Well after the high of the Great Manchester Run I decided I'd spend the week sitting on sette instead of running! A bit of a poor show but in my defence I did use the week to donate a pint of blood which probably would have meant training would only have ended in disaster!
Speaking of disasters, Bramhall Rangers lost again...
Andy
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Great Manchester Run Special!
Well hello. A special report for the day of the Great Manchester Run 2005. For those short on time, the end result is below...
Final Result
Name Time Pos. (Race)
Andrew Shirres 00:45:20 1158
Overall Results (excluding elite and disabled althletes)
Name Pos. (Search)
Andrew Shirres 825 out of 12881
Results for Male ages 20-29
Name Pos. (Search)
Andrew Shirres 275 out of 2133
For those with a bit more time, the full story started on Saturday! Waking up early for the excitement of FA Cup final day I decided to pack my back. It was at this point I realised that I'd lost my number and microchip for recording the time! After tearing the flat to bits, I came to the conclusion that in one of my rare tidying up spree's, I must have thrown it in the bin!!!!!!! Disaster!!!!!!!!
With only two hours to kick off, I had to get into Manchester, confess to my stupidity to the Great Run officials and hope they took a sympathetic view. Thankfully it seems that they expect a certain number of people like me every year, so I got a replacement number and managed to get back with half hour to spare in time to watch the FA Cup final.
The big race day arrived and the atmosphere was fantastic! The excitement and camaraderie was something else, and as the wave I was in approached the start line the crowd reached fever pitch. A quick song from the Halle orchestra and we were away!
The first 400m were at walking pace, some people pretended to jog, but me and Mark, just walked. An overtaking lane somehow developed and we quickly got in that. However with all the crowd progress was slower than I would have liked.
As I passed the Museum of Science and Industry, I overtook two army recruits. My pride in out running two of Britain's finest, was short lived when I realised that they were carrying fully loaded backpacks! As Mark and me were heading towards Old Trafford on Bridgewater Way, we caught up with one of my friends known as Pie. He'd started off in the wave in front, so I knew we were going at a good pace!
There were a few pinch points around the course where track narrowed and people bunched and overtaking was impossible. As we were leaving Old Trafford on the return leg, Mark and I managed to get in the wake of wheel chair athlete as he carved his way through the crowd! A great idea if you can manage it but as this part of the course was mainly down hill, keeping up with him became too much of a challenge and we were left to battle it out with the masses. Somewhere around here we overtook another friend of mine called Mini though I didn't see him sadly.
Next was the home straight on Deansgate and any thought of a sprint finish quickly evaporated with the huge crush developing ahead. I crossed the line in a bit of a daze from the run as it turned out I'd managed to put in a personal best!. A big credit has to go to my running partner Mark for much of the race, who in the last kilometre, despite getting a broken rib on Easter week and having to miss 7 weeks worth of training, managed to come back and finish first out of our group in an incredible time of 44:33
A big group picture of those of us who managed to meet at the end is below...
Big Pete, Me, Mini, Pie!
Andy
Final Result
Name Time Pos. (Race)
Andrew Shirres 00:45:20 1158
Overall Results (excluding elite and disabled althletes)
Name Pos. (Search)
Andrew Shirres 825 out of 12881
Results for Male ages 20-29
Name Pos. (Search)
Andrew Shirres 275 out of 2133
For those with a bit more time, the full story started on Saturday! Waking up early for the excitement of FA Cup final day I decided to pack my back. It was at this point I realised that I'd lost my number and microchip for recording the time! After tearing the flat to bits, I came to the conclusion that in one of my rare tidying up spree's, I must have thrown it in the bin!!!!!!! Disaster!!!!!!!!
With only two hours to kick off, I had to get into Manchester, confess to my stupidity to the Great Run officials and hope they took a sympathetic view. Thankfully it seems that they expect a certain number of people like me every year, so I got a replacement number and managed to get back with half hour to spare in time to watch the FA Cup final.
The big race day arrived and the atmosphere was fantastic! The excitement and camaraderie was something else, and as the wave I was in approached the start line the crowd reached fever pitch. A quick song from the Halle orchestra and we were away!
The first 400m were at walking pace, some people pretended to jog, but me and Mark, just walked. An overtaking lane somehow developed and we quickly got in that. However with all the crowd progress was slower than I would have liked.
As I passed the Museum of Science and Industry, I overtook two army recruits. My pride in out running two of Britain's finest, was short lived when I realised that they were carrying fully loaded backpacks! As Mark and me were heading towards Old Trafford on Bridgewater Way, we caught up with one of my friends known as Pie. He'd started off in the wave in front, so I knew we were going at a good pace!
There were a few pinch points around the course where track narrowed and people bunched and overtaking was impossible. As we were leaving Old Trafford on the return leg, Mark and I managed to get in the wake of wheel chair athlete as he carved his way through the crowd! A great idea if you can manage it but as this part of the course was mainly down hill, keeping up with him became too much of a challenge and we were left to battle it out with the masses. Somewhere around here we overtook another friend of mine called Mini though I didn't see him sadly.
