26 miles and running - April 2008

All done...

2008-05-05T20:32:00.003+01:00

Well, that's it then, I've got the T shirt... and the medal so I'm happy.

The final sponsorship figure was £3,200 which, once again, is fantastic. I'm very grateful to all those who supported me, not only financially but with their patience and assistance, it's very much appreciated and you know who you are...

Well, this time last week....

2008-04-20T12:45:00.003+01:00

I was just past half way round..... gor blimey, I'm glad it's over!

I just did a quick totalise on the sponsorship and you have very generously donated £3,070 to the PDS and CRUK so I'm very pleased and grateful - as are all the beneficiaries. I was hoping we would get to £2,500 so the fact we're already £500 above it is fantastic - and I know there is some more to come yet - so thank you all.

I mentioned after the swim in August that a very kind couple had been extremely generous in their donation but wanted to remain anonymous. Well, blow me down if they haven't done the same again, I cannot thank you enough, you know who you are!

I'm pretty much back to normal now, my aches and pains are gone, the only 'physical' reminders of last week are my 4 black toe nails but even they aren't as black as they were: it will soon all be a dim & distant memory... a memory that will last forever - he, he, I did it!!

A few facts and figures...

2008-04-15T12:52:00.004+01:00

From the official FLM web site:

More than 34,000 people finished the 2008 Flora London Marathon after 35,044 people started it. By 6.30pm, 34,420 runners had crossed the finish in The Mall, making the 2008 race the third biggest in the 28 years of the event.

4093 runners required medical attention during the race, plus six marathon officials and staff, and 60 spectators. Approximately 40 runners were admitted to hospital accident and emergency departments but there were no fatalities and no intubations.

92,000 people originally applied to run in this year’s race, and approximately 45,791 applications were accepted. More than 35,300 had registered to run by 5.00pm on Saturday.

And me personally:

Position: 20785 (i.e. I came in the top 60% of all runners - I'm pretty happy with that!)
Position in group (50 - 54 year old men): 1576
Number of finishers in group (50-54 M): 1812 (i.e. in top 87% - not as impressive!!)
Official time: 5:15:32 (but, according to my GPS, I ran 27.08 miles)
Time at half way: 2:23:26 (i.e. it took me an extra 29 minutes to run the second half!)
Unofficial time: i.e. the time my GPS said I completed 26.2 miles 5:09:30 - still not inside 5 hours!

The final training figures...

2008-04-14T14:55:00.005+01:00

So, all the training is now over and done with, these charts show how many miles I've run, jogged, struggled, walked, since September when I started on all this tomfoolery. It's a total of 562.1 miles and I'm so glad it's over, I'm going to have a ritual burning of my trainers at the weekend!

I've just thought, in 2004 I cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats (End 2 End - click on 'view my complete profile' to the left of this text) and it was 1031 miles, so I've run more than half way from Land's End to John O'Groats while preparing for and completing the London Marathon, no wonder I'm tired!

It's all a bit piecemeal....

2008-04-14T10:49:00.007+01:00

Well, I'm slowly recovering, half a can of freezer spray on the ankles and feet that are extrememly swollen and sore and then Deep Heat on the muscles that are extremely fatigued...

This is the route we took. You can see a much better quality version if you click on the 'view my route' link in the post below, not only can you follow me around if you go to the map player but also you can tell it to export to Google Earth yourself and then you can blow it up if you wish (the image, not London you fool!), the above is a screenshot which, if you double click it, will expand.

The GPS I use has a built in heart rate monitor, the image below is a plot of what the old ticker was doing. The formula for working out your maximum heart rate is 220-age. I'm 50 so, my theoretical maximum heart rate is 220-50 = 170.. look at the chart, I peaked (at the very start) at 233 beats / min and averaged 160 for the whole 5 hours of the race, which is 94% of max... please don't say I wasn't trying.

Dunnit!!

2008-04-13T23:32:00.003+01:00

5:15, slower than I wanted but..... I don't care...... I did it!!

Click here for the general info and this is the route, click on it and press the play button on the left. The pause near the start is where I had to nip into the park and have a wee, not that you want to know a lot about that I presume.

I'm physically and menatally shattered so will write some more tomorrow.

I'm so pleased it's over.

Colin.

Less than a week to go!

2008-04-07T14:41:00.007+01:00

It's now Monday and this time next week it will all be over!

Birg and I went out for the last long run yesterday, it was just under 11 miles and in the snow! I didn't look forward to going out at all but..... I'm going to have to put up with whatever Mother Nature throws at us next weekend so I may as well get used to it.

It was actually very nice once we got going. The sun came out and it got hot towards the end, hence the sweaty me in the self portrait going through the woods, please remember I'd run about 9.5 miles when I took this... You can see how sunny it was by how dark my glasses have gone.

