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Off road 10 miles this morning. Thought I would try a new area so went out to the east of High Wycombe through the smarter ends of Beaconsfield, Seer Green and the Chalfonts. All looks very nice from the railway but the paths were in poor condition and not helped by a load of footpath closures (I duly ignored them all) for overhead power lien works. Stupid if you ask me, close paths for the best part of a year but the powerlines pass over roads and not a single closure for the road. Now sporting scratches across my chest from one big bramble and legs on fire from nettle stings.
A tough one for me at the Great Strides Ultra (65 km) yesterday - as MsE said, it was warmer than anticipated (a couple of days ago the forecast was overcast / rain) and as well as the expected climbs there were some narrow bits coupled with a lot of self navigation resulting in quite a bit of stop/start in places.
That said, it was a very pleasant route with the circuit taking in the North Downs Way, the Greensand Way and the Downs Link. The NDW and GW are both great trails to run along (I can get to them both very easily on runs from my house) and it was enjoyable to run along stretches that I've not done before.
As for the race itself, it was an event put on by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust - they've been doing a 65km walk (same route) for few years and have decided to expand it to an Ultra race. The walk itself attracts about 250 walkers and raises c. £200K for the CFT so understandably they want to increase the appeal and it was good to be a guinea pig for such a worthy cause.
There were only about 20 of us on the start line (the smallest race I've been in by some margin!) and we were sent on our way by Jenny Agutter (of Railway Children fame). There looked to be a number of reasonably experienced Ultra runners so I figured it was important not to get carried away and after a couple of hundred metres two runners had already pulled away, but I found myself with another guy (in training for a 100 miler in Andorra next month!) in 3rd/4th place with a bunch a bit further back.
We pressed on at an OK pace, only to go a bit off track after a few miles and when we rejoined the main course we were only slightly ahead of the bulk of the field. It was good to have someone else to run with for the first stretch but after about 16 miles I pulled away had the pleasure(ish) of my own company for the next 24 miles!
There were about a dozen checkpoints on the route where they were recording the times of the runners so I could tell how far I was behind the leading pair and it was clear that 1st placed runner had pulled away and I was about 6 or 7 minutes behind the bloke in second. By this time I was getting frequent motivational texts from MsE which definitely helped, especially with the promise of meeting up at the checkpoint at the top of St Martha's Hill, a steep climb around the 30 mile mark. Suffice to say, it was real boost to see her when I finally made it to the top and we had a chat for a couple of minutes while I got my breath back.
MsE also told me that the guy in front was struggling a bit and encouraged me to chase him down, so whenever the trail straightened out a bit I was hoping to see him ahead. However, when I got to the final checkpoint about 2 or 3 miles from the end, he was still 5 minutes ahead so I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and counting down the number of laps of a track (2 miles = 8 laps, 1.5 miles = 6 etc etc) to the end.
I managed to pick up a bit of pace in the final mile and it was a mixture of surprise and frustration when I approached the turn for the final couple of hundred metres run down to the line to hear the marshalls cheering him through the finish tape - if only I'd know I was so close I might have been able to push a little bit harder in the last few miles as I crossed the line only about 20 to 30 seconds behind him.
That said, I was still rather chuffed to finish in 3rd place, my highest position in a race (taking into account the fact that parkruns are not races!) especially as the marshalls put the finishing tape back up and I ran through it with my arms aloft to be awarded the bronze medal before collapsing on the ground.
The time itself (just under 7 1/2 hours) was a lot slower than I had anticipated (bearing in mind I had run 6:44 for a 42.5 miles Ultra in January) but a combination of the terrain, the hills and need to constantly refer to the map significantly impacted on this.
Suffice to say I wasn't really fit for anything when I got home, but have recovered a bit now although not enough to go out for a recovery run today!!
Many thanks again to MsE for her encouragement and support - it really was very much appreciated.
Will be spending the next couple of months with more of a focus on the shorter stuff as well as hoping to get out on my bike when the weather's good.
Quite a few ultra events going on at the moment, almost makes me want to join in...Almost.
Congratulations, Sir, admirable work indeed.
Lorenzo - Nice podium finish and the conditions didn't sound ideal at all. I can't comprehend running for that amount of time and having to navigate your way sounds tough too. Well done!
I had a very tough day at the office myself. Finished in 1:29:19 and I've never been so relieved to finish a run of a mere 13.1 miles. Training indicated I had a shot at 1:27 or thereabouts but it wasn't to be. Oh and to top it off I got stung in the face by a bee in the last mile. Not ideal!
