Week 2 - Steady as she goes

Being back on familiar ground and returning to my usual routine definitely helped cover off the necessary miles this week. I started with a relaxed 3 miles around Battersea Park after a session of Body Pump on Monday evening. I didn't have my iPod with me and i'd left my watch behind and so I kind of just ambled round but after my wet and windy Cornwall runs three days on the trot and an hour of weights I was feeling a bit pooped.

After a rest day on Tuesday my flatmate Wes asked if he could join me for a 4 mile run on Wednesday evening. I was a bit dubious I would manage to keep up but he promised to go slow and let me dictate the pace. After settling in for a mile or so he started ramping up the speed and encouraging me to follow suit. Pushing myself to run harder up the hills and sprinting between particular sections along the straights really made a difference and I was grateful for his encouragement and refusal to let me slack off. Other than my races it was the first time I've really broken a sweat and got my heart pumping hard. It proved I definitely need to switch up my training if I want to see any real improvement in my fitness levels. Wes has said he'll come out with me once a week - which would be good.

After witnessing the powers of the Garmin last week I decided to bite the bullet and invest in the Foreunner 305. It arrived on Friday and I immediately unwrapped it, whacked it on charge and devoured the user guide. As i'm doing the majority of the training on my own I think this will be a good gadget to own. As well as measuring the time, distance, pace and calories burned you can set all sorts of alerts to ensure you know how far you've gone, if you're slowing down too much and whether or not you're running at an appropriate heart rate. So far I've just used its basic capabilities but am looking forward to testing out all the functionality over the next four months.


The Garmin's first outing was a quick 3 miler around the regular Battersea route. I cranked up the pace, spurred on by the alerts that let me know when i'd hit each mile marker. I felt like i'd run pretty hard and was gasping for the finish line so was somewhat surprised to learn it had taken me 27 minutes and 32 seconds. That was over a minute slower than my Pants in the Park effort a month earlier. Maybe it had something to do with it being the end of a long week or maybe it was down to the two and a half pints of lager i'd had over a long lunch but either way it felt like a lot more effort than it really should have.

My final run of the week was a whopping 6 miles. I was actually a bit nervous before I set off but decided to take it super slow and aim to just chalk up the distance without stopping or slowing to a walk. The Garmin was on its second outing and after taking a moment to locate the satellites I was off. Slightly varying my usual route I headed down the north side of the river past Albert Bridge, then past Chelsea Bridge and down to the next one which is Vauxhall Bridge. There I crossed the river and turned back down to Battersea Park for a single lap before heading for home. I had measured out the distance on MapMyRun before setting off and had made the decision not to set a time goal, so after pressing Start I resolved not to look at the watch again until I got to the end. With the exception of a few short bursts of speed I kept a steady pace that felt very comfortable cardiovascularly. I didn't get bored or fight my way round. Knowing I would be out at least an hour heped me relax into the run from the outset and I can honestly say that it was much easier than I thought it would be. Running mostly a familiar route gave me comfort but adding in the new section kept it fresh. My left leg got a bit sore right towards the end and my hips felt a weird but otherwise it was all good. I think I might ice my knees... just as a precaution.

In week 3 i'll be trying out running home from work and taking my trainers across the Channel for a spot of jogging in Brussels. Can't wait.

The Long Run
Distance: 6.75 miles
Time: 1 hour 6 minutes 45 seconds
Pace: 9.53/mile
New experiences: The Garmin Forerunner 305
Crossing Vauxhall Brige
Running with a boy

Week 1 - Battling the Elements

The start of my official training schedule coincided with a week at home in Cornwall. Weather conditions were far from ideal with flash flooding, thunder and lightning and gale force winds just some of the delights that attempted to hamper getting those first few miles on the clock. Rather than the familiar routes around Battersea Park and the banks of the Thames I found myself plotting miles around the country lanes, along cycle trails and across white sandy beaches. "How marvellous," I hear you cry. "What a treat compared to the smoggy, boring, traffic filled London roads and pavements," I hear you exclaim. Well... to be quite honest I'm really not sure I concur. One of the most fanatstic things about London running is that it virtually dead flat and largely dry and mud/sand free. For the out of shape, beginner runner I would descibe these conditions as IDEAL.

