TR24: a Great weekend with amazing people

I had often wondered whether I would truly enjoy the proper endurance events you read about.  MdS is firmly on my bucket list, and when I pick up trail running magazine and read of multi-day stage races through various wilderness- rainforests, deserts, the Thames Path, and the Essex Way,  I dream of completing these challenges, self sufficient, taking in the magnificent scenery and revelling in that sense of accomplishment at the end.  For me, with the camping element, TR24, was a sort of halfway between the organised mass-events I'm used to, and these more interesting solo pursuits, that a geographer salivates for.

We arrived on the Friday night- I'd come in from London on the train, and a couplle of my team mates fetched me from the station.  Its rather strange- I hadn't met any of these people before, but we were all part of that worldwide club of runners that basically means you have a friend anywhere you travel as long as you talk about running.  I was particularly excited to meet my RW forum buddies who have given me so much guidance and support over the past 7 months, resulting in Pbs at Marathon, half marathon, 10k and 5k distances (as well as 12.2, 14.9 and 15 miles if you count the crazy cross countries I've done).

We had a few drinks to break the proverbial ice, although, there was no ice to break, we got on really well.  It was scorching, and glorious sunshine!  I didn't believe that it was going to rain tomorrow, no matter what the forecast said.  I was convinced we had a blocking anticyclone, and no other weather systems were coming through...more on that later.

So the camp we had was for 3 teams, a pair with @mia79gbr, a 5 with Malcs from the forum and his friends and wife, and our team of 8, a bunch of us from the forums, or friends of them.  Tigger, had organised almost everything- got us a brilliant camp which we set in a circle so it was really sociable, and had organised the team kit - it looked awesome, and was a much needed additional piece of kit this weekend.

With a team of 8, we estimated that we would each get to do about 3 laps, though Sarah wanted to do 2 laps back to back, and the night ones would probably take a bit longer.  Having done 10k in under 50 minutes 2 weeks ago, I honestly didn't think a 10k cross country course would take me 10 minutes longer, but it did.

I was 4th to run on Saturday in the Sweltering heat, I had been feeling pretty awful in the sun all morning,so I thought I was taking it easy.  I knew the running would make me feel better, so I got on with it.  at around 5k I was starting to feel good, but I was being sensible and walking the hills, knowing I would have to run again later that day.  I was glad I carried my water bottle with me, rather than relying on the 1 water station on the course.  I was squirting water on top of my head and as it dripped down my neck it was so warm it felt like I was pouring baked beans over my head, not ice cold water!  I really need to buy a white cap!!!

I got around the lap in 1hour, 1 min, 28 seconds.  Surely when it would be cooler later, I would go under the hour?  I got back to the camp, gathered my things and went back to queue for the showers.  Unfortunately, I got a cold one, and wimp that I am couldn't have a 'normal' shower,but was standing on the ledge and putting various body parts under the water.  I've never been able to take the stress of cold water on my spine, no matter how hot I am.

I would be running again around 9pm, so I had a hot jacket potato with a luxurious amount of butter and cheese.  Looking back, I ate very little on Saturday considering it was a day I ran 12 miles.

Later on, around 7pm, it started to get darker as the clouds were coming over, and the humidity was up.  I guess I was wrong about that blocking anticyclone.  I was getting set/psyched for my next lap, and hoping it was just going to be gentle rain- you know sometimes how the british weather doesn't deliver on its forecast... that's what I was hoping for, but no, the heavens opened.  At first, it looked like it was a rain storm that might last an hour, tops, so with any luck, I would eb able to do my next lap in the relative dry with the atmosphere cleared.  In any case, given the time of day, I would be taking my head torch.

I headed to the race hq a bit early with @mia79gbr, and am so glad we did, as it really really began chucking it down- we could stay in the shelter of the food tent until we had to go to the transition zone, rather than making the journey from the campsite in the really really heavy rain.  The thunder and lightening had started, and it was pretty scary.  The route did go through the forest afterall.  I was getting rather annoyed with so many people walking around with umbrellas aka lightning conductors...I headed across to the transition zone and about 5 minutes later Tigger showed up - there was so much rain, and visibility was poor that we had to scream her name for her to find me and hand me the baton, but she was in good spirits, adn seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the run that started dry and finished wet.

I was cold from standing in the rain, so set off at 5k pace, I was just trying to go as fast as possible to warm up- after this I would get to sleep afterall- ample recovery, so no need to save anything.  I can't remember walking any part of this, although I probably did, I just wanted to move as fast as possible to stay warm, and to get away from running in the thunder storm!  I was getting rather concerned that my phone would be waterlogged as I was carrying it in my bumbag, so I checked it to find a message from David asking why the event was called Thunder run :-).  In fact the rain had made the ground conditions quite nice, it was softer on the feet and cooler, so I thought I was going really fast.  Crossed the line in 1 hour, 1 minute and 14 seconds... so maybe the course and the weather didn't make a jot of difference!!

