It has been a miserable week since the joy of racing the East Hull 20 and coming 38th out of 400 and hitting a great pace. Sunday evening I was "bushed" and crashed out on the sofa as you would expect completing an endurance event, Monday I woke up feeling groggy and managed to get through the day at work a little bit.... grumpy. By Tuesday I was floored with man-flu and failed to go to the track for my interval session, during the course of the Wednesday I stayed at home in the morning, spending a few hours in the office during the afternoon for meetings and left for home early.
On Thursday I started to feel a bit better and felt OK running with my group around the Littleborough 5K and felt happy that I got a few miles under my feet.
There lies the last miles for the week where I only clocked a total of 5 miles for the week and my health just deteriorated day by day.
As I write my blog.. two days late, I am starting to fight off the chest infection with the aid of penicillin and will not be racing Wednesday evening. It will not be all that bad as I can be at the race in my coach role and help my group achieve their full potential on race night!
This break from running is of course affecting my training for the VLM and I hope my training so far will not be lost on race day and naturally some goal adjustment is to be expected!
I hope to be well enough to jog out on Thursday for a few miles and get back to a level of training befitting a marathon runner.
I hope your week and been better than mine and remember:
Never run through an illness that is below the neck as it will delay the body's ability to recover!
Regards
Mark K
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Monday 21 March 2011
East Hull 20
Well it's been a busy old week again the VLM is my focus now with just 4 weeks remaining. Mondays coaching went well 8 runners were put through their paces with 4 x 800's and just 4 minutes recovery. Last week they did 10 x 400 off 2 minutes recovery so the intention was to to push them a big longer!
My coaching diary was submitted this week and hopefully it is good enough for final assessment in April. It will be a busy month as my sister gets married, I get my cholesterol gets retested, my running coach test and of course the Virgin London Marathon!
At the track training on Tuesday I was practising marathon pace in Mile reps, running at a slower pace is a weird feeling. When on the track the natural instinct for me is to be running "eye-balls" out, but I must master running at my marathon pace. So I will be practising my goal pace of 7:00 minute miles at quite a few of my runs, doing it at the track makes it easier as I don't have to keep stopping for traffic lights and so on.
Although I averaged 7:02 for each mile the pace is not even enough, practice makes perfect!
After each run I download the GPS data from my Garmin forerunner 405, it uploads direct to Garmin Connect... then I import it into sporttracks,export from sporttracks to www.runsaturday.com, finally updating my training plan spreadsheet (rules my life!) Whilst reviewing my total mileage on runsaturday I spotted that the distance I have covered so far this year matches my entire 2009 effort!
Wednesday yet again failed to be a double run to work and back, the new payroll system still needs a helping hand. It always seems to be at 16:30 that a phone call is made and I "run" upstairs! The morning run had not been a great session so the day did not end on a high!
The Thursday group did very well again, this week doing 5 miles exactly at a good pace, next week will be their final training session before the Vera Hirst 5K on the 30th so things are looking very good for them.
A quick hill session on Friday saw the end of training for the week as I wanted a bit of recovery for Sundays 20 mile race. I was awake before the alarm rang out at 6:00am Sunday morning, my kit was all set out and I headed of to pick up Dave on route to Hull a mere 1 hour 40 trip away. We arrived at 9:00am and were just in time for a good parking spot 50 meters from race HQ! The race was limited to 400 and given the parking, toilet facilities and assembly area 400 is just the right number. They closed the road just before the start of the race and we were off, the first mile and half are on the main road but the marshalling was second to non and we were soon on a dis-used railway track on a seemingly flat course.
They bill the race as a great warm-up for London, flat and fast... which for the first 8 miles was certainly true, I chatted to a number of runners around the course and most were training for spring marathon (Notably London). There then appeared a couple of hills which thankfully did not last for long and it was the wind that played a slowing effect for he second half of the race.
Early on in the race a local accent boomed out "guys from Lancashire are here" the runner went on to explain that he was originally from Oldham and had moved to Yorkshire. He chatted for a bit longer and promptly trotted off into the distance. I was following a guy in a blue t-shirt for sometime, mesmerised by his sweat sodden back and the colour getting darker then further down his back the longer the race went on. I lost sight of him at around the same time I turned around to not see Dave!
