Yorshire Marathon 2016: Week 1 of 16

M 9 miles (7:14mm)
T 8.5 miles (7:00mm) plus 1 hour circuits
W 8 miles (7:25mm), 5 miles (7:20mm)
T 12 miles including 6X1mile (6:13mm)
F Rest
S 5 miles, including some strides
S 16.5 miles including Humber Bridge Half Marathon

Total 69 miles (6:46mm)
Aerobic efficiency 997 beats per mile

So this was my first week of 'let's have a bit fun' no-pressure running for a few weeks before getting stuck into the meaty stuff. I did my first ever circuits session on Tuesday which was great fun but left me feeling a little sore in some new places! After not doing much last week (45 miles) I decided I still needed a session plus today's planned half marathon as my harder runs of the week. The first of those was on Thursday which was 6X1mile with 2:00 recovery. Having not run hard for a while I thought I would start off steadily and increase the pace of the efforts throughout the session. It worked very nicely with 5:29, 5:27, 5:24, 5:15, 5:11, 5:05 as the efforts (5:18 avge) but I was certainly working quite hard on the last couple. I suspected it gave me a reasonable approximation of current half marathon pace which would be helpful for today's race at the Humber Bridge Half.

The plan with the race was really just to enjoy the process and again not get bogged down with the time or pacing, but just to race my competitors on the day as best I could. I know I'm carrying a bit too much timber at the moment (will start weighing myself from tomorrow, promise Guv) and am not in lightening shape so a PB was never going to be on the cards. Especially as the course is certainly a bit bumpy and even on a still day is quite windy as it's so exposed going over the bridge a couple of times! Plus I don't want to be that fit yet, I want to be really really fit in 16 weeks time!

The race started off really nicely and I found myself in a nice group that had whittled down to three by the 2 mile marker. Myself, club-mate Timmy Davies and Gregan Clarkson a City of Hull runner. As we crossed the Bridge Gregan built up a bit of a gap and Timmy dropped back a little, I wanted to make sure I held on to Gregan and ensured he didn't get too far away from me. As we turned into Barton around the 5 mile point I felt really good and as there was a nice downhill I decided to use this part to try and get the initiative. It wasn't long before I'd built up a decent lead. The route has some testing climbs in the last four miles which are where you don't really want them in a half but I still managed to go on to win by over 2 minutes which was very pleasing, with Timmy coming in second and Phill Taylor of Bridlington completing the podium. I really enjoyed the course, with some spectacular views and great support through the villages all the way around.

Photo Credit Nikola Bailie

Timmy Davies, my double, me, Phill Taylor

I'm keeping tabs on my aerobic efficiency again and it's nice to see it below the 1,000 beats per mile average as that is a decent marker for me being in an OK position. Certainly not unfit, but a long way away from my most efficient.

Few easy days planned now and then another race next weekend.

2016 so far and plans for the rest of the year.....

It's been a while since my last post and I've been getting the itch to start blogging again. That can only mean one thing, I'm running a marathon in the autumn. I had previously written that I would probably not be doing a marathon this year but unfortunately the itch became too much to bear without scratching and I crumbled! Plus my Power of 10 profile would look a bit weird without a marathon for 2016!

Anyway, what have I been up to? In short the plan for this year was to have my first proper foray into Cross Country and simply to try and get as quick as I could at the shorter distances (5k-10k) before attempting a marathon with my new found speed. Well let me tell you, it's been a roaring success. NOT! It has been a very frustrating six months, not least for my patient coach Mike Baxter, who thinks I'm a bit of a weirdo given my inability to convert decent training sessions into good race performances at any distance shorter than 26.2 miles! That said, despite the frustrations there have been some big positives. I have had a few good results as well as bad. I am learning more and more about my strengths as a runner but most importantly I have really enjoyed my running which is the main thing. Of course it goes without saying that I am incredibly grateful for all the support and guidance Mike gives me.

What follows is a run down of the year so far. I'll try not to bang on too much but as readers of my blog may know from the past, I do have a tendency to waffle.

January
Yorkshire XC Championships
So early January saw me tackle my first cross country race in a Leeds City vest and despite feeling fat and unfit (Christmas Excesses!) I ran a decent race finishing 8th in the County Championships, helping Leeds City to team Gold and also secured my first call up to the represent the County at the Inter-counties in March. Result!

Northern XC Championships
After this experience I couldn't wait for my second attempt at XC at the Northern Championships at Blackburn. Unfortunately during my session on the Tuesday before I noticed that I felt a little off and although I tried to ignore what was happening, the reality was I had picked up a pretty debilitating virus. I was so excited about the race though that I continued to be in denial about how I felt and traveled across to Blackburn. On my warm up, I felt horrific; legs were killing me at 8 minute miling and I couldn't stop shivering. Fair enough the weather was pretty biblical but it was more due to the bug than the conditions. I made a sensible decision, much to my frustration, that I wouldn't race and went home with my tail between my legs. Although running is an individual sport, more than anything I was disappointed that I couldn't run for the club as my fitness had been improving since the Yorkshires a few weeks prior and I really wanted to contribute to the team effort if I could.

February
Dewsbury 10k
The virus that I had quickly cleared and by the following Wednesday I felt in a good position to start training again and as I had Dewsbury 10k entered anyway, I thought I would give it a blast. At last I was hitting a shorter distance race feeling really really fit and ready to knock chunks off my PB. My legs also felt brilliant. As soon as the race started though, I hit a sea of lactic within the first mile and from there it was a real battle to the end. I ended up with a slow time of 32:48 for 8th position. Now granted, the weather wasn't conducive to fast times, but I genuinely thought I was in shape to be running close to 2 minutes quicker than that! On reflection I decided that perhaps my body just wasn't ready to be racing so hard after illness. I tried to shelve it and move on but it did bother me and I ended up having a few days off. I then came back to my training with renewed vigour to focus on the National and the Inter-Counties.

