Revision timetables

Many years ago when doing my GCSEs and A-levels I seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time planning my revision.  Developing a training plans for running has re-ignited that strange, creative passion for carefully categorising and then colouring things in. 

With the aid of Fetcheveryone and Excel it is much easier and I can even plan which route I'm going to run months in advance!  Of course with revision, my time spent planning far exceeded the time I actually spent revising. As I struggled to run last weekend, I started wondering whether training plans were just a new way of planning badly.   There's about 4 years worth of training plans lying around the bowels of my PC.  Looking back it's clear that despite some plans being more successful than others, my mileage totals do suggest training was undertaken.  Whereas my academic qualifications suggest that wasn't perhaps the case with revision.  

Smart training?

A colleague at work is always badgering me about being SMART about targets I set and that's certainly relevant to training plans but it's a different type of smart I'm thinking about.  As I've already mentioned I failed dismally to get out over the weekend which meant I ended up missing a longish run and then an 8 mile 'fartlek' session on Monday.  Over the years I've read various articles, and from that established that you can't 'catch up' lost training runs by doing more.  You just end up getting injured or over tired which then means you end up missing even more.  So Tuesday night I tried something a little different (for me).  I incorporated some hill work circuits into the early part of what was described in my plan (coloured in black) as - 10 mile 'general running'.  The logic being that the hills would help improve strength. After the hills I'd have to carry on for the rest of the run fairly fatigued and that would help with the stamina?  So in Ben's world theory I would get more benefits than just a general run.  Whether my logic is actually good logic remains to be seen but it certainly made me feel better for missing a few sessions.  

What do I call hill circuits?

After a warm up, I ran to an area where I could do a short hilly or sloped loop. As it happens the uphill section of the loop lasted about 50-60 seconds, I then ran downhill on another road and then completed the loop with a nice flat bit. The total lap lasted about 2m20s. I ran hard(ish) uphill, jogged down hill and then what you might call comfortable pace on the flat bit. After that I ran off and did 7.5 painful miles finishing off, by accident, doing one more steep climb to the end.  My conclusion today is that different bits of me ache which suggests that the session probably did some good.  Next time I'll try and find a longer but less steep hill which I think would be better.  I say next time because I'm going to try and be flexible with my training plan. There's no point worrying about sessions that I miss because life gets in the way.

In other news I've finally entered the Great Bentley half in Feb and sadly I had to miss the last Third Blind mice trail run. 

Chicken!

With 17 weeks to go to the Milton Keynes Marathon, the training plan officially starts NOW, or more accurately on New Years Day.  So far I'm already behind by a few miles as I missed a long(ish) run earlier in the week.  On Tuesday I was about to go for a quick lunchtime run and made the mistake of looking out the window before getting changed.  The rain was horizontal, the water coming out of the fountain at work was landing about 10 ft away from the pond... Hmm 'maybe I'll wait till after work instead'. The weather didn't improve and nor did my motivation to get blown about or hit by flying fences.  

Wednesday was slightly less windy and a constructive 9 miles were clocked up on some nice quiet lanes near Maldon. 

The plan for the rest of the week is a gentle 5 miles (recovery run) tomorrow at some point, 7miles off road on Saturday, and then whatever I can manage Sunday following the final Christmas get together the night before.  That's assuming I don't get scared of the wind again. 

I'm a dreamer

Since I started running I've always fancied the idea of running a proper 'adventure race', like I say I do like a dream.  I've been following the Jungfrau marathon (Switzerland) on facebook for ages and occasionally I have a bit of a peek at at the information and decide, nope I'm not quite ready for that.  The course profile alone makes my legs want fill with lactic acid!  I also found this virtual course today after the organisers sent me a FB message enticing me to sign up.


Two generations of my family have been to Interlaken on school trips that involved a train ride up the Jungfrau at some point and for that reason alone the idea of this race just tugs at the heart strings.  But then a bit of realism kicks in and I remember that I live in one of the flattest parts of the country and let's be honest I'm a bit lazy.

So for now at least, I shall just continue to dream and look at these pictures.  I think awesome is word that is a bit overused by 30 somethings like me in describing various 'extreme pursuits' but that word is apt for these.  And this race is going on the list of stuff to do before I'm 40.

The highest point on the course 2205

Finish! 

