London Marathon 2018 Part 3 - Spring Training and Race Prep

In a nutshell my spring training for the 2018 London Marathon went a little like this....

Jan
55 miles
61 miles
71 miles
82 miles
Feb
101 miles
71 mile (Wokingham Half Marathon 74:52)
110 miles
90 miles
March
101 miles
101 miles
105 miles
102 miles (inc a windy/wet York parkrun in 17:11)
April
97 miles (inc Salisbury 10 mile race, 6th place in 55:46 & a new PB)
64 miles (inc Poole parkrun in 16:37 for another PB!)
62 miles (Taper week with marathon)

The basic structure of the training was high mileage with a weekly or so 60-70 minute steady run around 80-85% maximum heart rate. I also slotted in a few parkruns as shorter but harder training runs. There should also have been a 20 mile race in early March as I was selected to run for Hampshire in the Inter-counties 20 mile match as part of the Essex 20 race near Southend, but the 'Beast from the East' snow put pay to that race (and many others) and I didn't find an alternative.

Although my time at Wokingham was a little disappointing, it was after only 6 weeks back into regular running post achilles injury rehab, so it might be expected. However by the time I ran Salisbury in April I was confident I was back into sub 2hr 30 marathon shape and raring to go. I also track my heart rate efficiency, the average number of beats per mile of each run, and this number had been progressively dropping from well over a 1000bt/mile in Janurary down to 920-30bt/mile by the start of April. The value estimated by my Garmin watch for my Vo2Max (maximum volume of oxygen my blood can carry) had also risen from 66-67 to 70-71%, A number which I have some trut in as it's matched with accurate lab testing in the past.

Running sub 5:30 miles at the start of the Salisbury race

Then the weather threw another curveball and from up to 10 days out from the London raceday it was looking likely that it was going to get unseasonably warm. I'd not done any adapation work for the possibility of higher temperatures on race day, such as running overdressed (either outdoors or on a treadmill) or extended sauna sessions. So implemented a hasty plan of daily(ish) overdressed treadmill 3-4M runs followed straight away by at least 30 mins in a hot (100C+) sauna. This was not a lot of fun, but may have had it's benefits.....

My London marathon weekend is a well practised routine of Expo visit on Friday afternoon to collect my number (and catch up with the guys from Alton Sports!), then back to my brother's place in High Wycombe for Friday & Saturday night. My last pre-race run was Wycombe Rye parkrun which I usually do moderately hard (feels worse due to the lack of carbohydrates eaten during taper week, largely to get my weight down as much as possible). This year this translated into a 18:08 & first finisher, which was probably a bit exuberent, but not damaging for the following day.

Up the lovely steps halfway through the parkrun!

My brother had come to parkrun too and afterwards we got in a final half hour sauna session in the Lido complex right at the finish to parkrun! I was also testing out one final attempt at dealing with the higher temperatures (forecat now up to 23C) - shaved legs and arms, which felt super nice with a cooling breeze! Then it was just a case of getting the carbs in through the rest of Saturday, get a racing hair cut, prepping race kit and getting to bed (and a bit of playtime with my 9 month old neice!).

Race Day Nutrition Planning (and carb loading!)

2018 Race kit ready to go

London 2018 Part 2 - ....and the rest of 2017

Through a lot of the training build up to the 2017 London marathon I'd been increasingly aware of something not quite right with my left ankle. I had no issues when running, but after I'd been sitting down for a while, when i got up my left achilles would be very tight and painful to walk on for a few yards before freeing up anf feeling normal to walk on again. I realised I was developing a painful region on the tendon which eventually became a noticable lump. As I could still run with relatively little discomfort I continued training. I found that by introducing eccentric/concentric heel drop and raise exercises after each run it helped to reduce the stiffness/discomfort which I was experienceing after rest. My train of thought was that if I could get manage it ok through to the marathon then a decent rest and training reduction after that would hopefully sort it out. The cuouple of months or so post London involved travel for work (to Mexico City!), 2 trips to Cornwall and a week in Scotland, so my running was fairly on/off and whenever I could fit it in. Running in Mexico City was fun, althought the altitute made it hard work and the UK holiday trips gave oppotunities to run in some beautiful places, including the South West Coast Footpath and the West Highlands. the downside to this was the inherent lumpiness of the trails I was running on, which my achilles did not like!

