Wednesday 30 September 2009

3.4 miles slow

I somehow allowed myself to be persuaded to play football in the evening but it didn't go too badly. Went for my usual 3.36-mile route afterwards, completed in 25:19 for a decent 7:33/mile average.

Tuesday 29 September 2009

4 miles slow

I dodged the club's scheduled short reps session to go on a recovery run around a single lap of the old 5-mile championship course, starting out from Garscube Estate. I had run 3.33 miles in about 29 minutes by the time I got back to the roundabout and noticed the reps were still going on, so rather than stand about for a while I joined in with the slowest group for a couple of reps, and when they had finished I trailed along behind Natasha's group for their final rep. It was this very session I shouldn't have run after the Balloch to Clydebank half marathon in March, but it seemed harmless enough this time.

Sunday 27 September 2009

Bertlicher Straßenlauf Marathon

I took advantage of the September Weekend holiday to try a marathon in Herten, Germany. A race description I found suggested the rural three-lap course was susceptible to wind, but the weather forecast for the day was good although perhaps a bit warm. On the starting line I had a look around for likely front-runners, and some fast-looking guy turned up at the very last minute. He headed off at a brisk pace and I didn't particularly try to keep up, although we were well clear of the field after the first quarter of a mile. I didn't feel any leg tightness but I was wary of setting out too fast so dropped off a bit. It was already starting to get warm at 10.30am but there was a cool breeze which I noticed somehow seemed to be a headwind no matter which way the course turned. It wasn't quite as flat as I had been expecting either, and the first half of the lap was broadly uphill. The route consisted entirely of asphalt footpaths or roads, although there was a mile or so where a lot of small potholes had been filled in and it was quite bumpy underfoot.

I completed the first lap in just over 57 minutes, with the leader well out of sight. It was getting warmer all the time but I was still feeling OK and having a drink of water or Gatorade at every other water station, mostly because the combination of sun and wind was making my mouth quite dry. I got to the halfway point in 1:27 but was starting to struggle slightly on account of having tried to stick to a sub-3 hour pace when the conditions were against it. In the second half of the lap I dropped outside 7:00 for a couple of miles, and although I was just inside 1:57 at the end of the lap and theoretically still on course to beat 3 hours, I wasn't looking forward to the last lap at all and might have considered just throwing in the towel if I hadn't been comfortably second.

On the third lap I held it together for a couple of miles before my original goal of 3 hours faded rapidly as I started using the water stations to have a brief walking break while drinking. By now I just wanted it to be over, although in the latter stages I was passing competitors from one of the shorter races, and even lapping the occasional marathon participant, albeit not at a pace which would have suggested I was in second place. I looked back every now and then for anyone catching me, as I thought one of the older runners would have been likely to do, but there was nobody. With second place secure, the last mile went a bit better and I finished in 3:06:25, 17 minutes behind the winner and 3 minutes ahead of third place. As the first M40 to finish I had to wait around for a couple of hours for the presentations, so I spent this time eating cheese rolls and drinking beer. One of the other competitors confirmed my impression of the difficulty of the course when I mentioned how I'd been aiming to finish inside 3 hours.

As always seems to be the case with athletics events in Germany it was superbly organised, with races over 7 different distances, all partly following the same course and starting at different times. Each race was colour-coded and every kilometre for each race was marked in that colour. The marathon had the fewest competitors with 55 finishers, whereas the 5K, 10K and half marathon all had around 150.

Distance was 26.32(!) miles, average pace 7:05/mile. Splits: 6:26, 6:27, 6:37, 6:36, 6:34, 6:50, 6:40, 6:36, 6:35, 6:50, 6:44, 6:55, 6:31, 6:47, 7:01, 7:10, 6:43, 6:49, 7:05, 7:24, 8:32, 8:18, 7:45, 8:11, 8:10, 7:40, 2:15. Weekly total: 42 miles.

