The Contender

Confession - I recorded this before I went to Portugal but I forgot about it. A shame as it's my favourite blog post so far. I'm afraid it's 18 mins long, so not a quick listen. 

It started as a round up of the Paras10, but mushroomed into a bit more. 

I think it's worth it. You may learn something about me you didn't know.

Sorry for the yawning
 

Portugal Training Camp - Part 2

Day 5

Halfway through the camp and its fair to say my legs are really feeling it now. It was a couple of easy runs today. The morning one was good, I am still working harder than I would do at home. But I didn’t feel the need to keep up with the front pack, settled into a good pace and had a good stretch with my own thoughts. The beach was lovely again. Later in the morning we had another strength and conditioning session with Phoebe. They are really useful as a recap and we added some variations to the exercises. Medicine balls and kettle-bells making the exercises that bit more challenging. All those circuits I’ve done over the years, and I wasn’t getting as much out of them as I could have done.

I’m making sure I try and stretch outside of the sessions, its something I really need to keep up when I get home. Its easy out here as all you’ve got to do is eat/train/sleep, but add back in the whirlwind of work/everyday life and things will get a bit tougher. Another short gentle run in the evening preceded a training seminar with Nick and Phoebe. I was amazed at how much I got out of it. Normally at these things the same three questions are asked, which if you ‘follow’ running you are generally aware of. However, I think due to the experience of the people both asking and answering, it was a treasure trove of detailed info and advice.

I’ve really been getting my nutrition so wrong! The 4pm flapjack monster comes along because I’ve not been eating correctly through the day. There’s a lot for me to mentally process here, to do with my emotional relationship with food, and its going to take some time to get right. It’s a scary thought when someone is telling you to eat more to lose weight! This week has made me realise how important nutrition and hydration are, especially when you are putting the miles in.

Also, I twigged that my evening runs on Mondays and Wednesdays should have been morning runs. Nick and Phoebe explained exactly why. That will teach me for reading the plan as I wanted to read it, not as written. My given myself a little slapped wrist. Added with the fact it would give me back two evenings a week, this could be nothing short of a small revolution. Does mean a few more early mornings though!

I think it’s getting to the information overload stage now. You get so eager to learn everything, and you realise how much you have got to learn!

Day 6

Hard Session day rolls round again, Track Work this time. I woke up stiff as a board in my hamstrings and hip flexors. The session was starting at 9.30am, so the sun was going to be up. The hotel has a track right next to it (Iucky lucky us) and we trooped down loaded with the extra water we were advised to bring. There was far more warming up than I normally do on my interval sessions, including the drill work we did the other day. Still, it only took 15 minutes or so, so I need to remember to do that. Apparently Nick always starts his Tuesday sessions with them. I think I’ll be using the Estuary Square more often or possibly even try and use Wavertree track.

The session was going to be longer and harder than any intervals I’d done before. 6 min tempo run followed by 3 min recovery then 5 x 300m with 100m/1min jog recovery, all done twice. The tempo run began and I tried to lock in on my Threshold pace, although instead of going for 6:30-6:50 as usual, I tried to do it by feel. The pace was quicker than normal but you couldn’t analyse it too much as the heat was such a big factor. There were one or two experienced people I knew were slightly quicker than me so I hung on to within earshot of them. Nick was shouting out lap times as we went round, I’ve always wanted to experience that. I would have made a little internal squee, but I was working hard enough already. I mentally made the calculation that it would be about 4 laps, that was good as it me some boundaries to work with. I heard my Garmin beep a mile and we weren’t yet finished. so I knew I’d done a sub 6 mile. I couldn’t believe it, I’ve never done that consciously before. I remember doing a mile test with Mo at LRC a couple of years ago. and clocking 6:29. It’s nice to internally acknowledge how far you’ve come at times. Everyone was performing great and working hard. The collective atmosphere was amazing. For the 300m reps, we set off together and then Nick grouped us by roughly equivalent finishing time at the end of the first interval. This was great as you knew you were running with people roughly the same speed. Off we went again, the group dynamic pushing everyone. Round and round we went, banging out times with surprisingly good consistency and also quick and quicker with each rep. By the time the fifth interval came round I was done in. The heat felt horrific and my legs wanted to drop off. Only we had to do it all again.

It was time to start digging deep and see what the fairy-godfather can do.

