Inov-8 Mudclaw – First Impressions

When my first attempt at mountain running started to go wrong this Summer, the condition of my shoes weren’t high on my list of concerns. Naturally avoiding serious injury and retrieving my glasses were at the forefront of my mind, but once I’d gotten back to my car and patched myself up, I noticed big rips in the upper of my trail shoes. I haven’t thrown them out as with a bit of tape they should be okay for some runs on dry, firm but bumpy surfaces, but that dry and firm are not words you would use when describing off-road running in the British Winter.

The fact that I’ve kept my trail shoes did influence the type of shoes I went for. I chose the Inov-8 Mudclaw because they are designed to cope well with the wet, muddy conditions my old trail shoes can no longer deal with. The lugs on the bottom of the shoe are pretty substantial, meaning that hopefully I should be able to get a decent amount of grip in all but the muddiest, slippiest conditions.

Today was my first run in the shoes, and I had a route planned which I thought would suit the shoes well. I wanted to continue exploring the A Coventry Way, starting in Brinklow and going in the anti-clockwise direction. With almost no roads and the majority of the paths being a mixture of grass and mud, it wasn’t a technical challenge, but would be a route which would be completely spoilt by the wrong shoes.

Fit is the big unknown whenever you buy a new pair of running shoes, particularly from a brand you haven’t tried before. These felt good in the shop, with the length and width both feeling ideal, but there is only so much you can tell in that environment. Within the first few minutes I noticed that the shoes seemed to be slipping a little around my heel. I had a similar sensation the first time I wore Brooks running shoes, and quickly learnt that adjusting the lacing can often resolve this issue. So that’s exactly what I did, and for the next hour or so, I barely thought about the shoes at all. This is very much a good thing. Regardless of the type of run you are doing, you want confidence that your shoes will be up to the task, and if you aren’t thinking about them, that’s a good sign that you’ve picked the right tool for the job.

Instead, I could spend time thinking about the A Coventry Way. I’ve now covered slightly more than half of it, and it is a strange route. It passes through lots of quite nice towns and villages, yet the route itself is often not visually inspiring. I wouldn’t mind that if the route was fun to run on, and there certainly are sections which are, but there were a few sections which weren’t. Today I had to deal with a particularly narrow stretch of towpath along the Oxford Canal, and then a stretch in Ansty which was incredibly overgrown. Ironically at this point I had crossed over to the other side of the canal, and could see that had I been able to stay on the towpath, it was now much wider. But we’ll come back to that.

For a named route, the A Coventry Way is also poorly signed in places. Generally going anti-clockwise is better, but there were a couple of places where I reached a force in the path without an arrow to show me which way to go. In one instance, the main path went to the right, though the previous arrow seemed to be more in the direction of a narrow, barely distinguishable path to the left. I went right, though within a couple of minutes realised that was wrong and had to retrace my steps.

It was coming back when things got trickier. I’d planned to do an hour out and then come back along the same route. However, somewhere close to Barnacle, it became apparent that I had taken another wrong turn. I was in a section of some very similar looking fields, and by the time I realised I was definitely no longer on the right route, I’d veered so far off the route that refinding it would be no easy task. The one thing in my favour was that I could see Coventry city centre in the distance, so knew that if all else failed, I could just head in that direction. I might have a very long run, but I knew how to get from the city centre to Brinklow, so would eventually get back to my car.

I was very much hoping I would arrive somewhere else I knew before that though, and about 2km later I did…kind of. I arrived at Hawkesbury Village Green, which isn’t somewhere I have ever been, and somewhere I only have a vague sense of where it is on a map. But what I did know was that Hawkesbury Junction is where the Oxford Canal meets the Coventry Canal, so if I could find my way there, I’d then be able to follow the Oxford Canal back.

Thankfully that proved to be a relatively simple task, and I checked that I was on the correct branch of the canal as a further wrong turn wasn’t really something I could afford at this stage. The man stated that it would be “A very long time” to get back to Brinklow, but I have learnt to always carry more gels than you think you will need, precisely to cover this eventuality. The diversion added an extra hour onto my run, which changed what should have been a pretty comfortable run into something a little more challenging.

