Dineke Austin - Blog 6: Al Fresco Running...meets 'The Beast from the East'!

I ended my last blog with a beaming smile, but also the words ‘Now the real race: against time….’

And so it has proved.

Starting ‘real’ running at week 9 of a 16-week training plan, with 4 x Parkruns, 1 x 8k hobble, and 1 x 10k race, under my belt, after the best part of 4 months off (and lucky at that) is possibly slightly up against the wall.  (The real wall!) This totalled 38k in 8 weeks: my plan says that at this stage I should have run 289k; this is talking distance alone; not even factoring in: tempo, intervals, and hills.

As Trev will (politely as ever) attest: half-Dutch meisjes, especially of Friesian origin, are at least as stubborn as Yorkshire lads; anyone with half a brain cell might have been tempted to call it a day. However, as our PT says: “You runners are not normal.”!

I will freely admit, though, that at this point, inspirational though my fellow-bloggers are, I stopped reading them: the contrast was too stark. (I have read them since, especially Becky’s: where was my Polly?)

What is more, tempting though it was to go all out to make up for lost time, the literature says very clearly that there is a trade-off between distance and pace (tensile and compressive load): that I could settle either for building up distance or pace – but most definitely not both. Or hills. The old Din would have disregarded research evidence and gone for it: but that’s what got me in this ‘fine mess’ in the first place. I determined to work in 2-week blocks (Q: How do you eat an elephant?) micro-planning with physio and PT what might work without aggravating the injury.

Fuelled up with ‘natural’ endorphins AND cannabinoids (did anyone else:

1. watch the documentary on the effects of exercise; and
2. giggle at the mere thought of what the Met police officer would say if one of us was pulled over and was told “Honest guv, I’ve been running: it’s all natural.”?!)

I approached the first training week.

Mon: REST

Tues: PT & yoga

Wed: tempo run 3k SNOW: 3k treadmill

Thurs: Pilates, gym SNOW: 10k treadmill

Fri: 5 – 7k steady run SNOW: exercises

Sat: gentle Parkrun SNOW: cancelled

Sun: 10-mile long run

See amendments in bold for what really happened; courtesy of ‘The Beast’#1.  And – virtual running challenge apart – I thought I’d seen the back of treadmill running.

Miraculously, by Sunday it had cleared in most places; having not been able to find a 10-mile race, and not trusting a thawed Thames towpath for Club run, I made a last-minute entry to the gloriously-named 15k ‘Starfish Breakfast Run’ at Clapham Common, courtesy of ‘Runners’ World’. Having given up my ‘good for age’ place at the inaugural London Big Half. As being too long. And too strenuous…. (And having to smile and wish others ‘good luck’ on the same tube in.)

Many of you will anticipate what this ‘mere’ 15k run would be like. I didn’t.

It is, of course, all in the name: ‘common’. What’s more, for 2 years I had a job every Tuesday afternoon that took me past said common. (Admittedly I didn’t run then. But.)

It was a very thawed muddy trail 15k. Not, to be fair, many ‘undulations’, but think trail guest Parkrun scenario! Lovely, normally (‘mud glorious mud…’), but less strenuous than the LBH? As it was a family run (fully accredited by England Athletics, with all mod cons like chips, timings; medals, goodie bags, T-shirt – Dutch orange – and breakfast afterwards; and the correct length, mentioning no names) there were 15, 10, 5 and 2k options; 15 setting off first, then 2; then 10 & 5 together. There were very few 15k runners, and almost of them were seriously fast, and far fitter than I. As it was basically a 5k lap, much of lap 1 was seriously lonely (“Dig deep Din”); but when 10 & 5k runners joined as I completed my first lap, this made it more comradely/competitive. Just as well, as sleety rain came down from the end of lap 2! Result: a very proud 1:33:46, which my new Garmin still tells me is the fastest time at several distances.

Week 2?

Suitably ‘impressed’ (ahem) by my muddy trail exploits, the physio – standing VERY well back – informed me that I was now ready for a (judicious) marathon training plan, not the strength/rehab plan, and emailed the PT to say so: starting in 1 hour’s time.

Golden Wednesday: 20-21k long run!!! I did a joyous 21.65k, taking 2:17:49, @6.22km. Not Roadrunner (beep beep), but a real start.

The other highlight:

I was a year older; and had chosen Jersey as my weekend break. Why?

Another guest Parkrun, of course! The prized J, and the most southerly PR in the UK.

Did training continue? You bet it did.

Fri: hotel gym 1 hr strength exercises + 10 mins’ X-trainer. (Meal swamped by school kids on celebratory final meal of hockey tournament – bus personnel’s holiday. Is that PC?)

Sat: Jersey PR takes place on a 1-mile cycle circuit (think Hillingdon) plus a trail downward incline along the disused railway track which runs the length of island; running back UP for the final 1k. (I’m old enough to remember steam: I was a good rival!)

My day’s ‘tempo’ run was thus: 1 lap pre-PR; + PR; + 3 laps post-PR = 11.4k. PR time 29’18”. Didn’t analyse 1k laps; but enjoyed a HUGE scone afterwards & raised a soya latte to the guest PR group: thanks guys!

Then we were touroids! All day. And a very good amateur theatre student production of ‘Animal Farm’ pm. Resonances: don’t get me started on politics.

Sun: ‘persuaded’ Trev that intervals were a vital part of his Manchester Marathon training plan; and did Mirka’s ½ marathon-paced pyramid along the St Helier sea front. Another thing to thank Mirka for. Truly. (With wind behind me the only time this year that I’ve been ahead of Trev; but tables turned coming back!) With jog back to hotel: 7.15k.

Highlights:

Starfish 15k: my Lent proceeds are going half to Starfish, and half to A Mile in Her Shoes (thanks Nicola).

My virtual running challenge: 25 miles on a treadmill. (If you can’t beat ‘em…)

Lowlights:

I shouldn’t have any, despite pace. Thanks to so many Eagles who have made this possible. I hope I’ve mentioned the key players, but there are so many of you who have made a difference. If I don’t manage VLM, it’s my doing, not your lack of inspiration.

Notice of 2018 AGM & Committee Roles

The Ealing Eagles AGM will be taking place on Tuesday 24th April at 7:30pm at The New Inn, 62 St Mary's Road, Ealing W5 5EX. There will be a review of the 2017-18 year by the committee and the election of the committee for 2018-19 will take place. There will also be an opportunity for questions and answers with the committee.

The AGM is an opportunity for members to stand for committee positions if they would like to. Most of the current committee will be standing down this year.

If you are interested in joining the committee, details of each role and the current responsibilities they include are:

Chair
The main role of the Chair is to provide leadership and support to the committee and the club in general.  Over the past two years, the various members of the committee have been excellent in carrying out their respective roles so I feel that one of the key tasks has been to play devil’s advocate in ensuring we, as a committee, are looking at all potential angles when making decisions.

Another key role is, at times, to act as a figurehead speaking at club events or representing the club at external functions.

For more information contact Thom Martini at chair@ealingeagles.com,.

Treasurer

Treasurer duties include:

·         Pay various invoices each month from the club account (usually via internet banking)

·         Tot up the monthly accounts so that everyone knows what the money has been used to pay for (race fees/training/parties etc)

Contact Colin Overton for more information at treasurer@ealingeagles.com.

Social

The social secretary organises, promotes and coordinates all of the social functions for the club including:

·         Monthly social – the monthly social takes place on the first Wednesday of each month at the New Inn. We have a standing arrangement with the New Inn to use the back room. The social secretary raises the Facebook event and organises speakers, raffles, etc for the social, makes sure it’s in the newsletter and that the club run leaders are reminded to let people know it’s on.

·         Summer Party – the social secretary books the venue (by January, and having found a date that doesn’t clash with anything not easy!), books the food, the music, the decorations, any welcome drinks etc and arranges and manages the ticket sales via the website. They are also responsible for promoting the event on Facebook and in the weekly news.

