26/3/2008

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Keeping up the momentum

Week 4 - I was totally rubbish this week. I had two evening meetings again and together with the effects of the 90-minute run - that is, a ridiculously heightened awareness of my own thighs and extremely painful knees - I found it very hard to find the energy and get out there again.

My wisdom teeth also decided to give me hell which made it even harder to complete all four runs on the schedule.

I managed two out of four sessions, the 60-minute off-road run, which went really well, and the 45-minute run. I seriously needed to step my game up though. I feel some 5am runs may be in order.

Week 5 - More wisdom teeth misery this week.

On the back of that I was unable to do all five runs as I had hoped, so I decided to do the two most challenging of the week, the 45 minutes steady run and 60-minute long run, and throw in as many hills as possible along the way.

I had evening meetings on Monday and Tuesday and a hospital appointment on Friday to get the main offender taken out.

Thursday was the only day I didn’t feel too much like grinding my face into an anvil to distract myself from the pain in my mouth, so I took the opportunity to try out the 45 minutes steady run.

As it turned out I really enjoyed this one. Although I was only meant to run for 45 minutes I thought I'd better take advantage of not feeling like death so I kept going for another 45 or so.

I ran at a fairly easy pace and added a few killer hills.

I still find hills really challenging. I lose a lot of time running up them as I tend to slow down dramatically, but I am learning to run faster.

I find it easier to recover on the flat that way and it also means they are over quicker! I didn’t use my iPod to track my time or distance as this particular training session was more about just getting out there and making sure I kept some level of training up while I was ill.

Everyone I have spoken to who has completed the marathon has told me to make sure I do the long runs as they are most important for building stamina.

Surgery went OK so I tried going for another run on the Sunday. I didn’t feel 100% but I also didn’t feel like curling up and dying so I thought I ought to give it a crack.

The result was the weirdest run ever. Normally, even when it is really cold outside, I warm up within about 10 minutes but on this occasion I was freezing the whole way round.

I ran for 45 minutes at what I thought was a really slow run until Tiger Woods (no really) piped up on my iPod to tell me I had just completed my fastest mile at 8 minutes and 8 seconds on the home stretch.

My average was absolutely rubbish at 10 minutes per mile which means I must have been running at snail’s pace most of the time. Here’s to making a quick recovery.

Week 6 - Ah, my first run-orientated fight with Tooms.

Exercising and arguing simultaneously marked new territory for us.

We went out for the first session on the schedule, which was supposed to be a steady 30-minute run at Level 2 - conversational pace.

The reality was something quite different. Instead, we ran at some killer pace which involved him shouting and pointing at the space between us a lot, just in case I wasn’t aware of the fact that I was running about three years behind him.

I was not quite prepared for this. At first I thought we were just starting out fast and was fully prepared to go all out for say, the first quarter of a mile.

However when he did not slow down but in fact speeded up after the first quarter of a mile I realised I was in for a tough training session.

I hated him by the end of it and we had a huge row on the home stretch with him arguing that I wasn’t giving 100%, and when I passed out he would know I put enough into it, and me saying we weren’t Bourne and this isn’t the marines so perhaps we could go a bit easier next time.

He made the very good point while we were warming down that I would have to trust his methods if he was to continue helping me to train. I eventually backed down. Still hurt like hell though.

I couldn’t fit in all five sessions so I committed to the hill repeat session with lots of fast jogging. It was painful but really helped.

I am not entirely sure why there are so many hill sessions on the training schedule as apparently the marathon route is almost completely flat. Perhaps it helps with stamina and endurance.

I ran 11 miles in 110 minutes on Sunday morning.

Although it was quite a long slog and it was very cold it was made enjoyable by the beautiful country views.

There were very few cars around apart from families travelling to pubs for Sunday lunch (not helping) or going for walks.

I ran quite slowly, about 9 minutes and 50 seconds a mile on average. I was quite disappointed with my time as I thought I had run a little faster.

I ran alone but find it rather difficult to keep track of my pace without Tooms. He did not want to come with me as he was working on his car.

Tooms has a snazzy watch that does stuff with heart rates and minutes and tells you when to speed up and slow down but my running watch is just a stopwatch. Lame.

I don’t really have a problem keeping going when I run by myself but I think Tooms pushes me more than I do.

On shorter sessions I try to route runs so that I have to run past my house a few times. Sounds a bit sick and tortuous but it really helps me to discipline myself to keep running.

The 11-mile route was a complete door to door circuit which was nice. I got a great sense of achievement from it when I eventually made it home.

Must drag him away from the Golf next time a big run is on the cards, see if it makes the difference I think it will.

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First printed in: Surrey Advertiser Online