Neither. We fell into the usual trap of the mediocre and quietly poodled along during the Pandemic. Thankfully we were safe and well, but I view the approaching end of lockdown with a spate of mild anxiety and trepidation.
To help, we thought it would be a good idea to come up with a list of events and things that represent unfinished business from the last couple of years. Either through life getting in the way, that darned virus stopping our social plans or pure laziness.
Admittedly most of that list involves imbibing or eating something. All is as it should be.
Separately, a few things happened over lockdown that I took personally. Some could say I’m holding a grudge…?????
5k training programmes. 5k training sucks.
Just training and no racing. Training is the worst.
Coronavirus in general.
5G.
Costa coffee owes me a coffee (this was actually a while ago, but it still hurts).
Of all the distances, I find 5k the most unpleasant and the hardest to crack. Maybe the second half of 2021 will be different? The other items are too personal to provide more detail or are rampantly self-explanatory (stupid Costa).
It’s good to have a list of things to do. It helps you motivate yourself, plan, focus and breakdown seemingly difficult problems into digestible actions. Or, as per usual, we’ll turn up like always with no training and without a hope. I might be getting a little old for this approach though!
Ever wondered what the worst prep for running might look like?
Got to love a dopamine rush.
One of the reasons I like running so much is how you feel afterwards. A general sense of being uplifted, of satisfaction, maybe even of fulfilling some kind of purpose. During lockdown this has been even more important; to find an outlet during the doom and gloom. However, things are starting to look up with a successful vacccine roll-out. Maybe we’ll even see some proper racing in the second half of the year? None of that time trial nonsense that we’ve had to engage in.
But what did 2020 teach us? Things are never as rosy as they seem and disaster looms on the horizon. One should plan for all eventualities in the bleak chance that unholy promise is fulfilled. In that spirit, my “friends” came up with a challenge: can they ruin running for me?
They categorised a few areas to target:
Nutrition
Preparation
Accompanying music
Nutrition for me can take many forms. I don’t necessarily hold onto any specific routine before a race or a run, but lots of carbs is usually what I resort to. If anyone happens to have a bacon sandwich available, I won’t say no either! How could you ruin breakfast for someone like me? Well….
Yum…..
Running is all about having the right mindset. I truly believe that you can achieve whatever you set out to do as long as you approach any challenge in a positive way. I personally couple this with a general stubborness that’s gotten me through various running events over the years, even when under-trained. What could possibly ruin this?
Oh. That’ll do it.
At this point in time, I was actually looking forward to running. In fact, I was getting hungry again as the movie took so damn long! So I jumped on to my treadmill, eager to find some consolation in the unremitting misery that is life. Then the final bombshell struck me: possibly the most depressing running playlist ever curated.
“I’m so hollow” – Quote taken from James Blunt. I was so depressed, I didn’t ask his permission.
The playlist itself was tastefully put together, with four distinct sections. First off was a series of slow, mellow and melodic songs. Full of introspective gloom, I pondered the words “I wish that I could cry” by Five for Fighting and “Nothing Survives” from Azure Ray as I bounced along. It was at this point my friends joined me over a video call, mostly to make fun of me. I was treated to a view of cookies being consumed at an alarming rate, swilled down with a tasteful Sauvignon Blanc with “The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had” from Mad World echoing in my ears. Apparently the flavours matched very well.
The following songs were bleaker still, but there were some moments of brightness. To Build a Home by The Cinematic Orchestra was a slow burner, but ended in an uplifting way perfect for running. As a side note, what the hell happened to Sarah McLachlan?
I then listended to some surprising Alanis Morisette tunes in the second part. My teenage years resonate with the echoes of her empowering anger from a Jagged Little Pill. I don’t recall the thoughtful That I Would Be Good. Interesting, but not suitable for running! I was shocked out of my blues by a cracking James Blunt tune. I had to breathlessly croon “I’m so hollow” for a couple of minutes, which might have scared off my friends a bit. It’s right to draw out at this point that the saddest version of each song was selected. Only songs with maximum violins and preferably acoustic were acceptable. We then came to Say Something by A Great Big World. If anything was going to make me cry, it would have been this song and it was followed by a swift right hook as the third section began with Dry Your Eyes by the Streets. Thankfully I wasn’t terribly affected: it was just sweat from my brow making my eyes water. Honest.
