South West University Champs, Milan Half and 400 miles of cycling!

I’ve had quite an active four weeks since I last put up a blog. This has included an 400/800/1500m triple at the inaugural South West University Champs, a decent run at the Milan Half Marathon and then a 400 mile cycle through the Alps! So let’s start with the South West Champs, which feels like a very long time ago now being back on March 25th. This was the first running of the event, yet Cardiff University brought a 30 strong team down to Exeter Arena’s newly-laid track. Being only three days after my 67:19 at the Reading Half I decided to opt out of the 5000m in favour of an 800/1500 double. The 1500m was up first and, despite my legs still suffering from the 13.1 miles in racing flats, I thought I had a good shot of ratifying my three year old PB of 4:05. Unfortunately it was not to be. After an overly-ambitious opening lap of 62s it inevitably all went down-hill. Still, I was happy enough with my finishing time of 4:08, especially considering the complete lack of any 1500m paced training since before Christmas. Next I demonstrated my complete lack of any fast-twitch muscle fibers with a very average 2:05.7 800m, before stepping down even further to run a leg for our our hastily assembled B team in the 4x400m relay. Luckily we didn’t get our individual splits back, as I’m not convinced I went under 60 seconds!

Cardiff 4×4 B Team

Another four days later and I was back into my comfort zone as I stood on the startline of the Milan Half Marathon, again joined by many other Cardiff Uni athletics team mates. Despite this being the 5th race in a week I thought I’d recovered quite well, and was fully ready to take advantage of the pancake-flat course. Unfortunately I was wrong! Before even reaching the first Km marker I knew it was going to be a tough day! My breathing was completely fine, however my calves were screaming. Luckily though I managed to keep a clear head and set off at much more conservative pace than I had in Reading a week previously. I was also very lucky in finding myself settled in a good group of runners, where we all took turns at the front to help maintain the groups pace. In the end I managed a pretty consistent race with 5K splits of 16:03, 15:44, 15:58 and 16:12 which gave me a finishing time of 67:30. I’m 100% sure that if I’d been properly rested then I could have taken a modest chunk of my 66:47 PB which is a good confidence booster.

Milan Half Marathon- 16th in 67:30

And so after a packed week of racing it was time for a break from running. Seeing as we still had some Easter break left, myself and fellow runner Owen Haswell had previously decided we’d make the most of the opportunity of being out in Milan by going for “a little cycle ride”. Starting from Milan we spent six days riding through the Italian, Swiss and French Alps to our final destination of Lyon. I think it’s fair to say the trip was a little tougher than we expected, but we both still had a great time and saw some pretty spectacular views!

Not a bad view overlooking Lake Bourget, France

After this nice “break” I’m now back into my normal training. The first run after spending all that time on the bike was more than a little odd. My legs just wanted to keep going around in circles! Thankfully I’m back into the swing of things and with a bit of luck I’ll be in peak shape for the 10,000m at the British University Champs (BUCS) on the 3rd of May. Below is an outline of my training since returning to the UK.

 

Thu 8th- 8 miles steady

Fri 9th- 6 miles easy

Sat 10th- AM 8 miles easy, PM 6 miles easy

Sun 11th- A hilly 17 miles steady (5:50/mile), PM Gym

12/04/15

Mon- AM 5 miles easy, PM 5 miles easy

Tue- AM 4 miles easy, PM 6×3 minutes on grass with 60s recovery

Wed- AM 5 miles easy, PM 4 miles easy then Gym

Thu- AM 4 miles with 5x20s sprints, PM 12 miles easy

Friday- 2M in 9:49 (was going for 3x2M but too tired)

Saturday- Rest

Sunday- Hilly 15 miles easy (6:20/m)