Friday 25 September 2009

3.8 miles moderate

Went out before lunch for one of my usual shorter routes along the canal, this time staying on Garscube Road to take the new path up to the footbridge. I got stuck for what seemed like ages at St George's Cross and also had to tackle the steps up to the canal, but I managed a decent pace for the rest of the run, finishing the 3.84 miles in 25:46 for a 6:42/mile average. Splits: 7:29, 6:29, 6:25, 5:25.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

7 miles steady

I considered doing nothing at all, or even the planned club Paarlauf session, but in the end I opted for my usual Tuesday night route of around 7 miles, at a steady pace so as not to aggravate a few minor strains from Sunday's run. It came out at 7.03 miles, quite a bit short of previous attempts where I had invariably experienced GPS problems. Finished in exactly 50 minutes for a 7:07/mile average. Splits: 7:31, 7:15, 7:03, 6:55, 6:54, 7:05, 7:04, 0:10. Everybody else was doing shuttle runs again when I got back to Garscube Estate.

Monday 21 September 2009

4.5 miles easy

Ran my shorter Monday night route at an easy pace which got slightly faster as I warmed up. The Forerunner measured it at 4.54 miles. Time was 33:49, 7:27/mile average. Splits: 8:00, 7:23, 7:15, 7:11, 3:58.

Sunday 20 September 2009

10 miles moderate

Tried a tougher run in the afternoon and set up a 6:45 training partner for 10 miles. The route consisted of three loops. The first via Dorchester Avenue was the hardest, and my first mile up Garscube Road and Maryhill Road was somewhat better than usual but still left me trailing by a few feet. After the second mile I began to settle into a rhythm. Each loop ended on North Woodside Road and the next one started with the long climb up Maryhill Road which accounts for the slower splits. Coming up for 10 miles I was well ahead of schedule, and the Forerunner promptly played a happy tune and decided I had finished, even though I was still running and was about 300m away from home. That part of the run remained unrecorded. Finishing time (for 10 miles) was 1:06:36, average pace 6:40/mile. Splits: 6:48, 6:40, 6:42, 6:36, 6:31, 6:43, 6:32, 6:34, 6:45, 6:38. Weekly total: 37 miles.

Saturday 19 September 2009

4.1 miles steady

I wanted to get in a steady run of a few miles before lunch so programmed the Forerunner with a training partner with a 7:30 pace for 4.23 miles. My first mile down Garscube Road and along Phoenix Road was pretty slow but by the 2-mile mark I had just about caught up. The distance this time came out at 4.09 miles, somewhat short of even the previous lowest measurement, but the route looks sound when traced on a map. Time was 29:42 for a 7:16/mile average. Splits: 7:48, 7:20, 6:59, 6:59, 0:34.

Thursday 17 September 2009

8 miles tempo

I finally got tired of the HTC Touch Diamond's poor GPS accuracy and battery life when used with Run.GPS, and it had also occurred to me that Ben seems to be able to get accurate splits when running along the Kelvin Walkway, so I got a Garmin Forerunner 305. I had a 101 which had terrible signal trouble with the trees along Great Western Road, and it just wasn't worth the hassle even though I really liked the training partner feature, but the 305 supposedly has a more sensitive GPS receiver, so armed with some gift vouchers for Greaves who had no running shoes I was interested in, I thought it would be worth a try. I switched it on at home with the intention of leaving it beside the window for a few minutes to see if it could pick up satellites from there like the Touch Diamond could. After I had completed the initial setup, the unit was supposed to locate the satellites, but it went straight to the timer screen. I eventually worked out that it had already picked up a signal even though I had been standing in the middle of the room. I set it to auto-lap every mile and drove up to training - decided against running there as I thought the session would be likely to finish quite late.

I arrived just as coach Lesley was going out for a run, which she kindly interrupted to tell me the fast pack had already been sent out due to low numbers, and she gave me a quick summary of the route. I set off in pursuit, expecting maybe to see the others in the distance at best, but it turned out that the top two packs had been combined into one, and they had set off at a steady enough pace that I caught up with them at the Porsche garage. It turned out that everybody who had taken part in Tuesday's session was complaining about sore legs, which might also have accounted for the attendance being down. The rest of the route took us along Drumchapel Road and Alderman Road, down Lincoln Road and back up Anniesland Road. The pace increased gradually along Alderman Road, and as the post-football hip problems I had been worried about hadn't materialised, when I felt quite fit all of a sudden going up the hill on Anniesland Road, I broke away from the pack and maintained a brisk pace all the way to the finish. Had some minor strains afterwards but nothing serious. I thought finishing ahead of the pack might have staved off relegation after some poor recent performances, but unfortunately none of the coaches was around to see. Distance was 7.99 miles, time 54:01 for a 6:46/mile average. Splits: 6:59, 6:59, 7:11, 7:07, 6:47, 6:35, 6:11, 6:07.