That challenge came in the form of fatigue, which actually made me think about my shoes again. Keeping your footing when you are fresh and alert is one thing, doing so when you are tired is another, and that is where you might find yourself relying on your shoes. There were a couple of times when I almost stumbled on some tree roots disrupting the towpath, and also one moment when I got rather close to the canal and was reminded of the time when I actually ended up with my right leg in the Oxford Canal. Thankfully today I avoided the left leg repeating that feat.

I’m in two minds about whether to attempt the A Coventry Way in a single run. I still have more to explore, but there are several sections so far which haven’t been the most fun to run. Yet the challenge of doing the whole route in one run does excite me. Given it passes so close to my flat (the nearest point is less than a mile away) and is right on the limit in terms of distance I feel like I might be able to do, it’s almost like it is calling me to take on the challenge. I’ll make a decision of whether to pencil in an attempt after I’ve done the entirety of the route, but I am at least reassured that if I do attempt it in the Winter or Spring, I’ve got the right shoes for the job.

My First Zwift

Last weekend I wrote about how I had come to the conclusion that whilst there really is no substitute for a good run, there are several things better than a bad or compromised run. Sometimes you don’t know in advance that a run isn’t going to turn out well, but sometimes you do – if the weather conditions have tipped over into dangerous for example, or you have an injury which you know running will make worse. But now I have a convenient alternative – Zwift.

You can run on Zwift with a treadmill, but the sort of treadmill which would actually work in a small, first floor flat would be very expensive. It also wouldn’t solve the issue of how to train if an injury means I can run, so I’ve gone for the alternative option of a bike trainer, specifically the Zwift Hub. It’s one of the cheapest options to get on Zwift, and since I’ve got a bike which I’m probably not going to ride outdoors until the Spring, it seemed like the logical option.

Zwift have been marketing the Hub partly on the claim that it is quick and easy to setup, and for the most part I’d agree with that statement. Personally I had a delay as I had to take my bike into the local bike shop to help get the back wheel off, but that issue had nothing to do with the trainer itself. I also had a bit of an issue pairing the trainer to my phone which I only resolved through the frustratingly successful tactic of switching everything off and then switching everything back on again. I also need tweak the bike setup to ensure the gears run a bit smoother and have bought a cheap phone mount so it is easy to click the screen when necessary, but it really wasn’t long before I was able to go for a ride.

The first ride was part of the Zwift 101 training programme, and was a nice easy session to help with familiarisation with the interface. There was a training element which was around holding different zone 2 and zone 3 effort levels, though the power I was being asked to hold meant that I was probably in zone 1 the whole time. But trying to hold a specific power for 2 or 3 minutes was an interesting challenge of itself. Initially I was jumping around all over the place, but before long I was able to settle into a fairly stable power.

After that was complete, I decided to try a short ride on the London world. This allowed me to try a couple of harder efforts, as well as trying to draft other riders. I also learnt that it is a smart idea to pay attention to the gradient in the top right corner. The trainer can simulate gradients of up to 16%, but it didn’t quite feel like going up a climb outdoors. Outdoors you have a level of concentration which means you always know what is coming, but on a home trainer you can completely switch off if you want. I did for a moment, and a pretty moderate gradient caught me out.

Overall my first impressions were really positive. I’m going to do a relatively short ride midweek when I’m hoping to fine tune the bike setup, and then next weekend I should have the opportunity to try a longer session. And who knows, maybe even a short race?!

The 22:18 To Gainzville

If you do any research into how to progress as a runner, you’ll quickly come across the 80:20 theory. This states that the way to progress is to do 80% of your weekly running at an easy effort level to build strength and endurance, with the remaining 20% being hard efforts. The precise ratio is sometimes debated, but the general theory of doing the majority of your running at an easy effort remains.

It is a theory that I have tried to follow in recent years, albeit the more closely I try to follow it, the less I find myself enjoying my running. I might feel differently if I could always see it was delivering improvement, but that doesn’t always seem to be the case.

I was therefore quite intrigued to read recently that some runners respond better to doing the majority of their runs at close to threshold pace, the precise definition of which is debated but is normally slower than 10k pace but still a moderately high effort level. When I think back to how I used to train before I started doing research, this was about the pace I generally ran at in training, and that training led to all of my current PBs.

What I’m taking from this is that there is little value in following 80:20 if it leads to me not enjoying my running. Instead, I’m going to run each session at the pace which feels right. There will definitely be times when that is an easy pace, but equally I won’t hold myself back if I’m in the mood for something faster.

