1095miles – running blog

A mass group run today, 5 went out and luckily enough 5 came back.

Not a tough run, relaxed pace and whilst 3 of them went along the canal path, Roger and me went through the woods for some variety. It was funny as the other 3 didn’t notice we took a different course it was only when we re-joined the path behind them they realised. Stealth running perhaps?

So its 19 weeks since I started this run and still there is no end in sight, I wonder if it will feel different if I make it over halfway?

As an aside this afternoon I had a slice of amazing home made cheesecake, it was simply sublime. Can’t wait to be invited to a meeting with that team again!

Miles Today: 3.26 (5.24km)
Miles Completed: 447.82 (720.69km)
Miles To Go: 647.18 (1041.51km)
Shoes: Saucony Jazz 13

A mild day and a run that was all off-road, what a great way to spend a lunchtime. The pace was easy as Roger didn’t fancy a quick run today.

It’s funny how after yesterday I seemed to spend half the run wondering if I had eaten enough to ensure no repeat performance, as I felt ok I guess I had. Just to to make sure I eat enough to day to fuel up properly again, lunch consisted of spicy parsnip soup followed by roast turkey, roast potatoes, broccoli, stuffing and gravy with a mixed berry yogurt to finish.

I have come across a problem today though, and that’s that I seem to have worn through the lining in the heels of both my trail shoes, I will see how quickly it spreads but it does look like a new pair will had ego be purchased. If anyone has any recommendations I am prepared to listen.

Miles Today: 3.24 (5.22km)
Miles Completed: 444.56 (715.45km)
Miles To Go: 650.44 (1046.75km)
Shoes: Saucony Jazz 13

Tonight I was reminded of an important lesson, and that is do not run without having eaten properly during the day. A cheese and pickle sandwich is not sufficient and I paid for it as I felt energy less for most of the run and even had that feeling you get when you haven’t eaten, the slightly wobbly legs etc

The reason for my lack of food is all down to my own poor planning, I knew I was out of the office this morning and so wouldn’t be able to eat my normal morning snacks, plus I was only going to get back to the office in time for a meeting, again meaning no time for lunch. I just about had time to grab a sandwich. NExt time I need to organise myself properly.

Miles To day: 3.15 (5.07km)
Miles Completed: 441.32 (710.23km)
Miles To Go: 653.68 (1051.97km)
Shoes: Saucony Omni Grid 10

This week looks like being a week of night running due to the way the days look like panning out.

If this does turn out to be the case I think I might get adventurous and think about heading off into the woods one night, there is still something exciting about running through the woods with a head torch on everything just feels different.

In the meantime tonight was another lap round the village and to be honest it felt pretty easy, and this is reflected by the data, the average heart rate was 157bpm so hopefully that means that is still stuff left in the tank.

Miles Today: 3.16 (5.09km)
Miles Completed: 438.17 (705.16km)
Miles To Go: 656.83 (1057.04km)
Shoes: Saucony Omni Grid 10

It was a struggle today, I think it was caused by a combination of last nights exceptional Thai meal, a few beers and tiredness left over in the legs from yesterday. On top of this it was windy and I only ever seemed to be running into a head wind. Sometimes you have to wonder, why always me?

On the plus side today I finally got round to buying a new heart rate monitor so now I have even more data to look at and wonder if it means I am going better or worse!

There were another two small milestones today, firstly I am now a third of the way through the challenge and the other other was my total running distance went over 700km. The next miles stone to aim at is to make it to the half way point, but to continue in my cliche way, its still just one run at a time.

Miles Today: 3.13 (5.04km)
Miles Completed: 435.00 (700.07km)
Miles To Go: 660.00 (1062.13km)
Shoes: Saucony Omni Grid 10

For today it was another group run, the first 8km was done with Tony & KP and the final 8km was just me and Tony.

The route for the first part was good, down the Ebury Way to Batchworth Lock, back along the canal with a slight detour into the woods below Croxley. A relaxed pace and it was good to see KP putting gin the miles before the nigh run in March.

After dropping KP off, Tony and me carried on and went back along the canal, up and over West Herts golf course out through the park and back round.

The pace was picked up a bit and the addition of a couple of hills made for the need to up the effort.

In the overall scheme of things todays run was possibly longer than I needed to do and I suspect I may pay for it over the next few days, but I think it’s important to throw the odd longer run in to keep the variety.

Miles Today: 9.95 (16.01km)
Miles Completed: 431.87 (695.03km)
Miles To Go: 663.13 (1067.17km)
Shoes: Saucony Jazz 13

After the mass group run of yesterday today, as suspected, I was back on my own (even though someone promised to come running but at the last minute went to the kebab shop!)

I decided that a simple 5km was in order and as it was raining on and off I decided that a sort of off-road route was in order. So away I went down the Ebury Way and along the canal back to the lock by the moor.

It was here that I decided rather than use the normal route back (through the business park) I would try and get enough distance by going round the moor. So I headed off in a diagonal direction to the right and followed the path all the way back to the Ebury Way and then back to the office.

By taking the path along the moor I got the required distance for the day and also opened up another variation for a 5km run.

Miles Today: 3.26 (5.24km)
Miles Completed: 421.92 (679.02km)
Miles To Go: 673.08 (1083.18km)
Shoes: Saucony Jazz 13

It was a group thing at lunchtime today, 6 of us. That is the biggest running group since I started this challenge, excluding events.

The route we chose was a decent 6km which included a hill, the weather was sunny and a decent temperature so it all combined to make for a good run.

THe group itself split into two, Roger and KP were going at a slightly slower pace while the rest of us went on our merry way. When we all got back it turns out the Roger & KP whilst going slower actually did a longer distance! In our group there was certainly a good level of banter going on and Redtape was the cause of most of it, mainly by wanting to break anyone who cared to run with him. We didn’t want break his flow and tell him that Andy would mash him at anytime!

I think tomorrow I am destined to be on my own, but I don’t mind, really.

Miles Today: 3.73 (6.01km)
Miles Completed: 418.67 (673.78km)
Miles To Go: 676.33 (1088.42km)
Shoes: Saucony Omni Grid 10

Again today it was cold, but instead of a night run on my own today there were 5 of us all keen to take part in Joe’s interval training Tuesday.

The plan for the interval training was the same as last week, 1 mile warm up, 2 miles of intervals and the final mile at a slow pace. The pace of the intervals is supposed to be at your 5km race pace, now this presents a couple of problems, firstly none of us actually know what our 5km race pace is and secondly if you put a bunch of guys together and say go hard then everyone goes harder!

I will be first to admit that today was not one of my better days, I struggled with the fast intervals and was also feeling a slight tightness in the top of my left hamstring (convenient I hear people cry, but hey what you gonna do!). Looking at my splits, as I still haven’t read the Garmin manual on how to use the interval training setting, I can actually see that I was going faster than last week at the peaks.

However, I did struggle to keep up the pace set by Joe & Tony (there you go RedTape, I said it son, I struggled!!!) although I am not sure on the last interval anyone saw which way Joe went, he just seemed to engage rocket power and was gone!

I think interval training is something I am going to try and do at least once a week as I actually quite enjoy it and it will give me something different to do.

Tomorrow I am planning another night run on my own so it should be a gentle trot, hopefully it won’t be so cold.

Miles Today: 4.13 (6.64km)
Miles Completed: 411.77 (662.68km)
Miles To Go: 683.23 (1099.52km)
Shoes: Saucony Jazz 13