The last Cross country of the season: Delapre abbey

And it came at the end of a ‘recovery’ week, a day after the first bike / run brick of the season. Some rest, eh? Sharp frost, -2 and sunny skies meant I really wasn’t looking forward to the chill factor. I prefer cross country to be warm, wet and muddy!

North Herts Cross Country

This week was rest week. This means I should feel all refreshed, yes? NO.

I think I have been working a little too hard lately, which means long hours, and shorts night’s sleep. The current job is quite stressful too (soon to change) all meaning I do not have as much time and energy as I would like. All this plus running the business Ryding2Health and you can see why I may run out of energy!

What are the benefits of hill running?

People often tell me that hill running is the way to get strong, fit and fast, but why is that? In general, people know that if you build stronger muscles, then you will become more powerful, therefore a faster runner. How does hill running fit into this? How does it all relate to building strength?

There are a number of ways that can be done:

Plyometrics

This is a way of training you muscles to develop explosive power. Much of the plyometrics approach involves explosive vertical jump related exercises. My coach uses this in conjunction with strength and conditioning.

Strength and conditioning

Strength and conditioning is a way of training and developing strength, but not the usual ‘isolate muscles one by one in the gym’ approach. It seamlessly incorporates muscular endurance, strength, power, speed, aerobic / anaerobic conditioning all at once.

Historically it was thought that the best way to strengthen the muscles was to tackle them one by one. That’s why gyms up and down the country have a fancy array of machines that work each muscle group one by one. This is, however, not all that logical. If you consider how you use and engage your muscles, you will know that they are never engaged in isolation, but always in conjunction with a wide range of other muscles. This is the foundational belief on which the strength and conditioning approach has been based. Stone, Plisk and Collins (Sports Biomechanics, 2002) evaluate modes and methods of resistance training and note that free weights are better than machine weights, for this same reason.

Where does hill running fit into this?

Hill running does what plyometrics and strength and conditioning does, but in a running context. When running up hill, you are fighting gravity which means you are requiring more strength to drag your body weight up the incline, added strength work that cannot be replicated in track sprinting. While you are doing this, you are still using all your muscle groups, in conjunction with each other, as well as working the core and cardio vascular system, in order to run up that hill. Justin Daerr, a professional triathlete, was interviewed about hill running in episode 245, by IMTALK. He said that hill running is used to recruit fast twitch fibres, and to recruit your fast twitch muscle fibres, which are the ones that make you go fast, you need to increase load on your legs. The load is increased on each leg when running up hill. To do this on the flat would mean increased pace. Read more of Justin's interview with IM TALK in my transcript of the podcast. 

Conclusion

Since fast twitch muscle fibres are engaged when the intensity is high, and the hills increase the load on the leg due to the incline, power/weight ratio and gravity, it seems that hill repeats are a very good way to improve run speed, while avoiding the extremely high stress on the body that comes with track sprinting.

Perfectly timed hills

This week coach was unable to meet me so I was left with instructions to do some hills. Usually, I do alright with self motivated instructions, but there is that extra little level of motivation that is associated with a coach standing yelling at you each time you pass him during a lap, instructions yelled at you from afar at all points on the track!

The instructions seemed quite achievable – I was told to do 12 hill reps, a set amount of time for the hill, and a set amount of time for the recovery. It was meant to be 65% - 70% effort. Hmmm, 70%? That seems a bit strange, I am used to having to cane myself, after all, I was on my hands and knees at the end of the last coached track session!

How did it go?

So, I set off up the hill, at what I perceived to be 65%. I made a mental note of where I got to, which house, which car, which crack on the pavement! I was able to almost walk back down, in the recovery time, and straight back for another rep. Each time I was able to get to the same point, and was still reaching the same point at rep number 6. In fact, I was still reaching the same point at the end of the second set of 6 reps, but by the last four or five I was beginning to find it a little tougher! The last one took almost all my effort but I was still able to reach the same point on the hill.

Refelections:

It seemed rather easy, almost too easy for the first 5 or 6, but by the last 4 or 5 were getting tough, and I was beginning to see why it was 70% effort! I did wonder at the time, though, if I was doing it right. I commented to my husband that it started easy and finished hard, he said ‘that’s how it’s meant to be!’

I was pleased that I seemed to time it to perfection, and was consistently able to keep the same hill pace throughout all 12.

The next day – it certainly feels like I did some work!!

Why do we do hills?

Read this blog – 'Justin Daerr on hill running' to see the answer to that one!

Runners arms – do they matter?

When I was at the track with my coach this week, he accused me of sticking my elbows out – and kept yelling at me. I know I used to be REALLY bad for this, but I thought I had fixed it. It seems not. BUT – does it really matter I wondered? My usual curious mind set about locating the answer.

Does it really matter?

