My Big Toe

I was trying to think of something witty for the title of this post, but failed horribly, so I decided to go with a title that got straight to the point.

I knew it was dangerous making a plan. All my best laid plans seems to go a little bit pear shaped. In this case, I wish my toe was more pear shaped than the turgid sausage that it has become.

There have been several incidents now that have given me a little nudge to gently suggest that I'm getting a bit on the ancient side to keep up with my current sporting activities of running, football, squash, and gym.

The squash I have pretty much given up, my hamstrings and knees just don't agree with the rapid acceleration and change of direction required. Even when they were young & youthful they struggled with this feat.

As for football, I've been trying to reduce the quantity of football I play, as a 36 yr old, I realise that in the professional world I am considered scrape heap fodder. However I still try to play when I can.

Last Thursday for instance, was one such occasion, for which now I am wishing I chose not to take part.

7 mins into the game was when it all happened. Sadly the team I play for consists of 5 other 'wrong side of 35' players and so we are not really a team blessed with pace, but we do have a wealth of experience, which is at least worth a psychological 1- nil. This lack of pace usually means we are indeed, one step behind, as all of the teams we play against consist mainly of undergraduate students, still full of pubescent hormones raging inside them and an never diminishing level of energy.

In one instance, I found myself one step behind the youth I was marking, when he decided to have a shot on goal. Ready as ever to give everything for the team, I lunge my leg out to try a push the ball away. Surprisingly for me and I think also for him I managed to make contact with the ball sufficiently to push it away from his rapidly approaching striking leg.

I think you might be starting to get the picture of what happened next.

With the ball being replaced with my meagre size 9 foot, the fore mentioned striking leg continued on its course and almost sent my foot into the top corner of our goal. Fortunately the foot stayed attached to my leg. Unfortunately a surge of pain was emanating from my big toe.

I left the pitch, and sat disgruntled on the side lines knowing my right toe had received some damage, but I couldn't face looking.

When we got back to the changing rooms, I reluctantly took a gander to see what the damage was, and was greeted with the delight below

It doesn't look so bad here, this is 3 days later.

I don't think it's broken, I just think the joint took a severe blow. Suffice to say I can't run on it.

I can walk, which I think is a good sign, and now almost 5 days later the bruising is significantly better.

The training plan though, has been put on the shelf for the moment. Hopefully, a little jog tomorrow will give me some indication of how much rest I need to give it before I can resume.

It's a FIRST

For the next 18 weeks I'm embarking on a specific new training program focused on improving my half marathon time.

Normally with a specific event in mind, I try to work my running schedule to suit. Building up the frequency and length of my runs. In the case of half marathons, this usually incorporates 2 short and 1 long. The short I usually try to run at a faster pace and the long at the target half marathon pace. This has generally worked for me, and helped me to over the years gradually improve my times.

In the summer, I bought a book called Run Less, run Faster promoted by Runner's world, but is designed by the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST). Having read the book, I'm now in a position to put it to the test. What seems very good about this training program is that is can be designed for any distance, whether it be 5K, 10K, half marathon or full marathon. Further to this the program enables you to choose a program that is based on your current fitness. There is no point in trying to stick to a plan when you fitness levels mean that you will always fall short and most likely end up injury yourself.

The FIRST program works on the basis of '3 plus 2', i.e 3 quality runs and 2 aerobic cross-training workouts.

The runs are composed of 1x tempo run, 1x track repeats, and 1 long run. This is in fact not far from what I had previously been doing apart from the track repeats.

The cross-training can take the form of swimming, cycling, or rowing (i.e most of the things you can find at a local gym) and the program gives you specific guidelines of what intensity you should be doing these at different stages of the program.

The program is designed to give you a specific workout each week, thus providing variation through the training, something which many runners find frustrating about training-the lack of variation and boredom.

An additional bonus about this program is that you have two definitive rest days ( you can however incorporate an additional cross-training workout, but not running).

One of the strengths of this program it seems is the philosophy that you don't need to keep pounding out miles upon miles to improve your running. It preaches 'quality over quantity'. However, it is not that you aren't running a lot in this program, the required long runs are indeed just that long runs which are determined by the distance you are training for.

