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Preparation for the 2019 Greater Manchester Marathon

The 2019 Manchester marathon training plan was a continuation of the key principals I have used in 2017 and 2018 with a few tweaks here and there based on what I thought worked well (and vice versa) in 2018 especially. These key components were:

•  The marathon paced effort, in most instances run to a maximum HR (165) which is at the upper limit of my Zone 3. This has been at the core of my marathon training for well over ten years now. I build these up over the course of the weeks before the marathon, beginning with three miles (within a longer run) and building up a mile per session until I reach eight miles at marathon HR (MHR). After 2018 when I inadvertently ran around 13 miles at MHR on a twenty mile run when the Newton’s Fraction HM was cancelled, I used the Leicestershire Half Marathon in February to do much the same. This came when I was up to six miles at MHR, so in March I ran the seven and eight miles at MHR on March 5th and March 20th respectively.

Normally I would leave it there except run three miles at MHR a few days before the marathon. This time though I decided to do a reverse pyramid of sorts, running 7 miles at MHR on Saturday 23rd March then 6 miles on Tuesday 26th,  5 on Thursday 28th, 4 on Saturday 30th and the conventional 3 miles at MHR in a 10 mile run on Tuesday 2nd April. This was something of a high risk strategy as the MHR runs are quite demanding sessions. I think they were of some benefit, they certainly got me used to running at MHR and as they were diminishing in length certainly gave an impression of tapering.

As in previous years the majority of MHR runs were run a fair bit quicker than I anticipated running in the marathon itself – coming in anywhere between 5:45-6:10 minutes a mile. I usually see marathon pace on the day around 10 seconds a mile slower than I averaged during the build up, which tends to make the effort on race day seem less. I guess adrenaline accounts for the reduced pace at the same HR.

Training breakdown 90 days out from the race.

•   The long run (with parkrun thrown in) and the back to back long run. The long run is a staple of any marathon training plan. Mine is no exception except for the past couple of years I’ve tried to incorporate a parkrun somewhere during the run. I kicked off on January 5 with a twenty miler, with the Belton House parkrun (17:35) coming after twelve miles.  On January 19th I ran 22 miles with parkrun (18:16) at 14 miles. The other two Saturdays both had parkruns, one was shorter though at 10 miles due to the Oundle 10K on the Sunday, the other a mere 13.3 miles as I was feeling a bit rubbish.

February saw much of the same. The second saw a twist in that I ran just 2.5 miles before doing parkrun and then 13.5 miles to make it 19 in total. This wasn’t planned, it just happened that it snowed overnight and the paths were mostly too treacherous until it warmed up later in the morning.  I then ran 17 miles the next day. The following weekend I was unwell so did nothing at all. The week was the Leicestershire Half so I didn’t run on the Saturday.

The following weekend (23rd-24th) I ran 21 miles (15 then parkrun (17:23) 3 to end) on the Saturday then ran a further 21 miles on the Sunday at 6:45 pace average. This back to back long run was something I inadvertently did once in 2018 due to bad weather preventing me from cycling and thought it offered significant training benefits so opted in 2019 to repeat the process with a little more regularity and intensity. This meant that the Reliability Rides with Witham Wheelers, which I’ve done for the past four years were sacrificed entirely.

Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd March saw the peak of long run mileage in the 14 week training plan. Saturday was the 24 miler which I’ve done since 2000 as my longest training run, except for the past two miles I’ve done a couple of extra to make it slightly over marathon distance. As in 2018 I ran the Newton’s Fraction HM course, running 21 miles before running Belton House parkrun in 17:51 then heading home to complete 26.4 miles in 2:55:46.

I’ve often used the time it’s taken to run 24 miles in this training run as a very good barometer of what I will clock at the marathon – it’s nearly always been accurate to a minute or two barring bad weather or a hitting of the dreaded wall. In 2018 I went through 24 miles in 2:39:10 (my quickest ever) this time around it was 2:40:10, which was a fair reflection of where I thought my fitness was – which was very good but not quite at 2018 levels, when I think I was in my best shape ever. The following day I ran a training half marathon in 1:29:58 or something like that, pleased that I could run such a distance in a reasonable lick a day after a 26 mile effort.

