The muddy beach

Today I completed the Portsmouth coastal half marathon, my first ever competitive race over this distance. I have had experience of a handful of runs of that distance, and further over the last few weeks as part of my training, but it was really helpful to have this race as part of the marathon build up.

With a field of of 760, it was a relatively small race, but it still provided me with ample opportunity to practise my race day techniques. Pacing myself to keep to my pace when surrounded by other runners, weaving around the slower runners at the start, and of course hardest of all, trying to drink from a water filled plastic cup on the move. I'm pretty sure at the first water station I managed to get more water in my nose than I did in my mouth.

The weather wasn't kind, although the rain held off, there was a very strong southerly wind. For the majority of the race it was blowing across us, and for section we were having to run straight into it. The only time we had it on our backs we were busy negotiating the muddy beach and puddle strewn gravelly path, not really ideal underfoot conditions to make the most of the tailwind.

At the five mile point, I was cheered on by a my army of supporters that had made it out, well my wife and the dog. Seeing them was really good motivation to keep me pushing as I was about to turn back into the wind. It also meant I got some photos of me actually running.

It was great fun to run on a mix of terrain, mud, beach, gravel, tarmac and a boggy field to boot. Needless to say my shoes are no longer quite the bright colour they were, but I'm sure they'll be back to their luminous best after a couple of good runs in the rain to clean them up.

Overall it was an excellent course, well signposted, well marshalled and ample water / jelly bean stations to keep you going. I would highly recommend this race to anyone considering a half marathon, either as marathon preparation or as a target on its own.

With an eye on the conditions, both meteorological and underfoot, I wasn't expecting a great time, and initially I was aiming for anything sub 1:50. However, spurred on by a couple of fellow London marathon trainees, the first telling me to go for the best time possible rather than trying to run at a marathon pace, and the other laying down the challenge of a sub 1:45 time, I decided to go nuts and try and hit the 8:00 minute mile pace required.

The first few miles felt easy and I was averaging slightly faster than that, however the muddy section of the race, followed by the section into the wind, hit my pace hard, and then I was always playing catch up on the pace. With a couple of miles to go I was certain I wouldn't be able to hit 1:45, but 1:46 was well within my grasp.

As it turned out, the finish line came upon me a lot sooner than I was expecting, and as I stopped my watch at 1:45:07, I realised how painfully close I was to the magical 1:45 target. I feel like I'll need to find a nice fast half after London to give me another go at beating that time. I might have to put my running retirement on hold for a bit.

The finishing pack was full of goodies, including plenty of energy gels and tablets that will come in handy as my long runs kick in. Best of all, there was a running snood in there too, which will no doubt come in handy on my colder evening runs.

The training plan must definitely be having an effect. Compared to the Great South Runs that I have previously completed, my legs feel a lot fresher and less achy after this race, and I completed the first ten miles of this race a full seven minutes quicker then my GSR personal best too. Maybe that's another race I'll have to enter again too!

There are now only seven weeks to go until the marathon and it is approaching very quickly. Next weekend I am heading out for an 18 mile run. I think I'll try and avoid the hill this time though, and do a couple of 9 mile laps instead to help me refuel half way round.

On the sponsorship front, my total is now up to £685, so very close to my target. If you are reading this as someone that keeps meaning to sponsor me, but hasn't quite got around to it yet, please take a minute or two to do it now. It really is quick and easy to do at www.virginmoneygiving.com/davidjohns

Thank you so much.

Every run's a school run

I ran over 17 miles today (in horrendous weather conditions), which gave me plenty of time to reflect on my training, here are just a few of the things I have learnt so far:

• Running gloves are worth their weight in gold.

• Rain is annoying, but wind is much much worse.

• Marathon training is incredibly time consuming, and not just the weekend long runs.

• My clothes are all mysteriously getting slightly bigger and looser.

• Dogs aren't great pacemakers.

• Rest days are the best days of all.

• The fuel you eat makes a massive difference to how you run

• Orange shoes are the fastest of all shoes.

• Nipples hurt when they bleed.

• I will sing-a-along, air guitar, and air drum to pretty much anything.

• I know all the words to Agadoo.

• Running downhill is scant consolation for the effort put in to get to the top of it in the first place.

• When you stomp through an especially deep puddle, your shoe will squelch funny for at least 10 strides.

• Getting pelted by an all encompassing wall of splashed up puddle water, caused by an ignorant twonk in a sports car makes very little actual difference when you've already been running in heavy rain for two hours.

• No-one cares about your training progress as much as you do, so try to talk about other things occasionally.

Over the hill and far away

This week I was back up in Scotland for work. I did my best to eat as healthily as possible, which is not easy in Scotland, and I'd planned to carry on with the training plan so I packed my trainers and running gear.

On Tuesday I headed out on a dark and cold six mile run. Despite being Scotland, the weather wasn't entirely terrible. It was cold, but nothing that couldn't be compensated for with a base-layer.

Previously in Scotland I had headed out on a couple of different 3 mile runs, so I combined the two of those and made it up to the distance.

The run felt surprisingly difficult, the legs felt full of energy and good to go, but I was finding it harder than usual to breathe. I can only assume it was the fact it was a bit colder than I was used to. Once I got going, it did start to feel easier, but I never really felt like I could push the pace too hard. All in all, I completed 6.22 miles in 54:29.

