Favourite track session!

No races for a couple of weeks now, as planned and quite fortuitous given my streaming cold last weekend. Having, for once, trained well & stayed healthy through the Christmas period, there was a certain inevitability about going down with something. Although making you feel miserable, it's important to try to put a positive slant on such things, otherwise you drag yourself down: this was drummed into me by daughter Natalie on the phone last weekend when she told me off and said not to be a typical bloke complaining of man flu! From a running perspective it is very important to have a structured training plan but it is also vital that adaptability is addressed. You cannot train at full tilt all the time; easier weeks need to be incorporated into planning. If, however, a cold or slight niggle comes along then use that as the easy week and adapt your schedule accordingly.

Anyway, this week I've been thinking about how well the club sessions have gone on Tuesday nights through the winter. Despite constant cold weather, we have worked well together and there is no doubt that a number of regular attendees will be looking forward to Bourton next month to see how the winter conditioning has brought them on. We have concentrated on long efforts with short recoveries and it has been good to see how everyone has adapted their attitude to ensure that they compete throughout the session and don't fade badly. It helps that there has been a great camaraderie amongst everyone, with friendly cajoling and encouragement for all and good little groups working together. Long may this continue.

This got me thinking about my favourite track session. I suggest that anyone of a nervous disposition stops reading now! In short it was 62 x 400 with 3½ minutes recovery, in an average of 68 seconds. I'm cheating a bit here really because this was a race. Barendrecht, near Rotterdam in Holland was the location, a four man 100km track relay organised by my long standing close Dutch friend Alex Halter. I did this five times with Ranelagh in the early 80's, we were 2nd the first year but then won it each of the four years thereafter. Our winning time in 1984 was 4.46.48, which is sub two hour marathon pace for nearly five hours! Sometimes it frightens me when I look back on these runs.

Essentially the rules were simple, 250 laps of the track had to be covered by the four runners in any format. There was a changeover along the back straight and clearly the best format was to break the race into 400m efforts, hence the 3½ minute recovery whilst the three other runners did their bit. To spice up the race, the organisers regularly announced mini races within the overall event, a bit like sprint bonuses in the Tour de France: so in the middle of an effort, the bell would ring and the first to finish the next 400 between a couple of teams starting the lap together, would win a prize. We ended up each year with a myriad number of bizarre gifts, ranging from chickens to flowers, umbrellas, books, beer and money.

It was mind over matter to sustain the efforts for so many hours and you locked into a routine: run 400, hand over the baton, walk to tent, sit down for a minute, get up to loosen the legs again, walk to the handover, do the 400 ... 62 times! The picture is of one of our winning teams: from left Simon Collingridge (avg 69.1), DW (68.3), Simon Hedger (69.5), Steve Pautard (68.1). We all lived within a mile of each other in Worcester Park (Collingridge was my flatmate) and we trained a lot together, notably our Monday night 10 milers that always started slowly before we gradually cranked up the pace until eventually we were absolutely flying. Great days. Pautard ran 2.19 at London at the age of 19 and repeated the time a year later, albeit with brown shorts: he was totally focused on his running but rather burnt himself out on 130 miles a week too early in his life. Last I heard he was playing golf off a single figure handicap. Hedger moved to Australia after marrying an Aussie flatmate of mine, and, like his dad before him back in the 1950's, became an excellent runner, cracking 50 for 10 miles. He's now back in good old Blighty but is feeling the cold and doesn't like being beaten by Wrighty! Collingridge was undoubtedly the most natural runner, his best was probably a 30.10 track 10km at Crystal Palace together with some big road race victories when living in France. However, he was too easily distracted by women and beer to dedicate himself to running - Claudie will attest to the number of broken hearts he left at my flat!

At Barendrecht the fun didn't stop with the running. The evening's festivities were always superb. Most teams hung around afterwards (about 25-30 teams competed) and the organisers put on a big meal. The Belgian teams, our biggest rivals, always brought cases of their famous (& strong) red beers and the celebrating went on well into the night. The next day's Sunday run was always fairly amusing, the combination of the 25km at 4½ minute miling, the food & drink and the dancing & singing left us all somewhat weary. But what a track session and invariably a few weeks later I would run some of my best races.

So, what is there to learn from this? Firstly, enjoy the social camaraderie that team racing and socialising can bring. Running is a lonely sport but runners can relate to each other and have mutual respect for the effort, if not always the result, that goes into training & racing. Secondly, track sessions and any sort of interval work don't just mean 8 x 400 with 200 jog: mixing pace with endurance has to be key to progress for most club members seeking to improve at 10km and above. That doesn't mean going out and doing 62 x 400 each week but it does show the worth of the long conditioning workouts we've been doing through this winter, together with tempo and threshold runs that really build the endurance base. Sharpen this up with some spicy short track intervals in the spring & summer and the race times will tumble. I promise.

