plenty of fuel in the tank....

Beacons ultra time again and after last years unexpected DNF this had to be finished and finished in style, the race actually gets in the way of a bloody good weekend catching up with old and new friends but this weekend was all about finishing....

Training has been good since my 100 miles at Glenmore but I've been having problems with my pelvis and achilles but as is the way sometimes neither caused any grief during the race.
Had a complete rethink on the nutrition front, change from bread and banana and all sorts of other rubbish for breakfast to peronin which is basically liquid food for ultra runners this worked really well, and then during the race i planned what i was going to eat and when, i had a number of protein bars (coconut and almond honey stinger bars) , energy jelly (pomegranate honey stinger energy chews) and normal gels (various flavors of GU) washed down with lots of plain water, I've been doing this ultra running lark for a few years now and this is the first time sadly i have actually really thought about nutrition, normally i try to get by on a few chocolate biscuits and a sausage roll, the change meant that my energy levels stayed constant for the duration of the race stopping the yoyo effect i normally experience.

The result of all this was that i trotted round the 46 miles in a very comfortable 9hrs 15mins, i never really pushed and felt good for the whole race....

100......

OK if you had asked how many miles i would be happy with in the Glenmore 24h race i probably would have said 75 miles, if you had asked my after about 5 laps i would have said 150 miles (i felt that good) if you then asked me after 6 laps i probably would have said 30 miles such was the dip of energy, but after some advice from Doc Murry and some food i picked up a little and plodded on, 6hrs in and the midges came out (I had vowed never to race in Scotland because of these pesky beasts) i very much enjoyed the night time hours sneaking around in what was called by some stealth mode (lights off) i never felt tired and did not stop except for some food, by the time the sun came up i was still going strong, but when the sun came up the midges came out to play (did i mention how much i hate the midges), now for some strange reason i had got it in my head that i would stop at 92miles, when i said this to Mimi she looked at me very oddly i now realise why, i felt great, i had plenty of time and why would you stop 8 miles short of the holy grail of 24hrs running 100 miles, anyway i kept at it and finally after about 23.5hrs i reached 100 miles, Martin who had been crewing me told me to do another lap, al had also done 100 miles and decided to do the extra lap i stuck firm on my 100 miles, his extra lap got him the 3rd place, note to self listen to Mr Likey....i ended up with 4th place.

It really was a great event, Mike and Bill did and excellent job, it was great to catch up with the likes of Rab, Sharky, Mimi, Mike, David and Martin and Sue were superb as my unofficial support crew...

Injury update, my back hurt for the first few hours and then just stopped hurting, apart from that i was fine, my left ankle swelled up after the race and was sore for a day but then was fine, i have run since and all is still good.

So like Brecon last year i went from fine to feeling pretty rough in an alarmingly short period of time, i caught it this time but could have ended the same way as Brecon, i think the trick is to eat and i just don't eat enough, Coventry university were doing various monitoring on athletes and i apparently used some 15000 calories during the 24hrs!!

On reflection i could have run a lot more i stuck with the walking the first 2 miles or so and then running the last 2 miles, my strength was that when others were resting i just kept going, i didn't sit down during the 24hrs, and got stronger the long the race went on and my reward was 100 miles!!!

Hot Hot Hot

It was billed as the hottest day of the year so far so when we were stood in the mist and fog at the start of the LDWA South downs marathon i just assumed it was the weather forecasters getting it wrong again!!, eventually the sun burnt the mist off and we could see were we were going, there was very little escape from the sun for the whole event but alternating wearing my cap normally and like a skater dude i managed to avoid burning either my forehead or neck, as with all LDWA marathons they are never actually a marathon this one coming in at 28miles, i had my normal bad patch in the middle with everything hurting but then after the last big climb all the pain disappeared (I’m sure its all in the head) enabling me to run the last section quite quickly, it was a great little event with only about 20 runners (there was lots of walkers but it might just be me but they don't seem to like "runners" doing walkers events...) great checkpoints, great organization, all in all a great (if not a little warm) day out....

A day of ups and downs

yep i was back in Durban for the Comrades marathon (why is it called a marathon when its 55+ plus miles) this year was the uphill version from Durban to Pietermaritzburg

I seem to remember that last year’s downhill run was basically 57 miles of running downhill (which is not as easy as you would think) which meant that this year’s uphill version would be 57 miles of running up hill which would be hard work, but as it turned out it seemed to be a lot easier (and shorter at only 56 miles) which goes with general opinion about the different versions, uphill tiring but easy(ish) on the legs, downhill not so tiring but your legs (quads) are trashed at the finish.

Losing my cap in the melee at the start was not good and my head suffered in the hot sun during the day fortunately i had my sun glasses in my bum bag, pouring water over my head at most checkpoints saved me from any real trouble...

It was a day of pain, from the start my right hip was hurting but after about 20 miles that disappeared to be replaced by my problematic right shin which was suffering on the up hills (but fine on the downs) after about another 10 miles this also disappeared to be replaced by pain in both IT bands for the last 20+ miles.

