North East Running

For a number of years now I have ran seven days a week most weeks. Very roughly following: Monday = 10k easy Tuesday = Effort (either intervals or tempo) Wednesday = 10k easy Thursday = Effort (either intervals or tempo) Friday = 8k extra easy Sat + Sun = either parkrun + long run OR 5k easy + race day A typical week is 74-80km per week. For someone who has ran competitively for less than 10 years... My theory (hope!) is that if you put consistent effort in, and run smart having recovery days, then your times slowly get better.  (My first sub-20 parkrun was 2016, my first proper race 2018) However, by the middle of this year I ran a couple of races well off the pace. May, June and July were not good months for running. Two examples below. The first was Riverside parkrun - a run I have done many times before and in the 12 months prior had kept all of the splits below 3:30km to put in times in the low 17s. However, the run below, was relatively poor. In particularly km4 which at 3:49...

When using a running watch (I use a Garmin) the Lap feature is pretty useful. It allows you to break your run into set distances (a Lap). Then when analysing on the Garmin or Strava website/app you can see your Splits, which are an analysis of your performance for each Lap. For example, ' For the 8th km of the race my average pace was 3:40/km, my heartbeat was 178bpm, and the elevation difference was +6m giving me a grade adjusted pace (gap) of 3:38/km '.  1. Auto lap Out of the box, most running watches automatically record a lap at 1.00 km (or 1.00 miles if you want to be old school ). The image below shows the default setting on my watch. Auto laps - the default option The screenshot below shows the automatic analysis of a recent race I did (Jarrow 10k) - I knew I needed 3:33/km average for a PB. I very nearly got it - but the laps/splits into the breeze where the pace was slipping to 3:40/km meant I just missed out. During the race by watch notified me every km so I knew wh...

2024 was a year that always going to be a big one. I'd steadily improved for a number of years and knew with a bit of extra training and commitment I could enter the bottom of the M50 category and be competitive. I posted in January that I was going to give everything and see where things would end up.   Looking back on the year - I PB'd ever major distance apart from 10k - which is something I'm very proud of. In terms of rankings across the M50 category - top 10 in the North East region and there or thereabouts top 100 in the UK. Best achievements and rankings Best races parkrun was where my love for running started. So getting a sub-17 (16:57) at the 5k distance was something I was over the moon about. Averaging 3:29/km on the way out but conserving energy tucked into a group running into the wind I knew I had something in the bag for the way back. 3:21 and then 3:16 for the 4th and 5th km was something I didn't think I had in me - but the adrenalin and slight tail ...

 It's been a good year of running. I put this down to: Being extra motivated moving into the M50 category - feeling I can possibly get a category win in reasonably big races - as opposed to being top end of M45 where even if you do a great run there will always be someone faster Putting in three big training blocks - Q1 marathon training block for Manchester, Q2 lots of short 200/400 effforts to get speed in the legs, Q3 marathon training block for Chester. (comes for free following point 2) - running more miles this year than ever before - workout sessions + easy runs This means coming into November I've managed to PB each one of the main road distances... except 10k. One PB remaining Of these runs, the 10miler PB is the one I am most proud of - this was on a stormy windy day in York, only two weeks after a marathon - so had to dig extra deep for that one. Doing three HM PBs in a row (Brass Monkey, Sunderland, Redcar...) is also a sign of the progression throughout the year. B...

At the start of this year I blogged about my running goals . Turning 50 in July - I wanted this year to be special. Running in the M50 category in July and August was a real chance to do well and to target this period. I also wanted to do a marathon performance I was proud of in the spring. This would have the double benefit of giving me the core endurance strength to then build on for later in the year. So... Jan-Mar Went from 90k a week at the start of Jan to 120k a week at end of Mar ( summary here ) - this hard work resulted in a 2:54 marathon which was a 4min PB in April! Apr-Jun So the foundation was in place. It was time to tweak the training and focus on the 5k and 10k races in July. I dropped the distance a little - so stepped right back from 120k a week and took things back to 80-90k per week. The typical week was... Mon - Easy Tue - Hard session of 8x200m, 4x400m, 4x400m, 8x200m Wed - Easy Thu - Intervals - either 8x1k, 4x1mi or 8 hills. Fri - East Sat - Hard parkrun Sun - M...

