Week in training (5)

 It’s been quiet here as I have been nursing hip bursitis. 

I think it may have been brought on by my attempt to use Hoka carbon running shoes. The last time I tried a different running shoe, (Newton’s in about 2015) I also got hip bursitis. Strangely, back then it was my left hip that was afflicted. This time it’s my right hip. So I have been doing much stretching, S&C work, and walking. Walking seems to help as there’s no impact involved. 

I hope that I can get this cleared up soon, otherwise I will have to withdraw from the Twin Cities Marathon. 

The week in training (4)

July 17th - 23rd

Monday. As always, the week starts off with an S&C workout. It's always hard work.

Tuesday. Track workout. Two days in a row I’ve been worked hard.

Run around in circles Tuesday.

Wednesday. A very welcome rest day.

Thursday Tempo workout,

It’s very clear from the trace where the warm up and cool down is

Friday Rest day.

Saturday. Flat out 5K time trial. OK, it’s Parkrun. That’s the beauty of this Best Athletics training plan. I get to do a fast parkrun every other week. However, I really need to be a better judge of my pace on 5K’s like these. I think I could record a faster time if I set off slower and ran quicker at the end. My usual plan is to go off fast and hold on for as long as I can. Such a change in strategy would take discipline. Perhaps I need to pace myself against a regular who is behind me for the longest time and blasts pasts me in the last mile to finish as much as 20 seconds in front of me. Still, I posted my second fastest time for the course running in my Hoka’s.

Sunday It was going to be an 11 mile long run. But my wife’s flight on Saturday was delayed, and we didn’t get back from the airport until 2am. I just didn’t fancy running any distance at all on 4 hours sleep and with temperatures predicted to be in the 80’s Fahrenheit, running later in the day was not an option. So I swapped workouts, and did tomorrow’s S&C workout was done instead. I’ll go out early on Monday for the 11 miler. I’ll make it a little easier than usual, being how I have a tough track workout on Tuesday band Hill sprints on Thursday.

Inspiring words

 This video just came to my attention, from YouTuber Aubrey.running 

I find the video quite inspiring. If I hadn’t just got in from an exhausting tempo run I’d probably go out and run on the back of it.

Go for a run, find two friends. Put your selfies on Instagram (something I’m bad at). Become average. Then get better. 

The week in training (3)

July 10th-17th

The first week of the build phase of training sees something new for me

Monday  S & C again. I’m starting to look forward to these workouts.

The High School track. It has seen better days.

Tuesday  Something new. A track session. In 20 years of marathon running I've never done a structured track workout before. A one mile jog to the track, 8 x 400m with 60 seconds rest between laps. Followed by another mile jog home. The laps of the track were very hard work indeed. The high school track coach was setting up for the track team workout when I was there. I checked with him that I wasn’t interfering with his plans and shot the breeze for a while. Super nice guy.

What my workout looked like on Google Earth

Wednesday. A welcome rest day.

The Hill

Thursday. Structured Hills workout. I’ve done hill workouts before, but only in the sense that I run around hilly towns like Waconia, MN. My plan called for a gradual hill this week, and as there are only two hills around town, (with Prairie in my home towns name you can expect it to be flat hereabouts.) I picked the one on the quieter road. I ran up and down that hill 16 times. 

Google Earth view of the workout

Friday. Been a tough week this week so I get a second rest day.

Saturday As they were short of volunteers, I decided to help out rather than run at parkrun.  After I came home from running a few errands I completed my 5.5 miles easy run. The air quality wasn’t the best. But there has been far, far worse.

Sunday 10 miles race pace-ish. We’re still having a lot of problems hereabouts with smoke from Canadian wildfires. The air quality was “moderate” when I went out at about 7:15, but I could most definitely see a haze out there as I ran. I’m not sure if it affected me, as I slowed for a few miles towards the end, but I still got around in my required pace.

Week one of the “build” phase of the training plan in the books. 

Volunteer Time (2)

I wasn’t going to volunteer this week. I was going to run with my GoPro to give you a flavor of my local parkrun. However, when the volunteer email went out on Thursday, the event was desperately short of volunteers. I decided I would help out. I could get my easy paced 6 mile run in later in the day. 

Course set up and turn around Marshall sounded good to me. I’d set the course up and get a 5K walk in with a finishers time too. Two for the price of one.

I turned up nice and early to get my instructions and the trolley full of signs and cones for marking the course. As I’ve run the course a few times I knew where the signs went. But it was nice to get an annotated map of the route that showed all the sign locations. Every sign was numbered. A place for everything, and everything in its place. So easy a caveman could do it.

I was under the impression that this would be an easy task. Walk 1.5 miles, stopping every now and again to put signs and cones out. How difficult could it be?

It can be pretty difficult to put the signs into hard ground that hadn’t seen rain in a few weeks and by the time I reached the turn around I was hurrying and only had 5 or 10 minutes before the event started. 

The turn around comes at the top of a short, steep slope. I had to haul the trolley to the top of the grade to finish putting cones and signs out. That was tough. I have a whole new respect for people who push strollers on races. You are amazing!

The turnaround. It really is a steep slope.

