Kielder count down

Two weeks count down

The day after London an walking was problematic, from the calf down and round to the base of the  foot I was tight as hell in both legs will it being to painful to put the heel of my right foot down. It didn't look good for Kielder, but sometimes this things are minor and go away quickly. I kept gently stretching the whole of my legs using a stretch band and a massage ball on my foot to loosen it of. By the evening although heel placement still hurt I went for a short jog out, just 4.5 miles on soft ground and concentrating on forefoot striking to avoid the dodgy heel. This would either break me or help in the recovery. The legs started to feel a bit better during the jog out so for the next few days I kept up the same stretching routine with some gentle running.

To race or not to race

Kielder was now only a week away and my local club mixed terrain race the Isel Cross was on. This was to be a test of both recovery and preparation being short enough (5.4 miles) to mean on the road section I could forefoot strike and run the little hill normally. The descent would be slower than usual which was a shame as flying down that hill is such fun, nice easy gradient to make a full flight descent straight forward. The race went well, only 30 seconds down on my race PB and second V40, bit of a confidence boost and my legs had although nowhere near 100% felt OK. After the race Susie, two of her boys and I walked up Skiddaw via Ullock Pike in glorious sunshine with few tourist. Great walk out but Achilles started to tighten again - to be expected really but all in all a fantastic day.

Top of Carl Side with Susie

Still a few days to get right so the plan was formed with the mental preparation being the key at this point. Jog around the trails in Mabie Forest on the Sunday (20th April) whilst Alex biked then another Skiddaw climb but this time as a steady run. Another lovely day if a bit gusty at times, ran up along the Ullock Pike ridge, over carl side and up to Skiddaw. Coming back down showed me that my shoe choice was wrong for going fast down, which was possibly a good thing as stopped me going too fast.

Looking down to Dodd with Bassenthwaite behind

Added a quick pop up Dodd as it was I hill I'd never been up then run back to the car. I'd expected to be out for about 1:45 which was pretty close to my run time. Think I'll do that one again with variations sometime soon. Great day out, great run and superb mental preparation now for the next bit of the plan, one more jog then no running just mobilising and stretching to get ready for Kielder - new approach but did it work?

Don't do long flat road!

London Marathon 13th April 2014

London as a race was an abomination, as an event and weekend with Susie it was brilliant. Would I do it again? Only if I could get a championship start or ran in fancy dress as a fun run! 

The race started badly as I was stuck behind the crowds in the good for age pen,  meaning it took 30 seconds to even cross the line. Managed to weave myself through the crowds so I could run freely by about 5 miles. Shortly after I caught and passed Marc Penn feeling good and on a reasonable pace so looking good for my 2:48... Then ouch my hip popped, I eased back a little hoping it would go away but it didn't and my vastus medialis quad muscle started to twinge in reaction to the form change. Manage to dig in and go through half way at 1:24:19 but knew the race and target time were dust as a much bigger and major slow down was coming. Even the slight turns on the route cause stabs of pain, but I wanted that finishers medal the same that Mo would get...

The pain got worse and moved to the right leg as I was overcompensating, the pace got slower and slower as the legs denied the pace the rest of me wanted, and the HR dropped as I realise it was pointless maintaining it just to keep going at the slower pace. Time to re-focus, no I would not get a good time, no I would not be remotely close to my target but I would finish regardless as the injury would hopefully only be a temporary one. The fear that Kielder 100k may have to be ditched started to creep in...

At about 24 miles I saw Steve Angus ahead and caught up with him and started to walk and chat. His race has also gone badly. We should both have finished by that point but geared on by each other started to play the crowd running up to them, raising our hands to our ears to instigate cheers and having fun since London as a race was over. Steve was way better than me at playing the crowd as he had had bad experiences running in London before something about going south to hotter dryer air - hard to prepare for. It took two hours after finishing for me to be able to put any weight on my right heel.

Lesson: I DO NOT DO LONG FLAT ROAD RACES

Finished in 3:09:56 only my third time outside of three hours and second worst road marathon time the worst being my first in 2006. Still to get a good for age time on a bad run whilst carrying an injury cannot be sniffed at. Even if I did spit out the dummy and sulk for a bit after.