English National XC Championships
On to the National XC - my first and what an epic event. It goes without saying that it was far from plain sailing! Unfortunately I had picked up a cold a few days before which I carried with me into and beyond the race. That said, I felt fine compared to the virus that had stopped me from running at the Northerns and to be honest nothing was going to stop me from running this one! I was a little daunted by a couple of things though, firstly the distance cross country and the size of the race itself. It all seemed a little different to the flat tarmac of big city marathons! And so it was but equally brilliant in a completely different way! I started off really steadily, in fact in hindsight I started way to easily and although in my limited experience I think caution is the best approach in Cross Country, I did start off too easily and as a result I perhaps didn't quite have the race that I could have done. I finished in 102nd which wasn't a bad first attempt but I certainly learn a lot from this experience. Not least that National really does find you out if you're in anyway under-prepared.

March
Inter-Counties XC Championships
Disaster! The National broke me. I had noticed my tibialis anterior tendon had been quite tight in the days following the race but carried on running through it thinking it would gradually ease. It wasn't long before it was too painful  and that I knew rest was the only option so ended up having two whole weeks off and I had to miss the chance to pull on the vest of the White Rose! Gutted, but I hope there will be further opportunities in the future if I keep working hard. And with that my XC season ended.  This also meant that I would miss my main race of the Spring, the Cardiff Half Marathon where I had been hoping to run under 68 minutes in a strong field!

With that my attention moved to the Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PBs which was on 21st May.

April
I spent April Getting back into the swing of training and ran with the club in the 12-Stage relays. We managed to get the silver at the Northerns thanks to a fantastic last leg where Mike Burrett just held off a strong challenger from Morpeth. It was a great run from Mike and all the team. The medal was certainly a hard fought one given a depleted squad and a very strong Salford team which took the honours by quite some way. We didn't have as much joy at the Nationals and I found myself on a long leg such was our depleted squad. I didn't run particularly well here but put this down to being tired from a hard weeks training. I had assumed I would be on a short and thought the previous few days training wouldn't have left me too detrimentally tired unfortunately I hadn't reckoned on being handed a long leg.

May
The focus then moved to a few shorter distance races and first up was the Northern League 5,000m where I came third. It was an official PB of 15:43 but still some way off what I should be running for the distance. I had also entered the Yorkshire 5,000m Championships in the hope of being dragged to a decent time. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it!) most of the County's top runners had decided to race at a BMC meeting in Manchester the previous evening. This resulted in me winning the race in another PB of 15:37.86 for my first individual championship medal. You can only race who turns up but it was shame really that the event wasn't more well supported given the dedication of all the volunteers that make the sport happen.

Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PBsWhat can I say about this event? It was just amazing. I was terrible(!) but the event was absolutely incredible. Ben Pochee and co at Highgate Harriers have done a phenomenal job of putting this event together and continuing to make it better and better, year after year. The atmosphere was electric. It was basically like the Tour de France but on a running track with spectators screaming encouragement five deep all the way around the track. There was a fully stocked bar on the back straight complete with MC and a vociferous crowd! It also included the Olympic trials race so it was great to watch once I'd finished my race. I got off to a steady start and felt good aerobically but by half way my legs had gone. I had stupidly decided to wear spikes for the race and as a heal striker with limited experience of wearing them this was to put it bluntly a little stupid. Especially for a track 10k! The last few km were incredibly painful and my calves were screaming for me to stop. I even tried to go to a more 'natural' running style but I just slowed down too much!  I toughed it out though but to another disappointing time of 32:30.8. I will get the 10k right one day!

I think the below picture covers my anguish quite well.

June

I've had a couple of races in June, firstly a 3,000m(!) on the track at Leeds City Open which I won in an unimpressive 9:14. It wasn't that bad though considering I had had a very dodgy gut for a few days. I did feel I could have gone a bit quicker had I had someone closer to me to race with but I took the win quite comfortably having led from just after the first lap.

Otley 10
This race incorporated the Yorkshire 10 mile championships but given it was on a Wednesday night there wasn't a particularly deep field. I had decided before the race that given the notorious hills I would just race for a change. I have become too much of a slave to the watch recently and I just wanted to run a race and do as well as I could on the day and feel like I was in control of the process. A nice group formed, including myself, clubmates Mike Burrett, Jon Wills and Ilkley Harrier Jack Wood. Jack is a decent fell runner who incidentally lives on the course so must have been familiar with what we were dealing with although I understand he probably could have done with a few more hills! To be honest the hills were plenty for me as I felt like I was walking up the second big climb! Anyway, as we approached the four mile point, I was feeling very comfortable and knew that the first hill was coming. That coupled with getting a sense that my competitors were struggling a little to maintain pace I put in a bit of effort and gradually built up a small gap.

This then continued to increase to the finish and I won by over a minute. It felt great, I had run a race well within myself finally after so long and come away with a result I was really pleased with. So although the first half of the year has on the whole been pretty average I certainly didn't expect to be two time county champion!

What's next?
As I mentioned I am planning an autumn marathon and have decided on Yorkshire Marathon at the beginning of October. This was where I had a big breakthrough a couple of years ago where I largely plagiarised Steve Way's training to good effect! I also know the course to be quick and I'll be able to stay at home the night before as its only half an hour away. I cant wait to get stuck into big miles and big sessions at the beginning of August. I am going to take a slightly different approach this year and incorporate a few different ideas but much of it will be the same. If it aint broke, don't fix it as the saying goes! But for now I just want to have a bit of low pressure training and racing. I really need to hit the beginning of that training block in good shape and get my running mojo in a place that is ready for the rigours of marathon training. After Yorkshire Marathon I will then be changing focus to the XC season and am considering my first 50k (31 miles) in the Spring as ultra marathons could be where my long term running career lies.

