Catch Up and Brass Monkey Half Marathon

Right, it’s been a fair old while since I’ve stretched my blogging fingers; It’s not as though I’ve spent the last couple of months completely bone-idle with no running to talk about, but the free time has been a bit sparse. So, let’s recap on the recent shenanigans so we can get up to speed. I’ve been out plodding the roads and fields the usual 3-4 times a week, cranking up the mileage to about 30 miles a week. Granted, this’ll mean I’ll burn out my trainers 30% quicker, but I’ll just have to cope with that. Or run barefoot, I guess. I’ve also been running in new and (vaguely) interesting places; Going on holiday to Brighton with friends gave me the chance to pelt up and down the hills and valleys behind the seaside city, and the annual trip to France gave me the chance to startle locals by going around the quiet seaside town in shorts. Oh, and to do my best Baywatch impression by running shirtless on the beach, or at least if they happened to run 5k on the show. At any rate, if the government are tracking us by our running watches, I’ve heartily confused a few people.

The races have been coming relatively thick and fast as well; Continuing my tradition of being a mad git, I’ve been taking part in the East Yorkshire Cross Country League. These are a far cry from the usual 10k road races that have been the norm till now; Instead there are bone-crunching climbs, breakneck downhills, and the odd river to ford, not to mention generally doing this all in about a foot of mud, or on one memorable occasion, two foot of snow. Now, as someone who’s spent the majority of his training in an area where the only rises in the landscape are the odd railway bridge, I’ve felt somewhat out of my depth in these races; The organisers, in their Machiavellian glory, see it fit to place half a mile of dragged hill slapbang at the beginning of a race, causing you to have to deal with not only the usual exhaustion of racing, but burning thighs and calves for the next six miles as well. It’s fun, honest! Well, moreso now that I’m actually running in off-road shoes. It turns out that it’s quite difficult running through bogs in road shoes, especially when you’ve gotten to the race ten minutes late and you’re having to play catch-up to even run with anyone. Oops.

Aside from that, there’s not been a huge amount of drama involved with training recently. I had a fortnight over Christmas where I was out running exactly once, due to a combination of apocalyptic snow and a gimpy knee (Turns out that running home from a race isn’t the best of ideas), but after that lull I’ve thrown myself back into training with my usual reckless abandon. I was determined to set a decent time for one particular race this month you see…

The Brass Monkey Half Marathon is organised by the York Knavesmire Harriers, and is one of the highlights of the northern racing calendar; Pan flat and famed for it’s PBs, it’s constantly oversubscribed, so making it in was a big event, especially as this would be the first half marathon I’d ever raced (My training progression last year was 5k, 5k, marathon, which I’m sure isn’t the standard way into things). Joining a good 1500 runners in the damp morning, we shuffled into the packed starting area, where we all huddled around for warmth, which is a good thing as my Skins top hadn’t arrived by then, and you could have accused me of feeling the cold somewhat that morning. The starter horn tooted into the cold air, and we set off on an out and back leg out of the racecourse into the countryside. I wish I could tell you something about how interesting the countryside was, but quite frankly, the flatness and the pace conspired against me to make the whole thing a blur; If I hadn’t counted the distance as I went along, I’d have sworn that I lost miles 7-10 somewhere along the way, although I think that was the point where I’d realised exactly how fast I’d set off, and I’d focused down into a little ball of consciousness to just keep the pace up. I’d set off at somewhere less than 7 minutes a mile, and realised that the pace was ridiculous to even think about keeping up for that distance at about 3 miles in. Somehow, I still managed to hover around 7.15-7.30 a mile after that, and I realised when I hit the 10 mile mark and broke my PB for the distance by 8 minutes that I must have been doing something half-right. The only real trauma came about a mile away from the finish line; The harmless-looking bridge we crossed on the way out turned into what felt like an hour-long drag as we tried to keep pace all the way to the top, and then the resulting effort meant that the home stretch was accompanied by swearing and cursing as we tried to speed up for a sprint finish. Speed up I did though, and I sprinted through the finish in 1 hour 38 minutes, which although not ridiculously fast, was quick enough for my first half, and certainly faster than what I was hoping for!

So, what’s next then? Well, I’ve got the next cross country run in three weeks time to contend with, so expect a tale of hardship and hills by then, as well as an attempt to run to work along with my usual training this week, which could well end badly.

Till then, keep on running!

Matt

Wistow 10

There are races in life that vary from running high in the stratosphere, where ice forms in your water bottle as you hurtle down breakneck hills, down to running over the plains, where the only rise in the horizon is the incessant bobbing of the smug person who just overtook you. Then there's the Wistow 10. Wistow, lying just north of Selby and close to York, is so pan-flat that you can see the curvature of the Earth on a clean day, and any hills spotted in the distance are clearly hallucinations brought upon a sleep-addled brain after counting pace for the last eight or so miles. But I digress. The Wistow 10 is the first of it's distance organised by local group the Selby Striders, making it a more accessible distance for budding runners than the previous half-marathon, shown by the 200-strong crowd who dragged themselves out of bed that Sunday morning.

