Posted in Great North Run
I was conflicted before deciding to run the Great North Run this year. I was preparing myself to defer my entry to next year because my ongoing groin strain problem was not fully healed (though I could run on it without any problems). I decided that I needed an independent opinion, so I visited my physiotherapist, who gave me the all clear.
I still didn’t feel 100% confident about my ability though. My confidence usually comes from the training I put in and I don’t skimp on training. I always do more than enough to run the distance. This time, though, my groin strain meant that I hadn’t put in nearly enough training. The furthest I’d run beforehand was just six miles.
Getting to the start was a challenge in itself. My father dropped me and my brother off in central Newcastle and we walked the rest of the way to Claremont Road, where the start line was. I was a bit worried that I hadn’t drunk enough water beforehand, so I managed to work my way through the crowds to get a bottle. Then I walked down onto the Central motorway.
It was already after 10:00am and the race started at 10:40, but I was taken in by the atmosphere and waited at the start line to watch the start of the disabled and women’s races. Unfortunately, this left 15 minutes to walk half a kilometre to my pen before it closed (the entire start area was over a kilometre long!). I got there, but there was no point rushing – the pens were all already full. So I had no choice but to walk to the very back of the start area, another half a kilometre away.
I was not impressed with my timekeeping here and I saw it as something of a bad omen. The race started on time, but it was so far away I didn’t even realise it until the crowd started inching forward about ten minutes later. The stop-start movement continued fora good half-hour before I could even see the start line. This was truly a race of epic proportions.
After finally crossing the start line around 11:15am, I deliberately moved over to the left to high-five the celebrity starter and the announcer (hoping to get on TV – no luck though). I later discovered I’d high-fived Steve Harmison, but I’m not a cricket fan, so I didn’t know who he was.
The first two miles involved running along an unexpectedly hilly section of carriageway and through two short tunnels. I started my negative-split strategy immediately. My plan was to run the first 6-7 miles at 13 minutes per mile (a minute slower than my usual pace), then pick up speed after the half-way point. By doing this I was hoping to avoid the mistake of getting carried away with the atmosphere and racing off at the beginning, wasting energy which would be needed around mile 10 to finish the race comfortably.
As soon as I had slipped into my rhythm, the iconic Tyne Bridge came up – though the Red Arrows had long gone by the time I got there. They flew over whilst I was still queuing to cross the start line. After that there was a steady incline and the second mile marker. I was annoyed to see that, because I’d missed the first one, so would have to estimate the split times for the first two miles.
Posted September 27th, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Great North Run
Just a quick post to say that I completed the Great North Run on Sunday in 2:33:03, which was what I predicted.
Posted September 22nd, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Great North Run, training
Tags: Great North Run 2009, injury, recovery, stretching
Well, when it comes to training, the past two weeks have been uneventful. I’ve been proceeding with my recovery schedule and gradually increasing my training. It’s a very slow build-up and I won’t be able to get up to 13 miles in my training before the race. Gradually, however, my confidence is returning with every week that passes injury-free.
Also, in light of the latest advice, I’ve decided to scrap my old warm-up routine for a new one. Instead of doing fifteen minutes of static stretches (which involves moving the muscles beyond their natural range of movement to increase their elasticity), I’m doing more dynamic stretches, which helps lubricate the joints and warm-up the muscles better.
Dynamic stretches encourages more blood flow to the muscles, which means greater delivery of oxygen and improved flushing away of waste products from exercise (like lactic acid). That’s then followed by a five-minute jog to my usual starting point, where I start as normal.
Posted August 23rd, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Great North Run, training
Tags: Great North Run, physiotherapist, recovery
Four weeks into my training now. I’m dreadfully behind schedule and any thoughts of completing this half-marathon in anything less than two hours have now thoroughly evaporated.
Earlier this week I decided to visit a physiotherapist. The deep muscle massage seemed to help relieve some of the pain in my muscle, but it did make it sore the next day. That was probably because I have deliberately rested it much as possible for the last eight weeks (on doctors’ orders). Now it seems to be healing and this has given me extra confidence that this is the beginnings of a permanent recovery.
As I said at the beginning, there is no way I can complete my original training plan and I probably won’t have time to build up to the half-marathon distance either, but I hope to get up to around ten miles before the race. The rest I’m sure will come on the day. Whatever state I’m in, I’ll still run it and enjoy it. The PB will have to wait until next year.
Posted August 3rd, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Great North Run, training
Tags: Great North Run, recovery
After last weeks’ good start, this week it felt more like a false dawn. I felt a recurring pain in my pulled muscle on a training run last Tuesday, so I decided to skip the next two runs on Thursday on Sunday, to see if it went away.
Being injured and attempting to train whilst recovering is so frustrating! Hopefully everything will have settled down again by the time of my next training run, so I can continue. This stop-start business with this injury and recovery is starting to knock my confidence that I will ever get back to where I was six months ago.
Posted July 21st, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Great North Run, training
Tags: Great North Run 2009, recovery, recuperation
After the Monday training run I mentioned in my last post, my legs ached just a bit too much. Naturally I thought of the worst – that I had pulled the same muscle again – so I thought I’d better play it safe and skip my planned Wednesday run for that week. I hoped that this would give me enough time to recover for my Friday run.
