EAT, SLEEP, MARATHON TRAIN, REPEAT by James Smith

Since finding out that I had been chosen to be an MK Marathon Ambassador (what were they thinking?) and realising that I’d actually have to run a marathon (I’m still only doing one -I’m not kidding), I’m roughly halfway along my ill thought out and hokey training plan (if this was one of those inspirational running blogs, I’d have to refer to it is my “journey” with a photo of me in the lotus position - perhaps with “NAMASTE” superimposed over the photo)… So, there are two approaches to marathon training: 1. A careful plan, with a mix of intervals, tempo runs, recovery runs, rest days and a long slow run at an easy pace, building in distance, tapering to hit race day in perfect condition. 2. Or… Loads of running! Don’t overthink it – just run A LOT! Why not run twice a day? Why not run two half marathons on the same weekend? Rest days? Pffft! Obviously, I’d planned it to be approach “1”, but it is tending towards approach “2” a bit – for example on the week of my original blog I’d run 18 miles, last week I ran 49 – a 272% increase! If I extrapolate that out another 3 months - then I’ll be running 133 miles the week before the marathon (I can see this happening!). However, larger mileages change your body in new and exciting ways that you’re not necessarily expecting – 1. The arms and upper-body musculature of a Tyrannosaurus Rex – before I started running I had MASSIVE guns (citation needed) – but where have they gone? Surely I couldn’t have looked like this before… Yeah... Surely not… 2. No bum whatsoever – and I mean no bum! I am never going to win “Rear of the Year” at this rate - they might as well give it to Carol Vorderman in perpetuity… 3. The toenails of a hundred-year-old tramp… No sandals for me ever again – but fear not, I’ve got a plan for the summer – I’m of German heritage – so I can legally and morally sport socks and sandals simultaneously! And if anyone tries to stop me – that makes them a RACIST! But still I have absolutely no idea how to pace it on race day. My longest run (so far) is 15.5 miles and I ran it at my totally arbitrary marathon pace to see what it would feel like; and it felt surprisingly easy, a bit too easy really, as my average heart rate was only 130 (my heart rate should be reasonably accurate as I’ve now got a super-fancy heart-rate-monitor – so fancy in fact that it gives me loads of completely unnecessary metrics – I now know that I’ve got an “Average Vertical Ratio” of 7% - cool huh?). So do I re-assess my (secret) marathon goal time; but would the wheels have fallen off at 18 miles? At 20? There’s only one way to find out – especially as my hilariously over-optimistic Garmin reckons I should be aiming at 2:46 – yeah… Seems legit! Anyway, I can’t spend all day here yakking, I need to do some MOAR RUNNING and sharpish, I haven’t run since yesterday after all!!!

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This is the week that was….weather.

