Ben Moreau's blog

The news about Martin Fagan this week was at first glance another story of elite runners with more money than sense showing utter disrespect for their fellow competitors in a pursuit for glory (more cash). Yet reading a little more into his situation, if we believe it, revealed a side to athletics that we rarely see and one for which there is little support. I think taking drugs to aid performance and deprive others of what they deserve is deplorable. This seems even worse in a tight knit distance community where friendships and camaraderie grow over time. I’ve never experienced the anger of being deprived of a major athletic achievement due to the action of an athlete who’s decided to take illegal shortcuts to get what he wants, and if it was also the action of someone I regarded as a friend, this would be a doubly bitter pill to swallow.

However, Martin Fagan’s case seems a little different to me. He claims that he had lost sponsorship, was riddled with debt and having to gamble on making an Olympics just to make ends meet and ‘survive’. This led to depression and even contemplation of suicide. He was forced to lie to his coach and race directors about his fitness while he was carrying serious injuries just to get into races to receive appearance fees, and then he thought about taking drugs. He claims he only took EPO once and then got tested the next day, and never competed under its effects. This may be a lie but in my eyes it’s not important. What is important is what drove him to contemplate the taking of drugs and how there must be others in his situation. His undeniable running talent was his curse. He wasn’t a world beater but he was an Olympian and many would give anything for his talent. I am one of them. But I’m extremely lucky that if running doesn’t go well for me or I get an injury, then I’ll be ok. I have a good job and running has always been an enjoyable distraction outside of this. However much I may envy those that don’t have to run and work, I would never ever want to be in situation where I was relying on running to live. Sure, I may find myself able to give up work (theoretically, I know I’m nowhere near that good right now!) but that would be a choice and if that situation no longer became viable, I’d go back to work. I’m sure many of you will say that Martin should have just got a job and got on with it. True, he should have. But that would have compromised his chance of making the Olympics and ’everything would be ok’ if he’d made the Olympics. Couple this with obvious mental turmoil, depression and a compulsion to get the very best out of himself and rational decisions like this don’t seem so easy.

I don’t know Martin and what was going through his head. I only have the article I read to go on. Sure, it may be bullshit, but I’m choosing to believe it’s true. What I began to realise was how glad I was that I ran because I wanted to and because I enjoyed it. If someone took all I had away and said I would only get it back if I made the Olympics then this enjoyment would be gone. I realise this is not the case with Fagan, but I think that’s almost how he saw it in his mind. His words about the relief of being caught for drugs and not having to run anymore spoke volumes. We’ve all been in a situation where we wanted to quit, but couldn’t actually do it, and carried on regardless, hoping someone would take that responsibility away from ourselves. This is what being caught EPO has done for Fagan.

Whatever your views on the credibility of his story, or the choices he made; when you go for a run today, be thankful its because you want to, not because you have to.

Hi all,

I had some great news last week in that Experian (the parent company of Techlightenment, who I work far too hard for) agreed to sponsor me! They will give me some money each year to spend on training camps and physio/healthcare as well as race travel. This is obviously great and takes some worry off my mind when justifying training camps as well as when injuries occur and you have that moment of “Do I really want to spend my money on this? Something that doesn’t even guarantee fixing it?”.

They have also given me support in extra time off to do all of these extra things. I basically get extra holiday days but can work online in between training. Luckily I can still lead projects and manage things without physically being at work, and although it’s not ideal, it can work for a few weeks. Thank you Mr Internet Man for creating it!

This all came about because my existing company used to help me out occasionally but when we got bought it was harder to justify and so I went straight to the head of Experian to just ask if they could help. They do have schemes to help good causes but not for individuals so I was a bit outside of the remit but they made a new scheme just for me and I’m delighted. Experian are seen as a very corporate company – they wear suits to work and everything, but this just shows that they are really enthusiastic and understanding towards ambitions outside of work.

