20 – 26 May 2019

With pacing at Great Birmingham 10k at the weekend, this was to be a relatively relaxed week, not wanting to risk injury or exhaustion ahead of my duty. But the confidence I had at the start of the week had turned to jitters by Sunday!

I had a track session later in the week, as is starting to become my habit while my daughter trains at her club (which is having a good effect; she ran 10-minute mile quite comfortably the day before!). I’d considered running ten 400m reps, but wanting to build on my distance and progress from previous sessions, I opted for five 1-kilometre reps.

As tempted as I was to quit after the first one or two reps, the other parents watching me was a silent motivator to keep me going! On the plus side, all but one of the reps came in ahead of target, the exception just 4 seconds over. Perhaps helping me were my new trainers, ASICS GT-2000 7. I’m pretty accustomed to how the GTs feel on my feet, so although I was tempted by the latest ASICS Cumulus, I opted instead for my third set in the GT line.

And then… what happened?! I went out for a casual jog the following day, intending to throw in a couple of miles at my future marathon pace. But as soon as I ramped up the speed, a shooting pain up my leg nearly had me limping! I relaxed back to a jog for a quarter mile, then tried again. The pain returned, so I cut my intended 7-miler to just 3, enough to get me home.

Panic entered. Would I be able to run a 40-minute 10k on Sunday, a run I’ve comfortably done after a 20 miler? At risk of making my potential injury worse, I ran a 20-minute 5k in my Nike Zoom Fly on Saturday to verify if it was just sub-6 pace in my new trainers that was giving me trouble. Fortunately, the run was fine; on target and without pain. Concern persisted however.

The day of the 10k, rain poured down to threaten the race further (could I fake slipping on the wet pavement and groaning in pain to get out of this?). However, chatting with the other pacers beforehand gave a great sense of camaraderie and put my nerves at rest. Further chatting in the race pen (as well as walloping an innocent bystander with the pacer flag on my back!) got me back into my regular frame of mind; I’m a racer aiming for a time, and won’t let injury stop me.

Go!

With a sharp downhill to start, I was immediately set into target pace. I’d had concern that the narrow street would cause a bottleneck, but I found ample space to pass other runners.

Comfortably at pace, there was no sign of pain, and before long a couple of runners informed me they were aiming for 40 minutes. Pressure back on! I’d missed the first kilometre sign (I’m not 100% sure it was there, or if it was, not visible enough), and it wasn’t until the second kilometre I saw I was 20 seconds ahead of target. Though I’d set my watch to display kilometres rather than miles in line with what I’d learned last year, I was still dependent on the markers rather than the potentially inaccurate GPS to gauge my accuracy. My focus would be on getting back on target smoothly rather than just a really slow kilometre.

It was trickier than I thought; an overall downhill for the following three kilometres showed I’d have to keep to pace or slightly faster in order to mitigate the effect of the same hill on the return journey.

Hitting the switchback, I discovered another problem; wind. And then another problem; the wind’s effect on my pacer flag! It at least helped to slow my pace down, bringing the time towards target. Somehow though, I was still 20 seconds too fast!

Despite a slower pace for the second half of the run, I had little choice but to slow down further to a jog for the final kilometre. Disappointed I hadn’t paced it as smoothly as I would have liked, I crossed the line at 39:57.

I was quickly brought out of my melancholy by a load of runners shaking my hand afterwards, thanking me for being on target!

I was shocked. Shocked!

I was ready to beat myself up for not getting every kilometre dead-on four minutes, so to have accomplished what I’d set out to do – help others achieve their PB goals – is such a satisfactory feeling. I’d always felt a bit down after last year’s 10k, that there weren’t many others I’d paced. The difference this year is uncanny, seeing people happy with how I’d helped. But truly, the credit goes to them; they put the training in, I just led the way.

Monday Strava data – hill reps

Tuesday Strava data – runcommute

Wednesday Strava data – runcommute

Thursday Strava data – 5x1k reps

Friday Strava data – 3 miles

Saturday Strava data – 5k

Sunday Strava data – Birmingham 10k and light jog

Total for week: 45 miles

13 – 19 May 2019

I let myself down last week.

Estimations from various sources suggested that based on my marathon time, I should have been able to come out with a sub-35 10k easily last week. So why did I barely manage sub-37? Reflecting on it, I was so unprepared that I’m surprised I came out with the time I did.

Happy times at Market Drayton!

I hadn’t properly checked the elevation beforehand. I haven’t raced short distances since I-don’t-know-when. I hadn’t done any kind of 10k-specific training. I didn’t even know my 10k PB; I’d mistakenly thought it to be 36:46 when it was in fact 36:25. Honestly, I arrogantly went into it expecting some kind of Shaun-miracle to defy the odds.

