South Devon Weekend

Friday evening I caught the train to South Devon, Totnes, with a group of Serpentine runners for the Devon Coastal Marathon. After getting to Totnes and the second hire car not being there, a few of us waited for another of the party who was coming on the next train. We then caught a cab, stopping for groceries en route, and still managed to get to our rented cottage way before the hire car group. Country roads without names, no GPS...they had to resort to getting a drunk guy to draw them a map. But, they got to the cottage eventually and we all got to bed at a reasonable hour in prep for the morning run.

My alarm went off at 6am. I awoke, looked at it and thought, "I've not got work today...shit the f**k up!" At 7am laughter from the kitchen woke me up with just 30-min to get ready before we'd to leave for registration. So, a quick coffee and two digestive biscuits...the kinda breakfast you need before a trail marathon!

Race organisation was top notch. From reg., throughout the course and at the finish, it really was well organised. Anyway, we headed out at 9am with a chopper buzzing overhead for the first 10 or 15 minutes. They were filming for Sky TV extreme sports show and apparently trail running's an extreme sport now (no-one's mentioned this to the fell running crowd!).

The first 15 miles of the course were the best – along the coastal trail and a mix of rock, mud, streams and beaches. After there, we wound our way back through the countryside. Still beautiful, as we ran through hamlets, farms and along singletrack, but it didn’t have the same wow factor as running past the lighthouse and cliffs. Maybe it was something to do with my cramping legs though? At around 15 miles we hit the tarmac for about a mile. I cramped within a few hundred metres. I furkin hate the roads! So, the remainder of the run was cramp management. I had to slow down enough so that I could rehydrate on the move.

Around this point I ‘ran’ with a young squadie called Jacko. It was his first marathon of any description and he was suffering after having overcooked it in the first half. I stayed with him, tab’ing (tactical advance to battle – although, I wasn’t sure where the battle was, I wanted to get there!), for a couple of miles. After losing him on a couple of downhills, I decided to crack on as he was really tying up.

My twitching legs continued to threaten to cramp for the rest of the run, and did a few times. Once, just a mile from the finish, I cramped right outside a pub. I had to stand there and stretch for several minutes with people enjoying lunches looking at my wondering “wtf?”

But, 6hr 24min and 1sec after setting off, I crossed the line, grinning and feeling pretty good. When the cramps set in I decided to not get too worried about it. I figured that it was good prep for ultra – learn to manage pain and discomfort. I did that for about 3hrs, so a good days practice, I’d say!

There are three more races in the Devon Coastal Trail Series; Pembrokeshire, Cornwall and Exmoor. I’d recommend them. Scenery’s great, other runners very friendly (trail races are nothing like road races from this point of view) and the organisation is great. For now though...I’m going to see if I can mobilise my legs enough to take Olly for an easy 5 miler.

Next Week's Training

here's a snap-shot of what's planned for the coming week. The week's got an off-road marathon on Saturday in Devon. Normally, if trying to run well, I'd be resting more, but as the mara's prep for the May ultra, I'll be only tapering back slightly. Mid-week's not big anyway, due to work, so not a big diff.

Mon: Spinning (45min) + weights circuit

Tue: Easy 45min run

Wed: Tempo 45min run

Thurs: Spinning (45min) + weights circuit

Fri: Easy 4mile run + travel to Devon

Sat: Devon Coastal Marathon

Sun: REST!!

21 Cross-country

After a pretty light week of training (mon to fri), Saturday called for a 21 miler over mud an' hills. Was great when I started out as the ground was still frozen, but within an hour, the sun was up. Beautiful blue-sky day, but mean that the frozen trails were muddy and wet. So a couple of hours of wet, cold feet. Great!

Felt pretty good throughout - tired in the last couple of miles and the hills were a challenge, but was very pleased to get a >20miler done. Next weekend's going to be tough though - 26.2miles over the Devon Coastal Trail. Will treat it as a long training run and just try and get around in something around 5-hours. The average men's time for the course is 4:59:16, so if I nip in under 5-hours, I'll be chuffed! The 3:41 record (close to a 4-hr marathon is the record, so tells you how gnarly it is!) is a little out of my reach, I think, so 5 hrs will do just fine!

