March Monthly Summary!

Month 3 of 12 of the year of 2017 is done and for me I think I've continued my decent start of the running year.

I've also maintained consistency to the opening of these posts!

My continuing mission towards an annual total of 650 miles has continued on target. To hit this I need to be averaging 54 miles a month or roughly 14 miles a week.

Easy... so far...

This month I ran a grand total of 77.4 miles up 6 miles from the February total. This includes 3 races, a Half Marathon (also longest single run of month), a 10k and a parkrun, all 3 of which ending in PBs. They made up 29% of my month!

Good month, got to be happy with the form all the way up until the half, which has left me injured. Injured with roughly 5 weeks to go til a marathon... great... 

So far... (miles)

Jan	Feb	Mar	Total
78.5	71.4	77.4	227.3
12%	11%	12%	35%

Anticipating a poor month while I shake off this injury, but need to do a long one in preparation at least... Compression bandage received in the post... it'll be fine.

Race Report - Merthyr Half Marathon

Twas a warm morning for this mornings Merthyr half marathon. Hardly a cloud in the sky, which both equaled lovely day and phew, bit warm in equal amounts.

Merthyr college was buzzing as I lined up... for the 4-6 500m race...

With my boy...

Then the daughter went in the slightly chaotic 1km for her age (7-9, or 7-11?). She had the opportunity to cut a lap, but being the good girl she is pushed round and did the extra (or correct amount even), when not everyone felt the urge!

Then it was the main event. Coughing had mostly stopped, felt ok and decided to attack a little from the outset. Was going well, the course was tough with a wicked climb as the all new for 2017 turning point. The predicted congestion wasn't anywhere near as bad as I expected... yes all went well!

Me, running like I was being chased for the majority of the race, genuinely better than I expected, or had any business thinking about beforehand. About mile 8... twinge in leg, didn't think much of it, probably just a misstep. Mile 11, feel a pulling in my leg, just below the knee. Press on... almost there. Then distaer, sharp pain and I pull up, trying to keep moving. But I knew this was an issue. Got going until 12 or so same again, then again in the last mile.

All those precious seconds each time, probably costing me a couple of minutes on my time. Plus all the pain and discomfort.

So how did I do, target wise I said:

Baseline:
1:58:00 (9:00 min/ml)

Achievable:
1:55:00 (8:46 min/ml)

Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time:
1:50:00 (8:23 min/ml)

and I did:



A new PB by 5:10 and my first time under 1:50, but frustrating as I think about what could have been...

I'm also going to stop setting targets as I clearly have no idea what I'm doing.

Massive thank you to the sports masseuse in the college after the race who largely fixed my leg. Still hurts now and probably will for a few days, but she made a big positive difference, even if she described the area as... crunchy! Right leg has always been an issue!

Milestone alert #2!!

Ticking off the boxes today!

Firstly I'm now officially a member of the Parkrun volunteer family. As I mentioned in my last post today I headed to Parc Penallta, the sprog ran 17 mins for 2k and I stood at marker 10 as a Marshall. Next time I'll be on timing duties!

It's all learning ahead of the big launch!

Next up I then laced up my trainers, dropped my daughter at drama class and decided to run home (she was getting picked up, I'm not mental). I'm comfortably over confident at the moment and am probably rushing a bit which is hurting me down the line. But I managed (with a record 2 pee stops and a stop to see if I could adjust the route):

I did back out of attempting the final hill to my house and went to the shop to but pepsi (max) instead then got a lift, But considering I thought it was 9.7 miles...

Feeling wise, yeah was ok, I was overly aggressive, I felt a bit tight after and had 1 knee niggle, but it's fine. Half marathon next week, god knows what I'll do there.

This run achieved a further thing. For 2017 I have passed 200 miles <insert party music here!>

The actual total appears to be 201.2 miles. Based of a target of 650 for the year I'm almost a third of the way there! Plus I'm up 2 PBs!

'Race' Report - Brynbach Parkrun #232

Further confirmation I'm aware Parkrun isn't a race!

I once again donned my compression top, worn half to death trainers and headed to the national and international institution that is ParkRun. Brynbach Park in Tredegar is just about my nearest (for now...) so I headed over to what is a pretty flat, lapped route!

