Tag Archives: Running

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.

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…

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.

Too many mince pies

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First run today for 6 days and didn’t feel good.  10 miles but very slow – 8 minutes slower than last 10 miler along the same route.  Pace almost 45 seconds per mile slower.

That would put me a mile behind me last week on the same route – rubbish really.

Things different today?

  • Early run – started at 7:40am (recent ones have been around 11am)
  • Not run for 6 days – normally max. 2 days between runs
  • Too many mince pies over Christmas (and turkey curry last night)
  • Slow starting pace

So are these excuses or genuine reasons why I was slower?  Good question.  The slower starting pace is the real killer – if you don’t feel good when you go and you naturally start off a bit slower, it’s very hard to pick up (as mentioned before).  Starting pace was about 8:02 but I then slowed down over the run – which is even worse!

The Christmas dinners and the usual excess of food and drink over the Christmas period may have affected the run – it does make a huge difference when running when full (or after a heavy meal the night before – or 5 nights before over Christmas) – but all worth it and we had a lovely Christmas.  Very much a family occasion for us and spent with grandparents and auntie and cousins.  And of course Father Christmas made his appearance on Christmas Eve and was caught on Noble CCTV coming down the chimney delivering presents.  Ho ho ho!

Taking it easy

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11 miles yesterday at a slowish pace.  Along the Thames again and over Richmond Bridge. Very chilly and wet, so even more layers on – could only just move the legs!

Have done a fair few 10 milers and 12 milers but not an 11 before.  Shouldn’t make any different but 11 sounds odd – ha ha.  8 minutes 30 seconds per mile pace – so slower than planned marathon pace and it now feels wrong to run at that pace.  Feels like the pace running is paying off.  Happy days.

A dodgy foot this feet – apparently suffering from Plantar Fasciitis – inflammation of the plantar fascia in the foot (a band of tissue running from the heel to the middle foot bones).  And yes it hurts.  Funnily enough more when not running.

Advice from the doctor is rest – easy running hopefully along those lines – plus stretching and a nice info sheet printed off by the doctor.  A trip to the physio later this week for more help and to see if some new custom in-soles are needed.

Bought the current ones about 3 years back and they’ve been one of the best running investments there is.  Had a problem when training for the marathon in 2009 when at about 16 miles (on the longer runs) my knees would hurt.  Saw a physio and did some proper foot and running analysis and they fitted me with some in-soles for my shoes designed for my feet.  Worked a treat.  Suspect now they need replacing and shoes may do too.  Brooks GTS11 are my current shoes – had the GTS8 ones before and loved them.  GTS11 are the latest ones.

One more longish easy run planned this week – on the way to the physio – and then a fast 5km on Friday.  And more running next week – first one on Boxing Day morning.

 

2 minutes faster

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Another good running week last week.  10 miles on Monday, followed by 1/2 marathon on Wednesday (over 2 minutes faster than my last Royal Parks Foundation 1/2 time in October) and then an even quicker 10 miles on Friday (40 seconds faster than Monday).  Speed work is definitely paying off – though need to ease off for a bit now and increase mileage.  Still over 5 months to go until the big day in April.

Pace is king in my world now.  And it’s absolutely about setting your initial pace right.  Too slow and you’ll never pick it up.  Too fast and you’ll fatigue too early and slow down dramatically in the latter part of the run.  So yes, it’s a very fine balance.  It’s also what you mentally set as your planned pace.  I like setting it faster and then coming in just over that.  Last 10 miler this week was great.  Back from good old Tumble Tots – where little Mr. Noble had done some tumbling, rolling, climbing and jumping – and through Bushy Park (and back dodging some huge stag that look very mean).  Again managed to pick up my face in the last 1 mile or so, with a nice finish.

Talking of Bushy Park, the Parkruns there continue to amaze me – 840+ runners last weekend.  Unless you know about it, you’d never realise that there are over 800 people meeting up for a fun 5km run first thing on a Saturday.  Very cool.  And I’ve said before, definitely need to get back and do some more.  Definitely helps with speed.

