2010 was largely a write off for me in running terms. I began the year in good shape, with the focus being a good run in the Marrakech Marathon where I felt a personal best was possible.
As can be read elsewhere on this blog, the race didn't go well. I felt I had trained well enough for it, but snow and ice had obliterated the racing calendar, so I didn't get the chance to pin a number on and mix it on the roads in preparation for the 26.2 miles.
I also feel on reflection I didn't properly execute key sessions in the build up. My IT band was playing up from Christmas until the January 31st race, and this compromised things lots.
I'll admit that after Marrakech I lost focus. I was injured and fed up.
I took some downtime, never not running, but not doing much. My groin felt all wrong, the IT band problem persisted, I was nearly 36 and felt maybe I should pack up racing. Always run, but not the specific training needed to race properly. My mental state was that I was unlikely to push any of my personal bests further out there, so a huge slice of my motivation was lost.
Late in the summer I managed to get a few weeks under my belt, but I never felt properly fit or in the groove. I raced once, a poor 10 mile performance at Welwyn Garden City in September. I won, but the standard was very poor, and 55 minutes used to be a training run. Shortly after this my Achilles started playing up on a 10 miler.
Around this time my training petered out again. I ran a few times in October and November, no structure. I was decorating in the house and getting out for runs was a real chore. I've been running since I was 15 and was at my lowest ebb with it at this time.
My mood was compounded by a woeful run in the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon early in December. A gift from my boss, I travelled out with a party of blokes, upper class on Virgin.
We left hours late due to the freezing conditions. I had decided to go on the trip as early as May when I thought there was a glimmer of hope I'd run the Marathon. However, I was now entered into the Half Marathon, with an elite number. I had been averaging 25 miles per week of steady running and was committed to the race as this was an expensive gift to me.
What followed in that half Marathon embarrassed me to my core. I ran to 8 miles in just over 5m 30s pace. At 8 miles the wheels came off and I painfully jogged in to record 1h 17m 52s. This was my slowest half Marathon since my first experience of the distance at Watford in February 1992, aged 17. The week I passed my driving test. Over half a lifetime ago.
After the Vegas half I ached for days. I threw away the Nike Marathoners I ran in because it seemed that since I'd bought them I'd had nothing but bad experiences with my running.
Work had been difficult with some big changes, and I totally embraced the Christmas break. It was that break which I am sure has reignited my racing ambitions.
Although it was snowing and bitterly cold, I started getting some 'proper' runs in and strung a few days together. For the first time in months, I was injury free and actually felt like running and racing. I started clipping off some miles around Bedford with my mate Matt Janes and it felt good. I even did a few sessions with Tony Simmons' group in Luton and was bang into it again.
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| 12th in Chiltern XC |
Sooner than I thought I decided to race and put myself on the start line of the Chiltern League XC at Luton midway through January. I've never been a great XC runner, definitely not in recent years.
I surprised myself, fearing a finish in the mid 40s, I was 12th and felt great. I left a group of guys for dead in the final minutes of the race and flew up the steep hill towards the end. 12th in a Chiltern League is no great shakes, but I was well pleased and bang up for the Southern XC at Parliament Hill two weeks later.
I put in another two weeks of sound training, some sessions thrown in, including a long session on the mud with Matt Janes and Rob Heaney. Suddenly, on a bitterly, bitterly cold North London afternoon I found myself on the start line of the Southern XC for the first time since 2004.
I've had mixed fortunes at Parliament Hill over the years. I was a decent 20th in the Southerns in 1999 and 2000. I had a lousy run in the Southerns again in 2004, coming 52nd. I had a distinctly average run at the National there in 2009, coming 98th. For my road performances these aren't great finishing positions, but worth tracking nonetheless.
My run was extremely satisfying. I started well enough, I didn't offer any heroics, just settled into the 50s for the first two laps of three, totalling 15km – the longest Championship XC out there. I ran the mid section of the race with Andy Rayner of Blackheath & Bromley and together we toughed it out. The going was much less muddy than I'd expected, and it suited me much more than the slop of previous years.
