Monday 29 August 2011

Marathon Number 8

I'm very aware that I haven't been producing regular blog updates over the last few weeks.  This has been mainly due to commitments at home.  Ruth decided it was time that the entire ground floor of our house was re-decorated.  If it had been left to me this job would have been put off for probably another couple of years.  But Ruth is strong willed and very persuasive and I decided it was probably in my best interest to do as I'm told.  As a result a lot of my spare time has been spent with a paint brush in my hand.  Needless to say I have been getting out for training runs, I just haven't had the time or energy to also write about them.

I'm not going to go in to any details of what training I have done over the last two weeks.  All you need to know is that I completed marathon number eight today.  Today's marathon was primarily organised as a long distance walk starting and finishing in the small Cambridgeshire village of Conington, which is about 10 to 15 miles from home.  It was the 14th running of the Pathfinder Walk.  Given that it's such a local event, and so close to home, I was surprised that I'd never heard of it before.  I've mentioned the event to almost all of my running friends and a few other friends besides and haven't so far found anyone that I know who has heard of the event.  I can only assume that the organisers are happy keeping it as a low key event.  It's mainly advertised through the Long Distance Walking Association website.

The event is called the Pathfinder Walk to commemorate the Pathfinder bomber squadrons that were mostly stationed in East Anglia during World War II.  The sites of three of the former air bases can be seen on the walk/run.  The Pathfinder squadrons were an elite bomber force that pinpointed bombing targets ahead of the main bombing raid.  The memento from the event was a mug with a picture of a Halifax bomber, one of five aircraft used by the bomber group.  I'd personally prefer a medal, but a mug is better than yet another useless T-shirt.

Walkers had a choice of four walking routes of 14km, 23km, 32km and 42km, and could start any time from 7.30am onwards.  Many walkers had already started by the time I reached the village at about 8am this morning.  Marathon runners were all set off at the same time at 8.30am.  I found myself very quickly amongst a group of three other runners consisting of Rob, Ian and Lisa.  We all seemed to be running at the same pace so we stayed together and chatted as we ran.  I discovered that Lisa is a local girl and midwife running something like her 143rd marathon!  Ian was running his 61st marathon and is from my home town of Winchester, and Rob lives close to Stevenage (sorry but that is all I remember).

Self navigation with written instructions was required on this run, the fourth such event I've run this year.  Thankfully, the instructions were very clear and I never found myself running off route by mistake.  From Conington we headed west to the hilly part of Cambridgeshire.  We ran past our first airfield at Graveley were a few WWII buildings can still be seen, and continued on undulating ground through Yelling and Papworth Everard.  From here the ground started to level out again and at about this point Rob decided to speed up and run ahead on his own.  The rest of us were content to continue as a group of three.

I'd like to make it clear that whilst running marathons does get easier, they never feel easy.  As is always the case I started to struggle with six miles to go.  It was reassuring that Rob and Lisa were also finding the going tough.  For the most part the ground was very uneven over the last quarter of the marathon and this really started to take its toll.  It was a relief to finally reach the tarmac road leading into Conington for the last 200m of the run.  The three of us crossed the finish line together in a time of 3 hours 31 minutes and 40 seconds.  However, there was no official timing on this event.  Once we'd crossed the finish line we headed to the registration tent and handed in our route cards, which had been stamped at each of the five checkpoints and then collected a certificate and our mug memento.  I'm not sure whether our times were recorded or not, or if any finishing results will ever be published.  I'm not expecting them to be.

My running companions: Rob, Lisa, Ian & me.

Sunday 14 August 2011

The Long Slow(ish) Solo Sunday Slog

I've been on a few lovely runs this week, even if they have been solo efforts.  It's been a quiet week work wise, due to many clients being away on holiday, but that has meant I've had more time to get out for some early morning runs.
On Monday evening I only had two people show up to my kettlebell class.  This meant it was fairly easy for me to also have a workout and at the same time keep an eye on my two clients.  I tried to do the same in my lunchtime class on Wednesday, but that time I had nine clients to keep an eye on, so not as easy.

Tuesday morning I went on a short 5 mile tempo run around Cambridge Airport, which is my favourite route if I'm in a rush.  It's not the most inspiring route as it's alongside busy roads, but most of the circuit sticks close to the boundary fence of the airport and is completely uninterrupted by side roads, so great for fast paced tempo runs.

