Nearly half way and the hydration pack test

Serendipity strikes again… As part of my training for the Brighton Marathon, I’m running the Water of Life Half Marathon tomorrow in Bisham Abbey. By total fluke, tomorrow is also the day I pass the half way stage of my 365 day challenge. To date I have ran 182 days consecutively and tomorrow takes me over the magic 183 mark – a nice way to celebrate I hope.

As part of my marathon training plan, I’ve also been looking into how to stay hydrated on longer runs and so this week I bought one of these Innov-8 waist hydration packs.

As opposed to backpack hydration systems, this sits around your middle in a bum bag with the liquid inside, sitting in the  lumbar of your back, supposedly making it easier to carry. A pipe comes out that when you bite on it, it releases liquid for you to drink.

I took it out this morning to check out whether it was worth trying in tomorrow’s race but soon came to the conclusion that it’s not… for one thing, you have to pull it all quite tight to stop it the water inside from splashing around, for another, finding a place to put the pipe is quite complex.

At first I had it coming through the inside of my tee shirt and out of the neck but soon got fed up of it flapping across my face with every step and ended up pulling it out and tucking it in the belt itself.

Given it carries two litres of liquid, it’s also bloody heavy… I’ll definitely use it on long training runs but for racing it’s out… There should be enough marshalls on the race itself to keep me hydrated.

See you at tomorrow’s half way point.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 546
Miles to date: 712.98

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One forward and two back

I was feeling pretty good after yesterday’s run… hardly any pain at all, which saw me forgo my evening session of icing the bits that hurt: big mistake as when I went out this morning, I felt stiffer than I have all week to the point where I had to leave the on-road route I was going to do and head over to the softer ground on Norbury Park for some relief.

My running shades have come though and I tried them out on the run and they seem to be pretty good. You shouldn’t really run in regular sunglasses, they’ll just steam up, but running or sports glasses have small openings at the top of the lens to stop this from happening. The last thing you need is to not see where you’re going.

I’d looked around and searched the internet for advice and most people tended to think, the higher priced you go, the better the quality. I got a pair of these cheap DHB ones from Wiggle – just £15,99 each and I cant think why people would want to spend any more: they keep the sun out, are lightweight, UV treated and, crucially, non slip. What else do you need?

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 540
Miles to date: 706.56

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Trying to plan ahead to the upcoming races

After yesterday’s mammoth, I left it till the early evening to go out and run today, which is a shame as after a lovely sunny day, it was getting chilly again.

I decided to run Streatham Common to get some hills back into the training and actually felt surprisingly good though, naturally, a little stiff. At about 1.7 miles I had a bit of a scare when my right knee just locked up but I stopped for a minute, stretched it out and it was fine. Cramp around the knee? That’s a new one.

I’ve also not mentioned much about nutrition on here (other than the occasional hangover run!) but I am trying my best in the run up to the upcoming Water Of Life Half Marathon at Bisham Abbey this weekend and the Brighton Marathon in five weeks. One of the things I have introduced after most runs is a smoothie: half pint of milk, a banana, punnet of blueberries and a scoop of Maximuscle Promax protein shape all go into the blender… I figure it’s got carbs, protein and antioxidants in spades and doesn’t taste half bad either.

I’ve also been indulging in my running consumerism ahead of the race. With the sun out yesterday, i had a few of those bits where when you walk or run past a fence, it has a strobe affect and no I’ve ordered some cheapish running sunglasses from Wiggle to try out… I also ordered a hydration pack that stores about 2 litres of fluid in a bum bag with a hose to drink from during long runs.

I’m not sure how much use it will get but running with a bottle, either in hand or in a belt is a pain. The hydration pack should, theoretically, sit in the lumbar of the back making it easier to carry. I’ll let you know how it fares when it turns up.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 531
Miles to date: 697.56

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here