Training Log Archive: Lil

Perham Down regional event, blue course. 5.8km. Quite fun course, enjoyed it. Made a 3-min mistake through combination of loss of concentration and idiocy, and probably lost 2 or 3 mins elsewhere through faffing/non-optimal routes. Came 21st of 50ish - fairly happy with that on blue I guess. Definitely happy to have pipped Gary by a few seconds! (Gary NOT happy - sorry Gary!) Excellent string course at event too, F did it 3 times. Generally lovely to do a 'proper' (non-urban) event again - it has been a long time!

My favourite lunchtime loop. Still feeling pretty tired, but legs not sore any more.

Event: EDF Birmingham Half-Marathon
 

Birmingham half marathon.
Well - I managed to beat 2.10, which was my 'I'll be gutted if I don't...' target, so that's something! I genuinely thought I would do 2.07 or under though, and I was disappointed to blow up in the last three miles again, even if not quite as dramatically as in Coventry. Running well until then, following plan pretty much, which was to do 9.30 min miles till 5 miles, then speed up towards 9 min miles to mile 10 if I could - then see what I had left! (Didn't expect the answer to this to be 'nothing', but hey ho...)

First mile was a bit of a faff - about 40 secs of non-movement after the start line was crossed, and then very hard to get past people or get into any kind of rhythm. I did 10.19 for this mile and it was an easy easy downhill mile, so at least a minute and probably a bit more of faff there I think. Ran pretty nicely then up the very gentle incline to 5.5 miles. More or less stuck to the 9.30 pace, and where I didn't I thought I was - but my Garmin had quite a different idea of the mile points from the mile markers at times, so my actual mile times were often a little longer than expected. From 5.5 miles to 10 miles mostly gently downhill and I pushed it a bit here - felt great, very comfortable. Some mile times a bit faster than expected - this time Garmin led me to believe I was going a bit slower!

So - all going pretty well to 10 miles - and then came the hill... I think the hill came at the exact point that I rather ran out of steam, and the combination was deadly! Really really struggled up the hill in mile 11, and felt a bit disheartened too - up till that point I had been consistently going past people, but now people started streaming past me. Really really had to force myself to keep going, but it really was about keeping going rather than anything more ambitious!

So relieved to see the finishing line at last, just about kept moving, trying to summon up last reserves to get over the line - and then came to a halt about 10 metres before the line as I hit the queue to finish. Two minutes standing still before I could cross the line - so my official time is 2.11.11, which is a bit irritating! Then queueing for ages to get to any water or foil blankets or anything - felt quite faint but got there in the end...

So I am not too sure yet what the verdict is! I don't really understand why I can't keep it going for the full distance. I guess I must have gone too fast - but I feel I should have been able to maintain that pace? Run out of energy? Not sure. Something to mull on, anyway - but I can comfort myself that I was 10 mins faster than in May, I guess, and that I was happy with the way I ran the middle section in particular.

Mile splits:

10.19
9.35
9.29
9.34
9.39
8.53
8.44
9.33 (surprised by this one, still downhill and felt I was going as well as previous two miles. Faffed around getting a gel out of my pocket, maybe that took up more time than I thought...)
9.35
9.37
11.12
22.48 (obviously failed to take 12 mile split so this is last 2.1 miles)

C • Keeping it going at the end 7

Trot on meadow. And that's it now apart from maybe a 15 min jog on Saturday... Fingers crossed for getting some sleep the next few nights - and really hope I can do myself justice on Sunday!!

Canal and loop of nature reserve. 5 x 20 sec efforts. Fun.

Think the area round OUP is a GPS black hole, tracks always look a bit crazy.

Little jog on towpath :-)

Felt back to normal this morning, hurrah! So out to Blenheim for a steadyish loop with (vague) efforts on (most of) the hills... Ran a bit faster than I had probably meant to, so nice to be running again and on such a beautiful morning! V enjoyable.

So - felt quite a bit better yesterday and thought I would have a little jog today! Actually didn't feel that great this morning though. I got to work and found I had no keys so had to go all the way back up to school searching for them - found them lying on the floor in the playground, grrrr. So that was an unscheduled extra half hour cycling there and back - don't know if that had anything to do with it, but was feeling a bit dizzy again after. But couldn't bear to not go out so out I went. And it was ok. Bit alarmed to start with to see heart rate soaring up into the 170s but I just went slower and slower until it came down to something a bit more respectable. then seemed ok. (Having loaded data, heart rate looks crazy to start with - not on properly maybe? Also GPS obviously didn't kick in straight away, it was a (slightly) longer distance than shown.)

