How to run a marathon - 12 - road races

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 11)

Some runners manage to get by without doing any races at all. They are happy to go for their daily/three times per week jog, and stay fit that way.

I'm not like that. At regular intervals, I like to pit my strength against my peers. It's an occasion to monitor my progress. It's also a good feeling to join hundreds of like-minded people, at a different setting each time, or the same as the previous year, trying to improve my time, or to overtake those rivals who run at more or less my own pace.

For marathon runners, 5k, 10k, 16k (10 miles) races, and even (though to a lesser extent) half marathons, are simply stepping stones to the big event. They take these events as they come along, as welcome diversions or breaks from their regular weekend long training runs. They don't train specifically for them, but include them in their training schedule, as special 'power' speed sessions.

Of course, a beginner who is looking forward to his or her first-ever race would have a different outlook. Here, I intend to give a few tips to such a beginner, who is entering the world of road racing.

You will notice first of all the camaraderie among competitors. There are many rivalries, but they are generally friendly - sometimes keen, but rarely fierce or bitter. Some groups of competitors decide to run together from start to finish. Some experienced runners may opt to help newcomers by competing and running along with them. Still others start at the back of the pack, and are happy to cruise along and earn a medal at the finish. The elite runners take up a position at the front, after a long period of warming up and stretching, and concentrate on actually trying to win the race. The great majority of participants aim to finish the race in a good time, trying to establish a new personal best time or at least improve on the previous race of the same distance.

There are various factors that together contribute to your having a good race. First of all, you need to be well trained. I think this is fairly obvious, and doesn't need much explaining. If you have been following the schedule suggested in my previous articles, you are certainly fit enough to participate in a race of 5k or 10k. For a very first race I don't suggest a longer distance than 10km, since if you happen to start too fast and wear out early, it would be a long slog to the finish... It's probably best to attempt long distance races after gaining experience at middle distance events.

Don't train too hard in the last few days before a race - at the most carry out one speed session midweek before the race (assuming you're racing in the weekend) - plus your routine easy training runs. I prefer not to run at all on the day before the race, although there are those who go out for a short run at an easy pace. The principle is quite simple here - you should be well rested on race day, and this also means accumulating enough hours of sleep during the last few days before the race. Don't eat too much the night before, and keep yourself well hydrated by drinking lots of water, and no alcohol, especially if it's hot. If your pee is dark coloured, it means you need to drink more water.

To be rested, relaxed and concentrated at the starting line you have to avoid leaving your preparations till the last moment. The last thing you need on race day is a mad scramble to arrive on time, with hardly any time left to do a proper warm-up. You would normally aim to arrive about one hour before the start. This gives you enough time to pick up the number if you still don't have it, to have a good look around, chat with your friends, and of course do some jogging to warm up. Not too much - 10 to 15 minutes during the last 20 minutes before the start should be enough. Any earlier and you will lose the benefit of the warm-up, or wear yourself out before even starting! Be sure you're wearing comfortable clothes suitable for the weather conditions, and don't wear or eat anything with which you're not familiar. In particular don't eat anything in the last two hours before the race, or any heavy food (meat or fatty meals) on race day itself.

At last, the time arrives when you're in the middle of the crowd of eager starters, waiting for the starting gun to go off. Race participants start in the position they roughly estimate they will place at the finish. You should do likewise, and for very practical reasons. The beginnings of road races are crowded affairs, and jostling between competitors of different capabilities is a dangerous practice, which could result in a multiple pile-up of runners. The field should therefore spread out as smoothly as possible within the first few hundred metres - elite runners rocketing ahead at the front, aiming-to-finish joggers taking it easy at the back, all the rest at the proper position in between.

DON'T START TOO FAST! It's the number one golden rule, and many beginners fall foul of it, getting carried away by the sheer excitement of the occasion. Whatever the distance to be run, start at a moderate pace. It's so much better to save your energy reserves for the second part of the race, overtaking one rival after the other right on till the finish, ending in a strong sprint, than to start too fast and wear yourself out in the middle of the race, and helplessly watch an endless string of competitors go by as you shuffle along breathlessly without being able to match their pace.