Anyway, I was pleased, my feet didn't hurt, since I've started tying my laces the same way as Birg, and I kept to my time (10:14 minutes / mile) without a major problem.

I went swimming last Friday (it was great to get back in the water as I haven't been since before Easter). It's OK now I'm dropping the mileage, I've got a bit more energy and swimming is good as it keeps the fitness there without overly tiring the leg muscles (in my case without tiring them at all!). It was hard work though and I felt to be a lot slower than a couple of months ago, never mind, I'll soon be back into it.

Not long now....

2008-03-29T12:20:00.007Z

Well, two weeks tomorrow I'll be looking as I am here. Wearing this nice pink PDS vest, what a fine figure of a man........ hmmmm. It's a good job I'm comfortable with my sexuality.... 'Ducky'.

Anyway, at this time I'll be past half way round - or should be anyway - so please look out for me on the TV (this is my number) and give me a shout if you see me. I'm getting quite worried but when I think about it the adrenalin starts pumping and it turns into a veiled excitement!

I was in quite a bad way after Monday's run and, because I'd slipped the long run from Sunday, it threw my programme out a bit, consequently I missed out the slow recovery run I should have done this week and just did the 'quality' training sessions - which I managed OK. My feet are still hurting and I think I may well use my old trainers for the long runs and new ones (that have now - since my wading sessions a couple of weeks ago - become uncomfortable) for short sessions.

It's taper time now, so the sessions this week have been a bit easier.... at last! I've attached a chart I've been keeping of weekly and cumulative mileage since I started training. These are taken from my GPS and go from Sunday to Saturday whereas my programme works from Monday to Sunday so it's a little bit out of kilter on a weekly basis but the cumulative is spot on! It's easy to see when we were on holiday just after Christmas - oops!

Oh, that hurt......

2008-03-24T17:38:00.005Z

I did my longest training run today, 23 miles, and I'm suffering. Here's the map player if you want to see me waddling around... just press 'Play' on the left side of the page. As a bit of an aside, you'll notice I climbed more than 3,600 feet during the course of the run - who said Northamptonshire is flat?!

My feet are killing me, my arches really ached and I've got a black toenail starting on my right foot. I'm not sure if I didn't tighten my laces enough or if the shoes are damaged from last week's soaking but they've never been this uncomfortable before.

I was going to do this run yesterday but it was snowing heavily when I rose and the forecast said the wind would get stronger and snow continue during the morning, whereas today's forecast was for it to be overcast but dry and with reasonable winds, hey, back to bed then!

It's going to take me about 4 1/2 hours to complete this run and if I start too late it's the day gone, so the alarm went off at 06:30...... and it was snowing........ and the forecast has been updated to say it will do so for most of the morning but I can't put it off again so I put a pair of tracksuit bottoms on as well as two shirts, cap, coat and gloves. I've only run in trackies once before and didn't enjoy it, they're a bit on the heavy side and rub as I run but it really does look cold out there.

I did 14 miles and came home to collect Birg for the final 9, my feet were already hurting and I was struggling. It was all I could do to complete the run and in fact, after mile 20, I had to walk briefly on about 4-5 occasions, the problem was that I didn't feel any better when I did, it wasn't lack of energy it was discomfort that I was seeking respite from.

First thing when I got home was a hot bath, then when I was feeling a bit better, Birg went shopping and came back with a box of Radox........ time to soak my feet........ bliss.

At least I've done 23 miles and am now tapering down over the next three weeks. I'm pleased I didn't just do 20 miles as I'm now confident I can do an extra 3 miles on the day whereas if I had only done 20, I'd have had to pull an extra 6 miles out of the bag....... which I'm sure would have been a big ask.

It's Thursday after the Sunday before...

2008-03-20T18:52:00.004Z

... and I'm quite pleased the way this week's training has gone.

I've completed three training runs since the 20 miler on Sunday and have managed to keep to the times specified in the programme for all of them. For example, today was a 1 mile warm up, 4 miles brisk, 1 mile cool down. The important section, the 4 miles brisk, should (in my case) be run at a pace between 9 minutes 44 seconds and 10 minutes 04 per mile and I averaged 9:56 for each mile - almost exactly in the middle, i.e. spot on.

This coming Sunday is the longest training run I'll be doing before the Marathon. The idea is that you 'taper' for the final three weeks, reducing rather than increasing the mileage so the muscles have a chance to rest and recouperate before the event. According to the programme, last Sunday's run should have only been 18 miles and this coming one should be 20 but I was a bit concerned that if the longest run I did was 20, I'd have to find an extra 6 miles in the tank on the day so I modified the programme and did 20 last week and am doing 23 this. That way I only need to do an extra 3 miles on race day, it just feels more manageable.

