Training Week 13 Recap

Hi all,

Apologies for not posting anything here lately, aside from training recaps. It's been a slack week in terms of training, but I can assure you that I've been addressing other matters. I'm currently busy moving into my new place, and since I don't think I can fit in a run tomorrow, or have any Internet access that day, I'm going to start recapping my training now. I remember an analogy about juggling that British marathon runner Paula Radcliffe mentioned in her autobiography, which I've had to do a lot of this week. I'll blog about her analogy later on.

Tuesday

Type: Intervals

Time and Distance: 75 mins, 15.7 km.

Detail: 10 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 8 x 1600m at 13.5 km/h pace, with 1 min recovery at 8 km/h pace after intervals.

Thursday

Type: Tempo and intervals

Time and Distance: 60 mins, 12.3 km.

Detail: 10 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 30 mins tempo at 14.0 - 15.0 km/h pace, with 5 mins recovery at 8 km/h pace. 5 x 1 min intervals at 14.0 - 16.0 km/h pace, with 1 min recovery at 8 km/h pace.

Saturday

Type: Easy

Time and Distance: 99 mins, 18.3 km.

Detail: 30 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 30 mins at 11.0 km/h pace. 30 mins at 11.5 km/h pace. Remainder at 12.0 km/h pace. Intended to do a long run, but decided to reduce the session.

Total Weekly Distance: 46.3 km.

Comments: In terms of total mileage, a pretty slack week. This week, I decided to drop the pace of my mile repeats, but also reduce the amount of recovery time between interval. I'm actually quite happy with that effort, knowing that I can probably push the pace and easily add another couple of intervals. The tempo session was quite difficult. However this has given me an indication of what my true tempo effort really is, so I'll keep this in mind for future tempo sessions.

Improvements: Next week is going to be my final week for any high-intensity/high volume running, bearing in mind that I need to taper for the Reading Half Marathon. This means I'll try to push the pace of my intervals, tempo session and weekend long run. For the weekend run, I may run a half marathon distance slightly slower than my intended race pace. I don't want to burn myself out just yet!

Well unfortunately, at such a crucial time of training, I let the weekly distance slip, but unfortunately these things happen. The stress of moving house doesn't really help matters. Let's hope things become more settled in the coming weeks. My new place is very close to the Thames river, so expect some photos of her in future posts.

In other news, I have gotten a few new followers on this blog and on Twitter. Thanks to a kind mention by George Anderson, this has generated more interest from other runners around the globe! This will no doubt benefit me and hopefully other runners too, so thank you George for doing this! His response was that I could carry his 1:30 pace flag in the Reading Half Marathon when his arm starts to get tired, but we'll see if I can keep up with him first.

Getting faster (at the cost of more grey hairs),

Aaron

Training Week 12 Recap

Hi guys,

Here's this week's recap of my training. I said in my last recap that I was going to "up the ante" this week, so let's see if I did it this time.

Tuesday

Type: Intervals

Time and Distance: 70 mins, 14.85 km.

Detail: 10 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 7 x 1600m at 14.1 - 14.6 & 15.0 km/h pace, with 2 mins recovery at 8 km/h pace after intervals.

Thursday

Type: Easy/Tempo

Time and Distance: 70 mins, 13 km.

Detail: 40 mins between 8 - 12 km/h pace. 20 min tempo session between 12 - 14 km/h pace. 10 mins at 10.5 - 11 km/h pace.

Saturday

Type: Long

Time and Distance: 143 mins 45 secs, 28.8 km.

Detail: First half at 75 mins. Second half at 68 mins 45 secs.

Sunday

Type: Easy

Time and Distance: 60 mins, 10.5 km.

Detail: Recovery run after Saturday's long run.

Total Weekly Distance: 67.15 km.

Comments: Well I did "up the ante" this week, increasing my weekly mileage, and the effort of my harder runs. I may have probably gone too hard on my Tuesday run; the day after I felt a niggle in my left hamstring. Fearing I could be close to tearing it, I decided to tone down Thursday's tempo run. I was a bit concerned about how I would fare on Saturday's long run, especially since I intended to increase the distance, but I managed to get through that relatively unscathed. The niggles have all but subsided now, but this is something to be aware of. Hamstring injuries can be potentially devastating.

Improvements: Not really an improvement, but I intend to tone down the interval runs. I'm keen to run the same number of intervals and more, but I think the pace needs to be just a little bit slower. I'm keen to exceed the long run to over 30 km, but not sure if this is going to happen though. Next week is "moving house week" for me, so I'm afraid I'll have to postpone the long run to another weekend if moving house is going to be troublesome.