What a week of weather.  It started off with the hottest February days on record and quickly turned to rain and a storm named Freya by the weekend.  Through all this weather, of course LFR were out sweating in the heat and battling through the rain to get their runs in.  It's just what we do. The usual club runs took place in the week which included a visit from a running mascot we'll call Jeremy -  we heard news that Jeremy was spotted supporting the LBAC juniors during training on Thursday evening, only to leap off the pavement into the road.  It was thought he had sacrificed himself for someone's dinner, however only a short while later he appeared on the other side of the road to support the LFR Improvers on their 800m loops.  Jeremy the Frog clearly prefers the red and black. Moving on... On parkrun day we had LFRs at Milton Keynes (where Paul smashed out a PB), Linford Wood, Houghton Hall, Kingsbury Water, Exmouth, and Dunstable Downs.  The LFR tourists were getting the first of the parkrun compass at the sliippy, slidey trail run at the lakes of Westmill parkrun.  And continuing her parkrun tour, this week Ceilia was at Albert parkrun in Melbourne!  Albert Park is part of the Formula 1 Circuit - 200m of the run was on the track!   At home in Rushmere, following his incredible 10K PB at Winslow last week, Tom bagged himself a parkrun PB of 19.47, his first sub-20 at Rushmere.  Also running Rushmere PBs were Emily and David.  Great running, guys! Marathon and half marathon training has stepped up for many members this week, getting big miles in the legs.  Superb efforts.  Some shout outs:  Amos and Caroline who ran to Dunstable Downs, completed the parkrun, and then ran back!  Emily, James and Colin out on a training run running a half marathon and Emily running a half PB; Team Turner getting 18 miles in on a canal out and back; and Adam who ran his first ever half distance along the streets of Leighton Buzzard.  Great efforts! We even had the LFR Cycling Division out on training rides this weekend struggling through the wind and rain.  And missing the storm completely, Karen was showing off the LFR colours on her bike in  sunny Cuba!   If cycling is something you're interested in, don't forget to join LFR's cycling specific Facebook Group: LFR Cycling Division.  This is an additional Facebook Group solely for LFR members who have an interest in cycling for all cycling related chatter to keep this separate from our main Facebook group.  This is not a new group for LFR members.  We also have a dedicated section on the LFR Website to showcase all our multisport activities, currently this includes cycling and core training.  Have a look at what we've been up to!  If you're not sure why some of the club have an interest in cycling, or unsure as to how it compliments our running, you can read this blog all about it:  Multisport For Running Longevity   It was also a week of races.  Hold on tight, there's a few to get through... Jo and Fiona were at race three of the Stowe Winter Trail series.  Fiona ran a 5 second PB and over the three race series for the 6K came in 5th place overall!  Well done, Fiona! Steve completed the Cambridge Half Marathon. Gill , Julie and Anne took a break from the LFR standard of running for cake and this week were running for chocolate at a 5K and 10K in Milton Keynes.  Chocolate themed bling and a chocolate filled goodie bag - why are we not all doing this? Anna was battling the brunt of Storm Freya at the Eastbourne Half Marathon. Team LFR took on the neverending hills of the Berkhamsted Half Marathon and Five Mile Fun Run - hills are fun, see...  Will, the other Will, Kevin and Jen ran the Five Mile.   Matt, Vicky, Nicki, Katharine and Jenny took on the half with Katharine and Jenny running a 10 minute half marathon PB on only their second half marathon - a hillier one at that.  Well done all!  And finally the trail loving ultra heroes were out in force at the LDWA Chiltern Kanter - a 26 mile trail run starting and finishing in Pitstone.  For those who do not know, the Kanter is plotting 30 grid references onto a OS Map and following the route as best you can.  Mark, Ian, JK, Paul, Emma B, Charlotte, Emma D, Wes, Helen, Glyn and a couple LFR friends took on the challenge and all came out the other side without getting lost.  Incredible work in the wind and rain. That's all for this week.  Happy running, LFR!

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This is the week…we elected a new committee!

