2 reasons for this: post photos from Maggies Monster Bike & Hike. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150554461200184.660750.711285183&l=c6d74716b7
...and the other. Whilst I did my early morning exercises today I was reflecting on this blog, and the practice of people seeking sponsorship generally. What struck me is that by and large we seek sponsorship for things we enjoy doing, or that at least are going to provide us with a feeling of personal satisfaction when we've done them. We don't seek sponsorship for things that are going to be manifestly unpleasant, or provide very much wider benefit, other than the raising of the cash itself. That's clearly not to be sniffed at, but I think that donors are probably getting to the point now of thinking that there's not much in it for them.
Might things change over the next couple of years so that sponsored events move away from being "nice" things to do, to things that are less intrinsically rewarding or achievement-oriented, but provide benefits that are more widely spread? A sponsored litter pick? Graffiti removal? Community centre / village hall decoration? Respite care provision?
I ponder this when I hear about people cycling round the world to raise money, or rowing oceans. Sure it raises funds, and it gives them another chapter in their life story, but it's not actually that constructive is it? Or would donors not be captivated by the glamour and romance of events that were much more mundane, but provided what economists like to term 'utility', and so the funds simply wouldn't be raised? I'd like to see James Cracknell's next adventure not be the Marathon des Sables or the Race Across America, but 2 weeks volunteering at a drug-rehab centre. I wonder how that would go down with potential backers?
So, this might be the last year I ask for funds for things that ultimately, I like to do. This isn't a public commitment, but I'm certainly going to have to think about it...
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Doggy delights
It's been a fairly quiet week exercise-wise, probably not that surprising after our efforts at Maggies last weekend. A couple of mid-week runs followed by a long one today. It was a bit odd really - when I went out on Tuesday I absolutely flew round the 6 miles, whereas on Thursday it was a pretty laboured 4.5 - it was like the fatigue from last weekend took a while to materialise.
And it was certainly there today still. Admittedly I did my longest run yet - 24 miles - but the last 3 to 4 of those were completed using the head much more than the body. It's rare for me to say this, but I genuinely didn't enjoy those miles; bits were hurting, I was bored and just wanted to be home. My mood wasn't helped by the preponderance of dogs on the canal tow paths today. Most dogs, and indeed their owners, are fine - they stand aside, I acknowledge and thank them, and we each go on our way one positive interaction to the good. However, there are a few who indulge their canine companions like parents of unruly kids. "Don't do that Fido" is said with such a lack of conviction that ruddy Fido then proceeds to stand right in the middle of my path/try to trip me up/accompany me down the next 200 yards of towpath, or some combination of the foregoing. I suppose it's better than being bitten, but at least if I was bitten I could have a proper go at the owner, whereas as it is I get the distinct impression I'm supposed to smile sweetly and admire their oh-so-clever child substitute.
There, that's better. My thoughts actually began to turn today to being back on the bike in a few weeks time. I mustn't forget about the marathon a week on Saturday though - the danger of doing long-ish runs is the same as doing loads of revision for an exam, then opening the paper and realising that you can answer all the questions - you've still got to actually get the answers to the damn things on a piece of paper, or in this case, run just over 26 miles. However, there'll be no more long runs - 10 miles perhaps at some point next weekend. And I'm mountain biking tomorrow night on quite a challenging course at Llandegla. Not sure that's wise, but hey ho. Other than that, the usual stretching and lunges, a bucketful of protein in the next few days, and plenty of rest.
What else can I report? Not much - the weather was great again this morning after the overnight rain (you can tell I'm running short of news if I'm turning to the stalwart topics like that), and three months ago I'd no doubt have been raving about it. We've been so spoiled by the warmth and sunshine of the last 6 weeks however that it didn't feel remarkable.
One of these days I shall go off into philosophical meanderings about the benefits of running, of music whilst you're doing it, but I'll wait until there's truly very little going on before I resort to that.
And it was certainly there today still. Admittedly I did my longest run yet - 24 miles - but the last 3 to 4 of those were completed using the head much more than the body. It's rare for me to say this, but I genuinely didn't enjoy those miles; bits were hurting, I was bored and just wanted to be home. My mood wasn't helped by the preponderance of dogs on the canal tow paths today. Most dogs, and indeed their owners, are fine - they stand aside, I acknowledge and thank them, and we each go on our way one positive interaction to the good. However, there are a few who indulge their canine companions like parents of unruly kids. "Don't do that Fido" is said with such a lack of conviction that ruddy Fido then proceeds to stand right in the middle of my path/try to trip me up/accompany me down the next 200 yards of towpath, or some combination of the foregoing. I suppose it's better than being bitten, but at least if I was bitten I could have a proper go at the owner, whereas as it is I get the distinct impression I'm supposed to smile sweetly and admire their oh-so-clever child substitute.
