Back into the swing of things

I seem to be back in the swing of things training-wise.  This week I've done 4 sessions totalling 32 miles, and have done a mix of sessions.

I am a bit concerned that I've lost some pace though.

On Wednesday, I did a club session which was 5x1k loops.  It was on a trail as opposed to road, but the splits were slower than my best.

On Wednesday they were:
- 4:38, 4:29, 4:31, 4:39, 4:31

A few weeks ago on 13th March on a flat road course they were:
- 4:14, 4:15, 4:08, 4:09, 4:03, so you can see I've slowed considerably, even taking into account the session this week was on a trail!  This isn't good news and I just hope I get the pace back before my half marathon in June.

Also, I did an 8-mile run with 5 at half-marathon pace and it was extremely tough.  The 5 mile block was done in:
- 7:57, 7:57, 7:44, 7:34, 7:36, which is more or less what I need to do for 13.1 mile in only 4 weeks time.  At the moment it doesn't seem likely.

On a positive, I today got a good 12 mile LSR in, with the last two miles at 8min/mile pace and I enjoyed the run and generally felt fine.

A quick catchup

I haven't blogged since the marathon a couple of weeks ago but I'm pleased to say that I've been keeping the running going.

Since the marathon I've done a total of 7 sessions with nothing too severe and totalling about 36 miles.  I've generally felt pretty good with no major niggles.  In fact this morning, I did a cracking run near the town I was brought up in and took this photo along the way.  Although I hd my Garmin with me, it was nice not worrying about pace and I just went out and ran for the enjoyment, which was great.

I'm turning towards getting a plan sorted out for the next event, which is the Torbay Half Marathon in June.  There's not long to train now, but I've got a plan sorted and I'll give it my best shot.  If it's hot though, any chance of a PB will be scuppered and it's also a fairly hilly course so we'll see how that goes.  Torbay traditionally has been my "A-Race" and I want to do well in it, especially as my Sister-In-Law (who is younger, fitter and faster than me) is running it this year.  A (not so!) secret aim for me is to beat her at this event!

Not that I consider myself "advanced" in anyway, but I've purchased a copy of the renowned Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger and Douglas (commonly known as P&D).  I feel I'm a long way off of going for their training plans which start with a plan that peaks at 55 miles per week and go up to 85+ miles per week).  Never-the-less, some of the concepts in their book are really useful for a relatively low mileage runner like me.  Also, it is interesting to see what is required to get the best out of yourself for the marathon, so it's a good/motivating book to have from that perspective too.

I do feel in a position where I'm really motivated to build on the fitness I've built up over the last few weeks and months and other than the Half in June and a 10K in August, I'm trying to work out what my next steps are.  I still think the Half marathon is my favourite distance and I'd like to chip away at that time and I think that is my main aim.  I am already thinking about another marathon and I haven't got a short list or anything, but a secondary aim is to do another marathon and get under 4 hours.

I'll see how the training pans out over the summer months and see where I am with the fitness.  Although I'm now building up again for the June Half, I must admit that I still don't feel that I've got the marathon out of my legs.

Another decision to make is around my weight and food.  I've stabilised at 13st (which traditionally is a very good weight for me) but deep down I know that this isn't the perfect running weight.  The easy thing to do would be to keep doing what I'm doing and I think in reality this may be the option I choose.  I've lost the last stone in weight relatively easily, but I think if I try and lose another (say) half a stone it will be tough to do and some changes will have to be made to my diet.  I don't know if I'm ready to do that just yet!

North Dorset Village Marathon - done!

I had been carb loading all day Thursday and Friday and also up to Saturday lunchtime and I was feeling pretty full by this point, but all was looking good.  My wife and I jumped in the car and travelled up to North Dorset as we had a B&B booked for the night before the race.  I packed a lot of stuff, but I'm glad I took it all even though some of it I didn't need.

