Easter Weekend Blog Update

The Easter Weekend provided a good opportunity for some training as well as the traditional chance to stuff my face with chocolate. 

I trained in some way or another on everyday getting my Ambitious April campaign off to to a great start. I incorporated running as well as my 30 day fitness ab crunch challenge.

On Good Friday after a good treadmill interval session on Thursday I didn't run but did a quick early morning circuit of ab crunches, squats and press ups before heading off to visit family.

On Saturday I was up bright and early to venture into East London for Hackney Marshes Parkrun. Linking up fellow asics 26.2 bootcamper Chris Brammer we enjoyed a good run on a crisp morning. Chris is on the verge of running two marathons in three weeks, Paris on April 12th and London on April 26th. His superior fitness levels helped push me round to a time of 22.59. I was really pleased to duck under 23 minutes and this was really down to Chris's pacing as left on my own I think I would have struggled to get under 24 minutes. 

Pictures courtesy of Hackney Marshes Parkrun facebook page

So a big thanks to Chris for his supportive pacing and the coffee and pain au chocolat afterwards! Hes looking in good shape, running so effortlessly and hes talking in a very positive way so I am confident he will go well below his sub4 hour marathon target.

I would recommend Hackney Marshes Parkrun as a great run with equally friendly runners and course. The course is beautifully flat out and back course withe real PB potential and I will definitely be coming back in a few weeks to try to take a good chunk of time off my PB.

This run also saw me debut my newly purchased calf guards. I am continuing to struggle dreadfully with pretty severe pain and tightness in my calves and these are just another step in trying to counter this ongoing problem. I will be honest and say I didn't notice any real benefit but I was quick to take them off after my run and will be keeping them on longer post run to aid with my recovery.

Sunday morning I was also out early for a pre Chocolate Egg binge run. I did an hours run down and back to the newly redeveloped Raphael's park. To be honest the first twenty to thirty minutes were agony in my calves deapite my calf guards. I perserved though and completed the tun just aiming for a slow and steady pace, I probably covered around 11K in the hour period. I then finiahed off with a few strides to try to continue to work on my speed.

Monday was eventful in terms of running gor several reasons.

Firstly it was a run to break in my shiny new trainers! A brand new pair of New Balance 680's.

Secondly I entered Hackney Half Marathon on the 10th May where I am planning to launch a serious attack on my PB.  

Thirdly I confirmed with myself that eating loads of chocolate and gorging on cake and rich food on Sunday before even more chocolate before heading off running on Sunday would not make for a very good run! I ended up walking at least half but it was fine as It was really about wearing in my new trainers which I did over a period of around 35 minutes.

So ambitious April has got off to a great start, new trainers purchase and another Half Marathon less than six weeks away, here is to an exciting few weeks ahead! 

A visit to the Olympic Park

A Saturday afternoon trip out to visit the Orbit sculpture and have a wander around the Olympic Park in Stratford. 

It turned into a very pleasant way to spend a few hours, the orbit is an impressive structure with great views into the City, Canary Wharf and out to the East and the wilds of Essex along the Thames.

I was eager to see what 'legacy' the Olympics had left in the Olympic Park and I must say I was impressed. Walking around the park it is easy to see it is a hub of activity with a vibrant atmosphere.

Runners and cyclists taking advantage of the large areas of traffic free pathway.

An interactive keep fit class you could join in with.

Plenty of interactive activities such a climbing apparatus and a replica of Greg Rutherford's Gold winning long jump leap where you could compare your efforts to this epic leap. It really brought into context the amazing feat and made you appreciate exactly how far 8.31m is. For the record I managed about 2.5m although I reckon in a sand pit without jeans I could get to 3m! Still some way off a gold medal!

Despite having fun I did have two sour notes to the Olympic Park and the legacy of the 2012 Olympics.                                                                                                                  

Firstly all the cafe outlets serving stodgy unhealthy food OK so it wasn't McDonald's fast food style grub but we aren't going to produce Olympic champions on giant chocolate cookies are we?