I had intended to head out for a second time on the Thursday, but unfortunately we didn't get away early enough, making it the first run on the training plan that I have missed.

Shame on me.

For today's long run I had a new toy to play with on the way round after treating myself to a Garmin GPS watch off of eBay. Although I can use my phone for GPS it was nice to be able to glance at my time / pace / distance without having to fight with a screen unlock. There is also a far better chance that the battery on the watch will last the time it takes me to get around the marathon distance.

I'd planned today's long run to take me off in about the only direction I had yet to run, north. For those of you that know Portsmouth, you know that this means one thing. Portsdown Hill. Mont Ventoux it isn't, but it certainly hurts your legs plenty enough when you're running up it.

Did I mention the 40 mph winds?

As well as the hill work to make my legs work a little bit harder, my main aim for today was to get around at a pace closer to my intended marathon pace of 9 minute miles, rather than the somewhat brisker 8:14 I averaged on last weeks half marathon run.

The hill was certainly hard work, and to make it more interesting, I headed over the top of it, to allow myself the pleasure of heading back over it again on the way back home.

Additionally it did feel like whenever I wasn't running up the hill, I was running into the wind. Occasionally I had the pleasure of doing both at the same time.

The 14.29 mile distance was completed in 2:06:56. This averaged my pace out at 8:53. Very happy with that and felt like I could have gone on a bit further, which of course I will have to do next Sunday.

As I finished, I spotted the carnage that the long run had inflicted upon my left nipple. Apparently I'm not allowed to post a photo of it, so I won't. Although, for the right donation I may reconsider...

Speaking of donations, my fundraising total now stands at £600 which is so very close to my target. So please, if you haven't donated yet, please give whatever you can afford, to help hit the £750 target to send a cow to Africa.

You can do so quickly and easily at www.virginmoneygiving.com/davidjohns

Half way there

With the exception of a smattering of shingle on the seafront promenade, and some muddy puddles to dance around on the coastal gravelled path, today was a perfect day for running. Sunshine, a cool temperature and a mere whisper of wind. What a contrast from the dreary grey drizzle of last weeks run. 

After the personal best beating 5k run on Tuesday I was looking forward to easing up on the pace, and enjoying the 5 miler on Wednesday evening. The weather had other ideas though. 

I've been told several times during the process how miserable it must be having to train "at the wrong time of the year" on dark evenings with cold wind and heavy rain. So far I've been very lucky, and avoided most of the rain, on the dark evening runs at least. Wednesday however was totally miserable. It wasn't helped by the fact that due to a problem with the connector on my headphones, I was running without any music or distance feedback to keep me going.

I got round the 5.14 miles in 42:18 and had to dig really deep to keep myself going.

On Thursday I couldn't make hockey training in the evening, so instead of taking the easy option and being lazy, I headed out for a lunch time run with Mike. It was nice to get out for three miles in the daytime, and much better then staying at work, stuck behind a desk. The paths were on the muddy side from all the rain we have been enjoying recently, and our dirty trainers definitely looked like they'd been out for a good run by the time we'd got back to the office.

Friday was a rest day, Saturday was hockey which we won, so hurrah for that.

With a fellow marathon trainee boasting about their first of four 20 mile training runs on Facebook, I spent Saturday evening getting twitchy about my training plan. I was undecided about what distance I would do today, and whether or not it was worth upping my planned distances, however the lure of completing my first half marathon distance was too strong to ignore, and wanting to beat a time of 1:50 I didn't want to be distracted by running further than 13.1 miles. I will continue to assess my training plan as I progress, however my main priority will be to remain injury free. This will obviously be best achieved by not pushing the distance too hard or too fast.

Today's run, as already mentioned, was an absolute pleasure. It was hard work, but I was deliberately pushing for an 8:20 pace to get me round in 1 hour 50. The reason for this target is that I've been told previously that to calculate a marathon time, you take your half marathon time, double it and add twenty minutes. As I'm going for a sub 4 hour marathon, 1 hour 50 was therefore my half marathon target.

I decided to run the 10 mile route I'd run a couple of weeks ago, but added on an extension to take me further along the seafront. For those that know Portsmouth, I continued westwards past Canoe lake and turned instead at Clarence Pier. There were plenty of fellow runners out and about, lots of dogs enjoying their walks and an ankle biting terrier which I managed to just about dodge in time.

I completed the half marathon distance in 1:47:44, which meant I was comfortably under the 1:50 target I'd set. Happy days. Absolutely shattered though, and entirely intimidated at the thought of having to do it twice over.

Next week I am heading back up to Scotland with work. I will have to make sure I'm strict with the eating, and training plans as it is easy to slip up when away from home and it's usual routine. Next Sunday I will be doing a 14 mile run, and for good measure I'm planning on heading up and over Portsdown Hill, and then of course back up and over it again to get home. I don't imagine it will be easy but it will be a good challenge on the legs. I suspect I'll be going a bit slower than this week.

On the fundraising front, I have had another bit of a push. The total was a little bit over £300 at the start of the day, so was keen to hit the half way point of my £750 target on the same day that I first completed half the distance.

Thanks to the amazing generosity of my friends, family and an anonymous galaxy hitch-hiker, I am now very proud to say we have broken the £500 barrier! That's two-thirds of a dairy cow!

There is still a fair way to go though, so for those of you that wish to donate, you can do so quickly and easily at www.virginmoneygiving.com/davidjohns