At the end of the lap, I had to transition to Sarah, and I couldn't see her anywhere, I got that sinking feeling of oh no, I'll have to do a double!  But then she screamed my name and I found her, I handed her the baton, and she handed me an umbrella... great, I was now going to be a lightening conductor ;-)  but actually it was the best thing as now I wouldn't be pelted with rain on the way back to the camp, and might have a chance of not freezing after my run.  I made a bee line for the food tent and wolfed down some pasta bolognese and a cup of tea.  Back to the campsite for some sleep, but at that point I couldn't work out how to change from my wet muddy running kit to dry clean sleeping kit... I was sleeping in my running leggings and a long sleeve tshirt, so yes, it is sleeping kit rather than pyjamas.  After about 30 minutes of contemplation, I figured it out, adn got to bed.  I was so cold I ended up putting socks and a fleece lined hat on to sleep.  2 days before I had been wondering whether I would even need a sleeping bag!

Through the night I could hear the other team members getting ready for their laps.  I guess I had it easy not having to run in the middle of the night, but then a lot of the team were really keen on doing a night lap, whereas I had had quite enough of night running having done marathon training last winter- running at night in the snow was enough for me!

I got up at around 6am- It was light, it had stopped raining, and I had needed to go to the loo for ages, but didn't want to brave the rain.  I got up and saw @mia79gbr.  Apparently her husband had decided this was a silly idea in the middle of the night, and didn't come to meet her after her 3rd double lap! haha, hilarious!

My next lap was going to be around 8am, so I didn't want to eat too much before.  Now it had stopped raining, surely this would be the lap I did under an hour.  Alas, it was not to be, all these people were going on about the course drying, but the clayey soil just turned to, well, clay, and clogged up my treads, making my trail shoes fairly useless.  I had to walk to avoid injury.  After I'd got through the worst of the mud, the point where I had felt I twanged my knee on the 2nd lap was starting to hurt on the 3rd lap to the point of pain.  Considering my bike ride next weekend, I didn't want to push through it.  I stopped to stretch out my quad- it was definitely very tight, and started running again, but this didn't fix it.  I took the rest of the lap gently.  This was a really tough one I looked at my watch at 3k and it was reading 22:30= the time I did 5k last week... at 4 miles I was on 50 minutes, which was my 10k time, so that was rather demoralising.  The last lap was done in 1:22:17.  Unfortunately my slow time meant that perhaps another member of the team wouldn't be able to get his 3rd lap.

Now, I could eat, but for some reason, my body wasn't telling me I was hungry.  I was drinking lots of water though.  I must have been pretty dehydrated.  We all started packing up the campsite ready to leave as soon as the race had finished.  We went to cheer clive on his last part on the course, and then met him at the finish, he was coming around really strong, and also very very muddy!  Neil had jumped into Malcs team to finish it for them, and I think he was quite impressed to have such a big cheering crowd!  and @mia79gbr looked Awesome with her sprint finish.  Only she could muster a sprint finish after 54 miles of running!

We all posed wiht our medals for our team photos- before heading our separate ways.  One thing I wasn't prepared for was how emotional I would find it watching the solo runners completing the race.  I read about people doing these amazing distances running: 100km, 100 miles, MdS etc, or 24 hour endurance races, but actually seeing people doing it, seeing my new friends completing 54 miles, makes me think that one day, I could do that too!  And no doubt I will one day!

I definitely want to go back next year and see if I can do more laps - 30k in a weekend isn't more than I've done before.   I would like to go back and do at least 50k, and even more - 100k would be amazing!  but I think I need to focus on the primary goal for now, which is the Boston Qualifier.

On the knee- after 5 hours of travelling, I got home and had a bath - my muscles were starting to stiffen up, particularly my quad and shin on the leg with the dodgy knee.  I gave it a bit of self massage, and as I worked over my knee cap, it clicked back into place, so I think it might have been a patella tracking problem, which I've had before.  I might have to tape it up for the bike ride next week, though I'm sure if I focus on some stretching this week it will heal up just fine...

Excited!

This weekend, I'm doing one of the most crazy things I've ever done in running. I'm going camping in Derbyshire with a bunch of other runners to run a 24 relay race known as TR24. And honestly, I can't wait! Since having to give up on my autumn marathon, I've felt my running has lost a bit of focus. And other goals, such as running 1000 miles this year are beginning to slip. Tr24 will be a lot of fun with no particular time goal, so I'm looking to this and the 100 mile bike ride the following weekend to be the turning point that gives me back more focus in my running, so I can get back to training properly.

