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Before the festivities

It has been another good running week. The weather has been relatively good and I felt good the whole week. It was the last week of serious running before the rest and all the crazy eating for Christmas.

I started easy on Monday with a recovery 11km run. It was the first winter day cold enough to wear the full thick winter gear.

On Tuesday I did some interval training. The usual warm up and then five 2′ run at around 3:30 with 2′ rest. Quite tiring. Strangely it was around 10 degrees at 5am. I ran with no gloves and hat with my medium gear and was still sweating like crazy.

On Wednesday for the easy recovery run went on a new route on the other side of the river on the Kingston bank and then up to the Teddington lock on the road instead of the usual towpath which was too dark. It’s nice to change once in a while. I was very happy after 11km. Again super warm for December.

Thursday was cold again and it was time for interval training again. Warm up and then four 6′ run with the heart at 155/158bmp and 3′ rest. A lot of fun but at the fourth I was ready to go home.

Friday unfortunately the alarm clock did not wake me up and I slept until the second alarm, the one that says it is time to go to work.

This meant that Saturday I was full of energy and very keen to go out. I did 30 minutes to Richmond Park and then 5 one minute repeats on the hill going uphill as fast as I could. Then when I was tired enough I went all around the park and then back home for a total of 25km.

hilly

It was a good run. The hill repeats were a killer and until I had a gel I could not really get some speed back in the legs. I tried a new flavour, banana. I loved it. I have a big stash now and I am trying different flavours. So far I have to say that my former favourite, green apple, has been beaten by the banana ones.

IMG_5153

Overall it was a good week. I ran a total of 70.5km and now it is time for some rest. I will run a bit during the holidays next week but not much. The last week of the year I will start seriously again.

Have fun and have a nice Christmas!

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Steady diet of running

Another solid week.

Monday was an easy recovery day. I did 10Km at 4:33 min/km. Nothing special but I felt really good. Running long distances during the week end (38km was a lot for me) really adds to my confidence and going out for a short run where I do not have to worry makes it really fun. Also running more kms per week has definitely made me a lot stronger and I can feel it in my legs. I am not as tired as I used to be the first month of waking up at 5am every day. Now it is a routine and the body is ready. Whether it is ready for a trail marathon in a month time we’ll have to wait and see.

Tuesday was again an easy run day. I decided to do more kms than I usually do in the week days. I’ve read somewhere (I think in this old Roberto Albanesi’s book) that a training session needs to be at least one hour long. Most of mine are 10/12km during the week so they last less than 50 minutes. On Tuesday I did 15km. For an exact total of an hour. It was a good run but it was extremely cold, below zero. I could hear the crick crick that the shoes did on the ice on the road. I challenge my friends @unknowndest and @manuontrail to run in shorts in those conditions! (We have an ongoing discussion about long tights and pants).

Wednesday was the interval training day so after the usual 20 minutes warm up I did 4 x 4′ at 3:40 min/km with 4 minutes rest. 4×4+4. The day of the 4s. I ran a total of 14km in exactly an hour (Albanesi would approve).

Thursday I again went out for an easy recovery run. It was a bit of a suffering due to cramps. I went really slow, accelerating only at the end to go to the toilet as quickly as possible. 10km in total, but not much fun. Wind and ice did not help either.

Friday I woke up, saw that there was a storm outside with horizontal rain and decided to be lazy and went back to sleep. Obviously regretted it as soon as I woke up 2 hours later.

Saturday I was supposed to do around 60% of my longest run of the previous The Cool Impossible training plan part one, but as I skipped the day before I decided to do a bit more. I left home as the sun was coming out: beautiful clear sky, frozen ground, very few people around, a light fog on the river, perfect. Having rested the day before I felt really good and did a relatively fast 30km run (my new 30k PB) through Bushy Park, the Hampton Court’s river side, around the whole of Richmond Park, Kingston to Teddinton Lock and then home. When I stopped I still had a lot of energy. I am really proud of myself. In less than 5 months I went from running 21k to 30k with the same effort. Running 30k now seems really easy.

