Training blocks and the "Rob Slam"...

Ok, so it has been a while since my last blog post and as a result I have quite a lot to report and update you all with this time around. Lucky you! Haha...

Rather than my usual update after each race and every week of training, it is now two races and another two weeks of mileage since my last update. But don't worry, I will fill you in on everything! There has also been the small matter of a niggle I have had for the past week and a story of transport problems (aaaargh!).

First off, let's begin with the latest race in the interclub Grand Prix series. Last Wednesday was the turn of Chorley to play hosts, with a tough two lap course, taking in Astley Park over an undulating 4.8 mile route.

Coming into this round, Wesham were still well in there with a genuine chance of winning the overall team championship for the first time in years. Entering the race in joint first place, alongside favourites Preston Harriers, and on the back of a victory at home last time out, confidence throughout her team was high.

Unfortunately, a strong turnout and performance from the Harriers saw them take the win this time around quite comfortably, despite solid performances from all the Wesham team.

On a personal note, I managed to record a sixth win in six interclub races this season, after taking the race by the scruff of the neck from the start in order to see off the early pressure from Chorley's young track athlete Luke Betts. We led the race out from the off and soon built a considerable lead over Affleck as we moved through the woodland in the first half a mile. 

I knew Luke would be strong in the opening stages of the race, and also that I didn't want to have to worry about him in the latter stages either, as I probably would have struggled to keep up with a track runners sprint finish! So I took the decision to run hard through the first 2.5 mile lap and try to burn out the opposition early and build up enough of a lead to make that last 800 metres comfortable.

The plan worked, as I lost Luke towards the end of the first lap, but somewhat unexpectedly, Rob Affleck had managed to draw us back in, and at the foot of the big hill in the early stages of the second lap - around the 3 mile mark - I could sense him gaining on me and starting to move on to my shoulder. 

I had to really shift up that climb to force myself back in front and open up a good lead again moving into the final mile. Once I had climbed to the top though, I knew I had done the hardest part and had the race won.

It is a great feeling to know that I have won each race in the series so far, but unfortunately I won't be able to complete the 'Grand Slam' as I am on holiday in Cornwall on the week of the final race of the season at Leyland. 

Instead, I will have to settle for my own little version, as coach Affleck called it when we met up the day later for a tempo session the "Rob Slam" (think Serena Williams having won all 4 tennis slams in a calendar year, but not the same season coining the phrase 'Serena Slam lol) as I actually won at Leyland in the final race of the last campaign and so currently have won the last race at every one of the competing teams venues! It might seem trivial to some, but it is an achievement that I am proud of and that not many people will have done before I would bet.

Topping my mileage for the week up to 70 once again, I managed to fit in a second race in he week on the Saturday evening with a 5k.

I had planned on travelling up to Nelson to take part in the latest Podium road race, seen as that is where I set my pb for the distance a few months back. However, vehicle problems (my van broke down again during the week, and has since been replaced, thank God!) meant that I was unable to make it up here in time after finishing work. 

Instead, I opted for a lift off my mum and dad to the final Catforth Canter of the summer. Which meant that I had an opportunity to complete a second slam of the week by winning all three races of that series too.

This one was much tighter than the previous two, as Lancaster and Morecombe sent out a strong team. Raymond Edgar pushed me throughout and actually led through the first mile and a half of the race, before I took it on towards the end of second mile. I managed to break away slightly through the final mile to win by six seconds in the end. Being pushed meant that I was able to record a quick time. I finished in 15:27, just one second off my course record. 

This weeks mileage will be lower than the last few, as I have done less miles later in the week, in order to prepare and let my body rest before my latest attempt at setting a 10k PB tomorrow morning at Birchwood.

I have trained hard since my holiday in Malta six weeks ago, and this is my final race before another week away with the gorgeous Molly, my wonderful girlfriend and the love of my life (she's sat next to me right now looooool) - but yeah seriously she is! Anyway, back on track, my last six weeks training have seen me rack up 60, 68, 75, 65, 70 and 60 miles respectively. 