Great admiration for all the Ultra exponents on here . . . .
nice racing, Gerard - iirc, your goal was sub1:30, so mission accomplished ?
zero week here - the glute issue still irksome - bit of lard creeping on the waist . . . .
Nothing very exciting here: definitely at a fitness low after 6 weeks of not doing much post-London. Club session on Tuesday and parkrun yesterday. Give me a few weeks and I won't be quite so plodtastic!
Was an absolute pleasure to catch up with Lorenzo midway through the Surrey Hills Ultra. I felt so guilty I wasn't running with you! I knew you could absolutely have mown that second place runner down so am gutted you missed it by such a small margin. Third place is absolutely brilliant though. Well done! Given my inability to find the start/finish line (using SatNav), I do question whether I would have been able to navigate myself around the 65km course though.....
Gerard - we all know you have a much quicker HM in you. The hilly course was always going to make it a challenge and the day can throw all sorts of things which conspire against you. That bee sting must have been awful to run with. When's the next race?
PMJ - those sorts of paths are the worst. Why close paths in summertime when they are most needed? I bet you didn't see any signs of work going on either.
Today I am going to try some pool running. Am unbelievably excited at the prospect of this. May have to distill some of my excitement with some pilates beforehand. Have a great week all!
Wow, great weekend for the thread! Congratulations to Badbark and Lorenzo - two fabulous performances and two podium finishes - well done guys! And well done to GM on the sub 90. Shame it wasn't to be the day you had hoped for. I imagine it was rather warm?
MsE - good luck with the pool running.
Miss GD the elder and her cousin (the bride to be) flew out to the States this weekend and I was preaching on Sunday, so no running over the weekend. Out early this morning for 5 x 1km reps, averaging around 6:03 m/m, off 500m recoveries. 9 miles in total.
https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/how-to-enter/good-age-entry/
Yes that seems quite incredible to me BB. And you are being sensible!
Also Congrats to Lorenzo though details awaited.
I'm getting back in with a sub 20 Parkrun Saturday and 12 miles on Sunday at 8:30 pace. 28 for the week is well ahead of what I was expecting.
Hope you are going good MsE
GM that's still a good time in summer - pick a HM in the autumn and you can knock those minutes off.
Welcome back OO, take care of the paw though.
I often tell mentees that nothing interesting happens in the comfort zone, and yesterday had to put the money where the mouth is. My first ever bike event was pretty tough. The L'Etape Dragon Ride has various distances, we opted for the media fondo which started in Port Talbot and went up and down through various valleys, along the Rhondda and out the other end, then through the middle of the Brecon Beacons before turning south. Grindingly long climbs and terrifying descents, much of it in very high winds with a few of hours of rain. At one point I needed 2nd gear just to get down a fairly steep hill without being blown back up to the top. I had never even ridden in a group before so just staying on the bike and avoiding trouble were a concern. Could have lived without the timed hill climb after 50m, it was nasty tight steep hairpins going up a hillside and very hard work. The last long hill came after 80m, that's a bit mean. We were almost in sight of the finish when some cretin we were overtaking (quite safely) decided to call someone on his stupid phone and veered wildly across the road, coming within inches of causing a big pile-up.
Total 95m and just over 2000m of ascent, time 7hrs52. Could have been a little faster in decent weather or if the team hadn't got seperated. This sort of thing is pretty tame by the standards of Slokey and any other decent cyclist, but I'm happy to admit I found it hard and painful, and made endless schoolboy errors. It would be nice to have a break but by a triumph of rubbish scheduling, it's off to Sweden now for the Vatternrundan on Friday night which has less climbing but covers an eye watering 300km.
Best inventions ever: (1) expensive bike shorts (1) chamois cream. Still sitting gingerly though.
Gerard sub 1:30 is still a decent day out and you should be able to shave a bit when you are 100%
Gul speedy reps.
PMJ duly noted and applied for hope I haven't made a mess of it as took ages to get pics of my phone .
0054 decent week with a good parkrun .
Poacher sounds like a very tough day out and a big cycle for a first race out but would expect nothing else from you .
1st run out today post mara I can run but things are not too good 3m was as far as I could get ! Leg hasn't improved much with a week's rest lol Good for age applied for anyway.
Gul - good early session . . .
MsE - " Today I am going to try some pool running. Am unbelievably excited at the prospect of this" - excellent irony there
OO - fine weekend there - very satisfying, I should imagine, after your op . . . .
Poacher - great report on a splendid achievement - phone incident sounds scary, though
Leslie - take it easy . . . .
pleased to report a 6 mile v.easy trot today, after a blank week - - glute bit sore now, but
didn't worsen during the run . . . .