There, that's better. My thoughts actually began to turn today to being back on the bike in a few weeks time. I mustn't forget about the marathon a week on Saturday though - the danger of doing long-ish runs is the same as doing loads of revision for an exam, then opening the paper and realising that you can answer all the questions - you've still got to actually get the answers to the damn things on a piece of paper, or in this case, run just over 26 miles. However, there'll be no more long runs - 10 miles perhaps at some point next weekend. And I'm mountain biking tomorrow night on quite a challenging course at Llandegla. Not sure that's wise, but hey ho. Other than that, the usual stretching and lunges, a bucketful of protein in the next few days, and plenty of rest.
What else can I report? Not much - the weather was great again this morning after the overnight rain (you can tell I'm running short of news if I'm turning to the stalwart topics like that), and three months ago I'd no doubt have been raving about it. We've been so spoiled by the warmth and sunshine of the last 6 weeks however that it didn't feel remarkable.
One of these days I shall go off into philosophical meanderings about the benefits of running, of music whilst you're doing it, but I'll wait until there's truly very little going on before I resort to that.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Monstered
And so the weekend of Maggies Monster Bike & Hike 2011 rolled around, and a great one it turned out to be. Stand by for a long blog...
It started on Friday morning, leaving home at 845 for the 350 mile drive to Fort William. Even that was fairly memorable too, as wifey sat in the passenger seat of the car searching for internet connections in the least likely places (Shap, Beattock) to be able to watch That Wedding. She did connect from time-to-time, and I found myself, despite being wholly uninterested in the build up, snatching glances at the Archbish (thanks Boris) and the happy couple. Though I didn't realise that John Peel had been reincarnated as the Bishop of London. The most impressive bit for me overall were the onboard cameras in the planes involved in the fly-past; brilliant.
Complete coincidence of timing meant that the 3 parties travelling to FW (us, Bill & Kirsty, + support team of Gordon & Emma) met at the world-famous-in-Scotland Green Welly caff about 45 miles short of the destination, and we did the last bit in convoy. A wild fire by the side of the road en route, and then another just outside the centre of FW, both being battled by fire crews, gave us an idea of how dry and dusty it was going to be out there. At the end of April!
The pre-match routine followed the usual course: registration, pasta party, uplifting live music from a group with more enthusiasm than talent, and a briefing from David "Flasheart" Fox-Pitt, the lead organiser on behalf of Maggies (weather, bike, nutrition, course, emergency procedures, that sort of thing), followed by a couple of pints of strength-giving Guinness. More Royal Wedding on telly, and then bed. But no sleep. Well, a couple of hours, but that was pretty restless. I'm not sure why, but excitement and a head full of cold must have played their part.
Up at 5, covered every part of my body in either vaseline or suncream, or both in some cases, and out to the bike. I'd elected this year to ride the couple of miles to the start and leave the good lady wife in her bed - it was going to be a long enough day for her as it was. We left the start at Banavie at 6.32 for the 31 miles on mountain biking to Fort Augustus. Those 31 miles break down something like this - 70% very straightforward, nice and flat, canal towpath, no stress. 15% long draggy climbs and dips, sapping if you overcook them, but not too stressful otherwise, and 15% quite technical single track. For those with little MTB experience that latter 15% must be hard going. It was a fairly straightforward run. The wind was in our faces, and for a while was horribly reminscent of the day on the Lands End-John O'Groats ride a couple of years ago when we had a 20+ mph north-easterly coming at us for all the 106 miles between Connel and Inverness, one of the most draining days I've ever had on a bike. Fortunately this time, the course zigged and zagged a bit, and we got 5 miles of shelter sucking the wheel of a big geezer. I'm not sure he knew we were even there.
The fastest guys got the bike-walk transition in 2hrs 15; we were in 12 mins later in a very respectable 9th position. We then had the first of 3 fabulous transitions in Fort Augustus (our support team of 4 - Gordon, Emma, Kirsty, Hazel - had been well briefed beforehand, but rose to the occasion magnificently; you know the Wallace & Gromit cartoons when Wallace gets of bed, and through a series of processes and contraptions is deposited at the breakfast tabled washed and dressed 20 seconds later - that was what it felt like), and were out walking 12 mins later. I say walking, it wasn't long before we took to our run-walk approach, which had always been the plan to get to Bronze. I guess we expected to start being overtaken at this point, as many others (we thought) ran a fair bit of the course, but to my astonishment we rolled into Bronze in Invermoriston at 11.07 (9 miles) a place higher up the overall, in 8th, out of 610 starters.
But then the really hard work began - the sun was high in the sky, the temp was 18-20c, and we were climbing hard for a couple of miles with no shelter at all. The pace slackened a little, but not enough to stop us going past a few cyclists. The first half of that section to Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit is pretty unforgiving, as the contour lines on the official map of the Great Glen Way map indicate. What they don't show of course is the underfoot conditions, which are equally hard work in many places; small stones, big rocks, sharp-edged flinty things, all of which really test out your balance, footwear, and selection of where you're going to actually walk. Anyway, we KBO'd (qv W. Churchill) till 15.07, when we hit the Silver finish (24 miles) at Drumnadrochit, accompanied on the run-in (literally in places) by Gordon, who'd come nearly 2 miles up the path to meet us, which gave Bill a nice break from my inane ramblings.
