Two weeks ago I set a PB at Wilmslow in just over 1:42 and was hoping to go quicker this time. The slight worry I had was that I dug pretty deep to pull that time out of the bag and my recovery was slow – showing how hard I had run. Would I be able to repeat the same trick only 2 weeks on?

Once into the race I settled in to a 7 min 20 pace per mile which should see me inside the 1:40. This was almost exactly the same as Wilmslow, the difference there was that I wasn’t able to maintain the pace after the 90 minute mark and had to slow down. Here I felt strong and I carried a gel to give me an energy boost at the 10 mile marker. The tactic worked a treat and the only problem I had was a crampy twinge in my right hamstring after 11 miles. I slowed down a touch just to be careful and crossed the line in 1:39:23 knocking 3 minutes 15 seconds off my PB and getting under the 1:40 mark – just.

I ran quite a large amount of the race with a guy called Dominic Goggins who was doing the full distance, the 2nd of 12 marathons he has planned this year. Just to break up the monotony, he is also attempting to break the record fro the coast to coast run from Carlisle to Newcastle along Hadrian’s Wall (apparently the 80 odd miles record is 19 hrs something). Anyway, he is doing it all for charity and his website is due to be launched in a few day’s time – I’ll link to it when it’s live. I hope you got to the finish OK, Dominic, and best of luck with the fundraising.

2009 race start - the weather was much nicer today!

Photo under a CC licence from Thomas Peoples on Flickr

There is a half marathon run alongside the full Blackpool event, so looking at the bigger picture I think I’ve answered my own question.

The half marathon isn’t a distance that I’ve tackled very often so I think my pb for the distance was around 1:45 set many years ago in a half around the lanes near Market Harborough back in the early 80s

The start was cool and breezy and I set off in running tights and long sleeved thermals. Many were dressed in lycra shorts and vests and looked frankly frozen. I quickly picked up the pace and knocked out 7:30 for the first 8 miles. Things were looking good. The weather was warming up and I started to feel a little overdressed – maybe the lycra crew had called it right? The 10th mile was a real hard effort to try and keep on the 1:40 schedule and by the 11th I was on the ragged edge.  I finally blew up after 1:29 and backed off  a bit just missing my 1:40 target. Still, 1:42:38 was a PB for the distance and considering that I’d cycled 60km the day before, I’m pretty pleased wth the time.

To make the day even sweeter the mighty Saints stuffed Carlisle 4-1 at Wembley in front of 44,000 Saints fans (I’d hoped to get some tickets but they sold out before going on general sale). And in cycling, Russell Downing more than justified his late signing for Tam Sky by taking out Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador among others to win a stage of the Criterium Intenational. This was backed up late in the day by David Millar winnig the timetrial in the same event.

As I said, a great day’s sport.

Amazingly, I’m running really well. The calf has benefited from the rest, as well as all the extra yoga and core strength that I’ve been doing. I’ve been making sure that all my runs have a high cadence element to them at some point, and I’m keeping the intensity much higher than I normally would at this time of year. Hopefully, this will mean that the fitness will come back relatively quickly.

The cycling, on the other hand, has been little short of a disaster. I managed to commute to and from work once last week, and my legs were shocked. It didn’t help that I’d switched from a compact crankset to a 52/39 as I want to train much more specifically for time trialling this year. At some point I’m going to have to switch back to a compact, as I haven’t got a hope in hell of getting round the Fred Whitton on a standard crankset. In the meantime, my legs are just going to have to take the burn as I try and build the strength to turn over bigger gears on the flat.

I'm in the Fred Whitton for 2010 again

This is not me running!

I’ve always taking the view that running is just something you do. Run faster, run further and you just get fitter. Doing drills and skills sessions have never been my cup of tea – I like doing the odd fartlek session and the occasional pyramid when I’m feeling fit, but that’s about the limit. On Sunday I read Joe Friel’s blog piece about speed training and it chimed with me. Being short, I’ve always had quite a fast cadence (time between strides), but this is prone to slowing down with fatigue. I liked the idea of running like a Kenyan – after all they win just about everything! So, what would the impact be on a 10k run where I concentrated on nothing but cadence?

