Review of 2009

At the end of 2008, I'd just run the Ribble Valley 10k in 39:57, I'd had a succession of lower leg injuries (calf, achilles, ankle, lower knee etc. in both legs). It was my first year of racing regularly for more than 25 years, overall I was quite pleased with the progress that I'd made, but didn't have big expectations for 2009. The main concern was that if I tried to run more often, faster or further, I'd just end up with more niggling injuries.

In 2009, I've certainly exceeded any expectations that I did have. The main thing is that I've been able to run virtually injury free throughout the year, apart from a sore right achilles (which, if anything, has improved as the year has gone on). I've raced 34 times, including 22 road races, 6 cross countries, 4 trail races & 2 fell races. I've improved my times from 2008 in all of the races that I did in both years: I ran 10 races in 2008 & 2009, with an average improvement of almost 4%. The biggest %age improvement was actually at Ribble Valley where my time in 2009 of 37:19 was a 6.6% improvement on last year.

Racing highlights of the year were at the John Carr 5k series: 2nd M50 overall & best time of 18:16, the Ribble Valley 10k, the Thirsk 10m (63:01) & the St. Ives Trail race (1st M50). I've also been very pleasantly surprised at my progress in cross country races. In the 2008/9 season, I did 4 of the Peco races and was placed on average about 70th, in the 2009/10 season so far I've had a 35th & a 30th place.

Apart from being able to run more regularly due to reduced injury concerns, the main credit for my improving times at the back end of 2009 should go to the weekly track sessions at Carnegie organised by Pete Shields & Andy Wolfenden. Up until September this year I'd never run on the track (apart from odd road race start/finishes). I've ben amazed at the improvement that I've been able to make by running regular weekly structured track sessions with a group of runners of similar ability.

Regarding overall running mileages etc. I've never been particularly keen on following schedules, or logging miles , but this year I have kept a record of the running that I've done thanks to my Garmin. I've averaged just over 40 miles per week throughout the year, but this was split 34 per week in the 1st half of the year & 46 per week in the 2nd half. I am finding that increasingly there is a bigger difference between the speed that I'm running at on the track & in races compared to my 'average' training runs. Whilst my race speed is increasing, the pace of most of my training is getting slower.

As for 2010, I really don't know what to expect. The main priority is to stay injury free & enjoy my running. For racing, I don't really want to set specific targets, although I would like to get under 18 minutes for 5k. Also as I'll be moving up to the M55 category in January, I have been looking at the Power of 10 UK standards & they seem to be quite achievable (5k: 19 mins, 10k: 39 mins, 10m: 65 mins, 1/2m: 87 mins). I only just managed to achieve the M50 10k standard in my last road race as an M50, so hopefully I should be able to achieve a few more now. The other targets that would be nice to beat would be the IH club records, which again look much easier at M55 than M50, we'll see what happens.

(By the way, I should emphasise that this blog is only about my running, my real highlight of 2009 was becoming a grandad for the 1st time!)

Where has all the snow gone?

For the first time in 2 weeks, I was able to set off running without having to worry about the snow & ice (apart from Sunday's race). As might be expected, the council had even been out putting grit on the path outside of our house for the first time....a sure sign that the weather has improved.

I ran 15k this morning, out on the Nesfield Road to the A59, then a detour on the way back via Addingham. There was still snow & ice at Low Mill, it seems to have it's own micro climate. Running today seemed to be like hard work. Despite running more than 90 seconds per kilometre slower than at Clitheroe, I was feeling much less comfortable.

No track session today. I'm looking forward to getting back to Carnegie again next week, as I'm missing my weekly burst of speed.

Running on ice again

I didn't run yesterday, there were lots of family things to do & by the time we'd got home it was dark, minus 4 & very icy, so I watched the football on the telly instead.

This morning was a different story, up early & off to the Strid Wood. I misjudged my choice of shoes, I would have been better off wearing fell shoes rather than trail shoes as it was very icy, with compacted snow. I was sliding around all over the place. Nevertheless I managed to run from Bolton Bridge to Barden Bridge & back again. On the way back it was getting warmer & even started to rain, so the ice was even more difficult to run on.

