I have mentioned a few times about the need to keep testing yourself and the best way to do that is by entering a race. Here you are judged on time or distance and your own goals and dreams. There’s no hiding with a number on your chest and you will be judged according to the result married with expectation and prediction. If either of these variables is out there will be consequences on the day (expectation) and afterwards around the water-cooler at work. (prediction)  (Do people still congregate around the water cooler at work and really did they ever ? These days it’d be a ‘Red Bull cooler’ as this seems to be the liquid refreshment of choice <sigh> )

Get your expectation wrong and you’ll be setting yourself up for failure at the ‘pointy’ end of the race , where you will be empty of all fuel and hemorrhaging  time.  It is so easy to start a race too quick as you’re ‘full of beans’  and energy but you must remember you’re racing the whole distance, not just the first 1500m, which is the pace everybody normally starts at.  In a 10k race you’ll find your 5k pace early but at 5k you’ll realize why they call it ‘your 5k pace’ . Suddenly the brain starts to ask for payment for all the chips cashed by your legs earlier in the race,  when it all felt ‘so easy’. When this happens the last 5k seems to go on forever. Trust me I’m talking from experience here and funnily enough will be racing the Bridges 10k this weekend where I found myself in that situation last year.

I remember how easy the first 4k felt and even started to dream about a PB, this of course was an illusion built on a foundation that could not possibly sustain the PB dream. At 6k the walls came tumbling down and I had to endure 2k deep within the pain box, and I mean deep! Luckily I found a second wind for the last 2k of the race, from where I have no idea, but enough to help me to a respectable 12th place overall and 11th male. Yep, I was ‘chicked’.

Lesson learnt , I hope, but probably not truth be told. I’m getting famous for my ‘scolded cat’ start and hanging on for dear life at the end. Is this the way to run races, hell no. Will I learn, hell no ! We each face our demons when we race and this is another reason why we do it. You ain’t going to push yourself to exhaustion in a training run, or at least not on a regular basis.  Put a bib on my chest and it’s on for young and old, all bets are off and my goal is to run faster , over that distance, than I have ever run before. This is why I train for hours and hours in all conditions. (I say in ‘all conditions’, in Perth it’s only really sunny and hot, sunny and really hot or just sunny. It’s a curse.) Training is enjoyable but only a part of being a runner. You also need to test yourself against who you were yesterday , ‘today is all about being better than yesterday.’  Only by constantly testing yourself can you become the best you can be.

Of course this constant testing does not have to be time, throw in distance and try to run further than you have ever run, be this on a weekly basis, monthly basis or even a ultra-type event; 24 or 48 hour race anyone ?  Running the Australia Day Ultra ( http://australiadayultra.com/ ) 100k race the last two years has taught me the benefit of proper pacing and the challenge of long distance racing including the hydration and nutrition needed to complete an event of this length. The activity has been testing but also rewarding in so many ways. Running a distance most people find difficult driving is satisfying and worth a few kudos points around the water cooler, though neither is the real reason you run such a distance. You run ultras to really see what you are made of, to test yourself and confront your fears. Add a bib to the equation and you need to measure yourself against your peers, even more pressure. I’m probably not selling this that well am I but the truth is by putting yourself in these situations you find out about yourself, who you really are. For the most part the reward is liberating and this is why we do what we do. People who don’t run just see a lot of people running around randomly, normally with a look of anguish or pain on their faces, and wonder why they do it? They don’t understand the joy of what we do, they don’t experience the runners high (and trust me people this is real!) we experience when we finish a race and can look within ourselves and think ‘ we could have done no more’, today I am a better person for the experience and have moved another step closer to being the best I can be.

As always I seemed to have digressed from whatever the subject was at the start of this post, I’ve actually forgotten myself so you, the reader, will probably be as confused as I am. Looking back I seem to have started to talk about setting achievable expectations and predictions to avoid failure. Of course I may have written a long winded version of that last sentence and added a photo, as is my way.  To sum up you need to race more (or run longer distances)  and set yourself goals you can achieve and, by doing this,  you will constantly be a better version of yourself, daily, and that can’t be a bad thing.

After many posts on running the Bunbury Marathon this weekend I have pulled the pin and decided to down grade to the Perth Asics Bridges 10k. This was the right decision for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have been struggling to mentally prepare myself for Bunbury, it is a race that has been one of my most successful as well as one of my worst. The course itself is testing and if the conditions turn against you , mainly due to humidity,  it can really test you. Thus you need to be mentally prepared for the worst case scenario and I realised today I just wasn’t. I have three goal marathons a year and two Ultra’s as well as a smatterings of WAMC races ranging from 4k to a half marathon. Adding in Bunbury just didn’t make sense. Finally add in the Australian Masters competition at the end of April , 4 days of competition, and Bunbury had to go. It’s the right decision but still the fear of missing out (FOMO) niggles at you.

So what does the competition landscape look like now. This Sunday I have the Asics 10k  where last year I was well and truely ‘chicked’ by Linda Spencer and this resulted in a 5cm calf tear that basically finished my marathon season before it even began. I had to miss the Perth Marathon for the first time in 11 years and my City to Surf Marathon preparation was disturbed enough to make it a sub 3 attempt at best, luckily I found some form at Rottnest to end the year on a high and start 2018 on a positive note. This year will be different, no getting ‘chicked’ and I’ll have a new pair of Vaporflys 4% to caress me around the course. A top 10 finish would be nice but I’ll settle for an age group win and a sub 35 minute finish. (first beard would be another target but these days there’s a lot of fast hipsters , luckily most will behind coffee machines serving customers…..)

After the Bridges I’ll concentrate on some speed work to prepare for four days of competition at the Australian Masters starting April 26th. ( http://www.mastersathleticswa.org/perth2018/  ) I’ve entered the 10,000m, 3,000m steeplechase, 5,000m and the 8k cross country. The Masters competition is great fun and I’m excited to run for Western Australia, as excited as when I ran for Australia in the World Masters in 2016.  Most countries run Masters competitions normally open to anybody over 30 (far too young in my eyes, should be 40 minimum in my opinion.) , trust me it really is great fun watching and competing in these events.  It could be worth turning up on Friday the 27th to watch me attempt the steeplechase as I have never ever attempted this race before and I have no idea how I will overcome the water jump. There may be a big crowd to see if I fall flat on my face, or worse, and end up starring in  a Youtube sensation. Is there such a thing as bad publicity , I’m sure I read somewhere there isn’t ? Either way I’ll need to pop down the track and see if I can even get over the hurdle and clear the water, maybe I’ll wear a wetsuit ?

There is also the 10,000m to look forward to , 25 laps of a 400m circuit. I’ve ran this race a few times and always lose track of laps but I believe for the Masters we have electronic timing and lap counting, I’ll still lose track guaranteed. I have no idea how people run these 24 and 48 hour ultra’s on 400m tracks, maybe I’m missing out on something but it doesn’t seem to ‘ring my bell‘, call me old fashioned.

The goal for the Masters is to try and win four gold medals like another runner we all know, albeit he runs shorter distances and a lot quicker. If Usain Bolt can do it then maybe I can too. Not sure I’ll get the same press coverage as breaking world (or even Masters) records is highly unlikely unless I can persuade my electronic lap counter to malfunction and knock off a few laps or more, you never know what could happen in the heat of battle, maybe I need to contact the Russians ?

