Some rest

Decided to have a few days rest from running meaning no Parkrun this week, kids had other ideas and i found myself in Jump 360 spending an hour on trampolines, needless to say legs feel a little stiff this morning!
Good luck all runners doing the May Day 10k down Tees Barrage.

Back to training

One of the running highlights of the week is Thursday training with NYMAC. Not only is it a good workout but also a chance to catch up with club colleagues who can't always get to training each week.
This weeks session, began as it does most Thursdays, from the Nunthorpe squash club down to Stainton way which is a nice steady paced 2.5km. Normally Peter is waiting here but this week no sign of him. Peters instructions were a 800m run then walk back 200m and run 600 back to start with a grateful 75 seconds rest. I got off to a great start on the first leg and run up the tough hill quite strongly before the walk back. Second set began well again and felt comfortable amongst the other runners, coming back after the walk I started to feel a little tired. On my third and final set I was much slower and could feel my legs tiring. Looking around me my club mates were putting some good effort into the session and overall it was a nice hour of running. Busy weekend ahead and a rest for my legs.

Bring back Spring

The weather seems to have gone back a few weeks today, a bitterly cold wind made life difficult on a steady run around the reverse Tees pride route. No NYMAC training tonight as I was still feeling the tough fell run on Sunday so I decided to give Chris some company half way through his 17 mile training run. Pace was slow as he had already covered 10 miles so it became a nice recovery run whilst battling the cold wind. Looking ahead for races I'm starting to prefer longer distances and if I want to run 5k I can enter a parkrun for free anyway instead of lining the pockets of Somebody, least I will know it's definitely 5k.

Marathon

Sunday evening was spent checking all club members finished the marathon safely, pleased to say that all completed and are in one piece and everyone did fantastically well. The Monday fallout after a televised marathon or Great north run is that everyone seems to think that they can run a marathon. Watching a race for a few hours is mainly all they see, what they don't see is those hours and hours of distance runs, mostly alone in crappy weather weeks and weeks ahead of the race. Long distance training can be very time consuming and fitting it around family and work time is probably as tough as running the race itself. Congratulations again to all that completed and even more for them weeks of training, you deserve a day or twos rest this week!

Gisborough woods

A perfect April Sunday morning and I find myself at Guisborough rugby club preparing for one of the toughest fell races on the calendar. Keen to make up lost time I've decided to take on the Gisborough moor anniversary race, a race that is over 12 miles in total and has a total climb of over 2000 feet!

After registering for my race number I notice several NYMAC fell race regulars, Brian Saysell is a machine on these hills, Mark Edwards is, like I've said before the man to follow as he always knows the way and of course Eddie is here to gain his points towards an inevitable club fell title. Before I head to the start I bump into Paul McGough who is always Eddies main title contender and a few other NYMAC members. 

Plenty of advice for the next two hours seems to be take it easy and save your legs! Advice taken on board as we set off into an immediate ascend high into Highgate woods, an area I don't know well. Before long were out into the open Moors were I actually get to do some running which set me at ease until randomly we come across club coach Peter with his ever growing collection of dogs. 

Once heading in the direction of captain cooks monument I started to recognise the area from a Monday night fell run I did over the winter, although that was in the dark and it was the wrong way!
The weather had brought out plenty of tourists and it was a bit of a battle to get down the stone path from the monument to Gribdale. A nice cool cup of water was a nice boost before climbing once again up to Newton moor and the highlight of the run, Roseberry topping. A brisk walk up the steps to Roseberry and I found myself amongst crowds of tourists taking selfies, finally spotting the checkpoint i was back running downhill, certainly my shortest visit to Roseberry. Little Roseberry certainly didn't live up to its name as found it a tougher climb due to the lack of stone footing.
The long exposed climb towards Highcliff was easily the warmest part of the day and a tempting offer of a beer from a family group almost halted my race there and then! Highcliff was not a place I had visited before but the stunning views demanded a small rest and look around to take it in.
All downhill from here through the woods only a slight slip on the muddy ground of any concern before back onto the road we started and a welcome finish line. Fell runners are a very friendly group with no mention of times or positions, everyone just seems to have enjoyed a run out in the amazing area we live. I'm very much looking forward to future Fell runs.

