Adrian Marriott

50k debut in Gloucester

2012-01-23T15:36:00.005Z

Yesterday I dipped my toe (well jumped with both feet actually) into the deep waters of ultra marathon running by racing the Gloucester 50km race, part of the IAU series.

Expecting a low key debut I had travelled up on the morning and was happily stretching out some tight muscles from the journey when I spotted fellow sub 2.20 marathon runner Steve Way, so much for a low key race ! With the marathoners setting off at 10.30am we had a short wait before the 40 odd runners in the 50k got underway with previous winner Julian Rendell showing early on (left).

My pre-race plan had been a bit affected by the weather which was blowing a stiff westerly. Having seen the havoc strong winds can create in Toronto I decided to go a bit slower than my 3:30/km target pace and after a gentle opening kilometre I quickly settled into a nice rythmn which was averaging out at 3:34 with the hills.

After a short flat loop in town we headed out into the countryside for 4 laps of a 10.5km circuit. Laps like this are a mental battle as much as physical and the first couple felt pretty comfortable, though with hindsight I should perhaps have backed off a little going up the hills and into the wind but I was fully committed and going for it as hard as felt was possible.

Lap 3 was when it started to get hard (left). Having passed 25km in around 1.29 I was still feeling pretty good and at 30km I actually started to pick the pace up, a move that would cost me dear later on. A couple of 3:30s and a 3:25 took me well past 20 miles, the point at which you really start to race in the marathon. And then it dawned on me that there was still another 10 miles to go and there was no way I was going to hold the increased pace to the finish.

With the effect of the hills (especially the downs) starting to tell on my quads I hit 40km still cranking out solid kilometres and wondering how long it would be before the elephant jumped on me. At 45km the last big climb started, well actually 2 climbs with a short downhill over the course of 2km). And then the elephant jumped out from behind a tree and climbed on my back. I was down to 6min miling and into survival mode - a feeling many marathoners will have experienced before !

Focusing on getting to the top of the hill knowing that the last couple of kilometres would be down/flat I was able to haul myself to the top though I could sense the holy grail of a sub 3 hour clocking slipping through my fingers.

Unfortunately going downhill on trashed legs wasnt much easier than going up and the last mile felt as long as in the 2006 London Marathon. Going round each bend I imagined Frank yelling "faster, faster!" but it wasn't doing me much good with a knee lift now measured in microns rather than centimetres.

Getting to the line brought as much relief as I have felt for a while at the end of a race (left) though my time of 3 hours and 47 seconds was good enough to go seventh on the UK all time lists which on that course and in those conditions was very satisfying. So all in all a very solid debut at 50k. I'm pleased that I fully committed myself to running as fast as I could when it would have been easy to sit back in the pack and have an easier run.

Results

Olympic Marathon Trial reflections

2012-01-19T15:41:00.005Z

With just over 6 months to go until the London Olympic Games the American team is selected following their trials last weekend and Kenya took the first step towards finalising its line up by naming a provisional squad with 5 runners.

Every time the games come round the debate kicks off as to whether a trial race is the best way to select a marathon team or not and even the Kenyans have been toying with the idea. Traditionally the US has had a sudden death first 3 past the post system and when you have strength in depth this can be a terrific way to select a team.

Going into last weeks trials in Houston the US had well over 100 qualified athletes for their trial race (as opposed to the couple of dozen with the Olympic standard) which enabled them to put on a special race the day before the main Houston Marathon. While many commentators predicted a cagey opening half Ryan Hall had other ideas and opened up with a 63min half which challenged the rest of the field to follow or sign over one of the spots to him. A few took up the challenge and Meb Keflezighi came through to run his second PR in 2 months and win the trial from Hall and Abdi Abdirahaman. With 4 guys under 2.10 for the first time since the famous Boston Race of 1983 ? the American team promises to be strong. The women are arguably even better placed for medals with Shalane Flanagan, Desi Davila and Kara Goucher following teh form bok to take the top 3 slots.

One of the things I love about this sort of trial event is the build up and buzz that it creates. Back in 2004 in the UK were using the Flora London Marathon as the official trial and with an Olympic Qualifying time of 2:15 there were plenty of us who fancied a crack at making the team. I had punched my ticket for the trial with a 2.22 debut the previous autumn in Amsterdam and training had gone pretty well during the winter though not well enough to suggest that I had a 2.15 in me. Not that it was going to deter me from having a go.

Come the race just about all the contenders lined up including Jon Brown who would go on to place 4th in Athens for the second games in succession. A decent sized group of men went through half way in 66 high and things sorted themselves out from there. Brown qualified along with Dan Robinson who had his breakthrough race and Chris Cariss (left tracking Jon Bown) had the heartbreak of missing the standard by 8 seconds. While for the women Tracey Morris had a breakthrough to join Liz Yelling and Paula in the team.

If you look at the results of that mens race I was 15th Brit in 2.21(2 seconds ahead of Matt Smith after a frantic 'dash' down the Mall) and we had 13 runners sub 2.20 (compared with the US's 50 this year- though interestingly on a per head of population basis thats roughly equivalent). 10 of the 15 ran personal bests and several of those efforts haven't been bettered since. We haven't had a trial race again and we havent produced that strength in depth in a single race either and arguably men's marathoning in the UK is no stronger now than it was 8 years ago which feels like a missed opportunity.

Hopefully for the 2016 Olympics, if not before for the Worlds, we will return to a good old spring shootout for Great Britain marathon team spots.

How to train for the Yeovil Half Marathon

2012-01-18T18:07:00.008Z

With entries approaching the 500 mark for the second Yeovil Half Marathon on Sunday 25th March 2012 its no wonder i've been getting a few questions about how to go about preparing for the race, especially from first timers. So here are a few thoughts:

Find a training partner
We know that it is much easier to get out training when its cold and dark when you have a training partner to share your goals and plans with. You are far more likely to do that extra midweek run when you know your buddy is waiting for you ! Even the top elites have regular run partners that they can call on for support when they are tired and not really feeling like it. So go on, phone a friend and make a commitment to run together.

Good running shoes
The No1 cause of injury (and hence frustration, anger, resentment etc !) is worn out running shoes. You dont want to do a really good couple of months of training just to miss out on the race because you got hurt. And looks can be deceptive, those 3 year old sneakers may look fine on the outside but the shock absorbing mid-sole will have had the life crushed out of it and in return will provide little protection to your feet and legs as several times your body weight lands with each stride (and keep in mind you will do about 15,000 strides in the half marathon alone !).

SPECIAL OFFER Tri UK in Yeovil (Lyde Rd, BA21 5DW) have an offer on for Yeovil Half Marathon entrants. Take a copy of your proof of entry to the store and get a 20% discount on your running shoes and a free treadmill gait analysis (usually £10) to help find the right pair of running shoes for you.

Train at the right speeds
There is a temptation to measure your fitness by making every training run into a time trial with success being to cover the same route faster than last week. Unfortunately running fitness doesn't work like that ! You need to run a variety of different speeds and mix hard training with easy. So if you are targetting 2 hours for the half (9 minutes a mile) then you need to be thinking in terms of three speeds.

Easy will be 11 mins a mile - this increases your aerobic fitness and gives you the stamina to survive the race. In training you should aim to build up to over 2 hours at this pace.

Race pace will be 9 minutes a mile - this gets you used to what a big effort feels like on race day. In training, once you are warmed up, run for a few minutes at race pace and then revert to easy. Keep alternating race pace and easy pace initially. Once you have got the feel for race pace after a few weeks you can make the race pace segments longer, up to 15 mins. A really good workout 3 weeks before the half marathon would be a longer run including 3 x 15 minutes at your race pace. If you can't manage that pace then you probably need to adjust your goals for race day.

Speed training will be 8 minutes a mile or faster - this teaches your body to move efficiently at fast speeds so that race pace will start to feel easy. This type of training needs to be done in small chunks otherwise it becomes too hard. So after a good warm up run 1 min at faster than race pace. Then run Easy for 2 mins. Repeat. Over a number of week build up to 10x1min fast then you can think about increasing the duration of each faster effort to 2 mins. Beware not to overdo this type training, its the icing on the cake (see below on balance).

Get the balance right
So you have got your running partner, new running shoes and 3 different speeds. How do you put it all together ? A good ratio would be one speed run and one race pace run for every 4 or 5 easy runs that you do. And make one of those easy runs longer than the others.

Recovery
Its a big myth that training makes you fit, it doesn't. Training makes you tired and breaks your body down. Recovering from training makes you fitter. So getting this bit right is very important. What are the key elements of recovery ?

Firstly food - you need to eat within an hour of finishing training to help your body start the repair process.
Secondly hydration - many of us are dehydrated from working indoors and drinking tea/coffee. So start sipping water through the day.
Thirdly sleep - the good news is that a new training regime with better eating and drinking will generally lead to better sleep. And a bit extra sleep will help you adapt to the training.
Finally Hard/Easy - after a hard training day take one or two days easy. This will be different from for different people. It might mean a day off completely, or a swim or just an easy run.
And at some point between now and end Feb plan a very easy week to consolidate your training.

Tapering
The last 2 weeks are reserved for what marathon runners call the taper and its equally applicable to a half marathon though you will only need two weeks instead of three. More on this nearer the time.

Nos Galan 5k 2011

2012-01-05T09:00:00.003Z

This year I finally got to race at Nos Galan, one of those 'must do' events that has been on my list for ages. Regular readers will know that i'm a big fan of town centre multi-lap road races so this was my kind of race - 3 laps of the village including a couple of tight turns and a short climb.

With good size crowds around the start finish area and Tim Hutchings calling the race the atmosphere built through the kids races early in the evening before a great little fireworks display signalled the start of the elite race. Its a narrow start so there was a bit of a charge despite the wet road and a lead group of about 9 quickly got away. One of the benefits of these lap courses is you can see the race unfold even if you arent in the lead group. There was a second group of half a dozen runners then a few stregglers including myself just unable to get on the back of the groups.

The first lap I was struggling for pace but gradually got better and was particularly pleased with how I was going up the hill, picking up a couple of places on each of the last 2 laps as I worked my way up to 14th place by the end. Considering I had a 25km marathon pace run in my legs from wednesday 15:15 was a good performance and didnt leave me too breathless.

After the elites had done their stuff the mass run took to the course and 600 plus runners threaded their way through the streets to round off the evening. A brisk jog back to the park and ride served as a warm down before we hot footed it down the dual carriageway to Cardiff for a night out in the Welsh capital.

A terrific event, well worth fitting in to your schedule one year.

Full Results

Pos	No	Time	Forename	Surname	M/F	Cat	Club
1	37	00:14:40	Richard	Peters	M		Bristol & West AC
2	49	00:14:42	Steve	Davies	M		Belgrave Harriers
3	174	00:14:44	Chris	Gowell	M		Swansea Harriers
4	121	00:14:45	Adam	Bitchell	M		Cardiff AAC
5	123	00:14:49	Carwyn	Jones	M		Cardiff AAC
6	140	00:14:51	Rob	Bugden	M		Bristol & West AC
7	93	00:14:52	Michael	Johnson	M		Bristol & West AC
8	120	00:14:56	James	Thie	M		Cardiff AAC
9	122	00:14:57	Phil	Matthews	M		Swansea Harriers
10	196	00:15:09	Richard	Gardiner	M		Aberdare Valley AAC
11	165	00:15:09	Chris	Busaileh	M		Herne Hill Harriers
12	130	00:15:11	Dave	Norman	M		Altringham AC
13	129	00:15:13	Ben	Riddell	M		Salford Harriers
14	172	00:15:15	Adrian	Marriott	M		Wells City
15	178	00:15:18	Sam	Mitchell	M

Frank J. Horwill M.B.E 19 June 1927 - 1 January 2012

2012-01-02T11:31:00.005Z

We lost a very special person yesterday. Frank brought happiness to every life he touched with his generosity and passion for our sport. I've got so many memories from the last 20 years, not least the day in Lanzarote in 1999 he made me believe utterly and completely that I could take down the marathon world record holder at the time, crazy I know but that was his special gift - making you feel a champion to the bottom of your spikes. We will miss you Frank.

Everyone's got a Frank Horwill story (or ten) so here are a couple of mine. One tuesday evening over the xmas period (I think) in the late nineties a group of athletes had pitched up at Battersea Park for a session to find the track closed. We were busy debating the merits of grass or road when Frank arrived. A couple of brief curses later from Frank and his well worn black kit bag disappeared over the perimeter fence. He them uttered something like "bloody hell, how did that happen ? I'm going to have to get it back". Then quick as a flash he was pulling himself up on top of the fence and and down the other side. We quickly followed and made damn sure we ran our legs off on the track that night !

Climbing over the fence became a bit of routine at the refurbished Battersea Park track after that. A few years ago Frank broke his leg (falling over the curb coming out of a pub if I remember correctly) and I remember seeing him limping towards the track in his rehab phase and climbing over as pre-injury. On challenging him about the risks of jumping down onto a recently broken leg he replied that a bit of impact stress would help promote new bone growth whereas walking the long way round just made him tired !

Asics DS Racer 9 review

2011-12-23T21:44:00.004Z

This week I've been breaking in a pair of the new Asics DS Racer 9 with an eye on a spring marathon. For the last 12 months my racing shoes of choice have been the Nike Katana racer (for short races including track down to 3000m) and a mix of the Saucony Fastwitch 4 and Adidas Adios for longer races and long tempos.

In the past Asics shoes have been quite tight across my forefoot (which is quite broad) but these have a bit more room in the toebox and fitted well straight away. I did a 45 minute easy run in them straight out of the box before giving them a good going over on road and track.

The bit of medial support in these shoes worked well for me and after an hour long workout my feet felt fine, no sign of having been overworked to keep me stable and I really liked the flexibility as well when I was doing 200s on the track. The outsole gripped nicely on a wet road (which not all racers manage to do) though I wonder how hard wearing it will be as it looks like quite a soft rubber ? As usual I will report back on wear levels when they have a couple if hundred kilometres on them.

Overall these are going to be a terrific shoe for half marathons and marathons as well as longer training runs (I've got a 25km tempo scheduled for next week which will really them a thorough going over) though for short races I will probably be looking for something even lighter than the advertised 215g and more responsive i.e. a thinner midsole/outsole combination.

Asics DS Racer 9 manufacturers specification

Return to winning ways at Glarner Stadtlauf

2011-11-04T10:51:00.006Z

Its taken 18 months but finally I stood on top of the podium again last saturday at the Glarner Stadtlauf in Switzerland. And it was great to be there, the feeling made all the better because I had averaged sub 3min kilometres for the twisty town centre criterium course and beaten Marco Kern, a promising young swiss runner who has run 3.45 and 8.11 this summer.

For a while now I have promised myself that I could only start to prepare for a marathon once I had recaptured 30min 10km shape, so i'm now in an intellectual battle with myself as to whether 7.865km on a difficult course is equivalent or not. Or perhaps I just have to go and run a 10k in December !

The toughest part of saturday was remembering how to win. Its not as simple as just being the fittest runner (I was there or thereabouts) or having the fastest finish (I definitely didn't) but how you use the qualities you do have in the heat of battle and how you can influence your opponents to not make the best of what they have. And after 18 months without a win and more than 2 years since a really close race I was wondering whether it was still there.

After a fast start I was leading the second group on lap 1 (out of 5) and Marco was going away from us. The Glarner course is a typcial European criterium course. A loop in and out of the town centre, taking in the main street and with plenty of twists and turns and a short sharp climb. Spectators everywhere creating a great atmosphere. One of the best things about these races are the abscence of kilometre markers and no real sense of what pace you are running at. Garmins are useless with the tight turns and buildings so you can just run in your body with complete freedom rather than being stuck in your head analysing split times and thinking about stuff too much.

By the end of the first lap the gap to Marco had stabilised and some of the fast starters were dropping off my group. From there I started to close and when I eventually caught Marco his breathing was only slightly harder than mine and he was able to comfortably stay with me into lap 3 when the fight in my own mind began. I knew I was safe for second place and sometimes the brain says "thats good enough, take it."

One of the things that has re-invigorated my running this autumn has been racing like a kenyan (or as I did when I was young). In other words, having a go with no fear of the consequences. Its easy to say and much harder to do but as an older athlete i've had enough 2nd and 4th places (my speciality) to entertain my grandchildren for years to come. So in the middle of lap 3 I decided to up the pace on the small hill and up it again coming off the top. And it hurt, like hell, but there was a small gap by the end of it.

Coming to the end of lap 3 I could still hear Marco and the brain was saying "you can't keep this up for two more laps and he has got a good sprint finish", so I decided what the hell and pushed again to increase the gap. And guess what, the gap opened. The pain increased but my legs held together. At the bell my lungs were burning and I felt like I was being hunted, and that fear just kept me focused ahead and maintaining my lead to the finish.

Really pleased with how things turned out and looking forward to getting back on to the muddy stuff between now and the new year.

Toronto Waterfront Marathon Results 2011

2011-10-20T11:38:00.008+01:00

Just back from a busy weekend in Toronto and for once I wasn't racing so I got to see a top level event from a different perspective. I was out there as Team Manager for the England Athletics marathon team, a role I had stepped into at relatively short notice.

A few people have asked me what the job entails and I suppose simply its to deal with any of the crap that might get in the way of the athletes performing at their best on race day. And that covers many things from the obvious of making sure that they have the right size kit to finding extra water during a press conference thats running way behing schedule and a million other small things.

Because I had raced Toronto in 2007 I was familiar with the set up which certainly helped and it also meant I got roped in to giving elite co-ordinator Cliff Cunningham a hand with a number of things. By the end of the week my 'bus monitor' skills were finely tuned and we spent part of saturday afternoon building the elite athletes pre-race holding area (above left) - if I have to assemble another camp bed...

The lead up to the race was all about one thing. Could Reid Coolsaet break Jerome Drayton's 36 year old Canadian record of 2.10.09 ? I have to say that Reid handled the media attention and expectations incredibly well. Around the hotel and on race morning he was incredibly calm and collected despite the pressures. Also on the line was Olympic selection with Eric Gillis and Dylan Wykes chasing Canada's tough 2.11.29 standard.

Come race day the weather was very difficult for fast running. Cold and with a stiff south westerly blowing off Lake Ontario gusting at times to over 50km/h. Not what you want went chasing a National Record ! I had a couple of options for race day and decided to hitch a ride on the press bus which was going to be in the lead vehicles convoy one spot in front of the TV camera vehicle (left)

The leaders went off at a real canter passing 10k in just over 30 minutes with Coolsaet tucked in the back. We were a bit surprised at first because his plan had been a more cautious pace with his own pacemaker. In the event he decided that running faster in a big group was going to give him more protection into the wind so went for it. By the turn at 12km the pacers were really working hard. The stretch back into town saw a mix of good kilometres with the wind behind/from the side and some horrible ones when the course turned back into the wind. On the press bus there was total shock at the women's half way split of 68.35 ! Blisteringly fast in good conditions but in this wind suicidal.

As the lead group was whittled down to five athletes the pace was as slow as 3.10/km in places. My friend Tadesse Abraham finally got dropped at 30 kilometers and shortly after the group was down to three. Coolsaet had yo-yoed off the back of the group but got himself back in contention 3 times which was really impressive.

In the final 6km he was even taking his turn on the front with Mungara and Dawit before the wheels finally came off at 39km. He held on for just under 2.11 while the leading pair sprinted it out to the finish. What Steve Prefontaine would have called a "pure guts race".

Back in the elite lounge after the race I was a bit dismayed to see Ed Whitlock wander in soon after midday. He had set a age 80 World Best earlier in the year and it looked like he must have had a dnf. Then he dropped the bombshell that he just clocked a 3.15 !! Incredible, and he looked pretty fresh (left with Team England's Sarah Harris and Sarah Stradling).

Results

Portsmouth Victory 5 2011

2011-09-18T17:30:00.011+01:00

This morning I was back at one of my favourite races, the Victory 5 Miles in Portsmouth. Its flat and when the wind stays away its very fast as my 23.40 PB from 1998 shows !

Since my last post in August i've been able to put together a series of races including a 3000m and 5000m in the British League, a 5k road race and a 15k race in Switzerland (more on that in a future post and what happens when the chimp attacks!). None of them have been spectacular and i've consistenly struggled for leg speed but the engine has worked well and i've felt strong throughout.

Somehow Portsmouth avoided the rain which seemed to be everywhere else in the south west but not the wind. Indeed the large number of on the day entries caused the start to be delayed by 15 minutes.

Once under way a leading group of 4 quickly went clear and stayed together along the promenade. At 2 miles Belgrave's Paskar Owuor put his foot down and quickly pulled away and I found myself dropped off in 4th place and looking at a lonely 3 miles to the finish.

Still, the performance was another step forward even though I was unable to be competitive with the leaders for as long as I would have liked.

Race photographs (see example above) from Ian Burnett

The womens race was won by local athlete Cassie Thorp who has recently taken up running after playing football and she seems to be making good progress this summer so one to keep an eye out for in future.

Next stop Aldershot and the 6 stage relays on sunday.

Mens Results
1. Paskar Owuor 24:13
2. Chris Powner 24:25
3. Finn McNally 24:56
4. Adrian Marriott 25:03

Womens Results
1. Cassie Thorp 27:48

Full Results

Does my planned marathon have cups or bottles for drinking

2011-08-03T21:40:00.002+01:00

A great thread on eightlane with folks posting whether specific euro marathons have cups or bottles for drinking from.

Etape Bornholm Stage 5 results

2011-07-29T22:30:00.007+01:00

Hot off the press from tonights final 10k stage as we make our way home.

Ben saved his best until last pulling an awesome finnish to surprise everyone. Having been dropped in the woods at 6km as Martin hit the front and pushed the pace, Ben rose to the challenge with a big move late in the day. Sniffing the consolation prize he threw everything into the final minutes to catch Jussi on the line.

