Back to 5: A Rare Parkrun and Johnson Crane Fun Run

As my 2013 program is starting to shift through the gears, I've been very eager to test myself and see just what improvements if any I have gained in the last 3 weeks or so of full on training. My goal for the next three months is simply to run faster at 10km than I ever have. My overall goal for the year as I said before is a sub 35:00 10km. To continue to train at high intensity for the duration of the year until the goal is achieved would be sheer folly, so my program now involves racing once a month until the first weekend of April and training consistently for the preceding weeks, sharpening the necessary tools I require. So that means speedwork in the form of fast repetitions, hill training in the form of long hills and short sprints to improve my stamina, form and strength and maintenance of endurance by continue to run above distance once a week. The mission here is specificity, a 30km long run will get me nothing here so my session have been selected with the goal race in mind. In particular the repetitions not only improve my form and leg speed etc, my consistently running faster than race pace, when I line up on the start line, that pace should feel considerably easier and the hills and longish run will take of helping me last the distance.

Great in theory, but before my first 10km  race I have been eager to just feel my way around a race to see how I was getting along. Two weekends ago I manged to attend the closest parkrun to me at Ebotse. I did the course once before sometime in the middle of Soweto training as a breather from the long stuff and put in a respectable 19:57. This time, with the shackles of high volume training thrown off I was able to put in a good performance running my second fastest 5km, finishing in 18:22. This was interesting to me because while my PB is 17:49 for the distance I have frankly never looked like coming close to it and I was starting to believe that it was a once off performance. But of course to nail my goal for the year I would have to not only match that time but probably start heading into the low 17s and high 16s. The Ebotse course is approximately 3km on grass and as I have learnt from doing my speed sessions on a cricket oval, grass is kind on the joint but is was more taxing than an all weather track or the road. So I had good reason to believe that on a similarly flat course on the road I could run a good time for 5km.

The opportunity came around this past weekend at the Johnson Crane race, a big affair with an estimated 6000 runners doing the various events from a 1km kiddies to the marathon. With my wife doing the half marathon I would be at the venue, Old Benonians, so I entered the 5km. The marathon and half marathon went off first and 30 minutes later, the 10.5km, quarter marathon and 5km would be off. I was to see a legend of South African running Frith van de Merwe also toeing the start, she was ultimately the first veteran female in the 10.5km.

As the gun went off I was honestly unsure how to run the race. A 10km I typically try and restrain myself, but with only 5000 metres, I didn't apply the brakes much. The start was frenetic and I was sucked into a pace that I knew I would be difficult to sustain, so I did sit back a little and try and pick off people in front of me. In a blur the 1km board came past and I checked my watch, 3:25, yikes. By this stage I had calmed down and was in a nice rhythm, long but quick strides (at least that's how I imagined a spectator would describe it). The 2km board came round and it was 6:50 odd, the Garmin would show 6:57, and it was spot on with the boards distance wise. The 10.5km runners would split with us at the 3km point which came just after a water point. As I do in short races I skipped it  and checked my time, 10:34 or something like.

Suddenly the crowd thinned out to the point where I could see no one in front of me. I looked back and just the water point disappearing in front. Eventually after about a minute or so, I saw the lead car up ahead and a runner clad in Nedbank runners just behind. I just focused in keeping him in my sights and I was surprised that I felt strong. There were no more distance marking so I just kept on going, and as Old Bens came into view just pushed harder. 

I stopped the clock and was a bit alarmed to see it at 16:09 and then the realization that route was a fair bit short. The Garmin had measured 4.62km. It was spot on up to 2km at least and certainly not far off at the 3km mark so that was close to the correct distance. Working back 16:09 is 3:30/km pace and I was feeling really strong so anywhere from 17:25-17:30 was possible on the day.

At the end of the day, I think I got exactly what I wanted out of the exericise, other than a new 5km PB! I raced hard and got a meaningful guage of how my training is going. My PB for 10km at the moment stands at 37:34 which predicts a 5km time of around 18:05. So to have finished close to 5km in race conditions at 3:30/km it means my speed has improved. 

Next weekend is the first of three goal 10km races, the McCarthy Toyota race at Rietondale Park. The Old Years race that I did last year in scorching heat started from the same venue. I feel a lot better now having put myself to the test at shorter race distances that I can have a good race which will hopefully end in a new 10km PB. Certainly whatever happens I feel like the building blocks are being put into place and there's a lot of improvements to come as the season progresses.

What's in store for 2013: Back to Basics

Five weeks after the Soweto Marathon, I had an epiphany. Immediately after the marathon, after moping, acceptance then combing through every detail of the race I decided that I had a score to settle. I've been told by some of my friends that I am borderline obsessive with my approach to training, and while I can become a slave to the details, I have been assured by folks who know more about this sort of thing that my training was not at fault. And in reality neither was it my race strategy. I was simply carrying a huge debt from my inexperience, an aerobic deficit, a lack of physical strength and mental toughness, all of which gets honed with time and application. Talking to other runners, there is often a period of very difficult marathon running, followed by dramatic improvements in marathon times as one finds their level.