All of which brings me onto last night’s session, which was a 22:18 run. In this session, you run in one direction for 22 minutes, and then turn and retrace your route back to the start, ideally within 18 minutes. Ideally you want a relatively flat route for this, so for the first time since Spring I put on my head torch and headed out excited to try a new session.

I always like a simple session structure. The less you have to think about in that regard, the more you can focus on achieving your goals for the session. I’d programmed the times in on my watch, so all I needed to do was calculate how quickly I’d need to run in the 18 minutes based on the distance covered in the first 22 minutes.

Last night that was almost exactly 4km (3.99km to be precise) which at least made the mental arithmetic nice and easy. I had steadily increased my pace over the first 22 minutes, which meant it wasn’t the shock to my body when I suddenly raised the pace. It was still a jump of 45 seconds per kilometre though, and I knew I needed to avoid overcompensating as 4km is still a long effort.

Thankfully I got my pacing pretty much spot on, even accounting for the hill, roads and obstacles in the final mile to finish with 13 seconds to spare. What I enjoyed about the session was it was the type of session you could fit into training for any distance. All you need to do is adjust how hard you run that first 22 minutes. Last night I set out at a fairly easy pace, but the jump in pace needed to succeed was still significant. Overall it was definitely one I will be repeating.

Is There Any Substitute For Running?

I’m back running again after last weekend’s Yorkshire Marathon, and there is always that feeling of stepping into the unknown when it comes to those first runs. Sometimes it feels fine, sometimes it feels like a real slog, though I’ve never really worked out why. If you haven’t properly rested then the slog is understandable, but sometimes even when I’ve really prioritised recovery those initial runs are hard.

Thankfully though my first two runs felt pretty good. There was a little bit of fatigue still in the body which is to be expected, but my legs felt good. In fact, my legs have felt good for a while now. Throughout my training block for the Yorkshire Marathon, there wasn’t a single run where my legs felt heavy or stiff. That’s not to say every run felt fantastic, as sometimes I lacked a bit of energy, motivation or focus, but the legs were never the issue. That’s very rare, because even when I’m running well, there are normally days when my legs don’t feel good. Invariably that comes after a long run or a hard speed session, but even after my longest runs this time my legs felt good. They were even still feeling good at the end of the Marathon, and my pace dropping off in the final 10km was definitely due to dehydration.

The obvious conclusion to draw here is that the combination of the cycling and swimming I did this Summer and the rehab work I did to recover from my hip flexor injury has strengthened my legs. The training block itself was pretty similar to ones I’ve done before, and there haven’t been any significant changes in my lifestyle or diet which would explain this. Indeed, I’ve actually put on weight, which should make things more difficult for my legs whilst running, so I can only conclude that my legs are stronger.

I am not however at my peak running fitness. Even before I started suffering with dehydration at the Yorkshire Marathon, I was tracking about 20-30 minutes outside my PB, and I’ve been way off my PB on the occasions where I have been able to run a parkrun flat out too. If I want to improve further, do I need to work harder/smarter when I am running, or is it everything else which needs to improve?

Generally I’ve subscribed to the theory that there is no substitute for running. That isn’t to say that you have to run everyday, or that running needs to be your sole physical activity, but the biggest gains are to be found through running. No other form of cardio can completely replicate the demands and motions of running, particularly the load-bearing aspect. You can improve your fitness through other activities and that might lead to a slight improvement in your running, but you still need to clock up the miles to improve your form and technique to really enjoy sizeable improvement.

All of this is however on the proviso that the running you are doing is of a sufficiently high quality, and there are times when that won’t be the case. The weather can play a part, whether that be icy conditions forcing you into a slow, cautious pace, or the cold or wind making intervals with substantial rest periods particularly unpleasant. Injuries can play a part too – my unusual gait is the result of a heel injury which I continued to train through, even though every impact on that heel was painful.

These are the instances to really embrace cross-training. There might not be a substitute for a good run, but a good swim or bike ride will often be better than a bad or detrimental run. At this point in the blog I wanted to report on how my first training ride on Zwift had gone, but unfortunately I’ve hit an obstacle in setting up my home trainer which is probably going to push that back a few days. But nevertheless the plan for the Winter is to substitute bad runs for good Zwift sessions, as well as maybe trying to improve my cycling fitness if I enjoy it as much as I’m hoping.

