2015 so far

With 2 months of the year well and truly gone, it seems a good time to give a bit of an update on things.  I've managed to get some really good training in and also some good races so I'm pretty happy where I'm at in preparation for my main Spring target which is the Manchester marathon.

It hasn't all been smooth sailing as I ended last year and started this year as a somewhat crippled old man.  I was still recovering from November's 100km World Champs and every time I went running or got up off the couch after sitting for a while my entire body seemed to be creaking and groaning.  I guess that's a taster of things to come when I get a bit older and it's a long term reality, definitely not looking forward to that one!  I managed some ok running in December but it was a struggle to get under 7 minute miles at times though in the end I cranked out 352 miles, mainly off single runs.

January started with a double parkrun on New Year's day where I managed to bag a double win and a double course record, despite getting lost on the first lap of the Peckham Rye course.  I tried to do the double double last year too but I went wrong on the Valentine's course which scuppered my chances.  It's almost a given that I'll go wrong somewhere when attempting a new parkrun course but that adds to the fun of it I guess.  2 days later and I was lining up for the Middlesex cross country county champs at a very boggy heavy going Ally Pally.  I really struggled to get going in the thick mud and was pleased enough to secure 3rd place when I was just getting back into things.

Having done these low key runs "races" (I know, parkrun is not a race!) I was starting to feel more in the groove and was finally mentally up to the task of getting some proper sessions in, even if my body was still grumbling a little (actually, it was grumbling a lot!).  It was also time to up the miles and get back to double days as this really helps bring me back into shape.  Mid way through January, I had a really good session down at Battersea Park, running a sub 70 half as part of the 11x1km/0.93km session (21.3km total).  It was only meant to be 10 reps but I couldn't do all that work and not run a sub 70 half on a school night;-)  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was given I ran the whole thing on my own and considering that at the start of January I thought I'd struggle to break 70 at Watford Half on Feb 1st!

Another Saturday came so it was time to revisit Barking parkrun where I had lowered the course record by a few seconds to 15:52 4 weeks earlier.  I thought I had a shot of breaking 15 this time but would have been happy with anything around 15:15 as I thought that was slightly more realistic, especially considering I'd already run over 100 miles in the previous 5 days!  I managed to run 15:02 which was both good and slightly annoying that I was so close to breaking 15.  Nevertheless, I was back into the swing of things and my confidence was rising.  January was a pretty hefty month with 517 miles on the board, including a 150 mile week thrown in there to stimulate some hurt factor.

I caught up with my coach Nick Anderson to go over my plan going forward and we had a really good chat which helped me get in the right frame of mind for some upcoming races.  It's little things like this that can make having a coach invaluable as people are often so caught up in their training that they fail to see issues that are right in front of them.  Luckily for me, Nick is more than happy to tell me how it is and I don't mind hearing it.  To give my Wife credit, she says a lot of the same things, it's just I have a harder time listening to her which is must come back to some primitive male instinct;-)

Anyway, Watford Half was first and for the last 2 years I've come 2nd to Yared Hagos who is a pretty handy runner from Ethiopia.  Thinking back, I've always done this race as a training run where I'm trying to run a consistent pace so didn't cover any moves from Yared and just let him go.  This year, however, I decided to race it.  Not only that, I was going to race it naked!  Ok, so it was the start of February and it was freezing cold so I wouldn't have helped my manly status much by literally racing naked, rather, I was going to implement one of Nick's suggestions and run without a gps.  I still had my watch on to record it but it was covered up so I wasn't looking at it every 30 seconds as I probably do.  The idea being that you are not imposing artificial barriers on yourself and you are running purely on how you feel.  Being a marathoner, I think I've learned all too well how to pace myself reasonably well and avoid going over the red line or even too close to it.  Whilst this can obviously be a good thing in a marathon, it doesn't always help in shorter races as you are potentially holding back, checking to make sure you're not going too fast or that your heart rate is not too high.  With this slight change in strategy I ended up having a really good battle with Yared before I dropped him at 11 miles and won in my fastest time yet of 66:52.  It was good to know that they had actually added an extra hill to the course to avoid an area that was flooded last year.

