An early morning run and a trip to Cambridge

An early start this morning as I needed to get my scheduled run in before a visit to Cambridge.

My half marathon schedule called for a 40 minute run. Using my Adidas miCoach pacer and heart rate monitor I warmed up with a 5 minute blue zone easy run. The meat of the run was a green zone medium paced run before finishing with a 5 minute blue zone warm down.

This was my 5th run of the week and meant I have totalled 23 miles for the week. This is the most I have achieved since returning to running at the beginning of August. Hopefully I can continue to build up the mileage in the next few weeks and avoid injury.

In Cambridge we visited my daughter who has just started university there.

Half Marathon Training using the Adidas miCoach - Week 1

St Edmunds Tavern

Armed now with my Adidas Micoach I am using a heart rate monitor as my key method of training for a half marathon. I have never trained for a half marathon using a heart rate monitor as the key determinant.


miCoach uses four personalized zones to help you gauge your efforts during your workouts. The zones are the building blocks for all workouts with miCoach. Each zone represents a level of effort: Blue is easy, Green is medium, Yellow is hard, Red is maximal.

My heart rate zones have slightly changed since the initial assessment run and are now

Red Zone                159-165 bpm
Yellow Zone            152-158 bpm
Green Zone            133-151 bpm
Blue Zone               117-132 bpm
I re did the assessment run and the new zones are slightly higher than before which is good news as it shows a slight improvement in my fitness levels 

My week 1 schedule is as follows :-

30th Aug - 50 minute run - 5 min blue zone 40 min green zone and 5 min blue

1st Sep - 40 minute run - 5 min blue zone 30 min green zone and 5 min blue

3rd Sep - 40 minute run - 5 min blue zone 30 min green zone and 5 min blue

4th Sep - 70 minute run - 5 min blue zone 60 min green zone and 5 min blue

5th Sep - 30 minute run all blue zone

1st week is a total of 3hr 50 minutes of running. Mainly at a green zone pace

Green Zone 70-80% of your max heart rate 

This is known as the aerobic threshold and is a comfortable paced run where you can run for long periods of time as a result your heart and lung capacity are all improved . You burn fats and carbohydrates at the same 50% rate.

I completed my 1st run this morning which was a 50 min run through the centre of Bury St Edmunds .


I passed the St Edmunds Tavern in Risbygate Street. This pub has had a complete refurbishment and change of name. It was formerly known as the Rising Sun and is one of the oldest public houses in Bury St Edmunds. According to the Old Inns and Beerhouses of Bury St Edmunds guide it appeared in a newspaper advertisement in 1727. However it is thought to be older than this and legend suggests that Oliver Cromwell once stayed here.

Short Run and a tale of two goalies

A short run recovery this morning. My 25 minute run was an easy paced effort following my long run yesterday.I decided to set my Adidas miCoach to do a 10 week half marathon training schedule as I am feeling more confident of being able to build up the mileage and hopefully lose some weight and improve my times.

All of the runs in my schedule are time based rather than distance and of course are based on my heart rate monitor training zones.

Yesterday afternoon I went to see Ipswich Town play Bristol City in the Championship. This is really Division 2 in England the Premier League being Division 1. Ipswich have made a decent start to the season registering a win in their first game this compares with last year when it wasn't until the 31st of October that they won a game.

Both sides have new goalkeepers this season both internationals. Our keeper Martin Fulop is a Hungarian International and City's keeper is the well known  David James who has played for England for many years including this years world cup.

I can only say he had a stinker yesterday and both goals were the fault of James. For the first he came for a cross and missed it allowing a tap in and the second he failed to turn a cross around the post patting it out for new signing Jason Scotland to score no 2. A good win for Ipswich. The video may not play too well but is a recording of the Ipswich fans baiting James who has just messed up for the second goal. I am sure he won;t have  a worse game all season and he is a good buy for Bristol but not yesterday!

Thirty Minute Jog in Bury St Edmunds

August has been a very wet month after a better than average summer. At least that is what I think it has felt like. After heavy rain last night it has rained for several hours today as well.

However I timed my run well at lunch time when it was sunny and headed out for a 30 minute easy jog at the slowest heart rate blue zone pace.

The heart rate is useful to help you gauge your effort. As my fitness improves, I should notice that I am able to run faster for the same effort. However I am just 2 weeks into using the heart rate monitor as my method of training rather than by pace or distance.

My achievement today was running for the 3rd day in a row  injury free.

Trying to keep the Adidas mi coach heart rate zone has given my running a new focus at the moment. I have the option to switch to running by pace and I daresay at some point I will try this in the future but for the moment I am sticking to training by heart rate monitor.