I mentioned in one of my past recaps that I was going to include some pictures to improve my blog and make for more interesting reading. It's been a long time coming, but I've just taken some pictures during my easy run this afternoon. First up, some English geography. Honestly, I went in the direction of Oxford.

After turning back, I paid a visit to Donnington Castle.

And a view of Newbury from the top of the hill. I admit it's not as exciting as the view on top of Mt Eden back in my home town of Auckland, New Zealand, but it's a pleasant view nonetheless. There is the odd couple on the hill, probably waiting for a sunset or something.

Now it can be awkward to take pictures on the run, so I'm only going to take my camera along on my easier runs. I don't think it would be worthwhile to do it while running my guts out, or on the treadmill! ;-)

In other news, the Reading Half Marathon is exactly one month away. That would give me two more weeks of hard quality running (but not at the expense of more niggles in my hamstrings), and two weeks of easier stuff. I'm really aiming to do well in this event, so here's hoping I can give it my best. In addition, the Regional Director of my company has kindly transported my last running pair of shoes back over from Spain, the adidas adiSTAR Salvation. I'll be wearing this pair of shoes as wearing adidas gives me entry into their VIP tent, where I'll get a free massage and free food. Free stuff is always good, massages are great, and I'll happily eat all food after a race. Plus, I'm an adidas junkie.

Taking it easy (for now),

Aaron

What Music Do I Listen To?

Hey y'all,

Over the years I've mostly run without music. It was only relatively recently (beginning of 2009) that my iPod Touch now accompanies me on pretty much every run I do.

Since then, I've compiled a master playlist of songs on iTunes which I sync onto my iPod. On training runs, all I do is play the entire playlist on shuffle mode (obviously I don't go through the entire playlist, even on my longer runs), and I think it helps me greatly. The music, rhythm and lyrics gives some sort of boost psychologically, which somehow translates to a bigger effort.

In an event situation, I select a subset of songs that will last as long as my intended target time for the event. I often joke that if the playlist finishes I stop running. Actually I have enough songs on the playlist to last the target time, plus a little bit more in case I don't achieve it.

The majority of songs are pretty much hard sounding songs, with loud lyrics, guitars, solid beats... pretty much anything to bang your head to. Some songs have running overtones to them which pretty much gets everyone moving when they're played. However, last week, I decided to run with instrumental piano music as the run was supposed to be an easy recovery run. And it was actually quite refreshing from the norm of listening to harder-sounding songs. Accompanied with the scenery at the time (the sunset, the hills, the fields and the stream), it was the perfect experience.

As my master playlist is too large to mention, I've selected my favourites that will always make it in any running event I do. I've even supplied embedded links to the almighty YouTube.

Nightrain (Live Era '87-'93 version) - Guns N' Roses

My first song on the playlist, and the first song that Guns N' Roses play in their Live Era concert. Best lyrics: I'm on the nightrain. And I'm ready to crash an' burn.

Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

Probably the most clichéd song, but it's a damn good booster no matter how you're feeling. Best lyrics: I'm burning through the skies Yeah! Two hundred degrees That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit. I'm trav'ling at the speed of light I wanna make a supersonic man out of you.

Learn To Fly - Foo Fighters

Great thumping beat, overdriven guitar, just a great song to run to. The music video is hilarious too! Best lyrics: I'm looking to the sky to save me, Looking for a sign of life (sign of life), Looking for something to help me burn out bright.

Human - The Killers

This is probably the song that could keep me running on and on and on. If I put this song on repeat, I wonder how many miles I'd hammer out before I come to my senses! The drumbeat in the intro sounds like a heartbeat of a runner too. Best lyrics: Close your eyes, clear your heart, Cut the cord.

Verona - Elemeno P

Good old Kiwi punk rock. More overdriven guitar, pulsating bass, crashing drums, another great song to run to. Best lyrics: The entire song!

It's My Life - Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi have made some great songs, this is probably my favourite one to run to. The guy in the music video running en-route to the underground concert, and even running a part of the marathon, is a great effect! Best lyrics: The entire chorus!

Lose Yourself - Eminem

Eminem's best song. No matter what you think about him, he's very good at what he does. The first lines of the song about only having one shot just spurs me on. Best lyrics: The entire song, again!

