Monkey Speed Training

This is a story of two halves, one of age and the other of youth.

Yesterday I was toying with the idea of going to the track as I usually do on a Thursday but this time actually engage in the Speed Work Session. These guys normally grunt around the track with creased up faces and chatting of 5km or 10km PBs. I mostly go there for marathon pace training and enjoy the banter.

Prickled into a new training plan I could have easily have sat back on the sofa and found a good reason not to go but this time I couldn't as peer pressure was upon me like a Monkey on my Back in the form of Duncan who had poked his head up over the parapet of family life and said he would give me a lift. So jumping into his car I was pleased to spot that he had brought along his young lad,Ché, who on a normal Sunday visit to Duncan's is frolicking around the house with his brothers full of the joys of Spring fuelled by a belly full of freshly baked banana cake. Tonight it was different as he sat back in his seat, an erudite air about him as he read a book as quiet as a mouse. Ché can best be described by his doting father as a book reading cricket fan.

So to the track, I told the Coach that I was up for the Speed Training but after retrieving his jaw from the track and with an enormous grin on his face told me it was probably a little too much for the particular session but was packed off to do 3 x 1600 metres. The grin turned to frustration when he said "At your 5km pace Jerry", a blank expression passed over my face "But I haven't run a 5km race in 6 years!", the same response was he suggest "A bit faster than your 10km pace.....no wait for it you're going to tell me you haven't raced a 10km....oh go on just run them as fast as you can"

I was happy with that and so leaving the speedsters behind, Duncan, Ché and I ran off, the former chatting happily on the out track and I wheezing and grunting around the track at my pace. I came back from my reps passing the other two ever so often, the both of them now in bare feet, I chose to do the same for a few laps joining them for a couple of laps to cool down.

At the end I was amazed to hear that Ché had run 5 miles with his Dad almost non stop and around 9 years old (My apologies as I never remember Duncan). So I have now named you a Book Reading Cricket Fan Runner but how long will it be until you are a Running Book Reading Cricket Fan
 

Monkey Runners

It wasn't pretty

Having realised that I haven't run in socks or running shoes for some 3 months I found it a real struggle to actually find a pair of socks and embarrassingly I could not find my green trail shoes so resorted to a pair of retired shoes who have done some 700 miles in them.

Off I plodded with my head torch wrapped around my hand for a slow ploddy run through the woods to the club. 

CHOICE.

Well there was only one choice, run with a slower group and get my confidence back and enjoy an unpressured run, and I did, all 7 miles of them unscathed and happy that my foot injury has cleared up with minimal niggles. I am not worried about the distance as this was just a step into getting my mojo back and to help shift a few pounds that have started to pile on recently. Next run is on Thursday and some possible speed work for a change!

The tide has turned

Since May my weekly mileage has dropped to zero, first from recovery from the GUCR 2014, then a heat wave where the Brit in me refused to run and until now a secret, a foot injury after sweeping the North Downs Way 100 a few weeks ago.

Significantly, I have found that the recent increase in my anti-depressants prescription has taken the edge off my "need" to run which I regret enormously. The passion, the fire in my belly gone plus the increase in weight and thoughtless people feeling the need to comment on it continually has caused me to try and take back some control.

So what to do? Play along with the depression and alleviate the symptoms or sit back and hope my brain chemistry fixes itself? I have chosen the former and decided that I just need to go do it and take on a new challenge, a focus for the time being and be positive.

So in true Jerry fashion I have decided to run the Thames Meander Winter Marathon on 1/11/2014, just 10 weeks away. I have the muscles, the underlying fitness still(?) and a need so here goes..............wish me luck

 

A Sweeper's Tale

Arriving at 6.00am at Detling last Sunday I entered the village hall to be met by a row of alert but tired Marshals who greeted me as if I was their long lost family member (Centurion Marshals are an incredible breed) I announced I was the Sweeper for the last 21 mile section and heard there were still a few out on the course so settled down for a cup of coffee and a chin wag until the runners came through.

"Good luck with those it is very slippery out there!"  was the last farewell I got whilst a Marshall grinned as I trotted off in my Monkey Feet.

The sun was up and the sky clear but we had all been told to wait for the remnants of Hurricane Bertha to hit the South-East of England directly over the path of the North Downs Way! I had come prepared with my kamleika smock and woolly hat in my backpack along with a first aid kit, Buff and spare cash.

Within 20 minutes of running the rain started, easy at first and then a little harder, then the wind until it was just another rainy Sunday in England. This section of the North Downs Way is tough and even after 5 miles I was amazed to think that some of the runners had ascended and descended the blasted hills which had me gasping, sliding and swearing as I went which was actually not that bad in my Monkey Feet as I could feel the ground and balance well in the awkward terrain.

