Southend Half Marathon 2016 – Race Report

After a disappointing performance at the Wokingham Half Marathon earlier this year, I was determined that I wanted to run a Half Marathon PB this summer.  I very much feel that a sub 1:40 half marathon is within my grasp.  However,  I’ve been focusing on running 5k this summer and dealing with a few niggles so very much neglected my aerobic base and any of the long stuff.  Therefore, I didn’t get to the start line of the Southend marathon feeling particularly confident.

I had to stay overnight in Southend the night before and I left it very late to book my accommodation so that literally the only room left in Southend was a single room so hubbie was not able to come and support me.  The room was perfectly adequate and I had a fitting portion of fish and chips for dinner followed up by watching Titanic on the TV.

The morning of race day I deliberated for what felt like hours over what trainers to wear: my trusty Hokas or my racing flats.  I consider my racing flats to be my speedy PB shoes but I only had ever worn them for 10 miles maximum and having experienced some ankle tendonitis in the lead up to the race was not keen to exacerbate it/ have to drop out of the race. In the end, I wore my Hokas.

Getting to the start of the race was a bit annoying- it was a not insubstantial taxi ride away from the hotel.  There was a rail station that was much closer and had direct services to Liverpool Street but there was no accommodation in the vicinity!

In terms of the race itself, there were adequate amounts of toilets for the amount of runners.  Initially we were told that the race was not going to start on time but then we were told it would after all- thankfully! I decided to run in the first/fast wave.  This probably resulted in me running way to fast for the first mile: 7:00 m/m.  The route itself consisted of an out and back loop that had to be run twice – this meant that we ran along the same stretch of the seafront 4 times!  I found this pretty soul destroying.  After about 6-7 miles it was clear that I couldn’t even maintain my 10 mile PB pace so a sub 1:40 finish was looking very unlikely.  The whole thing felt like a bit of a slog.  There were a lot of supporters… however most of them only enthusiastically cheered members of Essex running clubs!!!!  I’ve never experienced that in a race before!  The route was really flat except for an annoying undulating bit around mile 11-12 as you ran off the seafront- finally!  There were drinks stations but they were only serving water.

In terms of the weather, it was overcast and started raining at about mile 12.  This ended up being great for me as it was the motivation I needed to move a bit faster and less like a slow snail.  I was delighted with a PB of 1:41:06 all things considered.

Overall, the route was really uninspiring, there was a lot of spectator support but it felt as though most spectators only cheered for people they knew/Essex running clubs.  The start was a bit awkward to get to from Southend (if you didn’t have a car) and it was a nightmare getting back to the hotel after the race because of the road closures.  That said, I quite liked the race village, it was good value for money for a road closed UKA registered race and definitely had PB potential.  I’d give it 7/10.  Would I do it again?  Not if I had to stay overnight in Southend the night before, maybe if I were able to get a train there in the morning or got a lift with someone!

 

 

Ealing Eagles 10k/ Vitality 10K 2016

This is not the first time I have run the Vitality/ Bupa 10K but it is the first time I have blogged about it!  Similarly, I have run the Ealing Eagles 10K before but only as a Pacer!

My 10K PB had stood for nearly 2 years at 45:34: a time achieved the day after my Grandma died (which broke my heart) and being paced by a friend at my running club.  At the time it was the quickest m/m pace I had ever run and I hadn’t come close to it since, though admittedly I hadn’t run many 10Ks since as I find 10K a really tough race distance that I do not particularly enjoy!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did not race the Three Forts HM as I wanted my legs to be fresh for my A race- the Ealing Eagles 10K.  One of my super speedy friends had agreed to pace me to a 10K PB and ideally sub 45 minutes.  As you may be aware, I am an Ealing Eagle so my race report should probably be read in that light…

Conditions on the day were not brilliant.  The race happened to be held on one of the sunniest/warmest days of the year!  The Ealing Eagles 10K is held at Gunnersbury Park – also my local Parkrun and is known for being somewhat “undulating” so it wasn’t the best course and conditions to try and run a PB!  That said, since my friend had agreed to pace me there was no way I was planning to slack and fail to attain my goal of a PB either! The race is a multiple lap course and there was water on each lap handed out by enthusiastic marshalls!  The race marshalls were second to none- super enthusiastic and so encouraging- shouting out my name (even at one point on the loudspeaker).

