My run commute all the way home

So I did it! I finally managed to complete one my main running ambitions, to run all the way home from work! Which is no mean feat as I work in Central London and live out in Essex approximately 13 miles as the crow flies or around 18miles to run.

I have ran part of the way home several times, often running the 11K back to West Ham station to then jump on the tube for the remainder of my journey.  In the summer I did plan to run the full route but dropped out after around 13 miles as I wasn't quite fit enough to run longer and didn't have the mental strength to push myself to run through the mean streets of Dagenham.

I have planned to run the full route a few times as well but have either been waylaid by other commitments or had to focus on my marathon training rather than pursuing this goal.

But my hand was forced somewhat as I might be moving soon so my chances to run this particular route have become limited. I thought Id better do it before the dark nights and the cold winter really sets in but I was surprised at how dark and cold it got relatively quickly.

So how did it go?

It took me just under 3 hours and the route was almost 18miles! My mapmyrun didn't seem to function properly either so the real distance will be even further! 

It was long and it was draining!

The first few miles are quite fun as the route takes me along the Thames, to the Tower of London past all the various sights of London.

Then its a straight run down Commercial Road to Limehouse before heading towards Canning Town an out onto the A13 for real out through Beckton and onto Barking.

The pathway is good and wide with a dedicated walkway and cycle path but you are running along the side of a busy motor way which isn't everyones idea of fun! 

Then after about 12 miles the junction to finally turn off the motorway and into residential territory comes and I head towards Becontree and Dagenham.

The route then takes me past these respective tube stations before continuing my journey out towards Dagenham East in the direction of Rainham.

The most direct route is the tube route of the district line but I cant imagine TFL or thousands of commuters taking kindly to me running along the tracks! 

I did try to plan my route to be as direct a possible although that's not all together direct as the road system doesn't always head where you want it to.

Soon enough I was in Elm Park and heading towards Hornchurch which gave me a much needed spring in my step as I was on home turf and running on roads I had often ran on before.

A few more roads and a few more turns and I was back in Upminster  within a stones throw of my flat. The last few hundred metres gave me time to reflect on my journey and the realisation of completing my commute without the aid of a car, a taxi, a bus, a train or the tube. A pretty special feeling especially when its something I have wanted to achieve for so long! 

The only down side was that my evening was pretty much over as it was now 8.20 an I was definitely too tired to do much else! 

A pizza and a much deserved pint provided my refuel and after some stretching and foam rolling and a bit of a chillax in front of the TV it was time for bed! 

Training round up for my second marathon

Two weeks after my marathon and now six weeks until my next one I have been working hard to hit the next race harder and faster!

My training in the last two weeks has included a lot more strength training and circuit training in my attempts to be even fitter and stronger.

Heres a leg circuit I have done a couple of times recently to work on strengthening my legs: 

I have also done a bit more gym work including more weights and mixing up ab exercises, upper body work and some leg exercises into circuit routines.

The main exercises I have been focusing on are press ups, squats, lunges, crunches and leg raises.

Over the last fortnight a main focus has been on building up my press up capabilities as this has been something I have let slide recently. So on top of my training I completed a press up streak of 100 press ups on seven consecutive days, a pretty good achievement for me and I feel so much stronger from it already. 

Diet wise things have slipped a bit as I have enjoyed not watching what I have been eating so carefully.

A few foodporn highlights from the week include :

An awesome ham and BBQ pizza

A delicious strawberry and banana smoothie

And my epic post run Sunday brunch breakfast wrap last weekend

Today's run

Today was my first longer run since the marathon as I completed 27.5km on a route out along the London Loop to Purfleet. This is a route I have been very keen to run as this was the route I had planned to run a few weeks before the marathon but had to abandon after 2kms due to my foot injury striking.

My route took me through my usual course through the Ingrebourne valley country park but further out to Rainham village, over the train tracks, through Rainham marshes following the London Loop trail all the way out onto the Thames. 

These pictures are the view from when I came out onto the river, firstly looking East out towards the Thames estuary, if my camera was better you would make out the Dartford crossing. 

The second photo is then looking West towards the City, again if the photo was better quality you could make out the skyscrapers in the far distance.

Unfortunately I had picked a poor day for this run as it was very overcast and cloudy not to mention windy and battling the wind coming off the river was challenging to say the least!

A few highlight along the route include the sculpture of the diver in the photo below which is supposedly the only sculpture actually in the Thames. 

My personal highlight though is the concrete barges which were used as part of the D Day landing in World War ii, they inspire and fascinate me every time I see them and I continue to be perplexed by the lack of interest and information available on them and the lack of recognition they receive. 

