Buckingham Parkrun and some new shoes!!

So Friday came round, and I found myself setting an alarm for 7.15 for the following morning. Now, this may not seem odd, but I do not get up early if I can help it. And doubly so on the weekends. But today I had a timed run to do, and I was picking Hannah and Felix up on the way, so I couldn't afford to be (too) late. We were meeting at Alex's before heading off for the run.

The timed run in question was the Buckingham Parkrun. For those who have never heard of Parkrun before, and I hadn't until a few weeks ago, they are an organisation that puts on free, timed 5km runs in the UK, Ireland and Denmark. They are open to all, regardless of fitness, size, experience etc. You just register in advance, print out your personal bar code and turn up. At the end you get a finishing token, which is scanned and linked to your bar code. The bar code is then used so you can track your progress and get updates on how you did. It's a free run, with a free app sort of built in should you wish to use it. I had every intention of using my bar code today, but I left it on Alex's coffee table when we left for the run. Bugger. Thankfully, I had my phone with me, so I could at least track it my with usual running app.

In our usual organised way, we had to run to make the start line on time. The whistle goes at 9.00 if you're there or not. We made it with maybe 10 secs to spare. The day was a little colder than I wanted, at maybe 1C, but I had thought ahead a little and put a t-shirt on under my running top. The run itself is fairly flat, with a few gentle rises and falls. However, I still found today to be hard work. I'm not sure if it was the cold, or the hard mid-week run that was more to blame, but my breathing wasn't very even at all today. This is reflected in how my pace dropped off as the run went on.

I had a target of 30mins on mind at the start, in keeping with my intended pace of 6mins/km. I had hoped to be able to beat this and I just about managed it! It did require a sprint finish, as there was no way I was going to let a guy leading his dog beat me round!! One thing that shows up is that my app isn't 100% accurate, as the route is a measured 5000m, therefore my distances and times are a little off. I did have to slow to a walk twice to get my breath back, so I was no where near keeping up with Hannah or Alex. Given how heavy my legs felt, I think if I had a longer break between runs I could go a bit quicker. Either way, the final reward was a visit to a local coffee shop for a much needed warming brew.

With the running activities over for the day, there remained the issue of getting Felix and I some road running shoes. I've been using my trail shoes for everything so far, and they're less than ideal for road use. Given where my blisters are, they're probably part of why I keep getting them as I run with an uneven gait. So a trip down to Milton Keynes was in order.

The first thing they do is get you to jog across the store and back so they can assess your gait. This is to ensure the shoes support your feet and ankles in the right way. Turns out I over pronat. That means my foot rolls from my heel onto the ball of my foot, causing extra stress. Being a size 12 means there is a slightly limited selection available to try on. But they did have a few to try and I found a pair that felt great to wear. I couldn't even feel my blisters when I was running round the shop. The only downside is that they make Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz look tame and dull!!

My first run in the snow!

With January well under way, Hannah and I are now making a concerted effort to get out for a mid-week run every week. There's notes in calendars and everything!! As such, despite it being rather cold and having been snowing during the day, we set out on a 7.5km run round Helmdon. This is a bit farther than I wanted to go for a mid-week run, but we're planning on doing a local Parkrun on Saturday and they're only 5km. So going a bit longer today wasn't a bad idea.

The route in question is a loop that starts and ends at the pub. Unfortunately that means it's uphill from the get go. And it really was cold. My car suggested it was 1C when I arrived, and the wind chill must have dropped it well below that. Because of this, I was struggling a little at the start with my breathing. But we soon crested the hill and things levelled out. It did leave the roads icy in places so we had to be careful.

This was also the point where it started lightly snowing. I had joked during the day that I quite liked the idea of running in the snow. Turns out to be less fun than I had thought!! It's a bit like running into the old windows screen saver, only colder and it sticks to your glasses. Thankfully, it let up after a few minutes and left the cold wind blowing instead. But we had turned off the first section of main road at least.

The road was now fairly level, and with almost no traffic. We were passed twice by the same car, but that was it on this section as it's a quiet back road that is little more than a track that goes on for 3km. In the daytime the view would be great across the valleys, but at night it means you get to see all the house lights glowing instead. This section of road also ends with a nice downhill section. On tarmac this isn't as relaxing as doing it off road as I find it makes my lower back ache. I have to hold myself back from charging off down the hill and the strain isn't helpful.

