Another 10k Race - Sevenoaks Weald

I have just signed up for the Sevenoaks Weald St. Georges 10k Race, which takes place on 4 September 2011. It looks like quite a hilly course, so I have absolutely no chance of getting a personal best here... but that's ok because the Sevenoaks Weald is a stunning part of Kent and it will just be a pleasure running here. I secretly love hills really.... (also it's not far from home).

It was £15 for a non-affiliated entry, plus Runner's World added a £2 admin fee.

The race falls 3 weeks before the Tonbridge half-marathon. My HM training plan calls for a 10k race around this point anyway - I'm more than happy to oblige!

I've plotted the route in RunningAHEAD so I can look closer at the elevation profile, the first half of the course is mostly downhill, so that means........ the second half is mostly uphill... YAY!! We go from 110 metres (above sea level) down to 45 metres and then back up to 110 metres!!





If anyone fancies joining me..... feel free! ;-)


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Race: Staplehurst Carnival & Fete 10km

My third 10km race, a (fairly) flat course, decent weather, good training, well rested, well hydrated, well fed - Everything was in place for a good race!

Firstly my race pack never arrived in the post so I had to arrange for a replacement number to be available upon arrival in Staplehurst. We arrived with an hour to spare, went to the race HQ and collected my hand-written duplicate race number (no.18).

There were 118 participants in today's race, it's quite nice to take part in these smaller events (I'm not a fan of the mass warm-up sessions and excessive branding you get at some larger races).

I should also mention that it was quite a hot morning, muggy and overcast up until the race started, during the race we had bright sunshine - The high for the day was forecast to be around 28 degrees Celsius.

...in the light blue shirt

The course was nice, we started off on a side road for 500 metres before going out onto the main road, being a small event there were no road closures, the main road wasn't too busy and all the drivers I encountered gave plenty of space for the runners while overtaking.

Thankfully we soon turned off the main road and onto some very quiet single track country lanes that weaved between farms, and with views of the beautiful Kent countryside. The race description said that it was a flat course, I'd say it was slightly undulating, whatever it was it was definitely flatter than the other two 10km races I've done. We followed these lanes around for the next 8km and then came back out onto the main road to head back to the finish.

I was so happy to finally reach the end

The last 250 metres or so were slightly uphill and after running at a strong pace for almost 10km it felt like I was running up a steep hill rather than along a slight incline! I had nothing left in me for a finishing kick, to be honest just keeping moving was a real struggle for most of the last 3km, but I did keep moving and my splits show that I kept an almost even pace for the entire race.

Click - ( GPS Map ) to see the map of the course from my GPS data, if you click on the summary tab you can see my splits, my GPS didn't register it as the full 10km but it has been known to be slightly out before, also I faffed around before pressing stop at the end, so the last km split time shows it to be longer than it actually was!

You've got to have the medal shot...

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My official finish time was 42:07 - A new personal best..... by over 5 minutes!!
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The race organisers ( Nice Work ) have a blog and have put the results up ( here ), I came in 22nd position out of 118 participants.

...and you've got to have the family shot (does that sound wrong? oops)

As always, the wife took the photos - thank you again, but this time both of our 'real' cameras' batteries ran out before the race started (silly, I know). Luckily we had two mobile phones that have cameras that we could fall back on - We had four devices capable of taking photos with us in total - and that just seems normal these days.


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Pre-race thoughts - Staplehurst 10k

This weekend I am registered to run another 10k race, this one is in Staplehurst, Kent. According to everything I've read it's supposed to be a fairly flat course.

My current personal best (during a race) for 10k is 47.13. My goal for this race is to break the 45 minute barrier. I feel like it should be well within my capabilities, I recently ran a 20.55 5k. I've increased my mileage significantly over the last few months and I'm feeling good while running. But you never know what will happen on the day!

Today I've been in contact with the race director because my race number and instructions have not yet arrived. He has been extremely helpful and if it doesn't turn up by Saturday I can contact him and he'll have a replacement print-out of my number waiting for me on race day.

All I have left to do is a couple of easy runs and then a nice rest on Saturday. The weather forecast looks good at the moment, although it's so random at the moment it could easily change. I'm really looking forward to this one, probably more so than the others, and mostly because it's supposed to be a flat course!

I try to get a race report with photos out on Sunday evening!

