Monday, January 29, 2007

The Truncheon of Glory















This may look like any old truncheon from a pound shop. In fact, you might say that if you'd bought it from a pound shop you'd been overcharged.

And you might be right.

But this, my friends, is the Truncheon of Glory. I should have turned the photo the other way, but I'm so excited about the Truncheon of Glory I just want to get this posted.

I was undecided about running tonight, after speedwork on Friday, 15 miles on Saturday and cross country on Sunday. Maybe it was time for a day off. But if I don't run with my club I don't get runs during the week, and it was only a short one tonight. A short fast one, but a short one.

The time trial. Last time I did this I did OK, but not amazingly. But since then I've been doing speedwork. And boy did I pay off.

I was set off fairly near the start (it's a staggered, handicap, start to give everyone a roughly equal chance of winning). There were five people in front of me, and maybe ten behind. At the first main turn I overtook the first person (who had admittedly taken a wrong turn right at the start). During the long straight drag uphill I caught the two who set off first, and then closed in on two new girls who were unknown quantities. I had the advantage here. I knew how much more hill there was, and I knew I could push past them right at my limit because there was a nice downhill straight after.

So I got round them, and I was at the front. This is unknown territory for me. I felt good because I'd got past the point where the faster runners started overtaking me the time before, but I didn't know how close they were behind me. If they're close enough they overtake you with surprising speed. I knew it was pretty much downhill to the end, so I pushed the pace a little more. And more. I can't remember the last time I pushed myself so hard, but as I got closer and closer to the finish I was determined to get over that line first. It may be my one and only chance of winning a race, even if it's not a straight race.

The last bit was uphill, over cobbles. I could hear one of the new girls gaining a bit on me (having recovered from the hill where I overtook them I think they'd picked up some speed again). One last push and I was over the line.

I won a race!!! And the truncheon was the prize.

It may be cheap, and it may be plastic, but I've never won anything for running before, so for now it will take pride of place.

(For the record, I was nearly a minute faster than when I did the route last time - it's just under 3 miles so that's 20 seconds per mile shaved off, on a day when I should have been way below my best after some hard runs. Speedwork really does work!)

I will now go and bask in the glory.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

20 mile weekend

It's been a while since I've done one of those, and this weekend's mileage has almost taken me by surprise.

At the end of the Brass Monkey I definitely felt like I could have run an extra mile or two, so I decided to make this weekend's long run target somewhere between 14 and 15 miles. I didn't have a particular route in my head. I had a direction I was going to head in, and knew what the first 5 or 6 miles would be, but from there the rough plan was little more than exploring new territory a bit further away before coming out in an area I run round with running club, working out roughly how far I'd gone and working out which running club route would get me to the road home with about the right mileage.

It turned out to be a beautiful running day, bright and cool, and my legs wanted to run. I wanted to avoid walk breaks as far as possible, and I did. I ended up running about 15.5 miles, which was a little further than I'd intended, at a highly respectable 9:23 pace. Which isn't bad considering that I felt like I was running at a nice gentle pace, and (not to mention the three letters that might jinx me) that's about a minute per mile slower (ie about what is recommended) than a pace that would get me round the marathon in 3:45. Not that 3:45 is my target as such at this stage, but it's certainly more possible than it was pre-Berlin.

And then, what to do next. Today was cross country, but at this stage I want my priority to be long runs, not cross country. But I told myself that if my legs felt fine and the weather was good, I might go out and give it a go. I'd done my long run on Saturday so at least I had the option to do the cross country, even if I decided to turn that option down. I woke up this morning and my legs were fine, but the weather wasn't.

What the hell, I thought. It will get me out of the house, stop me nibbling for a few hours and give me an excuse to eat a bit more during the day.

So I went. To the most exposed, windiest spot in West Yorkshire, as far as I could tell. It was bitter up there, and at one point, having been one of the first to arrive I was heading back to my car wondering if anyone had spotted me, and whether I could disappear before they did. Someone spotted me as I walked back. A good plan foiled.

We actually had loads of ladies out today, at least 9 or 10 that I can think of off the top of my head (only the first 4 score) so I was wondering whether it was absolutely necessary for me to run. But I was there, so what the hell. I did have fun scaring the girls who are training for London with the length of my run yesterday - they're not at that stage yet, and their mara is a month before mine. Plus they weren't backing up and doing cross country the day after. I like being scary.

