The week that was (including One Race and 2 PB's)

My apologies for not posting for a while, I have been very busy at work and obviously doing a LOT of running as well. A quick recap of the main things from last week.

Weds 16th
Re-visit to Shooting Star Children's Hospice this time with Debs (my PR superstar), met with Emily from Shooting Star and Chris from Chase who do the PR, along with Karen, the fundraising supremo for Shooting Star. We had a lovely guided tour and got to find out a bit more about how the Hospice is run and the funding (lack of) from the state. We discussed getting my challenge out there to a bigger audience, and with Debs ground work and Emily and Chris' contacts this should start to gather some momentum over the next few weeks. The visit just confirmed my original feelings from Sunday's visit, that it is a special place doing amazing things for some very special children and there families. I think Debs was really impressed, I think she mentioned looking into volunteering!!

Sat 19th
As I had been doing a lot of training and no racing I entered the Dorney Lake Half Marathon, it was also where I had set my PB almost exactly a year ago, so with that in mind decided I was going to really go for it and see what happened. My mate (Ed) from work had also entered, and as he had recently run a 1:32 I was hoping we could pace eachother to a quick time. On arrival it was pretty cold and we took a while to decide on amount of layers, but as the sun started to come out decided it was better to start a bit cold as we would soon warm up once running. A quick jog the 1mile to the start and line up, not too near the front but maybe 4 rows back, and then off. A very quick start saw sub 6min mile pace for the first 400m or so but I quickly settled into about 6:40pace for the first mile and watching the speedier runners start to go ahead saw I was in about 45th place. I was slightly ahead of Ed and didn't se him for the first few miles, I was very happy that I was finding the pace ok, and thought that a sub 1:30 might be on the cards. At the 9k point Ed pulled alongside and said he was going to pull out at 10K, as his ITB/knee was again playing him up, but was going to put his foot down to 10K as he was on for a PB. I saw Ed pull off to the side and I looked at my watch as I went past 10K in 42:11, a new 10K PB, which was nice. I couldn't help noticing how good I was feeling as I don't do a lot of distance running below 7min mile pace, but just thought about staying relaxed and keep going. I had started to make a few places up on the next 5k lap (this race is 4 and a bit laps of the Lake, bit boring, but it is flat) and thought I must be in about 35th place, and had actually got faster over the last lap. I did think that any minute the wheels were going to come off and I was going to suddenly slow down a lot, but I was really enjoying myself and talking to the other runners and offering words of encouragement to those that I thought needed a little boost. Ed gave me a big 'Come on' as I went past him to start my last lap, I had been making a conscious efort to keep my Heart Rate under 160 or so, as this is the point I think I start to burn up, but with only 5K to go really put the foot down. I soon caught and passed another couple of runners before myself and 2 runners made a little group and were pushing the pace together, this was good. Quick glance at the watch and mile 11 was 6:29, pick it up a bit more, mile 12 in 6:22, past the 20K mark and realise later that this 2nd 10K was done in 40:50 a new 10K PB. The last mile was really going for it and went past in 6:11, which is faster than my 5K pace!! Gave it absolutey everything coming into the home straight and think I was screaming Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh on the way into the finish line. I managed to stop my Garmin and hand on knees sucking in air like no tomorrow, I look at the watch and can't quite believe the time, I go to the Race Organisers computer to get my official Chip Time and finish posistion from them, and it is confirmed, my time is 1hr26mins50secs (WOW) thats 6:38per mile, 29th finisher overall of 359 finishers and 19th in my category. I basically had hoped to get near to 1hr30 for a Half Mara somtime this year, and had the run of my life and did a 10K and Half Mara PB in the same race. Days like this don't happen very often. Seems like the long miles are paying off.

Sun 20th
Didn't have time to 30miles in one go to-day so, 14miles this morning, then 17 this evening, felt really spaced at mile 14 of the evening run but resisted the urge to down a gel and just slowed a little and pushed on through, but boy was I tired when I got home. Yesterday took it out of me big time.

