Tag Archives: London

The 45 minute barrier has been cracked again!

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Back to the running theme.  Only 3.5 weeks until the British 10k.  Here’s a quick reminder of the route of the race…

It goes past some of London’s best known (and best) sites and we’ll be able to wave (quickly) at the Queen in Buckingham Palace on way past.  With all the roads closed running along routes like this, it’s special and reminds you what a cool city London is.

For more details on the route and history around the places see below…

It’s going to be a busy race – with some 25,000 runners expected but they’ll be a real buzz about.  The Olympics starts here only a few weeks after and part of the route is the same as planned Olympic Marathon route – very cool.

It starts at 9:35 I think – so not too early.  It’s always a joy commuting up to central London for that time on a Sunday morning though – and typically there’s a normal Sunday train schedule running (i.e. not very frequent).

I’m aiming for a finish time of around 43 minutes on the day.  It may be difficult to start at the right pace depending on people traffic but the overall time is do-able.  I did a great 10k run (on the local roads) a week after the London Marathon and got just under 45 minutes.  A few others since then a bit slower but then a great great run yesterday (same route) and 30 seconds faster.  Sub-44 or even sub-43 is a possibility!

The winner last year came home in just over 29 minutes – that’s insane and awesome.  At the 4 minutes 35 seconds per mile pace again.  Which means they’re 2 miles ahead of me then – 30% of the race.  Amazing!

I’m really looking forward to this run and pushing myself.

60 of the best photos from the Jubilee weekend

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Some very cool photos from the long weekend we’ve just had in the UK celebrating 60 years of The Queen on the throne, thanks to LBC 97.3.  Not just one of the great radio stations out there – with some pretty amazing presenters and talk shows (and no music), and great great conversations, sometimes controversial, sometimes very funny and sometimes way out there.

And it wouldn’t be complete without some photos from the BBC as well would it – click on the Union Jack below (or the Union Flag to use it’s correct technical name – as Mrs. Noble keeps telling me).

In true UK style it rained for the Thames Pageant but millions were out in support, lining the banks of the Thames.  Some pretty amazing shots showing the number of people and all in very very patriotic moods with flags flying!  Sadly we weren’t in the crowds – we were in the Royal Albert Hall doing our bit with a Jubilee sing-along concert and had a amazing afternoon.  A very very feel good weekend for Britain.  No-one does ceremony like we do!

Royal Mail show us how it should be done – London Olympic tickets

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Despite the fiasco about booking tickets for the London 2012 Olympics and the lack of thought that seems to have gone into the whole way the tickets are sold to UK residents (and how user friendly the systems aren’t and how the system couldn’t handle the demand for tickets, I could go on but that’s not what this blog post is about), the tickets we did get have arrived.

A very nice package, with tickets and a bit of information about the event.  It’s for rowing, which is over in Windsor, so not London, but they’ve very kindly included 4 travelcards for us to use on the day to get to the event in London.  Hmmmmm.

And they’re standing area only but the cheapest “seats” or tickets so not too unexpected.

Don’t get me wrong, I may sound not too positive about all this but I am.  It’s going to be an awesome summer in London and as I’ve said in previous posts, this is London’s year.  Plus with the Jubilee celebrations this weekend, it really doesn’t get much better.

I was at a conference in London this week about the online Olympics and the technology behind the scenes is incredible.  Never have there been games before where the demand for online media has been so great.  Back in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics, social media services like YouTube, Twitter and even Facebook were still growing up.  In 2012 it’s a completely different story, social media is pretty much everywhere and being used in all sorts of different ways, by consumers (of all ages), brands and everyone else.  The demand on the back-end infrastructure for storage, distribution and more is going to be unprecedented.  The task of forecasting what to expect will have been no small feat, and no doubt is still changing and being fine tuned.  The plans around redundancy and how to fix problems – with the technology – will be something else.  What the BBC have planned is fantastic – their Sports page on their web-site is the centre piece and the experience you’ll get on all devices – personal computers, tablets, mobiles, smart TVs and anything else, is going to be so good that it will almost (maybe not quite) be a better more immersive experience than actually being there!  That annual license fee we pay in the UK for the BBC doesn’t look too bad.  The planned 24 live better than HD (as we know it) simultaneous video streams is impressive to say the least.  This really is the first global online digital Olympics.  Right up my street – in both ways!

