Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12644194219

Notes

Efficient morning pre-race after not-quite enough sleep. Dressed, banana, porridge, coffee, bathroom, out at 8.

I had decided on a three gel strategy using SIS Dual Fuel gels. One 5 mins before the starting, another at 7km, and the last one at 14km. I think it worked out pretty well.

At the event, we did bag drop and went straight to the starting pens. Didn’t use the portaloos, and regretted it after 30 mins standing in the starting pen. With ~20 mins to go, I jumped the fence and ran to the public bathrooms at the Covered Market. Felt MUCH BETTER OMG, and managed to get back in the pen fine. I also discovered that I hadn’t tightened my drawer-strings, and that the tops of my gels were poking me in the small of the back. I tied a neat bow, and turned the gels upside-down in the back pockets.

I felt pretty decent during the run. I saw Becca and Rachel spectating at a couple of points. Rachel even got a few photos!

I went off a tiny bit hard while my heart rate was coming up, but once in the 170s I modulated pace based on HR readings, aiming for low 170s in the first third, high 170s in the middle, and at 15km consciously pushed into the low 180s in order to catch the 1:35 flag runner. I think I let HR sag a bit through kms 5-12. In terms of pace, I didn’t manage negative splits. I ended up with basically flat splits throughout the race, with a slight sag at the end that was not solely because I was running through University Parks.

Comparing with previous attempts, I noticed that heart rates averaged about the same as last year, maybe a beat lower*. However according to Strava, I spent significantly more time in Z3, and half as much time in Z5. Probably my heart-rate zone cut-offs are for me when I’m much fitter: The 173 bpm transition from Z3 tempo to Z4 threshold is too low; I was certainly at or just above the top of threshold for the run, and that was at 172-174 bpm for the first two-thirds of the race. Threshold HR being lower can likely be explained by my reduced fitness.

*direct comparison is hard because I didn’t stop the run until after a couple mins of recovery, oops.

Trip

Quick summary: this time we organized the trip such that there were four solid days on the boat before the run. Which worked out really well, and enabled a contiguous trip to Aynho rather than just to Thrupp. We could have gone further if the Cherwell valley weren’t over-full of water, and if a number of other things hadn’t happened!

Next year

What we could do to make it better next year:-

• Do canal Saturday-Saturday, with race after the first night. We’d only lose a little under a day of cruising to the half marathon, and we could be more debaucherous after the race!
• Being fitter and a lot lighter. I could stand to lose 10kg!
• Weight training during winter.
• Base training. A lot of Z2 runs/pelotons/bike rides. Richard noted that he did this for the first time this year and it made a huge difference, lowering both race times, and average heart rates.

Race

I have done less preparation than last year. I’ll aim to do it in about 1:38, based on a 1:50 time that was:-

• At a lower pace (+5 min)
• Not run in my race shoes (+5 min)
• Hillier (+2 min)

This will be a lot slower than last year, about the same as the year before, and a lot slower than Richard this year. I’m not going to worry about it too much; I’ll try to get a lot of intensity in over the next 2 weeks, then take it easy for a week or so before the race, and then see what happens on the day.

Boat

The last two years that we did this, the “time on canal boat actually cruising” part of the holiday has been short, and bitty. We’d take the boat on Saturday afternoon, cruise a bit up and down, moor at the boatyard again because it’s the closest spot to the half marathon, and then get ~1.5 days of cruising Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning.

But! This year we booked the boat for a whole week, with all cruising happening in the week leading up to the Half. We’ll have Tuesday afternoon-Saturday evening to cruise.

Much better.

I did it, and documented it, last year.

I have a training plan

I'm not in great shape right now. And my friends who are running it are quite quick. I need to get faster. I need to train. And to lose some weight, since I'm pretty heavy right now.

I made a plan! I have made it using intervals.icu, and taking into account vacations that are coming up. It may be a bit ambitious! But it can be adjusted on the fly and I'll still know where I stand.

Look! Here is a graphic that the web site generated:

The vertical light grey line is today. The top graph is about the state of my fitness: the blue line is my fitness and the purple line is my fatigue. (I don't know what the units are, but in my experience they are both arbitrary and useful.) The bottom graph is about whether I'm doing too much or too little. When trying to get fit, you want to be in the green zone, but for races you want to be in the blue "fresh" zone. As you get fitter, you need to do progressively more work in order to be in the green zone.

Workouts are either Power Zone rides on my Peloton spin bike, or runs. I'm choosing to use the peloton because a) I'm very familiar with it and b) it's a low-injury risk way to rapidly improve cardio fitness. In the first block the plan is one long run, one short run, and two peloton rides per week. As I get closer to the race I'll transition to 3 runs and 1 ride.

I've given myself a goal that I care about, and am orienting my fitness plans around it. Hopefully I can stick to it.

TODOs:

• Look into fancy fast running shoes
• Find some more shorts which aren't going to chafe too much
• Put an outdoor ride or two into the plan