At 18 miles I caught up with the guy wearing the blue shirt, the colour now retreating upwards! At this point I was overtaking a number of runners and feeling strong, in the distance the runner from Oldham. As I caught up to home my watch bleeped 19 miles and a 7:00 min/mile... my target pace! A brief chat with the Oldham chap and I pushed on, the last mile registering 6:31, the same as my first mile.
As I write this blog... a day late as I was whacked Sunday evening, the results still have not been published so my time unconfirmed is 2:17:45 some 2 minutes faster than target pace but I am happy to have felt good and my longest run since the Edinburgh Marathon last year. At Edinburgh I think my target was 8:12 minute pace and I was just a bit quicker then.
So legs intact and my morale boosted so once again roll on the VLM and just 4 weeks to go
Have a great running week
Mark K
My coaching diary was submitted this week and hopefully it is good enough for final assessment in April. It will be a busy month as my sister gets married, I get my cholesterol gets retested, my running coach test and of course the Virgin London Marathon!
At the track training on Tuesday I was practising marathon pace in Mile reps, running at a slower pace is a weird feeling. When on the track the natural instinct for me is to be running "eye-balls" out, but I must master running at my marathon pace. So I will be practising my goal pace of 7:00 minute miles at quite a few of my runs, doing it at the track makes it easier as I don't have to keep stopping for traffic lights and so on.
Although I averaged 7:02 for each mile the pace is not even enough, practice makes perfect!
After each run I download the GPS data from my Garmin forerunner 405, it uploads direct to Garmin Connect... then I import it into sporttracks,export from sporttracks to www.runsaturday.com, finally updating my training plan spreadsheet (rules my life!) Whilst reviewing my total mileage on runsaturday I spotted that the distance I have covered so far this year matches my entire 2009 effort!
Wednesday yet again failed to be a double run to work and back, the new payroll system still needs a helping hand. It always seems to be at 16:30 that a phone call is made and I "run" upstairs! The morning run had not been a great session so the day did not end on a high!
The Thursday group did very well again, this week doing 5 miles exactly at a good pace, next week will be their final training session before the Vera Hirst 5K on the 30th so things are looking very good for them.
A quick hill session on Friday saw the end of training for the week as I wanted a bit of recovery for Sundays 20 mile race. I was awake before the alarm rang out at 6:00am Sunday morning, my kit was all set out and I headed of to pick up Dave on route to Hull a mere 1 hour 40 trip away. We arrived at 9:00am and were just in time for a good parking spot 50 meters from race HQ! The race was limited to 400 and given the parking, toilet facilities and assembly area 400 is just the right number. They closed the road just before the start of the race and we were off, the first mile and half are on the main road but the marshalling was second to non and we were soon on a dis-used railway track on a seemingly flat course.
They bill the race as a great warm-up for London, flat and fast... which for the first 8 miles was certainly true, I chatted to a number of runners around the course and most were training for spring marathon (Notably London). There then appeared a couple of hills which thankfully did not last for long and it was the wind that played a slowing effect for he second half of the race.
Early on in the race a local accent boomed out "guys from Lancashire are here" the runner went on to explain that he was originally from Oldham and had moved to Yorkshire. He chatted for a bit longer and promptly trotted off into the distance. I was following a guy in a blue t-shirt for sometime, mesmerised by his sweat sodden back and the colour getting darker then further down his back the longer the race went on. I lost sight of him at around the same time I turned around to not see Dave!
At 18 miles I caught up with the guy wearing the blue shirt, the colour now retreating upwards! At this point I was overtaking a number of runners and feeling strong, in the distance the runner from Oldham. As I caught up to home my watch bleeped 19 miles and a 7:00 min/mile... my target pace! A brief chat with the Oldham chap and I pushed on, the last mile registering 6:31, the same as my first mile.
As I write this blog... a day late as I was whacked Sunday evening, the results still have not been published so my time unconfirmed is 2:17:45 some 2 minutes faster than target pace but I am happy to have felt good and my longest run since the Edinburgh Marathon last year. At Edinburgh I think my target was 8:12 minute pace and I was just a bit quicker then.
