Poole 10km Road Race 2011

On Sunday I took part in the Poole 10km road race, part of the Poole Festival of Running.

We arrived at Poole park at around 1:15pm (deciding to leave plenty of time this year, instead of the usual rush to the start line!) and found a spot under a tree to shelter from the rain that was on the way…sure enough the rain arrived at around 1:30pm, nothing heavy, but enough to make it un-pleasent for the brave families and friends who had turned out to offer their support.

I started warming up around 20 minutes before the start, 10 minute jog followed by some light stretching, topped off with an upper body warm up (I always seem to get stiff shoulders/upper arms when running at a pace).

The race started on time as usual – I quickly realised I had placed myself too far back in the pack for my tartget pace of 7m30s p/mile, so spent the first mile carefully passing people. I stepped in a big puddle at one point and splashed a guy as I passed him “Try not to splash” he shouted – I can only guess he was joking as by that time everyone was soaked as the rain didnt hold back.

Everything went well for the first half of the race, I picked up to to a pace of around 7m10s p/mile which felt good, although as a I passed the half way mark I realised quickly I had gone off too fast, my legs were tired, arms were aching and I was struggling to maintain my breathing at a sensible rate.

I decided to take a small break as I grabbed a water and walked for around 20 seconds – trying to regulate my breathing, get the drink down me and then off again, this time at a calculated 7m20s p/mile pace. Everything felt right again so I pushed on, at times flagging slightly, really wanting to slow down (and stop!), but knowing a personal best was within reach I pushed on. As I entered Poole park for the second time, I knew the finish was within a mile away, so pushed the pace up slightly. The kind lady on the final bend who shouted some support directed at me “Come on number 755! Almost there now!” helped alot, I pushed the pace up even more, shortly after which a guy ended up alongside me, telling me he had been trying to keep up with me from the start.

One last push, attempting a sprint (didnt work!) and I was through the finish line with a time of 46m 40s – 29seconds slower than my previous personal best for the race of 46m 11s.

I was pleased with the time, considering the amount of training I had done for the race (not enough), although also somewhat dissapointed, knowing a PB was very possible had I trained a little more. It was good to know I still have a good level of base fitness, so looking forward to commencing my training for the New Forest Marathon in September.

Overall, the Poole 10km road race was as usual a great experience – A very well organised and enjoyable race.

Poole 10k 2010 Road Race

Today I completed the Poole 10km road race for the 6th time. The race, professionally managed by Poole Runners covers two 5km laps around Baiter, White Cliff and Poole Park itself. Its pretty much the highlight of my running year. I do of course have a soft spot for it, being a very popular local race, but beyond that its a fast course with lovely scenery and normally attracts a large crowd of 1500 or so runners, which of course means a sizeable group of spectators – A bit of cheering , clapping and the occasional kind word goes a long way to keeping them legs moving, even when the lactic burn is really starting to kick in!

So, having finished the race in 48 mins exactly (Thats my time…official time to come), driven home and recovered after plenty of water and carbs, I was thinking – I’ve done that race 6 times, what can I actually learn from it this time, which I can take forward to improve my running? This thought came after the realisation that I had not achieved a personal best. So, heres what I came up with:

• Some of my training runs are lazy
  What will change? I need to up the pace a bit, especially on the shorter (4-6 mile) runs
• I can run without music. In fact, I noticed a positive improvement in pacing after I removed my ear phones at the 4k mark today. Its all about pacing – After 7 years running with music, I realised I’ve sub-consciously trained myself to ‘run with the beat’, which is not ideal when you have a fixed distance to run, in a target time, which of course is going to require some strict pacing. I also noticed that I find it easier to regulate my breathing without music, simply because I can hear myself breathing.
  What will change? At least one run a week will be MP3-free! On the longer runs I’ll try alternating – Mile on, mile off, or longer
• I’ve got pretty good at a) Grabbing a drink at the water station and b) Actually drinking some of it without slowing down too much
  What will change? Nothing…more of the same!
• Speed work is actually really important! (See Brian Macs page on Lactic Acid which covers how speed work improves your body’s lactate threshold)
  What will change? Not alot actually. I already do speed work of sorts, picking up the pace to around 90-95% effort once or twice during a middle distance training session. I’m potentially setup to get some track sessions in soon, which will involve repeats. If they happen, then great – Beyond that I’ll try to get more speed sessions into my middle distance runs.
• I need more sleep in the 2-3 nights before a race
  What will change? I’ll try to get to bed earlier…although work/commitments/hobbies often get in the way of that. Maybe just more planning!

