Back racing with RRR

Sunday 4th November was the Derwentwater 10, the last race on the Royton Road Runners calendar.
So what better way to put my return to the club than putting the RRR running vest back on, doing the last race and one of the hardest!

The coach picked us up at 8am and off we went! I had nerves not just about the race but about meeting club mates again and although nice to be remembered, reminders of how quick I used to be was all around. People I used to race again I knew I had no chance of beating and kept reminding myself that today was just a sighter and a target for next year to beat, something Brian Moore happily reminded me of.
It had been raining all night so it was going to be wet on the roads, that stuff just rolls off the hills and pours onto the roads, torrents as it turned out but that is part of the fun of the race.

As per usual I headed off quick, that will never change and soon got into my rhythm and the pace I wanted to do.

Water at about 4.5 miles was heaven and then the hills just kept on coming, funny marshal near the end claiming that was the last hill... I hope he gets a nasty rash for a week.


I preferred the old course, fewer hills near the end!

2010 66 minutes

2018 85 minutes

But I was the first V40 back for Royton Road Runners so not a bad start back at the club.

Keep running everyone

Mark

giving trainasone.com a whirl

For the last few weeks I have been increasing the mileage, trying to keep to the 10% rule i.e. do not up your effort too quickly as this can lead to injury so week "A" you do 10 miles then next week "B" you do 11 miles.

So far it has worked and the mileage is getting there with a mixture of longer runs and now one extra day, so trying to do 4 runs a week.

Strava however has a new feature for "Summit' users (formerly known as premium) on the iPhone, it looks to track your effort for the week and compare to the previous week. so as you progress through the week it warns if you are pushing it too hard or the opposite.
It does this based on the suffer score (Strava's measure of your heart rate vs pace etc during runs.

Try and keep in the white zone

As you progress the week, it advises you

This is good but I still cannot seem to reconcile how to balance the effort, I want to increase mileage but this pushes me over, running slow is no good to me as it historically led to injury (change in running gait) so as you can see I have yet to keep in the "Zone"

By chance on one of my runs I came across a club mate who I have not seen in ages, as we ran around Shaw together I talked about how I getting back and trying to plan my runs he told me of some software he uses. The conversation was somewhat difficult as my fitness is still way off, but the basis of what he said was you set a goal, the website tells him what to do, it reviews how it went and using AI sets your next few runs.

So a few days later I contacted him via facebook and got the name of the website, trainasone.com it has a free account or premium coming at £6 a month and you can use a 21 day trial. It was easy to link to Strava and pulled in the last few months of data so it has a good knowledge of what you have been up to.

For the first few weeks it sets a good number of different "Assessment" runs, these are made up of different stages to a run i.e. walk, easy, all out for set durations.

As you complete runs it adjusts the future assessments and what it refers to "Economy" runs i.e. a normal go out for 6 miles at 8:40 pace.

This can make it difficult to remember to do as you run so writing it on my hand the only way to do this.

On the morning of the run a reminder of the objective is emailed to you

The on the go version!

So far so good and it only shows you a few weeks and the website explains in the beginning it might look as you are doing less but it is key to establish a baseline for all paces like tempo and threshold.

The last run of the week was a struggle as was still very hungover from Saturdays Latics trip to Morecambe. It had plenty of slow pace sections with a 2 mile "fast as you can" effort in the middle, given this took in 2 hills I did my best!

It may be a co-incidence but trainasone.com seems to have delivered my first week "in the zone"

Thanks for reading

Mark

Starting to get back running

So far this year it has been a patchy restart to my running life but things are looking positive now.
Getting to training nights with Royton are proving difficult and not usually able to get to a parkrun on a Saturday so have chosen to match the distance I would have done, so a training night would be 10K and parkrun obviously 5K.

The process to get my coaching licence re-activated is moving on and this week received my DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) certificate, so England Athletics can send me my new licence.

How to get to club nights will still be a challenge, Mondays and Thursdays are from the Cricket club so it is just a case of a jog (if I am not working away), Wednesdays are at Kingsway track which is a car journey and I still have no car with no plans in the short term to get one.

So just focusing on getting fit, losing weight and reading the latest info set out by England Athletics.