Building into 2014

Starting back slowly through December 2013 - only 142 miles run, I got ready for the January month of miles aka base building. The plan was simple run everyday, run further than last year (412 miles) and climb more than 2013 (about 42,000 feet). It started off well, looking good then I introduced a little bit of speed and twinged my tibialis anterior on day 11. Luckily with gentle running on soft ground it eased gradually over the following week. By the end of January, I'd run every day covering 451 miles but missed the climb target by 2,000 feet.
Now the base training had been completed it was time to start testing myself and get some speed work in. First test was York parkrun 18:25 - slightly slower than the target but a good start. Keeping the bigger picture in sight, although speed work is important it is not when compared to going long as 2014 is the year of Ultras but all with the Bob Graham Round in mind for May 2015.

Back to the longer stuff

Grizedale Marathon was the first longer race of the season, the plan was to go out at about 90% race effort then push the last 5 - 6 miles. A toilet break at 6 miles probably helped me stick to the plan as John Knapp one of my recent Nemeses was racing and I found myself sticking with him early on which had not been the plan! First loop went well and in about 12th (memory fails me and no split times) by the end. Slight pace pick up, not much but enough and passed a few runners. The inevitable mental dip that happens as it does no matter the distance hit at about 18 miles, no real pace drop, it was all in the mind and still pulled back on the next target. Took on some jelly babies and a few jaffa cakes at the final checkpoint and picked it up as had been the plan and quickly caught and passed 5 or 6 more runners including Andrew Horrobin who beat me at the ultimate trail 100k Eventually finished in 5th and first V40 passing taking about 4 minutes out of Andrew over the last 3 miles. Really good confidence boost.

One week later was the inaugural Borders Marathon, 23.5 laps of the race course in Kelso. The plan here was different, this time the intention was to go off at target marathon pace and see what happened. I felt confident of a podium finish looking at the pre-entry list. Two late entries put that into doubt at the start but I put that out of my head and tried to stick to my plan. Went off as planned sticking with Hugh McInnes, he kicked for a lap but I just maintained pace and was pulling him back then the old runners trots kicked in and I had to go for a toilet break at 8 miles and knew it was game over. I still tried to force the pace for a bit but it was futile the body, mind and especially the legs were saying "NO". The rest of the race was a mental battle and finished 3rd in 2:56:20. Felt confident for London with that time especially after I'd covered 200 miles in two weeks.

3rd Place trophy 

Some Short Stuff

Workington to Keswick was 3 weeks after Borders Marathon so I cut down the mileage and did some tune up races. First was Jarrets Jaunt just six days later where although a minute slower than last year still a good time finishing in 5th taking a few scalps of short distance specialists. Some gentle miles during the week and a double weekend. First was Workington parkrun in a new PB of 17:13 with a new WAVA PB to boot. Buoyed by the result I then ran well at Criffel Hill Race, forth at the top after a good climb and started to play about bounding over bogs and just having fun on the way back down then was passed then two runners. Race head started to come back and passed them both with third in sight if well out of reach to finish as first V40. Feeling good feeling strong...

Mental & Physical Dip

As often happens after feeling good and strong a few races go wrong, but why? Is it over confidence? Probably partly but it also a symptom of over-training - an over performance followed by a did in form and or injury. In a sense this is also peaking too soon. The first bad run was definitely over confidence and a serious under estimation of the opposition. Running 20 miles and 5,500 feet in the preceding 36 hours (admittedly over 3 runs) was always going to affect my time on the Workington to Keswick Charity Walk (W2K) but I had expected Colin Graham to blow up at around 20 miles as the furthest he had ever run was 20 miles in a training run and the W2K was 30 miles! How wrong was I and how much did Colin prove that a standard model of training for all does not exist! He maintained pace until mile 29 which was awesome, finishing in one of the fastest times in recent history. Even if I had been on form it would have been a close one: would I have beaten him with out the silly mileage and associated lack of sleep the 36 hours before? Possibly but the is irrelevant, he beat me, humbled me, he taught me a lesson, a lesson too be learnt. I bow down to the up and coming runner but I'l be back next year with vengeance and a real race will be had!