No after effects from Sunday's 10k, so now I need to think about preparing for the Brass Monkey half marathon on 24th January. I haven't really run a fast half for a very long time. My most recent effort in Brussels was several minutes slower than I should be able to run. In theory using the race time predictor on http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/rp.php I should be able to run about 82 minutes for a half marathon based on my Ribble Valley 10k time. Not sure how feasible that is, but it would give me a target to aim for.

Ribble Valley 10k

I was persuaded by Justin P to wear my Christmas present new shoes for the race, he reckoned that I would be half a minute faster in them. I wasn't totally convinced as I'd never run in them & they were shiny & new, but I decided to go with them.

The start of the race was a bit manic with a downhill charge to the bridge, so I went off a bit quicker than might have been expected. After 2k I was averaging 3:44 per km which was faster than I should have done to run 38 minutes. I felt OK, so decided to stick with the pace I was running at. The course is quite undulating, so km times were varying between 3:31 & 3:55, but I felt surprisingly relaxed throughout the race.

There were quite a lot of Ilkley runners, but I found myself running with Andy W, we were keeping each other moving along quite well & probably faster than I'd have run on my own. Coming into the last 400m, Andy put in a sprint for the line & I felt fine, but not really able to compete in the sprint.

My finishing time of 37:19 was at least a minute faster than I was expecting & more than half a minute quicker than the Abbey Dash, so I was very pleased with that. Now less than 3 minutes improvement needed to get back to my 1983 PB! Considering that I was almost 3 minutes faster than at Ribble Valley last year, maybe it's not an impossible target after all.

There were lots of people at the finish very pleased with their performances, especially well done to Sarah J, Marc T, Justin P, Andy W & Jane B.

White Christmas

I didn't run on Christmas Day, instead went for a walk with A & our dog Jake on the moor. There was lot of powdery snow with drifts so the walking was quite interesting.

Overnight it rained so this morning was quite challenging for running. I needed to go quite early as we had lots of family things planned for the day. The rain on top of ice meant that it was almost impossible to get over the old bridge. I was going to run along the Nesfield road, but it seemed to be black ice so I went for the easy option of laps of the Rupert Road circuit. This isn't the most interesting route for a run, normally we use it for mile reps. I managed to do 7 laps at a steady pace, which was enough in advance of tomorrow's race. I then had to struggle back over the bridge to get home.

Not sure how it would have been for those who were running the Chevin Chase race this morning, if it was anything like the conditions in Ilkley it would have been very difficult.

I've really no idea what to expect at Clitheroe tomorrow, having not done any speedwork for almost 2 weeks. Hopefully I should be able to beat my 39:57 from last year, but my Abbey Dash time seems to be unrealistic as a target.

More snow

By the time I heard yesterday afternoon that the Carnegie track was closed, I'd just had a big lunch, so couldn't go out in the daylight. Once it came dark, then it was very icy & I decided that it would be better to have a rest day rather than risk running on the roads.

Overnight we had 3-4 inches of new snow, which improved the conditions for running this morning. I set off around the park, then headed off on the Nesfield Road. Near the golf course, I was overtaken by a snow plough/gritter, this scrapped the snow off the ice, leaving the road initially much worse than it was before. I turned around near Beamsley, by this time the grit had taken effect & the road was now full of slush. Back to the park & I was able to run on fresh snow.

Hopefully the snow will now melt in advance of the race on Sunday, although I haven't done any fast running for more than a week. It will be interesting to see if I can adjust from being a slow snow runner to 10k racer.

Snow in the woods

I ventured out into the Strid Wood today. It was minus 4 when I set off from the car at Bolton Bridge, so the ice was quite crunchy & with a fine layer of fresh snow, conditions weren't too bad on the way out to Barden Bridge. On the way back it was getting a bit warmer & more slippery, but not as bad as it was a couple of days ago.

It was another very slow run due to the conditions, in places the snow was 6 inches deep & in others it was icy on the hills. I did see other runners in the woods, so I wasn't the only fool out there.

Tomorrow's track session will probably be going ahead, but spikes will be compulsory if it does....this will mean that I'll have to get one of my Christmas presents a couple of days early.

Now it's slush

Still plenty of ice & snow around, especially on the old bridge which was particularly slippery this morning. However, once over the bridge, I ran along the Nesfield road out to the A59 & back. Conditions were quite slushy & on the way back some quite big puddles had formed. Still it was good to be able to run at somewhere near normal pace for the first time for several days.

