A Pentalogy of Proven Folktales II

A year ago I wrote a blog about the five biggest things that I'd learnt or felt hadmade a difference to my running in 2012. 2013 has been something of a breakthrough year for me, and bares many similarities to the winter of 2009/10, where I experienced similar improvements. 

Bud Baldaro:

To suggest that I have changed coaches would be an overstatement: I don't consider myself to have a coach. But on Tuesday nights at the university track, our BRAT group now joins Mister Johnny Cullen, and we put the fate of our sessions in the hands of a world-renowned coach and extremely great motivator, Bud Baldaro. 

Running tough sessions as a group has made these both fun and manageable. The sessions involve mixed paces, terrain and rep lengths, and they would be very difficult solo. A large training group at my pace is something I've not had since early 2010 when I was still at university. 

Racing better than I train:

This has been my biggest shift. I'm not running any faster in training now than I have been in the last three years. In truth probably a little slower for the most part. But we run as a group, and practice running relaxed and comfortable at the paces, rather than slogging them out. Times don't matter to us now in training - we can judge training performances against each other not the clock. The sessions are not the race. 

Relaxed training approach:

I've probably done less miles to this point of the year than in 2012. My training has been far more unstructured, I don't even plan it anymore, just identify each week what I need to be doing outside of Bud's sessions. I'm highly flexible.  I've also not been too bothered when I've had a bad race (the good ones have helped keep this in perspective), and not let it cast doubts about my ability as a runner. 

Recovery means recovery:

I listen to my body now, far more than even before. If I'm tired I do less. I run slower on easy runs, like I did back in late 2009. Recovery runs are for recovery, not to get a good pace average, and if I stay relaxed with good cadence / form, then they're beneficial in multiple ways.

I rest before important races, sometimes they go well, occasionally not. It means my training looks a bit inconstant....I have massive mileage weeks followed by low mileage weeks. But it's worked. 

Long tempos:

I've improved my half marathon time from 75:49 (PB) in October '12 to 71:53 in September '13. That's a big increase. I think that long tempo runs have been key to this. I've been building up to 8 miles (45 ish mins) at almost HM pace. Sometimes I start slow and increase it, sometime I break it down, (say 4x2miles off a minute jog). But I get to the point the week before the race where I can do 8 miles continuously and reasonably comfortably at a similar pace.  If you know you can do the pace for that long, than you can hang on in the race for another 5 miles for sure. 

Glute activation:

I visited a physio last December who told me I still had a problem with my hip flexors. Too tight, he said. I obsessively stretched them for three months and saw a sports masseur, but to no avail. Until I realised that this could actually be caused by compensation for weak glutes. I found an article that massively supported this, and since April have instead been obsessively doing glute activation exercises every time before I run. I think it's worked. 

Form:

Finally, I've never had the best form, but improved glute function (above) has helped, as has introducing more strides and leg cycle drills. I now do 5-6x strides at least once a week on none session days, often after a long run, and the day before a race. Just on the road outside my house, but they've really helped my body develop a better range of motion and run far more relaxed at my faster paces. 

Ok, so that's seven (a heptathlon if you will), but all of these things I've been doing regularly since February / March. Clearly I can't say exactly which have worked to a greater extent than others, but if the ideas here help anyone reading this as much as they've helped me, then this has been useful. 

The Circle of Life

World media has been surprisingly slow on the uptake of Coventry BMC 5000m which occurred two saturdays ago, at a back-to-front - albeit it blue - track hidden away at Coventry University which drew monster crowds of former Sheffield University Athletes.

However the race, in which the highest placed finisher worth mentioning finished in a position which would rank him a toasty 340 in the National Rankings for the year, has generated a disproportional amount of column inches, with two blogs and a website article amassing almost double figures of interest between them.

Dan Robinson, who was said highest finisher, was in pole position coming in to the final kilometre, having been accidentally tucked into Ed Bank’s super tight pink racing shorts and carried round the first 10 laps.  “It was just about staying with Ed for the first four kilometres and trying to remember how many laps the race was.  I knew that Carter was on my shoulder the entire time because I could hear him panting like a Horse.”