That was the first dip, I licked my wounds and after a week of little running because of or caused by a mental and mood dip started to focus back on London with confidence battered but not broken. Longtown 10 miles was to be a confidence builder. The plan was to go of steady and progressive run it.  I took it easy for the first half but when I planned to pick it up my stomach said no and I had to easy back so the planned progressive run with a fast finish did not happen, the HR and pace were good for a target 2:48 at London so in that sense it was good but that was the third race where my guts had caused me problems. In hind sight I should just have attacked the race from the off and gone all out for a PB but hey ho hindsight does not change the results of past races.

London here we come! I did not feel physically or mentally ready for this, it was too hot, the air too dry and my mental state not good. I tried to use various physical and mental methods to improve my race readiness but if it worked I'll never know, why? My left hip went pop at eight miles, shortly after I passed Marc Penn...

Long time no post...

So my last post was back in September 2013, just a little time ago. A couple of half written posts were loitering in my drafts but even they were old so a quick catch up:

The rest of 2013

The day after the SBU I had a short fell race to take part in:  The Loweswater Show fell race,. yes I know racing the day after an ultra is a bit insane but it was a championship race for my fell running club: Cumberland Fell Runners (CFR) so I had to take part... I was still in position to win the club championship, not being a short race speedster and concentrating on the longer stuff meant I was two points behind first place with three races to go. As long as I was first club runner for two of the next three races the championship was still open...

Darren Block was there so it was unlikely I would beat him with 36 miles in my legs and him fresh, I mentally prepared myself: take it easy at the start, push on as felt right and then see what happens on the descent. It took a while for the legs to start working properly but I was still in sight of Darren on the climb, then the turn and back - my descending was not great, Darren started to pull away out of sight but second club member was in the bag. Still managed to take over a minute of my previous best on the route which was brilliant and Susie's son Alex was third boy in the U16 race which considering he is 11 and it was his first fell race was an amazing result!

Nearing the end of Keswick 15k

A busy week was coming up but it went exceptionally well considering everything else. I manage 4th in the Gosforth 10k on the Tuesday and only 6 seconds slower than my current, though a bit slow PB, 35:58. A few days of gentle running and active recovery then off to do the Lakeland Trails Keswick 15k on Saturday. My legs felt pretty heavy in all the races and my ability to climb was not great still very pleased with the results. Now it was time to rest up before the Ultimate Trails 100k. Good result at Keswick then at the Cumberland Ale ten but this was really poor preparation for the 100k. The redovery was almost no existent but then it was not a target race more a time on feet race, one to enjoy.

Ultimate Trails 100k

Poor sleep, lack of focus on nutrition and other things going on meant I was neither physically nor mentally ready to run the 100k. Even before I started I was expecting to blow up around 50 miles: self fulfilling prophecy?

The plan was to take it slow to start with and run with Adam keeping the heart rate down. This I had great difficulty doing, just kept going to hard and having to tell myself to ease back all the time. Badly stubbed my toe at about 45k and didn't refuel properly, too busy chasing down those in front. A big lesson learnt as I was battling for 3rd and rather than wait for a few minutes to have some food ran on and within half an hour the wheels were wobbling, shortly after a complete blow up, could barley walk, balance gone, vision blurred and hard to focus. It took what felt like an eternity to reach the checkpoint in Langdale. Very nearly retired from the race ther but after eating and drinking for about an hour Adam arrived so I decided to finish the race with him, finish I did but a few lessons rammed home there - still a lo to learn.

When still running

Post race I went to hospital to get my toe looked at as the foot had gone red from the impact. Xray showed nothing so 'just' soft tissue damage so rest...

Enerdale 50k

The wheels well and truly came of here. A great race so I will be back but one that I should never have started. I'd not been well in the build up, my toe still hurt and I was stressed out trying to sort out student finance for my new college course. Result was to run at the pace I wanted not what Iwas currently capable off which for the first lap was OK then I stated to feel sick and was at 35k, couldn't stomach food found it hard to drink but still pushed on. by about 45k I was walking a lot of the time so lost a few places. I finished but at what cost?

Half way point

Rceiving my 2nd place V40 prize

Ended up with Frank urine (blood in pee) so spent twop nights in hospital and on a drip. This was followed by the best part of six weeks of very little activity. 2013 ended badly, so I started to plan for 2014...