After the Masters it’ll be back to marathon training culminating in the Perth Marathon in June (my 13th I think?) before my 10th City to Surf Marathon in August and finally my 12th Rottnest Marathon ion October. As I have mentioned before I don’t travel much but with the amount of quality races available on my door step why would I? Racing is life , the rest is details; or was the Strava, either way you get the message. To be your best you need to constantly challenge yourself and set new lofty goals and racing gives you the opportunity to do this. What would we be without racing, we’d morph into ‘joggers’ running on the spot at traffic lights and before you know it we’d be cocooned in leg warmers and day-glow head bands looking like an extra from Xanadu. Be careful people it can happen so get online and sign up for a race, it really can be life changing.

This week I have only ran three times and it’s Thursday. Yep, even treated myself to a day off Monday, albeit I was so physically tired from my previous weeks running adventures I even took a day off work as well.  After a 160km week and 14 runs I was well and truly ready for the next two weeks of tapering before the Bunbury Marathon on Sunday April 8th.

Over the years I have had a love hate relationship with Bunbury. I ran my first ultra there while training for Comrades in 2008 and managed a second place but thought I had won as I lost track of the leader in all the chaos. I convinced myself it was a debut win but as I crossed the line was slightly confused by the apathy shown by spectators and officials alike. It seemed the winner had come in 25 minutes before me !

Three years later I ran the marathon and achieved a good pb at the time but missed out on my goal time pre-race by two minutes, which was disappointing.  No reason to be disappointed really but you set yourself goals and when you fail to meet them, no matter how unrealistic, it still hurts. This was around the time I’d run with Jon and at around 17k he’d drop me and motor off while I stumbled in behind him. There was amusing story in 2011 when I persuaded Jon to carry my Gu’s as he was wearing his now famous triathlete top with pockets. The plan came apart when Jon, and my Gu’s , left me about 17k into the race, as usual. Luckily Jon had the presence of mind to hand my Gu’s to a spectator who then handed them to me.  I assume he described me as a ‘young looking Brad Pitt like runner , balding with a full beard’ ? Whatever he said worked because I was accosted by a stranger and haded a handful of Gu’s.

The following year I was recovering from a small calf strain and was unprepared for the marathon. I had also brought a new pair of Nike Lunaracers (mark one’s) which are notoriously ‘snug’. On the morning of the race I tried them on and convinced myself they were too tight. This left me with the pair of old Asics I was wearing, which were well past their sell by date. Thus I crawled  to the start line mentally broken and this was the theme for the rest of the race. I can clearly remember running through half way in 1 hour 28 minutes and change thinking that couldn’t be right , I was knackered and the thought of having to repeat the process in a similar time filled me with dread. Needless to say every second counted on that second half marathon but I managed to sneak in with a few seconds to spare in under three hours.

In 2013 I returned in probably the best form of my life and won the event. Everything went to plan and I finished a few minutes ahead of my good friend Steve ‘Twinkle’ McKean for my first , and so far only , marathon victory.  It made up for the disappointment of 2008, 2011 and 2012 and the feeling on that day will go to me to my grave, very special.

Of course Bunbury being Bunbury the following year, 2014 , as defending champion, I totally psyched myself out and ran an awful race to finish fourth in a time of 2 hours 54 minutes when I was probably in the form of my life. I was more worried about the runners around me than my race and this turned into a disaster which put me on a downward running spiral for well over 12 months. It was only with Raf’s help from the Running Centre http://www.therunningcentre.com.au ) that I was able to get myself out of this ‘slump’.  If nothing else Bunbury proved, in 2014, that marathon running is a large proportion mental and a larger proportion than most people realise. (reference David Goggins link below)

In 2017 I set a new low by being a DNS. I had entered late and ran a 10k the week before inuring my calf. I rested for a few days and then ran and it felt good so it was back to tapering and two more planned runs. Unfortunately on the last run on Thursday evening before the Sunday I tore my calf. This was compounded by treating it as a calf knot and dry needling and massaging the ‘crap’ out of it. Add in stretching and I probably turned a 1-2cm calf tear into a 10cm calf tear.

So in a few weeks I take on Bunbury for the 6th time, with the current history of the event it could go either way, a victory , podium or a world of pain. Truth be told that is marathon racing , you can rarely predict what will happen and there are so many variables on the day all you can do is put in the training, watch your diet, weight and be mentally prepared for the pain box time that is coming your way; easy really ?

Right, back to the title of this post, running faster marathons. If you survived this long you are about to be rewarded with some great rules and tips that will guarantee a faster marathon time next time you run, guaranteed. I will give you your money back if I am proved wrong, of course for this to happen you’ll need to give me money in the first place.

 

After my last post about the marathon being two separate distances , encompassing a 32k warm-up before a 10k ‘sprint’ to the line,  I thought I’d share one of the sure fire ways to improve your marathon finishing time.  As readers of my ‘ramblings’ will know I have some golden rules to improving your running , summarized below.

1. Run Further. Add distance, not speed.
2. Run Faster. This is about adding pace after you have got your foundation after rule 1.
3. Don’t get injured. This is the hardest rule to obey as you always want to do more of rule 1 and 2 which can result in an injury. (I even hate typing the word!)
4. Nutrition, nutrition and nutrition… Did I mention nutrition. It’s all about the proper fuel.
5. Weight. So important, use to believe because I ran 100k+ a week I could eat what I wanted. Not true.
6. Baseline, document and evaluate everything. If it isn’t on www.strava.com it didn’t happen. Once you set a goal you have to be able to know how far you have come to achieving this, small steps but constant feedback. So buy a Garmin and start recording , everything !!!
7. Sleep. So underestimated but the bodies way of refuelling and preparing for the next day of running. Common sense but so often ignored.
8. Consistency. No point running 100k one week and then nothing. Marathon fitness is built up over time and this works hand in hand with rule number 1.
9. It’s all in the mind. After 32k a marathon is down to mental strength and the ability to persuade your body you can still perform at your desired pace without falling to fatigue, which is the minds way of protecting itself. Never underestimate the power of the mind in long distance racing

Without doubt the most important rule, in my opinion, is number 1, ‘Run Further. Add Distance, Not Speed’ This is the foundation on which you build success. Whatever distance you are currently running, do more,  with the caveat of avoiding injury of course (Golden rule number 3)  I have said many, many times ‘running is an honest sport’ , there are no short cuts, to really improve you need to run more distance and more often. For a runner there are no Zip wheels, Death Star helmets or mega-buck carbon-fibre bikes to gain an advantage , it’s just down to physical and mental strength and who wants its the most. ( This may now not be as true as the new Nike Vaporflys 4%  do seem to give the wearer an advantage over your Asics Kayano’s type marathon runners, albeit only a 4% efficiency improvement if you believe the hype; which I do.)

I believe there is no such thing as ‘junk miles’, every run you finish has helped and thus if you run more, and more often, it stands to reason you will improve quicker. Another way to turbo-charge your improvement is to run twice a day. Most runners struggle with this concept but all the professionals run minimum twice a day. Of course, I hear you say, they have time on their hands and it’s what they are paid to do but even us mortals can find time for a second run with a bit of time management. Personally I am lucky enough to be able to run every lunchtime in near perfect conditions , the curse of living in the colonies. I then normally run mornings, pre-work,  as for most of the year this is the best time to run anyway. In summer especially it can be the only time to run as my home town , Perth, is situated in a desert and for three months of the year can be unpleasant after the early morning sunrise.

Some runners find is hard to find time in the mornings with family commitments etc. so will need to step-up in the evenings and this may involve running in the dark. I personally find no enjoyment from this but understand you have to put in the hard yards to continue to improve so take one of my David Goggins ‘suck it up’ pills and off into the night I go. ( http://www.davidgoggins.com ) What I found was, in the evening, if you’re sitting at home watching rubbish on TV you should be running. This is where you can get your second run, substitute sitting down at the end of the day wasting time to doing something constructive towards your next goal race, it really is that simple, go for a run. The second run of the day is all about time on feet anyway , there are no objectives bar the actual time spent running. No pressures, no time constraints, the second run of the day can be liberating because it is running for running’s sake, nothing more , nothing less.

