After finishing 7th at the end of January in the North Yorkshire Schools race and therefore missing out on top 6 autmatic qualifcation by 1 place, I have had the tedious task of waiting to see whether I got one one of the final 2 places for North Yorkshire's team to run at the English Schools XC Championships in Manchester. I am delighted to say that last night I got an email from the Team Manager, Alastair Scholey:
Dear Will
Just to let you know that you have been selected for the English Schools XC on March 20th. Please can you confirm availability as soon as possible?
Many Thanks,
Alastair Scholey, North Yorkshire Schools XC Secretary
Happy Times! Something to train for and a chance to try and beat a couple of those who got in the top 6. I will be running against the Country's finest; this is the FA Cup of Schools' XC so it is going to be really tough; I will be giving it my all to help the North Yorkshire team and show the Team Managers that they made the right decision in selecting me.
Sunday 28 February 2010
The best of both worlds
Today I had an Interval session pencilled in on the training diary. This was gone over in in ink but only after some strength circuits, which were completed this morning rather than tomorrow. The thinking behind this was to give my body a chance to recover in time for Sedbergh 3 Peaks on Tuesday and hopefully give the effects of the strength training more time to kick in as well.
The circuits went well. The session took exactly the same structure as the one I did last Monday (see entry from then for more details.) I felt much stronger than last week, particularly on the press ups and squat thrusts which was very pleasing. I assume this sort of session is supposed to get easier as time goes on as the muslces used become stronger.
A quick break for a glass of Water and a Double Decker, and I was out the door for an Interval session. It took a lot of deciding as to what I should do. Baring in mind I have a Fartlek session pencilled in for Thursday, I thought a longer Interval session was the most sensible option. It was therefore 6 x 800m with 2 mins jog recovery in between after a good 1 mile warm up and followed by a 1/2 mile warm down.
I haven't done this session since last Summer and it was therefore a good test. Unfortunatley we don't have access to a track round here which I feel puts us, as an area, at a great disadvantage. It was therefore 800m on the flattest field I could find, but this scarcely had any paths and I was therefore running through fairly tussocky, ungrazed land for much of the session. Nonetheless I felt very strong throughout considering I had just come out of a hard circuit session. The times were as follows:
1. 2:54
2. 2:57
3. 2:54
4. 2:53
5. 2:48
6. 2:49
So the times are nothing to rave about, so what? I am not a track athlete and to me it is merely a matter of getting speed and improving endurance at the same time. If I was doing these times on a tartan track after being a track athlete for the past 3 years I would be slightly worried. The times do not concern me. The only conclusion I am going to make from the times is; I got faster as time went on and therefore I'm pleased.
If I was going to evaluate the session on how I felt, I would say 9/10. I did feel really good and the signs are great for Tuesday; I hope I can reproduce something similar on the Three Peaks and get a good place. It's 35:45 to beat!
That brings the daily total to 5.5 miles + the strength work. All in all a good start to the week. Roll on Tuesday!
P.S. Town 2-2 Leeds. Disappointing as we were by far the better team (again!) but to say we were behind entering the last 5 minutes, a draw isn't too badly received.
The circuits went well. The session took exactly the same structure as the one I did last Monday (see entry from then for more details.) I felt much stronger than last week, particularly on the press ups and squat thrusts which was very pleasing. I assume this sort of session is supposed to get easier as time goes on as the muslces used become stronger.
A quick break for a glass of Water and a Double Decker, and I was out the door for an Interval session. It took a lot of deciding as to what I should do. Baring in mind I have a Fartlek session pencilled in for Thursday, I thought a longer Interval session was the most sensible option. It was therefore 6 x 800m with 2 mins jog recovery in between after a good 1 mile warm up and followed by a 1/2 mile warm down.
I haven't done this session since last Summer and it was therefore a good test. Unfortunatley we don't have access to a track round here which I feel puts us, as an area, at a great disadvantage. It was therefore 800m on the flattest field I could find, but this scarcely had any paths and I was therefore running through fairly tussocky, ungrazed land for much of the session. Nonetheless I felt very strong throughout considering I had just come out of a hard circuit session. The times were as follows:
1. 2:54
2. 2:57
3. 2:54
4. 2:53
5. 2:48
6. 2:49
So the times are nothing to rave about, so what? I am not a track athlete and to me it is merely a matter of getting speed and improving endurance at the same time. If I was doing these times on a tartan track after being a track athlete for the past 3 years I would be slightly worried. The times do not concern me. The only conclusion I am going to make from the times is; I got faster as time went on and therefore I'm pleased.
If I was going to evaluate the session on how I felt, I would say 9/10. I did feel really good and the signs are great for Tuesday; I hope I can reproduce something similar on the Three Peaks and get a good place. It's 35:45 to beat!
That brings the daily total to 5.5 miles + the strength work. All in all a good start to the week. Roll on Tuesday!
P.S. Town 2-2 Leeds. Disappointing as we were by far the better team (again!) but to say we were behind entering the last 5 minutes, a draw isn't too badly received.
Friday 26 February 2010
More miles in the tank...
I continue to stick to the schedule I set myself in a bid to build up to 30 miles a week. Today was, like Wednesday, a day of two sessions and a good opportunity once again to get a hard session in and some miles at the same time.
As planned, the hard session was Hill Reps. There are various good hills for doing hill reps available to me and today I chose to go up Park Hill. Park Hill in Skipton is not far away from School and ideal for Hill Reps; grassy and nice and steep. I decided on short hill reps again rather than longer ones as these seem to benefit me more. This would mean however not running right to the top which feels somewhat stupid considering that's the whole point of fell running! I decided '1 minute up hard followed by 1 minute down jog recovery for 30 minutes' would be just the ticket. So after a 10 minute warm up, I was good to go.