Marathon weekend ahead

Upon arriving at the club after my short jog up I was greeted by a large group of nymac runners, probably the most I've seen this year so far, nothing to do with the warmer weather I'm sure? This week we headed back to flatts lane country park which means a tough uphill two mile warm up run, it was nice to catch up with a few friends who I hadn't seen for a while before arriving at the meet up point. The session was pretty straight forward 800m reps on a gentle uphill section. I managed to do four before heading back the long way to the club. A pretty relaxed session after a tiring day. 

Quite a few of our members have headed off to London today, i wish them all the best as I've been watching closely how they have trained for future reference. They have worked hard and now is the time to enjoy the whole weekend and reap the rewards.

How many is too many?

just a quick look at the north east races website will show just how many races there are available to enter nowadays, on most Sundays there are several options at various distances and with running at an all time high popularity level there are now certain companies putting on races or series of races to simply make money. Don't get me wrong I like to enter a race as much as anybody but I like to pick and choose which events I enter so I can enjoy the build up, the race and most of all, the reward of finishing. We all want to do well when we run but I would take crossing the line having enjoyed my race than worrying about my time and more importantly my team mates times. I always want my club mates to do well, I spend my time doing my best in races, not looking to see which club mate I can finish ahead of next and anyone who wants to do this I have no time for.
When I ran in the Snake lane 10 back in February I was clearly going through a bad time carrying an injury, I finished the race in a quicker time than I should have under the circumstances as I felt I had to, I crossed the line with relief and not long after finishing I couldn't even stand, the first few members I saw asked how I was. Great feeling until the next one along asked "what was your time"
Anyone wants to know my times, follow me on strava!

A week of NYMAC

It's been a busy week which started with my first committee meeting on Monday. Unfortunately due to double booked rooms the meeting was a little louder than expected so a little frustrating but we managed to sort out a few issues. As part of my role I wanted to promote our public profile online using our public facebook page, after a few posts we attracted a new runner to the club so the page is already starting to work, more to come I hope?
Thursday came around again and I jogged up to meet up with club  members, this weeks session found us all heading out of Nunthorpe down to the large houses of  the grove. As ever we were greeted by Peter who eventually sent us off on a full outer Stewart park lap which is approximately 3k (I prefer km as it sounds more!). The faster runners did two laps but one was enough for me at a decent pace. I'm not normally one who goes looking for segments but strava mentioned I got a couple of PR on my lap so I seem to be moving in the right direction again.
Had a week away from Parkrun this week with the kids being off school but I did notice another record breaking week at Darlington with over 425 attending and that NYMAC runner Paul Darroch crossed the line first at Redcar.
NYMAC were out in force at the Mermaid 10k also, a big well done to all.

Quiet run through the parks

After last weeks rush hour run, this weeks long run was chosen to keep off the main roads as much as possible. After meeting up with Chris we headed to first stop Albert park, A great park on a parkrun morning with plenty of runners around, a little different on a midweek evening with large groups congregating in several areas. The plan was to do a couple of laps before moving on but this was cut short after one lap. Onwards through the delights of Middlesbrough before heading towards the start of tees pride and up through to the cycle track near to the Bluebell where the club hold several training sessions a year. Finally we arrived into Stewart park, in contrast to Albert there was not a soul to be seen which made it a lovely relaxing end to the run, with the sun starting to set it was time to head back. I had a much more comfortable end to this weeks run than last week and felt ok after running around ten miles. Chris did well also after running the Vale of York just two days earlier. A nice run but I think the countryside is a little easier on the eye for future runs than the delights of 'the boro!

