Rest and Recovery

It has been a long run. It began all the way back on 17 February 2012 and nearly 15 months later my body has had enough.

I've read a lot about the dreaded plateau and posted  about it. I have been looking at it as a global plateau. It's inevitable all runners slow down at some point. I remember when my father was at his peak between 1995 and 1998. It was a golden period that took in about three years of solid and often improvements (2:56 to 2:45 to 2:30 over 3 consecutive marathons!). Preceding that was about three or four years of consistent if unspectacular performance. I always saw this period for his as a gradual period of improvement from ~1991-1995 and then the astonishing ramp that saw him go from a consistent ~39 min 10 km runner to a 31:58, and even more spectacularly a 3:05 marathon to that 2:30:40 at the 1997 Flora London Marathon.

Of course the reality was that it was all carefully managed, with periodized training that revolved around a spring and autumn marathon and the build up that took in winter/summer base followed by almost obsessive speed development and a transition of that speed into half marathon and then the marathon. My father was incredibly focused and systematic with his approach to training as well as racing, and that comes through with his coaching as well.

He likes to remind that I'm still a rookie of sorts despite the great results I have had and a reasonably brief block of running. It will be two years in June, not a lot of time really in the context of a lifetime worth of running that seasoned runners accumulate. The transition has been from an every other day runner to a consistent runner, to a competitive (with the self) runners, and I am now able to tolerate varied but specific training, and a commitment to delivering the goods on race day. And a few strategic mishaps aside, I'm glad to be at this statge with a 36:13 10 km PB, aware of the fact that almost exactly 18 months ago on 16 November 2011 I had run a 48:00 at the Rowlin National Brokers 10 km night race, breaking 50:00 for the first time.

As this graph illustrates, from the preceding race the Vodacom Country Challenge where I recorded 51:19 three months earlier there has been a pleasing downward trajectory in my 10km times.

Progression of 10km times: 19 August 2011 to 6 April 2013

As I broke 37:00 for the first time late in February I had dreams of heading into the 35s before winter. As I neared the milestone however something happened. My robust immune system fell apart. I got ill as I felt myself reaching my peak. Then while down in Cape Town, in between the 36:13 (sub-par) performance and a 29:01 8km, my injury free body started to creak. I took a couple of days off, and once back on the highveld I managed a solid 10km, just one second short of that coastal PB at what should have been my peak race. On the day however I felt short of something, despite the great performance on paper. Having paced myself for a negative split race, the wheel just wouldn't turn from 7km onward. While most wouldn't quibble over a 12s positive split it was the first warning signs.

I had stupidly entered the Slow Mag half marathon, a silly decision if I had remained healthy and niggle free but after the March I had I should have been smarter and switched to a 10km on the day. The PB duly came but a cost. Cramps and a return of the niggles from Cape Town. The following Wednesday my club held a time trial challenge and the awkward experience of falling apart at 3km in a 5km race should have been the final warning.

I had peaked and was now on a mini plateau. I had spent so much time focussed on that far away global plateau that I forgot the principles of periodized training, that the body cannot respond indefinitely to a stimulus and the stress will take it's toll. At this point the stress will overwhelm the body and the stimulus must change, mostly by reducing it. Once stress is reduced below a certain point the body can be introduced to more stimuli that produces stress and adaptation and improvement. It's basic exercise physiology!

But runners are stubborn and I soldiered on, with a one final push for a glory run penciled in. I had a stellar training week after the poor time trial. On the Sunday long run however all the stress finally culminated in a truly horrid run that had me taking a walk break almost every kilometer  It was the final stanza of Soweto all over again. I had hoped to do Wally Hayward as a training run, then Colgate 15km and the Jakaranda Centre 10km to finish off the season but alas it was not to be. I stayed away from Wally and the horror show of the Sunday long run was repeated as I attempted an easy run. And despite a slim desire to continue with Colgate and Jakaranda, I feel like I'm one run from breaking point and so have decided to do something I should have done at the conclusion of the Mazda race.

Rest.

Articles like this Peak Performance (an excellent resource) one on the importance of scheduled recovery for athletes are bread and butter for me. I know this stuff, I understand the theory and how to implement it. I've spoken about this with my father and other runners, and will volunteer this kind of valuable information to new runners who ask me for advice. I somehow forgot to implement it in my own training.

This year I really wanted to focus on specific periods in my training, stressing the right system and ultimately coordinating the training to culminate into a briefly sustainable but high impact period of peak performance. I got greedy though but at least have arrested this before I succumbed to injury. My greed escalated to the point where I was chasing PBs in 15km and half marathons despite barely averaging 40km per week. The volume itself is not important but the components contributing to that volume were not appropriate for racing those distances. And then I plateaued and simply believed training harder would get me further!

Lesson learnt!

The plan now is simple. After Soweto I barely rested. I was off my feet for 3 days before doing some running albeit very gently at 5:45-6:00/km. Two weekends after the marathon I was racing again and immediately went into high intensity training. Save for a couple of weeks of reduced volume and unplanned breaks due to illness and niggles, essentially after a 26 week marathon program (base+ marathon specific phase), I trained for a further six months without barely skipping a beat. Those 6-8 weeks were some of my best I put in but in hindsight a break would have been a better choice.

So I'm giving my body a break, fully 18 days of absolutely no running whatsoever (backdated to my Wednesday run). The last time I did that was back in December 2011, curiously also after a block of hard training that left me exhausted. Though that break ended up being two months, this time I am motivated and with an annual plan in place over and above the micro goals, I am still as motivated as ever. The plan is to return on 20 May to begin some light running before embarking on a formal base training program from 3 June. The block of training, health and fitness aside is scheduled to last until 16 November, for the Kollonade Retail Park 10km, 26 weeks of a four phase periodized plan.

