World Trophy 50km reflections

This post seems to have taken an age to come together. The race took place as long ago as 20th October and it didn't go according to plan with a problem in my right vastus lateralis getting progressively worse until I had to stop at 36km, frustrated and disappointed.

So one of the reasons it has taken me so long to pull some thoughts together was I that I very quickly wanted to move on from what had happened and focus on enjoying a good break and getting myself healthy again to resume training later in the year.


So a few reflections on the event. The heat. It was a hot day on the Italian coast with temperatures in the high 20s and no shade from the sun which was burning down for much of the race and reflecting off the sea. I was surprised to see people dropping out even in the first 10k as they struggled with the conditions which brings me back to the topic of heat acclimatisation which i've written about before.

If there is a possibility of a warm day then prepare for the conditions ! I'm still amazed at how many runners leave this aspect of their preparation to chance and hope they can cope - they invariably can't. I did my most comprehensive heat acclimatisation so far with regular treadmill runs wearing a hat and gloves and not surprisingly I felt relatively comfortable on what was a hot day.

All the photos here are of me running with team mate Dave Mitchinson. We spent the whole race running together and it really helped to have some company and a bit of moral support when things were feeling a bit tough. We hatched a plan early on to start steady and work our way through. In the early stages we were outside the top 10 and by the time I had to step off the road we up to 5th and 6th with 4th place in sight. Once again I was reminded of the value of setting out a realistic pace for the course/conditions. In the marathon or 50k you have a long way to hang on if you go out too hard and there were some of the early leaders who were hanging on for a long time!

With hindsight I had an inkling of trouble in my right leg when out for a jog the day before the race. There was some discomfort although it eased off fairly quickly. Knowing what I know now I would have spent a lot more time self treating that evening and on race day morning though whether that would have prevented the problem from flaring up who knows.

In such a long race drinks are critical and in ultra races you can have a support crew handing you bottles within the designated technical areas. We had our own drinks on a table (left middle) but some quick thinking from Team Leader Andy Smith ensured that he also got across the course to give us bottles of water in the second technical area to help us keep cool (left bottom). Thats the kind of experience in the team that really makes a difference.

And finally winner Steve Way deserves a mention for how he ran the race. With an out and back 6km loop along the seafront we could see the race unfolding and Steve dropping off the lead group a couple of times. He never gave up and get running his race. Even when I walking back in it was clear that although in third place he was looking the best of the leaders though I not sure he believed it given by the look he gave me when I yelled at him that he could win the race with 10km to go ! He only took the lead with 5km left and the size of gaps he opened up tells you just how badly 2nd and 3rd place blew up.

Winter Marathon Preparation events

The Somerset Athletics Network is putting on two marathon preparation events this winter. First up will be an evening masterclass at Frome Rugby Club on Friday 25th Jan at 7pm. This will focus on the main training components for the marathon and how to put together a 12 week build up for your spring marathon.

Then a few weeks later on Sunday 17th Feb we have a practical training morning at Yeovil Arena with the focus on race day and race pace preparation.

Places are limited to 25 for each event and members of Somerset Clubs can email me directly to register.

Somerset Psychology Workshop cancelled

Unfortunately sunday's psychology workshop has had to be cancelled as our workshop leader is ill. Sorry for the short notice cancellation. Hopefully we can re-arrange for the New Year.

Adrian

Jungfrau Marathon 2012

The last couple of months have seen the focus of my training shift to going long and going up as I had the double goals or running for England in the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championship in September then backing that up with the 50km World Trophy Final in Italy 6 weeks later.

The races couldn't have been more of a contrast both in terms of profile and outcome ! Lets start with the Jungfrau Marathon. One look at the course profile is enough to make strong men (and even stronger women) tremble in their trainers.