I didn’t look at my watch throughout the race and relied on my friend to pace me to a PB.  I regularly start off too fast in races so it felt that we were jogging from the start and I was slightly anxious to see people I would usually run with racing far ahead!  I put my trust in my friend though, focused on my form and went with the flow!  My trust in him was well-founded as we ended up overtaking almost every one of those who had run off fast at the start- I have to confess that it was pretty satisfying to be overtaking people later on in the race!

(Both feet off the ground 🙂 )

Everything was going great but at 9k in to the race I had really hoped to have a final strong push and I felt like I had nothing more to give – I think it was the heat.

I really did not have a sprint finish in me (see above but I tried and gave it all I could on the day!) and I finished in 45:08 absolutely delighted to have run a PB in those conditions but slightly annoyed about the 8 seconds!  We got a great goody bag, bananas and water at the end and the medal was also great.  Race entry was super cheap and superb value for money.  I’m biased but I’d definitely do it again -unbeatable value for money 9.5/10!

No matter- I had the Vitality 10k coming up in a couple of weeks and I was determined to go sub 45 and ideally sub 44!  After many loo breaks, I started the race.  The race start was not ideal- we were in start waves but my wave had people in it who were sub 40 minutes up to people who were sub 50 minutes. Therefore, the start wasn’t very fast.

My plan was to try and maintain 7 minute miles as long as I could.  However, I just didn’t feel great at the start- I was dreading running 6 miles (I am super lazy at heart) and I felt like it was slow and congested.  I hit the first mile in 7:21- way behind schedule but despite that kept going and tried to focus on my form first and foremost.   The race route for the Vitality 10K is amazing- you start in Green Park and run through Central London and finish in front of Buckingham Palace.  It also has closed roads and really enthusiastic support on the route-singers, steel pan groups etc! Amazing.

The support must have made me speed up as I did mile 2 in 6:59, mile 3 in 7:09, mile 4 in 7:08, Mile 5 in 6:59 and drumroll….  mile 6 in 6:39 and the 0.2 in 6:08!!!  That is my first negative split in a race and I think a 6:39 still counts as my fastest last mile in a race – faster than my 5K PB last mile!!  My chip time was 43:38 so I got that sub 44 I was hoping for!  We got a technical t-shirt at the end of the race (which had a weird fit) and a fantastic big medal and filled to the brim goody bag.  I also got a free massage which was pretty great- particularly given it was free.  The Bupa 10K is not a cheap race but in my opinion it is value for money given the closed roads in Central London and the race atmosphere which makes you feel special 🙂  I’ll definitely be doing it next year if I am not injured! 8.5/10 – PB potential and fantastic atmosphere albeit slightly expensive for a 10k!

Me with one of my running club friends who had also run a PB looking very pleased with our PBs!

 

 

When running doesn’t quite go according to plan… some massive positives too!

Apologies my lovely blog readers, it has been a long long time since I last blogged on here. This time my absence is thankfully not because i’ve been out with injury for a long time but more because my running has been up and down and I haven’t felt the desire to blog about it.

I think i’ve realised in the last few months that in the last few years instead of addressing various (mostly work related) problems I turned to running as my saviour and put so much pressure on myself to perform as a runner to make up for those things which weren’t going so well in my life.  For me, this led to inevitable injury  (and ironically abysmal performances as a runner) as I had no perspective at all as to the place of running in my life.  I felt like it was vital to run that next race- regardless of how much pain I was in because it was everything and all that mattered.  Obviously, writing this down I can see how insane this sounds… i’m an amateur runner, I have no aspirations to be an elite athlete (thankfully for me or I would be sadly disappointed!) and my career which is non-running related is massively important to me as is my husband and my non-running friends.  I’ve turned a corner now and have taken huge steps in making progress in addressing those challenges in my life and so running is now back in its proper place- as something I do for fun!

