Tag Archives: Pace

Running with sore legs

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After a good week – with some nice shorter fast runs – I strained my left hamstring on Friday night during karate training (just during some fast runs in the warm-up before any kicking or anything).  Not ideal and ironic that it was running that did it.

Nothing major but it hurt enough to make me reconsider the longer run plans yesterday.  It was meant to be a faster 1/2 marathon.  I did some foam rolling before the run and set off ok but about 20 seconds slower per mile than planned.  It was ok running with the strain and after a while not painful to notice.  Pace slowed down a bit further but then after 3 miles picked up and kept picking up, right until 3 miles to go when it slowed a lot.

Had a very nice sports massage from a good friend today (after karate training) that really helped – and the left hamstring is much much better.

Need to do more stretching and foam rolling (and general strengthening work).  It’s obvious really but for whatever reason I’ve always found it difficult to get it into a habit and do it very regularly.  Rubbish – that needs to change today.  It’s so important to help keep injury free particularly as the longer runs kick in.

All sorts of advice about running with sore legs – or injuries.  Rest is needed when it’s bad and you shouldn’t run if it hurts a lot.  But as always it’s also down to knowing what you can do and how your body works and feels.  For me I had to slow the run down – rather than not run.  And just take it easier.

Longer runs again this week and the first 20+ mile one next weekend.

Pacing it – 25 miles this week

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Not as many miles as originally planned this week.  The plan was 3 runs of 12, 14 and 6 miles (with the first 2 at marathon pace and the last as faster interval training).  Got off to a good start with 12 miles on Monday at the right pace but had left it too late on Wednesday to do 14 miles so settled for 8 instead (but slower).  And then 5 miles fast (ish) on Thursday evening – all wrapped up and with new running socks like DVT socks (not convinced about these yet – more testing needed).

Do need rethink long runs and how many to do per week and how much time between them.  The plan was to start like this week – with a longish one at the beginning of the week and then the real long one mid-week and then move to one long one on Saturdays over the next month or so.  The 2 mid-week ones are not really practical (and it’s not as much fun running when it’s dark) and don’t leave enough time between them and I need to concentrate on running at pace.  So it’s back to the drawing board and update the plan this weekend.

2012 – London’s year

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That’s 2011 finished and a week since Christmas.  Despite late starting with running last week – with Christmas Day and Christmas food getting in the way – I picked up and did 20 miles over 3 runs.  Last run just before lunch on New Years Eve – 4 miles at just better than 7 minutes 15 seconds per mile (a nice pace).  And a new last run of 2011.

The serious marathon training starts now with the mileage picking up fast.  25 miles planned over 4 runs this coming week.  Still need to think about 3 or 4 or even 5 runs a week and what the optimum number is.  A bit more research and thinking needed.

130 ish miles done in December.  And all at around the planned marathon pace – getting used to running at that pace, so the plan may be working!  Longer ones needed now to make sure I can hold it.

2012 promises to be an amazing year for London – the London Marathon in April, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June and then the London 2012 Olympics over the summer.

The London New Year’s Eve fireworks set the bar last night showing what London can do and what the celebrations this year will be like.  An awesome display last night and absolutely now best in the world.  11 minutes long and costing a bargain £2 million – click here to see the full video on the BBC News web site – it’s very impressive.  Could be seen and heard all the way from Twickenham where we are.

A very Happy New Year to you and here’s to 2012 bringing everything you wish and hope for, and more.

Too many mince pies

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First run today for 6 days and didn’t feel good.  10 miles but very slow – 8 minutes slower than last 10 miler along the same route.  Pace almost 45 seconds per mile slower.

That would put me a mile behind me last week on the same route – rubbish really.

Things different today?

  • Early run – started at 7:40am (recent ones have been around 11am)
  • Not run for 6 days – normally max. 2 days between runs
  • Too many mince pies over Christmas (and turkey curry last night)
  • Slow starting pace

So are these excuses or genuine reasons why I was slower?  Good question.  The slower starting pace is the real killer – if you don’t feel good when you go and you naturally start off a bit slower, it’s very hard to pick up (as mentioned before).  Starting pace was about 8:02 but I then slowed down over the run – which is even worse!

The Christmas dinners and the usual excess of food and drink over the Christmas period may have affected the run – it does make a huge difference when running when full (or after a heavy meal the night before – or 5 nights before over Christmas) – but all worth it and we had a lovely Christmas.  Very much a family occasion for us and spent with grandparents and auntie and cousins.  And of course Father Christmas made his appearance on Christmas Eve and was caught on Noble CCTV coming down the chimney delivering presents.  Ho ho ho!