I did hang my proposal all around ‘Ben’s Olympic dream’ and so I hope they aren’t too upset if I don’t run under 2.12. I did explain it was a long shot and I have ambitions beyond the Olympics but I’m not sure that bit registered….!

Oh well, the first use of this money is to have regular physio every 2 weeks and also I’ve booked flights to Kenya for Feb. Amelia is going with me and is very excited about learning to make Kenyan ‘cuisine’ and chase giraffes around. Hopefully a few other people will be out there too.

Ben

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of blogs recently – I’ve been super busy at work and my weekends have been taken up with running and life things. Very annoying!

I’m really happy with my running right now, but I’ve got two injry niggles which I’m (just about) staying on top of.

The first is a planta fascia issue. I’ve had a sore heel occasionally for about two years but it’s never really bothered me. However since my XC race in Milan it’s been much more prominent and has made me wince ona  few morning runs. It seemd to settle down after a week but it’s now definitely there and I can feel it all day long. In the mornings it’s sorest but fades when I get into my run. I’m doing all the classic work on it – rolling a golf ball on my arch, lots of calf stretching, runnign in new trainers. Hopefully it will subside as I know full blown plantar fasciitis is a nightmare….

The second issue is around my hip flexor/quad and feels like a recurrence of a sciatic nerve problem I’ve had occasionally in the past. Again it eases off a bit when I get into running but is noticeable all day long and I can definitely feel it when I’m running and am conscious that it may be unconfortable enough for me to adapt my style which will only cause more issues down the line.

Both injuries are on my left side which adds to the compensation worries and at the moment I’m not missing training, but it’s uncomfortable and the first 2 or 3 mins in the morning are a bit hobbly. I’m stretching a lot and starting uyp my exercises I did when I had a piriformis/sciatic issue last time. Both issues could go either way really and start to affect me greatly, or subside enoguh that they’re no longer a worry. Let’s hope it’s the latter!

I’m seeing my physio twice a week and she’s always sorted me out in the past – although the sensation of a load of pins in my glute is very odd indeed! Seems to do the trick though.

Ben

I’ve done some good sessions recently and so felt like I was running well, but still I’d not actually laid down a great time in any race since London marathon last year! Granted this was due to marathons in tough conditions and not having the opportunity to do a quality 10k or half-marathon in the build ups, but still it played at the back of my mind and I was keen to prove to myself that I could still run fast, and I knew this race was a place to do it.

I ran this race last year and found that actually it’s really quick – I ran a PB – and so incorporated it into my plans this year again. I’d not done many hard sessions in the week leading up to it but volume had stayed high. I noticed quite a wind on my warm up but a lot of the course is quite sheltered by hedgerows so I hoped it wouldn’t affect times too much. Just as we all gathered on the start line I saw that Phil Wicks and Jean Ndayisenga were running, which I had mixed emotions about. I knew it was best for me to race hard and the more competition the better but also I wanted a crack at the course record of 64.48 and the more competition there was, the more chance there was of me being beaten! Still, my race plan was to stick with Phil for as long as possible as I felt confident and in good shape.

