Training summary: 10-23 August

by Ben

Back when I was training for my first half marathon, I found it useful to write a summary every week, or every couple of weeks. It served both to hold myself accountable, and to help me organise my thoughts and analyse what worked well, and what didn’t work so well. With a few big races coming up, I thought it might be useful to do it again. So first off, let’s have a look at the raw figures from the last couple of weeks:

Very much a tale of two weeks! Last week was meant to be a recovery week, so the mileage was meant to be low. But, well, not that low. I didn’t have a solid schedule, but the aim was to hit around 15 miles across four runs, all at pretty easy pace. We were going away over the weekend, so the plan was to do some parkrun tourism. The week started pretty well; I finished work pretty early on Tuesday, and drove up to the Quantocks to get some miles in. I live right in the middle of Taunton, so while there is plenty of countryside around, I have to clock up a few extra miles getting out of town, and even then things are pretty flat and dull. So having time to jump in the car and drive 20 minutes up the road to run on some pretty stunning trails is great. I had only been planning to run four miles, but enjoyed it so much that it ended up being five, and I could have happily kept going for more.

Much better than town streets…

The rest of the week ended up being quite stressful and tiring, both at work and home, and I just kept putting running off. Because the weather was looking pretty awful for the weekend, we cancelled our hotel for the Friday night and therefore didn’t engage in any further parkrun tourism, which was a bit of a shame. We had still been planning to go to our local parkrun, but in the end we didn’t really wake up early enough (which with a 22-month-old, is a rare achievement!) Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday were spent travelling to, socialising at, and driving back from a family BBQ, which just left time for a pretty lacklustre four miles on Sunday afternoon. That run was one of my least enjoyable for a while, but I did see a shrew, which was a first!

I was keen to put a line under that week and begin this one strongly, and an interval session at the track with my running club was the ideal way to start. I’ve been trying to push myself quicker over the last couple of months, now that I trust my knee again, so rather than play it safe and run with group 2, I opted to run with group 1, even though I knew it was probably too fast for me. We were scheduled to be running one kilometre repeats, and group 1 were aiming for about 3:40 per km. I managed my first two at 3:46, but then trailed off during the next two, also taking longer rests than scheduled, hitting 3:50 then 3:55. For the fifth repeat, I’d completely gone, physically and mentally, and I “trotted” around to complete 800 metres at a much slower pace than I was meant to be hitting. Nevertheless, I knew that was a risk with running with a faster group, and I’m happy enough with the result: I ran three good intervals and one pretty decent one.

I kept thinking we couldn’t keep climbing. We did.

On Wednesday, I joined up with my running club’s group 1 runners again as they skipped the normal one hour club run from the middle of town to go do 12 miles along the Herepath. The Herepath is a circular route in the Blackdown Hills on which our club run an annual half marathon (plug). I’ve never done much running down there as I don’t really know my way around, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Well, almost perfect: I just had to keep up with group 1! As you can see from the graphic, the route is pretty hilly, and it was by far the toughest run I’ve ever done. The pace was quicker than I could find comfortable, and once the climbing and the terrain was added in, my legs were certainly feeling the strain. But all that said, it was probably also one of the most enjoyable runs of my life, and it’s given me some confidence ahead of the Exmoor Stagger in a couple of months.

The next day, I trotted around for a couple of miles just to keep my legs loose; not much to say about this run really, other than the fact that my legs felt awful!! I took Friday off (I very, very rarely run on Fridays) before a buggy parkrun on Saturday.

Looking attractive during my sprint finish…

I told myself that I’d take it easy. That for once, I’d be content to trot around near the back, rest my legs and not push too hard. After a nine-minute first mile, I then ran around 7:40 for the next two, and was running 6:30 pace for the last 0.11. It was not easy. The problem is… because I start at the back for safety reasons, I then start to gently pass people. Passing people then gets a bit addictive, and rather than just settle in at a comfortable pace, I just keep trying to pass people. My legs feel pretty good, and even though my heart and lungs are screaming that it’s hard-damned-work pushing a buggy around that quickly, my legs don’t seem to understand. Or something like that. Anyway, it was a good enjoyable run, even if I did go a little bit fast.

On Sunday I wasn’t really sure exactly what I was going to do. With my 12 mile run earlier in the week, I didn’t need to do a long run, but I did need to get out for something. In the end, I settled for a tempo run, which ended up being three laps of our parkrun course to total five miles, with an extra couple of miles to get there and back, acting as a warm-up and cool-down. I’m a bit split on tempo runs: I can see the obvious value, but on the other hand, they are mentally tough. Obviously, that’s sort of the point: if I can’t maintain a steady pace for five miles, what hope have I got for a half-marathon? On the other hand, I found today’s five miles at half-marathon pace pretty tough, and it just sets me thinking: “If I struggle doing five miles at half-marathon pace, how can I do 6.22 miles at 10k pace next weekend, and 13.1 miles at half-marathon pace in a month?” Of course, for those I won’t have had quite such hard weeks in preparation, and the race adrenaline will carry me through too. That aside, I was pretty happy; I ran five miles with the quickest mile being 7:30 and the slowest 7:35, which is consistency that I’m proud of.

