Marathon Training: Week 10 of 16

Managed a run home from work on Tuesday. On Thursday I started to have a bit of a cold. This video definitely depicts the situation things from my wife's view point:




Unfortunately this meant, that I didn't do the long run on the weekend. Oh well there's always next week!

A few photos from the Riverside 20

At the Start

Yellow coat in the middle.

At 10 miles

Still in my Yellow Coat. Rain coming down hard. Only the back of me - in the photo

At 20 miles

Glad to be finished!

Marathon Training: Week 9 of 16

A cold and very wet Sunday morning - and I went out for a 20 mile run. My club, the Clapham Chasers' flagship event is the Thames Riverside 20.

This event gives the runner the option of choosing whether to run in a pacing group or to run your own race. I started in the 10 minute mile pace group. At the start of the race, I stuck with the group. Around Mile 5 I broke away and ran my own pace which was ever so slightly faster than the pacing group. However, at about mile 12 I started to slow down and I was overtaken by the pacing group.

In total I finished the 20 miles in 3h27m58s. I was relatively pleased with this time, given the weather. Furthermore I didn't stop at all in this race - during all the long training runs I have been doing with the club, I have always had mini-rests while waiting for the group to regroup.

On an unconnected note, there was a Bake off planned for the end of the race.  Manasi baked a retro Pineapple Upside-down cake which I entered as my own creation.  Although I didn't get to sample a piece, it won the prize for best design, making for a very successful day in all.

Marathon Training: Weeks 5 - 8

I am currently lying on the floor in a state of undress – as my wife attempts to give me a sports massage. After 18 miles yesterday, I can hardly move. This is tough – why oh why did I sign up to do this? I am sure it will be worth it in the end, but as I lie on the floor today, I can’t fathom how that will be the case. To save my dignity, I won’t upload a picture of this though!

So what’s been happening – since there haven’t been many updates in February! Let me give you a low down:

Week 5

On my 33^rd Birthday, the weather was COLD. When I got out of the car at Battersea Park the thermometer said it was minus 4! This was the day we had that large dumping of snow.

It wasn’t till we got to Hyde Park that I started to warm up. This week, I did complete a personal best distance wise and managed 15 miles.

Week 6

Week 6 was a riverside run; we ran from Battersea Park to Limehouse and back. In total, I managed 17 miles (another PB) – though I probably did 10 miles on my own, I thoroughly enjoyed it though – the weather was cold but the sun was shining. I put my headphones in, stuck on my cheesy music mix and just ran.

Week 7

I did 17 miles on my long run again. This time I was totally on my own, as we were in Bristol visiting Manasi’s aunt. Somerset is hilly! It started with a good run, but after 90 minutes the heavy rain came. So far, I have been very lucky with the weather – and haven’t been rained on until this week.

Week 8

I didn’t do anything during the week, as I have been flat out with work but on Saturday I did 18 miles! Three of us started at 8am – did 6 miles, and got back to the starting point for 9am. We then picked up the rest of the group, and did another 12 miles. The great thing about doing 6 before meeting the rest of the group is that it felt like you were starting again when we met the others. This meant I had 10 miles, when they had only done 4. Though towards the end, I didn’t feel like I had a lot left in the tank!

This week marks half-way of my 16 week training schedule. In the next 8 weeks, I plan to increase my mileage – up to 21 miles and then taper off slightly. I also need to take a weekend off for my brothers stag do. Next week – my running club has a 20 mile paced race on the Thames Tow Path. It will be interesting to see how I get on with that.

Guess My Time Competition

As an added an added incentive to sponsor me - I am running a little competition where you simply guess my time (in hours and minutes) to run the gruelling 26.2 miles. Simply enter your guess in the comment box when you sponsor me. Manasi & I will take the winner (+ guest) of the competition out for dinner. If you aren't in London - then we'll take you out next time we see you or we are in your neck of the woods.

Full training statistics are available on this blog - so take a look, donate and guess a time!

Rules:

1. One entry per person. There is no minimum sponsorship requirement.

2. The winning time will be my official time (rounded down) to the nearest minute. E.g: If I run 4h25m54s - the winner of the competition will be the person who selected 4h25m. If no one has selected 4h25m then we will be the person who selected 4h24m.

