Monday 25th July 2011
Yesterday’s run was a cracker.
We’re on holiday in Poland, staying in a town called Sopot on the Baltic coast. After a very early start and a day of travelling on Saturday neither of us felt like running that day but I managed to get out on Sunday morning. I don’t know the area, so Stephanie planned a route out for me involving a 5 mile out-and-back followed by a 6 mile out and back, all on coastal footpaths. It doesn’t sound like the most thrilling run but it was beautiful.
The first 5 mile section felt hard. This tends to be the case when I’m doing a long run. I knew I was looking for a pier 2.5 miles away but it just didn’t seem to be appearing despite me feeling like I was working quite hard. It took nearly 20 minutes and I was relieved to turn around and head back to where I started. 37 minutes. After the first 5 miles I started to loosen up a bit and started getting close to six minutes per mile, which is what I was aiming for. Just over half an hour for the next 5 miles.
This is when it started getting really hot. The sun was pretty high in the sky, and as any runner knows, running in the heat isn’t easy. The coastal path in Sopot is lined with trees but still has several open stretches where you are very exposed to the sun. I decided to keep running hard and then allow myself to run the last 6 miles easy as the temperature was getting high. The path was getting busy too. It seems that you either go to church or go for a walk on a Sunday morning in Poland. Or both.
There’s nothing quite like hammering it as fast as you can with nothing but straight path in front of you. Knowing I only had a couple of miles left before the easy part of my run I pushed hard, using walkers and cyclists as targets. Rollerblading seems to be popular here too and at one point I tried to keep pace with a man on skates. Not easy. He realised what I was doing and smiled before turning off the path to go elsewhere. He was clearly trying to avoid the humiliation of being beaten by someone without wheels. Or just going somewhere else. I prefer to think the former.
I did the next 5 mile section in a shade under 29 minutes.
The real fun bit of the run was the last six miles. The route took me through the town and past the hotels and gardens that line the seafront. Stunning. As the path became less busy it became greener and I was back in the shade. It also became narrower and harder to choose which route to take. I clearly chose the wrong one and ended up running on the beach. Soon enough, though, I found a very steep path back into the woods.
I love running on narrow winding trails, and doing so with a sun-drenched beach below me is such a great experience. I want to do it again. I felt like I could have run forever, but I was also looking forward to breakfast, so turned back and headed towards the town.
Going back a slightly different way down the coastal path I was overcome with a sudden urge to cool down. A few beach turn-offs passed before I had what most sports scientists refer to as a ‘sod it’ moment. I took my shoes and vest off, ran down the sand and jumped in the water. Nothing quite soothes the run-induced sensation of burning calves like cool sea water. I stood in the water for some time, sunning myself and cooling down. Amazing. Why can’t all runs be like this?
The sun was intense. I was thirsty. Time to head back. I put my shoes back on and jogged the short distance back to where we’re staying. In doing so, I also passed the 2000 mile mark for the year. The first 1000 took me 3 months; the next 1000 took me nearly 4. I wonder when I will hit 3000. Can’t wait to find out.
I’m going running.
General Running | holiday, poland, running, sopot
Summary: A 5k PB and a great long run. Hit 2000 for the year.
Monday: 11 easy, 75 mins (11)
Tuesday: 3 x 1mile off 2 mins and 1 x 2miles on track – 5:00/5:00/5:02/10:38. Ran there and back. (10)
Wednesday: AM 5 miles 38 mins, PM 9 easy. (14)
Thursday: Gloucester White Horse 5k. 3rd in 15:31. PB. Long warm down including run back to station. (11)
Friday: AM 5 easy. Edgbaston and Vale. PM 8 steady, approx 50 mins (13)
Saturday: Rest. Travelling to Poland.
Sunday: 15 miles increasing pace on a 5 mile loop: 36:46/30:47/28:51, 6 miles easy. 2:20 total. (21)
Week total: 80 miles
2011 total: 2000 miles
Training Summaries | 5k, july, mile, running, training
Friday 22nd July 2011
I really like the 5k at the moment. I think it’s my new favourite distance.