 Hopefully this will serve as a distraction from the fact that I had a CBA day on Sunday and didnt run my planned 15... Hmm

Second Blind Mouse

When trail racing, knowing your left from your right is very handy, reading the instructions helps too.  These are lessons that I learnt (or didn't learn) last night on the second stage of the 'Three blind mice'.  A series of navigational errors or school boy blunders meant I ended up running 6.97 miles, according to my Garmin, as opposed to the planned 5.5 miles.  It didn't help that I sped off up the road from the Queen Victoria past the footpath that was the start of the 'trail'.  It really didn't help that I didn't turn back for about 3 minutes. Being 6 mins down before the first trail is not a great way to begin.  The next few miles were okay, I was either focused on the instructions or following someone, Roy, that I knew could read the instructions.  My 5th mile was a spiral of decline.  I'd lost Roy to the darkness but was quite a way in front of another group.  I entered a field the instructions said SA which translates to straight ahead. This confused me.  Straight ahead from where? I went straight ahead from the gate, then straight ahead to the field corner, then straight ahead to another gate..... My Garmin trail shows the confusion.  Eventually someone that could read instructions caught up, so I followed them for a bit.  We then got on a road section so I decided to try and recapture some lost time, a great idea if I turned left at the junction as instructed instead of right... Eventually I got back to the pub in 1:14 and as it turns out 35 place. Roy won (again) - well done to him.  For me it was a longer run than expected but really great fun. Helped by the sense of humour of the Striders who delighted in putting a clipper point in the middle of a stream.  

I'm sure there's some scientific reason why trail running is great training, but for me its just a fun way of getting miles under the belt with bursts of speed and bursts of going round in circles.  Alternative intervals almost!  Next time out - I AM going to read the instructions.

Another 8

Quick run around town this evening after work. 8 miles and 7:51min mile average which aint too bad given the 16miles on saturday.

16 miler - TICK

Okay so it wasn't that pretty in terms of performance but it wasn't about speed it was about miles.  In the end I stayed on the roads for all but about 3 miles in the middle which was the bit along the sea wall to the Chapel, and it was definitely a nice run.  Sea walls in the middle of nowhere are always feel strange to me. On one side you have the natural bleak beauty of the Essex salt marshes and on the other side manicured mono-culture.  I suppose in its own way, that's quite nice to look at too.

So my first attempt at a long run for a while and I'm really pleased with my pacing from Miles 7 to 14 which (interesting to me) include the off road sections.  I really struggle holding a pace and seem to fluctuate randomly unless I'm running fairly hard.  So for anyone interested (?) here's my split times.


1) - 1m - 8:55(8:55/m) - 123cal 
2) - 1m - 9:21(9:21/m) - 119cal 
3) - 1m - 9:06(9:06/m) - 119cal 
4) - 1m - 9:17(9:17/m) - 118cal 
5) - 1m - 9:33(9:33/m) - 120cal 
6) - 1m - 9:18(9:18/m) - 118cal 
7) - 1m - 8:47(8:47/m) - 116cal 
8) - 1m - 9:00(9:00/m) - 115cal 
9) - 1m - 8:54(8:54/m) - 119cal 
10) - 1m - 8:54(8:54/m) - 119cal 
11) - 1m - 9:06(9:06/m) - 115cal 
12) - 1m - 9:01(9:01/m) - 119cal 
13) - 1m - 9:03(9:03/m) - 118cal 
14) - 1m - 9:27(9:27/m) - 119cal 
15) - 1m - 10:35(10:35/m) - 113cal (I stopped to look at the view here although that was an excuse really). 
16) - 1m - 9:10(9:10/m) - 115cal 
17) - 0.29m - 3:53(13:16/m) - 32cal


Apparently I burnt up 1917 calories in total which explains how I demolished a massive bowl of couscous half hour after returning.  
Looking forward to next week, Im aim for a 8miler on monday, I have the second of the 'Three Blind Mice' trail runs on Wed, and then another long one on Sunday. Im sure I'll try and get in a 4-5 miler on either Thursday or Friday too.

Mapping

Over the last few weeks I haven't quite managed to get my mileage up as much as I had hoped but tomorrow I'm going to attempt a nice gentle 16-17 (ish) miler out on the marshes.  What better way then to spend a Friday evening than mapping various potential routes?
At 7.40pm this evening the favourite option is a run along St Peter's Way to St Peter on the Wall, an ancient church right on the waters edge. Its a pretty bleak place but if the weather turns out as expected it could be a pretty special run - I may even remember to take the camera.  The only thing thats worrying me a bit is how much Essex clay will be attached to my shoes by the time I get there.  The plan is to just go out and run gently at about 9-9:30 min mile pace. We'll see how that goes.

Whilst I was typing this I noticed that I have been linked from the Milton Keynes Marathon training page.  As a new comer to blogging it's really exciting to get a proper external link - so thanks MK marathon people.  I better keep writing now.