Anyway, I’ve decided to give it a go again this year, however after my dedication and hard work last January I’ve decided that this year it will be less of a challenge for me as I won’t be blogging every day.  Last year it was ‘won’ by only those who are basically elite-ish type runners that can put in serious mileage.  I’ve been assured that there is no winner this year but it has still tainted it for me as there was not a ‘level playing field’ previously.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like Janathon and Juneathon and how they help to motivate people and create a sense of community between fellow runners from around the world.  Everyone supports each other and helps keep you going; and that’s great.  So, I will be spending January doing as much running/exercise as I can for my own personal goals and supporting those who are also taking part so they can achieve their own personal goals.

Another reason I won’t be killing myself to complete 31 days of running this month is simply  because it isn’t possible this year due to my work and family commitments.  Instead, I have other goals in mind which will bring me up to the Reading Half Marathon on 1st April 2012.

Goal 1:  Lose 1 stone (14 lbs) by 12th Feb

Goal 2:  Lose a further 1 stone (14 lbs) by 25th March

Goal 3:  Complete Reading Half Marathon in under 2 hours

Now, I’m not promising to complete all of those goals but I am certainly going to do my best to achieve them.  I mean, I lost over a stone in the run up to Xmas (sure I put about 9 lbs back on eating turkey etc) and I’m confident that I’ll be able to do it.

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of you taking part in Janathon the best of luck and I hope you achieve whatever goals you’ve set for yourself.  I’m sure with the support of your fellow Janathoners and a smidgen of pure willpower you’ll do it.  Keep up the good work!

They aren’t exactly sore, more stiff than anything.  In fact, this morning they felt fine before I started running so hopefully things will continue along that route.  I really want to complete Janathon from beginning to end with a run/walk every single day because it’s what I need physically and mentally at the moment.  I need to get back on track with my running as last year was a complete wash-out.  This year will be different.

I see from reading people’s tweets and blogs that I’m not the only one having mental blocks when it comes to the constant training or the constant blogging for that matter.  I think it’s great that we all have each other to rely on for a boost when we’re having problems.  The internet is a wonderful thing isn’t it?

Today’s run was pretty good as it was “easy”.  Tomorrow will be an easy run as well followed by a nice long walk on Saturday morning (it’s a rest day) and a long run on Sunday.

As for future plans, I’m getting a bit more excited about the Reading Half Marathon because I booked the car parking today!

• Distance Covered Today: 6.23km
• Total for the Month: 37.89km

Heard of it?  If not, check it out here (http://www.janathon.com/) and then come back.  I’ll wait.

Did you look?  What do you think?  Well, it’s what me and many others are doing for the month of January.  I suppose everyone has their own reasons but mine are simple.

1. Regain some of the fitness I’ve lost by sitting around on my fat ass for the past few months.
2. Train for my fourth outing at the Reading Half Marathon (http://www.readinghalfmarathon.com/)

I’m pushing myself as hard as I can but not to the point where I hurt myself (I hope).  I want to do the Reading Half Marathon with a time near to 2 hours again as it was seriously high for the 2010 event and the run didn’t feel good.  That will change for 2011!

I didn’t want to start January/Janathon cold so I’ve already been laying down some miles in order to get this wobbly body ready for a run/walk EVERY day in January.  I’ve already worked out that on my “rest” days I will simply do 1 mile (1.6 km) and that’s it.  I will also have to blog every day… which could be a problem.  I mean, I can’t think of anything interesting to say most days so to come up with something to write for 31 days?  Yeah, ok.

This Site

Even though I haven’t exactly been spewing forth loads of witty blog posts for some time, I’m happy to say my blog still comes top or near the top under the following Google searches (when I’ve tried it anyway):-

• best running blog
• best running blogs
• virtual runner
• running blog

So, it’s up to me to at least keep this thing updated and Janathon could just be what this blog/site needs!

I’ve also recently installed an update on the site which makes it viewable on the iPhone and supposedly on other mobiles as well (although I don’t have any other type of mobile so I can’t check).  If any of you out there DON’T have an iPhone and you get a minute or two how about you check if this site works on your phone and let me know?  Thanks.

Just so you all know, I refuse to let this blog become like many others you see stranded out there on the internet.  You know the ones I mean; last post was from two years ago and nothing since.  Or they started it because of a charity run they were doing and never updated after the event. etc. etc. etc.

