The move to Wales is complete

It has been a long time since I wrote on the blog, it has been a busy, stressful time moving to a new country and setting up the house, jobs, school and joining a new running club (Denbigh Harriers)!

I have got the pain cave setup which has been fine for the last month; now the sun has arrived, I have started to go out on the bike. The Garmin radar comes into its own out on these country roads, giving me a heads up to cars coming from behind. You have to take tight roads and bends with caution, but the roads are busy with cyclists, so car drivers expect to see you...

I have got some run routes, but unless I get my fell running into gear, if I want to run, it is either with the Denbigh Harriers, parkrun or on the treadmill. 

Moving clubs was more complicated than it needed to be, both club secretaries were very helpful, but UKA needs to address the IT shortfall. For example, when moving from one country to another, i.e. going to another club in England... online transfer, going to another club in Wales... online transfer. Going from an English club to Welsh... paper form... which no-one knows about and is not "downloadable".

Long story short, I sorted it and have now resigned from my beloved RRR and joined Denbigh Harriers. They have been very friendly and enjoyed a couple of training sessions. We do hill training on Tuesdays, which will transform to more speed work on the paths around Denbigh as we move into summer.

I have tried two parkruns so far, Greenfield Valley in Holywell, an old rail track, nice tarmac but down the hill and back up... challenging but fun, I came third, which was nice.

Nova Prestatyn is a typical Welsh parkrun, it starts and finishes on the promenade as there are not too many parks in Wales, they typically hug the coast. I have had two visits, being 4th and just over 20 minutes on my first attempt a few weeks ago. 

This week I had another go and just made it in time for the start, so no warm-up! I snuck near the front and dashed off; after 50 metres, I got clear air and started to get into a better rhythm. 

The route heads south and after 1km,veers left, into the dunes and through stoney, then sandy paths until you are diverted back north onto the seafront.

You then have about 1.75 KM of concrete paths of the promenade, this time with the wind behind you (no real assistance). 

It is tough being in front of a race/run as I am usually chasing people, which drives my speed up. Trying to motivate yourself to keep in front of people... so much harder.

I was rewarded with a sub-20 5k and 1st, which as been some 10 years since a "win" at parkrun, resplendent in my new Denbigh Harriers running vest.

I think Nova will be my new home parkrun as closest and has a bot of everything; I will use Greenfield if I have a hilly event coming up.

I hear Conwy is flat, but parking is limited and getting there early enough might be a challenge.

Sunday I had a nice ride out on the bike, riding around roads I have driven and am familiar, the scenery is stunning and although hilly at times, this is the Vale of Clwyd and as such, has lots of flat bits!

I have tried to join the Rhyl cycling club this week but the British Cycling website keeps crashing when I try to pay, Mastercard issues I think! so will keep trying.

This week the team selections for the Team GB Duathlon age groups have hit another milestone, the pre-qualified (Pre-covid) and first 4 from Oulton Park last year (my only qualifier) had to either pay entry to the European champs in September or withdraw. This has been the case for a few folks and as such, they move into the rolldown places, I have such a position and had some communication with the team manager and it looks like next week British Triathlon will make the offers... so maybe just maybe I will be at the champs... only time will tell.

Keep Safe All

Diolch 

Mark

Happy New Year 2022

In this post will give a round-up of what I have been up to since the Manchester Marathon!

A week after the marathon I managed to train with the club on Thursday and my legs had recovered well. In contrast to 10 years before when I did the London Marathon, I couldn't walk properly for at least 10 days.

This is a testament to better training and cross-training on the bike, albeit 10 minutes slower than in 2011, I am 10 years older and still getting back into form.

Peel parkrun

I took part in Peel parkrun, the idea to take it easy as I was still booked to do the Knutsford 10K the day after, something my training plan said: "only if my legs have recovered".

Peel is relatively new and is basically two laps of the park, in the first 100 meters there is a 270-degree turn with a post you have to navigate. So my plan was to rush to the front and get round the post and settle back into a comfortable pace.

As I completed the first lap I was still going at race pace and felt okay, so carried and on finishing in 19 minutes and 33 seconds for 15th place.

So not planned but I enjoyed the run and proved my legs were going okay!