·         End of Summer League BBQ – usually in late August on a Sunday afternoon, at the New Inn or the Forester. Confirm all food options in advance with the venue, arrange ticket sales and promote the event.

·         Christmas party – same drill as the summer party but with the added fun of securing a Saturday evening in December with a venue! Again the food, music, welcome drinks and decorations need to be organised as well as the club London ballot draw.

·         Pub crawls – these happen a couple of times a year usually in the summer and on or around Santa Run day and are often delegated to some plucky and very appreciated Eagles! However the social secretary is still very involved in promoting them and making sure they happen.  

Racing

The race officer role includes:

·         Publishing the results and maintaining the club records on the website

·         Organising Club Championships - choosing races, writing and updating the rules, promoting the races and coordinating the results with Lisa Emerson

·         Summer League - promoting the races and organising the entry details, completing all the results and adding them to the Summer League Dropbox, assisting with any issues with the results , assisting with the organising of the Eagles fixture of Summer League and attending the AGM

·         Met League XC - organising all the registration of runners before the first fixture, promoting the races and publishing the details of each fixture, working with the XC captains regarding any issues e.g. with results

·         Sunday XC league - promoting and publishing the details of all the fixtures, finding Eagles to act as marshals for the Watford fixture, assisting with any issues regarding results and attending the AGM

·         All other XC events – finding a volunteer to help with coordinating the entries for these and promoting the events.

·         London Marathon ballot - writing the rules and reminders about the deadline, checking all the requirements are met for the entries, organising the draw at the Christmas party.

Contact Heidi Vickery for more information at race@ealingeagles.com.

Communications

The duties of the communication role include:

·         Answering the emails received to the main club email account, including sending details of the club run meeting point to new members coming for the first time.

·         Updating the spreadsheet for club run leaders with the details of new people and other announcements.

·         Managing the Twitter account and making club Facebook announcements.

·         Compiling the club newsletter every week via Mailchimp, and sending out other ad hoc communications.

·         Adding new members to the mailing list and sending out a welcome pack to new members via Mailchimp.

·         Sending out press releases to the local news outlets.

·         Managing the club website, including adding news stories, keeping the website up to date, adding the London Marathon ballot winners blogs, updating the weekly training page.

·         Updating club discounts and offers, adding these to the website and sending them out on Facebook.

For further details contact Angela Duff at info@ealingeagles.com.

Coaching

The Coaching role covers:

·         Planning and organising Tuesday and Thursday running sessions as well as any other ad-hoc sessions.

·         Encourage others to develop their coaching skills.

·         Coordinate coaching reimbursement scheme.

·         Help runners find coaches.

·         Organise and lead the Ealing Half Marathon recce runs and other open club sessions in the lead up to EHM, and compile sample training plans.

For more information on this role please contact Ben Cale at coaching@ealingeagles.com.

Membership
The role of membership secretary is to oversee the whole Ealing Eagles EA membership database though the EA portal. This includes:

·         Processing new membership requests and dealing with new member enquiries

·         Helping members who which to switch claim or become second claim.

·         Checking DBS information for members wishing to take coaching qualifications and also managing Facebook requests for members.

·         Every year the biggest task is to process renewals for all the clubs members in April.

·         The role also requires you to liaise with England Athletics about any membership issues as well as other tasks such as organising the VLM ballot entry and also other events such as Brighton marathon club entires and the Ride 100 volunteer team.

As the club is growing at such as fast rate I would recommend two people take the role on together to split the workload as with such a large number of members it’s a quite a lot for one person to take on.

For more information get in touch with Olivia at membership@ealingeagles.com.

Deputies

We are also looking to have ‘deputies’ to take some of the weight off the main committee members and get more people involved. If you would prefer not to have a full committee role but want to volunteer to do something like write the newsletter or send out press releases, help with results collation, be a captain for Summer League, manage the website or Twitter feed, chase people up to be the tail runner or leader at club run or any of the other duties mentioned in the role descriptions please also drop us a line. 

Finally can we ask that we do not have a public debate on Facebook prior to the AGM on any matters you may wish to raise, and if you do have any queries, please to e-mail chair@ealingeagles.com.

Thanks and see you at the meeting,

EERC Committee

A 'Spectacular' 20 Miler by Becky Fennelly

I ran 20 miles!! I can’t believe I did that!

When I started this “adventure” in January I was as anxious about these long runs towards the end of training as I was about the day itself. So I’m so delighted to have reached maximum training mileage and the start of tapering.

The last 2 long runs have been significantly better than “the one” as reported in my previous blog. It’s fair to say my pain issues haven’t gone away, but somehow it’s been more manageable. Polly and I have trained together for the last 2 weeks and it's been great to have her company to distract me from the distances we've covered.

On the first of these 2 long runs we stopped for a hydration/fuelling break on the Thames Path close to Hammersmith Bridge. A few miles further on Polly noticed her glasses were missing from her pocket and after checking all possible pockets etc we concluded she must have dropped them somewhere along the way. In the way that you do on a long run we completely didn’t think about going back the way we came to look for them and carried on as planned, writing the glasses off as a casualty of training. Watching the boat race on TV later that day I couldn’t help but think that, with all the crowds on the riverbank, Polly’s glasses were likely smashed to smithereens by now.

Roll forwards 6 days and Polly & I set out to tackle the momentous 20 miler and the pinnacle of our training plans. Usually I have to make a decision when running along the Thames whether I fancy turning right at Kew and heading towards Richmond or go the other way towards Hammersmith. Today we did both to get the 20 miles in without having to do soul destroying laps of the park at the end.

As we approached Hammersmith Bridge Polly suggested we stop at the same place as last week and just have a quick look for her glasses. Amazingly, tucked down behind the bench we spotted them! Not only were they there but they appeared to be in one piece! With the amount of footfall the area must have seen in the previous week we were totally shocked.

For those who have been reading my blogs you may recall a similar incident involving Che’s glove which was lost by the canal one week and retrieved the following week. This is turning into a bit of a pattern. I’m half expecting to lose something on my planned recce run this weekend and find it again on race day.

The next couple of weeks are now about making sure I get to the start line in one piece, which is already proving tricky. On a well deserved spa break over Easter I managed to slip by the side of the pool and land heavily on my knee. Cue massive maranoia! Thankfully it’s bruised but there doesn’t seem to be any other damage. I think I need to wrap myself in bubble wrap for the next 2 weeks. 

Well, time to taper now. A couple of long but not as long as they have been runs to go until the big day. See you at mile 23!!

As this is my first marathon I have decided to take the opportunity to raise money for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM).

If you would like to donate please visit my fundraising page at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BeckyFennelly1

Dineke Austin - Blog 5: Virtual Running - Al Fresco Running 'Good Vibrations'!

I ended my last blog with the tension of a possible stress fracture of my right navicular, on top of the long-standing hamstring tendinopathy; and the l  o  n  g wait for the X-ray result. Although I bravely mentioned high spots as well as low spots, in fact this was the lowest point in my so-called training: another injury really would kibosh my VLM chances this time.

‘Patience is a virtue’: so we are told. Having been informed that the X-ray result would be with my GP in one week’s time, exactly 7 days later I ‘phoned. And ‘phoned. And ‘phoned. (How to make oneself popular with a new practice!) Eventually, a practice nurse with the patience of a true saint promised that after 8 ‘working days’ she would be on the ‘phone to Ealing Hospital on my behalf twice daily. (I think it helps that one of the receptionists is a recent EE graduate from the Beginners, so is able to ‘translate’ the agony to lay nurses!)

True to her word, at the end of this period she rang again: instead of the news via ‘phone, I needed to go in person to pick up a copy of the report.

AAARGH!!!

The quickest hobble-jog-run in world history. Breathless. Report to be photocopied… s l o w l y. Fumbling fingers (mine). ‘No fracture is demonstrated.’!!! (Weasly words: avoidance of litigation in the event of problems and contrary evidence/opinion? Or am I just a cynic, as well as an ageing biddy!)

