Running Up That Hill

Rehabbing after a calf injury several years ago, I spent a lot of time reading running magazines in an effort to maintain my enthusiasm to get back to full fitness. I had a lot of time off (15+ months), so I read a lot of race reports. One in particular caught my eye; a trail race across Mornington Peninsula starting with a climb over Arthurs Seat that had 28 and 56k options. My first thought was, “That’s a little bit insane, bonkers even”! Roll forward to the present, and I have just completed the 28k option, and looking forward to going back next year! Life is strange...

I should have been nervy, anxious, even bricking it (my usual pre-race emotions), but no. On the back of 6 weeks preparation I was clearly underdone and had zero expectations other than finishing in one piece. Realistically though, I was looking for a sub 2:50 finish (roughly the average time for 28k runners from last year), and I was running with a team. That changed the dynamic somewhat!

On the urging of my (soon to become) team-mates (see Under Pressure) I had signed up and we were adding other speedy runners to our team.
Team Name: Winnies Wonders (mixed 28k)
Team members: Sam Winnie, David Grech, Cheryl Martin, Ed Sixsmith, Jonathan Coles, Michelle Acorn, Brian Devlin, Josie Salahoras, and me.

We had looked at last year’s winning time and worked out that an average time per runner was around 2 hours 43. Doable, we all thought. At that point it moved from a ‘just for fun’ participation event, to a ‘let’s go for it’ race! Runners’ competitive juices kick in, again!

5 of us convened at the RACV resort at Cape Schanck on the Saturday afternoon, having all picked up our race bibs at Dromana and resisting the urge to stare up at the climb over Arthurs Seat. As always happens pre-race, the nerves start to kick-in, so we decided to explore the pool and adjoining games room. The pool was out of action, a code brown event was the explanation... The doctor in our group didn't need to explain it to us. But.... the games room was stocked with air hockey, pool table and table tennis table; and it was all free. We were like kids in a lolly shop, or drinkers who have fallen asleep under a pool table only to find themselves locked in the pub! Active taper consisted of some very competitive games of air hockey, some people sharking us at pool, and a non-stop game of table tennis. It helped take the mind off the following day’s race.

Back at the villa, bottles of wine were lined up and food stored or displayed all in preparation for the after race party/wind down. 

As part of my revision of my race at Melbourne last year, I had decided to change my pre-race meal from the usual super sized pasta (hangover from the big is beautiful days of triathlon training), to a more sedate fish, salad & steamed vegetable meal. Pan fried salmon cutlet, cous cous salad, and steamed asparagus may well sound like a Jamie Oliver meal, but it went down a treat. I will do that again.

After a bit of discussion mainly race tactics and concerns about the initial hill climb, we drifted off to bed. As per usual I don’t sleep well before a race. So it was a real treat to doze for hours, only to fall into a deep sleep about half an hour before the alarm went off; at 4:45 am!

Breakfast, last minute adjustments to race kit, toilet stops etc. were completed, then it was a short drive to the finish line to leave the car. Great meeting friends and fellow runners before we boarded the bus for the 20 minute drive to the start line at Dromana. We arrived with about 25 minutes to go to the start and my folly of not using the toilets at Cape Schanck was cruelly exposed. First time I've seen the queue for the men’s toilets longer and slower than the women’s!

Brian, Ed, Cheryl, myself, David and Jonathan before the start. Surprisingly calm before a major race.

Not much chance of a warm-up, so I had to be content with some stretching and some light leg swings before packing into the start line with all the other hopefuls. There was a lot of pre-race nervous chatter, so I didn't hear the announcement that the race was about to start. So, taking the phone out of it's tight pocket was, in hindsight, a tad foolish. Took the photo of the assembled runners at the start, started to put the phone back in when the race started! HELP!!! Ever tried to not panic (whilst actually slightly panicking) trying to get a phone back into an undersized pocket? Just like those movies where the hunted are trying to get a key turned in a lock to open a door before the axe murderer gets them! It was tense, it was close, but I got it just as the runners in front of me started to move! Phew! Thankfully remembered to start the GPS watch as well. Nothing like being prepared, is there!

The photo that ensured my heart rate was nicely elevated at the start.