20/04/15

Mon- AM 4 miles easy, PM 4 miles easy

Tue- AM 2 x 5K with 3 minutes recovery (15:52. 15:52), PM Gym

Rebuilding

So quite scarily 2015 is now upon us, and once again I must apologise for the lapse in my blogging. The main reason for this has unfortunately been due to injury and I didn’t think that a mopy post about how I couldn’t run would be either interesting or exciting! Luckily I now seem to be on the mend and although feeling quite unfit I have been able to run for the last three weeks, albeit at a much reduced volume. The plan now is, just as the title of this post suggests, to steadily build my training back up again, with a longer term view of being in the best possible shape for the BUCS Outdoor Champs in early May. More immediately however I’ll be competing in the South West XC Champs on the 4th of Jan which should give me a nice indicator of where I’m at in terms of race fitness. From there I think it’ll just be a matter of getting in the miles and using the huge number of races that there are at this time of the year to drag me back to my peak. Anyhow, we’ll see how it goes, and here’s to 2015 being another fantastic year!

15/12/14

Monday- AM Gym, PM 30 mins on treadmill at 6:00/mile + 10 mins on cross trainer

Tuesday- AM Gym, PM 30 mins on treadmill at 5:50/mile + 10 mins on cross trainer

Wednesday- 30 mins on treadmill at 6:00/mile

Thursday- 10 mins @6:00/mile, 20@5:30/mile, 10@6:00/mile on treadmill

Friday- AM Gym, PM 7.2 miles steady

Saturday- Rest

Sunday- Rest

29 miles total

22/12/14

Monday- 3.7 miles steady

Tuesday- 8x50s hills with jog back recovery

Wednesday- 25 minutes steady + 4x10s hill sprints

Thursday- steady run including 4x90s hills with jog back recovery

Friday- 35 minutes steady

Saturday- 5×2 minutes uphill with 60s recovery

Sunday- Rest

31 miles total

29/12/14

Monday- AM 30 minutes steady, PM 25 minutes easy

Tuesday- 5×3 minutes with 60s recovery

Wednesday- AM 40 minutes steady, PM 30 minutes easy

Thursday- New years day “Brown Willy Run” which I treated as a long tempo run (~7 miles)

Friday- Rest

Saturday- 40 minutes easy + drills and strides

Sunday- South West XC Champs

56 miles total

Thursday-

The streak of good races had to end somewhere I suppose!

So after months ago deciding to make the Euro XC Trials my main focus for the Autumn, when it finally came around I had a shocker of a race! To start off with everything was going to plan. Never one for fast starts I managed to get off the line in a reasonable position, and over the next lap and a half I steadily progressed through the field. I was picking off quite a few good scalps but when it really started to hurt, at the beginning of the third and final lap, my head just wasn’t quite in it. I knew I still had more to give, but I had begun to daydream, and in such competitive race I soon started to drift back down the field. It got to the point where I just didn’t care that known rivals were continuously passing me. I’d run out of fight and simply wanted to get to the finish line. I reckon I lost at least 30 places on that last lap which gave me a final position of 82nd. Certainly not the sort of result I was looking for (or expected!) going into the race.

Although I definitely did not give a full account of myself in the race, I also feel I’ve lost a little of the fitness that I had a few weeks ago. It’s been four weeks since my last real good week of training (89 miles), with hamstring troubles, recovering from the Leeds 10K and then not wanting to do too much before Liverpool resulting in a meagre weekly average of 50 miles for the last month. And unfortunately it wasn’t just mileage I was lacking, but also any truly good quality sessions.

However now it’s time to move on! Although I do have a couple of races left before the new year, Liverpool was the last “big one” and to be honest I’m very glad. I’ve got about an eight week gap now until the next serious competition (the BUCS XC Champs), and I’m really looking forward to getting back to the grindstone and getting in some good consistent weeks of training. 2014 was a fantastic year in terms of my running and I far exceeded my own high expectations. The most exciting part for me is that I know I still have a lot more progress I can make!

