Making The Transition Part 5 - 5k / 10k Pace Intervals

So you've run hard for 8 weeks and then taken a week sitting on your backside. Or to phrase it another way letting the training seep into your body. I'll normally find that at this stage my body has recovered well over the last couple of weeks and with the strides done my legs are feeling pretty good with a bit of "zip" in them.

What's missing though is that although by this stage you've run quite a bit more than you have ever done before, and also quicker than you've ever done before you haven't ever really pushed yourself or your lungs to that breaking point that you frequently hit in races. You've done some sustained longer running but that's all been sub-maximal and you've finished feeling like you could go another round (or at least I hope you have...).

The next step is to start connecting the quick strides with some fast sustained running.

5k/10k Pace Intervals

What are they?

5k and 10k pace intervals are repetitions run at either your 5k or 10k pace or somewhere inbetween from between 400m to 2000m (faster than 5k for 400m reps and 10k pace for 2000m reps) for a total of 4000-12,000m. If you're not sure exactly what those paces are then you can interpolate between other race performances. 

You take recoveries of roughly half the time of the rep distance. These recoveries can vary from stationary recoveries to a relatively fast "float".

The Theory

5k and 10k pace intervals are the corner-stone of any succesful distance runners arsenal. Whether that's Seb Coe stating "the 5k pace sessions are golden" or Runners World advocating Yassoo 800s all plans include some work at 5k to 10k pace.

The physiological aspect of the training is that when you're running at your 5k pace you're running at very close to your VO2 max. There are complicated definitions for this but in payments terms your VO2 max is basically when you're breathing as hard as you possibly can. This occurs at roughly the speed you can maintain for 6-10 minutes but 5k pace is still relatively close and you can get a much greater volume of work in at 5k pace than you can at 3k pace. When you're running much faster than this then you can still only take in the same amount of oxygen but you need to generate more energy (which results in you generating higher lactate levels and causes the "burn" you'll experience in a middle distance race).

Running at your VO2 max (in the short term) will improve your bodies ability to take up oxygen. This means that for the same breath ox oxygen you're taking your body will use a greater proportion of the oxygen effectively.

The Practice

In theory you should run intervals at 3k pace for it to be your VO2 max. I don't like to run these at 3k pace for three reasons...

1. In the middle of a heavy training week I'd expect your notional 3k pace to feel more like your 1500 pace and similarly your 5k pace will feel more like your 3k pace. You therefore want to be training at closer to your 5k pace. The best way to describe this is to imagine you were running up a steep hill - would you still expect to run at 3k pace? No - you'd be running considerably slower for the same effort. The training you're doing is effectively making your body feel like it's going up that hill.

2. You can include a lot more volume in the sessions this way which is better for your running economy. Running economy is a slightly technical term but if you think of it in terms of piano practice it helps. It may be useful to do scales but at the end of the day the best thing to do is to practice the piece you're playing. By getting used to the pace you're planning to run you improve your ability to run at that pace through a whole number of minute tweaks.

3. VO2 max training has been shown to significantly decrease it's effectiveness after the initial 6 week "boost". Whilst some advocate it year around I prefer to back off and only hit the really intense stuff at 3k pace immediately before a big race.

Generally I find that using a progression from fast and brisk 400s at 3k pace up to intense 2ks at 10k pace is a great natural progression. There's also nothing to stop you mixing the session about and doing 400s to start with and finishing with 2ks and vice versa!

The pace you use will also be a function of your ability. If your 5k is pretty close to 10 minutes then your name is probably Bekele and Farah and this article will be of limited use to you. If on the other hand your 5k is over 20 minutes then you'll be wanting to train at closer to 3k pace. Similarly if your 5k is significantly under 20 minutes then 5k pace is your friend.

The recoveries should be half the length of the running time of the rep roughly. 

Opinions vary hugely regarding how you should spend your recovery. My personal favourite is to keep it relatively brisk and jog at my usual easy run pace. A favourite session when in sub 16 shape is 8 x 1000m off a 200m jog recovery in 75 seconds.

Generally I find it best to do these sessions on a track but equally find a measured stretch of road or even do the sessions by time.

The Schedule

So for 3 weeks we have the following schedule...

3 x 40-60 minute easy runs
20 easy, strides, 20 easy
15 warm-up, 5k/10k pace session, 15 warm-down
15 warm-up, 20 @ threshold, 15 warm-down

With the sessions being...

10 x 800 at 5k pace off 200 fast jog
8 x 1000 at 5 mile pace off 200 fast jog
8 x 1200 at 10k pace off 200 fast jog

After this block of 3 weeks you'll want to take an easy week again. This leaves our schedule looking like...

Weeks 1-4 - Get used to running 5/6 times a week
Weeks 5-8 - Incorporate threshold running and strides into your schedule.
Week 9 - Easy Week
Week 10-12 Hard Training (5k/10k Pace Work)
Week 13 - Easy Week

By this point you should be able to see some substantial improvements in your fitness at the end of the second easy week.

After this we move into 3 more weeks of intense training in Part 6 where we discuss Mile pace training (or running even harder intervals!).

If you've missed the previous entries you can catch up on them all at the below links or use the bottom link to go to a list of all my training articles.

Catch you on the trails,
Bryn

Part 1 - Easy Running

Part 2 - Threshold Training

Part 3 - Strides

Part 4 - Easy and Recovery Weeks

Part 5 - 5k/10k Training
Part 6 - Mile Pace Training

Index of Training Articles

Training Week Commencing 4th February 2013

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Rest + 60 cycling.
Wednesday: 6 miles v. slow (6)
Thursday: wu, 3 progressive laps BP from easy to steady, wd (8)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: wu, 2.5 miles XC (4)
Sunday: wu, 16.7 miles at 6:54mm (18)

Total: 36 miles

A pretty poor week by all standards but one I'm not totally unhappy with.

Before last Sunday's long run I'd felt a bit of tightness in my left groin. I'd ignored it as it'd gone away as soon as I started running but on Monday morning it definitely felt worse and I decided that running on it would be a bad idea. I hit the massage pretty hard but unfortunately

Annoyingly it then felt even worse on the Tuesday morning and I decided that rather than risk trying to do a track session it'd be better to do an easy exercise bike.

Wednesday I was feeling just about ready for a very slow run. It really was slow as I barely crawled around Wandsworth Common but at that slow pace the groin felt just about okay.

Thursday was a bigger test and for the first 300m of the run I was pretty terrified as my groin was feeling very tight. I pretty much decided I was just going to jog up to the track and set people off before I took the bus back. Thankfully after that 300m my groin eased off and I was able to get a couple of laps in. I took Friday off just to be careful before the XC.

Unfortunately I ended up pulling out of the XC mid-race. I felt dizzy on the morning of the race but decided I'd give it a go anyway. It hit again mid-race and I managed to keep going until our 10th scorer passed me at which point I was happy to drop out. Never like doing it but I'm glad I started rather than DNSed. Later in the evening my throat went pretty sore and I was a bit relieved that I had a virus rather than just some random dizzy thing.

Sunday's run was solid with the first half averaging about 7:14 and a much faster second half bringing the pace down to 6:54 as I kept switching the lead with Nick Burkitt and Tom Mitchell.

So - pretty poor week on the whole from the training front but at least I seem to have recovered from a potentially troublesome niggle and can start moving forward. Realistically this should probably have been an easier week anyway and so I'm probably only down 20-30  miles.

Onward and upward as they say.

Bryn

Training Week Commencing 28th January 2013

Coming off a good 2 weeks with fairly tired legs this was a crucial week to keep the mileage high.

Monday: 9.5 steady (7:33) + Core/Lifting (9.5)

Tuesday: long wu, 4,8,12,2k,12 (60) [75,2:31,3:59,7:00,4:14], wd (9.5)

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Easy run into work AM; PM long w/u, 2 laps at MP, 4 x 900 hard [60], 2 laps at MP (no recovery before first or last 900), short wd (19.5)

Times: (20:20, 2:59, 2:51, 2:56, 2:59, 20:22)
Paces: (05:48, 5:25, 5:16, 5:22, 5:29, 05:48).