Back home for fuller read: lots of ‘normal’s and ‘no abnormal’s; but ‘mild flattening of the second and third metatarsal heads’ – a Homer Simpson moment. (?!) Then: ‘No evidence of Freiberg’s disease.’ – was that a possibility as well! (I am sure there is a point early on in ‘Three Men in a Boat’ where the narrator looks up symptoms in a good old-fashioned medical encyclopaedia – no Google back in the day – and decides that he has everything except housemaid’s knee! Reader, I resisted.)

I had got away with it, through no wise training decisions of mine, far more than I deserved. Make the most of it Din!

So, what did my ‘training’ comprise, while I waited…and waited…and waited… for my X-ray result?

All of the following in addition to a minimum 1 hour’s strength/rehab exercises daily in the gym; my treadmill running challenge:

Mon: treadmill 5k in 33’10”

Tues: THE NEWS THAT I COULD START ‘REAL RUNNING’. (65- year- old biddies don’t often/ever fling their arms round hunky 30-something physio’s. Try NOT to picture the scene. Health warning: at your own risk. If interested, read Jenny Joseph’s poem about the freedom of older age!)

Wed: treadmill 5k in 34’29” (:0()

Thurs: after NT volunteer training, 8k run around Osterley Park!!! 48’58”. Dreadful time, but the freedom!!! (Fotherington-Thomas: “Hello trees, hello sky.” Those in the 60-65 bracket will understand.)

Sat: Parkrun – Old Deer Park so no respectable Eagle would witness 30’19”.

Mon: treadmill 5k 30’00” (pb!)

Wed: treadmill 5k 30’00” (hmn: where’s my treadmill pace?)

Fri: treadmill ‘tempo’ 3k 16’26”

Sat: Parkrun – Gunnersbury with Beginners 39’37”

AND – THE 2 WEEKS’ HIGHLIGHT – Victoria Park 10k in 57’19”. Despite slowest time for years (well since my first race at Osterley in just over an hour in 2015), childishly pleased at my #1 for age!!! Much more importantly, my first real race in 2018! And even more importantly: no ill-effects on hamstring. I cried. And talked incessantly at every single runner. And cried.

I am not normally overtly religious, but on 14th February I had already promised the God of all Runners that I would give up all three of my running favourites:

Dark chocolate

Cheese

Fruit bars (nakd etc)

And would donate the proceeds to a running charity.

(I did at least learn from last year that giving up peanut butter would leave me almost nothing to fuel up/repair muscles with, and the odds were already somewhat against full fitness.)

No need to list high and low spots.

Now the real race: against time…..

Training Going Well, Blog Less So by Andy Mahony

It’s been more than a few weeks since my last blog. Sorry about that. The delay in delivering this latest round of running related ramblings is down to one simple but unavoidable fact – I’ve been too knackered to write it.

Whilst marathon training does not ordinarily lead to writer’s fatigue, changing jobs halfway through marathon training most certainly does.  And so fellow Eagles this week’s training advice is simple: avoid changing jobs halfway through marathon training, especially if the new job delivers you a longer commute than you previously had.

Anyway, since my last blog there’s been lots of running in lots of places, nearly all of which has gone according to plan.

A few weeks back there was the Hillingdon Half, which I incorporated into a longer run by running the seven miles to the start.  It all went without a hitch. Well, apart from the obvious hitch of a lead bike error and a short course.  However, at the end of my overall run my Garmin said 20 miles, which was what my plan said it should say.  So whilst obviously frustrating for others, I was fine.

Perhaps the most important run for me so far was the Cambridge Half on the 4 March.  It was immediately after last year’s Cambridge Half that I decided to defer my London Marathon place.  Last year at Cambridge I’d been plagued by an assortment of injuries in the lead up to the race, and just to be consistent; I finished in a lot of pain too.

Not this year though.  There were no injuries to report before, during or after the race. And whilst I didn’t get a new half PB (it still stands at 1:43:59) I did manage a respectful 1:45:20.  

In fact the only hitch was starting in the wrong pen.  I’m fairly sure I put down 1:45 as my predicted time (a spot-on prediction as it turns out).  However, I ended up in the pen behind the 1:45 pacers, meaning I faced a bottle-neck when I did finally set off.   In fact I didn’t see a pacer the whole course.  I’m not sure how much this affected my time and to be honest I’m not too bothered.  The race went well in all other respects and was head and shoulders above last year’s effort.   And unlike last year I didn’t have to stop off at the pharmacist for some Ibuprofen on the way to Weatherspoons. That’s always a bonus.

The Richmond Half was to be my next event, again used as part of a longer training run – 21 miles this time. As many of you will know this race, and many others, was cancelled due the return of hysteria from Cyberia.  

Alas marathon plans don’t give a hoot about inclement weather and so I set off early on Sunday morning for a seven mile run to Richmond Park followed by two seven-mile laps of the park itself.

It was bitterly cold and the wind on the west side of the park cut through me like a knife.  However, I did have one advantage over the other runners in the park.  The wonderful Rachel was camped out in the café near Roehampton Gate and came out with water each time I passed by. Of course, to time this correctly I did have to stick to my training pace, but despite the ice-cold headwind I managed to do so.

I also bumped into fellow Eagle Hannah Copeland and it was nice to see a friendly face in these rather grim conditions.  I finished my 21 miles near Roehampton Gate and headed into the café to be met by Rachel and Hannah.  After I glugged back plenty of water, Hannah bought me a most welcome cup of tea. (Thanks Hannah!)

After being sat down for a few moments I started to develop a burning sensation in both my legs.  It gradually increased and became quite uncomfortable, reaching from my hips to my feet. Just my luck I thought; I get this far through marathon training with barely a hitch, only to spontaneously combust in Richmond Park.

I’m not sure what caused it (no, I hadn’t spilt my tea) , but suspect putting my muscles through well over three hours of running in very cold temperatures and then coming into the warmth of the cafe, may have had something to do with it.  Whatever the cause it soon wore off and within about 20 minutes I was back to normal.

My longest mid-week run was 11 miles last Wednesday. As I now work near Waterloo I decided to make this run my commute home.  This is the closest that I get to multi-tasking, but I’m pleased to say it all went according plan.

And ‘went according to plan’ pretty much describes every training run I’ve had so far.  Whilst this is great news for me I appreciate it doesn’t make for the most exciting blog.  And whilst I’m not a suspicious man I will not tempt fate by going on about it.  Except to say that I hope my good fortune continues for the remaining four weeks’ training.

Just four weeks?  Blimey – it’s not long now.  With a bit of luck nothing ‘exciting’ will happen between now and then, and my next blog will bore you all to sleep.

Now if you don’t mind, I have a rest day to get on with…

The One by Becky Fennelly

OK so I think I have finally had “The One”. I’ve read about this experience in other people’s blogs over the years but had so far managed to dodge it. That run where you really struggle with everything, question your life choices and basically want to jack it all in from early on in the run.

I’m not saying the other runs were easy, they’re all hard, but this one really threw me. 17 miles the previous week had been tough. I was certainly relieved to finish it. But nothing compared to how I felt last week on attempting 18 miles for the first time ever.

The weather forecast for Saturday was snow. I found that pretty hard to believe on Friday lunchtime when I went for a walk in the beautiful spring sunshine. I secretly thought that the forecast for a “mini beast from the East” must be wrong. Apparently not.

I jumped out of bed at 6am on Saturday morning and checked for snow. Nothing! Great! Maybe they were wrong then. I got my kit on, grabbed a quick coffee and cereal bar and headed out to meet Che. Pretty much the minute I stepped out of the front door the snowflakes started to appear in the air. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.

