Less Than Two Days To Go...

I've been pretty busy with Uni stuff for the past few weeks so I haven't updated this in a while. But here's a new update - woo, shiny!

My training has been going very well. After the technical hitches which accompanied my last couple of updates, those have finally been sorted out - a bit of sellotape in the insole has kept the Nike+ sensor from jiggling around and giving me false readings, and I've been using my fiancee's iPod instead of mine, so I haven't had any more problems with recording false data or anything like that.

For the past few weeks now in training for this race I haven't been running as much as I normally would have - I've been paranoid about staying injury free (took a worrying kick on the toe at five-a-sides on Tuesday, but that has healed up) and I even cut down drastically on the games of fives I have been playing to give me more days to run but also extra rest days.

So, how has it been going? Well, my plan was to start at 4K and add on 0.5K increments until I ran a 10K and then that should tide me nicely for the race. And it's worked very well. Here are a list of my runs, what date they were on, and my average pace:

9th February - 4.00K, 19:05, 4:46
11th February - 4.50K, 21:30, 4:46
11th February - 5.00K, 23:29, 4:41
14th February - 5.50K, 26:22, 4:47
16th February - 6.00K, 28:56, 4:49
20th February - 6.50K, 31:14, 4:47
23rd February - 7.00K, 33:03, 4:43
24th February - 7.50K, 36:00, 4:47
2nd March - 8.00K, 37:34, 4:41
6th March - 8.50K, 40:22, 4:44
14th March - 9.00K, 42:37, 4:44
17th March - 9.50K, 45:13, 4:45
21st March - 10.00K, 46:53, 4:41

Overall I'm pretty damn delighted with that progress - a 46:53 10K is a pretty good time at present, and hopefully I can knock a couple of minutes off of that when I have the added motivation of running with other people.

I went out tonight and did a 4.00K just to give me a wee bit exercise, and did it in 18:29 with a pace of 4:37. Might have a short run again tomorrow morning and then a relaxing day before Sunday.

Wish me luck...

Still Playing Up

Things haven't been going so great for the past two weeks technology-wise!

It all began on the 4th February when I went out a run in heavy rain. Just over halfway through my iPod stopped working, as I wrote in a previous blog.

I managed to borrow my fiancee's, and I had a spare Nike+ kit lying around, but as her iPod was linked to her Nike+ account, it took a helluva lot of farting around before I could get it to work. I ended up having to delete my entire Nike+ account and start again. Lost over 4,500km of runs... bah.

Anyway, back to my routine. As I started using a new iPod and Nike+ account, I decided to start the 4km - 10km routine again and so far I've done five of them. My times are as follows:

4km - 19:05 (4:46); 4.5km - 21:31 (4:47); 5km - 23:29 (4:42), 5.5km - 26:22 (4:48); 6km -28:56 (4:49).

My pace slowed considerably on tonight's run - I think my iPod sensor is jiggling around in the pocket of my trainers, as it mapped at 6.25km - which means I ran 0.25km further than I thought I have. Will try slotting in some Blu-Tak tomorrow and see if that helps.

iPod Working Again?

Just a quick post here to say that I've found my runs from the start of February! I've now got the data on my 4km run on Tuesday 1st Feb, my 4.5km run on Wednesday 2nd Feb and part of my 5km run on Friday 4th Feb. The data for Tuesday and Wednesday's is fine.

For Friday's I only have 3.49km worth (before my iPod started playing up, might have been for the rain) so I'm going out to repeat the 5km run this evening so that I have a "complete" time. I'll update the times later on!

I Hate This Weather

For the past two days it's done nothing but pee down with rain and blow gales - some wind has been reported over Scotland as high as 70mph+. It's not been as drastic here, but it's still been over 20mph+ at some times.

My training is going well, though. For some reason my iPod Nano has been playing up, so my last three runs haven't logged properly. Nonetheless, my new training regime is as follows: starting on the 1st February, I decided to run 4km. The next time I would run 4.5km, then 5km, then 5.5km, and so on up to 10km.

