Media Maraton de Aspe - Job Done

After missing my PB last month in Elda by just 3 seconds I was extremely relieved to get the job done today, knocking 22 seconds off my best according to my official time, 46 seconds by my start to finish line time.

After every run, PB or not, there is always a slight feeling of, maybe I could have gone quicker. At the start of the year I had a 90 minute half marathon as a target and I didn't manage to make it, but I'm really pleased with today's result. On a freezing cold day (it was actually freezing, it was the first time I've seen a frozen puddle here in 16 months), and after a less than ideal build-up I managed to run my best ever half. If I compare my situation to this time last year I can look forward with real optimism. After a very bad day in Elda in November last year I picked up my training, when January came things had improved and I ran a 1:34:40 half and was very pleased with that at the time. I'll finish 2009 with a much better level of fitness than I started, so touch wood, it will lead to a more successful year ahead with all my targets achieved.

The race was fairly well organized, it wasn't the most interesting of circuits but it was in a small town in the middle of nowhere, its difficult to make it exciting. But the thing they do well is to provide a great bag of goodies at the end. I came home with a technical t-shirt, a towel, a loaf of bizcocho and a big box of grapes. The t-shirt and towel are both red, and since I never wear red I'll probably never use them but hopefully i'll find a home for them.

The next half is in Santa Pola, its basically up and down the beach so almost completely flat and it should be a good deal warmer than in Aspe. So fingers crossed I can make another step forward there.

This week's training (Dec 12th - Dec 18th)

Normally in a week before a race I would ease down on the training, but given that I'd had too fairly light weeks I felt I should get back to a pre-exam workload, plus I thought it would be wise to do a proper long run before doing a half-marathon in Aspe. Went to the physio on Monday, it was pretty productive, I got an exercise I should do to prevent injury along with a nice bright pink stripe to wear down my leg, you can see below how cool it is!

Saturday 12th December - Rest Day

Sunday 13th December - Run 21.08km
Did a half-marathon for a training run, I think I've only ever run quicker in races. I still had energy at the end, but I did feel at one stage that the tendonitis might be returning, so the following days physio session was well timed.
21.08km 4:30min/km 1:34:52

Monday 14th December - Swim 1km
A good swim, not very quick but given the long run the day before it wouldn't have been a good idea to push things.
1000m 27:00

Tuesday 15th December - Run 10km
I changed from my normal 10k lap to avoid running in the dark and upsetting drivers, was a boring route but at a steady quick pace.
10km 4:10min/km 42:00

Wednesday 16th December - Rest Day

Thursday 17th December - 5km Track Session
This was the night before my last exam, I wanted to get out for the run to get rid of some of my nervous energy, it didn't work! It was fun though, and I had some followers for part of it as some kids, they must have been about 7 or 8, wanted to see if they could keep up with me, they did for about have a lap.
5km 4:11min/km 20:52

Friday 18th December - Rest Day
Was a rest day from training, but not really a rest. Had my last exam in the morning, it went ok I think, hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the result. Present shopping in the afternoon, then a low-key end of exams celebration.

This week's training (Dec 5th - Dec 11th)

Another week where I did less training than I'd like. I had to do a presentation on Monday, which I spent all weekend and right up until the last moment preparing, I think it went ok but we'll see when I get my grade. After I got that out of the way I had two days to prepare for an exam, half of which went well, the other half was a bit of a disaster but hopefully I got enough out of it to get a half-decent grade. Just need to put the finishing touches to an essay and do one more exam next Friday and its happy holidays.

