Big Update long overdue

I have been a bit lax in Updating my Blog as of late, had lots of stuff going on at work and lots of training to be done.

The main bit of news I guess is the Triathlon I did back in July which went as well as could have been expected, I completed it which is always a major Plus however the I am slightly unsure on the timing as my Nike + and the timer chip from the day read drastically different times. my nike + said 34 minutes and the Triathlon timer chip said 28:32, Im guessing it was somewhere in the middle.

After the 5K I took a week off for a holiday which gave my legs a bit of rest, which seemed to do me a world of good, after my rest week I did 6.8K then went and did a 10K in a time of 1 hour 11 mins. I felt fairly good after it and possibly could have carried on but it was getting dark so I decided to call it a day and went home, I'm glad I did as the next day I felt very sore indeed.

As you have probably read the following weekend I went for a run with all the other guys in Team Wedge and we did a 10K along the downs link which is a disused railway line that runs between the north and south downs. This time I beat my last 10K by quite a way I ended up doing a 1hour 4 minute 10K, which considering I stopped to look for the tooth I broke was amazing. I was shocked how much of an effect running with others could have.

Last week I had a bit of a slow week I couldn't do my Tuesday run and my Thursday run was short of my 8K target only managing a measly 5K (Wow it's amazing how quickly 5K went from being a seemingly impossible achievement to a short run). At the Weekend I went for another run with the rest of the guys I wanted to hit my weekly goal by running 12K. I managed it… Just, had Nick not stuck with me and coached me through it I think I would have given up it took everything I had to keep going to hit that magic number. Some people get all the luck this time at 2.5K a wasp got stuck to my leg and proceeded to sting me 3 times which not only knocked me out of my groove it caused me pain for the rest of the run. In the end 12K 1hour 19Mins, Very pleased with that.

I am writing this in Heathrow Terminal 5 waiting for my flight to Atlanta for yet another holiday. I have packed my running stuff (Fingers crossed it doesn't get lost), and plan on keeping to my schedule but I will most likely drop the distance slightly if the weather forecast is anything to go by.

I will write another update soon along with a review of the gear I run with soon.

Tom

Night Shift Nightmare

After the disaster of Last week's final run I gave it a few days rest and waited until the start of week 2 before I ran again (My training weeks start on a saturday). After talking with Nick we decided to repeat week one and adjust the other weeks slightly to account for the lost days.

My first run on saturday was a test run just to see if my ankle felt ok to run on, I started slowly and my ankle felt ok so I upped the speed, I managed to get to 5K in a time of 34:27 and I felt really good. After pushing it maybe a little too hard on my test run I decided to take sunday off and get back to it in the week, but then I realised I was on nights this week which could have been a training disaster.

I normally feel really tired after a night shift, my body clock is all out of whack and all I can think of is sleeping, but on Tuesday morning I forced myself into going to the gym, Im glad I did turns out I can run pretty well after staying up all night, I managed 5.5k in 37:20, which I was very happy with. One thing I had found doing these longer runs was I was getting a rash on my inside leg from where my boxers we rubbing, on the way home after this run I stopped by The running shop and picked up some Lycra under-shorts (and some socks you can never have too many socks) to see if they improved the situation.

I went for another run on Thursday morning after work, this run was hard, I was incredibly tired and got my pace all wrong I ended up doing 5K in a PB time of 32:52 which was pleasing but I was really annoyed with myself that I didn't hold back to hit the distance I ideally needed. On the plus side the under-shorts were brilliant.

Tomorrow I go for my longest run yet 6Kto cover, I will be getting up bright and early to do this as tomorrow morning looks like it should be perfect running weather.

Tom

(I realise the title doesn't really match how the week actually turned out but it was a cool title so I ran with it).

My first week

Armed with the training plan from Nick I made a start to get to my goal of a sub 30minute 5k. Now the plan for my first two runs was to be a nice slow 5.5k however I've come across my fist main issue  from road running, pacing. Up until now I have been running on a treadmill, in that situation pacing isn't something to think about the machine does it for you so in the end both my weekend runs were both far too fast however I felt ok after and I seem to find running outdoors much easier than the treadmill.