It seems arm action in part, influences your legs. The role of the arms is to stabilize the torso so that power can continue to be efficiently transferred through the hips. It is this ability to transfer power effectively through the center of mass that not only improves rate of acceleration, but also facilitates reaching maximum velocity, maintaining those top speeds and reducing the rate of deceleration.

They go on to say ‘speed is a product of stride length and stride frequency. Stride length and frequency are determined, in part, by the motion of the arms. If you are lazy or passive with your arm action, you are limiting your potential for speed.’

So, yes, it seems that is matters considerably!


So what SHOULD my arms be doing?

Upswing, parallel to your body, forearm parallel to the ground, hands relaxed, not clenched.
Full range of motion – smooth swinging arms - like pendulums! You will see this advice in many locations if you google it. Here is one quote example:

You should also make sure that your arms are moving from chin height at the front level and then all the way to your hip pocket region in the back level. This will ensure proper range of motion in your arms. Also by having proper range of motion on your arms your legs all also move correctly.

The movement of your arm action should also be coming from the shoulder joint. The motion should be similar to that of a pendulum on a clock. It should be moving forwards and back. Just make sure to keep the above tips in mind so that you have proper range of motion in your arms.

More advice can be found here and here too. It is also widely stated that you should stay relaxed! Tension amounts to slower times.

Drive the elbows down and back. (This is the part of the swing I neglect most! Oops!)

Avoid crossing your arms in front – keep them parallel to the body.

Conclusion:

Does it matter – it seems so!! Neglecting arms = lost speed! Better get a grip on this!!

A Murder at the track on Saturday!

Its been a helluva week. I currently have no car, so I am having to cycle absolutely EVERYWHERE and have been doing so for a month now. At first, it was cool, not a problem, but now, its getting kinda wearing. I liked the aspect of choice related to the journey to work – shall I go by car or by bike? Hmmmm, currently – no choice! Despite this, I have managed to re-jig and get through almost all my training, as well as cycle commuting to work every day.

What you CAN’T do without a car!

Having to cycle to EVERYWHERE means everything takes miles longer, which means not as much gets done. Here lies the problem. With no car, morning gym and swim sessions become almost impossible. There just is not enough time to cycle to the sports centre, do my stuff, cycle back, get breakfast, cycle to work, and start work on time. PLUS – I am not sure I have the energy for all that before 9am every day either! So, 3-2-1 has not been going to plan, as I often can’t do the early morning session, unless it’s a run session. I also can’t get to the track to meet my coach – because it’s about 12 miles away and the appointment time just doesn’t allow me time to get there on my bike from work (if I even had the energy for that!) So, this week, it was moved to Saturday morning, so I could go by train. Appointment time – 7.15am! AAAArgh! I used to be used to that, but with the temporary loss of early morning sessions this was not going to be easy!

The track session of death!

I was told the plan was 4 timed mile reps. It was November since I last did this with my coach. I hate them! It’s so monotonous; I just can’t get my head around it. I was dreading it. PLUS – it was trenching it down too, so I just didn’t have my head screwed on at all! I went armed with my orbana, because I knew I would need it, and the asthma inhaler – I knew I would need that too! When I got there Coach was already drenched, wrapped up in full head to toe waterproofs. I had better make this worth his while I thought, poor chap.  After a warm up, it was down to business. It had been ages since I did these, I wasn’t sure I would be too good at pacing, so I put pace on the garmin screen – something I am usually forbidden from looking at! It was raining hard, and there was a driving wind on the back straight too, not nice.

Mile 1:

I heard shouts as I set off, and worked out by the curve of the first bend what it was  - I had set off far too fast. At the end of lap 1 I was 30 seconds ahead of my target time – that has only got to spell trouble! Lap 2, I slowed down a bit – on purpose, and by the end of that lap was feeling much better, lap 3 was o.k. and by lap 4 it was getting tough. Time – a new mile PB and 25 seconds under the target time. I was pretty damn stoked actually.

Mile 2:

I was dreading this – there was no way I could do that again. Still, focus on the ACTUAL target I had been given. I was ordered to go slower. So I did, it seemed odd. Same drill, first lap, WAAAAY too fast, but I rectified it much more quickly, laps 2 and 3 alright, lap 4 tough. Time? Still 11 seconds inside the target time. But jeez I was feeling it now, and I needed that inhaler.

Mile 3:

I just knew from the start this was going to be ugly. I set off under a much more controlled pace, but by the end of the 2^nd lap I felt like collapsing and stopping right there, it felt like I should feel on lap 4! At the end of lap 3 I was told that I had slowed quite a bit. I looked at the pace. It had dropped way back beyond the target time. So I had some serious work to do. I had to make 15 seconds of pace up on this last lap. I gave it everything I had. I just focussed on me, my legs, my form, and that number on the watch. I glanced at it as I turned for the last 100m and it was back under the target – by only 1 second but still, it was under. As I crossed the line, I knew I had JUST managed to get it back again, but I collapsed onto my hands and knees in exhaustion, and it took quite some time before I could stand up again. The last mile rep was cancelled, despite the fact that I vowed to do it and give it my all.

