Tom Roper's Running Training

Fifteen and a bit miles

So the taper continues, though I had a very bad week, failing to do any evening runs. Today was thus my first run since my Easter Monday 22-miler. Nevertheless the week's total is respectable. I shall do better next week, and do two of the three week day runs the programme specifies, a hill session and 1 M jog, 3 M brisk, 1 M jog.

Today i ran out to Bo Peep, both ways along the escarpment, first to Alfriston, then to Itford Hill, and came back by way of America Farm, Fore Hill and Snap Hill. It started sunny, but was cloudy and cold on the tops of the hills. The sun came out again at the end. It was also muddy, but as I have said before, there'll be no hills or mud in London.

Time: 3:05:13
Distance: 15.86
Pace: 11.41 (best 8.32)

Total this week: 38.05

Two weeks till the London Marathon

taper

Last long run: 22 miles in two valleys

As Synge would have his characters say, it's destroyed I am travelling. I ran 22 very hard miles today. At times there was a little snow, there was a lot of mud, and I was cold and, by the end, exhausted. I was also slow. I've run faster marathons. I'm glad that's the last long run. But on 13 April there will be no mud or hills (2379 feet of ascents today), and probably no snow.

I went out from Seaford to Five Ways, then to High and Over, down into the Cuckmere valley and up to Alfriston, then up onto the escarpment, over Firle Beacon to Windover Hill, down into the Ouse valley, up again at Piddinghoe and across the downs to Peaceheaven, then back by the road. I met some jolly cyclists and saw egrets, wagtails and oyster-catchers.

Time: 4:25:16
Distance: 22.19
Pace: 11.59 (best 7.53)

Lessons learned: do your stretches.

Sunday run to Splash Point

I ran in the late afternoon to Splash Point and back, in a chilly wind. The long run will come tomorrow, thanks to the bank holiday. I hope it will not be quite so cold.

Time: 51:35
Distance: 4.94
Pace: 10.26 (best 2.30...some mistake surely?)

Total this week: 11.92 (very low, but I'll make up for it)

3 weeks till the London Marathon

Good Friday run

So far, this week has been a bit off target. I'm going to do a short run this afternoon, and am saving my longest 22 mile run for tomorrow in the hope that the weather will be better. I failed to run after work: the evening I set aside was the evening my train chose to break down at Haywards Heath. More on this afternoon's run later. In the meantime, I'll record Friday's, which was a very slow seven miler to Bo Peep and back. Fittingly, there were lambs.
Time: 1:19:41
Distance: 6.98
Pace: 11.25 (best 8.37)

Seaford Marathon 2008

My new job and the commute means I haven't any training to record, but Tom Glandfield e-mailed me to announce the 2008 Seaford marathon, which starts at 10 am on Sunday 31 August. The field is limited to 100 runners, and entries are accepted from individuals or relay teams of two, three or four runners. It's a beautiful, hilly course over the downs behind Seaford, starting and finishing at the fire station. The marathon will raise money for the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund and Médecins San Frontières.

Runners may enter through the Runners World entry system or by using the form below.

Download entry_form.doc

Hastings Half Marathon

Today's Hastings Half Marathon was won by Kiplimo Kimutai of Kenya in 1:05:24, with his fellow Kenyan Magdalene Syombua winning the women's race in 1:14:19. It was wet, but not unbearably so, and the rain did not put the local supporters off.

I finished in a more modest time of 1:57:03.

Time: 1:57:03
Distance: 13.1
Pace: 8.56 (best 6.09)

Total this week: 28.56

Four weeks till the London Marathon

Nine miles

On my last day of unemployment, Wednesday, I ran nine miles in the fierce winds and chose a new route, out in the direction of Bo Peep, but then taking a path westwards to Norton, back through Bishopstone and Tidemills and along the sea front, where there was much storm debris. The earth movers' annual winter work of reconstructing the beach has been utterly undone by the sea. I was slow, but it was supposed to be a slow run. I have just started taking an anti-hypertensive, so am nervous about how that may affect my running.
Time: 1:43:43
Distance: 9.20
Pace: 11.16 (best 7.28)

My new job requires a long commute and will make training difficult, but if I run twice a week after work, investigate the possibilities of running at lunchtimes, and run on my days off, I should be able to pack the mileage in.

Three fast 1.5 miles

I nearly didn't run, but screwed my courage to the sticking place and went. As a speed session, it probably didn't count, as the wind made anything fast impossible.

Time: 1:07:44
Distance: 6.26
Pace: 10.50 (best 8.23)

Five weeks to go, 20 miles

Fuelled by a fine Northumbrian kipper from Paul's Plaice, the Seafod fishmonger, I ran twenty miles today, to Bo Peep, then to Alfriston, then to Friston Forest where I ran a loop before returning by Exceat and over Seaford Head.

Time: 3:52:27
Distance: 20.08
Pace: 11.35 (best 6.53)

Total this week: 45.2

One week till the Hastings Half Marathon
Five weeks till the London Marathon

Six and eleven miles

Two runs to report in this post, a six mile run early yesterday morning out towards Bo Peep and back, and eleven miles at steady pace today, to Firle Beacon and back by way of Blackcap Farm. There were odd patterns on the side of the south face of Firle Beacon, as if made by sand. I wondered if someone was planning a chalk fertility figure on the downs; if so, it looked more like a female figure than the long man of Wilmington.

Wednesday
Time: 1:06:23
Distance: 6.00
Pace: 11.04 (best 7/39)

Today
Time: 2:01:41
Distance: 11.06
Pace: 11.0 (best 5.25)