Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE my food and I always have. I have always had what my mum would call a "healthy appetite" but my diet is not as good as it could be. I am a sucker or a sausage or bacon sandwich for breakfast, a standard lunch would be sandwich, crisps and chocolate bar and for dinner anything with chips!
Since meeting Sarah my evening meals have improved with less "beige" food and more variation. We try and eat a lot more veg, meat is kept to a minimum and we mix it up to keep it interesting. We are busy people though and, despite our best intentions, we do get lazy with what we eat.
In the past I have tried dieting and you know what...it makes me miserable! I tried Weight Watchers for a week once. I calculated the number of calories I could have a day and I stuck to it for a whole 5 days before caving and going out for steak and chips.
More recently I have tried cutting out the fried stuff for breakfast and switched to porridge instead, I swapped the sandwich at lunch for a healthy salad and Sarah and I ate better in the evenings. The result was that I lost half a stone. However it didn't take long before I lapsed back into my old ways and the weight has snuck back on (not helped with a period of non-running).
I recognise that my weight is a key factor in why I run. Since starting running I have lost 3 and a bit stone and I feel great now that I am lighter, but I could do more.
Over the next few months I am going to try and do three things:
1) Cut out the breakfast baps at work and save them for a weekend treat
2) Revise my lunchtime eating to cut out the crisps and chocolate
3) Go back to cooking more at home and putting the variation back into my evening meals
Hopefully these steps will see me lose weight and feel better about myself. I am also hoping that this will see me run a bit faster and will make those longer runs just that little bit easier!!
Club Curry Night!!
Tuesday this week we had a post run club curry. I had been drumming up interest for a couple of months and we had a great turn out of 22 club members. It was fantastic catching up with my club mates and chatting away about recent and upcoming races. I loved hearing about peoples experiences, especially the wide and varied Autumn marathon experiences. It made me realise how lucky I am to be part of such a fun and supportive club. (The curry was also great!!)
Training Week 4
The training plan for next week (Week 4) was a progression on last week. It saw a slightly longer run on the Tuesday night club run and the introduction of a Thursday morning (pre-work) 10km. I had intended to try and fit in a hill or interval session, however this did not happen!.
Monday was probably the toughest run of the week. Having run nearly 11 miles on Sunday evening my legs were just not up to the job on Monday and the lunchtime run became a real slog. Chairman Jury led the run and this brought out his masochistic side in the form of a hilly 4.7 mile run. The route incorporated 3 large hills in and around Parkstone Golf Course and Branksome Park. On each of the hills I got slower and slower and struggled to drag my leaden legs up to the top. It was even pointed out that I was not really lifting my feet and was just "shuffling" along. However I did get round and afterwards reflected that a bad run was better than no run.
Tuesday was the evening club run and with a team curry happening immediately afterwards (see more about that above) we had a larger than normal group out. Spirits were high and so was the pace!! After Monday's difficult run I felt surprisingly good and so was pleased to be able to push the longer distance slightly harder than I normally would. The pace was assisted by a fairly flat course through Penn Hill, Lower Parkstone, and down to Sandbanks. We then headed along the front all the way to the pier and then up through the gardens. It was a beautiful evening and, coupled with the fantastic company, it was a great run. We didn't quite make the 9 miles I had hoped for but we managed 8.6 miles at around 8:20 mins/mile (including a couple of sub-8's).
Wednesday was another lunchtime run. We again had a good group out, despite there being some rain in the air. As we wanted a fairly easy, average length run, we decided on the Tedious route. With the weather improving and a slight tail wind we managed a couple of sub-8 min/miles along the prom. I paid for the early high tempo though and slowed up through the gardens and back to the office. Anything under 40 minutes is good for a Tedious so 37:59 was superb for a lunchtime session, although I can't help feeling that I would get more, personally, out of a more focussed training session (hills or intervals) rather than a just a couple of quick miles followed by a drastic slowing.
