Wednesday 18 April 2012

Boston Marathon 2012


Its not everyone that gets to run a Boston Marathon, so i consider myself lucky. Even if the conditions on the day meant i failed to hit my target goal. However despite that my Boston 2012 was the best run marathon Ive done, I still came away with a shiny new PB, and an overall result that id only dreamed about.


Wednesday 15 February 2012

Review: Pure Connect - Feelings

Ah yes ladies finally a man that wants to talk about his feelings...
 
When brooks introduced the new PureProject line they used a graph to show the difference between them and the shoes in their traditional range. The graph shows a new scale Float vs Feel.

It highlights the different feeling of running in the pure project shoes. The Pure Project is all about feeling more on your run. Feeling connected with your running environment.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Hamm Winterlauf Series 15k

The weather was once again Ideal for the start of the 2nd race in the Hamm Winterlauf Series. This time over 15km. It was cold, and only the slightest of breezes blowing on a dry (and a little dusty) course.

Id decided to change my fueling for this race I ate a good carb rich dinner the night before, and treated myself to a few chocolates and sweets  while watching TV. Instead of breakfast, i just drank a couple of cups of fresh coffee, and took a gel 20 minutes before the start.

The start of the 15km is on the track just like the 10k however in the 10k the runners are split into two seperate races, in the 15k we all start together, So it means an even more crowded start, This time i only managed to get about 10m from the start line, and was standing over about lane 7.

Monday 6 February 2012

Boston Build Up - Week 9 & 10

Week 9 of My Boston Buildup was dominated by recovering and seeing off a cold that id been dealing with for a few weeks. Followed up with the long run being replaced by the first of my evaluation runs.

Because of the Illness i kept my long runs short, I didnt go over 17km at all that week. However I did still do all of my runs. Which had the added benifit of helping me to see off the two niggles that had been plagueing me for a while, the right hip, and my left knee.

The Evaluation race i did didnt turn out as good as id hopped, Still a PB but way off what id hopped to achieve. I think it reflects the lack of speed work ive done so far. Ill be assessing the evaluation runs in more detail when the series is complete. No point getting concerned about a single result just yet.

So its good that ive started to introduce a Fartlek run in week 9 & 10 to help me transition into the speed work proper that i want to do starting week 11. I really enjoyed my fartlek runs.

Week 10 was a much better week for me, I clocked up another 100+ mile week. 163km. It hasnt been easy running as weve been dealing with a major cold snap here in europe, with temperatures getting down to -13°c mid week and -15°c saturday morning where i ended up with ice encrusted eyebrows and eyelashes. But perhapes the adversity has fired me up a bit more to get out there and get it done.

I also got my cross training in with a swim session thursday evening.

On Sundays long run i went out a bit to fast as i got caught up running with a faster group of runners. I also suffered some strange cramping/pain in my left foot that will need to be watched.

Looking ahead Week 11 is when i introduce some speed development work, Im looking foward to getting some intervals done on a track. And hopefully equalising out some of my running development.

Hamm Winterlauf Series 10k

My local winterlauf Series is also Germany oldest running 3 race winter Series. So it goes without saying that i am entered.

clipping from the local paper

But not only for nostlgic reasons, the series, a 10k , 15k, and HM make for a great appraisal of your marathon fitness, both in the individual Races but also if you take the series total time. You come away with 4 marathon predictions for the price of 3.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Boston Build Up - Week 8

This week Ive been plagued with a Cold. Its not really been bad enough to stop me from running, but i decided fairly early on in the week to keep my volume down a little so that i didnt put too much stress on my immune system.

I had intended to run another 160km week but instead it turned out to be 116km. I also didnt do a long run as on sunday morning when i had  it scheduled I woke up feeling a little bit worse for wear, I still got out and started the run but we started off by heading straight into the wind, which had me feeling pretty sorry for myself, so i cut it short at 19k.

My legs however really seemed to have enjoyed this cutback week, The tightness in my left leg has subsided, and the niggle in my right hip is now a thing of the past. This encouraged me to run both of my steady paced runs at a pretty good clip. It was really nice to see my pace heading down close to 4:30/k at an effort level that i felt like i could sustain for a good length of time.


We now have 12 full weeks till Boston, thats just 10 weeks more of training time before the need to Taper. This coming week I start to prepare for the next major phase of training, focused on speed development by introducing a fartlek run into my training. I also have the first of my tune-up and assesment races at the end of the week.

Monday 16 January 2012

Boston Build Up - Week 7

This was a much better week in terms of running conditions. This allowed me to increase the intensity a little on my mid week runs, I was quite surprised how hard i was feeling like i was pushing myself to have to maintain the target HR's id set myself for these runs. But I was able to run them for close too two hours before feeling the effects of Glykogen depletion.

The second semi-long run i used as a field test for my Boston Shoes, the Brooks Green Silence. They worked pretty well, i did start to feel my right achilles at the end, so i think i should repeat a run at that distance before extending to use them on a LSR. I will also be including my other flat shoes more often in my weekly routine.

As the week went on and the volume of running continued to grow I started to feel it in my legs, and the niggle in my right hip started to come back. Then I spent sunday morning in a cold sports hall watching my youngests indoor soccer tournament, they won, but i just couldnt get warm, and decided to skip my planned run and spend the afternoon wrapped up on the couch and indulge in a bit of comfort food.

I dont feel guilty about this rest day, It was the wise choice in my books, it had been two weeks since my last full day off, and Im feeling much better today. Looking foward to this weeks training. The plan is to continue on the same as the past week with the main goal the continued building of my base Aerobic condition.

I would also like to perform a fitness test this week. either a Hadd test or a Mafetone style 10k at AT... I havent done either in the past, but i think it will be good for my running to start to do something like this regularly, once per month or so.

Total running this week was 6 training runs, 3 recovery runs and a total of 161km.