Keep moving forward

Friday, August 24, 2012

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

10,000 hours

I read a book last year called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The book examines factors which determine high level of success and provides examples such as the high percentage of Ice Hockey players being born in the first three months of the year, how the Beatles became a household name and how Bill Gates became the richest man in the world. The key is how they became fortunate enough to get into a situation so they could acquire 10,000 hours of practise in order to thrive when the timing was right. I think that this golden rule is important for athletics, and no more so than in long distance running. The increase in mileage, base endurance and fully developing your heart and lungs must be gradual and consistent over years. Shortcuts are possible, but you are at a greater risk to burn out or to get injured. A Kenyan marathoner arrives at 10,000 hours in their teens with a heart, lungs, ligaments and muscles ready to step up and adapt easily to the training required to become great.

This year I have struggled with a silly number of injuries. We are now in May, and I planned to be so much fitter and further forward by now. Last weekend was the Bupa Manchester 10k, which marks exactly two years since I started running again, having run 40:18 and getting fixated on improving. After being away from running so long, I figured out what I had missed so much, I love/loved running and especially competing. I wanted to get fit again, run marathons and do something useful with my spare time. I had got to a point where I ran 2:37 at Seville Marathon in February, and 72:04 at Malaga Half in March this year along with an unofficial 31.59 at Armilla 10km too. Good progress in a short time, but I’ve not been clever with my training yet. Anyway, I feel like it’s a good thing strive for more and be intense because I think, finally I’m getting towards the cause of problems, instead of just fixing the injury and carrying on.

I’ve realised that it’s not possible to run fast or hard all the time, the recovery and easy runs prepare you to be fully fit and ready to gain the most from your key sessions. It’s not so wise for me to run on feel all the time, I start a run with good intentions to go easy and feel recovered or fresher when I finish but I don’t fight the urge to go quicker and factor in some quicker sections of the run. I’ve learnt now that I need a plan, and to stick to it. I plan to have a goal, 11 or 12 weeks from now and build gradual over that time to be in shape for it and any race a long the race will be, for me a training race, or a B race. I’ll do my very best to stay focused and listen to my body more. I plan to work hard on my weaknesses whilst improving my strengths and hopefully I will benefit from dedicating time each day to injury proof my body. I will also focus more on nutrition for endurance and less on losing weight.

It’s possible to find everything and anything by researching on the net. There are endless sources of information and opinions available to the point where it is important to take information from many sources, gather your own view and make a plan specifically for you. It’s key to keep a detailed diary of all your training factors such as diet, strength training, stretching, cross training, running and even sleep. What works for one person may not work for you, so become your own guinea pig and record your findings. Eventually you will discover the perfect recipe for success and along the way, log those 10,000 hours.

The future is bright, soon.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Alhama de Granada - 11.3km (15th April 2012)

A month ago I was really looking forward to this race. The town of Alhama is something very special, partly due to it's difficult to get to location but mostly because the surrounding scenery really is incredible. The typical Andalusian market town sits on the edge of a dramatic Gorge, filled with medieval architecture and an ancient Arabic quarter and literally home to bags of lively characters in amongst plenty of tapas bars, it's a great find. I wanted to do well here because of the interaction I have with the people when I run here, they don't see so many runners and they love it.

After the Malaga Half I sprained the ligament on my inside knee, I still haven't really pinpointed the problem, or a way to cure it but I'm working on it. I didn't run for over 2 weeks and it gets painfully frustrating, like a kid screaming for sweets. I was climbing the walls and tried to go out a few times only to turn back after less than a few hundred metres. Anyway, I got going with a week or so until the race and tried to build some confidence that the niggle would be ok for the race.

I registered on the Wednesday before and decided to use it as a nice training run. The weather strangely forecast rain and even snow, which it did later in the day but on the morning it was just overcast and cool, maybe the reason for just over eight hundred starters which usually is well over a thousand.

I got a decent position about 3 or 4 rows back on a narrow start and at the gym a group of 5 or so shot off and I decided to stay back and wait for the hills on an underlating course which i knew well. I took it really easy on the descent out of town and began working my way through the field on the first or three hills. I found it very easy to climb faster than others, so took it easy on the descents knowing the main climb was between 7km and 9km back towards the town. I caught another few guys on that final climb and got behind Marcos Jesus who I knew from other races, I stayed behind him on the final descent with the thought of passing him at the short ascent into town, but the course had changed, so twisted in another direction and around the Arabic quarter to take in some views. At one point we were nearly lost but eventually found the climb, which was in my favour as I managed to get away from him and in the final straight saw Juan, also Bikila crossing the line who came first Senior with me second. he's a good guy, really friendly and also consistent.

I was really pleased with how controlled the race was for me, and considering the lost training time I felt relatively fit.

One thing I will take from this is a longer warm up for a shorter race, I ran more that usual and made sure my final efforts were above the race pace. I also remembered how much I love running hills, I need to do more of that.