A few months ago Lorna (my gigging / running buddy) and I did the Milton Keynes half marathon which was hard, really very hard. So we planned to train hard for the half marathon in Cardiff and give it a better stab.
After some months nursing sore legs and a lame attempt at the Manchester 10k, it’s time to properly pull on the running shoes and get ready for Cardiff. There are 14 weeks through to the run and so I’m going to try and stick to a programme. This is something that Lorna dug out from walkjogrun.
I’ll try to blog progress here, maybe not every day, but will at least try to measure and hold myself to account here.
Today I did the 35 minute run on the treadmill. One of the things I’ve become aware of since going to the parkrun, and occasionally running it, is that I’m very slow when compared to others. So I’ve been trying to do more intervals and get used to running a bit faster – even if that means walk / running. I was pushing 7mph on the treadmill for regular couple of minute bursts, so as part of the training I’m hoping to improve my 5k times.
So this is the plan. Tomorrow, I’m off to the gym for some cross-training and next Monday I’ve got an appointment to meet one of the personal trainers at Edge Hill. Let’s see how this goes.
I hate doing accounts. It’s something that I’ve never enjoyed, but reluctantly accept that has to be done. Today was accounts day. The only thing that makes it bearable is using Xero. It has to be one of the loveliest web applications that I use regularly.
After years of using Sage at mytechie, my accountant pointed me over to Xero. It’s a delight to use – light years away from Sage which tortured me for years with an array of accounting jargon and an interface that harked back to the early nineties. I spent most of my time with Sage swearing and trying to find someone else to do the work for me. Xero, on the other hand, is like being eased gently into a warm bath of invoices and purchase orders, by someone who knows that you really don’t want to be there. Whoever wrote it deserves the web app equivalent of a Nobel peace prize.
So it’s been a mix of pleasure and torture – followed by a visit to Morrisons with the children, who seemed determined to make the visit mind-bogglingly stressful. Normally I’m a big fan of the self-service area. But with two children grabbing items and trying to scan / pack, constantly alerting the assistant and then dancing (I think) while surrounded by increasingly agitated shoppers, it was an ordeal. I just about managed to hold it together, but next time I will put out a large drink to be downed my return.
No such tasty drink today. The daily exercise hadn’t been done, so strong alcohol had to wait until we caught up with Game of Thrones – which it turns out was probably necessary.
After two days of torturing my legs by following the parkrun route, I went for some upper body and core exercises. Nothing too unusual – the New Rules of Lifting break in workout ‘B’, which has some decent upper body stuff. Not all that lunging and squatting that turned my legs into jelly. A couple of weeks of the break-in workouts and then I’ll take a look at their hypertrophy workout – which should probably take me through to August / September.
I quite enjoy the weights, although I’ve taken to looking at benches on ebay. This is probably very bad.
The final terrifying thing of the day is that I’ve installed “weight diary” on my phone. Yet another weight tracking app, but at least I don’t have to convert into pounds or kg. Instead it works in good old fashioned stone and pounds. The downside is that the stark reality is presented in large 100pt narrow sans serif font. It has also helpfully calculated that if I cut 500 calories from my diet every day, then I’ll hit my target weight sometime near the end of NEXT YEAR. Not 2014, but October 2015. The absolute impossibility of this makes me want to bury my head in a bucket of ice cream. However, I’m encouraged that when I was last exercising in January, I lost a lot of weight quickly. The trick is keeping it off (ho ho!) – or not getting injured. Or both.
Running again tomorrow. God knows when I’m going to get time to do it, but that’s the plan. Let’s see how the legs hold out.
I haven’t signed up for Juneathon yet, but I’m blogging and running just to keep my hand in. You never know, I might even add my name to the spreadsheet at some point. Chances are that I’ll blog about a mix of things rather than just the running – Android nameservers, for example. I’m off to Glastonbury at the end of the month and so would probably fail at the very last hurdle. I like the idea of running around the streets of Pilton and Glastonbury, but I prefer the idea of crawling out of the tent, blinking in the midday sun and going to find some cider and music.