99 Luftballons - Nena (Old Live Version)

I absolutely love this song, and it's even better in German. When I ran the Berlin Marathon last year, the start of the marathon was marked with the release of thousands of balloons into the Berlin sky. It immediately reminded me of this song. Unfortunately I cannot find the Old Live Version on YouTube, so I had to settle for this. Nena looks great for 50! Best lyrics: The entire song, again!

We Built This City On Rock And Roll - Starship

One of the best songs from the '80s. The best music year would have to be the '80s, you have to agree! Bring back the big hair!

Training Montage/Heart's On Fire - Rocky IV

Doesn't this training montage from Rocky IV make you want to train as hard as Rocky and Drago? I have huge respect for Stallone as an actor and an athlete. Some of the stuff he can pull off in that video is amazing! Though I'm not too keen on running in the snow though.

Well that's basically my best running songs. I'd be keen to hear yours so I can improve on my master playlist.

Enjoy!

Aaron

Training Week 11 Recap (& Happy Year of the Tiger)

Hi guys,

Firstly, I want to wish you all a Happy Year of the Tiger, and bid a small farewell to the Year of the Ox. As I mentioned before, I'm not a follower of horoscopes, but let me give my interpretation on how these animals have shaped my approach to running.

To me, the Ox symbolises hard work and perseverance. 2009 in general was a year of hard yards to get my running up to a solid level. I think that has allowed me to set a solid foundation for myself to achieve my sporting goals. Now it's a new year, a new animal and a new set of characteristics. The tiger symbolises boldness, courage and confidence, and I'll need this in order to raise my running to even higher levels, the level I need to be at to break three hours.

But anyway, let's cut to the chase. Here's a recap of week 11.

Tuesday

Type: Intervals.

Time and Distance: 60 mins, 12.7 km.

Detail: 10 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 6 x 1600m at 14.1 - 14.6 km/h pace, with 2 mins recovery at 8 km/h pace.

Thursday

Type: Intervals.

Time and Distance: 25 mins, 5.2 km.

Detail: 5 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 10 x 1 min repetitions. 5 x 17 km/h pace, 2 x 17.5 km/h pace, 3 x 18 km/h pace, with 1 min recovery at 8 km/h pace.

Saturday

Type: Long.

Time and Distance: 133 mins 48 secs, 26.2 km.

Detail: First half at 69 mins. Second half at 64 mins 48 secs.

Sunday

Type: Easy.

Time and Distance: 48 mins 4 secs, 8.7 km.

Detail: Recovery run after Saturday's long run.

Total Weekly Distance: 52.8 km.

Comments: Despite the drop in weekly mileage, this week picked up the intensity in most of my runs, with only one easy effort done this afternoon. I'm very happy with my long run effort, picking up from my 18 km last week. 26.2 km is the longest distance I've run since Berlin last September, and it was pleasing to get through that long run without any problems and in a solid time too. I'm also quite happy with the intervals as well. So I'm looking forward to upping the ante next week!

Improvements: Same as before, just harder, faster and longer.

There's only five weeks to go to the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday 21st March, so I'm eager to pick up the training from now on to peak for this event. However, with Reading and Berlin being the races to peak for this year, it's easy to lose focus on the other races I'll be running, like the Rotterdam Marathon on Sunday 11th April, which is only 8 weeks away!!! Though I'm only running Rotterdam as a glorified training long run, I'm glad to have picked up my long run this week to give me some degree of reassurance that I can complete Rotterdam! :-)

Because of this momentary lapse in focus, I've been busy the past few days trying to organise my annual leave for this year, as well as organising itineraries. This includes searching for the best deals in flights, accommodation and activities to do in these cities. So if you've been to Rotterdam or anywhere in Holland, I would appreciate any suggestions on worthwhile activities or sights in the city. At the moment I'm only looking into Rotterdam (still haven't booked the flights and accommodation yet), but I know that I should pull my finger out and finalise the rest of the cities as soon as possible. Now I know why elite athletes have managers and a team of people behind them, so that they can handle this kind of boring stuff while the elite athlete concentrates on their training. I wonder if my parents would be able to take on some of this for me! ;-)

Slightly panicky for now,

Aaron

The Gym Way or The Highway

Hi runners,

I've been reviewing my past training runs over the last year and noted that a lot of my running had been done on the treadmill in a gym. A couple of runners I know personally loathe running on the treadmill for various reasons, and at one stage I was curious to know whether treadmill running is better than road running.