We'd dropped down to 13th by now, but we didn't care - we were ahead of our schedule and target, which was to get to Gold in 15 hours. Hastily scoffed hot food, the inevitable sock and vest changes, and we were off again, going through plenty of tourists as we hiked the first couple of miles out of Drumnadrochit up the side of the A82. Being at the front of the field this year completely changed the feel of the event - normally at this point all the tourists have retired to their campsites or hotels, and you're alone with fellow participants and the marshalls. But on Saturday we barely saw any other participants, going for hours at a time without a sighting, the transitions were all but deserted, and the grockles were out in force, at least in the tourist honeytraps.
After those couple of miles along the A82, some gentle climbing was rapidly followed by some brutal climbing, or at least it feels that way when you've effectively got a marathon in your legs already. A word here on Bill. He started the day with his feet not in the greatest of shape (ie with plasters on in place to cover previous war wounds), and they got progressively worse. We had to stop a couple of times outside of the transitions for him to tend further to his plates of raw meat, but not only did he a) keep going, but b) he kept going quickly, and most impressively c) he didn't moan. I'd have been squealing like a cornered pig if I'd had to have contended with what he had to (and I mean his feet rather than my company, though God knows that can't have helped), so a special medal for British stoicism should be minted for BLW. That said, he did pop enough painkillers to down a 2-ton bull, but I can't believe they're very effective at masking the pain of blisters.
The disappointment of missing out on a haggis-burger at the penultimate checkpoint was tempered by the knowledge we were still well ahead of schedule (note to Maggies organisers for next year: this wasn't the only ill-prepared waterstop - people at the front of the field need hot drinks and food just as much as the folk further down). Texts exchanged with H saw our support team having to cut short their 5-course feast in Inverness, and hurry out to the finish to cheer us in. I haven't really done the 18.5 miles between Silver and Gold justice here - it's hard, walking/running is just getting boring at this point having been out on the course for 12+ hours, and as you descend off the hills you can almost see the finish line in Inverness for a tantalising 45 minutes before you arrive at it.
But arrive at it we duly did, just after 20.30, to give us an official time of 14 hours and 1 minute, though by my timing it was 13 hours 59. Either way, we did the course in 14 hours, an hour less than our target of 15 hours, 3 hours faster than last year, 5 hours faster than 3 years ago, and most surprisingly, of the 323 people who made it through to Gold, we finished 14th and 15th. More stats - we were the 3rd fastest team that actually finished as a team (ie together), we were the fastest walking team, and the people that finished immediately behind us came in 1 hour 6 mins later. I'm really proud of our performance.
I'm less proud of my performance after I finished however - it seems that I just haven't got enough blood in my system to cope with a combination of champagne, a deep tissue massage on lactic-laden legs, digesting hot food, AND keep me warm. So for the second time in 3 years I ended up in the care of the Red Cross, this time with mild hypothermia. My body temp was about 1.5-2c below normal, and it took nearly 90 minutes of being swaddled like a newborn to get it back to acceptable levels. Oops. How embarrassing. And on a day when other folk were coming in with sunburn.
The better news however was that I completed the course totally blister-free and without losing a single toenail, both firsts for me. There's not too much stiffness either, and I'm looking forward to resuming training tomorrow for the marathon that's 2 weeks on Saturday.
Post-event reflections? Well, if you want guaranteed good weather for a British-based holiday, go to the Highlands at the end of April - this was the 8th year of the Monster, and every year has been fine, and in most cases, glorious. Second, it is a great event; you can make it as hard or as difficult as you wish, the scenery is fabulous, and the support is excellent. Third, a good support crew is vital - not only is the good cheer and efficiency necessary, but being to look forward to those breaks gives you little intermediate rewards that are really important. Fourth, you can always do more/go faster than you think you can! Which leads me on to next year's event......hmmm, probably best to not take a decision for a few days. I've got the date the Early Bird entry discount ends marked in my diary though!
And finally...thanks again to our support crew, all named above - we obviously couldn't have done it without you, and I'd love you to give it a go - but mostly thanks to Bill, because this is a team event, and he was my team, both on the day and beforehand in the prep. The event, the location, the weather, the team; all made it a fantastic weekend.
It started on Friday morning, leaving home at 845 for the 350 mile drive to Fort William. Even that was fairly memorable too, as wifey sat in the passenger seat of the car searching for internet connections in the least likely places (Shap, Beattock) to be able to watch That Wedding. She did connect from time-to-time, and I found myself, despite being wholly uninterested in the build up, snatching glances at the Archbish (thanks Boris) and the happy couple. Though I didn't realise that John Peel had been reincarnated as the Bishop of London. The most impressive bit for me overall were the onboard cameras in the planes involved in the fly-past; brilliant.
Complete coincidence of timing meant that the 3 parties travelling to FW (us, Bill & Kirsty, + support team of Gordon & Emma) met at the world-famous-in-Scotland Green Welly caff about 45 miles short of the destination, and we did the last bit in convoy. A wild fire by the side of the road en route, and then another just outside the centre of FW, both being battled by fire crews, gave us an idea of how dry and dusty it was going to be out there. At the end of April!
