The average pair of trainers has 500 miles of useable life in them, apparently. As previously reported, my old pair of Saucony’s were feeling flat in the Brighton half marathon last week, so collected a new pair of the same shoe from Runner’s World on the way home from work Friday evening in preparation for the regular Sunday long run.

Up bright and early at 7am to spin over to Henley for a flying visit to my cousin Jordan, and then raced back home for 2pm so could hit the streets. Had been quite looking forward to getting out for a long one, as have feeling a bit overweight this week, despite getting into the gym twice mid-week and putting in a pretty reasonable 13 mile pace last Sunday.

Today’s route started off as a vague jog East towards Canary Wharf on the North side of the river. Didn’t really have a plan, but the Nike+ was set for a half marathon distance, and the tunes were pumping. Passed Limehouse without thinking about it, so having missed the turn left into the canal route North, instead I thought I’d just follow the Isle of Dogs counter-clockwise and pop through to Greenwich, for a more meandering route home.

I started to ponder the wisdom of replacing the new trainers without getting back on the treadmill to give them a proper test sometime around the 5 mile point, while passing the Canary Wharf Hilton. The inner sole on the right foot was really starting to rub my instep, and I could feel a monster blister brewing. The Saucony’s were bought to correct my mild over-pronation, which is a fairly common running problem causing the feet to roll inwards too far after each heel strike. This is partly remedied through a motion control insert in the shoe just under the arch of the foot, but it seems that despite looking the same on the outside, the new model Saucony’s are built differently inside. These ones really weren’t a good fit.

Now it’s not wise to deliberately allow an injury to develop so close to race day, but I’m currently reading a borrowed copy of “Mind over Matter” by the heroic Ranulph Fiennes, the story of his and Michael Stroud’s bid to cross the Antartic continent unassisted and unsupported. Of course there’s a galaxy of difference between a 26 mile run and a 95 day 1,500 mile slog through some of the most extreme conditions on the planet while man-hauling a 485lb sledge, but nonetheless the reference felt valid as I decided to press-on regardless.

So, through the foot-tunnel I went, and then up and around Greenwich Park to the highest point and the look-out back towards Canary Wharf. Stopped briefly to admire the view and to give the feet a bit of a rub, before resuming at a renewed pace around the outskirts of Blackheath and then back down to Greenwich alongside the park (image courtesy of wikimedia).

Took the downhill leg at quite a pace, but slowed up again as the added weight of fast downhill strides started to ache the by now not inconsiderable blisters. The discomfort was relieved somewhat by the a chance to run on the grass North-East through Southwark Park to join-up with the Thames for the last few miles along the Southside.

Looking forward to a recovery foot rub from Kat tonight if I can persuade her to dig out the foot lotion she bought me for Valentine’s Day for just this reason.

Suffering the new Runner’s World regime of tempo / speedwork / distance runs as of this week. Started the last eight weeks of the regime with a tempo run on Wednesday and Speedwork this afternoon. The gym provided a welcome relief from the chill cold of London in February, not sure how my Indian colleagues are dealing with the weather.

Here’s some random data from today’s session.

Updated the training plan courtesy of Runner’s World, it’s on the Training Schedule link above. Let’s see if I can stick to this through the final eight weeks. Today was a rest day post half-marathon, tomorrow is a gentle 6 mile cruise home from work.

Jumped on the treadmill at Runner’s Need and bought a pair of new trainers this afternoon. The latest model Saucony’s with over pronation correction, in fact exactly the same as the ones I have now - just fresher and nowhere near as flat. The current ones are only eight months old, but I noticed that I seemed to have lost the bounce in my step. Apparently decent trainers only have about 500 miles in them, and I’ve done at least a third of that just since buying the iPod. They say don’t change anything immediately prior to a big race, but there’s just enough time to run these in before the big day. Also bought a selection of gels so I could give those a trial on the next few long runs.

