Need for speed

So what's new?

Not a lot. My overtime claims at work are looking healthy. Too healthy. That's the great thing about everything going wrong on a regular basis, you get to earn loads of money :-/

Since the month of November started, I've been allowed to do speed work again. It's like a lot of things - you take it for granted at the time, and when you're not doing it or not allowed any you realise how much you miss it.

I never used to be a massive fan of running fast - if it sort of happened then great, but it would seem whenever I attempted to run fast on demand, it would all go horribly wrong or I would find some excuse not to even try. When I joined SRC in late 2008 and started doing Marathon training for my first Marathon 2009 I started doing speed work sessions, as originally dreamed up by Joan and Ian.

As a club we don't have anything resembling a track, so we run to various areas of Stourbridge that have an appropriate sized housing estate / loop. Essentially we have 4 winter sessions:

Short Hills
Long Hills
Short Flats
Long Flats

...Which we do in rotation. Depending on the session we might do reps / sets with static recoveries, or more continuous running with a more moving recovery. Either way I do believe they are good for helping the quest in getting faster. After the summer ends, we commence them, starting small and building up to some monster sessions.

Reasons people don't do them from what I can gather:

"It's boring" - I think if you find it boring you are probably doing something wrong. You can think about your form, your breathing, your percieved effort, what lap you are on - there is plenty to concentrate on that means it is not boring.

"I want to get the miles in" - a 2 mile WU, 3.75 miles of effort and a 1.6 mile WD makes for quite a good Wednesday evening run. Do the Maths.

"I'm too slow" - The loops are designed so that no one falls off the back. Yes you are doing your reps for yourself, BUT you are all on the same loop or loops so you are passing or being passed like the wacky races and feel the same sort of safety as running in a group.

Come in Pussycat 5...

"They don't make me faster, just knackered" - That is because you do all your other runs too fast you donut. Also a lot of people turn up for one week, then for whatever reason disappear off again, you need consistency there. You get out what you put in. The first time you do each session loop it will be hard, I wouldn't say it gets easier it depends how you push yourself but experience helps you. I seem to have a knack of using perceived effort to do all of my reps, no looking at the Garmin - and when I get home and upload the stats I find that say, all 9 of my reps were within 3 seconds of each other. Strange how the body can do that.

It gives me the confidence to push push push. At yesterdays XC when I knew the end was in sight I felt like I had a different gear - on the run in from the main course to the finish I managed to pass two people and leave them for dust (mud)

I am I often find it hard to sleep on a Weds night because I'm still on some weird adrenaline high. I both like and dislike that. I do find now I train sensibly I'm champing at the bit to have a crack at a fast race whereas a few years ago I'd be dreading it.

At this time of year I traditionally sit and look at what races I want to do next year. Obviously I have a plan for the big ones, but I sort of mean in the build up to the main events, the 20 milers and the 30ks. I like mixing it up and having some different places to run. I suppose I'm lucky I can afford to do such things. A few things stick out, I want to do the Rhayader 20 / Ashby 20 back to back combo again, Oakley for the Hoodie and Stamford for the Love Hearts.

One of my best friends has recently brought a house in Cornwall, so I am going to do the Duchy 20 (pasty at the end!!) and possibly some other local races at times I'm down there. She can't actually move down to live in the house for a couple of years, so her friends / family are going down there in rotation to make sure it is lived in. So I'm doing a favour and getting some nice running in a different area in. Probably going to have a few days either side of the Duchy, and do some cool stuff:

Eden Project
Eat something fishy that was swimming about in the sea that morning
Learn to Surf - yes in March this may be insanity but I've always wanted to have a go and I'm game if I can get a lesson.

Pan fried please

Looking forward to having a proper relaxing holiday - yest I know there is a 20 miler in the middle but that's just me innit?

It said on the TV this afternoon 6 weeks till Xmas and then the build up starts again. I can't believe how quickly time goes.

Let's all meet up in the year...

...2000. Today I passed 2000 miles for the year and it is still early November. Yay!

Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown

I didn't have a mileage target for this year, it just sort of happened. I ran 1900-ish last year so I suspected there may be more miles this year with the various events I had planned and have now completed in 2012. Although I've been known to run around a car park or up the road and back to make run a nice round figure, I genuinely don't obsess about mileage totals - I love to get out for a daily run. It has become that much of a normal part of daily life it does however seem like a massive gap when not there. One rest day a week does me just fine thank you very much.

I've been thinking this afternoon what is "normal" and yep, 150 mile months for me are now 'ticking over' when I would once consider 100 miles a month a lot. How does someone manage high(er) mileage and why? What are the drivers? I suppose people have lots of different reasons for running. I wondered, and have tried to think of a few based on myself and other runners I have met.

Fitness/medical reasons
Weight loss
Endorphins - thrill!
Social aspects
Insanity
Something else..?

Yes I run to keep fit. I'd rather be healthy, and on the planet for as long as possible to see and experience as many things as I can. I would also say that running keeps me sane, I'm not prone to depression or anything like that, but I think I'd feel a lot less calm in the midst of life's stresses if I didn't run. This is a good part of the reason I run.

Weight loss. Hmmm. Running helped me shed a lot of weight, but most people underestimate the amount of calories they put in, and overestimate the amount of calories they burn on a run, so it has been known for folks to come out of marathon training far chunkier than when they started. I suppose running cancels out a little but of my baking obsession, weight control is a smaller part of the reason I run. More miles = bigger cake allowance.