What's even less helpful is the almost 2km uphill stretch back to the edge of the village. This was also the point at which it started snowing again. Up to this point our pace had been fairly even, hovering around the 6mins/km mark. However, the cold wind was really starting to take it's toll on me. Every time I managed to recover my breathing pattern and get things back under control the wind would blow, chill my chest and bugger it all up. This made keeping up a rhythm really hard and it slowed me down no end with the pace dropping off by 1min/km. Given the horrible noises I was making, that wasn't too bad in hindsight. By the time we crested the rise into the village, the wind had dropped and I had managed to recover enough to get the pace back to 6mins/km.

From here it was pretty much downhill for the final Km. This meant the pace picked up, helped along by Hannah pushing me on to the end. By the end we were at almost 5mins/km. This helped get our average pace down to 6:02mins/km, my fastest so far for any reasonable distance! It also turns out that the 7.5km run was nearer 7km. Hannah's phone disagrees a little, showing 7.3km.

After all the hard work, and since we finished at a pub, we decided to celebrate with a pint! I can see this becoming an obligatory end to runs in Helmdon. One thing it has shown me is that I need to wear more layers when running in the cold. I hadn't realised that Hannah had 4 layers on, whilst I only had 2. So it was no wonder I was getting cold!! She also looks annoyingly good for someone who's just finished a 7km run in sub-zero temperatures and snow.

Hannah's 10Km challenge

Since we didn't manage a mid-week run, I wanted to do a long-ish run today to make up for it. Hannah suggested a route from her village that she'd been wanting to try. It was a 10Km loop that was all road. It's a road I know, and drive on regularly. It feels fairly smooth, with a few little ups and downs, when you're in a car or van.

However, one thing I learnt very quickly it that what a road feels like in a vehicle bears no resemblance to running on it. Hills are easy, and pot holes a problem. The opposite is true when running. So I was expecting today to be tricky. And on top of that, I've never actually run for 10Km!!

Hannah had been panicking a bit before we set out as I had left my inhaler at home, and not even used it before I headed out either. Since there's little or no phone signal out in the sticks round here, she was worried about me dying on her! Thankfully, it turned out to be no problem at all. Which I was a bit surprised at to be honest, but can only mean my asthma is better than I thought.

We set off in lovely weather, with some great views over the hills. It was a touch chilly in the shade though, and in some of the dips but nothing that getting going wouldn't cure. As this was endurance training, the idea was to maintain a steady 6:15mins/Km or 10mins/mile pace. This is something I find tricky, as it feels almost too slow. Or it does to start with anyway! At this pace you should be able to hold something resembling a conversation. I am getting to the point where I can almost do this start to finish.

The loop started in the middle of Helmdon and Hannah described it as finishing at the pub. I assumed this meant the pub in Helmdon, as we had the incentive of a pint to keep me going. Given the pace, everything was going well, and we were keeping up the target steady pace despite the hills. Having to switch from one side of the road to the other for the bends was a slight annoyance, but nothing major. Everything was going well, but at the 7.25 Km mark I had to stop to adjust one of my shoes. I had been getting a hot spot on my right foot and a Km or so of trying to shift my foot as I ran had done nothing, so it meant stop to see if anything could be done. Annoyingly, I couldn't fix it and bending down to do it meant I had to go for a wee. This made that Km a long one as the timers keep running even if we stop.

From here on in, it was just a case of putting up with my foot aching a little. This is something I have had a problem with since day one, but it's been getting better as my feet have toughened up. I used to get 50p sized blisters, but at worse I now get 5p sized ones. Having road running shoes and some more time should see them go altogether.

It was as we got into the village of Weston that Hannah said we had two options. One was to stop at the village pub at the 10Km mark for a half and then jog the 3Km back to the start. The second was to keep going back to Helmdon and have a full pint. Since 10Km is the farthest I have ever run, I decided to keep going and try for 13Km. This is me not stopping at the pub. Sorry for the blurry pics, but iPhones don't seem to like hot pockets on cold days.

And since this was the expected end of the run, Hannah managed to get a screen grab of her running app too:

For my first ever 10Km run, I am really pleased with this time. It's actually slightly under the pace we're aiming for, so all the high effort work I'm doing with Ant on cross country work is clearly paying off! Without aching feet, I think I could do this a little quicker next time.

