Update

It has been a while since my last post so there is alot to catch up on.

I raced twice in August, they were both beach races and both went pretty well. The first was in Urbanova, a small village on the beach about 10 minutes drive outside of Alicante city. The course was fairly tough since it was largely on soft sand so the times were pretty slow, the winner averaged 4:17 min/km whereas in the previous beach race he was doing around 3:30. In my case I slowed from 4:17 min/km to 5:04, but I improved to 28th place (of 152) from 39th (of 137), I was pleased with the improvement, a guy that finished just behind in the previous beach race came home 90 seconds behind me in Urbanova.

The following week was another beach race, this time in Playa de San Juan, its about 5 minutes drive from Alicante but in the opposite direction to Urbanova. San Juan is a town in its own right, with a good mix of residential blocks and hotels, its a touristy place but it doesn't seem to attract the ugly side of tourism. The race was much bigger than the previous two beach runs, this one has been going for twenty years now and attracted as many as 374 runners. This time the race was almost completely on hard sand so it allowed for much quicker times than in Urbanova, it was a 7km race and my average pace was 4:09 min/km. Looking at the results now it seems a bit disappointing, the same guy that I was pleased to beat by 90 seconds a week earlier came home only 3 seconds behind me at this one, however given events before the race I should be happy with it. I travelled to both Urbanova and San Juan on bike, while in Urbanova I'd arrived in plenty of time for San Juan I had underestimated how long it would take to get there and parked my bike up with only 10 minutes to go to the start of the race and I still had to get my running number and drop off my bag. Rushing about to get my number and get to the start I turned over my ankle slightly, after an initial worry that I'd got out of bed early and rushed to get to the race only to injure myself I calmed myself and found that I could still run ok, it just felt a little....weird. Anyway I went down to the start, took the first couple of kilometres fairly easy but after that I was confident that the ankle wasn't going to give out so got to running normally. Given that little episode I can be reasonably happy with my performance, I was 47th overall and 13th in my category (of 58).

The race in San Juan was five weeks ago now, since then I've had no more races but I've been doing plenty of training. The University reopened on the 1st September which meant I could get back to track sessions and the occasional session of flapping about in the pool and it seems progress is being made. Last week I did a 10km training run pushing pretty hard and managed for the very first time, in training or in a race, to run 10km in less than 40 minutes, I had 15 seconds to spare. It has been a target I've been aiming for for a while and it was a relief to finally get there, now to reach other goals! Next week I'm doing a 10k race in my home town, I hope that in a race situation I'll be able make a big dent into that PB. Progress has also been made towards the 3 minute kilometre, I produced a table with pb's for various distances upto 1km a couple of posts ago, it needs a couple of updates:

	Desired Pace	Current Times
100m	00:18	00:15
200m	00:36	00:32
400m	01:12	01:12*
500m	01:30	01:32dh
800m	02:24	02:35
1km	03:00	03:20

The * indicates a PB since the last update. I managed to get my PB for 400m to be exactly on 3:00min/km, and it is a performance I have repeated a couple of times now, while at the last update I reported the 200m PB, well I've been able to repeat that time fairly consistently in my last few sessions. The other change from last time I included this table is that I've added a time for 800m, it's 11 seconds outside my target pace but I've repeated the performance a few times and I'm confident with a few more tough sessions I'll be able to go quicker. I haven't tried to run a quick kilometre for a while, I'll do a few more sessions of series before I see how far I've come but looking at my 800m time I'm confident I would be able to go quicker than 3:20 right now.

After lots of positives I have one negative to report. On Thursday I made a long awaited return to football, a full 5 weeks after my previous game but again it caused problems with my back. During most of the game I was fine, but in the last five minutes I felt a pain, but on the plus side I noted exactly the movement I was doing to cause the problem. I was playing on the left and through most of the game when I had the ball I attacked on the outside, however with five minutes to go I saw space on the inside so went for it and that's when I felt the pain. In summary, it's a problem that occurs when I transfer my weight quickly from my left to the right. I'm going to take a break from football for a while now, hopefully with more time in the pool the muscles in my back will get stronger and balanced, so when I do play again I don't have to worry about it.

