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Five on Friday

Strange to tell, but my legs are changing shape… I noticed this morning.  No, they’re not pear-shaped, although they may well be after the marathon, but there are definitely muscles developing that I’ve not seen before… at least on my legs!

So I kept up the pressure earlier with another lunchtime run on the magic carpet.  One and a quarter miles at 7.9mph, two and a half at 8mph and the final one and a quarter at 8.1mph gave me 5 miles in 37minutes 43 seconds and an average of 7.95mph.

This is 8 seconds off my PB on 3rd Feb, although that was an interval session and I was not even outside my comfort zone today.  I’m guessing that those new muscles could be quite useful to my running.

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Another Wedtensday

It was a beautiful bright, sunny day but fweezin cold outside, so I was glad that I was inside on the machine this morning.

There are days when the miles just whir past effortlessly, but this was not one of them… in fact, each quarter mile felt like a whole one and since there were 40 in total, it seemed to take an age.

Nevertheless, the run was in my schedule so I got on and did my best.  I started the belt at 7.6mph and focussed on not tweaking the tendon in my right hip/knee… not easy, but possible it appears.

At the 5 mile mark, which I reached in 39 minutes 38 seconds, I got off, had a quick slurp of water and increased the speed to 7.7mph.  At the 7.5 mile mark I got off, opened the door to let some much-needed fresh air in, had another slurp of water and reset the machine to 7.8mph.

I completed 10 miles in 78 minutes 18 seconds, which is an average of 7.66mph overall and despite the increases in speed, my heart rate was still below 170 at the end.

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Post run run

After yesterday’s run I expected to be quite a bit stiffer today than I was… the programme must be working.

Still, it wasn’t that pleasant running on the machine as my hip is still a little painful.  At least I know how to alleviate the pain now though and hopefully, with a little persistence, I can resolve the problem.

So three miles at 7mph, with a little break after a mile to stretch. 25 minutes 57 seconds.

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Tiger feet

There was a larger number than normal against today in my running schedule and I was interested to know whether I was going to be able to complete it… and if so, what state I would be in afterwards.

I’m waiting for Kurt at Run to get some new woollen Thurlos in for me and my mother had kindly darned my current pair ready for me… thanks Mum!

The one thing I love about going from Woodingdean is that you have to start by running downhill and I made Rottingdean in about 20 minutes.  From there I headed West along the coast and it was another chilly day, with shallow icy puddles in places on the pavement.

The sun had come out briefly when I was having breakfast this morning, but by the time I got out running it had disappeared behind a blanket of cloud… and one which kept spitting snow at me at that!  But the breeze in my face was only gentle and as I wear all the right gear it was actually a good day to run.

There was about the same balance of unsociable runners as last week, but enough people waved back at me, smiled or simply nodded to keep me happy and I reached the pier in 52 minutes.  I continued along the seafront and past the peace memorial where I turned around last week.

I continued on.  Past the King Alfred centre.  Past rows of colourful beach huts huddling together in the cold.  Past the tennis courts.  And then… some git deliberately ran into me.

Actually, that’s an example of the writers imagination… Cliff didn’t run into me at all, but rather made out as if he was going to, while Andy, Clive and Garth looked on!  I’m still amazed by their sense of timing.  I had said that I was going to run to the Hove Lagoon and they had set out from the kayak club around the time I left Woodindean, had run right up past the old power-station to the very end of the spit and arrived back at the lagoon just before I got there.  They even humoured me by turning around and running back to my turning point with me!

Alas, in the hubbub, I forgot to make a note of the time, but I do remember thinking that it was an awfully long way back to base from there… and how much my legs were already hurting!

Garth, Andy and Cliff quickly drew out a lead, leaving Clive to run back with me… I’m not sure how well that suited Clive, but it suited me fine and it’s always great to catch up with him… which I finally did when we got to the kayak club!  En route he saw first hand how unsociable the other runners are, although I did manage to get a few people to say Hi back to us.

Here I paused for a few minutes to be sociable, asking for a stretch to ease my painful thigh… Andy showed me the magical stretch and Marina, a physio who just happened to be standing beside me, told me how to rev it up a bit.  AAAARGH was all I could manage by way of thanks when it hit home!

Actually, looking at this photo, is it any wonder that people don’t say Hi to me!

