20/03/2011 - Alloa Half Marathon

Today was a great success for so many reasons. Going into the race I felt like I was going a bit into the unknown. Usually when I do half marathons my training is geared towards them or at least a stepping stone to a marathon. While I’m still running 5+ days every week, the type of training I have been doing has varied greatly and has been more focused on the hills/ultras and easy runs. Not tempo runs and long bouts of pavement plodding which I usually do when I’m training for halfs. 

One thing I did have going into this race was plenty of experience in running half marathons. In fact I have run more half marathons than any other type of race or distance. This was my 11^th and 2^nd Alloa.

To the start

I decided to go for a slightly different approach to my journey to the start. I drove myself up to Alloa getting there an hour before. I parked in the furthest away car park and walked to the Leisure Bowl for registration. Picked up my number, dumped my stuff in the left luggage and headed for a warm up.  Since the course is a loop, I decided it would be good to re-familiarise myself with the last half mile or so. So on the way out I did some active stretching and the way back I did short burst between lamp posts at race pace. I then went back to the Leisure bowl and got changed, met Giffnock folk then headed to the start.

The start to 3 miles

We exchanged good lucks and I tried to step back a bit from the people I knew. The reason for this is that I like to just totally get in my own zone just before the gun and go through the course in my head.  It also means I am running my own race.

And Action...

The gun went off and I tried to look down as much as I could for the first mile just to let the field spread out and not pay attention to what other people are doing around me. To start with there is a mile loop which goes back near the start. There was great support here and I spotted a couple of Bella Harriers out of the corner of my eye who I recognised from park run, cheering, which was nice.  I heard a shout of ‘Keep it steady’ – wise words for the first mile of a half. In the second mile a Giffnock team mate, James overtook me and we had a joke and wished each other good luck since I hadn’t seen him at the start. I was feeling good and was enjoying easing myself into the race.

3-6 miles

I did something from 3-6 miles which I don’t think I’ve done in a race since the Lochaber Marathon last year. I worked with Neil from my club and we were stride for stride for 3 miles. We were gradually overtaking people and I felt I went up a gear.

6-10 miles

I think the 6 mile mark was about Tilicoutry where the course turns west. This is where I cranked it up another gear and started to pull away from Neil. My next focus was James who had remained in view but must have been a good 400 meters away. This is where I started using some mental ammunition and just stayed positive. The crowds that were there I would feed off and I would smile back at them or give them the thumbs up. I had 2 songs going round in my head. “Steady as she goes” by the Raconteurs and “Smile” by Flickerstick.  All these were good motivators and I was picking people off quicker now. I knew if I could get to 10 miles I could slog it out. I have to admit when I got to the 10 mile marker I did feel physically sorer at this point this year. But mentally I was in such a better place. I was thinking “Call this pain?” “Ha, try doing an ultra again – that’s proper pain”. 

10-13 miles

In the 10^th mile there was the famous hill everyone talks about. I did what I do for most hills which other people see as daunting. Take a look at it from the bottom – “This doesn’t look too bad and it’s never as bad as it looks”. It’s the only time since the first 2 miles where I looked down again. I look down at the kerb and watch the divides go by really quickly which make me feel like I’m going fast. I glanced up every so often to see if I have to overtake anyone. Boy did I overtake! I reached the top and felt like I was spent. But I knew that there was only a small incline to go and the rest was flat/down.  I continued to overtake and got overtaken once by a Wee County Harriers runner. I got to the set of lights where I reached during my warm up. At this point I was beginning to think just how well today had gone.  I really did nail it and didn’t hide my smile. I even managed to fit in a high five with a guy supporting who was dressed up as banana man. I turned the corner and there was the finish.

The Finish 

I crossed the line in bang on 1.39 (chip time). I was delighted and I was less than 3 ½ minutes off my PB. I went and congratulated the rest of my club mates who also had some fine performances before getting changed and having a slow warm down back to my car. What a great race this is and thank you to everyone involved  in making it so –organisers, marshals, police, water people, registration, folk at the start/finish, car park attendants and of course the runners. Chuffed to bits.

