I am now easing back on my Marathon Training, I have run 550 miles in the last 3 months and about 135 of those miles have been in 15 races, everything from 3000m on the track to 21 miles on the trails – these are my tough training runs, some quicker than TMP, some at TMP and some slower than TMP but at 100% effort.  My other tough session is a weekly track session at my running club, typically my reps are at or quicker than 5km pace.

This week was a welcome return to the South Yorkshire Road League.  I did not take part last year because I was worried about them messing up my London attempt, I am not worried this year.

Provisionally I finished in 17th place, first V40 man.  I was not feeling well so did not start on the front, I held back for about half a mile, then decided I probably felt ok and got in to the race a bit more, mile 2 has a nasty climb so did not go mad on that and we had a nasty head wind at the top of the hill for a while.  I knew mile 3 had a brilliant descent so I took that as fast as I dare.  Mile 4 is another climb and I was delighted to finish strong putting in a 5:25 minute mile to finish with.

By my quick reckoning the Doncaster Athletic Club Vet Men’s team is in 1st place after the first race.  I have completed this race 4 times and you can see my progress listed below.  #Sub30 next year.  This shows my long term progress, steady progress I accept but hoping for a few more years of improvements to come.

Conditions were ok, it was a bit wet to start and at times we had a strong head wind.  It was warm, perhaps 15 degrees.  I am grateful that the league is happening this year as it was in doubt.

I have had my eye on the Doncaster parkrun MV40 record for sometime, been close to it a couple of times.

The night before we enjoyed attending the lovely wedding reception of Chris Ward and Gemma Louise Tayler so I was fuelled up on lovely buffet food and Speckled Hen.

After a fairly late night I got up early and took the keys and timing equipment to parkrun, I then did a easy lap to warm up and see if the course was wet and muddy.  It was 90% ok so decided to use road shoes.  Did not feel great on the warm up, spotted some of my training buddies on the start line so knew I would have people to work with.  Set off with CM and PB, after a couple of minutes passed JW and took the lead.

JW pushed me all the way, gaining on the muddy bits (he had off road shoes).  On the last lap I kicked hard and about 200m from the finish, I realised I was close to a PB and the VM40 record so I sprinted with 100% effort and my official time was 17:32.  I was also delighted for JW who ran a massive PB of nearly 40 seconds.  Almost 240 runners did Doncaster parkrun this week, a free weekly event organised entirely by volunteers and the results go on Power of 10.

Doncaster AC had over 100 senior endurance performances this weekend from Parkrun to 55 Mile Ultras!

After a slack week of training, due to a trapped nerve and some laziness (I am a bit tired from the Marathon Training) I travelled to Hull for my last long run, a race which I first ran in 2015 (and had a fantastic run), in 2016 I had a shocking run and the forecast for 2017 was a bit rubbish with 20 mph wind.

I did not have a plan (well I had several but did not know which to implement until I was on the start line).  I felt ok(ish) so decided to run at TMP and see what the wind would do to my attempt at this.

On the start I spotted lots of familiar faces including Simon Newton, Gareth Cooke, James Thompson, Melvin Wallace and Richard Spooner.  I ran some of the race with Simon and some with James.

I went through 10km in 38 minutes and half marathon in 81 minutes.  From 10 miles the headwind hit us basically all the way to the finish.  Those who wanted to, faced the wind and fought hard to maintain pace.  I was not one of those and my pace dropped off, 4 or 5 people passed me in the second 10 miles.  However, I did not feel really tired until about 17 miles where the course was totally exposed to the wind and my pace dropped off quite a lot.  I knew I should be safe for a 20 mile PB and I finished with an average pace of 6:21 minute miles, in 19th place with a time of 2:07:08.  That will do, a very tough long run and time to ease back for London.  I ran to perceived effort as always and the perception of this race was I don’t want to do it again (until next year).

So that rounds off my full suite of PB’s in every distance in the last 4 months, 3km, 5km, 10km, 10 Mile, half marathon, 30km, 20km and some more obscure events.  Just one more PB to get this year in about a month.  I do wish I was brave enough to ditch the garmin but that’s never going to happen, my watch is set up about a simple as it can be.  Distance, Timer, Pace and Average Pace.  I use to have all sorts of data such as Heart Rate, Zones, Cadence, Stride Length but gone back to basics.

What a tune

I have been in to dance music from the late 1980’s and loved the “rave” culture of the 90’s.  What a time to be a teenager, it was amazing, both the underground (stuff like Acen, SMD etc) and the tunes that had commercial success, five such tunes follow, the sound of summer for me.

People say this race takes about as much effort as a marathon so its a good race to see what sort of form you are in for the spring marathons.  Rose completed the race in 3:44 so bang on where she wants to be.  The race is 21 miles long and has some very challenging hills, terrain and you have to run with some kit given the nature of the race.  To enter this race we had a window of 3 minutes from entries opening and it becoming full.

Last year I ran 2:56 in this race and I went on to do London in 2:51.  This year I did this race in approx. 2:47 (and people have been saying the course was the wettest they have ever seen it) and I was messing about with my GoPro for a lot of the time (and I fell down twice).  A good indicator for London 2017 I think.  Another week and I will be easing back for London!

