Portsmouth Marathon

Portsmouth Marathon on 21st December this year was my 8th marathon and my second time at this one.  It's mostly flat and you would have thought fast, but you have to factor in how busy it is, the single track paths, the sections of muddy or shingle beach to negotiate, the cold windy wet weather and.... AND... the mulled wine at the water stops!

Last year it was lashing with rain at the start and there were wet and muddy puddles along much of the route, but apart from that it was quite pleasant.  OK it was windy but the sun was shining for much of the time and the out and back course meant you got to see lots of runners and friends on the Hayling Island section.  There was the issue for some of having to wade knee deep through the sea at 24 miles where the tide had covered the beach, but a bit of bulldog spirit saw us through.  This year problems with the tide coming in have been solved by changing the route to avoid having to cross the last beach on the return to the Esplanenade.

Not Training Again?
Preparation for this race had not been focussed on distance as I had another objective which was to do well in the last club handicap run of the year.  You can read about that here.  That club handicap run went really well, so it was well worth training for, but it only left me time for a couple of 15 mile long runs and medium club runs in the 2 weeks before Portsmouth.  In terms of overall fitness I thought I was in pretty good shape, maybe about the same level as I was going in to Abingdon, which was 2 months ago in mid-October.  My only worry was that I had been suffering with sore and stiff calves recently, partly as a result of not being able to do any foam rolling as I had had a hand injury.  Anyway, I thought I ought to give a PB a try and just see what happened, so my plan going into the race was to go out at 8:30min/mile pace aiming for a 3:45 time.

Race Prep
The day before I thought I was doing really well having done Frimley Lodge parkrun with the family, running with Elinor in a gentle 28 minutes, then having a nice big breakfast at the cafe, finishing off the Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, baking flapjack and sorting out my race bag before having an early dinner.

There were due to be 11 or 12 Sandhurst Joggers going down to Portsmouth and I had a lift with Chris Lambourne and Emma Lewis with a pick up time of 6:15.  I slept OK but struggled out of bed at 5:45 and didn't quite manage to finish my porridge before Chris and Emma arrived.  We were already on the M3 before I realised I hadn't put my contact lenses in.  That was a real problem for me because I hate running in glasses, getting steamed up or rained on and not being able to see.  Fortunately after digging through my bag I managed to find a spare set and after finishing off a large piece of flapjack I was back to feeling positive about the race.

We managed to get parked close to the Pyramid Centre by Southsea with over an hour to go before the 8:45 start time, got our race numbers met up with some folks from the club (Max and Sacha Woods and Leon Hicks) and Kelvin from Cove Joggers. I went to find the loos, but unfortunately the organisers had not managed to provide loos with toilet paper!  This was sorted out eventually, but that's another thing to remember to put in the race bag along with spare contact lenses.  Whilst waiting in the queue for the loos I saw another couple of Sandhurst runners, Vicky Horne and Tina Acock, heading off to get an early start.

A little before the 8:45 start we gathered outside the Pyramid Centre on the Esplanade and were led down to Southsea Pier and the new start line by a pipe band (yes, bagpipes).  The weather was chilly and windy but not that cold, so I had decided to run in a t-shirt with my Sandhurst Joggers vest on top , a cap and gloves but bare arms.  I also took 6 Hi-Five gels and a few blocks of dark chocolate in my marathon belt.

Off We Go!
As soon as we got to to the pier, I looked ahead and saw that people had already started running, though I hadn't heard any gun or hooter.  I had already got my watch set up for the 8:30/mile pace and hit the Go button as I went over the timing mats.  The strong breeze was at our backs as we set off down the Esplanade and it was easy to get straight on to pace.  After 2 miles the first beach section caused a bit of a delay as we queued up to get down a narrow path.  This bit of beach was slow going as we were picking our way through seaweed and muddy patches and I was trying to keep my feet dry to avoid possible blisters.

Vicky and Tina on Hayling Island*

Going up the west side of Langstone Harbour was reasonably sheltered and the first 4 miles flew by.  At 5 miles I caught up with Vicky and Tina and gave Vicky a friendly butt-slap as I passed (payback for her stinging encouragement at the last aid station on Surrey Half earlier in the year).  Just beyond 5 miles you get to run alongside the main A27, a busy noisy road and my least favourite part of the
course.  Still, if you look to the right the views across the harbour are very nice.

Crossing on to Hayling Island at 9 miles you are very exposed and the wind was almost whipping my cap off, but it wasn't long before we got on to the Hayling Billy Trail down to the turn around near half way.  Last year I didn't quite manage to get to 10 miles before the leaders appeared coming the other way, but this year I was comfortably past the 10 mile marker when I saw the leader come cruising past with a smile on his face and almost a 6 mile lead on me!  In the mile before the turn I saw Lisa Hale and then Chris Lambourne and then on my way back between miles 13 and 15 most of the rest of the SJ team (Sacha, Leon, Emma, Vicky and Tina and Lance King).  It was great seeing all the guys and a good mental boost too.

Hoever, it was about this time that I started to hit problems.  I was doing well up to about 14 miles staying between about 8:20/mile and 8:50/mile depending on the terrain (beaches or muddy paths slowing me a bit), but from 14 miles my left knee began to hurt with what I thought was an ITB problem.  It felt just like at the Pilgrim back in September when that knee pain caused me to walk most of the last 4 miles and I couldn't run downhill.  I struggled on slowing from 8:40/mile to 9:30/mile.

Cruising along at about 12 miles*

This was really getting me down and I was thinking that if it got any worse I was probably going to have to stop.  If I ended up slowing below 10min miles there was a risk with the wind chill that I would get very cold.  However, at around 19 miles I went through a mental check of how I was feeling and realised that my knee actually wasn't hurting much and in fact it only hurt a bit when I was running on a side slope.  Once I had figured this out I felt a lot more positive and I knew I was going to finish.

The cold windy weather was having its toll though and with the muddy slippy paths and shingle beach section I wasn't setting a fast pace.  I was stopping at each aid station to get squash and jaffa cakes and the odd shot of mulled wine and whereas last year my pace might have dropped beyond 11 minute miles, this time I managed to keep knocking out the miles no slower than 9:30.  I needed to keep it going like this to keep warm.  I was also thinking "The faster you go now, the sooner it will be finished!"

