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.

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.

After the Christmas and (upcoming) New Year celebrations and obligatory over-indulging of food, I, like many people will be trying to shift the extra weight in the new year. So, with the help of Endomondo, I’m going to train up again for a 10K – not a 10K race this time, just try to get up to the 10K distance again, then take it up to distance Half Marathon for the second half of the year and/or early 2015. The training plan is over half a year and I stretched it out to its maximum length deliberately to allow me as gradual work up to 10K.

I know I can do 10K, I did a race earlier this year (Chickenshed 10K), but after slacking off because of weather, I need to get back into it.

10K Training Plan

Related articles

• Tips To Run Your First Half Marathon (rsmarketingblog.wordpress.com)
• Half Marathon (twowheelerpro.wordpress.com)

Endomondo, ZR

Completed the main story of ZR Season 2 finally. A couple of side missions left, then I can start working on the Race Missions, Airdrop Mode and Supply Missions. Supply Missions will be last because you don’t get any materials, and the only reason for running them is to get the hoarding achievements.

Related articles

• Fitness app Endomondo surpasses 20M users, 1B miles logged, and is now profitable (venturebeat.com)
• Endomondo raises $800K to make cardio training virtually social (venturebeat.com)

I’m reverting back to training my base foundation strength again, so I’m doing 5Ks repeatedly as that is my “base” distance that I’m comfortable with. Then I’ll go back to 10K and HM training.

Endomondo, ZR

Target: 2.80km in 19:25min Achieved: 2.85km in 19:19min

Target: 8K Achieved: 5K

Still getting my edge back after a period of non-running

ZR, Endomondo

Restarting my Half Marathon training. Today was an easy 4.60 km. Stopped using gmusicfs and playing music using Play Music, but that isn’t without its own quirks. It sometimes stop playing the next track and doesn’t tell you, which then requires manual intervention to start playing again, disrupting rhythm.

Another problem with using Play Music, is that the music overlaps with the ZR audio so I need to make a decision whether to be able to listen to the ZR audio and have relatively unstable OS, or have a stable OS, but unstable music….

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“300”] Fun runners taking part in the 2006 Bristol Half Marathon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

The Royal Parks Half Marathon - Race Report - Events - Runner’s World.