We arrived at the B&B at 3pm-ish and as we had some time we decided to drive the course.  This probably seems like a stupid thing to do, but in a way I'm glad I did as a) it's a nice picturesque course and b) I had a better idea of where the hills were.  It turns out there were only really 2 main hills, and on the day of the race itself I didn't really notice them.  We had a meal booked at Prezzo in nearby Blandford so we went out for that at 6:00pm.  I had the same as what I had at the Bideford Half which was garlic bread and meatballs/pasta but I was still hungry, so back at the B&B I had some flapjack and Jaffa Cakes which went down well.

I got a reasonable night's sleep and Sunday morning the alarm was set for 05:45 as I was having breakfast at 6am.  The B&B owners were great (and even got up with me) and I had my usual pre-run breakfast of shredded wheat, sultanas and a coffee.  Staying at the B&B were 2 South Africans also doing the race, one of who had done the renowned Comrades Marathon (on a year when it was ran going "down").  This year he is to do it on the "up".  Comrades is a 54 mile race and is supposed to be pretty gruelling.  I caught up with the two guys at the end of the race and they had both down really well, one of them bagging a PB.

On the morning of the race, I walked up to the school (which was the race HQ) and picked up my number and dropped of my bag, and then wandered back to the B&B for final preparations.  I was incredibly nervous, but also pleased that the day had finally arrived although it was forecast to be quite sunny which was a worry.  I walked back up to the race HQ at 8:15 and I'm pleased I managed to see Shades from the Runner's World thread I'm involved in.  It was great to meet her and her last bit of advice was to not go out too quickly, which I kept in my mind.  The race start was literally 10 metres from our B&B, so I'll remember that if I do this race again.

Onto the race itself and it was more or less perfect conditions at the start.  The sun was out, but there was cloud cover and there was virtually no wind.  I started off gently just to get the first 3 or 4 miles under my belt and to see how I felt.  Everything was feeling good with no sign of my knee niggle or any stomach issue rumbling so I was going well.  I remember thinking at about 13 miles and also again at 16 miles that I was doing well but to just keep it steady and see how it goes.  

At around this time I had a bit of a strange (very brief) conversation with someone on a moped.  I had seen this moped earlier and then I saw that she had pulled into a lay-by.  She still had her helmet on but as I came up to her she made eye-contact with me and the conversation went something like:

- Moped driver:  "Do you know where the air field is?".

- Me: "Eh?"

- Moped driver: "Do you know where the air field is?".

- Me: "Urrrm...sorry, no"

.....and off I trotted, without breaking stride.

The route itself was very picturesque with lots of nice scenery, cows, sheep, goats, pigs and and some horses all along the route.  The course is quite a rural one so there wasn't that much support along the way, but the marshals were great and in fact the whole organisation was brilliant.  I had a personal drink at the station at mile 19 so I picked that up and carried on.

At around 20 miles I was just about on for a sub-4, which was at the very top end of my expectations but by this time I was beginning to struggle slightly.  The sun was out (I have a red face this morning to prove that!) and by mile 22 my calfs were cramped and I was reduced to having to walk a few times, which is a shame.  At around this time I was running near a fellow Trotter who I later found out was also struggling.  He tried to drag me along, but I wasn't able to go with him unfortunately.  I then reassessed with the true main time goal to finish under 4:30, but kept pushing (firstly trying to do 4:05 and when that slipped by to get under 4:10).

The final mile was tough.  It was a very slight gradient on a gravel track and it just seemed to go on and on.  About 200 metres from the finish I caught sight of my wife and she spurred me on.  She took this picture and I have to say I don't look too bad here!  I was feeling a lot worse than I look as my legs were shot by this point.

I'm pleased to say that my official finish time is 4:08:12 and I am genuinely over the moon by that.  My one and only previous marathon was 5:15 at London 2010 (which admittedly was a pretty soft target for me) but I'm pleased to say that I smashed that time so all the training, weight loss, change in drinking habits etc seems to have paid off.