We set off down towards the river and by the time we got to Gunnersbury Park the snow was coming down sideways and hitting us on one side of our faces. When we hit the Thames Path, the direction had changed and the snow was attacking the other side. At least our complexion would be equally ruddy on both sides!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who sings songs in their head while running, and from the moment I stepped out of my front door the song of the day was “What a Difference a Day makes, 24 little hours...” but instead of singing about rain turning to sun and flowers my version referred to the snow and winter where there used to be spring.

At this early stage, I could already feel the discomfort from a niggle in my abs starting to build. What had previously been a bit of a distraction towards the end of my runs was starting to turn into pain and much earlier on in the run. In fact, tailing short club run on the Wednesday was enough to trigger the pain. 

With both pain and snow building in intensity we carried on. By the time we reached our turning point the snow was blowing a blizzard, and we couldn’t even open our eyes properly for the obligatory run selfie. My internal song now changed to “Smoke gets in your eyes”, substituting smoke with snow.

I was feeling pretty damp and cold by this point as well as in pain, and I hope that this had something to do with the overwhelming feeling that I couldn’t carry on that took over me from about 10 miles. I can only describe the next 8 miles as a feat of mind over matter and there is no way I would have got to the end without the amazing encouragement from Che. I am so grateful to her that she was able to spur me on to keep going, gritting my teeth against the pain and holding back the urge to burst into tears. I still don’t quite know how I made it to the end and had I been on my own I would almost certainly have jumped on the tube.

I cannot stress enough how important running with the right training buddies has become for me and this will certainly be a key consideration when deciding whether or not to take on something like this again. Che & I have both had good runs and bad runs but thankfully our bad runs have not yet coincided and one of us has always been strong enough to get the other one through the tough times.

Now I find myself sitting here with a sense of nervousness about the next long run. Was the weather a key factor in how I felt meaning with better conditions I won’t go through another run like that? Or is the pain a sign that I am pushing myself to my limit and I can expect every run the feel like that from now on?

Here’s hoping it was “the one” and this week is a much happier story.

The Next Step After 5k

Have you completed the club beginners’ programme or are otherwise able to run 5k?

Want to run faster and further?

Improvers will be restarting on Monday 9 April meeting at 10am. This course will aim to progress Eagles from running 5.5k to running Osterley Park 10k on Saturday 16 June and to provide an introduction to speed work. There is no requirement to attend all the sessions but you will make most progress if you do and you will also be expected to do “homework” outside the Monday sessions if you wish to take part in a training plan for 10k. The timing of the bank holidays this term means that many of the sessions will be dedicated to speedwork with Improvers expected to do their long runs at other times. The length of the sessions will necessarily depend on the distance being run that day but you should allow about an hour. The sessions will move around depending on the focus of the session but the first session will meet at Ealing Green. (Daytime runners not intending to follow a training programme or already able to run 10k are welcome to join us for any of the sessions; details of individual sessions will be advertised each week.)

Most weeks so far in 2018, there has been a continuous run of varying distance at 11am on Thursdays after beginners and this could provide a second run in a 10k daytime training plan with options to increase the distance in easy incremental steps.

For those who can’t make daytime sessions, there are plenty of training sessions going on in the evenings. All sessions are open to everyone in the club. The sessions that appear to be hardcore, such as intervals, are, in practice, more beginner-friendly because everyone stays in the same place so there is no worry about getting lost. For those who still feel a bit daunted, Starter sessions will be offered on an ad hoc basis to introduce you to the options available. A provisional programme is set out below – all meeting times at 7.30pm.

Wed 11 April Starter short club run (meeting at Ealing Green for anyone who isn’t feeling confident after the holiday break)

Wed 18 April Starter speedplay (meeting at Ealing Green and using the short club run with little bits of running at faster pace so that you learn to run at more than one pace)

Wed 25 April Starter hill strides (meeting at Ealing Green but then going to the area near the Town Hall and using either the bridge to do some short sharp hill strides after appropriate warm-up and drills to prepare to do hills)

Wed 9 May Starter long club run (meeting at Ealing Green and reassuring you that you can have a go at doing the long club run)

Wed 16 May Starter intervals in Lammas (meeting point tbc)

There will be informal workshops for those people who would like to work out how to put all these sessions together to make a training plan for Osterley Park 10k https://osterleypark10k.co.uk/on Saturday 16 June 2018. These informal workshops will be offered at the following times:

12noon Thursday 22 March (after the daytime run) – particularly for those affected by school holidays

11am Monday 9 April (after the Improvers’ session)

8.30pm Wednesday 11 April (after the Starter session / club run)

If you’ve already done a few short club runs or parkruns and are free on Wednesday evenings or Thursday mornings, then the combination of beginners and a club or daytime run can also help to extend your distance.

Messing About Near Boats by Becky Fennelly

Messing about near boats..

It seems like time is flying now and I’m writing this with just 6 weeks to go before the big day. Most of the things that concerned me about the training happened all at once a couple of weeks ago with both the bad weather and a cold hitting me in the same week. I guess it’s actually quite fortuitous to have them both happen at the same time as this means the disruption to training is all in one go. It also happened on a drop down week which limited the impact.

Over the course of “snow week” I watched the weather intently, continually checked out the state of the pavements and kept putting off running for fear of slipping and causing myself injury (the other training concern that’s been on my mind). I read lots of comments and advice from all you hardy Eagles about running in the snow, but that fear of injury kept me from giving it a go. As the week progressed I started to feel a bit under the weather which turned into a cold by Friday, just as the snow was due to clear.

I had been planning to run the Big Half on the Sunday and was secretly hoping it would be called off to avoid having to make the decision myself about whether or not I was well enough to run. As it turned out it wasn’t called off but neither was I up to running, so a day in bed it was.

Thankfully the cold was fairly short lived and I was back out and running a couple of days later, not feeling that my unplanned week off had done me much harm.

The training plan called for a 17 mile run the following weekend and I had planned a route along the river. I was aware that the Thames Meander was taking place on Saturday but after checking the start time and route, I was confident we wouldn’t get caught up in the middle of the run on the Thames Path so Che and I set out on our run early on Saturday morning as usual.

Despite my best laid plans this was not to be a nice peaceful riverside run today.  It wasn’t long into the run before we noticed a large number of boats being prepared along the banks of the river. Maybe there’s a bit of a club event we thought. As we carried on further along the river the proliferation of boats continued and we noticed quite a lot of teams of young women accompanying the boats. As we got towards Putney it was clear we had found ourselves slap bang in the middle of a major regatta complete with event village, food stalls etc. We had little choice but to stop running at this stage as teams were carrying large boats around and any attempt to get past them would have likely resulted in being clocked over the head by a boat/oar/other boaty paraphernalia.

We crossed the river at Putney Bridge to start our return towards Ealing. Almost immediately we were faced with a group of individuals running hard towards us with race numbers attached. The number of individuals started to increase steadily. We had definitely found ourselves on an unexpected race route! Some of the first speedy runners we saw started coming back past us in the opposite direction, so it appeared it was an out and back route along some quite narrow areas of the Thames Path. It once again became difficult to maintain our speed as we dodged large numbers of runners heading towards us from both directions. A check of the race numbers informed us it was the now infamous Rough Runners half marathon & 10k events. It was nice to see a few familiar Eagles faces amongst the runners and cheer them on.

We passed a couple of water stations with a single person manning them. At the second water station I heard someone comment about being directed the wrong way across a field. Shortly after this we saw some people heading back towards us for the third time so this was more of a continuous back & forth route rather than an out and back.

At a couple of points we came across a marshall who directed us along the race route despite us not wearing any numbers.  Having read the feedback about this race since our run it seems we were actually quite lucky to come across marshalls at all. Che and I commented at the time that we were very glad not to be doing that race and everything we have read since has borne out our concerns about the route and organisation of the event. It was no EHM that’s for sure!

