Yet again, it has been a while since we’ve posted anything. In my defence, I’ve been struggling mentally and physically with a chronic ankle issue that means I haven’t run much this year.
Still, over the past couple of months, we’ve eased back into some parkrun tourism, and as we try to make that a habit once more, we will try and start writing about our experiences again too.
These days, we generally try not to visit a parkrun too early; we like to give it time to bed in, and for some of the initial rush to die down. But this week the stars just aligned for us to visit Five Arches parkrun in Radstock on event number 2.
Radstock was just over an hour’s drive for us, and we arrived there around 8:15. Although there is a relatively small car park at the start/finish area, the team ask parkrunners not to use it, to leave its use for the general public. Instead, they suggest a couple of free car parks in the town itself. Both are only a short walk away, and are free (though you need to display a ticket). There is a small public toilet block in the start/finish area, and although moderate queues developed, it didn’t get as crazy as some parkruns we’ve visited!
That said, a combination of my timing and the toilet queue did mean that I missed the first timer’s briefing…
Yup, that’s be the first timer’s briefing…
The course runs along the Norton Radstock Greenway, an old railway line (the Somerset and Dorset Railway) now converted to a cycle trail. The path is firm tarmac along the entire route, though it is slippery in places. The path width varies; at its widest, two pairs of runners could comfortably pass each other, while in the narrowest, you’d struggle to fit three abreast. The parkrun starts a short distance from the car park (that you’re not allowed to park in) and heads west along the path for around 850 metres before a turn around a cone takes you just shy of the start, marking the first “lap”. You then turn around a second cone and head back out west once more, this time going much further, roughly 1,600 metres (1 mile) out to yet another cone; the third (and final) turnaround point, before a straight run back to the finish. Each leg has a nice landmark when you pass under the eponymous Five Arches Viaduct, which is roughly 400 to 500 metres from the start/finish, and a great point to start gearing up for that sprint finish!
Our run went really well. I ran with Lani, while Lolly ran with KK. Both children had good mindsets, and on a flat, tarmac course, they both beat their current parkrun PBs. While the double out-and-back might not be ideal for the super speedy runners because of the momentum killing turns, for most this will be a good course for PB attempts. It is also suitable for both wheelchairs and buggies, but beware of the relatively narrow aspect of parts of the course.
After a reasonably quiet inaugural of 77 runners, event two had 207, which was plenty on this course. Only 17 of the runners this week had also visited the inaugural, so it will be interesting to see what the numbers end up at.
Post-parkrun, we spent a little bit of time in the conveniently located play park right by the start/finish area, and then we headed over to Cottles, a bakery-cum-deli, which did very reasonably priced breakfast rolls and the like. There are a few other café options in the town, as well as a Morrisons Local and a Coop.
Overall, this is a nice addition to the south-west; thanks to all the lovely volunteers for putting it on. I’m not sure when we’ll be touring again, as October is looking like quite a busy month for other stuff, but hopefully we’ll have more words up here soon.
Training for a sub-40 minute 10k? Ha, we’ve heard this story before, haven’t we? For whatever reason, this just seems to have been the big block for me. Way back in 2016, I set myself an ambitious plan to run sub-90 at the Bristol Half Marathon, and achieved it. Since then, I’ve just never really made any further headway. I’ve tried a few times to target 40 minutes, but for various reasons, it has never come off. So, we start again.
My target race is the Bideford 10k on 7 May – I ran the 10 miler there in November, so I have a good idea of the course. It has a little lump early on, but nothing particularly significant. The wind can be a pretty significant factor, but to be honest, that’s not much different anywhere else, so I’m not going to get too caught up on that.
For my plan, I’m self-coaching, combining the training philosophies from Faster Road Running and Daniels’ Running Formula with my own knowledge to make something that fits me. Or that’s the hope, anyway! I’ve explored the possibility of having a coach in the past, but remain convinced that I can do it myself. Possibly, if I don’t make the breakthroughs that I want this year, I might have to relent. But for now – I’m going to knuckle-down, be positive, and give this plan my all.
I’ve got reasonable mileage behind me – 30 to 35 miles per week feels pretty normal these days, and I feel confident that I can push up into the 40s throughout much of this training block. I think key workouts are going to be threshold work, something that I often neglect when I don’t have a written plan. I added them into my running last year, and did pretty well before getting ill in the autumn, and missing my target races.
So, introduction done, let’s have a look at week one:
Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: 7 miles easy with 6 x 12 sec hill and 6 x 100m strides
Wednesday: 9 miles steady
Thursday: Rest day
Friday: 8 miles threshold: 3 x 1 mile at threshold pace and 6 x 200m reps
Saturday: 3 miles recovery
Sunday: 10 miles long
Monday:
Rest day – I really want to be using these days to do some yoga and foam rolling work, but… I didn’t.
Tuesday:
I headed out for an initial five miles mostly around some country lanes. I averaged roughly 8:30 per mile for this part of the run, which seems about right, with a heart-rate around 130-140 bpm. The hill I chose for the hill reps was a little too shallow really, I’ll need to find something a bit more significant before doing these again. My pacing was also a bit all over the place. The strides after went much more smoothly, though I’m never quite sure exactly how hard to push on strides!
Wednesday:
For my midweek steady mileage, I’ll generally be trying to do these with my running club. This week, I was leading Group 2, which has a 7:30 to 8:00 per mile pace band, slightly quicker than my own steady pace band of roughly 7:45 to 8:45 per mile. I got out beforehand for 1.7 miles alone, and then managed to keep the club run to the slower end of the band, 7:55 per mile on average. This actually felt slightly harder than I would have liked at times – my legs still seem slightly fatigued from some cycling I did last week, and it just seemed to make everything feel a little harder than it should have done. Still, nine midweek evening miles done.