Beautiful Running Scenery in the West Highlands of Scotland

By June I was pretty unfit (due to sporadic running), heavy (post marathon food bingeing) and had an achilles which still did not feel in good shape! I'd knocked the running volume back and was enjoying getting out on my bike, in the pool and open water swimming at Ellingham Lake (6am Wednesdays!), but the heel drop/raise exercises I was doing weren't really getting on top of the achilles issue. So I got an appointment to see Rob Edmondson at Therapeutics Physiotherapy in Eastleigh. 

I've seen Rob on and off for a number of years and he's be great at getting my running related issues sorted. He diagnosed a chronic tendinopothy and we looked at how to manage loading the tendon. Left along the tendon was unlikely to heal well as it doesn't have it's own blood supply, so we needed to figure out how to load the Achilles enough to promote a healing process but not overload it and do further damage. Contrary to rational thinking my achilles was actually happier running at at faster paces! The thinking goes along the lines of the faster speed means the foot is in contact with the ground for a short period of time per stride and so the overall 'loading' time on the tendon is less. So I ended up doing interval sessions with walking recoveries. The basic rule of the injury rehab was to do active loading on the tendon a minimum of 24 hours apart, to allow the breakdown/repair cycle to take place. The active loading activities consisted of 'loaded' heel drop/raise sets (3x8-10) with increasing weight in a rucksack and fast pace running workouts with interval lengths depending on how the tendon reacted. I filled in for the reduced run volume with swim and bike work (which was very nice riding in the New Forest through the summer). This continued for a couple of months, but my achilles didn't really show much sign of resolving, with a sore lump still present on the tendon. I stopped running completely from mid Auust to September and still things didn't seem to get better.

So in September I took the decision to get a consultant appointment to get the injury reviewed. This coincided with starting a new job after 12 years with my previous company, so there was a fair amount of upheaval with work travel and getting into a new working week routine. The consultant (Dr Mark Wotherspoon, also team doctor for England Cricket) got the tendon ultrasound scanned which confirmed Rob the physio's diagnosis of a chronic mid-portion achilles tendinopothy. The scan images looked a right mess of clearly not nice and straight collegen fibres😟. The recommendation was to get back and continue working with Rob to progressive try and get the tendon to heal through controlled loading, but it might take months even years to get back to normal, not great news. We considered Shockwave therapy, but Dr. Wotherspoon was uncertain whether it would help given the chronic and not acute nature of the injury (Shockwave is more for pain elleviation).

Back at Therapeutics with Rob an updated action plan was devised based on the Consultation feedback. I could run, but needed to determine how much the tendon could tolerate. So we started with a simple 'Couch to 5k' run/walk apporach, starting with 6x(4'30" Walk/30" Run), increasing the run segments by 30" & reducing the walks by 30" every other day. Then loaded heel drop/raises on the other days and as much road bikes as I could fit in commuting etc...

This seemed to do trick after a couple of weeks the tendon discomfort (to touch) was greatly reduced, but still with a pronounced bump. It was good enough that I could switch to short fast runs again and I ran East Coast parkrun in Singapore, while away for work in October, with no problems or reaction from the tendon. I did a couple more 5x1M speed sessions (walk recoveries) while in Singapore, supplementing with hotel gym cross-trainer time. 

parkrun - Singapore Style - 8am, 29DegC & 95% Humidity!