Wednesday 16 September 2009

3.4 miles slow

Struggled through a game of football in the evening although with less trouble than before, so I ran my usual West End route at a pace just inside 8-minute miles.

Tuesday 15 September 2009

7.2 miles moderate

Dodged the club hills session and ran my usual route via St George's Cross and Anniesland Cross, aiming for an almost mechanical run at a comfortable pace. I had severe GPS problems on Great Western Road, which probably contributed to the route coming out at 7.22 miles. Didn't push the pace at all, finished in 48:03 for a 6:43/mile average (assuming 7.15 miles). Everybody was doing shuttle runs beside the rugby pitch when I got back to Garscube Estate but I declined the offer to join in.

Monday 14 September 2009

4.5 miles recovery

I originally wanted to run the Hogmanay Handicap route in the evening but it's getting too dark to try that after 8pm, and in any case I thought I should take it a bit easier if I was going to run at all, so instead I ran the same route as two weeks ago. This time it came out quite a bit shorter, at 4.53 miles. Average pace was about 7.54/mile (for the shorter reported distance).

Sunday 13 September 2009

3.9 miles recovery, 4.3 miles moderate

Went out before lunch for 3.87 miles via the footbridge over Garscube Road and along the canal. In the afternoon I had another go at the loop (4.31 miles this time) of Garscube Road, Great Western Road, Kirklee Road and Maryhill Road, finishing in 28:25 for a 6:36/mile average, which as a route PB was pretty encouraging after the previous day's long run, albeit hard work. Weekly total: 52 miles.

Saturday 12 September 2009

20.4 miles moderate

I had planned to run the same Newton Mearns route but decided to run to Paisley and back instead, expecting it to be about 10 miles going out via Kelvingrove Park, Yorkhill, Bell's Bridge and along Paisley Road West. This time I managed not to injure myself on Kelvin Way. It was warmer than I would have liked and there was also a bit of a headwind to contend with, but after 6 miles or so I had settled into a comfortable pace. Paisley arrived a lot sooner than I had expected and I had only run 8 miles by the time I reached the loop around the abbey, with an average pace at this point of 7:18/mile. I think the 10 miles I remember from a few years back must have been along the cyclepath.

Heading back to Glasgow, and no longer running into the wind, I dropped below 7-minute miles without any trouble and had pushed my average down to 7:09 by the time I reached the 14-mile mark in Govan, although I was slowed again by the wind as I ran along the Clyde and then lost some more time on the footbridge over the Expressway, so that was as fast as it was going to get. By now I was also a bit dehydrated on account of the heat, so I stopped at Radnor Street to get a drink and took a while to get moving again. On reaching Maryhill Road I was a few miles short of the planned 20 so headed up the hill to add on my Shakespeare Street route, which wasn't going to be enough on its own, so I continued all the way down Great Western Road and home via Garscube Road. After St George's Cross, Run.GPS reported that the battery was very weak, and my phone started making sad little bleeps, but it just managed to hold out and no more. Distance was 20.42 miles, time 2:27:32 for a 7:13/mile average.

Friday 11 September 2009

7 miles steady

Ran my usual 7-mile route in the evening. This time it came out at 7.01 miles, time was 48:41 for a 6:57/mile average. First mile was the slowest, felt like I could have picked it up a bit in the last couple of miles but I was intending to take it fairly easy.

