Halfway Horse

5000m goal : 15:50

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 16:55 (xc split)

Far be it from good sense to, in typical BBC sport style, write a report on the outcome of a sporting event at the effective half time point, this is exactly what I’m going to do.  It’s three months since I set myself a six month 5k goal, so as the maths checks out, let’s proceed.

I am sitting wrapped up in bed keeping warm.  Yesterday was an immense day, based around the BUCS XC champs, featured a long trip to Cardiff and back with former teammate and superseded chief rival Sarah ‘The Snack’ McCormack.  Also included was a reunion with long-term nemesis Steven Bayton, (recently defected to France,) which has left me unable to walk properly (tight calves,) a curry and rooftop snowball fight with two fellow hat owners and a 40-point fantasy football point haul by Mister Robin Van Persie.

These champs were run in freezing temperatures, with snow falling all around, not too much of a problem, save for the ‘man off’ to see who would wear more than just the basic vest and shorts.  I confess to wearing gloves, and a wrist-based sweat band to increase my street cred/coolness.  The course was hard, literally.  It was frozen, rather than featuring the draconian hills that I like to see in a good XC.  No mud means no spikes to clean, and also means that I dropped my 5k SB once again to a time now beginning with 16.

In another moment of personal satisfaction, my 35 place improvement on my best ever BUCS put me between the 3^rd and 4^th Sheffield Uni runners, banishing the demons that haunted me following the event two years ago.

John Rocke, a man against boys, doesn't need gloves or eyes!

In reflection, the last three months have gone well.  I’m ahead of where I realistically expected to be, I’ve managed to complete almost every planned run, (except for the ones I forgot about), and I’ve managed to keep Chief Movement Coach Nick ‘Nando’s’ Howard somewhat motivated enough to use as a training partner as well.  Even Coach ‘Hannah’ Mitchell told me that she didn’t spot me in the race because I no longer wobble my head about.  The absence of post-race cream eggs this year was also keenly noted.

The six month plan itself, rumoured only to exist on parchment, 

written by quill. (Green = completed, orange = partially completed).

Next on the hit list, in five weeks time, is Trafford 10k, the mightiest of road races.  My 10k PB was set on this course 2 years ago, and I haven’t been able to break it since, despite obvious improvements.  However with yesterday’s XC time for the 10k (garmin measured course) coming home inside of (well, exactly) 34:20, it’s already an improvement on last year’s best time, set at this very road race.  Complacency is not an option, simple maths will tell you that a big chunk of time needs to fall for me to stand a realistic chance of hitting this summer’s target.

For now, 2012 is defined by: Bayton 1 – 0 Carter.

BUCS: The revenge of the cross country

5000m goal : 15:50

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 17:03 (xc split)

Two years ago I was at the pinnacle of my athletics career (of the time).  Training alongside the mighty Steven Bayton under the impressive coaching of Coach ‘Hannah’ Mitchell, had seen me shatter my PBs in to fragments I could only dream of as I tried to (unsuccessfully) knock out 400 reps in under 80 seconds a piece the previous summer.

It was all set up for the main event, the BUCS Cross County Champs up in Stirling that year.  Buoyed by the event not being snowed off, I confidently engaged in a one pint wager with my arch nemesis, on the criteria of who finished first.  Little did I know that this was to be the stage which would be the first of a dozen consecutive defeats to the rapidly improving man from Halifax.  My race lacked urgency, I started off in an energy preservation mode and found myself near the back, and it was only half way through that the frustrated shouts of my coaching support team hit me.  No amount of ‘cutting up the inside’ could muster me a finish higher than 147^th.

Now, two years on, I am eligible to run in BUCS again as I represent the 2^nd finest educational institute in central Birmingham.  These XC Championships, this coming weekend, are an early morning train ride to Cardiff away, and are the venue for my post-injury return to student competition.  Recent training sessions suggest that I’m nearing my peak of fitness again, in particular after lowering my ‘asleep to bathroom’ PB to 25.4 seconds in the 8m event mid-last night.

A top 100 finish is surely the target, and I am wiser from lessons learnt in cross countries over the last 24 months.  These include, start fast, tread tentatively through muddy ditches, and don’t ponder whether you need to buy milk on the way home at crucial moments in the race. 

  

Top uni for architecture I’ll have you know…

Top Drawer Encouragement

5000m goal : 15:50

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 17:03 (xc split)

Halfway into the third mesocycle (or is it microcycle – I still don’t know) and I can thank my Steven Bayton augmented training programme for the misery of last night.  On an icy track with the company of a training partner, I bashed out a miserable session that could double as an initiation to hell.