Run 1 Saturday
5.5k (3.43 miles)
38:53
11'19 per mile
(This included a brief stop as I bumped into weeman on the way)

On Sunday I met up with weeman to run the same route I ran Saturday, I wanted to take it easier then my Saturday run. In the end it was easier but again was a little faster than perhaps I should have gone however I felt pretty good slightly heavy legged towards the end doing almost 7 miles in 2 days (the furthest I have ever done in one weekend).

Run 2 Sunday
5.5k (3.44 miles)
39.31
11'29 per mile

I rested on Monday to let my legs recover, My third run on Tuesday was a disaster I seemed to be getting on ok then at 2.5K my Left ankle started hurting quite badly so I dropped the pace to a walk until the pain subsided I then tried to build up the pace again but the pain returned so I decided to stop short of my Goal. I will Be taking a few days off to Rest my ankle and hope I haven't done any lasting damage.

Tom's Training Begins

You have probably heard me mentioned in Nick's posts as one of the guys who come and support him and Harry on their various runs. I have always wanted to run but various excuses and Injuries have stopped me from somewhere towards the end of 2009 to now, (torn groin, slipped disks, ruptured Cruciate Ligament) been in the wars a bit. As a result of this I have gained a lot of weight I was 10 stone something when I suffered my first injury to at my heaviest 16 Stone 1pound.

Now I am injury free and able to run again I wanted to run to lose weight and build up my distance so I could compete in the Brighton 10K in November. So on 21/04/2013, I managed 3.97Km in 30:40 which I was fairly happy with considering I hadn't done much in the way of exercise for a while. I went on a few runs (7 or 8) with no real plan just running at a pace I was comfortable with for as long as I felt like, clearly not the best way to go about training what I needed was a target and by coincidence one popped up.

The London Triathlon (http://www.thelondontriathlon.co.uk/) has a corporate team event, where each person does one event, there are two categories of event Olympic (1500m Swim, 40K Cycle, 10K Run) and Sprint (750m Swim, 20K Cycle, 5K Run). My Boss entered this event a few years ago with some people from the office so he asked around to try and get a team together, within an hour our company managed to get 7 teams together (not bad for a 45 person company). I am doing the Run segment of the Sprint event for "Slam the Lamb in" (Don't ask), So once again I started training with a new purpose to run this 5K in 30 minutes, I did 4 or 5 5K runs but I had no real plan and my times varied wildly from 34:14 - 43:55. What I needed was a training plan that I could follow to help me, fortunately Nick was on hand to create one for me.

(All distances are in kilometres and paces are in miles).

	RunNumber
Week	1	2	3	1b	2b
1	5.5Ea	5.5Ea	5.5Ea	4EF or 5Ea	4EF or 5Ea
2	6Ea	6Ea	5EF	5.5Ea or 4.5Ef	5.5Ea or 4.5EF
3	6.5Ea	6.5Ea	5.5EF	6Ea or 5EF	6Ea or 5EF
4	5.5Ea	5.5Ea	5EF	5Ea	5Ea
5	Test	6.5Ea	4Int	6.5Ea	6Ea/5EF
6	5HF	5HF	5Int	6Ea	6Ea
7	5Int	5HF	6Ea	6Ea	N/A

Key

Symbol	Meaning
Ea	Easy running, should be easy to talk, initially 12:30 minute/mile
EF	Easy Fartlek, initially vary between ~11:30 and 12:30 minute/mile in defined 1/2 mile blocks, mixed as feels best
Int	1km Intervals, number is repeats. 1 minute light jogging between each repeat, first at 85% max effort increasing to 100% over the set
HF	Hard fartlek, 2/3rds Hard pace, 1/3rd race pace. If feeling hard before halfway mix in a slower half mile.
Test	5k as fast as possible.

3 Runs per Week: Do 1-3 separated.
4 Runs per Week: Add 1b after 1 or 2.
5 Runs per Week: Add 2b after 1or 2, if doing 3 days in a row do 1 or 2 with 1b and 2b either side.

So I now have a plan to follow and the Drive to follow it so hopefully this will be the first of many posts from me as I reach my goals.

Till next time.

Tom