My thoughts:

At first: wow – I was rather impressed with my new mile PB – and so was coach – he hadn’t thought it possible at this stage in the season, and in this weather.

Later: hmmph, I did the session in November and managed all 4 reps, the last being only 1 second different in time to my 3^rd on this occasion, and much more consistent. So, I began to think that maybe it wasn’t so good after all.

And in reality: I was told off for being too pessimistic – as usual! My first mile was waaaaay faster than I ever thought I would be able to run, ever. It was well inside the target time my coach set me when we first met. He even doubted that I would manage it, more recently. My second wasn’t far behind. I must get a grip and recognise the positives when they come. I AM running much better than I thought I could, and in the latter stages of mile 3 I proved to myself that I could push myself to the absolute limits and still drag my legs round a decent lick of speed. I pushed myself further and faster than I ever thought I could. My heart rate far exceeded the previous max heart rate a run test had produced.

I CAN DO THIS!!

Let’s see what triathlon season brings. J

Justin Daerr on Hill running

This is from IM Talk episode 245. I found the discussion they had on hill running very interesting, but I know podcasts aren’t everyone cup of tea, so I thought I would transcribe the gist of the conversation and add a few thoughts.

Justin has been given a hills session by a listener Richard Swan. He tried it out then discussed his thoughts. The basic session was this:

10 min warm up,

6 x hills (1.2km long) run at a HARD pace. (reps can be increased)

Warm down, 20 mins.

Justin says he believes that hill running is one of the best things to do all year round to keep yourself strong and fit. This kind of work out will bring your form on. You would do this leading into a race, 4 – 12 weeks out perhaps. He imagines the effort here should be close to threshold. It could be a little tough as an off season workout, however. A MODERATE pace uphill would be better, create a heavier load on the legs in prep for the tougher sessions pre season.

He consulted Alan Cousins for advice. He was told that hill running is used to recruit fast twitch fibres you need to increase load on your legs. Your cadence is going to be slower on hills. The load is increased on each leg when running up hill. To do this on the flat would mean increased pace.

What is the benefit of hills? Don’t beat yourself up with fast pace but recruit your fast twitch muscles through hill running, so when you come to transition to fast pace running on the flat, you have been training the right muscles. He says he tried to look for scientific research, but studies are scarce.

What intensity? He says there are a few ways to approach it. Off season, it would be fartlek, focus on form not effort. Another type would be to run at a good clip, 1-2 mins max. Any more – you would lose form due to lactate build up. Make sure you have good recovery so you can maintain the pace and effort.

IDEA: Initial run – carry a rock, good effort, not all out, drop rock 1 min up, then aim to keep hitting it, if not, you started off too quick.

6 weeks before a race should you do hill reps? YES! He says he incorporated it 6 week before ironman, 2k hill, 8%, 3 – 5 reps. his HR would be a tempo run on the flat, AT threshold. Make sure you have a nice surface to run on – perhaps grass, softer surface to get down the hill. Treadmill workouts can be a bonus – you don’t need full recovery to get back down the hill.

Preferred gradient? What’s best? If you are doing something for power, or short, then use a steeper hill. Most coaches prefer 4 – 6%.

What should less experienced athletes know?

People seem to think they should be destroyed after a session with ‘intervals’ in the title. Set the distance. Is it sustainable? If not, the next time you need to back off to maintain the quality of the workout.

Hill running, may be initially taxing if you haven’t done it before, may be tiring in a way that you didn’t think it would be.... i.e. you may be slower than you think, higher HR than you think. Be flexible and alter the workout so suit.

MY THOUGHTS:

·       I like the rock idea, it would get me away from being obsessed about numbers!

·       I hadn’t really thought of hill running as an easier way to do the same training as sprints!! But logically, I guess it is, you are putting more load through your legs because you are having to fight gravity to drag your sorry ass up that hill, are you not!!?

·       Intensity balance seems very logical and is already what I do. More intense speed work closer to the start of race season

Last County League Cross Country 2011 – East Haddon

I had a terribly stressful Saturday. I was SO not in the mood for this and had I not been Northants Tri Club team captain and club cross country secretary I would most certainly not have gone to this race. My head was just not in the right place at all.

1st ever club and XC race, 2007

It is a race that is close to my heart though. East Haddon is the race where I first wore a club vest (at that time, Wellingborough and District Athletics Club) and also my first ever Cross country race. (2007!) I remember clearly the comments from my husband, who was at that time still getting to grips with the fact that he had a new much slimmer wife! He wasn’t able to go to watch the race, so when I was looking through the photos the club had taken, wasn’t able to find me at first. When I pointed out this picture, he said ‘oh, I didn’t realise that was you, you look like a proper runner!’

