Retiring the Breaking Three Hours Blog

Hi all,

A happy new year to you all. I know I haven't been blogging here lately. The reason is that I have decided to retire this blog. This means that no further entries will be posted here, and no further comments can be made by readers.

However, this blog will remain on Blogger so that readers can be directed to my personal blog, which I have recently revamped to include my running as well. Throughout the 2010 year, I've been maintaining two blogs, and felt that one blog is definitely enough.

Throughout the revamping process, my blog has a new URL, a fresh new look, and all the previous posts and comments from Breaking Three Hours have been imported into this blog. You can access it via http://runningwithaaron.blogspot.com/

It doesn't mean that the dream of Breaking Three Hours is dead, it just means that the dream of Breaking Three Hours can be shown from my other blog.

This is an exciting time, and I can't wait to continue posting about things related to running on my other blog!

Signing out from this blog,

Aaron

Resurrecting the Dream

If there is anyone who takes the marathon recovery phase very seriously, I would be near the top of the list.

Normally for us marathon runners, we'd give our bodies around a week or so to get back into any sort of slow running before we undertake another serious marathon training programme.

For me, as I said in my race report, I was going to take an extended break from running. Literally. Not even a 20 minute jog around the park. The days of 7-8 training runs a week, 6 days a week were over. The tweets on running had dried up, the blog updates were no more.

Until now.

It's been 5 weeks since my assault on Berlin, and during that time I did what any other young guy would do. I went travelling. I played video games. I stayed up far too late, ate loads of fatty foods and drank too much alcohol for my liking.

But in that time of "reflection" I also came up with new dreams, new goals and new plans, and also a renewed vigour to get back into running again. After all 5 weeks is a long time, and as I recently learned it's more than enough time to eat away your fitness levels.

The overriding dream hasn't changed - after all the blog title says it all. However, when training as hard and as smart as any marathon runner could do I still came up short. Afterwards I learned how far off I was, and how much I had to go to realise that dream.

I've looked at my past races (both halves and marathons) and it's obvious that my running profile fits that of an Endurance Monster instead of a Speed Demon. So I created a new dream and that is to get faster - to become a Speed Demon. Simple as that. Running a 1:34 half marathon isn't going to lead to a sub-3 hour marathon. However, by getting faster at shorter distances I will be many steps closer to chasing that sub-3 hour marathon dream.

At the moment I don't have a goal marathon race lined up. I think it will be a while before I decide on a marathon to race. But I do have a goal half marathon race and that is the Reading Half Marathon, which I will run for the 3rd time in a row. For me it's an event I hold very dearly, being the first half marathon that I ran in the UK, setting personal bests at Reading, and even appearing in the local newspaper in the days precluding the race! These lasting impressions have always made me come back for more.

In the last Reading Half Marathon, I failed to reach my goal of a sub-1:30 time by 4 minutes. It was a bitter pill to swallow, having strongly believed that I could achieve that target. This time I have another chance to set the record straight and if I can do this and a little more, then I know that I am well on my way to breaking 3 hours.

And then there's the plan to ensure success. It starts with putting together a training schedule that includes all the components needed to run a fast half marathon, and then joining these components together and figuring out how deep I can go without getting burnt out or injured along the way.

There are under 20 weeks to go to the Reading Half Marathon. To get myself ready to go for my best half marathon time I will need to increase leg turnover and overall speed. The plan is to split up half marathon training into 3 different phases. Phase 1 will focus on getting to my best 5k/10k fitness. This will bring in shorter intervals with plenty of recovery in between. The volume will be low, but the intensity will be high. Phase 2 will then take that speed and start to add in some longer training. There will be plenty of fast intervals but now they will be longer and with less rest.

Finally in Phase 3, over the last 8 weeks I will get into the specific work necessary for the half marathon, where I will bring my best track running speed to the roads of Reading. At Reading I will look to run at an average speed of 4:15 per kilometre. By doing plenty of speed workouts early on, running in the 4:15 mins/km range won't feel so demanding. The intention is to make half marathon pace feel like running in 3rd or 4th gear. If I can do this, then it will be a big step in getting closer to that sub-3 hour marathon dream.

It starts with a dream, then a goal, and finally a plan. And it all starts right now!

Berlin Marathon 2010 - Race Report and Conclusion

Hi,

So, going into the Berlin Marathon, I'm going to be trying something I've never done before, trying to run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, and hopefully break 3 hours in the process.

The good news is that I did run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, setting a new personal best of 3:21:25. The bad news is that personal best was obviously not under 3 hours.

My main aim was for my running this year was to qualify for Boston 2011 (run 3:10:59 or under in the under M35 age group). Then for some reason I upped the stakes a lot higher by setting a goal to break 3 hours in a marathon.

