West Districts Cross Country Championships

My Race according to Garmin

Results

Today was my 35th day in a row of continuous running. Time for a race to see how I am doing.

I ran the West Districts XC Championships and my new found vet status although hasn't helped make me win anything has made me wiser. Instead of running like a bat out of hell for the first half of a race and then wishing I was dead for the second half I am now trying to finish the first third fresh and then start to push from there. The last third is still sore but nowhere near what it used to be.
Last year I did this race the old way and was well up at the beginning but then slowly people overtook me including Thomas the crazy German as I puffed and panted to the end. Coming in placed 74th.
So this year I started at the back of the pack and worked my way up. After the first lap (2 miles) I honestly didn't feel that bad at all. What gave me even more of a boost was Debbie and Cairn had sneaked over to cheer me on so that was a very pleasant surprise. I had left her in the house after her long run and didn't expect them to come down to cheer me on. It was great and pushed me on for a bit.
Most of the race I had a battle with the same group of people. Another new situation for me as I am used to them all overtaking me. One moment I was in front then behind the group. Then in the middle. Back and forward we all battled.

Picture from Chris Upson's Flickr Website
Mens Photos Womans Photos Chris Upsons Blog

I finished feeling pretty pleased in 55th positions in a time of 36:56. Well 20 places better than last year must mean progress and hopefully is setting me up for next year. Running everyday is certainly helping and is pushing up my mileage without really tiring me out.

So so far so good. Next week I am doing my first West Highland Way training run for the 2010 race. So here we are full circle again.

...and on the 7th day the Lord said run

Well if He was a runner that is what he would have said. And for November that is what I did. Ran all seven days of the week.
Running had not been going to well and I was finding that I wasn't improving as fast as I was hoping. So it was time for a new challenge.
I decided to try and run every day in November. At first I didn't tell anyone but as I came closer to the end I did.
I had some rules for my challenge.

• You must run every day
  
• To count as a run it must be over 25 minutes or 3 miles. Whichever is first

I found it much easier than I thought it would be and the closer I got to the end the more I enjoyed my running. I was actually looking forward to running every day.
My legs no longer felt heavy at the beginning of each session but light and fast.

So what did I learn from my challenge. For one you can run every day of the month but you must listen to your body. When I was tired I did a recovery session. Forget the watch and just ran how I felt.
I always had an eye on my main sessions of the week. My Monday and Wednesday speed sessions and a race on the Saturday. Once I knew that I had to be 100% fit for these sessions the rest took care of themselves.
I also changed how I did my long runs at the weekend. I tended to run off road and give my legs a rest. Forget how quick I could do the run and just go out enjoy myself and get time on feet.

So a typical week was:

Monday : 20 min tempo + 6 * 200m strides (about 7 miles incl. Warmup)
Tuesday : 8.32 miles easy
Wednesday : 6 * 4 min reps (75s recovery) (7.6 miles incl warmup)
Thursday : 8.42 miles easy
Friday : 4 miles recovery including strides
Saturday : 6 miles XC Race
Sunday : 18 miles hill run (3hrs 15mins)

This was last weeks training and totalled just under 60 miles.

It has gone so well that I am now going to continue and run as many days as I can. I wont be fanatical though. If my body needs it I will have time off.

Now Debbie is wanting to try the same thing in December. Much harder month with all the festivities.