This week is a blog with a difference. Rather than spending every blog talking about my preparations for the upcoming Frankfurt Marathon and going on about how many miles I’m doing in training (which incidentally is still going exactly to plan) I thought I’d do something a little bit different. I’m regularly asked questions about running - what I think about this race or that race, what training methods work best, would I recommend a certain type of trainer etc. That got me thinking about writing a blog based around common running-related queries. To assist me I first of all asked a running friend of mine to send me a list of 20 quick-fire questions that he would like to know my answers to. Here’s how it worked out:
1) When did you start running competitively?
2001 after I’d joined Elswick Harriers.
2) How did you get into running?
The year before I joined Elswick, when I was still at university, I decided to run the Great North Run to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. I didn`t do any training for it because I’d been inter-railing around Europe for the six weeks beforehand, but I fell in love with running from the moment the race started, it was such an amazing atmosphere all the way to South Shields. After that I entered a couple of local road races towards the end of 2000 but didn`t really start training regularly until after I’d joined Elswick the following year.
3) Favourite race?
It’s difficult to single out a particular race because they are all so different. But if someone was to tell me that I could only ever run one more race during the remainder of my lifetime I would have to choose the Blaydon Race. The atmosphere and camaraderie, both before and after the event, is so unique to the North East and like nothing else you will ever experience. I’ve been very fortunate to sample races all over Europe and have to say that the Dutch are absolutely mental about their running which creates phenomenal atmospheres at their big city races, but none of them compare to Blaydon. We are very lucky to have such a great race on our doorsteps!
4) Least favourite race?
Edinburgh Marathon. I ran this race in 2008 and having already raced in Edinburgh on a number of previous occasions over shorter distances, always with a great atmosphere, I was expecting big things. For me the marathon was a major letdown however because, with the exception of the first few hundred metres, none of it was in the city centre. Instead the course headed out into the countryside where there was barely any crowd support, and then it ended up finishing at Musselburgh race course where again crowd support seemed to be limited to a few friends and family of those taking part. I couldn`t understand why the marathon didn`t show off Edinburgh city centre in the same way that the BUPA Edinburgh 10k now does.
5) Hardest race?
No competition on this one … The 2011 UK Mountain Running Championships from Keswick to the summit of Skiddaw (3,054 feet above sea level). Rather than running a marathon in 2011, I set myself the challenge of focussing on something completely different. I’d dabbled with a bit of fell running in previous years, and had raced in the mountains once before back in 2006 at an IAAF mountain running grand prix event in Switzerland where I’d finished in a decent 41st place. I’d always fancied having a go at the UK Champs and 2011 seemed like a good time to do it. Let’s just say that 12k of continuously steep uphill running isn`t for the faint hearted and, despite finishing in a fairly respectable 33rd place, my legs have never hurt as much as they did that day. Believe me, getting down from the summit of the mountain after the race wasn`t easy and I could barely walk for days afterwards. Never again!
6) Ideal racing weight?
Anywhere between 10st 2lbs and 10st 6lbs.
7) Cross country - Love it or hate it?
It’s a necessary evil. I’ve hated probably 80% of the cross country races that I’ve done, but do enjoy racing on the country on the rare occasions when it is firm underfoot. I hate the thick sloppy mud that you tend to get from December through to the end of February.
8) Favourite training session?
Short reps on the track. Being a marathon runner the vast majority of my training is endurance based so short, fast reps on the track are a rare but refreshing change. A session which I love doing is multiple sets (between 8 and 12) of 500m hard, 100m float, 200m flat out - with 400m jog recovery between the sets. Blows away the cobwebs!
9) Least favourite training session?
Any track sessions involving reps of between 800m and 1200m in length. I love the shorter reps, and I also enjoy the longer reps of 1600m+ in length, but for some reason I just don`t cope well with these mid-range length repetitions.
10) Hardest session?
At the peak of my marathon training I do long interval sessions which are between 12km and 14km in volume. A typical example is 5000m @ 10k pace, followed by 8 x 400m fast, then another 5000m @ 10k pace. They are long sessions and hurt like hell towards the end.
11) Long runs - Love them or hate them?
When things are not going so well, or for the first few weeks of marathon training when I’m not fit, I despise the long run because it is 100% pure suffering. But when I’m deep in training for a marathon and everything is going well then I love the long run and hit it hard every week.
12) Longest training run?
24 miles, three weeks before a marathon.
13) Favourite place to train?
A lot of my training is done on a lunchtime from my office in Hexham so I know the area around there very well indeed. There are some fantastic routes in the hills around Hexham and, after spending a morning at your desk, there is no better feeling than losing yourself in the winding country lanes on the north side of the Tyne Valley. Closer to home I’d say that Hamsterley Forest has to be my absolute favourite place to run, especially during the dark nights. It may sound a bit weird to some folk but there is something quite exciting about escaping into the complete darkness of a forest and detaching yourself from the rest of the world for an hour or so.
14) Training in a group or alone?
I’m a bit of a loner when it comes to training, much prefer to listen to my body and run how I feel rather than having my pace dictated by other people.
15) Favourite training shoes?
Adidas Supernova Glide
16) Favourite racing shoes?
Adidas Boston
17) Biggest influence on your running?
My former coach at Elswick Harriers, Colin Bolton. He really is one of the unsung legends in North East coaching circles and taught me pretty much everything I know about running, probably without even realising it because he is such a down-to-earth sort of bloke! More recently, with my focus being on the marathon, I’ve exchanged e-mails with a British coach called Peter Thompson who is based in America. Peter’s advice really has changed the way I have approached my marathon training recently. His websitehttp://www.newintervaltraining.com is well worth a look for anyone interested in using interval training more efficiently.
18) Biggest inspiration?
Without doubt my dad. When I was a kid I can remember him working ridiculously long hours in a local factory just to make sure that we didn`t have to go without things like family holidays etc. He’d always be doing overtime shifts, working 7 days a week etc. I doubt whether I could ever commit myself to my job in the same way my dad did to his, but I’d like to think that my commitment and dedication to training hard, and trying to get the best out of myself, are a reflection of the hard work ethic that he applied to his job and instilled in me from a young age.
19) Sporting heroes?
Haile Gebreselasie (goes without saying really!) and Lance Armstrong. Whatever you might think about Armstrong as a person, and whether he did or didn’t cheat by using drugs, the way he fought his way back into the sport after cancer and the manner in which he approached training and racing was massively inspirational to me. When he attacked in the mountains of the Tour de France it always blew the race to bits and it was fantastic to watch. I feel very privileged that I was on the roadside to see Armstrong in action at the Tour on four separate Pyrenean mountain stages (in 2004 and 2005). I doubt whether the race will ever again witness the number of spectators that it had in the mountains during the Armstrong years.
20) Advice for anyone new to running?
Be patient. No matter how hard you train you cannot rush your body into developing into a better runner than it wants to be at that moment in time. So many times we hear of people, especially youngsters, breaking down with injuries due to overtraining, all because they want success today and aren`t willing to play the long game. When I was at Elswick, Colin would repeatedly tell me that it takes 8 to 10 years of consistent training to fully develop a runner to their full potential and for them to be able to handle large training loads. The most important thing is to enjoy your running, increase your training volume slowly and gradually, and just let things happen naturally.
Hope you enjoyed my blog with a difference. Try answering some of these questions yourself some time, they really do get the mind working and let you reflect on all of the things you have done in the past.
Until next time, happy running everyone ……