I went for my first run in 10 days on Wednesday night.  In spite of the light rain and the moderate breeze, it was not too cold.  I started off a bit too fast and wasn't able to kick into the final stretch.  However, my time of just over 25 minutes was pleasing for the 5.4km run (Canning Town loop).  It was an almost identical time to the last time I did this run, a month ago.

I did half an hour on the rowing machine tonight and made 7,468 metres.  I expect that I will soon be above 7,500 metres for this.  I have a good focus when I am rowing.  I have found that if I break the half hour down into 2 minutes pieces, then it is easy to manage.  Even when there is 10 minutes to go, I don't get distracted by how close the finish is.  I just think about there being 5 more segments to go, and I continue rowing as I have done for the 10 segments before that.

I have thought about getting a more precise measurement of my longest Sunday run, then setting out some markers for each km.  They would need to be big enough for me to see, but not conspicuous enough for the council (or whoever) to take them down.  Then I can judge my pace during these runs, just like on race day.

I have started exercising since the Paris marathon.  I haven't been on any runs yet.  I went for half hour bike rides in the gym on Sunday and Tuesday.  It has been good to get back into it, although I won't really know how my legs are until I go for a run.  I plan to go for a half hour run after work tomorrow.  As we are heading into the summer and will have more daylight hours, I think I will go on more runs on weeknights.

Last Sunday, I ran in the Paris marathon. It was my first marathon in 5 years and I was unsure how well I would do. My training had been going reasonably well, although there were a couple of gaps when I didn't go running for a couple of weeks - around Christmas/New Year and also when I went to Hong Kong. I only had the one run of around 30km when I managed to run the whole way. For other long runs, I had hit the wall in terms of energy levels and ended up walking much of the way home. In that context, I wasn't sure that I could run the whole marathon, but nonetheless that was my goal.

I wasn't feeling nervous about the run at all. I really only became excited about it when we were on our way to Paris and when we got to the running expo on the Saturday. It was amazing how long the queue was at the running expo, just to get inside. It must have been a kilometre long.

On the race day, I woke up at 6am and ate a breakfast of All Bran and a couple of bananas that we got at a convenience store the night before. It was hard to eat the All Bran mixture with the very tiny spoon I found in the hotel room. I had a coffee downstairs at the hotel lobby, because I needed the caffeine hit to wake up and my experience is that coffee is good to have before a long run.

We left the hotel to get to the starting line well before the start time. I soon appreciated how it was good to stay in a hotel not so close to the start: we could catch the metro when it was not so crowded. When we reached the stations close to the Champs Elysees, there was no room for anyone else to get on.

It was overcast and a bit chilly at the start. It never really changed from that for the rest of the day. I was wearing long track pants and a jumper over my running clothes, which was a good idea. I also had my black gloves which I wore for the rest of the run. After applying Vaseline on the high-risk chafing areas, I said my goodbyes to Angel and made my way to the starting area. There were fences blocking off the footpath from the main street where we would start and it seemed to take ages to get there. There were only a few openings and people seemed to just be standing around. When I was in the starting area, I noticed all the old clothes strewn on the ground. I would notice it all again when we were running down the road after the start.

I kept a good pace for the first half of the run. To help me maintain a focus, I tried to run each km in 5 minutes and 40 seconds. When I got to each km marker, I would recalculate what my target time should be for when I got to the next marker. Looking at the split times online after the race, I realised how consistent my pace was: almost exactly 28 minutes 30 seconds for each 5km split, up until the 15km mark.

There was no issue of not having enough food or drink. There were generously stocked stations every 5km, where you could have water, orange pieces, banana and sugar cubes. I never felt thirsty or hungry, but it is sensible to have food and drink before you reach that point. When everyone had finished the orange or banana, they threw the leftover peel on the ground. I was surprised that I didn't see more people slip over on that stuff. 

The support of the crowd was a highlight. Except for the park sections, the whole course was lined by the public supporting all of the runners. I noticed lots of flags for France, the UK and Australia, but I didn't notice any NZ ones. It wasn't until the 38th km that I noticed someone with a poster with a kiwi message.

Each runner had their first name on their number, so I heard a few calls of "Allez James!" during the race. This was nice to hear in the earlier part of the race, but a bit embarrassing once I was on Avenue Foch and all I could do was walk gingerly towards the finish line.

My feet started to feel painful around the halfway mark and I did my stretch routine at around the 22nd km. I set myself a target of reaching the 30th km before I did any more stretches which I almost achieved. I started walking more than I was running in the Bois de Boulogne. Whenever I found a bench where I could stretch comfortably, I did so. It was disappointing to have to walk so much at that point.

I got to the 30th km in around 3 hours and I was aiming for a 6min/km pace of just over 4 hours 10 minutes. But as I walked further, I had to readjust my goal. I was at 38km when I passed 4 hours and I remember calculating that I would need to walk as fast as 7.5 min/km if I were to break 4 hours 30 minutes. One kilometre further on and I had taken another 9 minutes. So I wasn't going to beat 4 hours 30 minutes; I would just need to walk until the end and see what time I would end up with.

