Darren Roberts’ Home Baked Blog

It’s me and my little bro together on the race day for the New Forest Half Marathon - though he’s actually bigger than me now. And fitter. And of course younger. And witty, charming and generally a bloody nice bloke. I’m sure I’ve got something going for me……

Anyway, I don’t think we’re leagues apart in terms of fitness, so it shouldn’t p*** either one of us off too badly to run together for that distance, and running a half marathon is going to be a great thing to do together as brothers, I’m really looking forward to it! He has on several occasions credited me and my friends for at least some of his fitness due to making him follow us on our mountain bikes when he was 5 and we were fifteen years old…the poor little bugger used to do 20 miles in a day some school holidays in the summer back then! He was always well up for it and was tough as old boots even at that age.

Today I popped into Running Free (specialist running shop in Lower Parkstone, so only 15 minutes away from me in Bournemouth) to see if I could bag a pair of new running shoes. Mine have worn out at the back, and my poor little heel’s been rubbing on hard plastic, so thought it was a good idea to get some proper advice on a new pair before the race. Highly recommend them - they looked at the way I stand and bend at the ankles and knees, and narrowed it down to about 15 pairs from there. After trying on 5 of those pairs (which they allow you to run up and down the road, or on the treadmill in the shop), I knew which pair were right for me. Really happy with how they feel. Never heard of them before I must say (Saucony Omni 6 was what I ended up with), but apparently they only make running shoes, so that is probably why.

So, it’s down to training - hopefully can pull some ‘telemetry’ (ha!) from my Nokia Sport phone with some graphs of my training progress.

Week ending 23/08/08

Monday 18/08/08
Down to Boscombe pier, get blown all over the place along tarmac to Bournemouth pier, then back to Boco pier and up the hill. Weather crazy, waves massive, stuck to tarmac!

Name: Running 19.35
Duration: 00:25:20
Distance: 4.69 km
Avg.speed: 11 km/h
Calories: 324 kCal
Steps: 3742

Tuesday 19/08/08
Weather crazy again - I usually jog from my place, down to Boscombe pier, to Bournemouth pier on the tarmac, then drop on to the sand, back to Costa Del Boco pier, then up the hill to blanket street….Monday/Tuesday was a bit different though, waves halfway up the beach, howling winds, kite-surfers all over the place. Too worried about being swept away so stuck to tarmac. Had to walk a bit here…..Big girls blowse….

Name: Running 18.28
Duration: 00:26:18
Distance: 4.40 km
Avg.speed: 10 km/h
Calories: 300 kCal
Steps: 3759

These two runs felt really hard in that weather - really struggled to keep at any sort of ‘pace’. Bit demoralising but we’ll see how it goes.

Wednesday 20/08/08
6 a side at Littledown. We won 4-2 apparently. Too many numbers for me to keep up with. Good game, think I’m improving a bit after my 3rd game in as many weeks…couple of mistakes I want to iron out for the next game…

Friday 22/08/08
After Monday/Tuesdays efforts in the weather, I’ve read up a bit on the Runner’s World website, and I made a decision based on some of the info I found there. Basically, you cut the run into 3 sections, go slower than you normally would for the first third, about your normal pace for the middle third, then ramp it up a bit for the final third. This felt loads better - I loosen up after the first mile or so anyway, so going easy for the first third seems to give you much more strength for the final two thirds. Felt good for the final couple of k’s…not sure how much I ramped it up, but I am running on sand all the way back. Weather was lovely all the way to Durley Chine, sand near the water’s edge was firm and the tide was right out. Beautiful, really enjoyed it.

Name: Running 18.37
Duration: 00:44:53
Distance: 7.70 km
Avg.speed: 10 km/h
Calories: 533 kCal
Steps: 6510

I did wonder why I get that dip in the graph at the beginning - then I got it - there’s a traffic lights down the road - sometimes I have to stop there. Middle dip is usually where I stop to hit the ‘Lap’ button on the phone so I know how long it took me to get there, then there’s usually a dip at the end of the graph - that’s the hard bit where I start tracking across the softer sand towards the roundabout by Boscombe pier, then up the hill to the traffic lights. Heart rate gets going there a bit….

