Summer Summary

Post London Marathon I raced 10ks, getting my time down to 34.20 by the end of June. During July and August I hit a wee purple patch winning the Tour of the Clydeside series, 2nd in the Mull half, 5th V40 in the British Masters 10k Champs, 2nd in Irvine 10k and 8th in Paisley 10k (33:55). The highlight of summer was being selected for Scotland in the Masters International in November.

Tour of the Clydeside

Mull half marathon

British Masters 10k champs - 5th V40

Team Bella at Irvine 10k

Paisley 10k

Unfortunately the year wasn't to end on a high. I picked up an injury training for Cardiff which ruled out the Great Scottish Run, the Southside Six and my chance to race for Scotland. All was not lost as Holly won her first race, the wee Nessie 5k in Inverness.

Holly wins the wee Nessie race

Couple of videos I made during the GSR weekend.

Great Scottish Run - 10k from Crispin Walsh on Vimeo.

Great Scottish Run 2013 - Half Marathon from Crispin Walsh on Vimeo.

Now back on track and training for a sub 2:37 in London. 

West District XC Relays 2013

Not good. Just gone backwards two weeks. 

VLM 2013 Weekend

Friday

Excitement on the train meeting other marathon runners. Lots of walking and stretching. Picnic was a bag full of carbs in tupperware - brown rice, mixed nuts, dried mango and banana, brown rice, chicken on wholemeal rolls. Met a couple from Edinburgh who managed to get through 1 bottle of champagne and 2 bottle of cava. Rosie joined them.

Visited platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross.Ppurchased a pair of oyster cards.

Expo - in and out 2 hours - t-shirt, gels, jelly beans, photo then back onto DLR to Bank station and onto central line to Ealing for evening meal of pre cooked chicken burrittos, refried beans and salad. 

Saturday

Sunning morning for an easy jog around Ealing common before picking up papers, bagels and fresh coffee. Back home for lazy morning. 

Took tube to London Bridge in afternoon, visited Borough Market, ate nice things, checked out the Shard, took tube to Green Park to relax in the park, bumped into BB, good talk, tube home, final nights dinner -

Asian tuna and udon noodles. Early night.

Sunday - Race day.

Breakfast - Large bowl of porridge with dried mango, banana chips, honey, cup of coffee. 

7.37 am central line tube to Bond Street, changed onto Jubilee to London Bridge then go the overground to Blackhealth. Busy. Exciting. Good luck texts coming in.  Arrived Blackhealth 9am. Festival atmosphere. Very excited now. Walk across Greenwich park to Championship start. It's on.

Stats
Finished 02:37:31

First half: 01:19:13
Second half: 01:18:30

Placed 120th overall
12th in my age group (M40).

Splits:

Race fueling
4 orange SiS gels, packet of jelly beans in back pocket, half a chia energy bar at 10 miles, other half at 20 miles.  

Race Hydration
Water every third mile and an isotonic every 4 miles. Electrolyte tab into my water bottles at 6, 13 and 18 miles.

Lessons learned
* A longer taper works 3 weeks.
* Quality not quantity of miles. Only did two 65 mile weeks. Rest of 45 - 60 combined with alot of racing.
* Switching off distance data field on Garmin and using route mile marker
* Better hydrating
* A massive carb load works. 600 grams a day from Wednesday. If you want it, have it. You'll burn it off anyway and wont hit the wall.

VLM13 one week to go

It's been 3 weeks or so since my last 20+ run so I'm pretty well rested but mentally I've found the taper quite hard this time round. Too much time to think and put pressure on myself to perform.

One of the things I'm thinking about alot is weight and my diet. I would need to lose another 4lbs to reach my racing weight by Sunday which isn't going to happen. I should manage another 1-2 lbs to take me to 148lbs (13% body fat) which I'll be happy with.

I'm carb depleting for the next three days then carb loading from Wednesday. On race day I'll carry four SIS gels, one every 45 mins, a small packet of jelly beans in the back pocket and half a chia bar wrapped in foil for backup if the gels get too sickly.


Hydration wise it'll be 500ml of water when I wake up, one "Beet It" shot 15 mins before race then half a 330ml water bottle every 3 miles, half an isotonic bottle every 5 miles and few electrolyte tabs dropped into water bottles if it gets hot. Hopefully that will cover all bases.

My race strategy is to go out at 6.15 m/m pace for first mile, bring it down to 6:00 by Tower Bridge (halfway) then drop to 5.55 pace for the second half, that's the plan anyway. It could go well, I could explode spectacularly.

Rosie and and I travel down to London on Friday by train. We're staying in awesome Godmother's lovely home in Ealing again so looking forward to a couple of day's in and around London.



First time in the championship start this year, running number 626.

 

Finally, picked up new 10 mile pb last Sunday in the Tom Scott Memorial 10 mile road race, finished in 55.41, 2nd V40. 

Whose the baldy on the far right? 

Tom Scott Memorial 10 mile Road Race from Crispin Walsh on Vimeo.

Training going well this week, no major niggles, new lunchtime training 10k pb and 4lbs away from target weight.

I enjoyed a hard but rewarding long run with Colin Thomas on Sunday. We took the 9.12 train from Glasgow Central Station to Stewarton then ran for 2 hours and 20 minutes (21 miles) back to Glasgow through howling winds, blizzards and hilly country roads. 

Feeling the runner's high following long run, shower and food. Homemade spaghetti bolognese never tasted so good.

As an experiment I'm not wearing my Garmin for the Alloa Half Marathon this Sunday which makes me a little nervous but that could be a good thing.

London 2013

Just not had the time to keep this blog up to date of late, a young family takes priority but I'll try to get some traction going again in the leadup to London Marathon 2013.

How am I currently feeling? A bit nervous. I've had some good races recently but realise there's still much to do and not alot of time. Enjoying the double speedwork sessions on Tuesdays and cross training. Will be happier once I have my first 20 miler out the way. With that in mind here are my final five weeks of training. 

Sunday 10th March
Type: Long run
Distance: 22 miles
Time: 2hr 30m 
Pace: 6.45

Sunday 17th March
Race: Allo Half
Distance: 13 miles
Pace: Eyebaws oot

Sunday 24th March
Type: Long run
Distance: 23 miles
Time: 2hr 35m 
Pace: 6.45

Sunday 31st March
Race: National Road Relays
Distance: 10k
Pace: Eyebaws oot

Sunday 7th April
Type: Long run
Distance: 20 miles
Time: 2hr 15m 
Pace: 6.45