very short race

Each year Otley AC organise two track races for members only.  The first is a one mile race and the second is 3000m.  The first one of 2012 took place last night and I was quite looking forward to it as I hadn't taken part in a mile race for almost five years.  It being a whole lot different from my usual race meant that I had absolutely no idea about pacing this one so I began by looking back at my previous times:

5:19 ... 15 Sep 1998  (age graded 5:13)
5:37 ... 24 Aug 2004  (age graded 5:18)
5:41 ... 23 Aug 2005  (age graded 5:19)
5:40 ... 30 Aug 2007  (age graded 5:13)

I then looked at my current times in training and decided that I should be able to manage somewhere between 5:45 and 5:50

At the track I was surprised that only seven people had turned out.  I'm sure we used to have enough runners for two or more races.  One of those looking for a short race was president Mick Jeffrey who, I felt sure, was after the M60 club record of 6:08

After half an hour warming up and waiting in vain for other runners to arrive we decided to race.  The only problem was ... we didn't have a timekeeper.  So, the ever resourceful Richard Hamer persuaded a member of staff to help out for a few minutes.

And then we were off.  Graham Lake shot to the front and after about 100m I knew I wouldn't be able to compete with that pace.  My only hope of winning was if he blew up.  I went through 400m in about 85s with Mick hot on my heels.  I was working hard but expected to be able to keep that pace going.  Mick was still tailing me at the half mile and, more significantly, Graham was not increasing his lead - it was remaining constant at about 25m.

The third lap saw Mick lose touch and I reached the bell in about 4:17 gaining slightly on Graham.  With about 350m remaining I lapped Antonio and down the back straight I began to think the leader was beginning to tire too much and that I might just catch him if I could muster a sprint finish.

That wasn't to be though.  My final lap was my fastest (about 1:22) and I suspect that Graham just started his finishing spurt a bit later than me.  I was well pleased with my time of 5:39 which is an M45 pb and also an age graded pb (see this page for details).

The race was won with 5:28 and the president equalled the club's M60 record with his 6:08 although he probably could have gone a bit quicker with better pacing.

Finally ... to all those running in the Lake District this coming weekend (100 miles & 50 miles) I hope the weather stays kind and that you all have good and enjoyable races.  Especially John Kynaston and Sarah Fuller.

very short race

A good day yesterday at Sefton Park in Liverpool.  As mentioned previously I was running for Otley AC in the North of England 12 stage road relay - I was running stage 7 for the B team [we've never managed two teams before so that was excellent news for the club].

My relay leg was 4.9 miles (7.9 km) and, based on current training, I expected a time of about 32:30.  I know that isn't very quick I've only resumed proper training in the last couple of months and I didn't really expect to have regained my old speed as yet.  When the team captain, Mick Jeffrey, reported that he had run 31:41 on a very good course [no big hills, no wind, etc] I started to think that maybe I should aim for a quicker time.

With no mile (or km) markers on the course it's always a case of running to feel in these type of events and so I set off at a pace I felt comfortable with but at the same time knowing that I could respond if pushed at the end of my run.  By coincidence Huw Illingworth was beginning his run about 20 seconds or so after me - he was in the A team though - so I expected him to pass me after not too long.  Sure enough he stormed past after about a mile and by the time he got to the flock of pigeons on the course he was about 30 - 40m ahead of me.  As he ran through them they all scattered but to my surprise they all landed again in the same place before I arrived.  This unexpected obstacle wasn't so easy to deal with and at times I almost trod on a couple of birds and had to deal with panicking pigeons flying into me and another runner just behind.  Luckily that wasn't a problem on the second lap.

At the end I did manage a sprint finish with another guy from a different club and to my surprise my time was 29:09.  Very happy with that.  In terms of speed I was the fastest runner in the B team and quicker than two from the A team.

In fact, on checking my previous races, I haven't run so quickly since late August 2010 when I completed a 5k parkrun in 18:17.  So, the speed seems to have returned.

Otley A finished a good 28th and Otley B finished 46th.  Overall there 46 complete teams finished along with 11 incomplete ones.  Full results are here and there are lots of photos here.

Thanks to Mick Jeffrey for organising teams and Huw Illingworth for driving.

And tomorrow there's a 50k training run.

ouch ...

This is what happened yesterday:

Woke early, had breakfast, and left home at 7.30 precisely to run the 22.1 miles to Grantley for the morning's 10k race.

I took with me a hand-drawn map of the route because many of the roads I planned to run along were unfamiliar to me and, of course, I didn't want to get lost.  On this map I had noted the distance at various places and my expected time of arrival at those places.

