Days 42 & 44 for FLM - 1:40:39

After a really busy time reading and working on Uni work and not much running, a very early start took me down to Brighton this Sunday just gone for the half marathon. A good group of us in good spirits considering it was 7 am on a Sunday, made our way to the South coast.

I'd been ill on the Saturday with a bad stomach, so was only hoping to get round in under 2 hours, hopefully doing about 8 minute miling.

I went off quickly and did the first 3 miles in 21.30 and felt in a nice groove. The stomach held and I was happy with my running. Some days you just get a sense you'll do ok. It wasn't going flat out and if I'd been better, had some more rest and trained just a bit more I reckon I could have gone even quicker.

Just as I got to 10 miles I felt the bite a bit and noticeably slowed. The route took you out to Brighton Marina and the course looped back on itself and had some steep hills to negotiate. I pushed on, just thinking about hitting mile 12 and how I'd pick up the pace at that point. A few people had pushed it too hard as you passed them towards the end but I got my stride and pushed for the line. It had been a hard but rewarding effort.

I'd stopped looking at my watch at about mile 10 and was hoping that if everything fell into place I could get about 1:36 (I've got no idea why I chose this random figure in my head!). I looked up as I approached the line, squinted as I didn't have my contacts in and couldn't see till I crossed it what the clock said. My watch told the verdict. 1:40:39. I'd taken 14 minutes off my personal best.

I didn't know what to do and overcome with emotion and disorientation couldn't decide whether to eat a banana, drink water or get my bag. Somehow, clumsily, I did all 3. I almost burst into tears at the bag check. It was the emotion. My club mates were amazing, supportive and really generous in their praise. I came 809th out of 4163. Sim from our club excelled and came 63rd.

I know I can go quicker. Give me time (I mean a couple of years) and I'll clock a sub 1:30. Just you see.

Followed that up on the monday with a massage. First in about 6 months and needed. My legs felt great but I wanted to take it easy. So I ran 3 miles the following morning and went for a swim in the lido. Couldn't measure the distance but clocked a lot of laps.

Food diary of late:

Dinners have varied. But I have been relatively good. In the last 4 days my food has been as follows:

Sunday:
After race: Haddock, chips and mushy peas.
Evening: Duck a l'orange, potatos, green beans.

Monday:
Lunch: Whole baked trout, tomato and parsley salad, 3 boiled potatoes.
Dinner: Mushroom soup, bread, cheese, tomato and basil.

Tuesday:
Lunch: Onion, potato omelette, carrot and orange salad, tomato and parsley salad
Dinner: Bratwurst, Kartoffel und Sauerkraut

Wednesday:
Lunch: Cheese and pickle sandwiches, salt and vinegar crisps, raisins & sultanas, Oat bake
Dinner: Fish curry, some squash and spinach curry, some daal, rice and naan. small Bhajis x 2, some chilli paneer, poppadom.

Days 36 & 37 for FLM 2009

So yesterday did a nice leisurely 10 mile route down the canal and through Victoria Park mid morning. After feeling rough over the weekend it wasn't going to be anything but slow. But it was definitely the warmest its been in the last month and it lifted the spirits to see crocuses growing in the park. After what feels like months of gloom and lots of runs in the cold, it is nice to sense the change in the season. Not too long before I lose the tights!

I'd taken max flu tablets in the morning and was fitting in the run around a lot of work. At first it was enjoyable but I felt the distance towards the end.

Todays run was half the distance but aiming to do a quick run as I was having to miss my track session in the evening. A quick pace felt good after a good nights rest I enjoyed it. Felt the disappointment of not having anyone else to run against as that can spur you on (see previous posts). I won't get to run tomorrow so the usual thursday night long run with the club will have to suffice. However a fair bit of cycling looms tomorrow so at least I'll get a good cardio workout.

Picked up fruit and veg on the run today (hows that for multitasking!) so ate well and managed to get all my reading and work done as well as a work plan for the next 6 weeks. It'll be a challenge to keep the running up to speed over the next few weeks - if you can excuse the pun.