Sunday 24/08/08

Name: Running 16.30
Duration: 00:59:55
Distance: 9.30 km
Avg.speed: 9 km/h
Calories: 645 kCal
Steps: 8668

Okay, today’s training for the new forest half marathon went really well. Following on the principles above of going easy at first, I went easy all the way to Branksome Dene Chine (nice to re-visit the site of my wedding reception) on the promenade, then back a little bit faster on the sand to save my old knees and ankles. It’s a bit weird running more slowly than I’m used to - I keep wanting to go faster, so I have to watch myself. It pays off though in the latter stages, definitely. Left it a bit late for a push, only 2 or 3 groynes and up the hill, but by buggery was I able to push then, really hacked it across the soft sand and up the hill by Boscombe pier, was great. That’s a nearly-10k-run under the belt, think I’ll do Tuesday if I can to Sandbanks then back on the sand, that will be a nearly-15k-run and get me within 5k of a half marathon.

Monstered lots of food when I got back - 2 dinners - leftover egg/prawn/broccoli/pasta salad, followed by another dinner of roast lamb, couscous and roasted peppers/shrooms. Oops, couple of glasses of the old vino…wife’s fault, she bought it. Still hungry. Need more calories. Starting to think of raiding the fridge. Tuesday I’ll have to hit the porridge hard a couple of hours before the run….stack up on the carbs a bit before I go! Crunchy oat muesli stuff and a banana didn’t really do it today, but it did hold off the hunger pangs for most of the run. Maybe smoking 20 a day isn’t the best habit to have at the moment….and those neat vodkas with our Polish friend Patryk at the bbq last night seemed like a cracking idea at the time, but now I’m not so sure…nearly came a cropper when I hopped over a groyne and had to hop a bit more when I saw a couple below me on the other side of it. Hopefully they weren’t swearing at me as I jogged on…I couldn’t hear with my headphones and didn’t look back!

Looking forward to Tuesday and Sandbanks, after that I’ll have to figure out where to go for a 20k run, Sandbanks is pretty much the end of the line unless I get the chain ferry to Studland, do a few K’s there, then get back on the chain ferry and come back again. Sounds a bit complicated to me.

Tuesday 26/08/08

Name: Running 20.02
Duration: 01:25:21
Distance: 13.70 km
Avg.speed: 10 km/h
Calories: 950 kCal
Steps: 12360

Okay, that went well. Race telemetry is now back in, having been analysed by the support team…tried the old ‘go slow at the beginning’ technique, and gradually built up a (little) bit of speed…

Set off at just past 8pm, so it was pretty much dark by the time I hit Sandbanks, coming back on the sand was getting dodgier and dodgier by the time I got to Durley Chine, sandcastles, moats, night fishermen, groynes that I couldn’t see…so it was back up onto the tarmac at Durley. Was really happy with the time though, I seemed to have it in my head that it would take about 2 hours, so 1 hr 25 was a surprise. Probably ‘cos I did most of it on the tarmac, duh!

Friday 29/08/08

Name: Running 19.42
Duration: 00:31:10
Distance: 5.28 km
Avg.speed: 10 km/h
Calories: 366 kCal
Steps: 4521

Different idea for tonight’s run - have read a bit about running fast then running slow on a few sites, so jogged to Bournemouth pier after work today, then jogged back, alternating between fast/slow pace. I think you’re supposed to do 15 seconds hammering it, then 45 seconds jogging / recovering, then repeat. It certainly gets the old ticker and lungs going. And I’d guess it improves fitness pretty quickly…maybe I’ll try it again on Sunday, see how it goes.