So that's why it hurts.....

So after almost 2 years of discomfort, 4 months of physio, 2 months of no running/cycling etc. i  finally went to the doctor about my back/hip, was sent for x-ray which came back with a passing comment regarding arthritis which was enough for me to be sent to a orthopaedic consultant to discuss the x-ray, i wasn't really prepared for his prognosis, he had obviously read my notes because he said, you have arthritis of both hips so your days for running a 100 miles a week, sorry i mean 100 miles at a time are over, in fact your running days are over, you will need a hip replacement in a couple of years time, so it's not a pulled muscle then!!!

So what now, well I've got a 100miles race in May!! there were many thoughts in my head, just give up and take up extreme knitting, become a gym bunny again or just drink beer and eat chips, but i have for the time being decided to train for the 100 miles, apparently i can't make it any worse by continuing to run it's just a case of can i put up with the pain, and managing that pain, strangely it hurts less while actually out running but i put this down to just being outside and doing something you like hides the pain a bit, you really notice it doing day to day stuff like getting up out of the chair or standing doing the washing up etc....

As far as treatment I've got a MRI scan in March to assess the joint and see if any other options are available to me, i have some great medical contacts that tell me all is not lost there are plenty of medical options, so for the time being i have to do pretty much what I've been doing for the last 2 years and grin and bear it....

Round and round and round and round and round....

Simple concept just run round a 400m tracks for 24hrs, every 6hrs swapping direction, welcome to 24hr track running...

During the summer i have been using the Brecon athletic track to train for the British Ultra Fest 24hr track race in Abingdon, i did a number of 4/5 hour runs on the track as training, a couple of these runs were on the same night as the Brecon lads football training I'd watch them all turn up chat for a while then train for a couple of hours and then chat so more before leaving to go down the pub all the time i would by running round and round the track I'm not sure what they made of me....

On the day my back/hip hurt from the off, i needed to be a little bit careful as i was off on holiday the following day and didn't want to be in too much discomfort on the plane, in the end i stopped after 223 laps and 55 miles in just under 12hrs, i loved every minute of it, you'd think you would get bored but there was plenty going on to keep you occupied, there was a 6 day event, 48hr and the 24hr i was doing and we were all on the track at the same time but strangely not as congested as you'd expect, some of the 6 day people were beginning to loose the plot a little which was amusing to watch...night time was interesting as the track was not flood lit and the lack of local street lights and house lights made it very dark, some people were using head torches some weren't, on more than one occasion you'd see two people just run into each other because a) they just didn't see them in the dark b) they were tired and not concentrating.

All in all i loved it, happy with 55 miles, not so happy that yet again my back/hip gave me so much grief, once I'm back from holiday first stop is the physio to see what can be done as it's becomingly more painful and annoying....  

And the winner is er me!!!

Training for the 6633 has has been far from ideal, I continue to have back/hip problems, continued stretching and the occasional pain relief keep me going, changing between hoka/inov-8 helps as does walking as apposed to running, so when I tipped up at the start line for the shorter 120 mile 6633 I didn't know what to expect, but from the off I felt good, I lead the race for about the first 65 miles and came into the first checkpoint 5 mins down on the leader, I never intended to stop at the checkpoints but I did have some food and put out a fire!!! Before heading out again, up until this point my back had been fine, hip a little sore, but the constant banging of the sledge waistband was taking its toll, I had a couple of short stops to stretch but my race was gradually falling apart, trying to not put too much pressure on my right hip gave me a huge blister on left foot, while sat on the side of the road I drained the large blister and contemplated another DNF, as I despondently dragged my sled in my hand I noticed that not wearing the waistband stopped my hip hurting and also enabled me to run which stopped my feet hurting, so I ran/walked the final 40 miles or so in this fashion dragging the sled in my hand all the way to the finish line, not only did I win the race but I also knocked over 4hrs off the course record!!!

I'm continuing to do the Likey's 365 challenge, we're on something like day 212, what has surprised me is that I have not found it a chore, even when my hip has been giving me a bit of grief or the weather has been cold and miserable and we get a lot of that in Wales(!) I've looked forward to my daily dose of fresh air...

Need to sort out some summer races, only planned event is another crack at the G24, Carole is doing the Trans Briton event in Sept. and I'm looking forward to training this summer with her...

