Some of my readers may know that I am a runner.
Some of you may know that I am part of an online community called The Running Bug (TRB); and some of you may know that; back in July; I was picked to lead one of four teams in a month long competition called the Puma Points Challenge.
Well that challenge flew by, my team came third, and I finished second in the captains race, and now we are being asked to do it all again through the month of September!
Yes; that's right; TRB and Puma are throwing a rematch at everyone, and they want all the captains to take the helm once more. I can say that each of us has been more than happy to take up the request, and with more experience; and training; in the bag, I think that this time it is going to be a lot more of a neck and neck race.
The best thing of it all is that TRB and Puma have been kind enough to enter each of us captains into the Great North Run, what an amazing privilege.
So September 13th I will be up North with my fellow captains racing it out in one of the most famous half marathons in the world, and I; for one; am uber excited!
I have plenty of half marathons already scheduled into my racing calendar for the rest of the year, as I chase a personal target of running a sub 90min half marathon before Christmas. I actually ran the first event of my half marathon season last weekend where I ran the Kimbolton half marathon in a time of 1:36:31, it wasn't my quickest time, but there were a number of factors which made it more difficult, and given that I have come down with a killer cold a mere two days after the race, to me says that my body must have been in shut down mode, which is possibly why I didn't run as well; or comfortably; as I would normally have wanted to.
Now normally I would advise people to be eating well, hydrating properly, and making sure that they are getting all the right forms of training in for at least 6 - 8 weeks prior to an event such as a half marathon, and if I had the time I would be doing the same thing, but I don't have the luxury of time given that this was not a race that I had originally planned for. My next big half marathon is actually at the end of September where I am planning to run the Ealing half marathon; exactly 6 weeks after the Kimbolton half! The Ealing half is another special event for me as it was my first ever half marathon event that I had taken part in.
I wasn't exactly going to turn down the opportunity to run in the GNR though was I?
So what am I going to be doing in the way of training for a half marathon that is a mere three weeks away?
Well, thankfully, I have the benefit of already having a good base fitness, and; dare I say it; I find it fairly easy to pop out and run a half marathon distance on a weekly basis. There is a difference though between just going out to run a half marathon, and running a half marathon in a competitive time.
Unfortunately I am currently still fighting off the cold obtained after Kimbolton, my first illness in a long time actually! I am hoping to be back to full fitness by Monday the 24th of August, which means that I will have two complete weeks to put in some intense training, and one full week to taper.
Let's look at the two weeks intense training that I can schedule for myself; what should I be focussing on? The most important thing for me at the moment is to build on speed; but my speed isn't going to suddenly improve over a mere two weeks of training, but that doesn't mean that I will not include speedwork into my training.
So the first thing to note is that I will be running about 6 days a week. I will start the week with a nice little 5k; easy paced; run just to get the legs warmed up for the next day. I will also throw in some core work by doing a crossfit tabata workout in order to maximise my day. These workouts will help to build my overall stamina, and strength.
Tuesday will involve an interval session to build on my speed. Something like a 6x200m or 4x600m session. Again, I will throw in crossfit workout after.
Wednesday will be a longer run, maybe a 10 or 15k, but at a much easier pace. I wont bother with any core work here as my body will most likely be asking for a break at this point. For me though, running a light session is my idea of a break, I like to save Sundays for full rest days; unless it's a race weekend where I will have a full rest on the Saturday instead, or; depending on the event; I will go for a very light and steady 5k jog just to keep the blood flowing.
Thursday will be a tempo session to help build on my running stamina. A 10k run where the first 2km will be at an easy pace to warm up, 6km at tempo pace, and then the final 2km to cool down. I will also put in another core session on this day, but not with the same intensity of Monday or Tuesday.
On Friday I'll run another easy session, 10 or 15k again, followed by another crossfit workout.
Saturday is big run day. Normally I would be running a half marathon or longer. I'll practice my race pace for about 50% of the run and then just taking it easy for the other 50%.
Sunday is rest day, no workouts, no running, and treating myself to eat whatever I like really.
Another point here is that throughout the week I will be drinking about 2ltrs of lemon water a day, a healthy breakfast each morning followed by healthy lunches; normally power packed salads filled with things like kale, spinach, beetroot, goji berries, tuna etc...; and dinners. I also include two snacks into my day between priority meals each day. This keeps my body working constantly, making sure that I am getting everything I need from the different essential nutrients that help to prevent injury, keep my joints healthy, and promote overall good health etc...
This schedule is going to be amended very slightly as I do actually have another event before GNR. Saturday the 5th will see me taking part in a bit of fun as I head out for the Cambridgeshire Spartan Sprint 5k Obstacle Race. This was another added treat to my already busy schedule as a friend donated her free entry voucher to me. I can't turn down free events, especially ones with such cool appeal to them, and I look forward to being able to call myself a Spartan!
I will carry out week two in exactly the same manner as week one; apart from the Spartan event on the Saturday obviously, I will be running my long run as originally planned.
