The square root of 16 is...

4 I hear you shout.
Square is very relevant when describing the session I did today. The top field at School is square and so it has its lines painted in a square shape. I used these lines to produce an interesting and challenging speed session today which consisted of: Run 1 side of the square hard, jog the base easy. Run 1 side and the top hard, jog 1 side and the base easy. Run 2 sides and the top hard, jog 2 sides and the base easy. Run the whole square hard, jog the whole square easy. This may sound complicated but in reality it isn't and if you saw it you would definitley understand what I'm waffling on about. Perhaps you can even visualise it now! Anyway, one would of course be too easy, so this was to be completed 4 times - hense the square root of 16 - 4! After half a mile of warming up, I was raring to go.
I generally felt pretty good throughout and began to find the legs for the job in hand (ie running fast) towards the 3rd and 4th set. The session went surprisingly quickly as I was always focusing on the next effort and taking each one as it came rather than, as with a normal interval session, being overwhelmed by the number of efforts to come. The efforts varied in length, from the shortest (one side of the square) being around 90m to a full lap of the square around 350m. I did time the full square (350m ie. very last effort) on the last set and set a pleasing 58 seconds. My only slight complaint about the session was that I did not feel fully hydrated. This came as no surprise however baring in mind I hadn't drunk since Breakfast and I was doing this session at 2pm!
After refuelling and recovering, I was out under the setting Sun (6pm) for a lovely half an hour trot to top the mileage up. I set off at a reasonable pace and felt superb; hilly, flat, muddy or tarmac, I handled everything very well and as a result the pace became brisker and brisker. As I hit the 20 minutes mark I decided to tone things down a little and focus on warming down after the day's training. With this, the mileage for the week crept just above 20 miles. With another similar day's graft on Friday, I will hit that 30 mile mark I have been seeking since I set out on Sunday.

Playing with speed

Today I decided it was time to work on the thing that has let me down in the past few races. I have been producing some great performances (for me anyway!) up until the final stretch of the race where I fail to capitalise on the lead I have over my peers. Runners who I have passed in the race have come back to haunt me at the finish. It has really frustrated me. I could have been 5th on Saturday had I had a good finish. To counter this, it was therefore time for some Fartlek consisting of 4 200m bursts per mile, with 3 and a half miles worth. This would leave me with 14 x 200m efforts followed by 200m recovery.
The legs are still feeling the effects of Saturday but still felt much better than yesterday. The times I churned out are far from impressive for 200m, but they were easily fast enough for the last 200m of a race which is what the plan was. The terrain I was sprinting on was also very similar to that at the end of a Cross Country Race; flat and muddy. So forgetting about the times, which to a track runner would be laughable, I feel I will have definitley got something out of today's efforts which produced the following times:
1. 39 secs
2. 37 secs
3. 38 secs
4. 37 secs
5. 35 secs
6. 36 secs
7. 35 secs
8. 37 secs
9. 38 secs
10.35 secs
11.36 secs
12.35 secs
13.35 secs
14.36 secs
ALL TIMES TO NEAREST SECOND!
So as you can see, times varied from 35 seconds to 39 seconds. I felt to get into more of a rythm as the session went on and this is possibly why the times became more consistent. Either way, considering my legs aren't fully recovered, I feel fairly assured with what I have seen today. Hopefully I can produce something like this at the end of a race when it really matters now!
Along with a 1 mile warm up and half a mile warm down, the daily total reaches a pleasing 5 miles and after yesterday's 6, brings the weekly total to 11 after only 2 days. I am well on track to hit the 30 at the moment! Wednesday will probably be some Intervals in Skipton Woods and then a nice steady run in the afternoon. I shall look forward to that and hopefully, after a day off, my legs will be fully recovered from Saturday. Dad bought me Lance Armstrong's autobiography today; inspiring stuff!

You can tell you've had a hard race when...

You feel knackered on the recovery run that follows the day after!
Today it was all about flushing the legs out after yesterday's efforts to set me up for a solid week's training with no interruptions race-wise. It would have been very naive of me to run at Cautley today as, although it may have felt good had I ran well, I probably would have been too fatigued to get a good week in before tapering for English Schools. In hindsight, I think I may well have been well down the field at Cautley anyway based on how I felt on a recovery run, never mind a race!
Another beautiful day today weather wise; glorious sunshine and although a little chilly, there was no wind whatsoever. I couldn't wait to get out there this morning and enjoy lovely weather and scenery. Although I enjoyed the scenery, the same cannot be said for the run. I felt dead, low in energy and sluggish. This can of course be put down to the sheer amount of energy expended yesterday. In the end, I cut it short of the intended hour, clocking up a worthwhile 50 minutes or so and 6 miles in the process. Very slow but exactly what the doctor ordered and I will no doubt feel much better tomorrow now I have had a proper warm down.
The week ahead will be a tough'un which will hopefully see me hit the 30 mile mark. I may get out tomorrow for half an hour or so, hopefully a little more brisk than today, but the real training will be on Wednesday and Friday. Don't be surprised to see another couple of 'double dosages' on both those days!

A great day.