This program may not suite everyone but it seems to be beneficial to runners who suffer with recurrent injuries, such as ITB or hamstrings. As it is focused on quality, it discusses running form, which runners often lose when trying to accumulate the miles and sometimes stick to a program that their fitness level is not up to. In addition because it is quality over quantity, your legs take less of a battering and are given time to recover.

I tend to have hip problems, which thankfully have not been an issue for the last 9 months. In my run up to the London marathon last year however, I had a real issue with sciatica affecting my back, hip and leg, which thankfully eased after having a forced break from my training.

I'm hoping that this FIRST training program will prevent such injuries.

I'm not sure whether following this training program will be a success or not, but I will keep you updated. The true test will be at Silverstone next March!

NY marathon

363 days to go!
I managed to see some of this years NY marathon TV coverage on Sunday gone. It was a pleasure to see the elite runners running through central park. Sadly Paula Radcliffe could only manage 4th place, but considering the tendinitis injury she was running with this was a very respectable achievement.
Many people in the sports media were suggesting that she should retire as a result of this. How ridiculous! If there is anyone that has shown a will to triumph over adversity, it is her. Following Olympic disappointments, she has come back to race competitively, in particular the NY marathon in 2007 & 2008.

I for one hope that she takes a long rest and comes back stronger next year, and shows the critics that this was just a blip, and that when injury free she can still compete at the highest level. I still struggle to see anyone but Paula in GB that can mount a potential medal challenge in the marathon for the 2012 Olympics (naturally excluding myself here).

For me less than a year to go now!! I've just put together the start of my training plan. I've highlighted a series of half marathons in the spring, before I begin to increase mileage and endurance training over the summer. My aim for late spring is to set a new half marathon PB of 1:25, this should hopefully give me a good fitness basis to train for the marathon and improve on my London time of 3:42.

Fingers crossed I stay injury and illness free over the winter, need to get to Boots to get my bucket of vitamins.

Middle of nowhere?

That's how I'm feeling at present. For the past two years, I have been fortunate in obtaining a place in the London marathon. This year through choice I'm not taking part. Instead I have the NY marathon on the very far horizon. You can just about see it if you squint really really hard.
As I'm by no means an ultra-runner (I'm barely holding it together to be classed a just a 'runner'), 12 months is a little early to start training. Normally this time of year, I would have received my letter saying 'congratulations! You've got a place', and be full of beans like a six year old on Christmas day. However, as I didn't enter, I've no letter, and hence no beans!

Whilst I'm pleased I've stuck to the plan of not running London 2010, I feel there is something absent from my life.

This where I need the A-Team! I need a plan. I need some form of regularity, a routine, something to target! I need motivation!!!!!

With the Birmingham Half been and gone, that's it. The only things left in my running diary are two six mile cross country races and as some would say 10Ks are for wimps! I need a bigger challenge.

I can't wait for my Runners world subscription to start- I think I may be flicking straight to 'Upcoming events'!

'Middle of nowhere' also very fittingly describes my running at the moment. I seem to have plateaued. Yes I posted a PB for the half marathon, but every other distance I'm staying the same. The short days are not helping either, when I'm in need of altering my routine and upping my game, the dark nights and my waning motivation are plotting against me. Hey ho, I wonder if there's football on telly? I'm sure I've still got a beer in the fridge.

Is this really fun?

I came across a couple of YouTube videos whilst searching for directions to Senneleys park, where the race is taking place.

I'm not sure I want to do it anymore!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmZdhmjYbDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQFLF2dYiI

Good bye road, hello, grass, mud and streams...

This is it!
To steal a not quite so immortal quote from the not so immortal Michael Jackson! I'm moving off-road! Cross-country season beckons and as a wide eyed bushy tailed cross country novice, I'm looking at it with slight excitement, possibly a bit of bewilderment, but definitely lots of trepidation!

Last Saturday I awoke at 7 am, not just by accident, no nightmares involved, but actually with due purpose and cause. Anyone that knows me well, would tell you that 7am on a weekend and me are just not compatible, but give me credit, I hauled my tired ass over to a nearby park where our club was having it's cross country training session at 8 am.

Now seeing that I only live 10 mins away, I now realise I could have had an extra 50 mins in bed. Damn it!!

