Taking a different approach

During week four of training for Berlin, things are starting to take shape a little bit now and the challenge is very much becoming more real. I have managed to complete four weeks in a row of 80-85 miles a week for the first time, and am enjoying the work that this bigger training block is requiring. It is a new test for me, both physically and mentally it is something different to all that I have done before.

I have been trying to break the 12 week block into smaller segments, in order to make it seem both more of a gradual process of building fitness and also to keep things fresh mentally - rather than one big twelve week slog, I am trying instead to break it down to a weekly, fortnightly and monthly approach. 

The end of this week has brought about the end of the first four week segment. The target four weeks ago was to build a solid base of mileage and to try and string together four weeks at 80 miles plus. So in terms of where I am in comparison to my expectations at this stage, I feel I am bang on track with where I wanted to be at this point.

In addition to all the physical training that I have been doing throughout the initial weeks of marathon training, I have also begun to start trying to study the sport in a a bit more depth. I am trying to build my knowledge of what it takes to be a better runner, both physically and mentally. One way in which I am attempting to do so, is to take in more some of the reading material that is out there to learn from. I have started a book by Charlie Spedding called "From last to first", it is an autobiography describing his progress from school boy crosscountry running, to taking Olympic bronze in an English record time in the marathon. The book was recommended by Luke Minns,mane it hasn't disappointed so far - I am halfway through it and have already taken so much away from it.

One of the main things that I have grasped from the book so far, is the effects that the language that you use to describe yourself and your actions can possibly impact on your performance. That may seem far fetched, but in the way that Charlie explains it, it does make a lot of sense to me - and it is something that I can completely relate to. 

For instance, in the book Charlie describes answering questions about how his training is going, how he is feeling, how his races have gone as always being answerable by the same phrase "not bad", and how "not bad" can also be qualified as meaning "not good" either. In that sense, even good performances or sessions have something of a black cloud hanging over them in your own mind, by how you perceive them and describe them publicly. He suggests that taking a more positive approach and mindset, and using more positive vocabulary and thought processes can lead to you believing in yourself and your ability more, opening up your mind to bigger and better things.

He also uses the example of the runner that has a target set for themselves in a session, but never feels satisfied unless they not only meet said target, but exceed it and go the extra yard. Because these runner's are never satisfied with their training, he says, they never entirely believe they have done all they can to be in shape for their big targets and races. He argues that training optimally - or to the "perfect" level for you - is better than going the extra and training too hard, or overtraining.

This is an interesting concept to me, and I put it into action this week myself. On Thursday, myself and Affleck did our progression run, but whereas I usually try and try to better the previous weeks run, this time I took it much more relaxed and just hit our intended target for the individual session. We had decided to do a 10 mile race on the weekend and to top the mileage up to make a good long run, and so it was important that I held back enough on the Thursday and left enough energy in the tank for the more important workout on the Saturday morning. We still got a decent session in on the Thursday, but didn't overstretch as much as the previous week. I averaged 5:52 for 10 miles, progressing from 6:08 pace at half way.

On Saturday, both me and Affleck decided to venture to the Elswick 10 miler, but also to get there early and do a full reccie of the course beforehand as a warm up, in order to turn it into a 20+ mile long run. We did the warm up at 6:52 pace, and the target for the race was to run around in roughly 5:35 pace, to bring us in at around 56 minutes for the 10 miles. We started off with 5:35, 5:38 and 5:41 for the first three miles, and then we clicked into gear. I was so pleased with the consistency and rhythm that I developed through the final 7 miles of the run. The splits for the remaining miles were: 5:28, 5:28, 5:27, 5:28, 5:28, 5:29 and 5:25 for the final mile. As usual I didn't run by the watch, but by feel and so I was delighted by how controlled and consistent the run went. I opted out of a 'sprint finish' against Rob and don't begrudge him beating me to the line - I was more than happy with what I got out of the run anyway, and was happy to save that little bit of energy for another day. I came in with 55:09 for the 10 miles for 2nd place, over two and a half minutes slower than my best time for the distance, but a performance that I am very pleased with considering the extent of the warm up! We added another two miles in as a cool down at the end to make up a very nice 22 miles for the morning.