In the meantime though, whatever will I do with myself?

Slow Mag Half Marathon: A score for low mileage?

Kind of.

Sort of.

But not really.

The result was on paper an excellent one, as all PBs should be celebrated. The process however was anything but smooth.

In reality, Slow Mag on 14th April should not have been part of my racing plans. Or I should have found someone to run with and let them dictate the pace. My brother was due to run his first half marathon there but unfortunately got injured. It might have been a good time to see if I could pace him to his target sub 1:40. Instead I lined up on my own, and when at the start of a race, my inner competitor always emerges!

You see I was rather under cooked. My speed is great, the 10km times tell their own story, pretty much where the coach wanted me at this point in the year heading into winter. Such has been the focus on speed though, that while I have been doing a Sunday long run, in general, time on feet has been minimal. I'm typically running less than 3 hours a week on 5 sessions and year to date had averaged 38km per week. My peak week of 52km was an accident, with an unscheduled 15km midweek run inflating that number. And also looking at 10km programs circulating the web and in magazine, my weekly mileage is below what is typically recommended for the times I'm trying to run. I have to run this mileage by design. In  running terms my legs are young and upwards of 50km week in week out will leave me tired and injury prone. My goal is to do, as Tim Noakes is credited with saying, I must find the quote, as much as I can and only expose myself to higher mileage when I stop improving.

So with that in mind, I was conflicted as to how to approach the race. Looking at my 10km times, somewhere in the region of 1:20-1:21:30 was predicted, and a conservative estimated would push that upper boundary to 1:22:00. The plan was to go out at around 3:50 pace and just see what happens. With the second a bit hillier, I would expect to hit 10km in 38ish, drop a gear and do the next 10km in 39ish and then see what happens. What I actually expected to happen was a bigger fall in pace from about 15km and then hanging on for dear life for the last kilometer or song.

The first 10km was remarkably uneventful. I ran at a surprisingly consistent pace, no surges or drops, and went through 5km in 19:05 and then through 10km in 38:05. I had my usual rhythm and compared to usually trying hit 3:36/km in a 10km this was comfortable.

So far so good.

Unfortunately at 10km we are well into Ebotse and hit the golf cart trail and I think I took more out of myself here than I would have wanted. I did Slow Mag last year, but was further back in the pack. I had traffic to deal with and I think I saved a bit of energy since it's difficult to overtake anyone here. This year being further up in the field I was able to stride out properly, and the combination of the turns and the hard concrete really took it's toll. When we emerged onto the road I was feeling okay but no longer comfortably maintaining pace. My pace was now onto about 4min/km and at 13km my right calf tightened and I had to stop to stretch it out.

I know the area well and I knew that from 15km the course is gentler to the finish so I eased off the pedal a bit hoping to put in a late burst. I got tot the 15km mark in 58:50, a 15km PB I must add, so about 4:09/km for the 10-15km stretch.

I was in a bit of a crowd at this stage and was using the runners to pace myself. At 17km the calf tightened again and more stretching ensued. I progressed regularly trouble free from that point, just concentrating on hitting the 4min/km mark. It was hard work but I just concentrated on knocking off each kilometre until I got onto the grass at Benoni Northerns. There would no kick, and I coasted in and stopped the clock at 1:22:46, a solid PB of almost 3 minutes. This was good enough for 25th place on the day. Last year I finished in 124th place and in 1:38:42, so a good 15:56 quicker. Progress, lots of it!

This wasn't my strongest race of the year. And I think it took a bit the more out of me than I had hoped. On Wednesday we had a time trial challenge hosted by us Kudus against Old Eds, Pirates and a few other clubs. It was only 5km but at about 3km my legs were jelly and I laboured to an 18:47 run, which I reckon would be my slowest 5km of the year (the 4th km split was in 4:27!). I've recorded faster 5km splits in pretty much all my 10km races except the 2nd half of McCarthy (hilly) and Kosmos 3-in-1 (hot). And in training I've been able to hit out controlled 18:45 5km paced runs.

The flipside of course is that on proper training for the distance I would expect to do significantly better and that's what I hope to see when I do a trained for half marathon in November.

For now I'll be nursing myself back into shape for my May races, Colgate 15km and Jakaranda Centre Race of Hope 10km on the 5th and 11th respectively. The aim there is too bring my 15km time in line with my other PBs and to have one last go at a 35 minute clocking for the 10km before easing off into winter base training.

Race Report: Mazda Athletic Club 10km

I fell short, but I went for it, that 35 minute 10km.

Leading into the Mazda 10km, I really had no idea what kind of condition I was in with respect to 10km racing. I did a ~7km run on Wednesday at 4:02/km, so steady but not fast and felt okay. On Thursday I did 10x200m at 10km pace with 60 seconds recovery. For such a short distance, I found it difficult to get into race pace and found myself doing the reps at closer to what I guess would be 5km pace for me, 3:27-3:31/km with two outliers, one at 3:15/km and one nailed on at 3:36/km or 36:00 10km pace. I felt okay but just didn't have the rhythm of old. If anything, I felt creaky, spending a lot of time trying to figure out how far out to reach, how quickly to turn my legs, things that I had been taking for granted throughout the year.