It became clear that everything had been leading up to this point. One song after another packed a wallop. Brick by Ben Folds, Before You Start Your Day by Twenty One Pilots and another three Sarah McLachlan songs! Numb from the pain, I started to flag. To give time to listen to all these sad songs, I’d chosen a relatively long run (at least for me at the moment) – a 19.2km Long Fartlek session on Zwift. While I only had a few kms to go, it was getting tough. Especially with just a few weetabix biscuits in my stomach. Thankfully I was saved by the music. I belted out the lyrics from Hurt by Johnny Cash and Crawling by Linkin Park. Even though both songs were in themselves expressions of intense pain and suffering, “I would keep myself, I would find a way” echoed in my mind.
Suddenly the clouds cleared (yes I know, I’m indoors) and I could see the finish line. The remainings songs were all soulfully contemplative, matching my sad but triumphant mood. The 19.2km finally drew to a conclusion with Enya’s May It Be providing the final notes. I still had some songs left but I’d had enough. I couldn’t run anymore. However, this wasn’t due to the playlist, which I’d perversely enjoyed.
I stopped running as treadmill running sucks. The end.
No idea what’s going on? Might be worth reading our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
After four weeks of intense, or maybe not so intense, training, the moment is nigh. How did we do? If you want to listen to the answer, I suggest clicking here to access our latest podcast where we discuss everything in detail.
Jamie’s Results
Jamie KMs
1st Jan
31st Jan
Seconds Difference
1
00:04:37
00:04:58
+21
2
00:04:56
00:04:49
-7
3
00:04:52
00:04:57
+5
4
00:05:16
00:04:42
-34
5
00:05:32
00:04:43
-49
Total
00:25:13
00:24:09
64 seconds quicker
Average per km
00:05:03
00:04:50
13 seconds quicker
Almost….
Alas, my target of a sub-24 minute 5k was not to be, but it was close. Not bad for a month. I ran a total of 131km in January, ignoring the time trials, more than half of which was easy running. For each kilometer run, I took 0.5 of a second off my total time. Was this an efficient use of the four weeks? Wait till you see what Alex came up with.
Jamie’s Training Programme
One tempo run a week
One speed session a week
2-3 additional easy runs a week
One recovery indoor bike session
One HIIT style bike workout or hill workout
One core strength/ stretch session a week.
Alex’s Results
Alex KMs
1st Jan
31st Jan
Seconds Difference
1
00:04:40
00:04:21
-19
2
00:04:56
00:04:40
-16
3
00:05:05
00:04:41
-24
4
00:05:17
00:04:51
-27
5
00:05:05
00:04:43
-22
Total
00:25:03
00:23:16
107 seconds quicker
Average per km
00:05:01
00:04:39
21 seconds quicker
That’ll do!
I wasn’t aiming for much, but surprised myself in making such an improvement! Basically back-to-back interval sessions (around 114km total running in the month) seemed to pay off. Efficiency wise I guess you could say this was just under 1 second saved for each km in training I did! Not bad eh?
Alex’s Training Programme
1 tempo run a week (3x 1-mile tempo runs, 2min break in between)
2 interval running sessions a week
6x 2-minute intervals, with 3min break in between
3x 1-minute, 2-minute, 3-minute, 2min break in-between intervals and 3-minute break between the set of intervals.
2 bike sessions a week (mostly intervals, based on indoor cycle programmes)
This is the fourth and final update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
Four weeks is not much for a normal training plan, but actually reflects the time we usually allow for race-specific training. To be honest, our race-specific training used to be other races before lockdown! We’re curious to find out how this will go.
Jamie:
I had a pretty good week with 15km of easy running, a tempo run and a final speed session. On the bike I had a recovery spin and then a bit more of a hilly ride. All on Zwift of course! It is getting a little bit tough on the treadmill; anything more than 5k is dull. The bike is much more entertaining, but I guess it’s a bit more interactive and you have more of a stimulus.
I’m sure Alex will mention something about tapering, but for me this was composed of two rest days. It doesn’t really feel like we should be tapering too much, even with our next challenge starting soon after. It’s a matter of doing the training block, getting the time trial done and moving on. Perhaps we can rest in March?!?
I’m starting to enjoy my core and stretch work a bit more. It is surprising how sore you get after the first go, but your body soon gets used to it. As with all things running, consistency is the key.
My ambition at the start of all this was obviously to boost my speed over the 5k distance, hopefully hitting a PB (all-time or even best time from the last few years). However, I believe general speed and stamina over the longer distances can benefit from the 5k workouts that we’ve been doing. It will interesting seeing how this can all roll upwards.
