Training blog (April-May): Race day – beware the speed bump!

By the beginning of April, I’d been following my training plan for just over four months, and I realised I only had about six weeks to go until my target race: the Edinburgh Half Marathon. 

In essence, I’ve been doing four sessions a week, building interval training (mainly the Striders track session), hills, ‘race pace’ running, parkruns, and long slow runs. This has largely been building up – further, or more quickly – though with regular weeks in which I took it more easily, or licked my wounds.

Best thing to do six weeks before an A race? Quit my job and go on holiday! Running in Chicago and New Orleans made a refreshing change from the streets and fields of St Albans. In Chicago, we ran alongside Lake Michigan, which was beautiful although it’s clearly not called the ‘Windy City’ for nothing. Ever run towards skyscrapers? They’re much further away than you think!

Back in Blighty, I went to cheer on friends at the London Marathon, and was properly inspired by their awesome efforts to keep pushing on.

But with a week or so to go, I began to feel a little niggle. No need for too much detail, but let’s just say it was a pain in the backside. I found it quite tricky to distinguish between slight niggles and actual injuries. Which did I have? I would soon find out.

at mile 13.1...

And so to race day. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, and the course shows it off to great effect, as long as you’ve got time to look up. Starting near the centre, we rounded Arthur’s Seat before heading east along the coast. It was a beautiful day. For much of the race, I had Gill for company, and we were boosted by the support of our spouses in at least three locations (to be clear: we each only have the one spouse).

My target was 100 minutes, and we set off at a fair lick. Along the way, I came close to beating both my parkrun and 10k PBs. And I went through halfway in almost exactly 50 minutes.

Ironically, it was a speed bump that slowed me down. I tripped slightly over one after a few miles, and it was at this point that my niggle turned towards injury. I slowed a bit thereafter, and then achieved the remarkable feat of running every single mile slightly more slowly than the previous one!

I finished in 1:46:09, a time I’m really proud of, and while I know I could maybe have gone faster without the niggle-cum-injury, I also know that my many weeks of training gave me the strength to push through the pain.

And my advice to all readers thinking of taking up a training plan? Go for it. It really helps. Just beware of the bumps along the way.

Richard Sved

Colin's report: Milton Keynes Marathon – 6 May 2013

I am following on from my last blog post about the London Marathon. I said it might be time to find a new marathon. I did not have to wait long to find one. But maybe I ought to have waited a bit longer than I actually did.

The Milton Keynes marathon this year was exactly two weeks and a day after the London Marathon. It was also exactly fifty-two years after I was born. What better way to celebrate pre-senile decay than to spend a morning running round a town several years younger than I am?

The good news: even though the MK marathon was two weeks and a day after the London Marathon, I did not have to get out of bed for MK until two weeks, one day and two hours later than I got out of bed for the London Marathon; i.e. 7am instead of 5am. Very good news.

The bad news: gone are the days where I can run two marathons with a gap of two weeks in between and get away with it! But I had to find that out the hard way. 

Birthdays nowadays can make me look back at what I have not achieved in life rather than celebrating the achievements. So I decided to annihilate such nostalgic regrets with strenuous activity to take my mind off the non-achievements. 

It was a risky decision. If I were not careful, I could end up with another non-achievement to look back on in future years. So really I would have no option but to complete the marathon.

Originally I had entered the MK marathon as a backup plan in case my London Marathon finishing time was not good enough. To be honest, I was reasonably pleased with my 3:11 at London, even if it had been a bit of a struggle (it always is). As a result I would not need to do another marathon for the next two years under 3:20 to get a ‘Good For Age’ time.

So I can say that it was probably just vanity, fear of growing old or an insane belief that I might magic a good finishing time out of thin air that made me do Milton Keynes. Well, I had paid for the place, hadn’t I? And I was not expecting great things. Just to get round really. It might take about three and a half hours, on the other hand I might inexplicably get an undeservedly good time for no reason, a sort of unexpected birthday present. That had to be worth the risk. I had even given myself the option of turning over in bed and going back to sleep on the day if I did not feel like doing it. 

Race day morning arrived, happy birthday to me. It took next to no time to roll out of bed and get to Milton Keynes. There was a bit of an anxious moment, when I discovered they had closed some of the roads near the start. For a few confused minutes I drove in circles around a block of flats. But once out of that little dead-end, I miraculously found the industrial estate with free parking close to the football stadium that was the start and finish of the race. 

A few minutes later I was walking towards the stadium past a 24-hour McDonalds. It had to be worth dropping in there for a pre-race lavatory stop. Miraculously again there was no queue. I need not have worried. Inside the football stadium there were lavatories a-plenty with no real queues to speak of. Likewise the baggage drop had no real queue. So with half an hour still to go till the start of the race I was pretty well ready to go. There were several other Striders there too! 