The pre-match routine followed the usual course: registration, pasta party, uplifting live music from a group with more enthusiasm than talent, and a briefing from David "Flasheart" Fox-Pitt, the lead organiser on behalf of Maggies (weather, bike, nutrition, course, emergency procedures, that sort of thing), followed by a couple of pints of strength-giving Guinness. More Royal Wedding on telly, and then bed. But no sleep. Well, a couple of hours, but that was pretty restless. I'm not sure why, but excitement and a head full of cold must have played their part.
Up at 5, covered every part of my body in either vaseline or suncream, or both in some cases, and out to the bike. I'd elected this year to ride the couple of miles to the start and leave the good lady wife in her bed - it was going to be a long enough day for her as it was. We left the start at Banavie at 6.32 for the 31 miles on mountain biking to Fort Augustus. Those 31 miles break down something like this - 70% very straightforward, nice and flat, canal towpath, no stress. 15% long draggy climbs and dips, sapping if you overcook them, but not too stressful otherwise, and 15% quite technical single track. For those with little MTB experience that latter 15% must be hard going. It was a fairly straightforward run. The wind was in our faces, and for a while was horribly reminscent of the day on the Lands End-John O'Groats ride a couple of years ago when we had a 20+ mph north-easterly coming at us for all the 106 miles between Connel and Inverness, one of the most draining days I've ever had on a bike. Fortunately this time, the course zigged and zagged a bit, and we got 5 miles of shelter sucking the wheel of a big geezer. I'm not sure he knew we were even there.
The fastest guys got the bike-walk transition in 2hrs 15; we were in 12 mins later in a very respectable 9th position. We then had the first of 3 fabulous transitions in Fort Augustus (our support team of 4 - Gordon, Emma, Kirsty, Hazel - had been well briefed beforehand, but rose to the occasion magnificently; you know the Wallace & Gromit cartoons when Wallace gets of bed, and through a series of processes and contraptions is deposited at the breakfast tabled washed and dressed 20 seconds later - that was what it felt like), and were out walking 12 mins later. I say walking, it wasn't long before we took to our run-walk approach, which had always been the plan to get to Bronze. I guess we expected to start being overtaken at this point, as many others (we thought) ran a fair bit of the course, but to my astonishment we rolled into Bronze in Invermoriston at 11.07 (9 miles) a place higher up the overall, in 8th, out of 610 starters.
But then the really hard work began - the sun was high in the sky, the temp was 18-20c, and we were climbing hard for a couple of miles with no shelter at all. The pace slackened a little, but not enough to stop us going past a few cyclists. The first half of that section to Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit is pretty unforgiving, as the contour lines on the official map of the Great Glen Way map indicate. What they don't show of course is the underfoot conditions, which are equally hard work in many places; small stones, big rocks, sharp-edged flinty things, all of which really test out your balance, footwear, and selection of where you're going to actually walk. Anyway, we KBO'd (qv W. Churchill) till 15.07, when we hit the Silver finish (24 miles) at Drumnadrochit, accompanied on the run-in (literally in places) by Gordon, who'd come nearly 2 miles up the path to meet us, which gave Bill a nice break from my inane ramblings.
We'd dropped down to 13th by now, but we didn't care - we were ahead of our schedule and target, which was to get to Gold in 15 hours. Hastily scoffed hot food, the inevitable sock and vest changes, and we were off again, going through plenty of tourists as we hiked the first couple of miles out of Drumnadrochit up the side of the A82. Being at the front of the field this year completely changed the feel of the event - normally at this point all the tourists have retired to their campsites or hotels, and you're alone with fellow participants and the marshalls. But on Saturday we barely saw any other participants, going for hours at a time without a sighting, the transitions were all but deserted, and the grockles were out in force, at least in the tourist honeytraps.
After those couple of miles along the A82, some gentle climbing was rapidly followed by some brutal climbing, or at least it feels that way when you've effectively got a marathon in your legs already. A word here on Bill. He started the day with his feet not in the greatest of shape (ie with plasters on in place to cover previous war wounds), and they got progressively worse. We had to stop a couple of times outside of the transitions for him to tend further to his plates of raw meat, but not only did he a) keep going, but b) he kept going quickly, and most impressively c) he didn't moan. I'd have been squealing like a cornered pig if I'd had to have contended with what he had to (and I mean his feet rather than my company, though God knows that can't have helped), so a special medal for British stoicism should be minted for BLW. That said, he did pop enough painkillers to down a 2-ton bull, but I can't believe they're very effective at masking the pain of blisters.
The disappointment of missing out on a haggis-burger at the penultimate checkpoint was tempered by the knowledge we were still well ahead of schedule (note to Maggies organisers for next year: this wasn't the only ill-prepared waterstop - people at the front of the field need hot drinks and food just as much as the folk further down). Texts exchanged with H saw our support team having to cut short their 5-course feast in Inverness, and hurry out to the finish to cheer us in. I haven't really done the 18.5 miles between Silver and Gold justice here - it's hard, walking/running is just getting boring at this point having been out on the course for 12+ hours, and as you descend off the hills you can almost see the finish line in Inverness for a tantalising 45 minutes before you arrive at it.