I think that's everything covered. I have a race on the beach tomorrow and the 10k in my town next week so I'll be back soon with further updates and to discuss my schedule for the year, with the big question being will I or won't I run an autumn marathon.

Until then, happy running!

Summer Races

The recovery from my hamstring strain went well and now I'm back in full training, in fact I raced on three Sundays in row through July. Considering the training i'd missed all three races quite went well but I'm still not anywhere near to my 3:00min/km goal and for the next month I won't be able to do any track sessions as the University will be closed, which also rules out using the Uni pool or gym too.

Anyway, i'll continue to work on my speed over the next month and hopefully i'll be able to have another go at that 3 minute kilometre at the end of it.

  

Enough of that, now to the races. First off it was a 6km 'cross country' race on the beach. I was only just recovered from my hamstring strain when this one came around I so took it fairly easy. I finished in 39th place of 137 runners and was 11th in my category. It was a two lap race, I got around the first one in 13:15 but picked things up in the second, getting round in 12:25. It was my first experience of running on sand, for a first effort I think I did ok, it was hard work and at times very difficult to stay up right but all good fun and I'd imagine it counts as good strength training.

The link to the GPS info for the race is here.

Next up it was an urban 'cross' in Elche, Cross de Carrus. It was just a 15 minute run around, a 4km race. I finished in 15:17, in 30th place of 165 runners and in 10th place in my category. It was a nice little run and well worth the €5 entry fee, I got a running vest for my troubles which will definitely be made use along with some other assorted goodies. I was pleased with it, I was well under 4:00min/km pace despite the debilitating heat so it bodes well for the future. You can see the details here.

Finally there was the Mitat Mitja Marato de Torrellano, basically a race of a little over 10 kilometres. I completed this race two years ago and enjoyed it alot. This year the course had changed completely, it was 400m shorter and was now on the opposite side of the town, but it was still just as enjoyable, and more so because I felt I ran well. One of my goals is to run sub 40 minutes for 10k, and I was wasn't far off that in Torrellano, my pace over the race was 4:02 min/km, so only 20 seconds from my goal and given a better starting position I think I could have easily ran 20 seconds quicker in the first kilometre.

I finished in 49th place of 559 finishers, while I was 30th in my category (of 271), a satisfactory result and one I think I should be able to improve once I get the troubles I've had with my back resolved. I've have had problems for months now, things start to improve and then I can't control the urge to play football and it gets worse, now I have a month without playing football so hopefully that will let the injury recover properly. Basically it comes from the sharp stop starts and turns in football, running alone doesn't seem to aggravate things. Back on topic, you can see my run in Torrellano here. Torrellano was also only €5 and probably even better value than the 4k in Elche, the goodie bag wasn't so full but I still got a useable running vest and you expect to pay more for longer races.

Last weekend I was without a race, but this Sunday I have another, and although I haven't signed up yet I'll probably run the following week too. They are both beach races, its difficult to target a time for running on sand, if the course is on flat wet sand its very different to running on dunes, but I'll be aiming to improve on my finishing position each time, so for this week its 38th or better.

I'll let you know how got on on Monday, until then, happy running!

Hamstrung!

I've had a setback in training and my target of running a 3 minute kilometre before the end of the month has gone out of the window.

Saturday morning I went to the athletics track to do some sprints, I did 5 100m sprints without any problem, then while doing my first 200m effort I felt something in my hamstring. It was nothing drastic, no sharp pain, just a little discomfort. Anyway, I eased off it for a couple of days, but then went to play football and found it was still a problem.

I paid a visit to the physio yesterday and she recommended a slow build-up back to the level of training I was doing, so the next 3 weeks or so are lost. I'm to do short slow jogs, starting with 5 minutes yesterday and adding 5 minutes each day provided I'm not having any problems until I get to 30 minutes, then I can start doing some short sprints and work on hills

It's more than a little frustrating, but I'm still able to swim and cycle so I should be able to keep my fitness level up, I may even pay a visit to a gym. I just have to be smart about things and try to avoid doing something stupid that might turn a minor injury complaint into a major one.

