The Race!

After months of training the day finally arrived, on Sunday 25th April I ran my first marathon. While I feel a certain amount of pride that I can say that I finished the London Marathon 2010, it is tinged with a bit of disappointment. I finished in 4:35:41 and placed 20,332 of 36,522 finishers.

Running the London Marathon is something special, I thought it would be good beforehand but I wasn't prepared for how good. I'd read lots of reports that it was an amazing event to be part of, but I'd presumed they were exaggerations, people had been sucked in by the marketing, I was wrong. The main thing is the crowds, the noise they made was something else, coming past the Cutty Sark and onto Tower Bridge it was huge, I've been to some big games of football and it would come fairly close to the roar after a 90th minute winner. But it wasn't just there, with the exception of a couple of kilometres around Docklands they were a constant companion, and if it wasn't the crowd keeping me going it was the other runners, there was a camaraderie that I just hadn't seen before in the halfs I've done, maybe it was because I was struggling more than ever that I noticed it, but I think its probably borne out of the mutual respect that is generated by knowing just how much hard work has gone in beforehand. It is just a great day. I would recommend it to anyone, yes it is alot of work, yes there is lots of pain afterwards, yes there is the risk that you put in lots of work and fail to make the start, as I did last year, but it is worth it, unquestionably.

I think you can understand that I'm glad I did it, but it doesn't mean I'm not disappointed with how my race went. Here are my splits:

5km    00:25:53  00:25:53
10km  00:25:07  00:51:00
15km  00:25:25  01:16:25
20km  00:26:33  01:43:08
25km  00:32:37  02:15:55
30km  00:39:39  02:55:34
35km  00:45:27  03:41:01
40km  00:40:30  04:21:31
42.2km 00:14:10  04:35:41

Half   1:48:44  1:48:44
Full    2:46:57  4:35:41

I think they tell most of the story, I set off at what I felt was a fairly comfortable pace, more than 5:00min/km when in training my long runs were all quicker than 4:50min/km, so I thought I was playing it safe. I was feeling my knee from the start but it didn't seem to be getting any worse, I was gradually ticking off the kilometres and gaining confidence, but probably after about 15km's I started to tire. I was taken aback, 15km at that pace should have been easy but it wasn't. I kept thinking to myself, keep pushing on, get to halfway running and you'll feel better. I got to halfway and despite the crowds just couldn't summon the energy to keep on running.

After about 22km's I took a break to walk. As soon as you make that decision you know it is going to be a huge struggle to run the rest of the way, each time you start to run again its harder to get going,while walking the muscles get cold so when you start again you face a big injury risk, a few times I felt that my calf was set to go so had to ease off. From 22km's on I just battled on, running when I could summon up the energy, trying to break it up into little sections, telling myself I had to run 500m before I could have another rest, just to get myself round.

I did get round, and I guess I can be proud of that, I've got the medal, got the T-shirt, its done, but its not the way I wanted it done. So what to do now.....learn the lessons and go back to try again! Why did I feel so lousy during the race, it could be the lack of running in the weeks before the race because of my knee, but equally it could be from not feeding myself up well enough in the days before and for that I have to blame a lack of preparation. Ideally, you shouldn't be eating anything new or different in the days before a run, just more of the right foods, essentially pasta and rice. I was finding wherever convenient to eat and just taking the standard portion, what I should have done was to prepare food to take over with me, having eaten the same meals before long runs during my training. While in London I didn't have much of an appetite, partly because of nerves, but as much because it was different food to what I was used to.

I have learnt from this experience, there will be other marathons, other challenges, from now I keep my head up and keep training ready for the next one.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully I'll be to post some pics from the day later in the week.

Hasta luego España, Hello London

This is my final blog post before I set off for London. I never thought I could be so nervous about a run. Normally, the morning of a half-marathon, how should I put this....my stomach is normally a little delicate, but I think thats as much due to the change of routine from getting up earlier and sitting on the bus, a full two days before and my belly is already tieing itself up in knots.

I guess the nerves are partly due to the uncertainty, we've had the flight problems, but they seem to have been resolved just in time. The knee issue still remains though, things seem to improving but I haven't dared try running, right now I'm thinking it is best to rest it, and just see what happens on Sunday. I don't need to run beforehand, I know my fitness is there to run 42km, I know it will hurt afterwards because I've lost some of the muscle memory from not running much in the last three weeks, but that isn't important now, I don't mind hobbling around with sore muscles for a month provided I get round.

I had the last session with the physio today, this time she told me that my pelvis was twisted slightly and this could be causing the problem on my left side, cue a couple of minutes of torture as she put her knees in my back to hold me in place and twisted it back. She told me not to do any running today, and if anything tomorrow then very gentle, and things should settle into the right place by Sunday.

Time will tell, we'll see if the gods are smiling on me on Sunday.

Anyway, it seems as good a time as any to list exactly how much training has gone into this marathon, I'm listing below the totals for swimming, cycling and running since I got back from my holiday at the end of August last year, when I started to build towards London.

Swimming   40.5km 18hrs 40min
Cycling       640.4km 33hrs 26min
Running      1061.0km 81hrs 51min

I'm not sure what to think of those totals, are they alot, too little, or just enough. Its another question for Sunday.

Now I have to sign off and make sure I've packed everything before the journey starts.
Wish me luck! And thanks for reading!

Hasta pronto

Last Week Update

Two completely unrelated issues have put my participation in the marathon in doubt, the first couldn't have come from an unlikelier source. The appearance of a Icelandic volcano ash cloud and the ensuing flight chaos has left me panicking that I won't be able to get my flight on Friday, touchwood I'll get on, things seem to be getting sorted now, Easyjet started flying from Alicante to London again this morning.

The second problem is the ongoing knee situation. I went to the physio first thing Monday morning, and was told the problem was that my tibia (upper leg) was slightly out of alignment, after waving my leg around in the air for 20 minutes she told me it was all sorted, and to go for a gentle run the next day, but make sure I stretch well before hand. So yesterday I was up early to head to the track, the idea was to do a gentle 5km. In the end I only did 3, I could have run more but it was clear that the knee still wasn't right, it was progressively getting worse, though it didn't reach the same extent as last time I had run, when I tried to run home and found I couldn't turn corners while running. Cue another phone call to the physio to see if she could fit me in for another session today. Now we think the problem is tendonitis in the tensor fascia lata, from what i've read on the internet its the strip of tendon that connects the hip to the outside of the knee, the friction on the bone as you are running causes the tendonitis.