As well as it being Christmas week, this week, I'm winding down towards the Ribble Valley 10k on Sunday. The problem with only running slowly is that I'm not sure I'll be able to pick up the pace enough when I start racing. It will be good if we're able to do the track session on Wednesday, at least to wake the legs up a little bit, however, it looks a bit doubtful given the weather forecast.

We went to see the film Avatar last night. It's not really my kind of film, although the special effects were very impressive. It's too long & the plot is very predictable. It would be interesting to see what time the 10 feet tall blue people could do for 10k.

Even more ice

I should have known that running was going to be a challenge today when I struggled to get to the start of the Dalesway, it's only 100 metres, but the road & footpath were covered in ice with a thin layer of snow on top. Running through the tennis club car park was even more difficult. Things improved a bit across the fields, but once I reached Low Mill, any kind of forward motion was nearly impossible.

Eventually I managed to reach Addingham. Continuing on the Dalesway seemed to be pointless, running along the main road would have been unpleasant & potentially dangerous, so I took the option of crossing the bridge towards the Nesfield road. Conditions did improve once I reached the road, although I didn't see a single car on the road all the way back to Ilkley.

Once back in Ilkley I did a loop around Rupert road & on the grass around the park, but I didn't really feel much like running at this stage.

Running on Ice

The novelty of running on ice & snow is starting to wear off. Running across fields with fresh snow is great, but icy paths & roads are something else. I went out along the Dalesway path today, as it's safer running off road in these conditions. I ran for 12.5k which was not too bad, although it was probably the slowest run that I've ever done....better to be safe than sorry.

The slow running over the last couple of days has meant that I seem to have completely recovered from the tiredness earlier in the week. Even though I've run every day this week I feel as though I'm starting to taper for the Ribble Valley race. Next week I'll probably have a couple of rest days (certainly on Christmas Day).

Let it snow

Normally snow, ice & running don't mix very well, however, today I had a really enjoyable run. Some of the roads were in very bad condition, with packed ice & where it hadn't been disturbed there was 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. I ran a variation of the 2 bridges route, coming back on the Dalesway, rather than along the main road & I added an extra loop of the park at the end. In total I ran 13k, with about half of that off-road.

I was really impressed with my Inov8 fell shoes. I've not worn them very often & mainly for muddy cross country races. Today they provided excellent grip even on the ice.....I wonder if they make car tyres with the same tread.

Fortunately I wasn't concerned about the pace I was running at today, as it was only possible to go at a gentle speed. This certainly should help in my 'wind down' towards next week's race.

Easy run

I did the same flat 8.5km run today that I did on Tuesday. Today felt much more comfortable. No real after effects from last night's track session & the aches from Monday's long run seem to have gone. It's good to do an easy run & it actually feel easy.

I'm quite happy with the last couple of week's training, so over the next week, I need to reduce the mileage & do no more than 2 hard sessions before the 10k at Clitheroe. The general view is that the Ribble Valley course is slower than the Abbey Dash by up to half a minute, so my target of running a similar time should be quite challenging.

It's starting to come dark now with snow falling & a forecast temperature of minus 2, so I'm glad that I've done my run already today.

Hard work on the track

This was my 4th hard session in 8 days & I was certainly feeling the effects. We did a pyramid session again, this time 1000m, 1600m, 2000m 1600m & 1000m, with recoveries between 1 & 2 minutes. Average pace was 3:38 per km, or about 87 seconds per lap. This was about 1 second per lap slower than last week, although for a very different session.

I think that I need to reduce the intensity of my training over the next week or so in advance of the Ribble Valley 10k otherwise I might be too tired to run quickly.

The most impressive sight this evening on the track was Tom A doing a storming 1st 1000m in 2:46! He certainly gave Ian F a big surprise. Tom slowed a bit for the later reps, but it's great to see someone running with so much natural ability & he should get faster with the training he's doing on the track.

There was also a sprinter on the track (I don't know who he was) running apparently effortless 100m reps in 10.51 !!

Gentle Jog

Not sure whether it was wise to go for a run today, I was still feeling aches & pains from yesterday's long run. It's probably an indication that I ran too quickly yesterday. Nevertheless I went this afternoon for a very slow 8.5 km run.

