The Virtual Runner Running Blog » marathon training

Week 3 Done, 9 to go!

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:25:04 +0000

It’s been a pretty good week as far as the training for the Farnham Pilgrims Marathon is concerned. My week’s training consisted of the following:-

Wednesday

6.5km (4.04 miles) in 41 mins 12 secs for an average pace of 10:12 min/mile (06:20 min/km).

Friday

1.6km in 10 mins 48 secs for an average pace of 10:52 min/mile

4.8km in 25 mins 50 secs for an average pace of 08:40 min/mile (05:23 min/km)

1.6km in 10 mins 38 secs for an average pace of 10:42 min/mile (06:39 min/km)

Sunday

Long run of 16.23km (10.08 miles) at an average pace of 10:48 min/mile (06:41 min/km).

Details of today’s long run are below:-

Average pace was quicker then the 12:29 min/mile pace that my training plan calls for but I just couldn’t make myself run that slow! I mean, 12:29 min/mile is REALLY slow. We’ll see if my pace can be maintained as the Sunday runs get longer and longer. Perhaps, in the end, I’ll end up doing an average pace of 12:29 min/mile anyway.

My long run was made just a little bit more interesting because of the lovely purple toe I’m sporting at the moment. I took my son to a local indoor playgym which comes complete with a ball pool/pit. I was in the ball pool testing it out to make sure it was safe for my son (okay, I was playing in it) when I stubbed my big toe really hard on the floor mats under the balls. I fell into the balls in agony. Unfortunately my son and the other children there thought it was an invite to a pile-on and I was soon covered in children as well as brightly coloured balls.

So my toe started off as purple before the long run and it now a dark purple covering a larger area. Good thing was that it didn’t hurt at all during the whole run which means I’m just gonna keep at it.

Photos from today’s long run:-

This afternoon we went for a meal at a pub my wife always sees when she’s out and about. It claims to have the “best pub garden in Berkshire”. I beg to differ. Food was pretty good though, even with the 1 hour wait to eat. I won’t be in any hurry to head back to that place again.

I keep saying it, but I really must do it: I need to take part in more (some) cross-training on my non-running days! I mean, it’s just ridiculous. I keep telling myself I need to and I always fully intend to but it never ends up happening. So, tomorrow morning I must somehow make myself get off to the gym for some non-running exercise!

Also, I’m not sure if I’ve told you or not, but I’ve been raising money for a local (Berkshire) charity called DebRA. I’ve raised over £500 for them so far I think and I’ll try and push for a bit more.

As for future running plans, I have none in the short term. Most of the running events I would normally take part in are on a Sunday and the distances are like 10k which is too short for me to do because I really need to be doing my long runs on Sundays. I’ve entered the ballot for the 2011 London Marathon and I’ve also applied for a charity place. I’m telling you, if I get in to the London Marathon I’ll be SUPER excited and I’ll be hitting EVERYONE up for sponsor money! Hell yeah!

Well, I’m off to tweet on twitter and see what peeps are up to.

Week 2 Done, 10 to go!

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:08:20 +0000

Well, normally after a long run with my garmin I would be able to put a handy little widget on here that allows you all to see my run details. However, I forgot to install some sort of plugin that uploaded the data to garmin connect so that widget isn’t available for this run.

However, I’ve done a screenshot as follows:-

The first few miles were extremely painful and my legs locked up tight. I had to stop and walk a couple of times (only for about 10 secs) to try and relieve the pain. At least it didn’t make much of a difference on my average pace. Even at my slowest, my average pace for any split/lap was under the average pace of 12:29 min/mile that the training plan called for.

Overall average pace of 11:00 min/mile was okay I guess. I mean, I’m happy with it and the run overall (except for first few miles) felt good.

This coming week I’ll need to put more of an emphasis on the cross training on the off/rest days to work on my overall fitness.