At the four week point, I am very happy with how my training is progressing so far.

Total mileage for the week: 85

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:24

Total mileage so far this month (July): 193.5

Total mileage for 2017: 1944

Average miles per day 2017: 9.92

Berlin build up: week 3

I started off week three of my twelve week block of marathon training with a bit of a rare day off on Monday. Despite feeling good enough to run, with it still being relatively early doors in the training and being concious of the fact that my body will still be adjusting to the recent increase in mileage, I stuck to my original plan of having a rest day at the start of this week.

Originally I had intended to have a go at a 5000 metre race in Trafford on Tuesday. However, a combination of work getting in the way, as well as a few second thoughts, meant a change of plan. Eventually, I decided that at this stage of my training block, getting as many miles in my legs as possible and concentrating on longer efforts is my main concern right now.

So instead I ran a decent paced 12 miles. It wasn't a particularly hard effort, but a steady and consistent run at 6:18 pace.

I doubled up on Wednesday, with 4 miles before work and 8.5 miles in the evening. My evening run was supposed to be gentle paced, but as I tend to run on feel rather than by my watch, I actually clocked 6:10 pace. My heart rate recording suggests that I was indeed running well within myself anyway, so perhaps I just ran a bit stronger due to the day off earlier in the week.

Thursday was, as usual, my progression into a tempo run. This week we did 11.2 miles, starting at 6:04 and working the way to a 5:23 final mile. The average pace throughout the run was 5:39, which in comparison to the previous week's 5:48 pace, again shows some nice progression week to week. Hopefully this is an indication of my endurance and fitness improving, as well as the rest day doing me a lot of good.

I doubled up again with two easier runs on Friday of 4 and 7 miles. On Saturday, I did a bit of a tempo session, I did 5 miles at 5:19 pace. I had intended to do some shorter, sharper two mile efforts around Cottam cycle track, but due to getting out a bit later having got distracted by the Lions rugby match, I settled for one longer effort instead as the track was already in use by the time I got there!

I finished my week with a long run of 20.5 miles on Sunday. The first half of the run went very smoothly, but I encountered some stomach problems from about mile 11 and felt sick through to mile 19 - when I eventually did throw up! I actually felt good once I'd been sick and the last mile and a half was much easier. I don't know what caused the sickness, but in spite of it I was actually pleased with how I went about the run. Despite not feeling great, I held 6:16 pace throughout, slightly quicker than my two previous 20 mile runs of this block. Mentally, this was quite a tough one, so it was very pleasing to come through it fairly strongly, and it makes for good preparation for the challenges I will no doubt encounter on race day.

Total mileage for the week: 79.5

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:15

Total mileage so far this month (July): 108.5

Total mileage for 2017: 1859

Average miles per day 2017: 9.84

Clocking up the miles

The training for Berlin is now well underway, and this week I clocked up my biggest mileage week for the second successive week. I have also managed to get my second 20 mile long run completed and it feels good to have a couple of good long runs under my belt early on in the training block.

The longer training runs are the ones that I feel I was a little bit apprehensive about. I hadn't done a longer run than 18 miles since training for the London marathon in 2015, so mentally it feels good to have a couple done nice and early, knowing that I can at least cope with that distance, and it seems less of a barrier now to increase that distance gradually over the coming weeks and months.

I feel positive about the way the longer training runs have gone too, although I haven't focused on running at any sort of pace, I seem to be finding a nice and relaxed rhythm on them so far and have been hitting 6:20 pace fairly comfortably, and feeling strong towards the end of each of the runs too.

This week was also the fourth race of the 2017 interclub race series, staged at Thornton Cleveleys. The course was a 5 mile single loop, with the first 2.5 miles out being fairly undulating in parts and very much into a straight on headwind. The second half of the course, on the return, was downwind and ran on a harder - albeit much flatter - concrete surface. 

It was a nice evening for racing really, with dry and overcast conditions. The turnout wasn't quite as strong as the previous races so far in this series and so I won the race quite comfortably, and was able to treat it as a nice hard run, putting in the effort still - but without ever really having to move into the top gears. I held 5:08 pace throughout, finishing in 25:42, which was a pleasing effort in what was effectively a time trial run.

