It was always going to be impossible to avoid the Olympics in my home town, unless I was going to go away for three weeks (not that I didn’t think about it), but in the end I have had such a great time going. I have been to the dressage in Greenwich Park and the swimming finals and the ladies water polo in the Olympic Park. I won tickets to go to the new Wembley to see the football between South Korea and Gabon but gave them away to a friend. And on top of that, there is alway the motivation factor.
I like to move it move it…
Team GB has been doing so well, with the wonderful Jessica Ennis blitzing her way to heptathlon gold, and my nemisis (a joke really as he just happens to have run the charity runs I did) Mo Farah taking the 10,000. Hell, even the grumpy Scot Andy Murray is a double medal winner.
Stepping up…
I have changed my running routine. I was following this (roughly):
- Monday to Friday run twice, at least a day apart, for 1 hour 15 mins
- Weekend, Saturday if I ran on Thursday, Sunday if I ran Friday, for 1 hour 30 mins
On these occasions I would run FARTLEK, varying my running according to the playlist from walking at 5 KPH, to running at 10 KPH, then slowing and walking again. I started with one song of each, but then moved on to 3 songs at 10, then one walking, then 3 at 10 etc.
But now, well, Friday and Sunday, I have stepped it up a bunch. On these days I ran:
- Completely varied FARLEK run but, rather than slowing to a walk between tempo periods, I slowed to a 8.5 jog. I also upped the faster running pace to 11 for some periods, 12 for other and somehow ran inside my time for the BUPA London 10K back in May (1:07)
Now, for you pro-runners out there this is a terrible time, but running in the restrained confines of a treadmill at my outdoor pace is HUGE. I have often considered the treadmill as a time and distance trainer, while speed is achieved outdoors. I also think that I only run to 75-80% of my potential on the treadmill, as you are naturally scared of tripping and falling off and then flying backwards, and you cannot run at full pelt as the barriers around squeeze you in. So, all in all, I am very happy with this progress.
BTW the second of those runs was completed as the Olympic women’s marathon took place. It was very inspirational, especially as it was taking place a couple of blocks south of the gym. Being so close, and seeing it on the big TV ahead of me pushed me on. I cannot wait for the next race, the BUPA Great Yorkshire 10K in Sheffield on the
2nd of September to see how I get on.
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