What not to do.....

What not to do in the last 10 days before your first ever half marathon;

1. Run 10miles followed by a full game of hockey less then 24hours later.
Not to be recommended as legs take a bit of a battering (both from stick/ball/ oppo as well as from repeatitive motion on the ground). They will take more then 4 days (and counting) to feel normal again

2. Live in a country with a nationwide postal service who have two 48hour strikes during this period.
This leads to a rearrangement of registration information. Rather then numbers, chips etc arriving in the post all competitors (> 2000 for half marathon and fun run combined) are to report early on the day to register and get new numbers/ chips, sure to be chaos!

3. Attend a staff meeting, despite the fact it's your new bosses first one, where one (or more) of your colleagues evidently have a bad case of the dreaded lurgy.
This leads to the risk of potential infection - why do that to yourself - either arrange to dial in on conference call or ensure there are adequate isolation facilities in the meeting for lurgy carriers.

4. Decide it would be a good idea to attend the annual bike show in London the day before the race (this is a planned activity, obviously anticipated to happen this Saturday)
The danger here is not only one to the wallet but undue time on feet less then 24hours prior to the big one - see also point 1 above for stupidity of such type of activity.

At least I have not had the opportunity to get drunk (yet!) and thus have a hangover ;o)

Now in answer to some comments from my last blog;

Wes: Yes I am an official retired (just out of retirement for 2months only) field hockey player. Sort of hung up my stick prior to busting my hand in January, but have been drawn back into it for another final swan-song as a result of watching a few games since September.... and how do you like the pretty picture my garmin has drawn of my first half running around last Saturday? And just FYI I was playing sweeper infront of the back 3 defending the goal to the left. Obviously I got a bit carried away a few times trying to score ;o)


As for just cricket and football (good use of the word, glad you did not say soccer), I see you have managed to forget that little subject of RUGBY - would that be because the US did not make it!?! ;o) .... and yes we are all (at least I'm sure 95% of the nation) still a little stunned having seen off the Aussies in the quarter finals last Saturday. The French game on their home soil this Saturday is going to be a good 'un!

Chad: Field hockey, kinda like ice except less body contact, more players on each side on the pitch (11) and no barriers (oh or ice)... and a ball rather then a puk! Surface usually astro, preferably water based or more likely nasty old sand base (good example of which is above).... Oh yeah and the goals are bigger! Umm oh and you can rotate subs and you can get a sin bin type of punishment thing.

Best of luck in your race ....Cactus Cha Cha isn't going to know what's come past them..... I am so jealous of your run time!!


Jules: My northern, fake Scottish, friend..... ;o)..... oh and less of the "it's sunny in Glasgow" already - you've gotta get the sun once a year!! ... where was I... Oh yes thanks for the race info - think we all have got an email from the race director - but cheers anyhow. As for the course profile..... ummm... yes heard about the hill.... here's the course profile if you'd care to take a look;

http://www.goodrunguide.co.uk/ElevationGraph.asp?RunID=103&RunType=A&HillEmphasis=True

A nice 1.5mile "steady" climb... .at the 8 mile mark... hummm my tactics for this will revolve around caffeine, music, the mantras "what doesn't kill you makes you strong", and "embrace the hill", and not looking up. Having said that I think I may try and drive the hill prior to Sunday just to see exactly how bad it is!

As for pacing/ plan target.... haven't finally decided on this yet. I don't want to go as slow as I went last Friday for my 10miler as that was, at times, uncomfortably slow although I never actually got out of work once until the last mile when I blatted it for home. In my mind I think I'm likely to still do a run/ walk strategy with running 1.5k and walking 1min (this will take me to a mile most likely)..... rather then setting a pace as such I think I'm going to go with something like my mid aerobic HR (at least what I assume that to be), making sure I keep to the lower side of the zone for the first 6 miles. There's no fuel on the race just water stops so am running with my little race belt with a bottle of hydration/ fuel in it and a couple of gels for good measure. Once I've done the first 1hr 15 I'll just suffer till the end, need to ensure I have good music on the iPod! As for time....... I expect to finish in less the 2hr 30 even with run/ walk. If I don't it will be because I've picked up an injury or something. I'll be really happy to come in under 2hrs 15.... eventually (but not this race) my aim is to get nearer the 2hr mark, but that is definitely not on the cards for Sunday (unless the course is about a mile or 2 short!!!!)