The session as a whole went extremely well. In fact, it was one of the best hill rep sessions I have ever had. My legs felt fresh and strong from the off and my style felt very efficient. The Hill was unsurprisingly muddy and although this made the session even more challenging, I felt to cope pretty well. The 15 reps of 1 minute each gave me the following distances:
1. 178m
2. 165m
3. 167m
4. 163m
5. 162m
6. 160m
7. 160m
8. 163m
9. 157m
10. 160m
11. 158m
12. 158m
13. 150m
14. 150m
15. 153m
The distances recorded are very pleasing and considering I did 15 efforts rather than the standard 12 for this session, I feel this is a big victory for me against Park Hill! The strength work done on Monday certainly felt to come into its own today so this will definitley be done every week from now on.
When I got home I just did a steady 30 minute run on the fields near the house to flush out the legs and put a few more miles in the tank. I felt surprisingly strong and fresh after the morning's efforts! This brings the total distance for the day to around 8 miles and for the week, between 25 and 30.
On Tuesday I am going up to Sedbergh for the annual Sedbergh 3 peaks (3 mile/1450') which is a superb race taking in the summits of Winder, Arant Haw and Crook. I have done it for the past two years and I hope to improve on last year's 19th place. I am however having to rework the schedule to take account of the races coming up so it now looks like:
Sunday 28th Feb: Intervals
Monday 1st March: Strength Work
Tuesday 2nd March: Sedbergh 3 Peaks
Wednesday 3rd March: Long recovery run
Thursday 4th March: Fartlek
Friday 5th March: Rest
Saturday 6th March: Northern Schools Cross Country Championships
A day off tomorrow before a tough few days in the build up to Northern Schools. Tomorrow sees Town take on Leeds (the scum of the earth - absolutley hate them!) so I am really hoping we give them a good stuffing. Will be back to report on Sunday!
As planned, the hard session was Hill Reps. There are various good hills for doing hill reps available to me and today I chose to go up Park Hill. Park Hill in Skipton is not far away from School and ideal for Hill Reps; grassy and nice and steep. I decided on short hill reps again rather than longer ones as these seem to benefit me more. This would mean however not running right to the top which feels somewhat stupid considering that's the whole point of fell running! I decided '1 minute up hard followed by 1 minute down jog recovery for 30 minutes' would be just the ticket. So after a 10 minute warm up, I was good to go.
The session as a whole went extremely well. In fact, it was one of the best hill rep sessions I have ever had. My legs felt fresh and strong from the off and my style felt very efficient. The Hill was unsurprisingly muddy and although this made the session even more challenging, I felt to cope pretty well. The 15 reps of 1 minute each gave me the following distances:
1. 178m
2. 165m
3. 167m
4. 163m
5. 162m
6. 160m
7. 160m
8. 163m
9. 157m
10. 160m
11. 158m
12. 158m
13. 150m
14. 150m
15. 153m
The distances recorded are very pleasing and considering I did 15 efforts rather than the standard 12 for this session, I feel this is a big victory for me against Park Hill! The strength work done on Monday certainly felt to come into its own today so this will definitley be done every week from now on.
When I got home I just did a steady 30 minute run on the fields near the house to flush out the legs and put a few more miles in the tank. I felt surprisingly strong and fresh after the morning's efforts! This brings the total distance for the day to around 8 miles and for the week, between 25 and 30.
On Tuesday I am going up to Sedbergh for the annual Sedbergh 3 peaks (3 mile/1450') which is a superb race taking in the summits of Winder, Arant Haw and Crook. I have done it for the past two years and I hope to improve on last year's 19th place. I am however having to rework the schedule to take account of the races coming up so it now looks like:
Sunday 28th Feb: Intervals
Monday 1st March: Strength Work
Tuesday 2nd March: Sedbergh 3 Peaks
Wednesday 3rd March: Long recovery run
Thursday 4th March: Fartlek
Friday 5th March: Rest
Saturday 6th March: Northern Schools Cross Country Championships
A day off tomorrow before a tough few days in the build up to Northern Schools. Tomorrow sees Town take on Leeds (the scum of the earth - absolutley hate them!) so I am really hoping we give them a good stuffing. Will be back to report on Sunday!
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Double Dosage!
As I said in my previous post, today was going to be a day for a speed session and then a steady few miles later in the day. Wednesday is an excellent day for training as I get the whole afternoon off school, so I can practically train whenever and wherever I want.
Today I did my speed session before lunch. This was intentional so that I could get some good food down afterwards which would in turn hopefully aid recovery. The session consisted of 6 x 3 minutes hard with 1 minute 30 jog recovery. Obviously the idea of a speed session is to run faster than race pace and so hopefully your speed in a race gets faster. With a hill rep session due on Friday, I decided to avoid the hills and focus on the flat.
The school field was covered in melting snow and after a 10 minute warm up, my feet were soaked and it was clear the muddy, boggy quagmire of a pitch alone would make the session hard; not ideal conditions for trying to get the legs shifting!
I fought away and 1..2..3..4..5 efforts down before I knew it. By this time the 'top' was really quite slippy and I was struggling to get any grip. I noticed I was using my arms a lot more than usual as it was hard to get any power from the legs in the conditions. I gave it my all on the 6th, although much of my energy was sapped from my legs by the mud on the previous efforts. Still on reflection my paces recorded by the Garmin for the 3 minute intervals were pretty pleasing:
1.5:31 per mile
2.5:38 per mile
3.5:54 per mile
4.6:03 per mile
5.6:03 per mile
6.5:53 per mile
The first effort was possibly a little enthusiastic but there again conditions got much tougher as the session went on - my trails went straight through the surface snow and made corners more treacherous than when I first set out. Considering the conditions, I am very pleased with this session.
Onto this afternoon where I did a very steady 30 minutes to hopefully flush the legs out. It was a joy to get out and actually take in the scenery rather than having to run eyeballs out all the time! I have done around 8 miles today in total (5 in the speed session and 3 in the steady run), so not a bad day's mileage and a good bit of speed work as well.I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow before more of the same on Friday.
P.S. Went to Tranmere (3rd away game on the trot!) for another superb Town performance and a 2-0 win. Bring on the Leeds scum on Saturday; I would love a good win to stuff in all their arrogant faces.
