March-tastic

5000m goal : 15:50

5k PB : 16:21

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 16:21

It seemed like a distant dream 6 months ago, but this month has seen me break two of my PBs, and not those silly PBs like 800m, or Coop and back.  Real manly distances.

My 10k PB dated back two years, and it evaporated on a fresh spring morning 13days ago in an ungentlemanly display of positive splatting to provide me with entry to the ’33 Club’.  I was hoping that would entail a gold plated cup, a lame running belt (you know for gels and stuff) and a date with Darya Klishina, but instead what you get is a congratulatory text of Simon ‘Millhouse’ Millhouse, and a firm handshake of Mister Banks.  They were both appreciated.

Today’s epic showing at the BRAT dominated Park Run, in a time which thankfully wasn’t rounded up despite having to stop suddenly as the finishing funnel featured a 90 degree corner (contrary to my momentum), meant I have had to dust of my abacus to calculate that I’m now a gamely 31 seconds off my goal. 

But it was analysing the data afterwards that raised some (my) eyebrows: despite being more rested for the 10k, I was far more efficient today, with lower average heart rates for every single km.  Coincidently, my times at 3 and 4kms were identical in both races, suggesting there’s some Kenyan in me, and the 624 beats in the final km today meant that this was a lower effort level than its counterpart despite its rapidness. 

	Trafford 10k (11th March)		Park Run 5k (24th March)
	Split	Average bpm	Split	Average bpm
1km	3:15 | (3:15)	184	3:13 | (3:13)	178
2km	3:11 | (6:26)	193	3:16 | (6:29)	189
3km	3:21 | (9:47)	196	3:18 | (9:47)	191
4km	3:22 | (13:09)	196	3:22 | (13:09)	194
5km	3:24 | (16:34)	196	3:11 | (16:21)	195

 Comparison of the opening 5k of Trafford 10k and a 5k race 13 days later.

The verdict of this? I don’t know, but I think it’s interesting, and I am open to suggestions!

The optimists amongst you will also note that I’m now hot on the trails of my apprentice Steven Bayton, who recorded a 10k of 33:55 in March 2010, and 5k of 16:20 in November that year.  Next stop then is projected to be 32:17, give or take a couple of seconds of course.

The Trafford Experience

10K PB : 34:06

10K SB (post-Sept 2011) : 34:20 (xc, garmin measured)

We knew this route was fast - six months previously I had completed Trafford 10K in a then PB of 37:15, wiping 29 seconds off my best for the distance, and a further one second on receiving my chip time.

The series stood at 1-0, to him.  But I was confident of pulling it level.  Neck and neck in training, Steve and I locked horns again, in a clash so prolific that it lead to factions developing in our training group.  Some disturbing fan ‘art’ (or fart for short) developed, scribing the clash that unfolded, while children sung out names.*

*actually they shouted abuse at us in Hillsborough park when we trained, but who’s caring?

The Camel (myself) versus The Lion (Steve) 

Two weeks prior we had foolishly travelled across the snake pass in falling snow, in a minibus who’s heater did not work, getting stuck and having to push on the way, to find the race cancelled (at a cost of £10 in fuel per head).  Furthermore, Ally couldn’t attend the rescheduled trip due to bingeing commitments, but I did convince that organisers that he deserved a goody-bag for his committed screen wiping performance with a solitary damp tissue on that fateful journey.

The marooned minibus, with passengers evicted to lighten the load.  

Ally gets a goody-bag for his heroics two weeks prior, despite not being 

able to make the revised race date due to bingeing commitments.

On this occasion, I passed halfway in 17:10, to record a negative split, and 35 PB improvement only for Steve to have finished 11 seconds before me.  That record of 34:06, has stood ever since, and while I believe that I’ve been in better shape since, I’ve never been able to improve on it.

12 months ago I was in great shape, hoping to smash that time, but sometimes everything goes right apart from the race itself.  A flirt with stitch led to me crossing the line slightly slower than my best, despite limping for 3k, while Steve clocked sub-32 for the first time in a effortless endeavour.

This weekend I be making the annual pilgrimage to Partington, feeling like I’ve successful reclaimed some form.  According to my garmin, I’ve already ran within 20 seconds of my best this season, ongrass in the freezing snow only five weeks ago, giving me every reason to dream of that which has eluded me for the last two years. 

Rumour has it that like the 4-minute mile, it isn’t possible for a human to run 6.21miles in under 34 minutes, but records are there to be broken.

For me, crossing the line with the clock on 33 would constitute a job well done, regardless of the final two integers…

Indoor roundup

5000m goal : 15:50

5000m PB : 16:29.9

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

One might have been forgiven for thinking I’d lost a bet, forced to sit through (and luckily sleep through some of the) 15 heats of the men’s 400m, after earlier watching over 150 individuals run for 7 seconds, 6 at a time, down a short straight and try to avoid crashing into the railings at the end.  Seeing me warm up in the kit of the magnificent BCU would have done little to dispel this, but the BUCS Indoor Champs at the £24m EIS, where like (but not with) Jess Ennis, I used to train, provided me with a 3000m for my first timed event of 2012.  This was also the first and last indoor event of my season, excluding emergency bathroom dashes and the upcoming house inaugural indoor varsity jenga multi-event champs.

