Blogging kit

After my post about the appearance of the blog I thought it'd be an idea to introduce you to some of the kit I'm using to run this puppy.

First off, what am I writing this on?

Some of you might think that, being northern, I'm probably etching this onto a cave wall. Or, possible smearing my faeces onto leaves with a stick.

Oh how wrong you are!

And slightly racist.

Last time round I was using a HP tower that made so little impression on me I can't be bothered to check it's model name. Sadly, that passed away during the summer, after a popular mp3 player tried to kill me (battery went mad and blew the motherboard).

Some might say that that's a common reaction to knowing me, but I think that it should be limited to species capable of using cutlery.

So, I thought I'd be computerless for a while until I got a few quid for my birthday. One of the advantages of being this age (other than being young enough to listen to Xfm, but old enough to tut at "kids these days") is that no-one can think of what to buy you so you get cash instead.

With this I treated myself to an Acer Aspire One (Linpus edition) from Tesco (though paid more than in that link - bugger!).

It's pretty funky looking, tiny and does the basics - comes with FireFox and OpenOffice and I added Skype and the Gimp easily enough.

Only got 8Gb memory, but I'm not planning on using it for loads, and it takes a range of memory so can stick in another 8Gb or more easily enough.

Ideally I'll be using it to add pics from runs etc, but I've been using the Sony Ericsson w910i and it's fallen out with all computers for some reason, and the operating system has crashed a few times meaning I've lost loads of stuff from there.

That means I need to work out another way of getting pics on here. The Kodak Z650 I use is a bit too hefty to be lugged about on runs, so need some thought about how to resolve this.

I'm guessing it'll involve finding the funny adapting thingy for the memory card in my phone, but that will prob require looking for it, which is a pretty big ask for someone as lazy as me.

Though, thinking about it, that could be a way of changing the music I've had stuck on the phone for ages to have a bit more variety to the tracks I've been running to!

Cool, so not only is this blog a way of sharing my experience, it's a way for me to have arguments with myself that can resolve several issues I hadn't put under the same umbrella.

I don't actually have an umbrella, it's just a saying.

Don't get hung up on it.

I do not endorse running with an umbrella.

Unless, you want to.

Running blogs

Slight deviation from running for this post, as just somehow managed to publish a post I hadn't actually written anything on.

Made me realise that despite a slightly more it-literate background than a trained chimp, this is still a pretty basic set up.

After some pretty intense research, (ok, I Googled "Running blog") I found a few other examples.

Warrior Women came top and it looks pretty funky. Nice three column layout with some funky looking stuff on the side like Friendfeed (which I'm gonna have a proper look at to see if it's worth dabbling with). Nice graphics in the template too, which beats the pants off this.

I don't suppose the amazonian sounding name hurts the number of readers either, and I get the feeling there's some kind of womens empowered thing going on there, which is fair enough, but not really the kind of thing I could get away with.

A Runners Blog is, like mine, a blogger hosted one. Looks pretty simple, though for some reason it includes a review of running with a buggy (isn't it hard enough already?!) which even if got going now, wouldn't be legitimately possible before London next year.

Also, it's not updated particularly regularly, though there is a great big pic of the chap (Sean?) and lots of training programmes and updates which

Addicted to running is another not-too-often updated page, but seems well organised, and clearly (though hardly surprisingly) is more well informed about running than yours truly.

Will keep my eyes peeled for others, but I thought it'd be good to have a look at what else is going on out there.

Mostly it seems to be people who know what they're doing and who enjoy running - two categories I'm some way from falling into!

I'm not comparing this little corner of the blogosphere with anyone else, but it's good to see what others are doing.

I'm not really happy with the appearance of the blog, so I'm gonna spend a bit of time seeing what can be done. Will prob give it a splash of paint, and am considering pebbledashing the front, just to make it feel a bit more homely.

Ideas/suggestions welcomed!

Slowly, slowly...

Catchee... something.

Got out tonight for what I expcted would only be a couple of miles as I'm still erring on the side of caution, but, like the phenomenal athlete we all know I really am, managed a whole 3.3 miles!

In your face, leg! (if that's not too anatomically incorrect).

It was a bit of a spur of the moment run. Not that I was sat watching tv then suddenly found myself legging it towards the river. I was on way home and just thought "I'll just try to get a couple of miles under my belt".

Got in, got kit, got key, got running.

Simple.

Alright, it wasn't the quickest time of just over 8-minute miles, but I was consciously taking it relatively easy. Unlike last year when it took me ages to realise, it's dawned on me relatively quickly that I can actually keep running for a fairish amount of time if I don't overdo it.

