Let the training begin

Training for a race longer than a marathon is very different than just training for a marathon or so it seems from what I’ve read so far.  It seems to be more about time on your feet than anything else.  Distance doesn’t seem to be the goal as distance will come with time.  One of the few training plans I’ve seen have a similar feel to them with the long run at weekends only this time the long runs are talking about 5, 6 or even 8 hours followed by 4 or 5 hours the next day.  Not quite sure how you fit that in with a family but we’ll see how it goes.

Luckily this time I’m starting training knowing that running a 5k or a 10k isn’t that difficult, well at least on the flat and with just normal running gear.  I have the ability to run for a couple of hours at a steady pace, now I just have to take away the tarmac and add in hills and tree roots.

This morning I wanted to try out my new hydration pack.  An Osprey Viper 9 is what I got in the end.  3 litre reservoir and loads and loads of pockets, just have to be careful not to fill it with stuff I don’t need.  There was some movement while I ran so I’ll have to have a play around with the straps to make sure I adjust them so there is minimal movement otherwise I can see that being a problem after a few hours.  I only had 1 litre of liquid in it this morning as I was only going for a slow 10k run but I was unaware of the pack for the first 30 minutes or so.  That’s when I noticed the movement and slight rubbing.  I’ve been trying out Tailwind as a nutritional drink. It’s a dextrose/sucrose mix that claims to fulfill your every need while running long distances.  We shall see.  I had the Caffeinated Raspberry Buzz in this morning and I have to say I enjoyed it.

One interesting point is that I am a very hot runner and I mean that I really heat up when I run.  I did notice that when I took a drink the first bit was cold, as it was cold out this morning, but the liquid that had been near my body was warmer.  So even through my base layer and shirt and backpack I had effectively heated up the water.  Not sure that there is anything I can do about that.

Still having issues with my left ankle, after the half marathon on Sunday I may have to sacrifice a couple of weeks to let it heal properly but for now I think I’ll have to strap it up, after all it’s only 13 miles  🙂  After that; let the trails begin!!

Racing against an Olympian

Today I raced against a British Olympian in a 10k race.  I know what you’re thinking, a slight difference in class between me and an Olympian, especially one that runs marathons in the GB team currently.  But side by side we lined up this morning, him a 2:10 marathon runner trying to break the course record, me the unknown factor.

The gun went and we were off!!  And I never saw him again, well I saw his back rapidly disappearing into the distance.  To be fair there were 500 other people running with us and Scott Overall hadn’t come to race me in particular but race he did. I found out later he had won the race before I was halfway round but missed out on the course record by 4 seconds.  Of course by the time I finished, PB by over 1 minute, he had long gone, but I got my T-shirt, Drink and Mars Bar and am content that I, like Scott, gave it my all.

Still having major issues with my foot, back to the Podiatrist in the morning.  She believes it may be a trapped nerve under one of my toes.  It’s not painful as such but I am always aware of it when I run and it does stop me concentrating on form and breathing. It kind of feels like my toes are curling under each other when I know they aren’t.  The closest feeling I’ve had before which is like this is having continuous cramp in your toes.

Very strange today as I had to run with no music, as per race instructions, and had only my watch to guide me on my pace.  I don’t usually wear it so it took a while to figure out what I was looking at.  Running with no music made me very aware of the noises I make when I run and I would like to apologise to anyone that has to run near me.  🙂

Silverstone in four weeks, London Marathon in 10 weeks, it’s all getting a bit big and scary.

BRING IT ON !!

Playing with Playlists.

When I first starting running I just set my phone to play music and often had no idea what was going to come out of the earphones next.  I have songs from Frozen on there for the kids, fast songs, slow songs, a few classical pieces even some comedy sketches.  It was amazingly distracting when all I wanted to do was keep a rough pace and keep going.

Something had to change as the running got harder and longer.  I experimented with different beats and tempos working out what songs and artists worked for me.  My apologies to Maria Carey fans but I just wanted to run in traffic when one of her songs came on.  🙂

I now have 3 playlists and am working on a 4th.

Playlist 1 is full of songs of the same tempo.  I don’t actually “listen” to the songs when I run as I’m always thinking of something else but they keep my legs going at the same pace and the miles do tend to tick away slightly faster.

Playlist 2 are my Go To songs.  Songs that I love, songs that make me a bit crazy, songs I know all the words to.  I run like crap with this list but I run happy.  This is the playlist for the cold or the rain or the bad day at work run.  This is the one my neighbours hate as they can hear me coming down the road belting out the hits badly at 5.30am.

Playlist 3 is my 5k run playlist.  I made this with my kids and it’s all set around breaking 30 minutes for 5k, a feat I have only managed once.  All the songs are high pace, bouncy numbers that I love and intermingled inside these tunes are my kids telling me how far I should have run at that point.  At 29:30 my kids start to countdown the last 30 seconds as I should be sprinting for the finishing line at that point.   At 30 minutes exactly my kids cheer and Congratulations by Clive Richard starts playing.

