A year ago I ran the classic marathon distance in the World Masters Championships in Finland. I was aware at the time that I was carrying an injury but little did I know that 12 months down the line my osteitis pubis would still be lingering on and I'd not be running, let alone racing. Add to that a badly inflamed Achilles from jogging a bit whilst carrying two stone more than my racing weight, and things are not good. So what should I do? Bearing in mind a total of 23 miles under my belt in the last 12 weeks - just under that magical two miles a week average, damn! - I decided this morning to do the Swindon Parkrun 5km, well I had to go to Swindon anyway so why not have a little potter to see how the pegs (& lungs) reacted?
I maintain a rolling average weekly mileage graph with my training diary: in August 2009 it stood at 54, today it shows 5, or to put it another way, 2,800 miles a year against 260. That's a stark statistic. It also flags up what I always bang on about to runners who want to improve but can't understand why they don't. It's not a question of banging out 10 good weeks before a big race then doing very little until the next build-up, but a lifestyle change that involves an ongoing training regime throughout the year that allows consistent, good mileage.
Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed a gentle run round at about 7.20 mile pace today although won't have done myself any good. It was a complete contrast to the last race I attended, the European Championships Marathon in Barcelona, not least because today's winner was attached to three dogs! Talking of Barcelona, my visit to that beautiful city now means I have been to 13 out of the 22 cities that have hosted the summer Olympics, only St Louis, Stockholm, Berlin, Melbourne, Tokyo, Mexico, Atlanta, Seoul & Beijing remain to complete the set. Answers on a postcard to name the 13 visited.
Footnote: when staying in Heinola, Finland for last year's World Masters, we watched the world sauna championships (see my blog 28 August 2009). The event builds up to a climax over a couple of days through eliminating rounds until the final, the winner being the last competitor left in the sauna, where temperatures are cranked up to 110ºC (230ºF) by adding half a litre of water to the stove every 30 seconds. The Championships were once again held at the same venue this year but sadly one of the two finalists, a Russian named Vladimir Ladyzhensky, died (the other, defending champion Timo Kaukonen, suffered bad burns and was hospitalised). Think I'll stick to running, or if unable to get back, perhaps bowls.
Saturday 21 August 2010
Friday 6 August 2010
Barcelona
After long weekends taking in the remote but beautiful south west coast of Ireland, and the total contrast of a heaving but equally beautiful city of Paris, my four week July odyssey concluded with a trip to Barcelona for the European Athletics Championships.
Natalie flew down from Paris to join me and we didn't stop all weekend. Obviously my main reason to be there was for the ladies marathon but we also managed to fit in one evening of athletics at the magnificent Olympic stadium and, of course, watched the men's marathon as well. Whilst the marathoners won't agree, the hot sunshine and warm, balmy evenings helped make the championships truly memorable. After the evening session we let the crowds disperse and sat in the magnificent grounds of the complex quietly drinking beer and soaking up the atmosphere until midnight amongst spectators and competitors from all over Europe - there were flags from everywhere in abundance. We then strolled into a tapas bar at 1am for a fine meal to finish off a magnificent day. (The previous night was paella sitting outside at midnight.) Not sure that a cold damp evening in the regenerated east end of London will have quite the same allure in two years time.
The action was exciting: our ladies paced themselves perfectly in the brutal 30ºC conditions which produced carnage in the later stages. Starting at 10am was not the cleverest idea. Thanks to texts received from Claudie & Wendy, Natz and I were able to relay news to the girls that they were in with a shout of the bronze team medals and so it proved by the narrowest of margins - seeing them collect their medals in the stadium later that evening was a never to be forgotten experience. Despite my total lack of fitness I managed some good interval work that enabled me to watch the race in 13 places on the four lap course with some out & back sections. Exhausting. Michelle (14th, 2.38), who paced her run perfectly having been 27th at 5km, finished strongly, overtaking Sue (16th, 2.39) in the last 5km to lead the team home. An interesting statistic gives an indicator of how well they both ran: excluding the two Brits, only two of the top 19 finishers had pb's outside 2.30 (2.30 & 2.31), all the others were between 2.22 and 2.27. Impressive stuff and an indicator of targets ahead.