Yesterday I took things easy, well mostly easy – we went for a walk up Rivington Pike in the morning. I didn’t measure it, but the fancy fitbit app thing said that we’d walked 7k – which is obviously a vast under-estimation. Or not. It felt like a lot more, probably due to all the walking-up-hill. And yes, I understand that half of it was downhill, but we took the long way uphill, and the short way down. Or at least that’s what I’m going to say.
I also did half an hour picking up the weights and dipping my toe into the New Rules of Lifting again. After the MK half marathon I had a very sore calf muscle for the best part of six weeks. The Manchester 10k was really difficult and so I’m determined to do some more varied training to try and avoid injury. Well, it’s my plan. Let’s see how it goes. It was difficult, but I feel like I got two exercise sessions in yesterday.
Today, however, my calf muscles were out to get their revenge. Probably due to the hill walking, and the lunges and the squats. I set out to follow the parkrun route at Edge Hill and could only manage 2k before I had to stop because of the absolute tiredness and soreness in my legs. Nothing like the pain when they were injured, just unable to lift them. Hey ho. Will try again tomorrow. At the moment it’s all about getting back into a routine and so I’m not going to beat myself up after a bad run.
I’ve not yet worked out a schedule, which I’ll do sometime soon. The January schedule seemed to work fine, but once I’ve got something, I’ll post it here.
We’ve just got back from a weekend away staying in Bambrough, Northumberland. It’s MILES AWAY! Well, not if you live in Newcastle, I suppose, but for us, it seemed like an age away.
My parents had kindly been looking after the children for a couple of days at the end of last week and then for the weekend we all made our way to the North East. My parents and the children on Friday afternoon; I drove up on Friday evening and Jude caught the train and pottered over in style from Knutsford.
View from cottage to the castleWe stayed at this place – Number 8, Bamburgh, a recently refurbished cottage with a view straight down to the castle, a short walk from the beach and next door to the pub! Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to enjoy their hospitality. Next time, perhaps.
By the time Jude and I got there, the children had decided that this was the best place in the world to stay. Mainly because of the playground down by the castle and the tube slide that Joel would launch himself into. Watching him wasn’t for the faint hearted.
My main plan was to try and get a 10-11 mile run in on Saturday. The morning was absolutely glorious, so we went for a walk down to the beach to let breakfast settle and by about 11 I was thinking about going out. Just at that point, the wind picked up and the clouds were starting to roll in from the north.
Lily and Joel on the swings in the park – Saturday morning. Check out the blue sky!
The route was taken from walkjogrun. It looked straightforward enough – so out I headed. First up, was a run through a golf course. I’d looked at the map and had wondered if there was a path around the side of the course or at least something that would give me an idea where to go. It turns out there wasn’t. Instead I had to plod through between fairways and greens trying to stick to what looked like flattened grass and trying not to annoy the golfers (who watched me with some amusement, it seemed). This also turned out to be quite a bit hillier than I’d expected. Not like some insane fell run, but a good bit of up and downhill, on grass, dodging golf balls. It turns out this was the easy bit.
Next up was a stretch of inland running from the course over to Seahouses, about 4 miles down a tiny country lane, which weaved around and presented me with lots of small but steep hills. I confess that by the time I came to my sixth or seventh (I lost count) I had to walk the last bit. It was about this time when it started to rain and my desire to actually complete the run was seeping away fast. “No one will mind if I stop” I thought. “Everyone will understand, it was hilly and windy and raining and shit. Maybe I’ll call Jude”. Somehow some force pushed me through this and I kept going – I think I was at my lowest just as the road turned into a long gentle downhill stretch. Oh the relief!
I’d been listening to the Malcolm Gladwell book “David and Goliath” which had been interesting (but not great). While I was running, the author turned his attentions to the way crime was being tackled in California – specifically the “three strikes and you’re out” law. This involved quite a bit of discussion around a father who’s daughter had been shot. The book ends on a particularly poignant note and I hit it at around 15km in, about 1km into my run along the coast road back towards the castle.
