CARRY ON CARRYING ON
A waltz around an eery Pendle Hill in the wet clag and fading light yesterday brought something quite clear to my attention - bloody hell I am actaully in good nick at the moment! More specifically, I don't recall ever pounding through bog with such efficiency in a long, long time. It was one of those rare training runs when you just feel absolutely fantastic, invincible and wonderfully in tune with the terrain, the surroundings, the climate, mind and your body. Strong winds and nasty showers only served to make it more memorable. If it doesn't get better than that hour of high octane effort spent splashing around up there on East Lancashire's big hill last night, then at least I got there and made sure I bottled the whole experience.
Racing has dried up so far in September, partially down to the fact that the all too short period of evening races has come to an end. But also a tight calf put the skids on running hard for a week or two. Ideally I wanted to get to the final evening fell race of the year at Hades Hill near Rochdale, but I think I made the right call in sticking to the plan of boring flattish plodding until the calf strain started to go in to hiding. In fact, I seem to be making the right call on my running programme almost instinctively at the moment. How far, how fast, off road or on road, I just seem to know what I am doing. I've been running nearly twelve years - it's taken a while!
Ten days of cautious plodsville just took the edge off my form from August, but during this week in particular, I have been feeling the force again. A cracking grass circuit pyramid session on Sunday was followed on Monday by another hour's running on the rough stuff of Pendle, then a walk up Pendle on Tuesday morning with Sara and the Connie dog, returning to Pendle again on the Wednesday for last night's blow out. Pendle Hill has been my second home this week.
Selfishly, I declined the opportunity to run for the Harriers at this year's Northern Road Relays last weekend. The fact that I am in decent shape at the moment makes it perhaps even more selfish than I dutifully admit to for not putting one in for the team. But at the end of the day, what it boils down to is a real lack of interest in tarmac races these days and a fear that I would go and pick myself a niggle up and curse that horrible, contrived course around Manchester City's stadium even more than I did when running there last year. Blackburn's 'A' team did a sterling job, initially eleventh, but moved up to eighth following the disqualification of teams with second claim runners not affiliated for road running with them. A sensitive subject for some, but in my view a no-brainer. You can't go around cherry picking fast boys for second claim to bolster your squad in big competitions. It's just not fair and it doesn't happen in any other sport. I'm really pleased that the grenade has been dropped upon that sort of nonsense.
So the only race on a tarmac surface that pricks my ears right now is the Podium 5K at Barrowford. Recent news that the next one clashes with the Tour of Pendle fell race has put me in a bit of a quandary as regards what to do on the 18th of November. The two races couldn't be more different; five laps of a flat cycle track, or seventeen miles of almost every up and down that the Pendle mass has to offer. The problem is that my heart wants to do The Tour, but in current form I fancy myself in a 5K. Maybe not quite a PB, but certainly running under seventeen minutes. Seventeen miles is much, much further than any of my training runs right now and if there is a window of opportunity to run a decent 5K then I would regret not ceasing upon it. I suppose I will know which to go for nearer the time.
Another little quandary is whether or not to replace my grass reps on the park each week with a return to track sessions with the club. I'll probably give it a go in the next few weeks, but what I am doing at the moment is working and I don't want to risk upsetting the apple cart.
I keep looking out for races that I could fit in as a sharpener for the ones I have officially - at least in a mental capacity - booked in for next month's agenda. For the time being though, it's carry on doing what I am doing.
Thursday, 21 September 2017
Sunday, 3 September 2017
SUMMER SUMMARY
The end of August and the end of the meteorological season of Summer. Like kilometre markings on a Marathon course, I don't see the point in the complication of BST and all that messing around with the clocks. It's September now, it's Autumn. Simples!
Back in the season of Spring (the meteorological one that spans from March to May of course) my running outlook was grim. I seemed to be putting in the shifts, but clearly not the right ones. I was going backwards, fast, culminating in three very weary race performances at the Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round, Darwen Half Marathon and Yorkshire Three Peaks. Those low points asked the biggest questions yet about whether I ought to accept that it was time to hang up the racing shoes and get cracking down at the local Crown Green instead. This most recent running blog of mine has always had an air of inevitability that it will one day morph in to a bowling blog. Another question was, what would finally push me over the edge and swap my inov8 x-talons for a set of weighted woods?
