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Day 84–The Long One Done–Eventually

The 24 mile run has been, for the past nine years or so, my longest pre-marathon training run. Back in Coventry I had a four lap loop of around six miles that I ran in alternate clockwise, anticlockwise directions. Sounds boring, but I liked it for some reason, not least of which because I was able to call home should anything untoward occur.

Last year I was with my brother for the 24 miler. Actually I should have completed the 24 mile run a week earlier over Easter in Boston, but a combination of injuries and a vicious headwind meant I could only muster 22 miles. A week later at my brother’s house and injuries still putting major doubts on my ability to run, we concocted a three pronged route of eight or so miles per on different out and back loops. Although I remember being able to pick the pace up a bit in the final miles, it was by no means the swiftest run I’ve ever done – taking three hours ten minutes to cover the 24.29 miles at an average pace of 7:49 per mile.

This year and the 24 mile run was scheduled for yesterday (Sunday), a week earlier than I would have liked, but work has dictated this is my last weekend I can guarantee fitting in a long run. As chance would have it my brother and his family was at my home this year, although he would not be running with me. And as it transpired, nor would I. The cold that came on late Friday, really kicked in after my short run on Saturday. The legs felt like jelly, the head like it was going to explode. I went through the motions of running as planned on the Sunday, forsaking the Indian meal for something more gastronomically more suitable for a long run, but by around 8pm I knew a run was very unlikely and tucked into a glass or three of champagne and other (nicer) varieties of sparkling wine.

Sunday was indeed a write-off. Heading out for a morning walk to the park with the kids in tow on a glorious spring day, I felt like I could run 2-3 miles max. I improved a little during the day, but ultimately felt comfortable, but frustrated, in my decision not to run.

Fortunately I had Monday as an alternate date for the 24 mile run. I woke a little groggy and stiff, but much better than I felt a day earlier. After a quick breakfast and some pfaffing I was ready to head out. A 24 mile run had been mapped out and I was heading out with the old faithful Garmin 305, the new 910XT stubbornly refusing to accept the course thanks to some continued issues with the Garmin Connect site.

Where yesterday was wall to wall blue skies and temperatures in the high teens, this morning was cloudy, with a cold breeze and temperatures struggling to reach double digits. Whilst this would make the run easier and more comfortable, it was again a bit frustrating as a warm weather run would have been good preparation should race day turn out to be a scorcher. Chilly and stiff, the first couple of miles were fairly torrid. I briefly wondered whether I should continue. Thankfully the legs improved a bit and I pushed on, the biggest limiter being the headwind I was running into for much of the first half of the run.

The biggest challenge in the opening half of the run was the hill on the approach to Hough on the Hill. The legs felt dreadful going up. As seems to happen though the agony of the climb appeared to kick start the body, as the next mile was the first to dip under seven minutes. After a long descent there was a string of flat to gently rolling miles I’ve not run on before which passed by fairly quickly, all run around or just under seven minutes per mile. I felt better than I did at the start of the run but not feeling fantastic. It was as though the body was going through the motions rather than actively engaging in the run. Apart from the general feeling of malaise, the only issue was a niggling left hip, the source of pain from which could be coming from any of the usual suspects – back, IT band, hamstrings quads etc..

At sixteen miles I joined a brief bridleway that led to a quiet lane which I ran back last October when I ran a breakthrough long run, in biblically wet conditions, at an average of under 6:40 per mile. I wasn’t running at that pace but at least I was feeling fairly comfortable and the dry conditions were far nicer than the torrential downpour I encountered that Saturday afternoon.

Not long after passing through Foston, I had the A1 to cross. This motorway in all but name is not the sort of road you want to put all your faith in weary legs that have covered 18 miles, but that’s what I had to do, as a safe gap in the traffic is hard to find. That hazard successfully tackled and it was back on with the run. By and large the run was 90% traffic free, a real boon of running in this area. On this road off the A1 I was passed by the largest motorhome I’ve ever seen, one so big it made the BMW X5 it was towing behind look like a Smart car. Thankfully there was nothing coming the other way so it was able to pass relatively safely.