Dw i heb dy weld ti ers talwn!

Greetings from not so sunny Wales!!!

It been a while, so a quick summary, i've moved to Wales!!!, i didn't run the Glenmore 24, weekly physio hasn't sorted my troublesome hip/back, i'm 32 days into the Likeys 365 challenge which requires me to run every day for a year!, i completed the 30 mile Mountain Trail challenge up in Brecon, my next race is the 46 miles Beacons ultra in November, i now work for www.likeys.com, i'm off to the Arctic to run 120 miles in March, there is not such thing as a flat mile in Wales, i now know 2 people who have run across America, Mimi set another world record, Hoka running shoes may look odd but they are great......

I hope to blog more regularly so to record my 6633 training up here in Wales, and because according to my stats 98 people have read/visited this blog in the last month and therefor i need to give my fan's(!) something to read :-)

Kevin.....

back problems.....

Well it was always going to be a big ask, but after 2 good days in the welsh hills (after deciding not to do the WAAT4 race) i was hopeful that all would be good for the South Downs Way 100, but from the off my back was aching and slipping and sliding around in the mud for the first hour or so did me no favours. i had resigned myself to stopping at the first checkpoint but also had to remind myself that 2 weeks ago i was flat out on the floor of the bathroom unable to move, it wasn't painful but ache like that is only going to get worse over 100 miles and i didn't want to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere and cause the race director (James) any problems, so at the first checkpoint i withdrew and walked the 10miles back to the start, the decision to withdraw turned out to be the right one because my back was quite sore by the time i got back to my car, so i have restarted taking the anti inflammatories and doing my stretches etc, and give it more time to heal.

So what now, well for reasons that will become apparent later i have withdrawn from the Fire and Ice ultra and decided to do the Glenmore 24hr race again (i did 100 miles at this event last year) so i have 9 weeks to get myself sorted......

Life goes on....

For personnel reasons running has not been the priority recently and i've only been able to do miles as and when, my back/hip had been fine until i did some gardening and managed to aggravate it again but with further stretching we seem to have fixed that particular problem, to be honest I've put in enough miles for the WAAT4 but not nearly as many miles as i would have liked for the South Downs 100 but i still intended to do both events but i may have to rethink both after putting my back out brushing my teeth (no laughing please) it was serious enough for me to have to go to the doctors where i was offered a course of morphine!! so i have 6 days to go from unable to walk to running the WAAT4 and 13 days until i try to run 100 miles even for me that's quite a big ask...

5 years ago....

It was 5 years ago this week that i was running in the Sahara desert it was my first multi day event having done 25+ marathons and a couple of 50 mile events, i remember it well it was a great way to spend a week,  5 years on and i'm watching a friend of mine run the 2012 event, it's hard because i know what she is going though but she is strong and will be fine but it doesn't make it any easier.

It's been 5 weeks since the Thames Path 100 and I've run 4 times in that time, all of them were painful experiences, I've had 5 weeks of rest and physio and have seen no difference in my back in fact i think it's gradually got worse, it's baffled the physio so we have agreed that i will start running again and see if that eases the situation, I'm to continue with the stretches and use the heat lamp as often as possible and promised not to do anything silly (might struggle with the last one!) i'm going to give this a go for a week or so and see if anything changes before we decide what to do next, it's a frustrating one because everything we try doesn't seem to work even though we know we are in the right area be it be the SI joint itself or one of the surrounding muscles...

2cm

Well its been a great start to the year training has gone well a 50 miler done already so every thing was looking good for the Thames Path 100, but within 10mins of starting i got a feeling it was not going to my day again, from the off my back started hurting this was joined by my hip at about 10 miles neither are unusual and didn't slow me, i was making good progress with 26 miles done in just over 4hrs, now my right foot started hurting and swelled enough for me to have to undo my laces, plodded on to 40 miles and started to walk, walked big chunks of the next 12 miles, seriously thought about walking the next 48 miles through the night (i like running/hobbling/walking in the dark) but my foot was only going to get worse, Carole confirmed that it was probably a silly idea so i decided to call it a day at the 52 mile checkpoint, it was a complete contrast to the 50 miles of a couple of weeks ago which one of the easiest/nicest 50 miler I've done, this was just 10 hours of pain... 

