North Dorset Village Marathon - it's the final count down now

The North Dorset Village Marathon is fast approaching now, and there are only 12 more days and 5 more training session until the event.

The course
I mentioned in a previous post from March about having a look at the propfile of the course and the below image shows the profile from Garmin Connect.

All in all, it looks like a good undulating course.  Some notes for me are below:

• There are two hills near the start.  One right at the start and one 1.5miles in.  This is probably a good thing as it will force me to go off relatively steady.
• It's then fairly undulating but nothing too taxing from about 3 miles to 18.  12.5 to 18 tends to a downhill slope.
• At 18 it looks to be an undulating/uphill section until 21.
• From 21 to 24 it tends to a downhill.
• Finally from 24 to the end it's slightly uphill but nothing major.

If (and it's a big if) I can get to 21-ish in reasonable shape it looks like a good run in to have a crack at.  Like I say, that's a big if though and I may be just hanging on by then.

Race instructions

The organisers have released some final instructions available off of this page.  The important points to note seem to be:

• Race registration is on the morning of the race and opens at 7am.  For me, I expect this will mean leaving the B&B to get the race number and then heading back the B&B for final preparations etc.  There are two numbers (front and back) with the front number having a detachable strip for a kit bag.
• There are water stops approximately every 5K, with water bottles being available at 9.5miles and 22.1 miles.  
• Personal drink stations are set up where I can leave my own drinks.  These are at 12.45 (20K) and 19 (30K) miles.  I'm currently not sure how to make use of these of these yet as my wife has also offered to stand on the course at around half way.
• There are mile markers as well as 10, 20, 30, 40K and half marathon markers.

Race strategy

I think this will remain to be seen and I'll see how I am on the day.  At the time of writing this I think I am probably 80% sure I'm going to do the event.  I'd be absolutely delighted to get sub-4 and my current thought is to go out at just over 9min/mile and see how I am after 20-miles or so.  

If I am on target, this would bring me in under 4 hours with a little bit to spare.  With 09:09 bringing me in dead on 03:59:59.  I wouldn't want to be that close as a) the Garmin may not be that accurate and b) I'll probably ending up running slightly more than the 26.2 miles I don't expect I'll be exactly on the racing line for all of it.  This is why I've settled on targeting the 9min/mile as a first target.

If after a few miles it seems obvious that this isn't going to happen, my secondary pre-race target would be 4:30.  Regarding paces, these are the main ones for me:

9min/mile - 03:55:58

09:15        - 04:02:31

09:30        - 04:09:05

09:45        - 04:15:38

10:00        - 04:22:11

10:15        - 04:28:45

10:30        - 04:35:18

10:45        - 04:41:51

11:00        - 04:48:24

If before the race I don't think that 4:30 is possible due to injury I expect I'll pull out.  If I make it to the start though I'll endeavour to finish no matter what the end time.

LSR, stag do, VLM and a sports physio session

It's been nearly a week since I last posted, and there has been a fair bit going on in that time.

As I mentioned, I have a knee niggle and it is still there but I'm pleased to say that I got the miles in that were on my plan last week.  I actually managed 35 miles last week with a 16 LSR, which is slightly more than what was planned but I did this because I basically missed the whole of the previous week.

I had the day off work on Friday to a) get the LSR in and b) go to a stag weekend.  The LSR itself wasn't great as I suffered with toilet issues for the first time in a long time.  I needed to stop 3 times and I remembered after about 12 miles that I had absent-mindedly been very liberal with the semi-skimmed milk that morning, so I think that is what caused the issue.  Importantly though I got the mileage in and in the end was out on my feet for about 2.5 hours, and overall the knee wasn't too bad.

After the run, I had a couple of things to do around the house and then headed off to the stag do weekend which was just a short train ride away.  I was really in two minds about drinking alcohol on the weekend as I didn't want to disrupt my marathon training too much.  However, I am not able to attend the associated wedding so I decided to have a few drinks on the Friday and not have any on Saturday.  I was quite pleased with this and think I struck a good balance and I don't feel that I had too much to drink on the Friday.