There's a lot of talk on the subject on which is better, with differing opinions from everyone. I'm probably not helping in adding my opinion amongst the many others. What I can say is that it comes with my experience, it is how I train personally, and it is what applies to me. And I think it has helped me become a better runner at the end of it all.

I have to say that I love running on the treadmill. When I moved back to the UK, I was fortunate to get access to a treadmill at work. The treadmill allows me to run at a certain pace for a certain time, and it also allows me to adjust the incline when I want. I've only started running on the treadmill when I was preparing for the Reading Half Marathon last year, and I felt that it has yielded a lot of benefit to my running.

Because of the controlled pace that the belt moves, I can choose a certain pace on the treadmill and train against that pace for a particular period of time. When running on the road it's quite difficult to know exactly how fast you run and/or how long you're running for (which springs to mind, does a Garmin Forerunner or other fancy device do this for you?).

The cold English winter, or any inclement weather, doesn't make running particularly enjoyable, especially when you can be more prone to illnesses. Treadmill running can be the perfect substitute for road running if conditions aren't that ideal.

Finally the treadmill surface, and the impact, is a little more forgiving than the road. For me there's always that assurance that you're not wasting your knees running on a treadmill, as opposed to hitting the asphalt or the concrete.

Treadmill running does have its disadvantages. The most obvious is that it doesn't model racing at all, whereas running on the road does. Your biomechanics on the treadmill will be different to running on the road. Try running on both surfaces and you'll find that it feels "different". This explains why some people find it harder to run on the treadmill than on the road.

For me, I try to balance my running carefully between the treadmill and the road so that I am used to both. But I always reserve my faster efforts for the treadmill, i.e. I don't do many of my easy runs on the treadmill. I think for specific types of speed work the treadmill is ideal.

For a more scientific explanation (and more) of what I've tried to say earlier, you can read this interesting article.

Best,

Aaron

Training Week 10 Recap

Hi guys,

I'm now back in the UK. I was a bit worried that the move between countries would disrupt my running, but fortunately I've managed to run 5 days this week and I've even found a treadmill to do my faster running on. And I guess they have been pretty high quality. Here's a recap of week 10.

Tuesday

Type: Easy.

Time and Distance: 43 mins 18 secs, 7.6 km.

Wednesday

Type: Easy.

Time and Distance: 47 mins 8 secs, 8.95 km.

Thursday

Type: Intervals.

Time and Distance: 50 mins, 10.3 km.

Detail: 20 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 4 x 1600m at 15.0, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 km/h pace, followed by 2 mins at 8.0 km/h pace for recovery.

Saturday

Type: Easy.

Time and Distance: 103 mins, 18 km.

Sunday

Type: Easy.

Time and Distance: 79 mins, 15.5 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 60.35 km.

Comments: A very good week, despite the disruption. This week was slim on speed work, as the majority of my running have been easy mileage builders, as well as exploring the parts of the town where I could do my running. I've found the perfect route to do my longer/easier running so I'll be adding those in. The interval session was very hard. I may have to drop the pace a little.

Improvements: I'm hoping that I can extend my long run this weekend to around the 25 km mark, or 2 hours 15 minutes. Hopefully no snow forecast this week. I'm also mindful about looking after myself too. I'm feeling quite sore in my legs, and being winter here I'm also mindful about falling ill, which I can't really afford at this time.

There's only six weeks to go to the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday 21st March. In reality, six weeks of training only allows me four weeks of very hard effort and two weeks of easy effort or taper, so that's not a lot of time available! As I've blogged before, I'd love to break 1:30:00 this time, but whether I can pull that off will be a different story. I'd be stoked if I could, as that will give me a positive indicator of how my overall training is going.

Still soldiering on,

Aaron

Back "Home"

Well.....

I'm back in the UK now. My time in Spain ended prematurely, a brief chapter in life which, after a lot of thought, I chose to end. It wasn't a decision taken lightly, but given the circumstances I knew it was the right decision. It was also a painful decision, because it creates the perception that I am a quitter. But in my mind, and to those who know me well, I hate quitting and would never give up so easily.

Let me be clear in saying that I don't regret the whole Spain experience. I learned a new language and experienced a different culture and lifestyle. I enjoyed the food there and developed many new favourites, such as paella and the various tapas dishes. I had the chance to live in Spain for three months, something I never dreamed of when I first came to the UK. I worked with a great team of people, probably one of the best I've worked with. It was pretty gut-wrenching to let them know my final decision; I felt that I let the team down and I didn't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy working with them.

So why did I decide to throw in the towel?