Friday: Easy run into work AM; PM 4 easy (9.5)

Saturday: 10 easy at 8:13mm (10)

Sunday: wu, 18.75 at 7:42mm (20)

Total: 78 miles

Summary:

Another good week - Wednesday is working well as my rest day. I was really pleased with the Thursday session where I'm now averaging 10:10 laps. It's clearly a bit different from the other sessions with it being split into two sections but I think I'm making solid progress towards in the relatively near future being able to average 10 minutes per lap and feel strong.

The flip-side of having the strong Thursday sessions is that I've definitely noted the effect on the Sunday (and other) runs with the pace substantially increasing. I'm going to hit the massage implements a lot harder in the next couple of weeks and see what the effect is and hopefully the pace will start dropping - although I was pleased to cover 20 miles this week.

The next week brings a different challenge as I'm now working from Canary Wharf for 3 of the next 4 weeks with an office without showers (although there is another office with them about 15 minutes walk-away). The hours should however be shorter as I'll be studying. The focus is more likely to shift to big singles which given that I'm training for a marathon may be no bad thing. This will likely cause my average pace to drop even further and so I'm going to need to make sure that I'm incorporating form drills on a regular basis (which I have struggled with recently in the snow and cold) so that when my legs start to freshen up I'm able to race at my best.

I've also got the last Surrey League XC of the season. After a disastrous last fixture it'll be interesting to see if I run a bit better this time on tired but significantly fitter legs.

Right - that's it for this week. Catch you on the trails.

Training Week Commencing 21st January 2013

After last weeks solid effort this week was a real chance to consolidate. Unfortunately the snow wanted to make things difficult!

Training Week Commencing 14th January

Monday: 4 easy AM; PM 11 steady mostly at mid 6s with a few 5:4x miles thrown in. (15)

Tuesday:  4 easy AM; PM long wu, 10 x 800 (75 / 200m jog), wd - first 6 were at about 2:38/39 pace with next 4 about 2:52 as I eased off and ran comfortably - very icy track. (15.5)

Wednesday: wu, 2 laps BP steady, wd (6)

Thursday: 4 easy AM; long wu, 6 x (mile hard, 0.75 recovery) paces for miles were:- 5:44; 49; 38; 27; 33 and 35 (5:38mm AVG) recovery paces were:- 6:49, 50, 40, 36, 33 and 52 (6:43mm AVG) , Total = 6 laps at 64:06 ( AVG: 10:40 per lap /  6:06mm), wd (20)

Friday: Rest!

Saturday: 10 easy/steady (8mm) - 2 very slow miles on the snow then the rest of the run probably averaged 7:30 pace.

Sunday: wu then just short of 16 miles at 7:30mm around a very snowy and slippy Richmond park (running on snow / ice the entire team which made the run a lot harder!). (17)

Total mileage: 84

First "proper" mileage week in a while. Really enjoying the training at the moment. Reps are slowing down a little bit but I'm speeding up my steady runs over previous years (where 8mm could even be a "fast" run). That said the last two weeks had about 10-12 days of "hard" work but unfortunately a bad day either side made them look a bit poor.

Really pleased with the Thursday session as I haven't done a lot of that type of session in the past and it went pretty well. Especially pleased to average for the whole run as I was really worrying about my fitness to get extended tempos of that description done without redlining. Actual reps were 0.96 miles and 0.78 for the recoveries so I've just given paces above.

The Sunday run was okay - it was quite an experience running 16 miles around a totally snowed Richmond Park and I was shocked at how many people there were going around! Pace wasn't quick and the distance wasn't far but to be honest just to get a half decent effort in in poor conditions without slipping or picking up a niggle is pretty good.

Next week is gonna be a tough one.

Me and My Shoes...

As most people know I'm somewhat of a shoe geek. You know it's a bad thing when you have more significantly pairs of shoes than your significant other...

Despite this I've never really written much about shoes despite the fact that more than one training method, weekly mileage or surface I'm fairly sure they're the primary determinant of whether I get injured or not. The better you get the more you realise running is far more about staying injury free than actually training hard.

Firstly a little bit about me and shoes... Due to a structural abnormality in a bone around my achilles I can't run in shoes which have anything other than a very soft back. It's taken years of pain and achilles problems to get to this point. Usually I'd gradually build up my running until I decided I was fit enough to try running "properly" usually involving spikes or flats or just plain different shoes. I'd tweak something soon afterwards and my achilles would get progressively painful until I had to stop running. At one point at university I was fairly sure that I'd never be able to run without some fairly intense pain around my achilles.

It always bugged me that the pain was never in the actual achilles or in the flex of my foot. It always seemed to come from a "rubbing" sensation on the back of my ankle that just made my runs a nightmare. Different physios looked at it over the years and the diagnoses varied although I perhaps should have listened better to one who said "there's nothing there that could get injured, just a bit of bone".

Anyways - after many years of pain I finally found a shoe that I seemed to be able to train in as much as I wanted and have no pain at all. That shoe? The Vaporfly. A Nike shoe that came into being after the short-lived Mayfly. Noticeably more cushioned and with a fabric upper I suddenly found myself training on a regularly basis with almost no achilles pain. I still wore other shoes for the odd run but being able to put the majority of my mileage in these shoes helped my running make a quantum leap. I knocked up a solid 6 months of training and before I knew it I was running huge PBs including a sub 70 half.

Unfortunately... I didn't realise what the issue was or why my running had improved so much. I knew that the Vaporfly suited me but I couldn't tell you how or why. The shoes gradually fell apart (special thanks to Dave Norman who gave me a pair for free that he had lying around) and despite some amateur attempts at stitching them back together I ended up racing in some Nike Zoom Streak 2s. A very nice shoe and very fast (I actually wore them for my sub 70 half - and could barely walk after!) but not great for my achilles.

Wearing them at the Green Belt Relay along the towpath near Ware and Hertford 8 miles of constantly shifting underfoot and I was in severe pain. The next day I couldn't walk when I woke up. I ended up winning a stage after hiding behind the other bloke for 7 miles because I didn't want him to see I was limping whilst I was running... I never said I was clever... My achilles had managed to hold together for one more race but it was clear that they were going to need a lot of time to recover.

This time it was even worse and I seriously started to doubt whether I'd be able to race or even run again. Finally I just looked for a pair of shoes most like the Vaporfly. I still hadn't cottoned on totally and at one point was considering the Green Silence. A very nice shoe but one with a stiff back. Finally I settled on the Kinvara. The Kinvara had a tiny bit at the back that was fixed but was mostly very loose. As I started to clock up the miles I finally realised what was happening and that only shoes with a soft back gave me any relief.

A trip to Mark Buckingham confirmed the underlying reason. A small section of bone had developed at some point (possibly from birth) that would rub on the achilles and cause bad pain if I wore any sort of hard backed shoe. This wasn't just for my running shoes but also my formal/work shoes.

The Kinvara suited me well and I started to get into fantastic shape with some very fast tempos (7 miles at 5:20mm feeling very strong stands out) and more mileage than I'd ever run before. It had taken a long while to get over the injury from Green Belt but I was now making progress. Unfortunately my winter campaign hit a road block when I finally got to Reading. The previous year I'd been sick as a dog at the start but had gradually improved. This time I was struggling from the start and despite going through halfway in a similar time where I'd been kicking on then, now I was running awfully. Blood tests a few weeks later revealed I was anaemic. I'd never run enough mileage for that to happen before. The shoes were now working but my body wasn't! It took a lot of time for my body to recover and when it finally managed to I managed to strain a ligament in my back going down an escalator!

The final "big" shoe was the Nike Free. As I recovered from the ligament I tried a pair on randomly in Nike town and I was in love. The Free Run 2 was the perfect shoe for me with a soft back and a totally flexible sole. I'd always assumed that they were no good for anything but a quick trip to the gym or for warm up drills but I swiftly realised that this shoe totally matched my stride, had a lot of cushioning and most important would flex with my heel. It took a bit of time to get completely used to them but they swiftly became my stock trainer. There were a couple of niggles to begin with (mostly around my ankles and the side of my calves which struggled with the extra stability needed) but these have gradually disappeared.