2015 Berlin Marathon Race report and week 20 of 20 weeks to sub 2:20?

M Rest

T 8 miles (6:21mm)

W 6 miles including 2 miles hard, 5:11, 5:12 (5:55mm)

T 5 miles (6:44mm)

F 4miles (6:33mm)

S 3 miles (6:42mm)

S 27 including 2015 Berlin Marathon

Total 53 miles (5:57mm)

Pre-Race

This was my standard taper week, seeing a massive reduction in miles with a smattering of quality to keep reminding the legs that they were going to need to run quite quickly on the Sunday. There’s a fair bit of preamble/waffle below so if you just want to get straight to the race go to paragraph 12.

I have to say I do find this last week a real battle mentally. There is the anticipation and excitement of the big event coming up that you’ve focused on and trained so hard for but there’s also the doubts that start creeping in about how big a challenge you have ahead of you. I said in my blog following the GNR that I was unsure of how I could possibly run twice the distance in a slightly quicker pace. Those thoughts were further amplified this week! At least when you’re in full training you have the reassurance of running every day that you’re doing something that will contribute to your success. In these last few days all you can think of is how unfeasible the whole challenge is! The only respite you get is when you go out on those few short runs to try and give you a bit of confidence but then the doubts creep back in shortly after you’re home and hosed.

As ever I did the carb deplete focusing on trying to rid my muscles of any remaining glycogen in the muscle. This leaves one even more irritable than normal and in a way contributes to the catastrophic thoughts of impending doom that one can have! I have to thank Hania for being solid as a rock for me through this few days as I knew it would get better as soon as I started  consuming the carbs! The runs actually went well, including 2 miles hard on Wednesday morning despite running on empty. This gave me confidence that my body was clearly adapted so well to fat burning as I could still maintain MP despite there being literally no sugar in my system. A positive sign.

Then to the carb load, which was enjoyable for all of about 6 hours, after consuming my 16^th slice of banana Soreen for the day! Oh well crack on, it’s only three days of gorging myself on high carb, low fat and it will do me good.

I flew out to Berlin on Friday and met up with Dave Archer and Andrew Challenger (Hallamshire Harriers) at the airport who were both racing. Andrew was hoping to take a sizable PB and Dave was running effectively his first (although he did do one when he first started running but it didn’t really count apparently). It was great chatting to the guys to hear how things had gone in the build-up and just general chewing the running fat.

Picked up my number with not too many issue on Friday evening although they make you walk just about 26 miles to get your number just to make sure you don’t go in under trained. The whole expo thing does cheese me off a bit to be honest. It’s basically the biggest shop for running related stuff you could ever possibly imagine. The last thing I want to be doing 24-48 hours before a marathon is spending hours walking around looking at running stuff that I could buy on the other 364 days of the year.

On Saturday morning I did my last pre-race run which took in a bit of the course including a little MP test to see how it felt on the streets that I would be racing the very next day. Thankfully it felt great and I knew I was ready to go.

Much of Saturday was then just spent hanging around waiting, thinking and planning how I was to approach my race. To be honest it didn't take much thinking about as the plan was simple; run as well I can and always think about how the effort feels. Not be scared to push on but importantly not be scared to hold back. Patience was going to be the name of the game. I even wrote it on my hand the morning of the race to remind myself! The goal was as always just to be the best as I could be on the day. Outside of this I met up with friend and runner Andrew Leveson for coffee who was also racing and hoping for 2:23:30. Then in the evening I went out for a bit of pasta with a couple of other guys Ben Martin-Dye, Keith Russell, and Keith’s mate Dave. Ben was running but he had decided to have it as a jolly having not done much training over recent months having got married in the summer. He did entertain the thought of running round the streets of Berlin waving a big rubber Bratwurst to gee up the faithful but settled on a running in a pair of very tight-fitting lederhosen instead. Keith had trained and indeed spent some time in Kenya getting into great shape but unfortunately through a sequence of bad luck meant injury and illness he had taken the wise decision to pull out.

As ever I wanted to make sure I got as much sleep as possible before the race but know now that this is unlikely. I got to bed around 9pm and dropping off about 10:30 so if all went well I would get about 7 hours before going through my usual pre-race morning routine. I woke up some time later feeling like I hadn’t had much but was expecting the clock to say something after 3:00am so at least four hours which wouldn’t be ideal but OK! I was shocked to see the clock say 23:56! And I felt wide awake. I knew I was then in for a rough night of trying to trick myself back to sleep. Nothing would work. As the night wore on, I gave up and started to read my book hoping that it would send me off to sleep. It didn't work, so I thought I’d catch up on the previous week’s Question Time which I’d downloaded to the iPlayer. Listening to  Elizabeth Truss of the Conservative party allowed me to drop off for 20 minutes, so at least that’s one thing to be thankful to the Tories for. I soon woke up again though and there was nothing left for it but to accept I was unlikely to get any more quality sleep so decided to watch the latest episode of Great British Bake Off.

In a way I was pleased when it was finally acceptable for me to get out of bed and go in search of coffee! I went down to the hotel lobby but their coffee machine was broken. This whole thing seemed destined to failure. I then ventured out but wasn’t hopeful of finding anywhere that would sell a decent coffee. Luckily I found one without too much problem at a bakery a short walk down the road. The lady behind the counter almost seemed angry that I’d come in to purchase something though. Despite my very best ‘Guten Tag, eine kaffee mit milch bitte.’ She looked at me like I had asked her to go to Columbia to harvest the beans herself. 

Got down to the start via U-Bahn and I was struck how cold it was, so took the decision to wear my gloves. I stupidly hadn’t actually packed a top to keep me warm that I could easily discard at the start which was a bit of a schoolboy. Anyway, jogged for a bit, did a couple of half-hearted strides, relieved my bladder for the fourteenth time that day before finally taking my spot on the start line. Then my Garmin decided it didn’t want to latch on to a satellite signal so with rousing music blaring through the speakers and about 30 seconds to go I was still frantically waving my arm about in the air like a former German dictator. 

