Trail Running for Beginners!

Lanzarote Wine Race

So sorry that I haven't written for a while but I haven't really had anything different to write about!

I'm still doing the running coaching and it's going very well. I come up with new fun games to play week after week and enjoy seeing the people I'm coaching improving all the time.

I've started doing half marathon training for anyone that wants to join us every Monday evening. This is really good because then I have a set time to be somewhere and a set distance to run. This will always get me out of the door, which when the summer is rubbish (like it is this year), gives me the motivation I need to keep on running.

And, of course, I am still doing my training for Berlin Marathon :-)

Trail Sierra Montsant

The big change in my running life is that I have decided to start doing some trail races in Spain from around October 2013 :-) I can't start until then as I am already committed to a lot of city marathons up to next summer.

My friend Jose from http://de10a100km.blogspot.com has recommended a few for me. They are Trail Sierra Montsant, Tarragona,  half marathon of the wine in Lanzarote, and half marathon of collserola, Barcelona.

half marathon of collserola

After reading about all three of them I'm a little worried about getting lost (or just drinking too much wine in Lanzarote) and hope that I can convince someone (hint hint Jose) to run one of them with me ;-) 


Otherwise knowing me I'll probably fall off the side of the mountain never to be heard from again!

New 5k Records for Both of Us!

Latimer and I both ran the 5k Mini Strandløb (beach run) this evening!

The sun was shining and it was really hot to run in. Latimer and I started very near the front so Latimer could just run without having to overtake or be held up by lots of people. I was hoping to get a better 5k but with the weather being so hot I wasn't expecting it to happen.

When the gun sounded and we got over the line Latimer just ran! I had lost him within 7 seconds this time! My plan was to start off a little fast and then try and run around 5.13 pace or less. That way I should beat my last 5k time.

By 3.5k I was really finding it hard going because of the sun but just put my head down and kept on running. I was looking out for Latimer but didn't see him anywhere.

At the finish I did my usual sprint even though I was almost dead and I won a goody bag :-) I've never won one before so was very happy!

Latimer was watching me finish and we high fived when I came over the line. We both had got new 5k records!!

Latimer finished in 25 minutes and 21 seconds which is over a minute faster then his best 5k before today!
I finished in 25 minutes and 49 seconds which is almost 45 seconds faster than my best!

Beginner Training Group and Other Stuff

Last Saturday I started training my beginners running group! There are over 20 beginners that I am training and most of them haven't run much or at all before. I found lots of cool running games we could play together and this seemed to work out really well.

I'm looking very much forward to seeing them all again this Saturday :-)

Today I have started some social half marathon training leading up to the Powerade Copenhagen Half Marathon on 9th September. I'm planning on running it in under 2 hours. If I can do that my goal of Berlin Marathon in under 4 hours and 15 minutes should be doable!

We ran 10k today, 11k next week and then adding on more kilometres each week until 2 weeks before when we'll drop the mileage again. 

On top of this training I will also be doing intervals once a week and hill training once a week and then another run anything between 5k and 28k each week.

I can't wait until Wednesday as Latimer and I are racing together in a 5k race! We only have 7 seconds seperating our best times right now. I'll do a write up afterwards....