Concentrate on settling down to a comfortable pace during the first third of the race. If you're in good form, you should feel the urge to increase the pace, but resist this in the early stages. When the first third is over, you may very gradually start to up the tempo. Look ahead, and try to catch up with the runner in front of you. Once you're in step with them, forget about them. They may well try to re-overtake you, but don't react. Your aim is to move up the field, not to beat this particular individual. Look ahead once again, and pick the next 'victim' to overtake. If you're in good form, you'll be able to overtake a good number of rivals this way.

Most road races have undulating routes, so you should expect a couple of hills along the way. Sometimes these may be quite tough to negotiate. Don't let them get you down. Remember, it's true that your pace will slow down and you get very breathless as you go uphill, but you're not the only one - it's just as hard for your rivals. Look down at the ground, concentrate on your footsteps and on reaching the top of the hill. If you're well trained you will probably overtake another few competitors on the way up...

After a good race, done in a good time, with a strong finish, you'll feel absolutely on top of the world. It could go the other way, and sometimes without any apparent reason at all. It might just happen that you have an off day. You might start at the wrong pace. You may have not trained or slept well enough. Never mind. Pick yourself up and look ahead. The next race will probably turn out to be much better.

The day after a race you may expect to have sore muscles, caused by the extraordinary effort of the previous day. Some runners go out for a light jog to loosen their muscles. I prefer complete rest, or an easy bike ride at the most. A couple of days after the race, you should have recovered enough to resume your normal training schedule.

For Weeks No 16 and 17 of our beginner's guide to running a marathon, this would be something like this:

Monday to Sunday
Week 16: rest - 10k easy - 10k tempo - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h45 easy
Week 17: rest - 10k easy - 10k intervals - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h45 easy

Now it's time to go to bed, because tomorrow I have a race of my own, the Hivernales de Boitsfort (19,2km). Let's just hope I'll remember to practice what I've been preaching!

Thank you, Charles Clews

Today was a sad day for Malta, for one of the best loved personalities ever to have graced our nation, Charles Clews, has passed away at the age of 89.

Charles Clews represents a significant part of my childhood. We used to eagerly await the Saturday afternoon children's programme on Rediffusion (the early seventies' cable radio) presented by his gang, including Johnny Navarro, who used to play the naughty boy Fredu Frendo Sghendo, Vitorin Galea (Fredu's mother) and Armando Urso, all of whom have now left the realm of the living. Charles Clews was their maestro, and the last surviving member. He used present this programme and also play the part of Fredu's uncle, Mr Brown, an English or American man who spoke Maltese in a comical English accent, and got all the genders wrong. Then they would play out a jokes competition, sent in by listeners. It was all innocent children's humour, but on the rare occasions that I listen to a recording, I always find them so funny! A significant part of my childhood has today died with Charles Clews.

The only occasion that I saw him perform live was at a drama play at the Catholic Institute in Floriana, some time in the eighties. I think it was his general humourous attitude that I found so endearing. When he spoke, his very tone, even without cracking any joke, would make me want to laugh. The last funny story I heard him relate was on the TV show Xarabank, about a lady who wanted to show off a diamond ring she had just acquired. She was waving her fingers all over her companions' faces to make them notice the ring, but no one mentioned anything. In desperation, she had to tell them: "Oh dear, it's so hot in here, I'll have to take off my diamond ring to cool down a little bit!" You would of course need to listen to the master telling the story...

I do hope that somewhere there are lots of clips and recordings of this Maltese comic genius. Please, whoever has them archived (Television Malta? Public Broadcasting Services? Any other media company? Private recordings?) do make them available to the Maltese public. They are priceless gems.

Thank you, Charles Clews, for so many happy, funny moments. The world has been, and is, a better place thanks to you.

Save Malta from racism and xenophobia

Now that's a facebook group that I would gladly join. Here are a few others:

Save Malta from ignorance.
Save Malta from partisan politics.
Save Malta from noise pollution.
Save Malta from vehicle exhaust.
Save Malta from building development.
Save Malta from hunters.
Save Malta from religious intolerance.
Save Malta from mediocrity.
Save Malta from linguistic mayhem.
Save Malta from its insular perspective.

I don't wish to give the impression that I despise my country. Far from it. On the contrary, I feel strongly about these issues because I love Malta, and would dearly wish for it to become truly European, in spirit rather than just nominally.

