This blog has moved!

Please note: this blog has moved


I've recently moved this blog to a new Wordpress platform, and you can find this at running.larjarjatte.com.

This gives me greater control over the blog and I hope you see it as an improvement. Since I can't find away to seamlessly redirect everyone from the Google platform, please follow the link and update your bookmarks.

All the old blog posts are on the new site.

Monday 20 May 2013

This Blog Has Moved!

I've recently moved this blog to a new Wordpress platform, and you can find this at running.larjarjatte.com.

This gives me greater control over the blog and I hope you see it as an improvement. Since I can't find away to seamlessly redirect everyone from the Google platform, please follow the link and update your bookmarks.

All the old blog posts are on the new site.

Friday 26 April 2013

Warm Weather Running

I was in Budapest this week on business and the weather was fantastic - sunny and dry and in the high twenties.

The Hungarian parliament on the banks of the Danube
I took the opportunity of flat tarmac, warm weather and daylight at 6am to get a few runs in around the river. A loop of the Margaret Island running track, then back along the Buda side and across the Chain Bridge was a great way to start the day.

Margaret Island running track

Saturday 20 April 2013

Winter Again

After a week of beautiful weather where I was lounging around in shorts and flip flops, I awoke this morning to 20cm of snow and wintry winds.
Running the snow-shoe trail was quite appropriate

Eric crossing the river using the rocks as stepping stones

Just like February again


Wednesday 17 April 2013

Race Report: 2013 Paris Marathon

Its been a while since I've run a marathon on tarmac. 3 years in fact. London 2010 was my first and only road marathon which I managed in a respectably 3:35. I was a bit of a wreck at the end, but the crowd were amazing and the time was decent enough to encourage me that I had room for improvement.

But then I fell in love with trail running. I turned my back on road races and headed for the hills. The Greensand Marathon, Pilgrim Challenge, Ultra Trail du Vercors, Midsummer Munro, The Beast - all of these  were much more to my liking - hundreds, not thousands of runners, stunning locations, and lots of hills. The closest I came was a marathon in Richmond Park.

However as time went on, and my running in the hills improved, I was curious to see how this might affect my road running. Common running folklore says that ultra running, trail running, mountain running - all the offroad stuff - is not conducive to fast marathon times on the flats. So I got the itch to test myself again, and picked Paris.

Tapering

Pre-marathon preparation is always difficult. As running lore and common sense dictates, there's not much you can do in your final week to improve your race performance, but there's a hell of a lot you can do to mess it up. With that in mind, during the week of the race I went out on the Tuesday evening to run a fast pace with full marathon kit, complete with carrying gels and running in the gear I would race in. I probably went  a little too hard but luckily had enough time to recover the sore quads in time for the race.

Marathon Expo

A quick run round the village on Saturday morning with the dog, and then it was on the TGV up to Paris. Our hotel was in the SW of the city which was quite convenient for the Marathon Expo at Porte de Versailles, where I went to pick up my race number and goody bag. Once I'd emptied all the flyers and other crap from my good bag, the only items of any discernible usefulness were a bar towel, and a bag of pistachios. Note to organisers: For 65 euros and upwards - could do better.

Running Expo
Anyway, I made my way through the expo as quickly as possible - it was full of people trying to sell running gear or get you to sign up to other marathons. There was a rice party for last minute carb-loaders but I'd brought my own pasta (taking no chances with restaurants and food poisoning) so I headed back to the hotel to stuff my face.

Race Day

I managed to get a reasonable sleep despite the rumble of the RER trains and trams right past the hotel, and was up at 6 to wolf down some porridge and get the Metro to the start line. When I surfaced at Place de Charles de Gaulle, the sun was up and the place was swarming around the Arc de Triomphe. It was damn cold though, so left it until the last minute to drop off my bag so that I could keep my tracksuit on for as long as possible.


The marathon route is basically a squashed loop, heading out from the Champs Elysee, down to the Louvre and heading east to the Bois de Vincennes park. It loops round before heading back west along the Seine, to the Bois de Bolougne, and then finishing on the Avenue Foch leading back to the Arc de Triomphe. This meant that logistically, our bag drop was at the finish (unlike say, London, where they transport your bags to the end). 

Worst version of "Where's Wally?" ever...
I was in with a predicted time of 3:15 so had to get to one of the start pens at the front. The Champs Elysee is a pretty wide avenue, and all of the road was penned for runners, with the side pavements used to get to the start gate. However it soon became a huge crush, as 50,000 runners tried to find their place. I managed to get into my start pen with seconds to spare, so no real time for a warm up and feeling pretty stressed. I really shouldn't have left it so long until I dropped my bags.




The pace kicked off pretty quickly as usual, but the first 10km were pretty crowded. The weather was perfect, clear and cold with little wind and we soon warmed up. I chatted to 'Richard from Portsmouth' who was aiming for a 3 hour time so we made conversation as we passed our way alongside the Louvre, the Rue de Rivoli and out east.

Park Life

The course really was quite flat and fast, and being so straight we soon made it out to the Bois de Vincennes, a huge park just outside the Peripherique on the eastern side of Paris. The course looped through there from about KMs 12 to 19, and being so far out, the crowd support dropped a bit with a few gaps, but there were plenty of people around the KM markers, and lots of casual support from people out walking their dogs on a  Sunday morning.

Tunnel Vision

After the Bois de Vincennes, the route snaked back towards the centre of Paris, along the river Seine. We passed the halfway point and I was still feeling strong, averaging around 4.17min/km which I knew was a pace of just over 3 hours for the whole race - however I was aware that keeping that up for another half marathon was not going to be easy. My time at the halfway point was 1hr 29m 55sec - my first ever sub-90 minute half marathon - I was pleased, but a bit worried I was going too fast.