Through October and November I stuck to keeping the runs well spaced and mostly done at speed with walking warm-ups/cool-downs and recoveries between intervals. The weekly mileage hovered around the 20 mile mark. I was getting very regimented with my heel drops/raises, doing unloaded sets after every run and every day before bed. I also experiented with some different shoes (thanks to Scott @ Alton Sports in Eastleigh for sharing a few of his pairs with me to try out, luckily we're the same foot size!) and found I got on very well with the Adidas Supernova. Up to then I had routinely run in lightweight shoes, with the Adidas Boston Boost and New Balance 1400 being the favourites. The Supernovas, especially when worn with Superfeet insoles for extra heel support, really felt like they helped my injury, probably by not making it worse! I've continued to use the Supernovas (with insoles) into 2018 spring marathon training and do think that they have contributed my general lack of injuries since January 

Coming to the end of 2017 by early December the lump on my tendon was noticably reduced in profile and any tenderness had largely gone. The Christchurch Christmas Pudding 10k was my first proper race (barring parkruns) since London the previous April and I was very happy to run just over 37mins in iffy wet and windy conditions, felt strong too. I suspect the focus on fast running intervals had actually given me reasonable 10k fitness! So as Christmas approached a final Physio check-up gave the all clear to start, cautiously, increasing weekly mileage into spring marathon training....

London 2018 Part 1 - Look Back on the 2017 Race

I've got out of the way of posting much on my blog for a while now, but there's lots to say so with the London Marathon looming this weekend I thought I'd post a series of updates on what I've been up to since the 2017 race. 2017 was very definitely a year of two contrasting halves....First up is a very late review of VLM17!

2012 to 2017 -  Under 2:30 after 7 goes...

I had a pretty much perfect day by all accounts, breaking the 2 1/2 hr barrier in 2:29:30. Encouraged by Ryan Snell of Exmouth Harriers I'd decided that this year was going to be an all or nothing approach.  I've run fairly conservatively to HR for a few years and ended up with a string of 2:33/2:34's and really didn't just want to churn out another... I also have to give a hat tip to club mate Henry Swinzto at New Forest Runners, he originally seeded the idea in my mind that you don't know your limits until you step over the edge!

A strong run on the lumpy Salisbury 10M race (for 2nd place, it was a warm day) 2 weeks previous had showed that the aerobic engine was in good shape. My last few double digit runs a week out were well below 7m/M so I had confidence that the potential for a fast time was there.

I ticked off a now well rehearsed 1 week taper with a combo of short (3-4M) easy runs, some 'MP' treadmill strides (eg 4-8x200m@17kph) and a daily sauna session (to encourage heat adaptation), plus a quickish progressive parkrun (18:39) the day before. I did the trip to ExCEL to collect my race number(s) on the Friday before and then heading to my Brother's place in High Wycombe for Friday & Saturday night. Everything went smoothly getting to the start and I was great to meet up with the usual suspects for pre-race chat and banter in the UK Club Championship start area.

The weather was ideal for a marathon, overcast and 11-12C with only light winds, The plan was to run 17:45 5k's up to 30km or so and then hopefully be able to hang on for the final stint. The start was a bit of a manic weave-fest with Ryan and George King from Winchester AC, but a few miles in and things had settled down and we'd tag on with a good few other sub2:30 aspirants. The first 5k ultimately was a bit quick in 17:28 with the downhill and by 10k the margin under target had grown to 30s with a 17:38. Honestly in the first 6M I was seriously wondering if I'd bitten off too much, but I'd taken all the HR stats off my Garmin and just focused on the pace. Thankfully as the miles progressed my legs settled in nicely. 

10-15k passed spot on in 17:45 and around that point I found myself drifting forwards into and to the front of the next big group of runners. 15-20k was 17:47 and I started to get the inkling that this could be a good day, but it was a bit early to tell and my mind see-sawing a bit from the positive to the negative going through half way in 1:14:25 and 20-25k in 17:44. A bit of a headwind going south through the Isle of Dogs was enough to push thoughts towards the 'well a PB will be just as nice' but thankfully the crowds around Canary Wharf rallied my mind. 25-30k clocked at 17:51 and the 'av lap time' (using manual splits) on my watch told me I was still on 5:41/M pace, so it was game on at 20M with 30ish secs still in the bank.

