I am fortunate to be able to run in daylight hours at this time of year when we have snow & ice on the ground. Today was bright & sunny, about minus 4 degrees at noon & I headed off for my run around Fewston & Swinsty reservoirs. Conditions couldn't have been more perfect...... a light covering of snow, compacted on the gravel paths, but not much ice (except on the reservoirs which were frozen solid). There was no wind & few people around.
My run was at a fairly steady pace after yesterday's race, no need to do any efforts, just run around & enjoy the scenery. I ran it as a figure of 8 circuit, so it was just short of 12k.
Recently since mid November I've been averaging around 100k per week, running for 6/7 days each week, with typically one long run (over 20k) and one interval session (ideally on the track) and a race or another fast run. My other runs are typically like today....10-14k, often off road & easy pace. I'm sure that I wouldn't be able to do this quantity & quality of running if I was still working full time & trying to run after dark midweek, with dangerous icy roads & pavements.
My training is currently geared towards two contradictory target races......coming up on 23 January is the Brass Monkey half marathon, then in March is the European Masters Indoor 3000m championships. In effect I need to be working on both improving my endurance & getting used to running short distances at a very fast pace. At least it makes running interesting.
Monday, 20 December 2010
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Update on recent races
No excuses for not blogging for a couple of months apart from laziness. Here is a summary of racing activity in the past couple of months:
Yorkshire Vets road relays. My main job at this event was organiser of the men's teams for Ilkley Harriers. With 28 runners in 8 teams, there certainly was a lot of organising to be done, especially with the usual late withdrawals & search for replacements. I put myself in the M50 A team, which on reflection was probably not the sensible option. I would have been better placed in the B team, due to lack of form & distractions before the start sorting out numbers & making sure that everyone was present & correct. Nevertheless we managed a team second place finish, mainly due to a storming run from Eddie I, we narrowly beat our M50 B team.
Ilkley 5 (Ben's race). This low key race on a very hilly course was mainly a fund raising effort to raise money towards sending a young lad from Ilkley to America for hospital treatment. Following a family party, curry & late night, I wasn't in the best shape to race, but it was more the taking part that was important, rather than the result. For the record, I finished in 12th place in 31:49.
International Open Masters cross country - Dublin. I travelled to Dublin as 1st reserve for the England M55 team. I wasn't required for the team, as all of the selected runners showed up, so I ran in the Open race for reserves & other local vets. I finished as 2nd M55 in the Open race in about 20th position overall. It was a really enjoyable weekend in Ireland. The standard of racing in the main races was of a very high standard.....not sure that I'll ever be a 'real' cross country runner. I was probably fortunate to get selected as a reserve for England based on my track & road results.
Abbey Dash 10k. I wasn't intending to run this race, only entering it a few days before (my intention had been to prepare for the Thirsk 10 the following week - which got cancelled due to the ice). In near perfect conditions I managed to knock a minute off my time from last year's Abbey Dash in 36:53. However, I was disappointed to get beaten on the line by Shaun Jordan of Bingley, who just got the better of me by 1 second in the M55 race - although I did beat him by one second on chip timing. We've been very evenly matched each time we've raced each other this year. It was the fastest 10k that I've run since 1983, so I probably should be satisfied.
Bradford Parkrun 5k. This isn't the fastest 5k course, with a challenging hill up the side of Emm Lane to be climbed 3 times, then an extra uphill section at the finish. I was reasonably happy with a 3rd place finish in 18:54. I was just 7 seconds slower than I'd done on this course in April.
Peco cross country - Rothwell. There was a light covering of snow & below freezing temperatures for this tour around Middleton Park woods in Leeds. I seem to be relatively much slower at cross country than I am on the road or track, but I try to convince myself that it must do me some good to run the occasional off road race. Not got the official results yet, but I finished in 33rd place, which is similar to my typical result last winter in this series.
Assuming that I can get motivated to blog regularly again, I'll do an update on training activities. Over the last two or three weeks, I've increased the volume & intensity of my training in preparation for upcoming races. Despite the recent snow & ice, I've been managing to run at least 100k per week with one or two fast sessions in addition to races.
Yorkshire Vets road relays. My main job at this event was organiser of the men's teams for Ilkley Harriers. With 28 runners in 8 teams, there certainly was a lot of organising to be done, especially with the usual late withdrawals & search for replacements. I put myself in the M50 A team, which on reflection was probably not the sensible option. I would have been better placed in the B team, due to lack of form & distractions before the start sorting out numbers & making sure that everyone was present & correct. Nevertheless we managed a team second place finish, mainly due to a storming run from Eddie I, we narrowly beat our M50 B team.
