Acceleration = Change in Velocity/Time

Stephen Hawking was once told by his publisher that each equation he included in his book "A Brief History of Time" would halve his sales.

I wonder if the same holds true for blog posts?

This post, titled with a sketchily remembered equation from my GCSE physics, is an amalgamation of my recent running achievements and other developments.

New FiveFingers

After retiring my normal running shoes, all I had remaining were my FiveFingers KSO's and Adidas Kanadia TR4 trail shoes.
The KSO's are good, they got me on the road to minimalist running, but they do have a flaw. They have terrible grip in wet conditions. I've come close to snapping an ankle on occasion! As for the Kanadia's, I don't won to wear them out on the roads. What I needed was a middle way, a hybrid between my KSO's and Kanadia's. Turns out that Vibram have such a thing:

Behold the TrekSport!

The FiveFingers TrekSport is almost identical to the KSO but has tread on the sole to improve grip. The rubber is 1mm thicker than on the KSO so there is a slight reduction in sensation from the ground. In practice, this has not been a major issue. I have run on road, trail and cross country in these and I love them! No nearly broken ankle so far either!

parkrun

Since achieving my first sub-25:00 parkrun the other week, I've continued to make steady progress.
At Braunstone on 4/8/12, I ran a 24:14! That was delightful but paled into insignificance compared to this week's run at Conkers:

Yes, you read that correctly!

23:47!!! God only knows how I managed that! The folks at Conkers parkrun have captured me on film once again, check out my sprint finish:

I'm briefly visible at 8:32-8:34 wearing my blue sleeveless t-shirt.

After recovering from that, I found that Adidas, sponsors of both parkrun and Team GB, were giving every parkrunner a free Team GB replica wristband to celebrate the Olympics.

Not bad for a freebie!

All in all then, not a bad couple of weeks at parkrun! Unfortunately, work gets in the way next week. Although a break to recover and consolidate my gains is probably no bad thing!

Hermitage 10K 2012

Finally, the other day on a whim, I decided to enter a local 10K race. I chose the Hermitage 10K near Coalville.

It was my third 10K race this year and the first I've run in Vibram FiveFingers.

Thanks to all the running I've been doing lately, I managed to achieve my goal of a sub-1 hour race! That's another item I can cross off The List! Unfortunately, due to a glitch, official times won't be posted until at least tomorrow. However, I clocked it with my Garmin at 53:14.2, which (if accurate) betters my previous performance by 14 minutes!

Approaching the finish (Photo credit www.runner-photos.co.uk)

As is customary, I was the recipient of yet another t-shirt, a relatively plain white technical shirt. Should come in useful for training runs.

Next big race is the Great North Run.

My Longest Run

Yesterday, I decided to test myself. I wanted to see how long and far I could run maintaining a pace of ~7min/km.

To my satisfaction, I comfortably managed 10 miles. I continued and found I was starting to stiffen-up by about 12 miles, after which I started having niggling tenderness in my knees and ankles. By 14 miles, I'd slowed down to a walk so I stopped my Garmin watch. I had been running for 2:47:31.

A screenshot from my RunKeeper profile.

I was only 1 mile short of completing the entire circuit of Rutland Water at a running pace! Just over a year ago, walking that route almost finished me! It's almost unbelievable to me how much improvement there has been in my fitness and stamina over just 9 months.

I'm glad I ran the circuit yesterday. I've proven to myself that I can cover the distance required for the Great North Run. I now have 47 days to get just a little stronger. I'm sure yesterday's run will have helped no end!

Sub-25:00 5K ≠ Impossible [UPDATED]

A momentous day!

I have finally, after 8 months & 23 days of parkrunning, crossed the 25:00 barrier!

Not quite a true reflection of my performance!

At the end, I forced myself to sprint up the hill to the finish line, at which point I promptly fell into a heap on the cool grass. A number of seconds passed as my heart rate fell. I sat up, looked at my Garmin and was horrified. I'd forgotten to stop the timer!!! When I pushed the start/stop button, it read 24:58.66.

How long had I been laying on the grass? At most, I reckoned thirty seconds. I had no choice but to await the official results. The only certainty was that I had succeeded in running a sub-25:00 5K!

Then it came:

Lies!!!

Not possible. I started my timer exactly when the race started, I was late stopping it by several seconds. I beat 25:00! This was only the second time the volunteer at the finish line has been in charge of timing. My best explanation for the discrepancy is that the timer was started several seconds before the race start was actually announced.

I'm claiming today as having achieved my goal of a sub-25:00 5K because I know that is what I did today.

I will erase all doubt at my next parkrun!

UPDATE 29/7/12:


Vindication! The glitch was noticed and rectified. New official time = 24:28!!

Grabbed off the parkrun website

My First 'Barefoot' parkrun.

As promised, today I ran my first parkrun in Vibram FifeFingers (VFF's) 'barefoot' shoes.

Unfortunately, due to flooding after Friday's monsoon conditions, my usual parkrun at Braunstone Park was cancelled.

Instead of backing out of the challenge, I decided to visit one of the other parkrun venues within a 50 mile radius of my home. I chose Conkers parkrun because they insisted on their Facebook page that they would run. This is the first time I've visited another parkrun venue and I must say Conkers was very well-run and welcoming indeed.

So, how did I get on?

Before the race, a couple of runners commented on my VFF's. They were genuinely curious. Certainly a conversation starter which was good for me being billy-no-mates at a new venue!

