Archives for July, 2008
Posted on Jul 30, 2008 under 5-10k, Easy Runs, Recovery Runs |
This was a very sedate and slow run, just to get back into the running after Sunday’s tough race.
I do have a problem with running slowly. OK, compared to an elite, I am very slow anyway - but what I mean is, once I get going, I am always tempted to up the pace, as I don’t feel I’m really doing much unless I’m breathing hard and feeling pain! Yet easy runs are very important (I am still not sure why scientifically - but will save that for a future post) - I think basically, you cannot keep pushing your body, so it likes to tick over in a lower gear for a bit, just as it likes to rest completely sometimes, just as it benefits from some harder punishment now and then 
Anyway, it was very hot and sunny, so I set my Garmin to alert me if I went any faster than 5:40 per kilometre. At first it kept bleeping, but I’ve noticed Garmins can be a bit erratic until you’ve done a few kilometres; in any case, it helped me to go very, very slowly - and every time I absent mindedly started going faster, my Garmin alerted me. When I reached the big steep hill leading to the little suburban place called Haughton Green, I took a leisurely walk up, and felt fresh when I started another slow jog back home, and by the time I finished I’d done 6k in a very sedate 36 mins and 30 seconds. With it being another really hot day, it was nice to do a run that I enjoyed - it reminded me a little of when I used to walk a lot - I felt I could have just jogged like that for miles and miles as if it was merely walking - but I would still have done a 10k in about an hour, which is what some people aim for going flat out.
I think my aim will be to slowly increase my comfort pace - so maybe one day jogging 6k in 30 mins will be just as easy - but I always want to make my easy runs easy now - and setting the Garmin really helped, although I couldn’t resist a speedy burst for about 20 metres near the end, just to stretch the legs and remind myself what it was like to go fast! I might do some more of this in future, combining speedy bursts with a slow jog - now whether that’s interval training, fartlek or speedwork I will have to figure out! 
Posted on Jul 28, 2008 under 10k, Distance, Races |
To begin with, I still have no idea why this event is called the Moonraker 10k - and forgot to ask somebody before or after! Certainly, I didn’t see James Bond or see any moon buggies (although was very nearly hallucinating by the end of the race!)
When I got up, it was clear it was going to be a very hot and sunny day, like yesterday - and because the summer hasn’t been that great or hot so far, I have not had much chance to run in such conditions to get used to it, so it was probably a good idea that I had a little run yesterday. As always, when I was getting ready and waiting for my taxi, I questioned why I was doing this at all - dragging myself out of bed, to go out and run 6.2 miles on a blisteringly hot day! Still, the taxi was booked, which made it difficult to back out now! So my driver turned up outside the house, and we set off making small talk about running. As usual, I had allowed far too much time, so I arrived at Bowlee country park in Middelton, north Manchester with plenty of time to spare, but it was nice to be there and find time to relax and soak up the atmosphere - and make sure I stayed in the shade, and found the toilets! I also made sure I covered myself in sun screen, and applied a little extra just before the start.
