Posted on

Pre-Race Thoughts

It has been a month since I last raced; a month since I last posted. It was sunny on that night, but the mind was very clouded. The sun shines even brighter this evening, I’m sure that has partly helped to burn away some of the mental haze. My thoughts are mostly positive. They are, for the first time in a long time, not solely focused on one dark thing. That in itself I am sure will help with everything in the short to mid to long term.

Shortly after that last race I, somewhat hastily, it transpires, announced my sabbatical from racing. For tomorrow, all things going well, I will once again don the race vest, pin the number to my chest, put on the racing flats and do battle against myself and others. The distance of choice is five miles and the lure of a PB is the main driving force behind the late decision to enter. The allowance of the sabbatical to be broken is that there is absolutely no reason for me not to be out racing tomorrow. So I will. (For the record I’ve also entered the London Marathon on the Good For Age scheme – whether I’ll run that is totally out of my control at the moment).

Since the last race the focus has very much been on trying to get out and run as much as possible. With no real training goals or targets, instead I’ve allowed the clarity of mind that running can attain arguably more than any other activity to work its magic on me. In any circumstance, the summer months of running are an opportunity to enjoy the sun, when it shines, and the countryside. We have been fortunate thus far to have had plenty of sunshine and also fortunate that where we now live that there is plenty of countryside, much of it scenic and running friendly. There has been a fair amount of exploring and a little getting lost, but, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Somewhere in the last couple of weeks I finished the initial cycle of eight weeks of my Quick Strength For Runners book. By then end the twenty minute programs had nearly tripled in length but there can be no doubt that my balance has improved, and the perennial problems in the back and hips have lessened in recent weeks. It may be coincidence but I’d like to think not. I’m now back repeating the cycle at week two and the exercises feel much easier than when I first began – a sign of progress. It won’t be long before I’m brave enough to balance on the Bosu Ball for advanced forms of the exercises – the ball that has been a fun trampoline for my daughter, but has seen little use from myself as yet.

Most of the running has been in the easy pace zone 7-7:20 minute miles. I did one 10 mile run at something around marathon heart rate, which went very well considering it was done on the spur of the moment and it was 25C or so. There has been a little bit of Stravalek thrown in, but mainly it has been easy or steady paced running.  Mileage peaked at 65 miles in the final week of June – sitting at 50-56 miles through July, mostly because I’ve not had chance to complete a weekend long run.

I’ve done just two intervals session in the past month – one a set of 800 meter reps with the club, which still felt a little too pointless (Back and forth, back and forth…) to be worthwhile (Enjoy the countryside whilst you can…). The other was just this Saturday gone, when I tested myself three times over a 2km loop which climbed for the opening km or so. Despite being tired and pretty dehydrated (It’s been hot and sunny recently) I was pleased with how the session went and so go into tomorrow’s race with, I reckon, a 50/50 chance of coming home with a new PB.

The five mile PB stands at 28:19, set at the Coventry Autumnal 5 back in 2012, which beat my previous PB, set in June 2000, by one whole second. The Summer Solstice time suggests that this is beatable if I have a solid run. A lot will do with how warm it is tomorrow (It is looking like another scorcher) and whether I can get in a good group of runners. Last year’s race suggests that what it lacks in numbers it more than makes up for in quality. I’ll take that if I can be towed around to something half decent.

Whatever happens I want to go out, race, and enjoy racing again. If I come away with a good placing or a PB – great. If not, well at least I was out there giving it a go.

Posted on

Day 71–Body Says ‘No’

The morning run was a routine affair, up to Great Gonerby, narrowly missing out on the Strava segment for the hill by one second (one day I’ll hit that hill later on in the run when I’m warmed up), then looping around and back down. Nothing amiss, nothing to indicate how my body would feel later in the day. I even missed a downpour by around 20 seconds which made me feel pretty good.

The evening run was scheduled to be intervals with the club – 3×2 miles with a 1 mile jog recovery. I’d intended to try and run them at something close to half marathon pace, which in theory should have been attainable as that is around 15 seconds or so slower per mile than the last set of mile reps I did on the same stretch of A52.

Things didn’t bode too well when we shuffled from the Railway Club to the Muddle roundabout. We were crawling, but it felt like hard work, my tummy in particular not feeling great. I certainly didn’t have much enthusiasm for what I was about to subject my body to – an attempt at picking up the pace for a few hundred meters left me under no illusions that this was going to be tough.

I set off first for the first rep. It would be on an evening like this when having a training partner of similar pace would have been a godsend, someone to keep your motivation and effort up when you are flagging. Tonight, I was out front, alone, and the master of my own destiny. Unfortunately the body was quite quickly starting to say no! 

The first mile was 5:56, the second was the best of the evening 5:46 and hitting the kind of heart rate I was expecting to attain. The recovery mile was a trial, the tummy showing every intention of giving trouble and an overwhelming feeling of fatigue, or as Sean Kelly would say fateeeg. Within a minute of beginning the second rep I knew something was amiss, as hard as I’d try I just couldn’t break six minute mile pace and the HR was dropping the harder I was trying. By the end of the first of two miles I carried on and ducked into the Muddle for an emergency pit stop. I hoped that would cure my ills, but alas recommencing the rep it was clear things were not going my way.

I completed those two miles in 6:05 and 6:01 which, when looking at the HR they were ran at weren’t too bad, but this wasn’t the session I was planning to run. Worse struck on the recovery mile as my right shin began aching somewhat alarmingly from seemingly out of the blue. There was little I could do but try and pretend the pain wasn’t happening.

