Tag Archives: Marathon

Who needs new shoes?

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After a month or so running with the new shoes and new in-soles, painful feet and blisters forced me to re-assess.  A quick trip back to the physio, who just said the shoes are too loose and then a few more runs with them tied up better, but still not good.  Back to good old Sweatshop in Teddington today and with their fantastic 30 day returns on shoes (after you’ve tried them as much as you want).  A long chat with one of the guys there and trying on new shoes, and back to Brooks, that just feel far far better on my feet – it’s so comfortable when you put your feet in them.  And then a chat about marathons and the guy serving me (Tim) being very modest about his own one-time marathon run of 2 hours 35 minutes!  Awesomeness right in front of me.  That’s 26.2 miles at less than 6 minutes per mile.  Unbelievable.  Now I’m listening even more to this guy – some good training tips as well from him (including doing speed running as I’ve been doing).  Then a suggestion from Tim on looking at lighter shoes – as well – to use for actually running the marathon in.  Something I’d never thought of.  Tried on a pair of bright yellow Adidas Adizero ones – and you can’t feel these shoes on your feet.  So nice.  Plan is to do the longer pace runs in these ones.

A very productive trip to Sweatshop and thanks to their 30 day guarantee and great service, I got better shoes, another pair (some more socks) and paid more money but all happy.

4 good runs this week.  8 miles to start and then 9 miles the next day (at a faster pace) and then 10 the next (slightly slower).  Really enjoying the 10 mile distance as well.  And then a 4.5 miler on Saturday with first 5km fast (not as fast as recently though – being about -5 degrees C didn’t help).  3 planned this week with an 18 miler long one.

 

 

The 5 second rule

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Drop food on the floor and if you pick it up within 5 seconds it’s safe or is it…

It might be an urban myth – that you have 5 seconds to pick up and eat food that has been dropped on the floor before it picks up germs and stuff – but when running, knocking 5 seconds off your time feels very good.

29 miles in total done this week and in new shoes with new in-soles (orthotics).  10 miles on Monday – 3 loops around the “block” (first time I’ve done loops like that) and not a bad run.  4 on  Thursday – fast – about 15 seconds slower for the 5km faster bit (but late at night and after a long day’s work so all good).  And then 15 today – a great first 8 miles and then slowed a bit for the next 5 and then a faster finish.  Along past the Thames in Twickenham and up to a busy Richmond Park for a bit – with a lot of other runners about.  You can tell it’s marathon training time!  And yes Richmond Park is still as hilly as it was a couple of years back – it’s the home of my longer (20+ mile runs).

New shoes this week – on recommendation of the foot biomechanics physio.  And nice shoes as well – ASICS Cumulus 13.  New in-soles from the physio in them as well (Vectorthotics), custom fit for me.  Have 3 sets for running, work shoes and one spare just in case.  Combination of all this new stuff and longer runs this week means sore feet – running it all in.  May need a bit of fine tuning from the physio on them but not too bad today on the 15 mile one.  And it’s not plantar fasciitis as diagnosed by the doctor (see post from last year) a few weeks back – it’s dodgy shaped feet.  Makes me feel so much better, but with these in-soles in all my shoes it should be sorted.

Fund raising needs to get kickstarted again now – your help is needed here.  Go to my Just Giving page to donate.  Only 12 weeks to go.  Some creative ideas from Mrs. Noble including cupcakes for everyone and homemade romantic Valentine’s cards.  Stay tuned…

4 runs planned this next week and back over 30 miles (over the full week).

Pacing it – 25 miles this week

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Not as many miles as originally planned this week.  The plan was 3 runs of 12, 14 and 6 miles (with the first 2 at marathon pace and the last as faster interval training).  Got off to a good start with 12 miles on Monday at the right pace but had left it too late on Wednesday to do 14 miles so settled for 8 instead (but slower).  And then 5 miles fast (ish) on Thursday evening – all wrapped up and with new running socks like DVT socks (not convinced about these yet – more testing needed).

Do need rethink long runs and how many to do per week and how much time between them.  The plan was to start like this week – with a longish one at the beginning of the week and then the real long one mid-week and then move to one long one on Saturdays over the next month or so.  The 2 mid-week ones are not really practical (and it’s not as much fun running when it’s dark) and don’t leave enough time between them and I need to concentrate on running at pace.  So it’s back to the drawing board and update the plan this weekend.