I would attempt to do all these runs at a pace of under 4:50p/m - so for 4km it's be 19:20, for 4.5km it'd be 21:45, for 5km it'd be 24:10 and so on and so forth, so that when I've built up to 10km I'll be doing that at under 48:20. Then I start all over again, although this time I attempt it at 4:40p/m.

I've done this training regime before and had a pretty decent bit of success last year before the heavy snowfalls at the end of November put the kaibosh on it.

So far I did my 4km run on Tuesday, 4.5km run on Wednesday, and 5km run today (Friday). I know my times were under the 4:50p/m pace but thanks to my iPod playing silly buggers I don't know the exact times. I also played two games of fives on Tuesday night and have another game tonight, so the fitness is gradually improving...

Not Out In A While

The 10km I did on Thursday was my last run, and I don't think I'm getting out until the end of this week to be honest.

It was my birthday on Wednesday, so my fiancee and I took advantage of our Tesco Clubcard vouchers to have a weekend break in Aviemore, which was lovely. Nice drive home on Sunday as well - up to Inverness then down the Great Glen to Fort William, then home through Glencoe, Crianlarich, Callander and Stirling. Very nice.

Last night I had a game of fives, tonight I have two games of fives, and I'm supposed to be going hillwalking tomorrow so it'll be Thursday or Friday before I'm out running again. Thought I'd post a wee blog about the relationship between running and football.

I'm not a brilliant footballer by any means. I'm certainly not terrible - I have a decent touch, I'm strong, and I can pass well enough and I have a good left foot. But I've found that since taking up running my football has improved considerably as well. There will always be guys I play alongside who are technically better footballers than me, but don't have the fitness - I have a yard or two of pace on almost everyone I play against, meaning I can track back well enough, beat players down the wing, and generally cause a nuisance. Being pretty strong means I can tackle well enough and defend pretty well as well.

I find it works beneficially both ways as well. The running helps develop my fitness for fives. Fives helps develop my running - I use the games of football as my "sprints" workout, which means I don't have to do many boring HIIT sessions. And the cycle continues (usually until I pick up a stupid injury).

If you enjoy football but aren't particularly good, you'd be amazed at how much you can mask being maybe a bit technically poor by being fitter and faster than the other players you play with. Worth a try, I'd say!

Struggling For An Imaginative Title

How the hell do people come up with catchy titles for their blogs? I'm struggling and I'm only on my fourth entry!

Training has been going well. Since I last updated I've had four runs. I was playing fives on Monday evening at Stenhousemuir Sports Centre so decided to run the 4.05km there and then 4.05km back. On the way down is mostly downhill, so I managed it in 19:39. On the way back, I took it a bit easier, plus it was mostly uphill, so I did it in 23:44.

Then on Tuesday night I had another game of fives at the Falkirk Stadium so I ran the 2.86km down there. Managed it in 13:48.

Today I ran another 10km. I stuck to mostly the same route as the Grangemouth 10km that takes place each March, although I had to improvise a bit at the end as the 'official' 10km includes half a lap of the athletics track at the Grangemouth Stadium. This is a fast and flat course, and I managed it in 47:49. Delighted with that - only just over three minutes off of my personal best, and that's with limited training and without the added incentive / speed and stamina boost you get from running with other people.

I'm not updating the routes on MapMyRun at present. I find the new MMR website very slow and unresponsive, so over the next couple of days I'll update my posts and this post to include the routes on the old MMR website, which I find much faster and smoother.

Hell

Tonight I encountered the sort of run that would make even Gebrselassie think twice about putting his trainers on.

I was at the cinema earlier, so by the time I'd came home and had something to eat it was almost half past eleven at night before I went out. No matter - I like running at night.

