From Hell

I had the worst training run ever tonight.

The plan was to run home, so I caught the bus in to work. My back was still aching from yesterday, but it seemed better and as it hadn't caused me a problem during yesterday's run, I figured it would be OK. It didn't get any better during the day, but seemed no worse than at times in the past, and as it usually eases off during the run, I thought I'd be OK.

I set off to rumbles of thunder - not a good sign! I was uncomfortable - not in any real pain, but a very stiff back and a rather tight feeling in the hamstring. After 2 miles it hadn't eased, and with the continued rumbles and flashes, I decided it was prudent to stick to the main route short cut and not venture into the remoter parts of the marshes I was running across - partly to cut the mileage down, and partly to avoid being caught in a thunderstorm miles from assistance.

My back was not getting any better and my hamstring still felt kind of tight. Now my stomach decided to chip in. I've been suffering a bit with irritable bowel lately during high mileage - not serious but enough to cause some stomach cramps. I now found myself looking for a suitable loo stop, but unfortunately everywhere was either too public or too nettled. It was touch and go, but I decided I'd try to make it to the public loos at 6 miles.

Then, as I got to within half a mile of the loos, it felt like my hamstring went. It was a sharp tingly pain down the back of my leg. I suspected it was sciatica caused by a trapped nerve in my back, but I wasn't going to risk continuing - I had no choice but walk. Fortunately, there was no pain walking, but it meant a longer wait for the loo. Finally I made it. No loo paper! Fortunately I had some tissues with me. All was well and I continued on my way.

I was still 4 miles from home - I'd only done 6.5 miles of the planned 13. I was OK walking but every time I tried running, the pain returned. I carried on for a while, but now it started to rain more heavily. I passed a bus stop and noticed the next bus was due - 18:20. I decided to wait for the bus.

I stood there in the now torrential rain, with flashes of lightning all around. I was getting cold, but it wasn't too bad. After 10 minutes, I checked the timetable again - I'd mis-read it! What I hadn't noticed under the "20 minutes past the hour" was the next part of the timetable: "until 18:05". The next bus wasn't due until 18:35. It was still worth waiting though, as I was still over an hour from home. At 18:45 it finally arrived to pick up one drowned rat injured runner. Aaagh!!! It was the wrong bus!

I should explain that due to the geographical peculiarities of where I live, there are 2 buses which alternate down the common part of the route, and then split into a loop, one bus going clockwise and the other going anti-clockwise. Both buses get me home, but this one was going to take an extra 20 minutes to get me home. I verified this fact with the driver and boarded - I had no choice. It would have been quicker to have not waited but carried on walking though!

I got chatting with another passenger and confirmed that the expected bus had never arrived, and this one was effectively 40 minutes late. There were a lot of disgruntled passengers. He could see I was soaked, and offered me a jumper - what a gent! I wasn't cold though, so politely declined.

I suspect the driver had overheard our conversation about the missing bus. As we got to the point where the 2 routes separate, rather than turn left as would be expected for the number on the front of the bus, it went straight on - the expected route given the time of day. I was quite happy about this, as were a lot of passengers, but there were equal numbers of rather angry passengers who realised they were now going to get home 20 minutes later than expected. A passenger got up to complain to the driver, who confessed he'd made a mistake with the number on the front. The argument continued as I got to my stop and left them to it. Home at last!

My back actually feels not too bad now, particularly after applying ice. I think the hamstring problem was sciatica, so hopefully this won't set me back.

I hope I don't have a run like that again!

Weekly Summary - 15 weeks to go

I thought I'd start doing weekly summaries, like I did for London.

As I write this my back hurts and I'm not looking forward to tonight's 13 miler. Last week, the week I'm summarising, went really well though, despite some quite hot runs. Hope my back gets better - it's usually just tight muscles in my lower back for a few days and then I'm fine.

I'll blog some more details of the schedule later.

