Leeds, Yorkshire & A Short Run

7th March, 2010





Spent the weekend in Yorkshire, visiting a friend who lives in Leeds.

Two of my friends are currently training for half marathons so we went out for a little jaunt in the rain on Saturday morning.














Running in hilly Yorkshire made me remember how much I hate running up hill. Our route took us along the side of a valley, down from the house and then up again at the end. Even though we only ran 2.5 miles, it was tough and the incline slowed us down.

One of my friends said she'd read about "pumping the arms" to get up hill, in a book by Bob Glover, called The Runner's Handbook. The theory is that you pump your elbows back and forth at the rate you want your feet to go. This creates momentum and your legs follow, driving you up the slope.

I tried it. It didn't really make that much difference if I'm honest. Maybe I wasn't doing it right or trying hard enough, or maybe my heart just wasn't in it when the Obviously a lot of people have problems running up hills, as there's a lot of info/tips here

We also went for a rather blustery walk in the Yorkshire dales, up Almscliffe crag - which is a great outcrop of millstone grit, really high with fantastic views. It's on the northern side of Wharfedale.
















Established in 1954, the Yorkshire Dales National Park covers 680 square miles in the north of England. It's divided into different dales - the most famous of which is probably Wensleydale - home of the famous white crumbly Wallace and Gromit cheese.

www.yorkshiredales.org.uk

www.wensleydale.co.uk

Ran: 2.6 miles

Total time: 29 mins 10 seconds

Average pace per mile: 11 mins 15 seconds (what were we doing??)

Total calories: 297

Three Weeks To Go - Eating 21 Miles For Breakfast

4th October 2009

With the knee rested for over a week, I returned to Brussels feeling a bit more upbeat. I'd been chomping the painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs and wasn't feeling any pain.

With the New York Marathon just 28 days away I was acutely aware of the need to do a long run. The Long Run part of the training is very important, not only from a physical point of view but also from a mental point of view. Completing it reassures you that the massive distance involved in the marathon is achievable and also allows you to try out certain things, for example using gels, drinking water, setting the right pace and generally getting a sense of how you will feel on the day and what problems could crop up.

A few weeks ago, before encountering my injury, I'd entered the Brussels Marathon and I decided that I would start it and see how far I could get. If my knee began to hurt I would drop out, but in a best case scenario I would be able to do 21 or 22 miles, thus covering off my Long Run.

The Brussels Marathon is tiny in terms of competitor numbers, with just 2,000 runners, compared to New York's 37,000 or London's 30,000. Even Edinburgh, the other marathon I have run, had 13,000.

It's also a very fast marathon, with a 5 hour cut-off. No beginners here.

Arriving at the start, in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe in the Park Cinquantenaire, built when Belgium celebrated 50 years of independence in 1880, it became very obvious that this was a marathon for SERIOUS RUNNERS. Nearly everyone had a gel belt and a lot of serious kit. There weren't that many women.

I suppose the reason is that the Brussels course isn't particularly pretty, the city itself isn't a major holiday destination and finally that the course is very hilly, so there's no likelihood of getting your best time. Here's the profile:












The Brussels marathon has a team of professional pace-setters who aim to set a steady pace for runners who want to reach the finish line at a certain time. There are seven sets of 2 runners, each with massive coloured balloons on their backs for a certain time, ranging from 2 hrs 59 - Pink balloon to 4hrs 3o - orange balloons.


I lined up with the Orange balloon team and was quickly introduced to John and Terry, who said there were "our grandparents" and would look after us for the run. They were both fairly old but super fit and running with them was great.

I remembered my Edinburgh marathon experience where I had been really concentrating on my time, wearing a pace band, continually checking my watch. It was quite stressful. Following a pacemaker completely removes that and allows you to focus on the race itself. I will definitely follow one in New York.


The race went well, with good weather conditions. I found myself reminded of why I love running and the sense of immense personal achievement I derive from it. Brussels is a very green city, and the route goes through the woods and out to the beautiful Africa Museum before returning to the city and ending in the Grand Place.











The city also has a lot of traffic tunnels, and this, in terms of a marathon, means a lot of running down in to the tunnel and up out of the other side. I feared for my knee entering the first one but tried to concentrate on my breathing and "running from my core." Up and down, it was fine.

Reaching the half marathon at 2 hrs 15, I took a gel - vanilla flavoured, and powered on. The knee pain kicked in. I took 2 paracetamol.












Stopping after 21 miles was tough. Part of me really wanted to carry on to the finish but I was in a lot of pain and acutely aware of how long it took me to recover from the Edinburgh marathon. My main focus is on New York and being able to get round the course and enjoying it. So I stopped and walked the remaining 5 miles. Almost everyone passed me and a policeman drove past, closing the course.

Handing my chip in at the Grand Place I felt great. The New York marathon is in my sights and all feelings of letting myself or my running buddy down were gone.

Link to my official marathon time, here

Time for 21.02 miles: 3 hrs 36 mins
Average Pace: 10 mins 16 seconds/mile

Overall time for marathon: 5 hrs 9 minutes

18.2 Miles Down - 8 To Go

Saturday 26th April




Felt pretty scared ahead of this Saturday's run. I planned to run 18 miles and it was HOT.

