Blister in the sun

Day:         111

Distance: 11.86km/7.37 miles

Time:       59:41 secs

Calories:  914

It's the last of the long runs. It doesn't feel all that long though as it's one of the shortest runs I've done since I started my marathon training - only the run at the end of week one was shorter than this. Still, I guess that's exactly what this tapering lark is supposed to be about.

It's another beautifully sunny morning and while it's a pleasure to run 7 miles or so in weather like this I am wondering what 26.2 miles in similar conditions will feel like. I've just checked the BBC's outlook for next week and it tells me that:

Temperatures will remain well above the seasonal average ... more dry weather can be expected across the south of England and Wales, whilst April's rain and showers will be found further north.

Granted, the BBC's weather forecasts should always be taken with a pinch of salt but it looks like I may need to get used to running in lovely, sunny, punishing weather. Still, it'll be nice for spectators.

Anyway, back to the run and the running playlist must have sensed that this was the last of the long runs as it saw me out in style. Around 20 minutes in I was treated to the finest threesome that an honest married man can enjoy; "I wanna be sedated" by the Ramones, "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" by the Vaccines and "Get Free" by the Vines. Three perfectly formed nuggets of rock n' roll to propel me along the street of London. At the time it feels as if my ipod has judged my mood perfectly, but then I remember that the playlist is stuffed to the seams with tunes of this quality - a fact that is highlighted when the Vines segue into Funeral Party's "Finale" which has a fantastic riff built for speed.

Although I have now decided to run the marathon sans ipod the running playlist has been fantastic for the training runs that I've done over the last few months. It's been there to spur me on when energy levels have dropped, it's been there to put a smile on my face when the right song comes on at the right moment and it's been integral to my enjoyment of the last 111 days. I had originally planned to use it on the marathon, but I've been advised that the crowd and the atmosphere of the day do the exact same job. In addition, I have friends and family coming out to watch me so I'd like to be able to see those who do come out to cheer me on.

Speaking of spectators, I need to sit down at some point and work out where I'm going to be at certain points. I'll post those details up over the next few days.

Anyway, to finish off today's post I'm going to leave you with another song from the Vaccines. I've mentioned this band quite a few times on this blog (not as many times as the National, admittedly). I picked up their wonderfully titled debut album "What did you expect from the Vaccines?" last week and I'm really pleased with it, so here's their latest single which features a very insistent chorus and a great line about "all the friends I do not like as much as you".

The Acid Test

Day:         104

Distance: 21.59km/13.42 miles

Time:       1:53:07 secs

Calories:  1,883

It's now a week since I hurt my knee. In that time I've been to the physio, been reassured by the physio, done my stretches and been out on three increasingly long runs. Everything up until this point has gone well, but the real test is undertaking a long run. When I've had problems with my knee it seemed to occur at or around the 10 mile mark, so a 13 mile run should give a good indication of whether or not I'm going to be able to run the London Marathon on April 17th.

Well, I won't hold you in suspense.

The run went really well, there was no pain or discomfort in my left knee* and I also managed a decent pace of 8:26 mins/mile. That's a tiny bit slower than what I would need to run to achieve my goal of 3:30 mins, but I'm just so relieved that these 13 miles passed off uneventfully that I'm not going to beat myself up over my pace.

Over the course of the last week I've gone from the lowest point in my marathon training to one of the many high points I've experienced over the last 104 days and, so, to celebrate I thought I'd share another song from the running playlist. Every time this song comes on it puts a smile on my face and some more fuel in my muscles. It also seems to suit the beautiful weather that we're enjoying in London at the moment. I couldn't find a great video for the song, but it doesn't matter when the material's as good as this.

* It should be noted that there was some pain in my right knee though. I don't know if this is because I've been over-compensating on the left side or not (or maybe it's just old age), but I've started doing the physio's stretches on that side as well.

38836 Was My Number

Day:         88

Distance: 9.31km

Time:       45:56 secs

Calories:  720

I received my final copy of the Marathon News magazine this morning. More excitingly I also received my registration form, so I now know that my running number on 17th April is 38836. With exactly one calendar month to go until the big day I think I can honestly now say this shit just got real.

