Foolishly, I played a game of footy last Thursday, the night before I was due to run a 14 miler and paid the price. After a hard day at work on the Friday I was looking forward to letting off some steam... I was probably to eager to start and maybe ran slightly quicker than planned, about 5mins into the run I was sweating quite badly, I knew then something was up (but I still felt good) but continued to run anyway.

Shortly after I could feel pain in my ankles, lower back and shins... my pace was slowing, I kept going but finally threw in the towel about 7 miles into my run, I wanted to fight it out but I believe in listening to your body... my body was certainly telling me to stop, picking up an injury during Marathon training would be foolish.

I feel so disappointed, I'm resting now in preparation for the Saab/Salomon10k Forest trail on Thursday night (Delamere Forest).

The legendary Alberto Salazar has often described the short 5k race to be the toughest of them all. We run many miles each week trying to perfect our form and rhythm while running, helping us to run further and further but a quick 5k can turn all of that on it's head. Why? simply because it's too short! It takes me over 3 miles to reach my peak pace with a good sustainable rhythm.

As an example, yesterday I decided to run 5k as quick as I could... performing rather badly, today I ran 10k at a much faster average pace than my 5k! I ran double the distance, but much quicker.. weird eh?

Next time I go for a 5k personal best, I'll run 5k at a slow warm up pace first... I'm convinced this will work.

I ran a scheduled 10miler last night, running from the Metropolitan Cathedral in the centre of Liverpool, down to the Mersey and along the docks past the new Liverpool Arena to the famous Liver birds, before heading back up North to where I live.

All was well when my Nike+ suddenly reported "workout complete", just after the halfway point of 5 miles.
I had to stop, unstrap my back-pack and fiddle about with the Nano to start another workout of 5 miles. So my online stats will report my last run at 5 miles (instead of the planned 10).

Annoying!

Yesterday I decided to take some time out to seriously calibrate both my Nano & Sportband after getting some wild results from both devices over the last month. I went out in my car and found the nearest straightest road I could find and mapped out exactly half a mile. I first wired up my Nano in calibration mode (walking calibration) and walked back half a mile. I walked back to the car this time with the Sportband, now I half both devices calibrated at my walking pace. I simply repeated the same process again for both devices for a running calibration, trying my best to keep a good, steady natural pace.

The annoying thing about the Sportband is that you can only calibrate the device on a computer AND only with your last workout so I had to take my macbook along with me to adjust the calibration after walking so it was ready for a running calibration. This is not needed for the Nano.

I tested the Nano today with a nice long 12 miler, the furthest I've ever ran with my back-pack and the results were much better, so far... I think the calibration has worked. I'll keep you posted.

Both devices gave good accurate results at the start of my running, but now... I'm averaging a much quicker pace and I just think they both needed a kick up the arse to keep up

Tags: calibration

The results are in:
43:32 (Avg pace: 7:00 per mile)

Overall Position:
173 of 1838

Category Position:
105 of 837 (MOPEN)

Gender Position:
170 of 1355 (Males)

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Total Participants:
1838

Fastest Time:
00:34:34 (only 9 mins quicker than me!)

Official website results:
http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/

race: Mersey Tunnel 10k
race number: 206

I had an excellent run today, excellent because I managed to get a new personal best for the 10k without "really" trying. I didn't plan it, so I probably felt more relaxed at the start and after conquering the almighty incline during the second half of the tunnel I felt very comfortable... so i thought sod it, run Jim run!

The tunnel was a great experience for me, I must have driven through it a thousand times, running through it was amazing. There were the usual shouts of "Oggy Oggy Oggy!" reminiscent of the Great North Run 07. The approach in was easy running downhill, then midway it began to level out and then.... a really tough incline, watching other runners dropping out just gave me the will to carry on.

I crossed the finish line on 44mins (previous PB was 47mins), I reckon my actual chip time will be about 43+ given the time it took to pass the start line.

All in all, a fantastic run, really enjoyable. If I'm still running next year I'll be doing this race again.
(pic in the gallery)

Tags: mersey tunnel