What could go wrong on a 7 mile run?

I was not planning to blog again till after competing in the Spitfire 20 race in Dunsfold this Sunday but following an interesting run tonight it was too much to tell over 140 characters on Twitter, so a quick post is needed to tell the story.
I had a half day today off work to go and watch my youngest play football in an inter school tournament. They got knocked out quite early, which meant I got home and out the door by five o'clock for an hours run. The sun was slowly setting so I head out over the trails of the ranges a mile away from my front door.

I do a lot of running over here, it's MOD owned land but when not being used by the army it's the perfect place to run with it's vast open heathland, hills and trails. When the red flags are up you cannot enter certain area's. When I got to the gate where the first flag is I had a playful dog running part the way with me, with this distraction I totally missed the flag and continued through the gate.

Red Flag...Do not enter!

You usually get the odd dog walkers on this run but this evening it seemed I had the world to myself. The main part of the run is along a ridge with the views across the Surrey Hills, you can even make out some of the taller landmarks in London on a clear day. I now know why there was no one else around, because of the flags but I seemed to be lucky enough to have got away with it with no soldiers training. As I ran past the wardens office, within a few minutes my solitude was broken with an irate Warden shouting at me. I raised my arms in the way a holiday maker would abroad who cannot understand the language, sped up and made my way out the ranges.

Perfect Running!

Back in civilisation I was running down a hill near to home when I saw three characters approaching who appeared to have already had one or two (or three!) drinks so early in the evening. They were no spring chickens and the woman in the trio began mimicking that she was running.....Here we go, I thought. As I approached them the woman started to lean on me as if she had just finished a marathon. She stank, gave me a big grin with her brown stained twisted teeth (I say teeth, but there were more gaps than teeth) before cackling away with her pals.What a comedy moment.

My new friends!

Within the last few minutes I had been shouted at by a warden and nearly taken over by the living dead! Nearly home, I had one last encounter to endure. As I came under a railway bridge leading into my estate, I could hear a bunch of teenagers up above me. I thought nothing of them until a large stick came whizzing past my head and shattering against the wall. I turned to stop and give them a piece of my mind but realised it was a large group. Now I'm no Jackie Chan and thought better than to take it any further, I turned to them raised my arms as if to say 'Why the heck did you do that for' and continued the rest of my run. I could hear them heckling in the distance, they must make their parents proud I thought.



I'm not sure I've ever had such a eventful short run. It topped off my day, earlier I had been caught by a speed cop for speeding, 3 points on my licence and £60 fine...Doh! Well at least there was no chance of getting stopped again for speeding on this run!

Marathon Training - A set back and other running ramblings

In my last post I noted that I was 'right where I wanted to be with my marathon training'. Now of course if you say something like that, what's going to follow.....Yep, you talk to soon and a set back looms it's ugly head!
I've pushed my long runs to 20 miles and have run a couple of back to back 12 milers over the last few weeks. This weekend we were away so I decided that the Friday would be 'long run day'. Along with running buddy Brian, we would run from work to home on an extended 19 mile run.

To date all my long runs have taken place first thing in the morning (I prefer morning's and most races are run in the morning). Now whether it was because of the time of day being late afternoon, I will never know but the run was set to be a disaster in more ways than one!

Firstly my legs gave up on me at around mile 14/15, and secondly I got lost! Lost in an area that I've spent the last 40 years of my life. It's been because of running though that I've discovered so many new places around where I live and I'm sure that goes for a lot of other runners too.

I got myself lost due to 'Speedy Gonzalez' (Brian) shooting off and being left without a head torch to fend for myself (He's a good friend like that!) but having watched the last series of Bear Grylls, I was confident I would be OK alone in the woods in the dark :-)



The lost bit was not a problem it was a bit of an adventure, it was the hitting the wall at mile 14 that was the problem. I knew by about mile 7 that this was not going to be a good run, I've normally hit my stride by then, but today felt different. I guess it's just one of those days that you have to just write off and was probably down to a number of reasons (nutrition,tiredness,etc.) that hopefully will not come along again.

Thankfully I have not dwelt on it or let it get me down too long. After tweeting about this run on Twitter it wasn't long before the great running community picked me up with their words of support which helped a lot.

This week I'm going to run some easy paced lunchtime runs as I have a 20 mile race next Sunday which will hopefully get the confidence back.

I was keen to also make a point this week about recovery shakes. Now whether this is psychological or not, I've been using a certain well known brand of recovery shake (you know the one!) for a while and I believe I've noticed the difference in recovery after big runs. However steadily the price of this shake has risen and soon mounts up over the weeks especially if you believe the blurb on the bottle that states you'll recover even better with another shake 2 hours later (sucker!)

