Niggles

About now most marathon runners will pay a lot of attention and listen to their bodies.  This usually happens right up to the big day.  Ignore or listen?  Tiredness or injury? Self-doubt can start to creep in.  For me, this week, my legs have been telling me to slow down or they will punish me soon.  I decided to listen but still got carried away.....

Tuesday: schedule was calling for a long tempo - but just too tired.  An easy run called for but ended up at 12m, with 5 miles added to meet people at AROs Running club then tanked it around another 7 with BenK and Lee.  Amazing that once you are running it's not so bad.

Thursday - UltraJ has been monitoring his own health pre Ultra season which is coming up soon - starting with a 30miler on the Whitlow Way (as usual he managed 31m.) A little easy short jog out turned into a  10 mile head-torcher down the Nikki line.

Jet lag and last weekend finally were shrugged off, but decided to take 2 days rest before Oakley 20 - last long run pre-VLM.

Race Report:  standard pre-race prep seems to consist of a late night party with friends ending at 1am - oops sorry 2am as the clocks went forward.  Also seemed as though I'd picked up the start of a cold being very hot overnight.

Left at 8am with Viddy who was back from Saudi and had already managed 40 miles this week.  Race plan was to run with Viddy for 1st 12miles then see if I could manage more and run the rest at my own pace.

The 1st half mile meant dodging a load of runners who'd piled in towards the front to reduce their chip time (electronic timing from starting gun to crossing the line).  Normally the pace would have averaged quite slow - but we did quite below the target pace... We then started picking up places - generally catching them on the hills.  We eventually caught the 2nd lady at 6m and had a good chat and banter with her for 30 mins until I decided that it was time to see whether I could do some negative splits.  I did OK until 18m when an attack of cramp hit my right calf.  No warning just WHAM!  Stopped and stretched, then someone I had overtaken went past and I told myself I was only 2m from the end.  Managed to pick off him again and another,while ignoring the cramp.

2 miles to go... and levitating

Result:  2:07:10 for just over 20m (as course was long) coming 12th.  2nd lady 45 seconds after (actually 1st lady as other had just been aiming to do 12m and then drop out). Viddy came in about 4 mins later (having tried to tailgate the 1st lady) and picked up Men's Veteran 50 award in 25th place.    Happy with the performance as just below marathon pace and stopped a couple of times, but now wary of the cramps that seem to be back.

Typical laughs with Viddy being a big softy (self-confessed) about his aches and pains (in his big toe... what is left of it) and my post race masseuse getting kicked by a reflex action from my leg as she managed to push the calf cramp further up into my butt cheek.

Lessons learned

1) make rest time part of your training schedule

2) I stopped to drink the cups of water - seemed to work better than taking a shower in it

3) did it without any energy gels - but did the lack of them cause the cramp or was it diet or the overheating the night before?

Taper starts now - and just waiting for the Ibruprofen gel to work its magic on the calf before running again

Only 24 hours to Tulsa......

6am pick up at home on Monday to go to Heathrow to make my way to Tulsa, Oklahoma on business.  But with a cancelled flight out of Detroit, I was worse for wear on arrival at the hotel at 1am the following day...  having taken 24hrs to get there.  I was not sure how the week would pan out - was OK in the end as made use of the gym facilities and did a number of sets on the treadmill in the mornings as it was still dark on the streets and there are no obviously pavements as you don't need them if you drive everywhere.



A site along the "trails"


Tuesday 6am - 3miles easing in to see if the legs were working after the marathon and the trip on the planes.

Wednesday
6am - 8 miles with a warm-up then 6 miles at a half marathon pace (just couldn't face going faster)
6pm - 12.2 miles up and down the Arkansas River alongside the trails.  Cost $25 in cabs there and back, but worth it to get out of the office, hotel restaurant cycle.

Thursday 6am - 3 miles.  Still tired from yesterday's efforts of 20 miles and picked up some further chaffing...  no pictures this time as was on my inner thighs

Had the cattle class red-eye flight back via Atlanta arriving home just after noon then had a Ball to go to in the evening and then the normal packed Saturday with the kids, then entertaining at home in the evening. 

Sunday 7am:  What I really needed of course, was some sleep, but I went to bed at 1:30am and got up at 6:30am to meet up at the Amble Inn.  7 runners consisting of the Pauls, Moritzio, Daz, BenK, Jamie and me.  A total of 16 miles at varying paces - averaging about 7:42 min miles overall.  With the group having split up with about 4-5miles left, 3 of us did have quite a surprise to see one of the other party crouching down in some vegetation on a popular route.  We thought initially that he was hoping to leap out and surprise us - but I think we actually gave him more of a surprise.  Hope it helped.

4 weeks to the Virgin London Marathon - reducing alcohol content from this point on.  Have to, this weekend has killed me.

