The weather was perfect – low 50s, no wind and a typical late afternoon sun that made it difficult to see – and made for a very enjoyable workout. Typically I don’t utilize the heart rate feature of my Garmin 405, but today decided to strap on the chest strap and see how hard I was working. The graph below shows I topped out at 170 beats per minute, with a nice gradual increase on each interval. The low points are where I stopped to change my shoes!

So, all in all a very good workout – a real confidence booster – and despite being tired towards the end I really felt fast on the final couple of sprints.

Back at the house I did another Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred (Level 2 no less!) which I’m positive is helping my flexibility and upper body/leg strength. Tomorrow I plan on taking a break from “the shred”, with the aim of feeling rested for the Hair of the Dog 5k on New Year’s Day.

Oh yes, I also did 20 sets of 10 push ups this morning with 20 seconds rest between each set. After my recent success on the Hundred Push Ups plan, I’m keen not to lose all my hard earned strength….

PS One last comment – tonight I also passed the 2400 miles mark for the year. I wonder what 2009 has in store for me?

If I wind the clock back 12 months, I was probably in the best shape of my life, and somehow ran my one and only sub-1 hour 20 minute half marathon. This year, I knew I wasn’t anywhere close to the same fitness level, so my realistic goal for the race was a finish time of 1 hour 24 minutes (6:24 per mile pace). I arrived at the event venue around 7am, allowing plenty of time to pick up my race packet (bib number and race t-shirt) and to warm up for 10-15 minutes. Weather conditions were ideal – a little chilly, but hardly any wind and the sun threatening to break through what little clouds were in the sky. I managed a 2 mile warm up which helped loosen my legs and elevate my heart rate and felt pretty good apart from the usual sore right shin, which I decided to tape up to minimize the pain.

Before I knew it we were lining up on the start line, and after a couple of minutes delay, we were off. Due to a last minute course change, the first mile was rerouted through the picturesque East Beach neighborhood and somehow I managed to run a 6:02 mile instead of the planned 6:24! Although it felt easy, I knew there were still 12 miles of racing to go, so eased off the gas and tried to settle in to a good rhythm.

At 6 minutes 8 seconds, mile 2 was almost as crazy as the first, so ignoring what my body was telling me, I backed off even more. Come on Steve, stick to the plan Even this early in the race the field had spread out and I found myself pretty much alone, but this was soon to change as I was joined by the second and third overall female in the race. One of them asked if I minded her being on my shoulder, to which I replied “no, you’ll probably be ahead of me pretty soon anyway”. She said she was hoping to maintain 6:15 per mile pace (which I thought would be a bit quick for me over the 13.1 miles), so I wished her a good race and focused on maintaining my own pace.

Mile 3 and 4 were completed in 6:17 and 6:15 respectively – still a bit quick, but it felt so good! Mile 5 and 6 were fairly consistent too – 6:19 and 6:17 – and by now we were nearly at the turn around point. I love out and back courses as you can (a) see how many people are ahead of you, (b) see how good or bad they’re looking and (c) cheer on your wife and friends on the way back! The leaders were already approaching mile 7 as I passed mile 6 and it always amazes me how effortless some of these guys appear at speeds almost a minute a mile quicker than me.

I counted down the leaders as I approached the turn – one, two, three four five, six, seven, eight, nine ten, eleven, twelve……and I was in 16th. Not bad, but there were plenty of runners still close enough behind to pose a threat in the closing 6 miles. I still had 2 of the top 3 female runners right next to me and was determined to stay with them as long as possible. Maybe that’s why I ran a 6:11, 6:03, 6:07 and 6:03 mile to complete mile 10 of the race Looking back, it didn’t feel that fast, but I must have been way out of my current fitness zone as at mile 10 I think I invented the half marathon wall!

My legs didn’t feel like my own, my breathing became labored and I started to overstride – a sure sign that my race was almost over with 3 miles left to run. Also, at about this point, the second place female quickened her pace and made a move for the first place female. I tried to stay with her but my body was having none of it. Luckily other runners were also suffering and I managed to catch a couple of guys before we reached the 11 mile mark and the shade of the East Beach neighborhood. I was surprised to see mile 11 was a 6:10 – not too slow considering how bad I felt.

Two miles to go and although the twists and turns of the race route were not exactly what my legs were asking for, but I managed to dig deep and record 2 consecutive 6:09 miles. Until I saw the finish clock I had no idea what my time would be. Throughout the race I hadn’t paid much attention to my mile splits (I only found out my times after downloading my Garmin 305 to my computer), and was surprised to see 1:21 something on the clock. I crossed the line in 1:21:31 (gun time) and ended up with an official race time of 1:21:30 – 2 and a half minutes faster than my goal and a bonus age group win to boot!

