parbold hill, running to the top

wed 16


steady run round parbold and harrock hill on the road.4 big hills plus many smaller ones,finished with the famous parbold hill.
felt stiff at first but started feeling better as i got tnto the run.started with the climb up stoney lane,this is very steep at the bottom and again near the top with a steady uphill in the middle.next i ran the road loop round to harrock hill,this is great fun a roller coaster ride up and down some gentle hills,i worked at maintaining my speed up each rise then flowing down hill picking up speed. i take a left turn and head up harrock hill a short steep climb up the tree lined lane.a very steep down hill follows and then i head onwards along a flatter road before turning onto jackson lane and the start of the infamous hunters hill, gentle climbing leads into a very steep second half of the climb,i work at maintaining a high knee lift and fast leg turn over.as i reach the summit i start to sprint over the crest to pick up maximum mountain points,this climb is used by many local cycle clubs for hill climb championships and the tour of lancs has come over this hill in the past,you can still see the white line painted on the road marking the top of the climb.i head back down stoney lane at speed then climb up parbold hill,the steepest part is in the middle just past the church,slowing down to 5 mph before i start picking up my speed as the hill easies towards the top,a final sprint and i reach the top.a quick glance at the panaonic views before a quick dash back down to the village. = 1.27
photo one; parbold hill; the long slog starts
photo two; almost at the top

run with niz in the evening,club run =44 mins

thur 17
leg speed session =37 mins

fri 18
easy run with niz over the sandhills, very mild today after the morning rain. felt good to be out.taking it easy because of the four villages half marathon on sunday.

running joke

A marathon runner was on his last legs and had about a third of a mile to go to the finish line. He decided to put one last bit of effort in and sprint across the finish line. As he sprinted along the final stretch, he saw two packets of crisps just in front walking their way to the finish line. He shouted across to them "come on guys join me in a sprint finish" and theyreplied"No thanks we're Walkers!

velvet trail

nice easy run round the velvet trail with mad dog tess.the sand has now become firm after all the rain of late and offers an ideal surface to train on. i have a great loop round here which i sometimes use as a long tempo effort . each lap takes about 10 mins and inc 4 big sandhills and many smaller ones. fantastic training for my favorite hilly races later in the year.
i have always liked running on hills and when i first got into cycle racing we use to go on the club run out over the trough of bowland and into yorkshire. i found my self staying with the leading group on the long climbs and it felt fantastic to be hanging on to the likes of bill bradley ex milk race winner,behind riders were dropping back,from a group of 20 we were down to just 4.as we crested the hill i felt like a tour de france hero !
sadly i made the mistake of getting into heavy weight training thinking more power would make me even better,i went from 10 1/2 stone up to over 12. i had the body of a track sprinter but i could no longer climb my beloved climbs at a fast rate.i was doomed to being a time trialist for the rest of my cycling career. i went on to win the odd club time trial and have p.b.s of 22.18 for ten miles and 57 mins on a sporting course for 25 miles.
now i just do core training with light dumb bells and have got my weight down to just over 11 stone.
= 40 mins

FOUR VILLAGES HALF MARATHON

this sunday i am running in the 4 villages half marathon
so i will be cutting back on the mileage this week.
i ran down to the club session into a very strong wind. it was great to see so many new runners turning out for the monday training session,this time last year we were down to a hard core of ONLY 4.
tonight we had about 15 which is great news for the clubs future.it was a very dark,windy and at time wet night.everyone was rapped up well,so well that it was hard to recognize who was behind the woolly hats until you talked to them !
we did 8 efforts and then i ran home with the wind behind me making me feel very fit as i was pushed along at great speed weeee ! if only the wind was always on our bacls. for a total of 1.49

training for the london marathon,; read on;

ARTHUR LYDIARD
The Man Who Never Stopped

The Man Who Never Stopped
Taken from "The Lonely Breed" by Ron Clarke and Norman Harris; published in 1967 from PEI.HAM BOOKS, LTD. Reproduced with permission from Ron Clarke

"He still worked on the beach house. It was 26 miles up there, pretty well an exact marathon, and he ran up on a Saturday and back on the Sunday and worked on the house in between. He amazed runners who chanced to meet him on the return trip, just a few miles from home, because he was running harder than they wished to, and he was not virtually out on his feet thinking only about collapsing on his back steps and sliding into a bath – he was thinking about buying some ice cream from the dairy near to his house, to thin out and cool his blood, and he was debating what he was going to do after that. His friends enjoyed the joke, which he himself had offered, that he wasted so little time that he wrote out his training schedules in the toilet. Even they, after all this time, regarded him as something of a phenomenon with his apparently limitless drive and energy – the way he could work at the shoe factory, also by night on a milk round, and dig his garden furiously and build a cottage – and still train harder than anyone else. So, too, did anyone who ever knew him well; at school, in a Rugby team, in the shoe factory, in the running club. They knew him as an individual of exceptional drive and someone whom you never crossed, that if there was anything which really got Arthur Lydiard going it was being told that he would not be able to do what he was attempting, or that he did not have the ability, or he was going about it the wrong way…

At secondary school in the boxing finals he was given very little chance against an opponent, or superior height and reach, who was one of the city’s better amateurs. But he said he would win, he gave a variety of reasons; in the event he won by filling the air with leather, by sheer aggression and determination. He rode a bicycle everywhere, head down, pedaling as if it were a personal challenge. He was always racing the trams – and once a fellow on a racing bike who turned out to be the Auckland junior champion, and finally beat him on a hill."

