Still Running (weakly). Issue 105

PAST – inspiration – “Well done, Steve.  You kept me going,” said Bob Emmerson at the end of the 1994 Barry 40 miles track race.  He had run 4:51:09 to my 4:50:22.

Bob, who died at the age of 92 last Tuesday 27th May, was indeed an elite ultradistance runner, some 24 years older than me, who in his later life became known as Mr. Northampton parkrun.  He completed the run 528 times, volunteering 53 times in addition.  Matt Bushell, the run’s co-event director said: “People turned up because they wanted to see and speak to Bob.  He really inspired and encouraged parkrunners, especially those taking part for the first time.”

But it was his amazing consistency at ultra distances earlier in his running life that really made his name.  The Barry 40 miles track race, for instance, takes a special sort of character to complete: 161 laps of a track is not everyone’s cup of tea!  But Bob was known as an ever-present there, completing the race for its first 16 editions from 1986 to 2002 (there was no event in 1987.)

Rest in Peace, Bob.

PRESENT – perspiration – “I’ll sleep when I’m done,” said Megan Eckert as she broke the women’s world record at the Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultrarunners 6-Day World Championships.

“I had an idea of where I wanted to be based on the fact that I wanted to reach 600 miles.  I knew that if I hit these paces and slept this much, that should get me to 600 miles, trusting that I don’t take extra breaks and my pace doesn’t slip,” continued Eckert, who in fact did fall asleep whilst running on the second night and ended up head-first in a bush.

The world championships certainly lived up to its name as both men’s and women’s world records were broken in the event in Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, France from April 28th to May 3rd.  Eckert from New Mexico, USA, ran 603.156 miles to beat the previous record by over 40 miles, and Russia’s Ivan Zaborsky ran 650.92 miles to add just over a mile to the men’s record.

FUTURE – suggestion – A hard interval session is one of the workouts that will improve your speed the fastest and the most.  Two I used to do in my prime are good examples.

One I would do in the middle of a 10-mile road run, after running easily for 3-4 miles and then doing 6 stride-outs.  This was the classic 6 times 2 minutes fast, 2 minutes float.  The fast sections would be almost mile pace and the floats were not jogs – so, for me, say, 5:10 and 6:40 pace, so that I would average under 6-minute miles.  The key was in the ‘float-not-jog’ – not recovering fully between the efforts.

The other session would be on the track, where I would run 10 lots of 600 metres in 2 minutes and a 200-metre jog in 60 seconds.  This would see me run 8km (5 miles) in under 30 minutes – again an average of sub-6-minute mile pace.  (Thommo could only manage the first few and the last couple!)  Again, the key was in the recovery jog being short enough to retain some of the lactic from the previous effort into the next.

Two sessions, each with 2-minute fast sections, but with quite different, but very disciplined, recoveries – a 2-minute float as against a 1-minute jog – but each having the effect of preserving some lovely fatigue into the next effort!