I'm now running well, finally able to get the mileage in and, whilst I may have a few niggles from time to time, these are increasingly muscular and short-lived.

It's been a long journey, involving lots of miles and lots of shoes. I'm going to review a couple of the pairs I use in the next few months and hopefully it'll help at least a couple of other people sort out their problems.

Week Commencing 7th January 2013

First week of proper marathon training unfortunately ruined by a rather heavy night on the beer and wine and missing my Sunday long-run. Not a great start and I'm therefore on an alcohol ban for any day where I'm running the next day...

Week Commencing 31 Dec 2012

Mon: Rest - ill

Tuesday: 30 minutes slow up and down a hill (3.5)

Wednesday: 4 steady (6:58mm) AM; PM 6 steady (7:10ish) PM (10)

Thursday: wu, 3 laps BP (12:35,12:17,11:58 - AVG 12:17 / 7:00mm), short wd (7)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 4 miles easy AM; PM wu, 2 laps BP (12:38, 12:21 - AVG 12:30 / 7:08mm), wd (11.25)

Sunday: wu, 15.75 steady (AVG 6:57mm with last 1.75 @ 6:02mm) (17)

Total: 48.75 miles

Training Week Commencing 24th December 2012

Monday: 5 steady at 6:37mm (5)

Tuesday: Christmas day - rest

Wednesday: 10 easy at 7:05mm (10)

Thursday: Rest-ill

Friday: Rest - ill.

Saturday: wu, 1 lap steady (11:37 / 6:37mm), wd, was hacking up stuff afterwards. (4)

Sunday: Rest

19 miles

Training Week Commencing 17th December

Monday: Rest - Hayley surgery.

Tuesday: Rest - recuperation.

Wednesday: wu, 2 laps steady (11:14, 11:16, AVG:- 11:15 / 6:25mm), wd (6.5)

Thursday: wu, 2 steady (11:38, 11:16 avg:- 11:27 / 6:32mm), wd (6.5)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: wu, 10 miles hilly steady (6:38mm avg), wd (13)

Sunday: wu, 20 x 22 second strides, wd (7)

Total: 33 miles

Training Week Commencing 10th December 2012

Monday: Rest - ill and hip flexor painful

Tuesday: 30 very easy - hip flexor a bit better

Wednesday: 60

Thursday: 30 wu, 3 laps BP tempo, wd (10:52, 10:27, 10:32- AVG: 10:37 / 6:04mm)

Friday: 45 to work

Saturday: wu, 3 laps BP steady, wd (12:42, 11:22, 10:53- AVG: 11:49 / 6:39mm)

Sunday: Rest

Training Week Commencing 3rd December 2012

Monday: 69 steady + strength and conditioning session

Tuesday: 41 steady AM; PM 75 including 8,4,2,4,2,2,2 as part of an aborted session.

Wednesday: 46 AM; PM 38 + light swim

Thursday: 36 steady at lunch

Friday: Recovery

Saturday: wu, 3 laps BP steady, wd (12:21, 11:51, 11:46 - AVG: 11:59 / 6:51mm)

Sunday: 16.5 miles steady at 6.57mm.

Training W/C 26th November

Monday: 65 easy w. 4 minute hard burst - followed by core/weights/core.
Tuesday: wu, 8 x 800 off 80 (2:39, 33, 37, 37, 39, 35, 39, 35) wd - great session with Dan. Running within myself as this isn't the focus of the week but felt really good. Left hip was a bit tight.
Wednesday: 50 v. slow into work AM; 51 v. slow home from work.
Thursday: wu, 4 x mile off 90 at ~ 5:40mm (sub-maximal), wd
Friday: 44 to work
Saturday: 30 wu, Old Gits race (23:31), 15 wd AM; PM 33 easy
Sunday: 46 easy (hip flexor playing up post-race) AM; PM 55 exercise bike

Not a particularly hard week but volume was better - just hope hip flexor issue goes away.

Training W/C 19th November

Monday: 30 easy AM; 45 easy PM (75)

Tuesday: 45 easy AM; track PM (mile, mile, 800 - half session at ~5:20 pace)

Wednesday: 45 easy AM; 45 easy PM (90)

Thursday: rest

Friday: rest

Saturday: 37 minutes (stomach painful)

Sunday: 11 minutes (felt drained and fuzzy/dizzy)

Weird week. My stomach was playing up the whole time but was very much in the background in the earlier party of the week where a minor twinge in my hip flexor from the hill session last week playing up towards the end of runs was annoying. I also had a very weird and scary niggle where after about 2 minutes of running my right achilles/calf would go very tight and painful (almost too much to run) and then within a couple of minutes totally disappear and not bother me for the rest of the run.

Second half of the week my stomach got worse. Thursday I was planning to run in and got as far as kit on and all packed up before I decided I'd end up curled in a ball on the way to work. A leaving do on Thursday didn't help matters and my stomach was very painful on Friday. Saturday it held up for a but ended in me walking back in pain. Sunday I got 6 minutes into my run and was dizzy and confused (probably wasn't absorbing anything properly) so headed straight back.

Things seem to have perked up today with a decent run and core session and a better stomach. Hopefully it'll be a better week!

Training W/C 12/11/2012

Stressful week saw a decreased volume but a couple of good sessions and my best long run in quite a while.

Training W/C 5th November 2012

Monday: rest - gave the ankle a break and spent the day revising

Tuesday: Exam in morning. Wasn't going to do a session for a week or so but no one else was around to lead the session so headed down planning to set people off and do some easy laps but decided to give it a go.

Session was 4, 8, 12, 2k, 12, 8, 4 off 75 (120 after 2k rep) - (78, 2:37, 3:59, 7:00, 3:59, 2:36, 68) - really pleased as was running solo on a windy track and despite my lungs screaming the week off seems to have been fine.

Wednesday: 20 wu, 8 x 60 sec hill (90 jog down), 20 wd

Thursday: wu, 3 x lap BP off 90 (9:33, 10:13, 7:30 for 3/4), wd

First rep was too fast trying to stay with the guys. Second rep was too slow trying to recover. Third rep was just right but unfortunately 3 huge blisters were forming sure to wearing new Faas 300s and I had to stop and hobble/jog home.

Friday: 35 very easy, blisters okay after some home surgery the night before.

Saturday: wu, Surrey League XC (5th), wd

Good race on the whole. Started steadily in about 40th but had worked my way to the big lead group over the first mile. Walton runner got clear early on but a few of us pulled away on the first big hill chasing after those he'd dropped.

Second lap I was a bit lazy sitting behind a guildford runner. Really I should have tried to push on but given I'd not run for a week beforehand played it safe.

Sunday: 46 easy after moving.

Good week with some tough workouts. Very glad to see I've lost minimal fitness due to the ankle injury.

Nike Victory XC spikes were a revelation. First time ever I've been able to run in spikes with no pain. 10/10

Training W/C 29th October 2012

First part of the week was spent recovering from the ankle sprain with some light steady running in the second part of the week.

Training W/C 22nd October 2012

Was looking like a decent week until I managed to go over on my ankle pretty badly!

Training W/C 15th October

Poor week of training this week with only 4 proper runs but still clocked a decent number of minutes as each run was long and some good workouts as each contained some sort of session.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: wu, 8 x 880m (90), 30 easy, wd ( 2:54, 2:52, 2:51, 2:52, 2:53, 2:43 - AVG 2:51; 5:13mm)

Wednesday: 16 abortive run

Thursday: 92 steady averaging 7:04mm including 2 x 450m fast and 10 minutes at MP.

Friday: rest

Saturday: long wu + strides, Surrey League XC (11th)

Sunday: 2 hours with the last 30 split 10 steady / 10 MP / 5 tempo / 5 hard.

Summary:

Tuesday's session was a nice improvement over a very similar session a few weeks back with the pace increased by about 16 seconds per mile. (Previous session was 8 x same length with 2 minutes recovery averaging 3 minutes per rep).

Race was okay. Felt strong until the 1st hill when I started falling back. See race report for more details shortly.

Was a bit disappointed to not run more this week but I'd been feeling pretty rubbish and so taking an easier week helped. Still roughly 50 under the belt which after high 60s/low 70s for a fair few weeks is reasonable.