I admit, I did feel a little bummed when I fell so far short of this target. Actually, the writing was on the wall when I couldn't hit my target times consistently in training and in racing. But since I went into the race without putting any pressure or expectation to run as fast as I could, I was able to produce my best performance on that day, running a personal best. 80 seconds is a modest improvement from 3:22:45 from last year's Berlin Marathon, but put simply, if I had put pressure on myself to run faster than I've ever run before, there was no way that I would've set that PB on race day. So, from that perspective, I think there's hardly any reason to be disappointed. Looking back, my target was so optimistic, but as they say, if you shoot for the moon and miss, at least you'll land among the stars.

It's not my turn yet to break 3 hours, but I will get there even if it takes one minute at a time.

On to the race itself. Unlike last year, the conditions were much cooler, but there was heavy rain beforehand which caused a few large puddles on the course. Waiting in the starting pen in Tiergarten on Straße des 17. Juni with nearly 48000+ runners while it rained wasn't a nice experience, but at least it wasn't 20 something degrees like last year. The music, This is The Moment, from the musical, Jekyll & Hyde, was playing from the loudspeakers, coupled with the release of hundreds of green balloons slowly rising high in the air. When you're out there on the biggest stage trying to prove something and reaching an unlikely target, it felt like The Moment before I even took my first stride! But I reined in the emotions and tried not to go out on the course in a blaze of glory.

And when I got out there in the wet, I was running somewhere around 4.7 min/km pace in the early kms, much slower than the required 4.25 min/km pace to break 3 hours. There were crowds of runners all around me to contend with early on, but I don't think I made an effort to avoid them. For some reason I didn't want to speed up in the first 20 kms; all I kept telling myself was to relax and enjoy The Moment. The Boston qualifying time was probably still realistic, but I had to make something happen in the second half of the course to do this. With the cooler temperatures this year, I had a decent chance.

I hit the half way point half a minute slower than last year, but still felt quite strong and was hoping that I could just cruise to the 20 mile mark and make it happen in the last 6 miles. Unfortunately I couldn't stay strong throughout. At 23 km, I developed some discomfort in my right hamstring, and stopped briefly to stretch it. I did try to take my mind off the pain, and it did go away. However the pain continued to return, subside, and return again as the race progressed further, and I ended up slowing down to around 4.8 mins/km pace by the 30 km mark.

Of course I got even more tired and my pace between 30 - 40 km went from 4.8 min/km pace to a shade over 5 min/km pace. Knowing that getting into Boston was going to be unrealistic, I said to myself that there's no way I'm leaving Berlin without a new PB, especially with all the hard work I've put into training. Then I thought about that video, about the guy who broke 3 hours in his 11th Boston Marathon and how he must've worked and how he was feeling in those final miles. If he could finish with a new personal best, then I can too!

So around 38 km, and the stage where the runners enter Potsdamer Platz, I made up my mind to go faster. I kept surging, surging on Potsdamer Straße, Leipziger Straße, Jerusalemer Straße, Charlottenstraße, and finally Unter den Linden, wanting that PB, bleeding, clawing and scraping for it to happen. Every time I surged I had to slow down, but once I recovered I surged again, and again, and again. I kept doing this, visualising that I was breaking down a brick wall with a mighty sledgehammer (not that I was really hitting the dreaded wall myself!). It was a battle, not only with my legs but with my mind, a battle I can safely say I won.

When I got to the Brandenburg Gate, just shy of the 42 km mark, I knew that I had a personal best in the bag. Like last year, I consciously ran through the middle column of the structure, experiencing the same thrill when I first ran Berlin. So it was there that I poured it out on the final stretch until I crossed the finish line feeling like I had nothing left in the tank.

I was shattered both physically and emotionally. I honestly gave it my best that day. Trying my best to ignore the pain that was starting to kick in from sudden inactivity, I reflected on the entire journey leading up to Berlin. It has been such a long season by non-elite athlete standards, I felt like I've been running forever and needed a well-deserved break from it all!

A few days after the race, I've had a chance to reflect on my performance, my year of running and my goals. I can honestly say that I ran my best race, but thinking that I could do it in 3 hours or less was very optimistic of me. I've learned the hard way that it takes a lot of time and effort and, for me, much more than a year's worth of running to reach it. Having said that there's absolutely nothing wrong with setting lofty goals, so if you don't meet your goal in the first place, don't let that discourage you from trying again. Failure is not falling down but refusing to give up. There will always be other marathons, and other fast courses for me to go out and break 3 hours. Now is not the time.

