Tom Roper's Running Training

A speed session

I have the very good fortune to be using up the last annual leave of the year in a glorious week, thanks to the jet-stream. For the first time for ages, I had a run before lunch, an agreeably painful six 800m runs with short recoveries and a mile warm-up and cool-down; or I would have done if I could read the Garmin without my glasses. I got it into my head that it was eight fast sessions, so I found myself running a mile and a bit more than prescribed. No matter.

I miss running at this time of day. I don't know if it's when I'm at my fastest, but it is certainly one of the most enjoyable. I think back to the days of the BSMS running club, where one could always be sure of company for a lunchtime run.

Last speed session before the marathon

The last Tuesday speed run consisted of six quarter-mile fast runs, at 10k pace, according to the rubric, with 200m recoveries and warm-up and cool-down. I enjoy these, though I'm neither good nor fast when I undertake them.

Today the wind blew and the sea spat foam over Seaford front. A high tide brought the water rushing over the promenade at Splash Point. It's good to get these conditions out of the way before the marathon. Here's to a calm, bright, but not too hot, Sunday.

Pace over the quarter miles:

First .25 miles: 08:56
Second .25 miles: 08:57
Third .25 miles: 09:02
Fourth .25 miles: 08:40
Fifth .25 miles: 08:44
Sixth .25 miles: 08:35

 

The common cormorant, or shag: Janathon day 11

Christopher Isherwood's poem was my favourite when I was ten, and still makes me smile:

The common cormorant (or shag)

Lays eggs inside a paper bag,

You follow the idea, no doubt?

It's to keep the lightning out.

 

But what these unobservant birds

Have never thought of, is that herds

Of wandering bears might come with buns

And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

A third of the way in to Janathon and there was a cormorant on the canal today, as I did four fast half mile runs with recoveries and warm up and cool down. I was surprised to see a coastal bird so far inland but he seemed perfectly happy. I think he was a cormorant, not a shag. It's hard to tell the difference, and an old bird-watcher's joke is that the only way to do so is to count the tail-feathers.

As for the running, I wasn't particularly fast, paces below:

1st half mile: 09:34 (pace)
2nd half mile: 09:22
3rd half mile: 09:12
4th half mile: 09:28

See the full horror on Garmin Connect

I also claim about 5.5 miles of cycling.

A speed session

The fastest thing this evening was the wind, gusting to force seven or eight. So my modest aim of a mile warm up followed by two five minute fast runs, with recoveries, was overtaken by the struggle to keep moving at something faster than walking pace. So the two five minute sessions, as you may see at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49026826 , were conducted at the following unimpressive paces: the first five minutes, into the south-westerly wind, was at a pace of 10.18; coming back, the second was a little better at 9.48.

These details are irrelevant. It was one of those runs from which one returns purged and changed. The waves were awesome, in the true sense of the word. Several of the buoys that delineate the extent of the swimming area had been torn from the anchors and bobbed around in the surf like the heads of small yellow homunculi. I wondered whether to dive in and save them.

Eight fast 400m on Seaford front, late afternoon

All runs should be as pleasant as this: late afternoon, beside a rough sea, with a chilly wind and a pink sunset. The waves broke over the path at Splash Point; at the other end of the beach, the earth-movers were finishing for the day.

Time: 40:34
Distance: 4.22
Pace: 9.37

First 400m: 2:14/8.57
Second 400m: 2:09/8.37
Third 400m: 2;11/8.45
Fourth 400m: 2:19/9.18
Fifth 400m: 2:17/9.10
Sixth 400m: 2:19/9.19
Seventh 400m: 2:11/8.47
Eighth 400m: 2:19/9.18

Absence of rosy-fingered dawn

I don't usually get the chance for to run before work, but commitments today allowed me to go out just after 6, and though I had the breathing problems that bother me at the moment during the run, afterwards I felt really well. I wish I could do more morning runs but I'd have to get up at 4.30 am and, though I'm a lark rather than an owl, that seems a bit much.

I ran three fast mile sessions on the front in murky conditions. The data will follow as I compose this away from the Forerunner, and I had to truncate some of it to be able to catch my train. Rosy-fingered Dawn, ροδοδακτuλος 'Ηώς, did not appear over the sea, I'm afraid, but this is Seaford; instead, it seemed slightly lighter towards the end, but not by much. The fleet of earth-movers, which used to be a frequent sight of morning runs when training for previous marathons, were not about their task of moving Seaford beach from one end to the other, only for the storms to redistribute it again. There was a brisk easterly wind.

I understand the weather forecast suggests it will become colder again.

Time: 42:35
Distance: 4.08
Pace: 10.26
First fast mile: 9:49
Second fast mile: 10:18
Third 'fast' mile: 11:13