Still Here
I haven’t posted anything in 3 weeks! I’m still here though. Busy times have been in play; a new job and even a run in NYC (albeit in a hotel gym, it still counts). Training is going ok, could be better though. Lochaber Marathon is still about 10 or 11 weeks so plenty time to get my training in geaar. Might get a chance to write something at the weekend. Here’s hoping!
2011 Goals & Q1 Training Plan
It’s a new year and that means some new goals. I don’t think it would have been too difficult to set new targets for 2011 but there will be a nice distraction around July that I have no idea how much it will impact on training. All things going well, my wife and I are expecting the arrival of our first child! I well excited and to be honest I reckon running will be the last thing on my mind for a while after it’s born but I guess I’ll have to factor in running at some points just to tide things over.
2011 Goals
As per last year, I’m sticking with some basic distance, average pace and race time targets. And, again, I’ve split those into quarterly targets. The table below shows each Quarter’s targets in the ‘target’ row, with the total at the bottom.
I’ve put myself down for 1000 miles next year. With the new arrival due in July i may not achieve this. Rather than a straight 250 miles per Quarter I’ve weighted slightly higher mileage in the first half of the year. I think H1 targets are achievable due to the Marathon training schedule i’m following. I’ve optimistically targeted 200 miles in Q3. Again, i’m not sure how this will be impacted but i wouldn’t be surprised if it was as low as 50 miles in Q3!
Last year my average pace was 8:42 overall. I’ve only knocked 10 seconds off this for 2011. Again, not sure how H2 will impact my fitness levels.
In terms of race time targets, i’m feeling pretty positive! I’m signed up for a Marathon and Half Marathon in H1 2011 and fully expect to achieve personal best times! Looking at my PB times, one distance I have a distinct lack of experience in is 5K’s. Something I intend to remedy! My target race times are:
5K – 21:30 minutes
Half Marathon – 1:45:00 (PB 1:47:17)
Marathon – 4:00:00 (PB 4:47:33)
Q1 Training Plan
As I’ve mentioned, I’m following a Marathon training schedule. Last year my ‘no plan’ plan worked for Half Marathons and 10Ks (and got me 3 PB’s in the process) but I feel it would be foolish for me not to follow any plans for Marathon distance. The image below shows a basic plan I pieced together based on the Marathon training plan I posted last year. The major difference being this is a 4 day schedule (last one was 5 days). I’ve also changed the mileage to be a little more specific for some runs since I know which routes I’ll use for each those sessions.
I’m hoping this schedule will help me achieve a 4 hour Marathon. I know i’m capable of it both mentally and physically it’s just a matter of training right and preparing now.
Good luck if you have training goals for 2011. If you don;t have any training goals, I’d urge you to give it a go. It’s a really good motivator having something to work towards!
2010 – Success or Flop?
One year and two days ago I sat down and devised a plan. A new way of logging my running had been established. It was also the first time I had set any running targets for myself so I didn’t really know whether these goals for 2010 were prudent or optimistic. One thing I can say though is it has been my best year of running.
Most of that enjoyment occurred in the second half of the year however. In the last 6 months I learned a lot, utilising techniques from POSE Method and general good running mechanics (thanks @thinkrunning!) to change my running form for the better. I discovered barefoot running and off the back of all that improvement I gained new Personal Best times for both 10km and Half Marathon distances.
How did I do though?
First, some numbers…
- I ran 938 miles in 2010
- I ran 119 miles in May, my top month
- And 114 miles in August
- I spent 140 hours 17 minutes running in 2010
- The furthest I ran was 26.2 miles (in May)
- My fastest average pace was 7:02 minute miles (on a 4.7 mile run)
- I’ve run 149 miles barefoot, my longest barefoot run was 8.42 miles
- I ran a Half Marathon Personal Best of 1:47:17
- I shaved almost 5 minutes off my 10K PB in 4 months
- I ran a 10k Personal Best of 44:44, which I ran barefoot
- I shaved 30 mins off my Marathon time for a new PB of 4:47:33
- I ran up 77,364ft worth of hills
…Now a table showing my targets and actual results. I set 4 main targets; Total Mileage, Overall Average Pace, Marathon Finish time and Compete in 4 organised events.