Race Report

0-5K

Off we go and it takes me a few seconds to get over the startline. That’s fine as it’ll mean I don’t hare off. Patience is the name of the game! Ideally I would like to get settled in a group in this stage of the race and it takes me until about 4K to catch up with the leading elite women who have a nice group so decide to stick in with them. There had been some talk of them looking at pushing for sub 2:20 so I figured if the effort felt OK then it would be good to stick with them. That said I also knew that the two favourites Gladys Cherono and Aberu Kebede were quite evenly matched so would likely be racing for the win rather than going specifically for the time. Mike Baxter had suggested that I look to split each 5k in around 16:40 so it was nice to see the first one come in at 16:42 (5:22mm)

5-10k

As we passed the 5k marker I find myself feeling incredibly easy and indeed ended up floating off the front of the group with one other chap who seemed to be working somewhat harder than me. As the course goes back through the centre of Berlin this is a part of the course where there is quite a lot of support but again I kept telling myself not to get carried away and to be patient. Around the 10k mark I look back to see that the lead women are probably only about 25 metres back and know that it makes sense to drop back in with them as they’re clearly now operating at the same sort of pace as me and this other chap so take the decision to drop back and jump on the train! 5k split of 16:34 (5:20mm) (10k in 33:16 – remember that 10k at Askern that was all out in 33:05? This feels like I’m jogging relatively!)

10-15k

This is a very unmemorable part of the race for me as I do my best to ‘sleep to halfway’ and indeed the only thing of note really is that Gladys Cherono has very sharp elbows as she tries to take me out as we go round a corner and she nearly knocks me flying into some barriers. 5k split of 16:42 (5:22mm) and all feeling very good. A wry grin comes on my face as I know I’m running really well and feeling incredibly strong and looking good for a PB. I take a gel at 11k which settles nicely. 15k in 49:58.

15-20k (and halfway)

Again a very unmemorable part of the race as things are just ticking along really nicely and feeling like I have a great rhythm. I’m enjoying having the benefit of the lead car that leads the elite ladies which is giving helpful km splits and a projected finish time. The projected finish time is gradually coming down into the mid 2:20:xxs which is nice. 5k passed in 16:35 (5:20mm). 20k in 1:06:33 and then halfway in 70:10. At this point I’m thinking wow it’s on I really do have a great chance of sub 2:20 if I can stay strong and keep with this brilliant group. I am getting reassuring readings from my HR monitor which confirm I’m working far less hard than I have done at a similar point in any marathon to date. 

20k – 25k

During this period we catch up  with Jonathan Poole, a  guy that runs for the Serpentine club in London. I follow him on Strava and knows he’s in good shape. He asked me if we’d picked up the pace, I said maybe slightly but I think mainly he was worried that he had slowed. We crack on and still I feel effortless. I have another gel just after halfway and again this is fine. It is a great experience running along with the elite ladies. Two genuinely World Class athletes, running sublimely alongside me! It really is surreal thinking back to just a few years ago when I got ‘hands on knees’ tired at climbing a broken escalator at St Paul's Underground once! 5k passed in 16:34 (5:20mm) and 25k in 1:23:07.

25-30k

It is in this stage of the race that I tend to think about what sort of finish time I can be hopeful of. At this stage I am very confident, perhaps a bit cocky that very close to or sub 2:20 is very much on as I definitely feel easier than I have done at this point before. Sure it is becoming harder but I still feel good and full of running. I have subsequently watched the full race video on Youtube and there are various clips of me running with the lead ladies. This seems to confirm how I was feeling at the time. I just look incredibly strong. I then have a Powergel around 28k which is what they were handing out on the course and at first it seems fine but shortly after my race starts to go a little bit awry! 5k in 16:31 (5:19mm) so we have sped up a bit and hit 30k in 1:39:38.

30k-35k

As we go through 30k I find myself becoming detached from the group I’m in and can’t quite get back to them. It’s a very strange experience because I don’t feel that tired and my legs feel OK but within just a few hundred metres I have developed an agonising stitch which really starts to affect my form and ability to keep pace. I try not to panic and keep at it. I was telling myself it was just a rough patch and it would soon pass. The truth is I have never suffered a stitch in a marathon before and didn’t know how to deal with it at the time. Frustratingly it didn’t really ease off completely at all from now until the end. I just got my head down and ran as hard as I could given the discomfort I was in. 5k in 17:08 (5:31mm)so I had slowed a lot in that section but given how far up I was still confident of getting a big PB. 35k in 1:56:46.

35k – 40k

As I reach the 35k mark I’m now starting to see if I can reel anyone in that is dropping off the back of the group I was in and do go past a few but I’m hurting  a lot and know I'm slower still. There's just so much discomfort that I feel like I’m running like Pheobe from Friends! It's amazing how quickly a race can turn around. Despite going past a few folks my head is starting to drop because try as I might I know my pace is slipping a lot, my watch confirms it. 5k split in 17:33(5:39mm!) to 40k in 2:14:19.

40k - finish
I do a quick calculation in my head and realise that even the chance of a PB is slipping now. How could that be? I was so confident just a few short miles ago that I was going to obliterate it and possibly get under the magic 2:20. I had caught a guy up within the previous 5k and now it was going to be a race to the bitter end. We could work off each other to push each other to the finish. This was a different kind of marathon pain than I'm used to but I simply was not prepared to let myself not PB. I hadn't worked this hard and put all that work in, not to get a PB. Racing toe to toe with this guy I think helped as we really raced each other to the line. I managed to pick up the pace a little for this section 7:32 (5:31mm), 42.195k in 2:21:51 (5:24mm) and a PB by a whopping 21 seconds!