Carter, who we have been able to confirm was also in the race, offered “I wasn’t really enjoying myself.  I knew we were going for curry afterwards, and I was getting quite hungry deciding if I could manage a whole naan myself.  I spent the first three laps deciding the best way to drop out, and whether I would need to feign tripping over in order to make it look legit.”

After reaching four kilometres in a highly symmetrical 12:40, the 3 minute and 3 second race to the line was won by Robinson in 2:59, to which Carter was incensed.  “Robinson pulled away in the final two and a half laps.  I’d already planned that we would cross the line together holding hands, but when he did that all I had left was to beat the Irish International runner.  Sarah Mac afterwards stated that her favourite laps had been “2, 5, 6, 8 and 11,” and that she was “no longer talking to Tim” because of his 450m sprint for the line.  “Where I come from [of which no one is sure], friends don’t beat friends.”

Veteran38 Mark Ince overcame a severe bout of ageing which has been afflicting him for the past 10 years, and was in the race the entire way, with only a wrong turn on the 10th lap letting him down.  He came in as the 5th Significant Person, in 3:11, just behind Chris (also 3:11).  Mark was giddy after breaking a PB that has stood for 20 years, back from his student days where he claims to have run 1:39 and 3:25 for the middle distance events.  He was reportedly “very giddy” the whole way back as he snacked on Haribo Sourmix.

BBC token pundit Denise Lewis has been quick to offer some expert insight into what might have caused this spectacle of super-human feats on this late summer evening: “The thing about the 5000m is, that it is 5000m long.”  The BBC are hopeful of not renewing her contract.

The Perfect 5000

They say that the county champs are in decline. As true as that maybe, and as sad as it is for athletics, it doesn't bother me in the slightest as with decent competition I honestly wouldn't have been standing on the second tier of the rickety podium at the Warwickshire's yesterday, second only to the ever-reliable Ed Banks in the 5000m, who now holds a head-to-head record against me of about 200-0. Mo Farah in contrast has never beaten me, which puts into perspective how much better than Mo Ed 'The Beard' Banks is. 

A pre-planned racing strategy with second-favourite training partner Dan Robinson was going to be the secret to us both breaking 16 minutes, although unfortunately the ultra-marathoner fell a little shy on the day.

As I stretched for the finish of the most painful race I'd ever done, the capacity crowd willed me forward. I flung myself at the line having given everything, and sunk to the ground gasping for air and willing the screaming in my legs to dissipate. 

The pandemonium on the track silenced as the words came over the loudspeakers: 'The time is Fifteen minutes....' The rest of the announcement was drowned out by the joyous cries of several people who had just witnessed history in the making. At last the barrier was broken.*

Breaking 16 was everything I dreamed. 'Tell me about your race?' said an important looking gentleman to me as I collected my medal, who I incorrectly assumed was from world media. I quickly tailed off my overly detailed description as I realised he was merely the guy who had timetabled the events. All he actually wanted to know was if an 11:30 start suited and would be fine next year as well? 'Great!' I said, after quickly mulling over if in my brief moment of power there was a more preferable time of day for me to be comprehensively beaten in 365 days time. '11:30 is great.'

* 'The Perfect Mile' by Neal Bascomb is available from all good bookstores. 

2013 looms

It has been a positive Christmas in the Carthorse camp.  News of a new sponsorship deal to rival Sarah Mac’s Inavo Eight contract came in just day’s before the holiday, in the form a text message from Mother, who offered cooked meals all Christmas in exchange for keeping my bedroom tidy and my bed made. 

Seemingly spitefully however, my fell shoes by the afore mentioned manufacturer had other ideas, slicing a layer of skin clean off the back of my heel on day two of the holiday.  Ten days have now passed and this latest injury now resembles a gouge out of my foot, making requests by Malcolm to make the 10 minute limp to the postbox cause for anquish.

