Maidenhead Easter 10 review, human shields and the last long run

Heading into the last week of high mileage before London, my niggles were still worrying me but not as much as the fact I couldn't fit in a trip to the physio before my Good Friday 10 mile race. We'd discussed K-taping some dodgy bits but a job interview and another unexpected commitment put paid to that, so it was left to me to carry out homestyle massage and trigger point release to try and get me through the last few days.

My main concern was that I planned to do a race on Good Friday. The training plan said 10 miles at race pace, then 20 miles long slow run the day after, so I'd signed up for the Maidenhead Easter 10. I spent most of the week deliberating whether I was mad to race 10 miles with a dodgy knee and an explosive left calf, but then the weather was lovely and I needed to run, so I found myself parked in an office park in Maidenhead at 8.30am on Good Friday, ready to race.

It's a lovely race and I'm glad I did it again for a second year. It's extremely well organised, they have nice toilets at the start (if not enough of them) and you are very handy for your car when you finish and want to sit down! I decided I was going to test out the Virtual Partner function on my Garmin, to see whether it was something I wanted to use on marathon day. I set my VP pace at 9:30, which is what I'm aiming for in London, and headed over the start line. 

At first, you run a lap round the office park before heading out into the Berkshire countryside. This is quite good, because I find it helps you gauge much better what effort you need for the finishing strait. Once you're out into the countryside, it's a really nice route. There's one bit where you have to run on a narrow pavement near traffic and it's unfortunately the bit where I was starting to accelerate and pick a few people off, but otherwise it's a nice course and very flat.

The wind was quite evil in places, and I did have to employ sneaky cycling tactics at one point, tucking in behind a giant of a guy as we ran into a headwind, then whipping past him once we'd turned off to head for home away from the wind. Well, a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do!

I noticed that as the race progressed I was increasing the margin at which I beating my virtual partner. I couldn't decide whether this was good, as essentially I was running about 50 seconds per minute faster than I should in the marathon, but I felt great and was loving it (with no niggles!) so I just thought 'sod it'. I did restrain myself a bit, conscious I had 20 miles ahead of me in 24 hours time, but overall I just really loved racing on the day. I kept pushing to the end, cheered on by an Ealing Eagles club mate in the last 200m, and knew I had definitely PBed my 10 mile time. At the end of the day, when the results were up, I realised I knocked 6 minutes off my time in the same race the previous year to hit 1:28:02, so I really hope this bodes well for London in just under 3 weeks.

I could feel the effort I'd made in my legs when I woke up on Saturday morning, so I felt a bit nervous about the final 20 mile run. Still, it was dress rehearsal time, so I had my race breakfast at the time I would have on marathon day and planned to start running at 10am, as per 21 April.

It didn't get off to a good start as my Garmin pointedly refused to detect any satellite so I just decided to run blind and not worry about pace etc. I knew my route and didn't need to measure the mileage, so I would just go off the total time taken. However, about 2.5 miles in, my left valf had a tantrum and refused to go any further unless it was stretched, so I took the stretch time to faff around with Garmin and get it going for the rest of the run.

I won't lie, the 20 miles were hard. Miles 8-14 in particular were vicious. Richmond Park was dark, windy, empty and far too undulating for my liking, so I found myself having a serious moment of doubt in my ability to run home about halfway in. I recognised that the pain I was feeling wasn't bad pain, it was just fatigue, so I had to give myself a stern lecture about being a quitter. If the back to back 10 then 20 mile runs are designed to fatigue your body, then I can testify they work a treat! I was exhausted for the rest of the day and spent most of it lying down, either in a bath, on a sofa, on a floor or on a bed. But I did it, and I did it at a reasonable pace too - about a minute longer than my goal race pace, which is as it should be.

Best of all, the niggles did not get worse. If anything, the extra TLC I lavished on them seem to cheer them up slightly. So I think I might be ready for London now!

For now, it's taper time, which means eating as many good foods as I possibly can, staying off booze and spending a lot of time on the massage and stretching side of things. I'm still aiming for 5 runs a week, with a couple more intensive sessions to go, but I won't push it if I feel the niggles are getting worse. My goal now is to make it to the start (and finish) line intact.