Nerves and more nerves

So when I headed out to the Ford Sports and Recreation Centre I was nervous, not from expectation which is what usually happens, and is good nerves, but because I was actually riddled with doubt, something that I haven't experienced probably since that painful 35-41km stretch during Soweto Marathon. Once I dropped down to my preferred distance, I have had the confidence to take on any race, and even if I failed my objective, I would look forward to the next attempt. This time as I went through my warm up, which I aborted quicker than usual, I was almost longing for the the end of the race to be done.

Then at 6:30 the referee announced that there would be a 5 minute delay. Last year this race seemed small to me compared to other races I did. It was mid May, right in Comrades taper so I guess a lot of runners were putting their feet up. Indeed there were just 1600 finishers combined for the 10km and half marathon, smaller than individual distances at most races. I had done the 5km that day and come 2nd despite running, for podium places anyway, a pedestrian 19:25. Now despite leaving home at 5:10 am, with the race venue in suburban terms a stone throw away, I was only parked 40 minutes later. There was a ridiculous queue for the toilets and after the race I even found myself parked in!

A sensible start

Once the start gun was fired it was a mad rush to the first corner and for once I backed off and let the crowd stream past and got into my natural pace. Despite these good intentions it was still a fast opening salvo. I made a point of noting my splits at each of the markers and I passed the first km board in 3:24, identical to the Bonitas 10km Challenge, which didn't quite go according to plan. At least this was a slight downhill. I got to the 2km mark in 6:54, a 3:30 split and then a long stretch of gradual uphill was on hand and my pace drifted into the 3:40s, going through in 10:36, 14:18, 18:02 (3:42, 3:42, 3:44 splits). At least now I could attribute my slowing down to the elevation but I was equally being timid. This was Deloitte-esque, gentle enough. I had hoped to get through 5km in 18:10 so 18:02 was not too bad.

Close but no cigar

From 5km the course got a bit more pleasent as the route leveled off and then we had some nice downhill. I got to 6km in 21:31 with a 3:29 split that was all gravity! At this point though I stopped enjoying the race as we hit the crowd coming up as well sharing the road with some vehicles. It was a bit unsettling as I was pushing myself of cars and trying to to avoid running into people running in the opposite direction The route started climbing again and my splits slowed. I missed the 7km board but hit 8km in 29:01, so 7:30 at 3:45 pace for that stretch. Another 3:45 split followed, going through 9km in 32:46 then I tried to put the hammer down. I didn't feel quite so strong but when I hit the grass again the clock had just ticked over into the 35s and I tried to turn my legs but alas there was nothing like the finish I managed at Deloitte, but a 3:28 last km brought me home in 36:14. The second half was actually less challenging but I was unable to get through it quicker but can't really complain with an 18:12 second half. And truth be told, if you had told me 6 months ago I could string together back to back sub 18:30 5km I would have literally laughed in your face!

Mazda Athletic Club 10km Route Profile

To put the run into perspective, I was only 5 seconds short of the 36:13 I ran at the Bonitas 10km Challenge. While that race was compromised slightly, it was on the coast and ridiculously flat! So to be 1400m higher and contend with 45m elevation gain and get close to a PB is a positive.

That positive vibes aside, I did feel a tinge of disappointment. I'm not inherently competitive, in that I know that this is a work in progress, and so I tend to focus on what I'm doing. I do however notice who finishes in front and behind, and a runner that I have finished ahead of every time we've shared the road since the Great Run race in December, streaked ahead and try as I might I could not bridge the gap. Looking at the gap as they hit the grass I would guess they ran at least 35:55, and that's where I was hoping to be. Having said that I also haven't had the best conditioning in the last three weeks. I felt like I was competing on borrowed time, with training gains from February.

One last positive. I mentioned in that last post that I believe I'm now a 37 min 10km runner. To explain, that means even if I got a call on Friday night to hit a run on the Saturday I think I would back myself to nail a 37 min time and time again, unless the route resembled something like the Mini Monster. What is interesting though is that out of the seven 10km races I have run this year four  have been quicker than 37:00.

1. McCarthy Toyota 37:27
2. Tuks Bestmed 37:01
3. Deloitte Pretoria 36:50
4. Kosmos 3-in-1 38:32
5. Om Die Dam 36:36
6. Bonitas 10km Challenge 36:13
7. Mazda 10km 36:14

And adding the post Soweto 10km races from last year:

1. Kollonade Retail Park 38:22
2. Tom Jenkins 42:13 (something fishy with this one as I clocked 40:53 on my watch, and there's a 40:53 in the results, but there was a huge storm and some 5km runners had infiltrated the 10km finished queue)
3. Great Run 37:34 (my clock time was 37:46)
4. Old Year's 38:25

So in 11 10km races since Soweto, 1x 40:xx, 3x 38:xx, 3x 37:xx and 4x 36:xx. 

With just one more 10km penciled in before a short winter break that will lead into base training through the bulk of the cold season, I'm hoping for a solid 5 weeks of training that will allow me to add a 35:xx to that list of times, and begin the shift towards targeting that sub 35:00 10km in the Spring/Summer that is the ultimate prize for me in 2013! 

Before that I have a half marathon to worry about. Yikes!

Optimal Pacing?: Lessons From The Best

Lately I've been thinking about heading out to a race and leaving my watch behind. I know some people that have the confidence to do so. My wife has been running without a watch all year, preferring to trust her judgement and also not being pressured into chasing splits. She is an ultramarathon runner and in some ways, certainly outside the level of elite runners, as one heads into longer distances the margins are less fine. I'm focusing my peak performances on 5km and 10km races, using 15km and a few half marathon races for stamina and endurance training. For me the margins are fine. If you lose 30 seconds on a kilometre in a 50km race, one can strategize on the fly to get that time back. For me 30s in a 5km and even a 10km race will take a serious effort to claw back, with these races lasting ~18:00 and ~38:00 for me.

