Run Tri Sup

Marathon weekend start with swimming lessons with the girls before final packing and off to the station for the 12:30 train.  My initial plan was to jump off at stratford hop on the DLR to the excel centre.  Only problem was my train did not stop at stratford.  The train was delayed and arrived at Liverpool street station 20mins late.  A short 10 minute walk from Liverpool street to Tower gateway and the DLR to the Excel for Registration.  Pretty much everyone on the train were heading for registration. Registration and the Expo The entrance to the Excel was decked out in Virgin London Marathon banners.  Dead easy to find registration and everything orders by your race number which is on your confirmation letter which you have to bring with you and sign in front of the people at registration along with photo id. Once registered its off to get your timing chip which is where i bumped into this guy who is attempted to break the world record for ...

I was up and out this morning at 6:25, a nice easy run which was surprising cold.  I wanted to get the run out of the way to give me more recovery time.  The legs felt good and the scheduled run was slow and gentle.  Feeling good ahead of the marathon. I did have a bit of an internal debate about whether to put my name onto my race top.  In the end I have decided to include it. Swimming with girls first thing then i'll be off to catch the train tomorrow lunchtime.  Then expo and registration.

Wednesday's training run was a threshold run, 5 minute warm up followed by 5 minutes gentle running then 1minute recovery then 5 minutes at Threshold pace before 5 minutes gentle running to finish.  A surprisingly warm day though and decided the best route was down the old railway line behind Sainsburys. Surprisingly picturesque plus I wanted to get used to snapping pictures on the run. Just before the Threshold section. This last one was taken mid Threshold section.  The quality seems to have come out well. Final training run before Sunday will be tomorrow morning.

The last week has been a bit of a mentally busy one.  Decorating the dining room as well as getting a new app ready at work for its initial launch (Wed).  I've felt pretty exhausted but the good news is both the decorating and the app launch have been finished and feel so much more chilled now. The last few runs have been a mixed bunch.  Friday's run had to be completed in the evening as I wasn't paying much attention to the plan through sorting out the dining room and never took my kit to work for a lunchtime run.  Saturday's was pretty torturous in the rain.  The ford i usually pass was 3ft deep.  I've never seen it this deep. Then finally today's run which was a lovely run in sunshine for a nice change although the wind was bitter.  My plan didn't update correctly as I forgot to update yesterday's run so just went for a gentle 40 min run. One day later and the water level has dropped over a foot and a half ! I did do a little exploring t...

This weekends runs were a little bit of an effort.  Legs just felt really heavy throughout and it was a real struggle to maintain any sort of pace.  A little odd as the legs felt fantastic on Friday's midge fest. Saturday's threshold run was a bit of a disaster as i couldn't hit target pace and Sunday's Long (ish) run was my last before the marathon day and again legs we just empty.  To be fair to myself I had spent the day decorating the kitchen and then chasing around with the girls whilst they were on their bikes but still feel I should have done better. Again Tuesday's threshold run just wasn't happening at the higher intensity but the base pace was good.  The temperatures were a little higher over the weekend than they have been and my Achilles has been sore for a while now.  I'm guessing subconsciously i'm easing up on over exerting it. On the plus side now is I'm into the taper now and the length and intensity of the runs is going to red...

Before my run on Friday lunchtime I debated whether to run the loop around the inner ring road or to do a loop of whitlingham broad. Because it was such a glorious day I opted for the latter and my pace felt really good.  Getting to the broad was fine.  The views were excellent and there was plenty of people about walking. Unfortunately there was no warning I was about to be eaten alive my swarms of midges all around the broad. This greatly helped my pace and I positively charged around, mainly to get away from the dreaded midges and avoid being a running buffet. Upon my return to work I was getting a few odd looks and one look in the mirror confirmed a few dozen still stuck to my face.  I wiped off a fair few before thinking of snapping a pic.

Trowse 10k today and the stormy weather from last night thankfully had passed and we were treated to a glorious morning.  The lost hour of sleep wasn't as bad a I thought as kids slept in. The parking was clearly signed and was a 10 min walk from county hall to the ski club.  Marshall's were really friendly and welcoming and the registration process in the clubhouse was quick and painless. It was at this point I discovered my watch was out of charge so was forced to use my phone and the strava app.  Which after a couple of false starts I managed to work out how to use it. After a quick cuppa I caught up with a few old friends before heading to the start.  Again I placed myself around the middle of the group to avoid the customary headless chicken start.  Again this plan worked well and once up to pace I maintained it well throughout which was really pleasing.  As with the Hunny Bell I didn't have many people passing me after the first few kil...