New Year, New Lockdown

It’s been absolutely ages since I last wrote on my blog, I haven’t stopped running, in fact I’ve probably done more then I ever have before, it’s just that I haven’t got around to writing about it

So what have I been up to running wise in the last 12 months ? Pretty much the same as other other runner in the world, I’ve trained for races that didn’t happen, I’ve started running virtual challenges, I’ve run around packed parks on sunny days and I’ve watched so many running documentaries on YouTube I’ve lost count

So what happened race wise ? I was going to do Ultra London in June, a 2 day race around London on the Capital Ring. This was without doubt the race I was looking forward to the most as I love running the Capital Ring, but this got cancelled and doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year either (*since writing this they have released a date for this year). I was also looking forward to the Centurion Wendover Woods Night 50k, due to happen in July, but then it got postponed until November and then it got cancelled. I have already had two races postponed for this year, so I think I just need to stop entering them for a while.

On a positive note I completed two Centrion Running virtual events, running 100 mile weeks on both occasions. The one in May was much easier then the November one, but I totally put that down to the weather. I also joined my local Your Pace of Mine running group in April, not that I’ve had a chance to get out for a run with them yet, but I did help pace two of the members for 50k when they attempted to run the Capital Ring in one day, one finished in just over 19 hours while the other stopped at 50 miles, both outstanding achievements.

What was the highlight though in such a difficult year ? I finally got to run my first 100 mile race. In September (originally it should of been May) I ran the Thames Path 100 in a time of 25 hours 13 minutes. It was probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve every done and I can safely say I enjoyed every minute of it. If someone was to ask me what the most important thing I learned during this race was, I would tell them without doubt to get a good pacer, because without mine I doubt I would of even finished.

So here’s to 2021, whatever you have in store for me. I have a few things planned so let’s see how it goes.

The Wendover Woods 50km

I turned up in a field in Wendover at 9:45pm on the 12th July for the Centurian Wendover Woods night 50km totally not knowing what to expect running though the night ahead.

I’d been a good boy and done a recce run a few weeks before, but that didn’t quite go to plan! I had the course downloaded onto my Garmin but the route crosses over itself in a number of places so the lap I did twice bared no resemblance in any way to the route I was going to be running though the night.

After a race briefing we walked to the start line and at 11pm someone shouted go and we were off. After a 1 mile loop (done just to get the distance up to 50km) and an unexpected hill we started the first of 3 10 mile loops. Running with a group of people all wearing head torches was a great experience, and while everyone was around me I knew I had less chance of getting lost.

The first loop flew by, coming into the aid station in 2:30 I was bang on where I wanted to be. After grabbing a quick bite to eat and filling my bottles, I was back out for loop 2. What I haven’t spoken about is the course, over each 10 mile loop there is 1968 feet of elevation. There are not a lot of hills but the ones you do are steep, it’s like they had a basic route in mind when they set the course up and then tied it all together with the steepest, most leg sapping climbs they could find.

2 miles into loop 2 what I had expected to happen much earlier in the race happened….. I feel over! It wasn’t a dramatic fall, just bang onto the floor with my bottles flying out of my race vest. I got up, brushed myself off, checked my bottles for damage and was off again. But then it happened again, but this time I felt my knee twist a bit. I didn’t think anything of it at the time and came into the aid station for the end of my 2nd lap feeling positive about my progress so far.

After eating and filling my bottles again I was out for my last lap. The sun was coming up, the birds were singing and the field had spread out so I was now running on my own. It was beautiful, I’d even go as far as saying it was possibly the happiest I’ve every been running, but then I got to the second hill and I felt a pain in my knee. It then got steadily worse as the run went on, it even started giving me a bit of grief on the downhills, so much so that when got into the Hale Road aid station I was thinking of calling it a day. But then I realised that I was about 3 hours inside the cut off time and only had to cover 4.5 miles so I decided to just walk it in.

Crossing that finish line was amazing, I got my medal and a lovely volunteer got me a much needed cup of coffee. I sat down to drink it and just for a moment took in what I had just accomplished. I ended up running just over 32 miles with 6749 feet of climbing, which to a London boy is a lot.

While this was going on there was also a group of people doing a 10 lap race (thats a 100 miles folks!!! ), these people were amazing, I chatted to a few out on the course and their determination was truely inspiring. I can safely say that the 50 miler they put on in November brings me out in a cold sweat, so the idea of 100 miles out there is just crazy.