On the final straight: I appear around 9:50 into the video 

My initial reaction is one of simple relief that after all I'd been through in the last 12k I had still managed to PB! As the minutes pass I see Andrew Leveson (2:25:37 - also had stomach issues but from very early on), Dave Archer (2:25:40 - a solid time for a first proper effort at the distance) and Andrew Challenger (2:26:07 - a sizable and well deserved PB after some great training).

It was then back to the hotel for a quick shower and back out to the pub where a big group of us got stuck into another kind of marathon. One things for sure I'm not that good at pacing a marathon involving beer. :-) It was fantastic to relive all the war stories of the day, including some great PBs from most in attendance. I was delighted to hear first hand of John Gilbert's great run (2:15:49) as well as those from Jonathan Poole (2:20:38), Phil Sanders (2:30:30), Paul Griffiths (2:31:59), Stuart Beaney (2:38:37) and Thomas Musson (2:48:38). Ben Martin-Dye had also had a Wunderbar time (2:54:19) trotting leisurely around the German capital.

Race Reflections

Now it has all sunk in a bit I am still proud of how I had dug in so deep to eek out a PB with the hand I was dealt on race day. Of course I am a little frustrated that my body let me down with the stitch which prevented me from going as quick as I believe I should have. I honestly think it probably cost me at least 60-90seconds, maybe a little more. In fact my legs have never felt so good after a marathon and I do think that it's because I simply couldn't push them to the absolute limit! That said I was still always conscious of my glute and hamstring issues throughout the race so if I can get that resolved then I should be running smoother and quicker still.

Whilst this whole 20 week build up started with the loose arbitrary goal of going sub 2:20 as race day approached in a strange way I didn't really know whether I was capable of a sub 2:20 time. Indeed I had decided sensibly to race the race as it came and with the fitness I found myself in on the day. Obviously I didn't manage to go sub 2:20 on the day, but I am now more confident than ever that I definitely do, in fact whilst one should never take anything for granted in athletics (anything in fact?!) I believe I can go quite a bit quicker than that. But first and for the next 12-18 months I am going to focus on getting much quicker over the shorter distances as that should translate to quicker marathon times in the future. I'm pleased to say that I am also formally going to start working with Mike Baxter as my coach as I have thoroughly enjoyed his support and guidance of recent months and if there's a bloke in the sport that knows how to toughen folks up it's him!

Thanks to anyone that has followed my inane blog over this period (and to Hania for putting up with me!). I'm sure I'll keep the blog going with periodic postings but for now it's back to the drawing board - big plans are afoot.

Week 19 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 9 miles (6:29mm)
T 10.5 miles (6:23mm), 5 miles (7:04mm)
W 8 miles (6:52mm)
T 11 miles including 15X1minute on/off (5:53mm)
F 7 miles (6:50mm)
S 9 miles including Northern 6-stage relays (5:04mm)
S 14 miles (6:03mm)

Total 74 miles (6:26mm)
Weight 138.7 lbs
Body fat 9.5%
Aerobic efficiency 941 beats per mile

So into the first week of taper which sees a big reduction in mile from last week down to just over 70 for the week with a couple of sharper sessions.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the legs seemed OK following last Sunday’s Great North Run efforts and was ticking along quite nicely in my early runs in the week. Thursdays session was one that Mike had encouraged me to do before London as it gets a bit of speed into the legs and the recoveries aren’t true recoveries but at a more steady effort. I had decided however that I would take it a little easier than pre-London with the Northern six-stage relays in mind, which would make up my second session of the week. The 1 minute 'on' efforts averaged between 4:37 and 5:01 pace and the recoveries were anywhere between 5:45 and 6:13 so all in all a very nice session.

It is in this week that you hope you will start to see a bit of freshness returning to the legs and I was pleased to see on Friday that my recovery run felt virtually effortless, ticking along at 6:50 pace almost asleep! It’s these encouraging runs in the taper that really help build the confidence that it’ll all be good on the day!

Then to Saturday and a trip over the Pennines to sunny Blackpool for the Northern Six-Stage relays. I managed to find myself in the A-Team such is the current list of injuries at the club and I was to run the fourth leg over a course of 6.6km. As any readers of my blog will know I don't tend to do too well at the shorter stuff so this would be a good test with the added pressure of trying to ensure I didn't mess things up for the team! I took over from Patrick Vis who came in in eighth position and although the guy in seventh was only about 5 seconds in front there was a big gap in front of him so I knew it was to be a tough leg to try and get back closer to the guy in sixth, if at all! I caught the guy in seventh after half a mile and got my head down and ran really strongly all the way to the finish. Again, I didn't clock watch which made the whole thing very enjoyable. I just raced. I finished in 7th position having closed the gap to 6th and passed over to Dominic Easter. My leg was timed at 20:47 which is about 5:04 per mile pace. We ultimately ended up in 5th position which wasn't a terrible outcome but certainly with a full strength team we would expect to have been up there. This was a really pleasing run for me personally and good to see some freshness returning. Although I don't think I could have run much quicker, I felt strong at the end almost as if I could have gone around again, albeit a touch slower with a couple of minutes recovery. Of course I didn't and just did a couple miles jog to warm down.

