One run at a time

Today was my first proper Sunday morning long run.

Portsmouth is a surprisingly small city, and finding even an 8 mile route to run took a bit of effort, my route was effectively a lap from north to south of the eastern side of the island. Plenty of seafront promenade and coastal cycle path was included so it made for a nice run with not only plenty of pleasant waterside views, but also a good portion of the run was spent not having to worry about roads, kerbs, crossings or traffic.

The weather was pretty much perfect today, a nice cool 4 degress, sunny skies and barely a breath of wind. Wonderful stuff.

I'd set off with intentions of making the 8 mile route I'd planned the night before in a time of 70 minutes, optimistic perhaps with Christmas memories still fresh in the waistline, but I always figure, if you're going to set a target you may as well stretch yourself a bit.

So with Green Day's live album beating away in my ears I set off at a smidgen over 8 minute mile pace for the first couple of miles, before settling down to a surprisingly consistent 8:30 pace for the remainder of the run. No negative splits today, but I'm more than happy with a nice steady pace like that.

Overall I hit 8.1 miles in 1:07:29 and not only smashed my 1:10 target, but also did so with an extra .1 of a mile thrown in for good measure too, happy days!

When I got in, I was greeted by my wife presenting me with a nice freshly made banana and Vienetta milkshake. I can tell you, that was the most appreciated, and most delicious, milkshake I have ever had. Milk is allegedly just as good as a protein shake after a long run so I can claim it was healthy and good for me too.

Sticking that time and distance into my marathon time calculator, it throws out a lovely sub four hour finish time of 3:54:12. Unfortunately marathons aren't run with mathematics, they're run with sweat.

It's intimidating to think that 8 miles is barely scratching the surface of the marathon distance, even after 8 miles it is still the best part of another 10k race on top of that until you reach the iconic half way point of tower bridge. Good job I'm not thinking of the marathon like that.

Instead I am targeting one Sunday long run at a time, and I have to have faith that the training plan I have compiled will get me there. For the next few weeks, all I will be targeting is a small increase on distance from the week before. Once I'm up to about 15 miles, I'll then be looking at a half marathon race, as well as the final push up the gruelling training run of 20 miles a few weeks before the marathon itself.

For some reason it's not recommended to bother training the last 6.2 miles. I guess you only need to run one marathon so why waste the effort in training?

Additional to that I am also heading out a couple of times each week for shorter runs (usually around 5-6 miles) and also throwing some hockey training and matches too to provide me with my interval type training. All good fun.

Return of the blog

I'm sure the internet is full of blogs that have been left to go damp and smelly in an unwanted corner, and those that aren't forgotten about completely are almost exclusively full of apologetic posts lamenting the lack of any update in a while.

Well this post can be added to that list. I am sorry I have neglected this blog.

OK, with that out of the way, I can fill you in on what I have been up to since the last update in the middle of October.

My trip to Scotland turned into quite a few trips to Scotland, interspersed with some sort of nasty stomach bug, all in all I didn't achieve much running in the run up to Christmas. I did manage two or three runs up in Scotland with some nice views across the local Loch, and a handful more during my weekends at home, all mostly 3 milers. Nowhere near the sort of running I was planning though.

Unfortunately most of the time up North was spent working a 12 hour day which didn't leave a lot of time after work, barely enough time to check in with the wife before dashing to the hotel bar to get some food in before they stopped taking food orders. Call me lazy, but I also didn't really fancy waking up at half five in the morning to go out before work either.

Good job I'd entered a 10k fun run on the 15th December to keep my pre-christmas training on track then...

It was a 10k Santa fun run along the beach at Southsea, and I had originally entered it with intentions of beating my previous 10k race time of 50:04. However with the complete lack of any substantial training, the effects of quite a few weeks living on expenses, I decided instead a better goal would be to get round and just enjoy the run with Mike who had also entered.

We both got round in about 58 minutes, but it was never really about the time, it was more about the fun we had on the way round, and of course, the mince pie at the end!

The less said about the sour cream and chive pretzels we also got the better.

It was an excellent race and well organised, so I will definitely recommend it to anyone, they do both a 5k and a 10k if you're not sure you'll make the 10k 'hardcore' distance. (About the only time I've been described as 'hardcore' in my life!). The organisers of this event also have a half marathon in the lead up to the marathon so I'll certainly be looking to enter that.

So, with Scotland done and dusted, and Christmas out of the way it's almost perfect timing for the start of what I have been calling my 'official' training as I start on my 16 week training plan.

I've been out on quite few runs since the Santa run, sticking to the plan quite well so far and have my first proper Sunday long run coming up, a mere 8 miles. This is where the fun begins! For anyone interested in the details of all my runs, there's a link at the top of this blog.

For Christmas my wife bought me a running survival pack, a water bottle, some granola, some ice packs and an ankle strap, I wonder if a stretcher would of been more appropriate. I've also purchased a running hat and some gloves to give me no excuses when the cold weather really kicks in so there's no stopping me now.

I'm also going to start pushing for sponsors a bit harder now too so be prepared for that. As far as I'm aware I'm the only runner representing the charity Send-a-cow at the London marathon so every penny raised will be important to allow them to carry on their excellent work. They've also been in contact to sort me out a running vest so I'll be excellently cow patterned on the day.

My sponsorship is currently up to £66 which is really good giving the complete lack of any real pushing of it on my part, but still a long way off my £750 which would be enough to, quite literally send a cow. For more information on the charity, or to sponsor me, use the links at the top of this blog.

I'm also well aware that a certain someone also promised to sponsor me once I update this blog... no pressure.