The lack of top end competition turning out from other clubs also benefited Wesham in the team standings too, as we managed to take a well deserved first place on the evening to open up the race for the team title a little bit and make things much more interesting going into the second half of the season.

My other main training session of the week was my progression run on Thursday, as we upped it to 11 miles this week, running the 5.5 miles out at 6:05 pace, before returning at 5:30s, to give us an average pace of 5:48 for the session overall.

Apart from that, the rest of the week has been largely easy running, with the focus at this stage being very much on racking up as many miles as I can and getting that solid endurance base built as much as possible. I have managed back to back 80+ mile weeks for the first time since February 2015, so hopefully I can keep that going now in the coming weeks as I try and keep getting stronger and fitter on the road to Berlin. 

12 weeks to go...

Total mileage for the week: 85

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:25

Total mileage for the month of June: 320.5

Total mileage so far this month (July): 29

Total mileage for 2017: 1779.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.78

Back to basics

After suffering a nightmare run out at Freckleton Half, it was important for me to get straight back into the swing of things and putting last Sunday behind me.

No matter how good of a form or shape you believe you are in, and no matter how long you have spent training and racing well, it only takes one bad one to rock your confidence a bit and have you asking questions about every little piece of your preparation.

You are only as good as your last performance as they say, and I definitely was affected somewhat by my experience last weekend as I began a new week. The temptation was to throw myself straight back in with another race somewhere - it didn't really matter where, or what it was - just to try and 'prove' something to myself. I found a one mile event at Cottam and was debating doing that, just to run angry and get my frustrations out of my system.

But after a discussion with Coach Affleck at the start of the week, the clouds in my head soon shifted. Our chat refocused my mind on the big picture and that long term goal of Berlin, which is looming large on the horizon. He made me realise that I am at the start of possibly my biggest and most important training block yet, and doing off-the-cuff things like that could potentially de-rail my attempts for that. 

Instead, I opted to get my teeth into some proper sessions and to start putting the hard miles in as the 14 week countdown to the marathon began. I am glad that I did, as looking back on the week's training, I would actually put it down as one of my most satisfying I've ever done. I completed a personal highest mileage week, and encorporated all of the main ingredients - with a track session, a progression run, tempo, and a longer than normal long run (as I start to build up to that big 26.2!). I also managed to double up on two of the days by adding a 4.5 mile run in before work on a couple of the days to top up my mileage and loosen my legs up after my bigger sessions the night previous.

I am my own biggest critic anyway, so after a poor performance I am always left scratching my head and looking at my plans and training and seeing what and where I need to improve. Ahead of Berlin, mileage and getting used to running on tired legs is definitely one aspect I will be looking to improve over the next 12 weeks or so. For what it is worth though, I don't think I am a million miles off having the right balance now, so it will be more a case of gradual evolution of my training, rather than root and branch revolution. 

This week I ran 10 miles steady on the Monday and was wary about how it would go, just a little over 24 hours after bombing out of the race. I needn't have been too concerned though, as I ran solidly and averaged 6:10 pace comfortably all the way around, without ever really striding out too much. 

Then on Tuesday, I decided to try a bit of a track session. I didn't do a full session, as again I was still a little bit concerned as to how much the weekend would have taken out of me. Instead, I did 3 x 1 miles (4:52, 4:53, 4:53) off a two minute recovery, then 1 x 800 metres (2:28) and 1 x 400 (69). My times faded towards the end as I began to feel a bit jaded and so backed off a touch.

I doubled up on Wednesday, choosing to do an easy 4.5 miles in the morning, followed by a steady 6 in the evening, rather than just doing one big session. This was mainly to break the miles up a bit and to get some of the lactic out of my legs early in the morning.

On Thursday I did a solid 10 mile progression run. I started out a tiny bit quicker than intended, but that just meant that I didn't have to up the effort quite as much through the second half. It was a big undulating loop, so I was pleased to finish up with 5:43 average for 57:15.

Friday was similar to Wednesday, with two gentle runs bringing another 10 miles to the bank.