Wisely elected to forego Laura’s birthday party Saturday night, as had to be up bright and early for the Brighton Beacon half marathon. I missed the Brands Hatch half last weekend as a result of a clash with return from snowboarding, so Sunday was my last chance for an organised run before the big day on April 13th. Reuben had suggested the run, so we were planning to meet him somewhere around the route, I also had Irfan in tow after his recent success on our forays around London.

Kat came along to watch and to get a few photos, but she managed to miss me at every opportunity along the route! She did get a few pics, but only of  the other boys. I guess my lagging 2-3 minutes behind them at most points meant she’d packed up the camera before I appeared. Good work!   ;)   Nevermind, there will at least be a bunch of photos on the web in the next few day, so I’ll pop back and supplement this post when those are available.

The data makes for an interesting read. Glad to see that over this shorter distance my pace is a pretty reasonable 8:43 mins/mile. The fast section at the start is me running with Irfan, twenty minutes in we both realise that he’s going too quick for me, so we split up; I drop down to ~9 min/miles for about an hour, and then pick it up to 8:40’s for the last three miles. There’s a pretty horrible extended hill in mile 11, but then it’s a quick sprint over the home stretch for the final mile and a half. Despite coming in about 4 minutes behind the boys, I’m happy with my race plan. Up until picking-up the pace I felt pretty comfortable, and fairly confident that I could churn out at least another six or seven miles at the same pace. Having run four properly long runs now, I’m happy that I’m broadly on target for the full distance. Just need to get one more big run in next weekend before heading out to Thailand on vacation. Then hopefully can motivate myself for a final big push in the sweltering heat and peak week (distance wise) just before I return to the UK on Easter weekend.

Looking great on the sponsorship front, am almost within £500 of my 2K target and I’ve still not chased for a donation from the family or colleagues. Will knock out a few sponsorship forms and have a wander around the office a bit closer to race day.

Many thanks to all my current sponsors. Every little helps, and having spent my Christmas vacation volunteering for another homeless charity, I can assure you that the money is going to a well deserved cause. Would like to send a special thanks to my recently out of work friends who still saw fit to add to my collection. You’re stars, guys…

Much love,

fLuke.

Back on the road last night for the first commute home post snowboarding trip to Zermatt. After a week of hurtling along mountain passes and trudging through Christmas villages I probably over estimated the weather, and wore a layer too much. Sweating to death by the time I reached home.

You’ll note a few extended spikes in the pace data. Got passed (twice) by a fairly fit looking chick that was just a little faster than my current pace. Was motivation enough to force me to pick it up a bit and stay on her tail for at least a mile each time.

This weekend’s the Brighton Half marathon. There’s a mini gang heading down, as Reuben, Irfan and Ian will be joining me for thirteen pink miles around the UK’s gay capital, “Oooh, chase me!!!” If Laura’s birthday drinks don’t wipe her out I’ll try to drag Kat along to take some photos for the blog.

Could only sneak in a quick 10K along the river and back mid-week, as been working odd hours from the couch following a major flood of the HSBC tower. Thought I’d spin up the pace a little, but despite being marginally fitter am still struggling to break the 50 minute barrier. Seem to have a bit of a mental block for it.

Popped along the the London Marathon prep day over the weekend. Courtesy of te Shelter running team’s great organisation, I managed to collar Liz Yelling, bronze Commonwealth medallist and Great British Hope for 2012 about ways of picking-up my pace while still training for distance. All in all a very useful day out.

Off to Zermatt boarding tomorrow. First day of snow since I broke my wrist in Banff last March, so really looking forward to a week of kickers, drop-offs, hips and spines.

No Irfan in town this weekend, but met up with Ian anyway for a slog around West London. Took a tube over to Earl’s Court to meet, and then a very scenic route West along the river on the picturesque South side towards Richmond. Passing Kew Gardens we saw the resident colony of wild parrots that are believed to have escaped in the 60’s and taken up residence in London!

(no I wasn’t carrying my camera, photos are courtesy of various flickr members)

Continued into Richmond town centre, and up the hill to the park. Was a beautiful view, as Ian had promised. Would have stopped to admire the herd of deer, but the mileage was calling.