Saturday 5th December - Rest Day

Sunday 6th December - Rest Day

Monday 7th December - Run 13.33km
After doing nothing over the weekend, was eager to get out and do something, although I didn't get home until gone 8pm so I didn't leave myself much time. I ran on about the same pace as I did in the half-marathon in Elda, although it was split in two, quick at the start with the wind behind with the payback on the way back. Overall I was happy with it.
13.33km 4:23min/km 58:23

Tuesday 8th December - Rest Day

Wednesday 9th December - Run 10.6km
Back out running again doing my regular lap, left it fairly late in the evening, which reminds me I need to sort myself with some lights to attach to my t-shirt, I wasn't making myself popular with car drivers and took precautionary evasive action jumping into the long grass a couple of times. Apart from those episodes it was a good run, not my quickest but good nonetheless. I'd ideally like to run a half marathon going at the same pace, which would see me going under 90 minutes but I think next week's half in Aspe will be too early to go for that target.
10.6km 4:14min/km 44:54

Thursday 10th December - Bike 21.7km
After the "fun" of a Macroeconomics exam in the mornings, went out and had myself some real fun on the bike in the afternoon to forget about it. Was a good bit of training together with an hour to unwind after the morning's stresses.
21.7km 2:51min/km 1:02:08

Friday 11th December - Swim 1km
Another exciting Friday night down at the pool, just me and another two happy go lucky guys making waves. Its not exactly part of a rock'n'roll lifestyle, but I enjoy it anyway. I threw in a few fast laps to make it more interesting, I'll look to try to speed up my swimming in the new year with a view to eventually having a go at triathlon.
1000m 27:00

This week's training (Nov 28th - Dec 4th)

Not much to say this week. Training took a back seat this week, had lots of work to get finished, but hopefully I'm passed the worst. I'm hoping to get in to see the physio this week, i haven't felt quite right since the half-marathon in Elda, so I just want to get checked over before I end up injuring myself and missing weeks of training like last year.

Saturday 28th November - Rest Day

Sunday 29th November - Rest Day

Monday 30th November - 17km Run
Was a nice run, I only didn't go on longer because I had come home and get showered before class. Was a very windy day, which I didn't really notice until I'd run 8km's and had to turn back into it, needless to say my pace slowed a bit from then on but it was still a good training pace.
16.99km 4:29min/km 1:16:06

Tuesday 1st December - Football
Lost the game, but I thought I played ok, got up and down the wing alot.

Wednesday 2nd December - Rest Day

Thursday 3rd December - 10.6km run
Was a quick 10km on my regular, a little bit off my best, but I was pleased with it. It shows I'm in pretty good form and should get a good long run in beforehand I'll go in to the Aspe half marathon fairly confident that I can get a PB this time.

Friday 4th December - 1.25km Swim
Was a very good swim, only 3 people in the pool and I managed to get my goggles sorted in minute one rather than stopping repeatedly to do it like in the last few weeks.
1250m 26:56min/km 33:40

This week's training (Nov 21st - Nov 27th)

A fair lazy training week, because of a hectic working week, exams to start revising for, essays to write, problems to solve. Just three more weeks of term left though now.

Saturday 21st November - 26.7km Bike
An evening bike ride down to the beach in San Juan, got a bit lost on my way back but managed to find my way back (well my watch found the way and I followed). Wasn't very quick, mostly the result of turning up two or three dead ends.
26.7km 3min/km 1:19:55

Sunday 22nd November - 10.6km Run
I intended to do a long run, but because of time constraints and feeling slightly under the weather just did a gentle 10k.
10.66km 4:27min/km 47:29

Monday 23rd November - 1.25km Swim
Still had the goggle issue I moaned about last week, eventually sorted it though and had a fun swim. I had a couple of different people trying to tell me how I could swim better, my Spanish is improving all the time but when my ears are full of water I tend to struggle to understand so I just nodded politely and carried on.
1.25km 30:15min/km 37:49

Tuesday 24th November - 1hr Football
Didn't play very well, but was on the winning side. Didn't get to run much, there were probably two players too many playing so there wasn't much space to run into, plus we had too many lazy players up front that didn't track back at all so had to stay back to cover them.

Wednesday 25th November - Rest Day

Thursday 26th November - 12km Run
Did the same route as the previous Thursday, but pushing the pace up a bit, I was two and a half minutes quicker this week. It felt really good, like I'd finally got the after effects of the Elda half out of my system.
11.95km 4:16min/km 50:59

Friday 27th November - 6km Run
A quick 6km to finish the week. I went out hard, paid for it a bit in the middle, but managed to recover to finish quickly (first km was in 3:43, last in 3:50). Its pretty much perfect conditions for running here now so it makes it alot more fun. It's dry most days and the temperature has dropped a bit recently, I think in the evening its about 15C, there is a bit of a chill on the bare skin when I first go out but once I've done a kilometre or so I'm soon warm and no longer constantly mopping the sweat from my brow.

