Ham Running

With only one full day left, I thought it might be interesting to go back and look at the training plan.

Training Plan, as printed in February

Splodges in pink are sessions that I missed.  Splodges in green are sessions where I ran, although the exact style and distance may not be exactly as written in the plan.

So how did I do?

Overall I reckon I did fairly well.  I didn’t achieve every session, and I missed a few back at the end of April when I was travelling.

So, that just leaves tomorrow (Saturday).  My exercise tomorrow will be a walk to the barber’s, followed by the railway station, and then a walk back home.  I’m not going to run, I’m not going to be in running gear.  It’s just going to be a gentle walk to keep my muscles moving.

Apart from that, there’s not really any preparation left to do.  I have my running kit all set out, hanging up on a hanger in my wardrobe.  I’m as prepared as I’m going to be, whether that’s good enough or not!

Sunday

metoffice.gov.uk weather map for Sunday

On Sunday, I plan to get the 08:16 train from Polmont to Edinburgh.  I reckon that train is going to be full of marathon runners!  It is timetabled to get to Waverley at 08:49 – time enough to get my clothes packed into a bag and the bag labelled with my race number.  Then I’ll ditch the bag and try to find a loo.  And stay there until the start!

The weather is beginning to look just a little unpleasantly warm!  The Met Office’s picture shows 16°C, with forecasts showing 18°C.  Given that all my training has been in the winter months, that’s going to be a bit of a shock to the system.

So, that’s about it – here goes!

This is all starting to become rather real now.  Just look at the counter on the right-hand side of the page.  In a week from now, it will all be over.

If everything goes to plan, I shall be a member of that élite group – a Marathon Finisher!

Yet even as that goal looms large, everything could so easily go wrong.  I could fall off the pavement and twist my ankle.  I could be in a car accident – any number of random things could prevent me from taking part.  I just have to hope that everything goes smoothly, and I can face the 26.2 miles on my own terms next week.

My Race Number

Some exciting things happened last week – the most significant of course being that my race pack arrived!  This contained a couple of tablets you can use to turn water into an energy drink, a set of safety pins for pinning my race number onto my vest and – most importantly – my race number.

Now, this race number is in fact a remarkably high-tech thing.  The paper from which it is made is very light, yet water tolerant and tear-resistant.  It has clearly been printed just for me, because as well as the number it has my name, my wife’s name and her emergency contact number.  Just in case of any medical emergencies on the day.  Let’s not dwell on that!

The race number shows where I start (there are two separate starting points) and the colour of the background shows which “pen” I shall be starting in.

Wearing my MacMillan Polythene race top

When I was asked to predict my time, I went to the Runners’ World Time Predictor and typed in my time from the Alloa Half Marathon.  The predictor gave me a ludicrously optimistic time, to which I added a bit and gave that as my predicted time.  And today, I think that that time is still hopelessly optimistic… but it means I am starting with a bunch of others who think that they can run in that time!

On the back of the race number is a chip that is detected by the timing equipment.  This will be used to calculate my time from when I cross the start line to (hopefully) the finish line.

Finally, a tear-off slip at the bottom of the number will be my luggage label – used to let me load stuff onto a van at the start of the race and collect it when I finish.

All in all, a complex piece of paper!

I have also received my final race pack from Macmillan, including my polythene bag running top – something that can be worn to keep me warm until the race starts, and discarded at the start.  Like it?

At the risk of being over-prepared, I now have my race attire on a hanger.  I know exactly what I am going to wear.  On Saturday I am going to buy a railway ticket, I already know which train I want to get.

I don’t think I’ve ever been this prepared for anything in my life.

Now, how about training this week?

A solid week, four runs including a Parkrun yesterday.  I wore vest and shorts, and I froze!  Yet today, on my ten-mile marathon pace run, I cursed the heat.  Och well, it’s Scotland.  What can you expect?

14-20 May 2012

Week fourteen, and the first week of “taper”.  I’ve been waiting for these desperate pangs within me, the feeling that I really, really have to run lots more than I’m allowed… they haven’t started yet!

I managed three runs this week, the fourth disappearing in a maze of meetings on Thursday.

Tuesday saw the usual run from the office to Aberdour and back.  Nothin much to say about that.