There’s only one flop in there – the target Marathon time. I know what went wrong though. I’ve learned and next time, I’ll achieve target. Another flop not recorded was the November challenge – 30 Days of Running. I only managed 8 days after which I had to give up when I turned the wrong way on a stair case and heard my knee pop.
I smashed my annual mileage target by 238 miles! I over achieved every quarter, however, only just managed in Q4. That was down to 3 weeks of not running though.
The biggest surprise was with my average pace. There’s a mixture of reasons why I think i fared better than first thought. Firstly, improved fitness levels in the first half of the year. Secondly, improved technique – I transitioned from a slow cadence, pounding the road and over striding to a vastly more efficient form; high cadence (around 180 steps p/m), landing below my centre of gravity. All in all made for being able to hold a decent pace. And I know I can run faster with more training.
The Final Decision
There you have it, 2010 – Success or Flop? Sure, there were disappointments, but I learned from every mistake. The final outcome is Success though!
And what does 2011 hold I hear you ask. Well, I’ll write another post for that but I know one thing, it’s going to be a year I’ll never forget.
Caught Short
Oh dear, it seems that it’s only 17 weeks (16 weeks and 4 days to be precise) until the Lochaber Marathon. I wouldn’t have realised if I hadn’t seen @runningfairy commenting to @runningmeschee that it’s only 17 weeks till the Brighton Marathon (same day). So much has been happening lately that I clean forgot about it.
The problem – I have no training plan. Realistically I should start training next week! Well, I may have a quick solution. Last February I wrote a Marathon Training Plan post in preparation for the Edinburgh Marathon. It was a sub 4 hour plan. At the time it was a very adventurous plan and, as my ITB kindly let me know, it was a bit much at times.
A lot has changed in the second half of the year though. My fitness levels are at the highest they’ve ever been and I’ve come a long way in improving my running form. I think the once adventurous plan is now very achievable.
The plan starts at 23 miles per week – my now usual weekly mileage – and calls for 5 days running per week. I don’t think I’m quite ready for 5 days. Although I often wish I could run everyday, I’ve been comfortable with a 4 day running week for a while now and I don’t want to change that. It just means I’ll have to be a little smarter in the way I train. I’ll post the revised plan once I’ve figured out what that smarter training is.
That’s it then. The training starts on Monday.
November Challenge 2010
In early/mid 2010 a conversation on Twitter with @runningfairy brought about the November Challenge – 30 Days of running. That’s 30 consecutive days of running. We decided it didn’t matter how much you ran, just as long as you got out every day. Out of the 46 people who signed up for the challenge, 8 completed the challenge (they exercised every day but didn’t run every day) and 6 managed to run every day! Unfortunately, that final 6 didn’t include myself or @runningfairy. Think that’s down to Murphy’s Law or something. That and picking up an injury, which I heard a few people did too. To those, I hope the injuries have healed!
A massive congratulations to Lena, Claire, Catherine B, Rebecca B, Euan and MJ who all completed the challenge and between them amassed a total of 622 miles for the month! Well done, I know from the Daily Mile and Twitter updates it was tough at times.
As you can see from the chart to the right, Lena secured the top spot for total mileage achieved by clocking up a whopping 157 miles, 26.2 of those running the Newcastle Town Moor Marathon. Well done Lena.
Everyone built up a great monthly total though;
- Lena 157
- Catherine B 109
- Claire 99
- Euan 93
- MJ 90
- Rebecca B 74
The chart below shows the daily mileage per challenger. Little and often seemed to be the key to a successful November challenge, clocking between 1 and 3 miles on each outing while still maintaining at least one long run per week.
Once again, well done to those who took part and congratulations to those who completed the challenge!
A Picture Postcard Snowy Run
Since this mornings run was more about staying upright than getting round at a decent pace, I took it easy and stopped a few time and snapped some sections of today’s route. There was only about an inch of snow on the ground but it made for some nice scenes…
It might not look it but this hill is a particularly steep downhill section, not so great when it’s really icy.
