Onwards and across

Since the marathon I’ve taken it relatively easy though not as easy as I would have had I raced the whole distance not just 30k and run the rest. Mondays post marathon 3 mile leg warmer out and back on a standard route along Setmurthy road felt easy enough. This confirmed in my mind that the bad run on Sunday was not due to fitness.

Lambfoot Loop 10K – Tuesday 24^th May

Start of the Lambfoot Loop 10K

Initially I’d thought to run this one easy but by the time the gun went I found myself up in the top five so thought what the hell. As usual Carl Bell started to pull away with the Keswick trio of Russell Maddams, Phil Winskill and Ian Davis running as a group behind. Carl continued to pull away up the first hill towards embleton with Russell and Phil now ahead of Ian in confident pursuit and me a comfortable fifth. The positioning remained until the start of golf course hill where the inevitable change happened – the hill did its make or break on the top three. By the turn at about 6K Phil and Russell were still together with Carl quite a way back with Ian next and to my surprise me and closing the gap!


Phil and Russell neck and neck near the turn

I was almost incredulous (thanks steve) when I passed him with less than 3K left but I couldn’t loose him, every time I kicked he responded until the last 200m where he showed his class and pulled away from me eventually beating me into fifth by 5secs.My time of 37:00 on that course was very pleasing and to be only 5 seconds behind Ian when the previous week it had been 30 was very encouraging.

Ian Davis, fourth place in 36:55

Russell eventually won the race in 33:55 a clear 38 seconds ahead of Phil (34:33) with Carl finishing in third place in 35:09. Even more impressive was that Russell had only nine day earlier won the 33 miles Forest of Dean Ultra Marathon!

Carl Bell finishing in 3rd in 35:09

Ellie Ulyatt from Derwent was first lady and junior in 44:28. More photos can be found on the Derwent AC Facebook page, and full race results on the Derwent AC website.


What now?
Did a 3 mile run on Wednesday morning, a fartlec session with Derwent AC on Thursday and a steady 3 miles this morning. Tomorrow morning is a possible interval session then it’s of to Northumberland for a few days with hopefully a lot of coastal walking (maybe reccy some of the coastal marathon route) but little running. Should be refreshed by next Wednesday and the Carlisle Tri 10K which is a PB potential course if everything goes right on the day…

The coming few weeks
The next big thing is my planned Hadrien’s wall run in mid July, there is still a lot of planning to do and some reccying to carry out but I feel confident that I can do it and in a reasonable time, before that there are few more races including the Coniston Trail marathon which also needs a quick reccy oh and I’m supporting Jane on her BGR on June 17^th. Just need to get that online fundraising sorted out oh and...



Edinburgh Marathon

Bag packed for the finish, food and running plan set so set off up to my Dad’s in Blairgowrie on Friday night with Catherine and the kids. After a poor nights sleep but decent breakfast, I set off on a final gentle run of just over two and a half miles, a loop down to the local river along the track beside it and up a steep but short hill back. It felt Ok but my legs didn’t feel as fresh as they should have – maybe too much training in the last week?

Sunday Morning

Terrible nights sleep, with Harry (my partners little boy) waking at three and coming into our bed, little chance of much sleep after that with a wriggling kicking buddle next to me. My confidence dented a bit further, but the weather forecast looked  better than at the start of the week with the winds not picking up until later in the morning and only about 30mph gusts. My Dad drove me down to Edinburgh so I could take it easy and so began the final preparation before the gun and the off. First stop toilets (and second and third…) then to meet up with Marc Penn from Blengdale Runners AC (based in Gosforth) who’d been following a strict schedule for the last few months including no beer (such a good source of electrolytes and carbs). A couple of photos, drop the bags off, gentle warm up and stretch then to the start.

