Posts Tagged ‘intervals’

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Last Week: w/c 7th September

September 14, 2009

Tuesday: I’d taken Monday off as I was surprisingly sore after the Lichfield 10k. Today I went to the track with Ally for a not-so-intense interval session. My ankles were still sore and a small tear in my left thigh was being a bit niggly, so I just did a couple of warm up laps, 30 minutes of 200m on 200m off (12kmph and 9kmph respectively), and then a couple of 100m sprints and a 200m sprint to finish up.

Wednesday: Just a quick one round the block in an attempt to work out pace for Sunday’s 5k (and break in my new trainers – will post about them soon). Did 4.3km in 24:53 (5:47/km). Really want to get that down to 5:30/km for Sunday.

Friday: After Wednesday’s short run I was finding I still had a few aches left over from Sunday’s race, so I decided to take Thursday off and persuaded Ally to give my legs a massage. By Friday morning they were feeling pretty good so I headed out for a long and slow run. Ran 14km in 1:28:39 (6:30/km pace).

Saturday: Day off running to give my legs a chance to recover from yesterday’s 14km before the Great Capital Run on Sunday. Spent the morning at archery tuning the pressure button on my bow. No aches, even though I haven’t been for a few weeks. Weighed it once I’d finished and found it was only 31.5lbs (draw weight – how much it takes to pull the string back), might have to wind that up a little bit.

Sunday: Great Capital Run in Regent’s Park today. Little bit cold for my liking but it was a good event and I am happy that I ran it at a decent (for me) pace. Official chip time for the 5k was 27:17. Race report on Wednesday.

Total Run: 29.9km

Commisserations to WBA who lost to the Wolverhampton Rhinos 40-33, I heard you played well though!

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Last Week: w/c 31st August

September 7, 2009

Tuesday: I’d been planning to run all day and it just wasn’t happening. By 5.30pm the facts that I had a race in 5 days and that I hadn’t run the day before could no longer be ignored and I set out for a short run, concentrating on maintaining some sort of decent pace. I ran 4.3km in 25:06 (a 5:50/km pace).

Wednesday: Rain for most of the day put me off running. I know I should have gone out anyway with this race coming up, but chickened out. In the evening I did alternating 5 x 10 hammer curls, shoulder presses and bent over rows, then alternating 5 x 15 bicep curls and 5 x 10 shoulder presses with Ally’s 5kg dumbbells.

Thursday: I knew I needed to do a longer run before the weekend so went out for something I hoped would be close to 10k (yeah, I was too lazy to check the distance on the map first). As it turned out it was 9.85km but it took me 1:03:00 to finish it.

Friday: Decided to run to Wall – a run I’d only done once before – for a bit of change of scenery. And a change I certainly got :-) Far too much roadkill for my liking, freshly manured farmland (not really the smell you need when running), a few close encounters with speeding cars and an overly enthusiastic passenger in a car passing me. All good fun, and it kept me entertained as I was trying to keep to my 6 minute/km splits. In the end I managed it – 11.5km in 1:09:07 – and was very happy. This was the first run since my knee injury that I’ve felt went particularly well. Definitely the boost I needed for Sunday.

Sunday: The Lichfield 10k today. Well organised and good fun. Managed to finish in 59:26 despite the walls that someone left on the course the hills. Race report on Wednesday. I had about 90 minutes at home in which to shower, change, eat and get my stuff for basketball. We then spent a good 2 and a half hours there, as Ally and I stuck around to shoot and play a little one on one.

Total Run: 35.65km

Not much time to bask in post-race satisfaction as we have the Great Capital Run on Sunday. I need to do a quick recalculation of pace for this one, so I’ll be doing some intervals either on the streets or on the track.

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What’s Next?