So with that in mind, I spent my week off running by going through my training, brushing up on my theory and constructing a plan to work through my deficit. More mileage, a midweek long run, long tempo runs and incorporating more marathon pace efforts with the weekend long run and so on. I also committed to an autumn marathon.

In the meanwhile, I went back to (relatively) low mileage and high intensity training, just sharpening up, and a diet of 10km races, three of them in the space of 6 weeks to close the year off. The first of these, the Kollonade Retail Park race was entered on a bit of a whim. I expected a decent time on the flattest 10km race I had run all year but was still pleasantly surprised to run a 42s PB. This was followed by three weeks of consistent training, intervals, a tempo run and a relatively hard 15km 'long' run. The return from this diet was almost immediate as I felt week on week my legs turning faster and faster and my pace stamina rocketing.

And then it happened. Just three weeks later another 48s off my PB on a tougher route at the Great Run Race. It was somewhere along the drive home from that I had my epiphany. I have spent the whole year focused on marathon running, and of course my final ambition is to run Comrades and to get there I have to run further and further. The contrast in both approach and the results in the past three weeks and the 16 weeks to a tough (but still rewarding) marathon could not be more stark. August and September were dark months for me and in hindsight I did not enjoy running as much as I thought I did. And at the moment I thought back to my new program and the idea of more 90km weeks and 35km long runs just didn't fill me with joy. And all for one moment, one shot at the main prize.

My father has tried without luck to convince to forget about marathons for a while, and the word that always pops up is, base, base, base. In other words I just haven't got it and from that respect I'm guaranteed to struggle more that I should. And after the Great Run race I saw the light. I always believed that because results come quickly with the shorter distances that I don't really have to pay too much attention to it and focus on getting better at the endurance stuff. But in reality I should focus on the shorter distances and use the winter break to build that base that I am so obviously lacking.

And that sets the scene for what I want to do with my running in 2013:

• Run a sub 35:00 10km
• Run a sub 1:20:00 Half Marathon

Those are big goals but I think from PBs of 37:34 and 1:25:28, those times are achievable. I've improved a heck of a lot in 2012 but even though this will be ~20% of my total gain it might prove to be a lot more challenging since I'm probably closer to some sort of plateau than I was  in 2012. On the other hand, I have never dedicated a significant portion of training to 10km specific workouts, preferring threshold running to the really fast stuff. In essence I feel my training still hasn't been very specific; 2012 was all about getting a feel for consistency, volume and introducing speed training. 2013 will be about specificity and quality, as well as adding non-running workouts and this will hopefully keep the improvement curve going upwards.

My focus in the fast half of the year before the winter off-season will be on 10km. I've picked three races, one each in February, March and April  but I don't necessarily expect to achieve the sub 35:00 then and  won't be disappointed if I don't. After a solid winter of base building (preceded by a month of cross country for something a little bit different) I plan to sink my teeth into a dedicated 10 week half marathon plan ending in early November. That still leaves me with almost two months to wrap up my 10km ambitions. I think it's set up well. The high intensity training and speed improvements will come in handy later in the year and couple with base training will have a knock on effect to both the half marathon goal and any 10km races I do in the second half

This cycle will hopefully be repeated through to the first half of 2015, which will give me four years of solid running and three winters of dedicated base training. 

Then I might think about tackling a spring marathon.

2012 in Review: The Year I Ran!

I can sum up 2012 simply with the following two sentences:

On 25 February I ran a personal best 45:44 for 10 km at the Deloitte Pretoria Race.

On 8 December I ran a personal best 37:34 for 10 km at the Great Run Challenge Series Race

An improvement of over eight minutes in 9 ½ months that I just never saw coming. Of course quite a bit happened in between, lots of training, joy, struggles, and heck even a marathon, but the story needs to go back at least 6 months.

              

Thanks to my borderline OCD when it comes to logging workouts and the memory bank that is Facebook Timeline, the sheer haphazardness of my 2011 became apparent. I thought I had put in a decent shift at least in the second half of the year when I made the commitment to run after supporting at Comrades, but just 345 km and swathes of empty weeks told their own story. Two 10 km races and PB of 48:00 was something to work off, but 2012 became a make or break year. Even in my school years of forced participation running was always a hit or miss affair and my adherence to training was always mediocre.

At the start of 2012, the buzzword was surely consistency. A consequence of consistency would be that I would run a lot more, but to get there I would need realistic but challenging goals to guide me. When I set my goals for 2012, I had already embarked on the first week of a half marathon training program so that was my starting point. My PB of 48:00 for 10 km predicted a half marathon time a shade slower than 1:45 but to push myself I set the target to 1:40. My goals for the year were set as follows

• ·         Half Marathon: sub 1:40
• ·         10km: sub 45:00
• ·         Finish a marathon

These goals, particularly the final one would really test my limits. Despite running sub 50:00 for the 10 km I had yet to finish the distance without resorting to a run/walk strategy for the second half of a race. Added to that was the fact that I had never run further than 10 km in a race or in training.