With regards to my training, I think that by joining the FP Run Club I was able to get some new and fresh ideas for training for a marathon. The sub-3 hour programme was tough but I managed to stick to it, even though I wasn't on track for a sub-3 hour performance. Being asked to run a sub 1:30 half marathon by week 6 of the programme was not realistic for me, so that was when I knew it was going to be an improbability to meet my target. The good thing is that the training programme can be reapplied for future marathons.

Looking to the future, I'm still intent on breaking 3 hours, but to have a decent chance of meeting my target, I will need to switch focus from being a marathon runner to running shorter distances. Don't get me wrong - long distance running is still my focus and my passion, but if I want to get faster in a marathon I need to learn how to run faster over these shorter distances, e.g. mile, 3k, 5k distances. My times over these distances aren't that fast, I think my best 5k time is a shade under 21 mins, which isn't too shabby but could do with lots of improvement. Once I learn how to run faster over these distances, then this will go a long way to running a marathon at the pace required to break 3 hours.

So what's next for me? Well, I registered for the Athens Marathon, but at the moment I haven't recovered fully from Berlin and it will take some time to do so. My right hamstring hasn't really responded well to rest, and I managed to catch a nasty cold a couple of days after the race, so regrettably I am going to withdraw from Athens and take a break from running for an extended period of time. The break will allow me to reassess my running goals both over shorter distances and marathon distance. For shorter distances, I would really like to run a sub-19 min 5k, a sub-40 min 10k, and also have another shot at a sub-1:30 at the Reading Half Marathon, which I've entered for the 3rd time! A chance for me to really get faster and have a much more realistic chance of breaking 3 hours next year! But for now, rest, recovery and doing the things I couldn't do so easily while I was in training. There are a lot!

There have been a fair amount of people that have been instrumental thus far who deserve special mention. In no particular order:

• The Oslo project team, or Team Oslo, or Team Åwesome, for always keeping me in check with my training, especially Andrew and Mohannad for giving up some of their time to help me in training
• My various Twitter and blog followers, and also like-minded marathon runners in joining me for the ride and providing their support. Special thanks to AndrewENZ, shafk, si_brim and others for sharing their experiences and feedback along the way. Much appreciated!
• George Anderson and the FP Run Club for giving me a new approach to training, and something for me to build on in the future.
• My Oslo masseuse, Aina, for working her magic and being generous with her rates, time and knowledge.
• My good friends and the two S's - Shaun and Shanta. Shaun, for helping me in training with his sometimes tortoise-like pacing, and being a good sport and great company while I was training in the UK despite a couple of horror stories which will make great roasting material about him! Shanta, for imparting her infinite wisdom on things not related to running, but relevant to life itself. Because there is more to life than just running, even though it never felt like that over the past year!
• The rest of the gang, too numerous to mention by name, back in UK, NZ and, last but not least, Palma for their humour, support and other contributions to keep me entertained and motivated.
• And my family for being supportive of my running, even though I don't come from a family of runners. This will definitely change from now on.

This blog is a journey and so far it's still an ongoing one. In the meantime, I'm going to take a break from running so that I can reassess my goals and set new ones along the way. This means I won't be updating my blog for a while. I have to say that training and maintaining a blog at the same time is very hard work (believe me, there have been times where I don't want to do either!). Hopefully I won't be out of action for too long and hopefully you'll be around when I resume the journey of breaking 3 hours!

Signing off for now,

Aaron

P.S. Me with Berlino the Bear at the Berlin Marathon expo. Yeah, me and Berlino are good mates! After the race we exchanged phone numbers.

The Plan to Attack Breaking Three Hours

Hi,

So, going into the Berlin Marathon, I'm going to be trying something I've never done before, trying to run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, and hopefully break 3 hours in the process.

And almost every race I've completed, it's always been my aim to try and set a new personal best. When I reach the start line, I cannot help getting pumped up and thinking that this is the race that I go out and hit a six (for those cricket fans) or a home run (for those baseball fans).

But what if I don't hit a big one on the big day? It may happen that even though I'm fully psyched up, I just couldn't deliver the goods that I thought I could.

Over the past few days I've reflected on those races where I did well, and those not so well, and tried to figure out the different mental approaches going into each race. After all, running the marathon is all about being mentally strong as well as getting your body physically strong and healthy when you approach the start line.

There seems to be a trend in my relatively short racing career that the second time doesn't seem to go as well as the first. I can only say that in the second time I develop a natural expectation to do A LOT better than the previous time. So I work myself up, knowing that I can do a lot better, only to not meet expectations in the first place. There may be progress, but perhaps not in the grand quantities that I perceived earlier.

