Back to the grind

It's been a while, to say the least. Still, I'm not training 'for' anything, just doing it for the 'love'. Twice round the block, 2k in about 15 minutes. Gets me out of the house, as they say.

First run in Peckham

I surprised myself. Round down the hill for a change, along Lugards Road and St Marys Road, along Nunhead to Consort Road, then looped round past the Old Nun Shed and retraced my steps. Total time: 21.5 minutes. That's quite a step up given I didn't train midweek.

Distance: 3.1k

Another year, another 10k

Okay, so I didn't actually do the 10k last year. I put in the miles beforehand. I was doing 60 minute runs. Morally, I did it. But shlepping out to Essex on my only free day amid a big CMS overhaul seemed stoopid. So there you go.

This year, I have longer to train so I should be able to take a nice gradual approach to building up. I've also decided to forget about running 'a time'. The 10k - 1 July, round the streets of London - is just an excuse to do some training.

So, this morning I did a first blast round Palais House Road in Hebden. 15 minutes, not terribly far, but a start.

Training

The aim today was just to run 60 minutes at a comfortable pace. How running for 60 minutes can ever be described as comfortable is a mystery.

Walked up to Peckham Rye park, which takes about 12 minutes. Then ran three laps of the park, then headed home to stop at the top of Kirkwood Road.

For casual interest, I timed my laps - something my previous routes didn't really allow. What is clear is that I fade quite a lot on my final lap: 18.08, 18.10, 19.15 for the last one.

This was a less steep route than usual and the distance reflects that: 5.35 miles in 60 minutes is a good bit better than the 5 miles in 61 minutes I did three weeks ago. It's still slower than last year's 10k, though.

Training, with the coach

Ran around Dulwich Park (thank gawd we did it in the morning - it looks like it's gonna be a hot one today).

Ran for 37 minutes doing 'fartlek' training. As the author of this article says, "funny word, great training tool" (it means 'speed play' in Swedish).

Anyway, this meant a steady job around the park followed by five or six short bursts at a higher pace (not sprinting, just one notch up on the dial). 37 minutes of this was every bit as knackering as a full hour of steady running.

Need to fit a long run, and another 30 minute run in before next week and keep a food diary. Maybe my attention span is just long enough to manage eating sensibly for two weeks.

Training

Same route as my usual long run, up and around Honor Oak and Forest Hill. However, I'd already been to work this time and boy did I piss about trying to get the enthusiasm to run. In the end I did it, but it was by now 4pm and still pretty warm. I didn't feel at my best at all.

In the end, I did it in 58min 10secs - a bit slower than last time which is a tad annoying. I was hoping to keep improving that time. There was more traffic on the roads - by which I mean pedestrians - and I still needed to walk for one minute. Actually, the short walk to get my breath back after a particular hilly bit seems to work quite well, I'm sure I make it up by running quicker afterwards, particularly downhill.

Sweated buckets, though. My t-shirt was most unattractive when peeled off and was summarily dumped in the washing machine!

Training

Something a little different...

Runner's World suggests running a 'pyramid' for improving speed. Thought I'd give it a whirl as I'm a bit bored with the idea of a straight 30 minute run. You run for one minute hard, then rest for 30 seconds, two minutes hard, rest for one minute, three minutes hard, rest for 90 seconds, and so on: 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1.

It just happens to be the hottest day of the year. I'm also running on grass for the first time which is tiring in itself.

Anyway, I pretty much do it thought the longer runs are gentle jogs rather than fast. And I finish up with so much sweat in my eyes I can bearly see. I knew there was a good reason for wearing a cap...