I will admit to struggling a bit round the race. My legs weren't too bad, but they really didn't fancy the hills. One in particular seemed designed to kill off tired legs, and I'll admit to walking a bit of it. I was passed by a couple of club members who I know I can blow away on the road, but who have more cross country experience than me. And quite possibly proper trail shoes (I'm still running in my road shoes, and the lightweight racing ones at that - on the basis that they were the oldest and closest to retirement, and I didn't mind getting them muddy). But I hung on in there, and managed to bag the fourth scoring spot to at least remind me that it was worth me turning up, because my placing counted in the great relegation battle.

So now I get to feel doubly smug. A long run and cross country. Woo hoo. Now I just need to decide whether to go for the triple with a time trial tomorrow night.

Well, it's less than 3 miles...

Friday, January 26, 2007

Confidence

What a difference a bit of confidence makes to my running. Beating Peter on Sunday will prove to be significant in the long run I think.
Let me explain. He is the main organiser of club training nights and various other stuff. He usually takes the middle group. So there goes any argument that I'm not faster for the middle group.
Even better, usually at about the half way point of a run, he has an option for a slightly longer detour and takes a group of faster runners. I had always kind of assumed that even though I was keeping up with the middle group on the first leg, once they set off on the longer run they speeded up a bit. But if I can beat him in a race, and he leads that group, then I'm sure that I have no excuse for thinking that I wouldn't be able to do it.
So, on Wednesday, I did. And of the five of us who took the longer route, I was the one trying to slow down to make sure I didn't get too far ahead. OK, so some of the faster people who sometimes run didn't turn up (possibly because it was snowing?), but that's blown out of the water any argument that I should just take the short route home.
I feel really good about my running at the moment. Even though I'm working off a self written training plan rather than following something tried and tested and recommended, I'm feeling like it's working. Basically, it's 2 club runs, 1 long run (pretty much following the progression in distance from one of the more well known plans), and 1 extra run which can be speedwork, cross country or anything I feel like I've been lacking. Or later on it could be more of an easy run to help me recover. Plus two swims and two weight sessions, and yoga if I feel like a good stretch. It has been working pretty well since Christmas, and I'm really enjoying it again.
One other thing I've noticed recently is how good I'm getting at hills. I used to hate hills, and tried to avoid them at all costs in my marathon training last year. But since I started running with Kirkstall (where hills are a necessary part of life, it being at the bottom of a valley with a hill on either side), I've really felt myself improving. I notice on club runs that I can get up the hills a lot easier than some other runners - they might beat me on the flat, but I power past them on the hills. You never know, if I do the Guy Fawkes 10 again this year I might actually run more of it!
(And the official half results are out, putting me at 1:49:30. There was a bit of confusion earlier in the week with the provisional results being a minute or so out for most people, but I'm quite happy with the new revised version).

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Brass Monkey

This half marathon was very highly recommended, and having run it I can see why. Fantastic organisation, lots and lots of highly supportive marshalls, a nice warm sweatshirt at the end and, above all, very very flat and PB-inducing.

Coming up to this race I didn't really know what I was aiming for. I knew I was feeling a lot better than my last half (Amsterdam) which I finished in 2:00:29, so I was quite confident I'd get under two hours. I also knew from the stats that I was running a lot better than my first half in February last year (1:55:40), and hoped that I would at least be able to match that time. What I couldn't work out is how my running compared to last May, between my fantastic 10k PB at Rothwell and my half PB in Blackpool (1:54:07). My race plan, if you can call it that, was to run at a pace I could sustain for the whole race without a walk break (the one half I'd completed before without a walk break was my first, and not even a PB, but walk breaks seem to dent my confidence that I can run any further than 13, which is important in marathon training). I didn't know whether I could quite get a PB this time round (on the basis my 10k time still doesn't seem to have hit the heights of Rothwell), but I knew that it was doable if everything came together.

And boy, did it come together. From some good training runs, to a week completely off the booze, a Saturday spent mainly off my feet and eating, but not gorging on carbs, to a morning when I felt up and wanted to run (it doesn't always happen like that, believe me). Admittedly, up until about 10 minutes before the race I was deliberating what to wear. It was cold (could it be anything but, in January, with a name like that), but that didn't bother me so much as the prospect of hail or wind leftover from the midweek gales. I had a wind/rain jacket I'd picked up cheap during the week which would make me feel a lot better if it got wet, but if it didn't, would I be too hot? (And, thinking of a consideration not often taken into account my runners, fluorescent yellow really didn't match my club vest). In the end I decided to wear it under my vest, and deal with heat if it became a problem. The hail didn't materialise, and I could probably have run without the jacket and kept my gloves on for longer, but equally I wasn't hot enough to need to stop and rearrange my clothing. So that was good.

