Frustration, preparation, returning friends and parkrun tourism

Hello all!  Thank you for reading!!  

It's been a frustrating few weeks with my body just refusing to play ball.  At the start of the year it was illness that was stopping me from running. I recovered from that only to have my calf problems return.  This time rather than it being my right calf it was my left!  I therefore decided to be sensible and cut my running right back to the minimum to give it chance to recover.  

I have been spending my time on the exercise bike in the gym rather than pounding the streets.  This has helped but I have still continued to have issues each time I have run.  Some weeks my sum total of running has been a slow plod round parkrun on a Saturday.  This is obviously not ideal seeing as in a little over a week I will be at the start line of my 50 mile challenge!  

Last week was slightly better with me managing three runs for a sum total of just over 10 miles!!  

I have decided that I am not going to gain a massive amount of fitness by pushing myself now and so focussing on recovery rather than training is my best course of action.  I guess it is the lesser of two evils:

                Be slightly fitter but arrive at the start line injured or be less fit but injury free. 

I am hoping that my base training, my experience of distance running built up over the past 4 years and a large slice of guts and determination will see me through!  

But enough of the doom and gloom. 

I am really excited about the Thames Trot.  Those who know me know how long I have been preparing for this race.  I can't wait to get on the trails and start running (however slowly).  This week I have started my preparations of the big day.  I have managed to borrow a friends running backpack and will be trying that out for comfort at the weekend.  I have booked my train ticket to the start, and have started making a list of the things I need to prepare the night before and the items I need to take out on the course with me.  I have also been looking at the maps of the race and trying to familiarise myself with the route I will be taking.  It's all very very exciting.

I should also remember the reason I m running it.  I am passionate about raising money and awareness for Mosaic Family support.  They help children when they lose loved ones or people close to them.  They are a small team who do am amazing amount of work in the community to help kids through some of the hardest times of their lives.  The money I raise goes directly to them and I have seen the good it does.  Here is a link to their website:

http://www.mosaicfamilysupport.org.uk 

I have set-up a JustGiving page for my fundraising.  I had aimed to raise £500 but, thanks to the generosity of friends, I have already exceeded £650.  This will be charity matched by LV= so my final total is already over £1000!  If you would like to donate, please follow this link:

https://www.justgiving.com/James-White40

Thank you!!

Last Wednesday was a very special run as it marked the return to our lunchtime running group of colleague, good friend and running guru Jon Braund, after nearly a year out through illness.  Jon is an inspiration having fought his illness with determination, dignity and a smile on his face.  He has always stayed positive and has made an excellent recovery and it is fantastic to have him back running with us.  And after nearly a year out he was still quicker than most of us and trotted up the hills like they weren't there.  I guess I'm going to have to get used to watching his backside disappearing into the distance once more!!

parkrun Tourism

Despite my injury issues I have still managed to visit a few different parkruns over the past few weeks.  One of my targets for the year is to take my total number of different parkruns over the 50 mark, so I will be aiming to visit new venues at every possible opportunity.  I am also aiming to volunteer as much as I can, therefore when I am visiting new parkruns I am offering to give them a visitors view of their run by writing the race reports!

Saturday 9th Jan - Poole parkrun - parkrun 72

Down visiting family I was once again running at Poole parkrun (my 6th visit).  Despite the heavy recent rain, the team had adjusted the course to avoid the new lakes and rivers that had formed and, just short of 9am, we were directed to the revised start line.

There was a small camera crew at the start filming for the charity donation site MyDonation so most people puffed their chests out and struck their best running poses before cracking on with the task of running 5km.

My calf once again "went" on the way round, but I loved the run just the same because it made me slow down and enjoy the run.  I chatted with people on the way round and had a very enjoyable splash in a some muddy puddles by the play park. After the run I just hung around chatted some more, cheered finishers in and generally just "had a laugh".  What better way is there to spend a Saturday morning!!

I managed a tough 27:51, but once again finished the run with my legs in worse shape than I started!