When I raced Reading earlier in the year, I was aiming to go under 1:30 and knock over 6 minutes off my personal best. Because I was trying to break 3 hours in a marathon I put huge pressure and expectation on myself to perform that day, and even though I set a new PB in the half marathon the mentality of I'm going to run harder than I've ever run before that I carried into that race made me force the pace and effort very early in the run, which meant I blew up far too early and didn't have enough in the back half to sustain that pace.

On the opposite end, I ran Copenhagen for the first time and I wasn't feeling mentally pumped up going into the race. I had a pretty bad travel experience getting into Copenhagen that I just didn't feel like showing up at all. I didn't have any expectation other than to have some fun and enjoyment in Copenhagen and finish in 4 hours. I finished in 3:43, including a negative split. It certainly wasn't a PB, but it felt like one. I ran faster than I thought I would do on that given day.

So what does that tell me about how I will race at Berlin on Sunday? I think it tells me that I need to take the pressure off by going into Berlin with an open mind. The weather will play a big part and I could hit the halfway point slower than anticipated. Rather than go into Berlin with the mentality of I'm going to run harder than I've ever run before, I'm going to approach it like I did when I ran Copenhagen. This means I'm going to relax and let the effort flow more naturally out of me. I'm not expecting it to be easy, it's certainly going to be a battle that I will enjoy fighting. But above all I'm going to have fun in Berlin and if I approach it with that fun and relaxed mentality then the body will perform better compared to when it's tensed up.

To summarise, going into Berlin on Sunday, which also is my second time, I won't make the same mistake that I did at Reading. I won't be thinking that this is my one shot to hit the big one and that I will be going harder than I've ever run before.

Instead I'm going into Berlin thinking that this is going to be fun and it's going to be a big challenge for me. It certainly won't be easy, but I've prepared for this for many months and know that I'm at the top of my game. So rather than force the pace on race day, I'm just going to let the effort flow naturally as the race goes on, especially in the first few miles where it's so easy for me to go too fast. Above all, it all boils down to having fun and enjoyment on the day.

So, going into Berlin on Sunday, I'm going to let the race flow out of me, and I hope to reach the finish line feeling very proud of my performance.

Aaron

Official Statement - Withdrawal From Helsinki Marathon

Hi all,

After much consideration, and with equally the same amount of reluctance, I have decided to withdraw from the Helsinki marathon in mid-August. The event is six weeks out from my target event and to run Helsinki, even at a very leisurely pace, would put me at risk of not being at my very best for Berlin and reaching the Breaking Three Hours goal.

When I started to map the road to Breaking Three Hours, I initially thought that I would be okay to run Helsinki and be fully fit for Berlin, despite having some minor concerns that Helsinki and Berlin were six weeks apart. So, needing to get in early, I registered for both events.

However, after running two marathons this year, listening to feedback, and having just started the 16 week programme designed by the FP Run Club, these concerns have escalated recently and I was forced to rethink my training strategy for the next 3 months.

Initially I intended these lead-up marathons to be like"glorified long runs", in that I do my weekend long run at marathon distance and in a marathon setting. It sounded like a good idea at the time. However, doing these regularly does put a lot of stress on you physically and mentally, and it does take some time to recover from these efforts.

Case in point, after Rotterdam and Copenhagen I didn't run for a week. After a typical long run, I'd normally take one or two days off and get back into training. Even though I felt like I was able to run and having little soreness in my legs, I was still pretty tired and it took some time for me to get back into quality training. I never struggled at any point in these lead-up marathons and kept them as easy as possible, but the amount of time spent on my feet started to become a game of diminishing returns, which led to a case of a long and slow recovery period. Erring on the side of caution, I tend to recover slower than I would like.

I've also started the 16-week, sub-3 hour training programme designed by the FP Run Club. When I studied the first week of the programme to see what I was getting myself into I got a really big shock. 8 training runs in 6 days! I've never done anything like this before. While the majority of runs have been easy and the hard days prescribed were manageable, the amount of running needed and the tough demands of the programme will only get higher as the weeks progress.

Having not seen the entire programme, I imagine that weeks 9-13, which also coincides with the Helsinki marathon, is the time where the demands placed on me to produce quality mileage and speed will be at the highest. Running the Helsinki marathon, regardless of completing it in under 4:00 or over 5:00, would be highly detrimental and would affect my output in that critical period. Moreover, the subsequent couple of weeks after Helsinki would most likely be spent on the long and slow recovery process, effectively stalling any progress I could make towards Berlin.