2012/13 Surrey XC League Division 2 - Race 1 Nork Park

With the turning of the leaves and the chill in the air Autumn has arrived and with it the XC season! After promotion two seasons ago and relegation last year by the tightest of margins (2 points...) the squad were keen to start the season strong and go back up as Champions.

Unfortunately due to the timing of the race a number of the club's faster and stalwart members were out of action for this first fixture together with the loss of Guy McLaren and Jamie White from last season. Without them it was always going to be a tough race but the enthusiasm of the team was not dinted and a number of new runners were keen to take advantage of the absences to make a name for themselves.

The race was held at Nork Park with a flat fast lap at the top of roughly a k followed by 3 longer laps of 2.5k. The longer laps were essentially down one side of the hill the park was set on, along the bottom of the park next to a road and then back up the other side of the hill to the top before you headed down again. Flat ground was at a premium! The course was almost entirely on grass with only a few areas particularly muddy. What was perhaps most disconcerting was that on the hill back up you were occasionally running on a camber and then on uneven and potholed ground for a short stretch. The course was clearly going to be challenging.

Andy O was deputising as Captain Fantastic and with 20 minutes to go was metaphorically pulling his hair out with only 7 names on the team sheet (10 to score) and a car of 5 stuck in South Wimbledon. The arrival of Graeme Buscke leading a phalanx of antipodean warriors left us confident we would finish a team and the subsequent arrivals of one of last years regulars Rory O'Neill left us believing we could not just finish a team but be competitive. Ryan Bayley's last second arrival left us over 20 strong and out numbering the other teams.

The race started quickly with the fast first lap and subsequent downhill leading to some of the fastest first miles ever recorded by many of the runners in a XC race. The race strung out fairly quickly with a serpentine stream of multi-coloured vests adorning the hills. A hair pin turn allowed you to see how your club mates were faring. The consensus was that the race passed quickly with most on their third and final lap of the race before they really felt the impact of the hill.

Jon Hamblen of  Walton on Thames athlete won the race by a clear margin however after that there was a steady stream of athletes. Graeme Buscke was second home for Chasers in 17th place despite struggling with an ITB issue which had forced him to withdraw from Abingdon the next day. It wasn't long until the next 3 Chasers came home together in a bunch sprint with Rob Tuer 21st, Rory O'Neill 22nd and Hamish Cropper 24th. Rob's run wasn't quite as good as he hoped but with Cabbage Patch today and Frankfurt next week he has a busy week scheduled. Look for Rob to be in the top 3 of one of these races by the end of the season. Rory's run, just as it did all last season, put us in a strong place and Hamish demonstrated the improvement he's made over the past 12 months.

A gap emerged and those of us watching started to get concerned as the vests streamed past without the blue, green and white present. Finally a Chasers vest appeared as debutante Luke Davis finished with a strong kick to overhaul a 15m lead the runner ahead of him had and pip him on the line. It demonstrated the Chasers spirit that was present throughout the day as not a single Chaser was passed that I noticed in the home stretch with several overtaking. Christian Rose-Day after a hard Thursday session closed shortly afterwards to make the top 50 by the skin of his teeth and 7th place for the Chasers with Nick Burkitt just missing out in 53rd but with a clear target for the next race. Sub 3 man Alan Scott fresh from supporting the ladies race got home in 63rd place, one place behind Walton's first non-scorer but leaving us in with a chance.

All eyes were now on who would be our final counter. Clive Perreira loomed around the corner and sprinted his hardest to power past his competitors and close the team in 74th place. Ryan Bayley followed closely behind in 78th place as our 11th man. Paul Wallace closed in 88th place. Andy O probably got the largest cheer of anyone finishing through-out the entire race in 98th place with Andrew Hobbs finishing immediately behind him and also making the top 100.

David Percival, Sam Morton and Dan Howell all finished before the final counter from other teams pushing their men further back and demonstrating that the Chasers have far greater strength in depth than any other club in the league. Rich Trubshaw, Kyle Fox and Christian Rijs all finished within 5 places of the final scorer of Tadworth showing they can be competitive at this level before former captain and mastermind of our previous promotion efforts Russell Thompson finished the Chasers contingent.

We knew we'd been competitive but were worried that we might not have done enough. The final scores showed that the team had pulled together and produced an awesome performance to finish 2nd in the league with 375 points and in the promotion places.

When we were relegated by such a tight margin last year a lot of people thought that we would storm this league easily and win by a (cross) country mile. Walton scored 250 points and to be frank we are going to have to work hard to overcome them this year. We can't be complacent in this league and although this was a great performance and rear-guard action given the loss of some of our superstars we really need to get everyone out there and training hard.

Leagues don't get won by the top 5 scorers in a team - they get won by the last 5 scorers. Tadworth had 4 runners in the top 20 but ended with 456 points. Walton similarly had 4 in the top 20 and ended up with 250 points because they closed their entire team barely outside the top 50.

So get out there, hitting the hills, the mud and the roads and lets see if we can overhaul Walton next time.

Bad runs

Today the initial intention was to run 90 minutes home from work. I realized quite late I was out the office tomorrow so couldn't run home as I needed my laptop.

Finally got home and headed out about 11pm for at least a half hour.

I use a saying from one of the faster American marathoners when it comes to these sort of days. Get out the door and if you still feel awful after 15 minutes call it.

15 minutes later my stomach felt horrendous and I'd put my foot in a pothole. Run called.

Back to the drawing board again tomorrow.

Training W/C 8th October 2012

This week was a relatively tough one with a hard week at work and also some ongoing achilles issues which flared up after the SEAA XC on Saturday. Despite that I still managed to clock some decent mileage whilst having an "easier" week.

Training Week Commencing 1st October 2012

Monday: rest

Tuesday: rest - still ill

Wednesday: 30 easy w. 6 x short strides AM; PM 70 steady

Thursday: 30 easy AM, PM 87 minutes including 3 laps BP (10:49, 10:49, 10:11 - AVG: 10:36 / 6:03mm)

Friday: 44 easy AM; 53 easy PM

Saturday: 58 wu, SEAA XC Relays (16:05), wd

Sunday: 2 hours to and around Wimbledon Common split - 30 easy, 5, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4 minutes hard with 5 minutes easy between, 35 easy

Despite being substantially better after Tuesday I remained semi-ill all week. Wasn't too worried about running through as the only symptoms were producing prodigious amounts of phlegm.

Not sure if it affected the race on Saturday but I was generally pleased. I thought it was a marginal improvement from my run at the 6 stage. At the 6 stage I was healthy, on my favorite surface and conditions (rain!) and raced really well. Here I was mildly ill, on my least favourite surface and conditions (sun!) and didn't race particularly well. A slightly better performance in overall terms is therefore quite encouraging.

The xc relays were a great day out on the whole and a real pleasure so full credit to Thames Valley Harriers who both organized it and won and especially my friend and former Tortoise teammate Sean Renfer. I know they aren't the best attended fixture in the calendar but they're a great start to the xc season on a mild non-challenging course with a fab atmosphere.

I really enjoyed Sunday's long run/ session which is a much milder version of a Charlie Spedding workout he details in 'From Last to First' (which is excellent). I really struggle to get a decent pace going on my long runs so this is a great alternative. Many runners refer to the long run as a session in itself and this just takes it one step further! The long recoveries mean that by the time you're starting the next rep you've already knocked 5 minutes off your long run. The combination of the recoveries and the relatively short duration and limited number of reps mean you can get some really good quality work done. By doing it on a xc course you're strengthening your legs, not worrying about pace and concentrating on getting the right effort.

Next up are 2 more weeks which should be in the mid 70s finishing with the first Surrey League D2 XC. Bring it on!

Training Week Commencing 24th September 2012

Monday: 30 easy in pouring rain; 58 run home
Tuesday: 44 run into work AM; PM 59 steady home
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: wu, 5 x laps BP increasing tempo (12:26, 11:45, 11:23, 10:23, 10:07 ; 7:05 to 5:48mm; AVG: 11:13 / 6:25mm), wd - not the fastest of runs but picked it up well at the end of a long day.
Friday: Rest, was going to do a shuffle at lunch but decided to celebrate exam results instead.
Saturday: 30 shuffle AM; PM wu, 3 x hill loop at ~MP (3), (16:29, 16:18, 16:13; AVG: 16:20 / 5:58mm ), wd
Sunday: 2 hrs easy at ~7:30mm though starting very slow and speeding up throughout run.

