The Long, the Short and the Hilly!

Since my last post about juggling running with the other things in my life and coping with runner’s knee I have done a surprising amount of racing across a variety of distances. From all this activity my knee has held up remarkably well and even though it is stiff, it is not as painful as it was when I first starting having problems with it. From all this running across June/ July There are three key things that I now know are within my control to make my knee better and keep it pain free:

1.       Get more sleep. I have definitely not been disciplined enough with getting to sleep on time and I think it would help my knee feeling looser after long runs.

2.       Looking at buying some new shoes. My main long distance running shoes are wearing through to the soles and have little or no tread in them.

3.       Continuing with my stretching programme, knee strengthening exercises and substituting cross-training for running dependent upon how I feel.

With my knee beginning to feel better I started to embark on my long runs in preparation for a potential marathon in October, as well as to make sure that my knee could handle those distances again. I was also preparing my body for two events that were definitely going to test my knee’s resilience: the Yorkshire Three Peaks and the North Downs Run 2015. Both would be steep hilly courses with a few sections of flat, but mostly undulating. This meant I had to see if my knee would be able to take the pounding and also what sort of pace I could go at. So on 5^th June I ventured up with my running partner Jamie to tackle the Three peaks of Yorkshire.

I would describe the Three Peaks as punishing, sublime and above all unpredictable. Our attempt on 6^th June was even more varied by having Jamie’s friend and his brother attempt the peaks for the first time. Also the weather proved to be a hindrance on this attempt rather than an ally, as you will see in the video below. Jamie and I had run the Three Peaks last year in August, on what was a sunny day, but this year in what had been predicted to be a calm June weekend the wind proved to be quite vicious in parts.

This is how nice the weather was in 2014 video

This is how bad the wind was in 2015 video

The wind definitely impacted upon our completion time of the Three Peaks. In 2014 Jamie and I did it in around 6 hours and 44 minutes, but in 2015 it took around 7 hours and 30 minutes. Unfortunately Jamie’s brother had to pull out and Jamie’s friend had a recurring injury that meant we had to stop a few times. I definitely have a soft spot for the Three Peaks and would really like to make a serious attempt at doing it in less than 6 hours, seeing as the record for this route is an amazing time of just less than 2 hours and 30 minutes. The videos above do not do the Yorkshire Peaks the justice they deserve and it really is a truly beautiful place to be at one with your body as well as mind.

Following on from the Three Peaks I then had my first taste of track competition through the club I had joined all the way back in January 2015. This came in the form of my club’s two part club championship race series, with the first event on 9^th June, where I had entered the 5km A race. Little did I realise how much of a lesson I was about to experience in the differences between track running and long distance running. The first thing I realised on that Tuesday when I woke up is that my legs were incredibly stiff from the Three Peaks and still felt pretty sluggish. When I went to register my entry for the 5km race I was also a bit too ambitious with my time, as I put down 18 minutes and 45 seconds. When I started the 5km race the immediate thing that struck me was that I would have to go round a 400m track for 12.5 times continuously. I found myself becoming surprised at how daunting this was going to be. I had convinced myself that it would just be like a marathon whereby you can gently accumulate the distance without too much effort, but this was not the case with the track. To maintain the finishing time I set myself I had to have a lap time of 90-95 seconds per lap and this was proving a lot more difficult than I realised. It is sheer concentration and intensity of running on track that sticks with me the most from this race. In a marathon you have a goal pace, but you can be patient and make small decisions that contribute to your race time. With track running there is less of a danger of ruining your overall run, but your decisions need to be made almost instantaneously and the intensity is constant in comparison to a marathon. I came last in the A race, with a time of 19 minutes and 5 seconds, as towards the final laps my pacing began to deteriorate and my target time slowly drifted away. I learnt a lot about track running that day and once my potential October marathon is out of the way, I am hoping to dedicate some more time to this type of racing.

On 13^th June my best friend Callum and his wife Debbie completed their first half-marathon on the Isle of Skye. In a previous post I made about supporting Gem, it is just as good to support people as a running a great race. Even though I wasn’t there in person it was a great to hear how they were getting on with their training and how happy they were with completing it.

My hope is that from my track running experience I can start improving my cadence and short distance speed, which hopefully will have an impact on my running. It was to end that I continued with my distance training. The aim of this was to help me with the North Downs race. The North Downs Run was created over 30 years ago by an Istead & Ifield club runner using an 18 -19 mile training route as preparation for the London Marathon. The route became so popular in Kent that it became a race in itself. Beautiful yet brutal the course is peppered with ups and downs throughout, but three particularly steep hills across the course make sure any runner has to pace themselves correctly to avoid burning out before the last five miles. Weather was quite hot, but with clear skies and running through fields of poppies made it hard to complain. I made sure that I had enough in the tank before the final three miles and hoovered up a few runners near the end.  There was an excellent post-race atmosphere with what seemed like an unlimited number of free cakes and tea after the race. What made this race even more special was that I beat my previous time of three hours and ten minutes in 2013, by getting a time in 2015 of two hours and thirty three minutes. It is a race I would recommend to anyone who fancies running in some beautiful countryside and is preparing for a marathon in September or October. The picture shows my post-race medal and t-shirt (I made a school boy error of getting a small by accident, so don’t think I will be wearing it out on any training runs).

North Downs Medal and T-shirt 2015

Since the North Downs I have competed in a 1,500m Southern Athletics track meet on 4^th July, getting a time of 5 minutes and 9 seconds. I took part in the second part of my club’s annual championships on Tuesday 7^th July getting a second slower in my second 1,500m to my earlier 1,500m and recording a personal best of 66.8 seconds for the 400m. My busy July track competition calendar continued with my club’s handicap 5km race on Tuesday 14^th July. This is where each competitor for their race starts according to their predicted finishing time, which in theory means that even the slowest person in the club could win. It was certainly a great experience, which was made even better by beating my 5km time to get less than 19 minutes and 05 seconds. Though as I mentioned in the earlier part of this post short distances have now become an area that I know I need to improve upon.

My next running goals are a mixture of activities. I plan to do the Wimbledon Half-Marathon at the end of June and am hoping to improve upon my half marathon time there.  I have been asked to do the National Three Peak in August. My plans are to either the Bournemouth or Cologne marathon in October and see what happens with this, as I do not know if I will run with someone else or I will do it on my own. The main goal would be to get sub three hours for that run. After October the goal would be to concentrate on Park Runs and improving my short distance race time. Then into 2016 the first part would be a build up to running the London Marathon and see what happens after that. In some ways this last paragraph seems like my race calendar for the next 12 months, but I would like to think of it as statement of my intentions rather than a plan set in stone.