March 29, 2010

Peris Horseshoe++

I set out on Sunday to do 8 hours at a little better than BGR pace over a distance and ascent that was similar to legs 1 and 2, but carrying enough kit to be conformable and safe. I also aimed to get the hang of eating and drinking on the move, so I only stopped for 5 minutes on Y Llwedd and to take stuff out of the rucksack. So I picked that nice easy route(not) which follows the Peris Horseshoe to Moel Cynghorion, and then carried on along the ridge to Moel Eilio. My legs were still a little tired from 14 fast (for me anyway) miles on friday night.

All boxes ticked really. The ground between Y Llwedd and Snowdon is quite tricky and time consuming, so even with a bit less distance, the ground was a bit more of a challenge. What really pleased me was that I was still running comfortably when I got back to Llanberis and today my legs are not stiff. Moel Eilio is a really nice mountain to run on, and a new one for me.

I did ask myself the question when coming off Moel Eilio if I had it in me to do it all again, twice. However, with hand maidens keeping feed and watered and not having to carry anything other than myself, I would hope to arrive at the end of leg 2 in better condition than yesterday which is very postive indeed.

Discovery of the day was that Welsh Cakes are good mountain running food. I guess at about 100 calories each, made of flour, butter or lard, eggs, sugar, and currants and/or raisins you can't really go wrong. I found them quite easy to eat and they do make you want to drink, so I will make them part of the 25,000 calories on the day which brings me to my next subject .....

I like eating. This is positive for a Round as I should be able to keep eating the required 25,000 calories. This is also bad in that I am about 1/2 -> 3/4 of a stone heavier that I would wish to be for running. I lost 1/2 a stone within 3 months of taking up running, then my body fat reduced down to 16% and my weight stayed the same(give or take 4 pounds). I do still need to loose some more, so please feel able to email me on a regular basis to, or if we meet, call me a "fat bastard" until I publish on this page that the bathroom scales have have read 11.6 or less for 3 consecutive days.

Monday : 11 miles + 3000ft
Tuesday : 10 x 50 hills sprints
Wednesday : rest (away with work)
Thursday : rained and I could not be arsed
Friday : 14 miles along the Ystwyth Valley cycle track at 9.45 pace (fast more me and it is not flat all the way)
Saturday : carried buckets of rock for an hour
Sunday : Peris++ 22 miles and 10,500ft

So a total of about 47 miles and 13,500ft.


March 23, 2010

Wise words from David Tenant and Sarah Ridgeway

Wise words from both David Tennant and Sarah Ridgeway might explain some of my running in the last week.

David Tennant, while narrating Eddie Izzard's lots of marathons programme, mentioned it takes 3 weeks to recover from running a marathon. So I guess the same holds true for a 30 mile Ultra where you spend the following evening throwing up. Even though I took the post Ultra week off running, I was not running well last week( 7-14 days post Ultra), so only managed 5 or 6000ft of climb. A distinct lack of Hwyl on my part.

I did 11 miles and 3000ft on the local mountains last night at a much improved speed. The last 20 minutes was slower, but that was down to it getting dark and I did not take a torch. There was enough light to see, but not enough to go fast. The perceived improvement reminded me of a comment Sarah made along the lines of getting a post-ultra boost a couple of weeks after an ultra.

Was it being rested or the fabled post-ultra boost, time will tell.

March 19, 2010

BGR route reconnaissance : strategic error

Work has been a bit mad of late and I had some holiday to take by the end of March. Wednesday was the 1st day I had been able to take off and the weather was not great after a run of really good weather. I set out to run from Honister over leg 4 in reverse then coming back over Kirk Fell from Wasdale.

The good thing about the day out was that visibility was very poor, so my best friend Mr Compass and I spent a lot of time conversing with Mr Map. Indeed, I could not see the Honister sprawl until I was within 15 meters of it on my return. It was also quite windy, combined with drizzle made things a bit cold. I got as far a Kirk Fell, before retracing my steps. Its OK being a bit cold when you are quite fresh, but once you are tired then errors can creep in and it was not a day for errors. Most of the snow had gone, but there was still quite a lot on Great Gable, some ice was still around so it a day for taking care where you put your feet rather than worrying about your splits between peaks.

The strategic error from a BGR training point of view was going out in wet weather running kit plus some margin (shelter, plus spare gloves and food) for 3 hours rather than full Gore-tex body armor and being content with walking, with the odd trot, for 8 hours. Less can be more.

March 17, 2010

How fast?

My last post lead me to question how fast I could actually run a mile.

I had been visiting a customer in Birmingham and took the train from Cosford. I got back about 6.30 as it was getting dark. Next to Cosford railway station is an RAF base which has a sports centre and some rubgy/football fields which get some light from the 5 a side pitch flood lights.

Never one to make things easy for myself, I decided to see how fast I could run a mile using my Garmin to record time and distance. Only problem was I could only read it when running past the sports centre, which made pacing a bit of a challange.

I am sure I could have gone a bit faster if I had known in advance that 3 laps of the pitch was a mile. I got round in 6 minutes 43 seconds and felt I could have carried on at the same pace a bit longer, so clearly could go a little faster.

While this has little bearing on the BGR training, it was quite interesting to find I am not quite as slow as I thought on the flat, but I won't be gunning for a place in Team GB for the mile.

