back to running school - week 7 - food patrol

After a tiring and hilly 26 miles weekend, I walked into work on Monday (24 Aug) in the sunshine. Monday evening has become running school's 'tempo' day round the Damflask trails and the evening session followed what is becoming a familiar and enjoyable pattern: one mile warm up from the dam wall followed by just over 5 miles in 30 minutes of threshold / tempo on the gently undulating trails (5:54 pace). The session was a bit shorter than the 35 minutes of effort the previous week and I found myself almost disappointed to finish the run before completing the two laps. I was feeling pretty strong despite my muscle fatigue and could have gone on for another mile or so. I guess the point of not taking it to the limit is to ensure that our legs are fresh for the hard Tuesday track session.

My pace and heart rate (146bpm av) was a bit quicker than in previous weeks - probably because Joe SP was pushing the pace at times. My heart beat 862 times on average for each of the 5 tempo miles. This compares to 871 beats per mile the last time we did the same session on the same route a few week's ago. This measure is not that scientific but I'll take it as an indicator of improving fitness!

Monday also meant a full on return to food control - having reached my heaviest weight (73kg) for a good while during August. A combination of factors were contributing to my weight gain, in no particular order:

• holiday beers
• continuing my marathon training eating habits despite doing 20 less miles per week (around 2200 extra calories less needed per week but still eaten)
• cutting down from around 3 litres of diet coke per day to between 330ml and 660ml - and probably substituting in the odd biscuit or two to replace the habit
• eating more with the kids over the summer - meaning 'tidying up' of leftovers and being there when they ask 'what's for pudding?'
• More optimistically, a bit of muscle gain due to the increased emphasis on strength in my training

I have been through 4 or 5 phases of 'weight adjustment' before as I have worked down from 95kg to my preferred race weight of just under 70kg. So I know pretty much exactly what works for me. My basic rules, again in no particular order are:

• Log pretty much every calorie I eat and burn. This means spending about 15 minutes per day logging non-running exercise and all food and drink (manually or by barcode) on www.myfitnesspal.com. All of my running exercise is auto-loaded onto garmin connect from my watch and I set garmin connect and myfitness pal up to link automatically. I always use the calorie data calculated by garmin as it is worked out using your heart rate and is more accurate (and a lot less optimistic than myfitnesspal and strava which both over estimate how many calories I burn)
• Set a weight loss goal based on how much body fat I am planning to lose. This is the techy bit. Basically I work out my body fat percentage (using a tool like this) - preferably using a few different methods to get an average. I usually use a 9% - 10% body fat target (elite male endurance runners get down to 6% but let's not get carried away). I then work out how much I would weigh if I lost the amount of body fat to get down to my target level. My weight minus the weight of the fat I want to lose becomes my 'target weight', which I enter into 'myfitnesspal'
• I then use myfitnesspal to set a daily / weekly net calorie limit to achieve my target weight - never aiming to lose more than 0.25kg per week. So an 8-week plan would be required to lose 2kg. I then make sure my net calorie intake (food calories minus exercise calories) is always within the weekly limit - accepting that there will be fluctuations day to day (I typically have a major calorie deficit on long run day, and a slight calorie surplus on lighter running days)
• I also use myfitnesspal to make sure my reduced calorie intake is still providing me with enough protein to aid my muscle recovery (at least 100g per day) Although some amazing vegan runners point out that race horses don't eat any protein at all - they get it as a by-product of breaking down vegetables in their gut
• When I stick to this plan, the weight comes off almost exactly as predicted by myfitnesspal. However, I have to say it is not an enjoyable experience. I am basically denying my body the calories it needs to stay at the same weight, so I naturally feel hungry for a few hours of most days. I also have to be careful to time my calorie intake so I have energy available for hard training sessions
• My disclaimer for all of the above is that this approach works for me. It won't work for everyone and getting too controlling about your food intake can be a slippery slope to poor health and, at worse, eating disorders that can ruin lives. This is something I am especially wary of as a father of two talented female athletes

Anyway, back to training...

