Moreton Mad Dash 10k

The second leg of my #2014_10kChallenge took place yesterday at the the Moreton Morrell Mad Dash 10k held at the college in Moreton and ran in the country lanes of Warwickshire.

The event was well organised and had a good turnout of around 250 runners.  It was a bright morning after a night of rain, but there was a bitterly cold wind.

The race started in the grounds of the college so was traffic free for the first kilometer, good job really as the driveway out of the college was full of potholes and deep puddles, runners were all over the place trying to keep their feet dry.  Out of the college onto the road into the village of Moreton Morrell and we were going downhill with a tailwind, needless to say the first 2k was quick.  In fact the first 5k was quick (for me) and completed in around 21 mins, if I kept this up a PB was on the cards! 

Reality is though I'm nowhere near PB form yet and if the first 5k was mostly downhill with a tailwind it didn't take much working out what the next 5k would be like.  At 6k the first up hill stretch into the wind came, it was tough but I was ready for it and it didn't slow me down too much.  The next 2k was rolling terrain mostly into the wind and I was saving myself for the final kilometer which I knew had a step climb back up to the college.

I was still going well though by my standards and was still below 9 min pace per mile for the first 5 miles, something I've not managed since return to running.  Then we entered the college grounds, I had an idea of what was coming.... it didn't disappoint. Shortly after the 9k marker we swung left and there it was, the sting in the tail. At least 500 meters up hill.  It certainly slowed me down, but I was not going to stop or walk, I may not have been running up it but at least I was jogging.  And to be fair to most others they shared my determination not to stop.  It did beat quite a few though, it was tough to take at that stage of the race.  The last 250 meters on the flat were a welcome relief as the finish line reeled me in. 

I stopped the clock at 54:49, much better than my last effort and over a rolling course with hills so although still quite a way off my best I'm pretty pleased with that.  Must give a quick thanks to the marshals out on the road who did a great job and managed to stop traffic when runners where approaching.

Brass Monkey 10K

The first leg of my #2014_10kChallenge at Rockingham Speedway the Brass Monkey 10k was a tough one, hopefully the toughest of the year.  The weather was appalling, hard driving rain and wind swirling around the race track certainly made for character building stuff.

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm way off my fitness levels of when I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon in 2012.  Currently almost 2 stone heavier and over a minute per mile slower, I'm making steady progress towards my 'former glory'.

I arrived in good time to collect my race number from the pitlane of the Rockingham Speedway circuit.  There was a good turnout considering the awful conditions.  In fact it was a record attendance for this fundraising event for Lakelands Hospice in Corby.

Lots of runners huddled in the pits under cover waiting until the last possible moment before heading out to the track, there was almost a groan when the announcer announced it was time to go outside to the start line.

Credit to the organisers, they didn't hang around getting us off, as soon as everyone was on the start line they had us away.

4.5 laps of the track lay ahead as we almost immediately hit the headwind on the start/finish straight.  50% of this race was going to be spent fighting against this wind and driving rain, the other 50% was recovery time...

I kept a steady pace throughout without being dragged into other peoples race, I was conscious I needed to do my own thing as I can ill afford to waste any energy with my current fitness levels.  My 1st mile was 8:37 which was my pace in my 'prime' (I use that term very lightly) followed by 3 miles at 9:20 each.  5th mile took a hit at 9:38, before running 9:20 pace for the last 1.2 miles. 

An official race time of 57:25, 6 minutes off my PB is not great, but given the condition of the weather and myself I'll let that go, I'm sure there's a PB in me this year, after all I have another 11 attempts at it...

2014 10k Challenge

I have this crazy idea of running a marathon in 2014...  Problem is I really struggle to keep myself motivated to train, so I have come up with a cunning plan.  Another goal to train for which will keep me going towards the main target of the marathon.

I know it makes no sense, if I can't keep motivated for one challenge how is setting two challenges going to help?  I don't know either...

The 2014 10k Challenge is to run one 10k race/event in each month of 2014, my first one is on the 19th Jan, the Brass Monkey 10k at Rockingham Race circuit.  I have not trained for about a month now, and not trained properly for over a year, so to be running 10k in a little over 3 weeks is ambitious bordering on stupid, so I'm not expecting a great result in this one.

My aim is to blog my training for the 10k challenge and the Marathon as well as my archery training if I find the time to do any. 

Form, continued

Well I didn't have to wait long for my new release to arrive, it landed on my doorstep this morning. After the initial nervous first draw and WHOA! as the arrow went I settled down. As luck has it the current issue of Bow International has a good article on finding a consistent and repeatable anchor point, so armed with that advice off I went down the garden.

And already after shooting for a couple of hours with it I'm converted to the thumb release. I was messing about trying to settle on an anchor point and to be honest I'm still experimenting with that one, but it's all good practice and strength building, an hour a day for a few weeks should get me on the right track.

I want to do things right this time around so have put any plans of shooting in 'opens' or other competitions this year out of my mind. I want to take my time and get my form and technique right. I'm looking at booking a session with Duncan Busby in a few weeks to get myself and the bow checked out and take hopefully some good pointers.

Rediscovering my form

Finally we have a bit of decent weather so it was high time I got out in the garden and started working on form and stamina.  It's been a long time and on the few occasions I have shot recently I'm beginning to lose my form after as little as 2 dozen arrows.

So the aim for now is to bring that strength and muscle memory back up to speed and work on the magic formula of the set up and routine of the shot.  The former is my main concern at the minute as I am waiting for a new thumb release to arrive and am still using my wrist release currently, so obviously my routine will be changing soon. 

I'm not shooting for scores yet, not even sight marks as it's pretty pointless until my set up is finalised.  I had an hour or so in the garden this afternoon at between 10 & 20 meters with very pleasing results.  I am concentrating on my set up i.e stance and pre shot routine.  Then holding the sight (once drawn) in the gold and trying to keep it steady for approx 5 seconds prior to release, I figure this will help my strength and stamina and keep me away from punching the trigger as soon as I wander into the gold.

I wasn't writing any scores down but after an hour I was probably averaging about 28.5 per 3 arrows @ 20m I'm happy with that for now.

Cant wait to get going with the thumb release once it arrives, and looking forward to the new Mybo stabilisers from Merlin which are out any time now, then I'll be working on the rest of that routine and finally getting some sight marks down.

Merlin XT

Changes

Quite a lot of water has passed since I last wrote, cycling is no longer a part of my life, I'm still a fan of pro cycling and will continue to watch, but riding a bike no longer gave me the buzz I require from a hobby.

So a clear out of the shed and bottom draw in the wardrobe, 4 bikes, loads of parts and accessories and a draw full of clothing have gone, yes even the beloved Project Peugeot.  I did finish the Peugeot, took her out for one ride and then dismantled her.  The sad fact is the bike was worth much more as parts than a complete bike.

I will also maintain my presence with Beeston CC as a paid up member as that club has a fond place in my heart having being with them from their early days and being a big part in the first 2 or 3 years of existence.

So what replaces the bike you may be asking....... well I have returned to a previous passion of mine, archery.  This was partly fueled by my son who enjoys the sport and wanted to get more involved, the thought of doing something with him really was a big persuader.  Plus I felt that after leaving the sport 4 years ago just as I was getting good I have some unfinished business, and plans to shoot in national shoots, something I never got round to before.  I am looking forward to getting out there with my lad and achieving those ambitions.