It was a great race, one that I hope Centurian Running do again because I would definitely give it another crack. The course was well marked (I only took 1 wrong turn that nearly cut of 2 miles, but realised after about 500 metres) and challenging but I enjoyed every moment of it.

I’ve not got anything planned now until next year, but the plans I have are big so it’s now time to recover and then back into training, but this time with a bit more purpose.

North Downs 50, what did I learn

So I’ve just finished running the North Downs Way 50 miler for the second time and let me tell you….. It kicked my backside good and proper.

It wasn’t like I didn’t know what to expect, I did this race last year and said “never again” when I got home…… but you know what us runners are like, we have very short memory spans for the pain some of these races put us through .

Firstly though let me say if you get a chance to do this race then jump at it. The trails are amazing, the views are spectacular and the course is well marked and easy to follow. But some days you just have to give yourself a mental kick up the backside to get you through the tough times.

The race started out in near perfect conditions and I ran along feeling great, following my hydration and nutrition plan perfectly (which is very unlike me) and even managed to get half way quicker and in a lot better condition then I expected. And then I got to the foot of the stairs at Box Hill, now I’ve done these before and knew exactly what to expect, but they still do give your legs a good workout. After that it just felt like I was just constantly running uphill. At mile 30 my nutrition plan went out the window, I just couldn’t eat. Everything tasted like I was eating cardboard and I just felt sick, but a least I was still drinking. That was up until mile 40 when the sickness just felt worse and I couldn’t even drink.

To be honest I thought I was staring in the face of a DNF, but as I got into the last aid station at 43 miles a volunteer said to me that I had it in the bag as I was so far inside the cut off time. This really helped with my confidence, and knowing that I could walk it in and still be within the cut off time got me going again.

I finished to amazing support at the finish line and a truly amazing volunteer got me my finishers tshirt and a much needed cup of coffee as I fell onto the grass for a rest.

So what did I learn from this race? Firstly that running ultras is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. The moment your mind says you’ve had enough the body starts to listen to it. It’s hard to do, but the better positive mental attitude you have the better you feel. Secondly I really need to practice my nutrition, I need to get out with proper food and find out what works for me. Also I need to pick the minds of other people I run with who I know do ultras and see what works for them. One thing I do know is that I need to do it quickly because I’ve got a 50k coming up fast.

Hello again old friend.

It’s that time again that drives me insane … yes, I’m tapering for a race.

For those of you thinking “what’s tapering” it’s that 2-3 week period before a race when you cut back on your training to allow your body to recover from all the work you’ve done so that you turn up on the start line fresh and ready to go.

Now… what it is to me is 2-3 weeks of cutting back on your running while total convincing yourself that every slight ache or pain means you won’t be racing because your injured. I also watch every other carefree runner glide past we while I’m walking somewhere or sitting on the bus and thinking they are mocking me and that I could add one more little run in, it won’t really hurt me will it ?

I spend the extra time I have looking at all of my Strava friends runs and getting a little bit jealous. I gaze at my bike thinking I could go for a ride, that’s cross training so it won’t hurt me, while at the same time thinking “but what if I come off, that’s the end of my race”. I start looking at the route I’m running, looking for the biggest hills and when to expect them, the good downhill sections where I can get a bit of time back and where the aid stations are so I can tuck into all the food.

Tapering definitely gives you more free time to worry about every aspect of a race that you know deep down you have put a lot of training into. It also gives you time to worry about kit… you know those shorts that have been fine for hundreds of runs, that t-shirt that you know don’t rub in any annoying places, those socks that you’ve never really thought about before and of course those trainers that you know are comfortable but you have now convinced yourself are going to give you blisters the same size as your foot.

Ladies and Gentlemen I welcome you to a little know condition that affects all runners at some point …

“Maranoia“

Which basically means being paranoid about everything possible before your race… and as always it has me well within its grip again.

The ups and downs of hills

Hills… you either love them or hate them !! Me… I have a up and down relationship with them, some days I embrace them like a long lost friend while other days the slightest of incline will have me throwing my toys out the pram like a stroppy toddler.

Don’t get me wrong… I love a good hill as much as the next crazy runner, the picture above was taken when I did the Beat Box Hill 10k last year, this was a race going up and down this infamous Surrey hill twice and I totally loved every minute of it. (As you can see by that smile on my face)

I’ve signed up to run the Wendover Woods night 50km in July. This will involve me running 3x 16km loops, with each loop having more then it’s fair share of climbing (wheres the other 2km I hear you shout, that’s done right at the start and I’m hoping it’s flat).