Last year, when training for the Berlin marathon, I did my final long run 2 weeks prior to the event. From a naive view, it was a great run - 37 km in 2:57:41. In hindsight I probably made a big mistake. On race day, I finished in 3:22:45, which meant that my marathon pace was just slightly faster than my long run pace. But I felt the difference should've been greater. Two possible reasons were:

• My long run was way too fast.
• Doing the long run two weeks out didn't allow enough time to recover and be at 100% on race day.

This year, I've gained a bit more experience and I believe that withdrawing from Helsinki would give me a much better shot at a faster time at Berlin. Ultimately in order to run a sub-3 hour time, it comes down to being physically and mentally prepared (as well as having many things go your way on the day!). Having Helsinki thrown in the mix isn't really going to help my preparation and may even go as far as hurting it.

The goal of running a sub-3 hour marathon is really important to me, and I've learned that in order to achieve an objective that you've firmly set your sights on for nearly half a year, you must be willing to make a few tough choices along the way. Withdrawing from Helsinki was a tough decision since I was intent on running it, but pulling out of Helsinki is going to allow me to focus on the real goal - to break three hours.

Having already registered, this is my first event where I will get a DNS, a Did Not Start in running parlance. It's a shame that there isn't a shorter alternative race at Helsinki on that day, such as a half marathon or even a 10K, otherwise I'd probably still participate knowing that the demands of running a reasonably fast 10K or a half marathon doesn't really compare to running a marathon, regardless of your time. It does hurt not to have a time next to your name in a race that you have registered and prepared for (a black mark in a runner's long distance career), but in the bigger picture it will pay dividends when it matters the most. For now, rather than viewing the DNS as Did Not Start, I'll look at it as Did Nothing Stupid.

Cheers!

Aaron

Bad Day

Hi guys,

I'm travelling back to the UK tomorrow for a few days on urgent business. The good news is that, after creatively rearranging my hand luggage, I can probably bring along my running gear (along with my laptop and other items) and I may be able to fit a few runs over there. Hopefully the roads in the UK won't have any black ice with all the snow and icy cold weather they have been experiencing recently.

On the subject of running, I've had a bad day of running today. Sometimes in my eagerness of wanting to train hard and making every mile count, I can also lose sight of the importance of rest, recovery and taking things just a little bit easier. Unfortunately bad days are part and parcel of training, and they will happen. As a runner, you have to manage these as best you can, accept it, and learn to come up with a response to these bad days.

Before the run I was feeling rather flat for some reason. Perhaps I've been running harder than normal recently, or the stress of my urgent trip to the UK, or the lunch I had that afternoon (yes I'm guilty, I ate out today because I wasn't able to prepare lunch the night before) - I can't really say. When I'm feeling flat, I can still scrape a good run so that I feel like I've worked hard enough. Unfortunately, today was an interval session and to get through an interval session properly you must not be feeling flat beforehand.

The plan was to run 4 x 1000m intervals at 16.0 km/h pace. If all went well, then I'd throw in another one for good measure. After the mandatory warm up, I managed 2 x 1000m intervals at 16.0 km/h pace, with a 2 minute and 4 minute rest after each interval at 8.0 km/h pace. As I went for a third interval, I just had to stop after 300-400m. I felt as if I had no energy to carry on at that pace. To ensure the training wasn't a complete waste, I managed 5 x 200m intervals at 16.0 km/h pace, with a 30 second rest. That was also very difficult for me; it was also a struggle getting through that set of intervals. I left the gym feeling rather disappointed with myself.

The flip side is that bad days are a good indicator that something is not right with your training. Either the session was too hard, or I wasn't in good form for that level of training. I've just reviewed the training runs from last week, and noted that the majority of my runs have been quite fast - less than 5 mins/km, especially my easy runs. At this stage of training, my easy runs are probably on the fast side. The easy runs should get to that pace later on as training builds up.

So what would my response be to this bad day? There are two areas I will need to address. I'm thinking that I may need to cut back on the pace slightly for the longer intervals (shorter intervals are probably manageable for me at that pace). I may also have to put the brake on my easy runs as well so that they are around the 5 - 5.3 mins/km pace effort. Additionally I might devote a week of easy running (no intervals, no tempo runs) to get into a rhythm.

Having a bad day is not the end of the world. At least I'm not injured, yet! To close, here's a music video which shares my sentiment, also titled Bad Day. A great song, it's enough to put a smile on anyone's face. Enjoy!

Take care,

Aaron

Food And Fuelling

Hi all,

It's no secret - I eat a lot. Ask my mum or my family, friends, acquaintances, house mates, colleagues, even strangers, and they'll attest to the same thing. In the past, I always thought that no matter what I eat and how much I eat, and still not gain weight or get fat as a result, I must be blessed with a very fast metabolism. So I've been happy consuming food at quite scary amounts. And being a runner does contribute to this, considering the high demand for the number of calories.

