Posts Tagged ‘track’

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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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Last Week: w/c 22nd June

June 29, 2009

Monday: My legs were still complaining at the fact I made them run a fast (for me) 10k the day before and so I decided to give them a break and go to the gym for some resistance work instead. Did a little under an hour of upper body stuff.

Tuesday: Hot and muggy today so I ran a 10k at my own pace…which is somewhere between a run and a jog (a rog?) but I still found it difficult. I’m not sure if it’s the number of longer runs I’m doing lately, or maybe the heat but it was a real struggle. Time was 64’53″.

Thursday: Went to the track at Wyndley Leisure Centre for an interval session. Scroll down or click here to read about it. Ran a total of 8.8km.

Friday: Didn’t feel like running today so I dusted off the FitDeck, shuffled and picked 5. I did the intermediate level for all 5, doing a set of 10 sit ups on the incline bench after each card.

My 5 for today. Apologies for the low light.

My 5 for today. Apologies for the low light.

Saturday: Archery in the morning so I didn’t get out for a run until mid afternoon. Decided to just do the quickest 10k I could manage, banging out a 5’30″, 5’33″ and 5’22″ straight off. I found this speed was really testing my asthma and had to slow it down for the next km, picking it back up for the 5th and 6th kms, and then slowing down for the 7th. I really thought I could get home in 58 minutes but it turned out I was just 14 seconds too slow :-) Good run though, it really let me know just how quick I can go without my asthma kicking in and 58’14″ is a good time to work on.

Sunday: Scribs missed his weekly one mile run last week (to his benefit he did text to ask me first) so to make up for it he had to run 2 miles this week, plus a penalty mile. I decided to join him and we went with the goal of finishing in 30 minutes. What I obviously didn’t take into consideration when pace setting was the ‘little sit-down’ Scribs had to have as his body innevitably ran out of calories and his stomach tried to eat itself. Still, we made it back in 31’38″, which is decent enough. Unfortunately, Charlie had a ‘moment’ and decided to spend most of the first km thinking we were going twice as fast as we were, throwing off the first km marker and generally screwing with my stats. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.

Total Run: 33.8km

I got my race number through the post on Monday (1492) along with a race number for my kit bag (so it doesn’t feel left out), 3 safety pins (for 2 numbers?), a letter saying “I’ve enclosed 6 safety pins” (someone can’t count) and an official event programme (mostly adverts) for the asics British 10k. Only 13 days to go!

Wednesday I signed up for the Bupa Great Capital Run, a 5k through Regents Park. I suggested it to Matt last time I saw him and so he has signed up as well. Assuming that they let him in, Ally also has a place. It’s a staggered start so I’ve put my estimated time as the 25-28 minute band. Should be a fun day!

And lastly, I know I haven’t said anything about my weight since I posted about it on 11th May. At the time I was 154lbs and wanted to lose between 5 and 10lbs before the 10k. I’m now manintaining 150lbs so I haven’t lost as much as I would have liked but I think that’s a good start.

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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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