Knutsford 10K

The day after I set off early to get to the Knutsford 10K, thankfully I missed most of the traffic trying to get into the Radbrook Hall (Barclays technology site) Car Park.

The race itself was delayed, probably because runners were still backed up outside, so the warm-up was repeated a couple of times. Thankfully the rain that had been spluttering all morning finished and we were ushered to the start line.

Ahead of me, I saw the 40-minute pacer and thought "hang on to him for as long as you can", I set off and soon passed him, my "go like a bullet" start which I wish I could get rid of soon meant the 40-minute guy passed me!

So for the next 8 kilometres, I did my best to keep him in view, in the last K I seemed to get stronger and managed to claw back the gap and overtake him. He was very encouraging as I went passed and I thought, crikey might actually get under 40 minutes... 39:24 which I was very pleased with, a week after the marathon and the day after a parkrun, going sub 40 minutes was unimaginable.

It also means I went under the 39:32 threshold for the RRR Premiership group in next years races, that's like getting Oldham Athletic getting promoted from the Football League 2 to the Premier League... now there's a pipedream.

As you can see below my 1st K was quick, the pace steady and the last K the quickest... not bad!

Admittedly my legs now were feeling the strain and so dialled off training for a couple of weeks to give my body some recovery.

Derwentwater 10 miler

The last RRR championship race of the year is always the Derwentwater 10 mile which starts in Keswick. With Covid still affecting races, this years race was still not approved till late in the day so may have been why the numbers were short, they had been reduced by the council to mitigate the "large crowd" risk, but not all numbers sold.

But thankfully it still went ahead and at 8am we boarded the coach, Keswick bound in high spirits, calling off at Tebay services for breakfast, I resisted the full English breakfast, no point regretting that, halfway around!

It was a trite cold at the start, but not raining which for the week before had put the race at risk as roads we use were flooded. We huddled together for a team photograph and filtered into the pack and moved to the start.

The race started and again went out of the traps far too fast but that is part of the course, for most of the race I was with club mate Andy Rogers from both Royton Road Runners and Rochdale Tri.

For the first half, I was a little ahead of him but struggled on the hills, training for the flats of the Manchester Marathon had meant less hill training... or maybe the bacon sandwich at breakfast meant I was hanging on to the back of his shoes for the second half. 

The last couple of kilometres are flat and should have been able to get closer but my legs were shot and managed a sprint for the last 300 metres to end up.

I finished 27th in 01:09:16

Overall I was happy with my performance and duly trotted to the pub to start part two of the day, eat, drink and be merry.

I was very tired (drunk) by the time the coach pulled into Royton, as soon as I get home, I flaked out!

Newborough parkrun

Whenever I go on holiday, I like to visit the local parkrun. On Saturday 13th November I was staying in Pwllheli, the Hafan Pwllheli last went ahead in June 2020 and the Bangor parkrun had been cancelled. So had a 70 mile round trip to Newborough Forest parkrun, which was well worth the travel is it was a stunning course. I enjoyed the Sandman Duathlon a couple of months ago so it was nice to be back at the same beach.

The course is a one-lap affair using the service and firebreak roads through the forest, the first K is mostly flat, the next 2 have a couple of short steep climbs and a general incline, this leaves a great last 2K of flat and downhill.

I finished 19:28 and 5th overall, I will be using this parkrun whenever I am staying in the area, it is too good to miss.

Dunham Massey Duathlon

For my last event of the year, I did the Dunham Massey Duathlon, it is a great set of events and Andy McNally looks to put a lot more on next year. It gives you a great place to practice race conditions, much like a parkrun can test your 5k pace, feels like a race but still a fun thing to do.

The first run went okay and kept the fast guys in touch, heading into transition, I felt confident and yet again took too long changing over, having the gel on my race-belt worked well, being a sprint of 2.5k run, 16k bike and 2.5k run, it is unlikely you will run out of energy, but I feel better putting some energy in halfway round... the inevitable happened and more went on my face and leg than in my mouth... must practice eating on the bike!