The 6min Tempo sucked the energy out of your legs, especially on the bends, but I was trying to run tall, trying to stop plodding along with the daintiness of an elephant. My contemporaries were within sight but I was struggling to stay with them. I couldn’t tell if they were getting faster or I was getting slower. It didn’t matter really as I was working as hard as I could. Nick was shouting helpful comments and keeping me focused. “Focus on his back, Mitch”. Right, this was just like a Parkrun, a very hot Parkrun. I could do this. Soon it was over and there were just the other set of 300m repeats to do. I broke it down and took them one at a time. It was hard, really head. The times were coming round, not much slower than the last sets, although the effort seemed greater. I kept pouring water over my head to try and cool down – everything was screaming, but we were a team and just like in Rowing, I wasn’t going to drop off and let myself or the others down. We’re in this together. Eventually, finish line number 5 arrived and we could rest. I was bent double but it had been work it. My Intervals in Liverpool had never felt like that, I think I’m going to have to up my game. The Garmin data was great, 5:44-5:49 pace for the Tempo sections and 4:40-5:00pace across all the intervals. Bear in mind that was the final-push pace that I sprinted across the line at Capenhurst only a few weeks ago and now I was doing repeated reps with it!

I love Nick’s track sessions, the grouping idea is great as you never feel like a donkey at the back, and we all got through it together, pushing each other on. Would like some of the PLS guys to join me on my Square intervals so we could try that.

But something more profound changed for me in the course of that session. It stopped being about ‘me’ and started being about ‘us’, the encouragement everyone was giving each other managed to melt away even the most hardened bits of my Ego. I’ll admit, I’ve got the Ego the size of a planet, and it has got me into trouble on more than one occasion. However, when you’re working that hard for that long, it gets stripped away, leaving just you and the next placing of the foot in front of you. If I can be so bold to speak for others, all the sessions we’ve done this week have challenged us all in many different ways. One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learnt on this camp is that whilst it’s important not to big yourself up too much, it’s also just as important not to put yourself down all the time. There is strength in acknowledging your achievements and remembering that there are people who would kill to be able to run at your speed, whatever that is. We’re all only one step away from an injury and being on the sidelines.

The rest of the day was spent, as usual, eating and recovering by the pool. It is amazing how quickly you can form a routine. For dinner, we had a lovely meal on the Terrace of the nearby Honey Farm, gossiping and toasting everyone’s health as the sunset. Beautiful, and ended up being a bit of a late night.

I have a (well earned!) rest day tomorrow, I’ve done my usual weekly mileage in 5 days. Plan to do as little as possible, resting before the final long runs on Saturday Morning. 6.30am start *gulp*.

Day 7

zzzzzzz...…nomnomnom…….zzzzzz…

Training Camp Diary Part 1

Here is Part one of the Portugal Diary. I make no apologies for the lack of brevity, you should know me by now.

Day 1

Writing this at 22.20, sat on my hotel bed as everyone seems to be having any early night tonight. Well, I’ve made it! After months of looking forward to it, I’m finally at the Portugal Training Camp.

Flight over with Ryanair was typically horrific, sat next to the Family Shameless. The guy next to me had a tight grip on his lighter pretty much the whole journey. It was slightly unnerving. Almost as much as the fact that he and the woman next to him didn’t seem to be able to open a packet of crisps normally. They insisted on exploding the bags open, how delightful on a plane! Then he proceeded to tip the crisps over his tray and throw the packet on the floor along with the sweepings from the crisps when he had finished. I knew there was a reason I liked BA. Urrrghhh.

Anyways, we arrived and it was delightfully hot, I met up with Steve, my room-mate for the week, at the airport and we travelled to the hotel. There wasn’t much time to settle in as pretty much a soon as we’d unpacked it was time to change into running gear and meet up for the first run. We met Nick and Phoebe in the lift going down to the lobby. We were introduced and went to meet the other guys. I was presented with 12 very athletic looking runners *internal gulp* and off we went. The run was relaxed and through the orange groves. Banter was muted but I’m sure will grow as the week goes on. There was a little stream crossing to negotiate *flashbacks* but it was very enjoyable. The heat, a little punishing but I’m sure we’ll get use to it.