The last 200m had the most supporters and it would have been awesome to be running at that point. Instead, I shuffled over the finish line with a time of 4 hours 43 minutes and 17 seconds. This is my 2nd worst time of the six marathons I have completed so far.

I picked up my medal, t-shirt and a powerade. I walked over to the agreed meeting place to wait for Angel, but I had missed her. After about ten minutes, I made my way back to the LV shop on the Champs Elysees which was our back-up meeting spot. Angel was indeed there and I got into my track pants and jumper which Angel had been carrying with her. I had cooled down a lot and it was difficult to walk. It was the most difficult to walk downstairs: I had to twist my body 90 degrees for each step and I relied a lot on the handrail.

We got back to the hotel at around 3pm and I was allowed all the time I needed to have a shower and get pack up our stuff. I was pleased with the hospitality, because the actual check-out time was 12pm.

It has been a week after the marathon and the pain in my legs has gone away. I am still not going to do any exercise this weekend, but I will be ready to do some next week. It is the London marathon tomorrow. We are going out for lunch at 12pm, but if there is time beforehand, then I would like to help support the runners.

I wonder how effective an ice bath would be? When is the best time to have one? I assume that you wouldn't want to have one after every one, surely only after the very long runs (say 25km or more). I am going to do more research about this.

I am tapering for the Paris marathon. Yesterday's Sunday run was a relatively short one. I ran 19.7km in the run I have named the London Bridge loop. I was pleased with the time: 1 hour and 40 minutes. If I can run this time for 19.7km in a normal training run, then I am confident that I would be getting near 100 minutes in a half marathon, with its water stops and the adrenaline that comes with race day.

I am pleased with the last month of running. I have been on a very long run each Sunday (for around 3 hours each) and I can tell that I am building up the stamina to approach the Paris marathon next fortnight. Ideally, though, I would have another month for training. I am still not certain that I would be able to run for the whole 42.2km. I also need to practise my focus - when I am past 3/4 of the way through the run, I haven't been able to avoid thinking about how much further I had left to run. I would like to be in a state where I didn't have this at the front of my mind and I could enjoy the run more. Or at least, not get distracted by my sore legs. When I am at the running expo in Paris on the Saturday, I will have a look for other marathons that I could enter for the end of the year. I would have a rest period after this marathon, of course, but then I would like to pick up with some medium/long runs as soon as practicable. I am estimating that I will get between 4 hours 20 and 4 hours 30 for this marathon. It sounds average, but at least it will be a better time than the last time I attempted a marathon - all the way back in 2007. It seems like such a long time ago.

It's Dad's birthday today. So I think it is appropriate that I have gone for a run. My throat was burning for most of the run and I kept a good pace. A good rhythm of steps to breathing. I was surprised when I checked the time on my watch after I reached the door to the apartment building. 24 minutes and 22 seconds for the 5.7km run. It's the best time I have done for this run, which is pleasing. My schedule told me I should have been running for 40 minutes today. I have been lazy by not designing a 40-minute run. I'm not sure where it would go - perhaps a bigger loop out east? I should really design one to be done next weekend. As usual, I enjoyed the stretching after the run. It is rare that I can have the whole apartment gym to myself, so I can turn off the tv, sit on the floor in a peaceful atmosphere and do my stretches in my own time.

My stop-start training schedule has continued. I had not been for a run for almost 2 weeks because of the weekend trip to Edinburgh. On weekdays, it had been too dark and cold to go for a run when I got home from work. Maybe I should get myself a light-coloured top and some gloves. The runs this weekend were in line with the schedule, but I feel that I haven't improved since last fortnight. I suppose that is to be expected when I'm not doing a lot of running. Despite this, at least it is good to be doing some running - better than nothing! I think that because I am up to date with my running schedule (i.e.: recording all the runs in the spreadsheet), then I am more likely to go for the runs. The spreadsheet acts as a discipline for me.

I am consistent whenever I do this run. I took 29 minutes and 14 seconds to run 3 laps around the Royal Victoria Dock. It felt like an average pace at the time, but I was pleased with this time.

I had a good run today around the Isle of Dogs. I had intended to just go out for a slow run and had maintained good 3-step breathing. When I got back to Canary Wharf, I noticed that I had taken 48 minutes, so I tried to get home before the hour mark. I got a time of 59 mins 54 seconds, which is pretty good.

My legs are not very well stretched and I need to run more often than I did in the last week. I think I will enter the half marathon in September which I learnt about at work. Then I will have a goal to aim towards and I will have more discipline.

I went for a pretty good run around the Royal Victoria Dock yesterday. I started off without the idea of how it would pan out and did a circuit around the west-end of the dock, over the bridge in the middle and back past the apartment. That circuit took 10 minutes, so I decided to make a 3-circuit run of approx 30 minutes. I ended up running 29 minutes, so I have set the benchmark to beat.