Endorphins and thrills. There something about slogging your way to somewhere, looking out at the view and thinking "wow, this was DEFINITELY worth it" or getting somewhere thinking "I wonder if anyone has actually been here for years". There is something about battling the elements, it is a very satisfying feeling getting in from the wind and rain to a steaming bath, a hot chocolatey drink and some toast. There is something about realising you are about to run a distance or a time that you never thought possible, and I mean that in a relative way - we all remember when we could barely get to 3 miles, and the feeling at 2.8 miles when you knew you were going to do it. More recently I've been at XC races, bombing it down a hill thinking "I feel absolutely f**king great, things don't get much better" - this lasts for about as long as the downhill and is replaced by the opposite feeling going back up the hill, but it is really nice when that happens and whilst it lasts. It is also a good feeling when you start overtaking the people who you are usually around in XC races, I'm not sure I have a real killer instinct but I think it is a measure of self improvement, and knowing I've improved a bit makes me feel good. I like to see what I can do, which leads to pushing and pushing that little bit further. We live in a great country and most of the public never see the beautiful countryside we have. So these feelings are quite a big part of the reason I run.

Nice.

Social aspects. I started my running with a club and I still run with that club, but I joined SRC to help me get faster, for different training routes and different running opportunities. In reality it means I know and have run with quite a lot of different people, some of whom I'd probably never have talked to otherwise, it's always nice at most races round the midlands I always see someone I know and I've made what I believe will be lifelong friends through running. If you play football or something, it is very unlikely that your pub team would play against Real Madrid, however running is different. Sure you can start and be in the same race field as Haile or Paula, which is great, but actually there are ordinary people out there, friends and club mates who do things that inspire you, and you get to run with them week in week out. The social aspect is definitely a reason I run, I like having a laugh and a chat and putting the world to rights. Friends have got me out when I've felt less enthusiastic about things.

Insanity. Some people are obsessive or addicted, they may or may not realise this. "Running X miles means I will be thin". Nope. "Running X miles or X Marathons means I am better than everyone else". Nope. "I am nothing if I don't run at least 10 marathons a year - everyone else I know is". Nope. "People will respect me if I am fast or run stupidly long distances" Nope. "I want to impress X and he/she will like me if I run more or pretend to like running". Nope. I have met people who fit in to some or all of the above categories and I have a lot more respect for the slower runner that trains sensibly and consistently, gets quicker and runs longer if that is what they want, and who reaches their potential and enjoys the journey than the one that starves themselves, runs squillions of races and has a miserable time for the same perceived results. I may have something gone wrong in my head that means I can doggedly carry on endurance wise when other people would give up, but I am not enough of a mental to be motivated by other peoples opinions of me (although I have been known to use it in tough patches of a race e.g. "think of the people you would let down if you walked now/DNF" type of thing until the bad patch subsides. In reality I'd be letting down ME). Insanity and insecurities do not motivate me to run.

At the end of the day though, on top of some of these things there is just a pure love of it that keeps me wanting to put my trainers on.

Last week we had an XC race at Park Hall near the fragrant City of Stoke. After the last one I felt like I was getting my XC legs back a bit. Got picked up by the Chloe-mobile, all going well until we got stuck on the M6 due to an accident. As we approached the venue and in to the car park we started stripping down to our racing kit, warm up was a 4 minute brisk jog from the car park, lugging bags (and a tea loaf) which gave us a few minutes before the gun went off. Park Hall is quite an undulating course, the conditions underfoot are usually quite firm, but you have to be careful of loose rocks. I actually felt like I was having a good run in the first mile, and this gave me a boost in confidence to push on the 2nd and 3rd. In the end I came in 40 seconds quicker than last time I ran there, doesn't sound like a lot but over a 3.4 mile course that is quite a good improvement I'm told. There were even photos where I actually looked like I was running. Happy days.

Today due to a lack of XC I did a ParkRun, I wanted to do some speed work but I also wanted to give my XC shoes some extra time to dry out before next week. Myself, J and D had arranged to go to Walsall ParkRun on Saturday, having partied the night away at the SRC / Cricket club bonfire "do" on the Friday night (3 diet cokes, a jacket potato, some colored fizzling, some scary explosions dodging bits of rocket landing on our heads and in bed by 10). I forgot to set my alarm, and my body clock woke my up 2 mins before J texted me to say she would be with me in 20 mins. Eeeek! I was running around, getting dressed, no time for breakfast, necked a big glass of diet coke, she turned up and off we went. The weather was foul, it was freezing, breezy and drizzle and thank god we started on time. Not much to more say really, I started off at a decent pace, and managed to hold it all the way round, very consistent splits and 25 seconds quicker than Cambridge ParkRun a couple of weeks ago, so the speed confidence is coming back. I may try the dis-organised roll out of bed approach more often.It was a great celebration of my 2000 miles to have J and D there, and we went for a nice brekkie afterwards. Nom!

One runner, 2000 miles on the clock this year...

Next week Leamington XC, yeah!!! :) Quite a nice leafy course, small hill on each lap and also the first potential water feature of the season. This is a good place to watch the mens race from. There is always a range of crowd emotion:

Man goes for the jump: Yaaaaaaaay!
Man hesitates: Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh!
Man falls over, gets wet or loses shoe: Hahahahahahahaha!
Man goes round and avoids the ditch completely: Boooooooooo!

(Where are we in the league?) We're behind you!

Who needs pantomime when you have the Leamington XC :)