The start was pretty informal, it seemed to be a lot of people milling about, then suddenly the horn went and we were off! I started off somewhere near the back, which was my plan for this run and it was quite a sedate pace back there and I was overtaking a few people and feeling pretty comfortable, although not getting carried away, and thought everything was great. Certainly I felt much better than I had on yesterday’s preparation run. After 1k I started to find my own pace and was feeling fine as the runners spread out more. The other 2 races I’ve done were so crowded, I was always either overtaking or being overtaken, but after not too long I had my own space in this one, and tried to just settle into a rhythm as we covered some trails through the country park. Then the route left the park and into a Middleton council estate, which involved the main incline of the course, a long climb up a road through the estate. This had been mentioned in a previous race review that I’d read, but I think I underestimated it. I could see this hill stretching up into the distance and could even see people walking further up - in fact, I was overtaking people, several of whom were walking up it - I never saw most of them again, although it was a bit annoying that some people walked up the hill and I passed them, then they came sprinting past me on the downhill bits later! With hindsight maybe they had the right strategy, but I had this attitude that the hill wasn’t going to beat me and I wasn’t going to slow down too much - which was probably my main mistake of the race, as my pace up the hill was kind of what destroyed me as I got further into the race. Rather than try to pick up pace after this hill and take advantage of the downhills, I just had to coast on the downhill bits and try to recover! The hill came at about 2k into the race - it normally takes me 3-4k to settle into a comfortable place and get flowing; I think I ended up with some serious oxygen debt too early, which disrupted me for the rest of the race and led to quite a bit of physical and mental pain 
My Garmin was spot on with the Kilometre markers (at the City of Manchester 10k it always seemed to be counting 1100 metres for every kilometre, although more or less levelled out to normal by the end!). In this race, I didn’t feel that I was running an extra 100m every kilometre so at least didn’t have that going on in my head! But the hill, like I said earlier, had done some damage, and I felt like packing in and walking at times, it was just so hot and I was breathing so hard, and every time I saw another incline I almost despaired! But I just kept pushing myself, although I was actually wincing with the pain of it after 6k - a female runner turned round and asked me if I was OK at one point and I really appreciated that, although didn’t have the breath to explain much to her, although I did stay with her pretty much until near the end and we exchanged well done’s at the finish
I felt I was really plodding after 6k, although I did overtake one or two runners who’d started to struggle too, and I was probably going a bit slower to make sure I wouldn’t have to endure the frustration of blowing up. I really struggled mentally between 7-9k, tormenting myself with visions of the oasis of the finish line! Then I got to the 9k and I could see the area where we’d started, and assumed that was the finish too, and I felt I could manage to add just a little extra pace in the knowledge that I would be finishing soon, even though I knew I would not be breaking any personal bests today (at least it seemed unlikely according to my Garmin!) - so I overtook this guy who was in front of me and off I went, and reached the start line area - only to be told by a marshall the finish was another 450 metres, round another big bend! I could have sworn I had run 2k since the 9k marker, not one, and certainly thought I had run more than 500metres - but Garmin and marshall agreed with each other! I was tiring badly now and started swearing at myself! I could see the finish line, but 100 metres was starting to feel like torture - and by the time I staggered to the line with nothing left at all, the guy I had overtaken around 9k came running past me, - well done him, it was all a bit tortoise and hare! Wish I had just paced that last k a little better or had more of an idea where the finish line was going to be! I clocked 54:58 with my Garmin, with official time 55:06 (although I had started at the back of the field so that added the extra 8 seconds from gun time!). As I went through the funnel, a lovely little girl came and handed my my t-shirt, and I went to get some water as I slowly got my breath back and started the road to recovery!
With hindsight, I am pleased with the time, although wasn’t really thrilled at the time and felt pretty exhausted on finishing. In my favour, I had the heat and the inclines to deal with, both of which affected my pace, so the fact I was only 30 seconds off my PB was really good - I reckon in flat, cool conditions I would have smashed my PB. I talked to more experienced runner after the race, and he said it was pretty much the hardest run he had done with the heat and the hills. So I can take some comfort from that, and in all it was good experience - and getting experience of different conditions and race terrains is going to help me a lot in future (assuming I continue with this crazy hobby!). I now know I need to do a bit more hill work, in case any hills crop up in future races, as for the weather, well, I will just have to play that by ear, as it is generally so unpredictable in the UK - at least I have no plans to do Marathons in Arizona or other absurdly hot places!
And now I have done a few races, I will at least have some “course PBs” to aim for next year - so I will be able to do the Moonraker 10k again in 2009, and see if I can smash the time (although who knows, maybe it will be raining for the next one!) - maybe I will even find out why it is called the Moonraker! If you know, do post a comment!
The main thing for me is, I really, really wanted to stop, I felt like I was dying in the latter stages, but I didn’t quit, and faced up to the challenge, gritted my teeth and just kept going - and really, underneath it all, that is what it’s all about for me 
Posted on Jul 26, 2008 under Easy Runs |
I’ve had an easy running week, after deciding to experiment a little. Last race I did, I took 3 days off before the race and felt sluggish and rusty on the day, and struggled a bit - so decided to have an easy week, but do an easy run the day before the race to see what kind of effect this has… Well truthfully, life got in the way of running a little bit this week - but I might as well looked at it as one of those weeks that planned itself as an easy running week!
