It's been a while since I last blogged, and I have much to update you with, so starting with the latest is the Dr Ron Hill - Hyde 7 mile race.
This is part of the Tour of Tameside (ToT), a 4-day event with fell races, 10k and a half marathon; tough to do all 4, especially as Saturday is the half marathon, Sunday is as a hilly 7-mile road race, with 4 lumps!
It is also one of the races that Royton Road Runners use in the championship, which entails around 12 events in the year. Your best 7 results count, so if you come first in your group, then 25 points, 24 for second, 23 for third and so on. I am in group two, which is for people running around 42 minutes for 10K, so above us are groups 1, championship and the fastest "Premiership".
So far, I have managed to do 4 of the races, this was to be my 5th, because of Covid, the 2020 and 2021 years have merged, with some events still postponed. This makes the race calendar very hectic and haphazard with so much to squash in. This has also had a knock-on with my preparation for the Manchester Marathon, which I am running in aid of SarcoidosisUK. I had planned to do some events in the lead-up, but that I will cover in the coming weeks.
The start of the race was back to pre-covid style with a mass start and not much social distancing. One fella coughed into my back, a disgusted look was thrown back at him; in regular times, that would have been bad manners, these days positively unwanted!
The race elevation looks like this:
I set off and quickly found myself darting around what could be described as a slow herd being pushed by a farmer! Thankfully, halfway up the hill, I got into free air and started to pick up speed and get into my rhythm.
Throughout the race, I saw pretty much the same people; we would be faster or slower on the hills, then the flats and downhills, regroup, so it became a sprint to the finish. One runner, in particular, was annoying me by running right beside me, to quote my friend Bryan L. "breathing like a horse" i.e. heavy and fast. But, if you have ever raced me to the line, I revert to my sprinting youth and can crack out a decent finish. So, all those years as a junior on the running track are finally paying off!
I finished 34th on gun time, but 30th on chip time, 7 miles in 46:28. Somewhere in there, this set off all-time bests appeared (well, since records began after my 2009 - 2012 years).
In the last couple of months, I have been busy training. Unfortunately, the endurance cycling was proving too hard, I seem to be just fine running, but I struggle cycling. I have failed to finish anything seriously long and hilly.
As most running races had been cancelled, cycling seemed the best way to keep fit. Also, as you are naturally distanced from each other, they seemed more likely to go ahead once restrictions started to lift.
Both the Stockport Sportive and Tour of the Pennines, I was hampered severely with snowstorms which saw me retire with leg cramps, on the last one hyperthermia. Just try going up against big hills in two layers of lycra in a snowstorm… barmy.
So to address my lack of cycling skills, I joined Rochdale Triathlon Club, which has been absolutely brilliant in training me, supporting me with cycling skills and motivation. My shoulder is still being assessed, and I await an MRI as to why my left shoulder is so painful and weak. It is not sarcoidosis related which is a relief. Still, they can only say it is the rotator cuff moving very roughly through the joint. What is causing this cannot be seen with the MRI, so until that is fixed, I cannot swim so I am stuck doing Duathlons which triathletes sometimes refer to as "Dryathlon" as you don't get wet!
So far, I have done a test Duathlon at Dunham Massey, it is a starter event designed to give you experience and all went well, apart from doing one too many laps on the first run!
The transition to bike went well, and I pushed hard to make up time. Although this left me with severe "jelly legs", and it took a while to wear off, my running pace for the last leg didn't suffer too much, and I didn't make the same mistake and did two laps as I should.
Since then, I have been practising "brick runs", usually going from doing a bike session to running. This helps prepare your body for jelly legs in races, much like track work when running. Doing sprints with short recovery helps to train your body to tolerate and even remove lactic acid that builds up when you work your legs hard.
Last week at the RTC cycle track session, I stopped after about 1.5 hours of near-constant cycling, put my trainers on and ran the opposite way to the cyclists and happily the jelly legs was minimal, there are techniques like spinning in a high cadence as you approach transition which helps loosen your legs
So I am now in the latter stages of marathon training; the long runs are getting longer, my feet are toughening up like a hobbit. Mixing this with duathlon is not so bad as cycling is acting as cross-training where I can still do cardio but easier and slightly different muscle set/usage.
Coming up is a busy race month and the week before the Manchester marathon, I am taking part in the Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon, which is a TeamGB Age group (MV45) qualifier, if I come in the top 15 and nobody else bothers... I might be off to Spain next year for the European championships... wouldn't that be a dream!
No comments:
Post a Comment