Pacing responsibly

Richmond Half Marathon

22.03.2015
Day 341

A pacing day, Richmond Half Marathon for sub 2hrs, got them in around 1:58 (about 8.58 m/m),  then walked/jogged another 7 or so to make this a 20mile Slow Run day

You feel such a duty of care for the runners you're pacing. I must have looked at my watch about a dozen times a mile, trying to keep the pace steady. I fluctuated between 8:40 and 9:10 minute miles, but was all the time worrying about the efficacy of my Garmin. The very worst thing would be not to make the two hours, but  I am sure I erred on the faster side. The main problem was that I had no-one to check in with, since I was the sole pacer at this speed. The last few miles the people who were trying to keep me in their sights were puffing like trains. The last 400m I urged the runners to surge forward and sprint past me. I do hope that all the PB chasers were happy. I was certainly cheerful and encouraging, coaching as much as I could to keep them comfy. Perhaps they found that irritating? I'll never know, but I did receive plenty of thanks in the aftermath, so that made me feel good.
For myself, I had a few bladder issues that made me fret about comfort in a month's time. This morning my attempt to add more miles was compromised by the generous goody bag that I was carrying, but I jogged them, very slow, and considered this to be a Time On Your Feet run. Certainly was on my feet for 24 miles, as had to walk quite far to find a bus worth catching (nothing until Wandsworth). Ate most of goody bag goodies in the attempt.

The baby boost effect

Chloe's getting faster, the granny on the left is not

21.03.2015
Day 340
Hillyfields Parkrun, with a couple of miles tacked on to boost the weekly total (44 this week, but need to peak at 55)
Hilly Fields parkrun results for event #137. Your time was 00:23:49. 

That's a Kent AC buddy, Chloe, whose second child is now two. She shot past me on the hill this morning and recorded a new Hillyfields Parkrun PB. Watching her lean, strong form pull away from my (admittedly hungover) puffing one, I pondered the oft-cited Baby Boost effect. It's often brought up in admiring pieces about Jo Pavey, whose gold medals and personal best records came post 40, post baby number two, amid much whooping for joy from athletic mothers across the land.
What is the Baby Boost? Briefly, it's the effect in the huge increase of red blood cells in the pregnant woman's body. Although the cell count goes back to normal after giving birth, the beneficial effects on strength and stamina seem to endure. There's also talk of better lung capacity after running around carrying about 26lb extra weight, a more relaxed mental attitude (nothing, not even winning, is more important than your children) and better organisation (you become a more focused, more efficient runner if you're on a strict deadline imposed by maternal duties).
Having never run, seriously, before I was a parent (although I alway remember being pretty good at enduring the cross country at school), I don't know whether giving birth three times and being a (very dutiful and energetic!) mother for  for the past 26 years has done much for my running, but if Chloe and another young track mum, Sheryl, are anything to go by, I'd say the baby boost does exist, among ordinary mortals as well as elite athletes. It's a question I shall put to my Buggy Runners in the coming months.

Spring into action

Media's out in force for an eclipse glimpse

20.03.2015
Day 339

Rest/coaching day: cycle, walking and home-based strength training

The day waxed dark and cool as the moon apparently passed over the sun for the first time since 1999. Sadly, cloud cover put paid to many sharp intakes of breath, but the crowds gathered at the observatory, for to observe the gathering gloom. An American newsman spoke to camera about the excitement about nothing.
Meanwhile, I had eleven mamas and babies to put through their paces. I tried splitting them into two teams for resistance band biceps, alternated with lunges, with a sprint and high-five and stretch in the middle. I shall make them do it again next week, in the hope they become familiar with those sorts of intervals.
I also had the longrunners/short runners sprint and steps, which I'd worked out last week. That seemed quite good.
I have succumbed to media events and drinking this evening, which is bad, as I am supposed to be off the sauce until the marathon, and it's Parkrun tomorrow. I shall hate myself in the morning, but provided I make it to Hillyfields and run, there will be an endorphin-based reward.
Perhaps only one drink, tonight.