For someone that has spent the past 5 years of his 'running career' (if there is such a thing-possibly less career, and more taking running a little more seriously than using it as a means of getting from A to B a bit quicker than walking) on hard surfaces, running off-road is just odd.

Firstly, it zaps all your energy, soft ground absorbs your impact thus pushing off on each stride takes more effort.
Secondly, soft ground by its own definition is not 'hard' thus ankles, knees and other bits of my anatomy (behave) are not as stable as running on road.
Lastly, it's not just grass, but dirt, mud and also water features such as brooks and streams! Thus adding an additional degree of difficultly as it is quite slippery out there.

The training session went o.k, it was just 10 x 800m reps over undulating terrain. Not too bad but tiring nonetheless.

The first cross country race is this Saturday, so I'm being thrown straight into the deep end. The races tend to be about 6 miles. Apparently this event has a brook which we will run through twice. Sounds like fun to me.

This lunch time I'm off down to a local sports shop to buy some 'Spikes', I do have off road shoes, but I've been advised that whilst these will have good grip, they won't compare to the benefit spikes will give.

This however fills me with slight nervousness, the more kit that I purchase, the better 'runner' I feel I need to be, other wise I will fulfil the criteria of the phrase 'All the gear- but no idea'.

We'll see, my off road career could still be very short lived....

One last update before I go....

I took part in a lovely 5K road race last Sunday, which was a nice transition from 13.1 miles of the Birmingham Half the week before. I think I managed to run my best 5K of the season so far running a time of 19 mins,23 secs. I think I could have possibly got under 19 mins, but the X-country training the day before and the half the week before, just drained the legs a bit. This time however gave me a placing of 49th of 278 runners. The male runner that won the race did it in a time of 14 mins, 40 secs!! Crazy, that is just insane. Mind you I knew it was going to be a very competitive race when I spotted a tattoo on the bicep of the runner in front of me, which had the Irish flag and the Olympic rings underneath followed by Athens 2004.
This was spotted at the start line, as I was no where near him during the race!!

Birmingham Half-marathon report

As half marathon's go, I really enjoyed this one!

Which is really rare, normally the word 'enjoy' can not often be found in the same sentence as anything describing 13.1 or more miles, but on this occasion and I hope this is true for others that took part, it was a very enjoyable course.

The morning was excellent for runners, cool but not cold and a slight drizzle in the air which didn't start until the gun went off. The course this year was changed dramatically from last year, to suit a fast pace required to attract elite runners for the World half marathon championships, and despite the last 1.1 miles being uphill, it was generally a fast route.

The start was downhill for almost a mile, and I think I clocked just under a six minute mile, which was frightening and I had to force myself to run slower, as I thought I would burn out at 3 miles if I kept that ridiculous pace going, by mile 4/5 I had nicely settled in my planned 7 min mile pace and everything was going well.

Dame Kelly Holmes was the official starter, although I completely blanked her, I wasn't aware she was at the startline until after the event.

The route went through Canon hill Park, then past Edgbaston Cricket ground before heading towards Bournville and Cadbury's world. Being a Bournville Harrier, there was a lot of support in Bournville which was really nice as this was the half way point.

By 9 miles my legs were really getting tired, as I haven't been able to do much training beyond this distance. Fortunately my pace wasn't suffering too much it was just getting harder.

As I approached 12, I knew that the finish was uphill, so I tried to dig into any left over energy reserves and push hard. Many people were starting to suffer with cramp on this uphill section. The only bad planning of the route really-no one wants to finish a half marathon running uphill.

After a last surge down Broad street, which was lined with an incredible amount of people, I crossed the finish line in 1hr 32mins and 24 secs, giving me a finishing place of 485 out of 12,000+ runners. I am so pleased with this, as it is my fastest half marathon time, and for the training I've been able to do it was unexpected. I was aiming to be somewhere between 1:35 and 1:40, so I am overwhelmed.

Some credit has to be given to the organisers this year, as although I think they got the finish of the race route slightly wrong, the event was better organised from start to finish than last year, so well done to them.

So those of you that would like to run a fun fast half marathon course, please sign up for next years event, you'll love it.