Monday	Rest
Tuesday	10.3 miles	Slow/steady club run	Lovely countryside, but a bit hot!
Wednesday	6 miles	Easy recovery
Thursday	11 miles	Slow	Very hot and humid!
Friday	5 miles	Easy recovery	Damp - the day Glastonbury got flooded
Saturday	16.5 miles	Slow	Tried to eat a flapjack while running - big mistake! Bad stitch!
Sunday	0 miles	Gym session - general weights plus rowing, cycle, cross-trainer
Total	48.8 miles

Brading 10k

There I was standing on the start line in a speedway stadium on the Isle of Wight, and all I could think about was "Man it's hot!". No thoughts on pacing or race strategy, just how to keep cool. With hindsight, having seen 2 people being treated for heat stroke by the Red Cross people at the finish, a team-mate included, giving some thought to cooling was a wise move. I was wearing next to nothing - always a good start - not quite Paula standards, but not far off - I draw the line at those racing briefs she wears, but I like my crop tops. I had already covered myself in sunblock - apart from being a good thing health-wise, this also has the effect of reflecting the sun's energy and keeping you cool. Finally I'd already emptied half a bottle of Evian over myself, and had the other half of the bottle ready to tip over myself just before the start. No point in drinking it, as I was already well hydrated and tend to get stitch if I drink before a race - in fact as a result of the extra fluid I'd taken on half an hour earlier, I got stitch during the race anyway!

I had of course given some thought to pacing. Unlike Purbrook the previous week, I was wearing my Garmin GPS, although more so that I'd have the route on my computer afterwards, rather than as a pacing device - the hills would make pacing by GPS a bit tricky. (As an aside, I have this really cool, and cheap, Trailgauge program http://www.trailgauge.co.uk/ which does 3D fly-throughs of the data you load from your Garmin. Great for course visualisation - next year I'll be able to replay the route in 3D to remind me where all those nasty hills are. )

I was also wearing my heart rate monitor, which, unlike Purbrook where I'd masked the readout, I would definitely be watching. With the heat, it is especially important to keep heart rate down to sensible levels - in fact the same levels I would normally run a 10k at. After the hot weather, 2 years ago, I'm well used to the effects of heat on heart rate. For a given pace I was seeing as much as a 10bpm increase in heart rate. This is because blood is being diverted from the muscles to the skin in order to cool you. To get the same pace you have to run a higher heart rate as the heart is working harder to pump more blood around. Of course, at race pace, where you are already working at maximum, slowing down is the only option. Going off at a higher heart rate will result in exactly the same result as in cooler weather - you will fade badly at the end of the race. A note to those using heart rate monitors to train with: in hot weather you must maintain the same heart rates you would train at in cool weather - your muscles are having to operate on a reduced blood supply and you must slow to compensate, or you won't recover properly - it's still heart rate that measures intensity, not pace.

So, back at the race, let me describe my final piece of pacing equipment. Last week I had the useful Bety device (see my Purbrook blog entry), this week I had a Malcolm - a most useful piece of equipment. Malcolm is our club chairman. I've noticed in recent months, as my training progresses, that I've caught him up in pace terms. I managed to post a marathon time in London 10 minutes quicker than he managed in the Shakespeare marathon. I know we are more closely matched over 10k, so figured I could maybe use him for pacing, perhaps even beat him, for the first time in a head-to-head race?

So there we were on the start line, with me just behind Malcolm, and we were off round the speedway track and out onto the country lanes of the Isle of Wight for a hellish cauldron of a run.

I felt fine at first, running comfortably at quite a brisk pace, but after 1km of gentle uphill I started to heat up and knew I was going to have to drop my pace a bit. I think this is a different situation to going off too quickly. Normally haring off and having to slow would be bad pacing, from an oxygen debt point of view, but in these circumstances of being cool at the start and quickly heating up, I think starting a little quicker is OK. (Maybe someone can confirm this?) Anyway I decided it would be prudent to let Malcolm go on a little way and pay attention to what my HRM was telling me.