I was second out of transition and the guy on the bike was soon getting away from me, after the second turn I lost sight of him and thought "well let's hold onto this place and keep pushing" it felt like there was a headwind all the way round

As I came into transition, yet again made a mess of the dismount and nearly ended up sprawled on the floor. I was confused as no bikes were parked up and I knew I should have been second, thoughts of I must have cut short or something! Turns out the fella in front missed a sign as he had his head down, he joined me on the run section as I was doing my second lap, we had a quick chat and he was fast making up time!

Crossing the line in first was a great feeling, a little odd, as winning something is rare, I think Oldham parkrun some 10 years ago, so rare!

New Years Day 2022 

To wrap up this post I finally reached 50 parkruns, at Heaton Park, where it all began on event one, 20th June 2009!

If you look closely, I am the soaked fella in white to the left of Paul Sinton-Hewitt (wise man with umbrella), the founder of parkrun, who I had the pleasure of working with and meeting whenever I got to Richmond with work! 

I came back the week after and enjoyed the event; back then, low numbers were a niche; these days, it's more like 800! After the run, I spoke with Rick Bennett, the Event Director and manager of Sweatshop in the Arndale. 

I offered to help and expected something like, you could marshall, time keep or hand out finish tokens... nope, he politely asked if I could be run director next week. Never one to shy from a challenge, I accepted and agreed to pop to the shop on Tuesday evening to get the "kit" and be "trained".

Rick will tell you that IT was not his thing; in fact, he was on the phone with Paul being talked through every step in the first two events. However, I have been in IT for donkey's years and as he walked me through the process it was clear a manual was needed.

I set about screenshotting, added the steps and by the weekend had produced the first parkrun FMS manual (I can't remember what FMS stood for... Field Management Software maybe). This was adopted by the team back at parkrun HQ and would have been retired a couple of years ago with the swanky web version of FMS.

That forged a friendship and I was grateful for many Saturday mornings spent with Rick and the team, I helped establish Oldham parkrun with the NHS folks from Oldham Hospital, the route I made still creates discussions!

Originally I opposed the park as it is small and needed to be a 3 lapper, so sorry if anyone hates it but not much I could do!

They were trying to do something for Oldham as it has a shocking level of health issues which are mostly lifestyle and at least they tried something.

In fact, I chatted with Dave Peart before the New year day event and we discussed Oldham (as we always do) switching it to go counter-clockwise (Up the big hill, not down). 

I helped to get the team together and Oldham established, heading back to join the Heaton team after a few weeks once they were underway. 

The NHS made a bit of a mess of things, a stupid form that runners had to complete afterwards (for KPI's), the initial volunteer team had dissipated and the event was collapsing.

I got a call from Paul and he was threatening to shut Oldham,down as it was embarrassing to the cause! After some discussion, I agreed to go back and take over as Event Director and get it sorted.

It was tough to do, as I was happy at Heaton with good friends I met every week, the prospect of being at Oldham, which I never wanted to happen and thought would never be successful, was not inviting!

However, after much hard work and chancing some very very good people, slowly we got a solid core team and things worked out. In retrospect, it was a good thing to do and Oldham parkrun continues to thrive and is a great thing for the town.

Unfortunately, things in my life turned against me and in 2013, I had my first bout of depression, which over the next few years would be a bad friend, I had to give up parkrun and in a teary phone call to Paul, I hung up my running adventures, for what I thought was forever.

I had a torrid time, drinking and gaining weight to reach 98 kilos at its peak, in 2018 I attempted to take my life in one last desperate act, something I regret, thankfully I was saved by the Oldham NHS, ironically their turn to rescue me.

I know it is always said, "If you are feeling low, speak to someone" it sometimes sounds like a cliche and too simple, but please if you are not feeling okay, there is always someone who will and wants to listen and help. 

Suicide vastly takes more men than women, I think it just seems hard for men to talk, https://andysmanclub.co.uk/ is a great inspiration and I recommend you take a visit to the site.

Fast forward to 2022 and I am the happiest I could ever be, a testament to however bad things get, there is a better day ahead, so folks just talk to a friend or the https://www.samaritans.org/ This will be the best thing you have ever done, trust me.

Here I am doing my 50th parkrun back with Rick

 

A big thank you to Paul Taylor and Dan Taylor https://www.dansphotos.co.uk/ for the photos

Even with a hangover, I managed a time of 20:18 which was not too shabby.

I wish you all a great 2022 and am going to try and get to "100 parkruns" much quicker than I got to 50!

