84 Days To Go - Reedham 10

Date & Time : 29/01/12 11:00
Distance : 10 miles - Long Run
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 115 miles
Route & Stats : Reedham 10m

Decided to focus quality and not quantity this week.  So having completed a couple of round trips to and from work I also got in a couple of high resistance sessions on the cross trainer, as well as 3 miles of hill efforts - that last one I was particularly pleased with as I got delayed at work and didn't get home until nearly 8pm, but forced myself out just before 9pm to get that hill session done.  Work and family commitments meant I couldn't train either Friday or Saturday, which was no bad thing as I had always planned to do the Reedham 10m on Sunday and wanted to give it a go to try and beat my previous best time of 84 mins.

So to Reedham, on a very cold frosty morning.  Was pleased to see several familar faces there, including several Virgin Money colleagues.  The main topic of conversation was how many layers to wear and whether hat and gloves were for wusses.   Well call me a wuss then as I went with a base layer and vest and hat and gloves ..... but I did wear shorts to gain some credibility as a hardcore runner back.   Fair play to those who went with just vest and shorts!  The irony of this all of course is that for the last 2 or 3 years its been in the high 60's/low 70s degrees during the marathon.

The race itself was great and once we got going I didn't really notice the cold.  I managed to drop into a sub 8min mile rhythm very early into the race and maintained that throughout.  I felt especially strong on the climbs which hopefully is a result of the hill work that I have been doing recently (including the run to work which is nearly all up hill).  The net result was a massive new PB of 78:08 taking virtually 6 mins off my previous best.   I think I can now call myself an 8min miler as that's a 10k, a 10m and a half marathon where I have averaged either well under (first 2) or just over 8 mins per mile (half).

It all bodes well for my sub 4hour marathon objective which will need an average pace of sub 9min mile.  Over the next few weeks I plan to start ramping up the distances again aiming to complete 18 miles by the end of Feb, averaging 30+ miles each week.  Go hard or go home!! 

92 Days To Go - Super Saturday

Date & Time : 21/01/12 10:00
Distance : 9.5 miles - Long Run
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 94 miles
Route & Stats : Whitlingham & Inner Ring Road 

Despite being away from home all week I managed to get 3 good 4 mile runs in around Newcastle city centre, including a lap round St. James Park or the Sports Direct Arena depending on your persuasion.  It was nice to get home on Friday though, except our boiler had broken down on Thu and the house was bloody freezing which meant we all had to wear a lot of clothes and huddle around a couple of  electric fan heaters.

Just as well Saturday turned out to be a really full on day as I didn't have time to get cold.   The agenda for my Super Saturday looked like this;

1. Run - Get in a decent long run, at least 10m
2. Football - Quick change and bite to eat then off to Carrow Road for Norwich v Chelsea
3. Bake - Dash back from football and get baking with Imogen - 2 batches of cup cakes
4. Curry - Once the cup cakes were in the bag, cook a chicken curry for the family
5. Eat - Eat the outputs from 3 & 4
6. Rest - family night in - huddled in the lounge to watch a film

I would say that after a bit of a dodgy start with the run, the rest went pretty well.

1. Run - tough.  Struggled to maintain any kind of rhythm in the gusting wind and rain. In the end I managed 9.5m before time ran out.  I still managed 9min miles, but it felt a lot slower and was easily the worst run I have had so far this year.  However, experience tells me that it happens and not to get too worried about it.
2. Football - a really enjoyable 0-0 draw against Chelsea, which we could have won, but to take a point off one of the top 4 and keep a clean sheet felt like a win.
3. Bake - had a blast with Imogen as my assistant and the outcome was pretty good, not quite as good as my lemon drizzle cake last week, but still 2 batches of cup cakes made and both very edible.  Learnt a couple of new techniques. 
4. Curry - awesome.  Never cooked a curry before, but with a little bit of help and instruction from Mrs W, I would say it was bloody good and even more amazingly the girls pretty much ate the lot, which knowing their fussy palette is testament to a job well done.
5. Eat - easy, never an issue for me.
6. Rest - we ended up watching Cowboys & Aliens (7/10), when I say we, I mean me and Ellie - Mrs W fell asleep and Issy was glued to the iPad, still a great night in.

It's fair to say that we didn't do much on Sunday ...... with the boiler being fixed in the morning, we just wanted to crank it up to tropical levels and walk around in our pants (thankfully no pictures of that!).

99 Days To Go - Rapid Recovery

Date & Time : 14/01/12 09:45
Distance : 12.5 miles - Long Run
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 68.5 miles
Route & Stats : Whitlingham, Lakenham, Queens Rd, Brackendale

I was pleased with this run.  Having had a bit of a lower back ache since last Sunday's long run I was a little bit worried before this one that I might make things worse.  However, having read up on some lower back and upper hamstring stretches, which I did before and after the run, I am pleased to say that the back ache is all but gone.

The run itself was decent and went without incident.  I managed a good pace of just over 9min per mile, which is more than quick enough for now.  I plan a couple of 10 milers over the next 2 weekends (including the Reedham 10m in 2 weeks time) and will aim to run those a bit quicker before starting to lengthen the long runs through February and March.  The latter will be hell with one 20m and two 22m long runs planned - probably best not to think about that at this point!

One thing I am doing differently this time is drinking a protein-carbohydrate recovery drink straight after my long run.  The theory is that the protein helps your muscles recover quicker and the carbohydrate replaces spent energy.  Basically, it's powdered protein & carbs with a bit of strawberry flavouring that you mix with water.  So far that seems to be working and my recovery from the long runs has been good, and although I am taking Sundays as a rest day, I reckon I could go out and do an easy 5-6 miler if I wanted or needed to.  The only downside, as you can probably guess, is the taste and texture of the drink .... I would describe it as a strawberry milkshake, that has been watered down and the milk has just started to go off!