At 11am prompt, the bleep of a hundred watches simultaneously being set began the competitors following the figure-of-eight loop out of Wistow, down through the Lordship towards Selby before curving back through the village, out the north and into Cawood before one last stretch through the fields and back to the start. As casually insinuated earlier, the entire race is smooth running, with the addition of the odd bridge leaving Wistow, and combined with the whole route being run on tarmacked roads, it's a touch painful on the knees, but the potential for a PB is second to none. The only thing that even began to impede progress was the odd headwind whipping over the exposed track, but this was transposed into a refreshing tailwind on the homeward leg, so all was forgiven. There is another problem with it being so flat however; You can see exactly where each and every runner is in front of you. Gone is the illusion that the lead man might be just around the next bend, you have to face facts and deal with the stark reality of it all. Pretty stark it is too, as Wistow isn't exactly known for it's sweeping vistas and panoramas. This is a moot point however, as it's rare that anyone has the concentration to spare to appreciate the aesthetic value of the landscape after about six or seven miles.

The support certainly sped on an already fast race however, provided by the chipper and cheerful marshalls. Drinks were also provided at a number of stops around the track, and although there were no goodie-bags to collect at the end, there were race t-shirts and complimentary leg massages instead, which were more than welcome (I for one prefer a good rubdown on my calves to yet another generic cereal bar and packet of raisins).

All in all, if Selby repeat everything they did right this time next year, I can see the Wistow 10 being a staple of PB chasers and the like for many years to come. Especially if we get our legs rubbed down again.

Alice's Run 2009

So, how do you go about breaking a seasoned 10k road race runner? Swap the nice flat roads and footpaths around York that he's used to the calf-burning hills and valleys around Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Alice's Run, aka Fellrunning for Beginners, is organised by Epilepsy Action and is described as a mixed terrain 10k race race perfect for serious runners and beginners, which puts me in mind of some nice rolling roads, a couple of dramatic hills, plus the odd muddy trail to splash down. As you may be guessing, I may have been slightly naive about this. Getting out of the starting field, I was worried about whether I'd get close to my PB at all, as there was a large bottleneck to get through before hitting a stretch of canal path with no chance of overtaking. However, after seeing the first almost vertical hill up the side of the valley, my thoughts were "Blow that", or something similar at least.

This is very much a course for enjoying the view, as because most of the hills you have to walk up to stand a chance of making it to the top of alive, not to mention numerous stiles, boggy trails, and on one memorable occasion, a huge felled tree to climb over to punish tired legs, it's very hard to pick up speed for any real length of time. This shouldn't be seen as a complaint though, as what scenery it was, as we were led from down by the waterside up to lofty heights amongst the clouds, and back down again through woodland trails and over scenic stone bridges. I still think that if Alice had actually used this as a training course, she was either half mountain goat and had thighs like tree-trunks, else possessing a fairly healthy masochistic streak, but it's very much a race to enjoy, even if you do end up cursing like a sailor halfway around.

The organisation was very good as well, with 300+ runners being herded around by good signage and a brilliant team of friendly marshalls, although a drinks station halfway wouldn't have gone amiss. Well-stocked goodybags and tshirts were handed out at the end though, as well as a nice awards event for the winners (Chris Miller came away with the fastest time, with a sickeningly quick 34:58). Me? I came away with a comfortable 51:47 and a promise to bring fellrunning shoes when I inevitably sign up again next year.

Matt


I've also got a lot to update from the last couple of weeks, including the York 10k, so keep your eyes peeled!

"I'm raaacing in the rain..."

Ah, and a week has passed! It's not that there was nothing physical involved in Scotland; Lugging half a tonne of camping gear around the rail network will certainly give you a thorough workout, but it's not quite the same as the familiar ache that you get from stretching your legs for a few miles. So, how have I gotten back into the swing of things after a weeks break?

Well, the club run on Tuesday continued the trend of my workouts being chased by weather akin to the stuff that curses Glastonbury on a yearly basis; As soon as I've been setting out with shorts on the clouds have taken it upon themselves to provide me with nice refreshment halfway in to my runs, which has been very considerate of them. On one hand though, it does provide added incentive to charge around the course quicker when the lure of a hot shower is a strong one, but you do run into problems when you're leaping hurdles over puddles of Vicar of Dibley-esque proportions, most causing your shoes to get soaked and rub and your feet, well, disintegrate, which is never helpful. We all splashed through puddles for a good 5.5 miles though, which was probably enough considering the circumstances.

To make up for the slight shortfall in distance (And the fact that my car's decided to contract swine flu and splutter constantly) I ran to the meeting point with the club tonight, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but as my legs are happily reminding me at the moment, might have been pushing it a little. The run there added another 2.8 miles onto tonight's circuit, bringing the total distance upto about 10 miles which was put away in about 1.20 which feels good, although whether I can keep that up without the club's couple of rest-stops is another matter completely. It was good to do some decent distance again though, having forgotten what it felt like from not doing anything more than a 10k since the Marathon, and it was a good excuse to burn off some festival calories in the evening sun.