Stewart park

A great NYMAC turn out for this weekends Stewart parkrun. I must of been keen to make up for lost time as I found myself in the car park at 8-15am, a little early. As I had time on my side I had a jog up to the volunteer area to say hello then headed off to do a warm up lap of the park. The weather was perfect, the overnight frost was melting fast and the sun was shining, even the ever friendly poultry at the large pond didn't bother chasing me this morning.
On the line at nine I spoke to several members, Paul Bainbridge who is finishing off his marathon training in time for his London visit in a couple of weeks, Paul's training has gone really well and I hope it goes great for him. Club secretary Catherine was also beside me at the start line, Catherine went on to be First Lady across the finish line in what was apparently her first Stewart Parkrun? NYMAC members fished first and second with Paul Lowe finishing ahead over the consistent Phil Jarvis. My run went ok, as usual at Stewart I went off too quickly and suffered in the uphill areas, I finished in 23:30 which I will take as an improvement from last week as Stewart is a tougher parkrun than Darlington. I noticed the total runners were only 2 off the record again this week, with several races happening over the weekend that's a great turnout.

Return to Nymac

decided today would be a good time to try and get back into the swing of  the NYMAC sessions which are offered to club members. These are mainly held Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not only are these a great help for races it's also a good chance to catch up with fellow club members.
The advantage of the Thursday session is it's not far from my house so I generally run up to the meeting point, this sounds straight forward but for some reason I managed to trip over for the first time on pathways, my pride hurt more than anything else so it was onwards to the club.
Several members were already at the club and a cheeky comment from Mark Brown made it soon feel like I'd never been away!
For today's session we were heading over to Flatts Lane country park which is a long uphill warm up run to get there avoiding the piles of horse crap and flying downhill cyclists. Upon arrival at the meeting point it was good to see club coach Peter hasn't lost any of his dry humour and we were soon on our way again. We were given a 3k lap to do which incorporated a tough hill, I'd already decided I was only doing one lap and at a steady pace. Overall it was a nice run through the park with plenty of hills involved which are always good for the legs. I'm sure we will be back again to the park in the near future.

Rush hour run

Finally I seem to be getting back to running regularly again and after Saturday their seems to be no problems. Tuesday tends to be my easy run day but as I find it easier to run with company, the offer of a run with NYMAC member Chris Ward is too tempting to turn down. Chris is marathon training for Liverpool in May so it was never going to be a short run. The plan was to take it steady and stop when tired legs take over, somewhere around 10k I expected. The early part of the run coincided with rush hour traffic, way too noisy for a relaxing run and crossing the roads were a task in themselves. The traffic only reminded me how much I'm looking forward to getting back on the moors soon. 

The light nights have certainly brought out the runners again and we passed several groups out training. The steady run turned into long run, as expected, with my tired legs giving up around 12 miles in I left Chris to finish off the last mile or so. It was nice to get some distance in again and hopefully I can now start to make plans for some more summer races.

Record breaking run

After last weeks return to Parkrun and a tiring midweek run in the sun I somehow ended up back at Darlington parkrun for a second successive Saturday morning. A lovely mild spring morning seems to have brought out all the regulars and more this morning, many are using parkrun as a distraction in the middle of their final long runs before London which is now only a few weeks away. My aim this morning is simply to get round and hopefully beat last weeks time. As the runners prepare at the start line it's very apparent that it's busier than normal. Not wanting to risk any trips I decided to move back in the group a decision justified as I saw one or two trips and near misses. Last week I took it easy on the first lap so I decided to give a little extra this time which went well. The second lap found the large field well spread out which gave the run a more relaxed feel, as per my last couple of runs I faded inside the last km but my first start had helped me to a time of 23:14 over 30 seconds quicker than last weekend! More importantly I felt no pain which gave me a big boost for the rest of the day.
My results email brought the news I expected, it was a record turnout at South Park of over 400 runners, parkrun continues to grow by the week.