Dog attack

There I was, minding my own business, 11 miles into a 15 mile run, when I encountered a rather unruly large black shaggy dog. Why can't owners control their dogs? There was snarling, growling, slavering; the dog was pretty horrible too!

Seriously, I was rather scared! I've been attacked before, and still bear the scar where I was bitten on the thigh. This time I felt the dogs claws on my legs, but the skin was left unbroken. Maybe at first the dog just wanted to play, but after the growling and baring of teeth, I was convinced otherwise.

Fortunately, no lasting damage has been done. I just have this souvenir of the attack, the heart rate spike of an adrenaline kick:

Still improving

I was at my peak 6 weeks before the London Marathon. I knew this because of the treadmill session I did at the gym. The next day I did the Mad March Hare 20, picked up a stomach virus, and it all went downhill from there. Although I got most of my fitness back for London, I was never quite as fit as before the Mad March Hare, a fact backed up by subsequent gym sessions.

Each time I go running I record my pace and heart rate. This gives a good indication of fitness, but unfortunately conditions are never the same. Gradient affects heartrate, as does terrain, wind speed, and temperature. I found temperature a particular problem yesterday: in 25 degrees of bright sunshine my heartrate was 5-10bpm higher than usual, and I had to drop my pace accordingly.

The great thing about gym treadmill sessions is they are all conducted under the same conditions: same temperature, wind free, and same pace and gradient: 1deg incline, 10kph (although I may have to increase the pace if my fitness continues to improve at the rate it has been).

My gym stats don't really tell me anything about potential race performance as they are run at a much slower pace. I am uncertain how treadmill performance transfers to road performance, although I gather the 1deg incline does give a similar resistance as wind resistance when running. Allowing for the generally higher temperatures in the gym compared to outside though, my pace on a 1deg treadmill does seem to compare favourably with my road pace for a given heart rate.

So where were we? Ah yes: the fitter I get, the lower my treadmill heart rate gets. Today I saw my best treadmill results so far. I'm still getting faster. Today's session was 2 or 3 beats lower than my previous best, 6 weeks before London. This should be worth 10 seconds per mile, or 4 minutes off my marathon time. Nice!

Here's the piccy:

Today's trace is in red, my previous best 12 weeks ago is in blue. (Today's cool down was a bit different to last time's, hence the quicker tail off at the end)

I hope I'm posting a similar story in 12 weeks time!

Running towards Cardiff

Sorry Cardiff, but you don't sound so glamorous as "Running towards London", but I felt a name change was needed. It may become "Running towards Boston" soon, but one thing at a time eh?


"Running towards Boston, via London, Purbrook, Brading, New Forest, Wolverhampton, Cardiff, Gosport and Stubbington" doesn't sound snappy enough to me.

My shallow tissue hurts!

My masseur Rick has retired. We shared many pleasant moments together. He would put my head back together as well as my legs. I'd go to him convinced I'd done something terrible to my soft tissues. I'd come away reinvigorated and reassured that actually it was nowhere near as bad as I'd imagined, and all was well for my continued assault on the marathon courses of the world (well London anyway). His sessions were pleasant and relaxing, and only on one occasion when I damaged my ITB, could there be anything I could describe as pain.

Rick has now retired!

I'd gone a month without a massage, and my legs were starting to tell me that I should seek pastures new and entrust my muscles to new hands. And so to the Sports Injury Clinic at my local sports centre. Whereas with Rick, I'd have a lunchtime massage and go running that evening, it was suggested that I went running at lunchtime and have an evening massage. "We go quite deep here". That was a fair observation with hindsight.

As soon as her thumbs touched my thigh, I knew I was in for a different experience. (That last sentence could be used in an entirely different type of story telling!) OUCH! Deep tissue? She wasn't kidding! I know that my hamstrings and calves were a bit tight after a month of building my mileage back up, but struth! "You'll hate me later this evening", the nice young woman with the thumbs of steel said to me as I departed.

