My first DNS and Sunday Race Day: KFL Cross Country - Swanley Park (the reverse course)

You'll be aware from the last few updates of last week that I've developed a bit of knee trouble over the last week.  Not ideal preparation for Paris obviously.

My last planned long run of 20 miles was the Surrey Spitfire 20.  Straight after Wednesday night's run with the Plums, my knees were really sore.  Thursday they were worse.  Despite ibuprofen and anti-inflamatory gel, I made the decision to pull out of the race on Sunday.  I'd already done two runs of 20 miles in my preparation so running with the knees at no where near 100% on hard tarmac was potentially risking all my hard work over the last three to four months.  So unfortunately, the decision was reluctantly made and I racked up my first ever Did Not Start (DNS).  Its a bloody shame as it was a nice blingy medal from what I've seen on Dave and Lee's Facebook updates!

Back at the Plums on Wednesday night, Robin and Les had suggested that if I didnt run the 20 on Sunday, it was the last KFL Cross Country Race.  One was cancelled with the bad weather in the winter months and had been rescheduled for Swanley Park, where the second race of the season had been held but would be run in the reverse direction.

By Saturday evening, the knees still didnt feel right but they felt well enough to give it a go on Sunday, as long as I stuck to the grass and mud and avoided the firm paths at all costs to give the knees a rest from any potential high impact.

Not ideal race preparation though.  I'd been to the pub with my brother Steve and caught up with my pals Dan and Kev who I hadnt seen in well over a year so we had a look of catching up to do.  Off to bed at about 1:30am and the alarm set for 7am.  After hitting snooze about 4 times, I got out of bed A single bowl of porridge and that was the race fueling done.  No need for anything more significant than that as I was determined to take it easy.  Got changed and was out of the door after I'd caught up with the F1 highlights.

I got to Swanley Park just before 10am.  Grabbed a cup of tea and caught up with the guys who had already arrived and steadily more Plums streamed in.  It was a good turn out today, despite a few of the guys doing races elsewhere...

I dont know why but I opted for no warm up today apart from a few light stretches.  The race plan was to start slowly then just finish the race at a manageable pace whilst protecting my knees as much as I could.

The Swanley Park race is a 3 lap 1.7m course.  Total distance 5m.  Not too far but enough to be a challenge.  Last time I ran it, I had no sense of pacing myself and I felt ruined by the time I'd completed the first lap, so I was even more determined to run a steady pace this time around.

So we all lined up on the start line and off we went.  It felt softer under foot than I imagined it would be, so that was a relief for the knees.

I was surprised how many Plums seemed to be in front of me. I was almost side by side with Julie in the first half a mile until the first climb but as I made my way up, I passed Lee and Vicky and then Robin as I came down the other side. Perhaps I need to start nearer the front next time. 

I caught Dawn as we completed lap 2. I thought she was going to kick on as she normally does and told her not to wait about on my part but I'd caught her again on the last climb and went past. I quick check over my shoulder on the finish straight and I could see she wasnt going to catch me and as I was too far away from the man in front to make any impression, I cantered in rather than waste any energy. 

I finished in 194th place. I was excited by the fact that I made it into the top 200 for the first time but when I realised there was only 243 runners this time around, that took the wind out of my sails very quickly. 

In terms of the pacing, it was pretty much spot on.  Not all out effort by any means but it was definitely quicker than last time around the course.

Last time around, by the end of lap 1, I could have easily have stopped to throw up my HR felt so high but not this time.  Perhaps the HR was a little higher than normal because of the rise in temperature yesterday but not significantly so.

The Strava report shows I ran the majority of the race at tempo pace...

I certainly ran within myself and had plenty left in the tanks so all in all, it was a good run.

I'm glad to say my knees have reacted better than I thought they would.  I did make the conscious effort to avoid as many of the gravel compacted paths as I could and on another day, running on them would have made my run quicker but it was just about finishing today rather than worrying about times and pace.

The body is in a great place at the moment and I'm feeling the benefits of the marathon training programme of the last 3-4 months although the knees are feeling the consequences.

Monday Training (7 mile trail run at Oxleas Woods)

Sadly, by the time I woke up Sunday morning, I was suffering from a cold so I decided to give the KFL Cross Country race at Avery Hill Park a miss as I didnt want to stress my body too much and risk losing training time during the up coming week.

Instead I had a day of rest and spent most of the afternoon mainly watching football and dozing on the sofa.

I didnt sleep that well on Saturday or Sunday evening so by the time I woke up Monday morning I was feeling very tired indeed.  I had to pop in to see my parents in the morning but was back home by 3pm.

