Training Log Archive: Psuba

Long slow jog from Reading station to the race village to try and get rid of some of the lactic acid from the day before.

Reading Half Marathon.

Ah, anybody wanting to donate:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Peter-Suba

816th out of 9720 finishers. (top 10% is OK for me)
127th in my category.


The primary objective is achieved - I wanted to run two halfs back to back with sub 4:30 pace as a prep for what I hope to do in one go in just over a month.

It was also a good training for me on road races, as I have never done one of these with so many people, so the whole experience of starting zones, masses of people, fighting over road space, overtaking those ambitiously starting in fast zones, being overtaken by those who have more in them, taking the drinks from the stations rather than taking it with me etc. etc. all good preparation. Very very different from yesterday.

I was ambitiously starting out going with the 1:30 guy, although I suspected it would be too fast for me, but it wasn't unrealistic and it went well initially, though I started to worry about my HR after the first hill as it hovered around 170 which is not sustainable in a marathon (it would be OK for a half). I felt my legs on that incline though from yesterday and that was a warning sign which I hoped would not come into it... but knew it could. Stuck with him in fact at places I went ahead to get a bit more breathing space around me as there seemed to be a lot of people congregating right around the pacemaker so it seemed safer a bit further ahead.

Fantastic support from various groups around the course, particularly pumped by the drumming band underneath the passage we turned back 180 at the Oracle. It really gave energy!

However, at around the 13km mark we hit the second hill and this is where my thighs just called it a day as a result of the accumulated effort over 2 days. I struggled with them from this point, although I hang on just about with the 1:30 pacemaker for the next few KMs but it took a lot more effort now than before. I finally started to suffer at the 10 mile mark and as the pacemaker called it quits here as well, and I felt my legs just not cooperating any more, it became a survival effort and I consciously gave up my 1:30 wish and started to concentrate on not losing the target of finishing with a faster time than yesterday.

Lots of support from the people around reading my name from the CRUK shirt helped, although if I had more energy I surely would have laughed when at this point someone shouted the encouragement "Well done Peter, looking strong" as I was fighting my demons telling me to stop running and start to walk a little bit!

In the end, this was a good time and yet another proof that my lucky number is 13...

Now on to recovery!

Oooh, blisters, yay.

Not that surprising but still, Injinji socks and yet...

Trying out an advice I saw somewhere about threading a piece of well, thread through and leaving it in overnight to make it gentler and quicker to heal. Let's see if it works.

New Forest Running Festival, Half Marathon.

3rd (almost 2nd) out of 121:

https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1zW/

Nice atmosphere, tried to pace myself given I knew I will have another half the next day.

Mostly ran completely my own pace, most of the time fluctuated between 2nd and 4th places due to weird things happening around me - a poor guy first lost his shoes in a muddy spot which I avoided, he then overtook me, then he was too cautious on a muddy downhill (understandable) where I could easily pass him (presumably because of my orienteering experience), then he tagged onto me, and I kept shaking him down a little but not enough as I then waited for him at every gate we crossed not wanting to shut it in his face. He finally overtook me at around 10km, and ran away, just enough so that when he forgot to turn left on the 1st loop I could not shout enough at him to hear so I "inherited" 2nd place. However, at this point I had someone else coming up to me, who then strangely could not keep up on the downhill and I next saw him only after the finish. From that point I ran alone, looking back at 19km there was no one in sight, so I was completely surprised when looking back with 500m to go I saw a guy running after me with a speed I could not believe. I started to push but younger legs got the better of me - despite me sprinting at sub 3:30 pace, in the end, he just ran past me and overtook me with 50m to go!

It was a bit more suffering than I thought it would be with more climb but especially the strong headwind bothered me quite a lot in the open areas.

Target pace was right on though, I wanted it to be sub 4:30 pace on average, which I achieved and given the course profile I am quite happy. 3rd place and 1st veterans as well.

Shakeout jog in the morning in prep for the weekend

Steady long - or at least planned as such.
Went to the post office expecting to pick up the race pack for Sunday's Reading half marathon - instead, it was the charity collection pack from Cancer Research Uk. That meant 2 things:
1.) I will have to get to Reading early on Sunday (or maybe drive back from work on Friday through Reading?) to get a replacement pack as mine disappeared
2.) I had a large donation giving bucket that I had to carry with me home

So that meant I had to run the rest of the planned long run carrying a bucket in my hand. I duly decided to abandon my plan to run a 2h+ session with 25km+ and cut it short, so finished only after 15k but 12k of that with the bucket in hand. Probably a few people on the promenade thought I was crazy...

C • Bucket 2

To training

Medium hills training.
Got there late so rushing to catch up, meaning subpar warm-up.
Muscles quite tight but got through OK in the end.

Paces:
34-34-35-34s
1:13-12-14-14s
34-36-35-35s

From training