Beachy Head Marathon 2012

The training had been going well.  I'd lost a lot of weight and got some good runs in.  Perhaps some more hills would have been good but I was bang on for my target to break last years run of 5 hours.
Then the sickness.  This serious limited my running in the last few weeks but I could probably write this off as a full on taper.  The important thing was that I was better.

In reality I'm not.  It is a cold day and I struggle to decide what to wear.  Once going I know I will get hot.  In the end I go for a beany, gloves long sleeve running top and PWR vest.  I go with shorts and long socks.  Footwear I go for my trail shoes.

The first 7 or 8 miles aren't too bad.  The trail shoes are a good choice as I smash my way across the terrain.   Somewhere around mile 9 I realise things aren't good. I feel weak and I am coughing.  I just don't have the grunt.


Half way takes for ever to arrive (when it does I am only down 5 minutes from last time but I am shot)  I am doing lots of walking.  With around 16 miles to go the game is up.  I effectively walk the rest of the marathon.  In the middle I have some real dark times with so much walking to do and feeling so weak.  It is freezing cold and the wind is gale force.  It is a mental battle to keep going.  I am tempted to DNF but somehow I keep going

With about 3 miles to go I regain some cheeriness and start messing around.  I sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music"  I ask the marshals if they mind waiting around while I do another lap.

At the finish I even do a full tilt sprint for a laugh.  The crowd is confused.  Here is someone coming in with the walkers and slower runners but at a pretty fast sprint.

If it was the first time I had run this marathon then I would have thought I wasn't good enough.  But I have done it before. I know I am stronger and fitter.  But when you are sick.  Even still it is unlikely that I will run this marathon again any time soon

26 miles 5:40:00

Gentle Intervals

With Beachy Head Marathon on Saturday I don't want to do anything crazy.  But my sickness has left me stale.   I decide to go out with the Thursday Lunchtime Interval crowd.

We do ~800 reps with 200m jog recovery.  I am probably the second slowest there out of 20 runners but I'm taking it easy so I'm not too fussed about the performance.  Lungs do still feel a little claggy though

4x800 with 200m jog recovery Intervals

Back and running. Is the marathon still on?

It was all going well and then I came down with the cold.  Two days of work and lots and lots of coughing, spluttering and spitting.  Bad as it is, in the run up to the Marathon as well.

I've been trying to get back running to get a little sharpness back before the running, but I have still been too sick.  Finally tonight I think a return is on.  It's club night so I head to the running club.

I decide to take it easy with group 3.  Partly to avoid wearing myself out before the marathon and partly in case my cold got the better of me and I struggled.  I could probably cling on to group 3.

In the end it is a beautiful evening and its an easy run.   The leader knows what she is doing, runs a nice even pace, makes sure the group remains cohesive and communicates well.

I love running autumn and it is beautiful night.  I don't cough too much but there is a little splutter here and there.  Marathon Pace will be slower than this so I think I will be fine for Saturday.

At the finish I decide to open up and sprint.  I try and catch the guy in front.  He stops sprinting before I pass him.  One of other the guys I left behind in the group catches me at the finish.  He says
"You shot past me like a bullet!"
Well, it was a week and a half of pent up frustration!

8.32km 50:00

Should I, Shouldn't I? Intervals

I'm a bit tired and it is rainy.  Should I go and do the intervals at lunchtime or not.  In the end I go for it.  I run there with probably 4 of the 6 fastest runners at my company.

When we get there we are to do parlaufs.  Run one way whilst our partner jogs the other way when you meet you turn round and swap.  I am a norman-no-mates and get stuck with someone who is clearly not an experienced runner.  They struggle to run a couple of hundred metres.  I try and be encouraging.  In the end I take to running half way round (200m and then sprinting back)  A good session but would have been better with a partner who could spur me on.

The rain hold off.

5km Intervals around 30 minutes of running.

Up a group again at the club

I was going to run with James's group again at the club.  He said he would be running 8:45/mile which seemed a bit slow for what I want to be doing.  The faster group, Karen announces she is going to be "Pace Police".  I decide to move up.  The super-super fast group decide to all move down in to the group.

