VLM 2013 - Week 2 of 14

VLM 2013 - Week 2 of 14
Week 2 (Mon 21/1 - Sun 27/1)

Mon: Rest Day
Tues: 10.0 Miles Easy @ 8:13/mile
Weds: 20.0 Miles @ 8:17/mile
Thurs: Rest Day
Fri: Rest Day
Sat: 9.0 Miles incl. Malahide parkrun 19:07 (6:09/mile) (8th)
Sun: 20.5 Miles incl. RunSunday 3.0 Miles 20:56 (6:59/mile) (1st) (Overall 8:44/mile)

Total Mileage: 59.5 Miles


Not the week that was expected this week due to snow and ice resulting in a couple of additional rest days. Nonetheless, a week that includes two 20+ mile runs and nearly 60 in total keeps things moving in the right direction.

Malahide parkrun weekend in Dublin

What a weekend!

Arranged by Jason Newell, this was an eclectic bunch of about 12-15 parkrunners going off to enjoy the delights of an overseas event. As it turned out timing couldnt have been better as most of the local parkruns at home were cancelled.



The Outbound Flight

Attempting to fly to Dublin right in the middle of a severe weather warning always had the potential to be a bit of an experience and we we certainly werent disappointed on that score.

The plane had to be de-iced prior to take off but the first snag came because they couldnt de-ice it quickly enough to prevent re-icing and it therefore needed doing a second time. Meanwhile a blizzard was piling the snow up on the taxi way and runway.

It came as no surprise later to learn that they were in the process of deciding to close the airport....but only after one more flight departure. Ours!

That was the first time that I have taken off on a runway where no tarmac was visible and it was therefore quite a relief when the wheels actually left the ground and we were airborne.



Friday Evening

This consisted of a predictable Guinness  fuelled few hours of nonsense in the company of Nicky Best, Hannah Oldroyd, Geoff Render, Jason Newell, Matthew Kelly, Gary Holliday.

The most relevant fact in terms of parkrun prep was that because our evening didnt start until after 11pm the last Dublin brewed black stuff was still flowing after 5am!

Saturday Morning - Finding Malahide parkrun
Less than 3 hours after the evening before I made my first mistake of the weekend - asking for directions to Malahide parkrun. I couldn't fault the helpfulness of the person involved but 20 minutes later, and several attempts by my eyes to go back to sleep, this was the result:

Sorted! What could possibly go wrong now?

Lefts, rights - if you do a few of them in random combinations you do tend to end up getting to your destination eventually. And all was looking good as we trotted along and started noticing structures that looked a bit castley in nature. This was easy.

Or it would have been if we had headed towards the right castle. Apparently Swords Castle is not quite the same thing as Malahide Castle.

Never mind, whats a 2 mile detour for a parkrunner of my reputation? Standard practise, thats what it is :)

The amusement of all this was added to by the fact that the actual directions from where we were staying were 'turn right and then right again and its in front of you'.

We got there eventually and joined in the mingling of the other runners as they arrived between 9 and 9:15 (its a 9:30 start in Dublin).

As the start time approached Matthew Kelly, obviously a bit more awake than the rest of us, started to suspect that the group of people who we were hanging around with might not actually be parkrunners. And he was right!

A hurried hobble across the park later and we did eventually reach....

Malahide parkrun

We were led to believe that this was a nice flattish course, so potentially quite quick. Flat and quick were not the first two words I was particularly interested in though. Survival and coffee were nearer the mark.

Off we went and after a steady dry first part of the run, we were then confronted by this:

It was long, deep and freezing - lovely!

A couple of weeks earlier, when Hannah Oldroyd set a new course record at Dewsbury parkrun, she had challenged me to a smackdown at Malahide. But since she was one of the 5am Guinness drinkers surely she would be opting for a gentle run instead, wouldnt she?

Erm, no. The gauntlet was thrown down from the off.....so by 400m I conceded and accepted the defeat. But as we got into the second half and with about 150m to close I thought it might be worth a push just to see. Maybe Guinness is quite a good fuel as the legs started to respond and by the 4.8km mark the gap had closed to 2m.

So I loitered waiting for some evidence of the last corner approaching. But as I loitered the right shoe starting feeling loose and as I looked down there was the inevitable flapping about of undone shoelaces. Oh bugger!

Ah well, no time to stop and tie it so may as well go for the final corner surge past the prey. So thats what I did and overtook Hannah in what I thought was a decisive manner. Just two problems - a) In doing so, the left shoelace also decided to come undone and b) It wasnt the last corner!

I was therefore toast from that point on as she found more gears to go on to record a huge new parkrun PB of 19:04 compared to a previous 19:50. Impressive.

Equally impressive runs from the rest of the party:

3rd John Broom 18:01
5th Matthew Kelly 18:58
6th Hannah Oldroyd 19:04
8th Steve Darby 19:07
27th Dawn Broom 20:44 (although probably 20:27)
61st Gary Holliday 23:51
128th Les Bradshaw 29:44
164th Geoff Render 32:35 (this was the first 100th parkrun to be completed in Ireland)
175th Sara Newell 34:40
187th Nicky Best 35:32
195th Jamie Newell 38:22
196th Jason Newell 38:23

5th, 6th and 8th looking a good bit better than they deserved to...........

The Rest of Saturday in Dublin and the Return Flight

An afternoon of taking the tourist bus trip around the sights of Dublin, including being amazed at the size of Phoenix Park, with John and Dawn Broom, was followed by what appeared to be a straightforward journey home........

Yeah right! :p

The 17:40 bus pulled away just as we approached the bus stop at 17:35! The next was in an hour which was too late.

Time for a back up plan - what other buses went to the airport? Lets ask a nice helpful local person. On second thoughts, lets ask two and see if their advice coincides ;)

Okay, a No.41 bus at 18:00 just around the corner.

The driver turned up at 17:55 to advise us that we had 'the wrong sort of euros', what he meant was paper money wasnt allowed, only coins and it had to be correct. You couldnt overpay and forsake the change, it had to be correct. Cue a mad dash up the road to find a shop while time quickly disappeared.

A John Broom 'foot in the bus door' technique saved our bacon and we finally got to sit on a bus going in the direction of some aeroplanes.