My half way turnaround point was the RSPB bird sanctuary at Purfleet which is the base for bird watchers on the Rainham marshes and an excellent provider of refreshments and tasty cakes. Not today unfortunately as today I only had time for a quick toilet break before turning around and heading home. 

After 2 and three quarter hours and over 27 kilometers I was pretty knackered and was in need of some refuel nutritional sustenance which I consumed in the form of a tortilla wrap with peanut butter, jam and banana, delicious!

As always thanks for reading and I welcome any comments, feedback and suggestions, thanks!

I am now on bloglovin as well, its great way to keep up with your favourite blogs, well worth a look if you haven't already checked it out. 

Early morning sub 50 10K along the Thames

With just 9 days to go to my first of three marathons in three months I am caught between trying to train hard to make up for loss of due to illness and injury while at the same time trying to to take it easy as I come towards the marathon.

This morning after a pretty decent weeks of training which consisted of 29.3K on Sunday, gym & treadmill intervals on Tuesday, 11.9K run home on Wednesday and some circuit training on Thursday I was planning a nice early morning 10K along the scenic paths of the Thames in central London.

Feeling so good with my training and feeling particularly sharp this morning I decided to push for a sub 50 time which I managed comfortably.

For no reason in particular I opted to take a clockwise take on my usual Thames loop. 

From temple station I headed left along the river past Blackfriars and St Paul's, under the millennium bridge and down to The Tower of London. Then over Tower bridge and onto the South Bank, past the mayors offices all the way down to The London Eye. Up and over Westminster Bridge past Big Ben and back to my starting point.

London was looking especially good this morning in the early morning haze as the summer sun fought to break through.

I clocked my run at just under 47 minutes and from running the same route many times before I know it to be pretty spot on 10K. Take into consideration stopping to cross the road, slowing down through narrow path sections and stopping, weaving and sometimes tripping your way through London's mix of bemused pedestrians and tourists and that's a pretty nifty time.

I did feel anxious not having my mapmyrun on though to accurately record most importantly my distance but also my time and splits. Not having technology to track my distance makes me uneasy and doubtful of the time I have achieved as I feel I will have ran significantly less than the distance I was aiming for.

My last picture below is one of my favorite monuments in London. The picture is of one of the sphinx that flank either side of the Egyptian obelisk that is commonly referred to as Cleopatra's needle.

I like this monument for several reasons, firstly I like the fact there are near identical statues in New York and Paris as well as London and I have visited them all. I also like the mysticism associated with the obelisk, their Egyptian connections and the fact they date back to 1450BC. 

My real reason for it being one of my favorite sights in London is that the two Sphinx statues were installed incorrectly! The correct statue formation is meant to see the Sphinx pointing outwardly from the obelisk as they are positioned to guard the statue therefore they need to look away from it to be able to see any danger approaching. However English workmen in the 1800s thought differently (or just got it completely wrong!) and stationed them facing the statue rendering the whole obelisk incorrect and pointless! I don't know why but that fact interests and tickles me and I cant help but think of it every time I pass the monument.

On a more somber note I also like the fact that the plinths the Sphinx sit on were damaged by shrapnel in the second World War and that this damage has never been repaired as a lasting reminder of the damage inflicted upon the City during the terrible conflict. 

Thanks for reading, wherever you are running this week I hope your running is going well and you have somewhere interesting to run and some fun places to run by or some cool things to look at as you go by.

7 Day Runstreak

Wow! This morning with a 7K run at around 7am I finished my 7 day runstreak. In my ten years of running its the first time I have ever completed so many consecutive days running. I have always had an irrational fear of sustaining injury and a mental block about my capabilities to run back to back days. I have on occasion ran on back to back days and maybe once or twice managed three consecutive days but a whole week that is crazy talk! 

I am so pleased I gave it ago though and so amazed of my mini achievement, it required a good dose of dedication and determination to complete, here is a brief outline of my seven days of running:

Day 1: Saturday, Park Run, Harrow Lodge Park, 5K, official time 22.01

A bright, warm and sunny summers morning where I achieved my second fastest parkrun time.

Day 2: Sunday Morning, weekly longrun, 26K, 2hours 23.

An epically long pavement pounding longrun as I ramp up my mileage ahead of my marathon in August.

Here is a breakdown of the last six days of running:

My runs this week were fueled in no small part by a tuna pasta bake I cooked up on Sunday evening and then subsequently consumed throughout the week.

It provided a delicious, nutritious and filling pack lunch for work providing both my carbohydrate and protein requirements.

Day 3: Monday Evening, recovery run, 5K, 31 minutes.

A slow and gentle recovery run sandwiched in between the world cup games of HollandvChile and BrazilvCameroon.

Day 4: Tuesday Evening, 10K run at pace aiming for close to PB time, 45.53.