30-35k (17:50) was when the mental fight kicked in, my legs were slowly voicing their displeasure louder and louder, nothing critical in terms of cramp potential or the like, just resistance to the task at hand. Going along the Highway through mile 22 the field was becoming quite spread out which made it tougher still. Somewhere in the 23rd mile the thought popped into my head (with the actual pace showing 5:42) that 'that's a decent outing', to which another part of my mind retorted back, 'you don't get the kudos for running a good 23M...there's less than a parkrun to go, GET ON WITH IT...' 

Daddy's Big Shiny Medal!

35-40k was my slowest (admittedly not by much) split of 17:52, but the target margin was down to <10secs.... With only a couple of miles to go finally the conviction that this was going to be the day really started to kick in and it had a rallying effect on my pace with the last 2.2km averaging 5:39/M. The run up Birdcage walk seemed to go on forever counting down the 1km, 800m, 400m, 385yd(!) markers to the turn into the Mall. Sighting the finish line clock at 2:29:0x, for a moment I wasn't sure I'd get there in under a minute! Crossed the line elated and got down to kiss the tarmac in respect. Job done and massively happy 😁 Beers were thoroughly enjoyed on the pavement outside The Red Lion pub on Whitehall 🍻

THe post race elation lasted a fair while and to be fair I wasn't sure I'd have the motivation to try and repeat the feat, however the rest of 2017 didn't go very well running wise....

A selection of reasonably fast Dorset/Hampshire Marathoners

Winter Cross Ultra 50k - The Ultimate MPCR*

After a lack lustre Christmas Eve Parkrun (18:30, a minute down on 2 weeks previous), I was having doubts about the sensibility of the post Christmas trail 50k (Seoond Wind Running's Winter Cross Ultra), but with the option to call it quits at 30k I figured it would be a decent long run either way.... 

A 5am start this morning was a bit of a rude awakening to say the least and it was pretty cold to boot. This was my first 'proper' Ultra event with indoor aids stations, food (inc minces and mulled wine) so unsure of the expected routine with such things I resorted to type and just ran non-stop!

Thankfully it was just getting light as we were led out at 7:30 for the start, so no need for head torches. The race gets it's name from the shape of the course, consisting of a north, east, west & south out & back leg (if you are doing the full 45 mile version, strike the south bit for the 50k). The initial north bound section was an easy 9k along an old railway line (i.e. flat), which served as a good shakeout and left me in a group of 3 at the front, although the other two were in for the full 45 miles. It was into and out for the race HQ and on to the east leg 2.

On the way out on leg 2, at top of Old Winchester Hill

An undulating mile or 2 later and I hit the first serious climb of the day up Old Winchester Hill on the South Downs Way. The top was reached without too much hassle and then down the other side. A bit of farmland meandering and it was up climb 2 of leg 2, a delightful chalky gully up between two fields, which left me thinking that will be fun on the way back.... Reached the checkpoint at the end of the leg and was still on sub 7:30/M av pace and feeling pretty good. Turned around and was pleasantly surprised by the gap back to the 2nd place runner which was up to a couple of minutes. The return run was uneventful, although by the the time I can down off O' Winchester Hill my feet were beginning to sting with hotspots quite badly and there was the definite possibility of a decent blister forming on my left ankle... non-stop through race HQ again and out on to the last leg.

The pace had crept above 7:30 by this point and I was wondering what I would be able to sustain from 19 to 31 miles. A quick jog through he village of Meonstoke and then it was on to the piece de resistance of the course, a 2km uphill drag on tarmac to the top of Beacon HIll. It was head down and work time! By the top my upper legs were giving me a lot of gyp, but I carried on, getting close to "one foot infront of the other" mode. The next 4 or so miles undulated along farmtracks and road and I just tried to ignore the pain in my feet and hip flexors.

