Progress 111 / 367 miles.
Hooray we are getting traction, I have broken the 100 barrier.
The problem with running more than 6-8 miles is that eventually you run out of pavement, and sometimes you really don’t want to be roadkill and sometimes you just don’t want to go on back like you should. So once I ran through some brambles, I really underestimated them.
I had a fight with some brambles
General Weirdness
- Folded sock syndrome – it feels like there is a folded sock under your foot, you later look and there isn’t, happened when I was trying to “fartlek” and possibly strained something, and then it was present for most of my last 12 mile run, no real pain just a weird sensation
- Knees – mostly ok, right one is a tad sore from time to time
- Calves – always hurting in some way shape or form
- Right achilles tendon a tad achey
- Pulse rate, drops to around 40BPM on non run days
- Never underestimate how difficult it is to discretely pee behind a tree with frozen hands
a new running companion
As one of my colleagues who say on my left pulled out of the marathon so my other colleague who sits on my right, decided to step in, with zero training. Frankly he is a bit crazy and he is from Iran. He comes with me for the midweek runs and generally suffers alongside me gamely, his name is Payman, and man is he going to pay.
different kinds of training
- taking it easy, is actually when you are running at a pace where you can maintain a conversation with someone without due discomfort, this never used to be possible for me but now. This is a good idea for most of the early long runs to get the miles under your belt
- tempo – which is jogging slightly above your average pace so you cannot easily hold a conversation, but you arent blowing!
- fartlek – which (meaning “speed play”) which is where you go 90% to self appointed targets, eg the next tree, or streetlight or busstop etc… and then you drop to just below your jogging pace to recover
- interval training – you have periods where you will flat out run for approx 1Km and then stop for 30-40 secs before repeating. Of course the interval distances and timings are self set
looking forwards
I have a half marathon this Saturday, its going to be interesting! Currently aiming to do that in about 2.15 if all goes well!
Sparks are flying
Don’t forget I am running for a great cause…. the Sparks Children’s Charity, http://www.sparks.org.uk/about/ helping more money be invested into pioneering medical research for small children. If you agree with this, and you are able, then donate here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RobertElbourn Additionally Deutsche Bank are going to be matching anything that you raise to help me reach my target of £2,000.