The quest got off to a spectacular start! I had a 10 km ‘fitness barometer’ race scheduled at the end of the first week of my 10 week half marathon program. Off-training over the festive period had turned into a long hiatus and by mid-February I had put in a solitary awful 7 km. So the race, the aforementioned Deloitte Pretoria Race, would give me an idea of how ambitious/crazy I was being. Despite once again having to employ a run/walk strategy I was surprised to run that big PB that set the ball rolling.

The half marathon training program introduced me to elements of a complete program that I may have neglected in the past. It incorporated a lot of easy running, something I was rubbish at, interval training, fartleks, still my favourite the tempo run and the introduction of long runs. My first ‘long’ run was 10km at 5:45 pace and it was an absolute blast. Even time wise, I had never run that long before and it was a confidence booster. The long run was extended week on week. While the tempo run was me in my element, there’s something about running comfortably hard, the track sessions were destroying me. I ended up doing most of my speed as fartleks on the road instead.

Throughout the course of the program I felt myself getting stronger though not necessarily faster. In March I ran another 10 km on a hilly course and ran outside my PB but a respectable 46:20. But I had a break through moment in early April when I did a 10 km tempo/time trial. I ran through the whole way and matched the 46:20 I had run, and for the first time didn’t feel shattered at the end. I spent the following week in Cape Town and had a second moment, my 16 km long run, done along the beach front in Muizenberg and it was the first time that I really felt like I had made progress and would get through a half marathon. I never once felt tired, didn’t need to stop for water and even my gel. I saw the most gorgeous sunrise and had waves crashing beneath for much of the run. I returned to Benoni, with the first inkling that I could and would succeed with the half marathon.

I had picked the Wally Hayward race to end my 10 week program on but my debut half marathon actually came earlier. Staying in Benoni, the Slow Mag marathon took place two weeks earlier and my rubber arm was gently twisted and I decided to do the race as a long run. I had planned to run 19km that day anyway so an extra 2 km did not seem like a big deal. The first  5 km was innocently done at marginally faster than training pace ~5:15/km but by 10km my average pace was under 5:00/km as I got into the spirit of the event and decided to race it anyway. It was the third wow moment of the year. I finished off the race in 1:38:42, well within my 1:40 target and actually ran sub 45:00 for the 10-20 km portion. I had never felt that strong before in a race! Two and half weeks later, I crushed that PB further running 1:35:01 at Wally Hayward. Wally was almost a perfect race, with each 5 km split faster than the preceding one. And the famed sting in the tail did not break me.

Goal #1 achieved.

While still giddy and on the PB train, I entered a 10 km race just 4 days after Wally Hayward, knowing that in both the two half marathons I had run, I had broken the 45 min mark in the 10-20 km portion. The route for the Jackie Mekler race was fast with some hills, and I was still fatigued from the half marathons but I really dug in deep and smashed my 10 km PB and the 45 minute barrier, running 42:38.

Goal #2 achieved.

This left me with 26 weeks to my target marathon. I picked, despite reservations from a number of people, the Soweto Marathon. I won’t rehash all of the details as I posted enough about it; suffice to say it was a tough endeavour. I needed to go through it though. This year was about commitment and pushing myself. Marathons and the training are not for the faint hearted and I learnt going through one particularly tough episode where I almost quit. Oddly at the end of that week, I ran a PB for 10 km, 39:04 at the Wanderers Challenge! While PBs fell all round, I ran 17:49 for 5 km, I cracked sub 40 10 km and sub 90 for the half twice for both distances, just being able to go out and run for 3 hours was something I never thought I would be able to do. The marathon itself was a chastening experience but I’m glad I gave it a good go and I’m proud of my 3:38:10 finish.

I finished a marathon dammit!

Goal #3 achieved.

That is not where it ends of course and I have already looked forward to 2013 and there are bigger better plans in the pipeline, the subject of another blog post.

But before jumping ahead, there were still 8 weeks left after Soweto Marathon and while I had promised myself some time off, I really couldn’t stay away and managed all of 4 days of no running and within two weeks I was lining up at the start line of a race, the Kolonnade Retail Park 10 km which resulted in a 38:22 PB! Three weeks later that PB would prove to be short lived as I improved that further by running 37:34 at the Great Run Challenge Series II race at Weskoppies. My final race of the year was the Old Year's Race on 29 December where I managed my third fastest 10 km time, 38:24, in incredibly testing conditions, with the temperature at the start being a body melting 32°C despite the 17:00 start. 

What the last 8 weeks of the year revealed to me, and a hint of what’s in store for 2013, was how much I really enjoyed racing short and fast. And while getting to the end of a 42.2 km race is the standout moment of the year for me, I’m really proud of my 10 km running. Throughout the year I improved my time for the distance from 2011 by over 10 minutes or more than 20%!