I decided to attack at the start and see where I could make it stick, see if any of the recent speed training was working and well...


One very happy camper when I finished.

The reasonably aggressive start became almost a rhythm and, apart from one flap on the last lap which cost me a few seconds. But equally I 'd like to thank the guy who was on my shoulder at the finish. Ensuring he stayed behind me got me a few seconds back I'm pretty sure.

So far this year I've set 5k, 10k and 8 mile bests (ok it was my first 8 mile race... still counts) and have a half... next week. Could I get that ticked off as well?? I doubt it but who knows.

There were photos, including one I liked, but they're the victims of some extreme watermarking and I'm not shelling out money for parkrun photos!

This weekend is a parkrun weekend. I'll be headed to Penallta Juniors with sprog in tow, to make my volunteer debut. Looking forward to it.

A little charity run

I don't think there's a nicer way to spend a Thursday evening than with your kid in teh fresh air. Generally however, this doesn't involve a 5k round Merthyr College and a medal.

This week it did!

Thursday morning and the beast that is Facebook informed me that there was a timed 5k in support of Charity (Phab Kids and Kidney Wales) happening that night. Now I wasn't in a 'racing' mood after a fairly brutal-by-my-standards Club session on Wednesday and having been to the gym already Thursday.

Wednesday had involved 4 pretty much flat out miles (as you reasonably can 4 times) of:

• 7:09
• 7:08
• 7:02 (pictured - mile time was 7:02 anyway!)
• 7:14 (Fell away last 250 yards)

Then a cool down where I decided to try and take the 'Zola's Sprint' segment (200-ish yard 'sprint') which I got in 22 secs!

That's quite the effort, but when I saw the run, advertised and organised by Run With Us I thought... the daughter loves a medal and needs the exercise... let's do it.

So off we went and a while later she was holding her medal. The whole thing was well organised and Run With Us seemed like a nice group, was my first time running with them, and even then I was some way behind them!

The group seemed friendly, and well organised, if you're local and are looking for a relaxed atmosphere run, worth giving them a look!

Race Report - St David's Day 10k

It once again was a damp old morning. I wonder if I'll get a dry race this year...

Bute park was my venue as I ran the St David's Day Run 10k 2017! 6.2 miles around the paths of the park with, thanks to recent weather conditions, had a few... sizable puddles.

What was it like?

The race itself is undoubtedly flat, really flat... in the right conditions it would also be pretty scenic, taking in playing fields, the River Taff, Sophia Gardens, a nice bridge... Reasonable facilities on site (food etc) although once again due to the weather, the area was essentially a bog, my trails shoes would have struggled to get between the portaloos and the start!  There were puddles on course as I mentioned, I was pretty much ankle deep on at least 2 occasions. But that's what running socks are for? Volunteers too all happy and supportive!

However, overall I found myself frustrated as much as enjoying the run. Races in Cardiff (particularly this and the Cardiff 10k last year) all seem to have one of the same issues, congestion.

I understand the races desire to be large, I also understand the desire to give everyone who wants to run the chance to do so. However, some of the routes chosen aren't up to this. The paths today were narrow and had 1700-1800 people crowded on to them. I'm not the swiftest as you must know by now, but even I had to run off the path to get round people, got stuck unable to pass, got run into by people with headphones on who had little awareness of their surroundings...

This s partially my fault as I wasn't early to the start (portaloo queue, shipping daughter out after the 1k) so started too far back. But at any point, it looked busy. Maybe introduce pens based on start time and stagger the start slightly? I'll probably pass on this one next year.

Nice medal though!

How did I do?

Not half bad!

My ambitions were:

Baseline:
55:00 (8:51 min/ml)
Achievable:
52:00 (8:22 min/ml)
Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time:
49:30 (7:57 min/ml)

And I did:


My chip time was 47:13 for the 136th fastest chip time (243rd place) a 58 second PERSONAL BEST!

Felt good too, I was held up at the start, can see that in my miles times (negative splits yay) but there's every chance this helped my pace in the last couple of miles. Very happy overall with the result!

Once again proving  I have little idea how to get a target...