Saturday 16th Jan - Didcot parkrun - parkrun 73 at venue 34

Continuing my parkrun "tourism" I decided to head to the next closest parkrun to Winchester that I had yet to cross off my list, Didcot.  Just a short 50 minute drive up the A34 and I was soon parked up in the shadow of the power station and ready to run.  The event takes place in Ladygrove park in the centre of a small housing estate, next to Didcot FC's footy pitch.  It comprises of 3 laps around a small park (mainly on grass) and then a longer loop out alongside the railway line and in to a finish at a different part of the housing estate.  

As far as parkruns go it is a strange one.  The park is one of the smallest I have run at, and the event team have clearly worked hard to squeeze a full 5km route in.  It is not particularly picturesque, however the team are really, really welcoming and there is a real community feel about it with lots of families and groups of friends running together.  I was made to feel really welcome and it really showcased what parkrun is about.  Community, friendship and a love of running.

There is ample free parking and basic toilet facilities.  There are also showers that can be used in the nearby sports centre after the run. I probably wont go back to Didcot as there are nicer runs in the area, and plenty that I have yet to visit,  but I was glad the I went and it was nice to meet them all.   

I ended up running a steady 27:43.

Saturday 23rd Jan - Gunnersbury parkrun - parkrun 74 at venue 35

Sarah, Olivia and I were heading up to London for the day and so I convinced Sarah that Gunnersbury Park would be a convenient place to park and coincidentally there was a parkrun there!  We headed up the M3, M25 and M4 early on Saturday morning, getting to the park at around 830.  The museum in the grounds is being heavily renovated so finding the loos was a challenge but they were clean, if a little basic.  

The park itself is fairly big, and big enough to house a single lap parkrun, somewhat of a rarity in the parkrun world.  The run is all on tarmac paths and is downhill for the 1st km, making for a quick start.  With 400+ runners there was congestion at the start but it soon thinned out.  The route heads down to the bottom of the park, past the lake and then back up to the museum.  It runs along the front of the museum and round the edge of the park, before looping round the far side of the lake and back uphill for the final KM to the finish. 

The run was just the right mix of fast and challenging and the park was tailor made for parkrun.  There was plenty of free parking on site and we left our car there for the day whilst we were in London.  However it was only on returning to the deserted carpark that we noticed how many patches of glass there were from previous break-ins that we realised it probably wasn't the safest place to leave your car for the whole day!  Fortunately ours was fine!!  

My time at Gunnersbury was only 2 seconds slower than the previous week with me running 27:45.

Next week

This weekend we are visiting friends in Stoke and I will therefore be visiting Hanley parkrun in Stoke-on-Trent.   I will continue to be on the exercise bike leading up to the big day, but will try to get one more run in.  It is then all about preparation!!

See you soon!

James 

2015 Round-up and 2016 Goals

Happy New Year everyone!  Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of posts recently.  Birthday, Christmas and general laziness all meant that I didn't get round to writing my blog.  This year though I am aiming to try and get it out weekly and at worst fortnightly.

So in this worst post of the year I thought I would write about what I achieved (and didn't achieve) last year and my goals for 2016.

2015 Round-up

Having previously tried and failed to break 4 hours for the marathon, the first 4 months of 2015 were all focussed on breaking at at the Greater Manchester Marathon in April.  I used the Marathon Talk "Jantastic" programme at the start of the year and followed it religiously.  January focussed on running a set number of times a week (for me it was 6 times).  February was a set number of times a week with a target long run (Long runs for me were between 15 and 19 miles) and March was all about achieving a target time at a specified race.  For me the target time was breaking 1:45 at the Brentwood half at the end of March.  

The training went well and I hit all of my targets throughout that first 3 months, culminating in a PB for the Half Marathon of 1:41:01 (a 6m 52s improvement) which was a really good indication of my fitness at the time.  The week after I went to Germany and managed a 1:44:24 and was the first British finisher in the Bad Oldesloe half.  