The final checkpoint, with 6ish miles to go eventually appeared and turning back revealed that the next runners were in sight (but I neglected to note if they were 45M or 50K entrants). This spurred me on, although my legs didn't really respond to any requests for acceleration... A great aspect of the race was that you pass a lot of the other runners as you come back towards HQ, which proved much needed motivation and support.

By the time I reached the start of the descent back to Meonstoke from Beacon Hill, I was past caring about whether I could hold on to first place, I just wanted to stop running! I got back the hill with no issues, but there was one final stumbling point, the only stile on the whole course, strategically positioned with half a mile to go. My quads had nearly cramped up climbing over it on the way out and I was praying they would play ball on the way back too. Thankfully my left quad almost went, but I straightened it just in time to save a painful hobble to the line!

At this point I was happy that the win was in the bag and as an added bonus the whole family (parents included) were waiting just before the finish to loudly encourage me on. Over the line in 4hrs 7mins to take the overall 50k win (and default course record, only because it was the inaugural race!). Took a while to get changed as my legs and feet were in a bit of a state, prize giving was quick and then it was off for a dirty great big burger and pint of ale in the village pub to refuel. Overall a great event and really well organised. Think I'll have a day off tomorrow though.

*Mince Pie Compensation Run :-)

Marathon Training While Travelling (inc videos)

I got back to the UK the weekend just gone from a 2 week work trip to North America. Running while away on business is always interesting as I love being able to get out and explore new places, and this enables you to cover more distance/areas than if you just walk (and you miss lots if you drive everywhere I find!). It also makes planning marathon training a bit more challenging!

The trip was pretty varied, starting off with a week in Houston, Texas, where the temperatures were nicely in the range of 15-25DegC, before flying up to Calgary, Alberta the second week, with a overnight excursion to Edmonton (3hrs drive north). The temperature differential was stark, from +25 in Texas to hovering around freezing in Canada, there was even snow...

Houston involved mostly running from my hotel to the approx 3 mile running loop at Memorial Park, which is very popular with Houstonians, as most of the city is dominated by cars and quite frankly a bit rubbish for running in! The track circles a golf course/parkland and is hard pack gravel. It makes a perfect marathon training circuit, plus there are lots of other runners so the atmosphere is great :-) There is also a local trail running club which meets in the park to run offroad, the Houston Area Trail Runners (http://www.trailrunninghouston.com/), but I didn't get a chance to meet up with them on this trip.

The run below is typical of the "Sub Lactate Threshold" work I've been doing in this springs marathon training campaign. It consists of 10mins Easy running followed by 70mins at "SubLT" heartrate (approx 155-160 for me currently) and a short cool down. More on the general training approach I am using in the near future.....Note for this run I was coming straight from a work meeting, so just drove to the park and started on the running track (saves the 2 miles of concrete sidewalks and busy intersections from the hotel!)

I also got the chance to explore the pathways and trails along the Buffalo Bayou slightly further out to the west of the city. This was pleasantly surprising as along side the tarmac bike path that runs the length of the Bayou, there is also an decent amount of lovely dry single-track trails to run on, some quite technical in places.

So on to Calgary in the second week, I had been there before so was very familiar with the extensive network of pathways along either side of the Bow River, so spent the majority of my runs doing different combos of distance/bridge crossing etc.. It was quite hard work to start with and then after a day or two I remembered that the city sits at an altitude of 3,000ft, which isn't massively high, but probably enough to be felt during exercise. Here's a on-the-run video of clips taken with my Garmin Virb Elite camera one evening, it's just a rough edit so it's a bit long, feel free to skip through!