Next week I’ve got the Battle of Sedgemoor 10k, so I’m hoping to do a medium-long distance run early in the week, and then complete one or two gentle runs to keep my legs fresh, before kicking on with distance again the week after.

Before I’m 30…

by Ben

A few years ago (okay, quite a few years ago), I wrote a list of “Things I want to do before I’m 30”. At the time, I imagine that the idea of being 30 was something akin to old age. Those episodes of Friends demonising the age probably didn’t help. I’ve lost that list, though I can remember a few of the things on it. From what I recall, many of them were expensive, and I’ve completed very few of them. But I’m not really worried. For one thing, turning 30 isn’t going to be the end of my life: I’m pretty confident that won’t happen until I’m at least 40(!). For another thing, I’ve still got a bit of time left before I turn 30; just under eleven months in fact.

Have child, tick. Get child obsessed with Lego, tick.

Here’s a few of the things I do remember from the list:

Get married, buy a house, have kids

Yes, yes, and mostly. I have one child, so I think I can call that a pass, right? Despite being a list that was mostly full of expensive adventure type things, I was pretty certain that I wanted to settle down and have a family. I probably didn’t fully realise that this wouldn’t help with the rest of the goals, as I was probably still in the heady stage of thinking that university graduates earnt gazillions. This was before the economy crashed after all. (And before I got my university results!!)

Complete a marathon and a triathlon

I ran a bit while I was at university (I had a three mile loop that I’d run about three times in one week and then not again for two months, but it was running, dammit!) So obviously, I wanted to run a marathon. Since I’ve started running “seriously” I’ve shunned running a marathon in the short-term, choosing instead to focus on improving my speeds over shorter distances. Now that I’m not barely old enough to legally drink, I’ve realised that I’ve got a while yet to build up to marathon distance if I want.

Climb a mountain, skydive

There were definitely more along these lines; pretty standard “once in a lifetime” sort of stuff I seem to recall. The main issue with all this sort of thing is the cost. I don’t really like spending money; I’m more of a hoarder I have to admit! I’m one of these sad people that will probably die with thousands of pounds in a savings account because I was too cheap to spend it. So maybe, just maybe, I need to start admitting that if I’m sensible, sometimes spending that money might be worth it for some life experiences. I also need to stop being so prideful. When we were on honeymoon in Hawaii, I knew that it would be an ideal opportunity to take a few surf lessons: who doesn’t want to say that they’ve surfed in Hawaii?? But… I didn’t, I was too worried about sucking.

So what am I going to do? Obviously it would be impractical, and stupid, to try and get all of this done before my 30th birthday next July. In addition, it would be completely pointless, as life doesn’t end at 30. However, I am going to make an effort to do more, and to move out of my comfort zone. It would be nice to get a couple of “bucket list” experiences squeezed in before my next birthday, and then maybe I can fully assess what I might want on my “lifetime goals” list.

Snowdon, credit: Chris Dixon

Trip to Snowdon anyone???

Haselbury Trail 10k: race report

by Ben

This race was on my list for last year, but a combination of a cold and a bad ankle meant that I wasn’t able to take part. So this year, I didn’t want to miss out! As with most of the Somerset Series races, there were places left to register on the night, and as this is the only race that I’m aware of that doesn’t charge anything extra to do so, I took that option. Despite running injury free for a few months now, I’m still very wary of signing for anything too far in advance: I reckon I lost about £75 in race entries in the first half of the year that I wasn’t able to run because of my knee injury!

I’d been half expecting that, like at the Tin Tin Ten in June, there would be no other members of my club at the race. However, after a little tempting, I managed to suggest to Phil that I could give him a lift, and then Clive also decided to come along, giving us both a lift. I found this a little bit strange – I’ve never had a lift to a race before, and while it was really nice to receive, it also weirdly affected my preparation. When we arrived at the venue, we also found Nigel from my club, so all-in-all, we were reasonably well represented.

Preparation-wise, I can hardly blame the drive there: I’d woken up with what I would delicately describe as “stomach problems”, and indelicately describe as “the runs”. It did improve as the day went on, but I never felt tip-top. To add to this, I had an early start to make sure that I could get down to see a customer in Liskeard and back in time for the race.

Just making sure I get my excuses in early.

North Perrott Cricket Club during an actual match of cricket, rather than a 10k race.

Anyway, arrived at race, signed up, yar-de-yar-de-yar. A few minutes early we were all stood on the road outside the cricket ground (the start and finish was on the outfield – the bar and kitchen were inside, good times!) We were all ready to go:

“5 – 4 – 3 – ” The countdown came over the loudspeaker.

“Car! Car! Car!” We shrieked, as (shock) a car drove up the road towards us. Had the car appeared ten seconds later, there would have been all kinds of chaos. I honestly don’t know if they would have called us all back to start again, or if we’d have just had to clamber around and over the car as necessary!

After the poor young girl driving the car had driven past and received a round of applause from the assembled crowd of runners (in what was probably quite intimidating fashion) we were all ready to go again.