Whilst this week has gone well and I am incredibly relaxed about the race itself and can’t wait to get going, I do actually struggle with this bit of the taper for other reasons. I have suffered with pretty bad anxiety verging on depression this week and the strange thing is it’s not about the potential outcome of the race. That will take care of itself I know that but without wanting to be too melodramatic it almost feels a bit like grief. Grief that the process is almost over. What will I do after? How will I cope without this goal to focus on? I’ve felt miserable, been incredibly irritable and have struggled to see the point in lots of things. What was the point in training this hard and putting everything in to it for it all just to be over? This whole build up and race has completely consumed me for the past few months and in a few short days it’ll no longer be there. How will I move forward and what will I look to do after? I will be OK and my darling wife Hania tells me it will all clear. The fog will rise and there will be other running targets to look forward to. Sometimes I do just wish I wasn’t so obsessive about these things though! I mean it doesn’t matter does it? It only really matters to me. Whatever I run has no bearing on anything in the world and nobody really cares apart from me. Sure if I run well people will be pleased for me as I am for others when they achieve what they want to but no-one can be as attached to your own goal as you are. It just doesn’t work like that and rightly so. Something makes me want to get up at 5am and do the hard miles training twice a day, something drives me to do that, something in my brain tells me it’s what I need to do for my sanity. The reality is that marathon training is a selfish sport and despite me trying to make my training mostly invisible to my family, it isn’t completely and it can’t be. It consumes everything you do. You live and breathe it for weeks and months on end. So maybe this feeling is partly guilt of my own self-indulgence? Whatever it is, it is definitely the darker side of running. It'll probably get darker still as I have already started my carb-depletion before the reload starts in earnest on Thursday. I just have to hope that I can avoid all last-minute hiccoughs and do my hardest to ensure that it all comes together like a dream next Sunday.

Week 18 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 12 miles (6:23mm), 6 miles (6:49mm)
T 8 miles (6:54mm), 5 miles (6:57mm)

W 20 miles including 30 mins(3:00), 4X5mins(2:00), 30 mins (5:43mm), 6 miles (6:52mm)

T 11 miles (6:22mm), 6 miles (7:01mm)

F 7 miles (7:00mm)

S 6.5 miles (6:44mm), 4 miles (7:17mm)

S 20.5 miles including Great North Run in 70:52 (5:24mm)

Total 113.5 miles (6:26mm)

Weight 139.5 lbs
Body fat 9.7%
Aerobic efficiency 958 beats per mile

So here it was the final big week of training and I was absolutely determined for it to go well after last week's poor track race. It was to include the biggest session of the campaign as well as a hard but controlled effort at the Great North Run on Sunday as part of my final long run.

I took last Sunday as a complete rest day, simply to try and regain focus for what would be the hardest week with the combination of the volume and the intensity of the two sessions I had planned. I was pleased I did as although I hardly sprung out of bed at 5:00am on Monday morning, I was pretty pleased to be running quite nicely at a strong pace for a 12 miler to start the week. Tuesday was taken a little bit easier as ever to try and have reasonably fresh legs for the big monster marathon session on Wednesday.

When you first see the sessions on paper, you think oh yeah that seems OK but as the day approaches you realise just how hard they're going to be! Especially when you have built up a level of fatigue from the previous weeks' training. Although I was excited about the session the day before you do feel a bit like you do before a big race; unsure of how it's going to go, a little anxious of how tough it is going to feel and also wanting it to go well to give you a strong feeling that all is on track.

I did this session before the Yorkshire Marathon last year and also before London this year too and although it went well pre-Yorkshire, it was pretty much a disaster before London although I did manage to complete it. I did the session then whilst on holiday in Poland and my legs were just absolutely ruined. For the second stint at MP I could only muster 5:36 pace which considering I was hoping for a MP of quicker than 5:27 obviously left me a little unsure of where I was at the time. The outcome of that session though was that it just allowed me to focus on what everyone should focus on and that is to run the best with what the fitness they have on race day and don't force for arbitrary targets. That said I still managed to PB at London so it all ended up fine in the end. So with all that in mind, I was still keen to nail it this time around as if it went well I was still sure that things could yet improve a little further with the freshness the taper brings back to the legs.  

The first 30 minutes was quite good and I was ticking along really well at 5:26 pace around my tempo loop. The 5 minute efforts came in at 5:09, 5:05, 5:04, 5:04 so really strong fro me and what should be theoretical 10k-10M pace.These 5 minute efforts are really quite nasty as they do get the legs really nicely fatigued for that last MP effort. That said I started off the next 30 minutes really strongly. In fact, the pace felt easy because it was a lot slower than the previous efforts but as the interval progresses it really does become hard work and the concentration levels required are very similar to what you have in the closing stages of the marathon. The legs are jellifying and you have too really focus to keep form, etc I managed to hold it all together for a very pleasing average of 5:27 pace. After last week's disappointing track race I was so keen to get a good confidence booster and this sure gave me what I needed. The session was marginally better than pre-Yorkshire marathon as the shorter efforts were slightly quicker on average and as a whole it was miles better than pre-London. Mike encouraged me that there was no reason to have a confidence wobble anyway as he quite rightly reminded me that there is no such thing as a perfect build up. He recalled Charlie Spedding's build up to the Olympics in LA in 1984 and how he had a few shockers/ sub par performances along the way.

Then on Sunday I had my last long run scheduled which was to include the Great North Run as a bit of a tempo effort. Of course I was going into this really rather tired from the cumulative weeks’ training and a massive session on Wednesday. This was never going to be a PB attempt for a couple of reasons; 1) it is too close to Berlin to properly recover from and 2) I wanted to still get in big volume for the week so I wasn’t going to be fresh for it at all.  I stayed up in Newcastle the night before at the University Halls which was absolutely perfect for the start. I couldn’t have been any closer really. I had managed to wangle an ‘elite entry’ off the back of my 2:22 marathon and was luckily enough to have my name on my vest rather than a number, which always seems a little cool. I must admit it felt a bit strange lining up with guys that I consider genuine elites. Guys like Mo Farah (who was just in front of me at the start line), Ryan Hall, Stanley Biwott, Mark Kiprotich, the list goes on! It was also humbling to share the start line with Ian Hudspith, a genuine British Road Running legend, who just shy of his 45^th birthday ran 66:08. Which is around 5 minute miling. Truly astonishing and a time that I can only dream of.