Next time around will be different; I have the Two Castles race in a few weeks, a 10k between Warwick and Kenilworth castles. Now that I’m interval training more regularly (thanks to getting to use the track while my daughter goes to running club) and knowing I shouldn’t take things for granted, I’m confident of a better outcome.

In other news, there’s a challenge at my workplace where we strive to get the highest number of steps for our team per day. It’s probably the first time in my life I’ve been so wanted! Of course, this is right before other teams suggested I should be in a team of my own, particularly when I averaged about 19,000 steps per day…

Celebrating our 10 year anniversary, I also had a nice little 10k jog with my wife around a fancy part of Coventry. It was a pretty good route, pilfered from a Google search and adapted when I took a wrong turn instantly! It worked out for the better though, as the distance came in nicely and we got back on track fairly quickly. Being hilly and on country roads, it was reminiscent of a 10k race route!

Speaking of hills, I’d taken my daughter on hill reps earlier in the week, unknowingly a couple of days before her club did hill training with her. She tackled them well on both days (even with a sprint finish in my session), and running seems to be one of the few activities she actually looks forward to!

Next week, I’ll be pacing the 40-minute finishers at the Great Birmingham 10k. I managed it in 39:46 last year, and will aim even closer to the target time. I’m looking forward to it, bunny ears and all!

Monday Strava data here.

Tuesday Strava data here.

Wednesday Strava data here.

Thursday Strava data here.

Friday Strava data here.

Saturday Strava data here.

Sunday Strava data here.

6 – 12 May 2019 with Market Drayton 10k

With two marathons last month and the Market Drayton 10k at the end of the week, I couldn’t go into full-out training mode yet. Unusually though, I was able to fit in two interval sessions; one just back-and-forth on a cycle path on a quiet bank holiday, and the other cheekily on the track while my daughter was at running club. Despite torrential rain, the peer pressure of parents and children watching encouraged one of my fastest and successful sessions for a long time, all splits coming in on or faster than target!

Generally, this was another of those weeks where running felt like a super power: running past cars moving slowly in traffic, flying over road barriers, even running faster than buses, arriving at my destination before them, or being able to catch them at the next stop despite them intentionally driving off!

Market Drayton 10k

Pre-race

This is a very popular race which I’d missed the entry period for (despite waiting several hours on the day last year for the go-ahead to book), but was given a second chance a couple of months ago when a limited number of spaces became available. You might find this surprising, but I haven’t raced many 10ks – I’d literally only raced two before today!

With that in mind, this was still a learning experience of how to properly pace myself; not as steadily as a half or full marathon, but not so fast as to over-exert early on. Couple that with a difficulty of going sub-6/mile lately, and I was just hoping for some race-day-miracle; it wouldn’t be the first time!

The organisation was excellent, in terms of getting the bib and detailed information out in sufficient time, parking (with a great park-and-ride service for a £2 charitable donation), a bustling race village, and quick baggage drop.

Surprisingly bumping into quite a few people I knew, there was a jovial atmosphere without the nerves that come with marathons; as someone told me recently, the advantage of shorter races is that if you mess up, you can bounce back to the next one quite quickly!

The Race

Go!

Started by former Olympian heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, I settled quite quickly into my target pace of 5:45/mile. Warned just beforehand of a congested start, I’d nestled into about the fifth or so row from the front, which seemed about right given the pace of those around me. On the odd occasion I heard passionate voices cry out “go, Shaun!” Alas just as I was turn my head with a smile and thumbs up, it transpired they were cheering someone behind me! Fine, I didn’t want your cheers anyway… (sniff)

My 10k PB was 36:25, set in 2017 at my previous height of fitness. Given that I can now comfortably run faster marathons than then, I’d set a high target of sub-35, with sub-36 as acceptable. My hope – despite not proving it in training – was to run 5:45/mile for the first half, then use my tenacity for the second half. The first mile came in well, though my pace had started to slip for the second mile. For some reason I couldn’t get my legs turning over fast enough, though it felt like I had the energy to do so.

Before long, the first female ran alongside me. So whereas before people cheered for some other Shaun, now I was being taunted by cheers for a different runner! I kept pace with her for some time (perhaps subconsciously not wanting to get “chicked”) though other runners around us flagged and dropped behind us.

I hit 5k a few seconds under 18 minutes. Sub-35 was out the window, and it would take everything I had to make it sub-36. A check of the elevation last night suggested the worst of the hills were behind me, so I should focus on picking up the pace to make the most of the downhills which were there, even if not obvious to the eye.

Wrong!