Over the weekend I got two particularly pleasing sessions in, with a 2 x 3 mile tempo on Saturday (5:23 average pace) followed up by a long run of just under 20 miles at 6:21 pace. I had been dreading my first 20 miler of this training block and so it was a good one to get out of the way, but it went surprisingly well and I felt really relaxed and comfortable throughout. If it hadn't have been so early into the training schedule I would actually have been tempted to carry on for another few miles - so that has to be a good sign!

I have put a good first serious week of work down now, and it is a nice platform to build off from over the next couple of months. 13 weeks until race day...

Total mileage for the week: 83

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:19

Total mileage so far this month (June): 264.5

Total mileage for 2017: 1694.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.68

The pilgrimage

As many of you will know, he Freckleton Half marathon has always been a special race to me. This is where it all began six years ago, my first ever race - it led me to joining Wesham and getting into running competitively. For me, it has been - ever since that day - the ultimate goal to one day try and win that race.

As a boy, I remember sitting out at the front of my mum and dad's house on Green Lane - a stones throw from he finish - and watching the runners go by. As a young kid, I knew then that I would love to take part one day and have a go myself.

When I finally did do - just before my 21st birthday, I knew immediately that this was something which I would come back for and do again the next year. And the next, and the next. And the next, until hopefully one day I was good enough to win it. It has become something of a holy grail to me! 

Last year I managed to run my strongest performance yet at the event, and came home in second place. I must admit, part of me had hoped that this year maybe, just maybe I could push that little bit further.

It wasn't to be, and every credit to Dave Rigby on defending his crown and running very strongly in gruelling conditions. He is one of the finest distance runners in the area, and has again showed that at Freckleton. Regardless of the heat, he would have taken some stopping today.

I gave it a go, and knew that I was up against it and struggling when Dave began to put a push on and pull away from me at about 4.5 miles in. Up until that point, I had dug in fairly well and was just about keeping myself in the game, but once that gap opened up, it opened up quickly. I was already struggling with the heat, and my splits were conclusive proof of the fact that I was quite quickly finding myself in some trouble. 

From being toe to toe with Dave through the first third of the race, within a mile he was out of sight. I actually thought about jacking it in as early as mile 6, but what with still being in second place, I felt a bit of a duty to try and stick at it and hope that I got some sort of second wind from somewhere in the second half of the race. From averaging 5:21 pace through 5 miles, mile 6 was a 5:50 and mile 7 a 5:57. It wasn't to be, and when the inevitable happened at mile 7-8 and Rob Affleck caught me, I was down to little more than a jog. There was no way I would have been able to tag on to the back of him and I knew the game was up. 

I eventually stopped just before the mile 9 mark, as my pace had dropped further to a 6:18, and took an orange from a spectator and a drink of water that they had brought in a bottle. I was offered a lift back to the sports field, but elected to try and jog it in. Around a minute and a half after I stopped, the now 3rd place runner Gary Pennington came passed. I decided to run along with him for a bit and that got me to about mile 10, when I stopped and had a shower with a spectators hose pipe! 

I eventually stopped completely at mile 12, knowing that I was completely zapped of energy and wouldn't want to accept the time anyway!

I am pretty down about things, and will beat myself up for a few days now - but I know that conditions on the day were just out of my hands, I didn't cope with the heat and there is no allowing for that. 

But looking at it from a different perspective beyond just myself, I think it is time for some serious questions to be asked of the organisation of the race itself. I know members of the committee and understand the amount of hard work that goes into putting on the event. I count one of the organisers as a genuine friend and so don't want to be too critical in that respect. But questions have been asked time and again about the continued decision to put this race on at 2pm in the afternoon on what is traditionally one of the hottest weekends of the year. If a runner that is fairly experienced and regularly clocks up 70-75 miles a week is struggling to get around the course, then what about the fun - runners, first timers, and those that are out on the course on the hottest part of the day for in excess of 2 hours or more? 

As I say, this goes beyond thinking of myself, this is me trying to make a serious point about the risks and potential for serious illness or harm to others. The amount of runners that I saw coming in way and above their usual times, and the state some of them were in as they crossed the line said a lot for me. It was brutal.

I know it can be argued that nobody can predict the weather, but it doesn't take a genius to make the presumption that at 2pm on a mid June afternoon the weather is going to be hotter than normal. How many other races can people name that starts mid afternoon, not just in summer months, but year round? And then, how many of them are half marathons were people are out in the heat for a length of time? I can't think of any, and there are reasons for that.