Absolutely all avenues would have to be expended before such drastic action, but there seemed only one avenue remaining which was to try racing myself to race fitness. Now many a runner would point this out as an obvious starting point rather than a last resort, but somehow foolish pride, fear, impatience or all of those feelings has prevented me from ever properly trying this out before. With midweek evening races about to start, this was the ideal time of year to just get stuck in, take the beatings and see if I could quietly make increments of progress through the Summer. Sure enough I took a real beating in the first night race at Harrock Hill. It was a shocker. Then came the revelation from a health check up that I had high cholesterol levels, but this unexpected news proved to be a blessing in disguise. My knee-jerk reaction of instantly cutting out probably eighty percent or more of my saturated fat intake shed six pounds in just fortnight and a couple more have also dropped off at a thankfully slower rate since. The general felling of fatigue that pushed me towards booking a health check in the first place has also faded away, perhaps down to my body not getting bogged down in processing nasty fats that it's not very good at processing? Who knows? But I started to feel much better in general.
Although lightening my load, progress at the races was very gradual over the first six weeks of weekly action, even staggered at times. It wasn't clear if I was going to improve enough to get back to my own very modest standards, but nevertheless I was starting to enjoy just getting out there and racing. By the time the Kentmere Horseshoe came around in mid-July, I had grown up a bit and was sucking in with gratefulness the fact I was out there competing. No point spoiling the enjoyment by chasing shadows I couldn't catch anymore. Kentmere turned out to be my slowest effort there in eight race appearances, but I was unusually very matter of fact about it all. I felt like I was hardening up to competition again at the very least and if not hitting the high notes, able to put a good rate of effort in. Around weekly racing, a training routine had naturally evolved which seemed to be working well in that I was staying fit enough to race withoiut running myself in to a hole.
Then came a welcome bolt from the blue. Just three days after Kentmere, the signs of a race pace lost unexpectedly returned. Widdop fell race was my first solid effort in a race from start to finish for a good few years. I set off strong, I stayed strong and I finished strong. Performances have continued to get better during August and it's fair to say that, certainly in short and middle distance fell races, I've just about started to tap in to the sort of standard that I haven't run for maybe five or six years. The race myself back to race fitness experiment has been a success this Summer. Just over three months and fourteen races in the bank to finally crack it. Perhaps my Indian Summer of running wasn't such a delusion after all. So, sorry bowling fans, if you were expecting the content of these pages to switch code to the intricate art of the Crown Green, then I must conclude that the prospect of running taking a final bow is no longer on the agenda for the foreseeable future.
AUTUMN OUGHT-TO-DO'S
It's all very well getting race fit and getting giddy about it. The hard bit will be managing to stay there and pushing onwards. Picking up a nuisance calf strain and then creasing my back gardening have been timely reminders that it's a fine line we runners tread to stay in decent enough nick to do what we so desire.
As the Summer race calendar thins a little going in to the colder seasons, it's important that I still get some racing in as this has been the key to a return of good form. Other than that, no big plans really, other than putting in some longer training runs. I suppose a focal point of some description would be The Tour of Pendle in November. If I can stay in good shape I believe I've still got a good race left in me at that one. But I'm thinking more longer term and next year. I may well eat these words, but right now I have no intention whatsoever of entering the Three Peaks. There's still plenty of Cumbrian classics that I would like to have a bash at before I hit the grave and especially Borrowdale. Finally making it to the Ben Nevis race is also on the to-do list if I am lucky enough to get on the start list again. There's only so much one can do though, so in the meantime I won't be looking much more than two weeks ahead and hope to just stay in good shape and injury free.
The end of August and the end of the meteorological season of Summer. Like kilometre markings on a Marathon course, I don't see the point in the complication of BST and all that messing around with the clocks. It's September now, it's Autumn. Simples!
