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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Dublin Marathon

After getting only a few hours sleep due to getting to the hotel late and its location in the bar district of Dublin, I was surprised I woke up at the first alarm at 6:20am on a Monday Morning. I had planned various alarms on my mobile, alarm clock and a wake up call.

The hotel was only a short walk to the start and more importantly the finish.

The start was in a different location this year which only had about dozen toilets and there was 10,000+ runners, so the queue's were long. As I had got there relatively earlier I was at the start line with a few minutes to spare although I guess a lot were not. However as a chip timing device was used you would get your time from crossing the start to the finish.

This year after about 1 mile the route was slightly different as it went across the main bridge and up the main street in the city before rejoining the previous year's route. There was some strange looks from some tourists who had not realised it was taking place.

The course then went past the back of the zoo and through phoenix park which was about 8 miles. There was then a few short inclines and a short steep hill which I had to walk up the last half of both of these due to my leg muscles being sore from Saturday's race. From then on I walked up most other inclines so I was able to complete the race.

I was at roughly the same pace for the next 12 miles until a few miles when I slowed down as I walked up some inclines and through the aid stations to make sure I got the required nutrition.

During this race I tried a different make of salt replacement capsules for the first time which I was ok with and I think did help me in addition to the gels I had with me as well as the nutrition available on the route.

Then with about 2 miles to go I picked up the pace, possibly due it being my 50th mile during the weekend and mentally being a big target to go through. Then in the last half mile I picked up the pace even further.

I ended up with a time of 4 hours 30 minutes which I was pleased with due to the race on Sunday and I completed a double marathon weekend.

NFL Wembley

On Sunday I then went to Wembley to watch the first regular season game to be played outside North America. It was between New York Giants and the "home" side Miami Dolphins. The home team had brought there normal home game commentator, there sound alerts for during the game and about 40 cheerleaders. Flickr has a number of photos of the event.

By the time I got to Wembley I had already that day travelled by bus, coach, train and tube plus walking about 1 mile.

The game and the whole event was great. Our seats were to the left of one of the ends and in a higher tier which gave great views of the complete field.

I am not sure how good larger, chips and hot dog is good for either recovery food or carbohydrate loading.

I had worked out how long it would take me to get to the airport from here. However I did not take into account that I would have to wait at the stadium station for 30 minutes.
I then had to run up and down stairs and escalators and other sections between the tube, train and airport. I just made the check-in by a few seconds and just got to the gate when they opened it for boarding.

I did not get to my hotel at Dublin until 30 minutes after midnight with a planned wake up time of 6:30am.

Weekly Update

This week I did 7 and a half hours of training. This was all running due to the upcoming races that I had entered.

Next week should be about the same but hopefully with some swimming at the end of the week.

Snowdonia Marathon

I took part in the Snowdonia Marathon at the weekend, it was its 25th Anniversary.

The start was in Nant Peris and the finish was in Llanberis and was a clockwise route on road around the mountain and then a bit over it near the end which was off road.

The first couple of miles there was a step hill up to about 1,200 feet (365m) which was then followed by the same amount of downhill. This was just as hard as the uphill due to the pressure put on your back when running down at a faster pace. There was also a slight breeze through the valley.

At about 8 miles I noticed I was on to beat my marathon PB which was on a relatively flat course so I thought I would be harder near the end. A bit after then it started to rain lightly and a bit more wind. So at this point I decided instead of getting wet and cold I would put on the green bin liner which I had for the start line and decided to keep with me on the run and ended up keeping on until about the last mile.

Some of the water stops had mars bars which had been cut up in to sections these would good to have as something different to Gels and sports drinks.

There was a few more smaller undulations until near the end where there was another big hill to go over. By this time I was walking up it with my heart rate was still increasing due to its length and steepness.

Even in the last half mile there was 2 more inclines which where only 50 to 100 ft but felt massive at that point due to my legs muscles being exhausted.

Below is an image of the course profile from another runners GPS.



The race was harder then I expected but it also had some great scenery.

Included is a link to another person's photos of the race, the majority of which are taken near the top of the first hill.

Some more photos of the area can be found on Flickr. The route was from Nant Peris south east along the A4086 then south west on the A498 and then north west on the A4085 towards Waunfawr which was then across off road to Llanberis.