After missing last years marathon for tendonitis, it has become a scary word for me, but I think the  experience of last years injury may help me now. Firstly I know this is nowhere near as bad, last year I was suffering with sharp pain when I tried to run, currently I have mild discomfort that increases as I run, but so far even at its worst it hasn't even got close to last years torture. Secondly, I'm familiar with what happens, you end up with swelling on the related joint so movement is restricted for a while after, but while its progressive, the joint won't lock up because of it until I stop moving, i.e. on Sunday I can't stop running until I cross the line!

More info from the web, the cause is often tightness in the calf and hamstring, this mornings physio session largely dealt with that, massaging it, well she drove her knuckles as deep as possible into the muscle and moved them about causing excruciating pain, I'm not sure if it counts as massage but I'm just hoping it works. I'll do WiiFit exercises to keep me limber and do some swimming over the next couple of days, letting the inflamation caused by the running settle down before another session with the physio Friday morning.

Fingers crossed everything falls into place for Sunday!

Training week (Apr 10th - 16th)

The penultimate week of training before the big day, and it wasn't a good one, the knee was/is still giving me a bit of a worry, so the large part of the week's training was in the pool.

Saturday 10th April - Bike 25.6km
After the disappointment of the previous day's run where my knee didn't react well I opted for going out on my bike. I headed towards the nearest mountain, going up from 100m to over 400m before turning back. In hindsight I shouldn't have gone, it seems the knee doesn't react well to the bike, it swelled up a bit afterwards and a little uncomfortable for a couple of days afterwards. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride, it was a clear day so when I turned back to head home I had a good view out to sea.
25.57km 3:13min/km 1:22:21

Sunday 11th April - Rest Day

Monday 12th April - Swim 750m
I could have done a full kilometre but given the discomfort in my knee over the weekend I opted to take it easy and just do 750m.
750m 24min/km 18min

Tuesday 13th April - Rest Day

Wednesday 14th April - 1,000m Swim
Did a full kilometre this time and went fairly quick too, without any problems in either my knee or level of fitness so all positive.
1,000m 26min

Thursday 15th April - Rest Day

Friday 16th April - 1,000m
Back to the pool again, another km, again at a fairly good pace. No problems.
1,000m 26min

Training week (Apr 3rd - Apr 9th)

Saturday 3rd April - Rest Day

Sunday 4th April - 30km Bike
As a result of the problems I'd had with my knee I opted to rest from running and go for a bike ride instead. It had been a good two months since I'd been out on my bike, so it made a good change. I took it fairly easy, but that was partly since the knee seemed to be reacting a bit. When I got back home I had some swelling but could walk without any problem. My route took me up to 250m of altitude from 100m where I live, nothing very steep just long shallow incline.
30.1km 3:13min/km 1:37:01

Monday 5th April - Rest Day

Tuesday 6th April - 800m Swim
Time constraints meant I stopped after 800m. I didn't notice the knee problem very much while swimming but I didn't want to push things too much, so the 800 was at a relaxed pass.
800m 22:00

Wednesday 7th April - Rest Day

Thursday 8th April - 1,000m Swim
Another day's rest meant I was pain free to swim so I made sure I did the full kilometre this time. Again I went at a fairly leisurely pace, but this partly as a result of being in a busy pool.
1,000m 29:29

Friday 9th April - 3.8km Run
With half an eye on a half marathon on the Sunday I went to the track to see how my knee reacted, unfortunately I didn't realise the track was closing at 8, rather than the usual 10, I got there only 15 minutes before closing. I managed to get 3,200m done before the end, while I had no problem running, I was doing 3:57min/km and I felt good to carry on at that pace but I did notice a problem when I stopped and started again. Leaving the track I started to run, I was fine going in a straight line, but when it came to turning my left leg didn't want to go, it felt like the lower leg wanted to go but my knee wasn't letting it, so I had to almost stop to turn the corner.
3.9km 4:12min/km 16:12

Needless to say, that last run was enough to rule myself out of the half-marathon. I've made an appointment to see the physio, but she's away on holiday so I'll have to wait until the Monday before the marathon to get treated. Now its a case of rest from running, do what I can, so swim and if it doesn't aggravate things too much use my bike, and keep my fingers crossed for a speedy recovery and that the physio can work some magic.

Training week (Mar 27th - Apr 2nd)

This was my first really disappointing week of training with the appearance of a knee complaint affecting my training.

Saturday 27th March - Rest Day

Sunday 28th March - 13km Run
I went out planning to do my last long run before London but opted to cut it short. I felt some pain on the outside of my left knee, it wasn't a sharp pain, just seemed like i could feel the bones rubbing when I brought my leg up. I could probably have gone on for longer but I thought it wasn't something I should risk, especially since I could make good use of the time to finish off some work I had to do.
13km 4:43min/km 1:01:28

Monday 29th - Wednesday 31st March - Rest Days
The three consecutive rest days were the result of two things, one was a need to rest the knee the second was that my last piece of work of the semester was taking longer to complete than expected and I had to get it done asap. I got it done a day late, but it did get done.

Thursday 1st April -  1,000m Swim
Finally got round to doing some training, I didn't feel ready to test the knee again so went for a gentle swim. Had no problems swimming, felt ok, a little lethargic, but I put that down to a lack of sleep in the few days before.
1,000m 30:00

Friday 2nd April - 10.6km Run
If I look at the overall pace of the run it was ok, but I slowed down after about 5k's to protect the knee, again it wasn't very painful, an annoyance more than anything.
10.6km 4:28min/km 47:06

Training week (Mar 20th - Mar 26th)

Saturday 20th March - Rest Day

Sunday 21st March - 27km Run
The plan was to do 30km+ but didn't have it in me, I'm putting it down to not eating properly the day before. I was caught up in my work and missed lunch, had a big dinner but it seems it wasn't sufficient to compensate. I ran 25k's, walked for a couple of minutes before running the last bit home.
27.2km 4:45min/km 2:09:05

Monday 22nd March - 1,000m Swim
A little bit slower than the week before but still a quick swim for me. It was a good distraction after a busy day, preparing my class, grading and when having a moment studying for my courses.
1,000m 26:32

Tuesday 23rd March - Rest Day

Wednesday 24th March - 13.2km Run
After the disappointing effort on the previous Sunday I had a better midweek run, getting round 13km's at a good pace. I have one more half marathon before London, after this run I felt fairly confident of being able to attempt another PB.
13.2km 4:10min/km 55:03

Thursday 25th March - Rest Day
I had an exam to come the following day and wasn't feeling confident enough about it to skip an hour of studying to play football.

