Mr Pig presents...the do-it-yourself track session

Hi, Mr Pig here again with Susie's latest acquisition: a surveyor's wheel (purchased on eBay for £16), and a can of line-marking paint. She wanted to do a track session, but with the nearest track over 10 miles away, she decided to mark out the perimeter of the local cricket pitch with 100-metre markers.

I think she's taking this jogging thing way too seriously!

So tonight's session, on a perimeter of 387m, just shy of a 400m track, she did a session of 10*300m with an 87m walk recovery, followed by 5*100m sprints with a 100m walk back. The times were as follows:
300m reps:
74s
71s
70s
71s
70s
70s
71s
69s
70s
69s

69s is 6:10/mile

100m reps:
21s
21s
20s
19s
18s

18s is 4:49/mile - that's the fastest Susie has ever run!

Susie reckons she had a fun session, setting her up nicely for a 5000m track race next week. How is that fun? Sounds like hard work to me!

Weekly summary - 17 weeks to go

Wow, what a week! No racing, but boy did I do some training! The Tuesday hill run was seriously hilly: 500ft straight up Butser Hill and straight back down again - the Grand Old Duke of York session I think someone called it. That left my quads quite sore for the Thursday mile reps, but I ran them strongly. There then followed a slight blood sugar crisis as I failed to eat enough to replenish my glycogen stocks after the mile reps, but I recovered to run my strongest Sunday run yet: I kept my HR below 75% of max for the duration yet was touching 8:00/mile in the final miles - I just kept getting quicker through the run.

The Sunday run was only slightly marred by my Garmin Forerunner 305 glitching again. It seems it can't handle trees after it's been running 90 minutes - it loses reception and never regains it: I had to stop and reset it. It's done this to me at Boston and Isle of Wight marathons; before Sunday these were the only really long runs I'd done with the Garmin. I wish Garmin would answer my emails!

Sunday was finished with my first ever Sunday double: an evening short loosener of 4 gentle miles. I've started reading the autobiography of Dick Beardsley, the co-winner of the first London Marathon. He describes the second Sunday loosener as a 'shag run'.

So last week I hit my highest mileage post-Boston, did my first ever week with 4 doubles, my first Sunday double, and finished it all with a shag!

Monday	5.4 miles	Easy run
Tuesday	9.9 miles	am: 4 miles easy pm: Club run 5.9 miles ave HR 131bpm 76%maxHR	Ran up and down Butser Hill: 500ft climb. Splits: 8:36 7:27 12:41 7:11 8:36 8:17
Wednesday	6.4 miles	am: Easy run 9:01 118bpm
Thursday	11 miles	am: 4 miles easy pm:7 miles 4*1-mile reps 3 min rec	times: 6:59 7:01 6:57 7:05 max HR 151bpm
Friday	10 miles	am: 4 miles easy pm: 6 miles steady 8:52 117bpm
Saturday	5.5 miles	Steady run but pushed the pace a little	4th mile 8:24 121bpm, 5th 8:05 126bpm - pace looking good
Sunday	19.4 miles	am:15.4 miles steady 8:19 125bpm 72%maxHR pm: 4 miles easy	Was touching 8:00/mile for last few miles of long run - fastest yet for such a low HR
Total	67.6 miles

New marathon, new title

I was a bit cagey about what my target was for Boston. The truth is that I went into it with expectations of what I could run on the flat, and was left a little disappointed. It would have been nice to have got under 3:30, but with hindsight I did run a good marathon. I know I would have been well under 3:30 on a faster course. So head says "pleased", heart says "awww!".

This time round I'm not going to be so cagey about my aims.

I already have my 'Good For Age' (GFA) qualifying time for London 2007, but having watched this year's ladies' championships, and in particular the inspiring performance of Hilly, I have to try for a championship place.

So the plan is to get my GFA application in, but then try to upgrade it to a championship place by running under 3:15 at Abingdon in October.

I know this is ambitious, but my improvement has shown no sign of slowing yet. With each marathon I'm able to train harder and keep improving.

The plan this time round is to follow Mike Gratton's plan more closely. I will increase my mileage to maybe 80 miles per week, by adding more doubles. Initially I won't be doing the 20-mile weekend runs, or 15-mile midweek runs, but follow Mike's time based plan and keep to 2:00-2:30 at the weekend and 90 minutes midweek. The longer runs will get phased in later.

