Victory in Defeat

Yesterday for the first time ever I was lapped in a track race. This was I suppose an inevitable consequence of age and the shortness of the indoor athletics track. I am searching for some comfort in the fact that it was a 1500m race rather than an 800m and that my nemesis was forty years my junior but it still rankles no matter the logic.

Running in a combined seniors and masters race is always going to be a matter of mindless hope over physical reality. The winning time was 4.01. My time a more pedestrian 4.49 but if you factor in the degenerative quotients of age I beat the young upstart by eleven seconds. Now who is smug? But I would still swap the seasoned bones for the vitality of youth. I will not go gently into that good night!

Tales from the Discorectangle

Training did not stop for Easter. In so far as it it is enjoyable to push your body towards the extremes of its ability I enjoyed Tuesday's session. The usual ten minute warm up run was followed by dynamic stretching and running up eighteen flights of steps. That completed the main course of the session ensued, 5 X 300m with three minutes recovery between and thereafter 6 X 120m with a walk back recovery.

The 300m efforts were to be run at 800m pace or better. For me that is now a rather depressing 51 seconds. Thirty years ago that would have been 44 seconds. Tempus Fugit but not me! It's strange how decades of training enables one's body clock to select the right pace. My first effort resulted in a 51.3 timing. Thereafter the times became progressively quicker ending up with a 47 second result. The 120m efforts were really strides helping to get rid of the lactic acid that had built up as a consequence of the 300m runs.

Although he didn't succumb to the joys of the 300m efforts we were joined at the track by Malcolm East one the UK's best ever marathon runners. A near contemporary of my self he has a 1981 pb for the distance of 2 hrs 11mins 36 secs. That is serious running.

To the Point and Back.

 

Last Monday was a muggy day. Not that bright but warm and humid. Too hot for my usual running haunts. T'was a day for the coast so that I could benefit from the on shore breeze. After having consumed my lunch I jumped into the horseless carriage and headed to Benone. I parked at the tourist complex and then headed for the beach. It was busy but only for a few hundred yards on either side of the roadway which runs onto it. After picking my way through the lazy throng and the attendant ice cream vans I headed towards Magilligan Point. Only a few dog walkers who had been dragged from their cars by their canine friends disturbed the peacefulness of the day. Out on the Lough I could see the small ferry heading towards Greencastle. The rush of the waves silenced its engine. Arriving at the Point I had to decide whether to retrace my steps or take to the roads. I choose the latter and longer option. Maybe not such a good idea. By the time I was unlocking my car my garmin informed me that I had ran almost twelve and a half miles at a tad under seven minutes thirty seconds per mile. In pre Brexit measurement that is about four minutes forty seconds per kilometre.

 

 

Around the Athletics Track.

Today was the day of the Northern Ireland Masters Athletics Association's track and field championships. With the huge increase in the number of people taking up running in recent years one might have thought that there would have been a similar increase of numbers at this Meet. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to have been too many runners who have made the move from the ubiquitous 5k to the track.

I suspect that they don't want to be assessed under the running microscope that is the track. You are very visible throughout the course of your race. The inadequacies and deficiencies of your running technique and physique are diagnosed and dissected by the cognicenti and any bye passer with his dog. I imagine that this might be particularly off putting to the more mature female runner. Anyhows the number of competitors was not particularly large most especially in the older age groups.

I was very much in two minds whether I would make the trip to the Mary Peters Track but I ultimately, (this morning at 11am), decided to go and partake of the joys of an 800m and 1500m and join seven others of my Club. I can't claim to be particularly race fit but my fitness levels were more than adequate for the task. Championship races tend to be more a matter of tactics than speed. It is very seldom that you achieve a season's best at a Championship race.

 

 

 

Lifford Early Summer Track Session.