But arrive at it we duly did, just after 20.30, to give us an official time of 14 hours and 1 minute, though by my timing it was 13 hours 59. Either way, we did the course in 14 hours, an hour less than our target of 15 hours, 3 hours faster than last year, 5 hours faster than 3 years ago, and most surprisingly, of the 323 people who made it through to Gold, we finished 14th and 15th. More stats - we were the 3rd fastest team that actually finished as a team (ie together), we were the fastest walking team, and the people that finished immediately behind us came in 1 hour 6 mins later. I'm really proud of our performance.
I'm less proud of my performance after I finished however - it seems that I just haven't got enough blood in my system to cope with a combination of champagne, a deep tissue massage on lactic-laden legs, digesting hot food, AND keep me warm. So for the second time in 3 years I ended up in the care of the Red Cross, this time with mild hypothermia. My body temp was about 1.5-2c below normal, and it took nearly 90 minutes of being swaddled like a newborn to get it back to acceptable levels. Oops. How embarrassing. And on a day when other folk were coming in with sunburn.
The better news however was that I completed the course totally blister-free and without losing a single toenail, both firsts for me. There's not too much stiffness either, and I'm looking forward to resuming training tomorrow for the marathon that's 2 weeks on Saturday.
Post-event reflections? Well, if you want guaranteed good weather for a British-based holiday, go to the Highlands at the end of April - this was the 8th year of the Monster, and every year has been fine, and in most cases, glorious. Second, it is a great event; you can make it as hard or as difficult as you wish, the scenery is fabulous, and the support is excellent. Third, a good support crew is vital - not only is the good cheer and efficiency necessary, but being to look forward to those breaks gives you little intermediate rewards that are really important. Fourth, you can always do more/go faster than you think you can! Which leads me on to next year's event......hmmm, probably best to not take a decision for a few days. I've got the date the Early Bird entry discount ends marked in my diary though!
And finally...thanks again to our support crew, all named above - we obviously couldn't have done it without you, and I'd love you to give it a go - but mostly thanks to Bill, because this is a team event, and he was my team, both on the day and beforehand in the prep. The event, the location, the weather, the team; all made it a fantastic weekend.
Monday, 25 April 2011
Chi-p on running...
A couple of months ago a colleague at work recommended a book called "Chi Running" by Danny Dreyer, which claimed to have taught thousands of people to run comfortably, and without injury. And whilst generally I'm a bit of a cynic, when it comes to running, cycling, and other endurance activity I seem to be prepared to suspend disbelief, and give many wacky theories a chance. So I bought the book.
Once you get through the first two or three chapters of American west coast New Age-ism, including why it's called Chi Running (as in Tai Chi), there's a lot of stuff around technique that seemed to make a lot of sense intuitively to me - so I've been trying to incorporate it into my running. There's lots of aspects, but the crucial ones seem to be 1) always strike the floor first with the ball of your foot, not your heel; 2) lean forward, but from the ankles rather than waist; 3) make sure your feet hit the ground under your body rather than in front of you; 4) maintain a relatively high cadence of 75-80 small-ish strides per foot per minute rather than fewer, bigger strides; 5) keep your pelvis level rather than tilted down and 6) swing your arms as if you were elbowing someone rather than punching them.
Doesn't sound too hard does it? But heck, where once running was strictly a mind-in-neutral, take-in-the-surroundings type activity, I now find myself concentrating just as hard as I have done in plenty of exams in my life. I guess it's like learning any new physical activity requiring co-ordination of lots of bodily parts - at first it's really hard, but then becomes easier as you get to that 'unconscious competence' stage. But it seems to be worth persisting with, as (whisper this and touch wood) I'm doing plenty of miles without any significant problems to speak of at the moment. Since the last blog when I promised myself I'd up the activity I've done 5 runs covering 44 miles, including a 22 miler yesterday, and whilst I'm quite tired and stiff today, there isn't anything too traumatic. I'm beginnning to believe I really can run a marathon in under 4 hours.
So what else of all the stuff I've read and experimented with seems to work? A few examples:
- breakfast: generally, I'm a big believer in breakfast, most important meal of the day etc. And I'm a fruit and porridge man; lots of high quality carbs. However, on race days I've stopped having breakfast and just have 750 ml of a pre-exercise carb loading drink. As long as you start eating (bike), or taking gels (running) in the first hour, it seems to make you much livelier in the first part of an event without sacrificing anything later on
- eating (1): for me, during non-running long events (6 hours plus), real food is much more effective at sustaining performance than gels, sweets, energy bars and so on. Sure I have some of those in my pocket for a rapid energy boost when I really need one, but generally a cheese sandwich will do the trick
- eating (2): now this really is setting myself up for a fall, but the fabled runners' "wall" - are they eating enough? Maybe it's because I've learned my endurance on the bike, where there's a culture of eating, but runners seem to eschew eating in the same way. I totally appreciate that you can't be taking on the aforementioned cheese sandwich half way through a marathon, but a steady flow of gels and jellies surely would stave the problem off? We'll see won't we?