Further to my last blog post, I sadly didn’t get to run the Great Bentley Half Marathon- I ended up getting really ill with a chest infection and had to stop running for a couple of weeks.  I then ran the Wokingham Half marathon which couldn’t have been a more disappointing race for me.  Contrary to my expectations of running  a super flat race, it felt constantly undulating and from the start my quads were absolute aching, I was in pain from about 6 miles into the race and I just got slower and slower.  I did end up with a PB… of 26s which unsurprisingly I was disappointed with having recently randomly taken 50s of my 5K PB.  I didn’t give my legs enough time to recover post Wokingham and forced myself to hobble around like a little snail a couple of days after the race… Big mistake… I ended up aggravating my ITB which was very painful for a couple of weeks and I made the wise decision to simply rest 100% no real cross training, nothing but the strengthening exercises.  The really disappointing thing about this was I ended up missing both the Cardiff World Championship Half and the Reading Half Marathon.  I was really gutted about missing Reading HM, but I knew it was the right decision and in line with my goal this year of avoiding any substantial injury layoff periods!

I’ve also had a lot of fun running wise this year.  A group of us from my running club do some Parkrun tourism about once a month.  Since I last blogged, i’ve done Bushy Parkrun (super flat and fast but very busy – 1000 plus runners)

and also Crane Park Parkrun – where I was delighted to come in as first lady and as a comeback parkrun after my ITB injury!  We go for brunch afterwards which makes it all worthwhile

The positive news is that since I last blogged i’ve actually run 4 new PBs!!!  A 1 mile, 5K, 10 miles and Half Marathon PB!!  I’m pretty chuffed with that but it kind of confirms what I always knew- if I could avoid getting injured, I could actually improve.  I’m most pleased about my 10 mile PB as I knocked a massive 7 minutes of my previous one and managed to maintain a sub 7:30 m/m pace for 10 miles which means I should be on target for that sub 1:40 HM target i’ve been dreaming of!

Update on base training, a new 5K PB and my first half marathon of the year!

Happy New Year Folks!

As ever, I have been rubbish at keeping my blog updated!  The good news is that for once this is not because I have been injured, on the contrary, for once, me and running are in a happy place!

I have absolutely loved my base training period.  I am now totally convinced by the idea that it is stupid and harmful to try and increase mileage and intensity at the same time.  Instead, i’ve been slowly increasing my mileage and I feel proud.  It is the most I have ever run and it feels like the longest period that I haven’t been injured.  Typically, I run most runs at 8:30 – 9m/m which isn’t speedy obviously BUT I can feel myself getting stronger and maintaining the pace getting easier.

I have also taken great pride in running in an even paced manner.  I have always been appalling at pacing – starting off way too fast and slowly dying throughout a run.  Running like I currently am and then finishing faster is incredibly rewarding.

I haven’t been doing any consistent speed work or hills and yet I am also getting faster- yay! I recently ran a sub 22 minute 5k on the hilly Gunnersbury Parkrun course!!!  Yay – 21:39 to be precise – I wasn’t even sure I had it in me and I did it all on my own – no pacing assistance from anyone!  Next step sub 21 minutes and a new mile PB!!!

I am running my first half marathon of the year: Great Bentley Half Marathon on Sunday. In my mind, I think I can run a sub 1:40 half marathon and soon.  I will try for it on Sunday but I will certainly obtain that goal at some point this season mark my words!

In other news, I am reading Kelly Holmes’ autobiography and can identify so much with her!  From running 800 and 1500m from a young age, to battling with injury, her raw honesty and down to earth nature and finally the person of Wes Duncan who also happens to be my physio and used to be her coach!!  I feel like I’d love to again on the track some time soon so watch this space!

 

Base training success but a naughty, nagging sartorius!

Hi everyone,

So, since I last posted base training has been a success!  I have absolutely loved it.  It has been great to build up my mileage and not be racing and see my heart rate coming down on runs!

However, I’ve had a couple of minor setbacks necessitating rest days – all to do with my naughty sartorius.  To give some background, this is a muscle deep in the thigh and is very closely linked with the hip flexor. Hence, during my sad injured hip days, my sartorius was also often excruciatingly painful.