Not going too badly at this point! (1056)

17/11/14

Monday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 5 miles easy
Tuesday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 3x (60, 45, 30s hills) with jog back and and 90s recovery
Wednesday- 6 miles easy
Thursday- AM 2×600, 200m, PM 9 miles easy
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 7 miles easy
Sunday- AM 3×6 mins tempo with 90s recovery, PM 7 miles easy

62 miles total

24/11/14

Monday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 6 miles including 4x10s hill sprints
Tuesday- AM 4 miles easy, PM 6x400m with 60s recovery
Wednesday- 6 miles easy
Thursday- 8 miles easy including strides
Friday- 3 miles with drills and strides
Saturday- Euro Trials
Sunday- 14 miles very easy

60 miles total

Hamstring pulls, cross-training and PB’s!

So after everything going so well for the last three weeks, with me performing the best sessions of my life, everything went wrong on Friday the 7th. The preceding Wednesday had been a real struggle just to get out of the door and so I decided to take a day off on Thursday. Come Friday I was still feeling dead and not even feeling up to running easy, and so instead I thought I’d do a few drills and some strides (sprints). Bad idea! After the first one my left hamstring felt a little… odd, but I thought nothing of it and after a walk back recovery began stride number 2. This time the odd sensation was replaced by a sharp pain which saw me going from sprinting, to an awkward hop! Thus began the self-pitying hobble home.

Hoping it was just a twinge and that a nights sleep would set it right I tried running on Saturday, however again ended up walking home. I somehow still thought that trying to run the 2nd Gwent XC league on the Sunday was a good idea, and to be fair during the warm-up my hamstring didn’t feel too bad. However I’m pretty sure that the pain-free running was just down to the pre-race adrenaline that was pumping round my system, as after 1km of the race my hamstring experienced the same shooting pain as on Friday and I had no choice but to dejectedly limp off the course. Previously walking had been completely fine but even that now hurt. Safe to say I’d pretty much dismissed the possibility of running the Leeds 10K the following Sunday.

Monday saw the start of the dreaded cross training! The one silver-lining was that I could at least go on the cross-trainer and cycle pain-free, which was a real bonus as I would have had a pretty long walk to uni if I couldn’t ride my bike! On Tuesday I had a pretty positive trip to the physio at Agile Therapy where I was told that it was in fact only a minor strain and that if a gave it a week off from running it should be fine. It was already feeling a lot better and so on Thursday I went for a very tentative three and a half mile jog. To my elation it felt completely fine, and after another easy jog in the evening I was starting to think I may be able to at least start Leeds Abbey Dash 10K on Sunday.

By Saturday, with my hamstring now feeling completely fine, I’d managed to convince myself that I may actually be able to run a decent 10K time! My one concern was that, although I felt quite rested, I hadn’t run anything much quicker than 6:00/mile pace for nearly two weeks, which is a fair bit slower than my PB 10K pace of 4:55/mile! However after not the best nights sleep, due to a likely drug-fueled party in a neighbouring house that continued on until 7AM, I found myself surrounded by a sea of skinny anxious bodies waiting for the scream of the starting horn.

The first 1Km was crazy! Never before had I ever run so fast whilst being surrounded by so many people! I kept expecting for the field to start to spread out, but it just didn’t. I hit the halfway point in just outside 15 minutes, and by then a large group had just started to get some daylight between the rest of the field. My legs were now starting to pay for my probably over ambitious start, and until the 7K point I lost my concentration a bit. I was starting to lose motivation, with thoughts starting to turn to “just finishing”, however a glance at my watch showed me to still be on pace for a PB. At the same moment a couple of guys started to come pass me, which helped me snap out of my bad patch and allowed me to sit on their tails. Although not physically feeling any better, my head was now back in the race, which was greatly helped as we began to make up ground on the runners ahead of us. The last Km, which contained the only hill of the whole course, was complete agony! Yet I did manage to finish well and my pain was rewarded with a small PB of 30:23. Considering earlier in the week I had completely ruled out racing, I was now extremely happy!

So with Leeds done the attention now turns back to the Liverpool Cross Challenge and Euro trials on the 29th. I was going to keep these last two weeks after Leeds very light, however after doing not a lot the past few days I’m leaning more towards a moderate 70 ish mile week followed by a relaxed week pre-Liverpool.”Touch wood” they’ll be injury free!