Thursday:
Rest day – still no yoga or foam rolling.
Friday:
The big one – threshold day! I was working down in Cornwall, and wanted to work out a way to fit this in nicely, rather than leaving it until I was home and doing loops of the Bathpool estate. (I’m sick of loops of the Bathpool estate.) So, I worked out that I could come off the A38 at Bodmin and do this session on the Camel Trail, a multi-use trail the follows the River Camel. (See what they did with the name there??) This worked pretty well, the surface was generally very good despite some light rain, and it was mostly flat. More on that later.
The gorgeous Camel Trail.
By the time I wrapped up my job and arrived, it was about half 12, and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which wasn’t ideal preparation for a speed session. I started off along the trail for a couple of miles warm-up, and then cranked into the first mile threshold interval. I was targeting 6:44 for these. As usual, I set off too fast, but ended up not too far ahead of target pace, with a 6:41. The one minute rest went far too quickly before I ran the second in 6:42. Having hit half distance for the whole session, I turned around. For the first half of the run, I’d noticed a slight downhill assistance. For the second half, I definitely noticed the slight uphill resistance. Oh, and the headwind! Still, I hit 6:42 again for the third interval, though I really pushed my heart-rate up into the high 170s by the end of it. Still, the averages across each interval weren’t too far off: 169, 167, 172.
The quicker repeats didn’t go so well. My legs were very weary, the climb was very obvious in places, and twice I had to extend my recovery because of awkward road crossing. Aiming for 43 seconds, I ran 41, 39, 42, 42, 44, 45. By the time I finished this, my legs felt absolutely trashed. My watch declared the training effect of the run was 3.9 aerobic and 2.5 anaerobic. I have no idea what those numbers specifically mean, but they are much bigger than I normally see! As long as I can recover nicely from it, this was a great workout.
Saturday:
My plan called for three miles recovery, which tied in perfectly with our parkrun plans for me to run with my daughter. However, Lolly woke up ill, and her and my daughter decided to stay at home. I still headed out, going to Marine Parade parkrun where I met up with Kirk and Dawn. It can be far too easy to get caught up and run too fast at parkrun, so I kept my hoodie on, and did the first kilometre with Kirk, who had plans for a sub-30 finish time. I kept things pretty steady thereafter for a 28-minute finish, and was really happy to see Kirk sneak in just under 30 minutes.
Sunday:
Almost always my least favourite run of the week – the long run. I’ve always preferred running fast to running slow, and I often find Sunday long runs a battle to get myself out the door. Still, whether it was the positivity of the plan, and knowing how this run slotted in with the others, or just the sunshine, I’m not sure, but today felt pretty good. After a reasonably sedate first four miles, which averaged 8:37 per mile, I pushed on for the remaining six, averaging 7:50 per mile across those, including a surprising 7:35 for mile eight!
Considering that my legs still felt heavy from Friday, I was really happy with this run, though also a little worried that maybe I was overcooking things, and should have taken it all a little bit easier. We’ll have to see how next week goes.
Summary:
Mileage planned: 37.0
Mileage achieved: 37.5
This was a really solid first week. I came into it more fatigued than I would have liked, as I’d raced 5k and rode my bike for the first time in ages, but I still coped with the plan pretty well. The mileage was only a slight step up from what I’d been doing recently, but simply by adding a threshold workout in, the training effect seemed much higher. Next week ups the ante with harder workouts on both Tuesday and Friday, along with some slightly higher overall mileage, but I’m excited to see how it goes!
We’ve never really got back into the groove of blogging since the parkrun pandemic pause. Since parkrun returned in July 2021, we have visited 20 new venues. Of those, we have only blogged about two: Stratford Park, Stroud and Somerdale Pavilion. Which is a shame, because we’ve visited some amazing new places and had some great adventures. At some point, we’ll probably try and go back through and write up what we can remember, but it is much more of a chore, so I’m going to skip ahead to our most recent travels.
On 17 September 2022, we visited Marlborough Common parkrun, based on ‘the Common’ on the edge of Marlborough, in Wiltshire. It was our 78th different parkrun location, and our 62nd of 77 active south-west locations. The Common was given to the town during the reign of King John (1196-1216), and has a whole array of sports fields: football, rugby, golf and tennis, at least. There are 10 acres of open space for walking, or in our case – running.
This hadn’t actually been our first choice parkrun for the morning. I (Ben) had been on a work trip to Germany for the week, and spent Friday night in the Heathrow Airport Premier Inn, while Lolly and the kids were at home in Taunton. We had decided to meet at Seven Fields parkrun. However, Seven Fields was cancelled by the landowner due to the impending funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, so we had to alter our plans. Thankfully, Marlborough Common was similarly roughly equidistant for us.
This relatively late change of plans did mean that we hadn’t done too much research on the course, which we found out was a two-lap course all on grass. Toilets proved to be a little bit of an issue – there are none on the Common, the nearest are in (or near) Waitrose in town, which is roughly half a mile away. This is well advertised on the course page, but for Lolly and the children, just added a bit more time onto their travel, and is worth bearing in mind. Parking in on the Common itself, which is very clearly signposted, and well marshalled.
On the morning, our five-year-old (KK), who hates running, shocked us by declaring that he wanted to run with Mummy. (A few days later, when we were talking to someone about him having done his second 5k, he piped up with “I didn’t know that was a 5k.” So, maybe he didn’t realise what he was letting himself in for…) Anyway, as a result of this, Lolly ran with him, while I ran with Lani.