Today saw the Ermysteds team travel over to Stockport for the Northern Schools Cross Country Championships. A rather prestigious event, the 'Northerns' attracts schools from all the North such as Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Manchester Grammar and of course ourselves as well as many more. We took various age groups along today. From year 7's to year 13's, we were out doing our bit in the School colours.
The weather started off rather dull but it picked up as the day went on. There was plenty of time for it to pick up in sunny Stockport as our race was at 3.45. We arrived there at around 12.30 (!) so rather a lot of waiting around to say the least. It was good however to watch the youngsters battle it out and enjoy their running. Admittadly our race couldn't come soon enough and I couldn't wait to get it out of the way. After the rather tedious wait, the time came to start warming up. The sun was shining and the outlook was generally very positive. I felt full of energy having stoked up on Porridge, Toast, Lucozade, Jelly Babies, Flapjack, Marsbars, Bananas and Soup pre-race. Any worry of bonking had surely been well and truly banished by such consumption.
The race started at a frantic pace. The course was a short lap, followed by two longer laps, totalling a distance of just over 6km. The short lap was simply a run round a cricket pitch, so as you can imagine very flat but the race began to take shape and the field spread out. I set off steady with the intention to pull through and so was quite far back, possibly in the late 20's after the short lap. The first long lap was where the race began for me. I picked runners off one by one and worked my way into 11th by the end of the first long lap, still feeling very strong indeed. I pushed on further and by the killer of climb on the 2nd lap, which hadn't caused too much pain on the first long, had climbed into 5th. All I had to do was hang on but the long finish found me wanting. Ironically, I was reeling the man in 4th in but the two lads behind flew past, leaving me to finish 7th.
7th out of a field of 50 was a brilliant result for me; underage and running against stronger lads who, in some cases, may have even had 2 years on me! I was disappointed not to hang onto 5th but the two who passed me deserved their placings for their 'kamikaze' style finish. Up front, Billy Pinder eased to victory by 15 seconds whilst behind me, Alex Sinclair fought hard for 9th and Will Crisp 11th, giving us Team Gold. Unfortunatley, we couldn't retain our overall School title, which went to Lancaster this time. Always next year though!
I intended on going to Cautley tomorrow but I suspect I will be feeling the effects of today. So call me soft or sly but, whilst I am going for a nice steady trot tomorrow, I will be thinking of all the Wharfedalers burning out their lungs on the Howgill Fells!

What a difference some sunshine makes.

Well, nothing major to report today other than 15 minutes of Strides and Jogging, as well as the beginning of the Carbo Loading for the weekend's races.
Saturday is Northern Schools at Stockport. I have run this race every year bar one and so know the course well. There is one very tough climb (which we will go up twice!), some nice downhill running in some woods and a bit of flat running over sports pitches so it's a great venue for these Championships. I normally run well here due to the undulating nature of the course and therefore my history of results look pretty good:
Year 7: 55th place
Year 8: 13th Place
Year 9: 5th Place
Year 10: Did not run
Year 11: 11th Place
Year 12: ???
We shall see how it goes on Saturday. I intend on running on Sunday (if the legs are ok) at the Cautley Spout in Kendal Winter League series. Cautley Spout is one of my favourite races and I had a bad'un there last year, so I certainly have unfinished business in this area of the Howgill Fells.
I'm thoroughly looking forward to the weekend anyway. Let's hope this anticipation can be turned into some good results!

Business as usual

After yesterday's nightmare at Sedbergh 3 Peaks, I was keen to get my running back on track. When you have a day like I did yesterday, you can't wait for the next race or training session to come so you can put things right. Still slightly angry after yesterday, I went off on today's training run with intention.
I did a nice steady 15 minutes with a mate and then went off for a Fartlek session in Skipton Woods. Fartlek, meaning Speedplay in Swedish, involves alternative bouts of running at different speeds with little structure, depending on how you feel. The thing I like about Fartlek sessions is they are much less pressured or threatening than more structured Interval based sessions, yet they can result in just as much hard work. Today I used landmarks in Skipton Woods, like park benches, trees and bridges to start and finish my efforts as well as the odd natural feature, such as a hill. The length of efforts varied from around 20 seconds to over 2 minutes, but I reckon I did around 12 efforts all together in half an hour. I tried to avoid any hills, including Park Hill as I thought this may trigger the back spasms again. The back held up well overall; there was the odd tightening and the like but nothing as alarming as yesterday.
I finished off with 15 more steady minutes, topping the time up to an hour and the distance to around 7 miles. A good day's training after a bad day yesterday. I felt nice and strong throughout which was pleasing and despite my legs feeling stiff this morning, they were fine whilst doing the session.
Saturday is of course Northern Schools, which Ermysteds regard as a big fixture in the calendar. I guess it's a good chance for the team to win another prestigious event and we also look to retain the 'best overall school' trophy which we won last year . I will give it my best shot and we will see where that takes me.

The source of yesterday's problem.

After speaking to Tim Edward, a teacher at school and also a very good fell runner, I have managed to find the cause of yesterday's torture. After finding out about my lower back problems, he immediatley said, 'Have you been doing any core conditioning stuff?' I immediatley replied 'yes', as I have been doing this strength and core work over the past couple of weeks. 'Ah, it will be that causing spasms in the bottom of your back; Too many situps and the like leave your core too strong for your back muscles. Either cut down the number you're doing and build up slowly or cut the core stuff out completley. I had the same problems at Kilnsey a couple of years ago.'
So there's the answer! Having not suffered with this problem before, Tim's suggestion makes perfect sense. I'm glad I know what is responsible anyway and I will certainly address this by cutting down on the core stuff. He also mentioned some excercises which will work both the core and the back muscles, which in turn wouldn't lead to muscle inbalances. He is going to dig a sheet out for me which helped when he had the same problem. Until then, no more core stuff for me!