A great run only around 1minute 30 off my PB, the training is obviously going well as feeling so much stronger and faster!

Day 5: Wednesday morning, before work along the Thames, 5.84K, approx 35mins.

A nice little canter along the north bank of the Thames from Temple down to Tower Bridge. The mapmyrun graphic shown above showing a time of 18 minutes is wrong! My battery died and while the distance kept tracking the time just cut off when my battery gave out.

A snap of the wire lion sculpture by the Tower of London, a sculpture to remember the menagerie of wild and exotic animals that were kept here in days gone past. 

Thursday mornings run was put in jeopardy from a nice evening out watching NigeriavArgentina, a few alcoholic beverages and a cracking burger!

Day 6: Thursday morning, a few slow miles along the Thames south bank, 4K, 22 minutes.

A run I struggled to complete as the week and the night before caught up with me. A change from my usual routes, I headed over Waterloo Bridge and down the South bank and then back over the Millennium Bridge.

On the North side of the Millennium the steps up to St Paul's provided a great workout area for some step ups, toe tappers and step running before a few sprints along the way back.

Day 7: Friday morning, local run before heading out for the day, 7.3K, 40minutes.

I was determined to squeeze a run in this morning before I headed out for the day and away for the weekend that won't feature any running. Heading out soon after 7am a 7K run sealed my 7 day runstreak!

First run in my new trainers

So my first run this morning in my new trainers.

My trainers were a recent bargain purchase in an end of season sale. I usually try to get running trainers cheap in end of season sales as I am not bothered about having older model trainers.

Another great buying tip I have for you is as follows...

Have you ever found trainers cheaper online but been reluctant to order them as you don't have the opportunity to try them on? Yep me too!

What I then try to do is find the trainers I want to buy online in a physical store so I can try them on. Its a genius idea that impresses me greatly! A little way to play the system! 

For example sportshoes do a great range of running shoes at great prices but font have any physical stores. However in London with an abundance of Sports Direct stores it is usually possible to find the trainers you want in physical form as opposed to pretty pictures online.

Here are my Asics GT2000 which I bought online saving over £30 on the cheapest price I could find in an actual store.

I love their style and colour combination of neon orange, blue and black.

As soon as I slipped them on for the first time in the shop my feet were in heaven so comfortable and snug just like the proverbial glove. 

Starting off running in them though I wasn't so sure they were the right trainers for me as they didn't seem to fit correctly around the heel. My heel didn't seem to sit comfortably on the inner sole in the trainer but after a while this thankfully faded away.

My run was along the north bank of the Thames down to Tower Bridge and it was a beautiful morning for it.

I wasn't the only one out running, as we head towards summer holiday time and the summer 10K schedule London is full of runners. In my 35 minute 6.5K run I counted 78 runners, I am thinking of keeping a count of runners more frequently while on my runs to maybe come up with some runner per Km statistics. A bit sad I know but it might be interesting?!

When I completed what was a gentle jog to Tower Bridge I turned round and headed back doing dome fartlek on my return leg.

Running in new trainers as well as being a physical experience of having more comfortable and supportive trainers on your feet is such a mental experience as well as you feel the much better runner for wearing better trainers.

I experienced all the mental placebo type affects this morning, I felt I was running on air, I thought I was bounding along like Usain Bolt, my legs felt so strong and energetic and all because of a new pair of trainers! 

I am obviously feeling faster as I continue to increase my training and get faster, stronger and fitter but in my mind this morning every positive aspect of my run I attributed to my new shiny trainers!

Feeling particularly good about myself, my attractive new trainers, new shorts and my favourite running top I felt inspired to try and capture the moment via the medium of a selfie.

My overriding thought in my head this morning was Paolo Nutini's song about new shoes, its a great catchy feel good song well worth a listen:

'Hey, I put some new shoes on, 

and suddenly everything is right,

I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling,

it so inviting,

Oh, short on money,

but long on time, 

slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,

and i'm running late, 

and i don't need an excuse, 

'cause i'm wearing my brand new shoes.'

m.youtube.com/watch?v=hmbUNF1Q4R8

This weeks long run and a recovery experiment

This mornings run summary, 22K, boiling hot, not a cloud in the sky and my destination was the World War II concrete barges moored near Rainham.

So I set out at around 8.30am to try and get out before the weather got too hot. It was still pretty hot though a really nice summers day without a cloud in the sky.

My route was through Ingrebourne Valley following the London Loop route 23 all the way to Rainham and onto the River Thames.

Out on the Thames in a bay just beyond Rainham Village are around a dozen discarded World War II concrete barges that were used as part of the D Day landing. 

I really wanted to do this route this weekend following the D Day anniversary earlier in the week.