In these economic times we all need to sacrifice some of the luxuries so I've now been either buying a cheap milkshake off the shelf or using a good old pint of milk out the fridge after a tough workout....and hey presto I've noticed the same difference. Now I'm not saying that the top branded shake is a waste of time, but I think the benefits are probably felt at the more elite end of training rather than the amateur who can easily get all the benefits they need from good old Milk.

I've finally got around to reviewing a product I'd been sent a little while back.

The Cygnett armband is designed to be worn around the upper arm and take an iphone. I don't own an iphone but was pleased to find that my new smart phone (Samsung Galaxy W) fitted snugly in the pouch. The pouch has clear waterproof front to it allowing you to still operate the touch screen.

I downloaded a running App on my phone once this was done I got it set up ready to go out but the only trouble was that my phone has buttons along the side and when trying to push the phone into the pouch the buttons kept being activated. If you do have an iphone for what this product is meant , I guess this won't be a problem. After a few minutes I managed to get the phone in OK and set off.

I've never run with an armband before so this felt a little awkward but the strap was comfortable and with its adjustable Velcro strip I soon got used to the sensation of having the band on my arm. While on the move it was not really possible to view the screen unless I stopped and swung it around my arm or took the band off but also the phone's screen is on a power save anyway and goes of every minute, so it was a case of not being able to view the phone till I finished my run. 

I was out for near on 40 minutes and the strap never loosened once which was impressive, I had visions of  me stopping every 5 minutes to adjust. I don't run with music often and did not on this run but there is an additional Velcro flap on the armband where you can wrap the cord of your headphones around so it's not bouncing around whilst running which I thought was a nifty idea. A comfortable product that would be best suited to an iphone which it is designed for but held my similar size phone securely.

Marathon training...So far so good.

I feel guilty that I'm not running this weekend but making up for it by blogging about my running. I'm itching to get out and run but instead letting my body rest during this period of marathon training.

I've no reason to feel guilty though, within the last 7 days I have accumulated 52 miles and I can't remember hitting that many miles before over this period of days. Here's a short resume of the last week.

Sunday 26th February. I ran 20 miles (see last post) 8:45min/mile pace

Monday 27th February. Well deserved rest day after the 20 mile run.

Tuesday 28th February. Having missed a planned tempo run at lunchtime, I managed to get out in the evening and run 4.5 miles at a pace of 7:35 min/mile pace. I've not done a tempo run for a couple of weeks and it showed. It felt hard (as it should!) but was not as quick as my previous times of low 7 minute miles. However this was still about a minute and a half quicker than marathon pace.

Wednesday 29th February. (Leap year.Won't have to do this run for another 4 years!) This was meant to be a slower run than what it was (7:58min/mile pace) but it was with running partner Brian, and I always run quicker with Brian....if I can keep up with him! 3.4 miles along the canal footpath.

Thursday 1st March. I felt tired from the previous couple of days faster runs and I still felt the previous Sunday's long 20 mile run but I stuck to my guns and attempted my second back to back run. This was running 12.5 miles from work in the evening and then back 12 miles in the morning (see previous post) The evening run is the tougher of the two as it involves the last few miles of climbing and a big hill at the end. When I got home I was shattered and the thought of doing it all over again in the morning was not appealing! 9:11 min/mile pace.

Friday 2nd March. Pleasantly surprised! I ran these runs again with Brian and I stayed with him for the first few miles but gradually dropped of him. What this meant though was that I could fall into my own rhythm. I kept waiting for the tiredness to kick in but mile by mile I ticked off until I completed the run feeling pretty good and not far behind Brain (The tortoise and the hare!) 8:57 min/mile pace.

Here comes the Sun

20.14 miles, 2:56:03, 8:45 min/mile pace

Sunday, traditionally the day of the long run in the runners week. Although I've been following no specific marathon training plan for London, I decided my longest run this year would fit in nicely today. The milestone 20 miler.

Most my recent long runs have been in the company of friends, which has been great company and motivation but I was actually looking forward to heading out the door on my own today and have a bit of me time. It was a glorious day, blue skies and warm. Spring had decided to come early in February. It seemed only like yesterday I was running in leggings, gloves and hat.

Over this sort of distance it's a great chance to try your nutrition out. I filled my Camelbak with 1 litre of Lucozade diluted with a little water to make it go further. Lucozade is the official sports drink used on the marathon course, so I thought it best that I get used to it. I also took one Lucozade gel which I used at mile 12 and one of my favourite Carmen Muesli Bars (Real Food!) which I happily munched through at mile 15.

I had been troubled the days leading up to this run with some slight discomfort on the inside of my right shin and was in two minds whether I should be taking this run on. I decided after chatting with my Twitter running friends that this would be make or break and I let my head rule my heart. This time I had made the right decision with absolutely no pain on the run or after. Quite a relief.