Total Miles for week: 83.3

Running Easy

Easy 10miles this evening as this week is an easy week (I do 3 weeks hard 1 week easy), and I am having difficulty running slow, well, what I mean is, slow enough for my 4 x Marathon in 24hrs next month. I seem to be running at about 8.15 to 8.30 per mile pace as default easy pace, this is too fast. Never thought running too quickly (in relative terms) would be a problem.

Meet up with the Shooting Star runners tomorrow at 9am in Richmond Park for an easy 8miles, and then I am visiting the Hospice in the afternoon. All of the people who are running the Virgin London Marathon for Shooting Star have been invited to visit the Hospice, we will have a group photo and a tour of the Hospice, promises to be a really good afternoon.

Warp Speed Mr Zulu



‎06:25am and half hour into my run, I look happy!!!!





Run finished, happy/looking a bit psycho.



The weekends training runs went a little like this:

Saturday 5th March

‎30.2miles of Richmond Park covered this morning, very eerie at 5:45 in the morning, and very quiet. Had my Shooting Star t-shirt on (with another 3 layers), I had forgot how hilly the park was, as 3300ft of ascent for the run. Lucky to have Sherrine (a work colleague) join me for the middle13miles, she did very well and is looking good for her race, Kingston Breakfast Run (16miles) on 27th March. I felt really good and picked the pace up a little bit over the last few miles in fact 3miles (24to26) were covered in 22mins including the hills. Total Distance: 30.2mi / Time: 4hrs16mins49secs = 8.31per mile average 

Sunday 6th March
Having spent the morning at the zoo with the family, managed to get out for my run early PM, which was a bonus. Legs felt pretty good and set off at easy pace and didn't pay much attention to the Garmin until I stopped for a quick chat with a friend (Jayne, thanks for the words of encouragement, nice to see you) where I noticed 7miles done at 8.11 average!!! Blimey it didn't feel like I was running at that pace it felt very easy. So I set off and back along the Thames at 11 miles towards Bushy Park for the last 9miles, and with the wind with me I was now doing sub8 pace for the same effort. I saw Jo Pavey twice during my lap of Bushy Park and even got a friendly wave (I hope she does well at the NYC Half Mara this month), so I picked the pace up a little more towards the end, and a 7.16 last mile.
Total Distance: 20mi / Time: 2hrs39mins12secs = 7.58per mile average
I didn't think sub 8min miles for 20miles would have felt so comfortable, especially having done a 30miler round Richmond Park yesterday. Training seems to be coming together. Warp speed Mr Zulu.........

Total Miles Run for the week: 82.9 (lets call it 83)

Brighton Marathon - 4hr Pace Leader for CLIF Bar Pace Team

Really chuffed as I have been chosen as the 4hr Pace Leader at the Brighton Marathon on 10th April for the CLIF Bar Pace Team. So I will have the responsibility/honour of running at a very consistent pace for the whole way to ensure those runners trying for a sub 4hr marathon can follow me to the finish and get a time of 3hrs59mins59secs or less (no pressure then!!). CLIF Bar will also have a stand at the expo the day before so we meet runners and offer advice and encouragement (I am doing the 4-6pm slot), we also get Saucony running gear including trainers, overnight accommodation and obviously free race entry along with CLIF Bar goodies. Really looking forward to it although it is only 6days before I attempt the VLM 4 x in 24hrs, but 4hr pace will be slower than my easy long run pace, and I am feeling like the training is really going well, so I hope a really steep taper (resting up) after Brighton and before London will have me raring to go.

Some of the other Pacers in the CLIF Bar Team are vv serious athletes, 100+ marathons and World Championship runners, seems like the 4hr runners may have drawn the short straw as they have me pacing them (!!!!!).

Running with Friends

Me modelling the Spring/Summer 2011 collection.

