And now for something a little different...

Yes! Finally, after more than two months, I ran to somewhere other than Oakwood. Well strictly speaking I still ran to Oakwood, but then I kept going on to Cockfosters.

Knees feel OK, I came back fairly full of energy and my time was pretty good - especially since I didn't really push at all. 40 odd minutes and a speed of 13.2kph - an improvement of a minute over the last and only time I ran this run, and I was pretty pleased back then.

All downhill

These blogs are starting to get a bit repetitive - I really should go for a run that isn't just to Oakwood and back. The problem is that in most directions from where I live there are lots of little side streets - whereas the road up to Oakwood runs through fields, so there are hardly any streets to cross (and therefore less times I have to slow down).

Well, maybe another day, but today it was Oakwood once again. I'd got up feeling pretty tired and unmotivated, and was considering not running till the evening, but I realised that would be a mistake. So, I donned my kit and went out - didn't even bother with more than a token couple of stretches before starting running.

Started slow, but it was cold so I had to pick up the pace a little to keep warm. Nothing spectacular, but somehow managed to break 6 minutes to the first roundabout. Hmmmm - even when I don't try, I seem to be running quickly these days.

I had been thinking about going to Cockfosters, but realised that I had the opportunity of another good time for the Oakwood run, so turned round after only 13 minutes or so.

The wind on the way back was a bit of a pain, but it's always an easier run back - downhill most of the way, and then a very long steep hill to remind you that running isn't meant to be easy.

The result? My first sub 26 time to Oakwood, my fastest ever average speed and a much happier person.

Tomorrow I'm off to buy some new running shoes - so expect my times to drop significantly ;) Well - at the very least I should be more comfortable running longer distances, and with us just having passed the "two months to the marathon" mark, it's most definitely time to start piling on the miles.

Or kilometres - wouldn't want to seem old fashioned...

A short Wednesday run

Just before Christmas I was doing my long runs on a Wednesday evening. These days it's enough for me just to go running on a Wednesday - a long run just doesn't seem possible. I didn't do the fitness training last night - a combination of reasons (knee, wife, work and weather) made it unappealing - but tomorrow will be my sixth day running of sport. Wahey!

Tonight was a good run, not the best, but 27.5 minutes is good for an end-of-the-day outing. Tomorrow will be two months to marathon day - scary. I really need to start putting in those miles. I had it in my head that there was two months to build up to the 26 miles, but in practice I don't want to be doing any long runs in the last three weeks, so I've only got four weeks to get my distance up.

The only saving grace, is that that's how long it took me to do it last time. Or injure my knee - depending on how you look at it.

Fingers crossed.

Three days running

Well not three days actually *running*, but three days running that I've done sport - and I don't remember the last time that happened - but I'm pretty sure it was before Christmas.

After work runs are always a bit depressing - I think about them for the last few hours in the office and I feel as if I've not eaten for ages, and yet I'm running on a full stomach. Still once you get out it's not too bad.

After the recent good times I was always on a bit of a hiding to nothing with this run - and so it proved. A good time - my twentieth fastest - but not quite at the levels I've run recently.

I'm happy enough though - my knee's continuing to heal, and all the time it feels stronger. Tomorrow will be the fourth day running of sport, and I'm even planning on going to a running session in the evening if I'm feeling up to it. That's a huge improveent since ten days ago, when my knee was hurting after only a single game of Ultimate.

More than two months to go - maybe this isn't such an impossible task. Every day I feel more confident that I can do it. Good runs or bad runs, I still seem to be able to push quite hard and come away with good times. If I can start to add in some distance to that equation then there's every hope of a good time come April.

A smashing run

Last Saturday I said that I reckoned I could knock thirty seconds off my PB if I really pushed. Well, today I wasn't consciously pushing and yet, as I passed the roundabout on the way to Oakwood, I was sub 6 minutes. I decided I'd try to keep the momentum going up the long hill but my legs felt drained and I realised that this wasn't going to be a great time - still under 30 minutes would be acceptable (if slightly disappointing given my start).

I turned at Oakwood and checked my watch. Sub 14!?! "OK", I said to myself, "Let's not get silly - just keep up a good pace, but for God's sake, don't injure yourself". So I kept the pace up, going downhill at the limit of what I thought I could do without knocking all the wind out of me, and then trying to push a little up the small hills. The last one was relatively painful, but I kept going most of the way.

