After an amazing week away in the picturesque sunny seaside of devon, I have returned to running with the WRC crowd as per my adjusted schedule and was hoping for an easy return to pick up roughly where I left off pre-marathon #5.
One thing that I hadn't factored in when planning this challenge was how much the heat could potentially affect me during longer runs. I have had plenty of experience running in the cold and the wet (this is England after all!!) but so far, the exposure to higher temperatures has been somewhat sparse.
On Tuesday we set off around the usual time of 5:40ish and whilst i'm not totally sure what the temperature was, I figure it was a few degrees the other side of hot! Luckily I had taken a bottle of water with me, but even this turned out to not be enough and I soon found myself flagging quite a lot, which culminated in having to walk up The Avenue (which is a long dragging climb nearby to my offce) which I haven't needed to do before.
Part of me thinks it is possibly that I have tried to do too much too soon since marathon #5, although I had been on a 5 mile run the saturday just before so I doubt it would be this. To be on the safe side however, I have skipped the wednesday night training with Poole Runners (which is a massive shame as I have only managed to make it out once previously with them and was looking forward to it), with the hope of returning to form on thursday.
However, in the event that it is the hydration and temperature issue, I will be doing a bit of research on how to cope or condition myself to cope with it and i'll post what I find!
Hope you're all doing well and having an awesome week!
23/05/2012
19/05/2012
Orpington Mara'fun 12.05.2012
The orpington marathon was number 5 in my series this year and was a casual event in comparison to the larger events that I have taken part in this year, the website advertises the event as a fun run more than a serious event, which is exemplified by the fact the course is "as close as can be to 26.2 roughly" and isn't officially measured.
Emma and I drove up from southampton on the morning of the race, we had been staying with her parents as we were going away for the week on the monday and it made it easier to to bring everything back on the friday night with the cats so we could make sure they settled in before heading off.
The drive down was fairly uneventful, I did my usual thing of falling asleep within 30 seconds of getting in the car, and we arrived in good time to get registered before the race started. My dad had decided to come down and see me start so we had a chance to have a catch up before the race got under way, and it was good to have some support to get me going.
The race itself was two laps of approximately 13.1 miles, although I noticed that some of the mile markers were out by as much as 0.4 miles either way, but over the loop the discrepancies worked themselves out but the course ended up being slightly over the 26.2 miles.
The race started without any major hiccups and the first km or so is on a nice down hill slope so I managed to ease into my stride. I wanted to make sure that I didn't go off too quickly and was hoping for a negative split overall, so went off slowly with the bulk of the crowd whilst the faster runners quickly went out of sight round the first corner.
I was hoping for an easy-ish course as it was advertised as a fun event, although within the first mile came the first hill climb which went on for just under a mile or so. Luckily the remainder of the course was fairly flat with only a slight spattering of hills around the 8 mile mark and the last mile. The hill climb itself was a good thing as it got my heart going, although I soon regretted not doing more of a warm up before the start!
After 2 miles or so I found myself running at the same pace as another runner, Nick Marsden, who was doing the run as his first foray into marathon running. The first lap or so was spent running with Nick as we discussed various things about running, from training schedules and nutrition to shoe choices. It turns out that he had mostly been doing half marathons prior to doing the orpington run, but from the pace he was pulling off I would say that his previous running experience had given him a good basis for the longer distance.
The first lap passed without any drastic events, which unfortunately doesn't make for a good read! Emi was doing her usual support team duties and met me at the 8 mile mark with a fresh bottle of lucozade which was just in time as the weather for the day was the nicest we had had for a while and the temperature had started to creep up.
I had decided to take a slightly different tact in respect of hydration and had opted to have a bottle of lucozade every 6-8 miles and supplement this with water as and when necessary and I came across a water station. London had taught me the value of good hydration and I have been playing with taking varying amounts of water with me on longer runs to try and get the right balance.