Ed, Cheryl, Jonathan and I started together, quickly splitting into two groups (Ed and Chez, Jonathan and me) leading up the road towards the start of the track over Arthurs Seat. It was already a reasonable climb up to the track and after a brief period Jonathan joined the other two. Brian, I presumed, was close behind me, but I had no idea where Michelle and Sam where. I was content to keep my own pace in the early stages, plenty of distance left to trash myself. Walked a couple of sections early on, even on the road, as at times it appeared to be just as fast to walk as to run!

We funnelled into the track for the climb over Arthurs and it was great seeing the mass of runners ahead and behind me, colourful and vibrant, still many of us chatting with others, but slowly getting on with the job.

The climb up Arthurs is THE serious climb of the 28k race. Just when you think it’s getting steep enough, it gets even steeper. Between the 1.2 and 3.0k marks I walked the majority; it was faster than jogging, compared to the few who persisted up these sections.

Quick Instagram piccie on the way up! Totally cool, so long as you don't go arse over tit taking it...

Met a couple of fellow runners, one who said hello and then ran on ahead, the other who ran/walked with me near to the top of the climb, before he too ran on ahead. I was happy for them to go as I was content to conserve energy and run a conservative pace early on. I thought I would never see them again until the end (certainly Ed, Cheryl and Jonathan had disappeared from sight, “good luck chaps!”), but I would see one!

I finally crested the top of the hill at the 3.2k mark in about 24 minutes, pleased with the effort, and also pleased that I hadn't overcooked myself. Now, for me, the race proper started!

Continued next blog....

Under Pressure

It used to start with a phone call, or a subtle remark in a conversation. "Come and do the (insert insane running activity here) with me and (insert other insane runners here) in March". You'd politely decline, but privately think that it might just be the sort of race you'd like to enter. Others would join in the whispering campaign, phone calls, chance 'meetings' in streets with fellow runners etc. would subtly build the pressure until you decide, "Ah, what the heck!" and enter the race.

In today's social media savvy world the avalanche starts at full speed. Posts and comments on Facebook, stripped of any subtlety, flood your inbox, or worse still, flood someone else's inbox with your name tagged in every comment! Such is how I now find myself signed up to the Two Bays 28k trail run for January 12, 2013. Some say you have to be hard to be a trail runner, but basically I'm just weak as piss when it comes to peer pressure!

Two Bays pirate sticker.

So.... now I find myself re-assessing the training plan. Those nice comfortable 12k runs as a build-up to my half are now to be replaced with either trail runs (none close by me) or longer long runs to build distance into the legs; and quickly. How on earth did I go from a steady 12 week half marathon plan to a 6 week 28k trails plan?

Which brings me to the topic of competition, friendly or otherwise. A club I ran with in Tasmania ran all the club races as handicap events, the idea being that if the handicappers got their stuff right we all ran over the finish line at the same time. Of course that never happened. Apart from the usual issues of lack of effort, sickness, injury or not having trained for the terrain, handicapping can never take into consideration the human bodies capacity to pull out all stops to beat a fellow runner (friend or foe!). Many a time a runner find themselves focusing on just finishing, only to hear the footsteps of a fast finishing back marker. This would initiate one final effort, one final sprint, one cruel strain on heart and lungs! Followed by a collapse over the line with barely enough breath to tell anyone that you'll never do that again. And I would.... do it again, that is! I just can't help myself sometimes.

Competition is good, so long as it's healthy. And as runners we need to understand that even though we say we don't race, most of us given the chance will compete at some stage or another (race you for the last Tim Tam etc.). Take the Two Bays race. The initial agreement was to run as a team. All of us in some sort of fancy dress (board shorts for the blokes, sarongs for the girls seems to be de rigueur), taking some time to allow for the slower runners whilst taking pictures along the way. that was until one of the organisers posted the winning mixed team time from this years race. A quick calculation presented us with average times that were within our grasp. Not easy times mind you, but with any whiff of possibility does hope reside! Now it's got a little serious. Team members agonising over lack of trail experience, lack of mileage or just lack of confidence. Mind you some members have decided that being Christmas, the after race party piss up requires far more attention to detail. You know who you are....

I have no qualms about the distance, although looking at the profile I can say that some 'strategic' walking will be in order early on. That is if I want to finish looking strong.

And having spent a bit of time last blog talking about training plans and sticking to them, I can say that my current half marathon plan is in a state of disarray. The actual run I am supposed to do on the 12th is a 12k build-up.... yeah right!

A view to run 28k's for? Should be worth it.