All the Best

Mark

The road to the Manchester Marathon 2021

In this post, I will cover the lead up to the Manchester Marathon and the event itself, as ever the race calendar was packed and not helpful for an endurance event!

Cowm 5K

To start with the Cowm 5k, effectively a reservoir trail race. This race was included in the RRR championship as the usual 5k track trial was not available. However, annoyingly not long after we signed up, Rochdale Harriers announced the time trial to be on the same night, 21st September!

So rocking up to the start with my legs a little sore after the Sandman Duathlon but warmed up and got to the start line, ready to go. The route is used many times in the year for different races; however, it is common for people to be annoyed that it is always a little short of 5k. 

We started much further back on the road and felt more confident it would be the full distance!

I got myself somewhere near the front; the start of the race is a narrow road that bends to the right; at the end, it is a sharp left and an uphill to the reservoir. So I went off quickly and tried to keep with the fast guys until we got to the water. Ordinarily, you try not to burn out so soon, but this course has narrow paths, gates and a bridge to navigate, so clear air is a bonus.

Keeping the fast pace proved challenging, but I got into a rhythm, back and forth with some of the racers for most of the race. It is two laps of the reservoir, and as I exited the trail back to the road, it was literally downhill from there. I opened up my stride to take advantage and overtook two of my clubmates. Unfortunately, one saved himself for the upcoming marathon, the other struggled with an Achilles injury and hobbling a little. 

I crossed the line 11th in a time of 19:14, the race still a little short at 4.99K bah!

Flying round to lap 2

Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon

My next race was another duathlon, the TeamGB "Age Group" European Qualifiers, a chance to get into the team for next year's European Championship in Bilboa, Spain. 

The race was held at Oulton Park, a motor racecourse, so closed off to traffic and a chance to compete with speedy people!

It was a 4.2km run, 20km bike, 4.2km run; the transition being in the pits was excellent, as you finish the lap, you peel into the pits, grab your bike and run to the mount line at the far end.

You do 5 laps of the course on the bike and peel back into the pits, rack your bike and run like hell for a final lap of the course. Sounds straightforward? Sort of!

It was a mass start that I failed to get near the front; during the race brief, I found that I should have unclipped my helmet on the floor. This was new to me so I dashed back into transition to sort it, this left no time to fight my way to the front.

It was a scramble off the line, one chap caught the back of my foot, I had nowhere to go, unfortunately, he tumbled to the floor. On retrospect, I went too quickly and cleared the 1st kilometre in 3:34, the next 3 were more like 4 minutes each.

Run 1 

I quickly located my bike, stuck my helmet on and took what felt ages to change into bike shoes. I also took a gel; this added time and lessons must be learned to minimise time spent in transition.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has updated the rules on Age Grade "Sprint" deeming drafting (where you stay close to a rider to get aero benefit) legal, this meant that any aero packages like disc back wheels and tri bars were banned. As my bike has none of these features, it levelled the playing fields a bit.

I pushed hard on the first 2 laps, but could not for the life of me draft behind anyone; the elites were in packs of 5 or so and went whizzing by 😡

All by myself

Finally, a bit of draft

Laps 3,4 and 5 were tough going, the wind had picked up, my HR significantly ramped up and struggled to keep the speed up. I was glad to see the pit entry and prepared to dismount.

No drama like at the Sandman duathlon where I slid off my saddle and landed on the crossbar with an ouch! This time feet out of the peddle and running over the line with the bike.

Off the bike into transition

My wife was watching me from the pits and captured this great side shot.

Whizzing into transition

I struggled to rack up as 203 had put his bike in my spot; this cost me time as I had to think about what to do. I used his spot and went to recover my trainers, so time was lost all over again.

I ran as fast I could go out of transition and my legs were as heavy as lead!

Heading out of the pits

The second lap was 1 minute 30 slower than my first but I pushed as hard as possible.

My watch and official times differ a little, officially I crossed the finish in 01:19:06

Finish at last

Splits

I am pleased with my time and effort, with focusing on the marathon and RRR races meant cycling took a back seat. However, I have a lot to learn, more time to spend cycling and next season to look forward to.

