Running up Mt Kilimanjaro

Janathon totals to date are 

Janathon Day 1 - 5 miles
Day 2 - 5 miles
Day 3 - 4 miles
Day 4 - 4 miles
Day 5 - 3 miles
Day 6 - Total 2.52 miles


Total 23.52 miles


Short of time today so my shortest run of Janathon so far was a 2.5 mile effort. In fact looking at my training I have consistently been reducing my mileage each day.

The good news was that it was my quickest run of Janathon so far perhaps because I was in a hurry . I am also injury free so Janathon is going very well.

I had a quick listen this morning to the Marathon Talk podcast I am a little bit behind on episode 47 which was released on December the 1st.  In this episode there was mention of Toby Tanser who has just run from Mombasa all the way to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.  Take a look at this wonderful video which is truly inspirational. Its quite a challenge for a great cause and he only had the  distance,heat, altitude, possibility of being attacked by wild animals and the climb up the largest free standing mountain in the world to worry about. I was drawn to it as I went on a combined holiday in Africa in 2000 where I climbed Kilimanjaro and was then flown back from Tanzania to Mombasa in Kenya on the coast .

Simply mind boggling to even contemplate running up Kilimanjaro let alone the warm up run from Mombasa to Moshi. If you don't know Tanser he is involved with the running shoes for Africa charity.

With this in mind I hope to do a bit more than 2.5 miles tomorrow!

12 miles to Rougham Suffolk

My longest run of the year and my biggest mileage week of the year. Lots of positivies from the run today which was a 6 mile out and back to Rougham in Suffolk. My time was slow 1.49.16 for the 12 miles which is a 9.06 pace.

The main thing to take from the run was my improving stamina as I have  gradually increased my long run from 10 to 12 miles this year. This is filling me with confidence that I will at leat complete the half marathon at the end of March.

Looking at my diary this was my first 12 mile run since 25 May 2009 nine months ago! This is the biggest reason for my lack of speed and stamina as I just don't have a good base of training. Back in May 2009 I ran 1.44.22 in training so I have lost some 5 minutes in pace since then.

I heard on Marathon Talk that the effects of sciatica can take some time to work through and recover from with tight glutes being a particular problem. If you listen to running podcasts then I really recommend Marathon Talk as being one of the very best to listen to at the moment. I had no problems with any aches or pains today so I am currently injury free another big plus.

My splits today showed I set of very slowly but improved in the 2nd half of the run 9.09,9.18,9.05,9.22,9.37,9.04,8.38,8.24,8.40,9.05,9.31,9.18.

My run today took me along Rushbrooke Lane  and Blackthorpe before reaching Rougham. My turn around half way point was just beyond St Mary's Church at Rougham.

On this run I was able to get off road to follow a pathway to the church at Rougham. I also came across this phone box which had plenty of ventilation with seemingly no glass left in the frame of the box. Red phone boxes which were once a common site in every English village are now beginning to become a rarity as they are removed. You can understand why since the arrival of the mobile phone when was the last time you used one? I honestly don't remember and I wouldn't know what coins you should now use in a phone box. I guess this one will be gone before too long.

Any run to Rushbrooke passes fields with hundreds of pigs. If blogs could have smellovision then you would have had a treat and could have shared that piggy/muddy smell that came off the fields!

Today I continued to listen the serialisation of the book I am listening to on podiobooks called Dreaming of Deliverance worth downloading for free if you are out on a long run. Listening to a book on a run really helps you to switch of and the miles fly by.

So I have successfully completed week 5 of my half marathon training and I ran 41 miles. The most I have run since the week of 26th March 2007.

Looking at my parrott predictor time for the marathon I again had a slight improvement in my fastest 26.2 miles of the week.

My times show Jan 11th 3.53.07;Jan 18th 3.50.36, Jan 25th  3.49.50 and Feb 1st 3.49.1112

Five Mile Tempo Run in Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

Wednesdays are my days for tempo runs. Today the tempo run distance was a little longer being 5 miles instead of 4. Then again everything is a little longer I think in week 4 of the Runners World SMART Coach training schedule.

I am continuing to hit the mileage targets as per the schedule so that is going very well. However I am going through a week at the moment where I am feeling tired, whether that is due to the steady increase in mileage every week or it is a week where my energy levels are lower I am not too sure.

When I set out at lunch time the weather was dry but it has turned colder again and temperatures are hovering around freezing due to the winds having picked up.I ran an easy first mile in 8.26 to warm up though this should have been a bit slower. Some how knowing I am going to pick up the pace during the tempo run I usually run a bit quicker in the warm up than I should.

For my tempo run I couldn't really avoid some hills unless I chose to run on a track or found  a flat mile to run up and down over and over again. So my times for the 5 miles seem to flucutate quite a bit  8.06, 8.35, 8.15,8.17 and 8.23. Total 41.38 average pace 8.20. As the schedule called for 7.59 mile pace I am again outside of this.

I jogged home the final mile in 9.24

Just 24 days into the new running schedule there is a need for patience as I don't have a consistent platform of base mileage in the bank in the last 6 months of 2009 and can't expect instant results such as noticable reductions in times. The main indicator of how the training is going at the moment has to be on how successfully I am able to complete the longer runs. I have another 11 mile run this Sunday and completing this distance in reasonable shape will boost the confidence as the body gets to used to spending this amount of time on the run.

What I found helpful when out on the run is to listen to podcasts as a change from music sometimes. A brand new podcast which I think is an excellent listen is called Marathon Talk. The episodes tend to be about an hour which is just right for me as all my training is for an hour or more these days and it saves having to change the ipod over not easy to do I find when the player is in armband wallet.

What I like about this new podcast is how they have chosen to have a no of regular features. It has a news desk feel and is introduced by Martin Yelling and Tom Williams and each episode they interview a running personality.  Although it is marathon talk it would appeal to any runner though they have clearly launched it at this time to appeal to the mass of folks training for a Spring marathon.