Emma, Greg Ward and Ed Mills near the finish*

At 23 miles, we got to the new diversion to avoid the now tide flooded last beach section.  This was a run along some quiet back streets and through Bransbury Park before coming back to the Esplanade with 2 miles to go.  The last 2 miles seemed to go on forever, battling into the cold wind.  I was looking out for the Pyramid Centre but couldn't see it with a mile to go; the pier was in the way.  As soon as I had passed the pier, though, I could see the blue pyramid roof mercifully only a few hundred metres away with crowds of people forming a tunnel of noise for the last 100m.

I hadn't looked at my watch for the last 4 or 5 miles so it was great to see I had finished in 3:54:28.  My second sub-4 hour time and only 2 minutes away from a PB having overcome some quite challenging conditions.  All in all a very good result.

Splits for this marathon were a bit all over the place:

8:21 9:01 8:21 8:29 8:36 8:25 8:39 8:37 8:48 8:47 8:32 8:42 8:52 8:44 9:08 9:29 9:18 9:19 9:29 8:52 9:06 9:26 9:12 9:14 9:28 9:25 2:07

Afters

All the SJ and Cove runners got home safely - Well done all.

Max Woods 03:33:28; Lisa Hale 03:34:16; Stuart Overhill 03:51:10; Chris Lambourn 03:53:15; Richard Boese 03:54:28; Sacha Kendall Woods 04:25:12; Leon Hicks 04:42:32; Lance King 05:14:52; Greg ward 5:21:17; Emma Lewis 05:22:21; Tina Acock 06:50:17; Vicky Horne 06:50:17.

Kelvin Gower 04:35:11 (comfortably making his Comrades Marathon qualifying time)

Post race recovery was found in the very decent Crown and Cushion near Minley Barracks.  The Thai curry chicken and pint of Spitfire went down a treat.

Now I'm looking forward to the Christmas parkrun season with the family (including wife Julia's 50th run) and possibly another attempt at the Winter Tanners 30 mile challenge event in early January.

*Thanks to Janet Foran for the race photos.

The Handicap Cup

I had a really good run at the December running of the Sandhurst Joggers Club Handicap.  This year was one where I wanted to make an effort to join in a lot more club events and I have managed to do 10 of the handicaps this year after never having done them before.  The course runs around the hilly side of Crowthorne - two laps making four miles, two BIG hills, two short steep hills and some descents to fly down – it’s a good challenging run to do at speed. 

Going into the last run, I was top of the points leader board (based on points from best 7 runs) having managed to steadily improve my PB from 33mins to 29:12 over the year.  However, there were at least two people in with a very good chance of overtaking me in the last event, Steve Sims and Gabriel Bassett.  Unfortunately Gabby couldn't make it on the night, though Steve was going to be there and I needed to be at least 3 places ahead of Steve to hang on to the lead.

Tactics?  Like every time I have run this time trial it's just a case of going as fast as possible and the only tactic I have is to try and make the two laps as even as possible. I thought Steve was going to go for a sub 28min time, so needed a 20sec PB.  To beat that I would have to go for a 30sec PB and hope 2 people placed in between us.  That meant aiming for about 28:45 and just over 7:11/mile pace.  

So I set the Garmin pacer up for that and once under way checked my watch on the first 400m to get used to the effort needed to maintain that pace.  I tried to keep that same effort going up the hills make up time on the descents and also try and keep someone ahead of me in site, but I was really gasping going over the last hill.  I hadn’t looked at my watch since the start, but I felt that I must have a lot of time to make up over the last half mile, so really pushed hard all the way home. I finished in 28:42, beating my handicap time by 32secs and feeling like I could not have gone any quicker.

The results looked like this:

That was a tight race and in the end there was only 4 seconds between 5th and 8th places in the results, but I just did enough to hang on to the overall first place position.  

It has been a really good year of running for me.  I have managed to improve at all distances I have run and have really tried to learn about training and what I can do to get faster.  Being able to test myself on our club handicap route has been really rewarding and coming away with the win in the overall competition was a great feeling.  

Now to get back down to sea level and Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon.

Can you run a marathon without it taking over your life?

Have you ever done a marathon?  Got to the end of your 20 mile training run and thought "Thank God for that! I never have to do 20 miles in training again. Ever!"  Then what happens after your one and only London Marathon?  A week later finds you up at midnight putting your name down for the ballot for next year's race.  Somehow you forgot all the time, effort and pain and you are on the road (and trail) to having a bit of an addiction.  I think that's where I am now.  Except that when I put my name down for London 2014 just after the 2013 race, I thought I probably wouldn't get in through the main ballot, so went and entered the Farnham Pilgrim and Portsmouth marathons just to be sure.

So, Portsmouth marathon approaches again and after telling my work mates that I was doing this race, which comes a few days before Christmas, the comments I got were along the lines of "Bloody idiot", and "Don't you know why people invented the internal combustion engine?" or even the eyebrow raising "So, Portsmouth marathon...how long is that one then?"  Seriously? Anyway, when I entered this one last year I thought that, as it was the flattest marathon I was likely to find this side of Amsterdam, it must be a quick one.  Even though the organisers have a video up showing a speeded up cycle ride along the whole course I didn't factor in how much harder it would make it to run on beach sections, narrow muddy paths, wide paths full of puddles, wading through the freezing cold sea at 24 miles and then slogging along into the teeth of a gale on the Southsea promenade for the last 2 miles.  It turns out even a pan flat marathon can throw up significant challenges besides the long miles.

This is going to be marathon number 8 for me in less than 2 years and like a lot of people who are keen on both their running and their family life, I have worried about how much time out from my family the training could take.  After all I have a fairly busy job as well that keeps me out of the house for over 10 hours a day.  Maybe in a few years this won't be a problem as the kids will be teenagers who would be totally bored by what their old man is doing and barely prepared to grunt to acknowledge my presence.  However, right now they welcome me home with enthusiasm; well, they do as long as I make sure I get home after The Simpsons has finished.

