Monday 14 December 2015

Keyworth Turkey Trot

Previous week's training:

Monday:  10.4 mile run after work.  Felt good!

Tuesday: 15x 30 sec efforts at approx 5min/mile, 45 sec rest.  Sounds a lot, but in reality only 7.5 minutes hard running.  Need to double that for next time!

Wednesday:  Club night, annual F.A.R.T.S. run (First Alternative Run To Stanley).  New route as clubhouse changed, 12 steady miles.

Thursday:  Pyramid!  2/3/4/5/4/3/2 minutes with 60/90/120/120/90/60 seconds rest.  All at around h/m pace of 6min/mile.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Paintballing.  Which is now added to my list of "Things Not To Do The Day Before A Race".  An inordinate amount of time holding a crouch meant dead quads for...

Sunday:  Turkey Trot Half Marathon.  13.1 miles, 501ft of climb, 1:20:17 and 17th place. 

Strava here

It's my annual road half, and a nice scenic one at that.  It's not flat, but not ridiculously hilly and a good chance to get a good pace going on for stretch.  My club mate Tom has been going from strength to strength this year (upping his mileage from 50 per month to 150 may have had a bit to do with it...) and was looking for a p.b., and also to beat me. 

I was just looking to stay ahead of him.

My race nutrition plan had started the night before, with a Mountain Fuel Night Fuel (made up with hot milk - pretty tasty).  2 pieces of toast for breakfast with a Morning Fuel made up with hot water.  On the drive in I sipped a bottle of Extreme Energy Fuel made up with 500ml water.

Arrived to the race with Tom, caught the transfer coach to the race (it was cold out!) and went to inspect the Derby Runner race stall.  It's my local running gear shop, and I like to support local whenever I can - so new road shoes! 

Got myself changed, put on my arm warmers (don't like cold), caught up with some club mates and David Greenwood, an up and coming ultra-runner.  Went for a warm up jog around the block and discovered that my quads were feeling a bit...iffy...but ok.

Ready to go, on the start line, go!  Felt pretty good for the first bit, running strong and on pace.  The intro 2 miles is downhill overall, and easy to get carried away on.  So I did, but this time I eased back a bit when it flattened out.  Even found a photographer:

Photos by John Oldfield

As you can see, arm warmers on, and slightly in front of Tom.  Even both feet off the ground!

At mile 3 is the only decent hill on the course.  Good gradient, about 160ft of climbing, usually where I gap the group I'm with and catch the next one.  Today, my quads said, quite firmly, "no".  Tom gapped me, I struggled up and felt a little sad when I reached the top.  Being an undulating course, if I was going to be like this every climb, it was going to be depressing!

Thankfully I caught Tom up again and we got into a bit of a groove and the miles flew by.  We started reeling in the people who had started off too fast and life was generally going well.  I was full of energy, and my dead quads, while not up to the usual standard, were now playing ball.  Until Mile 10.

At about mile 8 there is a 1.5ish mile steady down hill, followed by a bit of flat, then a long grind up to about 10.5 miles.  That part really hurt.  Tom started drifting ahead, and some other bloke caught up.  Thankfully there is a steep downhill, which somehow perked me up.  Caught back up to Tom then started gassing it up the other side past the 11 mile marker.

I pushed as hard as I could along the next flattish mile, with Tom either on my shoulder or just in front of me: 

Photos by John Oldfield
The last 200-300m is slightly uphill through an estate.  I figured I'd probably lose out if I was still side-by-side with Tom, so I pushed early.  Thankfully he broke before I did, and I finished about 5 seconds in front of him.  I was about 20 seconds slower than my fastest time, but Tom achieved a 20 second pb, which was a fantastic result.
 
Things that went well:  My fuelling experiment worked perfectly, I felt strong the whole way around, not even a 10-mile dip.  Nailed it with Mountain Fuel.
 
 Strong pace most of the way round - only "hanging" at one point, and not for long.

Things I need to sort:  Don't Do Stupid Stuff The Day Before A Race!  Paintballing, yep, that's stupid.