Due to our faffing around, we missed the first-timers briefing, despite the fact that I had originally arrived at the park at around five past eight! Even so, the main run briefing was detailed enough, and other than a slight hiccup when we were told to walk over to the finish, rather than the start, we were soon away.
The course – two laps, almost all on pretty uneven grass.
The course starts in the southern corner of the park, and heads a short distance up a path on the western side before cutting in for the short out-and-back section, which runs alongside a children’s football pitch. After a 180 degree turn around a flag, you head back to the path, and then turn left onto the field to start the big lap of the Common. This takes you up the eastern side of the park, through some trees and around the parking area. It cuts into the park to skirt alongside the golf course, gradually climbing up hill. Towards the far end of the park there are a few turns to follow established tracks along the grass, and then you turn down the western edge and head back downhill, past the rugby pitch. After the rugby pitch you turn into the park again, running between the rugby pitch and the car park driveway until you get all the way across to the other side of the park, closing the loop. You then head back towards the start area, and do it all again. After completing your second lap, rather than doing the out-and-back, you turn into the finish funnel!
Lani had a pretty good first half of the run, but we slowed down between 1.5 and 2.5 miles, taking plenty of walking breaks, before speeding up again for the final run in, pushed on by the gradual downhill nature of most of the final kilometre. The course is nothing amazingly special, but I didn’t find it as dull as ‘two laps around a Common’ might sound. The sports pitches, golf course, and a few copses of trees give variety to each lap, as does the slope from one end to the other, meaning your effort levels vary through the lap. The marshals were enthusiastic and encouraging, which always helps – particularly when running with children. Lani particularly enjoyed the high-five marshal at the top end of the lap.
Lolly and KK in good spirits – so pretty near the start, then!
Once we’d finished, I walked around the second loop with Lolly and KK. By this point, it was pretty clear that KK was regretting his decision, but he continued on until eventually flinging himself to the ground about five metres from the finish line and refusing to move! A short, ahem, drag later, and we were done!
Afterwards we headed into the town centre to get some post-parkrun breakfast from Greggs, then had a little ramble around the shops (the toy shop was a favourite, shockingly!) We finished off with some time at the play park at the Recreation Ground, which is about a five to ten minute walk from either the town centre or the Common.
Hopefully we can tick off a fair few more of the south-west parkruns over the next few months, but where we can’t or don’t fancy travelling far enough to visit new ones, we’ll be trying to return to some of those that Lolly and I have done but Lani hasn’t.
Continuing our catch-up on parkrun tourism, we go back once again to September, when we visited Somerdale Pavilion parkrun in Keynsham, near Bristol. Lolly has family around Bristol, and so it had always been our intention to do this one while visiting them, otherwise we would have likely visited it much earlier. So, when the first post-Covid get-together was organised, this joined it in the calendar.
We headed up on a glorious morning, and followed the course page directions easily to find plenty of parking, and met up with Lolly’s parents, who were looking after KK for the morning so we didn’t have to run with the buggy. The course page has a disclaimer ‘The course is very bumpy so please consider if this course is suitable for your child and buggy.’ A fair warning – we’ve done worse, and it would be perfectly fine for experienced buggy runners, but may not be right for a first-time buggy runner with a young baby.
A very twisty and turn-y course!
I’d heard a fair bit about the ‘curly-wurly’ on the course, and I knew that it was on a off-road bicycle track of some sort, but I didn’t really know what to expect. It turned out it was a cyclo-cross course, which isn’t dissimilar to cross-country running, except with a shorter lap and more jump ramp hillock things. Sadly, the parkrun route avoids the more exciting parts of the track, going around each of the jumps. Even so, it is a continually twisting route, and it is pretty hard to keep track of where you are compared to anyone else, because even if you are metres away from two other runners, all three of you could be in completely different places on the route.
I was running with Lani, like a couple of weeks earlier at parkrun tourism: Stratford Park parkrun, Stroud. From the start, we did a small zig-zag and then went almost immediately into the ‘curly-wurly’, in which the course spirals in to the middle, and then back out again. There was lots of chat about people getting dizzy and stuff through here. Maybe it was because I was running pretty slowly with Lani, but I didn’t have any issues. One woman though, who had got overwhelmed and worried, was paying so much attention to the other runners in the spiral (which was pretty spectacular) that she tripped and twisted her ankle badly, forcing her to drop out. On that – the route isn’t bad, but there are holes, divots and lumps, as on any trail or off-road course.
The course continues to twist and turn, following parts of the course. Personally, running with Lani – something I hadn’t done too much over the previous year or so – I found it quite demoralising: you thought you were nearly through a certain section and then it looped back around another bit. I imagine that at a more normal running speed, it’s actually quite fun and exciting, particularly if there are other runners about to ‘race’.
The final third of the lap is more straight-forward, although it still tucks inside close to the finish funnel to add a bit of distance, before going back to the edge of the field to pass the start line. A second full lap follows, and then there is really just the curly-wurly and then a short sprint to the finish. Lani had a great finish, and despite her grumbling a lot on the way around that she “was doing really badly” she got a great time, her second ever sub-40.
parkrun souvenir selfie!
The course page advertised coffee in the Pavilion cafe, but this was closed during our visit, and we headed into town to get brunch from Bonzo Lounge – great service!
Next on our tourist adventures, at the start of October, was Sharpham Road Playing Fields in Cheddar…
It’s been a while. In March 2020, we toured at St Mary’s parkrun. In my write-up from that run, I mentioned that “Given that it seems more and more likely that parkrun will be suspended soon, we were eager to get out and parkrun this weekend.” Well, it has to be said that I hadn’t anticipated quite such a long suspension.