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Father's Day

As it's my first father's day as the father (it still feels strange writing it) I thought I'd go off-topic with a photo of me and the little lady from our recent holiday in Eastbourne.




It's a bit like a wordless Wednesday, but there are words and it's Sunday..


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Parkrun No.2

Today (Saturday 11 June) I dragged my poor wife and daughter out of bed at the crack of dawn to drive up to Banstead Woods to run my second ParkRun.

My goals for today were to beat my previous ParkRun (5k) time of 22:03 and to possibly get somewhere near my PB of 21:35 (from last November).

Right from the outset I wondered if it was going to be 'one of those days' - The baby delayed us by, let me just say, needing an emergency nappy change just as we were about to leave. Then as we were driving along the M25 I missed the exit I needed and had to travel to the next junction to turn around!

We eventually arrived at Banstead Woods 20 minutes before the race started. Which would be fine except the baby was asleep and once awake we needed to grab all of her things, put her in the baby carrier etc.. and then there was the 10 minute walk to the start!

So we got to start line with 4 minutes to spare - I had no time left for a warm up, although the walk up to the start line probably helped, I was still a little worried to be racing on cold legs.

After the customary pre-race announcements we were off!

Stopwatches and GPS devices are GO GO GO!!!

This time I managed to secure a spot fairly close to the front of the pack, the first lap went by quite fast, I was starting to feel quite uncomfortable (par for the course in a 5k!), as I passed the half-way point one of the marshals was calling out everyone's times. 'Ten-fifteen' he shouted as I passed - It sounded pretty good but my head was focused on the hill that I had just started to climb and I soon forgot about trying to work out a possible finish time.

The second lap seemed to last for ever, I kept turning corners and finding that I was still not on the home straight. Then I turned the last corner, I could hear people cheering, I knew it would be over soon. I knew I had worked hard because I had fleeting moments of nausea throughout the second half of the race. Finally I saw the orange cones that channel everybody into the finish area, I tried to push herder but I was already at 100%. Passed the finish line and was relieved that it was over!

The last few metres!

One of the volunteers gave me my position chip and said 20th - I was pleased with that.

I was hoping that I had gone sub-22, I looked at my GPS for a rough answer - 21:05, and that was a few seconds after I had crossed the line.

I had to wait a few hours for my official time to be emailed to me, but just after noon I received my result - 20:55!!

Not only had I gone sub-22, I had actually gone sub-21 and earned myself a new PB! A full 1 minute and 8 seconds faster than two weeks earlier on the same course, and 40 seconds faster than my PB from last November!

• 20th position overall
• 18th male
• 2nd in my age group (SM30-34)

Time to set a new 5k goal - sub-20!!

Thanks to the wife for taking the photos! (again) :-)


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15km run

Yesterday (Sunday 5 June 2011) I did my longest 'long run' so far - 15km.

I was slightly worried yesterday afternoon because my left Achilles was feeling quite tender. I think I may have run up too many hills last week and the long run (also with hills) pushed my Achilles to the edge!

However it is feeling slightly better today - Today is a rest day so I'm hoping that it'll be back to normal by tomorrow.

Back to now... I'm sitting here in work and I can feel that my thighs are slowly developing my favourite post-workout feeling... DOMS!!! I haven't had DOMS in my thighs for ages.. I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts.

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Beachy Head

This week we spent a few days down at the South Coast, in Eastbourne.

Eastbourne sits just to the East of the stunning cliffs of Beachy Head. Being so close to such amazing scenery was too good a running opportunity to let pass. As a bonus we had the most glorious weather I have seen for years!

Where the Seafront meets the path to Beachy Head

I started off from the hotel at 5.43am (day 1) and 7.07am (day 2) and ran along the seafront to the start of the steep uphill section. It is so steep that I had to slow and walk on more than one occasion. I still can't believe I was awake so early on the first day of my holiday!

A section of the path (with a man for scale)

On day 1 I had one aim - To get to the top! So I took the most direct path. Spent a short time admiring the view and continued back down via a slightly different route. I got back to the hotel showered, had breakfast. Then headed straight back up to the cliffs with my wife and daughter for a hike (and to take these photos).

The View from the Top of the Cliffs

On day 2 I thought it would be fun to explore the lower parts (still very steep) of the cliffs. Although I didn't go all the way to the top I actually ascended more metres over the course of the run.

