I’ve got my name into the Royal Parks HM ballot. Now the wait is on to see whether I get space on the race or not.

I’ve starting trying out the 30-day Squat Challenge and already feeling the burn. 50 squats, then a 5K run, then another 50 squats (because I forgot to log the first one)

It’s been a while since I last posted so here’s a few quick updates:

1.Royal Parks Half Marathon

Ballot opens in just under a week, so I’m hoping to be able to get a place

2. Running Updates

I’ve now got a Running Watch and a Nike+ Fuel Band – linked into my profile here. The band lets me check my activity for the entire day, and the watch lets me log my run far more accurately than my phone can. I still use Endomondo and Zombies, Run. Endomondo for the training plan, and Zombies, Run for the story entertainment.

Stopped using gmusicfs as it causes random reboots, and, I’ve noticed, messes up CameraZOOM, which is the photo app I use on my phone, so now, I have my music streaming via Google Play Music, and have ZR running. However, it does cause overlap, plus, I can’t always hear what they are saying. Fortunately, I’ve listened to the entire Season 2 now, anyway. Actually, might ditch ZR now as its not really helping me now.

Ran a 13K distance on Sunday just gone, and was suffering aches during Monday and Tuesday. The route was mostly okay, but like with Waggon Road, this one stopped doing pavements part way along the road, forcing me to run on the grass and on the main road itself. Even had to balance on the stones holding up the black and white “>>>” chevrons.

Next run is today (7.4K, but going to aim to round it up to 8K.) Aiming to run it at between 5:30 and 6:00 min/km pace, so should be 44-48 mins. Found a nice route following the A110. Sure it’s along the main road, but its lit at night, has a dual pavement most of the way (separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists), and mostly flat. Should be good to help with my distance endurance

Current fastest 5K: 34:40 min

Estimated time for HM distance (21.1km): Approx 2:30 hours

I started to use Nike+ because I liked their use of routes and their concept of “Nikefuel”, then I found out that there is an option in Endomondo to link into it. Though it seems like it’s one way, based on the description (Nike+ –> Endomondo). I’ll give it a go this evening for my first Half Marathon training session. I have been running these past few days with Nike+, Zombies Run, and Endomondo all active, tracking my session, and this drains out about 80-85% of my battery in 30 minutes. If the Endomondo - Nike+ link works, I’ll be pretty damn pleased, though I doubt that will be the case

Nike+ integration with Endomondo - How does it work?

Endomondo | Community based on free GPS tracking of sports.

I’ve decided on my next running goal: The Royal Parks Half Marathon.

EASY RUN WITH 6 STRIDES 5.98 KM

Tracks: Endomondo, Zombies Run

EASY 5.30 KM IN 40M:22S

Tracks: Endomondo, Zombies Run

TEMPO RUN IN 3 INTERVALS 53M:31S

Tracks: Endomondo, Zombies Run

EASY 3.20 KM IN 24M:22S

Tracks: Endomondo, Zombies Run

EASY RUN WITH 6 STRIDES 6.48 KM

Run aborted

EASY 5.30 KM IN 40M:22S

DISTANCE 4.78 km, DURATION 33m:52s

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

TEMPO RUN IN 2 INTERVALS 42M:01S

DISTANCE 6.09 km, DURATION 51m:16s. A tough run, the second interval was difficult and ended up walking part of it, along with the cooldown.

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

EASY 2.70 KM IN 20M:34S

Ran 2.74 km in 16m:18s. Replaying ZR Season 2 now, maxed out most of the missions, now getting only 1 material per mission, which means it will take longer to upgrade anything now.

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

12M:00S TEST

Cooper Test, ran 3.33 km in 22m:15s. Cooper distance 2.14km (PB: 2.80km)

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

EASY RUN WITH 6 STRIDES 5.41 KM

4.53 km in 33m:18s.

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

EASY RUN WITH 6 STRIDES 5.41 KM

Ran 2.51 km in 16m:02s. Terminated run early due to rain.Tomorrow is my first Cooper Test of the plan.

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

EASY RUN WITH 6 STRIDES 5.41 KM

Ran 5.72km in 37:20. Not bad for someone who ran on an empty stomach…

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

To put it in perspective, a medium fries from McDonalds is 330 calories, so heading to and from work will burn this off. This DOESN’T however, mean you can slack off the trip to gym.

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

EASY 5.80 KM IN 40M:13S

Ran 5.19 km in 27m:11s before my phone rebooted and I lost tracking on the remaining km.

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

TEMPO RUN 4.48 KM IN 29M:33S

Ran 5.46 KM in 28:49

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

EASY 3.20 KM IN 22M:11S

Ran 3.38 KM in 19M:07S

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR

TEMPO RUN IN 2 INTERVALS 32M:36S

Tempo Intervals x2. A new style of training. 2 reasonably hard pushes, with a minute recovery and a 10 minute warm up/cool down either side. Ran 5.92K in 36:53mins

Tracks: ZR, Endomondo

Target: EASY RUN WITH 6 STRIDES 4.11 KM

Achieved: 4.41 KM

First run of the 10K retraining. Interval training x6. A comfortable run with 6 short bursts. Felt the burn at bursts 5 and 6. The 10 minute cool-down helped.