Monday: 10.4 mile run after work. Felt good!
Tuesday: 15x 30 sec efforts at approx 5min/mile, 45 sec rest. Sounds a lot, but in reality only 7.5 minutes hard running. Need to double that for next time!
Wednesday: Club night, annual F.A.R.T.S. run (First Alternative Run To Stanley). New route as clubhouse changed, 12 steady miles.
Thursday: Pyramid! 2/3/4/5/4/3/2 minutes with 60/90/120/120/90/60 seconds rest. All at around h/m pace of 6min/mile.
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Paintballing. Which is now added to my list of "Things Not To Do The Day Before A Race". An inordinate amount of time holding a crouch meant dead quads for...
Sunday: Turkey Trot Half Marathon. 13.1 miles, 501ft of climb, 1:20:17 and 17th place.
Strava here
It's my annual road half, and a nice scenic one at that. It's not flat, but not ridiculously hilly and a good chance to get a good pace going on for stretch. My club mate Tom has been going from strength to strength this year (upping his mileage from 50 per month to 150 may have had a bit to do with it...) and was looking for a p.b., and also to beat me.
I was just looking to stay ahead of him.
My race nutrition plan had started the night before, with a Mountain Fuel Night Fuel (made up with hot milk - pretty tasty). 2 pieces of toast for breakfast with a Morning Fuel made up with hot water. On the drive in I sipped a bottle of Extreme Energy Fuel made up with 500ml water.
Arrived to the race with Tom, caught the transfer coach to the race (it was cold out!) and went to inspect the Derby Runner race stall. It's my local running gear shop, and I like to support local whenever I can - so new road shoes!
Got myself changed, put on my arm warmers (don't like cold), caught up with some club mates and David Greenwood, an up and coming ultra-runner. Went for a warm up jog around the block and discovered that my quads were feeling a bit...iffy...but ok.
Ready to go, on the start line, go! Felt pretty good for the first bit, running strong and on pace. The intro 2 miles is downhill overall, and easy to get carried away on. So I did, but this time I eased back a bit when it flattened out. Even found a photographer:
Photos by John Oldfield
As you can see, arm warmers on, and slightly in front of Tom. Even both feet off the ground!
At mile 3 is the only decent hill on the course. Good gradient, about 160ft of climbing, usually where I gap the group I'm with and catch the next one. Today, my quads said, quite firmly, "no". Tom gapped me, I struggled up and felt a little sad when I reached the top. Being an undulating course, if I was going to be like this every climb, it was going to be depressing!
Thankfully I caught Tom up again and we got into a bit of a groove and the miles flew by. We started reeling in the people who had started off too fast and life was generally going well. I was full of energy, and my dead quads, while not up to the usual standard, were now playing ball. Until Mile 10.
At about mile 8 there is a 1.5ish mile steady down hill, followed by a bit of flat, then a long grind up to about 10.5 miles. That part really hurt. Tom started drifting ahead, and some other bloke caught up. Thankfully there is a steep downhill, which somehow perked me up. Caught back up to Tom then started gassing it up the other side past the 11 mile marker.
I pushed as hard as I could along the next flattish mile, with Tom either on my shoulder or just in front of me:
Photos by John Oldfield
The last 200-300m is slightly uphill through an estate. I figured I'd probably lose out if I was still side-by-side with Tom, so I pushed early. Thankfully he broke before I did, and I finished about 5 seconds in front of him. I was about 20 seconds slower than my fastest time, but Tom achieved a 20 second pb, which was a fantastic result.
Things that went well: My fuelling experiment worked perfectly, I felt strong the whole way around, not even a 10-mile dip. Nailed it with Mountain Fuel.
Strong pace most of the way round - only "hanging" at one point, and not for long.
Things I need to sort: Don't Do Stupid Stuff The Day Before A Race! Paintballing, yep, that's stupid.
As ever my thanks go out to the following for supporting me on my journey:
Mountain Fuel - https://www.mountainfuel.co.uk/
The Ultra Runner Store: http://ultra-runner.com/
X-BIONIC: https://www.x-bionic.co.uk/
Beta Climbing: http://www.betaclimbingdesigns.com/
Monday: 6.7 miles steady recovery
Tuesday: 15x 60sec, 45 sec recovery. Potentially cut short, depending on how recovered I feel.
Wednesday: 10 mileish steady run.
Thursday: 2x 15 min, 5 min recovery @6min/mile pace-ish)
Friday: Rest! (Yay!)
Saturday: 2 hours-ish at around 6:50-7min/mile pace
Sunday: No idea yet. Maybe 90 minutes.
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