I cocked the timing of Tuesday's food up a bit and work pressures meant that I ended up running tired, hungry and late (and therefore way too fast) to the hard Tuesday night track session. The session was loads of drills, 5 x 60m sprints and then 8 x 300m off 2:30 rests. I ran the reps at around 49s - pretty much the same as the previous time we did this session a few weeks ago - despite knowing that I have got a bit stronger since. Disappointing - especially as everyone else seemed to be going a second or so quicker.

Wednesday was official rest day, but it was a sunny day so I jogged the 1.3 mile commute to work and then ran back the long way round via Rivelin, clocking an easy and relaxed 9 and a bit miles. Thursday was supposed to be a light 40 minute run but I wanted to recce leg 2 of the Sheffield Way Relay before the route slipped back out of my mind, so I caught the bus out to near Oughtibridge and ran most of the route back to Rivelin Dams. The hilly fields took a lot out of my legs - even at a relaxed pace. And the final 100m sprint up a steep field to escape the bullocks that were cantering on my tail had my heart rate up to near max!

With a parkrun time trial or hard track session planned for Saturday morning, I gave my tired legs a rest on Friday with a light jog commute and an easy 5 miles home.

By Friday night, the squad had received word that Saturday morning was a 'go and hammer a parkrun and enjoy it session'. I was a bit disappointed given that my legs were still pretty shot, but I woke up on Saturday morning feeling OK and I knew my usual pre-race routine would pep me up further. After a quick protein muesli bar and some caffeine, I drove down to Hillsborough Park and did a mile warm up, and a few drills and strides on the grass. I think sub-consciously I only go to Hallam Parkrun if I think I have a chance of a PB - the traffic is insufferable (and a bit dangerous).

I was hoping that there would be some well-matched runners at Hillsborough to keep me going and was pleased to see young Joe SP on the start line. We ran the first couple of laps together before I pulled away a bit and finished in 17:12. Joe hadn't done any race prep and was wearing his clunky mileage shoes.

I was disappointed with my time - I went out for sub 17 minutes and had calculated from my split after two laps that it was in the bag. Don't know what went wrong there - but maths when running within 4bpm of my max heart rate is not easy! I am not sure I could have gone any quicker. On the plus side, I felt like I actually sprinted the last couple hundred of metres. People watching probably wouldn't have realised it, but it felt different to me - more powerful and more comfortable in the 'land of anearobia'.

I was going to do a light track session on Saturday evening with Lola but she ended up staying out too late (with us) at a BBQ. Nothing like buffet food to test food control discipline. I gave myself a 'B' for effort.

I managed to get out pretty early for Sunday's long run - driving the 10 minutes to Ladybower dam, and running the full 15 mile loop around the reservoirs. About a mile into the run I felt good so I gradually increased effort throughout the run - spending most of the latter miles well into threshold heart rate. Average pace for what turned into a long progression run was 6:27. It was a pleasure to run in fine scenery with barely a soul in sight - my peaceful reflections only being disturbed by an intimidating pack of some of Sheffield's finest runners coming the other way as I hammered down the slightly descending downhill mile 11 at around 5:40 pace.

If Saturday was a 'speed test', Sunday was definitely a test of stamina. Fair to say I still have a lot more stamina than speed! The run almost made me nostalgic about marathon training - not that 2016 will include any such thing! My emerging target for 2016 is to focus on getting some decent results nailed down at the major cross-country and road running events in preparation for an attempt to win an England vest in 2017 when I turn 45. It would be shame to have only got nearly good enough wouldn't it?

back to running school - week 5 and 6

Monday morning brought slightly fresher legs for the 1.5 mile jog to work (no shower-required commute rules: no sweating, breathlessness, or HR above 105bpm). I jogged home before the evening's tempo session and made the short drive to damflask to meet most of the training group. The session was basically a mile warm up, 30 minutes at tempo, with a mile warm down. It passed without any incident (apart from Joe SP getting taken out by a daft labrador). I was not that happy with the stats, as my heart rate was a few beats per minute too high at 145bpm for the 6:06 average pace. Hopefully this was just the knock-on impact from a hard week, rather than evidence of the drop off in endurance fitness I have been worried about since dropping my mileage.