AGMThe big news of this week was our AGM where we have some new members joining our committee and where we chose the club’s charity for the coming year.   Look out for the AGM minutes which will be published on the LFR website. New CommitteeLeaving the committee this year are Alice Moseley, Carrie Tyas, Neil Warby and Jane Crighton.  Thank you so much for your contributions to the committee and the club.  We are all extremely grateful for all that you have done and continue to do. Also leaving the committee is Rob Laughton as Chair. A huge thank you to Rob for his commitment to the club during his time on the committee as Captain and Chair.  He has a busy year of personal goals ahead of him - best of luck.  We can't wait to hear all about it! We have some continuing members and some new members to LFR’s Committee.  Staying on in the roles are: Sandra Dunsterville - Secretary;  Dan Green - Captain;  Jennifer Garner - Communications;  Lindsey Rigby - Kit; Max Marshall - Events & Fundraising; Matt Gilbert - Coach.  Joining the committee we have:  Andrew Heale - Treasurer; James Smith - Vice Captain; Caroline Mann - Membership.  Joining our coaching team are Kevin Hare and Annis Turner. And of course moving into a new role on the committee is our former treasurer and now Chair, Steve Ellerton. Welcome all!  The website will be updated in due course with confirmation of the above. CharityThe club charity for 2018/19 was Brain Tumour Research and LFR are making a donation to them of £6,308.  We are also making a donation of £250 to Clic Sargent  in recognition of the help we receive from Morrisons when putting on LFR runs and events.  Clic Sargent are Morrisons’ nominated charity.  Well done everyone this year on helping to raise these funds! Finally….we are delighted to announce that the club’s chosen charity for 2019/20 is Reclaim Life, a charity based in Leighton Buzzard.  Reclaim Life offer five free sessions of life coaching to local residents using the Human Givens approach to promoting emotional wellbeing. Their volunteer life coaches offer practical help to deal with mental and emotional distress in the here and now, enabling clients to move on in their life as quickly as possible. Life coaching is an effective way to: Reduce anxiety Break the cycle of depression Treat psychological trauma Manage anger Stop addictive behaviour Relieve medical conditions Harmonise relationships   They receive no NHS funding and all their life coaches are volunteers.  It costs them approximately £80 to see each client.   Any donations they receive would be used for everyday running costs which are funded solely from donations and their own fundraising events.  You can view full information about Reclaim Life on their website.  And after all that…..we still managed some running this week… We had our usual club runs and adventures in a week of glorious sunshine which carried on to the weekend.  parkrun day saw 17 LFRs head over to the inaugural Dunstable Downs parkrun – another great local parkrun to add to the list!  We also had LFRs at Cardiff, Milton Keynes, Linford Wood, Colney Lane, Sedgefield, Houghton Hall, Watermeadows and of course Rushmere.  We also had Celia furthest afield with the best parkrun name of the year so far –Lake Joondalup.  Wonderful.  We even had some PBs at home in Rushmere this week from Jamie and David – great running, guys! It was another weekend full of events:  Glyn was taking a break from Wainwright bagging, getting a marathon in instead at the AGM marathon;  Sally was at the flat and sunny Hollingdon Half; and Team Ellerton were flying the LFR flag at the Winslow 10K where Tom bagged himself an incredible PB of 39:48.  Chair Steve: “I was less fast, but handed out more flyers for our 10K than him” – the father/son rivalry is strong.  We also had training runs aplenty: Kelly and Laura were running their furthest distance again hitting 11.36 miles, all in training for their first half marathon.  Well done, ladies!  And Team LFR were at the 17 mile training run put on by Gade Valley Harriers.  And finally the Captain took a group out this week to recce the new 10K route in Long Marston.  The race is open for entries by LFR members and the general public.  If you fancy a brand new 10K – come for a run! Enter now here: Leighton 10K Entries  That’s all for this week.  Happy running!

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This is the week that was…LFR’s Birthday!

…LFR’s birthday!  Picture the scene.  14th February 1983.  Valentine’s evening.  In a Leighton Buzzard pub.  It’s cold.  It’s dark.  A group of men meet up to celebrate the day and their passion…for running.  Leighton Fun Runners was founded there and then and here we are today.  36 years later.  A club of over 300 members.  Who still enjoy going to the pub.  And what were our 300 members up to this week…. We had our usual week day club runs with a couple of visitors from Ampthill and Flitwick trying out LFR's Fartlek; members were out all week and weekend on training runs, rides and swims, parkruns; other members in the gym or eating scones.  Great work, LFR.   Shout outs this week to Kelly and Laura who ran their furthest distance to date this week in training for their first half marathon.  You’ve got this ladies! We also had members out at various events... Peter was at the Windsor Half Marathon.  Jason, Jane, Claire, Chris, Katy, Gill, Julie, Jane and Chris were all at the MK Winter Warmer 10K on Sunday.  Katy was trying out her fried egg outfit.  She’ll be wearing this at the London Marathon in April attempting a Guinness World Record to add to LFR’s list (ask Chris T for more details)! Cross country season is not quite over for Team LFR who were out taking on the mud, river crossings, mud, bog, hills, more river crossings at the Hardwick XStream.  Great running, team!  And to remind ourselves why we love running mud and water so much, have a read of Captain Dan's blog post all about the latest cross country season: Mud Glorious MudThat’s all for this week… See you all at the AGM on Friday!