Free Running Log 2011
***UPDATED with NEW Spreadsheet 2 Jan 2011***
I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a slave to running stats. I’m no elite athlete but there’s just something great about seeing your numbers build up, pace trends go down and see how far from or how much you’ve beat your target by. Since starting to run I’ve used mobile apps to track runs but the trouble with that is your data is scattered and easily lost. What happens when you try a new app, change your phone, etc. It’s much easier and a little more reliable to keep your log in one place. Some people use a paper log book, which I do too – it’s a back up! But my main log is in the form of a spreadsheet. I keep the spreadsheet in Google Docs in order that I can access and update it from anywhere.
If you’re looking for a new spreadsheet to log your running in 2011, feel free to download the .xls spreadsheet here (225kb) >>> Running Log 2011 Revised
I’ll briefly run through each sheet. The main things to remember though are:
- Grey cells are editable, i.e. the bits you fill in
- Green cells contain formulae, i.e. the bits that do the work for you
- Little marks on a cell corner means I’ve left a nice comment about a cell or data area that might be useful
Dashboard
The Dashboard is a summary page for all of your runs. It provides a quarterly and total view on your mileage, time, pace and climb (ascent in ft). If you use a web app like mapometer.com to measure distances it will also show you the total ascent from A-B, which you can use as data. There is also a space labelled Temp. This can be easily changed to average Heart Rate, where you can insert bpm data. I use temp because a) I don’t use a HR monitor and b) I like the thought of being able to correlate outside temperature with running performance.
The grey rows are editable and contain fields for quarterly and annual targets, examples of which are shown in the document.
Weekly
This sheet does not require any editing. It packages up the data from the Daily Sheet into, you guessed it, weekly chunks. useful for keeping tabs on your weekly mileage. All of the data here feeds into the Charts sheet at the end of the document.
Daily (The sheet you input all your workout data)
This sheet is the guts of the log. This is where you’ll input all of your data: Time, Distance, Average Pace, Climb, Temp (or HR if you decide to change it), Shoe mileage, etc.
Every day of the year is represented the sheet. Each group you see represent a week going from Monday – Sunday. In the first group you’ll notice only two dates are shown. This is because the 1st & 2nd of January are a Saturday and Sunday, respectively. You get where it’s going from there.
Time is entered in an “hours” format. I log distance in miles (to 2 decimal places, e.g. 6.21) but you can log it in Kilometres if you want – as long as it’s consistent throughout the log. You’ll need to change some titles in the charts but that’s no hassle. Average Pace in column D is a simple calculation, so no need to touch that. Just remember to copy it down to your next workout entry.
As I mentioned before, you can change Temp to Ave HR if required.
To the right of the group data you’ll also see columns where you can input your shoe mileage. Just type in the mileage you ran in the shoes in the same row as the workout. Change the titles to the shoe name as appropriate.
Last in line you’ll see columns entitled “Dark” and “Light”. There’s a method to the madness here. if you ran your workout in daylight, put a 1 into the Daylight cell in line with your work out. Same goes if you ran in the dark. You’ll see a pie chart in the chart sheet that shows a split between light and dark runs. I included this because I do a lot of my running early in the morning before work so i thought it would be fun to see how much running I do in the dark over the course of the year.
I’ve left in example workouts to show how cells are filled in. Have a look and play around with them.
Comments
It’s good to note how you felt during and after a run. In that respect, this page is pretty self explanatory.
Shoes
Shoes links back to Daily Sheet and totals the mileage you’ve ramped up on each pair of your running friends. There’s also an editable field to note mileage already on your shoes if you had them the previous year. Data from this sheet and the Weekly sheet are shown graphically in the Charts sheet.
Races
This is just a place for you to note your races and times. It doesn’t link to anything, it’s just there for posterity.
Stats For Charts
Unless you’re adding data fields, you shouldn’t need to tough this sheet. It pulls data from all of the previous sheets into nice chunks, which are used in the next sheet to visualise your training. Again, this is a hangover from Google Docs awkwardness in selecting data ranges.
Charts
This is the fun bit I guess. As simple as it goes too, it shows all of your training results in various tables. Feel free to add tables to splice and dice your data.