The second half of the run was around the XC circuit next door to the hotel. They hold the Euro XC championships there every couple of years. We did a lap of the 2km course and then Nick said “We’re going back now to get ready for the stretching session, but you guys can do another lap if you want. Purely voluntary!” You know what that means. Of course I did as did most others. As we cam round to finish, there was some murmurings of another lap but we had to get back for stretching. At this point I was thinking “This is relentless!”, but the stretching session was great. You try and do the best you can when stretching at home, but the stretches shown to us by Nick and Phoebe were amazing “Yep, there it is” I thought on more than one occasion. There was talk of future flexibility targets

You know how I like a target. Bring it on.

Quick shower, supplies run to the local supermarket and then out for dinner at a local restaurant. It’s a really nice group, and everyone’s got their own targets. Nick and Phoebe are lovely as expected, but make no mistakes. They’ll crack the whip when the time comes.

The long run tomorrow is a 7.30am, which is why, I think, everyone didn’t have more than one beer. We’ve traipsed back to our rooms, getting drinks gels and kit ready for the morning.

Can’t wait.

Day 2

It was still dark when the alarm went off. I shuddered and thought about turning over and going back to sleep. It had been a fitful night of sleep at best, with strange jumbled-up dreams. No change there then. I wolfed down my muesli and get my long run kit on. Thought I’d fly the PLS flag this morning and wear my club vest. It was light by the time we set out at just after 7.30am. Nick had asked everyone what sort of length run they were going to do, people were choosing either 90 mins or 2 hours, depending on the race they were training for. My long runs in the UK have been 2 hours long so I said that.

We set off and the pace was relaxed and the chatter good. The group spread out a bit with the different paces of everyone, but a quick loop back soon brought everyone back together. The Sun was up and definitely getting hotter. We’d left our gels and drinks by the podiums at the XC circuit. The plan was to do an hour loop and then people split of as they wanted to make up the rest of the time for the run. The were options of running round the XC track or the Orange Groves Loop. We can back in almost dead on a hour, although about half a mile back I’d noticed the pace had suddenly picked up a bit. I looked at my Garmin and we were doing 7:15s. That’s a bit quick for me and I dropped off the lead pack. I think after about 45-50 minutes the heat started getting to me a bit, although I new a drink and gel wasn’t far off. After refuelling, I decided to repeat the loop we’d done last night round the orange grove. I think it’s about 1.5 miles. A guy called Simon was with me and Nick popped up every so often to give advice and encouragement.

“I’ve noticed you do sweat a lot don’t you.” he said. I gave him a look.

“Charming!”

“No it’s a good thing; it shows your body is efficient at cooling itself. Do you get white patches on your clothes?”

“Not really” I replied.

“Good, you’re not losing electrolytes. Make sure you really hydrate well this week.”

And off he went. I felt guilty for a second, hydration is something I’m really rubbish at. I very rarely take drinks on long runs. Maybe that’s something I need to start. I know it’s hot out here, but I’m sure it’s a lesson that applies equally at home.

After a loop of the orange grove, I agreed with Nick to go back to the XC course where the drinks were and refuel whilst doing laps of that. When I got back there, suitably watered, I start the XC loop but was struggling badly. At this point I made the decision that that was enough. I’d done 90 mins. I know what I’m like and didn’t want to go careering on and wipe myself out for the rest of the week. So I called it a day on that run. Nick thought it was a good decision.

We headed back to the hotel and rested our legs in the pool. Bliss. I want one installed.

Now onto the beach. There’s talk of a volleyball competition. Top Gun Quotes at the ready :-D

“I feel the need…the need for speed”

Day 3

Last night we had group drinks and a meal. The wine and conversation flowed freely and it was good to find out a bit more the rest of the group. This morning we went out for an ‘easy’ run. It was going to be easy until we spotted a group of runners about 250m ahead of us. Someone said “are we going to overtake them?” We laughed and nothing further was said, but slowly and surely the pace crept up and up. I looked down at my Garmin and 7:30 average stared back at me, tutting. I blame Carl :D The silence continued but on we ran, the group was passed with friendly “good mornings all round”. At the turning point, Nick said we could head back to the hotel via the beach or the cliffs. We chose the beach and it was absolutely glorious with the lovely breeze. One for the video montage. It was only after the run that anyone admitted “that was a bit quick wasn’t it?” Straight back to cool the legs off.

Later in the morning we had a strength and conditioning session with Phoebe. It’s something a lot of runners (me included) tend to ignore. Having someone show and tell you exactly why you should be doing it was a big wakeup call. Stretched and core work are the future and there really isn’t any excuse why we can’t bang out 15 minutes.

