Giardino Giusto, Verona

Following my injury on 4th July, I’ve been resting up to ensure a full recovery. I did manage a couple of slow and easy runs with Elisa in Verona (posted below). It was wonderful to be running around the river there again – it’s years since I’ve run that route.

Anyway, I’m back from holiday now and need to get back into the running if I’m going to turn in a reasonable performance at the GNR in September. I’ve also added raw food only to the vegan regime for a couple of weeks as I could definitely do with shedding a few pounds. I’m excluding breakfast from this since the cereal and soya milk really sets me up for the morning and keeps hunger at bay.

Can’t tell you how much I wish we were still in Verona – uploading this photo makes me miss it already. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Yesterday’s fifteen miler was tough going for the last two or three as the temperature and humidity were both quite high. There were a couple of points when I thought that I might not complete, but I managed to get to the end – even if the pace did slow quite markedly!

I was supposed to run easy yesterday (and just seven miles), but got caught up in the moment and a mile into the run I decided to step up to tempo pace (166-172bpm), which I sustained for five miles. I could have kept going at this pace until the end – it felt very comfortable – but decided to slow back down to marathon pace for the last mile. I don’t want to rush into things!

Looks like we’re going to have a great week weather-wise, so looking forward to the running in the last 7 days of Block 2. Next week I’ll be introducing an interval session into each week’s training. (That’s when it starts to feel tough!)

Making amends and I think with another 5-6 kilos shed, I should be at optimum weight for the distances I’m doing. I don’t want to tempt fate, but I seem to be running pretty injury-free right now (wishing I hadn’t typed that already) so I’ve added a field into my training spreadsheet to monitor the mileage for my trainers. They’re up to 80 miles already and still gleaming white, so at this rate running is going to get a little spendy again!

All in all, the training’s going well so far. 350 of the 1,100 miles completed for the GNR 2010 schedule. I thought I might have shed a few more pounds than I have, but there’s plenty of time and I’m being pretty methodical, so it’ll definitely happen. What’s more important is that 10 weeks in, I’m really enjoying it and I’m definitely feeling the benefit. It’s a great time to be upping the miles. Summer’s here.

What’s worrying me is the lack of progress over the last eight weeks. My average pace and heart rate don’t seem to be improving at all. I guess it’s early days and I’ve only been running easy, but I did expect the heart rate to be tumbling by now, even if the pace was constant. I do hope things improve soon, but I can’t help feeling a bit despondent given all the effort I’m putting in.

This week is a step back week, so it’s just 37 miles running. Give those muscles a rest.

Despite the very slow pace, I do feel as though I’m finally shedding a few pounds. I’m curious to see how tomorrow’s tempo run shapes up, but I’m hoping it’s a little cooler than the 27 degrees we’ve been enjoying over the weekend.

That said, I am going to try to replace those 45 miles through Blocks 2, 3 and 4. I’ll distribute them through the step back weeks and with six of those left, adding one 7 mile run to each one will bring me more or less back on track.

Here’s what’s in store for the majority of weeks in Block 2.

No such omissions this weekend, but I do have a surprise trip to London for a gig (I won tickets in a Future Music competition!) which will mean switching a couple of runs around.

Here’s the slightly revised plan for the week:

Although this is the second “formal” week of training, I started to run regularly again towards the end of March. I can’t claim to be on top of the world, but a degree of fitness (however small) makes such a difference!

So, here goes. This is what’s in store for the next few days:

And I do have a goal. It’s a long standing one. It’s very simple and a nice round, easy to remember, but difficult to achieve, number:

1 hour and 30 minutes

That’s been my target time for a half marathon for some years now. It’s my favourite distance and I have come reasonably close (1:32) a few years ago.

I have the Great North Run in the diary for September (download my GNR 2010 Training Schedule.) Based on current performance, I won’t be hitting 1:30 at that event. But, I do think it’s achievable for my other favourite race – January’s Brass Monkey in York. So that’s my goal. And I’m going to start blogging and tweeting my running activities again (at the risk of boring Twitter followers into desertion!).

So, here’s the target (45 miles) for what’s left of this week (I always start running weeks on a Sunday, so I’m not including yesterday’s run in this week’s target):

It’s important not to add too many intensive sessions straight away, so I’m sticking to two tempo runs and another Lyme Park hilly run on Saturday. My midweek long run will be tomorrow (not really midweek) and with these dark winter evenings, I’ll miss the early evening park runs with the dog. We’ll make up for it on Saturday, Buffy.

I have committed to knocking some serious minutes off the appalling GNR time in September, so it’s time to knuckle down. This week’s mileage target MUST be hit. Thus begins the final week of Block 1. Next week it’s time for some quality.