Solid week of running. Not much in the way of sessions but good volume and a sprinkling of faster stuff. Came down with a cold on Friday night and felt pretty awful Sat/Sun.

Training Week Commencing 17th September 2012

Monday: Rest. Woke up with splitting head and running nose.

Tuesday: wu, 8 x road 880m (2), wd - (3:01, 2:55, 3:04, 2:57, 3:02, 3:00, 3:03, 3:00 ; AVG: 3:00 / 5:29mm)

Wednesday: 30 steady AM; PM 45 easy

Thursday: 42 easy AM; PM 80 mins @ 7:12mm w. 4 x 0.97m pick ups (6.5 steady running recovery) (5:22 (168), 5:13 (171), 5:20 (169), 5:16 (171); AVG: 5:18 / 5:28mm)

Friday: 44 easy AM; PM 30 easy at lunch

Saturday: 73 easy

Sunday: wu, SEAA 6 stage relays, wd

Felt strong on Tuesday's session. Was running well in reserve and it was just nice to tick over feeling good after poor sessions last week. Was running into the wind on the odd reps and with the wind on the even ones.

Thursday was another good session when I was very tired after a long day at work. Long term keeping the pace of the faster sections constant and really pushing the recovery could make this a really effective session.

Still need to find out the time for Sunday's race. I felt fairly strong and was moving well in horrible conditions but just not fit enough yet.

Overall volume was a little lower than planned but still a good step up in the context of the last 6 months.

Training Week Commencing 10th September 2012

Monday: 45 jog testing hip flexor. Seemed fine. Bit unpleasant going past tooting common crime scene.

Tuesday: Aborted track session as was running abysmally and struggling at what is usually a comfortable pace and just did a long warmdown. 30 wu, mile, km, 600, 600, 35 wd

Wednesday: 41 run into work AM; 61 jog PM

Thursday: wu, 6 x ~mile (60) (5:44, 5:43, 5:43, 5:34, 5:31, 5:21), wd - good session on a stretch probably just under a mile. Did first 3 with Hayley then for the last 3 ran with her for a couple of minutes then pushed on. Much better than Tuesday and stride felt really solid.

Friday: 31 gradually speeding up over run.

Saturday: wu, 2 x 3.5 mile tempo off 60 seconds {2 laps BP}, wd (20:15, 20:46, AVG: 10:15 / 5.51mm) AM ; 33 easy + d + s PM

Sunday: 1:43 long run with middle hour at low 7mm.

Really struggled this week and not totally sure why. Apart from Tuesday I felt okay but just seemed to have lost about 20 seconds a mile. Bit confusing as although I had an easier week for the exams it shouldn't have affected me that much.

Thursday wasn't a phenomenal session but felt like I was getting a good aerobic effort in. Saturday I was struggling more with my legs which felt tired.

Part of it might be the effect of starting work again which always shatters me for the first week back.

Need to keep on working and get a few more solid weeks in and see if that helps.

Training Week Commencing 3rd September 2012

Monday: Flew to Portugal with flight at 6.45 in the morning so no morning run; PM 60 run along the cliffs quad feeling sore on steep downhills.

Tuesday: 60 run around acoteias AM; PM wu, d+s, 7 x ~2/3rd mile ( 3:50, 3:30, 3:46, 3:25, 3:45, 3:30, 3:47) wd - easy session with Hayley on acoteias with each rep two laps of the small grass loop at the bottom with a slight incline each lap. Alternating steady with tempo laps. Quad a little sore on the last couple.

Wednesday: Rest AM; PM 73 run mostly along cliffs. Sweating everywhere and very annoying not to have a shirt to stop it stinging my eyes.

Thursday: 45 jog AM; wu, d+s 5 x mile off 60 (6:02, 5:58, 5:56, 6:01, 5:56) wd - hilly and tough work underfoot as a mix of pine needles, sand and grass. Felt strong pacing Hayley around.

Friday: 30 jog with d + s AM; PM 90 run starting on acoteias, then onto the roads then a final two laps of acoteias.

Saturday: 40 jog on the dusty road AM; wu, 10 mins @ MP -tweaked a hip flexor going up a steep hill which fairly instantly let me know it wasn't going to let me carry on.

Sunday: Rest day. Traveling back. Hip flexor still a little sore but might be due to the massage. Think it'll be good to jog on tomorrow.

Great week of training really getting the volume back to reasonable levels. Was just getting back ready to do more serious sessions with a couple of light leg stretchers during the week but the tweaked hip flexor put paid to that. It seems to be settling down now on Sunday evening so hopefully I'll be back jogging tomorrow. And back to work and studying for my next exam in November...

Training Week Commencing 27th August 2012

Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: wu, 8x800 off 80 (2:43, 37, 37, 37, 39, 38, 34, 28) AVG: 2:37
Wednesday: 30 minutes easy
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: 45 jog - had an odd bit when really struggled to breathe when tried to run hard AM; PM rest - was planning an easy jog but after I got back my left quad had a really sore patch (the proverbial 'dead leg') so decided that given the morning I would ease off.
Sunday: 45 run - felt much better than yesterday but kept it relatively easy due to still sore quad.

Tuesday session was deliberately running easier. Session felt really good and big sign of the progress made over the past 2 months that I can call that easy.

This week was exam week with 5 professional exams so any training was a bonus. I thought doing university exams were hard when I took them but in comparison they were actually pretty easy. The sheer amount of work I can end up doing on the intensive course is pretty shocking.

I don't know how many who read this still have to do exams or are already done but in training terms they are killers. Not just because your training gets disrupted but because of the mental and physical toll.

Last time around I tried to do a couple of races immediately afterwards. I was awful. Went off at a normal pace for the first km and then died a death in a 5km and then in a half a few days later went through 8 miles at a similar pace to the 5km before the same thing happened.

So I've taken it much easier these last two weeks and can now ramp it up again.

Quad issue is annoying but should be fine in a few days. As you'll realize I'm incredibly cautious about injuries having spent so much time injured in the past 8 years.

Now off for a week in the sun in Portugal. Week with Hayley at Stella Maris hotel on the coast at Albufeira. I've been once before at 18 and it was a great two weeks with lots of fantastic running along the coast.

Training Week Commencing 20th August 2012

Monday: 45 going from easy to steady. Quad felt steadily better through run.
Tuesday: 55 easy, mostly with Hayley around Wandsworth. Quad marginal improvement.
Wednesday: 46 run around Common. Quad felt okay but bit niggly.
Thursday: 50 run home from office
Friday: Rest + climbing
Saturday: 65 minutes easy
Sunday: 41 run

Easy week as being careful with my quad. General trend of improvement but with exams next week having more energy for studying is helpful.

Week Commencing July 16th 2012

First one in a while - sorry about that. Life + injury when I took a tumble.

Update and Brockwell Parkrun

Apologies for lack of blogging recently but some injuries have been my despair and with a bit more going on at work time for blogging has been at a premium.

Last week I ran Reading Half and paced my girlfriend round her first half. I was really hoping to try and run something fast here but with my ankle playing up after the Surrey County Champs I just haven't been able to put in anything like the training I would need to do to run at that level. As it was I really enjoyed pacing Hayley around and enjoying the atmosphere of the event. Considering my longest run in months had been about 8 miles easy running a full half (if that's not an oxymoron...) was a bit of a challenge and I felt it in the last 3 miles.

This week I went to the Brockwell Parkrun 5k which is only a couple of miles from my house but for one reason or another I rarely manage to get to. The start was relatively slow with a group of 4 or 5 of us running together for the first few minutes. We were probably running well outside 18 minute pace to give you an idea. At the top of the hill (yes - two significant hills at Brockwell!) it had slimmed down to just me and one other guy. I just touched the accelerators a few times and the other guy came with me. I then put my foot down and managed to get a small gap and then started running hard. As we came through the end of the first lap I had a gap of about 30m. I then tried to ease off but annoyingly given my current fitness even easing off a bit I don't recover at pace like I used to. I pretty much cruised in for the rest of the race for a comfortable if slow win in 17:09 by about 30 seconds.

