January by Jonny Lowes (15/02/14)

5000miles. January can be summarised as follows:

January the first month and a month of many firsts:

A first - A successful DryJanuary (at about the 6^th time of asking)

A first - A (not so successful) 31 day plank challenge

A first – Half Marathon of 2014.

A first - My own challenge 12 half-marathons in 12 months (see deranged reasoning below)

A first - Of course some daft 5000mile run that we find ourselves on.

Like a few of the lads January for me was slow to start. My first run being the Newcastle Parkrun on the 04^th Jan. I had earlier in December run a new 5km PB (21:19) at this venue but in between Christmas and New Year, during a club interval session I aggravated an injury that I had been “managing” since last May.

The session that broke me:

Venue, OneNorthEast Business Park, Newburn.

Weather, cold and dry but windy.

Session, 6x 3mins with 1 min recovery at about 06:00min/mile pace

It wasn’t a bad injury, just a “little pull” but I stopped immediately on feeling it to avoid it getting worse.

On reflection, what lesson can I take from this? Probably the cause being an inadequate warm-up, then pushing too hard too soon.

Experience had taught me this would mean a week off running and a tentative return the following week. The plan was decided; I would jog round the Town Moor Parkrun course with my girlfriend . We got round without any further complications in 26:01.

With the Brass Monkey Half Marathon at York Racecourse coming up on the 19^th Jan, I knew I had a few weeks to get some quality miles in and a few hard Harrier sessions. My training log shows I managed to get in 08 sessions totalling just over 50 miles. This involved a memorable 14 miler, where I was joined during the 2^nd half by Micky, Mart and Robbo. The last few sessions were with team Elswick, taking it easier (about 70% effort) to make sure I didn’t pull anything and to recruit some fast-twitch fibre muscles before the race (its science I don’t understand, so don’t ask!).

The Brass Monkey was to be my second Half Marathon. The first being 4 months earlier at the big daddy of all Half Marathons; the Great North Run. To be honest, I was pretty gutted with my time, it was 7mins slower than the most conservative race time predictor, based on my 10km time. On reflection this shouldn’t have been a surprise, my 10km time was a bit slower than predicted based on my 5km best. It would appear 5km is my best distance, generally I finish in the top 20% of the field at 5km, at half marathon distance I’ve very much at the middle of the pack.

Despite the disappointment, I had nothing left to give at the end of the GNR, but I knew I could run 13.1 miles quicker. My reaction was to meet the challenge head-on. I think these things are all about experience so I set myself a testing but achievable goal. I decided I was going to run 12 half-marathons in 2014. Knowing this would work well with our 5000mile challenge, I figured on 40 miles a week I should have completed the challenge by the end of April.

So I travelled to York with my girlfriend staying over with relatives to cut down driving time on race day for the Brass Monkey Half Marathon 2014.

Race report to follow