Sunday 28 September 2014

Stirling 10km Road Race (Scottish 10km Championships), 14th September 2014

By the time this race came round, I felt in real need of a performance to give me that spark to push on again. I'd been seriously below par since returning from holiday but my performance in the Scottish 5000m was the prompt to get my act together and got me back into the sort of training I know best and which has got me my best results in the past.
 
Leaving no stone unturned, I booked a Travel Lodge in Stirling for the night before to ensure I wasn't worrying about getting there from East Kilbride for the 10.15am start on race day. I got a call on the Saturday afternoon to say, due to heating problems, my booking had been changed to Falkirk but this was still fine and I stayed overnight as planned. I did take a bit of a risk since the hotel had no restaurant and simply gave me a breakfast pack with, amongst other things, cornflakes (which I don't like), a cereal bar and a muffin. I had the muffin with a cup of tea while watching "Last Night of the Proms" on BBC on Saturday night and relied on the cereal bar, some Jaffa cakes, fruit pastilles, tea and Lucozade as my race day fuel. I arrived an hour before the start, quickly collected my number, snuck away to warm up in peace before re-appearing just after 10am to stand on the start line.
 
The course is an out and back of sorts, going outwards for about 6km then taking a slightly shorter route back to the start/finish at Forthbank Stadium. A good start was necessary and I pushed myself up into the large leading group. My plan was to simply stay there while others dropped off and hopefully still be there at the end. The field contained a number of prominent names, Andrew Butchart, John Newsom, Tewolde Mengsiteab and Robert Gilroy to name only a few off the top of my head. I would be lying if I said I felt comfortable but I was moving well and after 3km as we crossed a bridge into some countryside, I had stayed in the group.
 
Robert Gilroy has re-emerged as a real threat in these races and we spent much of the time either exchanging positions back and forth or side by side. He was slightly ahead as we went through halfway. My watch said 15:01! Any lingering doubts about my pre-race fuelling strategy disappeared. As we came to the turning point, I was just off the group. I saw them bunch and bump into each other, an amusing moment to briefly take my mind off what I was doing.
 
On the road back, I feared being dropped and managed to pull myself back up. Andrew and Tewolde made a move for home at between 7-8km. I tried to go with them but simply couldn't sustain the pace and had to relent. In doing so though, I had pulled away from others. I found myself in 4th place a short distance away from 3rd placed Michael Crawley and a possible individual bronze. I was working hard though more to hold the others off than catch him. In the last couple of kilometres, Lachlan Oates then Patryk Gierjatowicz overtook me. In my effort to maintain position, I managed to overhaul Patryk with 400-500m to go and came close to catching Lachlan to no avail.
 
The end result was 5th place with a new personal best of 30:35. Andrew won the race in exactly 30 minutes with Tewolde 2nd in 30:12, Michael 3rd in 30:27 and Lachlan 4th 2 seconds before me. Myself, Robert and Kerry-Liam Wilson (1st vet with a personal best of 31:29) took team bronze for Cambuslang behind Central and Shettleston. This was easily one of my best days in running for some time. You can't beat the feeling when it all comes together. My birthday curry and pint (my birthday was the day after this race) that night tasted all the better. Especially when you've only had a cereal bar for your breakfast.
 
Now the hard bit- keeping it going again.
 


Monday 15 September 2014

Training for Stirling 10km Road Race (Scottish 10km Championships)- Back to Basics

Plans changed somewhat following the Dundonald 10km. 11 days later, my cautious optimism was shattered with a very poor performance in the 5000m at the Scottish track championships in Kilmarnock. I finished a distant 11th place in 15:45, my slowest 5000m on the track since 2009. The appalling weather conditions didn't help my motivation. The wind was above the legal limit for sprints and the driving rain worsened during the race, sapping my competitive edge. I returned home in the foulest of foul moods where my Dad and I exchanged some words. We reached agreement that I had gone too long without the sort  of training which had produced my best results so agreed on a plan. We called it "Back to Basics."
Race plans were also adjusted. I withdrew from the 10,000m in Stretford, setting the Scottish 10km in Stirling the following week as an alternative target. A report will follow but, suffice to say for now, it went alright. Below is my training leading up to the race beginning with the day after the 5000m. Key recurring themes were my old staple favourites- Monday track session with a jog home warm down home of just over 3 miles (I also got a lift halfway there and jogged the rest for a warm up), run home from work, High Point hill reps, Thursday club session, a Saturday double and long Sunday Windfarm runs. A nice, boring, consistent training diary, my favourite kind.

Week Commencing Monday 18th August

 Monday: Track, 8 x Tempo 100 (alternate 100m jogs and 50m sprints for 1200m) then 8 x 500m in 1:27-1:30, 8.1 miles including warm up and warm down- I was still in a bad mood, hence, the sprints at the start.
Tuesday: 7.6 miles easy (49:43), run home from work.
Wednesday:  10 x High Point hill reps, 7.5-8 miles including warm up and warm down.
Thursday: Club, 2 x 10 mins, 30 secs recovery (average 5:21/mile pace), 6.5 miles including warm up and warm down.
Friday: Rest.
Saturday: AM: 8 miles easy (52:29).
PM: 3.4 miles easy (21:39).
Sunday:  Longer run, Whitelee Windfarm, 12 miles (1:17:42), easy first half (41:38), brisk second half (35:54).