So there you have it. It’s easier to use than it’s made out above to be honest. There is some awkwardness, which is from Google Docs and it may make you wonder why I don’t just use Excel. Well, for me, the pro of being able to access and edit the doc from anywhere outweighs the con of low functionality. As i mentioned, I’ve left in example workouts to show the sheet in action. If you have any queries or suggestions about using/improving the spreadsheet, please leave a comment!
Again, you can download the .xls document here >>> Running Log 2011 Revised
Enjoy!!
Jimmy Irvine Achilles Heel Bella 10k
It’s been a few week now since the Bella 10K and I thought I’d best write up a little race report on it as promised on Daily Mile when I logged the run!
It was Saturday the 13th November. I booked my entry a couple of months back along with my friend Doogs and a couple of people from his office that had signed up too. Race day finally arrived but I hadn’t run for 5 days since my knee made a cracking sound after possibly moving awkwardly on it while walking down stairs. Rested though, I felt it was ok to run as long as I took it easy. This was Doogs’ 1st 10K race (he’s run a half Marathon a couple months before though). Any time would be a PB, but the plan was to aim for between 50-55minutes, something I was more than happy to do.
The morning started off well enough. The race itself didn’t start until 11am (registration after 9:30am) but because my better half was working I got a lift into Glasgow with her and was in the city centre for 8:30. I didn’t have time for breakfast before leaving, so as I walked out to meet Doogs at his flat I stopped in at a Greggs and bought a Steak Bake, a Sausage Roll and bottle of Lucozade Sport. Granted, this wasn’t the most nutritious breakfast, but it filled a hole.
Once we were ready to head to Bellahouston Park we jumped in the car only diverting to pick up Catherine (D’s work colleague). Catherine is an interesting person. She can run. And run WELL. She wears Newton Gravitas, runs 4 or 5 times a week yet keeps no logs of distance or times and never has done. She runs because she enjoys it. I thought that was great. Personally, I’ve fallen into the stats trap. I love stats and I love running but there’s an amazing simplicity about being able to run naked, as it were, without thinking about how a run affects your weekly average.
Back to the report. We arrived at Bellahouston Park just after 10am and met Ewan (D’s other work colleague). We had plenty time to get our numbers, get changed and warm up. There were loads of people around. 377 runners completed the race, a lot of whom signed up on the day. If you’ve any of the other posts on here you’ll see I run wearing Huaraches most of the time now. The Bella 10K was going to be my first “barefoot” race, wearing the Huaraches I bought from invisibleshoe.com. Exciting. After getting changed into our race gear we waited in the main building, the makeshift waiting area (it was cold outside). I felt very self concious. loads of eyes were on my feet. One person came up and asked about the Huaraches. He was a nice guy. I expected a few snide remarks on the day about the Huaraches but there were none from anyone. All good. We’re all runners after all I guess, “Barefoot” or shod.
A little later and with the 10 minute warm up done, the 4 of us made our way to the startline. We waited. A staff member announced the race would be delayed till 11:10am because some late entries still had to make they’re way up. We waited some more. The start was then pushed back to 11:30am. There had been more people entered on the day than they had expected I think.
11:27am. Shit, I forgot my watch. I’d have to run this one naked. This panicked me slightly but I thought back to the conversation I had with Catherine earlier. I’m here to have fun so that’s what I’ll do! I quickly recapped with Doogs what the plan was. In the end up he asked me to run at what I felt was comfortably fast(ish) pace and he would try and keep up. Ewan was aiming for 50-55 minutes too so if I did leave Doogs behind, he’d still have someone to run with.
11:30am. After 3 cheers for Jimmy Irvine (A Bellahouston Road Runners legend), the man himself sounded the klaxon and everyone was off. Some guidelines were issued right before the start – slower runners keep to the left and fast runners keep to the right. No one took any notice of this. It was slightly chaotic trying to dodge past people.
Lap 1: 0km – 6km.
Catherine was off like a shot. Doogs, Ewan and I all kept within a few feet of each other as best we could for the first few minutes. I recognised someone I met at the Clydebank Half Marathon earlier in the year and started chatting away although all of a sudden I felt a realisation that I was running too slowly. I looked around and saw Doogs about 20 or 30m in the distance. I said cheerio to the fellow runner and put the pedal to the metal. I think it was just after the 1km mark that I caught Doogs. Strange thing is, I didn’t slow down. I kept going. I felt in good form. For the next 5km I passed people. There were a few occasions where I paced the odd person but then they would fall back after a short period. That was until I caught up with Norman. The section where we met was a narrow pavement that spanned for a couple hundred meters. The narrowness of the pavement coupled with other runners meant I just couldn’t get past him.
