Tom Roper's Running Training

Six miles before breakfast

It was Alice who would think of six impossible things before breakfast. I can only offer six miles, hammered out on Seaford front in the teeth of a bone-chilling wind and to the sound of a rough sea on the shingle.
I like running before dawn (she's rather slow and can't keep up...ho ho). Since working in London again, I rarely have the chance. I usually get up at 5:20 and I draw the line at rising an hour before that to fit a run in. Today a dental appointment meant I had the chance. It was tough, but set me up for the day.
Time: 1:06:31
Distance: 6.12
Pace: 10:52

Gender engineering on the fourth day of Janathon

Like many runners, I decided to treat myself to some new shoes for Christmas. I'm at the start of marathon training, and I last bought a new pair nearly three years ago. For a long time I've been wearing Brooks Addictions. I overpronate and they worked well for a while. Lately, and it may be because of running in old shoes, I have found them less comfortable. So I found myself walking out of the Jog Shop in Brighton with a pair of Mizunos, to wit Wave Alchemy 10s. I liked the feel of them in the shop, and ran in them for the first time today.

My eye was caught by the legend on the sole promising 'gender engineering'. Before panic ensues, let me assure readers that I am still entire, as one says of horses. It seems to be all about the pelvis. The wider hips of women runners mean they tend to need a different shoe to their heavier, narrower-hipped male comrades. A quick and not very thorough look at PubMed for some evidence to back this up found these papers:

Krauss I, Valiant G, Horstmann T, Grau S.
Comparison of female foot morphology and last design in athletic footwear--are men's lasts appropriate for women?
Res Sports Med. 2010 Apr;18(2):140-56.

Wunderlich RE, Cavanagh PR.
Gender differences in adult foot shape: implications for shoe design.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2001 Apr;33(4):605-11.

So, thoroughly gender engineered, I set forth on a run to try out the shoes, of a mile warm-up, three fast miles, with quarter-mile recoveries, and a mile cool-down. My route, over Hawks Brow, and along Seaford front, took in paved roads and paths, grass and shingle. The shoes felt good, though I'm not sure they'd be comfortable for a long run just yet.

Time: 1:00:14
Distance: 5.75
Pace: 10:23

First fast mile: 9:27
Second fast mile: 10:28
Third fast mile: 9:53

My Janathon haiku

There's a Janathon haiku page as well: http://www.janathon.com/haiku.html

I penned the following. I wanted to observe the rules of haiku which, as well as syllabic prescriptions,require a kigo, a seasonal reference. I hope I have managed that.

No feeling in toes;

What damn fool chose this cold month

For the Janathon?

Rest day: in whelming surge of chlorine and cheap scent

Here the term 'rest' is used satirically, for while this may be a rest day in marathon training, Janathon knows nothing of the idea of rest. So I went swimming, thirty lengths of the Seaford Head pool, 22.5 metres long, so that's 675 metres in all.

I prefer to be 'in whelming surge of brine', but my plan to swim in the sea throughout the winter came to grief in late November, defeated by the falling sea temperatures. I doff my cap to the Seaford Lifeguards, who enjoyed their annual New Year's dip yesterday with a sea temperature of 4.5 C. Maybe next year.

I was made more sharply aware of the pleasures of sea-swimming by the pollution of the indoor pool: halfway through my swim by a woman who entered the water having drenched herself in a pungent, artificial floral scent which poisoned both air and water; afterwards the chlorine pong clung to me.

I also cycled to and from the pool. I wish that Ironmonger Row, one of the most beautiful indoor pools in the country, were open. I've been working nearby since October, but my contract comes to an end in March and the baths are closed for refurbishment until May 2012 at the earliest.

To Bo Peep, or as near as dammit: Janathon day 2

It was bright, cold and the downs were at their finest. I took myself on a route well-trod when I lived nearer the start of the path to Bo Peep (for non-Sussex readers, a point high on the downs where there are, unsurprisingly, sheep). I was to run eight miles; from the old house I remember that it was three miles to the field just before the bostal† and, magically, as I reached the same point I saw that I had run exactly four miles. I am always amused by these serendipities of distance.

Hard work, but the lesson I learn from week two of the training is that rest days occupy their places in the training week for a reason. Trifle with them at your peril.

Time: 1:32:13
Distance: 8.25
Pace: 11:02

Total mileage this week: 29.22

† a Sussex dialect word. See the OED:  ? < Old English beorh a hill (barrow n.¹) + Old English stíel(e, stile n.¹ But the explanation ‘seat on the side or pitch of a hill’ given by Bp. Kennett (see Halliwell), suggests Old English *beorh-steall

To understand all is to forgive all: my first Janathon run

Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner. When Charles Ryder meets Sebastian Flyte for the first time at Oxford in Brideshead Revisited, Sebastian, before vomiting through the window of Charles's room, explains that it is not the quantity of drink he has taken that makes him feel unwell, but the variety.