Today I did my speed session before lunch. This was intentional so that I could get some good food down afterwards which would in turn hopefully aid recovery. The session consisted of 6 x 3 minutes hard with 1 minute 30 jog recovery. Obviously the idea of a speed session is to run faster than race pace and so hopefully your speed in a race gets faster. With a hill rep session due on Friday, I decided to avoid the hills and focus on the flat.
The school field was covered in melting snow and after a 10 minute warm up, my feet were soaked and it was clear the muddy, boggy quagmire of a pitch alone would make the session hard; not ideal conditions for trying to get the legs shifting!
I fought away and 1..2..3..4..5 efforts down before I knew it. By this time the 'top' was really quite slippy and I was struggling to get any grip. I noticed I was using my arms a lot more than usual as it was hard to get any power from the legs in the conditions. I gave it my all on the 6th, although much of my energy was sapped from my legs by the mud on the previous efforts. Still on reflection my paces recorded by the Garmin for the 3 minute intervals were pretty pleasing:
1.5:31 per mile
2.5:38 per mile
3.5:54 per mile
4.6:03 per mile
5.6:03 per mile
6.5:53 per mile
The first effort was possibly a little enthusiastic but there again conditions got much tougher as the session went on - my trails went straight through the surface snow and made corners more treacherous than when I first set out. Considering the conditions, I am very pleased with this session.
Onto this afternoon where I did a very steady 30 minutes to hopefully flush the legs out. It was a joy to get out and actually take in the scenery rather than having to run eyeballs out all the time! I have done around 8 miles today in total (5 in the speed session and 3 in the steady run), so not a bad day's mileage and a good bit of speed work as well.I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow before more of the same on Friday.
P.S. Went to Tranmere (3rd away game on the trot!) for another superb Town performance and a 2-0 win. Bring on the Leeds scum on Saturday; I would love a good win to stuff in all their arrogant faces.
Steady away.
Yesterday I just did a 25 minute run (including a 5 minute warm down) at a fairly decent pace without pushing it too much. Nothing too exciting to report other than I felt pretty strong. I aimed to use my arms with more force and they felt powerful after Monday night's circuits which was good. Overall, 3 good solid miles over undulating Woodland tracks and fields.
Monday 22 February 2010
Feel the Burn!!!
Today, as scheduled, I did a strength session to try and improve, unsurprisingly core strength. Core strength is supposed to be very useful particularly when climbing in a fell race and pushing up off your knees whilst race walking. Race walking isn't my strong point and I prefer to run but this can waste energy so it is definitley worth having a go at working on the walking by building the strength.
The session consisted of 12 excercises, 45 seconds on each with no rest between. I did 3 sets of the 12 with 5 minutes in between each set. The excercises were:
1. Sit Ups
2. Press Ups
3. Squat Thrusts
4. Back Raises
5. Upright Rowing with weights
6. Step Ups
7. Half Sit Ups with twist
8. Side Raises with weights
9. Wall Sits
10. Rowing Sit Ups
11. Dumbell curls with weights
12. Burpees
Obviously it will take time for this sort of session's effects to kick in but my arms feel a little wobbly tonight which is generally a good sign, showing I have worked hard and after a couple of days they should recover, coming back stronger than before. The press ups were very tough as I normally have a limit of around 30 and with the time being 45 seconds, I had to do more which was, well a bastard! This was just before going into the squat thrusts which were even harder! A good workout though and I will be back running tomorrow, possibly before School for a steady 3 miles as Town are away at Tranmere and that will be the evening taken up. Big game!
The session consisted of 12 excercises, 45 seconds on each with no rest between. I did 3 sets of the 12 with 5 minutes in between each set. The excercises were:
1. Sit Ups
2. Press Ups
3. Squat Thrusts
4. Back Raises
5. Upright Rowing with weights
6. Step Ups
7. Half Sit Ups with twist
8. Side Raises with weights
9. Wall Sits
10. Rowing Sit Ups
11. Dumbell curls with weights
12. Burpees
Obviously it will take time for this sort of session's effects to kick in but my arms feel a little wobbly tonight which is generally a good sign, showing I have worked hard and after a couple of days they should recover, coming back stronger than before. The press ups were very tough as I normally have a limit of around 30 and with the time being 45 seconds, I had to do more which was, well a bastard! This was just before going into the squat thrusts which were even harder! A good workout though and I will be back running tomorrow, possibly before School for a steady 3 miles as Town are away at Tranmere and that will be the evening taken up. Big game!
Sunday 21 February 2010
What a great start to the Fell Running season!
...In a sarcastic tone!
I always knew there was going to be something that made things tricky for today's race at Ilkley Moor. Let's be honest, there is always something that isn't quite right or makes preparations for a race a little more challenging than you'd like. That something came in the form of Snow. I am normally a great admirer of Snow but I really am starting to get a little fed up of the bloody stuff; it affects your training and your whole day in general particularly the joke that is British Public Transport. Anyway rant over and onto the race.
I set off steady with the intention of pulling through (as usual) and I felt as though I stuck to this race plan pretty well. Passing wasn't easy in places but either by leaping into heather and speeding up or waiting for a wider point I managed. I pulled through to what I believed was the top 15 or so and hung on in there for a good 15 minutes. It was a frustrating race to be involved in as you felt to be gaining on the group in front whilst climbing only for it to flatten off and for them to get time on you. The group I was in consisted of Chris Holmes (Wharfedale), Chris Fell (Rossendale) and another Geordie from Todmorden as well as a couple of Ilkley Harriers trailing by 10 yards or so who ironically followed us when we went the wrong way, cutting down far too early and ending up at White Wells (Local knowledge and all that eh?!). A major disappointment as these lads I was with, after a bit of researching, are no mugs. All in all a mixed day as I was going well but to no avail in the end.
A quick note to say I am going to try and put some more miles in the tank from now on as well as including some strength stuff. Sarah Rowell mentions the way to increase mileage is to do a week of higher mileage (a few miles more) and then back to where you were before and carry on building it up (progressive overload to those in the know). I would like to get nearer to 30 than 20. Whereas I hang around 21 at the moment I would like to be pushing 28 or so. Therefore the next few weeks will look something like this:
Today: Race + Warm Down (6 miles)
22nd Feb:Strength session with circuits etc.