As I said at the beginning part of running consistently would have the knock on effect of me simply running more. My tally for the year stands at 2079 km, a weekly average of 40 km with a peak of 82 km, a monthly average of 173 km with a peak of 262 km. The marathon aside my longest run was 33km and 3:11 for time on the road. Racing was also a big feature of my year, collecting 21 medals, a fair chunk of them silver medals. 

The 2012 Medal Bounty!

The standout points for the year for me are as follow:

• A 17:49 5km PB
• 1:25:28 PB for the half marathon
• 37:34 PB for 10km, five sub 40 runs and 6 PBs
• Finishing a marathon!

After such an overwhelmingly successful and consistent 2012, here’s to an even better, more focused and even more specific 2013!

Almost the Perfect 10!

Post-marathon running has been all about chilling out and letting my legs do what they enjoy. That means (relatively) low mileage and high intensity. My biggest week thus far has been 54km, the longest run mo more than 15km and my average run is in the region of 8-9km. Looking at my dailymile profile another major change is the average pace of my runs which has has dropped from ~5:00/km at the peak of my marathon training phase to under 4:30/km. It's still hard work but honestly I love it! This is just so different from the (relatively) slow high volume training I did for over three months. I'm rarely out for more than 40 minutes, I work up a sweat and I feel energised after each workout.

Last week was a revelatory week for me, that wonderful feeling when you work through something in training, and struggle a bit but come race day, the moment to deliver, everything clicks.

One kilometre at a time

This past Tuesday so the return of my favourite track workout, 1km repeats. I don't know what it is about the session but 5 x 2.5 laps of a standard 400m track is the sort of workout that challenges my resolve yet remains completely and always attainable. It takes me a while to get inot 400m reps while mile reps are just too long, 800m comes close, but 1km hits the sweet spot. Right now I'm not too fazed by what pace I do them in. I'm concentrating on even effort and good form. I find it hard to work off a pace target right now because I haven't reached any kind of peak or plateau phase. I also respond well to speed training so find that week on week, my comfort level can shift dramatically.

1km Interval	Time	Recovery (600m)
1	03:30.8	02:46.1
2	03:23.4	02:38.3
3	03:22.4	02:50.3
4	03:22.7	03:01.6
5	03:23.7	-
Average	03:24.6	02:49.1

The first interval was just me getting into the swing of things but I felt good so decided to push a bit harder on the next four. I was really happy with my consistency, and that was I able to hit 81/82s laps without straining too much. The fourth and fifth intervals were tough but I maintain the pace. This session really hit home how much I have improved this year. Early in May I did a session of 1km repeats, where I couldn't even do the 5th and I was hitting around 3:53-3:56. Seven months later I have managed to average 3:25 for the same session off shorter rest, less than 3 minutes compared to 5 minutes then

Special Blocks

I have this morbid fascination with elite athletes and their training, where even though I know I will never train like them I don't think it hurts to apply some of their principles to my own training. The best in the business are Kenyans, so I have been looking to them for some inspiration. Something I came across was doing special blocks to simulate the demands of a race without sabotaging your training by doing the whole event. The principle is more applicable to marathon training but I tried it with my 10km training. 

Thursday is my double up day, I usually do a hard session in the morning and a recovery run in the afternoon. Last week I instead did my tempo as usual in the morning and ran my 5.2km run as a hard effort. In the morning I did 5km of hard running at target race pace and added to the afternoon effort made up ~10km at race pace.

The morning session was tougher than I expected, a combination of the warm weather, the monotony of lap running and the fact that I did it on grass. My 5km effort was in 18:46, 3:45/km, bang on target! The afternoon session was better, out on the road, and I hit 5km in 18:33 before easing back to the end. So my combined 10k m effort was 37:19.

The trick of course is to put those sessions together come 29 December.

Race Day: Great Challenge Series 10km

I'm working off a 3 week cycle, repeated twice, with the goal at the end of the six weeks to hit around 37:30 for 10km. So I did the Kolonnade 10km 3 weeks ago to see where I was post-marathon, and the Great Challenge 10km fell neatly into my three week cycle. I had heard the course was fast but tough, like Tom Jenkins a flat course with one steep climb thrown into the mix.

To be honest while I was hoping to break my 38:22 PB from Kolonnade, I wasn't expecting to run much faster, my goal was to be between 3:48 to 3:50 pace, good for 38:00 to 38:20. And of course that tough but fast description really had me scratching my head, but as you can see from the course profile it is actually completely accurate:

That's what a tough but fast course looks like!

Unlike the past two races where I ended up bogged in the pack. I positioned myself in the second row at the start and got off to a good start. The pace at the beginning was hot! I found myself around some speedy looking runners but I was feeling comfortable. Another than the short climb at the beginning it was plain sailing but I was worried about the pace and tried to settle down. I was through 2km in 7:00, and 3km in 10:35 and then calmed down a bit to go through 4km in 14:23! 

Then we climbed. And we climbed. And we climbed. It was a solid kilometre and suddenly I was through 5km in 19:04 after a 4:41 split. There was still a bit more mild climbing to the turnaround point, before the descent. You generally think you can make up time but even though I cruised back down the hill, my little legs can only turn so fast, and my return split for the 7th km was a 3:28 according to the Garmin, not much time gained back! 