Nice to have been out, didn't feel too bad. At the moment, running 13 miles quite fast next weekend seems a long, long way away... But I guess I just have to concentrate on making sure I am well and reminding myself of the following:

1) I have done so much more training than I did for Coventry, and a few weeks ago I was feeling really quite confident. I can run much further and faster than I could in May.
2) Before Coventry I had done exactly one run of over 100 mins, and I still managed to run fairly strongly for 11 miles or so on the day. This time I have done I think six runs of that length, four of them over 2 hours, two of them pretty much half marathon distance. I can do the distance as long as I am well!
3) I have really only missed a week's training, and supposed to be tapering anyway. Should not be too despondent!!

What I had never realized before the last few months is that the hard thing about training isn't motivation - that's fairly easy if you have a goal. The hard thing is knowing what the right thing to do is. How do you know if you are being sensible or lazy? Committed or foolhardy? Helping or hindering? End of musing. Hope I feel totally better soon!

Still dizzy, legs still feeling weird, more rest!

Legs feel really weirdly heavy today, just walking around. Something peculiar definitely going on with my body! I don't feel really ill, just a bit tired and dizzy. And those strange heavy legs, as if I had a really long hard run yesterday. Bizarre.

Yikes! Felt a bit headachey and off generally but thought maybe run would make me feel better... Set off for scheduled long run, taking it very easy, but felt awful. Checked watch after 30 mins and discovered heart rate up at 200!! Boys have both been feverish/sick over w/e so maybe I have it too? Walked back a bit (hr still at 150 walking!) then called Ant who came to pick me up. Extremely frustrating!

Felt much better this morning (despite another bad night - how I feel seems to depend on the night-before-last very often) so went out to do 6 x 3 mins (2 min recoveries). Enjoyed it, felt quite good. I was aiming for 8 min/mile pace - mostly a bit faster than that, though not very steady pacing! Don't think I trust the gps on the first one, don't think I was running that fast.

C • Nice sesh 1

Not too bad a night - early waking again but ok till then. Went out for usual nature reserve loop. Feeling quite a bit better, though legs still slightly heavy. Yesterday had watch but no hrm strap - today had strap but no watch - hey ho...
Not too sure what's best to do tomorrow - a) press ahead and try to do quality sesh, b) drop to steady/easy sesh, c) not do anything. Don't think I'll get a chance to run Friday in any case, and aiming for long run Sunday.

A full night's sleep! Huzzah, huzzah! Didn't make my legs (or me) feel any more perky while running though... Most pathetic "intervals" session ever! I went out to the parks and did 3 x 7 mins with 2.30 recoveries - but just did the 7 min bits at 9 min/mile pace as didn't want to overdo it. Still felt pretty hard - man, I am tired... Feel fine afterwards but legs are very heavy. More sleep needed!

Warwick Urban Race. Another night of next to no sleep but didn't feel too bad all told. Had the unusual experience of spending quite a large proportion of the course running along behind Jenny Johnson! (She had an awful hacking cough and was jogging and I was going as hard as I could and obviously fitter than I have been in my life - but still...!!)
Enjoyed the course though it wasn't at all challenging technically. Highlight had to be running into the castle grounds and seeing a golden eagle flying straight towards me!!

I think it is safe to say that this run was Not a Good Idea! I was in two minds about going out beforehand, because I was feeling quite tired, but I was obsessing about the need to do a long run this weekend, as there will only be one more next weekend before the half marathon, and this was my only feasible slot. So I had planned a two and a half hour jobby... However I was just absolutely knackered from the off, and my legs felt awful. Right quad feeling sore after about 6 miles - I stopped and had a stretch and took everything unfeasibly easy, and it eased off a bit - but legs generally dead and I didn't really feel I was doing myself any good. So I jacked! First time I believe I have jacked on a run since I started my training back in March... But in retrospect (and really probably totally obvious beforehand) it was probably not a good idea to embark on this on a Friday evening, end of a busy week, hard week's training, and not much sleep - had been up with Daniel since 5am this morning. So I don't feel bad about giving up to be honest, just think I need to allow myself a bit of a rest and not be silly. Priority to do what I can during the week but make sure I am up for a good long final run next weekend before a couple of easy weeks up to the half marathon.