Tired and facing yet another uphill stretch, I could have happily sat and wept rather than carry on; but I dug out some Arcade Fire for a bit of push to the end. Just before finishing I passed a herd of cows. All I could think of was steak. By that point I think I was on auto-pilot.
It felt like it had been gruelling, but the pace was the fastest of the four long runs from the past four weeks, and that was despite the terrain and the hills. So I was really very pleased about it. Didn’t hurt too much afterwards and was able to spend the rest of the day hard at work playing various card games and enjoying a beer.
At Lindisfarne PrioryToday has been all about Lindisfarne. We visited the Priory and the castle, sat on the corner of Holy Island and about as bleak as you could imagine. I’ve wanted to go for a long time, but never really had a good idea of what it would be like. The weather was cold and windy again today – at least it didn’t rain – but it made the island feel empty and isolated, despite the small village by the priory.
If I’m really honest, it wasn’t as amazing as I’d hoped. I suppose that I was expecting something like the Giant’s Causeway visitors centre that we had visited last August. But I suppose the relatively small number of people getting to Holy Island means that the investment isn’t forthcoming. Plus, let’s face it, it’s another ruined priory – and they’re all over the place.
The castle is a bit different. Perched on top of a rocky outcrop, it had been turned into a holiday home in the early 1900’s before being handed over to the National Trust.
Lindisfarne Castle
A fascinating place and worth the visit. The view from the top is spectacular, taking in the coastline with Banbrough in the distance.
There’s obviously a lot to explore up there, but we didn’t really have the time to do it justice. Only enough time to get home, relax for a short time before dinner and heading home. Maybe if I’d put my mind to it, I could have got another run in, but I was put off by yesterday’s effort.
I think we’ll go again, and I think that we would go to this cottage again. And hopefully, by that time, I’ll be a bit better at the long runs.
Goodness, it seems like ages since I wrote something. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been distracted with the House of Cards and the joys of the world of Netflix.
Since last writing I’ve done two of the hypertrophy training sessions from the new rules of lifting. Last Thursday I was feeling my way with the weights on the new exercises, today I gave it more of a go. This is the first of the workouts, there are two that I should do in the week, but I missed the second one last week (eek!) The first workout is mostly upper body and consists of:
Dumbbell include bench press
Cable seated row
Dumbbell shoulder press
Wide grip lat pulldown
Barbell close grip bench press
High pull
Swiss ball crunch
A couple of these are approximations with the resistance bands and I don’t have a bench, so I gave it a go by lying across the bed with my head by the corner, which gave my arms some movement over the sides of the bed. I’ve got a feeling I might need some more kit!
Anyway, these seemed to go ok. I did a few more swiss ball crunches than suggested – mainly because it didn’t feel like anything was being done. Also finished each workout with trying to do the plank for a short time. Last week I could hold it for 2 minutes 43 and then 1 min 10, this week 3 min 11 and 1 min 15. I was concerned last week that I wasn’t doing it right, but after some considerable research I’m happy that I’m doing it correctly. That said, I’m not sure if I should just be holding it for 30 seconds a couple of times – as per my old gym programme.
Other than the strength training, there have been a couple of runs. Each different, each equally satisfying in different ways.
The first was a treadmill run for three miles last Friday. For the first time since I started a year ago, I came in at under 10 minutes per mile on a 3 mile run. I didn’t quite make 5k in under 30 minutes, but I’m not quibbling. There are about a billion caveats on the time (29:50) – the main one being that I had started out reasonably fast by my own standards and about a mile in felt that I needed my ventolin, so I paused took it and then carried on. I know that I would have done the same time, or maybe better, but it doesn’t feel quite like the single good run that I had hoped. Also, it’s not 5k in under 30 minutes and that’s one of the short term goals. Very nearly, but not quite. That’s for another day.