 

So having done a 7 mile warm up and 100 miles in total before the B of the Bang, I knew it would take a while to get the legs going again! Despite the downhill start and a couple of quicker miles, the legs really were tired and I knew it was going to be a struggle. I found myself clock watching in the early miles as I had been thinking to run at a fairly steady 5:25 pace for the whole race to bring me in somewhere around 71-72 minutes. After about 4 miles I wasn’t really enjoying it too much as I had focused on the 5:25s a bit too much rather than just running how I felt so took the decision to just run and enjoy it. So thereafter I ran hard but controlled to the finish without glancing at the watch and it became much more fun! I started reeling in folks that had gone off too quickly and I finished really strongly. I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 70:52 (5:24.5 per mile) and feel that I could have done another three or four miles at that pace on so I absolutely wasn’t flat out. That said, I was tired, very tired and the legs were achy to say the least but then they should after a run (and a week) like that. I was somewhat surprised at the course as I had expected it to feel quicker but it definitely felt quit a challenge and was more undulating than it looks the times I’ve watched it on the telly!

With the last week of big training drawing to a close that is all the training in the bag and I have to say it’s a relief,to get to this point relatively intact. Of course I do have ongoing niggles and cant remember the last completely pain free run with my glute and hamstring issues but at least I can run! Looking back to pre-London at the same point I do feel I am in marginally better shape, but running just under 71 minutes for a half marathon feeling as it did makes me wonder how on earth it is at all feasible that I will run twice the distance at a slightly quicker pace in two weeks time! The jury is still out and thinking rationally I won’t go under 2:20 this time but as I said last week the race will take care of itself now and I can’t wait to see what happen. Thankfully the marathon isn’t always about rationality; it is also about dreams, how much you want it, your hunger, desire and heart. I believe I have those qualities in spades and trust it will all come good on the day. One thing is for sure I will give it absolutely everything to get the best possible result. The taper can do miraculous things to the legs and I just have to trust the training and trust the taper. As Mike pointed out for Berlin, I won’t have run 100 miles the week of the race, I won’t have done a 7 mile warm up, I won’t have done a humungous session just four days before and I will be racing flat out all the way.

Weight has drifted down another notch so now I am at ‘race weight’ and think I should lock the scales away in a cupboard to prevent any last minute worries about how much timber I’m carrying.

Week 17 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 10 miles (6:31mm)

T 8.5 miles (6:34mm), 6 miles (6:59mm)

W 17miles (6:16mm)

T 8 miles (6:39mm), 6 miles (6:48mm)

F 7.5 miles (6:50mm)

S 10.5 miles including BMC 10,000m Track Festival 32:26 (5:13mm)

S Rest

Total 74 miles (6:32mm)

Weight 140.5 lbs
Body fat 9.7%
Aerobic efficiency 950 beats per mile

After last Sunday’s win at the Halifax Marathon, the main aim for this week was to make sure I recovered sensibly and then race hard on Saturday at the British Milers Club 10,000m I had planned. I had been put in the B-race which seemed right judging by the other names on the start list and I was confident of smashing out a quick time to beat my road PB of 32:05. I’ll discuss the race shortly but first the rest of the week….

I had always planned on reducing the mileage a little this week to try to be fresh(er) for the track 10k but still wanted to get some decent steady running in. On Monday I was pleasantly surprised to find my legs were in good shape and I was feeling comfy around the 6:30 per mile mark for a 10 miler. Similar happened on Tuesday which gave me confidence that Sunday’s marathon effort hadn’t taken too much out of the legs. I then wanted to get my long run done on the Wednesday with one eye on next week, which is scheduled to be the hardest of the whole campaign. I was really pleasantly surprised to knock off 17 miles in 6:16 pace just clipping along really nicely.

As well as the ongoing physio I have been receiving on my pelvis and sciatica I decided following a suggestion from Mike that it was probably sensible to have a general sports massage which I did on the Thursday. My legs have been ok when running and my injury is definitely improving but I was feeling really rather tight in some places, namely my left calf and right hamstring. Stewart Sanderson, the sports masseur is a semi-pro rugby league player so is quite useful at ironing out creases and he successfully found a few more achy bits that I didn’t even know existed.

And so to Saturday where I had set a target of 31:59 for the 10k but let me be honest with you, I thought I was being conservative. I am a two-time 2:22 marathoner and so theoretically I should be able to run 10k in something around 30:30. Even in heavy marathon training I thought I should be able to get reasonably close to 31 dead. So the strategy as discussed with Mike was to head off at roughly 76/77 second laps which should bring me in under 32 and if I felt strong I could pick it up in the second half but the main thing was to be patient and try to maintain concentration through the hard middle laps. Fail! Off we went and there was a good bunch from Highgate and a few others that were targeting sub 32 so stick with them I thought and for the first few k things were just going swimmingly. Aerobically I felt fine, and the legs were OK if a bit tired. At no point did I feel like I was starting to dig in too deep. I got to half way pretty much bang on 16 minutes and my first thought was that I would easily go under 32 as it still all felt comfortable. When I have done all out 10ks in the past I have been acutely aware of how spent I feel at halfway. Of course you’re not and you can nearly always muster pretty much the same again in the second half but for this time I felt  relatively fine. K splits were 3:12, 3:12, 3:11, 3:11, 3:13. It was perhaps this cockiness of obliterating my target that was my downfall as the 6^th k was a 3:13 so OK but starting to slip a little. And then all of a sudden the group gradually pushed past me. I think at this point I just lost my head and a total lapse in concentration meant my race was quickly over. I really should have been focusing to hold on to the group but before I knew it I was isolated and after that it was really hard to even get close. I am ashamed to say I think I gave up a little at this point. The 7^th and 8^th ks were both in 3:20 (my hoped for Marathon pace for goodness sake!) and then I managed to rally a little in the 9^th and 10^th ks with 3:18 and 3:15 to finish in 7^th place in 32:26.50. I was really annoyed with myself immediately following the race and it did worry me initially that I thought there would be no way of getting to PB shape for Berlin in time, but now things have sunk in a little I’m a little more pragmatic about it. What will be will be and whatever happens on the day, I just want to do the best I can. I am not one to make excuses for my performance when training sessions or races don’t go to plan as I know when I’ve run poorly but on further reflection there may be other factors which resulted in such a woeful effort; 1) I am tired as I’m at the business end of marathon training and did run a hilly marathon last Sunday, 2) I’m not used to racing on the track – different mind-set, not used to the bends, and different surface to tarmac and 3) The sports massage I had may have left me a little less fluid (clutching at straws ;-) ) and 4) I just had a rubbish day. If it was all four of those then I might still be OK for Berlin! If you are at all interested and/or really really bored you can watch the race here on Vincosport. The outcome of the race did really annoy me though and I took the decision to take a complete rest day on Sunday to try and refocus for this coming week, which is to include the biggest session of the campaign as well as a run out at the Great North Run as part of my final long run.