On Monday I wanted to do a 10k mostly because I had signed up to the Strava July 10K challenge and time was running out, I find this a good motivator as I am not racing or training it is too easy to plump for short runs.
I started by planning the route and remembered I now live on the route of the Milltown 10K I created for the series with Alan Keane back in 2011.

My goto routing tool is www.mapmyrun.com and set about re-creating the run, of course with a different start/finish!

Here is my effort and aim to do it at the end of each month so I can compare efforts



I really want to complete the August distance and hill climbing challenges so watch this space!

Lastly for this week the local craft beer place I frequent (The Secret SIP) has engaged with the Mikkeller brewery who have set up running clubs all over the world, it is a simple fun concept. 1 Saturday a month turn up to the pub run a 5k or 10k get back and get a free pint of beer when you get back.

It was great to speak with Ben who is setting it up, his enthusiasm for the project was great and it is something I will support (if it does not clash with football)
So registered the app and soon the Oldham "Chapter" will be live, could not link the app to Strava and Ben had the same issue but he managed to do it via the website.
Not something I have managed to do yet but no rush to resolve.

Check it out at Mikkeller

Have a good week

Mark

It's been a while but back into the running... trialling Rungo app

So after a bit of start/stop effort, I am finally starting to get the running back (pun intended) on track and can give you a bit of an update.

Recently work and family life has taken a big hit on my let's say happiness, so now looking for the exercise to help pick my mood up, which seems to be working. No longer am I looking for faster lap times or race times, I am running just for the hell of it, sure Strava gives me great insight into how I am doing but any runner will tell you how well a run went, suffer score not required however fun it is to look at.

I am now living in a new part of Manchester which my only running link being the Moonraker 10k course, which sadly no longer takes place. So in one way is nice to be able to train on the course but if you have ever raced it... Windermere Road is a heck of a climb!

So to help me get about and not get lost, I tried out Rungo which works in the same way as Strava but you can download your running route to the watch and it gives you turn by turn directions in your ears.

This worked well in a trial and paid for the premium plugin to enable among other features, the ability to sync with Strava.

This worked very well and as soon as the watch connects to the phone (just like Strava), the activity is uploaded to the website. The Rungo website itself is very basic but is enough to get your route, pace and splits. The focus seems to be on community and routes rather than out and out the detail of how you performed.

Rungo

Strava

When I checked out what information was synced to Strava it struck me straight away that there was no HR data passed across, so checked back at Rungo and it too does not store HR data, the watch app, however, does display your HR all be it in a grey font, small at the top of the screen.

This was a complaint of forum folks and it is believed that the ability to customise the watch interface is on the roadmap, just change the font to red and larger!

I have to say the technical support for Rungo is good, with the responses being quite prompt and knowledge placed at the right level.

So, in a nutshell, I am having to run both apps when running new routes and configure Rungo not to write to activity as it duplicates data. Once the HR issue is fixed I can see myself going fully to Rungo and using Strava to collect the data.... unless that is Strava mans up and does turn-by-turn navigation...

So my last challenge of the day was how to get back into the house, no longer do I have the luxury of someone to open the door for me. I have worked (and paid) hard to cord-cut and minimise stuff that I have to carry when out for a run. The Apple Watch as discussed in my Back to running post handles everything from tracking the run, phone for emergencies and paying for stuff. I don't have to have an armband, running belt... nothing, however I do not to be able to get back in the house.
The solution back to the old days, thread the key into your laces... simples.
My back issue if you are wondering... persists and my physio's last words to me "stretch" still ring in my ears.

Till next time

Keep running

Mark

Rest week, fat old man, bad back!

My back has been pure agony and the right calf manageable, I have used ibuprofen and Voltarol to ease the pain, so nothing more than walking this week.

Having rested my back and calf have made some recovery, so rocked up to Heaton parkrun with the back strapped, smothered in Voltarol...

Meeting Rick Bennett again after all these years was a delight, Saturday mornings setting out Heaton parkrun all those years ago was great, we rarely got to run, so this was probably the first time we were running together!

Steve my parkrun buddy fresh from a night out on the beer was experiencing Heaton for the first time and I had prepped him for Angina Hill which he tackled well, it was ominous that he and Rick had only met today and both targeting under 25 minutes.

As you can see they had a close but no cigar moment!

