am i not running or racing enough?

away for the weekend, so only managed to fit in a 3mile jog on Sunday morning.. but that was better than nothing. and with this mild weather and some quaint and pretty autumnal Warwickshire countryside, i quite enjoyed myself.. apart from some goon beeping their horn without reason as they passed. yeah.. thanks for that..

Tuesday club training: pyramid. and quite a pyramid it was too: 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 with 200m walking recoveries between the first and last three and 300m recoveries between the middle three. i actually managed a good pace throughout and was pleased with my performance. no timing, so i don't know what speeds we were hitting. but i'd say we were still sub-7min/mile during the 1600m, and that was definitely the slowest. i'm guessing the 400s were around 75s.. maybe?

meant to run at lunchtime yesterday: a slowish 5mile recovery, but i forgot my towel, and found out i needed to go buy a few things out up town. instead i ran today - and tackled the full 6miler for the first time in quite a while. it was actually my intention to run 8miles nice and steadily as a mid-week long(ish) run, but my leg speed picked up after the warm-up mile, and i didn't really control it too well. felt pretty good building up a sweat in this mild weathe,r and the tracks in Hyde Park weren't too busy. ended up coming down the east side of the park at a fair lick - probably approaching 6min/mile pace. [not wearing the watch at the moment, as i need a new battery.] it was one of those pace-sessions that occur quite rarely: your breathing goes all relaxed and the leg speed continues to increase - and you end up flying, feeling a bit like you're floating on air.. didn't really want to get to the bottom it felt so.. right.

will go out again tomorrow, probably a 5miler - maybe speed up it a bit in the middle.. will have to see how the legs and the Achilles feel. no problems as yet. the intention is to run a 7miler on Sunday morning too. there's a great run from my house that takes me through Lewisham, over Blackheath and down and round Greenwich Park, before returning up and over the other side - through the Cator Estate. hope i get the time and feel in the right place to do it. will hopefully swim with the kids too..

the question in the title of this post comes from what i'm overhearing at the club sessions. one guy there had run a 10k that previous Sunday, another had run 12miles the night before, and another hadn't had a day off running for three weeks! no wonder i looked and felt so fresh-legged in comparison.. felt a bit of a fake running round near the head of the group - with just 3miles under my belt in the previous 4 days.

the lack of miles in my week can't really be avoided - and i'm building back up quite well now. i had a great deal of hesitation about overstressing the Achilles after i started back - but i think i can get more relaxed now.

one of the guys there - Steve - asked for what i'm training at the moment. i mentioned London in the spring and perhaps the Tunbridge Wells half in February, but i got the feeling that he was looking for something more immediate. even the less speedy guys there are picking up 10ks here and there - or turning up to be a club rep at a 5k x-country meet if they can. leads me to think that either i'm less committed to racing - or even running - than these more seasoned club members or i'm not organized enough about racing - and i'm perhaps missing out on a good thing by not racing regularly - or maybe it's just that i don't have the time these guys might. the latter seems highly unlikely, so maybe i need to ask around a bit and gauge opinion. my feeling is that i don't commit to races so easily. i like to always do as well as absolutely possible. so the idea of showing up regularly but only rarely getting a PB seems quite alien. maybe it's just me - maybe i've still not done enough racing to feel more relaxed about 'taking part'. it's whether racing would benefit my training - and i think it might - that's the clincher..

the week that just was..

last week i didn't manage to get to the #runwithmo @buparunning event organized for Thursday lunchtime in Regent's Park. i knew i'd be too busy and so i ran on the Wednesday instead: 4m, usual route, about 30min.

this week: after a long weekend away in Budapest, for which packing was minimal (and my running shoes were banned), i came straight back to Tuesday night club training. that entailed a good warm-up with 3x100m strides then into the good stuff: we ran 6x1000m with 200m recoveries. i don't know the times we were clocking for the 1000s, but it felt fairly fast, probably 6min/mile pace. turned out to be excellent exercise and i was very happy to push home hard on the last lap. we ran the park to warm down, then i trundled off home, where an excellent couscous salad was waiting! really felt it in my calves the next day, so had to have a good stretch out, but no trouble in the Achilles any more..