Martin kept up his record of 4th places with another near miss for a stage podium and i had another good race. On a night after truly awful weather the course was waterlogged in places and a stiff wind made for tricky running. While most folks were a minute down on their stage 1 runs i was just over 10 seconds and secure in 10th overall (left Top10 from left Jussi, David Nilsson, Ben & Martin).

Stage Results
http://results.ultimate.dk/events/2011/run/etapebornholm/front/results.php?stageid=5&category=S|1|M

Final Overall Results

http://results.ultimate.d k/events/2011/run/etapeb ornholm/front/standings.php?stageid=5&category=S|1|M

With a 4am start to the long trip home the boys took the opportunity for a cheeky nap on the ferry after a big breakfast (below)

Etape Bornholm Stage 4 Results

2011-07-29T09:27:00.002+01:00

Day 4 and the rain arrived with a vengeance to turn the course into a mudbath more suited to a cross country race at home. Starting by the harbour at Hammershus Havn against a backdrop of wind and rain lashing the harbour wall the route quickly climbed up to the cliff top overlooking northen europes biggest medieval castle.

In a bid to repeat yesterdays stage 3 victory Ben was again pushing the pace at the front with Jussi and David in tow. Martin was again isolated in 4th and i had a poor start today and found myself well down after 1km.

Things improved for me mid race and with Martin in sight i was able to work my way through to 7th place. Up front Ben slipped off the pace on the narrow muddy paths at 5k.

So with a kilometre to go we were all bracing ourselves for the uphill finish, and what a finish. 500m up the side of the cliff to the lighthouse. With an extra timing mat at the bottom to get our times for the climb the race was on. After 300m of steep, slippy grass we hit the tarmac and 3 sharp hairpins Alpe d'huez style including names painted on the road and a tightly packed crowd. Great atmosphere !!

Ben couldnt respond to the flying fin and ended up third but still in with a shout of snatching 2nd overall in the final stage. Martin was solid in 4th with a monster sprint finish and i gave up 3 places after towing the third group to the foot of the climb.

The final day is a flat 10k road stage and no doubts there will be some tired legs around so the top 10 could change around quite dramatically.

Stage Results
http://results.ultimate.dk/events/2011/run/etapebornholm/front/results.php?stageid=4&category=S|1|M

Overall after 4 stages
http://results.ultimate.dk/events/2011/run/etapebornholm/front/results.php?stageid=4&category=S|1|M

Sent from my iPhone

Etape Bornholm stage 3 results

2011-07-28T13:50:00.004+01:00

The British challenge really got going today led by Ben's stage victory in the 8k forest race. With an undulating course similar to a domestic cross country profile and good underfoot conditions we were able to crank out 5 min miles before the sting in the tail finish, a sharp climb of 300m metres.

With two races in the legs and not getting home until 10pm mornings are focused on recovery with an easy shakeout run, dip in the baltic, a big breakfast to replenish the glycogen stores and some stretching to get loosened up (left, above).

Taking the lead in the first mile Ben steadily built his lead to come home 18 seconds clear of race leader Jussi Utrainen to give himself a fighting chance of catching the race leaders in the final 2 stages.

Martin had a good day consolidating his 4th place overall with 4th on the stage and i had my best run so far finishing 8th and just a few seconds from 5th. I'm still 11th overall but now with three positions within touching distance so plenty to run for on stage 4th.

Our diet of fish and potatoes got some variety today with a trip to a local pizza restaurant where we celebrated Bens win with a glass of local beer and an ice cream on top of our mid-morning Danish pastries (left) which may have been the secret ingredient in Ben's victory.

Thursday the race moves on to our local course in Sandvig. An 8k race on a hilly course with a gut wrenching climb up the cliffs to the lighthouse to finish. Should fun and theres plenty of scope to make up time if rivals crack on the final climb !

Overall results after stage 3

http://results.ultimate.dk/events/2011/run/etapebornholm/front/results.php?stageid=2&category=S|1|M

Bornholm stage 2

2011-07-26T20:48:00.006+01:00

The fightback began along the shoreline of Dueodde with my Wells clubmate Ben Tickner taking second place after a very close race with stage 1 winner Jussi Utrainen.

With 2km along the beach (left by Jens-Erik Larsen), a short loop through the village and another stretch of beach before the final climb through the dunes todays stage is almost certainly one of the hardest of the week.

The early pace was red hot with a cash prize at the sprint prime after 1.5km and i was well off the pace and struggling early on while Ben tracked Jussi a few metres behing the glory hunters. A bit further back Martin was hanging on gamely to protect his overall position on his least favourite surface.

With the sprint out of the way the sharp ended turned into. Head to head between Ben and Jussi while i picked my way through those who went out to hard and martin was limiting his losses against the other leaders. A brutal final kilometre through the dunes in deep soft sand was a real strength sapper. Martin held on for 9th and i was a few places behind in 12th place (finish left by Jens-Erik Larsen).

Roll on tomorrow and the undulating 8k forest race which should be our kind of course.

Writing this on the bus back to base there is stunning sunset over the baltic and the prospect of freshly smoked makerel for dinner courtesy of Martin and Bens foraging skills this morning.

Full results at

http://results.ultimate.dk/events/2011/run/etapebornholm/front/index.php

Bornholm stage 1

2011-07-26T14:27:00.004+01:00

Day 1 proved pretty eventful for the british contingent of Martin Williams, Ben Tickner and myself at this 5 day stage race. After a late arrival last night (Bornholm harbour left) we are staying in a lovely little cottage in the north of the island and the other invited runners are spread out around the village.

Stage 1 was a 10k race starting on the road before following the shoreline for a few kms in the forest. It was still a pretty quick course though. First to show were Ben and Martin along with last years runner up, David Nilsson from Sweden and 62 minute man Jussi Utrainen of Finland. I was tucked nicely into the second group and trying to keep out of trouble...

By half way Jussi had a made a break and Martin was placed a handy third with Ben somewhere in the forest taking a comfort break. Meanwhile I had taken on the pace in the second group only to get tripped from behind at 4k as folks went head down to check their garmins. I did a 'Wiggins' and hit the tarmac hard. After surveying the damage (cuts and bruises but nothing out of place) I got going again and managed to reel in half the group by the finish before getting patched by the Danish para-medics.

Ben ticked along in 4th but GB honours and our in house green jersey went to Martin for a strong 3rd place in 30.39. This morning watching the tv highlights he was finishing better than anyone in the Top 10 which bodes well for the rest of the week. As for Ben and me, well weve got some hard work to do to climb back up the GC, starting in this evenings 6k beach race.

1	819	Jussi Utriainen	Lahden Ahkera	FIN
2	783	David Nilsson	Högby IF	SWE
3	1984	Martin Mccallum Williams	Tipton Harriers	GBR
4	1982	Ben Tickner	Wells City Harriers	GBR

More tomorrow.

Taking 'down' weeks

2011-07-20T20:49:00.006+01:00

Marathoners will know the feeling well. A week or so into the pre-race taper you feel very tired to the point of being totally exhausted. Even very easy runs seems like a struggle whereas just a few days earlier knocking out another brutual 22 miler seemed like a piece of cake. You wonder what on earth is going on.

I was remined of this feeling this week. After a good block of training including some long tempos and a fun 2hours 40mins with 6000feet of ascent at the weekend I'm taking a 'down' week and today I felt really tired, even running easily. Thats my body telling me that the last few weeks have been a good stressor and now I need to recover to take my fitness to the next level.

The body is very good at getting into a rythmn of handling hard work week after week. It learns to fool itself about its true level of fatugue. And in that fooling lies a potential elephant trap that most runners have fallen into at some point. Feeling invincible you keep pushing and pushing until you go completely over the edge and breakdown with illness or injury or worse still overtraining which requires a period of sustained rest to get over.

We all know that fitness comes from repeated cycles of stress and recovery to produce adaptation. So what can we do to give our body the best chance to adapt ? Regular 'down' weeks are a staple for many elite level runners and work just as well for club runners. Inefffect they serve as a mini-taper. The idea being to take quite a big drop in training laod for a week every 3rd or 4th week.

What does a big drop actually mean ? Well some runners will go for a 50% reduction in training load. So three weeks of 80 miles would be followed by 40 for example. Hard workouts would see a correspong drop in the volume of faster miles run (though you need to maintain the pace to keep the neural pathways ticking over). The temptation is to go for just a small reduction (usually induced by fear that less training = losing fitness) whereas if you are really taking a 'down' week then you should make it really down. The use that freshness for the next training block.

So ask yourself whether you have been running the same training for a while or reached a bit of plateau ? Then take a down week and recharge the batteries then take your training to a new level the week after.

Bornholm Stage Race 2011

2011-07-02T12:59:00.002+01:00

With the Tour de France starting today stage racing comes to the front of many sportsmans minds. While the science of cycling (wind resistance at speed, very different physiological profiles of climbers and sprints etc) makes it ideally suited to team tactics and multiple stages there are also some running stage races around.

I've got memories of the Sunlife Great Race in 1990 which I think lasted 2 weeks and was a big breakthrough event for Paul Evans. And for a few years there was a week long race in the North East of England.

Though the format seems to have fallen out of favour here there are plenty of week long race series in Europe and one of the most popular is the Etape Bornholm, held in the last week of July on the Baltic island of Bornholm (Denmark). With over 1000 runners and childrens races as well its a certainly an event to be taken seriously and this year I will be racing it for the first along with a handful of other Brits making the trip. I'm really looking forward to it and the format of 5 different surfaces/terrains adding up to a marathon distance should provide plenty of challenges.

Technology permitting I will be posting a daily report after each stage and hopefully some interviews with leading athletes. It should be a fun week !

Somerset Road Runners Day

2011-06-06T21:14:00.005+01:00

Somerset Athletics Network will be holding a road runners day on Saturday 9th July at Millfield School in conjunction with the Millfield Community Games.

In the morning I will be running a workshop aimed at runners wanting to improve their 10k performance. This will include a training session on the track as well as tips on how to plan for a peak performance and the different types of training to include in your programme.

After the lunch there will be a practical workshop for injury prevention and developing better running skills. The emphasis will be on runners and coaches learning to observe imbalances and weaknesses and having a go at practicing exercises and drills to correct them.

Download full details HERE including information on how to register.

Updated 22nd July
We had an excellent day at Millfield School and all the participants seemed to have a good time and learn a few things and as always I learned plenty from watching runners in action.

The morning was focused on helping folks understand the role of different efforts in training. From very easy running through marathon pace, threshold, VO2 max and alactic sprints (left above).

We then put it straight into practice with a training session (left below) that covered all of these areas with suggested running speeds based on current 10k performance from Daniels VDOT tables

The easy running was done on grass before doing some drills and sprints on the track. The 6 minute efforts were on the track and the 90sec efforts were out and back i.e. odd numbered reps were run the 'wrong' way round.

The big takeout for most runners was that for their easy/MP/threshold effort they need to take care to control the speed. Its very easy to run 'MP' reps at what is actually threshold and to do threshold pace at what is in practice 10k pace.

40 minute super workouts - No2

2011-05-02T09:13:00.001+01:00

Workout No 2 - The Crescendo

This workout has the ultimate stamp of approval - its a staple of the kenyan endurance runners and I learned how to do it during a training spell in Nyahururu a few years ago. The Kenyan version lasts up to an hour but you can do it very well in 40 minutes.

Spend the first 15 minutes of your 40 easing into the run and getting yourself nicely warmed up.

Then you start the crescendo. The first time you do this run its probably helpful to think in 5 minute steps for the effort you want to run. And I say 'effort' rather than pace because as you know if you are tired or fresh the pace will vary from day to day for the same effort. This is how I would distribute the effort to start with:
1st 5mins = 30secs mile slower than marathon pace
2nd 5 mins = 15secs/mile slower than marathon pace
3rd 5 mins = marathon pace
4th 5mins = half marathon pace (approx 15sec/mile faster than MP)

Spend the last 5 minutes of your run at an easy pace to cool down before finishing. This level of effort should leave you feeling invigorated rather than wiped out and provides a really nice aerobic stimulus - the effort builds towards your threshold (pace you can sustain for one hour).

Crucially it also has a couple of other benefits. Psychologically it prepares you for running faster as a run goes on which is what you would ideally do in a race. How can you expect to pick the pace up in a race if you haven't practiced it regularly in training ? And secondly the increasing pace challenges the muscles to work in a different way as the run evolves - you get a different stimulus than if you just run a constant pace.

The progression for this type of run would be to increase the starting speed so that you are running the 20mins from marathon pace to a little slower than 10k race pace for the last couple of minutes. And run it as a continuous crescendo rather than 5 minute blocks. Remember you are looking to learn to feel the pace here.

And a final word. The day you turn this workout into a time trial i.e trying to beat your time from last week or your 'course record' is the day you are on the road to ruin. Indeed I like to use a different route so that I avoid any temptation to compare !

40 minute super workouts - No1

2011-04-03T11:51:00.004+01:00

With the warmer weather and lighter evenings its a great time to turbo charge your running after months of surviving the cold and dark wrapped up like a Michelin Man. This short series of articles was inspired by a client a couple of weeks ago who wanted to improve his half marathon time. Like many club runners he runs several times a week, does long runs and enjoys racing all within a packed week of other commitments. For many runners this is a familiar situation so how can you really change things up in during the course of a 40 minute run ? I've got three workouts for you in the coming weeks, all of which have been proven so dip in and give them a go.

Workout No 1 - Fast and Moderate
Spend the first 15 minutes of your 40 easing into the run and getting yourself nicely warmed up.

Then you start the faster segments. The idea here is to run for 30 seconds at a speed a bit faster than your 5km racing speed. So if you are a 20min 5k runner (4mins/km) aim to run these segements at say 3.50/km speed. The precise speed is not too important as long as it is faster than you are used to and controlled without being a sprint. As with anything new its better to be cautious and ease into it rather than go hell for leather.

After the effort settle back into normal running speed rather than a slow jog (if you are blowing so hard that you need to jog then you probably went too fast !). Then after 2 minutes do another one. The first time you do this workout aim for 3-4 efforts and then add one per week up to 8. Spend the last 5 minutes of your run at a steady pace before finishing. Mission accomplished !

Why does this workout work ? Well it challenges the body at a number of levels:
1. The big increase in speed also increases the heart rate. By raising and lowering the heart rate multiple times you will get a stimulus to the body to increase left ventricle size. Ultimately that means pumping more blood and running faster.
2. The speed of the 30seconds efforts will produce a raised level of blood lactate without flooding your body. During the recovery segments your muscles will start to clear this lactate and use it as fuel. By the time you do 8x30sec fast / 2mins steady you have a 20min segment with your body working to shift lactate. Over time you will get better at clearing lactate and therefore be able to sustain a faster speed for longer. [As you get better at this workout you can increase the fast segment to 45 seconds or even 1 minute which will raise the lastate levels higher. You need to be careful though - too fast for too long and the muscles tire, the quality of the movement decreases and the risk of injury or overtraining goes up].
3. Running at a faster speed than usual will challenge the muscles and nervous system to work in a different way - you will need a greater range of movement to run faster, you will need to activate more muscle fibres to produce the force required and you will need faster contractions. All good stuff which not only makes you faster but has been shown to improve your running economy at slower speeds as well, and that means faster racing from 10k to the marathon.

So lace them up, give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Gwent League triumph for Wells

2011-03-14T08:53:00.003Z

After two successive promotions we managed to hold on to top spot in the Gwent League yesterday at Swansea despite a fierce challenge from Les Croupiers.

Singleton Park hosted the final race in the 2010/11 Gwent League on a glorious spring day. For once the senior men got to run earlier in the day (to allow more time to sort out the results), not that the course was going to cut up after the recent dry spell.

Going into the final race we had a 70 point lead which was substantial but by no means unbeatable. And in the first mile Les Croupiers threw down the gaunlet with all six scorers in front of me and my Wells team mates. As the race unfolded we were able to move through the field and eventually I came home 7th with Jon James right behind me in 8th. Some good packing left us in a good position but Les Croupiers closed their 6 before we did so it was a quick dash back down the final hill to look for our final scorer and offer some encouragement. After a nail biting 30 seconds or so Nick, Rob and Alex were sprinting it out to close out team and seal the Division 1 title.

I can't say I particularly enjoyed my race. The engine is strong but lack of leg speed and race rustiness is holding me back big time. Hopefully with warmer days I can get some speed back in the system and start to race a bit more. At least my body was moving well and this morning there are no aches or pains - and its a long time since I've been able to say that !!

Results to follow

2011 South of England Cross Country Championship Results

2011-01-29T20:34:00.010Z

Another fun day at Parliament Hill and my first race for 3 months (left: photos Ken Hoye). All in all it was pretty hard work but an enjoyable one in the Saucony South of England Championships.

Up front Neilson Hall defended his title from last year in a much quicker time if my memory serves me correctly. The course seemed to be the driest I can remember, not that I was any good in the little mud there was ! Runner up was my Wells City Harriers club mate Ben Tickner and third was Jon Pepper with Parliament Hill specialist Chris Smith a close 4th.

A couple of minutes back I finished 29th which constitutes a personal worst for the southern but not unexpected given the lack of consistent training recently. You can only run on former glories (and mileage) for so long ! The lack of miles really told in the mud and up the hills though encouragingly I was able to work up a good head of steam on the flat, dry sections so the engine is in pretty good order. Just need to get some strength back in the leg muscles.

Today was pretty cold and I can't imagine it was much fun for the marshalls who had a long day battling dog walkers and their stray hounds. As has become the norm here the finish system works brilliantly with chip timing allowing results to be available on course a few minutes after the race is over. And this year I was far enough behind the leaders to hear the presentation starting to take place as I crossed the line !

No doubt much discussion will take place about the race starting with what seemed like several hundred people still trying to get through the chip inspection tent. The race started on time but there was a big bottle neck again to get to the start. It would be good to hear the SEAA perspective before passing judgement. On the one hand people knew what the start time was and on the other it did take a long time to get through the tent.

Whatever the rights and wrong of why it happened having a championship race get underway without many competitors on the start line has got to set alarm bells ringing and its something that needs to be fixed for 2012.

Results
Senior Men
1 48:23 Neilson Hall Bedford & County AC
2 48:40 Ben Tickner Wells City Harriers
3 49:00 Jon Pepper Enfield & Haringey AC
4 49:06 Chris Smith Thames Valley Harriers
5 49:06 Gary Thornton Kent AC
6 49:21 Glen Watts Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers
7 49:24 Dean Lacy Cambridge Harriers
8 49:27 Kevin Heywood Bideford AAC
9 49:34 Darren Deed Bedford & County AC
10 49:47 John Gilbert Kent AC
...
29 51.55 Adrian Marriott Wells City Harriers

Full results here

UK Marathon selection policy for London 2012

2011-01-19T15:10:00.004Z

UKA (the governing body for athletics in UK) has published its initial approach to selecting the marathon team for the 2012 Olympics.

What jumps out is the absence of a trial race and an intention to select athletes before the end of 2011 if they are considered a top 8 shot and in possession of an A standard. Top up selections will take place after the 2012 London Marathon.

The 'A' and 'B' standards for men are 2:12:00 and 2:16:00 and for women are 2:31:00 and 2:35:00.

Yet again UKA has gone for tougher standards than the IAAF use and while it would be great to half a dozen lads running 2.10 we don't so I would think that there is a strong possibility of having less than a full mens team on the start line which is disappointing.

Interestingly a top 20 finish in Daegu counts as an 'A' standard so could be the best hope of getting an A standard (especially for the men). So a viable strategy may be sub 2.17 in London 2011, Top 20 in Daegu and then hope that only 2 others do the time. A bit perverse but there you go.

And for all the A and/or B standard questioners if athletes with an A standard are selected (up to 3 of them) then the B standard becomes redundant.

All the details are at http://uka.org.uk/media/news/january-2011/19-01-2011-olympic-selection-policies/

Dry needling for sports injuries

2011-01-18T13:43:00.007Z

In recent months i've increasingly become a big fan of dry needling to release some of the chronically tight spots in my legs and back. I've had occassional needling for years as part of physiotherapy treatment from both Mark Buckingham and Claire Wheller. Last year after months of trouble with psoas, adductor magnus and the erector spinae I had a long session with Jona based, Swiss physiotherapist Philip Rist (left). Bizarrely we first met in 2003 in Eldoret when he was training there with Christian Belz and Viktor Rothlin and then reconnected several years later at the Zurich Silvesterlauf. Running really is a small world.

Anyway, Philip did some work with dry needles and spent some time manipulating them once they in the trigger point which was different from more traditional accupuncture. The adductor treatment was particularly uncomfortable but the impact was huge and within 48 hours I was noticeably looser and able to fully stride out for the first time in ages.

Contacts:
Physiotherapie Philip Rist (Rapperswil-Jona)
Neuhuesli-Park 22
8645 Jona
piporist@gmx.ch

Claire Wheller website
Running Bath, 18 High Street
01225 446450

Pre-london half marathon comes to Yeovil in March

2011-01-11T14:20:00.006Z

The first Yeovil Half Marathon will take place on Sunday 27th March 2011. Starting and finishing at the Yeovil Town Football Club the course will take in the town centre, ninesprings country park and the village of Odcombe (below).

With the Bath Half Marathon sold out and other pre-London or Brighton options thin on the ground unless you want to travel to Wilmslow, Hastings or Fleet this should prove a popular fixture on the calendar and entries are already flooding in.

Placed 3 weeks before London this is the perfect weekend for a final hard workout before starting to taper. And if the marathon is a step to far for you in 2011 then a half could be a great target to aim for.

From a personal point of view I've run these roads thousands of times over the years and know them well. The layout will be sure to keep runners interested and there are some good spectating spots so bring some supporters along !