Me and Marc in our fetching bin bags at the start

The Race Plan

Basic plan was to go for 6:20 pace which would give me a time of around 2:47, but the wind meant this needed to be adjusted. Since the first four miles of the course are predominately down hill with a net decent of 40m and you always have excess adrenaline at the start I planned to run these at an average of about 15 seconds per mile faster than race pace with the first mile being the fastest. This would put me 1 minute ahead as I eased down into my race pace running. The miles out were to be around 6:15 pace which would be to about mile eighteen meaning by 30K I should be about 2:15 ahead before turning and facing the wind. What to expect and plan for the last quarter was difficult – running into a strong head wind at the hardest part of the race is hard to plan. I guessed it would cost about 30secs a mile into the wind with about another minute lost in the last few miles due to fatigue and a final kick for the last half mile or so with negligible effect on the time but a good psychological benefit. With luck the plan would get me around in 2:50 and hopefully inside that time or three minutes behind the 6:20 pace.

The Race

Immediately I made a mistake by positioning myself too close to the front. The obvious affect of this was to go off too fast (5:56 first mile) though I managed to reign myself in to go through four miles at just over one minute ahead of schedule only a bit faster than planned. First part of the plan achieved now to the steady running, this went well until a slight twinge in my left hamstring luckily that was all it was and it didn’t slow me down much or for long. By now I was enjoying it chatting with people before moving on, the temperature was about right the wind as of yet not too bad and the occasional heavy shower refreshing. Hit 10K at 38:27 and half marathon at 1:21:28 both a bit fast but not massively so and by the turn; earlier than I’d thought at just over 17 miles I was about 2:35 ahead meaning about 1sec a mile faster than planned and still feeling strong going well and picking off runners one by one. After the turn the pace slowed with the head wind by about 30 seconds over target pace as had been expected this I maintained for the next couple of miles still picking people off…

Last Quarter

Disaster struck: after taking a mouthful of lucozade at a fuelling station almost immediately I felt a twinge in my right abs a bloody stitch. Was the same thing going to happen to me as happened to Steve Angus at London? The only thing I could do was ease off and try to control my breathing, stamp it out and massage the area. A quick change of plan was needed as the people I’d passed started to stream back past me which was very disheartening as my stitch wouldn’t allow me to give chase though my legs and heart wanted too. My pace had dropped significantly with the 2:50 time almost certainly gone. By mile 23 my heart had gone and my legs decided to follow. I just couldn’t get back into my running with the constant ache where the stitch had hit home. Every time someone passed me I tried to pull them back but the ache would get worse in my deep abs and the effort was mentally tiring. Disheartened I just tried to continue enjoying the race though that too was hard with the knowledge that the chance of a good position and time had evaporated and running was no longer comfortable. I still managed to pick it up a bit for the last half mile though nothing like my former pace crossing the line in a PB time of 2:52:42 in 70^th place of over 8500 runners so not bad for a bad run!



Well deserved beer

 The Wind

At the finish nearly everyone said they had suffered in the wind, one guy from Motherwell AC ran 2:48:31 last year and ran 2:52:44 this year but felt fitter and stronger which goes to show the affect the wind was having. Even in the conditions the top five men all were inside Steve Littler’s winning time of 2:26:30 in 2010 and nine women went under three hours compared to only three in 2010, though with a slower winning time. Marc also had trouble in the wind but managed to break the three hour barrier, his target for the race, finishing in 2:59:06 and 141^st position.



Marc first beer since January

 Post mortem

A few things went wrong some that can be controlled, some that can’t and some that can be minimised. Off the weather nothing can be done so 2:50 was always around the best to be expected. The stitch is a tricky one, maybe the pre-race food or drink? Since it kicked in almost immediately after having a drink of Lucozade that is the most likely cause, the only solution I can think for this is to carry my own hydration tablets and just drink water as I did at Langdale Marathon last year. The tailing off of the pace could be partly to do with lack of race pace longer runs so that is something else to be improved on. The major positive is that even with all these set backs I still got a PB and feel the 2:45 is now a serious possibility, if not this year then soon!