The return flight was straightforward enough.....until it came to time for landing!

Most people on the flight were very experienced fliers, so it was very telling the way that people were looking at each other during this landing. It was not exactly textbook. On the approach the plane was swinging about much more than usual and then we seemed to touch down too early, thereby hitting an uncleared ice patch rather than the cleared tarmac.

It then seemed like quite a struggle to get the plane under control and just when you expected the revs to die down, the exact opposite happened as the engines were revved hard to try to get some more reverse thrust. Were we struggling to stop in time?

A few sighs of relief were heard as the plane did finally pull off to taxi but definitely not one that will be forgotten in a hurry.





RunSunday
This is a 3 mile run around Otley Chevin.

Apparently, this week's run was in the worst conditions so far of the 24 runs to date.

That wasnt hard to believe as I could hardly stand up on the slush and ice, especially as I only had racing flats on my feet.

It was a hilly 2 lapper and on the first lap it was a case of watching the rest run away into the distance as I lost all hope of even staying upright for a full lap.

However, after a while things changed, a bit like when you start driving cautiously on ice but then get to a point of enjoying the slides and just get on with it. Gradually progress was made towards the front four, the leader being Hannah Oldroyd.

Despite the conditions there was the motivation of revenge for the previous day at Malahide. Happily revenge was indeed had. The traumatised 2nd placer went straight into attempting the second big challenge of the day - trying to buy four bacon sandwiches in a vegetarian cafe!

3rd was Matthew Kelly and 8th Jason Newell.




17.5 Miler

To clock up another 20+ miler, a meandering 17.5 mile run was added on, a challenging route around Bramhope, Yeadon and Guiseley. With this being the 5th 20+ miler in 17 days it feels like a good base has been laid down for the crucial next 8 weeks, a period that will involve gradually increasing intensities.


Next Week:

The fixed elements this week are:

1. Weds - 2 mile track race at Cudworth (delayed from last week)
2. Sat - Dewsbury parkrun
3. Sun - Dewsbury 10K

There will be enough intensity in there for the rest of the week to consist of just easy running. There will be no tapering involved, so total mileage will hopefully come out in the 70-80 mile range.

2013 Begins......VLM Week 1 of 14

As I outlined in the last post back in October the period between then and now was planned to be a very relaxed period of extended downtime after an intensive racing season leading up to the Chester Marathon.

Well that is exactly what happened as I slobbed to my heart's content :)

But now it is time to start getting ready for VLM, which is now 13 weeks away on April 21st.

More of that later, but just to fill in the gap between October and now:


Races Completed Since Chester Marathon in October

There is no need to go into any great detail about these, but this is a list of races and parkruns with 2012 best times in brackets just to show how relaxed this period has been:

21st Oct - Cabbage Patch 10 1:06:20 (1:01:04)
18th Nov - Leeds Abbey Dash 41:34 (36:19)
2nd Dec - Guy's 10 1:06:07 (1:01:04)
16th Dec - Telford 10K 39:34 (36:19)
30th Dec - Ward Green 6 37:14 (N/A)

5th Jan - Yorkshire XC Champs 45:27 (N/A)
9th Jan - Dorothy Hyman Winter 3,000m 11:03 (10:05)




and parkruns (2012 best 17:25 (twice))........

13th Oct - Dewsbury 22:49
20th Oct - St Albans 20:05
27th Oct - Dewsbury 19:31
17th Nov - Dewsbury 23:05
24th Nov - Hull 19:18
1st Dec - Dewsbury 20:49
8th Dec - Mansfield 18:46
15th Dec - Dewsbury 19:47
22nd Dec - Congleton 20:51
25th Dec - Dewsbury 21:49
29th Dec - Dewsbury 19:51

1st Jan - Southampton 19:13
1st Jan - Netley Abbey 20:50
5th Jan - Dewsbury 20:36
12th Jan - Dewsbury 19:28
19th Jan - Dewsbury 20:06


It wouldnt take a genius to notice that Dewsbury has appeared prominently in the above list. This is largely due to becoming Event Director there since the last posting. There will, however, still be plenty visiting of other venues in the coming weeks and months. We have a really good event team at Dewsbury with plenty capable Run Directors so that means that everyone is free to engage in a spot of parkrun tourism when the fancy takes them.


So onto 2013 -

As with the start of 2012 the challenge is to try to beat the ageing process. I define that as running at least one comeback PB at one of the standard distances. If that is achieved I win, if not the ageing process wins. Lets do battle :)

And these are the comeback PBs that have to be attacked:

800m 2:20.05
1500m 4:47.30
1 Mile 5:00.2
3000m 10:05.57
5K 17:25
10K 36:19
10 Miles 59:52
HM 1:18:41
20 Miles 2:15:03 (but this doesnt count as its too soft !)
Marathon 2:55:36

The trouble is that by having a pretty good 2012 it is going to be a whole lot tougher to clock up comeback PBs in 2013. Then again, where would the fun be if it was easy?


The main aims for 2013 are going to be:

1. VLM in April and
2. Leeds Golden Mile in September

........... the latter being a surprise even to me :p

If you'd told me at the start of 2012 that I'd be actively targetting a mile race I would have out chuckled the Chuckle Brothers!

But that all changed when Tom Williams made a chance comment, suggesting that I might want to join him in a 1500m track race at Stretford last July. My immediate thought was 'Yeah right, me a 1500?' but by the time that thought reached my lips it had become 'Okay, go on then'. 

And as a result a fun Summer of track racing was had. :)

I know a few people who got involved with track racing last year who surprised themselves at how much they enjoyed it, so I am not alone in getting sucked into this strange world of trying to inflict as much pain on yourself as is humanly possible.

But the most intriguing thing was that by the end of the Summer I had clocked up UK age group rankings of No.6 for the road mile and No.7 for the track mile. My first reaction to this was amusement as we all know that not many people actually run mile races any more.

But then came the next thought of wondering just what might be possible if I gave it a concentrated effort for a few months, ie a bit like the question that each Marathon Talk interviewee is asked.

5:00.2 off the back of marathon training suggests that specific mile training should deliver something a bit quicker. Sounds logical enough but then again not all things to do with running turn out to be logical, so it will be more of an interesting experiment just to see.......



