2013 Part Deux

[marathondan]

A couple of great runs at the weekend, indicating that I'm still in OK shape and poised to move back onto bigger things (should I want to).

Friday night seemed a good time to try some speedwork for the first time in a while, so I headed up to the field and put in as fast a lap as I could manage among the increasing tall grasses. It went very, very well: 3 miles at an average of 7:42 pace. A quick scan of the logs shows that the last time I ran any session at a faster average pace was back in Nov 2009. (Quite why I was doing tempo sessions in November I don't know; that's normally pre-marathon program time, but I'm sure my diary could tell me.) The third mile was done in 7:09, which is about as good as it gets for me.

Sunday night I tried taking it a bit longer, three laps at easy pace for a total just short of 6 miles. With a recent Richard Herring podcast in my ears, I approached it as one would a Sunday stroll or drive - no stress or pressure whatsoever. And with intelligent audio to fill my brain, it competely worked, about as relaxed as it's possible for a run to be. Pace was pleasantly marathonesque, and I was able to pick it up for the last mile.

Both times there was a little motivation hurdle to overcome, a moment's hesitation where I wondered whether to bother or not. After all, I'm not training for something, I don't need to run. But I've just gone over that tipping point where I feel it's better to run than not to run. Hopefully that will stay with me for a while.

[marathondan]

Pottering along reasonably well, getting in 2-3 runs per week despite the heat. This morning I took advantage of the relaxed family weekend schedule and went to Parkrun for the first time, at Wycombe Rye (home also to the excellent looking, recently reopened Lido, which we will no doubt make use of this summer). Fortunately it was the coolest day for a fortnight or so, still only 20C at 9am. I gave it a max effort and came in just under 22:30, which I was delighted with. Never run a 5K before.

With the increased cadence and mid-foot landing now a normal part of my running, I had been regularly noticing tight Achilles, and even that the tendons seem to look more convex than they used to when I was a heel-striker (maybe my imagination). So it was no great surprise when, with about 400m to go, one of them started giving out warning signals. Not a problem, because I had nothing left in the tank to give anyway. But I'm now hobbling a bit, and a few days' rest is needed to let it subside. Maybe another hard 5K in a couple of weeks' time would be a bad idea. But Luke is very keen to join me next time, and actually on the Sunday there's a Parkrun Junior not too far away, which is only 2K, so Naomi could have a go at that, too. Probably better for my ageing tendons.

Meanwhile I need to get the long runs up above 6 miles, to see if the Achilles will withstand high cadence for longer. New job starts in a couple of weeks, so I'm feeling a bit more at peace.

[marathondan]

The hobbling lasted a few days, and so I took a full week off to recover. Well, I won't do that again in a hurry. Doing it in a hurry was what caused the problem. Back in the groove tonight with 4.5 miles round the field at easy pace to check everything's OK, which it seems to be. We're more than a moon past the solstice now so it's dark at 10pm; it was a refreshing change to be picking out the dark ribbon of path in the faint starlight. Even the bunnies were in bed. Hoping to do a more sedate Parkrun this weekend with some of the offspring.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

That's good news indeed ... keep it coming!

[Sweder]

22'30" on debut? Excellent form, Dan. If you can go regularly you'll drop that as you get used to running flat out with your lungs in your throat. Bravo!

[marathondan]

22'30" on debut? Excellent form, Dan. If you can go regularly you'll drop that as you get used to running flat out with your lungs in your throat. Bravo!

The trick will be to do it without knackering my achilles. If I do go again, I'll have to back it off a bit and then try and build up gradually. This is only a school holidays treat though, as Sat mornings are usually busy during term time.

[marathondan]

Back to Wycombe parkrun on Sat at a slightly more sedate pace, this time with miniMDs 1 and 2 in tow. Luke (10) went off ahead and finished happily, I trotted round the back of the field with Naomi (7) and another similar aged girl and her dad. Despite protestations of "I'm not a slow runner, I'm a sprinter", and what one might call an extreme run / walk strategy, she passed up the opportunity to bail out, and finished with a great sprint. There's also a monthly Sunday Parkrun Junior 2K near us, which we were also scheduled for, and Emma (nearly 5) was dead keen to do. But we didn't make that, owing to a late Saturday night, so the four of us took to the streets for an impromptu early evening 2K. Luke is now keen to get his K pace down, and I was very impressed with Emma's debut in that she took it at a very steady pace and needed hardly any walk breaks. And chatted non-stop, mostly explaining to me how important it is for children to take regular exercise.

