Hypocrite? Hell yeah and I love it.

Started my London Marathon training this week.

I'm trying out a 20 week training plan based on the principal that I have the speed (ish) but lack the stamina at the full distance. The sight of me 'running' the last three miles of Abingdon and London marathons looking like I was carrying an elephant on my back probably illustrates that perfectly.

So, three days in and that's one steady run, one long run and one rest day. Nice to have a rest day so early on - I might even start with one next time.

Why does this training this make me a hypocrite? Well, back in March I wrote a break up letter to Marathon training. It all got a bit hard and a bit sore and bit repetitive and I stomped off like a hormonal teenager worried that his girlfriend is too good for him.

But then I did London. Not well, I'll grant you, and not without pain either but I enjoyed it. So I had the summer off, focusing on some fun triathlons (a mere holiday fling compared to the commitment of a runners' relationship with their sport) and I ran purely for enjoyment.

Now I'm ready to scrap again. So goals for this year:

1) More stamina - get those miles in

2) More strength and conditioning (for which you can read *some* Strength and Conditioning)

3) No junk miles - just four or five quality runs backed up with big rides on my bike

Things I have learned about running from the London Marathon

1.    Optimism is great but reality will get you in the end
          No matter how much I tried to convince myself that a torn hamstring three weeks before the event need not prevent me from running fast, the reality was that it stopped me running fast for 26 miles.

2.       The crowds are special

I have done a lot of races of distances from 5km to marathon but nothing – no matter how much people told me – prepared me for the roar of noise and the overwhelming positivity from the VLM crowd.  Cheers, posters, high fives all helped get me round. My favourite was a sign held aloft in Embankment which read simply ‘Motivational Sign’.

3.       Water bottles are lethal

I was staggered by the number of numpties who chose to simply drop a water bottle at their feet, leaving it to trip a fellow runner. I was one of those fellow runners and it ended my hopes of a moderately fast run. I was even more staggered by those who thought the best alternative was to launch water bottles – some of which were 90 per cent full – over the heads of runners. Of course it meant they avoided tripping fellow marathoners but the bottles became vicious missiles to the crowds of spectators. 

4.       Egos should be left at the start line

Nothing will prepare you for being overtaken by a runner in a large fancy dress costume. It is a peculiar kind of damage to your self-image.

5.       Mental toughness isn’t everything

No matter how I willed myself to run faster, I couldn’t overcome the cramp in my hamstrings, the pain in my foot or the tightness in my leg. Taming the chimp is all very well but the body has a say too.

6.       Marathoner’s mirages are real

You can imagine the strangest things. As my mate Nathan  pulled away from me at mile 15 he looked like a young Haile Gebrselassie, gliding away like a gazelle. In fact Nathan more closely resembles the experimental progeny of The Thing and She-Hulk. It is a highly effective running style though and he gave me a proper spanking.

7.       Training pain soon forgotten

I swore off marathons forever in March, inspiring this breakup letter. Within seconds of finishing I had decided to claim my Good For Age spot in 2017 and break that 3hr mark.

The fall out from pre-marathon injury

So the fall-out has fallen out and the dust has settled. The sun has set and the clichés have clichéd on my London Marathon 2015 bid.

After 14+ weeks of solid training, during which I actually started to convince myself I was going to run really well, I suddenly suffered a knee injury. 

On the Saturday I ran a PB at Park Run Harcourt Hill and it hurt a small amount, on Sunday I attempted Eynsham Duathlon and it hurt a large amount. That afternoon it seized up and for two days I could barely walk on it.

I had some physio, I Rested, Iced, Compressed and Elevated but two days before the event I was still unable to run more than 500metres without pain.

The good news is that I have deferred my place to next year so need for the ballot.

At first it was hard to pinpoint exactly what caused the injury. Liz Soames, the excellent therapist I saw, has given me some exercises to do to provide extra stability and strength in the key areas as she pinpointed a weakness in those areas and I know that I ‘run crooked’ by dropping my right shoulder as I run (particularly when tired - see the picture to the right).

Those will help a lot and should help increase my speed – particularly over longer distances. But I think that the cause of the injury was far more elementary than that and identifies more stupidity on my part. 

I had two pairs of trainers on the go (same make and model); one new and one older. Without really taking notice I had used the older pair for all of my long runs and a good portion of the medium runs to work. The newer pair had been used for speed work.

When I sat down and worked it out, the older pair is now probably almost 18 months old. If I estimate an average of 20 miles per week in that time, those trainers had seen me through almost 1,500 miles.

When I examined the soles I could see that the instep side of the forefoot and heel were very badly worn which must have put considerable extra pressure on my knee.

What a basic mistake to make.

