Posted in Paris Marathon, marathon, training
Tags: Friday, interval run, mp3, mp3 player, pain, Paris Marathon 2009, Thursday
I was not impressed with Thursdays’ run. I don’t know what made it run so hard on my feet, but it wasn’t pleasant. By the end of it my feet were killing me. Usually I don’t get such bad foot pain after a run, but today was an obvious exception.
On Friday I did my usual interval run. I wasn’t looking forward to running five miles, then doing 6×30 second intervals, but somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed at 5:20am to do it. I was in a bit of a bad mood as well as I managed to drop my MP3 player before I left the house, so I couldn’t take that with me because it started acting strange.
I needn’t have been so pessimistic however. The foot pain which had dogged me on Thursday was barely noticeable this time around and after running my five miles at easy pace, I didn’t feel half as tired as I thought I would, or as I was on yesterdays’ run. Which gave me more than enough energy to complete my interval session without any fuss.
Posted December 19th, 2008 by Simon
Comments Off
Posted in North Bay, Paris Marathon, Scarborough, marathon, training
Tags: cold, frost, headland, ice, Paris Marathon 2009, Rain, Sea Life Centre, training, weather, week 2
I’ve been battling against the weather this week. First, it’s been bitterly cold most mornings and those plunging temperatures bring frost and icy conditions. It wasn’t so bad on Monday, but on Tuesday, It was obvious that only the roads had been gritted, not the promenade. I had fallen over once just walking to my usual starting point, so with my route looking more like an ice rink, I had to abandon my run because it was just too dangerous.
Then on Thursday there I started my run in a light rain, which I can handle. However, this soon turned into a horrendous freezing cold shower as I tried to run around the headland. The winds are always bad around there because it is so exposed, but this time they beat me and I turned around. I still intended to complete my planned mileage along a different route, but as I got to the Sea Life Centre, about two miles in, the rain was still pounding me and the wind was not giving up.
So, again, I decided to abandon that run as well. By the time I had walked home, I was thoroughly soaked (my jacket not being waterproof enough to survive the onslaught of the rain), my jogging bottoms clinging and chilling my legs and the rest of me absolutely frozen.
I don’t really like training in winter and this week has proved just how difficult (and disappointing) it can be.
Posted December 12th, 2008 by Simon
1 Comment »
Posted in Paris Marathon, Scarborough, marathon, training
Tags: Albert Road, cold, four miles, headland, marathon, North Bay, Paris Marathon 2009, Royal Albert Road, Sea Life Centre, snow, training, week one, whiteout
What a run today’s session turned out to be. It started out pretty normal, very cold as usual. I had set off on a four-mile run, around the headland and back and then up to the Sea Life Centre and back to the start. It was as I was running back along the headland that I noticed the specks of snow were becoming denser and thicker…and thicker…and thicker. It got so bad that as I passed my start point at the junction of Royal Albert Road and Albert Road, the snow was falling at an alarming rate.
When I turned around at the Sea Life Centre, I looked across to where the headland should be, but there was only a white fog. It was a total whiteout! This wasn’t any old snow either; the snowflakes were as big as a two-pence piece and stuck to me as soon as they blew into me. I regularly had to shake off the settled snow so my body heat wouldn’t melt it and soak through my outer layers.
I might as well not have bothered, however, because when I got back home, semi-caked in Scarborough’s finest snow, I was soaked through anyway, my inner layers from sweat and my outer layers from the snow.
Following my new plan, I ran a mile at easy pace, then switched up a gear into my half-marathon pace (about 12 minutes per mile) for two miles, then ran easy for the final mile. Unlike previous pacing sessions where I always ended them totally exhausted, I felt quite comfortable running the up-tempo section. Which means I haven’t lost as much fitness as I thought since the Dublin Marathon. Despite all that, I had a thoroughly fun time. The training session wasn’t bad either.
Posted December 2nd, 2008 by Simon
Comments Off