I'm giving the club Christmas fancy dress relay a miss this evening. Originally I was due to be in London today, so I didn't put myself forward for a team & even though I could still find a team on the night, I think that I need to have a bit of a rest. Maybe I'll go along as a spectator.

Tomorrow is the weekly track session, hopefully I'll be feeling more like running by then.

Canal Long Run

My favoured venue for long runs is the Leeds-Liverpool Canal towpath. For today's run I started at Dowley Gap, near Cottingley & ran to Silsden & back, a total of 24.8km. I think that this kind of distance is about right for my half marathon build up, although I did a 28km one before the Brussels Half. I was also a bit wary about not wanting to do an excessively long run too close to the Ribble Valley 10k a week on Sunday.

Conditions were very good again today, light wind (against on the way out, behind coming back), not too cold, dry, although with a muddy section of path just before Silsden, about 2km each way. My goal for long runs is to go at a steady pace on the way out, then run faster on the way back, I also had the data from last time I ran this route (in mid September), so I wanted to run a bit quicker than that.

I was comfortably quicker to Silsden than my previous run, by one & a half minutes. I paid the price for this on the way back, as it was hard work to increase the pace & run faster than my target. However, I persevered and managed to average 4:31 min/km on the return, which was just a bit quicker than I did in September, albeit after a much faster 1st half (not bad considering it's winter, I was wearing several layers of clothing & a had long section of mud).

At the end I felt quite tired, I probably put in more effort than I should have done for a long run. The training theories seem to be that you should run long runs at a slow/steady pace, rather than a quick/steady pace. It will be interesting how my recovery is over the next few days.

Lazing on a Sunday afternoon

Yesterday was a very hectic day, hard run in the morning, drive to Nottingham & back, then party at home until late. Didn't bode well for running today. I had been asked to do a leg of the Calderdale Relay, but decided against it as Saturday's schedule & 3 weeks of racing & hard training would not have been conducive to a good run in the relay. So back to the '2 bridges run', for the second time in 3 days.

The pace was very slow again today, similar to Friday. The main objective was to just get out for a run & blow the cobwebs off. Conditions were very good, not too cold, little wind & dry underfoot.

I'm thinking about doing a long run tomorrow as part of my build up towards the Brass Monkey half marathon. I haven't done a run of more than 13 miles since the Brussels half in early October.

"Hard run"

I had to travel to Nottingham & back today, so I decided to get up early & do the club 'hard run' training session. It's the first time that I've run this 7:45 am session, I'm not normally an early morning runner, especially on a Saturday. Basically it's out & back on the Nesfield-Beamsley road with efforts of 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes & 6 minutes with regrouping in between. I can't remember how many reps we did of each, but it was more of the shorter ones.

I felt fine on the run, even if my legs weren't sure at first about the wisdom of running fast so soon after getting out of bed. There were 6 of us taking part, a number of the regulars were absent due to tomorrow's Calderdale Way. Jeff P was running well less than a week after his Luton Marathon effort & he's already talking about doing another one. Thanks to Neil C for organising the session and keeping us in time on the efforts.

Not sure what pace I was running at on the efforts, as I had my watch set on km splits, which wasn't helpful with the session we were doing.

We were discussing the forthcoming Ribble Valley 10k, there seem to be quite a few of us going over from Ilkley for this race in a couple of weeks. My target at this stage is to get as close as possible to my Abbey Dash time. I don't think that the course at Clitheroe is as fast as the one in Leeds, so running a similar time seems to be a good aim.

Winter's here

It was a cold morning, with ice & frost. I did the '2 bridges' run which is a run that I often do when I'm planning to take it easy. My pace was almost 2 minutes per kilometre slower than during the track session on Wednesday. Stranglely it didn't feel 'easy', rather it seemed like hard work.

I used to be concerned when I did a slow run & it felt like tough. Now I don't see it as being a problem, as I seem to be able to adjust to running at a fast pace again when it comes to a race or a hard training session.

It's good to be able to get out in daylight when it's icy, I'm not keen on running on slippery pavements in the dark.

Track session

This evening's track session was another challenging one. We did 7X800m, 1X700m, 1X600m, 1X500m, 1X400m. There were 4 of us in the group that I ran in, David B, Paul O & Mark I, which certainly helped with motivation & pace setting. Remarkably we did all of the reps within a second per lap apart from the last one. For the 800m reps we were running 2:52 and did 79 seconds for the last lap. For a change it wasn't raining & there was little wind.

