Tearing up the pavement (literally)

Distance this week 16 miles. Long run 6 miles (approx 55 mins in the snow!)

So the snow finally arrived. I've always used it as a convenient excuse not to leave the house in the past but with my new found determination to stick to the training schedule I ventured out a few times this week.
Wednesday evening at Hemlington lake was probably the coldest but a few steady laps soon warmed me up. Your legs work harder in the snow, particularly where it's deep or icy underneath so the distances are only a small measure of the work done. I managed a 10k run today around the Middlesbrough route without stopping, although the middle few kilometres were tough. I had some of those rubber/metal winter tread things on my trainers which helped with getting a grip but I kept clipping my ankle with a metal section which was no fun. I've also had a bit of joint pain in my left hip joint since last week but, hopefully this is just my body getting used to working again.
Off to London for a few days next week with my college students to watch some Musicals! A few of our ex-students are in lead roles in West End shows (Ross Hunter in Rock of Ages, Matthew Dale in Billy Elliot) so it's nice to go and see them do their thing at the top of the tree as it were.
Not much in the way of musicals on my iPod though so the chances of it popping up on the shuffle is slim although I do get the occasional blast of Sweet Charity, Jesus Christ Superstar and others through them being on odd playlists I've created.

The shuffle was on good form today (I still need to rip a load of new stuff onto it). Only a few skips needed and I came in sprinting to Nick Drake's River Man which was a bit of a juxtaposition but worked fine. I've starred the songs/artists that may make it onto the final playlist mostly for my own reference.

Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order*
Theme from Return of The Saint - The Saint Orchestra*
A Real Mother For Ya - Johnny "Guitar" Watson (surely originally entitled A Real Mother fucker???)
I Dig Love - George Harrison
Fancy - The Kinks
Completely Sweet - Eddie Cochran
Diamonds - Mercury Rev (I was genuinely thinking about this band and then it came on next. Spooky eh?)
Butterfly House - The Coral*
Sweet Blindness - Laura Nyro* (I really need to listen to more of her. It's great.)
Marley Purt Drive - Jose Feliciano* (got me thinking about golden eras of music this track - even "unhip" artists like Jose and Andy Williams etc made some cracking records back in the late 60s. Jose's debut album "Feliciano" is just brilliant by anyone's standards)
Poor Cow - Donovan
France - Intastella (from their great debut album.)
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Beatles
A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash* (story songs may be the way forward for the actual marathon)
River Man - Nick Drake

Flying start

Distance this week: 15miles approx

Long run - 5 miles. Time 46:30


Was determined to stick to my training schedule this time after a slow start for the Great North Run and I've pretty much managed it. In fact I'd say I've gone above and beyond and my body knows it now.
A couple of short runs early in the week and then on Wednesday a trip over to Hemlington lake where a group of parkrunners meet to train.
I've never really done much in the way of interval training (generally involves a lot of very fast running followed by a lot of very slow running) so I wasn't too sure what to expect or how to approach it. I was a sprinter as a much younger man and pretty good at it too. At 13/14ish I could do 100 metres in 11.7 seconds and 200 in about 24. In my mind I still am a sprinter but I was about to find out if that was true or not.

After a gentle warm up lap of the lake (about 2 km) we were asked to sprint between three lampposts. I went off full pelt first time and trashed the competition (mostly girls, young boys and a pensioners). It felt good. I had a good deal of power in me. Another fella about my age seemed impressed and started to give me a run for my money the next 9 times we did it. And there's the rub. I'm not a stamina man. By the 4th time i was lagging a bit each time. Still beating off most of the pack but getting beat a couple of times too. I knew I'd feel it the next day, not being used to that level of sprint for about 25 years!

We continued for the best part of an hour doing relays and jogging. I knew I'd blown my wad with the first few runs but I didn't give up and it seems to have done me some good in feeling fitter at least.