The first thing that aggravated it was a complimentary taster personal training session, where despite the fact I told the trainer I was having a rest day and didn’t really want to work my legs he had me running on the treadmill, dead-lifting a heavy kettlebell and effectively running with a heavy tire.  Anyway, since that session 19 days ago eek my sartorius has not been the same!

I also finally got round to trying out Project Fit- I mentioned it a while back.  Its essentially a treadmill/circuits class.  I worked harder on that treadmill than i’ve ever worked on a treadmill in my life BUT the class also contains a fair amount of body weight exercises, lunges, mountain climbers etc.  My hip/sartorius hated it 😦 , i’m in a bit of a quandry, i’d love to go back but with my dodgy hip area I wonder whether i’d be much better off simply forcing myself to work harder on the treadmill alone and continuing with my kettlebell workouts.  Everything seems to be fine when things are controlled.  The problems occur when I do these weight exercises at speed.

I am going to get my sartorius looked at in the New Year because I should be able to do everything and not have to be so careful for the rest of my life, i’m a young woman after all not a candidate for a hip replacement operation!

In the meantime, I have found these amazing sartorius stretching exercise videos on youtube click here – this actually changed my life!!

Here is an idea of what you get to experience at Project Fit – I swear the lighting actually is Red! Picture is courtesy of Women’s Fitness.

 

Hatfield 5 2015 – Race Report

I haven’t really felt like racing recently.  After having to reluctantly concede defeat when it came to St Neots I just feel really over racing for this year.  2015 DEFINITELY hasn’t been my running year, months off with injury, struggling with my asthma and chest infections… the list goes on.

Anyway, notwithstanding the above I entered the Hatfield 5 – a club championship race for the Ealing Eagles.  I quite enjoy the 5 mile distance, not as far as a 10k but you can run slower than for a 5k!  I felt that all things being equal and not the disaster of a year i’ve had I would be able to beat my perivale 5 mile PB from last year.

Well lets talk about the actual race… the race HQ was excellent – held in a large spacious sports building with a canteen and lots and lots of loos.  One of the best race HQs i’ve experienced!

Unfortunately, I found the race itself pretty uninspiring, it was flat but we were running along busy A roads for the majority of the course.  I found it hard to get excited about that.  The race marshalls were a bit hit and miss, some of them were great and very enthusiastic, others seemed to only cheer on running clubs they knew in the area (I want/need cheers too!!)

There were two water stations which I felt was more than adequate.

Sadly there was no track finish like in the perivale 5.  One of my running  club members outsprinted me with about 100m to go but this in turn inspired me to pick up the tempo- that was probably the only part of the race I truly enjoyed.  Oh and I did get a PB, of 38s!  I did the best I could on the day.

The medal was really disappointing – it just referred to activetrainingworld (the race organisers) 2015 – it didn’t even say it was for the Hatfield 5! We also were given a flask filled with water.  The water was appreciated but I would have much preferred to get a decent medal and no flask!

Would I do it again?  Unlikely given the choice between this race and the Perivale 5, I would pick the Perivale 5 every time (I am a real sucker for a track or stadium finish) and the two races are usually run on consecutive weeks.

Base training

I have been ill with a chest infection for a couple of weeks bleurgh so not much running has happened and I unfortunately had to miss the St Neots Half Marathon.

I have recently been reading the amazing “Faster Road Racing” by Pfitzinger and it has really inspired me on my 2016 quest for speed.  One of the things it mentions is building a base before embarking on one of the (seriously intense) training plans from 5k to half marathon.  I think building a base is potentially a good way to mitigate injury risk and I don’t particularly feel like racing much until the New Year.

My coach agrees that base training is a good plan going forward.

Here is the amazing book:

And for when i’ve finished base training – here is a 5k training plan I have to try!  http://www.runbritain.com/training/runfaster/six-week-schedule-to-run-5k-in-under-18-minutes

A change of direction…

I can only apologise for the amount of time I have been absent from my blog.  I needed to take some time away from running. My hip injury took a vast amount out of me both physically and mentally.  Not being able to run left a vast gaping hole in my life- I didn’t know what to do with myself and I was distressed and unhappy.  I knew I needed to gain some perspective again, I swam, went to spinning classes, learned spanish and went back to acting.  I felt happier.  I think I also realised that running had become too much of an obsession in my life, probably to make up for the fact I am pretty unhappy with my work situation at the moment (but that is another story for a wholly different type of blog!). I resumed running around July time (after a full 2/3 months of total rest), I then went to Central America for the whole of August and didn’t run much and its only now that i’ve felt happy to blog again.