Friday 26th March - Track Session
After the stresses of doing an exam in the morning it was a good release to get out on the track. I did an 800m, 2x200m, another 800m, another 2x200m and 1,000m to finish off, before a gentle jog back home. I wasn't at my quickest, I suspect the late night of studying the day before had zapped the energy a tad.
6.2km 6:11min/km 38:07

Training week (Mar 13th - Mar 19th)

Saturday 13th March - Rest Day

Sunday 14th March - 27km Run
I aimed to to do 25k's, but I slightly misjudged how far from home I was. I went out early, initially it was a bit cold and overcast, an hour and a half later the sun was blazing down and I was searching for shade wherever I could find. It was a good comfortable paced run, but did remind me I'll have to be out running earlier and earlier in the next few weeks to avoid the heat.
27km 4:45min/km 2:09:05

Monday 15th March - 1,000m Swim
I'm toying with the idea of some day doing a triathlon, but the element that puts me off is definitely the swim. I can swim, just not well. Anyway, I tried to speed up my weekly swim this week. I guess I was about 1 minute quicker than normal, so not too bad, but I know my freestyle is really shabby, if I do try triathlon it will only be after improving it alot.
1,000m 25:56

Tuesday 16th March - Rest Day

Wednesday 17th March - Rest Day

Thursday 18th March - 12km Run & 1hr Football
Again no time on Wednesday to make it out for a run, so postponed until Thursday morning. I didn't push very hard, so was surprised when got home to see it was under 4:20min/km pace.

Despite the morning run still played football, I was told they wouldn't have enough players otherwise which persuaded me to put off the studying. Having fewer players than normal meant I was running around like a madman, but it was a good fun, more space to run with the ball so more opportunity to score a Maradona-esque goal running through the whole team (of 5!). I scored two, but the Maradona-esque goal will have to wait, had a good chance just had the keeper to beat but knocked a foot wide of the far post, I was cursing good and proper, hope nobody understood me.
12km 4:18min/km 51:42

Friday 19th March - 6.2km Run
This was a public holiday, for Father's Day, so the track was shut. Instead I did a 6km lap that I used to do regularly when I was building up my fitness after injury last year. I was pushing my pace quite hard and easily beat my fastest time over the same lap, about half a minute quicker than I'd managed before. Bodes well for attempting to run a sub-40min 10k later in the year.
6.2km 3:47min/km 23:23

Training week (Mar 6th - Mar 12th)

Saturday 6th March - Rest Day
Rested up and had a big pasta meal ready for a long run the following.

Sunday 7th March - 35km Run
This was my longest continuous run to date and I finished still feeling like I could go on, I'm not sure how much longer but it was good to have something left in the tank, rather than being completely drained like after my long run of 33km two weeks earlier. It was a good run, albeit not the quickest, and left me fairly confident of being able to complete the marathon without having to walk.
35.2km 4:43min/km 2:45:54

Monday 8th March - Rest Day

Tuesday 9th March - 1,000m Swim
Lots of work on meant I couldn't get to the pool on Monday, but managed to fit it in late on Tuesday.
1,000m 26:56

Wednesday 10th March - Rest Day

Thursday 11th March - 10km Run & 1hr Football
Ideally I try to avoiding doing two activities in one day, but since I had an exceptionally busy Wednesday I shifted my run to Thursday. I went out with the aim of doing some quicker miles. One of my targets that I think I really should have achieved by now is to run 10k's in less than forty minutes, I thought this was a good day to have a go at it. Unfortunately I came up short on this occasion. I ran just over 8km's at 3:58min/km, so on the pace I needed but I reached a point where I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest so decided I'd better stop. A look at the data from my heart monitor shows I was hovering around 190bpm for about ten minutes, I suspect thats quite a long time to have it so high. I walked for five minutes or so and then jogged the last mile home.

Having recovered ok from the run I decided to play football too. The benefit of running in the morning was that it gave an excuse for my poor performance in the evening, I don't think I contributed anything noteworthy to the game, though forgetting my contact lenses so playing half blind probably didn't help matters either.
10.2km 4:04min/km 41:28

Friday 12th March - Track Session
While I seem to be improving my running all the time, a flat-out 800m at the track shows just how difficult it would be to bridge the gap to become competitive at races like those in Elda and Aspe. I do 800m in about 3:20min/km pace, if I could have sustained that for 21km in Aspe I would have only managed 6th. With the aim of trying to close that gap at least marginally I did a sprint session. 100m then 200m, then 300m, a 400m and next I went for an 800m but didn't have the legs so stopped after 500m. Then did another 200m and a 100m before a comfortable 1km to finish. I was completely cream-crackered by the end, hopefully with a few more similar sessions my times will keep falling in the next few months.
5.5km 7:45min/km 42:55

Training week (Feb 27th - Mar 5th)

Saturday 27th February - Rest Day

Sunday 28th February - Torrevieja Half Marathon
For my blog entry on the race click here. A good day out despite inclement weather, and managed another PB.
21.1km 4:09 min/km 1:27:27 (chipped)

Monday 1st March - 1,000m Swim
Slow paced swim just to get the lactic out from the previous day's run.
1,000m 27:13

Tuesday 2nd March - Rest Day

Wednesday 3rd March - 12.5km Run
Left it fairly late in the day but managed to get out for a run. It was on the new route that I used the previous week, with a couple of modifications to stretch it out a bit. My pace was good, fairly steady throughout despite the fact that the first half is almost all up hill.
12.56km 4:20min/km 54:25

Thursday 4th March - 1hr Football
My best game for ages, scored two good goals. First one was with the ball coming over my shoulder, let it bounce a couple of times, then a little flick with the outside of the boot knocked it past the keeper. Second one I was about 15 yards from goal, sidestepped two defenders and chipped, it went in off the bar. Shame I can't do the same every week.

