Recent Training

For anyone interested, a run down of training since returning from holiday. While away, I ran 63 miles during the first week and 30 in the second (it was a holiday after all) then launched into this little lot.

Week Commencing Monday 29th July

Monday: 9.65 miles easy (1:01:52).

Tuesday: Club, 9.1 miles easy (58:02)

Wednesday: 2 miles easy, 1 mile hard (5:30), 2 miles easy, 1 mile hard (5:30), remainder easy, 10.25 miles (1:04:08).

Thursday: Rest- work related reasons.

Friday: 8 x High Point hill reps, 7 miles including warm up and warm down.

Saturday: AM: 1 min, 3 mins, 5 mins, 3 mins, 1 min, all with 2 mins jog recoveries (4 miles in 23:16), 7 miles including warm up and warm down.
PM: 3 miles easy (19:22).

Sunday:  Longer run, Whitelee Windfarm, 18 miles easy (2:05:34)- struggled during last 3 miles.

Mileage: 64

Week Commencing Monday 5th August

Monday: Track, 800m, 800m, 600m, 600m, 500m, 500m, 400m, 400m, 200m, 200m.
Times- 2:27, 2:26, 1:46, 1:47, 1:30, 1:29, 70, 70, 33, 32
8 miles including warm up and warm down.- very tough, felt sluggish and heavy.

Tuesday: Club, Blantyre Park in reverse, 8.5 miles easy (55:16).

Wednesday: 5 miles easy, 2 miles hard (10:57, mile times of 5:32 and 5:25), remainder easy, 10.5 miles (1:05:27).

Thursday: 9 miles approx. easy (1 hour approx)- run home from work, stay 7.5 miles from work but took a longer route. Ran without a stopwatch.

Friday: Rest.

Saturday: AM: 1 min, 3 mins, 5 mins, 3 mins, 1 min, all with 2 mins jog recoveries (4 miles in 22:58), 8 miles including warm up and warm down.
PM: 3 miles easy (19:18).

Sunday:  Longer run, Whitelee Windfarm, 18 miles easy (2:04:57)- felt strong.

Mileage: 65

Week Commencing Monday 12th August

Monday: 8 x High Point hill reps, 7 miles including warm up and warm down- felt very fluent.

Tuesday: 9.65 miles easy (1:01:59)

Wednesday: 2 miles easy, 1 mile hard (5:29), 2 miles easy, 2 miles hard (11:11, mile times of 5:34 and 5:39), remainder easy, 10.5 miles (1:04:40)- very tiring, exhausted at the finish.

Thursday: 8-8.25 miles easy (53:00).

Friday: Rest.

Saturday: AM: Race- Nigel Barge Memorial 10km Road Race, 1st in 32:44, 8-8.5 miles including warm down. Below par run. See previous post for race report.
PM: 3 miles brisk (18:23).

Sunday:  Longer run, Whitelee Windfarm, 19 miles easy (2:13:57)- no ill effects, felt fine throughout and at the finish but jaded the rest of the day.

Mileage: 66

Nigel Barge Memorial 10km Road Race, 17th August 2013

This race is a little out of place in August. Dating back over 60 years, it was traditionally run on the first Saturday of the New Year. Inclement winter weather in recent years has seen postponements and the race appearing on the calendar in March. More bad weather this year saw a second postponement and the race moved to August, less than a year before the next one is due.

 

At one time, "the Barge" carried some prestige with the best runners in the country competing over the 5 mile course. Police restrictions saw changes to both the route and distance to now give us a 2 lap 10km course.

 

The weather was totally foul when I woke up on Saturday morning which did nothing for my enthusiasm. I needed a race though so made the trip to Garscube Estate. With a generous team prize on offer, I persuaded a few others from the club to compete with George Pettit, Robert Rossborough, Youssef Ennaoui and Eddie Carr all turning up.

 

The rain clearly dampened spirits since, despite over 130 pre-entries, only 106 runners lined up, including a number of on the day entries. Around one third of the pre-entries had stayed away. Despite some pre-race nerves, I settled into a good rhythm in the first kilometre round the estate. I already found myself clear so it was apparent I faced a long, solo effort. In a tradition dating to the New Year staging of the race, the leading runner up the first hill won a bottle of whisky. On completing the climb out the estate past Glasgow University Vet School, I had secured one prize. Unfortunately, I'm not a whisky drinker.

 

The course then goes downhill on the Switchback Road, left alongside the Forth and Clyde Canal, left again down Dawsholm Road, uphill to Maryhill Road, along that back to the estate. That was one lap so do that then repeat. The rain was torrential during the first lap and my clothing stuck to me. As my watch ticked towards 16 minutes at 5km, I knew I wasn't running at my best but resolved to try and push on and run the second lap quicker.

 

Up by the Vet School, I prepared to push hard down the switchback when problems started. Often a tough effort during a race can mess around with your stomach making you...well, need to bring up whatever you've last eaten. However, only after you've finished. I started feeling this way. Problem was I was still racing and had about 3km to go. I had no option. I stopped, leaned over and coughed but nothing happened.  A few strides later, I stopped again for the same thing. This time, I managed to spit. Things seemed to settle down but the scare threw my concentration. From there, I simply nursed myself round the rest of the course, finishing in a well below par 32:44. It was still enough to win. Being a huge fan of steak dinners, the two steaks and steak sausage the night before had maybe not been properly digested by race time. Lesson learned.

 

George, Robert and Youssef battled hard through the atrocious conditions, completing a clean sweep of the first 4 positions and, naturally, winning us the team prize. An easy one for Maryhill Harriers to work out. George and Robert were also delighted to claim individual prize money in addition to their respective £25 shares of the team pot. Eddie was the unfortunate one to miss being a counter but finished 32nd in a time of 43:25 before cheering on his son in the youngster's 3km race.

 

The prize money (£125), trophy and bottle of whisky are a nice consolation for the bad race experience and it was good for a few other guys in the club to share the glory. As luck would have it, I drove home in glorious sunshine!

 

Next up, 10,000m on the track in Aberdeen. The only way is up.

Full race results are here.

 



Hello Again

Hi, just a quick post to indicate that I'm still here. I had a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing 2 weeks in the Costa del Sol which thoroughly refreshed me if not my liver. Since returning, I've trained well towards one or two targets- forgive me for keeping them close to my chest. It will remain that way until the dates of said targets are upon me.

 

Amazingly, I haven't raced since Calderglen's trail race in June so essentially the schools have broken up for summer and returned again without me putting a toe on a start line anywhere. I haven't been injured (I've kept running) but simply haven't found anything I wanted to race. The Scottish Track Championships also came too soon after holiday. That will be remedied this Saturday with the Nigel Barge 10k Road Race. Fingers crossed my form picks up where I left off.