But before then it is VLM:

The aim for the next 14 weeks is just to get plenty good training under the belt, enjoy the journey and get to the start line at Blackheath feeling ready to put in a good performance. Hopefully that will mean closing the gap a bit more between the 2:55 at Chester and the 2:45 required for a Championship place at London.  There are other milestones of interest along the way, ie sub 2:50 and  the small matter of my 20 year old PB 2:48:58. For now though that means getting some decent mileage going:

VLM 2013 - Week 1 of 14

Mon 14/1 10.0 Miles 1:26:47 (8:40/mile)
Tues 15/1 Rest Day
Weds 16/1 20.0 Miles 2:49:17 (8:28/mile)  (1st 10 @8:51, 2nd 10 @8:04)
Thurs 17/1 10.0 Miles 1:34:41 (9:28/mile)
Fri 18/1 10.0 Miles 1:33:48 (9:23/mile)
Sat 19/1 5.0 Miles incl Dewsbury parkrun 20:06
Sun 20/1 23.0 Miles 3:18:21 (8:36/mile)

Week's Mileage: 78.0 Miles


Just about all this week's mileage has been run on snow and hills so I reckon there is additional training benefit due from the harder work involved.

This was Dewsbury parkrun to give an idea of conditions:

And next week.......

It will be a case of just getting another decent week of solid mileage in but in amongst the miles there will be a 2 mile track race at the Dorothy Hyman Stadium in Cudworth on Wednesday evening and the first bit of international parkrun tourism when visiting Malahide parkrun in Dublin on Saturday.
There is a group of something like 15, arranged by Jason Newell, going over so it should be a fun trip.



There may be some of this involved:

There is also some added interest to this particular VLM build up as I am publicly mentoring Keir Williams on the Runner's World forum. Keir is looking to break 2:50 at London so if you want to follow his progress, here it is. I have plenty confidence that he will achieve his target :)

Chester Marathon - Week 10 of 10

Chester Marathon - Week 10 of 10

Week 10 (Mon 01/10 - Sun 07/10)

Mon: 10K Easy @ 8:45/mile
Tues: Rest Day
Weds: 7.0 Miles inc. 4.25 Miles @ (6:50,6:20,6:35,6:23...)
Thurs: Rest Day
Fri: Rest Day
Sat : 5.0 Miles incl. Dewsbury parkrun 27:48  (8:58/mile)
Sun: 27.0 Miles incl. Chester Marathon 2:55:36 (51st/8th V45) (6:43/mile) [Comeback PB]

Total Mileage: 45.2


So this was the final week in the lead up to the marathon and it started off with another 3 days of carb depletion from Monday to Wednesday.


Wednesday Track Session

The aim here was to do around 5 miles at something close to Sunday's race pace but it is important to be realistic about what to expect when doing this session in these circumstances. Paces seem pretty hard compared to what they normally would simply due to the fact of having consumed minimal carbs for three days.

So after miles of 6:50, 6:20, 6:35, 6:23 I then came to a grinding halt after 400m of the 5th mile, a bit like when a car runs out of fuel. It wasnt a case of not being able to struggle on for another 3 laps to complete the session but 4 days before a marathon is no time to be struggling on just for the sake of completing some arbitary distance.


Dewsbury parkrun

After messing up VLM in 2011 by getting a wee bit carried away at Pymmes parkrun the day before I was happy to volunteer for pacing duties of something around 23, 24, 25 minutes. When Nicki Dawson said 'but I've only got a 28 minute sign' it took about a nanosecond to respond with 'That'll do' :)

So 27:48 followed by some good old marathon banter with Event Director Jonny Cartwright who was hoping to improve his 3:04 time at VLM down to sub 3 at the Mablethorpe Marathon while I was over at Chester.



CHESTER MARATHON



Venue
On the way over to Chester Racecourse on Sunday morning we called in at the services just before Chester and the first person that we bumped into was Harrogate parkrun Event Director, Adam Prentis. I got a distinct impression that he was being pretty coy about how much effort he was going to be putting into the race stating that his main focus was on other events. I immediately pedicted a PB for him, more of which later...


The venue itself all seemed to work really well with everything being in close proximity within the infield of the racecourse, car parking, start, finish, tented village etc.



Conditions
Conditions could be summed up adequately in one word - Perfect! :) About 6-7c at the start, rising to maybe 10-12c through the race with no wind at all. No excuses at all in there.




The Race

My approach to this race was always going to be an effort based one, the time would sort itself out.

So breaking the bulk of the race down into 5K blocks, the aim was to roll along for the first 6 sections of 5K absorbing whatever the course presented in terms of challenges whilst keeping the effort level constant, and then hopefully conserving sufficient resources to then get stuck into the 7th and 8th 5K sections to produce a strong finish. The last 2.2K is just something that you deal with as best as you can when you get there.


0-5 Km 20:36
A slightly unusual start to a road marathon in that a big chunk of the first mile was on the racecourse itself .... and it was soggy! Nonetheless a nice steady start that included a few minor undulations up and around the walled city.



6-10 Km 20:34
Now out of the city and time to get into an appropriate rhythm on the country lanes around Chester. I just looked at the time every 5k to see if it was roughly corresponding to how I was feeling and I was quite happy with this opening roll out over the first quarter of the race


11-15 Km 20:36
When I saw this split it quite amused me that, despite a fair few undulations along the way, the 5km splits had only varied by 2 secs so far. And I also seemed to remember that Jocelyn  had run two 20:36 splits in the first three 5Ks when I had followed the Berlin tracker last week.


16-20 Km 20:00
I was starting to nudge the effort level along just a little bit now that it was into the second hour and approaching halfway but fully aware that this has often been the area of the race in the past where I have started pushing too much too early.

So nice and controlled was the order of the day even when going through some of the small villages where the enthusiastic support could easily have led to a picking up of pace if not careful.

21-25 Km 19:54
This section  had a loop of about a mile including the halfway timing mat. As I went into the loop the leaders were just coming out of it and I was interested in seeing how Phill Taylor was getting on since he had appeared to be looking very confident (although downplaying it well ;)) when I spoke to him before the race.