As an aside, I'm sitting here writing this and the phrase 'I only need to do an extra 3 miles on race day' jumped out of the page at me. It's not that long since I would have been puffing and panting if I walked 3 miles never mind ran it........ on top of running 23 miles! Actually, I'm fairly certain I'll be staggering it but hey ho!

20 miles today - in the wind and rain!

2008-03-16T23:36:00.013Z

It was 20 miles today, the longest session I've ever done, and I'm walking like a Wooden Top.

You can see the route I took if you click here .

I did 11.5 miles on my own then Birg joined me for the last 8.5. It was very windy the whole time but thankfully it only rained for the first hour or so. However, there'd been torrential rain throughout the night and I ended up paddling through flood water on at least five occasions. Once, the water was flowing so hard I feared for my safety, a car refused to go through it, instead turning around to find an alternative route - I had to negotiate it or go back the way I'd come and do an extra 5 miles, so I lifted my knees and went for it, the water came half way up my shins. The worst thing was that I was wearing my new trainers - that will be them ruined then.

I was so impressed with myself that when we'd finished the run I got Birg to drive me back there and take a photo, here it is (bear in mind I'd been through it 3 hours earlier so it had subsided considerably)

When we were there I thought it would be good to give a practical demonstration of what it had been like. I was still wet and cold so it wasn't much of a hardship to run through again with Birg videoing me (a passing horse rider thought it a bit odd mind!) anyway here we are:

I know I haven't updated this since last Sunday which is a bit remiss of me. There were lots of photos of me at the Silverstone Half Marathon last week (possibly because the phtographers thought I may collapse?) and I've ordered some but it will take about 2 weeks to receive them. If you can't contain yourself and feel you must see me wobbling like a Weeble over the finish line then click on this link , you need to click on the 'My photo's' tab. Birg is here and looks a lot healthier than me at the finish - she obviously didn't try hard enough!

Well, that's the first Half done.........

2008-03-09T16:47:00.011Z

2 hours 16 minutes and 33 seconds....... that was my official time in the Silverstone Half Marathon today, Birg did 2:15:59, she beat me by 34 seconds!!!

Here I am, looking all relaxed before the start - Ha, Fool! Wait until I get a photo of me afterwards (I'm hoping I was snapped by an official photographer but won't know until Wedensday when they're published)

It was very hard work but I was pleased with the result. The best pace I'd managed prior to this was a 10 mile training run two weeks ago when I maintained a 10:27 minutes per mile pace for the 10 miles - and felt I was going to die when I'd finished (runners tend to talk about pace instead of speed, measuring their performance by how many minutes and seconds it takes to run a mile). When you take into consideration I actually ran 13.37 miles rather than the official 13.1 of a half marathon (due to going around obstacles - yes, I overtook some people, not many but some!!) I managed to keep to a pace of 10:14 per mile for a greater distance - I'm very pleased..... and shattered.

I wore my GPS and set it to beep at me when my pace went faster than 10:00/mile or slower than 10:30/mile, I'd have been happy with any result faster than an average of 10:30 but was trying to keep it as close as possible to 10:00. The route used all the different circuits that make up Silverstone (including the perimeter track) with the final 3 miles being back on the main F1 circuit. When we got back on the F1 track for the final time I was doing 10:12 and - thinking I'd be able to keep it going for the last 3 miles - dug in and sped up to try and get my pace down to 10:00 mins/mile, unfortunately I was wrong! After about a mile I felt terrible, it was only when my GPS said I had completed the official 13.1 miles that I got a second (third? fourth?) wind and went for it for the last quarter of a mile, I did stagger over the finish line though.

There were actually 4900 starters, 4809 finished, Birg came in at position 3,769 overall, 66 in her group of 122 * 45-49 year old women and I was 3,806 overall (122 out of 152 * 50-54 year old men). I can't wait to see the photos from the event but, as Birg takes great pleasure in reminding me, in a month's time I'll be doing it again - doubled....... hmmm.

If you follow this link it will show you the route we took along with various snippets of information such as my speed and heart rate etc. (if you're really interested!) but also, if you click on the 'Player' tab (top right) it plays back my run with a little dot representing me going round the circuit (well, once more, I think it's good fun!).

Here it is:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/dashboard.mb?episodePk.pkValue=5129000

For what it's worth, if you do click on 'Heart Rate' on the left side of the page the above link takes you to, you will see I was in zone 5 (90-100% of Max Heart Rate) for 43% of the time and zone 4 (80-89% HR Max) for a further 43% of the time, i.e. I was working blooming hard!!