I wonder why the bunch of brave crusaders who want to save Malta from illegal immigrants did not raise a whimper when Malta experienced a similar influx of ex-Yugoslav, Russian and Ukrainian migrants, also illegal, in the 1990s. Could it be because eastern Europeans are not black? I wonder...

What a tragedy

What a tragedy has struck Belgium! But, I think I should qualify that. What a tragedy! This isn't about Belgium or any other country. A madman enters a creche, on an as yet unknown pretext, and attacks the babies and young children there with a knife, killing three of them and a worker at the creche who had been trying to subdue him. Unfortunately it's in the nature of the human race to produce madmen. But let's not condemn Belgium. Similar attacks have happened in other places, and the scary thing is that they will continue to happen.

I try to look at the positive side of this terrible event. A woman, who also happens to be Belgian, died trying to save the children. All her colleagues could have suffered the same fate, as they were all trying to protect the children under their care.

And the sad thing is that not even the murderer himself could be held to blame, that is, if it really turns out that he's mentally sick, and therefore not responsible for his actions. I'm afraid it's not really such a wonderful world.

Of all possible insane ideas...

Of all possible insane ideas, few others would beat this one. Some scientist wants to dig out Galileo Galilei's remains to carry out DNA tests on them, apparently to verify whether he suffered from bad eyesight, which might in turn shed a light on the veracity of his discoveries. Apparently, this mad scientist also wants to confirm whether it was really Galileo's daughter who was buried beside him.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0122/breaking56.htm

I couldn't even believe I was hearing right when my good friend Adrian mentioned the story over coffee this morning. Sorry, Adrian, I believe I do owe you an apology.

The idea is silly, first of all, because even if Galileo suffered from bad eyesight, which seems to be the general agreement according to historical accounts, it constitutes no proof at all that whatever he had seen through his telescope was not actually there. And even if it could constitute such a proof, to check whether Galileo's findings were right or wrong, rather than going to ridiculous lengths to establish that he was as short sighted as Mr Magoo, all one needs to do is study those conclusions themselves. Check the findings, not the eyesight of their discoverer. Jupiter's moons are still there, orbiting to their hearts' content, simply crying out to be studied.

And does it really matter if the remains buried next to Galileo's belong to his daughter or to someone else? I doubt if there are any known descendants of Galileo who will oppose this madness, but this doesn't give anyone the right to use whatever remains of his body for their own dubious ends. I don't think the great man himself, or anyone else for that matter, would consent to such a shameful intrusion. Let Galileo, and his memory, rest in peace!

Obama Day

This man really has got vision, not only for his country but for the entire world. I haven't ever heard a speech, delivered with such passion, that inspired so much hope. May he achieve great things for us all.

BRAVO KAKÀ!

"Money isn't everything". Sure, he can afford to say it, but still, the message was loud and clear, and it was fully understood by millions of fans and non-fans. He's rejecting a sensational offer that was worth many millions of euro, to stay with the team that made him famous, and that he has learned to love. Kakà has gone a long way to restore my faith in football as a sport. BRAVO KAKÀ!

Should he stay or should he go?

The billionaire new owners of Manchester City are offering over 100 million euro to acquire the services of Milan's ace attacking midfielder Kakà. They're also offering the player a salary of about 12 million euro per year. That's more than 32000 euro per day. Presently, Milan are 'only' paying him 9 million per year, which is just 24000 per day...

Given the financial size of the offer, and the fact that Kakà's father (his agent) is asking for a pay increase for his son, Milan are seriously considering selling Kakà and collecting a fortune. Better collect a fortune while it's available, than risk the player getting injured or just walking away for free at the end of his contract. But not everyone is exactly enthusiastic about the idea. Take the fans, for example, who have organised a protest in front of the club headquarters, urging Milan not to sell Kakà. The player himself has been quite consistent in maintaining he wants to stay on with Milan, having already resisted various advances by those other poachers, Real Madrid.

Kakà would be a fool to go to Manchester City. He would be leaving one of the best football clubs in the world to join a non-entity. OK, he would earn a heck of a lot more money, but beyond a certain stage it doesn't make much difference anymore. He already earns more than he will ever need, and the fans adore him. He has the chance to become one of Milan's best players ever, to win who knows how many more trophies with them. No, he shouldn't throw all this away, just to become even richer when he's already very rich.