The tactic seemed to be paying off as Nick and I crossed the half way point at 1hour 50 minutes which was slightly ahead of target of 2 hours and I was still feeling pretty strong. Scott had recently sponsored me and had put the challenge of beating his PB of 3:43 with the reward of doubling the sponsorship if I managed to pull it off. After crossing the line in 1:50 I had started to wonder whether today would be the day that I could pull it off!
At around the 20 mile mark the tiredness started to set in and my legs began to feel heavy. Luckily I still had my supply of dextrose tablets and half a bottle of lucozade with me, but around the 21 mile mark I encountered the second hill which goes across a trail path and takes a quick detour over a golf course and found that I simply couldnt left my legs enough to continue running and decided to take a tactical approach and walk until I had exited the golf course and take the hit of around 3 minutes too my time.
Emi was waiting for me on the exit of the golf course and indicated that Nick had passed about 5 minutes before meaning that I had been walking slower than I had realised and my chances of catching Nick again were relatively small. Still, Emi sent me off with shouts of encouragement and a fresh bottle and I slowly settled back into a run with Nick some way off in the distance.
Towards the 23 mile mark, I had started to get the familiar feeling of cramp setting in in my hamstring so decided to stop briefly and warm it up and stretch it out which gave some temporary relief but between 23 miles and the end of 24 miles I found that I had to stop every 2-3 minutes to stretch the muscles out again.
I had noticed that Nick had started to adopt a walk/run technique in the last few minutes so I was managing to make some gains as long as I didnt stop for too long when I stretched my legs out and I picked up the pace when I did run.
Lately my longer runs have incorporated at least a mile or two at a 7 min/mile pace and so I decided to throw caution to the wind at 24 miles and dig a little deeper to see what I had left.
The last mile or so is up hill, which I would class as one of my stronger areas and so I decided to up the pace and deal with the consequences after I had finished. The gamble paid off and I caught up with Nick about half a mile before the finish line at the last corner.
At this point, the course levels into a gentle down hill and with the end in sight, I could breathe a sigh of relief and pushed in towards the crowd that had gathered around the finish line. My mum and Emi were waiting for me with cameras in hand (although even a week later I am still yet to see the pictures!) as I crossed the line, and a quick look at my watch showed me that I had finished in 3:51 meaning I had smashed by previous PB by about 8 minutes, which was a great end to what had turned out to be a very good day.
The race itself, whilst only advertised as a fun run, turned out to be one of the best events that I have had the pleasure in taking part in. The marshals, of which there were many, were kind, supportive, and friendly throughout the entire race and the entire thing seemed to go off without a hitch.
I have around 3 weeks or so now until the next race, the South Downs Marathon, which will be an entirely new experience as the elevation is much much higher than I had done before and it is predominantly a trial run. However, the change in my running schedule seems to have had a beneficial impact and after only 2 days or so I was able to get back out to run, even if it was only 1.6 miles at a 10min/mile pace, which is a positive sign.
Thanks for taking the time to read this race report and for your continued support through my 2012 marathon challenge!
Emma and I drove up from southampton on the morning of the race, we had been staying with her parents as we were going away for the week on the monday and it made it easier to to bring everything back on the friday night with the cats so we could make sure they settled in before heading off.
The drive down was fairly uneventful, I did my usual thing of falling asleep within 30 seconds of getting in the car, and we arrived in good time to get registered before the race started. My dad had decided to come down and see me start so we had a chance to have a catch up before the race got under way, and it was good to have some support to get me going.
The race itself was two laps of approximately 13.1 miles, although I noticed that some of the mile markers were out by as much as 0.4 miles either way, but over the loop the discrepancies worked themselves out but the course ended up being slightly over the 26.2 miles.
The race started without any major hiccups and the first km or so is on a nice down hill slope so I managed to ease into my stride. I wanted to make sure that I didn't go off too quickly and was hoping for a negative split overall, so went off slowly with the bulk of the crowd whilst the faster runners quickly went out of sight round the first corner.