For tonight's run I decide to go with the "50 mins 2 mins easy 10 mins fast" option from Week 12 of the training guide. I set off with the "slow/fast" playlist on my ipod and it starts well enough with the first slow song giving way to the Rakes' "22 Grand Job" around 2 minutes in. I realise something's up when the breakneck riffing is replaced by Bill Withers' repetitive classic "Ain't no sunshine". As I recall, that's the fourth and final slow song on this playlist. Dammit, I've left the ipod on shuffle.

This is something of a double-edged sword. In one respect it's good because not knowing which song is going to be playing next keeps me on my toes. In another respect it means that any kind of structure to the run quickly goes out the window. So, instead of running at an easy pace for 2 minutes and then following it up with a sustained period at a fast pace the run begins with a quick interplay between slow and fast songs and just 20 minutes in I realise that I've heard all four slow songs already. Therefore, the remainder of the run was done with the backing of 26 minutes worth of fast paced punk and indie from the likes of the Clash, the Ramones and Idlewild. You couldn't ask for better (musical) running companions, but this isn't what I'd planned at all.

Like I say, it kept me on my toes but by the time I got back to the flat I was more knackered than I would normally be after the kind of run that I had planned.

Wednesday Morning 6am

Day:         80

Distance: 9.70km

Time:       48:57 secs

Calories:  748

Getting up early to go running really gives you an appreciation of the changing seasons. After all those cold, dark mornings that I've run through over the last 11 weeks I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now when I step out for a pre-work run it's already getting light which makes for a much more appealing prospect. It's still not easy getting up at stupid o'clock, but it certainly feels like less of a chore.

Or, at least it feels like less of a chore until I check the training guide and see that "50 mins  2 mins easy 10 mins fast x 4" awaits me today. Groan. I don't even have a playlist that will match this specification, so I decide to amend the run to fit a playlist I do have. The playlist I have is 40 minutes long and consists of 2 mins easy 8 mins fast x 5. The sharp eyed amongst you will note that this is 10 minutes shorter than the specified time. The prospect of running without music is none too appealing, so this means that at the end of the 40 minutes I need to clumsily fumble around with the ipod that is strapped to my arm, underneath my running jacket to try and take the playlist back a few songs.

With tunes from the likes of British Sea Power, The Ramones and Arcade Fire to keep me going this run already feels like less of a chore. That said, for some reason when I start out my knees are really aching. When I say "for some reason" I'm well aware that the cause of this is the running I've been doing, but I don't understand why they're aching at this point in particular. If it was the day after my 21 mile run I'd understand it more.

Anyway, the problem with the knees is forgotten pretty much as soon as the slow first song givese way to the first set of "fast" songs. The initial burst you have when you come out of the "easy" 2 minutes feels really good and the trusty Run Keeper app shows that the Vaccines' "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" propelled me from an average speed of 5:15 mins/km to 4.00 mins/km. This pace wasn't maintained for all 8 minutes, but there was definitely a difference between that section of the run and the 2 minutes of "easy" running soundtracked by Mark Kozelek's cover of AC/DC's "Love at First Feel".

As with all these kinds of runs the pace of the different sections definitely slows down the further into the run you get. It gets to the stage where it feels like there's no difference between a fast and easy section but the stats on Run Keeper are reassuring. They show that on the final slow section I averaged 5:40 mins/km, while on the fast section I was averaging 4:50 mins/km. Granted, both of these averages are considerably slower than those I clocked up first time round but I'm pleased that there is still a discernible difference.

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".

Thank you for the music

Day:         22
Distance: 6.55 km
Time:       34:37 secs
Calories:  504

Rarely in the field of marathon training have music and running come together in such perfect unison.