I didn't sleep that night due to the pain i my leg but my remarkable recovery rate kicked in the next day and by the time i got to see the Physio on Monday lunch time i had very little foot swelling to show him, but he did notice straight away that my pelvis was wonky and after measuring my legs decided that my right leg was 2cm shorter than the left which in itself isn't that unusual but add that to what he call's silly mileage and it may go some way to explain the various ongoing problems with my right leg, the quick and easy fix is a small wedge in the right shoe and some physio on my pelvis to realign it and relieve the pressure on my lower back.

has it really been that long!!

Blimey it's been over 6 weeks since i last posted, and it's been a busy 6 weeks, work and life has been crazy, I've had a bad run of cold and a ear infection, pretty much all my mid week running has been at 05:00 in the morning with long runs confined to the weekends, but I've made the weekends count and the distances for the last 6 weekends has been 26, 26, 32, 15, 50, 27 all these runs have been along either the Ridgeway or Thames Path with a friend Carole who is running the MDS this year, she been great and will do well at the MDS, just need to sort out her dodgy knees!!

I had originally planned to run the North Face Transgrancanaria race but the logistics of getting to Gran Canaries for a weekend proved to be not as easy as you'd expect so i made a last minute switch to the Thames Path 100, running the 100 miles from Richmond to Oxford on the same weekend at the beginning of March, looking forward to it, i have a lot of friends either running or helping and Carole has suggested that she will forgo her lie in to throw cinnamon buns and ice cream at me as i near the finish.

I plan to have a few weeks off from running after the Thames Path 100 and concentrate on getting the decorating done and out of the way before i start thinking about my next race at the end of May - The Hardmoors 110!!

Is it just me or did 2011 really fly by

Well that was 2011 over in a flash!

It seems like only yesterday that i was getting off the plane in Whitehorse to help with the 6633 there was snow but wandering around in t-shirts is not the norm, the -40's came out a couple of times to remind us what proper cold actually is but that doesn't take anything away from Lori who still had to cover the miles and show the army boys how it should be done, no race in 2012 but we'll all be back in 2013 this time i'm competing currently only the 120 miler but i can already hear the 350 miler calling...next up was South Africa various injuries had meant i had done far from ideal preparation, 4 weeks before the start i had to take a couple of days off work because i couldn't walk because of the swelling in my right shin and after a trip to the physio i basically wrote off Comrades but i like a challenge and with the help of some heavy duty medication lots of physio and rest i made it to the start line in Durban, just over 10hrs later it was all over i had finished the 57 miles both IT bands were trashed but i had finished the original shin injury nowhere to be seen, had a bit of a rest over the summer just to let everything settle down, still managed a couple of marathons one being on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year, bring on the Glenmore 24hrs a 'see how far you can run in 24hrs' race round a 4 miles off road loop, well i surprised myself by doing 100 miles easily had a bit of a wobble a couple of hours in but after a chat with the medic (Andy) i was up and running again, the only 'injury' i took away from this race was the midge bits which troubled me for about 3 weeks after the race....to round of the year i did the Beacons ultra which the race is just a small part of a great weekend away with friends but it's still 47 tough miles which needs to be done before you can hit the pub...

I still managed 2000 running miles in 2011 considerably down on previous years but considering the various injuries i think it's only to be expected...

So whats happening in 2012?? i start the year injury free!! which is a result, i have entered 3 biggish races, the Transgrancanaria (80 miles across Gran Canaria), the Hardmoors 110 (110 miles round the North Yorkshire Moors) and a soon to be announced 5 day Ultra in Iceland.

I've got a feeling that 2012 is going to be a good year!!!

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....

School boy error

School boy error at the Brecon ultra, didn't eat properly and my body run out of sugar and scary things happen when you get go that point, well you say i didn't eat properly during the race i eat everything i had and nothing different to what i normally carry during race like this, the difference was that i didn't eat properly leading up to the race so i started on half empty, add that to the fact we flew round the first lap (23 miles in 4hrs on that course is quite quick for me) anyway it's another 35 mile training run!, i have some time off leading up and over Christmas so the plan is to do the full distance (48 miles) during that time.