Coming back into town and the crowd support really increased. A beautiful, sunny day on the banks of the Seine, with the Eiffel tower in the background made it an amazing experience. But then came the tunnels. There were about 3 or 4 tunnels of varying length, each of which dipped very sharply, plunging us into a humid and bizarre dark world, before forcing an uphill run out back into daylight.

I really started to flag at the end, after the 35km mark I was getting the usual cramps pinging into my calf muscles whenever I ran too fast so my pace dropped.

Conclusion

40,108 runners left the Champs Elysee at the start, and 38,690 crossed the finishing line. I came 1,926th in total, with an official time of 03h08'12". My best marathon to date, and tantalisingly close enough to the magic 3 hour mark that I'm tempted to have another go.

If you're thinking of a marathon, you could do a lot worse than Paris. The organisation was pretty spot on considering the huge field of runners. The route was magnificent, crowd support was good and the fact that the start and end is pretty much in the same place is a big plus. Its much easier to get a place, not being as heavily subscribed as London, and also gives you a great excuse to visit Paris.



Finished

Monday 11 March 2013

Long Run - Then Tapering

With just a few weeks to go until the Paris Marathon, I needed to do my 'long run', the traditional 20 miler that is the bedrock of all marathon training plans.

I considered running it in Milan, where I was on business and the terrain was flat, as I also had a few hours spare one morning before meetings. However I thought that after 20 miles I might not be in much of a state to work for the rest of the day, so I left it until the Sunday when I was back home.


Sticking to the roads - but still a stunning view

This meant that I was rewarded with a beautiful, crisp sunny day in the mountains in which to run. I stuck to the roads to minimise the hills, and ran round the local villages and hamlets, but several long climbs meant that my time was slow, and the going was tough. I kept the pace slow, but the effort was still high because of the gradient.




Hilly

I took the opportunity to try out a new pair of running shoes - Brooks Adrenaline GTS 13 - I've been road running in various models of these for the last few years so ordered them online without trying any on. They seem fine, and it was great to have that spring 'new shoe' feel which I hope will still be there by the time I get to do the marathon. Apart from a blister after 17km, which I hope is just a case of wearing them in, the were fine.


Now its time to taper down, drop the mileage but keep the pace.

Sunday 24 February 2013

Desperately Seeking Tarmac - A Few Thoughts on City Running

Now we're getting into the end of February, the trails around me have been under a thick blanket of snow for a good three months now and as such my weekly distances have dropped off dramatically. I'm putting in some lung-busting efforts running along the snowshoe hiking trails, often in deep powder, but the pace is slow and its not perfect training for my next goal, which is the Paris Marathon just over 6 weeks away.

I've been lucky enough to travel on business to a few cities lately though and take the opportunity to run on flat, sea-level pavement to put some quality KMs under my belt. I thought I'd share a few experiences.

London
I lived here for a decade so know it well. There are huge numbers of green spaces to run in, including the Royal Parks, Hampstead Heath etc, but nothing beats an early morning run along the river. There are few pedestrians and not much traffic around before 7.30am, and you get some stunning views as the sun comes up.

The London skyline from Waterloo bridge. The London Eye on the left, Big Ben in the middle.
My hotel was somewhere in Kensington and I got a little lost heading towards the river, but once on the Thames its great to run along the embankment to the north, and then along the southern pedestrianised Thames Path.


This was supposed to be a rest week but I had such fun running in the (relative) warmth, and it felt so quick that I ran a bit further than needed.

Budapest
I've been to this beautiful city a few times this winter, and although its desperately cold at times, its a great place to run. On Margaret Island, an island sitting in the Danube, there is a 5.5km springy purpose-built running track that circles the entire island. Its great to run on, doesn't get (very) iced up, and is easy on the knees because there is some shock absorption built in.

One of the many beautiful views of Budapest, from Margaret Island in the Danube.



 This place seems to be the Central Park of Budapest, and it wasn't clear if there was a 'direction etiquette' but anti-clockwise worked for me! Despite the cold there were still quite a few runners out there, although my Hungarian colleagues tell me it is absolutely heaving in the summer.



 

Paris
The City of Light is where I'll be running a proper marathon in April, my first road marathon for about 4 years and I'm keen to see if I can turn in a decent time. Since I'd done a fairly hard run the day before in London, I took it easy here. Bitterly cold winds and snow flurries put a dent in the view, but it was still quite an experience running under the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower on a bitterly cold, snowy morning.
As beautiful as Paris is, I was actually quite disappointed with the run along the Seine. I started at Issy-les-Moulineux, in the south-west and ran up towards the Eiffel Tower. However, most of the run seemed to consist of picking my way through a cement factory, bus depots passing nightclub boats moored up. The run on the other side was an exercise in dodging traffic.


Since I only had chance to do 10km, I had to keep the route simple. Next time I'll look for somewhere a bit more inspiring to pass through.

Winter Running

Winter is always the time when runners are supposed to put in the long slow miles, in order to build up a base of cardiovascular endurance that can be built upon in the coming months to bring them to their peak for races in the Spring.

I'm running the Paris marathon in April, and my plan had always been to build up my weekly mileage, and our mild winter over the Christmas period meant that this wasn't doing too badly but now we're getting a lot of snow, and the miles are dropping off.

My dog loves the snow, but it makes it hard to rack up the miles
I went out this morning and barely managed 5km in thigh deep powder snow. Even the roads that had been ploughed in the early hours were snowed up.


I guess that this is all doing me good, and so long as I get a long run in once a week, the CV effort required is doing me good.