Highlight of the evening's athletics was without doubt Farah's 5000, the last four laps were
superlative as he relentlessly wound up the pace lap on lap finishing with a 55sec effort amid raucous crowd noise as the Spaniard tried in vain to hold on. Ennis showed her professionalism with a gutsy 800 to win the heptathlon but she's going to have to nurse herself through to the Olympics as her opponents are breathing down her neck. We sat by the pole vault and watched enthralled as it built up over the whole evening - this is the sort of thing tv misses as the panellists waffle on inanely in the studio - it was fascinating watching the interaction between the athletes and their coaches who were standing right by us. There was plenty of other action, most notably for Natalie the men's javelin but that's a long story. Rather embarrassingly I appeared on the big screen at one stage much to the mirth of a few people back home. Thanks for the texts guys.
There were many stories from the weekend but most are best left untold for varying reasons. The whole thing finished with a function for the GB endurance squad in the 5* Arts Hotel down on the marina. I don't want to name drop so will just use christian names of some of those with whom we dined: Seb, Mo, Paula, Charles ... A nice way to end a cracking weekend.
Natalie flew down from Paris to join me and we didn't stop all weekend. Obviously my main reason to be there was for the ladies marathon but we also managed to fit in one evening of athletics at the magnificent Olympic stadium and, of course, watched the men's marathon as well. Whilst the marathoners won't agree, the hot sunshine and warm, balmy evenings helped make the championships truly memorable. After the evening session we let the crowds disperse and sat in the magnificent grounds of the complex quietly drinking beer and soaking up the atmosphere until midnight amongst spectators and competitors from all over Europe - there were flags from everywhere in abundance. We then strolled into a tapas bar at 1am for a fine meal to finish off a magnificent day. (The previous night was paella sitting outside at midnight.) Not sure that a cold damp evening in the regenerated east end of London will have quite the same allure in two years time.
The action was exciting: our ladies paced themselves perfectly in the brutal 30ºC conditions which produced carnage in the later stages. Starting at 10am was not the cleverest idea. Thanks to texts received from Claudie & Wendy, Natz and I were able to relay news to the girls that they were in with a shout of the bronze team medals and so it proved by the narrowest of margins - seeing them collect their medals in the stadium later that evening was a never to be forgotten experience. Despite my total lack of fitness I managed some good interval work that enabled me to watch the race in 13 places on the four lap course with some out & back sections. Exhausting. Michelle (14th, 2.38), who paced her run perfectly having been 27th at 5km, finished strongly, overtaking Sue (16th, 2.39) in the last 5km to lead the team home. An interesting statistic gives an indicator of how well they both ran: excluding the two Brits, only two of the top 19 finishers had pb's outside 2.30 (2.30 & 2.31), all the others were between 2.22 and 2.27. Impressive stuff and an indicator of targets ahead.
Highlight of the evening's athletics was without doubt Farah's 5000, the last four laps were
superlative as he relentlessly wound up the pace lap on lap finishing with a 55sec effort amid raucous crowd noise as the Spaniard tried in vain to hold on. Ennis showed her professionalism with a gutsy 800 to win the heptathlon but she's going to have to nurse herself through to the Olympics as her opponents are breathing down her neck. We sat by the pole vault and watched enthralled as it built up over the whole evening - this is the sort of thing tv misses as the panellists waffle on inanely in the studio - it was fascinating watching the interaction between the athletes and their coaches who were standing right by us. There was plenty of other action, most notably for Natalie the men's javelin but that's a long story. Rather embarrassingly I appeared on the big screen at one stage much to the mirth of a few people back home. Thanks for the texts guys.There were many stories from the weekend but most are best left untold for varying reasons. The whole thing finished with a function for the GB endurance squad in the 5* Arts Hotel down on the marina. I don't want to name drop so will just use christian names of some of those with whom we dined: Seb, Mo, Paula, Charles ... A nice way to end a cracking weekend.
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