Then with them all packed off to bed, I took to the field for 6 gentle miles as the stars came out. Nice.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Looks like you'll have some great young runners in training there Dan. Fun!

[marathondan]

Well Saturday rolled around again and the youngsters' enthusiasm had waned a little. Maybe they'd realised that running is mostly hard work. Anyway, I'm sure they'll be back. So no sense in me trying a solo parkrun, so I bagged an early morning 7.5 miles at easy pace. (Well, early morning by holiday standards - 7.30). Morning doesn't tend to be my favourite time to run - memories of pinging my foot one morning a fortnight before VLM12 still loom large - but this went very well. So much so that, after a rest day, I went out again this morning, this time for 4.5 miles tempo. Again, a very successful outing. My much-heralded new job - all working 4 days complete before taking 2 weeks leave - will give me a bit more time in the mornings, so maybe this is something I should do more of.

And while I seem to be on an up at the moment, I do really need something to train for, else it will all tail off again all too easily. I briefly thought I could finally get a crack at my hometown half, but it turns out it's on Emma's birthday party day - too much hassle. But I'll try and secure a half marathon entry in the next few weeks, to give me something to aim for.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

... But I'll try and secure a half marathon entry in the next few weeks, to give me something to aim for.

Yay!

[Sweder]

... But I'll try and secure a half marathon entry in the next few weeks, to give me something to aim for.

Yay!

Hmm ... the inaugural Lewes Marathon perhaps? Hmm?
*waggles eyebrows*

[marathondan]

Hmm ... the inaugural Lewes Marathon perhaps? Hmm?
*waggles eyebrows*

What's your current thinking on when it might take place?

[Sweder]

Hmm ... the inaugural Lewes Marathon perhaps? Hmm?
*waggles eyebrows*

What's your current thinking on when it might take place?

Spring 2014. I'm gunning for late Feb/ early March. The first one will be invitation only, a private affair. I don't have the time/ energy/ inclination to take on the viperous nest of red tape required to make this official. If the uptake is overwhelming I'd happily re-think, but many locals have muttered darkly about clashes with the Steyning Stinger (1st week of March) and the Brighton Half. C'est la vie.

I'm not going to worry about other races - there's always another one going on somewhere. Conversely some mad fool suggested hosting it on the Saturday with the Stinger on Sunday so they could go 'back to back'. I wish I were joking.

[marathondan]

One of my more successful and consistent Augusts in the bag. No doubt this has something to do with not completing a major event in the preceding few months.

70 miles in a month is no great shakes, but is probably around my ideal monthly mileage should I ever manage to run consistently all year round. 13 outings in 31 days (plus two jogs to the garage) indicates that I've almost hit my target of running every other day. This has no doubt been helped by the school holidays, and some generous leave and part-time working for me, so weekly routines have gone out of the window.

A couple of key statistics:

Proportion of runs done in the morning: 67% (hitherto almost unheard of levels of ante-meridianal activity)
Proportion of runs enjoyed: 100% (without much time pressure, motivation has been fairly high, but every time I've come back with a sense of a job well done)

Highlights have been getting in three morning runs along Fiume Mincio on hols - all maize farms, vineyards, sun rising above the trees, and dodging local anglers - and a road 11-miler last week, the furthest I've run in goodness knows how long. A summer holidays treat for Luke this year is going to band practice till 10pm, and I realised that rather than going home, I could use the two hour window for a long slow effort. So I mapped a loop near Waltham St Lawrence and headed into the deepening gloom - by the third lap I was running blind and there was a bit of leaping into verges to be done. But a sound slog, at 4 hour marathon pace, and I will try and get another one in this week before the return to schools curtail Luke's late nights.

