6.46 miles and a crazy plan

1 March 2010

Sunday was a bit of a wipe out for me. I was tired. It was RAINING.

I mean seriously raining. Big fat drops of rain and lots of wind to blow them right in your face. I really didn't feel like getting out of bed, but I had committed to run. And, when you've set a time in the morning to run and told members of your newly created running club to meet you at a certain point at 11am, there's not really much room for manoeuvre.














In the end it was fine. I dragged myself out of bed and donned a lot of waterproof gear and a warm hat. We ran for a while, jogging for 10 minute stints and then stopping and walking for two minutes. We totalled just over six miles in a little over an hour. I surprised even myself at how good I felt at the end. Little stiff today.

Actually there's an interesting study somewhere that shows the run-walk-run approach to running can actually work out faster overall than just keeping going. The logic is that the recovery segments make the next bit of running more powerful and faster. More here.

Also -- in a late addition to my running calendar -- I have enlisted to run the London marathon in eight weeks time. ARGH! Diet and running plan need a lot of work :-)














Total: 6.46 miles (around 10K)
Time: 1 hr 7 mins 31 seconds
Average pace: 10 mins 27 seconds per mile
Calories: 724

13 Weeks To Go - Gentse Feesten

Monday 27th July, 2009

Two good length runs this weekend, a total of 13.5 miles, the longest one 7.64 miles, and a trip to Belgium's annual Gentse Feesten.



The Gentse Feesten runs each year for 2 weeks in Ghent, a town 30 minutes by train to the north west of Brussels. It was my first visit to the city and I was surprised at how gorgeous it is: cobbled streets, canals, 900 listed buildings. And great shopping.



The music and theatre festival is Europe's third largest festival after Germany's Oktoberfest and Valencia's Falles. It starts each year on the Saturday before Belgian national day (July 21) and runs for ten days. There are stages in each of Ghent's main squares with organised acts and small street acts like buskers and acrobats run alongside. The last day of the festival is called De dag van de lege portemonnees, the day of the empty wallets!

















www.gentsefeesten.be

My runs were much less exciting, I am getting stuck in the same route: from my flat down to the Bois de la Cambre, same route through the park and then a few laps of the pond. Need to change it up!











The stats:
Distance: 7.64 miles
Time: 1 hr 10 mins, 12 seconds
Pace per mile: 9 mins 11 seconds
Calories: 803

10k

Thursday 16th July, 2009


Today I discovered that if I run from my house to the forest and then twice around the pond, I make about 10k.


Having not been out for a few days, I was keen to get a good run under my belt to reassure myself that I was still "a runner".


Ususally I find the first 2 miles or so the hardest, so battling through those I pumped up the i-pod and pushed on, keeping running the whole time (try to ignore that massive v-shaped dip in the middle of the running chart below).

Felt AMAZING at the end. Bring on the marathon!













Ran: 6.22 miles or around 10k

Time: 58 mins 31 seconds

Pace per mile: 9 mins 24 seconds

Calories: 654

And runnin' runnin'

Monday 14th - Friday 18th April

This week has been exhausting. I've managed nothing more than a few runs between the office and home.

Saw Jeremy Irons playing Harold Macmillan in Never So Good at the National Theatre. Macmillan was the British prime minister from 1957-63 and the play looks back at his life, revealing a bevvy of interesting facts for those of us who haven't read his biography. I didn't know Macmillan was wounded five times in World War I or that he survived a plane crash in World War II. Jeremy Irons was Very Good, as was the actor who plays Churchill and duckface from Four Weddings and a Funeral. Highly Recommended, especially if you can get the £10 tickets offer from Travelex.

Also watched the Italian film My Brother Is An Only Child, which follows two squabbling brothers navigating the political ideologies of 1960s Italy. The older hot brother is a communist, the younger, gangly one a fascist. They fight, they make up, they fight some more. They are a metaphor for the entire country. One dies, the other comes to terms with himself and his politics. Beautiful. Thought provoking given my current heightened interest in Italian politics. Could have been half an hour shorter.

Stanwick 10K Road Race - Easter Monday

9 WEEKS AND COUNTING

Monday 24th March

Madness is... getting out of bed at 7am on a Bank Holiday Monday.

Utter madness is getting out of bed at 7am on a Bank Holiday Monday in sub-zero temperatures, dragging your entire family an hour in the car to a village you've never heard of and completing a 10K race over undulating terrain.

And so my marathon journey took me to Northamptonshire village, Stanwick, and its annual Easter run. It was cold. Numb feet and blue arms at the start line. Much debate over whether or not to wear jumper.

Started as well as could be expected on an incline. Spurred on by sighting of Grandpa at 1K. Mental strength left me at 1.5K when it dawned on me that there was likely to be more than one hill... pretty sure I'd been overtaken by at least 50 other runners by then. Got into stride behind seriously old dude with pale grey mullet, matching sweatbands and tiny shorts. Internalized thoughts. Lots of hills. Sharp incline about three quarters in = upsetting. Downhill finish = serious killer.

Ran: 10K undulating road race in 50 mins and 37 seconds.

Loot: Medal, orange squash, glory.

Highs: Spotting Gramps at 1K, regaining the feeling in my toes at 2K

Lows: Turning blue, getting overtaken by a geriatric

Ate:
Shredded wheat with skimmed milk and banana
Baked potato with beans and cheese
1 slice Cadbury's Easter Cake
Pint of shandy
1.5 glasses of rose
Unorthodox spaghetti carbonara (chicken as well as bacon).