Obviously parkrun returned quite a while ago now. Firstly, this post is very tardy: we’re out of practice at blogging. Secondly, we didn’t get straight back to touring: parkrun came back at the start of the summer holidays, which brings holiday traffic to the M5, and after facing it for work, I wasn’t really up to doing it again on a Saturday for ‘fun’.
So it wasn’t until the start of September that we scheduled our first tourist trip. Initially we planned to head to Stonehouse parkrun, but some uncertainty about whether they had toilets meant that we finally opted for Stratford Park parkrun, Stroud, a little further off the M5, but in the same general area.
Stratford Park parkrun, Stroud is (this is going to blow your mind) in Stratford Park in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The park has plenty of greenspace, and a manor house, and is situated behind a leisure centre. There is lots of parking in the leisure centre car park (which is free), and the centre staff are happy to let parkrunners in to use the toilets and changing rooms.
Due to some issues on the motorway, we arrived in a huge rush at about 8:50, but still managed to get the buggy set up, all of us use the toilets, and get to the start in time for the end of the run briefing. We did miss the first timers’ briefing though, so I knew basically nothing about the course…
…the course, it turned out, was hilly.
I ran this one with Lani, while Lolly took the buggy. The course starts along a wide path, but quickly narrows as it winds its way around the manor house. Lani got off to a quick start, and was motivated by being ahead of Mummy, meaning that when we hit the first hill, pictured above, she kept running, gaining us a few positions. The course continues up the hill past the play park, and then does a little out and back above the park, before heading gently downhill for most of the rest of the lap.
The lap is nicely varied; the wide grassy expanse of the park area, followed by a more wild meadow feel, and then the course disappears down into the wood for a short stretch, before coming back out below the manor house, but even this stretch was strewn with large tree roots which make it very uneven underfoot. At the end of each of the three laps, a short sharp tarmac incline brought you back to the start/finish area.
On the final lap, rather than turning right at the top of this hill, you turn left and then loop around to the right on the other side of the hedge. (Looking at it as we approached, I was worried we were going to have to go all the way around the tennis courts, but we didn’t!) Some phenomenal running from Lani, along with a course which did not suit the buggy meant that we stayed ahead of Lolly for a great little run for Lani.
When we visited, there were 73 finishers, and it was a really nice friendly event. Numbers haven’t topped 100 since the return, and on some of the more inclement weeks have been under 50. I imagine in the wetter conditions at the moment, it’d be a really tough course, but in the late summer sun, it was gorgeous. The sports centre café wasn’t open when we visited, so we headed straight back after.
Family parkrun selfie!
Next up in our tourist travels was Somerdale Pavilion…
I’m both not that keen on running long races, and honestly not that experienced at it. Of the 85 races I ran from 2012 to 2020, only one was longer than 20 miles (the Snowdonia Trail Marathon) and fourteen were over 10 miles (around 16%). In fact, since running Snowdonia in the summer of 2018, I did 19 races, the longest of which was a 10-miler. Over half were 10k races. Through the summer, I often raced two or even three times a month.
So when Covid returned in winter 2020, my first thought was to keep working on what has been a target since 2017: a sub-40 minute 10k. But… I also had a crazy thought: without the continuous grind of 10k races, maybe I could train for a marathon…
I had got into a good training groove through the latter half of 2020, hitting good (for me) monthly mileages:
July: 113 miles
August: 130 miles
September: 138 miles
October: 128 miles
November: 100 miles
December: 103 miles
My overall mileage was okay, but my long runs sat at around 10 miles, so in January and February I started to work them up a bit longer; 14, 15, 17, 14, 18, 20… and then we moved house, roughly a month before the race. Let me tell you, moving house just before a big race is not ideal preparation! But still, my monthly mileages remained okay:
January: 102 miles
February: 123 miles
March: 111 miles
April: 115 miles (including the marathon)
Pre-race
As I mentioned above, my only previous marathon was off-road and went over Snowdon. So I didn’t have anything like a representative time. Based on my 10k times race converters suggested I could run something around 3:15, but I am well aware of my own capabilities and experience. As well as very rarely running longer races, I know that my body just isn’t that well suited for it. So I added a bit on, rounded it off, and came up with a target of 3:30.
This was quite a personal target – mostly I was telling people that I just wanted to get a good representative time, and would be happy with whatever I got if the race felt like it went well. You know, that rubbish.
Due to Covid restrictions, the race was pretty barebones, which honestly suits me quite well, as I’m used to small local races anyway. I’ve never really fancied the idea of a big city marathon. My only real concern was what looked like a lack of hydration stations, so I resolved to train with, and expect to race with, a hydration vest (actually a Montane VIA Jaws 10 litre pack for those interested, with bottles, not a bladder).
On race day, I arrived with a fair amount of time, and as it was a rolling individual start, I could more or less start at any point within a two-hour window, although I did have a recommended start time. My only real concern at this point was that after a couple of months of training in wet, cold conditions, the sun had come out in force, and it was that typical ‘London Marathon April Sunday’ – one of the first “hot” days of the year. And… for reasons, I didn’t end up putting sun cream on.
The race
One of the nice things with targeting a 3:30 marathon is that the pacing is pretty simple. It is pretty much 8 minute miles. Mentally, this is a comfortable pace for me to run over distance; the group I lead with the running club runs at 7:30 to 8:00 pace, and anything at “effort” is normally between 6:45 and 7:15. So I headed out with a plan of aiming for around 7:50 per mile, hoping that would be easy enough, while still giving me a bit of a time buffer in case I slowed towards the end.
