Training W/C 22nd October 2012

Was looking like a decent week until I managed to go over on my ankle pretty badly!

Training W/C 15th October

Poor week of training this week with only 4 proper runs but still clocked a decent number of minutes as each run was long and some good workouts as each contained some sort of session.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: wu, 8 x 880m (90), 30 easy, wd ( 2:54, 2:52, 2:51, 2:52, 2:53, 2:43 - AVG 2:51; 5:13mm)

Wednesday: 16 abortive run

Thursday: 92 steady averaging 7:04mm including 2 x 450m fast and 10 minutes at MP.

Friday: rest

Saturday: long wu + strides, Surrey League XC (11th)

Sunday: 2 hours with the last 30 split 10 steady / 10 MP / 5 tempo / 5 hard.

Summary:

Tuesday's session was a nice improvement over a very similar session a few weeks back with the pace increased by about 16 seconds per mile. (Previous session was 8 x same length with 2 minutes recovery averaging 3 minutes per rep).

Race was okay. Felt strong until the 1st hill when I started falling back. See race report for more details shortly.

Was a bit disappointed to not run more this week but I'd been feeling pretty rubbish and so taking an easier week helped. Still roughly 50 under the belt which after high 60s/low 70s for a fair few weeks is reasonable.

2012/13 Surrey XC League Division 2 - Race 1 Nork Park

With the turning of the leaves and the chill in the air Autumn has arrived and with it the XC season! After promotion two seasons ago and relegation last year by the tightest of margins (2 points...) the squad were keen to start the season strong and go back up as Champions.

Unfortunately due to the timing of the race a number of the club's faster and stalwart members were out of action for this first fixture together with the loss of Guy McLaren and Jamie White from last season. Without them it was always going to be a tough race but the enthusiasm of the team was not dinted and a number of new runners were keen to take advantage of the absences to make a name for themselves.

The race was held at Nork Park with a flat fast lap at the top of roughly a k followed by 3 longer laps of 2.5k. The longer laps were essentially down one side of the hill the park was set on, along the bottom of the park next to a road and then back up the other side of the hill to the top before you headed down again. Flat ground was at a premium! The course was almost entirely on grass with only a few areas particularly muddy. What was perhaps most disconcerting was that on the hill back up you were occasionally running on a camber and then on uneven and potholed ground for a short stretch. The course was clearly going to be challenging.

Andy O was deputising as Captain Fantastic and with 20 minutes to go was metaphorically pulling his hair out with only 7 names on the team sheet (10 to score) and a car of 5 stuck in South Wimbledon. The arrival of Graeme Buscke leading a phalanx of antipodean warriors left us confident we would finish a team and the subsequent arrivals of one of last years regulars Rory O'Neill left us believing we could not just finish a team but be competitive. Ryan Bayley's last second arrival left us over 20 strong and out numbering the other teams.

The race started quickly with the fast first lap and subsequent downhill leading to some of the fastest first miles ever recorded by many of the runners in a XC race. The race strung out fairly quickly with a serpentine stream of multi-coloured vests adorning the hills. A hair pin turn allowed you to see how your club mates were faring. The consensus was that the race passed quickly with most on their third and final lap of the race before they really felt the impact of the hill.

Jon Hamblen of  Walton on Thames athlete won the race by a clear margin however after that there was a steady stream of athletes. Graeme Buscke was second home for Chasers in 17th place despite struggling with an ITB issue which had forced him to withdraw from Abingdon the next day. It wasn't long until the next 3 Chasers came home together in a bunch sprint with Rob Tuer 21st, Rory O'Neill 22nd and Hamish Cropper 24th. Rob's run wasn't quite as good as he hoped but with Cabbage Patch today and Frankfurt next week he has a busy week scheduled. Look for Rob to be in the top 3 of one of these races by the end of the season. Rory's run, just as it did all last season, put us in a strong place and Hamish demonstrated the improvement he's made over the past 12 months.

A gap emerged and those of us watching started to get concerned as the vests streamed past without the blue, green and white present. Finally a Chasers vest appeared as debutante Luke Davis finished with a strong kick to overhaul a 15m lead the runner ahead of him had and pip him on the line. It demonstrated the Chasers spirit that was present throughout the day as not a single Chaser was passed that I noticed in the home stretch with several overtaking. Christian Rose-Day after a hard Thursday session closed shortly afterwards to make the top 50 by the skin of his teeth and 7th place for the Chasers with Nick Burkitt just missing out in 53rd but with a clear target for the next race. Sub 3 man Alan Scott fresh from supporting the ladies race got home in 63rd place, one place behind Walton's first non-scorer but leaving us in with a chance.