I was hoping for an easy-ish course as it was advertised as a fun event, although within the first mile came the first hill climb which went on for just under a mile or so. Luckily the remainder of the course was fairly flat with only a slight spattering of hills around the 8 mile mark and the last mile. The hill climb itself was a good thing as it got my heart going, although I soon regretted not doing more of a warm up before the start!
After 2 miles or so I found myself running at the same pace as another runner, Nick Marsden, who was doing the run as his first foray into marathon running. The first lap or so was spent running with Nick as we discussed various things about running, from training schedules and nutrition to shoe choices. It turns out that he had mostly been doing half marathons prior to doing the orpington run, but from the pace he was pulling off I would say that his previous running experience had given him a good basis for the longer distance.
The first lap passed without any drastic events, which unfortunately doesn't make for a good read! Emi was doing her usual support team duties and met me at the 8 mile mark with a fresh bottle of lucozade which was just in time as the weather for the day was the nicest we had had for a while and the temperature had started to creep up.
I had decided to take a slightly different tact in respect of hydration and had opted to have a bottle of lucozade every 6-8 miles and supplement this with water as and when necessary and I came across a water station. London had taught me the value of good hydration and I have been playing with taking varying amounts of water with me on longer runs to try and get the right balance.
The tactic seemed to be paying off as Nick and I crossed the half way point at 1hour 50 minutes which was slightly ahead of target of 2 hours and I was still feeling pretty strong. Scott had recently sponsored me and had put the challenge of beating his PB of 3:43 with the reward of doubling the sponsorship if I managed to pull it off. After crossing the line in 1:50 I had started to wonder whether today would be the day that I could pull it off!
At around the 20 mile mark the tiredness started to set in and my legs began to feel heavy. Luckily I still had my supply of dextrose tablets and half a bottle of lucozade with me, but around the 21 mile mark I encountered the second hill which goes across a trail path and takes a quick detour over a golf course and found that I simply couldnt left my legs enough to continue running and decided to take a tactical approach and walk until I had exited the golf course and take the hit of around 3 minutes too my time.
Emi was waiting for me on the exit of the golf course and indicated that Nick had passed about 5 minutes before meaning that I had been walking slower than I had realised and my chances of catching Nick again were relatively small. Still, Emi sent me off with shouts of encouragement and a fresh bottle and I slowly settled back into a run with Nick some way off in the distance.
Towards the 23 mile mark, I had started to get the familiar feeling of cramp setting in in my hamstring so decided to stop briefly and warm it up and stretch it out which gave some temporary relief but between 23 miles and the end of 24 miles I found that I had to stop every 2-3 minutes to stretch the muscles out again.
I had noticed that Nick had started to adopt a walk/run technique in the last few minutes so I was managing to make some gains as long as I didnt stop for too long when I stretched my legs out and I picked up the pace when I did run.
Lately my longer runs have incorporated at least a mile or two at a 7 min/mile pace and so I decided to throw caution to the wind at 24 miles and dig a little deeper to see what I had left.
The last mile or so is up hill, which I would class as one of my stronger areas and so I decided to up the pace and deal with the consequences after I had finished. The gamble paid off and I caught up with Nick about half a mile before the finish line at the last corner.
At this point, the course levels into a gentle down hill and with the end in sight, I could breathe a sigh of relief and pushed in towards the crowd that had gathered around the finish line. My mum and Emi were waiting for me with cameras in hand (although even a week later I am still yet to see the pictures!) as I crossed the line, and a quick look at my watch showed me that I had finished in 3:51 meaning I had smashed by previous PB by about 8 minutes, which was a great end to what had turned out to be a very good day.
The race itself, whilst only advertised as a fun run, turned out to be one of the best events that I have had the pleasure in taking part in. The marshals, of which there were many, were kind, supportive, and friendly throughout the entire race and the entire thing seemed to go off without a hitch.