Today - Sunday - I'm pretty still. Although that may have something to do with the 90-min of snowboarding I did last night?! Was a Level 1 session, but I'm def going to be going again!

Run down...

Monday's always a tough day...back to getting up while it's still dark. Felt particularly tough today though as I'm feeling very run-down. Not through volume of training, but just after Saturday's exertion. Was a big jump up and I was feeling pretty tired beforehand.

So, I'm being very sensible... TWO rest days! Feeling much better this evening for it too. Tomorrow's an easy 45min run, Wed's 60min AT session, Thur's 45min steady pace, Fri's rest/weight circuit, Sat's 21 miles and Sun's 45min slowwwww... a loosen out after Sunday and just to start getting me used to running on really tired legs.

Olly relaxing after a run

Saturday is the new Sunday

Yep, Saturday is def the new Sunday for the longest run of the week. Problem with Sunday is, you go out for a 3+ hour run, you're pooped all day and on Monday, when you've to get up at 6/6:30am as I do, you're still wrecked! So, Saturday's now my long run day. You can stay in the getting up early routine of Monday - Friday, then you're out the door by 7:30am and the run's all done by 11am!

Yesterday was 19-miles of the usual hilly, muddy cross-country. Met with Chris Wilson, an old mate from my days at Tri London but who now runs 'Team Bodylab, for about 6 or 7 miles of it. Makes the miles go by much easier when you're out with someone. And as Chris is an experienced athlete and isn't one of these guys that needs to be half a stride in front, it makes for a nice even paced and sociable run.

After doing the middle few miles with Chris, I had the 6 miles back over the country field between Hadley Woods and Crewes Hill. Olly had nabbed himself a nice chunky rabbit on our way out, but so he didn't have to carry it the whole way, I got him to stash it and we collected it then again with about 4 miles to run to home. Once we were out of the countryside (where everyone was complimentary of his self-service lunch) and back into Enfield Town, a lot of the townies were looking at him in horror as he ran along, head held high with pride, and with a large rabbit flailing from his jaws. As he's moulting and there are clumps of fur on him, he looked pretty wild, so it did look as though I was running down the street with a wolf with a rabbit in his jaws. Quality moment!!

Although my right hip, which saw me out of action for 8-months in 2008, was stiff after last weekends 5k-country race (where we ran hard and came 5th), it is fine now (Sunday, 24-hrs after the run). I'm going to be very cautious though...I can't afford a problem with the hip/glutes at this stage of preparation for an ultra in 3-months! Got to stay healthy and injury-free in order to have consistent training. Consistent moderate weeks are better than sporadic weeks of mad training, followed by a week off/easy to let an injury heal or to get over a feeling of utter exhaustion. Today, for example, I'll be going for a long walk, a short weights curcuit and core stability training and that's it. Tomorrow; massage, spinning. So two days of no running. Then 5-days in a row with a 21 miler next Sat, then taper for the Devon Coastal marathon on 27th Feb. Looking forward to that, but I know it will be tough - I don't have enough long runs in my legs to do it and feel comfortable!

Right... time to build new dog crate for car.

The damp makes it worse.

Ok, it’s not the damp weather that causes my hip to hurt, but whenever I think of dodgy hips, I think of older people complaining that the damp’s the cause. In late 2007/early 2008 I was training hard (maybe too hard) and started to suffer with piriformis syndrome, where a deep gluteal muscle causes the sciatic nerve to be compressed, resulting in pain/discomfort in the butt, back of leg. This can become worse and travel down the leg, but fortunately I’ve just got a pain in the ass!