Big thanks to the Brockwell organisers for putting the race on. I hope to now be a regular at this and the Dulwich Parkrun which starts shortly.

As to training - well, my main aim is just to avoid getting injured. Everyone who knows me is well aware that when I'm not injured for 6 months or so I start getting faster. My training at the moment is therefore pretty minimal and will likely remain so until I feel considerably stronger and have built my body up a bit more. In the meantime I'm combining cross-training on the exercise bike with harder running to try and reduce the likelihood of spraining anything. Generally my muscles seem pretty resilient but my tendons go at the drop of a pin.

This may mean ultimately I don't run as fast as I can but I've also taken the view that a) I'll never be a world-beater and b) what makes me happy is running (relatively) fast on a regular basis with good friends. So if I can get to the state where I can year around run around 32 minutes for 10k I'll be quite happy. Obviously I hope that just being uninjured will get me running faster anyway!

A big part of this is doing a lot of running untimed without distances, paces and without tracking weekly mileage. Controversial I know but a lot of my injuries seem to have come from chasing mileage. That's not necessarily from mileage itself but not being willing to ease up when my body is telling me so because it'll hurt my weekly mileage. The knowledge that a week of easy running (or just cycling) won't slow me down much at all should be a big help.

Right - that's about it. As always any thoughts or opinions more than welcome. Training diaries back up soon.

Best,
Bryn

Training Week Ending 13th November 2011

The next entry. It's good going back over this stuff and reminding myself what I did previously and the change in the past couple of months.

Week ending 13th November 2011

Monday: 8 odd miles with chasers easy
Tuesday: track session, 4x400 fairly relaxed then 3x800 with long recoveries in 2.19,2:17,2:21 with last one slower as got boxed in.
Wednesday: 4 miles recovery as got home from work early; pm: 12x14 second hard hillsprints as part of a 8 mile run
Thursday: rest
Friday: 9 and a bit miles at 7.34mm - bit of doms from hills
Saturday: am: 3 miles recovery jog; pm: 2.7 disjointed warm-up then 5.34 mile surrey league xc.at ham which was muddy but flat at 5.31mm and top 30 place, 2 mile wd
Sunday: 20 miles at 6.33mm along towpath.

Mileage: 68-ish.

Summary: Solid week with some fast relaxed track reps, hill sprints, a second decent xcrace in a week and a long run I'm still a bit astonished by. Mileage was a slight increase and as long as the trend is upward I'm not overly bothered. DOMS from the sprints shows that's still an area to work on and I've only got one vote season in although I've been better with foam rolling. Definite progress though which its what I need!

Training week ending 6th November 2011

Training week ending 6th November 2011

Monday: day before exam, did 8 odd miles with chasers averaging 6.45
Tuesday: am 4 recovery miles after exam pm: track session of 7x600 average 1.45 off 3ish minutes rec
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 3.5 mile tempo at 5.29mm
Friday: 5.25 miles at 7.45mm at 11 pm after arriving in mansfield gone 10.
Saturday: am 4 mile v. slow shakeout with sam pm: national xc relays 5k leg in 18.02team 60th.
Sunday: 18 miles averaging 7.15 mostly over wimbledon common. Felt relaxed. Pickedit up over last 6 with 2 sub 7, 2 6.30 and 2 sub 6mm.

Mileage 65 ish

Summary: solid week considering I had an exam. A track session where I finally went over 400m at 72 pace, my first tempo back sub 5.30, my first truly muddy xc I enjoyed and ran well in in years and my first 18 mile run since thames 20 this year.

Training week ending 30th October 2011

As we're into the new year and I've managed to keep a regular training log for a while I've decided to transfer some of the entries over here, one week every other day until it's up to date.

Would really suggest people sign up to googleplus as that is the best thing I've found so far to blog training but for the moment will run them in tandem.

Training week ending 30th October 2011

Monday: 8.3 miles easy
Tuesday: 8.3 miles steady
Wednesday: 8.3 miles MP progressive starting at 6.20 and finishing at 5.36. 6.02 average.
Thursday: 2 wu, 3.5 tempo @ 5.32 w. Sean, 2wd
Friday : 5 easy @ 7.30
Saturday: 4 w.u. , 10k xc ( ran crap), 2wd
Sunday: just short of  14 miles at 7mm at enjoyable pace over Wimbledon Common with Sam, James and fortunately Andy once we reached the common who took us on a tour.

Weekly total: 63 miles

Summary: A tough week revising for the exam from hell but managed to get a fairly solid week in. I was surprised at how well the tempo went given that had been a neglected area in recent weeks. Unfortunately the race itself was truly horrendous withme struggling from the get-go. it was fairly obvious I was far to stressedto make a decent hash of it though and happy to write it off as a weird one. Annoyingly as as it's the sort of course that suits me down to the ground.
 

Moving the Blog...

Hey all,

I've decided to shift the blog over to googleplus - combines the best bit of both blogger and twitter - can write as much as I want and people can comment and see it all -plus it makes it easier putting photos up. Just search Bryn Reynolds (even if we don't know each other personally yet!) and add me (probably in the "following" circle would be best and I'll add you onto the distribution circle for the blog which is now going pretty much daily as I return to form.

There may be the odd post on here but it'll likely be full length articles as opposed to just snippets of training!

See you at the races.

B

Day 7 - Then we really have to go

Progress of a sort I suppose. I ran 18 minutes today and whilst the glute/back felt itchy I wasn’t in pain. It was a weird one as it definitely didn’t feel as good as it did on Saturday when it was strong at the start  but it was the same for the whole run and felt much better at the end.

Anyway – an 18 minute run, then I put in a hard 75 minutes on the exercise bike (progressive work-out, increasing the tension every 15 minutes, finished level 5 this time which is as far as I’ve got so far) followed by 5 minutes running immediately after which was totally pain-free (and really quite pleasant albeit raining). 

As a whole – a very good session.

Then headed out to the pub to catch up with the Chasers who’d had some very decent runs at the Richmond 10k earlier and managed to win the men and women’s county championships – very impressed with both teams! Lucie also managed to win the individual Surrey Ladies.

Sadly we were less successful at the pub quiz. A second place finish was scant commiseration though winning the “bonus round” and a free drink made it a worthwhile evening from my perspective.

Having managed to remain teetotal I headed back and got an easy hour in on the exercise bike whilst watching “Day of the Dead”. 

As usual – lots of work using “The Grid” (think I’m finally starting to make progress on a horrible set of knots where my outside quad joins my knee) and stretching followed by watching this inspirational video of Tim Don training – here. That Kenyan day just looks like plain hard work!

Think that’s about it for today – keep well everyone.

Best,

B

Day 6 - Going nowhere slowly

Well - not quite but it does feel that way sometimes when you're doing most of your training on a stationery bike!

With Hayley over and doing two runs it made sense for me to break up my usual long ride into two sections. In the morning I nailed out a pretty decent 80 minutes on the bike with the effort level relatively low.

The afternoon I went for a short run and then followed that up with my second session on the bike - this time watching the European Team Champs.

The run was an odd one - I felt really good for about the first 9 minutes and then the back/glute definitely tightened up a fair bit and last 4-5 minutes were whilst not painful clearly not totally right - definitely need to avoid pushing it too hard right now but still huge strides from where I was a week ago (basically almost able to hobble without pain whilst on a huge amount of pain-killers). I do suffer the usual runners worry as to whether my extra training is slowing down my recovery.

After I was back there seemed to be no problems and a solid 45 minute bike left me with 2:05 biking for the day and 15 running for 2:20 worth of aerobic exercise. Not a great rule but I generally feel if I'm going over 2 hours even if I lose a bit of fitness I'm still in decent nick. Combined obviously with a lot of stretching, various exercises (mostly calf raises to build up my calf strength and protect achilles) and using "The Grid" for massage which is really getting well into my ITBs which have just been too knotted for me to really get into with "The Stick".

