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...

1668 Steps to Glory

My high school P.E. teacher Mr. Weedon may not have liked me (and we thought he was a prat too), and my physio in 2009 may have described me as having the running style of a stroke victim, but last night saw both my 3k and 1500m PBs both creak and tumble in a breath-taking BRAT Club dominance at, well, the BRAT Club Open.

This summer has seen my fast twitch muscles characteristically slow, but without my usual dominance of the under 17 age group races which I’ve come to enjoy, and a 3000m three weeks ago arguably achieved nothing except elevating me away from the very bottom of the national rankings.

The Carthorse camp are accrediting these masterful PB revisions to either the Saucony racing flats, which cost me a mere 6.3grams/kg of body weight, (£0.64/kg if you will,) or perhaps the concoction of beetroot which I subjected my stomach to three hours before the race.

But the real reason may perhaps be my new found running elegance.  Now don’t get me wrong, everyone knows that I have always been an elegant, neat, graceful and composed runner, but after an eye-opening hungover, dehydrated and sleep deprived track session last Saturday, I’ve come to realise that high leg cadence is even more respected by my cardiovascular system than I imagined.  In fact, upping my cadence to 180 per minute drew cheers from a season’s best of three different spectators, with one female fan commenting that while it was “enjoyable to be able see more footstrikes, my increased speed deprived her of additional time looking at my biceps.”

Despite being unable to get in touch with Chief Personal Motivator and Head Movement Coach Nick ‘Nandos’ Howard for praise, I can already see this new found technique revolutionising a running career which Seb Coe himself has long advocated as “going nowhere”.

Meanwhile, graduation at the end of 9 years of studying architecture has meant that there will be no more BUCS competitions.  Although organisers are said to be pleased that the average competitor age will now reduce, and I must now make my peace that any dream of winning a BUCS medal, or making an athletic impact at any event, is gone too.

NB: 180 (steps per minute) x 9:16 = 1668.

Foremark Adventure

Back in the comfort of the Derbyshire countryside with an open agenda for the day and 1500m tomorrow that I wanted to keep my legs fresh for, I decided that it would be fun to don my Structure Triax and head out into the National Forest not worrying about time or pace.  And what better time to investigate the old adage: is it possible to circumnavigate the entire shore of Foremark Reservoir???  The answer to this is not known by anyone that I know (sample of 2).

 A 4 mile route for cheaters, but shows the useful landmarks.

Foremark Reservoir is a 0.93km² manmade body of water approximately 1.5 miles from my house.  Internet folktales/rumours suggest that it is 4 miles to navigate the public paths, but my goal was to hug the water’s edge.  There’s lots of fisherman who use it, there’s lots of trails and a bit of beach which I know from previous runs, and then there’s a 1km stretch of road in the north-west corner which is privately owned by the water company and not public accessible.  Which I read to mean ‘to anyone who isn’t running very quickly across it with the aim of not being seen.’

Enjoying the lovely sunny morning, I took a slightly longer route to get there, enjoying some different grass route/trails, passing other horses, and finally joining Foremark at the North, marked ‘64’ on the map.  Like a true pioneer I was excited to immediately find a route that I had not previously known, which avoided the forbidden area, with grass so squishy I had to wonder if anyone had ever been here before.  Given though that it was mown recently, my sense of pioneering was curtailed somewhat.

Quickly, I reached the west of the water body, the sailing club, past which no one (meaning I) had ever tried to run.  Committed, I darted between the parked boats, and looking eagerly around, I spotted a grass path between some trees.  I followed this undulating terrain, with my lust for adrenaline not letting me drop the pace to a sensible level.  But while the paths weren’t anywhere near being described as ‘well worn’, I excitingly soon made it out onto the edge of the centre most tip.

This was not the time to admire views, so I continued anti-clockwise around the periphery of Foremark.  Were these were actual paths, or just wishful thinking was a dilemma that I didn’t have to ponder for long: I was soon running on angled banks, and I had to wonder why, when the ground disappeared beneath me and I went sliding down the bank toward the water on my side, my first instinct was to try and stop my watch.  Luckily I was experienced from dramatic cross country falls, and managed to bounce back to my feet without breaking stride.