I picked up my race medal (picture below) and t-shirt and caught up with my wife.  There were a few fellow Trotters at the finish and most of them had struggled in some way, I think due to the heat.  The organisers had put mini-buses on to get back to the start but I decided to walk back as I thought the walk would do my legs some good.  I got back to race HQ 10-mins later, grabbed my bags and had a shower.  I also had some food (scotch eggs, flap jack and Jaffa cakes....) which went down well and also did a bit of stretching.

We jumped into the car and drove home, where I promptly had a large mixed grill and a pint which did go down well, but I was very tired so I did go to bed fairly early and I'm glad it's a Bank Holiday today!

So, what have I learnt from this race:

- There are no short cuts to training.  It helps me to be pretty well organised and disciplined in the marathon training and remembering to ease off a bit if injured.

- Even with the above, the marathon is a distance that has to be respected.  It can smack you in the face, and it's good to expect this to happen and have ways of dealing with it.  For me, it's along the lines of "get to that lamp post" or "get to that spectator" and just trying to keep my form and relax my shoulders.

- I think the carb loading helped a lot.  I may have to practice this some more as it wasn't really right that I was still hungry after my Saturday evening meal so I need to look at what I can eat the night before.  I worry about stomach issues though (which I have suffered a lot with in the past), so I do need to practice this before an LSR.

- I had some Jaffa Cakes with me on the race, and these were an epic fail.  I had practiced with them through the winter months and had some at Bideford but whilst running this race they just didn't want to do down so I didn't eat them.  I had some jelly beans and melon at one of the food stations and that helped kick start me.  I need to look at this if I'm to do another marathon, maybe revisiting gels again.  I have used gels in the past and I didn't get on with them but I need to think about this again.

- I learned that I could dig in when times were tough and get through in a good time for me.  It's a shame that I had to walk a bit, but even this was tactical as I walked up the slight inclines and trotted down the other side, thinking that I as probably walking quicker than I could run at that point anyway.

So, all in all I'm really pleased.  I must say I'm looking forward to going back to the 10Ks and halfs, but I reckon there's a good chance I'll be putting my name down for another marathon at some point!

North Dorset Village Marathon - the final preparations!

Well, this time tomorrow I'll be well on my way in the North Dorset Village Marathon.  I'm feeling nervous already and wondering if I've forgotten something.  I have a long list at the top of this page, which I'm in the process of going through to make sure I don't forget anything.

Over the last couple of days I've been carb-loading for the event, and using the basic rule of trying to get 8-10g of carbs down for every 1Kg of body weight.  Getting that many carbs down me is difficult as I should be looking in the region of 700-800, but I've given it a good shot.  I didn't really measure it yesterday but on Thursday I had 4 tea cakes, a large bowl 75g bowl of porridge, 3 bananas, a large pasta-based meal, garlic bread, flapjack, 2 shredded wheat, juice and a sports drink which came to a mere 550g.  I had similar on Friday, but I'll be easing back a bit today as I am feeling pretty full!

I am having a mild panic about the drinks that I use.  I use Torq Energy which is a powder that I add water to and it comes in big tubs.  I noticed last night (because I stupidly checked...if I hadn't checked, I would have been non-the-wiser) that my current pot is a month or so past its "best before date" and another pot I use I have a very very slight doubt over as there is 0.0000000001% chance it caused a stomach issue I had recently on a run.  I think I'll just go with the pot that is past it's "best before date" as I'm sure it won't be an issue.

Shades from the Runner's World thread I frequent a lot is also doing the race.  I haven't met her face-to-face before, but I'm hoping I bump into her on the start line so I can say a quick "Hi" and wish her well.  That thread has been a great source of advice and general good banter and I check it regularly.

On a light hearted note, there was a thread on Runner's World this week about a guy who seemed to have got a bit confused with his race number.  Having a read through this is good for a bit of laugh.

So, this time tomorrow I'll be about 3 hours through the race, with probably another 1-1.5 hours to run. I know I've done everything I can so I've got everything crossed that it'll go well!