Block 1 is behind me, but I’ve missed more runs than I should have (184 miles out of 229 scheduled, or around 80%). I need to fix that in Block 2, but I’m not feeling too despondent since Block 1 was devised simply to get me running again – just a whole load of easy miles.

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.

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.

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:

Second week of my training schedule for September’s Great North Run got underway yesterday with a long run. I really enjoyed my first week and yesterday’s run was the first to feel vaguely “fluid”. The weather was perfect as I headed out of the door around 6pm.

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:

I used to blog my running activity in the belief that setting targets and monitoring performance is the only way to ensure consistent progress towards a specific goal. Makes sense, no?

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):

Another fantastic weekend in the North East!

The weather was fabulous (again) and the event was as colourful as ever – though I have to say, the atmosphere was not as warm as it has been in the past. Not quite the camaraderie of previous years somehow. But I don’t want to overstate that, it was still a brilliant day.

Although it’s painful to read, I shouldn’t be disappointed with my recorded time of 1:58:33 (1:59:23 official GNR time). I could say that I didn’t train enough, but that would be misleading. I didn’t really train at all. There’s plenty of evidence of how unfit I’ve become in the Forerunner race data. My HRM statistics are screaming at me. Apparently I was running at Heart Rate Max (for my age, height and weight) for two hours. It seems to make little sense, but my resting heart rate (normally quite low at around 47bpm) and exercising heart rate (generally very high) appear completely unconnected.

Anyway, those BPMs and min/mile averages are going to tumble between now and next September. I’m not performing like that again. Period.

So why was my half marathon performance so poor?

I recorded the following training mileage over the three months leading up to the event (though I acknowledge that problems with the Forerunner 305 mean that August is definitely understated):

June: 19 runs / 85 miles
July: 13 runs / 87 miles
August: 2 runs / 8.5 miles
September: 8 runs / 40 miles

To put those monthly distances into context, when I was training for the Himalaya 100 Mile Stage Race, I was putting in 260-300 miles a month. Don’t be impressed by the Himalayas. I had to cancel after a year’s training due to work commitments clashing with the even. The £800 lost deposit was nothing compared to the disappointment of dropping out so close to the event. I do want to get that back in the diary again. Maybe in two to three years time.

I’ve said it so many times on this blog and it disappoints me to re-read it, but I really need to FOCUS. I have a long standing target of 1:30 for the Great North Run and it’s absolutely within my ability to achieve it. This year I placed 10,914 in a field of around 52,000 runners. My best position was 1,058 with a time of 1:32. So I’ve slipped from top 2% to top 20%. Whoops!

I now have the Brass Monkey in my sights (24th January) and I must be the right side of 1:45 (or even 1:40) for that race. So, it’s feet up today and back to it in earnest tomorrow. NO EXCUSES.

Garmin Connect Log

13.1m | 1:58:33 | 9:04 | 182bpm

It’s the worst case of “too little, too late” that I can remember. I was reading some of my earlier running posts and I’m shocked at how frequently I fail to heed my own advice.

What’s absolutely clear is that this year’s Great North Run is a write off. I’m disregarding my time and I’ll be perfectly happy to get around in two hours. Given that my PB of 1:32 was two years ago and that I really wanted to break 1:30 this year, that is a huge disappointment.

My plan now is to get an entry into the Brass Monkey (Jan 2010) and work hard on pace between now and then. In reality, there’s still insufficient time to train for a sub 1:30, but I must improve on the time I’m about to log for a half marathon.

All of that said, GNR is a wonderful event and I’m really looking forward to next weekend!

Garmin Connect Log

6.5m | 56:39 | 8:42 | 166bpm | Marathon Pace