As a football fan, I hope this madness won't materialise. I'm sick and tired of all these obscure sheikhs trying to bully their way to the success. Kakà had said once that he wants to eventually become Milan's captain. Let's see if Mr Nice Guy had really meant what he said.

How to run a marathon - 11 - building up to a marathon

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 10)

If you have been following my beginners' guide to running a marathon, you will have progressed from relative physical inactivity to becoming a fully fledged runner. You may well have acquired a life-long addiction, with running becoming an integral part of your life. If this is the case, it's an incredibly good thing for you. You will have already shed quite a bit of any excess weight you may have had. You are being more careful about living a healthy life, not just for health reasons, but because it helps you with your running. If you used to smoke, you will probably have given up by now. You feel good about yourself, and you're focussed on an important target - running a half marathon, and eventually a marathon.

Focus. It's the key word that keeps you motivated. You have to have a well established target, plus intermediate targets. By now, you will have settled into a general training pattern that, health and lack of injuries permitting, you could maintain indefinitely: three to five 10k's during the working week, including one or two speed sessions, plus a long run in the weekend. The variation, depending on what you happen to be targeting in your training, will occur mostly in the weekend long run.

We have set ourselves the ultimate target that is the marathon. But there are also other, intermediate targets. One of them is the half marathon. Before that, it would be a good idea to acquire experience doing road races of shorter distances, which may include 5k, 10k, 16k or other distances. These are excellent occasions to test your form, compare your performance from one occasion to the other, compete with rivals of more or less your own ability, and generally enjoy taking part in a running event with hundreds of like-minded participants. I'll consider these road running events in more detail in one of my next articles in this series.

To build up to a marathon, all you need to do is increase the length of your long run, bit by bit, until you reach a point that is close to the entire distance itself. During the last two to three weeks you then ease off the long distances, allowing your body enough time to recover its strength so that you'll be in optimal shape on the big day itself.

The build-up is fairly straightforward. On three successive weekends you run for 1h30; the next three successive weekends you do 1h45; followed by three successive weekends at 2h00. This goes on at the same rate of increase up to 3h00, again for three successive weekends. Finally, three to four weeks before the marathon itself, you carry out one or two runs of 3h15m, which will be equivalent to around 33-38k, i.e. almost there. The last two weeks you take it easy, as explained earlier.

Now, of course, a programme of 23 successive weekends of long runs is nearly impossible to maintain. You could get the flu (more on this in one of the next articles), you might go on vacation, and be unable to run, you might need to organise a wedding... and you will need a couple of breaks, to sort of recharge your batteries. Successive weekends doing, say, 2h45 - 2h45 - 2h45 - 3h00 - 3h00 - 3h00 - 3h15 - 3h15 would be just a bit too much to sustain. You should therefore allow for a few single interruptions in this build-up, for when you have the flu, your daughter is getting married, etc. However, if you're lucky, you'll still be able to run all weekends, and this is where you can fit in the shorter road races that are so much fun.

So, depending on how much time you have left before the marathon, the ideal thing would be to add a fourth weekend into each of the three-week phases mentioned above, so that your build-up would be something like this:

1h30 - 1h30 - 1h30 - something else - 1h45 - 1h45 - 1h45 - something else - 2h00 - 2h00 - 2h00 - something else - and so on. This is an idealised situation, and the "something else" will never occur exactly every four weeks. What you could do instead is work by months. Let's take the Malta marathon, which takes place end of February / beginning of March. The entire build-up will take 8 months. In July, your long runs will be of 1h30. In August you do 1h45. And so on. In each month, you can afford to have one weekend, whenever this is needed, for 'something else'. If you're lucky, this 'something else' will be a short road race. If something crops up that prevents you from running, you will have to give up that month's short road race - your main aim is the marathon, not the short road race.

With a shorter build-up, say starting on September (avoiding the torrid summer months), you can replace one of the three long runs with 'something else', so that certain stages in the build-up will only consist of two long runs, instead of three. This is a worse option, first of all because you end up getting less endurance training, with consequent effect on race day, and secondly because you will be at greater pressure to fit in all the training necessary, and you won't have much 'allowance' for any unforeseen stoppages.

So, my advice is to allow 8 months from when you're doing a 90-minute long run to marathon day, add 15 minutes to your long runs each month, include one weekend without a long run in each month, and you should be able to be in ideal shape come marathon day. A calendar would obviously help you map out this build-up by including those races you wish to fit in.