A good week then, 79.2k in total. One more normal training week and then I will rest a bit during the Chirstmas week. The first marathon is approaching!

Go outside and have fun!

Ciao

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Follow the river

Last week I did not run much so I had to go big this week.

Monday I did an easy run. With the new heart zones calculated last week things got a little bit faster. 13km at 4:16 min/km.

Tuesday was more intensive. After the usual 15/20 min warm up I did 5x(3′ at 3:35 with 3′ rest). It was fun and tiring. It also marked the end of my Brooks Glycerin. At 800km it was time to retire them. I ended up liking them a lot. I did not think any shoe could beat my favourite Asics Nimbus, but they are not that different, a bit harder but definitely a lot longer lasting. I might get a new pair when the current Nimbus get to around 400km, to alternate them.

Wednesday I did not hear the alarm clock and woke up too late to go out running. 🙁

Thursday I did 40 minutes at a steady 4:19 min/km and then 8 ten seconds sprints between 2:50 and 3:30. Seven minutes of cool down and I was home happy. It was definitely getting colder and colder each day.

Friday was a lot of fun. I did 4km of warm up and then 6 fast km at 3:47. Two cool down kms and then home for a big recovery protein smoothy.

Saturday’s plan was to run more than what The Cool Impossible training schedule suggested. I need to put more kms in my legs to get ready for the next months of marathon running.
It was crazy cold, zero degrees at 8am and it did not get better, it was 1 degree when I got back home. I decided to follow the river and run away from home as much as possible and then turn back. I fist did a couple of km towards Kingston and then followed the river until I had run 21km and then turned back. The idea was that if I felt like it I could do the same route back and end up doing 42km like a real marathon runner or if I felt tired I could stop earlier, skipping the initial loop to Kingston. That’s what I ended up doing for a total of 38km, which I think is still good as it is the longest I have ever run.

The trail on the river is all flat so I could keep a good pace and I ended up running with an average of 4:48 min/km. The story really changed after 32km, keeping under 5 min/km was a struggle. The freezing cold did not help either. The trail was either frozen hard mud or slippery ice. At the 24th km I even slipped on a downhill wooden ramp and fell like an idiot. Luckily I did not hit the ground too hard as I was quite far away from home. It actually helped as for the next 4 or 5 kms I was all energized by the fall.

I had a gel at 15k and one at 25k which really helped. I also ran for the first time with my new Ultimate Direction AK Race Vest 2.0. I loved it. I only carried one bottle and drunk very little as it was very cold and, I have to admit, I only understood how to drink from it once I got home (I should have tried it before starting running). Once I got the strap in the right configuration for my body it really felt comfortable and did not hinder the run at all. I might try and get soft bottles to replace the ones that come with it. I have not tried carrying anything on the back as I did not need to, but I am sure I found the right vest/backpack for my future trail marathons and for the NDW50. As always the Brooks Cascadia did their job. As my experience teaches me, only ice can beat them.

Overall it was a very good run, I enjoyed it a lot and it took me to places I had not been in ages, like my very first office in Mortlake.

longSaturday

I will probably do another long run just after Christmas and then taper until my first marathon.
Here are the next challenges:

I think that should be enough for the first half of 2015.

Overall, good week: 5 runs for a total of 88.2km.

Ciao!

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Bad start, new PB

This week started pretty bad. I was not feeling too well on Sunday afternoon but despite the nausea I ate a lot of pizza for dinner. 30 minutes later I was regretting it big time. I spent half the night in the toilet and then Monday I was KO and spent most of the day sleeping. A real shame as last week’s 80+ km were something I really wanted to build on.

