I Drink, therefore I Run

The Hampshire XC in Jan Three weeks earlier Well, I only logged one run this week, but it was a toughie! I took part in my second cross country race, the Southern Nationals at Parliament Hill Fields - a really ‘iconic’ event. It was a bitterly cold day, as we travelled up to London on the train. I am not sure that I ever felt totally warm from 8am to about 9pm! We arrived at Hampstead Heath to catch the start of the U13 boys race. That took me right back to my first days at Bloxham - ahhh! There they were, rushing up the hill, arms pumping, going at it for all they were worth. Then, of course, I remembered that I would be there myself soon enough. Or, as I found out, not soon enough really, with my race being at 2.50pm. So, we shivered for several hours (at one point I found the warmth of the changing rooms and just stayed there for about half an hour). Finally, the off - nearly 900 men racing up the first hill, and then sliding down the foot-deep mud on the other side, just abo...

Stats this week - Miles 46, weight 165.8lb. It's coming off but slowly.. As a running week, it has all been 'steady as she goes'. So, I shall say little more than my pleasure at completing all the planned sessions including track, threshold on Friday night (now that's tough when it's cold!) and a 21 mile long run. A big shout-out to Janet, who ran the Romsey 5 today, and was delighted to beat her previous best time, in spite of having a poor training build-up, went for it and did really well. Being a modern boy as I am, I have turned to my iPhone to see if an App can help me with logging my food intake. I have found this the best way to take a long and honest look at what you are really doing. It's all too easy to forget something that you know you shouldn't have eaten! I've found this fantastic free app called MyFitnessPal in which you set up your vital stats, goals and exercise levels, and then it sets you an intake level to meet that. So far, so...

Stats this week - Miles 41, weight 166.5lb. A full training week. Back on the track on Tuesday, this time for 20 x 200m. You go very fast, and just about finish the 200m before you clog up with lactate (or whatever technically it is, but this will suffice for now!), and then rest for 30 secs, then you're off again. Gobsmacked to hit the pace that I did, very consistent 38 secs for each rep. Not having done these before, I was not aware of quite how tough they are, especially afterwards, compared to longer sets. Although short they are very fast. I went to a circuits class on Wednesday, thinking all was ok..until the warm up, when I found that someone had replaced my legs with blocks of lead. The only word is mashed. At the gym on Thursday I could hardly do more than 20 mins steady on the bike, and had to cry off even 5 mins on the treadmill. I was seriously leg-weary. So, Friday's run was converted to some sports massage..altogether a wise choice. The good news is that through ...

I said that I would look to change the shape of my blog when the new year commences - and to be honest I have not yet worked out exactly what that means! However I do know that for the next 15 weeks, preparations for the London Marathon on 17th April will figure highly and soak up an increasing amount of my free time. And of course, this week we returned to work on Tuesday.. After a belting 57 miles the week before, the next set of changes to my training plan started to show themselves, commencing first with the Tuesday track session. It was a bit of a rush getting away from work, changed and at the track for 6.45ish, in time for a warm up. The SAC members were friendly very open, which was great, and helped put me at my ease. After all, I am 40 and have not done any track sessions or races, and a lot of the crowd are young, thin and fast! There are definite groups that have formed over time, and you join in where you can keep up the pace - or just a bit ahead, maybe. That is perhap...

Well, dear reader, here we are at the end of my first year of blogging. My commitment was to write a blog once a week for a year - which I have now done, albeit not always regularly on the week. I intend to continue with the Blog, though I may permit myself some variance in the format now and then. Might I also thankyou at this stage for your perseverance and interest. More comments always welcome! So, to running. I am delighted to finish the year with my highest ever mileage in one week. It's a little bit of a cheat in one sense, as the 7 days had two long runs, because the timing of Christmas pushed on Long run a day later. However the honest truth is that I have run 5 times in 7 days with with two long runs of 16 and 20 miles. My muscles know nothing of calendar days and think only of elapsed time! The good news is that I am holding together remarkably well. The not-so-good news is that I have now a clear benchmark that shows me that I am good for 20 miles only at the moment ...