What would Rocky do?

People often laugh when I tell them about my fascination-come-obsession with the Rocky movies. As a kid of the 80s, Rocky fever was rife with Rocky 3 and 4 being heavily influenced by the decade they came from. The Rocky movies never cease to bring a smile to my face with them all having a profound effect on me when in need of some inspiration; Rocky never gave up and why should I? Rocky Balboa, AKA Rocky 6 has a particular scene where Rocky chastises his son for giving up so easily, reaching out to him and the audience with an empassioned speech about life not being about “how hard we hit” but about “how hard we can get hit” and continue what we’re doing.

I’ve been suffering with a number of niggles recently; none serious but enough to stop me running at my prime. The sore knee and irritated quad/thigh coupled with acid reflux and a minor cold have each made me question whether I can achieve my target of a sub 2 hour half marathon. I am so close yet I am still just over 2 minutes away.

A lot of recovery focused conversation with my seasoned runners than I has given me a glimmer of hope. I consider myself to be possibly at my height of fitness right now. This level of fitness has taken the last few months of training to achieve and the general consensus is that steadily built up fitness takes months to accomplish and a takes a similar amount of time to steadily lose, if not longer.

In a bid to make sure I’m fighting fit in time, I have started taking high quality multi vitamins and amino acid supplements to ensure my body is getting what it needs. The amino acids are supposed to speed up the recovery of my muscles and to make my body more efficient at utilising protein that I consume. They are naturally occuring things in the food we eat and pose no risk at all to what I am doing.

I have 4 actual weeks of training left open to me and it becomes an increasingly risky game I’m playing. I can work myself up into a frenzy so I become even fitter at the risk of increasing injury, or I can do increasingly less and less and allow my body to recover but risk losing it all in my finish time. I am concentrating on speed work at the moment with all of my gym sessions now devoted to fartlek on the treadmill. The treadmill is giving my joints a break from all the road running and allows me to accurately push my body in a controlled manner. I have not had a a long road run for the last 2 weeks which worries me slightly. I know I can do the distance and I know I can cover the distance easily because of past accomplishments, but it’s training my body again to know what to expect.

What would Rocky do indeed?

Enter Lunarglides

I decided today would be the day to test out the Nike Lunarglide 3s to see how they fare out in the field. They promise to deliver superior support and cushioning and just to put it to the test, I wore one Lunarglide on one foot and a Lunarswift on the other foot. The difference was staggering; there was next to no cushioning in the Lunarswifts anymore and the Lunarglide foot felt like it was walking on springs!

I was due my long run of the week so I laced the Lunarglides up for my 10 miler. Initial impression is that they are very secure in the mid-foot as promised and the cushioning also lived up to the claims. Anybody would be mad to try running 10 miles in a new pair of shoes but they were that comfortable that it was not a problem. I think they should be fully broken in after another 10 miles and then we’re good to go racing in them.

My left knee is always aching now, with my right hip singing the same song. I’m going to have to invest in a knee support to keep it compressed and in place. Other than that, my achilles tendonitis has completely disappeared and my acid reflux has really improved too, so I should be able to claw back those two lost weeks of more intense training.

RIP Nike Lunarswifts

I intended to run my last 10 miles today in my trusty Nike Lunarswifts today, though due to potential injury I ended up running only 10km in them. Lis and I were in Nike Town in Vegas where we bought the Lunarswifts in a lovely shade of yellow. I needed a pair of running shoes and knowing nothing about the different types of running gaits, I had no idea that I would eventually learn that I am an over-pronator in terms of foot category. I have low arches, a problem which was worse when I was a wee lad and had to wear shoes with corrective arch support inserts. This essentially means that when I run, I will strike the ground with my heel first and then roll my foot forwards and my shins will almost always burn like hell for the first few kilometres of any distance run. Combine this with the wrong type of shoe and my joints are prematurely taking the strain.