These distractions were putting off the inevitable sting in this long run’s tail. At 21 miles, after crossing the A1 again – this time more comfortably thanks to a bridge – there was the small matter of Newark Hill to tackle. At three quarters of a mile long and averaging nearly six per cent it is something of a challenge in a car let alone running up it. I found a pace and stuck at it, thankfully this proved quite successful, except for some problems at the lower end of the left IT band which made my running stride feel quite unusual.

The hill tackled it was a couple of miles back to home. After the descent from Great Gonerby, which was nearly as painful on the quads as the ascent, I was pleased that the final mile, mostly flat, was the quickest mile of the run. It wasn’t blistering and nowhere near what I want to be running in the marathon, but it showed there was still some energy still in the body. When the run finished the inevitable coughing fit ensued, 24 miles taking its toll on lungs full of cold.

At 2h50min the run is hopefully somewhat longer in terms of time than I will run in just under five weeks time. Hopefully I will have better health and be free of the niggles in the left leg. As it is it was the second quickest 24 mile training run I’ve done, the 2010 edition was slightly quicker. Back then I was in half marathon PB shape and was in good health for the run. That today’s run was only marginally slower and I was only feeling around 60% should bode well.

Split Summary
===
1) 1m – 7:45(7:45/m) 128/136bpm 124cal
2) 1m – 7:34(7:34/m) 136/142bpm 124cal
3) 1m – 7:16(7:16/m) 143/151bpm 124cal
4) 1m – 7:15(7:15/m) 141/148bpm 124cal
5) 1m – 7:15(7:15/m) 142/149bpm 124cal
6) 1m – 7:18(7:18/m) 143/147bpm 121cal
7) 1m – 7:26(7:26/m) 147/161bpm 126cal
8) 1m – 6:59(6:59/m) 141/148bpm 123cal
9) 1m – 6:48(6:48/m) 137/141bpm 125cal
10) 1m – 6:59(6:59/m) 142/144bpm 123cal
11) 1m – 6:59(6:59/m) 141/145bpm 125cal
12) 1m – 6:59(6:59/m) 143/146bpm 124cal
13) 1m – 6:54(6:54/m) 142/147bpm 124cal
14) 1m – 7:01(7:01/m) 143/147bpm 124cal
15) 1m – 6:49(6:49/m) 141/147bpm 124cal
16) 1m – 6:55(6:55/m) 143/148bpm 126cal
17) 1m – 7:02(7:02/m) 141/145bpm 121cal
18) 1m – 7:00(7:00/m) 142/146bpm 124cal
19) 1m – 7:06(7:06/m) 143/151bpm 125cal
20) 1m – 6:59(6:59/m) 142/145bpm 124cal
21) 1m – 7:03(7:03/m) 145/150bpm 122cal
22) 1m – 7:19(7:19/m) 148/158bpm 123cal
23) 1m – 6:59(6:59/m) 147/157bpm 122cal
24) 1m – 6:38(6:38/m) 147/153bpm 124cal
25) 0.07m – 30(6:46/m) 151/152bpm 9cal

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Day 76–Very Cold, Very Wet, Very Windy

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I was almost euphorically eulogising the joys of running. Cool but spring like conditions, fresh legs, good pace, no aches: bliss. Today whilst covering the final day of F1 testing, I watched the weather slowly deteriorate from blue skies and a breeze to heavy cloud and strong winds. Results from the morning’s half marathons and other races began to filter through – the wind was generally wreaking havoc with people’s racing ambitions.

I finally finished work at 5:30pm and headed out for a planned long run – the intent to run between 16-18 miles. Almost within seconds of leaving the house the first drops of rain of the day began to fall. Within a mile the rain was falling steadily and I’d turned into a fierce head wind. With light fading I just about made it to Barrowby (the only unlit section of the run) before total darkness. By now the I was running at or just below seven minute miles when the wind was behind me or a cross wind. I’d tentative plans of running the second half of the run at a quick pace, but the depressing weather put pay to those intentions – today was about getting around in one piece and knocking out the miles.

I ran around the houses and in extravagant loops to make up the distance By twelve miles the rain was hammering down and I was chilled to the bone. My left hamstring was tight and that was sending aches to the knee and the hip. The worst thing about the run was that I was only ever around two miles away from being home – the temptation to call it quits was great as I slowly began to lose feeling in my cheeks and fingers.