I felt better so I made the decision to do a gentle trail run over Oxleas Woods.  The weather had certainly brightened up after this morning's downpours...

Although the skies had brightened up, the ground was totally waterlogged and was the muddiest I've ever known the woods.  Here's the garmin dump...

Slow pace, low HR. Just about spot on for a leisurely run (well, more like jog/walk as you couldnt run in places...and you almost had no choice but to walk in other places).  Despite the slow pace, it was one of the more enjoyable runs I've had.  I cant begin to tell you how wet and muddy my feet were...

A weekend of sporting disaster...

As sporting weekends go, it doesnt get much worse than the one just passed...

I'll start with Spurs.  A 6-0 (yes, SIX - NIL) defeat to Champions-elect Manchester City.  I know we've been struggling recently but I never in a million years saw a hammering coming.  If anyone had seen our last PL game against Newcastle, where we had 31 attempts at goal and the Bar Codes Goalkeeper Tim Krul has single-handedly kept them in the game, most of us Spurs fans were left thinking it was only a matter of time before Spurs finally clicked in front of goal and handed out a good old-fashioned seeing to.

AVB looking just a little shell-shocked in his post-match interview...

Spurs started brightly.  95% possession for around 14 seconds then it all went drastically wrong.  I could write an essay in response to the defeat but I just want to touch on 4 specific points which AVB needs to sort out sooner rather than later...

1. Assou-Ekotto MUST be called back from his loan spell at QPR.  Why is the best left-back on the club's books on-loan?  You may not like him AVB but the sooner you get over your stubborn streak, he needs to be back in the team pronto, so that our first choice centre-back Vertonghen, can marshall the defence.  A centre-back pairing of Dawson & Kaboul just doesnt work.  The last time they played together...Spurs lost 1-5 to Man City at home.  It doesnt take a genius to work that out, surely?
2. Again, put your stubborness to one side and pick Adebayor.  Ok, he's had his issues but he's the only forward at Spurs capable of holding the ball up and bringing others into play.
3. Soldado is struggling purely down to lack of service.  The inverted winger system needs to be trashed immediately.
4. Paulinho needs to be dropped.  Spurs played well last season when Dembele and Sandro were starting games together in the middle.  Paulinho seems to be starting every PL game ahead of Dembele and I'm afraid his performances just dont warrant being picked.  Dembele is excellent at setting the tempo, something Spurs havent played with all season.

Next up in the PL, Spurs play Man United at home on Sunday.  Another mauling at home may see Levy's patience finally run out.

Worringly, Spurs have got problems on a par with the England cricket team.

The notoriously slow tour starters were smashed by the small matter of 381 runs.  It was an absolute mauling.  Restricting the Aussies to 295 in the first innings seemed like an excellent effort from the England bowlers on what looked very much like a pitch where 400 runs plus would have been about par.  England capitulated to 136 all out in the final session of day 2 and by the end of stumps at day 3, the Aussie's had piled on another 401 runs before they declared and took the early scalps of Carberry and Trott, leaving England a hopeless task of trying to bat out 6 sessions.

The Aussie's were able to call on the explosive bowling of the rejuvenated Johnson and he rightly took away the man of the match award for taking 9 wickets and scoring 103 runs.  It was a remarkable turnaround for the bowler who was made the scapegoat of the last Ashes series in Australia.

This morning, England were rocked by the announcement that Jonathan Trott, England's number three batsman, was returning home because of a stress-related illness, invoking memories of Marcus Trescothick on an earlier Ashes tour.

 

Jonathan Trott is heading home from the Ashes tour...

David Warner described Trott as "poor and weak" following the first test in Brisbane, where Trott managed a paltry 19 runs in the two innings.  Warner has since released a statement to say his comments went too far.  As did Michael Clarke's sledging in my opinion, where he told Jimmy Anderson to prepare for his arm to be broken by Mitchell Johnson's bowling.  There's no disguising the Aussies are up for this Ashes series like no other before but they've crossed the line.  I hope and pray that that the England boys respond like they should and really comes at the Aussie's all guns blazing now.

There will be some serious needle in the second test.  With Trott heading home, surely England must now consider fighting fire with fire and bring in Finn or Rankin, who are both capable of bowling in excess of 90mph.

Most importantly, I'm sure every cricket fan will wish Trotty all the best and wish him a very speedy recovery.  Whether he is able to continue at the very top echelons of test cricket again is another matter but whether he does or doesnt, it hardly matters when his long term health is at stake.  He can be very proud of what he has achieved for England.