Bats and a good run in Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

Last night my better half and I visited Nowton Park in Suffolk for an advertised guided walk at dusk. The walk indicated the possibility of hearing various bird songs and tempted to learn a little we ventured out at 7.30pm to the park.

We arrived met the ranger Malcolm and his daughter then waited for others to turn up. We waited in vain for this as no one else did! We were the only ones who turned up for the walk despite it being free and advertised in a leaflet. Not wanting to keep the ranger out just for us we did ask if he wanted to carry on but as it was his job to be there anyway he confirmed that the walk could go ahead.



Although we didn't see or hear any unusual bird life the highlight came at the end of the walk when we reached the lime tree avenue.  The ranger produced a monitor which detected  the frequency pitch of pipistrelle bats. I have never seen so many bats and as we walked down the lime tree avenue there must have been hundreds of bats diving through the air. Fantastic experience and totally free. Thanks to Malcolm and his daughter.

After last nights walk I ventured out at 8am for my long run of the week. I am building my base slowly and my log run at present is just 55 minutes. I am running for time and by heart rate monitor at the moment. The weather was good , warm with a breeze. I wore a technical t shirt and shorts with my Saucony Jazz 13's. I really like these shoes immeadiately comfortable straight from the box, light but supportive for the neutral runner.

My run today consisted of a slow 5 min jog warm up and warm down which sandwiched 40 minutes of steady green zone running. This is a meduim effort run run which keeps my heart rate around 150 bpm. Adidas Micoach states:-

• Heart Rate coaching takes into account how you’re feeling each day. If you feel stressed or tired, your heart beats a little faster. As a result, you can run a little slower than usual while remaining in the zone. This helps prevent overtraining on days when you could use a break. Conversely, if you feel great, your heart rate will remain lower and you’ll be able to go faster while staying in the zone. Heart Rate also accounts for challenging terrain. If it’s hilly, for instance, you won’t need to run as fast to remain in the zone.
• Seeing results: Check your charts to see how your average speed per zone increases as your fitness improves. For instance, you may simply walk to stay in the Blue Zone at first, but as your fitness improves you may find that you’re able to jog in the Blue Zone.

I am really enjoying the Adidas micoach, I feel freed up not having to look at my watch to see my distance and times. I am running more slowly than I used to but to avoid injury I think this is sensible and hopefully by following the heart rate monitor my fitness and speed will improve.

My route took me through Bury St Edmunds town centre  and into the Abbey Gardens and along by the River Lark.

My stats today were :-

55 minutes
759 calories
5.3 miles
heart rate average 139 bpm
pace 10.26
stride rate 189 steps a min

73% of the time I kept to my heart rate zone. my heart rate remained in the green zone and didn't drop back to the slower blue zone jog pace at the end of the run 

Please with today as this was my longest run and it was pain free.

Horringer Fair and Best Run since injury!

Today I ran a short interval session which had 3 paces or heart race zones - blue , green and yellow. Coaching is good on the Adidas Micoach especially on the interval sessions as you are regularly getting advised to speed up or slow down to try and hit the heart rate zones.

My session included 6 faster paced yellow zone runs and 6 intermeadiate green zone runs and easy paced jogging in the blue zone for 10 minutes.

What I enjoyed most was no pain from my foot and I was able to almost entirely not think about the possibility of my injury returning to haunt me.
I am still running short distances but all being well will slowly start to add more time on the run rather than aiming for distance.

I am still getting used to trying to run according to the heart rate zones rather than at one flat rate pace. My score of 42% is one of the better ones to date and shows just how far I have to go to get fit.

Run Stats


25 mins
2.8 miles
9.06 minute miles

140 bpm average
Score 42%

Stride rate 190 steps a minute
I am following an Adidas Micoach schedule which runs over 16 weeks until early December. My main aims are to avoid injury, get fit and lose weight. I won't be doing any races though I am following the Micoach Half marathon schedule. If all goes well then I may look for a race but I doubt there will many road races in December.

Photos are from the recent Horringer Fete including a ring of Morris women!

Found a Fiver , Breakneck Speed and a Couple of Runs

On Sunday I ran a green zone run. No I am not living in a war zone simply using the Adidas mi coach. A green zone run is a medium effort which extends your endurance and optimally burns calories. You'll also build a greater cardiovascular capacity - or foundation - to push harder in later stages and more intense zones.

Heart rate based training helps you:

• Know Your Body Better: When you train consistently, you'll learn how your body responds to exercise.
• Track Your Progress: As your fitness improves, you'll be able to handle harder runs.
• Pick Up the Pace: mi Coach lets you measure your pace against your Heart Rate and, as you improve, you'll be able to run longer and faster at the same heart rate as you were (at a lower intensity) a few months back.