I've just entered the Henley Half in mid October, to try and put this work to good use. I last ran this in 2007 (race report - took a while to find it, as it was part of a brief foray off the forum site). It's a pleasant mixed terrain affair with a decent field, decent support, and a decent hill - just what I need. (Note pic of young man now going to band practice til 10pm.)

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

We visited Henley during our jaunt through the UK - very pretty part of the world and undoubtedly a great place for a half mara.

Hmm, only six years on - are you going to have another crack at sub 1:45?

[marathondan]

We visited Henley during our jaunt through the UK - very pretty part of the world and undoubtedly a great place for a half mara.

Hmm, only six years on - are you going to have another crack at sub 1:45?

Yes, Henley is rather picturesque. And dripping with cash.

Hopefully I should be somewhere around 1:45 form, but who knows? The major unknown is that it's around a year since I changed my running style to mid/front foot, and I haven't run a race since then (except a 5K) - and haven't trained further than 11 miles. So it will be a new experience for a whole group of muscles, and I'll have to wait and see how they cope.

[marathondan]

4 weeks to the Henley Half

Reasonable progress continues to be made. Last week I tried a lunchtime tempo session in my new environs of Bracknell, a town which is much maligned for its lack of greenery. But I found a route, via some tortuous cycle paths, to a decent park and mill pond with a perimeter of about a kilometre - three laps of that, plus the getting there and back, did the job. You can't escape the sound of traffic, but it's possible to remain out of sight of it for half an hour.

Then later in the week another late night blind stumble around the lanes of Waltham St Lawrence while Luke went to band - another 11.4 miles on road. This is breaking new ground for me since adopting a shorter stride, especially on road - it may not sound much, but I can still feel a whole new group of muscles feeling sore, and sore they did feel for a good 3 or 4 days.

A busy weekend meant a full 5 day gap to the next outing, which was welcome after the tarmac-pounding. Then last night a slippery tempo session around the field under clear, autumnal skies. The real running weather has returned.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Why did you change your stride, Dan?

[marathondan]

Why did you change your stride, Dan?

Everybody says mid / forefoot running is better, so I thought I'd give it a go. El Gordo was talking about Chi quite a lot at the time. And I had a nasty foot flare-up just before VLM 2012 which nearly cost me my place on the start line. So I thought I'd try something different.

I've been surprised that I've been able to adapt to it quite seamlessly. It does feel more natural; sometimes I switch back to my old, slow heel-strike and it feels lumbering by comparison. But in some ways it's just shifted the stress from hips and ankles to achilles tendons. This half mara, and hopefully the ensuing full 26.2 next spring, will be interesting tests.

[marathondan]

3 weeks to the Henley half

Wednesday - the weekly grocery shopping list prevented a lunchtime run, and the days were slipping by, so I set the alarm early, drove to work in my running kit and jogged down to the park in Bracknell for an early morning interval session. Sluggish would be the best word. Miles banked, but short on both quality and joy.

Friday - with another busy weekend beckoning (a 60th birthday followed by a 70th - cue lots of stodgy food and champagne) there was only a limited window to get my tempo run in. The rain was lashing down outside and there were DVDs to be watched... but there was only one thing for it. Out the door, into the rain and take my long-suffering road shoes down to that muddy field. It was a belter of a run - 6 miles in my favourite conditions. By halfway, my technical top could wick no more, and was plastered to me. The rain curtain began to close, and visibility dropped more and more. Offroad laps complete, I returned to the streets to head for home through yellow-lit puddles and rivers running down the road's edge. Lovely stuff.

Soundtrack was a full play through of Iron Maiden's 7th Son of a 7th Son, which was just perfect. From the opening 1:24 of Moonchild as I set off down the road, through a sinister backdrop to sprinting round a dark field in the pouring rain, to the galloping finale of The Evil that Men Do, it was hard to imagine a better accompaniment.

Tuesday - time for a long one. 6 nocturnal laps round the field for a total of 10 miles. A much more civilized night than my previous outing - calm and mild. At 1:54 half mara pace it was a bit slower than I hope to run in three weeks, but good miles in the bank.