I remember the race clearly, being my first. I knew it was going to be tough, because it starts on an almighty steep downhill, before picking up a local point to point course. That naturally means, being an out and back, the, yes, the ginormous hill is how you get back up to the finish line! Last time, I ran it in rugby boots (blades) because it was so muddy!!

I was standing on the start line, with the rest of the crowd, thinking ‘why on earth am I here today, I am not in the mood, I shouldn’t have come’ etc etc. Kim Ingleby (@kimingleby on twitter, http://www.energisedperformance.com/) my NLP coach would have been very mad with me!! I set off with the crowd, positioning myself near the back, deciding I would use this as a training run, purely and simply. I was not going to race it, I didn’t have my heart in it today. All the way down the hill I was thinking ‘for goodness sake why am I bothering, I should just stop here and walk back, it doesn’t matter, there’s enough team runners for it not to matter what I am doing today...’ bla bla bla. 

I got to the foot of the hill and glanced at the pace. All was not too bad at that point. I suddenly thought, ‘what ARE you doing!? Are you doing the best you can, at this point in time? NO, Mel, YOU ARE NOT!!!’

These are ‘head stuff’ techniques Kim had taught me before my world champs race in 2010. I suddenly realised I was not doing what I should be doing (in my head that is!) You can read the full world champs race report here http://melanieryding.blogspot.com/2010/09/itu-world-championships-race-report.html

So, I got my brain back into the space where it should have been. Yes, I am now doing the best I can at this moment, yes I am. I carried on through my race, thinking this mantra over and over. I stuck to the same race plan; this was a training run, not a race. I am a triathlete; I AM doing the best I can at this moment in time. I began to overtake people on the cheeky hill in the middle of the course, retained my spot, then on the return hill, I kept repeating the same thing over and over to myself as I dragged my ass up the muddy incline back to the school, and the finish line. I was still slowly overtaking other people who were beginning to walk at this stage. I still didn’t care about the time, the pace, whatever. BUT I was STILL doing the best I could at that moment in time.

I crossed the line to a big club cheer (thanks guys, you’d have thought I had won!!)

The race is not timed officially, but you get given a finish number on a plastic card, which represents your position relative to everyone else of your gender. I was given a number some 30 places higher than I usually received. I was astounded. I began to think, well, there must be less people here today, that can’t be right... etc etc.

But no, it’s what I did that counts. I was here, I ran, I did the best I could, and I got a placing much better than I expected.

Job done! I successfully convinced myself that all was not lost after all!

Running speed and body fat, how are they related?

Having had a long term friendly argument with my coach over body weight (yes I’m happy with my weight, I don’t understand why you aren’t?!) I decided to do some research into how exactly body weight affects performance.

As far as I understand, body weight has little effect on swimming performance; in fact, I read that excess weight can in fact aid buoyancy. Seems logical, and it certainly would explain why that rather large man in my local pool can swim at least as fast as I can!

When it comes to running and cycling, body weight has a lot of influence. In cycling, power to weight ratio is what you will hear everyone saying. On the flat, it may not matter as much, but on an incline, there is a LOT to be gained if you are a lighter athlete. For example, I found this on an internet forum:

‘I've been cycling for several months now and saw some modest speed improvement when tackling hills. However the biggest boost in performance only began when I started dieting and shedding a lot of weight.’

Logical really if you think about it, take two riders. Equal power output, matched exactly in flat track speed, but if one was heavier than the other, then dragging that excess weight up the hill would make them slower, Right?

If you want a more exact formula, take a look here: http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008/01/climbing-power-formula.html

The bit I was interested in more than anything though, was the running. Where is the science to support the logic that leaner is better?

So I went to look for it.

THE RESEARCH FINDINGS

A lot of research on this topic can be flawed. It is difficult to isolate all the variables. In a test situation, the leaner people are likely to be fitter anyway, and therefore probably train more. So finding reliable research is tricky. One measure of running fitness is VO2 Max, or the maximum amount of oxygen a given runner can use per unit time per unit body mass. More simply, the lighter a runner is at a given fitness level, the higher her VO2 Max and--at least in theory--the faster she will be. Not all "excess" weight, however, is created equal; fat for example, is merely dead weight, whereas muscle, at least to a point, can contribute to performance in distance running despite its high density.

So just how much can you expect to benefit from being lighter? Joe Henderson, the author of various books on running, has this to offer: "The loss of a single pound doesn't mean much for a single mile, but the effect multiplies nicely. Ten pounds equals 20 seconds per mile, which grows to a minute-plus in a 5K, more than two minutes in a 10K, nearly 4.5 minutes in a half-marathon and almost nine minutes in a marathon."