23rd Feb: 3 miles easy
24th Feb: A.M Speed work, P.M. Steady 3 miles
25th Feb: Rest
26th Feb: A.M 3 miles easy, P.M. Hill reps.
27th Feb: Rest
Assuming the Speed Work and Hill reps are 6 miles each, this would mean a weekly total of 27 miles (Where I want to be!). The next week would then be back to the 21 or so to go with the theory of progressive overload.
28th Feb: 8 or 9 miles reasonably hard
29th Feb: Strength Work
1st Mar: 2nd Mar: Hill Rep session
3rd Mar: Rest
4th Mar: Rest
5th Mar: Speed Work
6th Mar: Rest
This brings the mileage back down to 21. The next week I would try and push the marker further again (not taking races into account).
7th Mar:8 or 9 miles reasonably hard
8th Mar:Strength Work
9th Mar: Steady 3 miles
10th Mar: A.M. Speed Work P.M. 3 miles easy
11th Mar: Rest
12th Mar: A.M. 3 miles easy P.M. Hill Reps
13th Mar: Rest
Again assuming the speed work/hill reps are worth 6 miles each I would hit the magic 30 for this week. The trouble with all this is that it doesn't races into account and this would have an affect on what I do. The week after this I would reduce the mileage again before hitting the 30 the week after, with the hope that my body has adapted and I would be alright to hit the 30 every week thereafter. All I can do is try anyway.
I always knew there was going to be something that made things tricky for today's race at Ilkley Moor. Let's be honest, there is always something that isn't quite right or makes preparations for a race a little more challenging than you'd like. That something came in the form of Snow. I am normally a great admirer of Snow but I really am starting to get a little fed up of the bloody stuff; it affects your training and your whole day in general particularly the joke that is British Public Transport. Anyway rant over and onto the race.
I set off steady with the intention of pulling through (as usual) and I felt as though I stuck to this race plan pretty well. Passing wasn't easy in places but either by leaping into heather and speeding up or waiting for a wider point I managed. I pulled through to what I believed was the top 15 or so and hung on in there for a good 15 minutes. It was a frustrating race to be involved in as you felt to be gaining on the group in front whilst climbing only for it to flatten off and for them to get time on you. The group I was in consisted of Chris Holmes (Wharfedale), Chris Fell (Rossendale) and another Geordie from Todmorden as well as a couple of Ilkley Harriers trailing by 10 yards or so who ironically followed us when we went the wrong way, cutting down far too early and ending up at White Wells (Local knowledge and all that eh?!). A major disappointment as these lads I was with, after a bit of researching, are no mugs. All in all a mixed day as I was going well but to no avail in the end.
A quick note to say I am going to try and put some more miles in the tank from now on as well as including some strength stuff. Sarah Rowell mentions the way to increase mileage is to do a week of higher mileage (a few miles more) and then back to where you were before and carry on building it up (progressive overload to those in the know). I would like to get nearer to 30 than 20. Whereas I hang around 21 at the moment I would like to be pushing 28 or so. Therefore the next few weeks will look something like this:
Today: Race + Warm Down (6 miles)
22nd Feb:Strength session with circuits etc.
23rd Feb: 3 miles easy
24th Feb: A.M Speed work, P.M. Steady 3 miles
25th Feb: Rest
26th Feb: A.M 3 miles easy, P.M. Hill reps.
27th Feb: Rest
Assuming the Speed Work and Hill reps are 6 miles each, this would mean a weekly total of 27 miles (Where I want to be!). The next week would then be back to the 21 or so to go with the theory of progressive overload.
28th Feb: 8 or 9 miles reasonably hard
29th Feb: Strength Work
1st Mar: 2nd Mar: Hill Rep session
3rd Mar: Rest
4th Mar: Rest
5th Mar: Speed Work
6th Mar: Rest
This brings the mileage back down to 21. The next week I would try and push the marker further again (not taking races into account).
7th Mar:8 or 9 miles reasonably hard
8th Mar:Strength Work
9th Mar: Steady 3 miles
10th Mar: A.M. Speed Work P.M. 3 miles easy
11th Mar: Rest
12th Mar: A.M. 3 miles easy P.M. Hill Reps
13th Mar: Rest
Again assuming the speed work/hill reps are worth 6 miles each I would hit the magic 30 for this week. The trouble with all this is that it doesn't races into account and this would have an affect on what I do. The week after this I would reduce the mileage again before hitting the 30 the week after, with the hope that my body has adapted and I would be alright to hit the 30 every week thereafter. All I can do is try anyway.
Friday 19 February 2010
'The Tower Trail at Glentress over fast, forest terrain' *
*Only fast when there is no snow!
Wednesday's Run
Yep that's right, there is still snow around and it was in abundance today at Glentress. The usual Tower Trail which normally makes good fast running over nice firm terrain was much tougher in the presence of snow. The forest map makes the whole route 9km, reaching a height of 587m (around 1600' in old money). This is not particularly high but there is a lot of undulating parts to the run and some very tough climbs; climbs which were even more arduous today.
I will never tire of this run. This is the 4th time I have done it and it gets more exciting each time. Much of the time is spent in dark forests climbing up runnable yet killer climbs and the odd descent which you can just about let yourself go on without slipping over tree roots. My legs felt a little tired from the off and about a km in I hit the snow and that's right, the snow didn't disappear until the forest access road at the end. It was really hard work fighting through the snow and occasionally I even had to dodge fallen trees which blocked the way. I also got lost a couple of times due to the snow covering the path and so lost a minute here and there. The time I set today certainly wasn't going to concern me as:
A.I don't have a known time for the course.