Thereafter the long run diminished quite rapidly. The following weekend was the Retford Half, the following weekend I opted out of running entirely as I was exhausted working crazy hours for the Australian GP. Two weeks out saw my last long run on the Sunday at 19 miles. That came the day after running seven miles at marathon pace and was so quite fatigued. It also saw some weird back spasm in the upper back in the final miles that didn’t materalise again. The following week, a week out, I ran my conventional final long run of eleven miles.

The stats state that for the ninety days preceding the marathon, I ran nine times over 15.72 miles totaling 182.74 miles in an overall total of 748.34 miles.

•   The vast majority of the other runs were easy paced i.e. Zone 2, most of which ten or so miles in length, many of which on my familiar town loop – clockwise or anticlockwise. The average pace of these was around 7:10 a mile although the ones solo were more likely to be under 7 minutes a mile average and the runs with Grantham Running Club closer to eight minutes per mile, on average.

•   I ran two intervals sessions, which is 200% more than 2018 and double what I ran in 2017. They were both 10×3 minutes with 90 seconds recovery, done on the road outside my house. I don’t really know if they had any benefit. It’s something I may look into doing more of over the summer as there must be some point in doing them?!

•   As in previous years I cross-trained – cycling this time being used almost exclusively – the elliptical trainer saw just one outing when I had a sore calf after the Retford HM. This year was different from recent ones in that I didn’t venture outside once, doing all my cycling on Zwift. The main reason, other than wanting to do more back to back long runs over the weekend, being that I really did suffer far too much in the cold in 2018 especially and indoors on Zwift in the winter is so much more comfortable!

I spent a total of 65 hours 47 minutes on Zwift from January 1st through to the Manchester Marathon. I ran for 92 hours 38 minutes and spent just 2 hours on the elliptical trainer. The volume is similar to what I rode in 2018, the main difference being a lack of long Sunday rides. The majority of the rides were an hour or so in length, most of them relatively easy in effort, although I did push it on the Tour of Watopia and did ride 110 miles over the course of a very long day between F1 testing duties. As well as enjoying the cycling I think it compliments my running very well, especially the low effort rides which are the rough equivalent of recovery runs. Interestingly early indications suggest that the winter of Zwift has left my outdoor cycling legs in very similar, if not slightly better, shape to what they were at the same stage twelve months ago.

My weekly running mileage was similar to 2018. Coincidentally the biggest mileage of any week (82 miles) was the same, albeit in 2019 this was three weeks out from Manchester, in 2018, it came six weeks out from London. Interestingly though in 2018 there was only one other week where I ran over 70 miles (a 79 mile week). In 2019, I ran four other weeks over 70 miles and a further week where I ran 69. In January I ran 309 miles which is only five miles off my record, set in January 2014.

There was though one fallow week with very little mileage. This was due to to a spot of injury after Retford and opting to use Zwift rather than run during the Australian GP weekend. This was a conscious choice I made before the event looking back on previous years where I attempted to work through the Aussie GP weekend and have broken down at some point afterwards.

I don’t think this did me any harm at all.

Training Calendar in the build up to Manchester

All in all I think it was a very successful marathon training preparation, up there with the past couple of years as being the best ever. From an injury point of view it was very good, with just a couple of days lost after Retford with sciatica and an ongoing issue with a sore big left toe that hasn’t hindered my ability to run.

Is there anything I will do differently next time? In an ideal world I would probably want to add some more interval sessions in – something like some mile reps or two mile reps. But I seem to loathe interval sessions and as I run because I enjoy it I am reluctant to do them when I can be doing something that produces a similar benefit and I don’t mind doing (I’m reluctant to say like, as I dread the thought of marathon paced runs beforehand, but once I’m a mile or two in to them I really enjoy them!)

An important thing to note is that, aside from a minimum 24 mile run 4-5 weeks out and the marathon paced efforts over the course of the training, very little of what I do is planned weeks and months in advance. I have a rough idea of what I will do but take things very much on a week by week and day by day basis. I know some will question this but I’m comfortable with it. I much prefer to train according to how I feel right here right now rather than how I think I might or should feel months in advance then get frustrated when reality doesn’t quite pan out that way. Perhaps I may do better sticking to a plan, but things seem to have gone quite well for me in the years when I’ve been a bit more free form!

If you are wondering where I get all this data from. It comes from the very wonderful Fetcheveryone.com

I’ve been using this site since 2006 and all my exercise is recorded there. It has proven invaluable as a source of reference since then, I probably still use it more than Strava as the go to when I am looking back on my training history. Highly recommended!