Dieting Greatest Hits

I started the Yorkshire Marathon weighing 78kg. It is far from the heaviest I’ve ever been, but it is the heaviest I’ve been for a Marathon. The fact that it was my sixth fastest Marathon highlights that the link between weight and Marathon times is certainly not a linear one, but I’ve certainly felt a few times in recent weeks that being a few kilos lighter would be beneficial. For context, when I did the Yorkshire 10 miler last year I weighed 74kg, whilst I weighed 73kg when I ran the 2017 Manchester Marathon, which is my fastest Marathon since buying my scales.

The lightest I have been going into a Marathon was the 2019 Darwin Day Marathon, when I weighed 67kg. I was following a very strict diet which for the most part was gluten-free, dairy-free and meat-free, and to be completely honest it was a dangerous diet. Thankfully I realised this before things got too late. Running played a key part in this. I remember getting dropped on a group run with people I normally was comfortably quicker than, and whenever something like that happens, you know things are not right and you search for the cause and a solution. In this instance, I needed more variety in my diet and more calories in general, and was soon up to 69kg, a weight I stayed at for the next 18 months.

Even within that diet, there were some good ideas. One was to try the alternatives to meat and dairy to see which ones I enjoyed. Whilst none ever truly taste like the product they are replacing, once you switch your mindset from “Does this taste like beef?” to “Does this taste nice?”, a lot of the options are ones I’m happy to incorporate into my diet. Not all of them admittedly – I only enjoy vegan cheese when it is melted, so will stick to the regular cheese for now, but have switched to dairy-free milk and yoghurt and have bought veggie burgers and sausages a bit more often in recent weeks.

If my 2019 diet was a bit too extreme, my 2018 diet was too gimmicky. I called it ‘The Knutsford diet’ which is where I was living and working at the time, and there were various foods and drinks which I decided I would not buy in Knutsford, with the idea that I wouldn’t have these items at home and wouldn’t pop to the shops for them either. However, if I left Knutsford, I could eat or drink whatever I liked, with the idea that this would allow me to enjoy social occasions and also not worry too much if I found myself somewhere with limited food options. The lifestyle I had at the time meant that it kind of worked, and over the space of about 6 months I dropped from around 79kg to 71kg, but it was a diet I could only make work but limiting the amount of socialising I did, so it isn’t one I’m looking to revisit.

At least, not in the form it took back then. However, the idea behind the diet was essentially to force me into better meal planning. Having too many snacks or picking the less healthy option is always more tempting when you are hungry, so the purpose of the diet was to focus on good, healthy meals and also always having enough food in that I could always make myself something healthy if I needed to.

That was at a time when I shared a flat, and so only had one cupboard in the kitchen, one shelf in the fridge and one compartment in the freezer. I was able to make it work then, so I have no excuses for not being able to make it work now I’m living on my own and I have a full fridge-freezer and plenty of cupboard space to utilise. Things like batch cooking is something I really haven’t taken advantage of, despite the fact that it makes things cheaper and saves time, but I’m definitely intending to change that.

Most diets, even the most ridiculous, contain good ideas. That was definitely the case with the ones I’ve followed previously, even if those ideas got somewhat lost over time. Now though, it’s time to bring them back.

Savouring The Moment

There’s lots to like about local running events. For a start, there is the cost. The Kenilworth Half Marathon started and finished at the end of my road, meaning that my only cost was the relatively modest entry fee, and there have been a few others recently where the only additional cost was a few pounds on petrol. Keeping the costs down means that you can afford to do more events per year, which allows you to practice racing, monitor your progress and enjoy the event experience more often.

That experience evolves over time. The more local events you do, the more you’ll feel like a part of the local running community. I haven’t joined a running club since leaving Knutsford in 2019, but through parkruns and local events I’ve met lots of runners from different clubs. Those runners could be people you run with, or they could be people you run against. I know several runners who are roughly the same pace as me, and if I was so inclined, the motivation at an event could be trying to beat them.

The added bonus of a local running event comes in the form of route planning. The first time I ran down Rouncil Lane in Kenilworth was in the Warwick Half Marathon, and it has subsequently featured in dozens of runs and quite a few bike rides. Admittedly before March 2020 I had barely explored any of Kenilworth, but events can still build your knowledge of roads you know well. The Coventry Half Marathon features Wall Hill Road, a road I used on almost every run between 2009 and 2012. When I wanted to try a longer run, I invariably incorporated Tamworth Road into the route, though never once thought to join the two roads together by running down Hollyfast Lane. However, since I did the Cov Half for the first time in 2016, I’ve used that option a few times when I’ve been running in that area.

