Hills and hurdles - and not much sleep

did a light hill session on friday evening, just Richmond hill at any pace in 66 seconds. Legs are pretty tired so used it as a bit of a stretch.
Friday nigh I was due to pick up Poppy from her Italy trip at midnight, but they kept getting delayed and I eventually picked her up at 3am. So not much quality sleep.
Headed off to the track not knowing whether I'd do it or if so whether I'd finish.

Decided on a 4x200 speed session with 10 mins recovery. Running over hurdles 5-11.
28/29/29/30 for the 4. For the second and third reps I tried to go 16 strides to the second hurdle, but both times clattered it. I think it was because I wasn't getting enough speed of the first hurlde.
Switch back to 17s for the last run and that went OK.
Pretty good session considering the lack of sleep. Left knee a tad sore. Will rest tomorrow.

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54321

Thursday night track session - my next assault on the 54321 test.
Simple, 500m, 400m...100m with 5mins, 4 mins...2 mins rest in between.
My goal is to average 15 seconds for each 100m (or 60 seconds for the 400m)
Did my best so far, but still a little way off.

500 in 77 (good), 400 in 64 (not sure what went wrong there, didn't feel particularly tired at the end, just didn't run hard enough) 300 in 48 (not too bad). 200 in 29 (Good), 100 in 15 (OK).
Average 62 seconds per 400.
Getting there.
Hammy has recovered well after a lot of ice and compression. Looking forward to some hills tonight and more track tomorrow.

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Handicapped pigeons?

Went to see the Pigeon detectives in Pompey on Tuesday night so missed out on a track session. Did a light gym session at work to make up.
Wednesday did 45 mins of yoga in the morning and then entered the 'Handicapped 800m' at the Southampton sports center 70th anniversary meeting.

I was given 70m head start, a couple of guys in front of me had 100 and 150. The idea was that we all hit the line together. I made it to 700 without being passed, but didn't make any ground on the two in front. Lack luster best describes my performance, although one positive was that my hammy didn't play up. Its been tight all week since the hurdling at the weekend.

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Edinburgh marathon

Dave and Ian ran the marathon on Sunday and both recorded superb times.
Ian 3.13 (A new club record)
Dave 3.26 (A new over 50 club record :o)

Both have put in a lot of hard work and really deserve this. Well done to both of them.

What next guys?

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Yoga, swimming and a rain dance

Did 50 mins of yoga on Sunday - my legs are sore after the hurdles. Think I may have tweaked my left hammy.
Did a bit of swimming at Jess' party to help ease it off.
Monday (bank holiday) it tipped it down all day. went out in the moring for 5.7 miles in 44 mins. Fairly good pace and some more running in the legs.

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Hurdling in Swindon

Another great hurdling session on Saturday. Warmish weather but a breeze down the home straight. Howard had me doing 5 hurdles on the straight with first 7 paces between, then 8.

7 paces was OK, although I had to stretch a bit over the first couple. 8 was trickier as it means using alternate legs. I landed very hard each time I use my right leg and this slows me down a lot, meaning I have to stretch to keep pace for the next.
Worked on this for a few reps and managed to get to a point where I was powering off on landing pretty well.

Got back for lunch and did a 10 mile cycle ride with Liz - very civilized.

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More speed endurance

Thursday track session on tartan. Target of 5x300 with 8 mins recovery,
I had to be home by 8pm so had to drop the final rep.
Did 41.9, 44, 44, 43.9 but felt pretty tired at the end - although could have probably done another 44.

Discussed the session with Howard and he says I'm not going fast enough with this recovery. Need to be doing sub 42 with this recovery. I think I can do it, but am probably holding back at the moment. Too many slow reps during the winter. Need to get into the habit of running faster now.

Rest day on Friday

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Graft week

Tony and I have deemed the next couple of weeks as graft weeks. Plenty of hard work.
Cycled to work on Monday and then did a grass track session on Tuesday.
6x150 with 6 mins recovery. Good speed endurance work.
averaged 20.5 with best of 20.3 and worst 21.0 so pretty pleased.

The important measure was doing the first and last in roughly the same time
Wednesday morning I went back to the track with the Mountbatten kids. They did some parflouf work which fortunately I didn't have to join :0).

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Harriers altitude training camp

Big weekend for the Harriers - booked the whole hostel on the Ridgeway near Wantage and spent the time running, drinking and watching football.
Did a 4 mile slow run on Friday night - plenty of hills and getting lost. then a 10 miler on Saturday morning. Again nice and slow but good to get some stamina in the legs.

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Thursday track work - for lactic lovers

Looks like the weather has turned and all that warm weather training is over. Headed off down the track in Gore-Tex, jumpers and two pars of running tights. The session (in the drizzle) was 3x300 with 8 mins recovery.