Meanwhile I am fully prepared for this weekend’s Warwickshire County Champs (XC), despite my girly injury scare, and fresh from record 341 man-minutes of labour to remove the spikes from the footwear from last time out. 

In other news, tales of my double-December PBs has clearly spread, with fan tribute video[s] now starting to emerge on the internet.  Teenage running sensation Emilia Gorecka used the term “fantastic” on her website while Steven Bayton replacement training partner Dan Robinson has not been seen since it went viral.

A tail of two blogs

It’s amazing how the same piece of news can be both the best thing you could ask for and the worst.  For me that news came just over three weeks ago, when frustrated with my physio, I went for a second opinion.  This gentleman invited me onto his torture table and attempted to bend me every which way he could think of. 

The three words he then uttered redefined my running, and have been the cause of severe optimism, and unimaginable frustration, as shown in the two blogs that I wrote on two consecutive days.

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Day 18: Going to the physio was the best thing I ever did. 

Anterior pelvic rotation weren't new words to me.  Three years ago I was diagnosed as having a massive anterior rotation, caused by ridiculously tight hip flexors, which restricted my pelvis position, and thus how high I could lift my knees, which stunted my stride. 

This problem hasn't gotten worse, but I had wrongly assumed that I had maximised my range of motion.  Not true.  This physio demonstrated that with my pelvis in neutral, I literally cannot move my upper leg backwards beyond vertical.  I therefore have to choose between enabling knee lift which restricts my stride length, or enabling my glutes (the largest muscle in the body) to work correctly without being able to lift my knees. 

Just 15 minutes of stretching three times a day should be enough to change this, and given that the first time I made this adjustment, the biomechanical change allowed me to train effectively to reduce my 10k time from 37:14 (Sept. 2009) to 34:41 (Dec. 2009), the optimism of even a slight improvement alone is enough motivation to stick at this.  It’s not easy, but it’s exciting.

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Day 19: Going to the physio was the worst thing I ever did. 

Anterior pelvic rotation is like a curse.  I thought I had resolved this.  I went through all of the physio three years ago.  The problem is I’m now really aware of how awkwardly I run.  I can feel when my whole pelvis tilts forwards now.  It annoys the hell out of me.  An evening run through the countryside shouldn’t end in me screaming and kicking a fence in pure frustration.  Writing 18 seconds off my PB last week should feel satisfying, not worthless because I know that this time is easily beatable if I can overcome this problem. 

I hate stretching three times a day….it uses all of my free time.  Just when I want to relax, its time to contort myself again.  Now I struggle for motivation to run because I know that it’s pointless without rectifying biomechanical factors first.  I wish I’d never known and could just carry on in ignorance.  I was happy being a very average runner.  Argh.

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It’s amazing how the same situation can be perceived in two such different ways.  I’m just hoping that the positives eventually overcome the negative.

Goals as achievable targets: Act II

10,000m PB : 33:36 (May 2012)

I'm a big fan of setting medium term goals. Challenging but achievable targets that are far enough away that they allow for a few hiccups on the way, but near enough that you stay motivated.   A discussion with a housemate this week made me realise that these are what motivate me most, and that my current goals, with the exception of making it through an entire chocolate moose last night, are a bit loose. 

London Marathon 2010, BUCS 5k 2012. Those are just a couple of running goals that I have set myself previously. And in doing those I have achieved more in a short time than when I 'float' with an aim of 'to be able to run faster'. 

So in true November style, it seems fitting that I now find a new goal. One that I've had in mind for a while, but that I've decided to put a time scale on.  One that I've been motivated towards by the recent valiant efforts of my training partner.  My goal is to run 32:30 for 10k by September 2013. An improvement of 3.3%, 6.6 seconds per km, or to run 10k at my current 5k pace.  This should be highly dooable.  Why ever not?

This is a goal that if I achieve, I will feel like I've realised my potential as a runner. An achievement that will validate myself as a semi-decent runner and a coach in my own eyes. 

That is what I'm going to work towards these next 10 months.  This is what I'm going to achieve.