Thursday i'd hoped to go out with one of the guys from work for a recovery run, but neither was available. i ran by myself and stretched it out to the 5mile loop up into Hyde Park. the first and last miles i covered quite relaxed as good warm-up and warm-down. the middle 3miles i started in at around 7:10 and built through to around 6:20. i didn't have my watch on me, so those speeds aren't accurate; just what it felt like. to make it a bit harder, as i was feeling good in that middle section, i tried out 3-3 breathing, instead the regular 2-2. it makes quite a difference! it's supposed to build up strength in your diaphragm if you remember to belly not chest breathe. it gave me something to concentrate on and the time went by quite quickly. i really like finishing along the road that runs the length of the northern side of the Serpentine. it's nice and flat, slightly downhill, and if you get on top of the camber, you have a lot of space around you..

racing goals, aging and being reasonable..

yesterday: 4miles at 7:20. pretty good turn around the park. was ultra-anxious, as usual, about the Achilles, but it seemed to hold ok. felt great yesterday evening, but is stlightly achy this morning. probably connected to it being cold and that i haven't fully stretched it out yet.

today will see me turn up later for my second session with Kent AC. last week was really good fun, and i liked the people and the feel of it. don't think we're back on the track yet, so that likely means we're back out in a poorly lit park somewhere. we'll see..

was thinking this morning about racing and my plans - and my age. i'm 38 now, and i guess you could say i've come to it later in life than most. i started up only a couple of years ago and have only raced a handful of half and full marathons - definitely so compared with some of the seasoned veterans on the courses who must be of an equivalent age. it leads me to think about what i want to accomplish - and how much time i've got to do some of those things. i'm running London next year, and that's always been a big (probably the biggest) wish for me - ever since i arrived 8years ago. but what other races do i want to run - where? and how?

well, another race that came to mind, and probably spurred this whole line of thinking, was the Boson marathon. entries for 2011 have just opened and closed - it filled up the same day! i like to sound of it because it comes in the right end of the year (for what i'm used to in marathon prep) and also the fact that you have to qualify. don't know why i like that, but there's definitely a draw because of it.

so London this year, Boston next year, then? well, then i'll be 40, and I guess i'll have to reevaluate my racing strategy. i've been pretty lucky this year to have clocked a sub-3hr marathon. i'm going to try my damndest to beat that next year - by a few minutes - now i know going sub-3 is possible for me. the following year, i'd guess i'll still be capable to run at those speeds. but after that i don't know how long it'll go on before i start to fade in the speeds i can pull off. i know i'm a decent runner, but i also know that i have to train very hard (find it difficult to do anything else to be honest) to get up to these standards. maybe a few years down the line i'm not going to be physically able to match what i can achieve now. how's that going to feel? when it happens - and who knows? maybe it's a while off yet - i think it's going to be hard to accept. i wonder what it feels like to know you're past your bests - no more PBs..

there are definitely some halfs that sound attractive, and probably a fair few more fulls that tickle my fancy.. it's a full intention to run at least one a year. maybe when i get on a bit and the times aren't so important, i'll be more open to running more than one a year - just to participate - and get that great feeling of achievement and belonging..

first club session..

so after some missed commitments - weights, swim on Sunday, stretching.. - i lined myself up to attend the Kent AC training session on Tuesday night. i got back from work and picking up Joe by six, then had some nuts and raisins to top up before making my way down to the Ladywell Arena for just before seven.

it was immediately clear to me that there was a good social group of people - mostly women - gathering there. i announced myself as a newbie and, after the coach there got my PB for the half, got taken to meet the A- and B-groups. their coaches hadn't yet arrived, so i took a turn round the park as a warm-up with the A-group. i wasn't on my own as a new recruit. another guy from nearby was also there for the first time. he had a similar background in running to me - although had run four marathons. we learnt from the A guys that their's was a pretty good gathering of talent. they said it was hard to get a good group of people together in London, because of everyone being so widely distributed. one of the group was away at the CWG, and i learnt that another there had a 67min half to his name and finished 30th at London this year. pretty clear this was going to be a fair bit too quick for me..

when we got back we had a chat with one of the guys from the B-group, who were going to do 6 x 1200m round the park. [the track is still closed - til next Friday - for resurfacing etc.] he was happy enough with my 10k PB but it sounded like i was going to get stretched. i decided to drop down again and take it easier on the Achilles this week. turns out that was a good idea..

