Sunday, March 20, 2011

A day off and Japan

I took a day off from running on Friday — hadn't missed a day in the previous 41 and could feel I was in need of a rest. My heart-rates on runs have been a little on the high side for a week or two. After the day off I enjoyed a particularly good long run on Saturday morning with my mates: Geoff (and a couple of his Metro runners for a while), Ruth, Emma and Andy.

We ran beside the lake and then through the bush around Mount Ainslie for a distance of 20k in 2 hours and 9 minutes. In my book that's a long run for a 5k racer. Afterwards we met up with a couple of other friends for coffee (and lunch) at the War Memorial café. The perfect morning! Today's run makes 91k for this week and 380 for the past four.

I have running friends living in Japan, and thankfully they and their families are all okay. Bob is actually racing the LA marathon in California today. Go Bob! I found a website via Twitter last week where runners around the world are coming together to raise money for British Red Cross which is helping people affected by events in Japan. It's called Run For Japan. The first runner was Paula Radcliffe (I was the 42nd) and now there are 242 runners who've run 3,481 miles. The website's goal is to run around the world (24,901 miles) in 28 days.

28 miles for Japan in 2009
28 miles is the longest 'run' I do. 2009, 1 mile in

18 comments:

Andrew(ajh) said...

I will definitely do my Run for Japan this week!

Robert James Reese said...

You're logging some nice mileage (kilometerage?) there. Keep up the good work. I can't imagine running 41 days in a row -- my body gets made at me if I try to run more than four or five in a row.

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Great you ran a leg of the Run For Japan Ewen, way to go!
Hope your training starts to pay off soon.

Thomas said...

I never knew you were mates with Paula ...

Samurai Running said...

Great Ewen

Doing your part to run and spread the word.

Also just saw Bob's result now up. He ran fantastic as usual. He is around Sppedygeoffs' level I reckon.

Grellan said...

41 days straight! I though the experienced guys, took a day off a week.

Ewen said...

That's great Andrew. Hope it's more than 4 miles ;)

I'll go with mileage Robert. Young blokes like you should be able to run months in a row... but your 1:19 half is a good validation of your high quality program, so stick to it.

Rick, same here. Have some trial races coming up so we'll soon see.

Thomas, I taught Paula everything she knows (about all subjects except running).

Scott, just did so too. I reckon Speedygeoff would take a silver medal and 3:10. Not sure about Bob - he was training damn hard for a 3:03. Looking forward to his blog.

Grellan, my mate Paula takes the eighth day off. It's hard for me though to run 'high' mileage with a day off and a long run of 20k. Deek and Mona never took a day off and they were experienced ;) Mona said his secret training session was the 2/7/365 - running twice a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Did you teach Paula that 'Nodding head' trick?

speedygeoff said...

If you only run once and not further than 8-10k, it counts as a day off.

Girl In Motion said...

Great mileage for the week, Ewen! (or as Robert puts it, kilomeretage). Between the HR stuff and the distance, you're building a kick-ass foundation.

Superflake said...

Better to have a day off than to get sick and have a week off.

Black Knight said...

Thanks for sharing that web-site. I will run for Japan too.
In the past I also made 41 days in a row but ... resting!!!

chris mcpeake said...

41 days straight... NICE.

Ewen said...

No Rick! If I'd been coaching Paula when she was a teenager I would have cured her of the nodding head trick. She would have run a 2:14 marathon instead of a 2:15.

Speedygeoff, yes, that's a good way of looking at it. 8-10k is my rest day :)

Flo, I hope so. Have struggled a bit recently but there are often downs in the uphill road of building a base.

Paul, I can see that the day off helped. I might go back to Paula's plan of taking every 8th day off.

Thanks for running for Japan Stefano! The last time I had 41 days resting was after my 'big' motorcycle accident in the '80s ;)

Thanks Chris. Nothing like the mileage you're doing. I think you'd get on well with my ultra mates Two Fruits and Softshoe.

Sling Runner said...

41 running days in a row is awesome.

I think Paula Radcliffe has a mandatory rest day after 7 days of running (8 day cycle).

Does this mean you train on a 40-day cycle? ;)

Ewen said...

Sling, yes, that's right about Paula - the 8th day off.

Ha ha about the 40-day cycle! I haven't go enough fingers and toes for that ;)

Dubs said...

Thanks! I'll have to get some miles in for Japan. I've never been 41 slots away from Paula! Great job! :)

Ewen said...

Thanks Dubs. I'm only close to Paula because or my early trend following (Twitter).