I don’t have any particular routines that I go through the day before a race. Usually a glass of wine is involved, but I’m giving that a pause for the moment. Maybe a celebratory one afterwards! Once it hits the afternoon perhaps.
Alex:
We’re finally here – the last week of training. Time to start tapering! Actually… there’s probably not really much point for what we’re doing. Well anyway I did end up tapering. So, let’s say it was all part of the plan eh?
Monday was very snowy and icy around where I run – to the point where attempting to do a tempo run was out of the question. Rather than do a slip-and-slide run that probably wouldn’t give me any benefit I opted to do an indoor bike session instead. Back on Apple Fitness+! I kept my cycle session on Tuesday (Les Mills this time as I’m keeping it interesting with a regular blend of fitness providers).
Owing to my inability to wake up on time, I stopped extending into the 10k distance… oh, erm, what I mean to say is that I thought that it was important to taper in the last week of training!
I don’t think this is particularly impactful as I’m generally at around 6-7km by the end of the ‘workout’ session of my run… so like 6/7km over the 2 runs I did do? These were my normal 6x2min interval session and the tempo run I missed on Monday by the way. I felt that after the sub-par tempo session of week 3, it was worth trying to get 1 decent tempo run in rather than my 1-2-3 intervals.
So, do I feel ready? No, not at all. I don’t think I’m any faster than at the start of the month. Running even the 1-mile (1.6k) tempo sections at a pace that would equate to the 25minute 5k I ran on 1st January seemed challenging if I’m honest.
However, today is Saturday – the penultimate day before our timed 5-k – and I’m going to do my tried-and-tested, best-practice, race prep: wine and chocolate muffins!
This is the third update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
Just one week left for the less-than-dynamic duo. Will our battered bodies be able to soak up more punishment and repair in time for our time trial? Probably not, but there’s certainly still time to self-sabotage before the start line!
Jamie: This week was all virtual via Zwift. None of that running in the rain and snow nonsense! I much prefer staring blankly at the wall while ruminating on the travails of the day. However, something disastrous happened during my weekly speed session: a random glitch chucked me out of the Zwift running track just as I was near concluding one of the sprint legs. To say I was confused was an understatement. If my running wasn’t being recorded for everyone (well, my six followers) to see, then was I really running? I also wasn’t quite sure when I needed to stop as I was relying on the distance monitor within Zwift.
This reminded me of how far my attitude has changed. Around 10 years ago when I first started running more than the odd few miles, I used to be amused by people who ran their life by a watch. It seemed to me to be the opposite point of what running was supposed to be; embracing the feeling of your body functioning near its physical limit, striving against the elements, or even enjoying a bit of nature here and there. Waiting a few minutes to get a GPS link, then setting off at a potentially inaccurate set speed while you check your wrist every few seconds was mildly irritating. The again, maybe I was a poor training partner!
That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed all the various bits of data. Not that I’m totally aware of what to do with it sometimes. Maybe that’s a challenge for another day: data-driven running vs. running with feelings? Regarding the glitch, apparently this can happen if your computer loses touch with the Internet (I reckon Zwift crashed). This is the first time it’s happened to me though after a few months of heavy use.
In general, week 3 has been much better for me. I managed four runs with a total distance of around 33km. This included a tempo, speed session and two easy runs (one after a bike session). My bike distance was around 36km including a recovery 20km and then a more intense workout called “2 by 2“, which I seriously underestimated. According to the marketing material, the workout aims to improve your ability to make repeated hard efforts with minimal recovery. That sounded pretty good to me, but I hadn’t appreciated that I would be expected to turn my legs round at 85-100rpm! My legs definitely weren’t happy after that. Oh well.
Alex: Monday’s tempo run didn’t really go to plan. I’m not sure if for better or worse, but rather than do another run fully on tarmac I opted to head over to a local park, which is more of a field. The first tempo felt pretty good and comfortable on the road leading to the park, however the recent rains had meant that the trails and field edges that make up a running route were basically moosh and bog-land. Owing to the terrain I was struggling to get anywhere near my tempo pace – and the ‘recovery’ sections between were still pretty challenging. I mean, I didn’t hit my times but the extra leg work out still got me out of breath so perhaps this is a net positive?