2 minutes faster

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Another good running week last week.  10 miles on Monday, followed by 1/2 marathon on Wednesday (over 2 minutes faster than my last Royal Parks Foundation 1/2 time in October) and then an even quicker 10 miles on Friday (40 seconds faster than Monday).  Speed work is definitely paying off – though need to ease off for a bit now and increase mileage.  Still over 5 months to go until the big day in April.

Pace is king in my world now.  And it’s absolutely about setting your initial pace right.  Too slow and you’ll never pick it up.  Too fast and you’ll fatigue too early and slow down dramatically in the latter part of the run.  So yes, it’s a very fine balance.  It’s also what you mentally set as your planned pace.  I like setting it faster and then coming in just over that.  Last 10 miler this week was great.  Back from good old Tumble Tots – where little Mr. Noble had done some tumbling, rolling, climbing and jumping – and through Bushy Park (and back dodging some huge stag that look very mean).  Again managed to pick up my face in the last 1 mile or so, with a nice finish.

Talking of Bushy Park, the Parkruns there continue to amaze me – 840+ runners last weekend.  Unless you know about it, you’d never realise that there are over 800 people meeting up for a fun 5km run first thing on a Saturday.  Very cool.  And I’ve said before, definitely need to get back and do some more.  Definitely helps with speed.

But multi-layered?  Oh yes, it’s that time of the year – cold and frosty.  Running gloves and hat on and then a number of layers on me to keep warm.  Still in the shorts though!  Amazingly, however cold it is, as long as I’ve got gloves and hat on (to cover the exposed bits) within a few miles you’re nice and warm and the odd cold gust isn’t a problem.  If the weather forecasts are to be believed – minus a big number and arctic conditions – the layers will be going up even more.

And a great running week finished off with carols at the Royal Albert Hall in London – an official Noble Christmas tradition.  With some more carols helping raise money for Whizz-Kidz in the evening.  Now it feels even more like Christmas.

Thankfully no major downpour of snow this year, like last year when we almost didn’t get to the Royal Albert Hall and in actual fact about half the people were unable to get there due to bad weather.

3 easier runs this week with one long one and a trip to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park.

Not the best run and old friends

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We’re all going to get days when we’re not feeling 100% for any reason and it’s bound to affect running performance when we do.  Ran today instead of yesterday, normally mid-morning time and a planned 12 miler along by the river towards Hampton Court.

My pace for the first 6 miles was good – slightly faster than 8 minutes per mile.  But it then crept up and finished a slower second half, with overall average 8 minutes and 5 seconds per mile.  Not much more but frustrating.  But it was just faster than my pace for the last Royal Parks Foundation 1/2 Marathon back in September.

And still managed to pick up pace for the last 1 mile or so – which always feels good. Trying to do that after 26 miles is a bit more of a challenge!

10 miles at marathon pace last week was very do-able but not today, only 2 miles more but much harder run.

If you’re genuinely not feeling well, depending on the symptoms, common sense advice is not to run (or do other exercise) and let your body recover.  Some good advice found at Examiner.com

Morning run followed a lunchtime coffee or 2 – good old Caffe Nero of course – with an old primary school (year 2) friend I’ve not seen since aged 7 – 35 years ago!  Fantastic, great to catch-up and amazing due to the wonders of Facebook how much you already know or think you know about old friends you’ve not seen for a long time!  Lots of reminiscing about days in good old Hong Kong and school days back at Kowloon Junior School.

Pace running

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What a fine start to the week.  Swimming with little Mr. Noble in the morning and then a 50 minute run home at marathon pace – 8 minutes per mile.  And a massage planned for this afternoon.

Managed to do 7 minute 50 second average pace for the run and it felt good.  More runs needed at that pace for longer distance.  Want to get used to running at that speed, so I know what it feels like and it becomes almost second nature.

More reading last night and a new book on order from Amazon – Run Less Run Faster.  After reading an article in Runners World this month, where a guy around my age, subscribed to this new training plan and got his marathon time below what he’d done some 20 years or so ago.  Sure his times was around 2 hours 20 minutes (that’s a sprint for me) but the theory is the same.  4 or 5 runs a week and 2 sessions of hard cross training.  The runs being one long one (but never more than 16 miles), one a speed work, one at marathon pace and then one medium distance one.

The theory is to get used to running the last 16 miles – so you know what it feels like.  The first 10, you know you can do.  The last 16 will be hard (very hard if my memory serves me right from 2009), so need to train to be able to do those well.  And run slow to start with and then slow down some more.  This last bit is the biggest challenge, and even more so when there are 35,000 or so other people running and everyone’s raring to go at the start.  In the last half marathon I did in September, I started way way too fast and ran into problems at around 8 miles – crazy!

And if you’ve never the London Marathon this is what it looks like at the start …

And this is the official video of start for the 2011 London Marathon – courtesy of the BBC News website.