3. If you select a time which has already been selected, then your entry will be void. However if this is the case, Rule 1 won't apply - and you can sponsor me again and take another guess.

Apparently I am the new race favourite ...

Click here and watch the video

Week 5 to 8 training update coming this weekend!

Marathon Training: Week 4 of 16

% of training complete: 20.12%

Week 3 Actual Miles Run: 25.5 miles (Budget: 29.9 miles)

In the past, I have completed three Half Marathons:

• 2009: Great North Run 2h 2min
• 2011: Run to the Beat 2h 12 min
• 2011: Poppy Half Marathon 2h 11 min

Yesterday, I achieved the greatest distance I have run before - 14.3 miles, so I am feeling very pleased with myself.

Session:	57
Training Date:	Sat 28 January 2012
Training Week	Week 4 of 16
Approx Time of training:	9:00 AM
Days to London Marathon:	85
Distance Covered (miles):	14.34
Distance Covered (km):	23.08
Total Distance in training - running (km):	436.01
Total Distance in training - cycling (km):	n/a
Exercise Time (hh:mm:ss):	02:21:08
Exercise Time (hours):	2.35
Av Speed (km / h):	9.81
Av Pace (min / km):	06:07
Av Pace (min / miles):	09:51
Incline (%):	n/a
Location:	Battersea Park - Barnes Bridge
URL:	http://connect.garmin.com/activity/145460898
Class Details:	n/a
Weight (kg):	82.7
Cost per gym Visit	£22.50

I was meant to run home on Thursday, but I took the night off and went to visit Time & Talents (the charity I am running for). I’ll do a separate blog post about the charity in due course; however I did think it helped having a night off as it gave my troublesome left ankle a bit of a rest; which I am sure in turn helped with my long run on Saturday.

Saturday evening I had my first proper drink of January as it was Arun’s 30^th Birthday.

So unfortunately taking Thursday off meant I finished the week slightly behind budget however I am pleased that I finished with my distance.

Marathon Training: Week 3 of 16

% of training complete: 14.90%

Week 3 Actual Miles Run: 29.0 miles (Budget: 27.7 miles)

No guest contributor this week ... so back to my ramblings. 

Three weeks of training are now complete this year, and I am definitely starting to see my performance improve. It's T-3 months until the marathon - so still plenty of time to get up to the distance.

This week's Saturday run was scheduled to be 12 miles, but I actually ended up doing closer to 13 - in about 2h 6mins.  The weekly long run in the Clapham Chasers group makes such a big difference. I am sure if I wasn't running in the group I would have called it a day after a mile or two as I had pins and needles again - but I managed to run it off. Towards the end of the long run, three of us were running across the crossing at Putney Bridge and  Hugh Grant nearly ran us over in a Black Ferrari. A Google search when I get home does indeed confirm that he owns one - he bought it for his 50th Birthday.

Other notable runs in the week include running home from work, which I did on Thursday in 1h 5mins. On Tuesday I was meant to doing 4 miles in the Gym but after 32 mins - the big red emergency stop button started calling my name, and I couldn't resist the urge but to press it. I wasn't too disheartened though, as it was about 10pm in the gym and I still exceeded my training distance in the week.

Marathon Training 2012: Week 2 of 16 (Guest Contributor)

% of training complete: 10.19%

Week 2 Actual Miles Run: 26.2 miles (Budget: 25.7 miles)

"This week is a special report, written through the eyes of my lovely and also long suffering wife, Manasi.  Over to you."

Hi everybody, nice to meet you.   Let me talk you through a week in Akshay’s running life.  This week has been a long one, a painful one and one where our entire life savings appear to have been ploughed into Decathlon.  Purchases this week have included:

• 2 MORE running tops. 
• Wristband.  A little bit Madonna for me.  Apparently the yellow one he already owns wasn’t good enough.
• Running Pants (did anybody else know running pants even existed?)
• Gloves .  He claims these were a gift, I have my doubts.
• MORE socks.  The socks were only allowed to stay on the proviso that all previously unmarried socks were binned.  This had to be supervised so that stray socks were not kept out of pity.
• Ankle supports
• And yet, the worst is yet to come.  New trainers.  Now I don’t object to new trainers, a man should have proper footwear.  No, I object to these.  If anybody is coming out to see Akshay on running day, it won’t be hard to find him – just look down!