I specifically attempted to make up for this on Tuesday by selecting an interval session on the Apple Fitness+ (having now actually bothered to charge the damned Watch). The session went well, although perhaps there was a bit too much work-to-recovery ratio. One main hiccup was hitting the Watch with a wet towel. Doesn’t sound like too much of an issue – however, as I’ve noted a few times on the podcast, moistness and touchscreens are… challenging. The towel paused the workout on my watch, which would have been fine except with Apple Fitness+ if you pause the workout and then attempt to resume it struggles if you are also air-playing the audio to speakers. After a minute or so trying to get the workout to resume I gave up and did the remaining 20mins on my iPhone speakers – meh!
Wednesday and Friday’s session were pretty standard fare now – minor dread and all. Thursday was a rather good Fitness+ bike session that had some good tunes and interval work. I actually am going to retain my trial subscription for another month and maybe try some other workouts for our February challenge (more on that soon).
Going into the final week I am not sure if I am actually bringing my times down any. I still feel as slow as always. I’m not actually reviewing my split times as that feels a bit too serious, I may have a look after our final times are in as a bit of a (hopefully not literal) postmortem.
This is the second update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
Jamie: This week has been strange for me, with life getting in the way of my training once again. I thought that was finished with 2020. Either way, I mostly only managed quality sessions this week, so my training plan looked more like Alex’s than my proposed high volume method.
My running included an easy 10k, a decent speed session on a treadmill and a tempo run. The speed session saw reps of x2 1ks, x2 800metres and x2 400 metres with an easy warm up and warm down. As an aside, mentally it’s much nicer to have a descending distance to target. 400 metre sprints seem almost easy after the 1kms! I did increase the speed as I went down this particular ladder though. You can be very specific about the speeds you target in your training plans if you have a target time, but I played this very much by feel. Sometimes it’s nice not to look at data! The tempo run was a decent session outside, wrapped into a 10k run. I’ve been doing a lot of treadmill running recently and it’s nice to get out and about. Our local trail running routes have been trashed a little by the weather, so isn’t easy going, but fun nonetheless.
I also had two sessions on the bike (Zwift): one recovery ride and then a hill session up a virtual Box Hill. Not sure I want to try it in reality, with Zwift reducing the difficulty relative to real life by 50%. I’m sure I’ll get better.
I feel like my core and stretch workouts were more accomplished. I tried some specific kettle bell exercises, which will hopefully contribute to a more healthy core if I’m continue with them. Specifically: sumo squats, deadlifts, some side leans and some snatches. Taken in isolation, that sentence reads a little weird? The drills I mentioned last week also felt helpful. They weren’t particularly lengthy, but I think consistency will be key.
The next week is key and will be my last chance to get some speed in the legs and then an extreme taper of 2-3 days rest. Oh joy.
Alex: I must say I’ve been finding it a bit hard to motivate myself this week. Not so much with the training – I’m actually always up for doing my planned sessions. No, my issue has been mostly with just getting up in time. Sign of the times probably.
Anyway, my 3 running sessions went well – in so far as I did them and felt relatively smug about having done so afterwards. I do still feel exceedingly slow – especially in the tempo sessions. All 3 of my training sessions are very approachable, but still leave me with a soupçon of dread when approaching the final couple of intervals – which I think is about the right level of tuning.
For the indoor bike sessions this week I went with a couple of different sessions – owing to forgetting to charge the Apple Watch (not actually used outside of these Fitness + sessions). For my first session I went with a Les Mills RPM session. Back when we were allowed in physical proximity of others when exercising I did a couple of these sessions a week. They are heavily choreographed and favour lots of short, sharp bursts of activity. In a gym environment this worked well as you kind of feed off the other riders in the session. At home RPM is still a good workout – but I don’t hit the same level of exertion for some reason. I think perhaps the focus becomes more on being ‘in time’ with the music, rather than the pseudo-competitive workout against your compatriots alongside you.
For the second session I tried a wholly new app to me – WithU. I was surprised to find that there was no video. What would I look at for 40+ minutes?! I almost flaked out and ran back to the comfort of the Les Mills app – however, I thought some change would be good for me. The workout was a lot more of a ‘standard’ indoor cycle session – some interval speed-work mixed with some drawn-out hill climbs. Once I got past the fact that I had no visual stimulus I got into the workout pretty easily. The instructions were clear – if requiring a bit more attention that normal – as you can’t just look to see if you’re supposed to be in a ‘standing’ or ‘seated’ position. I don’t think I had a high level of exertion on that workout – but I think adjusting to the audio-only instruction and get in the zone would be easier after a couple of more times.