Tuesday's session was back to the short stuff - loads of drills, some 60m sprints, and then 4 x 800m reps with long rests. I managed to keep the first three 800m reps at 2:25 (three PBs I think), but the last one was a notch slower at 2:26. Hard work as ever, but I felt like I am starting to get the hang of how to breath at a faster pace and this seems to allow me to extend my top level effort for an extra 200m or so. 

Wednesday was 'rest day', but I ended up dropping Deb off at the start of a hot and sticky recce of leg 2 of the Round Sheffield Relay (with Claire S), and committed to having the car and cold water waiting for them at the other end. To kill a bit of time I decided to jog slowly out from the end to meet them, and ended up doing a very easy 7.6 miles. Thursday's session was SRC speedwork on the 'field of dreams' with coach Dave O. The session was basically the back end of a pyramid session (1600, 1200, 800, 400) with short rests and 2 x 200m sprints between each rep. I was happy with the effort level at the session but Alex P was way ahead of me - suggesting I am in for a torrid time when we run as a pair in September (Round Sheffield Relay) and October (at the brilliant gruesome twosome half marathon).

I had Friday off work so managed to squeeze in a recovery run am / pm double totaling just over 12 miles. We were due to go away on Saturday afternoon, but I snuck in a quick set of drills and a parkrun progression before we set off - maintaining tempo effort for the first two laps of hillsborough parkrun and then stepping up to race effort for the last lap to finish in 17:26. Again, I wasn't that happy with the pace given my heart rate - but at least I had finally built up the courage to get on the weighing scales that morning to find that I am 3kg heavier than when I ran London. That will explain the drop in pace then! I followed the parkrun progression with 10 x short hills sprints, focusing on maintaining form. A 2-hour drive later and I got a bonus 2 x 3-mile recovery walk in Hemingford Grey (off a pint of beer by the river - sod the weighing scales).

Sunday was a pretty hectic day as we were driving an hour from the hotel in Hemingford Grey to pick the kids up at 10am near Thetford (after their week at XUK activity camp). Still, with Deb needing to get some miles in, we were up and out at 6:50am for just under 8 miles before a tasty hotel breakfast. I ran the first couple of miles easy with Deb and then moved into low threshold for two and a bit laps of the amazing Hemingford Meadow (1.7 mile loop of grass path in stunning riverside surroundings). I hadn't planned a threshold run but having walked round the meadow on the Saturday evening, I just fancied running it hard. Apparently the meadow becomes a lake for a few months of the year so my strava course records might just last a bit longer!

Hemingford Grey Meadow (the big one above the road)

After collecting the (exhausted) kids we drove to the Youth Hostel at Blaxhall and I nipped out for an easy explore around the nearby Rendlesham forest. Found loads of great sandy trails - although you have to love the moment you realise you are going the wrong way down a 'red' mountain bike trail. I just about managed to navigate back home again without being taken out by a mountain bike, making extensive use of the compass on my garmin 620. I felt pretty good, so picked up the effort for the last couple of miles.

Rendlesham Forest - endless network of sandy trails

Langham Road - quiet training lane (with bonus leg sapping humpback bridge)

In the last few weeks, Monday has become 'tempo' day. The prescribed session to start week 6 was a variation on the theme - basically a 5-mile progression run. I had scouted some quiet country lanes (above) earlier that day whilst driving. I had decided to ignore the pacing guidelines and manage the progression element of the run using breathing patterns - something I use a lot to regulate effort. So I started off easy (breathing out easily every 6 steps) and progressed through to a hard last mile (breathing out hard every 3 steps). You can find out more about running to breathing pattern here (LINK). I don't believe the hype about breathing patterns preventing injury but a quick look at my heart rate and pace stats whilst using this technique should convince anyone that breathing patterns can really help regulate effort.