“5 – 4 – 3 – ” The countdown came again.

“2 – 1 – GO!”

We went. Waa-hoo, a downhill start. Oh bugger, that means it’ll be an uphill finish. Still, on the bright side, this hill was nothing on what was to come. After a short stretch of road, we turned down the driveway for Perrott Hill School, through their car park, along a single-track road and then turned off into a field. In some ways, this field was the trickiest part of the course, as it involved running diagonally down a hill. (If that makes any sense. Rather than running straight down, we ran, sort of, along and down.) This made the chances of turning an ankle, or just plain slipping much greater, and while there was no established path, and thus we could have zig-zagged to take the hill more safely, that would have clearly added on distance, and frankly avoiding injury isn’t THAT important – it’s a race, dontcha know?!

This first stretch of the lap – did I mention there were laps? It was a two lap course. Anyway, this first stretch of the lap was mostly through open fields, and after that first diagonal descent, the running was reasonably easy: towards the second half of the lap things got more… interesting.

One of many stiles on the route (credit: Crewkerne RC)

Stile, stile, ford crossing, stile, stile, wooden bridge, stile, stile, slippy wooden bridge, stile, hill, stile. And I’m pretty certain I missed some stiles. The whole course was exceptionally well marshalled, with people placed to warn of inconveniently located posts, slippy bridges, and just to offer a cheery shout as we trudged past. This was even more welcome on the second lap when the rain had settled in! I enjoyed the course – there were perhaps a few too many stiles to be able to settle into a rhythm, but that’s the nature of this sort of race. The hill at the end of the lap destroyed me first time around, and I dropped back from the people I had been running with. As a result of this, I basically ran the entire second lap about fifteen seconds behind the group of runners in front of me, and much the same from the runners behind me, giving the illusion that I’d just gone out for a run on my own.

Overall I was happy enough with my time of 47:08 on a tricky off-road 10k, but I think I could have done better. I tried to chase Clive a little bit too much near the start, which killed my legs too early in the race, meaning that I settled into a slower “race pace” that I would have liked. The lack of anyone around me on the second lap probably meant that I didn’t push enough: the gap was too big for me to mentally try and bridge, and there wasn’t pressure from behind to speed me up either. I probably also pushed too much on the hill first lap, and should have dropped to a walk sooner, but it really didn’t look as bad as it actually was. Still, all in all, I really enjoyed the race – all the Somerset Series races seem to have a good atmosphere, and it’s good to see familiar faces between them.

I collected my second tumbler as a finishing memento – more practical than a medal, although to be honest, we have enough glassware in our house anyway, and then had enough time for a burger from the kitchen before we headed home. My next race? The next Somerset Series race of course, the Battle of Sedgemoor 10k at the end of the month.

parkrun tourism: Penrose

by Ben

For a while I’d been reading rumours about a parkrun starting up near where my parent live in Cornwall. The nearest parkrun for a long time was Lanhydrock, and that was realistically too far, at just over an hour’s drive. So I was overjoyed when I was pottering about online and came across a reference to Penrose parkrun: within hours I’d arranged a trip down to visit my family! (I do love them really…)

As seems to be a trend in my reports, my preparation was not ideal. It was my birthday on Thursday, so we had massive takeaway pizza, and red wine. On Friday, at my parents, I had two takeaway meals from the Chinese, and a huge slice of triple-layer chocolate birthday cake, and red wine. On Saturday morning, the last thing my body was up for was running.

The views were stunning (credit: Graham Horn)

Penrose is a lovely area between Helston and Porthleven on the south coast of Cornwall. People might suggest I’m biased, coming from there, but it is actually a fact that nowhere else in the world is as nice. Seriously, ask those people on QI or something! The Penrose estate is managed by the National Trust, and is mostly woodland around a lake, Loe Pool, and along the coast. So it isn’t really a surprise that the scenery on this run was pretty stunning. Even being familiar with the area, my breath was somewhat taken away when we turned the corner to run on the clifftop above the sea for a short stretch. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Although the course info advised parking in a big car park at the bottom of Helston and running a couple of kilometres to the start, we opted to take the other option, and squeeze our car into the much smaller car park only a few hundred metres from the start. I do feel sorry for any holiday makers who had decided to pop out for an early morning walk and found the car park overflowing, but never mind! Next time, now that I know where everything is and what’s going on, we’ll probably run there, but I preferred being nice and close first time around.

The start was reasonably well organised, the estates old stables provided the meeting point, and after a typically friendly welcome and briefing, we were shepherded to the start line, and after a 3-2-1-GO, we were off!

Knowing that there were a few hills, and that my body probably wasn’t in peak condition, I had decided to take it easy for the first mile, and then see what I had. Or, as actually happened, sprint off like a gazelle, and hope that the cheetah tired before I did. Yeah – my pacing is AWFUL. If you ever want to run consistent splits, and you’re near me… just do whatever I’m not!! The first mile ran mostly alongside Loe Pool, but in all honesty, I don’t recall seeing the lake much. It might well have been visible and pretty, but I was mostly watching the feet of the two runners just ahead of me, and not really concentrating on the gorgeous scenery I was raving about earlier. At least, not until I rounded that corner and joined the south west coast path.

