Half way there

Day:        42

Distance: 19.6km

Time:       1:57:00 secs

Calories:  1,553

It's the end of Week 6 of the training plan and this tablet of stone which I have been blindly following has gone a bit vague.

Up until today the plan has been very specific - it's "30 mins steady" here and "45 mins easy off-road/hilly" there - but all it says today is "10 mile or half marathon race". No mention of tempo and, more surprisingly, a choice between two different distances. For the sake of clarity a half marathon is 13.1 miles, which is 31% further than the other suggested distance. That's quite a difference.

To run 10 miles the week after I ran 12 miles seems somewhat counter intuitive, so I opt to follow the same route that I took this time last week. This time I was joined by Jim who will be running a half marathon in exactly 5 weeks, so it's good training for both of us.

It has been decidedly cold all week long, so it was a nice surprise to step outside today and be greeted by blinding sunlight. That's not to say that it was a hot day (it wasn't), but it was perfect weather for running. The cold helped to keep me cool and the sunshine made it feel like a real pleasure to be outside and in green spaces like Brockwell Park. I wouldn't complain if the weather was like this on the day of the actual London Marathon.

So, as I've already mentioned this run concludes the sixth week of the training plan. That means that I'm now halfway through the 12 week plan and I'm pleased to report that I'm still enjoying the training. I had thought that it was going to be a real chore. I had heard many marathon runners talking about how it takes over your life and, to an extent, I can see that as you need to put a lot of time and effort in each and every week. For example, this week I've trained on five out of the seven days and have committed nearly 5 hours to training. However, I'm managing to fit this training around the rest of my life and my wife isn't yet complaining about becoming a "marathon widow" so I wouldn't say that it's completely taken over my life. That said, whilst I'm writing this I'm also looking at the upcoming weeks and the ever increasing time commitments - so maybe I'll have changed my mind in a few weeks time.

One thing that is helping me to keep going (other than the running playlist and my desire to achieve my stated aim of completing the marathon in 3:40) is all the kind donations that I've already received on my JustGiving page. I only sent the link out on Tuesday and I'm already 27% of the way to my target of £1,000. A massive thank you to everyone who has already sponsored me and for those who would like to help me get a little closer to my target please visit http://www.justgiving.com/Darren-Yaxley-marathon. 

Now that's what I call music!

Day:        35

Distance: 19.59km

Time:       1:43:14 secs

Calories:  1,514

Lent is over. We went out to meet up with some friends last night and any resolve that I had not to drink crumbled as soon as I saw the ales on offer in the East Dulwich Tavern. A man can only be so strong when faced with Tribute, Ubu Purity and Doom Bar on tap and bottles of Brooklyn Lager, Meantime and Samuel Adams chilling in the fridge. So I made it three weeks without even a snifter of alcohol, not quite what I'd intended but also not too bad either.

Knowing that I had a long run scheduled for the next morning I decided to take it pretty easy. So, why oh why did I wake up with a foggy head and a throat as dry as the Gobi desert? I'd intended on getting up and going for a run at 7:30am or thereabouts but in the event I made it out the door at 9am. Again, not quite what I'd intended but also not too bad either.

Jim wasn't available to join me for a Sunday run today, so instead of the usual discussions about football, music and runner's nipple, I had the running playlist for company. Across a total of 103 minutes of running the compilation which I have been carefully putting together over recent weeks didn't let me down once. I enjoyed a fine mixture of tunes from the Stones, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash amongst others but special mention must go to Idlewild and the Rakes. Allow me to explain why.

The route I took today was basically an extended version of the 3 Park Run Jim and I have done over the last couple of weeks. The route features a number of hills. The first of which hove into sight at around the 9km mark in Brockwell Park. As I approached the hill my legs were feeling somewhat sorry for themselves, but they were given a real burst of energy when Idlewild's 2009 single "Readers and Writers" burst into glorious life with its trumpet and glockenspiel propelling me up the hill with a spring in my step.

The second hill was never part of the route I had intended to run, I ad-libbed and added it in when I realised that the planned route wasn't going to last for the 100 minutes demanded by the training plan. So I found myself on Forest Hill Road - 17km into the run - staring down the barrel of another hill when the Rakes' "Strasbourg" started up with its insistent guitar riff and fantastic lyrics; "our children must have rock n' roll" indeed. Again, I found myself carried along by the simple power of rock n' roll.

I've said all along on this blog that the running playlist is an integral element of my training and that the right song played at the right time can make all the difference. Today's run provides a perfect illustration of this. Despite my wife's protests I fully intend to be running the London Marathon with my ipod strapped to my arm, so if you happen to see me cranking out an awesome riff on my air guitar or maybe singing along with some of the lyrics you'll know that I'm being treated to one of those songs that can make all the difference.

One other thing to note before I go is that this run wasn't too far off of a half marathon distance. The one and only time I've run a half marathon my legs turned to jelly as soon as I crossed the finishing line. My legs were undoubtedly aching at the end of this run, but they didn't turn to jelly and I actually felt as though I could continue running. Of course, it may well be the case that I pay the price tomorrow ... 

A run round the park and a trip down memory lane

Day:         28
Distance: 16.82km
Calories:  1,278

So it turns out that it is possible to fit five runs into one week. The last run of the week was a repeat of last Sunday with Jim and I again tackling the "3 Parks Run". After the disappointment which shrouded the conclusion of Wednesday's run we were both pleased to have shaved a couple of minutes off of our time from last week, no mean feat considering that Jim was carrying a cold and had, to quote, a "head full of snot".

The wind was against us for much of the time as well. It's been a pretty blustery (always wanted to use that word) couple of days and as we ran along the flat, exposed top of Peckham Rye Park a Southerly wind buffeted us from the side. In Brockwell Park the wind changed tack and decided to meet us head on as we were running uphill. At least the views over London's skyline that you get at the top of the park made the fight against the wind worthwhile. We finally began to feel some benefit from the weather conditions towards the end of the run when the wind helped to propel us along the bottom of Peckham Rye Park.

This run concludes week four of my marathon training. There's eight more weeks left on the Guardian's training plan and after that I have a few weeks of 'tapering' when I need to reduce the time and distances that I'm running for. Obviously, there's still a long way to go but I'm really enjoying the training and am feeling good (I've not needed to apply any deep heat in ages!).

Maintaining this blog means that I can easily keep track of the progress I've made in terms of distance (I ran 29km in week 1 and have just run more than 49km this week) and time (I'm up from 2:48 mins in week 1 to 4:45 mins this week). The audit of the last four weeks combined shows that, in all, I have been running for 14:44:29 secs and that I have covered 151 km.

As you may have noticed, much of the time that I've spent blogging has been devoted to music and the running playlist that I'm compiling. Today sees the introduction of the Foo Fighters. Although I was a fan of their early efforts a lot of what they've done in recent years has passed me by and I hadn't listened to them in many years until my Dad asked if he could borrow a couple of albums to put on his ipod. At this point, I should note that my Dad has fantastic music taste (which is to say that he likes much of the same stuff that I do) and his request meant that I drove back to Essex on Friday night with the Foo Fighters' debut album blaring out of the car speakers. I'd forgotten about the winning combination of hook-laden melody and monstrous riffing that the album contains - from the nonsensical singalong of "This is a call" to the hardcore of "Wattershed" this is a cracking debut album.

I've added a couple of songs from that album to my playlist, but the real gem that this trip down memory lane unearthed isn't actually on their first album. I can't believe that I didn't think about adding this song until now, but that oversight has now been rectified. Enjoy.

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.