After a night of modest potations, some amontillado before supper, red wine with scallops and with the Stilton that followed, a couple of bottles of Harvey's porter, and a single glass of champagne at midnight, I woke at 4 am from a dream in which I wandered the streets of Paris, searching for a lavatory after undergoing brain surgery without anaesthetic. I was surprised to find I had a raging headache and an urgent need for the lavatory but, if I had thought for a moment, the clues were in the dream.

In spite of this I joined some thirty or so Seaford Striders for our New Year's Day run from the Martello tower to the sailing club  and back. This is a restrained and genteel affair. The faster runners moderate themselves to the pace of the slowcoaches, parents run with children, and at the end we all had a biscuit. The weather was grey, but by no means cold. The figures below include one mile jogs to and from the start.

Time: 43:31
Distance: 4:65
Pace: 9:22

Last runs of 2010

Janathon looms, less than twenty-four hours away, and I've found the second week of training hard work. In theory Monday and Friday are rest days, but I rested on both Monday and Tuesday, leaving me with five consecutive days running for the rest of the week. So on Wednesday evening I started the week's running, with a trip out with the Seaford Striders along the winter route. I made a hash of starting and stopping the Garmin so, although I ran five-ish miles at a good pace, I have only a very partial record . Including the warm-up and cool-down, I think I can reasonably claim six miles.

On Thursday I ran the first speed session of marathon training, a demanding two sets of fast 1.5 miles along Seaford front with recoveries and warm-up and cool-down. I enjoy speed sessions, though I never run as fast as I should: for this I ran the two 1.5 miles at paces of 9:22 and 10:07. The target pace for fast runs is supposed to be around 8-minute miles. Once more I failed to operate the Garmin correctly, not switching it off when I finished, so if you look at the Garmin connect figures, they may seem a little odd.

Today, once more in the afternoon, as dusk approached, I went up to South Hill and Seaford Head. My legs were tired but I kept going over slightly sticky terrain. If Seaford Head were a racecourse, I would call the going soft to yielding.

Wednesday:
Distance: 6 miles-ish
Time: Who knows?
Pace: Fast, I thought

Thursday:
Distance: 6.23
Time: 01:07:45
Pace: 10:52

Friday:
Distance: 4.09
Time: 46:25
Pace: 11:20

I shan't blether on about 2010. I didn't run as much as I wanted to, though I was cheered to cut my 10k time down a little. On to 2011, Janathon and the Brighton Marathon.

Marathon training, week 1

It's good to have the first week of training under my belt. I finished off with seven miles along Seaford front, from home to Splash Point and then to the tip of Newhaven East Pier and back. The front was busy with the Seaford passeggiata, which in December takes place from 3 to 4 pm, and I had the great pleasure of meeting the Loske-Page family (that's the Sussex Loske-Pages, of course)  and also Jane, the gifted cook at the sailing club, and her dog Daisy who is a little averse to runners.

Today's run:
Time: 01:16:18
Distance: 7:17
Pace: 10:38

Total miles this week: 19.38
Weeks till the Brighton marathon: 15

In the morning I was supposed to be skipper of the safety boat for the final leg of the Iceberg race series at Piddinghoe pond. Racing was impossible, and the trophy went to Alan Simmons of Lancing SC, whose account of the series may be seen at: http://streakerramblings.blogspot.com/2010/12/freeman-iceberg-race-8-boxing-day-2010.html

 

 

 

 

Christmas running

What, I wonder, might the five year old boy I was in 1960 have thought if he had been told that in fifty years time he would mark Christmas Eve and Christmas Day morning by going out in the cold, wearing shorts, and running?

On Christmas Eve I went out for a evening run. My eyesight is not good enough to read the Garmin's screens at night, and if I lock the bezel, which is wise, then I can't turn the back-light on. Consequently a great deal of the run was spent stopping under lamp-posts, trying to make sense of the screen. I also failed to stop it properly when I arrived home, so it looks as if a three-mile run took me nearly an hour.

This morning was much more pleasant: bright, if cold, sunshine, offering beautiful views from the top of Seaford Head. I ran a four mile route taking in South Hill Barn, Hope Gap and Seaford Head  over surfaces likened by Sweder, ever ready with the running mot juste, to running on pavlova.

Friday's run:
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 32:40
Pace: 10:53

Saturday's run:
Distance: 4.11
Time: 47:20
Pace: 11:53

Three miles at dusk

When I was a very small boy, and my brother even smaller, we would sit in the nursery with our Swiss au pair Alice, watching dusk fall and the street lights come on, first red, then orange. It seemed to take an eternity. Then Alice would close the curtains, feed us and we would go to bed.

I remember all this while out running at dusk today. Now the lights go from red to orange in a few instants. This was supposed to be a slow run and one of my weaknesses is a failure to judge pace correctly. I ran this at something closer to steady pace. For the record, my paces, using the Runners World training schedules, ought to be something like:

Slow: 10:15
Steady: 9:09
Threshold: 8:47

Todays statistics:
Time: 29:07
Distance: 3.07
Pace: 9:29

Full details at Garmin Connect: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/60350307