april training summary

at the start of this month i took about 10 days off from running after the marathon. this was mostly to give my body a chance to recover fully and also due to moving house. however, i have managed to get in a lot of running since coming up to sapporo and am really enjoying it.

i have also been running a lot with rie. when we run together it is usually at a pace which is perfect for my legs to recover. this means that when i have run by myself i can push myself really hard sometimes. we will see if this training tactic pays off come race day! personally i feel really good though, because when i run by myself i find it very hard to run at a nice recovery pace.

distance: 135.8miles (218.6km)
time: 17hours 04minutes 20seconds
runs: 9 easy, 2 long, 4 tempo

also, this month my suunto heart rate monitor strap broke. i just bought a new one from amazon though so no problem!

loving running in sapporo

so my wife and i have moved to sapporo for a few months and running up here is like running on a different planet compared to nagoya. of course it is cooler, although nagoya has not yet reached the disguisting weather of summer, but more than that it is beautiful and so clean. don't get me wrong, japan is clean everywhere in terms of rubbish and dog poo and so on, but sapporo is beautiful and the air is so clean. in japanese they say "the air is delicious" and it really is. so crisp and not full of smog or pollution.

plus rie and i found a cycling road that runs from the centre of town for about 20km out into the countryside. this is not a cycling road that runs next to a road with cars on, but simply a path that winds it's way through trees, fields and countryside with very few traffic lights (i think there are 3 on the whole track) and, more importantly, no cars! there are a few bikers and runners and people walking, but it is not crowded.

also, everyone up here is so friendly. everyone says hello to each when they run passed. in nagoya i had one running friend (as in we greeted each other as we passed) and everyone else kind of looked the other way. here it is amazing.

so we are running a lot. rie and i run together three times a week and i add on two or three more runs myself. we are preparing for a half-marathon next week and a full marathon in june. but i feel like i have totally rediscovered the joy of running again. lovely. so peaceful, so quiet, no need to always be looking out for cars or lights... it is a runner's heaven.

march training summary

this month included the taper towards my first marathon and, right at the end of the month, the actual race. despite that i managed to do my highest mileage yet.

distance: 145.6miles (235.0km)
time: 17hours 40minutes 29seconds
runs: 10 easy, 3 long, 3 tempo, 1 race

trying to taper

at the moment i am in the second week of my taper. what's that? well, apparently it is a really good idea to start running less and less in the three weeks before a marathon. i have followed some advice from the 'runner's world' website which has lots of good articles about training and so on.

my biggest mileage week was just under 50 miles. so last week i dropped it down to about 40 miles. more important than distance covered was the fact that i tried to run a little slower than normal. i had one run of about 6 miles at my marathon race pace, but all the others were about one and a half to two minutes per mile slower. well, that was the idea. but it is not that easy to run slower after running at the same pace for the past couple of months! my watch was very useful in telling me if i was going too fast, but i prefer to trust my body and how i feel. recently i have been feeling really good and often find at the end of a run that i ran a little faster than my plan. so i have tried taking more days off and that seems to help too. this week i will probably only run four times and will total no more than 30 miles. i will try to keep all my runs nice and slow, perhaps with a couple of miles at race pace in one run.

what's the point of a taper? well, i will be trying to run over 26 miles at a decent pace. so the main point is to let my muscles recover from training and to keep my body and all its systems at 100%. there is no point training hard now as it is unlikely to take any time off my marathon. instead it would probably make me more tired. i have to trust in the training i have done and in my mental strength to help me run through the hard parts of the marathon! and of course i know that rie will be there to cheer me on when i want to die!

am really looking forward to the anjo marathon now. have done some research and found out that it is run on a cycle path, but that they do not close the path. so there will be some walkers and cyclists and i might also have to pause for some red lights. might sound strange, but i think it will be a nice low-key introduction to the marathon for me!

february training summary

this month was about miles. trying to run lots of miles! i also had a bit of a taper before the half-marathon and took it easy the week after that in an attempt to keep my legs fresh and to take some pressure of my feet! anyway, here is what i did:

distance: 132.3miles (212.2km)
time: 15hours 49minutes 43seconds
runs: 7 easy, 3 long, 6 tempo, 1 race

it was a really good month's training. the only negative was some nice blisters from the half-marathon, but i am not surprised as i am wearing in some new shoes too. running really well and feeling really good. will try to put in a good couple of long runs before tapering for the marathon.

my suunto t3c watch

last september i got a suunto t3c running watch. i think the 'c' stands for comfortable or something like that, otherwise i guess it was the same as the t3 watch. i got the running kit which included the heart-rate strap and the foot pod. the foot pod attaches to your running shoes with a pretty simple but sturdy clip through the laces. all the heart-rate strap requires is a simple click and the strap itself is very easy to adjust. i paid 100 pounds for it from the adventure shop in the uk (http://www.adventureshop.co.uk/). i ordered it online and they delivered it to japan quickly and promptly, it was all good.

so, what do i think? well, i read some articles online that said it was difficult to get into the watch and to understand it quickly and so on, but i have to say that it was really easy to set up and to use from the start. you just enter your vital details and then you're good to go. the foot pod is ready ready to go from the box, although you can go to a track and run an exact distance to make sure the calibration is correct. the watch has plenty of functions, but there are basically three main screens: one shows the time (as in the time of day), the next one shows your heart rate (with running time above) and the third one shows your speed (with distance above). clearly you need the foot pod for the speed and distance setting to work. below the main display you can scroll through various views such as lap time, total time, distance, average speed, calories and so on.