On Wednesday I decided to start my day with a leisurely 8 mile run up to Bates Bite Lock in Milton.  As I was getting ready to go I spotted a sparrowhawk land on our brick barbecue, which is reasonably close to the kitchen window and also fairly close to a few bird feeders in the garden.  Strangely, at the time there were no other birds to be seen.  I did get out my bird watchers' guide book, just to make sure it was indeed a sparrowhawk, and sure enough it was one male sparrowhawk.  After a couple of minutes it got bored waiting for sparrows to arrive at our feeders and flew off in the direction of Coldham's Common.

On the off chance that I might get a second glimpse of our neighbourhood bird of prey I decided to start my morning run with a circuit of the Common.  To my absolute delight, just as I was entering a wooded section of the Common I was brought to a complete standstill by the sight of a pair of sparrowhawks that were clearly chasing another male away from their territory.  Perhaps the pursued bird was the same one that I'd seen in our garden!  I watched for a few seconds, which was all the time it took for the outnumbered male to decide he'd be better off elsewhere and for the pair to then retreat into the woods.  I continued on my run without any other major incident.  I returned home via Coldham's Common just in case I got another glimpse of sparrowhawks, but it wasn't to be.  It did add an extra mile onto my planned run, though.

After my busy exercise schedule over the beginning of the week I then did no real exercise until today.  My excuse is that Ruth and I have been busy repainting the kitchen, which is a right fiddly job, but it's looking pretty good, although not quite finished.  However, so far I'm very happy with our handy work.

Today I went for a solo 21 mile run from home to the water tower on top of the hill over looking the village of Linton.  It's one of my favourite runs, as much of it is off road and it is also reasonably hilly for Cambridgeshire.  As soon as I reached the first hill I got the impression that it was going to be a hard run.  I haven't been on this run for several weeks and the first hill up to the start of the Roman Road seemed steeper than normal.  It was also quite warm and humid and I was dripping with more sweat than is normal for me.  Thankfully, I seemed to get into my stride once I was on the Roman Road and the next 7 miles to the water tower seemed to fly by.  It was also fairly uneventful.  I hardly saw another person, just one dog walker and a couple out on mountain bikes.  There was also no interesting wildlife to report back on.

At the water tower I stopped for a couple of minutes whilst I wrestled with an energy gel wrapper and took a big slurp of water to wash it down.  I also made sure I stopped long enough to take in the view.  There are not many opportunities around here to stand on top of hills and look down on the surrounding countryside, and I like to make the most of whatever views we do get.

On the return leg of my run it seemed as if the rest of the world had eventually got out of bed.  I passed one horse rider coming towards me on the bridleway, then I overtook a group of three runners, saw another two heading towards me, also passed two other horse riders, a couple of groups of cyclists and several groups of walkers.   What a difference an hour makes!

The whole 21 mile run took me 2 hours 35 minutes at an average pace a little under 7 minutes 30 seconds per mile.  Not bad for a hot and hilly Sunday outing.  However, I have one big blister on the ball of my foot and my legs have been complaining ever since.  I must do a few more stretches before going to bed.  I'm up early to see a couple of clients, one of whom I'll be running with.

In the week I discovered that I've missed the boat with regards to next year's London Marathon.  I was merrily assuming that I had until September to apply for my Good For Age place, based on my finishing time from this year, as this was the cut-off time for fast runners to apply last year.  However, when I checked the website in the week I discovered that Fast Good For Age entries were closed in July.  It serves me right for assuming that the application process would stay the same from year to year.  As it happens, I had been considering not running London next year in favour of running Paris marathon for a change.  My disorganisation now means that that decision has been made for me.  I've checked the Paris Marathon website and it's not possible to enter until September.  Next year Paris Marathon will be held one day before my birthday, so it will make for a birthday weekend trip away from home.  Maybe not everyone's first choice for a birthday activity, but it will do for me.

Sunday 7 August 2011

Return to Sunday Social Runs

Today I managed a 19 mile run, and for most of it I had company.  Many of my running friends are now in full training for Amsterdam Marathon in October.  A group of five, three of whom I hadn't met before, had arranged to meet at 9am in Cherry Hinton to start a 16 mile run around Cambridge.  The run had been planned by my good mate Tony, so I invited myself along.

I first had a 1.5 mile run from home to get to the start, where I met Nigel, Andreas & Megan for the first time, along with Tony and Stephen (who I've only ever met at a couple of half marathons).  We were also joined by Jamsheed, Jo and Dan, who had all been running since 8am, but came along to run some of the route with the rest of us.

As the nine of us made our way from Cherry Hinton around the perimeter of Cambridge Airport and on to the River Cam, I couldn't help but think what a striking bunch we were in our assortment of brightly coloured running clothes.  I hope that passers by were impressed by how vibrant and healthy we all looked.  I'd also like to think that some might have envied our level of health and fitness and that maybe, just maybe, one or two were inspired to take up running to get fit.  One can but dream.  One part of my goals for running 12 marathons in 2011 was to try and inspire others to set challenging goals for themselves.  It would be nice to find out if I have been successful.