I've already started running early each morning before work. I used to struggle to do doubles, largely because it meant getting up more than an hour earlier to do the run. By getting up at the same time each day, the early mornings seem easier. It's then a matter of adding the evening runs for the doubles, which is not a problem.

With the summer upon us, I think I'm actually going to enjoy this!

2 week summary - 18 weeks to go

That's 18 weeks till the Abingdon Marathon last Sunday. I've been a bit behind blogging my training, but I'll try to do the weekly countdown summaries from here on in.

It's going to get serious!

Monday 5th June	5.5 miles	Easy run
Tuesday	11 miles	am: 4.2 miles easy pm: 6.8 miles 6*980m 2 min rec	Paces 7:06 6:47 6:52 7:03 6:58 6:55 max HR 153bpm
Wednesday	5.7 miles	Easy run
Thursday	9.3 miles	7.65 mile club handicap race. Equalled my PB: 59:58. HR 144bpm ave 83%maxHR - easy!	Very hot!
Friday	10.3 miles miles	am: 4.3 miles easy pm: 6 miles easy
Saturday	4.2 miles	Easy run
Sunday	6.5 miles	Purbrook ladies 5
Total	52.5 miles
Monday 12th June	5 miles	Easy run
Tuesday	11.4 miles	am: 4 miles easy pm: 7.4 miles club run	Middle mile (without gates and bridges) 7:38 141bpm, so still signs of improvement
Wednesday	6 miles	Easy run
Thursday	11 miles	am: 4 miles easy pm: 8*400m @ 5k pace 90sec jog recover	Times: 1:45 1:42 1:42 1:40 1:38 1:38 1:41 1:39, max HR 149bpm
Friday	9.4 miles	am:4.6 easy pm:4.8 steady	Club social run at Bucklers Hard - lovely!
Saturday	4.6 miles	Easy run
Sunday	6.2 miles	Brading 10k
Total	53.6 miles

Déja vu: Brading 10k

One year on: the Brading 10k in the same hellishly hot conditions of 2005. Four weeks on: the same interminable hill as I ran in the Isle of Wight Marathon, this time in kilometres 6 to 8, but rather drier and hotter than last time! It was rather comforting seeing the mile 23 and 24 marks on the road as I struggled up the hill with my head about to explode.

No hope of a PB today in the heat and hills, particularly as I'd had a heavy week of training with no taper for the race. I just hoped to run a good race and maybe beat Ruth and Richard.

I had a pretty good battle with Ruth all the way. She led for the first kilometre and then I took over, feeling quite strong before the heat started to take effect. Ruth caught me on the big hill at 7km, but I hung on to her fairly well. As we hit the downhill section with 2km to go I glided past her. I thought at first that was it, and I could push downhill to the finish. Alas once more my memory selectively deleted the final hill. That came as a bit of a surprise to find myself having to struggle back uphill near the finish. Ruth overtook me uphill once more and held the lead to the line.

I finished 15secs behind her and I think one place behind her: I don't think any other women overtook me. My unofficial time was 45:43: certainly not a PB, but 3 minutes quicker than last time in very similar heat, so I'll take that as a good result.

I paced OK, but as my heart rate dropped a beat or 2 in the last 2 kilometres, maybe I did go off a little quickly.

Richard ran well, running shoulder to shoulder with me to 6km, then pulling away uphill, towed along by Pete who overtook us at that point. No team scalps for me today!

Blogs are by their nature very ego-centric. I can report on how my race was run, but I'd like, one day, to be able to report how the team in general got on. I'd love to get my reporter's notebook out at the finish, but when you're standing there wobbling about, just trying to navigate to the water table, to compensate for that sun-dried-tomato feeling, doing your best Clark Kent is not at the forefront of your mind - and I'm not talking about that pants outside tights thing he does!. I did once spot a woman, in a changing room, wearing her pants outside her tights - do many people do this? - very strange. Perhaps you'd like to leave a comment, anonymous if necessary, if you do this. Another changing room event recently, was that I spotted my first ever fake pair of breasts as the woman in the shower next to me turned to enquire about which showers worked. I wondered if gravity had momentarily decided to give Havant a wide berth - quite extraordinary! Should I be confessing this in public?