Tuesday obviously I did not run as I was still not 100% fit.
Wednesday I wanted to do the 1 mile test as suggested by the plan in The Cool Impossible. I went out even if I was still a bit weak and after 5k or so of warm up I tried to do 1 mile as fast as I could. Disaster. Last summer before starting this training regime I did the 1 mile in 5:22. This time it took me 5:37.
I then ran back home sad and beaten. I was so weak that I really struggled on the last 2k. The fog was coming up but it felt like my eyes were getting foggy and I was going to faint. Not a nice situation to be in.
I then took two decisions. The first was to ignore this 1 mile test and the second was to rest a bit and only run again on Saturday.
I though that there was no point in doing the 20 minutes test either. It would not have been indicative.

I decided to do the Bushy Parkrun on Saturday. I went to do it with my brother in law who was visiting us for the week end and I wanted to show him all the nice places I run in and how friendly the parkrun people are.
We warmed up for 2k and I then did the race. I like parkruns. I don’t do them often as on Saturday I prefer to do a long run, but if there is a good occasion I do one.
My previous PB was 18:30. I am glad to say I smashed it by 20 seconds! I really gave it all I could and finished 13th overall (3rd in my category).
We then ran back home via the river, 7.5 more kms, slowly recovering from the speedy 5k.

Not much running this week but with a new 5k PB I cannot complain.

I decided to use those 18:10 as my 20 minutes test. Last time I did it I had an average of 159 BPM. This time 171 BMP! A lot more. I always thought that the first test did not come out well and the resulting heart zones were too low. That’s why I tweaked them a bit. This time the heart zones are more interesting and I am sure come next week the second part of The Cool Impossible training will see me running a lot faster!

The marathons are getting closer!

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Full Throttle

After a couple of weeks of intense running but not for long distances this was the week I wanted to go back to running every day. It was also the last week of The Cool Impossible training part 1. So even in the rain and the cold I managed to run 6 times this week.

Monday I took it easy, 10km of recovery run (at 4:37 min/km). I needed it after Saturdays’ race.
Tuesday again, 10 easy km at 4:28 min/km. The legs were recovering and I felt full of energy again.
Wednesday it got serious. 15 minutes of warm up and then 5 four minutes repeats at 3:45 min/km (or faster) with 3 minutes rest. Quite tiring.
On Thursday I was really sleepy but managed to go for a 10.5km run at 4:33 min/km and then Friday I went for another interval training. This time 8 twenty minutes sprints with 2 minutes rest. I enjoy those quick sprints. Actually I enjoy any type of running, from long slow runs to 10 seconds sprints. I did most of the sprints under 2:50 min/km which feels very fast for me.

Then the big day arrived. Saturday is the long run day. I wanted to run at least 3 hours and maybe aim to beat my 38km records. Unfortunately I had to be home at 9 to take my youngest daughter to an event. So I had to leave home very early and that meant I could not run in any park for most of the run as it was too dark. I ended up doing a long road detour so that I could get on the river side by the time there was some light and then went into Richmond park so early that I almost met no one. Which is a good thing. On Saturday it is always packed with runners while at that time in the morning it was just me and the deer.
Everything went fine until the 20th km. I started having some really bad cramps then but managed to run them off. They re-appeared a bit later again but I was already on the way home and as I really had to arrive by 9 I could not stop. I ended up doing 34 km in 2:45. I whished I could do more, but the race the week before and the 5 training days really sucked all the energy I had left in my legs. I had one gel sachet and drank most of my pint of water (with added salts), but I should have had a bigger breakfast. Well, you always learn something.

I am happy of the week as a whole. I ran a total of 87.6km which is my weekly record.

Next week I will take it easier and probably do the Cool Impossible tests to fine tune the second part of the training and maybe take part in the Bushy Parkrun on Saturday. There is also th eoffice Chirstmas party, that will make me less sporty.

Have fun!

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Dirt Running

This has been a very nice running week.

I did not train much during the week as I was getting some rest for Saturday’s race.