Thursday 10 September 2009

2.9 miles slow, 4 miles moderate, 1.9 miles slow

I ran up to training again for a session billed as 6-7 miles. The route took us out the top gate, down Bearsden Road and Crow Road, up Clarence Drive, along Highburgh Road and up Byres Road. The pace had increased significantly by this point and although I was quite confident of making it at least to Cleveden Road without dropping off, I hadn't quite recovered from Tuesday's session and had to stop on account of a hip niggle. Jogged home from Botanic Gardens, felt OK at the slower pace and continued all the way to the bottom of Great Western Road and back up Garscube Road. I had GPS problems after Clarence Drive which led to the route being over-measured, but it was probably slightly over 4 miles. Average pace where I bailed out was somewhere inside 6:40/mile and dropping, after a steady first mile.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

5.5 miles fartlek

The club training session was supposed to be a fartlek so I took part for once. I didn't particularly feel like doing any major speedwork so just stayed near the back of the pack. The route took us up Woodvale Avenue, down Boclair Road, over Manse Road, along Station Road and over Pendicle Road, then back along Maryhill Road to Garscube Estate. The fast stretches lasted between 1 and 2 minutes with what didn't seem like a very long recovery between them. I had just about got my act together by the time we got to Pendicle Road and put in a reasonable effort on the hill.

Monday 7 September 2009

2.5 miles steady

Went out in the evening for a short recovery run via Queen Margaret Drive, 2.46 miles. I started off quite slow but had an average pace just inside 7:45/mile by the end.

Sunday 6 September 2009

18.7 miles moderate

I had been planning another attempt at my Newton Mearns route and felt fit enough to give it a try on Sunday afternoon, aiming for a pace of 7:30/mile or better. The first two or three miles went OK although there turned out to be a diversion at the top of Salkeld Street which added an extra couple of hundred metres and made it difficult to judge my performance against the times I had memorised for reaching particular landmarks. I was prepared to cut the run short if necessary but around Shawlands Arcade I had warmed up sufficiently to decide that I could probably manage the whole thing. I got held up several times at traffic lights earlier on, but was maintaining an average pace inside 7:15 until the long climb up to Mearns Cross. The average had dropped to 7:18 by the time I got there, which was still not too bad, and I expected to gain some time on the way back, at least until I got to Thornliebank. On 11 miles I felt quite energetic and thought I might even manage the whole route without stopping for a drink. From then on I concentrated on running negative splits for the second half of the route. Got back home in 2:15:01 which gave me a 7:13/mile average for the 18.73 miles. This was a great improvement on the previous Sunday, so it looks even more like the heavier shoes don't suit me at all. Weekly total: 57 miles.

Saturday 5 September 2009

4.2 miles recovery, 4.2 miles steady

Went out before lunch for an easy run around the 4.23-mile Garscube Road and Kirklee Road loop, finishing in 31:42 for a 7:30/mile average, then later in the afternoon I ran the same route again, this time in 29:04 for a 6:52/mile average.

Thursday 3 September 2009

3 miles slow, 2x2.9 miles slow, 5.7 miles tempo

Went out before breakfast in the rain for 3.03 miles, to Lochburn Road and back, at an average pace just inside 8:00/mile. In the evening I ran up to training for the first time in months. The route was supposed to be 5 miles and the fast pack was different from previous weeks. We left Garscube Estate via the top gate at a fairly slow pace and then lost a lot of time when we didn't manage to cross Switchback Road and got stuck at Anniesland Cross. By the time we got to Danes Drive we had reached 6:30/mile or faster. The rest of the route took us up Westland Drive, along Southbrae Drive and back up Crow Road. I had some tightness behind my left knee and fell off the pace after about 4 miles, but after struggling up the last hill I managed to cut the deficit to about 50 metres by the end, finishing in 41:02. The distance turned out to be 5.69 miles which gave me a 7:13/mile average overall. Managed to run back down the road without any trouble.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

3.4 miles steady

Struggled through a game of football in the evening and only loosened up in the last 15 minutes or so, but I felt OK enough afterwards to rack up another few miles on my usual West End route. After the first mile it was already looking a bit faster than the previous couple of attempts so I had to check my speed in a couple of places. Finished in 25:21, 7:33/mile for 3.36 miles (although it came out at 3.41 this time).

Tuesday 1 September 2009

7.1 miles moderate

I might have been able to take part in the club short reps session for once, but I am still dodging speedwork to be on the safe side and ran the usual loop of slightly over 7 miles via St George's Cross and Anniesland Cross, again wearing my old Nike Skylon. Felt quite fit despite Sunday's long run and after a steady first half-mile I picked up the pace a bit, finishing in 47:00. This time the distance came out shorter than before at 7.08 miles, which still gave me a faster average pace for the route of 6:38/mile.