Run Streak

Today is Wednesday 19th February, day 50 of my Run Steak, I'd already decided that today would be my sign off day from Run Streak, it's served it's purpose and got me really charged and motivated to run, which is exactly what I needed after December.

I really need to spend more time on the bike and I don't want to risk injury with just over 3 months till the Triple Iron.

Yeh, I'm a little disappointed actually, I really wanted to keep going, maybe even run the whole year, but common sense now prevails, it ends tonight.

It should end in style though ..... shouldn't it ?

Absolutely !

Home from work early & straight out on the bike just before dusk, the last time I rode in darkness was the Double Iron 21 months ago, really quiet and calm, that is until I get blinded by cars headlights and struggle to see the road & pot holes. I must get some better lights, one of my key learning's from the Double, I'll sort that tonight when I get in.

Anyhow, a windy and dark 40 miler on the bike, definitely doing this again (when the lights arrive !), quick catch up with the Mrs and runners on, fancy knocking a 10 miler out but wanted a nice quiet smooth road, so in an effort to get used to repetition (the Triple is a multi lap affair), there's a well lit road around the corner, slight incline but very smooth tarmac and 0.4 mile long, so I hit that at a decent 7:10-7:20 minute per mile pace.

12 out & backs later and a short run back home and 10 miles at 7:17 pace was in the bag, 3 and half hours of training, on a work night, awesome, happy with that, and it also took me over 300 miles running year to date, that's an average of 6 miles a day for 50 days, went to bed a happy bunny.

Just a week or so to go till March, when I plan to really up training, I work at a local branch 2 days a week for the next 3 months, thanks to my employers, rather than travel to head office in Nottingham, it means I can get a longer morning and a longer evening session in rather than spending 3 half hours travelling in the car, a real advantage, now that I've got a solid base.

Although I've not done much biking, only 300 miles year to date, I do feel strong on the bike, really looking forward to spending more time out there on the road, but must keep 4 runs per week in the plan, which include 2 long (10 miles plus), just got to get through the next week plus, there's lots happening at the minute, with helping mum & sorting things out for her, jobs at home and some important projects to complete at work, it's going to be a tough 10 days or so. I had thought maybe the wrong time to end Run Streak as it's really made sure I train every day, but no, stick to the plan, focus, train as much as I can, get everything out of the way & bring on March.

A challenging 2 months

It's been a couple of months since I last wrote on here, training was starting to really move forward in November & early December but a sickness bug knocked me out mid December, I tried to train through it but it wouldn't go away and it just hung around for nearly 3 weeks.

On top of that my father became seriously ill early December, family should always come first so, training took a big back seat over the rest of the month.

Over Christmas however, I made the decision that I had to get some normality back to life & training for January, so challenged myself to a run streak, starting on 1st Jan, this REALLY helped focus me, the challenge is to run every day (minimum run is 5k or 3.1 miles), and see how far I can go, back in October 2012 when I Ran The Date, see blog post http://philbinch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/run-date-run-october-2012.html I ran 31 consecutive days,, this time it would be a little easier, no distance pressures and the three or four 5k runs I planned a week would be slow recovery/ rest day runs.

I wasn't going to make it an easy run streak though, there definitely had to be some long & very long runs in there to test me.

The run streak started off well with 28 miles in the first 5 days of January with 3 shorter runs & 2 8/9 mile runs back to back, I felt great and decided to really push hard. The next 2 weeks were real tough 4 "double digit" runs a week, 3 of them back to back, I loved it.

January Run Streak - miles run

I had planned to continue the 4 "double digit" runs for another week, unfortunately fate stepped in, when my father's illness took a turn for the worse and sadly he passed away on 22nd January.

Dad has encouraged me to chase my ambitions & goals all my life whether these were work, family or life related, we'd had a number of emotional chats over the last few weeks, and although he was keen to see me, was also determined that I should continue my training & focus on the year ahead.

I kept the run streak going which involved some very late runs, it also meant cutting down the distance as time between family, work, hospital, parents house & travelling didn't leave much for training.

However, the run streak continued and I'm really thankful to my family and proud of myself that I kept at it, the Run Streak Challenge certainly played it's part to, as without it, there would have been quite a few days towards the end of January that I just would not have trained.

Last night, day 35 of Run Streak was a close call, the day after dad's funeral, a tough day at work, stopped at Mum's on the way home, so didn't get home till gone 8pm, I just couldn't get motivated, I sat on the sofa trying to chill out till 10pm, and had more or less decided that I was having a day off.

Somehow I dragged myself into the garage to the treadmill and started jogging, after a mile I still wasn't in the mood and was close to stopping, I carried on another half mile, then I started to feel better, I was half way there to 5k already, so I just kept running & thinking, pace was slow but I was getting closer to 5k, before I knew it the deed was done, shower, chill & bed .....

So now on Day 36, I feel reinvigorated and I'm ready for a long run, I've only done two "double digit" runs in the last 16 days, so looking forward to tonight. So pleased I didn't stop yesterday.

On the bike & swim front, I've started back swimming after nearly 4 months off, took a couple of session to get swim fit and I'm nearly enjoying it now, the plan going forward is 2 x 60-90 minute swims a week for a month, then pick it up. Biking, only managed about 100 miles on the road/ rollers, so need to get some focus here ............... Bike Streak anyone !!!!


Tip 1:
Don't try to train through sickness, take a few days off totally and get back on it when your better.

Tip 2:
Through difficult times, a little extra motivation always helps, set yourself a challenge that will force you out to train, it can be tough some days but once your out there training, you'll be glad you made the effort