What am I doing regarding training for this madness ? as I live in London I am currently trying to find every available hill I can and just run up and down it. I am worried that the monotony of this is going to drive me crazy, so I’m also trying to find hilly routes which once again is a lot harder then it sounds.

I recently did a very pleasant 11 mile run around Oxleas Woods trying to find as many ups as possible, I was very pleased with my 454 metres of ascent, but then I realised that each lap at Wendover Woods has 600 metres of climbing and I felt a little disheartened, but I’m sure I’ll find more climbing in my quest for hill training.

Anyway up next is the North Downs 50, there’s quite a lot of climbing to be done there !!!! My personal favourite is the steps up Box Hill at mile 21 (ish), so if you hear a loud moan it’s probably me walking up them and having a grumble.

Starting afresh and running further.

It’s been over a year since I last wrote anything here… and I don’t really know why that is ?

I haven’t lost my running mojo, if anything I’m running more then I ever have. I’ve started doing Social Group runs and meeting loads of new people, something that a couple of years ago I would never would of dreamed of doing, but I must admit that the first couple were very hard as I do have problems interacting with new people, but I’ve now tried to make a point of chatting to new faces while I run, but I do still find myself sometimes running in that spot with no one around just so I don’t have to. 

I have also found a new love for ultra running both in races and just for fun (I never thought I’d put fun and ultra in the same sentence). I just really enjoy challenging myself to push myself harder or further then I ever thought I could do and just try to see how far my body can take me. 

                     “You wil never know your limits until you push yourself past them “

I’ve got a few interesting things coming up soon, like running the reverse London Marathon, doing the North Downs 50 and I’ve just signed up to running a 50k trai race that starts at 11pm. The reverse London intrigues me though as the thought of running the London Marathon from The Mall to Blackheath at 3am seems slightly crazy, but as its a social run I’m sure I’ll be surrounded by people that are equally as mad. 

I’m also thinking of changing the name of this blog, I began writing this while I was training for the Brighton Marathon back in 2015 but so much has changed perhaps it’s time to mix it up a bit and start afresh with a new look to go with my new running adventures. 

Well here’s to a new start, I just hope it doesn’t take me another year to write on my blog again. 

Running in a new direction …

I’ve started turning in a new direction at the end of my road when I go out for a run… I know that sounds a very strange statement to make but how many of us go out for a run and just do the same old route (or slight variation) again and again ? I can put my hand up to that one, but recently I have made a decision to try a new route whenever I have time to do so.

Trying a new route is a bit of a leap of faith, I try to pick a building that I can use as a landmark and then try to run a loop while keeping this landmark in sight.  Sounds like a piece of cake, especially in London where we are not renowned for our hills, but it can create quite a challenge… and I do enjoy a challenge!!

If you have read any of my previous blogs you will know that I could get lost on a straight road, but recently I have been working hard on my navigational skills and I think it’s starting to pay off. Where I used to get very anxious when I thought I was lost I now take it a lot more in my stride, keeping a lot calmer then I used to and thinking about what direction to run in a lot more logical manner. Saying that I’m also spending more time looking at google maps of my area to see if there is somewhere I can go that I haven’t been to before and then going to explore it.

If you are going to try something like this I would recommend not setting yourself a time goal for your run, only because I’ve done this before and it only made me very anxious about getting back when I thought that I was running out of time, and this only leads to you getting more lost or even worse… injured from pushing your to hard.

The other app I’ve been using is Garmin Connect, this allows you to mark you location, put in the distance you want to run along with the direction you want to go and it marks out a route for you. I’ve used this a few times and have found it really good, apart from the time it took me down a country road with no footpath, that was a bit hairy but I’m still here to tell the tale.

Basically I think what I’m saying is that it’s a big world out there to explore and sometimes you have to come out of your comfort zone and do something a bit different, who knows it could be the start of a whole new adventure. But don’t forget, even adventurers let people know where there going, and safety is always a runners number 1 priority.

Getting back into triathlon ?

The other day I found myself reading a triathlon magazine again for the first time in years… I used to do triathlons and really enjoyed them until the day I found myself held under at the first buoy by 2 other swimmers at a sprint triathlon I was doing.