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Race Report – Retford Half Marathon – Sunday 10th March 2019

The second of two planned half marathons before the Manchester Marathon and the last race before the 26.2 mile jaunt around the streets of Greater Manchester. The intention for this race was to run it as a 90-95% effort – harder certainly than at the Leicestershire Half Marathon which was run at marathon HR, but not absolutely flat out bearing in mind the need to continue marathon training immediately after the race and mindful that there had been no taper before the Retford Race.

There certainly was no taper, indeed the weekend before saw the biggest weekend of training of the year – the Saturday had me up and running at 6:20am to run 21 miles, including the hilly Newton’s Fraction Half Marathon course, completing that just in time to take part in Belton House parkrun, which I managed to complete in 17:54 before running 2 1/3 tough miles to run 26.4 miles in 2:55:46. Then the next day I ran a half marathon training run in just under the 90 minutes, including a 5:58 final mile to ensure I just ducked under that time barrier. The rest of the week was fairly easy running except two days later I had a 10 mile run with 7 miles at marathon pace, which I found hard going and included a weird spell of tightness in the left hip and glute which soon eased off but, in hindsight, was an indicator of  some trouble that lay ahead.

In stark contrast to the year before, winter 2019 training had been relatively mild and dry – the odd bit of short lived snow and the odd cold morning, but nothing too harsh. Arguably the worst weather of the winter / spring actually came on the morning of the Retford Half Marathon, I woke early with the temperatures hovering around freezing and snow threatening. Indeed in surrounding counties snow had apparently fallen and settled, making driving treacherous. Thankfully as I drove up the A1 to Retford the rain occasionally turned to sleet but no snow fell. There had though been an awful lot of rain, which I found when I took on an easy two mile warm up that saw me having to skirt around some very large puddles. Very strong winds were also predicted, although I was mercifully spared these (a moderate to stiff breeze) until an hour or so after I finished.

Arriving extremely early (Over two hours before the 10am start) to ensure that I could utilise the car park right next to the start line and not have to use one some way away, I had plenty of time to kill, so spent plenty of time chatting to a few GRC members, visiting the toilet numerous times and generally killing time. At last the time came to race, I made the very short trip from the sports hall of the school to the start line and waited for the off.

Seven of the eight Grantham Running Club members taking part before the start. Picture c/o Rick Dobbs

It’s  a bit of a weird start at Retford. You run away from the main road for only a matter of 50 meters or so before doing a big U-turn around a roundabout, doubling back on yourself and passing the start / finish line before heading out of the main entrance and taking a left turn to skirt around the edge of Retford town centre. With the tarmac slick it was a little nerve wracking getting around the corner without slipping, but I was safely around and quite soon into my running.

The field was a fairly good quality and I had quite a nice group to run with for the opening miles (the first mile made easier by a tailwind) before it thinned out considerably. The first couple of miles were solid – 5:44 and 5:46. I then had the first twinges of something amiss going on with the left leg. I felt a sharp pain radiate down from the middle of the hamstring down into the calf muscle. It didn’t last long and didn’t particularly slow me but it was unnerving. It happened again a few minutes later and proceeded to do so every few minutes or so for the entirety of the race. I was pretty sure it was a sciatica like issue so tried my best to ignore it and focus on the running.

Mile 3 slowed a touch to 5:48 and I went through 5K in just under 18 minutes. We were running along the old Great North Road, which was pretty straight, just about a neutral side wind and pretty flat aside from a bridge over the mainline railway. The weather took a turn for the worse with cold rain beginning to fall. I persisted wearing the sunglasses as I do tend to suffer with streaming eyes on cold, breezy, mornings, but I did get the odd comment here and there from spectators questioning whether they were needed.

More troubling was that the cold rain and wind with temperatures only around 3°C was that I was beginning to get cold. The upper half wasn’t too bad as I had opted to run with a thermal headband, thermal base layer and short sleeved club top. I was wearing my usual Skins compression cycling length shorts (Bought specifically for such weather after suffering badly at the Newton’s Fraction in 2017) and thick calf compression guards, but this wasn’t enough for the quads especially to start icing up. 