Friday 5th March - Track Session
Did 800m in 2:36, which if not my best is not far off, then a 200m sprint, a 400m, another 200m and another 400m with a comfortable 1,000m to finish. It was my first run in a new pair of trainers, they seem alot lighter than my others so good for doing sprints but I'm not sure how they will hold up doing long runs on the road when I'm hitting the ground hard, I'll have to see how they go.

Half Marathon Torrevieja

This was my first visit to Torrevieja, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be a town full of English and German ex-pats, with a bunch of English restaurants and shops, and hotel after hotel on the seafront. It turned out to be something completely different, at least the part of the town I saw. It was a miserable day so I  didn't see the place at its best, but it wasn't somewhere I'd want to visit again. It just looked a really run down place, about 20 years past its peak. I guess I may have a different view if I visited during tourist season though.

Enough of my Judith Chalmers bit, now to the race. As I said, it was miserable weather, pretty much typical London weather though so it wasn't such a bad thing. Grey skies and drizzle all the way round. Got to say the organization at the start was a bit of a joke, they called all the women forward to start at the front, the women tend to be the slower runners so if you put them at the front it creates carnage behind as everyone tries to make their way past. The first 2km's was just a case of looking for gaps so I could make my way through the field a bit. After that it was plane sailing.

My pace was a bit up and down during the race, first 5km I was going well but I made mistake by not taking water at the 5km station, 3km's down the road I was suffering for it. I got some fluid on board at the 10km station and another kilometre on I was feeling much better so started to pick up the pace a bit. There was a guy from the University who was planning to run about the same time as me, he'd gone past at about 9km, I caught him back up by 14, and went by. I was going well for up to about 18, then started to suffer a bit, hoping for the finish line to come to find me. Despite that I managed to keep my pace fairly steady and I came  home in a new official time PB of 1:27:41, seven seconds quicker than in Orihuela. On chipped time I exactly equalled my Orihuela time, 1:27:27.

All in all it was a good day, I'd been feeling stiff the couple of days before so I wasn't sure of what kind of run I could produce, to equal my best was a decent result. My next half isn't until early April, so March is all about getting the long runs in ready for London. After two good races in the space of two weeks I go into the final few weeks of training pretty confident that I can get the result I want.

Training week (Feb 20th - Feb 26th)

Saturday 20th February - Rest Day

Sunday 21st February - 33.3km Run
Longest Run Ever. After the previous Sunday's half-marathon success, time to up the mileage toward the marathon distance. I went out intending to run 30km+ but with no specific target in mind. The first 25km was comfortable but beyond that it was a real struggle. I stopped the watch 1km from home and walked back, I had no energy left for running. It was a bit disappointing to not be able to carry on, but hopefully with a couple more similar length runs it will get easier.
33.3km 4:42min/km 2:36:35

Monday 22nd February - 1,000m Swim
Not as quick as in the previous week, the Sunday run had taken a fair bit out of me, but still an enjoyable swim.
1,000m 27:15

Tuesday 23rd February - Rest Day

Wednesday 24th February - 10.9km Run
After the Sunday run I'd had a bit of swelling on my right leg, similar to when I suffered with the tendonitis last year, needless to say I was fairly concerned, but after a couple of days it seemed to have subsided so I tentatively went out to run. Thankfully, there was no reaction. I didn't go very quickly, more to do with finding my way on a new route rather than any injury. It was just a big relief in the end.
10.8km 4:19min/km 46:47

Thursday 25th February - Football
Had time to play football this week. Played ok, scored one, should have scored another though. However, I got kicked a couple of times, leaving the legs a bit sore for the next couple of days.

Friday 26th February - Track Session
Following the same strategy as for Orihuela, I went to the track to do a 5k run so I was comfortable running quicker km's ready for a half-marathon in Torrevieja. I ended up running a bit longer, I did the 5k under 4:00min/km and did another 800m at a similar pace before finishing with a slower 400m.
7.4km 4:39min/km 34:28

Half Marathon Orihuela - A big step forward

This race was on Valentine's Day morning in a place called Orihuela, its a small town that's about 10km from the coast. I wasn't expecting much from the race, I pb'd in Santa Pola, but that was mostly alongside the beach so completely flat and once you get a bit away from the coast here you are pretty much into the mountains....I was expecting hills. Fortunately for me, I was completely wrong. The course was almost completely flat, and it was a cold day for here which made it comfortable running, and all that contributed to another new PB!

It was a really enjoyable run, plenty of people out on the street cheering you on like in Santa Pola, but without the problem of having so many runners to get through. On official time (from the gun to crossing the finish line) it was over two minutes quicker than in Santa Pola, and still almost one and a half minutes on chipped time (crossing the start line to crossing the finish line).
1:27:48 Official Time 1:27:27 Chipped Time.

That's over four minutes off my PB over the past 3 races.

I ran fairly steadily at around 4:10min/km for the whole race, and still had enough left for a sprint finish at the end.

Another big step forward towards the marathon.

Cold day = opportunity to make good use of the Spurs wooly hat!

Training week (Feb 13th - Feb 19th)

Almost caught up, here's the rundown on last week's training.

Saturday 13th February - Rest Day
With the following day's half-marathon, and a heavy workload in mind I took a break from training.

Sunday 14th February - Orihuela Half Marathon
First I have to take the opportunity to apologise to my girlfriend, Valentine's Day and I wake her up at 7am and disappear for most of the day. I'll post a detailed blog on the race later (hopefully), but it was a great race for me, after the PB in Santa Pola I managed to push things on even further.
21.1km 4:09min/km 1:27:27 (chipped)

Monday 15th February - 1km Swim
I was to shake Sunday's efforts out of my legs so made sure I made it to the pool on Monday. I felt a bit fatigued so didn't go too quick, and started to cramp up a little bit towards the end.

Tuesday 16th February - Rest Day

Wednesday 17th February - 16.4km Run
With a long run in mind for the weekend, and conscious of the need to up the mileage before the temperature rises here, I did a longer midweek run. It seems a common theme through the update of the blog for the last 3 weeks that my training runs have been pretty slow, given the success in Orihuela I'm not too concerned though.
16.39km 4:33min/km 1:14:33

Thursday 18th February - 1,250m Swim
I had to teach when my regular football game was on, so instead went for an extra swim. I swam a bit further than usual, mainly as a result of arriving earlier. Did 1,250m fairly quickly for me, and felt like I could do more.