At about 9.00am the full force of the remnants of Hurricane Bertha hit the North Downs and I was loving it with the windy gusts nearly knocking me off my feet crossing open fields, branches whipping my face, mud splashing over me such that the smock was on very soon and later the woolly hat. You know me, I was loving it, the Monkey Feet  holding up well in the conditions underfoot which were not totally happy on exposed wet chalk but is any other trail shoe?

I finally came across some tired or wounded runners and slowly walked in to the checkpoint with them to hand them over to the Aid Station staff but then discovered that they had missed the cut off big style such that I would have to go self-sufficient for the last 10 miles as the next Aid Station was to close soon. I cared not a jot, took extra water and went about my Sweeping knowing the last runner was now about 1 hour ahead.

I love these solo runs, the fun of helping others reach their goals, my independence for about 5 hours of my silly life, meeting a few old faces at the Aid Stations and my love of the North Downs.

Monkey Mapping

The plan was to meet Peter at Newlands Corner on the North Downs Way(NDW) at 7.00pm last Friday, leave his car there and we drive to Farnham (the start of the NDW) mark the first 15 miles of the 100 mile course get in his car and get him to drive me back to Farnham to collect my car to go home....simple!

In fact it was not, after meeting Peter at Newlands Corner, the heavens opened and so carnage unfolded on the roads ahead with early Friday evening drivers stuck in queues created by crashed cars or sheer weight of traffic leaving us to arrive at the start of the North Downs Way in Farnham some 50 minutes behind schedule....not good when it transpired poor old Peter had left his waterproof in his car and I had a 1:50,000 scale map of the NDW which, whilst useful, is rubbish on a route finding as the scale was just to small to see detail.

With big hugs from the Centurion Crew we went on our way happily marking our way following the paths and roads easily but then the rain really hit us, the wind picking up and the signage becoming difficult to spot  in the gloom some with missing fingers to confirm our direction which during the day is quite easy but at night in bad weather very difficult.

Then the mistake happened, a bad judgement call by me taking us down a hill and to a double T-Junction that in the gloom made me fit the road to the map sending us both in the wrong direction. Now the rain really hit us and after about 4 exploratory runs, a phone call to my wife to get a fix on our location on Google Maps my map finally turned to mush, the cover falling off. We had been out for 2.5 hours and covered only 6 miles (marking is very time consuming) we decided to make the call to go back to my car via road.

By Road

This was probably not one of my best decisions when we got directions from a lone female driver how to get back to Farnham by road which took us along a notoriously dark and dangerous road famous for its ghosts called the Hog's Back. Here we ran on the road and on the verge as cars drove past at 60 mph to return to the car unharmed.

Not my best entry as a runner having failed my promise to complete my job, going out with inadequate equipment (map case) and taking my older head torch which is good for a trail run but not for the job of marking.

Marking Marshal Monkey

On arrival at home this evening I was presented with a parcel sitting on the stair, not your normal parcel but that perfectly sized one, not too big and not too small.

I actually knew what was going to be inside, my Marking Kit for the first 14.7 miles of the North Downs Way 100 this weekend containing:

1. Arrow Cards
2. Plastic ties
3. 500 metres of red/white chevron tape

 and the lovely surprise of a much sought after Centurion Crew shirt which are really well made technical tops.

Last week I put a call out to my clubs and I have found a volunteer to come along with me to mark the course involving the shuttling of our cars to be able to have one at the start and the end of the route.....this is going to be fun

Barefoot Running Experiment

Thursday evening is my usual run at the track but this week I wanted to do an experimental one with no Monkey Feet or shoes but longer than my usual 1 mile.

What I often wonder is how exactly my foot strikes the ground when in bare feet or in my Vibrams so decided to place four strips on each sole; 

1. Two parallel strips across the balls of the foot
2.  One strip along the outer edge of the sole
3. One short strip hold the back part of #2 to the heel

Leaving the speed trainers to their warm up I went on a 5km run around the track in my taped feet to see how the wear developed to show how my feet landed. Now this was just a unscientific experiment but I was surprised by the wear on the tape, the inner ball of the foot taking the brunt of the impact followed by long and middle toe, the main weight bearing metatarsals but looking at the long tape the strike patter only covers the forward section.

As for the heel, yes they are being struck as I would expect but not as a heel strike but as a flat placement or "scuff"

I am feeling pretty pleased with the run being the furthest I have run with no shoes, a total of 5km, but note there is a slight pain in an old injury site showing that Monkey Feet (VFF's) do protect you somewhat even if we think they don't.