One thing in the Apple Fitness+ camps favour is the heart-rate linkup that does give you an easy focus to try and keep up in the rankings. Being compared to others does seem to get past the ‘so what is this about?’ to ‘ok, I’m gonna go 100%!’.
Hopefully this is actually proving useful training, as I’m actually not doing any of the core training I said I would… maybe next week. Perhaps.
This is the first update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first!
Jamie: My high volume & high risk strategy appears to be going well, although I’ve missed one training session (long bike) and the distance is a little short. But on the upside, I’ve hit 40km of running in the first week and fit in three quality sessions: tempo, speed and a bike HIIT. These sessions are essential this month. Normal training blocks are 10-12 weeks, so three weeks of training and a week of tapering isn’t likely going to be enough to beat my PBs without pushing it a bit on the speed front.
First learn: know what core work and appropriate stretching is before writing it in your training plan. Sounds like a great idea and advised by many, but I wasn’t exactly sure what composed a good stretch workout. A few youtube videos later gave me a few ideas, but definitely something to work on. Second: I’ll be looking to incorporate some drills a couple of times a week before my easy runs. Good for stretching and warming up apparently. I almost feel like I know what I’m doing?
A lot of my running this week has been on Zwift, which definitely isn’t because of the weather and perhaps waking up a bit late. It’s made pounding the treadmill running a bit more interesting and we even popped on for a brief moment to “assist” Eddie Izzard on her way to completing her ninth marathon in nine days. Fair play to her! It was mildly amusing to see her Zwift avatar with a big huddle of other runners following along. The odd cyclist stopped by for a gawp as well. With another 22 marathons to go in January, it really puts our 5k shenanigans in perspective. Perhaps we need to be more daft??
Alex: Intervals. So many intervals.
I stuck somewhat to my plan – doing a tempo run and 2 interval sessions. It struck me whilst running one of the tempos that, at these paces, they’re actually just an interval training session in disguise. So, essentially I’m just doing 3 interval sessions a week – who knows, perhaps that’ll work?
After an initial tempo run on Monday I was looking forward to a bit more of a varied workout before my straight-up 6x2min interval session on Wednesday. Loading up the first 45min indoor cycle workout on Apple Fitness+ I was welcomed with ‘Hi Team, today we’re going to be doing 20 intervals’. Oh well… suck it up and focus on getting through them I suppose!
For Thursday’s bike session I purposefully selected a hill session. Again this turned out to be an interval session (just on a higher resistance). Ok, so 5 interval sessions a week must be the secret to success, eh?
Friday was my first frosty run in a while! The 3×1-2-3 intervals weren’t too bad – mostly avoiding slipping was the main concern. One deviation from my thoroughly researched workout plan was the progressive… something… distance? (the training where you just run basically). Rather than adding on an additional 5k to each run session I have just been rounding the session up to 10k – because that’s probably enough, eh?
As per my summer exploits I’m taking the weekends off. Woohoo!
Surely 2021 will be better than 2020? Let’s check with a daft challenge.
I’ve been talking about improving my 5k time for a while; years even. How long has Parkrun been a thing? God I’m getting old. With all the happenings in 2020, our race-focused training plans (i.e. we just run races!) had been ruled out and left us a bit of a loss. Thankfully we’ve had some virtual races to focus on, but these were all distance-related. With a new and hopefully better year upon us, I feel the need for some speed!
So here is the challenge: we run a 5km time trial on the 1st January which will give us a target to beat. We then have one month to improve on this time as much as possible, using whatever methods, substances (ahem…legal) or training plans we can get our hands on. The next time trial will be on the 31st January. Alex: en garde!!!
Opening Gambit
Alex:
Having spent most of the holiday period sat watching Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman doing ludicrous challenges across the world in various directions it’s only fitting that I perhaps accept this seemingly more sensible challenge put forward by Jamie.
Aiming to get the first time in the books as early as possible I hit the road straight after getting up on New Year’s Day – a spritely 11:14am. I believe that pushing my boundaries in this fashion will eventually allow me to take part in some of the events that require participants to start at 3am.
With temperatures hovering around freezing, and having had a lacklustre workout schedule since clocking a time of 22:51 at the end of June, I took off without much hope of achieving anything near that. A proper warmup would probably have been a good idea, however my primarily aim was just getting back home to the warm by 12:00.
In the spirit of the challenge, I set out to do my best, running at a fairly chirpy pace for someone who was, moments before, curled up in a more horizontal position. About 600m in I realised that this was a stupid challenge and running is a thoroughly daft past-time, however held my resolve to continue to log an appropriate starting time.