I didn't pay too much attention to my splits as I hurtled back down the monster hill, but I hit 8km in 29:54, which would have been a PB for the distance, and as my thighs started to burn I just focused as I did during the speed sessions before in just maintaining good form and effort. Even a couple of 4:00/km splits would get me through and I pushed hard, but wishing for the end! And as I ran past the timekeepers and stopped my clock I was alarmed to see the time!

Madness!!!

37:46!!!!!

I was really blown away by the time. I know I am in the best shape of my life, I can feel it in training but I wasn't expecting to run a time like this just three weeks in, and only five weeks out from that first marathon. The special blocks was tough and I was still thinking three weeks down the line to get into the 37s.

My dad always tells me that if the last two kilometres are not challenging then I haven't raced hard enough, so I know I really gave it everything. Additionally I managed to negative split the race, 19:04 and 18:42, so it was well paced too despite me thinking I had gone out too hard!

Breaking into the 37s also took my cumulative tally of improvements over 10km to more than 10 minutes for the calendar year. The tally now stands at 10:14 or 21% improvement. I know this rate is unsustainable and in fact since breaking into sun 40s, I have dropped two minutes over 6 months, while the previous three months saw me drop more than 3 minutes. Minutes will become seconds will become parity but I hope to carry on into 2013 still chipping away.

So looking forward, the goal for the Cid to Cid Old Year's 10km on 29 December is still 37:30 (3:45/km or 16km/hour) as my A goal. If things go well on the day I would love to try for a sub 6:00/mile pace, which is 37:11 or faster as a B goal. Otherwise just another PB to end what has really been an awesome year!

EDIT: Official results are finally out for the Great Run 10km, 37:34 for 23rd place!

Speed Thrills: Just missing a PB and hitting the track hard

EDIT: It turns out that the Kolonnade Retail Park 10km went much better than I thought and my official time was 38:22 for 27th place out of 1672 finishers

Over the last 3-4 months, I just forgot how much I love running fast. Now of course fast is relative, on a single tracl repeat I would struggle to keep up with Mary Keitany while she is scorching her way to a sub 2:20 marathon, but for me it's blinding fast, and it's thrilling! I haven't done a true speed workout since mid August. as session of 6 X 800 at 90s per lap. My body sent out alarm signals after that workout, and to get through marathon training I dropped the fast stuff and instead supplemented my endurance runs with session of long marathon pace repeats that eventually became one continuous running. Looking back those were long arduous sessions. There was no rush just work, work, work. That's not to say I didn't enjoy them, but going round at 1:44-1:48 per lap for 5-10 laps worth per repeat is a different kind of beast to even 90s laps.

After my harrowing but amazing experience doing my first marathon I was concerned for my speed. Leading up to the marathon I had run my 10km PB of 39:04 and them lowered my half marathon PB to 1:25:28, but those races came 10 and 5 weeks before the marathon respectively. With no speed work, the only reminder that I still had anything approaching a fifth gear were a couple of ~5km time trials where I was able to hit 3:40/km splits admittedly on elevation conjusive to fast times...i.e dowhill! I had convinced myself I would have to start again.

Post-marathon, I endeavoured to take 2 weeks off but I couldn't stay away and ended up following Hal Hidgons recovery plan, well the first two weeks of it. It involves gradually easing back in and to be honest the first couple of runs hurt a lot. By week 2 though I managed a 6km tempo and the aforementioned time trial, and my legs were suddenly remembering something they used to do long before marathon training had become the routine.

The feeling the way back slowly after the marathon comeback race

I decided to enter a 10km on 17th November that promised a flat, fast and easy route. This being a Gauteng race in Pretoria, I was skeptical of that description but I really wanted to get out anyway. The race was at the Kolonnade Retail Park in Montana, Pretoria North, a bit out of the way but some careful planning, pre-entering and leaving reasonably meant it was a stress free morning and I even managed to warm up properly. Making my way to the start I was relieved to see that it looked as if walkers and runners had a separate start. A relief, I thought.

I positioned myself close to the start balloon, which I hoped would help me get away fine. While I wasn't planning to race I hate getting caught up in the pack early. Bizarrely, the runners were filling in from the front, so my position in close proximity to the start quickly became in not so proximity to the start. This meant that getting away was difficult once the gun went, 6 minutes later than the scheduled start. Then the separate start for runners and walker proved to be ineffectual as the merge was literally immediate meaning there was another bottleneck as soon as the merge took place. Grrr.

This is my pace graph from my Garmin

Ridiculous

I din;t actually start running until around 50s on my watch. Playing around with the player view on Garmin Connect it was not surprising to discover that I covered just 50m in the first 48s and 100m up to 57s when thankfully I was now at full speed.

