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....