I missed a couple of runs last week as Block 2 drew to a close and fell short of my overall planned mileage by 8% (achieving 279 of the 304 miles slated). I’m not desperately concerned about that. I feel like I have a solid base as I go into the next six weeks of higher impact training. This will be the first time I’ve done any interval sessions in quite a couple of years, so I’m sure those will hurt.

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!

This week is a step back week, so cutting the mileage back to 37 miles. That said, I was fifteen miles short of last week’s target, so I might try to drop some of those into this week.

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!)

Missed last week’s target by a mile (in this case, literally, so that’s no great shakes). I’m starting to get well and truly into the running during this training block, but I have to say I was surprised at how much I still weigh – even after around ten weeks of solid running. (Heaven knows how much weight I’d piled on since Christmas! Too much Cubase. Not enough Saucony.)

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!

Step back week completed – back to the grind. First off this week is a fifteen mile run and since my watch is being replaced by Garmin, but hasn’t yet made it to Cheshire, I’m running “blind”. This may be no bad thing. I can listen to my heart and breathing, rather than scrutinising the 405 every mile or so.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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):

Today’s run was similar to yesterday’s in so many ways. I felt like I was running at least 10 per cent faster than last week, that my heart rate was lower and that I’d made significant progress over the last seven days.

Now the facts: At other times in my life I may have found very it depressing that I ran today a few seconds slower than last week, despite cooler weather and a breeze. I’ll take a little consolation in the fact that my heart rate was lower at 157bpm.

One difference between this week and last week is that I didn’t take a drink with me today. Nor did I really hydrate during the day at all. Anyway, despite the harsh statistics, today felt fantastic – and that’s what counts.

11m | 1:39:32 | 9:08 | 157bpm | 82.0kg

Garmin Connect Log

Wow! Today’s run was wonderful. Somehow weird how frequently this happens, but I barely slept last night – was still awake as the sun came up, I guess around 4:30 – 4:45. Spent the morning gardening, which given the length of our grass and the height and bushiness of the hedges, was quite tiring. We then headed over to my mother’s to walk the dogs and got home around 4:30pm.

Headed out for my usual 11 miler and felt very comfortable. I’m aware that I’m still running too fast (given the heart rate zone), but it was comfortable at this pace. I rectified the mistake I’d made on Thursday and took a 33cl bottle of water with me, just to wet the mouth more than anything. I think it made a difference. I didn’t fade towards the end and, though I could have run another couple of miles, in truth this was well measured and felt spot on for a training run.

A quick bath and I’m ready for another. Roll on tomorrow. Hope I feel this great!!

11m | 1:39:18 | 9:07 | 161bpm | Marathon Pace | 82.6kg

Garmin Connect Log

The enjoyment of this afternoon’s run was lessened by an indigestible lunch. A bit pushed for time, we grabbed something quick and grilled a couple of Linda McCartney’s sausages which I had with mustard, olives and sun-dried tomatoes.

Problem was, I was still tasting said sausage after five miles. Not pleasant when it’s hot and you’re so out of shape that what used to be a short run is currently your Sunday long run. Still, guess it’d have been an entirely different kinda hell had it been Paul’s.

Other than that, still great to be out. I need to keep the momentum going and the sciatica at bay. So stretching starts tomorrow.

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11m | 1:47:14 | 9:49 | 155bpm

Normally I’d be a bit embarrassed about posting times like this, but I set out today with one target. To nail 153bpm. I failed (but only just) and the run felt blissfully comfortable – as it should since I was practically walking!

Was a lovely day, perhaps a little too warm for the top I was wearing, but it makes carrying the iPod so much easier.

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11m | 1:40:14 | 9:10 | 159bpm

This felt much more comfortable than my heart rate implies (quite elevated for what should be a long Sunday run). I should be running at about 8:30 pace and around 151bpm for this distance, which shows just how quickly form is lost when you eat too many vegan muffins and do too little exercise!

Time to put things right and pull myself back into shape. Nonetheless, a really enjoyable run in the sunshine and didn’t feel too taxing at all (but then it shouldn’t at 9 plus minutes per mile!).

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