Up front my team mate Neilson Hall was running away with the victory, and as expected my club Bedford & County AC were leading the team race. I knew I was 7th scorer behind Neilson, Darren Deed, Rob Heaney, Dan Dalmedo, Steve Robinson and Owain Matthews. I had expected this to be the case as they were all fitter than me and more suited to the mud. I'm a 36 year old road specialist – when fit.
However, on that last lap I started to feel superb and left Rayner (eventually 48th) before going past Owain, who to be fair was having a bad day of it. I was flying through the field and didn't want the race to end.
Up front my team mate Neilson Hall was running away with the victory, and as expected my club Bedford & County AC were leading the team race. I knew I was 7th scorer behind Neilson, Darren Deed, Rob Heaney, Dan Dalmedo, Steve Robinson and Owain Matthews. I had expected this to be the case as they were all fitter than me and more suited to the mud. I'm a 36 year old road specialist – when fit.
However, on that last lap I started to feel superb and left Rayner (eventually 48th) before going past Owain, who to be fair was having a bad day of it. I was flying through the field and didn't want the race to end.
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| Finishing Southerns in 40th place |
This was beyond what I expected to be honest. Just weeks before I had literally plodded around a Half Marathon in Las Vegas, ashamed of myself, and here I was back to respectability in the Southern XC. Again, like the Chiltern I hadn't ripped up any trees, but was personally very, very satisfied as I thawed out in the Dartmouth Arms with a pint of Guinness and my club mates and my wife.
The difference now was that I had my proper 'running head' on again. I think since I turned 30 injuries have became more and more common, and my mentality is such that I get very down.
In my 20s for some reason I found it easier to work through injuries because I had so much time to get fit again. Latterly I've felt that maybe getting back to 'real' race fitness after injury is a bigger ask due to my work and family commitments being bigger than they were in my 20s when running was all I was interested in. Work was a distant second (or third, after Arsenal).
I've never been a big mileage man, I seem to operate at my optimum on 80-90 miles per week – more than that and I get injured (2002, 2005, 2009), or my race performances suffer dramatically (2010). I toyed with upping this in recent years when I have been able to consistently train, but one niggle after another became a long term injury which sapped my resolve.
Since I seem to be getting fit again I've sorted out a race diary over the next few months and the feature is more XC and more races for my club. I'd like to approach some personal best performances over the longer stuff, but realise this won't be easy.
My last two weeks training:
17 Jan – 9.2 miles in 55:37
18 – AM 5.1 miles, PM 2.5 mile warm up – 3 x 1 mile, 2 x 1km, 2 x 800m all on road. Did the milers in 5:00, 5:05 and 5:09, 1km in 3:06 and 3:05, 800s in 2:29 and 2:24. 90s recoveries and 2.5 mile warm down
19 – 8 miles easy in 51 mins
20 – AM 5.1 miles at 7 min pace, PM 11 miles with Janesy in 71 mins21 – 6.4 miles steady
22 – AM 3 mile warm up, XC session at Denham Golf Course with Matt Janes and Rob Heaney: 17:51 hard (3:40 rest) 10:38 hard (2:30 rest) 7:10 hard (1:43 rest) 7:11 hard (1:30 rest) 4 x 1 min hard (45 secs rest) then 3 miles warm down, PM 5 miles easy
23 15.1 miles in 92 mins88 miles
24 – 11 miles with Janesy in 71 mins
25 – AM 5.1 miles at 7 min pace, PM 6 miles steady
26 – 9.2 miles
27 – AM 6.4 miles easy, PM 6.4 miles easy
28 – 4 mile jog in cold
29 – Southern XC Championship - 40th in 52:34
30 – 20 miles easy in 2:15
80 miles
Next up is the Watford Half Marathon on 6th February. A race I won in 2008, resulting in the organiser giving me race number 1 for this year. No pressure then.