The Second Half

Back home after a great two weeks in Kefalonia where I broke my promise about not running on holiday (did one early morning 5k jog) but otherwise rested my legs, spent plenty of time in the swimming pool, and generally relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine.

Going back to work was a bit of a shock to the system, and similarly getting back out running meant some stiff and sore muscles this week. But I'm on track with my new training plan, geared towards the New Forest Half and the Royal Parks Half, in September and October respectively. And my brother's signed me up for another 10k, the Great Scottish Run, in Glasgow on 4th September, which will be a nice chance to run a race in my hometown for the first time.

My new routine looks like being lunchtime runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, interval training on Wednesday nights, a long slow run on Saturday and a shorter pace run on Sunday. This week I managed just under 20 miles including 3 fairly leisurely laps of Greenwich today.

So my total for the year now stands at just under 535 miles.

500 miles !

Somewhere along Victoria Embankment today I passed the half way mark in the 1000 miles part of my Marathon Challenge.

To celebrate, time for a wee musical interlude, courtesy of Craig and Charlie:

Approaching half-way

This week's been a productive week running, with a total of 21.17 miles clocked up and the first time for a while when I've been able to run 5 times on a working week this year - which maybe explains why my times in races this year have been a little disappointing so far. Running three or four times a week is ok but not really enough to gain the fitness you need to improve your times, and it's only now that I can feel the sort of fitness I had last summer start to come back. Hopefully it will help me run a couple of good times in the upcoming half-marathons.

My total for the year now stands at 497.61 miles, so my next run should take me over the half-way mark of my 1000 mile challenge. While I've made good progress to reach this point early in June, I have a couple of weeks' holiday coming up when I don't plan to run much, if at all, so I need to keep up the same level of running in the second half of the year if I'm going to reach my goal.

However if I follow my training plan for the two half-marathons I have lined up for the autumn that will add nearly 300 miles to my total by the beginning of October, and hopefully I'll be able to knock off the remaining 200 miles in the last 14 weeks.

Almost immediately the BUPA London 10000 was over the weather turned cooler and wetter - almost cold enough to ditch the shorts and t-shirt for tracksters and long-sleeve tops. Still, I quite like running in the rain, and the colder temperatures make running long distances easier.

BUPA London 10000

I've had a few days now to reflect on Monday's BUPA London 10000.

How did I get on against my targets ? Well, I ran all the way, finished the race, and enjoyed myself. And my brother also finished, and I think he enjoyed the race too. The other targets: well my finish time was 57 minutes exactly, 2mins 40 slower than last year, and 3mins 30 slower than my best time for the distance. So not so good.

So in one way I'm disappointed. But, looking back at my running since the marathon, I haven't been close to running at that pace for 10k, in fact Monday's run was my fastest 10k this year by more than a minute. So maybe my targets were a little optimistic for this particular race. But I'm convinced I can run faster than 53:30 some time and will be training hard for next time.

So, the race itself. We showed up a little later in Green Park than we should have, and by the time my brother had dropped his baggage and we'd both been to the toilet, it was 10:50 and we had to scuttle along to the start. Unfortunately as we were late arriving we only managed to fit in at the back of the 6th band of runners when we should have been in the 4th band.

It took 20 minutes for the elites and the rest of the people in front of us to start before finally we were off. Almost immediately we were getting blocked by slower runners and having to dodge and weave around people, going up on to the pavement to get past, at the risk of a twisted ankle. The first kilometre passed in 6m:18s, painfully slow. Coming down Embankment the route widened and the field started to thin out a little allowing more scope to overtake, and kilometres 2 and 3 were more respectable in 5:26 and 5:27 respectively. Not the nice steady start to a 10K you ideally want though.

The pace was getting a little too fast for my brother as we passed Sophie taking photographs near Waterloo Bridge, and just after the 3km water station we said our goodbyes. I more or less kept my pace during kilometre 4, 5:29 and headed up the hill into the City, reaching the halfway mark in 28:16, a reasonable time given our slow start.

I had convinced myself that from the halfway mark the route was entirely level or downhill and that I could gain some time in the second half of the race but it didn't feel particularly downhill and perhaps due to the heat or just my lack of fitness I was struggling to keep up the pace of the earlier kilometres. 5:47 for the sixth km and 5:41 for the seventh.

As I came back down onto the Embankment again and passed the 7km water station I was feeling pretty down but seeing Sophie at Waterloo bridge again cheered me up, and then a spectator at around the 8km mark caught my eye and said firmly, and quite correctly, "come on, not far now" which spurred me on even more. Kilometre 8 took me 5:43 and kilometre 9, 5:49. Turning off Embankment into Horseguards

Parade confirmed I really wasn't far from the finish now and, while I didn't manage the sprint finish I'd hoped for, I ran the last kilometre up Whitehall and into the Mall solidly enough in 5:49 to finish in 57:01, later corrected to 57:00 when the official times were published.