Still the delights of today’s rest day mean that a trip to the shops brings home lots of goodies to tuck into, allowing me to gorge on biscuits, cake and other delightful snacks which I am religiously abstain from for rest of the week.  (I’m holding the Weeto and biscuit stash for a friend).

See all of these belong to Ally [pictured].

I’d like to make a special mention of Chief Movement Coach and Head Motivator Nick ‘Nandos’ Howard.  I don’t know where I would be without this maestro of entertainment.  Several weeks ago he told me I needed to do more drills to enable greater muscle activation.  In a different sentence he told me about some drills he thought would help augment my mobility.  “Don’t do those ones they’re shit,” he told me when I excitedly told him that I had completed them twice this week.  This was in the same phone call that he told me that my 10k PB-pace (garmin-measured) cross country was probably calculated wrong, and I later got a text asking “are you sure you timed it right?” to news of my impressive average from my 6x1000m (2mins) session.  His top drawer encouragement is what keeps me going. 

Still, it has to be speculated that a 5k season’s best split from Saturday’s 8.2km cross country course is indeed a step in the right direction.  Its not a house lead of course, due to a technicality that seems to mean that my times don’t supersede Ally’s.  But exciting news from the IAAF this morning means that my triple jump lead of 1.16m will ‘probably’ be post-ratified for the powerof10 based on available video evidence.

Breakfast bowl musings

5000m goal : 15:50

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 17:36

There are few things I dislike more than someone using my breakfast bowl, but cross county isn’t one of them.  I love cross county.  Not in the minutes before the start, or during.  In those moments cross county and I merely tolerate each other with a mutual distain.  But I get a primal satisfaction from swaggering past people (not actually swaggering) up hills, and chalking off the blades of grass one after another.

This weekend saw me not only make my county championship debut, but also record my highest ever county championships finish.  A majestic six miles on a mild Solihull course saw me finish the 21^st loser in a performance that I can take enough encouragement from to suggest that I am nearing full fitness.  And while they will rightly claim that they have had better days, I take much satisfaction from finishing sandwiched (not literally) between two of BRAT Club’s finest disciples.

Despite me still not having my name to any distance running house leads yet, mainly because I am not yet brave enough to show myself on an accurately measured course, I still retain my 1m16 house triple jump lead, which has somehow survived the onslaught from housemates reenergised after their latest pregnancy scare.  It turned out that Ally was simply wearing a few more layers than he remembered Alison dressing him in.

Lazy Architecture

In the last day or so the ‘3D Athletics Track’ in Alicante, Spain track seems to have reared its head again on the social media-sphere.  The image of a track with a bump in it, which caused me mild annoyance earlier this year is being touted as inspirational genius.  To you I call it lazy architecture.

Designed as a novelty by Subarquitectura Architects, I believe that this overpriced $2m venture completely misses the point not only of athletics, but also of design, proven by their own words in stating their inspiration: “Designing an athletic track could get you as bored as when you are running on it: curve, straight, curve, straight, again and again.”  Additionally these comments serve to diminish running by suggesting that it’s dull and needs token gestures to increase interest.  Anyone involved with the sport will tell you that this is not necessary. 

[Aerial view of the ‘3D Athletics Track’, Spain.]

An athletics track has but a few principles to adhered to: it should be a circular, measured distance, flat, and feature an impact-absorbing surface.  Subarquitectura, however, refer to your standard athletics arena as being “…without any fissure to let your imagination soar.”  But really it is they that are guilty of this, with a piece of very lazy design.  At first glance it’s momentarily exciting, but it could be so much more.

The separation of the lanes into five orthodox, and five providing a 25 metre hill, is in concept fine, but is a starting point if you want to create a space which is both aesthetically novel and functional, something which has not been achieved here.  I can’t perform my 400m repeats using this bump, or knock out  some mile reps, and the undulation isn’t long enough or frequent enough to make it a useful hill session or provide a challenging threshold run. 

The architects have missed an opportunity to expand their concept and should have designed say four or five of these mounds of varying gradients or lengths.  Next perhaps they could maybe have explored a different surface more suitable to the application they are trying to achieve; grass for example, with a reinforced foundation to prevent wearing of the surface through constant use and allow better cushioning for athlete’s joints.  Finally, this would provide an opportunity to link with the ample grounds of this sports facility to expand into more potential routes for runners.

[Conceptual sketch showing how the design could easily and usefully be expanded.]