However, for all of the positives, if you do attend local running events regularly then one particular negative can start to develop. It is all too easy to look beyond the event itself. Not every event needs to be an attempt to set a new PB, and it is perfectly fine to use an event as preparation for another event further down the line. But the whole point of signing up for an event is the experience, otherwise you would be better off just doing a normal training run, so you still want to be in the moment, enjoy the atmosphere and have fun.

More often than not, I do manage to get that right and do enjoy the moment itself. What I rarely manage to do at a local event is savour the moment. By the time I’m back home, I may well have already switched my attention to the next event, the next training block or what the next few sessions should look like. It doesn’t matter if the event went well or not, I’ll only look back on it for the purpose of improving in the future.

With my two Marathons this year, I haven’t travelled back home immediately after the Marathon. In part that’s because a long drive after running a Marathon is not a pleasant experience, nor is a train journey, which also puts added pressure on you during Marathon because there is a latest finishing time you have to hit, otherwise you’ve missed your train. Also, if you are going to travel for a Marathon, you might as well travel to somewhere nice, somewhere worth exploring. Ideally you don’t want to do too much of that the day before the Marathon, and whilst you don’t want to neglect your recovery on the day after, if you can explore on a bus or boat tour or something like that, you can still get your recovery in whilst seeing more of the area.

Having decided not to travel back immediately after the Marathon, it gives you a great excuse to enjoy some food and drink after the event. I’m not a believer in completely denying yourself anything during a training block, but even so, it’s great to go out after a Marathon and have whatever you want. Obviously you could do that at home too, but being away from home opens up different choices. When I was in Windermere for example I bought a chocolate dip ice cream, which was a first for me.

What has been particularly liberating after the Yorkshire Marathon is the fact I don’t have any events on the horizon. I definitely feel like this enhanced my enjoyment not only of the event but of the weekend as a whole. I wasn’t analysing the run in terms of my performance, even though there was plenty I could learn from how I found running a Marathon off the back of a 10 week training block. I can do that analysis at anytime though, and doing so immediately after the Marathon would have been pointless because I don’t know what my next event or goal is going to be. Instead, I just enjoyed being in York, did what I wanted to do and savoured the occasion.

I’m sure it won’t be long before I’ve found my next goal and signed up for another event. However, I’m looking forward to a few weeks of just experimenting, doing whichever run I feel like doing at the time and figuring that out later. And having found it much easier to savour the moment without another event looming on the horizon, I definitely want to build in opportunities to repeat that in the future.

Why The Yorkshire Marathon Is Great

For my money, the Yorkshire Marathon is the best Marathon. There are two reasons why the title of this post is not more absolute, and the first is to recognise my own bias. Running past 23 Osbaldwick Lane is only a highlight if you lived there, and there are plenty of other parts of the route which mean more to me than they would to others. Secondly, I haven’t done every Marathon, so it would be wrong for me to make a judgement on those I haven’t participated in. Nevertheless, the Yorkshire Marathon really does offer something for pretty much everyone.

Let’s start with the first time Marathon runners. The course is fully on road, so your choice of footwear is easy, and you are well catered for in terms of toilets, water stations and marshalls. I’ve had Marathons in the past where I’ve had to assess whether I can get to the next aid station or stop at the one I’m currently at, but with the Yorkshire Marathon if you don’t immediately need to stop, you can carry on in the knowledge that you are not that far from the next station. There are plenty of pacers to follow, and the size of the field means you are never running alone, but equally rarely find yourself stuck behind another runner with no opportunity to pass. The fact that it is an Autumn Marathon probably works in the favour of most first timers too. Doing long runs during the tail end of Summer can be tricky, but in terms of running frequently, the Summer tends to be easier than the Winter, which is when you do the bulk of your training for a Spring Marathon.

However, the Yorkshire Marathon should be on the radar of more experienced Marathon runners too. It is definitely a fast course. The two main obstacles would be the fact that the first few kilometres contain quite a lot of turns, and the fact that quite a lot of the route, particularly the second half, is exposed to the elements, and if it is a windy day, you are almost certainly going to have to deal with a headwind at some stage. However, the weather conditions in York in October tends to be pretty favourable for long distance running, and the course is flat enough that you can set a goal of a PB or an age group time if your training goes well.