Friday 19th February - Track Session 2x400m 4x200m
Conscious of my slow training pace recently I thought doing sprints at the track would be a good idea. I don't seem to be getting any quicker over short distances, but it definitely seems to help me to sustain a quicker pace over longer distances. Its helpful to get me used to going quicker.

I'll be back with a blog on Orihuela, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.....

Training week (Feb 6th - Feb 12th)

Marathon update of blog part II.

Saturday February 6th - Rest Day
Not so much of a rest, spent the morning trying to keep up with my niece, but no training.

Sunday February 7th - 11.6km Run
Managed to get one run in while I was in the UK, thankfully it wasn't as cold and icy as the last couple of times I was over. It was at a good Sunday run pace, not pushing things too hard.
11.63km 4:27min/km 51:45

Monday February 8th - Rest Day
Had to catch up with all the work I didn't do over the weekend so no time to train.

Tuesday February 9th - 1,000m Swim
Managed to make it to the pool, good swim again, benefitting from having new goggles that don't leak.
1,000m 26:00

Wednesday February 10th - 13.4km Run
Didn't go too far, I wanted to keep a little bit back for a half marathon race on the following weekend, not the quickest again, but a good run.
13.43km 4:35min/km 1:01:33

Thursday February 11th - 1hr Football
Again failed to score, but played ok as far as I can remember.

Friday February 12th - Track Session 5km + 2.2km
Before Sunday's half marathon I wanted to do some quicker paced km's, ran to the track, then did 5km in a little under 20 minutes, so 4min/km. That is a good deal quicker than I'm likely to run a half marathon at at the moment, but it felt good and had plenty left, so had a comfortable run back home.
7.19km 4:26min/km 31:55

Training Week (Jan 31st - Feb 5th)

I've neglected this blog for a while, too much work and plenty of training has left me time constrained. Now for a quick catch-up.

Saturday  January 30th - 22.8km Bike
A good hour on the bike, not the quickest but always good fun.
22.8km 2:54min/km 1:06:16

Sunday January 31st - 30.1km
My first run of over 30km ever and I survived without any notable after effects. There was a ten-minute break during the run, which probably helped, and the pace was pretty slow, but the Sunday runs at this stage are just about building up the stamina to keep going for over 3hours.
30.1km 4:50min/km 2:25:47

Monday 1st February - 1,000m Swim
Well paced swim late on a Monday.
1,000m 26:00

Tuesday 2nd February - Rest Day

Wednesday 3rd February - 15.7km Run
Conscious that I wouldn't be able much while I was in the UK the following weekend I put in a fairly long midweek run. The pace again wasn't the best, but well up on the previous Sunday.
15.65km 4:33min/km 1:11:19

Thursday 4th February - 1hr Football
No idea how I played, can't remember, so I assume it was my average game, missing chances I should score and generally running around like a mad man.

Friday 5th February - Rest Day
I was travelling to the UK for the weekend, I'd hoped to get a training session in before I left but time was against me.

Thursday 4th February

Training week (Jan 23rd - Jan 30th)

Had a good week this week, ran a half-marathon PB, felt no worse for the effort afterwards and was able to train well all week.
Saturday 23rd January - Rest Day
Had a rest ready for the following day's half-marathon.

Sunday 24th January - Santa Pola Half Marathon
As I said earlier in the week, this was a great race for me, now I'm really looking forward to the next couple of races and trying to push the PB down even further. I'd like to have a go at a 10k soon too, I did the 2nd 10k in 41:08 and in the five 10k races I've done up to now I've only gone quicker than that once.
21.1km 4:13min/km 1:28:50

Monday 25th January - Rest Day
After the hard work of the day before I gave myself a well earned rest.

Tuesday 26th January - 1,000m Swim
Went to the pool at 9am, expecting it to be fairly quiet, I was wrong, I won't make the same mistake next week. No after effects from the half, the only thing slowing me down was the number of other swimmers in the lane.
1,000m 28minutes

Wednesday 27th January - 12km Run
In the next few weeks i'll be gradually building up the length of my midweek and Sunday runs, did 12km this time. It was quite slow, mainly due to the strong wind that was blowing.
12km 4:30min/km 54:06

Thursday 28th January - Football
Played football for an hour, my team lost convincingly and I missed I think 4 good opportunities to score.

Friday 29th January - Track Session
Went to the track for some sprints, ran 1200m as a warm-up before 3x200m runs and 2x400m. Finished off with a gentle 1km.

Santa Pola Half Marathon - Breakthrough Race

Last Sunday saw the start of my racing year, and it was a great start as I achieved my failed 2009 target of a 1:30 half marathon at the first time of asking. From the start line to the finish line my time was 1:28:50, Santa Pola is a popular race with close to 7,000 runners so infinitely there is some delay in getting to the start line, my time from the gun to the finish line was 1:30:04.

Santa Pola is a quick course, most of it is running alongside the beach, so inevitably its completely flat, but at the same time I was slowed up over the first few kilometres by the sheer number of runners. It will be interesting to see what happens in my next race in Orihuela with fewer people but more ups and downs. But one of the great things about Santa Pola was that it was good preparation for London in terms of being faced with lines of people in front that you have to patiently find a way through. London will be 30,000 runners rather than 7,000 but the streets will be alot wider so all in all its fairly similar. In truth its really frustrating being held up, but you have to be patient, you waste important energy that you will need at the end of the race if you keep fighting to get through all the time.

The delay is borne out by my 5km splits:

5km  23:23 23:23
10km 20:45 44:08
15km 20:52 1:05:00
20km 21:05 1:26:05
21.1km 3:59 1:30:04

The first 5km time includes the time to cross the start line, so taking that out its 22:09, so still a minute slower than any of the subsequent 5km splits.

All in all it was a great day, a PB on a nice course running by the sea with plenty of cheering on of runners by what seemed like the whole town with live music at various points on the course, great place, great course, great people and great result. I'm already looking forward to going back next year!

Here are a couple of pictures from the day, the University half-marathon team, I'm hiding at the back, and me at about 15 kilometres.

This week's training (Jan 16th - Jan 22nd)

Saturday 16th January - Rest Day
I was in the UK, going to watch the Spurs play out a disappointing 0-0 draw in the afternoon, did really have time for any training.