2012 – London’s year

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That’s 2011 finished and a week since Christmas.  Despite late starting with running last week – with Christmas Day and Christmas food getting in the way – I picked up and did 20 miles over 3 runs.  Last run just before lunch on New Years Eve – 4 miles at just better than 7 minutes 15 seconds per mile (a nice pace).  And a new last run of 2011.

The serious marathon training starts now with the mileage picking up fast.  25 miles planned over 4 runs this coming week.  Still need to think about 3 or 4 or even 5 runs a week and what the optimum number is.  A bit more research and thinking needed.

130 ish miles done in December.  And all at around the planned marathon pace – getting used to running at that pace, so the plan may be working!  Longer ones needed now to make sure I can hold it.

2012 promises to be an amazing year for London – the London Marathon in April, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June and then the London 2012 Olympics over the summer.

The London New Year’s Eve fireworks set the bar last night showing what London can do and what the celebrations this year will be like.  An awesome display last night and absolutely now best in the world.  11 minutes long and costing a bargain £2 million – click here to see the full video on the BBC News web site – it’s very impressive.  Could be seen and heard all the way from Twickenham where we are.

A very Happy New Year to you and here’s to 2012 bringing everything you wish and hope for, and more.

A lot can happen in 4 seconds

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Having knocked a whole 40 seconds off my 5km times last week, I was raring to go this week and improve on other distances.  First up was 10 miles through Twickenham and along the Thames to Richmond Bridge (and back).  A lovely run and ground I’m familiar with – from almost 3 years of daily running commutes to and from work in Richmond.

The plan was to go for 7 minutes 30 seconds per mile – 30 seconds faster than the planned marathon pace.  I managed to do 8 miles at this pace last week, so 2 more couldn’t be hard, could it?  Got off to a slower start – about 7:45 per mile and kept it around that level, edging up to 7:56 at one point and then back down to 7:48 ish.

Having concentrated on pace runs recently, I’m convinced it’s all about getting your starting pace right.  If you start too slow, it’s very difficult to improve.  The so-called split run (where you do the second half faster) is actually very difficult to do.  The first 1/2 mile or so is critical and where you need to get the pace right.  With 35,000 other runners in the London Marathon this is even more challenging, as you’re not running at your ideal pace from the go.  This needs some thinking about – if I want to achieve my 8 minutes per mile pace.

Although I did set off slower than planned today, I finished a whole 4 seconds faster than 2 weeks back when I did the same run.  Not a lot – particularly over a longer distance – but it made me think what can you actually do in 4 seconds.  A lot according to a quick Google search (side note – Google still my favourite search engine by a long shot; you know they’ve got something right when your 5 year old understands the concept of “Googling” something)…

  1. Folding a shirt in 4 seconds – and yes someone’s filmed this being done
  2. Catch a piranha
  3. Form a lasting impression (4 Seconds)

It’s also the name of a marketing company that I have no connections with and until tonight hadn’t heard of.  But it’s a cool name and I like their site and what their aims are!

Happy running!

Not the best run and old friends

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We’re all going to get days when we’re not feeling 100% for any reason and it’s bound to affect running performance when we do.  Ran today instead of yesterday, normally mid-morning time and a planned 12 miler along by the river towards Hampton Court.

My pace for the first 6 miles was good – slightly faster than 8 minutes per mile.  But it then crept up and finished a slower second half, with overall average 8 minutes and 5 seconds per mile.  Not much more but frustrating.  But it was just faster than my pace for the last Royal Parks Foundation 1/2 Marathon back in September.

And still managed to pick up pace for the last 1 mile or so – which always feels good. Trying to do that after 26 miles is a bit more of a challenge!

10 miles at marathon pace last week was very do-able but not today, only 2 miles more but much harder run.

If you’re genuinely not feeling well, depending on the symptoms, common sense advice is not to run (or do other exercise) and let your body recover.  Some good advice found at Examiner.com

Morning run followed a lunchtime coffee or 2 – good old Caffe Nero of course – with an old primary school (year 2) friend I’ve not seen since aged 7 – 35 years ago!  Fantastic, great to catch-up and amazing due to the wonders of Facebook how much you already know or think you know about old friends you’ve not seen for a long time!  Lots of reminiscing about days in good old Hong Kong and school days back at Kowloon Junior School.

How fast?