Where was I? Ah yes - feedback at the finish seemed fairly positive, with most having reasonable runs given the heat. No notes were taken.

Our ladies team did well, with Ruth, myself and Amanda scoring for the A-team. Unfortunately we didn't manage to field a B-team, with just Carol and Nicola dependable as ever. Come on girls, where were you? - it was a lovely day for distance running! ;-)

I haven't seen the results yet to know how we did, but we gained promotion back to the premiership (I think that's what they call the first division these days); this being the last race of the Hampshire Road Race League 2005-2006 season . It would have been nice to beat Overton and win the division, but Overton fielded their full-strength team and I think we were somewhat outclassed!

Winchester ladies were as ever unstoppable, with Michaela McCallum, Karen Hazlitt and Emma Patel finishing 1, 2, 3. I'd chatted with another Winchester woman Shirley Dyson-Laurie, who thought she'd had a bad race, but then found out she'd broken the W55 course record - well done Shirley! To get a course record in that heat is very impressive (although I'm starting to think it's always this hot at Brading in mid-June!).

I confess to not knowing how the men got on apart from Pete and Richard finishing just ahead of me - I guess that's part of the ego-centric nature of race reporting when all you get is your little bubble of experience.

My little bubble was a very hot and tough place to be!

South Downs Marathon

Having run the Purbrook Ladies 5, I headed up to the South Downs Way to watch the gallant runners in the South Downs Marathon. I know how I felt with only 5 miles done, so hats off to the lot of you!

First home Dawn in around 3:42, after losing 10 minutes to navigation problems. Fantastic run Dawn!


A while later malcolm arrives, looking quite good!


...well maybe not!


Nick had a few problems with the heat en-route. I don't have the full story, but I believe he passed out! Well done for finishing Nick!


Team Victory:


And last but certainly not least, Ruth finishes yet another marathon. I've lost count but that might be 35 or 36 in the last 3 years? Phenomenal. Well done Ruth!

Soul running: The Purbrook Ladies 5

I stood on the start-line of the Purbrook Ladies 5 soul-less. 36 minutes away at the finish line, Gobi waited to steal my soul forever. I had given my soul to Gobi, hopefully temporarily, and if I did not get to the finish line in under 36 minutes his jar of souls would be one to the better forever. Nothing like spicing up a foot race then!

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about: http://www.fetcheveryone.com provides the answers. This wonderful site where runners can log their training and racing, chat, swap training details and even bet on PBs(!), has occasional 'events'. This time around it's "Run for your soul", celebrating, if that's the word, the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year. It's fiendishly simple. You pledge to run a race within a week of 6/6/06, stating your anticipated finish time. You give your soul to Gobi, run your race, and if you beat your time you get your soul back. Fail and be eternally damned!

"But who is Gobi?", I hear you ask. Some say his feet never touch the ground when he runs. Others say they smell lavender and jasmine when he farts. Some claim he had his horns removed at age 6. Perhaps more reliably it is reported that Gobi is running the Comrades Marathon next week: 90km of hellishly hot, humid and hilly running - how appropriate!

Actually that description would describe the Purbrook Ladies 5 quite well; perhaps not quite Comrades Marathon standards but hot and hilly enough for me!

I soaked myself in cold water, lined up 2nd row back behind Shona Crombie-Hicks, and we were away.

Shona was Scotland's representative, with Hayley Haining, at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games marathon. It's always an honour to run with such quality - I still had her in sight a whole half a mile in! I wonder who's going to win?

I was running in around 10th place feeling comfortable, but knew that this relaxed cool feeling wasn't going to last long. In fact it lasted a mile, before Gobi, realising that I was well ahead of 36 minute pace, stoked up the furnaces a bit.

Things were going well though as I passed a runner or 2. I passed Cheryl who'd finished a place behind me in the Isle of Wight marathon 3 weeks ago. I wonder how her legs felt? Mine were feeling pretty good!

With the heat though I had to resist the temptation to slow down. I was beating Gobi still but now I sensed an evil cackle or 2 as he put a few more coals in the fire.