So legs intact and my morale boosted so once again roll on the VLM and just 4 weeks to go
Have a great running week
Mark K
Sunday 13 March 2011
5 weeks to the VLM
Well the excitement for the Virgin London Marathon (VLM) just keeps building. On Monday the track was a busy old place not only did we have 12 athletes training (had them doing 10 x 400m) but Amanda Thirsk had around 30 of her Run in England group, training using 100m relay.
This meant 'track' being shouted on a routine basis! I stuck to my track4 card training to regiment a safe training environment.
Tuesday mornings run to work was a pleasure, stopping to take a photo of the calm scene featuring a couple of ducks:
At around 5 miles though I had sudden cramping sensation that had me doubled over which thankfully passed after a brief rest.
The run home was nice, the ducks were behaving themselves and just managed to get back on the roads before the light faded! The pace was good up and till 'Stinky Hill' and just plodded back.
Wednesday mornings run to work was a chore, the legs felt heavy, it was cold and windy. Worst of all I could not get the shower at work to be remotely hot. To cap it off I was going to be late out as HR had a new payroll system going live... Which was refusing to work! Thankfully Clare came to pick me up and so the evenings schedule was not lost.
The Running group I lead on a Thursday had a good workout achieving 5.21 miles which is the furthest they have run to date! Next Thursday they will be doing the last recce run of the Littleborough 5k which they are taking part in on the 30th March. They are doing very well and I am confident that they will produce great results on the night.
On Saturday I was due to take part in the Dentdale 14 mile road race which is number 3 in the Royton Road Runners championship. My wife Clare had opted to race direct at Oldham for me so that I could take part, unfortunately she was ill in the night so I reverted to plan A!
Oldham parkrun went well with 30 runners taking part on a dry morning (for a change) the local newspaper, Oldham Chronicle turned up to take a photo so that they can do a feature. So I look forward to seeing the article with much interest! I hope they don't spell my name wrong and put our winner (Mike Mannings) down as a junior... as journalist sometimes make errors!
I have been in the office for most of the day and took the opportunity to get a long run home in and made a route through "Boggart Hole Clough", I missed out on the cross country recently so was keen to see the park for myself. I was also breakng my Adidas Tempo's which I will be wearing at VLM, so far I am not feeling the love for them and after 4 miles my legs were not responding well to them. I stopped for a bit of a stretch and it did the trick and now the trainers are not concerning me so much!
By far the biggest adventure on my way home was exiting boggart and seeing a gang of lads on a bit of land neighbouring the path. Not an unsual event I grant you but the sound of something whizzing past my ear and breaking up in a tree next to me was. I assumed it was ether a stick that they had thrown but the speed and distance it had to travel. Then the thought it was an air rifle sunk in and let me tell you wearing the tempos came in handy and I picked up to 4:40 min/mile pace for the next 200 metres...
Tomorrow I post my coaching diary off for assessment which forms part of my level 2 coaches award, the big day for assessment being some 4 weeks away. I can tell you that the nerves are kicking in with the VLM being 5 weeks away it is adding to my grey locks!!!
Have a great running week
Mark K
This meant 'track' being shouted on a routine basis! I stuck to my track4 card training to regiment a safe training environment.
Tuesday mornings run to work was a pleasure, stopping to take a photo of the calm scene featuring a couple of ducks:
At around 5 miles though I had sudden cramping sensation that had me doubled over which thankfully passed after a brief rest.
The run home was nice, the ducks were behaving themselves and just managed to get back on the roads before the light faded! The pace was good up and till 'Stinky Hill' and just plodded back.
Wednesday mornings run to work was a chore, the legs felt heavy, it was cold and windy. Worst of all I could not get the shower at work to be remotely hot. To cap it off I was going to be late out as HR had a new payroll system going live... Which was refusing to work! Thankfully Clare came to pick me up and so the evenings schedule was not lost.