Weight has dropped another half pound to 140.5 lbs and my aerobic efficiency is back down to the sweet spot of 950 beats per mile average. As someone who has quite an obsessive personality (and I know lots of other runners suffer from this too!) I have also become quite obsessive about my weight recently which isn't that healthy and doesn't help with my mental fragility but I do know being as light as possible, within reason, will help with my pace on race day so I am trying to still lose a little bit of weight but reasonably sensibly whilst still having the occasional treat. I have decided however to stop weighing myself every day as it plays on my mind a little too much. I will still take measurements but less frequently and probably on days when I'm feeling most lean!

As a final note for this week I really do believe marathon training to be such a battle of will. Yes, you have to avoid injury as much as possible and be consistent but mostly you just have to keep on keeping. You have to believe that it will all come good on the day. It means taking the crap days with the good and I still believe that I can get into PB shape, whether it’ll be the arbitrary 2 minutes 13 seconds I ideally want I don’t know. One thing is for sure is that when race day comes I am pretty good at keeping the doubting thoughts at bay, in fact I would go as far to say that I don’t do self-doubt on marathon day. ‘10k on the track’ day is maybe a little bit different though. ;-)

Week 16 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 8.5 miles (6:46mm), 5 miles (7:11mm)

T 18 miles including 4X18mins (3mins) (5:54mm), 6 miles (7:04mm)

W 10 miles (6:31mm), 6 miles (6:51mm)

T 9 miles (6:24mm), 6 miles (6:56mm)

F 7 miles (6:22mm)

S 8 miles including 2 at MP(5:26, 5:22) (6:26mm)

S 28.5 miles including 1st place at Halifax Marathon 2:47:25 (6:21mm)

Total 113.5 miles (6:29mm)

Weight 141 lbs

Body fat 9.7%
Aerobic efficiency 972 beats per mile

So after feeling in the depths of despair last week, I was keen to have a more confidence building week this week. All in all it went really quite well - some decent miles and a couple of good marathon specific sessions.

I had the Halifax marathon penciled in as my long run for Sunday and wanted to be reasonably fresh for it given I wanted to do it at a steady effort and knew it to be a hilly course, so did my marathon session on the Tuesday this week. The session was 4X18 minutes at cMP with three minutes recovery. I had taken the decision to try to ease in to the session a bit more than I typically do hoping that I would end up feeling surprised with the output of pace as it progressed. The first interval was at 5:27 pace, the second at 5:26 and then the third at 5:24. I was pleased with how things were progressing and was confident of hitting target race pace (5:20s) for the last stint but it wasn't to be. All of a sudden I had terrible gut issues and really needed to 'go'. After that the legs just seemed to give up and my mind was taken up with concentrating on not disgracing myself! That ended up as a relative jg of 5:39 pace. On reflections I was still quite happy with the session, it wasn't perfect and the legs were a little mullered, but I think that was largely down to residual tiredness from last week rather than anything too sinister.

The rest of the week was steady running until the marathon on Sunday. I looked back at my training log from last year and realised that I had been running my steady mileage a lot quicker then than now and so took the decision to put a bit more effort in on my easy days. Strangely my legs seemed to thank me for it as they felt a lot fresher throughout the week than they have done recently from general plodding.

I had spotted that the Halifax marathon was on a few weeks ago and thought I could use it as my final big long run before Berlin. Give it was a 'race' I knew it would feel more enjoyable than a typical solo long run - maybe I should just pin a number on before every long run! I had heard the course was particularly challenging and so it turned out in terms of the undulations. According to Strava, not far of 2,800 feet of ascent in total. That's basically over half a mile straight up which is a little bit ridiculous, given I generally try to avoid hills at all costs! Anyway I really enjoyed it as something different and put in a very even effort all the way around finishing in 1st place with a time of 2:47:30ish feeling very comfy apart from a slightly tight left calf. Looking at my Garmin trace it looks as though it was a perfect even split too which shows I judged the effort really well. Mile splits varied from 5:25-7:45 which shows the extent of the hills! I had to stop for a couple of pee breaks too (not in the 7:45 mile strangely - that was just a mountain!) which was a helpful reminder that I really shouldn't drink anything within three hours of the race. The course did spark a bit of interest in my mind of what  I could do if I raced it all out. I suspect it would probably have been 13-15 minutes quicker so maybe I could be relatively good in hilly races? Certainly something to consider in the future and someone has already mentioned the Snowdonia marathon which may end up being a target in the future....

Weight has come down another touch this week and I have lost a bit more body fat apparently. Aerobic efficiency has taken a step back a little again. I suspect the figure is swayed quite a lot because of the Halifax race and the undulations meant my heart was having to work harder for the pace output, given I usually run flat routes. I feel a lot happier about this week than last and am confident that things are really coming together. I am doing a track 10,000m in Stretford next weekend, so that should be fun. I've never done a 10k on the track before so it's a bit of an unknown quantity but hopefully I should be in good shape to at least threaten the road PB of 32:05!