From there it was on to Manchester on the 19th of April for the Greater Manchester marathon. Despite a few calf issues in the taper I got to the start line the fittest I had ever been.  The race was everything I had planned it to be.  I paced myself well, pushed hard at the start and worked hard to keep ahead of the 4 hour bus at the end.  Despite a little mid-race sickness I crossed the line in 3:57:34 for a 20+ minute PB.  It was the highlight of my running "career" to date.

Two weeks after Manchester I broke my 5km PB at winchester parkrun, knocking 26 seconds off of my previous best to clock 21:26.  It came as a bit of a surprise as I had done very little speed training in the preceding weeks.  I guess the marathon training and a couple of weeks of relaxed training had left me nicely prepared for an all out 5km effort.  

From there I had 3 weeks until the Ox marathon, a tough trail marathon in North Dorset.  I was fortunate to have a friend and club mate running with me and we decided to go out there and enjoy ourselves.  On a lovely day we clocked around 5:15 for the 27 miles and had a thoroughly great day.

In early July I was visiting Mile End parkrun and, on a lovely summer day, I once again broke my 5km PB.  This time narrowly missing out on breaking 21 minutes with a 21:01.  

With that I started my build-up my charity goal for the year, the 9Bar9x9 50 mile race in September.  I had a great period of training through July and most of August, but in late August I pulled up during a slow lunchtime 5km with a calf injury.  At first it didn't seem to bad so I tried to run through it.  Before long I was unable to run on it at all.  Without being able to train I regrettably had to pull out of the 50 mile race.  I did compete, but only did the 27km race and used a run-walk strategy.  

Following the disappointment of not doing my target race I had to rebuild.  I signed up for the Thames Trot 50 in February so that I had a new target and used the final few months of the year to train up for that.  

In November I ran more miles in the month than I ever had before, however December was interrupted with a mix of injury and illness.  However as I sit here (less than 4 weeks away from the Thames Trot) writing this I feel like I am well placed to achieve my target.   

In summary the 8 months of the year were fantastic.  I ran faster than I had previously, I trained well and most of all I really enjoyed my running.   Here are some stats:

Total runs: 247
Total miles run in 2015: 1444.36 miles
Total time spent running in 2015: 220.15 hours
Calories burned in 2015: 571,265
Most miles in a month: November 217.31 miles

2015 parkruns: 38 at 24 different venues.

2016 Goals

I've given 2016 plenty of thought.  My first aim is to complete the Thames Trot on the 6th Feb.  I don't care how long it takes, I just want to complete it.  

Following on from that I will be focussing on training for the London Marathon in April (I am running it for a charity called MPN Voice).  I will be looking to run few races in the build up to that such as the Bournemouth 10 and the Brentwood Half.  If I come out of the 50 miler uninjured and am able to get back running fairly quickly I will put everything I have into a PB at London.  If, however, I am feeling run down I will rest and recover before starting my training for London.  I will then be running London for the experience rather than a time.

In April I have the small matter of my wife, Sarah, having my second child!  With this in mind I have decided to not run any distances further than half marathons for the remainder of the year.  The reason for this is threefold:

1) No long runs means more time with my wonderful family
2) It will give my body chance to recover a bit after a couple of years of marathon and Ultra training
3) I would like to focus on speed and in particular getting my 5km and 10km times down.  Marathon training is not always conducive to doing this.

So my aim for the final 8 months of the year will be to break my 5km PB, hopefully getting as near to the 20 minute mark as possible.  Break my 10km PB, hopefully going under 45 for the first time and generally get as fast as I possibly can!

In terms of parkrun, I would like to complete at least 28 parkruns to reach the 100 club and I would like to try and run at 17 new venues to reach the 50 different parkruns mark.  I would also like to earn my volunteer t-shirt by volunteering 25 times (14 to go).

Mainly though, in 2016 I want to stay as injury free as possible and continue to enjoy my running as much as have done to date.

Back next week with more running ramblings!!