Happy Running
Maratonero

Update on 3 minute kilometre goal

It has been a while since I've blogged, I don't have so much to say, I'm still trying to improve my speed, I've made some progress but there is still a fairly long way to go.

I've taken a second off my times for both 200 and 400m while with the help of a steady down-slope I managed to cover 500m in 1:32, five seconds quicker than I'd managed previously. Here is the updated table of my times, a * indicates an improvement on the times in the last blog:

	Desired Pace	Current Times
100m	00:18	00:15
200m	00:36	00:32*
400m	01:12	01:13*
500m	01:30	01:32*dh
800m	02:24	-
1km	03:00	03:20

The target date to achieve my goal was the end of June, which is not too far away now. My 500m best was done after two previous fast 500m efforts with a jog recovery, I think given a walk recovery I probably would have come in under 90 seconds. I'd like to be able to do the 3 minute kilometre on the flat but it seems that's a little beyond me at this stage, but with a slight downhill and coming at it reasonably fresh I might just make it.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks to let you know how I got on.

Happy running

El maratonero

Progress towards my 3:00 min/km goal

Last week I said I had set myself a goal of running just one kilometre in three minutes, I thought I would blog on how its going, what I'm doing to achieve the goal and give a bit of information on just how difficult a challenge it is.

While training for the marathon in Madrid I would do no more than one session of speed training a week and if I had a race on the weekend or if I played football in the week it would be a session I would drop. My speed training in general consists of going to the track and doing repeated fast paced efforts with a jog or walk recovery in between depending on how I feel. My typical session would consist of 4x100m efforts, 4x200m and 2 or more 400m.

In the last few weeks I've been doing two or three speed sessions a week. The second type of session is done on the road and involves fast past efforts of 500m or 1000m with a jog recovery, if just 1000m efforts I do 3 or 4 efforts. You can see an example of such a session here:1000m series

I said last week I was able to run 1 kilometre in 3:25, well this week saw a step forward, I managed a kilometre in 3:20. Clearly if I keep improving at this rate my target of 3:00 is well within reach in the next few weeks. However, my track session reminded me that it will be a difficult task. Below is a table that lists for various distances up to 1km the time that 3min/km pace would lead to for that distance together with the time I currently run that distance in.

	Desired Pace	Current Times
100m	00:18	00:15
200m	00:36	00:33
400m	01:12	01:14
500m	01:30	01:37
800m	02:24	-
1km	03:00	03:20

As you can see, I can run at 3:00min/km pace over 100 and 200m but so far I've been unable to sustain that pace even up to 400m. If I can't sustain 3:00min/km pace for 500m it seems a huge ask to get to sustaining that pace for double that distance but that's what I'm trying to do.

It's not an impossible task, but it is a challenging one, but one that will hopefully pay dividends when I start upping my mileage later in the year ready to take on a new season of half marathons.

That's all for now,
Happy running

El Maratonero

So what's next?

Since Madrid I've been thinking about what to take on as my next big challenge. I've now completed two marathons, but after both I've felt disappointed to some degree, my performance in the races has not lived up to the expectations I had of myself after the months of training. After these disappointments, one thought that occurs is that maybe I'm just not cut out for running marathons, maybe I should concentrate on running shorter distances or try another sport, triathlon being the most obvious option after two years of endurance training.

One day I may have to decide that enough is enough but that day hasn't arrived yet. I'd like to give the marathon one more shot at the very least. In Madrid I got to 30 kilometres feeling ok but things just fell apart from there. Deterioration in performance after 30 kilometres is not something unique to me, its the point in the race commonly known as 'the wall', unfortunately its not the point in the race where everyone hears a great Pink Floyd album, but when you feel like you are running into a brick wall. The science of it is that up to 30km your body uses its stores of carbohydrates which are easily turned into energy used to carry you round the course, however at 30km those stores run dry and instead the body turns to burning fat, which is a much less efficient process.

So the answer seems simple, fuel up on carbs before and during the race and everything will go fine. Well I tried that in Madrid, I was trying to eat alot of carbs before the race, and during the race I was taking on gels, but nerves before meant I didn't have the appetite for the carbs and I never really got on with the gels I tried.

