6 miles along the Thames!

6M - recovery run at 6min/M

A long day of travelling... but my stomach righted itself pretty quick and I managed to squeeze in a nice 6 miler to Westminster and back along the river as soon as I got through the door.

I felt a bit week (probably a combination of travel and last night's minor illness). I'll weigh myself in the morning. Hopefully I've not lost weight.

Rest

Packed day in Delhi... and a bit of a dodge stomach at the end of it. So no exercise today. Back to the UK tomorrow.

Summary of week ending 29/08/10

Mon 23/8 - 7M walk & 1hr exercises
Tues 24/8 - 7M walk & 1hr exercises
Weds 25/8 - 12M walk
Thurs 26/8 - rest
Fri 27/8 - 17M long run
Sat 28/8 - 1hr exercises
Sun 29/8 - 1hr exercises
TOTAL - 43M + 4hr exercises

More exercises

1 hour strenghtening exercises

Another day in the heat (of Agra and Delhi)... so nothing but my exercises. I think my next run will have to be back in the UK on Tuesday night. I hope I haven't lost too much fitness.

Just some exercises

1 hour strengthening exercises

After much travel, I'm down in the heat of Agra now. Nowhere to run sadly, so I've just stuck with my 1 hour exercise programme.

Long run at bearable altitude (with tea)

17M – long run

I’m back in Manali (6,500ft). I had a great long run this morning up the valley. Interrupted only by a few pauses to ward off packs of dogs. My legs felt great. The hills weren’t very kind though.

Oh, and I also stopped in for a lovely cup of sweet tea with a man called Manu Thakar (who wouldn’t take no for an answer)!

My knee is totally back to normal (on current evidence). No niggles since day 1 of the trek.

The mirror suggests I've lost a bit of weight despite STUFFING my face throughout the trek. We'll see what the scales say when I get home next Tuesday. Hopefully I've not lost any muscle.

Rest

Rest – a 15.5hr bus journey was all I managed today!

Trek day 7

12M; 12M walk
Altitude 12,500ft

Today was flat out walking and travelling (in a jeep), so no time for any additional exercise.

Trek day 6 (and more exercises)

7M; 7M walk; 1 hour strengthening exercises
Peak altitude 17,000ft
Campsite altitude 14,000ft

We hit the Pin-Parvarti Pass today – 17,000ft. I gave it a 5 minute burst to get to the top. Felt pretty odd when I got there. Bit dizzy. Again, there was nowhere safe to run today, so I did an hour of exercises yesterday (with the addition of three sets of 10 [rock] dumbbell curls and 10 straight arm raises.

Trek day 5 (and high altitude strengthening exercises!)

7M; walk 7M and 1 hour strengthening exercises
Altitude 16,500ft

Again, no space for a safe run. But I added in five cycles of Runners World strengthening exercises (each cycle consists of: 15 single-leg squats; 24 hops; 15 single-leg reaches; 10 plank-alternate leg lifts and 15 Y-squats).

I didn’t realise quite how high an altitude we were at until later and perhaps would have given them a miss had I known. Still, I only had a mild headache overnight. No other ill effects.

Trek day 4

8M; walk 8M
Altitude 13,000ft

No time or space for a run again today.

Trek day 3 (and a longer speed session!)

13M; walk 7M; speed session 6M incl 6x100m, 6x200m, 6x400m and 3x1M
Altitude 11,000ft

Another speed session after a not-too-arduous walk. The altitude is higher here… but the ground flat(ish). I felt good with this one. So much so that I turned it into a longer than planned speed session. Amazing scenery!

Trek day 2

7M walk
Altitude 10,500ft

No time or space for a run today. Should manage something proper tomorrow.

Trek day 2

7M walk
Altitude 10,500ft

No time or space for a run today. Should manage something proper tomorrow.

Trek day 1 (and a speed session!)

13M; walk 7M; speed session 6M incl 3x6x100m and 3x1M
Altitude 9,500ft

This was the first day proper of the trek. Still at only moderate altitude, but there was nowhere flat to run at the campsite, so I had to give it some up the 1:4 slope I was presented with. Good for the quads I should think. Not sure what the local Sadhu thought I was up to.

10 miles before the (high) mountains

10M - hilly and flat

I squeezed in a 10 miler this morning before we head for the mountains. I headed up the Manali valley for 5 miles. It felt like a 'fast and slow' session because of the hills. The altitude here is only 2,000m (6,500ft) and doesn't add too much pain I've decided... we'll have to see how I go at higher altitudes.

Knee pretty good by now. But not perfect.

A speed session! With wrestlers.