Non-running stuff? This blog is doing very well and the “best running blogs” page is still seeing quite a lot of traffic according to my statistics. Also, my adding a proper directory has made things so much easier as people can add their own blogs/sites without me having to go and edit some html code.

PS – In case you’re wondering about the laps/splits above, there are 15 because my garmin still shows me km.

Week 1 Done, 11 to go!

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:49:19 +0000

First week of the marathon training schedule has been very successful. Here is a summary:-

Tuesday

Called for 3 mile easy run at a 12:29 min/mile pace. I did 3.10 miles at a 10:14 min/mile pace.

Thursday

Called for a 3 mile tempo run with a 1 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down. I managed 1 mile warm-up at 11:00 min/mile with 3 mile tempo run at 09:01 min/mile and the 1 mile cool-down at 10:33 min/mile.

Sunday

Called for long run of 8 miles at 12:29 min/mile pace. I managed 8.01 miles at a 10:12 min/mile pace.

Overall, that’s a pretty good week, even though I didn’t get in the cross training I wanted/needed to on the days in between. Well, I guess that means more of an effort is needed on that front this week!

As for non-running related matters… I’ve made the decision to get rid of my windows based laptop. Since I’ve had my macbook pro I haven’t needed to use the other laptop for anything at all. I can see any reason to keep it so I’ve sold it to a work colleague.

I’ve had a nice weekend and spent a few hours yesterday at the Crowthorne Carnival (http://www.crowthornecarnival.co.uk/) with my son and mother-in-law (mummy was at work). It was a pretty good afternoon and the parade was… interesting. The floats were what you would expect for a small village parade, however one of them was a bit odd.

Pole dancing? In a parade? On a moving flatbed? With everyone dressed like they’re out of Grease!

I must admit, she was pretty agile though… lol.

So, there you have it. Pole dancing!

Tomorrow I’ll be attempting to get up early, go to the gym and do some cross-training and weights. Will it happen? Who knows! Place your bets…

The Forum

The Virtual Runner — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:45:37 +0000

The Virtual Runner Running Forum has now been established! What forum? Why, the one I’ve been trying to set up off-and-on for years.

A link to the forum is now at the top of this blog and a link to this blog is on the forum.

Basically, I’d love it if the forum grew to something like you see at Runners World, however that takes a lot of time. Time I’ve got.

So, if you’ve got a minute or two, why not visit the forum and sign-up? Also, if you’re interested in becoming a site moderator then please let me know either by sending me an email or a private message via the forum.

As for running, I’m still in the middle of my marathon training and even though I’ve been ill for a couple of days I’ll be heading to the gym tomorrow (hopefully) and having a cross-training day. This will consist of 10 mins running, 10 mins cycling, 10 mins rowing and some weight machines. Rowing is the most painful for me…

I’m also trying something different and I’ve got my marathon training schedule printed and on the fridge! How old-school is that eh? Each time I complete part of the schedule I cross it off or write down what I did. After a week or so I’ll update you all on what I’ve done compared to the schedule.

I’m off to get my son into bed now. Dr Seuss bedtime story coming up!

Running Pace Dilemma

The Virtual Runner — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:08:03 +0000

I’ve been taking a closer look at the training paces in the marathon training plan I got from runnersworld.co.uk. The paces for the various runs seem to be a bit slow to me. I mean, much slower than I would normally go.

For example, I usually run easy at around 05:45 min/km – 06:30 min/km which equates to 09:15 min/mile – 10:27 min/mile. The training plan I posted has a long run training pace of 12:14 min/mile which works out as 07:36 min/km; substantially slower than my usual “easy” pace.

This means that if I somehow (with a miracle) managed to run the whole marathon at a pace of 12:14 min/mile I would finish in about 5 hours and 20 minutes. Is that okay? I mean, I’m not the lightest or fittest runner in the world and survival is my main goal. However, I’d also like to finish before they pack up to go home!

Come on fatty! Get Running!

The Virtual Runner — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:43:23 +0000

As I am currently a ‘virtual’ runner in every sense of the word I will need to start moving on the whole training thing or I will be missing my next go at my first marathon!