Right - shattered now as had a tough day training (more on that tomorrow) but there'll be another update tomorrow.

Looking ahead - to have a reasonable chance at Amsterdam I need to be running at least 60+ miles a week with 14 weeks to go which is in 3 weeks time. I think it could be doable but I'll be starting a relatively short build-up from an unfit state. It's gonna be tough.

Best,
B

Day 5 - Need for Speed

5 minutes at 7 minute miling. Progress.

Yesterday wasn't a huge training day but I managed to get a bit done - 90 minutes on the bike wasn't amazing but a decent session and then straight off the bike for a 5 minute (deliberately short) run which was painfree and I was finally moving at a half decent pace.

Currently hacking an old pair of shoes to pieces using a bread knife to try and make minimalist ones. They were too old to wear normally anymore but figured this might give them an extra lease of life. They look pretty sweet at the moment but unfortunately I'm not sure that wave riders were the best ones to do as the wave goes right up to the base. Can see a bit of the shoe liner through but sure that's fine.... Picture below of the shoes and the hacked remnants.

(Yes that is my bread-knife - sorry Jan!)

Just been watching the European Team championships and raelly impressed with fellow Beagle James Shane's run and also Andy Vernon in the 5k with a very gutsy effort. Espana is probably the number 2 5000m runner in Europe so no shame to lose to him and Lebid is obviously a legend when it comes to European running.

Right - got Hayley over so that's all I can post for the moment.

Best,
B

Day 4 - And that's all I've got the say about that.

Little bit more progress yesterday – managed to get 9 minutes of running in which still sounds utterly pathetic but is a big deal for me at the moment. Unfortunately there was definitely some tightening up but the difference between the 30 second shuffle I was doing at the start of the week and what I’m doing now is pretty huge. I’m hoping I can have something vaguely like a normal run by Sunday.

I also managed to put in a good exercise bike session. 1:45 spending most of the time watching Forrest Gump. Hard work as for the first 75 minutes every 15 I put the resistance up a level with the final 15 minutes being very hard work before spending an extra 30 minutes just spinning relatively easily. 

The final bit was having just bought a foam roller I used that pretty heavily as well. Whilst work makes things tough it does mean you usually have a bit of spare cash in order to get yourself some kit. Unfortunately due to sitting down all day your hip flexors are utterly frozen!

The first time using it – despite extensive work using “the stick” I could immediately feel some very sore areas – in particular the lower section of my ITB/ outside of my quads was incredibly tight. I already knew this and had worked on it with the stick but never had much luck actually breaking the knots down. I could definitely feel some progress from the very start and hopefully some time on this each day will help ease up my muscles during the marathon training.

The other area it’s useful (aside from easing the muscles up) is that it is a great core workout constantly balancing on a single limb and rolling over it makes it pretty functional as well rather than just working a single muscle hard. I’m not saying it’s going to be the absolute best core session ever but for someone as horrendous at core as me it certainly seems like a useful addition.

Finally – big congrats to Aaron Scott on his selection to run for England. He’s made huge strides over the last couple of years and great to see it rewarded. Similarly Andy Norman who has recovered from some horrendous injury problems.

 

Right – that’s it for now – got a cycle to do this evening and then hopefully a 15 minute run tomorrow! Hopefully pain free!

Best,

B

Day 3

Apologies for the delay – I will be updating daily (or near as) but will be doing it in the evening now discussing the past day – just when I have time to blog!

So – on the running side. I managed 4 minutes – yes 4 WHOLE minutes. And I was actually definitely running rather than shuffling this time. No pain though I could feel the muscles tightening up a little bit. 

To be honest I spent about the next 10 minutes hopping about in happiness which has to be worth something as well?

I then managed to put a decent stint in on the exercise bike – 70 minutes. Starting at the lowest level and gradually building up the resistance every 15 minutes with the last 10 minutes as a cool-down.

I’m not sure how much it helps but I notice a big difference coming back from an injury when I’ve been x-training every day compared to when I haven’t been. In particular with the exercise biking my legs generally feel really quite strong and I end up running hills a lot more strongly than I would before.

 

In terms of the build-up to Amsterdam I need to be running close to 80 miles per week within about 4 weeks. This shouldn’t be impossible as once the irritation caused by the ligament is gone there should be no reason I can’t run properly but it’s still a tough ask. I’m also working on strengthening up my achilles and loosening up all my muscles. It’s going to be a tough and hard campaign given the brevity (12 weeks) and I’m going to need to be as strong as possible to avoid injury. 

That’s all for now – hopefully a bit more running and a bit less biking tomorrow!

B

Day 2

Sadly a dull day - all I did was 2 minutes running which was sortofI'mnotreallysurebutprobably painfree not quite as good as yesterday but it was an actual run rather than a shuffle.

I decided not to X-train tonight - right now the main pain when walking seems to be coming from the muscles in the glute which remain incredibly tight - which is also how I spent most my day just rubbing small knots of muscle that have formed up.

It's always an odd one - working in an office and trying to seem normal whilst actually being a runner. Elite athletes have it pretty easy - no one asks why they spend all day stretching, getting massage, doing odd drills.

The life of the office athlete consists of furtively rubbing your glute whilst you think no-one is looking, covert stretching in the bathroom stalls, heel dips on the stairs whilst prepped to pretend you were just walking up them should anyone come along, trainers and wet kit shoved under desk when back from a lunchtime run.

It's an odd life!

Amsterdam Gambit - The Beginning

The Thursday before last I broke down a mile from my house and was reduced to a walk, not even a normal walk, a wretched hobble with my back/glute in agony. A simple walk down an escalator had triggered a reaction in my back that reduced me to spending the evening unable to walk between my bedroom and the kitchen.

It's been a painful two weeks but I've finally seen some light at the end of the tunnel. After a session with super physio Noel Thatcher last week (Holly House) I knew what I'd done (irritated a ligament around my sacrum) and now I've finally done it - I've run again pain-free.

Okay- it was for 30 seconds and it was more of a hobble than a run but for the first time there wasn't a shooting pain going through my sacrum.

So - that officially launches the campaign - not with a bang but with a whisper (to mis-quote a famous phrase). I'm targetting Amsterdam and I've got an ambitious target (certainly more ambitious than someone currently running for a grand total of 30 seconds should have...) - it's going to be tough (and my coach is going to kill me for putting this up here!) but I like the challenge of the public appeal which keeps me accountable. After all - no-one's impressed when you go for the possible- it's possible!

This time round I'm planning on keeping a detailed log of how I'm feeling each day and sharing it via the blog. It isn't always going to be fascinating - it'll just be the tale of how a normal guy in a normal job goes about trying to do his best as a runner.

So - training today...

Running: 30 seconds
Exercise Bike: hour
Lots of stretching.

Green Belt, Track, Brockwell Park and Achilles

Last weekend was one of my favourite in the year - the Green Belt Relay. For those who aren't in the know the Green belt is a 22 stage, 2 day relay race around London with each team member running a leg on day 1 and day 2. It tends to attract pretty competitive teams and has a great atmosphere. Highly recommended.

So day 1 I was racing over roughly 10 miles from Staines to Windsor with the first and last third or so offroad and the middle section on park roads. From the start it was clear that it was going to be between myself and Jeff Cunningham. Jeff is a top class competitor and rival but he's clearly still struggling to get London out of his legs a bit! We were even until about 3/4 miles in when we hit the top of the hill ( I hate hills). I managed to push away off the top and despite a minor misturn in the park stayed clear and pushed on to get a new stage record. It was nice getting my stage done early as it meant I was able to a) have a drink and b) cheer on the rest of the team going around! Unfortunately my achilles (not that bad one, the other bad one) decided to play up so I spent a lot of the day getting acquainted with ice cubes (of course to get the ice cubes I had to buy a pint of cider first...)