Despite the heat, the first few kilometres didn't seem too bad, particularly as I knew it was a net downhill to the drinks station. In fact the half way point came up quite soon, and I made sure I got a full cup of water down me and another cup over me, before the dreaded climb. I knew about the 2km drag uphill from the drinks station, having studied the course profile, and talked the race through with others. Malcolm had suggested that we would probably be fairly close together at half way, but as I was no good with hills, then he'd power away from me up the hill. I was inclined (pun!) to agree with him. At half way he was about 100m ahead of me and I prepared to watch him pull away as we started the climb.

At the start of the climb I passed John, who was to suffer badly with the heat later on and need attention from the medical people - little did I know as I passed him. I was overtaken by a couple of runners 'attacking' the hill. You really can't attack something 2km long! I soon passed them as they ran out of steam (or maybe they were actually generating too much steam, given the heat?). Malcolm was still there just ahead of me - he wasn't getting away. Maybe I'm not as bad at hills as he reckons?

At the top of the climb, I had definitely closed on Malcolm. Could I catch him? It was becoming quite a mental battle now in the final 3km - boy I was hot! At least it was mostly downhill from now on - terrain, rather than physical condition I hoped! I'd been practising downhill technique so I hoped I might have the edge. (Competitive moi?) Lean forward. Increase cadence. Keep light on the feet - don't dig your heels in.

It worked! I caught Malcolm, stayed with him a moment to check how I felt, and then pressed on downhill past him.

There was now just a nasty little uphill bit before re-entering the stadium for a lap of the track and the finish line. I pushed hard up the hill, vaguely aware of Malcolm behind me, and desperate to stay ahead. As I rounded the corner into the stadium, it felt like my head was going to explode. It was now just down to force of will to keep going and not give in to either the heat or Malcolm. There was the line, but there was still a lap of the track to go. I summoned every last drop of energy, but still I could hear Malcolm just over my shoulder. As I rounded the last bend towards the final straight, I could hear him getting closer and closer. I was running strongly, but couldn't keep him off. His finishing speed was just too good for me. As we joined the finish straight, with only 100m to go, he passed me!

I watched as the red vest powered down the straight. Red vest? Our team is pale blue! Where's Malcolm?

I crossed the line 15 seconds ahead of Malcolm. I'd beaten him! All Malcolm had been able to do was watch me power away, racing another runner round the track. I love this running stuff!

It took me lots of cups of water, plenty of sponging, and a spell lying on my back being hosed by a team mate, but eventually I felt well enough to pace Margaret around the track for her run in - possibly an illegal move, but no one seemed to mind. We got 2 men's teams in and a women's team, to keep the league scoring going. Job done!

I came in at 48:52, 6 seconds outside a PB. Considering the conditions, I'm quite pleased with that.

Now let's get down to some serious marathon training!

A tip for lost drivers

Car drivers: here's a tip if you're lost and are looking for directions to the local BUPA hospital. If you have a choice between the rather uncouth pedestrian, and the runner wearing a pacing device on one wrist, heart rate monitor on the other wrist, a purposeful expression on her face, and a good turn of speed, pick the pedestrian! If you do stop the runner, at least do her the courtesy of not referring to her craft as jogging. Regardless of such potential misdemeanour, bear in mind that even though she may appear quite polite, as you drive off she will be cursing and swearing at you for interrupting her session, and is likely then to slag you off on her blog that evening.

Purbrook Ladies 5

37:26. 16th place overall and 6th over 40. Very pleased!

I ran this without GPS and without looking at my heart rate monitor - I put masking tape over the heart rate read out. Mind you I had a very useful gadget with me - Bety! That's not her actual name, but that's how she appeared in the results. 'Bety' and I ran the whole way, both unsure of the pace, but we both had really good PB runs. Bety pulled away from me up the last hill, as I faded slightly, but despite what I thought was a clear gap between us we were both given the same finish time. Thankyou Bety!