Sandwiched in between the Ashes and the Tottenham debacle was an absolutely cracking World Championship fight between WBA and IBF title holder Carl Froch and Londoner George Groves.

The build up had been hyped.  Froch had been accusing Groves of a lack of disrespect and Groves was saying all the right things.  It appeared that Groves had got inside Froch's head and the result was going to be a real grudge match.  The pre-fight comparisons to Eubank v Benn were laughable but you could see Eddie Hearn and Matchroom desperately trying t sell the fight to the public and they certainly caught the public's imagination.  The experts couldnt decide what way the fight would go, most agreeing that Groves was more than capable of causing Froch problems with his speed and work rate but Froch's pure strength would show through in the later rounds...

Froch v Groves: A stunning fight but marred by controversy

Groves was booed into the ring.  A few minutes later, Groves had dumped Froch on the canvas in the first.  It was a stunning start to the fight.  Froch somehow survived to the end of the first and so it appeared on a number of unofficial scorecards, Groves won the first round 10-8 and the next 5 10-9, so he was well clear.  Rounds 7 & 8 went to Froch, so  there was at least 4-5 rounds between them.

Froch was getting stronger and one punch caught Groves.  He looked in trouble, there's no denying that but the referee jumped in so quickly to stop the fight, it made a mockery of the contest.  As is turns out, two of the so-called judges had scored the fight 75-76 in favour of Groves so you have to wonder what fight they were watching.

I've watched the fight again since Saturday night and I'm still convinced that Groves would have recovered but Froch was getting stronger and I dont doubt that Froch would have gone on to win the fight at it neared its end.  Groves' lack of experience saw him work so hard in the earlier rounds, it appeared he'd hit the wall by midway through the 8th.

Didnt get the result I particularly wanted but at least I got my prediction right...

Prediction = spot on - Round 9.

The post-fight analysis by McCrory, Khan and Haye in the studio was spot on.  All three were appalled that the contest was ended like it was.  However, you can sort of accept why the referee did jump in when he did.  Its the culture nowadays.  No referee wants to have a Eubank v Watson or Benn v McClellan fight on their hands.  Although the refereeing could almost be excused, there can be no excuses for judges who seem to be more bent than a FIFA voting process.

Post-fight, I dont think I can ever say I've seen a boxer who was booed into an arena be cheered out of it at the end, like Groves was on Saturday night.  That was remarkable.  Froch was his usual arrogant self and done himself no favours whatsoever with his post-fight interview.  I hope that Eddie Hearn can somehow make a rematch but I dont see it can be of any interest to Froch now.  Froch will be running scared.  He knows, like the rest of us that the best boxer on the night lost.  Groves will have learnt a great deal from that fight and I have no doubts that he will go on to be a World Champion in the next few years.  Froch may now be thinking about retirement.  He's had some real big fights in the last couple of years and his age and speed is beginning to hinder him.

Groves: the boos turned to cheers...

Here's hoping next weekend brings some better luck...

My sporting highlight of the weekend is reserved for the awesome guys and girls of Plumstead Runners who put on one hell of a special KFL cross country race at Oxleas Woods yesterday and a huge well done to the Plums that completed the course because it looked truly horrific.  The course is hard enough during the summer months, let alone when there's mud everywhere.  Am really sorry I couldnt run yesterday and I could only make a flying visit...but I did manage to get some video footage...

Sunday Race Day: KFL Cross Country - Swanley Park

Sunday saw the second KFL cross-country race of the season. Was up at the crack of dawn, more to get Izzy organised and her stuff all packed up before dropping her at my parents before I headed for the race. 

I'd been to Swanley Park a couple of times in the past with Izzy so I realised that it was going to be a relatively flat and quick course.  I hadnt quite considered that flat pretty much means boggy as the water has absolutely no where to drain to, especially with around 500 runners cutting through the bog.

After an impeccably observed minutes silence for Rememberance Sunday, the race started just after 11am.


  

As Jim W had pointed out before the race, it was 3 laps of the Park and there would be a couple of bottlenecks where the race would be reduced to walking pace...and he was proved to be right.  On some of the sharp corners, the bog was so bad that a large numbers of the runners were stopping just to prevent them slipping over, whether they were wearing road flats, trails shoes or spikes.

From a personal point of view, the first lap went reasonably well but the gentle incline in the mud starting the 2nd lap saw every bit of strength from my legs drain and I was just hoping I was going to finish by that point.  In reality, I'm still a novice runner and I've got a an awful lot to learn.

Excellent support from the sidelines as per usual, with a scatterring of Plums around the course giving some encouragement.