There was a group of 5 leaders and he wasnt with them and nor could I see him down the road either. It didnt mean he wasnt having a good race, just that he wasnt likely to get one of the bigger cheques.

After going around the loop and coming out of the other end I was then greeted by a cheery shout from Adam Prentis going into the loop. A quick mental calculation and I was satisfied that my original prediction that he was going for a big PB was undoubtedly accurate ;)

Always look for the ones downplaying their prospects for the big performances :)

26-30 Km 20:47
I was quite happy with this split as this section had included a couple of significant drawn out inclines and I was very much on my own now. I could see maybe 2 runners in the 400m up ahead and wasnt aware of anyone in near proximity behind. But I was feeling good and when it actually registered that I had now completed the first six 5km sections with no dramas I was actually looking forward to getting stuck into these last two 5km sections. What me? Looking forward to the closing stages of a marathon? Well, I never.......

31-35 Km 20:42
It has to said that the support around the course was great, not vast numbers as you get in the big city marathons but small pockets of very enthusiastic supporters as you passed through the various small villages en route. It really helped that every runner had their first name displayed prominently on their number or at least it really helped most of the time.

It was in this section that I was running next to the kerb when a young 14-15 year old whipper snapper leaned over and said very calmly directly into my left ear 'Eat shit, Steve'. Charming!! I spent the next half a mile rotating between thoughts of 'Did he really say that' to 'Is it worth adding a minute to my time to go and give a youngster a gentle lesson in manners? :p' to 'That was actually quite funny'. The end result was that the 21st mile had passed without me hardly noticing it, so maybe he did me a favour!

36-40 Km 21:27
So on to the 8th and final 5Km block and my thoughts revolved around starting a big push for the finish. It felt like there should be a sub 20:00 5K in the legs with a little persuasion.


But then someone with a warped sense of humour put a pretty steep hill that probably lasted for a good half mile around the 24 mile point. Reading accounts since the event it would appear, not surprisingly, that this was the undoing of many participants.


I was quite happy going up it but it was clearly costing time. Never mind, I was here to race the course and maximise my finishing position so the hill was irrelevant really.



The Final 2.2K
I knew that this section held no surprises so just had a straight run to the finish now along the flat riverside section called The Groves that led back to the racecourse.


This was a pic captured by on course supporter Dawn Broom during the 26th mile:

The picture above gives a good idea of the length of gaps in the second half of the race. However, what I didnt know at this point was that just out of sight behind me there was this chap who could definitely see me and was closing:

To say that I wasnt expecting him to be there is a big understatement!

This was Kelvin Dickinson, who was one of the three people that I was following on the Berlin tracker last week as he landed an impressive 2:49. This is nothing new, he often appears out of nowhere in the closing stages of long races, including this year's Spen 20 and VLM,  to make me have to look for another gear that I dont really want to go looking for.



On this occassion I was blissfully unaware that he was there and finished with just over a minute to spare but what was he doing there? A 2:56 the week after a 2:49? Bonkers!



The Finish
The last 400m was back on to the soggy racecourse so it was just a case of tying to pick out the driest line to the finishing gantry.

Over the line and the clock showed 2:55:38 and there was a couple of seconds to come off that for the chip time.

The Garmin splits dont add up to the overall time because the Garmin measured about 500m long so they are just approximations but useful nonetheless.

My immediate thought on finishing was that it was a really good performance, that the time was worth a little bit better on a fast course (in fact I reckon it was worth say 2:53:29 just in case Joss reads this ;)) and that the execution couldnt have really been much better.

But more than anything else the big thing for me was that the feeling of conquering a marathon for the first time at VLM back in April, rather than it conquering me as had happened 20+ times before, was no fluke and I had been able to repeat the process here at Chester.

For those more comfortable with mile splits:

1. 6:45
2. 6:32
3. 6:37
4. 6:34
5. 6:38
6. 6:34
7. 6:42
8. 6:40
9. 6:28
10. 6:28
11. 6:24
12. 6:24
13. 6:31
14. 6:26
15. 6:17
16. 6:33
17. 6:51
18. 6:41
19. 6:40
20. 6:31
21. 6:49
22. 6:45
23. 7:06
24. 6:54
25. 7:06
26. 6:56

As always times dont really mean a lot unless put in context so this is the updated list of attempts at marathon distance since the comeback:

Apr 2009: Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 [Age 43]
Oct 2009: Fleetwood Marathon DNF [Age 44]
Apr 2010: Blackpool Marathon 3:08:13 [Age 44]
Oct 2010: Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 [Age 45]
Apr 2011: London Marathon 3:18:30 [Age 45]
Apr 2012: London Marathon 2:57:04 [Age 46]
Oct 2012: Chester Marathon 2:55:36 [Age 46]
Apr 2013: London Marathon
Oct 2013: Amsterdam Marathon
Apr 2014: Boston Marathon

Has 2:45 become less or more probable as a result of this effort?
Undoubtedly more probable :)

Other Performances at Chester

Dave Crossley  - Clubmate who ran a 4 minute PB with 3:15:32. Dave had been targetting 3:10 for a GFA place but to go 4 minutes quicker than VLM on a significantly tougher course is a very big improvement in the last six months, probably much bigger than he actually realises.

Adam Prentis - Mr Adam 'I'm just going to take it easy today' Prentis ended up taking his PB down from 3:29:18 to 3:21:41. And with splits of 1:42:38, 1:39:03 I suspect one of only a handful of negative splits on a course which is certainly tougher  in the second half.

Phill Taylor - Bearing in mind the situation at halfway, when I saw Phill at the end I was expecting him to say that he had finished 6th or 7th maybe. But, oh no, the wily campaigner had timed his efforts to perfection and worked his way up to 3rd by the end to land himself a nice little £250 bonus and a bottle of bubbly. Theres nothing like experience and patience when it comes to tackling a marathon.
2:32:40 (1:15:45, 1:16:55)

Caz Hall - As with Kelvin Dickinson, Caz defied all known logic by running 3:17:58 just seven days after a 3:14:15 in Berlin.



