Second post and over two weeks since the last, no surprise there! Since the Buttermere round, just before the first post, I’ve eased off a bit with a recovery week (31 miles) followed by an easy week (57 miles), but now we are into march it’s time to ramp it back up again putting in some proper miles and more intense interval and tempo sessions etc.
So far this year I’ve taken part in nine races with a lot more pre-entered later in the year including 4 marathons (two trail) and seven trail races. There will hopefully be a lot of fell races in there too, though since they tend to be entered on the day and there are so many of them near to home I am far from decided which ones to do! The races I’ve done to date this year are:
Nine Standards Fell race – held on New Years day.
First ever fell race which included a lot of road so was a good way to ease myself into this new discipline, the climb was hard and my legs felt very heavy for the majority of it, reaching the top in 18th. By that time my legs were starting to behave themselves letting me open out on the decent reeling in runner by runner to end up in eleventh though behind Stu. Not a bad start – Lesson need to rest more before hitting the fells and practice on the hills more.
Keswick cross county on 8th January
Four laps of a relatively flat but frozen course. The plan had been to take the first two laps steady and pick it up over the second two. It was all going to plan with the gap closing between Stu and I when the dreaded runner’s trots reared there ugly heads from below just before the end of lap three. The pace suffered and Stu pulled away again so beaten twice in two weekend’s. The lesson this time? – sort out what is causing the trots and make my bowels did not cooperate
Brass Monkey half marathon – 23rd January
A very flat race in York
That’s Lyth – 30th January – LDWA 23.5 mile “walk” over mixed terrain.
Managed to nip under three hours but suffered badly due to lack of rest before the event slipping from second to fourth over the last five miles – lesson here was not to do a month of miles (368) and try to do a long race at pace at the end of it!
Jarret;s Jaunt – 6th February
Second fell race of the year this time a fully marked handicap race. But what should my handicap be? Looking down the list I saw the name of a guy (Simon Hunter) I’d been 10 seconds ahead of in another race so though that should do… The race was going very well until the last turn about half a mile from the finish where I went wrong in the mist and carried on straight instead of bearing right (turned out I was far from the only one), when I couldn’t see many trail shoe marks on the path nor runners ahead as the mist thinned I knew something was wrong then woods appeared ahead on the right when they should have been on the left. A quick re-orientation and direction change and found the course again but by the end the 4.5 mile course had become a 5.2 one, probably costing me second place. No lessons here other than a reccy which I didn’t’ have time for anyway!
Buttermere round – 13th February
The first real test of how my training was going as I’d run this one in 2010 admittedly a slightly longer version due to the floods of November 2009 meaning a 400m detour. The plan this time was to go under 2.5 hours, and hopefully ten minutes faster than the previous time. When I was 3 minutes up by the bottom of Honister Pass I thought maybe the initial pace had been too much especially in the gusty rainy conditions, it turned out that it was but only slightly as my finishing time of 2:22:37 was over 16 minutes faster than 2010 meaning my training was coming on much better than anticipated.
This was meant to be a PB race while visiting my brother in York York
Black Combe – 5th March
A proper fell race and first time running as a member of Cumberland Fell Runners (CFR), my second club. My loyalties still lie with Derwent AC Cockermouth (DAC) but it made sense to be a member of a fell running club when my intention is to make the gradual transition from mainly road to mainly fell running over the next 14 months. The race itself taught me a lot about the variation within the sport. This was my third fell race of the year and so different form the other two: very little marking, electronic check points and no flat to speak of. The first four miles I raced then eased of a bit to save myself for the following days pacing of a fellow Derwent AC member at Haweswater. I slipped from 14th down to 19th over the second half. Lessons were many fold – it’s good to walk, you will pass and be passed back by runners who are better or worse decenders or climbers, some climbs will be at what appear to be ridiculously slow paces but nearly everyone will be that slow and I need much more real fell practice before the BGR.
Haweswater Half Marathon – 6th March
Rather than race this one I helped pace Phil Cueto from DAC around to try for a PB, he kept to the pace very well: 21:20 at 5K, 42:20 at 10K and 67:45 at 10 miles. He digged deep at the end to beat his previous PB by over a minute finishing in 1:27:21 - well done Phil! The other reason for this pace was it is my intended pace for the Workington to Keswick Charity “walk” on 20th March so it helped us both.
The next targets are a good time on the Workington to Keswick Charity “walk” and Edinburgh
Next time maybe less statistics and more substance…
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