Manchester Marathon 2021

After a year of expectation, the day finally came to lace up the trainers and head into Manchester for the biggest challenge. If you recall I have Pulmonary Sarcoidosis that I keep under control with exercise, others suffer terribly and this was a chance to raise awareness and some funds for the charity SarcodosisUK; please visit my fundraising page if you can help them out.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-kelly57

This year course has improved from the last few, no longer does it have Carrington (Manchester United's training ground) which was a complaint from runners boring and lacking supporters.

Now it has a loop of the City Centre in its place, much better! There was a half marathon at 8:30am, which means marathon runners had to set off nearer to 10:45, which means you are running in the midday heat right when you would rather not!

There were three colour waves, each had 3 groups, so Red A,B,C etc. this was to help keep us safe from Covid... but as the pens were packed and outdoors, I still don't get it.

The start is near to Manchester United "Old Trafford", the finish is outside Old Trafford Cricket ground. The irony is that things are often billed as Manchester when they are actually Trafford or Salford Now, with the city centre loop, they are being faithful to the name!

After a lot of waiting around, my group lined, once the group before had disappeared, the gun went off. I tried to keep my speed down; for once I sort of did, checking my watch and letting the runners in the front head off rather than chasing them!

The loop around the city centre was okay, some crowds giving support which sounds like a cliche but it really helps. Wearing my club vest, I get "Well done Royton" often as well as "Mark" as your name is on the number.

Deansgate

This was taken on the way in, you can see runners heading the other way back up to Trafford.

You do a sort of loop of Old Trafford before heading up through Sale towards Altrincham, this picture shows me still doing well and a gel getting warm in my hand. It was around here I saw clubmates from Rochdale Triathlon on their bikes. They were offering support; unfortunately, my request for one of their bikes was refused 😜

Still feeling strong

Going through Timperley and Altrincham was great, the crowds were very supportive. It was also where some hills appeared, annoyingly the sun had really come out. Passing through 25Km I started to suffer, no matter how much water or gels I could feel my energy-sapping, my hips were grinding and I really had to focus on my breathing as my lungs were burning.

I was so glad to see Mile 24 as RRR were manning the water station, grabbing a bottle from Tracey, one of our group leaders (In my first couch to 5k cohorts 10 years ago if I recall correctly). The club cheered me on, it lifted me; my 3:15 time had slipped with no chance of recovery; soon after, Oldham and Royton Harriers (My club of old and as a child) had a cheer station double bubble, I gritted my teeth and pushed on.

Coming to the end of a marathon, every part of your body is screaming, your mind can go a bit wonky. You can see the finish from a mile away, it doesn't ever seem to get close.

A bit busy, see the person cramping to the right

Thinning out

Push for the line, flying!

In the last 10k I may have been slowing down but according to the records I made up 194 places.

I will never ever run a marathon again, I promise

Happy Running everyone

Mark

Sandman Sprint Duathlon

 Saturday 18th September was the date that had been in my diary for most of the year, my first full-on Duathlon. 

It was a weekend dedicated to Triathlon (Swim, Bike, Run), the Saturday being "Sprint",  Sunday was "Standard" and "Legend". They also put on Duathlon's (Run, Bike, Run), which is my current forte due to my shoulder issue, this puts me out of swimming for now.

I camped out the night before, sadly the tent behind had loud snoring folks. Some parents cannot clearly control children, who thought it was fun to pull up the guy ropes at times in the evening, not the best race prep.

We all used the same transition (the area where your bike is stored), and after registration, I "racked" up my bike and tried to settle.

You get a tiny area to store your kit, enough space for shoes and a towel (if swimming). There are many rules in triathlon, mostly it seems in transition when you wheel your bike in, you must be wearing your helmet. Rack your bike, then you can take it off! So officials were telling people all time. When you come in from the swim or first run, you must put your helmet on before taking the bike off the rack, so it is drilled into you! 

Penalty points and disqualifications are easily picked up!

The sprint duathletes lined up to the start, the race director informing us we would get underway at 8:30am and go at the same time as the swimmers, so he had his radio turned up.

Even though I was staying local, I still had a 5 o'clock wake up, so I was glad to finally get underway, the first leg for us was a 2.4km run; turning right, we had to run up the hill, which we would later ride up, not a fantastic start to a race. 