From here the pressure was off, but we still wanted to keep the pace up if we could. One Km in I stopped for a quick drink, but I wish I hadn't bothered as it made my calves tighten up quite a lot. It took me a few hundred metres to get going again, and I had still to drop to a walk for a bit on the last hill. But I did recover and beat Hannah to the top though! As we crested the hill, there was still a bit of downhill road to finish on.

This was a welcome end to the running, but steep downhill bits make my lower back ache from the jarring. Hannah thinks this will reduce once I have some proper road shoes. Trail shoes aren't great for road use as they're too firm. This may have contributed to the hotspots too.

Finally, we came to the end of the loop. I was quite tired, my feet ached but I was chuffed to bits to have made it so far with only one stop to adjust my shoe and another for a drink. The final time was 1 hour 24 mins, giving a run pace of 6mins 34secs/Km. Given the distance, this is a great result! As the elevation graph shows, there was hardly any flat either. So despite this being a road run, it was a good bit of hill training too. This is all good, as the London marathon is pretty flat so if I can manage hilly roads at pace, London should be less difficult than it would otherwise be.

As promised, we did go to the pub too! A pint tastes soooo much better after a great big chunk of exercise. We even did all our stretching there too, no doubt giving the locals a good eye-full of lycra glad arse!!

As my phone thinks I've burnt over 1200 calories today, I have also decided on another celebratory beer. One of my all time favourites, even if it is hard to find:

No running, but hard work all the same

Whilst this update has nothing to do with running, it does have something to do with my medical past and it could have an effect on this week's runs. I was in two minds if I should put this in or not, but in the warts and all approach I said I'd take I figured why not?!

A few months ago, I was getting very painful cramps in my guts that lasted for several minutes. Being a boy, I put this down to just eating too much or just eating the wrong things again. My other half finally insisted I get myself down to the docs after a few days of feeling especially crap. Following a prod and a poke, and some sample pots, I have been booked in for a pair of internal scans tomorrow.

The scans themselves don't worry me too much, as I'll be sedated. The packets of preparation that I have to take are more of a worry. I've never willingly given myself diarrhoea before, and doing it is not the best way to while away a Sunday evening. I've got to take more of the damn stuff in the morning too. And I'm hungry enough as it is now, only having eaten a bacon sarnie today. I can't eat until at least 4pm tomorrow, but when I do I'm going to start with the remaining bacon in the fridge before ordering a chinese-curried-pizza thing for dinner. And have it with a side order of cheese or something else fattening and good.

The lads go for a run

It's been a little while since I've done any real cross country running, four weeks in fact. So now that Ant is back from his honeymoon we could get back to some high effort running. Alex (the one from New Year's Day), was also about for a run out again. Back when we were at school, Alex and I were the ones dragging along at the back of the cross country runs, rugby training etc. We took part, but not willingly. And not with much effort if we could get away with it!

Annoyingly, he's all healthy now and has entered for his first triathlon. So he's much quicker than me, the git. Thankfully, he wears proper running tights/trousers/what ever they're called. Why thankfully? Well, I've been getting crampy calves recently and in an effort to reduce this I too now own a pair of running tights. I was always going to have to ditch my big heavy shorts at some time, but I hadn't thought it would be so soon. I was going to wear them first on Thursday for an evening run with Hannah and Kate, but the weather was too bad so we didn't go. On balance, I'd rather wear them for the first time when it's just us lads out running. That way I could re-adjust what ever was needed without feeling silly in front of the girls. Daft I know, but I'm still a bit worried about what I look like when running. That will change with time though.

So Saturday afternoon came round, and I'd figured out how to wear my running shorts and trousers without anything being in the wrong place. Off I went to Ant's, passing the local hunt on the way. I mention this as they use the same fields we do so I was expecting the tracks to be either cut up or frozen solid as it's been so cold at night recently. It was gong to be hard work running with Ant and Alex, but this wouldn't help.

Once we got going, the run started well and my new trousers were doing a good job of keeping my legs warm in the cold breeze. £20 well spent it seems! But the pace we were going at was hard work. And the tracks were as cut up as I had expected. A couple of dozen horses leave quite a mark! At least the ground was dry thanks to being frozen. I was struggling to keep up with the other two though, but I was able to keep them in sight. The gap was verging on going from encouraging me to give chase to bollocks but they're miles away. But it stayed just the right side of the line. Alex clearly got bored of waiting for me to catch up for the final hill, as he finished over two minutes ahead! Maybe it's his really bright top that makes him fast? It certainly messes up Ant's iPhone camera!