PS Just seen today's Midland XC Champs results: Cirencester a magnificent 8th, not many points off 5th. Adrian's boys are coming on really well and with another equally strong 6-8 runners available the prospects for April's 12 stage relays are exciting to say the least.

Frozen wastes of Banbury

Now that was good fun! Serious cross country is off my agenda these days as my Achilles will not allow the wearing of spikes. I get away with Ranelagh mob matches as they are social occasions and just good training. It's a shame really because I have always believed that xc serves a purpose in terms of strengthening the athlete through the resistance of mud, hills, awkward terrain and all sorts of winter weather. I always used to race over the country on a weekly basis taking some races seriously but using others as good hard training runs. It also helped that xc was, and still is, generally on a Saturday afternoon with the consequence of a perfect weekend: race Saturday afternoon, drink Saturday evening then get out for the long Sunday run.

With the winter weather continuing its harsh vein, it was evident that Banbury's course would be frozen and I could get away with wearing flats so I told skipper Adrian that I'd have a run round. Having done a two hour training run the day before I had no expectations of performance although it's amazing how often a good race can come in these situations through relaxation and no race stress. Today sort of fitted into this category, but only eventually ...

I might have 40 years experience of racing but sometimes I'm as stupid as ever: I wanted to start steadily and then move through the field, something I do as a matter of course, but I ignored one obvious problem. About 200 metres into the race there was a tiny gap to run through with the added problem of a fallen tree to climb over. This was crass planning by the race organisers, being so close to the start, but something I should have thought about. But no, I naively sauntered off at a leisurely pace then came to a grinding halt as I queued to get over the damned log! As it turned out this made the race more fun. The next mile or so was awkward as I tried to pass others along the narrow disused rail track (see Bill Leggate's photo), made particularly difficult by the rutted ground, but as the field spread out I started to stretch my legs and by the second lap I was absolutely flying. What a great feeling it was to feel so strong and to pass others at pace. With a mile to go I spotted club debutant Ben Rosedale up ahead - he was having an excellent first run in the red & black - and was able to get by before spotting Robbie Brown a few more places further on. I got up to his shoulder with about 400 to go, he looked back, saw me and took off for the finish. I might have been going well but I had no change of pace. Great run by Robbie and hopefully a sign that he's about to make a breakthrough in 2009 - perhaps his mum, Sue, will get her way and he'll give up rugby, and all those horrific injuries, and take his running seriously. I hope so as he has the talent.

The club turnout was pitiful and that's a real concern. Adrian (see picture, on his way to a superb 4th place finish) works really hard as captain and we have the makings of a cracking team but races such as the Oxford League should embrace the whole club, not just the first team, and that's just not happening.

Lies, damn lies & statistics

That's good. The bubble hasn't yet burst. Having not raced seriously for a while, I wasn't sure how the fitness levels were despite some good solid training. To be honest I wondered whether my autumn successes may have been isolated and not attainable again. So I lined up at the Pilot Inn '5' near Gloucester this morning not knowing what to expect. It was bitterly cold - the drive to the race had been quite spectacular, particularly around Birdlip where there was a complete whiteout of frost on the ground and in the trees; wish I'd had my camera - and I did a longish slow warm-up just to try to get the blood flowing.
Although a very small field, there was some decent quality and Jeremy (Billy Whizz) Bradley and Phil (blogger) Parry were soon out on their own. By the second mile I found myself in the next group and the five of us stayed together for the rest of the race. I only knew two of the group: Andy Prophett, a former winner of the Bourton 10km but coming back from injury, and Dave Lander who'd beaten me at Tewkesbury in November over the same distance. Paul Barlow had just beaten Lander on Boxing Day so he was a big target for me. Prophett was a nightmare to race against as he kept veering from side to side. We all took turns at the front of the group and that maintained the pace. It took an age to reach the turn around point on the out & back course with the latter stages being very undulating. On the way back I pushed on up one of the hills, breaking up the group and dropping two including Lander. It was then a question of hanging on to the others. I sustained my pace to the finish although Pete Stephens from Severn surprised me right on the line. That disappoinment was more than made up for by my time of 27.29 (out 13:45, back 13:44), my best for 18 years! What's more I am now ranked No.1 in the country at V50 for 5 miles in 2009. OK we've only had 12 hours of the year so far but nobody can take away the fact that I topped the national rankings!!
A happy, healthy & enjoyable New Year to all. May there be friendlieness & peace everywhere (and may the €uro crash so that we can afford to buy property in France!).