As of 8pm tonight, I've not yet seen the official results.  I finished in 398th place but I've estimated my final time as 44:23 based on the point when my pace chart shows my strong sprint finish where I took 4 places in the last 50 yards.  Probably my best sprint finish ever.  I remember from the old school years we were always told to keep enough back for a sprint finish and I'm chuffed I can still do it.  Unfortunately, because I was so f*cked by the time I'd finished the sprint, I'd completely forgot to stop the Garmin, so I'll update the Garmin record with the official time once its published.

Me blowing out my backside....

My trail shoes at the end of the race..beasted just like me!

 

Edit:  Full Plums results as below...Garmin record now updated to 44:46

Sunday Race Day: KFL Cross Country - Knowle Park

The alarm rudely went off at 7.15am.  On a Sunday.  God damn it.  It could easily have been night time still but the brain quickly computed I had 1hr 30mins to get to Bexleyheath Sports Club to pick up my lift to Knowle Park.

In a desperate attempt to wake up, I boiled the kettle to make a cup of tea and stuck my porridge in the microwave while I got changed.  After some faffing about, I was ready.  MOTD on the tv, sitting on the sofa holding my bowl of porridge in one hand and trying to force feed myself with the other.  I'm not a great lover of breakfast and its taken me some years to get into the habit of eating it but it was a necessity today.

Got my sh*t together and headed out the door.  Quickly checking my iPhone shortcut to the TFL website, I suddenly remembered how infrequently the buses ran on Sunday mornings.  Ouch.  It was a 15 minute wait for the next one.  Why the hell didnt I check that before I left, the bus stop is only 20 yards from my front door, I could have stayed inside in the dry.

Yes, the dry.  It was hammering down.  I was soaked despite the North Face waterproof jacket.  I guess that was the perfect pre-requisite for a cross country.  It was going to be wet and muddy.

The bus arrived and it slowly made its way down Welling High Street to the club.  I made it just in time.  As I got there, everyone was already to go.  Dumped my bag in the back of Jim's car and off we went.

M20, M25, A21.  Simples.  The heavy rain cleared and the grey sky turned blue for a while.  Got there nice and early and met up with the rest of the Plums.  We seemed to be there really early but hey, better early than late (well in most cases ;)

Got another cup of tea into me and off we headed into Knowle Park.  Julie told me all about her Grim Blackout adventure the night before, telling me I would have loved it.  What?  Replace my sofa and X Factor and MOTD for running in the pitch black through puddles of water about 4ft deep with no other help than from a head torch?  Ha.  Come to think of it, it sounds awesome.  Definitely would be up for trying something like that in the future.

At the start, it looked pretty well organised.  Some clubs were more organised than others, what with their own club gazebos.  For goodness sake, there's nothing like getting back to nature, changing your footware underneath a big tree, standing on an opened out bin liner, is there?

After standing around for a bit as we located ourselves under the said "tree", the obligatory team photograph was taken...

...what a fine specimen of Plums, eh?

We all trooped over to the start.  Due to the car park congestion, the start had been delayed by 15 minutes (oooh, just like a Premier League fixture!).  We were all pretty chilly by then so we were all willing for the gun to start.  Was it a gun?  Did somone shout go?  I seriously cant remember now!  Anyhow, everyone as a mass just started running.  As you can see from the first pic, the start/finish straight was along a valley floor, so all 467 starting runners were all trying to get on the flat but avoiding the moving mass.

So as I started running, I found it hard to get going.  You have no sense of what pace you're running and you sort of follow the crowd.  I remember glancing down at my Garmin and seeing I was running 9 min/mile pace and I know from previous off-road club runs with the Plums that my off-road comfortable pace is about 9:15-9:20 min/mile pace so I know I didnt go off too fast but after that first 400-500 yards, the track kicks off left and up a sharp climb.  I just tried to keep the same pace, keep my breathing in a regular rhythmn but it was really off putting to see people already walking ahead of me.  Was it that steep?  Had they gone off too fast?  Had I gone off too slow?  All these things were flying through my head when really all I should have been doing was settling into a regular pace and forgetting about everything else.

So at the top of the climb, the route kicks right and ahead a drag of monstrous proportions, well it felt like it!  The HR was already up around mid 160bpm by then and seeing the drag in front brought one thought to the forefront of my mind..."Why the f*ck was I killing myself on a Sunday morning?!"  I guess I'm an adrenaline junky like that but with fear lol.