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Mud Glorious Mud

Mud glorious Mud (or lack of it until this week!!! I feel sad today as my favourite events have finished for another year, Cross Country is the best thing ever, there’s a run, there’s tea, there’s rolls, there’s cake but most of the amazing team spirit and great fun that LFR bring to each and every race. We were by far the noisiest team attending the Three Counties Competition even though we were outnumbered by the Athletics Clubs and uber serious runners. We saw in excess of 25 turnout at each Three Counties race, a dozen at the County Championships and a boat load at Hardwick Xstream. We didn’t get wet apart from the water crossing at Wellingborough and felt let down by the lack water at Hughendon Park where apparently it dried up months ago! They need to learn to build a Dam like Wellingborough did to make sure it was deep enough. Then quite a few of us took on Hardwick for the first time, where just the five proper river crossings including one where you held a rope to get across, were on the route! This year we travelled to Dunstable for race 1 and took on Heartbreak Hill from the opposite direction (which totally confused me) and the great disappointment at only seeing 1 burnt out car! What is going on, is the Town becoming more upmarket! On a personal note, I was injured and limped home (nothing gets in the way of XC). Race 2 took us to a new HQ at Wellingborough but the same old streams and challenging hilly course, but as ever we gave it everything. Race 3 was the usual pre-Christmas turkey sandwiches and mince pies at Standalone Farm, where we enjoyed more success and from what I recall was a rather dry course littered with LFR’s in santa hats. We travelled to Hughendon Park for the County Championships on the first Saturday in Jan (with plenty of additional weight under those belts thanks to Christmas). It was dry but great fun cheering everyone on and stuffing down cake. Ampthill Great Park saw the charge of the LFR brigade taking on the brutal hills and technical woodland areas of race 4 in the Three Counties league, they sure know how to hurt us but they never broke us! The final race was at Wooton with just the one small hill (twice) and very slippery technical wooded areas (yes I slipped over but never lost a place!) was a fabulous way to finish the league. Then came Hardwick Xstream, a corker of a local race, plenty of water, a bog, a hill and great views all in one REAL cross country race. It was all worth it for the Horse brass, to see Graham and Fiona cross the line together and Jane (with hat) actually running through mud and water. If you only run one race next year, make it this one.   Thank you to all those clubs for hosting the events this year, we loved nearly every minute of it. If it wasn’t for these people it wouldn’t have even happened Thanks to Jane and Tam for organising the whole Three Counties League for the 2nd year running and to Rob for his magic on the website. Thanks to Max, Claire, Tracy and Steph for looking after us and ensuring we were in the right place at the right time and for counting us back with a smile and a cheer. Thanks to Will for the evidence of how much pain (Matt) or joy (Celia, Sally, Anna and Lorraine) running actually bring us. We stand and applaud you all for making the whole thing possible. I know we do it for fun (and CAKE) but there are always a few bits of bling about to remind us of our achievements:   Three Counties Chris Ayers 1st FV65 The Ladies came 6th Overall which compared to last years 11th place is just phenominal The Gents came 8th Overall which compared to last years 12th place is just incredible The overall team rose up from 12th last year to 8th this year!   County Championships Mens Veterans Team were 2nd (Dan, Steve, Kevin, Andy, Chris, James) Andy 3rd MV50 Dan 3rd MV40 Paul Thomas 1st MV70 Janice 2nd FV50 Chris 1st FV65 It was such a fab season and I hope you’ll all be with us next year (when we may even be hosting a race again) to show once again what a club we are GO LFR

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This is the week that was…

….a busy weekend of runs! The calendar is filling up with many races and events with LFRs everywhere showing off the red and black.  David, Fiona and Jo were at the second Stoke Winter Trail Run.  Julie came third in her age category at a wet Welwyn 10K.  Mother and daughter duo Stephanie and Annis bagged their first medal of the year dashing for doughnuts at the Phoenix Doughnut Dash Half Marathon.  Medals look tasty, ladies! And the trail loving ultra-heroes were back in action at the LDWA Devil’s Punchbowl.  30 miles of mud and hills from Helen, Wes, Emma, JK, Ian (who had man flu) and Paul.  Superb efforts on a challenging route and day.  This all followed a cracking week of club runs, parkrun and training runs from our members including Charlotte and Emma back running completing 19 miles of windy trails on Saturday; Jane, Jason, Barbara, Glynn and Caroline running the Leighton 10 route; Ceila being the furthest LFR away at the East Coast parkrun in Singapore; and Becs and Sandra trying out the fitness equipment at Astral Park.  Look out for the next one!  It’s a free workout for your cross training needs and a great way of meeting other club members.   Shout out this week to Andrew Heale.  He was awarded two medals from last months’ cross country championship race (the below also received medals) AND he won the cake night raffle taking home a bottle of wine.   Sounds like a great night! That’s all for this week.  Happy Running, LFR!

