Wow my legs ache today! Yesterday I was doing sprint intervals that I have now named "sprintervals" (catchy that) and after 6 repeats of '60 second sprint > 3 minute walk > 45 second sprint > 3 minute walk > 30 second sprint > 3 minute walk' I didn't feel too bad. In fact I always feel like I've cheated when doing these workouts that involve walking! By last night though my legs were exhibiting signs that they were not happy and by the time I go up for a light 45 minute jog this morning they were protesting very loudly.

I took the jog steady and tried to keep an even pace through out and came through OK but now my legs feel very heavy and tired. My left hamstring also keep twinging so I'm wary of getting injured so close to my 10k.

All-in-all it's business as usual and I must say that running, even early in the morning as I do, is so much more enjoyable in the sunshine!

I've not updated the diary for a few days, keeping a daily journal of my training and working and having a life is not compatible.  I'll update the journal a few times a week to keep the content coming though.

Yesterday was a tough run. With 2 weeks until my 10k race in Hull I wanted to push myself to run 10km in under 50 minutes. I knew that each 1km split had to be sub 5 minutes to achieve this goal, I knew also this would be tough with my inability to keep decent pace. I've listed my split times below for the 10km and half the 10 splits are under 5 minutes per km.

km  Pace (min/km) 

 

1  4:46 

2  5:14 

3  5:03 

4  5:16 

5  4:44 

6  5:21 

7  4:35 

8  4:49 

9  5:27 

10  4:43

When I got my 45 minute time check and I was just a whisker under 9km I knew if I pushed hard I could get in the 10km under 50 minutes. I went for it but did slow on a couple of occassions and had to push myself on. My RunKeeper app on my phone is set to give 5 minute unterval time checks so I knew that when the 50 minute check came it had to be over 10km. When the check came it said I had done 10km in exactly 50 minutes. I was gutted. I really wanted a 10km time under 50 minutes and I had failed. I resolved to take a steady 10 or so minute jog home and review the data as RunKeeper often corrects itself of gives slightly incorrect time checks.

Pleasingly, looking at the split data on my RunKeeper profile shows that I ran 10km in 49:48. Fantastic result and I am pretty damn happy with that and can build on it now. I have one more long run before the 10km race now and I am not certain whether to try and beat my time in that or not yet, even though it's a whole week before the race I don't want to hinder my chances of getting a really good race time.

 

Training has gone really well this week and this next week is looking pretty tougher with lots of speed work involved.  Onwards and upwards though!

A strange session this morning. 1 minute running at maximum effort followed by 3 minutes walking, then repeated 3 more times. This, again, is part of my schedule and I am trying to be faithful to it but I just found today a bit boring and useless.

It didn't feel like I'd had a work out and although I know this is just preparing e for longer and tougher sessions like this I just can't help the feeling that it was a bit of a waste of time.

Roll on tomorrow when I've got a 45 minute jog to do. I am tempted to follow one of my 10km routes and push myself towards my 45 minute goal over that distance, but then I wouldn't be jogging. I'm sure I'll miss these "easier" sessions in a few weeks when it starts to get tougher.

Today was meant to be a 30 minute jog. Mondays are always steady jogs in the schedule I'm following and I guess this is the help recover from the long Sunday run.  However when I got up this morning I didn't feel like a jog, i wanted to run hard and fast and try and beat my best 5km time.

I pushed so hard inplaces but did not keep pushing enough to get me under 25 minutes for the 5km.  Frustrating but at least it spurs me on to keep trying harder. I'm aiming for 45-50 minutes for the Hull 10km, to achieve that I need to be running 22.5 minutes per 5km. I am reading good things about negative splits though so maybe going for 25 minutes for the first 5km then push and go for 20 minutes on the second. At the moment I feel that 20 minutes on the back 5km is a big ask but I will endeavour to try.

No dog today. Gave her a day off after her poor showing in yesterday long run.  She seems happy enough with a little walk after I got back.

Must finish my porridge now and get showered before the brood get up and want breakfast.

So today was Delilah's mini fun run Leeds. It was part of the Leeds half marathon event and it was great to see so many little fun runners out on the course. Of course the occasion overwhelmed Delilah and SW cried almost from start to finish except when she was on my shoulders. In the end she crossed the finish line smiling and was chuffed to bit to receive her medal.

Of course the need to be in Leeds for 9 am at the latest with 4 young children posed something of a logistical issue.  I needed to do a 70 minute Fartlek session today and knew that with other goings on after the fun run that getting that done would not be easy. So, I was out of the door by 5.30am on a Sunday.

70 minutes of Fartleks was damn hard work and in the end was too much for the dog. I have now decided that she will no longer do the long runs with me as she simply can't cope past 8km. Maybe the weekday training will improve her stamina! 

I clocked up 12.3km today and that is the most I've ever run in one go. I am pretty proud of that and the fact that I can feel the benefit of the training in me too with stamina and strength. I'm feeling more confident that in the Hull 10km race in a few weeks that I can register a decent time - somewhere arounf 45 minutes is my aim but of course I would like to be quicker.

That's all for now folks...

A nice steady 45 minute jog this morning.

Today was the first day in nearly 3 weeks that I could have just stayed in bed and not bothered but I gave myself a kick and out I went.  The legs were aching and my calf muscles felt very tight, even after a good stretch, and to cap it call my knees starting to hurt quite early on. I think my body is starting to protest a little at this training regime.

