18 mile run this morning....a good end to the running week, and a great start to a week's holiday!

I mentioned in my last post about the need to slow down on my long runs - I've even put a separate page on my blog so my paces are there for everyone to see!

Well, I'm pleased to say that I did the run in an average of 10:07 min/mile, which is pretty much bang on my LSR pace, so I've got to pleased with that.  I purposefully picked it up a bit on my last 2-miles (under 9min/mile) and I'm pleased that I felt strong at the end.

I tried a couple of other changes for this morning's run:
- although I have ensured I've been well hydrated all week, I have been wondering if I've been under-hydrating on the day of an LSR.  This morning before I set out I chugged down nearly 3 pints of water, as well as my coffee and shredded wheat.  I did need a pit stop at only mile 2 but other than that it was fine.  Obviously a slow 18-miler is much different to a race pace Half Marathon, but I'm hoping this change will do me well, particularly when the temperature start increasing.  I think I did "bonk" a bit at the event last weekend and I definitely didn't today.
- I binned the flapjacks in favour of 8 Jaffa Cakes, and I must say they went down a treat.  I just took them in a pocket and they were easy to eat and digest.

This all means that I've done 36.5 mile this week...if I include last Sunday's Half Marathon it's nearly 50 which is a record I think.

I put two Marathon Talk podcasts on my iPod Shuffle today and I timed it so they ran out just as I was finishing.  It all means that I'm still at 100% for Jantastic, and we're 50% through the challenge now.

Plus, my wife had made some pancakes for when I got back.

So, all in all a great run - I'm mark it as a 10 out of 10!  Even better is that I'm now on holiday for a week.

11 miler this morning, with iPod

I went out for a gentle 11 miler (at the time of writing for some reason the Garmin Connect site isn't allowing me to upload my run details) from Paignton-Torquay and back, twice.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to out with my iPod and listen to the Marathon Talk Podcast.  I actually enjoyed listening the podcast and this episode had Mike Tomlinson (Jane's husband) on the show.  It was a thought-proving episode, and Mike explained what Jane went through with her illness, including a lot of "hassle" from people questioning her illness etc.  As the episode mentioned, there are some strange people out there.  Mike has this month opened the York Marathon for entries, and after a quick Google it appears that the original 5000 place sold out in 2 days.  At the time of writing, 5500 places have now gone and they are seeing if they can raise it 6000 entrants.  See here for a report.

Another thing about the Podcast is that someone from the Runner's World marathon thread I am a member of was mentioned as she did 2 marathons back to back in January.

Anyway, I'm pleased to see that my achilles seems okay and didn't hold me up or bother me on the 11 miler, although it does seem a bit tight after the run.  I am planning on doing a "normal" week next week, to include the Wednesday club session that will involve a hill/tempo/sprint session of some sort.

I've also logged my four runs this week on the Marathon Talk website so I"m currently on track for Jantastic!

Foam roller and iPod experiments

My achilles is feeling okay, so I'm planning an 8-10 miler tomorrow.  If it's still okay after that, I'll be back to the "normal" training next week, as although I will have done four runs this week they have all been at a purposefully slow/easy pace.  Also, I expect this will only be around 26-27 miles so I want to try and do 30-35 miles next week if possible with an LSR of around 13, and slowly build up the mileage over the next few weeks.

A few years ago, I used to run with an iPod but I found that I got a bit bored of it and used to settle into the rhythm of the music as opposed to running at whatever pace I wanted.  I'm going to try again tomorrow though, but this time listening to a Marathon Talk podcast and see how I get on with that.  If I find that I'm either not really taking the podcast in, or alternatively I find it too distracting I'll just turn the iPod off.  It's not that I don't enjoy running by myself and taking in the scenery etc, but I just feel like giving it a go to see how I get on.  If it works well, it will be a good way of "killing two birds with one stone".  I.E., getting the LSR in, plus listening to a podcast at the same time.

On a couple of the threads I follow on Runner's World, foam rollers have been mentioned and seem very popular with other runners.  I know that I have tight hamstrings and although I do stretch I never really feel that they get any looser.  I have been thinking about getting one for a little while as on some runs I feel that cardio-vascularly I'm feeling fine, but my legs feel "heavy" some how.  Therefore, for the sake of £10 delivered, I thought I'd order one so mine should be turning up from Amazon some time next week.  I'll report back here on how I find it.