3 Counties Cross-country MV50 Champion 2013-14

It's official

4 wins in the 4 qualifying races - a nice match with last Summer's Midweek Road-race League!   Sadly, the trophies were not handed out at the end of the final race due to some computational issues, but I look forward to receiving my large glass-ornament in a few weeks time.  I'm not the world's biggest XC fan (as I point out often to anyone who'll listen), so this represents quite an achievement for me, especially as there were around 60-70 competing in my age-category in each race.
 

Rotterdam Diary - 13 weeks to go

Revisiting my debut marathon - 4 years on ...

I'll be posting a weekly diary here during my preparation.  I'm on a 15 week training-schedule and am just into D-day minus 13 weeks.  I am feeling good and looking forward to the training challenge.  Broadly, the plan is as follows and is based on my successful preparation for the 2010 race.

• The 15-week plan commenced with an established long-term base of 40 miles/week
• At minus 13 weeks, weekly mileage is now at 45
• Planned peak mileage at race-day minus 3 weeks is 65-70 miles
• I aim to complete 6 runs of 20+ miles (max 2 hrs 45 mins duration)
• Regular 2nd long-runs will contain ever increasing chunks (up to 13 miles) at my marathon heart-rate.  These will replace one of the weekly Club sessions.  So far, I've done 5.5 and 6.5-mile marathon-efforts as part of 10 and 13 mile runs.
• Regular 10k and tempo sessions.  Possibly the odd 5k-pace workout
• Tune up races (half-marathon 6 weeks out and possibly a 10k)
• 3 week taper into the race (reducing mileage by to about 75%/60%/40% of peak).  In 2010 this actually worked out at 77%/55%/34%.

Dunstable XCL

Less is more

I really didn't feel in the mood for this one!  Having managed to get myself there and to the start line, I resolved to run it as a sub-tempo training run - for once, I actually followed through.  My average HR for the run was only 158 (88% max), which for me is more high-end marathon effort.  Surprisingly, I was only about 6 places below-par (36th/398) and still 1st MV50 on the day. This is a very interesting outcome and suggests I was setting off too aggressively in the other 4 races.

The leaders approach "Heartbreak Hill"

So that's 4x first and 1x second MV50 positions in the series and, as only the best 4 count, that gives me a perfect maximum (or I should say minimum) score of 4x1=4.  This is very pleasing and makes all the effort (in a discipline which is not my strong point) feel worthwhile.  It also meant I have now completed 20 races as a Vet 50, finishing 1st in twelve and 2nd in the other eight.

The course was run anti-clockwise this year.  I think I marginally preferred it this way.

Final league table for 2013-14 season >>>

NHRR finished 4th overall on the day and 4th overall for the season of the 13 competing clubs.   For the season, the men were 4th and the Ladies 7th.  We've been used to winning this league and have not been outside the top-3 for a good while.  However, given we struggled to get our best runners out regularly, this was a respectable outcome.

Dunstable XCL Preview

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December Update

Andy Reading 10k - 8/12/13
* Time 37:00 (bl**dy windy!)
* Overall Position 30th
* MV50 Position - 1st (trophy AND a bottle of wine >>>)
* New MV50-54 Club Record (beating my own previous mark)








East Haddon XCL - 15/12/13

* Overall Position 31st

* MV50 Position - 2nd - winning MV50 title with race to spare ;)

Buntingford 10 Mile - 29/12/13
* Time 01:01:24
* Overall Position 13th
* MV50 Position - 2nd (the trophy! >>>)
* New MV50-54 Club Record
   (beating my own previous mark)
* NHRR 2nd Team in Herts Snr Champ's

MV50 Career to-date

A good 8 months!

• 20 races completed - 1^st MV50 in 12 of them, 2^nd MV50 in the other 8
• New MV50-54 Club Records set at 5km 5-mile, 10km (twice), 10-mile (twice) and half-marathon
• Midweek Road-race League – MV50 Series-winner (4 wins)
• 3 Counties Cross-country League - MV50 Series winner (4 wins)
• Herts County MV50 Champion at 5km and Half-marathon
• Ranked in top 5 in Eastern Region for MV50-54 at 10k (5th), 10M (4th) and Half-marathon (3rd)
• 11 out of my 12 best-ever age% scores set since May 2013

Updated 12th Jan 2014 - never lower than 2nd MV50 in all 20 races completed since my 50th birthday!!