Are you going backwards, or are you going forwards?

Day:         53

Distance: 8.31km

Time:       40:29 secs

Calories:  639

It's an early start (out the door at 6:20am) and the training plan has dictated a fartlek run consisting of "40 mins 2 mins easy 8 mins fast x 4". Given previous posts you could be forgiven for thinking that I'd be dreading this run and normally you'd be right, but last night I finally put together a fartlek playlist and I was looking forward to trying it out.

Compiling a playlist for a fartlek session is quite difficult as the majority of songs lasting for around 2 minutes in my itunes library are 200mph punk numbers. I have a pretty limited number of slow 2 minute long songs to choose from. The second problem is, essentially, the reverse of the first. There aren't a whole lot of fast songs which last for 8 minutes, so I'm left trying to beat match a number of fast songs so as to create a vaguely consistent tempo.

The first 10 minutes began with British Sea Power's slow-building opener "All in it", which lasts for 2:13 secs. This set me up perfectly for the 'slow' tempo start to the run before the Vaccines, Idlewild, The Ramones and The Rakes crashed the party and got me running at a 'fast' tempo for 8 minutes. Run Keeper underlines the effectiveness of this mix as I was running at 6:25 mins/km in the first minute, but when "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" by the Vaccines kicked in in the third minute I was propelled forward at 3:52 mins/km - a pretty impressive change in tempo. While the tempo wasn't constant for the entirety of this 'fast' section most of those eight minutes saw me record an average speed around or below 4:30 mins/km.

The second 10 minutes began with Mark Kozelek's cover of AC/DC's "Love at first feel". This acoustic beauty gave me 2:12 secs of respite before Blur's "We've got a file on you" informed me that it was time to pick up my pace. This was followed by "Oh Yeah" (The Subways), "22 Grand Job" (The Rakes) and "I wanna be sedated" (The Ramones). Again, the effectiveness of the music mix is clear to see as for the two minutes of 'slow' running I was averaging 6 mins/km. For the 8 minutes of 'fast' running that followed this I was able to maintain a pretty fast pace, although I can see that I definitely slowed down for the last couple of minutes (the last minute of this section took 5:41 mins/km).

Relief was on hand at the start of the third section as Michael Cera and Ellen Page (the stars of "Juno") serenaded me with a cover of the Moldy Peaches' "Anyone else but you". The 'fast' section was run to the sound of the View ("Wasted Little DJs") and Arcade Fire ("Month of May"). By this time it really felt as though I was running through treacle and the difference between the slow and fast tempos seemed, if not exactly non-existent, certainly less pronounced. So, I'm pleased to look at the stats on Run Keeper and see that there was still a clear difference between the two paces.

The final quarter began with Bill Withers singing "Ain't no sunshine". It's a good song to slow the pace down, but I hadn't realised how bloody repetitive it is. In one chorus (?) alone he repeats "I know" 26 times. Twenty six. I thought my ipod was skipping.

It was with some relief that the Libertines' "I get along" kicked off the final 'fast' section of the run. This was followed by "Readers and Writers" by Idlewild - which I've already mentioned on this blog as being a song that really helps to fire me up. This was trumped by the final song on the playlist, "White Riot" by the Clash - one of my all time favourite songs. As soon as that urgent two chord riff started up I felt completely re-energised and this is demonstrated by Run Keeper which shows that those last two minutes were conquered in 4:11 and 4:51 mins/km respectively.

So there we have it. Proof that a fartlek playlist can be done and can be very effective. I've got some more of these runs coming up in the next few weeks and now I've got this playlist sorted I may even look forward to them, more so when I've found a replacement for "Ain't no sunshine".

Alarm clock Britain

Day:        39
Distance: 9.07km
Time:       51:29 secs
Calories:  701

It's 6am. Yes, that's right A.M. As in Ante Mendiem. My wife wasn't even aware there was a 6am, yet here I am up and ready to go for a pre-work 50 minute run. Oh, and my legs, shoulders and pecs are still aching from Tuesday's interval training. Brilliant.

Not only am I up before the sun today, but it would also appear that I'm up before most living souls. I don't think I passed more than 10 people during the entire run and two of those were fellow runners. So, why am I putting myself through this? Well the simple explanation is that the training plan demands that I fit a run in today and as I'm going to see the rather wonderful Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain tonight it had to be before work.

Despite the very early start and the growing collection of aches and pains once I started running I was absolutely fine and enjoyed being up and about before most people. I had wondered whether the aches would mean I'd need to curtail this run, but once I was in the 'zone' (helped along initially by Blur's "Parklife") any thoughts of turning back were forgotten.

The training plan actually called for a 60 minute run to include 6 x 1 minute hill climbs with a jog back down to recover. However, the route I took didn't have the requisite number of hills, so that part of the plan was largely ignored. As I ran a pretty similar route to the one I took last Friday (without the end loop), there was one significant hill on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich and, upon reaching the hill, I decided that I'd pick up the pace for that part of the run. I didn't job back down it afterwards as a) that would have looked weird and b) I'd have been going the wrong way to get home.

Speaking of which, by the time I arrived back at the flat the sun still hadn't risen and the aches in my muscles had returned with a vengeance, but I was filled with a real sense of achievement at completing more than 9km before breakfast on a very cold January morning.

As a parting note and for those of you unaware of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain I'll leave you with their cover of Baccara's "Yes, sir I can boogie", which I'm hoping they play tonight. In case you're wondering, no this 70s disco classic isn't on my running playlist. Typically, my views on Disco are in tune with Homer Simpson's (who famously sported a "Disco Sucks" bumper sticker on his car) but as it's the Ukes I'll let it slide.

Early dawning, Sunday morning

Day:         21
Distance: 16.82 km
Time:       1:44:31 secs
Calories:  1,278

What are the first things that come to mind when one thinks of Sundays? Lie ins? Check. Recovering from hangovers? Check. A roast dinner? Check. A 17 km run? Er ... not normally, but then this is turning out to be anything but a normal January.

I again went running with my mate Jim on a route that he had devised called the "3 Parks Run", so called because it takes advantage of the expanses of greenery that can be found in our corner of London; Peckham Rye Park, Brockwell Park and Dulwich Park. The route made for a really picturesque run and it was a real pleasure to run on a lovely, sunny January morning. It became less of a pleasure around the 14 kilometre mark as my legs were on fire when they realised they hadn't run this far since the half marathon I ran in March 2010. I'm hoping they feel OK tomorrow as I'm meant to be going for a 35 minute jog after work and I don't fancy slapping the Vindaloo strength Deep Heat on again.

This is now the end of my third week of training, so it's worth doing a quick audit. In this week I have covered more than 39 kilometres, run for just over 4 hours and burnt off 3,076 calories. It all sounds good until I remember that on April 17th I'll need to cover a longer distance (42.195 km) in a similar amount of time and I won't have the benefit of being able to stretch it over an entire week. Oh yeah, and I read in a timely supplement that came with the Guardian yesterday that "To lose one pound of weight in a week, the body must burn 3,500 calories more than it consumes" so all this effort won't even have resulted in any weight loss ...

To leave on a happier note and to return to the Sunday theme where this post started, I'd like to leave you with a couple of songs inspired by Sundays. Neither of these are on my running playlist, but both came to mind whilst out running today.