Race Report: Bedford Clanger....One of us Bonked and justice for another

Pre-race planning is definitely key..... especially for a marathon and especially a trail one where there are no course markers or a map provided.  Instructions such as "go through KG, SLOT across field, take 30 degree left at corner, etc".  On this occasion we also had the advice to "avoid flying motorcycles over the gate."  After UltraJ's nav disaster last weekend, he was all over this one in his prep....  Well actually, he just made sure that both me and Viddy knew exactly where we were going in order to keep him on the right route.  I planned to use the Garmin with a programmed route and Viddy had that, but had also crafted a set of detailed instructions along with OS map extracts, indexed contents and also laminated.

So how did it go?

1.  Simon managed to get us lost before arriving by taking a wrong route in the car

2.  We arrived as a huge contingent of runners left at 9am - we'd thought it was a 9:30 start.  We got on road at 9:15.  But it was ok, they were geared up for staggered starts.

3.  We soon caught up with the stragglers and then a larger drawn out pelaton, somehow missing the queues at the kissing gates.

3.  Everyone on these races and people you meet are always very friendly, except those that we encountered in suburban Bedford who ignored our cheerful "morning" and who obviously thought we were mad for:

a) Acknowledging their existence and
b) Running through their neighbourhood.  
(I think in one or two streets we were lucky as the only runners there would have been ones having just nicked something, but our race numbers gave our true purpose away.)

4.  We actually only went wrong 3 times. One diversion of merit to mention was me knowing we were off the route from the Garmin's map by the distance of 100-200m - which included a river.  Could have gone badly wrong, but Viddy's maps came good and we rejoined the route after 5mins of UltraJ going very quiet and into a familiar territory of despair.

5.  UltraJ and I both discovered that Viddy cramps.  He gets the cramps badly.  He's also got the most fantastic resilience and cheerful ability to make his running 'pals' laugh nearly uncontrollably in sympathy with his plight.

He really was in agony both during and after the race.  An excellent moment was when he tried a sprint at the end and then completely seized on going 1 step beyond us.  

Despite that, we all came into the finish together as planned.  We just had to wait for the results as the staggered start meant we could not tell where we'd come.

So did I Bonk?   Well, I didn't but Viddy did.  My pre-race prep meant I was fully hydrated and plenty of energy in the tank and I didn't cramp after all.  I'd been paranoid that I would relive my last marathon a year ago when it took me 1hr 40mins to do the last 6 miles.

And why justice?  Well, we did OK and managed 3:29 - bang on our higher target that we'd set ourselves.  UltraJ actually got his second place that he missed out on last week, with me and Viddy coming in 3rd and 4th.

So how come we all arrived together but got ranked..... Easy, me and Viddy felt sorry for UltraJ and got the marshalls to organise it.

Just so you know how bad the cramps were for Viddy - he couldn't drive home and had to walk up his drive backwards once he'd crowbarred himself out of the back of the car.  We'd even had to stop to let him stretch whilst on the M1 - watch the video on YouTube to see true compassion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-C1YTzFv5s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Job done.  Currently on the plane to Tulsa

Bonk or not to Bonk?

Pre-race prep.  It's a dilemma, whether you are going to Bonk or not. 

For the shorter races, you can probably get away with it.  With the longer races you need absolutely everything in your reserves to get you through.  This week, I had challenged myself with the normal training.....  finishing off the week with a "practice" trail marathon called the Bedford Clanger.  So would I Bonk or not?  I'd Bonked before and it was very painful - I didn't want to do it again.  I was doing the marathon with Viddy and UltraJ - so I definately didn't want to Bonk with them depending on me to get around.  I had to get the pre-race prep right.

Training this week comprised of more longer distance speedwork (tempo runs) as I had relooked at the schedule that I created some 9 weeks ago.  This running is near 90% of effort and should help you legs improve their ability to remove the lactic acid for the longer marathon race pace run.  My schedule called for one a week and I hadn't done one really since the end of January.

The dullsville night-time roads of Harpenden entertained my following training runs:

Tuesday: 8.5 miles with 4miles as a tempo run (my schedule says 6-8 miles at the moment)
Thursday:  7.7 miles with 3 x 1mile runs and a long cool down
Friday:  3.2 miles easy

Total (pre-marathon of 26.2 miles) of 18.4 miles.  Will continue to crank up the distance of the tempo runs and reduce the hill reps.

I thought I had overdone the running in my prep - but was I going to Bonk or not?  As I write this, I am awaiting the race results for a race report.  Once received, I will write up a race report.  Of to Tulsa in the morning for 3 days - back on Friday.  I will be missing Sophia's 7th birthday - but at least I was around for the 18 kids who descended on our house on Friday afternoon.  Hopefully by my return, Kate will also have recovered from her injury that has meant her limping about since Friday.....

Pain from being picked up by the fuzz

Running this week comprised of:

Tuesday:  9miles including 10x2min hill reps up Crabtree with Lee and BenK.  With the recoveries at 3 mins trotting back down the hill we were very late back to homebase at AROs.  Colin did not take advice from Andy to dump the bags left there in the street and was patiently waiting.