Online Entries HERE

Glutes and Quads - exercises and stretches

2010-12-11T16:15:00.005Z

Here are a few exercises and stretches that I demonstrated to the folks at Yeovil Town Road Running Club at a recent track training evening they did.

Weak/tight glutes are the cause of countless problems for runners and some simple exercises and stretches can make a big difference in a short space of time.

A good place to start is with a simple diagnostic test. Stand on one leg and check that the knee is over the middle toe of the foot. Then do some knee bends and have a partner observe. If the knee is moving in when you bend this is sign of weak glutes and probably and over active TFL (the small muscle in the hip which has the IT Band as its tendon.

The 'clam' is a simple exercises to work the glutes and you can progress to exercises like 'wall press'.

Lie on you side with feet, knees and hips on top of each other. Put a hand on your backside to feel the muscle then squeeze gently o lift the top leg (keeping the feet together). Hold at the top and lower back down while keeping the muscle squeezed (often the most difficult part)

A great all round exercise is the lunge. Keep the upper body vertical, the front shin parallel to the ground and the rear thigh parallel to the ground. From standing lower yourself slowly and notice the glutes and quad muscles working hard to lower you. Only go as far as you can with control. Then push yourself back up using the samee muscles. Difficult !

Once the basic lunge is mastered you can move to a more dynamic lunge in a forward direction. Variations including a backward lunge and lunge with twist and explained and demonstrated very well by Jay Johnson on You tube.

Stretching tight quads can help take some of the stress of the front of the legs which can frequently contribute to patellar tendinitis and problems in the pelvis. Doing this stretch lying down is a big improvement on the standing up quad stretch that we often see performed. Why ? When standing your stability is not great (see weak glutes above !) and there is a tendency to tilt the pelvis which creates an illusion of stretching the quad.

Lie on the side with the bottom leg at 90 degrees to lock the pelvis. Grasp the top leg at the ankle and bring the foot towards the buttock until you feel the stretch.

To stretch the glutes lie on you back with the ankle of the leg to be stretched resting across the opposite knee. A gentle push against the knee will produce a stretch in the glute (right glute in the picture here). To deepen the stretch you can lift the left foot of the ground.

Friday Track Training in Yeovil

2010-12-10T08:30:00.005Z

I've been quiet on the blog front for a couple of months now. Training this year has been pretty disjointed and there hasn't been a huge amount to write about on that front recently unless you like reading about psoas stretches and glute activation exercises !

That said i've managed to get the running back up to six days a week of running singles. The resulting 60-70miles feels ridiculously easy after years of higher mileage marathon training. My body is moving well enough to do some faster training again and I'm looking forward to some good cross country races in the New Year.

One thing I have been experimenting with is weight training. Its completely new for me so like anything new I had to start cautiously and quickly notice big improvements. I've got some things to write about now so this will be the topic for a future article...

Back to now and this evening (friday) I will be at the track in Yeovil helping out with Yeovil Town Road Running Club. When they started their friday night workouts there were but a handful of hardy souls and now you can see 40 plus runners stretching their legs in a couple of groups under the watchful eyes of Tim and the two Pete's. I'm looking forward to tonight and it comes hot on the heels of leading a couple of workshops on Road Running at the England Athletics conference at Lee Valley last weekend which was good fun.

UPDATED
Photos of the exercises and stretches last night to follow soon...

Gwent League Bridgend

2010-10-12T14:51:00.004+01:00

A fantastic day for the teams from Wells City Harriers at sunday's Gwent League in Bridgend. On a glorious day in south wales the senior celebrated their Div 1 debut by tying for spot. Led home by the clubs most recent international, supervet Jon James in 7th place, the team scored consistently. Eliot Haimes returned from pneumonia to take 13th and I got round one place behind in 14th. While my run was hardly setting the turf alight at least I was able to move fairly freely and enjoyed being in a race again. Behind us captain Gilling produced a storming last hundred meters to hold off several runners in a bunch sprint.

Earlier in the day the U15 girls had packed 3 scorers in the first 10 to dominate their age group. And with English Schools Cross Country Champ to come back into the team they should put up a good showing at this weekends road relays.

Speaking of which, Sutton Park will come a bit too soon for me. While I survived Sunday I have been pretty stiff the last couple of days and I just need to be sensible. On Sunday I was able to run a solid tempo though I still can't fully stride out but that is coming and hopefully I will be ready for the XC relays in a months time.

Full Results

Marathon season kicks off in Berlin

2010-09-23T10:17:00.002+01:00

This weekend the autumn marathon season gets properly underway with Berlin and Toronto Waterfront grabbing the early headlines before the focus shifts to a couple of potentially epic races in Chicago and New York.

After a summer of hobbling around in pain and not enjoying the little running I have been able to do at least I am starting to move well enough to run 3 or 4 times a week now. Commitment has been in short supply so this weekend I'm off to Berlin and who knows, the juices may be flowing again come sunday afternoon ! For once Haile won't be lining up as he is having a crack at New York and what should be more of a championship type race. I really hope this means that he is going to prepare seriously for London 2012. A marathon medal 16 years after his first 10,000m gold would be a fitting finale for the maestro - I will always remember the day I sneaked into the stadium in Addis during the pre-worlds training camp in 2001 and he came up to the stands to say hello and introduce himself. Class.

Anyway, one of the benefits of being away from proper training is more time to reflect on what has worrked or not worked in training and also time for things that I wouldn't normally do. Last saturday the Somerset Runing Network organised a runners fayre over at Taunton. Top of the bill was Dave Moorcroft and he gave a thoroughly engaging talk which its fair to say had the audience captivated. The two big takeouts for me were 1. be the best you can be (at whatever level yor talent allows) and 2. enjoy the journey because very few will get to win an Olympic medal or set a WR. Wise words indeed !

After lunch we had a cosy little group for my Faster Marathon workshop, lots of good questions and sharing of experiences between the participants and plenty of fun for me and the tub of marathon lard...

Shoe Review: Saucony Kinvara

2010-07-26T14:59:00.005+01:00

The minimalist footwear revolution has been in full swing for several years now ever since the Nike Free appeared and made minimal mainstream. While some manufactures like Vibram have taken things to the extreme conclusion i.e. almost non-existent the first Saucony offering in this space is somewhere in between traditional and minimal.

The thinking here makes lots of sense. While its without doubt that our feet evolved to cover long distances unshod the reality is that most of us in the western world have been wearing footwear for most of our lives. The muscles in our feet and legs have become accustomed to this and simply throwing off our footwear and going minimal tends to result in many compensatory injuries.

The smart strategy is to move from full blown trainers to barefoot in a number of steps - if you pardon the pun. So some barefoot walking and exercises can be combined with a more minimal running shoe design. And this is where the Kinvara comes into its own.

The heel is lower than a conventional trainer without been super close to the ground, the forefoot too. The weight is reduced to a mere 218g, a number that many racers would be pleased to hit. And the shoe is softer and more flexible than a conventional trainer.

My first run was a bit strange, especially getting used to the softer ride but I quickly adapted and it started to feel more natural. I really noticed what was going on with my feet when I run, in a similar way that I do when wearing spikes for a grass session. I've now used them regularly for runs up to about an hour in length to give myself time to adjust to them. I reckon that to get the most out these type of shoes you should also do some specific foot and leg strengthening exercises to accelerate the rate at which your stability develops.

Time will tell how well these shoes wear so I will report back when they have several hundred miles on them.

British Athletics League debut

2010-07-03T21:31:00.002+01:00

17 years ago I was on standby as cover for Simon Rayner over 5000m in the Hercules Wimbledon AC team and today I finally got to run a BAL race in anger (guesting in a premiership race a few back doesn't really count) for my home town team, Yeovil Olympiads AC.

We won promotion to the BAL in 2008 and won another promotion last year from National 4 to 3. There are some parallels here with the football team which won promotion from the conference after years as a non-league side before quickly getting a promotion into League 1. While the footie team enjoyed a day out at Wembley for the 2007 playoff final the most glamorous day we can look forward to is a windy day at Swansea. So while my BAL ambitions with HW went down with their 1993 relegation its been up and up with Yeovil.

Today was a bit of a leap into the dark. I haven't raced on the track since 2008, the last 18 months have been woeful with a succession of setbacks and this year I have only really raced a couple of times in long races. My rustiness really showed and the few couple of laps I was off the pace before working my way to the front of the bunch but by then Bournemouth's Steve Way had got away from us. Until 3k things felt good and I was getting into a good rythmn but then I made the mistake of inviting one of the pursuers to take the pace and we slowed dramatically.

Going back to the front of the group I found it impossible to pick up the pace and my legs started to feel heavy. The last 3 laps was a survival job, it was how I felt when I started running 5000m races years ago. There is definitely a knack to be able to hammer that last mile with your body screaming and at the moment I've forgotten what it is ! And then horror of horrors the group of guys who sat off the pace and took it easy capitalise on me doing all the work and came flying past in the last 2oom. Not much fun for sure. With 4 weeks until the next race i've got some time to put in some lactic work and get myself better prepared. I'm actually looking forward to it !

Go Yeovil !

2010-06-14T09:53:00.004+01:00

Its been a while since I posted which its fair to say has been a reflection of my motivation for running. Breaking down before London was a huge disappointment. 2010 was probably the best chance I have had to run at an international championship and I was unable to put myself in contention in the trial race. I've always been one of those runners who is motivated to race and make teams rather than run fast times so the last few weeks has involved a lot of 'what now ?' type questions.

Any hope of a quick recovery from the injury and a shot at a May marathon went out of the window as well as the back muscle trouble I was having was incredibly persistent. I've never know anything quite like it but at least I'm now an expert on erector spinae and latisimus dorsus. It really has been a question of two steps forward, one step back but yesterday I finally laced up my racing shoes again and went for it in the Ninesprings 9k race, part of the Go Yeovil ! week, a local initiative designed to get people moving more and being aware of how much they are exercising (or not !).

I was hoping for a nice congtrolled tempo run on the hilly two lap off road course and instead it turned into a real hard race which just goes to show that you can take nothing for granted when you pin a number on your vest. Taunton's Luke Scott put the pressure on after a mad sprint off the startline and by the top of the first hill I was thinking 'crikey, another 8k of this is going to hurt'.

Although I was able to get a small gap on the first lap the nature of the course made it impossible to see the 2nd runner so I had to keep pushing hard. Only at the top of the hill at Aldon House was I able to sneak a look over the hedge top to see I had a winning margin. That last mile or so was a great feeling, running fast and free out in front and then getting the winning feeling as I crossed the line. The poor lady handing out the T-shirts thought I was dying I was so out of breath, a good sign :-)

The whole event was another triumph for the organisers from YTRRC. A 2k race for the kids was well attended and after the main event a one lap 'corporate' race attracted a number of teams including a group of anaesthetists from Yeovil Hospital.

And best of all my back feels fine this morning, no stiffness or soreness so hopefully my lunchtime shakeout will go well and I can start to focus on a return to track racing in the next British League fixture.

Virgin London Marathon 2010 Results

2010-04-26T09:13:00.004+01:00

The London Marathon searchable results are here in case you are having trouble finding them.

I can't say that I was a very good spectator yesterday though I did get a different perspective on the whole event by working at the Expo on Saturday (left) and got to do some celeb spotting in between selling shoes. The bearded one was out and about in usual manic style and Natalie Imbruglia is so tiny I nearly trampled her.

If nothing else the whole thing reminded me that I would much rather be out there racing which has given me renewed impetus to crack on with the rehab !

London Marathon: another one bites the dust...

2010-04-07T03:33:00.002+01:00

Today I finally gave in to the inevitable and threw in the towel on my London preparations after a couple of weeks of really struggling with a bad back. The trouble started brewing just before the 12 stage relays and the day after I could hardly run. A few days rest and some treatment and it seemed to settle down but then 10 days ago I just seized up on an easy run and had to walk home. And sod's law said that it had to happen the day before I was flying to Albuquerque for some altitude training.

After throwing my toys out of the pram I decided to travel anyway and either get the problem fixed out here or at least have a holiday in a part of the world I've never visited. One of the good things about there being a big sports community here is that there are some top medical professionals and between them Dr Michael Maggio and masseur Liz Farr have got me running again. To the point where this morning I could do a very easy hour along Tramway Bld. But the hard truth is that a stiff and sore hour at 7 min miling is a long way from two and quarter hours at sub 5.20 pace. And having done no training for over two weeks the writing was well and truly on the wall. While it might have been possible to recover enough to get on the start line it would have to have been with a reduced goal and this year's London was all about running under 2.18 not just being solid. So rather than struggling on I decided to pull the plug.

I suppose that one of the good things to come out of this is actually the reason I broke down, bizarre though that may sound. With quite a few Brits raising their game this winter I felt that 2.16 was going to be needed to make one of the teams this year and correspondingly I had to take some risks in my training to try and get to that level. A safety first strategy and just sneaking under 2.18 probably won't be enough. So looking at the training I posted for the first 4 weeks and the deadness of my legs at Bath it easy to see that the hard workouts were densely packed together. In the end this was probably too much and with my pelvis not working properly and lots of tight muscles attaching to it eventually the bit that was taking the biggest load gave out.

So for now its just a question of rehabing the problem areas and taking advantage of the altitude to just get in some easy running and recharge the batteries ready for a summer track season.

Marathon Build Up Week 4 of 9

2010-03-25T08:44:00.005Z

This is the week when I started to feel tired at last as the cumulative effect of the marathon training took hold. This is the position you are looking to get into and its a fine line to tread between staying tired and ensuring you are fresh enough to nail the key workouts. I was probably just the wrong side the line by mid week and Friday's Marathon Pace workout was tough as the legs felt knackered. But at least I was able to pck up the pace on each effort and in the context of a block of hard training the pace was OK on what was a cold, wet day.

On sunday there was still enough in the tank to knock out a solid 5 miles in the South of England 12 stage relays where I was running for my Wells City Harriers club (finish photo left by Ken Hoye). The legs were still a bit battered but I was able to push harder than at Bath a couple of weeks back and although I was on the limit in the last mile the first 20mins felt controlled.

The team put in a solid effort to finish 10th but unfortunately the number of teams in this event continues to decline. I've posted on the 12 stage before so suffice to say its time to change the format before it dies a slow lingering death.

It was a good weekend for other runners from the Harriers as Emily Smith won the Junior Girls race at the English Schools Cross Country in what was by all accounts a mad sprint for the line as she came from way back in the last couple of minutes of racing. For American readers the English Schools is the biggest race for school age kids over here. You have to get through several qualifying races, district, county and regionals to get to race. For many runners it will be their first big race away from home and you get to stay the night before with a host family. On the two occasions I qualified this was the scariest part of the weekend ! I think my best was about 166th at Preston in 1987.

Anyway back to 2010 and the weeks training went

Mon 69 mins and 44mins
Tue 35 mins and a track session of 30x200m with just 100m jog
Wed 1hr 40 picking up the pace after halfway
Thr 42 mins very easy
Fri 75mins of Marathon pace going 3.24/km, 3.22, 3.20, 3.18, 3.14
Sat 35mins and 40 mins
Sun w/u 5mile relay stage w/d

This worked out at about 95miles for the week and looking at the last 15 days its been pretty densely packed with hard runs. This week I will have a few easy days towards the backend before racing the Wilmslow Half Marathon then I will be off to altitude to finish my London preparation.

Really looking forward to getting away and hopefully some sunshine !

London Marathon Build Up - Week 3 of 9

2010-03-14T21:35:00.004Z

This week the work started to get serious ! Last Sunday's race in Bath was a bit of a kick up the arse and after 2 days feeling pretty miserable and wondering how the hell I was was going to be ready in 7 weeks time I got my act together on Tuesday afternoon with the help a Swiss Chiropracter and a damn fine spa !

Doing drills and sprints on monday I realised my right leg was barely functioning - I couldn't bound off that leg or get it through when trying to run fast, the glute max was just flapping around and the psoas was as tight as a nun's habit. So tuesday afternoon I went to see a guy who does a lot of work with one of the pro Ice Hockey teams. And it was a huge step forward. He did some work on my upper back and I could walk out a different athlete. A relaxing hour in the spa followed and on wednesday morning I was running with so much more freedom and power. On such small things can a season turn. Anyway the training for last week:

Mon 72 mins very easy + 30 mins easy and 1 hour of drills/sprints/plyos
Tue 96 mins with last 35 a bit slower than marathon pace
Wed 66 mins incl 3x8mins threshold + 50 mins incl hill sprints
Thr 43 mins regeneration
Fri 2hr 15min fartlek - first 70 mins steady and working the hills then 10x1min fast/1min easy then 15mins moderate then 30 min progressive finishing at MP
Sat 45 mins easy + 40 mins easy
Sun 38 mins easy + 80 min incl 12k of reps on grass (2k, 2k, 2k, 2k, 1k, 1k, 2k) Long reps just slower than 10k pace and short reps at 3k pace to put some lactic in my legs

Marathon build up - week 2

2010-03-11T15:10:00.007Z

Last weeks prediction of a rollercoaster turned out to be true earlier than I expected as I turned in a horrid result at the Bath Half Marathon on sunday even after a couple of easy days to try and freshen up. The strange thing is that the day before my legs felt pretty good but come race day it was like running with two bags of sand where legs should have been. The modern trend with sportsmen and coaches is 'to look for the postives' in a crap performance and all too frequently this has the ring of banal platitudes. So I wont even bother !

A couple of outstanding runs in Bath worth mentioning came from recently turned V40 Martin Cox who clocked 66.01 and my Wells team mate Jon James who led home the V45 category with a 70.37 effort.

Anyway, the week's training started out quite well with a solid long run and went downhill from there.

Mon 2hr 36 mins hilly course
Tue 54 mins and 61 mins including 12 x 30-45 seconds fast
Wed 70 mins including 6km progressive and 5x250m fast stride. Breathing easily but legs struggling to keep up
Thr Rest day (planned)
Fri 35 and 42 mins quite easy feeling tired and not moving well
Sat 50mins incl. 2km at race pace and 5x200m strides
Sun Bath Half Marathon , 16th in 68.47

Encouragingly I felt pretty good on monday morning after the 'race' and not tired from my exertions on sunday. It would be more worrying if a 68 had taken a lot out of me. So on to the next three weeks block and hopefully a better run in my next tune up race at the England Athletics Championships in Wilmslow at the end of the month.

Marathon build up - week 1

2010-02-28T09:04:00.003Z

So here we go, 9 weeks until London. Strap yourself in and prepare for another rollercoaster ride of a marathon preparation. This is what makes this sport such fun, the ups and downs, the aches and pains, the great workouts and the miserable slogs when your legs feel like falling off. And at the end of it the reward of being in shape to push yourself to your absolute limit by racing 26 and a bit miles as fast as possible. Insane.

Coming in to this race my shape is OK but not great, certainly not the shape I was in at the start of my build ups to Toronto and Geneva. But then again for both those races I probably peaked a few weeks early so this could be a blessing in disguise. For those of you who follow my blog you will know that 2009 was a bad year with the first part written off by injury and then my plans to run the World Triophy 50k scuppered by ill health which also threatened to end my competitve running. The good news is that magnesium has restored my electrolyte balance and since december i've been able to train without any problems and really enjoyed racing again.

The name of the game is going to be to take some risks in the next couple of months. I've got a huge aerobic base from 10s of thousands of miles over the last 20 years so now is the time to tap into that and let rip. Who knows what will happen !?

Week 1 was all about getting those first couple of marathon specific workouts done and getting the feel for it again. Over the coming weeks these workouts will get progressively more challenging in a number of ways, watch this space.

AM 2hr 11mins starting easy and building the pace on a hilly course, last hour at a good clip (3.40/km)

AM 35mins regeneration
PM 45mins including 5x30secs fast stride

AM 45mins progressive finishing at threshold
PM w/u 18x400m with 200m recovery in about 50 secs. Just running relaxed rather than forcing the pace

AM 55mins easy
PM physio then 35mins easy. Good to get my pelvis straightened out before cranking out the big tempo sessions

AM 45 mins easy - I used to have a complete rest day but find I stiffen up quite a bit so experimenting with just a single easy run

AM w/u then 6x3km Marathon Pace on an undulating course. Horrid weather but got faster as the session progressed. Strarted in trainers and full winter kit and finished in shorts and racers. Could have kept going all day which was encouraging.

AM 67mins felt surprising good after yesterday
PM 43mins

Just over 100miles and 3 key workouts in the bag. A good start to the build up and my appetite is thoroughkly whetted now !

Saucony ShoeLab in Somerset on 20th March

2010-02-26T15:50:00.004Z

Good news for runners in the south west if you are after a new pair of shoes for London or your other spring races.

The Saucony ShoeLab will be in Yeovil at the Tri UK store on the afternoon of Saturday 20th March. Video gait analysis and special offers in store.

A lap of Olympic Park

2010-02-20T08:43:00.008Z

A few days ago I was working out in the East End and on a glorious morning took the opportunity to go for a run around the Olympic Park in Stratford. Its nothing short of awesome, both in the sheer scale of the site and in the details of the venues under construction. With just over a couple of years to go there is still a lot of work to be done but the major venues are coming together and with a bit of imagination you can picture how its going to be during those 2 weeks in July. Its already got the feel of Britishness from the army of construction workers supping Tetley tea to that Temple of the High Priestess of retail, a Westfield shopping centre. Now here's a thought: tea drinking and shopping to be Olympic sports ? more guaranteed golds for Team GB...

The venues are simply mindblowing - heading round the southern perimeter from Stratford the first venue is Zahara Hadid's controversial aquatic venue (left). To me it looks worth every penny and The Wave is set to be just as iconic as Beijing's Water Cube and hopefully will bring even more British success for Becky and co. I hope we have a got a plan that gives our team plenty of opportunity to train in the new pool and perhaps we should get the aquatic version of British Cycling's Secret Squirrel Club to optimise the water temperature for our guys and gals.