A perennial perineal problem and other high mileage woes

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a mess. Stuck in the most rural of rural north Norfolk in torrential rain, I felt unable to do a 20 mile run. I had no idea where I was, for a start, and the thought of trotting round country lanes and jumping into hedges when rich Norfolkians sped past me in their Range Rovers in rain so heavy I could barely see where I was going didn't seem like the wisest addition to the training plan. So my long run switched to Monday. It got done, but then it had a knock on effect on the next few training runs.

Basically, the niggles have set in. My left perineal seems to have been transformed into concrete, it's so inflexible, and I developed a nagging pain in my right knee. The knee pain doesn't really bother me when running, but it bothers me pretty much every other waking (and even sleeping) moment. So I took it to the physio for a second opinion. Apparently the knee problem is related to my lazy arsed right glute again, and the perineals are - well, I just run funny.

So it's all about the extra stretching and thinking about my gait on runs. On the positive side, focusing on my gait gives me something else to think about while running and stops me from weird food cravings for whatever packaging I see lying on the pavement. On the downside, it's additional time in the routine for even more stretching and massaging. This marathon is a full time job. And I've already got one of those.

As if the injuries weren't enough, my friend's 2 year old headbutted right on the nose when I was in Norfolk, leaving me with a sore face and a strange sensation while out running. It's as if my nose is not really part of my face anymore. I've also developed a strangely asthmatic cough out of nowhere.

With just over 3 weeks to go, am I just dropping to bits? Will I get to the start line intact, with any chance of hitting my goal time? Or I am just going to end up limping round, holding my nose and coughing. After the disappointment of New York, I'm not sure I could cope with another wasted training regime. I need a 26.2 race. Despite all these little niggles, I am really loving my training at the moment. I'm getting a buzz from every run (interspersed with the odd shooting pain in the perineal, of course).

I've got the Maidenhead 10 on Good Friday, followed by 20 miles on Saturday morning. I've pretty much decided it will either kill me or cure me. All I'm hoping is that I can make it to the taper period without a total breakdown, and then I can use the extra non-running time for even more stretching and massage so as to keep these legs on the road.

How far can you trust technology?

I wasn't able to run my first 20 miler of this training programme at the weekend, like most of my fellow VLM marathoners. I was too busy celebrating my friend's birthday being pampered at spas, sporting Audrey Hepburn facemasks and eating cooked breakfasts to bother with all that long slow running malarkey.
Luckily this meant I got to head out on sunny Monday morning before I started work (late, of course) to take on the first 20 milestone of 2013.
Regular readers will remember I've only recently given in and purchased a Garmin, so this was also an inaugural 20 mile run for my new gadget.
I headed out on my tried and tested 20 miler - down to Richmond Park, one lap round and home again. This route has been measured on several occasions by Endomondo, with no deviations. It was a gorgeous day, if a little bit heavy on the large deer dangerously close to my running path, but I'm developing good 'don't scare the deer' strategies and managed to make it round the park unscathed physically. Mentally, however, it was a bit different.
As I tackled the gentle climb back up to Richmond gate, feeling happy about being on the last leg, I realised that my Garmin said 12.6 miles. My whole route is based on the fact that it's 6 miles to the park, 8 miles round and 6 miles home. But according to Garmin, I had over 7 miles left to run.
My first thought was, 'well, I'll have to add another mile loop in somewhere along the line'. I then mentally went through my route database in my head, working out which would be the least soul-destroying extra mile at the end of a long run. Once I'd remapped my run, I then realised something much more shocking. If my Garmin was right, I'd been UNDERTRAINING FOR MY LAST 3 MARATHONS!
I can safely say this is not something you want running through your head at this stage of your long run. Was Endomondo's GPS wrong, consistently, several times over 18 months? Was my Garmin wrong today? Had they moved Richmond Gate?* What had gone wrong? [AUTHORS NOTE: resist temptation to make pun about 'no eye deer' here]
I still don't know where the gap is, until I try that route again with the Garmin. Needless to say, I added an extra loop in to bring my run up to 20 miles, so I've either run the correct mileage or I've done over 21 miles. Neither of which will be a bad thing, in the overall scheme of things. But it's certainly taught me not to rely solely on technology for route mapping in future.