The Lunarswifts are designed as a budget speedwork shoe, so provide a firmer ride and are more suited to shorter distances like 5km and 10km races. This isn’t to say that you can’t complete marathons in them, just that they’re less than ideal for the task at hand. Younger, more supple runners should find little issue with longer distances in them but I’m repeatedly encountering the same injuries each time and some new ones to boot due to the increased training. I think I will relegate the Lunarswifts to the all purpose gym shoe corner now since treadmill running will counteract the firmer base.

So, what’s a runner to do? I looked at the Lunar range from Nike and the shoe that everybody seems to be screaming about is the Lunarglide 3. Designed with over-pronators and cushoining in mind, these are much more suited to my running style. I’ve yet to try them out but I’ll give them a whirl later this week sometime.

I feel the need for speed

Eager to get my body back on to speedwork, I visited the gym for my first fartlek session in nearly 2 weeks. It’s amazing how much your routine is thrown into disarray from just one missed session, with everything feeling slightly alien.

I’m seriously struggling to know how tight to tie my shoes up, because the first few kilometres were agony for my shins. I used to believe that they should be loose enough to allow for some movement, though I’ve found this movement to irritate the soles of my feet and create blisters. A loose shoe also works against any speed running in the later stages of distance events. I think I’m going to now tie them up so there is no heel slippage, and then loosen them slightly to allow for this sudden build up of pressure to escape somewhere.

The fartlek session itself was decent, with my breathing being a good barometer for how much stress my body is under when running. At no time did my breathing become laboured and performance wise, I still felt as good as I did on the last fartlek session.

What I am now pondering over is whether it’s worth turning another one of my 10 mile weekly runs into a fartlek session at the gym. I know I can cover the distance no problem, so a regular 13 mile run shouldn’t be necessary anymore. Running Fitness magazine recommended a 13-14 mile easy pace run about 3 weeks before race day as a primer to settle the mind and nerves that 13.1 miles is more than possible. Fartlek at the gym is also a lot less stressful on my legs, though I don’t want to get to the stage where my legs are knackered due to lack of road running. I almost need to add another fartlek session to my week without removing anything. Another thing I have to factor in is that the weather is quickly heading south and with each week, there seems to be 15 minutes less light in the evenings again. My 10 milers usually take around 90 minutes or so to run, meaning I normally don’t get started until past 6:30pm.

With less than 6 weeks left for training, I think there’s few opportunities left for injuries or skipping sessions if that elusive sub 2 hour finish is in my sights.

The devil is in the distance

So, I decided to simulate race day conditions on my day off. This consisted of a pasta rich meal for dinner the night before, getting up at 6am the morning of, a carb rich breakfast (porridge) and a few hours of warmups. I also had to visit the doctor before my run which possibly distracted the mind.

The weather was absolutely rotten by the time I was ready to run. We’re talking proper chunky style run so I was completely soaking from just a few minutes of running. I have no idea how much my clothes weigh wet versus dry, though I’d dare say I was carrying at least a few extra pounds. Benefit of a cold wet day is that your heart isn’t having to work quite so hard to get blood around your body or keep you cool.

My tight shin problem was still evident during the first 2-3k, although this subsided fairly quickly and I can only put it down to tying my shoes just enough to prevent heel slippage as opposed to for total foot security. A new problem did however rear its ugly head: achilles tendonitis, or sore achilles tendon. For whatever reason, the one in my right leg decided to flare up halfway through my run. I have never, ever had a problem with this in all of my time running recreationally, and it did start to hamper my performance towards the closing stages. I have a few ideas as to why this became a problem. It was incredibly wet and I ended up having to dodge a lot of puddles, which may have overexerted muscles I normally do not use in running, with the achilles tendon overcompensating. I did actually step in a puddle at one stage so my foot was soaked (damn dog walkers standing in the middle of the path) and this did initially irritate my foot. I was also wearing a plaster on my right big toe to balance my feet up, again possibly overcompensating. Lastly, the cold weather may have caused my muscles to cool down too quickly, causing the strain.

