VLM 2013 - Week 5 of 14

VLM - Week 5 of 14
Week 5 - (Mon 11/2 - Sun 17/2)

Mon: 10.0 Miles @ 9:13/mile
Tues: Rest Day
Weds: Rest Day
Thurs: 10.0 Miles @ 9:19/mile
Fri: 10.0 Miles @ 8:08/mile
Sat : 8.0 Miles incl. Dewsbury parkrun 19:14 (5:57,6:11,6:21)
Sun: 15.5 Miles @ 8:28/mile

Total Mileage: 53.5 Miles



This week became an unintentional cutback week, which in the greater scheme of things wont do any harm.

Tuesday was an appropriate rest day, coming two days after the 3 hrs 39 mins of hilly running around the Spen 20 course but Wednesday just became a non starter due to a blizzard of icy snow.


Dewsbury parkrun

Each week seems to be surpassing the previous one at the moment in terms of the overall event.

There was another post inaugural record attendance of 79 runners for Jason Newell's debut as Run Director, and with 11 being first timers the 25 PBs out of the 68 eligible runners gives a good indication of how favourable conditions were in the Spring like sunshine.

These PBs included both male and female new course records:

Matt Pierson lost his share of the course record last week when Kev Ogden set the new mark of 16:52 but it didnt take him long to get his name back in the record books by getting round the hilly course in 16:10 in the middle of a 100 mile week.

Hannah Oldroyd lowered her own mark of 19:50 down to 19:28.

This has come after taking all speedwork, except races/parkruns, out of her training for a while to concentrate on getting some decent mileage into the legs. The recent long runs, followed by a week of just steady running, is clearly feeding through into increased strength. This 19:28 is a another improvement on her 18:55 at Huddersfield last week based on the added difficulty of the Dewsbury course.


And another impressive PB from Tom Howard with his first sub 19:00 run with 18:55. Three weeks ago his PB was 19:23 but again concentrating on mileage for his VLM build up has fed through into the added strength that produces stronger 5K times.

There seems to be improved fitness everywhere you look at the moment amongst those running the course on a regular basis :)

My own run was a run of the mill 19:14, worth around an 18:30 run on a flat course but the legs were feeling tired, more of which in a minute, and I am more interested in trying to get a 17:xx clocking for the distance next Wednesday on the track.



Sunday LSR
A beautiful sunny morning for a long run around my hilly countryside route.

The original intention was to get 18 completed at a relaxed pace and then pick the pace up over the last 4 miles for a fast finishing 22.

But of course this was dependent upon the legs being willing............ which they werent! So at 15.5 miles the quads really had had enough and that was the end of the run.

There is a difference between ploughing on for additional training benefit and ploughing on when the only likely result is strains and tears, so in the interests of keeping on the right side of the overtraining line again the sensible option was taken.

In terms of long runs, there have been runs of 18, 20, 23, 20, 20.5, 18, 23 and 15.5  in just over 5 weeks, so it feels like the back has been broken of this part of the training and it is no surprise that the legs are feeling it a bit.

I'm happy to space them out a bit more now and let some speed start developing as the weight comes down.




Next Week:

A fun filled week coming up with no less than 4 races involved. This should work well in kick starting a bit of speeding up as the last 9 weeks of the VLM build up approaches:

1. Weds - Dorothy Hyman Winter Series 5,000m.
Hopefully will go close to a 17:xx time for the first time since last October.

2. Sat(am) - Dewsbury parkrun

3. Sat(pm) - National XC Champs, Sunderland.
Probably the highest quality mass participation event on the calendar where a top 500 position would represent a big performance, but is probably a bit out of range at the moment.

4. Snake Lane 10 - This will all depend on the state of the legs after the previous day but would like to use it as a progressive session in maybe 62-63 minutes. We will see!

9 weeks to go..................................

VLM 2013 - Week 4 of 14

VLM - Week 4 of 14
Week 4 - (Mon 4/2 - Sun 10/2)

Mon: 18.0 Miles @ 8:19/mile
Tues: 10.0 Miles @ 8:33/mile
Weds: 12.0 Miles incl Dorothy Hyman 10,000m 38:29 (6:10/mile)
Thurs: 12.0 Miles @ 8:47/mile
Fri: Rest Day
Sat: 6.0 Miles incl Dewsbury parkrun 18:37 (5:58, 5:54, 5:56) (5th)
Sun: 23.1 miles @ 9:25/mile

Total Mileage: 81.1 Miles




After last week's requirement for a bit of easing off to get back on the right side of the overtraining line this week was the bounce back week where the legs just wanted to run and were quite happy to get the miles in.