Jersey Half marathon report
Apologies for the delay in getting this up guys. I know how we all like a good read of a race report. So, yesterday as alluded to in my previous posts was a tough day. Training had gone well the past few months and I was feeling fairly confident that I'd be able to pb and the target was to try and hold 6:40 pace and training had indicated that was doable. If anything I thought I might even be able to run slightly quicker. The race start was in the Western parish of St Ouen and the organiser put on buses to take runners from town up there (its approx. 7 miles from town). Good as it’s a point to point course. This event has grown since the guy took it on in 2012 and there were 585 runners yesterday which is a big number for our small Island. There were quite a few UK runners and a few International runners as well. I arrived there early and chatted with some fellow runners and then did a 2 mile warm up. I had 3 rest days leading up to this race and the legs felt good during the warm up. Conditions at the start were perfect, about 16c with low mist with a predicated maximum of 19c.
The course itself is a mix of road and off road (trail path of approx 3.5 miles). The first mile or so is a descent from the start down to sea level with a couple of small hills. The first mile of this race is always very quick but I just ran to feel and felt good. 2nd mile is almost flat but again with some lumpy bits. Checking my pace now and I could see I had gone through the 1st two miles in 12:40 which was pretty much what I was expecting. I was holding back as I knew once we hit the coast road at 3 miles it would be more or less flat for the next 3 miles. This was the part of the race I wanted to zone in on a nice rhythm and hit the target pace. Each mile passed quickly and I was feeling good, over taking runners along the way and working in with a couple or runners made those 3 miles fly past, that was the best part of the race for me. Mile 6 is where it’s starts to rise and by half way there is a very steep hill which is about 400-500m in length, not sure of the actual ascent but I could certainly feel it and I slowed right down and now runners were passing me at ease. The plan was to take it easy and use the time banked from the 1st two miles to compensate for that. We are now on the trail path and it’s a stony gradual ascent of about 2 miles. I was having to work hard now to try get back on schedule and a quick check at mile 9 said I was bang on pace. The next mile or so is a sharp descent down the trail path and out on to the Bay of St Aubin. Luckily there was no headwind but the sun was coming out it felt super humid but I felt semi ok.
A quick time check at 10 miles told me I was now losing time and was now at around low 1:28 pace. I did the math and thought if I can run a 20:30 last 5k or so I should hit 1:28 without too much trouble. By mile 11 I looked at the watch and could see I was just about hanging onto 6:40 pace. Within a few more minutes I knew I was in trouble and I totally ran out of gas. I was now struggling to hold 7:15 pace. By mile 12 I was almost gone and a few friends cycled with me and gave me encouragement and it helped a bit but I had nothing left in the tank at all. I could see the finish about 1k away and it felt like such a long way. The bee sting incident was the final nail in the coffin and it hit me in the side of the face and managed to lodge itself under the bottom of the rim of my sunglasses. I then tried to get it off and it got angry and stung me on the face. With the finish line approaching I knew a pb was gone but I managed to overtake one guy about 100m to go and heard the time of 1:29:20 (my watch said 1:29:19) and I never felt so relieved to finish a half marathon. I’m not sure what really happened out there but I was suffering more than I have over that distance. There was lots of pb’s yesterday and it seemed like a missed opportunity for me but that’s racing for you. I enjoyed the event and went to the prize giving which was held in a swanky harbour side restaurant, the organiser put on free food and some of my pals won some nice bling. It was really nice to socialise with a lot of people who I usually just run with or race against. I’ll be back next year for more for sure.
Birch - Glad you're back to it.
OO - Ditto as above.
MsE - I'm not sure when I'll be racing next.
Gul - Nice pacey reps. When do you leave for the states and whereabouts are you going?
Leslie - Great you got the GFA in. Take it easy though for a wee while hey?
A real shame you didn't hit the time you wanted but a sub-90 is not to be sniffed at. Do you think the heat grabbed you at the end? Also, have you done a 2 mile warm up in the past? I have never done that. I did a 1 mile warm up at the start of the Staines 10k last month and that's my biggest warm up ever.
I know from Boston what heat and sun can do to race day performance despite being in good shape. It affects people in different ways.
Nevertheless, a good run and with the added great story detail of the bee sting. Well done, Sir!
Attempting my first ever run commute tonight. Got the train in and have a small running rucksack to wear on the 7 miles or so home. Should be a good use of time and will mean a nice family meal can be had before my eldest boy goes back to work in the USA at Camp America tomorrow for 2 months as he did last year. Lucky little sod!
Poacher - well done surviving that lot - you've really sold it to me
Leslie - take it easy.
Birch - pleased to hear you've been out for a run. Onwards and upwards!
