Perspective

A stinker at Coledale:

To put this in perspective, when I was an under 14 I was narrowly beaten in the first of that summers English Champs junior races by one Joe Symonds, after sticking with him on the climb he had sped away on the descent on I was disappointed to finish 2nd but within sight of the winner.

14 years later I would have been glad to be able to see the leaders 5 mins into the race, let alone at the finish. A huge congratulations to Joe by the way, for that and his win at the 3 peaks, great to see, I hope he goes on to win the British champs this year. Anyhew, back to my story, so about 5 mins in as we start up Grisedale PIke, I suddenly realise I am along way from the Calder Valley and the scale of this climb (as my first senior mens race in the lakes) gets the better of me.

I managed to hold it together somewhat towards the summit and took a few places on the way down to Coledale Hause, but as I hit the soft grass before the climb up, my legs turned to jelly, my head went and the wheels started to come off....

....the rest of the race was a major struggle, I couldnt get going on the decent, something that in recent weeks at training I'd been doing really well, this knocked my confidence further and when the quads eventually started cramping up I was left to hobble down from Barrow like John Wayne after 8 Stellas and a Vindaloo.

I crossed the line dejected, not understanding what had gone wrong and slightly questioning my sanity about the whole thing. At this point I need to thank the Missus, who, despite seeing men twice my age and some more finishing a good deal before me, listened to me complain about the pain I had inflicted upon myself, beamed at me, laughed a little bit and then proceeded to tell me I need to do more training and run up bigger hills! Now back at the car I reflected on what she had said and did infact realise that despite having never been to a fell race before, she was absolutely spot on. My training had consisted of up to 20 miles a week, one or two runs on the fells and usually one more at home on flat-ish trails and footpaths. How then did I possibly think I could compete with the rest of the field or the Mountain for that matter, who deserved more respect than I had clearly shown it and it had of course, bested me quite comfortably.

So I have revised my targets, revised my training, and tried to apply a little perspective, I am where I am, if I want to get to where I want to be I will have to work hard and train more. Whether or not I can do it is another matter entirely, but it could be interesting trying to find out.....

Forthcoming Races

A quick one this morning, always good to share goals, targets, plans etc so heres my "wish list" for races for the rest of the year (English Champs highlighted in yellow)! 
 

Date	Race		Distance (km)	Ascent (m)
14th April	Coledale Horseshoe		13.7	915
2nd May	Flower Scar		6.4	427
7th May	Coiners		12.2	405
13th May	Calderdale Way Relay Leg 2		8.5	400
19th May	Shining Tor		10	450
16th June	Great Lakes		21	2130
22nd June	Wicken Hill Wizz		4.5	320
23rd June	Resevoir Bogs		13	460
24th June	Tom Tittiman		6.4	210
27th June	Cragg Vale		6.4	244
3rd July	Stoodley Pike		5	230
15th July	Kentmere Horseshoe		19.8	1006
4th Aug	Borrowdale		26	2000
18th Aug	Weasedale		14	610
15th Sep	Peris Horseshoe		28.2	2590
6th Oct	Good Shepherd		24	609
13th Oct	Langdale Horseshoe		21.2	1450
20th Oct	Race you to the summit		7	260
3rd Nov	Sheperds Skyline		10	350
11th Nov	Half Trog		14.8	433
9th Dec	Mytholmroyd		11.3	411

Enjoy your running, whatever you're doing and wherever it takes you!

I am racer.

Over the last three weeks, I've run 3 races, my first of 2012, my first in the Calder Valley Fell Runners club champs and my first English champs as a senior man!

