Having missed Sunday’s long run last week, I spent the week playing catch up again, but I managed to complete the 55 miles I had scheduled.

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.

Last week’s mileage successfully completed, the start of Week 2 was briefly paused yesterday. With a touch of metatarsalgia, caused by worn out trainers (roll on pay day) and too many miles, I thought it prudent not to head out for a further fifteen miles yesterday. Instead, I’ll add 7 miles to today’s running and a 4 mile run to each of Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s schedules.

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.

Have to confess to slipping a little over the last couple of weeks and need to arrest that before it deteriorates. It’s largely been around scheduling, but that’s no real excuse – I should always be able to find time for a run. This week is officially a step-back week before I start Block 2 next week. At that point, I’ll be adding tempo runs into the mix and increasing the distance of the long Sunday run to fifteen miles.

Missing the first run of the week last week played havoc with my schedule. I tried to juggle extra runs into the remaining days and probably bit off more than I could chew. By Thursday I was starting to feel a niggle in the knee, so I cut the week short with an easy four miler on Friday lunch time and rested up until Sunday – it gave me a good excuse to watch the snooker too

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.

Third week of my training schedule for September’s Great North Run and a weird start to the week. Felt completely and utterly exhausted yesterday – as if somebody had sprinkled sleeping dust into the air. Genuinely, I could barely keep my eyes open in the afternoon so decided to miss my first run of the week. Not a great start but I’m aiming to replace the eleven miles missed with four additional short runs (with Buffy in the park) of three / four miles each.

Here’s the slightly revised plan for the week:

Last week was a complete wash out. Never been so disappointed with my complete lack of commitment to a training schedule! Granted, there were a couple of days where it was less convenient than others, but there was a time when if it meant getting up at 5:30 to make sure the week’s mileage was completed, that was what happened.

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.

Up until Thursday evening, I felt on top of the world. During my long run, I swallowed a fly (common hazard for runners and not very vegan) and since then I’ve been pretty sick. I guess, given the lifestyle habits of a fly, a connection between said ingestion and shaking legs, fever and general uuurggghiness is entirely plausible.

Anyway, the top and bottom of this is that Saturday’s run was cancelled (I was in bed) and right now today’s is looking unlikely. Just as well that this is a step-back week and I’m supposed to be cutting my mileage in half.

The other thing which will impact on the schedule this week is a trip to Brighton and London on Wednesday / Thursday, so I’m trying to work my mileage around those days.

Delighted with the first week’s running. Didn’t quite manage to keep the heart rate at the desired level, but only 5bpm over which isn’t so bad really. Felt very comfortable at 9:40 (and so it should). I think the target for this week is to try to maintain – or perhaps even slightly improve on the average pace – whilst bringing the heart rate down to the 154 target (easy pace).

I’m looking to increase the mileage by 10 per cent this week, before a step back week next week. Step-back weeks will happen every third week. During a step-back week, mileage from the previous week is cut in half before proceeding to the next 10 per cent increase. Here’s the plan for week commencing 4th October.

With seventeen weeks until my next race, I want to bring the much referenced FOCUS to my training, so starting today, I’m embarking on a very prescriptive plan.

BLOCK 1

The next five weeks will be FOUNDATION (base) training. Lots of slow easy pace running with almost no “quality” sessions (hills, tempo, intervals, fartlek). My target is a minimum of 50 miles per week during Block 1 (step-back weeks excepted).

BLOCK 2

This will be followed by a QUALITY phase – six weeks of majority slow running with two or three quality sessions per week. These will be mainly hills and tempo sessions but by weeks five and six of this block, I may look to add one interval session per week.

BLOCK 3

The final block will be QUALITY and TAPER – four more weeks of quality running and a taper down over the last 10-14 days to race day.

So, my plan is to schedule each week on Sunday and add a comment to the post to say whether or not the day’s session(s) have been completed and how they went. The advantage of blogging it this way is that my site doesn’t become too running focused. Only one post per week about running.

All runs to be at EASY PACE (154bpm or lower)

Yesterday I was writing about the spring in my step. Today it felt like somebody had replaced my trainers with a pair of wellies. This one really seemed like hard work. (Too much fader sliding and not enough sleep last night.)

It’s a good job I have a good feel for how poor today’s performance was because if I were relying on Runkeeper, I’d have done brilliantly! Yesterday the iPhone software added half a mile to the 6.5 mile run. Today, I complete 8 miles! So a pretty impressive performance really. I mentioned on Twitter that I’d be the first to complete a 32 mile marathon if the same level of inaccuracy occurred over 26.2 miles. Hilarious.

Anyway, that’s three strikes so the iPhone is to be restricted to calls, music and games. For training I need something a tad more reliable!

Another beautiful day, another fabulous run!

The early stages of any training block are always really enjoyable. Progress is generally quick and that “glad to be out again” feeling takes precedence over any of boredom or frustration. Today was one of those runs. Sunshine, gentle breeze, spring in the air, spring in my step (regardless of the pace, that’s how it felt!).

Still very frustrated with Runkeeper though. Managed to add a third of a mile to today’s run so as a reliable training tool, I’m beginning to reconsider.

Can’t believe it’s only April. Felt like a glorious summer’s day. Despite what Runkeeper says, today’s run was 6.5 miles (not 7). Nor did I reach 28 miles per hour! Runkeeper’s inaccuracy on a beautiful clear day with a full view of the sky is worrying to say the least. I think I’m going to have to resurrect the Forerunner 305 after all (after everything I’ve said about Garmin!)

Anyway, I’m not going to let technology ruin a lovely run in the sunshine. Today was glorious and you can’t beat a lunchtime run to shake out the cobwebs. Hoping to get away from work more or less on time today so I can take Buffy up to Lyme Park – I do feel guilty for leaving her in the house on a day like today.

I’m always prepared to see really slow times for my morning runs. I could blame the dog, but you’d know I was fibbing. (Actually she was pretty tired for the last half mile of today’s gentle jog around the park and I had to more or less drag her home.)

Beautiful morning and always a great way to start the day, regardless of how it feels as I step out the door!

If you ever visited this blog before, you’ll notice I’ve deleted all the content and started over. This wasn’t my usual fat-finger-zap-the-database-by-mistake deletion, but entirely intentional. With five months to go the Great North Run and very little training under my belt, I decided a completely fresh start was in order.

The same is true for music. I feel I’ve got enough of a grasp of Cubase fundamentals to create the kind of sounds I’ve been intending. Having put together six tracks of a pretty eclectic nature, it’s time to knuckle down and focus.

This site is an outlet for both of my passions – running and music (they’ll have to fight it out for billing but success in the latter is usually a function of consistency in the former).