This week's training (Nov 14th - Nov 20th)

This week was mainly just recovery from the half-marathon. There weren't any major effects just a few mild muscular aches and pains that have just about worked themselves out now.

Saturday 14th November - Rest Day
Had a rest in preparation for the following day's half marathon.

Sunday 15th November - Elda Half Marathon
As detailed in my post last week, was a bit disappointing to miss my PB, but good to know i'm in good form.
21.1km 4:22min/km 1:32:09

Monday 16th November - Rest Day
I'd planned to go to the pool, having a swim after a long, hard run is generally a good, allegedly it helps clear the lactic acid from the muscles, but I had a bit too much work to do.

Tuesday 17th November - Football
Was a good game, I ran plenty, my side won but I didn't play particularly well.

Wednesday 18th November - 1km Swim
Finally got to the pool. I have to buy new goggles, wasted about 10 minutes adjusting them and still they leaked water. Apart from that frustration it was a nice swim with hardly anyone in the pool.

Thursday 19th November - 12km Run
Good to get back out running, but it was a bit slow. I could still feel a couple of kicks I took in Tuesday's football in my legs.
12km 4:28min/km 53:28

Friday 20th November - Track Session
Did a bit of speedwork but was feeling a bit lethargic so didn't do as much as I'd look. Did 1200m to warm-up, 3x200m 1x800m and 1x400m.

Next week I'll try to start building up the km's again ready for my next half in a month.

Elda Half Marathon - Mixed Emotions

After finishing my first half marathon in over five months I returned home with extremely mixed emotions. The first thing to say it was a lot more pleasant an experience than in my last half marathon when I suffered due to both a lack of training and oppresive heat. This time I was running in almost perfect conditions, under bright sunshine but at a comfortable temperature, plus I've been training well.

I finished in 1:32:09, in 125th place of 564 finishers. The bit that gives the mixed emotions is the time, it was just 3 seconds outside the PB I set in March. While on the one hand its great that I managed to be so near to my PB so far away from my main objective, the marathon, its tinged by the thought that if I'd pushed things just that little bit harder I would be celebrating the new PB. It shouldn't bug me, its only 3 seconds after 92 minutes of running, but it does. The frustation is added to when I consider the time I lost when, like in Altea, I had to stop to tie my shoe. I lost 30 seconds for such a stupid avoidable thing, that is never an issue in training.

Anyway, I guess I should put it to bed, its only 5 weeks until my next half, when I get another chance to set the PB I wanted.

Here are the 5km splits:
1st 5km   21:15
2nd 5km  21:15    42:30
3rd 5km  21:56  1:04:27 (this was about the time the winner finished in)
4th  5km  21:32  1:25:59
      1.1km 6:09

The timings for the first two splits are pretty accurate, but from about 8km onwards they become a bit less reliable as the GPS on my watch doesn't work so well around tall buildings. The story of the race was that I set off pretty quick, the first 5k was my quickest despite the stop to tie my shoe being in that section, I was conscious that it was quick, and perhaps too quick so I tried to slow down a bit after km 8. I was feeling good at km 16 so I tried to push on in the last 5km and I thought I'd done that quite well, but came up a little short.

All in all I guess I should be happy with it, and I move on to the next few weeks of training with the boost of confidence from knowing I'm in, close, to PB form.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18803967

This week's training (Nov 7th - Nov 13th)

I had a low mileage week this week, partly as a taper to the Elda half marathon and partly because I had a lot of work to catch up on after a weekend in the UK.