Here's how they went:

Race 1 - Carding Mill Canter 7.8km/580m -  51/115-38% slower than winner
Race 2 - Windmills Whizz 11 km/250m - 52/105 finishers - 39% slower than winner
Race 3 - Lads Leap 9.6km/500m - 232/307 finishers - 47% slower than winner

Ok, the results aren't great, but then, I'm not a great runner. The results don't show a constant improvement and aren't all the same distance/difficulty so you can't say whether I ran faster in any of the three. What it shows is a % distance behind the winner, however considering the quality of the field was different in each of the three races and particularly in the engliush champs, is that relevant? Well I guess, yes it is, to a point, it shows how far off winning I am and over a period of time we'd like to see a downwards trend in that percentage; however  this doesn't consider if there were any race tactics employed by either myself or the front runners that could have changed their/my tempo, nor does it show where the rest of the field was in comparison, I could be 60 % behind the winner but if they won by 10 minutes from the 2nd place runner then it skews the results completely.

So what's the bloody point?! I think that whatever our ambition or standard it's only natural to try and make sense of our results and performance, to evaluate and reflect on each race and look for improvements, but my angle is that despite being in what is essentially a results orientated business, it is perhaps the qualitative feedback we get from our own body that is more useful for us, post-event.

Let me clarify that; I can't (and I don't know any amateur fell runners who can) analyse my blood lactate levels during a race. I could wear a HR monitor and do wear a GPS, but again my point is that useful during training this may be, when racing we have a different mind set, a race plan, other runners we may get stuck behind or pushed along by, navigation to contend with, varying degrees of weather and different courses on different surfaces and so on, so how can I finish a race and know if I've done well or not?

After race 1 I thought, "that was as hard as I expected, I'm fairly content with that run." A week later after race 2 (in which I hurt my calf after about half a mile) thought, "that was crap, I was really slow and struggled with that bit and this bit." However looking purely at results I was only 1% further off the winners pace than the previous week, even though I stopped for 30 secs or so to attend to my calf worries, yet at the time I'd have said I'd run much better in race 1. To compound this, after race 3, statistically further behind the winner than the 2 previous races, I went away happy, I knew what I'd done well and what I'd done badly and even how I thought I could improve, so was my mind playing tricks on me, had I run better, was my reflection worth any value?

In the first of my three races, I was struggling on the 2nd of 4 v.steep climbs, the next race I set off far too fast and spent most of the race going backwards. In the final race I set off at a good pace, climbed well on the first slope and paced myself on the 2nd climb to avoid hitting the wall like I had in race 1. Despite finally blowing up on a boggy stretch before the final descent and finishing some 30 places lower down than I had hoped I had corrected the mistakes made in race 1 and 2, which I knew straight away and is the reason I went away feeling happy on Sat afternoon?

Following race 1 I thought, "that was ok, race 2  isn't as steep, I should be fine." so when I wasn't fine it threw me off, I had finished in the top half and despite tweaking my calf I'd got around the race so there was stuff to be positive about but I didn't think about these things till after the race. The outcome being that during race 2 I was giving myself negative feedback about my performance which obviously had a negative impact on how I ran and thus my enjoyment and perception of my performance. Afterwards I reflected on the race and made a mental checklist of points that I wanted to take forward to race 3. Then in race 3, despite finding parts tough, I could gtive myself positive feedback during the event, praising myself for a nice steady start and consistent climbing, which got me in a much better frame of mind for the rest of the race, so ultimately even though the result may not reflect this, I feel overall that was by far my best performance of the three races and this has enabled me to again reflect positively about the run and set myself small psychological targets for my next race.

Practical implimentation. I now have a short mental list of things I want to try to achieve within a race, not qualitative stats like results, time etc, just short targets like the pace at the start, the tempo of the first climb, how hard I can push on flat sections, what to do on the second climb when it gets difficult. All thoughts, all feelings, all based on feedback I have given my body in previous races. I know if I achieve these things better than in previous races I will run better and feel better and enjoy it more, which will help me finish higher up and should correlate to improvements in my fitness.