The BBC have got it right, lots they’ve learnt from that amazing service that is the BBC iPlayer and other global British broadcasts they’ve done – the Royal Wedding last year for example.

But the ticket system and booking events, we’ve not got it quite right.  One shining light here though – and the subject of this post – is Royal Mail.  That amazing British institution that just works so well.  Where else in the world can you post a letter or anything for that matter and know it will arrive anywhere else in the country pretty much the next day.  Yes the prices have just gone up, but it’s still worth it.  Interestingly as well, a postman I was speaking to only this week, said it’s one of the few services you still pay for before they deliver and actual give you the service.

Having had a few e-mails from the Olympic organisers about when roughly to expect the tickets to arrive, you kind of sit back just waiting and hoping.  This morning, I got an SMS message and e-mail from Royal Mail telling me the tickets would arrive today.  They then arrived care of our very friendly local postman Mick, with a big smile on his face.  Signed for with the mobile pad he had and then literally less than one minute later another SMS message and e-mail confirming they’d been received.  Now that’s proper service and a very very good use of the latest technology.  Keep it up Royal Mail, another reason Britain is brilliant.

What makes Britain so brilliant? Care of a Carling ad.

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Reading the Metro yesterday on a work trip up to London town and the cover pages read “WHAT MAKES BRITAIN BRILLIANT”.

Hours away from a 4 day weekend celebrating The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and seeing Union Jacks all over the streets, you can’t help be more patriotic than normal and get in with the spirit of the celebrations.  With this headline grabber – even though it’s an ad for beer (mind you, a fine celebratory drink for the weekend) – and then 2 full pages with what make Britain brilliant, you can’t help but read it.  Some more on the funny side and made me laugh out loud on the train and tube, which is always a good sign.

 

So here they are in ascending order…

  1. Marmite.  Mmm…yuck.
  2. Our devotion to our wonderfully gripping soap operas.
  3. Vivienne Westwood’s heels.  It’s worth the pain.
  4. The Earl of Sandwich’s groundbreaking concept of putting a savoury filling between two pieces of bread.
  5. Glastonbury – mud and all.
  6. Our modesty – we never boast how great we are, apart from today.
  7. The pound and our reluctance to adopt the Euro.
  8. The best selling music artists in the world, are our very own; The Beatles.
  9. Our politeness – no matter how irritated we get, we are always too British to say anything.
  10. Kate Middleton and her sister.
  11. The Great British Summer (don’t forget the brolly).
  12. Driving on the left (the right way to do it).
  13. No matter where you are in Britain, you’re never far from a pub.
  14. Any excuse for a cup of tea.
  15. Curry, the unofficial national dish, with a pint of cold lager.
  16. We don’t moan because we are miserable, we moan because it makes us happy.
  17. Our international language.  Travelling abroad is a doodle.
  18. The Queen and her graceful wave.
  19. The Great British countryside, when you’re not stuck behind a tractor.
  20. Freedom of speech.
  21. Deep fried food, Fish, sausages, Mars bars…  absolutely anything.
  22. Some of the very best museums and galleries on the planet.  Free.
  23. The national tendency to cheer the underdog and ridicule the mighty.
  24. We apologise way too much.  Sorry about that.
  25. Crisps.  We eat more of them, in more varieties, than the whole of Europe put together.
  26. Shakespeare.  When thou can understandeth it.
  27. Sir David Attenborough and his soothing voice on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
  28. British strawberries, perfect with cream.
  29. Our cobbled streets, watch your heels ladies.
  30. Chips with fish, or cheese, or beans, or pies, or steaks, or curries or in a sandwich.  Chips with pretty much everything.
  31. We know the importance of a good queue.
  32. Beans on toast, brilliant no matter what your age.
  33. Court room wigs.  Our great way of making very smart people look very silly.
  34. Pantomimes.  The jokes never seem to get old.
  35. No matter how cold it gets, it will never keep us from our nights out.
  36. HP sauce.  Chuck it on everything.
  37. The 3pm Saturday kick off.
  38. Cream teas.  In case you are wondering, Cornish is jam first, Devon is cream first.
  39. Jellied eels.  And jelly.  Though not necessarily together.
  40. Beer gardens.  Because we love our beer and we love our gardens.
  41. Saying ‘I’m fine’ no matter how we feel.
  42. A love of mowing the lawn.
  43. Plugs with switches.  Amazingly nowhere else seems to do this.
  44. Tolerating nearly everything, but banning hosepipes.
  45. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in North Wales.  Just wait till your sat nav tries that one.
  46. World Cup, 1966.  We’ll be clinging to it forever.
  47. Egg and soldiers.  Those brave and tasty souls.
  48. The BBC.  The only time you’re not constantly reaching for the fast-forward button.
  49. Our British seasides.  Watch out for the seagulls.
  50. Archie Gemmill’s goal against Holland.
  51. Prime Minister’s Question Time.  A no-holds-barred, public bashing for whoever’s in charge.  Every week.
  52. The Full English breakfast.  Served all day.
  53. The weather.  Although we get less of it than almost anywhere, it’s still the major talking point.
  54. The 99 flake.
  55. Morris dancing.  We know how to move it 15th Century style.
  56. Allotments.  Our very own little patch of the countryside.
  57. Our love of anything pickled.
  58. Carry On films.  Oooer Missus.
  59. Our talent.  Be it our artists, musicians, directors, actors or just dancing dogs.
  60. Carlsberg.