Summary of 10 weeks of training
Not bad at all really. Overall it consisted of:

595 Miles (incl. the taper weeks) so not huge mileage.
9 x runs of 18+ miles
18 x races (800m,1500, 2 x 1 Mile,3000m, 8 x 5K, 10K, HM + 3 others)
7 x Comeback PBs (800m (2:20.05), 1500m (4:47.30), 1 Mile (5:00.2), 3000m (10:05.57), 5K (17:25), HM (1:18:41), Marathon (2:55:36)


An eventful and very enjoyable 10 weeks.


Next...........

Next comes a month of injury proofing, aka laziness :)

Then November and December will be quite a relaxed period racing anything and everything that I fancy doing with no great logical process involved.

From January onwards it will then be time to repeat this 10 week process going into VLM and hoping to move closer to that 2:45 benchmark.

Chester Marathon - Week 9 of 10

Chester Marathon - Week 9 of 10

Week 9 (Mon 24/09 - Sun 30/09)

Mon: Rest Day
Tues: Rest Day
Weds: 6.0 Miles (incl. 1 mile @ 6:41)
Thurs: Rest Day
Fri: Rest Day
Sat : 6.0 Miles incl. Hull parkrun 17:53 (3rd) (5:45/mile)
Sun: 11.0 Miles Easy @ 8:58/mile

Total Mileage: 23.0


I almost forgot to blog this week due to there being so little running going on!

It became more of a taper week than I had initially intended with only 23 miles covered but in the great scheme of things it should work out okay.


Aborted Track Session

The plan for Wednesday was for a 2 x 5 mile session on the track at about 6:15-6:20ish pace.

However, after a 4 mile gentle warm up it became apparent that the calves were too stiff, any stiffness would usually loosen off with a reasonable warm up but not on this occassion. I still gave it a go but after a single mile at 6:41 I called it a day on the basis that it was just too risky at this stage of the game.

But it was no great surprise that the stiffness was there. I had just had a hard period of 8 days that involved 4 races (including GNR) and then followed that period with 2 rest days. I usually find that it is after 1 or 2 rest days that stiffness is at its worst, without the rest days the calves would probably have been fine.


Hull parkrun

I had targetted this for a serious attempt on a sub 17 clocking, which would have been a sizeable chunk off the current comeback PB of 17:25.

With a fresh pair of legs it felt like there was a reasonable possibility of getting close.

However, on Saturday morning conditions werent really suitable for fast times, 17:30 would probably have been more realistic. But on the basis that I had gone to have a go at sub 17 I decided that I may as well have a go anyway. Whats the worst that could happen?

So off we went and it quickly boiled down to three of us as a leading group, with the other two guys being  16:42 and 17:03 runners. Perfect pacemakers!

At halfway we were all still together and bang on 17:00 pace but I had worked far too hard to that point to overcome the conditions and I had to drop off the back as things unravelled pretty quickly.

It was worth a bash though and it will be a nice target to keep for later.


Ready or Not Ready?

Regardless of what training has been done I tend to find that there is just a general feeling of either readiness or a feeling of trepidation in the lead up to a marathon.

Well on this occasion I am pleased to say that I am chomping at the bit, I just cant wait to get on with it.

It was great to have the Berlin Marathon a week before Chester and be able to follow the progress of several people on the live tracker. All three people that I was following produced superb performances with excellent pacing:

Dan Robinson
18:44, 18:08, 18:20, 18:34, 18:42, 19:06, 19:09, 19:58 - 2:39:30 (PB by 40 secs)
Jocelyn Payne
20:58, 20:36, 20:36, 20:45, 20:41, 20:36, 20:22, 20:08 - 2:53:30 (PB by 7 minutes)
Kelvin Dickinson
20:21, 20:12, 20:13, 20:05, 20:20, 19:57, 19:34, 20:03 - 2:49:38

Apart from the fact that these three made running a marathon look incredibly easy from the view of a tracker screen it was very inspirational to witness the hard work over the last few weeks and then see that work translate into such impressively executed races.

Certainly hard acts to follow but if anyone is interested in tracking progress next Sunday, the live tracker is here:

http://track.rtrt.me/e/TDL-CHESTERM-2012#b=R2MUANP5~2&v=ptrack

and the running number is 1575.




Next Week.......

The final week will see another 3 day period of carb depletion, Monday to Wednesday, followed by normal diet thereafter. Hopefully that will produce the same situation as on previous occassions of feeling fully fuelled but without the bloating.

In terms of final week running I'll be looking to do a midweek 5 miler at 6:15-6:20ish pace and a couple of very easy runs of 10K just to keep the blood flowing around the system. Saturday will then see a parkrun in about 24 minutes.

The next post will be after a 26.2 mile run around the streets of Chester :)

Chester Marathon - Week 8 of 10

Chester Marathon - Week 8 of 10

Week 8 (Mon 17/09 - Sun 23/09)

Mon: Rest Day
Tues: 10.0 Miles Easy @ 8:36/mile
Weds: 18.0 Miles Easy @ 8:18/mile
Thurs: 5.0 Miles incl. Ron Hill's 74th Birthday 5K 17:59 (7th/1st Vet) (5:47/mile)
Fri: 10.0 Miles Easy @ 8:38/mile
Sat (am): 6.0 Miles incl. Marple parkrun 18:24 (2nd) (5:55/mile)
Sat (pm): 6.0 Miles incl. Northern 6 Stage Road Relays (3.8 miles) 21:35 (5:41/mile)
Sun: 22.0 Miles Easy @ 8:18/mile

Total Mileage: 77.0



It could well have been a struggle this week after the big effort at last Sunday's Great North Run but even though the legs are now feeling tired I am pleased with how they have dealt with this week, the last full week of marathon training.

In the seven days since GNR there have been two long runs of 18 miles and 22 miles along with 3 shorter distance races where there has still been a bit of speed under the bonnet despite the tiredness.



Ron Hill's 74th Birthday 5K

Well what can I say? The start of this race scares me!


After a minute's silence it was time to risk life and limb by charging towards a blind corner littered with street furniture, posts, electricty/telephone/post boxes etc etc. It really is a wonder how 250ish people get through without serious injury to someone.

