North East Running

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 SSS scor

Last year I got a sub-three marathon at Edinburgh . I looked at my training block for that race and made a few tweaks this year for my London effort. As always, in addition to doing a bit of online research, I picked the brains of some of the best runners I know. In particular a couple of runners who have ran sub 2:20 in the past and another who runs sub 2:30 who really know their stuff. Some bulleted notes: Started the training block having regularly done 21-25km every Sunday for some time just as 'the Sunday Long Run'. So this is a great starting point Worked hard for 14 weeks - a little longer than the Edinburgh plan Ran every day, but alternated hard efforts with easy runs. Put the effort in, then recover, then repeat. Kept a fast interval session in for the Tuesday (anything from 400 up to 1mi intervals) but put a longish tempo effort in for the Thursday. Worked this up from 10k to 16k through the training block Kept the Sunday Long Run at a decent pace (sub 4:30/km) - to

  I've done 16 races now at 10k distance over the last 4-5 years. My PB has gone from sub-40 to sub-36. I got a PB last year and then again another just recently. 10k is a tough distance. With 5k, it can be argued that you can get away with going hard and trying to hold on. Try the same tactic over 10k and you can find that by half way you'll be too tired and the pace will just drift away. So, first things first - you don't get a PB unless you have the basics right: Make sure you are in good form - you are not going to get a PB if you not in your best shape Pick a race that is pretty flat and has a good surface - enter a hilly, mudfest of a 10k - you're not getting a PB Think twice about building your hopes up if the weather forecast has a strong wind predicted So, if the stars are aligning on the three points above - then it is down to (a) pacing stategy and (b) race preparation and (c) how much your prepared to push yourself. A. Pacing strategy Every world record from

I pretty much ran every day through 2022. Typical week would be Mon-maintenance, Tue-effort, Wed-maintenance, Thu-effort, Fri-easy, Sat-parkrun, Sun-long-run. However, before Christmas I was absolutely knocked out with the flu. Terrible cough, shivering, having to wear 4-5 layers and waking up damp with sweat. There was no way I could run for nine days! My weight went from 78 to 73kg also. Xmas (lack of) runs I then had to consider two things (a) when do I start to run again? and (b) what amount of fitness I had lost? The first five days back I simply ran 8km slow runs. I still had a cough and when I stopped half-way through and at the end I found myself having to cough for 20-30s because of the cold air. Day six I tried to do 3x1km efforts keeping the pace below 4:00/km and just about managed this. Again coughing at the end. Day eight I decided it was time to return to the normal training schedule. My three parkruns leading up to having the flu were: Riverside 17:48 (fast course) Orme

One of the best running websites is Power of Ten where you can look through all of your races over the years. Looking at my performance card below it shows how my running has developed - from 2015-2017 doing only parkruns and going from just over 20 minutes to just under 19 minutes. Then slowly doing road races from 10k up to marathon.  Power of Ten performance card I thought it might be interesting to put my PB times into the WAVA calculator to assess which distance was my strongest. https://www.fetcheveryone.com/training-calculators-wava.php   " Age grading looks at world beating times set by people of all ages to work out what someone of your age and gender is capable of. World class athletes score close to 100. The rest of us won't be so high, but you can use this tool to see which distances you've excelled at; and which ones need some work ." WAVA calculator Below is a chart of my WAVA scores - this levels things up and shows, relatively, which my strongest dist