Pacing is such an integral part of racing. There are many ways to run a given time for a distance, but one way will often be a bit more comfortable than another. I've been spectating at a lot of races, supporting my wife and my club mates from Varsity Kudus, and I'll often seen two athletes finishing side by side, yet in contrasting condition. When one peruses running resources, the advise is very clear that for middle, long and ultra distances, an even pace, where conditions will allow, is most ideal. It suggests increasing effort as a race progresses but if the effort has been distributed properly one should be able to maintaining pace at the end of a race and even have a bit in the tank for a little kick!

I came across an article posted in Sweat Science on the Runner's World site called The Disadvantages of Perfect Pacing which really got me thinking. Last year I inadvertently perfected pacing. I started off running very negative split races, like running the last 11.1km of a half marathon quicker than the first 10km to eventually running even splits on a course with some climbs. Part of it was that because I was in a rapid phase of improvement I could rarely take a similar strategy into races even a few weeks apart. So I tended to find a comfortable effort and hold on to it. But now while I'm still improving the gains are becoming comparatively marginal and I'm having to think about what I'm doing constantly. The Sweat Science article really stood out for me because it presents a scenario where very very good athletes are shown to eschew the sensibilities of even pacing and rather push the envelope. That is encapsulated by this rather excellent quote from the article:

According to conventional physiology, steady pacing is the most efficient way to ration your energy stores. Its logic has been taken for granted since Aesop and his tortoise. But it is inherently limiting: to run at an even pace, you have to decide on your final finishing time, and thus set a ceiling on your potential achievement, before the starting gun fires. As a result, even pacing may produce better results on average, but it is less likely to produce dramatic outliers: jaw-droppingly fast (or slow) times.

That quote really speaks to me. My goals for the year and with my margins for error becoming finer as I get faster suggests that at some point I will HAVE to ditch sensibility and go for it. In fact when I ran 37:46 at the Great Run last year that's precisely what I did. At the start I found myself in a group of runners that at races have typically run around or just faster than my pace. On this day, I felt really good, so I surged ahead and chased another group with more runners I recognized who I only really see at the start and the finish of races! My goal was not to catch them, but to keep them in my sights. As the kilometres ticked by, this group was edging further away but next thing I was 8km into the race. My legs started to burn but I hung on and shattered my PB, producing by my standards an outlier performance. Nothing in my training had suggested I could run that fast. Had I raced as I had planned, I would have run 38:30. Sometimes it pays to be adventurous.

I suppose the question depends really on the ambition of the runner. I was watching the Lisbon Half Marathon just the other day, and the Kenyan Bernard Koech set out with a mission to to break Zersenay Tadese's astonishing 58:23 world record. He set out a blistering pace, going through 10km in 27:17, 57:34 pace! But as the race wore on he was still running quickly but by 16km was already outside world record pace, in 45:20 and by the finish over a minute outside the record in 59:54. His pace for the first 10km was a mind boggling 2:44 min/km but the for the remaining 11.1km 2:56 min/km. Contrast this with Tadese who went through 10km in 27:53, 2:47 min/km but covered the next 11.1km in 30:30 at a pace of 2:45 min/km. He just ramped his pace up and even his final 1.1km was under his average pace for the WR. And having seen both races he looked in a lot better shape at the end than Koech. And remarkably enough, Koech was 'only' 2s/km faster than the WR for that first 10km but thereafter 10s/km slower.

One might think that Elite running has nothing to do with us mere mortals but I'm a firm believer that if I'm going to be a better runner these are the people I want to be learning from. It's not about emulating them but taking the principles of their approaches and applying them appropriately to my situation. And on that pacing front I've certainlu been more Bernard Koech that Zersenay Tadese in all but two of my six 10km races this year. Possibly like Koech's approach, I always look to bank time by building myself a buffer but neglect to appreciate how quickly one can fall off the cliff even in a race as short as 10km. Have a look at these splits from my last 10km race:

1. 3:24
2. 3:26
3. 3:30
4. 3:35
5. 3:39
6. 3:44
7. 3:45
8. 3:44
9. 3:42
10. 3:45

These splits are from the Bonitas 10km Challenge from 23rd March in Cape Town. This was 1) the flattest race I have ever run and 2) at the coast. The final time was 36:13, a 23 second PB which is about the only real positive from the race. All things considered this was a real opportunity for me to real test myself and I ruined it by going through 3km in 10:20. That was excellent pacing for a 5km. Once I had hit 4km in 13:55 I would have had the confidence to put out a 3:20 final kilometre but alas I still had 6km to go. A 5km split of 17:34 would be as good as it got as I limped home in 18:39 for the remaining 5km. Consider that at Deloitte I finished with a 3:28 final kilometer on course with ~100m elevation gain.

My goal for the Bonitas race was simply to break 36:00. I fell 14 seconds short and in hindsight my fate was sealed at that 3km mark. Had I gone out at 3:36 min/km pace, I would have gone through in 10:48, and I am 100% certain  I wouldn't be running at 3:44 pace in the second half, outside my average pace for most races I have run this year. A 10:48 first 3km, which would been closer to 18:00 for 5km would have still been aggressive, but with flatness of the course would have been conservative enough in the circumstances given that I still finished with an average pace of 3:37 min/km. A 3:27 min/km pace for the first third, when aiming for 3:36 in average, was in running terms suicidal and in some ways I'm surprised I got that close to 36:00 in the end.

