Seals Goatee: Build up to Edinburgh Marathon

Lows
The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of ups and downs both very high and very low. On the Tuesday (3^rd May) after my BGR reccy of leg two I did a short leg freshener of 4x 1K intervals as gradually increasing effort to keep them ticking over. Then on the Wednesday I fell ill nothing too bad just hot and cold with fatigue. Unfortunately this dragged on for a few days and with my predisposition to bouts of depression and the marathon looming just over two weeks away I started to get very low. Managed to get out for a run on the following Monday but it was a disaster, one of my usual 10 mile routes but a good minute a mile slower than usual and not one mile at marathon pace! My partner was having difficulty dealing with this low episode and since she had a job interview lined up for Thursday we decided it would be best if I stayed out of the way until after that. Camping within walking distance seamed the best solution, as it would mean time to think and still be able to have home comforts during the day. Additionally it meant I got a bit of cross-training in having to walk up the fell near the house to the tent just over two miles but still exercise.

Mini Tent on the Hay

The club interval session on Tuesday was a much better than the Monday run, though the old runners’ trots kicked in on the third repeat inducing some despondency. I decided to give Wednesday a miss and try to recuperate a bit more, though still very low and still off work at this point, though physically OK, mentally I was lost. Decided to tackle the same route on Thursday to see what improvement I’d made. We went a bit further than my Monday run as we started at the club house and I did some looping back to the slower runners. The first four miles or so we ran as a club then I kicked it in for the remaining seven managing to average 6:30 pace with 200m+ of climb so felt much better still a bit slow on the last three miles but a definite improvement.

How to get the mental side ready for the marathon?

The best thing I could think of doing was racing at Long Marton and Moorclose 10Ks to get my pace back and hope my endurance would hold from all the training put in so far this year. The plan was decided, so no running on Friday and a short 3.25 progressive run on Saturday: 6:44, 6:02, 5:32 and final quarter of a mile at 5:07 – a massive confidence boost ready for Sunday.

Long Marton 10K – Sunday 15^th May

The weather was poor with heavy showers and gusts; I hoped there would be a good turn out and some fast runners at this, the first running of the race. The trail section at about six to seven kilometres looked like it could be tricky in road shoes but I had no alternative. On arrival I spotted a few decent club runners most obviously with his bouncing locks of brown curls – Carl Bell of Howgill Harriers. As usual Carl dismissed his chances as he’d raced at Fairfield Fell race the previous day finishing in fourth! From the start he took off at his usual fast pace, the unknown being would he be able to maintain it or “blow up” as he himself admits happens a lot on road races. I let him and another three runners go as the pace was too strong for me, hoping some of them had set of too fast. By mile two I’d caught and past one of them, a junior from helm hill who finished in sixth place by the end. At mile three I’d passed another, this time from Hoad Hill Harriers. Carl and Stuart from Arragons Cumbria Tri Club were still a good distance a head, but although Carl was pulling further ahead on all the descents I was managing to maintain if not close the gap on the Stuart in second. The trail section was pretty tricky with a surface of wet slippy mud over a still solid under-surface; I think I lost about 20 seconds or so here due to lack of confidence on the terrain. After that section Carl was no where to be seen, his fell expertise showing; Stuart was about the same distance ahead and I started to close the gap then he kicked with just over a mile to go and was gone. Third was a very pleasing result especially after the previous week or so of disappointment. Although it measures long and has about 200m of climb, I’d highly recommend this friendly inclusive, child friendly event.

Third place abd a trophy!

Moorclose 10K – Tuesday 17^th May

Confidence coming back now so a 3.5 mile progressive leg freshener on the Monday ready for a PB attempt at Moorclose. The plan being to go out fast, stick it in until the turn, take the hill a bit easy and kick in again after the hill on the last two miles to the end, but not all out as need to be fresh for the Marathon all in all the plan was to run at about 5:45 pace with a target time of around 35:50.

Start of Moorclose 10K

There was an excellent turn out with 12 Derwent AC members there accounting for almost 10% of all the runners (126). Carl once again was racing his third in four days, this time I believed him when he said he wouldn’t do too well!

Derwent AC Posse after the race

Two surprise runners were Paul Watham from the up and running shop in Keswick who had run and finished 18^th in the Genève Marathon on Sunday and James Douglas who I had down as the winner! As it turns out James was just spectating after racing on Sunday in the Manchester 10K finishing 36^th in a PB time of 30:36. Though I’m sure if he‘d decided to have a “gentle run out” he’d have still won, that honour went to Phil Winskill of Keswick who once again looked strong in a time of 33:28.

Phil Winskill cruising...

Carl “blew up” this time dropping from first to fourth over the second half of the course falling nearly a minute behind Phil but still in a PB time of 34:22, one to watch on the roads in the future! I ran in the second pack for a while with Steve Angus who said at mile two he was going for seventh and seventh he got 26 seconds ahead of me in tenth in a PB time of 35:52 at pace of 5:44 so very pleased as almost bang on my target! Paul managed to hold onto eighth and then ran at Latrigg fell race on Wednesday taking it “easy” and finishing in tenth!

Now for Edinburgh

On consideration I decided not to run Latrigg fell race on Wednesday (18^th May) not because the distance or climb were too much before a marathon but because the injury risk on that course would be too great. Instead I joined Tri-Lakeland on a middling interval session of 6 x 400m. Ended up being 6 x 465m as the track was inaccessible on the school field due to cricket practice, so we ran round two football pitches instead. The first five were all around 88s with the last at 81s which felt good. Pilates afterwards was definitely a good decision! Thursday was a club run to mark out our next club race the Lambfoot Loop on Tuesday, I decided to run four of the miles at tempo treating it like an interval session as most of the marathon advice is taper yes, but keep the intensity there! Today is a rest day, tomorrow 2-3 miles at race pace then the Marathon on Sunday. The forecast isn’t good with a 15mph head wind predicted on the last six miles or so with up to 30mph gusts, that could cost me as much as 3mins so let’s hope it’s wrong as I’m not sure how my fragile mental state will handle a bad result!