I'm getting boring with that so I'll stop. Where I can be a bit rubbish is drinking enough, particularly on cooler days, and 2 years ago on the Monster I had a slightly embarrassing 10 mins lying down in the St Johns Ambulance section at the finish at 2am. I'm pretty sure it was nothing more than dehydration, as I hardly drank a thing after 11pm. It's the Monster again next weekend, so I'll be consciously drinking plenty, and not just water. We head up there on Royal Wedding day, and hopefully I'll be in a fit enough state next Monday to record whether we achieved our target of finishing in 15 hours. With a 6.30am start (which means rising at 5am), I certainly hope so...
Once you get through the first two or three chapters of American west coast New Age-ism, including why it's called Chi Running (as in Tai Chi), there's a lot of stuff around technique that seemed to make a lot of sense intuitively to me - so I've been trying to incorporate it into my running. There's lots of aspects, but the crucial ones seem to be 1) always strike the floor first with the ball of your foot, not your heel; 2) lean forward, but from the ankles rather than waist; 3) make sure your feet hit the ground under your body rather than in front of you; 4) maintain a relatively high cadence of 75-80 small-ish strides per foot per minute rather than fewer, bigger strides; 5) keep your pelvis level rather than tilted down and 6) swing your arms as if you were elbowing someone rather than punching them.
Doesn't sound too hard does it? But heck, where once running was strictly a mind-in-neutral, take-in-the-surroundings type activity, I now find myself concentrating just as hard as I have done in plenty of exams in my life. I guess it's like learning any new physical activity requiring co-ordination of lots of bodily parts - at first it's really hard, but then becomes easier as you get to that 'unconscious competence' stage. But it seems to be worth persisting with, as (whisper this and touch wood) I'm doing plenty of miles without any significant problems to speak of at the moment. Since the last blog when I promised myself I'd up the activity I've done 5 runs covering 44 miles, including a 22 miler yesterday, and whilst I'm quite tired and stiff today, there isn't anything too traumatic. I'm beginnning to believe I really can run a marathon in under 4 hours.
So what else of all the stuff I've read and experimented with seems to work? A few examples:
- breakfast: generally, I'm a big believer in breakfast, most important meal of the day etc. And I'm a fruit and porridge man; lots of high quality carbs. However, on race days I've stopped having breakfast and just have 750 ml of a pre-exercise carb loading drink. As long as you start eating (bike), or taking gels (running) in the first hour, it seems to make you much livelier in the first part of an event without sacrificing anything later on
- eating (1): for me, during non-running long events (6 hours plus), real food is much more effective at sustaining performance than gels, sweets, energy bars and so on. Sure I have some of those in my pocket for a rapid energy boost when I really need one, but generally a cheese sandwich will do the trick
- eating (2): now this really is setting myself up for a fall, but the fabled runners' "wall" - are they eating enough? Maybe it's because I've learned my endurance on the bike, where there's a culture of eating, but runners seem to eschew eating in the same way. I totally appreciate that you can't be taking on the aforementioned cheese sandwich half way through a marathon, but a steady flow of gels and jellies surely would stave the problem off? We'll see won't we?
I'm getting boring with that so I'll stop. Where I can be a bit rubbish is drinking enough, particularly on cooler days, and 2 years ago on the Monster I had a slightly embarrassing 10 mins lying down in the St Johns Ambulance section at the finish at 2am. I'm pretty sure it was nothing more than dehydration, as I hardly drank a thing after 11pm. It's the Monster again next weekend, so I'll be consciously drinking plenty, and not just water. We head up there on Royal Wedding day, and hopefully I'll be in a fit enough state next Monday to record whether we achieved our target of finishing in 15 hours. With a 6.30am start (which means rising at 5am), I certainly hope so...
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Step it up
So, the Monster is now less than 2 weeks away, and the Marathon less than 5. I thought I was doing ok, until...
I have a couple of challenges with what I'm doing, ones that are new to me this year (aside from the obvious change of adding running to cycling). The first is that after doing an event like last Saturday, there's a temptation to take it easy for a week or so afterwards, basking in the warm afterglow of a sense of achievement. The other is that the training required to a) time trial on a bike (which is what the cycle section of the duathlon was), b) run a hilly hour-long course, c) run a long distance, and d) do a 15 hour endurance event, is all quite different, and so there's a danger of being the proverbial jack-of-all-trades physically.
Those two challenges combine with the unpredictable nature of work to mean that training has to be planned week by week - and it's very easy to under-train. So, for example, I went out on what turned into a glorious morning yesterday to run further than I ever have before - 20 miles, which took 2 hrs 45. How's that under-training? Well, this morning, which surpassed yesterday in terms of its springtime wonderfulness, I convinced myself that what I needed was a gentle spin on the bike, as the thighs were still a bit sore from yesterday's miles. I thought an hour long spin on the mountain bike round Macc Forest and Wildboarclough, with low gears and no real effort in the hills, would be all I was capable of. In the event, I was out for a couple of hours, and whilst the slopes needed a little more effort than usual, they were reasonably straightforward. I sought some extra ones out, but should have / could have done more.