The second run is where the magic happens, this is the reason the professionals run minimum twice a day. It allows then to add the distance needed to see the improvements required without the risk of injury, if they are careful and the run really is a time on feet exercise. Recreational runners will also see the same benefit and probably more because they will starting from a lower level with greater opportunity for improvement.

Of course it is to be noted that this is only one of the jigsaw puzzle that is running improvement but it is one I feel every runner needs to embrace as much as possible. I understand most runners will not be able to hit the 14 times a week goal,  that is a double run a day, but any additional run to your weekly schedule will be beneficial. Small steps for big gains, maybe try one double day a week initially and then build up. Of course if this puts too much strain on you then move back to the single run but maybe try and add weekly distance before trying a double day later. Remember adding distance is all about adding to the foundation of your running and this foundation needs to be stable and strong before you start to add pace.  There are several coaches who support the distance theory of running including the late, great Arthur Lydiard ( http://lydiardfoundation.org/ ) Phil Maffetone  ( https://philmaffetone.com/ ) and Matt Fitzgerald. ( https://mattfitzgerald.org/ )

So next time your sitting at home watch that mind-numbing soap or a reality show making overweight people exercise to the brink of death maybe think ‘I could be doing something more constructive’. Go and do what you love and ‘smell the roses’ (or whatever wild flower is available in your area?) with a relaxing second run. Payback will be so sweet when you rock up for your next race and find you’ve fitted a turbo-charger and leave the pack behind as you explode towards the finish line.

 

Christine Junkermann sums up the Lydiard method below from a Runners World post in 2000. ( https://www.runnersworld.com/ )

 

Forty years ago at the Rome Olympics, athletes guided by legendary New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard made history. Among Lydiard’s protégés were a total of 17 Olympic medalists, including Peter Snell (800 and 1,500 meters), Murray Halberg (5,000 meters) and Barry Magee (marathon). Lydiard, now 82, toured the U.S. last fall, speaking to runners on the Lydiard method of training. He was as passionate as ever about sharing the methods he developed 50 years ago.Lydiard hasn’t changed his training advice over the decades, and why should he? His ideas work. Moreover, if you look carefully at the most popular and successful programs today, most have a Lydiard emphasis. For Lydiard, running to your potential is about having a substantial mileage base and not overdoing your anaerobic training. There are no shortcuts.

A Revolutionary MethodLydiard discovered running for sport when he struggled to run five miles with a friend. Forced to confront his own unfitness, he self-experimented with training, including running more than 250 miles in one week. He developed a plan that he felt confident in using with other runners. Central to his method was the importance of training in phases and peaking for major events.According to Lydiard, any successful training program must culminate in a goal race or racing period. This means planning several months. The ideal training schedule is at least 28 weeks: 12 weeks for base conditioning, eight weeks for hill training and speed development, six weeks for sharpening and 10 days for tapering/rest.Phase 1: Base Conditioning/Aerobic TrainingThis three-month period is the most important in the Lydiard system. If you want to give yourself every opportunity to reach your goal, you must commit to developing your aerobic capacity, says Lydiard. Why? Because although every runner has a limited anaerobic (speed-building) capacity, that limit is largely set by one’s aerobic potential—the body’s ability to use oxygen. Thus, the aerobic capacity that you develop determines the success of your entire training program.The foundation of Lydiard-style base conditioning is three long runs per week. These are steady runs done at more than recovery effort. To determine your pace, choose a relatively flat course and run out at a strong pace for 15 minutes, then run back. The goal is to return in the same time or slightly faster. If it takes you longer for the return trip, you paced yourself too fast. The objective of these runs is to be “pleasantly tired,” says Lydiard. Running slower will produce positive effects, but the results will take longer. Do not run to the point of lactic-acid buildup.

An ideal training week during this period includes a two-hour run and two one and one half-hour runs. On the other days do short, easy runs; one run with some light picking up of the pace; and one 5K to 10K tempo run (below lactate-threshold pace). Decrease the times and distances if you don’t have the mileage base to start at such high volume, then build gradually.

Phase 2: Hill Training/Speed Development

Lydiard-style hill training, the focus of the first four weeks of this period, involves a circuit that includes bounding uphill, running quickly downhill and sprinting. These workouts develop power, flexibility and good form, all of which produce a more economical running style. Ideally, you should find a hill with three parts: a flat 200- to 400-meter area at the base for sprints, a 200- to 300-meter rise for bounding and a recovery area or moderate downhill segment at the top. Alternatively you can work out on a treadmill with an adjustable incline.

After a warm-up, bound uphill with hips forward and knees high. Lydiard describes the stride as “springing with a bouncing action and slow forward progression.” If you can’t make it all the way up, jog, then continue bounding. At the top jog easily for about three minutes or run down a slight incline with a fast, relaxed stride. Then return to the base of the hill for the next bounding segment. Every 15 minutes (after about every third or fourth hill), intersperse several 50- to 400-meter sprints on flat ground. These sprints mark the end of one complete circuit. Lydiard recommends a total workout time of one hour (plus warm-up and cool-down). Do this hill circuit three days per week.

On three of the four remaining days, focus on developing leg speed. Lydiard suggests 10 repetitions of 120 to 150 meters over a flat or very slight downhill surface. Warm up and cool down thoroughly.) The seventh day is a one and one-half to two-hour steady-state run.

During the second four weeks, shift from hills to traditional track workouts. The objective here, says Lydiard, is to “finish knowing that you could not do much more nor any better.” This sensation of fatigue matters less than how many intervals you do at what speeds, though the workout should total about three miles of fast running. Perform these track sessions three times per week. Use the remaining four days for a long run, leg-speed work and sprint-training drills traditionally done by sprinters to develop strength, form and speed.

Phase 3: Sharpening

How many times have you died in the last half of your race? Or alternatively, finished with too much left? Sharpening allows you to test for your strengths and weaknesses as you prepare for your goal race. Three workouts do not vary. The first is the long run, done at a relaxed pace. The second is an anaerobic training session done at a greater intensity and lower volume. Lydiard suggests five laps of a 400-meter track (about seven to eight minutes of running) alternating 50 meters of sprinting and 50 meters of easy, but strong, running.

The third consistent workout is a weekly time trial at or below the distance for which you are training. A 10K runner would do a 5K to 10K trial; a 1,500 meter runner would do 1,200 to meters. Ideally, do this workout on a track and record every lap to determine your weaknesses, and work on them throughout the rest of that week and the following week. For example, if the second half of your trial is slower than the first half, run a longer tune-up race that week and a longer time trial the next week. If the pace felt difficult but you were able to maintain it pretty evenly, work on your leg speed.

Round out your training week with a sprint-training session, a pace judgment day (4 x 400 meters at goal race pace), a leg-speed workout and a tune-up race. All these workouts should be geared to your goal distance and pace.

Phase 4: Tapering and Rest

Lydiard calls the final 10 days before goal race “freshening up.” This involves lightening your training to build up your physical and mental reserves for the target competition. Train every day but keep the faster running low in volume and the longer runs light in effort.

Unquestionably, Lydiard’s program tests your commitment and desire, and it requires a solid understanding of your individual needs. If you are serious, start counting out those 28 weeks.

This weekend I put on a race bib and timing chip for the fourth week in a row and managed to snare a rare victory at the West Australian Marathon Club ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) Peninsula 10k.  As the photo below shows it was perfect conditions with a cool starting temperature and no wind, which for Perth is a big bonus this time of year. After my warm up with Mike K. I got to the start line with less than a minute to spare and a quick look around revealed none of the usual suspects lining up against me. The last few races I had managed to snare a 4th place finish which is always frustrating as it’s the first person to win nothing. (assuming the top 3 get medals of course) Looking back at race results over the years this seems to be my favourite (?) position to finish, the joys of racing.