So, obviously, my first mile was 7:36, followed by a 7:29. But honestly, it felt pretty nice and comfortable, so I decided to sort of stick with it; I decided to ease back a little, but settle at around 7:40. The course was an extended lollipop: a 5.5-mile ‘stick’ with three five-mile loops, and then back along the stick to the finish, just beyond the start. The overall course was pretty damn flat – my Strava recorded 417 feet across the whole thing, but the out-and-back “stick” did have some noticeable rises and falls. They all felt pretty friendly on the way out though!
The rolling start meant that I was continually passing people, and quite often being passed by others – there was no real way of gauging your pace other than simply by feel and your watch. Even so, I managed to run pretty consistently: according to Strava my first five 5km splits were 23:33, 23:54, 23:52, 24:09 and 24:18. That took me to just over 16 miles, and the start of the third loop.
Ah… the marathon runner’s grimace. Yeah… this was about 20 metres in.
The looped nature of the course had been a little bit of a worry – especially as at one point it had been advertised as a five-lap route! But I knew that the marathon would be as much as mental fight for me as a physical one, so I just viewed it as another part of the battle. And honestly, while it was a little bit difficult (I won’t lie, towards the end of that second loop, I was quite tempted just to call it quits and head back), it was fine.
Starting that third loop, my mile splits had slipped to around 7:50, but I wasn’t really that worried. I was still splitting under 8:00, which meant I was still gaining time on my target of 3:30. I figured that with some slower miles towards the end, I was looking at a good chance of somewhere around 3:25, and was feeling pretty happy with the idea. Maybe this marathon lark wasn’t as bad as it seemed?
So, of course, then things started to go a little bit wrong. I got little niggles of cramp in my right leg; both my hamstring and groin. Nothing too bad, but worries in my head. I was drinking plenty of water, but it was hot, I was sweating a lot, and probably hadn’t been taking on gels regularly enough. The combination of the hot sun and the wind, which was quite a strong headwind on the latter half of each loop was getting to me, mentally as much as physically.
My splits began to slip more, but I still wasn’t too worried, I had time in hand. 8:10, 8:06, 8:19, that’s fine, I can manage that. Then, just as I was nearing the end of mile 21, disaster. My left hamstring cramped up completely. Just seized – I couldn’t run, I couldn’t walk. Heck, I couldn’t really move my leg at all. I could see the 21-mile marker just ahead of me, but it didn’t matter, I couldn’t move.
But then I had a bit of water, took a bit of time, stretched my leg out, and managed to start slowly walking. As I did so, it freed up, and I could walk more naturally, and eventually start running, slowly, again. Physically, I was back in action, but mentally, I was thrown. I still had over five miles to go, and I was limping along. The aid station was only about half a mile back – shouldn’t I just go back there, DNF and get a lift back? Did I really want to hobble another five miles?!
I kept going, but I was hyper aware of my hamstring (and any other potential cramping muscles). I was mentally broken, the fatigue of the marathon catching up with me. I was run/walking, not necessarily because of the injury, but just because it had all become too much. The next four miles came in at 9:18, 9:25, 9:05 and 9:46, and hopes of sub-3:30 were gone. That knowledge made things worse – mile 25 was an 11:01. I just couldn’t really be bothered anymore.
Then, I knew I was getting closer to the end. I was still run/walking, but I knew I just had a mile and a bit to go, and you know what, I could still get some sort of time. A 9:35 for mile 26 was hardly setting the world alight, but mentally I’d won, I had come back from the darkness. I actually cracked out something of a sprint finish, sort of, at the end.
I finished in a time of 3:37:21, and once I got over the initial disappointment of the wheels falling off, I was happy enough with it. Sure, it isn’t the best I could do. But you know what, that’s the marathon. Two YouTubers that I follow both did marathons that day (in fact one did Shepperdine), and neither of them went to plan. Sometimes, rarely, the perfect marathon happens. But mostly, it goes wrong to varying degrees, and that’s what happened to me. You live, you learn, you improve.
So, does that mean I might give the marathon another go? Maybe. I’ve got that itch to try again, to fix the things that went wrong and to get that sub-3:30. But… I still hate long runs.
Happy New Year everyone! I can understand why a lot of people are happy to see the end of 2020, but it makes me sad the number of people saying they want to forget it completely.
In terms of running headlines, I had a bit of a shocker of the year. My main goal for the year was sub-25 5k. Right now, unless I’m feeling great and really pushing myself, I’d struggle to get sub-30. But that doesn’t mean I should write it off completely, because…
I ran 5k every Saturday in 2020
At the point parkrun stopped at the end of March (and this whole post focuses on that point onwards), I hadn’t missed an event in the year. Which was pretty good going given the weather issues we’d had. And I decided to keep that anchor in my week.
My route changed a few weeks in when the paths got too busy, and as a loop around roads it isn’t the most exciting, but it works. There’s something nice about it not being a decision. On Saturdays I get up, hydrate, have a small bit to eat, and then go run my loop. Nothing to think about. And yes, present tense, because 2020 ending doesn’t mean my streak has stopped.
Some weeks, particularly early on, I sped round the loop. Others were more gentle. Which brings me onto…
I got better at listening to my body
Like a lot of people, I experienced quite high stress levels last year. This was pretty draining, and meant that sometimes running hard would have been counter-productive. So I gave myself a little more slack in not pushing myself too far.
I also started taking my hormones into account more. I started tracking my cycle in 2019 (on an app called Clue if you’re interested), but while I knew certain days were better for running than others I never did anything about it. In 2020 I started looking at when my next cycle was due, and planning to take runs super gently if they coincided with the start.