Miles 4 and 5 remained  consistent – 5:51 and 5:49. Up to now we had been running on good quality A roads. Indeed what I took from the race afterwards was how high grade the roads were and what good value the race was at £18 to have such roads mostly closed to traffic. The sixth mile saw us literally take a turn for worse – a sharp left into a narrow country lane just before we reached Toworth. As they had warned us before the start the heavy overnight rainfall had left a section of the course flooded and it was here where we were faced with a stretch of around 100 meters around a corner where we were faced with the choice of either running through ankle deep water or risk ankles and limbs on the grass verge beside the road.

The runner ahead of me opted for the grass. Seeing him struggle I opted for the flooded road after just a few strides myself on the grass. This proved to be quicker as I caught him and soon past him, but it did leave me with soaking wet trainers. The sixth mile was a touch slower at 5:53, the undulating seventh mile was a fraction slower again at 5:54. This part of the course had us back on an A road and featured a dead turn at seven miles where we would head back and past runners coming in the opposite direction for mile 8. It was here at some point I spotted the rapidly improving GRC runner Ian Williams who was running his first half marathon in a couple of years and looking to significantly improve on his 85 minute debut. I did some mental maths and reckoned he was on for something around five minutes faster, which is what we had estimated beforehand.

Going through the 8 mile marker in 5:50 the ninth mile was mostly downhill and was a touch quicker at 5:48. Having enjoyed a mile of watching runners head in the opposite direction I was now running alone, with pretty much no-one as far as the eye could see in front of me and no-one directly behind either. By now I was not feeling great. The cold, wet conditions, the cold my daughter had passed on to me and probably the mileage in the week before was beginning to take its toll – mentally perhaps more than physically.

Mile 10 had us briefly back on the old Great North road before heading right onto the Old London Road. This proved to be a tough old slog. There was a steepish ascent up and over a railway bridge which was followed by a very gentle climb that went on for the best part of two miles. Not being able to push on the pace slowed a touch – 5:58 for mile 10 and 6:08 for mile 11 before the twelfth mile saw me rally slightly with a 5:52, thanks wholly to the last third of a mile being significantly downhill and aided considerably by the westerly wind blowing directly on my back.

This wind and the descent was so much of a help I the pace was under 5:30 for the a fair chunk of the final mile, before it took a hit with the little steep rise I had rehearsed during my warm up. Just as in my warm up we had to run on the pavement here as the busy A road had not been closed to traffic. This wouldn’t have been an issue were it not for a number of pedestrians and their dogs going for a leisurely stroll, most oblivious to the race taking pace, making for some hairy dodging as I tried to maintain the pace to the finish line.

Battling to the finish line. Picture c/o Rick Dobbs

With a 5:44 final mile I sprinted as best I could back to the Academy and the finish line, clocking 1:16:56. Although I would have liked to have gone a bit quicker I was content with this considering how cold, wet, and somewhat miserable I was during the race, with the added hindrance of the leg pains shooting from hamstring to calf. Half marathons in the middle of marathon training are often curious affairs. They can often prove to be the fastest of the year thanks to the mileage volume in the legs or the hardest, sometimes the slowest, thanks to the mileage volume in the legs.

Straight after the finish I headed back to the Academy entrance to see Ian come home in 1:20:41, I hung around a bit longer to see Tony, Holly, Joss and Sam finish before I opted to retire to the gymnasium to warm up and prepare for a warm down. Thanks to some efficient production of results on a notice board I found out I had finished sixteenth, and I had come second in the V40 category, again things I should be pretty pleased with really.

The warm down however turned into something of a disaster! Feeling the left calf tighten, I stopped to perform a hamstring stretch which saw the whole leg tighten enormously with pains shooting down the leg. I then proceeded to hobble the remainder of the mile in over nine minutes before making it back to the car. Thankfully after a lot of massage in the next few days I was able to start running on the Wednesday, although I only ran once more on the Friday – this being more due to working crazy hours for the Australian Grand Prix!

 

 

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Race Report – Leicestershire Half Marathon – Sunday 17th February 2019

The second race of 2019 was the first of two planned half marathons I’d booked ahead of the Manchester Marathon. They were both rounds of the GRC GP Series, but this race I had always earmarked as the one where I would run the vast majority at my planned marathon heart rate. Therefore I went into the race with low expectations on time and finishing position. Those were even lower in the days leading up to the race when, after a month of solid training, I was struck down with a short flu like illness the weekend before which had me not running for the best part of five days and on my return feeling distinctly sub-par to the extent that I bailed on the Thursday night club run at seven miles when running at 8:12 pace proved too challenging.