What I really like about the Yorkshire Marathon is the blend of the city and the countryside. Having done the Barcelona Marathon and been a spectator at the London Marathon, I completely understand why some runners favour a city Marathon. There are landmarks throughout the route, constant crowd support and if you have friends and family watching you, it is normally pretty easy for them to see you at multiple points along the route.

However, the constant noise can get a bit much at times, as can the feeling that there are always people watching you. One of the things that I personally enjoy about a long run is the opportunity for a bit of quiet, and that is hard to find in the big city Marathons. That isn’t the case in the Yorkshire Marathon. Whilst you are in the city for the first 6km and can soak up the atmosphere, after that you are into the countryside and whilst you will always have fellow runners around, there are plenty of places where you can enjoy the tranquility.

There are other Marathons which offer even more tranquility, but in terms of the overall experience, I definitely prefer a bit more of a balance. Feeling remote can be a nice sensation when things are going well, but when things get difficult, you might need the support of a crowd to give you a lift. The Yorkshire Marathon takes in places like Stamford Bridge, Dunnington, Haltby and Murton. None are particularly big places, but they attract a big enough crowd to generate an atmosphere.

The Yorkshire Marathon is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year, and I will be back. The question is, will you be joining me?

The Yorkshire Marathon 2022

The 2022 edition of the Yorkshire Marathon was my 3rd Yorkshire Marathon, making it the running event I have done most often across any distance. In addition I did the 10 miler last year which is essentially the first 5 miles and the last 5 miles of the Marathon route, and given I lived in York for three years and have been back at least once every year since, it is fair to say that the route is familiar to me.

But no two runs are ever the same, and there were certainly fresh challenges today. The first was the weather. It rained all day in 2018, and whilst it was a sunny morning in 2019, it was pretty cold before clouding over and then raining heavily from almost the exact moment I crossed the finish line. Today though it was brilliant sunshine throughout, and warm enough even first thing to not feel cold wearing a running vest.

I would take today’s weather every time if I could. The sun always brings out extra crowds (though to be fair to the hardy Yorkshire folk, even in 2018 the spectator numbers were impressive), and particularly when you are running in the countryside, it gives you the opportunity to take in the whole view.

The first hour as always was a focus on not going out too quickly. That can be a little tricky given the first kilometre is mostly downhill, but my experience paid off here and I let plenty of other runners overtake me. I settled into a rhythm which felt good and pretty easy, and my pace was pretty much on track to match the 3:33 I did here in 2018.

Often when you settle into a consistent pace, you find yourself regularly overtaking and being overtaken. Sometimes this is a result of being around less experienced runners, other times it is a reflection of different pacing strategies being adopted, but what was remarkable today was that so many of the runners around me were not only also following a consistent pace, their pace was almost identical to mine. I settled into a group at around 5km, and the group remained pretty much unchanged until the halfway point.

I went through halfway in 1:49, meaning that whilst I had fallen behind my 2018 pace, it was a small enough deficit to still harbour hopes of setting a new course PB. Those hopes started to fade when I left Stamford Bridge. What follows is a 7km stretch of the A166 to beyond Dunnington, with pretty much all of the first 5km being uphill. The gradient probably never gets above 2%, but it comes just at the time when Marathons start to get tough and today we had a fairly considerable headwind to deal with. My pace started to drop, not dramatically and probably only due to the headwind and the gradient, but it was enough to remove any thoughts I had of beating my 2018 time.

Given that was the only thing resembling a goal for today, that could have been a difficult moment in terms of motivation. However, in hindsight it probably came at the perfect time. As I approached Dunnington I realised I had stopped sweating. I’d had a bottle of Lucozade with me throughout and took a sip every kilometre, but evidently those sips were too small. When you stop sweating your body temperature starts to rise, which makes running tougher, and I still had 14km to go at this point.

Had I been a little closer to the finish, I may have gotten away with it. I was able to maintain my pace for a few kilometres, and got a lift when I finally turned off the A166 and entered into the last 10 kilometres. That though was to be my last good kilometre, with my pace dropping by almost exactly 1 minute from kilometre 33 to kilometre 34.

