another shot of pain seared up the back of my leg.  So how does that work then?

With another 2.5 miles to nurse the injury and think of little else, the mind started to contemplate this reality.  Did I start thinking of my recovery, which then triggered the recurrence of it?  But that would be pretty curmudgeonly of the old mind to inflict such a wound on its own chariot - self-defeating indeed.

So now I have moved onto a more positive theory.  Rather like the radio telling you that your mobile is about to ring - that interference pattern that we are surely all familiar with - maybe my calf was brought to mind because my body knew what was going to happen to it before it materially did.  I am sure that I have read of such things (Molecules of emotion by Candace Pert? - a great read of an alternative kind).  Parts of the body do react before we become sentient of the need to do so, and this must be what happened here.

Despite this, my average per minute was 9m59s, and Nike + had the self same distance to within 4/100s of Friday's run (what's that...60 yards ish?) so there must have been some brain fart - mine or Nike's - the previous Monday.

The consequence of this is that I have taken the week off exercise to allow a substantial period of time to recover, and fingers crossed, I will be up and running (a pun in there somewhere) again next week, although I am working (shock horror) on Monday and Tuesday of next week - in a hotel on Monday evening, so maybe an opportunity there.

Be well in the meantime, and so shall I! 

LONDON MARATHON 5

The fearless duo have completed their first outing!  We agreed that we would take it easy, and we are trying to follow the suggestions pasted on every website that 4 minute miles at the start of the training period are not a good idea.

We therefore suppressed our natural competitiveness and inclination to run each other into the ground, and very maturely set off at a comfortable pace of about 10 minutes per mile.  The course was cross-country and not without its undulations, but we took them in our stride (made sure all the steep ones were downhill!).  


The old war wound suffered last week was not far from surfacing, but a rather ungainly stomp on the heel of my right leg (reminded me of the sheep with its foot stuck in a tin can of Dr Seuss fame!) whenever an upward incline presented itself did the trick, and averted an uncomfortable moment after a mile and a half when I wondered whether I should continue.  

The thought of the grief I would get from my aged colleague, not to mention the FNDC (Friday Night Drinking Club), gave me the mental kick up the proverbial and motivated me to find a way to offset the discomfort.

Further discomfort was doled out when a threesome overtook us at pace, and one of them was a lady!

I can see the e mails being drafted now - "Dear Farnham Herald, The appalling chauvinism demonstrated by the self-styled Roger Bannister of Tilford demonstrates the un-reconstructed boorishness manifest by many a pitiful male who protests in words that they are egalitarian in every respect, but then blasts this assertion out of the water in practice."

So I of course retract this comment, except that, it has to be said, most males find it inherently and inexplicably unsettling to be bested in the domain of the Hunter-Gatherer by one of the fairer, but equally valued (!), sex.  My amateur, and hopefully inoffensive, explanation is that there is nothing wrong in finding ladies who are more talented in your pastimes - most of us are getting very used to that - but because we men are genetically programmed to strut and ooze testosterone (see rutting stags, proud peacocks, the King of the Pride), and just because we have sired our progeny, replaced our 6-pack with a Party Seven, and are losing our eyesight (age-related!), doesn't mean that we wish to become like the Black Widow Spider, and get eaten by our ladies!


Maybe a bit of a digression!

Just over 50 minutes later, we rolled back into town (well, Shepherd's Way), still moving freely, still able to talk, and still optimistic about the future. 

Luckily we had agreed that the final herculean effort up the precipitous cliff to the self-same Way would be our opportunity to warm down, so there was no digrace when a walking pace was adopted.  Picking up on the digression, this did not of course stop us picking up the pace once at the top lest there should be anyone who knew us, might have known us, or who was looking to be impressed by the vigour of these two slightly senior stags, both of who remain fully antlered!

LONDON MARATHON 4

Thursday 29th October.

A little disaster....more in a bit.

I recovered remarkably quickly from my 5 miler - put it down to natural resilience of a perfectly honed, if somewhat underused, body!