Spectating cows! (credit: Penrose parkrun)

The views around Mount’s Bay were simply stunning. Unfortunately, while parkrun is a run, not a race, I wasn’t about to hang around lollygagging. After a reasonable stretch running along the coast above Porthleven Sands, we turned away from the sea, and up hill. This is more or less where my lack of preparation kicked in – the climb isn’t that severe, about 150 ft, but in trying to stay with the people around me, I pretty much destroyed my legs, so when the course flattened off at the top, I had nothing left for the final three-quarters of a mile. This second half of the course is predominantly on smaller tracks around fields, and the footing is a little bit trickier than the paths at the start, but still nothing too serious. A final dash around a field of spectating cows led to the finish line.

For a relatively new parkrun, it was very well organised, particularly given the distance between the start and finish lines. There was even one of the core team offering to laminate barcodes for the runners to make it easier on the scanners – if that isn’t service, I don’t know what is! All in all, a brilliant parkrun, and I would highly recommend it to anyone in west Cornwall on a Saturday.

Two Tunnels 10k: Race Report

by Lolly

At the start of the year I signed up for the Two Tunnels Mini Challenge. This would involve doing a 5k in March, a 10k in May and (gulp) a half marathon in September. Two days before the 5k I got a chest infection, and so I re-scheduled to do the 5k in May and the 10k in July. Useful to have a series of events with 4 dates in the year!

Unfortunately this screwed up my timings somewhat. I ended up doing the Glastonbury 10k just a week before the Two Tunnels 5k, with no recovery runs in between. Achey legs and an annoyance at driving all the way to Bath for a (probably short) 5k made it a pretty miserable experience. Ben tried to persuade me that it was good experience for the later runs, but I wasn’t having any of it. By the time I reached last weekend, I wondered what the point of doing a 10k at this point was, particularly having already hit my sub-60 target for the year.

The Two Tunnels events are based around a section of the former Somerset & Dorset railway line that’s been turned into a cycle path. Along the line it goes through, wait for it, two tunnels. Bet you didn’t see that one coming. All the events start in a park in Bath, and the ‘Return ticket’ 10k goes out through both tunnels before coming back the same way.

The events have quite a laid-back feel to them, with everything you really need from a race but not a lot more. On arriving in the park (field) I collected my number and then headed straight for the very long toilet queue. Four toilets between several hundred runners led to a long wait, but as luck would have it I was queuing right behind two fellow club members.

The range of events and size of path means that runners are sent off in waves. We were in the last wave to go, and during our (very good) briefing the first few 5k runners started to go through. Many of us were clapping and cheering them in – it was that kind of event. There was a countdown until the start clock got to 20 minutes, and then we were off.

Well, we were mostly off. Some people nearer the front weren’t in much of a rush, so it took a little while to properly get going. We headed across the field and then down a bank to meet the footpath. Lesson number 1 from the 5k – there is no need to rush down the uneven bit. I nearly twisted my ankle first time out, but in the 10k I took my time and chose my footing carefully.

Once we were on the path properly I started weaving to try to get into the right position. What I didn’t learn from the 5k is that the bridges have posts in the middle at either end, and so I nearly smacked straight into one of them. The typical re-shuffle for the start of a race continued, and I found myself overtaking people who were overtaking people themselves. Reminded me of the motorway on the way up! It was also pretty hairy at times, as the 5kers were flying along in the opposite direction.

Tunnel! (credit: Leigh Dodds)

Having settled into a pace, the first tunnel approached. Lesson number two from the 5k – the tunnels are your friend. The footing is solid throughout, and there is a surprisingly consistent cool, easy-to-breathe air quality. There are lights at regular intervals, and the path is easily wide enough to run three across. I knew this was my chance to get into a solid rhythm at a quicker pace.

Heading out of the first tunnel, I lapped my watch. Then I lapped it again. The tunnels are great for running but terrible for GPS. By lapping once it had re-found me, I could use my lap pace to get an approximation of how fast I was going. Something else I’d thought about after my 5k experience.

We passed the turning point for the 5k and then, in what seemed like no time at all, had reached the second tunnel. It’s fair to say that this part didn’t seem like no time at all. This tunnel is very long, just over a mile long in fact. Somewhere in the middle I spotted the distance markers on the ground, telling you how far it was to each end. The atmosphere was good, as runners from an earlier 10k wave were heading back the other way. Friendly faces and the tunnel features made for nice racing conditions.

The major downside with a mile of cool tunnel was coming out the other end. It was like running into a wall of hot and humid. My watch took a little longer to find me this time, so I was lapping for quite a bit. It helped to pass the time until that magical moment – drinks station! The water was in the usual cups, and was handed out very efficiently.

Course map. Note the tunnels.

