Diary Of A Road Runner

17km Long Run - Sunny - Canal towards Marple - 1h 43m 07s

First really long run in a couple of weeks, and at 17k or about 10.5 miles, the longest I have done to date!

There was a carnival parade on outside my house, so I took a detour round some back streets instead of heading straight down the road to the woods. This got me nicely warmed up though. I was planning to do 8 miles, but to carry on beyond that if I felt like doing more, so I got to the canal trail heading towards Marple, and whereas last time I had turned back at the long tunnel (Woodley Tunnel), this time I braved this dark and dank 160 metre long affair, with a nice splash into God knows what in the pitch darkness near the middle of the tunnel! Running through a dark tunnel with uncertain footing was certainly a test, but I kept going and made it through to daylight!

I decided to keep going along the interminable canal path until I got to 10k, and then turn back - anything else was madness, as the path goes on for many miles and branches off onto other canal networks further on, so I didn’t want to get carried away and strand myself!

I was feeling good all this time, and even managed little bursts of extra pace now and then, but was generally going very slowly (about 6 mins per k). On the way back I did start to look forward to stopping, and by the time I got to the 17k mark, I considered carrying on up Stockport Road to make it a round 11 miles, but decided my legs had had enough without adding a steep hill into the equation, and I think I was right as my legs felt very wobbly on the 10 minute walk home.

All in all a good run and didn’t feel too bad afterwards, apart from feeling pretty sleepy a few hours later!

5K Time Trial - Warm Day - 24m 14s PB!

Today it was back to my regular (weekly if possible) 5k time trial as haven’t done one for a bit with races and stuff.

I did a bit of jogging to get warmed up, then set off, aiming to go hard and keep going somehow! I managed to run a fairly even pace, towards the end I thought I might break 24 minute barrier if I went hell for leather but Garmin seemed to tick distance over slower the faster I went and I ended up at 24:14 - still a PB by some 25 seconds but still needs work as I feel I should be improving faster!

Splits for this run were:

4:51
5:02
4:41
4:58
4:42

I hope to include my splits now I’ve figured out how to set it up on my Garmin Forerunner 101 (can’t afford the Garmin 405 and besides the kit I’ve got does me just fine for what I want it to do!

10k’s Worth of Hill Work - 54m 51s

Seeing as my next 10k is described as “undulating” I thought I’d better put in some hill work.

Weather cold to start off with, but sun came out about half way - went off quite slowly, 2nd k downhill was quick, then the hard hill reps began! Felt I went quicker up the hill than last time I did this routine, of course it hurt going up the hill but I held it together and even went for a fourth lap, but ended up only going half way down and back up the hill again (less severe incline at the top) as I could tell I was getting pretty tired - still managed to put on a little burst at the end until slowly jogging down to the 10k mark.

Recovery Run in the cold and grey! 5k 26m 23s

Easy recovery run after Trafford 10k on Sunday. Found a lap’s worth of streets going down Town Lane and leading back to Stockport Road.

Legs and CVS system still felt fresh - no hangover from racing. Ran a pretty mixed pace run, started off a bit quickly, did a kilo as slow as 5:30 but went quicker for short bursts, slowed down for the last one, completed 5k in 26 23. Felt fine and could easily have gone quicker for longer - but it was an easy recovery run!

Mizuno Trafford 10k Sept 2008 - Cold - 51m 57s PB!

The Mizuno Trafford 10k.

After an easy training week, I had nonetheless been feeling tired in the week and over the weekend, so it was with some trepidation that I rose at 7am on Sunday morning and got ready for this race. After such a good PB in my last race, I was wondering if I could repeat such feats, and was even dreaming of a sub 50. I looked out and the weather was blessed - cold and wet!

My taxi arrived and off I went on a 20 mile Odyssey to Partington on the other side of Manchester. Had a chat with the taxi driver, and then was mostly quiet. Arrived at Partington Leisure Centre in plenty of time and had leisure to find the few toilets and the start, then soaked up the atmosphere and jogged around a bit to get warmed up.

The lineup was a bit chaotic at first, I thought we were starting at a gate, but we needed to exit the gate and then line up facing the right way (I know what I mean!). I was fairly near the back, but this has worked for me in the past. Off went the horn and off everyone went, although it took me a small while to actually reach the start line. It was all pretty crowded at first and I felt I was going slowly, so darted about a bit to get some clear road. The plan had been to start off quite slowly, about 5:10 per k, and slowly build up. I did feel I was going slowly, but the Garmin clicked over 1k in 4:30 - way too fast. But then it was another 30-40 seconds of running before the official 1k marker came up, and I thought oh no, it’s like the City of Manchester 10k all over again - that time the discrepancy between my Garmin and the markers had really messed me up, but experience must have helped this time, and I thought I would just run to the Garmin and then see what the time was at the end. So I kept going, and slowed noticeably according to the Garmin, although I didn’t feel I was going that much slower. In the early stages a few people overtook me and I overtook quite a few, a lot of the way it was fairly even. A couple did overtake me very early on and I kept them in my sights, they never got out of sight, at least! I was glad when 5k came up and I kept trying to at least not lose pace even if I didn’t feel I could increase it - I was feeling frustrated because the sense of ease I had felt in my last race wasn’t coming and I knew I would have to push my legs hard all the way to the end.

