On The Road – Tom Thomas

“I told you it was kicks. It’s all kicks man” – Dean Moriarty

After a fairly injury strewn 2017 that had some great moments, I turned my mind to 2018 and set myself two principle targets: the Manchester Marathon and a crack at the Bob Graham Round. Since November time, I have managed to fairly consistently train and get myself into pretty decent shape (for me) for Manchester, which as of today is two weeks tomorrow. I find it quite amusing, looking back to 2014 when I started training again, that I have only been running properly on the road for around about 18 months. I have still completed less road races than I have fingers on one hand. I’m a relative novice who always follows up running conversations with the gruff disclaimer that ‘I’m more of a fell-runner really’. The reality now is that after a couple of years running and training primarily on the roads, the bits of fell races I’m best at are the flats, so there has been a marked change in my running preferences and abilities.

I think often when we commit a great deal of energy and time constantly to something we love or enjoy, our experience of it can become a blur and our only considerations or cares can take on a feeling of inherent imminence. I certainly find with running it’s easy to just bounce from one thing to the next without taking stock of where I’ve come from, only where I want to go next. In some ways it’s akin to reading some poorly punctuated passionate writing; there isn’t often breathing space, but if the room and time is given to pause for thought, then you realise that there was a great adventure buried in there somewhere. In light of this, I’m going to try to go back over this marathon training block and look at some of the things I’ve loved, lessons I’ve learned and lows I’ve encountered along the way.

1) “We are kept keen on the grindstone of pain and necessity” – H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

This quote is the moment in The Time Machine where The Traveller realises that the reason the Eloi have become the prey of the Morlocks is because their opulent lifestyle has caused them to no longer strive for improvement, whereas the downtrodden Morlocks must always work hard to survive. This has become one of my marathon mantras as it were, especially during the cold nights and recent snowy weather it has provided a timely reminder that hard work, perseverance and a relentless restlessness are the foundations for self-improvement. Alongside this, it is also really important to know when to rest, when to sit back and be proud or happy with what you have done and when to push on. I love the frenzied madness of running hard all the time and smashing out session upon season but I am learning that madness with a modicum of measurement is the only way to sustain good form, morale and incremental improvement. Even with constant reminders it’s very hard not to overdo it and the edge of pain and necessity can easily give way to exhaustion and injury. I would say the taper has certainly come at a very welcome time! 

The basis for this marathon training block has been built on the idea that consistency and commitment are key to success. Due to various injury problems, mostly twisted ankles, my racing and training schedules have often been marred by sporadic injuries and a general non-committal attitude to planning a long term training cycle. Since November, I have only had three weeks affected by injury – one with peroneal tendinitis, one with a twisted ankle and one with a manky toe (think The Hitcher’s thumb from The Boosh). This has allowed me to put in a few solid months work both in terms of building speed/mileage and also confidence. My weekly mileage has general been in the high fifties or low sixties, with one week into the seventies and I’ve found that this has really helped me to kick on and push through the harder sessions having already built a good base.

Alongside and complimented by the higher mileage, there has been an increased focus in the intensity and frequency of my sessions. I made a decision early on in training to try and put in a midweek run of two-thirds the length of my long run each week – one of my best sessions in this whole block was a Wednesday night 15 miler out to Rawdon and then managed to suffer through 6 x 1km the night after…that’s a double that I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing little over six months ago. Other confidence boosts have been that I have been breaking PBs in training quite a lot, partly because I do so few road races but also because the higher mileage has allowed me to focus on my speed in specific sessions. It’s been a real eye-opener as to what I can get out of my legs and mind and also a confidence boost looking forward as I feel that if I can extend the consistency over a longer period of time then there is a lot more improvement to come.

2) You must suffer in rhythm – Sartre

This is another of my favourite things to repeat to myself, it’s usually a thought that creeps into my head when the going gets tough in races. As a quintessentially time-based discipline there is a lot of focus on working like clockwork and just grinding out the miles at the pace you need to build the confidence and platform to go out and compete at whatever level it is you compete at. At the start of this training block the intended marathon pace was 6.45 per mile, then it went to 6.40, then 6.35 and now I’ve got my mind on 6.15 a mile as my goal pace (roughly 2.43 pace). Pacing and rigidity go out of the window on the fells as the ups and downs lead to natural ebbs and flows and you have to adjust for multiple climbs, tussocks and other natural obstacles; road racing is completely different – it’s pedal to the metal for as long as the legs and mind can endure. My sessions on the canal and hard tempos have been an exercise in dancing around the ‘man with the hammer’ and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed  getting to grips the mathematics and science behind long distance suffering. I guess it’s been particularly satisfying as I have often had a tendency to ‘crack’ in the big moments before, to pick up a niggle or just have a wobble in the head game but the knowledge that there are certain concrete targets to hit, whilst sometimes disheartening, has been overwhelmingly positive and given me certain mental checkpoints to tick off.