Monday I did an easy recovery 11.5km run. It was also the first run with the new Asics Nimbus 16. It is early to say if they are still the best shoes for me but they felt really good. I am going to alternate using them and the old ones for a while now.

Tuesday I rested and then Wednesday I did a bit of warm up and then tried to do a 5k fast run. I felt really good. In my old way of training I never did slow recovery runs like the one on Monday and I have to say, that was a mistake. You really feel energised by those easy days and Wednesday I felt really good, no pain anywhere, and did those 5k at a pace of 3:50 min/km which is not amazing, but it was all about feeling good for the race. Plus I had two pints of beer the evening before! I know, I broke my rule of “no alcohol 2 weeks before a race”, but I had to.

Thursday I did 10 easy km and then after work went to the pub again! I know, big mistake, but I was invited to a party, I had to drink.

Friday I rested, had pasta for lunch and dinner and went to bed early. This was the plan:

plan

The race was a bit far from home so I left quite early, good thing the start was at 10am. It took me a lot less to get there than expected and had to wait a long time. I ate a banana, an energy bar and used the toilet before the usual massive queue formed. I hate waiting.

The day was perfect, cold and dry. The location seemed very nice too. On the way there I passed a lot of nice little old villages, all of them made of a couple of old houses, a church and a bridge. Loads of tiny bridges over little canals. Really nice.

When it was about time to start I went to take my place on the starting line, in the group that aimed to do it under 90 minutes. I was confident. My half Marathon best is under 85 minutes and I was hoping the trails and hills would not affect me too much. The plan was to run at a steady pace around 4:10 min/km but as always the pull of the other runners made me start faster.
After a couple of km it was already possible to see the leading group forming in front and gaining distance. I stayed in the second group. Last of that lot, maybe 25th.
The first half of the race was on flat, on a very nice towpath on a canal. It was not a trail but it was very slippery, especially under the many bridges. Being very narrow the path made it hard to overtake but after a while I was feeling so good I started running well under 4:00 min/km and started gaining places until after a while I was the first of the second leading group. At that point I went crazy and decided to give it all. I was not even halfway through the race and decided to dig in and run fast. All the time I kept on thinking it was a mistake. I could see the people I was overtaking thinking the same. “Where does he think he is going? Doesn’t he know the hard part is still to come?”. No, I did not know and did not care. In these cases ignorance is a good thing.

Finally we left the canal and went into the fields and after a while the path started climbing and I thought “OK, this is the end for me. I overdid it and now I will pay for it”. I was wrong. All those hill training on Kingston hill paid off. I slowed down a bit obviously, but not that much. I was not looking at the road. I just looked at the feet of the people in front and one by one I overtook five of them and found myself at the top of the hill and, cheered by the small crowd, I started running down. This is where the best part of the race was. Up and down this hill in the mud, skipping roots, jumping between puddles, running through cattle gates, in the wet fields sometimes with the feet completely under water. It was exhilarating and as I knew I could not catch the leaders I, at least, ran as fast as I could to avoid being caught up by the people behind. Really, I could have not run faster and I did not care that there was still quite a bit to go.

dirtrunning

I was so into it that at one point I missed the correct trail and started bombing down a tarmac road. Luckily one of the marshalls shouted at me “Ehy! It’s a trail race not a road race!”. I laughed but had to go back up. I only lost probably 25 seconds, but one guy behind me caught up and we were entering the small path at the same time. I have to thank him for being such a good sportsman. He stopped and waited for me to get back into the path and run ahead of him. Very nice stuff. It was the highlight of the event for me.

We then run all the way to the end together. After a bit more wet fields and slippery wooden bridges we rejoined the towpath for the last 4k of the run.
Here the competition started between us, or at least I felt like it. We ran close to each other at around 4:10 min/km pace. Going faster was either not possible because we were too tired or we both were waiting for the other to do his move. We ran together until we were 500 mt from the end. There was a small slope there, very muddy and slippery and he lost his momentum and slowed down a lot. I overtook him and he shouted “Go go! You won!”
I saw another guy in front but it was impossible to think to accelerate at that point and just enjoyed the feeling of crossing the line and finishing my first trail race.