By the time I got home the inside of my thighs were already bruised. (That last sentence could be used in an entirely different type of story telling!) I put ice on my legs as a precaution. I see why she felt running that evening might not have been a good idea.

The following day (yesterday) my legs were tender to the touch. The only visible sign was a series of small bruises down the inside of each thigh, but I was tender all over my calves and hamstrings. By the evening I was still sore, with the prospect of a very hilly 8 mile run with the running club. The run went OK, in fact my legs felt quite good, but at the end my calves felt bizarre - tingly, and feeling like stretching really wasn't a good idea. The application of more ice followed.

Today I am still very tender to touch - particular the inside of my calves - more so than yesterday. I've just been for a run, and despite my fears, my legs are still OK for running. It seems that despite the "deep tissue" massage, it's only the surface layers that are tender, and the massage has had a beneficial effect where it matters. Not sure if I want this experience every fortnight though! Some feedback may be necessary. Maybe my tissues are a little more sensitive than some?

Mr Pig presents...

Hi,
I'm Mr Pig. It seems there is a tradition on this blog of Susie blogging her shoes, so here is the latest. I am holding a Mizuno Waverider VIII. It is over 50g lighter than Susie's main training shoe, the Asics Cumulus VI, and slightly lighter than the Nike Pegasus she ran London in, so this may become her main racing (and training) shoe.

The Waverider, Cumulus and Pegasus are neutral cushioning shoes. Susie wears orthotics, which on one hand limits the choice of shoe - there don't seem to be too many suitable shoes out there - but on the other hand makes shoe choice easier - it's neutral cushioning or nothing.

Susie likes to have several shoes on the go, as it always seems that once she gets used to one shoe, they discontinue or radically alter it. The light weight of the Waverider is a definite bonus in speed terms, and with a name like that it's perfect for Windsurfin' Susie!

I hope to see you again, the next time Susie blogs some kit!
Bye for now
Mr Pig

Closing the circle

It seems this year's London marathon was the perfect race after all! Let me explain.

My training started back in November 2004 with the following:

Signed at her book signing in London, and blogged here.

Well, after that, how could I fail to do well in London!

In London, despite missing my target qualifying time by 2 minutes, I was delighted with my 3:47:07, particularly after some late illness problems.

Things got better though! The following day I learned that I'd won first prize in the www.paularadcliffe.com competition! Today I received my prize:

and to make sure you can read that:


That'll make a nice display, framed with my certificate, medal, and finish photos of myself and Paula.

The perfect end to a perfect marathon!

Emsworth-Basingstoke Charity Relay 2005

An appeal! If you are a member of a club between the Portsmouth/Emsworth/Chichester area and Basingstoke, I urge you to do the Charity Relay. This year there were only 7 teams, 3 of which were my club Victory AC. It should be more popular. It's great!

This is a fun race, the main point being to raise money for a designated charity, this year The Brittle Bone Society. The race is run from Emsworth on the south coast to Basingstoke in north Hampshire, along public footpaths, mostly The Hangers Way. Teams are of 6 people, each person running 4 legs of between 2 and 4 miles each. Everybody runs the first leg. The countryside is stunning, apart from 4 bits of urban running, which only account for 4 of the 18 legs. The urban bits are: Havant, Petersfield, Alton, Basingstoke. I did the legs through Petersfield, Alton and Basingstoke! Are my team mates trying to tell me something? Have I missed too many cross country events? At least I did get some countryside running. The steep uphill section through a head high field of rape was a particular joy! Are my team mates trying to tell me something?

