It's official - Rivalry is good for bringing out better running performances

I read an article last week entitled "To Run Faster, Get a Rival" which made a lot of sense.  Basically some research from the New York Stern school of business indicated that those runners running against rivals or who had rivals used this competition boost their own performances. The author of the research Gavin Kilduff says of competitive spirit, "This suggests that we may be able to boost our own levels of motivation and performance by either forming rivalries or harnessing the ones we already have."  Now anyone who is in a running club knows intuitively that this is true. Some of the best rivalries are within a club and I know that if a club member is right behind me or within reach in a race I will make an extra effort to beat them.

However with the advents of ranking systems for age this is enhanced beyond the club.  Using a ranking site such as Run Britain  it is possible to form rivalries with other runners without them knowing.  This is how it works.  You do a race and the results are posted onto Run Britain.  You see who is just ahead of you and then you compare your performances head to head on the site.  So the next race you enter you know how they have been performing and you then can make an extra effort to get ahead of them.  Below is an anonymised example.

The other change for older runners is the whole age category ranking system so that you can use Run Britain to find out where you are in the national rankings for different distances and events throughout the country. 

In addition to the rankings there are great sites like Strava that allows you to create segments or runs or whole runs that other runners then join a leaderboard for. So say you did a run in London and someone else had created a segment on that run when you uploaded your run to the Strava site you would be told where you were on the leaderboard.  Sometimes you are at the top of a leaderboard for segment - King of the Mountain or Course Record holder and sometimes you get deposed.  This increases rivalry and thus your performance.

I have been known to explore the segments in an area I am visiting to make sure I run it and see how I compare.

Parkrun - doing a recce for a possible route in Deganwy, North Wales

Today was meant to be a rest day before doing an 11k Trail Race on Sunday but all Parkrun recces have to be done at 9am on a Saturday i.e. the normal time for a Parkrun.  So this morning we set off for Deganwy 30 minutes away to park in the RSPB car park near the intended start.  The route was wonderful being mainly flat and on even trails with the most wonderful views of the Carneddau hills, Conwy Castle and the Conwy Estuary out to sea.  I think this run when it gets off the ground will be a huge success. Below is a possible route but please remember this probably will change when other options are considered and the course is accurately measured.

I took another Autographer time lapse video too.

What to eat before a race?

When I was younger this question was not a problem as I seemed to get away with eating anything at anytime.  Well with in reason.  Obviously a large meal before running is out of the question but I often used to run on empty. Since coming back into running I find it more of an issue. I have felt really hungry on the start line in some races and on others felt sick because I had eaten a sandwich before the race.  Morning races are fine.  A good breakfast including porridge, nuts, dried fruit and toast a few hours before the race and then a banana about an hour before the start.  However races that start at 7.30 pm like the off road 5 miler I did this week or a 3pm Cross Country race in the winter is more problematic.  This week I really thought about it.  I had scrambled eggs on a half toasted bagel and asparagus got lunch at 1pm and then a large home made scone with jam at about 4pm.  This worked a treat.  I was not hungry before the race and did not feel as if I had a lump in my stomach either. I no need to work out what to eat before the Cross Country season starts.

What is the best way to treat a rest day?

As I get older I really need to make sure I have a rest day after a hard run or race.  Sometimes it is two days after a really long or tiring race. But the problem is what to do on that rest day - nothing? I did the club handicap race last night where faster runners set of at suitable intervals after slower runners. I ran hard and even though the undergrowth was dense at times was only 8 seconds outside my PB on that course.  So understandably my legs are a little sore this morning and I need a rest before doing a 5 mile trail race tomorrow. So what to do.  If I do nothing I will feel lazy and I actually find that I stiffen up.  I don't want to run as I feel that my joints, tendons, muscles etc will complain.  So the plan is to go for a longish 3 mile walk off road and then do some Yoga later on using my favourite Yoga App - Yoga Studio

When do you stop trying in a race?