My plan was to run at above 90 right foot strikes per minute (time yourself over 20 secs and multiply by 3) for the duration of the run. Usually, my cadence is in the high 80s, but when I’m fit and strong it will be about 90.  I can’t  maintain such a high cadence for the duration of a long run and it will often drop off to around 80. For this run, if I started to get out of breath I would try to shorten my stride rather than reduce my cadence.

Normally, at this time of year I’m starting to get the base mileage in and I run very much on feel and for the fun of it. My 10k times have dropped off from 43 or 44 minutes in the summer to around 50 to 52 minutes: Saturday’s run was 52:30, and I did a 10k last week in 48:43 which is quite a reasonable time for me in December. I thought I might be around 48 minutes for my cadence run.

Very quickly I noticed that by concentrating on cadence I was working a bit harder so I was slightly concerned that I might not be able to maintain the pace.  I quickly realised that by running at my normal stride length at such a high cadence would have me busting through my HR max in no time, so as planned, I shortened my stride length and settled into a rhythm that was comfortable. By checking every few minutes, or whenever I felt I was slowing down I kept my cadence to approximately 96 strikes per minute for the whole run. The result was a time of 45:30 for the 10k. What shocked me most was that although I was definitely running harder than I normally would at this time of year, once I had settled into a stride length that I was comfortable with I wasn’t running at an intensity that I couldn’t cope with.

Over 3 minutes faster than my previous best time for the month is an enormous leap and I’m not going to jump to any wild conclusions. However, I am going to include at least 1 cadence run in my weekly programme until that faster cadence becomes hard wired.

Image under a CC license from Flickr by Marty.FM

In Hannah’s words: 

On January 11th 2010, people all over the world will take charge and run the world. Literally. They will run a distance that is uniquely challenging to them and work towards a goal which is uniquely important to them and maybe even change the world in the process. It’s a great event which works on three different levels; a personal, an altruistic and a global. It is co-ordinated centrally through a website, run-the-world.org, and can be done by individuals as well as groups.

Participants choose a distance to run that would be a challenge to them; choose a charity to run on behalf of and to raise money for; pledge mileage to a country of their choice via run-the-world.org and then open the door, step outside and start to run. It’s as easy as that. 

Run the World is open to everyone, regardless of their age, level of fitness and the charity they wish to support and this alone makes it a good one for kids to get involved in.

I teach in a primary school in Gorton, Manchester and our head has agreed that everyone can participate in the Run the World event which we will be holding on our school pitch. As my class is Y6, I see this as a great opportunity for some wider learning and so I am putting my pupils in charge of the event.

First of all in the next couple of weeks we will do some PSHE and Citizenship work on charity and the power of joint action. Off the back of this the children will identify the charity that they would like to support and research the work this charity is involved with. We will then be able to talk to other people that we are asking for sponsorship from in a more meaningful way, explaining the premise of Run the World and talking about how many people working together can bring about change.

Then we need to decide which country to run for. The children will be asked to prepare a fact file on a country of their choice as homework and present their reasons for choosing that country in class – a great opportunity for me to focus on some speaking and listening in the context of persuasion, not to mention looking at geographical vocabulary. ICT will play part here as I know that many children will want to present their information to each other in digital format and we could use our blog to get their messages about what we are doing for Run the World out to the wider community. 

Our next move will be to calculate distances both for us to run and how far that will get us across the country of our choice on the run-the-world.org website. This will involve measuring the pitch and working out the perimeter, calculating how many miles we will achieve if every child in the school runs round it twice or more and then linking the two together to the distance across our chosen country. Plenty of real-life maths problems to get our teeth in to! And the children will be in total charge of their learning.

The next step will be to get the whole school community involved; teachers, TAs, parents, LOs and of-course the children and again this will be up to my class to get their support. Their powers of persuasion will be put to the test as there are a number of adults in the school community who “don’t run” – me included! I plan to play the part of the dissenting voice here and get them to work very hard to persuade me to dust off my trainers. There will also be opportunities to test their persuasive writing abilities with letters to the local press and more entries on our school blog. 

On the day itself, the children will be given the job of marshalling the runners, noting the miles and collecting and counting the money raised. They will also be able to challenge themselves to run as many circuits of the pitch as they can.

