Transmetropolitan

Transmetropolitan


Hello again!

The thing about running, and this is even more true if you're training conscientiously for a marathon, is that if you're going to do it properly, then you're going to have to cover a lot of ground. A lot, though. And if you're not a total masochist and you don't want to spend hours running around a track and/or slogging it out on a treadmill in the gym, then you've necessarily got to think about where you're going to get those miles from.

That might sound ludicrous, considering the size of the planet and the thousands of miles of roads and trails out there to be run on. But in practice, when I start looking to seriously get the miles in, that's when I realise what a small place I live in and how I've actually got to do a certain amount of planning to find those miles somewhere.

I live in the city of Oviedo, which has a population of about 215,000 people. Most of these live in flats, so in fact the surface area covered by the city is actually quite small, especially when compared to cities and towns of a similar size in England, where even a small-to-medium-sized town sprawls for miles and miles.

Oviedo Town Hall

Oviedo Cathedral

La Plaza de la Escandalera, and the Campoamor theatre

Take Southport, Merseyside, as an example. Every year I spend the month of July there, or at least I have done for the last five years, as I take a group of teenagers over for a month-long summer course. It has around 85,000 inhabitants, yet the place is, by Spanish standards, pretty enormous.

Marine Drive, Southport: it goes on for miles!

Running there is a completely different matter, because apart from from being practically pancake-flat (which helps), there are simply more and longer roads to run on without having to do endless loops and/or repeat the same route day after day. There are also the sands, and the dunes, and the pine forest, and a great trail hugging the coast all the way down to Liverpool. 

The Sefton Coastal Path: run all the way to Liverpool, then get the train back! 

In fact, I'd say it was the perfect place for a runner to live if it wasn't semi-permanently battered by gale-force winds...still, you can't have everything, I suppose. Here's an example of a route I did there - 9 miles with no multiple laps or criss-crossing, and yet still only going round the northerrn part of town.

Because essentially what I find myself having to do in Oviedo is a variation of the same old route, day in, day out. For shorter runs, such as those I'm doing at this time of year, it's not really a problem. I can choose to go up to the city centre, do a couple of loops up there and then head down again, or I can go down to the northern suburbs of the city, which is a flatter option, but frankly, it's a bit grim down there. Plus there's the psychological drawback of having to do the last couple of miles uphill.

Even then, on a run of 5-6 miles I still find myself doing little loops of 500m-1km to make up the mileage. This is mainly because I hate the idea of doing a straight out-and-back route and anyway it's not really practical here, given the terrain in some cases and the heavy traffic in others.

But when I'm in full-on marathon training mode, and doing a run of 13-15 miles on a Wednesday and one of 18-22 miles on a Sunday, I really do have to go from one end of the city to the other and do various laps and loops, all geared at my doing the last couple of miles gently downhill back to my house. Compare this route to the one above...

So it's a good job I've got a GPS watch. It tells me how far I've gone, how long I've been going, what pace I'm doing, my heart rate and number of calories burnt. When I get home, I leave it near the laptop and jump in the shower. When I get out, all the data from the workout has automatically been uploaded to the two online running logs I use, with a map of where I've been, altitude data and more.

When I started running, I used a simple Casio watch that had a stopwatch. This was plenty initially, but as I progressed and did longer distances I wanted to have some tangible evidence of improvement, apart from a disappearing beer belly, of course. Also, I needed to have some idea of how far I was running. I then got a Polar heart rate monitor, which I thought was really great at the time - it was dead easy to use and had all sorts of lap functions, eliminating the need to carry all sorts of figures in my head as I'd had to hitherto.

To calculate the distance, I used to sit down in front of the computer before a run and plot the distance manually on a map. This could often take forever and was generally a really frustrating experience. The real drawback, however, was that then I had to stick exactly to the pre-ordained route...if I could remember it, that is!

The turning point came in the 2009 Bilbao Night Marathon. I was in really good shape, feeling great, and just generally going along very nicely, thank you, when at around 14 miles (23 kms) I realised that the kilometre markers didn't reflect the true distance: some kms were way too long, some way too short. It dawned on me that here I was, nearly two hours into a marathon, with absolutely no notion of whether I was going well or badly, in terms of the goal of sub 3:05 I'd set myself. I felt o.k. physically (not for long - read on...) but suddenly I was overwhelmed by a disorientated sensation, and to be honest, things went a bit pear-shaped from there on in. I finished in 3:08, but not before having all manner of stomach problems, leading to what is probably my worst and most humiliating experience in any race. Twice. In front of a group of young, female spectators, both times. But that's a story for another day...

Bilbao, 2009: no wonder I crossed my legs for that photo...

"Get yourself a Garmin!" was the subsequent cry from all my running buddies, so, taking advantage of an incredibly well-timed special offer, I bought a Garmin Forerunner 305. It is not an exaggeration to say that it changed my running forever, although disappointingly it failed to address the stomach-related issues.

What I noticed immediately was the feeling of freedom. Now I could go wherever I wanted on the spur of the moment (I'm back to talking about running, by the way, not about my stomach), and although it has a great number of brilliant functions, the overriding thing is how it essentially sets you free to explore the world out there at will. It's not absolutely 100% accurate, but it's as near as dammit, and as long as you steer clear of tunnels, it maintains the satellite signal pretty consistently.

The 305 model was, with the benefit of hindsight, dreadfully clunky, and when it finally gave up the ghost after three years of loyal, steadfast service, I upgraded to my current 310xt. There are swankier models available, but on the one hand they are staggeringly pricey, and on the other, the data fields are so small, I couldn't possibly read them while I was running, such is my dodgy eyesight close up these days.

Even I can read that!

I am definitely getting fitter. My running has been fairly unspectacular of late, but it has at least shown a promising level of constancy and commitment. Without fail, five days a week, including a longer effort on a Sunday - that's the thing at the moment, as I ease my body back into something approaching the level of fitness required for anyone with pretensions to starting a serious marathon campaign with a degree of confidence.

Last Sunday I managed just over 10 miles, 16.2 kms in fact, for a total of 30.75 miles (49.5kms). Actually, I have to admit something a bit shameful.

The building where I live, with Monte Naranco in the background

I finished, as always, at the park opposite my house, and on looking at my watch, saw that I had done a total of 9.98 miles. This was obviously unacceptable so I ran round the drinking fountain a few times to get over the 10-mile mark. Is that normal behaviour, I wonder?

Excitingly, I have entered a race, the Cross Popular Villa de Gijón, which a) is not a cross(-country) at all and b) takes place on Sunday 29th November. It's over a distance of 12 kms, and there's always a great atmosphere surrounding it. I've done it 5 or 6 times in the past, and have a PB of 46:10, from 2010. I won't be getting anywhere near that this year - let me make that abundantly clear from the outset - but I will use it as a benchmark as to exactly where my fitness is at.

Well, more about this race and my painstaking preparations for it next week. As always, thanks very much for reading.

Now more than ever, keep safe and well, friends, until we meet again.

Bye for now!



Transmetropolitan