From that point on it was just bliss. I ran a perfect race, dismissing immediately an fears I had about marathon running obliterating my raw speed. The read out from the Garmin is delight. Other than the first kilometre and the 9th kilometre, every split was below 4:00 and just one slower than 3:50. In reality I am actually in better 10km shape than I've ever been. Taking out that horrific start, I was rocking along at 3:50/km for almost 10km, and with my own loose maths, would have knocked out something in the region of 38:30. The course was 90% flat with about 60m eleveation but having just run a marathon two weeks before I will take that! My unofficial time was 39:16 just 12s short of my PB and in the race conditions and my own physical condition I think it is still a really good time and something for me to build on going forward.

To Tempo and To Interval

Whilst I have already chose my next marathon (Slow Mag, 14 April 2013) and have a rough skeleton of a shorter (12 weeks) but higher mileage program (90km/week peak and and an average of 72km/week), I have decided to keep myself busy by running fast in the forthcoming 9 weeks, starting with a goal to break my 10km PB. My goal is aggressive  sub 38:00 and ideally a 90s PB which would put me in the 37:30 range. I genuinely believe I have the leg speed to do it but I need to seriously worked on my pace stamina and also just need to be brave on race day! My training now is 6 weeks long and involves 3 weeks of stamina based efforts, 2 weeks of speed and a week to mini taper to the Old Years race in Pretoria on 29 December, a flat fast course with a sting in the tail

To work on that stamina means running my favourite workout, tempos! Tempos were staple of my running diet for the first half of the year and I believe were the primary contributor to my initial wave of PBs. They gave way to more endurance but now I can devote one weekly run to this workout. I plan to start off at 20miutes and build up to 35 minutes of tempo pace running by the end of my program. The tempos will be supplemented with cruise intervals later on as I do raw speed training. My first tempo this week was a ~7km run (7.4km it ended up as) with a 5km portion at  tempo pace. My tempo zone is 3:50-4:00 and I nailed the 5km in 19:30 (3:54 pace), right in the zone and pretty much even pace/

Today, I did a session of short track intervals, 10 x 400m, looking for control, good form and most of all consistency.While I keep thinking I have done speed work, in reality until today, I could count the number of genuine interval sessions I had done in the past 10 months on my two hands, and none of them were particularly high intensity or high volume. While I have slowly been warming up to running laps, and will extol the virtues of the task to anyone who asks, I am not overly enthusiastic about the monotony and have rather done fartleks on the road instead.

So I wasn't really sure what to aim for but since my 10km best case target pace is 3:45 I wanted a string of sub 90s 400m to get these creaky legs turning again. And since it was early on in training I didn't want to push too hard hittin 5km pace and faster.  This is how it went in raw numerical detail.

Interval	Time	Pace (/km)	Recovery (300m)
1	86	03:35	86
2	84	03:30	86
3	83	03:27	91
4	83	03:27	92
5	83	03:27	96
6	82	03:25	90
7	82	03:26	90
8	82	03:25	92
9	81	03:23	95
10	76	03:11	93
Average	82.2	03:25	91.1

To be honest I was really surprised with that outcome, both the pace and the relative comfort with which I managed them. Somewhere in the middle of intervals 7 and 8 I doubted I would get through but by the 9th I was good again. And the 76s was on a whim, I just decided to push a little bit harder and see what would happen. What really makes me happy is that other than the two outliers the first and the last, that is some pretty consistent running, and I didn't struggle too much as the session progressed. Later on this will be bumped to 12 x 400 and I'm not even remotely worried anymore. While I knew I would I would enjoy the tempo, I was expecting some serious burn. 

Coming up I will do some 800s and 1000s before revisiting the 400s again in week 4, then closing off with 1000s in week 5 and low volume 800s in the final week, all hopefully at this pace of 3 around 3:25-3:35, corresponding to 3km-5km pace for my target 10km time. Week 4 and 5 will also see  me doing mile repeats at cruise interval pace so closer to 8km pace just to maintain some stamina.

I have once check point, a 10km race on 8 December where I should be comfortable running at or just faster than my current PB pace of 3:54. I'm not going for any fireworks just yet and will in fact be doing that race at the top end of my tempo zone.

So post-marathon running is off to a joyful and fast start and I hope to keep it up!

Soweto Marathon Report: First Marathon Blues (Dancing With The Devil)

To be honest I had many drafts of this post penned in my head, the heroic first time marathon success, the heroic pulling it back from the brink first time effort and the safety first getting a feel of things first time effort. None of those scenarios panned out. Instead what I got was a hellish beating at the hands of a mammoth beast. I danced with the devil and I got burnt.

This is my pace chart from the race. This puts things into context.

The short story is that I ran well for 32km and when the race really got going I fell apart and was on the ropes from that point until I caught sight of the finish.

Looking at that pace chart it's fair to say I just didn't see it coming. I expected to struggle from 32km onward, I really did. What caught me off guard was how instantaneous it was. I remember checking my pace and seeing 31.83km on the Garmin and just thinking, 'I only have 10km to go, I'm home' and less than a minute later, I was walking and that was that. I have never experienced such a crippling lack of fortitude and self belief as I did from the moment I stopped running for the first. As you can see, I actually managed to run a fair amount, and in face when I was running I was hitting my oiverall average pace of 5:10, but every 2 or 3 minutes I had to walk and that conincided with a climb. I basically managed to run most of 32-35km and then the nature of Soweto unveiled itself.

