A long day with 7.5miles

I had a day in Bristol which involved an early train and late finish. But no rest for me and I had to get out for a few miles.

6 hours on trains though and my legs were wondering what was going on, I had an ache in my left knee, my right ankle, my right calf etc etc.

After a mile all was well though and as it was not quite dark I headed to the Nickey Line. By the time I reached West Common it was pitch dark though and I was relieved not to have twisted an ankle.

My thoughts tonight were all about the progress I've made over the last 925miles. There were 3 areas I targetted:
Endurance - by chugging out mile after mile there's no doubt I've improved
Technique - I've worked hard at getting "light" on my feet rather than thumping my way along the roads.
Pace - by doing reps week in week out I've got more and more comfortable running quickly.

The theory is that the combination of endurance, speed and technique will see me hit pb's across 5k, 10k and half marathon distances. As this is my first marathon I'll be doing a personal best whatever time I do.

So tonight was good, an easy comfortable 7.5miles at 9.13 pace.

A bit of race pace, 7.2miles

I was at home for the day, hard at it writing a report. When I finished I had an hour before I had to be back on duty with the kids.

I decided a 7 mile loop would be good and that I'd throw in a 3 mile middle section at my planned marathon pace. I expect that pace to be in my heart rate zone 3 or high zone 2 but lets see.

I warmed up with 1.5miles over to the Nickey Line. I went down the steps and took it from there, 3 miles at 7.10 -7.20 pace. It was relatively hard to stay in the zone, the temptation being to go too fast. I don't think I settled, probably a bit too focused on the garmin rather than feeling the pace. Oh well, I know what to practice for the next couple of weeks. The heart was in z3 and felt very comfortable.

I warmed down with a 2.7mile loop home via East Common. I was easing along nicely in z1 at 8.08 pace. That's pretty good for me and demonstrated the effect of being warm - faster and easier. Maybe my warm up was a bit too easy. I'll try something different next time.

Holiday Monday, 11.1miles

Easter Monday and I'm awake too early thanks to a crying Louis. He's a good wee lad but this morning he's unsettled and its only 0630.

I'm meeting Paul at 0815 but decide its time to get up and out. After a chilled breakfast I eascape and do a 4 mile loop over to Long Buftlers and back.

I meet Paul down at the George and we head roughly in the direction of Redbourn. He has a few new paths up his sleeve, so we head out of the park and over to the rugby club. From there we head down the hill and then broadly across towards the Watermill and Beeson End Lane. We don't head down to the hill so meet Beeson End up at the top. From there we head to Cross Lane and then around the houses to Crabtree Lane where we part.

Paul's on a new training programme that's aimed at increasing his 10k pace, it doesn't seem to be working as he's feeling fatigued and wasn't setting his normal sub 8 min pace. Hopefully he'll bounce back.

I enjoyed the run. My first 4 miles were all easy mid 9min pace and the rest medium 8's with the one sub 8 thrown in. My heart rate was zone 1 and 2 all the way apart from 4 mins in zone 3 when on the hills. 11.1 miles covered in 1hr 38mins, average pace 8.53.

Good day, 4miles

Excellent day. Great service and SBC, cool afternoon and evening.

The legs were feeling remarkably fresh after yesterdays 21, so I decided to get out and do an eay few miles. Its a cracking evening, clear skies, no wind or rain. Perfect.

So it was an easy 4 miles round the streets. Tomorrow its an early start for another easy few miles.

Longest and last, 21.2miles

Longest ever run today. It was forecast to be windy and potential for rain so I headed out with the old bright yellow jacket - wind proof and shower proof, and light enough to tie up if it got too hot, as it did. I only had one shower of rain and it was refreshing.

The route took me down to Redbourn and then out the back towards Flamstead, but cutting left towards Hemel's Woodhall Farm estate. I made a left turn instead of a right by mistake and ended up at Gaddesdon Row. I headed down an unknown road which I knew would eventually take me into Hemel. It did and I had to cut back out to pick up the route over to Buncefield. From there it was down to the St Albans road and back to the watermill. 13 miles done I headed over to Childwickbury and up to the Harpenden road. Instead of going left I turned right and headed towards St Albans. I picked up the bridleway by Woolams Sports Fields and then headed back towards Ayers End Lane. This was a bad decision as the fields were boggy and energy sapping.

I headed down Ayers End Lane feeling very tired and on reaching Southdown knew a loop via Long Buftlers would see me complete 20. I did that and then took a detour along Dalkeith to see me go over 21 miles. The last few miles were tough and overall it was 3hours 15mins, average pace was 9.15. Apart from the last few miles it was easy.

So that's the last really long run before London. There are 3 weeks to go. Next week is a 16miler followed by a 10 or 11 the week before race day. The mileage eases off now. Probably a 50mile week ahead followed by a 35/40. Either way, the 1000miles should be done before race day. Phew.

Good Friday run with Alistair, 10.4miles

It's Good Friday, great day and my song of the day is "This Light is for the World" by the Waterboys. Sums it up well.

Alistair is a Red Aro and doing the London Marathon. We have been trying for months to hook up and this was the day. We met over at Long Buftlers and then took the Ayers End Lane, Childwickbury, Beeson End Lane loop. 10.4 miles for me, Alistair was carrying on for another 10! Good man.

It was a pleasant run, painless and full of chat. Alistair is faster than me, so oyr chat was keeping him steady and just under 8.30's. He was finding it tricky going slow but I kept holding back.

Nice one, 0910 and now its time for a great family day.

Reps on the Nickey Line, 5.5miles

Worked at home today so missed the lunchtime reps with the elite. Instead I took the opportunity to do my old favourite 6x800m with 2mins off.

I did these week in week out between July and November last year. So I was hoping to see some improvement. My average pace in the old days over the 6 reps was marginally under 4min/km pace, just about 3.58's on average.

I did a decent warm-up to make sure I ready. It's a bit different on your own, no one to pace off and no one to keep you honest. I was just determined to do my best and see an improvement.

Rep 1 was steady. I tried to maintain "Will" pace. He's the National Grid elite who takes rep 1 steady, just easing into it. Rep 2 was into the wind and slightly up hill, so it was harder work.
Rep 3 and I'm feeling it. Rep 4 and the wind feels stronger. Rep 5, second last, important to keep working on this one, so the Will trick is to tell yourself this is the last and not ease off. Rep 6 and I'm blowing hard and the Paula Radcliffe bobbing about is back for the first time in ages. Finish off and nearly stumble into the bushes. Good work out and I'm hoping the Garmin's going to have good news.

I get myself home and the reps are just what I wanted, from a pace perspective they are:
3:42 / 3:45 /3:41 / 3:52 /3:33 / 3:52

Woo hoo. That's an average of 3:44 and a massive step up in pace and endurance. A sub 40minute 10k is achievable this year which would be a fantastic reward for all the hard winter training.