I clocked up 26 minutes and 24 seconds - 50 seconds knocked off my personal best! It just didn't seem possible to go that fast without serious training - and at this kind of pace, ten second changes in speed are massive. If you assume a world record of 16.5 minutes, that equates to bringing down my time by almost 10% [where the WR is counted as 0].

It was my second fastest run of all time. I wish the Town Park run [which I did my all time best on] was still an option - I'd love to prove to myself that I'm way faster than a year ago. A week ago my best Oakwood run was 28m17s, set back in 2004 - in the last ten days I've beaten that on four occasions and knocked almost two minutes off the time. Now if only my knee would let me run further...

Clearing your head

Today was a bad day at the office. Not in the sense of upsetting or hectic, but just that I was bored and couldn't motivate myself. I think it was a combination of overeating and tiredness.

After Ultimate on Sunday I went out for an all you can eat meal with a friend (and ate all I could). Monday was my 28th birthday and I went out for lunch for pizza and then had a huge Indian takeaway for dinner. Tuesday I was a little better, but still snacked too much. The result - I feel fat (not in the psychological sense of feel, but in the physiological sense) and run down.

So, all in all I really didn't fancy heading out in the cold and the dark for a half hour run.

I'm really glad I did though. Yes, it hurt [minor short term stitches] at times - moreso than it has for a long while - but I'm feeling like my head's clearer now and I'm more motivated to take on the Marathon. Which is only two months away remember - and I'm well behind in my training.

Let's hope that I've reached the turning point. That's the last official Winter League event, so no more large scale Ultimate in the near future and only a little over a month before I give up Ultimate entirely till after the marathon - a scary thought. The last time I gave up Ultimate for more than a month was..... well actually it was when we got married - and the likelihood is I'll be out for longer than that. Is it worth it? I sure hope so!

A tough Saturday

Were this a different kind of blog, there would follow a very long and venemous rant about why I got up at six o'clock this morning and ended up spending the majority of a very nice day trapped in my office.

Fortunately it's not that kind of blog, so I'll just give the short version. I needed a haircut badly, and I needed to run, and that was my plan for Saturday morning until I found out that I was being asked to work. I knew that I wouldn't want to run after work and that I was desperately in need of a haircut, so I got myself up at 6am to do yet another early morning run - more of a late night really.

I decided that after my supposedly gentle run earlier in the week, where I'd clocked up a PB, I'd try pushing it a little and see what I could get.

The run was pretty uneventful (I'm only doing the Oakwood run to give my knee a chance to receover) and, while quick, I didn't have the motivation of the cyclist on the final hill to keep me going. I came home with a further 17 seconds off my PB and a feeling that I could make quite a big improvement on the time if I was to push it hard - maybe as much as thirty seconds without any real improvement in fitness (only in psychology!).

Tomorrow's Winter League again and I'm pretty sure my knee will hurt, so if you don't hear anything from me in a couple of weeks you'll know I'm a fool. Wish me luck.

Too confident

My last post proved to be a little too confident - it was another ten days till I ran again - I felt a little sore after Ultimate for the next couple of runs (Saturday runs are always a little easier because Friday's my rest day), and the next weekend I was ill. The Monday after the weekend I was still recovering, and decided to give it a miss, but on the Wednesday I decided to go out for a pre-work run.

Usually that's not a great time to run, because you're dehydrated and it's freezing (in Winter at least!), but I felt that if I didn't go out in the morning, I'd end up working late and not having any motivation in the evening.

So morning it was, and after a gentle warmup I headed out wearing a double layer of t-shirts to combat the weather. I started to get into a rhythm pretty quickly and was soon feeling quite good. Pleasantly surprised at the first checkpoint that I was clocking quarter of a minute below my usual 6:30 - nice! It started to hurt a little not long after, but only in the tiredness sense - the knees held together well.

On the way back I knew I was on for a pretty good time - somewhere around the 28 minute mark (which if you've been paying attention you would know would be a personal best on this track). I hit the last hill in good time and spotted a cyclist half way up. "He's mine", I thought to myself, and started cranking it up.

Every step he drew closer to me, until just as I reached the flat part two thirds of the way up, I over took him. On the final uphill section I powered away, and didn't see him again. I kept a firm, but steady pace for the downhill back to the flat and was amazed to find the time was 27 minutes 31 seconds - almost a minute off my PB.

Let's hope my knee continues to hold out.