An article written by Ron Maughan is professor of sport and exercise sciences at Loughborough University had this to offer:

An excess of body fat, however, serves no useful function for the endurance athlete. It can help the sumo wrestlers, and perhaps may not even be a disadvantage for the shot putter, but not the runner. Extra fat adds to the weight that has to be carried, and thus increases the energy cost of running. Even in an event as long as the marathon, the total amount of fat that is needed for energy supply does not exceed about 200g for the average runner.

‘In a study of a group of runners with very different levels of training status and athletic ability, scientists observed a significant relationship between body fat levels and the best time that these runners could achieve over a distance of 2 miles(3). Although these results indicated that leaner individuals seem to perform better in races at this distance, some complicating factors have to be taken into account.

Although there’s an intimate link between body fat levels and running performance, it’s important to remember that reducing fat levels will not automatically guarantee success and may even be counter-productive. If you reduce fat by a combination of training and restricting diet, you are walking a fine tightrope. While a reduction in body fat may well boost running performance, cut down food intake too drastically and not only will training quality suffer, but the risk of illness and injury also increases dramatically.’

This is all very nice, but I need evidence. Statistics!

THE SCIENCE BIT

CURETON and SPARLING did some research in this field which seemed much more controlled.

Metabolic responses to running in was tested with a treadmill (TM) running (12-min run performance). 10 female and 10 male adults who regularly engaged in distance running were used. They were testing differences in % body fat, and differences between men and women.

The males were studied under two conditions: (1) with normal body weight and (2) with external weight added to the trunk so that the total percent excess weight (% EW) was equal to the % fat of a matched female. Under the added-weight condition, % excess weight of the males was increased by an average of 7.5%.

TM run time was reduced by 1.3 min (32%) and in 12-min run performance by 173 m (30%).

It was concluded that the greater sex-specific, essential body fat of women is one determinant of the sex difference in metabolic responses to running and distance running performance. Because of her greater body fatness, the average woman will utilize more oxygen per unit FFW to run at any given submaximal speed, will have a lower Vo2max expressed relative to body weight and, as a result, will maintain a speed on the 12-min run or other similar distance running event which is slower than her male counterpart. Since the sex-specific, essential fat of women cannot be eliminated by diet or training, it provides part of a biological justification for separate distance running performance standards and expectations for men and women.

Read more about this study here http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/1980/24000/Distance_running_performance_and_metabolic.11.aspx

Although they are not testing body fat / speed directly, they do show quite clearly that the extra % body fat of women is directly related to the difference in performance between the sexes. Therefore it may be correct to conclude this result would be extended to include excess fat carried in runners, and its relation to decreased speed and power.

My conclusions:

·       There’s no getting away from it, being leaner will make it LESS EFFORT!

·       Being leaner will definitely give you the opportunity to be faster

·       Being leaner does not necessarily automatically mean you will be faster, there is still an element of fitness involved, but you’re increasing your chances for sure!

Just as a matter of interest, since I gave up on the argument and did lose that weight as coach instructed, I have noticed my run performances improve. I know it’s difficult to isolate all the factors, but I believe lean mass is something at least in part, to do with it.

Snow running - Why you SHOULD do it!!

I tried my first attempt at snow running tonight. I have to be honest, it didnt fill me with thrills for many reasons:

• I'm rubbish on uneven surfaces as it is and sprain my ankle at the drop of a hat!
• I still have a cold, and sitting here is much more preferable, its cold out there!
• I had been ordered to run the whole run in zone 1 because I am still ill, which sounds BOOOOORING!

But, chickening out never got anyone anywhere, and the run is the area I can ill afford to chicken out on so, I donned my many layers (full thermals, running tights, fleece running top, coat, neck roll, hat and gloves!) put on my trail shoes, (innov8 flyroc) grabbed my ipod and off I went.

I teeter tottered down the street (nun-necessarily I expect!) and when I rounded the corner, decided I had better start running at some point, this was after all a run, not a walk!

I found myself tottering in a jog kinda style down the hill. I thought to myself, it'll be fine when I get to the path at the bottom (which goes through a park). I'm sure i looked comical, wrapped up to the nines and all.

Once I got onto the path, which was thick compacted snow (thick enough not to have turned to ice) I found that actually, if I ignored for a moment that I was surrounded by the white stuff, then the trail shoes on the snow behaved rather like they did on their usual terrain, fields and mud. Actually, it was fine, and once I stopped tensing up, worrying about whether I'd slip or not, and actually ran like I normally did, lengthened the stride again, put my shoulders back down, and looked ahead and not down at the floor (after all, what was the snow going to do that looking at it would help me with!?) then actually, it was just like any other run. I was amazed at how easy this was compared to my perceptions! So, go ahead, try it. Honestly, its just like cross country running, and it will do wonders for your leg and core strength!!! (Not to mention the beautiful snowy wonderland you get to look at!)