As ever my thanks go out to the following for supporting me on my journey:

 
The Ultra Runner Store: http://ultra-runner.com/ 
 
 
 
Next week's training

Monday: 6.7 miles steady recovery 

Tuesday: 15x 60sec, 45 sec recovery.  Potentially cut short, depending on how recovered I feel.

Wednesday: 10 mileish steady run.

Thursday: 2x 15 min, 5 min recovery @6min/mile pace-ish)

Friday: Rest! (Yay!)

Saturday: 2 hours-ish at around 6:50-7min/mile pace

Sunday: No idea yet.  Maybe 90 minutes.

Monday 7 December 2015

Turkey Trot Lead Up

This Sunday, it's time for my annual 80-ish minutes of pain.  My annual road half marathon.  It's about as much as I can take of it, because it is working the thing I am not very good at - maintaining a painful pace for a decent stretch of time.

It's why I run long.  So I don't have to do fast.

I say that, but I do enjoy it.

This year, it's slightly different, as I'm not going to have my standard gel at 10 miles.  I'm experimenting.  This year, it's me + Mountain Fuel vs the Turkey Trot.  There's a lot riding on it too.  A pb of 1:19:something to try and beat, two fast-improving club mates to try and stay in front of, and some justification of my choice to leave gels behind.  Big ask.

I've pegged out my run tonight, 10.4 steady miles (here) and have got the following training for this week:

Tuesday: Couple of miles warm up, 15-18 30 sec reps, 45 sec recovery. (here)

Wednesday:  Club F.A.R.T.S. run.  That's First Alternative Run To Stanley.  About 13 miles or so, in the dark, across fields and through the Bog of Doom.

Thursday: Fun times Pyramid. 2/3/4/5/4/3/2 with 60sec/90sec/120sec/120sec/90sec/60sec recoveries.

Friday: Rest day,

Saturday: Paintballing.  So sprinting, and resting.

Sunday: Race day.

Nutrition strategy:  Follow the Mountain Fuel plan:  Night fuel the night before with warm milk.  2x pieces of toast with a Breakfast Fuel smoothie.  Sip an Extreme Energy Fuel on the way to the race.  Experiment is to see whether that lasts me the whole race.  I reckon it should - the very same fuelling lasted me about 20 miles on the White Rose 30 at a fairly decent clip, so 13 at a bit faster should be reet.

Pacing strategy:  Run faster than Tom and Andy.

I have no pacing strategy really, except for try and keep around 6min/mile.

Feed back on Sunday Night with how it went.

Monday 3 August 2015

Lakeland 50 - Take 5!

The Lead Up:

My last long race was the Scafell Trail Marathon, which went well, and with a few long steady runs under my belt I was feeling pretty good about the race.  I had scanned the entry list (as I do) and noted that, amongst others, Marcus Scotney and Ben Abdelnoor were going to be racing.  Matt Wilson was also running well, Phil Hayes who has completed nearly as many times as me, Sally Fawcett, Debbie Martin-Consani, James Haworth (beat me at the Highland  Fling) and Jayson Cavill (yay team-mate) so I was planning for a top 10 finish somewhere.

I was also part of a new Trail Team - the Ultra-Runner.com Trail Team, having taken a step back from the TORQ Performance Trail Team.  Although I still remain #TORQfuelled, I now have the opportunity to work with X-Bionic, Ultimate Direction and Injinji, which is pretty exciting!

The drive up on the Friday was a bit slow, but uneventful.  We arrived in plenty of time to get settled into the hotel, and wander down to the event center to catch up with everyone.  A quick chat with a few mates who were partaking in the 100 - Kevin and Chris Perry, Dave Troman, Janson Heath - then it was off to the Endurance Store to get myself some shoes to run in.  After a chat with Richard Bardon (who was supposed to be racing, but had completed an Ironman the weekend before - as if that was some kind of excuse) he convinced me to have a go on a pair of Hoka Mafate Speed 3's.  Turns out they were the same colour as my shorts and pack, as I was to find out later!