At just over 17 miles and with the rain turning into something approaching hail, I sacrificed the 0.8 mile I’d intended to run and called it a day, rushing into my home as quickly as possible. Totally soaked and fairly miserable, that was one of those runs that in the long run will mentally make me stronger and will help in the grand scheme of things fitness wise, but will not rank highly in my list of favourite runs.

A bit wet after my long run
A bit wet after my long run
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Day 69–A Little Frustration But Pleased With The Run

I set out for the run a little later than planned, watching the bobsleigh on TV and reading about the controversy over in America with Nike/USADA disqualifying a Brooks athlete in the ladies 3000m in frankly ridiculous circumstances. If I moaned a couple of days ago about short track speed skating not having an appeal process and some baffling decisions, then athletics took it to a new level with Alberto Salazar appealing the appeal of an appeal and eventually getting his way when some Nike people had a closed door meeting with USADA officials.

I thought briefly about burning my seven or so pairs of Nike trainers in protest, but thought the better of it for when push comes to shove, for my feet anyway, they make the best trainers on the market. I just wish they didn’t, allegedly, have such a questionable influence on the outcome of elite sport.

With that injustice out of the way I drove out to Somerby to follow a route known as the Old Somerby 19  based on a Strava upload from a club mate which I downloaded and eventually managed to get it uploaded to my watch (a process that took way longer than it should have). As the title of the run suggests it was 19 miles and I wanted to run something closer to 22 miles, so I began the run with a loop of Somerby, stopping to return to the car and discarding the gloves which, despite the strong wind, were not necessary as the temperature was a balmy 12C.

The first mile was 7:09, which is quick for me for an opening mile. The second was 6:42, then 6:43, and the fourth in 6:28. Regardless of whether the wind was helping me this was swift stuff so early in a run. It was reminiscent of an 18 mile run I did back in October when, similarly to today, I hit 6:38 after the second mile and was pretty much able to hold that fairly comfortably for the rest of the run. The next four miles confirmed I was in that kind of form: 6:37; 6:23; 6:39; and 6:37.

Then things briefly went awry. My Garmin 910XT has a known issue where, when following a course, it is horribly prone to repeatedly telling me I am off course and then back on course (When I never left the course in the first place), delays in refreshing the course line and, worse still, random power offs. Ever since that happened mid run last November I now make a point of checking the watch frequently to the point of paranoia. That was justified today as somewhere around 8.2 miles the unit powered off randomly. It turned back on, took a while to find satellites and I continued running, but something wasn’t right – the distance didn’t appear to be increasing and the route I was taking on the course map bared little relation to what I was actually running.

I made the decision to stop and stop the following of the course. This had the effect of resetting the mileage and elapsed time to zero, something it doesn’t usually do. I powered the watch off and on again, was relieved to see at least my run was stored in the history rather than disappearing into the ether, and recommenced the run. It was ultimately no more than an annoyance, but for flagship watch it is unacceptable and Garmin will be receiving a phone call in the morning. At the end of the day my old 305 could handle courses near perfectly and this more expensive watch handles them badly to the point of it being nearly broken.

The rest of the run went fairly quickly as my mind mulled over exactly what I would be saying to Garmin in the morning. There were a few tough miles when I turned to face the head wind, which almost at times had me stopping in my tracks. By and large though the pace was relatively consistent and the legs remained good, albeit with a little tiring in the closing legs, which is only to be expected. At 7.6 miles on the new run the watch powered itself off again. I kept cool, gave it a few seconds and turned the watch back on. This time I was able to recommence without having to create a third leg to this long run.

As I returned to Somerby the watch was showing around 12.5 miles on the second leg of the run. The maths wasn’t too great at this point of the run, but I reckoned I should do another lap of Somerby to ensure the run was over twenty miles and hopefully nearer 22. It ended at 13.3 (Half marathon completed in 1:28) which mean a total of 21.7 miles, both segments averaging 6:41. The pace was unarguably consistent

This also meant a new record mileage week of 86.5 miles, which came as something of a unplanned surprise. There were very few quick miles as I spent most of the week recovering from Stamford, but today’s run left me in no doubt that things are coming together very nicely – as long as I stay fit and healthy!