Ilkley 5 (Ben's race). This low key race on a very hilly course was mainly a fund raising effort to raise money towards sending a young lad from Ilkley to America for hospital treatment. Following a family party, curry & late night, I wasn't in the best shape to race, but it was more the taking part that was important, rather than the result. For the record, I finished in 12th place in 31:49.
International Open Masters cross country - Dublin. I travelled to Dublin as 1st reserve for the England M55 team. I wasn't required for the team, as all of the selected runners showed up, so I ran in the Open race for reserves & other local vets. I finished as 2nd M55 in the Open race in about 20th position overall. It was a really enjoyable weekend in Ireland. The standard of racing in the main races was of a very high standard.....not sure that I'll ever be a 'real' cross country runner. I was probably fortunate to get selected as a reserve for England based on my track & road results.
Abbey Dash 10k. I wasn't intending to run this race, only entering it a few days before (my intention had been to prepare for the Thirsk 10 the following week - which got cancelled due to the ice). In near perfect conditions I managed to knock a minute off my time from last year's Abbey Dash in 36:53. However, I was disappointed to get beaten on the line by Shaun Jordan of Bingley, who just got the better of me by 1 second in the M55 race - although I did beat him by one second on chip timing. We've been very evenly matched each time we've raced each other this year. It was the fastest 10k that I've run since 1983, so I probably should be satisfied.
Bradford Parkrun 5k. This isn't the fastest 5k course, with a challenging hill up the side of Emm Lane to be climbed 3 times, then an extra uphill section at the finish. I was reasonably happy with a 3rd place finish in 18:54. I was just 7 seconds slower than I'd done on this course in April.
Peco cross country - Rothwell. There was a light covering of snow & below freezing temperatures for this tour around Middleton Park woods in Leeds. I seem to be relatively much slower at cross country than I am on the road or track, but I try to convince myself that it must do me some good to run the occasional off road race. Not got the official results yet, but I finished in 33rd place, which is similar to my typical result last winter in this series.
Assuming that I can get motivated to blog regularly again, I'll do an update on training activities. Over the last two or three weeks, I've increased the volume & intensity of my training in preparation for upcoming races. Despite the recent snow & ice, I've been managing to run at least 100k per week with one or two fast sessions in addition to races.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Northern Vets 10000m track championships
I seem to be coming something of a track specialist recently with all of my last 4 races being on the track. Today was the Northern Vets 10000m championships held at the Leigh Sports Village. There were about 30 people taking part in the race, with just 4 or 5 in my age group. Conditions were perfect for running, ideal temperature, sunny, no wind & no hills.
My intention was to try to run at 90 seconds per lap & see how it went from there. For the first 7 or 8 laps I was following Mervyn Ward from Warrington AC (who I'd raced against recently in the NVAC 5000m), we were the two main contenders for the M55 medals. For the first 5k I ran 18:53, which was fairly close to the 90 second per lap target, but I slowed quite a bit in the 2nd half to record 38:44. This is quite a bit slower than I've done for 10k on the road this year, but was quick enough to get me a gold medal, by about 10 seconds from Mervyn.
My relatively modest time was also enough to get me a 4th place UK ranking for 10000m for M55, which is more of an indication of the lack of long distance vets track races than any great speed from me. My recent spurt of track events has resulted in 2 gold & 2 silver medals (1st NVAC 5000m & 10000m & 2nd BMAF 5000m & NVAC 1500m).
Next up is the Yorkshire Vets road relay championships in Ilkley. We have a strong M50 'A' team of which I should be our slowest runner, so hopefully we have chance of doing well. Not sure that I'm looking forward to the 1 mile climb Of Carters Lane (nor the fast descent of Curly Hill).
My intention was to try to run at 90 seconds per lap & see how it went from there. For the first 7 or 8 laps I was following Mervyn Ward from Warrington AC (who I'd raced against recently in the NVAC 5000m), we were the two main contenders for the M55 medals. For the first 5k I ran 18:53, which was fairly close to the 90 second per lap target, but I slowed quite a bit in the 2nd half to record 38:44. This is quite a bit slower than I've done for 10k on the road this year, but was quick enough to get me a gold medal, by about 10 seconds from Mervyn.
My relatively modest time was also enough to get me a 4th place UK ranking for 10000m for M55, which is more of an indication of the lack of long distance vets track races than any great speed from me. My recent spurt of track events has resulted in 2 gold & 2 silver medals (1st NVAC 5000m & 10000m & 2nd BMAF 5000m & NVAC 1500m).