One of my big goals for this year was to qualify for the England Masters team . Looking through all of the qualifying races for this year I thought Redcar Half Marathon in September would be my best shot. I'd be 50 by then (easier in theory) and based on WAVA scores from recent years, HM was a much stronger distance for me than Marathon. Going into this year it was a 79 min HM PB vs a 2:58 Mara PB. Goals for 2024 But, just to see how the system works as much as anything I registered for Manchester Marathon selection for the M45 category. ...and all of the stars aligned, and I somehow got into the top-3 of the M45s who had entered for qualification. Third in M45 for Masters qualification The fact I crept into third place by only 5 seconds over 42k (without having a clue where I was in the huge field) makes me feel even more over the moon. 5s over 42k is about the same a 1s win in a 10k. Anyway, delighted - and I'll have a go at the HM distance to qualify as M50 at Redcar - maybe...

Got a 4 minute PB. Dropped my time from 2:58:18 to 2:54:13. Nothing too exciting about how the race went - just kept my splits below 4:10km and managed to hold on without slipping until around the 39km mark. Check out training reflections to see how I trained harder to run more strongly and push the PB down. That's my fourth marathon now... 1 of 4 - Yorkshire Marathon 2021 Pace fell off a cliff at 35km. On reflection wasn't good enough for a sub-three. But learnt that I needed to train harder. The fact I kept things strong until 32-33km is probably typical of a decent 80minute HM runner. But first marathon is really going into the unknown for the first time. Yorkshire Marathon 2021 2 of 4 - Edinburgh Marathon 2022 A really sold first 35km without letting any 5km split drop below 21minute gave the foundations. The pace fall-off still happened, but it wasn't as dramatic - stronger legs meant it slowly drifted from 4:10/km to 4:30/km which meant the sub-three goal had been ac...

Manchester Marathon tomorrow. My fourth marathon and have trained harder than ever before. Back in January I blogged what my plan was for the marathon training block . I've pretty much followed it. Only difference being instead of two runs on a Tuesday I just started the day with a double session. But in summary: Go into the training block doing 90km (55mi) a week. Take it up to 120km (75mi) a week. 12 weeks of increasing efforts, with a three week taper at the end. At the maximum do four weeks in a row with 36km (22mi) long runs on the Sunday. Long runs to be at decent pace with at least an 8km (5mi) mara pace section on tired legs. Run every day - alternating between efforts and recovery Tue - hard session (Typically 4x1mile efforts followed by 5k tempo) Thu - hard session (Typically three sets of 5km at mara pace with floats inbetween)  Weekly distances Not sure how much to read into the Strava Fitness and Freshness chart. But fitness went from +59 to +103 to +86. Form went from...

2023 was a good year. PBs in parkrun, 5k, 10k and Marathon. With the right conditions I feel I could have got 10mi and HM too - but cannot grumble. Particularly happy with parkrun as that is now eight years of incremental improvement through improved training and focus. Power of ten score card So what are the 2024 goals? It's a big year as I am 50 in July. Entering the V50 category gives me a real chance to pick some goals that weren't possible in recent years at the top end of the V45 category. So I'm intending on training harder than ever - and putting down some stretched goals that may not be possible - but are worth going for. Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon Goal 2  - Top 50 in the UK runbritain ranking for V50 at 5k distance Goal 3  - England masters vest for V50 Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon With hindsight I think I should have done around 2hr55 at London last year but a few things didn't go to plan and I ended up with a 2hr58. This year I'll try and put things right and ...

 RunBritain Rankings gives each athlete a handicap score based on their best recent* five races. So how does their algorithm work? The vSSS score you get is how well you ran relative to your (a) previous performances and (b) other athletes in the race. The lower the number the better you did. ...and there is a slow decline in the relevance of the run as time passes (hence the asterisk * above). Looking at my current best five performances (25/4/23): All of these are in the last three months (so recent)  All are performances where I have put in strong times (17:22 to 18:00 parkruns). Al are parkruns - which is relatively speaking my best event - notice my 10K PB and my 20mi PB races are not scoring top 5 runs even though they were the best I have ever done Note that Durham parkrun is top scoring run even though it was 38s slower than Hartlepool. This is because that day it was windy and part of the course was a muddy field (see SSS score further down the field) vSSS scoring The...