My take home message from the Sweat Science article, studying some elite performances and then looking at my own running is that a little bravery goes a long way but must be married to some sensibility. I'm certainly on the quest for that outlier performance. I believe that at this point in time, I am a regulation 37 minute 10km runner  and if I work a little bit harder I will drop into the 36 minute range. But with a little bit of sensible aggression that 35 minute 10km will surely come, even in the thin air of the highveld! Then I can shift my regulation performance to 36 minute and target that sub 35 minute dream.

This weekend I have the Mazda Athletic Club 10km. I did the 5km last year and broke 20 minutes for the first time. The 10km is described by Runner's World as 'flat, yet challenging', so standard fare for the highveld then! I never like to make excuses for my runs but I was ill before the Bonitas 10km Challenge then had an 18 hour drive to Cape Town two days before. And though I don't believe it affected my performance, it has meant that training has not gone according to plan. The 29:01 I did at the Two Oceans 8km Fun Run however suggests that my form is good, if a little rusty, and as I said a few lapses in concentration aside, I could have run around 28:50 on the day, not bad effort for a 15:00 race. However, the quality has evaporated from my training in the last three weeks. On Saturday though I still plan to be aggressive as I search for my outlier performance of the season but plan to be more Tadese than Koech, sensibly aggressive, looking for closer to 11:00 for the first 3km and staying away from the 10:30 level. I certainly believe in running close the edge and hopefully having enough in the tank for one finally kick. BUT, no more 5km PBs in 10km races!!!

Happy racing!

Quarterly Report: The End of a cycle.

This time next week after the completion of the Mazda 10km in Pretoria, I will have completed a full 12 week training cycle. Looking at what I managed to achieve, it's difficult sometimes to believe that I'm only on my second calendar year of training, and have yet to complete two full years since I laced my shoes against in June 2011. Moreover this is only my third complete training program following the 10 week Wally Hayward Half Marathon and 16 week Soweto Marathon programs last year. I squeezed in some (ill-advised) 6 weeks of Lydiard style anaerobic trainng post Soweto that was the stepping stone to the cycle coming to an end now.

In 2012 I had somewhat broad goals that would allowed me to focus on simply getting into the routine of being a runner, but in 2013 I set some very lofty and specific targets. I got a respiratory tract infection last week and then traveled down to Cape Town to support my wife doing her first Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, so weeks 10 and 11 have to put it mildly not gone according to plan. As such it is unlikely that I will meet my intermediate goal at this stage, to break 36:00 for the 10km (and 17:30 for 5km) which is part of a bigger, very stiff annual goal.

Despite being derailed slightly it is fair to say that I have taken huge steps forward as a runner. Coupled with that, I have learnt some of the virtues that will help me achieve that goal, mostly patience. Just because it's written in black and white (mostly digital actually), it doesn't simply follow that my step-by-step idealised progress will progress well idealistically! I've been brought down to earth once or twice both in racing and training, then unexpectedly made a breakthrough!

While I still have the Mazda race to come, I'm not expecting much out of it, so I think this is a good time to take stock of the first quarter of my year thus far.

Training for the most part went really well, barring s bit of ambition that had to be quelled at times, put it down to youthful exuberance! The focus has been on quality so much so that my coach has set no weekly mileage targets. I had to get in a speed session every week, a strength/hill session and an endurance run. The only session I didn't do with great regularity was the hill session and I felt it cost me at stages. My speed sessions and 15km long runs were nailed on mostly week after week. Speed was the focus. The logic was that through the marathon training I had done a fair amount of endurance and also my staple speed session before was tempo runs, but I had never really done any top end stuff. And certainly when I pulled a 64s 400m out of the bag once (before blowing up as the session progressed), and consistently ran 69s 400s to close off a set of 8x400m repeats, the speed had arrived.

How did it it translate into racing. Well I headed into the year having done 37:46 for 10km (official time was 37:34 but I'm sure the time keepers were generous), and from the McCarthy Toyota 10km race, it's been a case of whittling it down. Six 10km races thus far in 2013 have seen 5 PBs, taking my time down in sequence as follows: 37:27 (McCarthy), 37:01 (Tuks Bestmed), 36:50 (Deloitte Pretoria), 36:38 (Om Die Dam) and 36:13 (Bonitas 10km Challenge), so roughly 90s in 10 weeks. The Bonitas 10km Challenge was coastal but I can safely I have yet to feel this added benefit of low altitude  However it was the Saturday after I had got the respiratory tract infection, then co-driven 18 hours to Cape Town from Johannesburg on the Thursday, and then sampled a bit too much craft beer and wine on the Friday. All in all a job well done.

I didn't much of a go on the 5km front. I did two 5km fun runs and both were unfortunately well short of the 5km distance. I did Johnson Crane at the end of January and was actually on track to run under 17:30 having got to 3km at 10:35 and after consolidating to 4km was speeding up nicely to finish but the course was around 400m short. At the Sunrise Baby Monster, I was surprised to see I had run 17:23 on a hellish 5km course but while not as short as Johnson Crane, it was about 250m off. My only other 5km time was an 18:22 at the Ebotse Parkrun, a lovely course that I feel I can run at least 17:45 on, with 60% of the route on grass.

While in the Cape, I finally got in a 8km run and have a PB at this awkward far but not quite 10km distance. I entered the Two Oceans 8km Fun Run on 29th March and even though I still wasn't quite 100% managed a surprisingly quick 29:01, good enough for 7th place. Had I not had to ask for directions entering the UCT Rugby Fields and then mistaking the first banner as the finish line, a good sub 29 was on the cards! Since getting sick and then not running as much, my knee has been niggly and I even had to cut an attempted tempo run short on the tuesday. So with that in mind, I won't even berate myself for those two lapses in concentration that cost me a 28:5x for the distance.