March 15, 2010

Back on the wagon

The Sunday night after the Wye Valley ultra was memorable for projectile vomit. I was none too bright the next 2 days and the remainder of the King family got the bug later in the week. So it was a good week to pick to rest. I was not really recovered until friday from the bug and 2 days extra rest did no harm at all. I probably did about 1500ft of climb while walking dog, but it was at leisurely pace. By Sunday I found myself running downhill on the evening walk as a subconcious action. A sign that it was time to start running again.

Monday night did 6 miles and about 1000ft of climb at a 10 minute mile pace which is quite speedy for me. I struggle to get much under 8.30 minute miles for any length of time, even on the relative flat. Reading about some folks who trot out significant distances at 6 minute miles makes me wonder what the hell I am playing at.

I then remind myself I am playing a different game and I have not been playing for as long.
I should do a bit more work in the area, my running is not that efficient, but amount of climb and time out on the legs are really the priorities for the next 10 weeks.

March 8, 2010

Wye Valley ULtra

Wye Valley Ultra is a small race (maybe 100 runners) which is an out and back loop along the course of the River Wye from Ross-on-Wye. The 2nd section goes off into some Forestry. For an Ultra it is flat with maybe 1000ft of ascent in total. There is a section on road, but most is tracks, trails and some fields. It was a beautiful day for March, though a little cold when in the shade.

A neighbor of mine, Elle, came along. She had not run anything beyond a 1/2 marathon before. A few months ago she was complaining that she had entered the London Marathon 5 years running, but not got a place. So I suggested why not try the Wye Ultra, it is mostly flat and only 4 miles more and she would have no problem getting a place. Anyway she finished which was a tremendous achievement. I am not sure she quite knew what she was letting herself in for, but seemed really pleased to have finished.

I found the race a little harder than I expected. My time was a bit slower than I was aiming for. I initially thought it was because I had not fully recovered from my blind date with Stu. on Tuesday. I expected 5 days would have been enough to recover, but from watching Eddie's "lots of marathons" program the night before, an expert in such things suggested that it takes 3 weeks to recover from a marathon. Still, I thought it would be good to run on tired legs. The real reason for finding the last 10 miles hard because apparent on the way home where I had to stop to decorate a lay by which by all accounts the characters in Little Britain would have been proud. Small man was projectile ill on friday night and I very much suspect I caught his bug. At least it waited till after the race.

My legs have asked for a week off running. They have not had a rest since December and if they don't get it they promised to make my right knee hurt, so probably best to let them have their way. Might do some biking this week instead.

March 5, 2010

Stu. and Clive on a blind date

I had not been on a blind date before. You never know how compatible you might be or if the differences are too large and there is no will to compromise on one side.


I have heard of successful 1st meetings arranged on the internet
before and also know there is scope for disaster. I had no agenda for
the day, so was happy to go along with Stu's suggestion of legs 1 & 2
of the BGR and meeting at Dummail Raise, leaving 1 car and taking the other to Keswick. No need to wear a carnation at Dummail Raise layby, it was quite obvious who was who.



Stu is mild mannered and unassuming. He is also very modest to the
point where is blog is rather misleading. He is a bloody good runner
and as the day wore on it became clear I was
outclassed. However, he is also very patient and I certainly had a
great day out. Stu knows the 1st 2 legs very well indeed, taking the
took the time to show me the lines on leg 1. It was the 1st time I had
been on any of leg 1 in the light, so it was well worthwhile to get a
sense of the layout and the spatial relationship (where things are
relative to each other [ tell I am reading John Humpreheys book on
plain speaking ] ).



I struggled somewhat on leg 2 to keep up (lagging behind on
each split), keeping going was no problem, just I was slow. Clive pace might get Clive round with luck and a following breeze at a 24 hour pace. Stu pace is somewhat faster and I hope he will do a 21 or 22 hour round in May, no doubt he is capable of it. Why? He is much fitter than I am, though I still claim having longer legs helps [ :-) ]. There was a lot of snow on leg 2 and some
bits of ice. 1 steep section on the ascent of Stybarrow was a struggle
to make any progess even with my new micro-spikes until I learned how
to use them on that type of terrain, steep ice with a couple of inches
of snow over it. You can't front point with micro spikes!

Stu is a far more ordered person than I am and plans things much
better. I was not sure I was even able to make it till after 8pm the
previous evening. My life of reacting to Sun -> Oracle customers
various computer crisis for the last 12 years plus has exacerbated my
natural tendency to live via just in time decision making and reacting
to circumstances as they occur (more than a little frustration for
Myra it has to be said). Beyond where I am on a particular day, I
gave up, after a few years at Sun, trying to plan in detail and found
that beyond specific fixed events, I end up having to undo the
planning because someone else has changed their plans or needs and I
must to accommodate. It works quite well on the whole, but can cause problems. The BGR clearly is an event which need meticulous planning and I also need to pay more attention to food and drink when doing longer training runs. The up side is that I do tend to make good use of opportunities as they arise and getting out for a day this week in the Lakes was an example where I sandwiched BGR training between some work in Edinburgh. I am pleased it included a bind date with Stu.



I have kept my blind date with Stu from my current running
partner. She is aware I do the odd race and is OK with it, but I can
picture it if she got to learn I had spent the day running with
someone else. It would be glum look and lying on the floor with her
back to me for days. Worse than putting her in kennels while we went
on a family holiday. Be obliged if you don't tell her. It would be a
shame to spoil a great day out, so our little secret dear reader, OK.


Great weather, company and objective. Without doubt the best day of
BGR training I have had. 23 miles and about 10,000 ft. We missed the
last 2 summits due to time (Clive was slow) and night was approaching
and did not bother visiting 2 others which we passed close by.