Introduction

Welcome to the latest edition of the Good Run Guide Newsletter.  Spring does seem to be finally in the air and with the clocks going forward we can hopefully enjoy some great warm weather (and daylight!) running.  Reading through the forum, many of our members have been training away towards various spring marathons, so this month we are concentrating on marathon preparation.  However, there are plenty of other races out there to look forward to so have a look through our race listings.  If you would like a race listing added please email me.  Also, don't forget to keep looking at our database of tried and tested picturesque running routes - as they say 'a change can be as good as a rest'!

Louise at GRG
www.GoodRunGuide.co.uk

Marathon Psychology

So here we are again when marathon fever grips the running world with notable mass participation events in the next few weeks, especially Brighton and London. The excitement is mounting but also the nerves: Have I done enough training? Will I run as fast as I want to? Will I even get to the finish line?

What strategies can we put in place on the day to best result in a succesful outcome and an enjoyable experience. This article is based on an excellent workshop I attended recently given by Applied Sports Psychologist at St. Mary's University Colledge, Tim Holder.

The workshop, entitled Psychology for Marathon Coaches, concentrated on what to do when things don't go quite to plan. The first thing to note is running a marathon is a hard challenge and to complete one is in itself an achievement or where would be the satisfaction? Most of us have some sort of goal in mind, it may be 'running all the way' or 'to finish in the top half of field' or often time related like 'Sub 4 hours'.

So we all have a goal, but what if things don't go to plan during the race? Of vital importance is to have a fall back position. Thus its a good idea to set 3 goal levels: should/ could/ just might. Your just might would be say Sub 4 hours or running all the way, achievable if all goes perfectly on the day. Could might be Sub 4:15 or have a 1 minute walk break at 20 miles and each mile thereafter. Should may be 4:30 or walk breaks after 13 miles for example.

I can't overstress the importance of having fall back positions as I can personally attest throughout my running career. For example last year I started the Brighton Marathon with sub 3 target but no fall back, got to half way in 1:29:30 got depressed and dropped out at 15 miles. In hindsight I never felt good so should have accepted it wasn't my day and fallen back to a slower target but crucially didn't have one!

Also the wall is a big fear for anyone running 26 miles as your glycogen stores run out around 20 miles and fatigue hits you in a big way. What are the best ways pschologically to cope with this? Studies of non-elite runners have shown, if you try daydreaming, working out mind puzzles etc. most people still hit the wall. If you internalise, focus on the pain, fatigue, nausea you'll hit the wall even earlier....not good! However the best strategy was external distraction: so looking at scenery, interacting with specators, and chatting are all good ways of delaying the onset of the dreaded wall.

We at Good Run Guide wish all our members well and hope they achieve their goals in the upcoming races and as always look forward to hearing some marathon stories. Good, bad or indifferent, email them to us for newsletter inclusion and/or post onto the forum. Have a great run.

Andy at GRG

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Site News

Over the coming months we're going to be upgrading all the mapping applications on the site to use the latest version of the Google Maps software.   The maps themselves won't change but one of the main benefits of the latest version is that the map images load much more quickly.  We upgraded the Route Measurer some time ago and have recently also upgraded the Find a Route and Find a Race pages.  Hopefully you will not experience any problems but if you do, please let us know and we will try to iron out any bugs we may have missed during testing as soon as possible.

We are still reviewing ideas for future enhancements to the site so if you have any more suggestions please keep them coming.  We can't make any promises but your feedback is obviously essential to influencing future development plans for the site.

If you have any feedback about changes to the site or have a suggestion you would like to put forward, please let us know.

League Talk

With marathons on many members minds this month I was musing on how difficult it is to produce your best in that most difficult of challenges. Sure enough looking at the best recent race performance league not one is of marathon length. However further analysis reveals 25% of league participants have produced their recent best over the half marathon distance presumably boding well for a fast full marathon soon. We shall see within the month, however due to the particular demands of 26 miles to get your highest age grading there requires a special performance indeed.

Still regarding the marathon and looking at the Best race perfomance (age graded) since the league was started at the beginning of 2010 we can see only a measely 5 runners have achieved their best at the marathon distance. Congatulations have to go to Jayne, Harry, Steve, David and John for this (have a look at the league for some impressive times and age gradings). Jayne Angilley pops up in an impressive 13th place with an age grading of over 80%. It's not a suprise to find she clocks up a huge 50 miles per week.

I can't leave this edition of league talk without mentioning Isobel Everest clear at the top of the Fastest Lady table with an impressive sub 1:30 half marathon time. This is not acually a pb being 13 seconds shy of that and amazingly only 18 seconds off her club record. I am sure both of those are due for revision in the near future.

Don't forget you can easily join the league by ticking the box in Update Your Details under the Membership heading. And please keep your profiles up to date under the Community heading.

Thanks.

Andy at GRG

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Fradkley 10K Race Report

by Derek Bolton

Picture this a lovely little village in mid March called Fradley located near Lichfield in scenic countryside with narrow country roads, all reasonably flat with some minor undulations. This was an established and popular event frequented by hundreds of runners (I didn't count them), for a two lap race around the country lanes.

Rain was our companion from the time we parked up in a increasingly boggy field, all the way through to warm up, so we all were slightly moist at the delayed start at 10:40.

We were all coralled into a narrow lane at the start, and eager to go when the sun started to break through, claxon sounds and we all shuffle across the timing mat and off up to the hairpin which always gets a bit tight.

You had a choice of running or swimming across some of the puddles in the lanes, I picked the first as I can't swim. Lots of eager starters gradually began to slow down a little as optimism turned to realism....and the sun kept shining, but there was a slight cold breeze coming off the fields which didn't really slow things down.

Running through the village with what seemed to be everyone that lived there cheering us through to the traditional watering hole just past 5k supplying the dreaded plastic cups, should I drink it, or inhale it.....I done both, so onwards I went coughing and chocking. By the way I decided to try out for the first time negative split strategy, but went slight too fast at the start and was about 8 seconds off my 5k target time.

The deja vu of the second lap commenced, now runners were establishing themselves in the pecking order to finish, enthusically cheered on by the excellent marshalls located at every turn. Past the 9k marker and looking at the Garmin I was slightly off the pace but giving it all, 400m to the finish and circumnavigating an errant ambulance at the island who seemed he did not know where he was going I started with the sprint and hunted down 2 blokes and a girl who I all passed in the last 100m.

Sharp left hand turn through the sports hall gates and across the finish line. Goody bag collected incorporated a quality medal, water, fruit from the sponsors and the bag itself was a pump bag, not bad.

Now times....This was the first ever competitive race I done last year and 2010 my time was 44:07, I PB'd in another 10k race last year at 41:58, so my target for 2011 is a sub 41. This still is my target but I PB'd for both Fradley and overall at a Garmin time of 41:28, awaiting the chip time as I think this is around 5 seconds quicker.

First one of many to kick off the road race season and further opportunities to break that ellusive sub 41 minute barrier.

P.S. Since he wrote this report Derek has had a few small issues with the timing of the event. You can see his comments on the forum.

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