Not me.  Not here.  Not The Virtual Runner.

100 Push-Ups

I have tried this before and never made it to the end for one reason or another.  Personally, I think it’s almost impossible to do it in about 6 weeks but it will be a nice compliment to the running so I’m giving it a shot again.  iPhone app in hand.

For more info:  http://hundredpushups.com/

There is also:  http://www.twohundredsitups.com/

What Else?

You gotta have goals.  That means I need to start planning ahead and see which 10k events I want to take part in for 2011.  I’m looking forward to enjoying running again and I’m already enjoying it now.  I was really on a downer with all the marathon training and I hated it.  I’m looking forward to going out on a Sunday with the family, doing a 10k, getting a medal and coming home.  I’ll let you know what runs I’m planning on doing.

I think I’m going to go back to the running club as well.  Probably in early Feb when it starts to warm up a bit and I feel a bit more confident.

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!

My third attempt of the Reading Half Marathon certainly wasn’t my best.  I had a good first half and at the 10k mark my time seemed pretty good and I was at about the 58min mark.  However, the whole second half was much harder and I was experiencing some major tiredness in my legs and feet whilst running.  I had to stop and walk many many times during the second half and my overall finish time was more than 2 hours 16 mins!  Even worse than when I ran it for the first time.

My split times were as follows:-

5K – 00:29:20

10K – 00:58:33

15K – 01:32:26

20K – 02:08:24

When the pain was really bad I just kept focusing on getting finished.  Even if I had to walk the rest of the damn thing, I was going to finish! That is the one big positive out of all this, I finished it even though my body and brain were telling me I’d had enough.  For me it was a serious mind over matter moment.

I must admit that when I finished the run I was quite upset/disappointed with myself.  My wife was very helpful though and reminded me that I had finished the run in the first place.  That’s why everyone in the audience cheers so much, not just because they have family/friends running, but because they’re proud of all of us for doing it in the first place.  So, even though it was a “personal worst”, I’m proud of me for doing it as well.

The one big lesson out of all of this is that I need to train more.  I’ve been a bit slack lately and with a full marathon coming up in 7 weeks I just can’t afford to do that anymore.

Of course, this finish time and the pain has made me wonder how many days (kidding) it’s going to take me to finish the marathon.  The good thing about the marathon is that I don’t actually have any previous finish times to compare against in my head.  I just want to finish it… and I will.

So the main focus over the next 7 weeks is training and dropping a few pounds.  I think it was a combination of lack of training and being too heavy this time.  I need to trim down a few kilos in order to be better prepared for the full marathon.

Today I’m hobbling around and having a very hard time going up and down stairs.  My calf muscles and quads are killing me.  My quads!  Why?  Usually it is my hamstrings that are sore after running or training.

My wife was kind enough to give me a leg massage today and although it was an extremely painful experience (which I’m sure she enjoyed) it does feel a bit better.

I wonder if it’s safe to go to the gym tomorrow and do a little bit on the cross trainer…

I’m trying to do two quality runs during the week (tempo and intervals) with a long run each Sunday.  Unfortunately this week I didn’t even run during the week but still managed to do 10 miles today.

I think my biggest problem is food!  Oh how I love the food… any type of food and lots of it.  Okay, not shellfish… but most food!

I’m going to have to make a conscious effort to reduce the intake of crap over the next few weeks because I’m carrying a few (I’m playing it down) extra pounds at the moment and I’m not going to do my knees or legs any favours by making them lug this heavy frame around a marathon.

The Reading Half Marathon is a week from today, and I’m very glad that I don’t have a personal goal for this one.  My only plan is to run the whole thing at the slow-ish pace I’m going to run the marathon at.  That’s about an average pace of 06:30 to 06:40 min per km.  Yeah, it’s slow but I want to take it easy as much as possible.

8 weeks until the Fredericton Marathon!  I’m thinking I will need to sort out some new running shoes before then.  I don’t think the current Asics Kayano running shoes are going to make it to then.