The first timing point was Pool and by that stage I was two minutes ahead of my schedule.  But I was OK with that, at this early stage it would be easy to slow down fractionally.  I did and from that point on I was always two to three minutes ahead of my target pace of 8:30 per mile.

Between Killinghall and Ripley though something happened ... I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left foot (fourth metatarsal head to be precise).  I limped for two or three strides and then continued running but all the while I was aware that something wasn't quite right.  I can't say it was painful though.

Arrived in Grantley almost half an hour before the race was due to start so I found Mick Jeffrey in the car park (he had agreed to give me a lift back to Otley) who later arranged for me to get a lift home with David Fox.  The 22.1 mile undulating run from Otley to Grantley had taken 3h 33:30 at an average pace of about 8:18 per mile.  Pleased with that.

The Fountains 10k itself also went well.  I enjoyed the sunny conditions (but not the strong wind) and ran well within myself to finish in about 42 minutes which is the fastest I have managed a 10k since September 2008.  The hills were quite hard into the headwind though but I did manage to run the final mile quite a bit faster than the previous miles which I'm pleased about.

At the finish line I received a spot prize of a bottle of Viking Bitter from Rudgate Brewery.  The bloke handed it over with the words "here, you look as if you deserve this".  Little did he know.

Thanks to Mick and David for arranging my transport home.  During the race my foot felt fine and any potential problem had left my mind entirely but when I arrived home and rested for a while I found it very difficult to walk and putting any weight on my left foot seemed very painful indeed.  I took some ibuprofen and iced my foot and wondered what to do as I knew it could be a few days before I could see a doctor because of the weekend and the Bank Holiday.

After a few hours with my foot in the air I realised that the minor injuries department at my local hospital would be open and so off I limped and after an examination and an X-ray it was confirmed, much to my relief, that there was no damage to any of my metatarsals.  It looked very likely that it is just a bad case of metatarsalgia and that R.I.C.E would be the best course of action.  Of course, without a sports injury specialist being available it was impossible to obtain a 100% accurate diagnosis.

As I write this, about 28 hours after the initial injury, the pain has almost subsided but I'm still icing and taking ibuprofen regularly.  I now feel a lot more positive about the next week or so.  I was going to run 24 miles this morning but before going to bed last night I realised that would be a foolish thing to do and so I've decided that my next run will be the first Harrogate League race on Thursday evening.  But I will keep monitoring the situation and will not jeopardise my ultra racing plans.

first race of 2011

Yesterday 12 men from Otley AC travelled north to Catterick Garrison for the annual North of England 12 stage road relay.  As a team we usually finish about 30th with the top 25 qualifying for the National 12 stage road relay a fortnight later.  Although we did finish in the top 25 a few years ago but then couldn't get a team together for the National!!!

The format follows a similar pattern every year although the venue and courses change continually.  This year we had 6 stages of 8k alternating with 6 stages of 4k.  I was on down to run the 8th stage ... a short one.

Long before I started we had come to the conclusion that the course must be shorter that the advertised distance as the times were far too quick ... 13 men ran the 8k (5 miles) stages in 22:30 or quicker.

I found the course to my liking but there was a bit of a headwind during one long straight section - it was cold too.  I ran the 4k in 14:15 and later worked out that that equates to 5:44 per mile ... I know I didn't run that quickly so I immediately knew it had to be short.

Back at home I used the internet to measure the course and found it to be about 3.7k (2.3 miles) and thus my time equates to about 6:10 per mile.  Yes, that's more like it ... I'm quite pleased with that actually as most of the time I was running by myself.

Good speedwork - even for me.

The Otley AC team results were:

(1) ... Liam Dunne ... 8k in 26:03 ... finished in 31st position
(2) ... Ben Cousen ... 4k in 13:26 ... finished in 31st position
(3) ... Edward Davies ... 8k in 26:08 ... finished in 30th position
(4) ... Howard Jeffrey ... 4k in 16:44 ... finished in 35th position
(5) ... Ian Fisher ... 8k in 23:16 ... finished in 27th position
(6) ... John Armitstead ... 4k in 14:39 ... finished in 28th position
(7) ... Huw Illingworth ... 8k in 27:49 ... finished in 30th position
(8) ... me ... 4k in 14:15 ... finished in 30th position
(9) ... Andrew Robertshaw ... 8k in 25:18 ... finished in 30th position
(10) ... Mick Jeffrey ... 4k in 14:44 ... finished in 29th position
(11) ... Julian Mawson ... 8k in 26:29 ... finished in 28th position
(12) ... Matt Broughton ... 4k in 14:54 ... finished in 29th position

Overall it was a very enjoyable day out ... it's just a shame the club couldn't get a team in the women's 6 stage relay held at the same time.