Heading round the perimeter along the Greenway the next stop is the main stadium itself. Much has been made of the temporary nature of the main stadium with 30,000 seats housed in a 'hole in the ground' design with another 50,000 or so in a temporary grandstand. We are good at temporary structures in this country - remember the Millenium Dome ? I've got a feeeling that this one could go the same way, especially if a deal is done to get West Ham United in as an anchor tenant post Olympiad. This is going to be a classic British fudge.

We knew at the outset that the optimal legacy solution was a football/rugby club tenant with a running track for major athletics events just like the Stade de France has in Paris. The sticking point was the cost and consequences of designing retractable seating for the lower tiers. So we decided to go with an unviable pure-play athletics stadium. and now the numbers don't add up we are going to end up retro-fitting a football/athletics solution at probably even greater cost. Still, we should have a stadium fit for athletics and a fantastic home (hopefully) for West Ham. Why can't we get this right at the outset (note to decision makers on High Speed Rail ....).

Onwards from the stadium and along the network of canals and rivers that cut through the whole area. Its down here that you can see the area's industrial heritage and marvel at what a hive of activity this place must have been in a different age. You can only hope that regeneration extends to tempting new business to set up shop along this natural highway to bring a new age of prosperity to the Stratford. Just building appartments along these waterways would surely be a missed opportunity. Onto the northern side of the site and the 'goldmine' aka the velodrome is also taking shape. You can safely bet that Dave Brailsford and his guys have been all over the design like a Chris Hoy skinsuit to make sure that we have the best track for our pedalers.

And the 50 odd minutes later I'm back at Stratford where I started. That gives you a feel for how big the site is and I just hope that come 2012 we do what we are best at and put on a party. To have a sterile, remote controlled park would be a real mistake. Britain is festival country and we need to recapture the atmosphere of Henman Hill, Stowe corner at Silverstone and Glastonbury. And before we throw too many stones at Vancouver lets have a contingency plan for too much rain, as long as it doesn't involve Sir Cliff serenading Usain Bolt.

Saucony South of England Cross Country Top 20

2010-01-31T11:07:00.014Z

It was great to be back running the 'Southern' at Parliament Hill yesterday for the first time since about 1997 for me. My big memory of that race was a battle with a certain Huw Lobb for a place inside the top 10 and 12 years later we were at it again though a few places lower than last time.

For afficianodos the southern is special because it is the only big XC race in britain that retains the old 9 miles distance. Add in the mud and hills of Hampstead Heath and it becomes a war of attrition to say the least. Yesterday was no exception though the mud has decreased in recent years since the council put in some drainage on the heath. (Photo left from 42run.com)

My race was a mixed bag. after struggling to keep up at the start I was back in the forties but quickly worked my up in to the twenties on the opening lap and tracking Dave Wardle but I was struggling badly on the hills. Every time we hit an up slope there was no power in my legs and I went backwards a few places - and hills are normally a strength.

By the end of lap 1 I was in the early 20's and not really enjoying the race. With concentration wavering and more uphills I had slipped to about 25th midway through the lap when Huw caught up with me and my race changed. Most of the guys around me were breathing hard, much harder than me so clearly my fitness was pretty good.

As Huw came past I tucked in and we start on a charge that would last most of the second half of the race (photo left by Alex Robinson and courtesy of Adam Prezedrzymirski). It worked out well. On the hills he was pulling away again but on the flatter parts I was charging past him so we pulled each other into the top 20 and were catching runners all the way to the finish.

Another lap would have been helpful at this point :-) I was even able to raise a good sprint to hold off a fast finishing James Connor. So I managed to salvage something from the wreckage of the first half of my race and will only get better with more races in coming weeks. Bring on the next one.

Left: Wells team tent with Enfield's Jon Pepper getting some love from Big Frank before taking 2nd in the senior mens race (and to keep the internet message board posters happy - checking out a move to the west country before transfer deadline day ?)

Full Results here from Milton Keynes AC (click tabs at bottom of page for other age groups).

Senior Mens Top 20

1. N Hall
2. J. Pepper
3. K Heywood
4. Deed
5. Neuschwander
6. Lacy
7. Mashford
8. Toher
9. Smith
10. Tickner
11. Clarke
12. Dalmedo
13. Wardle
14. Coleman
15. Warren
16. Edwards
17. Marriott
18. Connor
19. Lobb
20. Jones

Why snow running is good for you

2010-01-10T09:47:00.004Z

With half of the country at a standstill from last weeks heavy snowfall there has never been a better time to lace up your trainers and go and run. For a start, with many of us working from home there is an opportunity to get out in day light hours which is certainly good for the soul at this time of year.

But what about the training itself ? Its slippy underfoot, the ground is frozen. Isn't this bad news ?

Well not really. Running with these underfoot conditions gives you a core stability workout to die for. All those small accessory muscles which do nothing when you are running on smooth tarmac suddenly have to earn their keep. In the hips, stomach, glutes and lower legs the stabilisers are working overtime. Whats more you quickly learn to feel what is under your feet and respond stride by stride. It brings you much closer to the barefoot running our bodies have evolved to do. I was pretty sore after the first couple of days.

So what about speed ? Again its a question of working with the situation. Sure you have to run slower on snow so run longer instead. A short block of training with more miles at an easier pace is only going to stand you in good stead for when the weather improve and you can hits those reps again.

For running fast there are some good options. At 6pm last night the roads were empty and with snow free tramlines after a day of cars on them it was perfect for running fast. I was quickly able to find a nice section on the ring road with lights and do fast strides on the road. If you dont have that option then a multi-story carpark has been a favourite for our american and european cousins for years. And you can always find some smow covered grass and do longer reps in spikes. Just resist the temptation to try and hammer the speed and let the workout come to you.

And if you are going off the beaten track take some energy gels and a mobile phone with you just in case.

South West XC Champs Cancelled

2010-01-08T08:04:00.002Z

Not surprised that the South West Champs at Bicton on Sunday have been cancelled. The ground is frozen solid and anyone who has raced at Bicton knows how rutted the course can be in parts.

Personally its a big disappointment. Training has been coming together nicely over the last few weeks and despite a nasty chest infection over xmas I've felt my fitness improving week by week with a combination of miles and some good aerobic workouts. Tuesday I was running hills in spikes on the frozen ground and the power is starting to come back into the legs. So I was looking forward to racing again. Looks like another week or two to hold on !

Comment: UKA Qualifying standards for 2010 European Championships

2009-12-27T10:52:00.004Z

The marathon runners have known for a while what we have to do to qualify for Barcelona next year - well sort of anyway. The standard will be 2.18 for the men and 2.38 for the women though how many runners will actually get selected is anybody's guess - the policy becomes artfully vague at that point stating "UKA are able to select up to six men and six women ... the first three eligible UK athletes in the Virgin London Marathon... will be selected". My bet would be that this means teams of 3.

With a similar standard being used by England for Commonwealth Games qualification and Scotland and Wales using 2.19 there are plenty to opportunities in 2010 for the marathoners to aim for.

The qualifying standards for the track were published before xmas and remained broadly the same as for the 2009 Worlds. This produced howls of protest from the endurance folks. 13:20 and 27:47 are stiff targets for the 5000m and 10,000m. Indeed if that standard was applied across Europe you would have about enough qualified athletes for half a final !

So what is going on here ? I don't normally write about 'politics, selection and governing bodies' but I'm going to make an exception in this case because actually there could be a serious 'training' point hidden in all of this.

It occured to me that perhaps the folks who are in charge of endurance at UKA have come up with a stunningly cunning plan that goes something like this:

Set the qualifying standards for the track so high that they become unrealistic for most of our current endurance athletes unless they are already world class i.e. Mo.
Make the marathon standards appealing (2.18 should be a lot easier than 27.47).
Athletes (including the younger enduros) forgo the track and train like hell for the marathon over winter 2009/10.
In London we get more guys sub 2.18 but the real benefit comes later ...
Folks have raised their training volume, improved their endurance and start smashing their track PBs in summer 2010 (there are planty of precedents for athletes moving up to the marathon then improving on the track later).
Realising the impact of high winter mileage, long runs and long tempos they repeat in 2011 and track times continue to tumble ...

Well it sounds great and its certainly cunning, lets see what happens !

The magic of group training

2009-12-27T10:36:00.003Z

One of the great things about the holidays down here in the west is that people 'come home' for christmas which means a good sized training group and competitive local races. Its a complete contrast to when I lived in London when a mass exodus made training a pretty lonely experience at times.

So last tuesday we were on the track for the first time in a while (too icy and dangerous on the grass). During the winter we would normally do about one week in four on the track, the rest of the time we use a variety of grass circuits for our tuesday club workouts at Wells. This helps us avoid clock watching and trying to race the sessions which is always a danger on the track.

And we had a great evening. There were 8 of us running between 12 and 20 reps of 400m with just a 100m 'float' recovery. Its ages since i've run in a group that size on the track - I probably have to go back as far as a BMC 5000m race at Solihull in summer 2007 for the last time. The beauty of the group is several. Its warmer for a start on freezing winter night ! But seriously, getting to share the pacemaking duties means that you only have to lead a few reps when you can be totally focused on the pace. For the other reps you can sit in and concentrate on keeping relaxed - and the key to racing really fast is to be able to run relaxed at speed. And you also get the experience of running in close proximity to other runners, a skill which seems to be sadly lacking in many races these days.

Of course many runners want to do their own session and hate the thought of compromise to fit in with others and the reality is that at this time of year being flexible with your workout isn't really a compromise at all. The benefits far outweigh any perceived loss. For me on tuesday it was simply a case of running an extra four reps when the main group was done. You have got recovery, rep length and number of reps to play around with if you keep the speed the same as the rest of your group - thats plenty of scope for creativity !

Gwent League return

2009-12-10T17:31:00.003Z

After a couple months of not knowing if I would stand on the start line again I managed a muddy 10km round Hestercombe Gardens in the Gwent League last weekend. Nothing spectacular, just a brisk start and 3 steady laps on the undulating course before picking it up in the last mile to come home 4th overall and 2nd in the Somerset Championships behind Wells team mate Ben Tickner who is flying at the moment.

In fact the club as a whole had a great day with wins in a number of age categories including Oliver Fox and Laura Parker dominating the u13 boys and u20 women respectively and the men winning the Gwent League combined for the first time I think ?

Hopefully this marks the start of a solid block of training to get me in shape for the bigger XC races after xmas and then enable me to prepare properly for the London Marathon in April. Clearly time is running already and ideally I would like to be in much better 10k shape than i'm in at the moment. But you start where you start and at least in my favour I have years of aerobic training which gives me a good base to build from. Its going to be a fun 20 weeks ...

Charlie Spedding and Richard Nerurkar podcasts

2009-11-19T11:32:00.003Z

The day after the Endurance Seminar at the World Half Marathon Championships England Athletics launched of their National Coach Development Programme.

For the endurance folks their were two sessions hosted by Charlie Spedding/Lindsay Dunn and Richard Nerurkar which focused on the transition from 10k to marathon.

The sessions were recorded and are now available on the UKA Coaching website.

Link

Racing on ice

2009-10-29T19:20:00.004Z

Funny how three words and four syllables can have such different meanings.

While it may be entirely plausible that i'm taking my racing career to the South Pole Marathon and racing on ice (and snow) i'm not. The cold is no friend of mine though good winter clothing makes training in sub zero conditions tolerable. And now I think of it the Yak Trax are a great running shoe version of car tyre snow chains which I tried out last winter in Pontresina. I was amazed just how much grip I was able to get on the cross country ski routes.

Even less plausible, at least until Andre Agassi's recent confession, would have been an evolution of the beer mile into the crystal meth mile - racing on ice. Running a lap of the track in Paris at the CRIC student relays after a few cold ones was difficult enough, I can't imagine trying to run eyeballs out after anything stronger than Kronenbourg !

So that leaves my racing plans on hold starting with the World Trophy 50k on Saturday. Its deeply frustrating not to be able to race have done a good build and being in excellent shape. The reason ? Well as many of you know since 2004 I have run with a pace-maker as a result of an irregular heart rythmn. And that rythmn has been giving me some trouble again so discretion has been the better part of valour and I need to get it fixed again.

Hopefully back racing again soon and able to focus on the 2010 Virgin London Marathon.

World Half Seminar Part 4 - Conditioning and Peaking

2009-10-14T13:37:00.004+01:00

So for the final part of my write up from last friday's endurance seminar and some thoughts from the panel on conditioning and then peaking for races.

George Gandy was one of the pioneers of strength work for middle distance runners. His Lougborough circuits in the 1970s were legendary and Seb Coe gives much credit to George for the impact of his strength programme on his performances. Interestingly George said that Seb did the strength programme until the end of the 1981 season and then basically stopped, and never ran faster over 800m again !

One of the key exercises for George's athletes is the full squat and the goal is to build up to 2 sets of 6 reps with 1.5 times body weight. He used to have the women working with less weight and is now convinced that they could handle the same as the men. And concerns about them looking like east european discus throwers could be banished - slim middle distances runners stayed slim middle distance runners !

Albertos athletes spend 90 minutes a day on supplementary exercises to build core strength and other capabilities. He also talked about passive stretching vs dynamic exercises. During his running career Alberto spent quite a lot of time stretching and still when it came to running fast he had a terrible style and looked incredibly tight. He referenced the dynamic exercises that east africans do and Wilson also talked about these and how they help make the body move effortlessly at speed.

When I asked Richard Nerurkar the next day what he would have done differently when making the transition from 10 to the marathon he said spending more time on conditioning so that he could better handle the stress of the extra marathon training was probably all he would change. You can't get away from a strong platform if you are going to run a lot. George used the analogy of putting a Formula 1 Car engine into a Formula 2 Car - the extra power would cause it to fall apart because the gearbox, suspension etc couldn't handle the power.

When it came to being in top shape when it matters the panel had plenty of thoughts. Wilson Kipketer said that to get the best from yourself you need to focus on the main goal race for the season. He said that you need to know at the start of the year what this target is and prepare for it. (It sounds so simple and obvious and yet for many people the main goal gets lost amongst all the other races). Performances in the other races were not so important and you need to arrive at the start of the last 4 weeks in good shape. Then it is just a question of sharpening up and resting so that you are fresh for the big race.

In the first part I wrote about how George Gandy likes to see progress every week and reckons you are never more than 6 weeks from a PB. He told us about how Lisa Dobriskey, 10 days before a major championship (I don't remember whether it was Melbourne or Beijing) ran a 1500m race in a pretty mediocre time. And for a while he was debating whether to give her some more hard workouts or just rest up. They went for the 2nd option and a week later when Lisa was running the race that really mattered whe was able to perform.

I asked Alberto about the workouts Kara Goucher had been doing in the last 2 weeks before the Berlin World Champs marathon (I had watched a few of them in St Moritz and they seemed pretty fast to me). Alberto commented that the most important thing was how hard they felt, the effort needed to be controlled and as the athlete was backing off she could run fast with less stress than when in hard training (and of course his other data about the use of altitude tents explained why 6000ft probably isn't so tough for Goucher).

There was also a good question about the improvement in Galen Rupp's finishing speed (not technically a peaking question I know but closely connected to racing). Alberto had watched Lagat running and realised that he was so efficient at speed that 5000m race pace for him was easy.

So he took this idea and applied it to Rupp. The goal was to be able to run 9x300m in 39secs before races. As part of preparation for this he had Galen doing the 30/40 workout where he runs 200m in 30secs then cruises the next 200m in 40secs. And they also spent some time racing 800m and 1500m this year. He felt that paying this attention to speed had helped Galen improve his ability to close races (and of course the endurance that came from lots of miles at a good pace provided the foundation so that he could be in position to use his new found speed).

A couple of other perspectives on peaking were provided the following day by Charlie Spedding and Richard Nerurkar, England's two fastest marathoners. And they had quite different approaches to the final 2 weeks. Richard was happy to run a fairly hard workout 10 days before the marathon. In his case 5x2km at marathon pace with a steady km to recover. Charlie on the other hand felt the need to keep in touch with his speed and would run something like 5x400m in about 62secs with a few days to go. One of the things that seemed to make a big difference to Charlie was the realisation that he took a long time to rebuild his speed and lactate tolerance and that by keeping that faster work going all year he was able to have a better control over his peak.

Liz McColgan talked about race tactics and how improtant it was to understand your strengths and race to them rather than just sitting and waiting for a sprint finish like so many athletes seem to do. (Two of my hazy memories of Liz are of her being outkicked by Bondarenko at the end of the Seoul 10k and then crushing the field 3 years later in Tokyo with a relentless display of front running - definitely her strength !).

Alberto talked candidly about how he had overtrained during his career, in particular when trying to get himself into top shape for the marathon and a theme from most of the speakers was the importance of being rested for the major competition of the season and the need for athlete and coach to trust in the work that they had done. At that stage it was definitely a question of less is more.

World Half Seminar Part 3 - Altitude

2009-10-12T18:17:00.008+01:00

Part 3 of my write up from the weekend covers Altitude Training. I've stitched together materials from several parts of the evening and felt that it was worth doing this to present a coherent picture of what the panel thought about the use of altitude.

Ian Stewart mentioned at the start that he believed altitude was a critical ingredient in endurance success and to that end would be setting up altitude camps in east africa and europe for attendance by british athletes (it would be great to get some more detail on this so if from someone at UKA is reading feel free to add more ...).

Ian's belief was in part based on his personal experience. He trained at St moritz duing the 1970's and told the audience about the pre-Munich camp when he was training with Brendan Foster and Ron Hill. Ron had a bad time in Munich and in part this was blamed on altitude by the press and Ron himself. Ian was clear that Ron was running badly when he got to altitude and continued running badly at sea level. The point being that altitude is no magic bullet to get out of shape athletes fit.

Alberto agreed with this and went further saying that you needed to be in very good shape before going to altitude to get the most out of it. He talked about the effect that altitude has on the body and focused on two main changes that impact running performance. The first was the increase in red blood cells (presumabley size as well as quantity) and also the improvement in lactate buffering capability.

Then it started to get interesting. Prompted to comment by 'MC' Geoff Wightman whether there was any truth about Alberto training himself wearing a facemask and respirator device to reduce the flow of oxygen to his lungs he revealed that indeed he had. And that it didnt work though at the time he didn't understand why. (This was one of several examples Alberto gave where his experience as an athlete has led him to do something quite different as a coach). The bottom line was that it takes the body about 90 minutes to start responding to hypoxia by producing extra EPO from the kidneys. So the length of time he wearing the mask for wasn't long enough to produce a response - but was long enough to tire him out.

So what was the best altitude for training ? Again Salazar dominated the conversation hear with a point of view (probably backed up by a load of research from Nike at a guess) that you need to be at 7000feet to get the benefit of increased blood volume and red cell count while lower levels were sufficient to get some of the lactate buffering benefits. And it was living at altitude more than training there that brings the benefit. Pushed for an ideal scenario alberto would live at 7000-8000 feet and train at 4000ft. His group were able to do something similar to this in Utah where they stayed high then came down to Salt Lake City to train.

I asked him about racing after coming down from altitude because I had observed Kara Goucher leave St Moritz 4 days before the Worlds which confused the hell out of me. His response surprised me to say the least. she continued to use an altitude tent until 48 hours before the race ! And Dathan would be doing the same in Birmingham before the World Half (clearly it worked). That left me curious as to whether they were using an altitude tent even in St Moritz to sleep higher than they were training at (6000ft). My guess is that they were.

So does altitude work for everyone ? Certainly not for Liz McColgan. While Liz was able to train OK at altitude she said that she had real trouble racing afterwards and couldn't seem to find any form. She hit on an alternative, hot weather. And she meant hot. Florida was a favourite destination for her and she found that training in hot, humid conditions provided a similar boost. Glenn Latimer chipped in by recalling how a supposedly washed up Steve Jones spent the summer of '88 training in a hot and steamy Illinois before going on to win the New York Marathon that autumn in 2:08.20. The consensus seemed to be that altitude works for the vast majority and you need to be in good shape already to get the most out of it.

When it comes to measuring the effects of altitude Salazar was pretty blunt. Measuring Haematocrit and Heamoglobin are really just measures of hydration and therefore useless for measuring whether you actually got more red cells (Note: both measures are a ratio of solid matter to the liquid part of the blood so clearly any increase/decrease in plasma volume will have an impact on the ratio). He meaures the total red cell mass though didnt explain how or how frequently.

The altitude discussion wrapped up with George Gandy explaining how after a spell of training in Boulder, Colorado Jon Brown struggled to adjust to sea level race pace and had a disappointing London Marathon. And then he promptly turned to Alberto to ask if he had any insights into what might have gone wrong ! Top coach, always wanting to learn more. And the willingness to share experiences and lessons learned was a feature of the whole evening - and a stark contrast to what I often see with UK coaches trying to protect their precious knowledge from each other.

The topic of altitude came up again on saturday at the England Athletics seminar on 'Tranistion from 10k to Marathon' which was the warm up act for the launch of the National Coach Development Programme (all event groups). Both Charlie Spedding and Richard Nerurkar trained in Kenya and America during their careers and felt that altitude was a key part of an endurance runners development though Charlie's advisor, Lindsay Dunn, had a different take on how to use altitude focusing on faster pace training with plenty of recovery rather as opposed to the bigger volume blocks that many athletes go for.

Part 1 - Reviving distance running
Part 2 - Progression

Endurance Seminar - Part 2 Progression

2009-10-12T10:24:00.005+01:00

Its been great to see just how many people have been reading the first installment. It makes it worth the time and effort when that happens. And if there is anything I missed then please leave an update in the comments area.

So on to part 2 and progression.

This discussion came off the back of the first part when most of the panel were talking about developing a big aerobic base off the back of plenty of miles and targetted faster running. And how the culture of the 1990s had got us away from building this big base in search of quick fixes.