Speaking of 10ks though, I seem to have accidentally landed into doing another one, as you do. The Jane Tomlinson 10k in York is this Sunday, and one of our club runners at the Selby Striders has had to drop out, leaving a spare number and timing chip floating in the ether, meaning I'll be getting up at silly-o-clock for the 9am start, tanking around with about 10,000 other people doing exactly the same thing. Well, what else are you meant to be doing at that time on a Sunday morning?

Anyway, I'll report back in after the race with tales of glory/woe/hilarity and the obligatory running graphs. If you see a guy in a red Selby Striders shirt and a beard, heckling is mandatory and encouraged.

Good running!

Matt

Through the wind and the rain...

So, I've returned just about alive from another 10k, this being in the little village of Stillington in the great vast nowhere north of York. It's a course which people would generally describe as 'rolling', which roughly translated means 'All the gradients are under 10%, but only just'. So, what have we learned from this race?

• Reverse handicaps are great in theory, but they mean that when you try to sprint dramaticallyat the end, you have to play chicanes to get around the veritable moshpit of people running in front of you.



• This is also tricky when there's a 90 degree bend to negotiate to get over the finishing line, at least if you don't fancy going base-over-apex in loose gravel.



• The staggered start also means waiting around at the beginning for some time, and when you're due to be called up, the heady combination of nervous tension, adrenaline and pre-race caffiene will cause you to shoot off into the sunset at a pace that only Wanjiru and colleagues can sustain.



• Wearing sunglasses in the rain will cause you to go almost completely blind, and make you rely on the brightly-coloured running vests out front to keep you on course.

Yup, par to course, last night the heavens opened halfway into the race, causing the fields and woods of Yorkshire to resemble monsoon season. Refreshing, perhaps, but it makes you concentrate when hurtling at breakneck speeds down the last hill to the finish line. All in all though, it was a fun course to do, and with a respectable 47:40ish time (The race wasn't measured accurately), I came close to a PB on a course which wasn't as flat as the plains, which I can certainly cope with. Oh, and because they're shiny, here's the speed/distance graph from last night. If only I could run the entire thing at 4:50 eh?

Anyway, short break from running as I go to visit bonnie Scotland for a few days, but I will be back with more news and race reviews next week!



Good running!



Matt

The Starting Line

Welcome to my first post in the latest extension of my small hobby/mild obsession of running, that is Fartleking About! To get the introductions out of the way, my name's Matt and I'm a pseudo-healthnut of 23 years of age and hailing from North Yorkshire, where all the fields be. I've been running for almost a year and a half now, so I've gotten to the point where I'm feeling brave enough to acquire all the shiny gadgets and try some of the more 'interesting' training flavours that are out there, this blog feeling a natural extension of all this. I'm hoping that it'll serve as a handy tool for not only giving some vague structure to the amorphous mass that is my running schedule, but some insight into why I get up at 7am to run through horizontal rain, and why I will inevitably found in a ditch 10 miles from nowhere with naught on me but a cheefully-coloured running vest, a timing chip and a windswept grin plastered across my face.

So, before I tell any new dramatic training tails, here's a few handy facts and figures:

• I'm 6'3"-ish with about 14st strapped to my frame, so I'm not a gentle runner by any means.
• I generally run around 20 miles a week, with two 7-ish mile runs with the Selby Striders, the local running club, plus a 5k race with the Parkrun team on a weekend, with the odd run inbetween.
• Outside of training, I've ran a total of 8 5k races, 4 10ks and 1 London Marathon
• Since the London Marathon, I've run 148 miles roughly, as counted whenever I can remember to up the tally.
• I run with a Garmin Forerunner 205 training watch and a pair of Nike Zoom Structured Triax 12 running trainers, after I wore my last pair of Asics into oblivion.

My current PBs are:

• 5k - 22:44
• 10k - 47:38
• Marathon - 5:29:13

So, what am I hoping to achieve in the future? I've got the last race of the York Road Race League tomorrow night, which'll be a 10k, and fun and unusual enough, it's a reverse handicap race, so the slowest from the previous 4-5 races go first, then the next, all the way back to the quickest, which should result in a dramatic finish as everyone scrums across the line in one go in a bid to get the shiny winner's t-shirt, although I have these ominous visions of fences at a Grand National, when one horse goes down in the front and everyone else trips up over them in the ensuing panic. Should be interesting at least, and the best chance I'll have at crossing the line first for a while at least.

After that's all done with, I've got a couple of goals on the horizon. I'd really love to get my 5k time under 20 minutes, which seems as though it should be possible with my ridiculously long stride, and then work on slowly knocking down the time from there, and then as the afternoons get a bit cooler and long runs become a bit more acceptable, I'm going to have a stab at a half-marathon to see how well I can cope with distance at a reasonable speed, opposed to my 10-min mile plodding for a full one, and if anyone can recommend a good one to break me in gently, or one which will snap me in two but at least have pretty views, the hints would be more than appreciated.

Anyway, I think this enough waffling and PB ego-stroking for one night, so I'll be back later when I have the full race report from the Stillington 10k tomorrow. If you're around, kind words of support for the beardy git in the Striders running vest will not go amiss.

Good running!

Matt