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This is the week that was….snow!

The small flurry of snow we had this week caused schools to be closed on Friday, our own Friday morning run was called off, parkruns everywhere on Saturday were cancelled, the Watford Half Marathon on Sunday was cancelled as was the club’s recce of the new 10K route.  It was incredibly icy out there! This made for a very busy Rushmere parkrun on Saturday with many of the other local parkruns cancelled.  A massive 41 LFRs made their way for their parkrun fix in the snow.  Tough going, I hear, but beautiful around the trees. There were plenty of snowy adventures over the week and weekend:  James and his Bearded Buddy were like big kids in the snow;  the LFR ladies incorporated parkrun in their long run; the two Pauls, the two Marks and Verity made their way for 13 miles around Wendover woods – they even had time to build a snowman; JK, Fiona, Caroline, Christine, Stephen and David all had a social run around Rushmere (with some continuing to get their long runs in); and there were some massive distances put in over the weekend with marathon and half marathon training in full swing.  Excellent running, everyone.  Some events were not cancelled due to the ice.  Gill made her way to London for the Cancer Research 10K Winter Run and had a superb race, beating her time from last year by four minutes! Ian was flying solo with a fantastic effort at the Grizedale Trail Marathon in the Lake District: -4 degrees.  1312m elevation.  Brilliant running! Earlier in the week we had our usual club runs – a shout out to Clare who is taking part in the coaches’ 5-10K course in training for her first 10K (at LFR’s own Leighton 10K, obviously).  She ran her furthest ever distance so far!  Keep going, Clare!  All those members not down to volunteer, why not join her at our 10K – we are open for LFR entries…! Enter now here:  Leighton 10K ! That’s all for this week! Stay safe.  Happy running, LFR!

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This is the week that was…the final race of the Cross Country Season!

On a cold, cold Sunday morning, 27 LFRs made it to Wootton to finish the season in style!  We had the best turn out we’ve ever had this season resulting in the Ladies team finish 6th, the Mens team 8th, with an overall team position of 7th.  The best ever for LFR!  Well done everyone who took part this season.  We could not have done it without you.                                                                                                                                                  We even had a trophy with Chris winning her age category.  Fantastic efforts, Chris.  A big thank you to the support team of Claire, Max, Tracy and Steph who made it race by race to cheer everyone through the mud.   Another thank you to Will for all the great photos of each event.  These are on our Facebook Group under Albums.  For the last two seasons, LFR have been hosting the league which means we were in charge of organising everything: the numbers, scoring, dealing with all the clubs, all the runners….everything.  And the website – thanks to Chair Rob for being our Web Magician.  Jane is our XC Coordinator and a massive thank you and well done goes to her for all the hard work she has put in the last two seasons.  It is not an easy job.  And a thank you to Tam who helped Jane with the huge amount of work that went into making the season another success.  The hosting duties now pass to another club for the 2019/20 season.  We just need to run!   What a fantastic end to cold week where we had a new club run doing loops round Appenine Way; Emily running herself a 9 second PB at Wendover Woods parkrun (after running her longest run to date the previous day!); Jason, Gill, Jane, Kirsty, Clare and Julie becoming Vikings for the day at the Viking 5K in Milton Keynes; James in Warsaw; Emma spending a day at the movies running another marathon; Glyn Wainwright bagging; Mike flying the LFR multisport flag at the Ashridge Duathlon; Michelle, Chris, Dawn, Barbara, Paul L, Elle and Adam all completing the first of the Gade Valley Training Runs; and Andy winning photo of the week with this work of art: And on top of that we had runners out on all their long and short training runs in the cold, in the sun and even some hail. What a week! Happy Running, LFR!