It was tight around the area after a few hard runs and last night it started to really hurt from the first step. Solution – I’ve to rest today (well, by rest I mean ‘not run’, butu there’ll be a spinning session and weights circuit) and then in the morning (7:30am!) we’re out for a 19-mile x-country run. I’m actually quite looking forward to the long run, but I am concerned about the hip causing probs, or it getting worse after the run.

Oh well, I collect my new car tomorrow and fortunately the bucket seats are so damn comfy that my ass could be totally numb ,and I reckon I’d not notice. (wishful thinking).

Ok...butt pain’s all the the head. 19 in the morning.

Weekend: Feb 6th/7th.

The weekend saw no long run, but a good result at a Cani'x' race. I ran angry after the stupid organisor requested that I move my number - to a place it still couldn't be seen. Anyway, 'nough said about that; just gets me going again. I clipped off a 6:10 first mile and wrapped up the 3.2 miles with that last 0.2 of a mile in 51 seconds. All in, 5th place was ok and I came across the line and threw my number back at him, which I'd run with in my hand throughout!! Could've run faster if not for the too fast first mile, but shows that I just need to keep working on the speed endurance - more tempo runs and long reps then.

Was good to have a lower mileage week after a few weeks building up. Now I'll settle down to two very tough weeks before having a week backing off for the Devon Coastal marathon on 27th Feb. Right... no choice but to do some long runs this week and next then!

Ok, gotta look at this pic regularly to remind myself that I need to get back in skinny runner shape!!

Wildmen and dogs

Here's a snap of Olly and I coming in to finish the Merrell Wildman 10k x-country race. Despite starting a minute after the main field, Olly needing to stop for a vomit and a poop, we still finished 18th. Not a bad morning.

From Feb. onwards...

After my last post in November where I was ‘feeling groggy after flu vaccine (seasonal)’, I came down with ‘piggy flu’ and then that led to a bad cough. In short, I was out of running for almost a month. The over xmas I started rebuilding, slightly nervous all the time that I didn’t have enough time to build up the mileage for my key early 2010 goal of running the 24-hour challenge and getting 100-miles done in that time.

I’m pleased to say that January went quite well. Just getting back into the routine again and getting miles in even during the snowy period – I wore my track spikes! Mileage still isn’t that high though – work hrs often make it difficult to get much in during the week. But I’m getting good x-country long runs in at weekends. Last Sunday was a good 2 ½ hours over a hilly, muddy route. Got to build these runs up a couple of miles a week and then in mid-march and throughout April, do what I think is the key training for ultra – back-to-back long runs. You need to get used to running tired, so running 2hrs+ on a Saturday followed by 4-5hrs on a Sunday (or vice-versa if you really want to make it hurt!) is really the key to running a strong ultra marathon.

Previously when training for ultra, I had much more time in the week to train. I would run from work (c.10-miles) and also get in lunchtime sessions. As I’ve not got much time during the week to get mileage in I’m trying to make the mid-week runs count more. This means that I’m running more fartlek (unstructured/semi-structured interval sessions) and tempo (anaerobic threshold) runs. The thinking is that if I add more quality, then running 9+min/miles in the ultra should feel relatively slow and easy. Most week in February look like this:

M: rest or x-train
T: steady 5 miles – usually still sore from weekend
W: fartlek or tempo 6 miles
T: steady 7-8 miles
F: steady 5 miles
S: fartlek or tempo 6-8 miles
S: long x-country 17, 19, 21 miles with the Devon Coastal Marathon on the 27th.

So the weekly mileage is only around 50 miles a week at the moment, but it’s of pretty good quality. In March the long runs will increase up to 30 miles every other week and from mid-march, the Saturday fartlek/tempo will be replaced with a 2-3 hour x-country run. March will also see an intensive week of training as I’ll be taking annual leave to set up my own little training ‘camp’, which will probably be here in the UK.

Ok, for now...I just need to get psyched for the steady 7-8miles tonight. Also, on Sunday I’m running a race in Surrey, so mileage will have to be tagged onto that to make up the assigned 17 for the day....I hate having to do that! Running 10+ miles after a short race ain’t fun!!!