Then on Sunday I went out for a 10 mile run with Lorna. Two weeks ago it was eight miles in Llandudno, last week it was nine miles in Solihull and this week it was ten miles around the delights of Ormskirk and the surrounds. At least this week the weather seemed perfect for what was a very pleasant run. We kept the pace slow and steady, through the Edge Hill Uni campus, down St Helens Road towards the M58, across to Skelmersdale and then back to Ormskirk via Westhead. The road rises between Ormskirk and Westhead reasonably sharply, relatively speaking. It was on my mind all the way around, but when we got to it, we just kept going at basically the same pace. As we headed downhill back to the house we picked up pace and had our fastest split at about 9 miles. It felt good and we did a reasonably good time – we came in at 10 miles just under two hours.
We were remarking that a year ago we had run 8km in London, before going to see the Example. That time it had been a real struggle (for me – Lorna was bouncing around like a gazelle). This year running twice as far, it felt comfortable, we were chatting and we were able to pick up the pace in the last couple of miles. It’s great to see that kind of improvement.
The third run was yesterday. I went on what could only be described as a “sperm run” (check out the map). Along the A59 towards Aughton, up Holburn Hill, across to Prescot Road and back down again towards home. It was supposed to be a 4 mile run, but I misread my watch and stopped at 3.88 miles. Ho hum. That said, when I ran it three weeks ago I managed 11:48 per mile, this time I ran 11:10 per mile. I could have carried on a bit at that pace – not sure how far – but I’ll get a chance to try soon, I’m sure.
So that brings us back to today’s strength training back at the top of this post.
It’s been a reasonable week. I’ve missed a couple of days, but on the whole it’s felt like progress. Also, I got a new pair of running shoes at the weekend – a present from my parents, which was a wonderfully thoughtful gift which came out of the blue! I didn’t use them for the 10 miler but did for the 4 mile yesterday. They’re really very comfortable.
Plus I bought tickets to see the Flaming Lips and it feels like the holiday in Portugal is hurtling towards us. This is all good.
Well… it’s almost all good. When Lorna was up at the weekend we had three games of cribbage. I lost 2-1. This time it didn’t go with the dealer. I lost the third game. For some reason I thought we had been 2-2 before, but checking my notes and the sidebar here, it was 2-1 from Denbigh – so this leaves us at a frustratingly even 3-3.
I was supposed to go to the gym last night, but got distracted by trying to set up the various devices here to use US Netflix. There are services “out there” that do the trick, they work through a combination of overriding the netflix related DNS and then proxying some of the requests so that they appear to come from the US.
In the end I “rolled my own” server using a combination of squid for the proxying a bit of iptables to make it transparent and running a bind server. It’s a neat little setup and works on the apple tv, laptops, phones and tablets. I’m quite happy with it and have been enjoying Parks and Recreations and Mad Men (and some “Shut up and play the hits”).
Getting the service working on the laptop took no time at all. It was the ipad/apple TV side of things that took a good couple of hours to work out. Consequently the hours slipped by and before I knew it, it was too late to get to the gym and too late for some fun with the resistance bands.
Today I’ve been better. We were due to demonstrate some software that we’d been writing and have been waiting for some styling from web designers since the start of the week. It’s essentially just a tweak, but it feels like it has been left to the last minute. I had holding emails from them on Monday and Tuesday. Spurious questions that sounded technical but were, in fact, bullshit. Trust me, I can see these things from a mile away. My guess is that they only started looking at it today and realised that it was a bigger job than they first thought.
They sent me an email about an hour before the presentation finally saying that I wouldn’t have anything. Bugger. So I frantically pulled together bits of code, downloaded some bits of HTML stuck it all together and wrapped our software in something that would pass as what we should have had from the designers. With about 20 minutes to go, I was at least able to grab a coffee and get the rest of the stuff ready. I was not happy.
Still, the presentation went well and I think that we’re hurtling towards finishing the project. We will sit in a pub for three days solid when it’s done. I’m sure.