After a short while longer we reached the flag. Turning round on a reasonably narrow path made for a tight corner. I went round at the same time as a reasonably tall guy who was packed with muscle. This gave me that brief smug moment of being small enough to accelerate back up very quickly. Pretty sure he caught back up shortly after though.

As inevitably happens, the way back seemed to take that big longer. The drinks station was further than I remembered, although I did have the lift of seeing club members passing through. The drinks were outbound only, but someone nice had taken a few cups to the other side to give us the option of more water. And it was then furhter to get back to the tunnel than I’d remembered as well.

The atmosphere changed on the way back, as I was fairly lonely in the tunnel. Fewer people were running the other direction, and I was a way behind the runner in front as well. Every hundred metres I looked to the ground to see the distance markers, and it’s fair to say they helped keep me going. So much so that I caught and overtook the girl in front, who was very supportive in cheering me on.

Leaving the tunnel meant another wave of heat, but a psychological milestone had been passed. The marshal at the 5k turn point was a welcome sight, and by the final tunnel section I was feeling pretty good. So I started to speed up. Compared to the longer tunnel, with the knowledge of heading home, the shorter tunnel was over much sooner than expected.

Back out in the open I was aware of someone catching up to me. At one stage we were side-by-side, and he told me not to let him overtake me. Even though it felt harder the pace was still good. We crossed a bridge, and in one of those horrible moments I forgot that there were, in fact, two bridges and so we weren’t as close to the end as I thought. I felt like I had nothing left to give, but with the support of my new running partner I maintained pace.

We finally got to the bridge near the end. Some earlier finishers were waiting there cheering – one of my favourite features in any race or parkrun. The final lesson I had taken from the 5k was that the finish was relatively difficult, going up a reasonably steep slope before heading back to the grass. I really struggled up the hill, but I got a lot of support from the guy I was running with. Then we reached the last slog along the grass. Cheers came from all around, including from Ben and our daughter, and I gave every last thing I had to make it over the line.

I’d seen the clock as I crossed the line, and it’s really not hard to subtract 20 minutes from a time. Which mean that as I turned to shake the other runner’s hand I was able to thank him for pushing me back to a massive PB. He said that he’d been using me for pace for quite some way. I think it was really nice of him to cheer me home instead of overtaking – I know which option Ben would have taken!

Inter-locking medals!

Across the field I took my toddler to pick up my medal – number 2 as it was my second race in the series. The bag literally just contained a high-quality medal and a chocolate bar which, to be honest, is all I really want at the end of a race. Ben then took a trip to one of the food vans, and so I was happily munching away as I watched some of my club friends cross the line. Special shout out for Kirsti who had an amazing sprint finish to pull off an overtake just before the finish line.

So what started off as a pointless event turned into one of the best 10k experiences I’ve had. In September there will be events ranging from 300m to a full marathon, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone in the area. Scenic race with everything you need, and the added bonus of going through some old railway tunnels. Definitely one I’d happily recommend.

My 3-part medal is now two thirds complete, and I worked extremely hard for that second piece. My 10k PB was reduced by almost 4 minutes to 55:23. The scary thing is though, I’ll have to work even harder for the third part. I’ve never run that far before!

A little bit about… recovery weeks

by Ben

[Disclaimer: I am not a qualified coach, and this post is only based on advice I have received, and my own experience. What works well for me might not necessarily work well for you.]

This week, I can’t rave about a successful tempo run, or setting a new elevation record. I won’t be extending my long run, or running a set of intervals. In fact, this week my running is extremely dull. That’s because I’m on my recovery week. A few people have asked me what this is and why I’m doing it, so I thought I’d write a bit more about it here.

Unfortunately a recovery week is NOT all about relaxing on the beach…

Essentially, a recovery week is exactly what it sounds like: a whole week of recovery! Unfortunately though, this doesn’t mean that I’m sat on the sofa the whole time. (Or at least, I’m not meant to be…) Much as after a particularly tough race you might want to take a few days to recover, probably including a low intensity workout, a recovery week comes after a tough few weeks.

For my own training, I tend to include a recovery week every fourth week. After three tough weeks of training, normally including the full variety of hills, speed and distance, the body is fatigued. To continue to train at the same level increases the risk of injury or illness, so I scale everything back for the following week. Normally, this would be a total distance drop of around 30%, so if I’ve been totalling 25 miles a week, I’ll drop down to around 17 or 18 miles. Within that, each run will be easier. That’s not to say that every workout will be at a “recovery pace”, but I won’t be conciously pushing myself to run fast: just comfortably.

In addition to the lighter workload, I try to include more “mat work” – core exercises, stretching and foam roller sessions. It is also a great time to get a deep tissue massage, as it’s best not to get these shortly before harder workouts.

Recovery is not just important for injury prevention though; it is while the body is not exercising that it strengthens; without effective recovery exercise sessions and training plans will only make the body weaker, not stronger. Personally, I hate recovery weeks: I feel like I’m not achieving anything. But I know that it is helping my body improve from the last three weeks of pushing myself, and will leave me rested and better able to push myself over the next three weeks.