For me, things went OK the back was angry but manageable and all was well until about 3.5K in. My fingers started to tingle (yes I had forgotten my gloves) so thought hmmm circulation, breathe more! 
At that point, my right calf went with a pop and I thought "great, that's the run over" however by the time I reached the bottom of Angina Hill it did not seem to have slowed me down much so carried on.
Running around the golf course section I could hear my breathing, even with my ears full of music. so puffed on and my official time was 29:21 no danger of breaking my 19:00 PB on the course!


On Sunday I tried a quick jog to so if the back pain could be tolerated without all the pain relief... not a chance!

So will try for a couple 3K sessions during the week and next Saturday visit South Manchester parkrun which I have not been to since assisting the creation of it with Manchester University many years ago.

Keep running everybody!

Mark

Nightmare week

Monday was a rest day as I was travelling down to London for the week, thankfully my Apple Watch was happy I was keeping active!

For Tuesday I was checking the weather reports and a morning run seemed the better option. I use Dark Sky as my goto hyper local weather app, it predicted some light drizzle on my return leg if I set off without delay. 

Strava is great at analysis so there are segments I pay attention to (in particular the ones near the end of a run)

I was happy to have gone further and faster, my knee was a bit angry at the end but should be ok. So 3.8k at 5:46 /km was a good effort as I am trying to keep the pace at under 6:00 /km and trying to increase the distance.

Wednesday was a right off as a storm had moved in Tuesday evening and the wind kept me awake most of the night. The weather was shocking so treated myself to a rest day.

The storm has past, so Thursday morning went for my longest Croydon out and back yet!
All felt good until I got to South Norwood, this being my logical turn back, my right calf went tight so had to stretch it out. This proceeded with an angry calf all the way back... that I can cope with, running the London Marathon in 2011 with strapped up with "Kinesiology" tape which may or may not have helped me finish in 3:08 with blue tape running up the back of my leg...
So carried on fine until about 0.5K away from getting back my lower back suddenly gave me shocking pain, it was that bad I struggled to breathe but managed to get back.

On Friday it was just about getting back from London, still hit my Apple Watch Activity goals, my suitcase that has served me well for 10 years finally has died, the wheels have split, zips coming off and the you extend to drag it along not easy to retract and put away...
So carried it all the way back to Oldham, bah.

Saturday I was keen to to do Oldham parkrun, Steve is not a fan of hills so where better than Alexandra park which uses every hill available. It is a course I am proud of as it was my first course design, Oldham gets a slapping for being the worst place to live and scores badly on health. Oldham NHS had some resource to setup an event and together we made something that is still here, getting people together, enjoying a beautiful park and giving the community something to look forward to.

Steve and I pre-parkrun

My Aim was to get sub 30 minutes and the pace started of well (too fast as usual) the calf was reminding me that it was unwell but ignored it, then as I was coming down the big hill my back pain started. As I got to the lake section the pain got was to point it was affecting my breathing, so as I got to the main straight I had to give up, the thought of struggling for another 3.5K and any damage I would do to myself it just destroyed me.

The sight of the 30min pacer going past me confirmed it was all over, a kind runner asked if I was ok and with a thumbs up (all I could muster) she carried on.
Steve however did very well finishing 63rd and bagging a great 25:46 which for someone hates hills was a superb effort.

Here is my effort, many times I have been injured in my life so not going to let this set me back or get me down.
The plan is to do Heaton parkrun next week so will rest this week and have bimble round the course as Steve gets another Saturday "Hill" session!

Happy running everybody

"Rest" Week with a parkrun thrown in

After a good start to training last week things went a little off! Monday morning my right knee was in pain, it started when I got off the bus and was walking to the tram stop in Piccadilly Gardens.
Suddenly it flared up and I was hobbling all the way to work, the pain was there on and off all day. This set the mood for the week, the weather was foul and I have yet to have the running bug that gets you out in all weathers!

So all week my aim was to move as much as possible and try and eat better. Saturday morning I arrived nice and early at Worsley Woods parkrun, a new event for me but highly recommended by Steve my weekend running mate!

 
I gave it my best and surprised myself with a sprint finish, usually this means I have not worked hard enough during the run! However this was my first time here so was just a sighter, next time I  will wear old shoes or my Adidas Kanadia TR3 which I used  to use for XC as it was a muddy wet affair.
Happily everything cleaned up well!