I’d not run the first edition of the Leicestershire Half Marathon. I’d heard mixed reviews regarding the course (and the wind especially) but was willing to give it a try. Taking place at Prestwold Hall near Loughborough, the race makes full use of the racing / test circuit on the grounds that ensures traffic-free roads for much of the race. Thankfully to break the monotony the race does break free from the grounds to run on regular roads (And a farmers’ track!) for the middle third of the race before returning to the grounds for the final third. As I’ve run most of the Formula One circuits many times in my previous lifetime as an F1 jet-setter I am well used to running on wide open circuits which to some are pretty boring, but for me will always be something of a thrill – even if this circuit has little in the way of heritage.

Having arrived over two hours before the start and having made myself familiar with the start, I performed a wholly unremarkable two mile warm up on part of the circuit. Conditions were set fair for the race, sunny and pleasant for racing at around 8C. Only a breeze, stiff in places, would hinder progress although, it should be said, it was nothing compared to what I had faced at Oundle a few weeks earlier. After the calamity of the Nike Free’s laces coming undone in that 10K race I was back in my trusted Hoka Cliftons, albeit in a new pair of Clifton 4s that I had only run in a couple of times before and, if all went, well would be reserved as a race pair rather than doubling up for training runs.

I lined up a couple of rows back from the start, keen not to get swept up in the melee from the gun. Having heard that the favourite for the race had run 66 minutes a week earlier in Spain I knew this wasn’t ever going to be a race I was in contention of winning but my mind was purely set on seeing how quick I could go with the restriction of running at my marathon heart rate limits.

The start, outside Prestwold Hall itself, is a curious affair on fairly deep gravel, with a couple of tight turns before heading on a tree lined road that takes you out to the main entrance. I think I was probably just inside the top twenty at this point, spending more time checking the heart rate on the watch than who was around me. We briefly left the grounds and ran on a closed public road for a few hundred meters before returning to the grounds alongside the disused air strip that had been turned into our car park for the race.

The opening mile was pleasing at 6:04 considering I’d been able to keep the HR well below my limits and it had featured a short climb. I felt a little stiff but with certainly none of the ill effects of being unwell the weekend before. The second mile saw a 5:56 and the heart rate creep up to the maximum of 165 bpm. With my old Garmin watches I’d always turned off the HR alerts as I found them intensely annoying beeping constantly the moment you exceed the limit until you returned to normality. The 935 (and I imagine many of the other similar more recent models) does it a little differently in that it appears to give 20-30 seconds grace when a HR limit is exceeded before beeping and vibrating once with a warning showing you what your heart rate currently is before returning to the usual screen and only beeping again 30 seconds or so later if the HR is still high. This for me was quite tolerable and beneficial in that I didn’t have to be spending quite so much time staring at my watch checking I hadn’t veered into the red.

Somewhere along the course!

From miles 3-11 it was a case of running as close to but trying not to exceed 165 bpm. It felt quite weird that I was paying no attention to who I was racing around me. If I caught someone but the alarm went off I slowed until the HR recovered and I resumed racing. Without even realising it I had passed quite a few runners but had no real idea where I was in the race as the field was pretty spread out. I enjoyed the route on the racing circuit, even if the route was a little convoluted at times. As we were changing direction fairly frequently we weren’t exposed to the headwind for too long a period, which helped keep the pace fairly consistent. Miles two to five were 5:56, 5:54, 5:55, and 5:57.

The fifth mile was partly along the aforementioned farmers’ track. Rough and uneven it was thankfully dry and compact – it would have been really tricky had it been wet and muddy. We left the grounds for the run down to Wymeswold and then up to Hoton and back to Prestwold. This was enjoyable enough, mile six (6:03) was one of the slowest of the race as it featured a climb and I was forced to slow when the HR crept up. With that inconvenience out of the way it was back to pleasingly swift sub six miles – 5:56, 5:55, and 5:58 for miles six through to nine. At around eight miles we were back at Prestold Hall being taken once again on a magical mystery tour of the multi faceted venue, passing an HGV driving school, and a solar panel farm frequented by sheltering sheep before returning to the race track we had run on earlier in the race.

Mile 10 at 6:10 was the slowest of the race, purely because most of the mile had been run into the headwind. I was helped here a touch by catching another runner who I was able to shelter behind before pulling clear as best I could when we turned a corner and was free from the headwind. Mile 11 was back to sub six with a 5:55, then 5:50 for mile 12 as I caught and passed another runner.