So, how can you incorporate recovery weeks into your own running? Firstly, don’t feel you have to do exactly what I do! That’s just what I’ve found works best for me. In fact, at the moment while I’m still essentially in rehabilitation for my knee injury, I’m dropping about 40%. You might want to cut back more often, but by less (maybe every third week, but only drop about 20%), or less often, and by more (perhaps every sixth week, but cut back 50%).

Sticking to recovery for a whole week isn’t always very easy, particularly if, like me, you enjoy parkrun on a Saturday: sticking to a slightly gentler pace rather than chasing a PB on rested legs can be tough. But, for me at least, it’s worth it over all!

Quantock Beast: race report

by Ben

In the past few weeks, I’ve been making an effort to incorporate more hills into my training. This came about for two main reasons: Firstly at the start of June I ran the Crewkerne 10k, which was an… undulating race that I was woefully unprepared for. Secondly, I’ve recently been looking through my running logs and realised quite how flat the majority of my runs are. Running in Taunton, and primarily along the river and canal, this is hardly a surprise, but all the more reason that I needed to make a special effort.

With some club mates at the start. Credit: Lolly.

So, the Quantock Beast seemed like an ideal opportunity: a small race local race (five miles from home) with a fair bit of climb over a relatively short distance. In the week leading up to the race, I began my “hill hunting” in earnest: last Sunday I tackled (got lost on) Cothelstone Hill, to clock up 258 metres of climbing, easiest my most ever, and then on Tuesday I managed to find 163 metres in a run from my house, which mostly involved trying to run as far from Taunton as I could manage and still get back in time for breakfast. While I’m sure that this will pay dividends with my long-term running development, I did belatedly realise that it perhaps a little foolhardy in terms of short-term race preparation. But then, it’s not like I had a 5.5 mile race time to try and beat!

The race starts and ends at a free admission National Trust property, Fyne Court. This provided a lovely location to mill around in before and after the race, and also an area suitable for my toddler to charge around in while I was racing: something my wife and brother assure me she did plenty of!

Fyne Court, when not full of runners! Credit: Rose and Trev Clough

A short briefing before the race mentioned some of the marshalling and route problems from the previous year, when a variety of routes were run as people went off track in a few different places. We were assured that this year there were plenty of marshals, arrows and marker tape to prevent the problems being repeated. After a further warning about a fallen tree we’d have to clamber over, we were off! I intentionally positioned myself slightly further back in the pack to try and avoid haring off too fast, but the plan back-fired slightly, as after an initial road section, we climbed onto some narrow paths on which overtaking was impossible. I spent a while stuck running slower than I would like, but when the path opened up onto a field, I was able to move through the pack in front of me a little more easily. Around this point, I fell into sync with a runner in a fluorescent vest, and we ran together for most of the next two miles. Which was a steep descent, followed by a long, long, long ascent.

I soon adopted a tactic of run – walking up the hill. For all those around me were running quickly enough that I did drop back when I walked, I found I was gradually making up ground on those ahead of me by doing it. I know some people try to avoid walking during a run, but personally, in a race, I’ll use which ever method I think will get me to the end quickest. Towards the top of the hill, I began to pull away from the runner I’d been with for a while: at the end he told me that he’d tried his best to stay with me, but just hadn’t been able to.

What a face! Credit: Lolly.

The climb got a little muddier towards the top, although the hot weather recently made the terrain much better than it could be. One runner I spoke to on the climb said that things had been a lot worse last year! I passed two more runners during the final stage of the ascent, and slotted in behind a chap from Weston AC as we weaved our way through the trees. At one point, one of the arrows had fallen slightly and appeared to be pointing down the right-hand fork, but the marker tape continued along the left-hand fork, and so we headed that way. (Apparently, not everyone did, and there was a fair bit of moaning and groaning at the end about people going off course “again”! Personally, I felt that the marking was fine, although as I was following another runner through this section I can’t tell for sure whether I’d have gone wrong or not if I was on my own.)

The route dropped downhill from this point, and soon moved onto the road for the last mile. I allowed myself to speed up as we cruised downhill, although I was a little wary that I didn’t know the course well enough to be sure that there wasn’t another climb or off-road section, so I was careful not to push too hard. As it turned out, I ran my fastest kilometre of the year to end the race, and even put in a sprint finish, despite there being no one close in front or behind me. Although I was slightly worried that I would trip over the toddler who ran out into the finish funnel in front of me… yes, my own daughter!

After a chat with a few other members of the club, including a couple that I hadn’t seen at the start, we headed home, to enjoy a well deserved (in my opinion at least) Nando’s!

Tin Tin Ten (2015): race report

by Ben

Prior to this race, I spent a bit of time perusing my race report and Strava details from last year’s race. I made a couple of interesting observations: the second mile had been the toughest, and I’d not helped my chances by sharing a bottle of wine with a pizza meal the night before. To put it succinctly, I had some clear areas in which to improve. So, obviously, this year I prepared for the race by having a takeaway pizza and half a bottle of wine on Tuesday night. Ah. At race registration, further issues presented themselves: the race was reversed, and followed a slightly different course from last year.

So much for race preparation.

