This year hasn't been the best I deferred Manchester Marathon until 2017 due to injury I'd been off running for a while and my nutrition had been everywhere
But I managed to put in a good solid 5 weeks of MAF in the build up to EHM
***Bit of background EHM or English Half Marathon is a race that's ran for 8 years in my home town of Warrington in the North West of England there's normally a very food turn out and with 2 main distances (10k and HM) and a family mile later in the afternoon it's a great event adding in a festival running all over the weekend it adds to the whole atmosphere throughout the town***
Demons with 10K distance
I was aiming to run with some members of my running club who where hoping to gain the elusive sub 60 minute 10k time (this would be my 3rd 10k race with 2 previous attempts in 1hr 5 mins 14 secs in 2014 and 1hr 4 mins 10 secs in 2013 I'd hit it in training but never in race conditions
As you can see below there is a time line of my 10k ability over the last 3 years
Top picture (1hr:05) is Birchwood 10k in 2014
Middle picture (57:42) is my first non -MAF run after 4 months base build in Feb 2015
Botom picture (58.37) my finish time from EHM 10K
**All splits are next to the runs**
I started my plan in August (see below for my plan) ** all runs were done between my MAF range of 140bpm-150bpm**
As you can see I got some good build in especially coming back from injury I started slow then jumped up a bit too much maybe but then dropped back as the 0.7 session was meant to be above MAF but I tweaked my calf so rested until the Thursday before the race.
Race Day
This race is a big race to my running club we had 220 odd runners taking part which is a massive moral boost seeing them on course every 3rd or 4th person
The day before hadn't been great as we'd been at a party and the food was not LCHF but I'd decided to not focus on the nutrition a few weeks previously
I was up at 7.15 slept ok - had a Fat Burning Coffee (coffee,20g coconut oil,25g Kerrygold Butter and 50ml Double Cream)
I got picked up at 8am for the 10 min drive into town - had 500ml water with SIS Go Hydro beforehand we had a club photo (there's a few off us)
After at 20 minute warm up and 4 toilet stops it was time to line up at race start I headed over to the 50-60 min section - I was meant to be running with some club members aiming for sub 60 mins but couldn't find them - the race was due to start at 9am but was delayed by 5 mins
3...........2......................1 and we were off
Felt pretty fast the first half a mile and I glanced at my watch and say 8.35 pace I knew to slow down I was aiming for between 9.30-9.45 average all the way round
Above are the screenshots from each mile (blue is the mile itself)
2nd mile was the turning point as I was off target and 20 secs slower than the 1st mile so I decided to speed up slightly which lead to get a little bit faster and even posting some negative splits - when people asked me how the race went I've been saying it hurt the whole way round - I mean it, it was tough to the point I felt slow and sluggish but I've had these feelings before when I've been working hard during a Parkrun and I've hit a PB there was times I thought I wouldn't do it and even wanted to quit 5k and 7k mostly but I powered through after all it was only a 10k
I really enjoyed this race and put some demons to bed regarding sub 60 minutes finishing time
What's next for me
Well I've took the opportunity to maximise my next race performance ( I mean if I can hit sub 60 on 4 weeks MAF and not ideal nutrition what can I do with 3 weeks focused MAF and dialling in my nutrition ) my next race in 15th Oct and is a trail HM called Hellrunner - billed as the Toughest in the UK - it's a great event I did it last year with a group in 3 hrs 32 mins and I want to shave at least 30 mins if not longer from that time
I know MAF can take me a very long way I aim to get back into it more consistently
Thanks for reading
#HappyMAF #allaboutthebase