This space would provide a mixture of a useful orthodox track, encased by an undulating and varying terrain: a true multi-purpose track to run round, which links with the surrounding landscape and draws nature into the arena, creating both a useful and novel space to train in. 

Oh and finally, a message to those architects who still seem to refuse to consider designing using trees: the wind is a cruel mistress which we weary runners like to hide from if it’s not too much trouble! 

Architecture: a running commentary

For a long time I regarded a pair of running shoes to be only thing that an athlete requires.  And of course socks, shorts and a polyester top of some description.  Then my mother informed me that it might actually be polite, and that I should, wash these garments.  So throw in a washing machine.  But essentially, the landscape is there, roads, hills, grass, trails.  Granted this is dependant on where one lives.  I’m fortunate enough to come from the countryside, where a grassy forest is 5 minutes round the corner.

But it was a tutor at university who encouraged me to expand my thinking.  Yes we don’t fundamentally need anything else, but what might we like, and how can the experience of exercise be heightened?  After all that’s what architecture is all about.  A flat and measured surface perhaps?  A room full of heavy iron weights to improve our static strength?  These facilities exist, they are called a track and a gym, and contrary to popular belief, they vary considerably.

There are some shocking examples out there.  My local track for example feature no protection from the wind, so the benefit of having a measured distance is instantly gone, and no protection from the chavs: they’ll play football on the adjacent grass and not unreasonably expect you to get their ball back when it goes over the fence.  There is the modest upside that in a post-maximal workout haze, you can stretch the imagination to pretend that the adjacent drab building is a beautiful modernist Le Corbusier library. 

Today, however, I had a brainwave and drove the extra 4 miles to the Loughborough HiPAC, the High Performance Athletics Centre at Loughborough University campus, and it was well worth it.  This place is designed, and I mean thought out.  A modest £4 got me not only the use of an indoor and outdoor track, a weights room, a extensive array of useful equipment and changing facilities, but the additional feeling of physical inadequacy; that my Type 1 muscles were vastly inferior to the giant GB sprinters who were also training there.  But it also afforded me the opportunity to experience a place that I’d have to call architecture. 

The 2012 Olympic Stadium which I look forward to running in (fingers crossed) in May features a continuous wind envelope boasting the minimalistic sustainability associated with running, with a high performance track installed to produce fast times and in my opinion is the perfect way to compete, or rather not compete with the Beijing Birds Nest.  The HiPAC on the other hand runs the length of the stout Loughborough Uni track straight without any unnecessary enclosure of space, and blends with existing tall surrounding trees forming a public/private perimeter, and complete shelter from the wind.  The site is well chosen, tacking advantage of the level change to produce a track which is recessed to compliment this shelter, but also allows for a 3-storey structure which is submissive to the surrounding architecture, even framing the 1937 Hazlerigg Building, which forms a focal point of the campus to the South.  Upon entering the HiPAC, one find themselves on a small mezzanine level, greeted with a wide open view of the primary indoor spaces, enclosed by a large glazed façade offering a view of the track, and achieving a sense of community, which – possibly by chance – also provides a reflective surface for one to self-analyse their gait and form while training.

 [Loughborough HiPAC, adjacent to the Athletics Pavilion]

[Inside the HiPAC from above]

While I feel that the use of some masonry to add character by better-relating to the adjacent heritage-rich athletics pavilion and other campus edifices, while providing a some thermal mass to absorb what I hear is massive summer solar heat gain, this is the first facility that I have experiences that actually speaks to the holistic needs of athletes, both through function and design. 

The country-wide absence of suitable facilities is well documented, and with David Cameron recently announcing that an additional £41m would be allocated to the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, thus shattering the concept of not trying to compete with Beijing, and indeed undermining possible investment in grass route sports.  Obviously the functionality of the HiPAC is designed for the elite, and would not realise its potential should it be used predominantly by the average person, nor do we need to many more of these facilities. 

At uni, I explored an alternative idea, and designed a retreat to educate and empower the everyday individual - in this era of growing obesity - in how to lead a healthy lifestyle, a societal need which is being continually neglected.  A fat camp if you will.  This, I feel, is far more beneficial than token gestures, such as the funky, but predominantly aesthetic sprint straight at the Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid.  Saying that, through its sheer novelty this may ironically interest a few school children in athletics, which cannot be a bad thing.

