North Wales Cross Country Northop

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. -Steve Prefontaine


Do you agree with this quote? The word gift could be interpred in a number of ways: 
- Talent; 
- Ability received without effort;
- Free without cost. 


Gift seems to insinuate that we've been given something (the ability to run) and we should use it. I think though, with running, that most are not given a gift, we have to work hard to get good. 


I was pleased with today's race. The legs felt strong, I kept up with the runners who are usually ahead of me and beat some of them. Matt Rose was still quite a bit in front of me. One day I might finish a race in front of him! 


The route was very good, plenty of beautiful trees around (I'm into my trees at the moment): check out my trees logged: Link (roll over me to see where I go) 


I started off the race full of beans and want to lead but thought I shouldn't overtake the leaders because that would be silly. After the first loop (4 loops in total) I was surprised to be close to the people I was with. My team mate James was keeping up with me which I was pleased with because he's a new runner to the Senior league and I wanted to help him along. Throughout the race I was overtaken and I took about the same amount of runners. My position at half way was about the same as at the end. 

Lake Vyrnwy race

Quote: "‘talent’ is made, not born"  From the book Bounce by Matthew Syed. (http://www.matthewsyed.co.uk/biog/)

Today I did an amazement achievement, for me: A half marathon at Lake Vyrnwy in 1h11m39s.  This is a good time for any runner and one might say that I have a talent for running but after reading the above mentioned book, it's not talent but:
- Effort  - Hard work  - Focussed training  - Persistence.

Most things can be achieved through the power of practice and often in our society praise is wrongly given for the so called 'gifted'.  Not enough praise is given, in my view, for hard work and effort.  People who are prepared to work hard are not scared of failing because they don't have to fear loosing their reputation of having a magic talent.  Failure is the learning curve on a road to success.

Lake Vyrnwy is beautiful

Enough of that!  Back to my race report.  I knew that there was a big hill at the start of the race and the wind was strong today so I started off conservatively.  But after the first three miles I noticed that my pace was fast but I was still feeling fresh.  I kept saying to myself, this is easy and I'm prepared for this.  I focussed as much as I could on being relaxed.  Between the start and up to 5 miles I was chasing a pack of around 5-10 runners.  I caught up to them at 5 miles and said, we're on for a 73minute time, then I stayed with them for 1 mile and drafted from the wind.  Then I noticed that they were not keeping to the pace I wanted: 5m30s so I decided to overtake them.  One person came with me and stuck with me until the last mile.  This was a great help and we spurred each other on.  We both agreed to try and catch the person in front and imagine that the road was downhill.  He said to me "use the downhill".  We kept to the 5m30s pace and caught the runner up at 11 miles.

In summary I did much better than I thought I could and I felt strong.  I feel I could have gone faster.

Wholegrain - recipie for Date Bars

Here's a healthy wholegrain recipie I've made up for some sticky flapjacks. Please experiment with it and let me know any improvements:

130g chopped dates (without the stones)

100g raisins / currants

150g Oats

1 cup boiling water

Handful of seeds or nuts to taste

Method:

Mix everything together in a pan on the heat.

Simmer for 5 mins.

Press into a container.

Put in the fridge until cold.

Cut into squares and eat.

Benefits of wholegrain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_grain#Health_and_whole_grain_consumption

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/treatments/healthy_living/nutrition/healthy_carbos.shtml

I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart. - Mike Fanelli, club coach

The Bangor North Wales Cross Country race report.

Travalled down with Adrian. This is the third time I've completed the race. The last two year had been really cold and really wet. This year it was just cold and wet. Although it did dry up in time for the start of the race and just a bit of drizzle when warming down.

This was a difficult race to judge how well I did. Quite a few people missing at the front, Chris (Telford), Darren Rowlands, Richard Roberts, T Davies, etc. However I was level with Peter Middleton (about 1/2 second behind at the end). Last year he was 8th in 29:16. I was a 6:29 pace last year. This year: 6:06 pace, much better.