03/11/14

Monday- AM Gym, PM 7 miles steady
Tuesday- AM 5 miles easy, PM 3 x 2 miles (10:13, 10:07, 10:09) with 90s recovery + 10x30s hills
Wednesday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 7 miles easy
Thursday- Rest- too tired
Friday- Still very tired and proceeded to pull left hamstring during strides forcing me to walk home
Saturday- 4 miles easy- hamstring not good and ended up walking home
Sunday- Gwent XC- Pulled out after 1km after hamstring went again

46 miles total

10/11/14

Monday- AM 4×4 mins with 3 mins easy recovery on indoor bike, PM 15 mins cross trainer + 20 Gym
Tuesday- AM Physio, PM 30 mins on indoor bike with a few 60s efforts
Wednesday- AM Gym, PM 25 mins on bike, 15 on cross trainer, 10 very easy on treadmill
Thursday- AM 3.5 mile test run, PM 4 miles very easy
Friday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 6 miles steady
Saturday- AM 3.5 miles easy + strides then train to Leeds, PM 2.5 miles very easy + strides
Sunday- Leeds Abbey Dash 10k- 33rd in 30:23

36 miles total

“Living for the taper!”

So three weeks of 85+ miles done and just one more to go before easing off for the Leeds 10K. I’ll be honest I can’t wait! Right now I’m definitely “living for the taper”! Apart from almost every run now being in the dark, and the feeling of constantly being tired, it’s been another pleasing week of training. The three sessions all went well, and I was particularly happy with the 200s/400s on Friday. I had done the exact same session 7 weeks ago except I then had 60s recoveries instead of 45. As such it was great to be able to run a little quicker off the decreased recovery this time round, and I even managed to finish with a final 200 in 29.6. Not bad for the guy who struggles to break 60s for a single 400m! So as I said just one more big week and then I’ll ease off on the mileage front to hopefully sharpen up for the Leeds Abbey-Dash 10K and then the real test, the European XC trials…

27/10/14

Monday- AM 8 miles including 5x10s hill sprints, PM Gym
Tuesday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 15 + 10 mins on treadmill @5:05/mile pace and then 6x90s hills
Wednesday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 6 miles easy
Thursday- AM Gym, PM 20 miles long run @6:16/mile pace (Got a little lost!)
Friday- 4x200m + 10x400m + 4x200m all with 45s recovery, average times 31.1 and 66.2
Saturday- 5 miles easy
Sunday- AM 6x30s hills, 2 miles in 10:19, 4x60s hills, 6 mins@5:03 pace, 2x90s hills, PM 5 miles easy

Total=89 miles

My best ever track session!

Monday- AM Gym, PM 8 miles easy including 5x10s hill sprints

Tuesday- AM 7 miles easy, PM 4x (6 mins tempo, 4 good, 1 @~5K pace) with 2 and 5 recoveries

Wednesday- AM 7 miles easy, PM 1/2 a mile easy, bad left hamstring…

Thursday- AM Gym, PM 16 miles steady @6:20/mile pace

Friday- AM 7 miles easy, PM 400m + 6x1km + 400m with 60s recoveries

Saturday- 6 miles VERY easy

Sunday- AM Merthyr Mawr sand dunes session (10 miles with long w/u and c/d), PM 5 miles easy

Total= 87 miles

Another big week with a very similar structure to last. All three sessions went really well which is reassuring as it confirms that I am coping with running more miles than ever before. Going into Tuesday’s fartlek-like run I was unsure how well it was going to go as my legs were still feeling the strength-sapping sand dunes of Merthyr Mawr. However the slightly longer recoveries than normal allowed for a very pleasing session with the average paces being 4:53/mile for the 6 minutes efforts, 5:12 for the 4 minutes and 4:39 for the 1 minutes. The next day I was struggling with my left hamstring, something I’ve never experienced before, which forced me to miss the afternoon run. Luckily it was fine during Thursday’s gym session which included squats, leg extensions and box jumps, and so I decided to go ahead with my planned long run. Again I had no issues and so it seems as if I’ve escaped that little niggle!