Tuesday was another quality session - warm-up, core drills, and then 3 x (600m, 400, jog, 400m, 400m jog, 200m) off about 4 mins. I used the same country lanes as the day before, carefully marking out 3 consecutive 200m stretches and using these for the whole session. Deb joined me. We were both pretty traumatised by more of the dreaded short stuff and the 600m was 1:48 of pure pain (just 3 seconds quicker than my 11 year old daughter's 600m time). But, and this is a big BUT, for the first time in 25 years, I actually felt like I was sprinting strongly at times - elbows jabbing back, knees springing up, heels flicking back. Whilst my times were still woeful, way behind the youngsters from the training group who were doing the same session on the track in Sheffield, it felt good to feel the benefit of the drills and sprint work. And, to cap things off, I woke up on Wednesday without sore legs suggesting that I am finally adapting to the new regime. I was so pleased, I took Wednesday as a genuine, proper day of rest. Well, apart from a very easy 17 mile bike ride with the kids.

I had spotted a 5k race in Ipswich on the Thursday (part of a series). It looked small and friendly enough to use as a hard training run. The winning times previously looked pretty slow, but the runbritain handicap was generally between 1 and 2 suggesting a course like Hillsborough Parkrun. I drove there on my own and found a course that was more Concord than Hillsborough - twisty paths through formal gardens, and proper 'Sheffield' hilly. I warmed up, did my usual pre-race drills, and set off with about 150 others. I ran the first mile pretty easily at the front with two other lads. By the time we were approaching the end of the first lap (of two), there were only two of us running hard up a pig of a hill. As we turned into the second lap I could hear that my running mate's breathing was going wrong so I pushed hard for 200m and opened up a decent gap. I continued at full race effort (158bpm) for the rest of the race and finished a good minute ahead. I couldn't quite believe my watch said 17:34 at the end - I had worked within a few beats per minute of my maximum heart rate for most of the race and had hoped to get much closer to 17 minutes despite the hills. The bottle of wine and the news that I had broken the course record cheered me up a bit. I jogged for mile to warm down, and to prevent my right calf cramping up.

Friday was the end of the short break in the youth hostel - and also meant a very long drive from East Anglia to the back end of South Wales where Deb's mum and dad were waiting in their boat to take the kids for a few days. Deb and I got out for a light farewell jog round the forest before breakfast and then set off on what turned out to be 9 hour journey. I was cheered up slightly on arriving at Neyland Port to find a fabulous riverside path that looked like it went on for miles. Perfect for a pre-breakfast leg loosener before the long drive up to Sheffield the next day I thought. Absolutely ridiculous torrential rain the next morning put pay to that plan.

After 6 hours of traveling back to Sheffield on Saturday afternoon, we both fancied stretching our legs so we headed out to Derwent for an evening run - hoping we had picked a gap in the torrential rain that had followed us from South Wales. We were both pretty fresh legged having had 36 hours of rest since the last (easy) run. And, we had done basically nowt but sit in the car all day. Deb decided to do a long low threshold run (about 7:10 pace on the undulating Derwent trails) and I decided to run alongside her (romance not being dead after 20 years together), apart from miles 3, 6 and 9 when I would stretch my legs out at tempo. The 11.5 mile session went well and I felt strong on the tempo sections. More importantly, the late evening, stormy skied, scenic setting was absolutely spectacular - well worth a short drenching and a  nice reminder that the Sheffield area is a great place to run.

Sunday's run was much slower but much harder as we jogged out in the searing heat to the start of our recce of Round Sheffield Relay leg 2. After a sweaty, hilly recce, we ran back into Hillsborough through the Rivelin valley to get the car from Hillsborough corner. I left Deb at Rivelin cafe with a cold drink (she was absolutely exhausted) and finished off the 15 miles before scooping her up on the way to the supermarket for supplies (note to self: never go to supermarket whilst hungry and thirsty after a long run - it's expensive).

back to running school - week 3 and 4

The morning after thunder run (and 10 hours of deep sleep) was filled with some frantic packing ahead of a 5 hour drive down to Cornwall for a week's holiday. I can't say that I was enjoying running up and down the cellar stairs to get body boards, spades, buckets etc 'just in case' but my legs were not actually that bad. My stomach was still tender - showing how much a good cross country run exercises your core! I had already decided to rest for 2 days and ease back into running school gently during the week. The running school forum on 'whatsapp' would keep me up to speed with the prescribed sessions.