It seems to be the hottest weekend of the year in the UK, and felt blisteringly hot today! I went out aiming to do about 6k at an easy pace, started off slowly - then got to and kept up a reasonable and steady pace but the heat was becoming a bit of a struggle.
Normally I would have carried on, but when I came near a steep hilly length of my run, I stopped after clocking just 4k. I was breathing very hard and didn’t want to tire myself before tomorrow’s race - so just walked the last couple of K in very hot sun, took a while to recover and my lungs felt a bit over stretched!
Is running the day before a race a good idea or not? I will let you know tomorrow!
Posted on Jul 23, 2008 under 5k, Tempo Runs |
I’d had a couple of rest days after my longer run on Sunday, and was feeling fresh and ready for a run - I had one of my 5k specials planned, mixture of a tempo run and unofficial time trial! Judging from my run on Sunday, it seems that I can manage 26 minutes pace for 5k comfortably, and can likely maintain it over a full 10k, so I wanted to run a bit faster than that (using the “hard, pushing towards uncomfortable, but not flat out” definition of a tempo run), and was hoping to run sub 25 for the second time.
This didn’t work out - weatherwise, it felt a bit warm and muggy before I set off, so humidity must have been up (when I checked later it was relative humidity of 75%). I set off at a slowish pace and got to 2k, and even at that point I was wondering if I would have to stop, as I wasn’t feeling all that great and my legs felt a bit heavy, although I was managing to keep at roundabouts 5 mins per k pace, but had to slow a bit to keep myself from blowing up, as I at least wanted to finish my paltry 5k! I just felt if I went any quicker, I would over do it and not be able to finish, and there’s something within me that doesn’t like admitting defeat by stopping before I’ve done what I set out to do!
As it happened, I was able to go a little bit quicker at the end, but it wasn’t like the sprint finish I managed when I first broke the 25 minutes barrier. I was very glad to stop in the end and didn’t have much at all left! I felt really warm, and was still gasping for breath 2-3 minutes after stopping, plus my legs felt wobbly. And I had practically killed myself to run 5k in 25m 17s! I have run it faster the last 2 times!
However, I did a bit of research, and there are theories about how conditions affect runners. So, how does humidity affect runners and their running? In my case it seemed to reduce my efficiency, I was having to work much harder and I could actually sense my heart and lungs working overtime, plus recovery time after the run seemed to take a lot longer.
One thing humidity does is stop the body cooling as effectively - in dry air conditions, the sweat evaporates quickly and cools the skin, helping the body to cool down. The higher the humidity, the less effective this system becomes, so the body can’t cool down normally.
An interesting theory I read claims that because their are more microscopic water droplets in the air when it’s humid, it means that your oxygen supply is effectively saturated with water - although there is plenty of excess oxygen in the air, the amount of water droplets reduces how much and how effectively the lungs can process it - so the heart and lungs start working harder because they are doing what is normally expected of them, without getting sufficient oxygen. Some say this theory holds no water (if you pardon the joke!) but I definitely suffered from this today - my lungs were screaming for oxygen by the end, and it was unusual for me to take quite so long for my breathing to get back to normal - as if the lungs were working a few more minutes to get all that oxygen into the starved heart and muscles?
It’s interesting - I will definitely keep more of an eye on the conditions in future, and it may be an idea to slow my pace on muggy humid days - hopefully it will have almost been like a bit of altitude training, and next time I run in OK conditions, I will smash through my target time!
Posted on Jul 20, 2008 under 10-15k, Regular Runs |
This was a bit of a strange run really - in the sense that I was intending to run 12k, which I did in the end, but I was indecisive at times whether to turn it into a 10k time trial. Set off and was feeling a bit heavy legged, even though not going for a crazy pace. Found some rhythm by time I got to woods and tried to keep up a fastish pace I was comfortable with. Because this was my usual 10k time trial route up to a point, I couldn’t help keep checking the Garmin, and think I went over 5k in just about 26 mins, not bad considering I was pacing myself for a 12k (or was at least supposed to be!). I carried on, and psychologically I was looking at my Garmin and thinking, if I carry on the regular time trial route, I could get a training PB easily, and was tempted to do it. I felt good, and that I could add more pace if necessary. But I thought I would carry on up to the canal, and just see what time roughly I got past 10k in, and then carry on for a few more k at that pace if I could.