Pure genius.  A great ad, and you actually finish reading the ad thinking why not – so it works!  Clever, funny and makes you proud.  We invented HP Sauce!  There’s something in the list for absolutely everyone.

Have a great long (in the UK) Jubliee weekend.  And no mention of running!

These should not have been hard runs. What happened?

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2 very very hard runs this week.  Neither should have been particularly challenging – by the planned distances and paces alone.  8 miles yesterday – should have easily done it in under an hour but pace was all over the place after 1.5 miles in and finished up taking almost 1 hour 10 minutes.  Then 4.5 miles today – intervals – but way slower than normal. One other run this week – on Monday – only 5 miles but good pace and felt good.  So why so slow these last 2?

This is week 2 of the 10k plan.  One run from the 4 planned runs last week was missed – due to my little sister coming to stay with her family.  But wanted to do 3-4 this week and get back on track.  Started off ok on Monday with a good 5 mile run but then 3 days off and late nights and long days on trips – so too long a break between runs.

I picked up a cold on a work trip to London last week, which never helps, and it’s still lingering on the chest a bit.  And also has been passed onto the rest of the family as well.  To top it off, it’s very very hot, and pollen season here in the UK, so hayfever is kicking in.

Add all these together and running (or any other exercise) is going to take a hit.  When I set out yesterday for the 8 miles, I planned a nice easy 7:30 minutes per mile but finished at over 8:30 – rubbish.  Legs were so heavy as well.

Back to the normal plan next week – only 6 weeks to go.  And need to focus on pace and speed work more.

The moral of the story this week…

  1. Don’t leave big gaps between training
  2. Don’t run when sick or set realistic expectations and take it very very very slowly
  3. Come up with a plan on how outdoors to run during the pollen season

Number 3 is in progress and I’m open to all suggestions.  Do you suffer from seasonal ailments like hayfever and how do you train around them?  In previous years it’s not affected my running like this and never in May.

Some pointers that I’ve found to help me before (though not this week):

  • Wear wrap around shades
  • Run in the early morning where possible
  • Stick to roads and avoid parks and grassy areas
  • If you belong to a gym, use a treadmill – air conditioned enclosed spaces a big big plus
  • Rub Vaseline on your nose and up your nostrils – stops pollen particles getting up

Vaseline as a miracle running medicine again – you’ll remember the previous post on sore nipples.

What to do next and have you recovered?

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That’s it all over – all those months of training and 26.2 miles around London all done.  For charity, for fun, for your own PB, just to say you’ve done it or for a million other great reasons.  5 days on from the big event, the aches and pains just about gone, walking normally, going down stairs freely and back maybe doing a few easy runs!