About halfway I realised my pacing was dropping to above 5min/km and the likelihood of getting below 25mins was slipping out of reach. The uncomfortable sensation of cold air in my lungs and legs that hadn’t been asked to move this quickly for 6 months was starting to grate on my resolve. Looking to still give my best I pushed and managed to make back some time – feeling thoroughly sick at the end of a 100m ‘sprint’ to the finish. My last-ditch attempt to make up some time paid off and I clocked in an opening time of 25:03.
Jamie:
After Alex’s sterling performance, the pressure was on. To add to my joy, it started raining sleet just as I popped my head out the door. I employed a different strategy to Alex, adding in a warm-up, but this was with the sneaky intention of starting on top of a hill (sorry Alex!). This paid off initially and I clocked a speedy 4:37 first km, but things went downhill swiftly (or slowly?) from here. Three of the remaining kms were slower than the previous one by 15-20 seconds as I did the dictionary definition of going out too quickly. My last km was 5:32… I eventually managed to gasp to a 25:13 5km time with first honours going to Alex. Curses!!
That aside, there are definitely things to improve on. I feel like a warm-up is a must: one shouldn’t go at race pace for a 5km from a cold start. However, the first km was obviously too quick and I suffered as a result. Starting at 5-minute pace would have given me a bit more in the tank at the end and would have made for a more pleasant experience.
The Master Plan
Alex:
I probably should have looked into this before running the first run, but I guess it doesn’t matter. Anyway, in the spirit of laziness I am simply googling “workouts to improve 5k time” and the suggested link is from Runner’s World – “Run a Faster 5K With These 5 Fun Interval Workouts” posted in September. This seems promising in that (1) Runners World is a pretty decent publication (2) the word ‘Fun’ is in the title and (3) There are only 5 of them and I have a poor attention span. Seems like a winner on the first search term hit – huzzah!
I did also have a look at the Garmin Connect ‘Coach’ plans – but these all expected 2-3months of time to work their magic. The one I tried back at the start of lockdown was pretty good – and highlighted some of the great workout features of my Garmin 245, but Jamie’s challenge does not allow for such an extended period of training.
Right, so the RW article gives us 3 types of workout to work with: intervals, tempo and progressive endurance.
Intervals
1-2-3 Intervals
The article recommends transitioning through a few interval workouts (1-minute, 2-minute and 1-2-3). As I’m short on time I’ll skip any 1-minute intervals and just dive straight to the 2-minute ones as… well… I have no real basis for this but longer must be better – eh? I’ll also do a 1-2-3 session once a week as well.
Tempo
Tempo Workout
Chuck one of these in a week midweek – boom. I guess I’d aim to hit a red-zone tempo of around 4:45-5:15.
Progressive Endurance
Rather than doing any progressive endurance training – I’ll tack on a 5k at the end of each training session at an easy pace.
Overall
So, this looks like 3xRuns a week – all of them have been certified as ‘Fun’ by Runners’ World, which is good enough for me! (although, to be fair I have modified them slightly, so any lack of ‘fun-ness’ will be my own doing I suppose).
I’ll aim to supplement this training with some core work and maybe some bike training – for a total of 5-6 workouts a week. This should mean that I have a rest day or two each week– hurray!
Jamie:
My top end 5k PB is 22:15, but this was technically my 5km split during a 10km race. My quickest official 5km time is around 24 minutes at our local Parkrun, so these two figures will be my base and outperforming targets. Easy right? So we have one month to work some magic. I feel relatively confident that I can take a minute off my benchmark time with some focused training, with two potential risks: I overtrain and don’t rest enough; and that I don’t apply the right intensity during my speed work. A fine line to balance and I’ll likely have to rejig my strategy as we progress (or perhaps when I get broken!).
The principles will be similar to Alex’s plan, but most of my running will be easy. The core of each week will be:
4 easy runs c6:30km pace of varying distance
1 tempo run at around 5:20 to 5:30
1 speed specific workout (swapped out for a hill run session on one week)
1 longish bike ride
1 recovery bike session
1 HIIT bike ride at varying intensity
1 core strength workout
1 session focused on stretching
It’s important to note that I gradually built up to 5-6 runs a week over a few months, so I’m not doing this from a standing start. The last week will be tapered with a couple of easy runs and a final tempo run.