As ever, I was anxious about returning to running again, however, this time everything just felt normal. No unusually aching muscles or any pain. Which made a nice change from what I’ve put up with for the last six weeks.
So I now I’m going to properly ease myself back into training and actually start following a training schedule again. It’s very mild compared to what I’m used to, but there’s no way I’m going to risk another six weeks of not being able to train.
Posted July 14th, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in training
Tags: Great North Run 2009, Leeds 10K
The last time I blogged I mentioned that I would be able to walk the Leeds 10K. Well, I decided that I wouldn’t be able to do that and that it would be a better idea to give another two weeks of total rest. The team at the Leeds 10K have even allowed me to defer my place until 2010. What nice people 
I think that decision has paid off. I did a 2-mile “trial run” on Sunday and felt much better. There was the occasional twinge from my original injury (a pulled muscle) initially, but once I got going, it disappeared.
So on Monday I decided to restart my training for the Great North Run 2009. I’m using a deliberately slow, easy training program in order to gradually build up my strength again – I’m definitely not going to risk letting this injury happen again.
Posted July 5th, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Scarborough
Tags: Dublin Marathon 2008, Edinburgh Marathon 2008, Great North Run, Leeds 10K, Yorkshire Three Peaks
The Edinburgh Marathon two weeks ago marked a year since my first marathon. I’ve been running a lot longer than a year (I started training for Edinburgh 2008 in July 2007), but I feel like I didn’t become a “proper” runner until I completed that, my first event.
Since then I’ve run three marathons, done the Leeds 10K and even completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks in under 12 hours. I think that’s quite an amazing achievement. However, this anniversary has gone by almost unmarked because that Three Peaks attempt left me with an injury which has stopped me from running for the last four weeks, which I’ve been really unhappy about.
It’s getting better now though, but I won’t be able to run Leeds this year (though I will be able to walk it – hopefully) and my plans to set a PB in this years’ Great North Run are also under threat.
I can’t wait to start running again and when I do, I’ll allow myself to reflect on my achievements. At the moment though, this part of my life is on hold.
Posted June 16th, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Dublin Marathon, Great North Run, marathon, non-linear periodisation, training
Tags: Dublin Marathon, Great North Run, injury, Paris
I haven’t blogged for a while, but with good reason. Two weeks ago, I moved up to the full version of my training plan. However, this proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Well, that’s a bit of an understatement actually. It was terrible. The training through the week was exhausting but not at a level I couldn’t handle. Then on Friday things fell apart.
Whilst training for Paris, I noticed a twinge around my knee. I ignored it until after the race, then treated it by doing some special targeted stretches for two weeks. However, after the first week of intensive training again, this old injury returned, but this time it was much worse. With a week to go before my Yorkshire Three Peaks attempt, I decided to rest for that week and use it as an informal taper week.
That Three Peaks attempt has since put paid to any hopes of running in the next few weeks. I must have pulled a muscle or something similar whilst scrambling down Ingleborough, which I didn’t really notice at the time, but now it hurts whenever I walk for longer than fifteen minutes. It would be impossible (and foolish) to do any running in this condition, so until I can get this problem resolved, there will be no running for now.
All of this has left me tremendously demotivated. I definitely won’t be able to break my 10K PB in the Leeds 10K (in three weeks) and the length of time my recovery needs may seriously jeopardise my plans for PBs in the Great North Run and the Dublin Marathon in October.
Posted May 29th, 2009 by Simon
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Posted in Dublin Marathon, Scarborough, marathon, non-linear periodisation, training
Tags: Dublin Marathon, fartlek, headland, marathon, North Bay, Northstead Manor Gardens, Scarborough, South Bay, training
For the last two weeks I’ve been following a very gentle schedule of three-mile runs three times a week and a six-mile long run on Sunday. Now, however, I’ve decided that I’m fit and well recovered enough to step it up a gear.
So this week I’m starting my full training schedule. I’ve also decided, following my performance at the Paris Marathon, to use the non-linear periodisation system again. Hopefully I’ll be able to smash my marathon PB by running the Dublin Marathon in 4h30m00s – that’s my goal anyway.
Friday’s schedule called for 5 miles easy with 6 x 30 second fartlek intervals. The first time I saw what mileage I had to cover, I thought it sounded like a big ask. I’ve still got memories of how tiring this session used to be, especially with the fartlek intervals, which really knackered me out.
However, once I got out there I discovered I didn’t really need to put in any extra effort into running the five miles (except for running around the headland – the wind was quite strong and was a struggle to run against sometimes). What really pleasantly surprised me though was my peformance during the fartlek intervals.
The last time I regularly did this kind of session, I looked upon intervals with some trepidation because after each interval I was always exhausted. This time though I managed to breeze through them. I was even able to increase my pace in each progressive interval, which was something I definitely couldn’t have done last time. Previously I would start out running each interval really fast and then slow down through tiredness in each following interval.
So after the first week back to “normal” training, I’m generally quite impressed with my state of fitness. As usual, I seem to have underestimated my ability again, as I appear to be fitter than I give myself credit for. Using this training plan to train for Paris seems to have really boosted my general levels of fitness, aerobic endurance and stamina. Not bad!
Posted May 12th, 2009 by Simon
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