Sort of Race Review - Bath Half marathon 2015

My first review of a race I couldn't run...

My impressions from the day -
Course: it is a straight-forward two lap course, I am sure well set out as always.
Marshalling: Pass
Facilities: Pass
Organisation: 10/10 - the entry system, the provision of race packs (must send my timing chip back), the information supplied was all first rate. It is a super organised, supremely experienced event team, which makes me all the more sad I wasn't able to run.
Fellow runners: Pass, but the banter on twitter was pretty good #balfhalf
Crowd: Pass - it is a friendly city so it would no doubt have been awesome.
My performance: DNS - did not start, due to picking up a stupid injury 10 days before the race.
My time: see above - although in my head it would have been stellar ;-)

My race day -

I spent race day relaxing with my lovely wife, we took the greyhound on a good long stroll and tackled a bit of low level DIY before heading to the in-laws for a St.Davids day lunch. It was the kind of Sunday that we haven't had for a little while, so it was really very recharging and quite energising in that it was so restful.

Happily, the whole day I didn't suffer too much with the sense of "gah, I should be running!". The occasional twinge in my calf did offer timely reminders as to why I wasn't and shouldn't run the race.

The hardest running decision: aka a Spot of bother

I have had to make the hard choice, the not to run choice, the choice that leaves you utterly empty at the completion of a block of training. I will not run the Bath Half marathon on Sunday, because I went and picked up an injury. Worst of it all is that it is my own fault, I should have seen it coming, and I should have listened to sound advice.

Good advice is often right in front of your face, so it was a little while back when I read some very good blogs and when I was following my training plan carefully / mindfully. So how I managed to read and then ignore some very sound guidance is a little beyond me (apart from perhaps having too male a brain sometimes).

My not quite running man just about sums it all up

I even read number 2 on MissZippy's advice list in her blog post "Running plans were made to be flexible" which says and I quote - 'avoid placing two hard runs back to back'... so what did I do? Two hard runs back to back that absolutely trashed my legs and left my left calf muscle torn (not terribly but torn). A week later and I had to walk / hobble to the shops leaving me in little doubt that I had blown the half marathon throwing away money, planning and effort in two days of madness.

What's next? I try and get fixed up into good enough shape to run again and get into the second planned block of the year heading into the Swansea half marathon.... only this time I hope a WHOLE lot wiser!

Hope your running is going well, and that you don't try two hard runs back to back - please don't!

Variable rates of travel

The single biggest revelation of the New Year has been the 'discovery' of pace variation in my runs, which "yes" I should have thought about and mastered long ago. In following a new training plan I took the time to read the 'blurb' about each session type, something I thought I had done many times in the past but this set of instructions seemed to embed. So each session has a warm-up and cool down where I realised I had to run slowly in fact very slowly to cool down properly for instance, not something I've ever done before in run sessions (spotting a theme here yet?).

Lately I have found a speed range across almost 3 minutes per kilometre (something around 4.5-5 minutes per mile), and while the quicker pacing has been 'easier' to find I found the slow running very difficult at first. The focus on technique that comes with the pacing range has been so helpful to my running form. I only hope I can shake a niggle of a calf injury I have picked up in the last week, get round the Bath half on Sunday, and then get back into this awesome varied training.

Wow, that was quite the January

I am looking back now more than a little amazed as to just how well January went from a running and training point of view. Setting myself several targets for 2015 felt like the right way to progress, but I had this lingering doubt that I might be over-reaching. The targets come in three blocks, block one (lasting 8 weeks) into the Bath Half marathon, block two (the next 15 weeks) into the Swansea half marathon and the final block of 12 weeks into the Berlin marathon. All three predicated on progression towards a marathon PB, with the first block in some ways the most critical in determining how far I dare to let my ambitions go.

All month I was waiting for something to go wrong for something to twinge and fall apart, but no through using warm-ups and cool downs properly and employing my friend the golf ball I managed very well. My body is not entirely happy with the switch from life without a training plan to life with one but we are agreeing in the most part that everything is okay.