Sunday 17th January - 6km Run
Made two schoolboy errors that meant I didn't run as far as I wanted, firstly I left my gloves in my Dad's van after the football, my hands were about ready to drop off when I finished running and secondly I forgot to ask my sister where the key would be to get out of her house so I couldn't set out as early as I'd have liked. When I did get out it was a fairly slow run, partly as a result of icy paths and partly because of my freezing cold hands.
6.2km 4:40min/km 28:45

Monday 18h January - Rest Day

Tuesday 19th January - 10.6km Run
After the slow run on Sunday I pushed things pretty hard on my regular 10k route, mainly to try to get comfortable with a quicker pace before a half-marathon race in the coming weekend. I was about 40 seconds off my best time for the lap, but I was fairly pleased with it.
10.6km 4:11min/km 44:29

Wednesday 20th January - 1km Swim
It seems I've finally resolved my goggle issues so could get back to enjoying swimming more. I started off quickly but tired toward the end.

Thursday 21st January - Football
I wasn't going to play, since I had a half-marathon coming on the weekend, but decided it was worth the risk in the end. Didn't play very well, and my team got well and truly thrashed.

Friday 22nd January - Track Session
Did 1km jog to the jog, a 5k on the track in 4:05min/km pace and then 1km jog home. It was a comfortable run round, again getting me comfortable running at a good pace for the half marathon.

Hopefully I'll find time in the next couple of days to blog on how the half went, until then....hasta luego.

Training weeks - 2nd January to 15th January

I've been slow to update my blog recently, not much time to do much recently (apart from the odd game on the Wii!). While I've got a moment, here goes:

Saturday 2nd January - Rest Day

Sunday 3rd January - 10.6km Run
First run back in Spain, it was good to be back in the warm! It was more or less the pace I'd need for a 90 minute half marathon, the few days rest didn't seem to affect me too much.

Monday 4th January - 21.2km Bike
I'd missed my bike while I was away, I was eager to take her out on my return, I took her down to the beach and back. It wasn't the fastest, but it was good fun.
21.2km 2:58min/km 1:03:07

Tuesday 5th January - 1km Swim
Went for a morning swim, was a fairly slow kilometre, but I guess I was still easing my way back after the holidays.
1,000m 30:00

Wednesday 6th January - 12.1km Run
Picking up the mileage I did a 12km morning run, again went on my target half marathon pace, all felt good.
12.1km 4:15min/km 51:30

Thursday 7th January - Rest Day

Friday 8th January - Track Session
Went down to the Uni athletics track to do some sprints, ran 1.2km as a warm-up, then 5x200m sprints, followed by a 1km warm down run. I'm no Usain Bolt, but I enjoy having a go at sprinting now and again. I do 200m in about 30 seconds, only 11 behind Usain.

Saturday 9th January - Rest Day

Sunday 10th January - 25.7km Run
My first proper long run for about a month, and my longest training run I guess since March of last year. It was an enjoyable run, it was like baby bear's porridge, not too hot, not too cold, it was just perfect for running. The pace was more or less on my ideal marathon pace, hopefully I can maintain it as I lengthen my Sunday long run in the next few weeks.
25.7km 4:32min/km 1:56:40

Monday 11th January - 1km Swim
Late night swim, with the pool surprisingly busy. Continued the on-going battle with my goggles, I'm hoping i've resolved the issue now, we'll see what happens next time.
1km 30:00

Tuesday 12th January - Rest Day

Wednesday 13th January - 10.6km Run and Football
It was an incredibly windy morning, which the run very hard work and much slower than normal, my slowest 10k in months. Thankfully the wind died down before the evening's football game. I played poorly for my most of the game, but managed to salvage something, scoring two in the last five minutes as everyone else tired.
10.6km 4:36min/km 48:52

Thursday 14th January - Rest Day

Friday 15th January - Track Session
Before going back to the UK for the weekend I did a bit of work at the track, rather than sprints as the previous work I tested my stamina a bit more by doing a series of 800m runs rather than 200m. I started with a 1.2km warm-up, then 3x800m runs, all in about 2:50, then finished with a 1km jog back home.

Next week I'll run my first half-marathon of the year, hopefully I can continue to make progress after the PB at the end of 2009.

Past achievements and future objectives Part 3

After a bit of a delay I'm now going post my aims for the next 18 months, the subject of the blog is my progress towards my first marathon but given the competition for time and energy with other goals, such as academic success and other sporting goals, it seems wise to make a general list of goals here.

1. Finish my first marathon in a time I can be proud of.
This is a very vague target, and it has been the target since I started this blog (as you can see from the banner text). I guess this is a good moment to settle on what I would be proud of. I think anyone that runs a marathon in less than four hours has done something pretty special. I would imagine that anyone of my age that plays sport regularly and isn't majorly overweight with two or three months training could get round a half marathon in under two hours, but to keep up that effort for another two hours is a major undertaking.
   Though four hours is good, if I'm honest, and trying not to be cocky about it, I think I am better than that so now to look at it from the other side, find an impossible benchmark and work back from there. A 3 hour marathon would be great, it would mean being in the top 1,000 runners, but given that as yet I haven't managed a 1hr 30 half marathon right now it would be an impossible goal. So going smack bang in the middle of the two, I think if I finished in 3hr 30 I would be happy, based on last year's results it would put me in the top 4,000, and it would mean running 5:00 per kilometre, which is a pace I'm fairly comfortable with. Given the pace of my training runs, I would say 3hr 15 isn't impossible but still very ambitious. So after all that babbling on I think I've got a conclusion:
    My time to be proud of:   3hr 30
    My time to be delighted with:  3hr 15

2. To reach my target for marathon fundraising of 1,000 pounds for UNICEF.

3. Successfully complete this academic year and make a good start to my thesis.
I knew before I came over to Alicante that should I be successful with my studies, I would get a PhD when I was the wrong side of 30, I have to have as an aim to make sure I do get it, and in the shortest time I possibly can.