Least that's what the official blurb from the Adidas site tells me.

After a 5 minute jog in the blue zone I then ran 40 minutes at a steady green zone pace followed by a 5 minute warm down jog. I managed to run for 79% of the time at the green zone pace. However the rest of the time I ran too quickly and this is when the mi coach steps in and my friendly coach interrupts my ipod playing songs from Tokyo Police Club to tell me to slow down.

In short what I am finding is that I have tended to run a lot of my training runs at too fast a pace probably leading to injury. Much of the time my training has been at a green zone pace and I am struggling to run at the slower blue pace which does feel a bit like a crawl .Blue zone  is an easy effort builds your aerobic base and improves recovery. It also allows you to put forth a greater effort in the higher intensity zones to get more out of your running. 

It feels alien and almost embarrassing to run at such a slow pace but I am going to stick with as a radical new form of training. After all I have been injured for a lot of the last year and this is worth a try.

Directly after my run which was just over 5 miles I felt fit enough to visit Nowton Park and we did a 2 mile walk around the circumference following the yellow route path. Almost immediately on starting the walk I found a fiver! A stroke of luck and not the first time I have done this at Nowton Park. 

On a previous walk around here I found a tenner. What is it about Nowton Park that encourages folks to empty their pockets of cash? Might be the thought of the ice cream van at the car park or the haste to get back to the car when they get the car keys out.  Still not complaining, I just need to visit Nowton Park more often to reap the rewards that are there to be found. Why go the beach and metal detect when you can go to Nowton Park and pick up free money after all it grows on trees. Well at least it does at Nowton Park.

An element of me feels guilty for picking it up but if I didn't someone else would and once dropped how would you know who was the rightful owner.


On Monday I did a very easy 30 minute jog at a very easy pace. So far so good with the easy pace running.  Certainly not Breakneck Speed

David Monks -  Photo from the recent Latitude Festival where Tokyo Police Club played. Now on tour in USA and Canada promoting their new album Champ.

Five Mile Easy Run using the Adidas Micoach

Ever heard of the Adidas Micoach? Well I was the lucky winner of an instant prize over on the Sennheiser/Adidas 5forsports web site. All I had to do was enter my 5 fav running songs and I won an Adidas Micoach which retails at £108 or $172 dollars at Prodirectrunning.com and at Wiggle .  So price wise and as a product it is competing with the older 205/305 versions of the Garmin Forerunner - tough competition as these are tried and trusted products.

When I have used the Adidas micoach for a week or two I will do a review and give my honest opinion.  In brief what you get for your money is a heart rate monitor, a stride sensor and a coaching device called a mi coach pacer. However I can see there is loads of performance stats to synch back to your computer after a run but more on this another time.

Initially I am using the pacer to set my self an easy programme to return to fitness after a long injury lay off when I packed on the weight. You have a choice with the mi coach pacer to run according to pace or by heart rate. I have never really used a heart rate monitor before but have decided to give this a go.

At lunch time today I ventured out for a gentle and slow five mile run. Conditions were very good warm with plenty of mid day sunshine. The Adidas Micoach links to your IPOD or MP3 player so you can listen to music or a podcast on the run but as and when there are updates your personal coach will overide the music and give you an update on a number of statistics that you can set.  There was a choice of coaching voices either male or female and I chose the later.Not sure what that says about me!

I had set the pacer to give me a half an hour coaching session. The session comprised of a 5 minute slow warm up in a heart rate zone called blue 113 to 128 bpm , followed by 20 minutes in the green zone 129 to 146 bpm before a warm down of five minutes in the blue zone.

During the run if I was running to fast or needed to speed up the coach would ask me to slow down. This was enjoyable and helpful and I found that during the half an hour there were 5-6 times when I needed to slow down. I can immeadiately see this is the big plus/selling  point with this gadget after all what would you have to pay to have a personal coach? I can see that once I have logged a number of runs the coach is going to be more and more of a personal coach as my previous performance , speed and heart rate is measured so as to base future runs by.

Did I keep to the pacer bpm zones? Not very well in fact for only 40% of the time. I think this was mainly due to my carrying on running after the half an hour session for another 20 minutes at a higher pace.

Interestingly the Micoach stride sensor over the distance of 5 miles registered the same distance as the Garmin forerunner which I also wore as a test to make a comparision. I was surprised by this but if the stride sensor is as accurate or nearly as as accurate as a GPS then this will remove a big obstacle in my mind.

Todays run was a slow one and I can still feel my heel pain , hope I am not coming back too soon. Time will tell. The achievement today was running 5 miles - not far but it felt a long way today. I just hope there is no after reaction in my heel.

More on the Adidas Micoach in a wek or so.