6M - speed session incl 6x100m, 6x200m, 6x400m and 3x1M

This is the speed session I was intending to do last Friday. I've not tried it before. A new one from Ron. It's three separate batches of 6 sprint, with a 1 mile run in between them (and after the last). Each sprint is flat out. The miles get faster as the session builds.

I felt a bit lethargic at the beginning today (perhaps yesterday's mild GI upset, perhaps four days of inactivity, perhaps the altitude). But I got going pretty well and by the time the 100 sprints were done I felt pretty good. All the sprints were done up a slight hill and the mile intervals were done over undulating routes. The last one was supposed to be at 5m15s pace. I managed 5m40s. Probably not too bad given the altitude/slope.

The session was made more entertaining by the presence of a troop of Indian wrestlers out on a training session. They wanted to race me in the sprints, but were to chunky to be very fast. One of them was like a giant. They said he was going to the Commonwealth Games.

(Mild) Manali belly

Rest - we've arrived back at moderate altitude (2000m). Should be great for running. But I've got a mild bout of Manali (or more likely Delhi) belly. Hopefully it won't turn out to be too bad and I'll get back to it soon. Four days without running seems a long time.

Delhi - no run again

Rest - no run again today. But we're leaving Delhi tonight, so I should get back on track shortly. I did the same core strengthening exercises as yesterday.

Delhi - no run

Rest - I haven't worked out where I can run in central Delhi, so I had to skip a run today. Annoying. I did 40 minutes of Runner's World core strengthening exercises instead. The plank. That sort of thing. I'll hurt tomorrow.

An Indian cold

Rest - I have a cold. Probably won't turn into anything bad, but I'm being super-conservative. It's Friday the 13th after all.

Another 10 in the hills

10M - fast and slow at 5.30-8.00min/M

I took the same route as yesterday and aimed for the same alternating 1 mile fast - 1 mile slow effect. Pretty tricky with the hills. It felt more like 7 miles hard and 3 miles gentle, dictated by the hills. My overall pace was about 90 seconds faster than yesterday - 9 seconds a mile.

That dog didn't chase me today. In fact he looked quite placid. But the monkeys seemed vexed by my presence and I accidentally herded some cows for about half a mile.

I'm glad I headed out earlier today, it's monsooning now.

I can just about feel some tightness in my knee now, but it'll be fine by tomorrow morning's speed session back on 'Camel Back Road'... also written Camel Backroad. Haven't seen any camels. But the road is quite humpy.

10 hard Himalayan miles

10M - fast and slow at 5.35-8.00min/M

This was a killer. I'm still in Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas. It's lovely and cool, which makes running tolerable. But it's unsurprisingly a touch hilly. Some might say mountainous. Unlike yesterday, I had to go quite a way from the town centre on this, which unavoidably took in a lot of climb (and fall). The 2000m altitude may also be impacting, but I'm not sure how much.

Having said all that, this was a goodie! My times were up the spout, but I had plenty to get my legs into. And the scenery was spectacular in a cloud-shrouded misty green kind of way. Bonus: I only got chased by one ferocious dog.

Same again tomorrow.

A speed session in the clouds!

6M - speed session including 3x6x100m and 3x1M at 6.45, 5.45, 5.35min/M

I've escaped the heat of Delhi to an old British hill station called Mussoorie. A very colonial piece of behaviour, but well worth it for the temperature alone. It's at 2000m altitude, though I'm not sure how much impact that has on speed / fitness. Anyway, I managed a great session today on a quietish road recommended by the hotel manager and accompanied by some cute boys who were racing me on their bike.

My knee was fine, but I'm still trying to find ways of avoiding 2 runs in a day.

Just 6 on the treadmill

6M - recovery run at 6.00min/M

Just a sweaty 6 miles on the treadmill this morning. My muscles are a bit achy. Partly down to Friday's sprint session I think, those 100s were unfamiliar territory and left their mark. It might also be partly down to yesterday, despite the sedate pace early on. More importantly, my knee was fine. Need to work out how to do a speed session at 2000m elevation in Mussoorie tomorrow...

A half marathon in Delhi

15M - incl Gurgaon Town and Country Half Marathon in 87.45 (6.40min/M; 1st position)

What fun! I found this half marathon by Googling "Delhi running". It was a great fun to start my holiday. Arranged by a running-promotion organisation called Running and Living. Fun running is just taking off amongst the middle class here.

It kicked off at 5am to avoid the heat. Luckily the manager of my hotel was running, so he gave me and a couple of other guests a lift to it.

The field was a mixture of ages, with a couple of skinny kids leading off. One had a fantastic 118 118 headband. It was a fun run more than a race, so I stuck at a sedate 7.30ish pace with the rest of the front-runners for the first 8 miles (until I was confident I wouldn't get lost). I then upped my pace to 5.45ish until the finish. It was very humid and it was pretty unpleasant by the end.