Thanks to Mick Jeffrey for organising everything and to Jack & Kath Robertshaw for coming to support.

yesterday's relay

Yesterday afternoon was my first race since the Perth Ultra Fest four weeks ago.  It was the North of England 6 stage road relays held at Wythenshaw Park in Manchester.

Mick Jeffrey did a sterling job organising two Otley AC teams featuring a good number of newer members of the club.  I ran for the B team and covered my 5.6k stage in 20:55.  I'm very pleased with that as it represents about 18:40 for 5k ... not bad considering I've only done two speedwork sessions in the last month.

Also pleased because it was surprisingly muddy out on the roads.  And then I remembered ... I was in Manchester - it rains a lot there.

Good to see Julian there too after his health scare earlier this year.

crash training (day 3)

0740 ... 19 miles a bit slower than yesterday morning (a few more hills though - or it may be tiredness !!!).

1340 ... cycling (the usual 50 minutes) followed by strength & conditioning exercises.

1745 ... stretching.

1915 ... about 7 miles with Mick Jeffrey and Tom Potter from Otley AC.  A good run at a nice pace.

club handicap

Yesterday was the latest in a long line of Otley AC handicap events.  This was was a 10k event starting and finishing at Leathley, near Otley.

Just to make things a bit more interesting (for me ...) I decided to incorporate it into a long run.  Leaving Leeds at about 5.15pm I ran the 11 or so miles to Otley before embarking on the 4.3 miles from my home to Leathley.  I arrived just before 7.30pm and was told I had eleven minutes before my allotted start time.  Good timing.

I started with Mick Jeffrey, John Armitstead and Michael Pickard and together we began the 3 mile climb towards Almscliffe Crag.  For much of that distance Mick was about 20m in front with John and myself giving chase.  At about 2.5 miles we caught Mick and opened up a slight lead whilst also catching most of those runners who had set off earlier.  The steep downhill stretch between 3.5 and 5 miles proved quite hard work [I had already run 19 miles by this time].

The final mile or so was interesting as Mick Jeffrey managed to catch me again and made repeated attempts to pass.  He finally managed it in the final 10m or so.  Having not run this course before I was caught out slightly by all the twists, turns and undulations as we approached Leathley.  Still, he did very well and I was pleased with 43 minutes in the heat (about 23 degrees C) on a very hilly route after running 15+ miles to get there.

After a few minutes recovery I said my goodbyes and ran the 4.3 miles home for a nice round 26 miles.  At home I decided to try a new recovery drink.

I have used Lucozade Sport recovery drinks in the past but I think they taste really bad so stopped using them about six months ago.  However, recently I had an interesting idea ... instead of mixing the powder with water I could mix it with fruit juice in the hope of a better taste.  I mixed tropical flavour powder with orange juice and the taste was massively improved.

Also at home I found it increasingly difficult to walk, climb stairs, etc.  My right ankle was quite swollen and painful.  Took two ibuprofen before bed and woke up this morning completely pain free and able to move normally.  Very strange.

One less ultra

Forgot to mention earlier ... last Tuesday Mick Jeffrey apologised for not including Andy Milroy's 100 mile race report in the newsletter he was editing. He said he ended up with enough articles from other sources and perhaps it would be better in March when I'm editing Otley AC's newsletter.

Today I've just found out that the Rochdale Canal Relay (ultra runners are invited to take part as a one man team) will not take part this year due to a 'change in circumstances' [whatever that means].

I was looking forward to that one in early June.

Recovery is not progressing as well now. My last two runs were only given 94 and 95 points. Still very optimistic though and the cycling, eccentric ankle stretches, massage, strength exercises all seem to be working. Today I ran 5 mins, walked 5 mins, ran 5 mins, etc for a total of one hour.

Received an email this morning from Mick Jeffrey who's editing the next Otley AC newsletter. Apparently he's having trouble persuading members to contribute race reviews, articles, etc. After a suitable period of deliberation I sent him a piece written by Andy Milroy about the famous 100 mile race of 1975.

It may be a bit long but it can be edited and I'm sure Andy Milroy won't mind as long as he receives due credit. I hope it makes the newsletter as I find it very motivational and inspirational ... I hope other runners will too.