Target 26.2 - First Timer Steve's Journey to Paris

Alright Steve.....I hope you had a good Christmas. Did you have to run yesterday? Good luck with your 2nd week of training!

Sarah - well I have to do something to slow you down 

A. W - cheers mate, yes, it went really well thanks - really enjoying the different sessions and the variety! How about yours?

Clivey - Sadly not! Went out for a five miler in the morning and had to rush out the door to drive up to my mum's for the day so I missed brekkie!! Made up for it at dinner time though How was your Christmas?

Ady - yesterday and today! Sam's idea of a Christmas present, presumably good luck with week 2!

Training - Week 2

Monday - REST OR LOW IMPACT CROSS TRAINING DAY

Christmas Eve was a rest or low impact cross training day... I had to go and do a little bit of last minute (ok, I won't lie, the vast majority of my) Christmas shopping so I headed to Lakeside Shopping Centre.

To my unpractised eye, it looked less like a shopping centre and more like a cross between something out of an epic Dante poem and a holding pan for the Jeremy Kyle show... Suffice it to say that I didn't enjoy it.

In many ways, for me, the experience was not too far removed from that experienced by Dante himself and, having descended to the very depths of hell, I did manage to escape past the Mount of Purgatory (Burger King) and eventually found my car.  Never has a Ford Fiesta looked so beautiful.

Still, I did walk up and down for hours and did this whilst carrying an increasingly large number of heavy carrier bags so I am inclined to count this as "cross-training".

Training - Week 2

Tuesday - 5 MILE BUILD UP (FROM 09:20 - 8:20)

Christmas morning... and I dragged myself out of the front door for an early run before heading off to spend the day with my wonderful family.

The weather was something else - it was absolutely pouring down as I headed out the front door and as I walked down the path there was a massive flash of light which I took at first to be the paparazzi having caught up with me but which turned out to be lightning. Hardly the traditional Christmas scene... Halfway through the run, the rain started to ease off and there was actually a rainbow. But it quickly got heavier again and at point actually turned into a really heavy shower of hailstones, which fortunately only lasted for a few minutes because it was bloody painful!

The run itself went pretty well - I quite enjoyed the discipline of keeping to the pace I needed to be running at any one particular time and I split the five miles into five paces (09:20, 09:05, 08:50, 08:35 and 08:20) which I managed to keep within a few seconds of so I was pretty pleased with myself.

The hail shower was a bit of a problem as it really did hammer down hard and, without sounding like a total wuss, really did hurt to run through it. The hood on my top was already absolutely sodden and really heavy and kept hanging down over my eyes so I had to ditch that so my form was all over the place as I tried to protect my exposed areas... all of which meant I was concentrating much more on the weather rather than the run itself and meant my form was all over the place so I did get a bit tired part way through. But I soon got my second wind and finished off feeling pretty strong and felt that I was able to go faster/further if needed so no complaints there!

I was also pleased that my shiny new Garmin managed to survive the inclement weather...

The rest of my Christmas day was great fun and I had a wonderful time with my loved ones. Hope everyone else had a great day too!

Eek! Hailstones?! Not the best weather for a run! Sounds like you did really well though!

Glad you had a great Christmas!! Good luck with Week 2 of training!!

Training - Week 2

Wednesday - 3 MILE JOG + 3 ACCELERATION STRIDES

Boxing Day, and another training run.

This was a slow recovery run - a 3 miles jog (10:15 - 11 mins per mile) and I dutifully crawled round, sticking to the required pace. It felt really slow and I finished feeling like I had just finished my warm up! But still, that is the point, that it is time for your body to recover and I know that I am going to really appreciate these runs as the mileage ramps up!

I decided that today was the right time (as the streets would be quiet!) to debue the Asics Top Impact line of compression clothing that the five of us had all been brave enough to purchase at the store shopping day. The range is... snug, as you can see (anybody of a nervous disposition, please look away now):

 But, all joking aside, it really was amazing to run in - it really aids your posture and keeps everything where it needs to be. I can't wait to try it out on a couple of longer runs as I'm positive that it will help me keep my form really well when I am starting to feel fatigued.