I have around 3 weeks or so now until the next race, the South Downs Marathon, which will be an entirely new experience as the elevation is much much higher than I had done before and it is predominantly a trial run. However, the change in my running schedule seems to have had a beneficial impact and after only 2 days or so I was able to get back out to run, even if it was only 1.6 miles at a 10min/mile pace, which is a positive sign.
Thanks for taking the time to read this race report and for your continued support through my 2012 marathon challenge!
07/05/2012
Bit of a general update, and a new dimension to my challenge!
Good morning everyone! Hope you are well and have had a lovely bank holiday weekend.
First, I would like to thank all of you for kindly sponsoring me for my 2012 challenge to run 12 marathons to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
So far, fundraising stands at £2202.40 including the LV= charity match of £500, which is 44% towards my overall target of £5000.
With marathon number 5 just around the corner, I thought I would give you an update of how I've been getting on so far and give you an idea what you sponsorship money is doing to change the lives of hundreds of terminally ill children.
Since January this year, I have completed 4 full length marathons of 26.2 miles each, the last one being the Virgin London Marathon in April, and have 8 remaining to complete before the end of 2012. So far I have run approximately 400.78 miles since the challenge began, including training runs and the few races that I have taken part in around Bournemouth.
To put it in perspective, 400 miles is just short of the journey from Bournemouth to London and back, twice! This has taken me approximately 62 hours, and I'm only a third of the way through!
The races themselves have been going really well, and you can read all about them on my blog at http://tannerstwelve.blogspot.
The support that everyone has been giving me so far has been amazing and has really helped me keep going. A marathon itself is not an easy challenge, and so the challenge to do 12 in a year is something not to be taken lightly, but each step is in aid of a great cause and so it'll all be worth it in the end!
With two thirds of the challenge still to go, I have decided to up my challenge!
You have all been so generous so far, and so it's with a slight bit of cheek that i'm asking you all to dig a little deeper! I would be really greatful if you would all consider raising the amount you have donated by whatever you can, for the further challenge of me running over 1000 miles in 2012. Now, this sounds like a huge distance, and it really really is! 1000 miles is approximately the distance between Paris and Naples!
To give you an idea of what your money is going towards, here is a selection of some of the wishes that Make-A-Wish has granted so far this year:
17/04/2012 - Jordane is fourteen years old and suffers with type 2 spinal muscular atrophy, which is an incurable muscle-wasting disease. Jordanne's illness unfortunately restricts what she is able to do and so the opportunity to meet The Wanted was something extra. Jordanne travelled from Gloucester to Cardiff to meet the band at the first venue of their UK arena tour. Jordanne commented that "There wasn't one good moment, the whole thing was amazing! I'm still getting flustered and excited about it now. Thank you, Make-A-Wish, for everything you do and have done for me. That little bit of magic still brightens up my down days."
03/04/2012 - Three year old Allanya, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in January 2011, was granted her wish to be a princess for a day at the De Vere Cameron hotel in Loch Lomond. At the age of 2, Allanya had undergone a bone marrow lumbar puncture before a course of chemotherapy, causing her to lose all of her hair. Allanya will continue to undergo maintenance chemotherapy until March next year. Allanya's mother, Caroline, told Make-A-Wish: "Allany's wish came at such a perfect time - she had only come out of hospital the day before. Knowing we had the wish to look forward to got us through the seven days in hospital. Make-A-Wish really is an amazing and essential charity for children who are very poorly."
01/03/2012 - Six year old Max was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and within 3 days had started chemotherapy. Max has to undergo daily chemotherapy treatment at home and monthly in hospital. Max's wish to go on a lego shopping trip took the form of a trip to the London Lego store in Westfield where he was greeted by two stormtroopers - his favourite characters. Max spent three hours in the store before choosing the Lego Star Wars Death Star, which he started building the same day!