The first few days are difficult and the legs don’t work as well as they should and stairs are very painful.  It’s amazing how different a 23 mile training run is to the actual 26.2 mile race.  For all my training runs over 20 miles, just showered and stretched after each and then carried on as normal and no issues the next day.  But add just 3 more miles and race conditions and it’s a whole different ball game.  When I did the London Marathon first back in 2009 it literally took about 2 weeks to recover.  This time 5 days – so something in the training worked.

For the recovery a number of things you need to do:

  1. Move – don’t just sit down and do nothing.
  2. Raise the legs – when you can when you are sitting down.
  3. Massage – to help those muscles, as soon as possible after the run.
  4. Ice packs or ice baths – haven’t tried these myself but people swear by them.
  5. Nutrition – water, carbohydrates and proteins.
  6. Active rest – do some easy exercise soon.

Number 6 is what seemed to be the transition point for me.  Legs – just legs nothing else really – very sore, until yesterday when I went for an easy 4 mile run with my gorgeous wife (owner of Snowballs in Summer).  Very easy and slow pace.  And after that legs pretty much back to normal.

Some great other links for articles on post-marathon recovery are:

How are your legs?

And then once recovered, what do you do next?  Training for these babies is full on and gives you a real focus.  Running 4+ days a week and doing more and more miles and seeing improvements along the way, really gives you a boost and focuses the mind.  So when it’s all over, there’s a gap – at least for a bit.  For a lot of people if you don’t enter races that often, what now?  Enter another race.  This year is London’s year and there are lots of great running events on.  One I’d only just heard about is the British 10k London on Sunday 8th July – a week or so before the London Olympics and covering part of the planned Olympic Marathon route.  Covers a lot of the great sights you see on the London Marathon and the Royal Parks Foundation 1/2 and “only” 6.25 miles (10km) and 25,000 people – so a great crowd running through normally busy roads in central London.  See the route plan below:

Even better as well as the ballot places, there are guaranteed places for a bargain price of £50 – only £18 ish more than the ballot place.  What a deal.  I couldn’t refuse and got myself a place last night.  A very different distance to the longer runs and needs different training.  Need to figure that out next and what sort of time I want to try and aim for.

And the event video from 2011…

Don’t forget of course the ballot for the Virgin London Marathon (VLM) 2013 opens on Monday 30th April – next week – and the number of ballot places are expected to fill up very quickly.

Don’t forget to pick up your London Marathon number

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That wouldn’t be good would it.  All the training and preparation over the last few months and you don’t visit the Marathon Expo to get your number.  If you’ve not been already you’ve got 4 more days to get down to London ExCeL.

Did mine yesterday – got there as soon as it opened and had a look round at the stalls and stands.  A lot of stuff there and a chance to catch-up with other runners and your chosen charity – if you’re running for one.

Lots of stands from pretty much any company involved in running.  All great and nice to see everyone and see the latest and greatest running tech, but would anyone seriously pick up a new pair of shoes 4 days away from the Marathon or try out a new energy drink?  Highly unlikely and a risky strategy if you did.  I almost get why everyone needs to go to the event to pick up your number (I said almost) and I can see there might be a commercial opportunity for running equipment companies at the same event.  But why not have another official London Marathon Expo a few months earlier when people are starting out training and looking for advice, new kit etc?

All done for me though and kit all ready, with number and shoe token.  Timing for the journey up to London for Sunday morning being sorted out, a day of rest tomorrow with stretching and then a 2 mile jog and more stretching on Saturday to get rid of any last minute nerves.  678 training miles done including 4 today.  2 more to go and then the big race on Sunday – past all the great sights in London.

The Marathon Expo definitely gets you getting excited about the run and it is a buzz seeing everyone there – so maybe that’s reason enough to have it now…!

The final countdown – 7 days to go.

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It’s the final countdown…

And a reminder of the classic Europe song from 1986…

This time next week it will be over for a few, nearly over for others and a little to still go for a lot.  The London Marathon 2012 – the year of the London Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  What a great year to run 26.2 miles around this amazing city in the biggest charity fund raising event there is with 40k other people!