 

A better track session yesterday. The weather helped and I was probably rather more rested going into this weekend's training than I have been for a good few weeks. We started off by running six laps of the track, (2400m) at a tad over six minute mile pace. That completed we spent fifteen minutes performing various dynamic stretches followed by several strides of increasing length. Then came the main course of the day's training. For myself and my training partner that was made up of 4 X 500m at 1500m pace with 90 seconds recovery between efforts. I would not be using the right terminology if I said that the runs were easy but they were comfortable. The first three were completed in ninety four seconds and the last in eighty nine seconds. Before the warm down we ran what for me was a brisk 200m in 29 s. It is hard to accept the brakes of age.

 

Round the Track at Lee Valley

A tiring weekend. Self and two club mates had agreed to pull on an NI vest at the Masters Inter Regional Athletics Championships at Lee Valley, London. We flew to Stansted on Saturday evening, spent the night at one of the hotel airports and then drove to the track on Sunday morning.

Usually masters' races are run on the basis of five year categories. Unfortunately that is not the case with this competition. Competitors are forced to run as a V35, a V50 a V 60 or a V70. That does mean that you could be competing against someone who is almost ten years younger than you or even fifteen years in the case of the youngest category. All three of us were at least five years into our designated category. Five years, thirteen years and eight years were our race handicaps. None of us were escatic with our performances but none the less they were competent. We have probably retained our UK rankings on the Power of 10 website.

As you move through the age categories one gets to know your fellow competitors fairly well. My first track race as a vet athlete, that was before the term, "master," was adopted and indeed before the age was reduced from 40 to 35, was at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow in 1998. I did think that I was going to end up in second position in the 800m until the last three metres when one Kevin Archer clawed past me to snatch the silver medal at the Scottish Vets.

I have met Kevin on many occasions since then most recently this last weekend. He has has had somewhat more success than yours truly on the vet scene and has recently published a book chronicling his experiences and successes as a veteran athlete. Obviously this is a book that will only interest athletes and indeed those of a certain age. I am of that age and I did find it interesting. Like Kevin I have enjoyed a more successful career as a master athlete than as a senior athlete.

 

On Track Again.

Although I have had two indoor races this year today was my first track session of the year. It was good to get back on the 400m track, good to get into the rhythm of track reps. We started off with a three mile warm up. Thereafter we spent some twenty minutes performing various drills and shuttle runs. That completed it was time for the main course. We ran an 800m followed by 4 X 400m and then another 800m to finish off.

To take account of our various abilities we were split up into three groups. I managed to avoid the cut for the slowest group! Between each of the reps we had a 200m jog by way of recovery. The instruction was to run the 800m reps at 3000m pace and the 400's at 1500m pace. I just about managed to adhere to this instruction although the last 800m at 2.32.was maybe a trifle quick. This session was in preparation for a 3k race in which we are participating on Thursday night, (weather permitting!). Hopefully I will be in the upper quartile of the V5's.

 

 

 

 

 

Railway Run

This morning was most definitely the best portion of the day for running. The rain clouds and gusty winds held off until the afternoon. I met my training companions at the new Foyle Arena in the Waterside district of Londonderry at a smidgen after 10.30. After ten minutes of drills the running commenced. We ran through St Columb's Park to the Peace Bridge and crossed over it to the West Bank of the City. The session involved us running for thirty minutes from the bridge at a steady but easy pace and then retracing our steps at a faster but still sub race and even sub tempo pace. Being able to carry on a conversation was the determinative.

Our route took us up the West Bank of the River Foyle following what had been the course of the old GNR railway. I was the only one of the group to remember trains on the track and indeed travelling on them. It is rather frightening to think that that is now more than fifty one years ago.

We averaged some 4.50 per kilometre on the way out. The return journey was at a tad over 4.15. Running in a group, there were six of us, is so much easier and more enjoyable than plodding along on your lonesome. The time and the miles go in much more quickly aided of course by the continual banter.

 

Winter Sunshine Run

It may be mid winter but occasionally, just occasionally the fourth season of the year provides a bright and dry day even if the temperature is tending towards negative territory. Yesterday was one of those rare pet days. Having crossed the international border to avail of the twenty pence per litre saving in the price of diesel I decided to continue my journey into the South in a northerly direction towards Moville. It calls itself a town but in terms of population it is really a village. I prefer villages to towns. Cities are even further down my like list.