The post-race milling around breakfast was probably the highlight. Partly cos the food was very welcome. But mainly because it was really interesting meeting the other runners.

You can just about spot me in the second row keeping a low profile.

Rest

I have arrived in Delhi and have my number for tomorrows race! It's going to be humid...

I had the option of a run on a running machine in the hotel but passed it up after my knee objected to the first half mile. Much like earlier in the week. It should be ok for tomorrow, but I'm not ready for 2 a day yet.

A double day

11M - double; recovery & speed
6M am recovery run at 5.55min/M
5M pm speed session incl 3x6x100m and 3X1M

My first double day in a while. Slight tightness in the knee by the end of number two annoyingly. So I should have probably stuck with just one. I started the day with a gentle one and then snuck in a speed session between packing and heading to the airport (which is where I am now)!

The speed session felt good. It's a new session from Ron for this speed-building section of my training. Three sets of 6x100m with walk back recovery with each of the sets separated by a single 1 mile rep. The first mile was at 7min/M, the second at 6min/M and the third at 5.5min/M.

I could feel my knee was a little tight in the second half of the session, but it didn't slow me. I'll see how it responds. I might have to take Saturday off in readiness for the Gurgaon Town and Country Half Marathon in the outskirts of Delhi on Sunday!

Five days in a row

10M - fast and slow (alternating 5.25 and 6.35min/M)

The knee seems to be continuing to improve. I'm still feeling pretty sprightly having not had too many miles in me recently. My aim in these sessions is to run the fast miles at roughly target marathon pace and the slow miles not too far below 6 minute pace. Target marathon pace is 5.18min/M, so this wasn't far off (I cut myself some slack for the gravel paths, bridges and gates). And if felt pretty good. Speed session tomorrow.

10 miles steady

10M - general aerobic at ~6.00min/M

This is my fourth consecutive day. My knee felt fine. No tightness even. I'm still icing it after runs just in case. I had no aches or twinges after yesterday's track session either. Perhaps there was more in me than I thought.

Today's run was untimed (Garmin out of juice). But it felt like ~6.00min/M and it felt good. I'm still fresh after the last three weeks being lighter. And I'm still a bit high from being able to run again. I scooted to the far end of Hyde Park and back before dinner.

A track session!

6M - speed session incl 8x600m at 1min50s with 200m jog recovery

I went along to a track session with Highgate Harriers today. I am planning on joining them to help me with my speed work and to get me racing more - including some cross-country.

It was a good session with 2 or 3 pretty speedy guys. The session was shorter than the similar ones I've been doing but with shorter recoveries. The recovery was a 200m jog taking about 1min20s. My max pulse was 183bpm. The troughs between repeats were about 150bpm. Sessions like this will be really good for me and the standard of the club is perfect. I'll join properly when I get back from India.

My knee was completely fine. I'll do 10 miles as planned tomorrow all being well.

8M pain free

8M - general aerobic at 5.55min/M

I'm beginning to realise that this knee niggle won't go in a flash. I was not far from OK today after 20 miles - a victory of sorts - but I could feel a bit of tightness and had another aborted run this morning. I read that this injury is ok to run on in discomfort... but not pain. I am being good. Even if it's frustrating. The injury will linger a while I now realise. But it's manageable and shouldn't disrupt things too much.

I met Ron last week to plan my next phase of training and catch up generally. Not influenced by the knee, the plan is to spend 6 weeks at slightly lower mileage (perhaps 60-80/week) but with higher intensity of running and plenty of speed work. Should be good. And should line me up for some good half marathons in the Autumn.

Today's run, when it came, was good and lifted my spirits. Slight tightness above my left knee, but no pain and it eased as I ran. 5.55 feels like a comfortable cruising speed nowadays. Earlier this year it felt like a real injection of pace.

I should be fine for a speed session tomorrow. Especially as I'm icing it after every run now with a fancy gel thing I bought.

A cracking, pain free long run

20M - long run at 5.55min/M

I think this tells me my knee is well and truly fine. I did four laps around Blenheim at close to this year's marathon race pace. It's undulating and not the fasted route. So I was pretty pleased with my pace as well as the knee's behaviour. I could feel a little tightness at stages but never any pain. And it's probably just me being a bit stressed that pain might emerge that makes me notice anything.

I started at 6 min miles thinking I'd see how long I could sustain it without pain... but given the hefty undulations around the loop thought I'd slow later in the run. But I felt great the whole way. As usual, I really hit my stride around 8-10 miles. My calves and hamstrings were a little tight towards the end, but nothing much really. Testament to a v light couple of weeks. And my improved basic speed.