That race plan changed after about 90 seconds of the race. Phil went to the front and pushed on the pace and I knew it was very fast so I had to let him go and just run comfortably. My suspicions were confirmed after 1 mile when I looked up at the lead car and saw Phil go through in 4.32, with me following in a very-much-not-slow 4.40. I had Jean for company so just focussed on staying relaxed and trying not to lose track of Phil. Jean and I swapped the lead a few times in the first 3 miles, which hadn’t slowed much after two subsequent 4.45 miles and then Jean moved past me and got about 30 yards. I knew we were shifting pretty well and that this was a surge so let him go, making sure that if the gap continued to grow, I’d make an effort to haul him in. A mile later and he started to come back to me and after the 5 mile mark I caught him and moved back past him. I was also aware that Phil’s lead wasn’t growing very quickly if at all and so made sure I didn’t lose concentration on that and slacken my pace at all. As it is, Phil passed through 5 miles in 23.30 with 23.47 or so for me and I was really pleased with how comfortable how I felt at this pace. Just after 10k (30.00 for me), my watch battery died and so all I had to focus on was Phil as I couldn’t see the lead clock times anymore. There were a few windy patches but nothing too bad. Until 10 miles that is. As soon as we turned a corner at 10 miles a huge wind greeted me head on and so I just had to push against it as much as I could. Phil was gradually pulling away from me but I just told myself to not give in and keep pushing, as I knew I’d been on PB pace until now. I didn’t feel like I was fading too much in terms of fatigue, but no doubt this wind was having an effect. With my watch being dead I had no idea of my pace anymore so just worked hard. The last mile was less windy and I could hear the race organiser getting really excited about Phil taking the course record and as I crossed the line I saw it was 64.55 for me. Again, mixed emotions with this. This was faster than I ran last year, where conditions were much better, but having been on PB pace for so long it was exasperating for it to fall apart in the last 3 miles.

Phil had gone through 10 miles in 48.20 he later told me and I estimate I must have been about 48.45-48.50, so we both slipped to about 5.05-5.07 miling on average for the last 3 miles. Still, I can be positive about feeling so comfortable at 30.00 10k pace (although we actually had some tailwind obviously!) and at the Hague in a month I know I have the ability to set a new PB.

I won a lovely decanter, and £130 Mizuno vouchers, which isn’t much use to a Saucony athlete, so I gave them to James Savage who was 4th and had kindly driven me to the race!

Phil Wicks – 64.10

Ben Moreau – 64.55

Jean Ndayisenga – 66.19

What is a tempo run? How fast should it be? How long should it be? How often should I do them?These are all questions that get asked all of the time by the running fraternity about an aspect of training that is fairly modern in its inclusion in the training schedule.

Or is it a fairly modern inclusion? I would say not, but actually that people have only recently started defining it and the term ‘tempo’ or ‘threshold’ or whatever you want to call it. I think before the tempo run was born, people had steady runs. But they hammered them. I think there’s been a trend over the years for people to take steadies much more, for want of a better word, steady (i.e. you can have a chat). All of my evidence is anecdotal but I get a feel that in ‘them days’ people ran the club runs hard as they were in a group and when you’re in a group you run at the pace of the fastest person. People got their tempo pace this way. The club scene has dispersed recently, barring the hard sessions, and I think with that steady runs have become slower, meaning that people don’t operate at ‘tempo’ pace that much. Hence, the need for specific sessions called tempo runs!

I’m not going to spend too long on what is right and wrong about tempo runs nor give loads of examples about who does what as that’s an argument for the coaches! I’ll try to give an idea as to what I mean by it and answer the questions of pace, length, frequency in terms of my own training. I think they’re essential for any distance runner and arguably more important than hard intervals sessions, but also much harder to judge and execute.

What is a tempo run?

To me, a tempo run is a run with 20-40mins of sustained pace that doesn’t leave you knackered. It’s not a race, but you shouldn’t be able to tell me about what you did at the weekend either. More scientifically, it’s meant to be run as fast as possible, whilst remaining entirely aerobic (in other words, the body is replenished with as much oxygen as is being used during the activity – at no stage will the body go into oxygen debt). This is obviously impossible to actually judge and useless for training purposes. But the POINT is that you operate at a level of effort that is just about sustainable for an hour or so. The more you operate at this level, the faster your threshold pace will become, and also the longer you can go at this pace without reaching debt.

How fast should it be?