As you can imagine I’m very happy with the performance and it’s a great confidence booster as I begin another training week. Now I need to log some long runs (didn’t I say that last week?) and start thinking about the Shamrock Marathon in 6 weeks time!

I probably wasted too much energy on yesterday’s 5 miler – today’s “long” run (actually, 14 miles isn’t really that long when I think of the marathon I’ll be running in 9 weeks time) was quite a tough effort and I needed to dig deep and gut it out.

Some time in the middle of last night I woke with a huge cramp in my right calf, which despite several minutes of stretching before I went back to sleep, was still stiff and sore as I set off on my run. The weather was colder than yesterday – 48°F – and the wind was more from the north, making it feel even cooler than the 48°F suggests, but still warm enough for shorts and 2 layers on top.

I wore my Garmin GPS, but tucked it under one of my long sleeves – I wasn’t really interested in pace, speed or heart rate; just in completing the 14 miles and getting home into a nice hot bath. I guess you can tell that I wasn’t totally “up for” today’s run

I won’t bore you with all the details (you can click on the MotionBased map above for that), but looking back it was a fairly even paced run. The first 7 were all into the wind – either directly in my face or a deceptive cross wind – and I managed to maintain around a 7 minutes 30 seconds per mile pace. With a slight tail wind I unintentionally picked up the pace (apart from a stop in the bushes at mile 9!) and average around 7 minutes 12 seconds per mile.

Despite feeling sluggish, my average heart rate was just 148 beats per minute, which is a great fat burning zone for me. Hopefully it well help in my quest to drop a few more pounds.

The 14 miles today bumped my weekly mileage to the grand total of 38.1 miles – a 10% increase on the 35.6 from last week. Textbook stuff which should help keep the injuries at bay. I’m sure the modest amount of cross training is helping my general fitness level too.

Time to move on from today’s run and focus on a new week with new challenges. Also time for a hot bath….

PS No song references in my blog post today. I decided to leave the headphones at home and focus totally on my run. After all, I won’t be wearing an iPod during the marathon, so I don’t want to get used to running my long runs with music either.

Decided to head outside this afternoon for a short run to help shake out some of the stiffness from yesterday’s 20k race – my longest run since the middle of November. The weather was great – mid 60′s with a warm south west wind – perfect for a Sunday afternoon run in January. My only really goal for the workout was to keep it easy and control my heart rate – ideally keeping it under 90% of my max.

After a nice sedate start (7 minutes 53 seconds for the first mile), I slowly picked up the pace and recorded three almost identical miles of 7:21, 7:17 and 7:18. My breathing was nice and relaxed, and aside from moderately sore quads, no doubt caused by the hills at Fort Story yesterday, my legs felt pretty good too.

The last part of the run back to the house was just as easy. No need to pick up the pace and no need to finish with a kick. A nice stress free Sunday afternoon run which will hopefully help me recover from the tough race yesterday morning.

I completed the 4.75 miles in just over 35 minutes – an average pace of 7:25 per mile.

Average heart rate for the workout: 148 beats per minute with a max of 159.

Back at the house I spent 5-10 minutes stretching out my quads and hamstrings, followed by the first workout in Week 3 of the Essential Abs program. All in all a very productive Sunday!

Today was the day for the first event in the Tidewater Striders Distance Series – a 3 race series designed to be used as a tune up for a Spring marathon. The 20k race consists of 2 x 10k loops on Fort Story Army Base – home to both old and new Cape Henry Lighthouses. The route features 2 short “hills” per loop, (which is actually quite unusual for a race in flat-as-a-pancake Virginia Beach) and starts/finishes right next to the original lighthouse which was built in 1792.

This would be the 6th time I’ve run this particular race since 1999, with finish times ranging from 1:17:27 last year to 1:25:06 in 2001. Two days ago, based on my current fitness level after a fairly lazy December, I made the following prediction:

This year I’m definitely not in that kind of shape, and I’ll be more than happy to get close to 1 hour 20 minutes. With this in mind, my race goal is to start off at 6:26 per mile and run the first 10k loop in about 40 minutes. How I feel at the 10k mark will determine what happens in the second loop I would love to speed things up a fraction, but if I can maintain the same 6:26 pace I’ll be satisfied.