At 3 miles I approached a Gosport runner who was walking up the first of the steep uphills. I'd soon overtake her as I powered along. Maybe she heard me, but she picked up her pace and kept her distance. Maybe this wasn't going to be so easy.

At the next hill she started walking again. This time surely? No - she powered away at the top of the hill. Is this advanced technique?

Gobi was now looming large in my race as I looked at my watch and realised the impact of the hills. I had trees for cover though - you haven't got me yet Gobi!

Final hill: same story with Gosport lady, but now this is me versus Gobi. I just need to push hard and Gobi will be grovelling at my feet. What's this? Cheering crowds? They must know that I have Gobi in retreat. I feel strong as I fly down the last hill, knowing the finish is just up the next rise and round the corner. Ah yes, I forgot about that hill!

"Go Susie" shouts Kevin. I feel powerful as I push hard up the incline. There's the finish, push, push. There's the clock! Oops!

I should have known from the howls of booming fiendish laughter that my calculations were off. I looked down at my Garmin: 5.01 miles. 36:45. Oh dear!

Erm, about that soul of mine Gobi: can I have it back please? Let me give some reasons why I should have it returned:

A PB by 40 seconds - under the circumstances I'm pleased with that.

7th place - I'm very pleased with that!

1st over-40 prize - even more pleased with that! Prize money too!

1st vet's team - really really pleased with that. Gina did a fantastic job in 3rd, and Marilyn seemed completely unaffected by the heat a minute or 3 behind me. Wine!

Pretty please Gobi?



The winner: Shona Crombie-Hicks.


To the victors the spoils: the Victory vet winos.

Training Summaries: Boston to IOW and up to present

I realise I missed out the final week of taper before the Isle of Wight marathon, so here is my total 5 week program between Boston and Isle of Wight, with the last week details. All runs easy/steady unless stated:

rest
rest
rest
rest
rest
rest week 1 - 0 miles
rest
7.8
4.5
4.7
5
4.8
9.5 week 2 - 35.3 miles
5
4/6.3 fartlek
5.9
6.8 8*400m@10k
5
6
14 week 3 - 53 miles
5
7 hard tempo
6
9.3 club race mara pace
5.8
5
10 Alton 10 , >mara pace. week 4 - 48miles
5
6
5
5.3
4.4
rest
26.2 marathon effort Kenyan hills session. week 5 - 52 miles incl marathon

...and so to the last 2 weeks post IOW. It's all feeling remarkably good. I feel so much better than after Boston. I even did a hard speed session last Thursday, only 11 days after the marathon - I've never felt good enough to attempt that before!

Monday	Rest
Tuesday	Rest	am: Massage
Wednesday	4.3 miles	Easy run	Some adductor tightness afterwards, but felt remarkably fine!!
Thursday	Rest	Sat out and spectated the club short handicap race
Friday	5.2 miles	Easy pace	can't believe how much better I feel than after Boston!
Saturday	Rest
Sunday	7 miles	Easy club run	Adductor tightened a bit on a fast downhill section, but OK afterwards
Total	16.5 miles
Monday	4.5 miles	Easy run	Feeling quite tired, perhaps understandably
Tuesday	6.4 miles	Club run, keeping it controlled sub-marathon pace.	Felt hard but last mile was 7:35 for only 132bpm - a pace breakthrough?
Wednesday	5.4 miles	Easy run	Windy!
Thursday	6.4 miles	Intervals! 10*300m @ 3k 6:24 + 5*100m sprint	Ran the session against the garmin - tricky to get the pacing right - better to do it by feel. Surprised by the pace of the last sprint! 5:18/mile, although actually about 600m pace on MacMillan so not as fast as I first thought
Friday	5.1 miles	Easy pace 9:02 119bpm	Hot!
Saturday	6.2 miles	Easy run	Hot and hilly Shropshire countryside
Sunday	11.5 miles	Steady run	Even hotter and hillier Shropshire countryside - temp pushed my HR up higher than i should have let it go - over 130bpm for 2nd half
Total	45.5 miles

May total mileage

May total mileage: 186 miles

Year to date total: 1128 miles

A higher mileage this month despite the IOW marathon. My legs are in far better shape than after Boston and so I've been able to get back quicker. I'll start ramping up the mileage again now, so expect a high mileage month ahead (although with 2 short weekend races it probably won't be as high as my March peak).