Homeward bound.

Tue 29 Mar Newcastle University to Home 9.1m 1:08:17

I hate taking buses. They’re dirty, smelly and take forever to get anywhere. As I mentioned in the previous post the one-day Metro strike left me with two options on Tuesday night - a) get the bus home or b) run home. To avoid the misery of the number 308 bus, I chose to lace up my running shoes and complete the 9 miles on foot. I was a bit surprised by the amount of planning required. Remembering to pack my running gear in the morning for a start, which wasn’t easy considering most of it was in the dirty laundry. Then as I prepared to run it struck me that the contents of my coat pockets all needed to be locked away in my desk drawers overnight. Money, mobile phone, iPod (forgot to bring the handy clip to attach it to my shorts), the list just seemed to grow and grow. I even had to remove the unnecessary keys from my key ring for the night because they would have been to heavy to carry all the way home.

Anyway, I finally got myself ready and headed out into the unknown. I’ve been travelling from Monkseaton to Newcastle for more years than I care to remember but covering the distance on foot was a whole new experience. My biggest worry was the volume of traffic and how many roads I would have to cross. Initially this was quite a problem, it was difficult to get into any rhythm as I continually had to stop and wait at traffic lights for a safe time to cross the busy roads. However, once out of the city things became a little easier. The wonder of online street maps even enlightened me to a route through the quiet roads of Murton and onto a trail through the farmer’s field. This made the latter stages of the run much more pleasant, which was handy because by that stage I was definitely starting to suffer. The fact that this was my first run for a week probably didn’t help, but I also started to feel a pain on the inside of my knee. Slightly worrying but there are no after effects this morning so I’m hopeful it won’t hinder my training.

Overall, the whole run went quite well. Running through the city and alongside busy roads isn’t ideal but it allowed me to get my long run out of the way for the week. What’s more it meant I could spend the evening relaxing and settled down to watch Arsenal beat Juventus in the Champions League. This is something I’m definitely going to try and build into my weekly schedule and perhaps even try to fit in some lunchtime sessions. Hopefully my colleagues won’t mind sharing an office with a somewhat sweaty runner one afternoon a week.

Knocked for six!

Tue 21st Mar Delaval Arms 6.0m 46:17

That's 6 days without a run now. The kids both have a cold which I've picked up and its left me feeling lethargic and caused my asthma to worsen. I went out last Tuesday for possible one of the least enjoyable runs of the year. I felt awful and even had to stop to take my asthma inhaler after a couple of miles. Normally, being an asthmatic has very little effect on my daily life but when I get a cold it can play havoc with my respiratory system.

The cold is still lingering but because there's a Metro strike today I'm planning on running home this evening. The distance is about 9 miles and hopefully the traffic won't cause too much disruption. During the summer I'd like to fit in some runs either after work or during my lunch hour so this is a good time to trial the evening run home. I'm a bit concerned about the volume of traffic but hopefully things will work out OK.

I'm back ... and still running

Its been three weeks without a blog entry. Fortunately that doesn't mean its been three weeks without a run. Its been tough weather wise recently with ice, snow and a bitterly cold wind to contend with. However, I've managed to stick to my plan and things are progressing nicely.
In week one of the lost period I ran 3 times for a total of 17 miles. This included an 8-miler that I completed in 58:29. A solid but unspectacular time over what was my longest run of the year so far.

The following week followed pretty much the same theme. Planned 4, ran 3 with a long run of 8 miles. Total mileage was 20 miles. The one big difference was the quality of the long run. This time I completed it in 55:51 for a sub 7 min/mile average.

Conscious of not over-training I dropped my long run down to 6.7 miles this week and ran a total of 20 miles over 4 sessions. Tuesday night was a real easy run to the light house that took the best part of 39 minutes. I put in a 6.7 miler on Thursday with a relatively slow time of 50:51. Just felt tired throughout in some awful weather, not forgetting the effects of an afternoon at soft play with the kids! I introduced a track session on Saturday and ran 2 x I mile sessions. Hoped to run them in around 6 min/mile pace but was pleasantly surprised to achieve a 5:50 and a 5:55. Sunday morning I opted out of football training (match was cancelled again) and went for a 6 miler up to the Delaval Arms. I'd had a curry and a few drinks the night before so I wasn't expecting anything great from myself. Hit the first mile in 6:55 but then slowed by about 10 seconds a mile for the next two. Then as I turned for home I seemed to get a second wind and steamed home in 20:20 for an overall time of 41:42. Sometimes I amaze even myself!!