The start of the Lakeland 100 was its usual awesome affair, with some opera to start, then a protracted wave of runners, enthusiastic sprinters (led out by the irrepressible Ken Sutor) all the way back to the walkers at the back.  Always an awesome spectacle.  The it was back to get a spot at the front of the crowd for the Lakeland 1.  I was running with Esmee (5) this year, and Mel was with Josie (3).  Mr Fox was his usual entertaining self, doing his dance routine which Esmee had practised, and had near perfect.  They started, then the girls did really well, both running the whole distance, Esmee doing around 10 minutes, Josie doing sub-12!  Took a selfie with Esmee whilst waiting for the other 2 to finish...I'll talk more on that later.

Then back to the hotel, girls to bed, down to register where everything went as smoothly as it always does - the organisation is fantastic, then back to the hotel to try and get some sleep!

Race Day

After a couple of hour sleep, it was off to the event center for some toast, coffee and the pre-race talk which was as inspiring and hilarious as usual.  Packed on to one of the many buses, then off to Dalemain Estate for the start.  An uneventful journey, chatted lots to the guy next to me who was a first timer.  Arrived at the estate, and caught up with lots of friends who I was going to be racing with over the course of the day.  The wait was slightly less than normal as the start time had been changed to 11:30am, which was fantastic as the wait is the worst part!  Finally time to get scanned in to the waiting pen, had a quick chat with Marcus Scotney (who had forgotten his heart rate monitor!) and Ben Abdelnoor who were both looking fit and well (there goes first and 2nd)!  I also spotted Ben Hamilton, who had beaten me on the Kielder 50k - top 10 was starting to look shaky!

Photo - Jen Regan


Start!

James Harris (legend!) and Martin Gardiner sprinted off at the start, and led the field out James hilariously dressed in tutu, patchwork-looking vest and bow-tie.

Photo - Jen Regan


The 4 mile loop was the same as always, the fast starters coming back slowly, Marcus Scotney shooting off into the distance followed closely by Jayson Cavill, then Ben Abdelnoor with Phil Hayes chasing him down.  I formed a "chasing pack" with Micheal Irving, Stephen Weston and Anthony Bethell.  We essentially ran together until Checkpoint 1, Howtown, which we made in 1:21 ish.  Quick water refill, and off again.

Fusedale.  Everyone's least favourite part of the course.  My plan was, get to the top still feeling good.  Which I did.  Anthony absolutely smashed the climb, put minutes on me, and everyone else close pulled away as well.  Howard Seal caught me half-way at the stream, refilling, and Sally Fawcett caught me near the top.  We exchanged a few words, then it was the descent to Haweswater.  I let my legs go and set about catching the people on front.  Then Paul Grundy shot past.  ANother one to reclaim.

A bit of route confusion by Stephen and Paul, and I nipped in front of them for the run along Haweswater.  After a couple of bad experiences along here, I have learnt to love this section.  Nice, technical running and if you can keep a good even pace, time can be made.  Well, it can if you don't fall over!  Just about to re-take Paul and I switch off long enough for my toe to catch on something, and land on my side.  Sore knee, elbow, and shoulder.  (the shoulder bruise took a few days to come through, but it's a beauty!)



Up and running again, soreness fades quickly and I'm soon chasing Paul down again - and also Anthony B seems to be coming back towards me as well.  Paul and I dib into Mardale Head at about the same time, I'm in and out faster though.  I catch up to Anthony fairly quickly, and he looks not quite as chipper as he did.  As the climb up to Gatesgarth Pass progresses, Ant slowly falls behind so he must have been suffering to be dropped by me up a hill!  Near the top Paul caught me again, and we trotted down towards Sadgill Farm together before he changed gear and disappeared down the hill.  I ran solo from here to Kentmere CP, the home of the famous fruit smoothies.

