A road runner's thoughts on racing on the track

To many later in life runners like myself the experience of the track is usual significantly less than those who started at school or university. Often we started with 10k or more and so running 5000m or less is slightly anathema to us. Equally, if you aren't a member of a running club just finding out about open track meets can be surprisingly difficult - they aren't listed on the Runner's World website! Sure, we may do the odd session there but not many of us take racing on it seriously, if we race on it at all. Hell, I spent four years as a triathlete and then three as a runner and until last September I'd never raced on an athletics track - this summer was I determined to give it a proper go.

Why bother?

Since switching to running my season has had a fairly standard structure - two marathons, cross country in the winter and then some general fudging around during the summer. Sometimes this fudging meant an ultra and sometimes it meant drinking and eating too much whilst running as and when I felt like. This year I was hoping to find a better balance, something that would keep me fit but deliver me to the autumn marathon physically and mentally fresh - this led me to a summer focused on shorter stuff, mainly racing 3-5k.

Furthermore I wanted to test myself in a new environment. I've only ever raced on the track once and that was only last year in my build to Amsterdam. Following pretty much zero speed work I ran a rather pleasing 15.11 for 5000 so I thought with some more specific work I might be able to produce performances comparable to my marathon times. Moreover, with one eye on San Sebastian, I was hoping the additional speed wouldn't do me any harm in the medium term. Running on the track was the kind of running I grew up watching and it's always seemed to be a very pure form of the sport - I can't really justify this or explain what I mean by "pure" but it felt like something that I needed to try to make me a more complete runner.

Were there any problems?

Some small ones:

1. I couldn't help but keep my eye on the next marathon - this meant I probably didn't do quite as much speedy stuff as I should and kept churning out the long(ish) runs. My 200/400 pace is still pretty pedestrian!

2. Getting in the right races - I had a social calender that a 90s It girl would have envied. Don't get me wrong, the weddings and stag dos were lovely but it meant I quite often had choose races without the strongest fields as I happened not to be busy. It may well just be me but I find that being on your tod during a track race is far more lonely and mentally taxing than a road race so had quite a few races where I probably didn't push as hard as I might have done if there'd been a group.

3. Struggled to peak - I raced quite a lot and never really tapered. This was probably a combination of seeing 3000/5000 as so short it doesn't need a taper (obviously moronic) and assuming that lower mileage meant a couple of days would do the job and then ran a slightly disappointing time - lessons learnt!

How did you alter your training?

1. Dropped the mileage (c. 95/week to 75/week)
2. Made a track session of about 5 miles focusing on 3/5/10k work the primary aim for the week
3. Long run no more than 15 miles, normally with the second half pretty hard
4. Didn't really take an "recovery" weeks as I did during marathon prep - I found that the reduced mileage meant an extra easier day here and there generally did the job. Although in light of point 3 above maybe I should change that!

Did it work?

When I tapered, YES! I was delighted to run 14.53 at the Wimbledon 5000m festival, a PB of 18s which over the distance is a pretty decent margin. It was probably one of the best races I've ever run both in terms of the age grading and in terms of execution. In fact, I'd go as far to say that it's the best race I've run since my first London marathon in 2012! It was one of those rare days when I was brimming with confidence. I was sure I was going to do it before I even laced up my spikes and as the race went on, sure, it hurt, but in all the right ways. Rather than tightening and seeing the splits increase with the lactic acid I felt I could just keep suffering, ney wanted to suffer more, as I tried to ratchet up the pace. If I could bottle whatever brought this about and drink it before every race I would but I'm afraid it still remains a mystery!

Actual time 1 second quicker but I ain't complaining

What next?

10 easier days and then a 13 week build up to the San Sebastian marathon. If I can get the GI issues under control, have an injury/incident free build up and generally keep myself in the right head space (and possibly acquire some kind of flying pig?) I genuinely believe 2.23/4 is doable. That said, I think that's been my goal for nigh on 3 years so we'll have to wait and see...

(Sibling) rivalry

One of the more pleasing aspects of my transition to "just" running has been that my brother has also followed a similar trajectory, albeit from climbing rather than triathlon. It may be that the simple fact of us both moving to our mid/late twenties would have had a positive influence on our relationship but I honestly believe that our shared love of running (in pretty much all its forms) has played an important part. We live in different cities and, granted, don't exactly see each other every week, but when I cast my mind back to some of the important memories of the last four years, many involve running and of those, most of them involve Steve.*

During both my ultra attempts (the successful Hadrian's Wall and the spectacular failure that was the Thames Path) Steve was an integral part of the crew that supported me, be that offering gentle encouragement or literally coaxing me along with the promise of pizza.