The only problem is that when the countdown and Cliff starts to sing I’m usually still 2 minutes from finishing, either because I’ve gone off too fast and blown up or gone off too slow and not increased pace sufficiently.  I have now tried this over 75 times, how crap am I?  🙂

Entered a St Valentines 10k race locally because they give you chocolate for finishing.  Sad I know 🙂

I thought it would get easier.

From the very beginning of this journey I have had no illusions that this was ever going to be an easy ride.  I knew that the training would get progressively harder as the runs got longer which meant, hopefully, that the shorter distances would get easier.  And so it seemed until Yesterday.  I’ll explain.

Yesterday I ran a 10k.  Yesterday it rained hard all day.  Yesterday it was really cold.  Yesterday I hated running.

I’d booked the race on a warm sunny day forgetting that in November it rains a lot and is cold.  As I walked up from the car park towards the main stand, the race was held at a horse race course, a 5k race came past me with a few people holding their running shoes as they ran.  I spoke to a race Marshall who said that one part was so muddy people had been losing shoes.  I had time before my race so decided to walk part of the course.  I wish I hadn’t now.  Parts of the course were under water but they were still running on it.

I’m not a fair weather runner by any means but this is my first winter I’ve run in and while I’ve experienced rain I’ve not had rain and cold together and I can usually dodge puddles as I run.  When part of the course has become a lake then you have no choice but to plough through.

They got all the 10k runners out to the start line and we were off.  The usual cavalry charge at the front from the speedy runners and the plodders at the back.  Yesterday I was definitely a plodder.  100 metres later and my feet were totally soaked through as were my gloves and shirt.  Only another hour to go I thought.  🙂  Course consisted of two laps of a very undulating route, no big hills just continual slopes it seemed like.  As I came round to complete my first lap my time was good.  Unfortunately it was good for a 5k for me and I knew that I would suffer for that.  Even worse the guy who finished first overtook me with a few yards to spare.  31 minutes for a 10k in those conditions was incredible.  His time not mine.  Second lap, same as the first just a little bit worse.  This is when the rain changed from just raining hard to really raining hard and the wind picked up.  It was only later that I found out that one third of the field had pulled out at the 5k stage because of the conditions.  I can not lie when I say that the last 3k were the hardest I have ever run.  Wet feet, wet clothes, cold and miserable, getting slower and slower, knees hurting and starting to shiver it was all I could do to keep going.  The Marshalls were brilliant, their encouragement was the difference between me finishing and just giving up.  I do have to say that a finishing line has never looked so good before and 10 minutes later I was all changed and dry.

My knees still hurt and this morning was freezing so I did a small gym workout, I know part of it is age and fatigue but, and not for the first time, I’m looking forward in my training plan with trepidation.  If this is how 10k affects me what will 20k or 30k or even 42.2k do?  Will my body stand up to the abuse and will I ever be ready for a Marathon?    The one positive point for me is that all my issues are physical, I seem to have conquered all my mental demons.     150  days to go.

Getting faster but feeling slower.

Recently I’ve come across a strange phenomenon.  Maybe everyone goes through it, but I’ve yet to see it in writing anywhere.  I can’t be the first one this happens to and, to be frank, I just don’t understand it.

I feel like I’m running slower but am actually running faster.  Take the 10k race I did last weekend,  4k of the race was on uphill trails and the rest of the course was undulating.  At no point did I feel like I was running at my normal long run pace and I even had 3 or 4 small walks near the end of the race.

Maybe I feel like I’m running slower because everyone else is running faster.  Certainly in that 10k race slowly but surely most runners ran away from me, I did my best to keep up but to no avail.  It’s only when I evaluate the times that I get surprised.  31:30 for the first 5k.  That’s faster than when I just run a 5k race.  The 36:02 for the second 5k doesn’t surprise me as much as I was really suffering.  Of course now I know it’s because of the fast start and maybe racing with other people will help me in the future.  But for me this is as much a mental struggle  as a physical struggle and I do struggle when competing against other people.  Yes I know I’m really only competing against myself and I know that I’m getting slowly better, and I could do with losing a bit of weight and it just won’t come off.

I’ve even considered changing my parkrun venue so that I finish higher up as there are less runners at other parkruns.  I know that sounds really sad but I’m kind of fed up finishing 760th when at the parkrun down the road, with the same time, I would come 85th.  I’ve mentioned that it had become a mental struggle didn’t I ?

Back to the problem in hand.  Do I feel slower because I am getting fitter?  Can it really be the fault of all those faster runners?  Well in one month I have another 10k race this time almost completely flat so I’ll be, hopefully, able to get a better time but more importantly be more in touch with how I am running.