The first recovery run on Wednesday was a pre-breakfast explore with Deb. We managed to find the trail at the back of the campsite, which led alongside a rough riverside path to the network of canal and cycle paths around the marshes near Bude that are basically 'training paradise'. Mainly flat tarmac trails with gentle curves in stunning surroundings with herons, ducks, and kingfishers for company.

By Thursday morning I felt fresh enough to bring in a bit of quality but the dodgy internet connection at the campsite prevented me accessing the schedule so I had to make something up. I decided to hedge my bets and went for a 1.2.3.4.3.2.1 minute pyramid with rests matching the reps. Deb did the same. I felt pretty good on the reps - no aches and pains to speak of really.

On Friday morning I felt pretty bouncy, still benefiting from the two days off at the start of the week presumably. However, with the local parkrun planned for Saturday morning, I decided to just stretch my legs out with a couple of short threshold efforts rather than attempt anything more strenuous. I was pleased with the efforts, and just above marathon heart rate (148bpm) delivered a reasonably relaxed 5:40 pace down the smooth canal towpath. I was pretty pleased with that - about the same pace / heart rate as the week before London Marathon (when I was about 3 pounds lighter).

We were both up bright and early for holiday parkrun on Saturday but the car battery was flat (some hairless idiot left the key in for a few hours the day before). I wasn't too disappointed actually as I wanted to get a session in. We both returned to the marshes, did plenty of core and strength drills (much to the bemusement of some dog walkers) and then jogged to a killer of a hill near Marhamchurch for 10 x 40s hill sprints. Unfortunately, Deb pulled her calf muscle on rep 6 so we cut the session short. I squeezed a couple more in (!) to get up to 8 before catching a limping Deb up and walk / jogging back to the campsite.

When I finally got an internet connection later that day I saw that the running school instructions for the day had been to go and do a parkrun at low threshold, rest for a bit, and then run 1 mile hard. Obviously this was the only excuse I needed to nip out in the evening and do the session as prescribed. Felt good to get a double in again and even better to get to bed early that evening.

Early bedtime meant early wake-up, so my Sunday Run started at 6:50am. I took a direct route through Bude to the coast where I planned to join the coastal path and head north until my watch said '6 miles' before turning round and coming home. At least that was the plan. What I had forgotten about coastal paths is that they basically go up and down A LOT as they dip in and out of coves, beaches etc. The coastal path north of Bude is a particular challenge with stairs cut into a lot of the hills. My legs were not enjoying the increasing amount of stair climbing after just over 5 miles (at over 8 minute mile pace!), so I turned round and headed back - clocking 11.7 miles overall (that felt like 15). When I got back I found Deb nursing her ankle - the silly sod had set out on a 12 mile run thinking she might 'run the injury off'. She lasted about a mile.

We had a 6 hour drive back on Monday but got back at about 4:30pm meaning that I could quickly unpack the car and get out to the running school tempo run round Damflask. The plan was 1 mile warm up - 30 minutes at threshold effort - 1 mile warm down. Young Mike T took us out too fast for the first mile or so but Mike, Andy B, Alex C and I soon settled into a steady pace of around 6:05 minute/miles round the Damflask trails. The session felt good. It never ceases to amaze me how much easier it is to run at a higher effort level in the right company.

Tuesday (4th August) was another running school session. We started with plenty of core drills and then went into 5 x 50m sprints followed by 3 sets of 3 x 300m off 45 seconds. I managed to keep all of the 300m reps at or just below my 50s target (4:35 pace) but it was a HARD session and I felt like I had run about 5 times more miles than we did. I was starting to appreciate why many people believe that short quality sessions can provide equal if not more training benefit than loads more miles. I was also starting to feel up for getting better at this 'short sprinty stuff' - wondering if I could ever recapture that feeling of school sports day 29 years ago when I would have run the 300m in around 40 seconds.