UKA stirrup more trouble

The Carter family are said to be disappointed after finally getting around to checking the list of new lottery funded athletes last night, only to discover second-born Timothy has not been given lottery support for his jogging.

Timothy, who is currently in the bath, has declined the opportunity to comment, but in an interview with his parents (who play the National Lottery with limited success every week), it became apparent that they have very limited knowledge of athletics.  “I read that there was a level of funding that applied to contenders for Rio 2016, and I’ve been telling my friends at swimming that I know what Rio is,” said his mother while separating Timothy’s whites from colours.  “For [UKA] to say that Timothy has no chance of making it is just like school P.E all over again when he was only given an effort grade of ‘C’.”

Timothy, who this week has been working on wearing longer shorts in training, is rumoured to have filled out an entry form and stamped-addressed-envelope for a 10k later this year, after deliberating between this and the fun run option which incentivised a free Santa hat.  It has also been suggested that he may be tempted to do another Park Run if he feels like it at some point, although the idea that he still knows where his bar code is quite a far-fetched.

The only silver lining in all this is that Mark Lewis Francis has been dropped from funding.  The athlete is rumoured to have been sent to the Inflator Room at Theme Hospital.

79.6 ml/min/kg

A few weeks ago – before I went to the USA and undid the last year’s worth of training – I braved the streets of Walsall to go to the University Of Wolverhampton’s physiology laboratory, where a gentleman named Ian Lahart kindly took my height and weight.  

He then proceeded to connect me to a gas mask, oxygen supply and every other gismo you can think of, before putting me through a Maximal Oxygen Uptake Test, better known as the VO2max test. 

For the layman, this run-to-failure test works out the maximum amount of oxygen one can withdraw from the air per minute - one of the key indicators of aerobic fitness - as well as providing other useful information such as accurate training intensities.

My surprising result of 79.6 ml/min/kg - which I think we should round up to 80 - not only shows a phenomenally high oxygen uptake, which I firmly believe would have been higher had I had a smaller lunch, but also increases the number of terrains on which I’ve now stacked it.  Unfortunately, my fall also damaged the very expensive equipment, unknowingly giving a false reading on Ed’s subsequent test, and removed a large amount of skin from my knees and shins.

Now every BRAT Club member is booking into the Performance Hub to try and beat my score, while in a change of heart, Lance Armstrong’s office have released a statement stating that he wishes that he’d stayed clean to try and legitimately beat my result (Armstrong recorded a maximum of 84.0 ml/min/kg).

Oh, and courtesy of Mister Bank's steady hand, you can relive the final moments of this test here:

The Tale of a Mountain Goat

Sarah Mac (not to be confused with retired Javelin thrower Sarah Snack) became a household name on Saturday after winning the Bedford BMC Grand Prix on a windy and wet night, in which I ate her post-race dinner while she slogged it out over 12 ½ laps.

Making her August debut at her favourite distance, the student of soil who plys her trade north of the Scottish border executed the perfect race against Birmingham University’s fun-sized BUCS XC winner Hannah Walker to take not only the victory, but complete more than a 90 second PBimprovement from two years ago.

Imrpovement of a champion.

If Walker harboured any real ambitions of winning this race, then she had clearly not done her research of readily availableinformation.  With 200m to go, Mac destroyed her like a tsunami charging down a family picnic on the beach, and was first to the interview with Athletics Weekly and what was left of the organiser-provided water after spectator Simon Millhouse earlier filled up his bag when no one was looking.

Founding members of the Sarah Mac fan club.

Sarah put gender equality the right way up as she recorded a time faster than any of her former Sheffield Uni training partners ever have, renewing our desire for immediate improvements to avoid possible humiliation.  "I simply can not [sic] have her faster than me," text women’s U17 long jump and 1,350 metre specialist Millhouse.  "It’s not an option, and could prove the motivation I need."  He is already said to be considering discontinuing his range of rice-based cereals to work on this beer belly.

Indeed Mac’s fitness, stamina and disgestive abilities showcased her rapid improvement as she took and ate a pair of jam sandwichs on the following morning’s long run, as she gave 16min+ runners Millhouse and Carthorse a solid workout on her recovery jog.