Saturday was a first as I travelled with the family to York parkrun. Basically 1 and 2/3rd laps of York racecourse. Not on the track and not a steeplechase I was glad to hear. It was pretty tough and I came in 25:30ish although I'm not convinced the results were right. The main problem was it's a very open run and you can not only see people miles away beating the pants off you but you can see exactly how much further you have to go. I managed a reasonable sprint at the end though.

Sunday was my first official "long" run. 5 miles. 6 months ago that would have been a doddle but, having let my fitness slip, I found it fairly tough to keep going at points. The return 2.5 miles did go surprisingly quickly though. I'm not a "gung ho" type of person but I do have a General Patton quote pinned to my mind at the moment which basically says "make the mind run the body...the body will always give up". I've clung to this a few times and it's definitely true.

Nice bath after the run and felt warmed-down with a few less aches and then an impromptu, brisk, very muddy walk in Pinchinthorpe woods!

SOUNDTRACK:

Various. I've been relying on the unreliable iPod shuffle lately but it's definitely a bit hit and miss. More misses lately with plenty of skipping going on. Need to start building some new playlists and getting some fresh CDs ripped onto it.

Standout artist so far though has, surprisingly, been The Divine Comedy. I love them to bits anyway but the tracks that have shuffled their way onto the runs have really helped.

He's on it!

Distance - 5km Time 25:30ish. Days to go 112

First Parkrun of 2013 and after a pretty full on Christmas in terms of alcohol and food consumption so not too worried about the time, although it's reasonable and maybe a bit better than expected. Got some pounds (if I'm honest - stones) to shift if I'm in with a hope of achieving a sub 4-hour marathon by April 28th.
Laid off the booze last night and watched a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad which i'm just getting into (I know, I'm a Johnny come-lately but better than a Johnny come-too-soony in most people's book if you catch my drift.).

Started a bit too far forward in the pack so ended up being overtaken for the first half of lap one but started to claw a few back during the second. In your face ten year olds! Eat my mud. A couple of friends had passed me by this point but, without really trying, I managed to pip them both at the post and still had a decent sprint in me. Chatted with a couple of people about joining their interval training session which could help with my PBs for parkruns (I'd love to get them down towards 23 minutes or, who knows, maybe lower by the marathon or the end of the year at least.)

Soundtrack - iPod shuffle.

It's rare that I let the shuffle take control on a run, especially a short one that needs a certain energy level maintaining. I can't access what it played but I remember it began with Beach Boys - Good Vibrations which was a great way to start. A bit of energy but also a laid back feel which helped me to settle on a pace. The Divine Comedy "To Die A Virgin", Jim Noir "How to be so real" and The Zutons "You could make the four walls cry" all came on in the first lap so a fairly steady, mid-tempo affair but it all kind of worked. Think I skipped a bit of Fleet Foxes because, lovely as they are, it wasn't working. I can't remember much else that came on other than midway through the second lap a big guitar riff kicked in. i thought it might be Hoodoo Gurus at first but turned out to be "She's On It" by Beastie Boys. A kind of forgotten single from their dubious early success as brattish misogynists. Strangely a song by New Kids on The Block came on the radio later in the day and I thought "That's pretty much a rip off of the Beastie Boys". Thankfully, by the time NKOTB started plundering the Beasties had already moved onto the glories of Paul's Boutique (a name synonymous with a great album to one generation and omnipresent branding of coats to another) and would later go on to make two of the best albums of the 90s in Check Your Head and Ill Communication.

I had toyed with the idea of building a Manchester only playlist for the run but I'm now thinking anything but. I love a good deal of music that's come out of the city but as a running playlist? A bit dour maybe. Might slip a few New Order 12"s on there to pass the time though and, if I time it right, Life and Death by World of Twist to finish (not technically Manchester I know but...). There's a thought. I need to load the Pre New's excellent debut album onto my iPod and try that out. Could be a winner.

I'm going to be setting up a page to raise funds for Leukemia research soon too ;)