I’m approaching marathon training with all new vigour this week. After a slow and somewhat glum start to the program, which saw me achieving only 20km of a 20 mile weekly target, I have decided to show a little more gumption this week and commit.

Today was scheduled for my mid-week longish run which means a resurrection of the running commute. I wasted a good portion of the day playing with google maps, trying to determine the best tube station to start my run from. Shame I didn’t spend more time examining the details of the route.

It didn’t seem that tricky, just Tooting Bec to X marks the spot but less than a mile from home I managed to get myself horrendously lost, turning right when I should turn left and then again. Looking at the map it seems like such a sharp bend that I can’t understand why I didn’t notice that I’d just doubled back on myself and come back down a parallel street.

The day disappeared with itself yesterday. I’d planned a running commute which takes precision organisation and an evening without commitments but my boss had other plans and kept me back late. By the time I’d run home I had no energy for Jog, Log, Blog, all I could manage was the 3 B’s: Beer, Bath, Bed.

I had 17km on my plan but the route didn’t quite work out that way. I walked for about a mile before the satellites picked up and then struggled to actually start the running motion. I was happy standing by the Houses of Parliament in the rain, watching the goings on, as the Garmin strained to communicate but did finally press go somewhere past Millbank and trogged fairly happily along the river and up through Battersea and Clapham.

I had a few good kilometres in the mix where I felt relatively spritely but it dropped off from 10k and by 12k I was suffering. My feet lost all spring and it felt like I was bouncing on bone. I was not sufficiently on form to deal with the hill that greats me within yards of our house.

I’ve had major energy slumps on my last two long runs. I’m pretty sure its diet related as I’ve been messing around with my carb intake. I’ve decided low carbs don’t work too well with long runs so have upped the consumption but I still felt sick as a dog by the time I got home. Lynn force fed me peanut butter on toast and I perked up miraculously

I took my nordic poles into work today. I proper ummed and ahhed about it, but in the end I decided the health of my knee might be worth a bit of humiliation through Brixton.

When the heavens opened, mid afternoon, I was so grateful, imagining empty streets in which I could gallop along, bounding from one puddle to the next.

By the time I got to Brixton, it had dried out and multiple commuters were gathering. I extended the poles. Walked a little bit. Considered running.

I managed approximately 10 yards but was too embarrassed to overtake the couple who had witnessed me faffing with the poles and so stopped and retracted them. That meant I had to continue the run with two poles clutched in my hands. I now have rotator cuff injuries to go with my dodgy knee.

I’m not sure I’m going to stick with Nordic Jogging as a concept. I can’t cope with the spectacle and besides, the poles seem to skitter all over the tarmac. Maybe I should give it a go on a proper muddy trail.

Despite suggestions to the contrary my knee actually held up very well today. 9km ticked off and not even a twinge. I’m putting this down to a very positive experience with performance and injury specialist, Craig Carroll but more on that later.

A few days away from the hum and drum of life and I’ve already forgotten how to function.

This morning’s cycle commute was a case in point, I couldn’t get my brain into gear at all.

The moment I left the house and pushed myself down the col de Norbury, pedalling head first into the icy winds, I released I’d forgotten the windproof jacket. A few more miles of bobbing up and down on the Brooks machine of torture (aka saddle) prompted me to discover missing item number 2, the hoo haa ride and glide.

By the time I’d cycled for an hour this morning, certain essential protuberances had turned to cubes of ice and my hoo haa was non too happy.

I’ve ticked off 17.5km for the Janathon gods, hopefully I’ll be back later today with a running related offering.

I forgot how much preparation these running commutes take, especially in this weather. I should have been at least 24 hours ahead of the game and deposited supplies at work, but I wasn’t. Instead I had to try and cram my work and running stuff into the tiny little hydration pack. It didn’t all fit, so I had to wear it all on the way into work. Despite layering up with shirt, jumper, running tops * 2 and a windproof, I was still freezing. I was also about 3 times larger than usual and took up more than my fair share of train seat.