So where to now? In some ways these last two weeks have left me a little bit deflated in that even though I ran two great times for 10km and 8km, I haven't been training or racing for that matter at close to peak performance. After Mazda, I have entered the Slow Mag Half Marathon, the anniversary of my first half so I just had to do it! I have done some 15km and one 18km run, and I'll probably squeeze in at least 15km this coming weekend. I'm not going to put pressure on myself for a time there but I would love to break my PB, 1:25:28. I think had these last two weeks gone as planned, I would have aimed to flirt with that 1:20 mark!

Thereafter, I'm going to go for one last push at the 10km. There is a lovely 10km race in Pretoria, the Jakaranda Centre 10km that I did last year and I remember it as a flat fast route though I did it as an easy recovery run. This year it's penciled in for 11th May, so after Slow Mag, I have 4 weeks to the race and will give it one final big push, with only the Colgate 15km on 5th May which I will use as a long speed endurance run. The Jakaranda will be the one where I gun for a 35:xx time.

Then I will probably do the RAC Sweat Shop/Asics 10km the following weekend and take the remainder of   May off, 2 weeks, before launching into some base training once we return from Durban where my wife will have completed her first Comrades!

Race Reports: Kosmos 3-in-1 and Om Die Dam, weekends of contrasting fortunes

These past two weekends have taught the value of respecting a course. The theme of the story is contrasting fortunes. I ran two races, the Kosmos 3-in-1 10km  (planned) and the Om Die Dam 10km (unplanned). One race was at 17:00, the other at 6:30. One race had an elevation of 100m, the other 52m. One race was hot and the other was run in perfect distance running conditions. The combination of those conditions that produced the better result is somewhat obvious but perhaps brings to mind how rigid we runners are sometimes both in training and particularly racing. We have to hit the splits in training, be it interval training, hill repeats tempos, or that long run at 30s/km slower than anticipated marathon day. On race day we have our strategies imprinted in our memories, and now our watches can beep when we go too fast and when we go to slow, or we have pace bands that gives up times of arrival at various splits. It can be very exhausting sometimes! I find myself doing some pretty nifty number crunching while turning my legs on race day.

Late last week, Runners World (US) posted a very interesting piece on how the Kenyans approach their training. These are by far the dominant athletes in the distance running world and by all accounts training and racing, while very serious is done in a less calculated manner that one would think. The article even suggested that finishing a work out (or a race for that matter) in a prescribed intensity is not always the attempted result. These runners push themselves to the brink. And it makes sense, within reason of course. If one is to push outside their boundaries, surely it stands to reason that the carefully constructed plan should be put aside occasionally? And sometimes, as I learned, one needs to hold by slightly and accept sometimes that some days aren't meant from ground breaking performances.

Kosmos 3-in-1

To go back to the list of conditions I put up earlier, this race was the 17:00, 52m elevation gain and HOT. Typically armed with that knowledge this was a race where I would have targeted a very strong performance but this was a day when the custodians of racing when on hand to dish out some valuable lessons. From the start it was probably not going to be a day for fast racing.

The Kosmos 3-in-1 event is unique in that it gives athletes the opportunity to really extend themselves in their quest to test out their abilities to endure. On the menu is a marathon for breakfast, served at 6:00. For lunch is a half portion and for a light dinner is a brisk 10km. All in all runners would take on the entire feast complete 73.3km. And for the many the breaks in between make the whole ordeal endeavour even more challenge; rhythm is something all runners value.

While 2013 is about specialisation for me, my wife is training for her first Comrades Ultramarathon this year, and the Kosmos 3-in-1 would a valuable indicator of her staying power. Thus it meant when she woke up at 3:00 to get ready for the marathon, awake I did too. Typically waking up at 3:00 before a race is no big deal for me but with 14 hours until the start of my race it was to be a long day, spent waiting and trying to keep fresh and ready.

That is not to suggest I was bored or troubled. Outside of that 30 odd minutes I was running, Kosmos was a reminder of all that I love about running. The were a number of fellow Kudus club members at the event, and spending time with club members and cheering them on was quite something. Supporting my wife as she took this big challenge was the most important part of the event, completing all three events with plenty to spare. As such I would not change any part of the day.

Except the weather!

The marathon had some amazing weather. Overcast for the most part, with a bit of drizzle early on. However about halfway through the marathon the sun peaked through the clouds and it got hot very quickly. By the time the half marathon got underway it was well over 30°C. Come the 10km things had not improved much from that point possibly down to around 28°C. I vaguely the announcer at the start saying something in that region, though with my poor Afrikaans skills I could be wrong.

I had hoped to run in the region of 36:30 having heard how flat the course could be. Indeed I started of briskly hitting the first kilometre board in 3:35 or so. But that was as good as it got. Thereafter fatigue hit my legs immediately and by the 3rd kilometre I felt like I was fighting to maintain pace despite the relative lack of steep climbing. There was really one steep climb, after 7km going through the 8km mark and just before 9km. I was surprised in the moment how much I was struggling. I would glance at the Garmin periodically and would never see the pace much faster than 3:45/km no matter how much I pushed.

I was so relieved to get to the end. The race finishes on the Lake Umuzi waterfront and it's a twisty ending. I had some experience of it already, having entered in and continued a fine club tradition of winning the 2km fun run! This time I crossed the line, a bit disappointed to have run 38:32. This time was slower than the Old Year's race in December, and was my slowest 10km since Tom Jenkins where I had run 40:52, and was over a minute slower than McCarthy Toyota despite a far nicer route. On the other hand I finised 12th in the race and was in the top 10 till almost 8km when I got passed by two runners.