Jude’s not been able to get home this evening. The Thelwall viaduct was closed because of the weather. She was stuck on one side of the Manchester Ship Canal and the rest of us on the other. It seemed best that she stay over at her Dad’s in Lymm, while we struggled by, pushing beans around a plate and waiting for the lights to go out. Well, not quite, but we really did think the power would cut out on a couple of occasions.
After the children went to bed it was time to try and get some running in. It would have been fun to go outside for a run. Well, I was thinking that I could have gone in one direction and kept going for three miles. If I’d gone the right way I might have achieved a four minute mile, simply because of the wind behind me, but it would have taken about four hours to come back the other way. As it was I stuck to the treadmill (which I loathe), struggled through three miles of plodding and then was knackered at the end. Probably not ideal to be running at 9pm, but there was little choice today and given that I missed the gym yesterday, I had to do something.
Since then I’ve been enjoying the delights of the netflix. An episode of Mad Men down and I’m writing this with the “story of creation records” on in the background. It’s been a reasonable day, it would have been better if the web designers had done what they had promised, but that’s just one of those things, I think.
There must be a Ride video out there somewhere that I can embed here….
Gosh, I leave writing for a couple of days and all sorts of things happen. We go to Nottingham to see Frank Turner, go to Solihull and put in our long run (9 miles) get back to work and then do a four mile run today.
So much for trying to keep the blog up to date. Like my attempts to do daily training, the writing slipped a bit – but all in a good cause… I was busy doing fun things instead.
Friday I went straight from work in Wigan to Knutsford to swap cars at Jude’s swanky place of work. A place called Booths Park, built in the grounds of a farm and what looks like a stately home. It looks like a great place to work, looking partly like somewhere you’d go on holiday and partly like a very modern university campus.
Then there had been an incident on the M6 near Stoke. Hopefully it was nothing bad, but it meant that I had a very pleasant drive to Nottingham via Buxton and through the Peak District National Park. All very beautiful and made all the more so for having some Frank Turner blasting away in the car.
We were off to see the very same Frank Turner on the second night of his UK arena tour. We saw him in Wolverhampton a couple of years ago and he put on an amazing show – but looking down on the stalls it looked like mayhem. This time we were standing, but there was plenty of space for a jump around and some old-man dancing (from me). The whole evening was very pleasant – enhanced by one of the tastiest curries I’ve had in a long time.
The only problem had been that I wasn’t able to get any training in on Friday. I’d taken my resistance bands with me, but some terrible traffic in Wigan and then a slightly longer than expected drive over the Peak District meant that I arrived at the same time as Lorna. Beer trumped exercise. As is only right and proper.
So on Saturday we grabbed some tasty breakfast at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, somewhere I hadn’t ever been before. Seems like a lovely place. We were heading back to Solihull where we were planning on doing our nine mile long run. As time marched on the skies got darker and the wind seemed to be picking up. By the time that we were heading out at 2:30ish it was very very cold and overcast. By the time we were four miles in, the heavens had opened and the wind was lashing over the fields and battering us. It was difficult. We were heading back into Solihull about 7-8 miles in and I just wanted to stop. Every pub we passed was like a dagger through the heart.
Still, we got through to the end – hitting nine miles as we were half way through crossing a road. At which point we stopped and walked back to Valerie’s. It was really very hard, but it felt great that we actually got through it.
One tasty steak later, and I was aquaplaning back up the M6 to get home before 10.
Sunday was spent mostly working and I didn’t get a chance to do the weight training that I’d hoped to do. I spent some time reading up on the next steps with the New Rules of Lifting, but a bug fix that I’d expected to take 45 minutes ended up taking five hours. No fun, especially since I’d promised it would be complete by Monday. So the training had to take a back seat, sadly.
Today’s been better. A day spent at the youth zone, sorting out the fingerprint scanners (long story) and the online booking. Things are hopefully coming close to completion there. If one day there is a post that reads “In the pub. Celebrating.” That’s probably me and Robert celebrating the software being signed off. Next week. Dear God, please let it be next week. (Actually, given the circumstances, it may be the week after!)