As you may or may not know I tend to do 98% of my runs on my own, not through choice, but because of the times I am able to run, and mine and other peoples schedules not fitting in. This as you can imagine makes getting out the door and doing all these runs a little bit more difficult, so it was really good to be able to do a long run with my firend and work colleague Ed on Friday afternoon. We both booked Friday PM off of work, as Ed had told me earlier in the week he wanted to do a long run of over 26.2miles (Marathon distance) but couldn't do it Saturday or Sunday. We decided on 28.2miles, and Ed worked out a route that took in Bushy Park, Twickenham, Syon Park, Brentford, Kew Bridge and then onto the Thames Path and the 10 or so miles back to East Molesey where we had parked the cars. This would be Ed's furthest ever run and his first ever Ultra distance run, or as I said to Ed, his first proper distance run (!). We decided on a comfortable 8.45pace and promptly did the first mile in 8.20 (oops), it's easy to do this when you are talking and not concentrating, especially as both of us can run at 8.20 pretty easily. With a bit more concentration we got the speed down and the run itself went pretty quickly, as it tends to when you have good company, in fact over the last 4 or so miles I told Ed to slow down as he was gathering pace, Ed has a tendency to start to speed up near the end (he's in race mode from all the Coastal Half Marathon races he has been doing with his better half, Fi). He even suggested we do 30miles as he was feeling good!!!! Thankfully I had almost run out of drink, so talked him out of it (without much effort I hasten to add) but I was also a bit tired as I had run the previous 3days, and our pace had averaged 8.40pace for the whole 28.2miles.
All in all a really good run, and well done to Ed for going Ultra, which is good as he has already signed up to do the 44mile Classic Quarter in Lands End this June, I am of course going along to run it with him, it's a agreat course but v tough, as I learnt last year.
I have also received some The Shooting Star Children's Hospice t-shirts which I will be modelling during most runs over the next few weeks (as per the photo in this post), thank you to Karen and Alicja of the fundraising team for sending them to me.

A solid 70.1 miles run last week, more of the same this week only more so! Seems to be a recurring theme here.......

6:30am, raining and miserable, time for a run.



Back from my rainy run

Saturday 19th Feb:

It's has been a while since I have had to wear my Montane Quickfire waterproof jacket on a run, but Saturday was one of those days. When the alarm went off at 6am I dragged myself out of bed and snuck downstairs, doing my best not to wake the rest of the house, grabbed my Garmin switched it on and opened the window to pop the Garmin on the window ledge to get a signal and realised it was raining pretty hard (arse!). Got ready, grabbed my Raid Revo rucksack with 1.6l High5 energy drink in the bladder (had not used this Rucksack for a while, but needed it to carry more fluid from the start to-day, great bit of kit) ate a pancake (not the most hearty of breakfasts for a 24mile run) and out the door into the rain. The first 3 or 4 miles the rain was pretty hard, by mile 7 it was just a light drizzle and I thought I may have overdone it with the fully waterproof jacket, also chatted with another runner for a mile or so who is training for the 16mile Kingston Breakfast Run in March.

At mile 9 I met up with Sherrine (a work colleague) who is also training for the Kingston run as she wanted to do 12miles, which would be her furthest run so far, I was of course extremely glad of the company. In my infinite wisdom (Ha!) I decided we should set off along the Thames towards Weybridge, but as the rain must have been coming down overnight the tow-path was really waterlogged and extremely muddy most of the way, and the rain did not let up. So very wet/muddy shoes and socks for most of the 12miles (sorry Sherrine), but Sherrine ran very well at a good constant pace of around 8.40, although as I had miss calculated the distance she had to stop about a mile from where we met as she had already done 12miles and didn't want to push the distance too quickly (wise choice). We said our goodbyes, and I apologised for my miss calculation and went off to finish the last 3miles, I must admit my hands were very cold by this stage and the jacket had collected a fair bit of moisture (sweat) in the forearm/elbow area so I had to hang my arms down and feel it run down and out of the jacket (nice), you eventually overwhelm any waterproof jacket with the heat you generate and it can't shift it quick enough, I think it's called MVTR - Moisture Vapour Transfer Rate. My jacket has one of the best MVTR rates so god knows what it must be like inside the jacket when wearing one with a low MVTR, bin liner springs to mind. Anyway, the last 3miles were a bit quicker as I put the Ipod on and a couple of great tracks were playing, and then I was home in around 3hrs30mins.