The Man Who Never Stopped

THE LIZARD RUNS 23.2 MILES WITH EX SCHOOLBOY 1500M CHAMP ROB X

LONG DISTANCE TRAINING RUN
I set off to robs house on a mild sunny winters afternoon. rob came 4th in a marathon in october so i thought he would give me a hard time. the pace soon warmed up when we hit a 4 mile stretch of sandhills,i followed in robs wake and wondered if i could hold on to the finish.at 5 miles we got back onto the tarmac and headed for woodvale traffic lights,we then headed to ainsdale and kept close to the boundary line of southport. robs pace still felt fast to me as we hit 13 miles going past the botanic gardens.onwards we traveled reaching the plough public house,we then started the homeward journey back along the coast road.at about 17miles i started to feel good,or was it that rob was starting to suffer ! this was robs longest run since that marathon and he was starting to pay the price for his fast early pace.i handed him a sweet hoping that it would boost his dropping blood sugar level. i left rob close to his home and added an extra couple of miles.this was my longest run since 2004 and i was pleased with the way it went.next stop the 4 villages 1/2 marathon a week on sunday.thanks for the run rob.
23.20 miles 8.1 mph average = 2.52.51

sun
had a very enjoyable run with brian and tracey round the hills of parbold, we went up the quarry rd then down over the fields to start the climb of parbold ,we then climbed up harrock hill and past the old windmill before running down through the muddy fields.after than we looped round and climbed hunters hill.both brian and tracey's hearts sank when they thought they had reached the summit only to find the road going up again round the next corner ! oh this can be a cruel hill to the unininitiated.
= 1.30

TRAINING FOR THE WEEK
mon club interval session =1.54
tue easy sandhills 1.14
wed hill run = 1.51
thur 10x 150m leg speed =1.10
fri rest
sat long steady run =2.52
sun easy hill run =1.30
total = 10.31

parbold hill race 2008 entry form

The 38th Parbold Hill Race will be held on Saturday 16th February 2008 at 2:00pm.

The Start/Finish is at Bispham Durning’s Endowed School playing field, Chorley Road, Hilldale, Near Parbold. Map

Parking at Hilldale Village Hall, the Church car park opposite and the Farmer’s Arms.

!!!NO ROAD PARKING AT ALL!!!

Limited changing facilities at Durning’s School.

The course is 6.75 miles over tracks, roads and farmer’s fields. Expect mud, and a large amount of climbing. See the course in pictures.

Entry Form
THE LIZARD RECOMMENDS THIS RACE

Joe Lee website. has the results

running 2 the top, hill climbing technic

the following should help you when racing or training up hills
as you start the hill shorten your stride and keep your legs turning over fast.
the steeper the hill gets then the shorter your stride must be,but keep the same fast leg speed going,this is far more efficient than trying to maintain a longer stride.
think of yourself like a car changing gear to keep at the most efficient revs .
run tall keep your spine pulled upwards.
don't lean forward from the waist [ this will cause back pain ] but lean your whole body forward into the hill keeping your center of gravity over the ball of your leading foot.
raise your knee a bit higher to counter the raising gradient.
when reaching the top start to push hard over the crest of the hill and pick your speed up again.,most runners start to relax near the top and you can gain precious time on them.
keep a positive frame of mind think of the hill as a challenge and not something to dread !

i have to travel 14 miles to reach the first big hills,but i think it is worth it.hills are great in the winter for improving your power and strength and long climbs are fantastic for training at your anaerobic threshold

how to run up a hill fast

i spent quite a bit of time last summer working on my hill climbing .i have training logs dating back to when i was at my best back in 2003,i have times for most of the hills i train on,so i set about trying to smash my p.b's.by the end of the summer i had knocked up to 30 secs off one of the longer climbs!
how
i studied the technic of the top runners,i read as much as i could on the subject and watched many video's of top runners climbing.i then put into practice what i had learned.
result; my hill climbing improved impressively.
tomorrow i will show you how you can fly up the hills and never fear them again.

running them hills

tough run off road round parbold and harrock hill.lots of mud.pushed up to tempo pace on the hills.
one hell of a mud splattering,lung burning,leg jellyfying session =1.51








the photo is of the quarry rd leading up 2 the top of hunters hill, the bottom of this hill is the start of the harrock hill race series each sommer and the parbold hill race hits this climb after about 1/2 mile into the race.

thur 10th jan
leg speed 10x 150m max 14mph = 1.10