Splits:

Type	Distance	Time	Total Time	Pace
1	Interval	1 mi	7:43.61	7:44
2	Interval	1 mi	15:32.23	7:49
3	Interval	1 mi	23:31.14	7:59
4	Interval	1 mi	31:20.95	7:50
5	Interval	1 mi	38:56.75	7:36
6	Interval	1 mi	46:35.42	7:39
7	Interval	1 mi	53:59.83	7:25
8	Interval	1 mi	1:01:28.71	7:29
9	Interval	1 mi	1:08:46.36	7:18
10	Interval	1 mi	1:15:59.79	7:14
11	Interval	1 mi	1:23:13.30	7:14
12	Interval	1 mi	1:30:30.39	7:18
13	Interval	1 mi	1:37:31.49	7:02
14	Interval	0.23 mi	1:39:05.97	6:51

And Finally...

1. Well done to everyone who completed the D33 yesterday. I have read some of the news on Facebook and seen some pictures.  Looked fun!

2. Well done to Geoff Roes on his course record at the Chuckanut 50k.

3. Well done to Mo Farah on winning the New York half marathon in 1.00.22.

21/03/2010 - Alloa Half Marathon

WOW! What a race, this has to be quite easily the best race I have ever ran.

I headed up with a group from the club and we got there in plenty of time to collect our numbers and timing chip. I was excited just to have number 222! I'm easily pleased :-) We got changed attached our numbers/timing chips and before I knew it we were off on our warm up which was an easy 1/2 mile jog. The others then took off their warm up gear in the leisure centre then we headed to the start. This is where I lost everyone! But I wasn't too bothered as there was only a couple of minutes wait and it meant I was going to be going at my pace and not someone elses.

I didn't realise but I was quite far back compared to the rest of my club mates but as soon as it started everyone spread out quickly so it was easy to get settled. Derek from Giffnock past me after half a mile, then Jacqui who must have started even further back than me. I was expecting Jacqui's parter Steven to pass but no sign of him. The first mile is a loop which goes almost to the start/finish area then the route heads east then north east up to Tillicoutry which was about the first 5-6 miles. About 4 miles in I noticed a Giffnock vest in the distance which turned out to be Jim as I caught up with him just as we turned left at Tillicoutry. The first part of the race I would describe as undulating, the third mile was slightly slower due to a long gradual uphill but apart from that I was pretty steady.

Jim had done the race before and told me that the next stretch was pretty flat so I decided to push on and get as much time in the bank as possible before the hills at 10 and 11 miles which everyone was going on about. One guy I spoke to briefly at 8 miles was pretty much advising me to slow down now to save myself for these hills which at this point were 2 miles away! I just replied I had probably done worse in training.

In my head I had split the race into 3 sections. The 3 mile warm up. The 7 mile middle section. Then slogging it for the last 3 miles. So when I got to the turn to head back to Alloa it was just about 10 miles and I was feeling suprisingly good. The hill that everyone has been talking about came in to view. I took one look at it and fair enough it was long and a wee bit steep but I wasn't going to slow down! To show this I actually did my fastest mile of the race up to this point at 7.17. Did I slow down for the next incline between 11-12? - new fastest mile up to this point 7.08! The rest of the race I upped it again and was feeling so good!! So managed 6.49 in the last mile and then 6.30 pace for the final sprint to the line. I was so happy when I finished especially seeing loads of Giffnock vests right after the line where we all congratulated each other as the majority of us were celebrating good times/PBs!

Everything just clicked today and I just felt I could go on and on and it didn't even hurt which I was expecting from mile 8 but it just never happened. I am totally buzzing still as I thought before the race I might have a chance at beating my PB and if I ran really well I might be able to get 1.37.30 but to get 1.36.48 is just awesome! My old PB was 1.40.19 from 6 years ago and after 5 attempts of being nowhere near I finally conquered it which I have got a lot to thank my club for as it has improved me no end. I also wasn't sure whether to use the mile splits on my watch but I'm glad I did as it was something to look forward to at the end of each mile. Especially seeing the splits decrease all the way through.

I told some of the people at work I was doing this and the general response I got was that Alloa was a bit of a dump. After doing this I thought it was a really nice town and the route was really nice as you had the Ochills in view for 3/4s of the race and most of the race was in the countryside. There were water stations every 3 miles and the marshalls/police did a great job. The start/finish area was run like a well oiled machine and the leisure centre was ideal for coping with everyones stuff and changing/toilet facilities. Although there are a few uphills, you have to remember there are just as many downs. So if you did lose any speed on the ups you could make up for it on the long gradual downhills which in turn makes it a PB course as there were many PBs today from the people I spoke to after.

