Sunday run in the sun

As it's a beautiful day in Brighton I decided to stop occassionally and take some photos. Most of the time when I run it's dark and cold. 8.24 miles this is the longest run I've done, ever. Map at the bottom if you want to take a look.

The long run back along the seafront

The ever present Power Station

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Waiting for the locks to open at Shoreham

If you look on the map you'll see that this is just by Shoreham Power Station

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Cross county running

The tower you can see in the background is Shoreham Power Station.

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The start

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Reasons to be guilty, one, two, three

Two weeks since my last entry which is also two weeks since my last run. Cold now fully recovered from and weekend in Scotland out of the way. I wasn't going to run tonight but was thinking about this blog and, well, I decided I should go out; 7.5 k (or 4.6 miles) at a reasonable pace isn't a bad return. So, here are my reasons to be guilty

1) everyone has been really supportive, all the questions about how my training is going and people saying they're reading the blog are motivating me not to be so crap - keep it up please!

2) the charities I'm running for have been very appreciative of my offer to raise money for them and if I don't do it I'll feel like a real card

3) this is the third time I've persuaded Andy (Calvert for those who won't be able to guess) to enter a race and the previous two times I have let him down by being rubbish and not training. This time I'm determined not to be such a useless friend

6.25 miles or just over 10k

Not bad for my first real run for two weeks, especially when I'm still not 100% after my cold. Anyway, once again I learn a lesson after the fact, you never know when you'll be ill so take every chance to run.

We have nothing on this week so the plan is to use this week to relaunch a proper training regime.

Neale is being ace, in the kitchen heating up the curry while I stretch out and update the blog.

TTFN

Don't judge a book by the cover, or a child by the mother

I went for a short run on Saturday which was my first outing in over a week due to a rotten cold, which was so bad I cancelled dinner at my favourite Brighton restaurant. Sympathy please but that isn't why I'm posting.

There is an extremely annoying child on the train which reminds me of the marathon training day.

I was sitting in front of a very loud child who kept shouting during the talks and asking what had been said when everyone laughed. Mum kept telling son to be quiet, even threatening to take her iPhone away (I think he was playing Angry Birds) if son wasn't quiet.

After about an hour I was getting properly hacked off, the shouting, son turning up - mum turning down the sound of the phone. Finally we stopped for lunch and mum talked to son about leaving.

Joy! Horrid out of control son is going!

Dad leans over to son and says "son, you've been really well behaved". I huff and think "oh no he hasn't" when dad finishes his sentence "shall we put your hearing aid in?"

Amy's been a bad, bad girl

I haven't been running for seven days and it's the idea of not updating this blog, making it really obvious I haven't been training, that spurred me on to get out tonight. That curiosity to see if "War and Peace" would be distracting enough to stop me being so bored after 10 minutes that I'm shouting at my inner slob "are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?".

Anyway, a week off doesn't seem to have done me too much harm; 6.1 miles and at a faster pace than I did the 7 miles last Sunday. No back ache, felt pretty comfortable, legs fine, no blisters or sore ankles. This is not a reason to have a week off again, I really do need to keep it up and keep adding the distance because there will be times when I won't be able to run so every mile now will help.

The plan is to go out again on Thursday and do a similar distance and then try for 8+ miles on either Saturday or Sunday.

And "War and Peace" turns out to be quite a romp.

Running is boring

Running is boring. When I was running in the summer I thought audio books might be the answer but I never found one that was distracting enough. I think this is because books are read out loud more slowly than you would read them in your head, and that even if the reader puts on silly voices you're still listening to one voice, talking quite slowly. I also find the verbal descriptions of situations make less when someone else is reading out loud, they seem clunky and distract from the dialogue and story. Or maybe I just don't like audio books.

Bleak Expectations has been a brilliant choice to get me going again. Easily the funniest thing I have ever heard on the radio the first three seasons also clock in at 9 hours, which is a fair bit of running. Knowing how well this has worked I've taken the plunge and bought the BBC radio adaptation of War and Peace, all 9 hours and 30 mins of it and will let you know how I get on... Suggestions of other things to listen to while running would be very welcome.

7 miles along the sunny seafront

Blimey, I've just run 7 miles. Without stopping. I may have taken it pretty slowly but I have just run 7 miles. My lower back and ankles are a little sore but apart from that all seems to be well. Now for a stretch and something to eat.

Do the math

Having set up my expected vs. actual training spreadsheet it now appears that, since Sunday, I have run 13.1 miles, otherwise known as a half marathon. Although I certainly couldn't run that distance in one go I've got a mental picture now of what a half marathon looks like, and it isn't a terrifying as I thought it would be.

5.3 miles on a windy Friday night

Our trip to Norfolk has been cancelled so instead of a short run today/long run tomorrow it seemed a good idea to run tonight and Sunday. As I still felt okay at the end of the run I did on Wednesday I tacked on another half mile.

Bleak Expectations is a great help, keeping me entertained while doing a pretty boring exercise. On the final episode of season one with seasons two and three already lined up and by the time I've listened to all nine hours my BBC delivery should have arrived. If anyone has ideas for making running less boring please let me know: if I come up with any bright ideas I'll post them.

Wednesday 20th October

Today was my first run since a short one on Sunday with at the Training Day. That was a little too quick for me and left me with sore legs for a couple of days. The good news is I very comfortably managed 4.8 miles without stopping and could have gone on for longer. My hope is to tackle a 7 mile run from Lancing on Saturday and that doesn't seem quite as stupid now as it did when I was thinking about it on the train.

Back home, Neale's sorting out the curry, had a good stretch and starting to cool down. Feeling pretty pleased with myself but know that this is just the start and 4.8 miles is 21.4 miles short of a marathon...

Next run is a short one on Friday (at Bracknell tomorrow so no chance of being home in time to run, I know, what a glamourous life...) and as we're off to Norfolk on Sunday it'll have to be a long run on Saturday.

Training Day 17th October 2010

The theme of the Training Day at the Metropole was "Don't Panic, Keep Calm and Carry On" which is just as well because that's exactly what I was thinking I was likely to do. Having not run at all for some weeks I was starting to think I'd made a huge mistake. The atmosphere, the mix of people (all shapes and sizes and some who definitely didn't look like keen runners) was encouraging and the presentations surprisingly down to earth, except for the Women's Running pair who I'm sure I'll talk about another time.
Anyway, the point of this blog is to try and keep me on track with my training. I got a buzz out of Sunday and need to keep that feeling. The best way I can think of to keep myself running is to put pressure on myself by being open and telling friends and family, anyone in fact, to pester me as much as they're able to about how my training is going. The only thing that is likely to make me keep at it is the embarrassment I will feel when I have to tell people I just gave up because I couldn't be bothered.
So the challenge to anyone who reads this is keep bugging me about my marathon training. I'm sure it'll be extremely boring for you but I will (eventually) be very grateful you did.

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Have T-shirt, now run marathon

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