I was only supposed to be going out for a 35 minute run at an 'easy' tempo following yesterday's 17km run, but when your ipod treats you to such perfect explosions of rock n' roll as "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" by the Vaccines, "22 Grand Job" by the Rakes and "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones one after the other there's no way you can settle for a slow pace. None of those songs weigh in at more than 3 minutes (in fact "Wreckin' Bar" comes and goes in just 1:24 secs), but they are exactly the kind of songs that really fire me up. I've checked Run Keeper and for the first kilometre of this run I was averaging just under 4.5 mins per km - that's the kind of speed I run at for a 10k race - and I've absolutely no doubt that this tempo was down to the urgent, punky energy of each one of those three songs.

Obviously, I can't have a 5 hour long playlist consisting solely of songs like this - for one thing I'd be shattered well before the finish line - but they play an absolutely crucial role. I can well imagine one of those songs picking me up when my energy levels and pace are dropping and today they helped me to forget about my weary legs.

On running playlists

Music is a huge part of my life. A recent trawl through my Facebook status updates from 2010 suggested that music and marmite are the two things I talk about most often. That seems like a pretty fair summary.

Listening to music whilst running is one of life's pleasures. The right song at the right time can make a real difference to a run. So, with this in mind, creating a great playlist for when I'm running seemed like a crucial part of my training plan. The playlist I have at the moment features Biffy Clyro, Rage Against the Machine, AC/DC, Blur, The Ramones amongst others. The problem is that, at 2 hours in length, my playlist is no longer 'fit for purpose'. It was perfect for a half marathon, but I now need something to carry me for a full marathon.

As it's now the week before I start my 'official' training plan it seems like a good time to consider what to do with my playlist.

I thought I'd begin by having a look online for some inspiration and the first thing I found was this Runners World article. Any playlist that starts with guff like "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas isn't even worth considering. Sure, they redeem themselves somewhat by suggesting "You shook me all night long" by AC/DC, but then they go and blow it completely by recommending "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi  as a "booster" song that "personally pumps you up". Pump me up? It's more likely to wind me up.

After the Runners World debacle I visited the London Marathon website and found the Virgin London Marathon Runners Top 10 playlist. It's not as bad as the Runners World article, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I run to the sound of "Eye of the Tiger". They've also suggested a Black Eyed Peas song. How is this in anyway helpful?

The Marathon website also has famous athletes' playlists. Liz McColgan's is just horrible - two Daniel Merriweather songs is surely two Daniel Merriweather songs too many. Iwan Thomas's is okayish and I think I'll borrow "House of Jealous lovers" by the Rapture from him. Veronique Marot (who?) put together an interesting list with Nirvana and Radiohead featuring, but "All Apologies" off of In Utero is in no way a song to run to. The best of the lot is by someone called David Bedford and features The Who, The Kinks and Blur among others. Having read this I can't believe my playlist doesn't already include "My Generation" or "You really got me". I'll be rectifying this sorry state of affairs shortly.

I then turned to a Guardian article written by two marathon runners. It gets off to a good start:

Music is my constant companion when I run. It is there urging me forward when things get tough. It is there to put a smile on my face when the rain beats down and the wind steals my breath. And it is there to frame the sudden rushes of elation on those days when the blue skies and country views make me wonder why the whole world isn't outside running too. First comes a decent pair of shoes, and second comes a decent soundtrack

At last! A kindred spirit. His playlist is even pretty good and features RATM and Arctic Monkeys. He's mentioned some others that I'm less familiar with - Decemberists, Cold and the Mountain Goats - but seeing as how we're pretty much running soul mates I'm going to investigate his suggestions ...

The second writer includes the Jam's "Town called Malice" on her playlist, which is a good idea and another one I'm going to borrow. She ruins it though by including Bon Jovi and annoys me by getting the title of the Killer's "Human" wrong.

So, after visiting three sites I have a grand total of four songs to add to my playlist. Not a great success rate given that I reckon I'll need somewhere in the region of 5 hours' worth of music in total. Evidently, relying on the internet isn't an option, so I'm hoping that if anyone actually reads this they might suggest some songs or bands that are going to give me the boost I need when I really need it.

WANTED: Inspired suggestions for my running playlist. Bon Jovi need not apply!