B. The conditions weren't good today for breaking a record.
After leaving the forest momentarily, you reach a vantage point up on Middle Hill which gave fantastic panoramic views today. I then got badly lost as I tried to make my way up to the highest point on the run and ended up on a Mountain Bike track. Still, I got to a summit which was very prominent and the right one (I think!) which gave even better views. From here the running is fast with lots of nice descents before a killer climb up the forest road at the end. Obviously descending was tough but my legs must have warmed up by the last climb as I felt superb, maintaining a good style whilst going well. A brilliant run despite the tough conditions. Just out of interest the Garmin had the run at: 10.5km in 58:26
I think the extra distance came from my various detours but overall I am pretty pleased with the way I ran. I wasn't particularly surprised I felt tired as I will still have a lot in my legs after yesterday's hard session. I will be back next time in better conditions to smash today's time.
I won't be running again this week as I am racing at Ilkley on Sunday in the Ilkley Moor Fell Race (5 mile/1250'). I am looking forward to it and I am hoping for a good performance although it is my first fell race for 2010 so I won't turn up feeling over confident. It's all good training in the long run!
Wednesday's Run
Yep that's right, there is still snow around and it was in abundance today at Glentress. The usual Tower Trail which normally makes good fast running over nice firm terrain was much tougher in the presence of snow. The forest map makes the whole route 9km, reaching a height of 587m (around 1600' in old money). This is not particularly high but there is a lot of undulating parts to the run and some very tough climbs; climbs which were even more arduous today.
I will never tire of this run. This is the 4th time I have done it and it gets more exciting each time. Much of the time is spent in dark forests climbing up runnable yet killer climbs and the odd descent which you can just about let yourself go on without slipping over tree roots. My legs felt a little tired from the off and about a km in I hit the snow and that's right, the snow didn't disappear until the forest access road at the end. It was really hard work fighting through the snow and occasionally I even had to dodge fallen trees which blocked the way. I also got lost a couple of times due to the snow covering the path and so lost a minute here and there. The time I set today certainly wasn't going to concern me as:
A.I don't have a known time for the course.
B. The conditions weren't good today for breaking a record.
After leaving the forest momentarily, you reach a vantage point up on Middle Hill which gave fantastic panoramic views today. I then got badly lost as I tried to make my way up to the highest point on the run and ended up on a Mountain Bike track. Still, I got to a summit which was very prominent and the right one (I think!) which gave even better views. From here the running is fast with lots of nice descents before a killer climb up the forest road at the end. Obviously descending was tough but my legs must have warmed up by the last climb as I felt superb, maintaining a good style whilst going well. A brilliant run despite the tough conditions. Just out of interest the Garmin had the run at: 10.5km in 58:26
I think the extra distance came from my various detours but overall I am pretty pleased with the way I ran. I wasn't particularly surprised I felt tired as I will still have a lot in my legs after yesterday's hard session. I will be back next time in better conditions to smash today's time.
I won't be running again this week as I am racing at Ilkley on Sunday in the Ilkley Moor Fell Race (5 mile/1250'). I am looking forward to it and I am hoping for a good performance although it is my first fell race for 2010 so I won't turn up feeling over confident. It's all good training in the long run!
If Sunday wasn't hard enough...
I have been away in Edinburgh for a couple of nights and therefore haven't been able to report back on training. This is therefore a post for Tuesday:
Having had an excellent session on Sunday I decided to go back to the flat playing fields for another hard one today. Reading 'Off Road Running' from front to back in the past week, I decided to give another of the suggested sessions ago - a session which would target my speed.
The session consisted of: 5 x 600m;400m;200m all with 200m recovery in between. I knew this was going to be tough merely by looking at the distances and recovery times. This is a good example of speed endurance training (running hard and little rest time).
Onto the session itself. To be honest I felt tired from Sunday and also ran the first 600m far too fast. It did hurt however which can only be a good thing, surely! My times were a little disappointing on first viewing but then considering the state of the field (muddy and wet, more so than Sunday) and how tired I felt, I can't complain too much.
So the 600m:1:56, 2:05, 2:02, 2:02, 2:01
400m:1:19, 1:20, 1:21, 1:22, 1:17
200m:0:38, 0:36, 0:36, 0:36, 0:36
Not very quick but good consistency I suppose and it is fairly clear I ran the first 600 much too fast but we live and learn I suppose! Tomorrow we are going to Glentress (a forest in Scotland) where I will run the 'Tower Trail'; a tough yet fast course with lots of good climbing. I would rather not run tomorrow after today but the opportunity to run there is too great to miss. After all it has to be my favourite training course.
P.S. Went to Carlisle tonight; won 2-1 great result!
Having had an excellent session on Sunday I decided to go back to the flat playing fields for another hard one today. Reading 'Off Road Running' from front to back in the past week, I decided to give another of the suggested sessions ago - a session which would target my speed.
The session consisted of: 5 x 600m;400m;200m all with 200m recovery in between. I knew this was going to be tough merely by looking at the distances and recovery times. This is a good example of speed endurance training (running hard and little rest time).
Onto the session itself. To be honest I felt tired from Sunday and also ran the first 600m far too fast. It did hurt however which can only be a good thing, surely! My times were a little disappointing on first viewing but then considering the state of the field (muddy and wet, more so than Sunday) and how tired I felt, I can't complain too much.
So the 600m:1:56, 2:05, 2:02, 2:02, 2:01
400m:1:19, 1:20, 1:21, 1:22, 1:17
200m:0:38, 0:36, 0:36, 0:36, 0:36
Not very quick but good consistency I suppose and it is fairly clear I ran the first 600 much too fast but we live and learn I suppose! Tomorrow we are going to Glentress (a forest in Scotland) where I will run the 'Tower Trail'; a tough yet fast course with lots of good climbing. I would rather not run tomorrow after today but the opportunity to run there is too great to miss. After all it has to be my favourite training course.
P.S. Went to Carlisle tonight; won 2-1 great result!
Sunday 14 February 2010
Breaking a race down into 3 parts
I recently purchased Sarah Rowell's book 'Off Road Running' which offers advice on every discipline of Off Road Running, one section being on Cross Country. As I am currently in the middle of the Cross Country season, I decided to try one of the specialist sessions she suggests.