Mine didn't taste that nice as this time I put a sachet of salt in - things were getting a little crampy.  Out the door and then off up to Garburn Pass.  Near the top I was again caught by Sally, who was looking as strong as ever.  Up over the top, there was Howard Seal on the side of the track, with legs in spasm.  He waved us on when we asked if he needed anything, and it was a nice trot down to Troutbeck, with Sally dropping off on the downhill.  Some news at the bottom - Marcus had dropped from the race - bonus, 1 place closer to the front!  I had a quick count though and figured I was in 5th at this point with Jayson, Ben, Phil and Paul in front.  I had also discovered that I had done something to my back/ribs/diaphragm at this point, and breathing wasn't as pain-free as it should have been.

And look, there's Phil, asking me which way to go.  4th!  Me, Phil and Sally ran as a 3 through Skelghyll Woods, then myself and Phil pulled away a little before the Ambleside CP.

My girls were waiting for me with the news that 3rd was only a couple of minutes ahead and didn't know where he was going.  I stopped in for a bottle refill and some salted coke.  Phil shot straight through, which I thought was adventurous - he was either confident or concerned.

Apparently there were clowns at Ambleside.  I really don't recall (Sorry Charlie S).  I've got a vague idea Little Dave was there too.

Bouyed by seeing my girls, and the knowledge that 3rd wasn't far off, I set off looking forward to the climb up and over Loughrigg Fell towards Skelwith Bridge.  I overtook 8 or so mountain bikers up the hill (hilarious), saw Charlie Sharpe at the bottom (high-five) then caught Phil and Paul on the road section down to Skelwith.  Boom, 3rd!  There's a lovely run along the side of Elter Water where I upped the pace a bit - as much as my breathing would allow - Paul fell off, but Phil was still just behind.  Saw Mel and Girls (they had been practising the Haka to spur me on - this was forgotten as soon as they saw me!) and Ez ran off to open the gate, Mel tells me Ben had dropped (gutted for him, delighted I was now in 2nd).  Pressure on!  Into Chapel Stile CP, refill, coke, out.

And Phil was still just behind me.  All the way along Langdale Valley, breathing hurting, Phil 2 paces behind.  If I wasn't sure that he was hurting worse and just trying to hold on, I'm pretty sure this would have messed with my head a little!  Climb up to Blea Tarn, then a brilliant run across to Wrynose Road.  I love the technical running along that section, and I pushed it a little which I think was the final nail in Phil's coffin - didn't see him again after the unmanned dib-point.

I did however see Paul Grundy.  Right.  Behind.  Me.  I'd had someone shadowing me ever since Troutbeck so I was used to it now, and I figured he'd be pretty tired from having to catch me, so I put a bit of a plan together - stay in front until the descent into Coniston, hopefully he would continue his theme of smashing the descents, and I could re-take him on the road.  Ambitious, flawed, but it was all I had.  The climb up over Knotts went well (I popped some Ibuprofen - should have done that a lot earlier) and managed to stay in front on the descent, pushing into the hurt a little.  A strong run into the CP, bottle refill, coke, watermelon (the best thing I had tasted ALL DAY!) then out before Paul with a handful of grapes.  Push up the side of the hill, right on the edge of cramp.

Paul drops back, little by little - great, if I can keep this up he might not catch me on the descent!  On to the flat bit before Crooks Beck, why hello cramp! Stop, quick stretch, walk, jog again then limit effort.  Can't push hard enough to increase distance, but still in front.  Far enough?  Don't know.  Reach top of climb, descend - last year I pushed so hard on the descent my legs seized up on the road.  That wasn't happening again this year. Still down fast, but not reckless fast like last year.

Cue one Paul Grundy, sped past at the bottom of the technical section, and put about 20m on me.  We get onto the road, time to get a move on.  Paul's gait is looking a bit off - his left calf was cramping, so it was time to put the hammer down.  All the pain of Track-Day Tuesday came to fruition and I laid down a 6 minute last 0.7 of a mile, holding off Paul to take 2nd in 8:28.

A week later it still hasn't sunk in.