07/02/2012 - Fifteen year old Ryan was born prematurely with tracheo-oesophageal fistula. His granted wish took the form of meeting Alan Pardew from Newcastle United, who is Ryan's idol, a trip to Newcastle United's training ground for a tour and lunch with Alan Pardew and a few of the players, and finally, a seat in the director's box for the Newcastle United v Rangers match where he met the chairman and coaches. To help him remember the day, Alan gave Ryan his personal training shirt, signed, and he also received a goody bag and a pair of signed goalie gloves from Tim Krul.
Hopefully the extracts above will give you an understanding of the work of Make-A-Wish does and what the money I am attempting to raise will go towards. Alot of us take for granted benefits of good health and we often lose sight of how bad life can really get. For the children supported by Make-A-Wish, the money raised can help brighten up what most of us would see as a very bleak outlook and help to put a smile on their face.
There are two ways you can donate, either via the Justgiving page which can be found at www.justgiving.com/tannerstwelve or, via Justgiving text by sending a message of "TANN85 £5" to 70070. (the £5 can be £1, £2, £5 or £10).
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your continued support.
All the best,
Rob.
First, I would like to thank all of you for kindly sponsoring me for my 2012 challenge to run 12 marathons to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
So far, fundraising stands at £2202.40 including the LV= charity match of £500, which is 44% towards my overall target of £5000.
With marathon number 5 just around the corner, I thought I would give you an update of how I've been getting on so far and give you an idea what you sponsorship money is doing to change the lives of hundreds of terminally ill children.
Since January this year, I have completed 4 full length marathons of 26.2 miles each, the last one being the Virgin London Marathon in April, and have 8 remaining to complete before the end of 2012. So far I have run approximately 400.78 miles since the challenge began, including training runs and the few races that I have taken part in around Bournemouth.
To put it in perspective, 400 miles is just short of the journey from Bournemouth to London and back, twice! This has taken me approximately 62 hours, and I'm only a third of the way through!
The races themselves have been going really well, and you can read all about them on my blog at http://tannerstwelve.blogspot.
The support that everyone has been giving me so far has been amazing and has really helped me keep going. A marathon itself is not an easy challenge, and so the challenge to do 12 in a year is something not to be taken lightly, but each step is in aid of a great cause and so it'll all be worth it in the end!
With two thirds of the challenge still to go, I have decided to up my challenge!
You have all been so generous so far, and so it's with a slight bit of cheek that i'm asking you all to dig a little deeper! I would be really greatful if you would all consider raising the amount you have donated by whatever you can, for the further challenge of me running over 1000 miles in 2012. Now, this sounds like a huge distance, and it really really is! 1000 miles is approximately the distance between Paris and Naples!
To give you an idea of what your money is going towards, here is a selection of some of the wishes that Make-A-Wish has granted so far this year:
17/04/2012 - Jordane is fourteen years old and suffers with type 2 spinal muscular atrophy, which is an incurable muscle-wasting disease. Jordanne's illness unfortunately restricts what she is able to do and so the opportunity to meet The Wanted was something extra. Jordanne travelled from Gloucester to Cardiff to meet the band at the first venue of their UK arena tour. Jordanne commented that "There wasn't one good moment, the whole thing was amazing! I'm still getting flustered and excited about it now. Thank you, Make-A-Wish, for everything you do and have done for me. That little bit of magic still brightens up my down days."
03/04/2012 - Three year old Allanya, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in January 2011, was granted her wish to be a princess for a day at the De Vere Cameron hotel in Loch Lomond. At the age of 2, Allanya had undergone a bone marrow lumbar puncture before a course of chemotherapy, causing her to lose all of her hair. Allanya will continue to undergo maintenance chemotherapy until March next year. Allanya's mother, Caroline, told Make-A-Wish: "Allany's wish came at such a perfect time - she had only come out of hospital the day before. Knowing we had the wish to look forward to got us through the seven days in hospital. Make-A-Wish really is an amazing and essential charity for children who are very poorly."