Using various means of science, Sarah explains to be a good Cross Country runner 'your body has to be able to cope with an initial increase in circulating blood lactate, one that can then be dissipated (recovery) while still running at a sustained racing pace, before repeating the process of running fast at the end of the race when you are tired.' What better way to practice than in training? None says Sarah, 'one of the best ways of preparing for this is to replicate it in training, for example: 3 mins fast, 1 min recovery, 10 to 15 min sustained, 1 min recovery, 2 mins flat out.' Obviously in a race you wouldn't get the 1 minute recovery between the fast 3 minutes at the start and the 15 minutes sustained running and again before final fast 2 minutes. It is however as close as you are going to get to recreating race conditions in training as I found out today!
I did 2 sets of the above with the first set containing 15 minutes of sustained running and the second one containing a little less, 12 and a half minutes. So splitting the race (or training session but it felt like a race) into three parts: NOTE TIMES ARE PACE PER MILE.
Fast 3 minutes (similar to start of race) : 5:30
Sustained 15 minutes (Middle stage) : 6:11
Flat out 2 minutes ( End of race) : 5:29
I did a recovery of 7 and a half minutes before the second set.
Fast 3 minutes (similar to start of race) :5:52
Sustained 12 mins 30 seconds (middle stage) :6:14
Flat out 2 minutes (End of race) :5:29
Looking at the times, the start of the second 'race' was clearly a little slow but the Garmin was playing up a little at that time so I would say the pace was nearer to 5:40. I clearly had something left in the tank on the second as I reproduced my finish from the first effort.
This was a really tough session, possibly the hardest I have ever done. Other than after a hard race, I don't think I have ever been as tired as this (I was on the floor which only usually happens after a race). Sessions like this are what will make the body stronger come race day so I will certainly do this more often from now on. I rounded it all off with a 10 minute warm down, bringing the day's running total to 7.5 miles (most of which was on a very flat cricket pitch like field). A great session which produced some pleasing results. Roll on Tuesday for the next one!
Using various means of science, Sarah explains to be a good Cross Country runner 'your body has to be able to cope with an initial increase in circulating blood lactate, one that can then be dissipated (recovery) while still running at a sustained racing pace, before repeating the process of running fast at the end of the race when you are tired.' What better way to practice than in training? None says Sarah, 'one of the best ways of preparing for this is to replicate it in training, for example: 3 mins fast, 1 min recovery, 10 to 15 min sustained, 1 min recovery, 2 mins flat out.' Obviously in a race you wouldn't get the 1 minute recovery between the fast 3 minutes at the start and the 15 minutes sustained running and again before final fast 2 minutes. It is however as close as you are going to get to recreating race conditions in training as I found out today!
I did 2 sets of the above with the first set containing 15 minutes of sustained running and the second one containing a little less, 12 and a half minutes. So splitting the race (or training session but it felt like a race) into three parts: NOTE TIMES ARE PACE PER MILE.
Fast 3 minutes (similar to start of race) : 5:30
Sustained 15 minutes (Middle stage) : 6:11
Flat out 2 minutes ( End of race) : 5:29
I did a recovery of 7 and a half minutes before the second set.
Fast 3 minutes (similar to start of race) :5:52
Sustained 12 mins 30 seconds (middle stage) :6:14
Flat out 2 minutes (End of race) :5:29
Looking at the times, the start of the second 'race' was clearly a little slow but the Garmin was playing up a little at that time so I would say the pace was nearer to 5:40. I clearly had something left in the tank on the second as I reproduced my finish from the first effort.
This was a really tough session, possibly the hardest I have ever done. Other than after a hard race, I don't think I have ever been as tired as this (I was on the floor which only usually happens after a race). Sessions like this are what will make the body stronger come race day so I will certainly do this more often from now on. I rounded it all off with a 10 minute warm down, bringing the day's running total to 7.5 miles (most of which was on a very flat cricket pitch like field). A great session which produced some pleasing results. Roll on Tuesday for the next one!
Friday 12 February 2010
No pain, no gain
Sometimes you have to push yourself to get any benefit from training. Unfortunatley that's the way running works - If you only had to run at a steady pace for half an hour to be successful we would all be world beaters. The session I did today required determination right from the off if I was going to get through it.
I decided on intervals, run faster than race pace, as I hadn't done any shortish reps for a couple of weeks. After an 8 minute warm up, I hit out the intervals, each being 2 minutes long with a 1 minute recovery. This wouldn't be too painful in a small quantity but after 13 of them you know you have pushed yourself to your limits! 13 it was and by god when you have done 1 or 2 knowing you have more than 10 to go, you wish you were somewhere else!
I gritted my teeth and got stuck into the session and I strangely have to say I began to enjoy it after I had got past the half way marker of 6 reps. This was perhaps because I felt pretty jaded in the first few efforts, but I definitley felt to get much stronger as the session went on.
The only problem was the sheet ice lieing around but the F-Lite 230s coped pretty well apart from the odd hairpin bend. In conclusion, this was a good session; very hard but definitley well worth the effort. After all, it is this sort of session that the good results come from and to get through it was an achievement in itself!
I decided on intervals, run faster than race pace, as I hadn't done any shortish reps for a couple of weeks. After an 8 minute warm up, I hit out the intervals, each being 2 minutes long with a 1 minute recovery. This wouldn't be too painful in a small quantity but after 13 of them you know you have pushed yourself to your limits! 13 it was and by god when you have done 1 or 2 knowing you have more than 10 to go, you wish you were somewhere else!
I gritted my teeth and got stuck into the session and I strangely have to say I began to enjoy it after I had got past the half way marker of 6 reps. This was perhaps because I felt pretty jaded in the first few efforts, but I definitley felt to get much stronger as the session went on.
The only problem was the sheet ice lieing around but the F-Lite 230s coped pretty well apart from the odd hairpin bend. In conclusion, this was a good session; very hard but definitley well worth the effort. After all, it is this sort of session that the good results come from and to get through it was an achievement in itself!
Thursday 11 February 2010
A gentle trot under the fading Sun.
It has been a beautiful day today; very sunny and not too cold or windy. It was in fact too grand to not go for a run. Dashing off for my Bus yesterday, I had no time to warm down so this was, to be honest, a belated warm down lasting 15 minutes with a fastish 5 minutes in the middle just to get the legs moving a little and prepare me for a hard interval session in Skipton Woods tomorrow.