Saturday Nov 7th - 5km Running (Northampton)
A 5km lap around my sister's house, after arriving the previous this was a quick reminder that it can be quite cold in England in winter! I'd forgotten what it was like to run and see my every breath in front of me.
5.3km 4:14min/km 22:30

Sunday Nov 8th - 10km Running (Staines)
This was a nice run by the Thames, enjoyed getting a bit muddy and seeing some greenery, as opposed to the desert I run in in Alicante, plus running on the towpath has the benefit that its soft ground so its alot less likely to cause injury than the hard tarmac roads I normally run on. Again it was cold, and the run wasn't very quick.
10.2km 4:20min/km 44:11

Monday Nov 9th & Tuesday Nov 10th -Rest Days
No football since I didn't want to risk injury before racing on the Sunday, and had alot of work to do so didn't find time to do anything else.

Wednesday Nov 11 - 6km Running
Did my regular 6km lap early in the morning, not very quick since I was trying to run around half-marathon pace.
6.2km 4:11min/km 25:50

Thursday Nov 12 - 5km Running (On the track)
I ran with the same objective as the previous day, running comfortably at my half-marathon pace, but changed the surface, I've read its good to run on different types of ground as its good for preventing injuries.
5km 4:10min/km 20:49

Friday Nov 13 - 1000m Swimming
A good swim in an almost empty pool, it seems there aren't too many people around here like me that when they go out on a Friday night pop down to their local swimming baths.
1km 26:30min/km

This week's training (Oct 31st - Nov 6th)

Two weeks away from a half-marathon I tapered my training a bit toward the end of the week, plus since I was going to the UK on the weekend I had to get some work out of the way before hand so didn't have much time to train anyway.

Saturday 31st October - 24km Bike
After the struggle I had in the previous Sunday's long run I shortened the Saturday bike trip (from 48km the previous week) to save a bit of energy for running. It was a fairly flat circuit at a comfortable pace.
24km 2:37min/km 1:02:37

Sunday 1st November - 10km + 3.4km Running
This was a big disappointment, despite cutting down my Saturday bike ride I still didn't have the energy to do a proper long run. At 10km I just felt like I had nothing left. I walked for a couple of km's and then started again, not feeling the best but I held out until I got home. Not sure what the cause was, possibly a combination of things, the heat, not having eaten breakfast (I went out at midday) and perhaps just the build up of training.
10km 4:29min/km 45:04
3.4km 4:22min/km 14:43

Monday 2nd November - 14.4km Running + 1km Swimming
After the previous day's failure I wanted to have another go at a last long run before the Elda half, I would have liked to have gone further, again I didn't have the energy, but given that I had run 13km the day before it was a good effort. It was a bit slower than my target pace for the half, but it was just about getting out and running long.
I found the energy to have an evening swim, albeit at a leisurely pace.
14.4km 4:27min/km 1:04:00 Running
1km 29min/km Swim

Tuesday 3rd November - Football
Had a shocker, I don't remember contributing anything to the game at all.

Wednesday 4th November - Rest Day

Thursday 5th November - 925m Swim
I would have liked to go for a run but by the time I got around to doing anything the light had gone so I thought better of it. It was a fairly quick swim in an almost empty pool. I intended to do 1km, but I felt a little cramp in my calf and thought I shouldn't push it too much.
925m 24:52min/km 23:00

Friday 6th November - 25km Bike
Seeing as I was going away for the weekend I wouldn't be able to use my bike, so I went out for a ride before hand. I went out without much of a plan of where I was going, but managed to make a good route with some challenging ascents.
25km 2:46min/km 1:09:00

Half-marathon calendar

I'm part of my University half-marathon team. Its not a competitive team, there is just a requirement to run 5 half-marathons a year in order to maintain your place in the team, and then the Uni provides kit and pays for entry and transport to all the runs that you want to enter. All in all its a really good deal. Anyway, this week I got the definitive calendar of events for the coming academic year. There is a list of eight to choose from, so it will be a question seeing where they fit with my marathon training. Last year I had a problem that I missed a 2 of the first 4 as I was going to the UK, and had only 3 done when I got injured, as a result it was a bit of the struggle to get the 5 done at the end of the year. This year I'm planning to do all the early ones so I can pick and choose around marathon time.

