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Day 46 – 314 For 1

I was planning on making today a rest day – Friday has been my most frequent day off from running for some years now and with the final day of F1 testing in Jerez, the only chance I would have got to head out and run would be in the evening: a Friday night run is something I can count on the fingers on one hand I have done.

But the planned rest was planned before I realised yesterday I could break my mileage record for a calendar month. After yesterday’s effort I calculated I needed to run seven miles. As the day wore on I found myself less inclined to head out; the weather looked and sounded truly horrible – wet, windy, and, by all accounts, cold. I tried to talk myself out of it but in the end the lure of a PB of sorts proved too great and so it was, at 7:30pm, I left the comfort of my home to run seven long miles.

Once again this week I got lucky in that the icy cold rain had relented and all I was faced with was a stiff wind, which, although cold, was thankfully not the arctic blast I’d been hearing so much about on the TV weather forecast. the first couple of miles were a real trial – the legs were stiff, bits ached, and the mind was constantly asking why? why? as I struggled into the wind and up the first of two climbs.

Salvation came, not for the first time this week, from the Sansa Clip, who almost seemed to sense my mental frailty and chose  to play, once again, Kingdom of Rust by Doves. Despite my legs determination to not run easily, the song seemed to override the pins and before I knew it I was running 7:20 miles and getting quicker. It helped too that I’d literally turned a corner and the wind was a cross come tail wind that began to blow me ever quicker back towards home.

Heading up to Barrowby Gate, it was Strava’s turn to will me on as I knew there was a trophy to be had if I just upped the pace a touch along this hilly road. That tackled, the run was psychologically as good as done with just a mile and a half of downhill or flat running to tackle. Before I knew it I was home – seven and a half miles run, Best of all, I managed to make it indoors just as the heavens opened again.

I barely had time to shower before I was uploading my run to Fetcheveryone and Strava. Fetch was the most important, official confirmation of my mileage was up and there for all to see.

Official Confirmation314 miles – two more than March 2012 when I was training for the London Marathon that I was unable to run and then took part in the Shakespeare Marathon that wasn’t (That story is for another day, it took many months to come to terms with that one and it still winds me up just thinking about it…).

Hopefully this year my marathons go to plan. If they don’t well at least I have my Strava Gold Trophy for Barrowby Gate to treasure (although someone could easily beat that). January is done. All in all a very good month, as good as I could have hoped for, and well on track to, hopefully, Sub 2:45.

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About The Runner

I’m Matthew Kingston-Lee, a thirty forty something runner who runs for and is the current Chairman of Grantham Running Club.

I’ve run pretty much all my life, and considered my self a runner ever since I finished second at my Reception Class School Sport’s Day sprint race.

I gave up sprinting as a teenager and became more interested in distance running. Since I ran my first half marathon back in 1996, I’ve raced, with various degrees of competitiveness, ever since – mostly on the road and, when forced to, over cross country. Some people in the F1 world may know me best as the runner who used to lap the circuit quite quickly, twice winner of the Runthattrack World Championship for F1 Paddock runners.

It was always my goal to break 3 hours for the half marathon. As I broke this some time ago it has, in recent years become my wish to break 2:45 for the marathon – the time required to qualify for the National Marathon Championships, held as part of the London Marathon. My best so far is 2:50, run at Taunton in 2011 2:46:38, run at Rotterdam in 2014, but I hope with, with a little bit of luck and a fair amount of hard work, to better that time this  next year and come somewhere under 2:44:59.

This blog is primarily to chart my training in my most serious and hopeful attempt yet at cracking this target time  is now a medium to highlight my sporting activities, and hopefully to chart my Sub 2:45. having achieved the goal of breaking 2:45 at the 2015 Chester Marathon, running 2:43:41.

I’m currently thinking up new things to target….

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My Personal Bests

parkrun – 16:36  – Peterborough – June 2015

5km – 16:55 – Lincoln – July 2014

5 Miles – 27:53 – Nottingham – July 2014

10km – 34:10 – Long Bennington – June 2015

10 Miles – 57:20 – Peterborough – December 2013

Half Marathon – 1:14:47 – Witchford – September 2015

15 Miles – 1:28:40 – Folksworth – January 2014

30km – 1:52:38 – Stamford – February 2014

Marathon – 2:43:41 – Chester – October 2015.

 

 

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Day 45–Obsessing with the Mileage

It wasn’t just because I’d uploaded nine years of running data to Strava that I was obsessing over mileage on my run. A quick look on Fetcheveryone showed that if I ran 16 miles this evening and then 6 or so tomorrow evening then I would break my all time record mileage for a calendar month. It wasn’t going to be easy though as covering the F1 testing meant that I couldn’t leave for my run as early as I’d have liked to. I think I left even later than I did on Tuesday, requiring a 6:41 opening mile and then half a mile at 6:12 pace to just make it to the club before they left.

Thankfully there was a couple of miles of easy paced running where I could recover from those early exertions and concentrate on the miles ahead. I wasn’t concentrating leaving Queen Elizabeth’s Park though, having splashed our way through I stopped my watch to allow all the runners to pass, I forgot to restart my Garmin. I didn’t realise until I neared Belton House, which turned out to be around 1.2 miles but at the time I wasn’t sure how far I’d lost.

After four or so easy miles, on the dark lanes towards Londonthorpe I put in a couple of quickish miles, made harder as they were all uphill. Thereafter I settled in a small group of three, running between 7-7:10 minute miles along eerily misty narrow country lanes. We maintained this all the way back into Grantham which was significantly quicker than in previous weeks and gave a good workout. Once in Grantham I tried to add some miles to bring the run up to 16. I had to guess somewhat, and ended up around a third of a mile short.

Legs were pretty good, although right abductor was still tight at times and the right hamstring is pretty sore to touch after I found some tight and tender spots during some Stick massage.