After having done London marathon in 2013 and religiously followed a training plan, gradually building up my mileage over a 16 week period to 20 miles and then tapering to the big day, I knew how much time a full and focussed training programme could take.  To then repeat this over 3 or 4 marathons a year seems like a huge and all consuming task.  So, to avoid my wife and kids having to reintroduce themselves to me like strangers after each event, I have not put in lots of long runs in the lead up to the marathons that followed London.

So, to start answering my question, obviously I haven't given up training for marathons altogether.  What I mean is that having trained properly and got the requisite miles in for the first marathon, the next three road marathons have shown a gradual improvement, even though I didn't ever get up to the usual 20 mile run or take 16 weeks doing it. And this has happened even though the races have been quite far apart.  London and Portsmouth were in April and December 2013, while MK and Abingdon were in May and October 2014.

Looking at the 6 weeks before each of London, Portsmouth, MK and Abingdon the weekly mileage and long runs went like this:

London 4:35:55	Weekly	35	37	32	33	15	38
	Long run	17	18	20	16	8	26.2
Portsmouth 4:14:32	Weekly	35	3	29	15	9	36
	Long run	16	3	13	5	6	26.2
M.K. 4:06:37	Weekly	9	18	12	19	34	34
	Long run	6	11	4	15	13	26.2
Abingdon 3:52:23	Weekly	31	30	17	21	33	38
	Long run	16	26.2*	9	8	15	26.2
Portsmouth 2014	Weekly	17	11	28	?	?	?
	Long run	6	6	14	?	?	26.2

*Alright, you got me. I did another marathon - jog/walking the trails of the Farnham Pilgrim.

So, how come I can show steady improvement in each marathon and yet have not very good preparation?  I think that the physiological changes that you are trying to develop through a programme of steadily increasing mileage have largely taken effect having strictly followed the plan for the first marathon.  Having done that, and followed it up with 3 or 4 marathons per year, that physiological improvement - how your body copes with the marathon miles - has obviously not disappeared in the few months between each one.  However, I must be a bit fitter overall and, if I look at other race times, I see a definite improvement across a range of distances.

My parkrun times gradually improved from around 23:50 pre-London to under 21:20 prior to the Pilgrim and Abingdon.  Similarly 10k times went from 48mins to 45mins and half marathons from 1:55 to 1:47 over the same period.  This general improvement in speed has come about by not just focussing on plodding along for very long runs at a slow pace, but specifically working on speed training.  I've kept that going from the summer and into the autumn and winter this year, even though I don't have any 10k races and Frimley parkrun is getting slower as it gets more muddy.  So, in the lead up to Portsmouth, by using my current best parkrun time as a measure of overall fitness, a recent time of 21:25 on a muddy course tells me I'm in pretty good shape.

The really big advantage of making speed sessions a key part of my training is it doesn't take very long.  I can do a range of different sessions on the streets outside my house that take no more than 30 minutes.  The other advantage is I can sometimes include the rest of the family as well.  One of my sessions is hill sprints where after a slow jog to warm up and maybe a few drills, we do sets of sprints where I run to a point 120m away up the hill and when I turn to run back so does everyone else.  We then all get back to the bottom of the hill at the same time.  Everyone puts in the same amount of effort and has the same rest and I also feel like I get a good hard session.  With a parkrun a week this also means that 2 out of 4 training runs can be with family.

To answer my original question, then.  Does marathon training have to take over your life?  Well, to begin with I would have to say yes.  At least for the first one and probably it still does if you just do one each year or every other year.  But if you feel you want to do two or even three a year, I think that the importance of hitting the long mile targets of traditional training plans diminishes.  If you are lucky enough to involve your family in some of your training, then the time out running the longer runs maybe just 2 to 3 hours a week and you might even be able to get away with doing those for just 4 to 6 weeks.  I think for me fitness for running a marathon doesn't have to be all about long miles and in fact, keeping it interesting, setting and achieving goals at shorter distances, working on form, strength and flexibility will all help you get across your chosen finish line in better shape than last time.

Turn On, Tune In, Run Out

Do you listen to music when out for a run?
For some people this is a serious issue.  I know people who will never go out for a run without them. They are so used to doing all their training with just their motivational App for company that even in a group run or race the earphones have to go in.  For them it's as necessary and automatic as tying their shoelaces.  For anyone else who regularly runs with a club or trains with friends, you are probably like me and you wouldn't dream of shutting yourself off from your running buddies.

If I'm out for a run with friends, on a club run or in any kind of group running situation, then no I don't use earphones.  If it's going out with friends or club, then I'm there to run AND chat.  Even if it's a non-serious event, like a parkrun, I want to hear what's going on around me so I don't get in the way of someone wanting to overtake me and I don't want to pass up the opportunity to chat to people I haven't met before as I run.  If it's an organised race, the parkrun principle still applies (I'll chat to people whenever possible, especially in halfs and marathons) and I don't want to get in the way of faster runners or not hear what course marshals need to tell me.  Of course in many races it's also the rule that earphones are not allowed.

What the rules say

This sort of footwear is of course banned from your local
 athletics meeting

UKAthletics don't have any official rules on wearing earphones or use of mobile phones, but the IAAF do. Under the section of the IAAF rulebook covering "assistance" the use of any audio or visual device including mobile phones or similar is considered assistance and is therefore not allowed.  I think where they are coming from is that you could actually have a race plan recorded by your coach with a lot of instructions and motivation for key parts of the race and that could be considered similar to having your coach in the competition area telling you what to do, which, like having springs in your shoes, is also not allowed.*  However, there is no actual rule that says that runners are not allowed to wear earphones for safety reasons.

UK Athletics do however state that race promoters should look at the safety of their event and judge the risk of having runners not being able to hear marshal's instructions and, if they think necessary, then ban earphones.  That means that the official race rules of most road and trail races do ban earphones, but in practice most races let people get away with using them.  The one time I have been in a race where the organisers actually enforced this rule was Abingdon marathon.

