Tuesday 23 December 2008

Day 79: toe.

Once Sunday's elation started to fade away, I realised that the long run had done very bad things to one my toes... Red, sore and rather swollen :( So much so that this morning's jog was out of the question. And now, starts the holiday season, so I don't expect there will be much training, or many entries in this blog. I will, instead, enjoy a perfectly lazy and indulgent Christmas :)

To all of you, happy holiday!!!

Sunday 21 December 2008

Day 77: WE RUN A HALF MARATHON TODAY!!! :D

Well, we got to that stage of the Shelter marathon training programme where we were scheduled to try our first half marathon (13.1 miles, a little more than 21 Km), and we did it! But the best of the best of the best today is that we did it in 1 hour and 54 minutes, which is already (3 months before the Bath Half) way less than 2 hours. I am so proud of us, and this is such a great, positive thing to have achieved before the holiday season. I am now totally ready to enjoy a perfect Christmas, or at least almost ready (as I have a job interview to go to tomorrow - the last hurdle :)

Take a look at the route we chose today, and also at our faces when we reached the Kew Gardens railway bridge :) We were really lucky with the weather, slightly overcast and mild, neither too hot nor too cold, with no rain and no blazing sun (not that that was going to happen in London on day 1 of winter, mind you).

The route is a good one because once you have passed the tourists already crowding the Westminster area, you get to go through Battersea Park, Wandsworth Park, and to end along pleasant Putney. Our only lo-light for this journey was a rather grim and depressing chunk of Battersea, which has blocked access to the river walks and lots of construction sites.

No need to add that we are now stuck to our respective chairs and unable to move, coach Stephen with a sore Achilles tendon, and me with knees that simply refuse to bend :) Bring on the holiday!!!

Today's short run

Dec 21 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

A mere 13.11 miles, according to the tracker on my iPhone.

Victory!!!



The best coach. Yes, Sir.

Posted by ShoZu

Victory!



All the way from Wapping to Putney and beyond!

Posted by ShoZu

Saturday 20 December 2008

And now there's a dot on (almost) every continent!

And here's to Laura, for accessing this page from her home country, Argentina. Thank you honey -- hope you are enjoying the family holiday.

And now, if any of you friends ever goes to a research station in Antarctica, remember to log in :)

Tuesday 16 December 2008

A dot in one more continent -- yay!

I'm rather fond of the little widget on this page showing where people who read the blog are, and now I have a dot on Africa, thanks to jet-setting, wine-loving, chess-playing Masha...

Day 72: MI-6 smells of fish.

Excuse me if I say so myself, but this morning I think I am rather awesome, in a hard-core running sort of way :) I completed the first 1.5 hour run I had to do on my own, and it felt rather good, considering how tough Sunday's efforts were and how little time I'd had to recover. I completed it at a slower but comfortable and consistent pace, and the whole thing was roughly 14 Km long / about 8.75 miles.

I would really recommend this route, by the way: North Bank from Tower Hill and all the way to Vauxhall Bridge, run past the MI-6 office (where the river smells of fish -- rather like a sea shore), and then the South Bank all the way back to Tower Hill. I had to extend the run into town as that only took me 1.25 hours, so I pushed it into Wapping until I reached the usual park.

London is mighty fine in the morning, and the South Bank currently boasts the small wooden huts of a German Xmas market, as well as some very funky decorative lights made of traffic cones containing blue neon light and suspended into trees. It's really worth a look.

I didn't push it very hard, but I did run all the way, and it was great considering that for a moment, as I had fallen back asleep for an extra hour after the alarm rang, I thought I would skip this session altogether. So, I believe I totally deserved the big chocolate brownie I scoffed down for breakfast when I got back :)

And as I was jogging back, I had the company of Arnaud on the phone, which got me some puzzled looks from fellow runners (probably wondering if I was one of these weirdos who can never let go of their mobile...!).

Monday 15 December 2008

Day 71: ouch. But yay! But ouch, though.

So, this Sunday we undertook our second 1.5 hour run, and managed a brilliant 11.5 miles (roughly over 18 Km -- Stephen, isn't this actually more than we did last Sunday???). I have to admit that it was dire, though. Tougher than the last time, not so much physically than emotionally, somehow.

We were fast, very fast in the first half, so much so that when coach Stephen told me "yay, we're halfway already", I almost cried (as I felt like we were 2/3 of the way there already).

It took some slowing down in the second half to a) get rid of a very painful stitch on the side of my neck (why???) and b) manage to complete the run. But it got done! I got rather emotional shortly after the run, and not in a very pretty way I'm afraid. It took some reassuring and a long warm bath to make me realize just how awesome we are. I can clearly see (now that I'm not wondering anymore if my legs are still there) that pushing hard on the first half was a great exercise to build up some strength.