So, a few things learned from a really enjoyable race today, looking forward to Berlin Marathon in September more than ever now, and to my nest training session which is tomorrow evening.

Update 07/06/2010…
Just found the official results which show a chip time of 00:48:02 - 42 seconds slower than my personal best. I believe a course record was set yesterday by the winner – ‘Gordon Mugi’ who finished with a time of 00:28:55

Training Started!

Monday 10th May saw the beginning of my ‘official’ Berlin Marathon training. I’ve been looking forward to getting stuck in for some time now, and was happy for a while that the pre-schedule warm up training was done (e.g I had managed to get myself fit enough to run an hour without stopping, having really laid off the running for some months!)

My schedule is spread over 20 weeks, with this basic pattern:

• Monday: Short, Fast run. 2-3 Miles as fast as possible.
• Tuesday: Cross training, 9.5 mile cycle x 2 at around 60% effort
• Wednesday: Tempo run, 4-6 miles
• Thursday: Cross training, kick boxing (Kick boxing has to be done anyway, so I may as well count it as a X-Training session!)
• Friday: Tempo run, 4-6 miles
• Saturday: Rest + Light upper body weight session
• Sunday: Long slow run, starts at 6 miles, works up to 22 miles

The actual distances vary considerably throughout the schedule with a gradual increase in mileage of around 10% per week, with allowances for recovery time, e.g: Shorter Sunday run on a week between 3-4 heavier weeks, and also drop on the Monday run after longer Sunday sessions.

At the time of writing this I am into the 3rd week of training. I’m already feeling generally fitter and feel like my running is stronger. I’m glad that I opted for a 20 week plan – September still seems a long way off but its a bit of a shock when I think that over 10% of my training is complete already!

Looking forward to tomorrows run and to putting another tick on the schedule!

Back to it – 6mile Sunday Run

I have just completed my longest run since re-starting training – 6miles, near on perfect conditions, loved every minute of it. Timed at 54 minutes which I am pleased with a even though its a slow time compared to my 10km PB. I’m getting more and more confident of a sub 4 hour finish at Berlin in September, although time will tell as I start to push the distances up.

Next run will be Tuesday, kick boxing should be Thursday as X-Training, although I’ll be missing this weeks session due to a late Christmas party. Friday will be hill work, followed by an 8 miler on Sunday…then it all starts again! )

Post-run pasta cooking downstairs as I type…Mmmmm!

Evening Run

Another run under my belt this evening, 3 miles in snow/sleet with a fairly strong wind which was somewhere between exhilarating and painful! Feels really good to be running again, after only 2 runs and 3 sessions on our new excercise bike I feel have more energy, I’m sleeping better and eating more…The marathon training has commenced, just need a plan to make it a bit more formal!

Berlin Marathon 2010 – Target Time

Ok, my target is set – Sub 4 hours. According to both the Riegel and Cameron prediction models, this should be possible, based on my recent(ish) 10km time of 47minutes.

A sub 4 hour marathon means maintaining a pace of 9:09 Min per mile, or 6.6 mile per hour – Approximatley double average human walking speed. Sounds easy enough…perhaps not so after 18-20 miles!

I’m now thinking a training schedule is very much required! Watch this space.

Berlin Marathon 2010 – The Start

I’ve got my place in the Berlin Marathon! Hotel booked, flights booked – All very exciting! We’ll be flying from Gatwick on 24th September arriving early as we’re hoping to squeeze in some sight seeing and shopping! We’ve got 3 nights booked, with the Marathon itself taking place on Sunday 26th September.

I’m going to blog regularly on my training progress, please drop me a comment if you too are running, especially anyone from the UK – In particular, Dorset!

As of today, Sunday 10th January 2010, I have 257 days to train. Although I have a reasonable base to build on, I have not trained much over the last few months. My longest distance to date is a half marathon (13.1 miles/21.08km) so I’ve got some work to do.

I expect I’ll be able to get up to running 10 miles within a few weeks, but getting beyond that will need some hard work.

Training started today with a 2 mile warm up, it felt good, apart from the icy paths which proved to be rather dangerous, hence the short distance.