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This is the week that was…

Our pace groups returned on Tuesday with everyone enjoying their runs about the town and Ian’s headtorch run through the woods.  Shout out to Gavin’s 09.30 min/mile group creating a chicken map on their run… Pace group leaders – I challenge you to beat this at the club’s next group night (Tuesday 29th January).  The excitement is too much. Janice was leading the Fartlek Fun on Wednesday, James took the Improvers up “The Hill of Pleasure” (Eden Way) on Thursday and Peter led a social trail run with the boys on Friday followed by some amazing coffee and cake.                                                       A big thank you as usual to all our pace group leaders and run leaders during the week.  We are always looking for more run leaders, so if you’d like to lead a pace group, be in charge of Wednesday’s Whistle of Pain, help improve the Improvers or fancy showing the Friday morning gang one of your social routes, let the Captain or Vice-Captain know! On parkrun day we had members running at Milton Keynes, Houghton Hall, Kingsbury Water, Buckingham, Tring, Exmouth, Wendover and Len still flying the LFR flag in Canada at the Richmond Olympic parkrun.  At home in Rushmere we had a massive 28 LFRs running round with Doug, Richard and Katharine bagging themselves PBs! There was racing aplenty at the weekend, even in the cold and ice..... Fiona, Celia and Sally made their way to the Beautiful Stowe Winter Trail 6K.  07.30am.  -3.   Wow. Claire, Jane and Nikki were taking on the cold and the hills at the Fred Hughes 10 Mile Race. The biggest LFR event of the weekend was of course our Watchless 5!  For anyone who doesn’t know by now, you predict what time you'll run 5 miles and the winner is the closest to finish at 11.30am. No watches allowed!  Our winner was the amazing Katy who came in at 11.29.30!  30 seconds quicker than predicted!  Superb.      A massive well done to all who took part – we had a fantastic turnout.  You can view the full results (together with the results from previous years) on our website here: Watchless 5 Results.  A HUGE thank you to our Captain Dan for organising and the volunteers for giving up their Sunday morning to stand in the cold.  It was bitter!  And finally….the ultra runners were at it again on Sunday running 30 miles around the Surrey Hills in the cold, but getting some incredible views.  JK, Verity and Ian took on the LDWA Winter Tanners with just under 4,000 feet of ascent.  JK was suffering with a sore ankle, but Ian and Verity were his nurses for the day.  They always stick together.   That view.  Isn’t it ridiculous. That’s all for this week.  Happy Running, LFR!

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This is the week that was…

...still 2019 and our first full week of club runs following the festive period.  We had a huge turnout for our first 5caKe night of the year with some great runs and happy runners.  Shout out to Claire who ran her first sub 40-minute 5K!  Karen led the first Fartlek of the year, Captain Dan put on a taster session of all things Improvers on Thursday and Karen was back leading again for the Friday morning run. On parkrun day we had LFR parkrun tourists everywhere at Bedford, Milton Keynes, Northampton (where Chris and Dave were made famous on Facebook!), Linford Wood (where David ran a new PB!), Houghton Hall (where Adam feeling good ran a parkrun PB and Coach Matt was 2nd overall and 1st in his age category!), Kingsbury Water, Fulham Palace, Maidenhead, Exmouth, Great Denham, Jersey Farm and all the way over in Canada, Len at Richmond Olympic!  Phew....I think that's it! At home in Rushmere, Andrew, Jamie and Jim all finished in the top 10 in 2nd, 4th and 9th respectively.   Captain Dan ran a Bear in the Buggy PB and Matthew and Richard also ran themselves PBs.  Great work, fellas! All weekend we had runners out doing their thing from Laura running solo loops at Astral Park getting a 5K PB to the trail kings, JK and Ian, meeting the Gruffalo out on their Saturday run around Wendover Woods - 1300ft of ascent over 9.7 miles.  They do love their hills! The week ended with Race 4 of the Three Counties Cross Country League at Ampthill.  We had 29 runners.  The Ladies finishing 6th in the league, the men in at 9th and overall we're 7th!  Excellent!  Massive thank you to the organising team (for the whole league I should add) of Tam, Tracy, Steph and Max (and Jane - even though she had to miss this week, she's still the XC Champion!) The final race of the league is on Sunday 27th January at Wootton.  If you'd like to join in the horde of LFR running the final race, it's not too late to join in....email Jane with your date of birth and she'll get you registered so you can run! And a huge well done to all our runners on what looked a really tough course.  Check out these faces of pain... That's all for this week.  Happy Running, LFR!

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