01/03/2012 - Six year old Max was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and within 3 days had started chemotherapy. Max has to undergo daily chemotherapy treatment at home and monthly in hospital. Max's wish to go on a lego shopping trip took the form of a trip to the London Lego store in Westfield where he was greeted by two stormtroopers - his favourite characters. Max spent three hours in the store before choosing the Lego Star Wars Death Star, which he started building the same day!
07/02/2012 - Fifteen year old Ryan was born prematurely with tracheo-oesophageal fistula. His granted wish took the form of meeting Alan Pardew from Newcastle United, who is Ryan's idol, a trip to Newcastle United's training ground for a tour and lunch with Alan Pardew and a few of the players, and finally, a seat in the director's box for the Newcastle United v Rangers match where he met the chairman and coaches. To help him remember the day, Alan gave Ryan his personal training shirt, signed, and he also received a goody bag and a pair of signed goalie gloves from Tim Krul.
Hopefully the extracts above will give you an understanding of the work of Make-A-Wish does and what the money I am attempting to raise will go towards. Alot of us take for granted benefits of good health and we often lose sight of how bad life can really get. For the children supported by Make-A-Wish, the money raised can help brighten up what most of us would see as a very bleak outlook and help to put a smile on their face.
There are two ways you can donate, either via the Justgiving page which can be found at www.justgiving.com/tannerstwelve or, via Justgiving text by sending a message of "TANN85 £5" to 70070. (the £5 can be £1, £2, £5 or £10).
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your continued support.
All the best,
Rob.
05/05/2012
One week to go until Marathon #5 - Orpington
With 1/3 of my challenge now behind me, i'm gearing up to take on the following few months of hard work for marathons 5-8 which may be slightly more difficult due to the increase in temperature (or at least the expected increase, which, judging by the weather might be being slightly optimistic!) and the external stress of my exams at the beginning of june.
I have decided to finally start listening to people in respect of my training and have begun to take it slightly easier and go with the flow. I am still running 4-5 times per week, but rather than stick to a schedule designed to better my overall times based on rigid training schedules, I am playing it by ear and seeing how I feel on the day, after all, thats good enough for the kenyan's, so who am I to argue!
Tuesday and Thursday remain club nights with WRC and so the pace is a comfortable 8-9mins/mile for anywhere between 6-10 miles depending on who is running. WRC comprises a great group of people and the atmosphere is second to none. The good thing about these runs is that, no matter how groggy i've been feeling during the day, I know that i'll peck up the moment I lace up with these guys and head out. It's also good to see how far along they have come and i'm looking forward to the first DRRL or WRC club championship event I get to run with them this season.
Wednesday night is a new addition, I have started to run with the kind people at Poole Runners (www.poolerunners.com) and they usually run anywhere between 6 and 10 miles at various paces. The total number of people that were there this wednesday was around 30 or so and people form smaller groups depending on what pace they are doing. I had the pleasure of joining a group including my colleague, Chris Cartwright, and his dad, Dave Cartwright (recently featuring in the London Marathon as the first man home in his age catagory at the London Marathon, you'll have seen him finishing just behind Nell McAndrew). Wednesday nights will feature as either MP runs (7.30mins-8mins/mile) or, if I feel up to it, a chance to push myself a little further.
I am trying to get back into the habit of running the local Parkrun on a saturday (www.parkrun.org.uk/poole) which will serve as my speed work. This weekend was a good return all things considered, I clocked in a time of approximately 19mins 30secs for the 5km, although perhaps it was the 3 beers last night, but my throat started to hurt after 3km or so and I had to stop and use my inhaler on 3 occassions. It was notably cold this morning (around 6 degrees on the way there), so perhaps that might have had an impact. All in all, a very good start to the weekend and a nice return to the Parkrun community (which has grown massively since the last time I was there, which is a pleasing sight. Its good to see that more and more people are coming to running and willing to get involved in the local community).