4. Summit on one of the seven summits.
This may need a little bit of explaining. The seven summits are the highest peaks in each of the seven continents, the list is as follows:
Asia - Mount Everest 8,848m
South America - Aconcagua 6,962m
North America - Mt. McKinley 6,194m
Africa - Kilimanjaro 5,892m
Europe - Elbrus 5,642m
Antarctica - Vinson Massif 4,892m
Australia (in Papua New Guinea) - Puncak Jaya 4,884m
The mountains on the list that I'm mostly likely to attempt in the not too distant future are Aconcagua (its summit is on the border of Chile and Argentina, the mountain is trekkable from the Chilean side and I have another good reason to go to Chile) and Kilimanjaro. Neither of the two are easily accessible, but they are a good deal more accessible than the other five.

5. Finish a second marathon or complete a triathlon.
I've read the warning many times in marathon advice literature that its wise to be prepared for a come down, and when you get to the finish you enjoy the massive high of finishing, but then it hits you after, so what am I going to do now? I figure after London I'll give myself a month without doing much before picking a new target based on how I enjoyed the marathon and how my swimming and cycling progress.

6. Not to become so running obsessed that my girlfriend gets sick of me!

7. To climb all the mountains higher than 1,000m in the province of Alicante.
I've done one so far, and as far as I know there are six. My main problem for this is finding someone else that wants to go up them with me, preferably someone with a car as most of the routes start from the middle of nowhere.

8. Run a half-marathon in 1:29:** .
Its a meaningless target, but its one that is fixed in my head so I'll make sure I get this year.

I think that just about covers everything. Fingers crossed in eighteen months I can come back to look at this list and say I achieved them all.

Past achievements and future objectives Part 2

Today my plan is to go through my running and mountaineering milestones in 2009 before setting targets for the next 18 months before I turn 30.

January 2009: Half Marathon Santa Pola
My 2nd half marathon in Spain went much better than the first but was still a couple of minutes off my PB, I finished with a chip time of 1:34:41 and a finish time of 1:36:12. I'm running there again in a couple of weeks and hoping to take full advantage of the flat course to push for another PB.

March 2009: Half Marathon Murcia
When I ran in Murcia I had been putting in lots of miles as I built towards the London marathon and it appeared to be paying off as I knocked 38 seconds off the PB I'd set in Bracknell eleven months earlier. Unfortunately it was a false dawn, two days later attempting to do a ten mile training run I had to stop after six miles with an injury that would rule me out of the marathon.

April 2009: London Marathon - Failed
A trip to the Doctor's established that I had a tendonitis, with four weeks to go before the marathon he prescribed Ibuprofen and two weeks complete rest. After the two weeks I still couldn't run, I kept waiting for the recovery all the time knowing that the longer I went without training the harder running a marathon would be. It didn't recover in time and I went to London and watched as thousands of runners passed by, it was a real low point.

June 2009: Monforte Del Cid Half Marathon
This was my worst experience over all the races I've done. After returning from London I had a couple of trips to the physio and within a couple of weeks I was out running again, gradually building my mileage up again but I hadn't really had the time to get to a level where I could be confident of performing well in a half and it turned out I was right not to be. I finished in a little over 2 hours, a combination of the lack of training and difficulties coping with the heat led me to resort to walking as earlier on as the 6th kilometre. From that moment on it was just a case of taking in as much water as possible at every water station and trying to summon up the energy to run as much as I could.

July 2009: Mulhacén 3482m Summited
After completing my exams I set off to climb the highest peak on the Iberian peninsula (mainland Spain and Portugal). Its really a great mountain, one I'd like to go back to do again in not so much of a hurry so I can go up some of the neighbouring peaks. It was a two day trek with a stay in a good refuge where we got a really good feed.

August 2009 Alps
Breithorn 4164m Summited - Trekking to above 4000m is always a difficult task but I'm not quite as proud of completing this peak as I could have been. We took the cable car up to the glacier and started the trek from a little shy of 3500m. It was mainly intended to get us acclimatised ready for an attempt on Mont Blanc.

Gran Paradiso 4064m Summited - Gran Paradiso is the highest peak completely in Italy. This was a proper trek over two days, it should have been much more enjoyable than it was, the guide was a disaster. We had 5 people on a rope with one guide and when one of the group said she could go no further, she was suffering with a cold, he took her off the rope and left her on her own on the glacier for the next 4 hours while the rest of us went on up the mountain. It would have been frustrating to have to go down but it would have been the right thing to do, instead I went on feeling guilty that I hadn't said anything and having lost all respect for the guide. After arriving to the top we returned to find the girl uncontrolably shaking, which went completely unnoticed by the guide. Thankfully she was ok, and we got down without a problem.

Mont Blanc 4810m - Not Attempted
My trip to the Alps was with the aim of scaling the highest mountain in Western Europe, Mont Blanc. In the end we didn't go up, the weather wasn't kind to us, with heavy snow forecast for the time we were due to be setting out we took our money back and left Italy as quickly as possibly so as not to dwell too long on the disappointment. With hindsight it was probably a good thing, going up with a guide we had lost all respect for would not have been a good idea, especially if conditions were changeable.

September 2009: Maigmo 1296m
My first peak in the province of Alicante and my first peak achieved solo, I set out on my bike from my flat at an altitude of 100m, then covered 24km cycling up to 1000m of altitude. From there it was a fairly straightforward walk for half an hour to the summit, unfortunately it was a bit cloudy, hopefully I'll be able to go up again on a clearer day. I had a small crash on the way down, apart from that incident it was a fun little adventure.

November 2009: Elda Half Marathon
When I returned from summer hols at the end of August I picked up with the running to avoid the problems I'd had the previous year, I left my preparations for Elda late and suffered for it and it meant for the rest of my preparations for London were hampered, I was constantly picking up niggling injuries until the point when the tendonitis came and I couldn't run at all. I came into Elda well prepared having done runs of 22km+ in the six weeks before and it showed when I finished just 3 seconds off my PB.

December 2009: Aspe Half Marathon
I finished 2009 on a high, with a PB in Aspe, a chipped time of 1:31:21 and in good form that I'll hopefully be able to maintain into 2010.

Tomorrow I'll move on to post my objectives....
Hasta luego

Past achievements and future objectives Part 1

I thought the start of the new year would be a good time to set myself some targets, while at the same time it seems a good moment to review how far I've come. I started out running at the same time as I got interested in mountaineering, the running was intended as a means to improve my fitness so I could cope better with spells at altitude but after a couple of months the running took over. This entry will review my past peaks and running milestones, while tomorrow I'll list some future objectives.