In the end the group soon splits with a faster, fast group splintering off.  But the pace is good and even and the group cohesive.  Karen lets her concentration slip and runs into a post.  She doesn't seem too hurt though.

I'm still reading the book on how to run faster.  Reading further into the book, some of the things I tried yesterday were wrong.  Arms shouldn't be crossing your chest.

Tonight I focus on, a quick turnover, leading with the knees, leaning forward, pulling with the arms.  And it seems to help.  When we come to the hills I change down a gear by shortening my stride length and I go up the hills smoothly.  The main limiting factor is still a slightly wheezy chest.  Not sure if it is running in pollution or whether the last cold is still be recovered from.

At the end I pick up pace again and finish with a sprint.  A good run.  This is how I would like club runs to be.

The main thing I take away from the book is that if you always run steady then you train yourself to be a plodder.  The remedy seems to be less steady runs, more hills, more intervals, more fartlek.  Not sure how that fits in with my commuting runs.  I'll have a think.

10.73km 54:59

Thinking about speed

I'm reading a book about how to run faster.  I use today's session down towards Wapping to try out some ideas.  A faster cadence, moving the arms.  It does seem to help, definitely work to be done.

When I got to the Changing rooms Martin and Paul were there.  They said I was going to get wet.  I said that I had checked the rainfall radar and I would be fine.  But there was still fine drizzle that did soak me.

Trying to run too fast a couple of times I stopped.  But good to go and play now and again.

4km 26:30

Last long,long run

It is 3 weeks to Beachy Head Marathon.  I need to do my last long run.  Get this in the bag and I know the Marathon will be fine.  There is a problem.  We have a wedding at lunchtime on the other side of London.  There's no way I'll be running on Sunday morning.

There's only one thing for it, so I get up at 5:00am.  It is raining and cold and dark.  I head for Keston Common.  My biggest concern is my IPhone getting wet.  My seal skinz socks keep my feet bone dry.  My Innovate trail shoes are comfortable to run in and would be fine if marathon day is sub-optimal.

I throw two laps of the 3 Commons Circular Walk in.  By the second lap it has stopped raining and the sun is up.  I am also running well.  Faster than last week and very comfortable.   I don't have time for another lap so I do the water-fountain to water-fountain run  (which is done partially over the 3 commons route)  On the way back I start following the circular walk and have correct to get back on track,

The slog up Pickhurst Lane is hard, but then it is fairly easy back home.

There where still need to be a long run or two but it's all downhill to the marathon from here, unlike the marathon which is lots of uphill...

3:20 27.5km

Beautiful Greenwich Run

Paul asks if I am running at lunchtime and I agree it is a good idea.  We decide to run to the Greenwich Observatory and back.   It is supposed to be fully open after the Olympics.

The pace is quiet tidy as was head across the Isle of Dogs.  Down through the foot tunnel and to the park.  The park is still a building site.  We can't run up to the observatory.  The road is still closed and the only open footpath is narrow and crowded.  We get stopped by a banksman halfway up the climb to let a lorry out.  At the top end of the park we sweep round the boulevard and down to the bottom of the park.

It is beautiful.  Autumn is in full effect and the trees are changing all manner of colours.  The temperature is nice and it is sunny.   We pass through the back streets and past the Trafalguar Pub.  We run along the river and back through

A fantastic run and as I said to Paul, as good as a lunchtime run gets.

9km 52:30

A velvet pace

Despite the threatening rain I decide to go out with the club tonight.  My son is swiftly dispatched to bed and the hard decision is whether to wear a coat or not.

At the club James is taking group 5.  He gets massive round of applause from everyone.  The run, as with most, led by James is a delightfully smooth pace.  It is a big group of 40 or so people.  There's lots of people I know so plenty of opportunity to talk running with people.

The group stretches but always pulls back together.  Up one particularly steep hill a number of people slow down.  I see James off in the distance so I blast off after him.

I think it is the marathon training, but around 45 minutes is when I come into my best form now.  And it is like that tonight.  The group tears apart I and open up.  The last 400 metres I do on the balls of my feet and a top-end sprint.

10km 54:25