We finally made it to the end of our epic boat and race dodging run, both feeling hungry and thirsty. We shared some nuts but as we had run out of water we both found it pretty much impossible to swallow them and had to dive into an Irish Bar for a drink! Just water, honest! The barman very kindly gave us a glass of iced water each which was extremely welcome. I’d never been to that bar before but since the barman was such a nice chap I may pop back in for a pint or two sometime.

Lessons learned are to check your route thoroughly for events taking place, take plenty of water and choose moister foodstuffs next time.

Stephen's Marathon Blog #5

At last night’s club run Gary and I discussed the key thing on our mind, six weeks ahead of London. First on the agenda, ‘what are you writing about in your next blog’. Gary had ran two marathons (obviously recovery runs from the many other marathons that Gary runs), I hadn't, so he at least had some content. We also discussed training plans and I suggested that my training plan depressed me because it was a constant reflection of either not running far or fast enough. Training plans don't consider you might have some aches or minor injuries, they are just steadfast in progression and effectively take the joy away from doing something you once thought fun. I would burn mine, but its on my phone so I can’t.

My training plan has mostly been impacted from what I call ‘Mini hip’. I recently bought a new car to supplement the family ‘bus’ and bring some joy back to a dark January. After the Harrow (on Hill) 10k I packed the two elder children into the Mini and we set off for a 250 mile journey to grandparents for half term. I thought it would be great, chance to try out the Mini with a decent journey, manual gears, and a bit of fun.  I didn’t consider that the sporty mini was a little less comfy than the family bus; that my left leg had lost any stamina to work a clutch (the bus is an automatic) and that the heated seats in the bus had been useful in providing relief for an aching hip.  By the time we arrived in the North East my hips and hamstring was a little tight, although I assumed this was fallout from the Harrow 10. After a week of driving I realised that actually the issue was the car and the clutch.  I assumed at the time (and continue to assume) its just a matter of time to adapt, and the car will be fine.  Whilst ‘Mini hip’ is proving bothersome, I can run and if anything its made me appreciate that I should stretch more and the foam roller has come out of the cupboard after a few years.  So if you see me slightly hobbling at the end of a run (or at the end of the Fleet Half on Sunday) its not due to some mammoth plank session, its likely related to driving a Mini!

Apart from that, training going ok, getting through slower miles than hoped.  Only one Five Guys.

Blog 4: PHT Part 3 - "How Hard Are You Working" by Dineke Austin

I ended my last blog with my ‘eureka’ moment of realising that even when ‘banned’ from real, al fresco, naturalist (not naturist, as in Piers’ mankini!) running, I could still set myself training challenges in a gym! (Yes, really: one aspect of my voyage of injury/rehab discovery is learning that if one (me) is driven to self-competitiveness, this translates into a geeky target-driven attitude to ANYTHING; however, bizarre!)

At the start of this 2-week block of VLM training, I was down for rehab exercises every day, with as much cross-trainer-ing as I could “endure”.  This then became alternate days of exercises, with treadmill walking. Fortunately, before I had signed up with Virtual Running for 50 miles walking on a treadmill in February, a well-timed physio visit advised me that I could now RUN on a treadmill, and that if I had “another two good weeks” I would be likely to be starting ‘real’ running. Quick change of plans: February target 25 miles running on a treadmill.

No: not 5.25k in 2:41!

(Photos only remotely possible during cool-down!)

Firmly putting aside disappointment – nay anguish – at giving up Marrakech at the end of January, I approached this new challenge as if it was the high spot of my brief running career. Tendon repair diet and exercises continued, my response (when I had breath and energy) to my PT’s words “How hard are you working?” was usually (aloud) “8/9” (even when internally unprintable); and I adjusted to walking, then jogging, then running on a treadmill.

In my previous gym, I hated treadmill running with a vengeance – leaving aside boredom, unforgiving and monotonous surface – I was always terrified that I’d be flung off the machine, like offal in the student meat factory job (and with my sense of (im)balance, I probably would, at that)! Has anyone else recorded PBs on a treadmill? Yes, really! And recorded on their training plan the difference between ‘long run’, ‘tempo’, and ‘interval’ speeds (‘hills’ not allowed) on a treadmill! How sad/driven/obsessed (delete as appropriate) is that!

Entries from my training diary read:

07/02: 5k in 36’32”

12/02: 5k in 33’10” (PB)

19/02: 5k in 30’07” (new PB)

23/02: tempo 3k in 16’26” @5.35 etc!!!!

Did all go according to plan? It started well: the point when I could touch my toes when exercising was one breakthrough moment hamstring-wise.

However: it had never dawned on my novice mind that to run on a treadmill I needed to wear proper running shoes, with the insole support recommended by ‘Up and Running’…I walked, then ran, in my soft Sketchers. Now don’t get me wrong: this is not a criticism of any brand of footwear: it is of me and my crass stupidity!

QED: another mistake in my steep learning curve. Result: sharp and increasing pain in right foot: fine when not walking, but ever-increasingly painful when doing so. 

Google.

Surely NOT a hairline stress fracture from repetitive treadmill walking/running in the wrong footwear?

Suddenly, the physio shifted attention from hamstring to foot: with a real chance that I had inflicted another avoidable injury: this time to my right navicular. (How many running body parts could I damage in one 16-week VLM training period? Was this the hand of you-know-who punishing me for gelatin supplements?) One navicular jump test later: foot exercises; a stern word regarding appropriate footwear for treadmills; an x-ray referral letter for my GP. A day later: GP visit, & immediate referral to drop-in X-ray at Ealing Hospital.

The culprit!

Now the wait….

VLM at stake…

Meanwhile: volunteering, coaching, “how hard are you working?”, foot exercises….A long-overdue visit to ‘Up and Running’ for new footwear.

And a new Garmin for when I would be able to run…

High spots:

Riddlesdown Trail Guest Parkrun, where I should have walked…but Mike Limpert bullied me into jogging in 36’14”! (He says it was the other way around.) Al fresco, glorious views of the Downs!

Osterley the week after, surreptitiously jogging in 29’54”.

Low spots:

Missing Marrakech

The EE marathon presentations (excellent, but reminding me of how far I still need to go)

Tuesday 27th Feb - Osterley Track Session Cancelled

Just to let you know the track session at Osterley tomorrow, 27th Feb, is cancelled. I’ve been up to the track this evening it is covered in snow.

Whilst it’s fine to run on now, I fear it will be an ice rink tomorrow evening and I don’t feel comfortable leading a session in such conditions so I am making a call early to prevent people making wasted trips.

I hope everyone will understand.

Thom

Blog 3: PHT Part 2 - 'Virtual Running'! by Dineke Austin

THE Running Biddy Hamstring

Last time, I wrote of my so-called ‘training’ plans in terms of short, medium and long-term. Once the bruising at the back of my leg had subsided (see above 2 weeks after ‘Beginner’s slip’) and I had tried the updated version of RICE – HICE (heat pack); it was time to move on to medium-term goals and try the effects of dietary supplements. One of the URLs provided last time round gave a link to ‘Tendinopathy, diet and gelatin supplementation’ by Fran Taylor, with so much info’ on dietary treatment of tendons that my head hurt (I’d rather run, any day!).

In a nutshell, despite Scott Jurek’s excellent book on endurance running and veganism, I still need to learn to manage a balanced runner’s diet at the best of times, and this wasn’t (‘…the best of times, the worst of times…’). However, what seemed to make most sense for a veggian (veggie vegan), given diet and what helps tendon repair, was to break my self-imposed rules and take gelatin and collagen – neither of which are plant-based! (No time to contact Scott.)  So I did, and still am… I’m waiting for the hand of you-know-who to strike me…but then I’d already had my 3 accident strikes, hadn’t I? (Is it like licence endorsements?)

Actually, Scott does include a delicious non-pharmaceutical treatment/recipe for ‘Strawburst Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie’ (p173 for rationale, p174 for ingredients/method), where the addition of miso (for salt/electrolytes as well as taste) and turmeric, ginger, pineapple and oil (against inflammation) offset the sweetness of the strawberries and mango.  (Q: Why is it that I equate anything yummy with sinful indulgence? Adam & Eve; CoE primary school; Dutch Calvinism meets Quaker background?! Sorry: I digress.)

