Pretty in pink

Day:         114

Distance: 6.44km/4.00 miles

Time:       30:44 secs

Calories:  528

According to this guide from Runner's World the first run of the last week of training should be "4 x 400 SI". This means nothing to me. Presumably, it's some kind of language only runners understand but thankfully they include a key which translates this as 4 x 400 'speed interval', or to put it another way 400m fast + 400m slow x 4.

In total that only sums to 3.2km (c.2 miles) and that feels just a little bit too short. If I'm getting up at 6:30am I might as well make it worth my while, so I decide to go for a 30 minute run accompanied by the slow/fast playlist I put together a while back. The playlist is set up so that I have 2 mins slow + 8 mins fast x4, so it's not exactly what I'm looking for, but it'll certainly do.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to turn the shuffle function off on my ipod so what actually happened was: 2 mins slow + 16 mins fast + 4 mins slow + 2 mins fast + 2 mins slow + 4 mins fast. It all makes for a pretty fast run with an average pace, according to Run Keeper, of 7:41 mins/mile. That's considerably quicker than I'll be running on Sunday, but it's good to know that I could run at that pace quite comfortably.

As this is the final week of my marathon training I decided that today would be the day when I'd finally take to the streets dressed in my actual marathon kit. I'm running the marathon in order to raise money for Diabetes UK (if you'd like to sponsor me please click here) and they have kindly provided me with a running vest. Unfortunately, the charity's colour is a very bright shade of pink - a fact reflected in the item of clothing they've sent me. Pink is most definitely not my colour, but I'm really pleased to be running for a great charity and I'm hoping that the bright colour will make it easy for friends and family to spot me on Sunday.

This year's hottest running accessory. The true
horror of the pink doesn't come out that well
in this picture

I thought I better include a photo of the running vest on the blog as the last time I ran in an actual race my wife had told my friends who came to watch that I was wearing a white shirt. They were pretty surprised when I came tearing round the final corner dressed all in black ... let's hope she's paying more attention to my attire this time round.