*(hey, I was tired and high on SIS gels, we're all allowed to have conspiracy theories in the last few miles of a long slow run)

She who runs faster, walks slower

Today I learnt the hard way that an early morning sports massage and a lunchtime dance round the kitchen to Prodigy's Firestarter do not go together.

This weekend saw the toughest part of my training to date. At the end of a high mileage week, I had to run 9 miles at race pace on Saturday followed by a 19 mile long run on Sunday. This is all part of the Hal Higdon's advanced marathon training plan, and (I assume) is designed to build your endurance for the race ahead.

I headed off out into the light snow flurries on Saturday with my goal pace in mind. As is my usual habit, I went off far too fast and ended up at a pace about 25-30 seconds a minute faster than planned. I decided to see how long I could keep it up, expecting the usual drop off in pace. But instead of dropping my pace, I managed to stay below the target pace I'd set myself and did the whole 9 miles in 1:21 - my fastest ever training time in nearly 4 years of marathon training.

There are benefits to running faster than usual. I felt incredibly proud of myself. I got home for lunch a lot sooner than I would have if I had just plodded round at a medium pace. And my breathing was so noisy, I didn't once have to ask a pedestrian to move aside - they all dutifully stepped out of the way at the sound of the wheezing human looming behind them. But after six puffs on the inhaler when I got home, I was ok and raring to recover by making petits macarons.

While I was elated at my Saturday achievement (the run, not the macarons), I knew it would mean a hard time on Sunday. And sure enough, 19 miles to Richmond Park and back felt like 900 miles up Everest. The climb up Richmond Hill to the park nearly finished me off before I'd even managed 6 miles, and the undulations of the park itself were a massive effort. At one point, my pace was so slow, I swear a stationary rubbish bin overtook me. But I regained a bit of oxygen on the descent down Richmond Hill on the way home and managed to cover the last four miles with some dignity.

The advantages to running more slowly are that the wheezing and puffing noises I made were not quite as severe but the major disadvantage was that my legs were no longer my own. I think it's safe to say that is the most I've hurt after a training run. While I could still manage to get up or down stairs, my post-run stretch & foam roller session indicated that I'd used some calf muscles that have never been used before. 'Not to worry', I thought, 'at least I've booked in a sports massage for Tuesday morning'.

This morning, as I laid face down on a bed, screaming with pain while my physio tortured my calves, I wasn't entirely sure of the value of the massage bit anymore. On balance, I think I'd rather walk down the stairs of the Eiffel Tower the day after a marathon than go through that again. (NB Paris marathoners - this is a very bad idea, trust me).

Apparently my whojamaflit and my perimebob are a bit knackered after the weekend's efforts, so I am now k-taped up for a few days to get me through my next couple of training runs. Hopefully this monochrome concoction will help ease the soreness and keep my training on track, ready for a nice combo of 10 miles + 20 miles at the end of this week!

Something old, something new

I'm into week 10 of my marathon training plan - over halfway now. I think everything is progressing ok, although I know I need to do more trigger release on my right glute and work on my calves and ITB before I feel really comfortable about attempting a marathon again.

I've been a lot easier on myself in this training plan that before. I'm doing 85-90% of the plan, and not stressing about the odd run I miss due to other life commitments. I am also trying to maintain a focus on the non-running side of things, be that nutrition, stretching, foam rollering or lying on the sofa watching a movie after a long run. These are just as important as the running itself, really, and I'm trying to respect those aspects of my marathon preparation.

The other big change for me in this marathon training is the inclusion of speedwork. Despite this being the 5th marathon I have trained for, I have never really pushed myself with speedwork before, apart from 10 mile or half-marathon races in the run-up. I'm lazy with intervals and have never really been able to measure my own pace very well. So the last 9 weeks have incorporated two new elements: interval sessions with my running club, and wearing a Garmin.

The interval sessions are positive on many levels. They enable me to engage with other runners, of varying ability, and encourage me to push myself much harder. My club, Ealing Eagles, is very friendly and supportive so it's been really easy to stick to the Thursday night interval principle. I've only missed one session since the year started, because I went to the opera (another first!), and the club coaches deserve all the praise for keeping me interested and engaged. I've even tried out the track for the first time, and tonight am going back for a second attempt at track running. The track is the toughest training I've ever done, second only in pain levels to the day after a marathon, so it must be doing me a lot of good!