Then its clear that before any future marathon I should make sure I'm clear on my plan for fuelling up during the race, i.e. find a gel that I get on with. Another step I can take is to practice the carbo-loading process for a couple of my longer runs during the training cycle, then hopefully my stomach will be more likely to accept the extra load when the race day comes around.

However, there is another step I'm going to take to try to improve my performance. Over the past three-and-a-half years that I have been running I have always been training to get round. I signed up for a half-marathon and just started preparing to be able to complete the distance. I kept on running, and signed up for a marathon, and again I was just preparing to finish the race. Though I've improved over time I've never really pushed to see just how fast I can run.

My thinking now is that as much as the distance is a killer in the marathon, its also the time on your feet, carbo-loading is recommended for activities lasting longer than 90 minutes but if I can improve my speed over the distance I can reduce the time I'm running beyond 90 minutes meaning carbo-loading is not so important. So this is my plan, teach myself to run faster! It sounds a pretty basic thing to do for a runner, but when going from preparing one race after another I really haven't tried.

So what am I going to do? I've set myself an objective. The world's top marathoners get through 42 kilometres averaging faster than 3 minutes per kilometre, over the next six weeks I will be training towards the goal of running just one kilometre at that pace. At the moment the fastest I've managed is 3:25 so I've got some way to go but I want to give it a shot, if nothing else I want to feel what elite pace is like, but the end objective will be to see if learning to run fast can lead me to improvements in my PBs in 10k, half-marathon and hopefully a marathon over the next twelve months.

I'll be letting you know how i'm getting on over the next few weeks.

That's all for now.
Happy running.

El maratonero

Maratón de Madrid 2011

I'd like to start by apologising, I stated in my last blog that I would post a couple of entries in the build-up to the big day in Madrid, unfortunately I just couldn't find the time so this will be a bumper post describing my build-up and the race itself.

The last few days before the race saw my back complaint gradually fade away which meant my confidence grew. There was a one mile race in my University which I had planned to give a miss, thinking racing so close to the big day was an unnecessary risk but they had a bunch of races for kids and seeing them all running around enjoying themselves in the sun I felt a little left out so rushed around to get my running gear and get signed in. Thankfully it went well, I equalled my mile PB without really pushing very hard and I felt no after effects.

I had my last run out on the Thursday before the marathon, just a 6km run on a pace about 15 seconds per kilometre faster than my target pace, again it felt good so I finished feeling confident.

The following two days I tried to stuff myself full of carbs to fuel myself up ready for the race, I served myself up mountains of pasta and rice. However, the job was made more difficult by the nervous tension that comes from considering I was so close to taking on the challenge of a marathon, it led to a loss of appetite and difficulty in keeping down the little food I was taking on board.

Sunday morning rolled around, I woke up at 6am, I lied in bed nervously for half an hour waiting for the alarm clock to sound. I got up showered and attempted to get some breakfast cereal down me, I was semi-successful, after giving my girlfriend a nudge or two towards the door we set off at 8am to head towards the start.

After surviving the scrum to hand in my bag at the guardaropa we headed down toward the mass of runners, after a few stretches I tried to make my way through to the sign with my intended finish time on it, no luck though, I'd arrived too late, I had to settle in around the 4hr 30 section.

The nervous energy continued to build, and the starting gun going off didn't help initially, we were just stood still waiting for spaces to appear ahead but as I crossed the start line a full 4 minutes after the official start time of 9am I started to feel better.

As expected in a popular race the first few kilometres were stop and start as I tried to find my way into open space to get into my stride, but as well as the normal stoppages I had to take an avoidable pit-stop. As I was waiting on the start line I was thinking about a trip to the toilet, I took one look at the queue and decided it was probably just nerves, no need to go now. About 10 minutes later I was concentrating on finding an appropriate tree!

After that stoppage I got back into my running, feeling good. I got through the first 5km in 26:17. It was a bit slower than my target pace, but given the stoppage it was ok. The next 5km was solid, although not the most enjoyable, there were very few people on the streets (apart from the runners), after London last year I think I had my expectations too high.