My finish time was 2 hours and 2 minutes, closer to 2 hours and 3 minutes. It’s frustrating because it means I could have been faster if the conditions had been more favourable, but the silverlining is that I wasn’t any slower in less than ideal conditions.

Rehab consisted of deep tissue massages for the affected leg, twice a day along with an ice bath to keep potential swelling at bay. Walking was fine immediately afterwards but anything requiring calf movement was tough.

All signs are pointing to “yes, I am becoming faster” as each week progresses.

You’re only as good as your last injury

You’re only as good as your last injury

I attempted another 10 miler after work yesterday to get my legs turning over again after Friday’s full distance session. These 10 milers are now referred to as my lighter workouts and I find the distance rewarding, both mentally and physically. I normally need anywhere between 3 – 7km to burn my legs in so that my shin and calf muscles fully warm up. I really need to get this warm up nailed before races because it’s costing me valuable minutes due to having to hold myself back. I’m also struggling to do any more than 10 miles on a weekday evening, not because of the distance but rather due to the sun now going down more quickly than before. The temperature is perfect for running, but the lack of light just seems so much less inviting…

I thought I’d take the rest of this opportunity to talk about injuries. Thankfully, I’ve only sustained very minor injuries so far:

• right lower-back ache
• black toenails
• missing toenail
• left knee soreness

If you’re of a sensitive nature and are easily sickened, do not continue reading!

The worst of the bunch is that I’ve lost the big toenail on my left foot. That toe hasn’t been right for years, once due to my friend Leo planting a chair leg on it with his full weight, and again due to the Silverstone half marathon earlier in the year. The result was that it turned black and had in effect died. All this training has loosened it up and I’ve had to trim the nail down to about 1/3 of its normal length to avoid it catching. I’m now having to tape it up with plasters to prevent it being knocked out during runs. Yesterday’s run was perfect with it taped up and I may even do the other toe to balance things up. The reason my toes are suffering so much is because my little toes curl naturally and my big toes hit the front of my running shoes due to me not tightening them up adequately. I’ve had conflicting info thrown at me regarding shoe tightness, with one marathon runner telling me to leave them quite loose to allow for swelling during the race, and others telling me to tighten them up to prevent heel movement. I have a sneaking suspicion that I had them slightly too tight last night which excacerbated the shin burning problem hence extended warm up time. On my next run, I’ll tie them so that there’s just about no heel movement which should be a good guage to go by.

It’s safe to continue reading again.

Getting back to injuries in general, these are all very real things which runners suffer with. Some are minor and can be run through; many are more major and once inflicted, require months of recuperation to correct which means lost training time. It seems the stronger and faster I want to become, the more potential I have to injure myself. The average body really isn’t suited to distance running, yet as any distance runner will tell you, you simply crave more once you’ve reached certain milestones. The bottom line is to stay safe out there; you know your own body better than anybody else and if it feels minor then man up and run through the pain. If it’s bad enough to cause you to stop mid run, don’t carry on until you have a clearer idea of what the problem is. As the title of this entry refers to, an injured runner is a non-competing runner.

Going the distance

I decided to run the full 13 miles yesterday as part of my preparation. You only really know how you’re performing when you actually run the distance in question, so since I’m stalking a sub 2 hour finish, that’s what’s gotta be done.

It was a hot afternoon, easily around 20 degrees with only a gentle breeze to take the edge off the heat. Cannon Hill Park was also heaving with families with young children, and I was the only runner there until 90 minutes into my run. I had not carbo loaded up and only had a Lucozade Sport and two energy gels to keep me company for the 13 miles. As you can see, everything was working against me.

The first 2 miles consisted of the usual tightness that gradually subsides, with the occassional sprint to try and loosen up the fast twitch muscles. I decided to tuck into my first energy gel at around mile 3 and I’m pleased that I’ve managed to get the unwrap and consumption motion down with just one hand. I had my second energy gel at around mile 9 and with that, emptied the remainder of my Lucozade. The energy gels did give me a bit of a kick, but not as much as I was hoping for and my fear was that I had ended up running positive splits by accident, ie. running the first half at a much faster pace than the second half. According to my race split data, I ran the 13 miles more as thirds, with my first and third parts at more or less equal speed with a lull in the middle portion.