The cycling has certainly been beneficial, but I just don't enjoy it as much as running, but with the running I've set some other challenges to keep the interest up. I think I need to get back to my rough weekly schedule of this:

Monday: weights- strength and conditioning
Tuesday: early morning easy run
Wednesday evening: medium long run
Thursday evening: easy run
Friday rest
Saturday morning: Parkrun or speed work
Sunday: long run.

After the bike race I have 7 weeks until Ipswich half marathon- I want to see if my recent speed in the 5k and 10k will carry across- so that's the next big goal... Time to build the training plan :)

Chelmsford Parkrun and even pacing

Colchester Parkrun was cancelled today because of the carnival, so I took the train to Chelmsford to run theirs - the park is flat, so I was hoping for another pb, the trifecta 3 in 3 weeks, but after half a bottle of wine and a buttery risotto last night, I had the excuses lined up, just in case.

I wore the Adidas boost to give me a turn of speed, but when I did my warm up, I felt sluggish, and wasn't that confident. I did some strides, but even then my legs felt heavy and still tight from last week- only 6 days after my 10k pb in the heat. I was aiming for 22:40, according to my pace calc app, that's a 7:17mm pace, so I programmed my virtual pacer in the garmin on tht pace.

I wonder if the slowness helped I certainly didn't set off too fast and by half a mile in, I was finally up to pace.. This Parkrun was as advertised- flat, which made the fact I was slightly off pace at half way a bit annoying. Then there were a few sections on grass that made it a bit tougher. I followed @mia79gbr's advice, and kept asking myself if I could give any more. The nice thing about a Parkrun, is that it doesn't last much longer than 20 minutes,so the answer to that question is almost always yes. In the last km I was just chasing the people ahead of me, trying to pick them off.

The Chelmsford lot are fast! The clubs around there must be competitive, whenever ladies from Springfield Striders come to Colchester Parkrun, they seem to always finish in the top 3.

Whereas I was 40th in Colchester 2 weeks ago, today I was 67th despite being over 30 seconds faster!

And I'm impressed with my even splits:

Mile 1: 7:21
Mile 2: 7:21
Mile 3: 7:17
Last 0.09: 6:11

Average pace 7:18. So 8 seconds per mile improvement in 2 weeks for a time of 22:33

So, what to do for the next few weeks- 3 pbs in 3 weeks is quite exciting. I want to try out my newfound speed on a half marathon, I think I'll do Ipswich, and so I'm going to get together a training plan tomorrow and get back on it.

Also, with my recent lack of focus, I'm beginning to fall behind on my 1000 miles in 2013 goal, so long runs will be coming back :)

Stats:

Congratulations on completing your 4th parkrun and your 1st at Chelmsford Central today. You finished in 67th place and were the 13th lady out of a field of 213 parkrunners and you came 5th in your age category SW25-29. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website. As this is your first run at this event we have set your PB.

Speed Session Fail

I stole one of @Mia79GBR sessions for speeding up her 5k. its as follows:

5x 4 min @10k pace off 1 min recovery, followed by 5x 2min @5k pace off 1 min recovery.

I dutifully put it into my garmin last night, setting 10k btw 7:50 and 8:00, and 5k@ 7:10- 7:20...

Was running the session ok, though on the 3rd interval was starting to feel it, and really struggling to keep pace.  I even allowed myself 3 minutes rest before starting the 5k intervals... 90seconds into the first one, I gave up... walked home.... totally wiped out!!  tee hee!  I guess that proves 1 of 2 things:

1) you shouldn't do speed work 2 days after a 10k

2) I shouldn't do speed work on my estate where it is so easy to stop, and anywhere is less than 5 min walk home... 

So, here is what i did manage

5 min warm up at 9:56 - this is slow for me at the moment, so I should have known something was up...

4 min 10k pace intervals

1. 8:01

2. 7:53

3. 7:57

4. 8:03

5. 7:57

I guess 5 half mile repeats with only 1 min recovery was actually pretty good going, given I've been doing similar sessions with a much longer recovery between repeats.

Felsted 10k

A scorcher of a week and playing in a concert yesterday meant my hydration plan was a bit off track. Luckily, the race had a late enough start that I could play catch up, so, a cup of tea a cup of beeple, a banana, 500ml sis go energy with chia seeds and a few swigs of water from the water fountain was my pre race prep.