Here is the calendar for the next couple of months:

15th November - Elda Half Marathon
20th December - Aspe Half Marathon
24th January - Santa Pola Half Marathon

I did both Elda and Santa Pola last season, but Aspe is a new one for me. Elda last year was a bit of a disaster, I went in undertrained and ended up struggling a lot in the second half of the race, I'm a lot better prepared for this time. I suffered a little as its a bit higher up than where I'm living and there is a really big temperature difference as you pass from in the sun to the shade. Santa Pola is a popular race, the biggest that I've done here, its really well organised, with a fairly good course, I ran 1:34:41 there last January.

With all the training I've been doing, now I'm really looking forward to putting myself in a race to see what I can do.

This week's training (Oct 24th - Oct 30th)

Uni work impinged a little on my training this week, but I managed to do everything I wanted in the end. I can blame my Macroeconomics professor for messing with my schedule.

Saturday 24th October - 48km Bike
After a failed attempt the previous week I made it to Xixona on my bike. There wasn't much to see in the town itself but there were fairly good views of the surrounding mountains, a couple of which I'd like to make my way to the top of over the next year. It was a fairly tough ride, climbing up to 465m of altitude from where I live at about 100m. The road was straight most of the way which made it easy to descend quickly, going at more than 50km/h for a good few kilometres. The ascent took me 1hr30, where as the descent was just over 50mins.
48km  2:59min/km 2:23:49

Sunday 25th October - 17km Run + 2km
I was hoping to go beyond half marathon distance but after about 5km when normally I would be just getting into a rhythm, I was feeling quite lethargic. I pushed on to 17km maintaining a fairly solid pace but I was dying by that point. However, after about 10 minutes of walking I managed to summon up the energy to run the final 2km. I guess the previous day's bike ride had its effect.
17km 4:26min/km 1:15:37
2.3km 4:23min/km 0:09:58

Monday 26th October - Rest Day
I wanted to go for a swim but I was so involved in my work completely lost track of time so had to give it a miss.

Tuesday 27th October - Football
It was a good game this week, ran alot and managed to score one.

Wednesday 28th October - Swim 1km
It was a fairly frustrating swim as the pool was really busy, 6 people were sharing my lane for most of the time so I ended up looking at other peoples kicking feet alot of the time. Regardless, I kept going for a kilometre.
1km 28:12min/km

Thursday 29th October - 10.6k Run
My regular 10k lap, in a PB time. I started off doing my target half-marathon pace for the first 5k, which is faster than normal for this route as the first 5k are uphill, and felt good so pushed things on for the next 5k, which I did in 20:14. I knocked more than 30 seconds off my best time for the route.
10.6km 4:09min/km 44:02

Friday 30th October - Track Session
Wanted to do some speedwork to help pick up my pace ahead of a half-marathon in a couple of weeks. I did 1200m to warm-up before 2x200m sprints, a hard run 800m (in 2:38), another 2x200m sprints before finishing with a 400m sprint. It was a good workout, didn't really make any improvements on the times I've done before, but my times didn't get any worse through the session that normally happens.

This week's training - (Oct 17th - Oct 23rd)

This week was pretty much the same as the previous one, although with a few more km's covered.

Saturday 17th October - 31km Bike
I headed in the direction of Xixona, the home of turrones, but stopped about 8km short, I didn't want to push things too hard having had a tough session (hill-running) the day before and with a long Sunday in mind. There was a bit of ascent but nothing very steep, Xixona is 300m higher than San Vicente (where I live) but I went as far as 230m.
31km 2:44min/km 1:24:59

Sunday 18th October - 22.9km Run
Was a fairly successful long run, maintained a fairly good rhythm going beyond half marathon distance. I was thinking I'd do 25km but it was fairly hot and i'd gone out without water so thought it was better to stop.
22.9km 4:35min/km 1:44:55

Monday 19th October - 750m Swim
The pool was fairly busy so I cut my session a little short.
750m 29:20min/km 22:00

Tuesday 20th October - Football
Plenty of running with no end product.