Secondly on the day we visited there was a biathlon competition taking place as part of Pentathlon GB. While it was great to see so many young teenagers competing the thought did cross my mind, why are they running around a large tarmac area just a few hundred metres from the Olympic stadium? The answer is of course the Olympic Stadium is closed while it is redeveloped into the new home of West Ham United Football Club. While I largely agree with this move the fact there are no other outside athletic provisions at the site is a bit staggering? Surely keeping the Olympic athletic warm up track as some sort of mini athletics venue could have been a good idea?

Anyway Olympic legacy rant over!

With so much activity and exercise going on all around I did feel a bit left out as the only exercise I took part in was a quick jog down the 450+ steps of the orbit.                                                         

After enjoying the views from the orbit and wondering around the park enjoying the atmosphere the only thing left to do was to visit the RUN sculpture on the other side of the park outside the Cooper Box arena. 

An impressive shiny metallic sculpture standing proud looking out over the park it was an essential point for me to visit and photograph and feature in my blog. 

Overall I would highly recommend a visit as an enjoyable way to spend some time in the East of London. 

Ambitious April

With a spring marathon having passed me by due to a hectic start to the year (new job and a new flat, not recommended to do at the same time!) I now feel like I am in a position to reassess my spring ambitions.

Having recently completed the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon in February and the Hampton Court Palace Half Marathon at the end of March I am eager to use these as a staging point to mount an assault on my Half Marathon PB. Originally when I had booked these races in late 2014 they were meant to serve as preparation for a sub 4 hour marathon attempt in April or May but niggling calve problems and my previously mentioned hectic start to the year have put pay to that. So now I want to use them as a base for going for a PB.

Neither of the races were completed in overly impressive times mainly due to my new job and our flat move taking up a lot of time and hampering my training and my calves continually playing up since the start of the year.

Tunbridge Wells although the scene of my triumphant 1.39 PB in 2014 was not the scene of such victory this year as I finished in 1.51. It was really a triumphant to get round in a decent time though as I wasn't really fit enough to run it having not done enough preparation. 

Hampton Court Palace a few weeks later was better though as I had managed to put in a bit more training, my aim was to target my second best time of 1.46. I worked hard through a wet and windy race to finish in 1.48 which I was satisfied with as I know on the day I couldn't have worked any harder.

So now for April, I am really tempted by the Hackney vitality run on May 9th as it gives me abide six week period to sharpen up for a PB attempt.

I realise that with an ambitious aim I need to have an ambitious training programme to match.

Although I haven't ended up running a spring marathon my experiences of being involved with the Asics Target 26.2 boot camp and subsequently following the progress of not only the final five but other bootcampers has taught me a lot about the need to be prepared and to plan out your training.

So for April with my Half Marathon PB attempt in mind here is my plan for the month ahead:

3 x Half Marathon distance runs, 1 in the region of at least 1.45

3 x Hour runs aiming to complete 13K in the hour period

4  x treadmill interval sessions

3 x 10K runs, at least one in the region of 45 mins

3 x 5K runs including some park runs, I would like to get back to running sub 23mins

4 x recovery runs, long and slow.

This gives me 20 runs to complete in April and is modelled around the type of training I did prior to my PB, plenty of long distance runs with focus on speed runs of 10K and the 1 hour run trying to hit 13K. I also know weekly interval treadmill sessions will be important to build up my speed.

But this isn't all, I am also committed to doing the April ab crunch challenge with @runtoeatcake which is a challenge to complete ab crunches throughout the month.

I am also planning to start attending local bootcamp training that run insanity training and other boot camp sessions.

So all in all a very ambitious April ahead but one I looking forward to completing and reaping the rewards of some hard training not only in my Half Marathon but in the months ahead. 

Stay tuned to follow my progress! 

Hampton Court Palace Half Marathon

Today I ran my ninth half marathon at the inaugural Hampton Court Palace Half Marathon. 

The race might have been a half marathon but the journey was definitely a marathon! 

Situated in and around the grounds of Hampton Court Palace a previous residence of Henry VIII the race enters the racing calendar to join the other events that currently use Royal Parks and Palaces as there setting. 

I was really looking forward to taking part in this event and seeing what the location and race had to offer. However by the time today had swung around I had gone off the idea for a variety of reasons. Firstly health and injuries concerns of not feeling in a great shape after struggling to train well with my ongoing calve issues and also not fully managing to shake off a recent cold and cough. Also the logistics of getting to Hampton Court looked like being a nightmare adding in the clocks going forward and it wasn't an ideal scenario. 

