A nice run yesterday and a 10K tomorrow

I got a nice mixed paced 5-miler in after work yesterday.  It's the first time in a while that I have run with music, but for some reason I just fancied it  yesterday.  Rudimental's "Not Giving In" was on my iPod and it was great to run to.

I googled the song afterwards, and it is a cracking video as well.  It's basically about two young Pilipino   brothers who are very close, but at one critical point in their lives they choose a different way of life leading to one of the brothers ending up shot.  The lyrics are pretty simple, but it put a spring in my step on my run.

This time, I'm gonna be stronger I'm not giving in,

This time, I'm gonna be stronger, no, I'm not giving in.

I have the Exeter "Wrap up and run" 10K tomorrow, and I'm hoping for a PB at this distance.  However, I'm getting my excuses in early as I got an email from the organisers saying "Please be aware that the route is going to be very wet and muddy, so make sure you dress accordingly".  It looks like it could be a bit of a mud-fest!

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.