Running with Tony, we started conservatively on the first rep doing 44 seconds. Then got into our stride on the second with 41. Sadly 8 minutes isn't enough to get all the waste out of the legs and the third run wasn't as clever. 43 seconds for me (Tony was a bit ahead) with my calves cramping up over the last 50m.
Good session. Speed/endurance work. Now need to run those faster. Tony reckons sub 40 is possible. Let's see.

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Wednesday gym work

Cycled down to the gym only to find that a power cut had shut the place down.
Did a quick 6 mile sprint up some hills and around. Came home and did a few weights and hurdle hopping.

Stuck 25kg on the bar and did some presses, dips and curls interspersed with 3 sets of 3x3 hurdles. Two footed jump over then exploding quickly up and over the next one. Strangely the pain is in the stomach rather than the legs.
Good exercise though..

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Tuesday track

Another great turnout on the track tonight. Started with the bleep test. Some outstanding results (see below). Then the Masters group did 20x150 with 30 seconds rest and the academy did 10x150 with a minute rest. Both groups working very hard.
At 7pm DaveK, DaveP, RichP started our session with some strides and ladder work.

Then onto the bleep test. Good start to the summer. I did 12.5 but need to crank that up over the next few weeks. Target 14. I promised Rich that I wouldn't publish his result or indeed compare it in any way to my 11 year old daughter ,Jessica's result. So I won't.
Our main session was 4x200 with 4/5/6 minutes rest. Did 28/29/30/29 which I'm fairly pleased with. Lop off a couple of seconds for the grass and the times look quite respectable.

Some of the Bleep test results:
DaveK 12.3
Rob 12.1
Mountbatten boys Jack/Jack/Will 10.x
FrancesA 9.6
Judy 9.6
Jess 8.8
Laura 8.8

Good start!

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Monday cycle to work record

Slow ride in - hampered by various trucks and traffic, but coming home....flying.
16.58 for 5 1/2 miles average speed 19.2 mph, top speed 37mph.

Couple of goals to attack now. The 20mph average and the 40mph top speed!

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Warm weather training

Many top athletes get to jet off to California, South Africa, the Carribean for there warm weather training. I got to go to Swindon yesterday. Gorgeous sunshine - just about perfect conditions,
Did about 2 hours of hurdling. Long warm up, stretching and drills. Then lots of drills over hurdles. Started on the lower hurdles then moved up to the 3 footers. I don't want to get lured into thinking the low ones are normal.

The main session was over the first 3 hurdles. Short lead in the up to full pace. Working on different stride patterns and different positions in the lane. Hurdle 2 is crucial. I tried 17s fairly comfortably, but end up on the outside of the lane trying to lose the half a stride. Then went to 16s an I'm really stretching to make it.
Did a few of these, but the legs were still tired from Saturday. Need to experiment with this over the next few weeks. I'd like to do 16s to 5 to try and conserve energy and give me a better flow over the first part of the race.

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Second in the County Championships

Set off for Pompey at 8.15 this morning so I could register an hour before the race. Not the best time of the day for hurdling, but the sun was out and there was no wind, so ideal conditions.
Four in the field, I had 21 years on the youngest and I'm guessing 15 on average. Drew lane 4, my favourite and had two quick guys inside and the slowest outside.
Finished in 60.0 (exactly the same as last week), second to Peter Irvine from the Channel Islands who won in under 54 seconds (as he has done for the past few years)

Set off very quickly and took the first 2 hurdles very well, stuttered a bit over 3 and 4, but overall felt good to 5. 6/7/8 were very poor and I was nearly overtaken at 8, but unluckily for him he clipped 7 and then fell over 8 effectively taking him out of the race.
Once I was over 8 I took 9 and 10 fairly easily, without really attacking them. Pity as I felt strong in the run in and should have dipped under 60.
The medal standards in the Counties are very tight - you need to run sub 57 to get a bronze. So despite finishing 2nd I didn't get a medal. Which is fair enough, I've always believed if a medal is worth having it has to be earned.

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Friday rest day

With the Hampshire champs tomorrow at 10am I'm taking a rest day today.
Did 30 mins of yoga first thing and am still tired from yesterday's speed work.
My goal for Saturday is to run sub 60. Position isn't important as most of the competition will be youngsters.

Targets:
sub 60 happy
sub 59.5 very happy
sub 59 delighted

Also planning to do some hurdles training on Sunday morning with Howard.
After that I will go back to hard graft for a few weeks. More gym work, more reps.

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Track and cycling

Cycled to work again - another 10 miles on the bike, a few cups of petrol saved.
On the trip back I averaged 17.4 mph and topped 34 mph down hill coming out of Ampfield.

In the evening I did a track session with Tony and Michele. Since we are running in the counties at the weekend this was just a fine tunning session - in theory.

Long warm up followed by 1x250 then 1x150 with 20 mins rest in between.
Managed 32 and 18.
Which I reckon equates to a 53 400 in ideal conditions. Good speed work. I tend to be pulled along by tony, he takes off very well and I spend the last 100 trying to keep for and still catch up. Need to work on hitting full speed earlier so I don't have so much work to do at the end.