In the name of self preservation I tend to be ultra cautious around that first corner but it is still terrifying. As we got out onto the road I was outside the top 30 but at least I was still in one piece. Uphill for the first mile in 5:55 and now in 28th place.

Now time to start working through the field during the 2nd mile and after getting up to 12th and then to 8th a little spanner was thrown in the works as a level crossing barrier with its flashing lights came down to block our way.

As you're going uphill anyway at this point breaks in rhythm are not overly welcome so to get directed down into an underpass and then up some pretty steep steps was a bit of a shock!

I managed to get up into 7th after the diversion and that was it in terms of position. The second mile had taken 6:07 and I'd managed to go from 28th to 7th....which tells a story in itself.

It was then just a case of having a strong run for home at 5:22/mile pace for the last mile and a bit for an overall 17:59.

7th overall and 1st vet was about as much as I could have hoped for so not bad at all in the end.

This is a photo of me receiving my prize from the legend that is Ron Hill, the marathon world record holder in 1970. However, the photo is from last year's prize giving, it would have been this year's but lets just say that John Broom makes a better runner than photographer :p

 

Marple parkrun

I got this one all wrong by not looking too closely at what terrain the course consisted of!

So after a few days of heavy rain I turned up to a predominantly grass/mud course with just a pair of racing flats on my feet:

Suffice to say I spent as much time going sideways as forwards but did actually end up getting to the finish without hitting the deck at any point, a minor miracle.

The time at the end of 18:24 came as a bit of a surprise. How that run came out as sub 6 minute miling I have no idea and to only get beaten by 7 seconds by another 1:18 half marathoner, who was equipped with far more appropriate footwear, will be deemed a good morning's splish splash sploshing :)


Northern 6 Stage Road Relays (Leigh)

My legs are starting to feel on the heavy side now after the efforts of the last 7 days but I figure there should still be a good strong run in them as long as sufficient warming up is done.

As the name suggests this is a team relay event consisting of 6 legs of what turned out to be 3.8 miles. However, for a road relay event there was a distinct lack of road. It could more accurately be described as a confusing, twisty, convoluted multi-terrain (track/trail/mud/road) course with an identity crisis.

There were several disqualifications for 'going wrong' but luckily due to some advance course reccying the Barnsley Harriers A team survived the confusion, our B team was not so fortunate.

I enjoyed the run, which in contrast to the morning's parkrun, was run in bright warm sunshine.

The overall time for the 3.8 miles was 21:35 with splits of 5:48, 5:36, 5:52, 5:22 (0.8) for a 5:41/mile average.


I have to be happy with the pace at the end of a tiring 7 days especially considering the twistiness of the course which included three points each lap (six in total) which involved coming to a virtual standstill.




However, the nature of these events is such that you always feel slow in comparison to those around you but it is still good to get a direct comparison with the fast boys on a like for like basis.






Next Week.............

Training for Chester is now complete so it is just a matter of ticking over for the next couple of weeks.

Tues/Weds: I'll be looking to do something like a 2 x 5 mile session on Tuesday/Wednesday at 6:15-6:20 ish pace but with the emphasis on feeling relaxed at pace rather than being too concerned about the actual pace itself.

Sat: As long as the legs are feeling strong again I think I'll have another crack at the all time parkrun PB of 17:25 at Hull on Saturday. Of course the last time I had a go at it I ended up with another 17:25 but that was only 7 days after the 20 x parkrun Challenge so the big goal will be to have an all out attempt on sub 17.

It was nice to have a 16:59 on my Po10 listing for a few days in August before it got well and truly discredited, it would now be nice to have a genuine version of the same thing. A tough task though......

Total mileage for the week will be around 45-50 and based on last week's experience I'm going to have a double carb depletion experiment in the lead up to Chester, ie 3 days this week and 3 days next week, just to see what happens.

Chester Marathon - Week 7 of 10

Chester Marathon - Week 7 of 10

Week 7 (Mon 10/09 - Sun 16/09)

Mon: 10 Miles Easy @ 8:29/mile
Tues: 14.5 Miles incl Progressive 10.0 Miles (track) @ 6:32/mile
Weds: Rest Day
Thurs: 10.0 Miles Easy @  8:59/mile
Fri: Rest Day
Sat: 8.0 Miles incl. Leeds parkrun 18:25
Sun: 16.0 Miles incl Great North Run 1:18:41 @ 6:00/mile (126th/7th V45)

Total Mileage: 58.5




 
 This week was about stringing together some decent sequences of strong miles, something which I havent done too much of so far in this build up.

I've found in the past that I have done too much of this sort of training and ended up feeling as though I've peaked too early, leading to a disappointing marathon thereafter.



Progressive 10 Miler

This was planned for Tuesday but everything was telling me to postpone it for a day, I really wasnt feeling up to doing this kind of session, in fact I didnt really fancy doing a short easy run either.

So I decided to postpone it and just went for an easy run instead. After about 3 miles though the thought of a strong 10 miler had become a little more palatable and on the basis that getting it done on Tuesday rather than Wednesday would give an additional recovery day before GNR  I bit the bullet and got on with it.

So 40 laps of Spenborough track and the legs felt better the longer the session went on:

7:06, 6:49, 6:38, 6:33, 6:31, 6:24, 6:19, 6:20, 6:25, 6:11 - for an avge 6:32/mile

The same session a day later would probably have produced an average of 6:15-6:20 for the same effort level but there was something very promising about producing that sequence of miles on tired legs.








Leeds (now renamed to Woodhouse Moor) parkrun

Saturday was set up to for pacemaking duties for Jocelyn Payne as she attempted to smash her parkrun PB of 18:19.

It really shows that someone is feeling confident when they set a target beyond anything previously achieved (and by some way), tells everyone about the target and then goes on to rise to the challenge.

So Joss set a target of sub 18:00, 20 seconds is a big chunk of time to take off in one go but she wanted to give sub 18:00 her best shot with a PB of some sort as a plan B.

The key at Leeds is even effort rather than even pace due to the undulating nature of the course and  you need to be at 4km at 14:15 to hit a sub 18:00. That is exactly the time we arrived there and then it was down to pure guts for the final uphill km, how deep could she dig?

Well the answer to that question was the final time of 17:59!