More paths (and more people for scale)

Running in such a beautiful location makes all my usual runs seem very boring, It's hard to imagine ever being bored of running on these cliffs.

The Coastline (you can see part of the path I ran along)

It was awesome!

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My First parkrun

This weekend I finally made it to my first parkrun! (Saturday 28 May 2011)

We turned up bright and early at the Banstead Woods parkrun in Coulsdon, parked the car and headed into the woods not knowing exactly where we were supposed to find the start line. Luckily we stumbled across the race director taping some areas of the woods off to protect the delicate undergrowth that has been worn away during previous parkruns. After a brief chat we knew all we had to know so I went off for a little warmup.

Banstead Woods

As 9am approached I headed along the path to the start line, I noticed that there was a really nice mix of all ages and abilities, including plenty of children, lining up to start. I saw a few people wearing their commemorative 50 and 100 parkrun t-shirts and wondered if I'd ever make it to 50 and receive my own t-shirt!

After a brief announcement regarding the future of this parkrun and effects it has on the woods (good and bad) and we were off.

I found myself starting off in the middle of the pack and moving quite slowly along the first section, which was uphill, over the first kilometre I gradually moved past the slower runners. Half -way around the first lap the course comes back downhill and past the finish line.

Half-way Point

Then I turned a corner to start the second lap, uphill again, this time around it seemed much steeper! Anyway, I dug in and pushed myself on, finally the course levelled out. I noticed a bit of a stitch over near my right shoulder, I focused on my breathing but couldn't completely get rid of it. Before I knew it we were coming back round to the finish, I pushed fairly hard but not all out.

Finish (clearly)

I finished in 34th place (out of 192 runners) with a time of 22:03. Overall 5th in my age group (SM30-34).

I don't think I'll be able to make it every weekend, if there was one closer to home it would be easier (and I'd probably have my 50 run t-shirt this time next year) but there isn't. I'd really love to do two per month, and maybe try some of the other parkruns around the edges of South London. It would be brilliant if I could persuade some friends to sign up (for free) - you know who you are! - and run with me. (My brother-in-law has signed up but I don't think I can persuade him to fly over from Switzerland twice-a-month..) There's also the wife but 5k is a bit too far at the moment)

Thanks to the wife for taking photos of the race!


7t.

Another 10km Race

I have entered the Staplehurst Carnival & Fete 10km Race. According to the website it is a flat course. It's only a very small race, last year only 120 people took part. I don't expect anything fancy here, it does say that all participants get a medal but it doesn't mention timing chips, so I'll have to rely on my phone's GPS and the HandyRunner application and my stopwatch.

It's only a few weeks away and will form part of my training towards the Tonbridge Half Marathon, at the end of September.

If I have a good day (and trouble free training) I should be able to break the 45 minute barrier.

I will of course post a race report, and hopefully the lovely wife will take some more photos!

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Video of Bedgebury Race

Trekandrun youtube channel were at the Bedgebury race on 14 May, they made a video. I am in it briefly near the beginning (around 40-45 seconds in the orange top, partly hidden by the runner's world sign).





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Bedgebury Race Photo

Bedgebury Forest Race

It makes me feel uncomfortable when I see photos where I'm striking with, what looks like, quite a severe heel strike. When I'm running it never feels as bad as this photo looks. This might be a downhill section, is it more common to strike with the heel while going downhill?

Anyway, it was nice to find a photo of me during the race, the route of the course made it impossible for the wife to take any action shots apart from at the finishing line.

It has that circular pattern on it because I'm too tight to pay for a copy. I'm ok with that.

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Race: Runner's World Trailblazer 10k - Bedgebury Forest

The build up to this did not quite go to plan, after I ran my first 10km race ( race report ) my IT band in my right leg gave me quite a few weeks of pain and as a result I had to cut out my long runs - I only managed two long runs (10k+) since mid-march. In addition to that, over the last two weeks I've been feeling pretty rough (cough, cold, sore throat, etc) and I haven't been able to shake it off.

So, on to race day.. (Saturday 14 May 2011)

Arrival at Bedgebury Forest (checking out the finish line)

I woke up with a very strange feeling in my chest (another bizarre feature of my ever changing bug is that the symptoms change daily). The deeper I breathed in the more it hurt. I had almost decided to pull out of the race by the time my wife woke up. After a quick chat we decided that we might as well drive down to the race and I could decide whether to run or not at the last minute.