I finished in 14th place, 6th in my category, in 1 hour and 26 minutes. It’s a result I am really proud of as I gave it all and loved every second of it. I hope this is the first of many. I will definitely go back to do this one next year.

For some stats have a look at Strava.

Cannot wait to do more. My next race is a full marathon! Unless I find another race to do before then 🙂
 

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Back in action

It has been quite a crazy week. Very tiring for many reasons, so my running suffered a bit, but I still managed to clock in a total of 65 km.

On Monday I had to skip training as we arrived home from Portugal at 2am. Three hours sleep is not enough to run and then work a full day.

On Tuesday I took it easy as I had not been running for 5 days. So I only did 10 km. I wanted to keep my heart below 140bmp but I forgot to check once in a while and went faster. It was fine, I needed to release some stress.

Wednesday was more interesting. After the usual warm up I did four 5 minutes repeats at 150-158bmp (around 3:45 min/km) with 3 minutes rest.

Then Thursday was the killer day (my favourite type). For two reasons, the training and the weather. It was really cold. The internet said 2 degrees, but I think in some areas it was closer to zero. There was ice on the street! My hands suffered the most, I should have worn gloves, but it feels too early for that! Good thing I covered my head with my new Buff. I am such a trendy runner!
Anyway, I did the usual 20 minutes warm up and then did four 2 minute uphill repeats at a relatively fast speed and then rest on the way down. The heart was racing! I always go up and down the same road when doing hills training when the park is closed. I find it fun to think about the people sleeping in their houses with a mad man running up and down their street.

tinyElevation

Then to finish the day off I did five 1 minute sprints faster than 2:20 min/km with 2 minutes rest. It felt good.

Friday on the other hand I felt really lazy and when I woke up, heard the heavy rain falling, felt a little pain in my right leg/hip, I thought about the day ahead and decided to sleep more.

That was a good call as on Saturday I felt fresh and ready for my long run. I decided to run less than the last long run but do at least 30 kilometres. As I will be running the Dirt Running Half Challenge next week end I wanted to try and run a bit faster than I usually do in my long runs. I aimed to always stay at around 4:30 min/km. I did 31km, beating my 30km personal best, in the rain, mud, wind and then sunshine. The bit that hurt the most was my right shoulder. I am really weak if I cannot carry a water bottle for 2 hours!
It was a lot of fun, felt good and I did not suffer from my usual endless hiccups in the afternoon.

Next week I will take it easy before the race on Saturday, but I am very much looking forward to run with my new Asics Nimbus 16.

nimbus16

Yes, I went back to my favourite shoes. It is probably my 8th pair. I liked the Brooks Glycerine I was running in, but not as much as the Nimbus. Let’s see how they go next week. I am not abandoning Brooks, I still have my Cascadia for my long Saturday’s runs (where I try to run on trails as much as possible) and they will play an important role on next Saturday’s race.

Have fun!

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40 40 40

40 years! Not kilometres! (sadly)

This has been a very short running week. I only trained three days as the rest of the week I was away.

Monday I did a fun interval session. After the usual 20 minutes warm up I did 3 x 8 minutes running with a heart rate higher than 150bpm (which translated to around 4:00 min/km) and 3 minutes rest. It was the first rainy day in months. Not that it never rains here (it’s London after all), but for some strange alignment of planets the last time I ran in the rain was last July. I actually love running in the rain, especially if it is not torrential.

Tuesday was an easy run day. 13km at 4:23 min/km. Nothing special to report apart form the fact that now that the clock has gone back one hour I can run on the river again (only at the end of the session and it will be too dark again soon).

Wednesday: again an easy run. 10k with some sprints at the end.