The gear is really tight when you first put it on (to take the top off, I had to roll it up and over my head - there was no way I could pull an arm out first) and feels really strange but, within a minute or two, it is actually really comfortable and you honestly can feel it doing you good when you start to run. I could feel my shoulders being pulled back and it kept me nice and upright throughout the run so I was very impressed...

Anyway, tomorrow is a well-earned rest day but I may hit the pool and do a few lengths as I haven't been swimming in a while...

steve.great running to the schedule............

loving the lycra look...........how long did you practise posing to get the best angle

I have been running yesterday and today bioth at zone 1 Heart rate.getting used to these slow runs

hey sorry not been around of late but I have been lurking 

I have a question!! when looking at training plans what length of time is sensible to aim to shave off your pb? 

loving your thread buddy! sounds like your having a ball!! 

RRR - it smarted a bit!! But it's probably good preparation in case we have a snowy/icy January

Seren - How dare you?! As if I would actually go to the trouble of practising posing just in order to... okay, about 12 minutes. What are you using to measure your heart rate? I haven't even looked at the heart rate monitor on my Garmin yet... I finish the slow runs feeling so full of energy - they're definitely doing us good

Sam - It was a bit... biblical at times! That's a great time for the parkrun, and on christmas morning as well - you definitely earned your christmas dinner!

Paul - still loving it, thanks. Gotta love a bit of mud how far/fast did you run? And it's definitely red!

Tigs - Having a great time - you should stop by more often! I'll leave your question to the lovely Sam Murphy...

love reading your thread Steve! outfit makes you look a pro!

I managed a few runs over the break, and loved having the company of my daughter. Are you doing all your runs solo?

I'm back just tucking into my porridge and blueberries before going to pound the pavements! saw an awesome running jacket yesterday, it had detachable arms stuck on with magnets made me think of you!!!! 

Thats exactly the same as what ive just had tigger although last time I ran after having blueberries with my porridge i didnt feel the best....but i will be going slower today. Hope youve had a good run 

Hi Steve, it sounds like your enjoying the slow runs. Have you managed to get use to running at a slower pace ok? Ive managed to slow down a bit but not as much as I need to!

Holy moly Bacon - can you please provide a courtesy warning message before posting pictures of an offensive nature. I almost lost possession of my 4th Christmas pudding of the week! 

I am really struggling to keep up with you lot over the holiday period but rest assured I'll back at you in the new year when I'm on a proper internet connection.

Sounds like you've made a great start. Keep up th egood work!

Evening Steve! Enjoy your rest day on Saturday!! Can't believe we're coming up to Week 3 of traning already!!! Eeek! I knew it would go fast but this is crazy!!

Hi Jen! The outfit makes me look like a few things... Pro probably isn't one of the words I would have chosen haha.

My runs have mainly been solo - I do have a couple of running buddies but we're always all so bloody busy it's not always the easiest to coordinate! But I do have my own mini-SamMurphyRuns who comes with me sometimes and makes sure I'm sticking to my pace...

TIgs/Sarah - You both sound ridiculously healthy How did the run go Tigs?

Sarah - getting used to the slower runs, yes.  I think part of the 'problem' I was having is that I am now so much more focussed on my form when I run, which wasn't always the greatest before!

I think (and I could just be talking utter rubbish here!) that as I was running pretty unefficiently before, I got used to putting in a certain amount of effort to run at a certain pace... As soon as I started to concentrate on my form a lot more I was, naturally, a lot more efficient and so by using that same level of effort, I actually sped up.

So on all these training runs that I have been doing, I've been running along, realising that I need to improve my form, doing so but not decreasing my effort and so speeding up without realising it... I have only been noticing when I glance at my watch and see my pace has increased!

But getting used to that now and starting to get the hang of this whole 'running properly' thing... I think

Malcs - haha sorry mate, more like a government health warning! Yes, it's been great fun so far and I have a off-road 10 miler planned for tomorrow so looking forward to that!

RRR - fully intending on enjoying today's rest day... Taking Jack to the panto then off out for a meal. Can't believe it's almost week 3 already either! Going to be eating croissants in Paris before we know it