One thing that I think my fartlek training has opened up my eyes to is that I have more or less independent use of my slow twitch and fast twitch muscles, and how both can be trained to be more like each other. Most of my run yesterday was completed with slow twitch muscles which are much more fatigue resistant, though even these will give up on you after repeated punishment. As I started to run faster, I was quite surprised to see how it became easier and my legs seemed to suddenly have a new lease of life in them. I’m glad to see the stressful fartlek training is paying off and will persevere with it.

So, how did I do overall? Well, considering it wasn’t race day conditions (carbo loading, cold, regular drink stations, crowd support etc), I managed to complete 13 miles in 2 hours and 2 minutes. This is a new personal best for me and is a whole 6 minutes faster than my previous PB achieved at Silverstone under race day conditions. I trained far, far less for Silverstone than I should have and still managed to pull that rabbit out of a hat; with 8 weeks left of training, who knows what I may be capable of come race day in Cardiff? I basically need to run each mile faster by 10 seconds to beat 2 hours, which looks possible if I keep pushing.

Recovery has been perfect so far with the usual long warm down walk, followed by no less than 15 minutes of vigorous stretching and an ice bath for my legs. My legs feel perfectly fine today and I could almost certainly run 10 miles without issue. I may even be able to compete a week later at the Birmingham if this is a sign of things to come.

Bork, bork, bork!

Tonight’s fartlek speed session was great and really felt like an achievement. Whilst the initial warm up is always tough, the rhythm once you’re there is an incredible feeling and for the remaining portion, I was comfortably running at 11.5km/h as a race pace, not a sprinting speed. The gains are coming along nicely and this should do the trick in raising my average race pace.

What will be interesting is trying out a fartlek session on the road and how well that holds up…

I need to work out a way to get my legs warmed up more quickly. Will try very short, quick repeats for 5 minutes to see how that fares.

Keep pushing

I’ll spare the gory details of my latest run and instead, I’ll share a transcript I’ve taken from the latest issue of Runners World:

We runners are no strangers to pain. It is etched on to our faces as we strive to reach the finish line first, beat our fastest time or complete the final rep of a punishing set. It’s the hammering of a maxed-out heart, the numb throb of tired muscles, the string of skin rubbed raw by blisters on a long run. It’s the fire in your lungs fit to burst as you suck in air on the home straight, with your rival clipping your heels.

But we don’t see pain as a reason to give up – it is simply something that needs to be borne for a while in order for us to achieve our goals. And it is this mindset that sets us apart from the majority of the population. It allows us to stray outside our comfort zones without fear; confident not only that we’ll survive, but that we’ll come back stronger.

Nothing could portray this better than former stuntman Eddie Kidd’s successful completion of the London Marathon in June. Having ditched his wheelchair at the start, every agonising step he took over those 50 days demonstrated that pain, hardship and discomfort are somtimes necessary bedfellows. Or think of comedian Eddize Izzard’s feat – no experience and five weeks of training to run 43 marathons in 51 days.

As legendary running coach Percy Cerutty once said, “You only ever grow as a human being when you’re outside your comfort zone.” I wonder, though, is it only people with boundless self-belief and a willingness to endure self-inflcited torture that fall into the sport in the first place? Or does running itself bestow us with a sense of invincibility?

Many runners I meet as complete beginners are nervous and tentative at the start, not quite believing that they’ll be able to manage even a single session. Weeks or months later, they run a mile without stopping or cross their first finish line and taste delight in having proved themselves wrong. And that opens up a whole world of possibilities. What else can I do that I didn’t think I could? they wonder. Speak in public? Quit my dead-end job? Do a parachute jump? Whatever goal they set their sights on, the chances are they’ll be able to rise to the challenge.