And for some Saturdays, that meant run/walking. Because feeling good at the start of the weekend is more important than getting round a few seconds faster. And, also, being prepared to run/walk meant…
I still ran with my family
Although we didn’t manage it as often as we’d have liked, Lani and I managed to go for a few runs together after school. Sometimes we planned a route in advance, sometimes we just made a decision at every turn. Sometimes we walked about as much as we ran, sometimes we practised our ‘super strong running’, and sometimes we had truly playful fartleks.
One Saturday in December I woke up feeling particularly shocking, and knew I was going to need a very gentle run/walk. I asked Lani if she’d like to head out with me. Suddenly a very demoralising slog turned into an adventure. I’d run that route around 30 times in the year, but to her it was exciting and new. We chatted, we laughed, and had a great start to our weekend.
I also managed a few buggy runs, whether after morning drop-off on my day off, or when doing nursery pick up in the evening. Buggy running is something that makes me feel strong and confident, so I’d like to do it more.
And one of my last runs in the year was one of my favourites. In wisdom and understanding beyond her years, Lani had declared back in July that “if things are still like this at Christmas then we can still go for a family run in the morning”. So, on the first Christmas Day of her life that didn’t revolve around Longrun Meadow parkrun, we did just that. The 4 of us ran to Longrun Meadow, did one short lap through the icy puddles, and then ran home.
Within reason, I’m racing more or less anything I can find at the moment, given the dearth of races. But that said, this race was organised by City Runs, who I’ve always heard good things about, and was along Exmouth promenade, which is as flat as you can get. As an added bonus (of sorts) I’ve never raced a 5 miler before, so it was a guaranteed PB!
The race did have two potential downsides: it was on a Tuesday evening, and racing is always slightly tougher in the evening; and Exmouth promenade is very exposed to the weather, so if there was any wind, it would have an impact on my race.
This event was a trial race, ahead of a planned monthly series. My current running is all based around improving my 10k time, and a 5-mile race is a great substitute for the 10k distance, so hopefully I can get as many of these done as possible to benchmark my progress (weather and Covid-depending, of course).
Race day
Things worked out quite conveniently, and I was actually doing a training course at home on race day, which meant that I wasn’t as exhausted as I might have ended up. It also meant that I was a bit more in control of what and when I ate, so really I had close to ideal preparation. I took my weekend runs pretty easy ahead of the race, and was rewarded with the rarely seen “Peaking” from my Garmin: result!
I headed down in plenty of time, and arrived on the promenade about 50 minutes before my start time. The race was organised into waves of six runners, each released a minute apart. I was in the fourth wave, giving me a 7:03 start time. I had a little wander around, used the toilet, and then warmed up along the course, just to get a feel for the route. (Sure, it was just along the promenade, but it was also getting pretty dark, so I wanted to check out how good the pavement was and stuff…)
The race was twice out-and-back along the promenade, so each leg was 1.25 miles. The wind had died down from earlier in the day, and was also coming off the sea, which meant that for most of the course it was a cross-wind, rather than a headwind, though it did feel slightly against you on each of the “back” parts of the course.
Race
Soon enough, it was time to get into my ‘race pen’. Each pen was coned off with plenty of space for six people to socially distance, and the race rules also meant that we had to wear a face covering until 30 seconds before we started. I opted for a buff, which I then put onto my wrist as a sweatband, which I tend to wear anyway.
3-2-1-GO: It soon became clear that I didn’t want to run as fast as the other guys in my group, and I let them move away from me. I was still dragged along a little quicker than I should have been, I probably went through the first quarter of a mile averaging sub-6 minute miles, which is far too fast for me. But, I regained a bit of discipline, and brought my pace back under control within the first mile.
I started passing slower runners from the earlier waves within about half a mile, and not much later I, in turn, started to be passed by quicker runners from later waves. Although this was quite odd, constantly passing and being passed by other runners, it did mean that it was rare to be alone for long during the race.
My first mile came in a little bit quicker than I had been aiming for: 6:26. My expectation was that something around 6:30 would be about the quickest I would manage. Even though there was only a slight wind, I planned to focus on good “out” legs, to try and offset any time-loss in the “back” legs.
According to Strava, I slotted into a decent rhythm for the rest of the race. It felt like it was just getting harder and harder, and my pace was falling off a cliff, but actually, it was pretty perfect. I clocked through the middle three miles in 6:32, 6:34 and 6:33. Honestly, I don’t think I could have hoped for any better, even if it felt like my legs were going to fall off. I absolutely did not realise how well it had gone until I got home and checked Strava: I even told Lolly that I’d run a horrible positive split. (In fact, I ran a to-the-second-perfect even split.)
The second lap was quieter than the first, but there were still plenty of other runners about, going in both directions, so the race was never lonely. I had seen the “race leaders” during my first “back” leg; they had started in the final wave, and I wondered if they would catch up with me. Some quick mental maths suggested that they probably wouldn’t. Spoiler: I was wrong.
I was starting to really feel the exhaustion in my legs during the final mile. The start/finish end of the course was not that well lit for long sections, and by this point, there were few to no runners heading back the other way. Then, with around a third of a mile left, the lead (well, not exactly) bike passed me: “Keep left, lead runners coming through.”
The finish area was exceptionally well lit!
The combination of the bike, and then the runners gave me an injection of pace, allowing me to be dragged along behind them slightly. Sure, they were running over a minute per mile quicker than me, so I couldn’t actually keep up with them, but it still gave me that push (well, pull) when I needed it. I completed the final mile in 6:31, to finish in 33:00 exactly. (Sure, my mile times don’t add up to 33:00: my GPS tracked 5.07 miles, so there are another 23 seconds, but whatever.)
Summary
Before the race I’d used McMillan Running to work out some decent race paces.
My recent 10k PB at the Power Run 10k had been 41:57 in windy conditions: that was equivalent to 33:30, so that had been my minimum target: Done.