If you have a look at this year's results for Abingdon you will find at the bottom a list naming all those disqualified.  This year there was one runner DQ'd for running with someone else's number and 6 DQ'd for wearing earphones.  I can fully understand Abingdon's strict stance on this.  They have maybe four partial road closures on the course and they are all manned by several marshals with traffic control lights or stop/go signs.  As you approach the crossing point, they stop the traffic for you and you cross when you are told, hopefully without breaking stride.  In this case you have to be able to hear what they are telling you clearly for your own safety. So "Earphones - Nein Danke!" as they say in Abingdon. Or they would if Abingdon happened to be in Germany (Eh!? - Ed).

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
The only time I do wear earphones is if I am out on a long run by myself.  After an hour or so in my own company I kind of get fed up with the sound of the lone voice in my head that keeps asking silly questions like "How's that knee feeling?" "What about that ankle niggle you had last week, is it coming back again?" and the classic "Look at the size of that hill! Are you quite mad?"

I don't get a lot of time to listen to music that I enjoy, as there are always competing tastes when driving with the family, TV on at home and my journey to work is usually by bicycle or motorbike. Even when I travel for work by train I'm either doing something to prepare for the meeting I'm heading for or just reading in the Quiet Carriage.  So, the long run is when I get to listen to music and it has become an extra boost to get me out the door - something to make what could be a 2 or 3 hour steady slog something to look forward to.

As for what I listen to, it's a mixed bag.  I started out with a compilation of what I thought would be good running tunes, so my running playlists include such things as Canned Heat "Going Up the Country", Big Audio Dynamite "Union, Jack", Dandy Warhols "Bohemian Like You", Gomez "Silence", Lemon Jelly "The Staunton Lick" - all of them up tempo, uplifting songs to keep your mind in a happy place. I even found some running related tunes: Bow Wow Wow "I Want Candy", The Clash "Train in Vain", Hefner's "Pull Yourself Together", James's "Sit Down" and "Come Home", the Alt Country classic by Smog "Hit the Ground Running" as well as Rock Steady classics like "A Message to You, Rudy" with it's salutary message to "Stop your running around, got to think of your future" which is just right for when you can feel that calf cramp starting to set in.

The only problem with the playlist is, I can't be bothered to wade through 1500+ songs beyond the few albums I know well to add different tunes to it and so I have listened to the same stuff over and over again.  No matter how jaunty a tune is I'm getting a bit fed up with it by the time I have heard it for the third time on the same run.  So the cure for this has been to just set my Walkman to play all songs on shuffle.  Now I have been out several times running for an hour or more before I've even heard a song that I've played more than once in the last 2 or 3 years and, although not every one is rocking along at a fast pace, I have been listening to some awesome music.  It has certainly been keeping my mind fresh, interested and positive and it's something that I will seriously have to consider using when I come to running the lonely small hours of Endure 24 next year.

What to Wear on a Long Run
So, this is turning out to be the blog post that has everything. A mildly controversial topic, a couple of points on racing rules, headline grabbing stats from Abingdon, some super advice on how you too can impress the opposite sex with your new found great taste in music, and now a product review too!

Given that you have decide you need some audio assistance to get you through that long run, what to wear?  I have tried 3 different earphones with my current Sony Experia phone: the phone manufacturer's supplied earbuds, "hook on" running earphones from JVC and "clip in" running earphones from Monster.

Earbuds

My Sony earbuds. OK for sitting very still on a train,
but rubbish everywhere else.

OK, the cheapest of the cheap, effectively free earphones.  The sound is pretty good as they do a good job of blocking out room noise and, as they are meant to be used for listening to music on your Walkman App, Sony have made these with a reasonable bass and clear mid and top range.  The problem for me comes when I start to move around.  It's not just these ones, I have never been able to get a pair of earbuds to stay in place no matter what size they are.  Maybe I have the wrong shape ear canal or something, but I can't go more than 100m before I have to push them back in place.  I have even tried taping them on, but that only lasted a couple of miles until sweat caused them to come unstuck.  They even get a bit messy with sweat and earwax and are not that easy to clean.  So, these are not even a last resort.  If I had a choice of running with these or without, then I would just have no music.

Hook Ons

JVC HA-EB75 sports earphones. Cheap but effective.

I have been using these JVC HA-EB75 sports earphones for a couple of years and they have been very good for the price.  I think they cost me about £15 when I got them, but you can pick these up for about £10 now.  They are pretty basic and have no phone or volume controls. The part that hooks over your ear slides along the lower body giving them some size adjustment and the speaker part sits against your ear canal.  The wires are quite long so you can put your player on a belt or in a pocket, but I usually use them with my phone on an arm band so I have to wind up the wires and stuff them into the strap.  This is OK, but the wires do tend to get tangled up.  They have a small screw on the inside face and as this is not stainless steel it has rusted a bit from being regularly dowsed in sweat, but nothing has broken in about a hundred uses on long runs, so they seem well made and robust enough.

The sound is reasonable and they have never come off.  The minor problem I have with them is that they tend to sit more loosely against your ear after a while which lets in more outside noise and reduces the volume of the music.  This is slightly annoying when running alongside a busy road if you can't hear the music any more, so you might find yourself wanting to turn up the volume and having to stop running to do so.  The fact that I am not completely cut off from the outside world is a good thing for me, as I want to be able to hear the traffic around me even if I am taking special care to stop and look at road crossings.  I have given them an occasional clean with a baby wipe and that seems to be fine to keep them looking clean enough.

Clip Ins

Monster iSport Strive. Much more expensive,
but the quality shows.

I have recently acquired a pair of Monster iSport Strive earphones as the free gift after I got a subscription to Runner's World magazine.  These were advertised as being worth £60 and that may have been the case at one time a year or two ago, but you can get these for £40 now. Again these are the basic end of the range from Monster and have no phone or volume controls, so if you want these features or more funky colours you have to pay an extra £20.  Again these come with a quite long cable so I wind this up to jam it into my phone armband, but the flat shaped cable seems to unravel itself and doesn't get tangled.

I was a bit dubious about whether these would stay in place.  They hook in to the inner part of your ear in a ridge a little above your ear canal and take a bit of getting used to, jamming them in just the right place, but once in they have been completely secure.  So far they have stayed clean no matter how sweaty I have got, but even if they got mucky they are waterproof and washable so you could give them a wipe down, scrub with an old toothbrush or even put them through the washing machine. Maybe tie them into a sock if you were to do this or the cables could get pulled off.