For a short while at mile 16, I had the canal path to myself, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and listening to my footsteps on the gravel towpath, it was one of those moments on the run when everything felt just great.

As I went through the last miles I gradually starting getting tired, and leading up to mile 20 I asked myself the question 'Could you go on for another 6 miles today?'...possibly! but I've still another couple of months to go of training so hopefully will have a more positive answer to that question on 22nd April.

After all a marathon has only just begun at mile 20!

Back to Back Runs

Back to Back!

It's Saturday morning and I've just awoken from a much needed 10 hour sleep. Yesterday I completed my first back to back run. I read recently ultrarunner Scott Jurek's explanation of a back to back run or a 'double' as he calls them "Doubles should include a recovery period of six to 10 hours between runs."

A back to back run is a way of training for long miles without cramming it into one long run and so reducing the risk of injury. Although you have a recovery period it's not long enough for the legs to recover and so the affect on the legs is that they've just run a big distance.

Believe me when I say the legs definitely do not recover. I ran 12.25 miles home from work on Thursday evening slower than marathon pace on a generally flat course along the canal tow path before finishing with a few miles on the undulating terrain and hills across the ranges. When I got home rather than soaking in a nice warm bath and getting too comfortable, I showered and done some stretching so not to give too much time concentrating on recovering the legs (after all this is half way through a long run).

Homemade tomato sauce and pasta and...ahem...some chicken nuggets (PROTEIN!) and then bed. Before I knew it, morning, change and then back to work this time all the way along the towpath. For the first six miles my legs felt fine, so in theory I was on mile 18, and just like if I had gone out for a long run of this distance my legs began to complain. The final six miles were tough and felt like I had been running straight through, so the back to back runs had worked with the affect of time on my feet.

I'm going to do a back to back run every other week and then the in the alternate weeks in between do a 18-20 mile long run on a Sunday. This way I've got a two week break from running long straight through runs and cutting back on the risk of injury.

The long run of course is still the most important part of marathon training as essentially it's getting the body prepared for the big day and last Sunday I got out for an 18 mile run. It was great because I met up with friends Tim and Brian although we were all doing our own thing. Brian had set out an hour earlier to do his 18 miles as he had to get back home and Tim was out for one of his 'small' training runs of 34 miles! The Basingstoke canal is over 30 miles long and runs through the Village where Brian and myself live through to Woking 12 miles away where Tim lives, so at some point we could all meet up with each other.

Like a fine tuned SAS rendezvous the timings were perfect and I met up with Brian and Tim where I had expected. Brian continued with us for another 6 miles before tailing off to complete his 18 miles for the day and Tim and myself continued. I completed all my 18 miles with Tim which was great before Tim went on to complete his momentous ultra training run.

I'm looking forward to a nice weekend off after some big miles over the last 7 days and it will be nice to enjoy it without the pressure of getting out for a long run.

Tupper#9

You can check out Mark's excellent Blog @ www.runner786.com

Making the most of the lunchtime run

A measly 45 minutes is all I get for lunch at work, which gives me enough time to eat my lunch, catch up on Twitter, a 5 minute walk to stretch the eyes and legs and then back to work....

...Or, I can get out for 35 minutes for a run. It used to be a plod down the canal or over the local common, which is great but they were becoming 'junk' miles. Junk miles are those miles where you run for the sake of running because you're paranoid about the 'numbers', and you must complete 'x' amount of miles each week (We all do it!)

So now it's a case of making these 4 or 5 miles count. I probably get out for about 3 runs during the week at lunchtime, One of these runs is now a Tempo run which has me pushing myself to the limit for 4.12miles (I told you we all obsess about the numbers, notice I had to include the .12!!!).

Amazingly the week before last I managed to run the fastest I've ever run the 4 miles..Ahem, sorry 4.12 miles with a 7:07min/mile pace, which goes to show that as you get older, it does not mean you cannot push the boundaries. I'm not sure I can push into the 6 min/mile bracket, but who knows, watch this space.

I don't look forward to these runs, as at the end I'm doubled over with my legs and lungs screaming at me to get back to the old routine. Tempo runs hurt, but then 'No pain, No gain'.

Tempo Runs!!!

My second run of the week will be a hill session, this is a 4.9 mile route which I can just about squeeze in the lunch break. This consists of running down and up, four times, a quite testing hill in a quiet residential street in Woking town. I must admit I do quite enjoy hill running, and much prefer this to the tempo session. After any hill training I always feel stronger as a runner and have really benefited from the session.

The third run will probably be an easy run where I can enjoy the surroundings and have a chat with work colleague and running buddy Brian.

With this weekly routine and a long run, marathon training is coming on nicely. The last couple of weeks has seen the long run increase to 16 miles, running at my marathon pace (8:50 - 9 min/miles).

With 3 months left to London, my running at present is in a good place.