Timing Chip

Once we arrived I treated it like any other race - I registered, picked up my number and timing chip and got ready. I then went to have a little warm up to see how I was feeling. After a few minutes it became apparent that my chest actually felt a little better while running, so the decision was made to continue as planned with the race.

A bit of stretching with Matilda

The start line was a 5-10 minute walk from the main race ' village'. After the official warmup each wave were taken down to the start at for their scheduled start time. I was in the blue wave (sub-50 minute), this was the second wave to start.

Checking the Stopwatch

I knew that the first km was uphill, so once we were off I took it easy and reached the 1km mark in 5.09. After this I was expecting most of the course to be fairly flat - How wrong was I!!??!?!?!

I had sped up by the time I reached the 2km mark and hit that point at 9.30, but I still felt like I was going uphill the whole time. Still I kept the pace up. I started to long for some level ground, but every time I turned a corner it seemed to be yet another hill!! At some points I must have run downhill but somehow my mind has blanked these sections out.

I was in complete agony but I kept up the pace, all I could think was that the quickest way to put an end to the agony was to reach the finish line. I continued to push through each km (I didn't see a sign at the 5km point so I don't know my halfway mark time).

I pushed on at a hard but manageable pace. That was until I hit the 9km mark and my agony turned into something worse, I knew the last km was a steep uphill section, and I knew it would be tough, but I felt like I had hit a wall (probably not the wall they talk about in marathon running, but it was still a wall). My legs felt heavy and I could barely move, but I knew that to stop would just make it harder to start again. The grass was long and felt like it was pulling at my legs the whole way up that damn hill. After what felt like an age I could hear people cheering so knew I was almost there, I turned a corner and entered the last section, the finish line seemed so far away, but I knew that it would all be over in a few seconds. I had nothing left for a finishing kick and just crossed the line in a daze, relieved that it was finally over.

The End

My chip time was 47.13 (85/730) - I was very pleased with that, especially considering how hilly the course was plus my lack of long runs and random illness. I'm pretty sure that on a flat road course I would be able to go sub-45 minutes.

Even though the race was pure agony I enjoyed it thoroughly. I thought it was well organised and would definitely sign up for it in the future.

Post Race - I felt worse than this photo shows!

I also got a goody bag containing;

• May Runner's World Magazine
• June Runner's World Magazine
• June Triathletes World Magazine
• Men's Health Fitness Special - Magazine and DVD
• Naked Bar
• Sports Recovery Milkshake (ready-made)
• Sports Recovery Milkshake (Sachet)
• Jointace Gel
• Deep Freeze Patch x 2
• Tech T-Shirt (They actually gave out the t-shirt before the race)

Plus, of course, my finisher's medal!

All in all about £45 worth of stuff, plus the free car parking - It's usually £8 to park at Bedgebury Forest. The race entry fee was £30, I thought quite expensive, but the bits and pieces made it good value.

On Your Marks (Looks like we have a budding sprinter in the making)

Lastly I have to thank my two fans, Dani and Matilda, for cheering me on and also for taking some lovely photos. (and not getting annoyed at my constant running talk).

The Ladies

Until the next one.....

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Pre Race - Bedgebury Forest 10km

I've been feeling quite groggy for the last few days (headache, cough, sore throat, runny nose, congestion etc..) but today I feel like I might be turning a corner. *fingers crossed*

The off-shot to that is that I haven't felt like running as much as I'd like, plus I have a race this weekend and I don't want to do anything silly in the next few days!

Anyway, the race....

It's the Runner's World Trailblazer 10km at Bedgebury Forest, near Tunbridge Wells.



This is my first race that has staggered start times, I am in wave 2 - which is the first sub-50 minute wave. Unless the course is extreme hilly I should comfortably come in well within 50 minutes. If I have a very good day I could be looking at a time somewhere near 45 minutes, if I break 45 minutes I'll be ecstatic! (current PB for the distance was during a training run and stands at 47.12)

There are 894 entrants listed on the race website (I'm no. 761), I'd be really happy to make it into the top 10 percent - So overall 89th position or better will do that (unless some people drop out).

You can see some course details - here! It's the second race in the series.

I'm hoping that the wife will be able to take a few photos on the day and I will of course write a race report at the weekend.