Conditions for the race were very good – sunny, about 40°F with 6-10mph SW winds – and after an easy two mile warm up and removal of 3 clothing layers I was ready for the off. Fort Story always brings out the worst in people (and I don’t mean that in a nasty way). So many runners at the start line psych themselves out before the race is even underway. Some of the comments I heard were “It’s always so cold and windy here”, “I wish this was a flat course – the hills are really tough!”, “I hate running 2 loops”, “I’m so out of shape at the moment”………the list goes on.

I, on the other hand, seem to thrive in the conditions:

• The wind and the cold doesn’t bother me. As long as I warm up properly and wear gloves during the race, I’m fine.
• I try to use the hills to my advantage – catch people on the uphill section and cruise down the downhill section. The change in incline also uses different muscles which is always a good thing!
• I use the 2 loops to help my pacing strategy and break the race up into smaller pieces.
• I’ve accepted my current fitness level after a busy holiday period and am looking to use this race as a platform to build on

I was conscious when the horn sounded not to start off too fast, and reluctantly watched as the leaders disappeared into the distance. Some were actually running the 10k race (one loop of the course) so I decided not to panic and stick to my race plan. Mile 1 was completed in 6 minutes 22 seconds, a few seconds quicker than planned, but it felt very easy and my heart rate was just 156 beats per minute.

For the first four and a half miles I had the pleasure of running alongside Charlie who authors the excellent Running Nowhere Fast blog. He’s on a real high at the moment and every race seems to be a new PR for him. Having company made the time go fast and I was pleased with the mile splits we were ticking off – 6:37, 6:27, 6:32 and 6:27.

My race prediction called for a first 10k in 40 minutes, so I decided to pick up the pace a little, wished Charlie good luck and pressed on. Mile 6 was slightly quicker (6:12) and would turn out to be the fastest of the race, but it allowed me to complete the first circuit in 39 minutes 58 seconds – perfect!

By now, many of the runners ahead had run through the finish chute and completed their 10k races, which left a pretty spread out field ahead of me. I grabbed a quick drink of very cold water, before setting off on the second, lonely loop. I was able to catch and pass one runner between the 7 and 8 mile markers, but the other runners ahead were definitely out of reach. I decided to concentrate on my form and maintain a quick cadence.

Although I gradually slowed for the next 4 or 5 miles (6:20, 6:22, 6:24, 6:28 and 6:34), I always felt in control of my race. A Raspberry Hammer Gel I’d carried since the start and consumed at the 15k mark took a few miles to kick in, but I’m sure boosted me sufficiently to finish with a 6:24 last mile.

My wife Ally, who ran a solid 10k race herself, came back to cheer me on and take a few photos – a nice surprise and another boost! With a final spurt towards the finish line, I finished in 1 hour 19 minutes and 53 seconds – 11th overall and 2nd in the 40-44 age group. After quickly doing the math, I worked out my second loop was completed in 39 minutes 55 seconds – 3 seconds quicker than the first one. How’s that for even pacing and how’s that for meeting my goal?

The 20k race wasn’t easy (my heart rate maxed out at 177 beats per minute towards the end of the race), but it’s given me some confidence and a nice platform I can now build on. The 12.4 miles was also the longest run since my 10 mile race in November and my biggest training week for a while too.

Next up – the Mud In Your Eye 5k XC race in 2 weeks time…

I tried everything I could think of and every tip I could find online, but still the monitor wouldn’t pick up my beating heart.

• I changed the battery (twice)
• I cleaned the contacts on the strap
• I ensured contact with my chest was a good
• I rescanned for new accessories
• I updated firmware and made sure all other software was up to date
• I tried positioning the strap on my back
• I even spent 30 minutes online with a Garmin Tech Support guy who suggested a complete reset to factory settings

I actually gave up finding a fix and ordered a new heart rate monitor strap from Amazon.com. It was not long after this that I stumbled upon an old post on the GarminF Yahoo! Group from someone with a similar problem. I posted a quick message asking for help and received a reply stating there could be a problem with how the battery was seated in the chest strap.

In the battery compartment there’s a gold contact that touches the top of the battery (+ve) which was in a position that would never make contact with the battery. I bent it out slightly, made sure the battery was seated correctly (i.e. flat) and as if by magic my heart rate appeared on the large Garmin display!

So, if you’re having problems with your electronic gadgets (in the words of Winston Churchill) “Never, never, never give up!”

I guess I’ll either return the new strap to Amazon or sell it on eBay when it arrives….