After a first half which sees a steady climb to Lauterbrunnen the course turns right and heads steeply up to Wengen before somewhat levelling off for the next 10km. And then the killer 2km stretch from Wixi up to the ridge at the foot of the Eiger Glacier (top left) is the icing on the cake. And and just when you are looking forward to a rest the last km is a cramp inducing downhill to the finish.

So how to prepare for a race like that ? Run uphill of course. Which is easier said than done in rural somerset which is where the treadmill came in. I'm not a big fan of the treadmill, why run indoors when you can run as nature intended ? One of the great things about modern treadmills is being able to mimic the course profile by adjusting the gradient quickly and easily which is exactly what I did. The first couple of efforts were pretty tough but it got easier to the point where I was able to do one of my 37km runs with 2 hours hilly outdoors then jumping on to the treadmill for 30mins as fast as I could run up a steep hill. That was pretty tough !

Come race day the trick in Jungfrau is to pace the first half right. Too slow and you can't make up the time on the steep second half, too fast and you are heading for a very ugly last hour as you contend with the gradient and low energy. I went through halfway with a large group in just over 82mins and picked up places steadily through the second half to come home 32nd in 3hours 18min 59 secs (left). On balance I was probably too conservative in the first half but better that than the fate that awaited a few of the over ambitious !

What else can I say about the experience ? Simply the most stunning race course I've run, organised with Swiss precision and definitely a must do race for any serious long distance runner. There is a brilliant slideshow from Andy Mettler that gives you a flavour for the event. The uphill training has also given me some fresh persepctives on developing threshold without the impact stresses of running fast on the level, you certainly recover a lot faster after an uphill effort than the equivalent on the flat.

Results
1. Markus Hohenwarter (Aut)
2. Mitja Kosovelj (Slo)
3. Hosea Tuei (Ken)
32. Adrian Marriott (Eng)

Full Results

Race Website

Oscar Pistorius beaten - was it the blades or his mind ?

Who would have thought that debating the technical merits of various prosthetic legs would be front page news and top of the TV and radio bulletins ? But that's exactly what has happened following Oscar Pistorius's defeat last night in the T44 200m and his subsequent outburst. I will come back to the merits of his complaint later but first of all a different perspective on the result which hasn't been discussed much and may be of real relevance to athletes in all sports.

Was it the blades or his mind ?

In the semi-final Pistorius ran a world record 21.30 seconds, looking comfortable and under no pressure from fellow competitors. Come the final and he only ran a 21.52 while gold medallist Alan Oliveira clocked 21.45. So if Oscar had simply reproduced his semi-final performance he would be the champion and the length of Oliveira's blades wouldn't be such a hot topic. Which begs the question what happened between semi and final ?

Assuming that the conditions were similar its possible that Oscar simply wasn't fit enough to recover and produce another top physical performance. I've no idea whether this is the case but I have observed a number of times when he has struggled to back up outstanding performances with another one the next day. Indeed at the Olympics he was significanlty slower than in his first round. It will be interesting to see how his week progresses at this meet. Even sprinters need good endurance to handle multiple races at a high level during the course of a championship. Michael Johnson was well known for developing his endurance in winter with repeat 800m runs on grass so that he could cope with 200m, 400m and relay in a week.

Back to the mind and its role in performance. In the last 50m you can see Pistorius starting to tighten and lose that running freedom he had in his semi. You can almost hear his mind saying "Oliveira is coming, its not fair". And herein lies the challenge for all athetes. The blades debate isn't a new one, Pistorius has been involved in arguments about his advantage (or not) against able bodied athletes and also this debate about blade length for paralympic athletes for some time now. And this latest battle must have been on his mind.
We've all experienced that little voice in the run up to a race which nags away telling us why the competion is better and we can't win. Make that voice get reinforced by your worst fear coming true and guess what - you tighten up in the last 50m and get beaten. The emotional outburst after the race just reinforces the likelyhood of that sort of internal conversation taking place before and during the race.