Alberto talked quite a lot about Galen Rupp's progression during the 7 years or so that they have worked together. Most of us know that Rupp has now run a mid 27min 10k and took the NCAAs by storm this year in last year of college eligibility. According to Alberto this year he will have been running 95 miles a week (what we didnt find out was if this was his 52 week average or what sort of variation there was from week to week - and more on Rupps workouts later). What he did say was that he has been increasing his volume by 5 miles a week or so over a number of years and clearly as a guy in his early twenties there are many more years of increase to come. Kara Goucher was a similar picture with a progression year on year as she built her aerobic fitness.

And interestingly Dathan Ritzenhein was the opposite ! So Alberto pointed out that as a marathoner Dathan had been up at around 120mpw in recent years under Brad Hudson's training but this season he backed down to more like 100 and focused on doing more faster running with an eye on the track again. The results are there for everyone to see with his sub13 5000m in Zurich backed up with a fantastic bronze at the World Half this weekend. And just in case the 'low mileage' guys started to get too excited Alberto pointed out that when Dathan goes back to the marathon then they will build up his volume again.

Editor's note - the athletes Salazar is now talking about are the second wave of athletes in the Oregon Project - more talented and with a bigger background than his 13.30 brigade of a decade ago. Clearly have the right raw materials help !

So back to progression and an interesting view from Liz McColgan - indeed one of the few areas that the panellists disagreed on. Liz reckons we should be identifying at a much younger age where an athletes strengths are and therefore their likely best event. The british mindset is to start with the shortest track race and keep moving up throughout our careers until eventually we get to the marathon. Of course Liz did race a pretty handy 1500m in her day but she was a 10,000m Championship runner as early as 1988. Ian Stewart shared that he was always a 5000m runner, as a junior and senior. That was where his talent lay and he stuck to it. (The day after I asked Richard Nerurkar about when he knew he was a marathon runner. He made his marathon debut in 1993 and age 29 but revealed that during 1988/89 he had been training in Boston with Pete Pfitzinger and other marathoners and had handled the long runs very well and knew even then where his future lay. Of course he stuck with the 10,000m for a few years to take 5th in Tokyo '91 and then run the final in Barcelona '92. He is also one of those athletes like Dathan who ran faster over the 10k after moving up to the marathon but thats a topic for another day).

Alberto took a differing opinion. His approach is very much to maximise his athletes potential at shorter distances before moving them up (as their aerobic base develops) as he explained through his examples of Rupp, Ritzenhein and Kara Goucher. I suspect there was some nuance lost in the big panel discussion and if you actually dug deeper both sides of the argument probably had the end goal event in mind and just a slightly different approach to getting there.

So for a completely different take on progression we had George Gandy. Talking about Lisa Dobriskey's ability to pull championship medals out of a compromised season (she won Commenwealth Gold and World silver in injury affected years) George talked about how he looks for progression every week in training. Not year to year, mesocycle to mesocycle but week to week. This certainly caused a few furrowed brows from the other panellists and as he explained because Lisa was used to that sort of progression they could handle a 6 week block knowing just how far they could her fitness. In fact he said that you are only 6 weeks from a PB, a comment met with a few sagely nods from Salazar. (What he didn't say is 'if you are in very good aerobic shape already' - which has to be implied from the earlier discussion on volume. Lisa had mentioned that during the winter she is running about 70 miles a week and has built up to this over a number of years - so clearly her aerobic base is pretty good now).

There was some interesting detail behind this - and George is good at detail :-) He explained how athletes often progress very quickly in the first couple of months after their end of season break (i'm sure many of us have been there - i was on fire from dec 98 to feb 99 without really doing a lot other than having recovered from the previous season). So one of the things he does is look to hold people back in that period by adding more miles, more reps or less recovery. Basically by keeping them tired during the winter he can control the evidence of the progression so that when he starts to reduce the load as the competition season approaches then continues to be a visible improvement. He used the metaphor of running with a sack on your backand adding or removing weight from it to control the speed.

George also talked briefly about how after 10 weeks or so with a particular stimulus performance can start to plateau and how that is a sign for him to change the direction of the training in some way. And if you are in to seriously long term evolution of training ideas based on evidence then his recollections of the Loughborough circuit sessions were fascinating if a bit long winded. The abridged version is 'from 13 stations in the 1970s when Coe was there the programme has evolved to 16 stations today - and he is less convinced of the need for conventional sit ups...'

The final word goes to Salazar who said that endurance performance is a 'culmination of years' of training.

Part 1 - Reviving distance running
Part 3 - Altitude
Part 4 - Peaking and the other bits and pieces

Notes from Endurance Seminar at the World Half

2009-10-11T16:04:00.008+01:00

I've got a ton of notes from the various seminars and presentations this weekend around the World Half Marathon in Birmingham. Over the next few days I will try and write up as much as I can.

The expert panel on Friday night comprised (left to right in photo) Wilson Kipketer (800m World Record holder), Alberto Salazar (Head Coach of the Oregon Project, 3x NY Marathon winner), George Gandy (Head Coach at Lougborough University), Lisa Dobriskey (World Silver 1500m) and on the other side of the room out of camera shot were Liz McColgan (1991 World 10,000m Champion), Glenn Latimer and Ian Stewart (now Head of Endurance at UK Athletics). Its fair to say that most of the time was spent with the folks in camera shot ...

The first big topic was about how to revive distance running in the UK (and Europe) so Alberto gave us some insights into the American experience. After the high point of the 1980s in the US standards dropped alarmingly in the 1990s. One of the measures he used was the number of high School runners clocking sub 9minutes for 2 Miles. For many years there would typically be 30 or so but by the low point it was down to just a handful each season. And given that producing successful endurance athletes is a numbers game then having a small pool of talent coming into the college system was going to have an impact further up the pyramid. This was a theme that both George and Wilson agreed with. You had to have a large number of young athletes coming through to give you a chance to produce the Dathan Rizenheins and Galen Rupps. Encouragingly the number of sub 9s is now back to close to an all time high - although we didn't get to hear what had made running sexy again for amercian school kids.

The Oregon Project was kicked off a decade ago as one initiative to try and revive fortunes. Alberto's first experience at raising standards turned out to be a chastening one. His plan was take a bunch of mid-13 minute 5k runners, speed them up a bit and then move them up to the marathon. By recruiting guys who had competed well and had good track speed he reckoned his chances of success were high. As it turned out he only managed to get one guy into the 2.10-2.11 range and the insights were revealing. Alberto's assumptions were based on the fact that during the 1980s he trained with a bunch of guys in Boston at the GBTC who were running sub 2.09-2.12 marathons with far less speed than the guys he was planning on moving up in Oregon. Where the plan fell apart was that the 2000's generation had been running far less volume than their eighties counterparts and while this wasn't a problem at 5k when they moved up it caught them out big time. When pushed for some numbers he reckoned that the GBTC guys were probably doing 120mpw + while the Oregon guys came from a background of 90mpw plus or minus. Thats a big difference over several years training and the cumulative effect on aerobic development is huge.

He developed this idea further with a story about how kenyan kids at age 18 have 15,000 more miles in the bank than the average american high school athlete. While the numbers mights have been rough and ready the point certainly hit home. We need to run more and sooner. And expect that our athletes will peak at a later age than their east african counterparts because they will be behind in their development.

George had an interesting take on why athletes weren't running enough. Back in the 1970s and 80s there were fewer major international events. So although athletes raced a lot in low key events they really only had to peak once a year so spent the whole winter and spring just running and racing tired. These days you have the Euro Cross, Indoors, World Cross and then a summer track season where you need to make some money and try and perform in a major championship against fierce competition. So athletes are spending a lot more time preparing for races instead of just getting aerobically fit. This is a reality of a fully professional sport which we don't seem to have come to terms with.

So some big lessons for Alberto from that first experience which could be summarised as: if we have fewer runners available we need to train them smarter (and the Oregon/Nike version of that will be developed in a subsequent post); identify the talent at a younger age and start to build its aerobic capacity with progressive volume (more on this later as well with some examples).

The other panellists were in agreement on one big theme which was the need to train in groups. Lisa talked about doing some of her runs with up to 60 athletes at Loughborough under George's guidance and how that helped her to improve. Ian Stewart revealed that UK Athletics was setting up two altitude bases, one in Font Romeu and one in Kenya as well as using Loughborough as the permanent centre for endurance in the UK. A change from the previous regime was that he was keen to encourage non-funded athletes to also use these venues to start to re-create the large group concept of yesteryear.

And its not just the US and UK thinking along these lines. Outside the conference I bumped into Michel Boeting who used to work with Jos Hermans at Global Sports Communications and gave me my marathon debut opportunity in Amsterdam in 2003. One of Michel's recent projects has been to set up a privately organised group in the Netherlands with Dutch and a few Belgian runners. At present they have about 30 athletes including the likes of Michel Butters and results seem to be picking up already though funding is still proving hard work - this seems to be a difference between Europe and the more entrepreneurially minded US where a number of groups have sprung up outside 'the system'.

In the next few days look out for: Managing the volume progression, Altitude and Marathon Preparation.

Part 2 - Progression here

Al Sal et al at pre-World Half endurance conference

2009-10-09T08:32:00.003+01:00

This evening should be fun. UK Athletics have put together a star studded line up for an evening coaching conference before this weekend's World Half Marathon in Birmingham. With Lisa Dobriskey and her coach George Gandy, Liz McColgan and most intriguingly Alberto Salazar there should be something for everyone.

Earlier in the summer when I was training in St Moritz I got to see quite a bit of Kara Goucher's final preparation for Berlin and then after watch Ritz recovering from his 10k and sharpen up for that historic 5000m at Weltklasse. Some of what I saw made me really curious, especially Kara's timing of descent from altitude and the intensity/duration of her last few workouts. So perhaps some insights.

And then tomorrow morning there is a marathon seminar with LA Olympic Bronze medallist Charlie Spedding, his advisor Lindsay Dunn and World Cup Marathon winner Richard Nerurkar.

Watch this space next week for some insights ...

Record Breaking day at the Burnham Half Marathon

2009-10-06T10:51:00.006+01:00

Another week, another half, another course record. This time at Burnham on Sea in Somerset (photo left by Keith Gough).

I have a love hate relationship with this place. As a kid we used to run lots of cross country here and the course was close to the sea. And this meant that it had a tendency to flood and when you a are a short, skinny, 12 year old running through shin deep icy cold water with a freezing wind coming in off the sea is not a lot of fun. And I had some great races on that course when it wasn't flooded.

Anyway 25 years later and Burnham is still flat and a little bit closer to the sea thanks to erosion and global warming. Just under 300 runners turned up and after a steady start and a 5.30 opening mile I soon found myself out in front and able to run as I liked which today meant rolling of a series off miles in about 5.18 which is a nice marathon tempo for me at the moment. At the 11 mile marker it was time to put my foot down and the final 2.1 miles to finish was covered in just over 10mins 20seconds so I was certainly moving a bit quicker at the end and I reckon that last full mile was about 4.50.

Behind me were a string of PB's as women's winner Ami Yetton ran 82 mins and Andrew Orr, preparing for the Florence Marathon knocked several minutes off his best. Indeed all through the field PBs were being set on what is a very flat course (unless the wind blows) and without a dount one of the fastest in the West.

All in all a good hard workout with 4 weeks to go until the World Trophy 50km in Gibraltar and things are looking good knowing that I have a turn of speed available in the closing miles.

Results
Men:
1. Adrian Marriott (Wells) 68:57 (record)
2. Jon James (Wells, M40) 73:27
3. Andrew Orr (Serpentinie RC) 73:38

Women:

1. Ami Yetton (Ply H) 82:20

Full Results

In the news
Burnham On Sea dot com
Ironbridge Runner

Chippenham Course Record

2009-09-14T09:03:00.012+01:00

Its been a few months since I laced up my racers so it was great to blow away the cobwebs at the Chippenham Half Marathon on Sunday and come away with the win and new course record having taken 39 seconds off Dave Mitchinson's time from last year.

Racing half marathon's during a marathon build up is always a tricky one for me and probably the main reason why my half marathon PB is totally out of line with my 10k and marathon times. Invariably I'm running on tired legs and in the groove of marathon pace as that's what i'm actually training for. And yesterday was no exception. The first few miles felt as if my legs were going to fall off they were so stiff and tired from a really hard 10 day training block. It was good to have some company for those first 5 miles before I was able to ease away and settle into a nice rythmn. The last mile had the benefit of a few hundred metres of downhill which made for a nice fast finish which I'm sure will have been welcomed by most of the runners.

The event itself was really well organised. I would say that this is the best medium sized race I have been to in the UK in terms of organisation and the race 'village' on the cricket field was excellent. With a bonus for a course record and a pair of Saucony running shoes from local sports store Sportzform it was also a profitable morning's work.

The women's race was won by the fast improving Helen Taranowski of Coventry Godiva and in the vets categories the evergreen Zina Marchant of Bath ran away with the V55 prize in 1hr 35 mins.

Photos: Diane Vose, Wiltshire Gazette and Herald

Results:

1. 69:36 Adrian Marriott
2. 72:41 Stephen Paterson
3. 72:59 Martin Shore
4. 74:34 Tom Fisher
5. 75:24 Darren McNeely

Full Results

In the news:
This is Wiltshire
Chippenham Half Marathon

Autumn marathon plans

2009-09-08T15:39:00.004+01:00

Berlin ? Chicago ? Amsterdam ? No to all of the above and yes to 50km round Gibraltar at the end of October. Its not April Fools day or a typo, I just fancied something different this autumn and believe it or not there is some method in the apparent madness of racing 50km around the 'rock'.

The race is the IAU World Trophy race and i'm lucky enough to have been selected off the back of five consistent marathons in recent years. So why this one ? Well most of my marathons have been pretty lonely affairs. Its a harsh reality that if you are running the pace I do then there are not many folks for company these days. To be in a group you have to be ready to run 63 for halfway in a big marathon and even the small races will tend to go out in 65 even if the winning time ends up around the 2.15 mark. Last autumn I tried to be clever and run a smaller race in Geneva so that I could actually be competitve and even that turned into a burn up after a steady first km. So with an extra 8km, a testing course and some warm weather I reckon I should have a better chance of being in a decent sized group for at least half the race. And i'm looking forward to the prospect of racing out the second half.

As for preparation, well 50km is fairly similar to 42km so I'm following a normal marathon build focused on being in about 2.17 shape and putting in a couple of longer runs just to get the feel of being on my feet for close to 3 hours. then come race day just run a bit slower to conserve fuel and see what happens in the last 10km ! Training is going well and last week I hit my first long MP session at 3.14/km and felt good which is always encouraging.

Come spring 2010 I will be back to 42km in London and the trials for the Europeans and Commonwealths which should both be wide open with a qualifying time of 2.18

For now my next race will be the Chippenham Half Marathon this weekend which I'm looking forward to.

Live High, Train Low - in Europe

2009-09-04T18:31:00.004+01:00

I've just got back from a couple of weeks training in the alps and things went pretty well. After numerous trips to altitude over the last 5 years i'm now at the point where acclimatisation happens very quickly so I can basically continue normal training as soon as I arrive, with a few adjustments to pace. Even this only amounts to about 5 seconds per km at this altitude. This rapid adjustment makes a hug difference in a two week trip whereas once upon a time I would have spent the first week taking it easy and acclimatising.

St Moritz is my favoured location (below, in the distance as viewed from Muottas Muragl) for the same reason as many others use it as a summer base. Plenty of trails, easily accessible track and reasonable cost at this time of year. We were particularly lucky with the weather this year. After a miserable July that included snow August turned out to be stunning with blue sky and temperatures in the 20s most days. You really couldn't ask for more.

With the Worlds on during my first week there weren't too many top athletes around though Kara Goucher and Adam were around until 3 or 4 days before her race which I found interesting. Not many mzungu runners can race well coming straight down from altitude - i've tried it several times and only had one good run (15km XC), the other efforts have been woeful. Clearly they had worked something out that was good for her and i'm guessing it may be something to do with sleeping in an altitude tent most of the time which would make the 6000 feet of St Moritz feel OK. After the championships the rest of the Salazar group appeared and american readers would have been dribbling into their Gatorade at the sight of Rupp, Ritz and Teg on the track.

Anyway back to the title of the post and the Goucher bit was a weak attempt at a link to 'live high - train low'. While in St Moritz we paid a visit to Muottas Muragl, a 2500 metres (8000 feet) bluff overlooking Pontresina and the inspiration for Bloefeld's lair in Ian Fleming's 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' (although the movie was filmed in the rotating restaraunt on the Schilthorn). Perched on top of the cliff is a hotel (left) and heading out into the mountains behind it are a number of trails on which you can do easy runs. The hotel is used by a number of Swiss athletes, especially triathletes and marathon runner Viktor Rothlin who was in residence with his wife and 'rabbit' when we visited. while the 10 minute funicular railway ride to the valley floor is a bit of a pain of you were doing it several times a day it is manageable and their are plenty of trails from the bottom of the railway in both directions along the valley floor at 1800m.

First week back at sea level has gone really well, after a couple of days feeling flat the legs have felt good and I'm really looking forward to racing again and testing my fitness in advance of my October marathon.

A night at the Weltklasse

2009-08-31T20:52:00.007+01:00

What a night at Weltklasse on Friday. A great stadium, fantastic presentation and some enthralling performances on track and field. Where to start ? Well as an endurance runner Dathan Ritzenhein's 12.56 in the 5000m seems like as good a place as anywhere.

Coming into this race off the back of 6th place in the 10k at the worlds 'Ritz' seemed to be on a hiding to nothing. Tired legs from Berlin and a stacked field of east african's with PBs beginging 12 minutes. Clearly there was more to it than that. Last week I passed Dathan a few times while training in St Moritz. OK, when I say passed I mean going in the opposite direction but that said he was taking it easy, clearly making sure that he had recovered from the 10k and just keeping his legs turning over. Its the first time i've seen the guy up close and he moves really smoothly, its almost effortless and there are not many europeans who look like that.

Like many spectators I was more than a bit apprehensive for him when he opened up running 62s and was quickly at the back of the field and looking uncomfortable. Compared to the africans he looked to be overstriding a little and running flat out to maintain that pace. While the pacemakers hammered away at the front and Bekele covered everything Ritz was getting further and further behind. Indeed every time he passed an african they seemed to step off the track ! Through 3k I reckoned he was the best part of a whole curve behind Bekele who was now at the front laying it on the line big time. And then something strange started to happen - as the field tired Ritz kept bashing out his 62s and started picking people off. Inside the last kilometre I guess TV started to get excited and in the stadium it was obvious that he was reeling in Kenny B at a rate of knots. Another lap and who knows what might have happened. Inspiring stuff.

So what's behind this performance ? Those of you who've read the thoughts i've posted previously won't be surprised to know that my view is that the endurance work done in his recent marathon attempts are now paying off big time. You just can't get away from developing a massive aerobic base if you are going to sustain that kind of speed on the track. Unfortunately the mindset has become that you move up to the marathon at the end of your career whereas many athletes have run 10,000m (and 5000m) PBs after starting out their marathon careers. If I can do a 10k PB at age 35 after my fourth marathon cycle then anyone can ! The key here is doing the right pace training, its not just about big miles run slowly. But running fast enough to get aerobic development and then running the easy running slow enough to reccover. From my observations there are still too many europeans who run their steady and easy running at too similar speeds. Anyway back to Weltklasse...

Football coaches talk about 'bouncebackability' or some such twaddle and Yelena Isinbayeva showed it in spades with a stunning WR which looked to be miles clear from where we were sitting at the end of the runway overlooking the 100m start. Which brings me to Bolt. The speed out of the blocks of those guys was amazing, a real eye opener. Not surprisingly the winning time was a bit of an anti-climax after his Berlin efforts but no wonder really. And to top off the sprint story Jamaica won a good quality 4x100m relay which saw the Swiss team set a National Record and take a well earned lap of honour with the crowd going mental.

For me though what really stood out was the whole presentation. This was athletics as theatre, real entertainment. The main show was packed into 2 hours of tightly choreographed action. Frankly it made the bloated London Grand Prix look like school sports day without the drama of the egg and spoon race. The new Letzigrund is a 'hole in the ground' design like the London Olympic stadium and the 30,000 spectators in the steep sided stands produce a great atmosphere. A look at the spectators confirmed that these weren't die hard athletics fans, just ordinary Zurich folk who know a good evenings entertainement when they see one.

To round out the night was a mixed 3000m wheelchair race to say au revoir to Swiss legend Heinz Frei. The women in effect had a one lap head start which made for a great race with a near blanket finish.

And at the final whistle the stadium was plunged into darkness for 15 minutes of live music and fireworks in the late Zurich evening. Great stuff, why can't all meets be like this ?

Saucony Shoelab returns to Somerset

2009-08-27T13:44:00.005+01:00

On Saturday 12th September the Saucony Shoelab will return to Somerset at the TRI UK store in Yeovil. There will be free video gait analysis from midday and special offers on shoes and kit throughout the afternoon.

Funny thing endurance (2)

2009-08-04T09:26:00.004+01:00

Watching the swimming world championships at the weekend I was struck by Jo Jackon's comment when interviewed by Sharron Davies about her Silver medal in the 800m freestyle. Reflecting on the race and her future ambitions she said that the 800m was good for her 400m and 200m. Here was an athlete who really gets the value of overdistance racing and the impact of endurance on her shorter events.

It got me thinking about a few other things I had seen during the summer where endurance had been the difference between first and second. Remember back to that epic Men's Singles final at Wimbeldon ? Federer v Roddick. Its 2 sets all, deep into the 5th and Roddick is yet to drop his serve in the whole match. Federer has been broken a couple times in earlier sets and has relied on great tie-breakers to keep in the match. Your money has to be on Roddick to break at some point.

