9 miles

SO this is week three of my marathon training. After a strange last week, I am back on track and upping my mileages every week. Today was the longest run I have attempted ( I managed an 8 miler last week) I am getting used to these long runs quite well and seem able to get through the whole run without any major breaks (I take steps up bridges as a chance to gulp some water)

I think my pace is a bit faster than that the schedule reccommends - as I certainly am making an effort to run as slow as I possible can. My average pace this run was 8:31 (although probably skewed a little by picking up the pace to 7:49 for the last mile. This would bring me in comfortably under a 4-hour finish time. On the 8 mile run last week I averaged 8:45

After the run I managed to do some chin-ups and a short kettlebell workout.

Gym - Kew Bridge - Chiswick Bridge

Did my usual 3 mile run around Kew and Chiswick riverside. When I get back from Miami and Puerto Rico I'm going to be more adventurous with my routes. Right now this run is convenient and lets me have some spa time at the gym after :)

I did try and slow my pace today, but still came out at 08:01 per mile, and the fastest time for this route I've done. Although I was running for quite some time on the treadmill I found it hard to go back to outside running. I felt a big improvement today and managed the three miles at this fast pace without stopping at all (my Garmin tells me this!)

I'm looking forward to getting some new running shoes on holiday. I've noticed a small pain on the outside of my thigh. Think I need new shoes to help stop this. I can't wait to log a run from South Beach as well. Do normal people run on holiday?

5 mile run around Kew Gardens

A new rout for me today, and a very convenient 5 mile route around Kew Gardens. I drove to Kew retail park, parked up my car and started the run.

My legs were still feeling a bit sore from the other day so I made sure I stretched afterwards, and went to the gym for some bubbles :)

My Garmin tells me that I ran 5.2 miles in 41.01 minutes. Not bad, although I think I should pace myself a bit better. Mile 3 split was 7:23. Average HR was 180, peaking at 189

The run is flat and has nice scenery down he river side. Coming back up the other side is by a very busy road, but it seemed to go past pretty quickly.

Lost in Barnes

I have a terrible sense of direction - I plan a great little run - starting in Chiswick, down to Putney Bridge via Hammersmith, then across to Barnes Bridge and back to Chiswick. An exact 6 miles.

However, a little detour around Barnes turned this into a seven-mile run. I felt fine, and completed it in an hour. Pace of 08:41 per mile

I feel I have let myself go a wee bit over the last couple of weeks - I have been very busy with work, and family coming to see me that I haven't had as much time to workout as I would have liked. I feel knackered - and have eaten very unhealthily. I suppose I see my excuse as being that these are the last few weeks before I go away on holiday and then come back to the full training plan!

.. on a side note, good news today about a wedding booking. Jane and Tristan decided to go with me for their wedding in June. It really couldn't have come at a better time and should give me a great album (and the confidence) to start getting bookings for next year. I understand the apprehension on their part - their decision was to go for a cheap (but good!) newbie like me or an expensive old pro. I'm not sure what swayed them in the end, but I know I can get them a great collection of images!

I did manage to get a 5 miler in this week. The garmin didn't pick up the signal at frst though so it only says 4 miles on the map. Teething problems!

I don't think my HR monitor was positioned correctly - so I'll discount those figures for this run. Pretty good pace over the 4 recorded miles of 08:11 per mile., and 07:57 for 93% of the run.

weddings

I've found it hard to go out training this week (still not in proper training so I don't feel bad). The reason is that I have been on a Wedding Photography training course near Maidenhead run by The Trained Eye.

It's been great and very inspiring. Hopefully I can start getting some work from weddings - already had two people contact me today. Need to get my rates sorted out!

First 5-miler

On Thursday morning I went out into the countryside (well, Virginia Water) and attempted a 4 mile run. I had my route planned with http://www.mapmyrun.com and though it was easy: run once around the lake.

However I did get lost and ended up running all around the park, and as my Garmin tells me, I clocked up 5.2 miles in 47 minutes. The run was amazing - it was sunny and mild, and I had a great time. I felt I could have run on even more - but wanted to keep my training building slowly. The first 2.5 miles were hard, and then everything just kicked in. Running on grass, mud and tarmac was also much kinder to the legs than the road :)

Some other stats from the Garmin (which is being a bit stubborn and refusing to upload this particular run)

My average heart-rate was 172 bpm at a pace of 9:13 / mile. This is 89% of my max. I'm a bit worried this is too high.

...going to research that!