The trip through the park turned us East, on a shortcut back towards Putney. I was keen to keep motoring, but around the 13 mile point (my 15 miles, as had put in a bit of warm-up distance getting lost finding Ian) my running buddy’s knee gave in, so we slowed to a walk for the last mile back to town. Ian’s on a Sunday night first date tonight, so he jumped on a bus home to shower and get back out, while I did a final mile along the river before packing in myself and taking the tube back home.

All in all, an awesome day out. Great weather, and a chance to check-out some lovely new areas of London I only had a passing familiarity with previously.

As usual, here’s the data.

Another giant Sunday run planned this morning to try to get the total distance up a bit. Planned a 17 mile slog from home up to Hyde Park to meet Irfan and Ian, and then to either head towards Regents Park or Battersea Park. The boys were game, so we turned North alongside Park Lane and then cut through the Edgware Road backstreets, past Madame Tussauds and onto Regents Park.

Quite a bit warmer this week than last, I had to pocket one of my layers to keep the temperature regulated. A nice day though, so managed to convince the boys that was worth continuing the trek East, along the Regents Park canal, through Camden, Kings Cross, Angel - past Victoria Park (3), Hackney, and down towards Canary Wharf.

I’d planned to turn West back towards home for a 17 mile personal best distance, but my newly 36 year old (last week) left knee gave out around Angel, and I was limping the last few miles. Decided to let discretion take the better part of valour, and joined the boys to jump on the tube back to Mansion House and home.

Anyway, an interesting route. And great that I could motivate Irfan and Ian to push the distance a bit. Previous to today’s 13 miles their previous longest was 10K, an excellent improvement!

Had a blast from the past in the form of a running invitation to join Irfan in Holland Park for this morning. Apparently he’s been reading the blog, and my Nikeplus data encouraged him to ask for an iPod Nano and running kit for Christmas so he could start getting into the trudge himself.

A good opportunity to do some distance, so kept a rein on the potential drinking horrors of a Friday night out with Laura and Lisa (well, the last zambuca shot was a borderline decision), and got up this morning not too groggy to try to put in my longest run yet.

Irfan and Gino live in a rather nice part of Holland Park, just opposite Simon Cowell in fact, so it was a pleasant 6 miles route through some of the greener parts of London to get to him. Grabbed a quick glass of water from a fridge that looked like it’s never seen a vegetable (Irfan: “you think I keep looking this good by eating food?!”), and then joined the boys for their usual 5 mile jog through Holland Park and around Hyde Park. We lost Gino somewhere enroute, so I used the excuse to double-back through the park on a partial return leg to put some more distance in. Great to catch-up with the boys after so long, and we parted ways at the Serpentine with the promise of a repeat on an imminent future weekend.

The last half of the 4 miles home were pretty painful. Walked across Jubilee Bridge as a partial recovery, but by that time the effects of a 9am bowl of muesli on-top of a partial hangover had got the better of me. Was dreaming about huge piles of bacon sandwiches in the last leg along the Southbank! Finished my route at the “Eat” just around the corner from home. I literally fell in the door at the 15 mile point, grabbed the nearest piece of fruit and devoured it on the spot. The guy behind the counter looked rather incredulously at the pile of fruit salads, sandwiches and yogurts I started digging into before I could even get my cash out!

Anyway, back on the sofa several hours and several breakfasts later, and feeling much more myself. In fact, just about ready to do it all again (get hammered that is, not run!); which is rather handy as tonight happens to be my birthday celebration, so the champagne’s going to be flowing thick and fast.
And here’s the usual data, rather happy with myself that have finally snuck into seventh place in a Nikeplus London marathon challenge I joined about six months ago. The leader is about a 1,200 miles up on me (!!!), but top five looks achievable if I keep to the schedule.

(and here’s the Challenge widget, it may not be showing 7th by the time you read this as the data is updated real-time)