Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Training 15th June-28th June and Stortford 10 Race Report

Week Commencing 15th June 2009

Mon: rest
Tue: 64 minutes at a decent clip with Sean, Anthony (met for first time), Tash and Alex.
Wed: 10 minute warm up, Hilly mile- won comfortably
Thu: Rest - leaving OUCCC party - was truly awesome.
Fri: 10 minute warm-up, Champion miler track handicap race- result irrelevant, won champion mier series. Then beer mile, won in a comfortable 6:21 with a double chunder but clear by over a minute. Marstons Pedigree was the name of the game.
Sat: 40 minutes easy
Sun: 10 minute warm-up, Henham 10k, won in 35:10 over very tough terrain, tempoed with 2 others till just before 8k then kicked clear over rthe space of about 400m and cruised it in

Week Commencing 22nd June 2009
Mon: Down with a really sore throat and general grogginess having slept something like 20 out of the last 24 hours. Ran at Omega as was Pete's last night before he moves to Switzerland. 25:56 @ 6:45mm
Tue: AM 38:30 easy as still suffering generally with mum alongside on bike. PM 59:30 at 7:30mm but horrendous terrain and a fair few breaks to ask "where the hell are we?" more like 7mm and closing at low/sub6mm for the last mile and a half.
Wed: AM 40 easy- much faster and easier than yesterday PM 40 easy
Thu: PM: 60 w. 25m warm up, 10m warm down and 10 x minute hills (90 jog down)
Fri: 75 easy inc. 5@tempoish and 10 barefoot around rugby club
Sat: 40 easy inc. 15 barefoot around rugby club, hamstring/groin issue still playing up a bit. Would have done a second run but realised would go over 450 which didn't want to do for first week back.
Sun: 15 easy warm-up, 10 miles, 58:41, worked on the same principle as last week. Race was a 10k and a 10 mile and again just sat in before easily surging clear then relaxing again. 8 minutes warm-down. Would have done more but thought I'd lost my wallet.
Total: 451, first decent week- only bad thing was the hamstring/groin playing up but doesn't seem to be getting worse.

Stortford 10 Race Report:

Race started at a slowish tempo going through first k in 3:30 and first mile in 5:40 but then it sped up going through 2k in about 6:45, 3k in 10:10 and 2 miles in 10:53 though slightly downhill. Shortly after that we went from decent road onto completely awful terrain- mostly tracks and the sides of fields. By this point the race had it seemed been whittled down to 2 of us. Me and Grant Ramsey from Barnet and District- a very enthusiastic bloke who's taken up the steeplechase and regularly travels around the country to the cross-challenge fixtures. I lurked behind him as we went around the country-side (fairly amiably, commenting to each other how how it was etc., I think if someone at this level got annoyed at me sitting behind then I'd just kick on then, might be different in a championship) including a killer hill at 7 miles. At 8.5 miles I surged past and quickly put some distance on him after about 400m and eased off again and ran relaxed in. Unfortunately another bloke from Serpentine that I'd thought we'd dropped caught him in the last 50m and he didn't have time to react. Overall quite pleased with an awesome trophy, very relaxed run on the whole and time must have been worth significantly faster as it was literally a XC course from about 3 miles in and managed to fairly comfortably go past two blokes who ran 2:35 and 2:37 at London this year.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Training Week Commencing 8th June 2009

Monday: Rest (exams)
Tuesday: rest (finishing exams, getting hammered)
Wednesday: 60 minutes at about 7mm with Matt Hawcroft- tipping it down but a really good run- slight tightness in my right hip flexor over the last mile or so.
Thursday: 15 w.u. with about 10 minutes barefoot on grass, session was 5 x mile off a lap jog recovery and started well with Garrett but was soon clear that something was up and I wasn't running right. First two were dead on pace at 5:00,5:00 but needed to go to the loo and was unable to seriously get bacck on hte pace. Did about 600 of that rep then 400,rest,400 of the next before 800, rest,400 of the last one so did a total of about 6k at 5k pace but not good at all. Did a long warm down, about 23 minutes. Really not sure why I struggled so badly this time.
Fri: Rest
Sat: Boars Hill 64 minutes
Sun: 76 minutes with Paddy, Cathy and Andy. Really pleasant run around various parts of North Oxford on a glorious day.
Total: Still don't want to know

Really interesting week starting running again at the same time as getting slightly inebriated most nights. Very difficult to motivate yourself to bash out 60 minutes when it's filthy weather and you've got a ridiculous hangover. Only for a week though. Aiming for closer to 60 miles next week.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Week Commencing 1/06/2009

Another poor week- some athletes only manage to post when doing well but for me it's only when I'm on a shocker!

Mon: Rest
Tue: Rest
Wed: warm up, 5k in 15:52 pacing Michelle with a 66 last lap- pushed too hard on the first 200
Thu: rest
Fri: 45 easy 6.4 miles absolutely tipping it down in buckets.
Sat: Nothing
Sun: Nothing- revising
Total/Review: another piss poor week unfortunately but I'll get a jog in tomorrow- be hopelessly drunk on Tuesday and then hopefully be back into full training by next Monday with next week being a case of just gradually getting my body used to running again.

On the plus side my body's niggles should now be totally gone allowing a serious push towards some big PBs - most importantly usually this period of 3 weeks or so would be spent totally injured most years - as it is I don't think I've had a week with no running since the end of September despite some niggles but I think I'm getting better at managing them.

A few weeks of 20 is better than one more week of 60 and then a month or more (usually more for me) of no running whatsoever. These will probably be the worst weeks of my life in terms of stress so not surprising the running will take a bit of a dip! If it was for longer I would have concentrated more on getting some training in but as it is it's a useful break to get me ready for a push towards the Autumn and Winter with maybe a few track races thrown in as well.

Diet has also gone to pot so I've put about a stone on but that'll fly off when I start running miles again. I work in a very odd (and potentially dangerous) reverse equilibrium in that when I'm running a lot I often don't eat a huge amount but when I'm not running I really big out...

Bryn Running

Training diary and musings on running in general.