The next target at 10k, which had been my target at the Power Run 10k was 41:00, that was the equivalent of 32:44: Not done: target for the next race.
The ultimate target of my current 10k training is 39:59, which is the equivalent of 31:56: Not done: target by the end of the winter, maybe?
Did I enjoy this race? Yes, definitely.
Would I do this race again? Yes, definitely.
What’s next? Probably the next of these. I had another race cancel, the Big Cheese, a 15-mile hilly trail race, so I guess my training now can be completely focused on this flat and fast stuff.
Turns out that this is a bit of a long one, sorry about that…
In January of this year, I ran the Waves on the Prom 5k, and three days later, I also ran the Storm Force 10. It turns out, three days is the shortest span I’ve ever had between two races. I didn’t expect it to be another eight months (to the day) before I ran another race: the longest span I’ve ever had between two races. The reason for this is obvious (in case you are reading this years later for some odd reason, it was the Covid pandemic). I had a few races booked, but they, like most, were cancelled.
I had some ankle issues in February/March, and was then furloughed at the start of April. I then went through a pretty inconsistent patch: I’d have a few good weeks, then a couple of weeks when I really couldn’t be bothered and barely got out. That sort of pattern continued for a while, until I picked up another niggly injury around June. Finally though, I strung some consistency together: 113 miles in July and 130 in August, never dropping below a 25-mile week since the start of July.
I looked around, fancying a crack at my 10k PB, the lowest-dangling fruit of my collection of PBs: 42:06 set at the 2017 Chard Flyer. I had come close twice in 2019, running 42:23 at the Pawlett Plod, shortly followed by 42:28 at the Wessex 10k. I found the Power Run 10k advertised at Exeter Racecourse, and set myself a crash four-week training plan to hone my speed.
Okay, so the training plan was actually just an adaptation of Runner’s World’s 4-week 10k training for 5 days a week. It mostly involved dropping the mileage of my long run from what I had been doing (around the half-marathon distance) and focusing more on quality mileage. I stuck to the interval sessions, but a lot of the other runs got adapted to fit in with life better.
Race-day
I wondered what affect socially-distanced racing would have on my day. I was definitely more nervous pre-race than I normally would be, although that might have been the combination of the period of time since my last race, combined with the pressure and expectation of going for a PB time. (The last time I beat a PB was actually that 2017 10k…)
The race instructions were great: very clear on what would happen, and what was expected of runners. There would be no water station, so bring your own water. It was three and a third laps of the race course service road. The start would be a mass rolling start, to avoid us all standing close together in a pack. Each race would have multiple waves, so only restricted numbers of runners would be on the course at a time. Come ready to run, collect your own medal after. Very stripped back.
I arrived about 45 minutes before the race was due to start. I was directed into the car park: “Park wherever you like, but leave an empty space between you and the next car. The toilets are over there..” Yes, that was my next stop. On the way back I had a bit of a chat with Chris, another RFRC member who had run in the first wave. He gave me some useful information: the wind is horrible, and it is hillier than you might think.
Okay: my initial target had been to run something around 41 minutes. I had always hoped to take it easy early on and then assess it, but hearing about the course cemented that in my mind, especially given I was out of practice at the whole racing thing.
The chat was useful, but it also meant that I ended up running a bit late. Normally I aim to warm-up for about fifteen minutes, but I had to make do with an abbreviated seven minutes – that’ll teach me for chatting too long!
Technically a post-race flat-lay, but does it really matter?
Race
At the start, we were funnelled into three files approached the line: I was in the second row from the front, as everybody else had declared that they were too far forwards, and dropped back. As we shot off, I made a concerted effort NOT to shoot off too fast, while also bearing in mind that the pace gap would be much smaller than usual: the sub-40 guys were in later wave. A few people went past me, and I settled in around eighth or ninth. Through the first kilometre, I let a gap grow between me and the leading pack, while inadvertently, I also developed a gap from the group behind me, leaving me somewhat in no man’s land. Great.
I was glad of my chat with Chris for the mental preparation: on the far side of the lap, it dropped down a dip, and then rose back up to our starting position. At the start of the second lap, turning onto the main straight revealed a horrible headwind during the gentle ascent. I hadn’t noticed it first lap, probably through a combination of the pack ahead of me, and early-race adrenaline. The pack ahead of me started to break up, and runners fell back towards me. Each runner gave me a little target, but I knew it was still important for me to be disciplined and run my own race.
Consistent pacing was impossible with an undulating course and a steady headwind along the finishing straight. There was also the slight oddity that the dip on the other side of the course was slightly protected from the wind, and so felt quite hot under the sun – such variety in a 3 km loop! I concentrated on strong, consistent effort, albeit with a slight increase during the descent, figuring that it played to my strengths and was the least sapping part of the course to press a little harder.
I passed the halfway stage, 5 km, in around 20:30, which told me that a 41-ish finishing time was out of the window, and I immediately began readjusting my thoughts for something around 42, if I could hold on for that.
I never used to be too keen on multi-lap courses, or at least the idea of them. But touring around so many parkruns has got me used to the concept, and honestly, it was quite nice today. After the first lap, I was able to plan better, knowing where I would lose and gain time. Each kilometre marker I set myself a target time to reach the next marker, bearing in mind whether it was a faster or slower part of the course. I not only considered how quickly I thought I could cover that section, but also what that would leave me needing in the remainder of the race: ‘If I reach 8 km in 33 minutes, I have nine minutes to do that final two kilometres, that should be doable.’