Oh and I did my four mile run. It felt like hard work, but looking at the times I was 1 second per mile slower than my fastest outside run, which was only three miles. So it feels like an improvement.
There was a good chunk of time when I felt like I was properly running. I know that I’m still quite slow, but it felt like I was pushing rather than pottering. It felt good.
Frank Turner, Wessex Boy, from Nottingham last Friday:
It’s been a long day – the usual: children to school; Facetime and Skype calls before 9; chasing stuff; moving data; running; lunch; snooze; more data; pick up children; battle with kids about tai kwon do; take them to tai kwon do; help make dinner; scoff; bed time; watch end of The Bridge; write this.
Throughout the work today I’ve hadn’t really noticed Bruiser anywhere. Very often she’s asleep through most of the day and so I didn’t think much of it.
When Jude came home shortly after I got back from the tai kwon do, she asked if Bruiser had come in from being outside. Ah… and there I was thinking that she was in the house somewhere, just being quiet.
A bit of background. She’s had the occasional bout of not eating her food recently. Normally resolved by changing the nosh that we give her. I understand from Jude that she hadn’t eaten over the weekend. I cleaned out her bowl and gave her fresh food yesterday when I returned from Wales and again this morning, but haven’t seen her since.
So it seems that the cat is outside somewhere still, having gone out with Jude this morning, apparently. I’m kicking myself very slightly because I was so wrapped up in what I was doing, I didn’t stop to think where was the thing that usually meows at 100Db and tries to break by neck at every opportunity by jumping under my feet.
I’ll take a look for her tomorrow and will remain generally optimistic that the old girl is alright. But it does worry me a bit that all might not be well.
Before I started worrying about the cat, I did some running before lunch. The programme said to do some intervals. In fact it said 5 minutes at a good pace before a rest and another 5 minutes at pace before cooling down. I tried this. I did about 3/4 of a mile slowly then upped the treadmill to 7mph. After a little over a minute I gave up, feeling tired. Slowed to 5mph until the clock turned over to the next minute and then I upped the pace again to 7mph. I did this about five times over a period of 10 minutes, and then slowed down and stopped.
Not the greatest overall pace for a 2 mile run, but pushing 7mph for a good chunk and taking just a minute to recover and start again feels quite good. I don’t know much about this intervals malarky, and so I’m basically making it up as I go along. Reading the instructions and then failing dismally, but at least giving it a go!
On that note, I took the children to Tai Kwon Do this afternoon and had to watch Joel get more and more distressed as those around him confidently got things wrong, while he tried as hard as he could to get things right. I really felt for him. In the end he was really upset. He was trying his hardest but couldn’t get it right. Claire, the tutor, was amazing. She recognised what was going on really quickly, and gave Joel some 1:1 training. He was great at the spinning-around-and-kicking action within a few minutes, but it had really knocked him sideways when he watched the others confidently doing their actions – especially when they were doing it wrong (and Claire, to be fair, called them out on it). I can’t help but relate to that lack of confidence sometimes, and I feel it’s my duty to try and make sure that he doesn’t suffer from it in the same way as I have done. By the end of it he was brilliant, and I was really proud of him, but it was hard work nonetheless.
Right, to end the evening, here’s an ORB video I came across earlier. With some luck we’ll get to go and see them later this year. That’s the plan at least.
What happened? One moment I was going for an after dinner snooze after battling through the day like a half-conscious zombie version of myself. The next it was 10pm, I was waking up and there was no chance of any exercise being squeezed in.
It is partly due to a weekend of fun and frolics followed immediately by beers and a catch up with my Dad and brother Pete at the classiest venue in North Wales. It’s a self-styled “Urban Resort”, famous as the “home of the tribute act”. To be fair, it’s a decent hotel in amongst some offices and close to the A55. What more could you want?
They had a gym as well – a decent one, kitted out better than Edge Hill’s. So yesterday I was able to sneak in some exercises, despite an overwhelming urge to sit in the bar all afternoon.