I started this blog because I wanted to run a good for age time in the London marathon currently a sub 3:45 time.   I’ve picked up numerous injuries since my journey started at the beginning of 2013 and to be honest it hasn’t been a happy journey.  I’ve spent as much time injured as i’ve spent running.  My hip injury was the scariest for me, I look back on it now and can’t believe that I ran and raced on an injury that was so severe that I was waking up in the night because of the pain, was in pain constantly and couldn’t do normal things (without pain) that we take for granted. I have spent £100s on physios and reading up about injuries.  I have had enough!

One of my physios is Wes Duncan, he trained with and was the physiotherapist of Kelly Holmes.  From the first time he saw me he told me that I had the build and muscular structure of a middle distance runner and asked me why I wasn’t still doing middle distance and instead trying to do marathons.  I was very resistant to the idea of going back to middle distance at first (loads of people run marathons, I thought, why can’t I?) but taking time out from running made me reassess things.  I realised that I simply don’t enjoy really long runs, I know some runners love training for a marathon, I love it when i’ve got to the end of a marathon and any runs over 13 miles I simply don’t enjoy – at all.  I have no inherent talent for endurance running and I realised that I just wanted to be fast.

I carry a lot of psychological baggage about running around with me – I used to run 1500m in less than 5 minutes, that is only 100m less than a mile and yet my current mile PB is 6:50.8 hmmmmmm.  I have a lot of hang ups about running, I had a lot of pride about being able to run fast and a huge amount of fear about coming last.  Everything has changed now but its hard to let go of every way you used to think about running.

For me, I am really disappointed that I never gave running 100% when I was younger.  My sub 5 1500m came off the back of little to no training.  I was constantly encouraged to take running more seriously and train with an external running club, but I didn’t.  I was worried about being the slowest there.  Little did I know that the people beating me at County Championships were training.  I will never know how good I might have been and that is pretty frustrating.  I really don’t mean to sound boastful but in many areas of my life I am somewhat of an overachiever.  I went to Oxford University, I got a first class degree, I then did my masters and got a distinction in that and law school after that blah blah blah.  But for running, I’ve never given it 100% and so I still have a hunger to know what might happen if I did.  I have to know, so I will try to give my very best and see what happens – what does my very best look like?

I have decided to focus on running the 5 and 10k distance.  Its a lot longer than 800m and 1500m but a lot shorter than a marathon.  I need to lose weight.  I was approximately three stones lighter when I was running the 1500m so quickly.  Therefore, I am currently trying to run the same times wearing a three stone backpack, not too surprising then that its not happening.  I will also blog about my weightloss journey.

Cross Training (Week 5) and are Hoka Cliftons miracle running shoes?!!

Hello lovely readers!

Well, I have some fantabulous news!  Yours truly has run 6 miles this week with no recurrence of the excruciating hip pain!  This is HUGE!  So, what changed between last week’s blog post and this one?  I purchased a pair of Hoka Clifton trainers and ran in them instead of my standard Asics Nimbus trainers.  Hokas are amazing.  Given I couldn’t run even one step without the worst pain ever and I managed 6 cumulative miles last week without pain is huge.

The Hokas look slightly strange (they look huge)!  The vast amount of cushioning they contain helps reduce the impact and my hip pain is definitely triggered by impact.  They also have a rounded sole and zero drop which means they kind of encourage you to land on your fore-foot.  I may have mentioned that as a 800-1500m runner i was definitely a forefoot striker but in the last few years started heel striking (in my opinion due to my running shoes) Brooks anti pronation and the Nimbus with orthotics.  Consequently, the Hokas have been christened by miracle running trainers!

