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.
