The Forgotten Post

I wrote this on 21st of June then forgot to post it! So here is a late post...


Tuesday's "recovery" pace run
This was meant to be a gentle run at recovery pace with a distance of no more than 5 miles. I managed to an OK pace to start with but ended up going a bit too fast with 5 faster bursts. Probably on the whole went to fast and too far (~6.5 miles) considering there was around 700 feet of accent - not good preparation for a PB attempt at 10 miles the next day.


Gosforth 10
After what felt like a long day, drove down to Gosforth for the ten mile road race with three progressive targets of a PB, sub 61 mins and sub 60 mins. A sub 60 mins is definitely on the cards soon, though with all this endurance targeted training my pace over shorter distances is dropping. Ran 58:40 for the first 10 miles of the Brass Monkey half marathon in January so...


Arriving a good 2 hours early since I'd been working in Egremont, I decided to drive around the course to get a feel for the terrain, looked like the first 3 to 4 miles would be quick with slow miles at 6 and possible 10 though the finish in sight might temper the affect of the final hill. There was a good Derwent AC turn out with four competing, I felt good except for the muggy conditions which can slow me down a lot. Looking around at the start after my just under 3 miles warm up I saw Alan Bowness, Chris Steel and Russell Maddams so there were the top three. Marc Penn was also there who is getting faster and faster but I was determined not to let him beat me.

Start of Gosforth 10

On the off the expected three immediately made a lead pack along with another runner whom I didn't recognise. Marc Penn, Steve Garner and myself formed the following pack. It was pretty clear early on that the other runner (John Woodhouse) was racing well above his class and before the first mile marker was in the following pack and soon trailing it. Steve started to pull away at about two miles, I let him go as from experience he is a fair bit faster than me over the shorter distances and is an excellent pacer, Marc stuck with him for a bit but I wasn't overly concerned and  stuck to my pace. If Marc could maintain that pace he would beat me convincingly but I doubted he would, feeling sure he was going too fast. I feared disaster half way through mile five with a stitch developing, easing back slightly and relaxing a bit more the stitch eased but Marc had pulled away establishing a "massive"17 seconds lead: worry I did start. I needn't have as the gap started to close from around mile six. I was catching him significantly on the down hill sections, eventually passing him to move into fifth on the hill at about 6.5 miles. By this point sub 60 was unlikely but sub 61 was still possible. Digging in I managed to pull away from Marc and finish 19 seconds ahead of him with a new PB of 60:31, the Full results are on the Blengdale web site. The sub 60 will have to wait a while longer...

Derwent AC finishers, from top left clockwise: Me, Tony, Anna, Rob

Thursday's Club Run
After the failed attempt on Tuesday to judge what should be recovery pace with the probably knock on affect of not breaking 60 mins at Gosforth I decided to re-introduce my heart rate monitor to get a feel for what was the correct pace for different training zones. Without this knowledge there is a very real danger that the pace on the Hadrian's Wall run would be too strong and my glycogen stores would deplete way to early. I didn't know my resting HR nor my maximum HR, though this should lie around 185. Using this figure I approximated my maximum HR for a recovery run (75% Max HR) of around 138. I tried to stick to this for the cub run where we ran the Lambfoot loop in reverse. This was easier said than done as up the hills it crept over to about 145 and down the hills dropped to under 130 even when going at a decent pace of sub 6 min miles. Maybe more research is necessary or I need to do more up hill training! Pretty pleased with the 140 average at the end of the seven mile easy run.


Jane's BGR
Jane who joined Derwent last year partly to try and improve her basic speed on the flat after a 26 hour BGR attempt was all set for a second attempt with pacing all calculated to give her a 23:12 round.

Jane (on the right) and Angela outside the Moot Hall

Leg1
So at 21:00 on Friday 17th June of she set with Angela and me as pacers for the first leg, Angela was the navigator, I the pack horse and chief gate opener. The acent of Skidaw was straight forward and  with clear skys nothing like the forecast which was was terrible. We made the summit in a steady 83 mins, 12 mins ahead of Jane's schedule. The weather continued to be kind and the pace good to Great Calva with head torches only needed once we reach the bottom to cross to the accent of Blencathera - 11:20 switch on time was pretty good. By now the cloud was coming down over the top of blencathera and the moon was struggling to make any impact, still the ascent was relatively straight forward with Jane's excellent knowledge of the leg getting us straight to the top 15mins ahead. The decent to Threlkeld down Haws Crag was fairly slow going with the slippy rock and now poor visibility but threlkeld and a change of paces was reached still 7mins ahead.

Jane almost at Dunmail Raise

Leg2
After a 5min refil of water bottles, cup of tea etc we we off. For this leg there were four pacers, one navigator, one pack horse (me) an two for encouragement. For the whole of the leg it rained, so that the low cloud and dark means not much to say! A couple of minor navigational errors but maid Dummail Raise 7min up with Jane look very fresh. This is where I left the attempt.


Leg3
Unfortunately leg three went really badly with Jane's balance going and by the time she reached Wasdale she was over an hour down, very tired and demoralized so she decided to call it a day and come back again to crack the BGR.


Go Ape
After about three hours sleep it was time to join the Derwent AC posse for an afternoon at Whinlatter Go Ape. This was part one of Kirsty's Sten Hag do. Luckily the weather had improved and we all had a good time larking about in the trees!

Derwent AC with certificates to prove they had Gone Ape

Night Out and beyond
On the Saturday some of Derwent AC hit Cockermouth for Kirsty's Sten Hag do, a good night was had by all and copious amounts of beer, shots, cider etc. drunk by most. I manages to keep it sensible-ish but not down to a suitable level to allow me to do my planned run on Sunday - a reccy of the Carlilse to Bowness on Solway section of the Hadrian's wall path instead I rested. I was still tired out on Monday so rested again. It seams even a relatively small quantity of alchohol has a significant affect on my ability to run or was it the lack of sleep, two legs of the BGR, a day at go Ape and the night out...


Tuesday 21st June
On Tuesday I had my picture taken for the Times and Star who were running an article on my up coming Hadrian's Wall run - have a sneaky suspicion that the picture may be a bit cheesy as it was taken with me standing on a wall...


Running today was 4x 600m hill repeats to try and find max heart rate which was 183. I'll try this again sometime without the knowledge that I still have 4 miles to run home as I think this held me back a bit but it will do for now. Having this and mu resting heart rate of 41 mean I can now look at what zones I need to train in but more importantly how fast is optimal for Hadrian's Wall. 


Unfortunately the nights club training was hill skills!!!