So, tomorrow I’m doing a 7 mile run on the treadmill (with an incline) to get the blood flowing again; next week my 8 mile run will need to be on the open roads!

I’m going to loosely stick to this plan in the hopes that it gets me to where I need to be… across the finish line.

Wish me luck!

I’m Sorry. I’m Having an Affair

The Virtual Runner — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:43:02 +0000

I couldn’t help myself. I kept looking at him every chance I got. I “googled” him many times to see what I could find out and was always admiring his clean smooth exterior. It was bordering on stalking!

His name? Mac!

Yeah baby, I’m currently writing this post on my new MacBook Pro 13 and it is the most amazing computer I’ve ever owned. Seriously, why did I ever own windows based pcs?

I’ve only had this since yesterday and I’ve already put all the software I “used to” use on my windows laptop on here. My other laptop is now obsolete I think!

Seriously though, if you haven’t used a Mac before, give it a go. Once you get used to the different operating system you’ll realise how much better it is!

As for running, my training program is building and it will be easy and interval runs this week with an 8 mile run on Sunday. This should be okay as long as I don’t push it too much.

I must say that I’m having some motivation problems at the moment and I’d love to hear from any of you on how you stay motivated to keep going.

2nd Time Lucky?

The Virtual Runner — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:36:05 +0000

Well, I think I’ve narrowed down when and where my next marathon “attempt” will be. Frankly, this event wasn’t my first choice for a second attempt but there aren’t that many local-ish marathons before the end of the year.

http://www.farnhampilgrim.org.uk/

The event’s route is described as “mixed and mainly off-road”… great. However, I figure that if I put the training down then, so what? I can’t wimp out just because it’s not perfectly flat. Besides, do I really care how long it’s going to take me to finish? My main goal is survival for my first marathon!

I haven’t actually booked it yet, and frankly if it fills up before I can register (like the New Forest Marathon!) then I’m sorry in advance, I will be delaying my 1st marathon attempt until April next year! Yup, if I can’t get into this marathon then I’ve decided to push it back a full year until April 2011. Bad-side: I’ve had to put it back so far and people were expecting me to do one. Good-side: It will give me the opportunity to save more money.

Let’s be positive though! I’m going to do the marathon on 19th September in Farnham! I’ve even did a basic training plan for long runs as follows:-

20th Jun – 07 miles
27th Jun – 08 miles
04th Jul – 09 miles
11th Jul – 10 miles
18th Jul – 12 miles
25th Jul – 10 miles
01st Aug – 13 miles
08th Aug – 15 miles
15th Aug – 17 miles
22nd Aug – 18 miles
29th Aug – 20 miles
05th Sep – 15 miles (day before we go to Greece)
12th Sep – 10 miles (this one might be in Greece)
19th Sep – Marathon

I’ve also decided that running 3 days a week is not enough for me and I’m going to go back to running on Tue, Wed, Fri and Sun. I will try and make Tue an easy 10km run and Wed/Fri will be some 40 – 50min interval and hill training each week. Those two training sessions have to be the big thing and I want to focus on those as well as weight training on Mon and Thu. This means Sat will be the only day I’m not actually doing some sort of exercise. Too much? Perhaps. But I’m aiming high on purpose.

Wish me luck people!

Full of Crap

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 23 May 2010 21:46:58 +0000

I didn’t do the marathon. I know, I know… I put in all that training!

Everything was going well and we flew to Canada as planned. However, the second or third day there I started sneezing a lot and I thought it was just allergies (my sisters have pets). Nope. Full blown cold kicked in and I was seriously congested in the sinuses. No problem I thought. It’s “above the neck” so I’ll continue on like normal.

By Saturday I was feeling pretty rough and wasn’t sleeping well. I was sticking to the plan though and drinking lots of fluids to stay hydrated for the marathon the following day. I even went to collect my race pack from the race expo on Sat afternoon/evening.