The engineering feat of constructing these barges and floating them across the channel to France has always astounded and amazed me and seeing these barges up close is always an impressive experience. 

I have done some internet research on the barges and why they ended up there and what their history was. All I have found out was they were used to transport water and fuel over the channel.

They marked the halfway point of my journey and after a bit of reflection I turned around and headed for home. 

My run back was great I felt so good and strong and managed to keep going at a good pace for most of the way home.

I covered 22K in 2hours and 2minutes which I was very happy with. 

When I got home I had a new recovery experiment to try out: 

Ice bath!!!

 

I felt I needed something extra to boost my recovery during my training for my three up coming marathons so I decided to try out an ice bath.

I filled up a bath with cold water and added cold water from the fridge as well as ice.

I am not sure how cold it was and it really didn't feel that bad, I am not a great fan of really hot baths or showers anyway so that probably helps me cope with colder temperatures. 

Writing this later in the afternoon I must say I am really feeling the benefits of the ice bath. I can honestly say I have never felt this good after a long run. I have no stiffness or achy feeling in my legs instead a kind of numbness in my muscles and feeling of nothingness.

I feel like I could easily train again tomorrow or even today, I wont be but itsgood  to know I feel so well and have discovered a good way to increase my recovery.

Running into June

Last week marked my second 50Km+ mileage week as my marathon training really kicks in.

Saturday was my longest run in this training programme as I covered a half marathon distance for the first time since running a PB at the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon in March. This time I was a long way off my PB of 1.39 but still managed a respectable 1.55 with the emphasis being on a steady marathon type pace rather than a race against the   clock.

One of my marathon training targets set back in March was to have covered a half marathon distance before the end of May so I am pleased to have achieved this, all be it on the last day of the month!

Saturday morning was the most beautiful summers day so far with the heat to match as well.

 

Sunday was a rest day but with the weather still pleasant a walk and a picnic was on the cards.

A nice stroll around Weald Country Park did my legs good although I felt my recovery from Saturday was excellent as I didn't feel weary or achy at all. 

Weald Country Park is also the venue for my marathon in October so it was a good opportunity to bring that sharply into focus and to make my long sighted plans appear much more of a reality.

As with most things food related I love a picnic and love preparing for one. 

I managed to knock up some pretty tasty ham and cheese rolls with some healthy snacks in the form of carrot sticks and sliced yellow pepper. 

Some scotch eggs, crisps, a hummus dip and some grapes rounded off a good tasting picnic. 

Sunday evening a gentle 3Km walk/run recovery session and sorted out any lactic acid still in my legs and put me in the best possible position for the week ahead.

Monday morning I successfully completed a nippy pre work 10K around the Thames in London in 51minutes. My aim was to try and go under 50 minutes or at least average at under 5 minute km splits if I didn't quite manage the full 10K. I wasn't very disappointed though as I hadn't run this in ages and was pleased just to get a decent time under my belt. 

 

So the week ahead is a bit up in the air as I am unsure of a few plans and then the subsequent knock on to my running plans. I hope to do some speed work, take part in run2work on Thursday, go for a PB at parkrun on Saturday before finishing the week with a 15 miler. So we will see how the week pans out.

Early morning London run

First day of spring and some lovely weather I couldn't resist going for an early morning run around London. Over the winter I had stopped going out early in the morning as it was too cold and dark and I have been wanting to go out again for a few weeks but hadn't quite got round to it but this morning I did and I was rewarded with London at its finest.

I hope my pictures do justice to the bright, hazy and surprisingly warm early morning spring sunshine?

The plan had been to do a route I had done before of around 10K, starting off from my gym in Aldwych heading along the north bank to Westminster, over the bridge, down the south bank to Tower Bridge and back to the gym.

However TFL had other plans as despite leaving extra early and giving myself loads of time I was delayed by around half an hour due to signal problems on the district line. 

So my 10K plan turned into a more 7K run by taking a detour over the Millennium bridge to shorten the route. 

London is a magical city and no more so than early on a sunny morning. I am always slightly surprised and impressed by the high volume of runners out on the streets but then what was I expecting less than 2 weeks before the London Marathon?! 

Speaking of the London Marathon I was passed by half a dozen or so tracksuited athletes on Westminster bridge who I am pretty sure were some of the elite Kenyan and Ethiopian runners acclimatising to the London streets ahead of the marathon.

After my run I returned to the gym fora quick stretch and cool down before showering and heading off for work. I felt so sorry for the poor souls sweating and panting away on the treadmills when a more joyful running experience laid in wait just outside the door.

If you live, work or train in London I would highly recommend going for a run around, its a great way to see the city. I would love to hear your stories of running in London and maybe any route recommendations or favourite areas to run in? 

Happy running and good luck to anyone preparing for the London Marathon.