Wednesday 19 December 2012

Well not quite but close.....


Before I get onto my 2013 plans that I guess I should mention 2012.

The first 4 months of 2012 was a bit pants – we are not talking M&S pants here but `5 for £3.00 bottled grey coloured` pants. Having to jog around my favourite Aerodrome for 1 lap rather than racing 2 laps, nearly getting beaten by Percy Pig at Fleet, ditching my London plans & pulling out from my target No. 1 race. The total mileage for those four months was 133 Miles, and that inc 82M for March.

The next 5 months were better – averaging about 80M per month, which included good 10M runs at Alton & Hook, a nice jog at the South Downs Half, totally enjoying Thunder Run (even thou poor fitness levels were showing), a really interesting 18.6Km race in Greece, a comeback 20M in Milton Keynes & my first (& only) Marathon this year in Farnham – so generally getting there.

The last 3 months have seen the mileage nearly getting there – the yearly highlight was Caesars Camp 50 in mid October in difficult conditions, having a good run out at Gosport Half & a good parkrun blast just a couple of weeks ago. So ending the year nearly on form again & defiantly happier.

(For the `stats` fans among us – 2009 = 1,395 Miles, 2010 = 1,576 Miles, 2011 = 1,434 Miles & so far in 2012 = 811 Miles)

What`s the 2013 plans.....

Well as the picture says "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - is actually fairly close to the truth. As on June 8th I plan to be on the start line of the Run 24 ( http://www.endure24.co.uk/ ) an off-road 24 hour race, held in Wasing Park, Reading - this would be a solo attempt (yes basically a repeat of last year`s target race).

Many of you know since I`ve started running in 2008, I have done few odd races before - 12 hrs race, 50 Mile race, completed 3 Ultra-marathons before actually running a marathon but this is something different. I am under no illusion that I will be pushing myself, both physically & mentally, on race day & during training.

Training wise - I am looking at following the training plan in the `Relentless Forward Progress` book - I have worked it out that the mileage if I follow this plan is 970 miles (not inc 50 Km B`day Race or Race day itself). With a bit of poetically licence most of my races fits within this plan - except my Birthday Run in the New Forest in March but it`s my birthday & I can do what I want.

I will be looking to raise money for a local charity to Farnborough - Parity for Disability (http://parityfordisability.org.uk/), they are a great charity that do important work locally in supporting children & adults with severe & multiple disabilities and like many smaller charities they are often over-looked. I will be setting up a `mycharitypage.com` in the forthcoming weeks - I do have a few ideas to rattle the sponsorship tin for this one (the last time I raised money with back in 2008 for my 1st Half Marathon when I ran the Great North) so please give as much as you can. Every single penny helps these guys to a better life.

I will be looking for a support team on the day so it you want to help please give me a shout.
I am looking forward to this challenge, it`s both exciting & hard work..

Feel free to following me on Twitter (@Mister_KG) or follow this blog

Thursday 6 December 2012

The power of the mind........& a bit fun.

Things have been going well since Gosport, amazing what happiness & a good run can do for one`s confidence. This had got me thinking about my year`s running - generally not the best since I started this game. I hadn`t pushed myself, distance or pace wise since the comeback - definitely a case of holding back for fear of a repeat injury - unsure if this is normal or not but I guess it is. One season`s best I wanted to beat was my parkrun time - my season`s best was 23:56 - I simply had to do better but was running out of events.

So with that in mind I decided that the 8th Dec was the time to give it a bit of a bash. I eased off the miles in the week before, no 3 mile warm up, head was in `racing mode`. Kit was chosen - Club vest, shorts. Ok I hadn`t planned the weather being so cold (coldest this year) so the `marigolds` came out. Half mile warm up, I made my way to the dizzy heights of the front of the start line !!! Now I know parkrun folks don`t want to call it a race but raced off when the hooter went off. The plan was to sit behind Alison until I got spat out of the back as that should still give me a SB`s time. Within 0.5M I had gone past Alison - opps but running quite well. I was overtaking more folks than being past - all good. I didn`t look at the Garmin when the mile bleep went off. I did find myself slowing, but each time I leant forward a bit more, shorten my stride - thought of the wheel & pushed on. Back on the canal path for the second time & I went past a long time target. Now it was a case of just waving to acknowledgement to the marshals rather than saying "thanks a lot ". In the last mile & I could hear ladies behind me (cough thing) - I thought it was Alison sitting on me then storming past in the latter stages - well that`s what I would do. She pulled along side - it wasn`t Alison.