But it struck me that while I eat a lot of food, a substantial amount of this is bad food that could be avoided. One day I'd have a healthy meal, only to undo the good work by eating fast food the next day. Some rice, vegetables and grilled salmon on one day, then KFC and chips the next. I enjoy eating and splurging out, but as a runner now picking up the effort, I'm now starting to reign in on my eating urges, and looking for new and better things to consume.

Earlier I blogged that in training you should make every mile count. Kate Percy, an author, writer, food enthusiast, and marathon runner that I follow on Twitter, said that you should make every mouthful count, i.e. make sure each mouthful is nutritious. In my own words, a runner's body is like a high performance sports car, which needs high quality fuel constantly. Give it bad quality fuel, and you'd expect the car to perform poorly. I recently bought Kate's book on Amazon, Go Faster Food, to check out the 100+ recipes designed to help endurance, performance and recovery. I also want to start eating a broader range of healthy foods, and also have the experience to cook these meals on my own in my kitchen. Incidentally, Kate is writing a new book, Go Faster Food for Kids, so for all those parents wanting to groom their children into marathon running at a young age, buy Kate's book when it comes out!

So what have I changed with regards to my eating? For a start, I've been cooking all my meals from scratch. It saves money and I know exactly what's in them. This includes lunches and dinners, where I try to prepare lunch the night before and cook dinners in bulk which will last me 2-3 days.

For lunches, instead of eating pasties, curries and burgers like I usually did back in the UK, I've started making my own sandwiches and, if I've got time, Mexican burritos filled with tomato, lettuce, cheese and meat. Gone are the days where I would hop to the nearest outlet and buy whatever looks good in the shop. Occasionally I'd go out for Friday lunches with the colleagues, but as Friday is paella day I know that paella is very nutritious with plenty of fresh seafood, so I always look forward to Friday lunches.

For dinners, I've been cooking larger meals in bulk, which will last me 2-3 days. The leftovers can be easily warmed up for tomorrow's dinner or lunch. Sometimes I'd prepare a huge dish of pasta, or roast a big chicken in the oven. If it's not pasta, then it's going to be served with either rice or potatoes.

I've also started to buy food that I normally don't eat. One such example is couscous, which is just as beneficial as rice, if not more, and adds just a little more variety to my meals. Kate's book has many recipes for meals made with couscous. Another example is tomatoes. I've always had a love-hate relationship with tomatoes for some reason, but now I've made a conscious effort to include tomatoes in most of my meals. Let's see what other kinds of foods I'll discover along the way to include with my meals.

I've recently made a conscious effort to eat fish at least twice a week. The problem with fish is that you can't store it for very long; it must be consumed on the day or the day after it was purchased. So far I'm only buying salmon; by far my favourite fish, but hopefully I'll extend this to shellfish and other types of seafood.

Recently, I've been stocking the cupboard full of different types of pasta. Spaghetti, fusilli, tagliatelle, penne, etc. Aside from cooking spaghetti bolognaise, I enjoy baking pasta in the oven. It's quick, easy to do, wholesome and full of nutritional value. You can basically add what you like, which will make the dish a lot more enjoyable.

Consequently, I have not been to a fast food restaurant since I started training to break three hours. And I've hardly had the need to eat out. Long may this last! In the much publicised boxing match between David Tua and Shane Cameron last October, Tua claimed to have not eaten Burger King for the 8 months he spent training for his fight against Shane Cameron. When he knocked out Cameron in the second round, one of the reporters in the press conference asked Tua what he was going to do next. His response was "I'm going to Burger King!" If Tua could abstain from fast food during his training and win in spectacular fashion, I guess I could do that as well!

I've only scratched the surface of Kate's book, and no doubt there will be many meals for high performance that I'll enjoy cooking and eating. Making meals, instead of buying fast food, convenience food, or takeaways, does take more time out of the day, and it can be hard work. However it's very rewarding to cook your own meals, it's healthy, it saves money in the long run, and you'll never know who might just come around to your place for dinner.

Happy eating,

Aaron

The Road To Breaking 3 Hours

Hi all,

I haven't really gone into any detail yet about what events I'll do this year in order to break 3 hours. So I'll cut to the chase now and list them out here in this entry.

But firstly, a little background (yeah I can hear the groaning now). One of my other goals for this year, peripheral to running, is to travel more widely around Europe. However, travelling can be disruptive to marathon training, especially if a trip is scheduled during a high-intensity period. It happens, and it's unavoidable. Just this week, my company planned a belated Christmas party weekend in Granada, Spain, on the 15th January. So I guess I'll be taking my running gear over with me. From a training perspective, these things have to be managed as best they can.

