Cambridge Park Run (Week 9)

Today was week 9 for Cambridge Park Run. After last week's PB of 22:53 I was keen to know whether I could improve once again. My problem this time was that I'd been for a 6 mile run and a 4.5 mile run during the week so my legs felt sore. The Achilles tendon injury was still nagging despite being much improved. During a quick warm up I became aware that I had some groin discomfort on the right side. I expect this was caused by walking with a slight limp while I've had the achilles problem. Anyway I wasn't hopeful for a fast time due to all of these leg issues. 

My strategy this week was to go out more slowly and either build my speed or at least sustain it. Last week saw a fast first mile and then increasingly slower 2nd and 3rd miles. My strategy paid off this week as I managed to get a new PB of 22:39 and with a much lower max heart rate than the week before. I was averaging 7:20(ish) per mile.

Something else I've neglected to mention is that for the past 3 weeks my wife has accompanied me to the Park Run. This week she smashed her PB by 3 minutes which was incredible. I'm very proud of her. She's training for the Race for Life again so the 5K Park Run route is an ideal training distance.

Sport Relief Mile 2010

At lunch time today I, along with my wife and kids headed down to Milton Country Park to participate in the Sport Relief Mile. The weather was fantastic. A great temperature for running and the sun shining. The park was full of people and the atmosphere was amazing. At exactly noon we set off. I was actually doing the 3 mile run (which turned out to be 3.3 miles according to my GPS). I got around in a good time finishing 3rd for the 3 milers in my time slot. The kids and my wife also completed their one mile in good time. It was great fun to be enjoying running whilst raising money for charity. 

I think the achievement that impressed me the most today was a young man, who presumably had cerebral palsy and would ordinarily be in a wheel chair, managed to walk the whole mile route aided by several helpers but nevertheless he took every step himself. It was inspirational and we gave him a big cheer and a huge round of applause as he finished the journey. What a fantastic person.

Cambridge Park Run (Week 8)

This morning at 9am it was Week 8 of Cambridge Park Run. A 5K run around Milton Country Park in Cambridge (UK). I've only managed to complete 3 runs in 8 weeks due to my long list of running injuries. I still have tendonitis in my right Achilles tendon but I pushed that to the back of my mind today and set out for a PB. I started way too fast and completed the 1st mile in sub 7 mins. My heart rate was off the scale (it finally peaked at 194BPM). Keeping up the pace was impossible but I kept as much pace as I could manage and did get around in 22:53 which was my PB by 12 secs. The photo here shows my pained face as I pushed to the finish line. Luckily despite gasping for air, feeling dizzy and monitoring my high BPM I returned to feeling ok pretty quickly. It's so good to get back out running. I've been laid up for 2 weeks without running a single step and even prior to that I've been on "light duties" because of the tendonitis.

Headphones - Sennheiser PMX80

If you're like me sometimes you just want to run free and unencumbered by technology. No music, just the delights of nature. Birds singing, the breeze dancing through the trees, the steady thud, thud of your feet, your senses clear to drink in the joyful smell of nature and freedom. Absolute freedom and relaxation. There's nothing like it. It's why I run.

But sometimes I just feel like I do want to go out and run with some music playing. So I'll load up my iPod with some great tunes and hit the road. Now, this is where my first few ventures out with music didn't go as planned. Why? because my headphones were not giving me the pleasure I had hoped. Some reasons for this were:-

• They were just too hot and sweaty after a few miles of running
• They would stop working if too much sweat leaked into them
• They kept vibrating themselves out of my ears
• They blocked out too much external noise so I felt nervous when running near traffic
• The sound quality was poor against my breathing and footfall
• I kept snagging the cable with my arm and yanking the headphones out of my ears

So what to do? Luckily this is when I stumbled upon the Sennheiser PMX80's. A lovely lightweight pair of headphones. What's so good about them?

• They look great
• They fit perfectly
• The do not move at all when I'm running
• The cable only goes up to one ear instead of both so I can avoid snagging
• The sound quality (for the price) is great
• They're water\sweat resistant

I heartily recommend them to anyone who wants a good set of running headphones. My wife borrowed mine and liked them so much she asked me to buy her a pair, so I did. They're currently at Play.com for £17.99.