The race was exciting:

1) Started too far behind. Should have pushed to the front. I was in the middle of talking to Matthew Rose when the whistle went. Stayed level with Lee Jones. 5:38

2) Starting on the big loops of which there were three. 6:15

3) Ahead of Lee, starting to pick off others. 6:22

4) Scared that the others I had taken might catch me up but managed to keep 4th / 5th position: 5:55

5) A fast finish at the end. Lapped Adrian who gave me a shout-out. Just couldn't take Peter Middleton but did well to keep with him and not get over taken myself.

Desi did well to come second and was very close to first.

No pressure, no diamonds.
Mary Case

In today's race I felt the pressure and got the diamond. Yes, two people did pass me near the end so I finish 5th rather than 3rd but those two were good runners. My time was 34:06 which was a good time for a tough 10K course. I was only 13 seconds behind 3rd place. My confidence has been boosted which was needed after a couple of weeks with a shin injury.

Here are the splits...

Mile 1) 5:16. This was flat and along the Caernarfon sea front. Beautiful scenery.

2) 5:27. Still along the sea front. At this point I was in about 7th position and catching up to the front runners. The wind was still on my back.

3) 5:24 The hard two miles were coming up. UP being the operative word; uphill.

4) 5:40 Now I was focussing on going a bit faster. I had reserved my energy and was now letting myself go for it. I like racing where I hang back, feeling good and not letting myself go full out until half way.

5) 5:36 I could see Steve Crowe and Lee Jones. I put in a good 800m effort by pretending that it was an interval session. Caught Lee going uphill but knew that he might catch me again near the end with his sprint finish.

6) - 1m - 5:26 Passed Steve Crowe. This was new territory for me. Didn't ever think I would be good enough to catch the legend in a race. I should have known at this point that he would take me at the end because he had enough energy to say hello to me.

7) 1:18(5:24/m) I was in third place, I could see Brendan for 2nd place and so I ran hard and fast to catch him. The problem was that everyone ran hard and fast and I actually had Steve and Lee sprint past me as if they were fresh daisies. It was close. 13 seconds between 2nd, 3rd, 4th and me.

This was one of those exciting rare races were I was being both the hunter and the hunted. I've done too many lone races so this was refreshing. If Lee or Steve read this thanks for making it a race rather than a hard run.

Quote:
"Level of success based on my level of risk" - Will Smith in his song called Da Butta

My training week has been focussed on three running quality sessions
mixed with easy days of
cycling, swimming and aqua running.
The aqua running has meant the shin has healed and hopefully my
Borders League road race next weekend will not be a repeat of the
Cross Country last week.
- Run strong; run long.


Highlights of my week:
- Tuesday nights tempo session:
+ Heart Rate being over 200 for the whole session;
+ Some random guy saying "Bloody hell, yer goin for it, AIN'T ya?" - hell yeah I was;
- Thursday's swim:
+ Daniel's running ability: Excellent.
Daniel's swimming ability: Could do better.
Such a contrast to my running. In the class I'm in the second to
slowest lane and most people are middle aged ladies. Swimming is not my strong point.
- Poisoning myself by eating R A W red kidney beans. I was sick and had to sleep for 10 hours that night.

Future:
Shakespeare Marathon 8th May 2011
I did a very rough 24 week plan.
It starts on w/c 21st November with a Base 6 - 8 week period full of peaceful long runs at easy pacing.
This is to obtain B U L L E T P R O O F legs that will be hard to injure when the real tough training starts.
Sub 2:30, maybe not the Shakespeare but hopefully in Autumn next year, caveat: injury free.

"If you start to feel good during an ultra, don't worry you will get over it. - Gene Thibeault"

A quick fire summary of my 5.6mile Cross Country race today: Good, competent, adequate, fair to middling, sufficient, passable, acceptable.

The better news is that a couple of hours after the race, the shin has not swollen or flared up. Hopefully it'll be a thing of the past. Next time I race I should be able to go full on and let the fitness and speed get out; I was a bit hesitant today because of the injury.