Trevor writes:
When I wrote my last blog, I was at the end of week 9 of the 16 week training cycle and I said that the next 5 weeks were critical in that there was nowhere to hide. It is now the end of week 11, the next three weeks are even more critical as there is no time left, even if there was a place to hide.
At the end of week 9, I wrote the blog after running 24k on a Sunday morning. At the time, I wrote about overcoming the fear of distance – imagining how far I had to go and feeling a sense of panic even though I had done similar distances before. Four days after the 24k, I went out again on Thursday morning and did 25.5k along more of less the same route. Not ideal in terms of recovery and tiredness in my legs. The distance however seemed to pass more quickly even though my pace was a little slower. Fortunately, my work gave me the flexibility to run on a Thursday morning which was an experience. There are whole sections of the Thames towpath which are nearly deserted at that time. The only other runners I saw were a group of mothers with babies in running buggies who almost mowed me down near Twickenham. They were running as if they owned the path – which to be fair – at 10am on a weekend morning they usually do.
All positive, then we came to the 10k in Chester on Sunday the 12th. The reason I did the long run on a Thursday was because Din was running for England in the master’s competition with Wales in the Chester 10k. I decided to run the 55-minute tempo programme that had been in my training programme from Thursday – a long way of saying I swopped Thursday and Sunday. I was completely confident before the 10k. I slept as well as you can in a Travelodge next to a nightclub on a Saturday night in a small town. The windows had been glued shut for a reason. I warmed up properly at the race village at the racecourse. However from the start I felt hot nauseous and stiff. When I got back to the racecourse to pick up my bag, it felt as though I had dropped it off a day, not just over an hour before. Thinking things through, I was probably still tired from the long run, following the speed up slow down instructions on my watch didn’t allow me to go with the flow of the other runners, and I probably didn’t sleep as well as I thought I had done. The nausea was the biggest puzzle as I normally suffer this after about 18 not 2k.
Less of a surprise in retrospect was the lack of hot water in our ‘budget’ (a relative concept admittedly in Rip off Britain) Travelodge hotel. The Avanti West Coast service home also didn’t disappoint - fictional seat reservations, no hot water for drinks, no Wi fi, exact money cash only payments for cold drinks, but only £25 per head (cash only) to upgrade to ‘premium economy. I have booked the same hotel in Chester in May as Din is representing England again in the half marathon. I suspect Din may shower first next time to get the scarce cool as opposed to the plentiful cold water.
So a lot to think about for week 11.
Intervals Tuesday, tempo Thursday, slow Parkrun at a very wet Gunnersbury on Saturday and then on to the next long run. I was signed up to do the 20 mile run at Kingston, but on sound advice from Din, decided to scale that back to the 16 mile option. Because of route changes, the 16 miles at Kingston was 26.6k which would be a consolidation of the 24/25ks I have been running and give me the next two weekends to ease out to 32k. The Kingston races are really well organised, but am 8am start in order to use the market place as a race village and on the day number pick up means a very early start. On the positive side that is good training for getting up for the Eagles bus to Greenwich.
The run at Kingston was a real mixture of experiences. I was not looking forward to the two 8 mile laps, but I went through 5k quicker than the slow parkrun the day before, 10k at the same time as the Chester 10k the week before, and my 21k time was comparable to the last two standalone half marathons I have done. All very positive. What let me down was a combination of my mind and my stomach. I can suffer from nausea on long runs, and this started to kick in at about 15k. I think the trigger today was a gel I took at 14k. I have learned not to experiment with gels on long runs, but a type that had normally been fine, tasted awful today with an unpalatable grainy texture. Thinking about it now makes me feel sick. My learning point from today is that if that happens again, I should just throw the gel away and use one of the spares I always carry. The mind let me down as the nausea hit on the least attractive bit of the route – the road section after Hampton Court. I had to stop for a marshall at a road junction and the logical (anti running) part of my brain told me to run walk for 10 minutes to control the nausea. The nausea cleared, but the runner part of my brain now knows that had this nausea hit me on the towpath by Hampton Court, I would have probably kept running and the sickness would probably have cleared just as quickly. As it was, as soon as I got off that road and was on the final 4k into Kingston, I sped up and finished strongly.
So the lesson from today is, even if a gel is a brand and flavour I have taken a hundred times before, if it tastes unpleasant, I should throw it away and try something else. The formulation could have changed, or the gel could have been on a shelf for years. What went through my mind today though was:
You have had this gel dozens of times before, it must be ok. This is just you.
These things cost £1.80 a shot, you can’t throw it away.
I have to this gel now as I am by a litter bin. If I have the spare, I will end up littering.
Logical, but not helpful thoughts part way through a 26k run. Next week I am back in the same area running the Hampton Court Half plus some extra. This long run wasn’t ideal, but I learned something and I am getting stronger. I can’t wait to go back.
Until next time, and continued thanks for all your support.