After some convincing I believe that to get the best of both worlds, why not run a marathon in a city that you want to travel to? So at the end of 2009, I got a year calendar and plotted all the marathon events for 2010. Most of the marathons are clumped in the March-May months and the September-November months, with a small handful of events in summer and winter. Lots of big marathons tended to be on the same day! But in the end, I picked five events, which I've called my final five. They are:

• Rotterdam: 11th April
• Copenhagen: 23rd May
• Helsinki: 14th August
• Berlin: 26th September
• Athens: 31st October

As indicated in bold, Berlin is the event that I am targeting to break 3 hours. You may be wondering whether Athens would be a better choice to target a sub 3-hour marathon as it's the last race in my calendar. Having only run Berlin before and it's reputation as the fastest course in the world, I'd be more comfortable with choosing Berlin. The course profile for Athens indicates some big hills. If I don't break 3 hours in Berlin, at least there's Athens as a backup, but I'm hoping it won't come to that.

The other 4 marathons are going to be for fun/training purposes. I chose Rotterdam as it's one of the top 10 marathons in the world according to Runners World Magazine. I've always wanted to visit Finland and Denmark. And now I have a chance to travel around these Scandinavian countries and run a marathon in each. Finally I chose Greece as it's the home of the marathon. Athens 2010 will mark 2500 years since the Greek hero Pheidippides ran from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greeks' victory over the Persians. So far I've registered for all marathons except Helsinki and Athens. I'm a bit concerned about Athens though; I am absolutely certain that this round-number anniversary will lead to a rush of registration entries, and a quick cut-off date.

To be at their very best, elite marathoners limit themselves to only 1-2 races a year. For the last two years Haile Gebrselassie has concentrated on Dubai and Berlin, and he'll make another world record attempt at Berlin this year. With 5 races on my plate, I'll only peak for Berlin, whilst using the other 4 events for fun/training/an excuse to visit a city. Instead of saying I travelled around Athens, I could say that I ran the Athens Marathon and travelled around Athens. Of course I could just travel to Athens without needing to run the marathon, and that's fine. There will be cities that I would like to visit without needing to run a marathon in that city.

By running a marathon and treating it as a training run, I think the benefits are several. You do the most important run in your marathon training - the long slow run. And 42 km is more than enough mileage required for a typical long slow run. You also get to run around a new city and take in the sights. And you can soak up the marathon experience in a foreign country. I think doing a long run in a marathon setting in another country is more preferable to doing long runs on your own in training in our own neighbourhood. But you might have a different opinion on what makes a long run enjoyable.

But surely, you could still travel and do a couple of shorter, faster runs during your holiday. Yes, that's true. However, which would you rather do? A marathon event with thousands of other runners and screaming crowds, or just a couple of shorter faster runs by yourself. Marathon legend, Emil Zatopek, said it best: "If you want to win something, run the 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run the marathon."

One thing I'm concerned about is that by singling out Berlin as the race to break 3 hours, I only have one shot to do this. I guess the one shot approach is what makes it more exciting - the thrill of success on the first go, or the sudden crash of failure at having missed out. There is always next year though. But I hope it doesn't happen, after all I have under 9 months to plan and get ready for Berlin.

I'm quite excited about how my running in 2010 will pan out. I've never taken on anything like this before when it comes to running multiple marathons. But I guess if I put my mind to it, and keep my eyes on the original goal of breaking 3 hours, and believe, then who knows what I can achieve.

Wish me luck,

Aaron

P.S. You can follow me on Twitter, where I'll report on my training as well as the more mundane things in my life. I will include the #breaking3hours hashtag to any tweets related to my goal.

Introductions

I've been running since 2005. I have to credit my company, Orion Health, for getting me running in the first place. My company has a lot of enthusiastic sports people of varying abilities, including a world class adventure racer, an ironman, runners, cyclists, triathletes and participants from other codes, so it was no surprise that this sporting culture rubbed off on me.

I've always liked participating in sports, and considered myself to be reasonably active, but never really had any constant outlet to put my focus on. So I basically sailed through high school and my early twenties not really committing myself to any sport.

It was only when I started with Orion Health that I did my first running event, the annual Round the Bays event in Auckland. Not knowing a thing about running, I laced up a pair of walking shoes(!) and started training for it. At the end of it all I managed to finish in a reasonable time.

In 2006, I decided to run the Auckland Marathon. From running 8.4 km in the Round the Bays to attempting 42.195 km, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into; I just knew it would involve some pretty long runs in training. With a new pair of running shoes, I managed to survive the training and managed to finish my first marathon. It was a lot tougher than I expected, but I finished with a time of 4:17:04. Finishing a marathon for the first time is something I cannot describe in words.