I parked at Montgomery Terrace overlooking Lough Foyle. When he was a young man my grandfather spent the summer months in Moville travelling to his work in Londonderry every morning by streamboat and taking the same route back in the early evening. It is strange to think that that was some one hundred and fifteen years ago. I suspect that it was the S S Seamore that he travelled on. It was one of the tenders that met the American liners just off Moville.

I have walked a portion of the shore walk from Moville to Greencastle on several occasions but never the full distance. It isn't that far perhaps two and a half miles. I decided to run along the path as part of my training run. It takes one past several Victorian villas. Up until seven or eight years ago the owners of the largest of these shoreside residences had a small herd of deer in their fields. I was able to make good time over the first half of the route but thereafter I had to cross various small beaches and traverse rather rocky portions. Rather than retrace my steps I ran through Greencastle up onto the top road and from thence back to Moville completing my 10k at the harbour. A strange sculpture has been erected at the end of the pier. I'm not sure what it is meant to represent but it looks a bit like a fishing float. I have probably misinterpreted the symbolism!

 

 

Sunday Morning on the Road

Not for me a lazy Sunday morning under the duvet no matter how attractive that might have seemed when the alarm went off at 6.50am. This was not to be a day of rest but rather a race day. Thankfully I had cadged a lift from a team mate who lives about fifteen miles distant so I didn't have to drive the whole way to the race venue.

I should probably have allowed myself another ten or so minutes but 6.50am seemed to be very early. The hens certainly thought it early. They weren't exactly champing at the beak to toddle down the ladder from their coop when I opened the door to the great outside for them. By the time I had filled their drinker and consumed two of their eggs for my breakfast I was running a few minutes late. Still I got to the pick up point more or less on time.

The locus for the race was in Co Donegal. The distance five kilometres. Three hundred and five individuals traipsed around the course. A bit early in the day for a fast run and the near freezing temperatures didn't help. I can't say that I had a great race but I didn't make an idiot of myself so a sort of result. Two hundred and seventy eight individuals finished behind me. The age category results haven't been published as yet but I would be reasonably confident that I have managed to hold off my contemporaries. Here's hoping!

 

 

The Inconveniences of Christmas Training.

I didn't manage to go for a run on Boxing Day. I have to concede that that was a definite downside to the day. I have been running for so many years that there is an inherent need to go for a run, or at least get an hour's workout on a daily basis. Without that fillip to the day I feel, however unrationably, that I am putting on weight and becoming unfit. If you aren't a runner or into fitness you won't understand this worm of worry. If you are you will completely understand the worrisome vacuum that is created by a day of inactivity.

Thankfully yesterday and today didn't flash up any obligatory visitations and I was able to enjoy my daily exercise fix. That's not to say that such social interludes can't be and indeed are enjoyable but I dont remember a Christmas when I truly determined how I was going to spend the entirety of the Yuletime period.

 

 

Around Lough Fea in the Rain

It doesn't seem a year since I took out the horseless carriage and drove into the Sperrins to participate in Sperrin Harriers 5k run around Lough Fea. But a full year had passed and on Saturday I was again standing in the rugged countryside five miles uphill from Draperstown.

Last year's weather was cold but dry. This year it was not only cold but very very wet. A distinct breeze did not improve the conditions. It is easy to make little of the weather forecaster's talk of the windchill factor but if you are running through a constant drizzle with a fifteen or sixteen miles per hour wind buffeting you the headline temperature of eight degrees centigrade, (forty six degrees centigrade in proper measurement) feels much much less. By the time I came through the finish line I couldn't feel my fingers.