Thursday was the first of my early morning 10kms. I used these earlier in the summer to allow me to get a slightly longer run in that I can't do in a normal lunch hour. It does mean waking at 530 and leaving home at 6 to get down to Bournemouth early enough to get the run in so it means dragging my bum out of bed!! This week I got to Westbourne at around 645 which gave me plenty of time to get a good run in. I decided to keep it fairly simple by running down The Avenue and along the front to Bournemouth pier. I then continued along the front towards Boscombe Pier. I reached the 5km point in good time, but I felt good so decided to run a little further and eventually turned around the 6.5km mark. It was then I realised that I felt good because I had a strong tailwind blowing me along the front and that I was heading back towards the incoming rain! By the time I got back to the bottom of The Avenue I was knackered and it was raining. I slogged my way back up to the office (passing the wonderful Jacqui Ives) and finished in a little over an hour.
Friday I had to drop my car off for repairs in Winchester, so decided to run home after dropping it off. As the garage was at Winnall I had a nice downhill first half mile. I wanted to make sure I ran around 4.5 miles so I ran a circuitous route along the river, around St Cross, back into the city, past the Cathedral and then home. It was a good way to finish off a stressful week at work!
Saturday is parkrun day!! This was a special run though as it was the first in my shiny new 50 club T-shirt!! Sarah and I were going away for the weekend so I ran in Winchester before heading off. I got down to River Park just before 8:45 which didn't leave me long to warm up. After chatting with the run team I was left with even less time to warm up so I started the run a little on the cold side. Not wanting to risk further injury I took the first lap fairly easily. With some overnight rain the course had become a little slippy in places and the tree line on the far side of the course had to be navigated with some care, which naturally made lap times slightly slower. I picked the pace up a little on the second lap and started passing a few runners, which is always a shot in the arm! On the last lap I pushed the pace again. I had a 100 Marathon Club member in my sights and decided to try and take him before the finish. He made me work hard for it but I managed to take him at the 200m to go sign. A strong sprint finish saw me finish in 24:30 and 95th place. No way near my fastest but a very pleasing run!!
Sunday and Sarah and I were staying in the Cotswolds in a beautiful town called Bourton-on-the-Water (known as the Venice of the Cotswolds due to the 5 bridges that cross the river in town). I aimed to get 10 miles in before the breakfast shut at the hotel. The clocks had gone back the night before so rising early was not an issue and I was out on the roads before 7am. I had had a quick look at Google maps and picked out a loop of what looked like roughly 10 miles.
I ran through the centre of town, criss crossing the bridges and stopping for a few pictures before the tourists descended. I then headed out of town along the river. I turned off of the main road and started heading towards a small village called Clapton on the Hill. The road wound through some lovely British countryside before turning uphill. A mile of climbing and some 440ft of elevation later and I reached the village. From here the route went along the ridgeway that overlooks Bourton-on-the-Water. I stopped for a number of photos before the road started heading downhill towards the town. This was a nice section of downhill where I managed to up the pace and reduce the effort. Before realising it I was back in the centre of town, however I had only covered 7 miles (my guesstimating was a bit out), so I ran a few laps of the town to get the distance up to 10 miles before heading back to my hotel.
Summary
I was pleased overall with the week's training. I was slightly shorter on Tuesday and Wednesday but longer on Monday, Thursday and Friday. I recovered well after the longer runs but felt that the higher paces were a struggle. I was hoping to put in either a hill or interval session but for one reason or another this didn't happen.
Here is my summary of the week.
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN | Total | |
| Target | 4.5 | 9.0 | 4.5 | 6.0 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 10.0 | 41.6 |
| Actual | 4.73 | 8.60 | 4.46 | 7.29 | 4.83 | 3.09 | 10.03 | 43.03 |
| Time | 42:43 | 1:11:59 | 37:59 | 1:07:06 | 47:20 | 24:30 | 1:31:39 | 6:23:16 |
| Pace (Min/Mile) | 9:01 | 8:22 | 8:31 | 9:12 | 9:48 | 7:55 | 9:08 | 8:54 |
So far in October I have run nearly 125 miles in 20 sessions. That is just over 19 hours of running!!
Next week
So next week's training plan is very similar to week 4s. It sees the Tuesday night run back up at the full 10 mile distance and sees Sunday's long run up to half marathon distance. It also sees the Interval session back on the Wednesday.
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN | |
| 26-Oct | 4.5 | 10.0 | 4.5 | 6.0 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 13.1 |
In next weeks blog I will talk a bit about interval and hill sessions what I get out of them and how much they hurt!!
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