The final mile I decided to abandon the HR limits and run as hard as I could. The reasoning twofold – firstly to simulate the final 10K of a marathon where I also abandon HR limits and secondly because my watch had me coming in just outside 78 minutes and I decided sub 78 sounded a whole lot nicer. With the extra few beats of power available I powered to a 5:40 final mile and a 5:06 final burst to the finish line (Which was hard work on the gravel!). The finishing time: 1:17:44. Finishing position – no idea!

Crossing the finish line sub 1:18!

Aside from a smarting big left toe (Which all but seized up when I got home – turned out to be a problem with the shin) the run had gone far better than expected, and with all but the final mile at marathon HR was most encouraging for Manchester in six or seven weeks time. I sensed that I felt pretty comfortable for the entire race and that something at that pace was potentially feasible for the full 26.2 miles.

With the marathon in mind I went on an extended 5 mile warm down to make it 20 miles for the day. I ran some of the course again catching up with some of the GRC contingency who were taking part and still running. I felt comfortable right until the final half mile when I felt compelled to take on one of the peanut butter gels they handed out at the finish and, as I tried to prise the peanut butter from the roof of my mouth for several minutes after, soon realised why peanut butter gels hasn’t really caught on as a concept.

With the warm down done I headed back to race venue to see the last of the GRC runners in. It was there I was informed that I had wound up finishing eighth overall and first V40 runner! I genuinely had no idea I had placed so highly and was pretty chuffed with myself, especially as I hadn’t focused on the race element at all.

With eight of the GRC crew outside Prestwold Hall after the race.

I had missed the prize giving, or maybe it didn’t happen. The prize was a little underwhelming – free entry to the 10K race taking place at the same venue in October. I’m half tempted – some really didn’t like the course at all but I enjoyed it and would consider racing there again. As for here and now though it was back to the training and looking ahead to the next race.

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Race Report – Oundle New Year 10K – Sunday 13th January 2019

GRC runners at the Oundle 10K.

Up until early December 2018 I was very much under the impression that I would be taking part in the 2019 London Marathon, courtesy of the championship place I earned with my 2017 qualifying time. I was going through the process of entering and making double checks when it dawned on me that the same weekend as London featured the F1 Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix, which meant I would be working and there would be no London Marathon for me in 2019. Alternatives were looking thin on the ground, thankfully Manchester on Sunday April 7th was a date free in the diary and so, at great cost, it was entered.

The downside to running Manchester, aside from not being able to run London, was that being three weeks earlier than London it meant that my usual Christmas  and New Year wind down on running which stretched to late January was not going to be a thing in 2019 – which was a pity as I was crying out for a good rest after the Keyworth Turkey Trot! The week following the Trot I was running a marathon in training (2:56 – for no real reason other than I could) in the fen lands of Langrick and Coningsby, the day after finishing first at Boston parkrun. I did at least have a quiet week of running the week before Christmas, doing quite a bit on Zwift instead. Christmas Day I had off before running 17 miles on Boxing Day.

The post Christmas family visits cut the mileage – Minehead parkrun saw me pull off a surprising first place given I was outside the top five at halfway – it also saw a bout of the killer leg cramps which I’ve barely suffered all year, they did again the following day before a pleasant enough last run of the year in Stroud (After an abductor scare) which had me knocking out some sub 6 miles for fun.  And so the first week of January, where I’d normally be running at most 11 miles in one go, had me running 20 miles (with a 17:35 parkrun in the middle) on the first Saturday, in addition to loads of Zwift in a 56 mile opening week.

The following weekend was the Oundle New Year 10K, which was to be my first race of the year and the opening race of the 2019 Grantham Running Club Grand Prix Series. I was the 2018 Champion and so wanted to defend my crown with a good start to the year. It was the first time the Oundle 10K had been hosted but a 20 mile race there the previous March had been well received and I was optimistic of a good event. What I wasn’t doing though was treating it a priority event – I’d run 10 miles the day before including Belton House parkrun at marathon pace. The legs felt okay, I did though have ongoing issues with my left big toe, which would be troublesome for much of the opening quarter of the year (And still continues to be a nuisance).

