Race Report - Halewood 5K

So near, yet so far...

Thought I would give the other weekly 5K in Liverpool a go this week. Instead of parkrun's 'undulating' course, the Halewood 5K offers a flat out-and-back course along the old Liverpool Loop Line. It starts at the civilised time of 1pm, although I found that it made choosing when to eat Saturday Morning a challenge.

But loaded up on Fruit and Waffle from Perkrun, I travelled over to the start line. The event, although bijou is well run, marshalled and a great supportive crowd. I loved the idea of a lead and trailing bike, made it feel a bit like a big city race. A couple of fellow Striders were there and I managed to get in a full warm-up feeling prepared at the start line.

For the off I felt good, I knew what "5K" pace should feel like (Threshold plus a bit) and locked in on that feeling. We wound our way around a bit of a forest path before joining the Loop Line. Acutally, there was a bit of severe downward slope which took me by surprise. I'd managed to find a different path on my warmup. In the damp, slippy conditions I was slightly ginger in my descent but was soon off again.

The main part of the race is flat and almost straight as an arrow. Repeating my mantra to myself "Relax and Controooool" and making sure I was relaxed I attcked the race as I thought I should. I past a coule of runners and tried to make sure that I kept focused on the race. I thought about the ever-so-slight incline we were running up thinking "this will be downhill on the way back, more in the bag for me". I was looking down ahead of me to see if I could see the lead bike turning round.

Eventually I saw the turning point and mentally prepared myself for the turn. I knew this was going to be a pinch point for me. I struggle when passing people. It happens in Parkrun, one of the reasons I loved Bushy so much as its a one lap course. Seeing people looking tired makes me feel tired. Maybe thats a sign of the mental work I need to do.

I found the second half of race much harder than the first half. The head wind which had been keeping me cool had now disappeared. A fellow Strider was in front on me and I knew he was gunning for a 19:30ish time. If I just kept him in sight I was be there. But then, all of a sudden he pulled up clutching his hamstring. I went past shouting to make sure he was okay. The next runner was about 100m further on and suddenly I had nothing to work off. I realise I probably tried to increase speed a bit, or took my eye off the ball.

I started to tired, and it was made worse but being slightly disorenitated as to where I was in hte race. If I had looked at my Garmin I would have known, but in hte heat of hte moment I didn't want to panic by looking at the watch. The chain raction started in my head and I pulled up in a fog of confusion. I counted the seconds before I got going again - 15. The guy who had been behind me took me along with him, but my head was shot by stopping.

We came to a fork in the road and I regained some sense about me thinknig about how far there was to go. Just another bridge and about 1200m and I'd be home. I steadied myself of the final push and off I went. Although all of a sudden I could see the flags of the finish line. I was only about 400m from the end. I hadn't looked at my watch and completely misjudged the distance.Gutted.

I cross the line with as much energy as I could muster and looked at my watch.

 20:15

That will be the 15 seconds I was stopped for. Haven't got the official time yet and it's still a 6 second PB.

But you learn these things the hard way.

My brain was an interesting place during the warm-down.

Training Effect

aka The Long Haul

The process of learning in Rowing can often feel like the equivalent of slapping yourself with your own hand until your brain forces you to stop. Bad sessions on the water can be absolute torture of all concerned. You know what you should be doing, but the limbs don’t seem to want to respond to what the brain is telling them to do. Sometimes it felt like the learning process almost happened by accident, a small change would cause the boat to sit up and glide through the water, rather than being humped through treacle. The Rower will desperately try to re-create what ever it was they were doing at the time to produce this change. Eventually it will be programmed into the muscle memory and the standard of rowing within to crew increases. These Eureka moments/sessions can be few and far between, but when they occur even the most sullen bowman can weep with joy.

These moments can be when the blade gently plops into the water without disturbing the run, the moment when you realise the recovery isn’t an 8 or 4 man race down the slide, or the bow pair’s puddles disappearing away from the stern before next stroke is taken.

I think our coach can sum up eureka moments quite well…

I’ve found that running training, especially endurance running, is an altogether different beast. The concept of “Training Effect” comes into play. Instead of focusing on specific eureka moments, the runner must train with the knowledge that it is rarely one particular session that will produce the sought after improvements. Rather, it is a combination of the various session types – long runs, hill sessions, intervals and temp runs that will see their performance increase. Of course, with the aid of a Garmin Watch, the numbers speak for themselves as the times drop and paces increase. However, instead of step changes, it is often a slow progression which is often accompanied by a steady increase in confidence.

I find my self in this position before my 5K time trial tomorrow. One of my goals is to go sub-20 for this distance. It has been tantalisingly close in the last few weeks. After my last taper run on Thursday, I realised that, as long as I stay calm and focused, this goal is certainly within my reach. My legs have felt so much stronger I can’t quite believe it. Paces that used to be what I would describe as ‘balls out’ now come naturally and with control. The secret of these past few weeks has been the gaining of CONTROL of what I do.