With no trains operating from my local station at Harold Wood my travel plans consisted off leaving at 5.30am (essentially 4.30 with the time change) biking the 3 or so miles to Upminster and hoping on the first tube into Central London as there were no trains running early enough. Getting off at Embankment and walking over the Thames to Waterloo before catching the first train go Hampton Court at 7.27 in order to get there for soon after 8.00. 

By the time I had made my way to the runners village, queued for an essential pre run toilet break and dropped off my bag it was time to head off to the start.

The race really felt like an inaugural event as it lacked the polished event management and direction of an established event. The start was somewhat chaotic and slowing down for the gates and bollards only a few hundred metres into the race was not ideal.

Overall though the course was pleasant, starting off with a nice run along the Thames towards Kingston before meandering our way through the park towards the palace befor zig zagging around the Palace grounds. 

The course was made up of two laps, the first slightly smaller and the second longer with a demoralising circuit of the large lake behind the Palce on miles 11 and 12. The finish did feel like the race organisers were desperate to make up the required distance by taking you away from the finish before doubling back on yourself. 

It was a shame the weather wasn't more conducive to showing off the Palace in its finest glory nor the scenic route along the river and through the park but it was enjoyable none the less. 

So how did I do? My official time clocked in at 1.48.42, 3 minutes faster than my recent attempt at a hilly Tunbridge Wells and my third fastest time of the nine half marathons I have ran. Overall I think it was a fair reflection of my fitness at the moment and I was happy as I know I pushed hard for the best time possible.

My tactic was to go off pretty easy and then to maintain around 8 minute miles and then push for a faster pace between miles 7 and 10. Come the last three miles I was then stronger enough to maintain a good pace and push for home, I was chasing my second best PB of 1.46 but it was not to be.

In summary a tough race were I worked hard after a tough journey to get to the start line both in terms of my training to be fit enough to run as well as the difficulties in the logistics of getting across London today. With a medal like this though it's all worth it! 

Overdue blog update!

Right it time to get back to blogging! 

The last few months has seen a new job and a new flat, a few trips away and injury niggles which has meant a downturn in both my running and blogging activities. 

But now things are starting to simmer down and settle back into some sort of routine.

This week I have been inspired and motivated by two runners to get back to my blogging and to throw myself back into training. 

The first inspiration was finishing Angry Jogger by Angry Jogger, a great read I would recommend to any runner who doesn't take themselves too seriously and wants to make the most of their running. I am planning a full review of the book in due course, watch this space! 

Secondly I met up with my Asics262 boot camp buddy Anthony McNeil for a catch up chat on his training ahead of tackling the Paris marathon in four weeks. You can read up on my Asics262 boot camp experience here and follow Tony's journey on his forum thread here. 

So in terms of my running I completed the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon a few weeks ago where I was soundly beaten by my brother in law Tom who had a blinding PB run. 

Not wanting a repeat performance at the Hampton Court Palace Half marathon we are both running in two weeks I have been training hard, but really just having a bit more time to train now after a busy few months will make all the difference with my performance. 

This morning I headed out for a long run from my mother in laws house in Dagenham and headed out along the the long, old, grim stretch of A13 to Rainham. 

From Rainham I marvelled at the new train station developments before following the new signage and heading out to Rainham marshes and then onwards to Purfleet.

The stretch along the Thames to Purfleet was cold and windy which made for tough going!

At the Purfleet RSPB nature reserve I stopped for a quick toilet break before turning to head home. 

On the route back I was interested to see how I felt especially after massively struggling on an 18Km run last weekend, after around 14Km I felt so good I decided to push it to see what I could achieve.

At the end of my run I reflected on running at least 23Km, around 12Km there and the same back. I ran the outward leg in around 1hour 8minutes and the return leg in about 1hour 3minutes. 

I was really pleased to run a negative split over a longer distance and my last 3 or 4 Kms must have all been a good 20-30seconds quicker than the first 3 or 4. 

I am so pleased to be back up and running well and enjoying it! Watch out Hampton Court Palace Half Marathon! 

I have plenty of ideas and articles to write up, so keep yours eyes out for lots from me to follow in the next few weeks.