October 2007: Climbed my first mountain, Mt Snowdon 1038m on the Watkin Path, its a fairly straightforward walk but has the biggest change in altitude of all the routes up the mountain.

November 2007: The walk up Snowdon was intended as training for the following climbs in Ecuador.

• Illiniza Norte 5024m Summited - To date this is the highest mountain I've summited on. I don't remember much about it, apart from some very nice views and that the refuge we slept in was extremely basic.
• Chimborazo 6267m Failed - This was the main objective of the trip, the peak is the furthest point from the centre of the earth, but we came up short. Setting out in the middle of the night from a refuge at 5000m we made it up to about 6000m when we decided to turn back. I could hardly breathe at all while my colleague could no longer feel his fingers from the cold. We enjoyed great views coming down, and arriving to 6000m is no mean feat, but ultimately we were disappointed.
• Cotopaxi 5897m Failed - Cotopaxi used to be considered the highest active volcano in the world, until peaks further south in the Andes were found to be active volcanos. My friend had already summited on Cotopaxi so I played the lottery of signing up to go up with a guide in a pair without knowing the other person, it was a lottery I lost. I was paired with a 40years+ German guy, my first worry on the mountain was after dinner at the refuge when I saw him pop outside at 4800m to smoke a cigarette, the air is thin up there, smoking isn't going to help matters. However, the moment when I saw my chances of summitting pretty much disappear was at 2am, all set to head out into heavy snow I saw my German friend wearing a pair of jeans, a bog standard pair of jeans. Added to that he didn't have any gaitors. The guide questioned his attire, he said he didn't have anything else, the guide said...."oh, let's go". We set out and unsurprisingly the guy got soaking wet and after about 3 hours we turned back as he was showing signs of suffering from hypothermia. Admittedly the weather was bad, and there would have been no guarantees had I not been paired up with someone so underprepared, but it was incredibly frustrating to see my chances of summitting blown before I even got started.

March 2008: Reading Half Marathon

After returning from Ecuador somewhat disappointed I got straight into training for my first half marathon. Things started slowly, but I quickly improved, I finished my first 10k race in 47 minutes, then just a month later I ran the 21.1km of Reading at about the same pace, ending with a chip time of 1:36:56. I ran another 10k three weeks later in 41:30, at the time I was really confident that the progression would continue.

April 2008: Bracknell Half Marathon

Eager to make further progress I signed up to do my second half marathon just seven weeks after Reading, and I knocked over four minutes off my time in Reading, finishing in 1:32:44. From that point the rate of progress has been considerably slower, in the 20 months up to now I've managed to improve my PB by just a minute.

July 2008: Three Peaks Challenge

The three peaks challenge involves climbing the highest peaks in Scotland (Ben Nevis 1344m), England (Scafell Pike 978m) and Wales (Snowdon 1038m) all within the space of 24 hours. The mountains are all fairly comfortable walks on their own, but the fatigue from doing all three, put together with a lack of sleep made it a difficult undertaking, but we managed to finish with about half an hour to spare. The great thing about the challenge that by getting sponsored I managed to raise over £500 for WaterAid.

November 2008: Elda Half Marathon

After moving to Spain in the summer of 2008 I planned to continue training as I had been before I left the UK, however in the first few months I had real difficulty finding the time and as a result I was completely underprepared when I ran my third half and my first in Spain. I finished in 1:49:13 and for the first time in a race had to resort to walking for some parts of the course.

I'll have to take a break here, I'll continue with 2009's successes and disappointments tomorrow.

Training over Christmas and New Year

I guess its normal that training loads reduce a bit over the festive period, but I'm fairly disappointed with the amount I got done. Now I've returned from my travels I'm hoping I'll be able to pick things up again so I'm ready push for another half-marathon PB at the end of January.

Saturday 19th December - Rest Day
Had a rest to prepare for the next day's half-marathon and to recover from the previous night's celebration of the end of the semester.

Sunday 20th December - Aspe Half-Marathon
A new half-marathon for me, enjoyed it and got a new PB.
21.1km 4:21min/km 1:31:45

Monday 21st December - Swim 500m
Just a short swim to get the legs moving again after the half. It was at a slow pace, mainly due to my ongoing fight to get my goggles to stop leaking water.

Tuesday 22nd December - Rest Day

Wednesday 23rd December - Run 10km
My last run before departing for Christmas travels. It was fairly slow paced,  I was still a bit lethargic after the half, but it was good to get round 10km and not to feel any aches or pains.
10.1km 4:27min/km 44:56

Thursday 24th December - Rest Day
Spent the morning packing and the afternoon travelling to Germany.

Friday 25th December - 7.3km Run
After watching my nephew Reuben open his presents, while his brother looked on almost oblivious to it all, I headed out for a run in the cold in Bielefeld. It seems now I wasn't just me that didn't fancy the cold, my GPS didn't seem to it much either:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21565331
For the first couple of km's I was following the main road, and not wildly running off it, but it seems that like me the GPS just took a little time to get used to the cold. Once I got going is was a good run, although it was a bit frustrating at times to constantly looking out for ice. Given the wild GPS points the distance measurement isn't too reliable, judging by the pace of my next couple of runs in the cold I guess it was about 4:30 pace.
7.3km 4:12min/km 30:32

Saturday 26th December - Rest Day
I say a rest day, playing with Reuben burned up a whole load of energy. Going out for a run wouldn't have been a good idea, I was still digesting the huge and delicious Christmas meal from the day before.

Sunday 27th December - 11.2km Run
I went out slowly for a longish run, it wasn't as long as it could have been, but I had to get back to play with all the toys!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21565316
11.2km 4:57min/km 55:17

Monday 28th December - 9.4km Run
I fell upon a nice lap that kept me away from the town centre, it was longer than I wanted to do at the time, but in hindsight it was good to do so much as I ended up not training for the next few days.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21565306
9.4km 4:32min/km 42:28

Tuesday 29th December to Friday 1st January - Rest Days
I travelled east to Berlin and found it to be a good deal colder than Bielefeld but I still had the intention of going out to do a couple of runs while I was there. When I arrived it was cold and icy, but all the pavements were well gritted so it seemed fine to run, but on my first night the snow came and it never really stopped while I was there. I wouldn't normally rule out running in snow, but I was having plenty of trouble staying on my feet walking in the streets near my hotel so I thought I wouldn't take the risk of injuring myself by pushing things.