So what does Federer do ? He keeps cool, keeps the ball in play and keeps making his opponent run around a lot. There has been talk in the run to Wimbledon about how Roddick's new coach Larry Stefanki ordered him to drop some kilos earlier in the season in a bid to improve his condition. And Roddick keeps on running. Then somewhere about 12-12 in the fifth Roddick visibly starts to tire. And this is a great view of what happens when fatigue kicks in. You can see that his skill level drops - he is unable to repeat the muscle movements required in the same way as before. Whether its hitting a tennis ball or running this is what endurance gives you - the ability to keep on repeating the same muscle movements time after time with the same quality. And eventually this fatigue in Roddick tells as Federer breaks for a 16-14 win (how brutal is that ? Imagine if in Sydney 2000 when Haile and Tergat were neck and neck after 25 laps of the 10,000m the rules said "sorry boys but there needs to be a 5 second margin between first and second, do another lap .."). So at the end of it the guy with the best endurance won.

The other example that sprung to mind was the UK Athletics trials and in particular the women's 800m. To simulatre Berlin (sort of) the women had to run 3 rounds in 3 days. Going into the championships the fastest athletes were Maz Okoro and Jennie Meadows. Both runners who started life as 400m specialists and have made big efforts to build an endurance base over recent years. The dark horse was the fast improving Jemma Simpson who has a 1500m background and now trains in Oregon with wily British coach Mark Rowland.

The rounds were fairly uneventful with the 3 class athletes qualifying comfortably. Come the final and the anticipation of an epic duel was high. And it never materialised. Simpson hit the front and pulled away effortlessly in the closing stages with Maz and Jennie trailing. For Jemma a 3rd race in 3 days was no problems with her endurance but for the the 400m types it was a probably a race too far. It takes me back to the Coe/Ovett/Cram/Elliott days when the 1500m runners did particularly well in championship 800m races where there were many rounds. And of course who can forget Peter Snell, the 'slowest' man in the Rome 800m final based on 400m speed but with an awesome endurance base from his winter miles. (And incidently another 1500m specialists Hannah England went sub 2.00 for the first time this season at the European Team Championships).

So love it or loathe it you just can't get away from endurance whether you are middle swimmer, tennis player or 800m runner.

Course Record at Crewkerne 9 Mile Road Race

2009-05-31T14:18:00.009+01:00

Another week, a bigger test. This time it was the Crewkerne 9 Mile Road Race, one of the gems of west country road races and now in its 29th year. While the likes of the Alweston 10 long since disappeared this race has kept its place in the fixture list thanks to the hard work of Crewkerne Running Club who organise the race.

Although the course has changed a bit since the early years to cut out the town centre loop with the requisite road closures the basic format remains the same. A hilly 3 miles out to the stunning village of Hinton St George, a 'rolling' 3 mile loop through Dinnington and back to Hinton followed by the first hilly 3 miles in reverse to the finish in the Market Square.

And for good measure the weather is usually hot, unless its 2008 in which case its wet. Today was no exception. With clear blue skies and the thermometer climbing what little shade there was in the country lanes was taken with both hands.

My weeks training has been OK with no after effects from last Saturday's Egdon Easy. After such a long period of injury you always have in the back of your mind that things might flare up again and racing is the only way to really test the body (and mind). Fortunately my legs felt fine the day after Egdon and so today was the next step on the road to my next marathon.

The first 3 miles were more like a fartlek as things settled down at the front and we were through the marker in 16.45 as I pulled clear of the pack. The loop through Dinnington was all about settling into a nice rythmn and really feeling the effort. A 16.10 for the next 3 miles including the big climb back to Hinton was the warm up for the final assault. In the back of my mind was the course record and with a couple of miles to go I really put my foot to the pedal to try and get under 48 minutes. As it turned out I had left just a bit too much to do and came home in 48.10 though still with a new course record.

In second place was young Minehead runner Mark Hopkinson who is improving with every race. If he gets to put in some miles with Andy Baker during the summer then he will surely make big strides comes the autumn.

In the women's race my Wells team mate Jenny Moore returned to racing after missing London with an achilles problem and took a well earned win.

Looking at the winners trophy and reading the names of previous winners is a bit of a roll call of west country runners from the likes of Steve Walker and Gary Eagle through to more recently Ben Tickner. When I ran the fun run here in 1984 I never imagined I would be winning the main event 25 years later.

Fingers crossed that the body has survived the hills OK. The downhills are particularly stressful so a nice easy run in the pool with the aquajogger is the order of the day for this evening ! now its time to dig out the fixture list and look for some more competition.

All photos courtesy of Mike Shead.

Leading Results

1 Adrian Marriott (Wells) 48:09 (record)

2 Mark Hopkinson (Taunton) 50:29

3 Lee Turner (Torbay) 51:01

4 Billy Sheppard (Clev) 51:57

5 Gerry Hogg (Troll T, M40) 52:21

6 Paul Rose (YTRR, M40) 54:17.

M50: 1 Jonathan Goodland (GWR) 56:02

M60: Colin Williams 66:36

Teams: 1 Clevedon AC (Sheppard, Alan Baker, Nick Hides, Stuart Hancock)

Women:

1 Jenny Moore (Wells) 58:15

2 Kate Britten (Clev) 61:47

W35: Lynda Faulkener (Dorset Dod) 66:45

W45: Judy Davey (Honiton RC) 69:31

Teams: Crewkerne Running Club

Full Results

In the news
Yeovil Express

Return to racing at Egdon Easy

2009-05-24T08:33:00.007+01:00

Well its been a while since I put a number on the front of my vest and stood on the start line of a race and it was good to finally race again last night after more than 5 months since my last outing at the Portsmouth Victory 5.

The lay off was down to some big trouble in my left thigh. In particular the vastas lateralis (the outside of the thigh muslces) had been rubbing up against the ITB (which passes over it). Over time the muscle because inflamed and frayed, the ITB was sticking to it and every time I ran again those adhesions flared up. Its taken a combination of accupuncture and some skilled massage using a technique called myofascial release from Simon Morris at Bath University to get everything moving again. The return to training has been a slow process with a couple of flare ups but last week I managed about 80 miles and felt healthy enough to tow the line last night.

The Egdon Easy is mixture of footpaths, gravel trail and road just behind the sea front at Weymouth. Before the start I was as nervous as i've been for some time. Some of my club mates were a bit surprised, after all a 29.47 guy shouldnt have too many problems in a local race. But as we know it doesn't work like that. A race is a race and after so long away from racing you need to know if its still there ! The first half of the race was pretty comfortable and I was in position to be able to put my foot down for the last 15 mins and push hard to the finish. The leg felt fine though the legs felt rubbish and I was blowing pretty hard by the finish. Still, 1st place, body intact and mission accomplished. Next stop the Crewkerne 9 Miles in a weeks time and one of the toughest road races in this part of the world.

Full Results

Course record falls at Yeovilton 10k

2009-04-13T16:00:00.011+01:00

It is not often that a Somerset road race sees three GB internationals on the start line so when marathon men Richie Gardiner and Nigel Leighton were joined by cross country ace Frank Tickner the 11 year course record was living on borrowed time.

The early pace was set by Cardiff's Mike Johnson with the big guns tucked into the leading pack along with Pete Grist, Simon Anderson, Ed Knudsen and evergreen Gordon Seward.

By halfway the field was stretched out with Gardiner and Tickner side by side through 6km in 18.23 before heading out on to the flat final section which is part of the summer 5k course. With just under 2km to go Gardiner opened a 10m gap with a last big push. But despite his best efforts Tickner closed the gap and pulled away in the closing stages to cross the line in 30:30 to shave 3 secs from the record. A few seconds back Gardiner posted his best 10km result for some time which will give him great confidence as he starts his taper for the London Marathon on 26th April.

Holding on to 3rd place was Johnson after a lonely run. Pete Grist came home 4th ahead of Nigel Leighton and rounding out the top 10 was home club Yeovil's Tim Hawkins who knocked an impressive 33 seconds off his PB to clock 33.36

First lady home was Bath ACs Sarah Urwin-Mann with local road race specialist Jenny Moore taking 2nd place as she seeks to crack the 3 hour barrier for the first time in London and in 3rd was Royston's Michelle Maxwell.

Cardiff AC romped to the team title with 3 in the first 4 places.

Leading Results

1 0:30:30 TICKNER, Frank Wells City Harriers
2 0:30:41 GARDINER, Richard cardiff ac
3 0:31:29 JOHNSON, Michael cardiff ac
4 0:32:50 GRIST, Peter cardiff ac
5 0:32:56 LEIGHTON, Nigel Bristol
6 0:33:13 ANDERSON, Simon plymouth harriers
7 0:33:28 HOPKINSON, Mark Taunton AC Senior
8 0:33:29 KNUDSEN, Edward langport runners
9 0:33:34 MOSLEY, Philip bournemouth ac
10 0:33:36 HAWKINS, Tim Yeovil Town Road Running Club

Full Results

Super Fast Yeovilton 5k series returns

2009-04-01T11:09:00.004+01:00

The annual summer 5k series returns to the super quick Yeovilton course on Wednesday 8th April. The series, organised by Yeovil Town Road Running Club, takes place on the second wednesday of the month throughout the summer and in recent years has seen race winners such as Frank and Ben Tickner, James Thie, Toby Lambert, myself and course record holder Rob Whalley. With conditions invariable perfect on the flat 1 lap course its no surprise that the course record stands at 14.04 and that many athletes have run 14.something over the years.

For athletes looking for an extra edge for this years series there will be a selection of Saucony race shoes on sale at the first event - ideal for 5k and 10k races !

Heat Acclimatisation for spring races

2009-03-23T17:55:00.002Z

With the first hint of spring in the air it is time to give some thought to what impact warm weather could have on your spring race plans, especially if you are planning a late April or May marathon.

In recent years the London Marathon has been affected by unseasonably warm weather on a couple of occassions. Warm weather has several affects, most of which are performance reducing for endurance athletes. The bottom line is that warmer weather makes our body work harder to keep cool. That means pumping more blood to the skin rather than the muscles and losing more fluids and electrolytes as sweat which in turn reduces blood plasma volume and the hydration levels of the cells. So sticky blood and badly lubricated muscles. Imagine a car engine with sludge in the fuel tank and no oil left in the gearbox and you start to get the picture.

The good news is that there is plenty you can do to be prepared. The starting point is to know what weather to expect in your target race. A look at one of the weather websites such as Wunderground can show you historical data and seasonal norms. Something to be wary of though is 'average' temperatures. Far more important is the range of temperatures you can expect. For example in March 2008 London had a range of -2 to 14 degrees whereas Amman in Jordan had only a slightly higher average but a range of 0 to 32 degrees. Clearly if you got caught out with a 'hot' day in Amman it would have a much bigger impact on your performance than a 'hot' day in London !

So how can you acclimatise for warm weather during a european spring ? Well the extreme version would be that practised by a former british olympian who put a cycle machine in his bathroom, turned the heating up full blast, filled the bath with hot water for added humidity and then in full tracksuit proceeded to pedal to exhaustion. Its not something I would advocate though ! For some athletes a spring warm weather training camp is part of the answer. The Algarve, South Africa, Tenerife and Cyprus are all popular locations at this time of year. But if this isn't an option there are a few practical solutions at home.

Make the most of the warm days when they occur. Last weekend was warm and sunny and I went running in the early afternoon when the temperature was at its highest. If that doesn't fit with your schedule then doing some runs indoors on a treadmill can work, especially when the local gym is at its busiest (and warmest). Adding some extra clothing also does the job. Although contrary to popular opinion you don't need to be wrapped up like a Michelin man. A hat and gloves are enough to fool the body's thermostat and give you some heat acclimatisation.

And if you are concerned that you have left it too late the good news is that the body adapts to heat stress relatively quickly. Athletes going to race in hot conditions often report that 10 day acclimatisation period is enough. So some carefully planned easy training sessions in te gym/sun/with hat and gloves can give you just the boost you need and leave you well prepared in case of a warmer than average day at your big race. And a final thought is that recent research from the Australian Institute of Sport showed that heat training stimulated an increase in blood plasma volume which could result in improved performance in normal conditions.

Updated July 2011
Running Times article on heat

Engadin Ski Marathon

2009-03-10T20:32:00.002Z

A change is as good as a rest, or something like that. With the clock on this injury of mine now up to 10 weeks it was time for a change of scene and a visit to my summer training haunt of St Moritz in the middle of winter to take in the annual Ski Marathon. A 42km cross country ski race which takes in much of the route use by the 27km Engadiner Sommerlauf which I've used as part of my marathon build ups. Given that I can't ski and still have some aches and pains spectating was the most I was up for but what a sight.

There are 11,000 athletes starting in waves and the speed at the front is impressive. Under 1hour 40 for the leaders. There are two types of skiing. Classic and freestyle, which is in effect skating on skis and is much the quicker method. With the arms also working hard to provide power I can see why these guys have routinely produced VO2 max readings in the 90s - they are using more muscle than runners and as we know the lungs are not the limiting factor in oxygen uptake in athletes.

We were spectating at Punt Murgal at the bottom of the Muottas Murgal mountain. The mountain has a hotel on the top at about 2400m and the truly hard core marathon runners sleep there and train in the valley below during the day. Its a strategy that doesn't seem to have done Viktor Rothlin any harm the last few summers. We were at the top of a short but steep incline and the momentum of the leaders was such that they were able to skate up and over the top with ease. In fact the lead groups were just like a big city marathon. With a lead vehicle and camera bikes (well snowcats) and the TV helicopter up above. The whole thing was very well organised and the pre-event expo was treasure trove of skis, boots and all kinds of go faster wax, gel, glasses etc.

Running on snow has been fun. The paths in the forest which I'm used to blasting along in summer are well maintained and the snow is compacted so it is much like running off road in winter in the UK. There is some nice give under foot without disappearing up to your waist in powder. In fact even cranking up the pace to threshold was no problem under foot. And whether it was the change of scenery or surface my aching leg seemed to be much better and i'm finally through the hour mark again and able to do some drills. I'm hoping that the remaining discomfort is simply a legacy of relative inactivity since xmas and will soon shift as I get some more drills and strides into my programme.

While this length of layoff is far from ideal I suppose there are a couple of good things to come from it. For the first month or so I was sleeping like I was in hard marathon training and gradually I've been sleeping less as my body has recovered. I guess 5 years hard training with only routine breaks after marathons had led to a lot of cumulative fatigue. I also noticed a whole number of aches and pains start to emerge and regular massage has helped to get my body moving well again. And finally I have been able to pay much more attention than usual to conditioning work to the point of also starting a regular pilates class. And I really felt the benefit doing my drills yesterday. So much more control and power. Hopefully all this means that when i'm restored to full training there are a good few years racing left in my legs !

Saucony Shoelab returns to Yeovil

2009-02-03T16:52:00.004Z

On Saturday 28th February 2009 the Saucony ShoeLab will be returning to the Tri UK store in Yeovil.

There will be some great deals on shoes and other products for the spring. The action kicks off at midday.

Yeovil Times Marathon Training Articles

2009-02-01T09:04:00.002Z

This series of articles appeared in the Yeovil Times over the winter of 2008/9

Part 1 of 6 ‘Getting started’

Inspired by the heroics of our Olympians and the sporting soap opera that is Paula Radcliffe record numbers of people are taking up running and setting their sights on completing famous races like the London Marathon in April, or closer to home the Bath Half Marathon next March. Whether you are aiming to raise money for a local charity like St Margaret’s Hospice or just want to challenge yourself to get fitter and achieve something new, running is a great way to go about it.

Over the coming months this column will cover the basics of running. From getting started through constructing a simple training plan, nutrition, preparing for the marathon and finally to some top tips for race day itself.

So whether you are sitting at home looking at your London acceptance letter or just thinking that some fun, cheap exercise is a great way to beat those credit crunch blues then read on.

Getting started really is as simple as putting on some trainers and heading out of the door. And to increase your chances of being successful here are four steps which all aspiring runners should follow.

1. Set some goals.
Dream big. We have so much more potential than we often realise. So dream big. What do you want to achieve in six months time ? Imagine yourself having just completed that goal. How does that feel ? Now write it down. Looking back at this piece of paper through the winter will help remind you why you are doing this.

2. Get some proper running shoes
While you can run in almost anything, and famously Zola Budd ran the L.A Olympics in bare feet, a good pair of running shoes is the only investment you need to make to run. Getting the advice of a specialist retailer like Tri UK in Yeovil is worthwhile to ensure you have an appropriate pair of shoes. Of course, if you want to buy lightweight waterproof clothing and GPS devices to measure how far you have run there is no limit to what you can spend !

3. Start running
That first step can often be the hardest, especially if you have never run before. So here is a great way to start. Get out the door and walk for one minute.

Easy ! Now run for one minute. The speed should be comfortable, so that you can talk while running. Walk again and keep repeating up to 30 minutes total exercise. 3 times a week would be ideal. After repeating a few times start to increase the length of the running segments. Before you know it you will be doing 30 minutes continuously and ready to start a training plan.

4. Run with a buddy
As with any change we make to our lives the most difficult part is keeping momentum. We’ve all seen it before with New Year’s resolutions. They go great for a few weeks then we slip back into old habits. The same can be true with running, with enthusiasm dropping off as the dark nights take over and the Christmas party season hits full swing. The best safeguard is to find a running partner. With two of you on the journey together you are far more likely to succeed. Its no coincidence that the worlds top runners train together in large groups. Running is also a great way to meet new people and local running clubs such as Yeovil Town Road Running Club cater for all standards of runner.

So there you have it. Lace them up and get started.

Part 2 – the challenge of the marathon

Judging by the numbers of you I am seeing running round the streets of Yeovil at the moment plenty of you have taken the plunge with starting training for the London Marathon. If you got rejected from London then a great local alternative is the Taunton Marathon on 5th April. This month we are going to look at the basics of a successful training programme and a few tips on surviving the festive season.

So what makes the marathon such a challenge and how do we best prepare for it ? You may have heard about the mythical ‘wall’, that point in the marathon where people slow down dramatically. This happens because the human body stores enough fuel in the form of carbohydrate to cover between 15 and 18 miles. More than enough for your average iron age hunter-gatherer to pick some berries and snare a wild pig but not enough for modern man to
complete a 26 mile marathon. So the training for a marathon is all about making that fuel last longer.

We do this in two ways. By running regularly our muscles get stronger, we lose some body fat and so our bodies need to burn less fuel to cover each mile. That ekes out our reserves to 20 miles or more. And then the best bit. By doing long training runs we teach our body to burn fat, lots of it. Fat is something that even the leanest elite athletes have enough stores of to run several marathons and this gets you to the finish.

So there are 18 weeks until London which looks like a lot and will fly by so here is how to use the time wisely. The last 3 weeks before the race you will be reducing your training in what we call the taper and the March article will be dedicated to this. That leaves 15 weeks for training. You need 12 weeks to do the long runs required to prepare you for the challenge of the marathon which means just until another month to get into the habit of running regularly before the real marathon training starts. And that month includes the pitfall that is christmas and new year.

The holiday season can be a time when those good habits you have started to build up during november go out of the window. Whether its parties, visitors or having the kids at home from school you need a strategy to keep running. So a good place to start is with some negotiation. Agree with the important people in your life when you are going to be running and stick a list of times/dates on the fridge.

The holidays also give you a great opportunity to run in daylight and that means being able to get off road and run in some new places such as Nine Springs and Ham Hill Country park.

And there is still time to put in a word to Santa for some help from the professionals. If you want a good book which tells stories about many different marathon experiences culminating in training plans for all standards from 5 hours to 2hours 30 mins then go for Marathon Running by Richard Nerurkar, the last British man to win a championship marathon. If your preference is to start from the theory of training which links into detailed training plans then Daniel’s Running Formula by Jack Daniels (the coach not the whiskey maker) is the book for you. Both are very readable and widely available.

Next month – the marathon long run, how long ?

Part 3 - the marathon long run.

If your holiday season was anything like mine then your marathon training didn’t go quite according to plan with chesty coughs and too much food getting in the way. If you did manage a trouble free period of training then you are ahead of the game so well done.

With 14 weeks to go until London now is the time to get down to serious training and that means focusing on building up your weekly long run.

Remember from last month that the marathon is all about making the fuel last long enough to avoid hitting that infamous wall.

The long run is the most important training run you will do because it teaches your body to burn fat which makes your precious carbohydrate reserves last longer come race day. The second effect of the long run is that by ‘emptying the fuel tank’ your body actually learns to store more fuel if you eat properly when you finish the run – more about this in a minute.

So how do you go about the long run ? After all, even for experienced runners, the prospect of running 26 miles in just over 3 months time can be quite daunting but the good news is that there is a tried and trusted approach which will get you there. Remember the last 3 weeks will be saved for the taper so 14 weeks training is actually 11. Keeping a couple of weeks in reserve in case of illnesses, family weekends etc means that you actually have 9 long runs and here is how you can approach it:

1. Focus on ‘time on your feet’ and follow the principle of adding a bit at a time. So starting with 60 minutes you add 15 minutes each week and by the beginning of April you will be able to run for 3 hours, the maximum recommended training duration.
2. Keep the speed manageable. If your goal is 4 hours for the marathon that is 9 minutes per mile. So your long run should be between 11 and 10 minutes per mile. You want to finish tired and hungry rather than completely exhausted.
3. Run with other people. Both Yeovil Town Road Runners and Crewkerne Running Club have organised long runs some weekends so check out their websites for details.
4. Drink water during your long run. You may want to run several loops or have a family member meet you at pre-arranged points with water and spare clothing – this is also a great way of getting the family involved as part of Team You !

So you have finished your long run what now ? The most important task is to rehydrate and refuel. The body best stores fuel immediately after exercise has finished. So get some complex carbohydrates into you within the first 30 minutes e.g. wholemeal bread, potato, pasta. If you have run on Sunday morning and need to wait a while for Sunday lunch then still have a snack in that first 30 minutes to start the refueling and repair process. Trust me you will still enjoy your lunch an hour or two later.