Easing gently into the programme, my training manual dictates that during Week 1 I needed to complete two short 3 mile runs, one medium 4 mile run and a longer 5 mile run. The short runs I planned to do around my house and found a circular 3.5mile route which worked well (although whichever direction I chose to go I encountered my first hills). I had to concede defeat on the first outing and walk the second half of steepest incline, but when doing the run in reverse I persevered with a slightly gentler uphill struggle and reached the top - triumphant - but utterly exhausted - before continuing along the road at the top.

For the medium run I met my friend Julie, an experienced marathon runner who trains in Cornwall, to do a 5 mile run along the Bissoe cycle trail. I am ashamed to say it's an area I've never previously explored and so I was very grateful when Julie introduced me to it and let me know that it's a popular running spot for marathon training with various routes of up to 22miles. Good for future reference. Julie also introduced me to the statisticians dream that is the Garmin Forerunner. I currently use a simple digital watch with a built in stopwatch but it would be good to invest in some technology that tracks my distance and speed as well.

For the long run I had planned to take part in a charity 10k fun run in Newquay. Unfortunately, it was cancelled on the day due to more horrendous weather and so I had to come up with a plan fairly sharpish to replace the miles. I decided that Perranporth beach at low tide would be a good option - long, flat and beautiful. And it was, until the rain started hammering down and the puddles got deeper, and the sand started sinking and the bottle of water I was running with turned out to be carbonated. Oops! Made it the entire length of the beach (about 2 miles) but as I turned around to come back again I was running head on into a pretty strong wind. By this time my trainers and socks were soaked through and also sandy which was causing some blister style grief. Looking like a drowned rat and unable to shake off the disappointment of the cancellation of the Newquay 10k I threw in the towel (note to self - remember to pack towel on rainy days) and ended up walking the remainder of the route.

Not a great end to what was looking like a strong start to the training but I'm not going to beat myself up about it as, on balance, I think Week 1 went quite well. I'm back in London for Week 2, the weather surely can't get any worse and the terrain will be mostly tarmac and flat. Hurrah!

Stats
Miles Run: 14
Miles Walked: 2
Average Pace: 10.5 minutes
New Experiences: Running up hills
Running on sand
Running in the rain
Training with someone else

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

So these are the final few days before I embark on my sixteen week training schedule to carry me over the finish line at the New York Marathon on Sunday 1 November. During the last couple of weeks I have been running less regularly but I can console myself that the runs I have done have been slightly longer and felt a bit more solid.

On Wednesday evening I took part in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge for the first time. The Challenge is a 3.5 mile event for corporate runners which takes place in various locations around the world. Combined over two nights, the London Corporate Challenge drew 25,196 entrants from 623 companies. Investment bankers, lawyers and accountants were all warming up, sprinting around, doing one armed press ups and wearing matching Federera style team outfits whilst simultaneously barking into their mobile phones and furiously tapping out orders on their BlackBerries.

There were only about a dozen people in the Bell Pottinger team, most of whom i'd not met before. We all gathered in Battersea Park beforehand to get our race chips and team t-shirts and then together we made our way to the course. I couldn't believe the number of runners and it took more than 10 minutes to even cross the start line. Once we did it was fairly slow progress and there was a lot of weaving around walkers and groups of joggers who took up the whole width of the course. The Bell Pottinger team soon dispersed amongst the field. It had been raining earlier in the day but the evening had turned out to be warm and humid. The course looped round the avenue, up along the river, squiggled over the grass and finally finished in the central avenue. It was a bit of a crush to get out the other side with thousands of runners all clambering for their free water and t-shirt whilst munching down the complimentary bananas. Skins were piled high on the roadside.

It was a really lively atmosphere which continued on into the evening as people spilled out of the park and into the nearest pubs. Our team all went for celebratory beers at the Butcher & Grill and agreed that next year we'd all do it again. The following day the results went up on the website and I finished in a reasonable 32.29. I think that i'm in pretty good shape to start my training proper but for the next four months i'm going to have to get more organised if I want continue to have a social life AND run four times a week.