Towards the end of last week I then drove up to Edmonton for an overnight stay. It was a bit colder in Edmonton (-5 or so in the mornings) and there was quite a bit of snow on the uncleared pathways by the North Saskatchewan River (which was frozen over). It took a bit of getting use to running on snow and ice! I did another run vid with the Virb camera, this time with some of the HR/GPS data it records overlaid on top.
Apologies for the shakiness of the footage, it was shot handheld (the Calgary one is on a telescopic pole which steadies it a lot)

On my last morning before flying home I was running down to the river in Edmonton when I came across a good 100 or so runners doing hill reps at 6:30am, turns out it was a club called the November Project (http://november-project.com/edmonton-ab-canada/) who run 3 times a week in the city, whatever the weather (down to -30C sometimes!!!). I jumped in for a single up and down, there was even someone taking pictures halfway up...

Overall a decent couple of weeks training, on the return from an ankle sprain about a month ago, with 97 and then 103 miles. Including a good sprinkling of Sub-LT workout runs (one in a 20 miler).The second week was compressed into 5 days, which wasn't great and left me pretty tired. But I assumed that with the flight home and associated jet lag that running at the weekend probably wasn't going to happen!

XMiles.co.uk Brand Ambassador Announcement

I'm very happy to announce that I have been selected to be a brand ambassador for the awesome endurance running website and online store XMiles.co.uk, from the website;

"XMiles are proud to announce Alistair Pickburn is joining the Brand Ambassador program, the program has been created to give something back to the sport we love and provide support to athletes during the calendar year. Our aim as an independent running nutrition store is to support and be active in the running community.

Supported by XMiles, the full team will be a community of amateur athletes who follow the XMiles ethos of supporting individuals and teams in challenges without barriers of ability.

The program is part of an initiative from XMiles to support athletes and events at grass roots.

Al is joining XMiles as a Brand Ambassador in 2016. Keep up to date with his approach and progress with training for this year’s London Marathon. Following a string of good marathon performances in 2014 & 2015, Al is looking to modify things quite a bit from previous years to see if a change of training approach can help him break the 2:30 barrier. This includes changing some aspects of his diet and nutrition including introducing concepts from Renee McGregor's book 'Training Food'.

Watch out for his blogs on XMiles and on his own blog including a look at his 2016 targets/training approach, reports from some key races leading up to the marathon and the results/analysis of recent lactate threshold & VO2 max lab tests he has taking part in."

(link to announcement on XMiles.co.uk).

Set up and run by fellow athlete, Anthony Clark (Bournemouth Athletic Club, marathon PB 02:30:06 London 2015), XMiles.co.uk is based in Dorset. XMiles is a vibrant young company formed by runners focused on nutrition products, advice and guidance for endurance sports. They are committed to sharing knowledge and experiences whilst supporting individuals and teams in challenges without barriers of ability.

Whilst growing a brand that will be recognised for excellent customer service and connections with the roots of our sport,  XMiles aims to support runners of all levels along their journey, whether they are attempting 1 or 100’s of miles over one or many days.

Xmiles stocks a great range of some of the best nutritional products for exercise, including my personal favorites for race nutrition; Gu & Cliff Shot Gels. I'm also a fan of the Beet-It sport shots and Nuun electrolyte tabs. The full range of brands in the store are shown below

Xmiles has a great loyalty rewards scheme, sign up and each £ spent gets you a reward point, £500 points = £5 off in the store. You can sign up by following this link

I'm really looking forward to my involvement with XMiles and contributing to the online running community surrounding it! 

New Socks

Every since I bought my first pair of Injinji running toe socks (on a whim in a branch of REI whilst on a work trip to the US last year), I've been really impressed with the comfort of them for pretty much all runs, including long ones and races.

So pushed the button yesterday on an order from www.ultramarathonrunningstore.com for a couple of run 2.0 'lightweight' and a pair of 'original weight' no-show (i.e. low profile) Injinji's. The lightweight's may well be a contender for replacing the Faulke RU5 socks I've generally used for racing over the past couple of years... Come in a nice range of colors too!