I left the ensemble, thankfully noting the time (1 hour 55 minutes) and headed East, passing more self-absorbed runners, along with a good few who were thankfully more engaging.  And then, just before the Ovingdean roundabout, my faith in human nature was completely restored by a lady on a bicycle who slowed up beside me to ask what I was training for and then wished me luck before pushing on again.

It’s about 2.5 miles up the hill from Rottingdean and my legs were openly shouting how painful they were, but I pressed on.  I’ve probably said before that I find it really interesting trying to figure out what is holding me back at any given moment.  Here it was not my heart or my lungs, both of which seemed to be purring along quite happily, nor my running muscles per se… although they were clearly tired, they seemed very happy to continue pushing me up the hill, step after step.  The limit really seemed to be the tightness in the tendons in my right hip and my knees… more stretching required!

I made the end in 2 hours 55 minutes, overshooting my target by covering 18.35 miles in total.  This is an average of 6.29mph, which is mildly disappointing when compared with the 6.7mph last week and the 6.48mph the week before and is not fast enough to gain the marathon time I require.  Still, this did include a social stop at the kayak club, and also two subsequent stops to get something out of my sock.  The fact that I covered 5.5 miles in the final hour  means that I covered the previous 12.85 miles at 6.7mph… which makes me happier again!

By the way,

新年快樂

Which I think means Happy New Year… it being the start of the Chinese year of the Tiger.  So Gung Hay Fat Choy and Xin Nian Kuai Le!

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Life without broadband

The broadband went off last night and has only come back since about 4.30pm today.  It surprises me how lost I instantly felt without it, being suddenly without access to research tools, internet banking (admittedly, only paying bills), this site etc.

I have actually had quite a good day though, getting some off-line chores done as well as reading a little more of John Mullins & Randy Komisar’s excellent book Getting to Plan B… which, as far as I’ve read so far, is highly recommended!

I also managed to squeeze in my lunchtime run and in sharp contrast to last week, I was really looking forward to it.

My current general plan with my Friday short runs is to slowly push the speed envelope, so where I ran at 7.7mph last week, today I dialled in 7.8… not a whole lot, admittedly, but worth two and a half minutes across a marathon distance.

It was quite a comfortable pace and with my heart rate still sub-160 at the half-way mark, I increased the speed to 8mph for a negative split.  This was also quite easy to maintain (over this distance, at least!) and I wondered about upping it again, but I think the key at the moment is gently building consistency.

So 5 miles in 38.39, which is 37 seconds better than last week and way easier than the intervals that gave me a similar time on the 26th January.  As much as anything, the run left me feeling great… which is always welcome on a Friday!

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Ten on the tenth… part two

So far this week we have seen three very interesting movies: Synecdoche, New York and 500 Days of Summer thanks to Karen and Avatar thanks to Jason.  Synecdoche was supremely hard work to trawl through, but highly rewarding in that the point is worth getting, even if, as in my case, it was right at the end!  500 Days of Summer, which could easily have been a trite chick-flick but thankfully wasn’t, also had some worthwhile points to make and in a surprisingly similar vein.

Meanwhile, Avatar… well if you are not at all bothered about seeing this, as was I, you should just go see for yourself.  It was not at all what I expected and aside from this… well let’s just say that the days of 2D films must surely be numbered.

I did manage to get my planned longer run in yesterday and it was reassuring to see progress in at least some areas since the same time last month, not least that whilst both days had snow on the ground, it’s at least a lot thinner this month!

January 10th: 10 miles in 82 minutes, heart rate sub 175, slight post-run staggering, upstairs bathroom in progress.

February 10th: 10 miles in 79.35, heart rate sub 170, scant post-run staggering, bathroom complete.

The increase in speed was due to 1) not waiting 800m to increase the speed to 7.5mph and 2) running a slight negative split by increasing the speed to 7.6 for the second 5 miles.  40.11/39.25.  The decrease in heart-rate is the exciting thing for me as this seems a better indicator of fitness.

As to the bathroom, where once it was Orange:

Now it just is:

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New splodge and a change in training tempo

Kim and I both bought new splodge during our visit to Run on Saturday and it was the inaugural outing for my pair today. I say outing, but as my plan is to use them only on the running machine for the time being, I should probably say inning.

Also, although my head has been in marathon gear for several weeks now, I have only just realised that both my mileage and the number of times I run each week should be higher.

Hence this gentle little 3-mile run today to stretch my legs out after yesterday’s long-un.  I clearly warmed up for too long before dialling in 7mph, as the average speed at the 3-mile mark was 6.92mph.  25 minutes, 53 seconds.