Weeks 14 and 15 of our beginner's guide to running a marathon are a repeat of Week 13, except for the speed sessions, which alternate between tempo runs and interval training:

Week 14 (Monday to Sunday): rest - 10k easy - 10k tempo - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h30 easy
Week 15 (Monday to Sunday): rest - 10k easy - 10k intervals - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h30 easy

Enjoy your running!

Goldilocks strikes again

... and Papa Bear growled in a low voice, "You never learn, Goldilocks, do you?"

Ascolta bene, Mister Ranieri

Ascolta bene, caro Signor Mister Ranieri. Sebastian Giovinco deve giocare SEMPRE. Non al contagoccie, ma in ogni partita, e per 90 minuti. Ogni volta che gioca è il migliore in campo. Fa spettacolo, disorienta gli avversari, fa degli assist irresistibili, fa gol. Ma che cosa deve proprio fare di più per meritarsi il posto da titolare? Lasciarlo riscaldare la panchina è uno spreco incredibile, imperdonabile, e allora perchè lo fa, caro Signor Mister Ranieri? Pare proprio che la Juve vinca malgrado il freno postole dal suo allenatore...

Unsung hero

Alex Manninger has a tough challenge - to replace the injured Gianluigi Buffon in defending Juve's goal. For the past few months, he has been doing this job admirably well, conceding few goals, and keeping out the opponents' shots without much ado. In the meantime, all the media ever mention is Buffon, and when he will return from his injury, as if Juve are struggling in his absence. All the while, Juve are doing very well, thank you, also thanks to Manninger's quiet and efficient goalkeeping.

It's tough, being reserve goalkeeper. You have to replace someone who's widely considered to be better than you, and try as much as possible to defend your team's goal as well as him. You are expected to be ready at 100% of your (presumed limited) ability while being called to start playing in mid-season. Your fans and teammates will be worried that you might not be up to the job, and you have to be extremely careful unless, God forbid, you make any silly mistakes... All this with the full knowledge that, once the first choice goalkeeper is available once again, you will go back to the bench to be forgotten again. And even if you're doing a splendid job while the much more famous number one is simply playing the celebrity all over the media, hardly anyone says a word of appreciation or recognition of your good work. They can hardly wait for the return of the star. In Maltese, we say "taż-żejjed u n-nieqes". Now how on earth could anyone translate that?

This fan does recognise Manninger's considerable contribution to Juve's fortunes. If Juve were to win a competition this year, it would be thanks in no small measure to Alex Manninger, and I hope the millions of bianconeri fans in Italy and elsewhere will realise this. GRAZIE, MANNINGER!

George Abela for President!

According to various press reports, Dr George Abela is to be nominated to replace Dr Eddie Fenech Adami as President of Malta when the latter's term expires this April.

This is good news for Malta. Well done, Lawrence Gonzi, for an excellent choice. George Abela is well respected by a large majority of the Maltese people, and will surely serve the country very well.

It's also good news for this blogger, and for Maltese runners in general. Malta is going to have a President who is an athlete, and a St Patrick's AC member to boot!

Hearty congratulations, Dr Abela!

A spectacular, frozen run

I had mentioned in an earlier blog that I have targeted the upcoming Malta marathon on 1 March to be my tenth full marathon. The date is now fast approaching, and it's time to carry out the Very Long Runs, i.e. 20 miles or more, three of them at least. Otherwise, my marathon on the big day will end at a crawl, which is certainly not my aim.

The problem in this corner of Europe is that we're experiencing the coldest weather since many years, and the past week it was already an achievement to run an ordinary 10km. So how was I to notch up a full three-hour run with most pedestrian paths covered with packed snow? A reconaissance by car yesterday revealed that some footpaths have actually been de-snowed, so this dawn, with the temperature a cool minus 5 Celsius, I hoped for the best as I put on cycling shorts, long trousers, long-sleeved shirt, sweat shirt, reflective bib, woollen cap, woollen gloves plus ski gloves, and hit the silent, frozen road.

Soon enough, in spite of two sets of gloves, it was my hands that started to feel the freeze. Forgetting about the act of running, which was going well on auto-pilot, I concentrated on keeping my fingers warm by kneading, rolling, gripping, and trying in any way to get blood to circulate to the fingertips.

