The Virtual Runner Running Blog » garmin forerunner 405

2010 Bupa London 10000

The Virtual Runner — Mon, 31 May 2010 17:36:19 +0000

I’ve successfully completed the Bupa London 10000 again with this year’s event being just as great as last year’s. Sure, there wasn’t a personal best for me this year but I had a really great time and a great run. I ran with a friend who used this as their first (and hopefully not last) 10k so I took my time and ran with him the whole way and walked when he walked.

Overall it was a great day out and Bupa spares no expense on their events. Well worth the additional money you pay for one of their events as opposed to others. Lots of toilets (always important), loads of runners, loads of supporters, well marked, well organised with a great goody bag and a quality-feel medal (I love the medals!).

If you’ve never done the Bupa London 10000 before then I seriously recommend you register for the 2011 event because you won’t regret it. I got my personal for a 10k at the 2009 event so I’d give it a high personal best potential rating (I mean, if I can do it then so can everyone else!).

I previously mentioned that a work contact of me managed to get me last-minute entry to this event. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to run with my friend and I as he has been ill the past few days. Frankly, having not been able to complete the marathon because of illness, I can relate. We just told him to stay home and chill out; there are always other events.

My super supportive wifey also came along to cheer us on. She is such a great supporter and she was at the start line as we went by yelling and cheering us on (and even ran beside us for a few metres) and she was at the finish on the Mall to cheer us on again.

I think my friend was quite nervous about the event because the last event he took part in was the Santa Run which was 5k and over off-road terrain. He thought he would make it to about 4k before he needed to take a walking break. Nope. He made it 6.2k before he had to walk the 1st time. Overall, we only stopped to walk 3 times. For his first 10k, that is a fantastic achievement and I think he felt that too.

I tried to explain that 10k is a great distance because it’s over before you know it and you also get that fantastic feeling when you cross the finish line. Whether you’re first or last! (Note: I’ve never been either – yet.)

You can check out our route and split times here:-

Overall a great morning out and a great event. Like I said, if you haven’t done it before then give the Bupa London 10000 a go!

20 Miles of Fun

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:31:24 +0000

Okay, today’s long run wasn’t the greatest. First, let me just say that I have run three times this week and I’ve been running three times each week. I haven’t wanted to do too much, especially with the long runs on Sundays.

I think that I should’ve been running more each week but it’s too late now. Some things that I’ve read said that running should be done on consecutive days and that’s what I’ve been avoiding.

The weekday runs have been okay and they’ve been about 10.5km each time and at a pretty good pace too. I always feel good after having done one.

Today’s long run, different story. I was walking within the first 2 kms due to shinsplints and it just set the mood for the whole run. It really pissed me off and it’s a pretty big blow mentally when all other runs have felt pretty good. I was also using my new pack to carry gels etc and it just didn’t feel right at first. It took miles to get used to it.

I ended up walking loads and avg pace went through the roof compared to the last long run. This long run clocked in at 06:45 min/km! I know that’s an okay pace though and if I finished a whole marathon at that pace I’d be happy, however when you’re actually out there and end up walking all the time it’s really frustrating. I wish I could get over that mental downer.

Here is the summary of the fun run/walk (that’s another thing, I’m tired of calling my “runs” a “run/walk”. Before I started doing all of this marathon training I actually did “run” the whole time, just like my mid-week runs):-

You can also view it here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30464687

So, if I was to finish the marathon at a pace of 06:45 min/km that would be a finish time of 4 hours and 44 minutes. Who would be dissapointed with that as their first marathon time? Not me! So, why the upset with these long runs and all the walking? I think because in my head: I’m supposed to be running.

Tapering begins now. That means the mid-week runs will remain the same but long runs will get gradually smaller up until the marathon. This next long run will be 15 miles (24km), so still pretty long but manageable. The following Sunday will be 10 miles (16km) and then the Sunday after that is the Fredericton Marathon in Canada.

And, most important for last, I’d like to thank my lovely wifey for being so suportive even when I’m a miserable bastard after having what I felt was a crap run. She’s good.

2010 Reading Half Marathon

The Virtual Runner — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:28:43 +0000

Although I’m not exactly proud of the finish time, I thought I’d post my splits from the Reading Half Marathon.

Here is the route as recorded by my lovely Garmin Forerunner…

13.1 miles of pain. Actually, as the second half hurt it was more like 6 or 7 miles of pain.