The Peninsula 10k is a favourite  race of mine as I have made the podium on two previous occasions and ran my 10k PB there in 2016 (34:18) . On Sunday there was a lack of depth in the field and I felt if I could run well there’d be a chance of another podium place. My race plan was simple , as all good race plans are, run as fast as I could for the first kilometre and try and break the field , go like the ‘clappers‘ to the half way and then try and hang on for dear life and stumble over the line, see simple. I executed the first part perfectly and ran a 3:11 first kilometre, probably my 1500m pace.  It had the desired effect and I have some distance between me and the pack who were probably thinking I’d started the 5k race early ! After that I couldn’t see the chasing runners (as you all know a cardinal sin of running is looking behind you, a big no-no.) until the half way turn around when they were probably a good few hundred metres behind me but closer than I’d like. I had thought of cruising home to a comfortable victory and was already reciting my winners speech. Not to be unfortunately, if I was to win this race I was going to have to work for it.

I put in another big effort for the next couple of kilometres before relaxing a tad for the finish as the job was done and I ran in for my 9th career race victory. As these overall victories are rare it makes the feeling so much better and I’m still smiling like a Cheshire cat with a new set of teeth, even while I type this post. Best bit was I even managed to sneak in under 35 minutes , finishing in 34:55. Overall a perfect day, makes all those training runs in the dark, the heat or early mornings well worth it and also hungry for more success. We’ll see, as I moved into my fifties I have certainly noticed the training is becoming harder and although the last four weeks of racing have produced good times they are not PB’s.  No worries the bar has been set over the last four weeks and I know I have to work harder to raise it even higher and maybe nudge the odd PB this year. I have a few ideas involving diet and my Elliptigo ( http://www.elliptigo.com.au ) that may help me gain a few more seconds and there’s always a new pair of Nike Vaporfly 4% ‘s(in red of course because they will be faster!)  if I can find another pair anywhere ? (If anybody knows any for sale please let me know.)

So what is the point of this post ? What I’m trying to convey is you’ll never run as fast as you do when you’re racing, be that at the front of the pack, in the middle or at the back. The point is you’re either being chased, at the front, chasing the leaders, in the middle or just running to make sure you’re not dead last. Either way there is pressure on you to perform and this is what makes you a better runner. Race enough and you’ll see the benefits in your training and racing with the pain threshold rising and the pace increasing. I understand racing isn’t for everyone but for a guaranteed way to improve it is up there with losing weight and training more, the two pillars on which the runner builds his career.

The last month I’ve raced four times, a 16k, 5k, 21k and last weekend a 10k. All have their own challenges and truth be told I ran off too quick on all of them and held on. Is this the way to run a race ? Probably not but my ‘scolded cat’ start has done me well over the years and I have the experience and training history to hang on and stumble back over the line, normally. These four races were all difficult but in the case of racing familiarity does not breed contempt it breeds acceptance and confidence. Acceptance of what is to come and confidence that you will overcome and excel, or least complete in a reasonable time. I missed out on PB’s but was close enough to give me hope that , given good conditions, I could have a sniff at maybe one more PB or more. This is enough to keep me honest but really I love running as much now as I did when I started  10 years or so ago so even though my PB chasing days may be behind me I can still justify putting myself in the pain box because, well truth be told, it’s a place I enjoy being. Sounds masochistic but you only really feel alive when you are either close to death or putting yourself in testing situations where you ask yourself some serious questions and need to be able to answer them honestly. Racing gives me that runners high when you achieve a set goal, set a time or just finish. (in the case of ultra marathons etc..) It does make you feel alive and its nice to once in a while really see how fast you can run albeit over a set distance. Basically running fast is fun and even more fun when you’re racing, trust me on this.

As is my way I’ve posted on the benefits of racing before. Let’s face it people after nearly two years of blogging I’ve covered most things running, I mean really running  it isn’t that hard. (but don’t tell anybody.) Anyhow if you want to read more on this subject feel free…

Last weekend I ran the Darlington half which I had written about in post earlier in the week. (see below) As expected it was as brutal as I had remembered on the six previous occasions I had ran ‘the hill’. This year though seemed harder than the previous years and this is a trait that seems to be becoming the norm in my racing career of late. Is this the start of my progression back to the pack or just poor training catching up with me ?

First of all some stats, because runners love numbers right ? My previous six finishing times for the Darlington Half have been 1:24, 1:21:12, 1:19:45, 1:17:22, 1:21:46, 1:19:16 with a 1:19:02 this year. This year was my second fastest of the 7 previous races so I should be happy enough right ? In this case not so, the race itself was brutal enough that at 5k I was so close to pulling the pin and just stopping, truth be told sometimes this blog is enough to keep me soldering on as it wouldn’t be good for the runbkrun brand having me DNF’ing would it ? I remember a quote from Tim Noakes (Author of the ‘Lore of Running’) where he said that in just about every race he ever ran he , at some point during the race, had the urge to pull out and stop the ‘suffering’.

I would assume all runners who push themselves into the ‘pain box’ would logically want to end the time in said box and this is the mental part of racing that we gain from the whole racing exercise. This mental toughness is acquired, in my opinion, by experience and also , for the lucky few, genetics. Some people are just better at handling pain, because this is what is basically is, than others. I’ve said many times in this blog that Steve Monaghetti maintained the elites in the sport are just better equipped to handle the pain of racing compared to the club runner and this , together with a better training program, is what separates the two. It also helps to be 45kg and Kenyan,  with no distractions and a diet so primitive all ‘bad’ food is avoided.

So back to Darlington. I raced off like a ‘scolded cat’ which is my normal starting strategy, I use the word ‘strategy’ in the broadest sense of the word. I have tried holding myself back at the start but it’s just not me and I always seem to revert back to the ‘first to 100 metres’ wins mentality. Luckily in this race Dean Menzies was running and he was out of sight by the first kiloemtre and won by nearly 8 minutes, Oh to be young and talented. (Actually I’ll take just young truth be told !)  Surprisingly enough I was in second place for the first four kilometres which I wasn’t expecting and really had no idea who was also racing as my warm up was late, as usual, and I had no time to check out the other runners pre-start. I did notice Justin Scarvaci at the start, a runner who takes great pleasure in passing me towards the end of the race, so knew that if I was to podium (and that is a big ‘IF’) it would be a third place finish at best. My best finish at Darlington had been a 5th in 2014 when I ran one of the runs of my life (these do exist, just happen on a very irregular basis unfortunately; otherwise they wouldn’t be ‘runs of your life’ I suppose?)  Anyhow , as always, I digress.

Back to the race report and I’m sitting in 2nd at 4k dreaming of a Darlington podium. This is short lived of course when three runners catch me and I go from 2nd to 5th in a few hundred metres, go to love racing ! The other three runners all look very strong and I have to work very hard to slot in behind them (which with a headwind and a hill is the pace to be luckily.) For the next 7k we climb the hill together and I’m pleased that I can hang on, and trust me it was hanging on. At the turn around point the leader has well gone and there is a big gap to the next pack of chasing runners, big enough that I know another 5th place is in the bag, which takes some pressure of the return journey.