Sunday will remain as a long run day. I've been pretty lax about doing long runs since January and unfortunately I think it is my major downfall in the marathons so far. Ill be hoping to get out for around 2-3 hours on each occassion and am planning to do 13-16 miles tomorrow as the last run before Orpington next week.
Im feeling pretty confident about marathon #5. I am going to try a slightly different tact and wear my heart rate monitor to get an idea what my heart is doing throughout the various stages of the run. Hopefully this will give me some further input as to why things go wrong when they do. So far I have found that if my heart rate stays too high for too long (170bpm+) my asthma will kick up a fuss and I will find it hard to breathe, so that at least is some progress.
Nothing much really to report other than that. Life is good at the moment, and luckily I am free from any major injuries at the moment. My left ankle/foot is still a bit sore from London, but it only twinges occassionally and i've learnt to ignore it for the most part.
Hope everyone is having a great bank holiday weekend :)
I have decided to finally start listening to people in respect of my training and have begun to take it slightly easier and go with the flow. I am still running 4-5 times per week, but rather than stick to a schedule designed to better my overall times based on rigid training schedules, I am playing it by ear and seeing how I feel on the day, after all, thats good enough for the kenyan's, so who am I to argue!
Tuesday and Thursday remain club nights with WRC and so the pace is a comfortable 8-9mins/mile for anywhere between 6-10 miles depending on who is running. WRC comprises a great group of people and the atmosphere is second to none. The good thing about these runs is that, no matter how groggy i've been feeling during the day, I know that i'll peck up the moment I lace up with these guys and head out. It's also good to see how far along they have come and i'm looking forward to the first DRRL or WRC club championship event I get to run with them this season.
Wednesday night is a new addition, I have started to run with the kind people at Poole Runners (www.poolerunners.com) and they usually run anywhere between 6 and 10 miles at various paces. The total number of people that were there this wednesday was around 30 or so and people form smaller groups depending on what pace they are doing. I had the pleasure of joining a group including my colleague, Chris Cartwright, and his dad, Dave Cartwright (recently featuring in the London Marathon as the first man home in his age catagory at the London Marathon, you'll have seen him finishing just behind Nell McAndrew). Wednesday nights will feature as either MP runs (7.30mins-8mins/mile) or, if I feel up to it, a chance to push myself a little further.
I am trying to get back into the habit of running the local Parkrun on a saturday (www.parkrun.org.uk/poole) which will serve as my speed work. This weekend was a good return all things considered, I clocked in a time of approximately 19mins 30secs for the 5km, although perhaps it was the 3 beers last night, but my throat started to hurt after 3km or so and I had to stop and use my inhaler on 3 occassions. It was notably cold this morning (around 6 degrees on the way there), so perhaps that might have had an impact. All in all, a very good start to the weekend and a nice return to the Parkrun community (which has grown massively since the last time I was there, which is a pleasing sight. Its good to see that more and more people are coming to running and willing to get involved in the local community).
Sunday will remain as a long run day. I've been pretty lax about doing long runs since January and unfortunately I think it is my major downfall in the marathons so far. Ill be hoping to get out for around 2-3 hours on each occassion and am planning to do 13-16 miles tomorrow as the last run before Orpington next week.
Im feeling pretty confident about marathon #5. I am going to try a slightly different tact and wear my heart rate monitor to get an idea what my heart is doing throughout the various stages of the run. Hopefully this will give me some further input as to why things go wrong when they do. So far I have found that if my heart rate stays too high for too long (170bpm+) my asthma will kick up a fuss and I will find it hard to breathe, so that at least is some progress.
Nothing much really to report other than that. Life is good at the moment, and luckily I am free from any major injuries at the moment. My left ankle/foot is still a bit sore from London, but it only twinges occassionally and i've learnt to ignore it for the most part.
Hope everyone is having a great bank holiday weekend :)
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