The Novices of GRC will remember Colin’s CONTROOOOOOOOL down the slide, well it works in running too. Hopefully, it will for me tomorrow. So if you find yourself running the Halewood 5K and there is a red-faced loon muttering to himself “relax and controooooool”. That will be me. On my way to a sub-20 minute 5K.

Tales from the City

 It's amazing what you encounter when out running. As the miles float by you find yourself intruding in snippets of other people's lives. Stuck behind a gossiping couple of joggers you learn all about their domestic quirks and how "he doesn't do anything in the house". The teenage girls bemoaning their lack of, or indeed surplus of, new boyfriends and the two midle-aged blokes chatting about a recent football match.

My usual pace and solo runs mean I rarely partake in such banter, although my occasional runs with clubmates provide a nice level of gossip and chatter. I admit I'm not much of a talker, when running or otherwise, but am always glad of the company.


A recent event on the run is worthy of a blog entry as it revealed the world as a slightly nicer place.


It occured running along the streets of south Liverpool. I was bouncing along merrily and two lads, I guessed must have been about 13 or 14, walked passed in the opposite direction. Now of course this isn't noteworthy in any way, except for one small detail. They were holding hands. 

I almost wanted to stop, applaud, whoop and cheer. Of course I didn't, I probably would have ended up on some sort of register. But how far have we come as a society that these two lads are able to make this simplest of gestures, that means so much to so many. I've learnt from Scouting that the views of today's young are vastly different even from 'my generation'. I was a (kind of closeted although fooling no-one) Sixth-Former when the Queer As Folk appeared on TV. I remember watching it agog, it felt like another world, but one I was to come to know quite well. At School suddenly everyone was talkin about issues that had never been discussed before and it was ok to be gay. It took me another year to properly come out and then probably not until I was 20 or 21 to fully accept who I was and what I desired.


Coming Out is an interesting concept, becuase its not something you do once to get it over with. You find you keep having to do it. At work, in your pastimes, sometimes with family. That closet door is actually a revolving one where you appear briefly with jazz hands before disappearing to go round again.


Of course, I'd much rather that than living in that dark scary place of fear that comes with not being either willing or able to be truthful to those around you.

I hope those lads are happy together and that their path in life is full of love and the feeling that I had for the rest of that run. 

Pride.

Race Report - Welsh Castles Relay

HE SPEAKS!

Well this is different, I've recorded an audio track of the Race Report from today. Yes I was THAT bored on the way home. Think of it as Blogger's "Jazz Singer". No Al Jolson comments please.

Lone Wolf or Pack Animal?

Now fully recovered from the punishing schedule that was our holiday in Turkey, I’ve slipped back into training quite nicely. Unfortunately, the sessions didn’t really happen whilst we were away. The constant travel and a nasty, nasty bout of Sinus trouble put paid to that. But once back in Blighty, I launched myself back into the rigours of training.

I found that I’d lost some of the confidence I had gained in the initial few weeks. The first week back was tough, and I was getting slightly injured. An unwise 5 miler knocked me for six, and it is not until now that I feel like I’m ‘back on the bus’. But happily, after an amazing Jubilee Weekend and a decent Parkrun performance, all is back on track and I’m looking forward to racing in the Welsh Castles Relay on Sunday.

On Tuesday, I ran with my squad on a training run for the first time in over a month. It was an enlightening experience and made me realise how different my own training has been. The session turned out to be on grass and was 12 x 90s effort with 90s recovery. Crikey! Running on grass is hard! I’m pleased I did it though as now I’ve got another area/surface I can use for training and one that will help with the XC season in the coming winter. Running/training with others, especially those of similar ability to you can be a bonus or a hindrance. For the bit-too-competitive runner, I wonder is it healthy/productive?

Some athletes benefit from collective training, a highly scientific poll on Twitter showed that quite a few people aren’t fans of Solo training. As would be expected, the Rowers and other participants of Team Sports were pretty much the most vocal in support of group training, but some runners also professed to be fans. It is true that a bit on encouragement can go a long way when you are blowing bubbles in a hard session. However, on Tuesday I realised during the session that I was spending much more time worrying about the position of myself relative to those around me than I was concentrating on my own form/technique and effort. Training solo, I’ve had little else to do than focus on how my body is reacting to a particular effort or session. I’ve found that by doing that, I’ve gained a lot more confidence in my own ability. For me, that is producing good results. If we focus too much on just beating those around us, I don’t think we’re doing ourselves justice as runners. Racing is usually a very personal experience. You can train with the biggest squad in the world, but when it comes to that start line, you’ve only got yourself to rely on. Which phrase is better - “I achieved my potential and won that race...” or “In that race I beat everyone else…”?

Let me ask you this - When you are training in a group, are you actually training for yourself or are you jockeying for a position with your peers? I would suggest the former will bring results and improvements, whilst the latter will bring frustration (and usually injury).