Great North Run 2010

I'm running the Great North Run again this year. I'm doing it for the mental health charity MIND. Please visit my sponsorship page and give whatever you can to support this great charity - http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DavidJenkinson

The Inaugural Cambridge Park Run

Today was the first ever Cambridge Park Run. In sub zero temperatures and with a layer of icy snow to contend with, 71 hardened runners converged at 8:45am in Milton Country Park to participate in a 5K run. I was amazed at such a good turn out for the first ever race meet. At 9am sharp, after a quick brief on the route, we were underway. It felt great to be running in a group as so often I'm out on my own. I started a little too fast with all the excitement but found a nice rhythm over the first kilometre. The first 20 or so runners (including me!) took a slight wrong turn and ended up running out of the park. We stopped to consider where we'd missed a turning and as other runners started to catch up we had to run back the way we'd come and pick up the correct route. No great problem and only 0.2K added to the distance. I was happy enough with my performance. It's not really a contest between runners, more a case of competing with yourself each week to see if you can improve your time over the same circuit. I'm really looking forward to next weeks race. This will be a regular weekly event at 9am every saturday morning. I'll go as often as I can. A great way to start the weekend instead of lounging in bed for hours wasting the day. For those that don't know about Park Run visit "http://www.parkrun.com". There are events all over the country. It's free to take part and you get an official time for each race. It is run by volunteers and financed through sponsorship deals. Check it out if you like running.

4.5 mile fast run

I went for a 4.5 mile run at lunch time today with my work mate James. I normally do 6 miles but decided that if we were only going to do 4.5 miles that I would try and go a bit faster. It took me about 33:30. This was an average of 7:26 mins\mile. Not too bad at all for me. My fastest over that distance so far. However I now have a nasty chest pain. It feels like a muscle strain, but in my chest? How would that have happened? Weird.

Great North Run 2009 - It's over!

The race is done. Wow!! How hard was that? The day started badly for me. I woke up with such a sore lower back that I could hardly walk and couldn't bend properly. Many pain killers later and following a small amount of breakfast (forced down!) I still couldn't walk properly and was almost crying with the pain in my back. I had to hobble to the start just hoping that the sunshine and the painkillers would help my back to loosen up. I was clearly tense and nervous. I tried to do some stretches when Mr Motivator was warming the runners up prior to race start. That didn't work too well. Then I spotted my shoe lace was untied and struggled like crazy to bend down to re-tie it. Anyway as the race started I was so far back and in such a big crowd that I didn't move for a few mins. We then started a slow walk which became a faster walk, then a very slow jog and finally we reached the *start* line. Yes the START line!!. Then I was off and running properly and amazed to find that my back pain was not hurting half as much as I expected it to. As my blood started pumping and my body temperature rose the back pain eased more and more. I started to feel good and think things were going well........then I tripped over a kerb edge and fell quite hard onto my upper back. Suffice to say it is very scratched and bruised as was my hip, my elbow and my ankle. Oh dear!!. Amazingly this kick started my adrenalin and I bounded back onto my feet and started running far too fast. I realised my pace was too fast as I was wearing my sports GPS watch, so I slowed down. The next few miles were not too noteworthy except to say that the course was like one big uphill stretch. The heat was intense and the mass of runners made finding an even pace\rhythm very difficult. After 10 miles I was spent. My body was struggling to keep going. By 11 miles we reached a big hill and every ounce of me wanted to stop and walk but that wasn't part of the plan. Instead I resigned myself to not setting the time I had hoped for and just kept shuffling along in a slow run. We crested the hill and saw the sea. It felt like the end was in sight. A difficult run down a steep hill to the sea front at South Shields followed. My calves threatened to cramp up but somehow didn't. The last 1000M was really tiring but the crowd was massive and the cheering really lifted my spirits. I managed to grind out the last stretch and came home in 2 hrs and 4 mins. Not bad but I so wanted to do 1 hr 55 mins or less. My worst case scenario was that I would just scrape under 2 hours but alas I missed that goal. Maybe next year!!. Straight after the race if you'd asked me "Will you do it again?" I would have said no way!! But within an hour or two I was already planning next years race and thinking about my training plan to ensure I smash my time from this year. But as for my marathon aspirations they are well and truly shelved for now at least. 26 miles seems like a step too far. I run for pleasure and relaxation not for sado-masochistic reasons. I think stepping up my training to plan for a mammoth 26 miler would take the fun out of something I really enjoy. I'd never say never!!

