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Couple of footnotes.
There were 5 of us doing one of the races this weekend (3 in the UTMB), and all five of us finished, despite more than 2,000 dropouts across all the events. Well done guys; I'm proud of you.
I didn't get a single blister, despite the rain and snow. Others' feet were totally trashed so I'm really lucky.
My Steve Redgrave moment has passed, and I'm already thinking of my next race.
After the finish rather than go to bed I was out on the beers for the next 9 hours average about a pint an hour. I was last seen doing karaoke at midnight!!
Dan, absolutely different class. I cannot begin to describe how impressed I am. I cheered everytime you left another check point
. Many, many congratulations.
And you still look fresh in the photos! How?
I too have copied your report and will always dip back in if I am ever in need of motivation or inspiration (or plenty of other qualities!).
Utterley marvellous Dan, 'well toughed out' doesn't really do it justice. A lot of HTFU's declared in that report, your Mum must have been very proud. Agree about a RW article, would make a change from 'run faster on 20m a week'. Bet you didn't sing 'Climb Every Mountain' at the karaoke!
Dull.. pleased to hear you're ok.
Fantastic report though - definitely worth trying to get that published as it's a fantastic read.
Thank you for sharing.
I was with you and you were coasting towards at least a fair effort son and then you mentioned walking poles and as if that wasn't bad enough then FB said he'd got over much of the terrain. Think it's downgraded to a reasonable on the account of those two shockers. Kind of took the shine off it for me. I've got to be brutally honest and say it wasn't as riveting as any one of your many LM reports - roll on April I say.
Did I miss the bit about 26.2 consecutive miles at or around 6:51pace?
What colour is the Xempo t-shirt for a sub40 UTMB?
I still think you're better at darts (but probably not karaoke).
Good work fella and fair play for growing a pair.
As UTMB were. (Which when all is said and done is a lot better than As UTMB weren't.)
DanA - absolutely class, 9 pints after a race. The run wasn't too bad either! Seriously, amazing stuff, and no doubt you can find a way of causing yourself even more pain.
We had a great day on Saturday, everything went to plan and I think everyone enjoyed it. Even my speech seemed to go down reasonably well. Got back from a few days in Budapest last night, which was lovely and is now one of my favourite cities. Even managed to fit in a bit of training!
Congrats on the hitching Padams but please ignore CDs request for a blow by blow account of the honeymoon!!
Awesome report there Dan, well worth the wait. The hallucinating sounded like fun. What kind of extra weight are you typically carrying around on your back?
Would be interested to see how a real road runner like you would do on a course like this. In fact we discussed it a lot over the weekend using you as an example. We reckoned that with a year's specific mountain training you could compete with the very top guys in the world. The Spanish lad who won for the third time averages 35 hours of mountain running a week for example.
Padams - Congrats on the wedding, glad it went well.
CD - ROFL.
There will be no "blow by blow" account of the wedding/honeymoon. We did see virtually all of Budapest though, including the Parliament buildings, Margaret Island (nice 5k running track), Buda castle, some big thermal baths (can't spell the name but it began with Sz!) etc. etc. Loads of good restaurants there as well - luckily we have a big office there and I got some tips from some colleagues.
DanA - carrying all that stuff puts me off that kind of race (that and the ridiculous distance, climbing, weather conditions etc.). Very close to entering Coutry to Capital in January though.
DanA -- what can I add? I recently reminded myself how to get wobbly legs doing ONE 800m ascent/descent in a 5 mile mountain run -- doing that ?20 times over in the rain etc etc is beyond imagining.
What shoes and socks did you wear to get round with no blisters? My mountain combo was XTalon190s plus supposed-to-be-waterproof-but-aren't GoreTex socks...
35 hours a week, that's insane! Being mountain running though I guess he only covers 100 miles
I'd love to live in the mountains for a year to train but I think my knees would soon be my limiting factor or do you find it's not so bad due to the intensity being dropped down a notch or 2? I just stumbled across the Comrades prize money and it's quite decent, around £26k if you win and down to £1200 for 10th. Would be interesting to see some pbs of the top 10 for some distances and courses I can relate to.
Marders - an old college friend of mine (Dan will know him) was aiming for top 10 this year and has a marathon PB of 2:32 I think. He does get better the longer the race though! His race didn't go to plan this year though - can't remember where he ended up but it was still impressive.
I guess Coro's training partner would be up there if he did Comrades?
He runs enormous volume of racing miles, and but is more of an ultra runner.