Wednesday brought with it very sore legs and it was all I could do to jog home after work. I am not sure it was the right day to kick my 10 cans of diet coke per day habit either as I basically felt either half asleep or a bit cold turkey. Thursday was a running school easy group run - a trot to training, and then a conversational run to Rotherham and back via the canal with some 200m efforts to finish. I dropped out after five of the 200m efforts because my legs were screaming (I was also late to pick up the kids from their training at Woodbourn!)

Friday was a very gentle trot to and from work as I tried in vain to get my legs to work. The short speedy stuff over the previous week, and particularly Tuesday, had basically given me the worse case of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) I have ever had. I was pretty disappointed as we had a 3000m time trial planned for Saturday morning and I had really wanted to have a proper go at it. To make matters worse, a lolloping bloody dog in Bingham park tried to knock me over and I managed to tweak my right calf dodging round it. I pretty much resigned myself to a day of rest on Saturday and Friday night involved a few beers and a very hot curry.

Surprisingly, I woke up on Saturday feeling OK (curry power). My legs were a bit sore, but a lot better, and my calf pain had nearly gone. A couple of paracetamol later and I was on my way to meet my running school classmates at the track for the 3000m time trial. We did a mile warm up and then each did our own pre-race thing. For me this means some strides and some dynamic stretching.

Phil W and Mike T took on pace making duties for the first 1600m of the 3000m time trial with Alex P and me following close behind. I felt pretty comfortable at the pace (5:05 mile) but was glad of the guidance as I would have otherwise gone off way too quick. As the pace makers peeled off, Alex and I struck out on our own with the others stretching out over the 100m behind us. I knew that Alex would be quicker than me over 3000m so I didn't panic when he pulled away a bit, and although my pace dropped slightly in the last few laps, I finished in 9:34 (5:08 pace on average) - pretty much bang on my target time. We finished with loads of drills and sprints. The camaraderie and banter amongst the squad was great throughout. Again, a reminder of how much difference good group training makes.


That evening, I suggested a run along Burbage skyline and was pleased that Lola agreed. We set off from Fox House Pub at about 6:30pm and took the high rocky path to Ringinglow Road, returning via the lower path to the pub. I was pretty amazed with Lola's fitness actually - she kept up pretty easily on the way up the rocks when my heart rate was getting into zone 3 and strode along purposefully down the path after 3 miles of hard work at around 7:10 pace (she is 12 next week). Her coach is advising that she opts out of the cross country season this year in favour of additional jumps and sprints training (her strongest events). I am not so sure now!

The less said about my Sunday run the better. Return of the DOMS. I have never run as tired as that in my life. My legs hurt from the moment I set off until the moment my watch beeped to say the 14 miles I was aiming for was up. Normally I would have continued the run until I got home regardless of the target mileage, but I opted for the 'walk of shame' home instead - disguising my shame with a hastily bought carrier bag full of breadcakes.

thunder, thunder, thunder run

Thunder Run is either pure genius or really silly. I haven't decided which yet.

The event basically involves setting up a challenging cross country 10km course next to a large campsite. People turn up at the campsite and set up their tents. They then run round and round the 10km course as many times as possible in 24 hours. Some mad fools compete as individuals (yep, just walking / running round the course continuously for 24 hours with the occasional stop for a chat), some compete as pairs (in a continuous relay), and some in teams of 5 or 8 (also a continuous relay). The winning person / team in each category is the one that has completed the most laps of the course when the 24 hours is up.

A few running club mates had done Thunder Run in 2014 and raved about it so when I was asked to put my name down provisionally to be part of a 5 man team in 2015 I said, "yes, why not?" What I missed at the time was that Thunder Run was the same weekend as Tramlines, which didn't go down too well at home. I also hadn't really thought through that signing up would mean running between 60km and 70km on rough ground in 24 hours with very little sleep. A challenge that I actually warmed to the closer I got to the event (perhaps as an antidote to my new low-mileage training plan?)

