Friday 16 July 2010
No running for a while
Still struggling with the virus that I've had for a couple of weeks. After a series of tests yesterday, medical opinion is that I shouldn't run until it clears up. It's a bit frustrating to say the least, but hopefully taking a summer break will do me some good.
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Wednesday track session
I've been suffering with a bit of a virus since Sunday's race, so I was a bit wary about pushing things too hard on the track this evening. It was quite a demanding session: 4X200, 4X400, 4X600, 4X400, 4X200, 1X800, with only short recoveries...... 8k of efforts in total. There were 4 of us doing the session: Mark I, Rachael B, Nick P & myself.
Rachael & Mark were both running quite a bit faster than me this evening. I was happy to just concentrate on completing the session at a moderate pace, rather than go too quickly & need to cut it short. My pace was around 80 seconds per lap for the 200s & 400s, 84 seconds per lap for the 600s and slightly slower again for the 800. I was happy with the session overall, despite not being the quickest. No real effects of the 'bug' & no after effects from racing on Thursday & Sunday.
I now have a good break from racing (apart from the Harrogate League handicap next week). My next race will be the BMAF half marathon towards the end of August, so I have about 6 weeks to recover, then prepare for that.
Rachael & Mark were both running quite a bit faster than me this evening. I was happy to just concentrate on completing the session at a moderate pace, rather than go too quickly & need to cut it short. My pace was around 80 seconds per lap for the 200s & 400s, 84 seconds per lap for the 600s and slightly slower again for the 800. I was happy with the session overall, despite not being the quickest. No real effects of the 'bug' & no after effects from racing on Thursday & Sunday.
I now have a good break from racing (apart from the Harrogate League handicap next week). My next race will be the BMAF half marathon towards the end of August, so I have about 6 weeks to recover, then prepare for that.
Monday 5 July 2010
First ever track race - BMAF 5000m
Not quite sure why I chose a national championship event in Cardiff for my first ever track race. I was well out of my comfort zone before the start of the race - there were 3 pages of rules & regulations: you needed to register before you signed the declaration sheet (whatever that is), these had to be done at least 2 hours before the race otherwise you were disqualified, you needed to be in a 'call room' at least 20 minutes before the race, 2 race numbers had to be worn & 2 lane numbers (all in the correct position). Asking the very efficient officials basic questions brought looks of incredulity (especially when I told them that I'd never done a track race before).
The weather was wet & very windy, quite a change from the recent dry, still, sunny conditions. I was at the track 3 hours before my race to give me sufficient time to ensure that I didn't fall foul of the various cut off times. Warming up was a bit difficult to ensure that I would be in the 'call room' at the required hour.
My race was the 5000m for M50 & M55s, so it was actually two races in one, with separate results for each. 14 runners had entered the M55 race & 9 the M50 one, but I think that there were only about 15 or so actually started in total. Four of the M50 runners set off at a very fast pace, so I decided to let them go, settling into a group of 3 M55s and a couple of M50s.
My plan before the race had been to try to run at an even pace around 84 seconds per lap, but this plan soon went out of the window mainly because of the conditions. It was clear that there wasn't much difference between the 3 of us leading the M55 race & which ever of us was setting the pace was making it much easier for the other 2, as they could just follow on the tough 'home straight' into the wind. In effect it became a very tactical race with each of us trying to break away, getting pulled back, then trying to avoid leading......... not a good recipe for running a fast even pace.
I made a tactical mistake of trying a final attack with just over 2 laps to go, which resulted in my opponents being able to follow me for the closing stages of the race. I did all the hard work until I was overtaken on the home straight & beaten into second place by 1 second.
I suppose that I should be pleased about winning a silver medal in a national championship in my first ever track race, but I know that I could have done better if I'd timed the finish differently. Having said that the guy who beat me, David Oxland of Notts AC, is a very experienced track runner & he may well have beaten me whatever tactics I'd adopted (he'd won this event the previous year by 17 seconds & was silver medalist in the European Masters Indoor track championships - only missing gold by 0.17 seconds).
Having had my first attempt at racing on the track, I'm tempted to give it another go - I'll certainly have a better idea what to expect next time around.
The weather was wet & very windy, quite a change from the recent dry, still, sunny conditions. I was at the track 3 hours before my race to give me sufficient time to ensure that I didn't fall foul of the various cut off times. Warming up was a bit difficult to ensure that I would be in the 'call room' at the required hour.
My race was the 5000m for M50 & M55s, so it was actually two races in one, with separate results for each. 14 runners had entered the M55 race & 9 the M50 one, but I think that there were only about 15 or so actually started in total. Four of the M50 runners set off at a very fast pace, so I decided to let them go, settling into a group of 3 M55s and a couple of M50s.