But a minute or so later, this was the end of the running.    I was on the west side of the southernmost part, ducking under trees, fighting my way under branches, between dense foliage.  But I could still see the shore, and I could see a fishing boat.  It didn’t pass me by that I was now crouching in a great hiding spot, were I a spy, and the individuals on the boat my targets.  

I could see the opposite shore and considered taking off my shoes and wading across.  But now I was so far into the woods that I couldn’t get near to the bank which was also a long way below.  I knew that was probably going to have to admit defeat and turn back.  

At 40 minutes in, I’d only covered 5.5 miles despite the early pace. Foremark Reservoir was un-circum-navigatable.  But part of me didn’t want to turn around, part of me couldn’t be bothered, and the other part knew that without a sense of direction, and now no sign of the water, I was well and truly lost.

Attempting to retrace my steps, I came across a crushed metal wire fence; one that I hadn’t crossed previously - a good sign surely?  But my mental state seemed to have deteriorated, and I was seemingly believing that I was deep in the Amazon or something.

I was going in loops.  By now I was stung to buggery by nettles.  I was using a stick that I must have obtained at some point, presumably to make myself feel like an experienced woodsman.  And indeed I found myself shouting out to see if anyone else was nearby.  No one responded.  I could no longer retrace my steps If I wanted to.  It dawned on me that I may die here.  I’d lost all sense of reality.

Crossing another fence, or possibly the same one, I caught sight of a boundary.  It was tall dense foliage, surrounded by nettles, and completely impassable.  But it gave me hope, and following the line I soon found myself crossing into a field.  I now discovered that I was smack in the middle of Bondwood Farm.  

 The route of my extradinary adventure.

Bondwood Farm is massive.  I could only pick a direction to go, and I ended up following the tractor tracks around the farm in the hip-height crop.  Eventually I found a public footpath and jumped the style to escape into Carvers Rocks, a big complicated trail which luckily I was very familiar with, but unfortunately was drowned in Thursday’s monsoon.  After sliding down another slop, I traced my way back to the main bridle path, which I vowed to stick to for the rest of the run, and with the elation at having survived the adventure, launched myself through the vertical style, missing the upright with my hand and literally spilling out of the reservoir grounds in the most dramatic way possible.

I have now declared a direct circumnavigation of Foremark Reservoir to be impossible, but it made for quite an unorthodox and refreshing morning – well afternoon by the time I got home – run.

Flogging a Dead Horse

Sometimes everything just falls into place.  This weekend was not such an occasion.

In a stark contrast from the Olympian performance of seven days earlier, spectators at the windy, run-down Saffron Lane track this weekend were treated to a master class in turning a promising performance in to a 3:40 final kilometre plod to the line, in a state of torturous purgatory which would just not end. 

This abysmal display of back-running ended a promising sequence of four PBs, but economised my afternoon by alleviating the need for a warm-down.

Indeed pundit analysis following this spectacle suggested that “Carter may have to relinquish his dream of remodelling himself as a 5k runner, and accept that he is just no good at any distance.” 

Buoyed by this criticism, paparazzi at Metchley Park last night captured me successfully hurdle a 35cm railing, fuelling speculation that I may be making my steeplechase debut on my next outing.

Alternatively, breakfast time browsing through Alastair’s Runners World magazine unveiled a training programme for the time-pressed individual, which assuredly guarantees a “fast track to a 5k PB on under 90 minutes a week training.”  This is exciting, and I look forward to running sub-16 following the completion of this programme.

Runner's world guarantee of a 5k PB.

Every Horse Has His Day

Sometimes everything just falls into place. 

Six months of training culminated with Heat 2 of the Men’s 5,000m, the main event, in the centre piece of the 2012 year – Populous’s £486m Olympic Stadium.  Despite being equipped with Saucony’s Fastwitch 5, costing a mere 220 grams per foot, pre-event training had been poor, but with a boost of being drawn in the same event as former rival Steven Bayton, meaning that friends and family, and the 6,000 spectators only had to pay keen attention to one 12 ½ lapper.

The 5k was an aerobically challenging experience, with the primary aim being not to be lapped by the afore-mentioned man from Halifax.  Elated by achieving this aim by circa 15 metres, I scampered to finish the final two furlongs in a hasty 67 seconds, for a concious lifetime record of 16:14.