Wednesday 21st October - Rest Day


Thursday 22nd October - 4.6km Run
Bit of a disappointment, planned to do my regular 10km run but felt ill fairly early on, tried to keep going, seeing if things got any better but ended up stopping and walking back home after just 4.6km.
4.6km 4:16min/km 19:36

Friday 23rd October - 10.6km Run
After Thursday's failed attempt had another go at my 10km lap, made it round this time although at a pace a bit off my best.
10.6km 4:22min/km 46:23

This week's training and other news...

I'll start with the news, I know my number for London. On Sunday April 25 2010 I will have the number 18205 on the front of my vest. I highlight the will the since I had a number allocated last year, and if you read one of my earlier blogs (why blog?) not being able to use the number was a fairly frustrating experience. I have no particular preferences over numbers, I don't think any have any special significance for me, but I'm relieved there's no obvious omen of bad luck there, no 13's, and no 666's.

That's enough of the news, now to the training...

Saturday 10th October - 31km Bike

A good fun lap with some ascents but nothing really challenging so I could maintain a fairly good pace throughout.

31km 2:34min/km 1:19:50

Sunday 11th October - 11.8km Run

This was intended to be a longer run, 15-20km, but after 3 or 4km's I decided to shorten it since I was suffering a bit with the heat, it was the consequence of having a lazy Sunday morning and not going out until midday.

11.8km 4:23min/km 51:40

Monday 12th October - 1.2km Swim

Since it was a bank holiday here I thought the Uni pool would be almost empty, but as it turned it was fairly busy. It didn't disrupt my swim too much though.

1.2km 27:30min/km 33:00

Tuesday 13th October - Football

Did plenty of running but didn't really enjoy the game. Had a perfectly good goal chalked as some people here seem to believe football is a non-contact sport, and while I was still angered by that I missed an absolute sitter.

Wednesday 14th October - Rest Day

Thursday 15th October - 6km Lap

This was one of my regular routes around where I live, I ran fairly hard and finished in my best time for the route, albeit only cutting 10 seconds from my previous best. I'm using this route to get comfortable running consistently below 4min/km in an effort to eventually improve my 10km time to below 40minutes. The average was good, but my pace was above 4min for the 2nd and 4th km.

6.1km 3:55min/km 23:50

Friday 16th October - Hill Running

After the difficulties I had in the previous week's race as promised I did a hill running session. Did a 3km run to start, then 4x400m uphill, running hard, with walking back down rests in between. I made a misjudgement getting home, and ran further than I wanted, I should've gone back on the route I to get to the hill so just done the 3km but ended up doing more than 5km. It was a tough 5km too as the uphill running took quite a bit out of me. It was a good workout, we'll see if it pays dividends in my next race.

12.6km 5:54min/km 1:14:24

Carrera Popular Altea - 8.6km - 9th October

Had to get up at an ungodly hour to catch the tram north up the coast, past Benidorm, to Altea. It was a good trip to make by tram, looking out on to the Mediterranean Sea to the East, with great views of the mountains I hope to climb in the next year or so to the West. I've never been to Benidorm, but just passing through I have to question why anyone would want to go on holiday there, so many unsightly tower blocks ruining the vistas while just five minutes up the coast there is Altea that has managed to retain its meditarranean character despite the invasion of northern Europeans as a result of being so close to Benidorm.

Anyway, enough of that, lets get to the run. I was hoping to average 4:00min/km, but I was a bit short of that unfortunately, a couple of rookie mistakes didn't help.

My splits were:

1km   4:04
2km   3:53
3km   4:03
4km   4:01
5km   4:11
6km   4:14
7km   4:21
8km   3:58
8.6km 2:21 (3:46min/km)

The mistakes were starting too far back in the field, the first kilometre was more hard work than it should have been as I tried to work my way past slower runners. The second was failing to make sure my shoelaces were wll tied before the race, I had to stop in km 5 to tie up my left trainer. I'm not sure how much time I lost, it doesn't look like much because my splits in both cases were pretty good. The sixth and seventh kms involved turning away from the sea and heading up the hill, I'm a little disappointed at how much pace I lost as a result, in km 6 it was fairly steep but km 7 was less so. I think some training on hills may be in order. I managed a strong finish, I think I passed 6 or 7 runners in the last 400m. I finished 72nd of about 500 runners:

http://www.somesport.com/popularaltea/general_altea09.asp.