Always an amazing reception when you cross the finish line, especially with my family waiting for me.  I went inside and assumed my normal position:


My kit was re-checked (it passed) and I sat down and chatted with Paul, the girls, marshals and everyone else that came in after, whilst waiting for my stomach to settle down enough for more than a cup of tea (it didn't).

Sally Fawcett came in 4th, just outside the course record and first lady, Ant Bethell recovered from a fairly protracted bad patch to snag 9th, Debbie Martin-Consani rounded out the top 10 and was 2nd lady.  Matt Wilson was 11th, Phil Hayes 13th.

I didn't get much sleep (never do post-race), but a midnight snack settled my tummy down.  The cooked breakfast the next morning helped as well!  We got down to the presentation early, so we could see the last of the #lakelandlegends come through, the guys who stick it out right up until the cut-off are so inspiring!

The presentation started off with a collection of all of the selfies that had a #lakelandlegends or #liveinthemoment hashtag, and me and Esmee were up on the first slide, it was pretty cool!  The prizes were all handed out in due course (even the women's ones...Marc!), and the girls came up on stage with me:
Photo - Tony Holland
They were pretty excited about that.  It was also pretty awesome that the Ultra-Trail.com Trail Team managed a 1-2 as well, with Jayson smashing out 1st place with an awesome 8:04.  I received a glass trophy plaque thing, and a 5L Montane Pack (which, Mel tells me, brings me to a total of 8 packs).  

As ever, a massive thanks to Marc, Terry and the crew of marshals, volunteers and supporters without whom this race would be nowhere near as awesome as it is.  Also a massive thanks to Mel, Esmee and Josie for putting up with each other while I'm out training, and providing massive support to me in my racing.

Things that worked for me:
Getting to the top of Fusedale in one piece.  Felt a whole lot better about everything after that.
1x TORQ gel every half hour.  Good, solid, energy.  

The Hokas  -for me, they are perfect for this course, they take the sting out of the long descents from Gatesgarth and Garburn.

X-Bionic The Trick shorts and t-shirt - kept me a good temperature, and chafe-free.

Injinji socks - I get blisters between my toes on long distance events without these.

Ultimate Direction AK vest - just big enough for everything now I have upgraded my waterproof to a Berghaus Vapourlight Hyper Smock.

Salt in my coke later in the race.  Perks me up a treat.  Tastes a bit grim though.
Things that didn't
Falling over.  I need to not do that.

Taking it easy on the first bit.  Contradictory, maybe, but if I pushed harder over the first section I may have been closer to Jayson - but that relies on me not crashing and burning , which happened to a couple of front-runners.

SO, next year, plan is:  Don't fall over, run faster.  Simple enough.

Thanks to all of my sponsors:

X-Bionic
Ultimate Direction
Injinji

Thnkas to TORQ for keeping me as a #TORQfuelled athlete

Thanks to the Ultra-Runner.com Trail Team - you guys are awesome.

Next race is the Dig Deep Intro Ultra - little sister of the Ultra Tour of the Peak District where I was 2nd last year, should still be a cracking race!

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Scafell Trail Marathon (or The Race for Second Place)

I've been looking forward to this race for a while now, mostly because it would give me the opportunity to attack Scafell from a new direction - I've been up 6 times, but always from Angle Tarn/Esk Hause/Broad Stand.  This time I got to play along the Corridor Route.

As I talked about in the Pre Race blog (here) I felt my training had gone well, and it had.  The week before the race though was a fairly stressful time with my wife Mel being in hospital a couple of times, so I was a bit mentally drained by the time Saturday came round and I was about to travel up to Kirkby Stephen.  And what a drive it was!

The A1 was closed at J49 (I needed to get off at 50!) which meant a sat-nav directed drive through Swaledale, Reeth, over Tan Hill and goodness knows where else.  Would have been a lovely drive in the day, but 11pm at night as I was watching my phone battery count down to 5%, 4%, 3%... and arrived when it hit 1%  Am going to check road closures next time.