Next up is the Yorkshire Vets road relay championships in Ilkley. We have a strong M50 'A' team of which I should be our slowest runner, so hopefully we have chance of doing well. Not sure that I'm looking forward to the 1 mile climb Of Carters Lane (nor the fast descent of Curly Hill).
Thursday, 14 October 2010
800m reps on the track
After a week with a tummy bug, then a sore throat, I was a bit apprehensive about yesterday's track session. We did 10x800m, in sets of 5, with 1 minute recovery between each rep & 4 minutes between the sets. There is a good group of us running at Carnegie now, with 7 of us attending yesterday.
My first 800 was a bit too enthusiastic in 2:45. The remaining reps in the 1st set varied between 2:50 & 2:54, indicating that I'd certainly set off too quickly. The 2nd set were hard work. I was tiring significantly, but managed to run all of the 5 800s at 2:54, apart from one in 2:56. The overall average for the session was just under 2:53 for each 800m, which is not too bad considering that I wasn't feeling 100% & I'd set off too fast at the start of the session.
Looking back at previous sessions, whilst it's difficult to compare precisely, I seem to be running about 1-2 seconds per lap slower on average than I was in the early part of 2010, but a similar amount faster than a month ago. Overall I think that I'm making steady progress from my illness in the summer, although it's frustrating to be running slower than I know I'm capable of running (especially as some of my training partners have continued to improve.
It will be interesting to see how things go when I start racing regularly again. Having only done one track meeting since early July, I'm certainly rusty. This Sunday is the NVAC 10000m championships. My plan at this stage is to not push it too hard, certainly for the first 7 or 8k, as 25 laps of the track is a long way when I'm not fully fit.
My first 800 was a bit too enthusiastic in 2:45. The remaining reps in the 1st set varied between 2:50 & 2:54, indicating that I'd certainly set off too quickly. The 2nd set were hard work. I was tiring significantly, but managed to run all of the 5 800s at 2:54, apart from one in 2:56. The overall average for the session was just under 2:53 for each 800m, which is not too bad considering that I wasn't feeling 100% & I'd set off too fast at the start of the session.
Looking back at previous sessions, whilst it's difficult to compare precisely, I seem to be running about 1-2 seconds per lap slower on average than I was in the early part of 2010, but a similar amount faster than a month ago. Overall I think that I'm making steady progress from my illness in the summer, although it's frustrating to be running slower than I know I'm capable of running (especially as some of my training partners have continued to improve.
It will be interesting to see how things go when I start racing regularly again. Having only done one track meeting since early July, I'm certainly rusty. This Sunday is the NVAC 10000m championships. My plan at this stage is to not push it too hard, certainly for the first 7 or 8k, as 25 laps of the track is a long way when I'm not fully fit.
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Running on the moors
Today was a really pleasant day for running, quite warm for the time of year, sunny & not much wind. I decide to head up on to the moors for a longish run. It was good to just go out & run with no concerns about pace or distance.
I cheated a bit by taking the car up to near the Cow & Calf, rather than running up from home. My route then went up to the Trig point & across to the radio masts before heading over to Windgate Nick. It was quite boggy in places on the top, but that's fairly normal for most of the year. Once I got to the edge of the moors, I descended on the tarmac towards Low Mill at Addingham, before returning to Ilkley along the Dalesway path.
In total I ran for almost two hours & according to my Garmin covered a bit more than 18k, although pace and distance are not really relevant on that kind of surface.
It's good to run on different surfaces, over the next few weeks I've got races coming up on the track, road & cross country, so I need to be ready for each of these. Next Sunday it's 10000m on the track at the Northern Vets championships. I haven't really been training for that kind of distance, so it will be interesting to see how it goes, probably best to plan to not set off too quickly.
I cheated a bit by taking the car up to near the Cow & Calf, rather than running up from home. My route then went up to the Trig point & across to the radio masts before heading over to Windgate Nick. It was quite boggy in places on the top, but that's fairly normal for most of the year. Once I got to the edge of the moors, I descended on the tarmac towards Low Mill at Addingham, before returning to Ilkley along the Dalesway path.
In total I ran for almost two hours & according to my Garmin covered a bit more than 18k, although pace and distance are not really relevant on that kind of surface.