The guy Padams refers to ran 6.01 last year and finished 23rd (it's two marathons and a 5k in distance over a very hilly road course). He "only" managed about 6.30 this year, but is an awesome long distance runner these days which belies his 2.32 PB.
The most famous pure marathon runner who has won Comrades that I can think of is Alberto Salazar, at a time when he was running 2h09
CD - disgraceful behaviour !
Padams - glad that you enjoyed your wedding and honeymoon. Bit disappointed to see that you were training too though, although you dont want her to think that you've retired now.
I thought Comrades is easy, Ode did it after a nasty bout of food poisoning in the last couple of days !
I managed to Tim my wettie y'day and spent 25 mins swimming into the current and waves off Southsea, didnt travel very far but a couple of laps of the moorings at Bucklers Hard on Sunday will be a doddle in comparison, I had a job actually getting back on to the beach cos of the shorebreak.
TR- I did, but there was a fair bit of suncream in my eyes at about the 40k mark. Still....nearly entered today but was thwarted by no chip code!
Marders- On a serious note I was thinking about it for you (earlier this year) and Marigold as I was reading down and saw your post spookily. I spoke to the the chap alluded to above after the race. He went off hard and felt he'd overtrained this year and after 30k eased off "a lot" were his words. I also think the winner's PB is"only 2.17" as well but I think it's more a case of how comfortable is cruising 5.40-6.00 for a double with some hills. I think this year they all raced hard from the off and smashed themselves to pieces from the write ups (Similar to Wanjiru's Olympic win).
Belated Happy birthday MTR
Oh, and will be taking a leaf out of Salozar'sbook next year. He did a lot of hillwork on the treddie. I did a lot of recovery runs this year on it but for next year, 2-3 hrs of 3-4-5% is much more specific hillwork than 10x2mins which I thought would work this year!
Ode - you're a tough nut ! 2 to 3 hrs on a treadie at 4%, no thanks !
PMJ - no idea, only ever trained for a 10M race in my non-running days, and then it was 3 runs a week with a long run of 7M for about 6 weeks before the B of the Bang. Nowadays I'd just a bit further a bit more often than that if I were tergatting a 10M race.
A friend has just alerted me to this new 150g Inov8 shoe which looks interesting. (I'm still getting the hang of my ASICS 138g jobs though.)
PMJ: I was considering digging out some of the Canova suggestions from TT as half marathon training, as I have 3 coming up (Grunty Fen next week I will be unprepared for; race pack for Great East Run arrived yesterday with a gratifying "elite" number, though I'm going to be a long way back from the front runners there! -- and also the City of Norwich HM this autumn). I saved a fragment of TT's posting; these were intended for marathon training, but the first batch look good for 10M or HM to me:
The sessions are lifted directly from Canova's postings on Lets Run. Just for the record, the list I'm working from at the moment is as follows:
Aerobic Power Workouts (one per week):
1) 10 x 800 w 1:30 jog @ 110-112% of MP
2) 6 x 1 mile w 2 min jog @ 108-109% of MP
3) 4 x 2 mile w 3 min jog @ 105-106% of MP
4) 3 x 3 mile w 4 min jog @ 103-104% of MP
5) 2 x 5 mile w 5 min jog @ 101-102% of MP
6) 6 mile continuous run @ 104-105% of MP
7) 8 mile progression run @ 100-106% of MP
Aerobic Endurance Workouts (one per week):
1) 18-22 miles steady run @ 90-95% of MP
2) 24-26 miles easy run @ 80-85% of MP
3) 18-22 miles progression run @ 85-100% of MP
4) 12-15 miles simulation run @ 100% of MP
5) 20 miles - last 5-10 miles @ 100% of MP
6) 20 miles incorporating 10 x 800 @ 103% of MP w 800 jog
7) 6-7 miles @ 85% + 6-7 miles @ 100% of MP (workout done AM and PM)
Even for half marathons I'd feel unprepared if I wasn't doing the odd run a bit longer than race distance, e.g. 15-18M. Getting over my lurgy but now an annoying hip muscle issue has re-emerged, so not sure what I'll do this morning...
CharlieW, thanks for the sessions. As I had expected, it isn't easy and I can't skim over a few sessions and expect to do well.
Do you mean Great East or Great Eastern run? One is at Bungay and the other Peterborough?
Most people change socks a couple of times during the race, and many change shoes at halfway, but more through laziness (and lack of any issues), I just kept the same ones on all the way round. Should point out that I rarely get blisters of any kind these days, as my feet are used to it over the years.
Who's at Bristol or Nottingham next week? I'll be there, although definitely not running.
Just popping over from the sub 3:15 tread to add my congratulations to Dan A. Stunning.