Most of the team got down to the campsite on Friday evening and set up camp in the driving rain. I was out for a couple of beers and a bbq on Friday at a friend's birthday party but got into bed reasonably early (whilst Deb went out partying at tramlines). I picked up a little hire van on Saturday morning, slung a mattress and a kit bag in the back of it, packed a picnic of easily digestible food and snacks, and set off to Walton-on-Trent at about 9.30am.

I arrived at the campsite at about 11am in glorious sunshine and was really pleased that the team had nabbed a really good spot. We were close to the start / finish line, near to the flushing toilets, and not too far from the showers. We also had a great view of the last killer hill. All of the talk was about the state of the course after the torrential rain. The prognosis wasn't good - with reports from 'scouts' of trecherous slippery mud covering some ofthe rougher sections of the course.

An hour later Alex Plant set off on our first lap. Our plan for our 5 man team (named in honour of Steve Way #dontbesh*t) was to run 2 single laps each for the first 8 hours or so - and then all do a double lap overnight to give everyone a chance of a few hours of consecutive sleep. We would then all do one or two more laps the next morning depending on how much time we had got left and how much we had in our legs.

Alex P finished the first 10km lap in around 38:43 doing his best to avoid racing hard given that this was in effect the first lap of at least six or seven. Alex's lap was still the 43rd fastest of the day though (and 11,300 laps were run during the 24 hours!) Alex confirmed that the conditions were slippery - so I dusted down my cross country spikes in preparation for my first lap (due around 14:10). Alex Collings was next out - running just under 42 minutes and coming back with one side completely covered in mud. Ben took the baton from Alex C  - and put a decent 43:10 effort in.

My plan for all of the laps was to run at around marathon effort level - about 144bpm. I figured that this would prevent me overdoing the early laps and help me recover more quickly in the 2 hours 45 minutes I expected to get between most of my laps.

I took the baton from Ben and started off across the smooth grass repeating 'smooth and easy' in my head. I dinked up the first incline, through the forest trails, and reached the end of the first mile feeling good. I looked at my heart rate at this point: 153bpm. Hmmm, supposed to be marathon effort not half marathon effort!

I focused on trying to calm everything down but the race environment and the constant over-taking were too exhilarating so I just rolled with it. The twisting and turning through the forest trails was a good laugh, and although I slipped about a bit on the mud, my spikes held pretty firm. Before I knew it, I was at the end of the first lap: 38:04. I handed over to Tom A who knocked out a solid 50 minute lap - putting us in second place 4 minutes behind the leaders (after one complete cycle of runners).

I tried to relax for the next couple of hours - lying down for a bit in my new home in the back of the hire van, eating a bit of pasta, and staying hydrated. Alex P went out again after Tom, running what turned out to be our fastest lap of the 24 hours: 37:35 (15th overall and fastest of any 5 x male team). My next lap, and the team's 9th, was pretty close though: 37:39 (16th overall and 2nd of any 5 x male team). The ground was drying out quickly now - and the course was holding up well to the bombardment of 470 laps per hour! I handed over to Tom again, who picked up the pace to knock out a 49 minute lap. After the second cycle of runners we were still in second, but 8 minutes behind. It was already becoming clear that we were up against it if we wanted the win.

We now moved into an evening of double-runs. Alex was first out - running the 12 mile double-lap bang on target in the evening sunshine: 39:24 and 40:30 (1:19:54). We were briefly neck-and-neck with the winning team at this point. Alex C and Ben both ran their 'doubles' well within target time as the darkness descended and the headtorches came out .

We were already way ahead of our team timetable at this point and this meant lots of recalculations to see when people would need to wake up to do their 'middle of the night' lap! A little admin table in the club tent became the centre of timetable control - and Ben and I did the sums to keep people informed about their schedule. Claire S and Sarah L from the club were running as a female pair (the nutters) - and the lap times and notes they put on the whiteboard grew increasingly impressive as they progressed to an easy win. Sarah and Claire chalked up 110km each - with average laps of under an hour. They even finished a couple of hours early knowing that nobody could catch them!.