After a while, the discomfort eased away and I could take a look around. I had by this time reached the Chateau de la Hulpe - always a pleasant place to go to, let alone this morning under a white blanket lit by a rising sun. It was a fantastic spectacle! I had the time of my life running aimlessly from one end to various others and back for several times around this large and beautiful park, the soft snow crunching under my feet. It helped me forget the passage of time, which was a good thing given that I had to run for 3 hours.

Eventually, the cold started to bite - my face was feeling numb, almost the way it feels after a visit to the dentist... Worse, I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers, and I re-started the finger-kneading process. Auto-pilot once again, and the minutes flew by as I tried to re-establish the circulation in my hands. Mission eventually accomplished, and 20 minutes to go to a deserved hot bath - and the knowledge that now I've reached the point of no return. A run of 3 hours, without too much trouble apart from the cold, is a huge step towards accomplishing my target.

In this blog, I only register those runs that deserve special mention. This was in every way one of them.

Another year has gone by...

... since 8th January 2008. Today we started a brand new year that will end on 8th January 2010. But few people have stayed the night up to count down to the arrival of 9th January. OK, the number in the year hasn't changed from 8 to 9. But we still have a change from 8 to 9, in the number allotted to the day. So, why such a great fuss about 2008 becoming 2009, and not even a whimper last night about 8th becoming 9th?

Snowed under

I thought it was going on holiday that would hold me back from blogging. It turned out that blogging only dried up when I came back to base - for various reasons. One needs time to settle down and get back into the rhythm of things. If you add a sustained stretch of ice-age weather into the mix, life becomes a bit of a struggle, and blogging a luxury.

Until last Monday we used to think of snow as something to which to look forward. It's pretty, it's fluffy, you can build a snowman with it, and you can have some good fun with it by throwing snowballs or sledging down slopes. That's because we've only experienced it in limited dozes, and while on holiday. If you need to go to work and get on with your life it's a bloody nuisance, as each day doing anything is transformed into a saga.

The adventurous type will probably enjoy discovering they can't get their car out of the snowed under drive-in on a Monday morning, driving instead by bike on slippery paths at a temperature of minus 10 degrees, and then having to wait (at the same temperature) for a train that arrives 25 minutes late, which train, when it does arrive, consists of just three wagons bursting with crammed passengers, so that most commuters are left stranded on the frozen platform. Well, I'm not adventurous and I don't enjoy it.

Even such a simple activity as a daily run becomes a logistical nightmare. The Parc Cinquantenaire close to the office, where I do my lunchtime training, is now truly a beautiful spectacle, all white, with leaveless trees covered by snow. If you wish to run there you risk twisting your ankles, but it's the only practical place to run, unless you choose the road and risk being run over by a truck. The Belgian authorities have sprinkled the main roads with salt to melt the snow and allow motor traffic to proceed. Since pedestrians are not important, any flat surface meant for them is covered in packed snow, none of which has been removed by anyone, so that getting around on foot is risky for able-bodied persons, let alone the disabled and the infirm.

All this means that, unless the temperatures were to suddenly go up above freezing before the weekend, and it doesn't look very likely that they will, I don't know how I'm ever going to manage to find where to go for a three-hour run this Sunday. And that's exactly what I need to do if I want to keep preparing to run a marathon in eight weeks' time...

Let's just rejoice that the forecast says sunny all the way for a good number of days :-) And next week the pretty white fluff should turn into slushy muddy stuff as the temperatures climb back up to decent levels.

How to run a marathon - 10 - the long run

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 9)

The one type of training session that is the yardstick of a long distance runner's progress is the long run. To do a marathon, or a half marathon, you need to be able to run a long distance, and this can only be achieved through sheer practise. Hence the weekly long run.

Why weekly? Because it would be very difficult to run long distances more often. Do a long run everyday, and you'll likely end up either injured or completely exhausted. It's only ultra long distance runners who undertake that type of regime, but ultra distance running is not our concern. We are 'only' long distance runners...

Shorter training runs during the week (for practical reasons, long runs are normally carried out in the weekend, specifically though of course not necessarily on Sunday) serve two purposes:

- less demanding training sessions to allow for complete recovery from the rigours of the weekend long run, and

- specific work on other aspects of athletic form, in particular speed.