I really enjoyed the race despite the conditions and the hillier route.

I ended up with a time of 4 hours 48 minutes which I was pleased with.

Highlights of this years race are available on line at the S4C (welsh tv) web site. You will need to click on the link under available programmes called Marathon Eryri 2007.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Weekly Weigh-in

This week I have put on another 1 lb (0.5kg) with my % body fat remaining the same.

This was not helped by two lunch time pub meals and cakes as some people where leaving or retiring at work.

This week I will only have run, however I do have a few long running races over the next 7 days. As part of my recovery next week I will plan to do some swimming and maybe some light running depending on how I feel.

I have also signed up for another event in 6 weeks time which will be a shorter and faster event.

Before that following race I will have cross country league races, a problem with these is the amount of nice food and cakes afterwards.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Strange sightings on my long run

On my 14 mile long run at the weekend I had a few strange sightenings. The route was a few loops around the edge of the town I live in the UK.

I have seen people picking berries of bushes on the side of a road but I had not seen somebody cutting roses at the side of the road.

Then another house there was a grape vine growing over fence.

The next strange thing was a dead dear on the side of the road, this was at the end of a business park.

Further down the business park a squirrel ran across the road only a few metres away from me.

All that was in just 6 miles, the remaining 8 miles where pretty uneventful apart from my lack of pace.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Weekly Update

This week I have done under 4 hours of training and all of this was running.

This figure should increase for the next two weeks due to races and hopefully I should be able to get some other training as well.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Weekly Weigh-in

This week I have gained 3 1/4 lb (1.4 Kg)!!!

My body fat has gone down by 1%.

This was mostly due to having a lot of food at one of my brothers wedding on not doing any training since then. However I did do some swimming and gym work while there for the weekend.

Interestingly it seems my weight has increased since I have got my Sky+ (PVR e.g. TiVo) earlier in the year.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Sponsorship Money

My final total for sponsorship money raised for the stroke association when doing the Ironman UK was £355.

Weekly Update

Last week I did nearly 6 hours of training.

This was despite being at my brothers wedding at the weekend. However we made use of the swimming pool and gym their in the mornings.

Plus the 13 mile run I did midweek last week. This made my running about 65% of the time, with swimming 25% and cycling (in gym) 10%.

This also included a 5km run on a treadmill. This was my first run on treadmill for a couple years. Which it is harder to pace plus you don't cool down as much as you would outside.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Half Marathon in Training

Tonight I did a half marathon (13.1 miles/21km) in training.

After work I did a 5 mile loop before the main club training session and then I did a 8.18 mile route which had some hills in it with the main group. It was about 2 hours to do this which felt hard even though my pb for this distance is 20 minutes quicker.

I think it was due to still having a cold, it being the longest run I have done for a month and I did this after leaving work.

Thats now 20 miles (32km) in the last 2 days!!

A couple of "rest" days coming up now.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

First Run in a Week

Tonight I did my first run in a week. :-)

It was a 7 mile (11km) run at an easy pace. I think it helped my cold by getting all that fresh air after being in an office all day. I did wear two layers and a hat so I did not get cold while out.

I may even try another longer run tomorrow, as I can not go swimming at the moment.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Diet Coke Plus

Today I came across a new version of diet coke called diet coke plus. There was two versions vitamins and antioxidants both in 350ml bottles (12 oz).

The antioxidants version was diet coke plus greet tea extract, which tasted quite nice and the coke was not as sharp and more palletable.

The vitamins version had 15% RDA of a few vitamins, again was quite pleasant tasting compared to the normal diet coke.

These did have more calories than normal, a total of a massive 4 calories!!

I now these are not the most healthiest of drinks but these are slightly better than their standard diet coke.

I normally prefer the other major brand of diet cola but this was quite nice tasting and I would get them again.

Diet Coke Plus Press Release (pdf file)

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Weekly Update and Weigh In

This week I have gained 2lb (1kg) but my % body fat remained the same.

This was likely to only doing 2 hours of exercise with 20% being swimming and the rest was running.

I felt under the weather so decided against training and over the weekend I got a cold. It has been 6 days since I last exercised!!!

I may try an easy run tomorrow, I think there may be another weight increase due to the lack of training. It is also not helpful for a couple of races I have got at th end of the month.