One of the things I struggled with was the fact that I wanted to stay in the UK long term. When I was first asked to go to Spain I was very reluctant to leave the UK. It was only when I had a second talk with the manager that the work situation at the time was grim. This basically convinced me that I had to go. I slowly accepted it and, with the blessing of a few good people, I attempted to make Spain my new home.

Relocation is never easy. And I'm afraid that the stress of relocation got the better of me here. One thing I didn't mention earlier was the visa I needed to remain in Spain for work purposes. Obtaining a visa is a complicated process; I've been through the process before when trying to get a visa to live in the UK.

However it seems that the Spanish visa is 10 times more complicated and involved than any other process I've been through. To make things worse, I was already in Spain trying to organise my own application. The entire situation was just poorly handled and had the word "dodgy" written all over it. So it was no surprise to me that when I turned up at the Spanish consulate for my appointment, they advised me bluntly that I had insufficient documentation.

I was livid and fuming. It took me three months to arrange everything for this appointment, and to be declined on the spot was a massive blow. I was left to pick up the pieces and start all over again. The worst thing was that since I was in Spain during this trying period, I had nearly used up all my 90 days and I was not allowed to remain in the country any longer until I had a visa granted to me. It felt like I had wasted my days away in Spain injudiciously.

When I told my manager about my latest setback, he had an interesting proposition. Return to the UK. I was all ears. There was new work in the UK and they could use some extra hands and heads. It was all very tempting. But I immediately thought about the team in Spain, the relationship I had built with the team, and what I had worked hard towards. What was I going to say to them? How would they react? Who would replace me at this crucial time?

After a few days of thinking, I realised that I had to ask myself what was important to me. And I believed that I'd be better off living in the UK. Everything I had, from my bank account to my doctor, was based in the UK. It would be easier for me to access vital services in the UK because I don't have a language barrier to deal with. Learning Spanish is very important if you need to live there, but to be completely honest I never intended to learn Spanish, and to do so would require me to devote time to studying the language. I just wasn't prepared to do this. The best I could do was to listen to educational podcasts, but that can only take you so far. Plus I had already made a commitment to my running, and I wasn't prepared to cut back my running for the sake of learning a language.

Running is a part of my life. I believe that as a runner, I would be better off in the UK. I'd look after myself better as a runner, I'd have more places to run, and I can get to the events I am doing more easily from the UK than from Spain. Running is very important to me and to get the most out of it I think living in the UK would help.

So now, I'm back in the UK, and I'm trying to settle in again. Packing up and moving is very painful and it's something I hope I don't repeat again very soon. At the moment I'm staying in an apartment in Newbury, which is around 20 minutes by train to Reading, the town I used to live in before I moved. Ideally I want to live in Reading again. I only hope to find a place as good, if not better, as the one I shared with Tina, my former housemate and now good friend. I hope to see her again someday.

So now it's a new chapter all together. Around a year ago, I was struggling with whether I should move to Spain or stay in the UK. In the end I listened to my head and moved to Spain. Unfortunately it didn't last as long as I had hoped, and now I'm back where I left off previously. I'm not going to say that I should have followed my heart as that would have denied me the privilege of going to Spain and experiencing new things.

But it's interesting to see who prevailed in the end.

Back in the UK

Hi all,

I'm now back in the UK! Unfortunately I'm afraid updates may be less frequent as I don't have suitable Internet access in my apartment, i.e. my laptop cannot connect to the Internet, but my iPod can. I prefer not to write blog entries on my iPod if I can help it.

The good news is that a very good mate of mine, Shaun, is in the UK on assignment for a number of weeks, and I'm staying with him in the same apartment. Shaun has kindly brought over my favourite energy gels from New Zealand, which I've basically sworn to for as long as I've been running marathons. Also he's a runner too, and he's keen to join me on my training runs. Having run a handful of halves, he's yet to step up to the marathon, but I'm working on that!

Finally George Anderson, a running coach who happens to be based in or near Reading, has started tweeting, and he's managed to find me on Twitter! George offers a lot of running advice to beginners and advanced runners and is a wealth of running knowledge. Having started an online community for runners training specifically for the Reading Half Marathon, I've been following George online since I started training for this event last year. George is still involved in this year's event in March, and again will be the pace setter for any runner wanting to complete the distance in 1:30:00 or less. I'd like to break 1:30:00 in the half this year; I hope to keep up with him, even if he has to carry me over the finish line... but that finish time won't count, would it.

TTFN,

Aaron