Friday 29 May 2009

Afternoon all,

SD:  Great achievement getting the green number, and a great report.  I can't believe you're already looking forward to next year!

Clink:  Sorry to hear about the family illness, but good to have you back.  I think you're somewhat pre-empting my return. 

Mava:  Welcome back.  Sounds  good holiday, and you kept the streak going too!

TT:  When are you traveling?

Scobos:  Wish I could have a bad day at the office and clock 35

• What:  11m
• Why:  General aerobic.  Friday has become get out of the comfort zone day.  Although the heat and wind did that quite nicely. 
• Last Hard:  1/1
• Last Rest:  15/5

Have a good one!

i think you undersell yourself AF , can't believe your last hard was 1/1 either, seem to have been putting in a fair effort ?

alehouse - the slight uphill road section from the front of the mansion house is great for 1k reps ...
especially in heat like this

scobos - solid 2nd place team with a 35.41 , decent enough session  when you're not feeling right. hope the knee is ok for tomorrow
mightos - how did your 10k go? sounds like it's a good one

JH - all the best for edinburgh, sorry to hear you've had some problems

Mava - welcome home. sounds like my idea of a good holiday - nice weather, nice drink and nice training

hilly - i hope to be at the sale sizzler on 23rd july so we may get to have a proper chat without the hectic rushing around of the relays

40 mins - all set for 10th june then, the twisty one can serve as a bit of a dummy run to get your racing head on

sharkie - great new pic - like a dancing fairy, very dainty and bouncy ! good session last night - you're on fire at the moment

got out for 5.2 miles this morning before it got really hot. very nice
got locked out which reminded me of the nightnurse incident except i think she's run about 20 miles and it was a blizzard !

thanks for the well wishes everyone, down to earth moments when things like this happen, always feel grateful i'm not stuck in a hospital bed and appreciate the mundanity (is that a word?) of ordinary life. i think she'll be in a week or so and then need a lot of rest

where's that 5k report pammie ?

I've no room left in my current hand written log book so this week found myself composing what became a monster essay on my Mac. I mainly wrote it for myself but hope (think) at least some of you will find it interesting. Basically it's a bit of a dissertation on the nature of training and racing, and the physical and mental processes involved.

Well, perhaps. Basically it's just me rambling.
But I will stick it in here on a Friday night.
It is long!

Reps and Racing
I've attempted to explain Sunday morning's brilliant track session. (24th May) Now I've finished writing and editing I realise that I rarely analyse so thoroughly or carefully. I usual just scribble off the top of my head in my log book or, if it's for public consumption, try and make it entertaining. So this is quite a useful exercise in itself.

It was one of those sessions where Pete specifies different distances in order to elicit the correct amount of effort for each individual. The group all help each other this way too - it invariably works very well if you let it.

In my case I am learning to judge how close I need the next group to be before I start. At the moment 10-20 metres seems to get the best results, although it partly depends on the original length of the reps. I think the shorter the rep then the closer I should let them get to me - but I'm not entirely convinced. There may be some complicated maths, or is that physics, involved.

So:
Lee ran 400 - 300 - 400 - 300- 400
Guy 350 - 300 - 350 - 300 - 350
Pete E, Pete G, Jo and Claire 300 - 250 - 300 - 250 -300
and me 250 - 180 - 250 -180 - 250

I never get away quick - or properly - as I have to twist round to see the approaching runners and then make my somewhat arbitrary decision to start.

On the initial 250 I guess I held Jo off 'til about 150. I could tell she was behind me, then level, and then I held on for 80-100 metres. Crikey - yes I did. It is a brilliant feeling to run in tandem with Jo. She is only an inch or so taller than I am but has a much more powerful style. I imagine our stride length should be similar although she always outdoes me at stride count exercises, I suspect this is to do with power.

A fleeting feeling went through my head, 'Has she slowed down to allow me to do this?' and perhaps, just perhaps, that was the point where I lost it. I must learn to banish these demons.

Finished the rep 5 -10 metres behind her - although all these measurements are somewhat hazy. Jo was breathing very heavily and fairly wiped out, hands on knees she called across to me, "That was hard - you were really going for it. Well run."

next bit

All the other reps the two Petes were quicker than Jo - more proof, if it's needed, that she wasn't easing off on the first 250-300. It is only by going over the session in this much detail I have been able to see how groundless - and counterproductive - my fears and self doubt were.

The next reps: 180, 250, and 180 followed a similar pattern although I couldn't keep pace with the two Petes once they accelerated to overtake me. They both claimed I made them work really hard to overtake, as every time they thought they'd closed the gap I seemed to get faster. They must have accelerated more than Jo to pass me, which may be part of the explanation why I couldn't keep pace with them - even for a few strides. But I only finished a few metres behind, not much in it. Pete G. said they were running 28 pace - meaning for 200m - (he's a gadgets and stats man) and as I wasn't far off their pace, that is really encouraging.

Relevant Aside
Captain Kirk said something similar to me the day before I ran my recent 100 PB. He said he was running 15 second pace for his 150 rep. I had joined in at 100m and he couldn't catch me. I kept quiet about it at the time because Kirk is a bit of a one with his theories and calculations - but I did take heart from it for my race the following day. A bit of positive thinking.

I knew at the end of this Sunday session I had run really well. I wasn't sure about the final rep because I felt I had just about reached my limit on the previous four. I didn't know how productive it would be but decided to give it a go. So - final 250. I reached the 100 start when the two Petes started overtaking me. I had held them off but knew I really did have nothing left at that point so I hopped neatly off the track and walked the final 80 metres or so. Job done.

