Mini Mountain Marathon (+a little extra)

Been a busy week this one.  Last Saturday (20th April), I was out for my normal short-weekend run (I alternate between short and long weekends) when I realised that I was running pain free - bit of a novelty, as I have always had some sort of painful niggle since the Tuesday after my first Lakeland 50 recce weekend way back in 2010.

Sunday was a really good day out in the Peak District with Kieran Davis, from my running club (Erewash Valley).  I have a route, which is 13 miles long, with 3400ish feet of climb.  We started running at 7:30am, didn't see anyone for the next hour and a half.  It was fantastic.  Even took some photos.

First 3 are from Lose Hill, next 5 from Mam Tor and the rest from Win Hill.  The run is in preparation for the Old County Tops fell race, which I am doing with Kieran.  Haven't told him yet, but I'm hoping for 8 hours-ish.

Monday was a rest day, Tuesday parents evening so no training.  Wednesday night, club night and Pairs race time.  The pairs race is both cunning and evil in its simplicity.  Circular route, fastest paired with slowest, second fastest with second slowest, etc.  All set off at the same time, fast in one direction, slow in the other.  You meet your partner, handover the baton, and return the way you came, in theory arriving at the same time
as your partner.  Somehow, I managed to get paired with the (by her own admission!) slowest, and our resident fast bloke with the no-so.  Anyways, I decided to use Stuart Mills' approach of seeing this as a challenge, and not the usual "aaargh pairs race get me away from here!".  Worked, I think.  Managed a decent pace over the hilly bits, and after the turn around,hammered it home, picking off Gary right at the end (should really have let him know I was close...)  Results.  Has to be the first pairs race I have actually enjoyed since the first one I did (in 2008...).  As soon as I figure out how to link Strava with this, I'll post my routes.

Saturday.  Long run day.  5 hours.  Took it easy, for 2 reasons.  1, I was racing the next day.  2, I wanted to see just where the inevitable "slow-down" hit whilst taking it easy, and how my mileage would compare to my previous 5 hour run.  Well, my slow-down hit at 4 hours, compare to 3 and a half for my previous 5 hour run.  However, I only managed 30.8 miles, as opposed to 37 for the faster start.  I know which approach I'll be using from now on...

Sunday.  Dark and White Racekit Mini Mountain Marathon.  Was supposed to be race 3, but was race 2 as the original race 2 was postponed due to snow.  We rocked up early, aiming to be the first out (I travelled up with Neil and Cee Weightman from the club) as we both had things on that afternoon.  Turns out that up in Castleton, it was a bit colder than home.  Also, a bit windier.  I had shorts on, wasn't best pleased.  To make matters worse, I had to put my waterproof coat on to keep warm,which smelt a bit grim after the previous days run.  Started off very sedately, but after about half an hour, I was feeling unreasonably good, and had picked up the pace a lot, knocking through the controls quite nicely, climbing well, slightly slow on the downs though.  Messed up fairly horrendously on the second to last checkpoint though.  Was making my way back to the start/finish, climbing up Cave Dale to a control that was there.  Didn't check the description, just assumed it would be on the fence.  It wasn't.  Had to go back and collect, which cost me enough time and effort that I was 8 and a bit minutes over, losing 13 points from my score.  Sad times. Ended up 8th, which is my worst result there in ages, but happy in the knowledge that if I was fresher, I would have tagged all of the checkpoints (missed out 4).  Results.

So, pretty happy with the week, Ladybower 50 recce Saturday.  Should be fun!

Adventure in Majorca

Last September, I put my name down on the Unite website (here), as I had done for the previous few months.  How surprised was I when I received an email saying that I had won an absolute shed-load of stuff.  There was a Landrover experience, gym membership with Fitness First, Cycling holiday with Stephen Roche, Nite ICON IC6 watch, Osprey bag, Olympus camera, tickets to the ski and snowboard event in London, Powermonkey Solar adventurer and a years subscription to Mens Fitness magazine.  This post is about the cycling trip to Majorca.

Tuesday 4th April myself and my brother-in-law Stephen Dilley flew out of East Midlands Airport at about 7am.  Everything went smoothly, no luggage was missing and there was a bloke with a sign with my name on it.  A short bus ride later and we were at the Ponent Mar in Majorca, our base of operations for the next few days.  We were met by Patricia from Stephen Roche who sorted us out with everything, then we unpacked and went for an explore while we waited for the mechanic to get back to fit our bikes.

We returned just in time to meet the group returning from their ride and had a chat - somehow Steve managed to set up a ride for the next day, as Wednesdays are rest days.  This was with none other than Hot Chillee Ride Captain Rachel Przybylski.  At this point I started getting a little bit concerned - Stephen does a bit of cycling, as he is a triathlete.  Last time my backside touched my bike seat was...2 years previous.  We got our bikes set up, then went out for a run.  Very warm.  Much warmer than the 0 degrees England was experiencing!

