1250 miles down and off to Frankfurt

Just a quick update as I’m off to Frankfurt for a couple of days to a conference but today I clocked up my 1250th mile…. not bad going.

The run took me from home, around Tooting Common and back through Streatham where I picked some money up from the bank for the trip. On the way, I decided to cheerily greet every runner I passed to see how many responded. I passed eight on the way… only two bothered to even respond. What happend to the runner’s union?

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 5.5
Target: 927
Miles to date: 1,250.33

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Bleeding feet after 13 miles in the heat

With the bike knackered and most of the trains from Streatham into town down, I decided the only way to get to my personal training class was to run in.

It’s about 6.7 miles from here to there so I figured run in in the morning and run back in the afternoon. To do this, I used a new backpack I bought a couple of weeks ago that I have been using when I cycle into town. It’s a really nice piece of kit by Deuter called the Race EXP Air that also takes a hydration pack in it but can also fit a proper change of clothes in too.

So off I set, a little weighed down by books for the course, the water pack and my kit and a little hot thanks to it being another boiling day in this very un-English summer.

Getting to Bankside gym where my course takes place was not a problem but after a day spent demonstrating resistance machines in readiness for my next assessment, coming back was.

It had got much warmer, the return is almost exclusively uphill and I’ve decided I went half a size too small on my latest new pair of Brookes Adrenalines.

True Blood

After a mile or two, I was beginning to regret running back and several times came close to sticking my hand out for one of the many busses that come between Elephant and Castle, which is near the gym, back into Streatham.

Something told me to keep ploughing on though, despite niggling pains in my right shin and ever tightening glutes.

I eventually got home, doing 13.6 miles in a little over two hours for both legs. A good 20 minutes outside my personal best for a 13 miler but one that I’ll take given I was more weighed down.

When I took my shoes off, I had a bleeding toe and blister all over the shop… not a pretty site as you can see.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 13.6
Target: 885
Miles to date: 1,179.21

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

1150th mile

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 4.2
Target: 873
Miles to date: 1,150.81

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

You run 1095 miles and then can’t even get a beer

Runner's Glee Club: Andy, David, Irene, me, James, Pete and Carl at the end of the run

So this morning I gathered with my little Glee Club of running to head on a circuit of Hyde Park to go past the 1095 mile minimum mileage point that I set myself when starting to run daily back on September 20 last year.

On day 280 of the challenge, my fellow runners included David, James, Irene, Carl, Pete, Andy and Will and we set off to do a huge figure of eight around Hyde Park at around 10am this morning, passing the magic mark two miles into the 5mile run with a very English stifled round of applause while running.

Given it was approaching 25 degrees and Will hadn’t run for a while, he left us around the 2.5 mile mark to head to the start but the rest of us started as a bunch and finished as a bunch on what was a really lovely run.

Questionable refuelling? Not us

While I still have 85 days to run to complete running for exactly a year, I am now actually averaging 3.92 miles a day and am a whopping 258 miles ahead of target!

Post run, we decided to head for some liquid refreshment into nearby Shepherd Market. But despite a proliferation of five boozers in an area four streets by two, none of them were open until noon and none of us fancied hanging around for almost an hour.

James thanked the Lord for creating beer

Luckily, one little pavement breakfast café was open and, after we had to ask a couple to move and we moved another table on (possibly down to the whiffy smell) we settled down to a cold one with a couple of us tucking into bacon butties and bacon and egg as an added refueling measure. It was an Ice Cold In Alex moment – and I can’t thank the guys enough for joining me to do it.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 5.27
Target: 840
Miles to date: 1,098.31

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Oh, the pain

So I had a good work out in the gym yesterday and started a new programme that builds on core strength. After weighted squats and bench presses, I also had to do power cleans which look a little like this.

Of course the result, after doing no serious resistance exercises on my legs for a while was that my legs were as stiff as buggery this morning.

As a result, I hobbled round,  especially for the first mile or so. On top of that, it was really, really hote and after about a mile and a half, I really needed the loo.

To top it all, I got home and Laura was only half way through getting showered. By the time I got in the shower, I was dripping in sweat and could hardly walk,

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 831
Miles to date: 1,087.04

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Back to the treadmill and 11 miles to go

So I’ve realised I’ve become a bit of a running bore. I was at an Enjoy England do last night, someone asked me how the running was going and that was it… I was off for a good hour or so, trying to convince all and sundry to come and run the Brighton Marathon next year (which I’ve signed up for by the way; if I get into London too, I’ll have two marathons in a week!).

