Amazon Ad - Running

Sunday, January 30, 2011

This Weeks Exercise

This week I just did over 8.5 hours of exercise which was 4 hours of running and 3 hours cross training. The amount of hours this week was limited by having a cold, next week it should be more hours with a shorter run.

The main art of running was 3 hours of running was a long run of 17 miles done early this morning with a few stops with the last being for hot sausage roll and a regular can of coke :-)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

This Weeks Exercise

Today I just did 4:57 of exercise in two back to back brick sessions!!

First was a short fast cycle followed by an easy pace 10 mile run on an undulating route which averaged under 10 min/mile pace. I then cycled over to a league cross country race. However by 2.5 miles in to the 5.5 mile race my leg muscles had gone and I had to walk up each incline plus my new running shoes were muddy!! I had a plateful of post race cakes and a cup of tea to give me energy for the cycle back but was an average of 3 mph slower than my normal pace.

This week I have done 15 hours of exercise with a total of 80 miles. Which was the following breakdown by time.

35% Running
30% Cycling
20% Cross training
10% Walking
5% Swimming

There is a good mixture of type of training but need a few more swim sessions. This next week I suspect the overall time may be less but the main goal this week is a LSR of about 15 miles.

New Year Weigh In

I weighed in at the start of the new year which was the heaviest I had been for a year. This seemed to happen last year when I was a similar weight which decreased with my training increased and then gradually increased from the autumn onwards in a U shape.

As part of my training I need to reduce my weight which will then make me training a bit easier.

Gosport Half Marathon

I only signed up for this race only a few days beforehand so only had 3 or 4 days to train for this race.

It was a good fast race subject to the weather. As most of the run was through and round an airfield, before a few miles along the seafront. Luckily it was only slightly cold and not much wind.

We went off at a fast pace which I thought I would not be able to maintain a few weeks after a marathon. So I slowed down and help pace another club runner. We were still going at a fast pace and we occasionally could see other runners from the club as the course looped around which every one of them was running strong.

In the last few miles we picked up the pace and ended up with a time of 1:52 which was a few minutes quicker than their existing PB. With a bit more serious training I could make an attempt at my half marathon PB!!

Dublin City Marathon

At the end of October I was back in Dublin again as an official pacer for the sub 4:30 group along with three other pacers which 2 of them had also paced the previous year and we had all done quicker and this race a number of times.

At the expo we staffed the meet the pacers stand where we were giving out pace bands from 2:30 to 6 hours which had times at each mile split based on an even pace. I even had to remember some French from when I did GCSE’s!!  One of our pacers had also made up a pacing band which also had the water and gels stations marked, this could be useful.

On the race day it started quite surreal. As we meet at the official race hotel (5 star) where the elite athletes stayed. We all then boarded the cold local double decker bus for the less than a mile journey to the start. What was strange was we had an official police (garda) escort on motorbikes which blocked of each intersection all the way to the start!!

We then warmed up in the elite section before getting our (weather) balloons and a photo at the front of the race. We then walked through the lined up runners to our estimated starting area. Along with the pace bands we each had at least a watch and/or GPS devices to help with judging pacing so amount the 4 of us which should get the right targets. It also helped that we had 2 big pink weather balloons and a sign for the pace so we could pass them around mainly when a comfort break was required or aid station was coming up. We all had official race kit with our pace time on the back.

For the first 10 miles or so up to the park was a lot of people following our pace but as we got further in to the race the numbers gradually decreased. When we got about 2 miles from the end we were encouraging those with us how had any energy left to push on for the finish, some did and others stayed with us.

At the end with finished about 25 seconds under our target with fairly even mile splits and was congratulated by the race organiser, then by some of the people who had followed our pacing.

It was a grand day and a great friendly marathon.

Mablethorpe Half Marathon

Back in October I took part in the Mablethorpe half marathon as part of marathon training. I did think about doing there marathon as training for another marathon but decided against it based on the timings between races.

Before the races I was planning to do 7 miles to make it a 20 mile run. However due to the poor weather conditions of some light rain and fairly windy I did 5 and a bit running through the mablethorpe town and back along the section I thought would be the last few miles of the run along the promenade.

So a quick change it to race gear before the start but keeping the water proof. We started in Sherwood Fields in Sherwood Road :-) Photos are from the day afterwards.

Mablethorpe Half Marthon

Mablethorpe Half Marthon


After a few miles winding through the side streets of the town I was getting a bit so I decided to give my jacket to my brother who was there. I still had a long sleeve top on and a couple of other layers but I did not realise that we would be heading straight into the wind along a road which was very open to the elements. For some reason instead of keeping the pace steady and sheltering behind other runners I was over taking a lot and leading the groups!!

By the time we had reached the furthest point and started heading back at about 10 miles I somehow picked up the pace for each mile increasing all the way and ended across the field to the finish in an almost sprint!!

Mablethorpe Half Marthon

I was pleased with the time of 1:56 especially after already doing 5 miles. As a warm down I ran the 1 mile back to the accommodation which made it a 20 mile run which was the goal.

Then part of a balanced recovery food I had an XL All the Meats pizza, mmm.
Mablethorpe Half Marthon