Parkrun (photo by Leslie Stoddart)

After missing Thursday, Saturday saw me at the Falkirk Parkrun.  I arrived determined to stick to 9 minutes / mile.  But I found that I was running at about 8:10… and so I gave in and let myself run as I wanted.  I ended up at 24:00 for the 5km, clearly not keeping myself to marathon pace.

What was really nice about this was the folk from Life Fit Physiotherapy were also there.  They are a great bunch, very supportive of local running and giving free advice and help at Parkrun.  I asked about a niggle in my achilles tendons, and was given a quick check, a couple of stretches and some words of advice that make me feel much more confident about facing the upcoming marathon.  I am planning to  visit them for a deep tissue massage the day after the marathon; I suspect that I shall not be saying such nice things during the massage!

Today (Sunday) arrived and yesterday’s sunshine became nothing but a fond memory.  Yesterday it was vest and short shorts.  Today?  Full-length leggings and windproof jacket.  And the wind… as I said on facebook “If the weather is like this on marathon day, I’ll be sitting on the road crying!”

Me being stretched by Life-Fit Physiotherapy  (photo by Leslie Stoddart)

But, it was only a ten mile run.

There’s something I don’t think I would have said before this training started.  But it’s actually fairly true – it’s not a long run right now.  Six months ago, it was long.  Six months hence, it will be long.  But for now, it’s not… and nobody is more amazed about that than I am!

As an interesting aside, I looked up the definition of a “calorie” in terms of energy in food.  According to Wikipedia, it’s the energy required to raise the temperature of a kilogramme of water by 1°C.  As of last week, I had burned just over 40,000 calories in this training… which means that the energy I have burned could raise the temperature of one tonne of water by 40 °C!

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me – so far we are at the amazing total of £316.20!

07 – 13 May 2012

From the start, this marathon has been about me.  I’ve never pretended anything else.

But early on in the training, I asked whether I should use the event to try to raise some money for a charity, and the people I asked said that that was a good idea.

Macmillan Cancer Support

So, that’s what I am doing.

I have chosen MacMillan Cancer Support as the charity.  They do a great job in helping people through those aspects of cancer treatment that may not relate directly to the actual treatment itself – taking the time to explain what’s happening, answering the questions that occur to folk days after they’ve seen the doctor, helping people get to their treatment and know what’s happening to them, and so forth.

In a time when everything is heartache and confusion, they provide a solid point of reference that patients can use to rebuild their lives.

I posted a JustGiving link in the photograph where I said I was pausing the “Photo of The Day”, and the response has already been overwhelming.  I’m now going to publish the link officially:

http://justgiving.com/hamrunning

If you are in a position to make a donation, and would like to do so, then I would be most appreciative of any donation you can make.

But please do not feel under any pressure to do so – as I said at the very top, this is about me and has always been about me.

In all of the training plans I have seen, week thirteen is a critical week in the training process. It is the last week where the distance increases, and the start of the “taper” – the lead-in to the marathon itself.

A hiatus in the Photo Per Day

I started this week feeling very tired after spending week in the US and having my time zones all messed up.  One of the first things I did was to suspend my “Photo Per Day” project, that has been running since August 2010.  This project is just as its name implies, a photo taken each day and posted online.  But it takes about half an hour per day to process and post the pictures, and that’s time that I can’t afford if I’m going to do a marathon.  So reluctantly I decided to put it on hiatus for a few weeks, until the marathon is over.

After that, I got out for a couple of runs at lunchtimes, and covered a decent distance.

And then yesterday came the last long run.  Sadly, it wasn’t a 100% success.

The idea was that we would all go to visit friends who live near the village of Kirknewton, just outside Edinburgh.  Marie and the kids would go in the car; I would run.

Things started okay.  It was a lovely day – perhaps slightly warmer than I would have chosen, but pretty calm.  I was wearing the clothes I am planning to wear for the marathon, and I set out with high hopes.

Down Nicolton Road, and onto the canal (first mile done).  And from there, just continue eastwards along the Union Canal.

For that part of the run, things went really well.  I was probably running too quickly, but I was enjoying myself.

It was when I had to turn off the canal that things started to go wrong.

As I left the canal, I was at 125m.  Then it was straight into an unrelenting one-mile climb that went up fifty metres.  A sharp downhill through the country park to the bridge over the River Almond, and then straight back into a climb to 186m.

