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
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Friday, 19 March 2010
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
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
Saturday, 13 March 2010
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.
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.
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