I worked my way through the field, and entered the final lap fourth in the wave: the chap in first was way ahead, but both second and third seemed to be falling back towards me. I closed in on third and passed him through the dip, as we hit 8 km: 33:05. I started to push from here; normally 2 km would be a little too far out, but I knew that most of the last kilometre would just be about holding on into that headwind, so if I was going to make an impact, it was now.
I pressed as the course rose out of the dip and along the back straight, and ran that penultimate kilometre in 4:04, closing the gap significantly on the guy in second. I continued to close in as we rounded the bend onto the home straight, a roughly 600 metre stretch to the finish. I tucked in behind him to shield myself from the wind, hoping to draft for a while before moving out towards the end, depending on how our time was looking.
Even behind him, the wind felt horrible, but I also felt like I had more to give. The pace felt like it was slowing too much, and I stepped out from behind him. Oh, okay, that’s definitely worse. I tucked back in. We passed the ‘400 m to go’ board with just under two minutes in hand. That should be easy enough?!
I stepped out again, but again, I couldn’t make an impression, and tucked back in. We were both getting quicker now: whether he reacted to my move, or it was just the closing push, I don’t know. Either way, I felt pretty sure we’d make it in under 42 minutes. In the final 20-30 metres, I moved into a gentle sprint, as did he: maybe if we had genuinely been battling over second, I could have pushed for an all-out sprint and beaten him, but it didn’t really matter. He finished in 41:55, and I finished in 41:57, officially a nine-second PB.
Post-race
I grabbed my medal, and chatted to a few of the other finishers, during which we mostly commiserated each other on the wind. On the way home, I stopped for McDonalds at the very handy restaurant which is less than a mile from the race course: great post-race fuelling!
Forgive the poor quality – it’s a screenshot of my Instagram story…
I’m pretty chuffed with the effort. Although I ended up around a minute slower than my vague target, I think that on a flatter, less windy course, I would have easily achieved that. I ran strong, and with a consistent effort that I maintained to the finish. I ran the first lap in 12:25, the second in 13:00, and the third in 12:50; then it was just the horrible final drag to the end.
Now I’m just champing at the bit for an opportunity to prove that I can run faster, and finally beat the 10k distance PB that I set during the 2016 Great Bristol Half Marathon.
Did I enjoy this race? Yes, definitely.
Would I do this race again? Yes, probably.
What’s next? No idea. I’m signed up for The Big Cheese (which I ran before, back in 2017), but I might find something else before then. Or… a second wave might put an end to races for the year.
So somehow we are now halfway through 2020. I’m not entirely sure how, as (like lots of other people) I’m convinced it’s still March. Which is somewhat demonstrated by my lack of blog posts in the meantime. Still, mid-year is a good time to reflect and reset.
The start of my year is pretty well documented, with me running more miles in January than in any month since 2015. February slipped a bit, but I still edged over the 50 mile marker I was hoping to hit.
And then March happened.
One week I was celebrating the latest batch of beginners graduating, with life pretty much as normal, the next week parkrun and club runs were being cancelled, and I was working from home. Soon followed by the kids being home as well.
The change in routine was drastic. Where before the walk to and from school and work meant I clocked up 3 miles of walking a day without trying, now I was walking a couple of metres to my desk, and had no decompression barrier between work life and home life.
The lack of parkrun hit me hardest. Towards the end of last year, when things were a bit all over the place, I promised myself that I would do parkrun every week. That whatever else happened, however I was feeling, it would be my anchor. And then it stopped. But, like lots of other people, I carried on. That first Saturday I headed off at exactly 9 o’clock, because I needed to process the adjustment properly.
By the third Saturday, I’d built up a rhythm and ran my fastest 5k of the year so far. The confidence boost was amazing. I might not be able to run parkrun, but I could make sure that I got fitter and stronger. Get my running back to where I want.
Over the three weeks that followed I got into the rhythm of running. My Saturday Morning 5k had to move to an earlier start time, and then to a different route, because of too many people. But it remained a positive driver in my week. I even managed to get some online workout classes in as well.
And then I crashed.
My body reacts really badly to stress. Up to a certain level I do ok, but sustained high levels of stress just break me. One Monday morning, I sat at my desk and realised I was too drained and exhausted to be sitting up. After spending the rest of the day curled up in bed, I was able to get through the rest of the week, albeit feeling pretty weak.
But when Saturday came round, I knew I had to run. Knew that my stress levels would not be improved by skipping out on my anchor. So I went out, putting no pressure pace, just doing what I felt my body could do. Acknowledging that the main purpose of the run was mental not physical.
After a few weeks of only running once a week, Ben pushed me out for an extra run. Just 2 miles down the road and back, but it was something. Since then my running has been really hit and miss. A few times I’ve run really well and felt like I was on the way back, and then some weeks I’ve been really tired and had to rest.
In January I ran 60 miles, in May I ran just 17. It was still 17 miles though, when it could very easily have been zero.
I’ve been really lucky during lockdown in lots of ways. My job transfers really well to working from home (in fact, I’m now a permanent home worker), and the company I work for have been amazingly understanding about those of us with kids at home. Ben got furloughed a couple of weeks in, which took off a lot of pressure with the kids. And my friends and family have so far managed to stay well.
My goals from the start of the year now seem a lifetime a way. Running a parkrun in sub-25 would obviously depend on parkrun being back, but also I’m currently taking a fair bit over 30 minutes to run 5k. With the right balance of training, and managing my energy levels, that should just be temporary. And as for running a half marathon I’m proud of, I imagine any races at the end of the year are going to be pretty busy, and I don’t think now is the best time to put my body through half marathon training.
So maybe I need some new goals, some new direction. I don’t know. What I do know, though, is that I’ll keep running 5k on a Saturday morning. Because it’s what I do.
Tired, slower, lacking in colour, but still running
