#lochnessmarathon

Flashupdates gives the ability to follow your friends and family's progress by receiving updates on facebook and/or twitter as they run the 26.2 miles of the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon 2014. Simply find your family or friend by entering their Race Number or Surname using the 'Find Entrants' search, press the 'Click to follow' button and select to receive updates on facebook and/or twitter.

I am running Loch Ness Marathon to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society. Please donate at the following link:

The highlight of this week's running is of course the Long Slow Run (30K), which I run-walked just to be sure I can finish. This ended up being actually easier then running 26K, so my trick worked!

This whole week I was running in my new Luna Mono sandals (my mini-review), which is just a great experience! Weather permitting, I'll see if I can use them on the marathon itself.

Another addition to my training regiment is hill repeats (done them over two weeks now), the hills become easier and easier now -- I learned to "switch to a lower gear" and slowly but surely climb up those inclines. Useful skill I am sure! Here is my run with 7 repeats:

Just one more LSR and then I taper and take it easy!

I am running Loch Ness Marathon to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society. Please donate at the following link:

I now only have 4 real "productive" weeks to increase the distance, before I have to taper in anticipation of the race proper. My aim is to run 20 miles / 32K 2 weeks before the race. Ideally, I would like to run-walk 20 miles once and then run 20 miles all the way the week after. That means that during the following 2 weeks my long runs should be around 24K and 28K respectively. Hmmm, sounds reasonable!

But now, for the short runs. This is how my weeks looked:

Monday: Easy run 11.44K, 01h06s59 at 5m51s / km Tuesday: Cross-training Gym 40min. On this day I have also discovered that the gym wasn't taking any payments since February, so technically I was not a member all this time. Nobody seemed very bothered about this. Oh well. Perhaps I have to think of some other way to cross-train. Wednesday: Intervals 5min x 5 @ 5m00s - 5m15s / Km, 1min jogging / walking rest. Total of 6.3K, 35m @ 5m32s average pace. I would classify this as a medium-to-hard workout. Discovered new fascinating pains and niggles after this. Thursday: Rest Friday: Easy tempo run (if that's a thing): 11K, 1h03m @ 5m43s / Km. Feeling good! Saturday: Rest Sunday: Long slow run: 20K, 2h05m @ 6m18s / Km. Started off with really slow splits (7+ minutes per Km) and did negative splits to under 6 minutes / Km. The distance was not much longer than last week but this felt much harder. I am guessing the muscle fatigue accumulates, plus the second 10K were at root a longish tempo. Better not overtrain! Also started using the foam roller for my leg muscles and ITBs. Painful but relaxing, hmm.

Next week I am going to run a half marathon, so hopefully with enough rest and some short bursts during the week I would be able to show better time than today!

I am running Loch Ness Marathon to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society. Please donate at the following link:

It's a relatively slow pace on the week two of the preparations, having planned to do 3 short runs on the week (lunch time mostly) and one long run on the weekend. Looking back, I succeeded sticking to that program, and even managed to throw a cross-training session in. I received my spanking new GPS watch now, btw, so starting Wednesday I have training logs, too! Can't upload them to Garmin Connect yet (some troubles with Garmin Express).. So anyway, here goes: 

Monday Easy run (40min) Tuesday Rest Wednesday Easy run (9.3K, 0h58m @ 6m17s/K) Thursday Cross-training (40min gym) Friday Easy to moderate run (11.4K, 1h10m @ 6m08s/K) Saturday Long slow run (19K, 1h57m @ 6m11s/K) Sunday Rest

As a "warm up" race I have signed up for a Severn Bridge half-marathon -- in its first year, it's a run with nice scenery "between the sea and the sky".

Look what the postman brought this week! This is going to be my vest for the run. Cool cool cool :)

Thank you very much everyone who has already donated! It is only 6 weeks to go now, so if you wish to make a donation, do not delay too much!

I am running Loch Ness Marathon to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society. Please donate at the following link: