Following the London Ultra last weekend I have some good news to report, my musicals actually did not hurt that much, it took me about 2 days to feel normal again and I managed some time on the cross trainer by Tuesday.
The existing injuries and the bad choice of trainers, for what turned out to a race run on about 70% hard, did cause me joints problems and my ankle to flair, some acupuncture at the weekend seems to have helped my ankle and a bit of physio booked this coming Saturday I am hopping will sort out the knees ready for a long runs on Sunday. I am competing in a Cross Country Relay on Saturday and somehow ended up in the first team, I think somewhere in the translation MDS entry got mixed up with I am running well. I will give it a go and see what happens.
I have ordered nearly all my kit, following the approval of a mortgage, only a few small bits like safety pins, sunglasses and goggles, o yes, I will be wearing goggles if there is a sand storm I will look like the bees knees. If anyone knows where I can get a small light pair similar to the type which came with a chemistry set as a child please let me know!I have gone for light over comfort so I am hoping when I pack the bag next weekend it comes in at around 7.5kg, otherwise I am going to be uncomfortable and carrying a heavy backpack.
It’s not a particularly inspiring post this week I am afraid, mainly due to the tonsillitis, I will keep throwing down the Antibiotics. I am staying possative, the challange was massive before, it is now a whole lot bigger, but I will finish, and finish well. I will inject a bit of inspiration into the proceedings with an YouTube clip about Springboard.
I work up bright an early for a Sunday morning. About 5:50am enough time to get some food and start re-hydrating ready for a 9:00am start.
The night before my Left ankle and right knee where both playing up. It was entirely psychological, so I got off to sleep about 12. Slightly later than planned, I had packed my bag earlier in the evening and then I went out for dinner in town with 2 friends. Got home about 10:30 and thought I best double check tube times to get to Perivale for 8am. Just before I shut down my laptop I had one last check of the instructions (about the 8th time I had read them) to suddenly find Perivale was the Finish. In my mind the race started in North West London and finished in south east. It would have been a very lonely race, as the race actually started in Grove Park (South East London) about 50km away. Back to the drawing board and re-plan my journey to the start.
Repacked and checked my bag, now full of everything including the kitchen sink, I had more energy products, water and kit needed for when I actually run the Marathon Des Sable. Did I use any of the extra kit, liquids, energy products, No, well apart from the water, but that was only to reduce my pack weight as I would have got more than enough from the guys on the way round. It was useful, I got to run for the first time with my OMM back pack and the extra weight I was carrying will put me in good stead when I head out to the desert.
The Morning of the race, I actually felt really good, I had not run out side since the 4th December and actually only clocked up about 200km on the treadmill due to my continues bout of injuries. I was really looking forward to this, people say that running the Marathon Des Sable is a mental more than physical challenge, so it was probably quite appropriate that; the first run in nearly 3 months, would also be my first run with a weighted back pack, first time I had put on my brand new shinny trail trainers (the blisters from breaking in trainers are not normally pretty), o and the first time I had ever run over 26.2 miles.
In some ways I did not think I was going to be that tough, arrogance, maybe, although I would say more naive. It was a perfect day for running; the sun was out, cold but not too cold, a bit of a head wind but not strong.
How hard could it be, it was only 7-8 miles longer than a marathon, umm, considering I have passed out on the finish line on 2 out of the 3 marathons run, 7 – 8 miles does actually sound like a long way. Maybe my 4 hour estimate was a bit too quick, so I decided to run with a group that looked like they knew what they were doing and get whatever time I get.
The Race
Off we went, I had moved fairly close to the front, over the first couple of miles a small group of 6 formed I was not sure how many people where ahead but it was only a small handful, somehow, the group I had ended up with where not armatures, they where regulars on the circuit and very good. It also did not take me long to realise that wearing trail shoes was the worst thing I could have done, taking away from the fact they where brand new, it was all on roads, no padding, means it gives you a tough hard ride. I carried on with running with the group, quickly realising that this was not going to be a fun walk in the park. I was the only one caring weight and the hills in east London are steep. After a while,just after mile 11 check point, I really wanted to drop back a bit, my heart rate had been up in the 188-190 range for a while and I still had a long long way to go, but realising I had no idea where I was, if I lost them at this point, I was well and truly lost, I hung on to mile 18 check point where I could find myself again and run at my own pace, around 12 – 12.5 km/h.
What a mistake, by this point, we had opened up a fairly big gap on the guys behind so I ended up running most of the next 7 miles alone, this was also the hardest part of the course to navigate, it was Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, not flat, over rough ground with little markings and mile 18 - 24 are hard mentally.
I get lost on well signposted roads, so how the hell would I find my way out of Richmond park, I entered the park in rough 10th place, I left in about 30th place, I did not see a single person pass me, however, I went completely the wrong way, spent 15 minute getting really angry at people telling me I was next to a lodge, I knew I was next to a lodge, that was however not on my map. Just tell me what the road is call over there. One lady pointed to some people, I think to get rid of me, and said look they have numbers on. Joy, I found two other runners who had done the same thing as me, and where also lost. Together we worked it out and left the park, I spend the next couple of mile trying to catch people who had gone the correct way.
Going through the 24.5 mile check point my heart rate had started to come down to about 174 bpm. I found 2 guys running around the same speed as me so stuck with them. This is the bit that gets confusing for me, my breathing was under control, I was hydrated, I wasn’t in too much pain, but I just could not make myself run any faster, I was only going at 6.5 mph and all I wanted to do was stop. It was odd, normally what makes me want to stop is the fact I hurt so much, I had been running for about 3:20 and physically could have stayed on track for just over 4 hour finish. But try as I might, I just could not go any faster, 4 hours came about mile 29. Only 2 miles to go and running at 10 min miles, great I thought, 4:20 is still a good for a first attempt. The navigation was easy, just follow the river someone said, looking at a map, how true that was.
I carried on following the river, and followed it some more, mile 31 came and went, and so did 4:20. Ops, 2 runners ahead, stopped taking with the maps out, this is a bit odd, we just follow the river, look closer at the map, the river forked over a mile back, I, with several other people took the wrong fork, and this really was mentally tough. Back on myself, to then go the right way, I had given up and have to admit I walked a couple off 100 yard,ran a couple of hundred yards. Until I sawtwo people ahead, which gave me the motivation to run again, running through the finish at a respectable pace.
It was a great day out and really want to do it again, if I can crack map reading and do it as a race rather than a training piece, I think I could get a good finish position. I am really please with 28th but always room to improve.
Ultra runners get a bit of a bad press, people think they go into ultra running because they are slow runners, I don’t think you can compare, do people take up marathon running because they are slow 100m runners. I would say, before casting judgment, get out there and try it, see how mentally tough this is, so fare I have only managed one 50km (+ getting lost) race. Doing 155miles in 6 weeks is going to be hard, very hard, and yes I will be slow, but then again, it’s a very long way.
A short video to give you an idea what I am heading out to do.......
A week to go until the London Ultra Marathon and less than 2 months until the Marathon Des Sables. 50km is going to be interesting. Training has been going really well and had a good week of running last week. covered 107k out of the 124k planned. Fairly happy with my times after a break. My target is to run as far as I can at 12.6km/h and hopefully come home in just over 4 hours. I don’t know how realistic this is but 12.5km is a km/h slower than I have been going on the longer runs so I am hoping I will at least make the 40km at pace.
W/c 30.01.12
W/c 06.02.12
Target
Actual
Time
Target
Actual
Time
Monday
20
27
01:46:00
R
R
R
Tuesday
R
R
R
20
21
01:25.0
Wednesday
17
17
01:15
15
15
01:09
Thursday
10
10
00:41
15
20
bike
Friday
17
Fail
Fail
10
Inj
Saturday
30
30
02:16
40
Inj
Sunday
30
23
01:28
35
Total (km)
124
107
7:26:00
135
56
1:10:25
Unfortunately the cold has hit and my arthritis has decided to play up. I struggled to even hobble on Friday and in a lot of pain. Typical that one problem resolves it’s self and then another starts.
I am not too worried about it, unlike the last injury. I know exactly what it is and having arthritis in my knees form the age of 6. I know how to manage it. Hopefully it will resolve itself in the next few days and only a weekend of training missed, fingers crossed for some warmer weather soon. It may make next weekend a challenge missing this weekend’s 40k run but I will try and make that up in the week all being well.
For the last month all I seem to have done is buy kit for the Marathon Des Sables. It’s a rower’s heaven. I have been testing it out and actually really impressed with some of it. The 2XU elite compression shorts have worked a dream and sleeping in the Under Amour cold gear compression kit does seem to have helped recovering. My titanium Spork, although it was £15 it is light and I am sure will do the trick. My plastic Mirror will be useful to do my hair when I wake up, o and also signal the helicopter when I go off track. I have a habit of getting lost while running. I have a terrible memory and not a good sense of direction, I got lost at the same point 2 years in a row competing in the river relay.
I have had some very generous sponsors so far, although I would say on the whole the fundraising has not been going too well.I am on £391.00 I have 6 weeks to go and a £10,000 target. If anyone has any ideas, please do let me know. And if people are reading this and have not seen the just giving link on the right, the address is
I have paid for the trip myself so not looking for money to cover my jolly, but to support a very deserving charity Springboard for Children. Both the Charity and I will be incredibly grateful if you are able to make a small donation which will go directly to giving a child a better future.
It has been a while since I last got chance to update my blog. A lot has happened in a week, but without boring you all with the detail, I will summarise it by writing a lot of words saying, actually, not a lot.
The main reason I have not been up-dating it this week is because I am back RUNNING. At last, joy....
My leg is still not 100% but it is good enough. It is so good to be hurting all over, not from injury but from working hard and pushing my muscles. the feeling when you go back to sport after a break and the feeling you get after finishing a marathon, your legs are crying, but it is so addictive and why you keep going back and pushing harder. I better get used to it because having just completed my training plan the next 2 months are brutal. It makes Phil’s training plan look easy, but I have 2 months to cram in a year’s worth of training. I will not be running the full 155miles until I actually hit the desert but will be pushing close to 120 miles a week down the road with 3 marathon distance runs back to back just before the taper. In just over two weeks I need to be ready for my first ever Ultra, the London 50Km ultra marathon. I am in a way quite looking forward to it, I would like to taper and do well. I had originally hoped for 4 hours which would put me ~ 4th. But I am not taking this as a race now but just another days training so I will not taper and only 1 day’s recovery. I will talk more about it later but the route is below so you can all put the 19th Feb in your diary and come down with pomp pomps to cheer me on along the route.
So far this week I did 27km in 1:46 and 17km in 1:15, tomorrow is 10km before increasing to 30km Saturday and Sunday. As I don’t tend to finishing work until about 7 each night I get home about 10:30 after training. Not too late but it is causing me some concern. I just cannot eat enough to compensate for the amount of energy I am burning. Just form the running alone on Monday I burnt 2000cals. Getting in at 10:30pm it is not appropriate to start cooking a full meal. Instead I am eating random things that are fairly good for me but don’t go together. My house mates mock me all the time for this, so not really a new concept but bit odd all the same. On Monday I had Sirloin Steak, two fried eggs and a packet of supper noodles. Tonight I had two fried eggs, smoked kippers, new potatoes and baked beans; it was actually quite tasty, but need to plan my diet at the weekend so I can do a shop rather than a buy as I go.
Bit of a shorter up-date tonight. But it is late and the more exciting things will take too long to type so I will save those up for another day.
Final thought: feedback from people I have had is that there are not enough pictures. Please let me know what you want them off otherwise it will continue to be very random pictures, the photo of my dinner I am sure is not exactly hitting the mark.