Build up to Edinburgh Marathon

Lows
The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of ups and downs both very high and very low. On the Tuesday (3^rd May) after my BGR reccy of leg two I did a short leg freshener of 4x 1K intervals as gradually increasing effort to keep them ticking over. Then on the Wednesday I fell ill nothing too bad just hot and cold with fatigue. Unfortunately this dragged on for a few days and with my predisposition to bouts of depression and the marathon looming just over two weeks away I started to get very low. Managed to get out for a run on the following Monday but it was a disaster, one of my usual 10 mile routes but a good minute a mile slower than usual and not one mile at marathon pace! My partner was having difficulty dealing with this low episode and since she had a job interview lined up for Thursday we decided it would be best if I stayed out of the way until after that. Camping within walking distance seamed the best solution, as it would mean time to think and still be able to have home comforts during the day. Additionally it meant I got a bit of cross-training in having to walk up the fell near the house to the tent just over two miles but still exercise.

Mini Tent on the Hay

The club interval session on Tuesday was a much better than the Monday run, though the old runners’ trots kicked in on the third repeat inducing some despondency. I decided to give Wednesday a miss and try to recuperate a bit more, though still very low and still off work at this point, though physically OK, mentally I was lost. Decided to tackle the same route on Thursday to see what improvement I’d made. We went a bit further than my Monday run as we started at the club house and I did some looping back to the slower runners. The first four miles or so we ran as a club then I kicked it in for the remaining seven managing to average 6:30 pace with 200m+ of climb so felt much better still a bit slow on the last three miles but a definite improvement.

How to get the mental side ready for the marathon?

The best thing I could think of doing was racing at Long Marton and Moorclose 10Ks to get my pace back and hope my endurance would hold from all the training put in so far this year. The plan was decided, so no running on Friday and a short 3.25 progressive run on Saturday: 6:44, 6:02, 5:32 and final quarter of a mile at 5:07 – a massive confidence boost ready for Sunday.

Long Marton 10K – Sunday 15^th May

The weather was poor with heavy showers and gusts; I hoped there would be a good turn out and some fast runners at this, the first running of the race. The trail section at about six to seven kilometres looked like it could be tricky in road shoes but I had no alternative. On arrival I spotted a few decent club runners most obviously with his bouncing locks of brown curls – Carl Bell of Howgill Harriers. As usual Carl dismissed his chances as he’d raced at Fairfield Fell race the previous day finishing in fourth! From the start he took off at his usual fast pace, the unknown being would he be able to maintain it or “blow up” as he himself admits happens a lot on road races. I let him and another three runners go as the pace was too strong for me, hoping some of them had set of too fast. By mile two I’d caught and past one of them, a junior from helm hill who finished in sixth place by the end. At mile three I’d passed another, this time from Hoad Hill Harriers. Carl and Stuart from Arragons Cumbria Tri Club were still a good distance a head, but although Carl was pulling further ahead on all the descents I was managing to maintain if not close the gap on the Stuart in second. The trail section was pretty tricky with a surface of wet slippy mud over a still solid under-surface; I think I lost about 20 seconds or so here due to lack of confidence on the terrain. After that section Carl was no where to be seen, his fell expertise showing; Stuart was about the same distance ahead and I started to close the gap then he kicked with just over a mile to go and was gone. Third was a very pleasing result especially after the previous week or so of disappointment. Although it measures long and has about 200m of climb, I’d highly recommend this friendly inclusive, child friendly event.

Third place abd a trophy!

Moorclose 10K – Tuesday 17^th May

Confidence coming back now so a 3.5 mile progressive leg freshener on the Monday ready for a PB attempt at Moorclose. The plan being to go out fast, stick it in until the turn, take the hill a bit easy and kick in again after the hill on the last two miles to the end, but not all out as need to be fresh for the Marathon all in all the plan was to run at about 5:45 pace with a target time of around 35:50.



Start of Moorclose 10K

 There was an excellent turn out with 12 Derwent AC members there accounting for almost 10% of all the runners (126). Carl once again was racing his third in four days, this time I believed him when he said he wouldn’t do too well!