The first half is deceptive. It's a downhill start for close on 8km before the first testing climb and from then on it's the rolling hills that I was told of, and as you enter Soweto itself it's twisty but I found this thoroughly enjoyable and almost exhilarating. The monotony of climbing is broken up by navigating some tight corners, while basking in some historic sites and astonishing crowd support. The nice thing about all these climbs is that they are tempered by an almost equivalent downhill. I believe I raced smart here. I was not stressed about losing time on the uphills and in fact ensured my pace fell below 5min/km and didn't force the issue on the downhills.

I had rhythm. I was dancing. I was in control.

I hit halfway in 1:36:20. My target for the race was 3:10 based simply on  taking my City2City half marathon of 1:25:28 which predicted a shade under 3 hours and adding 10 minutes for the hills and the debut. In hindsight that was aggressive and even from 10km which I got to in 46:30 I was never in with a shout.

The route climbed up to about 23km and then it was the final gentle part of the course down to 28km before climbing back up to Nasrec and the finish. By 28km I was actually only about 1 min off target time, getting there in just over 2:07. Then the climbing began gently to the moment of my demise. I still remember feeling good at 30km, again thinkng to myself, 2:18 on the clock, you've done well now coast home in an hour for the last 12km and get in a good 3:20.

So here is the route. That first 30km was testing, but in reality was easier than any of my three 30km plus runs. The difference of course was pace, ~5min/km versus at 30km 4:34/km, and mentality. In my long runs I ran short 9km loops where I was never more than 5km from home as the crow flies so in reality I could pull out when I wanted to. Here I was in the heat of battle. My legs were tired, my head was turned.

Did I hit the wall?

I don't know. I never saw spots, was never too weak to stand or keep moving, didn't cramp, my mind just simply disconnected from my body. My half marathon PB is at a pace of 4:03 so, ~4:34 pace was not too hot but of course these are novice legs. It was all in my head. Many guys around me were hurting. We were laughing with the locals. A local lass offered me her hand in marriage if I just ran. I laughed and carried on walking. A guy I was running with earlier came past me slowly, gritting and willed me on. I ran with him for about two minutes and waved him on. At no stage was I incapable of running, my head and my legs were having a personal battle and were deadlocked.

By the time we hit 40km I was fed up. I had taken 18 minutes to get there from 38km, walking the entirety of the 39th kilometer. I mean here I was walking at less than 10min/km. There was a little bit there, I just couldn't tap into it.The 41st kilometers was a 7:30 affair before I finally steadied myself and decided to jog the last kilometer home. In imperial terms it was just under 9 minute/mile pace. My legs were turning, they were going. I saw the start banner and actually accelerated a bit. By the time I turned into the Expo Centre complex, I was actually sub 5min/km running. I heard my father shouting out and I high fived him, turned onto the grass and crossed the line.

3:38:10

It was done. I had been through the wringer but I was a marathoner.

42.2km. 

What a mind warp!

When I set myself goals a the start of the year, compared to where I am now they look conservative. My goals were to run sub 45 minute 10km, sub 1:40 half marathon and to finish a marathon. I achieved all three and with the first two, with my personal bests sitting at 39:04 and 1:25:28, completely smashed them. With the marathon, while never committed to a time back then I would have tentatively said 3:45-4:00. So to finish at 3:38:10, 941st and in the top 15% of the field, I am delighted.

But in reality I could finished a lot stronger with a more modest goal, but I guess one always looks at their current ability and says, I can run this now for X distance, I should aim for this for my marathon. With 3,4, or 5 marathons under my belt, I might have got my 3:10, but with these novice legs, I was always in a hiding to nothing. It has barely been 17 months since I took my first tentative steps and struggled to a 40 min 7km jog back in June last year. My total September mileage of 262 km is remarkably enough almost equal to the total I had totaled when I put together those targets for 2012. So despite a spectacular blow out, I am happy. I finished a marathon, something that looked terribly unlikely even in January.

In the aftermath I guess it's safe to say, as a fast marathon I should have aimed lower. A 3:30 pace target was the safer bet. I had dialed into this pace for hours on end in training more so than target marathon pace of 4:30/km. At the latter pace I was always borderline. Things had to go perfectly on the day, which they didn't. But that is the nature of the beast. Training prepares you to push beyond what you do day in day out thus turning a marathon that had been in preparation for 26 weeks including base building would go against my natural competitive spirit.

Would I have enjoyed it more. Probably, who knows. But much of training and racing is to be on the edge striving to get better, stronger, faster.

I'm taking two weeks off now before embarking on my next goal, which is not surprisingly an Autumn marathon next, most likely the Slow Mag Marathon in Benoni. Along the way I hope to finish the year in style by adding to the 8:56 that I have taken of my 10km this calendar year over two races in December so that on the week of 1st January marathon training can begin in earnest.