Another Run, Another Bike Ride

I went for a run at lunch time today to see how the groin strain is holding up. I managed a 4.5 mile circuit at 7 mins 54 secs per mile pace. Not too bad. My leg feels a bit sore though. Hopefully they will be ok by tomorrow. Also went for a vigorous 22 mile bike ride yesterday. It started well. For the first 20 mins I was doing 25 mph flying down the A10 feeling great. It was only later I realised that I had benefited from a good tail wind. After a few more miles I got to the bad news. I had a 6.5 mile slog into a ridiculously strong head wind across the fens with absolutely no protection from hedges or whatever. Nightmare!!. I felt like I was actually moving backwards. Anyway by the end of the ride I had averaged 18.8mph over the 22 miles. I'll take that for now but I'd like to be able to sustain a 20+ mph average in the future. It's all good fun and good exercise. Counting the days to the Great North Run now. 19 days to go.....GULP!!!

The Great North Run is nearly here

You may recall my blog posting from back in June where I tried to encourage you, the good people of the Internet, to sponsor me for the Great North Run. Just to recap the link you need is http://www.runningsponsorme.org/davidjenkinson. Anyway in just over 3 weeks I'll be lining up on the starting line with 50,000 fellow runners but I need more sponsorship to reach my target. Please help. Any amount would be great. It's all for Cancer Research. An admirable charity if ever there was one.

6 mile run

I ran 6 miles yesterday in my fastest time since getting back into running. It took me 46'08" That's 7 mins 41 per mile average. It felt great too. Had it not been for the re-occurence of my groin strain pain I could have gone faster. For the rest of the day and today my left leg is wrecked. The groin pain is so bad I can't walk on my leg very well. Oh dear. The price of getting fit. I'll have to switch to cycling for a while and see if my groin strain problem completely heals up. I guess I might have to see a physio or doc if the pain keeps coming back.

More Running & Some Cycling

I have to say that running in this baking heat is a totally different prospect. I'm finding it hard to run more than about 8.5 miles at present. I sweat so much when I'm out that I feel totally sapped of energy after about 6.5 miles and the last 2 miles are tough. I think my fitness is ok but my body needs better fuel whilst out running to combat the extreme sweating. Anyway it's still good to be out and about getting fit and de-stressing. Also been enjoying the new bike. It's great. I haven't had a bike with nice thin road tyres for many years and the difference from a mountain bike whilst chugging along the tarmac is noticeable. I can carry much better speed with less effort. Cycling to work has been a joy these past few days. Even the hot weather is not so bad because the breeze I get from travelling fast on the bike cools me down. I would definitely advocate a faster cadence in an easier gear to give longevity to your cycle rides and minimise lactic build up and "burn" in the legs. It's taken me years to realise it so hopefully I can save others the grief of years spent cycling around in your top gear wondering why your legs start to burn so quickly.

Great North Run 2009

While I'm on the subject of fund raising I'm also participating in the Great North Run this year. It'll be my first half marathon and takes place on September 20th. The charity is Cancer Research and your donations would be massively appreciated. Here is my fund raising page: http://www.runningsponsorme.org/davidjenkinson.
I think we've all lost someone to Cancer so I'm very proud to support this charity in the hope that one day Cancer will be 100% curable for all. I'll re-post this message nearer the time. By then hopefully more people will be reading my blog and may be kind enough to sponsor me. Any amount would be appreciated. It all adds up and will make a difference.

Running

Just been for my tuesday lunch time run with my running buddy James. We did 5 miles at (what is for me) a good pace. It took 37:56 which for those that care is 7 mins 35secs per mile. It's my current PB. That'll do nicely. Anybody else out there wish to discuss running with me?