Me with Yared Hagos after the race, positions reversed this year! 1st 66:52

Next on the plan and a week after Watford was the Wokingham half marathon with the idea to race it hard and see what happens.  I adopted a similar strategy to Watford in that I was going to race it naked.  Having said that, I was still getting pace feedback from the big clock in front of me on the lead car but that was only every mile compared to the dozen or so times I would look at my watch normally.  There was a good group of 3 of us, including Phil Wicks who holds the Wokingham course record of 63 low.  There was only a small breeze as we headed away from the start/finish area and Phil was in front leading the way.  I made some effort to go to the front at times but it wasn't too long before Phil was back in front.  The other guy running with us was Gary Murray from Ireland who is a pretty decent runner with a 3:59 mile to his name and he seemed pretty happy to sit in behind us.  We went through the first few miles pretty swiftly and by 5 miles I had beaten my road 5 mile pb by nearly 10 seconds as we went through in around 24:10.  I was still feeling really good and we kept the pace, going through 10km just outside 30 minutes which is only a tad slower than my 10km road pb!  At around 8 miles I went to the front and put in a little bit of effort and only Gary came with me.  I knew I was on for a big pb so long as I could keep churning out the miles which was made somewhat easier knowing I had the 2 other guys hot on my heels.  Gary dropped off pretty quickly and I went through 10M in a massive 10 mile pb of around 48:45.  I had an outside chance of a sub 64 if I could hammer it home but I knew the last couple of miles were a bit tougher as we had a couple of uphill sections to contend with.  Sure enough, I couldn't quite keep going at the pace I needed for the sub 64 but I was still knocking out sub 5 minute miles.  I ended up winning in 64:18 which was a pb by 61 seconds, not bad at the end of a 100 mile week!  Going in to the race I knew I was in pb shape but didn't realise by how much.  It was a huge help having some company to keep the pace going until I was on my own at 8 miles and now a sub 64 doesn't seem anywhere near as daunting.

2015 Wokingham Half. 1st 64:18

With Watford and Wokingham wins under my wing (alliteration extreme!) it was time to move on to another letter of the alphabet and the lucky one this time around was B for Brighton and Bath!  Having won Brighton the past 2 years I was really keen to defend my title and go for the triple crown, especially as it was also the 25th anniversary of the race.  Karen and I love visiting Brighton as it's abundance of little cafes and being by the water reminds us of Wellington back in NZ, not to mention the wind that can whip up.  Since Karen was also running we opted to make a weekend of it to make things more relaxed.

My rough plan was to run marathon pace to about 10M and then come home strong. That held together for about 6M before I decided to drop the other 3 guys I had for company with a 4:53 mile. From there I was just trying to run strong to the finish and going through 10M a fraction over 20 minutes later meant I had averaged 5s for the last 4M (miles 7-10 were into a bit of a breeze which made it harder). I needed a 15:20 last 5km to match my course record from last year and with a little bit of a swirling tail wind along the promenade I came home with a 4s course record of 65:48.  In 2nd place was Kevin Rojas who ran a big pb of 66:46 and is going from strength to strength.  Karen also ran a massive pb so it was a good day all round.

2015 Brighton Half start. 1st 65:48

Next on the agenda was Bath Half which I had planned as a pb attempt so I had an easier week in prep for this with a full track session on Tuesday and then just easy running for the rest of the week. The weather was looking a bit dicey with some strong winds but I factored that into my race plan which was to try to sit behind the Kenyans and shelter! It would mean a pretty brisk start but if I could stick with them for 4 miles then I'd be well on track. As it turned out, my fellow Run Fast team mates had some visa delays so didn't make it out of Kenya as planned. Time for a new plan! I had no idea who else was running other than Tadele Geremew who is a handy 64 min half runner. Also, to add to the pressure I had now become favourite to win with my recent 64 from Wokingham and if I did win I would become the first British winner since Huw Lobb won in 2003.  Having won 3 out of 3 half marathons I was going for number 4 and maybe it was a sign but my bib number was 4!

I was confident of running a good time so I went to the front from the start and pushed the pace. There was some company for the first mile but after that I was on my own.  I kept a solid pace on the first lap and was more or less on pb pace at 10km (30:38) but I think the extra effort needed to hit the pace into the windy section of the first lap meant my 2nd lap suffered as a result.  I guess this wasn't really helped by having to run slightly wide on the 2nd lap as you go around the bulk of other runners.  I knew Dean Lacy was behind me and he's been having a cracking cross country season so knew he'd be strong to the finish which meant no let up for me!  By 12 miles Dean had closed the gap a little and with the uphill finish ahead I knew I had to keep pushing. I had a bit left and managed a 4:56 last mile (including the uphill) and was delighted to take the win in 65:28.

2015 Bath Half. 1st 65:28

So that capped off a really good set of races with 4 half marathon wins in 5 weeks and a stonking new pb. My mileage has been pretty decent through it all (see the 9 weeks below - 112 mile average) and I'm now looking forward to some training races before going for broke at Reading half.