Race day arrives, cloudy skies and a chilly start.  Cup of tea, coffee, bowl of porridge with Neil Weightman (whose house I stayed at) then a nice drive into Keswick.  Parked up, and then discovered that the pay-and-display only took coins.  I had a note.  Cue panicked downloading of app, paying, jogging to registration, then fast-walking/jogging to the start line, catching up with Graham Kitchin on the way.

Arrive.  And breathe.

A quick catch up with Tony Holland (of www.ultra-runner.com fame) and Charlie Sharpe, then a quick jostle for position on the start line.  I was feeling fit, but a little mentally drained and unsure whether my head would last the distance, but looking forward to the race.

A count down, then race time.  Ricky Lightfoot shot off into the distance, and I slowly moved my way through the pack (started too far back...again...) until there was just Ricky, a little bit of fresh air, then me.  There was a chasing pack of a few people right on my heels, but no-one making any serious moves.  I continued holding my pace, on the uncomfortable side of steady, remaining in 2nd until the first climb of the race going up to Castle Crag.  Quite a few people closed up on me, with Shaun Livesey catching me up.  Brief chat, then he dropped off on the downhill (I do like a good downhill).  Some flattish running, then a nice steep down into Seatoller.  Quick check behind me, and Shaun was nowhere to be seen.  Some good info gained there...and a change of game plan.  Going for position, not time.

Maintained my steady pace to CP1 at Seathwaite (last time I was here it was the (in)famous Borrowdale OMM of 2008, where it was around waist deep here!) then onwards, to the start of the REAL climb.  Right turn at Stockley Bridge, in the direction of Styhead Tarn.  Shaun caught and passed me here ascending strongly.  I maintained my effort/pace and reached the dib-point in 1:32, to Shaun's 1:31 (Ricky passed through in 1:19!).  A quick direction check, then up the corridor route.

When I was studying the map, and watching the video of the mountain section, it looked flatter.  Maintain effort, Shaun increasing his lead, next closest people 5/6 minutes behind.  A slight bit of confusion around Lingmell Coll (Thick clag, wrong path) meant that Ross Bibby and Scott Harrison caught me on the last drag to the dib-point on the top of Scafell.

This is the bit I was looking forward to, the technical, slippy section across Broad Stand and down to Esk Hause.  Within short order I was clear of Ross and Scott, trotting happily down the mountainside.  Dibbed in, checked around, no-one in view, so off to enjoy the rest of the descent.  In fact I enjoyed it so much, I lost focus and ended up taking a tumble hurting my right hip and elbow, which was leaking claret.  Focus regained, off i went again.  Back to the Styhead Tarn dib-point, and I spot Shaun not that far away.  Bonus.  Game plan was starting to pay off.  Careful not to get excited, carry on.  Passed a bloke who looked extremely familiar (Jayson Cavill I think..) who told me the I looked far more comfortable than the bloke ahead, which was another boost, so I kept on going.  Another few minutes, on his shoulder, past, and off.  Quick top up at the checkpoint, then off together.  Cue another navigational mini-disaster, and Shaun gets ahead a little, but I'm catching him.  Still another 16/17km to go , so not too bothered.  Quick check back, spot another bloke.  Hmm, a minute or so back, this could be a problem.

Shaun stopped off to refill his water bottle, so it was back to me in 2nd.  Maintain pace to the start of the climb up to Watendlath Tarn.  Shaun is not far behind, but not gaining on the climb this time - not ruining myself on the descent off Scafell was paying dividends.  A lovely descent to the tarn itself, the a good technical run down watendlath Beck to the next dib-point.  I was starting to feel a little off, a little achey so at CP (after the standard cup of coke) I grabbed a handful of salted peanuts.  Ran out of the CP, then rinsed the nuts in my mouth, getting the salt off them then spitting them out.  Felt amazing afterwards, new lease of life.  Sodium definitely makes for a happy brain.  No-one in sight (Shaun was 3 minutes back by now) so kept it steady.