On the go they have been really good.  They stay securely in place and haven't moved around at all so the sound level that you can hear stays the same throughout your run.  They are designed to allow some surrounding noise in, so you can hear car traffic around you and if an approaching cyclist calls out.  I think this is preferable to being completely cut off from your surroundings and is at least a bit safer.  The sound is a bit of a revelation compared to my usual JVC 'hook ons' and maybe this is something to do with the better and more secure fit.  They have a nice full punchy bass sound and clear mid and top range and I don't feel I have to turn the volume way up to get decent quality sound even with traffic around.  I'm really glad these have worked out so well for me, as I have a lot of miles coming up with training for next summer's ultra and a few marathons in between.


*Seriously, UKA and IAAF rules actually say you are not allowed to have springs in your shoes.

Appraisal Time and Plans for 2015

At work we have a strange financial schedule where the end of the year comes in September.  It's to do with being owned by an American company.  As line manager to a team of Geotechnical Engineers and Engineering Geologists I also get to do their annual appraisals, but fortunately this is not at all stressful and I just feel a bit like Young Mr Grace telling them "You're all doing very well!"
So, as I have appraisals on my mind it seems appropriate to carry out my own self-assessment. It urns out that 2014 has been a successful running year so far.  Having got through Abingdon marathon in record time I have achieved almost all of my running goals for the year:

• sub 4 hour marathon (3:52:23 - Gold Star!)
• sub 1:45 half marathon (1:47:03 - hmm, need to pull your socks up laddie!)
• beat 46 minutes in 10k (44:50 - unexpectedly good)
• beat 22 minutes at 5k (21:18 - another good result)

I did also help the kids get to 15 PBs at parkruns between them with a combination of coaching and pacing and they have both now got their 50 t-shirts.  But I didn't run many half marathons this year as they didn't fit well into my other training and the Cabbage Patch 10 mile race was on the same day as Abingdon. 

So, I haven't had a proper go at a 10 mile or half this year, but it doesn't look as though I will be doing much racing at those distances for a while, as I have taken the possibly rash decision to do Endure 24 as a solo runner.  This will be what I consider to be my first proper ultra distance event.  I know I did the Winter Tanners 30 mile last year, which was a self navigated lightly supported, very muddy, hilly jog/walk, but I feel that I did that with no preparation and really could have walked it just as fast. Including getting lost and reading the map, the 31 miles took 8.5 hours at an average 16.5 mins/mile. Definitely walkable and hence unfinished business as far as shorter ultras are concerned.

The decision to do 80 to 90 miles on a 24 hour trail run throws a different light on the plans for the rest of this year and to the middle of 2015.  Portsmouth marathon, the Winter Tanners, Brighton and (hopefully) London marathons are all now training runs with Endure 24 as the target.  Of course there will be every parkrun I can fit in between now and May as I head towards my 250th run and I already have Wokingham and Surrey halfs booked and will probably run Fleet half as well.  

So, for some of these events I will have to think about running a long training run the day before so I can experience the feeling of only partial recovery and running on tired legs.  Either that or I should run home after the event, maybe even after going to the pub for a light lunch to experience some proper ultra marathon fuelling! Still, I mustn't lose sight of why I run - for fun and to achieve something, not just to turn up and trudge around, so I'll want to run the paid for events fast and save the trudging for some quiet time by myself.  I really need to look into training plans for a 50 mile ultra and see what I can do around the races that I have booked already.

Before that more serious business rolls around in the new year there is cross country season to think of for both me and the kids.  Unfortunately, as some of you may be aware, I managed to cut my hand deep enough to damage a tendon while doing some DIY and had to have an operation to fix it.  I have my hand in a splint for 4 to 5 weeks, then ongoing physio to keep my fingers from seizing up before getting back to full fitness in about 12 weeks.  That doesn't mean that I can't run, I just can't ride a bike or lift anything or fall on my hand.  That means getting down and dirty in one of the Grim Challenge races in early December with the Frimley Flyers is off.  Oh well, regular cross-country it is then.

I like the kids cross country and I even get to run, see the kids set off for a while and experience the course.  For the last few events last year I volunteered as the tail runner, picking up fallen runners and making sure nobody got lost in the woods.  This usually means running with the under 9s, under 11s and maybe under 13s, making four or five races all strung together with no chance to rest or grab a drink. It's brilliant fun and great to see kids with such determination and some with frightening pace. There's alot of young running talent out there.  Our two, Alfred (11) and Elinor(9), are guest members of Camberley and District Athletic Club for the winter season and really enjoy the cross country even though they don't get a medal at the end of it. It's good to see that they want to join in for the sake of racing and not just some bling.  They have already got the idea that Sunday lunch in a pub with family and friends is a proper reward for a muddy runner.

Autumn, The Pilgrim and Abingdon Marathon

Cool Autumn
The Autumn marathon season is in full swing and although maybe not as popular for those people doing 1 or 2 long races a year as spring (and London) it has some distinct advantages in my mind.
You get to train in daylight and when the autumn comes around it is often cooler. I have done both London (April) and Milton Keynes (May) and both were really warm days after having trained in cold dark weather through the winter.

I had done MK marathon in May and really suffered in the last 4 or 5 miles, getting cramp at mile 23 in my right hamstring and missing out on a sub 4hour time by just 6 minutes, so I knew I had issues to resolve regarding hydration for my next marathon. However, that was all put in the background as I turned my attention to getting faster 5k and 10k times over the summer (see previous post). That was successful and with the August Yateley 10K done I had to think about getting some more miles into my legs before The Pilgrim.

The Pilgrim - Lack of Progress?
For the Farnham Pilgrim marathon on 21 September I had a target to just beat last year's time of 4:59. However all that was put in jeopardy by getting ill the Wednesday before the race. I had a chesty cough and head cold and was off work on Thursday and Friday, but felt OK by mid-Friday afternoon.  I went for a little jog while coaching son Alfred in a bit of hill sprints and did a couple of reps with
him that had the effect of instantly clearing my head.  Saturday at Frimley parkrun I was meant to run with Alf, but he disappeared at the start and I decided to run as fast as I could to test out the legs and lungs.  Having got round in 23 minutes feeling fine I decided to run the Pilgrim.  You may think that's a daft decision, but when I was ill I didn't have a temperature or any achy joints and muscles like a proper bout of flu, so I figured I would be safe if I took it easy.