Still. No point crying about it. There are still events this year including Blenheim, Boscombe and Oxford triathlons and I have an entry for Abingdon Marathon in October.

And, while I didn’t make the final destination of my training, I have really enjoyed the journey. I am fitter than ever before, I have rekindled old friendships and made new connections. I have loved blogging and reading other’s blogs and two people have messaged me to say they had been inspired to start running and are really enjoying it.

Kill or Cure - a runner’s mentality

I even managed a half decent pic! (c) Barry Cornelius

I had a 10km race this weekend and, as luck would have it, a cold.*

Not a horrific body-shuddering dose of 'flu but a nagging head cold and sore throat that plagued me from Wednesday and was still setting off alarms when I woke up on the morning of the race on Sunday.

I had eased up during the week to compensate on the basis that I had done a great base of six weeks training including a total of 65 miles the week before.

As expected, my mind started to play tricks on me and tell me that I was stuffing up all my training (you can read more about my warped mind here and here). The truth was that I still managed nearly 30 miles including two very good interval sets and two strong 12km runs.

But I still awoke on the day of Bourton 10km with a raw throat and blocked nose. But me and two running buddies headed off in good spirits and my motto for the day was ‘Kill or Cure’ - I was determined to come back with proof that my marathon training was still on track or keel over.

Of course, being an experienced 10k runner I listened to everything I had read and discovered for myself as the race began.

Or at least, that is what I was hoping to write, the reality was that I shot off like a rocket. I smashed out the first kilometre in 3.30 and felt the exhilaration of being in the leading pack before someone appeared to attached weights to my heels and strap on a 30kg pack to my back.

I managed to keep pushing out sub four minute kms but people flowed past me until the halfway point. I even slipped to a couple of 4.01 kms at 6 and 7 but then my marathon training kicked in and I started to claw back some of the people who had overtaken me earlier.

I could feel the cold take hold about 8kms but by then I knew I could hang on and have a good run. l couldn’t push on and really let rip but I managed to find a solid pace. 

I really noticed a difference due to the coaching I have had for three weeks at the Oxford Tri track session. I had a mental checklist of technique checks which made me straighten up and stretch out my stitch.

Someone caught me - another triathlete - with about 400m to go and I hung on for a while but my usual strength had gone I had to let him go. It was a dent to the pride as one of my few highlights is a finishing kick that rarely gets beaten.

I crossed the line in 39.28; a personal best by 13 seconds. Not as good as I had hoped but better than I had feared.

Bourton didn’t kill me but, as I write this and feel like my head is stuffed with cotton wool, it didn’t cure me either.

Now to get fully back on the marathon training and focus on the next race - the 20km Great Northern in Derby. It’s organised by Punishing Events who put on the excellent Ashbourne Duathlon so I am really looking forward to it.

*  Caution - this post contains traces of sarcasm.

No fitness resolutions this year

2015 marks the first January in a decade none of my New Year’s Resolutions have anything to do with exercise.

Me (Number 3) at Eynsham 10k in 2014 - showing the need to work on my game face.

Picture by Barry Cornelius

For the last 10 years I have always pledged to run more, swim more, bike more, stretch more, squat more or some such exercise-related promise. Not this year. This year feels different because I’m different.

In the last 12 months I’ve transitioned from someone who wants to get fit and maybe get a Personal Best in the odd race to an athlete whose fitness is a constant 80 %. I am now motivated to top that up with a structured training plan in the build up to a race; as evidenced by the fact I PB’d in every triathlon I completed in 2014.

I compete in five or six triathlons a year but running has become a stronger-and-stronger discipline for me. I finally ducked under the 40minute mark for a 10km in November 2013 with a 39.41 and have kept my pace at about that ever since (actual times vary owing to course profile, weather, course length etc).

But the biggest event in 2015 – my A Race to use the proper phraseology – will be the London Marathon. I have entered eight times and thought that I was destined never to get in but finally I received the long-awaited acceptance magazine.

So this meant my motivation was even stronger over Christmas – traditionally a period when my hard-earned fitness drops considerably – and this year I managed to limit the calorie intake while keeping up three runs a week over the Christmas fortnight.

I have mapped out a 16-week training plan based upon, but not strictly adhering to, those found in Runners World. I have a 10km race at the end of February and a 20km race booked for the end of March and am interested to see how fast I can go with serious training to build on 12 months of consistent fitness.

That’s where my New Year’s Resolution of 2015 also comes in. I am a writer by trade, for newspapers and magazines, a blogger for fun but one who has let life overcome the urge to write for far too long. What better to blog about than how much I’m enjoying the build up to the London Marathon?

This blog won’t just be populated by my training talk – I am far too opinionated to let other opportunities pass me by – but it has been the spark I needed to get writing.

Thanks for reading. Comment if the spirit moves you.