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Reward for the efforts at last!
Today we hosted an interschool Cross Country event in Aireville Park which attracted a few schools, most notably Ripon Grammar and St Aidans. The course was yet again 3 long laps but this time took in the woods as well. Conditions were fairly firm in the park itself because of last night's frost and a few snow showers today, but up towards the top of the woods there was mud in abundance!
I set off steady knowing full well what was in store (3 laps of hell!) leaving Billy Pinder, Dan Cheeseman (5th at NY Schools here 2 weeks ago), Alex Sinclair and Duncan Birtwhistle to do the work. I pulled through nicely feeling very strong and made my way into 2nd as we started the last lap with Cheeseman chasing hard. My stomach felt a little dodgy and had done since the steep climb up the golf course on the 2nd lap. I fought hard right until the end but Cheeseman's trademark 800m finish was too strong and coming out of the woods I was summoned to 3rd. A very comfortable 3rd at that and a good result, coming in just a few seconds behind Cheeseman (closest I have all season) and around a minute behind Pinder. Alex Sinclair finished 4th and considering he is one of the candidates for the final 2 places in North Yorkshire's English Schools' team, I certainly won't have done myself any harm in staking a claim for selection. It's good to have a bit of individual silverware in the form of a Bronze Medal; all the races lately feel as though they have been to no avail but based on today's performance things are coming along nicely.
I set off steady knowing full well what was in store (3 laps of hell!) leaving Billy Pinder, Dan Cheeseman (5th at NY Schools here 2 weeks ago), Alex Sinclair and Duncan Birtwhistle to do the work. I pulled through nicely feeling very strong and made my way into 2nd as we started the last lap with Cheeseman chasing hard. My stomach felt a little dodgy and had done since the steep climb up the golf course on the 2nd lap. I fought hard right until the end but Cheeseman's trademark 800m finish was too strong and coming out of the woods I was summoned to 3rd. A very comfortable 3rd at that and a good result, coming in just a few seconds behind Cheeseman (closest I have all season) and around a minute behind Pinder. Alex Sinclair finished 4th and considering he is one of the candidates for the final 2 places in North Yorkshire's English Schools' team, I certainly won't have done myself any harm in staking a claim for selection. It's good to have a bit of individual silverware in the form of a Bronze Medal; all the races lately feel as though they have been to no avail but based on today's performance things are coming along nicely.
Sunday 7 February 2010
Mile by Mile
I went with my original plan and so today, rather than do my regular 8 or 9 mile long run, decided to do Mile intervals with 3 minute jog recovery in between. I hoped to be fully recovered from Friday's efforts for what was to be a really tough session. The art of Speed Endurance is a concept my body seems to have not yet mastered. ' The purpose of speed endurance is to prolong the amount of time where a near maximal speed can be maintained.' I always seem to hit the wall at around 11 minutes if I try and set off at a faster pace in a race of around 15 minutes. The only other alternative at the moment is to set off steady but with races like the relay at Coventry (2.4 miles!), it simply isn't an option. Wouldn't it be great to be able to keep a good speed up for a long time? I hope this sort of session might help me reach this goal.
Onto the session itself which went superbly. A mile may not be a great distance but running it hard makes it feel a short while. It is also longer than the normal intervals of around 3 minutes. The terrain was tarmac and there was a few climbs in to make the pain a little more severe but nothing too drastic. The pain would be in having to run flat out for a mile 6 times with a mere 3 minutes in between which seemed to pass rather quickly. I didn't worry about my splits or anything whilst I was doing my efforts (this provided a psychological benefit as I didn't ponder on whether I was going too fast or slow), but just ran as the Garmin told me to; 'Run hard 1 mile' followed by 'Jog easy 3 minutes.'
So onto the splits - 5:52, 5:47, 5:43, 5:58, 5:49, 5:48
I was surprised but delighted with the splits as there is a clearly a bit of consistency and my last effort was also the 3rd fastest. I hope this is a 'mile' in the right direction in terms of combating this recurring problem I meet on race day. A great session!
I will probably rest up to Wednesday now as I have yet another race in Aireville Park - Ermysteds' annual cross country home fixture. Hopefully I will be fighting fit for that one!
Onto the session itself which went superbly. A mile may not be a great distance but running it hard makes it feel a short while. It is also longer than the normal intervals of around 3 minutes. The terrain was tarmac and there was a few climbs in to make the pain a little more severe but nothing too drastic. The pain would be in having to run flat out for a mile 6 times with a mere 3 minutes in between which seemed to pass rather quickly. I didn't worry about my splits or anything whilst I was doing my efforts (this provided a psychological benefit as I didn't ponder on whether I was going too fast or slow), but just ran as the Garmin told me to; 'Run hard 1 mile' followed by 'Jog easy 3 minutes.'
So onto the splits - 5:52, 5:47, 5:43, 5:58, 5:49, 5:48
I was surprised but delighted with the splits as there is a clearly a bit of consistency and my last effort was also the 3rd fastest. I hope this is a 'mile' in the right direction in terms of combating this recurring problem I meet on race day. A great session!
I will probably rest up to Wednesday now as I have yet another race in Aireville Park - Ermysteds' annual cross country home fixture. Hopefully I will be fighting fit for that one!
Saturday 6 February 2010
Mixing it up
I set out with the intention of going to Skipton Woods yesterday and hitting out a really hard session. This would consist of an 8 minute warm up, followed by 14 x 2 minute reps with 1 minute jog recovery followed by a 10 minute warm down. The Garmin didn't have any juice in however and after my first effort switched itself off. This meant I had no awareness of how long I would be running for whatsoever.
I decided to vary my efforts from long to short and just run the recovery as I felt appropriate. I picked landmarks in the woods, for example running from a bench to a bridge. It worked very well and it was a very good session - I felt incredibly strong. To hazard a guess, I would say the longest effort was around 3 minutes and the shortest around 30 seconds. In reality it was more of a Fartlek session but a very good one at that. Skipton Woods is good firm forest tracks and I felt to be flying even over the stiff climbs I snuck into various efforts.
