Anyone recognise this picture?
I was running there about 2 days after this picture was taken (not by me, by another local runner who can be found on Warrior Women ) but not on the day of the snow. Not bloody likely. I can barely walk in the snow let alone run. Walking to Barnes Bridge took about 3 times as long as usual due to a fit(ish) 41-year-old walking like an incontinent 83-year-old with dodgy ankles.
January has been an excellent month for many reasons:
- My fund raising total for CLIC Sargent (for Reading half marathon) has gone up to nearly £400
- My mileage for January was the most I’ve ever done in a month. About 52 miles if you include the 10 mile race I did on 7th January. Which I have. Obviously.
- My New Years resolutions held up very well. Watched far less telly and went to bed a lot earlier. The telly being out of action for just over a week obviously helped but I’m going to try and keep to these resolutions for a bit longer. The only thing I really missed was Match of the Day although that situation may change when Lost returns.
- I found 2 new and indeed exciting ways to train. More of which later.
Before I forget, websites you need to look at are as follows:
http://www.warriorwomen.co.uk/running-routes - Good running routes involving Kew, Barnes, Hammersmith and Chiswick bridges
http://www.therunningdan.com/ – Someone trying to run 26 marathons in a year, raising money for Parkinson’s disease. Amazing. I think he’s currently on 3 down, 23 to go.
Ok, so they’re the only two I can think of so far but Volzy and News Biscuit are always good for a laugh – see links in far column.
'If you want to win something, run 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon' - Emil Zatopek
That’s surely rubbish. The second sentence should read half marathon and the first sentence is just plain wrong. I could never win 100m race unless the other competitors were under 4, over 88 or didn’t have the required amount of legs. Even then it’s no certainty.
Something quite exciting going on at the moment, or at least from now until the London Marathon are Adiruns. These are basically organised runs ranging from 5 to 17 miles with free advice before, during and after the run, people to run with, drinks and ……. I’ll let them explain it.
Sweatshop is proud to have teamed up with adidas to provide newcomers and first timers with guided training runs from a selection of our Sweatshop stores. These runs are designed to provide runners with little experience the opportunity to train in a friendly and fun atmosphere, perfect for building up your mileage and preparing for what might be your first ever 10k, half Marathon, or Marathon. Click here for full details of all Sweatshop adiRuns.
In addition, Sunday morning runs will be staged in partnership with our original Sweatshop Teddington store from nearby St Mary's College, Twickenham. The running in this area is fantastic, and our guides will take you on runs of varying pace around the beautiful Bushy Park, the adopted training home to several of the World's best Kenyan runners, and the year round home to 320 friendly deer!
Sweatshop adiRuns are organised by an experienced team especially for the first time Flora London Marathon runner. These are perfect to help you grow in confidence and fitness as you approach the big day and, you couldn't be in better hands!
All completely free!
The first one was last week. I spent a lot of my youth in Bushy Park and almost as much climbing over the walls of St. Mary’s College, playing football/tennis without permission, being chased by a scary man with an Alsatian and climbing back out. It was nice to be there legally for a change.
The run was good. Only 5 miles but a great deal different to usual as it was in the day and I decided to ditch my ipod. Talked to a few people as I ran (not easy, the talking that is) and it seemed that all of them were training for the Marathon. Not for me quite yet, I’m more than happy sticking with the half for the moment. Highly recommend the adiruns to one and all and there’s always experienced runners at the back and front to help if needed.
I’m doing the 8 mile run this Sunday – wish me luck.
Before last weekend’s run a gentleman by the name of Bud Baldaro gave out plenty of titbits of advice for the first time marathon runner. All done with great humour – I think the words “lunatics” and “nutters” were both used more than once with reference to anyone who has ever run or wanted to run a marathon.
A key thing he said was that if anyone only had time for three runs a week they should do:
A long run
Tempo running
Interval session
The way I understand it is a long run is a run of probably more than 10 miles at whatever speed you fancy just to ‘get the miles in’. A tempo run is a shorter run at a strict, and indeed fast, pace and an interval session involves running at a certain pace and then resting for a specific time before repeating the procedure.
With this in mind, I drove down to Battersea Park on Wednesday to use their running track. From http://www.runningforfitness.org/ I knew what a 41 year old male who wanted to do a 10 mile race in 1hr 45min (hilly Tadworth was 2 hours) should do to increase their running pace – don’t forget I’m on a very slow plod at the moment and wanted to get that up to a medium plod. Speaking of pace – Runners World do pacing at certain events which consist of people holding boards saying I’m running a 9 minute mile pace and those runners obsessed with time, beating their personal best etc. can loiter around the pacer for the duration of the race and guarantee the time they wanted. They do this for 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 minute miles and the next category is run/walk. Ahem. Some of my runs fall just short of 11 minute-mile pace but I’m CERTAINLY NOT A RUN WALK!! Cheeky bu**ers.
So there I was, on my own, Battersea Park, cold Wednesday night timing myself to do 4 laps (1 Mile) in under 9:33 then 3 minutes rest before doing it again. And again. And again. 4 miles in total, 4 reps of 1 mile. First one was easy – no ipod again, watching the rugby training, trying to avoid the footballers juggling on the track. I felt like I was cheating having the 3 minute rest. That was just the first time. Between the 3rd and 4th rep I was very happy to have the rest. I did ok time-wise but definitely room for improvement and I hope to make this a regular weekly part of my training if time allows it.
I’m still looking for sponsorship – go to www.justgiving.com/johnlowit or click on widget (!) at the top right of this blog
As far as training for the half marathon is concerned it’s all going well, I’m following a RunnersWorld training plan, feeling fit and confident of completing 13.1m. It’s not going to be fast and it’s certainly not going to be pretty and the general thought on these big races (mainly marathons but I’m applying it to half marathons, because I can) is the frst time you should JUST GET ROUND. You’ll be certain of getting a personal best and can attempt to improve from there.
Three final thoughts - one running-related and one not.
1 - I’ve started running late, I’m heavier than I should be and my body isn’t in quite as good a nick as it once was (!) so I’m not going to see a rapid improvement in speed but I can increase distance which is what I’m trying to do.
2 – Very refreshing running without an ipod and makes you appreciate your surroundings much more
3 – For people of a certain age, do you remember staying up till midnight to watch the ‘Thriller’ video on C4? And now you can access all the music/videos you want instantly. Bizarre. See the bottom of this page for my current favourite song/video.