In a study published in The Journal of Leisure Research, fit people coped better with a series of white-knuckle tasks including white-water rafting and rope work than unfit people, experiencing less stress and greater confidence.

And the beauty of it is that once you do start to push your boundaries, your capacity to do so actually increases. Research that dates back 20 years found that runners could endure extreme cold and loud noise better than non-runners. More recently, research from the University of Bonn, Germany, suggests that runners experience enhanced pain tolerance as a result of increased levels of endorphins. It’s almost as if we’re being rewarded for having the guts to work hard.

But you have to be willing to take that leap of faith in the first place, and perhaps taht’s where character plays a part. A friend once overheard a woman at her local gym reporting to an instructor that she had started to sweat and get out of breath on the exercise bike. “Could there be something wrong?” she asked in a concerned voice. I don’t know what happened next, but I’m willing to speculate: she didn’t ever go back. In fact, when she broke a sweat walking to the train station, she decided to drive in future. When she got breathless climbing stairs, she resolved to stick to lifts and escalators. The less she did, the less she was able to do and, in vicious concentric circles, her comfort zone closed in around her. In my experience, this is not the type of person who makes a runner.

To quote Cerutty again, “Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer.” Such an attitude helped Cerutty’s most famous protégé, Herb Elliot, break multiple world records. It helped both Eddies reach their respective finish lines. It can help you, too.

- Courtesy of Runners World UK September 2011

Beads of sweat or tears of pain?

Philosophers the world over have hypothesised that nothing is given, but rather earned; the destination isn’t what’s important – it’s the journey there that matters.

I’m currently at a point in my running where I can cover 13 miles with relative ease, even if I’ve been at work all day and have not had a chance stack up the carbs. I am however struggling to gain speed, only picking up a few seconds here and there; I don’t want seconds, I want minutes!

Speaking to people in the know, they have all unanimously suggested I undertake fartlek training. Fartlek is Swedish for “speed play” and involves pushing your body’s tolerance to maintain higher speeds for longer. Few people can run at high speed for extended periods of time and the principle behind fartlek is that it should raise your average speed across the total distance. It generally consists of running splits for 45 – 60 minutes where you alternate between a pace somewhere between a gentle jog and your personal race pace for a few minutes, and then kicking it into high gear and running near enough at your limit for a few minutes, and then rinse and repeat until the session is over. Sounds easy enough?

I generally have a high threshold for pain and fatigue, but fartlek is something else for me. It gives the legs a much more robust workout, focusing on both slow-twitch muscles used for walking and slow running, and fast-twitch muscles used for sprinting. It should also improve lung capacity and stability when running at higher speeds, with the benefits trickling down. The methodology claims that your body should take to the new higher speed thresholds, raising your normal race pace in the process. As my opening line stated, nothing is ever given but earned and that certainly holds true with this training technique. The effort involved is immense where 2 minutes at near enough your running limit is tough and the 3 minute slower pace is only just enough to give you a chance to catch up with yourself. It’s a punishing regime but certainly spices up simple treadmill running.

My new running schedule for an average week now consists of:

• 1 x fartlek running at the gym
• 2 x 10 mile road runs
• 1 x 13 mile road run

I also signed up for the Silverstone half marathon again today. I really enjoyed myself at Silverstone last year where it is as close to mass running event organisation perfection as possible. There is ample on-site parking and facilities, the starting pens are well arranged. What I especially like is that the location is conducive to personal bests, not because of the course but rather the effort involved to get to Silverstone. I saw very few fun runners or costumed runners earlier in the year, with most participants dressed like true blue amateur runners. Most people know where to place themselves and the course is so wide that overtaking is not a problem at all. The 12pm start time works well for people travelling and gives everybody a chance to leisurely prepare themselves without needing to run around like a headless chicken in the morning. The low cost in return for what you get is great value for money at only £15, £2 cheaper than last year. Silverstone is also marketed as the official warm up race for the London marathon and for many, is the last race day they will face before the big day.