Given that I’ve belatedly taken the day off which I had planned for last Saturday, I thought I should look at the rest of the training for the half marathon in March. My delight at running the 8 miles on Sunday has only been slightly dented by looking back at my plan and seeing that I should have run 9 miles! Putting that to one side, here’s the plan through to the race on 9th March, just 33 days away.
Wed 5th
1M jog, then 2 x 5 mins fast, with 5-min slow jog recovery
Thu 6
Strength training
Fri 7
4M easy on grass
Sat 8
9-10M slow Run with LJW. We’re watching Frank Turner in Nottingham the night before, so will be a *slow* tour of Nottingham’s finest landmarks
Sun 9
Strength training
Mon 10
3-4M easy, off-road if possible
Tue 11
Gym
Wed 12
3M, inc a few short bursts
Thu 13
Strength training
Fri 14
3M on grass
Sat 15
Strength training
Sun 16
11M slow. Was supposed to be a 10K race, but LJW visiting so we’re following her plan
Mon 17
4-5M easy, off-road
Tue 18
Gym
Wed 19
1M jog, then 2 x 7-8 mins fast, with 5-min jog recovery
Thu 20
Strength training
Fri 21
4M on grass, inc several short bursts
Sat 22
Upper body – resistance training I’ll be in Northumberland, so will take the resistance bands rather than find a gym in the middle of nowhere!
Sun 23
11-12M, as slow as you like I’ll have to work this one out… 11-12M might take some time and I’ll be away. Let’s see how this one goes
Mon 24
3-4M easy, on soft ground
Tue 25
Gym
Wed 26
1M jog, then 2 x 5 mins fast, with 5-min slow jog recovery between
Thu 27
Strength training
Fri 28
4M easy on grass
Sat 1/3
Strength training
Sun 2/3
9-10M slow
Mon 24
3M easy, off-road
Tue 4/3
Strength training
Wed 5/3
1M jog, then 1M at race speed, then 1M jog tee hee, race speed. That’s a JOG!
Thu 6/3
Strength training
Fri 7/3
2M jog In London to see Mike Peters. Will aim to do this with LJW somewhere
Sat 8/3
DAY OFF (!!!)
Sun 9/3
Race Day!
This takes basically the same routine as I did during the Janathon training, except that I’ve moved around some days to fit in with travel, etc. Plus I’ve added some gym days after going the other week (and really enjoying it!)
If I can get out in the daytime, then the “on grass” runs might well be done down on the beach between Southport, Formby and Waterloo. There’s a walkjogrun route here – granted that’s 30 miles, but it shows that there’s scope for some different distances. Assuming the weather is relatively calm(!)
To finish, it’s about twelve months since this Suede song came out. I listened to it a lot this time last year. Lovely!
I should really credit where these pictures come from:
Blimey! I made it to the end of Janathon, injury free and actually feeling alright. I had been planning on doing a three mile run along the promenade at Llandudno with Lorna, but after a slight organisational mishap, there wasn’t going to be enough time for us to run together, so I went out myself.
Llandudno beach. How inviting is that?The weather had been dreadful when I arrived in Llandudno, but by the time I was heading out it had cleared up and it was beautiful. Cold, but not too windy. I thought that I was doing a gentle pace along the promenade when runkeeper chimed in at 4:50ish to say I’d done half a mile. For me that’s pretty good, and it hasn’t happened this January. I pulled back very slightly and when I got to the end of the promenade I sort of jogged / walked down to the beach over the pebbles and ran back.
Getting my feet wet at the end of Janathon.The run along the sand was amazing. There was water everywhere and I didn’t bother trying to avoid them, well it would have been impossible. Instead I just enjoyed the cold water on my feet. At two miles it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get to three miles, I’d misjudged the distance. So instead I stopped and went for a paddle. It was wonderful, really, and a lovely way to finish what has been a brilliant month. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.
Tomorrow is slated as a day off, but I’ve brought my resistance bands – just in case I get the urge!