Despite the hard work, it felt good to be out and better to finish! Initially, Ant said it wasn't a great time as we'd done our second best time. This confused me a bit, as I knew Alex finished in a touch under 40 minutes, and I didn't think he was that far ahead! Turns out Ant thought we'd done a 40 minute run before, when our previous best was 46 mins 09 secs. That means that today's time of 42 mins 30 secs is my new PB for this run, and another good step forward.

Looking at the run info above, I really need to cut back on the fast starts. Whilst the first bit does have a good downhill section, which will always be quicker, I shouldn't be setting off at a sub 9 minute mile pace when my average pace is 10 mins 51 secs for the run. Keeping things even will help with my long distance runs, as I was struggling to keep going at times today. Equally, soft fields are slow, hard going!

My second solo run out

Due to a busier weekend than I had expected, I didn't manage to get out for a run until 3pm this afternoon. I had hoped to go out this morning, when it was nice and sunny, and not windy. Instead, we took our son to the local country park to feed the ducks. We've not been for a while, and it's something he loves doing. Although he does need to learn how to tear up the bread before chucking it at the swans!

Following my mid-week evening run with Hannah, I know I need to start pushing the distance I run as well as the pace I run at. So I didn't go for a run around the country park whilst we were there as it's only 2.25 miles and I'd need at least 3 circuits to push things on a bit, but that was also then a bit further than I wanted to go. Instead I went round the reservoir when I was able.

So off I set as usual, but today felt like hard going. When I head out there always seems to be fog or cold wind to greet me. This is part of why I had hoped to go out this morning; it was bright and sunny, and with what seemed like little wind. Unfortunately, there was a cold (when is it not?) wind blowing by the time I got out. It turns out though, that the muff I had on to keep my neck warm also does a good job of keeping my mouth and ears warm. I do suspect it makes me look a bit weird/weirder than usual, but being all hot and sweaty has a way of taking your mind off these things!

The first part of the run went well, with the first mile taking roughly 9 minutes. This is a bit quick, but it does include the downhill section so not a problem. As before, my timings are vague as I can only glance at the time on my phone as I go. At this point, my feet were already starting to feel heavy, and I wasn't sure how today would do. I didn't expect to be at the same pace I was during the week. However, by the time I had dodged all the fisherman and made it round the reservoir, my lap time was roughly 18 minutes. Not bad for a 1.7 mile loop on my own, including stopping for a wee. That is something I really need to sort out, as despite going before I started, I still feel the need to go when out running.

At the end of the first loop, I was considering if I should try for a second lap. It looked like it was starting to get dark, but my breathing was under control and I was feeling all right. So a second lap was started! I felt quite good with myself at not having turned back for home, and my legs seemed up to the task.

Roughly 1/4 mile in, I was back out of the trees and into the wind again. Somehow, just thinking it wasn't an issue stopped the cold feeling that had begun to creep across my chest and I made it up to the dam. It now also seemed to be the end of the fishing match, as I was dodging pole bags and trolleys all along the edge of the reservoir. This slowed me down a little, but not enough to actually make any real difference.

By the time I had completed the loop, I wasn't looking forward to the hill. But I made it to the first gate in one hit, and then on to the second at the top. OK, it's hardly Everest but I hate hills. Not quite as much as Hannah does though, so I do get to take a little pleasure at beating her up them for now!

With the second lap, today's distance was a touch over 5.5 miles, or 8.9Km. If I was running at the target speed of 6mins/Km, this would take roughly 54 mins. My time wasn't too bad, as I finished in 58 mins. This gives a pace of 6:30 mins/Km. If I was with someone, I would expect to go faster, but I'm happy with that for running on my own for now.

My first evening run!

As my training needs to step up a notch, I am now going to be including a mid-week run every week, or every week I can. Some things are bound to come up that prevent it. I have stayed away from doing this so far as I feel that running in my village at night isn't the safest of options. The paths and roads are poorly lit and there aren't really all that many roads to run on anyway. However, now that Hannah is helping out with my training, we can sensibly run in another village.