We have made good consistent progress with the track sessions, certainly we wouldn't have been able to run at that pace for such a long session a few weeks ago. In principle we were running at 5k pace, which equates to about 17:55 for 5k, which is quite encouraging.

Tomorrow will be a 'rest' day from running as I'm driving to Norfolk & back.

Tuesday club run

It's always a bit of a dilemma on Tuesdays. It's not ideal having the main club run on the day before the weekly track session. This evening I opted for a flat 'Burley lollipop' run, advertised as 9.5 miles at 8 minute mile pace with sustained efforts.

Richard R was setting a brisk pace on the efforts with Jane B in good form as well. I decided to run at a steady speed and keep something in reserve for tomorrow. Including the run to and from the club, I ended up doing 18.5k, which was further than I'd intended, but hopefully shouldn't be a problem for the track session.

Apparently we had the winning team at the Peco race on Saturday (although I've not seen the official results yet). We were second in the first race, so we're in good shape for the series, especially with the next race being in Ilkley. The standard in the Peco races isn't the highest, but nevertheless it's good to be in contention for the team prize.

More rain

Went out running this afternoon. It was raining again & almost dark, despite it only being 2pm. I did the 2 bridges run at a slightly faster steady pace than I ran at yesterday. It seems a bit difficult to understand why running at a pace that is way below my race pace still feels like hard work. I guess that I'm still recovering from recent efforts.

I'm already staring to to think about targets for next year. I would really like to improve my speed over short distances, especially 5k, but I've probably got the most improvement to make at half marathon (I still have no ambition to do a marathon in the foreseeable future). Not sure whether to concentrate on the speed & not worry too much about distance, or to try to do both. The danger of doing both is that I may not succeed with either objective. Maybe I should keep my current training going until the Brass Monkey half marathon, then re-assess from there.

Back on tarmac

I went for my longest run of the week today, 18.7k out & back along the Nesfield - Beamsley road with a couple of laps around the park as warm up/warm down. My legs were feeling a bit heavy after yesterday's cross country & a solid week of training, so it wasn't the fastest run I've ever done.

It's good to have 3 weeks now with no races before the Ribble Valley 10k. So it's an opportunity to get in some good training runs, including some longer ones in preparation for the Brass Monkey half marathon. My intention is to do 2/3 hard sessions per week and 3/4 easy ones with about 80k in total.

I'm quite happy with how the races have gone in the last 3 weeks (Abbey Dash, Thirsk 10 & Peco). I seem to be making some progress with the training that I'm doing, particularly the track sessions so hopefully that will continue. The main thing really is to stay injury free.

Mud glorious mud

This morning's Peco cross country race was at Hunger Hills in Horsforth. I did a recce round the course before the start with Paul S. I'm not sure that this was a good idea as it became clear that it was going to be a very muddy, hilly, challenging course.

The start was suitably manic with a 50 metre dash to a very narrow muddy steep uphill path. One person fell & nearly got trampled to death. We wound our way around some more muddy woodland paths before a short road section & then a section on a very sticky running track. To complete the lap we had a tour around a field, with a steep hill. Two laps of this circuit, finishing witha kamikaze descent of the hill we went up at the start.

We had a good contingent of Ilkley runners, I followed Dave C & Paul O for much of the way round, overtaking them briefly on the second lap, eventually finishing just behind them in 30th place. This was an improvement of 5 places on my previous Peco run 4 weeks ago, but I don't think there were as many runners today. I was pleased with today's run, even though it wasn't at all my kind of course, it's good to do something different. Not sure that I'll ever be able to run fast up steep hills, down steep hills or on mud.

Out on the moors

I spoke too soon about no after effects of the 2 races and 2 track sessions in the last 2 weeks, on Thursday night I suffered with cramp in my right calf. I decided to take a day off from running on Thursday to allow the overused muscles a bit of a rest.

Today is a bright sunny day, so I decided to go for a gentle run up on the moor. I was out for an hour and a half running slowly through the icy mud. It was a very pleasant day for a run with no wind & great visibility. In the distance I could see snow on the hill tops (I think it was on Great Whernside).

Tomorrow is the Peco cross country at Horsforth. I don't know the course at all, but it's called Hunger Hills, so I doubt it will be flat & with all of the recent rain it's likely to be muddy.