Running still scares me (as I am so scared about the recurrence of my hip pain).  As regards the future for my running, I think I am going to take things very easy and build up my mileage slowly.  I have decided to follow the Maffetone training method so I shall not be allowing my heart rate to rise above 145 when I am running.  This is a serious challenge as it means I will be running at around 10:30 m/m pace for some time.  Needless to say, I have no plans to be racing this summer.  It feels like way too soon and its not as if my injury has healed and im back to the way I was before,  I’ve just found a way to run without pain.  My hip is not the same as it was pre-injury and there are lots of exercises that I am very nervous about doing.

I am also intending to use my recovery period to change my running form.  I attended a Chi Running Course yesterday run by Gray Caws.  I was sceptical at first but it makes a lot of sense particularly in ensuring that your posture is good throughout out your running and running in a manner that uses less energy and therefore has a lesser likelihood of compromising form.   We had our running form analysed and mine was probably the most different from the archetypal chi running form.  Gray said I was wasting a lot of energy, really driving to move forward and that he could see why I ran like that because of my middle distance background but it wasn’t efficient for longer distance.  I was initially resistant.  I didn’t feel my form was that bad and I was proud of my pumping arms. However, something clicked for me when we practised running with a metronome set to 180 and I realised how much easier it was to run at that cadence.  Ultimately, the way I run has not been working for me, otherwise  would not have attended the course!  Also, its all good to have a decent sprinting technique which works for a short race like 800m but I am not superhuman and I can’t sustain that over any extended distance which means everything about my form falls apart.  Therefore, it makes sense to adapt my running form so that it is suitable for a distance runner and wastes less energy so that I can maintain my form throughout long distance races.  I enjoyed the workshop with Gray Caws immensely and will hopefully follow it up with some one to one sessions.

I should also tell you dear readers that I have an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon Johan Witt re my hip on Friday.  Finally.  It would be nice to have a diagnosis as to what is wrong with my hip.  At the same time, I really would not like to have surgery!

So here is my exercise/cross training summary for week 5:

11 May – 35 minutes swimming

12 May – 45 minutes spinning

13 May – 20 minutes spinning

10 minutes running

20 minutes kettlebells

14 May – 20 minutes kettlebells

45 minutes spinning

15 May – 10 minutes kettlebells

20 minutes running

16 May – 10 minutes kettlebells

30 minutes running

17 May – Chi Running Workshop

I’m proud of the amount of strength work (kettlebells) I did this past week!  I have been trying to do 3 kettlebell workouts a week since probably the start of the year.

Until next time… x

Cross training – Week 4 (and an unhappy attempted return to running)

I was slacking somewhat in terms of cross-training last week.  I had some much anticipated and welcomed time off work and didn’t cross train at all during those days -(spa weekend)!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I was very keen to try running again (after my 6 week lay off) and in light of the fact that I was no longer in constant hip pain and I was able to squat and lunge again.

Here is my cross-training summary for the w/c 4 May:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 45 minute spinning

Thursday: 45 minute spinning

20 minute kettlebell workout

Friday: 25 minutes elliptical trainer

40 minutes yoga (Broga)

10 minutes running

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 10 minutes running

As you can see from the above, running happened…  However, it was far from a happy event.  I ran on Friday on the treadmill post my yoga class.  It hurt from about 10s in or was at best uncomfortable.  I then spent some time in my favourite Egoscue exercise (static back) in the Gym sauna and I was OK.  I told myself it was just because i’d just been doing yoga and it would not necessarily be as bad if I were a) running outside and b) hadn’t done yoga immediately before.

On Sunday I put the above hypothesis to the test.  I was wrong.  I was actually volunteering at my running club’s 10K race (obviously not being able to run it) so decided to run 10 minutes to get there.  I was really excited.  Once again, it hurt alot from about 10s in and worse than before, it hurt like it was hurting before for the rest of the day and the day after.  This caused me a fair amount of distress.  I was OK with being able to spin and cross-train but not being able to run at all without immense pain.  That was not cool.

I spent a lot of time reading about labral tears and acetabular impingement which did not really help the distress situation.  I am finally seeing the Orthopaedic Surgeon next week.  I’d be surprised if I don’t have a labral tear because it is the only thing that really explains my symptoms.  We shall see.  I thought I definitely had a stress fracture in my hip and I didn’t so,who knows.  I really want to know what exactly is wrong with my hip and what needs to be done (if anything) to sort it out.