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.