There are some quite hilly bits to cope with. This was one reason I decided to go by feel rather than telemetry. Pacing is a problem, as there is no way you can run the whole thing at even pace. There are a couple of mean drags up hills in the last 2 miles and very few flat bits. To beat my PB by over 4 minutes, then, is extremely pleasing - a vindication of my base training method. That's nearly a minute/mile pace improvement in 18 months. I'm not seeing any sign of a plateau, so long may it continue.

The event is a really nice friendly event. I've had some stick from male friends about the need for women's events, but I think they work well. For the slow runners, there isn't the fear of placing at the rear of the field, although someone of course always has to finish last. For the faster runners (me!), you can start well up the field knowing you are competing equally with those around you. It's nice to feel competitive!

It was a good day for it. After starting cloudy, a mile later the sun came out, and stayed with us for the remainder of the race. OK, maybe a tad warm, but you can't have everything! The shade of the trees while running the last of the big uphill sections was very welcome.

The only detraction, was a rogue dog half way round. I'm sure the collie thought it was being playful, but the runner ahead of us wasn't so impressed. The dog was jumping up her back clawing at her shoulders. I think she was quite frightened. Once it had had enough and came bounding at us, I tried shouting loudly and aggressively for it to get down, but it didn't seem to make much difference. The only effect was it had more of a go at Beth (that's her name in case you hadn't guessed) than me. Fortunately it gave up on us as a marshal came running up, presumably to try to restrain it. Dogs have been a feature of my running lately!

I think my pace judgement was OK, but I did fade a little up the last hill. As stats are a feature of this blog, here they are:

Mile	split	ave HR
1	7:07	146
2	7:25	153
3	7:41	155
4	7:35	156
5	7:38	155

My HR dropped a bit in the last mile as I couldn't quite keep pushing so hard, but I paced it quite well, particularly as it got hillier as the race went on. Maybe the first was a tad quick though?

A good day at the office as they say!

The barefoot Sith

I read an interesting article yesterday: Josh McDougal Is A Perfect Example Of What Is Wrong With High School Track by John Raucci. In it, John puts forward a number of ideas, 2 of which caught my eye: barefoot running and nasal breathing. He is also a big proponent of aerobic training, which, if you've been following this blog, you'll know I'm already a convert to.

I had a gentle day today, ahead of the Purbrook Ladies 5 race tomorrow, so I thought I'd put a couple of ideas to the test.

Breathing. It's an interesting idea John has about nasal breathing. He says that we don't breathe properly, we tend to breathe too shallowly and have a tendency to hyperventilate. By breathing only through the nose, he says that the oxygen exchange is better, we breathe more deeply, we are more relaxed, and ultimately we run better, which is, let's face it, what most of us are after. Conversely he says that it slows improvement - I don't quite follow that one - is that meant to be a good thing?

As I was reading his article, I tried at first simply shutting my mouth and breathing through my nose. Even sitting in the chair relaxed, I found this hard to do and felt like I was suffocating. As I read on though, he talked about breathing like Darth Vader. The penny dropped! I think what he is referring to, I've seen elsewhere called Yoga breathing - breathing from the diaphragm. When trying to mimic Darth Vader, you are exhaling from the back of your throat - it feels like you are breathing out through your mouth, which you clearly aren't as you have your mouth tight shut. It's weird! If you think about breathing through your nose, your breath is shallow and the air comes whistling out of your nostrils. You don't seem to be able to get enough air in and out. Think Darth Vader, and it feels like you are breathing direct from your throat - no air seems to be coming from your nose - no whistling, yet your mouth is shut. You have to pinch your nose to convince yourself that air really is exiting your nostrils.

It appears that there is more than one nasal pathway. I need to check an anatomy book for that one, but I think that is secondary to the real effect of breathing like Darth Vader. What I realised I was doing was breathing with my diaphragm. For some reason Lord Vader had got me using my stomach muscles to breath. I described this to my piano teacher this morning, and she confirmed this. She teaches clarinet and voice, and the importance of proper breathing is something that is taught early on. To make best use of your lungs you must breath with the diaphragm.