I got through the second 5k in 25:22, pretty much bang on my target pace and I kept on it through the next 5k too, I got through in 25:10. At 15k I took on an energy gel with the water at the feeding station, I didn't seem to give me the immediate sugar buzz that I'd had when I'd tried it in training, it was a bit of a disappointment, but I kept going ahead undeterred. From 15 to 20k took 25:11, I'd hoped to be the other side of 5 min/km but I was happy to keep things steady.

I got to the halfway point in 1:47:35, a minute quicker than London a year earlier, and more importantly feeling much better. At halfway in London I started to really struggle, from there it was just a battle to get to the finish. At halfway the crowds were starting to build, 9am was a little too early to expect Spaniards to be out on the streets! By 10:30 they were out there cheering us on, it was a real lift.

I did the 5k from 20 to 25 in 25:01. It was all going well, however I had one problem, I had no thirst. I was conscious that I needed to stay well hydrated but I couldn't get anything down. I didn't think too much about it, since I couldn't do anything about it, but it was in the back of my mind.

From 25 to 30km is in Casa de Campo, a park in the west of the city. It was a pleasant break from the cityscape, running through the trees, however you lose a little bit of atmosphere as the supporters don't really enter the park. I through that 5k in 26:16, the slowest so far, but still acceptable. Unfortunately things got worse from there.

I had planned to use energy gels at the 15 and 30 kilometre feeding stations, and then if needed another to see me to the finish at 40, but at 30 kilometres I felt that I couldn't take anything on board so continued on. Unfortunately there was an unsurprising consequence, coming to 33km I felt I couldn't run, I had no energy, so much so it seemed that simply breathing was a costly activity, I slowed to a walk.

I was hoping that with a couple of minutes of walking I would recover and get a second wind which would carry me to the finish. It didn't happen, I tried to run but I had nothing. It was really frustrating, there were huge crowds around at this point, they were urging all the runners on, but I just couldn't respond. The section from 30 to 35 took me 33:05, well off my target time. I was running in bursts, but I just could sustain it, no matter how slow a run I embarked on. 35 to 40 was a tortuous 45:08, but shortly before 40 kilometres things took a turn for the better, although not before a turn for the worse.

My girlfriend was waiting for around kilometre 39, I didn't want her to see me suffering so badly so tried to get running again. I saw her, and she joined me running for a few metres before she took a short cut to meet me further along the course, however shortly after she left me things came to a head. I suddenly felt ill, and brought up the energy gels onto the street, I am very sorry to the poor unsuspecting spectators that had to witness it, but I just couldn't stop it.

However, after that I felt considerably better, and was able to sustain a run almost throughout the remaining distance. I got through the last 2.195km in 13:54, so an average of 6:19min/km and finished running, you can see my finish here:
http://www.corriendovoy.com/video.php?id=381&video=26336
The finish line is in Parque del Retiro, another of Madrid's great green spaces. I have to say the finish was the most enjoyable part of the race, yes its a very nice part of the city, but the joy of knowing you've completed the course is what makes the pain and tiredness momentarily disappear from the body so you can just take everything in. It's the time that makes all the days where you really had to suffer to get out the door to train worthwhile, for me at least its a huge natural high.

My finish time was 4:05:20, I finished in 5186th place of 7998 runners. Although this was a huge improvement on my time in last year's London marathon, about 30 minutes, it was a disappointment, I was expecting better, given that I was fit and well, and knowing what I can do over the half marathon distance I think a 3:30 marathon is more than achievable. I can search for an answer of why I didn't perform as I wanted, but I'm not going that today, for now I just want to enjoy the fact that I completed my second marathon.

In my blogs on my completed races I always finish with a review of the goodie bag, and this will be no different. In truth, given the sizeable entry fee, 45euros, I was expecting something special. I was a little disappointed.

You can see from the picture, it was a light goodie bag, a copy of Runners World, a couple of magazines about the race, a bottle of shower gel, a little bag and a technical t-shirt. I could have got some food after the race to add to the bag but the system to distribute it wasn't the best, there were huge queues and I didn't have the patience to wait. It's a goodie bag light, but it is good quality, the t-shirt I would happily buy for myself and I've already put it to use, while the shower gel is one I regularly buy. So in summary, I'm content with the bag, but not blown away, thank you Madrid, but you've not quite done enough to match Santa Pola.