Yesterday evening, Rich and I went down to Gloucester to run a road 5k that is renowned for producing fast times. The course is pancake-flat and has very few turns in it. His aim was to break 16:30. Mine was to run a personal best.
We thought that the one thing that could have slowed us down was not knowing the course but fortunately we got there early enough to be able to jog most of the course and see what it had in store. No nasty surprises there though. We entered the race, resisting our stomachs’ urges to can the race in favour of a chinese (the White Horse pub doubles up as a chinese restaurant) and made our way to the start. You know you’ve travelled a long way for a race when the organisers don’t recognise your club name.
After the entertainment provided by a very grumpy race official and a drunken man on a bike, the race got underway. The course had mile markers rather than k markers, which I always think is a strange way of marking the distance. Surely it is easier for competitors if the markers are for a fraction of the race distance. Two runners from Bristol and West went off fast at the front, followed by a pack of about 5. These guys were running at a quicker pace than I was comfortable with so I hung back, trusting my pace judgement after Tuesday’s 3 x 1 mile session at 5k pace. Rich tucked in behind me. The first mile marker was behind me before my watch showed 5 minutes. 4:58 on the clock. I was pleased with this as I felt I still had more to give.
As I suspected, the pack of 5 began to slow in the second mile, paying the price for some enthusiastic early pacing. I gradually reeled them in, trying not to rush things and wear myself out bridging the gap. When I got just behind the group I remembered what our club’s team manager for the road relays always says: when you catch someone up, go straight past them and don’t let them hang on to you. So I did. 9:56 for 2 miles.
This put me in third behind the two Bristol guys. One of them was clearly a class act and was pulling away for the win but the other was tiring. By this point, another runner from Cheltenham was shadowing me after surging out of the group behind. I chased down the Bristol athlete with about half a mile to go and the Cheltenham athlete went with me.
Looking at my watch as it displayed 13 minutes, I decided to launch my finishing kick early. We had come off the loop in the course and were back on the stretch of road we started on, running back towards the start/finish. I put in a surge, thinking it would be enough to break the Cheltenham athlete. But then with about 200 metres to go he came back at me, charging towards the line. I tried to respond but the hard running had taken its toll. I pushed on towards the line and was the third person to cross it. The timer shouted “31” as I did and I knew this meant 15:31, a new personal best; 15 seconds faster than I’ve run on the road and 5 seconds faster than I have on the track.
Rich crossed the line a few positions back in 16:26. He held his position well, and like me, achieved what he had set out to achieve.
It was worth the journey, and worth getting back at 10 o’clock on a week night for. A flat course is one thing, but having people to race against is another. The main attraction of this race was that we knew there would be lots of depth around our level. Our local parkrun is fairly quick but it is still hard to run fast there without people to race against. Perhaps we need to start venturing further afield to find races like this.
Race Reports | 5k, athletics, gloucester, PB, race, running, white horse
Sunday 17th July 2011
Summary: Cut the mileage a bit but got 3 hard days in. Felt very worn out by the end of the week.
Monday: Rest (0)
Tuesday: Grass session at Metchley. 5x960m ish off 90s – 2:56/54/56/55/55, ran home (9)
Wednesday: AM 5 easy 36 mins. PM 8 steady 48 mins (13)
Thursday: Rowheath 5k inc. Warwickshire championships, 5th place in 15:55. Best time on that course. Ran home. (12)
Friday: AM 3 slow. PM 8 slow. Felt tired. (11)
Saturday: 4 easy. Felt tired. (4)
Sunday: 21 easy. Sutton Park and back. (21)
Week total: 70 miles
2011 total: 1920 miles
Taken from my training log.
Training Summaries | 5k, athletics, running, training
Saturday 16th July 2011
garethlynch:
“Our cook put together what each rider in our team eats a day during a day in the TDF” – @andy_schleck
Where the hell do they put it all?!!
General Running