A brilliant effort and taken together with the mile PB of 5:14.7 a week earlier means that the Berlin Marathon tracker is going to be an entertaining watch in a couple of weeks time.







Great North Run

This was the first chance to see how the training is shaping up in terms of speed endurance.

After the progressive 10 miler @6:32 avge on Tuesday it felt like there was every chance of a good run on the road from Newcastle to South Shields.

But Saturday's pacing at Leeds parkrun put a bit of a different slant on things. 5:45 miles were feeling hard enough to cause questions about whether averaging 6:06/mile for 13 miles to go sub 1:20:00 was actually realistic.

So while sinking the 3rd pint of Boddingtons in the hotel on Saturday night, in true Alf Tupper fashion, I mentioned to Dan Holdsworth, who was also looking for a sub 1:20:00, that I had no gut feeling one way or the other how it was going to turn out.

However, at 5:30am on race morning I went for a SLOW jog, and by slow I mean 14+ mins/mile, and strangely on the back of that I then got the feeling there was a good run coming.

On to the race and the plan was just to flow through the first 5 miles without too much concern for the pace, work hard through the next 5 miles and then a kitchen sink job at the last 5K.

Miles 0-5: 
This section had to be comfortable if a sub 80 was going to be achieved. Trying to keep everything smooth with no sudden changes in effort levels the miles went by in 6:07, 6:12, 5:57, 5:57, 6:08 for a 30:22 opening 5 miles.

6:04 average for the first 5 miles was inside what I had expected but it was now time to start grafting.

Miles 6-10:
The rain was now coming down and was very welcome. It was also now down to a very sparse strung out field so it was easy to get your head down and get into a zone.

It was nice to see familiar faces along the side of the road at about 10K in Liz Jones and the Hyde Park Harriers, an unexpected boost at just the right time!

This section went by in 5:44, 5:40, 5:43, 6:04, 5:56 for a 29:07 2nd 5 miles.

I was determined not to let the fact that I'd just thrown in something like a 17:46 5K in the middle of a half marathon convince me that I was tired.

Last 5K :
The time for the 10 mile mark differed between the Garmin reading and the roadside clock. The Garmin said  59:29, the roadside clock 1:00:00 - the difference being that we got nowhere near the racing line in the early stages.

So at least the mental arithmetic was easy, a sub 20 5K for a sub 80 HM.

Time to get down to business. It was getting hard now but one mile at a time.

The 11th mile felt tough but when I saw a 6:03 come up that was an immediate 'job done' moment. I wasnt going to lose the sub 80 from there so it was now time to start thinking about sub 79.

The 12th mile included the sharp downhill but it was definitely feeling like a 'going to the well' moment now. A 6:09 told me that I was slowing but only 1 mile to go, it was now man or mouse time.

The last mile along the sea front went on forever (as usual) but I could see the gantry in front and thought that was the point to turn off onto the grass with about 400m to go. However, as I closed in on the gantry it then dawned on me that we were still in the elite window (up to 80:00) and so the gantry was the actual finish.

A final surge saw a last mile of 5:59 and a last bit at 5:38 pace for a 1:18:41 finish. (6:00/mile)

I couldnt have given it any more on the day, it was one of those rare races where there was nothing to pick apart and I just felt totally satisfied with the whole thing from start to finish. A very nice feeling :)

One of my favourite stats is the conversion from a 5:00.2 mile last week to a 6:00.3/mile Half marathon this week and identical age gradings of  82.2% for both events. I'm normally rubbish at converting up the distances!


To put this race in context, the half marathons on the comeback trail have been:

Feb 09 Brighton HM 1:33:22 [Age 42]
Jun 09 Freckleton HM 1:27:46 [Age 43]
Aug 09 Hackney HM 1:33:41 [Age 43]
Nov 09 Lancaster HM 1:25:50 [Age 43]
Feb 11 Liversedge HM 1:30:57 [Age 44]
Sep 11 Budapest HM 1:26:38 [Age 45]
Oct 11 Gt Eastern HM 1:23:11 [Age 45]
Oct 11 Bridglinton HM 1:24:36 [Age 45]
Nov 11 Norwich HM 1:23:21 [Age 45]
Jan 12 Brass Monkey HM 1:24:28 [Age 45]
Mar 12 Sth Yorks HM 1:21:56 [Age 45]
Sep 12 Gt North Run 1:18:41 [Age 46]

So still going in the right direction, at least for now. :)

And, as strange as it may seem, I have now been invited to a presentation to pick up an award on the back of this run......at The Houses Of Parliament. I kid you not!




So why did it go well?

I have a theory :)

Back in April, John Broom and myself had noticed that a few of us that followed a similar final week routine into the Spring marathons had all had pretty strong runs, especially in the closing stages.

That routine had been to carb deplete for 2-3 days, as per the traditional approach, and then just eat normally in the final 2-3 days, ie no attempt to carbo load. It appeared that just normal eating was enough to get back to full glycogen stores and to be feeling raring to go on the start line without all that bloating that is assumed to be necessary.

Since there has been no evidence to show that a 'super compensation' effect actually exists, ie whereby carb depletion leads to an increasing capacity to store carbs afterwards, it is fair to question what exactly does the depletion phase achieve?

What if the reduction in carb consumption for 2-3 days is beneficial simply because it allows the body to get properly stocked up with protein and other minerals and goodies that it may have become slightly deficient in through long bouts of training?

It seems logical enough.

But if that is the case, then I couldnt see why it should be restricted to marathons.

Getting muscles up to full strength and topping up any deficiencies is likely to be beneficial to other distances as well........ and so that is the routine that I followed this week and felt stronger than ever during the race.

It is interesting enough to encourage me to try it again anyway :)




Next Week...........

Because the speed endurance now seems to be in pretty good shape this last full week will be used to get a big mileage week in.

There will be 4 races, which may seem a bit daft, but they will be at varying effort levels:

Thursday 20th : Ron Hill's Birthday 5K - This was an excellent evening last year and since Ron is getting concerned that he may end up running it on his own soon if numbers continue to fall it will be good to put in an appearance.

Saturday 22nd (am): A parkrun somewhere, possibly Marple.

Saturday 22nd (pm): Norther 6 Stage Road Relays, Manchester.