Making Plans for Nigel

Marathon training plans. Type that into a Google search and see how many hits are returned. 26 700 000 as of 02/12/2013! Amazingly a search for ‘Stupid cat facts’ produces only 2 730 000 results. And what do we take from that? Dunno...

Years ago when I started running there was no plan, well not for me! I just used to get out the door and run, the only plan would be a route; no times, pace or real objective to the session. Of course it was simplicity itself, and no thought was required. As runners gain experience they actually make goals and want to go faster (or further) as a result, that is when a plan comes in handy and some actual science is applied. Hmmm, runners always find a way to over complicate things.

After the marathon, one of the things I looked back at was my training plan. I used one of the Garmin plans; they can be downloaded straight to my GPS watch as a full schedule of runs. I missed 10 out of 90 training sessions in the 4 month plan, which isn't too bad, and felt that I coped with the plan pretty well. That might have told me something? Not sure. But one thing I have decided is that it was top heavy on interval work (short, fast sessions), at the expense of tempo runs (longer fast, but slower than an interval session). Whilst this might sound good for speed work (get some pace and turn it into a PB etc.), I reckoned it worked against me. Mainly as I need to work on running a consistent pace throughout a race. I'm a bugger for speeding up, slowing down, surging etc.! Another thing I think I needed was to apply some pace in my long runs under 25k’s. All long runs on this plan were at conversational pace, which is a low heart rate zone and not one that really gave me a taste of racing over that distance.

So, the hunt was on to find another plan. Criteria; free, some pace in the long runs, and some feedback on expected race time given the training times recorded. The myAsics plans looked the best fit. As noted before, I intend to do some half marathons in the lead up to Melbourne again, so it seemed like a good way to try them out. The initial goal time for the race (Warburton on 23^rd Feb.) was 1:43:17. This was based on the supplied marathon finish time of 3:54, a time that was probably a bit dodgy. Well, two weeks into plan and it already wants to adjust it to 1:37:20! 

Was a bit nervous accepting this! Biting off more than I can chew?

If that holds I am looking at a 2 ½ minute PB, unexpected if it happens. The assumption is that the course I run is flat and fast for a PB. A quick look at the profile for Warburton reveals a nice steady climb from the 8k mark to the 11k turnaround point. And February can be hot, even at 7:00am, so a PB may be the last thing on my mind.

Proposed route of Warburton half marathon. What goes up, must come down; hopefully intact....

So far the plan has been good in showing consistent improvement. It is slightly top heavy in tempo work (absolutely no interval work), but if I get bored I will change a few sessions. Summer and the Christmas/New Year period will be the test of faith with a training plan! Check back in January....

I'll Rise

It is 10:56 on October 13^th, 2013 and I am running into the MCG, it is raining (although I wasn't aware at the time), and I am in a great deal of pain. In fact I was almost beyond pain at this point. This was not how I envisaged finishing my first marathon. Not quite sure what I had thought it was going to be; a PB (given it was my first it was, well.... a given), running the race you had actually planned for, or just being able to get that all important race finish photo without anyone else crowding you out. As it was I finished in the middle of a sea of other runners, 5 minutes under the 4:00 hour mark and 15 minutes outside of my goal time. None of this really mattered, I was just so relieved to stop running and start recovering.

Between finishing and finding my wife (some 45 minutes later) was just a blur. I bumped into a few people, all of us with a story to tell, some triumphant, others not quite so. But my overwhelming urge was to just get away from the whole MCG precinct. I don’t know why really, I should have been happy. Finishing a marathon should be celebrated as an achievement, not all of us get to fulfil that dream.

5 weeks after and I am still recovering from the race. I cannot run with any pace without my heart rate going into the ‘red’ zone, my confidence is down and I am still scratching my head somewhat as to what actually happened. The next 45 weeks begins a journey to... What? Redemption? Revenge? I'm not sure it is any of those, but I do want to go back and have another go. This time, armed with an experience under my belt, I feel that I will be better prepared. God, I hope so.....

So, over the next 45 weeks, this blog will chart the progress, the ups and downs and everything else in between. But it won’t be all about running. Although that is the central theme that will run through most of it, it will mirror how much of an impact running has had (and will continue to have) on my life. Hopefully it will be entertaining, sometimes revealing, but most of all it’s a journey. And they are often more enjoyable than the destination.

Oh, and in keeping with my love of music, each blog heading will be a song title. The trick is to pick the artist it belongs to.