As always there was great support along the route from beginning to end and running through the park to the stadium finish was pretty special, i felt good at the finish and not particularly tired but it was a great to stop and sit down and get some relief from my sore knees...

Comrades is such a good race and my best running experience to date, but I’ve done both the down and uphill versions now so it’s time to move on and do something different, but I’m pretty sure that i will be back at some point.....

this time next week

hopefully i will have finished Comrades 2011, I've been walking and running the last week with a couple of long runs and miraculously my shin seems to be fine, which is remarkable when you consider how swollen and painful it was, let's hope it can handle 55 miles in Durban, this weeks plan is to do a couple of very short 30min runs and plenty of rest, i fly out on Thursday arriving early Friday morning, i will go and get registered at the expo and have a wonder around on Friday and rest up on Saturday, the race starts at 05:30 Sunday morning.

Bring it on.....

high as a kite.....

I've spent most of the last week high as a kite on pain killers, having hurt my leg training in Brecon and spending 5 days not able to walk i was forced to go and see the local physio who immediately suggested that i needed to get some proper pain relief and something to reduce the swelling from the doctors, the tablets took a couple of days to kick in but the effect was quite alarming....I'm now walking without any apparent discomfort (but that could just be the tablets!) so the plan it to stop taking them on Thursday with the aim to try a short run on Saturday, i have just over 2 weeks to Comrades the training is all done now, i just need to be running short pain free runs over the next 12 days or so and i should be OK, the muscle i hurt along with the achilles tendon control the up and down movement of the foot and takes quite a battering up and down hills and considering the amount of hill (mountain) work i have done in the last 2 months i can see why it decided that it had had enough, after a few days of agony the treatment consisted of keeping the weight off it for 4 days, followed by icing the area every couple of hours (even at work and over night) gentle stretching, ultrasound twice a day and of course some pretty strong anti inflammatories, add in some short walks and some praying and you basically summed up my last few weeks.

Iechyd da!

Been out in Canada helping with the 6633 Arctic ultra, another very mild year on a couple of occasions we were reminded how cold -35 but i recon the average temp during the race was only -10, at one point in Whitehorse it was +10!!!! Lowri was the only person to go all the way to Tuk, forget the mild temps 350 miles is still a long way and Lowri did it with apparent ease.
Due to work commitments and being out in Canada i haven't run for 3 weeks, had a slow and steady 6 miles this morning and felt quite good, need to step up the distances over the next week or so as it is now only 60 days to Comrades, not overly concerned as i put some good long runs in prior going to Canada, hopefully i can use the bank holidays coming to get up to Wales for some hill work, once Comrades is out of the way i can switch to thinking about the Glenmore 24hr and hopefully the KAEM in Kalahari desert....

consistency is the name of the game

and I'm consistently all over the shop, one week i run 33 miles in 4hr 31min and then next weekend i struggle to run 8 miles, during the week i ran 4 x 10 miles without any problems and the following week i struggled with 4 x 4miles, it's not over training I'm taking plenty of rest days, the Comrades schedule I've put together has rest days on Mondays and Fridays, and if I've done a proper long run on the Saturday I'll take the Sunday as a rest day as well.
I'm going to try changing what i eat, before Christmas i went all healthy and cut out all rubbish lost 1st in weight and ultimately i think this caused me to fail at the Beacons ultra because i started the race low on energy and used up what i had left with quite dramatic results, so the plan is to cut out the rubbish but make sure i get 2 healthy meals a day and see if i has any effect failing that it will have to be a trip to the doc's to see if he has any suggestions on my fluctuating energy levels.

not a good year but not a bad year

to many "did not starts" and "did not finishes" in 2010, probably a little harsh but them the facts, it was not all doom and gloom i did 5 trail marathons on consecutive weekends leading up to the highlight of the year by a long way, Comrades in South Africa which was an awesome race, the finish in the packed stadium was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced, the low point was the Beacons Ultra, very good first lap only for the wheels to fall off 9 miles from the finish, it was quite scary one minute i was tired the next i could not see properly and was uncontrollably shivering (much the the amusement of sue) but it's a lesson learnt - eat eat eat you can't run on empty, it been a tough year work wise so the yearly mileage is down quite a bit only 2300 miles, but also my intention to do less miles but make the mile count seems to have worked and the various long term injuries seem to have finally gone, just have to sort my back and i will be pain free, there was a facebook challenge to run every day in Dec, i managed 30 days having to miss a day after a heavy tumble in the snow, some people took it to a whole new level, Andy Murry for example who as part of the S2S has run 35+ miles on every day in Dec - respect, 2011 well a busy year, I'm back out helping with the 6633 Ultra in march, then its the "up" run at the Comrades Ultra, assuming i can get a support team together then we have the Glenmore 24 in Sept, and then the Kalahari Augrabies Ultra in Oct....