Yummy :(

So having run to work and back 4 times, 1 hill session and this long run, that's another 32.5m this week, which is good.  I might struggle to make that distance next week as I am working away in Newcastle Tue-Fri, but still looking forward to getting in a couple of runs somewhere new - it's always a good way to explore a new place.  I did this when we were on holiday in North Devon last summer and discovered some amazing trails and cliff top pathways.

 

102 Days To Go - Blowing Out His A**e

Date & Time : 12/01/12 19:00
Distance : 4 miles - Hills
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 52 miles
Route & Stats : Crown Point Hill

Was a bit late leaving work tonight, by the time I'd got changed and run home it was just before 7pm. I was both surprised and delighted to find my mate Chris Baylis waiting to join me for the hill training session. This was great, because I could easily have talked myself out it tonight, but instead I just had a quick pit stop and was out the door again.

The actual training run was good, first 2 climbs were at less than 8 min mile pace. It's fair to say that both of us were 'blowing' hard by the time we reached the top. By the time we got to the last of the 6 climbs I was nearly done for, but Chris was still feeling strong. We set off with a target of 8:30 pace, 2/3 into the last climb, I expected Mr B to blast away from me in the style of Usain Bolt, but as he hit the gas the wheels came off and he disappeared from my shoulder. I managed to keep going and was pleased to see Chris arrive a few seconds later with no damage done.

It was great to train with someone else, so thanks for that Chris. I think he enjoyed and said he'd be back next week .... from his twitter account,

106 Days To Go - Saturday Morning, Go Go Go

Date & Time : 07/01/12 10:30
Distance : 13 miles - Long Run
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 36 miles
Route & Stats : Whitlingham, Trowse, Lakenham


A decent run today, found the wind quite hard work especially running back towards Trowse from the bottom of the lake, the last couple of miles were really hard going as I am having a little bit of lower back pain .... nothing I can't cope with just a bit iritating.  Had planned 12 miles but due to a slight miscalculation of my route ended up doing 13 - they all add up, that's 36 for the week which is a good start to the training plan.
 
Getting my long run done on a saturday morning will be an important part of my training plan for a number of reasons.

1. Most importantly it fits in with family life as the girls have their dance lessons and so we generally don't have anything else on
2. It allows Mrs W to get a run in first thing - since my last marathon she has got into running too having completed her first half marathon in November
3. From a motivation point of view, getting that long run done and out of the way as soon as I can at the weekend means I can relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend without the thought of having a long run hanging over me
4. The entertainment on Radio 5 live on a Sat morning is great - Danny Baker, followed by Fighting Talk and then you're into the days football

Today is FA Cup 3rd round day, which as any football fan will tell you is a special day.  Norwich were at home to Burnley.  We rarely get a home draw in the 3rd round and in recent years we rarely get into the 4th round so that the FA Cup has not been of much interest to Canary fans.  However, we now have a manager in Paul Lambert who seems to want to win very game and today he put out a strong team.  I say a strong team, when in fact 10 of the starting 11 featured in The Championship last season with only Daniel Ayala as the only exception.  That said, we were a class apart from Burnley, who themselves are a decent Championship side, running out 4-1 winners with a good solid performance to match.


Afterwards, the Walters clan met up for a meal which was great, it was the first time we have all been together for several years.  It was great to see all the cousins together again, Ben at 18 (or 19?) being the oldest with our Imogen at 3 being the youngest with a fairly even spread of ages between them.

109 Days To Go - First Hills

Date & Time : 04/01/12 18:00
Distance : 4 miles - Hills (plus 4 miles to and from work)
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 19 miles
Route & Stats : Crown Point Hill

Nice run to and from work followed by my first hill session.  Wasn't especially looking forward to it but strangely enough I actually enjoyed it.  I did 6 reps of running up from the Crown Point to the top of the hill as hard as I could and then jogging down slowly to recover.   It's about 1/3 of a mile to the top so that basically means that I ran 2 miles up hill at a reasonably decent pace of 8:15 per mile.  Look at this for perfect symmetry.

In other news Virgin Money (my employer) has just announced a shirt sponsorship deal with Newcastle United.  NUFC are wearing the new shirts tonight and at time or writing this post they are 2-0 up against Man Utd - who says we don't have the golden touch!

111 Days To Go - Let's Get Started

Date & Time : 02/01/12 09:00
Distance : 11 miles - Long Run
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 11 miles
Route & Stats : Whitlingham & Trowse Loops

After a pretty successful autumn setting PB's at both 10k (47m) and half marathon (1h 46m) and managing to stay largely injury free I am ready to begin my assault on this years Virgin London Marathon.   Last time I completed the race in 4h 34m which was good ...... but not good enough and so I have set myself a challenging personal objective to finish this year under 4 hours, hence the name of my blog!

It's going to be tough and I will have to be much more disciplined in terms of following a structured training plan and mixing up the training with more hill work and speed work as well as the gruelling long runs.  Also need to shed a bit more weight so will have to watch what I eat and drink  ...... no more crisps and biscuits for me :(

Off to a nice steady start with 11 easy miles round Whitlingham Broad and Trowse ..... I think most of my long runs will be reasonably close to home this year.  This was the first time I have used my new Camelbak back pack which was a great success and will be a regular feature on my long runs, also pleased to report that since the digital switch over the DAB radio signal around the broad is excellent .... I find listening to the radio much more of a distraction than music.