Distances: 10 miles and 5 miles. 1 hour 36 mins and 38 minutes respectively.
How did it feel?: Comfortable and Steady Monday, Quick today.
Listening to?: Brilliant Trus'me podcast for Resident Advisor.
Food Eaten: Tuesday
Breakfast: 2 x toast with mashed banana, 2 x tea.
Lunch: half homemade pizza and salad
Dinner: Chorizo, mushroom and sweetcorn in a pasta sauce with penne.
snacked on some fruit and 6 biscuits this afternoon. 4 x cups of tea and 2 x pints of squash. 1 pint of orangina.

Day 33 for FLM 2009

After the concern of yesterday, tonight I went out in cold, blizzardy conditions with the club. Myself and 2 others ran the 11 mile route from the clubhouse to Tower bridge and back. Had no fear about going out and was chatting all the way to the bridge at a steady pace. Coming back the confidence flowed once we got past Limehouse basin and was going along the Regents Canal I put the pedal to the metal and pushed on, upping the pace.

Tony stayed with me but I wasn't going to be overtaken. With about 3 miles to go I wondered if I could keep the pace up. As I ran, I could hear his footsteps getting nearer behind me. To keep the same distance ahead I had to push harder. In the last mile I got to a point where I knew I had it in the bag. I could last all the way and go even faster. This bodes well for the Brighton half in a fortnight. One or two more long runs and I'll be well prepped. Oh yes! :-)

Days 28 to 32 for London FLM

Back from Berlin. Straight into Uni stuff and planning for the next few months but been neglecting the running last few days. Have been feeling overwhelmed to be able to do anything but we did manage a couple of short runs in the German capital. This isn't the best time to have to fit in a hectic running schedule. I've been pushing myself the last week on too many fronts and the running has felt like its gone out of the window.

Up till now I've felt in control. But having got college work out of the way for this week, I'm working out the detail of what I need to do run wise between now and the Brighton half on the 22nd of this month.

The best thing about the trip to this years Berlinale was that I rested and took my mind off college work for a few days whilst we took in the sights and sounds of Kreuzberg and some films at the festival. Riding around on bikes we hired from the RegenbogenFabrik saw loads of the city, went up the TV tower in Alexanderplatz, rode under the Brandenburg gate and toured the tiergarten and Reichstag. We stayed in an apartment just down from Regenbogen. An old sawmill and outbuildings that is now a community project for young and old set up by squatters over 25 years ago. Going out with friends for dinner on Sunday night, we were told it is one of the last remnants of what was once a much bigger squatting scene in this part of the city. It was nice having a community project on our doorstep that still felt really punk and was driven by the DIY ethos. Given some of the more vanilla building projects ongoing in Berlin, such as the Potsdamer platz where the film festival was held, it was refreshing to turn up, hire a bike for €6 a day and be able to see a kids play area fully used, cheap but brilliant meals in the canteen and a small cinema all in the one complex. They also have accommodation, which at €38 for a double seems good in these more thrifty times.

We did make one long run from Kreuzberg, past the East Side Gallery to Fredrichshain and on to the centre for a few sites. The legs felt good but I've not really pushed myself as much as the last few weeks. I'll take the rest as a good enforced stop for the time being. But having missed out on quite a bit of running due to the snow recently, I definitely feel at a disadvantage compared to my running club colleagues. Still, there are over 2 months to go and plenty of long races and runs to clock up, plus I now have a new bicycle I can put some miles in on as well.

Food wise, I mixed extreme healthiness (it is possible in Germany!) ranging from organic fruit and veg from a weekend market, with the odd bratwurst, gluhwein and Berliner ale. This week the food shopping has been all healthy. Next week I start the more pescetarian diet for the next few months set by my colleague and nutritionist.

As far as the films we saw went. I'll use those to fill in for the missed run data of the last week!

Unmade Beds - story about a squat in Hackney from the perspective of a Spanish guy coming to England to find his father. Argentinian director Alexis de Santos film is funny in places, arty without being too up its own arse and save for a slightly neat bundled cliche ending, was enjoyable for €3.