Simon and me on top of St Martha's Hill. About half way and
the highest point on the course. It all went downhill from here!

Come race day, I met up with Simon Burfield as we were going to run this together. Simon felt like he wanted the company on his first marathon and was aiming for a sub 5 hour finish which suited me fine.  Everything went well up to 20 miles, jogging along and chatting on the flats and downhills, walking up any steep uphills and taking a few minutes at each water stop to sample the biscuits and jelly beans.  From 20 miles on my lack of miles and time off ill began to tell and my left knee got very sore from a tight ITB so that I couldn't run downhill.  Simon and I agreed to split so he could go for his sub-5 time and I struggled on jog walking the last 4 miles to the finish in 5:02. Simon got 4:45, so well done!

Oh well.  Not sub-5 or beating last year's time but the views were as good as ever and this time I didn't get lost. Also there was no lasting damage to my knee and after some stretching and foam rolling I was out for a gentle 6 miles with the club on Tuesday.

Training for the Big Race
Before the Pilgrim I had done 30 miles running in the week plus a bit of cycling to work. The Pilgrim week was 31 miles, followed by 17, 20 and 33 miles in the three weeks leading up to Abingdon with a longest run of 16.5 hilly miles.  In amongst this I did the Julian Farrell 10k run by Camberley Athletics.  A small event that's quite popular with local clubs that could be lots bigger if they bothered to advertise it at all.  I thought I would do this in about 48 minutes as it has a big long hill in it and set off at about 7:10/mile pace for the initial undulating section.  I soon had a rival running along with me, a chap called David from Woking Athletics and we pushed each other along from about 2k.  With 800m to go I started to push harder and got a small lead over David which I managed to keep all the way to the line coming in at 45:30.

That was 2 weeks before Abingdon.  I managed some decent miles in the next couple of weeks and in the days before the marathon I came to realise that something peculiar was going on - I wasn't injured and I was in decent shape, probably the fittest that I have ever been.  The only niggle was mental - had I done enough miles?  My weekly mileage was probably OK, but my longest runs had only been up to 16 or 17 miles.  I thought of Abby Fudge (who looks after my legs) who, earlier this year, had done her first marathon at Brighton in a wonderful sub 3:40 time on the back of only 2 half marathons as her maximum long runs.  Now, she had also done lots of speed and strength work, but I decided to stay positive anyway.

Race Ready

All ready to go running. I did forget to double tie my shoelaces though
and spent the whole race wondering when they would come undone,
but they never did.

Come race day I was up at 5:30 to have breakfast (porridge, golden syrup and banana, juice and
water) by 6am giving me at least 3 hours before race start for my stomach to empty.  The rest of the time before travelling I spent making sure I was going to be as comfortable as possible during the run.  Using toe socks means my toes don't rub and I don't get blisters, I was using shoes that had been run in at MK marathon so were new-ish with less than 100 miles in them, I had calf guards on, Body Glide on the inner thighs and under arms and nappy rash cream to stop a chafing bum. I then use a combination of the nappy rash cream and a patch of K-Tape on my nipples.  The K-Tape sticks no matter how sweaty I get and the cream on the ends of my nips means I can take the tape off without pulling the top of my nipples off.  Look at all the stuff I've learnt the hard way so you guys don't have to!

Just before 7am Henry Hirsch got dropped off and at 7am Emma Lewis turned up and we were off.  We got parked by 8am getting one of the last places in the car park and walked to the start/finish stadium in Tilsley Park.  The weather was clear and sunny, cool-ish at 16 to 18C during the day but windy.  There was a long queue for loos which me and Henry joined, but Emma went into the stadium and found only a short line there.  I got my vest and number on and went to the bag drop which was fine and I loaded my belt with 6 gels on the outside and a couple spare inside the pouch with a few salt tablets as well - hopefully my solution to avoiding cramp if I felt it was getting hot.  We lined up together with 650 mostly club runners just before 9am and I instantly lost sight of both Henry and Emma, with Henry aiming for a 3:30 time (probably setting off at sub-3 hour pace!) and Emma aiming for a 5hour time.

Running the Marathon
I was aiming for a sub 4 hour time and set the Garmin virtual pacer to 8:50/mile which would give me a time of 3:51:30 and an 8 minute cushion for the last 5 or 6 miles.  I set off right near the back so I wouldn't get trampled by all the fast guys and was quickly on pace or a little ahead as we headed down hill round the northern ring road and towards Radley lakes, a really nice looking part of the course.  The course is a mixture of Abingdon outskirts, country lanes, Abingdon town centre, road by the river then on a loop out of town to the villages of Drayton, Milton and Sutton Courtnay before the last 3 miles back through town.  The hill up to Drayton was a long slow drag against the wind followed by a nice long downhill section with the rest of the course fairly flat.  I have heard some people say they didn't like the course because of the drag through Milton industrial estate, but that is just 1 mile done twice on flat quiet roads and you're soon out to Sutton Courtnay which is quite nice looking (at least on the first lap when your legs aren't hurting).

I was really lucky to meet up with runners who were willing to chat for a while or just stick together. Miles 2 to 5 breezed past chatting to a guy doing his first marathon and an army chef who had been working since 5am and hadn't had breakfast.  I tried to cheer him up by saying "You know when they say there is always someone worse off than you? Well today your that guy." He did see the funny side and was smiling when I left him loading up on jelly babies. I saw him finish under 5 hours.  From about 7 miles I got chatting to Nicola from Witney Road Runners and another woman Joanne and we managed to stay together all the way to about 24 miles, keeping the 8:50/mile pace going to beyond 20 miles.  Having dipped a bit with sore hip flexors from 21 to 24 miles I decided  to dig in and maintain my pace and managed to pick it up to a relative sprint round the stadium track to the finish in 3:52:23.

Nice T, Abingdon medal and Jedi Challenge medal
for beating my 20 mile PB.

