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.

Race report - Delano 4th July 5K

The Fourth of July is a great day for a 5K. All over the country, people turn out to run three miles as a part of the holiday celebrations. They'll then watch a parade and have a barbecue. Ending the day watching fireworks. 

We have several 5K’s close to us and my wife and I decided to run in Delano, MN. The celebrations there are the oldest and largest in Minnesota. We have watched the parade before, and it certainly is a large one. 

The 5K acts as a warm up to the parade, running through the town centre. There are thousands of people lining the streets watching, awaiting the parade coming about an hour behind.

I dressed the part to respect my adopted nation. I thought the singlet was pretty cool.

The race route around town. A 5K loop

As the race start time approached, my wife and I were conscious of the grey clouds looming. My wife, ever the optimist, was sure that things would be OK. I was more concerned. But that might have been the darkening effect of my sunglasses. They always make the grey clouds look more threatening. 

After a short performance and rendition of the National Anthem by the Delano High School Band we were on our way. (I'd just like to say that their performance of the old Lipps Inc. tune "Funkytown" was excellent).

With the start comes the first black mark of the event. The race started on a 20'+ wide road. Yet we were all compressed into a 8' start chute. Very cramped and a little annoying as at the start of a race, everyone wants to get moving. The timing was done by Anderson Race Management, probably Minnesota's premier race timers. So they must have had a reason. It just was odd, especially when you consider that 20 yards or so away was a finish line the same width. Why didn't they split the difference and have a start and finish line that was twice the width at a point between the two?

The run headed out through some residential roads, All the roads on the route were closed off to traffic, which was very nice and much appreciated. I was drawn along to a sub-eight minute opening mile.

"Jeez. I won't keep this up." I thought to myself, remembering my parkrun the previous Saturday. The route then headed downhill. It was a long downhill and with gravity being what it is, drew me down into the town centre in another sub-eight mile. 

Running through the town centre was pretty cool. There were definitely a lot of people there. More people than I've seen at some marathons that I've run in. I did slow down a bit here, because it was just cool to see so many people out there. it was about now when the rains started.  

With the town centre navigated it was back up a hill to the finish. A flat finish would have been nicer, and things began to be hard work. But I still posted yet another sub-eight mile for an official finish time of 24:19. 

Once I had finished, the heavens opened. I felt sorry for anyone out on the course, they were going to get rather wet. Even my wife. 

It was from then on that things took a turn for the worse, organisationally.

I walked down the course to cheer my wife in, (I was already looking like a drowned rat, and I couldn't get much wetter), and I was amazed to see that on a closed course, there were masses of people walking, cyclists and even golf carts heading along the course against the direction of the race. 

That is just plain wrong. If the course is closed, then it's closed. No-one other than participants and event services should be on it. Certainly not bikes and vehicles. If you're past a cut-off time then OK. But as no cut-off time was posted, all entrants were entitled to a clear course and not have to fight against the tide of people coming the other way. 

To have vehicles and bikes on the road at the same time as the runners is just plain dangerous. These were not official vehicles. These were the general public, probably in search of a good place to watch the parade. Suppose one of those vehicles coming down the course overtook some of the many people walking in the same direction, and into the path of a race entrant? 

From what I saw, the pedestrians started walking against the tide of the race after about 40 minutes. So to be sure of having a clear route on the course you had to be faster than that. This then is not a race for a person out for a fun walk. My wife was so stressed by fighting against the tide of people that she told me she will never do this event again.

Add to this, the reports I heard of boorish people on the route shouting phrases like "Yay that's the last runner, let's get this parade started". I won't recommend this event to anyone but the fastest runners.

 

The week in training

I think you can get the feel for how this blog is proceeding. It's about the experience of running. There won't be a great deal about the minutiae of training. If you want to read about lactic acid thresholds, go to a professional. I'll report on my training of course. My training runs will always be on my Strava page but for the purposes of the blog. I'll put together a weekly report.

Starting Now. 

Mon. Jun 26th - Sun. Jul. 2nd

Monday. I'm easing into the Best Athletics Sub 4 training plan ready for the Twin Cities Marathon. (My third TCM). The first workout was a strength and conditioning workout that worked me quite hard. Never having done an S&C workout before, I was quite surprised.

In the afternoon, I went over to a local TCRunning store to try out for a pair of supershoes. That painful experience was also documented on the blog. 

Tuesday. My bruised backside from falling on the dreadmill is very, very sore, and my scabbed over knee doesn't like to flex much. A comfy chair was the place to be today, and I did some work on one of my other hobbies Model Railways.

Wednesday. Less sore than the previous day, I set out on a very easy 5 mile run. It wasn't too painful.

The run route this week

Thursday. Back at the gym for another S&C workout. Those exercises that involved me flexing my scabby left knee were a tad uncomfortable. The workout worked me harder than on Monday. Which must be good.

Friday. Another easy five miles around town

Saturday. PARKRUN! Saturdays are parkrun day. If you’re a runner and you haven’t tried parkrun and you happen to have one close to you. I urge you to sign up and take part. 

Sunday. This longer run was probably a mistake after the flat out exertion of yesterdays parkrun and the heat this morning. But you can always take something from a run. There were five very good, strong miles in there. All I have to do is build up the strength and endurance to add 21 more by Grandma’s next year.