Carnegie track

We were a bit depleted this evening at the track session. All of the group that I normally run with were away for various reasons. We did a session of 1k,2k,2k,1k with jog recoveries in between. Richard R ran with me, but he was showing the effects of a hard Big Dipper last night, so he was following me around. In the circumstances I was satisfied with my times, 3:37 & 3:36 for the 1ks and 7:19 & 7:21 for the 2ks. It was good to be able to run at quite a consistent pace without the benefit of being in a group helping each other.

There seem to be no after effects of two hard races in the last couple of weeks, so this Saturday I'm planning to do the Peco cross country at Horsforth. I'm not really much of a cross country runner, for some reason I don't seem to be able to run quickly on mud. The Peco series is quite low key & many of the faster runners may be absent due to a clash with the Complete Runner cross country the following day so I'll see if I can improve my placing from the first race at Golden Acre Park.

It's cold out there

I decided to take advantage of the dry sunny weather & go for a run this morning, rather than wait for this evening's club run. It was minus 2 degrees when I set of from Bolton Bridge to run through the Strid Wood. The route is ideal in these conditions, with generally good runable paths despite the icy patches. The one downside was getting wet feet on the way back going through a flooded section. My feet still haven't thawed out even after a hot shower.

I wasn't too concerned with the pace that I was running at today, rather it was an opportunity to be out in the fresh air on a scenic route and just to run along at whatever speed felt comfortable. I'm probably still a bit tired after the efforts of the last 2 weeks, but I felt fine.

I was having a discussion last week with Paul O about the merits or otherwise of easy runs. I tend to do 2 or 3 hard sessions per week (race, track session, intervals, hills, long run etc.) with 3 or 4 easy sessions (typically 5-10 miles well below race pace). For me this seems to work quite well, I can't run hard every day & an average of about 6 runs per week seems to be about right for me at the moment. Paul does fewer runs, but all of them are quality sessions. I don't think that there is a right of wrong answer to this, it depends on a lot of factors (age, history of injuries, running aspirations, lifestyle, motivation etc.). I actually enjoy my easy runs, such as today, whether or not I get any training benefit from them I'm not sure, but certainly psychologically they make me feel better.

In the dark

I didn't get an opportunity to run in daylight today, so it was a not so scenic run along the A65 to Burley for this evening's run. No after effects from yesterday's race, but I was taking it steady rather than doing anything too ambitious. It felt good to just go out for a run after a day spent decorating. Tomorrow I'm promising myself a more interesting route.

I was thinking about Marc(Omeleteer)'s comments regarding my PBs. It is a bit embarrassing to have PBs that are more than a quarter of a century old. They don't reflect what I'm able to run now. Only my 5k PB is from this year & that's only because I'd never run a 5k until relatively recently. Another downside is that I've very little chance of setting a PB, except at 5k or marathon (although I don't really fancy doing another marathon). Maybe I should list 'recent bests' instead. On the other hand, it would be nice to think that I might be capable of running 34:25 again for a 10k (only 3 1/2 minutes improvement to make!).

Thirsk 10 - snorkel optional

It was certainly wet today for the Thirsk 10, the lane just after the start was completely flooded in places. It resembled one of those triathlons where everyone goes running off into the sea at the start of the swimming section.

Everybody seemed to set off very quickly, maybe I was too near the front, or it was the desire to get through the cold puddles as quickly as possible. I went through 2 miles in 11:53 and 5 miles in 30:09, which is way faster than I was intending to run, but it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. I slowed quite a bit in the 2nd half, although I think that was mainly due to the conditions, as I still felt to be running OK & didn't get overtaken by many people. Unusually for me I was chatting to another runner during the race (I think that he was from Valley Striders). I don't know if this slowed me down or kept me going. At the end I didn't feel unduly tired, maybe I wasn't trying hard enough. I finished in 63:01 and was 4th M50.

There were some really good performances today. Congratulations to Sarah (runningbear) for her PB & being Northern champion again. Marc T got a PB as well & ran under 60 minutes for the 1st time. There were also some good runs from the Otley Carnegie track group.

Sod's law

Just looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow's Thirsk 10. It looks like we're going to have heavy rain, strong winds & cold. I've just been out for a steady 8.5k run this morning & the weather was very pleasant, little wind, no rain & even some sunshine. Pity we can't order that for tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to doing a race without any great expectations on time or finishing positions, just happy to see how it goes. This is especially true now it looks like we'll have adverse weather conditions.