Lap 2: 6km – 10km
Norman appeared to have a very similar cadence to me, so I settled down and decided to tag him for a while. Admittedly, up until then I had been running almost flat out. Once I “settled down” and we passed the 7km marker, however, I felt a tiredness hit me. At 7.5km we said hello to each other, as you would trailing someone for 1.5km. It’s only manners. For the next 1km I found it difficult to keep up. I’d be on his heels, then fall back. My moral was falling slightly. I caught up again at the incline leading up to the last water station (around 8.75km). We spoke again, introduced ourselves to each other then Norman offered kind words of encouragement and suggesting I push on ahead. I was for none it. I told him we were finishing this race together.
1km to go. As knackered as I was and I think we both were, I encouraged Norman to pick up the pace. We had less than a 1000 meters to go! F*ck me, that was one of the longest 1000m i think i’ve ever ran. At two points I thought the finish line was just around the corner only to see it in the distance. A couple hundred meters to go. People were cheering us Norman on on the lead up to the finish line. ”Sprint finish”. I thought I was hearing things. I couldn’t. But Norman was persuasive and before I knew it we were racing for the finish. It was a photo finish. The both of us crossed the line at exactly the same moment.
44:44!! 7:11 average Pace
I was exhausted from the sprint. For the first time in goodness knows how long I thought I was going to puke. I didn’t though. We congratulated each other on a fine race and sprint finish. Good times. I had to catch my breath and as I staggered along the finishing area I saw the most bizarre, out of place thing i have EVER seen at a race. Handing out the medals were two girls, each wearing high heals, tight tops, hot pants and a load of make up. They looked like they had been hired from Seventh Heaven (a Glasgow Strip Club. Never been, btw). To top it off, written on their arse was the name of the race…
For a club organised run, this was almost surreal!
Anyway, strippers aside, I waited for a few moments. I got a chance to chat a little again with Norman, then Doogs finished and found us, Catherine wandered over fresh as a daisy having already been finished for a while and then Ewan to complete the group. We all did really well I think, all four of us coming in under 50 minutes:
Catherine – 40:25!!!
Me (& Norman) – 44:44
Doogs – 47:20 (Awesome first time PB!)
Ewan – 48:27
It was a great race. One I’ll remember for a long time. Not only was it my first “Barefoot” race, I got a new Personal Best and met some great new people. Doogs did amazingly well too, setting himself a great first time PB. It’ll be a hard target to beat. It all got me thinking about running clubs too. I never really felt I wanted to join one before, but after that event it’s definitely something I’d consider. You never know, I might apply to be a Bellahouston Road Runner at some point.
Happy running folks!
Ain’t No Fun Not Running
I really, really want to go for a run. It’s been 8 days. My knee is feeling loads better but I do still get a slight twinge using stairs. It would be silly of me to run though, as much as I think I need it right now. Wonder if everyone else needs running as crutch? That’s something I’ve slowly learned about myself over that last couple of weeks. I guess running is escapism. Nothing new or profound in that, just a realisation for me, even though I kind of knew it already. Can you get cabin fever from not running..?
It definitely isn’t fun not being able to run.
Force Majeure – November Challenge Day 2
My alarm went off at 5:10am. I lay for a moment with my eyes half open when a very bright flash accompanied only seconds later by crashing rumbles woke me up properly. Thunder and lightning in November??!! What?!
To make sure I went to the window, only to be greeted with another flash and rumble set. Something wasn’t right though as there was a distinct lack of rain… no, wait, here it is. So hard it set off the neighbor’s car alarm.
Morning run attempt scuppered by nature.
Let’s hope the evening attempt is less lighteningy
DailyMile updates
- Paul posted a workout May 14, 2012
- Paul posted a workout April 28, 2012
- Paul posted a workout April 6, 2012
- Paul posted a workout April 4, 2012
- Paul posted a workout March 28, 2012