I think I was the first competitor to arrive in Oundle, although a few others soon followed. Mindful that I was in marathon training I planned to run a longer warm up than usual. As the race was a two lap affair I opted to run a lap of the course, which would give me a chance to see what was on offer. The positives was that it was the type of course I enjoy – mildly undulating with just a couple of short, relatively stiff ascents followed by long slightly downhill stretches. The immediately obvious spanner in the works was that for around a mile we were to have a full on, near gale force headwind on a totally exposed country road, which was also slightly uphill. The real bummer was that as the course was triangular in shape, at no point did we enjoy the full effect of the wind on our backs – at best it was a rear crosswind. The wind was also strengthening all the time, it would be significantly more blowy come the opening lap of the race and even worse on the second!

The start of the race at least was fairly kind, slightly downhill for the opening half mile before a rise and a left turn into the headwind. I soon settled in fourth place – the leader and one other runner pulled out quite a gap, I soon closed in on the third placed runner with club mate Ian Williams a few seconds behind me in fifth. The opening mile was clocked at 5:43, things slowed dramatically as we hit the headwind. Sitting in the third placed runner’s slipstream, I felt the pace slow, I moved ahead and picked the effort up a touch. Feeling the full force of the wind I was unable to pull clear. To try and shake the guy from my slipstream I drifted slowly from one side of the road to the other. Somewhat surprisingly he didn’t follow me but stuck resolutely to the inside of the road. Still unable to pull clear and aware that I was wasting energy,  I then slowed up and went back into his slipstream, hoping he would help take the pace.

I later found out (Because he sought me down on Facebook and messaged me!) that he was a bit irked by my tactics. I had no qualms in doing what I did. Quick times had already long gone out of the window. We were fighting for third place and I was using standard tactics to try and get him to help with the work and to minimise my exposure to the wind.

Anyway, after sitting in and taking a breather in his slipstream for a short while, I sensed again that he was slowing the pace (which is all quite legitimate, or it may just have been getting a greater than usual benefit from tucking in behind someone). I also had club mate Ian closing and so I decided to put in a real surge to pull ahead and clear of both Ian and the fourth placed runner, so they couldn’t benefit from my draft. My tactic worked, although the exuberant acceleration probably didn’t help in the long term. We had a couple more minutes of running into the wind, where I was able to eke out a few more seconds.

Mercifully after an interminably long time we turned left and dropped downhill with a crosswind to neither aid nor hinder us. This quicker section saw the mile two split come in at a semi-reasonable 6:06 – the reality was that it had been much slower for much of the mile. The third mile (5:42) was a more standard affair as we headed back into Oundle and turned left again back towards the start.  I pulled a few more seconds clear of Ian who had moved into fourth place and was beginning to close in on the second placed runner who looked like he was beginning to labour as we passed halfway.

I was running fairly strongly but had an issue with the right Nike Free I was wearing in that the laces were coming undone! By 6K they were near completely untied and although the shoe wasn’t going to come off it was moving around a lot and was not particularly comfortable, especially with the laces slapping against my legs. I did though at this point pass the second placed runner – a mobile phone being held in his hands gave a clue that this was a fairly novice runner with plenty of talent but lacking in race experience. The fourth mile saw the best of any help from the wind and being slightly downhill was the quickest of the race in 5:33.

Mile five was arguably one of the hardest I have ever raced! Back into the headwind at the top of the triangle, trying to pull clear of the two runners behind me, the wind was relentless and I think the strongest I have ever faced in a race. Giving it absolutely everything (more effort than running 5:30 pace) at one point it slowed us to slower than seven minute miles. There was nothing that could be done except dig in and work to the corner where I knew there would be respite.

Once at the corner I knew I couldn’t finish with my trainer undone in its current state without a risk of injury. While running I took off my gloves and tucked them into my shorts, choosing to come to a stop at the bottom of the hill where I could come off the road and onto a path. The stop to retie the laces was quite quick considering it came while I was second in a race and the rapidly beating heart rate with adrenaline coursing through the body. Ian came past me and offered me encouragement as he went by, thinking that I had an injury rather than a mechanical mishap.

Refreshed after the impromptu stop and feeling much happier with a trainer firmly attached to my foot, I recommenced running and very quickly closed down the three seconds or so to Ian. As we approached a bit of an uphill drag I wasted no time passing him and attempting to break clear. This I did, but he never dropped back more than a handful of seconds. This was the first time since I suffered stitch in the Summer Solstice 10K a few years back that I had come under pressure from a fellow GRC runner in a race. On the one hand it was great because I want the depth of the club to grow, on the other I was keen to still beat Ian and also to retain second place!

