WEEK 8
Mon - Rest
Tue - 10km in 38m39 - Fitness test for Barry
Wed - 4.75m (7m34 m/pm)
Thu - Rest, calf tightened up again yesterday
Fri - Rest
Sat - Rest
Sun - 7.5m (8m00 m/pm)
TOTAL MILEAGE - 19.8
Okay so a bit of catching up to do here. The blog was designed to
capture the highs and the lows of the build up to the ACP, but it is funny how
when it isn't going quite so well the blog is that little bit harder to pull
together. If you have seen the results of Barry you will have seen that I was a
no show. Week 8 was a week of internal debate with myself trying to work out if
I was fit enough to run at Barry. One day I felt good, for example after
Tuesday's sesion I was almost certain I would be running. Wednesday's run and
my calf was sore again and so by Thursday I decided I should do the sensible
thing and pull out.
Pretty disappointed, but to my delight on Friday the race director
(Mick McGeoch) e-mailed me the race programme. The Barry race programme is
quite a piece of literature at 20 pages and I would recommend to anyone that
they should enter the race just to feature in the program. Anyway, here is a
snippet of what he wrote about me.
No: 288 Harry Johnston (Kingston &
Polytechnic Harriers)
Age 26. Second youngest in the race, Harry
has made a huge improvement in the short time he has been in the
sport. His range of distances and performances makes for fascinating reading.
In 2012 he
improved his best marathon time to 2:37:54 in October in Amsterdam where he
placed
71st. He also has some very impressive ultra marks with a best 100km of 7:51:21
in the 2011
Anglo Celtic Plate in Perth, where he was 10th, and more recently 8:03:32 last
June in Biel,
Switzerland. He doesn’t just race over long distances though, and in 2012
recorded PBs of 9:12
for 3000 metres, 16:26 for 5000 metres, 16:14 for 5 km on the road and 56:31
for 10 miles. On
the professional front, Harry has just qualified as an Actuary, and brings a
great support crew
(wife Emily and friend Kevin) to help him on his Barry 40 debut. Certainly one
to watch.
What a way to massage your ego when you are feeling pretty crappy
about things. This really did cheer me up. Mick wrote similar amounts on each
of the runners, he really does seem to put his heart and soul into this race.
The results can be found here,
some very good performances at the front with Paul Fernandez on great form and
an outstanding performance from previous European 100km silver medallist Pieter Vermeesch
Maybe next year...
WEEK 9
Mon - Rest
Tue - 7.5m (7m47 m/pm)
Wed - 7.75m (7m15 m/pm)
Thu – 10 x 1km off 90s (7m00 m/pm)
Fri - Rest
Sat – 14.75m (7m46 m/pm including
parkrun)
Sun – 23.3m (7m43 m/pm)
TOTAL MILEAGE – 60.3
The previous Thursday I took a 2h20 car journey (most of which I
was stuck in traffic on the M4) to see my chiropractor. I have not visited him
since moving away from Maidenhead as I deemed it to no longer be convenient.
However, enough was enough and I believed if anyone could fix me it would be
him. We started the session by performing a simple test. Walk on the spot with
your eyes closed and see what happens. After about 20 seconds of marching I opened
my eyes and had rotated 30 degrees to the left. 30 minutes of manipulations and
crunching of various joints and we re-performed the test. Now I am facing
forward after this test, superb fixed (I bloody hope). Never have I felt more
comfortable and happy to be in a small room, basically naked with another man!
I felt like he had fixed me.
With that I used this as a re-introduction week. I had planned a
longer run at the weekend, but I didn't quite feel comfortable going for a 4
hour romp so cut it back to 3 hours. My calf in general was still tight but my
trip to the chiropractor meant I had re-established control in my ankle and I
was no longer getting inflammation in my calf. The tension was slowly easing
with each run. Not a huge week, but a week nonetheless.
On Saturday I ran a parkrun with my wife and she achieved a big
PB, nice to see one of us is moving in the right direction.
WEEK 10
Mon – 11m (7m20 m/pm, progressive run)
Tue AM – Circuits
Tue PM – 5.6km time trial (19m35,
5m25 m/pm)
Wed – 7.5m (8m20 m/pm)
Thu AM – 29 x 500m off 30 secs
(rep pace c. 5m50 m/pm)
Fri - Rest
Sat – 29m (8m07 m/pm)
Sun AM – Weights, cleans and squats
Sun – 16m (7m49 m/pm)
TOTAL MILEAGE – 79.3
With last week going so well, okay
not amazing but at least I was running. This week has really represented a true
week of training yet again. Boy am I pleased. The weeks were fast disappearing
and my chances of running well if at all at ACP were starting to potentially
look bleak. Hopefully all that worry was for nothing. I just need to string
something together next week to get my confidence up and then a short taper.
Tuesday's session was a 5.8km time
trial. 14.5 laps of the track pretty much on my own to see what I could
achieve. My total time was 19m35 and I passed 5km in 16m45. Very pleasing for a
training run and also a great test of the condition of my calf.
Thursday's session of 29 x 500m off
30 seconds was clearly designed for the track, but work commitments meant I was
to do this one on a lumpy road loop near work early in the morning. Pace coming
out at around 5m50 and for a man who doesn't usually operate that early in the
morning I was again very happy.
Another parkrun with the wife on
Saturday. Unfortunately no PB this week, and I tried to reassure her it was
because it was more muddy than last week (it was). When the summer comes we
will both see some faster running I'm sure. No parkrun next week as my wife is
away skiing whilst I stay at home for the final big training weekend.
A few more interesting things going
on here, including winning a really cool trophy and the release of the full
England team which threw up a few suprises. But I will save that for my next
blog post...there is enough on here already.
Hope everyone's last few weeks are
going well. If you've been in a rough patch like me all I can say is keep the
faith.
Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102, 31, 29, 76, 40, 20, 60, 79
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