Thursday 29 December 2011

2011 Review

This year has quite simply been fantastic from a running perspective. In what was my third full year of running I am happy to say I am still improving, having set PB's at distances from the mile right up to the marathon.

It started as it quite often does, in January with me feeling a little unfit. I was desperate to get into top shape for my London marathon debut. I had qualified for the Championship start and so would be starting just behind the elites.

January:
  • Feeling unfit, quickly piled into lots of miles.
  • Entered Canterbury 10 and came 9th in a solid 59:15. This was a sub maximal effort but showed that the fitness was coming back nicely.
February:
  • Getting fitter, still piling the miles in
  • Tragically lost a friend in a motorbike accident. Knocked me for six and made me realise you should live life to the full at every opportunity.
  • Ran Tunbridge Wells 1/2 Marathon and came a creditable 9th again from a big field. I set an accidental PB of 75:18 in again a sub maximal effort.
March:
  • Now starting to feel very fit indeed, the marathon can't come soon enough!
  • Found out I was going to be a Dad - my wife has a bun in the oven!
  • Came 8th at the Paddock Wood 1/2 Marathon with a new PB of 73:25. I ran fairly easy at this apart from the last three miles when I really put a lot of effort in.
  • Beginning to taper.
April:
  • I decide on a whim to do the re-arranged Dartford 10. This was a Kent GP race and so should be good points. I decide to do it roughly to marathon effort so as not to waste my marathon training. I came 6th in 56:39. It felt harder than it should have done, getting a little concerned I may have peaked too soon.
  • Finish 84th form 35,000+ in my first Virgin London marathon with a PB of 2:33:57. Just awesome day. Had loads of family down to watch and cheer me on. Will live with me forever. 


May:
  • Take part in the London 2012 Olympic Marathon test event. A great thing to be part of, running round the route to be used in next year's Olympics. We ran to sub three pace and as a result all came in with a time of 2:58.
June:
  • Race and win the Beckenham 10k in a new PB of 33:53.
  • Race the following week in Liverpool Mersey 10k and finish 5th in a new PB of 33:48. Disappointed it wasn't quicker but on what was a very windy day it wasn't bad.
  •  Starting to feel a little tired though and ease off training a little bit.
July:
  • Now start to think about the Autumn marathon, which will be the inaugural Liverpool marathon on 9th October.
  • Start to build the miles back.
  • Have a disastrous race at Dartford 1/2 and finish in 1:21:03. Put it down to lots of miles in the legs, no tapering and having an off day. Move swiftly on!
August:
  • Busy piling in yet more miles. No races, just need to build the miles.
  • See my Big Sis get married (finally) to a top guy.
  • Run my first 100+mile week. Feel OK and nice to know I can do it, but wont be doing it too often!
September:
  • Run the Kent Coastal marathon and finish first in 2:47 in what is a training run. Ran harder than I wanted to given I was being hunted by my clubmate, Steven Nimmo who finished just 600 metres back. Proud to be Kent County Marathon Champion and Team Marathon Champs too.
October:
  • Race the Liverpool marathon in a very tough race. Brutal wind and challenging course mean my time is somewhat down on what I was hoping for. I am proud to really dig in and finish third from 5,000+ in a time of 2:39.

  •  Race my first Cross Country since school days. Absolutely loved it! Came 12th from a field of about 180 showing the quality that take part. A very challenging course and time is unimportant but a solid and pleasing debut.
November:
  • Race the Deal 5 and come in with third place in a new PB of 27:20 on a very very windy day. I didn't have the desire to make second place mine when I probably could have. You cant go to the well every time.
  • Confirmed as Kent County Grand Prix winner.
  • Decide I ought to do something about my somewhat embarrassing 5k PB and bag a reasonable 16:22. Promise myself that 2012 will see me go under 16 minutes!
  • Continue to get consistent weeks of mileage in.
  • Wife heavily pregnant and past due date.....
December:
  • The greatest and most emotional experience of my life sees my wife give birth to beautiful baby Mia Victoria.
  • Try to get into a routine and run when I can.
  • Surprised to find that I can still seem to train a bit
  • Start building for London Marathon 2012!
Training and Racing totals:

2011 hasn't quite finished yet but I will finish the year on about 3255 miles in an average pace of 7:05 per mile. Or just over 383 hours (a smidgen under 16 days) of running if you prefer. This equates to just under 9 miles per day. :-)

    Week 1: 19th - 25th December

    My week went like this:

    Mon 5 miles recovery (7:57mm avge)
    Tue 9 miles including 4M @ 5:27mm (6:24 avge)
    Wed 12.3 miles progressive (7:04mm avge)
    Thu 5.9 miles recovery (7:24mm avge)
    Fri 10 miles general aerobic (6:53mm avge)
    Sat 17.1 miles progressive (7:01mm avge)
    Sun 6 miles recovery (7:31mm avge)

    Total 65.6 miles (7:04mm avge)

    The first week of P&D and all went well - I hit every prescirbed run. I was particularly pleased with the Tempo run I did at 5:30am on the Tuesday. I was very pleased to be hitting that pace in the first week of the schedule. The heart rate was getting on the high side towards the end of the workout so perhaps it was a bit above Half Marathon effort but it probably did some good anyway! I decided to get out for my Long run on Christmas Eve so I wasn't getting the way of quality family time on Christmas day where I just plodded out a little 6 mile recovery run. The long run went ok and it didnt feel too long if that makes sense, just right for this stage of the game.

    The beauty of P&D is that it has quite a bit of faster stuff in, especially the long runs where there are big chunks at marathon pace in some of them. The main way is to do them progressive though and start out c20% below MP then increase the pace until the last few miles are at 10% below MP. I have decided to do all my progressive runs to HR, rather than pace, gradually letting it rise throughout the run while the pace hopefully quickens. The routes I run are simply too undulating to get the 20-10% pace effective so it will have to be to HR effort.

    For marathon paced and lactate threshold running I will do on the flattest part of Orpington,at least then I can try and get some consistency with pace.

    All in all a good first week! :-)

    Plans for 2012


    I was going to write this blog a couple of weeks ago before starting my training for London but we've been busy getting ready for Christmas and we've had all sorts of visitors to see our baby daughter Mia (the little cutey on the left) who was born on 2nd December. Now Christmas is out of the way and we're just about getting the little one into a routine I finally have time to write down some thoughts and hopes for what 2012 will bring from a training and racing perspective.

    I shall do a seperate review of what went well in 2011 but this one is about 2012.

    My plans first off are to attempt a PB at London Marathon in April, hopefully getting under 2:30. I have aspirations of getting a top 50 place but that will probably need a time around 2:27 which may be out of my grasp for now. It wont stop me trying though! I will for a change be following a published schedule to see if it works for me. I will be following the Pfitzinger & Douglas 70-85 miles per week schedule and hope to see some good positive results. It also helps, having the thinking taken away from me and jsut do whats on the plan.

    After that I am doing the Edninburgh marathon five weeks after London. This is a bit of an experiment really to see if I can hit both pretty hard. I also thought it might be a good opportunity for a weekend away in a beautiful City. Not only this but I may be having a Autumn break next year from marathons just so I can focus on the shorter stuff. I really do feel my short distance speed is relatively poor and will be looking to recitfy this in to the summer and autumn. Perhaps with a period of focusing exclusively on middle distance.

    So races booked in:

    Kent County Cross Country Championships - 7th January
    Kent XC League - 11th February
    Battersea Park 10M - 3rd March
    Battersea Park 10k - 24th March
    London Marathon - 22nd April
    Edinburgh Marathon - 26th May