And then it was of course London Marathon today, and watching the highlights tonight I was struck by what the times many of the "masses" (as the non-elites are termed) were doing - loads under 4 hours, Nell McAndrew in 3 hrs 8! Ok, so many of them have done marathons before, but really, how hard can it be? (copyright J Clarkson). Quite hard actually - what we don't see on the tv is the hours of pavement pounding they've done leading up to today. I had kidded myself that I was going to be the Ledley King of the running world - irregular training and appearances, but a solid performance when I do get out there. I'm losing faith in that theory though, so my resolve is now firm and clear, the weather forecast is set fair for the week...time to get some miles in. All I have to do now is keep doing the exercises to keep my ITB (illotial band) problem under control, as that's going to be the main barrier to going well.
Meanwhile, I packed for the Monster this morning - separate bags for each of the changeovers, a bag of spares for dry weather, a bag of stuff if it's wet, etc. Yes I know it's 2 weeks away, but Easter weekend is looking busy on the domestic front, and I wanted to be sure I had everything I need. And I'm sad enough to find packing for these things fun - it's nearly as good as going on holiday. Off now to get some more clothes out - this time for tomorrow's early morning run in pursuit of my new resolve.
I have a couple of challenges with what I'm doing, ones that are new to me this year (aside from the obvious change of adding running to cycling). The first is that after doing an event like last Saturday, there's a temptation to take it easy for a week or so afterwards, basking in the warm afterglow of a sense of achievement. The other is that the training required to a) time trial on a bike (which is what the cycle section of the duathlon was), b) run a hilly hour-long course, c) run a long distance, and d) do a 15 hour endurance event, is all quite different, and so there's a danger of being the proverbial jack-of-all-trades physically.
Those two challenges combine with the unpredictable nature of work to mean that training has to be planned week by week - and it's very easy to under-train. So, for example, I went out on what turned into a glorious morning yesterday to run further than I ever have before - 20 miles, which took 2 hrs 45. How's that under-training? Well, this morning, which surpassed yesterday in terms of its springtime wonderfulness, I convinced myself that what I needed was a gentle spin on the bike, as the thighs were still a bit sore from yesterday's miles. I thought an hour long spin on the mountain bike round Macc Forest and Wildboarclough, with low gears and no real effort in the hills, would be all I was capable of. In the event, I was out for a couple of hours, and whilst the slopes needed a little more effort than usual, they were reasonably straightforward. I sought some extra ones out, but should have / could have done more.
And then it was of course London Marathon today, and watching the highlights tonight I was struck by what the times many of the "masses" (as the non-elites are termed) were doing - loads under 4 hours, Nell McAndrew in 3 hrs 8! Ok, so many of them have done marathons before, but really, how hard can it be? (copyright J Clarkson). Quite hard actually - what we don't see on the tv is the hours of pavement pounding they've done leading up to today. I had kidded myself that I was going to be the Ledley King of the running world - irregular training and appearances, but a solid performance when I do get out there. I'm losing faith in that theory though, so my resolve is now firm and clear, the weather forecast is set fair for the week...time to get some miles in. All I have to do now is keep doing the exercises to keep my ITB (illotial band) problem under control, as that's going to be the main barrier to going well.
Meanwhile, I packed for the Monster this morning - separate bags for each of the changeovers, a bag of spares for dry weather, a bag of stuff if it's wet, etc. Yes I know it's 2 weeks away, but Easter weekend is looking busy on the domestic front, and I wanted to be sure I had everything I need. And I'm sad enough to find packing for these things fun - it's nearly as good as going on holiday. Off now to get some more clothes out - this time for tomorrow's early morning run in pursuit of my new resolve.
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Duathlon: Done
Yep, the first of the 4 events this blog is named after was completed at 10.41 this morning, and a cracking morning it was too. Rising at 5 am wasn't an auspicious start, but as we were leaving at 6 I needed that time to go through my usual pre-event routine of a strong coffee to, er, accelerate morning digestive activity, stretch, grease the bits that rub and generally have a bit of a faff. Because I'd not done a duathlon before I persuaded both wife and youngest daughter to accompany me for moral and possibly practical support, and you can guess how thrilled they were to be woken soon after 5.30.
The venue for the event was actually Carsington Water, about 6 miles out of Ashbourne. It's a large lake and home to a sailing club and many other watersports events, and a very fine venue it was too, made all the more attractive on a gorgeous, sunny April morning like this morning. We were there about 6.45, whereupon the faff factor rose considerably as I prepared bike, me, transition gear etc. A quick briefing and we were off on the first run bang on 8.
That first run was just over 12k, with the middle third being really hilly. I resisted the urge to go at other people's pace and stuck doggedly to mine, which meant to start with I drifted down the field. However, it turns out that climbing abilities on the bike (of which I have a little) translate into running, and on the hilly section I started hauling in some other folk. I finished with a time of 59:33 for that run, which I was absolutely delighted with, but was still only good enough to place me 80th out of 138. A quick transition, a telling off for getting on the bike before the final 8 mm of it was over the transition line, and I was out on the open road for an anti-clockwise 40 km circuit, which included going through the delightful market town of Wirksworth.