Monday 18.0 Miles
This run flowed really nicely on the usual hilly route and was going to be a 20 miler. However, coming into the last 3-4 miles a vicious hail storm started which felt like Phil Taylor was using my face as target practise.

The legs may have been keen to finish off the 20 miles but my face certainly wasnt. So 18 miles it was......



Wednesday Dorothy Hyman Winter 10,000m track race

Coming just 3 days after Dewsbury 10K and with 34 miles sandwiched between the two this was intended to be a good hard graft 10,000 on tired legs without too much concern for the time.

I had set it up mentally as 5 blocks of 5 laps and the aim was to run each block slightly faster than the last.

This wasnt necessarily going to be easy to judge on a windy night and on tired legs but it felt strong and controlled as the first three blocks of 5 laps were ticked off in 7:42, 7:41, 7:38. It was therefore nicely set up for a bit of a push towards the finish but the wearing effect of the wind led to the last two blocks being 7:46, 7:42.

But overall a session which consisted of 6 miles warm up + 6 miles @ 6:10/mile is a very positive contribution to the training mix!


Dewsbury parkrun
From an Event Director point of view I really enjoyed this week's event.

There was a record number of new runners (21), an overall record number of runners since the inaugural event (68) and a record number of PBs (21 out of 47 eligible). Those bare stats fed into producing a lot of beaming faces by 10am on Saturday morning! And that is what it is all about :)

From a running point of view, it was also a very positive story with the fastest time since last August. More importantly, the legs felt really strong especially on the uphill drags.

I take the weekly parkrun times with a pinch of salt but the overall pattern of recent weeks since the downtime clearly shows the aerobic benefit of the recent six 20 milers starting to feed through:

1/12 20:14
15/12 19:46
25/12 21:48
29/12 19:51
5/1 20:36
12/1 19:28
19/1 20:06
2/2 18:58
9/2 18:37

Dewsbury is a course which is  about 40 secs slower than a flat course so I've got to be pleased with potentially being back in 17:xx shape already, whilst still being a good 10-11lbs off racing weight.



Sunday 23.1 Miler
The idea here was to add another 20 miler into the mix by doing a dry run of the Spen 20 course, Spen 20 being a race which will be a key part of the VLM training in a few weeks time.

But it became a bit more interesting than planned due to criss crossing today's Liversedge Half Marathon route at several points, a race in which several friends were competing, including:

Kev Ogden (the man who broke the Dewsbury parkrun course record yesterday)
Kelvin Dickinson (the man who recently ran three marathons in 5 days including two sub 3s in successive days)
Tom Howard (Dewsbury Run Director building up to VLM)
Jonny Cartwright (Dewsbury parkrun founder)
Ian Ogden (a brave man running in nothing but a vest in freezing conditions)
Gavin Felton (clubmate who organises the winter track races at Dorothy Hyman).

This mobile race spectating actually added a bit of distance to the run and the planned 20 ended up being 23.1 miles of hilly conditioning work.

But the most remarkable thing about this run was that my running partner, Hannah Oldroyd, has never actually run further than 13 miles in training before the last couple of weeks and yet has now completed a 20.5 miles, a 17 miles and now a 23.1 miles in the last 14 days and seems to be recovering well in between.

This has been during a period when she has run her first sub 20:00 5K and then yesterday her first sub 19:00 5K at Huddersfield parkrun. with an 18:55.

This bodes very well for her VLM build up. A week of nothing but steady running now to consolidate though.....

And since she is likely to read this this, I have to add the standard disclaimer that she is still rubbish :)

For some reason, the run seems to have made her head a little heavy:

Next Week:
Week 5 is probably going to be the nearest that I will get to a standard training week, a rare event.

What that means in practise is probably the following:

1. A progressive 10 miler in something like 63-65 minutes.
2. An MLR of 18 miles.
3. Dewsbury parkrun
4 An LSR of 20-22 miles.

Mileage wise, it will be in the 70-90 mile region but if rest days are appropriate at any point this could drop a bit.

Still very happy with overall progress towards VLM :)

VLM 2013 - Week 3 of 14

VLM - Week 3 of 14
Week 3 - (Mon 28/1 - Sun 3/2)

Mon: Rest Day
Tues: 10.0 Miles @ 8:22/mile
Weds: 8.0 Miles incl. Dorothy Hyman Winter 2 Miles Track Race 12:19 (5:59, 6:20)
Thurs: 9.0 Miles @ 8:47/mile
Fri: 10.0 Miles @ 8:12/mile
Sat: 6.0 Miles incl. Dewsbury parkrun  18:58 (5:56,6:01,6:07) (3rd)
Sun: 8.0 Miles incl. Dewsbury 10K 38:12 (19:35,18:37) (6:11,6:18,6:26,5:54,5:54,6:07)

Total Mileage: 51.0 Miles


This was one of those weeks where my legs said 'hang on a minute, we're knackered - cant we have a bit of rest'.

