Gt Baddow 10

Kyra was born on May 11^th, so my training right through May has been very poor. However, I forced myself out for a 10 mile race on Sunday 20^th and (just) set a new personal best so there is still hope. Not that pace over 10 miles is very relevant when you need to run 56..... I have also now given up beer until I cross the line in Durban, which is almost as momentous an event as the birth of my second daughter !

Countdown begins....

Only 29 miles done this week, as I was a little sore / lazy after Bungay. But finished it off with a fairly quick half marathon(ish) on local and quite hilly trails with Holly Weimaraner. She probably ran at least a full marathon and included several sprint sessions while assisting some of the local wildlife with their fitness regimes – she is very good with other dogs and ignored some wild geese in an open field, but she does find deer difficult to resist. I left her sister Sophie at home, as she gets bored after about 10k and starts dawdling behind me while giving me a look that says ‘why... ???’  I really need to get a lot more miles in over the next 3 weeks, so Holly will get much fitter and then Sophie can then enjoy the period where I am supposed to be tapering nearer the event.

 

No sign of the baby yet, but nappies will be competing with the training plan very soon....

Bungay Marathon

Stupidly ignoring a splinter in my foot had caused some training problems but Ayten diagnosed and cured me just in time for the Bungay Marathon, which was fantastic news.

 

Ayten is now heavily pregnant so hanging around in a remote part of East Anglia for hours on end wasn’t very sensible – so I lined up with the very small field (maybe 300 ?) on a windy and very chilly Sunday morning. We had hail, bright sunshine, more hail, more bright sunshine....  It was a two lap course and the first half of the lap was surprisingly hilly. I went out too fast but it felt OK and I managed to keep it up much better than expected – finished in a fairly relaxed 3.42. I’m sure I could have got under 3.40 to legitimise my easier qualifying marathon, and at a pinch I think I had a chance of killing myself to set a new PB (sub 3.38) – but the aim was to use this for training, and pushing the pace that hard in the last 10k would have made recovery much more difficult and compromised the continuing training. So, it looks like I am still on track – and I’ll make sure I spot splinters much more quickly in future !

Ecotrail de Paris

50 miles done. My biggest challenge so far and it went reasonably well.

 

I seriously underestimated this – the area around Paris turned out to be unbelievably hilly, and my naive guesses on timing were wildly out. I went through the marathon distance in about 5.5 hours and finished in just under 10.55. The last few minutes involved climbing up the steps of the Eiffel Tower – you cross the line on the first floor and they immediately give you a can of Kronenbourg 1664. And a T shirt – but no medal. But the beer feels pretty good after 50 miles...

 

A noon start way outside Paris meant I left the hotel room at a very civilised 9.45 for a train and then a bus to Trappes, which is some way past Versailles. I was surrounded by about 2,000 very fit French men in coordinated lycra, a few fit French women in even better coordinated Lycra (much more appealing) and about 4 other Brits who dress, like me, in whatever was on top of the draw at the time. There were only 3 water stops in the 50 miles, so we had to carry enough water and snacks to see us in between – which for the longer middle section was a bit of a stretch with the temperature at about 22C. The route was nearly all through forests, no leaves on the trees yet but still very scenic and lots of river and lake views – incredible how that is possible so close to Paris. Some of the hills were brutal though – a real challenge to even walk up, and impossible for anyone around my pace to run.

 

I soon realised that the French uniform of slimline hydration packs was indeed the way to go as my waist belt bounced and rubbed skin off my hips, whilst also needing to be so tight it hurt to stay in place at all. Better planning next time. But my decision to take advantage of the dry weather and use road shoes rather than trail shoes worked out very well – I finished 50 miles in my favourite socks, my trusty Asics Gel 1150s and a touch of anti-blister potion without any foot problems whatsoever. Remarkable. I survived on my own gels and energy bars, plus a few handfuls of raisins – there was cake, cheese, oranges, etc available but I can’t face much when I’m running. Running in dark forests got more difficult once my headlight batteries died, but by then I was going so slow it didn’t really matter. I picked up a little speed once we hit streetlights for the last 3 or 4 miles in Paris, particularly once I realised I could get under 11 hours if I stopped dawdling. Not that it mattered, as the cut off was at 13 hours and my aim was just to finish and use the experience for training value.

 

Finished in 10.54.58. 1,103^rd place out of nearly 1,700 finishers, most of whom probably realised what they had entered, so I’m happy with that. Two people were stretchered away as I finished and another one fainted as we came down in the staff lift at the Eiffel Tower. I was capably supported by Ayten back to the hotel room, via two food stops and a few beers – for a few hours she could move more quickly than me, despite being over 7 months pregnant. What a sight we must have been....

Colchester Half Marathon

Just a week after the Essex 20, and I shaved a few seconds off my half marathon PB. This time running in lovely warm spring weather rather than the wet and cold day just a week earlier.

Essex 20

I will try to keep the blog up to date from now on....  Essex 20 mile yesterday in cold, wet and windy conditions.  2h 44m, but with the Seville Marathon still in my legs from just two weeks ago so not too bad. Next event is Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday March 11^th – both these events pass within a few miles of home, so good opportunities to formalise part of the training plan.

Doom & Gloom

A forum post sent to me about training;

 

In terms of training for the down, I don't think it's really possible, I lived in a mountainous area and did loads of downhill training in my training runs, including a marathon which was downhill for 75% of the way. I generally love running downhill, so I didn't expect any problems. Yet I was still hit with the most overwhelming pain all over both legs when I got to 30k to go. On discussion with several comrades vets the conclusion is that whatever training you do the downrun is VERY painful. You just have to expect it, and keep running through it, it's muscle pain that wont do you any long term damage, it will just continue to be very painful for about 10 days after the race.

 

Scary !!