 

[Urban Retreat : university project]

[Evelyn Grace Academy : Zaha Hadid]

The Cream Cracker Challenge

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 17:36

Cream Cracker PB: 49.2s

Over the last few days my focus has shifted away from the monotony of high quality miles.  While former friend and colleague Steven Bayton will be running away from all of the lesser humans in his native Halifax, my endurance sessions will involve spending the Christmas period with my family, while attempting to maintain a good posture throughout. 

This hardcore mental and physical preparation is just the beginning of what should be an exciting month however, centering around my recent breakthrough at the Cream Cracker Challenge.  A season’s best, and PB of 49.2 seconds (manual timing) for the three-cracker event has meant that Matthew Quine’s PB at 400m (47 point something fast) is now within my reach, and he has accepted my challenge of a Quine versus Carter, 400m versus Cream Cracker Challenge at the upcoming Northern Athletics Meeting in Sheffield.

“I have been eating lots to improve my jaw strength,” mused Carter, in a silent interview with myself, who is also my coach.  “Multiple soft snacks improve my bite turnover, while generously portioned main meals improve my static jaw strength and overall endurance.”

Housemate Alastair Canaway became very excited about this new challenge, with recent binges of running and swimming rumoured to have ended.  “Eating lots is a training pattern that I can really identify with.  Lets just hope that Carter’s small bladder doesn’t become his Achilles heal in this challenge.”

GB Steeplechaser and Olympic hopeful Eilish McColgan was said to be so impressed in fact that she ‘friended’ me on facebook, with her blog stating that she has “…literally never been so excited!”, possibly in regards to something else.

My feet remain grounded, however, with my father remarking at lunch that “he’ll never succeed in this challenge,” while scoffing the last of the only pack of Jacobs, rending any time trials over the coming days improbable.  Instead I’ll be looking at returning to dry cereal to promote saliva production, while ballooning out over the holiday period to try and better fit in with the rest of my friends and family.

Diminishing Marginal Returns

5000m goal : 15:50

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 17:36

At first I had been very reluctant to put a target into writing.  The obvious downsides: the pressure of trying to achieve it or perhaps the public humiliation should I fall miles short.  But my cockiness in doing this has had some positives too: aside from the secret hope that I’ll somehow surpass it by at least a minute, motivation.  There’s a number in my head.  15:50.  Its right there,  15:50, whenever I am feeling slightly lazy.  This morning it got me out of bed at 06:54 (yes my alarm is set that accurately) to get to the pool.  This evening that goal flashed in my head while I considered if I could be arsed to do the prescribed 3 sets of conditioning circuits when I returned soaking wet from an hour post-work run.  But that goal does mean that my rather feeble hips and shoulders are slightly more tired than they otherwise would have been tonight, and I can enjoy the standard 2¼ bowls of evening Weetos guilt-free.

Living with Mister Alastair Canaway for the last 11 months has left me privy to many economic terms.  “Opportunity Cost”, “Propensity to Consume” and “God my bum insertion point is aching again” are all economic phrases to which I am regularly privy.  But the one that sticks most in my mind is “Diminishing Marginal Returns”.  The concept that a higher proportion of my fitness gains will come in the first half of my training, with the applied effort being worth less the closer I get to my goal.  As such I am nailing the endurance work and racked up 73 hard and lazy miles, and one emergency sprint to the bathroom from a lying down position, last week, with a solid Saturday afternoon spent tactically planning training patterns with Chief Movement Coach Nick ‘Nandos’ Howard fitted between games of Fifa 12.

Despite being snubbed by UKA for the recent High Alitude Endurance Camp in Iten, Kenya, I more than made up for this with 15 consecutive mind-numbing laps of Metchley Park, leaving me ideally prepared for a SB lowering attempt at Saturday’s Cannon Hill Park Run.  I still remain fearful of my house Triple Jump Lead, which with housemates practicing bouncing routines around the clock, the 1.16m looks less secure each day.

Its all just numbers, right?

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 17:36 (Park Run)

Today marked a personal milestone for myself, which was then completely overshadowed by the magnificent Steven Bayton, who ran 31:28 for 5k.  Or maybe 10k, I don’t recall.  Let’s do him first.  A runner who 18 months ago, every other session I huffed and puffed over the line ahead of his elegant stride, regardless of whether he’d moderately slowed to clear rogue footballs a mile in the air to teach those public users in Weston Park that this wasn’t an area of green to enjoy oneself in.

Steve’s rise to fame and moderate success has been well documented on this blog, but just how good is he?  Well to put it into perspective, today, by coincidence he’ll have me believe, he ran 2 back-to-back 5Ks both one second faster than my goal for the year.  Is that a coincidence?  Yes, indeed I also thought there might have been a malicious undertone to it as well.  Revenge perhaps because he could never beat me up the final hill in Hillsborough park on those cold winter evenings.