After the race tomorrow, I've got 4 weeks with only one cross country race before the Ribble Valley 10k on December 27. I'm intending to do some more long runs, as I tend to shorten the length of runs that I do when I'm racing regularly. I'll need to get some long runs in as preparation for the Brass Monkey half marathon at the end of January.

Plans for Thirsk

I took a day off from running yesterday, was a bit tired after the hard track session on Wednesday & probably still feeling the effects of the Abbey Dash.

Today's run was a steady 11.5k on the back road to Addingham & back on the main road. Pace was fine, with a couple of faster bursts, but generally felt very comfortable. On the way I saw Geoff Howard. His run last Sunday was very impressive, I believe that it was the 2nd fastest 10k this year in the UK for his age group.

Thinking about the Thirsk 10 on Sunday, I'm still not getting too streesed about pace & target time. I haven't run a fast 10 mile race for many years. My two attempts this year, both at St. Annes, were notable mainly for the strength of the gale blowing off the sea. In the first I set off too fast and suffered in the wind on the way back. In the second I set off slowly to have plenty in reserve for the hard second half. The best that I achieved in these was 67 minutes. Looking at my expected time for 10 miles based on my 10k time from last Sunday, I should be able to run between 62 & 63 minutes. So there's a big difference between what I have done & what I should be able to run. At the moment my plan is to set off at a comfortable pace & just see how it goes.

Track session

Well it was certainly tough weather conditions at the start of tonight's session, strong winds, driving heavy rain & cold. Coach Pete said that he was taking pity on us and changing the session from 2000 metre reps. The session that we did actually seemed harder than that, so I'm not sure that it was made easier. We did 5X400m with 100m recovery, followed by 5X600 with 200m recovery, then it should have been 5X400m with 200m recovery and 5X600m with 400m recovery. Due to a misunderstanding I ended up doing reps of 4,6,6,4, rather than 4,6,4,6.

Initially I was running with Steve W, then Mark I joined in after the first 600m. Steve had to stop with a pulled muscle after another couple of reps. In fact by the time we'd finished there were only a couple of others still running, everyone else seemed to have called it a day early. I think that the Otley runners were saving themselves for the Thirsk 10.

After a slowish start, average pace for the whole session was 88 seconds per lap, which was quite respectable considering the conditions & the length of the session. The total of 10k of efforts, 3.6k or recovery & 3.2k warm up/warm down was by far the longest track session we've done so far. The 2000m reps couldn't have been any tougher.

Overall I felt fine, less tired than yesterday & the achilles problem seems to be sorting itself out.

Bit tired today

Tuesday evening is the Ilkley Harriers club run. In recent weeks, I've tended to go with a group that wouldn't be going at too brisk a pace, considering that I have a track session on Wednesdays. Today there didn't seem to be much on offer (apart from some 9 minute mile groups), so I decided to join Nick R's fast group. Tonight's offering was 10 hilly miles at 7:15 - 7:30 pace, which was a bit further & a bit faster than I really wanted to do. I made my excuses at the start explaining that I'd cut the route short.

The thing that I like about the club runs is the social aspect of being able to catch up with how people are doing whilst having a good run at the same time. This evening, however, I didn't get involved in too much conversation, rather concentrating on conserving a bit of energy for tomorrow's track session & Sunday's Thirsk 10. Including my run to the club, I ran 13km, which was sufficient for me.

A change is as good as a rest

Today I went for a run on my own, rather than with 6000 other people. Instead of the A65 out of Leeds, I opted for the Strid Wood, paths rather than tarmac. I was also running considerably slower than yesterday.

The river was quite high after all of the recent rain, but the paths were still passable, albeit the river was at the same level as the path in a couple of places. There were quite a lot of people out walking today, typically those walking on their own, or couples are generally friendly towards runners, often passing the time of day. Not so the large groups of walkers who will resist any attempt by anyone to share the path with them.....I've never quite understood this.

I feel quite relaxed at the moment about the forthcoming Thirsk 10 on Sunday. I'm not expecting to run a particularly fast time (unlike yesterday, when I was hoping to be able to run under 38 minutes), so I'm happy to see how it goes. Maybe as we get nearer to the race I'll get a bit more motivated to aim for a target time.