All in all, a good week to start things going.

The Rundle mistake

On reflection, I really shouldn’t have done that. After the flat out exertion of the parkrun yesterday, a race pace 9.5 miles in 70 degree heat was a mistake.

It was a decision that was on my mind through breakfast as I got ready. Should I stick to the tree lined streets around town that afford a great deal of shelter for almost every step of my run. Or do I go out onto the Dakota Rail Trail, which though not tree covered all the way, has a great deal of shelter between Lester Prairie and New Germany. 

I opted for the trail, as the roads get pretty busy in town on a Sunday morn, with folks rushing to church, and our small town is short of sidewalks in places. It can get quite unnerving sharing the road with people intent on getting to Sunday worship. As I stepped into the street and started running in the shade, I thought to myself that this was the right decision. 

Now, I’ve not run at Sub 4 hour marathon pace for many years, I wasn’t sure what pace I should be running at (it turns out that 9:09 miles is correct) I aimed for 9 minute miles. I found it quite difficult to get there and was consistently running faster than that for the first 5 miles. When I got to the turnaround point in New Germany I was really feeling it. I was dripping with sweat and in a hydration deficit. I took a few moments to recover before heading back home. 

Some very welcome shade.

It’s mostly a very easy downhill on the return leg. Still, it was impossible to get back up to the high eight, low nine minute miles of the way out.  Once I got out of the shade and into fuller sun, I really wilted. I called it a day.

The data hides how tough this was

Initially, I was pretty disappointed with this. But I got five very strong miles out of this run, and two more that were pretty good, even though I had to really gut them out. I was certainly in hydration debt by the time I got home, drinking two pints of water straight down. 

On reflection, the better plan would have been to do a couple of four to five mile laps around town so that I could have had more shade and been able to pick up more hydration as I needed it. I could have also got out of the house 30 minutes earlier and that would have helped too. Hindsight is 20/20. 

I’m wise enough to know that not every run in the next 16 weeks is going to go my way. So it’s all good. 

Parkrun Saturday The first HOKA test

I was really looking forward to today’s Parkrun. I hadn’t been there for two weeks. What with Grandma’s Marathon and a week’s vacation with family. This was also going to be my first test of my new HOKA Carbon supershoes. So I was a little extra nervous. There was a lot riding on this run.

When we arrived nice and early, the event was being set up. The race director looked like he could do with a little help, so I offered my services. I wasn’t signed up to help, but parkrunners also get credit for the volunteering that they do. We all pitch in together to get the event going. I assembled the feather sign and worked on the start/finish area, and was really pleased with my work. Until…

Start and finish, including the funnel

All my own work…

Proud sign assembler

Oops. It’s tradition at the start here to list the number of the run in chalk on the trail. I think the official abbreviation for our run is CHL (CourtHouse Lake). I went on a totally different track and was trying to do Courthouse Lake Parkrun (CLP). But ended up with CPL - Courthouse Parkrun Lake… As I look at this now, I am reminded of a hilarious commercial for COMPAQ computers by John Cleese from the mid 1980’s. 

They probably won’t have me back to do the start-line again after this.

You only had one job Ian…

So to the run. As I had busied myself at the start-line for so long, I had cut short my warm up time. But I got half a mile in these new shoes. The first thing I noticed was how quiet they were. My wave riders give a nice firm slap as they hit the road. But because of the curve of the carbon plate inside these new shoes, your foot rolls and pushes you along the road. It’s a more efficient transference of energy. I felt it on the treadmill but this this was my first experience on the road.

There would be no new PB using these shoes today. It was too hot. It was in the 70’s at the start. When I set my PB for this course it was in the 50’s. I was under no illusions that these shoes could compensate for a 20 degree temperature differential.

Nine am arrived and we were given the order to start, and knowing that my training plan allows me to run flat out park runs, that’s what I did. I went off like a mad thing. The proper runners disappeared into the distance and I cruised along, not knowing when my marathon legs would kick in. 

My Garmin chirped at the first mile, it read 7:13. That’s fast. Is that the HOKA effect? (I checked my parkrun records. This is my fastest parkrun first mile split. Period.) 

I knew by the turn at 1.5 miles that I had gone off way too fast. I started to feel the heat and I think my marathon legs started to rebel a bit too. My splits of 8:08 and 8:24 weren’t unrespectable by themselves but I was flagging quite badly. I gutted the rest of the way out, being passed by a younger runner with better pace discipline than I about half a mile from the finish. 24:08 was a pretty good time.

The tale of the tape

Actually, 24:08 was a very good time. It was my second fastest parkrun time so far. I’d had one other parkrun in 70 degree temperatures and I was a full one minute and ten seconds faster than that. Is that the super shoe effect? It’s easy to get carried away and say “WOW! Amazing! But more quick times are needed. What I need to do is run the same course when the temperatures are in the 50’s and smash a new PB by a similar amount. Then I will be totally on board. 

Carbon plate shoes are definitely different. They feel different on your feet, they sound different on the road. I was definitely aware of  being faster through a couple of corners out there. Some people swear by Carbon shoes, I’ve met people who say don’t believe the hype. But for me, this first result is very, promising.