Then disaster struck, I kind of got lost on my way up to the canal (this is where a bit of formal planning might have helped instead of just ad hoc’ing it!), and had thought there was a small hilly bit with not too much of an incline, but ended up going substantially uphill and this slowed me down. Then I reached a huge almost vertical wooden staircase going up and up, and had to walk up this, there was no way in hell I could have run up it by that point - getting to the top more or less destroyed my rhythm and set my heart fit to bursting - I started running again on the canal path, but my legs felt gone, and I could never get better than 7mins per k after that, my legs were heavy and I was tiring. I thought i might finish at 11k, but carried on, back onto the last bit of road leading to my house, and ran up a susbtantially steep bit of road, which nearly finished me off again, but I carried on until I staggered to a stop at 12k.
If I could have continued on the flat I could have kept up 52m 10k pace for the 12k, but the inclines and huge staircase killed me. Will not do a time trial now before the Moonraker 10k race next week, as it might be a nice surprise if I do better, instead of expecting it because I’ve just done a good training time.
It was interesting that I ran the first 8k at what would have been a PB 10k pace by about 2 minutes, and then was at least able to carry on beyond 10k, even surviving hills and staircase - so hopefully it will add to my fitness and take me up a few more rungs on the ladder. Am tentatively hoping for 52 mins now at the race next week!
This week, I think a little speedwork, tempo run and easy run, and a couple days rest before the race, and we’ll see! (Although I believe the first 2k of my race is uphill, so I may have nightmares both before and after!) 
Posted on Jul 18, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Again I put this down as a tempo run, although am not sure what the correct terminology is, as it’s not strictly a tempo run but more of a hard run/time trial. My feeling is, to run a faster 10k, I need to be able to maintain a sub 25 pace over 5k first - if I can’t do that, there’s no way I would be able to do it over 10k! In any case, I probably ran it too hard for it to be a tempo run, so it was more of a time trial, as I was running a very hard pace, and not comfortable!
I set off maybe a bit too quickly on this run, and got the pacing a bit wrong in the early stages, as I was doing well within 5 mins per k pace - something like 4:30 at times. Had to slow when the 4th k was up an incline, then the last k was flying downwards, I put on a burst of speed in this last k and thought I might blast through in well under 25 mins, but trundled over in 25m 11s, slower than my last 5k time trial, and I found this a hard run! Was pretty knackered when I finished, but was at least able to replicate the 25 minutes-ish pace of my last 5k tempo/time trial. I would really have struggled to carry on at this pace for 10k, but if I keep improving, 25 minute 5k pace may come to seem as easy as 26 minutes pace is for me now (but wasn’t a few weeks back!)
Posted on Jul 16, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Supposedly an easy run, but found it quite hard. Had sore ankles after long run on Sunday, plus right big toenail fell off with blacktoe, so needed a couple of rest days and decided to make this a generally easy week to let the legs recover a little from last few weeks.
Went on normal 5k time trial route, resisted temptation to turn it into a tempo run, ended up running it in 26 17 at a pace that was easy for me, but still felt a bit heavy legged and glad to stop at the end. A few weeks ago 26 17 would have been my best time going hell for leather, so nice to do it at a gentle trot and know that on a good day I will have plenty in reserve to get further under the 25 minute mark and aim for 24
Posted on Jul 13, 2008 under Distance, Long Runs, above 15k |
My longest run to date - both in terms of distance and duration. It was a hot and sunny day, and starting out at 12pm, I knew I would need some liquid so took a bottle of gatorade which served me well.
Set off at a benign pace and my lungs and legs appreciated this, didn’t find myself struggling too much but settled into an enjoyable pace and kept going until reached canal, last time I had run along there was when I was at school doing the summer “mini marathon” many years ago!