So finishing off a rest week with a run around my favourite "Crompton Loop" which has plenty of hill is 6K and best of all I was back before the snow storm that hit Oldham.

So happy running everyone.

Mark

First week back in training

First week back in training and this is how it went

Sunday 7th January
2km bimble around Royton as not wanting/able to do any mileage, it hit me as I ran around that this is what I would do for new runners back when I coached Run in England groups.
Nice and steady for beginners as the body needs to adapt to sustained heart rate and muscles not used to shifting you round, wake up.
The new trainers were very comfy and no right knee pain so far, which is reassuring.

The Strava app on my watch still did not record my heart rate (the watch does so still writes data back to phone)
Got back home and tried all the forum advice which is basically uninstall/re-install this however.
So logged a support ticket to see if what can be done.

Monday meant an early start to catch the train to London so had little chance of standing up for a couple of minutes every hour (Apple watch reminds you) made up by standing on the tube walking to head office for a quick visit and then a walk to Victoria for the train to Croydon (Train driver strike by Southern Rail not in evidence at mid morning).

After work checked into the hotel and got changed into my running gear and headed out for a “there and back”. Nearly made it to Selhurst Park but only needed to do around 20 minutes for the watch to calibrate for “indoor running” add to that niggles and fitness levels I don’t want to push things.

What did I forget? High Vis, thankfully the road I ran down is mostly closed due to roadworks so reduced risk of being run over!
Add to that I don’t have any running socks, not an issue for the kind of mileage I am doing right now but need to add to my shopping list.

When I got back to the hotel I tried to upload my Apple workout to Strava but the best it would do is a summary text.

A quick search and the solution is rungap, a free app to co-ordinate runs from all your apps. This was easy to setup and synced apps from Apple health and Strava. In order to upload to Strava however you need a “swag bag” costing £1.99 for 3 months, money handed over it was a doddle to upload the activity and all the data transferred perfectly. 

Tuesday morning I did a stint on the treadmill in the hotel gym (treadmill, bike, resistance weights contraption and some exercise balls)

Last night I was getting aches that plagued me, managed to run them off, but my right foot is landing flat which is deafening in a small... fitness suite. 

For my Wednesday morning run I ran the same out and back from Monday. I was 2 minutes faster and felt much better, it helps of course being rested but today I focused more on my running style in particular my right foot, making it roll rather than being flat footed!

The Anker SoundBuds are working well and thanks to Sheila at Strava, resolved the HR recording issue.

Thursday morning run was the best yet by far, much more actual running, fewer breaks for less time which is very encouraging.

Strava is working well and the prompts you get in ear are great.

So now it is more about evening the pace (never easy at first) and started thinking more about a training plan and setting goals.
Here is the Strava report:



Friday was a day of rest both from work and training, took the opportunity to dust off, wash and assess my much ignored Focus Cayo 105 road bike, stored under the stairs for many years, sadly a few spokes have snapped on the front wheel but apart from that it is not in too bad shape. Next pay day I will take it in for a service and get the wheel fixed.
I spent most of the day trying to get my Tacx Flow turbo trainer setup on my son's PC, sadly even though I upgraded it years ago to be able to plug via USB into a PC the software will no longer run on modern Windows and the world has moved on to have Bluetooth or Ant+ as the standard. So will save my pennies and get the updated version.
Tacx Flow Smart available at Decathlon

Sold at a reasonable £189, the old one can go on Ebay as still works if you have an older PC (I have no room or time for legacy equipment)

Saturday saw my return to Heaton parkrun, good to see so many friends like at Oldham, Duncan did the run brief and again I was embarrassed as he welcomed me back over the loudspeaker.
Heaton is very popular these days and the course has changed from when I was last involved, because of building works the start area is very congested and so stuck to the back knowing it would be a shuffle start. The course takes a sharp left around the hall so the congestion gets worse, my plan was stick to the 33 minute pacer (todays pace setters were from Prestwich AC cheers guys) as things went on though I felt happy keeping up with the 31 minute pace.
I was very pleased to have completed the course with out taking a walk break, everything stayed together, pace was even enough and chest fine. Working as hard as I could I came 462 and my time 30:11 (Strava time from crossing the start and finish line)
The training I did this week enabled me to get this run dome and the new running shoes working very well.