Derwent AC Posse after the race

Two surprise runners were Paul Watham from the up and running shop in Keswick who had run and finished 18^th in the Genève Marathon on Sunday and James Douglas who I had down as the winner! As it turns out James was just spectating after racing on Sunday in the Manchester 10K finishing 36^th in a PB time of 30:36. Though I’m sure if he‘d decided to have a “gentle run out” he’d have still won, that honour went to Phil Winskill of Keswick who once again looked strong in a time of 33:28.


Phil Winskill cruising...

Carl “blew up” this time dropping from first to fourth over the second half of the course falling nearly a minute behind Phil but still in a PB time of 34:22, one to watch on the roads in the future! I ran in the second pack for a while with Steve Angus who said at mile two he was going for seventh and seventh he got 26 seconds ahead of me in tenth in a PB time of 35:52 at pace of 5:44 so very pleased as almost bang on my target! Paul managed to hold onto eighth and then ran at Latrigg fell race on Wednesday taking it “easy” and finishing in tenth!

 

Now for Edinburgh

On consideration I decided not to run Latrigg fell race on Wednesday (18^th May) not because the distance or climb were too much before a marathon but because the injury risk on that course would be too great. Instead I joined Tri-Lakeland on a middling interval session of 6 x 400m. Ended up being 6 x 465m as the track was inaccessible on the school field due to cricket practice, so we ran round two football pitches instead. The first five were all around 88s with the last at 81s which felt good. Pilates afterwards was definitely a good decision! Thursday was a club run to mark out our next club race the Lambfoot Loop on Tuesday, I decided to run four of the miles at tempo treating it like an interval session as most of the marathon advice is taper yes, but keep the intensity there! Today is a rest day, tomorrow 2-3 miles at race pace then the Marathon on Sunday. The forecast isn’t good with a 15mph head wind predicted on the last six miles or so with up to 30mph gusts, that could cost me as much as 3mins so let’s hope it’s wrong as I’m not sure how my fragile mental state will handle a bad result!

It's real and it's happening

Until next time…

BGR Leg2 Reccy

Bob Graham Training

May 2^nd 2011

Decided since it was such a nice day to do a reccy of the BGR leg2, the plan being to park in Keswick, jog along cycle path to Threlked do the leg and run back from Dunmail raise either to Wythburn church or the King’s head pub in Thirlpot to catch the bus back to Keswick. Guessed it would be about 20miles so would treat it as a long run and carry water and food accordingly for a five to five and a half hours day mainly in the fells. The mountain forecast said gusts of up to 50 mph but otherwise a good clear day for running. Cereal bars, fig roles, energy drinks and water along with the standard kit packed I set off. The only problem was I was going to have to run in my old Walshes (550 miles+) as the studs on my mudclaws were dropping of and cracking so they were back at the shop to be checked out…



Start of BGR leg2



Got nicely warmed up along the cycle path to the start and was ready for it. From looking at the map before hand there appeared to be very few navigational decisions to make on this leg, the first being at the start as to which route to take to the top I chose the line to the left of the first main craggy outcrop, which turned out to be a popular route as there was a well walked trod all the way up. Clough Head was reached with no problems just a quick pause for photo’s and extra clothes then off round the horseshoe to Great Dodd. I Considered cutting a tighter bend and going up the ridge without the path but thought better off it, that was an option to try on another day and on the run itself the visibility by this point would most likely be poor with the morning mist still clinging to the fells and/or most probably it would still be dark.



Great Dodd



Navigation from Great Dodd to Helvellyn was relatively straight forward, a slight error at Stybarrow Dodd following the path round meant about 50m cut back to the cairn an the top. Google Earth shows I missed the top (has me missing raise, nethermost pike and Fairfield too!), though this may be down to GPS inaccuracies or map placement errors on Google earth! Either way this bit needs looking at again. I took a more direct line down from White Side to the col before ascending Helvellyn Lower Man and on to the top while being buffeted by the wind. On the decent of Lower Man I tripped going automatically into a Jitsu roll coming up with only a grazed elbow and two tops with holes in – could have been a lot worse!