Something I particularly noticed was that I only experienced how hard I had run AFTER each rep - when each time I was all in, had to just keep walking around or leaning on things, stomach and ribs and abs feeling it. Not legs so much. I needed all of the recovery offered - and so did everyone else. But I didn't feel the pain while I was running - not really - which makes me think I was doing something right. Like relaxing, like being right IN it.
 

last bit

It's now four days later, and last night I raced 200 metres. I tried to take the positive feelings from Sunday to my race, I was sure my 35 second PB was a soft target. But it didn't quite work out. It was a damp, cold and windy night and I let the head wind on the home straight affect me - although everyone said I kept going right over the line and looked smooth. I was pretty sure I would win because there was only me and the woman I had convincingly beaten over 100 a few weeks ago. Although 1s and 2s are different babies of course.

Possibly even more than the wind, the fact that I was six seconds ahead of my rival must have made a difference. I was sure I was trying as hard as I could, I knew I was running for a PB. And yes I got a squidgy little one, but I didn't run the sub 34 and beyond I feel I am capable of.

I think there's a key difference from Sunday. Towards the end of the race I could feel the effort in my legs and I was conscious of 'trying'. So I might l have looked fairly relaxed - but I wasn't. But after the race was over I was nothing like as all in as I had been even after the very first rep.

I don't have stats to prove it but I remain convinced that I ran faster - and better - on Sunday.

So what's the answer? My guess is that I have to run more and more reps where I relax into keeping up Jo's pace until it becomes second nature to run that fast. Big dose of self belief has to be in there to do that. Only then will I be able to reproduce it in a race whatever the conditions or competition.

Amazing SD, well done on the green number, great report too

Clink, hope all works out health wise for family member.

Thats what you call analysis Sharkie... wow.

I had the rare pleasure of running with Mrs RFJ this morning for a very beautiful 4.75m

Slow Duck - report well worth waiting for. It had everything, the competitive edge, the ability to turn off your own pain and help others, and of course the green number! Fantastic support from Tristan and former Japanese Olympian.

Clink - best wishes to your family member - not good when someone in the family is not well.

The weather here is not too bad at the moment, but there is a warning there will be snow in some areas on Sunday. Unfortunately one of our top marathoners has come home to run Christchurch marathon and the conditions are supposed to be pretty bad.

Pammie - good to get out there - nice to catch up with friends too. Always next month.

Hilly - good luck with the 5k pb.

RFJ - good to see you are including all your family in your running.

Sharkie - There is a book written about NZ runners called "Kiwis can fly". I once heard a girl say after a she'd run a good track race, "I know what that feels like now". She was a middle distance runner, but I can see where you are coming from.

Tipp Top - good luck.

What: 2 miles - mainly on the grass.

Good running everyone.

JH - say hi if you see me (#15, though it's got my name where the number should be - Russell - number in small on the side). Green vest with 2 diagonal blue stripes.

AF - tomorrow morning @ ~11. Just started bagging up and checking now (this is organised for me, I'd normally remember about breakfast time tomorrow!).

Cheers NZC.

Pammie - overtaking, but not overtaken sounds like you ran stronger than most around you to me.

I've got 1 x 4m jog to do tomorrow am, and will be heading for the airport shortly afterwards, so may not get a chance to check in. Then by the time I get home Sunday night I'll be straight off to bed before leaving the house for 7 nights in Cuba  at about 4:30am Monday morning, so best of luck to all other racers, etc for the next while (I will make sure I post up at least my time and a happy/unhappy comment at some stage before heading to Cuba though).

Good runnings all

Go for it TT

Congrats SD

What: 6.5M - half a track session + recovery jog - feeling tired after a hard week
Why: Good question
Last Hard: Wednsdays track session
Last Rest: Monday

Belated good news in that I did get first Berks CC MV40 at Wokingham - so the run in the sun last w/e was particularly worthwhile - -would celebrate but I'm in a losing weight phase and I haven't run far enough

Looking forward to hearing the reports from Edinburgh mara 

Back from the time trial. Haven't got the official time yet but I was just about 23:00 dead, maybe a second or so under. Not too bad for 3.5 miles. I'm not where I thought I was (was wondering if I could do 22 minutes), but nothing to be ashamed of to do 23:00 as a first go after only 6 weeks of training. The race was off-road too and was quite twisty.

I had no idea what to expect at all, and probably started too quickly as I was really hanging on for the second half of the race. I felt like I was slowing down massively but I only lost 2 positions in the second half so it probably wasn't that bad. Perhaps better pacing might have seen me go a bit quicker.

However, I know where I'm starting from now and hopefully there's lots of improvement to come from here. I think I finished 46th out of 192, so fairly respectable. Standard seemed quite high, I think the nice weather tempted everyone to run!

Cheers MG. Will do Massive congrats on the county title

AB - well done also. Nothing wrong with that time at all, especially in this heat.

It was indeed hot! I've got the bug now though, looking forward to another race. Hopefully an 8k race in 3 weeks time (Summer Solstice race). TT, just to put your mind at rest I was in plenty of pain! Interestingly my legs felt absolute fine (and still do) but my lungs couldn't go any faster.

I tend to feel that I'm putting in the right amount of effort if I know that I can keep going, but I feel as though I really don't want to!

Good luck TippTop. Hope I haven't missed you. Run a stormer sunshine!

Other racers can wait til tomorrow for their speed-ons. I guess.