All eyes were now on who would be our final counter. Clive Perreira loomed around the corner and sprinted his hardest to power past his competitors and close the team in 74th place. Ryan Bayley followed closely behind in 78th place as our 11th man. Paul Wallace closed in 88th place. Andy O probably got the largest cheer of anyone finishing through-out the entire race in 98th place with Andrew Hobbs finishing immediately behind him and also making the top 100.

David Percival, Sam Morton and Dan Howell all finished before the final counter from other teams pushing their men further back and demonstrating that the Chasers have far greater strength in depth than any other club in the league. Rich Trubshaw, Kyle Fox and Christian Rijs all finished within 5 places of the final scorer of Tadworth showing they can be competitive at this level before former captain and mastermind of our previous promotion efforts Russell Thompson finished the Chasers contingent.

We knew we'd been competitive but were worried that we might not have done enough. The final scores showed that the team had pulled together and produced an awesome performance to finish 2nd in the league with 375 points and in the promotion places.

When we were relegated by such a tight margin last year a lot of people thought that we would storm this league easily and win by a (cross) country mile. Walton scored 250 points and to be frank we are going to have to work hard to overcome them this year. We can't be complacent in this league and although this was a great performance and rear-guard action given the loss of some of our superstars we really need to get everyone out there and training hard.

Leagues don't get won by the top 5 scorers in a team - they get won by the last 5 scorers. Tadworth had 4 runners in the top 20 but ended with 456 points. Walton similarly had 4 in the top 20 and ended up with 250 points because they closed their entire team barely outside the top 50.

So get out there, hitting the hills, the mud and the roads and lets see if we can overhaul Walton next time.

Bad runs

Today the initial intention was to run 90 minutes home from work. I realized quite late I was out the office tomorrow so couldn't run home as I needed my laptop.

Finally got home and headed out about 11pm for at least a half hour.

I use a saying from one of the faster American marathoners when it comes to these sort of days. Get out the door and if you still feel awful after 15 minutes call it.

15 minutes later my stomach felt horrendous and I'd put my foot in a pothole. Run called.

Back to the drawing board again tomorrow.

Training W/C 8th October 2012

This week was a relatively tough one with a hard week at work and also some ongoing achilles issues which flared up after the SEAA XC on Saturday. Despite that I still managed to clock some decent mileage whilst having an "easier" week.

Training Week Commencing 1st October 2012

Monday: rest

Tuesday: rest - still ill

Wednesday: 30 easy w. 6 x short strides AM; PM 70 steady

Thursday: 30 easy AM, PM 87 minutes including 3 laps BP (10:49, 10:49, 10:11 - AVG: 10:36 / 6:03mm)

Friday: 44 easy AM; 53 easy PM

Saturday: 58 wu, SEAA XC Relays (16:05), wd

Sunday: 2 hours to and around Wimbledon Common split - 30 easy, 5, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4 minutes hard with 5 minutes easy between, 35 easy

Despite being substantially better after Tuesday I remained semi-ill all week. Wasn't too worried about running through as the only symptoms were producing prodigious amounts of phlegm.

Not sure if it affected the race on Saturday but I was generally pleased. I thought it was a marginal improvement from my run at the 6 stage. At the 6 stage I was healthy, on my favorite surface and conditions (rain!) and raced really well. Here I was mildly ill, on my least favourite surface and conditions (sun!) and didn't race particularly well. A slightly better performance in overall terms is therefore quite encouraging.

The xc relays were a great day out on the whole and a real pleasure so full credit to Thames Valley Harriers who both organized it and won and especially my friend and former Tortoise teammate Sean Renfer. I know they aren't the best attended fixture in the calendar but they're a great start to the xc season on a mild non-challenging course with a fab atmosphere.

I really enjoyed Sunday's long run/ session which is a much milder version of a Charlie Spedding workout he details in 'From Last to First' (which is excellent). I really struggle to get a decent pace going on my long runs so this is a great alternative. Many runners refer to the long run as a session in itself and this just takes it one step further! The long recoveries mean that by the time you're starting the next rep you've already knocked 5 minutes off your long run. The combination of the recoveries and the relatively short duration and limited number of reps mean you can get some really good quality work done. By doing it on a xc course you're strengthening your legs, not worrying about pace and concentrating on getting the right effort.

Next up are 2 more weeks which should be in the mid 70s finishing with the first Surrey League D2 XC. Bring it on!