Sunday saw me bimble around Royton far a bit of a recovery run after a busy week and pushing hard at parkrun yesterday, legs were a bit heavy but expected that.
The fitness is starting to come back, so for short distances like I am doing not having to walk during runs which is my biggest highlight of the week.

Happy Running Everybody

Mark

Back running after a veeeerrrry long time

Hi All,
Those who remember me as a keen runner, coach and parkrun event director may have missed my blog posts, I am happy to say I am getting the running bug once again.
I have no vision of running marathons or getting up early every Saturday to get a parkrun setup, but to get fit and enjoy running once more, who knows I will be a marshal, timekeeper or even run director once more.

Thus far I have completed a parkrun (Oldham) over the Christmas break 35 mins and somewhere near the back, but happy to have got around all be it with the a few walking stints.
The run director gleefully announced "Mark Kelly is back" on the run brief, which as usual embarrassed me but was grateful for the acknowledgement, Oldham parkrun is now a huge success and the team I left in place have done a fantastic job. I managed a whole 2K before my chest needed a rest, a total lack of fitness mixed with the ability to know how to run efficiently was bizarre but kept fairly even splits and was overjoyed to get over the finishing line.

Helping me get back into running is my latest piece of tech is the Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular, wow it is the coolest gadget I have ever had. My first "smart" running watch was a Timex Ironman that I had to ship from the US many years ago. It had a block you strapped to your arm for GPS (2 x AA batteries) took ages to lock onto satellites, a chest strap for your heart rate and a small triangular data recorder to clip onto your shorts, which you plugged into you PC and downloaded the data.

Put that into context now, instant GPS data, heart rate built into watch, automatic data sync to iPhone, not need to carry phone as the watch is cellular and lastly Apple Pay if I need to buy a drink, food or even get a taxi back!

The only issue I had at parkrun was starting the watch when the event kicked off, traditionally you get your watch ready, click a physical button to start the timer, then the same button to stop... on this watch it is all touch screen. I used the Nike Running Club app which was ok at giving audio prompts at each 1k split etc but to start you get a 3 second countdown as if you a doing a training run...not starting an event or race!

I used my Bose QC35 headset to listen to music and get the audio splits, not ideal for running as they are bulky (Great sound and turned the noise cancelling down as these days I being overtaken... a lot) , so I have purchased some cheap (£16) but very good bluetooth earphones from Amazon which work great Anker SoundBuds.

So the watch has been great at reminding me to exercise and, as I sit at a desk most of the day, stand up every hour and move about. 

On Friday 5th Jan I went for a lunch time run with a colleague (Steve) and we are both trying to get back into running after a break so we both struggled with fitness and niggles, in my case knee pain. The reason I had to stop running years ago was my left knee and a broken metatarsal on my left foot, at parkrun and on this run neither gave me any bother which was my main concern, however 3k in my right knee was giving me pain and I believe this to be down to my "old" trainers which were not bought with my "over pronation" in mind.

Steve convinced me to give the Strava app a try and have to say it worked well (still touch screen to start/stop timer) and synced straight to phone on return and then onto the website.
You can check out the run (walks included) here:



With this in mind I headed to Up and Running in Oldham, setup by Dave Emmanuel and Bryan Lawton of Royton Road Runners fame. Not only was it great to catch up with running friends of old but to have trust that the product I was going to buy had advice from a knowledgable person. It is often quoted and cliched that the best running salesperson is also a runner! But I cannot stress enough "An internet review or kid in a department store" is a poor choice compared to what these guys can do for you.

So I now have a pair of Saucony Guide Iso to trot around in, it has been a long time since being on a treadmill and have never enjoyed seeing my running in slow motion, my coaching hat comes on and rebukes my running style but hey we can't all be perfect.
The shoes are great and the colour is perfect, Bryan and I are Oldham Athletic fans so there can be only blue as the colour of choice.

Dave Emmanuel courtesy of
The SaddleWorth Independent

So tomorrow I am going to have a bimble around Royton to break the shoes in and next week I am in London all week so will be using the hotel gym before breakfast, just like days of old.

Have a good week all, keep running and remember, "Be good, but if you can't be good... be safe"

Mark