Meet the Victory AC teams:

We fielded a men's team, a women's team, and a mixed team (5 men plus Sara).
After the en-masse first leg, Ruth carried on through Havant, loving every stride:

2 change-overs later, Amanda took on the challenge of the Queen Elizabeth Country Park to Buriton. At least the last bit was downhill:

Later at Petersfield, the urban specialist(!) takes over:

I then have to hand over to Marilyn at Steep (appropriate name!), but where is she? "She's in the bushes" come the replies. "MARILYN!!!!":

Our driver Malcolm, athlete in training:

Marilyn had to take on the Shoulder of Mutton Hill, a hill so steep you can touch the ground in front of you as you "run" up it. It's tricky to even walk up it! Here's Marilyn having survived the ordeal:

Later Gill runs into picturesque Selborne:

And nearing the end, Annabelle has the look of relief that her work is all done, while Gill avoids my prying lens:


It's a fantastic day out. At 6 hours of running, you get all the good bits of ultra running (there are good bits to ultra running!) without the pain - less than 10 miles of running each, broken down in nice manageable, if intense, chunks.

I have one gripe though, about the tactics of another team. We were neck and neck with one of the other men's teams and it was becoming quite a race. As we waited at Alton they suggested taking a short cut to avoid the hill into Alton. I suggested this wasn't in the spirit of the race, but their reply was that they only had 2 proper runners and the rest were fun runners - their main aim was to raise money for the charity. I think we persuaded them that they should follow the prescribed route.

I set off ahead of their runner, but he soon overtook me, going at quite a pace. I lost him, but soon came upon another of their team whom I overtook heading uphill out of Alton. After a downhill section he caught me up again as we reached the field of rape. However, he didn't follow me into the field. Then I noticed another of their team ahead of me in the crop. What was going on? I nearly caught him, but he disappeared again. I ran to the changeover, asking about the guy ahead of me, but got puzzled looks: I was ahead of them. A short while later their baton arrived but I wasn't sure who was carrying it.

I later established they were running 3 runners for each leg, each doing only about 1 mile. This was because they were only 'fun runners'. So were we not doing it for fun? They said that they always finished last and made sure they didn't get an advantage from this method, waiting if they got ahead. It kind of takes the competition element out of it though! In any case, they didn't actually finish last. We beat them, but there was a men's team who got hopelessly lost and finished well behind them.

So that explained the multiple runners, but what route was their baton taking? There's no way the guy behind me could have got the baton to the guy ahead of me. I think the baton went by road to the changeover. I know their point was to have fun and raise money, but surely that was taking things a bit too far? It would have been nice to be able to race them on equal terms!

OK, I'll get off my soap box. I had a great time. I urge you all to do this event!

DK10K

I've been away for a few days with my folks, so a few catch up postings to do. Last Wednesday May 4th (Star Wars day - I hope I don't have to explain that one!) I did the DK10K road race.

I knew nothing of this race until online pal Plodding Hippo suggested I do it, knowing that it's local to where my folks live. I enquired of PH what DK10K was and back came the reply "Dudloi" - this amused me. DK10K is the Dudley Kingswinford 10k. Dudley may conjure up an image of the industrialised Black Country with its smoke and open cast mining, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Its name actually comes from the Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club where the race is based. It's quite a way from Dudley, located in Wall Heath, where the built up West Midlands gives way to the lush countryside of Shropshire.

The race is really well organised - the rugby club is the perfect venue with facilities aplenty. At over 1000 runners, it's the largest midweek race in the Midlands. The course undulates through some lovely countryside - completely rural. I'm in danger of sounding like a publicist at this point - it's a nice race!

I met up with Plodding Hippo before the race, and decided to run with her. I knew my pace was much quicker than hers and so this was an opportunity to save my legs for the relay race in 3 days' time (more on this in a subsequent posting) - I was in no mood for 2 full-on races so soon after the marathon. My race was spent chatting away at the back of the field - a pleasant way to spend a Wednesday evening.

Despite having chatted to PH often on the Runner's World forums (fora?), we'd never met. It was lovely to meet, chat, and put a face to a virtual pal. I enjoyed the race immensely and will definitely do it again. PH got near to her PB and didn't let any of the hilly bits stop her - not bad so soon after back to back marathons! Thanks PH for introducing me to a great race - see you in Cardiff!