Sunday 20th Feb:
Met up with Debs (superstar, who is doing PR for my 4 Marathons in 24hrs challenge) for my photoshoot. Debs had picked a nice spot on the Thames opposite side to Hampton Court Palace so we would capture the palace in the background of the photos. Just my luck as I stripped down to my running gear that 4 teeange girls (maybe 14 to 16yrs old) arrived on the scene, Debs joking that my fan club had turned up, I said that it couldn't be as there were not enough and the rest would be along presently!!! I put on the Shooting Star running t-shirt that Debs had got me, I think Debs is trying to tell me something as she only had Large and X-Large with her, but in all honesty I will have to grow into the Large. The first shot was brilliant, Hampton Court and the Thames in the background and nothing in the foreground, Debs had missed me, I was obviously running too fast (possibly not). Debs got some good shots eventually, which was no easy task  with what she had to work with, and hopefully some not too bad shots of me just standing and smiling and not looking too cheesy or false. I have reminded Debs to ensure the camera is set to 'George Clooney' or 'Brad Pitt' mode next time, failing that, get someone who can airbrush like a pro to take a look at the photos before we put them out for public viewing. My thanks again to Debs for all her hard work.
I managed to get out for today's run at 5.30pm, but was under instructions to be home before 7.45pm to do bedtime with the monsters aka the children. I wanted to run at easy pace so 15miles was the plan, I was pleasantly surprised on this run, significant was how low my Heart Rate was, the Average for the entire run was 126bpm at an average pace of 8min23secs per mile. So good pace for easy effort, seems like I was in that lovely running nirvana zone tonight, pity it isn't easily achieved on runs.

A solid 64.1miles for the week.

TCR (Triathlon, Cycling, Running) Show

Last Saturday I popped over to Sandown Park Racecourse for the TCR Show which is on every year. It has a real selection of kit aimed mainly at Triathletes but caters for runners as well as you would expect (Triathletes after all do run!!). It's a good job I am not a triathlete as you could spend a fortune, I saw bikes at £6500!!!!! One of my reasons for visiting was to go to the Brooks stand as I wear Brooks Adrenaline 10th edition and they now have the 11th edition out and wanted to see if they were an improvement on the 10's as sometimes updates are not neccessarily upgrades as was the case from Adreanline 8 to 9. The shoes themselves felt a little different if the forefoot but felt really good when I had a quick jog, this I think is the new DNA cushioning compound in the heel and forefoot which is non-newtonian  (A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid whose viscosity is variable based on applied stress), my only issue is they seem to come up a little bigger than the 10's in width.

While I was on the Brooks stand I noticed a large queue and then saw Chrissie Wellington (3 x Ironman World Champion and World Record Holder) was signing autographs. She is taller than I had imagined and you could really see the muscle definition on her arms and shoulders (I have a long way to go to get into that sort of shape). She is sponsored by Brooks and is a phenomenal athlete, her marathon time at the end of a 2.4mile swim and 112mile ride is 2hrs48mins!!!! Had it not been for illness I think she would have won a 4th successive Ironman World Title late last year, great to see a British athlete who is the best in the world at what they do.
Sunday, I took my son to see Yogi Bear 3D, it was a good excuse for us boys to buy popcorn and sweets. While we were doing this the girls went to a 3rd birthday party, lots of princess dresses and sparkly stuff.