Next year my time will be back under 2 hours! Mark my words!

Steady Going

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:41:16 +0000

The running is still going on. I must say, it was a bit difficult at first but it is getting easier each time. In fact, today was my long run and I managed 14km (even though Garmin only recorded 12km).

Here is a summary of the runs I’ve done recently from Garmin Connect:-

Today (31/01/2010)

28 January 2010

27 January 2010

24 January 2010

21 January 2010

I’ll keep running and I’ll let you know how things are going.

I was wrestling around and playing with my wife earlier today and I think I’ve thrown my back out a bit. Same side (right) where I always get the sciatica. I’ve been stretching it all evening and it’s feeling okay-ish. I’ll just keep up the stretching and ibuprofen and it will be fine.

As far as the Fredericton Marathon (09 May 2010) is concerned… I’ve registered! $60.00. I have no idea what that equates to in good ole British pounds but I know it’s pretty cheap compared to some marathons over here!

Halloween 5 Nite Run

The Virtual Runner — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:18:38 +0000

Tonight was my first 5km event and it took place in the dark! Very very good atmosphere and a very good event. I recommend it to everyone!

For the hour or so before the event there was music which was all halloween themed as well as refreshments. Your entry fee gets you your race number, chip timing, free skeleton t-shirt, headlamp and a mug at the finish line.

It was really good fun and everyone had a great time. There was a lot of chatter amongst the runners during the whole event and you don’t normally get that in the daylight races!

You can find more photos by clicking here.

I had my time at about 27 min and 13 secs according to my Garmin.

Well done to my wife for coming out and supporting me again. She’s a fantastic woman!

And my little boy was there too… way past his bed time!

Running Club & New Kayano 15 Shoes

The Virtual Runner — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:28:07 +0000

That’s right, I’ve gone and purchased a nice new pair of running shoes. The arch of my right foot has been bothering me so I thought it was about time to move on from my Adidas Supernovas.

I got myself pair of Asics Kayano 15s and I wore them this evening to running club. I did my interval training in them and they felt pretty good. It was nice to have the cushioning again; something that is missing from my Adidas shoes.

The Kayano’s were reasonably priced at £85; which isn’t that bad considering they are usually £115 – £120. They’ll be coming out with Kayano 16s soon so that probably explains why it is possible to get the 15s at a discount.

Running club (Reading Roadrunners) went well. Me and my mate Tony (yes, I’ve mentioned your name again) went to use the track for the first time in months. We have been going to where the club meets the past two Wednesdays, however the track wasn’t open because it was being renovated (looks good now).

I took Garfield the Garmin with me and we decided to try out one of the workouts that I put on it. They were 5 x 400m repeats with a 200m recovery inbetween each.

It was hard (according to Garfield) for us to maintain a steady pace during the intervals. We knew this because Garfield kept beeping everytime and a message appeared on the screen saying we needed to slow down. Us? Slow down? Jeez, I would have thought speed-up instead!

I’m happy with our 400m paces because they are all close to 5 min per km and they got progressively quicker (5:12, 5:06, 5:03, 5:01 & 4:55).

Overall a good run. Tomorrow morning I’m off to the gym again and I’ll do some cycling and a bit of weights. Friday will be a steady run and then long run on Sunday again.

I’m thinking I’m going to need to re-adjust the days I am running because at the moment I’m only able to run 4 days a week and that isn’t enough. I need 5 days!

Running club is great, however because it is in the evening it messes with my overall weekly schedule. I usually run first thing in the morning and my long runs are always on a Sunday. Before I went back to running club I would run on Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri & Sun. Now, since going back to running club I can’t really run on Thu mornings (can I?) because I had running club less than 12 hours previously the night before. This means that going to running club is actually reducing the amount of mileage I am doing but adding more quality.

I am now going to have to entertain the idea of running on Sat mornings. Probably not until after christmas though.

Time for a cup of tea….

Long Run with Garfield the Garmin

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:14:59 +0000

I got to use my Garmin today on my long run around dinton pastures. It has my pace as much slower than the Nike+ records it and I suppose that’s good. It will help me to push myself a bit harder in training!

Overall it felt like an okay run; however I did suffer from shin splints in the first 4km which was pretty annoying and painful. They went away once I got warmed up.