This is just how I plan to create a meaningful and personal learning experience for my class that can be shared with the whole school community. I would be really pleased to talk through any other ideas people have for any other opportunities linked to this event so please do email me. But even if all you do is run and talk to your class about the whats and the whys you will be taking a stand and making a difference. 

Go on, run the world! And for the next few weeks, let your pupils run it with you.

I’ve pledged a ten mile run for the 11th January and will use it to raise funds for the Behcet’s Syndrome Society. Let me know if you can join in – I’m going to ask the organisers for a blog/Facebook widget to show support.

My marathon running history is quite ancient and undistinguished, but it nevertheless exists. My first marathon was way back in June 1982 in Stoke on Trent. I was a first year student at Keele University and I remember a Kiwi mate returning from the sports centre to the hall of residence one miserable January evening and blithely announcing that he had signed up me and another friend for the Potteries Marathon that summer. Until then, my sport of choice had been squash, and I was just about good enough for the University 2nd team (moment of fame: I won the only rubber in a 9-1 hammering at the hands of Manchester University – I seem to remember that their 10th player had cried off at the last minute and they had to drag someone in off the street).

Marathon running was just starting its 80s boom and the Potteries race was one of the most prestigious marathons in the country. It boasted about 8000 entries and a course that was far from flat, including a legendary 25th mile up a long straight hill. We had no idea about training or kit and just set out to run harder and further and faster each time. Or standard circuit was almost 8km and our target was to run this in under 30 minutes – I can only remember one of us actually aver achieving this. Our running shoes were primitive, my weapon of choice being a pair of Nike Oceania shoes which had lamentably poor forefoot cushioning in particular. They obviously qualify as “retro cool” these days as there seems to be interest about them in various online auction sites.

Nike Oceania Trainers

I seem to remember that on race day itself  we were late for the start by a few minutes and as a result we set off at far too fast a pace. Nutrition was primitive at feed stations – we took on water or electrolyte drinks tasting of lime squash with a teaspoon of salt stirred in (not much has changed there, then). I remember a hilarious moment when Bob, the Kiwi, took a digestive biscuit from a spectator and Budge smacked it out of his hand giving him a right telling off. Without a sensible nutrition strategy the inevitable occurred and we collectively hit the wall. The last 6 miles were torture. Nevertheless the 3 of us crossed the line as a group in 3 hours 52 minutes, not a bad effort everything considered. The following day, however, I had muscle soreness the like of which I have never experienced since. It took me fully 3 or 4 minutes to walk the 100 metres from my bedroom to the hall refectory for lunch.

Undeterred, the following year I entered 3 marathons. Unfortunately, my two training partners dropped out: one, Bob the Kiwi, because it was his final year and work took over; the other, Budge, succumbed to our gruelling training regime and ended up in plaster with stress fractures to the shins from too many 18 training mile runs in crap running shoes. In my second season I ran the Derby Ramathon in 3:21, knocking over half an hour off my PB from last year. I could have gone a fair bit faster if I’d known how fit I was. That was followed up by my second go at the Potteries Marathon. This wan’t quite so successful due to the fact that the day before the race I’d been helping out as a roadie for the Students Union Ball, and the day itself turned out to be the hottest day of the year. I can’t remember my time, but I think I just sneaked in under the 4 hour mark. The final race of the year was the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham. I have a feeling it was early October and cool and I’m sure I would have set a pb in that race had it not been for the giant sized bowl of spag bol I consumed the night before. The spectacular consequences of choosing wholemeal pasta became apparent in about the 20th mile where I had to ask a Nottingham resident for emergency use of their loo. 27 years on, I apologise. Still, I managed 3:30.

My 3rd and final season of long distance running was less successful. I only entered a single race: the Adidas British Marathon in Bolton in August. I hadn’t trained properly at all and just returned from 2 weeks holiday in Spain prior to the race. I ended up with a time of something around 4:08, I think. I did beat Sir Jimmy Saville (he was only OBE in those days) by a few minutes, though, and remember running along with his entourage for a while. It is slightly ironic that the next marathon I was to run was also on the streets of Bolton, 25 years later!

And that was that. I turned to rock climbing, thereafter, although I did try to revive my running when I got made redundant in the late 80s crash. The trouble was, I went too fast and too far too quickly and succumbed to knee trouble after a few weeks of training.