Will hopefully update you on tomorrow's race soon :)

Fizzled out at "The Sizzler"

Last Thursday, I ventured out to take part in the much lauded Sale Sizzler. There was a very good standard of field out, on what is generally accepted as one of the fastest 5k courses in the region. However, for whatever reason, it just didn't happen for me.

I didn't exactly have a disastrous run by any means, but having felt in good nick - combined with having ran 15:26 when setting my own pace at Catforth a couple of weeks ago - I quite fancied myself for a crack at certainly a low 15:20, if not a little bit quicker.

No such joy this time I'm afraid. In all honesty, it was a night where things just never felt right or ever looked like coming together. I felt slightly leggy during the warm up, but nothing too concerning. The pace through the first mile was pretty much perfect for where I intended on being (4:54) and I was tucked in at the back of a strong group (behind Dave Rigby and Dave Norman, and a couple of others).

From then on, it all came apart quite quickly. The pack moved away from me and I found myself running in no-mans land. Only, looking back on my watch, the pack probably didn't move away all that much...it was my pace that dropped, a lot. In mile 2, I went from a 4:54 mile down to a 5:09 mile.

Mile 3 I sort of got my act back together, more through the pressure of not wanting to lose to coach Rob Affleck, and ran 5:02 for the final mile, with a sprint finish bringing me within touching distance of catching 6th place by the end.

I finished up in 7th and 15:29, which admittedly is still pretty much par for the course when you look through my times so far in 2015, but considering the level of competition I had just expected something more from myself.

I have another crack at the distance this Saturday, when I will hopefully be competing in the latest Podium 5k, where I set my PB back in March (15:24).

I don't know what went wrong in mile two last week, and don't intend on over-evaluating things too much, but perhaps the increased mileage of the last few weeks had sapped some energy. If so, that shows the catch 22 situation between wanting to increase mileage for endurance and long-term benefits, against the short term results in races right now. Hopefully, by persevering with the new workload, it will get easier in time and my body will be able to get more used to it.

Anyway, you can't win them all, or perform every single time you run. It's all about the next one now.

Coaching

It's hard to believe that it is two years to the day since my first training session under the guidance of Rob Affleck. 

I first sought Rob out for some coaching having started to believe that I had plateaued and was struggling to improve beyond the standard I had got to at that point.

My times at that time looked like this:

5k - 16:28

10k - 33:25

1/2 marathon - 77:21

Marathon - 2 hours 52 minutes 17 seconds

I had clear aims for what I intended to achieve through training with Rob. Firstly I knew that I needed to learn from him both how to structure a proper training plan - week to week, as well as long term - and also how to look after my body away from the roads and actual running. By this I mean how to stay injury free (I had struggled with hamstring and groin strains early on in my running) and how to eat and drink properly. As well as that, I obviously wanted to get quicker...

Initially, I hoped to progress to being a sub 33 10k runner, sub 16 for 5k, sub 75 for the half and 2:45 for the marathon.

I achieved every single one of those goals within 10 months of starting to train with Coach Affleck. But as with all runners, as soon as I had achieved one goal, the goalposts moved and my ambitions became bigger. That is still the case now. My second wave of targets saw me aim for sub 15:30 (5k), 32:00 (10k), 72:00 (half) and 2:37:00 (marathon). Again I am now in a position were (apart from the 10k time - still a sore subject!) I have fulfilled these times and am now looking to push myself even further.

The next twelve months will see me heavily target the 5k and 10k times, as well as having a few good goes at setting some quicker half marathon times.

For a while now it has become apparent to both myself and Rob hat for me to continue to progress from a speed perspective, that I need to move on from our track sessions together and link up with some faster runners. Hopefully now I am going to be able to do that by jumping on with Helen Clithroes training group who also train at UCLAN sports arena on a Tuesday night.