So there was time for some quick sunbathing while waiting for the start. It was going to be quite a warm day. But there is only so much water you can take on board before the start so I just tried to relax and enjoy the sunshine. 

The race start was in zones with faster runners at the front. It all seemed pretty-well organised really. Before long we were on our way. The first few miles were along dual-carriageways that had been closed to traffic. These took us through the centre of MK before doubling back towards the start, then on a huge loop round the town. After a while the roads gave way to cycle paths but by then the field had thinned out so there was no real congestion on the route. There were plenty of drinks, energy drinks and gels on offer round the course, so even though the weather was hot, there was never a shortage of refreshments. 

After 11 miles I had the feeling of slowing down, that I normally get around 18 miles. Thoughts of dropping out or walking went through my head. I could feel myself slowing down, but in the end I decided it was probably better to slow down and get a finish time than to drop out completely.

After a while I could not take any more water on board, and it was just a case of digging in and getting round the course. There were some annoying bits: arched footbridges over the canal felt an effort to negotiate; a couple of hills after 20 miles needed some will-power to get over. But the stadium finish made up for this, although I could not muster the same sprint finish that some of my fellow runners conjoured up. En route there was some great support from several Striders and local residents, including former Striders’ Chairman Andy Wasdell. 

My 3:30 was somewhat slower than London, but it was a warm day and my legs did not feel fresh. I would definitely consider this as an ‘A’ race next year and maybe do London in fancy dress, depending on how the winter’s training and weather go. I think MK is going to be on the May Day Bank Holiday again in 2014 so, you never know, I may be there again! I can recommend it.

Colin Braybrook

Mid Week Road Race League 2013 – on your marks.....

As the nights get longer and the spring marathons become memories, it’s time to look forward to the mid week road race league. These are the 10k summer races for everyone - young, old, fast and not so fast! As league champions last year, there is a title for Striders to defend, but, just as importantly, there’s also some summer running fun to be had. 

New to this? Here’s what you need to know: 

What’s the MWRRL? The league is a series of five evening 10k races across Herts and Essex for local clubs. Striders are in the top league with five other clubs. Since it's a closed event for six clubs, the races are great for socialising and friendly rivalry with other runners from local clubs. Points are allocated to the top 12 men and top six ladies (and vets). The club with the best points score over the first four races wins the league. 

MWRRL, 2012: will we beat this spectacular Strider turnout in 2013?

Who takes part? There can be up to 500 runners in each race. The races are suitable for all standards and everyone's contribution to the team score helps. Lots of last year’s success was down to new members. 

Where and when? This year’s league starts on Thursday 23 May at Welwyn Garden City, with races at Royston, Stevenage, St Albans and Trent Park, Enfield in June and July . 

Why take part? Why not!? MWRRL has something for everyone. We asked a few Striders  what they enjoyed when they took part for the first time in 2012: 

• It’s a great way to run with friends in new places 
• There’s the chance to chart your progress and hopefully bag a 10K PB or two 
• It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet new people, and cheer and be cheered on by your team mates 
• You get club championship points for taking part, and this year there are more on offer at Royston on 4 June, as a ‘scoring race’ 
• There’s cake at the end! 

Want to know more? Richard wrote about the 2012 races for the blog here.  

Interested? Good! To take part you need to be a fully paid up member of Striders and have a club vest. Watch the forum for details of individual races and for opportunities to car share, and see you on the start line! 

Virgin London Marathon 2013 - Colin's report

This was my 9th London Marathon in a row, and my tenth ever London Marathon. 

The novelty has long since worn off. So too has the speed. So why keep doing it? The current reason is to do 10 in a row. I must admit it is not really that enjoyable for me, but 10 is a nice round number and there are probably not that many people who have done 10 in a row, although I know there are 30 or so people who have run every single London Marathon, one of them having finished all of them in under 3 hours. That I find truly incredible. One of the St Albans Striders, Mike Starr, a former chairman, got to about 20 in a row before succumbing to marathon inertia or incapacity. 

For a few years the challenge of trying to achieve a time faster than the Good For Age threshold of 3:14:59 has been a target. This assures me a London Marathon place for a further two years. Now I am nearly 52 it is getting harder to achieve. I can still just about knock out the miles in training, but trying to achieve the speed is hurting more now. 2012 saw one of my ankles balloon out like an old man’s ankle (thanks for your lack of sympathy, you know who you are!); 2013 saw both legs swelling up like an elephant’s! It was still possible to run on them, but rather slowly: 9 or 10 minute-miling. Quite how I managed seven and a bit miling in the Finchley 20 and the marathon I don’t know. Well actually I do know: I kept my weight down then ran through a bit more tiredness and pain than I used to. Boo hoo. Still, it was never meant to be easy, was it? 