Medium/long term – along with the ever-glorious volunteering, especially EE Coaching and my new discovery of Junior Parkrun (thanks to Lisa Dumais and Kate for the kids – nothing quite like primary kids for taking your mind off woes!) – was the dreaded REHAB EXERCISES!

Hamstring heel bridge: one heel at a time; supine bridge, resting on elbows; side lying hip abduction and hold; prone single leg hamstring curl; reverse lunge… they read (and most certainly feel) like medieval torture methods! AND ‘as much work on the cross-trainer as you can stand’. DAILY.

This has seriously raised questions about which takes more time commitment: VLM running, or rehab exercises: each gym session has taken at least 1:30 for exercises alone, increasing as either or both physio and PT have added to the list (‘victim of your success’). For me at least, it has proved far more serious a challenge than long running: it has taken more self-control and commitment than I thought I had.

High spot: marshalling at the glorious Osterley National Trust Nightrun!

Low spot (wot, only one!): finding a challenge to meet my ‘12in12’ targets: I had rashly (or so it now felt) signed both Trev and myself up for a 12in12 challenge just after the Amsterdam Marathon last October; my monthly challenge is: a) to run one new guest Parkrun (thanks Ealing Eagles tourist group!); b) to run or walk one serious distance target (in the open air wasn’t specified, but I never dreamed otherwise!).

As you know, I wriggled my way round January with the Action Challenge 20k Winter Walk (NOT quite the same as Marrakech!); but Googling brought no further walks, other than Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, etc: not QUITE meeting the stern injunction – after the tiniest of inclines in central London on the 20k walk – “FLAT!”

‘Stuffed’ comes to mind.

Then: ‘Women’s Running’ advert: Virtual Running? Quick Google. Got it: see below.

No: not me this time, but the germ of a 12in12 idea!

Now I certainly didn’t flatter myself that this is what I would look like (I wish); but checking on details with the organiser, and the 12in12 team, confirmed that I could set myself a treadmill walking challenge for February; and as long as I had evidence (e.g. photos of treadmill readings, and a log) I could actually gain a medal (what a difference!)…

Thus the start of February VLM ‘training’ saw me:

i) Trying to excite myself at the prospect of serious PHT rehab/core strength exercises on alternate days (with my PT’s words “How hard are you working?” ringing in my ears); AND

ii) Virtual walking: target to walk 50 miles on a treadmill by the end of February!

Will I give up?

Still NOPE!

Will I learn further lessons the hard way?

Dear Reader, wait for Blog 4…..

Cross Country AGMs

The AGMs for both Cross Country leagues are coming up in April.  If anyone is able to attend either one as a representative of the Eagles please email race@ealingeagles.com.  Travel expenses will be reimbursed.  It is important for someone to attend from the club to offer any feedback as well as help develop the league for the future.

Met League AGM - Monday 16th April 19:00 or 19:30 start (TBC)

Address: Woodford Green, Chigwell Road, Woodford Bridge, Essex, IG8 8AA

Sunday League AGM - Monday 23rd April 19:45 for a 20:00 start

Address: Stuart Storey Track, Wodson Park, Wadesmill Road, Ware, SG12 0UQ

Thanks!

Heidi

Things they didn't tell you at the marathon chat by Becky Fennelly

Things they didn’t tell you at the marathon chat...

For the second year in a row I attended the marathon chat event. Last year I attended as a “maybe I’ll think about doing one sometime” whilst this year I was there as a “Yikes, I’m running a marathon! I need advice!”.

I picked up some good tips. Some I decided were not for me this time around (70 miles a week??!). One thing that was not covered though was not to wear brand new Dr Martens 2 days before your long run.

I love my DMs and was very happy with my new pair that I bought last week. I thought I’d wear them to run a few errands on Thursday, but after a while I could feel the right boot rubbing against my heel. By the time I got home, said heel was pretty much shredded.

I opted for Nikes on Friday over the boots but I could feel the damage done to my heel with every step and was a little apprehensive about the impact of my “injury” on my long run. Thankfully when I put my running shoes on, I was delighted to discover that they are much lower on the ankle than my Nikes and they didn’t rub at all. Crisis averted! However, I think the new boots will be sidelined until after the marathon.

The last 2 weeks have also been milestones for me as each long run has been my furthest run ever. Previously, a half marathon had been my longest distance, but as of last Saturday I am now up to 15 miles and so far so good. I also made my hills debut, although having discovered that West Walk is way longer than I thought, my return visit may not be imminent.

 I have really appreciated having my regular training buddy Che with me on long runs to keep me motivated when the miles start to bite. It was good to have Polly along for a good chunk of last week’s run too.  A few shouts of encouragement from Glenn & Nicola in the last half mile of one of our runs were also welcome.

We’ve enjoyed exploring new routes as our runs get longer. One unexpected bonus of running a long way is that I somehow managed to become the 9th fastest woman overall on a Strava segment on Saturday. As a slow runner in an area populated with many much faster runners this has never happened to me locally before. The only other time I have logged an all time trophy was when visiting my sister in Preston where it appears no-one runs!  I was the only runner in her local park on a Saturday morning and I got 3rd fastest ever on a short segment near her house.

On further inspection of Saturday’s achievement, it appears that it is a very long segment which most people do not run as a continuous run (Hanwell Flight to North Greenford). I was the 9th fastest woman because the segment has only been run 9 times! At my marathon training pace and with the amount of mud we encountered it took me 1:52:49 to complete the segment, almost an hour slower than the fastest time and a good half hour behind the 8th position (Jess Hood!).  There are a few Eagles names I recognise on the list of women faster than me for the segment. This would seem like a good segment to go after if you’re into that sort of thing since it appears to be run so rarely. I’ll be sad to lose my top ten status though. I don’t know when I’ll ever get another!

Stephen's Marathon Blog 4 by Stephen Ralston

I am sure that in every training plan there comes the ‘bad week’ and I hope others have an appreciation of this also. Its not a case that I ran badly for a week, more that I didn’t really get chance to run, exercise or follow any kind of healthy diet.  Essentially it was half term and I was balancing work, kids and grandparents looking after kids. It’s a general struggle to appease the kids, the job, the grandparents and your own nagging conscience, so running tends to fall by the wayside.  In writing this blog it made me think about those online articles in Runners World titled ‘5 ways to improve your running’.  The usual tips are stuff about progressing gradually, working on your core strength, improving your cadence, running more intervals (or hills, or the mysterious ‘tempo’). I always have a look (alike to those articles that say ‘I planked every day for 4 years and these are the results’) and come away disappointed as there wasn’t an amazing new solution.  I came to the conclusion that I should write my own ‘top five ways to get faster’ as guidance for some of our younger, faster runners so they may not fall into the same traps in the future:

1. Don’t get married. A spouse will only request your attention taking you away from valuable running, core strength or recovery time.
2. Don’t have kids. Kids will only request your attention taking you away from valuable running, core strength or recovery time. In some cases they will completely deplete all energy or make you eat food you shouldn’t. End of day exhaustion can lead to drinking too much recovery wine.
3. Don’t have a job of any significance. Jobs only distract you away from running and stress you out (see above regarding recovery wine).
4. Don’t buy a house. Houses need upkeep. You are bad at upkeep and simple household tasks will take an extraordinary length of time distracting you from running etc.
5. Don’t get older. You will suddenly wake up one day and be able to really feel yesterdays run. It will be an aching Achilles tendon that stops you walking downstairs or hip flexors that you didn’t know you even had. Equally it can be the extra weight that you now seem to be carrying as your metabolism slows from the speed of a Japanese bullet train to that of a District Line tube train stuck outside of Hammersmith.

