A bad gel trip!

A good week all in all, though constrained by being on-call

• Monday : 4 * 500ft hill fort reps
• Tuesday : 2 * 500ft hill reps
• Wednesday : 4 miles and 1500ft on cliff route
• Thursday : 100ft * 10 behind house hard
• Friday : rest
• Saturday : Legs 1 & most of 2 of BGR overnight
• Sunday : missed it almost completely

Set off from Keswick about 7.45 on my own. Very nice evening indeed. Leg 1 went very well, though I tried the Doddick Fell descent and it just did not work for me at all. Each to their own and all that stuff, but it is Yiannis's Parachute Descent for me. I missed the feed at Threkeld, but even with a small rucksac and a slight Doddick delay was just about on the 23 hour schedule. What a difference having your own personal Yak's for the evening makes.

Clough Head went fine, a few minuites slower than usual maybe, but no surprise. Meet a chap at the top (remember it was 1am by this time, so not a casual walker out for a stroll) who had been pacing one of the 2 other groups ahead of me and found the pace a bit quick.

About 1/2 way up Great Dodd, I decided to try one of 2 Torq Caffinated Fruits of the Forest gels. It was very hard to consume, bitter, but I managed about half of it before my world started to spin and I spend 15 minutes throwing up (did not stop walking). A side effect was that just about all my water got consumed and regurgitated as part of dealing with this, so I was short of water from Great Dodd on. I did stop throwing up after about 15 minutes, but slowed a lot mainly due to a lack of water and a now empty stomach. I got as far as Helveyn and then took a straight line back to Dummail and my car getting back at 4am. Once I found some running water, put some Nuun in it, drunk it and eat 2 small boils spuds my energy levels recovered and I could happily run again. So a good training night with about 9000ft and 24 miles, but a duff gel did make it a bit more of an adventure than I expected. Still a fantastic night out.

So good thing I tried that Gel while training and not on the real thing and Torq were very keen to get hold of the wrapper and the one I did not consume for tests. I think for the big day No. 3 in just over 2 weeks time I am going to avoid gel until leg 4 and keep on spuds, sandwiches, sweets and rice pudding for the 1st 3 legs. Since the body can metabolize only about 250 calories an hour, we need to make sure we actually eat that much.

A big fat 40

This was the 1st week of training ever where I aimed to do miles, instead of them being an aside to climb. We managed 40 miles, few of them were easy flat miles, though some were. Most had a twist. With Mum still in Canada I ended up 10 short of my goal just through a lack of time.

• Monday : hot day 3 x 2.7 miles with about 1000ft of climb. 2nd rep in 23 minutes:-)
• Tuesday : 4 miles round forest and 2 miles round track with small man while small girl in Gymnastics
• Wednesday : 8 miles out and back along coast south of Aber. Glorious day. Dog came back with sore paw.
• Thursday : rest
• Friday : no time
• Saturday : 12 miles flat along Ystswyth cycle path plus forestry tracks (sub 10min/miles)
• Saturday : 6 miles on coast path (legs tired)

next week is 10k+ of climb. Weather does not look great from here, but hope it will improve towards then end of the week.

Just reps

With Mum on holiday with her sister in Canada, getting long runs in was just not going to happen, so I settled for a week of hill reps. Quite pleased with what I did, but not quite the 10k I was looking for this week.

• Monday : 1500ft : 300ft * 5
• Tuesday : Same 1500ft * 5
• Wednesday : rest
• Thursday : 1000ft : 500ft * 2 bus stop to till fort. 2nd rep in 12.44 (personal best about 12 mins)
• Friday : 2000 : 300ft * 7
• Saturday 1000ft : 100ft * 10
• Sunday : 100% kids day

While I went at them quite hard, there never felt hard and recoverey was quick. That might be a sign I was not doing enough or trying hard enough. Next week going for distance, see how far we get.

More speed

A good week given the time constraints, guided by my experience after last years BGR attempt. Once I had recovered, I started doing a few quicker sessions about 1 week in 3 and made a big difference.

So I have a rough plan for the next 3 weeks of going

• fast (all things are relative)
• high (10k plus of climb)
• long (putting in lots of miles)

then thinking about a 3rd BGR attempt 2nd week in August if the planets align.

• Monday : 2.5 miles (may be 500ft) new quick circuit in 24.27
• Tuesday : 5 miles plus 1000ft of climb somewhere near Rhyader
• Wednesday : 5 miles and 1000ft of climb somewhere between Rhyader and Hereford
• Thursday : rest
• Friday : things got ahead of me
• Saturday : 13 miles out and back along Ceredigion Coast path on an early start carrying rucksac. super morning, hard work and good training. When chase by cows, hound decides it every dog for themselves and out runs the lot of us.
• Sunday : 5 * 400m fast on flat while kids eat ice cream.

Mum is away for 2 weeks on holiday in Canada with her sister, so I am a bit restricted over the next 2 weeks, but going to try to cram in 10k of climb and not worry about distance next week. So hill reps all next week, but might take a day off and have a run out while kids in school.

New GPS purchases on advice of Yiannis. A Garmin Dakota 20 plus all the maps of the UK. Been out today geocaching with the kids (looking for treasure) which it is super for, yes they have an app for that. I also suspect it will be very good for when I am out traveling and want to find somewhere to run and make sure I make it back to the car. The 1:50,000 is very good and shows footpaths, so it opens up a lot of new ground.