The drag was brutal.  I kept my head down, not looking too far ahead so blank the hill out (as I do when I'm cycling!) and kept pumping the legs.  The blood rush around my body, the heart was clearly pumping by then too.  HR up to 173-174, so close to going into the red.  Got to the top of the drag which took us up to the top of the Valley and then the course drops down hill and then kicks up again before dropping back down to the finish.

Now what with the heavy rain earlier that morning, the mud by now was a major hazard.  Not so much for being sticky but for being slippery.  Have you ever tried running down a hill whereby the gradient and gravity pulls you down the hill and you try to keep your legs turning over to stop you falling over?  Yeah?  It was pretty much like that.  Not so much an issue on the first lap but by the second lap, the quads and calves were working overtime to overcome the lactic acid brought on my the second time up the drag.

The drag on the second lap was agony.  There is no other word that comes close.  Maybe torture would do.  The HR was around 170 at the bottom and was well into the red by the top.

[One thing that sticks in the mind when writing this up is the sheer number of people that were stopping to catch their breaths on the second trawl up the drag.  It really was brutal.  However, I can hold my head high and say that I kept on going and didnt walk at any point, although my climb up the drag that second time round wouldnt have been that far off from walking pace!]

Coming down the final hill, you can see the finish straight and it dawns on you that its actually another drag.  As I came down the hill, I could see there were two guys close behind and they were both closing on me so I rather than take the outside route where it was less muddly, I came down on a central line so if they were going to pass me, I wasnt going to make it easy for them.

On the final straight both had closed within 10 yards of me but I did manage to find a sprint finish that Mo Farah would have been proud of.  I came over the line in 344th place with a time of 50:25 for the 5.6 mile course and in all honesty, I could have been sick on the spot.  The course was brutal but in a peverse way, I loved every minute of the pain.

Here's my Garmin dump...just check out the average HR!

   

The Plums done great, as you can see:

All positions need to be adjusted by 1 place upwards as the 2nd place runner forgot to take his placing number!

For my Plums cross country debut, I'm happy with that.  I didnt really know what to expect but I certainly do now.

Having looked at all the off-road runs I've done with the Plums over the summer, the KFL race was the quickest I've managed to run off-road as you can see from this table extracted from Garmin Connect...

Off road runs over 5 miles...Click to Expand

So all in all, it was a great day.  Roll on the next one at Swanley Park in November.  It appears I have Izzy that weekend so maybe some baby-sitting jiggery-pokery will be required unless I can bring her with me :)

Me at the top of the first climb...blowing out of my backside lol

More on the Kent Fitness League...

Tbh, I dont know any more than what I've read at the KFL website here

Have I read all of it?

Oh come on, the first thing I looked for was some pictures...

Saturday Training (TRX Session 7...but taking it easy)

As I type, its just gone 11.30pm on Saturday evening.  Off to bed in a mo, excited but terrified that I'm running in my first ever competitive race since the Bexley Grammar senior cross country competition (back in 1994) for the Plums at Knowle Park in the Kent Fitness League.  

God help me.  Should be fine though.  Alarm is set for 7am so give me an hour to sort myself out before I have to head down to Bexleyheath Sports Club to pick up a lift.

Anyhow, in preparation, I took the sensible option to take it relatively easy this week.  I've done no weights on my legs and I've cut back the distance this week in an attempt to be sort of fresh tomorrow morning.

I did vow to go to the Gym today though.  The plan was to work the upper body and abs/core but go very easy on the legs.

Warm Up

1km Treadmill (5:22; 8:42 min/mile) (slowest warm up ever, average HR = 135bpm!)

TRX

Crucifix (3sets x 10reps)
Shoulder Press (3sets x 10reps)
One Armed Press Ups (5sets x 10reps)
Bicep Curl (3sets x 10reps)
Tricep Curl (3sets x 10reps)

Abs

10 sets (10 SB Sit Ups + 10 SB Sit Twists)

 

No leg weights.

 

Cool down

 

1km Treadmill (5:37; 9:07 min/mile) - again slow, average HR = 139bpm!

 

Was lucky to see Chandra on his first shift of eight consecutive days today, the poor sod, but had a good catch up with him despite seeing him on my last trip to the Gym on Wednesday.

 

The rest of the day, I've taken really easy.  Watched some football, studied Rachel Riley's curves on Strictly and listened intently to the love night on X Factor.  Quick question, did they miscount the votes?  How on earth did the west country girl get through the flash vote?  Stop it JB, you're a man, you shouldnt even be talking X Factor.

 

Some other good news.  My 6/6 "Heinz" and 2/3 of my Trixie came in, so happy times.

 

Right, off to bed.  Bring on the cross country!