Thursday:  7.5 miler loop down Swan Walk towards Peters Green with some serious mud down trails such as Partridge Alley on way back.  Laboured through 3x1m intervals as fast as I could manage in the conditions.

Friday:  a very heavy legged 8.5m slogged around Sandridge - with short debates in my mind whether to take short-cuts or stay on the road.  Normally a no-brainer to say no, I did succumb and take the diagonal route across Nomansland.  Wondered if was the 6am run, yesterday's efforts or the cold I was keeping at bay.

Sunday:  Kate hijacked my normal 7-10am slot for a run by doing Berko Half.  Despite pre-race reservations on her likely performance, she did well on a difficult course to get a PB just shy of 1:50.  Many of the AROs did Silverstone and shaved a little (or lots for Colin at 14mins) off their times to get PBs. Viddy got MV50 for a 20miler in the wilds and hills of Norfolk whilst disaster of the day goes to UltraJ at Steyning Stinger.  He suffered from a missing marker post (at 20m when he was in joint lead position) on a trail marathon to eventually do 30miles rather than the standard 26.2m....  A few Guinness in the evening might have sorted him out.  Turns out one of the guys at Ravens came in 2nd.  As for my run - 18.5m done in 2:18 over the trails towards Kimpton. Just me and Dazerelli in the intermittent, but much appreciated sunshine.

As for being picked up by the fuzz....... 　Returning from Jachenau on Tuesday, we dutifully filled the car before returning it. We'd been told to fill it or leave it empty as there was a flat fee of €140 for Hertz to fill it.  Having been told that the tank was not full (€85 just spent), I took the decision to go fill it myself again - just in case.  It did squeeze another 1.5 litres I to it and I got some more loose change out of my pocket!  On the way back, a moustached and leatherclad stereotype suddenly jumps out in front of me and waves me down...  parting painfully with €120 for doing 91km in a 50km, I gingerly made my way back to Kate and the kids and a poor explanation how I had managed to save €15.  At least had the pleasure of concluding a great holiday without any incident to the passports that had been in my care the whole week.


43.5m for the week.   £400 raised so far - so thanks to all who have sponsored me!

Snow, ice and hills

A week in Bavaria from Tuesday to be spent with Kate's cousins (David, Hanni, Jenni and Nik) meant training would have to take a back seat - or would it...?

Wednesday at Lake

A lovely flight on RyanAir to Munich and a 2hour wait for the hire car, 2+ hour drive in the snow meant no time for the normal Tuesday run, but the following day I did have the pleasure of being dropped off in the brilliant sunshine a few miles up the road at the Walchensee lake to run home along some trails for 6-7miles.  Relying on my "speirsy senses" I went on - sometimes belligerently to the extreme - at one point to realise that I was running up the bed of a stream through 12" of snow and not a path... Overall, the back doubles meant 9.6 miles done with only one 10 min mile in the middle of it due to the deepest of the snow I encountered.

Top of the peak with
view to the lake

Thursday:  I was encouraged by the potential return of my nav skills, so I looked at a map and targeted an ascent and loop near to a 1000m peak.  The snow was thin at the bottom, but got steadily thicker. I debated whether it was the hill or the snow that was making me walk - I tested them independently and it was definitely both.  This meant 2.5 miles achieved in just under 50 mins. Having followed the icy, snow filled footprints of the only other idiot to have gone up the hill before me, I went over the last false summit I had encountered and spotted a sign off to the left which seemed to go down a sheer cliff to Jachenau....  It turned out to be the quickest, MOST exhilarating, ear popping descent and leap of faith to trust myself not to twist an ankle or break a leg.  I tried to keep tabs on the markings on the trees to guide my way down. (I also debated the merits of carrying my phone, as once again, I had no clue where I was - but there was limited signal.)  10.7 miles, including a very long hill session.


Sunday: long run planned around Walchensee lake. After 2 days of glorious sun - a new layer of snow greeted us in the morning. I parked the car at the lake, promptly realising that I was stuck in the snow.  Getting on with the run seemed the best thing to do and to hope for the best later. There were 3 different stretches around the lake...

Sunday at the lake

(1) snow covered road where the only thing I saw was the snowplough clearing the roads
(2) a wet road north where I realised that I'd had a limited breakfast and the fondue and schnapps from the night before was probably not the best prep
(3) snow road and trails and making fresh tracks in the 10cm of snow, within which one wrong turn meant a tumble over rocks or logs (can't tell which as were all covered in snow). 

The car was eventually a welcome sight and managed to dislodge it and so avoided another 5 miles run to get help (no phone signal again).. One 9:40min mile when off-roading with 15.2 miles done in total.



Total of 35 miles for the week, excluding other hill sessions with kids to do the sledging.

Not a yard skied all week by me with no regrets at all...  having had a superb week with the kids who learnt to ski, with excellent and appreciated hospitality from Kate's cousins the Warhams.  Monday rest and back on Tuesday for dullsville roads in Harpenden.