The Darlington half really is a race of two halves. The second half, which starts at around 13k really, is a downhill sprint to the finish and if you have saved something in the legs is just about the best finish to a half in Western Australia, bar none. We dropped one runner (sorry Max) on the downward journey and the three of us left in the chasing pack ( I use the word ‘chasing‘ very loosely as Dean was well out of sight !) motored away enjoying the tail wind and the gradient. Surprisingly enough I was actually comfortable for the first 3k of the downhill section and slotted in behind the two other runners. I even started to think maybe, just maybe, a podium was a possibility; just needed one of these two runners ahead of me to ‘bonk’. Truth be told I knew this was a long shot as both were probably 20 years plus younger that me and looked to be cruising, more worried about the other runner rather than the old guy behind then.

This turned out to be the case at 18k when we encounted the only small rise in the downward journey and I was dropped like a bad habit. I then suffered the double whammy of finding out that Nike Vaporfly 4%’s are amazing shoes on every terrain bar ‘pea gravel’ trail at speed. My last 2-3 kilometres was like ice skating and I consider myself lucky to be alive ! No worries, finish in 4th place (my favourite go-to position these days?)  with a good time of 1:19:02. Another rookie error with not looking at my watch near the finish as I could have probably found 3 seconds to break 1:19, when will I learn?

There was the obligatory , ‘I will never run that again’ conversation with the finishing shute volunteers, which again seems to the  norm these days and then a warm down with the Jon and the T-train where I recorded possibly my slowest kilometre ever on Strava, over 7 minutes !

The point of this post , for those lucky readers who have stuck it out to the bitter end , is that it doesn’t matter how experienced you are or how many races you have ran , a race will always test you mentally and physically. I believe it is more of a mental test personally and the end result depends on how much pain you are able to take onboard in your pursuit of the end goal. As you would probably have gathered in my last few race reports I seem to be paying a higher price, mentally, ever time I race and as I have said before I would put this down to father time catching up with me and asking for payment , of sorts.  You need to keep this in mind next time you race and start to question your ability, and you will. Trust in your training and always remember ‘pain is temporary but quitting last forever.’  

Does this mean I’ll be slowing down anytime soon and returning to the chasing pack ? Not on your life, I shall take the opposite approach and train smarter (or harder?) and try and prepare myself physically better for the challenge. This may be enough to make up for the mental demons I battle every time I put on a race bib. Luckily I haven’t got long to ponder Darlington as I have another race this weekend, the Peninsula 10k, a race I set my 10k PB a few years ago when I actually won it.  Race strategy (?) will be similar to Darlington , and all my races truth be told, go off like a scolded cat and hang on for dear life towards the end while questioning the whole reason you do what you do, deep inside the pain box. It’d be silly to change a winning formula wouldn’t it ?

This weekend I will be running the Darlington half marathon for the 7th time. This is probably the only half marathon where a good negative split is guaranteed, of course a runners friend (and enemy) gravity plays a large part in this. The first half of the Darlington half is predominately uphill which of course translates to the second half being predominately downhill, funny that. (being an out and back course.) This race, more than most, involves the runner taking account of the terrain and holding something back for the return leg when time can be made up very quickly on fresh legs. To waste too much energy on the outbound journey would negate the benefit offered on the return.

I’ve attached my race splits from last year when I scrambled home for a 6th place finish after sitting in 4th for most of the race, which would have been my best finishing position. No worries, it’s not like I blew up but a couple of ‘younger’ runners got me with less than 3k to the finish. Anyhow as you can see from the graphic below it really is a case of up 10 or so kilometres, a couple of kilometres to grab your breath before a 10k race to the finish with gravity as your co-pilot.

Of course I’m not saying the last 10k is a breeze by any stretch of the imagination. You have a bib on your chest (and a chip on your shoe) so you will be pushing yourself deep into the pain box and although it helps you are running down hill you are still racing.

So what other variables need to be taken into account when you’re racing ? Heat is the obvious first choice. A Runners Choice article on training in the heat and its affect is worth a read:-

As year-round runners facing myriad conditions, we all recognize that it’s harder to run well when it’s hot. Perceived effort is greater and race times typically suffer accordingly. Why does this happen? What happens to the body at a physiological level? And most important, how should we adjust workouts and race expectations to best weather the weather?It’s generally recognized that for every 10-degree increase in air temperature above 55 degrees, there’s a 1.5 percent to 3 percent increase in average finishing time for a marathon. (Translation: An extra 3 to 6 minutes for a 3:30 marathon with every 10-degree increase.) This slow-down occurs because heat impacts runners at a physiological level through various means, including dehydration, increased heart rate and reduced blood flow (and subsequently oxygen) to the muscles used for running.

SWEAT: THE DETAILS
Thermoregulation is how your body maintains a consistent internal temperature. When exposed to external heat, your body cools itself and maintains equilibrium via perspiration. Perspiration has a cooling effect on the body because it removes excess heat through evaporation. The rate of evaporation—and subsequently how well the body is cooled—changes depending upon humidity. When humidity is low, evaporation increases; when humidity is high, the rate of evaporation decreases and less cooling occurs.Sweating, while critical to cooling the body, leads to fluid loss. Dehydration from fluid loss has a profound effect on running performance—a loss of even 2 percent of body weight leads to about a 4-to 6-percent drop in performance. Furthermore, both temperature and humidity increase heart rate and amplify these effects. At 60 to 75 degrees, heart rate increases by two to four beats per minute. From 75 to 90 degrees, heart rate increases up to 10 beats per minute, and humidity increases it even more. Perceived effort is accordingly much greater as both the temperature and the humidity rise.Compounding things, when you sweat your blood volume decreases, less blood returns to your heart, less oxygen-rich blood reaches your working muscles, you produce less energy aerobically and you run slower for a given effort level. As it gets hotter this effect is exaggerated because the greater the amount of heat that needs to be dissipated, the greater the proportion of blood diverted to the skin. While the red blood cells contained in plasma don’t play a role in the cooling process, your body can’t separate the red blood cells (which carry oxygen) from the plasma—all are brought to the skin to induce a cooling effect. When oxygen is redirected via blood flow to your skin instead of your muscles, you have less energy to use for running, and your heart and lungs must work harder to compensate for the loss in oxygen. As you’ve experienced, this results in a higher heart rate at a set pace and the inability to maintain the same pace as on a cool day.WHAT TO DO?
How can you minimize the negative impact of heat on performance? Because of blood plasma’s important role in the cooling process, training alone provides a bit of adaptation, because a side effect of running is an increase in total plasma volume. This helps to explain why the fittest athletes (and likely those with the highest plasma volume) typically adapt more easily to heat.

In addition to regular training, running in hot conditions results in changes that make it easier to maintain a faster pace and cause perceived exertion to drop, including a higher blood plasma volume, increased sweat rate, decrease in salt in sweat, reduced heart rate at a given pace and temperature, and a quicker onset of sweating. These changes make it easier to perform in the heat and are noticeable after only a week or two of heat exposure.

Still, heat acclimatization can take you only so far during weeks-long stretches of sultry weather. Steve Sisson, assistant coach of women’s cross country and track at the University of Texas, knows well the impact that prolonged, inescapable heat has on distance runners. On particularly hot days, he encourages his athletes to adjust expectations and change their attitudes. He explains, “Heat really affects intensity. It is really hard to get up and excited in high heat environments. One of the things that I try to get my athletes to do is to approach any workout in the heat as a progression. Adjusting the level of effort or intensity based on what the body is signaling is a key lesson for any athlete to learn.”

While Sisson doesn’t change the number or length of repetitions in a workout, he does modify the workout by shifting the focus away from a certain time goal to running an equivalent effort. “If we are trying to hit mile repeats in 5:20 for a 10K workout, I will give my runners a time range of 5:20 to 5:30 and let them adjust based on how they feel,” Sisson says.

“Living in a hot part of the country means that we are never going to get away from the heat. If we adjust volume we won’t be competitive.”