The Helvellyns



Took it the top of Helvellyn was the trig point and carried on to Nethermost Pike, then Dollywagon Pike, where the two cairns made in unclear which was the top, so I decided to go to both to make sure, though the one before the peninsula looked the most likely.

Now for the next navigational route choice, down to the right or left of Grisedale Tarn? I chose to follow the fence posts down and go round the tarn to the right then on up to Fairfield. It was here where the Walshes failed in their job as I kept slipping on to my arse and sliding for a bit on the decent making what should have been a faster section a slow one! They failed on the way up Fairfield too so I took it slow and refuelled on my way up the heavily eroded slopes. Another top covered in cairns so went to three possible but Google earth says I missed the real one! On the decent once again slow due to lack of grip my Garmin ran out of battery so had to use my mobile to record splits etc

For the final accent of Seat Sandal, I took a route to the right of the path as the path looked like a surface my old walshes would struggle on. As it flattened out I followed the wall to the summit and descended Ok until the steeper section where once again the walshes gripped badly meaning a slow decent. Not too bad a time for a first reccy in the end so fairly pleased with the run and just enough time left to run to the King’s Head to catch the inordinately expensive bus the last few miles back to Keswick, I think I’ll drop my bike of next time and cycle the last bit back what a rip[p off!

Splits:

Clough Head – 0:44:44

Great Dodd – 1:13:15

Watson’s Dodd – 1:20:36

Stybarrow Dodd – 1:28:47

Raise – 1:44:23

White Side – 1:50:20

Helvellyn Lower Man – 2:01:26

Helvellyn – 2:07:48

Nethermost Pike – 2:13:56

Dollywagon Pike – 2:31:14

Fairfield – 3:02:28

Seat Sandal – 3:21:38

Dunmail Raise – 3:39:37

Where did April go...

Over a month since my last post, I really should be content to post short sound bites rather than wait until I have pictures etc. Run just over 260 miles in the month but more importantly over 40 hours as the fell practice has started early – the weather has been too good not too! A couple of Reccy runs of parts of BGR leg3 and a night reccy of Leg1 more on this later...



Harrison Stickle from Pike O' Stickle



Done a lot of races as usual, most treated as tempo runs with friend but some raced hard, most enjoyed some a struggle and one massive disappointment.

Sat 2^nd – Cartmel Trail Race

It started with a massive disappointment at Cartmel Trail race which I’d been looking forward to since October as half the entry for the whole series of eight had been a birthday present from my dad. On my warm up I discovered there were some cars parked across part of the route which made me a bit apprehensive as this shouldn’t have been possible. The race started well as I settled into fourth behind Adam whom I chatted with at the start and met at the Coniston trail the previous year. After about four miles I was passed by the winner from two years ago who had started easy as he hadn’t run for a couple of weeks. After a brief chat he pulled away chasing Adam for third. Fifth was good and I felt pleased as the guy in sixth was a good way back though even if he passed me I felt like a good run. Then disaster struck - on coming down a track there was a gate in front which a couple of the walkers (started an hour earlier) kindly let me through. After a few minutes down the track the tread marks seemed to reduce and I realised there had been no course markers for a while, I had noticed but since there was only one track I’d convinced myself that there were no markers as the route was obvious… Decision time should I turn back or carry on? Wrong decision I carried on and the realisation that I’d gone wrong struck me so at the next junction I decided to try and cut back to the course – once more a wrong decision. After running through a farm I saw the guy in sixth place had also gone wrong as he was in a field below me. I tried to get my bearings and headed in what I thought was about the right direction to cross the route. Cutting through woods, brambles and around bogs I charged off but no sign of any other runners so I headed up high to see if I could spot any, no luck, then I saw a church I “thought” I recognised and judged from it I was going the wrong way. Again I was wrong – it wasn’t the church I though it was. My disappointment was tempered by the fantastic weather and scenery but any chance of a good position was gone. Then form behind I head another runner it was Adam who had also gone wrong, which made me feel better and worse, better as it looked like a few people had gone wrong but bad as he had been in third and would have got third or fourth. We ended up running back together, crossing electric fences, being shouted at by irate farmers and eventually rejoining the course near the finish and decided to cross the line together in gentlemanly fashion holding hands – it must have looked odd!.

