Every day's a school day....

I mentioned in a previous blog, that I believe you can learn something every time you go out running. It turns out this is never more true than when you are pushing the boundaries of what you can do.

As training for the Eden Project Marathon gets underway, I've notched up 35.44 miles this week, A mixture of trails and intervals, on minimalist and conventional running shoes.

The minimalist session was my longest one on five-fingers yet. An hour in these minimalist shoes, left my calf's in knots on Thursday and my 45 minute short run yesterday was exactly the cure I needed. That "short" run was a warm up to the main event which I did this morning.

MiCoach was insisting that I increase mileage to get marathon ready and so I headed out at 8am to  do 2hours and 30 minutes on the road. Fortunately, the weather was good, great in fact, and in the allotted time I completed 16.5 miles.

This is great because
A) it's the furthest I have ever run, and
B) it's the longest time I've ever spent running.

A summary of stats showing the crazy increase between last week and this week.


And while I'm happy with this, running this sort of distance/time made me try new things and as I said at the start every day is a school day.

I tried carb-loading for the first time yesterday, I'm still not eating much sugar or starchy stuff so an evening of pasta and popcorn left me buzzing with energy this morning and allowed me to complete the run on little supplements (a couple of SiS gels).

I started hydrating on Friday. Regular drinking rather than when I was thirsty meant that I never felt that parched today and if truth be told, could have gone further.

Thirdly, knowing I'd get bored of music after a while I started on an audio book instead. This was a gamble as I love ,music to run to, but boy did it pay off. On a boring road session like this one, the story kept the mind entertained and let the legs get on with running. The miles literally flew by.

This week will see the donation page for Great Ormond Street set up and then I can really start publicising the run in October. Until then it's business as usual.

Me.

The road.

The biggest challenge yet....

Eden 2011

Going back to where it all began.

Reading through a magazine on Friday I was met by a full page advert showing two of my favourite things.

 Running and Pasties.

The Eden Project in Cornwall is celebrating it's 10th Birthday and it's 3rd marathon. I've said I fancied a challenge and I think this is it.

I have twelve weeks to do two things...

1) increase my distance (current maximum is 13+ miles, need to run 26.2!!!

2) lose a bit more weight to make sure I have the strength, stamina and energy to complete it.

The run is trail based, mixed terrain and based on old mining land, it looks beautiful and will be my first marathon, which I'm told is a pretty big thing.

www.edenproject.com/Eden-Project-Marathon-2011.php

So training started this weekend clocking up just over 16 miles over two runs, the longer run was on the Sunday and came in at 10.6 miles.

http://www.adidas.com/com/micoach/WorkoutDetails.aspx?WID=485aeeee-fd29-4e1b-bd36-123ad951b07b

My weight has plateaud at just under 12 stone. Thats over two stone lost in six months, I reckon 11st8lb should be a good marathon weight and keep pressure off my joints.

Planning and training has commenced, on October 9th I go to Eden, where it all began.

In the words of Tao Te Ching.....

I had my second go out in my minimalist running shoes yesterday. The Vibram Fivefingers are hardcore minimalist. 3mm runner sole, no cushion and no support.
After my first go, where I set a 5k pb I ended up with calf strain for a week so I slowed down on purpose this time.
I still felt light on my feet and more connected, they definitely promote good running posture and increase cadence. As a result, I ended up running off my forefoot more but my calfs held up this time. Overall, the run was more fun and felt less like I was crashing through the countryside, more like I was skimming along it.
In the words of Tao Te Ching, "The best runner leaves no tracks". Maybe he was on to something.
Slow and steady seems the way to increase distance on minimalist shoes so I'll look at a seven k run next time.
Meanwhile, plans for a big run later in the year continue to develop.
Ultramarathon anyone?

One more goal....

Over the last two weeks I've not run as much as I'd like.

Why?

1) My new minimalist running shoes crippled me and left me with no calf movement for a week,
2) I worked overtime on nights doing a 60 hour week and feeling pretty crap, and
3) I spent last weekend blasting round Yorksire on my Motorbike with friends (although I did manage a cheeky 8k in the moring before everyone lese got up).

Have I been resting and enjoying the break from running?

Have I hell!!!

I've realised that having met two of my three goals for this year I needed to really test myself. When I set the three goals of losing weight, beating my 10k PB and raising money for charity, I kind of figured that the third would be the easiest. And it pobably would be but for the fact that I seem to think differently now.
Rather than accept and achieve the norm I find myself constatntly testing and pushing myself. Having realised that I can accomplish anything I really want to, when I decided to do a run for charity, I figured I had to come up with something unique....

I have planned a run which will smash any goals I've set before and I'm well excited for it.

I'm looking to finalise details this week as i want to get some support first but watch this space....