July 17, 2009

So with the 10k conquered, what’s next? Well I’ll continue to train (you never know when the zombie apocalypse might occur, then us runners will be thankful for the miles we put in!) and I intend to keep doing some 10k and 5k events when they look good. However, my new distance goal is going to be the half marathon. I’d like to keep doing charity runs and I’m of the belief that you can’t really ask the same people to sponsor you each year if you’re just going to do the same distance as before, especially at these smaller distances, where’s the challenge in that?

Rouding the hairpin at the end of Westminster Bridge (8.1km)

Rounding the hairpin at the end of Westminster Bridge (8.1km)


I found myself getting a little despondent with running in the last few weeks leading up to the 10k and I think it was because I wasn’t increasing my distance like I had been since Christmas. I was still improving my times and getting stronger, but I wasn’t running at my own speed and I want to get back into slowly increasing my distance and running at my own pace again. The next few weeks I’ll just be doing what I want to do and run for the sake of running. I know that if I really put everything in I could probably do the full marathon next year but I want to train for it properly and get a good time (by my standards anyway). Just completing the 26.2 miles isn’t quite good enough for me. I won’t forget the shorter distances though and I’ll be putting in some interval and speed sessions at a later date to work on my times for the events I have coming up. So far I have places for:

Lichfield 10k – 6th September
Great Capital Run – 13th September
Bupa London 10,000 – 31 May 2010

If anyone knows of a good short distance event then please comment! Thanks. I shall attempt to keep posting 3 times a week but the Wednesday posts might get dropped if I have nothing of relevance to say!

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The Track

June 26, 2009

The July edition of Runner’s World magazine ran an article on using the athletics track, aimed at runners that haven’t used it before. I think I looked at the pictures and then carried on with the rest of the magazine.

The last time I ever ran on a track was over 8 years ago when I was forced into one lap as a warm up for my event at inter-school athletics meets (I did the high jump for a few weeks a year in secondary school). It was usually at least 30 minutes between the warm up and the start so it really had no benefit other than to aggravate my asthma and stain the undersides of my trainers red. I would then sit down inside the oval and watch the other high jump competitors get ready.

Having never really been into sports I would find it quite fascinating. A large proportion of them would be wearing Lycra or some sort of technical clothing (tighter is better for getting over the bar) and sporting expensive looking track spikes. A couple would have coaches there with them, guiding them through intricate stretches and providing electrical tape for marking out where they should start their approach. On the flip side, I would be sitting on the floor in my PE kit and rather grubby trainers quite perplexed at why anyone would take it so seriously and just thankful I got out of my last class of the day. So when Ally proposed that I join him at the track one day I was instantly filled with images of super fast sprinters in ridiculously tight clothing, either tutting at my poor track etiquette (trackiquette?) or stiffling laughs at my attempts to run fast. I am so glad that I was wrong.

Yesterday I was introduced to Wyndley Leisure Centre’s athletics track. It’s modest as tracks go, having almost gotten used to the huge stadium that hosted the county school athletics, it was nice to be on something smaller. Thankfully we were the only two using the track at the time, which meant I didn’t have to think about my trackiquette and looking like a complete n00b.

The starting line

The starting line


Ally had decided that we were going to do an interval session, which makes sense because the track allows for some speed and I really need to get my legs used to going at a faster pace. We started off with an 800m warm up and then did 2 minutes off to 1 minute on (~9km/h and 12km/h respectively, or 6’40″ and 5’00″ pace). We had a break at the 3.2km mark and Ally suggested I tried 200m off to 400m on for the next 3km. I failed at the first ‘on’, my asthma kicking in just after 200m, so I stepped it down to 200m/300m instead.

The rest of the session went pretty well. We stopped for another quick break and then I decided I wanted to try some sprints. I did the straight 100m and then a 300m recovery jog. I had forgotten how much fun sprinting is! I usually try to pick it up for the last few hundred meters of any long run but it’s uphill to my house and I rarely have the energy to get anywhere. But really giving it everything you’ve got, to go as fast as you can and not worry about pacing or saving any energy for later on was great. According to Charlie I got up to 21.2km/h :-) So my experience of the track was good, and now I can’t wait to try it again!

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