A marshal said words of encouragement - then said "Well done Jo, 1st Lady".....well that`s sorted then - I can beat 1st Lady (it doesn`t happen that often) - taking my chance I picked up the pace for the final bit & raced, screamed towards the finish line. I stopped my watch & collected my token - position No. 34, then checked the Garmin - I was actually shocked - initially I thought my Garmin had stopped during the run as I could not really believe the time.....it said `22:18` That`s ridiculous - that`s only 25 seconds slower than my PB & 20 seconds from my course PB set back in April 2010. Bizarrely my legs were not that tired - nothing left in the lungs but legs fine. Amazing what you can do if you set yourself up do to something & let go any fear or doubts. I did enjoy my scrambled eggs on toast down the post-parkrun cafe.

Splits - 6:56, 7:31, 7:24, 0:26 (0.07 @ 6:05) - Ave 7:16/m


The next day was the Hogs Back Road Race (racing two days on the trot - just like old times ;-) ) A local race, l did like this one but they had changed the course - no legging it up the Hogs Back road from Guildford avoiding the traffic :-( but for Health & Safety reasons totally understandable. Myself & Dave got there early - one cup of tea later & a short warm up it was start time (9.00am). Like normal I hadn`t really looked at the course so it would be a bit of surprise. Race plan as my legs were suffering from previous day speedy parkrun so it was a case of `Have a bit of fun" that was introduced. We started near the back but soon found the pace was too slow so were found the gaps & pushed ahead. Amazing what people wear - far too many folks wearing too many clothes & getting too hot too quickly. The hills towards the end of the 1st mile thinned out the runners but as I like going uphill it wasn`t a real problem. After about 2 miles we headed downwards - now letting go down hill is something I`ve been working on - I let myself go & flew down the hill. I eased up & waited to Dave to come back alongside.Then the course became very interesting - a good mile of twists & turns & up hill climbs. Myself & Dave almost stride for stride. Then came the flat at around 3.5 mile stage...and Dave took off....but didn`t disappear off in the distance as is the norm with him. After what seemed a long time we arrived at the top of the Hogs Back - it was all downhill from here. OK going downhill towards Compton on icy roads wearing my racing slicks (Brooks T6`s) isn`t great & was a bit dicey. We went past where I helped man a support stop at the Pilgrims Challenge earlier in the year.

Despite the tired legs, the distance between Dave & myself wasn`t increasing. At around mile 5 & I guess the 1st time in any race I was very cold in the `shorts department` - painfully cold. I was actually thinking "could I run at this pace with my gloves shoved down the front of my shorts??" I had worked out I only had at best just over 15 mins of running time left - I could manage that. The last mile did go quite quickly, I closed the gap with Dave - nearly in striking distance - maybe 400 to go but then he looked round. I couldn`t believe it - he hadn`t looked around for 4 miles - and sprinted off. I tired to catch him - we overtook several runners in this closing stage but I couldn`t get that distance back. Crossed the line & I wouldn`t like to use the phase "Warmed myself up" but I did feel better. Again really pleased with the finishing time - just by having a bit of fun & letting go.



(Instead of a mug or medal - the freebie was free photos - see above example of the sprint finish)

Splits (& guess the hills) - 7:53, 7:57, 8:53, 8:13, 7:07, 7:29, 7:38, 0.23 (0.06@ 6:15) - Ave 7:52/m



Next up - a bit of R&R & then the Haslmere Boxing Day Run on er Boxing Day - a serious race complete with a beer stop :-)

Have fun & enjoy.