While a long soak in a hot bath may seem appealing the long run does microscopic damage to the muscles which heat can make worse. The choice of professionals like Paula Radcliffe is a dip in an ice bath. While this might be taking things a bit far a few minutes of cold shower water on your legs can prove remarkably invigorating.

Part 4 – Speed training

You know that marathon time is approaching when the days are getting longer and you can start your evening run with the last of the daylight. The excesses of Christmas are just a distant memory and you are starting to feel fitter from the consistent training that you have been doing this year. Last month we looked at the Long Run, vital for building the stamina required to tackle 26 miles. This month its time to turbo charge that new found fitness with some speed training.

Why do speed training ? After all the marathon is all about endurance. Well, running considerably faster than you need for the marathon will do several things. Clearly it will leave you gasping for breath and quite tired if you run fast enough. This is because you can’t get enough oxygen to the muscles to maintain speed. Your body responds to this embarassment by making your heart bigger and stronger and increasing the amount of blood in your arteries.

The outcome, more oxygen going to the muscles which means a fitter, faster runner. This is the human equivalent of adding more horsepower to car’s engine !

Speed training needs to be approached in small bites. A great way to start is by running fast for 1 minute. This should be about the speed that you could maintain for 10-15 minutes continuously before having to stop. After the fast minute, jog slowly for 1 minute. Then repeat until you have run 6 fast efforts.

By the end of this you should be breathing hard. The human body adapts quickly so you need to add more fast running each week. Once you can do 10 sets of one minute fast increase the duration to 90 seconds and then eventually 2 minutes, remembering to take an equal time of easy jogging after each fast run.

If you are looking for an extra challenge you can run some or all of the fast segments uphill. Mudford Road, Bunford Hollow, Lyde Road are all great for adding this extra twist.

A few weeks with a weekly speed training workout and you will feel a different runner, literally. Your other runs at normal speed will feel so much easier than before. Which leads us into the second type of speed training, Marathon Pace training. On your long runs you should be running slower than you plan to run in the race. So you need to educate your body what race pace feels like and teaches it to burn your precious sugar stores economically.

If you are aiming for 4 hours that is approximately 9 minutes per mile. So to practice race pace, warm up and then run for a mile you goal pace. Then take 5-10 minutes of easy running before repeating. As with the fast speedwork the idea is to add more miles at race pace each week as race days gets closer.

On Saturday 28th Feb I will be holding a free coaching clinic at Tri UK, so pop along after midday and get your questions about speedwork and other training answered.

And finally a great way to simulate the marathon experience is to run a half marathon during march. The idea behind this is to give you some confidence by covering half the marathon distance at your target pace knowing that you still have time for more training. There is the added benefit of running with people around you and getting to practice taking drinks on the run. Indeed, if big running events are new to you getting one under your belt before London is a great idea and will make you feel more relaxed on the big day.

Part 5 – the taper

If there is one part of preparing for a marathon that causes endless confusion and heartbreak it is the taper. In fact taper is a slightly misleading word, I prefer to talk about peaking for the marathon. This means taking a very different approach to your last 3 weeks training before race day. Gone are the long runs and hard speed training and everything is focused on producing a peak performance on the 26th April. That means reducing training, rehearsing race pace and fueling up.

The biggest error made during these last few weeks is to test your fitness. I’ve seen people do a 20 mile run the week before their marathon to ‘test themselves’ and feel great. Then 7 days later they struggle round the marathon and wonder what hit them ! Read on and all will become clear. So why do we peak ? The months of hard training for a marathon leave us with microscopic damage in our muscles. Small tears which take more than a few easy days to repair. And while racing with this level of damage might not compromise a 10km race it bites you in the later stages of the marathon.

So 3 weeks of reduced training allows you body to fully repair itself.

This principle also applies to getting the full benefit of your training. Remember, training breaks the body down, recovery is what actually makes you fitter.

And generally it takes 10 days or so to get the full benefit of a training session. So hammering one of last month’s speed training workouts in the few days before a big race is only going to tire you out, not make you fitter. This could also be a good time to get a massage from a local sports masseur like Hannah Manton though leave at least a week between massage and racing, especially if you are not used to it. And finally after all the hard training the body will be depleted of carbohydrates and probably a bit dehydrated too. So easing back allows you to re-stock the stores. You can even measure this by seeing a small increase in your weight during race week. I usually add a couple of pounds as my muscles load up with carbs and water. That's a good sign !

Peaking principles in the last 3 weeks:
1. last long run 3 weeks before the marathon
2. 3 weeks to go run 75% of your usual weekly training mileage.
3. 2 weeks to go reduce this to 50%.
4. race week run 25% plus the race.
5. ensure that your running shoes are worn in rather than worn out.
6. rehearse your race pace - short repeats of say 1km are good for getting used to the rythmn.
7. eat/drink as normal, the decreased training will mean you are topping up your carb stores.
8. practice drinking on the run and if you are going to use the official sports drink then buy some and practice with that as well. The same goes for energy bars/gels.
9. practice your race day routine at least once (wake up time, eating race day breakfast, warm up, running at race start time wearing race day kit and plasters/vaseline to stop chaffing).
10. practice visualising success, whatever that means for you.

So how can you expect to feel as you come to a peak ? For a start, be prepared for some aches and pains to emerge when you reduce your training load. This is the cumulative fatigue of your training kicking in and with 2 weeks to go you may feel very tired. And then by the last week you can enjoy the anticipation of race week when you are like a caged lion, prowling round the house and ready to go.

Next month – race day

London and East Regions Endurance Day

2009-01-28T14:32:00.008Z

On sunday the London and East Regions of England Athletics joined forces to put on an Endurance Day at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre. In anticipation of needing a relaxing day after the previous day's southern cross country championships I had been lined up to join Paul Evans and Eamon Martin for a lunchtime Q&A. While Eammon was unfortunately unable to attend Paul was able to share some of his experiences with the audience of over 80 and I chipped in with some of my experiences from a slightly different perspective. Last year Paul was our Team Manager at Toronto and still most of the stories were new ! A few things struck me about what he said.

When he started running in the late 80s his coach John Bicourt told Paul that it takes 10 years to make a runner. The abbreviated version of Paul's answer was that we dont have that long. So John put him on 3 times a day training to take some short cuts and get things moving. Apart from the inevitable injury that followed it was a good reminder that endurance is a long process of accumulation. My rough and ready reckoner is 30,000 - 50,000 miles to get near your potential. So John's 10 years is about right assuming an everage of 80 miles per week. I wonder how many runners take this sort of perspective and have a plan to get the work done over the course of a running career ?

Paul also talked about his breakthrough at the Great Race in 1990. A Tour de France style stage race where after holding back in the first week he was able to win a stage at the end of it and realise that actually he could compete with the top guys he was racing against. This moment of truth acted as a really powerful motivator for him and shortly after he was able to go full time as a runner knowing that he could be successful.

This point about not really knowing your potential until it hits you between the eyes is something I see time and again in my work as well as in sport. For me the time I spent in the Rift Valley in 2003 really opened my eyes to the level that I was truly capable of training at, rather than the level which my inner voice/other people told me I could manage. One of the most difficult things can be having the courage to put yourself into a situation where you have to raise your game to survive. The rewards are well worth the risks though !

We also talked about how 10,000m running and the marathon relate to each other. While we didn't have time to get into the technical details of training (something for next time ?) we both noted that we had run our 10,000m track personal bests after starting racing marathons. This is by no means unusual. Paula Radcliffe ran 10,000m and 5000m PBs after moving up and Richard Nerurkar ran his 10k best 8 weeks after his debut marathon. What we both agreed on was that when you have trained for and raced a marathon you are very fit - just tired. So a good rest, we both had 3 weeks followed by a sensible return to training allows you to use that strong aerobic base to build some faster training on top. This idea of training for and racing shorter distances, on a range of surfaces, between marathons enabled us to keep our speed intact and make marathon pace feel comfortable (a lesson I forgot in the run up to Geneva).

Photos by Andrew Dunn photography

2009 hopes and marathon predictions

2009-01-03T15:29:00.007Z

Running over the christmas holiday period didn't exactly go according to plan with a small problem in my left hip bringing me to a standstill for a few days. It was quite literally a pain in the arse and meant that I had to miss out on the Nos Galan 5k race on New Year's Eve. Although I'm now easy running again, this weekend's South West Cross Championships is also out the question so I will wrapped up warm taking photos and cheering on my Wells City Harrier team mates as they chase some more silverware.

The link in the Book secition to the Canova/Arcelli book from the IAAF was no longer working and has now been fixed thanks to a sharp eyed reader.

2009 promises to be an exciting year for marathoning. With Haile ruling the roost and Sammy Wanjiru proving in Beijing that he can win the hard way the scene is set for the world record to get pushed into new territory. Add in a growing group of east africans who have worked out how to prepare properly for 42km and we could see a 2:02 before the end of year with the right race and conditions. Though like many athletics fan what I would really like to see is a Haile v Wanjiru match up. Somehow I don't think it will happen in '09.

The big unknown for the women is what level Paula can return to. I've got a feeling she could be sub 2:20 again but no longer so dominant that she can run away from fields from the gun. So who will be brave enough to go with her and put her under real pressure in the last 10km ? London should be a fascinating race.

Domestically the women look stronger than the men with Mara Yamauchi also having emerged to world class in 2008 with her win in Osaka in January backed up with 6th in Beijing and 3rd in Tokyo at the end of the year. Expect a big PB revision this year.

All eyes will be on London to see if any of the british men can take the step from 2:18 to sub 2:15 and beyond. Their (our) cause is hardly helped by the selection policy of UK Athletics which persists in declining to send to a team to the IAAF World Marathon Team race. Other countries such as Canada have seen the light and are taking a more incremental approach and will send a team to Berlin as long as 4 guys have the IAAF standard. They have a really simple, long term approach which is articulated in a short document on their website. Not surprisingly Canadian marathon standards are on the rise already after 1 year of this strategy. Ian Stewart take note. Dan Robinson will be looking to take a big chunk off his 2:13 PB and an interesting debut could be Andrew Lemoncello who just looks like a marathoner in the making.

My plans will revolve around 2 marathons this year and key to making progress will be to carry improved 10k speed through the marathon build up phase. I'm really looking forward to it along with another training camp or two in the mountains (photo). Before that though there are some cross country races to be negotiated with the highlight being the Saucony English National at Parliament Hill. Bring it on !

Scorching times at Victory 5 Miles Road Race

2008-12-08T19:21:00.016Z

Left: eyeballs out at the finish. Photo courtesy of Sussex Sports Photography. Buy your race photo

While most of the post race talk was of a mishap at the start which meant we ran about 65 metres short of the full 5 miles there was much applaud at this year's Victory 5.

Near perfect conditions, a flat course and a competitive entry list meant that up front there was some hard racing and very fast running and my 23.56 was good enough only for 6th place. By the time we had completed a second lap of the running track instead of the outside cycle track a lead group of 5 had formed with aussie Russel Dessaix-Chin leading the way along with Mark Warmby, my Wells team mate Ben Tickner, Neil Gamester and Mark Draper. Hanging on to them were perennial fast starters Will Levett and Hassan Raidi.

A few meters back I was running with Ben Whitby and Phil Tulba in what could charitably be labelled the 'experienced' group. Before 2 miles we had swept up Will and Hassan while the leaders were starting to fragment. A tricky section through the IBM grounds slowed us a little as the we trod carefully on the icy paths which had yet to thaw out in the winter shadows. Back in the sun by 3 miles Ben and me were clear of our group and in pursuit of Mark Draper who was off the back of the leaders and coming back to us. In the final mile Ben had a change of gear which I was unable to match. But keeping going at a good pace I was able to get past Mark with about 600m to go and take 6th place.

Although the short course may have taken the shine off things for those who were after a PB consider that this was an event where you could enter online, by post or on the day up to the last minute. There are plenty of changing facilities at the HQ at Mountbatten Stadium. And with a slick results operation positions and times are posted on the wall by the time you get back from your warm down. For the speedier runners presentations are efficient and the organisers appreciate the value of an old fashioned 'brown envelope' rather than rubbish trophies ! And all this for under a tenner. If other races got as much right as this event I think most of us would be happy runners.

I was pleased with my run and clearly my fitness has moved on a long way since my last couple of modest cross country races. More on my latest training block to follow in the week ....

Men's Results
1 R Dessaix-Chin (Belgrave) 22:54
2 M Warmby (NEB)23:04
3 B Tickner (Wells City) 23:17
4 N Gamester (Shaftesbury Barnet) 23:18
5 B Whitby (Windsor SE&H) 23:49
6 A Marriott (Wells City) 23:56

Full Results from Portsmouth AC
Race photos by Sussex Sport Photography

4th (again) at Parliament Hill Cross Challenge

2008-11-22T21:15:00.003Z

They say that 4th is the worst position to finish and I seem to be making a habit of it in 2008 with this my third finish just off the podium. The occasion was the first race in the new ECCA Cross Challenge series run in conjunction with the London Championships at Parliament Hill Fields.

With most of the top British runners aiming for the Euro trials next week in Liverpool and having stretched their legs at Gateshead last weekend the field was a bit thin at the sharp end and it was still too good for me as Darren Deed (Bedford) ran out a comfortable winner. The threatened snow failed to materialise and the stiff northerly wind kept things chilly without being biting as the sun shone. These were probably the driest conditions I have raced on at Parliament Hill and that covers a fair few races, especially as we use to run it three times a winter just in student races.

Today's race started near the top of the hill to avoid the path that cuts across from the lido and so after the initial charge a leading group of about 6 settled down for the first lap before Darren made his move on the second lap and quickly opened a gap. I had a good battle with David Bruce as Chris Smith in front of me chipped away at the gap to Richard Franzese of Harrow. By the last lap we were strung out 1 to 5 across the heath and that is how it remained to the finish. At least today was a step forward as I was able to get myself in contention early on but was lacking in the middle part of the race this time. That will come with a few more weeks hard work. Above all i'm relieved that I made a late decision to switch my 15mm spikes for 9mm. My feet are sore from the shorter ones (the ground was that hard) so I would have been in a real mess with the nails in !

Turnout in the age group races seemed a bit thin on the ground but it was great to see a healthy number of former clubmates from Hercules Wimbledon battling it out in the London Championships race.

Next up is one of my favourite races, the Victory 5 Road Race in a fortnight's time.

Results
1. Darren Deed (Bedford)
2. Richard Franzese (Harrow)
3. Chris Smith (TVH)
4. Adrian Marriott (Wells City)
5. David Bruce (Highgate)
6. James Connor (Kent)

Full Results to follow

Saucony ShoeLab coming to Tri UK Yeovil

2008-11-17T08:33:00.005Z

On Saturday 29th November the Saucony ShoeLab will be at the Tri UK store in Yeovil to enable the massed ranks of south somerset runners to have their gait checked and pick up a new pair of shoes for the winter at great prices. The action kicks off at midday.

Left: ProGrid Omni 7

Autumn marathon lessons learned

2008-11-14T07:55:00.005Z

Its now 6 weeks since Geneva and I've had plenty of time to reflect on the race and my build up and put in some serious thinking about what I need to do next time to improve my performance.

Looking back there were several objectives that I set myself for this autumn's marathon beyond just getting into 2.17 shape: 1. Be involved in a 'race' with the possibility of being in contention for top 3 position in the closing stages 2. Try out returning from altitude approx 16 day pre-marathon 3. Develop the long run into something more challenging.

The first one shaped my decision to go for Geneva rather than Berlin or Amsterdam. Its a harsh reality that these days if you are running between 2.13 and 2.20 its very difficult to find races where you are going to have people around you. Even the smaller marathons won in 2.13 have the leaders going through in 65 for halfway and the big city races tend to thin out seriously after a first group in 63 and a second group in 65. So Geneva looked like a good option. On the day the leaders indeed went through in 65 and although they were coming back I wasn't close enough to them to pick up the pieces in the closing stages. Having run 40k alone/leading a small chasing group I can honestly say I dont want to do that again ! But if I find myself in that position i'm at least prepared. It really was a different experience from what I have had before in London, Amsterdam and Toronto.

The altitude experiment was a success and also part of my downfall, but not for the usual reasons which get many athletes when going to altitude i.e. overtraining. After a terrific 3 weeks stretch in St Moritz in July I was really fit - and carrying an injury. Having put my pelvis slightly out of alignmenent 3 weeks hard training had inflamed the muscles in the hip. What was really required was a rest to let things settle but I was in damage limitation mode for the last 7 weeks training. Next time I will be visiting Claire just before going away for a training camp.

This had a couple of effects. Firstly my training just wasn't as consistent as before Toronto. I was able to hit most of the key workouts but in between it was just injury management. To compound this I made a decision to focus on hitting the MP work and dropping some faster workouts when I was forced to choose. Looking back it meant that I did quite a bit of MP at altitude at a speed around 3:20/km and in reality did very little running actually at target sea level MP (3:14) or 10k pace. Come race day I had bucket loads of stamina but running target pace felt mechanically challenging i.e. I felt like I was really legging it to run at 2.17 pace. So I finished full of running (last 2.2km in 6:54) but couldn't sustain it earlier in the race. With hindset I was probably optimally trained to race 50km at about 3:23/km - just don't tell Norman Wilson !

The big reminder for me is that I am a 'slow' runner and need to keep some long, faster (10k pace) efforts in my training pretty much year round. Just doing the hill sprints and strides isn't enough. The other reality check was that training the fuel systems with MP effort running is one thing and training the muscles to run at target MP is another. I need to do both if I'm training at altitude.

And finally the long run. I've found over the years that just going out for 2-2.45 hours doesn't really challenge me much anymore. I'm pretty well adapted and can go out and nail a 20 miler any time of year. So I wanted to make things more demanding by adding some faster efforts. The first time I did this was quite tough. Running some short fast bursts in the first hour makes the last hour a bit more uncomfortable from a combination of having burned off fuel and fatigued the faster twitch muscles fibres which normally get recruited towards the end of a long run when the slow twitch are exhausted. What was really pleasing was that over the course of just three of these more demanding long runs I was able to adapt to the point where I was putting in a significant amount of fast running in the first 2 hours then able to finish with a progressive 5k finish at faster than MP. A big step forward and one that made the closing stages of the race a much more appealing proposition come the day.

So plenty to take in and work with come my next marathon in the spring.

Back to basics, Gwent Cross Country League

2008-11-10T08:26:00.002Z

It was a battle of the generations in the Senior Men's race as Rob Whalley and myself lined up against Tom Russell and Josh Lilley in the second Gwent League of the winter at Bath University. With the likes of James Thie also toeing the line it was a tasty looking line up and the strong winds and driving rain added an extra tactical dimensional to the race.

For me this was an opportunity to build on last weeks relays over a distance which suits me better than a 5k burn up. Again I was undone by a lack of pace as Tom and Rob scampered off in the first half mile and I just couldn't keep up. The race quickly settled down and a group formed behind me into the wind. I couldn't really complain as in days gone by I remember sitting behind the more experienced guys letting them do the work. By the 2nd lap it was time for an experiment (thats what the races are for after all) so I put in a fast burst of about 400m into the wind which only Josh could follow so we were down to a battle for 3rd/4th with Tom and Rob still up the course and battling it out for the win.

Pleasingly I was able to run the 3 big laps progressively quicker with splits of 8.58, 8:57 and 8.52 to finally get away from Josh with a mile or so to go. A game of cat and mouse at the front ended with Tom Russell coming out on top.

Encouragingly for the sport there was a large turnout with teams from across south wales and the west country making the trip to Bath. With colourful team tents pitched across the muddy fields the scene was reminicent of a medieval army encampment with bodies strewn about after each of the races !

Full Results to follow

National Cross Country Relays

2008-11-05T21:26:00.006Z

As we all know from Beijing getting the baton round is the primary requirement. Or in the case of a 4 man cross relay having 4 men ! Looking to build on last years tantalising 5th place when we finished just a couple of seconds outside the medals my Wells City Harriers team were quietly optimistic in the build up to this years race. Frank Tickner was returning to fitness after a stress fracture, big brother Ben was in good early season form and Andy Hennessy and myself had miles in the bank from our autumn marathon exploits. So far so good then the jinx struck as Andy's marathon caught up with him and a dose of achilles tendinitis left him on the treatment table and out of action. And with an injury list to our reserves that would have had 'big Phil' tearing his hair out we had to take the start line with just three runners.

And what a day we had. Ben powered round the first leg to put us right in the thick of the action in 3rd place. My job had always been damage limitation and despite having Andi Jones and Dave Norman breeze past me early on I was able to hand over in 5th. Blowing away the cobwebs Frank was clearly not at his best but was still good enough to take us into the lead and cause the commentators to reach for the stat book in search of previous Wells medal winning exploits. Of which there were none of course. A statistic which will have to remain for another year alas. At least the three of us had a good run out to get our cross country seasons underway. The conditions were a bit wetter than previous years and my Shay XCs did a great job. I'm going to enjoy a winter wearing these.

I'm a big fan of the country. Its great for getting used to frequent changes in rythmn and challenges the muscles in a way that road and track can't do. Looking back the mud was where I had my early successes, from winning my first race as a 9 year old through to my breakthrough race in the 1994 British Universities Championships. And this year the 'National' will be back at its spiritual home at Parliament Hill Fields and even in the slightly emasculated 12k form its still a race to send a shiver down the spine. I plan on being there ! But first up is the Gwent League at Bath this weekend and a return to man to man combat after the relay season. Can't wait.

Shoe Review: Saucony Shay XC

2008-10-23T09:19:00.010+01:00

Let me declare a prejudice at the outset of this review. I'm no fan of specialist cross country spikes. Whenever i've tried them in the past they have been heavy and stiff. In fact they have felt like a pair of trainers with nails in the sole. I've always pressed into service last season's track spikes as this seasons cross country shoes and even on the muddiest of British courses have been fine.