This seems a lot to pack in, but the only really intense workouts will be the speed/ hill run and the bike HIIT. For the rest I’ll be aiming for a low heart rate. It will be interesting to see if this works at all. Perhaps I’ll get to the end of this training having missed out on more speed work?
As I write this, we in the UK have been ‘social distancing’ under lockdown for about 2 months. Right at the start there were plenty of people using their once-a-day outside allowance to attempt to start running, good on them.
Obviously, being the keen ultra-distance machine that I am, I did not lose pace. I kept doing the high level cardio and long weekend runs and staying in tip-top shape. OK, so I didn’t. For the first month or so, I did pretty much nothing.
Regular listeners may have heard us say on one occasion or other ‘running is terrible’. Honestly, I’m not lying – there are times when it is really dreadfully dull and painful.
Why bother?
This is a question I’ve asked myself often – worrying if it’s simply ego trying to make out I’m better that others. But, honestly it is the sense of exploration, achievement with some camaraderie thrown in for good measure.
But you cannot do that without actually practicing some running.
Get going!
First, decide what you are doing this for. Just exercise? Some form of meditative practice? From experience it helps massively to have a reason to get out there – and make sure it’s specific.
What do you need?
Well, there are plenty of articles out there around shoe choice, etc. But first off… just go out in some vaguely appropriate clothing and, you know, run. Head out, walk around a bit and start to bring up your pace into a jog and then a run but – and this is key – run only about HALF as far as you think you could and HALF as hard you think you can. If you really aren’t in…optimal…shape, let’s say, you’ll notice this immediately – 10 meters too much? Well done, walk it out a bit more and plan to go out again in a couple of day’s time.
Super excited and want more? Great, have a look at training and aspirational event videos on youtube – perhaps even listen to a few of our episodes where we talk about training and recovery. Don’t go crazy and run 2x a day, don’t just buy a whole load of running gear which you may not even use.
After you’ve got into the swing of things, say a couple of runs a week for a month or two, maybe you’ll notice more where you have some discomfort. Great news, now you get to go shopping!
Guide me, oh master!
Head to a running shop and use the knowledge you have gained from your own running practice to help pick out your shoes, with the help of the shoe guru in the shop (perhaps try a couple of places). Skip all the expensive socks and that – just go to Sports Direct/Decathlon/TK Maxx or whatever for anything that isn’t shoes. At this stage, your shoes should be far and away the most expensive kit, by maybe 5-10x the next expensive piece of kit you have. If you have a £8 pair of shorts, maybe you’re spending up-to £80 on some fancy shoes. (I wouldn’t, because I’m too tight).
Note – you may have heard I run in barefoot shoes, because I’m freaking amazing. Honestly, I prefer barefoot running but think it may not be the best place to start – but if you want to try it out, see if you can find a barefoot coach/mentor around you.
Running Friends
You’ll probably want to do this before you complete the shopping phase – but we all know you won’t because we are living in a material world and I am… certain you’ll want to indulge in some consumer therapy.
Anyway, yes find some friends who like to run, or groups online or at the pub… you don’t have to do anything as crass as actually run with them, but it helps you get a bit more immersed in the hobby and move you more towards your goal. Enthusiasm breeds progress, and podcasts.
Final thoughts
As we move out of lockdown, there are going to be people who started out with good intentions – taking the once-a-day exercise rules who perhaps gave up once it became hard. There are going to be those who stayed in for most of the lockdown and are perhaps now lower in the fitness spectrum than they were going in. Finally, those who want to use the post-lockdown experience as a time to enjoy the freedom.
Whatever the case, find your adventure and work towards it. Sometimes that means you’ll have to run, so lets get going!
How far should one travel for a good race? Depends on the race I guess. Being a bit daft, we’ve travelled all the way to Cornwall for a coastal trail marathon, all the way to Liege for a beer marathon and all the way to Scotland for a nighttime adventure…10k?!
To be fair, this is a fun race and you do have the option to double up the distance via a second lap if you’re keen, which we weren’t! In particular I was feeling a little bit worse for wear with the memory of our misadventure in the South Downs still fresh.
This was also another race we’d been to before, running in the 2017 edition (the race in 2018 was cancelled due to severe snow and wind conditions). In fact, the 2017 edition was my first race on the running wagon after a few years out of action. I remember a chastening experience, finding the bogs, long dips in icy water, steep hills and scrambling extremely difficult. In the end I think I took so long that the bar at the end had nearly run out of beer! I always think these kinds of experiences make you stronger in the end though. So the 2019 race felt like my chance for redemption. I needed to get to the finish before the raucous Rat Race runners drank it dry again.