As the week progressed and speaking to various people, I accepted to take the rough with the good. I had a race plan and stuck rigidly to it. It didn't cost me anything. That was my 6th consecutive sub 39 10km, crazy when I think I broke 45 minutes for 10km for the first time less than 12 months ago!

Om Die Dam

So the following week heading down to Haartbeespoort to run Om Die Dam, my confidence was a bit low. At least training had gone well, a session of 400m sprints aiming for 72s and doing, 72, 73, 71, 71, 69, then a tempo run with 5km aiming for 3:48/km and returning splits of 3:47, 3:49, 3:49, 3:46, 3:46. Those session were sandwiched by an easy run where I comfortably ran at ~4:35 pace. Still there was this nagging feeling from the weekend before that this period of improvement had run it's course. Since the two easy weeks that I had after Soweto, I have been at it for 17 weeks, with two further easy weeks over New Years to recharge. For a relative novice it's been a challenging and prolonged period and pretty soon it would be time to ease off and do something different. Had that time arrived already.

Once again we were at the Dam because my wife was doing the 50km event. It turned out to be one umarathon/ulltra too many for her but she got confirmation of her staying power, finishing a difficult sounding race, which bodes well for the Big C in June!

Conditions at 6:30 were just right for racing! Cool, overcast and no wind to speak off. The start was congested and I almost got into trouble with some big guys doing the half for being eager in my attempts to get round them but I got out of there safely and got into a nice rhythm. I got to the first kilometre in 3:32 on my watch but unlike Kosmos that biting feeling in my legs didn't come. We ran down to about 2km, the poor 50km ultra runners would climb up this furious hill to finish their race! As sadistic as finishes come. Our route flattened out to 4km and I was feeling as good as I have in any race. The kilometre marks, despite being similar with watch for the first 2km deviated a lot as I apparently put in some 4:00/km+ splits despite not feeling like I was slowing down.

At 4km I did feel my pace slow a bit. The pull didn't seem that hectic to me until I pulled out the route profile after the race, 75m elevation gain over ~3km.

Om Die Dam

My splits on the Garmin for that stretch, were 3:42, 3:51 and 4:03. The boards disappeared after 5km so I have no recollection of where I was in relation to official markings. I had at this stage given up on a PB but hoped to run well inside 38 and after the last water point, with 3km to go I started to pick up my pace.

Much of this period is a blur I vaguely remember seeing a 2km mark on the road (Om Die Dam distance markers show how much is left) and my time just under 30:00. I really went for it. There was one more climb as we went past the start again and climbed briefly before heading into the finish, the grass track at Haartbeespoort High School where we ran almost a full lap, my time was in the 35s at this stage and I ran as hard as I could and crossed the line in 36:38 on my watch, a new PB!

Numericaly speaking this was one of the tougher of the routes that I have run and a good PB shows that perhaps there is still a bit more to come. That during the run I didn't feel like it was challenging is a good sign too.

There's a few more races to come. It's Two Oceans in less than 2 weeks and while in Cape Town I will try to get a race in, and then the last planned 10km is the Mazda 10km race on 6 April. That race is one when I'm going to throw caution to the wind (within reason) and just try and thrash my legs as much as can.

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A Measure Of Progress (and some race reports)

Every sport out there has some kind of measure of improvement that one can strive for. For runners it's as simple as running further or faster or further faster. That's part of the thrill of entering races, even for the 99% of us who are not at the sharp end of the field competing for podiums and prize money. We still compete but with our past selves. While runners tend to be non-committal when asked about times for races, often getting a response like, "oh that last 10km, it was about 40!", that runner is probably completing the time in their head, "40 minutes and 34 seconds!". In the last 18 months I have run 29 races and more than my PBs, I can remember every time I ran to the second!

The thing about racing though is that the components that make up your run and result in that finishing time are many and varied. The course and the altitude are fixed variables, then the weather is critical and unpredictable, then dealing with other people *cough* walkers pushing right to the front *cough* and you the runner, something as silly as substituting the usual morning snack can wreak havoc. With that in mind, comparing races simply by time alone can be deceiving. As I read in this Men's Health article interviewing the likes of Hendrick Ramaala, a personal best is not always a best performance which in turn is not always a maximum performance. I remember last year while training for Soweto Marathon, running a 39:39 PB for the Zwartkop 10km race at the end of July. It was not ideal. I was late for the starrt (which thankfully was delayed to accommodate those stuck in traffic), then I was conservative at the beginning, I didn't have a pocket so I ran with car keys in hand and at 8km  I dropped them and had to backtrack, and it took a huge effort from there to recover and break 40 min for the first time. Then a few weeks later I ran 42:05 at the Castle Walk 10km. The latter was a long way off my personal best but it was by far the better performance. The course was incredibly hilly and it was so cold I had tights, gloves and a beanie on.

So while I have improved  my running a heck of a lot, without being able to control for some variables at least, the geek in me has been looking for a solid quantitative measure of progress. 

And on 23 February I got it. 

At the start of 2012 I had been pretty down about running, up to the end of February I had run once, contemplated giving up on it completely but decided to lace up my shoes one last time and headed out to my Run/Walk for Life branch in Benoni one weekend. The following weekend I was out in Pretoria and my wife was doing the Deloitte Pretoria half marathon so I went along and entered the 10km. To my surprise I ran 45:44 which was quite a big PB at that time. Now a year later I was lined up at the start of the same race, in a very different space and in very different condition. I wasn't even supposed to be doing the race but my father was entered for the 10km and was booked off from running with bronchitis so I took on his entry.