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Day 66–Long and Slow

Another early start and a full 12 hours sat mostly at the desk. I was finished though in time to do my regular long, slow, Thursday club run. I was though really tired after only around 4 hours sleep. Strangely though when I was running I didn’t feel too bad; it was when I stopped I felt insanely tired.

First off it was 3.5 pre miles before heading off to the club, rather tragically choosing a hill to run up purely to create a segment for Strava later in the evening. There was a good turnout at the club, many of whom had run at Stamford on Sunday. This meant that there were still plenty of tired legs and quick running was not on the agenda.

I was happy with that. Totalling 16 1/2 miles, nearly all ran at a really easy pace, save for one stretch where I just let the legs tick over for a bit. There was few problems, the right groin a bit sore late in the run, otherwise fine. Once I stopped though the legs certainly stiffened up. Hopefully there’ll be a good night’s sleep before another early start. Looking forward to Sunday and a lie-in!

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Day 48–Following A Black Line

I wanted to try a new route for my long run this morning, so last night I went to Garmin Connect and went about plotting a route. After a couple of attempts I settled on a 22 mile course that took me southwest of Grantham utilising roads I’ve mostly not been on before.

This morning and after initially thinking I’d have to endure a 6:30am start it was decided the best way to utilise the day with work and stuff was for me to head out when the baby was having her morning nap. So at 11 and after two attempts to upload my course to the Garmin I headed out.

Within a few minutes of running it was apparent I was somewhat dehydrated, a nagging feeling of thirst that peaked around eight miles into the run before subsiding somewhat, only to return in the closing stages. Too late to return I carried on, legs pretty stiff for the first few miles, especially as the route was upwards for much of the first three miles.

Like yesterday it was a gloriously sunny day with only a few clouds in the sky. But also like yesterday it was windy – perhaps windier than yesterday and it was going to be a headwind for the opening half of the run. On rolling roads with the odd short sharp undulation it was a case of digging in as best I could as the wind battered me relentlessly on the exposed roads surrounded by farmland. At least the roads were quiet, the occasional car and groups of cyclists the only company.

At halfway I reached Sproxton and with a sharp left I was faced with a stiff climb and the stiff wind now blowing behind me. Once I hit the top of the hill I began to fly; the miles that were outside seven minutes in the first half of the run were now comfortably under seven minutes and edging closer to 06:30. After a couple of miles that were gently downhill the terrain became far more undulating, and on the Grantham Road – now deserted but showing all the signs of being a road of some significance, there were a couple of steep climbs that numbed the legs.

All the while I was religiously following the little black line on the Garmin, telling me exactly where I should be running and reminding me (All too frequently thanks to a little bug on the 910XT) that I was inches off course and then back on course. Another quirk of this flagship Garmin device is that when you are using the watch to guide you on a course, it is prone to infuriating delays in actually deciding which way you should be heading and even, on occasion, completely turning the device off whilst running. What makes this more galling is that the old faithful 305 had no problems with courses – a device that celebrates its tenth birthday next year and in some ways, like this, is superior to the best Garmin currently offers.

Moaning over, and I was running fairly well, with just the pelvis aching a bit and the top of the right foot aching where the tongue on the frees irritates (A shame as in every other respect these are my favourite trainers). At the end of the Grantham Road and when the Garmin finally refreshed itself to decide I should head straight over the main road and onto a dirt track which had signs quite clearly stating not suitable for motors. There was a certain irony then when on this mile long or so deeply pot holed track three cars passed me, the same number that had passed in the last seven miles.

Leaving the dirt track and I was on the road to Little Ponton, one I’m now very familiar with. I put the Garmin out of its misery and stopped the course mapping, which finally gave me a chance to look at the regular pages of data I have scrolling whilst running. It told me I was averaging 07:02 so I had a little work to do to achieve my target of breaking seven minute miling over the final four miles.

I was thirsty and tiring but the lure of the sub seven willed me on, made much easier once I was down the final steep hill (Which was really painful on the foot) and running through town. I came home having notched up 22.1 miles averaging 06:58 per mile. It meant I’d run 82 miles for the week, which is half a mile down on my record week set the week before Christmas last year. Not bad for one that I had intended to be a step down week.