Today was the second race that I have run in the last two weeks when I managed to get a bit despondent about my KM lap times.  Today it was the Welsh 5K Championships and an out and back course with the back bit into the wind.  Of course my KM times worsened by about 15-20 seconds into the wind and I thought I had blown it.  I kept going and to my surprise won a national bronze medal in my age group and beat a runner ranked much higher - only by 2 seconds but I still beat him.  So the obsession with lap times can be a hinderance.  Also it was clear that the lap times being announced by my watch were different to the final uploaded times and not as bad.  So the lessons learnt:

1. Do not treat the watch pace as gospel
2. Run the way you feel
3. Always push on (unless injured) even if you think it is a lost cause

My National Bronze Medal

Running reps on the track

Each year when it is dry enough a group of us use the local school grass running track to do repetition sessions, things like 300s and 400s to get our legs and hearts working faster. These always take it out of me so I must be working hard. But this week someone asked if we could run round the track clockwise rather than the normal anti-clockwise.  That got us talking about why we and everyone else  runs anti-clockwise round a running track.  One suggestion was that it might be that most people right footed and therefore with a stronger right leg it is easier to run round a left hand bend.  There are a lot of theories however, some a bit cranky and others that make more sense.  See here if interested. So we ran a few laps clockwise and all agreed that it felt a bit odd but might be good for us to even out the stresses on our bodies.  Until 1948 Oxford University ran clockwise round their famous Iffley Road track ( now renames as the Sir Roger Bannister track) so it might not be that mad. Mind you at that time the track was one third of a mile too so a bit unconventional.  As I was in Oxford I thought I would visit the track at lunchtime.  Note the runners in the second photo going clockwise!  there were a few doing it.

High Mileage and how to cope with it best

I average around 30-35 km  (18-21 Miles) a week and that seems to stop me from getting injured too often.  Injury seems to be the curse of all ageing runners and for me high mileage seems to cause it most.  However due to running three trails runs in three days with different members of the family I have discovered that it all depends on how fast you run and on what surface.  So having covered 35km in 3 days I am feeling fine - or I was until I did 400m reps last night. So the moral of the story for me is that if you are going to run high mileage do it slowly off road.  I am taking it easy now for a couple of days to let my muscles recover from the reps.


Here is a time lapse video taken when trotting round the Alwen with my daughter on Monday evening showing the route of the Fairy Freckled Cow Trail race.  The images were taken using an Autographer camera on my waist belt.

Running round the Brenig in the sun- 15k

With access to beautiful countryside and hills it seems sensible to make the  most of the great weather.  The aim of this run and all runs should have an aim was threefold:

1. To run a distance over 10K so that I would fine 10K easier than last week when I faded at the end - again
2. To do some hilly trail work in readiness for the Fairy Freckled Cow race round the Alwen 6 July 2014 in the hope that I will get under 50 minutes this time.
3. To try out some equipment - a backpack with Camel-pac water carrier and the Garmin Vibe

So how did it go.  Well slower than I would have hoped but it was hot and I was recovering from a cold.  The trail was fine and showed that normal running shoes Asics Cumulus 13s work just fine.  The water carrier was great but using the Vibe when running is a challenge which I still need to solve.

Here is picture from the Vibe:

And this is a video clip taken with the Garmin Virb of the end of the run.  Quite cool integration of the Map and running data.  I had to hold the camera with my hand hence the instability:

Why do a blog for aged runners?

When I started running in the 80s most runners you saw out and about and at races were youngish.  I know that is a subjective but most of them were in their 20s and 30s and mostly male.  I came back to running after a 15 year break and saw some major changes. If you look at a race profile these days there are more women and a lot more older folk.  Now in my mid 50s I put myself in the older category.  However if you read the magazines, blogs and look at the equipment providers there is a huge focus on younger runners. So I decided to share my experiences of coming back to running as an older runner and also share the experience gained with older runners in my club who are phenomenal runners in their 60s and 70s.  They are what I aspire to.