This section was tarmac, I had been told many times it was a trail shoe event because of the beach and woodland paths we would use... in hindsight, most of the routes on both runs were easy for a road shoe, the beach sand was so soft, it made no difference I think. 

My Adidas Kanadi's, which serve me well for cross-country, were no better grip than the winners Nike "cheat shoe"... So next year road shoe it will be.

As we return to the event area from the beach, the climb out of the dunes is punishing, I was 3rd all the way through the run and headed into transition, searching for my bike.
TIP: Always rehearse finding your bike in what is a crowded space!

The bike section is my weakest; as you may have guessed, running is my background. However, it seems most triathletes are cyclists that learn to swim and get better at running.  So I have to get better at cycling and modify my bike with "marginal gains". 

The more aerodynamic and light you can make the bike and yourself, the greater the speed potential for the same effort. My Focus Cayo is a bit old but is carbon fibre, so light, more a "Sportive" bike, meant for touring at speed, rather than out and out Time Trial (TT).

The watch I use is the Garmin Forerunner 735XT which is excellent for triathlon as you can quickly change the sport as you transition. I have a Garmin Edge bike computer I set up before the race to be in "Extended Display Mode". As I get near the bike, it pairs up and displays my speed, cadence, distance travelled, the watch is recording, the computer just relaying. This way I can keep my eyes upfront and no need to look at my wrist!

As you can see from the photo above, I am not so aerodynamic, my shoulder pain means I cannot get so low, I have drop handles but my chin should be nearer the handlebars!

I have ordered aero bars now, they should be installed before my next race on the 3rd of October. The hope is I can squeeze out a bit more speed as I transform the bike into a beast, I presume the bars make it look like having horns... hence the beast. 

The wheels I have are good road wheels but not racing, so I will upgrade them and be "bike fitted" later this year, where the bike and I will be tuned to work in harmony.

The sound the beasts make as they whirr past you is fantastic, also annoying as you push like hell and they sail on!

I averaged 29 km/h, which I hope to improve next year; the course has excellent flat sections and a few hills, favouring the beast!

About halfway around, I took a corner too quick, managing to stay upright as I mounted the grass verge, a little scary but non the worse. As the race progressed, bikes were whirring past me, most wearing red race numbers (triathletes) and blue numbers like me, so I slipped to 13th. 

As I approached the mount line, I got the "dismount" wrong and slid off onto the bar, uncomfortable and embarrassing. But, much to the delight of the marshal, as she quoted, "take it easy, it's not a race", haha. 

I did get off the bike before the mount line, so no penalty, but it meant I had to run a little further into transition, rookie mistake.

As I racked the bike, removed my helmet, changed shoes, I knew I had some ground to make up. Run 2 is just over 5k and uses more of the woodland and a more extended section of the beach. I started to pick off runners, some were triathlon, but some I recognised as duathletes, so I felt good I was progressing well. The races were being filmed for S4C, so it was the first time I have had a film crew on a 4 wheeled scrambler in front of me. Technically they were filming the Team GBR woman that would go on to win, so I kept up with her for as long as I could 😆

On the beach, I managed to clear more runners, at least 2 from my race; the sand was hard work, as this picture shows:

One of my shoelaces came undone, again a rookie thing, rising in transition. I decided not to stop and "plough on" in the sand.

Yet again, you have to scramble up a dune to get off the beach and then head for the finish. I was glad to get over the line, not that it shows well on my face:

I finished 7th overall and 3rd M40, a pity they don't do the same as UK Athletics and have MV45 might have won that!

Love Bara Brith (Welsh Fruit Loaf), an excellent reward for a hard day at the office!

My next outing is the Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon in two weeks, 4k run, 30k bike, 4k run. I hope the lessons learned from this event make me faster again!

Keep safe all

Mark

Capesthorne Hall - Cheshire Half Marathon

 As the weeks tick by and the Manchester Marathon looms closer, the races are still coming in thick and fast.

My legs were still rebuilding from the Trimpell 20 mile event a couple weeks ago. York parkrun was a chance to test my speed endurance, so this week was the Cheshire Half marathon. 

All three put in my calendar to test the various distances and intensities that perfect my target marathon pace. 