There are a few things I would suggest you are mindful of though:

• try and run on thicker snow. it doesn't matter if its compacted down by feet, you will still be fine!!
• Dont run on snow if you have only got a thin covering, its likely to be too thin and with just be icy
• Be careful near bridges, underpasses, etc, where water may have melted and dripped off. I almost went flying when coming out of an underpass because the drips had formed into ice.
• Dont assume that hopping onto the road will be better, it will often be worse!
• try and run on snow that is less trodden, be careful if you are running on paths close to buildings, look out for ice, also be careful when crossing roads and driveways
• slushy and melting snow will be tougher to run on, so expect that. Keep running with confidence, and remember its all making you a stronger athlete!!

Cross Country Frost Bite!

Well not quite, but it was -6 on Sunday for the Three counties cross country race 3. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! If I was not the secretary, trust me, I would have thought twice!!

Weekend so far:

Vo2 max test on Saturday morning – short(ish) but tough, rock till you drop kinda thing! I’m sure coach called it a murder session or something!!

1.5 hr Turbo (due to ice and stuff) consisting of a DOUBLE sufferfest – Downward spiral + Revolver (with the recovery warm down / up in between them cut out!) OUCH!

So I started this race on Sunday knowing a few things:

·        This would NOT be pretty!

·        This would not be a PB

·        This would not be fast

·        My sprint finish may just desert me again due to tired legs!

THE RACE:

Due to a misunderstanding, I accidentally found myself at the FRONT of the pack at the line up!! How on earth did that happen!! Not for long!! I set off at my own pace, focussing on my own race. This was fun, right!? Hehehehe Even the grass was frozen it was that cold! Some kind man had been round the course painting all the sticky up tree roots in the woods bright orange, aaaaahh how nice!! The lap consists of a long up, then a long down, flat, then repeat all the above! The first time up the hill, if felt like every man and his mate passed me. I resisted the urge to look at the garmin, resisted the urge to chase everyone, and kept at my own pace, my own race. Through the woods, I was focussing intensely on my footing. It felt like there was no pizzazz in my little old legs at all. That’s ok, I expected that, I was still doing my best on tired legs, so I was happy.

Lap 2, up the hill, through the woods, I must have taken my eye off the ball here because I tripped on one of those bright orange tree roots and went flying! I landed with an almighty thump, and down on top of me came the man that had been directly behind me! Ooops! We both leapt to our feet and simultaneously asked ‘are you ok’?!! No time to check for injuries, off I set again, trying to compensate for lost time. I had been chasing a club mate that I had managed to keep in my sights, but the trip put her well out of sight now. Oh well. Still, my race. I focussed more so now on the posture, all the things coach goes on about at training; I know I slump when I am tired, so I concentrated. Not far now. I reach the open grassy run up to the finish and PRAY that I have no one behind because the legs just WON’T sprint today I don’t think. Reports from the spectators were that there was no threat from behind – phew!! As I reached the tape for the finish, I see a flash of green (the dreaded local enemy WDAC!) in the corner of my eye! Its not far I think, small sprint... I made it! Then I looked and said ‘Oh, youre a man, for goodness sake, I needn’t have done that then!’ He smiled, I smiled, job done. Then I realised I had pulled out a 3.5 minute pb!!

So, I finished the run today knowing a few more things:

·        I am a better runner than I think

·        The training is going well

·        I CAN run well, even on tired legs

·        Ignore the data in future, because I can probably run faster than my head would have me believe!

·        This WAS a PB

·        This was a faster run than I thought possible!

Me happy, both coaches well happy, job done!!

Self Belief

Today was a busy day. I hate Tuesdays! I had NO time to think about the track session I had in store for me with my run coach. Perhaps this is best I wonder? I did my usual dash in dash out with 20 minutes to spare between work and the arranged meet time. As I whirled through the house, hubby asked what I was doing today... ‘I can’t remember’ I replied, ‘I don’t think he’s told me’ and rushed off out the door.

Then it dawned on me. I remember now. Mile reps. Hmmmmmmmmmm. All the way there I begin to ponder how boring that sounds – 4 laps of the track for each mile. Yawn. I hate the running track at the best of times!

Coach bounds out of his car, all wrapped up (it’s apparent he’s doing no running today!) grinning, springing on the spot and exclaims ‘hello! Are we ready for this then?’ I reply in monosyllables and off we go!

Task: 4 x 1 mile with short timed rests in between. Great. ‘I’m doing this for your own good’ he announces, still grinning at me!

Keith positions himself on the finish line with the stop watch, apparently planning to report to me each lap what the time is so far. Me being one for figures, he probably knows this strategy will either make or break me. We are about to find out which one it is!

