Sunday, 27 April 2014
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Welcome to "My Pace Or Yours", I am Ryan Tyler, a runner from South Wales.
Background
As a child I ran for Rhymney Valley Athletics Club and traveled to meets around Wales/England running mostly 800m on the track and cross country in the Winter months. I loved the training and going to meets in the mini bus with all the other runners. As I got older and my brother stopped going and it just phased out.
3 years, 1 month, 6 days ago (runners love precision) I decided to to start running again and I would track progress using Run Keeper (workout), mate had a mobile so I would manually enter them after. Instantly loved it and before I knew it was signed up to Cardiff Half Marathon!
First Half Marathon
I thought I was fit and could fly my first half with no trouble at all, I was mostly training lunch times and had no real plan at all, just ran what I felt like. A week before the event I pulled a hamstring in 5-a-side football and thought I should pull out, so decided the week before to test my leg, ran a full half in around 2 hours and realised I was ok to run (idiot). So the big day came and I ran 01:36:46.
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| First ever finish, looking tearful |
Second Half Marathon
My first half was a great feeling, the crowd, the runners the toilet queues! Anyway I really wanted to shave a few minutes off my time, I trained a little smarter, ate a little healthier (never giving up chips!) and managed to get sub 90 minures! 1:28:13.
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| Photo made it into local paper! (Echo) |
I got a bit obsessed with running half marathons, one week off work I ran 5 13 milers in 5 days including one sub 1:30. I decided it was time to find new events and meet some local runners so I then joined Rhondda Valley Runners:
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| RVR at Cardiff.. too early in the morning. |
I was planning all sorts of events and getting fitter than ever, then I screwed my knee and had to take 7 months of any real training, was so hard not to run and missed out on loads of club trips.
The one event I did manage in 2013 was Cardiff Half Marathon, I was determined to do it, did not get in any kind of shape for it but like a fool went for a PB. I did the first 10km in about 43 minutes, I was on target! Then I went through all sorts of pain and ended up finishing in 1 hour 38, learned some tough lessons that day.
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| In some pain Cardiff 2013 |
After getting all clear from the Dr I went back to full training, the first time back to club I entered the raffle and won a place in London Marathon, I was so excited and had no idea how tough it could be. The long training session were made easier by some great members of the club, I love running but 20 miles on your own is a little boring.
During my training I managed 4 long runs, two of which were 20+, a few halves and lots of 10kms. My training probably prepared me for 30 to 35 km, but nothing prepared me for the grueling last 3 miles, I cramped up pretty bad and struggled through the last few miles.
At the finish line I stopped, walked a bit, stopped, sat down, got up... I was a mess! Ended up laying down with legs up against a tree shouting in pain, if it was not for a member of the club picking me up and walking me about I would have just lay there and cried, was not pretty.. anyways I got 3:28:44, so proud to have done a sub 3:30 on first attempt.
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| VLM 2014 |
So there you have it, the events I have entered in recent years. I am currently working out a new running schedule, looking at which events to enter and looking to set a few goals/challenges. I hope you enjoyed my introduction and please come back soon !_!