Sisson encourages his runners to look for internal cues instead of fixating on split times. To make the adjustment easier if you’re particularly split-focused, on horrific heat days move your interval sessions off the track. Working out on an uncalibrated course is a sure way to ensure a shift to effort over time and this makes it easier to pay attention to internal feedback and perceived exertion and avoid being distracted or discouraged by slower-than-hoped-for splits.

RACING IN THE HEAT
Racing is uniquely taxing in any weather. Adding heat into the equation creates a competing interest and struggle within the body between powering such a strenuous effort and the need to cool the body. This means that you have to work even harder to cool yourself and is why a race will feel much worse than a workout in similar conditions.

Alan Culpepper, a two-time Olympian, is familiar with this tug of war. He faced gruesome conditions in the 2004 Olympic Marathon in Athens, with a starting temperature of 80 degrees. Thanks to smart preparation for and patience during the race, Culpepper placed 12th in a field full of faster runners. Here’s what helped him succeed.

1) ADJUST YOUR PREPARATION.
If you’re fortunate enough to anticipate less-than-favorable conditions for an event, preparation is key. Culpepper says, “Get your body used to losing heat more efficiently.” The summer before the Olympics, Culpepper wore a baseball cap and long-sleeved shirt on runs to help acclimatize. He also advises taking in more electrolytes two to three days before a goal race, staying as cool as possible before the race (cold sponges can be helpful) and running a shorter warm-up before a hot event to prevent loss of electrolytes, particularly if you’re running a longer event.

2) ADJUST YOUR EXPECTATIONS.
Says Culpepper, “You have to pay attention to perceived effort. It is important to recognize you will be slower than you hoped but effort is the determining factor.” He advises that you pay less attention to traditional feedback like splits and instead, “Listen to the feedback your body is giving you: Is your breathing heavier? How uncomfortable are you?”

3) ADJUST YOUR MINDSET.
Attitude is critical. Culpepper recommends, “Instead of getting discouraged, recognize that everyone is dealing with the same conditions and have faith in your preparations.”

It’s Not the Heat, Nor the Humidity

It’s the dew point. That’s the meteorological measure that best predicts how tough your summer running is going to be.

Simply put, the dew point is the temperature at which water condenses. The closer the dew point is to the air temperature, the more saturated the air is and the less perspiration can evaporate and help the body cool itself, resulting in extra stress on the heart and lungs as the body attempts unsuccessfully to cool itself. Accordingly, the dew point provides a strong indicator of how you’ll feel running and a useful tool in predicting how much performance will be impacted.

DEW POINT (°F)	RUNNER’S PERCEPTION	HOW TO HANDLE
50–54	Very comfortable	PR conditions
55–59	Comfortable	Hard efforts likely not affected
60–64	Uncomfortable for some people	Expect race times to be slower than in optimal conditions
65–69	Uncomfortable for most people	Easy training runs might feel OK but difficult to race well or do hard efforts
70–74	Very humid and uncomfortable	Expect pace to suffer greatly
75 or greater	Extremely oppressive	Skip it or dramatically alter goal

Next of course is wind, a Runner Connect article describes the affect of gradients best friend…

Research on Running in Wind

The first study we’ll look to was published way back in 1971 by L.G. Pugh, a researcher in London.1 In his experiment, he had his subject (there was only one, an international-caliber middle distance runner) run along a treadmill cleverly mounted inside a wind tunnel.

Pugh measured the oxygen consumption of his runner over a variety of running speeds and wind velocities.He found that oxygen consumption, and therefore energy cost, increases with the square of the airflow over the body. So, the performance hit of a 10mph wind is four times greater than that of a 5mph wind, and the additional resistance running into a steady wind at 5:40 mile pace is twice that encountered when running into the same wind at 8:00 mile pace. In an additional experiment, Pugh measured the oxygen consumption of his runner first while running alone into a headwind, then while running one meter behind another runner. Pugh’s study found an 80% decrease in wind resistance when drafting off another runner! This corresponded to about a 6% drop in oxygen consumption for the given pace. Pugh confirmed these findings by taking airflow measurements in the wake of a single runner, then computing the effective air resistance for a runner-shaped object one meter back. From his measurements, it appears that there is still some benefit from drafting even two or three meters behind another runner. In a later study published in 1980, C.T.M. Davies investigated the effect of headwinds and tailwinds on three subjects using a similar treadmill-in-wind-tunnel setup.2Like Pugh, he found that oxygen consumption increases (and therefore, performance decreases) proportional to the square of the wind speed.While a tailwind does aid performance significantly, you only “get back” about half of what you put into a headwind when you turn around and run with it at your back. But Davies rightly points out that this relationship is diminished slightly during outdoor running—on a treadmill, any tailwind that exceeds your running speed is wasted, as you must remain in place on the treadmill.

However, results from real-world track races make it clear that, even in over ground running, the benefits of a tailwind do not entirely offset the drawbacks of a headwind. Davies also demonstrates that a tailwind that effectively eliminates air resistance. What does that mean?

For example: If you are running 6:00 mile pace with a 10mph tailwind, a tailwind equivalent would increase your performance by about 6 seconds per mile. However: The equivalent headwind (6-minute miles into a 10mph wind) would slow you by about 12 seconds per mile. While this rule is rather rough and based on treadmill studies, it’s reasonably applicable to racing speeds for most road runners. Davies also conducted some crude measurements of “drafting” behind other runners and found his data in agreement with Pugh: Trailing another runner by a meter or so can remove up to 80% of the energy cost of air resistance, making it a very attractive decision on a windy day. According to Davies, a mile (on a day with no wind) tucked behind another runner is four seconds easier than running it alone!

Does running in the wind cool you down quicker?

One final consideration when it comes to wind is its effect on heat removal from the body.

As pointed out in a 2012 review of climatic effects on marathon running by Greg Spellman, air resistance affects not only the forces you have to overcome, but your body’s rate of cooling. While running with a tailwind certainly helps you move faster, the effect of running in “still air” on heat removal cannot be ignored. As far as I know, there has been little to no published research on this effect: to what extent does the increased heat retention in running with a tailwind detract from your running performance on a hot day? And conversely, how much does increased cooling from a headwind offset the increased wind resistance? Boston Marathon participants and organizers were ecstatic about the 15mph tailwind on a 63-degree day in 2011, which propelled hundreds of runners to personal records. But would participants in the 2007 Chicago Marathon, marred not only by 88-degree weather but a paltry 6 mph wind speed, have run better with a brisk wind to cool them?

We’ll have to wait on future research to answer that question.

How Will Windy Conditions Affect My Running?

We’ve seen how the basics of the effects of air resistance have been known to exercise physiologists for some time.

The performance hit from air resistance increases exponentially with faster running speeds and wind velocities, but fortunately, up to 80% of the performance decrement can be eliminated by drafting about a meter behind another runner. Additionally, using a very rough rule of thumb you can anticipate the effect of wind resistance in a road race: A “substantial” wind (i.e. one approximately equal to the pace you are running at) will set you back 12 seconds per mile with a headwind, and aid you by 6 seconds per mile with a tailwind.

Headwinds aren’t always your enemy, however, since a brisk wind can aid cooling on a hot day. When it comes to choosing where you want to race, keep these factors in mind. Check out the weather history for the area and see which way the wind tends to blow. Also try to enter races where you know there will be plenty of competitors running the same pace as you, so you can save some energy by “tucking into the pack” like a middle-distance runner in a track race.

Finally, make sure you take advantage of a tailwind when you’ve got one! These tips are known to many elite runners and meet directors, who take heat, wind, and the competitiveness of the race into account when planning when to attempt a new record. Some of the best races in the world are held on cool spring and summer nights, after the winds die down as the sun sets and a world-class field toes the line.