Evening races confuse me; wasn’t I meant to be sleeping?! Credit: Keith Rendell

Still, other aspects went a little better: in comparison to last year, when it had pretty much rained non-stop for the week before, and was raining during the race itself, this year was a sun-fest. Solid underfoot, and a lovely warm (but not too warm) evening meant that quick times were in order. I was a little more sensible with my lunch and made sure to rest as much as I could through the afternoon.

If I was to take lessons from this race, the first would be based upon the above: look at last year’s mistakes, and learn from them. The second would be this: at the published start time of the race, be at the start line.

Sounds simple, but at 7 o’clock, most of us were still loitering around in the clearing near the start, and then gradually started meandering towards the start line. We had more or less started clumping together, but not in any sort of order, when suddenly people started running. I didn’t hear a starting klaxon or any shouts, but there was obviously something. Unexpectedly, I found myself much further back in the field than I had wanted to be, needing to weave my way through slower runners. I was far from the only person with this problem, and it caused a little bit of chaos. Especially as not far from the start, we entered a series of narrow paths, and passing was all but impossible.

As a result, I probably went off too quickly, catching and passing a few people that I expected to finish somewhere in the region of pretty quickly. The problem was, having passed them, rather than settle in, I unintentionally maintained my quicker pace, and exerted a little too much energy too quickly. One nice aspect of the reversed course was that the two out-and-back stints were both early in the race. While I don’t mind an out-and-back, they can be pretty demoralising towards the end of a race (this was particularly bad at the Great West Run). Whereas in this case, having them nearer the start was actually quite nice, particularly now that I’m starting to recognise some of the regular runners, and can gauge how I’m doing in comparison to them.

The other main result of the course reversal was that much of the first half of the race was on roads, while the second half was predominantly trail routes across fields. Not only fields, but the hillier part of the course too. Through this middle stint of the race, I was starting to get somewhat annoyed by the “song” going around my head. The latest Pharrell tune, maybe a bit of classic rock? No, the theme song to “Raa Raa the Noisy Lion”, a CBeebies show that my daughter watches. For reference:

Unfortunately, not only was this a slightly irritating tune to have constantly going around my head, but I also didn’t know most of the words. So much I was humming and going “Raa Raa!” Oh well.

Still, although the song was sending me slightly loopy, it did help to distract me from the actual running. Having the more difficult terrain, the stiles and the hills in the second half was tough, and my legs were certainly starting to feel it trying to clamber over those stiles towards the end! Still, I managed to slowly catch and pass runners over the last couple of kilometres. The final kilometre was my fastest of the race, so I obviously hadn’t completely overexerted myself!

I was very happy with a time of 45:29, a few seconds quicker than I’d managed in Crewkerne, and a big chunk faster than this event last year (mainly because of the dry conditions!) In all honesty, I probably preferred it last year, with a bit more of the race off-road, and in wetter, muddier conditions, but it was still a very enjoyable race, and one I’m planning to do again next year.

parkrun tourism: Burnham and Highbridge

by Lolly

Just over 6 months after our visit to Pomphrey Hill we hit the road again, this time to try something new. Brand new. Our first spot of inaugural parkrun tourism, and a mere 15 miles away from our home event.

Burnham and Highbridge parkrun is, as the name suggests, in Burnham-on-Sea & Highbridge. It was pretty straight forward to locate, albeit having the use of a satnav, and there is a free car park right near the start/finish. As this was the first event we had no idea how many people to expect, but the car park filled up nicely, and we even found a few more friends from ‘home’.

The water did look blue, promise!

After speeches from various officials, and the standard pre-race briefings, the group of runners all set off, seeming very chirpy for a Saturday morning. The course starts in a park (how novel!), winding its way round a lake and other pretty scenery. And a playpark, which is useful to note for future reference. The route then heads out onto the river path (more running near water) – which eventually becomes the esplanade (yet more running near water).

Partway along the walkway, lovely marshals directed us round a building and back the way we came. The turnaround point is at roughly the 2 mile mark, and so on return the course leaves the river path a little earlier to cut back into the park. The finish sneaks up on you somewhat, due to its position near a corner, but I was lucky enough to have friends warning me of this. (Ben: This was me and Iain, screaming madly “the finish is just around the corner, you can sprint from here!”) And a Garmin beeping for 3 miles always helps as well.

Credit: Mark Benton

We’d been a little nervous beforehand about the out-and-back nature of the course, but I found it worked really well. Being near the middle of the pack I had the benefit of seeing runners going the opposite way both out and back, and it really added to the community feel of the event. Turning around a building also helped to ease the jerking feeling of doubling back. Another factor with the paths used is that the surface is excellent quality throughout. Not one to try if you love fields and tracks, but definitely one to chase PBs on.

It’s definitely a parkrun we’d like to head back to, and its proximity means it stands a good chance. There were 144 finishers on Saturday, and while we were by no means the only visitors the results show 58 people completed their first ever parkrun. And given their location I imagine that summer tourism will see many paying them a visit.