Mileage: 53

Week Commencing Monday 25th August

Monday: Track, 6 x 600m in 1:47-1:49 plus 1 x 400m in 69 secs, 7-7.5 miles including warm up and warm down.
Tuesday: 7.6 miles easy (48:23), run home from work.
Wednesday:  10 x High Point hill reps, 7.8 miles including warm up and warm down.
Thursday: Club, 2 x 10 mins, 30 secs recovery (average 5:16/mile pace), 6.5-7 miles including warm up and warm down.
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Scottish Athletics Mens League Division 2 Match 4, Scotstoun, Glasgow
800m A race- 7th in 2:08.78
10,000m Division 1 and 2 combined- 1st Division 2 and 3rd overall in 32:12.38.
10.2 miles including warm down.
Sunday:  Longer run, Whitelee Windfarm, 12.5 miles easy (1:21:37).
Mileage: 52

Conditions for the Mens League were as windy as Kilmarnock but without the rain. An even paced 10,000m (16:09 first half, 16:03 second half) suggested better things to come. I went a jog for just over 20 minutes at home afterwards because I wanted it to feel like a double session.

Week Commencing Monday 1st September

Monday:  Track, 16 x 300m in mainly 50-51 secs plus 1 x 200m in 33 secs, 7.9 miles including warm up and warm down.
Tuesday: Rest- decided on after Sunday's run to let legs recover from the Mens League.
Wednesday:  10 x High Point hill reps, 7.8 miles including warm up and warm down.
Thursday: Club, 2 x 10 mins, 30 secs recovery (average 5:18/mile pace), 6.5-7 miles including warm up and warm down.
Friday: 6.3 miles easy (39:26), shortened run home from work.
Saturday: AM: 8.5 miles easy (55:19).
PM: 3.5 miles easy (22:16).
Sunday:  Longer run, Whitelee Windfarm, 12 miles (1:17:16), 6 miles easy, 4 miles brisk (23:30), 2 miles easy.

Mileage: 52

Week Commencing Monday 8th September

Monday: Track, 7 x 400m in mainly 70-71 secs plus 1 x 200m in 34 secs, 5 miles including warm up and warm down.
Tuesday: 6 x High Point hill reps, 4.75 miles including warm up and warm down.
Wednesday:  4.5 miles easy (28:11), shortened run home from work.
Thursday:Club, 2 x 7 mins, 30 secs recovery (average 5:08/mile pace), 5.5 miles including warm up and warm down.
Friday: Rest.
Saturday: 2.5 miles easy (16:31)
SundayRace- City of Stirling 10km Road Race (Scottish 10km Championships)- 5th in 30:34, PB and team bronze.
10-10.25 miles including warm down.

Mileage: 32

It's incredible what going back to basics can bring you.

Above: Cambuslang's 3 team counters post race. Left to right- me, Robert Gilroy, Kerry-Liam Wilson. Photo courtesy of Scottish Athletics.

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Dundonald 10km Road Race, 6th August 2014

By the beginning of August, I was in a "race yourself fit" type mode which I hoped would pay off for my two target races. Being in such a mode gave me a reason to return to Dundonald, an old favourite with several appearances to my name over a 12 year period. A 7.30pm start gave me more leeway than the previous week and I arrived more relaxed with time to spare.
 
More on the setting and race route can be found in my blog post on 6 August 2011. A sizeable field of almost 200 runners set off along Dundonald's main street for the first half climb into Symington. I started relatively conservatively, not wishing to blow a gasket on the first climb, slowly moving into 2nd place by the 2km point. An unknown runner in a yellow vest was clear ahead of me and taking a bit longer to catch. I suspected it may have been the previous year's winner David Phee but couldn't be sure.
 
Eventually, around the 3km, I caught him and made an effort to pull away to no avail. Things essentially remained that way for the rest of the race. I completed the hilly first half in 17:06, preparing myself for a relentless assault on the flat, downhill second 5km. So too did the mystery man. He stuck to me like glue. I had one last trick- run hard up the hill to the castle and run hard off the top to the finish. A tactic I learned from reading about Robert de Castella. Part one (running hard up the hill) worked to perfection. Part two (running hard off the top) not so much as I ran the finish out myself rather than my opponent who overtook me on the blind side on the way to victory.

Above: approaching the finish. Photo courtesy of Kenny Phillips.
 
I came through the finish in a new course best of 32:08 having run 15:02 for the second half and it not being enough for first place. On exchanging handshakes, the mystery man turned out to be Matthew Gunby of Woodford Green, an Australian born Englishman who has just moved to Edinburgh. Learning that his 10km best is 29:42 made me feel better about myself. He pipped me here by 3 seconds.
 
In the other results, Bellahouston Road Runner Craig Reid secured a second consecutive midweek 3rd place in Ayrshire, clocking 34:46. Fellow Cambuslang Harrier James Healey sampled the Dundonald experience for the first time and was rewarded for heeding my pre-race pep talk with a time of 36:52. In the ladies competition, Melissa Wylie (Dumbarton) took the honours with 40:10 ahead of Laura Wallace (40:16), one of a large turnout from Ayr Seaforth. Laura McGarrity (Troon) took 3rd with 40:25 in a keenly contested race.
 
I definitely won't leave it another 3 years before I return to this idyllic corner of Ayrshire. I may have said it before but look out for this little gem in the calendar and put it in your race plans.