The long runs I have been doing are now adapting my legs for the stress of 26.2 miles, thankfully Manchester is virtually flat so I don't have hills to put into the equations, so I have avoided hill training, except for the Rochdale 10k.

If you recall, I am running the Manchester Marathon to raise money for my chosen charity SarcoidosisUK, which has been a great help since I was hospitalised and diagnosed with Pulmonary Sarcoidosis back in 2019.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-kelly57

I need a bit more to get to my target; throughout the year, I have set myself challenges to help prepare myself, some good and some not so, especially cycling!

For the first time in a while, I was back at Royton Road Runners to lead my group and attend a "leader meeting "afterwards.

We were targeting a 5:00km pace, but as group A and B merged together, it pushed the pace up a little; it gave me some PR's, which was nice.

Cheshire Half race report

It was a great morning for racing, dry, cool and overcast; this being a RRR championship event, there were plenty of clubmates in attendance.

It was a rolling start, in pairs, I set off as usual just a little quick, the red mist comes up but I usually get into a stride, fine for a 5k, not so for a half marathon! I was quickly caught by clubmates (the fast ones) and eventually, my mate Shane pulled up alongside. 

I have never beaten Shane, so I wasn't expecting to see him for long, but the pace he was doing was okay and we got chatting; pretty soon the kilometres were clocking off, we continued to talk throughout the race the course is great and pretty flat, pockets of support around the leafy lanes of Cheshire were welcome and water every 3 miles was welcome.

To quote our chairman Bryan Lawton, "if you like hedgerows and cows to look at, you will love the course."

As we got closer to the finish, we were picking off runners and trying to keep the pace up; the last 1.5km I could not stay with Shane and tried to do my best to push for home, a sprint finish and my last KM was the same as my first 4:04!

I was 7th V45 male on chip time, 1:29:08  so very pleased and confident I could push for a 3:15 marathon, so I will stick with that pace and see what happens!

7th in my age group

The route and splits

Nice and even pacing, thank you Shane

I am now wearing calf supports, working well so far

Finally, over the line and a sprint finish

I was checking my progress on runbritainrankings.com and was surprised I have moved up in my handicap and ladder positions. If you didn't know about it, let me summarise how it works; when you enter races in the UK, they are usually tied to UK athletics. So if you are a club runner, it automatically links your race result (including parkruns) to your profile.

This then tracks your results and uses algorithms to establish how well you did; not all 5k's are the same; some are hilly, twisty etc. it also looks at the weather at the time. It is pretty nifty software, the feature that took my interest is rating me against my age group in my postcode (OL2), which is North Oldham effectively. I have been second for a while to my club captain Carl and, as of this week, have just moved ahead of him, sorry Carl! 

Climbing the ladder

I am 12th overall and 10th male, so I hope to keep on improving, you can see from the graph my rise and disappearance in 2012 as injury stopped my running. Since 2018 I have been gaining fitness, losing weight, a plateau in 2020 as racing was suspended due to covid and my continual climb now things have resumed.

It gives you the 5 best performances that contribute to your score. They are weighted to course difficulty, and more recent races are given more importance to the ranking, so my 2011 London Marathon of 3:09:08 doesn't figure in the computation. In fact, the Ron Hill 7 mile race (hilly) I did recently is my +1 and Trimpell 20 (flat but long) +5 

If you are a club runner, take a look at the website, it is a great tool to compare yourself with others and see how you are progressing.

On Saturday, my next race is the Sandman Duathlon in Angelsey, so I better get my bike ready and maybe a few turbo sessions!

Keep safe and keep running!

Mark

Training weeks

With a couple of weeks off from racing is back to business training for the Manchester Marathon and Oulton Park Duathlon.

After the hard work of Trimpell 20, I got my legs ready for my first track training session in many a year!

The shiny new blister is a peach and protected it with a plaster for a recovery run of 5:00 min/km pace, it was hot and I was glad it was over. My legs were heavy; finally, on the turnaround, they eased off a little to get back on track with the intended pace.

I have returned to the track after many a year, the surface at the local track has just been redone and super fast, a little bouncy but fun. Oldham Community Leisure (OCL) put on a session each week, the coach is John Sweeney, whom I have great respect for and raced against for a few years. Most of the attendees were either Royton Road Runners or Rochdale Tri... of which I am a member of both!

