40 mile Ultra race

Ten minutes to fill in a gap !

After sulking for a few days after the High Peak 40 I decided to do a bit of proper training again.

Week 1 was 6 days of 90 minutes a day running - no specific pace just 90 minutes.
Week 2 was 6 days of 120 minutes a day running - again no pace or distance just run
Week 3 went up to 150 minutes until the Thursday when I caught a cold of my dear friend Tony which knocked me for 6 as it was a real chesty/snotty cold.

Anyway the day of reckoning approached fast and the famous four (Tony, Lee, Neil and yours truly) set off on my second 40 mile Ultra race in Germany and amazing myself beyond my wildest dreams got 6hr 20mins which was a PB by 1hr 50mins and we cam in second team (or first International team!)

It was a great few days in Germany and a great course - mostly on trail

My first Ultra

My first Ultra race - 40 miles of trail, rock, road through the High Peak taking in the delights of Buxton, Castleton and Tideswell along the way.

I though I was reasonable well prepped for this having recce'd the course but the real attention to detail that I missed out on was adequate fueling.

A nice early start at Buxton Pavilion Gardens went slightly two quickly with the first 4 miles all averaging under 8 min miles - but we stayed as a pack (Paul, Steve, Derek and myself) and headed along Rushups Edge towards Mam Torr and Castleton - Paul said we were pushing too quickly too early and these words were to prove true.

In about 35th at 20 miles you then come up against Cavedale - two kilometres up hill through Limestone totally broke me - perhaps I should have tries running it instead of fast walking ?

At 22 miles we had dropped Paul slightly and I needed to eat something so told Steve/Derek to forge ahead - big mistake - this broke me mentally and gave me the choice of slowing down to the point of almost stopping.

At 26 miles Paul caught me up and went past as if I was stood still - this was a big check point as I could have decided to call it a day but didn't.

Insanely I left my bag of food and decided to do the last 14 miles with just water - idiot !

At 30miles I passed a guy at a check point eating a Steak Ginsters - I should have mugged him.

It was a bad experience from then on in - but I will know better next time - I finished 73 in 8:09 and have 5 weeks to recover, retrain and beat that in Germany.

High Peak 40

Bridging the gap

What a busy summer !

Great 3 weeks holiday in the South of France with the running taking a back seat but still managed to get in about 30-35 miles a week but so so hot - tried running early, running late, not running, just swimming - in the end a good rest was better !

Prior to the holidays I have only ran fell races - best position was 13th in the James Thorn race in Glossop.

I have kept up the long runs at the weekend 18's, 20, even 24's last weekend - I had planned on entering the 56 mile Bullock Smithy but family commitments meant a change to plan - instead I will do the High Peak 40 in two weeks time.

Neglectful !

How bad am I - no updates for weeks and yet so much has been going on.

First to the London Marathon - my best yet 3:06:03 - I have no idea where it came form as my two previous races were under par but when you look at their times they were exactly in line with doing a sub 3:15 marathon.

It was lots of rest for the four weeks after London and just in the last fortnight I have picked things up again with lots and lots of hills and four fell races - I love the hills and whilst I have always been a decent ascender my descents have been crap to say the least ! But recently they are improving and touch wood I have yet to fall this year which is very unusual for me. !

London Marathon preparation - (23/04)

Ask anyone who has trained for any marathon properly and they will tell you its along hard slog - week after week of building up the long runs and gradually tuning yourself to the ultimate challenge of 26 miles 385 yards.

I have had a solid 14 weeks training going into London, no injuries to speak of (a bad cold for a week which knocked one of my long runs for six and left me walking the last few miles of it), less races than last year which I thought was my downfall but the two races I did do I did not meet my targets - only 90mins for Wilmslow half marathon when my target was to go under 86 and 2:25 at Trimpell 20 which was 9 minutes off last years pace.

Hopefully all would bode well on the day itself as I also had a good two week taper going into the marathon as well... we will see

My first mobile post

Well it will be if the technology works and this should make future posts a lot lot easier - we will see !
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

20 mile test - (13/03)

Well I've not raced for a good few weeks so this weekend a group of about 12 from Stockport Harriers are off up to Trimpell for a 20 mile road race.

for those that don't know the area its a flat course on cycle ways, trails and about 2 miles on road.

The target this year is to beta last years PB (2:16:42) which surprised me at the time as it was sub 3hr pace for the marathon and left me with delusions of grandeur which my body refused to meet !

Pace target this year is 6:50's on the way out and step up to 6:45's if possible on the way back.

Eat, eat and eat again - (01/03)

What wouldn't I give for a cooked breakfast !

I've been staying at Hilton hotels recently with work and the breakfasts look great - but instead of filling myself full of sausage and bacon its been bowls of fresh fruit and bread and jam.

This weeks sessions have all gone to plan as well - even including an extra two miles on the long run (22 instead of 20) - hopefully those two miles wont come back to haunt me come the London Marathon

On the up - (21/02)

Now that was a better week - good work/life balance - the cold has disappeared - the snow has gone as well.

This all bodes well - I think - good 12 miles last Sunday, two sessions on Monday including a hard track session - rest day Tuesday - which is new for me as its normally Friday, but Tuesday does work better as its my toughest work day with travelling and client meetings - so rather than get to a hotel at 7:00pm and worry about running - I get there at 7:00pm and worry about what to eat - its a great change.

Two hour run Wednesday evening, and 6 x 1 mile reps last night and an easy 45 minutes today.

Tomorrow is the Bramhall Park time trial where I will want to beta my time of last week when I still felt a little peaky - lets see - early night I suppose !

Take a break (13

Bit of a low over the last couple of weeks - I had a stinking cold for a week and a half and that seemed to combine itself with a little bit of either over training or too much working - either way something had to give and it was quality that went first. What usually would be hard track reps became very difficult if not impossible.

Listen to your body they say - so its been a step back week with no runs over 12 miles - three hard sessions in the last week followed by a 5K time trial yesterday (19:30 on a muddy trail course) should see me back to normal next week.

Long runs versus racing - (30/1)

As mentioned recently my plan this year is to reduce the number of races before FLM which will hopefully improve the quality of the long runs.

Last weekend was the first time I would have normally raced (Northern XC Championships in St Helens), but instead chose to do a 20 mile run with Steve, Lee x 2 and James - it went well with a strong second half to the run.

It did however leave me with a tight left ham string which has meant that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week has meant no speed work and instead a combination of cardio vascular workouts in the gym, cycling and steady running instead.

Hopefully a massage this afternoon will mean I will be ready for the Alsager 5 mile road race on Sunday which i am hoping to break my five mile PB at (currently 31:14) - although the current weather forecast of sub zero temperatures and snow may put paid to that anyway.

Update - (22/1)

What happened to the last few weeks !

Very little racing as this was a conscious decision as part of my my London Marathon training for 2009 - last year I raced 12 times in 12 weeks which with hindsight was probably 6-7 races too much.

So far this year I have run the Derbyshire XC championships where Stockport Harriers men's team got Bronze medal and several of the team through to represent Derbyshire at County level including my daughter Amber.

Training has been hard and steady with 70 mile weeks for the last few weeks - with only one 'overtraining' issue last week which was soon resolved.

Next race is a five mile road race at Alsager next weekend and I'm looking to beat last years time of 31:17

The new job at Capgemini is everything I could have hoped for and hasn't yet (?) had an impact on training !