Day 2 we very nearly missed the stage - we were headed in the wrong direction and going fast until some local knowledge got us re-directed and we made the start with minutes to go. Day 2 was against my frequent rival Hugh. I tried to go with him but after a mile or two it was clear he was a man on a mission and I was floundering! He broke away and I ended up staggering to the top of Reigate Hill (did I mention I REALLY HATE hills). I was still clear of third and fourth until my garmin decided to take me down a very nice driveway. By the time I got back onto the path Steve Whitehead had caught up and with Hugh well clear, the team being more than 2 hours behind Steve's Stock Exchange mixed team already I decided to take the easy route and run around with Steve rather than get myself lost again. We had a nice natter going around. I was planning on breaking clear with about 400 to go on the 8.7 mile leg and kicking in. Unfortunately the Garmin beeped for 8 miles, we turned a corner and there were some people in pink bibs standing near what looked awfully like a finish line. I half started to sprint, still not totally sure with Steve likewise - as I got a little closer I realised it must be and went flat out - Steve wasn't dropping though! As someone commented afterwards - normally in these sprints for the finish one party gives up and the other coasts in - that didn't happen here! Thankfully I managed to get my carcass over the line first.

The team as a whole did really well and with a roughly 50/50 split of men and women I felt it was a very strong performance in the mixed category which only required 2 women. Personally I was a bit disappointed on both days - I just didn't feel myself with very heavy legs. Hopefully back to normal soon!

Wednesday seeing as Hayley was doing a BMC at Eltham I decided to give it a go as well - it was so close to my work I figured it'd be a laugh. Looking at the entry list it was clear that there was going to be two races - a sub 4 one and a ~4:10-15 one. From the gun I was at the very back as we went through in 67 and I'd moved past Justina my club-mate. Tucked in behind Buzz Shepherd we caught one youngster relatively quickly hitting 800 in around 2:14. I then pushed past and caught another youngster with around 600 to go and started trying to maintain the pace. I didn't catch the lead group but I put a few seconds on the chasers and was generally quite pleased with a 4:14.9 showing. My second fastest ever and with no specific pace work done I'm sure in the next few months I can post something a little bit quicker. Definitely an improvement over the paltry 4:22 I ran at SML!

So on to Brockwell Park on Saturday. My lunchtime run partner Mike Leong was taking a stab at a sub 18 clocking on the mildly difficult Brockwell Parkrun 5k course. I like Brockwell as it's all on tarmac and has a small(ish) hill that you go up both laps which on lap one seems fine but seems very tough on the second lap!

The pacing went pretty well. We were through the first 3k roughly on pace, a hard 4th k up the hill meant we lost around 20 seconds on the pace but the last k Mike really rallied to run his fastest of the race and drag back a lot of the time for an 18:10 which is worth sub 18 for sure on a really fast course. Lots of room for improvement as well there.

My left achilles hasn't been totally happy since the Assembly League 5k - minor tweak and it's never been really painful but I'm aware of it. Hence I've now embarked on an aggressive strengthening, icing and calf massage campaign on both achilles - it's fine now but marathon training is approaching and I need them both to be in tip-top shape and strong as an ox for that.

Right - enough for this time - take care people and see you at the races.

General Update - Races, Training and Iron

Things have been pretty hectic over here. Reading as I'm sure most heard was an unmitigated disaster. Last year I was very pleased in that I managed to time my peak so I ran best in the most important races - this year I ran, to be fair, shockingly at Reading. I was struggling almost from the get-go. I was just about able to hold it together til halfway and then I was gone. Boom. Now I think I was on track two-three months previous with a 7 mile 5:20 pace tempo feeling strong. Here I was all over the place and almost instantly dropped to 6mm and just slogged it out to the finish. I'm glad I did - I don't like to drop out and do so rarely (3 times I think in 15 years).

Anyways - post-race I went and got blood tests for the first time ever and they revealed a low ferritin level. Not critically low but well below the normal and far too low for a young male athlete. It also explained the almost regular fatigue I was feeling, waking up after 7-8 hours sleep and feeling like I'd had about 2. I just ascribed it to running high mileage but in retrospect it was much worse than that.

So - some simple dietary changes and an iron supplement and I've been back to my usual bouncing off the walls most of the time. Not to say I don't still occasionally feel tired but it's much more normal now and hopefully the longer-term iron supplementation with increased vitamin c intake (together with steak for dinner and 2 black pudding for breakfast - it's a hard life at times!) will mean that's the last of the problems. Looking back I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happened at London last year as it was a similar sort of feeling - and both times off the back of a block of high mileage. I'm not sure I entirely believe in haemolysis (red blood cells burst by foot impact) but with a very heavy footfall and a short stride it seems likely.

Just generally my stats for stuff like red blood cell count, haematocrit etc. were all well below normal - I'm intrigued to see what'll happen if I get them up again!

So I also started changing some stuff around after Reading. Whilst "regenerating" with reduced but much faster mileage. The run I'm slower than 7mm is rare now. It's taken a while to get the mileage back up to anything even vaguely reasonable (combined with a couple of really quite bad niggles) but either the training is working, the huge base I put in is paying off, or my body is finally recovering as I'm racing pretty well at the moment. My garmin clocked 15:27 for a road 5k the otherday (official 15:33) which is a good step forward and I was really pleased with how the race went being sandwiched between the two Torry brothers (hmm... that sentence might need a re-write...) who have both since had really good runs at Bristol. Nick I think pretty much ran back to back the same pace he ran for the 5k!

Aside from the 5k, on the previous Sunday I'd done the Sutton 10k and clocked a relatively pedestrian 32:51 but tbh was very happy with the race as I really wasn't going for time! (and a set of 10 x 200m off walkback recovery on the Wednesday meant I was still hobbling - my body was not built for speed!) I set off very conservatively tucked into the pack whilst Brian Wilder put a very big move in early on and had 50m on us before we even got out the park! I stayed very comfortably tucked in with the chasing pack. Not much progress was being made but we weren't losing huge amount either though I could tell most were likely to die off. Basil Wallace from Herne Hill (who has a fantastically efficient looking stride) zipped past after a couple of km and I tucked in. As we completed the first lap of three and hit the 4km point I could tell Brian wasn't getting any further away so made a big move and started reeling in the 50-80m he had going clear of Basil. I think it was too big a move as I caught him pretty much at 5km! I sat in for a bit, then pushed and got a small lead, at about 7km but Brian fought back and we were back level going into the park. As we were heading back out I got the feeling Brian was working a little harder than I was and decided to try and get clear so a hard burst and I had a small gap. Unfortunately I know just how strong Brian is and knew I needed to keep on pushing. I didn't get a halfway split but had to have run a huge negative split (most in my early pack ran outside 34) and kept the effort level up to the finish line. I didn't particularly kick as I wasn't sure how my legs would hold up at the faster pace! It sounds like Brian was coming off a tough few days and I'm looking forward to having a few more duels on the Surrey road racing scene.


So with the 10k on the Sunday, 5k on the Thursday I'd already promised Leroy I'd run the 1500 and 5k at the SML league in Wimbledon. The 5k I was really pleased with. I'd asked to be B-string and that meant I could conserve energy for the 1500. Pete Tucker took off from the start with John Clarke, Met Police B-string and myself all in a mini-race. I was very much just shadowing the Met Police guy (I felt I was stronger and could kick harder and it's a race - it's the other guys job to either break you or out-think you). With about 6 laps it was clear the guy was struggling a little and I was still feeling pretty strong - John had gone clear and Peter was 150m or so clear. With a mile to go I put a single big lap in, going past John and seeing if Peter was slowing down at all. He clearly wasn't so I eased back a bit and John and I waltzed in together for a comfortable 9 points. Running 16:07 I was fairly sure I could run a touch faster than that pace for 10k which backed up my 5k.

Unfortunately the 1500 was a bit of a disaster. My achilles was a touch tight and I just wasn't driving right off of it. From the start I was flat footed and a 70 second opening lap felt very hard. Whilst I'd felt easy as anything in the 5k (I actually think if I'd pushed flat out for the last 1500 of the 5k it might have been quicker than my 15!) and strong, in control, by contrast in the 15 it was a straight out sprint. Hopefully I'll have a better one soon!

So - limited training with days in general quite hard (including one midnight run home from work including a 5 mile stretch with 4 5:45 miles and a 5:20 to finish!) and lots of racing. I've generally been doing races instead of sessions with regular "half" sessions on the grass. Be interesting to see how it works out!

Let me know any questions or thoughts you all have.

Best,
B