The other way I've worked on a faster pace is to wear a Garmin. I've always recorded my runs on my phone before, and during races wear a sportswatch to time my laps. But out on the towpaths, or in the parks, I've always just run 'blind'. This is very liberating and probably has contributed to my enjoyment of marathon training but if I'm going to get faster, and pace myself properly, I need a Garmin.

After a few teething troubles with the equipment, I've used it to incorporate some tempo runs into my schedule. I know I should have been doing tempo runs before now, but I told you I was lazy! Running 3-4 miles at race pace is definitely good for the confidence and the plan works towards longer tempo runs in the coming weeks. This faster pace training definitely contributed to my strong finish in the Watford half (which counteracted a very slow middle section) and hopefully it will translate into some strong miles in the London marathon too.

I suppose I won't really know if the intervals and the more controlled pacing have had an impact on my race time until marathon day. With only one more test race in the preparation (Maidenhead 10 miles on Good Friday), I won't get many more opportunities to review my progress in a race. But that's almost part of the fun of marathon training: the unpredictability of the day itself, and how you will perform when the chips are down. All I know is that I've taken myself out of my comfort zone after four years of plateauing. No matter what happens on the day, I've tried something new, used some new muscle groups,and enjoyed it. That can only be a good thing.

Fall in love with a new route for Valentine's Day

I'm not meant for spring marathons really. Training in the winter is not nearly as much as training in the summer, although I do enjoy the odd run on crunchy new snow. But rain combined with cold wind is no-one's favourite running conditions. And if it is your favourite, well then you're just weird!

But I am training for a spring marathon so I've got to get out there 5 times a week. I've got to run a range of distances at different paces. I've got a route for every single distance I need to run in training. I've got a series of mile and half mile loops dotted around my home that I can stick in at the end if a long run falls a bit short. My brain is a veritable directory of run routes.

But as I reach the halfway point in my London marathon training, (and my 4th marathon training in 2 years) I'm getting a bit bored with those routes. Like any partners in a long-term relationship, my routes and I are getting a bit stale. We're taking each other for granted, just rubbing along on a daily basis, with little or no romance in our day to day lives.
As with any partnership, your relationship with your routes takes work. It requires effort. It requires those little surprise touches to keep the romance alive.

While my route directory can't take me out for a nice meal, offer me a glass of fizz or whisk me away for a weekend, together we can keep things fresh. In the last week, I aimed to include a new section in every run. Last Friday's 16 miler took me down a new section of the Thames, from Putney to Kew. I run Kew to Chiswick regularly, but never usually go past Chiswick Bridge, so it was a whole new section for me and my brain. And a completely different direction too, which is of course is the easiest way to spice up your running life (and God knows, those long runs need some spice). This morning I ran my 9 mile river route on the other side of the river from usual. A simple change but it felt exciting. Just like a first date.

I find Gmap pedometer really useful for plotting new routes, but most of the time I just let myself get a bit lost in a familiar area. I'm lucky, I can run by the Thames, and a river is a great way to reassure yourself that you will never get really lost. It's like a soggy, dirty, unhygienic comfort blanket.

So fall in love again with your local running routes. Run a route the opposite way. Add a new turn into the route, see where it takes you. Add a couple of miles onto a tried and tested route over a certain distance. Take a bus to a new location and run home.  You can only get lost on a new route once - after that, you can add it to your list of conquests. Whether or not you choose to keep the relationship alive is up to you, but at least you gave it a chance!

Ealing Eagles marathon night

Last night I attended a marathon night arranged by my running club, the Ealing Eagles. The night featured 7 runners from the club and a guest speaker, all talking about their wide-ranging marathon experiences and offering tips.

As someone training for my 4^th marathon, I was a bit worried it would be too beginner friendly, but I had stressed unnecessarily. There was some useful advice there for everyone – from absolute beginner to hardened marathoners looking for fast times. I don’t fall into either of those categories but am desperate to run a faster marathon (my current PB is 4:19) and at the end of the night felt I had 3 or 4 bits of key information to take away and try in my marathon preparation.