Turnaround set up

I got a few minutes peace and quiet before the runners started to turn up. There was a fairly even flow of them. Most managing a smile even after coming up the climb.

Chandru, accompanied by tailwalker Jeff. Chandru set a new PB for the course today. 

Once tailwalker Jeff, and the remarkable Chandru Sharma, one of our partially sighted walkers, came through, I could tear things down and head back. I carefully made doubly sure that I picked up every sign and cone that I’d put out a couple of hours before. 

Volunteering is very rewarding. I really enjoyed myself out there today. If you haven’t volunteered at a parkrun before, I recommend you do. 

Also this week, we received our new parkrun “bling”. Signs, flags, and volunteer vests. Brooks Running is the official sponsor of parkrun in the US and we now have equipment that is branded with their name. Thank for supporting Parkrun, Brooks!

Photo: Cynthia Smith Strack

Photo: Cynthia Smith Strack

Volunteer time.

As you know, I go on about parkrun a bit. It’s just so much fun. Meeting up with like minded people sharing stories and experiences, running together and just having a good time. Training can be hard, and get togethers like this can help ease the stresses if training gets a bit tough.

When I received the volunteer email earlier in the week, I saw there was quite a few spots open for Saturday, and as I had already run two fast 5K’s in the week, I thought I’d take the day off and help out. 

I figured that if I volunteered to hand out finish tokens, then I could also do some photography. 

A photographer is always needed to record the event, and I love taking pictures. So I filled in the sign up sheet and waited for Saturday to come around.

We arrived just as things were being set up, and race director Glenn handed me the bag of chalks and told me to get creative. I pleaded that after the previous weeks faux pas I was the last person who should do that. He assured me that no-one had noticed and it would all be OK. I made sure I got it right this time.

It’s Court House Lake.

I then set to and added a few inspirational messages to the trail. I desperately tried to think of something witty to write, before resorting to the old standards.

With that I donned my volunteer vest and well and truly felt the part.

I am a proper volunteer now

There were forty runners today, a very good turnout for the event. Quite a few of them were first timers. I hope some of them come back. As Glenn, the race director gave his briefings, I snuck off up the trail a little ways to in the hope of catching some good photos of the runners enjoying themselves. From the speedsters to the walkers all were having a good time as they passed me.

Then it all goes quiet for a while. Fifteen to 20 minutes or so to be exact, while everyone heads to the turnaround point just over a mile and a half away. Chrysa, Glenn, Michael and myself just sat around shooting the breeze.

I set up my iPhone on my tripod because if I was going to hand out finisher tokens for barcode scanning as well, then I was going to need an extra pair of hands. Handing out the finish tokens is pretty important. You have to hand them out to the correct finishers in the correct order. Otherwise, if a group of people come across the line at the some time, and you hand the token to the wrong person they will have an incorrect time assigned to them when the token is scanned. A heavy responsibility. With only forty people crossing the finish line in a 40 minute time span things weren’t too hectic. Nice for a first timer on the job, and once I got a system going it was easy to snap a picture of the finisher and then hand them their token. I was quite pleased with the results. 

So many people giving their alo and having so much fun. This is parkrun.

One thing I always do as a competitor, is thank the volunteers. Several of the competitors thanked me too. Do you know what? It does make you feel good. I shall endeavour to thank more volunteers in future.

Once the event was over, everyone else broke down the start and finish line and I sorted out the tokens and made sure that they were in the correct order ready for next week. Sat on the grass in my own little world. 

“One… where’s one? Three, four, five… Where’s one… 26,27,28,29.  Where the devil is one? In the end I found them all, and got them in the right order ready for next week.

Tail walker Deb, having fun.

There you go then, parkrun is as much fun volunteering as it is running. If you have a parkrun local to you, please go out and support them.

The volunteer crew from L to R: Dennis, Turnaround Marshall. Chrysa, Timing. Michael, Barcode Scanning. Jeff and Tammy, Set up and tear down. Some guy or other, Tokens. Deb, Tailwalker. Glenn, Race Director.

The week in training (2)

July 3rd - 9th

Monday Week two of Twin Cities Marathon training starts off with another S&C workout. These really work me hard right now. The balance exercises with kettlebells are really tough. For those who are interested this is the workout I'm doing right now. 

Tuesday. Happy 4th July! Today, we ran the 4th July 5K in Delano, MN. Delano has the largest 4th July parade in Minnesota and the 5K precedes the parade along the parade route. My wife and I had vastly differing experiences.

Wednesday. Rest Day. About time and much appreciated.

Thursday. Six Miles easy 

Thursday’s run

Friday. S&C kicked my arse again.

Saturday. You all know it’s parkrun day today. Today is different. I volunteered. We all need to volunteer once in a while. Events like these can’t go on without volunteers so it’s good to give back. There will be a blog post about the experience to follow.

Sunday. 10 miles. Pace felt very comfortable over the distance. I really felt that I had a few more miles in the legs at this pace. But it was the view that made it all worthwhile.

A 10 mile PR you say?

A grand early morning view to end the training phase.

This is the end of the prep phase of the training plan. Tomorrow we begin the build phase of the Best Athletics training plan. Exciting days are ahead.