Sunday was arguably the biggest day of the British running calendar as it was the Virgin London Marathon.  I got up early from the hotel to get back in time to watch the race and I'm really glad I did.  I knew about 25 runners who were doing the event and the VLM website made it really easy to track runners who I wanted to follow.  The website gave 5K, half marathon and full distance splits together with an estimated finish time.  When the elite runners had finished, the BBC provided a "red button" service whereby I could watch the finish line and I'm pleased to say that I saw 5 people I knew cross the line to finish their marathons.  The data on the VLM site together with this red button service really added something to the whole viewing experience.  Also, by club's Facebook page was very active on that morning so it was a great time to watch the VLM this year.  I am definitely going to enter the ballot (which opens on 29th March) and this time hope I actually get a place in 2014 rather than hope that I don't!

I mentioned that one of my friends did Paris a couple of weeks ago.  He managed 2hr58 that day and he also did VLM where he managed a brilliant 3hr09 only two weeks later!

After I had watched a lot of the race I went out for a short 5 mile run which was okay but my knee was playing up a bit.  I had actually booked a sports therapist/massage session for tonight (Monday) as I was still worried about my knee and I wanted to give myself every chance of getting to the start line in 2 weeks time.  It's the first sport therapy/massage session I've attended and the therapist was very well recommended by my running club and he offers a discount to club members.

Before doing any treatments, he insisted on doing a pretty thorough examination of me and took notes relating to certain things about my stance, my spine, the length of my legs etc.  He thinks I have one leg slightly longer than the other one which could be causing some issues.  Also, he confirmed that my hamstrings are tight but concluded that the root cause of this is because I have tight hip flexors.  After giving my legs a thorough massage using a massage machine etc, he gave me some specific stretches to help with the tight hip flexors.  All in all, I was in there for 1.5 hours so that was £15 well spent!  I think I am going to have another session the week before my marathon to give myself the best chance of getting to the start line in good shape.

Physio visit and "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook"

(I won't mention Boston on here, except to say watching the footage on TV was very disturbing and I hope the people who caused the carnage are caught soon.).

I got a slow 8-miler in yesterday and although still a bit of an issue with my knee, there were no real issues the morning afterwards so I think I'm definitiely on the mend and I'm now back to being 75% sure I'll turn up to the start line of my marathon.

I did see a physio today and she was very good.  I haven't had much luck with physios in the past but this one seemed to know what she was doing.  I had kind of practiced what I was going to say and I started by saying "I am a runner and I don't want to stop running, but I've got this issue….", as I didn't really want to be told to stop running.  She was a runner herself, so knew where I was coming from.

I think I've basically been doing the correct stretches, although she has added another one that I'll have to ask my wife to help me with (I have to kneel with someone holding my heels and then let myself fall forwards in a controlled way).

The physio diagnosed the issue as "hamstring enthesopathy", and recommended getting some Ibuleve gel as well to work into where the hamstring meets the knee.  I haven't been taking Ibuprofen and she recommended against doing so.  She did want to tape up my leg, but she couldn't as my legs were too hairy and the tape wouldn't stick...  The physio did recommend getting a sports massage done so I'll look into that and also to continue with the icing.

Importantly, she didn't tell me not to run so all-in-all I'm happy.

After a recommendation from a friend, I've also got hold of a copy of "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" which seems very good, and I've started using some of those techniques with my stretching/self-massage.  In summary, it's a book that shows through diagrams of the joints/muscles where pain can come from.  Often, according to the book, the root cause of a pain may actually originate from somewhere else in the body.  I.E., a knee problem may originate from a thigh trigger point, or a heel issue may originate from a calf trigger point.  The book basically uses massage techniques to ease these trigger points and hence help with the pain.

So, all-in-all, things are looking up.  All being well, I'm aiming for an easy 5-miler tomorrow, 14 or so on Friday and then another 5-miler on Sunday.

A very light training week for me

Unfortunately, this week has been a very light training week.  The niggle I mentioned in my last post has been causing me a problem, so I've only done 2 sessions this week with the second being an easy 4 miler today so a total of only about 12.5 miles.  It's a bit concerning as this week was supposed to be the biggest week of the training in terms of mileage, and all this is after a very successful Jantastic where I hadn't missed a run.  It's definitely come at the wrong time (not sure if there ever is a right time really).

However, easing off was the right decision because if I had pushed on there was a very big chance that I wouldn't have made it to the start line of North Dorset Village Marathon.  As I type now I'd say it's 50/50 if I race or not.  I just have to take it day by day and assess the situation each day.