29-Dec-2014 to 04-Jan-2015  99.53 miles (incl a few parkruns and Middlesex XC)
05-Jan-2015 to 11-Jan-2015 100.05 miles
12-Jan-2015 to 18-Jan-2015 121.87 miles
19-Jan-2015 to 25-Jan-2015 150.66 miles (incl parkrun 15:02)
26-Jan-2015 to 01-Feb-2015 104.74 miles (incl Watford Half 66:52)
02-Feb-2015 to 08-Feb-2015 109.68 miles (incl Wokingham Half 64:18)
09-Feb-2015 to 15-Feb-2015 132.19 miles
16-Feb-2015 to 22-Feb-2015 110.76 miles (incl Brighton Half 65:48)
23-Feb-2015 to 01-Mar-2015  81.47 miles (incl Bath Half 65:28)
9 weeks average = 112 miles

Keep on running, keep on racing!

Mile End Track Sessions

I've been asked about the track sessions held down at the Mile End track a number of times this year so figured it would be a good idea to get some info down to help others considering joining the #tracktuesday fun.  I've provided a very quick summary of what it's all about but there is plenty of detail further down below the map.

Where? Mile End Stadium
When? Every Tuesday 7:30pm
What? Track session focusing on vo2 max
How much? £3.20 track entrance fee (£26.45 for a quarterly pass)
Who? Anyone!
Why? Why not!



Whether you're a beginner looking to tap into some valuable speed work or a seasoned runner looking for a bit of company to help push your pace then track sessions are certainly a good way of achieving this.  The track sessions at Mile End stadium are held every Tuesday and are open to anyone regardless of ability or running club (or lack of as the case may be).  They are there so you can run fast with a group of like minded runners and with a large range in abilities it is likely you'll have someone to share the work with.

The entrance to the track is just off Rhodeswell Road.  Nearby transport includes the D7 and 277 buses, Mile End tube, and Westferry DLR and it's pretty central so very easy to run there as a warmup from Canary Wharf and even Central London.  The sessions start just after 7:30pm so you need to come warmed up ready to start or get there earlier to do whatever warmup you need and we congregate down the back straight just past the 1500m start. The track fee is £3.20 and there is an option to buy a 3 month track pass which costs £26.45 which is great value as going 8 out of 13 weeks is roughly the break even point.

The sessions are typical vo2 max sessions and in general you will run 7km-10km of volume made up from a range of reps ranging anywhere from 400m to 2000m.  The paces are typically 1500m/3000m pace for the shorter reps and getting up to 10km pace for the longer reps, so all the reps (7km-10km volume) are intended to be run at 10km pace or quicker. Obviously it is down to the individual as to how hard they push so even running slightly slower is still beneficial.

To give you an idea of what kind of session this all translates to I've given a few examples of some sessions we've done this year.  I prefer to jog the recovery to make the session that little bit harder but some people do a standing recovery or walk back to the start, up to you really!

4x800 4x400 4x800 all off 60s recovery
800s@5k pace 400s@3k pace

4x800 2x1600 2x400 all off 70s recovery
800s@5k pace 1600s@10k pace 400s@3k pace

4x(2000 400) off 70s recovery
2000s@10k pace 400s@3k pace

Regarding the actual running of the session, the man behind it is Peter McHugh from Run Fast. Peter is old school in his approach and loves running so we're really lucky he gives up his time to run the session and stand around in the cold calling out lap times week in week out! One of my favourite memories was during the great snow fall of January 2013 the hardy souls who turned up all had a good 30 minute workout before the session which consisted of removing the snow from lane 1 #TheShowMustGoOn. We always start at the 1500m line and Peter will blow a whistle once the first runners finish the rep which means everyone stops and makes their way back to the start line so everyone can start the next rep together. This means that if you are not right up the front then you won't be running the full distance of the rep, rather you will be running a time, so you don't have to be daunted by a 2000m rep as in reality you may only run 1600m, for example.

One last thing to note is that there is no pre published schedule for the sessions and we just turn up and find out on the night. This should still fit into most people's schedule as chances are you will have a vo2 component somewhere, and if not then you should really think about adding one as it will benefit you regardless of the distance you are training for. For me, it works well as I'm not particularly concerned with the makeup of the session, rather, I'm concerned that I know I'm getting in a really good vo2 max session. Besides, finding out the session 30 seconds before you start is way more fun!

Hopefully there's enough info there to entice a few more along. I know having not done track sessions before can make it intimidating but once you've got a couple under your belt you'll reap the rewards!

We look forward to seeing you on #tracktuesday...