Remarkably I managed not to forget any of my vitals and was able to leave the office this evening perfectly togged up for a cross town running commute. I stopped off en-route for an MRI scan on my left knee and then picked it up again from outside Guys Hospital.

I had a perfect 10k route plotted and uploaded to the garmin device but satellite communications were iffy until I’d wandered as far as the Elephant and Castle roundabout – which took an unsatisfying 0.79km off my schedule.

Now that I’m getting medical intervention for my running ailments I’ve turned into a bit of a hypochondriac, I can feel meniscal twinges on every step. I’m pleased to report though, that my debilitating calf injury appears to have cleared up and any remaining niggles seem entirely manageable.

I think the lay off must have done me some good. On the face of it, this was not the most inspiring running commute. The Elephant & Castle subway is a bit grim, and the A23 isn’t the most scenic thoroughfare in London but I was loving it nevertheless. It helps a lot that I’ve discovered the best running podcast ever (marathon talk) but I’ve also been raring to go for weeks and can now finally release all this pent up enthusiasm. I feel like I can run and run.

Yesterday I announced to anyone that would listen that 3k’s were the new half-marathon.

It’s just not true though.
A bag of chips and a bottle of Newcastle Brown still tastes like a sin after 3 paltry kilometres.

With that in mind I decided to dust off my long distance shoes and attempt another running commute. Attempt being the operative word because I’d prepared myself for one of those last week but got diverted by the pub and managed only 4k.

Today I had a little more incentive, the underground was still pole-axed with the strike fallout and my journey in on the train scored high on the “most hellish journey ever” scales. I was not in a rush to embrace public transport.

I wandered down to the embankment, slowly picking up my satellite signal and started running along the Thames.

I trogged on, ignoring pub invitation texts, choosing instead to descend into an anti-running mantra. This was my make and break run for next weeks Great North Run. My training has been lacklustre and I am no where near 13 mile standard, this commute was supposed to make my decision clear – run or not run.

What I think about when I go running:

Ughhhhh I don’t like running, I want to stop, I don’t want to run 13 miles, I’m not cut out for long distance running, maybe I could just stop now and try out this pub, it looks like a very nice pub but probably too nice to sell Stella, not that I only drink Stella, if I did the Great North Run I’d drink Newcastle Brown ale and folk would cheer as I ran and I’d be a hero.

Then I’d start again taking a slightly different route but basically ending 13 miles later with a beer in my hand and a medal round my neck and a new t-shirt for my collection.

By the time I’d quit whining I’d run 6km and it occurred to me that my breathing had calmed down nicely and if it wasn’t for all the whittering in my head I was almost having a nice time.

I passed on through Battersea Park, admiring the Buddha admiring skippers carried on to Clapham Common and arrived at Tooting Common slap bang in the middle of the night. Dark and gloomy and altogether just a little bit too spooky to navigate. I skirted the edges and called a halt to my run 12.5 kms after I started it.

Still not good enough to confirm I can manage the half marathon but at least I was still standing. I’ll try a proper long run at the weekend and make my decision then.

Short aside – This post is a little out of context now, it was written last week but the publishing was delayed by an administrative error on behalf of my web hosts who kindly forgot to renew two of my domains!

The new accessible job arrived and sucked away all my handy exercise avoidance excuses…..time to resurrect the running commute.

My first attempt was an unwelcome struggle, my head was in a seriously moany place and my feet were doing that teenage scuffing thing. I made it past two commons lurching in a stop go fashion and finally quit at Somerfield in order to replenish the Stella supplies.

Today’s run was a bit more exciting, I’d heard a rumour that the non runner may be catching the 5:18 train. Thereby giving me approximately 25 minutes to hot foot it down the high street and nonchalently drape my sweating being across the bonnet of her car to ensure a lift half the way home.

Needless to say I made it. Amazing what you can pull out of the bag for an easy ride.

I got an iPhone recently which has proved mighty useful for navigating me through some commutimg crises but will unfortunately result in a decline in photo quality for my blog.