TJ - my house still stinks of paint - every time I open the front door and come in I get a right ol' wiff of it up the nose.... I'm hoping it'll go away soon!!!! ... Oh and great 5k ... WINNER!

.... Now there's something missing from this blog... Oh yes - training!... Now obviously I'm tapering - quite how you do this when you've not been building is beyond me ;o) ... anyhow... the week so far;
Monday (am): Gym swim - 1500m 45mins drills and easy. Followed by 15mins in hydro pool to try and heal my hurting legs ;o)
Tues (am): X-trainer - not wanting to punish my still weary legs by pounding the streets I decided a 30min x-trainer session was in order followed by 15mins of stretching. I think this was a good idea as got my legs moving again and the blood flowing and I certainly needed to stretch out.
Today (pm): 45min Body-balance course. This is part of the "what needs to be done" over the next few weeks. A great class, Tai-Chi, Yoga and Pilates... I didn't know I could stretch into those positions.... alas I think you're then supposed to balance... hummmm

Rest of the week plan is to have another x-training session and another swim, oh yes and visit the annual bike show up in London on Saturday!!! I'm not going to start my "light weights" until at least next week as I think, if I did start now, I'd be adding that to the list of "what not to do" ;o)...... Right "Heros" has started on TV and what better way to relax ....!!!!

How to spend your holiday....

Take 5 days off work and what could you do with your time?

- Jet off to a nice beach and sit in the sun for a week?
- Find a mountain retreat for fresh air and some r&r?
- Take a course in something you've always wanted to do?
- Find a Tri-camp to go to, meet some new friends whilst training away?

or

- Stay at home and paint your doors?

Hummmmmmmmmmm

A week later and I'm asking myself "why didn't I take any of the options 1 through 4".... Yes I spent a week on the internal doors. They were a nasty deep dark stained brown wood and now they're lovely shiny and white! But talk about underestimating the job in hand, I didn't quite anticipate 5 coats of paint on the doors downstairs and 4 coats upstairs (which included the banister and skirting down the stairs). So all in all that was ... err 40 doors (sides) painted and stairs/ banister on top.... Is it any wonder that by the time I got to Friday I couldn't face another layer and slept (ok so the sleeping could have been down to being overcome with fumes!!! LOL)

Still - despite the fact that one day in I thought "why didn't I just get someone to take the doors away and dip them" - why do these ideas come too late - I am very pleased with the end result. The only thing remaining is to attach the new handles and take some "after" pictures. The house is a whole lot brighter as a result and I'm just wondering why on earth I haven't done this sooner!! So, ok not a terribly relaxing or inspiring week off work - but I'm pleased with the choice (although if you had asked me whilst I was applying layers 5/4 last Thursday I'd have probably just grunted!!)

Oh what else of that half-mary training I hear you cry.....

Well last Sunday (as in the end of Sept not the one just gone), I did decide to ditch the 10k race and did a LSR. Definitely the right decision as the half is more important then doing a haphazard 10k. Managed 15k in about 1hr35, started off easy HR at low aerobic then second half at a bit of a faster rate..... the last k hurt but still ticked of a 9ish miler which I wanted to do that week. That then set me up for the week just gone. Managed a short trot out Tuesday, just 4.3k, my legs were sore to begin with but they soon eased out. Then Friday night I convinced myself I needed to go longer and get 10miles in before the half mary... humm.. so off I went on a 6min walk/jog warm-up before 9*1mile reps (very easy, HR <148) with a 1min walk break. Upshot was lots of pain my about mile 7, binned the walk/ run thing and did the final mile about 2mins faster then the previous 8 just to get it all done!!! In total I clicked in just over 10miles (about 16k)..... Needless to say I and my legs were toast afterwards. Put this down to several things;
1. Only 5days since last LSR
2. Went for an hour long walk beforehand
3. It was late - didn't get out until 1915