The Running group I lead on a Thursday had a good workout achieving 5.21 miles which is the furthest they have run to date! Next Thursday they will be doing the last recce run of the Littleborough 5k which they are taking part in on the 30th March. They are doing very well and I am confident that they will produce great results on the night.
On Saturday I was due to take part in the Dentdale 14 mile road race which is number 3 in the Royton Road Runners championship. My wife Clare had opted to race direct at Oldham for me so that I could take part, unfortunately she was ill in the night so I reverted to plan A!
Oldham parkrun went well with 30 runners taking part on a dry morning (for a change) the local newspaper, Oldham Chronicle turned up to take a photo so that they can do a feature. So I look forward to seeing the article with much interest! I hope they don't spell my name wrong and put our winner (Mike Mannings) down as a junior... as journalist sometimes make errors!
I have been in the office for most of the day and took the opportunity to get a long run home in and made a route through "Boggart Hole Clough", I missed out on the cross country recently so was keen to see the park for myself. I was also breakng my Adidas Tempo's which I will be wearing at VLM, so far I am not feeling the love for them and after 4 miles my legs were not responding well to them. I stopped for a bit of a stretch and it did the trick and now the trainers are not concerning me so much!
By far the biggest adventure on my way home was exiting boggart and seeing a gang of lads on a bit of land neighbouring the path. Not an unsual event I grant you but the sound of something whizzing past my ear and breaking up in a tree next to me was. I assumed it was ether a stick that they had thrown but the speed and distance it had to travel. Then the thought it was an air rifle sunk in and let me tell you wearing the tempos came in handy and I picked up to 4:40 min/mile pace for the next 200 metres...
Tomorrow I post my coaching diary off for assessment which forms part of my level 2 coaches award, the big day for assessment being some 4 weeks away. I can tell you that the nerves are kicking in with the VLM being 5 weeks away it is adding to my grey locks!!!
Have a great running week
Mark K
Sunday 6 March 2011
Enjoy the sights and sounds of your run
It's been a mixed week, after the fun at the Great North west half, the business of recovery and adaption... Kicks in!
On Monday I took the opportunity to warm up (and down) with the athletes I coach at the track. My niggley hamstring strikes again so 'protect and serve' is in operation.
Tuesday is track night for me and I took my new racing shoes for a try out. Sadly they were not what I hoped and a rethink is required, a word of advise if you don't feel the love when you purchase new running shoes then you should look to take them back to the shop. Fortunately I get mine from Sweatshop and this should not be a problem as they have a super 30 day return policy.
I took to the streets on Wednesday for my now regular feature of a carbon-neutral commute to work. I take largely the same route as I drive ( once spring is in full swing I can switch to the Rochdale Canal) and this week I mused about the ambience of what in effect a dull run.
Firstly in the opening mile there is 'Stinky Hill' which is a steep downhill that is a real test on the way home! Stinky you might ask? There is a sewerage farm along side that reminds you of the effect 10,000 people can have on the local environment!!!
The next smell I come across is the Sarsons factory, they are famous for making vinegar and trust me any sleepiness that was around disappears once that vapour hits your lungs. They have recently painted the fence and the smell of paint on metal fences takes me straight back to my childhood. It must have been when they re-painted the school fences at the end of summer ready for the September term.
Not long after Sarsons I sometimes catch the brewing stage of lager at J.W. Lees. Being a tee-total-er the smell of booze is not a massive favourite, especially when the hops are being used as the smell is like Ovaltine on steroids! The other week nearly knocking me sick :s
From them to work the worst of all is smog from all the cars, buses and trucks... not nice. A recent development is a huge bakery on regenerated land near to my office, now the aroma of baking bread I challenge you to to deny that is one of the greatest smells... ever.
On Thursday I took my running group to do a recce run of the Littleborough 5K route. This will be the first public race for may of them and hopefully now they will be more confident about the Vera Hirst 5K on the 30th March.
Friday was not a good running experience for me, the cold that has been all about my head this week finally travelled to my chest. So I hit plan B for the journey home and my wife graciously picked me up from work
Parkrun
Last week John Mayall of Rochdale Harriers was present at Oldham parkrun, had a great run and has featured our event on his very good website racemaps.org.uk (Link added to my page).