I managed to keep going through this section, but I knew I was tired.  I got out of the country park, and turned left.  I knew I had to turn right onto the B7031, but couldn’t see a signpost.  As I hit 18 miles, and realised that the street names suggested I had gone further than I should have, I realised I was in trouble.  I kept going for a little while, then doubled back on myself through an industrial estate, but I had already stopped a couple of times to try to make sense of my location using Google Maps on my phone.

When I stopped for the third time, I realised that all was lost, and I phoned up Marie to ask her to pick me up as she passed on her way to Kirknewton.

So… what do I take from this?

I am undoubtedly disappointed.  I got to the wall and found myself lacking.  Yet I ran a damned good nineteen miles.  Well, eighteen, anyway.  I had no crowd to cheer me on, no race-day adrenaline, and I had hills that won’t be present at Edinburgh.  I am probably not over the effects of last week’s travel, either.

I did some silly things on the run, too.  I mostly ran around 8:30/mile, where 8:50 would do just fine and not be quite so tiring.

All I can do now is follow the rules of the taper and build up my strength.  I have every determination I am going to run this Edinburgh marathon!

30-Apr – 06-May 2012

After last week’s bad organisation and insufficient quantity of runs, this time I got things right, right?

Well… almost.  After all, last week I only managed two tuns.  This week I turned in… well… erm… two runs.

Blush.

Wigwam at Strathfillan

This time, it was family holidays that got in the way of things, and since I enjoyed the holiday so much I am not going to apologise.  We spent a couple of evenings in the latter part of the week at the Strathfillan Wigwams campsite near Tyndrum, and that was once again not conducive to running.

However, at least this time I did manage my Tuesday run.  This was a slightly extended version of my normal run from my office to Aberdour and back, where I went for a detour through Dalgety Bay when I got back to the village.  It turned out that it was a little more of a detour than I had planned, too, as I managed to get lost on the way back!

West Highland Way view

And then we went away.  During our time away, we went for a wander along a part of the West Highland Way, an have decided that we want to “do” the full length of the walk.  I don’t quite know what the logistics will be, but rest assured that there is a project to come after the marathon is complete.

If I ever learn to walk again.

We arrived back from Strathfillan fairly late on Saturday.  A frantic evening of unpacking and feeding the washing machine followed, with very little thought from me about what the following day – Sunday – was to bring.

What it was to bring was of course a long, slow run (LSR).  Except – arrogant fool that I was – I thought that that wasn’t quite good enough for me.  I wanted to give myself confidence that I was going to be able to sustain a sub 9 minutes/mile pace for a marathon, and my plan was that I would do that by doing 20 miles at that pace today.  So I would run to the canal as a warm-up, then run ten miles eastwards to Winchburgh.  I would turn round and run ten miles back, then I would ask the long-suffering Mrs Ham to collect me from the canal.

Hmm… so, I was careful about what I ate last night, and drank lots to ensure I was well hydrated?

Sadly, no.

The LSR started okay, and I even put my GPS tracker on for the warm-up mile to the canal.  I ran at a sub-nine minute pace to Winchburgh, except for a mile where I stopped twice, once to remove some leaves that had gotten into my sock and once to take a photograph.

I reached the bridge at Winchburgh, and turned round.  Still I felt okay, and kept running, though the weather was becoming very warm.  I drank from the little hand-carry bottle I had, and started wondering if I should have had more to drink before leaving the house this morning (I had had very little because I didn’t want to have to stop to pee on the route!)

Saltface

I was able to carry on at a decent pace for the sixteen miles.  But miles seventeen, eighteen and nineteen all came in a full minute slower than the previous sixteen.  And then things really started going bad.

Miles twenty and twenty-one were hellish.  I was knackered, I was walking as much as running and wondering why the hell I was trying to do a marathon.  At least I managed to get back to running for the final half mile or so, but I was knackered.

When I got home, I did keep wondering why my daughter was looking at me so strangely.  It was only when I got to the bathroom for a post-race bath that I realised I had acquired a “salt face”, from the sweat evaporating from my cheeks.

So… lessons?

1. I’m not smarter than the training plan.  I should just have faith in it, and not try to measure my abilities before the race itself
2. I should be properly hydrated and properly nutrited, erm nutritioned, erm… fed before I go out
3. This is my first marathon; I should not be aiming for a time.  Completion will be enough!