Hello hello!
Well after last months awful training programme, I started feeling the heat a little... if only due to the growing hypocrisy of trying to encourage my friends to train, whilst I sat with my feet up :)
I decided I had to raise the bar with my training as time was ticking and I'd done enough 6k runs to build my general fitness up, so I knocked the distance up to 10k and decided that this was the distance I needed to focus on. However, as I was just starting at this distance, the focus would be on the number of runs rather than the time at this point.
10km
05/03 - 56:37
12/03 - 51:52
25/03 - 49:56
31/03 - 57:50
The last run was a particularly bad one sadly. This was due to having the day off work, and slobbing about and not making any food. This meant when I started on my run in the late afternoon I was running off my pre-run booster of a few mini-eggs and a banana. This worked very well for two thirds of the course, but after I'd burnt them off, there was no food at all left inside me to burn, which led to a chronic collapse in performance for the last third. The legs really did refuse to obey, and they felt more tired then what they had during the Great North Run. I think this showed me just how important diet is for these longer runs.
Anyway, looking back at the month, I felt I'd managed to recover it a bit... but could have done more runs. If I'm going to get a better time than last year, I'd need to step things up as there wasn't enough runs this month to get much of an improvement... but it was a start at least and would stand me in good stead for Aprils. Next month would be make or break time I felt, and as I entered May, I felt the mental resolve was finally there again to get out and hit the streets.
Andy
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
February - Lent or gluttony?
Hello avid Jog Blog readers... or just bored souls
Apologies for not updating the blog in a while. I'd love to tell you that it is because of a lack of spare time due to training so hard, but as you'll find out, that would be a lie!
At the end of January, with only days to go, I left you with the "Cliffhanger" of whether I would last the reaming few days of my non-alcohol stint. Well sadly things didn't go according to plan, and I failed to make it :( I lasted till January 28th when I went to my cousin's 18th Birthday party. I had intended in not drinking at this, but when I'd seen how they'd gone to such a great effort to make me feel welcome by buying in some Guinness (I'm the only one in the family who drinks it), I decided the date was a bit academic and wasn't worth appearing ungrateful for the effort they had put in... never mind, there's always next time!
Anyway, onto the training runs in February... well... there weren't any! That's right, for Lent I decided to give up jogging, and descend into a party lifestyle. In the end, it just turned out to be a busy month for me. One weekend was taken up with my birthday (I'm now a quarter of a century old!). This was a weekend well spent in my books... action packed, with all you can eat Chinese, trip to Manchester, a couple of games of bowling, and an expedition to Staly Vegas with both Rangers and Uni mates. Another weekend was taken up round at Justin's new place which was fun. There was also a weekend spent on holiday in Bratislava. This was a fantastic trip. There was only three out of the usual four (Anton, Paul and myself.... Marcus Trescothick was absent due to high government workloads, well somebody's got to make sure that the next generation of kids understand the stats on Football Manager 2006!). Bratislava is a fantastic city, with some great looking areas, as well as some not so great ones, which by Western standards could look quiet intimidating. However, even in the not so great ones, we were made to feel welcome and I saw no trouble all the time we were over there. It just goes to show how true that old saying, "You shouldn't judge a book by its front cover!" can be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating throwing caution to the wind in unfamiliar countries, just that sometimes it's worth taking a step back and asking if there really is any evidence to be worried, and not going off appearances alone.
Anyway, to recap, February's training had been none existent, and so heading into March the thought did cross my mind as to whether I was putting enough effort in to deserve a place in the Great Manchester Run? After all, it didn't seem like it based on this month's performance. Would I be able to snap out of this casualness I had adopted towards my training, or would I be following the path of George Best into career retirement before my time due to a heavy party lifestyle? Only time will tell...
Cheers
Andy
Apologies for not updating the blog in a while. I'd love to tell you that it is because of a lack of spare time due to training so hard, but as you'll find out, that would be a lie!
At the end of January, with only days to go, I left you with the "Cliffhanger" of whether I would last the reaming few days of my non-alcohol stint. Well sadly things didn't go according to plan, and I failed to make it :( I lasted till January 28th when I went to my cousin's 18th Birthday party. I had intended in not drinking at this, but when I'd seen how they'd gone to such a great effort to make me feel welcome by buying in some Guinness (I'm the only one in the family who drinks it), I decided the date was a bit academic and wasn't worth appearing ungrateful for the effort they had put in... never mind, there's always next time!
Anyway, onto the training runs in February... well... there weren't any! That's right, for Lent I decided to give up jogging, and descend into a party lifestyle. In the end, it just turned out to be a busy month for me. One weekend was taken up with my birthday (I'm now a quarter of a century old!). This was a weekend well spent in my books... action packed, with all you can eat Chinese, trip to Manchester, a couple of games of bowling, and an expedition to Staly Vegas with both Rangers and Uni mates. Another weekend was taken up round at Justin's new place which was fun. There was also a weekend spent on holiday in Bratislava. This was a fantastic trip. There was only three out of the usual four (Anton, Paul and myself.... Marcus Trescothick was absent due to high government workloads, well somebody's got to make sure that the next generation of kids understand the stats on Football Manager 2006!). Bratislava is a fantastic city, with some great looking areas, as well as some not so great ones, which by Western standards could look quiet intimidating. However, even in the not so great ones, we were made to feel welcome and I saw no trouble all the time we were over there. It just goes to show how true that old saying, "You shouldn't judge a book by its front cover!" can be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating throwing caution to the wind in unfamiliar countries, just that sometimes it's worth taking a step back and asking if there really is any evidence to be worried, and not going off appearances alone.
Anyway, to recap, February's training had been none existent, and so heading into March the thought did cross my mind as to whether I was putting enough effort in to deserve a place in the Great Manchester Run? After all, it didn't seem like it based on this month's performance. Would I be able to snap out of this casualness I had adopted towards my training, or would I be following the path of George Best into career retirement before my time due to a heavy party lifestyle? Only time will tell...
Cheers
Andy
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