The conditions were, in a word, muddy!

The state of my feet after the race. Fortunately, VFF's are washable!!

Despite having to leap over/run though/slalom around puddles, I felt good. When I turned the first corner, I was somewhat apprehensive about the hill I was faced with as I hadn't tackled significant inclines in VFF's before. I needn't have worried, the hill was surprisingly easy.

I've decided that my theory about wasting energy compressing padding in normal shoes must be right as the whole course felt significantly easier.

I didn't go out today chasing a PB. My aim was to be careful as the course was unfamiliar to me and this would be the furthest I'd ran in one go wearing VFF's.

So, the outcome?...

Fastest ever parkrun!

I clocked my time at 25:32. My official time was 25:31, 36th out of a field of 86. By far my fastest ever parkrun, 1:42 faster than my previous best! 

I felt strong at the end, so much so that I reckon had I been less conservative at the start (owing to an unfamiliar course) and hadn't had to weave around puddles, I'd have been several seconds faster. That sub-25:00 time is looking much more achievable!

My feet felt fine afterwards, no aches or pains at all. I have decided that all my future parkruns will be in VFF's. Also, I'll try out some of the other parkrun venues to add variety as my experience today was very positive.

Proof I've Not Been Totally Idle

I may not have been blogging or tackling those 30 Day Challenges, but I've not been completely idle.

As proof, I offer this photo of my race number and finishers t-shirt from the Wymeswold Waddle 2012 which I ran on May 13th.

It was a 5 mile road race, 2.5 uphill and 2.5 down. Downhill was more fun! My official time was 51:48.

For my next trick, I intend to run parkrun in my Vibram FiveFingers on Saturday. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Another Day, Another 10k, Another T-Shirt

I ran the race and I have the T-Shirt to prove it!!

Today I ran Leicester's Big 10k 2012. It was a sunny morning, not much wind and a reasonably flat course. I finished 431st out of a field of 509 runners in 1:07:18.

Powering towards the finish line

Not too bad. Still, I think I could do better. My training over the past 4 weeks has suffered to be honest. I allowed work to get the better of me once again.

Must regain my momentum. Onwards to a new challenge!...

My First 10K (And My First Trail Race)

Me approaching a checkpoint. South Stack lighthouse visible in the background. The wind almost tore off my race number from my leg!

Today I completed my very first 10K race. It was also my very first trail race!

It involved dragging my backside up to the highest point of the island I grew up on. To say it was hard work would be an understatement! The climbs were steep, so steep even the serious fell-runners power-walked up them! The downhills were treacherous to say the least with loose rocks, mud, exposed roots, etc. And the wind. My God, the wind! I got properly sandblasted by the spray from the Irish Sea as well as nearly blown off my feet on occasion. To get a sense of it take a look at this screenshot from my RunKeeper page:

My actual time was 1:45:21 (I forgot to deactivate the auto pause feature!) 

The views though were spectacular! I lived on Anglesey for 18 years and never ventured up Holyhead Mountain before. It goes to show how little some of us know about our immediate surroundings. Certainly food for thought.

My finishing time was 1:45:21. I'm happy with that given that 2/3 of the course had me climbing from sea level to nearly 200m and that I had to seriously apply the brakes on many of the downhills! Not sure of my overall position, I'll learn that on Monday when all the results are collated. Do I care?...

Not especially, I'm just glad to have completed it!

My finishing time

All the commemorative paraphernalia, my race number, a red wristband, the slip with my time, a commemorative dog-tag and I even got the t-shirt!

My finisher's dog-tag

As arduous as I've made it sound, it was certainly good fun! Would I do it again?...

In a heartbeat!

Update 23/1/12 17:56:
The official results are in. I was 129th out of 146 runners.

Reviewing The List

I've spent the morning planning how I might make progress on achieving some of the goals on my list in 2012.

Some I will tackle in due time. For example, in under 2 weeks I'll be running a 10k trail race. I've also applied for a place in the Great North Run in September which, if I'm accepted, takes care of the half-marathon goal.

Others will take some plotting.

Money is a little tight at present so until I learn to travel hack, my global exploration will have to wait.

A simple one to get started on is my barefoot running goal. Chris McDougall makes a good case for it in his book 'Born to Run'. I've even invested in a pair of Vibram FiveFingers!

My VFF KSO'S

I hereby resolve to do one training run per week in my Vibram's. Eventually, once my feet have toughened-up, I'll do a parkrun in them then who knows?...

Imagine my surprise when, this very afternoon, I found an opportunity to complete one of my 'Beyond Insane' goals. When I was walking home from the coffee shop, I saw a van advertising a SCUBA diving school not 3 miles away from my home! I've looked at their website and found that they offer a taster session as well as a reasonably-priced certification course. I might make this a gift to myself after payday in a couple of weeks!!

Finally, I'll try to dig out the photographic & video proof of my two completed 'Beyond Insane' goals from my parents attic when I'm next there.

Update 23/1/12 18:57
Photographic and video proof of my skydive and bungy jump can be found on my 'Achievements' page.

A New 5k Personal Best

Me approaching the finish line

A momentous day! Today I achieved my goal of running a sub-30 minute 5K by completing the Braunstone Parkrun in 29:57!

I admit there were only 3 seconds in it but I smashed my previous 5K best by a full 2:33!

Next goal: to run a sub-25 minute 5K