Quite happy with that

My plan for today was to run with David B at a steady 3:45- 3:50 minutes per km pace (we run together at the Wednesday track sessions). We went a bit too fast for the first 2 km & went through halfway in about 18:40, which was ok. The second half was a bit slower than the first half, probably paying for the fast start. There were plenty of other Ilkley runners just in front, Paul O, Steve C, Andy W & Richard R were all going well. I finished in 37:53 which was my best 10k time since 1983 and a minute and a half improvement on my best time this year. David was one place behind me with a pb of 37:55. Also from our Wednesday training group, Josie H & Rachel B from Otley AC both had very impressive runs today.

Thanks to Marc & Sarah (runningbear) for good vocal support at halfway.

Strangely my achilles feels less sore now than it has done for a few days. Next week is the Thirsk 10 mile race. Having tapered for the Abbey Dash, I'm intending to do a more 'normal' week of training, so I'm not sure what effect that will have on my race at the weekend.

The day before the Abbey Dash

Having felt sluggish yesterday, I was in two minds about going for a run today, but decided to do a flat steady 5 1/2 miles. I ran at a quicker pace than yesterday & felt much better for that, although the achilles is still a bit sore.

At the track on Wednesday, we'd been discussing the pace to run on Sunday. I'm not really sure about my capability at 10k, having not run one on a fast course since March. For 5k, I've been consistently running under 19 minutes all year, so I'm tempted to set off at that kind of pace and see if I can keep it going for twice the distance. The argument against that is that I'm generally much faster at shorter distances, so maybe I'll 'blow up' in the second half. The other complicating factor is the weather, we're forecast to have very strong winds for the race, which generally isn't great for fast times. We'll see what happens.

Taking it easy

I'm not very good at this tapering for specific races. Yesterday I didn't run at all & today I've done a very slow 7 miles at about 1 1/2 minutes per kilometre slower than my pace should be on Sunday. As a result of this, I feel sluggish & seem to have got my old niggling achillies injury back again.

I've never really followed running schedules, rather I've run depending how I feel on a particular day. So to have a rest day when I'm not injured, very busy or travelling somewhere is difficult to come to terms with. Similarly, deliberately running slowly when I'm not particularly tired seems to be counter intuitive. We'll see how things go on Sunday & it may all prove to be beneficial.

This morning's run was the 'two bridges' run from Ilkley to Addingham & back. The river is quite high at the moment after all of the rain, but the off road sections of the route weren't too muddy.

First Blog

I decided to have a go at this blogging. I've started to read other people's blogs, so I thought that it was only fair to write one myself as well. It's going to be about running, which hopefully you would be able to guess from the title.

This week has been preparation for Sunday's Abbey Dash. Monday I did a steady run of 6 miles, including Carter's Lane, nothing special to report. Tuesday was the Ilkley Harriers predictor run. My intention for this was to run well below race pace, given that I had a track session on Wednesday & I'm supposed to be tapering for the Abbey Dash. I set off running with Jeff P, but after a mile or so decided that he was going a bit quicker than I probably should be running, so I let him go. Shortly afterwards, I was overtaken by John T. As we went up the hills to the top of Clifton Road, I managed to go past JT again & was not too far behind JP. For the next couple of miles, I gradually gained ground on JP, but when I eventaully caught up to him, he decided to accelerate. I did think about giving chase, but somehow managed to curb my competitive instincts. At the finish I was about 5 seconds behind him and about 20 seconds after Richard R & Steve C. I had run faster than I was intending to do, but felt very comfortable with the pace. No results yet for the predictor, but I certainly won't have won it.

Wednesday was the Carnegie Track session. Last week was a very tough one, so this week we had a relatively easier session in preparation for the Abbey Dash. We ran a pyramid session, 2X400m, 2X800m, 1X1600m, 2X800m & 2X400m. The group that I run with decided to run at 90 seconds per lap pace, which is 3 or 4 seconds per lap slower than we are capable of running that session, so it felt very comfortable and we were able to complete each effort one or two seconds inside our target. We have made good progress over the 10 weeks or so that we've been running at the track & have a group that runs really well together. The question now is can we run at that kind of pace on Sunday?

Today is a rest day from running as instructed by coach Pete.