It's taper week; week three; where things change a little; well; a lot really. Normally people tend to reduce their mileage, and intensity by about 70-80%; but I find this to be counter-productive for what my body likes to do. Instead I reduce the intensity by about 50%, and I only reduce my mileage by about 60%.
Where a lot of people like to take the break, and give their bodies a rest, I like to keep myself running
as I find that it keeps my legs working at the desired rate to cope well with the intensity of race day. I do give myself more rest days, but only one more really. I will run Monday and Tuesday, rest Wednesday, then run Thursday and Friday with my final rest on Saturday. This will make sure that my body has had ample time to work, and still be nicely rested for race day on the Sunday.
So what about the Friday run, and Saturday rest; the 48hrs leading up to race day? Well Friday will more than likely be a 10k easy run. There won't be anything intense about this run as I just want to be keeping the muscles alive and active; none of my runs in taper week are run at any serious intensity actually, they are all completed in an easy and comfortable pace. I'll have to go to work on the Friday; obviously; and will probably have a nice light pasta dish for dinner. Saturday will be complete rest day, so no running, and no working out on core etc... It will also involve a good old train ride up to Newcastle and checking into my hotel. Hopefully I'll be able to get another light pasta dish in me for dinner in order to make sure that I get the carbohydrate energy into me for race day.
I always try to just take it as easy as I can the day before a race, making sure that I am nice and relaxed for race day morning. I look at previous runs, I use apps like Strava to check the race route, see if there are any route segments etc... this shows me where the hills are, what the route looks like etc... I also use another app called VDot02 Calculator, which shows me what pace I need to run at in order to hit the target pace I want within the race.
I also use Saturday to get my kit prepped and ready. I am super anal about preparation, which means that I lay out everything I will be wearing or eating etc... check it, pack it, and then repeat the process. Yes; it is almost as though I have an obsessive compulsive disorder; but it's the best way I find to make sure that my nerves are at ease as I hate to think that I have forgotten anything, especially when I am going to be in an unfamiliar place.
In regards to what I am wearing; I try to be as light as possible, so it will be one of the Puma racing shirts that I was kindly given, along with my Puma race shorts. I will obviously be wearing my obligatory red cap and sunglasses as this has become my most recognised feature lately. I also wear Compressport calf guards to keep my legs nice and tight whilst I run. And then my shoes. Puma treated me to a very nice pair of trainers from their minimalist range, the Faas 100 V1.5. They weigh in at around 190g per shoe (size 10.5), which means that they are my second lightest shoe, and they really are a great pair of shoes to be fair. I can't thank Puma enough for them after I pretty much slated the other shoes that they gave me. Those others were simply not the right shoes for my style of running, but the Faas 100 is certainly a good shoe, but I will cover them in a more accurate review in a blog post I have been working on in the background for some time. And that's it...I wont be taking anything else out with me really, run light, run fast!
As for nutrition on the day, I train first thing in the morning, about 4:30am every day, this means that I don't actually eat before I run. Instead I have a high protein breakfast after my run and workout each day. Due to the fact that races are at a much later time than when I train, I might have a little bite of something to eat, but it really depends on the importance of the race, whether I am actually hungry or not, and MUST be at least an hour before the event start time. If I do have something to eat it is normally a toasted whole-wheat bagel with organic peanut butter and sliced banana (the greener the banana the better). This little breakfast gives me the right amount of slow release carbs that suit race conditions perfectly, also the reason why I choose a banana that is green over a ripe one as a ripened banana will release its natural energy quicker than one that is unripe.
I don't carry water with me for a half either, if I do need a drink I will normally grab one from the last water station on the route, if at all! I don't train with water in order to keep myself as light as possible. The only thing I take with me on a race is two SiS Isotonic gels. I will have one right at the start of the race, allowing the energy to carry me through the first quarter of the distance, saving my own natural energy for the middle half of the race. I then save the second gel for the 16th km. This allows me to use the added kick for the final 5k and give myself a strong finish.
So that is me, and how I will be prepping for race day, and how I deal with the day itself.
Ideally I would like to aim for a PB, I always go into every race aiming for a PB. I like to consider myself a competitor now, and dont just go to events to take part, I go to events to try and get myself into the best finish position I can possibly obtain, in as quick a time as I can.
Given that I never actually had this race scheduled, I haven't thought about a finish time but my current PB for a half is 1:32:37. I think that aiming for a 1hr32 flat finish would be good as this will not only give me a good time, but also a new PB. Obviously, if I can run quicker than that I will, and if I can hit my Christmas target of a sub 90 finish time then I will be over the moon, but I already have my eyes set on hitting that in another upcoming race so just improving on my current PB will be nice enough for me.
I hope that gives you a decent little insight into how I go about prepping for race day, and what it means to me.
Thanks for reading, and good luck to all competing in the GNR, or any other races that you may be running ever.
Remember to check for updates on the challenge through this blog as well as other social media:
Twitter: @RunDorsettRun
and Instagram: MRDORSETT_UK
Look out for the hashtags:
#TeamMomentum
#pumapoints
#therunningbug
#GreatNorthRun
#OneProudCaptain
No comments:
Post a Comment