Cardington Cracker and beyond

The day after my aborted Bob Graham Round attempt, I decided to have a break until the Cardington Cracker race (about 10 weeks), get a bit faster, catch up on some other bits of my life, change job, get to enjoy running again and reflect on what I needed to do to get round in May 2011. Success on all counts.

The Cardington Cracker was a bit frustrating this year. Nothing to do with the organisation or anything like that. Speaking to others their times were down, some by about 6 minutes on the previous year because of the ice and hard ground. By the 1st gate 200m from the start I knew something was not right. I got out of breath more than usual on the flat and slight inclines. I could not attack the hills as well as I have been, so lots of people passed me. I got back some places on each descent (20+ on the descent from Caradoc), but most of them passed me by the summit of the next hill. Had a lack of serious training had such an marked effect? By the time I got home the reason for a very lack luster performance was obvious, I had picked up the stomach bug one of the kids had. Better this weekend than either of the next two.

Before putting the new plan together its useful to reflect on why I did not get round and to be quite honest about it. In no particular order

• I did not prepare mentally for the concept that I could get to Dummail behind schedule and have to pull time back
• Did not apply vaseline at the start, after leg one or after leg 2. It caught up with me on leg 3. While tolerable, it took your mind of the task in hand. Take care of those important little places.
• I had no margin of error. The BGR was at the limit of what I was capable of. This meant I lost confidence going up Clough Head, slipped a little behind schedule and a feedback loop started.
• I did not know leg 2 well enough. Despite having been over it 3 weeks before while doing legs 1 and 2. I also did it in snow in February and most of it one evening in 2008, I still did not know it well enough.
• Late September was not an ideal time to do a round. We had ice, some cold and lot of dark.
• I had too few long days out. Family collateral damage prime directive stood, but I could have used two or three more long days out a couple of months before.
• I ran too few miles in training. I did the climb and did it well. I would go out and do 2500ft of climb, but sometime in only 2 miles. I really need to get more distance in the weeks training. Maybe not every week, but most weeks.
• Some days I would go out and do hill reps and only do a 1000ft. I really needed to go out for an hour (or whatever unit of time was available) and see how many reps I could do in that time, not decide to do 3 and end up doing 2.
• I went out some days when I was too tired. I got the train/rest balance mostly spot on, but some days I should have focused on stretching and strength training or a short recovery run rather than a half hearted attempt at hill reps.
• I should have paced a BGR or 3 in 2009 in addition to a winter one.
• I was about 1/2 a stone too heavy.
• I came down from Scarfell on my own. Really needed a pacer.
• My plan for food, etc was too specific on what and when. Needed a more pragmatic plan to give pacers along the lines of "insert contents of bag marked leg ?? food into largest hole in front of Clive's head during the leg until empty".
• My legs were still tired a little from the Peris Horseshoe 2 weeks before. I don't think this was a big issue, but meant my taper was more an abrupt near stop.
• I spent a lot of leg 2 not knowing if I was ahead or behind schedule and by how much. I need to be self sufficient until Wasdale in knowing where I am relative to the schedule.

All that said, much more went right than wrong in training. I ended up fitter than I had probably ever been before and I had a good crack at it. I had only been running for 2 1/2 years, so not a bad effort for starting at the tail end of the pack in March 2008.

So what are we going to do that is different

• Get to know leg 2 really well. At least 1 out and back in training and a combined leg 1 & 2 in less than 8 hours.
• Use a more aggressive schedule 22.30 and have done each section faster than that schedule in training.
• Less hot baths and more standing in cold rivers post training runs.
• Do at least 30 miles in training every week, in addition to at least 10,000ft of climb
• Do 50 miles plus at least twice a month. Anything more ambitious would end in injury and/or madness and/or violation of the BGR family prime directive.
• Do as many hill reps per unit of time available and compete with yourself to improve.
• In my local area, much of the ground is rough, slow and hard work. The BGR is rough, slow and hard work, they are a good match, so spend more time local running than travelling to someone more interesting.
• Be under 12 stone or I must run in a shirt with "fat bastard" on the front on the 13th of May.
• Spend more time stretching and working on leg strength, not just stretch before and after running.
• I got a lotout of, and raised my game, after my blind date at Dummail with Penrith Stu. Getting out and running on the hills with other people who are a order of magnitude better than you (and are not a dog) is very positive.

There is also a large slab of "on the day stuff I have picked up", but we can leave that to the day itself.

I found not racing much a good move and only plan to do a couple of races before May. My thoughts at the moment include

• Long Mynd Valleys race
• One of the Hardmoors 55, the Wuthering Hike or the Wye valley Ultra. Preference to the longer race.
• An as yet unspecified A.M., maybe the Moelwyn race.

The next 2 weeks are a bit curious training wise as I am supporting winter BGR attempts on the next 2 weekends. I don't want to have trained so hard in the week that I become a weak link. That said there should be at least 6000ft of climb for me including Scarfell from Wasdale with 100m of caving rope. Lets hope the weather improves(read power snow goes hard), at the moment a winter round would be a hell of an adventure.