For my run this morning, I thought I'd give the nasal breathing a try.

The first, and quite strange, effect I noticed is how much slower you breath. This is something John Raucci mentioned and I didn't fully understand when reading the article. I think because you are limited in the rate at which you can draw in air, you are forced to breath much deeper, using the diaphragm, and so your breathing is long and drawn out. Whereas normally I'd be breathing in and out every 2 or 3 paces (depending on the speed I was running), with nasal breathing I was breathing in over 4 paces and out over 4 paces - almost half the rate. I have to say though that it will take some getting used to. I found that every few minutes I had to breathe through my mouth to settle myself. John says it takes a while to adapt.

Will I adopt this? Probably not. However, I have read in several other publications the importance of proper breathing - breathing with the diaphragm, belly breathing, yoga breathing, call it what you will. Nasal breathing, Darth Vader style, appears to be a good way of teaching you to breath deeply. I may not take it to the extreme that John describes, but there are elements there that I may be able to usefully incorporate into my running.

I'm curious to see whether I can control stitch this way. I do seem to suffer from stitch a lot. I have had some success in controlling stitch by trying to breath from my diaphragm, but have never quite cracked the technique. Maybe this method may prove useful in my continued battle against that particular part of the 'Dark Side'.


Also today, I tried a touch of barefoot running for the first time. I've seen this mentioned a lot lately and John's well written article finally convinced me to give it a go.

I'm lucky enough to have my own beach. Well actually I have to share it with several thousand other locals, and many thousands more of what we like to call 'grockles'. Fortunately, they don't tend to all turn up at once, and this morning I only had to share my particular bit with 4 others. I found what looked like the perfect bit of hard sand to run on. I took off my shoes and in glorious sunshine ran along the wet sand next to a crystal sea.

Ouch!

Unfortunately, even the sandiest smoothest bit has rather too many sharp stones mixed in. I managed about 200m before I gave up. I then had to try to get all the sand off my feet, to avoid sandpapering the skin off inside my shoes and socks, for the run back home. It took ages to get my feet clear of sand. Eventually I got my shoes back on comfortably and it was back to the park for plan B.

I did a lap of the cricket pitch. This seemed enough for now. Fortunately dog owners seem to respect the park in the summer, well most of them anyway. I managed to avoid the only pile I could see. In the winter the state of the grass is appalling. How can dog owners let their dogs foul a park, where children play, and not clean up? My fear of running in the park is that my feet will end up in the same mess my shoes usually get in. Fortunately things seem somewhat better in the summer.

I could certainly feel that my feet had had a workout. Wearing rigid orthotics, my feet are probably worse than most in not getting their muscles working properly. I'll try to introduce more barefoot sessions and see how they go. I might try a pair of Nike Free to make barefoot sessions more practical, although I realise they have a heel and cushioning and so aren't really true barefoot shoes.

It is quite liberating running barefoot on cool grass! Running as it was meant to be. I just wish we had more days of the sunshine I enjoyed this morning.


Tomorrow I have the aforementioned 5 mile race, which I'm going to race flat out. I think I'm going to see a PB by a large margin, as it's 18 months since I last raced 5 miles. I'm leaving off my GPS, and though I'm wearing my heart rate monitor to record splits, I'm going to try to ignore it, or put tape over the read out. It's a bit of an experiment to see how well I can judge my pace. I hope I don't get it horribly wrong!

It's a mini adventure

I don't know how many rats you'd consider a fair share? 4 or 5? Whatever the number, I had more than my fair share of rats last night. Mind you, I'm OK with them, lovely scuttly little creatures that they are. It's when they are in a cage placed over your head, gnawing at your flesh, that I object. Maybe I've been watching too many Orwellian reality TV shows lately?

I digress. Last night was a first for me - I ran home from work. I witnessed nature in the raw: rats as previously mentioned, fluffy bunnies, birds of prey, picnickers, but fortunately none of the brown-tail moth caterpillars which the signs warned me of - nasty rash!