I’ve now come to the conclusion that pre-session fatigue has very little impact on how well a session will actually go! Friday’s session only went to strengthen this idea, where after feeling rather sluggish whilst warming up, I went on to complete probably my best trask session ever!  My times were 66.0, 2:55.2, 2:54.9, 2:55.3, 2:55.9, 2:56.2, 2:56.9 and then a 66.2 to finish. Sessions based around 1km reps have been a staple of my training program over the last few years and I think they are a great way to improve fitness for all race distances.

I have been taking a day off on Saturday’s however I decided that this week I’d just do a very easy 5 miles instead. This was partly due to the fact that I missed a run on Wednesday but more so because every time I come to a rest day now I feel horrific! My theory behind this is that my body is so used to the normally twice daily hormonal changes that are associated with exercise, that when it comes to a day of doing nothing it doesn’t know how to cope… Definitely something I’d quite like to read into when I have a bit more time!

Sunday was a repeat of last week with a sand dune session at Merthyr Mawr. This involved 10x up a smaller dune which took around 35s to get to the top, 6x up the “Big Dipper” which is about 75s, and then 4 reps on an undulating loop which takes about 90s to complete. All in all another very good week and everything seems to be moving nicely in the right direction.

Back to playing in the mud!

So over the last 14 days I’ve kicked off my XC season at the Gwent League, as well as clocking up my biggest ever weekly mileage! After Cardiff Half I was feeling pretty beaten up and so took two days of easy running, before a reasonably comfortable session on the Wednesday where I ran well within myself.  Thursday’s long run of 17 miles was the furthest I’ve ever gone. To keep it interesting I ran 8 miles by myself at 5:40 pace before joining Cardiff Uni AC’s club run for some company over the last 9 miles. It’s definitely easier running with other people! Friday’s track session wasn’t so great. The plan was 2x4x600m but after running a 1:37 first rep I was struggling and I had to cut some of the reps short. In the end it wasn’t too bad, but after a half marathon it was certainly a shock to the system trying to run at close to 1500m pace! Sunday saw the return of XC with an OK run at the Gwent XC League at Bridgend. I never had any intention of really racing hard and I was just hoping to use the race as a good training session. As such I was pretty pleased with a 2nd place finish despite the winner, Owain Jones, finishing nearly a minute ahead of me!

This last week was the start of a tough block of training in preparation for the European U23 XC trials which are in Liverpool on the 29th of November. The plan is to get in 3-4 weeks of slightly higher mileage and intensity than I ever have before and then easing off for the final two weeks. This strategy worked well for BUCS last May but it is always a fine line between doing more and doing too much. Hopefully it’ll pay off! However I’m feeling pretty good after the first week which included three good quality sessions.

06/10/14

Monday- 6 miles easy

Tuesday- 6 miles easy

Wednesday- AM 2x(6 minutes tempo, 4 good, 2 @5K pace) with 1 and 5 recovery, PM 6 miles easy

Thursday- AM Gym, PM 17 miles steady

Friday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 2×600, 400, 200, 4x600m

Saturday- Rest

Sunday- AM 5 miles easy, PM Gwent XC- 2nd

=70 miles total

13/10/14

Monday- AM Gym, PM 9 miles easy including 4x10s hill sprints with full recovery

Tuesday- AM 7 miles easy, PM 7 miles easy

Wednesday- AM 2x(6 mins tempo, 4 Good, 6 Tempo, 4 Good, 6 Tempo) with 5 easy between sets, PM 6 miles easy

Thursday- AM Gym, PM 16 miles easy

Friday- AM 6 miles easy, PM 2×300, 4×1200, 2×300 with 60s recoveries

Saturday- Rest

Sunday- AM Merthyr Mawr sand dunes session, PM 5 miles easy

=85 miles total

The “Big Dipper” at Merthyr Mawr which, for those who have run up it, is synonymous with a lactic acid party!