So back to training hard this week leading up to the Hillingdon half. I cant say ‘No Five Guys’ at the end of this blog. See above, #2.

A Case of Garmin Disconnect by Andy Mahony

As I write this the London Marathon is exactly ten weeks away.  This still feels like a fair way off and yet next week is already my first ‘cut back week’.  My training plan for the week ahead has me down for some relatively easy mid-week sessions and a mere 11 miles this Sunday.

This practically feels like a week off and I won’t deny I’m pleased at the thought.  Last week was what some people like to call ‘challenging’. I like to call it ‘hard’ because I’ve never been one for genteelism.

The training week started out with track on Tuesday. I’m not really sure if I like track, whilst the running surface makes a nice change from the rock-strewn Thames towpath, running around in circles doesn’t quite do it for me. I like hills though; what’s that all about?

Anyway, I managed to get my track session slightly wrong. Well quite a lot wrong actually. It should have been six times one mile, with a two minute rest in-between each mile.  This was to be followed by 10 lots of 200 metres, with 200 metre recovery jogs. (I won’t bore you with the pace details)

For me the trouble with running around in circles alone is that I loose count after, say, about one lap. This is where the Garmin website comes to the rescue by allowing you to download a workout onto your watch, so it will vibrate and generally tell you what to do and when to do it.

Success here is predicated on you entering your workout details correctly and not, for example, entering 200km repeats when you meant 200m. What sort of idiot would do that?  Well me as it transpires.  I soon realised my mistake and had to ignore my watch (though obviously with such long intervals the watch appeared to be ignoring me) and start keeping a mental note of what I’d done. The result of this, and mix-up on the earlier mile repeats, was that I inadvertently shaved off about a quarter of the session.  Well done me.

I finished feeling tired but nowhere near the physical wreck I was assured I would be. My training plan had advised that I ‘take the pain in,’ and ‘smile when it starts to hurt’. Who the hell writes this stuff? Presumably it’s people who’ve actually completed the session and can operate a simple watch.

Anyway having got home and realised my schoolboy error there was no way I was going back out (I’d already made a cup of tea) and I figured most of the session was better than none of the session.

The rest of the week consisted of a 5 mile run on Wednesday and 20 miles on Saturday morning (moved from Sunday to allow for a carb-loading beer session on Saturday night).

Twenty miles is the furthest I have run in quite some time and I’m pleased to say it went well.  I only started to feel tired with about three miles to go, and given this last stretch was mostly uphill, I think that’s allowed. Besides, my average pace was spot-on and I achieved an overall negative split.

Added to this my hip and its pesky Femoro Acetabular Impingement behaved itself too.  There was brief worrying moment at mile 19 where a sharp pain occurred.  However, it went away after about 30 seconds and didn’t return.  It didn’t start niggling the next day either, as it’s been prone to do, and even survived a walk around Kew Gardens on Sunday (avoid the cafes – £4 for a slice of cake and about three grand for a cup of tea).

I’m writing this blog at home with a free cup of tea and a biscuit (next time I’ll use a laptop) and this is about as energetic as I’m going to get for the rest of day.

You learn a lot about yourself and the business of running whilst marathon training, and this week I’ve learnt three things: enjoy your recovery weeks while you can, appropriately priced tea is important, and if your Garmin tells you to run 1,240 miles on a track session it’s best to ignore it…

Three Steps Along the Road to London by Gary Hobbs

Step One: Middlesex County Cross Country Championships

Why oh why am I unable to just say no to Kieran? What is this strange power he has over me? After somehow letting him talk me into another cross country I am standing frozen in a bleak field somewhere in Greenford learning more than I ever wanted to know about mud, hypothermia and despair. My lesson in pain starts with me being too cold to screw in my new fifteen millimetre spikes (I learnt from staggering down Parliament Hill last year like a new born deer that when it comes to mud six mil just does not cut it). I am so cold that putting in the spikes becomes a three man job (many thanks to you Jeremy and Nils) and we still manage to drop most of them. Then I try to put on my shoes and realise my fingers are no longer working well enough to untie the laces. Fortunately I am standing next to two very helpful strangers who show their kindness by untying them for me and trying to hide their laughter. Unfortunately it carries on going downhill from here when I start pinning on my number. By now I am shaking so much that I end up pinning it to my own fingers more times than I am willing to admit in public. I wipe off most of the blood and, thankfully, the run itself is pretty straightforward.

Step Two: Winter Windsor and Eton Half Marathon

It is snowing. With the benefit of hindsight that could have been a sign.

Today is colder than a Greenford cross country and Trevor Pask and I are off to run around Eton Dorney lake. There was a duathlon before our race so it starts at midday and we can take our time getting there.

When we arrive we find out that after the duathlon there were ambulances packed full of people suffering from hypothermia. Maybe that could have been a sign too. I mean, with the benefit of hindsight of course. If it is, it is too subtle for us and we decide to stay.

Out of courtesy I am not going to say who is in charge of the day (F3 events. Remember the name) but they seem to be a little out of their depth. They (F3 events) are stopping cars coming in and telling everyone the half marathon is being replaced with a 10k as their remaining medical cover is limited. Unfortunately this slows down traffic and causes a long tailback. Runners are unable to get in and the tailback is on one of the roads along which we are meant to be running.

Trevor and I spend the next two hours getting colder and hoping for an announcement that fails to come. To this day I do not know if it was some kind of runners’ grit that stopped us all leaving or just that our feet had literally frozen to the ground.

About a hundred people are still queueing to get their race numbers but the race organisers (F3 events., Did I mention that?) decide to start anyway, setting off later runners in waves. Ready, steady… a few of us set off and are soon running around the lake as the wind freezes our faces and hands mercilessly and slowly turns our eyeballs into ice.

Step Three: Marathon International de Marrakech

I am now in Morocco and I seem to have brought the cold with me. It is warmer than London but still unseasonably cold for Marrakech. The city strikes me as having a very distinctive beauty to it but, as I huddle next to the other runners on the start line, most of what I am going to be seeing for the next few hours is my own feet.

I am not proud of my start. Everyone starts moving and I trot along looking out ahead for the start mat. I see no mat but it slowly dawns on me that the people around me are already going a bit fast and I have the awkward experience of having to ask another runner if we have started yet. It seems we have so I hang my head a little and speed up.

The marathon route is mostly on wide, straight roads that seem to go on forever. After about a mile I hear a ‘hello Ealing’ from behind me and I start chatting to a runner from Kingston on Thames. We fall into step with each other and end up running the next twelve miles together, letting our optimism get the better of us and egging each other on to a pace that is much faster than either of us planned. Steadily, step after step after step, we run smoothly and eat up the distance to the finish. He falls back around the midway stage and I keep my speed up until about the eighteen mile mark.

At this point I look at my watch and see my average pace has dropped by one second a mile. I am not too concerned about this and had planned to pick up my pace around this point anyway: I normally try to push myself a little from about sixteen miles, push harder from twenty miles and then even harder from twenty three.

Thanks to a warning from an extremely helpful member of the crowd I avoid joining the list of runners who have accidentally taking the wrong turning over the years and ending up going along the half marathon route and ending up reaching the finish early.

Left, right, left, right. I push my work rate and that feels alright but when I look at my watch my speed has slightly fallen again. This happens a lot from now on. Left, right, left, right. I keep increasing my effort and I keep getting slower.

We are now running outside the city along almost deserted roads with very few spectators. It is getting hot now. This race does not have the enthusiastic voluntary marshals I am used to seeing at most races. Instead, the route is lined by silent men in uniform – maybe police,  maybe army – standing rigidly to attention. They stare with what I take to be a mixture of indifference and hostility. On the plus side, this does work as great motivation: I feel like they are just looking for an excuse to shoot us and that definitely keeps me going.