At about 8k I caught up the small group that had overtaken me earlier, and bided my time, hanging on their shoulder. At 9k, my legs were feeling heavy and I was breathing hard, but I found something within me to accelerate past them and one or two others as well, and when I looked back they weren’t going to catch me, even though I had started hurting by then and wondering if my legs were going to give out under me as I sprinted hard for the finish! I overtook another lady, and then this other lady grabbed her child from the crowd and started doing a victory approach with him, which was touching. I almost kind of let them win, but sprinted past them on the line, not because I wanted to beat them, but to get as fast a time as possible. I had not been convinced I was even on PB pace (by 5 KM I knew I would struggle to do a sub 50 for sure), but after a fumble with the Garmin which stop-started it instead of stopping it, I came out with a time of 51:57 - almost another minute off my PB of a few weeks ago, and the Garmin said I completed 10.2k as well (in which case I would have passed 10k at 51:05 according to my lap counter!). My official time was 52:08, but it took 11 seconds after the horn to actually reach the start line!

So having done a number of races, some are spot on with the Garmin, others I seem to end up running over distance - but it’s just one of those things. The sure thing is, even though I found this race harder than the last one, I in fact ran a whole minute faster than the last one - maybe that’s why it hurt! But that 4:30 start off pace needs working down, unless I can work out a way to start off like that and keep it going

4k Jog - light preparation for Sunday race!

Just a light jog but felt quite tough don’t know why! Not looking good for Sunday race at this rate, just can’t seem to find an easy gear at the moment!

8K Easy Run - Mill Lane & Woods, 47 mins

The ever mis-named easy run - was feeling reluctant to go out for some reason, having had two days off had a mini crisis about whether I was able to run and keep going - after all this time! So had to force myself out telling myself it would just be an easy run - I kept the pace very slow, following a new route which I have walked before. Used trail shoes - felt a bit puffy in the early stages and some steps cut in the hillside took it out of legs a bit as I ran up them, just kept going very slowly, ended up going uphill up Stockport road and just jogged lightly home - whereupon it started raining again - I seem to keep missing the September showers.

How I felt on this run worries me a little, as I felt I couldn’t have gone much faster and maintained it - so hope another couple of rest days and an easy run before Sunday’s race will stand me in good stead!

5k Time Trial Tempo Run Mash Up - 24m 57s

This was one of those easy runs that suddenly turned into a time trial tempo run kind of mash up

I decided to do my 5k time trial route but in reverse, and just run it hard but comfortable and run to how I felt rather than keep checking the Garmin. But at 2k I felt comfortable and couldn’t resist checking the Garmin - and as I felt comfortable and was doing sub 25 min pace, I thought I would push on, and at that point it turned into a time trial. Mid way was a hill I usually coast down, but was climbing it this time and it took it out of my legs, but I ran the last 2k damned hard, so hard it took me a couple of minutes to stop breathing hard when I stopped - and only just broke 25 mins, so the hill bit must have slowed me a bit more than I thought.

I’ve had a week with little to no improvement, which is likely because I have been running quite intensively and now need a bit of a break - will have an easy week leading up to next Sunday’s Trafford 10k, throw in a 5k time trial, but mostly easy runs to keep fitness where it is and not burn too much energy - but on today’s evidence I wouldn’t be able to run the 2 sub 25 min 5k’s that would result in a sub 50 10k, but on the day who knows

8k Easy Run - Raining - 45m 06s

The ever misnamed easy run! Was raining when I went out, great I thought, but it stopped once I’d warmed up a bit

Ran at about 5:30/k pace, deliberately slowed at points, felt ok but legs were starting to feel pretty heavy towards the end - think last weeks workouts and Sunday’s ten miler are still in the legs, so a rest day tomorrow before deciding on strategy for pre-Trafford 10k week

5k Weekly Time Trial - Raining - 25m 28s

BIT OF A BAD RUN!!

Well, in a way - was quite experimental, as I was determined to run the first 3 k of my weekly 5k time trial at or just over 25 minute pace, and then put in a burst for the last 2k when feeling good.

At 1k I was 5:10, at 2k 10:20, but didn’t quicken up, thinking I would soon start to feel comfortable and would be able to up the pace, but it never came - after 3k I was just playing catch up and couldn’t find any extra pace or energy, and I must have been losing pace in fact as by the end I was a whole minute or so off my normal 5k time…

This either means the best policy is to go off sub 25 pace from the outset and just maintain it, or I’ve just had a bad day. I did run my heaviest week ever last week so maybe the legs are feeling it - then again I did just have a 2 day rest

Still, I find I sometimes shoot off a PB after a particularly bad run, so who knows