Sunday 23rd: Greenway 10K (either an all out effort or part of a long run)

Chester Marathon - Week 6 of 10

Week 6 (Mon 03/09 - Sun 09/09)

Mon: 10K Easy @ 8:23/mile
Tues: 7.0 Miles including Stretford Open 3000m 10:05.57 [Comeback PB]
Weds: 10.0 Miles including Spencer Arms 3.7 Miles 22:09 (4th/1st Vet)
Thurs: 10K Easy @  8:58/mile
Fri: 10K Easy @ 9:06/mile
Sat: 9.0 Miles incl. Leeds Golden Mile 05:00.2 [Comeback PB]
Sun: 18.0 Miles @ 8:49/mile

Total Mileage: 62.6


Last week I mentioned that there would be two stretching targets this week, a 5 minute target and a 10 minute target. Well I missed both......but not by much! The combined times for both events was 15:05.77 compared to the targetted 15:00, a mere 0.6% out.



Stretford Open 3000m

Just one previous attempt at this distance, at the same venue 6 weeks earlier resulting in a 10:25.22 clocking.

I remember feeling pretty tired going into that previous effort so thought that a crack at 10 minutes might be realistic. Unlike last time when there was two heats, this time there was just one involving 24 runners. Not a great problem but I now have to be aware during the race that I'm going to get lapped.

Lining up at the start I was directly behind a 2012 Olympian in Eilish McColgan, who went on to run a PB in this race at what is, in effect, her Olympic distance. That is a measure of the quality of these races.

I was looking for 80 sec laps to hit 10:00 but I got stranded in a pretty big gap for most of the race. Nonetheless no laps were slower than 81 secs and the final time came in at 10:05.57, a comeback PB and I suppose an all time PB to boot (having only ever having done two) :)



Spencer Arms Dash

The Spencer Arms Series is a 6 race series throughout the summer consisting of 3.7 miles of very hilly mainly road, but with a 600m track section, Barnsley countryside.

This week saw the last in the series. A summary of the year:

April: 22:16 (5th/1st Vet)
May: 23:35 (7th/3rd Vet)
Jun: 22:46 (5th/2nd Vet)
Jul: 23:12 (4th/1st Vet)
Aug: 22:26 (5th/2nd Vet)
Sep: 22:09 (4th/1st Vet)

Throughout the series conditions vary so much that you really arent comparing like with like but still pleased to get the fastest time in the last race and come first in the overall vets series.



Leeds Golden Mile

We received notification of the heat line ups on Thursday evening and as such I was looking forward to a good old battle with Tom Williams, Dan Holdsworth and John Broom. All of us had predicted 4:59 on our entry forms although, to be fair, it was unlikely that John was going to be wanting to push too close to the limit on a recently problematic calf.


All well and good except on arriving at Leeds Carnegie an immediate spanner was thrown in the works as I was not in the race that I expected to be in. I was now in a heat where I had the slowest predicted time amongst a group ranging from 4:30 - 4:55. This would have scared the proverbial out of me just a few weeks ago but at least the knowledge of the recent track races meant that I wasnt expecting to get too embarrassed.

So a bit of recalibration of how I expected the race to pan out was needed.

But first I got to watch the race that I was supposed to be in. This was the big day for Tom Williams and his attempt to break 5 minutes. It was a superb attempt, evenly paced as near as dammit, cheered on by all the onlookers and as he crossed the line we still didnt know whether he had done it or not........it was that close. It was either 4:59.xx or 5:00.xx.

Just have a look at the photo (courtesy of Jeff Parkinson):

Before finding out one way or the other it was time for my race and I was surprised to find myself comfortably in amongst the leaders early on. Through 809m in about 2:31 I was starting to drift a few metres off the group but that was fine, time to dig in. 1209m was passed in 3:45 So a final 400m in 75 secs was needed....I dug as deep as I could and crossed the line............and didnt know whether I had done it or not. It was either 4:59:xx or 5:00.xx!

So both Tom and myself had run our races and we didnt know whether either of us had broken 5 minutes or not.

After a bit of a wait, the official results came in as 5:00.2 for me and 5:00.3 for Tom.

 So if you think the photograph above was close..........I was agonisingly  a little bit closer still.

After being seperated by 0.2 secs in the 800m race two weeks ago these were spookily similar outcomes in separate races.

I cant be disappointed in any way though with my fastest ever official mile, my fastest actual mile for at least 19 years and a UK V45 ranking of 6, it would have been no.5 but Greg Hull was about 6 seconds in front of me to take the no.3 spot.

Dan Holdsworth ran a new PB of 5:01.9 after leading the first couple of laps in the Tom Williams race at exactly the right pace. Again, so close you could almost touch the sub 5. And another huge performance by John Robson saw him going bravely into new territory to land a 5:03.8.

The concept of these events is brilliant though and they have got to grow in number, there is clearly a massive appetite for mile racing. And the one thing that you notice is that nobody at all leaves anything out there, the determination levels are infectious.





Shortened 26 Miler

A steady 26 miler was planned today, a session I like to do 3-4 weeks out from a marathon in true Charlie Spedding fashion.

However, after around 8 miles it was starting to feel too much of a struggle too early for the lower legs, nothing else just the lower legs. By the time I got to 18 miles that was it for the day. No problem though, there could well have been as much training benefit from that 18 miles as a 26 on fresh legs or at least that's my story :)



Next Week.........

There is the opportunity on Tuesday evening to have another crack at going sub 5 for the mile. Although it is sorely tempting I have decided to leave it as a tantalising 0.2 secs short for the time being in favour of getting a 10 mile tempo session in.

Next Saturday's parkrun will be at Leeds, attempting to pace Jocelyn Payne to a new parkrun PB. After running a big new mile PB at the Leeds Golden Mile of 5:14.7 she is clearly in great shape leading up to the Berlin Marathon, where she will no doubt strengthen her hold on the U23 UK No.1 ranking.

Then it will be up to Newcastle to watch the Quayside Games on Saturday afternoon, which will now include an appearance by Mo Farah, before having a full tilt effort in the Great North Run on Sunday. Dan Holdsworth and myself will be hoping to push each other to sub 1:20:00 times.