The Final Furlong (Video by Sarah Mac, pun by Alison Camp)

The following day was a delicious slab of icing on a delicious cake.  I only ever entered the 10,000m as a back up due to BUCS controversial entry procedure, but after a pizza and video evidence review, the decision was made: “why not?”  A late night ice bath and a few hours sleep preceded the 6:20am start, to race for the second time in 18 hours.

For the first 200m, I took up my customary place at the back of the field preparing myself for a long morning, but I moved swiftly through the ambition-starters, digging deep into the faulting limbs, for what in reflection, was the most effortlessly proficient display of running, tactics and elegance the stadium had seen [that morning].

My stadium record – for the second fastest 10,000m ever ran in that venue – was personified with a Ovett-style raised arm celebration reflecting the elation at smashing my PB by 18 seconds, in an event that I hadn’t ever planned to do 24 hours earlier.  How I dragged that performance out of tired legs, I will never know. 

Even superhero Bayton was impressed, failing to follow up his magnificent 5k PB the previous day with an identikit performance.

But not to be outdone, Sarah McCormack, livid at only making it onto the number three spot on my all time favourite athletes list, performed a championship highlight, rocketing home in 34:31, a genuine stadium record, and the opportunity to urinate into a small cup in front of total strangers.  She described it as “the perfect day”, and was rewarded by just under one square inch on page 15 of last weeks Athletics Weekly.

A BUCS Gold medal.  Maybe in another lifetime for me.

BUCS Outdoors Preview

Six months ago - and these winter months have not flown - I set myself a wee target: 15:50 for 5000m at BUCS Outdoors, a race that is now but six days away. 

I didn’t know at the time if it was achievable: I was working off no fitness whatsoever, and didn’t even know if I would get a place at the event, or if BCU had an athletics team.  For the record, they don’t, but the controversial selection process has let me with entry in both distance events.

For someone once described by their physio as having the running technique of a stroke victim, I have changed almost everything in the last six months.  I’ve addressed unsymmetrical biomechanics, an aversion to morning training, and even started incorporating extra fruit and veg in my diet.  I’ve even instigated a move away from the mighty Structure Triax shoe - the brick of shoes as my training companions call it - and purchased a rather colourful ‘Fastwitch’ shoe, the irony of which will become apparent on the start line.

Recent events, namely the selfishness of the Usain Bolt and his mates on the Jamaican National Team coming to Birmingham this summer means the local facilities are being resurfaced, depriving me of the reassurance of pacing in my sessions.  As such, I have literally no idea what shape I’m in, no idea how fast I can run this weekend.  The result will be as much of a surprise to me as everyone else, but it will truly be an Olympic occasion.

"Season's Over"

On the day that 30,000 people took to the street of London, the amateur athletics world has been rocked by the news that Simon Millett’s “season’s over”.

The former participant at Watford Open, who last year came gut wrenchingly close to breaking 4 minutes for 1500m, is believed to have sustained a suspected torn meniscus in a late night incident involving alcohol on a recent training trip to Villamoura, Portgual.

UKA have condemned the reports, and claimed that the injury was caused during a stretching session, however sources close to the athlete have claimed the Simon had a strong urge to jump into water after hearing Gemma Steel sing karaoke.

Best friend Alex Tovey is said to be distraught, found in a side street with a bottle of wine in a paper bag earlier this afternoon.  “I don’t understand the problem, he has another knee…why should I have to run on my own all summer?”

In a further blow to Simon, Lego have announced that they will not be pursuing their planned Lego Basic ‘Millett and Friends’ series, announcing at their unscheduled press conference: “he doesn’t seem to be taking himself seriously, so why should we?”

In a positive twist, however, the powerof10 have claimed that if video evidence of the pool incident can be obtained, it will be ratified for a long jump PB, which should place him in the top 200 of the UK under-17 girls rankings.

“I knew the moment that it happened that the season was over,” said Millett.  “It’s so annoying – I was just starting to feel sexy in the bedroom again, and now this.  I’m an upbeat person though, and I’ll be using this time to work on my new range of cereal and rice products.”

 

        

 Millett’s new range of cereal and rice, modelled in his 

image, available from all good retailers.