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I’ve been putting off updating my blog because today was the test, the proof of the pudding, Blackpool marathon. I went with my latest trainers. Nike were having a sale of the original, benchmark, super trainers so I thought I’d give them a go. They don’t spin my legs up but they are very springy and the reviewers said they leave you feeling fresh at the 20 mile mark so you can start to push on. I only got them last week, when I was already in taper, so I was taking a gamble on them as I hadn’t tried them over any distance. Weird looking things, but feather light and very springy. Since ASICS have messed their sizing up I’ve gone from one pair of trainers at a time for all these years to this: Anyway, it was all or nothing today. I was after a 3 hours 15, but I’ve been nervously watching the weather forecast all week and it’s been “windy with very windy gusts”. It was along the seafront at Blackpool, it’s nothing but gusts. The final verdict this morning. The race was supposed to start at 09.00. That’s tough running weather. 13 to 17 mph winds, gusts of 21 to 27 mph. Tough. This is what 27mph gust looked like yesterday. I was not looking forward to it. I set off quite fast but got tachycardia within the first mile. I wasn’t expecting that. I wanted to run through it, but I just couldn’t. I had to stop for 2 minutes to get it settled. First mile. What a bummer. I got back to it and worked my way through the pack. The wind was killer for about 6 miles in one direction, and you had to do it twice. Tough, tough. I gritted my teeth and pushed on. I finished in 3.16:59. That’s with the two minutes lost to tachycardia, and against awful winds. I’m well pleased with that. It was only a small field of runners (355 for the marathon) but I finished ahead of the first woman runner (that’s never happened before), 41st overall, and third in my age group. An age group podium! Me! That was a good day’s work. And very encouraging for my goal of a sub 3. In other running news, someone on Twitter just did the Manchester to Liverpool ultra. A 50 mile race between the two. And posted pictures of himself on Latchford locks. I’m far too easily lead. A few hours later I’d signed up to next year’s race. So I’d better smash this sub 3 pretty quick to get on to distance training. My new training plan has arrived from Camille (the woman who’s setting all the records). I wanted to try her plan because mine has no easy days. Modern thinking is all about 80/20, 80% really easy, 20% flat out. My plan has no easy. It clearly works, but I’m worried it’s smashing my body too hard. Overtraining just leads to burn […]

Hi Don and Margaret, Here’s a few tips. ‘Phone: Take the rubber case off. Where my thumb is, there is a hole. Get the pin from the box (I’ve put it on the charger plug) Put the pin in the hole and press. Your sim card tray will pop out. Lay it down the way it came out so you know it goes in that way up. The tray has one corner cut off, so the sim card can only fit one way. Put your old sim in and replace it. If it says something like “no sim card detected” that probably means the card is dead and you need a new one. If not, credit it and you’re good to go. Next you want to start setting up your ‘phone. Wifi. With the power on, and screen unlocked (button on the side in the middle, then swipe the screen up) put your finger on the bottom of the screen and drag it up. Somewhere on the page will be a cog looking icon which is settings. If not, swipe to the side until you see it. Tap it and you get a menu. Tap Connections. It will show you some toggle switches. Slide the wifi one off (to the left) Then back to the right and it will look for wifi connections. The top one should be yours. Here is the one from our house (don’t use it) Tap on the top one, if it’s yours, It will try to connect. It should ask you for a password Which you can find on the back of your router. Be very careful to enter the correct upper and lower case letters. There is an up arrow on the keyboard to get an upper case letter. Press that then the letter. If it stays in upper case press it again. Enter it and it should say you are connected. Gmail. Go into the Gmail envelope and enter your email address. Then password. It will ask for verification. Ask it to send it to a device you are already signed into (your computer). When you get the email, open it and click “this is me” or whatever. Then you are signed in. Then swipe up again and look for Playstore (a sideways pointing triangle) Tap on that and possibly sign in again. In the search bar at the top type in Duolingo Tap on the green one at the top. Then install, open, and select your language (Klingon. Or Spanish. Up to you.) And you’re in. Another one from the playstore is Whatsapp. Then we can send you videos and you can get in on Wendy’s church stuff. Telly. That’s just a matter of plugging that cable I gave you into the side of the computer (in the right sized slot, obviously) and in the back of the telly. The only trick is going through the sources on your telly remote to find the computer. The other thing is to plug that […]

Week 1: I’ve been off this week as Don and Margaret are staying with us. It got me confused so I did the actual plan days (Saturday/ Sunday) instead of doing them on Sunday/ Monday. I only realised today (Sunday) so I’ve accidentally missed a day’s training. Not sure how, but that’s 7 fail days on this cycle, now. By the end of last week my knees were hurting pretty badly so I’ve gone into taper this week. I wanted to test and set my Half time but it’ s been blowing a gale. Yesterday the plan said 8-10K race. I set off for a fast 10K, and even though it was quite windy I was battering it, so I carried on for a Half. Absolutely smashed it! 1.29:09! Battered the sub 1.30 with 50 seconds to spare! Happy bunny. That’s sub 3 pace for half the distance now. It didn’t feel too awful. It wasn’t like a 5K race, where you are dying and hanging on by your fingernails, it was managed and just hard. I think a lot of it is down to calories. I’ve been gorging the whole week. Definitely taking that onboard for race prep. Today the plan was long fast run. 16 miles at mara pace +10- 20%. After yesterday’s heroics I was happy to scrape the bare minimum 8.12m/m, but I did it at 7.53. That will do Donkey, that will do. Oh, and missing a day has put me in sych with the plan so I can taper exactly for Blackpool in 2 weeks.