Dinner time.  Buffet.  There were tables reserved for the people in the Stephen Roche group.  We were in first and sat down (feeling a bit fraudulent as we hadn't cycled anywhere yet!).  Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming, and were all competent cyclists.  Eeek.  To take my mind off that, I managed 5 courses (soup, salad, main, dessert, dessert).

Wednesday.  Buffet breakfast.  I have been trying out a high-fat low-carb breakfast for a few weeks, and this fitted in nicely.  We then suited up and met Rachel for our ride, which was only going to be 45km (only!) with a decent climb in the middle to Galilea, with a cafe on the top, and a small climb on the way back.  Thankfully, Rachel was having a rest day so didn't grind us into the dust.  Happily, I also found out the stupid amount of running training I do translates well into fitness on a bike, and especially the climb up to Galilea.

View from most of the way up the climb

View from the cafe

View looking the other way

Stephen stretching

 Excellent coffee at the cafe, then followed the descent.  This was where you could really tell I'm not a cyclist.  No technique, and relatively slow, but I had loads of fun.  Brilliant ride back, the last small climb was only 3km(!) long.  Also got up to 70kph on the descent into Palma Nova.

Then followed an afternoon of relaxation, followed by a gentle run to Magaluf and back.  Dinner with the rest of the group, then early bed with tired legs and aching belly.

Thursday.  Decision time.  The first official ride with the crew, 85km (nearly twice as far as I had ever ridden before.  The furthest was the previous day...) taking in the Col d'Orient - a 5.5km km climb.  There were 4 groups - group 1 being the really fit cyclists, group 4 being more relaxed.  We opted for group 3, which set a fairly good pace along the flattish bits.  I was in non-competitive mode as I didn't want to injure myself, which lasted until someone passed me on the climb.  Pushed hard all the way to the top, and was feeling pretty good about myself.

Stephen at the top

Me at the top

I promptly got put in my place by being hammered downhill, then it was a stop for coffee and cake.  A brisk ride home after that, then another afternoon of relaxing, but no run tonight.  Quads were starting to let me know I was using them in ways they were not used to.  Another 5 course meal, and early bed again.

Friday.  Usual breakfast, then it was off on the Corniche circuit.  This involved going North for a bit, then cutting over to the coast and following that before heading back to Palma Nova.  Me and Steve were going to set out with group 3 again, but 2 and 3 were grouped together for this ride, which I didn't mind at all.  Nice easy ride up, then there was a climb followed by a descent back to the coast.  Sadly, group 1 caught us   at the bottom of the climb, and my competitive instinct took over.  Managed to beat all but one of them to the top, but I was pretty whacked by the time I got there, and still with 50km to go!  On the coast, then the views were spectacular. 

Me :)

We stopped for coffee and cake, then straight in to a big climb.  My legs hated me.  More so because I misheard the call and went out with group 1.  So I pushed hard all of the way up, was in front of most of them, then came the down,where I ended up behind most of them.  Getting better at the downs, but still not a patch on the good guys.

Brief stop in Andraxt while we re-sorted groups, then off up another (!) climb.  Stupidly, I was right on the wheel of the group leader who kept getting faster and faster.  So instead of letting him go, I tried keeping up.  Nearly kept with him to the top but lost it in the last 100m.  Then an easy ride back to Palma Nova.  Afternoon of relaxation, followed by no run (quads shattered).  Also, the eating was catching up on me, only managed 3 courses (although I did manage a massive plate of dessert!).

Saturday. Leaving day, but still enough time for one last ride.  It was the same circuit that we did on Wednesday, except the other way around.  Still fantastic.  

Back to the hotel, grab bags and things, make our goodbyes then back home to freezing cold England - this time with a slight hitch.  I forgot my permanent resident card, so I ended up being that guy sat in the chair by passport control while they checked out my credentials.  Then out to see my wife and 2 daughters and home for a well deserved rest.

The holiday was absolutely brilliant, and the Stephen Roche crew were fantastic - extremely friendly, made us feel welcome and the rides were very well organised.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in cycling.

tl;dr Went on holiday to Majorca courtesy of a Unite/Nite Watches competition to a Stephen Roche cycling camp.  Was brilliant, recommend highly.

The blog begins...and the Torq "assessment" day

Probably not the most auspicious start, because as I write this, a bomb has gone off at the end of the Boston Marathon, and am watching events unfold through twitter.  Thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected.

So, what's kicked off this sudden desire to write about me?  Well, admittedly, it's partly to do with the Torq Trail Team, but mostly to do with the fact that I actually have time to do this now.  I have finally finished my Maths degree.  Stupidly, I did this whilst working, having 2 children and trying to train for ultra marathons.  I also wanted the degree out of the way quickly, so I did it at the maximum rate - the equivalent of a full time degree.  Fun times.

A while back, can't exactly remember how long, I saw on Facebook that Torq were looking to set up a trail running team, but more importantly, one that is not necessarily made up of elite athletes.  So, I filled in the application form, lamented about my lack of  blog, and mentally debated for ages on what to put as my best achievements in an effort to make it sound vaguely impressive.  I also shared the link with Chris Baynham-Hughes (blog here) who does have some actual impressive achievements.