GM - good report. You seemed to have had it well planned out, but for whatever reason it just wasn't meant to be sadly. And then as for the bee sting - how unlucky can you get?! I'm flying out to Kansas City (via Chicago) on Friday morning.
5 mile recovery run d&d.
Had a quick read back to see what's been happening
Seems there's been an outbreak of plaster casts and creaky bodies - dangerous place to hang about.
Best of luck on the new adventure Lorenzo. Admire you for it. I quit my job a couple of years ago without something to go to but decided to chase filthy cash rather than try to do something meaningful - hehe - I can do something more altruistic when I'm in semi retirement!
Congratulations on the podium - well deserved.
Leslie! Yaaaay!! Well done on the GFA - excellent work
Congrats on the win BB - brilliant
Glad to hear you are weight bearing MsE and that you are looking forward to pool running
Poacher, well done on the Welsh adventure and hope your bottom has recovered. Very best of luck for Vattenrundan. I'm hoping for a full report since I'm fancying a crack at it myself. Stay safe fella!
First ever run commute and run with a backpack tonight. Only 10k from Guildford to Woking to then pick up my bike and cycle the final 2 miles home. Went OK, was a bit warm, but 6.54 pace on an ugly route.
G-Dawg - It would be awesome if you could make it over next year, maybe a forum contingent for fun? Great commute run and a shifting pace too with a back pack. I don't really think the heat bothered me. Judging by the state of my legs today I'd say not doing much hill training was probably a factor as it's a very up and down course.
5k lunch run to test the legs and I was stiff and a bit sore, especially my quads, which I've not really had before, anyway I loosened up after a mile or so and feel better for it now. My middle toe is also black and blue and hat's not happened either since my first marathon in 2013. Never had that after a half either.
Gul enjoy the break.
Slokey welcome back any more crazy races planned ?
Gdawg are you moving to the dark side ? triathlon ?
3 slow ones yesterday (9's)
Leslie - slowly recovering, I hope.
8 miles this morning including 6 x 45 seconds "hill" sprints and 8 x 100m strides. Might fit a session in tomorrow.
6 miles on Monday and then club session last night: a nice pyramid of 2 x 1 min, 2 x 2.5 mins, 2 x 5 mins, 2 x 2.5 mins, 2 x 1 min. 24 minutes of running = 4 miles. 6m/m felt much easier this week than last week. Phew! 5 mile recovery plod this morning (8.54m/m...): hamstrings had clearly worked hard last night
Not sure if I'll run train again this year, pain level has reduced the fun factor - only one more big run to do (as part of an IM) and might just rock up on the day and gurn it out. What's the worst that can happen?
Leslie - big boy bike race coming up in middle of July (feeling better about that after a good PB at the Fred Whitton and a couple of v long rides under my belt)
Other than that, just tri type stuff later in the year. One IM and one aquabike race.
I deferred my VLM GFA this year and am now debating whether to confirm in cash terms for 2018. Not sure it's a good idea.... hmmmm......
Back on form very quickly it seems, OO. (I'm doing well thank you!)
I don't know how you manage it, Poacher. Impressive effort with more to come! Did you find any benefit to being able to draft in a group?
Give your body more time, Leslie. Don't they say to allow a day per mile raced before you run properly again?
Good to hear the body behaving, Birch. I will therefore refrain from wittering on about the benefits bestowed by chia seeds and kale smoothies.
Gerard - so gutted for you. As Jools said though, it wasn't to be your race. Do you think you may have put too much into it in the early miles for runners to be passing you on the hill at mile 6? Downhill running can also tax the muscles more so the benefit from capitalising on the assisted down bits may possibly be cancelled out by the residual tiredness in the legs for the rest of the race. If you practise lots of downhill hammering (like GD did for Boston), it makes it easier but I don't recall you practising downhill running. That bee really messed it up for you too. Still a great time.
I used to run commute from west London to the City, GD. It was the best bit of my day running through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, The Mall and along the Embankment every day. 10K is a nice distance. Not too short and just long enough.
Good to see you back at it, Jools.
SJ, if you did sign up for VLM 2018, would you also just rock up on the day for that?
Lots of pool running here since Monday. It is not the most exciting activity BUT it is very quick and you are fully supported, therefore (a) you can do intervals every day and (b) it can be time efficient (half hour sessions) as recoveries are short to keep the heart rate up. I tried a bit of swimming today at the end of the session. Breaststroke was OK (but I swear that leg action isn't good for runner's hips) and crawl was doable (but the water pressure on the foot while kicking felt odd so may take some getting used to). Yoga, pilates and extra glute strengtheners as usual. I can smell the sweet smell of the promise of a run in the not too distant future....