My plan before the race had been to try to run at an even pace around 84 seconds per lap, but this plan soon went out of the window mainly because of the conditions. It was clear that there wasn't much difference between the 3 of us leading the M55 race & which ever of us was setting the pace was making it much easier for the other 2, as they could just follow on the tough 'home straight' into the wind. In effect it became a very tactical race with each of us trying to break away, getting pulled back, then trying to avoid leading......... not a good recipe for running a fast even pace.
I made a tactical mistake of trying a final attack with just over 2 laps to go, which resulted in my opponents being able to follow me for the closing stages of the race. I did all the hard work until I was overtaken on the home straight & beaten into second place by 1 second.
I suppose that I should be pleased about winning a silver medal in a national championship in my first ever track race, but I know that I could have done better if I'd timed the finish differently. Having said that the guy who beat me, David Oxland of Notts AC, is a very experienced track runner & he may well have beaten me whatever tactics I'd adopted (he'd won this event the previous year by 17 seconds & was silver medalist in the European Masters Indoor track championships - only missing gold by 0.17 seconds).
Having had my first attempt at racing on the track, I'm tempted to give it another go - I'll certainly have a better idea what to expect next time around.
Friday 2 July 2010
Harrogate League race 5 - Hudswell
After a week of very easy slow running, with no session faster than 5 minutes/km, to try to overcome the recent lethargy, it was back to racing yesterday evening at the final race in the Harrogate League series. I'd had strong warnings from Coach Pete to take it very easy in this race, considering that I'm racing in the British Masters 5000m on Sunday.......he said that it would be better to give this race a miss altogether. However, I only needed to score a few points to secure the M55 prize for the series and we needed some team points as well.
I had run this same course 2 years ago, it's all on the roads, which is an improvement from most of the HL races this year. The first half of the race was uphill, then a turnaround with descent to the finish. I set off at a very steady pace comfortably behind a few runners who I normally run with.
For the first half of the race I felt as though I wanted to accelerate, but had Pete's warnings in my mind, so I continued at what seemed like a very easy pace for a race (averaging just over 4 minutes per km on the uphill half). At halfway I'd just managed to catch up to my regular track partner Mark I so we ran together for the start of the return leg. After a kilometre or so Mark decided that he'd try to catch another clubmate Mark M-W who was about 25 metres ahead of us, so he suddenly speeded up. I decided to not go with Mark's injection of pace, but to carry on at about the same speed.
As we got nearer to the finish I was still feeling very fresh & relaxed, quite unusual for me at this stage of a race, so I picked up the pace (with only about 1km to go I figured that I wouldn't do too much damage for Sunday). I managed to overtake both Marks as well as 3 or 4 other runners. My finishing time was 31:01 for just over 8k, which was 2 1/2 minutes quicker than I did on this course 2 years ago. I finished in 24th place with hopefully sufficient points for the individual age group series win & team wins in the vets team & super vets.
Looking at my Garmin stats after the race I averaged 3:52 minutes per km, which is nothing special, although I ran the last km in 3:05....probably the fastest km that I've ever run! I now have a couple of days to recover before my debut track race on Sunday.
I had run this same course 2 years ago, it's all on the roads, which is an improvement from most of the HL races this year. The first half of the race was uphill, then a turnaround with descent to the finish. I set off at a very steady pace comfortably behind a few runners who I normally run with.
For the first half of the race I felt as though I wanted to accelerate, but had Pete's warnings in my mind, so I continued at what seemed like a very easy pace for a race (averaging just over 4 minutes per km on the uphill half). At halfway I'd just managed to catch up to my regular track partner Mark I so we ran together for the start of the return leg. After a kilometre or so Mark decided that he'd try to catch another clubmate Mark M-W who was about 25 metres ahead of us, so he suddenly speeded up. I decided to not go with Mark's injection of pace, but to carry on at about the same speed.
As we got nearer to the finish I was still feeling very fresh & relaxed, quite unusual for me at this stage of a race, so I picked up the pace (with only about 1km to go I figured that I wouldn't do too much damage for Sunday). I managed to overtake both Marks as well as 3 or 4 other runners. My finishing time was 31:01 for just over 8k, which was 2 1/2 minutes quicker than I did on this course 2 years ago. I finished in 24th place with hopefully sufficient points for the individual age group series win & team wins in the vets team & super vets.
Looking at my Garmin stats after the race I averaged 3:52 minutes per km, which is nothing special, although I ran the last km in 3:05....probably the fastest km that I've ever run! I now have a couple of days to recover before my debut track race on Sunday.
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