The assessment day was held at either London, or near Church Stretton, and the Long Mynd.  I opted for the Long Mynd, as I love the area.  There's a couple of quality fell races, one of which (Long Mynd Valleys) is the most brutal 12ish mile race I have ever done.

The day was going to kick off at 10, but there was an informal run going out at about 8:30, so I was in the car at 6:45.  My plan was to take the usual route to Church Stretton, but keep on the A5 a little longer, then join on to the A4 down to Ratlinghope, where the event was.  Only problem with this, was the the A5 and A4 aren't actually connected...  So I ended up having an interesting drive over the Stiperstones, on what is essentially little more than a farm track, with my fingers crossed that it wasn't blocked by snow.  It wasn't :).

Finally arrived at 8:40-ish, met Simon from Torq, followed by Julie, then Simon Freeman.  Had a brief chat with them, then was told that Stuart Mills was looking for me, for a run.  Simon went to let him know I was there, and what followed was some sort of comedy.  For the next 10 minutes, we followed each other around the hostel, but not actually meeting each other (and the hostel wasn't that big!) with Simon chasing us both and attempting to direct us to the same point but somehow failing.  Met, then for the second time in the space of 4 days, went for a run with Millsy, with Simon from Torq acting both as guide, and recceing the route  he would be leading later that day.  Some awesome views towards the Stiperstones from the top, with nothing but cloud towards Caer Caradoc, which was disappointing.

Met up with 2 runners travelling in the other direction, one was Ben the boxer, the other - easily identified by his enormous sideys - Sam Robson.  Fresh from the Viking Way, and still able to run.

Quick shoe and sock change when we got back, then in to mingle and chat with all the other Torq Team hopefuls.  Put names and faces to all of the people I had randomly followed on twitter, and met a guy from Chesterfield who had spent a year working on a dairy farm very close to where I used to live in New Zealand.  Small world.  Caught up with Chris Baynham-Hughes (funny story - met Chris whilst doing the Welsh 1000m Peaks fell race last year. Absolutely pants weather, so the wet weather route was used, which meant the first 12 or so miles were on road.  Pleased I was wearing Mudclaws.  Anyways, finished the race  - 20th place - and it was so bloody cold at the top of Snowdon I nipped into the cafe, put all of my kit on then started off down the mountain towards LLanberis.  Because it was cold, the map stayed in my pack, and I ended up going down the Rangers Path...which is not really towards LLanberis at all. Chris caught me up near the bottom and we ran out together, having added an extra few miles onto an already 20 mile or so race.) and Kristof Nowicki (who is currently 2nd in the Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon series).

First up on the podium was Ben, from Torq, doing a talk (Torq?) on nutrition.  Didn't envy him on this, as it's one of those areas that trail ultra runners have their own particular views on, especially with the whole fat burning thing going on.  He did amazingly well, and I learnt a few things - biggest thing I took away from that was the detrimental effect that eating fat had during the run, that it blocks carb absorption.  Although it does mean no choccy.  Even more amazing, it was his first talk, and up in front of some extremely clued-up people.  My personal jury is still out on the whole hydration thing though.  Still reckon sports drinks/electrolyte drink are a gigantic pile of marketing bollocks, but I still use them in racing.  Just in case.

Next up was Millsy, fellow Kiwi, and a bit of a legend.  For those of you who haven't followed his blog (here) he's been up at the pointy end of whichever sport he has turned his hand to over the past 30 or so years.  I had a fair idea of what to expect, having read most of his blog (it's ultra in every sense) and having gone on a 4 hour run with him the previous Wednesday, I had no doubts on his ability to talk.  He didn't disappoint.  Dunno whether it's us doth being Kiwis, but turns out we have fairly similar views on race strategy (fast as you can for as long as you can, you're going to slow down anyway so make the most of it), self belief and target setting, and views on core work.  I reckon the best way to get a good strong trail running core is...to do more trail running.

After that epic, it was time to tighten up the shoe laces and head out for a run.  I had my Torq bar (Pineapple and Ginger, tasty), put my windproof on and headed outside.  Turns out the weather had changed, and was bloody cold.  Went for another steady trot, same route as the morning but in reverse, and with less view and more mud.  Took it very easy and had a great time chatting to loads of people, until a small downhill section with knee-deep snow.  Couldn't help myself, had to charge down that like a small child.  A small wait just after a very boggy section for the middle section of the group, who were temporarily misplaced.  Then back down off the hill and to the hostel, where the race for the showers began, and for some of us, the hunt for the owner of the silver Ford Focus.

30 minutes later, managed to get out of the car park (should have parked in the pub overflow really), and off back home buzzing from the awesome day with like-minded "trailie" insaniacs inspired to do more, run longer and actually do this blog on the off chance that someone, somewhere may get motivated to do what I did - stop drinking to excess, stop smoking and get off the couch.

Thanks once again to Simon and Julie from Freestak and Simon and Ben Torq  for setting this up, and giving some of us not quite at the pointy end of races the chance to run like we are the elite.

tl;dr Went to Torq Assessment day, was awesome and inspiring.