I headed out on my double lap at about 11:20pm [click for strava video!] with headtorch on full power. I have never enjoyed a run so much - I ran hard and steady for the 12 miles, threw caution to the wind, and had a proper race with a couple of runners that resisted being overtaken. I nearly turned my ankle a few times on the rough ground and the caution of others made it difficult to overtake - but I still managed to sustain a decent pace. It turned out that one of the decent runners I caught during my second lap was Simon from the leading team - meaning that I completed my double with the team in first place by nearly a minute. My times were 40:06 and 39:49 (1:19:55)

I managed to get a bit of sleep after the run although it was fitful at best given the adrenaline and surrounding noise. I was back up again and on the start line for my 5th lap at 4:50am - with the team 13 minutes behind. I was starting to feel a bit tired now - and some of my team mates were suffering with cramp. It was becoming increasingly clear that we were going to need to swap things around a bit if we were to have any chance of catching the leaders. So, I knew I was probably looking at 3 or perhaps 4 more laps. I ran pretty conservatively as I weighed up the prospect of another 20 or 30k - clocking 40:01. I also passed Simon from the leading team again - although he was struggling on the 2nd of a double lap that turned out to be his final lap of the event. The good news though was that we were now 7 minutes ahead.

The rest of the morning passed in a sleep-deprived, leg shredding blur. We fell behind again by about 13 minutes with around 5 hours to go and despite heriocs from everyone (particularly Alex P who chalked up 8 laps with an average time of 40 minutes) the gap stayed at about 15 minutes until the last lap when, knowing we were going to get second, Tom A went out easy to complete his 60km. I ended up abandoning my attempt to run my last two laps (6 and 7) back-to-back as my stomach rebelled against the extreme break in routine, and my legs begged for a rest. Alex P did the same straight afterwards - using my lap as a break in his double.

We finished 2nd (of 28) 5 x male teams. running 330km between the 5 of us in just over 24 hours - averaging around 45 minutes for each 10km. Alex ran 8 laps in an average time of just over 40 minutes - I ran 7 laps averaging 40:21. I am obviously pleased that Alex is my partner for the Gruesome Twosome in October (#fancyingourchances). As always at these things, we waited around for too long to collect our trophies as the rain came down hard. We then drove exhausted back up to Sheffield.

TR24 is a great event. A real carnival atmosphere with lots of friendly runners drinking, eating, camping,running a lot, and generally being merry. I guess we didn't get the full benefit of the socialising at the event because we were in 'competitive' mode (some runners were drinking a few beers between each lap!) Would I do it again? Never say never. But not if it clashes with Tramlines.

back to running school - week 2

The second week of running school started with a threshold run. The plan was 10 minutes warm-up, 25 minutes just under threshold (140bpm or thereabouts), with an easy warm down. I was a bit wary of the session to be honest. My marathon training over the winter and spring typically involved at least one 10 mile run per week at or above this effort level, so 25 minutes seemed a bit 'light-touch'. But, with a hard short interval session scheduled the next evening, and another hard session planned for Thursday, I rolled with it. Trust the plan and all that.

The session went well - felt good to work with a group and the 25 minutes ticked by quickly at around 6:00 min/mile pace with Phil W using some interesting and well-thought out techniques to keep people at the right effort level.

Tuesday's session was plenty of core drills and then 8 x 300m off about 2 minutes rest. This session reminded me why I had committed to 'running school' - I am shit at the short stuff. I managed to average just under 50s for each 300m, but when the reps get this short, I noticeably drop down the pecking order. I just don't seem to be able to turn my legs over quickly enough and I just run out of oxygen.

Wednesday was a 'rest day' jog home with a rucksack full of laundry - reminding me what it is like to run heavy! Hated it to be honest and felt like a total waste of time as my legs and mind were too tired. Should have just walked. Luckily I had freshened up by Thursday and celebrated with a brisk 3 mile run to training, and a nice pyramid session with the club - run at around 90% effort to save some legs for the weekend.

Ah yes, the weekend. Thunder Run time. 24 hours of pure running madness - and worthy of its own post I reckon...