Maybe it was the shin pain, the fatigue of two weeks running without a day off, the Stamford 30k, the 22 mile run on Sunday, one too many stock cubes in the soup I made for lunch (Very, very salty), the breeze, the cold, maybe it was even missing my buddy the 910XT. Whatever it was, the third and final two mile rep was a miserable mess. The splits were a little skewed but the mile out was run in around 6:27, the mile back was 6:21. Okay so these aren’t calamitous and if I applied a little spin and note that the heart rate average was at my long run HR – the splits aren’t half bad and the session was a success.

As it stands running along watching the HR drop uncontrollably and with it the pace was not a pleasant experience. The mile or so home was an equally slow affair. The evening was spent being very, very tired, wondering what on earth was causing the shin pain (which, incidentally, all but disappeared the following morning). A day off for Wednesday was booked. Rest is required, rest is what the body will get.

Not hitting targets in sessions is inevitable for a runner, this is by no means the first and it won’t be the last. I think what has unsettled me is this is the first bad session in months and it left more questions than answers. Hopefully I’ll bounce back stronger and faster with a bit of rest!

Posted on

Day 43–Well That Was Quite Quick…

The day was long covering the opening day of F1 Testing at Jerez, at the computer for 6:30am and not able to leave until exactly 12 hours later. I put on my running gear in double quick time and headed out with barely a stretch to try and catch the, club, who were set to leave for their intervals session in around 6 minutes, when it normally takes me 11 to get to HQ…. As it was I just caught them leaving, I needed to visit the bathroom so I said I’d meet them in a minute. It took a 6:10 mile, after a 6:27 to catch them just as they stopped outside the pub.

The session hadn’t been finalised but it was decided to do 6 x 1 mile with a 2-3 minute recovery. I let the others have a 40 second or so head start for the first interval, I needed to stretch. The first mile felt really quick as I caught and passed all my club mates. Normally the mile in this direction is a fair bit slower than the return leg as it climbs 10 or so metres, but when I finished the mile the Garmin clocked 5:25, nigh on as fast as anything I’d done in the other direction and around 30 seconds quicker than normal. I felt though like I’d over-exerted myself somewhat, although I quickly recovered.

Then I turned around and realised why the mile was so quick. There was quite a stiff wind blowing, in the opposite direction to the usual prevailing wind, which had aided us significantly on the upward stretch and would hinder us on our return. And so it proved on the second rep, which turned out to be the equal slowest of the night at 5:30. Reps three and four were hard work clocking 5:30 and 5:29 respectively. At the end of the fourth rep I even felt a little nauseous, as well as feeling the right abductor.

Knowing that I had only two reps left I put aside any tired thoughts and worked hard on the fifth rep, clawing back time after a sluggish opening 800 meters to clock 5:27. The same happened on the sixth rep – I was averaging 5:38 at the halfway point before I put in a sustained effort to finish with a 5:29 rep. On this rep the right abductor and possibly right hamstring began to tighten significantly. Once everyone came back from their final rep and we began to jog back I decided to say my goodbyes, one because I still had a little work to do at home, and secondly because I felt the abductor was sorer if I ran slower.

I came home with at an average of 6:45, finishing the 10.5 mile run in a barely believable 5:59 per mile average. I don’t think I’ve ever run a training session that quickly. Hopefully the right leg will respond to a little massage and stretching, and another day in front of the computer tomorrow.

Posted on

Day 36–Hybrid Hard Hills Session

Feeling pretty much recovered from the Folksworth 15 but mindful that the race will probably be in the system for at least a week, today was an exercise in trying to reign back the temptation to go full beans in respect of paying attention to the bigger picture.

The first run of the day was straightforward enough, done after walking the kids to school. The same 4.4 mile run as last Tuesday morning, up and around Great Gonerby hill and back. As with last week that hill up comes as a shock to the legs; once that was navigated the rest of the run felt easy in comparison.

I debated whilst picking the kids up from school whether I should do 10 steady miles at around 6:40 pace or take part in the club’s hills session, albeit not giving it 100%. In the end I opted for the latter, part of me felt my hills were a little weak on Sunday and I could do with the practice. I gave myself a strict instruction – not to give it everything and treat the right groin / abductor with caution.

So the session comprised of 3x 8x c.20 second sprints up a hill with jog down recovery and  no rest at the bottom. At the end of each set of eight reps there was eight minutes of easy paced hilly loop to run. The first rep showed that I would have no problem in not giving it 100% – the legs felt fairly lifeless and there were some keen runners around me flying up the hill. By the sixth rep I managed to feel a little better and was better again during the eight minutes of hilly loop running.

The second set of eight again saw me well down for the first few reps, but then finding myself nearer the front and then, on the eighth rep, I gave it pretty much everything, climbing the hill first and clocking the quickest rep of the night. Interestingly the right groin, which had been grumbling, didn’t hurt during or after the rep.

From there I ran the next eight minutes comfortably in 7:01 miling. We had a two minute rest before the final set of eight reps, which saw the legs stiffen somewhat, It took until around the sixth rep for me to find my legs and I gave my second hard effort of the night in the final rep of the night.

A long warm down back to the club and back home followed. All in all 11.25 miles on the night, 15.6 miles of running for the day and around 8 miles of walking. Not a bad day.