The bridge in the middle of the dock is quite high above the dock itself. There are staircases of approx 4 stories each, so it is a good workout to run up the stairs and then exercise a different group of muscles running down them on the other side.



I haven't created a running schedule yet; all of my running these days is unplanned. If I feel that I haven't been for a run (or to the gym) in a while, then I just decide to go running. When other preoccupations are out of the way (i.e.: finding a job!) then I will be in a better frame of mind to plan my running. (Although, there is the argument that planning my running would keep me occupied and I would worry less about the long process of finding work.)

I had a good run today from Karen & Lance's place, around Southwark park a couple of times and back. I haven't measured this run yet. I felt better about this run than the same run I did a few days ago. I think that was because there was more cloud cover, so the air felt a bit warmer.

I am still affected by the seeds from the plane trees which I seem to find everywhere. These seeds have the texture of wheat and coat the ground under the trees like sawdust. When they float off the trees, I can't help but have some of them float into my eye or into my mouth.

I have sensed a sore throat coming on since Wednesday, but fortunately this hasn't gone onto the next stage. I will drink tea to see if I can keep this away!

I have been on a few runs while I have been in the UK, but it will be better when we have our own place. Then, I can create some long runs, map them out and measure my times. Until then, it just feels more appropriate to go out for random 30 min runs.

I completed my Saturday run of 2 hours 40 minutes, although I was running with a strained hamstring. I felt it twinge about 20 minutes into the run and decided to run through the niggle. I purposefully avoided running off curbs to minimise any shock.

It still feels strained today, so I won't go for my run. I think it will be best if I wait until it is better before I go running again. I don't want to get an injury at this stage of my training.

I decided to forgo my run tonight, because my hamstring was feeling a little strained from last night. It will be good to give it some rest before my next run. I don't want to get an injury when I'm on such a good roll with my marathon training!

Wednesday's run was for 1 hour, rather than 45 minutes. I just did the usual 45 minute run, but ran the whole loop of the forest track. This run was too short, only 55 minutes. I will have to think of a way to increase it.

On these runs my mouth is so dry by the end. I relish the cold drink once I'm back inside. I am concerned about how I will cope for the 2 hour run on Saturday. Maybe I should just repeat the 30 minute loop, 4 times? I could drink more often, but the run would be less interesting.

Last night's run left me feeling the same. It was a good run, but I just felt so drained by the end of it.

Monday's run was again at a slower pace than usual. I took 1 hour 5 mins, rather than the 1 hour flat that I was getting close to before I went to Croatia.

Last night's 30 min run was also relaxed. When I was running home, there was a woman walking on the footpath. I swerved onto the road to avoid her, and she also walked onto the road! So, I needn't have run off the footpath in the first place.

My legs are sore. I'm considering not doing anything on Friday (aside from walking to and from the train station) just to give my legs a rest.

My two runs in the weekend were slow. The 90-minute run is usually one of my better runs, but not this time. By the time I had finished the first "loop" I was already 10 minutes slower than last time. So, instead of doing the 30-minute run as a second loop, I ran to Goirkestraat and around the block.

With the Saturday run still in my mind, I ran the Sunday run slowly too. It is usually my worst run of the week, anyway. Keeping the slow pace was a good idea.

I didn't do any running in Croatia, but I went for a few swims!

I got back to Tilburg on Tuesday (July 29) but I decided to forgo the run. I wanted some time to relax and recover from the train rides.

I went for my 45 minute run on Wednesday. It was easy. Perhaps that is because of the long break that I just had? It was also the last run that I had with my old running shoes. I have been running with them for at least 3-4 years. They had huge hole all over the place, so it was time for a change.

I got my new running shoes on Thursday in a package sent from home. Yes! They are called "Adidas Supernova". Hmmm. I was excited about trying them out. They feel a bit tight. Maybe that's just because I need to wear them in. And, I have been used to running in those old, loose running shoes. I went for the one hour run. After about 20 minutes, I felt a little drained of energy (perhaps, because of the heat?) so I slowed down a little. I felt better by the halfway mark, and had a nice run back to Hasseltstraat.

It felt good to stretch after the run. I was worried that not stretching for 10 days would have been harmful, but I don't seem to have lost that much flexibility.

Wednesday night was so hot, but I was looking forward to the 45-minute run. I wanted to have a really good sweat! Run a little faster than usual and get some frustration out of me. I think I benefitted from not going for a run on Tuesday. The run felt easy. When I got back, I finished the whole bottle of cordial drink - 1.5 litres!

There was a reception event at Steven's house on Thursday. We were going to play some sport, so I decided to forgo my 1-hour run. It wasn't as "active" as I was hoping, but maybe it will be beneficial for me to have a break like this again.

I am not going running for the next 10 days because I am going to Croatia for an AIESEC conference. If I have opportunities to go running there, then that's a bonus.