Crewkerne 10k: race report

by Ben

On the way home from the race, I was chatting on the phone to Lolly, who had stayed at home with our daughter. She asked me how the race was. “You go up, then down, then up, then down, then up a lot, then down, then up, then down, then up a steep hill, then down, then up, and then you finish.” If you’re short on time, that’s the race.

Okay, okay, there’s a bit more to it than that. For me, this race has been a long time coming. Since picking up a knee injury back in January, I’ve had a long road to recovery. I did manage a 10k when we were over on the Isle of Man, but it proved a bit of a false start, and it has taken me another two months to get back out for another. The idea for this race was reasonably simple: get out, run a hard 10k and see how my knee does. The secondary aim was to see what sort of shape I was in. Although I’ve managed to do a few parkruns in the last month or so, I didn’t really have a real idea of what sort of time I could do. Before the race, I tentatively set myself a goal time of around 46 minutes, but that was before I found out quite how hilly the course was. My expectations quickly adjusted to “anything under 50 minutes”.

As well as being an excited return to racing action, Crewkerne was the first time I was using Event Clips to attach my race number. I have to admit, I was a little concerned about them: I was very suspicious about how well they would stay attached. But, I have to say, they were both extremely simple to attach (once I’d taken my top off, at least) and stayed on without a problem. I’d definitely recommend them to anyone who races regularly.

You can just see me in my red sunglasses – honest!

Although I wasn’t aware of any club-mates taking part in the race beforehand, I briefly met Helen (@Happy2bHp) in Race HQ, and then as we were all making our way to the start line, I saw Clive, and we had a bit of a chat. Between Clive and Matt (@bodwen) from Minehead RC I learnt some interesting things about the course, most importantly that although a lasso course, you had to keep running past the start line to reach the finish line. This was valuable information, as it prevented me repeating my embarrassing trick of hitting a sprint finish too early, like I did on the Isle of Man last year.

Despite an announcement that the first man and first woman to reach the top of the hill at the start would receive a prize, I opted for a gentle start to the race (there was never any danger of me beating Kieran to the top anyway!) I was a little rusty at maintaining a race pace, and spent the first few kilometres passing and being passed by the same cluster of runners. However, after a while we all more or less settled into our positions – by which I mean I sorted my pacing out!

The course was run almost entirely on country roads, and climbed out of Crewkerne for a couple of kilometres before looping around the villages of Merriott and Hinton St George, and then coming back down the first two kilometres. As a result, when I was coasting down the first long steep descent, rather than enjoying it, I was instead coming to the horrific realisation that I was going to have to run back up it later. Still, hills are good for you. Or so people keep telling me. The sole drink station was just after the 2 kilometre point, meaning that there were drinks at roughly 2 and 8 kilometres. Stupidly, I misremembered there being another drink station at around 6 kilometres, and opted against a drink at the first station. I rued that decision.

Once the 10k route split off into the loop, the course dropped gently into Merriott, a pretty village that I didn’t pay any attention to at all. Unfortunately, as all runners know, what goes down must come up again, and the course then rose gradually to Hinton St George, another extremely pretty village. It was very much a gentle climb, but as such, the type that you keep trying to run hard along, with the result of slowly tiring you out. You know, even more than normal in a race! From Hinton St George, the course undulated for a while before reaching that final (well, not quite) big climb. By this point we were steadily catching and passing some of the 5k runners, and encouragement was being yelled both ways.

The pretty Hinton St George: not that I noticed!

By this stage, my legs had basically had it. I still had energy to give, but my calves and thighs were struggling. I dropped to a walk for about 10 seconds up the hill, but I managed to stay in the touch with the Yeovil Town runner that I was with. Dropping back down the next hill, the climb from the start of the race, my leg muscles, which would normally be helping to control my descent, had given up, and I basically “fell” down the hill in a mad arm-waving running motion. (Okay, I might be over dramatising this, but it felt pretty out of control.) That descent took us back to the start line… but of course there was still a bit left. And of course… it was up hill. Still, it was nearly the end of the race, and only a short dash to the top, followed by a sprint around the corner to the finish.

Wow – what a return to racing in Somerset! I’d known for a while that I was going to be well under 50 minutes. But as it turned out, I was under 46 minutes: 45:35!! So, some work to be done to get back to PB pace, but I’ve got an idea of where I am now, and more importantly, the confidence in my knee to do it.

Some plaudits have to be given now: the race was exceptionally well organised by Crewkerne Running Club: the course itself was very well laid out, and even included signs showing where each Strava segment started and ended. Personally, I wasn’t about to start segment hunting during a race, but it added an interesting element nonetheless. Similarly, the “king (and queen) of the mountain” is a fun feature, even if one I didn’t have a chance of winning. The water stations were very well organised for a local race like this, and although I would have preferred bottles to cups, I appreciate there is a significant difference in cost. All the marshals were very friendly, which always provides a bit of a boost, particularly in these smaller races. So, would I recommend it? Definitely – just get some hill training in first!

Disclaimer: I paid full price for my race entry and my Event Clips, and was not asked to review either of them. Photo credits: Western Gazette and Nick Chipchase.