We have had a wet few weeks and some of the route was quite challenging as a result, particularly on the grass sections that in areas were just slippery mud.  I ran in Montrail and Rose ran in Inov8 shoes, its difficult to make the best choice but both shoes did as best as could be expected.  Some sections of the route are on tarmac so that further complicates the shoe selection.  Road shoes would have not been good.

I finished in 20th place, last year I finished in 37th place.  #Boom

My 10 minute edit of the GoPro is below to give some idea of the course.

Photo by Frank Golden

To have run over 8 minutes faster in more difficult conditions is great, I took time to enjoy the race and had some nice chats with my fellow competitors.  My falls were at about 7 miles (this was ok and on mud and soft grass) and 19 miles, this was a bit annoying as I was running on a good hard trail and I had no reason to fall, I ended up cutting both knees and my right elbow.  Thanks to the first aid for cleaning me up at the finish.

After the run me and Rose met up with our friend Janet and we had a lovely meal to get some energy and top up the hydration levels in a pub.

After a fairly easy week I competed in the Yorkshire Veterans Cross Country Championships on Saturday 4 March.  This was also my first competition competing for Northern Masters in there Cross Country Championships.  This event was hosted by Doncaster Athletic Club so right on my door step.  The course was at the Northern Riding College, it was nice to return to the venue (previously I have run in several cross country races on the site).

I felt ok so was looking forward to the race, I took photos of the first race which I uploaded to flickr here.

My race was at 2pm and I finished in 5th place in the Yorkshire Vets and 2nd in the Northern Masters (both V40).  My time was 35:16 for a distance of about 5.75 miles.  The course was very runnable mainly on firm ground, some mud and a small stream crossing followed by a bit of a hill.  3 laps.  I ran hard and will now take all my strength I have gained from 5 months of cross country racing on to the roads.

Recovery food and an Indian takeaway and drinks with my good friend Janet helped me recover for the following days planed run.

On Sunday 5 March I had planned to run to Norton and do the Norton 9 race as a 3 hour long run at what ever pace felt comfortable.  I ran to Norton and by the time the race started I had got to about 15 miles.  I watched the start and Janet pulled out with injury, as Janet was giving me a lift home I changed my plans and ran back to her house, which I reached at 3:04:09 in to my 3 hour long run, the distance covered was 26.2 miles, a nice little confidence boost!

Some nice home made stew and a lift home set me up for the rest of the day which included a nice Coffee chat with Darren and some pizza for tea.  My family arrived back from birthday celebrations in London so a great day all-round.

Tune for drum and bass fans only:

Last weekend was a busy weekend, to really test myself, if I could get through this and not get injured then I must be in good shape, I have been able to run 50 miles a week for a few weeks so this would be a good time to race hard and have an easy week after.  Well I got through it and I am not injured.

I am very pleased with my start to the year and I have got 4 more races to do before London.

Friday 24 February 2017 – Doncaster Athletic Club night out

Great night, great company, wonderful food (and drink).  Thanks to Dawn for organising!  We look a bit different out of our running kit and I apologise to my hero Vicky Chapman for introducing her as Liz Chapman.

Saturday 25 February 2017 – National Cross Country Championships

I was team manager for Doncaster Athletic Club so I had a very long day leaving Doncaster at 8am and getting home at 6pm.  All our athletes had brilliant runs on a fun and challenging course.  Its a great experience to run in a cross country that feels like the London Marathon, around 2000 runners took part in my race which was the last event of the day.

My own race was 12km, I went through 10km in 39:59.  The race was very muddy in areas and we were laughing at the state of the junior runners.  I got just as muddy as them in my race.

Senior Men – 388th Lee Milburn 47:39, 567th Martin James 49:58, 996th Peter Badger 55:10.

Senior Women – 200th Nicola Devine 36:04, 427th Shaz Wood 41:03, 470th Rose James 41:53, 479th Karen Lynch 42:12, 698th Sharon Maughan 49:16.  The ladies team finished in 57th place.

U13 Boys – 276th Henry Cullen 14:48, 292nd Edward Phillips 14:54, 374th Ben Metcalfe 15:34.

Junior Men – 90th Rhys Gibson 36:44, 98th George Phillips 37:04.

U17 Men – 167th Nishan Singh 23:43.

U17 Women – 61st Molly Butterworth 21:25, 136 Lisa Fouweather 22:53.

After the Cross Country race we had a McDonalds and dropped the kids off at my mums.  After some recovery wine and some Startrek off to bed.

Up again on Sunday 26 February 2017 for the Snake Lane 10 road race.  Doncaster AC had about 16 runners taking part in this one.

I was tired before I got out of the car and had some chocolate cake and coffee to wake me up.  I jogged to the start and did some steady strides.  It has always been windy at this race for me, always a head wind in the second half.

I thought I might have a chance to run a PB but the second half was tough with the wind.  I should have broke the hour but will settle with 60:07.  I knew I had to run fast in the first half to try to use the wind to my advantage.

Some easy listening drum and bass