Once we'd reached the Cam at Fen Ditton we followed it upstream all the way to Grantchester, which meant taking in plenty of Cambridge City Centre's green spaces, including Midsummer Common, Jesus Green, the Backs, the Mill Pond, Lammas Land and Grantchester Meadows itself.  We really are blessed with living in a beautiful green city that is full of history.

The group did become quite fragmented along the way.  First we said goodbye to Jamsheed, Jo and Dan on Jesus Green.  At this point Megan mentioned that she was struggling with some calf pain.  She was determined to carry on, but at a much slower pace to the rest of us.  Stephen volunteered to stick with her and help her around, so we left him to it.  The remaining four of us carried on at a reasonable pace.  We then said goodbye to Nigel at Lammas Land, which was my 10 mile mark (8.5 miles for him).  We didn't then see Stephen and Megan again from this point on, so the remaining three of us ended our run uninterrupted.

From Grantchester we headed for Trumpington and then along a short section of the newly opened guided busway to Addenbrookes Hospital, where I bumped into Jim, one of my clients, who was out for a walk.  Once we'd made our way past the hospital Tony announced that he was going to knock on a friend's door to ask if he could fill up his water bottle.  Andreas and I waited whilst Tony talked to his friend's dog through a window alongside the front door.  A short while later Tony's friend opened the door dressed in just a dressing gown and not looking too amused.  Turned out that he had shipped his two kids off to visit their grandparents and that he and his wife were making the most of having any empty house.  Nice one Tony!  I'm sure his friend would have been even less amused if he knew we only had about 3 miles to go.

So after Tony's re-fill, we continued on our way to Cherry Hinton and back round to our meeting point outside Tesco's.  From here I continued on my own for the last 2 miles back to my house.  All in all a very pleasant Sunday outing and I feel fit and ready to face the next marathon in 3 weeks time. 

Just need to make one quick update.  It turns out that I won't be running the Grafham Water Marathon, as it is already full.  So I'll be sticking to running the Pathfinder 42k Walk, New Forest Marathon and Loch Ness Marathon all as my next three marathons in August, September and October.  Just happens that all three will be within a five week period.  Never before have I run three marathons so close to each other.  Perhaps it's a good job Grafham Water was full.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Back Into Full Training

I am now throwing myself back into full marathon training, which is just as well as I have a very hectic marathon schedule looming.  My original marathon plan for the next three months was as follows:

13 August - North Downs
25 September - New Forest
2 October - Loch Ness

However, as I mentioned in my previous posting, the North Downs Marathon now clashes with a friend's birthday celebration, so I've opted to do the Pathfinder Marathon in Cambridgeshire on Monday 29 August instead.  In addition, I have also decided to run the Grafham Water Marathon on 18 September.  This marathon has only just been added to the race calendar, and the opportunity to run in a local marathon in its inaugural year was too good to miss.  Of course, I could have decided to do this instead of New Forest, but this also gives me the chance to visit my family in Hampshire.  I'm also keen to see how I cope with running three marathons on three consecutive weekends.  There's also something appealing in finishing the year having run 13 marathons instead of 12 - a baker's dozen, as it were.

So, following the last marathon two weeks ago, I had a week of just ticking over, which mainly involved running with clients and the Sweaty Betty running club.  I started my training again last Tuesday with a 5 mile tempo run around Cambridge Airport.  On this five miler I averaged a pace of 6 minutes 28 seconds per mile, with two of those miles run at a pace of 6 minutes 16 seconds.  Given that it had only been 9 days since the marathon I was very happy with this pace.

Since last Tuesday I haven't run more than 10 miles on a single run, but I have been trying to focus on pace with each run, trying to run bursts at 6 minutes 30 seconds per mile or faster.  So far it's all going well and my legs seem to be doing fine. 

I've also been doing quite a high volume kettlebell training over the last two weeks and have managed to do more work with a 20kg kettlebell than ever before.  However, I had a brief workout on Sunday and afterwards all felt fine.  But a few hours later I reached into a cupboard to get a carton of fruit juice and my neck and shoulder on my right side went into spasm that then remained a little painful for a good 36 hours afterwards.  How does that work?  Lifting 20kg is fine, but a 1kg carton of juice ends up causing a minor injury!  Fortunately, it all seems fine today, but I think I'll give it a little rest before trying anything to strenuous with a kettlebell again.