Okay, reality check - when I measured the route I'd run on Tuesday, it turned out to be only 2 miles (in 23 minutes). That works out at about 5mph, or over 2 1/2 hours for a 1/2 marathon, so I'm not quite ready for the Olympics yet - good job I've got 16 weeks yet. Which is good news - the training schedules that I've seen reckon on being race-ready in 10 weeks, so I'm taking this week as a sort of warmup before actually hitting the schedule, and then I'll still have time to spare. I'll just re-arrange the 10-week schedule so that I repeat the last 6 weeks, rather than making it up as I go.
Thursday night, nearly 2 hours of football (we book one hour, but nobody had booked the pitch after us, so we just played until we fell over!) no definite training mileage, but some good fast/slow work and a decent overall cardio workout.
Saturday morning, up the Wrekin. Thick fog, and the car thermometer reading -1 degrees. Where it wasn't slippery with wet mud and fallen leaves was in the more exposed areas, where what had been wet mud and leaves was now frozen. So walk/running up and run/walking down, but taking it easy on the steeper slopes to avoid breaking my neck! About halfway up a guy walking down told me "Keep going, the view from the top is worth it!" The fog started to clear by Hell Gate, and the actual summit was blue sky and sunny, but the view - nothing but the tops of clouds as far as the eye could see!
Anyway, what about the training result? About 3 miles of steep up and down, in about 39 minutes. About the same pace as Tuesday, but further, and harder. As I recall, the winner of last year's race over the same course ran about 18 minutes, that's about 46% of my time! Now, if he was running as hard as the winner of last year's Ironbridge half-marathon (who won - again from memory - in about 1 hour 15 minutes), if we assume that the same ratio of 46% applies, that gives me a time of 2 hours 43 minutes - ties in with the calculation at the top of over 2 1/2 hours. Hmmm...
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
In the beginning...
They say that being in love means never having to say you're sorry, and that having children means ALWAYS having to say you're sorry: certainly mine are responsible for a few things in their time. This time, it's my son, Owain, who has to take the blame on his ever-broadening shoulders.
When, at the end of September, he announced his intention of taking part in the Devizes to Westminster Kayak race over Easter weekend (first weekend in April) 2010, it seemed like a good idea, about time he started doing something with himself, hrrmphh, etc. However, over time, it has started a sort of guilty feeling in me, that I never did anything quite as ambitious when I was his age (no, it's NOT a mid-life crisis!), and a feeling that perhaps I should join him in this hairbrained scheme. Except that I don't have a friend of my age whom I could con into joining me.
So, if I'm going to do DW, it has to be in small, easily-defined chunks. And the first chunk is a half-marathon. I mean, DW is 125 miles of kayaking, involving 77 hoists out of the water, and 77 puts back in - a half-marathon is just over 13 miles of running (that's using legs, that were intended to get you from place to place), as opposed to kayaking (that's using arms, that were designed for holding your pint glass), so it's got be well over ten times easier!
March 22, 2009 is the date, and the training schedules in Running Weekly seem to suggest that ten weeks should be enough to get me into trim to complete the event. So, tonight it begins - first training run, twice around the circuit that goes around the local sports field, past the local pub, and down a rather dark path between our housing estate and the aforementioned sports field, somewhere around 23 minutes for the 2 circuits. Now, if that's 1.5 miles per circuit, keep up that pace for a total of 9 circuits, and you have a half-marathon in 1:43:30 - good enough (I think) for 3rd place in the over-60 age group in last year's event. Podium finish in my rookie event - I'll take that! Tomorrow I'll have to check the distance that I ran.
When, at the end of September, he announced his intention of taking part in the Devizes to Westminster Kayak race over Easter weekend (first weekend in April) 2010, it seemed like a good idea, about time he started doing something with himself, hrrmphh, etc. However, over time, it has started a sort of guilty feeling in me, that I never did anything quite as ambitious when I was his age (no, it's NOT a mid-life crisis!), and a feeling that perhaps I should join him in this hairbrained scheme. Except that I don't have a friend of my age whom I could con into joining me.
So, if I'm going to do DW, it has to be in small, easily-defined chunks. And the first chunk is a half-marathon. I mean, DW is 125 miles of kayaking, involving 77 hoists out of the water, and 77 puts back in - a half-marathon is just over 13 miles of running (that's using legs, that were intended to get you from place to place), as opposed to kayaking (that's using arms, that were designed for holding your pint glass), so it's got be well over ten times easier!
March 22, 2009 is the date, and the training schedules in Running Weekly seem to suggest that ten weeks should be enough to get me into trim to complete the event. So, tonight it begins - first training run, twice around the circuit that goes around the local sports field, past the local pub, and down a rather dark path between our housing estate and the aforementioned sports field, somewhere around 23 minutes for the 2 circuits. Now, if that's 1.5 miles per circuit, keep up that pace for a total of 9 circuits, and you have a half-marathon in 1:43:30 - good enough (I think) for 3rd place in the over-60 age group in last year's event. Podium finish in my rookie event - I'll take that! Tomorrow I'll have to check the distance that I ran.
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