When I was finding my way as a runner, this would have completely derailled me, like it did in the 2017 Manchester Marathon. Today though I didn’t panic. I did take a moment to check in with how I was feeling, and remind myself that I have been in this situation before and could manage it. I tried to take on fuel when I could but my body was resisting, so I just stuck to the slow but steady pace. My splits over the final 8km were actually pretty consistent, and whilst my time of 3 hours 50 minutes was considerably slower than 2018, it was at least an improvement on the Windermere Marathon earlier this year.

Today was a strangely emotional experience. I’ve found myself fighting back the tears a few times in Marathons before, but those have generally been particularly significant Marathons for me. My first Marathon was naturally pretty emotional, as were the final two Marathons when I did 12 in 12. In each instance, the emotion was drawn from achieving something I wasn’t sure I could do, but today I never had any doubts that I would finish. Instead, it was probably the combination of being back in York, the energy of the crowds and also a reminder after a period earlier this year where I wasn’t really enjoying running of why it is always worth the effort.

The Explorer’s Gamble

There are now just four runs between me and the Yorkshire Marathon, and if I look back to where I was at the start of my training block, I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made. I don’t remember the exact figure on my Garmin race predictor at the start of the block, but it went above 4 hours during the Summer. Currently it is sat at below 3 hours 30 minutes. How close I get to that remains to be seen, as the race predictor isn’t the most reliable metric, but reducing it by more than 30 minutes nevertheless highlights the improvement in my fitness.

My goal for the training block was to prioritise the long runs, and I’ve generally managed to stick to that. I’ve been quite fortunate with the weather on the longest of those runs, but my fuelling and pacing has been very good and I feel pretty confident that I should hopefully still feel good fairly deep into the Marathon.

The rest of my training has been a bit more erratic. At the start of the year, I had a pretty set routine. Yoga and strength and conditioning on a Monday, short recovery run Tuesday, 60-90 minute run Wednesday, intervals Thursday, swimming or rest day Friday, parkrun or rest day Saturday, long run Sunday. That is quite a busy schedule, and whilst I could do that fairly comfortably at the start of this year, at the start of this training block I didn’t really have the necessary fitness levels and needed to adapt.

I also wasn’t really in the headspace to follow such a regimented training plan. Illness and injury this year made me lose a bit of my love for running, and there were certain sessions which I just couldn’t motivate myself for. So, instead of forcing myself through the session, I would generally adapt it to something more fun instead.

I maintained this approach this week, even though I’ve already entered my final taper ahead of the Marathon. I stuck to the plan on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I started doing the run I had planned too, which was to be a steady 5 miler with one or two slightly harder efforts. I also wanted to explore a new route down to Ashow, and when I got there, I liked what I saw. So much so that when I reached the far end of the village, rather than turn and come back as I’d planned, I turned right and followed a footpath.

As gambles go, this was a relatively safe option. Even though I had never been on this footpath before nor had I looked at it on a map, I was 95% certain I knew where it came out onto the road, as I drive past a footpath sign for Ashow on my commute to work. The only real unknown was how direct the path was, and therefore I didn’t really know how much distance I was adding onto my route.

And to be honest, I didn’t care either. It was a nice evening, one where I was happy to take any opportunity to extend my run. The footpath did indeed come out where I expected it to, but then rather than follow the most direct route home, I chose a longer route via Hill Wootton and Leek Wootton instead. It ended up as 10.4km, though I kept the effort levels relatively consistent so I didn’t go too much deeper than planned overall.

Yesterday was a slightly similar story. On one of my lunch breaks this week I spotted a road in Wolston I wanted to explore, which turned out not only completely car free (it isn’t a through road and there are only a couple of properties beyond the first 400 metres, so I’d imagine that is generally the case), it also contained a decent hill.

My presence had however forced several dog walkers to step to the side of the path, and I didn’t want to turn back and force them all to do so for a second time, even though I had done half of the distance I intended to run. So, when I reached the end of the path and saw another footpath in front of me, once again I took it.

This was a slightly bigger gamble. Warwickshire isn’t exactly the wilderness, so I knew that the footpath would find its way to another road eventually, and I know the general geography of the area well enough to navigate back from whichever village I might find myself in. But I didn’t know what type of road I would reach, and some of them are very busy and not pleasant to run down. This would have meant I would have to turn back and have potentially quite a long run back, which wouldn’t have been ideal so close to my Marathon.

