Running for Fitness/Weight loss

Completed the Half marathon today according to my watch in 1:44:38 and my chip time was 1:45:25 so either which way it was near enough to my predicted time of 1:45:00.


Was happy enough with the run and my pacing my second half was faster than the first half and for the last 3.5 miles only 1 person passed me and I must have passed at least 100.

Back to the grindstone next week.

Cheers Woddle, the hot weather dosen't really bother me, reckon I was destined to be born in a warm country!

Lots of people were dropping like flies over the last few miles lots of them walking up the hill and stopping to stretch out.

Hope everything holds together for Berlin for you. 2 of the guys from work are heading over would love to be going but I said I'd keep Dublin as my first.

Today 5 miles fast run, finished in 35:54 averaging 7:11/mile. including a 6:40 mile to finish. Thats over a minute and a half on my previous best in August. Well pleased with that progression

Cheers thanks a lot - the weight I'd say is well under 180lbs. I don't watch it as closely as I used to running 40-45 miles per week at this stage tend to take care of it all by itself! I'll check it when I get home post it up later.

Thanks a lot SUNGOD - Yup I was happy but at the same time I didn't fall over the line from exhaustion so based on that I definately had more left, just need to drag it out of me. Still was more happy with the way I paced myself more than anything.

Sure no problem it hasn't changed much since I put it up at the start of the log.

This week for example for breakfast I had either
Porridge with Honey
Meusli (Aplen no Sugar) with Natural Yoghurt
This morning i had 2 boiled eggs on two slices of brown bread
Coffee (an absolute must have) with all of them

Lunches this week.

Chicken, Tomato, Cucumber Salad (only Olive Oil & Chili & Lemon juiceAdded) + Brown Bread
Tuna Salad (Chili or Black Pepper + Lemon Juice added) + Brown Bread
I'll also use Tinned Salmon either
On days I'm not running I just take some Brown bread and Cheese.
Usually bring 3 prices of fruit with me as well.
I like to snack on a Rivita cracker or another slice of Brown bread with a good dollop of peanut butter.

All the lunches take 5 mins to make.

Dinner can vary between Pasta/Lasagne, Stews/Casserole and or meat and 2 veg.

Mid morning I have coffee and 2 biscuits.
Later on in the evening time I might have more fruit or even a packet of crisps.

I have the occasional chinese takeaway and I think I've to the chipper about 4 times since Feb. Alcohol is down to a minimum I've been on two major night outs in the last month and drank only 4 pints each time normally there'd be a 1 in front of that.

When I do the long runs this goes out the window basically if its edible it goes in until I'm full!

Hopefully that gives you some idea

Just to add I've found at lot of it is about new habit forming and old habit breaking.

Early morning swim 20 lengths

Easy 5 miles lunchtime average 8:36

Easy 10miles pace 9:00/mile

Last long run this morning, wanted to concentrate on pacing and nailing the negative split, planned on the first 12 @ 9:10 mile which worked out and the last 8 @ 8:30 which ended up closer to 8:45. so not too bad overall.

Noticed my hips and groin got very achy with 5 miles to go which never happened before then it hit me, I've been doing a lot of swimming over the last three weeks so I might have been over using them. So gonna ease off the swimming for a while to give me every chance.

A few more full on speed sessions and easy runs and I'm there. Not sure if I can predict a finish time...:)

You would have to ask . Would have settled for any time sub 4 at the start of the year, think I can squeeze a 3:52...............

Full on speed run, ran my usual 10K route but used the first 1.2 miles as a warm up and then averaged 7:03 over that last 5, getting closer to a sub 35min 5 miler...

Haha....Cheers stipes hopefully for some reason I'm just not 100% confident about the marathon probably cos its my first and a lot of unknown terrority involved..

Cheers shel4ever I agree my head is the only thing that will beat me at this stage. Had a nice confidence boosting run this morning. 4 of us went out 3 of us are at the same level and one is did 3:11 in berlin but he's still in recovery mode.

We went for a easy 10 miler but we all knew what was going to happen with 2 to go, good banter and niggling and a bit elbowing we were going nice and handy at 8:30/mile but i upped the pace on a hill to 7:00/mile with 2 to go we. Ended up a close 2nd to to the fastest guy. Good craic first time in a while I've ran with a group. 3 of us are going in Dublin so we're going to be pacing each other.

Really enjoying the tapering

5 miles average 8:15 - approx 200m of strides to finish