I worked out that altogether I did 12 efforts so not too far short of the planned 14 and altogether I was out for 49 minutes (8 min W/U, 31 mins, 10 min W/D). A good day's training and it was very enjoyable mixing it up rather than the normal repetitive nature of these sessions. Role on Sunday where I may mix it up again with a hard mile followed by an easy mile rather than the normal continuous long run! This may be particularly beneficial as I feel my weakness is in speed endurance; I have the speed as well as endurance for a slow pace but not for keeping up a continuous fast pace - Just like I faded in the final third on Wednesday as I failed to live up to the 12.30 ish pace I had set in the first half of the race. Hopefully Sunday will be a start to countering this weakness.
I decided to vary my efforts from long to short and just run the recovery as I felt appropriate. I picked landmarks in the woods, for example running from a bench to a bridge. It worked very well and it was a very good session - I felt incredibly strong. To hazard a guess, I would say the longest effort was around 3 minutes and the shortest around 30 seconds. In reality it was more of a Fartlek session but a very good one at that. Skipton Woods is good firm forest tracks and I felt to be flying even over the stiff climbs I snuck into various efforts.
I worked out that altogether I did 12 efforts so not too far short of the planned 14 and altogether I was out for 49 minutes (8 min W/U, 31 mins, 10 min W/D). A good day's training and it was very enjoyable mixing it up rather than the normal repetitive nature of these sessions. Role on Sunday where I may mix it up again with a hard mile followed by an easy mile rather than the normal continuous long run! This may be particularly beneficial as I feel my weakness is in speed endurance; I have the speed as well as endurance for a slow pace but not for keeping up a continuous fast pace - Just like I faded in the final third on Wednesday as I failed to live up to the 12.30 ish pace I had set in the first half of the race. Hopefully Sunday will be a start to countering this weakness.
Thursday 4 February 2010
Down but not out...
I was left feeling absolutley shattered last night after the race and a 7 hour round trip. I did manage a run today just to try and flush the legs out. It was a reasonably paced half an hour on the fields near the house with a few good climbs which I felt very strong on. I intend on doing some speedwork tomorrow in Skipton Woods during my free periods with the hope of the race from yesterday being well and truly out of my legs. Hope it's a good'un!
12:58...
Yesterday saw us make the long journey down to Coventry for the King Henry VIII Cross Country Relays held in War Memorial Park. Rather than your average school relays, these are the national stage of school relays and this was shown by the 40 teams of 6 in the boys relay alone. Having finished 17th last year, we hoped to use the experience gained from then to make a vast improvement this year.
Billy Pinder brought the team home in 2nd in a brilliant time of 12.09 after the first leg. Billy really is on fire at the minute and his great performance got the team's hopes up immediatley. I was running leg 5 of 6, contra to last year where I ran the 1st leg. Bearing this in mind I knew it would be much tougher pacing it this year as the likelihood was I would be trying to catch/hold off runners rather than beat them (like last year on the first leg where it is an outright race!) It seemed an eternity until I finally got to go and taking over from Faisil Ismail with the team in 5th place, I was off. I set off quickly knowing there was a runner breathing down my neck and Manchester G.S. weren't too far ahead.
The wooded area was pretty chewed up by the time I ran my leg (much more so than when we walked it pre race) and so it was hard going, but I definitley felt to be reeling in the runners ahead and leaving those behind for dead. Had I gone too fast? Yes. I had a very strong first 2/3 of the race but in the final 3rd of the punishing fast 2.4 mile course I had to hang on in there and the Manchester G.S. runner was beginning to pull away again. I had moved us into a comfortable 4th by this stage but flagging, I knew there was no way I was going to catch 3rd before the handover. Battling on I was passed by a St. Anselms runner who went on to do 11.55! This made me feel as though all the hard work had been undone. Still, taking over in 5th and handing over in 5th was fairly respectable.
The team lost another place on the last leg to Sedbergh, leaving us in 6th position. Not a bad effort and a considerable improvement on last year! Hopefully next year we will be capable of bringing some silverware home!
My time of 12.58 was some 29 seconds quicker than last year in worse conditions and on a much slower leg. I was reasonably happy but felt as though had I paced it better, I could have done a time more similar to that of the M.G.S runner (12:41). All the same, a good day out and all good experience for next year!
Billy Pinder brought the team home in 2nd in a brilliant time of 12.09 after the first leg. Billy really is on fire at the minute and his great performance got the team's hopes up immediatley. I was running leg 5 of 6, contra to last year where I ran the 1st leg. Bearing this in mind I knew it would be much tougher pacing it this year as the likelihood was I would be trying to catch/hold off runners rather than beat them (like last year on the first leg where it is an outright race!) It seemed an eternity until I finally got to go and taking over from Faisil Ismail with the team in 5th place, I was off. I set off quickly knowing there was a runner breathing down my neck and Manchester G.S. weren't too far ahead.
The wooded area was pretty chewed up by the time I ran my leg (much more so than when we walked it pre race) and so it was hard going, but I definitley felt to be reeling in the runners ahead and leaving those behind for dead. Had I gone too fast? Yes. I had a very strong first 2/3 of the race but in the final 3rd of the punishing fast 2.4 mile course I had to hang on in there and the Manchester G.S. runner was beginning to pull away again. I had moved us into a comfortable 4th by this stage but flagging, I knew there was no way I was going to catch 3rd before the handover. Battling on I was passed by a St. Anselms runner who went on to do 11.55! This made me feel as though all the hard work had been undone. Still, taking over in 5th and handing over in 5th was fairly respectable.
The team lost another place on the last leg to Sedbergh, leaving us in 6th position. Not a bad effort and a considerable improvement on last year! Hopefully next year we will be capable of bringing some silverware home!
My time of 12.58 was some 29 seconds quicker than last year in worse conditions and on a much slower leg. I was reasonably happy but felt as though had I paced it better, I could have done a time more similar to that of the M.G.S runner (12:41). All the same, a good day out and all good experience for next year!
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