As I said, I would have liked to have gone a little bit quicker, but it was still a good run and there are a few useful lessons learned that should help when the bigger challenges come along in the next few months.

Finally, hope you enjoy a few pics from the day:

The last one is Benidorm seen from a distance.

This week's training- Oct 3rd - Oct 9th

Saturday 3rd October - Rest Day

Sunday 4th October - 20.5k run
Was a pleasant long Sunday run, was at a comfortable steady rhythm and managed to get out fairly early to avoid the worst of the heat.
20.5km 4:34min/km 1:33:45

Monday 5th October - 1km swim
Late night swim after going home to catch up with my mates on Skype.
1km 28:00min/km 28min

Tuesday 6th October - Track Session
Went to the Uni track in the morning, did 1200m as a warm-up before doing 3x200m sprints followed by 2x400m and then 1000m jog to finish. Every time I go to the track and do sprints I always get amazed by thinking that the pace that I run flat out at over 400m is slower than the pace the top marathoners maintain over all 26.2 miles, I don't know how they do it, but I wish I did...

My times were fairly consistent, 32 seconds for the 200m sprints and 1:15 for 400m, before doing the final 1km in 4.14.

Wednesday 7th October - 10.8k run
My regular 10k lap, almost, I missed a turning as I tired towards the end. Was my fastest pace for a 10k not in a race, 42:03. I'm hoping to take another minute or so off that time in the next few weeks.
10.8km 4:12min/km 45:19

Thursday 8th October - Rest Day

Friday 9th October - Race Day 8.6km in Altea
A blog on the race will follow, was a good course with a good backdrop, I'd definitely go there to run again.
8.6km 4:05min/km 35:09.

This weeks training

Saturday 26th September 2009 - Ascent of Sierra del Maigmo (1299m)

This combined two objectives of mine, training for the marathon and climbing all of the descent size mountains in the province of Alicante. The first stage was a 24km ride from my flat, at an altitude of 100m, to 1000m, most of the way up the mountain, it took me about 2hrs. The second was the walk to the summit, it was a fairly easy climb, although I almost lost my footing a couple of times on my way down, it took me 70 minutes. Finally, it was the descent on the bike back home. The descent was good fun, although it would have been more so had I not crashed, thankfully no serious damage to me or the bike, just a few minor cuts and bruises. It took me about 65mins to get back.

48 km on bike, 2 km on foot, in 4hrs 15.

The ascent on bike was fairly steady most of the way, but the last 400m was really tough. For the walk the biggest problem was path-finding in the cloud.

The summit post wasn't the most interesting but its always good to arrive. The amount of cloud cover was a bit of a disappointment too.

I was going along at 50km/h, I had to slow down for a corner, the bike didn't agree so I found myself off the road in some trees. After checking everything over I carried on on my way, only some minor damage to the rear derailleur, bent the bracket that holds it and had to replace it. I went fairly cautiously from then on.

Sunday 27 September - 11k Run

In hindsight this was a bad idea. I wanted to run 15k plus. Given the bumps and bruises I'd picked up the day before I thought I'd give myself as much of the day as possible to recover so went out in the evening. It was going well for the first 5k but, it being near dinner time, I had a fairly unsettled stomach, which led me to stop running after 11k, after a previous stop hiding behind a tree at the side of the ride. Best forgotten.

11k 4:48min/km 53:10

Monday 28 September - 1km Swim

Arrived at the pool wetter than I left after torrential rain left most of the Uni flooded. Was a good swim as hardly anyone was in the pool.

1km 30min/km 30min

Tuesday 29 September - 10.6km Run

My regular 10k lap, was at a good pace, although was probably still feeling the effects of the crash.