because the screen has one main piece of information, the information above and below that can seem a bit small at first and it is not so easy to see if you are running at full speed in the dusk... but how often do you do that anyway?! on normal runs it is very easy to view the screen and to scroll through the various functions. it also has an excellent storage facility (15 logs) so you can easily replay all your information after the run. you can also set heart-rate zones, speed-zones, intervals and so on. if you buy the pc pod (which i don't have) you can simply download it all straight into the computer without have to do anything.

one cool thing is that the watch will tell you your "training effort" for each session you do. this is a number between 1 and 5 (with 5 being the hardest effort). while simplifying things a lot, this allows you to control how hard you are training, mainly so you don't overdo things. the watch will even tell you during a run how long you have to go until you jump to the next level! it also adapts to your training - if you train every day, you will have to work harder to achieve a rating of 5 and vice-versa. it might seem like a gimmick, but it is a nice little addition.

i'd really recommend this watch. the heart-rate strap has never lost contact and i only had to replace the foot pod battery once. the watch tells me all i need to know (and more) and i have no trouble viewing it while running normally. the buttons are easy to push and it was really easy to set up. the guide is excellent and the online help service is also fantastic. more than anything, it takes so much guesswork out of running. now i always know how far, long and fast i am running for. i am sure there are better and worse watches out there, but i love my suunto!

check out the official page here:
http://www.suunto.com/

yasso 800s

in my ongoing training and desire to know how i am doing i came across an interesting training session for the marathon. accredited to burt yasso, the idea is that by running 10 repetitions of 800m you can estimate your marathon time. how does it work? well, relatively easily. you run your 10 reps and at the end you take the average 800m time in minutes and seconds and that will be your marathon time, in hours and minutes.

here were my results from today's session:
rep 1: 2m 57s
rep 2: 2m 51s
rep 3: 2m 53s
rep 4: 2m 50s
rep 5: 2m 56s
rep 6: 2m 55s
rep 7: 2m 52s
rep 8: 2m 52s
rep 9: 2m 49s
rep 10: 2m 46s
average time: 2minutes 52seconds ----- 5mins 47s /mile pace

as a recovery i jogged 200m in between each rep. my average recovery time was around 70 seconds. after i finished the session i read some more about this workout and found out that you should actually take the same recovery as your 800m rep time, so i clearly wasn't taking enough recovery. despite that it felt like a good session and is something i will do again (perhaps with more recovery this time).

i also read that some people seem to think that this works as a predictor but it predicts about 5 minutes too fast for the marathon time. as my rep average was around 2minutes 52seconds, that would point towards a 2 hour 57 minutes marathon time. fine by me!!!

clearly this predictor workout comes with plenty of warnings attached. you still need to do the necessary mileage training for a marathon, for example. completing ten 800m reps is obviously not the same as running over 42km! however, it was an interesting workout and made me feel pretty good! i think i can run it more effectively next time having done it once.

january training summary

the main aim of this month was to get back to training fitness and start putting some miles into my legs in preparation for the marathon at the end of march. here is what i managed to do:

distance: 79.4miles (127.4km)
time: 9hours 50minutes 46seconds
runs: 8 easy, 2 long, 2 tempo

overall i felt good and by the end of the month i had definitely got my mojo back and was really enjoying running again. feel like i re-started gently enough to stop any major injuries. my foot felt fine although my shoes are beginning to get a little tired i think.

first long long run

today i did my first long long run... haha, if that doesn't make sense i apologise! most of the marathon literature i have read suggests that the long run is probably the most important part of training. after my experience in the nagoya city marathon of struggling in the last few kilometres, i can totally understand this advice. i read an interesting article on the mcmillan running website (definitely worth a read - http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/marathonlongrun.htm) about not ingesting any fuel before or during the run and decided to give it a go. here was the result:

time: 1hour 56mins 33seconds
distance: 24.2 km
pace: 7mins 46s per mile.

as my dream for the marathon involves running under 3 hours i wanted to run around 7mins 50s - 8mins 20s per mile (about 1 - 1.5 minutes slower than my marathon pace), so in that sense it was perfect. i didn't need to take on any fuel although by the end my legs were definitely feeling heavier. it was a good workout. it is pretty cold over here in japan at the moment but it gives me the chance to wear my thermals and enjoy it!

november training summary

the idea was to go for the half-marathon, but after my injury i was unable to train for a couple of weeks before the race. anyway, here is what i managed to do:

distance: 48.4miles (77.6km)
time: 5hours 18minutes 59seconds
runs: 2 races, 2 easy, 3 tempo

october training summary

still going towards the half-marathon. here is what i managed to do:

distance: 117.8miles (189km)
time: 15hours 06minutes 00seconds
runs: 8 easy, 3 long, 2 tempo, 3 interval

september training summary

starting up again after summer in england and africa! aiming towards the nagoya half-marathon. here is what i managed to do:

distance: 119miles (190.9km)
time: 15hours 55minutes 19seconds
runs: 12 easy, 3 long, 1 tempo, 3 interval