Mile Splits

1 Mile 7:26.16 7:26.16
2 mile 7:26.26 14:52.42
3 Mile 7:39.17 22:31.59
4 Mile 7:33.22 30:04.81
5 Mile 7:23.08 37:27.89
6 Mile 7:32.29 45:00.18
7 Mile 7:24.74 52:24.92
8 Mile 7:31.68 59:56.60
9 Mile 7:25.12 1:07:21.72
10 Mile 7:19.19 1:14:40.91
11 Mile 7:17.3 1:21:58.21
12 Mile 7:08.84 1:29:07.05
13 Mile 6:49.13 1:35:56.18
13.1 Mi 1:02.29 1:36:58.47

Offical chip time 1.36.48

A race I will be doing again in the future for sure. Now I just need to work out how to beat this time!

Lochaber Marathon Training week 12

An easy week before my half marathon tomorrow.

On Monday I was feeling it a bit from Sunday but managed a good solid circuit session which lasted just over an hour. Circuits are weird for me, I don't do them that often maybe once a month but i find it really easy until I do my super circuit at the end where I try and do as much of each type of excercise as I can. I don't know if I'm just not doing enough per circuit or I've plateaued or I'm just doing it right??

Anyway Tuesday my shoes hadn't arrived yet so it was out with the trail shoes. I realised quickly that my trail shoes are now gubbed. I don't know if it is because they are not designed for concrete or because I have done enough mileage in them in the past year. So I just did an easy 3 miles as I really did think I might get an injury if I did anymore.

Good news is I got my new shoes on Wednesday so plenty of time to break them in before Sunday. I did an easy 10k on Wednesday just to not over do it in my shoes debut appearance.

On Thursday club night, they were doing one of the hardest sessions they do. I was planning to just turn up see if there was anything happpening with Alloa then go on my own jog. But Shelia and Yvonne were doing the half marathon on Sunday too, so we just did our own run. They are both very good runners so their easy pace was not too far off my half marathon pace. So it really was the perfect run for me before Sunday. We did 5 1/2 miles and were doing pretty much bang on 8 minute mile pace which equates to a 1.45 half mara time. I felt really comfertable and felt I could continue easily at that pace. This was shown through even more with my very quick recovery.

I think every one of my posts on training have gone something like 'Friday rest day'. Not this Friday though! For sports relief my work were doing a charity mile round the grounds of my work which equated to a good fun 1.35 mile loop. One of the guys from my department Alex joined me and I agreed to run with him as I didn't want to go all out before Sunday. After half a mile easy warm up we got to the start line. I was suprised that there was only 30 people there as the offices must hold over 4000 people. But there was 2 other start times so more might have been starting later. I said to Alex to go slightly ahead of me so I wasn't dictating the pace. We set off and immediatley we were at the front. I had no intention of competing or winning as I say I just wanted a steady run. But everyone seemed quite happy to run behind us. Which we did then my watched beeped to indicate a mile (which we thought was the full distance of the race) but we still had a bit to go to get to the finish. Alex was struggling and if it was a mile he would have been fine. Alex was slowing so I slowed and a guy went passed and was off. After the guy got about 20 metres ahead, Alex saw the hill coming up and just told me to go. So I hammered off up the hill having no intention of catching the first place guy and just continued back at the steady pace. I crossed the line in 10 minutes which was maybe a bit faster than I wanted to run but it was comfertable. I also finished second but I don't count it as it wasn't really a race and more for charity and getting people to excercise. Alex was 5th and did really well. It was a really nice route and I am tempted to start doing an easy 2 miler every Friday lunchtime, especially if Alex is up for it.

On to today, Saturday. I managed to sleep in and get up at 9.05 with the park run starting at 9.30am! I texted Richard just to say I am coming and got there at 9.20 with 10 minutes to spare. This week I was marshalling the start with Shirley who although volunteers a lot too, this is the first time our paths have crossed. We also did Funnel Management together which was fun clapping all the runners finishing with the occassional shout to make sure people stayed in order. Just a half mile run to the Parkrun today and that'll do before tomorrow.