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In one of the running blogs/newsletters I subscribe to, saw an interesting post today about the training blog for a professional athlete (runner) – which obviously I thought I’d look at.  It’s a guy I’d never heard of before – Scott Overall – but he’s fast.  28 years old, British and good at running distances from 1,500m upwards.  His marathon time is 2 hours 10 minutes ish – that’s a pace of under 5 minutes per mile for 26.2 of them in a row.  Impressive or what?  His best half marathon time is 63 minutes.  In my books he’s a long distance sprinter – I can’t do one mile at this pace.  Pretty awesome stuff though and definitely one to watch in the 2012 London Olympics.

Fast but not the fastest – that record (for marathons) goes to Patrick Makau of Kenya and stands at 2 hours 3 minutes and 38 seconds.  That’s a whole 7 minutes faster than lightning Scott!

When you do run the actual races, you do get to see the front runners, at least once, normally already 8 miles ahead (by about half way for me) and they really do look like they’re sprinting!

Totally awesome!

Pace running

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What a fine start to the week.  Swimming with little Mr. Noble in the morning and then a 50 minute run home at marathon pace – 8 minutes per mile.  And a massage planned for this afternoon.

Managed to do 7 minute 50 second average pace for the run and it felt good.  More runs needed at that pace for longer distance.  Want to get used to running at that speed, so I know what it feels like and it becomes almost second nature.

More reading last night and a new book on order from Amazon – Run Less Run Faster.  After reading an article in Runners World this month, where a guy around my age, subscribed to this new training plan and got his marathon time below what he’d done some 20 years or so ago.  Sure his times was around 2 hours 20 minutes (that’s a sprint for me) but the theory is the same.  4 or 5 runs a week and 2 sessions of hard cross training.  The runs being one long one (but never more than 16 miles), one a speed work, one at marathon pace and then one medium distance one.

The theory is to get used to running the last 16 miles – so you know what it feels like.  The first 10, you know you can do.  The last 16 will be hard (very hard if my memory serves me right from 2009), so need to train to be able to do those well.  And run slow to start with and then slow down some more.  This last bit is the biggest challenge, and even more so when there are 35,000 or so other people running and everyone’s raring to go at the start.  In the last half marathon I did in September, I started way way too fast and ran into problems at around 8 miles – crazy!

And if you’ve never the London Marathon this is what it looks like at the start …

And this is the official video of start for the 2011 London Marathon – courtesy of the BBC News website.

Training plans

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This week’s all about getting my marathon training plan sorted.

My time back in 2009 was just over 3 hour 46 minutes.  Can I beat it next year?  That’s the plan.  Less than 3 hours 45 minutes would be nice and just under 3 hours 30 minutes even better.  The latter would mean an average pace of around 8 minutes a mile.  A whole minute or so less than what I’m currently doing longer training runs at.  Need to do speed work more and focus on running at my planned pace for the big day.

Lots of different theories as to how long a marathon training plan should be – and of course it’s got to be very specific to you!  They range from 24 week plans – almost 6 months – to 12 weeks in some books I’ve read, to 16 weeks which is more the norm.

The first part of the training is all about building up your mileage and running 4, 5 or then 6 days a week.   The weekly mileage builds up from about 30 to 60 miles, increasing weekly and then tapering off 2 weeks or so before the big day.  Right now I’m around the 24 mile mark, so a bit off where I need to be.  Will get to 30 miles this week!

I also need to factor in karate training – normally twice a week – and how much of that to do and how intensely.  As I did in 2009, most likely that I’ll keep doing karate training as normal until a month or so before and then go really light and drop some sessions until after the race.  And yes take all the sessions lightly to avoid any injuries before!  Karate’s a big part of the fund raising as well and once I’ve sweet talked Sensei Robert, we’ll be holding a another kickathon to help raise money for Whizz-Kidz.

There’s a lot of useful info on the internet about marathon training – the key of course is finding something that suits you, both in terms of your level of fitness and lifestyle.  One very good site I’ve found is on www.wikihow.com where it focuses on how to improve your times and about running at your planned marathon pace, which seems a sound idea!

Stay tuned – will post the actual plan over the next few days.

Running another 26.2 miles

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As many of you know, I’m running the London Marathon next year for the charity Whizz-Kidz, who raise money for disabled children and young people. These guys help provide wheelchairs for the children and help them lead more active lives. After doing the marathon in 2009 – for the charity Sense International – I thought it was time for another go, to (a) raise more money for charity and (b) with the right training beat my first time!  The official training programme starts soon – once I’ve written it. One nice longish run (15 miles) done this week along the river by Kingston and Hampton Court. And a lot more to come!