Number 38701.......

2008-03-08T23:13:00.004Z

I just received my registration details today........ I'm number 38701!

Apparently there are about 54,000 people taking part in total so it's going to be pretty cosy! I've watched the marathon on the TV before and been shocked by how many runners take part but I didn't realise there are three different start points, just to cater for all the participants, I'm in the red zone which starts in Greenwich Park.

Birg and I are both a bit nervous as we're in our first proper race tomorrow: we're registered for the Silverstone Half Marathon - numbers 339 and 340 - which, surprisingly, has about 5,000 entrants, it's amazing that there are so many people taking part in these things.

We'll hopefully get some photos out of that, right now I'm off to bed to get a decent night's rest!!

We're getting there, slowly but slowly....

2008-03-03T21:34:00.003Z

Oh boy, lots of things have happened since my last post, I've bought another pair of shoes (as the pair I bought in September are wearing out!) and poor old Birg has injured her leg... this week I ran a total of 39.5 miles which took me 8hours 25 minutes..... yesterday I ran 17.5 miles and could hardly lift my feet by the end..... yes, a lot's happened since my last post (Birg's OK now by the way, following nightly hot water bottle treatment)

I've changed from the Flora London Marathon training programme I was following to one from the Runner's World magazine, the beauty of this one is that it can be downloaded to my GPS so it beeps at you if you're going too fast or too slow and when you've finished each step and need to move up a pace or relax a bit, for example last Tuesday I had to do the following set and the GPS kept me on track with various (annoying actually) beeps:

1 mile warm up at a pace between 11:40 and 12:00 minutes per mile
1.5 miles fast (a pace between 9:08 and 9:28 minutes per mile) - made it just
0.25 miles recovery (a pace slower than 12:00 minutes per mile) - walked!
1.5 miles fast - did a bit better 9:26 pace
0.25 miles recovery - walked
1.5 miles fast - did even better 9:23 pace!
0.25 miles recovery - staggered!
1 mile cool down at a pace between 11:40 and 12:00 minutes per mile.

Birg had a day off and was at home when I finished, I staggered into the house and couldn't speak, I collapsed in a chair and sat there steaming, I wasn't angry, I was steaming.

Oh, I've been losing weight again with all this training, I'm back down to 86Kg

I just booked our hotel for the Saturday night before the Marathon. I've been looking since early January but all London hotels were fully booked for that Saturday night..... with hindsight, there's going to be 40,000 people descending on London to run the Marathon, they're going to want to sleep somewhere, I should have booked somthing before I'd got the marathon place, I could have always cancelled it. Anyway, I was looking again this evening when I had a bright idea, rather than looking towards central London, look outwards into Kent. Hey presto, Dartford has a Holiday Inn Express 1.5Km from the station, which in turn is a 32 minute ride from Greenwich, the start point. This is ideal as we can just drive round the M25 on Saturday morning, go looking around BlueWater shopping centre in the afternoon and then walk to the station in the morning. The only minor problem is that they only have double rooms, twin rooms and six man rooms - OK, so we'll have a few spare beds then!

It's been a long time since a walk and stroll......

2008-01-20T22:23:00.001Z

......OK, so the title is only (slightly) funny if you're a bit of an old fart - like wot I am.

It's a long time since I updated this blog but we have been out jogging fairly regularly and the distances have been consistently increasing. Our routine was disrupted over Christmas / New Year but even then we went out a couple of times when we were in Sharm El Sheikh (not for very long though as it was bloody hot!). But we're both having problems getting out as frequently as we should, we should be running at least twice during the week but, largely due to work, we both only got out once.

We went out today, I really struggled for some reason (possibly because I've not been out recently), Birg seems to be getting ever fitter and faster while I've plateaued. We did 2 hours, 10 miles, through the woods around Silverstone, I'm going to join Silverstone joggers next week or the week after in order to get a bit more variety.

I didn't get into the London Marathon through the public balot............... but have done so through the PDS! I've also (today) booked Birg and me in for the Silverstone Half Marathon on March 9th - I haven't told Birg yet!

today

2007-10-13T19:31:00.001+01:00

Well, Birg and I went out for a run today. I did a 4 mile jog with a 100m slow run every mile. I use a Garmin GPS to help with training and the terms above have specific meanings. Speeds start at 'slow walk' and ascend through 'walk', 'fast walk', 'slow jog', etc. etc.

I've been training 'properly' for around 5 weeks; I started off just running in the gym on a treadmill but have ventured outside a few times now and need to make it the norm fairly soon.

It's proving to be quite hard converting my swimming fitness to running, I'm still doing swim training but suspect I'll have to cut down as I build up the running... we'll see.