There is also a slight change of focus in the training that goes along with the mid-week runs. So far I've been aiming mainly for fitness and getting faster on the short runs I do. Whilst that is good to get started and build fitness, especially with the hill running Ant and I do, it won't get me to the distance required for a marathon on it's own. As such Hannah and I will be aiming to run at a consistent pace, but to increase the distance over time. The fitness and speed stuff will continue with Ant. The pace we're aiming for, since Hannah insists on doing things in Km, is 6 mins/Km. This is also 9:40 mins/mile in my head. This pace should be something we can maintain for the hours we'll be running a marathon for rather than a sprint or fast run pace. If we can keep it up, this would give us a time of roughly 4 hours 15 mins. As our target is 4 hours 30 mins, that should give us time to stop for a wee, re-tie shoe laces etc on the day.

Hannah had been having a look at a map of Woodford, and came up with a decent circuit we could give a try. As we kayak with a few other friends on a Wednesday, we're aiming for Thursdays. Since today is Thursday, we met up to see how we got on. As we were busy running, we left the photos to Felix, my good friend and Hannah's boyfriend. This is us finishing the run. Hannah vetoed photos that should us in any greater detail!

Hannah had hoped the loop would be 7Km or so, but it turned out to be 4.8Km. All the same, it's somewhere to start but next time we'll need to put in another loop to push things on. I managed to get all the way round without stopping, or even really slowing at all, in 26:41 mins. This means an average time of 5:37 mins/Km, so a good pace to start with as it's faster than the final pace needs to be. Now I just need to work on keeping it up over a greater distance!

My first run with Hannah

Having been out New Year's day and paddled the 4.4 miles into the wind and spray, I was a little tired and my shoulders now ached quite a bit! Despite paddling downstream, the wind was driving small waves upstream. Whilst the waves were only 3-4" in height, when the boat your in is less than a foot high, that can mean spray hitting you off every wave. And after 2 hours, that starts to drag.

So the weekend came round, and my shoulder's still ached and I was still feeling tired. But I knew I needed to go for a run all the same. However, I had lunched booked in with Hannah and her previous Marathon running partner to discuss fund raising ideas so it was left for today.

Today arrived, and so too did loads of fog and cold temperatures. Or put another way, my least favourite running conditions. But on the plus side, Hannah was up for a run and it would be our first one together. As we've not run together, and I'm quite a bit taller than she is, I suggested we did the same route Alex and I did; down to the reservoir and back again. The height difference could have a big effect on our stride rates and lengths.

We set off well, and well wrapped up, as the wind was biting. It soon became clear though that the ground had warmed up even if the air hadn't. Where I ran with Alex and the ground was frozen, it was now mush and mud again. The air was making my chest feel cold again, whilst the fog also meant any attempt at photos was a fuzzy waste of time. However, Hannah has a fancy Iphone with Strava loaded:

Assuming that I got the times right before, this means we were anywhere from 2 secs to 2 mins slower than before, due to not knowing an exact time. But with the ground being soft and the air cold, I'm OK with that where ever we are in the range.

However, next time will be faster!

New Year's Eve run?!

So it was New Year's Eve, and I was all set to go help a mate finish off his stove install when another mate, Alex, asked if I was up for a run. Err, no, not really was my initial response! Mainly as I was going to be spending New Year's Day doing a 4.4 mile kayak trip down the River Avon and thought that was quite enough exercise for this week.

So at 14.53 off we went for a run! As before, the times for this run are only as accurate as the time shown on my phone, but they'll do for now. I am seriously starting to think about upgrading to a decent/modern phone so I can track my progress better, and have ready access to Ebay, but I'll have to see what I can find before actually doing it as I'm tight (my current phone's still PAYG!).

Running with Alex on this route is rather different from before. Mainly because we were going a bit faster, and having someone to chat to can take your mind off the running a bit. I was also feeling the cold more today, despite it actually being warmer. I had looked out the window and decided to just chuck a t-shirt on over my base layer, rather than the slightly fleecey long sleeved top I wore before. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as my chest felt cold for the first half of the run. This then makes breathing hard going, which is less than ideal. But I guess these are the sort of things I have to learn about if I'm ever going to manage the level of training I need.

Thankfully, we soon returned home again. I knew we'd been quicker than when I went out on my own, but I was a little surprised when I worked out how long we'd been. The last run was 42 mins. This one was down to 35 mins, which was much less than I thought it would be! Not stopping to fart about taking photos was probably a minute or two of that though.

Given the differences in time, I'll have to start keeping a note of which runs I do on my own and which ones with someone so I can work on getting the gap down. I don't think I could've gone that quick by myself as yet, but with practice I will be able to.