So that sums up some factors to take into account when racing, gradient, heat and wind. Of course there are many more including how you feel on the day, previous weeks sleep patterns, previous weeks/months training distances, race importance (is this a goal race?), rain, conditions of the course (I.e trail or concrete). The list is long and just about endless, of course I’ll cover each eventually but for the moment I’ve got a race to prepare for.

On Sunday I take on my old friend the WAMC ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) Point Walter 16k (10 miles). Last year, although I managed a podium, it came at a price and even typing this post now I can remember the pain of the event and the emotional roller coaster I was strapped into. What I need to do now is try and put a positive spin of the whole event and prepare myself for the start line and the obligatory time in the ‘pain box’ that goes hand-in-hand with racing.

All week this event has been playing on my mind with different strategies and out comes but ultimately ‘when push comes to shove’ it’s all about trusting in your training. As I said many times running is the most honest sport but when you have tired legs and its a struggle to make the stairs in the morning you do worry ? This is all part and parcel of the sport  , feeling tired constantly and always second guessing yourself. Normally when the race bib is on the chest and the starters pistol goes off all is forgotten and the mind and body switch into ‘race mode’.

Over the many years of racing I’ve only really had a few bad races where I’ve let my mind convince my body all is not well and slowed accordingly. These lapses of concentration have always been around the 32k mark in a marathon so maybe, on both occasions,  it was more to do with hitting the wall because of poor nutrition/hydration rather than mental fragility.  This is not to say any race is ever easy, if it was then you’re not racing. Racing itself is really an excuse to put yourself in the ‘pain box’ for as long as possible and the runner who spends the most time deep within the box, normally curled up in the fetal position, normally wins.

Personally I believe a good runner who does well in racing compared to a good runner is the ability to endure pain. Steve Monaghetti mentioned this when I asked the question ‘what makes an elite compared to a club runner’ ?  It all comes down to pain management or endurance. Obviously being a pro runner gives you the ability to train more and reach a new level of cardio fitness and this , combined with the pain endurance, produces an elite.  Throw in some genetic advantage and training programs, e.g. like the Kenyans, mix it all up and you have a world beater.

For me it’s about not slowing down, at 51 I would assume my days of PB’s are probably behind me and the best I can hope for is to get as close as possible to past glory’s.  I am comfortable with this as the training is the part I enjoy the most, just getting out there really. (The muffins and pancakes are also an enjoyable, integral, part of running.) The racing is a by product and needed to keep me honest, good results and you are invigorated and see new goals and boundaries to push. Bad results and you are determined to get better , which in turn invigorates you and gives you new goals and boundaries to push.

A friend of mine mentioned to me at the end of the Fremantle running event last year that every runner had a look of pain etched on their face as they entered the finishing straight, he couldn’t understand why we do what we do. That sums it up really, only a runner knows the feeling. Be it one of a natural high when you finish a goal race and achieve a finishing time you could only dream about or devastation when you stumble over the line. As he waddled off to pay with his paddle board I realized he, and all non-runners, would never understand and it was pointless trying to explain really.

Right, enough blogging I have a race to prepare for. I’ll add a footnote to this post with the result and will hope to go sub 59 minutes for the 16k. My best is in the lows 58minutes range and my worst 59:59 so I have a small window to play with. The pack will be in hot pursuit and I’ll be doing my best to keep them at bay, maybe for just one more year…. maybe.

Post race :- Just back from the Point Walter 16k and I managed to sneak in for a 4th place finish and a time of 58minutes 44 seconds. So overall , from a time point of view, it should be seen as another successful run. Again , as with last years event, there was the periods of self doubt and the urge to just stop running. This year it was mainly in the second lap between 8k and 12k with a headwind and a 4th place position which I suspected would not improve, I was right. On the positive side yet again I conquered my demons and finished with a credible time but it was another painful experience both mentally and physically. Is this the way forward for me as I battle ‘old Father time‘ and his insistence that I slow, probably ? I have mentioned several times before that I believe the reason the older runner eventually slows down is mainly a mental battle that eventually he cannot win as the fatigue, ordered by the mind,  cannot be over ridden. As we age the central governor , as described by Tim Noakes, just becomes too strong and the body responds , with the help of the runners mortal enemy fatigue. I certainly felt that today and yet again had to work very, very hard for my finish time. Not slowing down too much but I feel I went to the well again and avoided paying the piper this time, unfortunately I can feel the piper wants paying but will be doing my damndest to avoid this for as long as possible. Right, two weeks and it’s the Darlington half, can I go one more time, we’ll see…….

How can a race so short teach you so much ?

This morning I lined up for the West Australian Marathon Club ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) Point Walter 16k (10Miles), my first race as a fifty year old. I’d ran this race twice in the last three years and managed a second place finish both times (58:24 and 59:59:07 , that 07 is important as the club (and Strava) rounded it up to an hour dead !, the first time was a PB and is important for later in this post…) I had a mini taper for this one as I was determined to go faster than the 59:59:07 I ran last year and the Race Director and Club President both knew I was out to set the record straight.

So to the start, I turned up and saw my friend and training partner Ross warming up in the car park and this threw me a bit as he had earlier commented he’d be running with the lads and Ross is on fire at the moment, winning his last two events. Mentally this was a blow as I was hoping to cruise to a podium, truth be told , and seeing Ross I knew I was probably now one place down. Speaking to Ross at the start and it seemed another ‘gun runner’ was doing the 16k (there is a 5k option as well) so I moved myself one more place down the finishing list. I was now, probably best case, gunning for 3rd.  Next thing alongside me my friend Zac turns up after running a 1hr15mins half the previous week (a 5 minute PB, oh to be young again!) , so much for a cruise to a podium, although I knew Zac would probably fade he has the benefit of youth, something I can no longer draw on. This was not a good start to the race and add in a hot day , it started at around 25c and rose quickly, together with a headwind for the first 4k (it is an 8k loop twice); I was mentally finished before I even started.

Once we started I found Ross and sat behind him, cocooned between the 5k runners who went off like scolded cats and a group of 16k runners who would challenge for the podium places. At the 2.5k point the 5k runners turned and the 16k race unfolded before me. The gun runner Ross spoke off was well ahead and barring injury a shoe in for the win. Ross was comfortable in 2nd and I was just behind him with young Zac hot on my heels.

I found the initial pace taxing into the wind and came up with all sorts of reasons why I could pull the pin and end the pain, which was unusual for me. Maybe this ‘tapering lark’ is not all it’s cracked up to be, either way by 4k I was in trouble. Zac went past me about this time and moved away with Ross and with him all thoughts of a medal. This added to my anguish and did nothing for my mental state which was now at its lowest. I had spent all week reading Matt Fitzgerald’s ‘How bad do you want it’, and realised about the 5k mark I didn’t want it at all ! This was the compounded by another runner cruising past me , so I had now moved to 5th and was seriously thinking of pulling out at the 8k mark.  I have raced hundreds of races in my time and never DNF’d so the thought of doing so on a 16k WAMC race was never going to happen but option ‘B’ was to start a long 8k cool down, and work out valid reasons for this approach; truth be told I could think of none. (Funnily enough I was on Facebook yesterday, as I was tapering, and replied to a comment about taking days off as a sign of weakness, here I was thinking of pulling the pin on a 16k race; karma I think! )

Right, halfway in around 28:30; on track for my sub one hour target but on the inside well and truly finished. The Race Director and Club President cheered me on and informed me I was right on time but I remember thinking they were dreaming if they thought I’d be back within the hour, never going to happen. Reluctantly  I moved onto the second lap and knuckled down to endure what I thought would be more of the same. The 4k headwind embraced me and my pace started to drop above the 3:3xmin/k I had targeted, only just,  but enough.