But first, the epic journey to the start line: a village called Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders. For us, this encompassed around five hours on the train, a quick stop for food in Edinburgh, and then a 90 minute bus journey into the wilderness. The weather was not looking amenable at this point. Wrapped in all my layers and standing shivering on the exposed North Bridge waiting for the bus, I have rarely felt as cold and nervous. The wind was building, the rain had turned to sleet and running was the last thing on my mind. The bus journey was initially even more ominous. As we travelled away from Edinburgh the surrounding countryside looked increasingly petrified with a wintry touch of snow. Looking at the weather reports, it also suddenly became apparent that the area had been hit with a surplus of inclemency. Our penchant for not checking weather before we travelled suddenly looked ready to strike again!
As luck would have it, the closer we got to Innerleithen, the more the weather brightened. As we walked to the event registration area, we even saw some thin strands of light peak through the grey clouds.
A couple of unlikely friends we met on the way to registration.
Quite the turnaround. We also got to see some of the initial waves pass through the course. While this is a night time race, by the time the runners got into the hills the sun will have dipped below the horizon. Once we arrived, it became apparent that the course had been tweaked to avoid some of the more watery obstacles. In particular I recall one particular segment in 2017 when we had to traverse a few hundred metre stretch up a river. Having already tackled one ascent and descent, the shocking cold and difficult footing was not a tonic for further hill running. I was again a little relieved, but it was disappointing, if understandable once we saw how strong the current was. To underline the bogginess, I even lost one of my shoes in the mud before we even started!
The first wave gets underway. With the altered route, this was one of the – thankfully – few times we had to endure a dip in icy water.
But all this is side commentary. What about the race itself? The first section is a warm up for what comes: a brief soujourn over some rocky paths (won’t see sure footing like this for a while) that transitions into flat out sticky bog and then straight into hills nearly 2km from the start. At this point I was already pretty tired and the sun had finally set. The first climb was around 300 metres and I actually managed to run bits of it (unlike in 2017). It was mostly through well worn trail routes, but now and then we’d dive into the undergrowth up less travelled sections. These were very entertaining as my favourite trail running is along woodland paths. We came to a bit of a contrived false summit (essentially going up, turning around and coming back down again), which required walking rather than running and then finally a bit of descent. We then had another climb of around 100 metres to reach the highest point of the race. It was here we could finally enjoy one of the perks of the Mighty Deerstalker: seeing the scattered head torches of various runners across the nighttime landscape. A trail of glistening light showed where we had come and what we still had to do. This is something I’d only seen at events like the three peaks challenge before.
The next descent essentially took us back to ground level and was extremely treacherous. Another reason for my slow time in 2017 was likely due to wearing road running trainers… This time round I had some decent trail shoes, but even with these it was fairly difficult going. More confident racers breezed past me and some of the more reckless ones tended to strike their fellow runners and various trees and rocks as they went past! I saw a few collisions that made we wince. Some bits were great fun though, with just enough stable footing to leap and jump over the undulating course.
With that now completed, we were treated to a run over the River Tweed and through Innerleithen to take on another of the local hills. We had some very kind people along the course cheering us over these sections. Always nice to hear. The climb was easier than before, but I had my first serious tumble of the year; almost cartoonesque! While descending I had been putting weight on areas with foliage and grass as this indicated safe purchase in my mind. I unfortunately did so on a piece of ground that was completely inundated with water and promptly slipped up, got some serious air time and landed on my backside. Thankfully it was on soft, and wet, ground, so I wasn’t hurt (pride aside). Picking myself up, I then confronted the scramble, which was nearly 200 metres high. I must confess to needing a few stops to catch my breath! I’m not a fan of heights at the best of times, so I was grateful for the night time views. One last descent and then there was just four more kms of boggy, river-side running to defeat. I recognised here and there signs of our earlier walk to registration and was relieved to see the finish line. In 2017 they set-up a water slide to celebrate the last section, but for obvious reasons that had been removed. Probably a good thing as I recall nearly football tackling someone’s midriff by accident at the bottom.
First time running in 2017, we completed the course in around three hours and twenty minutes. In 2019, we got round in around two and a half hours. Not a bad improvement, but we did have two years of running these races as training and some of the water sections were curtailed; so perhaps we should have done a bit better. Most importantly though, I made it back in time to properly enjoy the party afterwards!
Daft Runners 