10.6km 4:16 /km 45:18

Wednesday 30 September - 20km Bike

A good steady ride, nothing too strenuous, just maintaining a solid rhythm above 20km/h.

20.7km 2:51/km 59:00

Thursday 1 October - Football

Regular 1hr game, did plenty of running, scored one, was a shambles in goal.

Friday 2 October - 20km Bike

This time a 20km lap with a bit of ascent, to be honest it should have been a rest day but I got a new toy, a cadence meter and wanted to try it out.

20.4km 3:14/km 1:06:13

Next week will see my first race for a couple of months, 8.6k on the coast near Altea, should be a good test of where I am at, looking forward to a half-marathon mid-November.

Training....

After the pain of missing the marathon and the weeks of injury it was important to learn the lessons from the injury, and I hope I have. From what I have read on the internet and what I've been told tendonitis is mainly an overuse injury, if a guy has it in his wrist there is a fair chance he's been choking too many chickens. In my case it seems I was doing too many miles on hard ground, my PB half marathon and the lack of a good rest afterwards was the tipping point, my leg said it couldn't take any more.

The lesson I've learnt is that I have to mix up my training, add in different activities so that different parts of my body pick some of the slack. Before the injury I stopped playing football, using my bike, swimming, trekking, all so that I could focus on my running. It is easy to do, if you download almost any marathon or half-marathon training programme there is no space for anything but running, you focus on the weekly mileage which leaves no energy for anything else. Then when you do pick up an injury and miss a couple of weeks of training there is no mention in these training programs of where you should start when you get back, so with the aim of getting your long run close to a full marathon you do more miles than before you got injured, putting even more pressure on your body.

I'm taking the main principals from internet training plans, namely:

• Gradually building up my Sunday morning long run until I'm comfortable running 20+ miles about 3-4 weeks before D-day.
• Tapering in the last couple of weeks, so I'm feeling strong on race day.
• Occasional training sessions running up hills and doing speedwork. 

And the differences, cross-training, flexibility and reliance on my own common sense rather than a one size fits all program. I'm not suggesting for a moment that I know more than the coaches and experienced runners writing training programs, just that I want a training program that fits around me and not me fitting around it, and that's impossible unless I do it my own way. We'll see how it works out!

Why blog?

In October 2008 I learnt that I had been lucky enough to win a ballot place in the London marathon 2009 at the first time of asking. At that point I'd been running regularly for almost a year and having completed two half-marathons I was looking forward to the prospect of testing myself over 26.2 miles (42.2 km).

The training program started in earnest almost immediately, after a couple of setbacks things appeared to be on track in the first couple of months of 2009, a half two minutes off my PB in January was a good sign, while as the training went on I seemed to be getting stronger. This showed when I ran another half at the beginning of March, just six weeks before D-day I knocked almost a minute from my half-marathon PB (1:32:06).

But this was when things took a turn for the worse. Two days later I went out for a training run, I was aiming for 10 miles. As soon as I started I felt pain in my right shin, but I thought it was one of those things that would just fade away once I ran a couple of miles. I ran six miles with the pain growing and growing until I could go on no longer. I walked/limped the remaining four miles home just thinking it was a severe cramp, a delayed response to the half marathon.

I rested for a week, couldn't run, another week, still couldn't run, went to the Doctor who told me it was a tendonitis and to take anti-imflamatories for at least two weeks and to rest completely, which would leave just two weeks to the marathon. At that point I was thinking it would be very difficult to do the marathon with the big hole in my training, but that I would give it a good go.

However, it turned out it wasn't to be, the two weeks passed and still I couldn't run. For the last two weeks before the marathon I went to bed hoping I would wake up the next day ready to run, but it didn't happen. I went to London and watched the race pass me by, it wasn't my year.

But I could look forward to 2010, I deferred my place, which I can only do once, so 2010 has to be the year. After the ups and ultimate down of preparations for 2009 and with my injury problems now behind me (touch wood), I wanted to keep a record of the ups and downs of 2010 so that others can know exactly what it took to get me to the finish line on 25th April 2010.