The training’s nearly done – 15, 17 or 21 weeks hard running.  Now in the final taper stages.  Stretching lots.  Sleeping nicely.  Eating well with a few extra carbs.  And all getting ready for next Sunday – 22nd April.  With a visit to the London Marathon Expo this week to pick up your number and bits.  It’s all getting exciting!

I still need to remind myself what time it starts on Sunday and then recap on plans to get up, eat and get up to London with Mrs. Noble and the kids and my mum & dad in-law as the Noble support crew.

The plan for me for the final 7 days looks like this…

  • Sunday – easy morning karate session; done without injury.
  • Monday – rest day with stretching and core exercises.
  • Tuesday – 6 miles at marathon pace (mp).
  • Wednesday – 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles at 30 seconds faster than mp , 1 mile cool down.
  • Thursday – TBC maybe a slow 4 miles.
  • Friday – rest day with stretching and core exercises.
  • Saturday – 2 very easy miles just to keep legs moving.
  • Sunday – it’s race day!

And still going for the last week of charity donations for Whizz-Kidz.  It all helps with the great work that they do for the children that they look after.  All donations still very very gratefully received – just go to my Just Giving page.

It’s all for Whizz-Kidz

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Running the London Marathon really is a privilege and being able to do it for a charity like Whizz-Kidz makes it all the more special.  The atmosphere on the day is something else, running with almost 40,000 other runners of every ability there is and being cheered on when you’re struggling at about mile 16 (and every other mile) and when it hurts, is a welcome boost.

Knowing that when cross that line (however much it hurts) all the money raised from my friends and family, far and wide, goes to benefit the children Whizz-Kidz help is fantastic, so please please donate through my Just Giving Page… even if it’s only £1 you can donate, please help out – it makes a huge difference.

Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement over the last few months.  Only 11 days to go and a nice slow-ish 8 miles planned tomorrow.

Running for charity – help needed

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A quick reminder what the London Marathon is all about – raising money for charity.  It is probably the biggest running event in the world, is definitely the biggest fund raising event in the world and has raised over £450 million for a range of great causes since 1981.  That’s an amazing amount of money raised for good causes.  Participants raise around £50 million in each event every year now and over 75% of the people running are doing it for charity.

These are some pretty amazing facts and really add to the experience on the day.  Running with over 36,000 other people (and this number grows every year), some in fancy dress, some out to break world records, with professional athletes and with the best crowd and city sights in the world to see, is nothing short of an awesome experience.

Whilst I’m not doing it in fancy dress, I’m still aiming to raise as much money as possible for Whizz-Kidz, through donations from friends, family and others who are kind enough to donate to this good cause, Christmas carol singing with the guys from Whizz-Kidz, a karate club kickathon (everyone doing as many kicks as they can in 2 hours with prizes for the ones doing the most and the best techniques) and more.

Some really important facts about what Whizz-Kidz do are below:

  • There are 70,000 disabled kids in the UK waiting for the right wheelchair.  In some cases kids as old as nine are still being pushed around in a toddler’s buggy simply because they do not have timely access to the equipment they need.
  • It costs on average 3 times as much to raise a disabled child as a non-disabled child and Whizz-Kidz will provide 1,200 wheelchairs and adapted trikes this year.
  • Disabled young people are over twice as likely as their non-disabled peers not to be in education, employment or training.  Whizz-Kidz will provide over 100 work placements this year.
  • Whizz-Kidz will deliver Wheelchair Skills Training to over 700 disabled kids this year.

The money we raise for them goes to helping all these children live much more active lives – something we all take for granted.

So how can you help?  One donation is all it takes.  A big big thank you to everyone who’s made a donation so far.  If you’d like to make a donation just go to http://www.justgiving.com/jasonnoble1 and follow the instructions.

You can also make a guess at how long it will take me to finish and be in with the chance of winning a bottle of bubbly.  To make a guess go to my Guessability page.

And of course if you’d prefer to donate with good old fashioned cash or a cheque, let me know and I’ll give you details on how to get it to me.

My fund raising target is an ambitious £3,000 and I need your help to get there!

Next post about running this week…