2nd week.

Here's the review of my second week of marathon training.

After last Sunday's 10k race, I had a rest day on Monday. I was supposed to run again on Tuesday but it was raining so I postponed it until the next day. I'm not good in the rain but this was just an excuse, I basically didn't feel like it.

So, training started on Wednesday. This run was a fast 4 miles. I was pleased with the pace. Thursday's run was this : 5M of 1M jog, then 4x800m at approx 10K pace with 400m jog recoveries in 3 mins, then 1M jog.


Friday's run was 5M of 1M jog, 3M at half marathon pace, then 1M jog. On Saturday I was supposed to run 4 miles fartlek. (I will explain that means later on). Again, I didn't do this because of the weather.
Today, Sunday, I ran the longest distance I have ran in 9 months, 10 miles. This went OK but I had been drinking the night before and I was a little dehydrated. I shall have to stop drinking if I am to complete this training correctly.

One week down, fifteen to go.

One weeks marathon training done with a 10K race at the end.

After Monday's 5 mile run, I did 5.7 mile run on Wednesday. This consisted of a 1 mile warm up and 4 reps of 0.5 mile fast and 0.3 mile recoveries and a final 1 mile cool down. This is to strengthen my legs.

On Thursday I ran my fastest 5K this year, followed by another 4 miles on Friday.

And finally on Sunday I ran the Morecambe Superbowl 10K in a time of 48:54. 

And so it begins.

In 16 weeks I will be running the first ever Lancaster marathon and 3 weeks later the Chester marathon, either side of my 50th birthday.

Today the training started. I have a schedule to follow I will be trying to follow it, time and injury permitting. Today I should have ran 3 miles at an easy 10 minute mile pace, I didn't do this. I ran 5 miles at 8:15 pace.

This is because I could and also I have a 10K race to train for on Sunday too.

I will try to keep this blog going until after the 2nd marathon mainly for a record for myself as I know not many of you will read it!

Here's today's run and a link to the sponsor website.

Running in circles with toffee vodka.

Hello again. Another 4 runs this week.

First run on Tuesday was again a 3 mile run around Lancaster University. I missed judged the distance (I thought I had done nearly 3 miles when I had only done just over 2) and I ended up running around the tennis court, again and again. And again.

Wednesday's run was another 3 miles this time along the footpath and was a faster run.

After this run I was emailed again by the website I am using to plan my runs to tell me that, because I was running faster than scheduled, they have decreased my expected race time. They now think I should complete the 10k race in under 50 minutes! (49 mins and 47 seconds to be precise).
This is probably not going to happen.

Friday's run was again a farlek 2 miles, the same as last Friday. I even ran the same route, except this time I ran it 90 seconds quicker.

The final run of the week was 3 miles on Sunday. I attempted to do this run after visiting a food festival and eating a burger and lots of free samples of cheese, chilli, chocolate and alcohol.

This was not a good idea and I felt awful but, with a short break after 2 miles, I suprising completed the run in the scheduled time.

So after another week of 4 runs I am still on target.

And apparently, apart from my family, at least one other person reads this blog. Hi Rob.

One week. Four runs.

Another week of four runs. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

No incidents this week, no falls, no excitement, just boring running.

I did a steady 3 miles on Tuesday and a very slightly quicker 3 miles on Wednesday. It was supposed to be much quicker but wasn't, although I was still running quicker than I was scheduled to do.

On Friday was it was only a 2 mile run but it was a farlek run. This is a sprint and then jog to recover run and is meant to improve your running speed. I always find this difficult to do. I start off well but get tired too so and slow too much. I still managed to beat the scheduled time though.

Sunday's run was a fastish 3 miles again and the fastest of the 3 miles runs I did this week although it didn't seem like that.

On Sunday I received an email from the website that produced my running schedule to say that, because I was running faster than expected, they were going to revise the plan to make me run a quicker time for the 10k race.

I'm not sure this is a good idea. We shall see.  

I get knocked down.. But I get up again.

I predicted, after writing about my first run, I have forgotten / been too lazy to write again.
So here's a blog about the other 3 runs I did this week.

On Wednesday I ran the furthest I have done this year, 5 miles. It felt good and I didn't have to stop at all. In fact I felt I could have gone further. It was also at a faster pace than the training plan requires.

On Friday I ran 3 miles. As I had been running on the flat for the other runs, I felt I was now strong enough to try a bit of gentle hill running. All was going well and no walking was involved, it felt good. It was a run around Lancaster University that I hadn't run before and wasn't sure of the distance. On the return leg, getting near to where I started, I realised that I was going to be about half a mile short so decided to continue running pass the entrance to the university and across the road.

This was my downfall, literally.

I tripped over a curbstone and fell into a spiky bush. I hurt my hands and right leg and also managed to hit my head on the ground just for good measure. I got up straight away and checked myself out.
My knee was bleeding and and my leg covered in scratches.
 

I didn't feel too dizzy and had to quickly decide whether or not to continue running or to give up half a mile short. I felt that I must keep going as to admit defeat this early in my training would only lead to me regretting not finishing later.

I finished without further incident and felt good for completing it.


Saturday was a rest day and it Sunday (today) until I ran again. Sundays on training plans are long run days as this is usually when races are held too. Today's run was again 5 miles.
After running this distance with ease earlier in the week, but after my fall on Friday, I wondered how it would go.

It went badly.

I was very tired, partly I think, because I was sneezing all day Saturday. I didn't go out until noon and although it was still cold, the sun was high and I think this affected me as well. There was a lot of walking and I didn't feel good doing that but I did complete the 5 miles.

When I checked the time at the end of the run I found that, although the time was rubbish, I was still faster than the training said I should be so I wasn't too upset.

First run

So first run of my new training is done. You can check it out by clicking HERE. Go on you know you want to.

I chose to make the route a mostly flat one and I was supposed to run it at a slow pace of 13 minutes per mile as I mentioned in yesterday's blog. (What do you mean you've not read it? Go do it now!)

As I suspected, I couldn't run at this slow pace and ran at a pace of 8:40 instead. It felt OK and I managed to run constantly for the whole 3 miles so after I felt like I was a proper runner again.

Tomorrow's run will be 5 miles, the longest distance I have run for some time. This is also supposed to be run at the same slow pace and I think this one might be.

Don't forget to checkout the next exciting episode of this epic adventure tomorrow.