3) Fortune favours the brave – Virgil’s Aeneid

At the heart of my enthusiasm and bounciness for running is the belief that at any given time I’m just going to churn out one result that is truly outstanding. Fell-running with its ebbs, flows and variation helps to garner that belief because you just never know what can happen. Road running is far more formulaic but I still try and keep that youthful mischief of ‘who knows’ when I race.

This training block I’ve raced the PECO season, a couple of parkruns and then my big pre-marathon race was the Spen 20. Each of these have given me some valuable learning experiences. PECO was great insofar as it was second-in-priority to my training and for all the PECO races I did a long run the day before of up to 21 miles…the burning legs and general shattered-ness were an apt precursor to the real heavy stage of marathon training. It was a real boost to see my performances go from the fifties to nearly breaking into the top twenty in the league by the end of the season; next year I will look to hopefully break into the top fifteen or ten and really mix it up. Looking back on the cross season it was probably the lack of pressure I put on myself that allowed some good results despite hard training.

Parkrun and the Spen 20 are similar because all my runs have been quite opportunistic and just concentrating on gutsy ‘from the stomach’ running for the most part. I’ve been thrilled to kick on a lower my 5k times over the past couple of months to currently sitting on 17.19, whilst taking a first finisher at Woodhouse Moor is always really cool – it feels like a proper racers parkrun so it’s something I’m proud of. Spen was somewhat a dress rehearsal for the marathon, I intended to run at pace and see how things panned out. In the end I went off way faster than intended and was running in a little group of runners aiming for 2.05ish. Having initially aimed (with no idea of what constituted a good time, pace or knowledge of the course) at 2.13 as a great time and 2.10 as a dream, I was dragging myself into deep waters. At six miles I remember thinking fortune favours the brave and just entering the pain cave for the next fourteen miles and waiting for the imminent blow-up…it never came and I was elated to run a 2.06 and finish 8th. A real confidence boost and an all-time running highlight for me, probably my best race ever!

These results have really enthused me about the prospect of racing at a higher level and getting much better results. For the future I would like to have a good crack at twenty miles as I think it’s the perfect race distance in terms of being a long slog that you can race pretty recklessly and on a guts and glory approach. Certainly one of my aims for the future is a sub-two twenty miles.

4) I’m so tired, I can hardly type these worfs – Lemony Snicket

It can get to the point where I buzz so much with excitement about sessions or races that I can spend the night before just wide-awake with anticipation and nerves, then I go and smash the session before being thoroughly knackered the next day. Like last year during Steve’s Paddy Buckley, I had around 3 hours sleep in 36 hours where I ran for 18 hours, on the following Monday I was literally snoozing whilst waiting for printing at work!

I can honestly say that marathon training is absolutely knackering. Each mile of running could be matched by an hour of sleep and I’d want more! My usual tactic of treating racing and training like something someone else is doing and I just live vicariously through them whilst working and living has gone out of the window. Any opportunity to nap is taken – spare minutes at work waiting for laminating are wasted minutes unless your eyes are closing. Got a spare half hour before run club? Nap. Saturday afternoon and the game is boring? Nap. 11pm – perfect bedtime. 10pm – even better. 9pm – go on Tom, treat yourself! Marathon training like constantly being between a sleep and a hard pace.

 Eating is part of the tiredness game too, ravenous devouring of food whilst foam rollering makes me feel like a hobbit requesting second breakfast, then elevenses, then brunch and so on. Hot cross buns and work biscuits have constituted prime training fuel. Certainly one of the biggest and hardest lessons to learn are that nutrition, rest and generally looking after my body are just as important as smashing out endless miles. I think that marathon training and hard training in general is a tightrope between passionate commitment and burnout.

5) “Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.”   – Nichollo Machiavelli

The one thing that the past six months have confirmed to me, regardless of whether I smash out a great performance at Manchester or I completely Cadel Evans over the A-Roads of South Manchester, is that my love and commitment to running at a higher and higher level is bigger than ever. Since being a scrawny twelve year old kid turning up to school cross country club, I’ve loved running, the stories, the characters, the hard work and the role it takes in my dreams and desires and now as a scrawny twenty-five year old kid, the flame burns just as brightly. Looking forward to the future I want to do it all – I want to do different races, run great times, go to amazing places and most of all be able to do it with the amazing group of friends in the community that I have had the good fortune of coming across.

This block has already got me casting my mind forward to bigger things – upping my mileage during training blocks will bring more improvements I’m sure, higher intensity work and trying out different races and disciplines will help round me more and more. I intend to complete a track season at some point in the next couple of years, whilst revisiting the fell scene properly and having a crack at some European mountain races are prospects that make me feel giddy and excited. I think the great thing about reflection and looking over how things have gone is that in enjoying them it gives me the hunger to push on and just see what I am capable of.

Thanks for reading – sorry for banging on, I’m out of practice with this writing thing…too much running instead! 

Happy Running! 

Tom Thomas

http://theadventuresofachewvalleyfellrunner.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/on-road.html

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