so - back to the social group. it was quite a mixed bunch, but everyone in good spirits and really friendly. we headed up to Hilly Fields Park on the hill above the running track. there we did hill repeats. the uphill-downhill stretches were maybe a minute or so long, and we took 3min breaks in between pairs. from my count i think we did 4 repeats up-and-down. it took its toll, but i was pleased with how it went. i did well on the uphill sections, but took it easy on the downhill to protect my heel. seemed like the best thing to do considering even this session was probably beyond what i should have sensibly been doing in my rebuild to full training.

we jogged back and i pretty much headed straight back home. i cold-showered immediately, and had a plate of the delicious lamb stew Poll had prepared earlier - and i'd had to bear not eating between six and seven. i RICEed the ankle with 2 x 20min ice after. while it's still tender at the base of the tendon - and remains so now - it doesn't feel like it did when it came on. now it feels more controllable. i took some ibuprofen this morning to help it along, and i'll probably keep that up twice a day for a little while.

so, all in all, it was a major success. i can see me progressing up to the B-group there - if that works for them too.. would be great to get really pushed at least once a week alongside some good club runners. i think it'll stand me in great stead for any future races. very happy i went..

more running done..

ran yesterday: 4mi at 7:15-ish and Tue: 4mi at 7:00. Also swam 1km on Sunday and ran the previous Thu (4mi again).

i think the runs this week were probably just a little too high-tempo. we got out and started to enjoy getting back into the old rhythm - we even thought there might be some muslce-memory involved. i suffered yesterday afternoon, and worried through the evening that i'd knocked the injury back a few weeks by going at it all too hard. seems as though some anti-inflammatories and RICE has done the trick however. probably won't run at the weekend, as planned, but will definitely do another 1km session in the pool on Sunday.

having had confirmation that i'm in London next year has made me think about what i need to do to properly prepare this time. i have to think out which races to go for in the run-up and how to grade the training and diet to make sure i'm on top form on the day. thinking of fitting some trail runs into the schedule, as that's something that's taken my fancy recently. maybe..

neither of my good friends got in via the ballot, but that was to some extent expected. i don't think either will take the charity route either (just too much commitment), so it looks like i'm on my own. hopefully i'll be able to muster some supporters for the route. with the new mile rate cut-down to 6:27 for a 2:50 i'll need all the support i can get!

as long as the Achilles holds out and seems ok enough, i'm going to try my first session with the local running club, Kent AC, on Tuesday. the track is still closed for it's refurbishment, but they are still holding sesssions down there - in the park i think. should be good..

we go running again..

just 4mo since we last ran, me and my colleague from work ran again this lunchtime. we did a very easy going 4mi up to the bridge across the Serpentine in Hyde Park. it was great to get out and especially so as we'd been looking forward to it for quite some time. his knee's been bad and my Achilles needs no further explanation. it seems to have stood up to the challenge. I'll probably have to wait till tomorrow morning to really fond out but seems ok now. will ice it well in a few minutes.

I think we've both realised that you can't just knock out the runs now. this break has been very frustrating so I've got to do everything supportive to the running - the stretching, icing, swimming.. - to keep me out on the roads.

with the results of the London ballot out next week I'll see who'll be running with me in Apr 2011, and thus who'll be training with me too..

another step in the right direction...

this time it was actually a real step.. in fact, quite a few. simply round the parks again for a slow 2.5m jog, but it was pain and ache free.. and i can't tell you how happy that made me. i stretched-out both Achilles at 10:30 this morning, then ran at 12:30.. stretched again directly after, then showered and iced (as best I could with the ice-pack i'd brought from home this morning) it for a good 20min. stretched again this afternoon, and it's feeling ok. there's a slight twinge down the Achilles itself, but it's not painful in the pinch test, so i'm guessing there's definite movement towards recovery.

what these couple of runs have taught me is how unfit and unbalanced i've got. totally lost my running form and felt quite stiff in my running style throughout. seemingly a large amount of work to get back to full fitness.

but i guess that's what training for a sub-3hr marathon teaches you.. just how fit and fine you can get - then just how bad and poor you feel when you lose it. and i do mean poor - it's a definite loss to find yourself breathing heavily at a mile in.. at a point where you'd just be waking up previously. however, the silver lining is knowing that feeling is there to attain.. and the fun you can have getting back to it..