This race was part of the Essex Championships, so was full of club runners. I decided to use my Adidas boost as race shoes, and that I would keep to an 8 minute mile, with the heat, I didn't want to risk pushing it beyond that. Got stuck behind a couple of slower runners at the start, but once I was past them, the field pretty much stretched out, and it was easy enough to get to pace. I ws on pace by about 0.4 miles, so remembering womens running tip, the plan was to sit at this pace until halfway. There were some undulations which would have been fine if it wasn't so hot, but the slight uphills were tough in the heat. I was also beginning to regret not carrying water with me, and couldn't remember if there would be any on the route....at 5km, I was beginning to struggle, the heat was getting to me. I remembered that the tip from womens running was to start chasing vests from 5k. The water station came up very soon after the 5k mark, so I stopped to take on 2 cups, and pour some over my head. Now I could focus on chasing bibs. It was a mind game now- had to keep reminding myself that I was well trained for this. But was also thinking to myself, this is the pace I want to be doing for a marathon, and whilst its fast, it doesn't feel as uncomfortable as previous 10ks, so maybe it's possible.... Wonder if I should be aiming for 8mm for Colchester Half Marathon next year?

I started counting bibs I was passing. Got to around 23 then lost my mojo for a bit, plus the men I was overtaking were playing mean, swinging out in front of me so that I couldn't just run straight but had to add extra distance to the run!

8k and it was time to go hard... I actually didn't have much left, the pace was up slightly, but it was all about focus to keep going. I kept looking at my watch, the sub 50 really relied on me keeping going and not stopping. I didn't want to risk blowing up with heroics, until I was past 6 miles.... Managed to overtake another couple in this last section, and went for the finish hard.

It was a tough finish. This was a tough race because of the heat, nice and low key, so great for setting pbs, except for some minor mishaps with other road users not being all that considerate, it was great. I guess I would have preferred it to start a bit earlier so i could get on with the rest of the day a bit sooner. And of course would have liked a medal! But I think that was me not realising where to get them from...I might contact the organisers to see if they'll send me one.

Mile splits:

Mile 1: 7:56
Mile 2: 7:57
Mile 3: 8:11
Mile 4: 8:02
Mile 5: 8:01
Mile 6: 7:50
Last 0.25 (garmin extra distance) 6:55

Total 49:42, avg pace 7:57

A bit of reflection...

I feel like patting myself on the back. When I started this blog, I was so far away from the idea of qualifying for Boston that I just wasn't sure it would ever be possible, especially as back then I think I would have struggled to do even 1 mile in 8 minutes. I have a good feeling I will do my 10k at that pace this Sunday though.

To qualify for Boston, I was told my shorter race distance times need to look like this:
5k- 22mins
10k- 45 mins
Half marathon- 1:38

Which should lead to a 3:35 full marathon.

After only 3 weeks of speedwork, my 5k is already getting closer to that at 23:08 on a hilly Parkrun course. I would like to see if I can get it to 22 over the summer. I'm then going to build my endurance back up with a lot more off road for my long runs hoping to complete the Essex way.

I think the 45 min 10k and 1:38 half can come in 2014- although that half may take a lot longer to come- half marathons seem to all be on the same dates.

So in 7 months I have taken almost a minute off my 5k pb set in 2011, 3 minutes off my half marathon pb set in 2010, and 15 minutes off my marathon pb set in 2011. This is all off the back of marathon training. We'll see what I do with a 10k this weekend, and another one in September after a dedicated few weeks of speed work.

Fast intervals: tune up for the 10k

Today, I did session 10 from the women's running article:

"This session is completed perhaps five or six days before your 10k race. This is the time to feel quick and just turn your legs over. Five minutes of threshold (3 minutes of jog recovery). Then two sets of 4-5 x 400ms off a 60-second jog recovery. Run set 1 at 5k pace and set 2 a little quicker."

I put it all into the garmin last night. The threshold pace I set as between 8:20 and 8:50. 5k pace from my recent 5k was 7:26 so I put garmin to between 7:20 and 7:30, and then the 'quicker' at 7:00 to 7:15.

5 minutes at threshold wasn't too challenging. I think I was off pace on one interval as the last half of it was all uphill- incline really makes a massive difference in these sessions!

Paces as follows:

5 min threshold: 8:22
Set 1
Interval 1: 7:27
Interval 2: 7:17
Interval 3: 7:26
Interval 4: 7:08
Interval 5: 7:40- this is the uphill one

Set 2
Interval 1: 6:57
Interval 2: 6:39
Interval 3: 7:03
Interval 4: 7:11
Interval 5: 7:07

At the start of some of the quicker ones I was even below 6mm, although not for long! I did these in my Adidas boost shoes, which certainly helped with leg turnover. Uncertain wheth to race in them though?

Total distance run with all the jogs between was 4.6 miles in 41:58 so an average pace of 9:07. Despite having a watermelon slice, chocolate milk, 2 eggs and a whole meal English muffin, I am totally wiped out now! Strange as the session didn't seem all that hard!