To get an 18 mile route in Richmond I ran across the centre of the park from Richmond Gate to Roehampton Gate, turned and ran back and then ran around the edge of the park in one direction before turning around and running back again.

The first eleven miles were ok. Had two jelly babies at the start and then one at each mile after the eleventh. Miles 12-14 were also ok. Miles 15-18 were particularly tough and I ran out of Zade at just before mile 16. That was a mistake as it was very very hot.

Afterwards I felt alright. Very dehydrated, but ok. I had a sunburnt nose.

Legs were a bit stiff in the evening but muscles seemed to cope quite well. My left shin felt quite sore down the front and the bunion on my right foot is very painful but nothing a few days rest can't cure.

Topped off the day with a lovely picnic in Battersea Park watching the sun set. Rehyration using strawberry flavoured cava probably not the best option.

Felt: Encouraged by my progress, worried that I need to do more research on hydrating

Distance: 18.2 miles

Time: 2 hrs 48 mins
Average pace per mile: 9 mins 12 secs
Calories: 1916

Richmond Ten Miler

Saturday 12th April

A beautiful run this Saturday, around the perimeter of Richmond Park. Much nicer than any of the more urban runs I've done so far.

One lap of the lovely Richmond Park is about eight miles, we added on another two miles at the end. The 'zade came in handy around mile seven. All in all a great run - there's a few sneaky hills if you run around clockwise (which we did) but you can knock most of those out by running anti-clockwise.

Richmond Park is the largest open space in London and covers around 2,500 acres. It was created by King Charles I, who brought his court to Richmond Palace in 1625 to escape the plague in London. The park itself is walled, and quite rugged with lots of little woods and copses and a golf course on the east side. The highest hill in the park is called King Henry VIII's Mound - we ran up it - slowly.

After a few weeks of feeling fairly downbeat this run restored my enthusiasm for the challenge ahead. I loved the sense of feeling out of the city and the fresh air.

Saturday ended with afternoon tea at a friend's in Islington. Polished off lots of crustless sandwiches and scones sans-guilt after my ten miles in the morning.

Perfect.

www.royalparks.gov.uk/richmond

Ran: Ten miles

Realised: How close to Richmond Clapham Junction is

Resolved: To go to Richmond more often

Ate:

Shredded wheat

Crustless sandwiches

Scone, jam, cream

Little cakes

Pink fizzy wine

Lots of tea

Uphill Struggle

Monday 31st March

One of the things about training for a marathon is that it becomes increasingly difficult to fit in anything else. Training swallows your life whole, like a snake digesting a mouse. Thusfar I’ve chosen to prioritize my life over my training, but with less than eight weeks until D-day something had to give.

And so I found myself hatching a Master Plan.

Invited to Monday night dinner in Finchley? Not a problem, I’ll run to it: putting in the miles, saving time and arriving for supper with a healthy glow. Genius.

A quick look at walkit.com suggests a route of 8.2 miles from my office to my friend’s house near Finchley Central. So far so good: Quick change at work. Back pack on. Ipod in. And we’re off.

One of the great things about running a route you've never run before is the sense of freshness: the thrill of taking in new sights and the slightly sick feeling when you worry you're getting lost.

One of the not-so-great things about running a route you’ve never run before is that it’s fairly easy to underestimate the amount of pollution or the number of hills you’ll encounter.

And hills and pollution there were aplenty. In fact, this entire route was on an upwardly-tilted main road.

Setting out up Gray’s Inn Road in the sun shine I felt pretty positive. Cutting down the side of Kings Cross Station, the route took me past disused London Underground station York Road – which sits between Kings Cross and Caledonian Road on the Piccadilly Line and closed in 1932 – and into the hinterland of “redevelopment” that sits behind Kings Cross.

The long and not-particularly good-looking Brecknock Road made up the next stretch, delivering me to Tufnell Park tube station, which is encased in that distinctive and very attractive Edwardian red tiling that I like.

After that the super-hill set in. Dartmouth Park HILL is a hill and a half. A long, protracted, seemingly never-ending beast of a hump.

After what seemed like eternity, I reached Waterlow Park – one of London’s most underrated green spaces, perhaps because of its steep hill location. It’s 26-acres and was given to the public as a "garden for the gardenless" by London’s then-Lord Mayor, Sir Sydney Waterlow in 1889. To the south, the park borders Highgate Cemetery, resting place of a plethora of famous dead people, including Karl Marx. Passing up through the park I paused for breath at Lauderdale House, a neoclassical style building which took its name from the Earl who first lived there. Now an arts centre and tea room, its hill-top location affords visitors a jaw-dropping view over London.

Onward and upward, through miles of residential wasteland and across the hellish North Circular, I eventually landed in Finchley, just in time for sausage and cabbage mash, bracingly strong coffee and a white chocolate chip cookie. Yum.

Ran: 8.2 miles, mostly uphill.

Felt: The burn of those hills, Over full after supper.

Ate:
Porridge with banana and honey
Hot cross bun
Niçoise salad (no anchovies)
Apple, grape and yogurt salad
Sausage and cabbage mash
White chocolate chip cookie