I started off at a cracking pace, and was pretty much dot on 8 minute miles for the first three miles or so. I remember going past the 3 mile marker just before 24 minutes and I was quite shocked I'd kept up that pace for three whole miles. I did feel like I should be easing off a bit though, there is a big difference between 3 miles and 13! About this time someone from running club ran past me (he'd started further back). I'd always assumed he was faster than I am. He's older than I am, and maybe not as quick as he used to be, but he's still got a decent bit of speed. I wasn't too concerned when he got ahead of me, it wasn't him I was racing.

At about 6 miles I was surprised to find myself still motoring at a pretty decent speed. I think I passed 6 miles in about 50 minutes, which meant that I was almost certainly going faster than I had done in my last 10k in November, which is always a good sign. Between 6 and 8 miles I felt like I was struggling a bit. This is the time I often find hard in a half. You've been running for an hour or so, but you've still got another hour of running ahead of you, this time on tireder legs. But I kept on going.

Then after about 8 or 9 miles I started seeing the bloke from my club not too far ahead of me. I really thought that he'd have opened up more of a gap than he had done. And after another mile or so, I noticed something even stranger. The gap was closing. I was still running, and my legs had actually started to feel a bit stronger than they had done a couple of miles back. I was definitely gaining on him. I counted that I was about eight places behind him. And one by one I picked them off (or the people in front of me picked him off). And after about 11 miles, just before a bridge (which was one of the only "hills" on the course), I passed him. He said that he'd been slowing down for a while, but I didn't stop to chat because I was picking some momentum up at this point.

From now on I had one goal in my mind. To beat him. As simple as that. Going round I'd been doing calculations of what time I might finish, at what point I might reach the blissful point where I could walk the rest and still get a PB (not that I planned to walk, but it's the point where you know you'll be OK). But now I felt like I had someone on my shoulder, pushing me on, to make sure that I didn't walk, and I didn't slow down. As other people walked over the second bridge (come on, these are people who can run a relatively decent time in a half, and a teeny tiny bridge defeats them - they should try running round Kirkstall!) I was overtaking them, but more concerned about what was behind me.

I turned into the racecourse to finish, and was met by the strongest headwind of the run. Fantastic. But I could see the end, and I wasn't slowing down and letting him overtake me now. I had no idea how far he was behind (I haven't mastered the art of running forward without running into anything while looking behind me yet), but I knew he was still behind. So I ran to the end and I finished...

in....

1:49:something.

My watch said 1:49, but the official time will be a bit more because I only started my watch when I crossed the start line, not when the gun went off. But I think it was about 1:49:20, and it was certainly less than 1:49:40 which is what Peter said his time was when he finished a couple of places behind me.

I never thought I could get below 1:50 in this race, or take so much off my PB, and I feel absolutely over the moon. Plus I've beaten someone I didn't actually set out to beat (sadly, Cassie, who I'd also have loved to beat, finished in 1:47 ish, she must have been in front of me at the start because she definitely didn't pass me).

Certainly worth a celebration drink or two, and a sign that just sometimes a bit of hard training, and the fates being on your side really does mean that it comes together nicely on the day.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Feeling Good

I haven't posted on here for an age, but I have still been running, just about. The first week in GC was slack by my standards when I'm in the UK, but still the best I've run out there, with three three mile trots along the sea front on back. In the second week I managed to make two of my runs twice round trips, to give a total of about 15 miles for the week. Nothing stunning, but ticking over.

Since I got back I've been quite pleased with my running though. I've managed no fewer than 2 12.4 mile runs in the past week, and today it felt really good. At a guess I'd say that it was not only my longest run since Berlin (other than Amsterdam half), but the furthest I've run without a walk break for a long long time. Possibly since last February. I'm not joking there. In the run up to Berlin nearly all my long runs seemed to involve walk breaks. that's not necessarily a bad thing, but as my aim this time round is to run the marathon rather than simply complete it, I'm really trying to work on the idea of keeping going, even if that means dropping my pace a bit. I was also pretty happy with my run because I did it in brand new shoes, and I figure that if I could run OK in them today out of the box they'll be OK after another couple of runs in the Brass Monkey next Sunday.

Why did I think that doing a half in January was a good idea? Still, it's got me back on the wagon nice and quickly after getting back from Spain, so it can't be a bad thing. I just hope it doesn't snow!