I sat down and chatted with Nick about how it’s all going and future targets. It was nice to be able to thank him in person for all the support over the last six months. We talked about many things, and it was nice of him to say that I’d been working hard. I know, I’m a compliment whore, but it is nice to get recognition from someone you respect.

Surprisingly to me, he was interested in my life outside running – like how it affects/is affected by work or how Steve feels about it all. I didn’t really see that coming, but actually, it makes sense. The quality of your running will always be affected by what’s going on around you. It made me realise that I do everything I can to not let it, to the point of bloody-mindedness. I should think it might make a few subtle changes to the way I approach running over the coming months. I have now got my targets for the coming winter and spring, so it’s all good. We’ve got a training seminar on Wednesday so lots more good advice will be shared I’m sure.

..

After some sun-drenched pool lounging, it was time for technique and drills. ARRGHHH I appear to have the coordination of a drunken spider. Something I’ve really got to work on. They showed us how inefficient heel-striking is. I think I’m a lot better than I was but that session showed me how far I had to go! The guys went for another ‘easy’ run over the cliffs to end the day (read Alton Towers-style roller coaster of peril, I can be such a fanny on hills, but I kept up with the group) and back along the beach with a dip in the sea to cool off.

Can all Mondays be like this in future?

Day 4

Woke up quite heavy legged today and am about to head out for a hills/threshold session. This should be interesting…

<Update> Oh my word, that was among hardest ever workouts I’ve ever done. That was on par with Colin’s Watt-based Erg Intervals (officially the most horrific session I’ve ever had, pain wise). We headed down to the XC track and the sun already seemed quite high. Nick told us that this was going to be a tough one with a 10min set of continuous hills, 3 min recovery and then 5 x 2 minutes at 5K pace around the track. If that wasn’t enough there was going to be another 10 minutes of hills at the end. He was great in explaining that he knew we were all starting to feel tired but the purpose of this session was to simulate the last third of a race, when it does start to hurt and the hammer drops.

The session went by in a painful blur. The heat on the open XC was punishing, the recoveries seemed shorter and shorter, although in reality they weren’t. I would have paid vast sums of money to not have done the second set of hill reps, I honestly thought I had nothing left. Somehow we all managed to complete the session. The work kept coming, yes at different levels for everyone, but we all put our all into it.  There was a palpable sense of relief when it was over. It makes such a difference from training solo and you push yourself in ways you didn’t know you could. Coming back and looking at the Garmin data caused me to audibly gulp. All my 5K reps were sub-6min/mile pace! You could actually knock me down with a feather right now.

One of the best things though was that I was able to be mindful throughout the whole session, thinking about Nick and Phoebe’s technique points and trying to correct myself as I ran. I really want to get these ingrained as it makes running so much more pleasurable. You feel tall and fast as opposed to grinding through an interval with clenched teeth.

Then it was straight back to the hotel and straight into the pool to cool the legs down. Half expected a cartoon-style plume to steam to rise from the water as I put my feet in. Thinking I’ll probably get a rub down in the next couple of days as I’ve taken a bit of a pounding.

I really do feel lucky to have the chance to run with some inspirational runners. Everyone has a story to tell, and invariably we can all learn something from each other. It’s brought home that I’m still very much at the start of the journey. The quality of the running I’m seeing is sublime at times. It’s great as it just makes you want to get better and better. I’m going to try and get down to the Track Sessions if ever I’m in London. I may be at the back, but I’ll give it everything I’ve got.

When I first contacted Nick, I wanted to run a sub-3 marathon, but over the past couple of months, I’ve began to realise that actually that’s a bit of a false target. Suppose I do it, what than? It’s a number on a timing chip. Much better for me would be to say, “I want to be the best runner I can be”, if that’s at 8 minute miles or 5 minute miles so what. By tying myself down to a figure set in stone I’m just helping that monkey get on my back and setting myself up for potential frustration.

Right, time for a recovery run.

Training Update - So Long Summer

Long car journeys..*shudder*. Time to update you on how the summer has been, training wise.

Enjoy
 

Moving On

One for the rowers. I was going to type this, but ended up dictating it today. So you get my dulcit tones, aren't you lucky. Thanks for listening.

Matt, this is for you

Addiction

Could have done without the massive industrial-scale drilling as I entered the dental hospital. 

 

You know your smitten when you have a tooth out and your first thought is "Ooh, saved a bit of weight there, maybe I'll run a bit faster".

Then you think

Oww.