I know the Freckleton committee probably want to avoid a clash with the church service - so why not move the race back to Saturday evening, or knock the start time back to 4pm to avoid the hottest part of the day? As a minimum, surely there must be money in the kitty to at least provide decent quality bottled water, as opposed to the plastic cups? It may sound petty, but at £18 a head, this is not a cheap race. There has to be a duty of care for the runners, surely?

Freckleton has become something of an annual pilgrimage for me, but if things don't change, I seriously question whether I will be back to participate any time soon. That would be a massive shame for me personally, as it is a race that means so much to me.

Fortunately by stopping when I did, I am fine, and feeling better already - barring a bruised ego! I will just have to get straight back on it and find another event to get this bad one out of my system.

During the week, it had mainly been much easy running in the build up to this race - barring a bit of an effort at the latest interclub race at Preston on Wednesday night. It wasn't a particularly quick pace, as the main opposition had both raced in the previous day's running up to this one. I ran around in 5:15s and felt nice and comfortable all the way around.

Total mileage for the week: 64

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:29

Total mileage so far this month (June): 181.5

Total mileage for 2017: 1611.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.59

Building the base

The couple of weeks since my little break from training have basically been just all about making sure I get plenty of miles in the tank and get out training consistently again ahead of my marathon training block.

I don't want the increase in mileage to come as too big a shock to the body, as I definitely can't afford too many niggles or injuries if I am going to be in shape to hit my targets come Berlin.

This was my final week of building that base layer of fitness ahead of the start of the marathon block, which starts in earnest this week - with less than 15 weeks to go now until the big race day!

It has been a bit of a difficult task getting all the necessary sessions sorted this week for a few reasons, but as usual we always seem to find a way to fit in the work that we need!

I started the week with my usual steady Monday run, and felt quite strong and held a good rhythm through my 10.5 miles, most of which were run as part of the club session at around 6:15 pace. 

Due to the high winds that we had on Tuesday, I decided to sack off the track session that I had planned, as it seemed as though I would be fighting a losing battle to get any sort of decent speed up. Instead I chose to do a bit of a progression run from home, aiming to run for around about an hour, and with no real targets in terms of timings/pace I was happy to just see how it went on the go. I finished up with just over 10 miles at 6:15 pace, having started at about 6:40 pace. 

I followed that up with an easy recovery run on Wednesday, I felt a bit leggy, possibly due to some quite good mileage on the back of the off road race last Saturday at Grasmere, and I was suffering due to my hayfever too and feeling fatigued - so it was definitely just a case of getting the run done and ticking off another box. I managed 8 and a half miles at just under 6:35 pace, and made sure I had a good roll about on my foam roller to try and get rid of some of the heaviness from my legs.

It must have worked, because I ran really well on my Thursday progression session with Rob Affleck. I did the same distance as the previous week, but this time we did 5 miles out on the guild wheel into a headwind, before turning back and picking up the pace on the return leg. I got the 10 miles done some 20 seconds faster than last time out. We finished off with 57:21 for the distance and an average pace of 5:44, a pleasing session.

On Friday my legs were feeling the effects of the previous day's session, so I ran very easy and just did the 7 miles at 6:55s.

I swapped my long run around to Saturday this week, due to it being Kirkham Club Day and planning on having an easier day to recover from that somewhat! But also, Sunday was my final day with Molly before her big America journey, so I didn't want to be spending that final day running too much - I still managed to get out though! 

The long run was ran in pretty unrelenting torrential rain, and I actually ended up cutting it a bit shorter than planned, but I ran OK in the circumstances and got in a decent rhythm despite the winds again. I did 14.5 miles in total at 6:18 average pace.

On Sunday I finished off with 8 miles at 6:25s, to round off another 70+ mile week, setting me up nicely for the bigger stuff that is ahead of me in the next 3 months.

Total mileage for the week: 71

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:20

Total mileage so far this month (June): 117.5

Total mileage for 2017: 1547.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.61

Resting, rebooting and Grasmere Galloping

Firstly, let's pick up where we left off last time, two weeks ago. I had just completed a period of targeted races, with the Christleton 5k, and took the opportunity of a bit of a rest week ahead of the beginning of my Berlin marathon training programme.