The first few kilometres were easy enough - slight downhill, a brief uphill and then more or less flat for a wee while, with just a short down and up at about the 2km mark. But at 4.5km, there is an utter humdinger of a hill. It measures at over an 8% incline. It's short, sharp, and very steep - and when you get to the top of it, you turn to the right and are faced with an even longer steady climb.

It's called the Salmon Inn Road and it's horrible. I chose this course deliberately for this very reason - the hills build strength, stamina and endurance. Hills I can deal with. But a lot of the route is unsheltered, running from village to village. It seemed tonight that every direction I turned, the wind decided it would turn at the same time to blow right into me. It was demoralising - a slow run, lots of hills (my own fault, admittedly) and wind at over 20mph blowing into me at almost every opportunity.

It took me 53:34 to complete - almost four minutes slower than my run on Friday afternoon. Still, hopefully it'll serve me well...

17th January, 10.00km

One Down, Goodness Knows How Many To Go

Well, I completed my first run in almost two months a wee while ago. And do you know what? It wasn't so bad. My initial fears of hour-plus runs didn't bear out. Instead, I completed it in 49:41. I thought I'd just as well go the whole hog and attempt the full 10km, and I'm glad I did.

Feel absolutely knackered though, and I'm playing fives in under two hours. Eek!

I should note that I use the Nike+ system, which is how I know my distance, time, and (rather interestingly) how many calories I've burned (807). This comes in useful, as when I set my 44:31 record at Grangemouth I was only about 11st 7lbs. I'm now 12st 8lbs so I would like to lose a bit of fat.

I've published the route I did on MapMyRun - not sure if I'm going to do this all the time, but if you're interested then you can see the route I did. Note that MapMyRun has this route down as 9.79km. I'm aware that using the Nike+ system has a bit of inaccuracy, but MapMyRun doesn't take into account crossing roads, circling round people walking dogs and such so I'm pretty sure it's really close to 10km.

14th January, 10.00km

Contender... Ready!

I hate the snow. The heavy snowfalls at the end of November, coupled with having temperatures that have barely gotten above freezing for the past six weeks, have meant that it has been too dangerous to risk going out due to the icy conditions of the pavements, roads and trails.

But, as I write this, most of the ice has gone, the temperature is almost nine (nine!) degrees, and the rain is absolutely chucking down. I'm sorting a playlist, and getting ready to go out for my first run in almost two months.

A bit of background. I first took up running in early 2008. I signed up for the Great Edinburgh Run on pretty much a whim, trained sporadically for it (at that time I was playing four games of fives a week and that was my priority), injured my back three weeks before the race - I couldn't train at all until just a few days before it - and completed it in 59:41. I was pretty happy with that.

I started running more seriously in summer 2008, when a couple of games of fives got cancelled. I took the training more seriously, I concentrated on speedwork, building endurance, and running for longer times. I was able to use the gym at University to develop my leg and core strength through a good free-weight routine involving squats, presses, planks and deadlifts, amongst others.

I ran the Stirling 10K in September 2008, and completed it in 50:27. Nine minutes below the time I had ran just four months earlier - although, it should be noted, Edinburgh is a mass-participation event with several bottleneck areas, so this does not help times.

Nevertheless, nine minutes! A reasonably mild winter in 2008/2009 saw me continue to train and work hard, culminating at Grangemouth in March 2009, where I ran 44:31. A whole fifteen minutes taken off my 10K time in under a year.

The possibilities were endless - or so I thought. I ran Edinburgh again in May 2009 in 47:13 - a great time for a mass-participation event. But then I had a bad year injury-wise, and 2010 wasn't too good either - injuries, coupled with a higher workload at University and the snowfall I mentioned above, mean I haven't ran competitively since that Edinburgh run in May 2009.

Rather annoyingly I ran under 47:30 just on my own, in November 2010, before the snow came.

My target for this year is to run Grangemouth in March and Stirling in September, and to hopefully beat my record time of 44:31 in one of these races.

Right now I'm getting my tunes sorted out, getting motivated to go out for my first run in almost two months. It's chucking down with rain. This is gonna be fun...