I’m also going to need to up my game on the long runs after Reading Half Marathon.  I’m planning on increasing my runs as follows:-

28 March – 22.5km (13.98 miles)

04 April – 23.40km (14.54 miles)

11 April – 26.00km (16.15 miles)

18 April – 28.90km (17.95 miles)

25 April – 32.18km (20.00 miles)

02 May – 16.09km (10.00 miles)

09 May – 42.19km (26.20 miles) – MARATHON DAY

Any runners out there think this is realistic?  It’s only a 10% increase each week to take me where I need to be.  I’m trying to keep it as gradual as I can and I thought 20 miles is the most I’ll need to train for in order to do the marathon.  Well, I hope it is, because it’s too late now!

Here is a summary of my runs recently:-

As for non-running related matters are concerned.  It’s Mothers Day here in the UK so my son got his mummy some lovely flowers (he chose them all by himself) and a card which he scribbled in and all over.  Terrible handwriting…

At work, things are still stressful and everyone wondering what is going to happen.  I won’t go on about it and I’ll let you know what happens on that front in a few weeks time when I actually know.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there and take care!

My official chip time is 01:58:27 and that is my official PB!

Me, my fiance, my son and my daughter set out at 8:30am for Madejski Stadium and the 10:05 start of the Reading Half Marathon.

We arrived to a great atmosphere and joined the thousands of other runners and spectators there for the event.  However, I was a bit nervous (always am in situations like that) and I was getting annoyed by other runners.  They were all so rude.  Standing in the way, walking in front of us, banging people with their backpacks… I was getting run-rage…

After collecting some free Lucozade and waiting 20 mins for the toilet we set off towards the start area which was a 10 min walk from where the stadium was in Green Park.

I walked to my start area (green) and tried to find the 2 hour pace runner.  My plan was to stick to him like glue the whole way round and then when we neared the finish I would run ahead and finish in less than 2 hours.  Simple plan really.

Unfortunately things didn’t go that way.  I was hindered by slower runners!  I know.  Me.  Hinder by slower runners!  What the hell is up with that?  There were loads of runners that completely ignored the colour coded starting pen areas and started in areas where they shouldn’t have been.  I tried to keep the pace runner ahead of me so I could keep near to him, however he kept getting further ahead because loads of overzealous runners were zipping in and out and increasing the gap between me and the pace runner.  I know some of them were overzealous because I passed many of them after about the 6 mile mark.

I was also hindered by some little woman who kept elbowing me and then running in front of me.  Damn her.

Eventually I thought “screw this, I’m going to run ahead of the pace runner and stay in front of him”.  This was actually a good idea because when we got to all the downhill sections I left the pace runner in the distance and never saw him again.  That was around mile 5 on Kendrick Road.  Most people seemed to slow right down on the hills where I increased my stride and let gravity take me down.  It was much faster and is relaxing enough to allow you to catch your breath.

The hardest part again was the last 3.1 miles where you can see the stadium in the distance but it doesn’t seem to be getting any closer.  It is such a mental struggle down that road for me.  My mind is hinting that I should perhaps walk for a second and I have to stop it and repeat over and over to myself in my head “this is nothing, this is nothing, this is nothing” and I just kept on pushing.

Once I got to mile 12 I knew I would achieve my sub 2 hour goal.

My time, according to my watch, was 01:58:26 but I’ll have to wait for the official chip time to be published.  That means I ran the race at an average pace of 05:37 min/km (09:02 min/mile) which is fantastic compared to last year’s time of 02:06:15 at a pace of 05:59 min/km (09:38 min/mile).

I shaved more than 30 seconds off my average mile!  I am really happy with that.

For those of you who read this on facebook, I’ve already uploaded what photos I have.  For those of you who read this on my blog properly the photos can be found here:-

http://thevirtualrunner.org/site/photo-gallery

Phase two (running the half marathon in my existing Adidas) takes place tomorrow morning at 10:05 am.  I also have to remember that the clocks go forward at midnight tonight which means one hour of sleep lost.

I’ve check the weather for tomorrow:-

It’s going to be a bit chilly when the race starts at 4 degrees Celcius.  I’m thinking short sleeved running shirt may not be a good idea.  I recently got a new long-sleeve shirt (although a bit too big) and I think I’ll wear that tomorrow.  Either way, I’m going to be completely drenched by the time I’m done because of the excessive sweating that will take place.

Now I’m going to do something very important.  I’m going to play cars with my son…