Went out on Monday, up the hill to the right and back round via Sheephatch - only 2.5 miles, but felt really good, and here's the start of my undoing.  My chip that I carry with me to record my distance and time throws up the odd strange number.  I was achieving sub 9 minute miles, but then my "machine" recorded a 9'55" per mile overall, which made no sense to me.  The iPod itself is rather cumbersome to get into the arm pouch and I think that there is time lost once you finish your run as you fumble for the stop button, the clock still ticking by.


However, going out for a 3 miler yesterday, back up that blessed hill to the right, I then followed a new route and felt so good (following on from Monday) that I started to push myself a bit.  Going uphill after a mile, an almost imperceptible pain in my calf soon grew to agony, and I thought that I had a muscle cramp (encouraging to know that I had the muscle to go into spasm!!!).  Having not recovered by the time I limped home, the reality of a pulled muscle now plagues me, but I hope that I caught it early and can recover from it quickly.


This morning I met up with Mac, with whom I am going to train.  Both worrying that the other was a closet Paula Radcliffe - in the running sense, not the other! - I think that we have agreed that our expectations are the same and we have mapped out some courses around the local area to use.  Muscle permitting, we shall be out on Monday doing a 4 miler in about 50 minutes - reverting to the received wisdom that you should not push it at the start.  Re-reading the advice on various websites, a warm-up and stretching period of about 30 minutes is recommended.  Seeing as how I normally do my run in the same time, the thought of spending the same time again (by which time I could be back!) warming up had little to commend it.  1 pulled muscle later and the sense of it becomes apparent. 

LONDON MARATHON 3

Friday 23 Oct.

I have yet to follow the training programme!

Went out on Sunday for a 6 mile bike ride, which was a nice change from running but still works up a sweat.  A bit on the roads and a bit off road, across Hankley Common and through Elstead, past the Donkey, adjacent to which we used to live (until 1972) and which my Jack Russel used to frequent to play with Freddie, a westie, and along the track that links up with the main road before home again.  Must put the seat up!

On Monday, my wife was going out with the kids for coffee, so I got her to drop me at the end of their road and ran back.  About 3 miles, again too fast, but felt OK when I had got back.  It still seems alarming that 3 miles is only a 9th of the total distance.

Today, struggling to find time during the week, I had to take the car to Tongham to get brakes and tyres replaced, so I got all togged up and ran back from there - 5.5 miles.  Unfortunately I found that I had left the headphones for my iPod behind, so I had to sing all the way round instead.  It is very hilly round here and I am benefitting from some additional training challenges.  It will hopefully all stand me in good stead on the day, which is only 6 months away!!!

LONDON MARATHON 2

So here we are on Friday 16th October 2009, with 27 weeks and 2 days to go, and 8.79 miles under my belt, and a few more yet to clock up.

Wednesday saw me on an evening run, having put the kids to bed. Just over 2.5 miles in the pitch dark, running on roads with no torch but a Hi Vis vest to alert cars as I overtook them. Slightly concerning, especially when night noises surprised you from behind, beside and ahead. Made me run even faster! Not sure what the nightime strategy is going to be bearing in mind that the winter is drawing in. I suspect that heading into town where the streets are lit might be a plan, but it doesn't make for the most pleasant of views or environment.

Today saw a great disaster....just over 3 miles at a minute a mile faster than the last 2 runs, and a mile time of 9.14. This was great in that I am getting towards a sub 4 hour time, but I am trying to control my running and keep the pace slow so that I can do the other 23 miles. Early days yet, and trying to remember that 3 runs doesn't quite put me into the Paula Radcliffe bracket has to be a priority. Largely cross country tonight, which was pretty uncomfortable and hardly representative of the streets of London, but it was different to running on the roads, and there were more people to impress, puffing my chest out, picking up my knees and smiling as I passed dog walkers and strollers, obviously impressed and honoured to witness this year's running revelation demonstrating such fine form so early in his training regime.

I am going to try and follow a Nike training programme, but rather horrified to see that it expects 2 miles from me tomorrow, and then 4 on Sunday!

Will let you know.

I hope you are all enjoying your Friday evening.