An average pace of 9minutes 10seconds per mile. My brother finished in just under 1 hour 3 minutes - he was disappointed too but like me any many others I think he struggled with the heat on the day.

So, disappointed at the time, and I know I can and will do better in future, but an enjoyable run overall. Again the temperature was a little high for comfort, and being blocked at the start probably cost me up to a minute and prevented me running a more even pace. Without wanting to make too many excuses, I've not been training as hard or as often this year so far as I did this time last year. Perhaps on the day I could have run 56 minutes or a little less.

But I think a PB was always going to be a stretch.

Since Monday I've had a couple of midweek lunchtime runs along the river, and today went to Richmond for a change to run a lap in even higher temperatures than last week, bringing my total miles to 472.41 for the year.

Two days to go !

Did my final training run today -  a 3 mile circuit at lunchtime along the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge to Westminster, following some intervals last night at Dulwich and another lunchtime run earlier in the week.

So, Monday is race day, and time for some targets / hopes:

1. Finish, run all the way, smile and have fun !
2. Beat last year's time in this race: 54:19 (8:46 minute miles)
3. Beat my 10k PB: 53:33 (8:38 minute miles)
4. Beat 52minutes (8:23 minute miles)
5. My brother to have a good run and beat his PB

I'm looking forward to the race - not feeling as fit as I'd like to be but I'll do my best and try to make up for my disappointing marathon time.

This week's runs bring my mileage for May to 76.2 and my total for the year to 453.06.

Running the course

I've started a new assignment at work in central London and managed to get out for a lunchtime run this week for the first time - a nice chance to run along Embankment to Tower Bridge and back, including some of the route of the BUPA London 10000 which is only 2 weeks away now.

I've also been out running at Dulwich in the evenings a couple of times lately, now that the days are longer and the park is open until 8:30pm. It's a nice way to wind down after work. This week I did ten 400metre intervals with 400 metre jogs in between. I ran the intervals at an average of around 7:50 minutes/mile pace, which if I could manage it for the whole 10k would get me around in  48minutes 34seconds. I think aiming for 52 minutes, or 8:23 minutes/mile is probably more realistic.

My training for the 10k has been going pretty well. I guess non-runners might think that having run a marathon I should be in tip-top shape to run a quarter of the distance, but it's not that simple. Marathon training is more about long slow runs and building up strength and stamina rather than speed, and I think I was probably in better shape for a 10k this time last year. However I had a good run at Greenwich today when I ran up the hill three times, for the first time in ages, and the interval training has been going well, so hopefully by race day I'll be in with a good chance of running a PB.

This week I was the happy recipient of a couple of new running shirts from CLIC Sargent and Practical Action - thanks Ceris and Michaela !

A total of 22 miles run this week, bringing my total for May to 43 miles, and for the year to 420 miles.

Intervals

Back from a very nice holiday in the Alps where we didn't do any running but did a fair amount of walking, eating and drinking.

And back to a new training plan for the BUPA London 10000 which is less than four weeks away now. Very strange to be thinking about running a short fast race, after spending the last six months thinking about running a slow long one, but that's the nature of the next challenge.

On Bank Holiday Monday I got back into the swing of things with five laps of Dulwich, followed on Thursday evening by a bit of interval training consisting of 9x400 metre "sprints" separated by slow jogging.

Intervals are a great way to improve your speed for shorter races but the attraction starts to wear off a bit as fatigue sets in towards the end. However I managed all 9 intervals at a decent pace (around 8:15 mile pace for each one) so I was quite pleased with my progress after 3 weeks off.

Today wasn't quite so satisfactory - I planned to do 6 miles in Greenwich but after about a lap and a half I felt bloated and sluggish and ground to a halt. I started running again and managed a short lap of just over a mile on the top level for a total of 4.5 miles for the two runs. Not sure why I felt so sluggish - maybe the 3 weeks off were something to do with it, or maybe I set off a little too fast, or maybe I'm just not used to running up that hill in Greenwich any more. Anyway, I'll have another go at 6 miles in Dulwich tomorrow, hopefully that will work out better.

In preparation for the BUPA 10k I wore my CLIC Sargent T-shirt for the first time. Nice to be able to show my support for the other charity I'm fundraising for this year, as I will be on race day.

My total for the year is approaching 400 miles now: 391.67 miles gone. In spite of my post-marathon holiday I'm still on schedule with the challenge.