This is another boring running blog, but really that’s about all I’m doing. I’m still looking for the Goldilocks super trainer. I got told, and the reviews agreed, that the Adidas one was the way to go. Cheapest of the super trainers, wide fit, and a genuine rival for the all conquering Nike. I got a pair. Weird things. But the reviewers, and people on twitter, said they felt odd until you gave it beans then suddenly they all came together. Only one way to find out. I don’t know if it’s because I set off too fast, was too ambitious with my pace, or if I didn’t have the fitness to maintain the pace for the distance, but the trainers just didn’t feel ‘super’. They just felt like normal trainers. I’m hoping it was just me, and that I can adjust. By the end of the 20 miles I was done in. My pace had dropped until it was all I could do to keep it near 8m/m, and if I’d have had another 6 miles (which is what the training is all about) I reckon I’d have been walking. I finished 20 miles at 7.30 m/m, so a new 20 mile PB, but very discouraging. Then the weirdest thing. I had one day, which went to two, then three, where I lost my dieting mojo and kept shoving sweet stuff down my neck. Work called me just as I was getting up to go running on Wednesday with a shift starting an hour or so later. They shut the motorway so it turned into an 11 hour 45 minute shift, back in work 9 hours later, so no run that day. Fail. Then on Thursday I was tired and a bit weak, and on my gluttony binge, so I just got in from work and inhaled all the calories. Another run fail day. This morning I was off, supposed to be a run rest day, but I thought I’d better claw one run back from my fail list. I got up and was cleaning my teeth, when I suddenly thought “Should I just sack this sub 3 off?” It was totally unexpected, the first time I’ve even thought it since taking on the challenge. For a second it was really tempting. Take it easy, don’t kill myself training, trough all the calories. Then I started to panic. That is a really dangerous state for me. I get wild enthusiasms, pursue them single-mindedly until I lose interest, then I don’t want anything to do with them. I threw on my running kit and went for a run. The plan said to do 8 miles with 5x 600m at 5K pace. I took that to mean ‘do 8 miles and include a 5K race’ (because I’ve been wondering how my fitness is for a while, and I wanted to test it on a 5K/ 3.1 mile race). The benchmark time is sub 20 minutes. When I was fit and practicing […]

I’ve had an eventful week. I realised my ASICS trainers weren’t going to break in, and that ASICS have totally changed the sizing of the shoes I’ve been getting every time for the last 11 years. Marvelous. After I’ve splashed out on two pairs. I’ll still get my miles out of them, but I need to rest my feet in between using them. I started looking at “super trainers”,( with a plate in the sole and springy foam, like that guy used to break the 2 hour marathon). They aren’t made specifically for wide feet but some will do. I got these beasts. Saucony Endorphin Speed 2. Which is a mouthful. To quote from my running blog entry: “Today was the first huge test of the plan. It said to run 15 miles, with 12 of them at race pace. That would be 6.45 – 6.50m/m, I am nowhere near that. My best to date was 6 miles at 7.20, which near killed me. I tried out my Sauconys for the first time. They were a bit tight and uncomfortable but I looked at my watch on the first, coasting, warm up mile, and I was doing 8.02, not even trying. The second mile I started running. I was going for a fast, but sustainable pace, nothing drastic. Looked at my watch again, 6.36! OK, looks like I’m putting up with uncomfortable trainers! To make my training tougher I’ve stopped going down the canal (dead flat, obvs) and am heading out to St Helens. After 4½ miles it gets some proper hills. So one mile warm up, 12 miles flat out, with 5 of them being hills, then 2 miles jogging it off. I got back and looked at my stats. Fastest ever 10K Fastest ever 10 miles Fastest ever half marathon Fastest ever 15 miles. Bearing in mind the first 3 PBs had a mile of warm up in them and the last one had all 3 miles of easy trotting. Wow. Just wow. My time for the 12 miles was 1.24:10, so a smidge under 7.01 m/m. With 5 miles of hills! OK, still got a long way to go, but let me bask in the moment for a minute. I’ve gone from the plan’s first week long run (dead flat down the canal) of 12 miles, couldn’t hold the pace, averaged at 8.14 m/m, to 12miles, (5 hills) within a 15 mile run, at 7.01 m/m, in 8 weeks.” That fantastic high was followed by a huge low. It was my first go of those trainers, and when you are going flat out they really favour forefoot striking. So I was racing flat out up, and more worryingly, down hills just on my toes, with no support for the rest of my foot, ankle, leg, knee… It’s not my running style and I’ve not built up the right support muscles. I had a bad pain in the side of my knee. Just like after Chester marathon, where […]