I’ll probably see what the result is when I wake up tomorrow morning, but rest assured that there will be more runs coming!

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Flat calm greyday

It was back down to my parents house in Woodingdean this morning for another long road run, though there wasn’t as much bounce in my step as last week.

Maybe this had something to do with the weather, which was flat grey and though not quite as cold as last Sunday, still very chilly indeed.  As I ran down the Falmer Road, I was transported back to a very hot and sunny day in the early seventies.

Do you remember those small, dense rubber balls that were popular at the time… the ones that were super-bouncy?  I was walking back to school after going home for lunch and I was about to cross the road by the petrol station when I dropped the ball I was carrying.

I chased it as it rolled down the gutter, but I was not nimble enough.  Every time I got ahead and reached out, it snuck away, eluding my grasp and carried on rolling.  It got all the way down around the corner, virtually a quarter of a mile away, before I finally closed my hand around it.  I might have got it sooner but I was acutely aware of the traffic on the road.

It was the day of the annual School summer gala and all the children had assembled in the playground surrounded by parents, each class ready to perform some musical oddity or other.  Having run down the road and hurriedly staggered back up again I was hot, late and out of breath.  I seem to recall that Mr Matthews substituted the recorder that I had been due to play with by a triangle, much to my chagrin.

Today I stretched out my pace lazily down the hill and on down to Rottingdean, turning right for Brighton.  Although the sky was flat grey, the view out onto the sea was gorgeous, with the sun occasionally breaking through the mat of cloud to bring some welcome contrast.

I ran on and it occurred to me that the myriad runners I passed (mostly going the other way) were a most insular, surly, antisocial bunch.  I make a real point of acknowledging each runner I pass with a smile or a grin, a wave of the hand, or a breathy hey or good morning.  What I got back, in the main, was a blank stare, as if I had just violated some sacred rule forbidding brevity or camaraderie.

Fortunately, enough people reacted positively to my greeting, mostly runners but with the odd carefully-chosen cyclist, walker or older couple, for me to know it was not just because I look like some madman… although I realise that I do!

After many such interactions I reached the Palace pier at 52 minutes and the Peace Memorial, just the other side of what is left of the West Pier, at the one hour mark.  This works out to 7.25 miles.

Here I turned around and started to run back again and it was immediately apparent that those runners who I now passed for the second time were far more inclined to open up and return my smile or wave.

We’re all out there in the fresh air with our distinctive Lycra running gear, pitting ourselves against the landscape, the weather and our goals.  For whatever crazy, personal reason we have, we share the same passion, at least to some measure.  Why can’t we celebrate the pain and the gain by hailing the other runners that we pass… call me old-fashioned, but surely we are far the richer for these tiny nods of socialisation, indicative of a more respectful, cohesive society.

I ran along Madeira Drive and up on to the top again past the Marina, all the while thinking that it was far easier last week when I had Nikki for company.  The view was still great though.

The outside of my right thigh had been painful, to some extent, for most of the run although up until Rottingdean I had been fairly successful in zoning it out.  But the hill that is the Falmer Road brought it right back front of mind.  I ran with the pain however, rather than stopping, knowing that I would only be taking longer to get back.  I was not in the mood to run to the top of the village though, instead running only as far as the Downs Hotel.

Alas, I now realise that this meant that I did not quite reach my goal for the day, instead managing 14.55 miles in 2 hour 11 minutes.  Still not bad though and at an average of 6.7mph, faster than the similar run last Sunday.  Keep this pace up for another 11.65 miles and I can bring the Brighton Marathon in within spitting distance of my goal.

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21 seconds

I didn’t really want to run this morning (there’s clearly a theme here!) but I knew that I had to, so I jumped on the machine and set off to be a bit quicker than my Friday run last week.  This involved warming up for a nanosecond before dialling in a speed of 7.7mph and hanging on!

I counted down the 20 circuits in order to pass the time, even though they seemed in no particular hurry today… the only usual benefit of running faster is that the run is over sooner, but today I could have been running at the speed of light and the circuits would still have taken their time.

So, 5 miles in 39 minutes, 16 seconds… a whole 21 second gain on last week for a WHOLE lot more effort!

Still, the speaker at the lunch event I attended was Tim Hutchings, who is the man behind the Brighton Marathon, so at least I was able to bask privately in the knowledge that I’m keeping up my training schedule!