I am really looking forward to Alloa for a couple of reasons. Half marathons at the moment are my favourite distance as having done 8 I getting quite experienced at them. Another reason is because this is my first half representing Giffnock and because its a club championship race for the women there will be a fair number of Giffnock Northers there. Including my Lochaber buddies, Steven and Jacqui who like me are using it as a warm up race for Lochaber. It will be interesting to see how they do and how close we'll be at Lochaber. The last reason is because I think this maybe the time where a beat my PB of 1.40.19 from 2004. I am not going to put pressure on myself though as I realise that there will be plenty more opportunities later in the year or years to come. As I say that run on Thursday indicates I should be able to do a 1.45 which was my season best last year, even if I beat that I'll be delighted. But there is always random factors and I've just got to keep an open mind and try and run at a pace which is comfertable but maxing it for the distance. Easiser said than done! But we'll see...

Lochaber Marathon Training week 11

This was meant to be another hard week, but due to a couple of things it ended up being an easy week.

After last Sundays 21.5 miler at record pace for me, Monday i decided to have a rest day. On Tuesday I was still feeling it but by the time the evening came for my run I felt ready to go. As soon as I started though I realised my shoes had, had it. I was thinking this on the Sunday but it was confirmed that night. So I decided to cut it short to 3 miles as didn't want to risk injury at this stage.

I ordered a new pair but has not arrived yet so I am currently using my trail shoes which seems to be ok. On the Wednesday night I did my 10k. Then Thursday night at the club it was surprisingly quiet. Our group ended up being only 6 people. Apparently the reason for this is because the sessions are now up on the website and people don't really like this session. Some say its too short, others feel they get enough speedwork at the track on a Tuesday night. As we were doing 6 times 600 metres. The first half is uphill, second half downhill. I was pleased with how it went and averaged 2 minute 15 second pace which is bang on what is expected for our group. Friday I had a rest day. Then Saturday I helped out at the Park run doing the timer. In the afternoon I went for a 4 1/2 mile jog.

And so to Sunday. I have been debating with myself all week whether I should be going to the club long runs after last week. I was thinking that they do between 11 and 15 mile runs where I am doing 20 -22 mile runs so they are focusing their pace on doing that mileage rather than the my mileage. However I had a thought about it and its the only way I am going to get faster so I'll just see how it goes. I was pleased to get up early enough again to do the club run. The first 2 miles to the club were hard as my legs were really heavy. But once I got going with the other guys I was fine. This week we did the Parks run which was Pollok Park, Maxwell Park, Queens Park, Hampden Park (they count it, lol), Kings Park and Linn Park. When we got to the top of Linn Park the guys started hammering it down the hill and we were going 7.30 pace and didn't slow down much on the hill back up to Clarkston road. When we got to Sainsburys my Lochaber amigos and myself decided to do an extra loop from there so we didn't get caught up in the sprint back to the club. Towards the end of the loop I started to struggle and when we did the extra Braidbar mile loop, Steven and Jacqui upped it and I had no intention of even trying to keep up. When we got back to the clubhouse, I looked at my watch at it was 16 1/2 miles. So I had a loo stop and thought I only had to do another 3 1/2 miles and that is me. I did and went round the tolls this time by myself as Steven and Jacqui had done more miles before this time. I struggled even more but kept running until the watch said 20 miles and stopped. Even with the gutting it out I still finished in 3 hours 3 minutes which was pleasing especially with all the pace pushing in the middle! Plus it was a lot hotter than last week which no doubt contributed.

This is the first long run in lochaber training that I have used shot blocs and NUUN again which seemed to work. Also I used my new waist pack to carry the shot blocs and I didn't notice it at all which is good so will probably use it in the race if i'm not wearing my rain jacket.

So overall 39 miles this week, not what I had planned but still pleased with how things are going. Next Sunday it is my race for March - Alloa half marathon. I am looking forward to it and will be interesting to see how close I can get to 1.40 or even beat my PB. I do think its a possibility. So even though I had an easy week this week, I am going to do another one this week with maybe a wee bit more mileage during the week but it will all be at an easy pace and hopefully I'll have some new shoes too!