When I first started training with Rob, I remember getting some stick for seeking out help with my running. I was told that 'real' runners didn't need coaches, who were basically "fat men with watches telling you to run faster". I was told that if I needed coaching then I wasn't self motivated enough. 

I would argue that the complete opposite is true. If you are willing to seek advice and spend both your own time and money on improving your ability, then that shows both motivation and determination to get better, quicker and stronger.

I went from being a 35 mile a week runner, with no proper speed sessions, or long runs and structured training. Now I plan my week around a track session, tempo session and quality long run, with more relaxed recovery runs to help the legs between hard sessions. I now aim to do between 65-70 miles per week.

Two years ago, I was still light years away from being able to compete with the top local runners. Now, there is still a gap there, but it is getting smaller and I can see a definite improvement coming all the time. I hope that it now continues as I look to begin the next chapter.

I will still train with Rob and Gethin Butler, who has also been a great source of experience and advice over the last months. I have learnt masses from both and continue to every week.

I know that to continue to progress will take even more hard work than I currently put in, but I am prepared for it and willing to give it a real go. 

Finally, my advice to anyone striving to improve their running and wondering how they can do it, to seek out a proper source of professional guidance. You won't regret it!

The ThunderRun

This weekend saw the return of the Adidas ThunderRun. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, it is basically a 10k relay race, whereby teams (or some crazy ass individuals) battle it out for 24 hours to see how many laps of the course they can successfully complete.

I would like to begin by applauding and congratulating Chris Singleton, Matt Lalor, Ian Livesey, Stephen Chew and the rest of the 'Fastrax' team, who went to the competition looking to bring home the victory and did so in some style by all accounts. Great effort guys!

It is two years ago now that Team Wesham sent two sides down to take part, and I have to say that in all honesty, to this day it remains one of the best team events that I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.

Travelling down on the Friday morning, pitching our tents and heading off into the countryside to a local pub for a group meal and drinks, the first night was an excellent way of getting to know the rest of the team a little better.

The following day, the serious stuff kicked off. 

The organisers had asked teams to put their quickest runner on the opening leg, and as such the first lap turned into something of a race, even though the task is obviously one of extreme endurance. Being put on leg one, I remember trying to run sensibly, but still ran a 34 minute 10k - placing second on the leg.

Obviously the team couldn't maintain that position, but everybody ran brilliantly and it was a fantastic weekend of running.

The main memories from the weekend are:

- originally thinking that the course was set on roads, we all headed down with only our road trainers. As it turned out it was 10k set out on fields and woodland trail. With hindsight, crosscountry spikes would have been a wise option.

- on that first leg, I remember setting off in blistering sunshine and heat...it didn't last! By night time thunderstorms struck and all through the night it absolutely bombed it down.

- in total I ran either 4 or 5 legs (I'll be honest I can't remember!), the most memorable being leg 3 (or was that 4!?). On that leg, I headed off at around 3am, having had nearly no sleep for almost 48 hours already. It had been raining for a number of hours already by this point, and the thunder and lightning was still rife. The course had by now been churned up into a proper mud bath. Also, as the course had no lighting, runners had only head torches as means of making the track visible. At around half way through the lap, I tripping over a tree branch through the woods, flying headfirst into a great big oak tree and landing flat in a thick pile of mud. I remember lying there for a good while staring up at the rainy sky and thinking to myself "what the f#ck am I doing here!?". Then I scrambled around for the head torch and set off to complete the lap. It was one of the most bizarre, surreal, but definitely memorable things I have ever done.

- I also remember Sue Coulthurst and her double-leg through the worst of the weather, that was some run! It turned out to be a smart one too, as it meant longer between legs so she got a sleep in- about the only one that did!

- finally I remember Kerry and her fantastic mothering of the team, keeping us all going with plenty of food and drink. Kerry has always been an important member of team events for Wesham and we'd be lost without her.

The ThunderRun is a truly amazing competition and weekend, and hopefully I will get to take part again at some point in the future.