The race attracted eighteen more competitors than last year with one hundred and fifty hardy souls lining up. The start point for the race is quite narrow permitting no more than four or five individuals to stand next to one another. Last year the organisers placed time flags along the side of the path with people being asked to stand behind the flag that showed a time close to their estimated finishing time. This useful feature was not utilised this year. As a result there were people standing close to the front row who should clearly have been taking a position fifteen or more rows back. Even more worryingly some of those who were obviously misplaced were juniors. In a world where the mantra of, "health and safety," is bandied about and the risk of litigation is always present it might be appropriate for the organisers to control the start more effectively. The tardiness in the availability of results is also something that needs to be addressed. Thirty hours after the race I still don't know what position I finished in and who I did or did not beat.

 

Circuitous Day

Tuesday night's session was tough. Yes I was feeling tired anyway and yes the years do weary one but I still like to think that most of the post session tiredness was the result of my efforts on the track. The normal warmup and drills prefaced the main course of the session - 7 x 800m with 90 seconds jog recovery in between. As usual we were working in groups of roughly similar ability. The target time for myself and my compatriots was 2min 56. We averaged 2min 54s. Eighty seven seconds per lap doesn't sound that fast but it would give me a sub eighteen minute 5k if I could maintain the pace and this was after all a 5k session.

 

 

Athletic Weekend

Sunday was spent pretending that I was still an athlete. I was not alone. Upwards of a thousand individuals who had attained at least their thirty fifth birthday concentrated upon Tullamore in Co. Offaly for the 2015 Irish Masters Championships. I suppose that strictly speaking I was a guest at these, "games," but my appearance was not challenged. In any event it is not a closed championship. For me this is just another event, albeit somewhat convenient, where I can participate in an event with my peers or near peers. Unfortunately I was obliged to accept second place in both the 800m and 1500m. That said he who snooked in front of me was a newbie to the age category. He may have beaten me by a quarter of a second in both races but the age tables say that he should have beaten me by some three and six seconds. He didn't. I retain the moral if not the athletic high ground. I will endeavour to ensure that he does not beat me again.

 

 

 

Double Furlong Session

Yesterday's training was not easy. A lactic tolerance session is never a doddle. After the normal warm up and drills we started upon the hard stuff. Four 400m efforts were required from us. We were divided into two groups. I just about warranted my selection for the A squad. The recovery between the efforts was five minutes. This does at first glance seem to be a more than ample recovery but it proved to be somewhat parsimonious as the session progressed. The lactic acid levels in my legs increased rep upon rep. My times were as follows: 66s; 67s; 66s and 65s, so an average of 66s. Not totally humiliating tines in real tine and if one drags in the age tables then an average age related time of 54.98 doesn't seem to be too bad.

 

Older Athletes on Track.

Yesterday was the day of the geriatric athletics competition in Northern Ireland, aka the Northern Ireland Masters Athletics Championships. The smell of embrocation hung in a pall over the Mary Peters Track. Bandages and tape were much in evidence and, "puffers," were being used with considerable alacrity.

This event is a relatively new addition to the athletics calendar. Until eleven or twelve years ago the mature athlete in Northern Ireland was restricted to a 1500m at the senior championships if he, (not she), wanted what was then called a, "veterans race." The age division between senior and veteran male athlete was forty. Since then it has been reduced to thirty five and the term veteran has been replaced by the term master just in case we get mixed up with American ex-service personnel.

As is usual a lot of the age categories did not attract great numbers. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of many individuals to partake in track athletics even though they are quite happy to turn out at innumerable road races and even cross country events. Maybe it is because they can be viewed by the spectators throughout the race. Tactical mistakes can't be hidden. Competitive naievity, lack of fitness and failure to react are under the analytical microscope. With masters athletics you then have the additional age related dissection of performance. Comments about how old and grey people have become and how so and so has put a lot of weight on. Yes I suppose this might put some people off competing on the track.

 

Preparation is Everything.

Yesterday's training was very much a preparatory session. We were preparing for an 800m race on Saturday evening.