Well at 9k it happened, the whole race changed in an instant. The lead ‘gun runner’, who was well ahead, was on the side of the path and obviously out of the race. Suddenly I was in 4th place and looking up ahead young Zac was now paying the price for racing the half the week before and I was catching him. Boom ! Suddenly the voice inside my head which was shouting for mercy was now shouting for medals and it was on like donkey kong for young and old !!

The headwind didn’t help me but Zac was paying the price big time and I know from past races he is not the best finisher. (He’s young and starts every race at suicide pace, it won’t be long before he finishes the race as the same pace and then he’ll be out of my league; if not already. ) Put these two things together and I knew I was with a good chance of a podium. At fifty my days of getting on, or even near, to a podium are limited and I was quite prepared to put it on the line for the last 6k to grab one more before my time is done. In about 4 minutes I had gone from pulling the pin for the first time in my career to putting my head down, finding a second wind , and rolling in the runner in front of me. This I did at the last turn around with 4k to go. With the wind behind me I was able to maintain the sub 3:40min/k average pace and even managed to get within less than 20 seconds to Ross, who at one point was just about out of sight. How did I do this ? When the lead runner pulled out and I could see Zac struggling my whole mental approach changed, and when I convinced the mind I could grab a medal the limiters were taken off and I was allowed to run quicker, with fatigue ejected to the back of my mind.

Although this was only a 16k race I had been through the ringer when it came to emotions. I was finished at 2k, pulling out at 4k, heading to a world of pain and 8k and reborn at 9k. This running really does teach you so much about yourself. If I had pulled the pin at any time during that race I would be typing such a different post, as it is I am happy that yet again I managed to pull it out of the fire and convince myself I could finish, and finish strong.

Was the book helpful, (ref: Matt Fitzgerald)? To tell you the truth probably not, it’s easy to sit on a train on the way to work reading about all the great athletes who have dug deep when faced with impossible odds and how the mind has helped them achieve their goals. When you’re in a massive hole at the start of the race you know it’s the mind telling you to stop but ignoring it, or even convincing the mind it is wrong, it not so easy. I suppose the real answer is to trust in you training, if you’ve put in the hard yards you will come good, you may not get the PB you were chasing but you will finish; never ever stop.

Overall I managed to grab that podium and even managed a 1 second PB finishing in 58mins 22seconds, a second quicker than my 2013 time but a world apart for race experiences. Three years ago I was in the form of my life and this was another PB in a long line of PB’s, those days disappeared for a few years but I have been lucky enough now to sneak a few more. Today I had to work so hard for that 1 second PB but I’ll take it and really it is worth so much more because of the mental torture I put myself through to get it. I’ve asked this question before about how many times I can keep going to the well and pulling these runs out , eventually the well will be dry , eventually ? Until then it looks like running easy PB’s is never going to happen (not that they really ever did?) for me in the future, at fifty if you want a PB you are going to have to REALLY WANT a PB. No worries, today I have the medal which whenever I look at it I will remember the pain and the pleasure I put myself through to get it. That piece of metal is worth so much more to me, to me it is memories of another run where I asked myself some serious questions and , this time, came up with all the right answers.

I was looking back in my Excel spreadsheet training journal recently at my PB’s (PR’s for our American cousins. (You need a manual record just in case Strava  ( http://www.strava.com ) gets taken out by North Korea, that funny looking leader of theirs doesn’t look like a runner, just saying.) All my PB’s have come at the end of a high mileage training week(s) and on all occasions I have ran with runners who I had no right running with, truth be told. In most cases I have been dropped but not before I was deposited into a situation where a PB became a reality. If I had ran to a set pace I would have not ran as fast. So it seems we all have the ability to run faster than we think we can but we rarely put this theory to the test as we are worried about ‘blowing up’ or failure.

For my 10k PB of 34:18 I raced this new young runner I had not seen before as I thought initially he was running the 5k option. When the 5k runners turned we both moved to the 10k course. As it turns out this young runner became a good friend of mine who I train with weekly. Zac has turned into a very accomplished runner who is currently training with Raf and targeting a sub 2:30 marathon. Needless to say I don’t race in the same league as  Zac anymore and this was brought home to me recently at the Fremantle half where I placed third in the 10k and ran with Zac for the first 3k , unfortunately Zac was running the half and then dropped me on the way to a 72 minute time and the victory. I couldn’t even keep up for 4k. I digress of course, the first time I met Zac I decided to try and run with him for as long as possible as he was running quicker than my PB pace. Any thought of a predetermined race pace went out the window and I just ran to see how long I could keep up with this new face on the Perth running scene. As it turned out Zac was also outside his comfort zone and I managed to sneak home for the win and a new PB. I feel without my ‘gun-ho’ approach I would have achieved neither.

It is a similar story for my 5k PB. This time Chris O’Neil turned up at my local park run (a very accomplished ultra runner and marathon runner with a marathon PB of 2:25 ) and I was again at the end of a long training week with double-up days all the previous 5 days. I wasn’t expecting much truth be told but thought I’d try and keep Chris honest for at least the first kilometre, it was my local park run after all. So off I went like a scolded cat running 800m pace from the start. I did manage to get to the first kilometre marker before Chris but after that he was off and I managed to maintain a pace quick enough to run a 16:40 which was a time that myself and Dan ‘the man with a plan’ Macey had often talked about achieving. I had been close on many occasions but this time I had given myself the extra few seconds I needed by running the first kilometre at suicide pace and then hanging on.

My half marathon PB was achieved in similar circumstances when I again decided to try and run with the lead group for a long as possible as see where it took me. It actually took me to the lead at 18k feeling great and I started to think about a winners speech, ( do I thank all my extended family first and  then the Marathon Club for hosting the event, marshalls, God, the list soon became quite large ? ) The Fremantle Half is quite a large event and for some reason this year a lot of quality runners had decided to run elsewhere. I was left leading Gerry Hill and Tom Bakowski, two runners outside my pay grade but both had not been running at the top of their game and I dared to dream, briefly. At 19k they both decided to stop playing with me, like a cat plays with a mouse, and both put on the afterburners consigning me to third place but a massive PB of 75 minutes dead. Yep, that’s right, a rookie error finishing dead on 1hour 15 minutes. One step quicker and I would have been a 1:14;xx half runner, albeit the xx would have been 59 seconds, not important it’s all about the minutes when it comes to half PB’s. As with the other two PB’s this one came at the end of a massive training week and I remember sitting in the car before the event actually contemplating pulling out as I was so fatigued from the weeks training and I didn’t want to embarrass myself.

So to sum up this little gem of a post it seems if you really want to grab a PB you need to run more and then on race day hook up with someone you know is quicker, than your current PB, and hang on for dear life. Don’t worry about the time as they’ll take care of it, all you need to do is hang on for as long as you can and they will sling-shot you to a PB, simple really.  Perfectly summed up by the late, great Steve Prefontaine below.

Note: I must stress this can also work with longer distances like the marathon but a certain amount of self restraint needs to be shown. I wouldn’t recommend slotting in behind the lead Kenyan at a marathon hoping to take the ‘gung-ho, nothing ventured, nothing gained ‘ approach because unfortunately this will end in failure and normally pretty quickly.  By all means find someone who normally runs a few minutes quicker but running a marathon at suicide pace normally results in just that. Young Mr. Prefontaine never ran a marathon and was a specialist 5k runner, for 5k you can run at suicide pace and sometimes survive, for a marathon there is no finishing if you start at 5k pace. No one ever said at the end of a marathon ‘that was easy, I shaved off 30 minutes off my PB with no training’, sorry but that’s running for you……