Again though, it was a nice evening and after a busy week at work, I wanted to spend some more time on the run. There was another hill, followed by a mini-orchard/several apple trees (you would think as a Littlewood I would be able to differentiate between the two), and then a turn away from the general direction I wanted to be going in. That did make me slightly nervous as to where I might end up, but luckily it brought me out on a perfect country road – completely quiet, nice views, undulating and crucially a road which brought me back to places I knew. My run ended up being 9.1km, so again longer than the 6km I had planned but definitely worth it for the extra exploration.

After the Marathon, I fully intend to activate explorer mode once again. I have no other events on the horizon, so I don’t need to worry as much if a run is a little longer or tougher than planned. Those occasions are definitely worth it for moments like those this week, where you discover routes that are both convenient and fun to run. I probably do need to deactivate explorer mode for the next week though!

Running skill

Skill isn’t a word that I use too often in regards to my running. This is probably a reflection of the type of running I do. If you are a fell runner, then the level of skill required is pretty high. I however run on the roads or gentle trails, and the skill required to do that is minimal. Obviously that isn’t to say it is easy, but when I’m training, the challenges are physical and mental. If I’m doing 400 metre reps for example, I know I need to keep my mind engaged to maintain good form and keep pushing when it inevitably gets difficult. There will also be a point when difficult becomes unsustainable, and that will be determined by my fitness.

The main area of my running where skill is involved is racing, and particularly pacing. You can have a strategy of positive, negative or even split and have a goal time you are hoping to hit, but executing that strategy is the challenge. Your body will be sending you signals as to whether a pace is one you can sustain, and the skill is to know how to adapt.

My second New Forest Marathon in 2019 was an example where my pacing skills were found to be lacking. I was aiming for an even pace and set off at what to my mind would be a sustainable pace. My first half took me 2 hours 12 minutes, but the second half took me almost 3 hours. I really struggled with the heat, and knowing that the second half of the route was tougher and that the temperature was rising, I should have taken action as soon as it started to feel tough (in an ideal world you would take action before it starts to get tough, but that requires the benefit of hindsight).

At the Windermere Marathon earlier this year, there was a sign that my pacing skills are improving. There was a moment a little over an hour in where the thought crossed my mind that things were just a touch tougher than I was comfortable with given how far I still had to go. I immediately eased back a touch, only by 5-10 seconds per kilometre, and had a few kilometres of people passing me quite regularly. But it was the right decision. My first half took about 1 hour 50 minutes, and whilst the second half took around 2 hours 5 minutes, the second half is hillier so was always going to be steadier and had I not eased back when I did, the difference between the two would have been much greater.

Now, there is a way to remove the skill of pacing from the equation, and that is to set off at a pace you can sustain for the whole race. However, identifying that pace is a skill in itself. There is only so much you can take from your training runs, even the longest ones. The length of those runs will be different, the weather conditions might be different, the type of course you are running on might be very different and you might feel very different on race day. My run today for example was only 25.6 km, so substantially shorter than a Marathon, but contained almost 2.5 times the elevation gain of the Yorkshire Marathon route, and also involved more than a few stops to cross the road. I finished feeling tired but not spent, so would I be able to sustain today’s average pace across the Marathon?

In part, the answer will come from how the next two weeks go. Tapering is a skill which is made trickier by the fact that there won’t be too many opportunities to practice it, certainly not for the Marathon distance. When I did a Marathon a month, there was no real tapering as there were no real training blocks, just a handful of runs, mostly at a really easy pace before the slog of the next Marathon. There’s only a real need to taper if you’ve been able to build up your weekly mileage across the training block. You then want to reduce that enough to ensure that you arrive at the start fresh, but not enough so that you have lost fitness.

The thing is, your aerobic fitness never drops off anywhere near as much as you think it will if you reduce your training. That is something that I noticed during both of my Windermere Marathons, where my build up had been disrupted by injury. Even the first time where I had to walk the last few miles, it wasn’t my stamina which let me down, it was the fact that my IT Band was hurting too much and I knew that continuing to run risked a lengthy layoff afterwards.

Heading in the Yorkshire Marathon, I’ve so far managed to remain injury free and my legs have felt pretty good in recent weeks. Part of me doesn’t want to taper, because I know that forcing yourself to run less when you are feeling good always feels frustrating. But I’m not going to increase my fitness over the next two weeks, and my fitness also isn’t going to drop off by taking things easier, so I know that the smart move is to cut back on both the miles and intensity of the sessions.