Mammoth - New Gael García Bernal film directed by Swede Lukas Moodysson is utter utter s***e. So bad it got booed by the critics on opening night. We didn't find this out till after we'd seen it on the second showing the following day. The worst film I've seen in years.

Anticipating Your Opponent’s Action

Anticipating Your Opponent’s Action
By Dr. Randy Borum
(Article published in Black Belt Magazine, February, 2009)

Imagine while sparring, your opponent repeatedly uses a double jab to close the distance on you before throwing a straight right to your chin. Again, he moves forward with a jab. Your hands go up to defend. He begins to throw another, but this time he changes levels and delivers a left hook below your lower ribs – a liver shot.

You were paying attention. You were watching your opponent’s patterns. What happened? Successful deception and failed anticipation.

Anticipation is like prediction. It relies on your ability determine what it about to happen. It is also a sport-specific perceptual skill. In combat sports, your defensive expertise depends on how well you anticipate what you opponent is going to do; how wisely you choose the best response; and how well – and how quickly - you execute the action.

Blocking an opponent’s punch, for example, is actually the end result of an extraordinarily complex psychological process. Saccadic eye movements rapidly scan multiple possible cues in a dynamic, moving opponent. The eyes fixate – or pause – on one or more cues that might signal an opponent’s intention. The visual system puts those cues in context to perceive depth, speed, and trajectory, sending those signals to relevant areas of the brain to interpret them. The brain discerns what kind of actions the cues might signal, then chooses the one that seems most likely. The brain generates a corresponding menu of responses, and chooses the best one for the situation. Then, it sends the necessary chemical and electrical messages through the nervous system to execute that response. Before you get hit, of course.

Deceptive actions – such as feints – are cues that signal one action, when something else is actually intended. Deception, for centuries, has been a cornerstone of warfare strategy and martial art tactics. Martial arts Master, Yoshinori Kono even describes the classical Japanese martial arts as a form of "perceptual warfare."

Sport psychologists have studied how anticipation works in motor skills and athletic endeavors. Often these studies compare expert performers with novices to figure out what causes some people to be better than others at countering an opponent’s moves. Speed and quickness obviously have something to do with anticipation expertise, but it’s not just about reaction time. A number of studies have found that simple reaction time - the time needed to respond to a target cue – is fairly similar for experienced and beginning practitioners. But defending in marital arts requires more than a fast reaction time, right?

To anticipate an opponent’s attack, we must know what kinds of cues to look for; to be able to see them; and interpret what the signals are likely to mean. Visual acuity is needed, but not just good eyesight. Dynamic visual acuity – the ability to accurately perceive objects in motion – is a must. Visual search behaviors also play a key role. These are the patterns and speeds at which your eyes scan and fixate on particular cues. Once your eyes fix on something, your focal field of vision narrows to about a three degree angle. You have to rely a lot on peripheral vision, particularly to detect movement. Finally, there are the cues themselves - what are you looking for? Again, research shows that experts and novices are often not looking at different cues.

What seems to matter most in sport-related perceptual expertise is not good eyesight or necessarily what they see, but how the person uses the information they perceive. In martial arts an opponent’s postural cues provide some of the best information about his intention. But learning which postural cues are going to signal which attacks mostly occurs through sport-specific experience. Sometimes this learning is acquired by understanding the biomechanics of the general technique, but sometimes it comes by discerning patterns within a specific opponent.

What tends to distinguish experts in the perceptual warfare of martial arts is the ability to anticipate how an opponent’s cues relate to his intentions. In the terminology of sport psychology, they have superior anticipatory skills. More experienced practitioners tend to be able to identify an opponent’s attack and defense patterns much more quickly, easily, and accurately than their beginner counterparts. They have learned from experience which actions are most likely to follow which cues. They also adapt that knowledge to what they observe in their present opponent. In the language of the sport scientist, they have superior response selection performance, which makes for better tactical decision making.

How do you improve your perceptual expertise? Practice, mostly. What is most helpful, though, is practice with feedback. Get feedback from your sparring partner and from an observer about how you may be telegraphing your actions.