Myself and Nick define tempo pace as ‘half-marathon pace’ but ACTUALLY it’s judged more by effort levels. I run at a pace that feels like half marathon pace for me on the day and don’t get bogged down by tying to hit pace per mile. I actually distinguish threshold/tempo from ‘marathon effort’ runs which are that step below, and also do lots of runs where I switch between these two paces, but this is a subtle nuance. As a simple answer, I’d say you should run at a pace that you’re confident you could sustain for an hour or so without killing yourself. For me, where my half marathon PB pace is just under 5 min miling, I usually range from 5.00-5.10s on my tempo runs when I’m fit. Some people judge it by heart rate at around 85% of maximum heart rate. I prefer to go by feel and just know how high my heart rate should be at this effort, if I wear a heart rate monitor for it, which I do less these days than I used to. I know my heart rate is about 175-180 for tempo runs, and 170ish for marathon effort, so that’s a good measure of effort.

How long should it be?

This is a tough question and is obviously going to vary depending on your race goals, mainly what distance you run! I’d say that at the very least, a proper tempo run should be 4-5 miles or so and at the longest, 10-12 miles. However, I run a lot at ‘marathon effort’ too which is about 10 secs a mile slower and so if this is incorporated than obviously I can go a bit longer at this pace. If you’re not fully fit or a bit tired, then do it in blocks, say 3 x 2 miles with a few minutes jog recovery, or suchlike. I do this a lot when I’m getting back to fitness, or trying to stay a bit fresh for something coming up soon.

How often should they be done?

Another very tough one, and again dependent on the distance goal. I stay in touch with tempo pace 2-3 times a week, putting 10 minute efforts at this pace before and after intervals sessions, as well as sessions dedicated to pure sustained tempo running. Speaking as a marathoner, the runs that give me most confidence (because I find them so bloody hard) is 45-60mins of tempo running or ‘marathon pace’ running within a 20 mile run, with the hard running in the 2nd half. Now this adds an extra dimension as your legs aren’t fresh when you begin the tempo, so it’d tough. Anyway, the question was how often and my digression does have a point. I think the long 20 milers with tempo running in or 10miles + of marathon pace should be done 4 times or so in a marathon build-up. I also think that 4-7 mile tempo runs should be done most weeks, maybe 2 weeks in 3, solely to keep the body aware that this system needs to be stressed and improved.

How should the tempo run be incorporated into a training schedule?

I would treat it as any other hard session – have an easy day before and after it. It certainly needs to be respected and your body needs to recover from it. You should find that over time they get faster and you can go further. However if you have a day where you’re slower than last week or whatever, then remember it’s part of a training block and not everyone is going to be stellar. I get plenty of runs where I just feel tired and the key here is not to force yourself to hit a pace you were doing last time, but just run by feel and accept that today is a Tired Day (upper case intentional).

You can also play around with pace: I do 20-30k runs that start at 5.30 miling and end up at 5.00 miling; or a 90 min run with an hour of 1 mile tempo/1 mile marathon pace in the middle. These may pass the time a bit better than one pace for what seems like forever and stress the body in a similar way!

So, that’s my take on the tempo run! Vital for any marathoner, and although you think it should be easier then a flat out reps session (how hard can running at slower than race pace, for shorter, be?) it’s actually extremely tough and, just like a marathon in that it just slowly drains you. The only way to get them right is to practise, and I would definitely advocate starting at a pace slower than tempo and picking it up as you go along. This is much better than starting hard and slowing, and also much more beneficial!

I heard Ron Hill recently say that there was no secret to marathon running and all of this ‘tempo running’ he keeps hearing about is just rubbish. I agree that there is no secret, but I think Ron Hill did LOTS of tempo running with hard steady runs and the amount of times he raced at distances over 10 miles, he just didn’t call it that. He was also a talented bugger who worked hard, and tempo runs are all about working hard.

Good night.

Well, the Olympic ‘A’ standard is 2.12, and the ‘B’ standard is 2.16. And a B standard can only go if no-one with the ‘A’ standard is on the plane, well, tube. These standards are 3 mins harder than for Beijing 2008, which I found pretty surprising. Seeing as only 2 British men have run sub 2.12 in the past 14 years, the chances of the British public having 3 men to cheer in the 2012 marathon are pretty small. The philosophy of UKa is certainly one that we should only have people competing who are going to be right in the mix at the front of the field.