Interestingly going to the local pool for a swim session once a week really has made a difference to my training week perspective. It isn't that I have opted to bob about lazily in the pool I have been working hard and got up to 2.5km in my most recent visit. The big difference it makes is mental, I have to completely change my headspace to get a good session together in the water. Embarassingly I can't freestyle so I have been monstering quick breaststroke lengths instead, but all the while working out how I could try to improve my freestyle. This alternative challenge has neatly stopped me thinking 24/7 about running paces, sessions, technique, and all that.

In the end January was my 4th highest (recorded) month for distance in 4 years of keeping GPS records with just over 116km (72miles). I even went out on the last day of the month to ensure I pushed the total to a personal fourth best total, which I know is tiny compared to the distances 'serious' runners notch up (!).

Heading into February I am looking to simply keep this wagon rolling and glitch free. Bath comes at the end of the month and my main goal go under my Cardiff half marathon time from last year and get as close to my PB as possible without damaging myself for the next training block.

Step change

2015 - "Hello". I have been meaning to blog all year and somehow time at the keyboard has not quite been enough. There are a few things to say, a few things to comment on, and new plans afoot.

The New Year has seen me into a new training plan, an 8 week progressive little ditty that I discovered during a somewhat speculative (read 'random') google search. Somehow I've ended up following the "Shape" - 'Train for a Half-Marathon in 8 Weeks' - plan....

http://www.shape.com/fitness/training-plans/train-half-marathon-8-weeks

...and frankly I have no notion of who or what "Shape" are or do normally, but weird the search engine bots found it and it didn't look half bad.

Now if you follow the link to the plan you'll see that it is an intermediate plan, hmmm, am I a beginner or an intermediate? No clue honestly, it looked like a training load I could handle, it looked incremental, and it was 8 weeks long (all the time until my first event of the year, the Bath Half). Done deal! Two weeks in and I'm doing okay.

For a change my plan seems to have me moving in the right direction

To be fair the last two years have seen me jump on the odd fitness bandwagon, against my usual judgement but the running plan looked to be a good one... what wasn't was the resurrection of the plankaday twitter meme challenge thing. Within two weeks I found I had angered the plantar fasiciitis that has obviously been sneakily hiding and waiting to pop out. It is all about the way I plank, I tend to move my feet about as the hold gets harder, and low and behold the day after my longest plank of the year my right foot was in agony. So that New Year challenge has been binned, which is not to say I won't plank - just not everyday... or to the point I get all wobbly!

The treatment method of choice for my plantar fasciitis - plenty of rolling under my foot after each run

Changes have even led me to the door of Strava, the GPS tracking app / website that acts as a diary, microblog, and motivational tool. Several friends were on there and so in the end peer pressure (I joke guys) made me sign up. Seriously a friend is on there that I hope to be running the Berlin marathon with and so it offered a simple way of tracking each other along with the opportunity to prod each other if need be I suspect. He is tackling London and Berlin marathons in the same year, is blogging over on Runaround!, and is raising money for Save the Children in London.

Runaround! - Don't be put off by the Google+ profile image, haha

Steps? Oh, yeah 2015 has seen my taste in daft post titles unabashed, sorry. I have been on the move for 20 good days and I have noticed the stairs in work are that little bit easier. In fact as little training as I actually really have under my belt, as little weight as I have lost, I am feeling that bit more lithe and nibble. Its not huge, but I've noticed it and it feels great. Roll on a couple of months time when I'll skip up them like a youthful mountain goat chasing the last patch of fresh moss.

Trying to avoid the Christmas feast

Over the next few weeks I will mostly be trying to avoid the temptation to over indulge in Christmas feasting which is essentially an annual pitfall of mine. To achieve my food goals I am hoping the calorie counting approach combined with some regular turbo trainer sessions will see me through to January without extra poundage. Last week I suffered one of those Winter stomach bugs and found I over compensated when my stomach let me eat properly again.

The weekends parkrun went really well, I took it on feeling that a PB is in me waiting to get out. Unfortunately the stomach bug fatigue robbed me of the umph to go and get that quicker time, really happily though I did manage a consistent time that matched my last two parkruns. Perhaps Santa can drop a PB down the chimney for me over the Christmas and New Years period.

Over the next week I have to get myself into gear and get my Bath Half training on the road, so I am on the hunt for a good 11-12 week program. I'll thinking of a 'beginner' one so that I don't throw myself into it too hard as my main goal is Berlin and I am going to do all I can to avoid injury niggles.