I’ve been checking out the promisingly named “50 Awesome iPhone Apps for Runners” blog post, they don’t all have very good reviews on iTunes but I may check a few out. High on my list will be True Weight – 3 months of idleness has not done me any sartorial favours and I need to get back in control.

In the spirit of
1. getting back into the swing of things
2. jumping in at the deep end, and
3. acquiring more t-shirts
I’ve signed myself up for an assortment of events.

First on the list is the London to Brighton bike ride which has been on my wishlist for some time.

Then it’s time for a re-run of the British London 5k which promises to be particularly exciting – at least in terms of the location of it’s post race champagne reception. Stay tuned.

Finally (at least for now), I’ve gone and signed myself up the scary Great North Swim. I’m hoping to be able to finish it without the asthma attack this time, which probably means a little more training…

This grotty summer weather is doing wonders for my running. It just needs to threaten drizzle and I’m grabbing my trainers, or at least I’m thinking about grabbing my trainers as I’m the world’s worst procrastinator when comes to running.

I’d scheduled a run for first thing Saturday morning but although I kept putting the garmin into training mode and heading towards the door, I didn’t actually manage to get out until 3pm on Sunday. That is some dithering! At least the delay meant it was chucking down for the best part of my Sunday pootle.

It was grey again today so I seized the opportunity to schedule another running commute and my long run for the week. The unseasonable weather meant traffic chaos this morning and I was kicking myself for leaving the bike at home when I arrived at the tube station to find it closed due to flooding. I wasn’t much happier when 6 o’clock came round and I had to start running.

Turned into a jolly pleasant run though, a bit of salsa popped up on my iPod towards the end and I managed my own personal interpretation of dancing. Things are looking up for my running if I can manage a bit of merengue after 6 miles.

For any Garmin 405 owners, there is a new firmware update. It should improve the pace reading and stop the annoying freezing of the bezel, amongst other things.

The race packs seem to be dropping thick and fast through the letter box this week, after the painfully slow 5k at the weekend I came home and opened an envelope to discover I was entered in the Great Capital 10k in just 2 weeks time. Goodness knows when I signed up for that, I hadn’t bothered to note it in my diary anyway.

I’m thinking that’s its probably impossible to turn around the worst ever 5k race time within the space of 2 weeks given a backdrop of 5 months of lacklustre training, but I’ve got to do something to ensure I don’t collapse before the finish line. I’ve therefore embarked on a 2 week anti-Stella campaign to be combined with regularish running commutes.

JogBlog is not the only one completing an old new running commute, I’ve shifted jobs yet again and am right back where I started with the very first running commute of 18 months ago. Happily I’ve picked up a bit of local knowledge over the months and can now get from asylum to home with barely any need to run on the grotty streets, it also seems to save me 500 metres which is no good as it ruins my perfect 10 k route.

Running along the edge of assorted waterways provides plenty of opportunity for water related incidents and playing around with the forerunner 405 touch bezel does not reduce the likelihood. I stumbled over some barge docking related paraphenalia but managed to steady myself in a rather sturdy clump of stinging nettles. I’m still itching but I did discover a rather cool new screen on the forerunner.

It the HR graph option and shows your heart rate displayed on a backdrop of HR zones. Quite neat but probably only useful if you are doing intervals, for most of my run it appeared as a flat line between zones 4 and 5. The photo was taken after I stopped.

Distance: 9.58km
Time: 1:22:00

Here’s a quick pictorial introduction to the new bike recruit.

The Brompton is squeezing alongside the other two bikes and trying to carve out a niche for itself.

So far it’s doing very well and I’m beginning to worry about what I’ll do with the other two.

I wonder if I could have a go at a sprint tri with it? It certainly needs to have a go at some sort of challenge event just to cement it’s street cred.

A marvel of British engineering.

Here it is in transition mode – notice the sweet pea holder built into the Brompton bag – how useful is that?

Just to continue the bike porn theme, here it is in full glory.

I’ll just finish by plugging the WizzBike – the best bike shop I’ve come across so far. Superb service, it’s based in Brentford but well worth the trip if you are interested in Bromptons, folders or Pashleys.