London Training Week 2 - with mini-gear review
The second week is done, hurrah!
An early morning, gentle five miles...
The first of the technical runs...
And a 12-mile LSR...
And they all went well, ok being out of the door and running before 6:30 is never nice, and the second "fast" mile was slightly interrupted by the flight of locks, the snappy yappy dog and the need to dodge between some gates, and the LSR was very enjoyable - cold enough for frost and hints of ice on the Sustrans route I tend to use, dry and structured to make it increasingly hard work...
The simplest run:
Easy, just keep to the programme - 4 x 800m run, 200m walk; 2 x 900 m run, 100m walk and run the last couple of km. Good solid running:-)
Next up was a lunchtime run, sandwiched between emails to be sent and a meeting.... Being the first of the technical runs, it involved a pattern - warm up, run hard for a mile, recover, run hard for a mile, recover and cool down...
Hammering along the canal is always good fun, at lunchtime I'm probably never more than 400m from another civil servant running along, there's always an angler or two and more often than not some youths... As ever the sight of me trundling along seems to get people moving out of the way moderately quickly.
The LSR was long... and the book says just do it steady... sometimes I need more than just the book, so this was an endurance test, of increasing toughness... 10km at 800m run, 200m walk, then 5km at 900/100 and then 5km run. When your last 5km of a 20km is your fastest it normally means you're doing ok.
The walking spells are based on Jeff Galloway's ideas on marathon running, and work for me especially at the start of structured training. As the miles, and confidence, increase the short runs will increasingly be all run, with limited walking. For example, Tuesday's run is four miles, 6 and a half km, so the plan at the moment is another dawn raid, with a couple of km at 900/100 and jog out the rest.
Gear Review:
Running gloves... Good ones are brilliant, bad ones can irritate, dye your hands black or blue, be too warm or too cold and generally not be worth the money.
Good ones, and this is my definition - are just right, they block the wind, but let your hands breathe enough that you don't get sweaty palms and fit well enough that you can tie your laces in them.
I've spent £2.99 on gloves, and £25 and price is absolutely no guide on whether they're good or bad.
So having worn through one pair (in a year), it was time to go shopping... Shock!!! Horror!!! They've gone and improved my gloves... That's never normally a good sign, but for once it is.
Grippy dots now cover the palms, useful for holding the phone whilst prodding the screen to stop endomondo talking to me from my bumbag. The forefinger contact bit for using the touchscreen works better than most I've used, there's a fleecy, soft lining and a thumb patch designed for your nose and they fit!! Laces done up in seconds... The best thing I can say is I don't notice them, they worked and they were only £15... So well done Ultimate Performance, cool bit of kit:-)
Right, I've an essay to write
TTFN
Paul
An early morning, gentle five miles...
The first of the technical runs...
And a 12-mile LSR...
And they all went well, ok being out of the door and running before 6:30 is never nice, and the second "fast" mile was slightly interrupted by the flight of locks, the snappy yappy dog and the need to dodge between some gates, and the LSR was very enjoyable - cold enough for frost and hints of ice on the Sustrans route I tend to use, dry and structured to make it increasingly hard work...
The simplest run:
Easy, just keep to the programme - 4 x 800m run, 200m walk; 2 x 900 m run, 100m walk and run the last couple of km. Good solid running:-)
Next up was a lunchtime run, sandwiched between emails to be sent and a meeting.... Being the first of the technical runs, it involved a pattern - warm up, run hard for a mile, recover, run hard for a mile, recover and cool down...
Hammering along the canal is always good fun, at lunchtime I'm probably never more than 400m from another civil servant running along, there's always an angler or two and more often than not some youths... As ever the sight of me trundling along seems to get people moving out of the way moderately quickly.
The LSR was long... and the book says just do it steady... sometimes I need more than just the book, so this was an endurance test, of increasing toughness... 10km at 800m run, 200m walk, then 5km at 900/100 and then 5km run. When your last 5km of a 20km is your fastest it normally means you're doing ok.
The walking spells are based on Jeff Galloway's ideas on marathon running, and work for me especially at the start of structured training. As the miles, and confidence, increase the short runs will increasingly be all run, with limited walking. For example, Tuesday's run is four miles, 6 and a half km, so the plan at the moment is another dawn raid, with a couple of km at 900/100 and jog out the rest.
Gear Review:
Running gloves... Good ones are brilliant, bad ones can irritate, dye your hands black or blue, be too warm or too cold and generally not be worth the money.
Good ones, and this is my definition - are just right, they block the wind, but let your hands breathe enough that you don't get sweaty palms and fit well enough that you can tie your laces in them.
I've spent £2.99 on gloves, and £25 and price is absolutely no guide on whether they're good or bad.
So having worn through one pair (in a year), it was time to go shopping... Shock!!! Horror!!! They've gone and improved my gloves... That's never normally a good sign, but for once it is.
Grippy dots now cover the palms, useful for holding the phone whilst prodding the screen to stop endomondo talking to me from my bumbag. The forefinger contact bit for using the touchscreen works better than most I've used, there's a fleecy, soft lining and a thumb patch designed for your nose and they fit!! Laces done up in seconds... The best thing I can say is I don't notice them, they worked and they were only £15... So well done Ultimate Performance, cool bit of kit:-)
Right, I've an essay to write
TTFN
Paul
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