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.

LONDON MARATHON 1

11 Oct 09

So I finally strapped on my new trainers and started the regime yesterday. Having been awoken by the kids at 6 and been joined downstairs by one of our weekend guests, I decided that this was the perfect time to leap into action.

Fully tooled up with new shoes, the Nike + and an iPod full of great music (that my older children consider Classical - ELO, Genesis, Led Zeppelin), I launched myself out of the gate into an unsuspecting, ignorant and still unimpressed, world.

Out of our gate, you have 4 options (or 5 if turning right round and going back to bed counts). 2 are up significant hills, one is a dirt track, and the fourth is very scenic until it too presents an incline that you would rather descend.

Having taken the fourth option, crossed the River Wey and run past the Green, the Pub, and the river again listening to Ride of the Valkyries, I soon relaised that I was going far too fast, am very unfit (last running because some hairy Chief Petty Officer (Physical Training) was threatening to assault my person should I not show a clean pair of heals some good few years ago), and was listening to the wrong music! Technology and I had proven a lack of familiarity with one another, and my workout mix had not started and nor, to my chagrin after my olympic first half mile, had my workout.

From then on it was all down hill in everything but reality. I revisited the reason for my consistent losses in the school sack race at the age of 7 - doing the first 2/3s of the course at astounding speed and leaving everybody else sucking up my dust and then thrashing around on the ground trying to gasp the oxygen my body needed to stay alive as everybody else came bouncing gleefully past - and realised that I was again going too fast.

You don't think that you need lessons in how to run; surely it's just one foot in front of the other at a speed that you feel is acceptable to describe as running without being a sprint. But oh no! It is a science, and more important than schoolboy biology, physics or chemistry, because while I am not aware of having used any of these three, the science of running is going to become vital to understand if there is any hope of becoming the Ironman I envisage myself as at the end of my training and on the start line of the Marathon alongside the other elite athletes.

It is all about regulation and pace and rhythm and discipline and concentration, all of which have never really worried me before, but a bedtime read of my London Marathon magazine last night suddenly clarified for me. And since I covered the 2.5 miles in less time than it has taken me to write this first entry, I now prove my lack of understanding of these key issues.

2.5 miles in a little over 25 minutes, giving me a per mile pace of 10.something minutes, and therefore a sub 5 hour marathon, was very pleasing, particularly because of the aforementioned Everest half way round, which an aggressive walking pace dispatched while proving that I had hamstrings and calf muscles and poor lung capacity.

Today I daren't sit down for too long as these and other long-forgotten muscles are shaken out of their headlong plunge into retirement, and my walk to and fro the office - 0.92 miles as Nike + tells me - is the best I can manage until the pain eases off and I feel it is once again safe and wise to do my Forrest Gump on the next unsuspecting option.