I decided at the beginning of
this year that, as there is no international 100km championship this year, I
would spend some time trying to get a bit of speed back into my old legs and
try to do a few more races. I run for
lots of reasons, but my main motivation for training is to race. However I’ve felt over the last few years
that, due to preparing for ultras, recovering from ultras or being injured,
I’ve not raced nearly as much as I would have liked. I felt it was time to put that right this
year and to just have some fun racing over shorter distances. This has been the first year for some time
(possibly even since moving from the track to road racing in 2000) that I’ve
not had a major target race to aim for.
Normally I would have one, possibly two, ‘A’ races – the main goal(s) of
the year – and other races would be carefully chosen to fit in with these, with
a specific purpose in the build-up for those ‘A’ races. This year, however, I’ve raced when and where
I want to, with no pressure to peak for a specific event. This has meant that the races have mostly
been more like quality tempo training runs.
I haven’t tapered my training before them and so I’ve often been racing
on tired rather than fresh legs. I find
it can be useful to use races in this way – it’s certainly easier to run at a
quicker pace in a group with other people rather than on my own. It also means a change of scenery, running
somewhere different to my usual routes that I use week in, week out. If you use races like this though, it’s
important to remember that you’re not going to run a PB every time you run –
that’s not the objective and would quickly lead to burn-out. That’s not to say that I don’t put in the
effort though – I still give 100% and run to the best of my ability on the day.
So, in the first half of the year
up to the end of June I’ve managed 13 races, ranging from 6km cross-countries
to half-marathons on the roads. I’m not
sure I’ve really managed to get that much speed back though!
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| Warwickshire XC Champs. team gold |
The year started with the
Warwickshire cross-country championships.
This was always going to be my one and only cross-country outing this
year; I was just doing it to help our club’s masters’ team which paid off as we
won the team gold (it was also my 26th Warwickshire cross-country
medal - team or individual). Despite the distance being way too short for me I
actually quite enjoyed it and ended up doing the last two Midland Cross-Country
League races, again for Leamington C&AC’s masters’ team – and helping us
win the overall masters league title.
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| Midland League XC, Burton Dassett |
I followed these with a series of
half-marathons during February, March and April. These varied from a flat but very windy one
near Loughborough, to my local one in Warwick which passed about 200m from my
front door and a very hilly one at Droitwich (who knew Droitwich was so
hilly!). My fastest one was another
local race, the Shakespeare Half-Marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon, although it
was a far cry from the course record of 75.09 I set there in 2007! But the one I enjoyed most was in Faro during
my warm-weather training trip to Portugal (you can read all about that in my
previous blog).
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| Left: the end of a hilly half in Droitwich. Right: 4th place medal and cheque, Faro Half-Marathon |
I then dropped down distance with
a couple of 10-milers. The first of
these was a leg for my club in the Cotswold Hilly 100 mile relay. Leamington have fielded teams in this race
for many years, but due to other race commitments, injuries etc. this was the
first year that I’d actually managed to run it!
I was on leg 9 – the penultimate leg – from Chipping Campden, past
Ilmington to Crimscote. It included a
big uphill, followed by the biggest, steepest, longest downhill I think I’ve
ever run! In fact it was so steep in
places it was quite hard to run, especially for someone like me who isn’t great
on downhills! Needless to say it wrecked
my quads for days afterwards, although the views over the valley below were
amazing and did momentarily take my mind off the discomfort! It was worth the pain though, as we were
first ladies team by 40 minutes and smashed the previous women’s course record
by 22 minutes! I loved the race and the
team spirit.
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| Cotswold Hilly 100 - fabulous views made up for the pain! |
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| Finishing the Burton 10 to become Midland Masters Champion |
I followed this up with the
Midland Masters 10 mile championships in Burton-on-Trent a week later. My legs still weren’t recovered from the
hills of the previous weekend, but I increased my dose of CurraNZ – a
blackcurrant extract which has many benefits including combatting muscle
soreness - and I’m sure this helped me to be able to race again so soon. I
managed to win the Midland Masters gold medal – my third Midland Masters 10
mile title - which I was really chuffed about. Check out the CurraNZ website to read about the many benefits it can offer https://curranz.com/ For a 20% discount on your first order please use the code HARRISON.
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| Lapping a runner in the Worcester Pitchcroft 10k - in my go-faster Wave Ronin shoes! |
Since then I’ve dropped right
down in distance to 10k and 5 mile races – a real shock to the system, but I’ve
enjoyed the challenge of racing other people rather than just the clock. I even dug out my old Mizuno Wave Ronin shoes
– a lovely comfortable lightweight racing shoe that certainly helps me to run
quicker. I haven’t had much call for
these in recent years, with racing all my ultras in my more cushioned Wave
Riders, but with the Ronin I hardly feel like I’m wearing shoes at all! It’s probably time, though, that I updated
them to Mizuno’s latest racing shoe, the Wave Emperor. For my half-marathons I’ve been wearing my
Wave Shadow – very slightly heavier and more cushioned, but still a lightweight
responsive shoe.
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| Shakespeare Half-Marathon, Stratford |
On the one hand it’s been fun
racing these shorter distances and I’ve really enjoyed running without any
pressure. On the other hand it’s quite
frustrating that my times are a million years away from where they used to
be. I know I’m never going to get back
to anywhere near my PBs, but I was hoping to have run a little bit quicker than
I’ve managed so far! I realise that there
are age-related reasons for that, but it’s still really hard to accept and come
to terms with – I guess I’m in denial about getting old(er)! I can’t help comparing myself to how I was
and to other people that I used to beat.
But I’m trying and am gradually coming to terms with it. I’m very thankful that I am, at least, still
able to run and compete. I’ve started to
compare myself to my ‘age PBs’ and I try to judge my performance against others
in my age group rather than those who are half my age! In my nine individual road races this year
I’ve finished 1st in the W45-49 category in eight. The only one I didn’t was in an international
field in Faro when I was 2nd W45 to a Portuguese Olympian – so I
reckon that’s not bad going!
As I’ve got older I’ve adjusted
my training as I find I definitely take longer to recover from a hard session
than I used to. Several years ago I cut
out my morning runs and now only run once a day instead of twice. I now also make sure I have one complete rest
day each week and am also prepared to cut a run short, or run at a slower pace,
if I need to. One thing I have kept up,
though, are my strength and conditioning sessions in the gym at ‘The
Warwickshire’. It’s important to try and
retain my muscle strength and core stability and the excellent facilities at
The Warwickshire allow me to work on these aspects.
So I’m taking the positives – the
pure enjoyment of racing, still being competitive in my age-group and the
friendship and support of my Leamington team-mates. I've now run a total of 282 road races in my career (with 104 wins) and I'm looking forward to seeing what the second half of the year has to bring.
2019 races up to end of June:
05.01.19 Warwickshire
XC champs. - 8th
Master
12.01.19 Midland
League XC - 25th
Master
09.02.19 Midland
League XC - 6th
Master
17.02.19 Leicestershire
half-marathon - 6th
(1st W45)
03.03.19 Warwick
half-marathon - 2nd
(1st Master)
30.03.19 Faro
half-marathon - 5th
(2nd W45)
14.04.19 Droitwich
half-marathon - 2nd
(1st Master)
28.04.19 Shakespeare
half-marathon - 5th
(1st Master)
12.05.19 Cotswold
Hilly 100 - 1st
team
19.05.19 Burton
10m - 2nd
(1st Master)
23.05.19 Ryton
5m - 13th
(1st W45)
26.05.19 Worcester
Pitchcroft 10k - 2nd
(1st W45)
04.06.19 Banbury
5m - 3rd
(1st Master)