Nightmare road descent through Ashness Wood to Ashness bridge, then the nicest bit of trail ever under Falcon Crag, Walla Crag and into Great Wood.  A couple of flat km back into the finish, and done.  2nd place, 4:40.  Shaun Livesey 3rd in 4:44:01 having worked really hard over the last few km to hold off a late charge from Ross Bibby in 4th, 4:44:29.  Ricky Lightfoot won in 3:40.  Yeah, by an hour.  He took most of the time out of me on the ascents, still my area of weakness.

Really happy with my run, although it wasn't particularly fast, went well enough tactically to let me have a relatively easy and stress free run,especially over the second half.


Thanks to TORQ for the nutrition, Camelbak for the awesome Podium drink bottle, and Altura for the clothing.

Possibly back next year for a crack at a decent time - brilliant race, loved it.  Photos can be found here courtesy of www.granddayoutphotography.co.uk.

Friday 5 June 2015

Pre Scafell Trail Marathon Thoughts

This Sunday is my next competitive trail race, and my last long(ish) race until my main goal, the Lakeland 50.  Training has gone well since the Kielder 50k,with more long days in the hills to try and combat my late-race fade.

The course looks like a fairly good one, with a fast, flat start followed by a cheeky climb to the top of Scafell, a lovely descent back down the a flat fast run to the finish, rudely interrupted part way along by another climb up to Watendlath Beck.

As is usual, with a race that provides an entry list, I've been keeping an eye on it for people I recognise to try and gauge how close to the front I'll finish.

Ricky Lightfoot - apparently he's running well at the moment, I'll need a miracle to beat him.

Tony Holland - coming back from a stress fracture in his foot, probably not in the top 10, but not too far off!

Daniel Miller - part of the newly formed Endurance Store Trail Team.Haven't raced against him,but he's likely fast as he's running in Marc Laithwaite's team!

Charlie Sharpe - not currently on the entry list, and is going to try and break his course record at the Bolton Hill Marathon so he says he's just going to jog round on Sunday...Like I believe that!

As usual, there'll be someone there I don't recognise that'll be ridiculously fast, but it's looking hopeful for top 5!  Looking at last years time I'm looking at around 4:05-4:15.

The ladies race looks to be pretty tight up front!

Sally Ozanne

Charmaine Horsfall

Kate Browning

Sally Fawcett

Are all going to be fighting it out, will be interesting to see who comes out on top!

As usual, I'll be racing in my TORQ/Altura kit, lugging around the mandatory kit in the UD SJ pack, Camelbak Podium bottles for my hydration (in TORQ colours, of course!), Tifosi Podium sunnies (ever hopeful) and Brooks PureGrit 2 on my hooves.

Nutrition will betaken car of by 8 TORQ gels, 1 per 1/2 hour, helped with 500ml TORQ energy.

Roll on Sunday!

Sunday 17 May 2015

Kielder Ultra

About 3 weeks ago, I headed up North (further than I thought - when I entered I thought it was in the Lake District. It's really not!) to Kielder Forest to 50k version of the Kielder Ultra (there's an 80k and 100k on offer as well).  4.5 hours later I made it, sorted myself out a bed, caught up with Tracey Dean (racing to prove fitness for the GB Ultra-Trail team) and Forest Bethell (recovering from the 3 peaks the day before).  Some very tasty pasta and off to my bunk-house where I met Paul Holt, who was doing the 100, and another guy whose name escapes me that was doing his first ultra (the 50k).

A great nights sleep, woken briefly by Paul at 3 or 4am getting ready for his 5am start!  Ours was a relatively leisurely 9am start so I got a bit of a sleep in which was nice.  Breakfast, registration, chat with a few people on a wander down to the reservoir:


It was shaping up to be an excellent day for racing, sunny but still cool, just warm enough for a vest!  After a fairly brief briefing, we were off.  I had 2 goals for the race - 1) to average under 8 minutes/mile and 2) to get onto the podium. With that in mind, I figured I had to keep the 2 guys in front close.  One of them turned out be just be an excitable starter and dropped off fairly quickly, the other (Ben Matthews) I would run with for quite some time.  The first few miles were on forestry track/well maintained footpaths, and very easy running.  I was thinking, if this keeps up it's not going to be much fun, I'm not used to running flat stuff!  