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Workouts - Week Commencing 2 May 2011

Monday: (May bank holiday)

• 6.3km Run ( summary / map )
• 100 Push Ups (10x10)

Tuesday:

• Gym - Chest / Back / Core

Wednesday:

• 6km Treadmill Run (Intervals) Fast at 15.5kmph - 16kmph (3.45 - 3.52 min per km)

Thursday:

• 3.3km Commute Run ( summary / map )
• Gym - Chest. Back, Core, Biceps, Triceps

Friday: (Day Off)

• 5.42km Run ( summary / map )
• 12.4km Hike to Sevenoaks ( map )

Saturday:

• 100 Pushups (10x10) and a bit of foam rolling / stretching
  

Sunday:

• Long Run 10.6km ( summary / map )
  

I made an effort to spend a bit more time using the weights in the gym this week. Also managed to clock up 31.6km's worth of running plus another 12.4km hiking. I think it's been a pretty good week.

During our hike on Friday we passed through Knole Park (where I raced my first 10km, in March) and came across some deer that seemed quite happy for us to get close enough for a quick photo!



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I've only gone and.....

..... entered my first half-marathon!!!

It is the first ever Tonbridge half-marathon and will take place on Sunday 25th September 2011. I've been thinking about this one since I first heard about it a few months ago and finally I have whipped out the credit card and coughed up the £20 entry fee.



At the moment I don't know if I'm a little scared, excited, or maybe it's just too far away to really feel anything. Anyway, my summer training now has a new focus. Will I find and follow a half-marathon training plan? Will I make my own plan??? - I'm not quite sure yet, but I'll get the thinking cap on straight away!

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Workouts - Week Commencing 25 April 2011

I'm a bit late with this week's workouts. The family came down to visit us for the day (on Sunday) and I was too tired to get this posted after they had left. Anyway, only 24 hours later than planned...

Monday:

• Run - 7.2km ( summary / map ).
  
• Foam Rolling / Pigeon Pose.

Tuesday:

• Weights - Chest / Triceps / Core (plus a few pull-ups, for funzies).
• Foam Rolling / Pigeon Pose.
  

Wednesday:

• Interval Run (Treadmill) - 6km ( summary )
• - - Fast interval at 15.2 kmph, which is 3.56 minutes per km pace.
• - - Recovery at 12ish kmph, approx 5 minutes per km pace.
• Foam Rolling and pigeon pose sessions (gym/home).
  

Thursday:

• Run - 5.54km ( summary / map ) Note: My GPS cut out as I entered Green Park and reconnected as I left Green Park so I had to re-calculate the distance, map only shows 3.75km. Maybe this has something to do with the satellite dishes that have been installed in Green Park for the press to cover the Royal Wedding on Friday.
  

Friday:

• Rest Day. Just did a foam rolling and stretching session. We were supposed to go on a 12km hike from Tonbridge to Sevenoaks but as we were all feeling quite groggy we postponed.
  

Saturday:

I almost managed to do my first ParkRun but still felt groggy first thing in the morning and gave it a miss - Next week maybe?? I felt a little better by lunch time so I squeezed in a little run.

• Run - 4.13km ( summary / map )
  
• Foam Roller / Pigeon Pose.
  

Sunday:

• Run - 8.55km ( summary / map )
• Foam Roller / Pigeon Pose
• 100 Push-ups (10x10)
  

Very happy with the running this week. No IT band pain, but I will continue to stick to the foam rolling/pigeon pose routine as it seems to be making a difference. I've taken my eye off of the weight training, so it has suffered over the last few weeks. I hope to at least manage to work each body part once during the week in future. To be honest, I'm enjoying running a lot more than I enjoy lifting weights at the moment and have more goals that relate to running so I'm investing more time on that side, makes sense to me. Still, I need to maintain some kind of balance so I'll work on that.

It was the first week ever that I managed to break to the 30km mark, I hope to make that my base level for all of the weeks in May in the hope of finally passing the 100km month mark that has so far proved elusive!

Now that April has come to an end it's worth noting that I managed to clock up 91.7km, at one point I thought I would have trouble reaching 50km, so I'm really happy with it. I'm still on track to meet my goal of 1000km in 2011.

Due to the IT band problem I started to run more often but shorter distances, that's how I made up the mileage even though I took a whole week off running earlier in the month.

All the best,
7t.