Cartmel 2010 - the bit of the course I missed!

It turned out lots of people had gone wrong most at the same place Adam and I had. Some groups came into the finish from the wrong direction to rapturous applause from the spectators. I ran over 2.5 miles extra so 64^th place was still pretty good but nothing like the 5^th or 6^th I should have come.

Once home and able to look at the route I’d taken on Garmin connect I found I had nearly been back on the route before seeing the church if only I’d stuck to my guns but on a marked trail you don’t tend to carry a map! The organisers held a stewards enquiry and have put a lot of things in place for next year and even changed the rules of the series so the best two results out of the three races in each series count. This meant the ones who did not go wrong are not penalised nor are those that got lost. It also allows for a bad or missed race in general.

Wed 6^th – Grizedale Grind

The wind was strong for the race though temperatures good. The wind made the final accent tricky as well as the first bit of decent as balance was hard to maintain! I reached the top before Karl Bell only to fall two minutes behind him on the decent! Overall the times on the day were slower than normal. Stu and Steve were there to support and take photos.



Very back from start of Grizedale accent



Thurs 7^th – Lonscale Launchpad

With Richard McGrath and Sam Johnstone of Ellenbrough both running I settled for third before even starting the race being fairly confident of a guaranteed third place in the series knowing both Richard and Chris Knowles were too far ahead and too good to catch. With that in mind I did a mini reccy before the race of four miles to the first and last checkpoints and tagged an extra 4.5 miles to the end to make it a 14 miles running day.

Derwent Water from Skidaw path

Weds 13^th – Round the houses

Heavy legs for this one having had a bug for the previous couple of days so once again did a 5.5 mile warm up knowing my race time would not be as good as I’d want or hope so decided to run on deficit as training. All in all though an enjoyable race.

Thurs 14^th – Fangs Brow Finale

This was the final race in the WCOC Warrior Holidays 2011 series. Guaranteed third overall I did a reccy of the whole route before the race to once again practice running in deficit. The overall winner was Richard McGrath with Chris Knowles coming in second. I got second senior prize though since Chris Knowles though got first Vet40 prize.

Sat 16^th – Edinburgh parkrun

Another attempt at a new 5K PB thwarted by the weather, last time it had been snow this time a very strong head wind, with most runners being between 45 seconds and 1 minute outside there PB. Next time …

Sun 17^th – Langdale St George’s day 10K

Expected to be in the prizes for this on as on the same day as the London marathon, but within 100m I was already pulling away and by the end even though I’d races three out of the previous four days I won in 10K PB time of 36:12 which is a ridiculously slow time to win a race but you can only race those who are there!

Sat 23^rd – Teenagers with attitude

Good race took it easy at first and picked it up around High Snockrigg to finish fast and easy with a lot left in the tank, though my blisters would say otherwise. I won’t say much about this race as Stu has said it much better than I could.

Wed 27^th – Lords Seat

This was the second race in the Whinlatter forest Series, Grizedale grind being the first. The race was held in almost perfect conditions with both male and female records being broken. It felt much more like a trail race than a fell race which if I’d known from the start would have gone of much faster. Phil Winskill won the Lord of the forest prize.

Sun May 1^st – Keswick half marathon

Started off OK but started to suffer from about mile nine, with miles 10-12 being a good 45secs or so slower than they should have and ten seconds slower thatn last year. I could blame the wind and heat or not eating properly or running too much in the previous week or all of them. Maybe I was just a bit optimistic and am not quite in the form I'd like to think I am! Still a good friendly race as usual with a big turn out 800+ I think. When Steve Littler turned up the winner was suspected and the course record looked in trouble. He didn’t fail to deliver with a new course record. Phil Winskill last years winner managed a good time even though he’d raced at Coniston the day before. Proably one of my best results of the year so far but didn’t feel like it! Seventh is much better than I had hoped for!

My full training log is on: Fetch Everyone - Goatee H