There were quite a few controversial topics across the speakers. The distance of the long run was a recurring topic, with a couple of the speakers presenting a good case for a 22/23 mile run in the training programme. Overwhelming the consensus was that you needed to hit the 20 mile mark in training, for psychological and physical reasons.

I did find guest speaker Dan Afsar’s statistics on 20 mile races in training really useful, as I had been considering the Finchley 20. With data showing that a good 20 mile race can negatively affect your training programme and your marathon time, it provided food for thought. Dan stressed that it’s important not to go all out if doing a 20 mile race as part of your training so, knowing my inability to restrain myself in race mode, I think I’ll stick to the Reading half marathon now!

Dan’s presentation also revealed to me just how wrong I got my 2012 London marathon race strategy so I’ll be making some real changes to my behaviour on race day to see it makes any difference to my finish time in 2013. I loved the advice about making a marathon a 20 mile run followed by a 10k race and am looking forward to trying to put that into practice.

There was also a lot of useful information about speedwork. My primary New Year’s resolution is to attend intervals sessions every week with the Eagles and last night reiterated the importance of sticking to this resolution if I’m going to get faster. I also noted the advice from fellow Eagle Yan that trying to keep up with faster runners at the club can dramatically improve your race times. I think I might have to make that another resolution for 2013.

The main points I’ll take out of the night and put into practice are:

·         Make one of my long runs a 22 miler

·         Do an intervals/speedwork session every week

·         Train at race pace (for this I am going to have to invest in a Garmin, but it will be worth it). I’ll do this in kilometres, as Yan pointed out it’s easier to correct your pace using kilometre units.

·         And finally, run more with the Eagles (especially those a bit faster than me!)

New year, new goals

So it's 2013. It's not got the same ring to it as 2012, and there's no Olympics to look forward to, but it's a new year nonetheless.

I'm not a great one for resolutions but I find it a lot easier to keep them if I attach them to running. I suppose it's cheating, linking your resolutions to one of your main 'leisure' activities but there are so many days and weeks in a year where that running thing is such a chore, that they can still count as resolutions.

I set myself some challenges for 2012, my 40th year. I did ok as well, setting some significant PBs for myself, in 3 weekends in September. At last I can say I've done a sub 55 10k and, finally, after 6 years of trying I managed a sub 2h half marathon in the Great North Run. In fact, I managed it twice in a fortnight, shaving a few seconds off my time in Ealing two weeks later! So 2012 was definitely my year for half marathons!

For marathons, it wasn't so positive. London was a painful experience for me, with my ITB flaring up just before halfway, and I finished 7 minutes off my PB in 4h 26mins. My attempt to run two marathons in a year was thwarted by Hurricane Sandy, and I had to make do with just a holiday in New York instead of another marathon attempt.

Maybe I'm not meant to do two marathons a year. In which case, I'm going to concentrate fully on London this year. I was lucky enough to win a place this year, and I am going to try and beat my time from last year (and aim to stay fit so that I run 26.2 without the constant nag of a grump ITB). I really want to get as close to 4h 15min as possible, or at least beat my Berlin PB of 4h 19.  My main race tactics are a) avoid getting stuck behind a hula hooper, b) not to run on the right side of the road all the way round, aggravating a weak glute and c) not go off too fast...rookie error!

Whatever I do this year, I want to get faster - which is where my New Year resolution comes in. My resolution is to go to intervals training with the Ealing Eagles every Thursday. Or as many weeks as possible. I'm convinced that a short burst of regular attendance last summer led to my 3 PBs in September, so I'm going to test that theory out by going to intervals sessions as often as possible (sometimes I have to work on an evening) in the run up to London marathon and see if it translates to a faster time.

I'm also going to see if I can hit 1h 55m in a half marathon - my favourite distance. I'm not really going to set any 10 mile or 10k goals this year, other than to try and run more races at those distances.

Finally, my last running challenge/resolution is to try a Parkrun. In the 6 years I've been running, I've never made it to a Parkrun. Hopefully 2013 will be the year I make it to start line.