As always, the gauntlet of warming up for big events was more of a trial than the event itself: sprinters don’t like sharing the warm up area with joggers, and communicate this in belittling gestures.  Additionally the call up for heat 3 was 30 minutes before its start, meaning the only thing stopping the muscles from cooling back down were the hearty luck wishes all the way from Lyon, France, the adrenaline from arguing with a power hungry official about why the leg number had to be pinned side and side, not top and bottom, (we didn’t get to the bottom of this,) and wondering if the other competitors had noticed I was the only one wearing trainers.  Dirty ones.

The slow start was presumably because the other competitors had heard the rumours of my wobbling head, and gave me too much time ponder the insufficient testicular fortitude offered by the only shorts which colour coordinated with my vest, and led to a first kilometre which Monsieur Bayton would call a recovery pace.  But as the race stretched out, I quickly laid on a biomechanical master class for the watching cameras, with the event presumably broadcast to over 180 countries worldwide, and the international space station. 

I brushed off recent worries of hernias, tired legs, and my dwindling supply of Weetos to record negative splits, aided somewhat by a ferocious final 200m, which Ibrahim Jeilan is now said to be studying in detail “just in case”.

More interestingly, my 9:29.97 with just over two months to go until the target 5000m, shows that I have in the bank a gentleman’s one hundredth of a second per kilometre.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

…who is the most inspirational of them all?

I’ve been struggling for the last week to write my career self appraisal: a four page document for the RIBA examiners basically informing them why I would make a good architect.  In pondering my inspiration, my mind wondered, and I decided to write my current top three list of my most inspirational athletes.

There were many contenders, including Ed ‘The Beard’ Banks whose phenomenal PBs make goals seem more attainable, Mark ‘Mince’ Ince, who occasionally knocks out impressive park runs despite mediocre blocks of training, and then of course Mister ‘Beast’ Canaway, who based his supernatural performances around mesocycles of bingeing.

But the short list has been narrowed down, commiserations to all those who missed out, but you probably need to up your game.  That includes you Mo.

#3: Sarah the Snack.  Sporting quadruple nationality, ah McCormack, not to be mistaken for Sarah Snack the javelin thrower, had the opportunity to run for GB, USA, Ireland or Antartica before selecting option 3.  Listed not just to avoid making the same mistake as SPOTY, Mac’s infamous bum-wobble is rumoured to have developed from carrying a gun holster around with her University of Michigan training group.  A long term rival in my university days, I always had to be at the top of my game to avoid a loss to this powerhouse and she is now once again making great strides forward, presumable motivated by catching me up.

#2: Simon Millhouse.  Citing his long term hero and sporting idol as Emile Heskey, Millett was my true genuine inspiration to actually apply myself to running.  A man who once threatened to kiss his now-girlfriend, Milton gave up our bi-weekly Roar sessions straw-pedoing orange reef in favour of married life and running up the majority of hills at xc championships.

#1: Nick Goolab.  And here you have it.  A man I’ve seen seemingly effortlessly run to BUCS XC and 5000m victories but never actually met, Goolab went through a phase of stalking me at the Birmingham Uni track (based on circumstantial evidence).  Unlike many of his peers, Goolab combined a heavy training schedule with a worthwhile degree in Mathematics, blogged about his training with a colloquial tone, including his love-hate relationship with his garmin, and chatting about easy run mile splits starting with a five as if they were no effort at all, elevating himself to the top of my list.  Sadly Goolab is rumoured to have walked away from the sport, making a martyr of himself and meaning Steve Bayton may never reach his inspirational heights…

The Slog

5000m goal : 15:50

5000m PB : 16:29.9

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

Runners don’t like snow.  Fact.  Its just a guessing game of which sessions will be ruined, while the freezing cold means my wash bag fills up twice a week, and limited drying facilities play havoc with making sure than my training kit is appropriately colour coordinated. 

I had hoped to get in another cross county, but my new found fear for frozen courses meant I opted for the poultry approach, and engaged in a beastly tempo in Sennellys Park instead, which as luck would have it, was covered in snow, providing a whooping workout for the legs.

Since I’m no longer scribbling it on the fridge door, I thought I’d treat you to a portion of my training, as this is a fairly typical week.  The focus is still on endurance, threshold, vo2 max and being social.  Big miles and big sessions means a lot of hours in the cold winter air though, though my boxes of Sainsburys brownies and shortbread really help with the motivation.

Mon 6^th Feb:         AM: 40min swim

                                PM: 45min easy pace [needed the loo]

Tues 7^th Feb:         AM: 30min easy pace [icey]

                                PM: Drills + 8x1000m (2min), avg 3:11. [Some dire pacing by Canaway on the 4^th]

Wed 8^th Feb:         AM: 30min easy pace

                                PM: 45min easy pace + 2x6x30 simple circuits [ate cream crackers between sets]

Thu 9^th Feb:           AM: 30min easy pace

                                PM: Drills + ½ mi tempo, 12x400, ½ mi tempo. [icey so slow]

Fri 10^th Feb:          REST

Sat 11^th Feb:         AM: 6mi xc tempo [snowy]

                                PM: 4 sets of 12 circuits and jumps at track (jog between) + 4 games of fifa.

Sun 12^th Feb:        AM: 1h45mins long run [only did 1h43 as I’m a rogue]

Total: 78.2 miles / 11 hours / 2000 words of essays / 2 pub trips.

Frustratingly, there’s runners out there who are more naturally talented, who’ll run faster than me off much less training, and our place in the natural order of things was well documented by training buddy Ed a while back.  For me, like many others, it’s all about remaining biomechanically optimistic and trying to slog it out through the winter cold to hit those personal goals.

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!