Mile 1

Lap 1, I concentrate on NOT setting off too fast, checking my watch as I leave the start line ‘don’t you be looking at that watch!’ he barks at me! It feels easy, as I pass him he announced ‘oooooh that’s a bit fast. Ooops. The hurt will start in a minute I think to myself. Lap 2, 3, 4 still ok. Mile 1, 36 seconds faster than my target time. J excellent. But no time to celebrate, no no. Crack of the whip and off we go again.

Mile 2

Off I set, didn’t dare look at the watch, lap 1, ok. Lap 2, ok, lap 3, starting to be a little less than ok, and the times were slipping away. EEEEK. I have a mental wobble on the first bend of lap 4. I hear him shout ‘last lap... come on!’ so I dig in. I am DETERMINED not to give up so soon into the session. I GASP over the line in my exhaustive asthmatic way, to be told it was only 2 seconds slower than the first, and still 34 seconds faster that the target time. Excellent!

Mile 3

It took some recovering from that second one. Yes I do have asthma, but usually only stress / exercise related. Yes, I was pretty stressed! My legs felt the protest as soon as I set off from this one. I began to feel the lactic burn, I could hear Kim http://www.kimingleby.co.uk/ piping in my ear ‘did you do the best that you could, on the day, with the conditions?’ NO! I wasn’t. COME ON MEL!! With renewed enthusiasm I dragged my sorry ass round the last lap. I was damned if I was going to give any time away on this mile, that was the mistake I made on every race, so this WAS going to be as fast. Result? Exactly the same as mile 2! OH MY GOSH!!

Mile 4

Needed serious mental strength here. I was sure before I even started that I would not make it round. I was exhausted. After lap 2, the time reports suggested I was losing far too much time per lap to maintain the pace of the previous miles. I set off on the bend of lap 3 thinking this is a waste of time, why am I doing this, a triathlon is only 3 mile run, I don’t need this 4^th, its ok, 3 were alright weren’t they. Then that blooming Kim popped into my head again. No Kim, you just KNOW I wasn’t doing the best I could was I now, let’s face it! So the remainder of that mile, I had Kim mentally chasing me round, I had Keith going on at me in the other ear stand tall, relax, hips forward, drive... my head was spinning. I dug in. As I crossed the line I was SURE that I had run that one 30 seconds slower. Nope. I only lost 3 more seconds.

The moral of this session?

·        I am better than I think

·        I am making GOOD progress

·        This coached running IS working

·        I CAN push myself just that bit further than I thought I could

·        If I don’t look at the data, perhaps I run better than I thought possible

·        I DO feel pleased with myself and I am pleased that Coach is pleased.

·        The track IS NOT a scary place! :)

The hilarious goings on on the track this week!

I did a run training session today with Kieth Molloy, my run coach. He was under orders from Steve Casson, my triathlon coach, to go easy on me because it is recovery week. I asked him last week what he had in mind, I was told 'agility'. this meant nothing at all to me!!

I turned up on friday, very foggy, dark, track lights are off. I thought, hmm, what on earth might he have in mind? He told me that we were going to do an easy 3 mile run, then some resistance work. Ok, harmless I think. So off we set. First mile all uphill. I had been told last week that my running posture was much better, and Kieth said the same today, told me i was running up hill much better too. I looked at the watch, average for me. I kept going. At the top, I thought, ok, rest is flat or down, I am going to now focus just on form. Easy pace, focus on form. SO I concentrated on hips forward, driving off the foot, arms in the right places, with Kieth chuntering at me  all the time as a reminder. I didnt look a the watch at all. I have been taught to know on feel. it still felt ok, so I carried on. Sometimes statistics are my downfall, and i see good numbers and think EEEK! and slow down.

At the end of mile 2, the watch vibrated. I took a glance, wow, I thought, this pace is good, for what feels 'ok'!! I had one more mile, along the flat. mile 3 is usually my undoing in a race, so I stayed very focussed, on form, still getting my timely reminders from Kieth, and aimed not to lose any of that pace on mile 3 (because I usually do!) It still felt ok, and I stayed focussed. Towards the end of mile 3 I knew it was no longer an easy HR, but there wasnt far to go, I was going good, i would stay focussed and see how I can do. The moment it vibrated for 3 miles, I slowed and looked at the split. The last mile was 1 minute 20 seconds faster than the first, and around 45 seconds faster than what I might expect to be my average pace on that run. I was rather impressed considering it was a steady run, not a hard effort (probably helped by the fact that it is recovery week!

Then the fun began!!

Kieth went to his car and got out a contraption rather like this.

What on earth is that i wondered. He then explained. I couldnt help but laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh!! I was very glad at this point that it was dark (and foggy) and there was no-one around...

because this is what you do with that... Oh yes!! It is like being taken for a walk!! I went first, and it was only 60 metres. 60 metres... I'm glad it was no further!! When i set off i felt like i was tied to a lamp post!! Then, as i got going, it felt like any moment now he would let go, and i would go cattapulting across the track like a rag doll! I didnt even get to the finish line before I was laughing!! He kept telling me it wasnt funny, this was good resistance training that would strengthen the drive on the foot. But I was still laughing!!