I am really proud of this race result - it was a huge PB taking over 14 minutes off my previous best and well into the sub-4 hour club.  I managed to keep a really good pace to beyond 20 miles and didn't suffer a major collapse in pace or have to rely much on the time banked earlier in the race.  I was stiff and sore, especially around the hips and pelvis, but after my milkshake and a third cup of free tea I was feeling good.  I also managed to beat my 20 mile PB in the race (2:56:08) and gave myself another medal to celebrate!

Here are the Splits
8:42 8:54 8:57 8:36 8:42 8:47 8:57 8:37 8:43 8:42 8:46 8:51 8:45 8:52 8:54 9:07 8:48 8:56 8:58 8:55 9:00 9:12 9:09 9:09 9:07 9:04 1:14@7:36/mile

Emma with just half a mile to go

Henry recovered enough to smile for the camera

Henry managed to finish his first marathon with not much in the way of long run training in a time of 3:44:20. I think he was a bit disappointed, while the marshals in the latter half of the race were worried as he looked like death.  Emma was a bit concerned about the 5 hour cut off as it was close to her PB. She just missed the time for the road closure to be reopened and made it to the finish in 5:09:25, her fastest marathon in 7 years!  Well done both of you.

As a footnote: last year the last runner given a time was home in 5:17 and there were 2 people who were stopped for being outside the time limit. There was also 1 person disqualified for using headphones.  This year they were more generous with the time limit; they let everyone finish, even though they had dismantled the finish gantry by the time the last runner crossed the line at 5:50.  However 6 people, including 2 from athletics clubs (should know better!), were disqualified for using headphones.

And finally - I finished in good shape with no blisters and all my own nipples (OK, I'm no Scaramanga but you know what I mean), but in the changing rooms after the race I saw an older runner who had bloodied his 100 Marathon Club vest.  Some people never learn.

Summer Speed

Most people who run for fitness and fun are not really like track athletes or long distance pro's. I would class myself as a serious runner, as I run 3 or 4 times a week and now do some other training to try to improve my balance and how my body copes with the longer distances.  I even blog about it!

But 'serious' runners, those who join a club with "Athletics" in the name, will tend to stick to no more than 2 distances and specialise in them, with long distance track athletes just entering 5,000m and 10,000m.  That's fair enough - if you are going to get really good at something you will probably have to focus on a specific distance.  Doing anything like most of us Joggers, who will enter anything from 5k to a marathon or more, would be crazy for a track athlete, but crazy is what we do and love.  I have competed in and proudly posted PB times on Fetcheveryone for anything from 100m to 31miles.

So after completing Milton Keynes Marathon in record time (though not sub 4hr unfortunately) I decided to concentrate my efforts over the summer on shorter races - mostly 5k and 10k and the club handicap which is 4 hilly miles.  Target races were a few Frimley Lodge parkruns run without a child in tow, two of the Yateley 10k series and 2 or 3 of Sandhurst Joggers' club handicap which takes place on the second Wednesday of the month throughout the year.

For training advice I asked Commonwealth gold medallist and 5000m world record holder Paula Fudge.  She runs at my local parkrun and she suggested adding some speed sessions into my weekly routine.  With the mantra "If you want to race fast, you need to train fast" in mind my weekly plan over the summer months looked like this:

Long run: about 7 or 8 miles steady
2 speed sessions
parkrun

Whether I got to run a fast parkrun depended on if my daughter let me, if I was racing on Sunday or was too tired from racing mid-week.

The speed sessions could take a variety of forms based on a theme of running short fast intervals like this:

12 x 200m run as 3 sets of 4 x 200m with 30secs between sprints and 1 minute between sets.

12 x 300m run as 3 sets of 4 x 300m with 1min between sprints and 90secs between sets.

12 x 100m hill sprints running fast downhill as well to improve leg speed.

I also did some interval sessions with Sandhurst Joggers which consisted of:

Pyramid intervals of 2 x 4min, 2 x 3min, 2 x 2min and 2 x 1min aiming to keep a consistent quick pace throughout.

12 x 400m done in sets of 2 with 30secs between intervals and 1min rest between sets.

In each of these runs there is a 5min jog to warm up and then warm down and the aim is to run at a fast pace, but not flat out, so you can maintain that same fast pace for every effort.  For me that meant doing all the 200m sprints in 40-42secs each.

I did the 200m intervals and hill sprints close to home as we live on a hill with a cul-de-sac at the top which is 100m long and nice and flat. Other interval sessions were done in local parks which had nice flat smooth grassy surfaces which are much kinder to the joints and tendons when running at fast pace - remember you have higher impact forces when you run fast.  Also remember that I make sure I stretch after every run, do a bit of foam rolling and had a couple of sports massages over the summer with Abby Fudge at R and R Osteopathy (The Fudge family turn out to be a 1-stop-shop for training and conditioning for me).

So did it work?
Before the summer my PBs for 5k, 10k and 4mile handicap run were:
5k at Frimley Lodge parkrun: 21:42
10k at Julian Farrell, Camberley: 47:38
4mile handicap: 30:45

By the middle of August after about 6 weeks of summer training the stats looked like this:
5k at Frimley Lodge parkrun: 21:18
10k at Yateley 10k races 2 and 3: 46:06, then 44:49
4mile handicap: 29:38

I would call that a resounding JOB WELL DONE!

I think that there's more in the tank and with a bit more of this focussed training I should be able to take another decent chunk of time off those results, but that will have to wait for November as I have 2 more marathons to do in between - the Farnham Pilgrim and Abingdon.

The Other Side of the Marathon - Race Recovery

Good Advice

It's been a couple of weeks since Milton Keynes Marathon and recovery seems to be going reasonably well.  I have got a few tips from other marathon and ultra runners over the last couple of years and so I have some recovery strategies lined up for immediately post race, the rest of race day and then the following week.

I have these gems from experienced runners that I know:

Dennis Devey (80 years old and in his heyday ran 30minutes in 10k road races) says: "After a marathon, the worst thing you can do is just sit down.  You've got to keep moving. Get a bacon sandwich and a beer inside you if you like, but keep the legs moving."

Greg Ward (Sandhurst and Windlesham runner and well on his way to 100 marathons): "Flat coke and peanuts, then get a good feed and some more drink, get the compression leggings on and sleep in them."