I did an easy 4 miles today and it wasn't a total success, but it could have been a lot worse.  After 5 days off of running with plenty of stretching/icing I felt I was ready to go out and try a short run.  The first mile wasn't great and I was feeling a twinge again but I carried on.  The last 2 miles were the best miles and all-in-all I'm glad I went out.  I have done plenty of stretching after the run today and my next run will be on Tuesday (all being well).  I'll keep an eye on my leg tonight and tomorrow and hopefully nothing will flare up.

I'm not entirely sure what miles to attempt this week, so I'll play it by ear I think.  If I can, I'll resume the plan I've been following which shows a total of 32 miles (5, 5, 8, 14) and just try and forget about the 22-miler that I've missed.  I think/hope I've got plenty of miles in my legs anyway, so it's all about seeing if I can get to the start line in reasonable shape.  If I feel I am not going to make it, I just won't run and potentially rejoin the gym so I can cross train to keep some form of fitness.

Spring marathon season has well and truly kicked off, plus a bit of a niggle!

On Sunday 7th April 2013, it kind of felt that the Spring Marathon season well and truly kicked off with loads of people from Teignbridge Trotters and Runner's World doing marathons on that day.

I was really interested in the Paris Marathon this year as I knew a few people who were travelling out to attempt the event.  One was going for Sub-3, another Sub-4 and the third out to enjoy.  I'm pleased to say that all three managed their goals!

I watched the event on the TV (it was shown live on Eurosport) and I must admit that as a casual observer I'm not sure if I would travel over for the event myself.  From the TV coverage it looked like a bit of a shambles from where I was sitting:

- I reckon some people must have taken an hour to get through the start, maybe more.  The commentators mentioned that there were no toilet facilities in the start area, so it's not ideal if you've been standing around for an hour and lots of runners end up doing their business in shop doorways.
- For some reason the organisers kept closing one arch off.  I am guessing this was to help with clearing up bin liners etc, so is therefore understandable but you could see people getting frustrated.
- Right at the start there were loads of people (I am presuming media etc) in the middle of the road.  Even the elites had to dodge around them.  It could have been nasty for the "second tier" of elites who would have arrived at the scene unsighted.
- Live on TV, within around 50 metres from the start one runner from the masses who was looking at his watch ran right into a camera. Hopefully he was okay, but he looked like he clattered it quite hard!
- The route wasn't really closed to the public.  At one point, there was a lady out for her run going along on the racing line.  The elites, which at this point were in a bunch of around 25, had to dodge around her.

Having said that, it was well organised in terms of being able to track runners.  There was a free iPhone app available and it allowed you to track runners by their name or number.  It gave you their time for each 5K, plus their half way and the end times so that was really good and added a different dimension alongside watching the race on TV.

As well as Paris, about 30 of my club mates went off to do Taunton Half and full Marathons with a good smattering of PBs achieved as well.

In terms of my running, this week is a big week with a 22 miler (the longest of training) planned.  I do have a bit of a niggle though and I've been pointed towards the following URL as a good source if information.
http://www.physioadvisor.com.au/7652450/injuries-sports-injuries-injury-treatment-inju.htm

My issue is at the back/inside of my left leg, level with the knee.  It doesn't seem like a joint issue but more of a tendon/muscle issue.  I've been doing a lot of stretching and icing and it does seem to be getting better.  I was out for an 8-miler today and nearly turned around after 1-mile, but strangely it seemed to get better over time so I did manage to complete the run okay.  When I stretch my quads or lift my lift my foot up towards my bum it hurts a bit.

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on it but I'm a bit concerned about getting my 22-mile LSR in this week.  Let's see how it goes.

Jantastic is finished!

Marathon Talk's Jantastic is over and I have done well and found the whole process really motivating.  As mentioned previously, I did lose a couple of percentage points because I beat my 10K target by quite a large margin, but importantly I didn't miss any session since the challenge started on January 7th so I've been really consistent which is the point of the challenge.

I ended up with 100% in Jatastic and Febulous, and 94% in Marcvellous which ended up being a overall score of 98%.  From my Garmin, I've wracked up some big numbers:
- 49 individual runs
- 420 miles
- 64hr 40mins of training

It is the Paris Marathon this weekend and I know a couple of people who are running the event, which is the first big marathon of the Spring.  It's being shown on Eurosport so I'm going to try and catch that on the weekend.