I had hoped to average just under 20 mph on the ride, but again it was hilly - much hillier than I had envisaged, and so that fell to 17.6, which translated to a ride time of 1 hr 19. That, however, was good enough to take me 20 places up the field, not least because I held my own going uphill, and gave free rein to gravity going downhill, unlike others who seemed quite tentative. The biggest problem was staving off cramp - the left calf started twinging after 5 miles, but keeping the legs spinning rather than grinding seemed to do the trick.
Transition 2 went smoothly and I was off on the second run, which was absolutely pan flat for 4 km I was delighted to find. 17 mins later I was running under the finishing arch for a total time of 2 hrs 41 min 5 secs, which placed me 61st out of 138 finishers. The winner did it in 2 hrs 6 mins (how?! Did he know some short cuts?), whilst the last doughty finisher came in at 4 hrs 15, bless him. I'm really pleased with that - I'd have been ok with anything under 3 hrs, hoped for 2:50, so to do 2:41 was a very pleasant surprise. I put it down to the fantastic weather this morning - was in shorts and short-sleeved top even on the bike - and having my own personal supporters, who were great, and who (I hope) thought that the beauty of the venue and the eally good atmosphere of the event made that 5.30 start bearable.
Highlights apart from my time and the weather: a Virgin hot air balloon drifting low over us on the first run, fantastic organisation and marshalling (well done to the organisers, Punishing Events), and getting to grips with tri-bars!
I had thought that doing this event would be a one-off, but you know, I'm not so sure.....but in case anyone is thinking I'm falling out of love with bike events, my reaction this morning when I hopped over the saddle? "Thank God for that, I can have a bit of rest".
Sunday, 3 April 2011
The Mock Exam
Next week is the first of the quartet of events that make up the title of this blog - the Ashbourne Duathlon. On the basis that things are a lot less scary if you've done them before, I decided that today would be the day when I did my 'mock' - a practice run of next week's duathlon.
So, at 7.55 this morning I left home to run, with cycling gear and bike all ready to go on my return, and my trainers would be left by the front door ready for the short run that follows the cycle. Thanks to an app called Cyclemeter on my lovely new iPhone I was able to track all 3 parts of my 'mock'. And, with the exception of the last half mile, when the curse of the cramp struck, I went pretty well, and would be delighted if I repeated the performance next Saturday.
I'm not normally one for putting facts and figures in the blog, but as I was practicing for a race (and not in any way because I'm rather chuffed with the first two legs) I'm going to make an exception today.
Run 1 (reasonably hilly): 6.44 miles, 51mins 33 secs, 229m ascent, ave 7.5 mph
Cycle (moderately undulating): 25.4 miles, 77 mins, ave 19.9 mph
Run 2 (flat): 2.6 miles, 24 mins 20 secs, ave 6.4 mph
Apart from in a 2-man time trial where we had the benefit of slipstreaming each other I've not got that close to averaging 20 mph over 25+ miles, so I'm genuinely pleased with that effort, but I did pay for it on the final run, as you can see from the average speed figures.
There's not going to be any high intensity stuff in the training this week - I find it counter-productive in the week leading up to an event. Plenty of stretching and core exercises, a gentle run or two and some very moderate turbo work, that's the order of the day - let the body convert the training of the last few weeks into performance next weekend. It sounds like I really care doesn't it? Well, that's true to an extent - I don't really mind where I come compared to others, but a while back I set myself the target of finishing in under 3 hours. I don't think that's possible given that time for transitions is added in, but I'll give it a go. News of that next time...
So, at 7.55 this morning I left home to run, with cycling gear and bike all ready to go on my return, and my trainers would be left by the front door ready for the short run that follows the cycle. Thanks to an app called Cyclemeter on my lovely new iPhone I was able to track all 3 parts of my 'mock'. And, with the exception of the last half mile, when the curse of the cramp struck, I went pretty well, and would be delighted if I repeated the performance next Saturday.
I'm not normally one for putting facts and figures in the blog, but as I was practicing for a race (and not in any way because I'm rather chuffed with the first two legs) I'm going to make an exception today.
Run 1 (reasonably hilly): 6.44 miles, 51mins 33 secs, 229m ascent, ave 7.5 mph
Cycle (moderately undulating): 25.4 miles, 77 mins, ave 19.9 mph
Run 2 (flat): 2.6 miles, 24 mins 20 secs, ave 6.4 mph
Apart from in a 2-man time trial where we had the benefit of slipstreaming each other I've not got that close to averaging 20 mph over 25+ miles, so I'm genuinely pleased with that effort, but I did pay for it on the final run, as you can see from the average speed figures.
There's not going to be any high intensity stuff in the training this week - I find it counter-productive in the week leading up to an event. Plenty of stretching and core exercises, a gentle run or two and some very moderate turbo work, that's the order of the day - let the body convert the training of the last few weeks into performance next weekend. It sounds like I really care doesn't it? Well, that's true to an extent - I don't really mind where I come compared to others, but a while back I set myself the target of finishing in under 3 hours. I don't think that's possible given that time for transitions is added in, but I'll give it a go. News of that next time...
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