Today, our light jog felt like running with a wooden leg (or so I imagine how running with a wooden leg would be). And tomorrow we are supposed to run yet another 1.5 hour. The question is: at 5 am and just 48 hours after another long run, will we have the willpower????

Sunday 14 December 2008

Another long one

GPS does not like canals that go under bridges amongst tall buildings on cloudy days. So I had to draw this one by hand:

at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Thursday 11 December 2008

Day 67: better.

This morning's interval training felt better than this Tuesday's. A bit more of a healthy bounce in my legs, and the ability to breathe more comfortably somehow, which allowed me to look in front of me as opposed to staring at my feet in bewilderment :) I also found that giving myself a goalpost (such as a specific tree or bench) helps me focus and understand how I'm doing on the longer sprints (the damned 75 sec ones).

Nothing more to declare today.

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Day 66: entering winter mode

Yesterday I just felt like I was ploughing through my interval training -- it is becoming increasing difficult to get up in the morning, with the Xmas season having started and a general slowing-down of the pace of life around me. As we started our 20 min jog today, for the second time this week it felt like staying in the warm bed would have been so much better :) Yet this morning's jog was fast and energising, and what counts is that we are sticking to this!

I'm also rather glad that my appetite seems to be in control again and that I appear to have found a certain balance and not to overcompensate all the time anymore.

My mood tends to shift a little bit these days, and as I am entering some kind of hibernating mode (I just want a nice, cosy holiday, mince pies and a cup of tea under the blanket!) I sometimes feel a tad daunted by the weeks to come, as the match between increased run durations and the need to just sit down like a vegetable in front of the telly does not, at first sight, appear to have been made in heaven...

Monday 8 December 2008

Day 64: Santa beat running

Oh well, you can make an exception to a training programme sometimes, right? Yesterday, as I lay on the bed with a firm intention to read a few pages of Terry Pratchett's Making Money and to relax for an hour or so before the hard 90-min run that was on schedule, I slowly drifted off... and woke up an hour later, tucked deep under the duvet after a full-on nap. By then, the sun was already setting, it would have been a long run in the dark, coach Stephen was as lazy as I was, and we had a tree to decorate, stollen slices to taste and Sauternes to drink. So we decided we would not fail our duty to the Christmas spirit, and this time, just this once, we skipped a run. That was a brilliant idea! :)

Today, back to the programme with our usual Monday jog (30 min), and a very, very lazy feeling all round. Another week starts...

Saturday 6 December 2008

Day 62: well-deserved Saturday rest

Well, I haven't posted to this blog for a couple of days so I'll start by logging the last two training sessions: some interval training on Thursday ((75 sec sprint + 3 min walk + 60 sec sprint + 3 min walk + 30 sec sprint + 2 min walk) x 4), and a light 25 min jog yesterday. All's going well on that front, and the week has basically felt like a few days of recovery from the effort of last Sunday... which, incidentally, we have to go through again tomorrow. But enough of that: on to my Saturday treats!!!

Wednesday 3 December 2008

French Routes!

Here they are, a little convoluted though they may be ...

Nov 30:
Nov 30 - 90 min run at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Dec 1:
December 1st - jogging at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Dec 2:
Dec 2: A 75 minute Fartlek at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Day 59: not holiday, but on ice.

10 min jog, then 10 min run, then 15 min jog, in the cold cold morning air, and on ice today! Call me mad, but it's quite sweet actually, because it means xmas is on its way :o) We were, however, still stiff from this weekends efforts...

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Strangely wailing chickens


Posted by ShoZu

Day 58: running with Bambi

Aaaah, the country looks mighty fine today. We are just back from a good 75 min Fartlek session around the village of St Bris des Bois, through the old land of my great uncle (where we saw three deer!), pass a medieval church, and round (and round) a pond... It's cold and there were some patches of frost, but it was nice to see bits of mist still lingering here and there, and the sun is glorious in a cloudless sky. On top of which, coach Stephen got a chance to marvel at some weird-looking and strangely-wailing chickens......

Running really gets you to appreciate the small things, tenfold: a long warm shower, sitting down at last (ouch), lying there reading and not doing much more, and of course appreciating mum-made cuisine to the full....

Monday 1 December 2008

Day 57: sore and stiff

Today we are really feeling the effects of yesterday's efforts! The 35 min jog got us to loosen our limbs a bit, and so did a nice walk on the beach this afternoon. I'll add that it's brilliant to not work on a Monday!!! :)