Consider this, why do we run? If for enjoyment then why race? If we race because we like competition then what is it about competition we enjoy? Once you know this you can assess whether or not you were actually successful in your race because unless you are planning on winning what difference does your position really make? Why is 49th good and 50th bad, why does it matter if you finish in the top half, third or quarter? What if you felt terrible and didnt enjoy it but finished in the top half, in the next race you ran well but the field was much tougher and you came in the last third? This is why I beleive I can only judge my performance against how I felt it went, my little mental check list may not be a robust method of analysing performance but it provides me with feedback during and after a race and positive instructions before a race, it challenges me to improve constantly, because it's based on my own feedback, because racing goes beyond a number, beyond a time, beyond a position. It is a state of mind and provides an intrinsic motivation that no position or prize could ever manage. As long as I keep wanting to tick off that list, I will not be a runner, I am a racer.

Strength Training

I do have a road bike. I do not have the amount of free time needed to use it properly. Plenty of research suggests the merits of cycling as cross training for fellrunners, obvious cardiovascular benefits and so forth. However my 40 min - 1 hour decent run needs to be twice that to burn the same amount of Kcals or capture the same physiological response when cycling, time I do not have.




Back in Oct 2011 was my last post and it's been an interesting few months. I've seen steady improvement at the club runs but missed out on 3 races with the recurring calf debacle! Last week we did a night score at the club which was quality but destroyed the calf in the last mile or so sprint back to MCC to get in before the time limit and I havent run since....


However I've not been idle in this time!


I've been thinking about cross-training I can do when I'm injured, and then more specifically, strength training. I've also had a look at Crossfit and alot of these functional strength training initiatives, whilst it does seem to make sense and I can relate to the functional aspects of the training as well as the high intensity workouts; I find that a) My gym isn't really suitable b) When I'm recovering from a calf strain a lot of the movements are too difficult/painful and c) There is potential to feel a bit daft doing it in public.


So what's the alternative? At uni my dissertation focused on the impact of resistance training on anaerobic threshold but centred on the typical low weight-high reps premise, I wanted to know something different. For various reasons I'd come to the recent conclusion that I was lacking strength and  set about on a bit of literature research that has led me to believe that strength training shouldnt be a dirty word to distance runners but something that provides an accesible, achievable and worthwhile alternative session in our training diary.


Recent research is conflicting between the importance (or not in this case) of functional movement in strength training. Plenty of research suggests that strength training and in some cases heavy strebgth training has positive implications for endurance athletes. Namely injury prevention and running economy (leading to reduction in O2 consumption). Despite the recent boom in functional activities latest developments are in fact suggesting that there is no benefit to endurance training from functional movements above regular strength training, to the point that distance runners would be better advised to try and increase strength of  muscles in the most effective way they can and that this strength improvement is what transfers to running performance and not neuro-muscular patterns.


That's not to say that some of the recent developments such as kettlebell workouts and going back to the old school style of battle ropes, tyre pulls, prowlers etc isn't good for certain aspects of sports performance, it's just that for those with limited time or a limited like of doing anything that isnt fellrunning, there are better options for us! Furthermore, traditional forms of strength training such as leg extensions or curls are usually low-impact, low-aerobic activities that will do what it says on the tin, maximising the amount of time you are focusing on strength training and making a more efficient workout. Therefore if you can only committ to one or maybe 2 resistance or gym workouts a week, this is the one you should be doing!


To me this makes sense, particularly for fell running, leg strength is required for steep climbs and the stronger your legs are then the fewer motor units the muscle group needs to recruit  to make the required movement, all in all meaning less work to get you up the hill, simples! The functional aspect is not required because our legs are being taught to run with all the miles we put in!


So this is what I propose, I aim to complete the following session that I found on the http://www.discoverstrength.com/ website at least once to twice per week, nothing fancy, nothing new, just good old fashioned strength exercises and see what happens, have a go yourself, these workouts can be done in less than 30 mins at probably every gym in the country, so no excuses!


Select between 8-12 exercises (depending on stage of training, previous training etc) that will target all the body's major muscle groups; chest, upper back, glutes, shoulders, quads, hamstrings and calfs (if you can!!). Do 1 set of 8-15 repetitions to momentary fatigue (i.e. the point where you think you can't do anymore reps but after a little rest you actually can!). Then move on to the next exercise and do it again until all exercises are completed.


Let me know if you have a go, happy training!