It was a pretty uneventful run other that when the dog tried to switch side and clipped my leg and almost sent me sprawling to the ground. I felt like I was stumbling and trying to recover my posture for a heck of a long time; so much so that I seemed to be able to take the time to make a decision on whether to just fall over and be done with it or keep trying to stay upright.  My though process even involved imaganing the scrapes I would suffer with a fall and the training I might miss through injury. I must have looked like Bambi on ice with my long legs everywhere and my arms flailing!  Thankfully I got myself back upright and kept going.

I find it odd the amount of people out and about at 5.30am. Dog walkers, people at bus stops, news agents open!!! What really annoys me about many of the people I pass is the cigarette smokers. Yes, yes I know they in a public outdoor space but it always seems that they make a point of exhaling their toxic waste just at the moment I pass them and I find myself either having to hold my breath or just breath the filth in. Quite frankly cigarettes should be banned and be done with it, never going to happen but hey-ho.

No rest day tomorrow as I'm meant to do a 15 minute jog but I think I'll do 15 minutes on the cross-trainer instead. I am plannign to supplement my training with some evening sessions on the cross-trainer to improve my strength and stamina further. Lets see what my old body thinks about that!

Busy weekend ahead too. Work to do tomorrow morning and evening then doing 1km fun run with Delilah in Leeds on Sunday morning. Then we're off to get the youngest her birthday present (a bit early).

Almost forgot. I hit a milestone today as I've now run more kilometers this month than in any other month - 75km in total and it's not even at the half way point yet.  Looks like I'll be pushing 200km by the time June hits us.

A nice steady 45 minute jog this morning.

Today was the first day in nearly 3 weeks that I could have just stayed in bed and not bothered but I gave myself a kick and out I went.  The legs were aching and my calf muscles felt very tight, even after a good stretch, and to cap it call my knees starting to hurt quite early on. I think my body is starting to protest a little at this training regime.

It was a pretty uneventful run other that when the dog tried to switch side and clipped my leg and almost sent me sprawling to the ground. I felt like I was stumbling and trying to recover my posture for a heck of a long time; so much so that I seemed to be able to take the time to make a decision on whether to just fall over and be done with it or keep trying to stay upright.  My though process even involved imaganing the scrapes I would suffer with a fall and the training I might miss through injury. I must have looked like Bambi on ice with my long legs everywhere and my arms flailing!  Thankfully I got myself back upright and kept going.

I find it odd the amount of people out and about at 5.30am. Dog walkers, people at bus stops, news agents open!!! What really annoys me about many of the people I pass is the cigarette smokers. Yes, yes I know they in a public outdoor space but it always seems that they make a point of exhaling their toxic waste just at the moment I pass them and I find myself either having to hold my breath or just breath the filth in. Quite frankly cigarettes should be banned and be done with it, never going to happen but hey-ho.

No rest day tomorrow as I'm meant to do a 15 minute jog but I think I'll do 15 minutes on the cross-trainer instead. I am plannign to supplement my training with some evening sessions on the cross-trainer to improve my strength and stamina further. Lets see what my old body thinks about that!

Busy weekend ahead too. Work to do tomorrow morning and evening then doing 1km fun run with Delilah in Leeds on Sunday morning. Then we're off to get the youngest her birthday present (a bit early).

30 sprint intervals! Now I see what this shcedule is up to, building strength and stamina and in the early weeks introducing things like this.

I'm no sprinter but when I am running at full pelt I like to think I'm running like Usain Bolt (just a wee bit slower)! 30 seconds seemed to fly by the first interval, then seems to take longer with each one and by the fourth interval it damn well hurt! 4 reps of 30 second sprint/3 mins jog seemed pretty easy, then a 15 minute jog afterwards should have been straigh forward except I chose to run up a damn hill for most of that to "challenge" myself further.

The dog stayed home for this one. She did seem tired towards the end of yesterdays session so she had a rest day today. She was not at all happy with me this morning when she saw me go through my usual routine then not get her lead out.  I remain sure she's happy to have had a rest.

I wonder if the torrential rain would have stopped me going out this morning had it continued? I woke at 1am and it was still lashing down but by 5am it had stopped - thank goodness. I'd like to think that I would had gone out whatever the weather.

10 minutes jog then 35 minutes run. I wasn't looking forward to this as I know my pace fluctuates widly and keeping a steady running pace was something I've struggled with. In actual fact the 10 minutes jogging got me up the initial hill so I had a pretty flat run from there on in and I seemed to be able to keep a a decent pace for that 35 minutes.

I could have racked up a bit more distance in the whole 45 minutes if it weren't for the doggy stops and then about 1.5km from home she started to struggle to keep pace with me so I had to slow down a bit to avoid dragging her along behind me.  I'm going to give her a day off tomorrow morning, despite her being a fit an healthy dalmation I don't want to do her any damage - probably as well as tomorrow I have sprint intervals to do for the first time.

All-in-all I was happy with todays efforts.

One thing I have noticed since I've been running and keeping fitter than I have ever been is that when coughs and cold come along I don't seem to get it too bad. Right now I have a bit of a sniffle and a cough which is probably part of a cold but I've not really felt the full effect of it and certainly haven't felt like I couldn't train. With the cripser mornings at the moment I am running with a sweater on just to make sure I don't get too cold though.

It's a great feeling at 32 years of age to be able to day that I'm in the best shape I have ever been in and getting better by the day!

 

 

45 minutes of Fartleks - not a problem! Getting up at 5.15am - hmmm that was a little trickier.

I went back to random Fartleks today instead of timed; faired much better than before and it sure didn't feel like I'd done 8.5km - so next time I need to push harder on the fast elements.

It was a reasonably uneventful run to be honest and the legs aren't even aching now. I think I'm feeling much stronger that I was, fitter and with a better stamina. I'll reassess that on Sunday when I've done 70 minutes of Fartleks!