So my short term aim is to build up the miles, without doing myself a mischief, then can start to address the utter lack of pace.

Learning from past mistakes

In the absence of any actual running yet, I thought it'd be an idea to have a look back at how I did last time, to see how I can improve.

The first, most blindingly obvious, point is that it's not easy to run a marathon when you're leg's screwed.

To get other, less obvious lessons, needs a bit of work.

One of the cool things about the London Marathon is the training chips you attach to your trainers to get split times around the course. These start the clock when you cross the start line, which is cool if you're stuck at the back as it can take half an hour or more to get over it and it'd be a bit harsh if you were timed from when the elite's set off.

On the downside, I can't use my starting position as an excuse for why it took so long!

As you're running/hobbling around, you run over sensors in the road at 5k intervals, halfway and the end. Pretty soon after, you can log onto the website to get a breakdown of your splits at these times.

The splits start ok-ish, I guess. The 5 and 10k's include a loo stop apiece, and the 15 and 20k's (when I felt I was running well) reflect the fact that because of the stops, I was stuck in the crowds, but was getting up to decent pace.

The 25k included a stop to say hello to family, the crowded bit around London Bridge and heading towards Docklands.

After that, it all went very wrong.

If you took my first half split of 2:15.35 and projected even halves I'd have been done in about 4:30. If you take out the piss stops and the fact the crowds eased the nearer the end, there was a good chance I was gonna hit 4:15 or less, which I would have been chuffed to bits with!

Sadly, the second half took nearly 40 minutes longer than the first, and my mile pace rose from 10:21 for the first 13.1 miles, to 13:20 in the second, giving me an average of 11:51 per mile overall. That doesn't sound a lot, but when you multiply it over the many miles, it makes a big difference,

I was hoping for just shy of 10 minutes miles, so to be two minutes a mile slower than I wanted, over 26.2 miles, is pretty crap.

I didn't hit the wall last time – mainly because my knackered leg meant I couldn't run hard enough to burn up all the carbs I'd loaded up on beforehand.

That's a plus, as I now know the carb loading, and the long runs in the training, did prepare me pretty well. I also discovered that trying to run 26.2 miles through London on a knackered knee is pretty dumb.

So, the first few lessons are:

• don't run injured
• don't drink too much before the race
• try to stay out of the crowds
• build long runs into the training
• eat a diet composed almost entirely of pasta

The second sounds easy, but at the start, you're trying to keep hydrated, there's nerves, and free tea and Lucozade. I'm from Yorkshire so it's against my genetic programming to turn down free stuff.

Especially tea!

The third could be more problematic as your starting position is dictated by your predicted time.

I'll not tell you what I put down yet, but it's based on my best pace from training last time, so with some injury-free luck and the extra weeks of training this time, that could be an underestimate, but eminently doable.

Long runs are a pain, as it means getting up early on a Sunday morning, during winter months, and running for potentially three hours. Not my idea of fun at a weekend, and visiting family and friends or stag do's can make it easy to think that you could just skip them.

So I need to be more disciplined about them, and remember that these are the ones that'll actually make it easier on the day. Though thinking that at 6am on a frosty Sunday morning when the duvet calls isn't something I relish.

As for pasts, I got sick of it last time. Yeah there are other carbs – spuds, rice etc, but it can get dull. So, please send recipes to the usual address...

I have a cunning plan...

By my reckoning, I've got 28 weeks and 2 days until it's game time.

I think last year I had about 16 weeks or so, so the extra time means I'm obviously hoping to be better prepared this time around.

The extra time also means I'll have to do a lot more running, which I'm sure some people will appreciate aint exactly my idea of fun.

But needs must, so if I want to do better this time around, and get this monkey off my back, it needs me to knuckle down and get the training going.

So, looking at my tweaked schedule I've gotta try a 6 miler on Sun, and try to get in three 5-milers and an 8 next week.

Now, this might seem a lot, but I need to be getting my body back used to regular running, so it knows when it's got to do funky stuff like make my legs work again after a 17-miler further down the line.

The basic rule is the more I run, even when legs ache, the easier it'll be later on.

Now that's not to say I need to run every day, as rest is also important to prevent injury and general self-hatred beyond the normal parameters. But it does mean that just because I ache, I can't skip it.

Sounds wonderful doesn't it? So the first stage of my training, which I'll go into more detail later, is to just get my body used to the demands of running again.

Sadly, I know from last time that this isn't the most fun part, but I also know that once I'm used to it, it is easier. I'm viewing it as like ripping a plaster off a hairy leg (which I also have to do at the mo!).

It's not nice, but it's necessary, so I'll crack on.