Mark Kelly's Running Life!: A good week culminating in the Trimpell 20

A good week culminating in the Trimpell 20 mile race, I put this in my plan to perfectly time with my incremental increases on the long runs, over the last few weeks going up 17,18,19 miles.

On Monday, I did a turbo session followed by a brick run, I had my right foot strapped up, it felt okay so it gave me the green light to do my 31K (19 Miles) run on Tuesday.

The LSR went well overall, at about 20k into the run, the troublesome right foot started to ache, not in the ankle but on the inside, which is sometimes a bit weak for me.

On Wednesday I picked my mate Steve up and headed down to Wales to do what we thought would be a "pan flat" route from Pensarn to Llandudno and back, then head north to Rhyl and back., about 60km all in all.

A strong headwind greeted us as I had brought my mountain bike shoes (they look similar to my road shoes). Unfortunately, I had to make do and use trainers, so I lost all the advantages of "locked-in feet."

Not all went to plan as there are roadworks on the route, we got a bit lost and when we hit 15Km, it was time to turn back. Somehow we did not pick up the cycle path and head back on the main road, which was not so bad as the cycle route was busy with dog walkers and bimblers.

Steve is getting back into training so it was a shame the "pan flat" route turned into a hill session at about 22km. Steve had done well but there was no need to push more and we decided that once we got back to the car at Pensarn, we would throw my bike into the car for a quick transition and do my brick run.

Steve coached me from his bike and I bolted onto the promenade to do 1.5km out and back; annoyingly, the headwind was still there, so I pushed hard with the deafening wind in my ears. Steve did a great job shouting out the pace, encouraging me, pushing me to keep the 3k under 12 minutes. Which I managed to do, coming in at 11:41, given I did 19 miles at 5:10 pace the day before, the legs felt good and my chest not too bad.

As I was racing at the weekend, I tapered down to get my form spot on, so minimal running and a sprint brick session.

Trimpell 20 Race Report

The weekend had been predicted to be a wet one, the drive up to Lancaster was full of low clouds, rain and sunshine. There were 3 accidents on the motorways between home and the race, but timing and apple maps meant we missed most of the delays and rocked up with plenty of time.

I started my warm-up and realised

a) Had not started my watch

b) forget to put on my HR strap

So trotted back to sort it out, my wife took this amusing photo

Adjusting the strap

It was a mass start, I positioned myself near the front with the hope of getting some free air and was happy for folks to overtake me as they went. At the same time, there was also the Golden Ball 10 mile mixed in, so you had people going a bit quicker than us 20 milers!

The first few kilometres, I was a little giddy and the target pace of 4:50 min/km was not going to happen, I was doing 4:04,4:14,4:24 and so on. The course was all on the cycle path that runs along the River Lune and relatively flat, it consisted of a short 5k loop to the south, with a dead man turn and back to the start/finish, then a big loop to the north.

500 meters into the race

The tarmac was still wet at this stage, and as you can see from the photo above, the expectation was for a wet race, which is far better than hot... you can't have everything in life...it was a hot one. I always wear shades if I can as we have glaucoma in the family, to reduce the risk, I protect my eyes as much as I can, it was a bonus being sunny; I didn't see many other people doing the same?

The course then starts to climb it is subtle enough on the first lap and at 9KM reaches a plateau, on the second lap, it felt more and lapping always is tough to do as you know what is coming!

There was plenty of water on the course and with the sun being out it was a case of drink, water over my head, drink, water over my head!

At about 11Km you leave the cycle path, head out onto the road for about 1km, and then loop back onto the path and back to the start/finish. If you are a 10 miler, this is heaven, for us doing 20 is a realisation of what you have to do again. As you meet back up to the path you have crisscross with the runners about to go on the road, a bit of synchronised passing is required!

Up till about 21km, I felt strong. The pace had been manageable somewhere around 4:30 - 4:40 pace, gradually I slowed down, a blister was coming through, and the pain all over was worsening. Typically at 18 miles, your body and mind can "Hit the wall" it was getting close to that, I hated every step, people started to stride past me. But, I soldiered on and clocked the kilometres down, safe in the knowledge my 2hr 35 minutes target could be achieved. I was surprised that I actually came in 45th and 2:28:43.

Could I have run another 10k in 45 minutes to complete a marathon of 3:15, no but 55 minutes probably? However, I did the first 10k in 44 minutes, which was my peak speed a year ago, so to repeat that at the end of this race... not likely!

I have a few more weeks to practice and perfect my pace and race strategy but I should be on track for 3:25 at Manchester.. hopefully.

Not a negative split as the textbook says but I don't think I have done that; for my 2011 London Marathon, I was running a fairly consistent pace and achieved 3:09:08, so if I am a bit slower at the end, then so be it!