Saturday 28 February 2009

Out with the old, in with the new



Don't worry I haven't swapped Debbie for someone else but have finally got a new pair of shoes.
My Asics Trabucco's have been with me since my
very first ultra. The Devil of the Highlands in June 2007. They must have done over 700 miles. For my last 10 long runs at least I have promised myself that that would be the last and I would buy a new pair for my next run. But alas I never got around to it. To be honest I never could figure out what I would replace them with. I ran last years WHW in my good old road shoes. But minus 6 toenails later I knew that for this year I
had to go for something else. Within the WHW community a lot of people have sworn by Inov-8 Rocklite 315's and so I went to Run 4 it for my pair. Instead I came away with a pair of Saucony Progrid Xodus. Much more like my road shoes but sturdy enough to hopefully stop losing toenails. The big test will be tomorrow on a 31 miler from Beinglas to Kingshouse.

The Old


The New

Also today I went on my normal Stoneymollan Hill run. I added a bit onto the end to make it just under 9 miles. I took it very easy with an eye on tomorrows run and was surprised that pacing better on this actually didn't make me that much slower. After Wednesday's run I am starting to hopefully become wiser. I will know for sure tomorrow after meeting up with Neal and Thomas. :-)

Friday 27 February 2009

Whizzing one moment, wheezing the next

After having two quite easy runs on Monday and Tuesday both around about 8 miles it was time for a speed session.
I had been looking forward to this all week but as it grew closer I was getting nervous. Todays session was 4 * 8 minute reps with a 2 minute recovery. The crowd at lunchtime is growing every week and I was assured that there would definitely be a couple of faster guys there.
I wasn't wrong as Jamie and Mark came along. After a quick "Hello, how are you?" we were straight into the session.
I let Jamie and Mark go but found that after the first minute that I was catching Mark. I overtook him and found that the distance to Jamie wasn't increasing. Maybe I am getting fitter?
By the end of the 8 minutes I was gasping for air but had finished in-between Jamie and Mark.
The problem though that I have been having with these lunchtime sessions is the recoveries. 2 minutes was up far too quickly and again we were away. Again I overtook Mark and sat snugly behind Jamie. Letting him hopefully break the wind although anyone that knows him will know that his stick like frame has little chance of that.
Again I was in second place when the rep finished. I was wheezing and feeling a bit dizzy with the effort of trying to keep Mark from overtaking. Mark then calmly came up to us and said "Well thats the second easiest one finished" I snapped back "Shut up" not meaning it to sound bad but immediately feeling bad for the rest of the session.
Now this was when it dawned on me that Mark was training far more sensibly than I was. Well he has been running for 18 years compared to my 6 years.
The 3rd rep had me gasping for air. Even John who has been out with shin splints for the last 4 weeks was catching and overtaking me. Mark and Jamie were miles in front.
I nearly stopped after 3 but I continued and ran the 4th one. At the end of it there was a short uphill. Nothing in it and you probably wouldnt even notice it if you walked it. My legs turned to jelly and I my body was screaming. I would have done anything for the last 20 seconds to finish quicker.

After the session I struggled on the run back to work. I spoke to Mark about pacing and where it went wrong for the session for me. I should never at the moment be running faster than Mark and so I was finished after 2. Mark on the other hand got faster in the last 2. That afternoon I was completely wasted and spent my time surfing the internet. I couldn't work. I couldn't even hold a conversation with someone.

On Thursday morning I felt a little better so I went out for an easy hill run over the Stoneymollan with Euan. It's about 7.5 miles and we completed it in just over the hour.

Friday is a rest day before the weekends long runs.

My splits for Wednesday were

Total distance 8.3miles
Rep 1 Distance travelled 1.40m Pace 5.37/mile 7:51 Rep time ?
Rep 2 Distance travelled 1.41m Pace 5.40/mile 8:00 Rep time
Rep 3 Distance travelled 1.44m Pace 5.33/mile 8:02 Rep time
Rep 4 Distance travelled 1.42m Pace 5.53/mile 8:16 Rep time

Monday 23 February 2009

A little update

Well it has been a month since I posted and I thought that it was about time I did.  So what has been happening.  Well after Cairn was born I was on two weeks paternity.  Apart from getting to know my wee boy I also did some runs.  One of them was an excellent 30 miler with John Kynaston but I also managed to get out myself one morning.  For this run I decided to video it and so here it is. I ran on the 6th February





Back to training in a whole. It has been a slow progress but my endurance is slowly increasing. My speed isn't but this year I am trying to limit my races and focus on my ultras. On a plus point it can't be all bad as I have just heard that I came in joint second in the Garscube Cross Country League.