Michele did 44 and 23 and looked strong in both runs. Need to work on speed and sharpness over the next few weeks.

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Wednesday Mountbatten run

The great weather continues so the 20+ Mountbatten school group did their session on the grass. 30 mins of relays kept them busy.

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Harrier's Tuesday session

At last some decent weather. Very hot all day and it held for the evening.
25 people turned up to training - we split into two groups, the Advanced group did 4x(600+300) with 1 minute recovery. The academy did 5x300 with 1 minute rest.
Seemed to work well with everyone get just about the right pace on each lap. Rob and Mark ran particularly well, pushing each other all the way.
At 7pm DaveK, Rich Pye and Dave Parsons turned up for my session.

3x2x200 1 minute, 15 minutes rest.
28/30, 28/30, 30/33 for the 6 runs. Much faster than last week, primarily down to the weather, but also because I am actually getting a bit faster. I'm trusting that the grass is costing me a couple of seconds at the moment.
The 1 min recovery is tough as I have to run across the field from the finish line to the 200 start line. In future I may change where I start from to make it a bit easier.
Both Daves held up well, Rich ran the first one well then pretty much jogged the rest.

Also did 30 mins of yoga this morning

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Bank Holiday rest

Decided not to train on the bank holiday so did an hour of yoga in the morning and then did nothing, with a clear conscience of course :)

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Guildford results

Well the weather held for probably the best start to the season in a few years.
The 400mh went well. 60.0 for second place (the winner did 56.9 so well behind him and clear of third place). Strong wind in the home straight, but that meant we had a tail wind in the first 200. Overall the stride pattern was good. Left leg all the way and unusualy started on my left leg. This means I'm about one stride down at the moment, but this isn't suprising with my lack of speed work.

Followed up half an hour later with an A string 800. Did the first lap in 61 which was way to quick. The winner clocked 1.54 and I trailed in in 2.25 for a point (which in hind sight was worth it as we won the meeting by half a point in the end!).
Ran the first leg of the 4x4 in 55 second. Handed over in second (just) on the shoulder of the leader and holding off third place. Good race, we clocked 3.34 for second place - our team were 37, 37, 45, 49 years old so a Guildford masters record.

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Saturday's goal

It's Saturday morning and my first Southern league match is today in Guildford. I'm down for the 400mH at 3pm and the 4x400m relay at 5.30pm. The weather is looking good and it should be the ideal start to the season.


My targets are to run about 60 seconds for the hurdles and about 53 for the relay.
under 61 for the hurdles would be OK, sub 60 very good. I'm feeling fairly fit at the moment, but haven't done a lot of specific speed or technique work. I expect the 200-300 part of the race will be the deciding factor today.

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Catchup part 2

Wednesday morning was raining again so the Mountbatten group stayed in the sports hall and did a circuit - propably the hardest session they have done. Groups of three, one resting, one running round the hall and one doing and excersise from a list of squats, press ups, sit ups, dips etc.
In the evening I did 45 mins in the Rapids gym. Warm up on the X-trainer then some squats and dips. Technique is coming along and I handled 42kg in the basic squat pretty well. Need to introduce some more techniques and start upping the weight.

Thursday was a fine tuning session on the track. Ton Noel and I did some fast 150s (19/18 seconds) with long recovery. The goall was just to feel sharp and flowing. Then we did a few hurdles of the bend. Overall a good session.
Friday, yoga in the morning and cycled to work again. 20 in and 19 back (av. over 16 mph) I'd like to get as close to 20 mph as I can over the summer.

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Quiet blogging week

Apologies for not keeping this up to date this week - no excuse. Anyway, here goes on what went on.
The weekend was a wash out. Geared up to run hurdles on Sunday but weather and Howard's injury put paid to that. Did a plyometric session in the garden (hoping over 3 hurdles in a row and jumping off one chair and on to another). Didn't feel any effect at the time, but have suffered all week from aching stomach muscles - means they were doing some good and that I was out of shape.

Monday I cycled into work, 5 1/2 miles each way, 22 mins in and just under 20 back. The new bike is pretty quick.
Tuesday, yoga in the morning then planning for track in the evening. The forecast was for rain, rain and more rain, so I emailed the Harriers to say I'd be there whatever. Fortunately, the rain eased of between 6 and 7pm and we had 10 Harriers (including 2 newbies) turn up and do 5x300m (1 min recovery) as fast as they could (attempting to do a 'fast mile'). Good session and everyone worked hard considering the soggy track.
I started my session at 7pm and the heavens opened again. I'd planned to do one of Howard's sessions. 3x3x200(1', 15') in 27/28. But just couldn't fire myself up to do it. Instead did 2x2x200 same rest, in 30,33/29,31. The tarck was very very slow, probably worth a couple of seconds. Overall pleased that I'd done it, but the quality was low.

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