Tight at the top

Following hot on the heels of Saturday's race at Podium, it was a quick turnaround for Monday's interclub fixture. Wesham hosted he fifth race of the series, with a 4.5 mile course, starting and finishing at BNFL car park in Salwick.

My legs were still battered from the exertions of 48 hours previous, but I was determined to keep my winning run going and hoped that it could help see the team home to victory too.

I ran a nice consistent race, coming home first place in 23:17, at an average pace of 5:09. That was enough to record a 49 second gap to Affleck in second place.

Afterwards, my two and a half mile cool down took me longer to complete than the race itself, as my legs completely seized up! Fair to say I was ready for a massage having not had one in some six weeks...

Just as important to me as the individual victory, Wesham recorded a team win on home turf too. With Blackpool finishing one point better than Preston too, to push them down into 3rd place on the night, it meant that the teams are closer than ever going into the final two fixtures of the campaign.

In fact, Wesham have now moved level on points with Preston at the top of the table going into next months meeting at Chorley.

With just two races and only 8.9 miles in total to go now, things are starting to get interesting and from here on in every single point will count. 

This is the first time since I joined the club 4 years ago that we have got this far into an interclub season still with a realistic chance of finishing in top spot.

Well done to all who turned out this week, let's push on now next time out at Chorley - this could yet be our year!

#teamwesham

Third time unlucky...

As you all know, last Saturday I took part in the Podium 10k spin off race from the successful 5k series that they have developed at Nelson. Billed as one of the quickest courses in the area, and delivering many outstanding times on the night, it appears we now know one reason why it was so fast...

Unfortunately, having measured short on quite a few of the runners garmins on the night, yesterday it was confirmed that after a remeasurement of the course, it was indeed less than the full distance. How much by, I am not yet sure. But short is short, and as a result the times recorded are now null and void.

This is particularly frustrating for me on the back of my previous thwarted attempts to compete in races over the distance already in 2015, but even more so when I know that I genuinely ran extremely well on the night.

The first that I became aware of concerns over the accuracy of the course was on Sunday, when I saw that fellow competitor Jason Cherriman had queried the distance recorded on his garmin. Like many runners - Jason himself included - I am always a bit sceptical of the measurements given out by my watch so wasn't overly concerned, though I must admit my watch had it short too.

I contacted the race organiser on Monday and asked whether I had reason to be concerned and was reassured that the times were correct, and so was the course length. That evening at the latest interclub fixture, I caught up with Brian Porter. Brian is the man who measures and certifies courses to ensure their accuracy and to make them official distances. He was already aware of the discrepancies of runners garmins at the race, but confirmed that he had been and personally measured the course out and that the course (as long as it was marked out the same as he had requested) was 100% accurate.

That night I went to bed still believing that although the race had been under scrutiny, I had still officially ran a new pb time. The following morning I woke up to a text telling me some very different news...

The course had been laid out differently from the official guideline requirement for the certificate to be valid and was therefore now officially short. It was news that was very disappointing and hard to take considering all the hard work I had put into my training for the race - including running whilst away on my holiday to ensure I was in peak shape when I returned.

I have been told that the course could have been as much as 338 metres shorter than the officially measured one, however I find this extremely hard to believe. My own garmin measured it at 9.9k and I believe the shortest recorded was 9.87, although some actually measured accurate and even long - as I say I am very loave to trust readings on watches, especially when they vary so much over the same course!!

I reckon the course was probably short by between 100-150 metres, and if you was to take the bigger distance into consideration, then you could probably add a good 25 seconds onto my time. That would have delivered a time of 31:40 in theory. That would still have knocked a minute off my current pb and is a time I would have been delighted with still, but I admit to feeling more than a little bit frustrated and angry that I have been denied the opportunity of recording an official and accurate time.