Initially, the plan had been to take a whole week off from running. But bearing in mind the fact that I had already had 3 days off the previous week with the bad back/ periformas problem in the lead up to Christleton, and the fact that I am a nightmare to be around when I can't run(!), I decided in the end that 4 days off, followed by a few days of steady running with no real sessions, would be enough to freshen me up again.

So breaking off from training after the race on Friday 19th of May, I picked things back up again on Wednesday 24th, and over the next 4 days I ran a similar route each day of between 8 and 8.5 miles at a pace ranging from low 6:20s to 6:35s. I finished off the week on the Sunday with a long run of 17 miles, and the rest must have done me good, as I found myself averaging 6:10 pace throughout and running really nice and comfortably.

So, at the end of the rest week, here were the stats:

Total mileage for the week: 50

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:19

Total mileage so far this month (May): 219.5

Total mileage for 2017: 1399.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.39

Feeling refreshed and free of all the little niggles again, this week I have been back on the sessions and starting to think about the start of my marathon training, with Berlin now just 16 weeks away - both an exciting and scary thought at the same time!

I need to start ramping up the mileage a bit over the next few weeks, but this week was just about easing myself back into the sessions and introducing a bit of speed work and intensity to my running again.

On Monday I did 10 miles at 6:05 pace and I was really pleased as my pacing and rhythm couldn't have been much more consistent throughout and although the pace was a little quicker than I had intended, I wasn't especially pushing it too hard.

Now I have got back in the swing of track training, I am hoping to keep it a regular thing going again, and I managed to make it down there on Tuesday. I did a solo effort seen as I got away from work in good time and had a session planned out in my head of 6 x 1000 off a 90 second 200 metre jog recovery. I wanted to get each rep in at about 3 minutes each, which meant lapping at about 72 seconds per 400.

The session went well, and I recorded times of 2:56, 2:57, 2:58, 2:56 and 2:57 for the first 5 reps, I was beginning to feel it on the fifth rep, and it crossed my mind to leave it at that, but in the end I finished off with a steady 800 in 2:27 to conclude a decent session. 

I ran home from work in St. Anne's on Wednesday, cutting out the commuting time and banking a nice 10.5 miles too at a steady 6:25 pace. The only downside was feeling the first symptoms of hayfever season kicking in as I ran past a string of freshly mowed fields! 😭

With attention turning to the longer stuff again now, my Thursday session with Rob Affleck is now deviating from the shorter, quicker work that we have been doing so far this year, towards some longer progression running. This week we did 10 miles and started off at 6:30 pace, working our way down to 5:25s in the last couple of miles. We came out with an average pace of 5:46.

I settled for an easy 5 miles on Friday, running home from work again (6:35s) before getting packed and travelling up to Grasmere for a club weekend away with Team Wesham, with the club taking 26 runners up to the Lakes, using the 17k and 10k trail races as a bit of a jaunt and making a full weekend of it.

We got lucky with the weather, and when it is sunny, the Lakes really are as good a place to be as anywhere in the world! 

As for the race itself, I settled on running in the 10k, and am glad I did! The course was pretty brutal and unforgiving, with much of the route being off road and on rocky terrain. I recorded it as being 854 foot of elevation in total, and being unused to running off road I found it to be a really good change of scene, and a fantastic workout - but next time I probably won't take it on in my flats! 

The whole atmosphere around the event was superb, and the race team made it a fantastic event to be a part of. I was pleased with how I ran, and the time was pretty much irrelevant considering the tough nature of the course. I was pleased to win though in 34:57, with team mates James Mulvany and Steve Waterhouse also placing in 3rd and 4th and getting in the prizes too.

I creeped my long run up slightly on Sunday to 17.5 miles, at a slower rate than the previous week (6:25s) as I look to gradually work myself up towards the bigger miles that are ahead of me over the next few months. The 16 week countdown is on, and all roads are very much now leading to Berlin.

Total mileage for the week: 77

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:25

Total mileage for May: 250

Total mileage so far this month (June): 46.5

Total mileage for 2017: 1476.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.59