Hills
That was hard.
The one problem with knowing that Berlin is almost perfectly flat is that I haven't had much incentive to do any hill training. None of my runs are entirely pancake like, but I don't do anything that could be described as more challenging than gently undulating.
I knew when I entered the 30k race I did today that it would be far hillier than my normal routes, and that I'd struggle, so I went into it with a very modest aim (to break 4 hours), and with no illusions about the number of walk breaks I'd need to take. But still, it was hard.
The rain during the week didn't help. The route was almost entirely off road, and paths that might simply have been a bit tricky before, downhill with stones and roots, turned into muddy, slippy bogs which I wasn't going to attempt to run for fear of breaking my ankle again. And the uphills, well they were never going to be easy, but I'm sure the rain didn't help.
I thought I'd made an OK, solid start and was shocked when I got to the first water station and it said 5k (at 50 minutes), then even worse at the second which said 7.5k at about 1 hour 20. Then bizarrely I spent half an hour or so walking up the biggest hill in Derbyshire (or that's what it felt like), got lost and went round in circles, and got to the third water station dot on 2 hours and it said 16km. I suspect that the first two were wrong - but I'd been seriously considering giving the whole thing up as a bad job when I thought I'd only covered 7.5k in 1 hour 20.
The problem with the second half or so of the race was that the field was fairly small and spread out and (aside from the problems with navigating - I've never done a race where you get given a map and an emergency phone number before!) it was hard to find someone to race against which is what normally keeps me going in races. Picking someone near me and trying to stick with them or beat them to the finish. This time everyone was just too spread out. There was little sign of the person in front, and the person behind was running slowly enough that I could take regular walk breaks without being overtaken.
It wasnt my best run ever. It wasn't fast, and it wasn't all running. But I beat my 4 hour goal coming in at around 3:45 (timings approximate - I didn't start my watch on the start and only remembered a minute or so in, then I managed to take my watch off, put it in my bag and nudge the reset button on the way to the shower!). It's another 18.6 miles under the belt, and I now only have one long run before Berlin!
And after that, I must do some hill training.
The one problem with knowing that Berlin is almost perfectly flat is that I haven't had much incentive to do any hill training. None of my runs are entirely pancake like, but I don't do anything that could be described as more challenging than gently undulating.
I knew when I entered the 30k race I did today that it would be far hillier than my normal routes, and that I'd struggle, so I went into it with a very modest aim (to break 4 hours), and with no illusions about the number of walk breaks I'd need to take. But still, it was hard.
The rain during the week didn't help. The route was almost entirely off road, and paths that might simply have been a bit tricky before, downhill with stones and roots, turned into muddy, slippy bogs which I wasn't going to attempt to run for fear of breaking my ankle again. And the uphills, well they were never going to be easy, but I'm sure the rain didn't help.
I thought I'd made an OK, solid start and was shocked when I got to the first water station and it said 5k (at 50 minutes), then even worse at the second which said 7.5k at about 1 hour 20. Then bizarrely I spent half an hour or so walking up the biggest hill in Derbyshire (or that's what it felt like), got lost and went round in circles, and got to the third water station dot on 2 hours and it said 16km. I suspect that the first two were wrong - but I'd been seriously considering giving the whole thing up as a bad job when I thought I'd only covered 7.5k in 1 hour 20.
The problem with the second half or so of the race was that the field was fairly small and spread out and (aside from the problems with navigating - I've never done a race where you get given a map and an emergency phone number before!) it was hard to find someone to race against which is what normally keeps me going in races. Picking someone near me and trying to stick with them or beat them to the finish. This time everyone was just too spread out. There was little sign of the person in front, and the person behind was running slowly enough that I could take regular walk breaks without being overtaken.
It wasnt my best run ever. It wasn't fast, and it wasn't all running. But I beat my 4 hour goal coming in at around 3:45 (timings approximate - I didn't start my watch on the start and only remembered a minute or so in, then I managed to take my watch off, put it in my bag and nudge the reset button on the way to the shower!). It's another 18.6 miles under the belt, and I now only have one long run before Berlin!
And after that, I must do some hill training.
posted by YP at 9:22 PM
2 Comments:
Probably a good idea in general. I went in for my last 5K thinking I was fairly well-prepared for hills - since the run was around Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, it was obvious I would need it. If you go anticlockwise around the hill, you get a very steep rise and a long gentle descent. I'd done that before and it was OK. This run went clockwise, so the steep bit was last. By that point, I was psyched and couldn't have made myself walk it, even though I knew the impact was more than I'd trained for.
The next day I thought I'd given myself serious patellofemoral problems. I couldn't walk down steps, sit down or stand up without serious pain.
It wore off in a few days, but I'm never doing that again. Anything which requires steep descents will be preceded by serious quad work and a more cautious approach!
I didn't realize how much I was leaning on you for motivation/inspiration until I realized it has been 10 days since your last post! You are my hero...but where are you? :)
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