But multi-layered?  Oh yes, it’s that time of the year – cold and frosty.  Running gloves and hat on and then a number of layers on me to keep warm.  Still in the shorts though!  Amazingly, however cold it is, as long as I’ve got gloves and hat on (to cover the exposed bits) within a few miles you’re nice and warm and the odd cold gust isn’t a problem.  If the weather forecasts are to be believed – minus a big number and arctic conditions – the layers will be going up even more.

And a great running week finished off with carols at the Royal Albert Hall in London – an official Noble Christmas tradition.  With some more carols helping raise money for Whizz-Kidz in the evening.  Now it feels even more like Christmas.

Thankfully no major downpour of snow this year, like last year when we almost didn’t get to the Royal Albert Hall and in actual fact about half the people were unable to get there due to bad weather.

3 easier runs this week with one long one and a trip to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park.

Over 30 miles this week

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3 great runs this week.  Nice 8 miles on Monday faster than marathon pace.  A long 16 miler on Wednesday – about 30 seconds per minute slower than marathon pace.  And then a fast 5km – knocking 40+ seconds off my last time (on the same route) – and a mile and a bit cool down on Friday.  The speed work and interval training is working – and more needed.  The 16 miles felt hard – I had planned to do a split and pick up the pace on the 2nd half but it didn’t happen.  Great route as well – up past Hampton Court Bridge and along the footpath by the Thames – more awesome scenery.  Longest run I did that way back in 2009 was around 22 miles – so another 3 miles up the path still to explore (assuming I do similar distances for the long runs this time).  I am a fan of long runs where you go out a certain distance along a route and then back the same way.

Average pace picking up as well which is good.  The 5km at the end of the week was great – 40 seconds off the last time and felt very good.  Need to get back and do the Bushy Park parkrun one Saturday morning soon – they really help pick up your pace.

Week finished off with an early Christmas dinner at mum and dad’s in Bedford with Auntie Anne and Uncle Lol – all the trimmings plus mum’s brunch the morning after.  Perfect!

1/2 marathon distance planned this week and at a good pace.

8 miles an hour and parkruns

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So close – an 8 mile run yesterday at 25 seconds per mile faster than planned marathon pace (should have been 30 seconds but slowed down after first 5 miles).  Great run into Bushy Park and some huge stags around – with massive antlers on them.  Very impressive to see.  It’s fantastic running through Bushy Park – much bigger than you realise and great natural scenery in the middle of West London.

And home to what must be the biggest parkrun of all – 9am every Saturday morning throughout the year, 750+ runners (plus volunteers) doing a 5km run fun.  Some in under 15 minutes as well – awesome to see and great fun to run as well (a fine way to start a weekend).  Haven’t done now for a good few months, on the to list for the New Year.  See the Bushy Park page on the Park Run website for more info.

 

 

Can’t feel my fingers

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It’s getting to that time of year again when running gloves are a must-have accessory, if you like to be able to use your hands after running!  Starting a run and then after 2 miles having completely numb hands (plus the rest) is not fun.  I’ve managed to collect a nice all-weather set of running clothes over the last few years – for sun, rain, wind and snow (all thicknesses and all lengths).  And got a nice pair of Nike running gloves from my little sister for Christmas last year.  Running hats also very important – particularly when running into wind.  Cold wind on your forehead also not fun.

3 good runs this week, with interval training yesterday over 5 miles.  6 sets of 400 metres at 80-90 seconds faster than planned marathon pace, with 6 sets of 400 metres 80-90 seconds slower (plus 1.5 mile warm-up and the same cool down at the end).  Great run – really enjoying the speed work.

The next piece of running kit that comes out soon is the high-visibility jacket – bright luminous yellow, for late runs in the day.

The vast majority of my running kit over the last few years has come care of the guys at Sweatshop in Teddington.  And no doubt a few more visits coming over the next few months – new shoes next on the list (and some more decent multi-layered running socks).

Weekend resting from running – with karate for the cross training tomorrow.  Calf now back in order (and not hurting) after last Sunday’s training session!