Recapping a close call

The previous weekend I had done the Bestmed Tuks Race having heard it's a fast course. I went there under the guise of doing it as a training run, 2km warm up, 6km at tempo pace, 2km cool down. But once we got underway I was sucked into the event as I spotted some big names towing the start. Indeed at the 1km mark two very familiar looking Nedbank elite females came striding past, it was the Kalmer sisters!

The Bestmed Tuks race was a deceptive little tease, It was predominantly down for about 3km and then what followed was almost 5km of predominantly gradual but still brisk uphill running. I had gone through 3km in 10:40 but it was difficult to maintain that pace. I went through 5km in 18:10 and while I was keeping my pace better than 4:00 min/km I was a lot closer to it that 3:30 min/km. By 8km it was 29:30 or so and at 9km my time was 33:20. My legs were beat and I was overtaken by a few guys finishing strong. When we turned on to the track at LC De Villiers I tried to sprint for the line as it dawned on my that while a PB was a certainty I could slip under 37:00 but alas it was not to be. The sprint did not materialize and I finished in 37:01, still a 26s improvement on my time from McCarthy two weekends before.

Measuring Progress

So standing at the start of the Deloitte Pretoria 10km, I was a bit fatigued to be honest and during my warm up my legs still had that dead feeling from the end of the Bestmed Tuks race. Training had not gone too well either. I had done a session of 6x600s on the Tuesday and though it was hot I never felt in control and my form deteriorated rapidly. On Thursday I had done a time trial and while it was my second best time on the course again from about 3km I faded and was almost down to about HM pace at the end. Again the weather was a contributor though could not explain everything. I was working too hard for my own good.

Once the gun went and the mad stampede at this huge race, with 3500 finishers, has subsided the rhythm and groove returned. The 10km shares the first 3km with the marathon and half marathon so from point to point to that mark is uphill running. Indeed while I have been hitting 3km in my last few 10km races well under 11:00, here I got to the mark in 11:20 but I knew the course got faster, with the occasional pull, as the race progressed. I got to the 5km mark in 18:35 so my splits were under 3:40 min/km which is were I had to be racing at.

The next two splits were fast as well, in the mid 3:30s and I got to 7 k  in about 25:50. From there it was a war of attrition and a bit of a mental ding dong, with two short but surprising challenging climbs. It was probably more that it was so late in the race but I did start to struggle a bit and had to work really hard. By 8km I was uncomfortably close to the 30:00 mark, the doubt was creeping in and the next split was even slower as I hit 9km in around 33:35 give or take a second or two.

I could feel that it would be Tuks all over again but I also knew there was a nice downhill section coming up and I was really starting to get the stride rate up again. As we got to the entrance of Phobians the venue, with clock at 35:50 odd and maybe 250-300m to go I put in the sort of kick that I didn't know I possessed. Going round the grass my pace picked up and I crossed the line under 37, my offical time 36:50!!!

The Deloitte Pretoria 10km Course Profile

I was ecstatic. While there wer only 11 seconds in it, I think I ran a lot better here than I did at Tuks, or McCarthy for that matter. I've been going out way to fast, close to 35:00 10km pace, and while that's where I want to be at the end of the year I'm not even close right now and fading at the end of races tells me that. Deloitte was tougher than Tuks and about on a par with McCarthy so overall it was definitely a better performance.

And on the subject of progress. A year on year improvement of 8:54 is the figure and one that really puts into perspective just how far I have come in the last year. It's also an inspiration to keep working hard and keeping knocking down the times. Tough it's getting more and more difficult to find places to improve, I raced three times over 10km in February setting a PB each time, bringing the time down from 37:34 to 37:27, 37:01 and finally 36:50.

This coming weekend I head down to Secunda for the Kosmos 3-in-1 event. My wife is doing the full 73.3km but I'll be racing at 17:00 for the 10km just hoping for more of the same.

There's a first time for everything

Just briefly, this weekend was the Sunrise Monster in Pretoria. I ended up registering for the Baby Monster, the 5km fun run and even though it's a baby it was still a monster. It was just short of 5km, as I went round the course in 17:23 though after passing the 4km mark in 15:00, I know it's unlikely I put in a 2:23 final kilometre despite being in great shape and striding with purpose to the finish.

The great part of the race is that I won!!! It was a fun so the speedsters were torturing themselves on the Mini Monster but I'll take it. I've finished second in two fun runs, the Mazda 5km and the Johnson Crane Fun Run which was also just shy of 5km so it was great to have the exprience of crossing the line with the entire field behind me. The Garmin measure 4.75km  and with ~1% error I was on track for around 18:10, only 21s or so adrift of my 5km PB, which would have been great on these hills. Though it must be noted we didn't even make it as far as the infamous Loveday Street!

I'm actually getting a bit miffed with these short races now as I am in the shape to run faster than 17:49 and genuinely believe I can run 17:15 for 5km. At Johnson in January, which measured at ~4.6km I might have run 17:25 on a full course. I had gone through 4km in 14:05. I guess and understand that if it's a fun run there really is no obligation to measure out exactly 5km as there are no official results. With that in mind though perhaps it should just be labeled as a fun run and no distance, just a guarantee it will be shorter than the 10k event. Parkruns aside, the Take 5 relay and the Asics 5km at the end of the year are the only 5km events I know of that are guaranteed to be the exact distance so I might have to wait for one of  those to get an official shot at the PB