Advent Training!

Don't ask about the weekend! Does Saturday Christmas shopping in London count as training? Sunday: took a day of rest, of course!
Couldn't get to sleep last night (don't you just hate that) and saw 1am on the clock. Still managed to drag myself out of bed at 6:30am to do a 4 miler (what do I want, a medal?). Did it in 30:14. Splits were 7:53, 7:35, 7:20, 7:25.
Just found out my mate Si got a place in the London Marathon - 'come on Si!' A bit jealous of course, except I'll be in New York then on my way to live in Australia - not a bad second choice :)

Grey but good day

Day off today and managed to force myself out into the drizzle to go for a 6 miler. Did it in 46:02, which I was quite pleased about seeing that there were 3 killer hills (well they were for me!) Splits were 7:25, 7:33, 7:29, 8:10, 7:40, 7:41.
Have decided to aim for the Reading Half Marathon on March 6th. I'm going to follow a 12 week programme I found on Runners World website - aiming for sub 1:30. This means that training for this starts proper on the 13th December. Looking at the programme I think its going to kill me!

Rest day - well you have to really!

Still managed to get up at 6.30am this morning, but today's not a running day. Good for me to get into the habit of early rising, however I do feel a bit like I have jet-lag today! Got the day off tomorrow as my office is moving - cool! Means I can go for a long run.
Got to decide on my next running goal. I was going to run the Paris Marathon in April but it was going to be the day before we leave for Australia - not too sensible. We'll probably train for a half marathon in March. I guess trying to run my fastest half will set me up for my next marathon, whenever that will be. I'll pick a race, find a programme, then I'll be sorted!
Pity we won't be around for London :(

And he's off!

I did it! I got out of bed when the alarm went at 6.30 this morning. Set off for a 4 mile run at 7am and managed to do it in 30:41, not bad I think. I really pushed it more than I have for a long time. It's not very nice pushing it that early in the morning. My splits were: 8:11, 7:37, 7:40 & 7:12. It's a bit scary to think that to run a sub 3 hour marathon you need to run each mile at around 7 minutes.
Let's hope I can make a habit of early morning running.

Bad start!

Set the alarm for 6.30am so I could go for a 4 mile run before work. Its a new alarm and I obviously haven't got the hang of it yet - it didn't go off and I didn't wake up till 7.45! No run for me today probably.
Tomorrow......

Here's where I start

I want to run a sub 3 hour marathon, and this is part of the plan to force me to do it! I've run 2 marathons so far: London 2003 in 3:55 and London 2004 in 3:28:09.
For some reason I've decided that my goal is to run sub 3 hour before I hit the tender age of 35 - I'm now a mere 31.
I've no marathons planned just yet - struggling even to get out the door at the moment! There are a few things going on just now, like a planned move from London to Sydney Australia in April 2005.
So, I'll try to keep this blog up to date with my training etc. - kind of an incentive I suppose!
Keep on running....