Clearly my preparation was ill-researched; there were more hills than The Sound of Music! The runners in my pack slowed down for the uphills, though I was able to tackle them better, passing other runners in the process. Alas, the uphills were so severe that I couldn’t take full advantage of the downhills to make up for them, with pace coming in a shade over 6:00/mile.

And then… even worse hills, such that I would not have been surprised if my body automatically switched to walking! By this point I was counting backwards from 100, willing this ordeal to be over.

Come on, you watched Shazam yesterday, imagine yourself to be him; Wisdom of Solomon, Strength of Hercules, Stamina of Atlas, Power of Zeus, Courage of Achilles, Speed of Mercury!

6 miles beeped on my watch; the final straight. Though there were a couple of runners ahead of me well out of reach, I nonetheless gave it a good shot in chasing them down (what about runners behind me? Nah, I’m not concerned about being passed; I’m not Mo Farah! :p).

My time: 36:26

Post-race

Catching up with Carl, he’d finished a good time ahead of me though expressing concern beforehand about being under the weather. He – and later a Perry Hall runner, Andy – considered that they should have warned me about the hills! I doubt it would have made a difference anyway; sometimes you just have roll with what’s given you. Besides which, being warned of them might have encouraged me to over-exert myself early on with a view to slowing down later.

Missing a PB by only two seconds is disappointing, but given the undulating nature of the course compared to the flat Cannon Hill one which I previously raced on, I’m not too discouraged.

Meeting up with my wife shortly afterwards, it was then onwards to what this race was really famous and popular for… the goodie bag!

Apparently pared down from previous years, a good stash was nonetheless provided, consisting of; six Muller yoghurts, a pork pie, banana, gingerbread man and biscuits. The bag itself is of good quality drawstring-style, and the t-shirt feels comfortable to wear.

For £21, the overall race is good value for money, with a supportive crowd, and again, excellent organisation.

On the way home, I did some rough calculations and figured that if I could maintain that pace for another 20 miles, I’d be in for a 2:33 marathon or thereabouts. Hmm… time to get into full-training mode!

Strava data here.

Monday Strava data – Intervals: 6*(0.5 miles@5k +0.2 jog)

Tuesday Strava data – 10k

Wednesday Strava data – 5 miles

Thursday Strava data – 8*(400m@5k+200m jog)

Friday Strava data – 5k

Saturday Strava data – 3 miles

35 miles for the week

29 April – 5 May 2019

Trying a different approach with the blog, let me know if you prefer the week’s summary with musings or the journal format!

I had a nightmare this week, quite unusual for me. Not of the giant-demon-spider variety, but that the Championship eligibility had changed to 2:35! I’ve emailed the organisers, who won’t confirm the eligibility time until October… dammit.

My work colleague at mile 19!

Nonetheless, I’ve had a quiet confidence (other than blogging it, posting on Facebook and Instagram, bringing it up in every conversation…) this week in my recent marathon successes, with sub-2:30 thoughts rooting themselves in my cerebral cortex. It’s weird; it wasn’t that long ago where I’d spend my jogs daydreaming about sub-2:45! But as is often the case with running, I now have to use that as my base and pursue the new goal.

It still seems a gargantuan effort, but I’ve been inspired by other runners of this year’s London marathon; Kipchoge (2:02), Purdue (2:25), Carruthers (2:33), Hemmings (4:04), Ayres (7:28), to name a few. If they can achieve their goals, I can too.

Aside from another dog incident, this week’s runs have been pretty relaxed, with jogging pace edging towards 7:05/mile. And it’s been refreshing getting away from 50-80 mile weeks for a while! Not one to totally relax however, I’ve focused on starting to getting used to marathon pace of 5:45/mile. With about 52 weeks until the next marathon, if I could improve the distance by half a mile each week, then I’m set! Realistically, I’ll need a more professional approach, and I’ve kindly had a coach and blog recommended to me to that effect.

Short-term, I have Market Drayton 10k next week. With my 10k PB at 36:42, sub-36 would be nice, though for some reason I’ve found sub-6/mile pace tricky as of late, despite being able to maintain just a shade slower than that for almost 3 hours. I haven’t run many 10k races, so this will be a learning experience.

Talking of learning experiences, my 7-year-old daughter has joined a running club! Watching from the sidelines, it’s impressive to see some of these kids with impressive form and techniques; I’m taking notes!

Monday Strava data. (3 miles)

Tuesday Strava data. (3 miles)

Wednesday Strava data. (5 miles)

Thursday Strava data. (3 miles)

Friday Strava data. (3 miles)

Saturday Strava data. (10 miles)

Sunday Strava data. (3 miles)

31 total miles for the week.