So the prospect of getting the new Saucony Shay XC didn't exactly set me on fire until I tried them on. And boy are these shoes good. They are by a mile the most comfortable spike I have worn and much of that has to be down to a similar inner shoe design as Saucony use in the A2. The forefoot is nicely gripped and the heel sits snuggly as well. The heel tab, while looking fairly high, is deceptively positioned and also actually quite soft so caused me no problems. And at 195 grams these are proper lightweight shoes unlike some previous specialist XC spikes.

Wearing them on a grass circuit this week felt great, almost like running barefoot. Like most XC shoes the spikes are recessed a bit so in effect are about 3mm shorter than their nominal length. The supplied 9mm spikes should be fine on american golf course type cross country but I was beginning to struggle for grip on the corners by the end of the workout so will be shopping for some 12 and 15mm spikes in time for my first cross country of the season next weekend.

A note on sizing. I mentioned in the Fastwitch 3 review that the Saucony racers were a slightly closer fit than the trainers of the same size. With spikes I dont wear socks, even thin racing socks I have gone down a half size in the Shay XC compared to my other Saucony shoes. The Shay XC is available in the UK exclusively at Sweatshop.

What is your experience of the Shay XC ? Post a comment ...

4th place in the Geneva Marathon

2008-09-28T13:59:00.007+01:00

A frustrating morning for me in the Geneva Marathon as I came home an isolated 4th place in 2:20.54, not what I had anticpiated.

A leading group of 4 took off after a kilometre and even on a good day I wouldn't have gone with them. So I was left with a couple of other guys for company who weren't able to contribute to the pace so I ended doing most of the next 41km on the front of my group until they had all dropped off by 23k and then it was solo to the finish.

The real frustration was that there was just no speed in my legs. As soon as I tried running faster than 3.20/km I was struggling to get my legs moving, but 3:20 was comfortable. I've got a hunch as to what I got wrong in my preparation but will leave that for the debrief in a couple of weeks time. At least I was strong at the end with fuel in the tank (6.54 from 40k to the finish).

Sitting in my hotel writing this I feel so much less knackered than after my previous marathons which I suppose is something to take heart from - I can walk normally for a start ! There were a number of other pluses which will come out in the wash but my Saucony Fastwitch 3 racing shoes performed really well and my feet are in the best shape ever after a marathon.

Up at the front Ethiopia's Tesfaye Eticha broke the course record to take his fourth win a row with last year's runner up Philipp Muia of Kenya having to settle for second place again.

Time for a good rest now before digging out the spikes for some cross country.

Updated:

This morning I'm reminding myself why I chose Geneva rather than Berlin or Chicago for my autumn marathon. I really wanted to be in a race situation: near the front, hopefully having to use tactics, fast finish etc rather than just sitting in a group on another drag strip and trying to squeeze out a top 20 finish. What yesterday taught me was that a marathon 'race' is a completely different game from the big city races that I have done before (Amsterdam, London, Toronto) and certainly comparing my performance yesterday with my previous runs in those events based on the finish time is nigh on impossible. Looking at it from the perspective of position, which is why I was here, I finished 4th in a race in which I had the 5th best PB. I would have needed a big improvement to get 3rd (though I felt that 2.17 was on the cards). And on current fitness 1st and 2nd places were beyond my capability.

So actually 4th place was decent result which I should be satisfied with and the experience of the preparation and race situation will be beneficial in future.

Results
1. Tesfaye Eticha Eth 2:14.23,1
2. Philipp Muia Ken 2:15.36,8
3. Zeremariam Berhe Eri 2:17.33,8
4. Adrian Marriott GB 2:20.49,5

Full Results

Marathon Training w/e 21st Sept - the taper

2008-09-21T14:15:00.004+01:00

Two weeks to go before the race is always the worst period for me. The hard training is done and as I start to back off I invariably feel rubbish with heavy, unco-ordinated legs. This time was not much different apart from the blessing in disguise that was last saturday's sore adductor. That forced me to take it very easy for a few days and shifted my focus away from how my legs were feeling to making sure I was pain free.

The last real workout before the marathon was done on thursday, 11 days out. After a good warm up a mix of MP and some faster running with a total volume of about 25km was designed to remind the body what a hard (but not exhausting) effort is like and give a good amount of time for supercompensation before the race. Sunday was 5x2km run at marathon pace to keep familiar with the race rythmn.

Mon 35 mins easy
Tue 45 mins moderate and finishing at a steady pace
Wed 50 mins including 7x200m fast
Thr 92 mins including about 8km of MP followed 5km of 10k pace efforts
Fri Rest
Sat 50 mins incl. 6x200m fast
Sun 15min w/u, 5x2km MP, 15min w/d

So just one week to go now. This is familiar territory. Just easy running with a few fast strides to keep the CNS awake and a few kilos at race pace on wednesday. Making sure I'm fully hydrated and fueled up goes without saying and I will be spending some time rehearsing the different race scenarios in my mind so that as the race unfolds next sunday I will have been there before and can react automatically.

Marathon Training w/e 14th sept - the last long run

2008-09-16T15:15:00.005+01:00

This week was the 6th of my 8 scheduled marathon build up weeks and definitely fell into the two steps forwards one step back category.

A couple of easy days got last sundays 3x7km out of my system and then on wednesday I nailed my last long run. I mentioned at the start of this series of posts that I was going to be making my long runs more challenging this time round as just doing 30-40km at a moderate to steady pace wasn't giving me big benefits any more. I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise really. After repeating any training stimulus several times the body adapts and it ceases to be a stimulus ! This weeks long run had quite a bit of faster running in it and I'm looking forward to seeing how this translates into my ability to race the last 10k in Geneva.

The plan was to end the week with a less than flat out effort round the Bristol Half Marathon. Unfortunately doing drills on saturday I managed to tweak an adductor so spent a worried 48 hours clutching the ice pack. Its a classic compensation problem as result of piling on the training when the hip wasn't working properly. Fortunately the adductor is only a strain and i'm back running and a few easy days have also allowed the hip to clear up so all in all not a bad outcome ! On top of that my Saucony team mates Tom Payn and Ben Moreau finished 1st and 3rd and Bristol, just a shame I wasn't able to be up there with them.

Anyway last weeks training (at 6000ft altitude so paces about 5-7 sec/km slower than the same effort at sea level):

Mon 60 mins very easy + 40 mins easy
Tue 45 mins easy + 40 mins easy
Wed 2hr 17 (approx 38km) split 40 mins easy, uphill: 10 x 60sec fast / 90sec easy to burn off some fuel, 25 mins moderate, 25 mins MP into a strong headwind along the lake (bit of psychology for Geneva), 5 mins easy, 20 mins progressive with last 3km: 3:17, 3:14, 3:10 Solid effort and drinking water only - save the Vitargo rocket fuel for race day :-)
Thr 60 mins very easy
Fri rest and travel home
Sat 30mins, drills and aarrgghhhh ....
Sun off and ice

2 weeks to go and its a question of letting the body heal up now while keeping in touch with race pace so that the CNS doesn't forget what it needs to do come race day.

Marathon Training w/e 7th September

2008-09-08T07:57:00.005+01:00

With 4 weeks to go until Geneva I'm now at the business end of my build up. Very marathon specific training sessions to get me used to running race pace efficiently and hopefully having a change of gear for when the race really starts sometime after the 30km point.

For this build up I had planned to do a couple of the 'special block' sessions where you do the same hard training in the morning and afternoon but the hip issues in august put paid to that. So instead I'm experimenting with a 10 day altitude 'top up'. Its a technique that Marius Bakken reported getting good results with so worth a test. In the past I've raced really well after about 10 days back at sea level and get better for another week or so but i've never raced a marathon less than 4 weeks after coming down. So on monday evening I travelled back up to St Moritz and will come down 17 days before Geneva, hopefully feeling turbocharged.

So the first few days this week were about recovering from last sunday's long hard effort and re-adjusting to 6000ft altitude before hitting a couple of big efforts later in the week. I must be jinxed because August in St Moritiz was apparently glorious and the rain followed me from home all the way up to the Engadin where its still miserable as hell.

Monday off and travel

Tue 70 mins with last 20 steady then strides + 40 min very easy

Wed 68 mins incl 8x12sec hill sprints + 38 mins easy

Thr 40 mins easy + 50 mins easy incl 7x200m fast stride (had planned a hard workout but hardly slept so pushed it back a day)

Fri 90min including 60min fartlek alternating approx 1km HM/10k pace with 1km steady (average pace for the hour was MP). The emphasis of this workout is to control the pace of the 'recoveries' so that they are a bit slower than MP and this gives the body time to remove the lactate created by the faster segments while still keeping the overall speed up.

Sat 60 mins moderate + 42 mins easy

Sun approx 30km with 3x7km at MP in freezing, pouring rain. About as much fun as 'delhi belly'. At least on days like these you know that some of your opponents are sitting in front of the TV waiting for the rain to stop and when it doesn't then they havent put in training.

So another solid week and just a couple more big efforts to go before backing off and resting up for the big day. The Letsrun Fall Marathon Thread is here

Shoe Review: Saucony Fastwitch 3

2008-09-03T11:38:00.003+01:00

I've been breaking in a new pair of Saucony Fastwitch 3 racing shoes for my upcoming marathon in Geneva so here are a few observations after a few runs.

First thing is the sizing. I usually go down half a size in racing shoes to allow for the fact that i'm only wearing thin racing socks compared to thicker socks and orthotics in my trainers. But with the Fastwitch 3 I'm wearing a size UK 8.5, the same as my ProGrid Triumph 5 trainers. The Saucony racers do fit a bit closer than the trainers (same applies for the A2) so this is something to keep in mind. My local Saucony stockist Tri UK holds a pretty comprehensive range of sizes which made life a bit easier.

The fit is what attracted me to this shoe. I have a narrow heel and broad forefoot so can have a problem with my heels slipping around and the consequent blisters. These fit like a dream, nice grip on the heel and plenty of room in the toe box. First time out they were fine, no problems with blisters or bruising.

The ride is somewhere between soft and hard ! The shoe has a decent amount of cushioning and some medial support so should be fine for longer races up to the marathon. For a real low profile shoe for 5-10k I would probably go for the super skinny Saucony A2.

Because this shoe has a blown rubber outsole there is some wear on it already but as I normally destroy the midsole of my racers before the outsole i'm not overly worried about this. Will report back when they have done a couple of hundred miles though. One point to note is that like many racers these days there are holes in the midsole to save weight. On a wet road this is OK but when I ran through standing water I got wet socks. So hopefully no big puddles in Geneva !!

Updated:

Here is a picture of the sole of my Fastwitch 3 racers after 150km of running. There is some wear at the back of the forefoot and also where I push off on my toes. Otherwise they seem to be holding up well.

How did you find the Fastwitch 3 racers ? Post a comment ...

Marathon Training w/e 31st August, back in the saddle

2008-09-01T14:30:00.012+01:00

Oh the rollercoaster that is marathon training. From despair to optimism, renewed doubt and finally supreme confidence in a few short days. Money can't buy highs and lows like this ! The week started with painful easy running and a sense of 'will this hip ever heal up in time for my marathon at the end of September' and ended with a flying couple of miles at the end of a solid 2hr 15 min effort and moments of glory once again entering my dreams.

The key has been patience. Religiously doing my exercises to loosen the muscles around hip and get the glutes activating properly again. Its time consuming and tedious but essential. And then the patience to every day just stretch the training a little bit without going over the top. The temptation is to hammer the body back into shape with a few hard sessions. Instead I've concentrated on starting easy and building each day a few more minute of good aerobic running down to marathon pace and then threshold top remind the body how to work. Next week is the time for a really hard effort.

Monday Easy 37 mins and easy 30 mins. Hurting and wondering whether there is any hope
Tuesday 50 minutes with some uncomfortable strides and 30 minutes suddenly feeling much looser
Wednesday 45 mins starting easy but with last 15 mins steady. Still feeling the hip but at last no pain, cautious optimism. Physio and the good news is that everything is still where it should and just need some time for muscles to relax. More optimism !
Thursday 62 mins moderate with the hip feeling OK at last. Evening easy running and 6 hill sprints. Actually able to feel the glutes working on the right side, my arse must have been getting really flabby :-(
Friday 25 mins easy then 40 mins progressive to threshold pace. So hard, blowing out of every orrifice and wondering where on earth all that fitness has gone. Self doubt in spades.
Saturday 50 mins moderate and 30 mins easy. A bit sore from yesterday which is not a good sign after a progression run.
Sunday 2hrs 15 starting easy then at a moderate pace with the last 30mins building to marathon pace. Really helped to have John McFarlane for company on this run especially as I felt pretty rough after about 90minutes before really picking up in the last half hour. Able to change gears in the last couple of miles and felt great. Finished feeling full of belief again.

Not sure I can stand the emotional turmoil of many more weeks like this one so now hoping for a normal couple of weeks then taper down to the race on 28th Sept.

Last night I went to Wembley to support a few of my colleagues at Connectwell as they took part in the Nike Human Race representing London against the rest of the world. You have to admire the marketing genius of the folks from Oregon. Hundreds of thousands of runners all round the world (well at least in their target markets) all wearing Nike T-shirts and just doing it.

It was a cool wet night in London and being on the other side of the fence holding kit and dishing out water bottles gave me a different perspective on our sport. Isabel, Kim and Steve (left with supporters) were all so pleased to complete the 10k in 67 minutes, a big achievement for them as non-runners.

Their excitement was palpable as talk turned to 'next time' and beating the hour mark. Looks like we have three more potential addicts !

It was great to see so many people participating and actually running at a solid pace and enjoying the experience even although it was a miserable evening for running in and even more miserable for the few hardy souls who left the dry confines of the stadium to get out on the course and spectate. Although one young lady running in wave 4 (bottom left) seemed to be taking things far too seriously as she weaved in and out of the other runners with the Wembley arch lit up in the background.

Marathon Training W/E 24th August

2008-08-25T17:10:00.006+01:00

After 6 months of trouble free running it all went a bit wrong this week. I've had a tight hip recently and on monday it finally decided that I wasn't going to run another step. Fortunately I've got a great physio in Claire Wheller and she quickly found that my pelvis had upshifted and rotated forward on the right hand side. This was causing the muscles to work in ways they are not supposed to - and hence the pain. The best metaphor I can think of is when you bash your car wheel against a curb and then a few thousand miles later find that the tyres have worn unevenly because you put the suspension out of alignment. Thats basically what's happened. Its not new for me, I did it last year before Toronto but at the start of my taper so it didn't interfere with my preparation beyond forcing me to run the race on one leg. Its a bit annoying because I thought I stopped a recurrence by spending time doing some exercises to keep everything solid but clearly I haven't been doing enough. Must do better !

With 5 weeks to go until race day this is not an ideal position to be in but there are two rays of light. The first is that before my first marathon I missed 10 days with a horrid gastro bug at about the same time in my build up and if anything the break did me some good. The second is that i'm in good shape already so if things come together this week I should have time to get in a few more key workouts then taper though I may need to have a review of my goals. Time will tell !

So after a few days of rest to let things settle training was a 25 minute jog on saturday and 45 minutes on sunday. At least this left me with some time to watch the olympics and enjoy two terrific marathon races.

The men's marathon really was a surprise. Along with most other onlookers I was expecting the fast early pace to really take its toll later on due to the conditions but Sammy Wanjiru just kept pouring it on right to the finish. There's no doubt in my mind that we will look back on this race in a few years time and say that it marked a step change in men's marathon running. Why do I say that ? Until now the fastest 10k guys to move up to the marathon have been Tergat and Geb but they have done it at the end of their careers. A couple of 13min /sub 27 guys like Evans Rutto and Felix Limo made the move mid career but nobody with such speed has specialised as early as Wanjiru. Remember he has run 26.40 for 10k and a mid 58 half marathon. With Bekele crushing the opposition again at 10,000m I can see a few more fast runners moving up mid career (I would expect Zersenay Tadesse to debut this winter) and some of the aspiring 10,000m runners to skip straight to the marathon like Wanjiru and Ryan Hall have done.

If that is not concerning enough for the european/north american marathoners it also seems that the effect of foreign coaching on the east africans is starting to take effect in how they acclimatise for hot and humid championship races. With Rothlin 6th and Ritzenhein and Hall 9th and 10th the african performance was stronger than in recent championships. And when the Ethiopians finally swallow their pride and prepare their marathon runners properly for a hot and humid championship race then there really will be fireworks. The days of relying on superior acclimatisation to beat them may be coming to and end.

Marathon Training w/e 17th August

2008-08-21T10:59:00.003+01:00

Managed to get in two good marathon specific workouts this week though not quite as much running in between as I would have liked due to a slightly sore hip but thats all part of the joy of a marathon build up.

Having stayed up half the night on saturday to watch the Womens Olympic Marathon I made sure that sunday was a really gentle day. It would have been very easy to push too hard and risk over stressing the immune system after not enough sleep.

And what a great race it was. Britain's Mara Yamauchi kept me on the edge of my seat for the last hour as she looked very strong just tucked into the leading group. We were at university at the same time and I don't imagine for one minute that when we were slogging through mud in the students cross country league that Mara would have imagined that 15 years later she would finish 6th in the Olympic Marathon. It just goes to show what is possible with the right amount of focus and progressive training. Inspiring stuff really !

My week looked something like this:
Mon 50mins easy and 40mins very easy
Tue 2hr 15 mins moderate with 10x1min fast/2min mod after the first hour then 20mins MP to finish. The fast stuff put some fatigue into the legs which made the last 20mins more challenging. These long runs are going to get tougher in the next month and hopefully this will pay off in the last 10k of the race
Wed 52 mins easy
Thr off as the hip was sore
Fri 50 mins moderate and 45 mins easy
Sat 5x4km at marathon pace with 1km in 3:45 as recovery. Was able to really put my foot down in the last 2km of the last rep so plenty of power in the engine which is good news.
Sun 60mins easy and 45 mins easy

Marathon Training w/e 10th August

2008-08-11T21:09:00.006+01:00

This autumn will be my 6th marathon build up and each time i've had to change things a bit to keep challenging my body to adapt. Last time out I put in a 27km continuous tempo run. For this one I've already gone a bit longer on my long runs so far (2hr 45mins) and run a bigger volume during July. Next I will be throwing in some faster segements on my long runs to get used to running at race pace on tired legs. Should be fun!

I found this week a bit of struggle. Coming down from the mountains it has felt really humid all week and the legs have just been a bit sluggish, that said there was plenty of speed when required so its just a question of re-adjusting to sea level. So the details:

Mon 90mins undulating with the last 30 steady
Tue 45mins easy + 9x2mins fast with 75 secs jog
Wed day off and a visit to the physio to make sure everything was moving properly
Thr 50 easy mins incl 7x200m fast + 45mins very easy
Fri first structured MP run: 8x2km + 35mins regeneration
Sat 65mins moderate + 45mins easy
Sun 65mins with the last 30 steady + 45mins very easy and 7x80m uphill max sprints

This works out at about 160km for the week and after the training in St Moritz actually felt quite easy. I doubt I will still be saying that in 5 weeks time though.

For those of you wondering what pace easy, moderate etc is it goes something like this:
Regeneration = 5min/km
Very Easy = 4.30
Easy = 4.00
Mod = 3.45
Steady = 3.30
MP = 3:15
AT = 3:05
Fast = sub 2.55

And as a general rule I start a bit slower and build up to the required effort and if in doubt run slower rather than faster.

The Letsrun 'Fall Marathon Training' thread is here

Funny thing endurance

2008-08-04T18:11:00.004+01:00

At a weekend track meeting I got talking to two of my clubmates, both veterans (masters) and both the proud owners of big new personal bests. The first had just knocked 4 seconds off his 800m time to go sub 2:20, which is a big chunk by any standard. Especially as all of last season he had trained specifically for the 800m and this season he hadn't ! The second runner had a tough winter with not as much running as last year. The last time we spoke in June he was toying with the idea of running some shorter races than last season's range of 800m-5000m. This seemed like a good idea as he has plenty of speed. So when he popped a 59.9 for 400m (not bad for a 45 year old novice sprinter) the plan was vindicated.

Earlier that morning I had been reading in the newspapers Marilyn Okoro explaining her 1:58 front running win in the Crystal Palace GP the previous friday. Maz is a 800m runner with enough 400m speed to be on the GB 4x400m relay team. Her slow start to the season (she was running 2:02 back in May) was down to the heavy endurance work she was putting in she explained. In the same paper Michael Rimmer was chuffed with his 1:44 breakthrough which in his estimation had a lot to do with a winter spent training with the 1500m man (and accomplished cross country runner) Tom Lancashire under the guidance of experienced coach Norman Poole.

So this got me thinking, what have a couple of 45 year old club mates got in common with two of Britain's Olympic middle distance hopes ?

Well the first of my clubmates had actually run his first marathon this spring. As a result he had spent the winter running more volume and doing more long runs than before. So while he hadn't been hammering short reps on the track all spring he had been getting aerobically much fitter. And given that the 800m is about half and half aerobic and anaerobic contribution its pretty easy to work out now where the 4 second improvement came from !! In fact if he now does a few weeks of race pace workouts I would bet that there is another second or two to come off that time. And the second club mate was simply matching his race event to the amount of background training he had managed to get done in the winter. Instead of facing a summer of disappointment in the longer middle distances he moved down and focused on setting personal bests at those distances.

So what's the takeout ? The aerobic system has far more scope for training than the anaerobic and the majority of us are underdeveloped aerobically. (Even after a few years of marathon training I am still improving my running economy and turning in faster races even though my anaerobic power is less than it was 10 years ago). So whether you are a half miler or a marathon runner get to work developing your aerobic capabilities. It takes time and the payback is well worth it.