Let’s put this another way.  Steve is now over 2 and a half minutes faster over 10k than my best ever time, ignoring my current obese state.  Phenomenal.  Steve is a great athlete, and he trains hard, but for him to run those times just makes it all seem so easy.  So perhaps it is easy.  I’m certainly inspired.  I need to up my game.  Drastically.  Surely it can’t be that hard to run 33 or even 32, if a guy I was once even with has bettered that.

Which brings me to me, and my achievements (sorry to keep you waiting).  Today marked the culmination of the 2^nd hard week in my first microcycle of training.  As you probably inferred, because why wouldn’t you, I have 6 of those tiny cycles in the next 5 and a half months.  So why all the hype?  Why even bother blogging?  I ask myself the same thing.  Because today meant that I hit 65.7, and that 0.7 is very important because it rounds it up, miles for the week.  That’s my first post-injury week over the 60 mile milestone, and my highest mileage week in 6 months.  Which isn’t bad.  I don’t think I can call myself injured anymore, I now just have to settle for the terms ‘unfit’ or ‘useless at racing’ instead.  For those wondering how I did it, it’s all very clever I assure you.  Every footstep is planned, every breath calculated.  And hopefully by new year I should have some semblance of fitness again ready to hit some PBs myself.  Because the bar has just been raised further.

With a week in the Derbyshire countryside coming up, and a 24 hour hotline to my chief personal motivator Nick ‘Nandos’ Howard, and chief de-motivator Ally ‘The Beast’ Canahow, mother’s home cooking, and a cake I just baked which may or may not be edible, I now have all the tools to stop talking about what I’m going to do, and just do it.

Finally, it has been brought to my attention that there are other pb’s today, and as such I’m led to believe that there will be a new house lead on the cupboard when I return home next week.  I think it might have been a tennis ball which rolled off the counter to hop, skip and bop its way to a triple jump record.

Goals as achievable targets

5000m PB : 16:29.9

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 18:30 (training split)

Just under 6 months to go until BUCS 5000m.  Plenty of time?  Seeing me sit here in my birthday Onesie you might be forgiven for thinking so.  In all my time as a pseudo-athlete you’d think I’d have learnt to manage my expectations.  Goals are just numbers, but it’s too easy to pick one and think it so many times it no longer sounds good.  You then keep increasing the goal, and then end up with disappointment.  All of a sudden a 28 minute 10k doesn’t seem fast enough, and your latest 34 minute effort just makes you miserable enough to eat a whole pack of hob nobs.  Now you’re not race weight, and the cycle of doom continues.  So how do I pick what I want to achieve?

In 6 months time, I can announce, my target is to be in a position to run 15:50 for 5000m.  It might not happen on the day for a dozen different reasons, but I want to be in a position to achieve it.  3:10 a km, 76 second a lap, for 12 and a half gruelling laps.  Hell I’ve even run 3 of those back to back.  3 kilometres that is.  So surely this is achievable?  Picking a goal so slow that if achieved will still be 3 minutes slower than the world record, so slow in fact that Keninisa Bekele would have lapped me 3 times (I think) might sound unambitious.  But for me this would represent a 40 second, or 4.5% improvement over my current best time.  But as proved by others, namely Steven Bayton (2010), magical things can happen that cause targets to be re-evaluated, or illness, injury, demotivation, or just plain bad luck can de rail even the prettiest and most efficient excel spreadsheet.

So where am I at the moment?  And how do I get to where I want to be?  Having just recovered from a summer out with injury, leaving me with the ability to only run for 10 lung-wrenching minutes, I’ve now completed 8 weeks of transitionary training.  This is my honest assessment of where I am now, compared to where I need to be:

VO2 max :                   worse than a sedentary horse.

Endurance :                 modest.

Lactate threshold :      physically to shy to try.

Muscular strength :    laughable.

Technique :                 lets just say there lots of room for improvement.

Weight :                      not race weight.

Potential :                    … meh.

Cold winter mornings, long dark runs, grass hill after grass hill, hour after hour thinking about technique, weights, cross country races that hopefully don’t involve me falling on my face in the mud (again), continuous hunger, mind numbing drills to improve my form, ice baths, and Ally constantly ordering to improve my posture at the dinner table.  Those who know me know that I must have a constantly evolving yet structured training programme, planned out for month after month.  Am I going to make it?  Watch this space…