Next was the home straight on Deansgate and any thought of a sprint finish quickly evaporated with the huge crush developing ahead. I crossed the line in a bit of a daze from the run as it turned out I'd managed to put in a personal best!. A big credit has to go to my running partner Mark for much of the race, who in the last kilometre, despite getting a broken rib on Easter week and having to miss 7 weeks worth of training, managed to come back and finish first out of our group in an incredible time of 44:33
A big group picture of those of us who managed to meet at the end is below...
Big Pete, Me, Mini, Pie!
Andy
Training for week commencing 15/05/2005
Well it is the last week of training before the Great Manchester Run, so took it easy to save myself for the big race day! I got one 10k in and one 6.2k. Bramhall Rangers managed another loss, and a disappointing one which we could have won. Anyway the Saturday before the race I felt great!
10km
15/05 - 48:35
6.2km
18/05 - 26:18
The total distance I've now run in training is up to 184.2km.
10km
15/05 - 48:35
6.2km
18/05 - 26:18
The total distance I've now run in training is up to 184.2km.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Training for week commencing 08/05/2005
A good weeks worth of training, involving two 10K runs (both personal bests!), one 6.2K and.... yet another loss for Bramhall Rangers :( It seems that the better I get at running the worse the team performs. Well it's either that or we were always rubbish. I was trying to get a full three 10K runs in but I just didn't have enough time on Saturday, but still it was about the best weeks training I've had, so can't complain.
10km
08/05 - 48:16
11/05 - 47:52 - New Personal Best!!!!!
6.2km
14/05 - 26:12
I got a stitch on all of these runs which is worring... did a bit of research and came across the following web site. A few good suggestions for how to deal with this which I'll try out and see what happens.
The total distance I've now run in training is up to 168km, which is roughly equivalent of the distance between Stockport and Thirsk! Now that's a long way.
Andy
10km
08/05 - 48:16
11/05 - 47:52 - New Personal Best!!!!!
6.2km
14/05 - 26:12
I got a stitch on all of these runs which is worring... did a bit of research and came across the following web site. A few good suggestions for how to deal with this which I'll try out and see what happens.
The total distance I've now run in training is up to 168km, which is roughly equivalent of the distance between Stockport and Thirsk! Now that's a long way.
Andy
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Training for week commencing 01/05/2005
What a fantastic week of training. Two runs, two personal bests over two different distances, nearly good enough to write a film about eh... OK then, maybe not... The good thing was that the personal bests were smashed. It's as if I've somehow come back from injury fitter. Don't understand the science but I'm not complaining. The only thing I could put it down to would be the vast quantities of performance enhancining Guinness that I've drunk over the past month!
6.2km
03/05 - 25:53 - New Personal Best!!!!
10km
07/05 - 48:52 - New Personal Best!!!!
This run was the first wet weather run I've done so far (I've been very lucky I know). The trainers held up really well and let very little water in, and thankfully with it stopping after 15 minutes (it was really belting it down for the 15 though) it meant that I wasn't sweating like crazy by the end.
After this weeks training, the total distance I've now run in training is up to 141.8km.
Andy
6.2km
03/05 - 25:53 - New Personal Best!!!!
10km
07/05 - 48:52 - New Personal Best!!!!
This run was the first wet weather run I've done so far (I've been very lucky I know). The trainers held up really well and let very little water in, and thankfully with it stopping after 15 minutes (it was really belting it down for the 15 though) it meant that I wasn't sweating like crazy by the end.
After this weeks training, the total distance I've now run in training is up to 141.8km.
Andy
Monday, May 02, 2005
Training for week commencing 24/04/2005
Well a solid week of training thanks to a full recovery on the calf front. It was good to finally get a full weeks training in and it felt great to be back in the swing of it again. This weeks training included three runs and a footy match. The footy match was an incredibly physical affair with the ref putting in a very weak performance. It got so bad both teams were just blatantly hacking each other down towards the end! Anyway, below is this weeks results
6.2km
25/04 - 28:10
27/04 - 27:14
10km
02/04 - 54:37
The time wasn't the greatest, but the main thing was to get the distance in. It also provided me with my fourth lesson:
Lesson 4: Don't wear a sweatshirt with an embroided logo on the front. If you do, and run a long distance like 10km, your likely to end up with a bad case of joggers nipple... and it hurts!
After this weeks training, the total distance I've now run in training is up to 125.6km.
Andy
6.2km
25/04 - 28:10
27/04 - 27:14
10km
02/04 - 54:37
The time wasn't the greatest, but the main thing was to get the distance in. It also provided me with my fourth lesson:
Lesson 4: Don't wear a sweatshirt with an embroided logo on the front. If you do, and run a long distance like 10km, your likely to end up with a bad case of joggers nipple... and it hurts!
After this weeks training, the total distance I've now run in training is up to 125.6km.
Andy
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