I have my entry in for the Wilmslow half marathon in March already (get your entry in quickly as it always sells out) and 2 weeks later I’m going to line up at the start of the Blackpool Marathon on 11th April, 2010. I am approaching it as a training run for Ironman UK, so definitely won’t be trying to set a time: all the triathlon training manuals say that marathon running is too stressful on your body to contemplate as a training essential. Nevertheless, at the pace I compete at, and with the knowledge of how I seem to be pretty good at recovering from endurance events these days I’m reasonably confident that I will benefit from the extra mileage I’m going to need to put in. Whatever the pros and cons, it will certainly be a strange experience lining up for the start of my first marathon for 26 years.

Having decided that an Ironman is my main target for 2010, then I’ll really need to restructure my targets and calendar too. In order to improve my chances of getting under 13 hours I think I’ll need to do the following in training:

• Increase the volume in swimming and build up to over distance swims to avoid the danger of getting fatigued on the swim, as happened this year;
• Include more triathlons in the build up, including a half-ironman. While the cycle-sportives definitely helped build the endurance, I don’t think they were specific enough in nature to prepare me for a 112 mile bike leg with no stops;
• Do a marathon in the build up. This is quite controversial in that most people say that doing a marathon takes too much out of you and it’s not not necessary to do in order to complete the marathon at Ironman (as I’ve already proved). So I’m picking an early season marathon, and I won’t be going flat out to set a time. I think that targeting a marathon will get me to focus even more on my running through the winter (which had already improved a lot after last winter). It will definitely be part of my training, rather than a target in itself.

My calendar for 2010 now looks like this:

March: Wilmslow Half-Marathon (previously done in 2007 with disastrous consequences)

April: Blackpool Marathon (I haven’t done a marathon since 1984!)

May: Fred Whitton Challenge (gotta get under the magic 8 hour mark)

June: Bala Middle Distance triathlon (half-ironman – never done this race before)

August: Ironman UK (official date is not yet announced)

In addition to these, I might add a couple of Olympic distance triathlons before and after Bala (I’m thinking the Little Beaver and the Dambuster) as well as the odd sportive. It’s completely different to this year in which I did 5 sportives and only 1 triathlon in the buildup to Ironman UK.

Which Ironman?

The only question is which Ironman to do? Ironman UK now has a serious competitor in the shape of the Outlaw Triathlon. Taking place on August 8th 2010 at Holme Pierrepoint and finishing on the banks of the Trent in Nottingham, the Outlaw is organised by the same team that run the excellent Vitruvian half-ironman at Rutland Water. This means you are guaranteed a well organised event. Add that to a cost of only £179 to enter (Ironman UK cost £280 last year) and you can see why they’ve got quite a few entries already. The course is likely to be pretty fast, too. The M Dot brand is always going to be a draw, but they are going to have to raise their game next year after some of the well publicised criticisms of the 2009 event.

I’ll probably stick with Bolton for several reasons. Firstly, it’s close to home, so I can train on the course. Secondly, I’ve got a year’s race knowledge of the event to build on. And thirdly, Nottingham would require a couple of nights accommodation so making it more expensive for me overall anyway. I just hope the Bolton organisers rise to the challenge.

Holme Pierrepoint, venue for next August's Outlaw Triathlon

Image Credit: CC licence from Paddling on Flickr

Creative Commons image credit: Jeremy Brooks

Having had a calf muscle tighten so badly during a run last week that I had to stop, I immediately resorted to my tried and trusted stretching, ibuprofen and ice routine. The pull eased quite quickly and i didn’t feel it at all on the following couple of bike rides, one of which was nearly four hours long. Lat night I decided to try a run, exactly seven days after the injury. I took it very steadily and only dd my 6.5k short circuit. I could feel it pulling slightly and stretched and iced again as soon as I got home. Wondering how else I could aid the recovery I figured that massage might help. With a certain amount of trepidation I entered “self massage” into Google. I needn’t have worried, I got pages and pages of advice, all of it above board! Here is just one link I found to be useful: 

http://www.selfmassageforathletes.com/Running.html.

I can confirm that today the calf feels pretty good, and I’ll test it out with a further run tonight.