 

After the obligatory warmup we completed various drills over low hurdles aiming to increase leg speed. Thereafter we moved on to the track and ran 8 x 150m with a walk back recovery. The instruction was that we shouldn't run very much quicker than our 800m pace. On that basis I should have been running through the line in circa 25secs. None of us really kept to to our target pace. By the end of the set I was comfortably under twenty two seconds. This wasn't an out and out sprint for yours truly but it did represent a ratcheting up from my two lap pace and if I am honest it was even slightly quicker than what I could now maintain for a sole lap.

 

It is rather sad when you have to accept that the targets of previous years are now very much on the other side of the hill and will never be achieved again. Still I suppose that I am lucky that I can still toe the line and not make a total fool of myself on the athletics track.

 

 

Belfast Miles.

The mile is the only imperial distance that is now raced on the track and that somewhat infrequently save in the USA where it has been retained on the College racing circuit. There is however something rather magical and alluring about the mile. Even people with a passing interest in athletics talk about the four minute mile and they might even know that Roger Bannister was the first individual to break this particular athletic barrier. Sixty one years after Bannister collapsed over the line to gain a world record mark, which many people believed to be beyond a human's capability, there is still a desire to test oneself over seventeen hundred and sixty yards.

Yesterday evening NIRunning in association with the British Milers Club hosted a series of mile races at the Mary Peters track in Belfast. Over one hundred and fifty individuals turned up to test themselves. The majority were I suppose club runners but those with a lesser experience of competitive racing were catered for in the slower races. Many people definitely underestimated their ability and elected for a race which was comfortably within their capabilities. The slowest race was for a predicted time of 10 mins +. Successive races lowered the bar in one minute intervals.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly no one joined Sir Roger's sub 4 club. After all more people have climbed Everest than have broken the four minute mile barrier. The fastest runs of the night were from James Hamilton, (4:33.61) and Kelly Neely, (4:58.93). As for the writer of this blog he does have to report that not only did he not succeed in breaking the four minute barrier but five minutes also proved to be over the horizon. That said with the benefit of the comfort of the dear old age tables he was a good straight in front of Mr. Hamilton.

Around the Discorectangle.

Rather a strange word, - discorectangle. It is the name for a shape that is very familiar to runners, most particularly track runners. I encountered this shape myself in very physical form this morning. It is the name that applies to a shape made up of a rectangle with semicircles at either end. My meeting with the shape was, as will now have been guessed, at an athletics track where a group training session had been arranged.

 

 

After the usual warmup and drills we started into the actual session. This was to be two sets of 5 x 400m with ninety seconds between efforts and ten minutes between sets. We have a mile race coming up in the next week so the aim was to mimic the pace that we expect to run that race at. For yours truly that meant laps of seventy seven seconds. We ran in small groups of similar ability with everyone taking their turn at the front and with the others tucked in tightly behind. The pace proved easier than I had thought it would be. My average time was probably around 75 seconds. The problem will be to stick four such laps together, back to back. If I get close to an average of 77 seconds I will be content. What was achieved last year is harder this year with yet another year in ones limbs.

 

 

Queen's 5k

 

Wednesday evening just past was cold, not really an inviting environment in which to strip down to shorts and singlet and attempt to race. Despite the negative weather conditions I attended the Queen's 5k along with various of my club colleagues and forced myself to toe the starting line.

Due to the numbers of participants, (entries were closed at 750), I was some distance back from the actual start line. However there was chip timing so to some extent that downside was answered. I say to some extent because you still have to force your way through the individuals who have positioned themselves in the first few rows of runners although their pbs would warrant a start position much further back. The members of one particular running club were very visibly guilty of this breach of running etiquette. Despite the temptation to do so I will refrain from naming and shaming the club concerned. I won't even mention the predominant colour of their singlets. Tempting mind you!

This was my first running of this particular event. I don't know whether I will race it again. The corners are very tight and there really were too many participants. I didn't run quite as fast as I had hoped but I suppose you could describe it as a stolid performance. In any event it was sufficent to get me in to the prize list with a second position in my age category.