I was really looking forward to that race, the swim was around an old castle moat and it was only 500 metres followed by a nice bike course and an off road run. I had already done an Olympic distance that year, as well as a marathon, and was feeling in good form (which was pretty average really by other standards). It was a lovely day considering it was October and I was enjoying watching the waves in front of me start. When it came to mine I jumped in the water and found a bit of space and what I thought was a good line to start from and then the gun sounded. Off I went feel good but completely misjudged my line to the first buoy and that’s when I happened, 2 other swimmers went straight across me and held me under, I felt terrified under that water and when I came up I couldn’t breath, I just wanted to get out the water and get changed but started the breaststroke slowly towards the next turn. When I reached it I started to front crawl again but couldn’t get into any rhythm and was last out of the water by some distance. I got out, ran to my bike and sat down, I didn’t want to carry on but I thought to myself I had to or I’d never do something like this again. I got on my bike and off I went. As it turned out I enjoyed the bike and loved the run as I was completely in my element on trails and cross the finish line and collected my medal. I told the guy I was doing it with about the swim and he said that I did well to carry on and that I did the right thing but I was still thinking about that swim.

That was the end of the season and I didn’t even go near a swimming pool all winter but then I got asked that dreaded question “did I fancy going down the lake ?” I made my excuses and said I hadn’t been in the pool for so long it wasn’t a good idea to get back in the water and just went for a run until one day I thought I just had to do it. It was a disaster and I hated every minute of it and that year I swam a total of just under 2 miles.

I train with someone who has just done an Ironman and he keeps go on at me to get back in the pool and back on the road to taking part in triathlons and I think his right, I need to put this demon behind me and get back in the pool. I found all my gear and I’m going to give it a try again, I don’t know how it’s going to go but hopefully this time I will be able to get back on the road to open water swimming and then racing triathlons again. 

Why do I enjoy a long run …

Why do I enjoy going long …

                                                           That is an interesting question that I ask myself quite a bit and I can’t quite put my finger on the exact reason, but I can say hand on heart that I enjoy my Sunday morning long runs. I enjoy the planing of the route, looking at a map and picking a place to run to that only a few years ago I would of only thought of jumping on a bus to visit. Getting up in the morning and picking the gear that you know will see you though the job in hand, grabbing your hydration and nutrition, be it the old faithfully that has seen you though training and races in the past or something new that your excited to try. Getting out pounding the pavements (or more preferably the trails)  early in the morning while the streets are empty and enjoying that unusual stillness that you don’t get once people start getting out. The anticipation of how the run will go (or will I get lost which is more or less guaranteed). And at the end that feeling of achievement when you look back at what you’ve done and where you have been.

Not every long run will go well, you might not even finish it having to pull up short for some reason. You might not even enjoy it much and get home believing that the only place for your trainers is in the bin. But by Monday morning everything is forgotten and the following weeks route is already being formulated, so come Sunday I’m back out there doing what I love.

It’s been a while …

It certainly has been a while since I wrote anything on here, I don’t know why, but it may have something to do with my lack of consistent running in recent months.

You know what it’s like… what with work and everything else in November and December I was well down on my normal monthly totals and as we came into the new year my lack of fitness along with a tight Achilles (10% week on week increases, honestly I followed that rule !) lead to a pretty poor start to the year.

I’ve done my first race of 2018 organised by those lovely people from Run Through , the Brixton 10k. Now my reasons for entering this race were as follows –

1. I’ve always wanted to run around Brockwell Park because I’d been told there was a fun hill.
2. After eating everything in sight over Christmas I just wanted to see where my fitness was.
3. They do very nice funky medals
4. You get a homemade flapjack when you finish (these are worth the entry fee alone)

Now the run went well and the hill was most enjoyable, even with my sore Achilles, and after saying to anyone who asked me that I wasn’t going to push it, I finish 29 seconds outside a PB !

My mojo is now sort of returning, I’ve entered the first ever Big Half thats organised by the London Marathon people (at least I’ve got in something they do) and then 2 weeks latter it’s off to the land of fish & chips and kiss me quick hats to run my favourite race of the year, the Hastings Half Marathon (year number 10 !!, I must love it) and after that I’ve got the North Downs Way 50 in May. I’m on the look out for 1 or 2 marathons to get me into shape for this but for some reason a lot of the smaller ones now take place on a Saturday mornings so my chances of doing these are slim.

So here’s to my new start and to hopefully some good times ahead of me this year.