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

-The Olympic Motto

Does the UKa selection policy follow the philosophy of what the Olympics stands for? A Games where the best of all the nations in the world are sent to compete against one another, and participation is paramount? No one ever skips the Olympics – it’s the one Championships that’s always at the top of everyone’s list and is never compromised for another event. No one is too good for the Olympics, but this statement sent out by UKa certainly suggests that we have athletes who aren’t good enough for the Olympics, despite the standards the IOC themselves have set out. If all governing bodies followed this philosophy, we certainly wouldn’t see the number of competitors from all over the world that make the Olympics so magnificent.

In 2012 I doubt we’ll have as many athletes taking part as we could have; whether the criteria set by UKa are for the good of British sport, who knows. Some will argue it should drive athletes to higher standards, but I believe this would happen naturally once athletes are competing amongst themselves to run faster than everyone else. I expect several of our leading athletes will look at this and see it as a step too far and focus on other things. I certainly agree that a Great Britain vest at any Olympics shouldn’t be given away ‘cheaply’ and it should be an accolade of great achievement, and perhaps to have athletes down the field doesn’t provide the inspiration to the public and youngsters that British athletics needs? This is certainly a valid point, although not one that I personally agree with.

The point I forgot to add is that a top 20 World Champs position counts as an A standard. What’s the criteria to get to the World Champs? Who knows, that’s not been released yet. I see a top 20 place at the World Champs as much easier than a 2.11.xx marathon, but would UKa take an athlete who only had a PB of 2.14 but finished 20th at the World Champs? I expect their clause about athletes needing to be in contention for a top 8 finish at the Olympics would answer this question but we shall see.

So how does this all affect me? Well, obviously another 5 minutes off my PB is a big ask at this stage, and realistically means a massive step-up which is unlikely right now. But, I still want to run as fast as I possibly can for the marathon, and if the World Champs has a qualifying time around the 2.14 mark and I am lucky enough to be selected, then this now seems the best route into the Olympics. I’m sure I’m not the only athlete who believes this, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a qualifying time for the World Champs in line with their Olympic criteria.

Ben

Hi all and I hope you find this interesting – I’ll try and post every week with tales of my training and if you have any questions, please ask!

Let me start by introducing myself… My first race was for my school as an 11yr old and my first few years of running were formed of training sporadically around football, which I much preferred, and doing cross country races. I started training with some actual structure and regularity when I was 16 when Nick started coaching me, and added track races into my season for variety. I never reached a county team until I was 18, where I was 64th at English Schools Cross Country and was never anywhere near making English Schools for the track!

I always found that endurance was my strength and I have moved up in distance over time with increasing success as the distances grew further! In 2006 Nick told me my true success would lie in the marathon, a distance which terrified me, as well as the training load associated with it! By this point I had represented Great Britain at the World Students XC Championships as well as ranking in the top 20 in the country for 10,000m.

I made my marathon debut in 2008 at Amsterdam where I clocked 2.22.38. Having run 65.24 for a half-marathon I knew I could improve this and at the 3rd time of asking, in 2010, I ran 2.16.46 at London, which qualified me for both the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games -  a result I could never have dreamed of a few years previously!

I may not be as talented as the Mo Farahs of this world and certainly didn’t win many races as a junior (maybe not any?), but I respond well to training in large volumes and such as 120 miles a week with more threshold running as opposed to flat out speed sessions and my story has been one of steady progression as well as recognising where my strengths lay. I fit all this in around a full-time job who are very understanding (!). I also receive support from Saucony, as well as some handy freebies from friends within the sport!

I won’t waffle on anymore, but will update soon!

PBs: 800 – 1.56

1500 – 3.51
3000 – 8.11
5000 – 14.09
10,000 – 29.40
Half – 64.36
Marathon – 2.16.46

Ben