In the weekend, most people have more time on their hands that will allow them to carry out a longer training session. And this is where we train our bodies to get used to running for a long time, over a long distance. This is where our muscles are made to work for a longer time than they are normally used to, which will in turn induce our body during the week to rebuild the worn muscle tissue and overcompensating in anticipation of the new demands being made upon it. This is where our cardiovascular system, i.e. the continuous work done by the heart in pumping blood around our body, combined with intake of oxygen through the lungs to be absorbed by the blood and transported to the working muscles, becomes ever more efficient and able to keep working at a relatively high rate for several hours.

It's called endurance. It's that characteristic that enables you to do an active exertion for a long time without getting too tired. To go up a staircase or walk up a steep hill without getting breathless. You will notice, as you get fitter, that your pulse rate at rest starts to get lower. This is because your heart becomes more efficient at pumping blood. In fact your pulse rate at rest is another measure of your current level of fitness.

In our beginners' schedule, we have, bit by bit, increased the time of the Sunday run to 80 minutes. These runs, as in the case of the standard 10k sessions, are done at an easy pace. Depending upon your natural ability, they may vary from 7.5 minutes per mile if you're a pretty fast runner, to 10 minutes per mile if you're on the slower side. The majority of runners do their long training runs at 8 to 9.5 minutes per mile. There's no specific ideal type of route for a long run, although it would be better to avoid very hilly routes, as the aim here is simply to improve running for a long time. Tough hills could be just a bit too much for this already demanding type of session.

Most runners prefer to carry out their long runs in company. This certainly has several advantages, among which:

- the camaraderie among runners makes the Sunday long run something to which to look forward;

- a group of runners possesses a wide pool of knowledge of different types of route and distances available from any given meeting point;

- being committed to meet someone is a big incentive to get out of a cosy bed on those occasions when your will power lets you down;

- running in company is much more interesting than a long run all on your own, where time and tired muscles tend to seem to last forever...

... but be careful to run with someone in the same league as yourself. If you agree to run with just one partner, this partner needs to have just about the same pace as you do, otherwise he or she will tire you out within a few minutes, or if they are too slow you will feel as if you're not doing any training at all. Alternatively, if you run with a large group it will be much easier to fall into step with someone who runs at your preferred pace. A third possibility (mine, partly due to circumstances, partly due to choice) is to run on your own, and you're 100% free to dictate the pace. But it's a lonely choice, and the longer runs seem to last forever!

That's it, folks. Next time I'll write on the build-up to a half marathon or a full marathon. In the meantime, enjoy your running. Here's Week 13 of our beginners' schedule:

Mon: rest
Tue: 10k easy
Wed: 10k tempo
Thu: rest
Fri: 10k easy
Sat: rest
Sun: 1h30m easy

"Focus on less to achieve more"

There are few things in this article by John Walsh in yesterday's Times of Malta that I don't agree with wholeheartedly. It's entitled "Focus on less to achieve more", and is supposed to be related to the upcoming Malta marathon of March 1. In reality, it's a philosophical point of view, and hardly related to athletics at all. One passage that I particularly enjoyed was this:

"For example, I don't understand those who are always looking forward to the next holiday period. Why would you want a holiday from your life?

I believe, do what you love and the rewards will come. Of course those rewards might not always be financial, but for one thing you will not be in urgent need of a holiday to get away: your day-to-day life will become something to enjoy and not something to escape from."

Meditate, gente, meditate.

Here's the link to the article. Thank you, John Walsh!

Cocoon

It just goes to show how the arbitrarily chosen 1st of January as the beginning of the year doesn't constitute a new beginning at all. The new year kicked off in exactly the same way as the outgoing 2008, with close to a full scale war between Israelis and Arabs. The Italian TV main news are headlined by the disquieting developments in that ever tormented region, as the Hamas military leader has been killed by an Israeli missile strike, as more rockets are fired by Hamas into Israel, with the latter gathering its forces at the border for a massive land invasion of Gaza.

Over in this cocooned planet named Malta, the news are headlined by two archbishops visiting the President to wish him Happy New Year, the prime minister and all his ministers doing likewise and lining up for a photograph, followed by intrusive coverage of the first baby born in Malta in 2009, and then interviews with people walking somewhere outside, seeking information about their new year resolutions.

Blissful ignorance is the key to being the happiest people in the world. Who cares about who is killing whom elsewhere?