All that is not solid melts into air

Erik and Peeping Tom

from my tempo run riverward

19.03.2015
Day 338
Erik session: ball slams, blades, up and over, balance, touch down and peeping Tom; followed by 8 mile tempo run, 8.15-8.45 m/m

The blog I had already written for today has melted into thin air, so now I am hacked off. It was not solid enough. I'm amused by the names Erik gives to his various exercises. Peeping Tom is a running backward and forward, with lunge, as if peeping over someone's sill and running away when they catch sight of you, but backwards, for the glutes. Mine certainly ache, but I don't think it was Peeping Tom that caused it, more like the somewhat gruelling run afterwards. I have tried to eat a lot more protein today, to feed the muscles, because I feel those, too are melting into air, and leaving my tired unelastic flesh, falling away from the bone, as it inevitably will do, with time.

Weightlessness

Rufus weight traning

18.03.2015
Day 337
A recovery run of two miles, to and from the pool, (28 lengths). Cycled up to Forest Hill to godmother's care home.

For weeks I've been vowing to swim weekly; I am indeed a weakly swimmer, but I enjoy the trance like state it puts me in, the weight off my feet, and the challenge every minute of trying to perfect my two strokes (every other length is a mixture: starting boldly in front crawl, elegant while I can keep my head underwater, but once lifting my face to breathe, losing the rhythm and lapsing into awkward breast stroke).
I try not to do 'lady' breast stroke, as if I am worried about my hairdo, instead dunking whole head under every second or third stroke.
All this is achieved at a pace that's faster than the slow lane swimmer, but my style is too inept to be anywhere but the slow lane.
Coming to the shallow end at around length 15, I noticed the person who'd been powering up and down the fast lane when I first arrived. She was a very large woman; obese, in fact. Her shoulders and upper arms were like hams, her bosom and stomach hung and bulged under her capacious swimsuit, she had an apron of stomach that reached to mid thigh.
In the water she had been arrow straight and graceful, non splashy. If I were her, I'd be so proud of my water baby ability. It was sad to see her haul herself up the steps and roll towards the showers, ungainly again. She would not be able to run home, but she is at home in the pool.

Being a strong old bird

Distracted by daffodils

Erik works the chain

17.03.2015
Day 336

An our working the kinetic chain with Erik. Cycling to Greenwich for a Buggy Runner debrief with Ellie. Kent AC this evening: session – 1m warm up, 4m round Ladywell Fields, 1m warm down. Pollution is bad today - feel it in the chest.

Having barely noticed the 30 miles I ran over the weekend while admiring Scottish views and digesting unwonted treats, I'm back on the bread-and-vegetables Rift Valley diet, in Lewisham,  but, sadly, unable to do that mileage. Elle and I discussed the Kenyan manner of running. They have perfect upward and outward leg action, with the heel flicks we can only achieve when we're consciously drilling them, and slowly at that. Their leanness and iron musculature has been both honed by train, eat, sleep, repeat but it's also present from childhood, before that, it's in their genetic code. We can admire, and attempt to mimic, but to attempt that mileage would be nuts.
So I train with Erik, who tells me I need to work my kinetic chain. He has me stepping back onto my heel to stretch my calf, then shows how my back leg invariably moves outward to one side.
Later, Ellie explains how hormonal upheavals (pregnancy, breastfeeding, and, later, the menopause) makes us gather fat under our arms, around our hips and stomachs. The fat is there to be used. As we age, the fat dissipates but the skin dangles. It is, though, possible still to build muscle post menopause. Getting outside, doing those reps, both Erik style circuits and reps of the running track, can still help us grannies look better in their clothes. I wish I could look better in photos. I am not too troubled by my body when it's naked, it seems ok, in that there's not too much of it. Once clothes are on though, lumps appear I wish weren't there. And why does a menopausal woman's face look big? It's probably the jowelly droop.
No need to obsess, though, about the skin deep, it's the skeleton and muscle mass that should concern me, and the fact that I could train it to move faster. Big face or no big face.

A temporary lull

My thinking tree

16.03.2015
Day 335
Stiff from trying to sleep in sitting position until 6.30am, then sitting at desk all day. A short walk to stretch legs and think a bit

Melancholy return to cold, wet London, and a day spent writing up the piece about My Highland Fling.
When the cortisol/ghrelin/glum overload has been dissipated by a proper sleep and a pulling of self together, the Training Seriously will resume in earnest. I am already looking forward to following that Two Half Marathons in Two Days at Marathon Pace advice, offered by Fraser Clyne
Onward and upward.