In just under a week, I'm going to be toeing the line of the Lakeland 50 for the sixth time. I'm looking forward to it as I love the race, the people involved and the atmosphere that is not only inclusive for the athletes but the families of the athletes (and has given my youngest daughter an obsession with foxes!).
I'm also pretty excited about testing myself against a really strong field. Danny Kendall (5th overall at the MDS and ran just over 8 hours a couple of years back), Jayson Cavill (last years winner), Ben Abdelnoor (The Noor, one of my fell running heroes and current record holder), Andy Horrobin (ex elite cyclist and scarily fast oldish bloke), Lee Knight (will actually push himself hard enough to make his eyeballs bleed), Marcus Scotney (Winner of most things, and current fastest person to Troutbeck) is on the entry list, Anthony (Forest) Bethell (King Raidlight and a talented runner), Matt Wilson, Steven Lord, and probably a few others I have missed!
My main goal is to improve on last years' performance - to actually win the damn thing this time. This means my game plan is going to (potentially) have to change from last year. 2015 was another warm one, so my plan was to take it (relatively) easy to the top of Fusedale, then pick it up along Haweswater and pick my way through the carnage. That worked up to a point, but even though I took 12 minutes out of Jayson over the last 16 miles, he had built up enough of a lead initially for that not to matter at all.
Secondary goal (if I fail the first) is to get around in under 8 hours. Unless it's stupidly hot again, I think I'm capable of that.
Fall-back goal: Get on the podium.
This year, the plan is to stick with the guys at the pointy end, and see who lasts it out. I'm pretty confident of putting in a good showing. I've been using TrainAsONE (link here, get involved in the Beta) and it has made a massive improvement in my pace vs heartrate. I'm also part of Team Mountain Fuel (Link here, it's awesome stuff) and have based my nutrition strategy around the Xtreme Energy carb drink. It's brilliant, and has totally revolutionised my fuelling. It works incredibly well (for me) when backed up by jelly babies! It also means that I'm not lugging around 19 gels with me this time.
How I'm fuelling: Pretty much a 500ml bottle of Xtreme Energy between each checkpoint, and top up my jelly babies on the way round. Most checkpoints have jelly babies, so I'm going to have to carry less. From Kentmere onwards, it's all about salted flat Cola at checkpoints as well. Tastes pretty grim, but does the job.
Both of my daughters are ready for the Lakeland 1, and are perfecting the dance moves as I write. I think Esmee should get herself a new mile P.B. as well.
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