Today’s run was a pretty perfunctory one in the gym in Streatham with a particularly horrible episode of Jeremy Kyle for company. Some couple from Crawley had been on holiday and she was convinced he was sneaking out in the night to the burger bar, where he was having an illicit affair – oh the glamour.

Anyway, it seemed she was completely loopy, was a huge pothead and also violent ‘I only attack him after four pints of cider and two bottles of wine’ was her justification. It’s not often I’d take the bloke’s side in a domestic but his nose bore testamony to the pint glass she’d smashed him on the head with!

Just 11 miles to go to hit 1095… do I change the name of the site when I still have more than 80 days to run to complete the year?

If you want to join me on Saturday – there are about ten of us running so far – here are the details:

We’ll be meeting under the big arch thing (Wellington Arch) at Hyde Park Corner at 10am.

You can see the route by clicking here … it’s a five miler.

We’ll head up from HPC to Marble Arch, cut along the top of the path, go diagonally down the through road and along the south side of the park to Kensington.

From here its up past Kensington Palace and along Bayswater Road before going back down the diagonal and back to the starting point.

We should be done for opening time and a couple of shandies in a Shepherd Market boozer!

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for details of the run

Miles today: 3
Target: 828
Miles to date: 1,084.04

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Some days inspiration is lacking, in more ways than one

There are some days where I have little inspiration to run. The sheer monotony of getting up, putting kit on and getting out can be a reaaaaaaaaal drag. Usually, nine tenths of the battle is getting out the door.

Once I’m out, I’m out and if I can’t get in the ‘cruising’ zone – where I hardly think as I run – then I make sure I pass the time by thinking. I’ll do pretty much anything to pass a few more minutes- read number plates, try and spot certain cars, guess what pedestrians do for a living, make top tens of things in my head. It’s pretty easy.

One area that is always difficult is trying to fine new things to write about. At times when running is eventful – I’m either training for a race, trying some new nutritional product, going a new route or moaning about being injured – then daily entries tend to write themselves.

At other times, serendipity can pop up – I’ll see something out on the run, a woman peeing or have a mishap, like getting caught short myself.
Then there are those days where there is NOTHING eventful about the run… and today was one of them. It was a bright day, not too hot or cold, no wind, I was fairly fast but not going at a massive clip and I saw nothing at all of any real interest. In short, nothing to report.

So, in an effort to find something to write about,  I checked where I am daywise and realised I am on day 271. On Sunday, I will be on day 274 – exactly 3/4 of the way through my 365 days of running….

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 3
Target: 813
Miles to date: 1,063.66

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Running with a pro

A bit of a boring run today… I felt quite tired and so took it pretty easy, just enjoying a little circuit around Norbury with a light jog rather than trying to rush it.

I’m quite excited by the possibility of running with Ben Moreau, who I’ve been introduced to through my pal Ben Maher – or at least I have by email and I’m hoping to set up a run with him.

Ben in action

Ben (Moreau that is) is a proper elite athlete who represents the UK at all sorts of levels. His times are pretty much twice as good as mine: 14 minutes as opposed to 24 for 5k and 2.16 as opposed to 3.45 for the marathon. It will be impossible to keep up with him but interesting to get an insight into the mind of an elite athlete.

Ben claims to not be a natural runner but to be someone who has worked hard at it. Not being the former, I’d love to know what he did to change that around.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 3.11
Target: 807
Miles to date: 1,057.66

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

It’s raining again…

… as Madness once sang.

Where I grew up in Greece there’s an old joke about someone going to London and it only raining twice: once for three days and once for four. And it felt like that a little today. Despite the summer being here and us having a week of sunshines, it’s grim again today and it was lashing down when I got up, only stopping a short while before I went out to run.

The ibuprofen and ice is obviously working on the knee and I even managed to pick up a bit of speed today. I can still feel it clicking but it is quite unbelievable sometimes how the body reacts and begins to heal itself. After the run its tending to stiffen up but the swelling there are the weekend has now totally gone. I’m hoping it’s a permanent recession…

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a Google Map and full details of the run

Miles today: 3.15
Target: 786
Miles to date: 1,031.32

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Earliest run, fastest time

I’m media training today and need to be in town by 7.30, so I’ve been up since 4.45 and hit the road ten minutes later.

It’s a gorgeous time to run when you do it so early. Hardly anyone is around,  no cars, just you, the odd street cleaner and the birds. The weather was gorgeous too… sun just up, not too hot, not too cold.. the result, on one of my most used runs to Norbury and back was a PB for a training three miles. I did the run in 24.30, that’s 8mins 10secs a mile – a pace I’ve only bettered when running the Leeds Half Marathon two weeks ago.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and full details of the run

Miles today: 3
Target: 720
Miles to date: 956.07

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here