Had to negotiate some very muddy bits, fortunately I had my trail shoes on and not my brand new white Asics! Had mud all over my legs but felt like a proper runner that way! Kept going at a manageable pace, felt really good - when I reached the long canal tunnel at Romiley, I turned back, as the last time I had been through there I was walking, and needed a flashlight and delicate footing - running through was no go unless I was going to happy spraining an ankle!! Will have to see if there’s another way round for next time, as it kind of curtailed the run. I had done about 6 or 7 k by that point, so had doubled that by the time I’d run all the way back with a few detours and an interesting hill which I found quite easy to my surprise. Had to run around the streets a bit to make it up to my intended 16k, which is more or less 10 miles - first time I have ever covered such a distance (will have to run the extra 100 metres to make it an official 10 miles, but the uphills and mud probably added that anyway!!)
A really enjoyable run, nice to run in hot sunny weather, had to really slow down at the end, but felt throughout I could have gone faster if I had wanted or needed to - but that would have defeated the object of having a long, slow run!
My legs were a bit wobbly when I stopped running - but I had run for over an hour and a half continuously and at a reasonable pace (6mins per kilometre) - feel it will stand me in good stead for the future, and I find the long runs are really good for mental endurance as well as building physical stamina 
Posted on Jul 11, 2008 under 5k, PB's, Tempo Runs |
Been taking it easy more or less since my hard 10k race on Sunday - had recovery run on Tuesday, so thought I’d get back to training with one of my 5k tempo runs, thought it would be interesting to see how my body responded to pushing the pace up a bit, and how my new Asics shoes responded as well! (They are a bargain neutral cushioned shoe I got from Sportshoes.com
Set off thinking I was going at pretty easy pace, but was just above 5 mins per k according to the Garmin; I felt Ok so got up to a comfortable but fastish (for me!) pace and kept going, only occasionally feeling the need to go into a recovery pace but resisting the temptation to slow down, and at times quickening up. Felt good even though according to Garmin I was well under 5m per k at times - had moments where I felt I was really flying, strides were long and quick, but at my level currently, to keep that up would be suicidal!
By the time got to my last finishing street with finishing lampost in sight (this is a regular route I run when doing tempo runs, to make sure my personal time trial isn’t affected by terrain, route, hills etc), thought I was going to crawl in over 26 minutes as usual, but gave it all I had, and noticed the Garmin said 24:30 with the finish in sight, so I sprinted (or ran clumsily fast at any rate!) and clocked the 5k up in 24:59.
I’ve finally broken the 25 mins - only just! But I feel there’s a lot more to come - the other week I was killing myself to do it in 26 minutes, and had stagnated at that kind of time for a while.
Average pace was easy to work out, at 5 minutes per k, but at times ran considerably faster - not a pace I could maintain for a long time, but can try to keep doing it for longer and build sustainable pace that way. So I know I can run at about 4 minutes per kilometre for short periods - maintaining that for 5k would mean a 20 minute 5k or a 40 minute 10k - am a long way off from that, perhaps impossibly so - but my goal of a sub 50 10k is at least in sight!!
Very pleased with this run and felt elated to beat the clock at last 24 minutes in sight now!
Posted on Jul 08, 2008 under 5-10k, Easy Runs, Recovery Runs |
First run after my 10k race on Sunday, following rest day yesterday. Legs felt tight warming up. Had also bitten the bullet and ordered the Asics online, as I have a pair of neutral trail shoes which have served me fine for mixed/trail training, but don’t seem right for pure road running and races. The new shoes feel comfortable, and very well cushioned and didn’t feel any difference really (but they look quite cool!)
Started off on a random route, through local park then around the streets, ending up on my haughton route in reverse and running all the way back home. As it was a recovery run tried to keep pace slowish, but at one point did throw in some long strides and went up to 3.5 minutes per k for about a minute, before slowing down again, and slowly jogged down to a stop towards the end.
Felt relatively good - and was an easy run compared to Sunday’s race, I look forward to some 5k tempo runs, and some long runs now in preparation for next race, which is not all that far away really!