It's good to run on different surfaces, over the next few weeks I've got races coming up on the track, road & cross country, so I need to be ready for each of these. Next Sunday it's 10000m on the track at the Northern Vets championships. I haven't really been training for that kind of distance, so it will be interesting to see how it goes, probably best to plan to not set off too quickly.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Track session at Carnegie
This evening was a fast session with short recoveries: 12x600m in 4 sets of 3, with 40 seconds recovery between each rep & 2 minutes between the sets. There was a good group of seven of us taking part, with Rachael B & Huw I from Otley leading the way with Mark I not far behind. I spent most of the session trying to not drop too far back from Mark. Alan W, Dave J & Adrian B (doing his first track session) were all running strongly.
I did the first set of 600s a bit too quickly, averaging 2:02. For the next 3 sets, I gradually slowed with an overall average for the whole session of 2:06. The previous two weeks at the track I've actually got quicker throughout the session, so this evening certainly showed the effects of going too fast too soon. Nevertheless, the overall average of about 84 seconds per lap wasn't too bad for a longish track session (7.2k in total) with mostly short recoveries.
Whilst this kind of session feels very tough and I'm sure that I'll be suffering tomorrow, hopefully it's the kind of effort that will bring benefits in the future. It's good to experience running at a faster pace than I would normally run at in races.
I did the first set of 600s a bit too quickly, averaging 2:02. For the next 3 sets, I gradually slowed with an overall average for the whole session of 2:06. The previous two weeks at the track I've actually got quicker throughout the session, so this evening certainly showed the effects of going too fast too soon. Nevertheless, the overall average of about 84 seconds per lap wasn't too bad for a longish track session (7.2k in total) with mostly short recoveries.
Whilst this kind of session feels very tough and I'm sure that I'll be suffering tomorrow, hopefully it's the kind of effort that will bring benefits in the future. It's good to experience running at a faster pace than I would normally run at in races.
Blogging again
I was a bit in two minds about starting blogging again after a break of 3 months. The viral illness that I had stopped me running for 4 weeks & according to the doctors at Airedale Hospital, it would take me several weeks or months to fully recover......on the positive side at least it was nothing more serious.
I started running again (slowly) in mid August & during September I was running regularly, albeit at a reduced pace and shorter distances than normal. The weekly track sessions restarted & I had lost about 7-8 seconds per lap from my pre illness pace at the beginning of September. Now I'm closer to where I was, but still about 2-3 seconds per lap slower. I've done a couple of the Saturday morning Ilkley Harriers 'Hard run' interval sessions & it's been a bit frustrating to be struggling to keep up with people that I would have previously been able to match.
I was holding off from racing again, but decided to enter the Northern Vets track championships, just to get back into the swing of things with the intention to treat it more as a fast training session. I ran the 1500m, an event which I've never raced before and was pleasantly surprised to win a silver medal in 5:04, including a last lap of about 77 seconds overtaking several runners in the home straight. I followed that a couple of hours later with the 5000m. My strategy was to take it easy due to my lack of fitness and tiredness after the 1500m. A time of 18:46 was quite slow, but I did manage to win the gold medal for the M55s, by out sprinting the second placed runner in the last 50m.
Yesterday brought news that I've been selected as 1st reserve for the England team for the International Masters cross country race in Dublin in November. This was a bit of a surprise as I've run very few cross country races. Apparently selection was based on performances in championship races on road & track as well as cross country. I'll need to sharpen up my fitness now in the next 5 weeks.
I started running again (slowly) in mid August & during September I was running regularly, albeit at a reduced pace and shorter distances than normal. The weekly track sessions restarted & I had lost about 7-8 seconds per lap from my pre illness pace at the beginning of September. Now I'm closer to where I was, but still about 2-3 seconds per lap slower. I've done a couple of the Saturday morning Ilkley Harriers 'Hard run' interval sessions & it's been a bit frustrating to be struggling to keep up with people that I would have previously been able to match.
I was holding off from racing again, but decided to enter the Northern Vets track championships, just to get back into the swing of things with the intention to treat it more as a fast training session. I ran the 1500m, an event which I've never raced before and was pleasantly surprised to win a silver medal in 5:04, including a last lap of about 77 seconds overtaking several runners in the home straight. I followed that a couple of hours later with the 5000m. My strategy was to take it easy due to my lack of fitness and tiredness after the 1500m. A time of 18:46 was quite slow, but I did manage to win the gold medal for the M55s, by out sprinting the second placed runner in the last 50m.
Yesterday brought news that I've been selected as 1st reserve for the England team for the International Masters cross country race in Dublin in November. This was a bit of a surprise as I've run very few cross country races. Apparently selection was based on performances in championship races on road & track as well as cross country. I'll need to sharpen up my fitness now in the next 5 weeks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)