About 70 miles into Hadrian's Wall - even now I remember that peperoni was a bad idea

About 40 miles along the Thames Path - before the wheels came off

I was able to repay the favour a year later by supporting Steve on his Paddy Buckley attempt. Having set out with him on the opening leg at 0230 and struggling to keep up I could see he was on for a good day but I can honestly say that seeing his head torch appear 23 hours and 54 minutes later - 6 minutes before the cut off time - ranks not only as one of my top sporting memories but also made me pretty proud. I include the photo below purely for your amusement - it really was a very warm day.

Outside of the slightly stupid challenges I've enjoyed simply being able to share a sport that we both feel so passionately about, despite both having been fairly active for the best part of a decade (longer in Steve's case) this has been the first time our sporting interests and abilities have coincided so well; our Christmas day runs are fast becoming as traditional as the turkey.

25.12.14 - we should probably wash the hats this year - they're quite absorbent

Most of all I feel that we've both spurred each other on in an almost entirely positive way. As has so often been the case outside of sport, we've each chosen our own path within running (I prefer the road and Steve prefers the trails and the fells) yet we seem to feed of each others successes and failures. I only chose to write on this subject having seen Steve's recent blog on his up and coming race at the Glencoe Skyline Unsurprisingly we both suffer from similar foibles, including but not limited to:

• being overly critical of ourselves 
• not following our own advice 
• occasional pessimism about the training we've logged. 

I suppose in my long winded way I'm trying to express how much value I place in having someone (brother or otherwise) who can act as a training partner, sounding board and objective advisor, someone who you want to beat but for whom you can be just as happy when they win, even if it's you who has been beaten. Best of luck at Glencoe Steve, I have no doubt you'll complain of being either "goosed"/"shonkey" but I also have no doubt that'll you'll give it everything you have on the day.

Happy running.

*I feel I need to mention that my engagement is also a happy memory as it was pointed out to me last week this should probably have featured in the list of this "things that have happened to me since I last blogged" in my last blog post.

1,585 days later

It's been more than four years since I last wrote a blog on this site. I pretty much forgot it existed. I've been re-reading a post from August 2010 about stopping life as a "professional" triathlete and having another go at life - it was pretty pretentious but I suppose we only realise these things with hindsight. Maybe I'll read this post in my mid-30s and think, what a self-absorbed boob. It does make me worry slightly that people more self aware than myself might be thinking this at the time though.

Anyway, in my usual "stream of consciousness style" I thought I'd make an attempt at resurrecting this thing. Apologies for some of the slightly out of date livery. I'll get that changed as soon as I get to grips with the new blogger interface. Firstly, what's new? To those of you who actually know me you can probably skip this but, in a nutshell and in as close to chronological order as possible:

1. I quit triathlon
2. Promised myself I would do a variety sport to "stay fit and healthy"
3. Got place in London Marathon 2012
4. Started running, lots (number 2 was never going to happen)
5. Ran 2:28.30
6. Ran Hadrian's Wall in 14 hours and change
7. London 2013 in 2:28.01
8. Tried and failed to run Thames Path (no more ultra marathons, ever)
9. When back to teaching (didn't see that coming!)
10. Opened a running shop with my brother (he does all the work)
10. Ran two crappy marathons in 2014
11. Started training with Serpentine RC (one of the best training decisions I've ever made)
12. London 2015 in 2:26.40
13. Left teaching again (you couldn't make it up)
14. Nothing on TV today
15. Decided to start blogging again

That pretty much brings us up to date. You join me during the last gasps of the track season where my only real goal is to break 15 minutes for 5k. Thanks to a summer schedule of weddings and stag dos I've only had one crack at it so far (15.13 three days after a 48 bender at Sonar - I wish I could add that as an asterix to the results) and my second and last attempt is the Wimbledon 5k festival on the 19th August. After that it's back to the long stuff as I make sure I celebrate my 30th in style by running a PB at San Sebastian.

One rule I did have from way-back-when was always include a picture - unlike some of my other ramblings this one seems to have lasted the test of time somewhat better. This one's from a recent Fell Race in Bradwell courtesy of Front Runner (disclaimer: this is the running shop I part own and will be plugging... regularly). It was shortly before I lost 20 seconds on the leader over 200m downhill and prompted the organiser, a grisled Yorkshireman (is there any other type?) to comment, "son, you descend like Bambi on ice". I think it's a pretty good impression of an aeroplane to be honest.

Welcome/welcome back,
John