Sunday morning, coughing and exhausted. I couldn’t do it. I was too ill and I was scared to put myself through about 5 hours of running whilst being ill. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. My friends jokes of calling me a “real virtual runner” didn’t help much either.

So, that was it. I was a virtual runner with a bad cold, race number, timing chip and new t-shirt but no completed marathon. To top it all off I’ve been raising money for charity and I feel as though I’ve let people down.

Put it all together and I’m on a bit of a downer at the moment!

So, what am I doing to sort all of this out and get back on form? I’m thinking about it and I haven’t decided yet. I’ll do one of the following:-

Register for a new marathon in the autumn and use the time to get in even more training and raise more money for charity (although I’ll feel as though I’m putting things off).
Do my own “virtual marathon” by completing 26.2 miles myself and documenting it using my Garmin Forerunner and video. This means I would need to attempt the distance over the next couple of weeks. Probably on a Sunday around Reading, Berkshire. The downside to this is that there is no medal and no finish line. Will I still feel the same completing it? Or am I just doing it for the sake of doing it? A guilt marathon.

I’d be grateful if any of you out there could comment on this post and give me your thoughts and opinions on what you would do in this situation.

As for running, I went and ran for an hour this morning and it was the first time I’ve run in about 2 1/2 weeks. My hip flexors were a bit sore afterwards but it felt okay. I’ll probably push the 10k running for the whole week and do a bit most mornings in order to get myself ready to plod around the Bupa 10,000 in London this weekend. I’ve got my race pack through and it’s a great event to do. I certainly won’t be getting a PB this year but I’ll still get the medal. I love the medals!

Once I’ve done the 10k I’ll give you a write up about it and let you know what it was like. I’m supposed to have a VIP pass to the elite/celeb area before the race so who knows who or what I’ll see! I’m taking my wife with me because I’m rubbish at spotting anyone famous!

Now, you may or may not be wondering about the title of this blog. I mean, to say “full of crap” kind of indicates that I’ve lied about something. But I haven’t. “Full of crap” relates to the ridiculous amount of food I ate while in Canada. There is nothing to do where we were. Fredericton, New Brunswick is a beautiful city in Canada but it’s boring! So, everything seemed to revolve around food and eating out. To top it all off, I missed a lot of foods that I used to eat when I lived there so I felt I had to try as much as possible. Bad idea.

The flight home was a bit uncomfortable and my wife and I thought we may have to book extra seats; one for each butt cheek.

To make myself feel a bit better I went on a (kind of) liquid diet for a couple of days. Man, it felt nice. All I ate was cereal for breakfast (I know it’s not a liquid but I need some fibre and stuff. Most important meal of the day!) soups, yoghurt, smoothies etc. No more bloated feeling! All ruined today with a massive feast of delicious burnt bbq meaty goodness. Damn.

Tomorrow the liquid diet starts again. It’s a nice cleanse for me and I’ll probably try and do it for the whole week. At the end of the week I’ll assess how I feel and decide whether to continue.

Yours sincerely,

Fatty Chubberson

One More Before

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:49:54 +0000

I’ve got one more long run of 10 miles which I’ll be doing tomorrow. Then I’ll do a couple 2 or 3 mile runs during the week to keep the blood flowing before the marathon on 9th May.

I’ve printed all my entry info to take with me on our trip to Canada (we have a house-sitter any would-be burglars) because the website doesn’t actually tell you to bring anything to prove you’ve entered.

I’m trying to remember everthing I need to take with me to Canada like running shoes! I definitely want to take my Garmin even though I have no idea if it will work in North America if it was bought in UK. I’m sure it will…

Won’t be long and we’ll be in the land of moose, maple syrup, pick-up trucks, “eh” and politeness (to name but a very few). After 9th May my main focus will be enjoying myself and trying not to eat myself to death!

I will probably post a blog or two whilst I’m over there but it depends on which family member will allow me to borrow their internet access!

Wish me luck everyone!