The mountain-goat shaped runner, who is currently preparing for this weekend’s uphill-only race to the moon, and more importantly a November showdown with her former rival (myself), described the key elements of her training to be "receiving motivational texts from my friend Tim" (also me) and keeping her railcard photo hidden from prying eyes.

We are keenly hoping that this latest high profile victory will be enough to bagsy some free kit (all contributions should be a men’s ‘medium’ and footwear size 11), and boost sales of her upcoming paperback which will be released in all good retailers this autumn.

Mac's new bestseller, released this Autumn.

A Pentalogy of Proven Folktales

About a year ago, a very reliable training partner of mine wrote a post-London marathon blog about the top five things he’d learnt from his recent experiences.  In the same vain, I’ve actually written a serious piece for once!  This post discusses the top five things that worked for me in a season where overall I smashed my PBs at every distance I raced.

1) Don’t undeRESTimate the power of nothing:

I know lots of runners, and I used to be one, who underestimated rest.  I don’t mean rest days, and I don’t mean tapering for races.  We all do that.  I mean perpetual training because you want to keep improving, are worried about falling behind, and are not looking at the big picture.  Just because you don’t feel tired, doesn’t mean you aren’t. 

Rest was the foundation for last season.  After averaging probably 60 miles per week for the previous 18 months, last summer my ankle revolted, and caused me have three unplanned months out, emerging from the other side of that dark tunnel with precious little fitness (mostly because I couldn’t be arsed to even try and maintain it).  But it enabled me to build my whole season around the idea of regaining fitness and to run a big PB at BUCS.  I don’t think that I would have done this so easily without the downtime which completely refreshed me.

2) Periodisation:

I’ve never done this consciously before, but having a goal which was sixth months away was the key, as it was ample time to build up each element of fitness.  I broke my time down in to three, two-month blocks, and a further one after BUCS.  Each element prioritied a different training component: endurance, strength, thresholds or speed endurance.  Looking back, it took only three weeks of hard training to regain 90 percent of my fitness, but this method meant that in total, it took just four months to go from no fitness, into PB territory.    The proof is in the pudding, and in May-July I demolished my best times for everything from 1500m to 10k (the longest I raced).

3) Big performances are possible, but belief is the key:

To be fair, Sammy Rashid has always said this to me, but I proved his theory!  Doubling up at the Olympic Stadium was never the plan, but I’ll be honest and say that I was slightly disappointed with my 16:14 in the 5000m heats.  Logic and common sense said that tired and sore legs couldn’t do any better the next day; after all, it had taken two years of trying just to break 34 minutes for 10k, a feat achieved just two months prior.  But, with only a pizza and 6 hours sleep preparation, I lined up on the startline of the 10,000m less than 18 hours later, believing that I could take something from the track that cold morning.  An 18 second PB proved to me that if the training is in the bank and you believe in it, last min preparation isn’t that important at all. 

4) Cadence, not stride length:

Increasing your cadence (ideally to 180 steps/minute) is the way forward.  To run at a given pace, the energy needed to take more, smaller steps is less than fewer longer ones, and ideally, this will eventually lead to quick long strides.  But in practice it is really difficult to change a habit.  I’ve been trying for a year, and whenever I do it, it really works.  But I wouldn’t say that I’m anywhere near mastering this yet, although I had some success.

5) Know your strengths:

We all know I’m not a sprinter, but this year has clarified that: My body responds far better to high-volume endurance training than high-recovery speed endurance.  Based on this summer, I require around two months to train my legs to diversify their endurance, to bring my shorter race times in-line with my longer ones.  But middle distance training will not improve my overall ability.  Only endurance will do this, and knowing this will enable me to consolidate how I train this coming year.

For me, I've called it a year on the 2011-12 season, which has been my best yet.  Training will begin soon in earnest for what will hopefully be a full-body-mud-bath-free XC season, and some other targets that I need to work out! Watch this space...