However, despite the fact that our laundry bills are escalating and Decathlon are now a profitable entity reliant solely on the Kumars, there have been some positives.

• A total of 26.2 miles run over 4 runs, now to combine all those into 1 run and we are in business.
• We passed the 100 day countdown marker and tension in the Kumar household is dramatically increasing as a result.
• Thanks to all the exercise, there has been no Talk Sport radio played in over 2 weeks. Now that’s what I call a result.

That’s all from me – hope to see you all on Race day!

100 Days to Go

In a hundred days time, I will still be running. At the moment, I can barely manage 10 miles so getting up to 26 is going to be a tough winter.

Today's picture shows where you could get to in the same time it would take me to run the marathon. I would much rather be in a few of these places rather than plodding the streets of London!

Marathon Training 2012: Week 1 of 16 Report

% of training complete: 3.63%

Week 1 Actual Miles Run: 17.8miles (Budget: 17.7 miles)

A week that started slowly, but finished on a positive note.

I returned from Singapore on Monday afternoon. I took Tuesday off training, as it was my first day back in the office and I was suffering from jet-lag. On Wednesday morning, I went to the gym and had a bad session – only achieving 16 minutes on the treadmill.  However, then came the real problems – Wednesday night. I suffered from massive insomnia and managed a mere three hours sleep. This was quite literally a nightmare. I guess I was still suffering from jet lag.

Consequently the run home on Thursday was a complete and utter write-off and I was in bed by 9pm. On Friday evening, I loaded up with Pasta for the following day.

Saturday morning was positive. The Clapham Chasers organise marathon training groups for all levels. I met up with the 4hr+ Group at Battersea Park - me and about 15 women! A beautiful winter’s day (fresh but clear) and by 10:20am we had already knocked off the planned 8 miles: a nice run from Battersea Park to Waterloo and back. I felt good straight after, but it wasn’t long until the legs started to burn. Manasi and I celebrated by having a nice brunch with Robyn.

On Sunday morning, I knew I had to go out again - due to the cancelled Thursday run, I was way behind my weekly schedule. So I went out by myself and did another 8 miles. This time, I went from home to Hungerford Bridge; however I was much slower than the previous day. So what were the similarities and differences in the runs?

Similarities

• Same time of day
• Same type of nice running weather
• Had pasta the night before

Differences

• On Sunday, I was sore from Saturday
• No group of women to run with – and to spur me on
• Not as many breaks on Sunday (on Saturday we would often wait to regroup)

Leaving aside the slow time, I was pleased that I did get out on Sunday, as at least I finished the first week and completed my allotted training distance. Priority 1 of the marathon is getting the distance done. Priority 2 will be getting the time. Once again, a post run celebration was in order, a yummy brunch with Aoife and Rich.

A new year ... a new plan

Happy New Year 2012. The year the Olympics come to London and the year I want to do the Marathon. If we are serious about the Marathon then this is a plan we need to adhere too.

The updated training schedule is available on this page: http://runakkersrun.blogspot.com/p/training-schedule.html

Got on the scales this morning, and the heaviest I think I have been. Admittedly I have just came back from holiday where I seemed to eat and drink a lot, but this is no excuse. I took my running stuff with me, but did I use them? We all know the answer to that one.

Pins & Needles

Pins and Needles during my run today. Not sure why?

• Maybe I didn't stretch properly
• Maybe because it was wet my foot got wet as it had been raining heavily before
• Maybe my laces were too tight

Hope it doesn't come back next time. Will keep you posted.

The second week - Xmas Parties Galore

Only 8 miles done in training this week (versus a budgeted 19)!

Too many Christmas Parties that is for sure!

It is currently raining cats & dogs - is that an excuse not to get out there. No I am going to! I have a lot of miles in the diary this week - so we are going to have to. The only thing that I am wondering is whether I am going to have redo my plan in the new year and do a new 16 week plan!

A bad first week

Monday started good with the longer Commons Route with the Clapham Chasers. It was a bitterly cold night and consequently it felt like we were running much faster than we probably were.

The rest of the week was a bit of a right off! Wednesday I got a bit of a flu / cold which put a dampener on things. The weekend was full of too much Christmas celebration.

So in conclusion - a bad first week to training. I will try hard to make my target this week. I had a bit of a bad back yesterday, and providing that stays away - I hope I can!