It soon changed a little, with some nice singletrack, and I soon put a little distance on Ben.  It was soon over though, then back onto forestry track.  Ben soon caught me up again, and we ran together until checkpoint 1, 10 miles on or so, where we already had 7 or 8 minutes on 2nd.  

Ben was slightly faster than me out of the CP, then continued to pull away slowly, but managed to take a wrong turn, then we were back together again, neither of us letting the other out of sight.  I knew there was a big (relatively) climb coming up, so I pushed hard to try and drop him.  Which didn't happen, he stayed hard on my heels.  There was a good descent over uneven ground down to CP 2 at the dam, and I managed to put a bit of time on him there, but we were level again by the time we left.

Running across the dam was horrible, the air was thick with small flying insects, really gross.  Ben left me soon after that (turns out he's a pretty good marathoner) as the terrain suited him - back to well maintained, smooth undulating path.  I ran on, maintaining as good a pace as I could, coming in 2nd in 4:04 to Ben's 3:54, 3rd was John Croft in 4:19.

Tracey Dean managed to prove fitness, and bag 1st Female.

Was pleased with how I ran, although I do need to improve my long-distance stamina. I'm ok with races where I get a walking break up hill, not so much with constant fast(ish) running!

Sadly didn't get any more photos as we beat the photographers around the course!

Thanks TORQ for fuelling my race!

Sunday 8 February 2015

Grizedale Trail 13

As you can see from the title, this one is a little shorter than the usual effort.  Back near the start of January I picked up a niggle in left calf, which progressively got worse as I continued to train and race on it (who would have thought).  Dropped mileage, rested, it got slightly better, increased again it got worse.

Until yesterdays sports massage.  Turned out I had an extremely tight piriformis, which was sending my hamstring into spasm and doing weird things to my calf.  Enter one sharp elbow, some pained giggling (I'm a giggler when it starts really hurting on the massage bed) and it felt a whole lot better!  I had however sent a pleading email to the organiser to drop down from the 26 as I wasn't confident my calf would be either fixed or hold out (I had to maintain my unbeaten record against Charlie Sharpe!).

On to race day - an early start and a trip up with Andy Watson and Mat Needham (both from Erewash Valley RC - the club I belong to) arriving at 9:20 - just enough time to catch up with Ian MacNamee, Charlie Sharpe, Tracey Dean, John Danahay and Andy Horrabin and wish them luck on their race.  Registered (race bib number 1 - no pressure there then!) changed and back to the start line for some strange posing and then we were off.

I could tell I'd had too long off running and a sports massage, the first few miles felt slow and laboured, and I watched as the first 3 runners slowly pulled away from me.  It's a steady climb for the first 5 miles or so, breaking out to the highest point and a bit of a break from forestry tracks onto some open moorland with (normally) great views of Coniston.  Not today, although I did notice that I had ice on my fringe.  A bit cold out.

One short sharp climb later and I could tell my quads were shot from the previous days' massage - a bloke hammered past me and I was down to 5th.  I kept pace with him for a bit, but he was too strong on the climb.  A lovely bit of singletrack, then back onto the forestry trails again.  Mostly downhill from here, with a few climbs which felt like hell on my mashed quads.

Caught back up tp the bloke who passed me - looked like he was paying for hammering up the hills too fast - then focussed on getting to the end as fast as I could.  11 miles gone, 12 miles gone, 13 miles gone, 14 miles gone, surely the end must be close...and there it was 14.5 miles later, 1:39 in 4th place.  Not sure how far back from the podium I was, but 5th was 3 minutes behind me, and it was Andy Watson from EVRC having the run of his life.

A great day out and the first in my TORQ kit for this year - slightly disappointed I was off the podium, but happy with my performance (6:50/mile average pace) considering my lead up.

Thanks TORQ for my kit and nutrition!