And this is all I did this week running-wise. A mere 36.5km.
Then we went to Portugal for my 40th birthday and completely disregarded any sense of diet and drinking restraint and enjoyed the holiday as much as I could. This is arunning blog so I am not going to bother you with stuff like quality family time, sunshine and bacalhau. Eh eh.

Have fun!

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Three hours (success)

Last week I did not manage to run for three continuous hours on my Saturday long run and I was a bit disappointed.

My training schedule (I am still religiously following The Cool Impossible plan) for this week was a lot more relaxed with only 3 runs before the long one in the week end, plus I was not recovering from a race so I was pretty confident I could do the 3 hours run.

I did 10 easy kms on Monday, 13 easy kms on Wednesday and 10 more easy ones on Thursday. Nothing special to report, apart from catching a cold and having a sore throat all week.

Then the big day arrived. Saturday’s long run. The weather was perfect. Not too cold, but not as hot as last week end. I left slightly earlier than the previous attempt to avoid clashing with the parkrun in Bushy Park or the one in Richmond Park. I made sure to add 5km at the beginning of last weeks route, to avoid arriving back home too early and then not finding the will to continue to complete the 3 hours.

This time I also took with me not only the hand-held bottle but also 2 gels. I have to say, I am not used to running carrying a pint of water and I find it very hard to carry it with my left hand so I always carry it on the right. After a couple of hours I can feel my right shoulder complaining a bit. I also think 2 gels were probably too much. One and a couple of gel blocks are probably enough for this distance.

Everything went well. After an hour of running I entered Richmond Park where my friend Omar was waiting for me on his bike. We did the counterclockwise route and an hour later at the 24th km we said goodbye. I was still feeling strong and I had my second gel (I had the first one at the 14th km). At this point it was mostly a psychological battle. The legs were ok, the heart was perfect and I was basically just trying to run at around 4:45 min/km while my body was always trying to settle at 5 min/km. I arrived back home after 2 hours 50 minutes and did one extra lap around the neighbourhood to try to get to 3 hours, but then felt I had done enough and stopped at 2:55, for a total of 36.5km.

It is not the full 3 hours I wanted to do, but I consider it a victory nonetheless. I’ve never run for so long and it felt pretty good. I now feel like I could “easily” do a full road marathon, which is something 2 months ago I could definitely not do. I also think I could do it in under 3 hours and a half which I think is good.

See you on the road!

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Three hours (failed)

It has been a tough week. The race on Sunday was amazing, but took its toll.

Monday I had some rest after the race. I was ok but my right foot was not perfect, luckily the issue only lasted one day.

On Tuesday I did an easy run with 20″ fast sprints every 5 minutes. I still was not in a good shape (the first 20 minutes my legs and abs were shouting “running again!”) so I did only 10km in a sort of fartlek.

Wednesday after the usual 20 minutes warm up I was supposed to do 5 intervals of 3 minutes each below 3:40 min/km (with 2′ rest) but I only ended up doing 4 and then run very fast home for belly problems.

Thursday: 13km easy. I was feeling better.

Friday: my favourite training, hilly intervals. Again I went to Kingston Hill (very quite at 5:45am, no one is around) and did 7 one minute uphill sprints followed by 2 minutes downhill rest. After those kind of training I usually go home very happy, ready for a nap on the train to work.

Saturday was the big day. I planned on doing 3 hours of straight running, aiming to run at least 35km. Sadly it did not happen. It could have been because I had a couple of beers the day before or the fact it was a surprisingly hot morning. I even bought a brand new UltrAspire hand held bottle and I felt really professional, but no, I failed in my intent. I think I was still very tired from the race and had not allowed for enough recovery time. I ended up running 2 hours and a half, for a total of 31.5km, suffering from the sixth km to the end.

Next week is going to be a more relaxing week, with only 4 days of running so I will try again to run 3 hours on Saturday. Check this blog next week to see if I succeed!