Podium race organiser, Chris Barnes, has in fairness reacted quickly and is putting on a fresh (accurate) race within the next few weeks to make amends for the mistake. I cannot fault his reaction and commend him for doing so. I also feel some sympathy for him. Chris wanted to deliver quick times and to help make fast runners go faster against each other, that was the reason for putting Podium on in the first place. The 5k is already a highly successful project, and will only continue to get better and grow. I just hope that this blow isn't too damaging for its reputation. Everybody makes mistakes and these things happen.

Digressing slightly, this whole episode has made me wonder just what would have happened if nobody had been wearing a garmin on the night? The results would probably have stood and people would have trusted the times recorded on a fast, flat track. I wonder just how many races in years gone by - in the pre-garmin era - were in fact short, and therefore how many runners pb's if placed under the same levels of intense scrutiny would have still held up? 

As races compete to deliver the quickest times and strongest fields possible, it makes you wonder...

Podium 10k

For a while now, it has been my 10k time that has been the biggest source of frustration for me. I have felt that I had yet to properly represent what I was able to do over the distance. 

My pb time of 32:39, set at City of Salford 10k last September was an accurate reflection of the standard I was at in 2014. However I felt that having improved across every other distance by quite large chunks so far this calendar year, I was confident that I was now more than capable of a sub 32 minute 10k.

I am sure you will all be more than aware of my previous attempts to run at Trafford and Salford having been scuppered earlier this year. As a result, I had found myself having only done one race over the distance in the whole of 2015. That one being Worden Park, a tough undulating course which I didn't have enough high quality competition. Yet I ran within 10 seconds of my pb there, so I knew that I was in shape to take a hefty chunk off when I did finally find the right course and level of opposition.

A few months ago I competed in a new 5k event in Nelson, called 'Podium 5k' it had a great standard of opposition and as such it forced a higher level of performance out of me too - seeing me better my previous time by 16 seconds.

Shortly afterwards, I heard about the possibility of them putting on a 10k version of the race. When the plans were confirmed, I immediately put my name down, and ever since then I have been working hard towards making sure I was in the perfect condition to do myself justice in the race.

Last night, that race finally came round. 10 laps of a cycle track, the course is pan flat - the flattest you will find anywhere - and with a fantastic standard of athletes participating, everything was in place for me to finally nail a time that I could be happy with.

The race was won by Ben Fish in 30:15, with Dave Rigby second in a new pb of 30:35. Third place recorded approximately 31 minutes flat and my coach Rob Affleck smashed his own pb by running about 31:08 - his previous best being 31:54! Having given him a lift to the race, it's fair to say it was a good atmosphere on the drive home!

Myself? Well I had targeted taking at least a minute off my best time, and ideally wanted to give myself a shot at breaking the 31 and a half minute barrier. Driven on by the high class field, and encouraged by a good and vocal support, I managed to demolish my previous best by running 31:15 - knocking some 84 seconds off my time recorded at Salford and being good enough for 5th place. That in itself was amazing for me, as it meant I beat some outstanding athletes- including Jason Cherriman, who ran 2 hours and 22 minutes at the London marathon this year, and whose blog I have been following closely in his build up to an attempt at 2:20 at Berlin this September.

The course, and competition was fantastic, and the conditions could have been a lot worse - although there was a nasty head wind down the final straight, which of course we had to run into ten times. But overall, the setting couldn't have been much better for a pb attempt.

I would like to commend Chris Barnes and his team for putting on such a successful event. I am sure the Podium series will continue to grow and flourish as more runners become aware of it, and the promise of quick times and an atmosphere that allows athletes to perform to the best of their ability.

He only blot on my performance last night would probably be a poor fourth mile, which saw me run a 5:18 and drop some 7-8 seconds behind Affleck and the runner that finished third, as for the first three miles we had packed well, but once I dropped behind them, I was never able to close the gap back up again.

This performance has been a massive relief for me though and a boost to my confidence that I am able to compete at this standard of competition. I am already starting to turn my attentions to targeting an attempt at sub 31 now!

But that can wait a while, as I let the new pb settle in. It's a great feeling!