Now they can be lazy little sods at times but on this occassion they were justified in having a bit of a moan after the five 20+ milers in 17 days.

So it was a case of carrying on but being aware that I had to get back on the right side of the overtraining line.


Dorothy Hyman Winter Track 2.0 miles

This was a great example of how cumulative long runs in quick succession can kill speed until the training effect has bedded in.

Setting off with what would normally be a very comfortable first lap of 86 seconds, each subsequent lap then got progressively slower. This was very much a run in slow motion, completely untroubled but no chance of going any quicker.


Thursday Evening 9.0 Miles

This run could have gone either way, the legs could have bounced back and been ready for some more steady miles or, alternatively, could be lifeless and still wanting rest.


Setting off with an outline 18 miler in mind, it was flowing reasonably well for the first 7-8 miles but then treacle rapidly accumulated in the legs such that I couldnt even get to the completion of 10 miles. At 9 miles I had to walk.

This is where experience comes in because I take this as a good sign, meaning that the total training load up to this point is right up at the top end of what I am able to tolerate and, as such, will lead to as much training benefit as possible without breaking down. That is as long as I keep an eye on potentially going into overtraining territory.


Dewsbury parkrun

After last week's cancellation due to dangerous ice and snow, this week Crow Nest Park was back to looking like this:

And conditions were perfect in every way, as evidenced by the fact that 15 runners out of a potential 41 ran PBs, including a resurgent Tom Howard, who has been convinced he was in PB shape for a few weeks and finally got the conditions to prove it, taking another 10 secs off to record 19:13.

My own run of 18:58 was worth around 18:15 on a flat course, which I was more than pleased with because it probably represents comeback PB fitness in terms of cardiovascular capacity. As soon as weight gets back into line with where it was around August/September the comeback PB of 17:25 could well be back in range.

So I had quite a spring in my step after this run, especially being so soon after the mid week treacle treading. :)

This was also the first parkrun out of the four completed in 2013 where I had managed to get round the whole thing with both shoelaces tied throughout. So two fully tied shoelaces on the same day as the fastest time of 2013, I wonder if there could be something in this? I might even try keeping them tied again just to see :)


Dewsbury 10K

For a race that starts at 9am it might be a good idea to wake up before 8:10am. Luckily it was the nearest race of the year, so bacon saved!

Dewsbury is a straight out and back course, with an almost imperceptible incline on the outwards 5K but enough to make the return journey pretty swift, especially today as there was a headwind on the way out.

Going into this race I was thinking that anything beginning with a 37 would keep things well on track for being ready for April. So, considering the wind, I have to be happy enough with only being 12 seconds away, 38:12 (19:35,18:37) - 6:11 6:18, 6:26, 5:54, 5:54, 6:07

This confirmed what I was thinking yesterday, in terms of having a comeback PB engine once the weight comes back into line. It was an untroubled race, with the legs feeling strong and breathing being relaxed but, as would be expected with a number of quick fire long runs, I wasnt able to get the HR up to the levels that will be possible in a few weeks time.

And I spent most of the second half doing battle with Kate Middleton's husband. The bodyguards were very good at being invisible I have to say!

This was at about 9.5K, with me in dark blue. I look so much better in blurred vision :) (I think photographer John Broom blurred it intentionally to be honest):

I'm sure Danny Norman doesnt read this but just in case I would like to point out that very rare beast in the background of this photo - a red postbox in Yorkshire! :p

Taking into account the 10Ks since the downtime, it feels like everything is pretty much on track:

18th Nov: Abbey Dash 41:34
16th Dec: Telford 10K 39:34
3rd Feb: Dewsbury 10K 38:12


Very big performances this morning from:

Dan Holdsworth - 35:21. A new PB by 1:18. I was three minutes in front of Dan at GNR in September, I'm happy to finish before he's packed up and gone home now :P

Tom Williams - Tom signposted a PB on Facebook this morning and then went and delivered, with a first sub 37 clocking of 36:57!



Next Week:

The fixed items this coming week are:

Weds: 10,000m track race at Cudworth - I will be attempting to run this progressively, with each 5 lap block being a bit quicker than the previous 5 laps. But, on a basic level, it will just be an opportunity to string together another block of strong miles on relatively tired legs.

Sat - Dewsbury parkrun

Sun - 20 miles. This will be a gentle run around the course of the Spen 20.

If the legs are feeling up to it I may get another 20 miler in on Monday, just to make the Wednesday evening 10,000 even more challenging.....

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 :)