At mile twenty four I am starting to cramp and even my fear of imminent death by shooting cannot prevent me stopping to stretch a few times. The next two miles are slow, hard, hot work. Left……………………………………………………………. Right……………………………………………………………. Ouch……………………………………………………………. Stop……………………………………………………………. Stretch……………………………………………………………. Left……………………………………………………………. Etc.

Then I see the finish and the final point two miles are joyful and quick.

I have missed a PB by just under two minutes but I know I will get another chance at my next one in thirteen days’ time.

The aftermath of the race is not particularly smooth. When the results come out I am not on them. Eileen Imrie, showing the same determination and impressive organisation skills she showed to make the Eagles’ stay in Marrakech an enjoyable one, harasses the race director until my result finally gets added.

The marathon was on Sunday and I do not run again until the club run on Wednesday and then parkrun on Saturday, both of which are fine. However, on Sunday I do a 10k in Regent’s Park and it is like the end of Marrakech again: my legs stop listening to my brain. After the race we ditch our plan to run home along the canal and decide that a hot drink is a much better option. On Monday I decide to force myself through eight miles at just under my marathon pace (if I am honest I have no real notion of why I make this decision – I genuinely have very little idea what I am doing when it comes to training for marathons). As I write this, I am in the middle of four days of not running to give my legs a chance for my next one, which is on Saturday.

In this horrible tale of first world problems what I have failed to mention so far is that I bloody love this stuff. I do not know why, but I do. What is more, F3 Events do some lovely races I have really enjoyed. I look forward to my next run and the one after that.

This whole blog does leave me thinking about where I stand for London. What have I learnt from my last marathon? Maybe I started too fast. Maybe I need to start doing track and following a coherent training plan. I have some things to think about now.

London Marathon Blog 3 or It's All Pants by Stephen Ralston

When you take up a new hobby you always tend to get hobby related Christmas presents, and this year was the running year. Past years have been cycling years and I got numerous water bottles, bells, handlebar streamers etc. All very funny, sometimes useful. So this year my most interesting running related present was a pair of running related underwear; they are called Runderwear. I didn’t know what to say...

So these pants are a strange beast. If you scroll there should be a picture attached (don’t worry, they are not being worn in the picture). Firstly the fit. All I can say is, don’t put them on in the dark or you will be convinced that they are on back to front. You then swap them round, and still think they are back to front, before resolving that you were right the first time, but still feel wrong.  Even in the light it’s a challenge because the markings on the pants aren’t exactly straightforward. 

Second is the texture. The pants claim to be seamless; its true and it’s a cross between a pair of pants that have been knitted by your Gran out of some kind of soft and dense fish netting material. They are weird and almost feel nappy’ish.  

Anyway, training is going well.  No Five Guys!

Racing Hot & Cold by Becky Fennelly

The last two weekends have been taken up with races. These races were booked before I knew I was running London Marathon and my training plan to date has been drawn up to accommodate these races. They've become part of my regular racing schedule and I didn't want to miss them.

The first of the races was Marrakech Half Marathon. If anyone's either raced it or read my race report from last year you'll be aware that it has it's challenges with maintaining closed roads, scooters, donkeys etc all over the place, and some issues with route signage, but there's something about this race that keeps dragging me back there (could be the lovely sunshine..).

The race itself went to plan. I did break one of the cardinal rules of racing by trying something new on race day. What I thought was porridge at breakfast turned out to be some kind of rice pudding, not a food I've ran on before. After a tough long run the previous week I was feeling a little anxious at the start line, but thankfully my back felt good and, despite not pushing my pace as this was now a training run rather than a target race, I managed to knock 6 minutes off last year's time. This was even after having to stop and wait for a coach to do a 3 point turn on one of the "closed roads". Maybe rice pudding pre-race is a good thing!

For my midweek run I decided to continue my foray into running home from work by running a couple of stops further on before jumping on the tube the rest of the way. I took a little jaunt down The Mall just to get a feel for some of the London route. I was going the opposite way up the street than I will be on 22nd April but it still gave me the shivers thinking about how I will feel coming down it on race day.

This week was a drop down week due to my long run being the Winter 10k on the Sunday, another of my favourite races. It has such a fun atmosphere and I do enjoy running closed road Central London races (bodes well for April..). I set off into town with Che & Dan. It felt pretty chilly after the warm weather of Marrakech last week. We joined the 20,000 runners taking on the course and enjoyed high-fiving huskies, penguins and snowmen on the way round. I din't push it for a pb time but I thoroughly enjoyed the run. I finished feeling the strongest I have ever done after a 10k. 

It really feels like the training is paying off. It might not be showing in my official race times yet as I am trying to minimise injury risk, but when my back doesn't cause me problems, I'm finishing races with plenty left in the tank and with a spring in my step. Long may it continue...

Dineke Austin - Blog 2: Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy (PHT) - 'These boots are made for walking...'

When you can’t run: WALK!

 Not only is there confusion in the blogs between the identity of certain male Eagles; you read this correctly: PHT not PMT (though the effects on mood are remarkably similar: ask Trev!)

PHT: What is this beast of a condition that so many runners suffer from, as the recent formation of a dedicated Eagles Facebook group testifies?

The hamstring comprises 3 muscles which all attach to the ischial tuberosity – the bone in your bottom. The hamstring tendon is vulnerable to compression against the ischial tuberosity when the hip is flexed, and also has to deal with high loads during running. This combination of compressive and tensile load can make it vulnerable to developing tendinopathy.

Broadly speaking tendinopathy can be split into 3 main stages: reactive, disrepair, and degeneration. A reactive tendinopathy typically involves the tendon responding to a sudden increase in load: in my case a slight slip on marathon #4 and overstretching for 2 strides (repeated twice more: on a training run, and with the Beginners’ group). Pain is usually part of this response (!) and the tendon becomes very sensitive to load (either through compression or tension on the tendon).

http://www.running-physio.com/my-pht/

Disrepair can follow, if appropriate treatment is not as speedy as desirable (over Xmas/New Year holiday period!). If you imagine a pair of interlocked hands, fingers tightly woven together: this is how the hamstring fibres should look. In a case of disrepair, the fingers have gaps between them, between which fluid can accumulate, and sciatic nerve poke through. Degeneration: speaks for itself: when the damage is irreversible, and the best that can be done is to build more good tendon around the permanently damaged section. I don’t intend to visit that if it can be avoided!

If interested, see other URLs:

http://www.running-physio.com/pht-rehab/

http://www.running-physio.com/pht-return-to-running/

http://www.running-physio.com/pht-sit/

http://www.running-physio.com/phtvids/

http://www.running-physio.com/new-research-in-proximal-hamstring-tendinopathy-goom-et-al-2016/

So where does this leave my VLM plans?

Unlike Gary, I am most definitely NOT marathon fit; and I am in turns wistful and admiring of Becky’s ability and tenacity in the face of her runner’s ‘niggles’ to run in this weather – and being welcomed back by that mouth-watering meal!

‘Training’ plans:

Immediate: TREATMENT

Short/medium-term: DIETARY- supplements

Medium/long term: REHAB! (This was before accident 3!)

Long-term: CORE STRENGTH/DIET.

Illustration 2: the contrast between my carefully-guided training plan, and the reality:

Will I give up?

You bet not! If there is ANYTHING I can do to be ready, run VLM, and do justice to the Club’s faith in me to represent Ealing Eagles with pride and courage, I will.

This is a steep learning curve: not before time! Patience (towards myself) being one of them; the importance of building core strength, and leg muscle strength possibly being key.

Meanwhile: I am helped to feel part of Ealing Eagles and the local running community by supporting the coaching team at Elthorne every Monday evening (floodlit!), and volunteering at both Gunnersbury and Acton Junior Parkruns. Not least, helped by the many Facebook messages and chance encounters that have been so supportive, welcome, and warming.

I also have no excuse for not reading ‘Runners’ World’ and ‘Women’s Running’; runners’ nutrition books and articles; and lots on running technique!

As said, famously (I can’t do the accent) ‘I will be back’!