A new cycle path has been opened, which crosses the northern flank of a nature reserve between work and home. This means I can now run home almost entirely off road. It's a journey of 10 miles with an option to add some extra miles around the south of the reserve, so ideal for the medium-long midweek run.

I loved the pioneering feel of 'opening a new route east', but I have to confess I've cycled across the reserve before. There's always been a footpath, but prior to the cycle path there was a notice that "mother's with pushchairs and bicycles are not permitted in the nature reserve". This sign was wrong on so many counts. I ignored the blatant sexism, and cycled past it, inevitably meeting the warden. I informed him that I was not a mother, and in any case only had a bicycle. He was not amused; definitely not a fan of grammar or intellectual discourse thereon. He seemed more concerned that my bright blue bicycle and dayglo pink top were not appropriate attire for the marshes. Warden or fashion police? Eventually I won my case that as I was already half way across, he may as well let me continue to the other side, but he was not happy. I notice that the sign has now gone!

The new path is smooth Tarmac, surprisingly, although I may try the old footpath next time and add a mile or 2 of true off-road. It's a very pleasant run. Although you are in earshot of a motorway, you don't see a car the entire way. I love doing point to point runs. It seems to add purpose to the run, and there's the adventure of not having the option to bottle out half way along.

With my schedule calling for longer and longer midweek runs, this could become a regular feature of my training.

Speeding

Today is my first rest day in a fortnight, and boy do I need it! I've never run 13 days in a row before, so there's a first, but I really have to be careful as I've thrown too many ingredients into the pot in recent weeks.

Here's the main reason I feel tired:

Yes, speedwork! The first proper speed session for well over a year. Up till now I've been base training, keeping it strictly aerobic, working on aerobic capacity and running economy. With a 5mile race next weekend, and a 10k race the following weekend, I've been doing a little sharpening work to try to give my best in those two races. At the same time I've been building back up to 50miles/week in readiness to start the training plan for Cardiff in 18 weeks time. Yesterday I did 15 miles, 2 days after the above session, and felt a bit tired.

You can't have it all! If I'd already been doing 50 miles/week and was then adding in the speed, I'm sure I'd cope. However, I've only just built back up to the high mileage after London, and I know I have to be careful. My legs are OK, but I know I'm close to what they can take, with some tight muscles. I have another massage tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what the physio thinks - I don't think she was too impressed last time!

Next week, I'm supposed to be starting my marathon schedule, but with the two races, I'll be following it in spirit rather than to the letter, at least for the first few weeks. I'll post more on the schedule later. It seems quite challenging, with some long mid-week runs, but I'm sure that will make the weekend long runs easier. I've always found the weekends tough, when done as part of a high mileage schedule. With the mileage spread more evenly throughout the week, I hope it will be easier, provided I can find the time for all the runs.

18 weeks to Cardiff, but my focus next week is very much the Purbrook Ladies 5. I really want to do a good time on what is quite a tricky course. Fingers crossed!

A technical note regarding the speed session. I did 8 600m reps with a 75sec recovery. My pace was between 6:45/mile and 7:00/mile, which is roughly 3k-5k pace. I have no doubt that this was anaerobic speedwork - it felt like it - but in fact my heart rate never went over my lactate threshold of 155bpm. I point this out to illustrate the problems of using heart rate monitors for interval work - you can't! They're only useful for monitoring lactate levels in steady running. It is important not to run interval sessions too quickly as it becomes counter productive. Using a heart rate monitor to pace your intervals will mean you go off too quickly then slow down. Far better is to use feel and a stop watch. The best advice I've seen is to finish strongly as if you could easily manage a few more reps, but what pace will achieve this? 'Experience' is an easy answer, but easier is to use a GPS unit, such as the Garmin Forerunner, and a pace table. I've found the following link very helpful in this respect: Greg McMillan's running calculator. I find the times it gives correspond very well with my race times and what I find 'feels right'. Hope you find it as useful as I do.