Then I got to have a go 'on the reins' so to speak! When he set off, I am quite sure it wasnt the same because I was suddenly lurched forwards and felt like I was taking a REALLY big dog that I cant quite control for a walk!!!

4 lots of 60 metres like this and I thought I was going to collapse!! It still makes me laugh now! When he set off to go home, he put the harness in the boot, in case passers by thought he has some strange bondage fetish!!

I bet a man thought up that idea for run resistance training....!

Cross Country always hurts, I’ve decided!

This second race of the season was never going to be pretty! I was scheduled for a run metabolic assessment (Vo2Max) on the Saturday morning, the only time Coach could fit me in. Oh well, cross country is only a bit of fun, she says!

After a great result on the met assessment, I almost forgot I had a race on the Sunday! This one was notoriously tough, although my tiny mind had blocked out exactly how much so! Yes, I had done this course before, but it was 2 years ago, for goodness sake!!

Big fat pee queue stresses (500 odd women, 3 toilets, you do the maths!) meant that the Northants Tri cross country team floundered in the organisational and administrational area, while I was busy queuing, step in Mr Mel, who ventured out of the opposition camp to help out with admin (aaaaaw!) How kind, the least he could do, considering he was running for the opposition today! We had no spectators today, so a new challenge was launched – how do we collate results, and will all the runners manage to not lose their ticket number between the finish line and the school hall, ¼ mile away?!

The conditions were, well I’d like to say perfect, but a perfect cross country would be raining wouldn’t it? It was wet underfoot, but dry. It was such a dash to get to the start that I was barely stood there a moment when the race was started!! Oh gosh!! So I spent the first mile floundering, and trying to find my rhythm. I had done almost a mile before I managed to get the focus under control. I stopped focussing on Alex my mate, Vicky (who I have never raced so I had no idea what to expect) and many others, and began to concentrate on how I was feeling! Sorry Kim, (www.kimingleby.com) but I got there eventually!! I was just starting to enjoy it, misty morning, muddy route, nice claggy wet paths, people dancing round the puddles, when the first hill was in front of me, it was like a man made mound – straight up, straight down, I remember now... heartbreak hill! I adopted the slow but sure snail approach and plodded up the hill, I was not giving in, shorten the steps, stand tall, drive from the hip... bla bla bla (coach orders ringing in my ears!) when at the top of the hill the woman in front of me threw open her arms and shouted  I and the guy beside me looked at each other with the knowing ‘FFS I’m dying here do you mind!?’ look and glanced up briefly before firmly concentrating once more on which rut the next footstep would land in!

‘look at the vieeeeeeeeeeeeeew!!!’

I plodded on for a while more, the next stretch very memorable... this is the spot last time I did this course where I suddenly realised that putting elastic lock laces in the cross country shoes was a BIG BIG mistake!! Yup, shoes stuck in mud scenario! Glad I learned from that one, because today was just the same! Nothing much happened for a while, at one stage I felt like I was the only one out there, still silent morning, I could almost say it was nice! (if it wasn’t a race, and I didn’t have VO2max legs!) Up through the woods, steady does it, a few more caught on the hill... when the proper hill arrived – almost a clamber!! I was passed at the foot of it by an Ampthill runner... who then started walking just ahead. I shouted to her ‘I’m coming don’t let me catch you’ by way of encouragement... she replied ‘what? Are you a coach or something?!’ I said ‘no, should I be?’ she said 'yes!’ and started running again!!

Meanwhile a Dunstable girl that had been playing catch with me... running past me up the hills, I ran past her on the flats...started walking... so I got past her too. She then caught me up and struck up a conversation about triathlon! I began to think, I shouldn’t have time for this! Its a race!! I recognised the final hill, and the sneaky bit around the corner. I knew it was all downhill to the finish from here. My legs were shot though. But little did I know it was about to happen again. Around 20-30m from the finish I could see my husband, shouting encouragement and beaming at me, while others were informing me that there were three coming in hot from behind me. Now, usually I have some kind of sprint finish, but not today! There was just NOTHING left at all. Guess who It was who came past me in the last few meters? That blooming Laura from WDAC!! I was Laura’d again for the second time in a row!!

Well, at least I had a valid excuse this time!! However, I collected a ticket 14 places better than last time, and was 2 mins quicker than the last time I ran it, (granted, it was a while ago, but I don’t care!) so I cant complain! Imagine what would be possible with fresh legs...

The next one... will hurt just as bad... it’s the day after a bike VO2 max test! (I think coach is trying to kill me!)