Colin, at a previous VLM

In 2012 I missed the Good For Age threshold by about 30 seconds. Fortunately I achieved it a couple of times later in the year. And I also achieved it in the 2013 London Marathon with about three and a half minutes to spare. I am beginning to think the autumn marathon may actually be a better bet than the spring one. Training great distances in the cold is frankly becoming unpleasant and I am not convinced it is an unpleasantness I want to keep subjecting myself to. So the tenth London Marathon in a row, if I achieve it may well be the last! 

Getting up at 5.15 am for a 10am marathon start is a bit mad really. Maybe I should try to get a hotel near the start next year? 

I would now love to wax lyrical about the festive atmosphere, great crowd support (which there was, especially at mile 24, thank you Striders!) but to be brutally honest the fresh air and nice views at the Kent Coastal Marathon in 2012 were a lot more uplifting to my soul than the treeless desert called Docklands, the dark, dank tunnel on Upper Thames Street, the long toilet queues at the start, the throng of people in Horse Guards Parade, the long wait for the Underground station barrier to open, the packed FCC train home! 

It’s a great event, but maybe I need to find a different one?

Colin Braybrook

(Ed's note: the Good For Age thresholds relaxed since Colin wrote this.....)

Does the perfect race exist? - Brighton Marathon 2013

I hated science at school, mainly because of the teachers and partly because I felt too dumb. So when people get a bit ‘sciency’ about running, it kind of goes over my head (feel free to add your own pun here if you wish).... 

I can just about deal with tempo runs, interval sessions (as long as Mike or Glads are instructing) and steady runs but I wouldn't know a lactate threshold, VO2 max or optimum heart rate if it smacked me in the face. 

But I have decided that maybe there is a formula (could be maths, I suppose) to get your ideal marathon time. Possibly: 

Training + health + race conditions + luck – injury x mental attitude = perfect marathon? 

Training: my training had gone really well until first week of March, slightly smugly I had ticked off all the sessions on my training plan, even in the never-ending snow and ice…until my IT band started complaining. 

Health: No coughs/colds or other ailments since before Christmas and even my son had the decency to be sick over a bank holiday so no runs missed then. 

Race conditions: the Saturday I arrived in Brighton to pouring rain and almost gale force 
winds but they had calmed to a cool, damp morning with a breeze but nowhere near as windy on race day, and the sun made an appearance later as well. 

Luck: hmmm, the choice of toilet queue wasn't my best decision, meaning I started behind the 4:15 pacer, despite wanting or hoping rather optimistically for 3:30 

Mental attitude: patchy! Until my first 20 mile run was feeling confident that I could and would be able to break 3:30 this year. Having a slight injury (or is niggle the correct Strider terminology?) gave me the usual uncertainty and doubts. 

A few days before my mother-in-law said, ‘I don’t think you’ll make it, not with how your legs been, no you won’t get all the way round.’ Now I am allowed to think this but having someone else vocalise it gave me the motivation that I WILL FINISH! 

The race: told myself I would not do the same as last year and start late because of an ill-judged toilet queue but in the words of Britney Spears, ‘Oops I did it again!’(men: you don’t know how lucky you are!!). Maybe I would make up the time? Well I did a little but after 10 miles I knew a PB wasn't going to happen. 

But I wasn't too disappointed. I stopped checking my Garmin, I missed some of the mile markers, I gave my sis a hug when I saw her, I gave lots of small children a high 5 and it was really liberating to enjoy the atmosphere without being bothered by time. 

My hip started to hurt but not unbearably so, at mile 17 .Without the pressure of a PB I didn't mind having to slow down. I passed a man I knew at mile 20 and that spurred me on as I wanted to stay ahead. By mile 22 the pain was worse but I knew it would be more painful to walk so kept running, slowly. (The walk uphill back to Brighton station was almost as bad as the marathon!)  

smiling into the finish

The last 3 miles were full of crowds, cheering, music and general partying which helped and I knew a super-speedy friend was looking out for me. I checked off the beach huts, the West pier, the Grand Hotel, the Palace pier, the big wheel, and finally the finish. I was so chuffed. I remembered to smile as I crossed the line with a miserable looking superman. And it wasn’t even a personal worst!

Conclusion: Before, I said I wasn’t interested in running it if I didn’t think I could get a PB. Now I have changed my mind. Despite the pain, it was a brilliant race. No water bottle, no i-pod, minimal chatting and minimal Garmin checking and it was still just as exciting….but I still haven’t let go of my sub 3:30 dream…maybe I should invest in a she-wee for next year?...Maybe the perfect race doesn’t exist? 

Helen Cartlidge