The session was 800's with 2 minutes recovery, my legs were still achy, so I hoped they would work after the warm-up and stretching, which they did, but grumbled at me.

I paused my watch after each 800 and then started again, 6 sets and I was happy to finish the last one (with a sprint).

The watch splits at 1Km intervals, so I can't see the individual efforts unless I use "segments".

I did record a 1:16 400m effort, so a modern-day PR, the first set I went out a little fast and that accounts for a 3:20 1k, the other 4 1k's were consistent enough, actually slightly improving each time.

The moving time was 17:43 for 5.2km, now wouldn't it be great to do at parkrun... albeit with a 2 minutes rest every 1k 😛

On Wednesday, I did another recovery run of 5min/km pace my HR a nice easy 145bpm, the blister still being protected but looking better and causing no bother.

Thursday a did a "Sandwich Session" which is run, bike, run... a duathlon practice, 

As I was going on holiday, it would be a week of running, no bike, the kid's bikes took all the spots. So having got into the holiday home and unpacked, I headed out for a 5k at Marathon Pace (MP), which at the moment is 4:40 min/km and managed to stick to it.

4:40 pace spot on

On the first Sunday of the holiday, I tried a swim in the pool, the "lanes" as always... shut, so in the mix with the hordes of kids and holidaymakers, I managed 260 meters, my left shoulder even with breaststroke no good ad painful, so went on the slides for fun instead!

I deferred my Long Slow Run (LSR) to Tuesday and did an "out and back" from Hafen to Porthmadog, a story I recounted to the gardener who had a hard time believing I had done that and just under 3 hours. The trouble with Wales is there are few pavements outside of towns and the holiday park is on the main road. Thankfully there is a pavement on the left all the way to Crieth, as you exit the town, it flips to the right, once I reached Porthmadog, I picked possible the worst choice at the main junction in town and head "up" to Black Rock.

Once I reached "Black Rock Llamas" I turned back, stopping off at a petrol station to refill my water bottle, the weather was cool with some drizzle. However, you need to keep hydrated!

My "Easy" pace is 5:05, I managed to keep it at 5:07, so please forgive 2 seconds a kilometre!

Garmin Fitness

Fo the past few weeks my Garmin watch and companion app have been giving me improvements and as of Friday it is reporting I have reached 59 and that gives you race predictions like this:

I will take the "Fitness age of an Excellent 20-year-old" but the race times are a bit fanciful.

After my dog chewed the last of my shades, I have bought some Ron Hill - Tokyo shades, which will double up for cycling as they give good coverage against the wind.

This photo was taken whilst waiting to go into the "King Arthur's Labyrinth" which if you are in "South-North Wales" you should visit, it takes you under the mountain into an old mine, with the old tunnels and quarry caverns, boat ride and the legend of King Arthur played out to you, magnificent. So that's my Welsh tourist board job done 😁 the shades are great and that's my British Triathlon buff keeping me warm and Covid Safe... 

York parkrun

In a re-arranged holiday to Budapest with the lads, it was a trip to York and the horse racing instead. Any opportunity to be a parkrun tourist, I will take and this was no different! I jogged from the hotel to the racecourse and loosened up with an anti-clockwise walk around the service road which the parkrun uses. They have key markers like the start, finish, KM, etc. painted on the road, making the setup easier!

I chatted with a few of the runners and began to get my legs warmed up again, I got myself up front for the start as I wanted to attack from the start and get the best time I could. 

From the off, I pushed hard, trying to keep my pace under 4:04, which I managed to do, people that had overtaken me in the first few km, I started to catch back up in the last Km, my right calf worryingly a couple of times developed a sharp, stabbing, burning pain which eased off after each attack. Despite this, I kept the pace up and was happy with the time, 19:19, but my GPS states a18:59 5K, I was 16th overall and 2nd M45, which I am super happy with.

Splits and route

A strong start and finish

York is a nice flat course, so the time is good; for context, my fastest parkrun is Cardiff at18:22 which is also flat. So I am getting closer to my times from 10 years ago!

Hopefully, my troublesome calf heals quickly, I will ease off this week and get ready for Sundays Cheshire Half Marathon as best I can.