By contrast swimmer Ellie Simmonds has dealt brilliantly with her equivalent crisis. Having lost her world record earlier in the year and then facing the uncertainty of whether her biggest competitor (and favourite) was going to race against her or be reclassified Ellie could have gone into meltdown by focusing all her energies on these external factors. Instead she focused only on what she had control of, namely her performance. Come race day and with her competitor out then back in Ellie proceeded to swim a new world record to win the gold in the final length.

Which begs the question what can you do when your mind starts playing games ? The first step is to recognise when it is happening and this is where your coach or training partner can really help by 'noticing' what is going on and gently reminding you, or even giving you a not so gentle reminder if that is what it takes ! You then need to talk it out, preferably aloud with someone listening non-judgementally. And keep talking it out until the voice is tired and quiet. Just telling it to 'shut up' or 'go away' doesn't work ! Once you've exhausted those feelings you can start to re-focus on yourself, the things you are good at, what you need to do to perform at your best in the upcoming competition. You've then a got much better chance of executing your usual pre-competition routine and performing up to your potential.

For a discussion on the technical issues surrounding the blades take a look at the excellent Science in Sport website.

The Salazar tempo run as warm down

Last week I tried something a bit different after racing a local 5k road event. The race went well with a second place in 15.10 after I had taken the pace out early and tried to drop the field.

Anyway the plan was to try out the 'Salazar warm-down after the race. The basic idea is that to get the most out of a hard day you need to make it hard. So after racing, Alberto Salazar often has his athletes jump into some kind of tempo effort to get some extra volume of quality aerobic work in. In recent times the likes of Mo Farah and Galen Rupp have been seen doing 15mins or so at sub 5 min miling after track races. A while back I often used to run a 3k in 10mins flat (2.20 marathon pace) after a track workout to get the feel for marathon pacing so the idea is not entirely new to me, but still, going for a longer effort straight after a race is.

Back to wednesday and after crossing the line a couple of seconds behind winner Shaun Antell and getting my breath back I jogged a few minutes back to the car, had some water and then changed shoes and top before running the opposite way round the course in 16.40 and this was a kind of crescendo effort with the first km being more like 3.35 and the last nearer 3.15 with the middle portion being about 3.20. It seemed to work out quite well and though I had to focus a bit the last km it was a surprisingly comfortable effort. With a couple of kms of quality running in the warm up that made for a 12km workout around a 5k race which I guess is the whole point of doing the workout like this rather than trying to come back the next day and run a 20min tempo on tired and sore legs.

Next morning my legs felt surprisingly good - which is about as scientific as saying fried chicken is super food because I once had a good race after eating it - but still, they felt pretty good. Its an experiment I plan to repeat after my other short races this summer.

Andriy Shevchenko and the joy of sport

Its rare that i'm minded to write about something other than athletics but watching a bit of last nights Ukraine v Sweden football match gave much food for thought. And in particular watching Andriy Shevchenko playing for host nation Ukraine.

Here is a guy who has had a stellar career by any measure, scoring goals for fun, winning championships across Europe and making a pile of cash into the bargain. He made his international debut as an 18 year old and in recent years as age has blunted his strikers knife he often cut a frustrated figure in club and national colours.

And then there was last night. An early miss that he would have buried in his pomp left you wondering whether he was in the line up just to please the supporters and paymasters. But it didn't seem to affect him, he kept making runs, getting into position and played with a smile on his face. You got the sense that being on the pitch, in Ukraine, playing for Ukraine was reward enough and he was going to enjoy the moment for all it was. And as runners we know that when you go into a race with that mindset, just intent on having a blast, then anything can happen.

For Shevchenko the miracles started to happen in the second half as he scored two goals (which the experts tell me were a master class in 'movement') and the sheer joy on his face as he celebrated with his team mates and supporters was something to behold. There is a lesson in there for all sportsmen and not just the highly paid stars who choose to 'retire' from international football. The journey is more important than the destination, so enjoy every minute of it and who knows how high you will fly.