Back in the season of Spring (the meteorological one that spans from March to May of course) my running outlook was grim. I seemed to be putting in the shifts, but clearly not the right ones. I was going backwards, fast, culminating in three very weary race performances at the Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round, Darwen Half Marathon and Yorkshire Three Peaks. Those low points asked the biggest questions yet about whether I ought to accept that it was time to hang up the racing shoes and get cracking down at the local Crown Green instead. This most recent running blog of mine has always had an air of inevitability that it will one day morph in to a bowling blog. Another question was, what would finally push me over the edge and swap my inov8 x-talons for a set of weighted woods?
Absolutely all avenues would have to be expended before such drastic action, but there seemed only one avenue remaining which was to try racing myself to race fitness. Now many a runner would point this out as an obvious starting point rather than a last resort, but somehow foolish pride, fear, impatience or all of those feelings has prevented me from ever properly trying this out before. With midweek evening races about to start, this was the ideal time of year to just get stuck in, take the beatings and see if I could quietly make increments of progress through the Summer. Sure enough I took a real beating in the first night race at Harrock Hill. It was a shocker. Then came the revelation from a health check up that I had high cholesterol levels, but this unexpected news proved to be a blessing in disguise. My knee-jerk reaction of instantly cutting out probably eighty percent or more of my saturated fat intake shed six pounds in just fortnight and a couple more have also dropped off at a thankfully slower rate since. The general felling of fatigue that pushed me towards booking a health check in the first place has also faded away, perhaps down to my body not getting bogged down in processing nasty fats that it's not very good at processing? Who knows? But I started to feel much better in general.
Although lightening my load, progress at the races was very gradual over the first six weeks of weekly action, even staggered at times. It wasn't clear if I was going to improve enough to get back to my own very modest standards, but nevertheless I was starting to enjoy just getting out there and racing. By the time the Kentmere Horseshoe came around in mid-July, I had grown up a bit and was sucking in with gratefulness the fact I was out there competing. No point spoiling the enjoyment by chasing shadows I couldn't catch anymore. Kentmere turned out to be my slowest effort there in eight race appearances, but I was unusually very matter of fact about it all. I felt like I was hardening up to competition again at the very least and if not hitting the high notes, able to put a good rate of effort in. Around weekly racing, a training routine had naturally evolved which seemed to be working well in that I was staying fit enough to race withoiut running myself in to a hole.
Then came a welcome bolt from the blue. Just three days after Kentmere, the signs of a race pace lost unexpectedly returned. Widdop fell race was my first solid effort in a race from start to finish for a good few years. I set off strong, I stayed strong and I finished strong. Performances have continued to get better during August and it's fair to say that, certainly in short and middle distance fell races, I've just about started to tap in to the sort of standard that I haven't run for maybe five or six years. The race myself back to race fitness experiment has been a success this Summer. Just over three months and fourteen races in the bank to finally crack it. Perhaps my Indian Summer of running wasn't such a delusion after all. So, sorry bowling fans, if you were expecting the content of these pages to switch code to the intricate art of the Crown Green, then I must conclude that the prospect of running taking a final bow is no longer on the agenda for the foreseeable future.
AUTUMN OUGHT-TO-DO'S
It's all very well getting race fit and getting giddy about it. The hard bit will be managing to stay there and pushing onwards. Picking up a nuisance calf strain and then creasing my back gardening have been timely reminders that it's a fine line we runners tread to stay in decent enough nick to do what we so desire.
As the Summer race calendar thins a little going in to the colder seasons, it's important that I still get some racing in as this has been the key to a return of good form. Other than that, no big plans really, other than putting in some longer training runs. I suppose a focal point of some description would be The Tour of Pendle in November. If I can stay in good shape I believe I've still got a good race left in me at that one. But I'm thinking more longer term and next year. I may well eat these words, but right now I have no intention whatsoever of entering the Three Peaks. There's still plenty of Cumbrian classics that I would like to have a bash at before I hit the grave and especially Borrowdale. Finally making it to the Ben Nevis race is also on the to-do list if I am lucky enough to get on the start list again. There's only so much one can do though, so in the meantime I won't be looking much more than two weeks ahead and hope to just stay in good shape and injury free.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)