High-tech solutions are also available. Sport psychologist Joan Vickers at the University of Calgary has developed a training program called “Quiet Eye” to enhance gaze control, perceptual expertise, and decision-making. They use a wireless, spectacle-mounted eyetracker, with software that can precisely gauge your eyes’ movement and direction. You can see where your eyes are really going, not just where you think they are. Vickers’ decision training program is based on identifying the primary cognitive skill needed for a sport-specific decision task, designing drills that use cognitive triggers for that skill, and using certain tools and methods to train the decision in competitive context.

If you are looking for a low-tech introduction, you might use your light sparring sessions as a way to experiment. Choose a particular time period - maybe one or two rounds - where you will focus on learning to anticipate your opponent. As a general rule, you don’t want to be this analytical and “inside your head” when you’re standing in front an adversary, but you can carve out a time for this exercise. Give yourself a couple of minutes afterwards just to reflect on what you observed and what you learned, then go another round. Use that round as a way to test the hypotheses or theories you developed about your opponent’s cues. See what works. Afterwards, reflect again for a couple of minutes, trying to visualize specific patterns and cue in your head. Then, turn off the analytic switch and try flow sparring for a round or two. Don’t consciously focus on patterns and cues this time or try to give yourself any instructions. Just allow your new learning to settle and to flow.

And watch out for that body shot.

Days 26 & 27 for FLM 2009

So there is a jump in training from my last entry on day 20. As you no doubt all know, the weather has been snowy and as I'm not a member of a gym, I didn't run from Thursday. Meant to over the weekend, but was working and got sidetracked by the epic Nadal v Federer Final in Australia. Some amazing tennis and yet another great example of the psychological battles by these 2 supreme sportsman. Its as fascinating watching the mind games between them as the amazing shots and energy they put into their duals. I can't wait for the French open and Wimbledon this year. Has Nadal broken Federer? Federers tears at the end of the game on Sunday would appear to point that way, but he is an exceptional talent and it'll be interesting to see how he goes away and regroups for the rest of the season.

Anyway, tennis aside, running earlier in the week was a no go. By Tuesday evening I was finishing work and beginning to crave pulling on my running shoes. I made it home after a long day at University yesterday and walked up the A10 home from Dalston. The view from Roehampton over Richmond park (see above) had led me to believe that there would be no way the streets would be clear in my manor to allow a run but I was lifted when I saw no snow on the pavement.

I rushed in, changed and got out whilst the going was good. I'd missed track on Tuesday through work and I really wanted a speed session so I led off and pushed myself hard for as long as possible, following what I would have thought would be the clearest streets. Sticking to main roads all the way back to Canonbury then round from Brownswood to Stoke Newington common I didn't realise my speed and clocked 5.25 miles in 42 minutes 25 seconds.

I'd begun to think I would lose my fitness, but the rest did me good and I felt better than any run so far in training. Going away today to Berlin for the film festival I had loads to do last night to tie off but I rose early to do my long run missed over the weekend.

The ice had melted even more over night but by Mile End on the Regents Canal I almost lost my footing on ice and would have slid in! A great clear track in Victoria Park and knowledge of a hot cuppa on my arrival home sped me on my way and I clocked 9. 87 miles in 1 hour 25.

Berlin later today and we're planning a couple of runs there. It's a fantastic city to run in. Flat as a board (which is why Haile Gebrselassie beat the world record there last year) but with loads of sites to see on your runs round, I can't wait! Till Tuesday, Auf Wiedersehen!

Distances: 5.25 m & 9.87 m
How did it feel?: Really Comfortable on first one, a bit tight to start with on the second but ultimately satisfying.
Listening to?: Linstrom & Prins Thomas album & David Mancuso's The Loft Vol 2 last night. Resident Advisor podcast of Disco bloodbath this morning. Thoroughly recommended.
Food Eaten:
Breakfast: bowl of shredded wheat bitesize, 2 mashed bananas, 2 small toast, 2 x tea.
Lunch: 2 small rounds of cheese and pickle sandwiches, fruit. Oh and mid afternoon, a cream egg.
Dinner: Doner meat and salad from best turkish. Not proud but was starving after run last night and had to crack on with work. Admire the honesty there if you will. Healthy food in Berlin tho over the weekend.