Paula Fudge (Commonwealth gold medallist, 5000m world record holder and Frimley Lodge parkrunner): "After a marathon I recommend my athletes spend two weeks doing other exercise like swimming or cycling and then have 2 easy weeks doing gentle runs before getting back to training."

In race fuelling - you can run a long way
on malt loaf and jaffa cakes.

Kelvin Gower (Marathon and ultra runner and Cove Jogger's equivalent of Bear Grylls - and a style fan*): "Crisps, banana and milkshake as soon as possible after the run, then feed well and sleep in your compression leggings." 

(*The kind you climb over, not a dedicated follower of fashion)

Both Kelvin and Greg are looking at recovery from the point of view of running marathons or ultras on consecutive days, sometimes 3 or 4 in a row, Paula from, say doing a single spring marathon and then progressing into training for the summer track season and probably Dennis would be the same - occasional marathon, but mostly 5 and 10k and cross-country.

Men in Tights :-/

You may notice that neither Dennis or Paula mention compression clothing, but Kelvin and Greg do.  This could be down to build - Dennis and Paula are both stick thin "born" distance athletes, while Kelvin and Greg have the more meaty calves and thighs of regular folk - something you can actually compress without having to resort to using arm warmers or crepe bandages.

But do they work? Multiple studies in sports science have found decreases in muscle soreness and perceived fatigue from wearing compression clothing during and post race. Some possible increases in blood flow and lymph removal during the recovery period have also been found – though other studies found that wearing the socks after workouts had no greater recovery effect than taking an ice bath.  Given the choice between an ice bath and slipping on a pair leggings, I know what I prefer and compression socks do seem to work for me, at least in post race recovery.  I used to get cramp in the night after a hard or long run, and I don't when sleeping with compression socks on. It means I get to have a decent night's sleep without waking up in the middle of the night crying in pain.  I always use them now, both in a race and especially for recovery.

What does your body need just after a long race?

Well, you have used up lots of glycogen, your body's prime energy source (even a half marathon will have used up most of what your body can store); you have caused loads of micro tears to your leg muscles and you are dehydrated and have depleted your body's stores of mineral salts (sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in particular).  So you need to replace protein, carbs, water and salts.  Where do you get them from?

Post run recovery at the Basingstoke Canal Cafe
Full English breakfast, tea and cake - it's why we run!

Spices, nuts, cereals, coffee, tea, cocoa and vegetables are rich sources of magnesium.  Foods rich in potassium include dried apricots, dried milk, chocolate, various nuts (especially almonds and pistachios), potatoes and bananas.  For calcium look to milk and other dairy products, but also nuts.  For sodium, of course anything salty will do.  For a quick easily digestible protein fix, milk is good and chocolate, milk and bananas are good sources of carbs.

As you will notice chocolate ticks quite a few boxes (yay!), as does milk, so popping into Starbucks with a banana in your shorts and ordering a full fat mocha latte and a packet of pistachios would do nicely, especially if you wanted to look like a complete knob!  I tend to make do with a bottle of water, another of chocolate milkshake, a banana and a packet of peanuts followed not long after by a walk to the nearest pub or fast food joint for a burger or gammon, egg and chips.  

In the days after a marathon, just eating normal healthy meals is fine and there's no need to be adding supplements to your diet. It is easy, however, to overdo it and completely pig out and this could lead to you putting on weight while you should not be doing much running in your recovery period.

Post Marathon Exercise

Probably the last thing you want to do after a marathon is run.  Even if that is what you intend to do, because you have another marathon to run the next day, you're legs will tend to take some convincing over the first few miles that you are not completely insane.  However, keeping moving is essential if you don't want to spend the whole of the next week seized up and in agony every time you get up.  I was lucky that after my recent Milton Keynes marathon, I was waiting for friends to finish.  I actually had nearly 2 hours from when I finished to when the last of our group came in. Plenty of time to get cleaned up, changed into fresh clothes, eat and drink and cheer on the runners, all the while staying on my feet, walking around and doing some gentle stretching.  I kept this going for the rest of the day as well.

Over the next few days I didn't do any running, but went for walks away from my desk at work as often as I could, a longer walk in the evening and then cycled to work as well.  All low impact stuff.  I did my first gentle jog 4 days after the marathon and had a massage - I figured by this time a massage wouldn't be too painful and I was almost right.  The next day I was back to parkrun with the kids (below race pace) with a few light training runs during the next week, just about following Paula's advice to have a very gentle 2 weeks in the post-marathon period.  It seems to have worked, as following the last few marathons and half marathons I have done, I have not managed to pick up any injuries and have got back to running well within a couple of weeks and using the marathon training to post PB times in 5k and 10k in the month after.

Conditioning and Recovery

How you actually recover will depend on a number of other factors, not just what you eat after the race.

How your base training was going into the race, how hard you ran, what the course was like and how long you have been running long distances all play a part.

After my first marathon, I was wrecked.  Sore feet, ankles and hips, stiff muscles and this didn't ease off for most of the week. I ran a half marathon the next weekend and basically suffered with the same niggles as I had done in the marathon and I was lucky not to have done some serious damage.

An hour after MK Marathon with Greg Ward: changed, fed and
watered and staying on my feet to help recovery

Now, after my 5th marathon, I finished being able to walk slowly but normally, could walk normally by the end of the day and could jog a little the next day.  A lot of this comes down to toughening up the skeleton and tendons having done many more long runs.  This also tallies with a course on marathon training that I went on last year, where the speaker said that it could easily take 2 to 3 years before your body was really ready and strong enough to run a marathon.  Making changes to your muscular-skeletal system takes time.  However, it is still the case that being generally fitter, actually ready for your marathon and paying more attention to preparation, race fuelling and recovery helps too.

Go Long - You know you can do it....

I'm still learning about running marathons and every new one is an education in how my body and mind copes with long distance running. At least now I know I can do it, and I can also recover well enough and get running again without causing myself long term injuries. 

My next marathon will be the Farnham Pilgrim trail marathon in September, followed a month later by Abingdon marathon which will hopefully be another PB run.  For the summer, while it's too hot to be going very long, I'm going to be concentrating on improving speed for fast 5k and 10k races.