I did a lot of things right in my training as my intermediate results show but the plan just needs to be fine tuned to get me over that magical last 10km in one stable piece. Time on  legs, midweek longer, longer marathon pace runs. All of this will be thrown into the equation, and this time definitely more realistic goal setting.

Onward to better and faster marathon running!

After the final 32km I'm Almost There.

And I don't mean that negatively at all. I read somewhere that if you get to this stage of your training just wanting it to be over then the race will probably not got well. The marathon is evidently a tough enough event on it's own, with the unknown factor of the last 10km, even despite months of preparation, that a weary mind is a recipe for distaster. I've gone through my fair share of hardship, I have contemplated throwing in the towel and accepting the progress I have made this and tackling the marathon fresh in 2013. But I set myself this goal all the way back in February, I have dedicated the last 23 weeks of training exclusively tp the upcoming race and I'll be damned if I don't at least give it a shot.

This past week was the big push. With all of my racing done, it was time to push on and clock that final big week before the taper. The two key sessions were a continuous long marathon pace tempo and a 32km long run. On Wednesday I did a 16km run with 14km of it at marathon pace effort. I ran up to 10km on grass to hone into the correct effort. While the run started off in decent weather, the sun made an unwelcome appearance just as I was heading off the grass. My goal was to shift off the grass and run through WITS main campus to add some real world running on tar and more importantly uneven terrain. I have tamed the hills at WITS but doing the 4km Lenn Smith after 10km at marathon pace in warming conditions still presented a challenge. On the level fields I was running at 4:18/km, roughly the pace predicted by pretty much every calculator on line, and once out on the road my paced shifted down to ~4:30/km, which is the ballpark target I have set for my self.

All in all it was a good exercise. Of course I have to keep in mind that on race day I will have tapered, I do 15km in total in the week leading up to the race and just 45km the week before, almost 50% my peak mileage so my legs will be fresher and this pace that my body hopefuly now knows 4:18-4:30/km will feel more natural compared to now...until I enter the post-32km unknown zone of course.

On Sunday I did my long run. I have long seized to be religious or even remotely spiritual as I age, but my experience on this run was bordeline that level. This marathon training business has been hard first on my body, and then  my mind has wavered, which in turn has beaten my body more. But after the euphoria of City2City I genuinely felt like I was regaining control of my body and mind. The post City2City week was difficult as I was on holiday and didn't enough training and added to that Grahamstown is very hilly and humid and I didn't make the necessary adjustments. I then did a 25km long run after driving back for 13 hours with the mercury hitting 25°C. Added to that I experimented with jelly babies for carb on the fly and that ended badly, as I battled waves of nausea for the last 5km. It was a humbling experience, the success of
the weekend before long forgotten.

This week I was more prepared. I had my gels ready, GU Mandarin flavour with caffeine. Orange and caffeine, two of my favourites. I had enough water ready, four 150ml sachets. I'm not a big drinker so this was more than enough. And the run would be completed in full race gear, my Run/Walk for Life vest, poly shorts, Falke socks, and my Nike Zoom Elite's. I had the route planned. My pacing to was prepared. I have been doing my long runs bar one at around 10% of my 4:30 target pace, 4:57-5:02. I'm very much sold on the theory of preparing your body for the challenge ahead by aligning your training to your race goal. So I haven't done any high intensity intervals at 5-10km pace since mid August, focussing instead on introducing short intervals at marathon pace ~2k and building up the lengths until I was running a continous distance within a 16km run. Likewise, I haven't done long slow run at greater than 1 min slower than my goal pace, instead hovering around that 8-12% time band.

The 32km was blissful. Listening to Marathon Talk, Tom Williams, said in one the episodes that sometimes this run could often be the toughest. I guess it comes after a build up in volume and with the taper coming the body is just looking for some rest. I had quite the opposite experience, as I worked my way through the miles I got stronger and stronger. And as you can see in the course profile below, my route gets progressively more challenging as progress. I hit my goal pace, running the 32.1km in 2:42, and a negative split, having gone through 16km in 1:22 and doing the more challenging second half in 1:20 without having to increase my effort much. The 32km run also brought my weekly total to 82km.

The final 32km run

So less than three weeks to go then, 19 days to be specific and the hard training is basically done. All my runs will now decrease in volume but the intensity will stay more or less the same. It has been a long journey, it is by no means but instead of longing for the end I am itching to get to the start line. I'm already looking forward to the next challenge in 2013 what may come on 4 November. I appreciate the challenge that awaits, that even with the months of preparation anything can happen over the course of 42.2km and this my first attempt so it might no go according to plan. But equally I have enjoying it, the good times and working through the bad times, the success in racing, and the feeling of achievement. Whatever happens I aim to learn from Soweto and take that into 2013 where I plan to do the class Autumn/Spring two marathon plan.

Here's hoping I don't explode from all this excitement before the big day!