And just like my legs hadn't had enough punishment the next day (Saturday just gone), I had agreed to play hockey (yeah I know I gave that up last December right? Wrong - more on that later). So Saturday lunch saw me (trying) to run around a hockey pitch with a stick in my hand!! Mad muppet!!! Have not been able to walk properly since! LOL.... so I have 6 days to completely recover before the half mary this sunday! OMG! At this stage I'm fully expecting it to hurt like hell and possibly I'll have to walk more then I intend - that's what comes of not sticking to a plan. Still I am looking forward to the event as it's my first half and in some sick sort of way I'm even beginning to enjoy the long runs - so roll on Sunday (well Sunday afternoon if I were to be honest and a nice hot bath post-event!!!)

So why this hockey thing then? Humm well I've watched a few games in September and figured I could play up to December and it won't get in the way of next seasons goal as prep-training isn't scheduled to start till December with Week 1 happening at the beginning of the New Year. So I'll count one game of hockey as a kind of speed/ fartlek session of running in my schedule.

Which takes me nicely to my "schedule" for the next couple of months. So obviously things are geared up for next Sunday, but subsequent to that the idea is to have two sessions a week of;
- swimming (club on Wednesday + one at gym)
- bike (one on Sunday + one other, turbo or gym spin)
- run (one Saturday (hockey) + one LSR during week)
then in addition 1 to 2 sessions of;
- body balance/ yogalates etc for core work
- strength training

So nothing too regimental but an outline of what I want to achieve. The idea being;
- I keep the swim ticking along (may get a endless pool/ camera session sorted for some more specific coaching/ correction)
- Keep my LSR up to a regular 1 to 1.5hrs
- Get back on biancha
- Get my core and general strength to a better place then it is now (won't be hard as both non-existent!)
All of this so when I hit the more structure prep phase in December I'm already in the swing of things! :o)

I think that sounds like a plan!

Oh and I've got that little thing of changing my blog name - can't exactly say I'm "starting to tri" anymore given I'm a season down :o) More on that one later, along with the before and after pics!!

Cat and Dog!

Humm... I've been dog sitting my parent's dog for the last 24hours... Needless to say the cat has not been impressed! The dog, "Tootes" is a x colley and lab and really cute and fairly obedient. And scared of cats it seems! So poor Muffin has been doing the cat "creep" trying to blend into the shadows as he passes her, despite the fact she'd run up the walls if he actually got close. Poor Mogey, like he hasn't had other things to stress him out the last couple of weeks. Still she's going to be picked up later today so the cat will be a happy boy again with the house to himself!

I'm thinking of changing my plans for the weekend. I was intending to do a 10k race tomorrow but given I've not done my LSR yet for the week I may have to ditch the race for 1.5hr slow run.... hummm.... Didn't get the LSR run as planned on Thursday (morning or evening) due to the fact I came down with a bit of an upset tum. Thought initially that this down to a mild bout of food poisoning (I am that good a cook ...lol)... but actually have decided it was just a bit of a bug given how washed out I was yesterday. So I'm not going to bike, swim or run today either but still want to get my LSR in for the week. Think if I did the 10k it would probably be more stressful on the body (as there's no way I'd not race the race!) then running slower for longer.

What do you think? I've got 2 weeks till the half mary and at this stage I think getting the hours on the legs and in the shoes is more important then racing.

It's nearly the end of my random month off of any sort of routine training and poor diet... and the stars are saying it's time to get back into the swing of things... here's an extract from my horoscope today:
"Still, with physical Mars now in your 6th House of Health, it's also a smart idea to improve your diet and exercise regimen at this time."

LOL !!!

So October, obviously I've got the half Mary - and given how much I'm beginning to love running again I'm really looking forward to it, but the big plan for October and November is to get back into a routine of swim, bike, run leading up to the start of the new ATP in December..... HIM here I come :o) I'll commit by October/ November plan to cyber space in the next week!

OK random blog over - time to shower and change and go watch some hockey! :o)