I’ve not decided as yet if I’m going to stick to a schedule or not – I may just run as and when I feel like it which in the past has proved successful for me, although this might be a risky move for Marathon training. If I do work out a training schedule, it will include a nutrition plan of sorts – I tend to lose weight too fast when I train lots, which also means some form of cross training will be required, probably a light set of weights twice a week plus some cycling and keeping up with kick boxing too.

So – Lots of hard work ahead…I’m very excited to have a place in one of the ‘World Majors’ – Running a race with 39,999 other people will no doubt feel great.

21.08

Marathon Training Update :(

My first two weeks of training for the new forest marathon are complete – training 6 days a week, with weights and kick boxing on rest days, I was feeling stronger,  faster and mentally building up well toward the goal of running 26.2 miles. Then I got ill – Nothing major, just a virus of some sort that made me extremely tired and after 2 days turned into a chest infection which means no running at all.

So, here I am having not run for 10 days, looking at the training session markers on my calendar tick by with the 27th September (Race day) approaching.

For now I’m going to concentrate on getting better – Which means lots of sleep, fluids and decent food, then I’ll start running again, initially just a couple of miles per day for maybe 3 days before getting back on schedule. My training plan will need to be re-worked as I have now missed two long runs – Just hoping I can reach my goal of comfortably running 18 miles before 20th September when I start tapering/carb loading.

First Full Marathon…Here we go!

I’ve finally got my run back – After 18 months or so with very little running (may be a lazy 2 miler once a week) I am now back to running 3 times a week as a minimum. I’m pushing the distance up gradually, taking it easy on the longer runs. After 3 failed attempts at getting back to running, I am happy to say I am now enjoying most runs.

I just cant pin down the reason. It’s either because I’ve accepted that after 18 months off my fitness stamina levels have dropped significantly, so have lowered my expectations a little (No more going out expecting to achieve my previous times/distances, resulting only in one angry, tired, achey runner!) or because the Suns finally starting to show itself – Which always makes for happier running!

So, after a few weeks of enjoyable running, I watched (with some envy) the 30,000 or so people running the London Marathon – I decided then it was time to up my game and train for a marathon. Being ignorant to the fact that the 2010 London entry system was an online ballot only, I completely missed the window for entering – The ballot places were all taken within 3 days! Whilst I would like to run a charity place, I really dont think I would have the time to gather the sponsership required – Most charities require a minimum of £2000 and last year there were rumors of small claims court being involved where this was not reached!

What to do? Well, having run the New Forest Half Marathon twice before, and knowing what a lovely, well organised race it is, I have decided to enter the full marathon this year – All being well, I ‘ll be joining 599 other runners on September 27th to run around the New Forest in Hampshire with the horses and cows, admiring the fantastic scenery and hopefully not for more than my target of 4 hours!

For now though, my concentration is on the Poole 10km (Part of the Poole Festival of Running hosted and expertly run by Poole Runners). This will be the fourth time I’ve entered, and I’m hoping to beat my personal best of 50m34s

Other races I have planned so far this season include the Blandford Bridges Run and the AECC Dashback, both 10km races. I need to find some half marathon/10 mile events also.

New Forest Half Marathon

On Sunday, I ran the New Forest Half Marathon. My race number arrived in the post Friday morning, sent my my brother-in-law who had decided not to compete.

After nearly 4 months off running, apart from the occasional jog, I wasnt sure if I would be able to even finish, let alone achieve a reasonable time. I had commenced my Hell Runner 2008 traning about 3 weeks back, but this had only got me up to about 4 miles.

I decided to give it a go, and to run at a slow pace, staying at around 9 min/mile pace, using the race as both a training run and to get an idea of how (un)fit I was!

Happy to say I finished with a time of 1:58:53, which I wasnt too dis-pleased with, even though my previous personal best for a half marathin was 1:52:03, on a course with more hills.

The race was very well organised, marshalls were excellent as were the drink station helpers who were also giving water soaked sponges out – A nice extra on what turned out to be a quite a hot day! There was quite good spectator support along the route – plenty of smiley, clapping people to keep us going.

My only regret – Adding a new tune to my iPod running play list ‘Kleerup Feat Robyn – With Every Heartbeat’, great song, but the lyrics include the words…
“I’m dying with every step I take”

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