You can see his write up at the following address
http://www.racemaps.org.uk/alexandrapark/oldhamparkrun.htm
This week we had 31 runners (5 new runners) and 12 Pb's, I awarded the Sweatshop prize to Vicky Stainthorpe who has shown a great improvement, in fact a PB every time she has run since the end of January now dipping under 29 minutes:
Today (Sunday 6th March) I was due to take part in the Silverstone Half Marathon, alas my hamstring is still a bit sore and On Friday my head cold had traveled to my chest so abandoned the run home from work. Happily I enjoyed a bit of a lie in and my legs felt good and more importantly my chest had cleared significantly. So I headed off on a Long Steady Run, the route... Hilly of course and just under 16 miles, I settled into a comfy pace and up Oldham road into the town centre. As I headed up Ripponden Road (A monster hill) I surprised myself how well my legs responded and I was averaging 8 minute miles, which a year ago would have been my race pace!
I kept this pace pretty much all the round in an effort to practice keeping a steady pace... important when racing of course.
It was the nicest day of the year so far, my only crime was not to take a picture whilst taking a 30 second break at the War Memorial, I took a long swig from my drink instead!
You can see my run at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71536618
Next week I hope to be taking part in the Dentdale run 14 miles and 379 yards... of hills
- Have a great running week
Mark K
On Monday I took the opportunity to warm up (and down) with the athletes I coach at the track. My niggley hamstring strikes again so 'protect and serve' is in operation.
Tuesday is track night for me and I took my new racing shoes for a try out. Sadly they were not what I hoped and a rethink is required, a word of advise if you don't feel the love when you purchase new running shoes then you should look to take them back to the shop. Fortunately I get mine from Sweatshop and this should not be a problem as they have a super 30 day return policy.
I took to the streets on Wednesday for my now regular feature of a carbon-neutral commute to work. I take largely the same route as I drive ( once spring is in full swing I can switch to the Rochdale Canal) and this week I mused about the ambience of what in effect a dull run.
Firstly in the opening mile there is 'Stinky Hill' which is a steep downhill that is a real test on the way home! Stinky you might ask? There is a sewerage farm along side that reminds you of the effect 10,000 people can have on the local environment!!!
The next smell I come across is the Sarsons factory, they are famous for making vinegar and trust me any sleepiness that was around disappears once that vapour hits your lungs. They have recently painted the fence and the smell of paint on metal fences takes me straight back to my childhood. It must have been when they re-painted the school fences at the end of summer ready for the September term.
Not long after Sarsons I sometimes catch the brewing stage of lager at J.W. Lees. Being a tee-total-er the smell of booze is not a massive favourite, especially when the hops are being used as the smell is like Ovaltine on steroids! The other week nearly knocking me sick :s
From them to work the worst of all is smog from all the cars, buses and trucks... not nice. A recent development is a huge bakery on regenerated land near to my office, now the aroma of baking bread I challenge you to to deny that is one of the greatest smells... ever.
On Thursday I took my running group to do a recce run of the Littleborough 5K route. This will be the first public race for may of them and hopefully now they will be more confident about the Vera Hirst 5K on the 30th March.
Friday was not a good running experience for me, the cold that has been all about my head this week finally travelled to my chest. So I hit plan B for the journey home and my wife graciously picked me up from work
Parkrun
Last week John Mayall of Rochdale Harriers was present at Oldham parkrun, had a great run and has featured our event on his very good website racemaps.org.uk (Link added to my page).
You can see his write up at the following address
http://www.racemaps.org.uk/alexandrapark/oldhamparkrun.htm
 |
| Copyright (C) John Mayall 2011 |
This weeks PB was no doubt helped by the expertly fitted Asics at Sweatshop!
I kept this pace pretty much all the round in an effort to practice keeping a steady pace... important when racing of course.
It was the nicest day of the year so far, my only crime was not to take a picture whilst taking a 30 second break at the War Memorial, I took a long swig from my drink instead!
You can see my run at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71536618
Next week I hope to be taking part in the Dentdale run 14 miles and 379 yards... of hills
- Have a great running week
Mark K
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