This I just about managed to do. Having run 6:27 in the mostly wind affected fifth mile, I picked up the pace to 5:46 for the sixth mile and 5:16 for the closing few hundred yards. The time of 36:42 was my slowest since the 2015 Langtoft 10K-  which I didn’t race properly having paced others to halfway. I felt as though it was a bit of a rusty January opener but knew the time was not indicative of the form I was in. It was when I looked at the results and saw that the winner John Uff clocked 35:13 yet had run a full two minutes quicker at the Telford 10K in December that the true effect of the wind was apparent and that Ian Williams’ 36:48 PB was a sign of a runner who could, and would, run much quicker in 2019.

With GRC second and third (the first double podium finish for the club) and Joaquim ‘Flash’ Jeronimo eleventh it was a double trophy to collect as winners of the team prize as well as second overall (I couldn’t claim the V40 prize too, alas). We missed most the prize giving as we had just gone on a cool down, luckily we were there to collect the team prize.

The GRC Men’s Winning team (L to R): Ian, Me, Flash.

With the trophies handed out and marathon training in mind I went and did another three miles cool down to bring the mileage for the week up to 66.  This time I ran a clockwise lap of the course we had raced on. My conclusion, having been blown along the windy section at sub 7 minute miles with almost literally no effort was that it would have been a much quicker race had we been able to run it the other way round!

A weird race this – I should have been delighted with second. I didn’t run badly, yet the result seems a little underwhelming, perhaps the slow time (Which didn’t help my GP Series), perhaps the mechanical with the shoe. Perhaps it was just a fairly low-key race in early January and nothing to get overly excited about. I will remember the race more for the wind than anything else – I hope it will never be that windy in a race again!

 

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Race Report – Keyworth Turkey Trot – Sunday 9th December 2018

There’s not many Christmas themed races that you can stake claim to having taken part in twice in one year, but the Keyworth Turkey Trot Half Marathon is one such race that I and, I assume plenty of others, can claim to have done in 2018. The 2017 race was postponed to February due to snow/threat of snow in the region and I took part in the rescheduled event, finishing 6th overall in 1:18:06 and recipient of a hamper for my efforts.

I went into the 2018 proper version of the race feeling distinctly jaded and glad it was to be my final event of the year. With that said I didn’t make a bad start to the race, with opening miles of 5:42, 5:41 and 5:54 before hitting the first big climb of the race which saw me drop to a 6:04 before recovering with a pleasant 5:36 on a quick section of the race.

The first mile of the race. The most people I’d see in a while. Picture c/o John Oldfield.

The race, for me, was a fairly dull affair. I never found myself in a group, for the most part running alone, never being passed by another runner and the only interaction with other competitors when I passed the occasional athlete who was beginning to struggle. I made a point of trying to stick to around 5:50 miles which I was able to do until the second wave of stiff climbs at mile 11 on a constantly undulating course, which saw the pace dip to 6:14, then 6:08 for mile 12.

I did though catch a couple of younger runners at this point. My presence seemed to spur them into life for they drifted away again on the downhill drop back into Keyworth before I closed in on them again on the deceptively tough last half or mile or so back to the school and the finish line. Alas any hopes of picking off a couple of young scalps receded quickly as they both put in  a sprint finish I had no hope of  matching and didn’t really attempt. It was the end of the year, I wasn’t fighting for a place or a prize and I was pretty jaded.

Coming into the final mile of the final race of the year. Picture c/o John Oldfield.

I crossed the line annoyingly just outside the top ten (11th – I did have something to fight for). The time was 1:17:27, just under 40 seconds quicker than I ran in February and the second fastest trot for me. Maybe it was another underwhelming post race memento (Magnetic race pins – soon lost) or the instant realisation I’d not won a turkey (third V40) but I felt very little emotion after the race other than I was glad it was the last of the year. I could have done with a month’s rest or so but, alas, as I was now down to be running the Manchester Marathon (April 7th) rather than the London Marathon (April 28th), downtime was going to be minimal before the whole process began again.

With some of the GRC Gang.

Postscript!

Thanks to a lovely kind gesture by GRC champion of age grade Julie we did have a Keyworth turkey for Christmas dinner! She had won the V65 category but had already planned on something else for Christmas dinner. So it was that a week or so later a trade was made and I had turkey!