I finally caught the marathon bug and in 2007 I managed to do two marathons. I'm not sure about you but there's always something about the second time not being as good as the first. My second marathon, Rotorua, was a lot tougher and I managed to get home in 5:00:20. In my third marathon, the Auckland Marathon, I resolved to break the 4-hour mark. With 12 weeks of training and armed with a little more experience, I managed to finish in 3:51:29.

2008 was a very quiet year in terms of running as I tried to organise my O.E. (overseas experience - the kiwi term to go abroad, work in a different environment and see more of the world). Organising my O.E. was like preparing for a marathon, only not as fun ;-)

Having made it to the UK in late 2008, I wanted to get back into my running. Being in Europe, I was lucky to have some of the big marathons of the world at my doorstep, e.g. London, Paris, Berlin. In 2009, I chose Berlin as it's the fastest course in the world, and world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie, was going to make another world record attempt. I also had a goal to run sub 3:30:00, but as my training progressed I had harboured dreams to qualify for Boston 2010.

Berlin was such a great marathon event, with an elite field, a great atmosphere, and a fast flat course. Running through the Brandenburg Gate, 400 metres from the finish, was such a thrill, probably even bigger than finishing the marathon itself. The hard work I put in in 2009 paid off greatly, and I finished in 3:22:45.

Now it's a new year, a new decade, with new dreams and goals. A new year is simply a demarcation on the calendar, but I have always found it a good time to assess and reflect upon my own goals. My motivation level may not make it all the way through the year, but I know this is the time I have set to commence achieving specific goals.

So my marathon goal for 2010 is to break 3 hours. 3 hours is like the Holy Grail for amateur runners, and a qualification time for prestigious events like Boston. Having reviewed my past training programmes, and my performances in previous marathons I admit that it is a significant and ambitious undertaking to cut 22 minutes and 45 seconds off my personal best. But you never really know unless you try.

I just read a tweet by Josh Cox, an elite marathon runner. The first step is the best step, it’s where intent meets action. Don't talk about it, be about it. I've just talked about it in my introductions. From now on I'll be blogging about my training and progress. I'm very excited to blog about any developments that will come along as I progress in my journey.

Best,

Aaron

Prologue

Hi,

Let me start off by saying how excited I am to start this blog. This blog will document my journey to break the 3-hour barrier in the marathon. It's a goal I have set for myself in 2010, and I have targeted a specific marathon this year which I hope to run 3 hours in. The 3-hour barrier is the ultimate aim for most marathoners, the holy grail for amateur marathon runners like myself, and a qualification time for the most prestigious marathons in the world.

Aside from recording my journey, I'm starting this blog to put myself out there, to make my intentions known, to make myself accountable and to keep myself motivated throughout the year. A year is a very very long time for a runner so it's important that I don't lose momentum, peak at the wrong time, or burn myself out before the big event.

I'm usually quite good on the goal setting, however this time-based goal is a step above the rest. Having not come close to this time before, it's a grand challenge with huge potential for catastrophe. Whether it's a great success or a big failure it will be a learning process and a voyage of self-discovery. The most important thing is that I'm going to try.

However, I will need help along the way. It's a big challenge and it would be more difficult if I had to do everything on my own. As well as trying to achieve my sporting dreams, I also need to earn a living and try to fit in time for other interests and necessities. Sometimes reality often unfolds quite differently from our clean efficient plans. When planning for a marathon, we can't forsee days when we are sick, tired or even injured. Life intervenes in other ways too, such as work pressures, family and friends.

You may be asking, "how can I help if you are the one doing the actual training and the running?" Well, a little bit goes a long way. Whether you have a great idea for training, offering to accompany me on my long runs, suggesting a great food recipe, or even imparting some words of wisdom or encouragement, or something else... no matter how big or small, it will only help to make the journey smoother. And it will be much appreciated.

It's not going to be easy, but with your help it will be easier.

To close, I'm excited about this challenge for 2010. Incidentally, 2010 in the Chinese horoscope is the year of the Tiger. I'm not a follower of horoscopes, but I think that the challenge that I've set for myself will require me to adopt the spirit and the characteristics of the Tiger - to be courageous, bold and self-assured in whatever I embark on and encounter along the way.

The challenge starts now, and I am looking forward to it. If you like to see how things unfold over time, feel free to follow or subscribe to the blog feed. And if you'd like to help out in some way, it would be greatly appreciated. As always I appreciate you reading these entries and the comments that you may offer.

Yours in running,

Aaron