Running in the Buff

Went out for what was meant to be an easy 4 miler before tomorrows half marathon.  It ended up as 7 miles although the pace was relaxed.  I had arranged to meet Paul (who is running the London Marathon and the Scottish islands peaks with me) and his pal Arun (who is also running the London Marathon).  It was all just a nice relaxed run plenty of chatting and a chance to try out my WHW buff.  I have to admit that the buff is excellent and will now be part of my running gear. It may look ridiculous but it does the job.  We all received a WHW Buff as part of our goody bag and mine came with a useless skip bit on the front.  10 minutes with a pair of scissors soon sorted it out.  I ran most of the run with it tied around my wrist but then we decided to go around Milngavie reservoir  and the wind and rain could have cut you in two.  Immediately after putting it on I was instantly warmer with it easily protecting my ears.  A great piece of multi functional gear.  On a more sour note Paul hurt his Achilles again and will be out for another week.  I am worried but not that he won't get to the London Marathon.  I am worried about his recovery from that before the Scottish Islands race.  The recovery time from your first or any marathon is long and doing the Scottish Islands race was always going to be a hard one but if he is also carrying an injury it may be impossible.  I hope that it all gets better cause I am really looking forward to running this with him.

WEST HIGHLAND WAY BUFF

The appliance of science

Tonight's session was billed as short reps so I was ready for nice quick 50m sprints with my light weight training shoes.  The session ended up as 450m reps in the Science Park at Acre Road.  I swear that last time we did this session it was billed as medium reps.  Oh well.  After last nights mile reps session I was prepared to just take it easy tonight and Lesley's announcement to say that anyone running the half this weekend should take it easy put a seal of approval to my thoughts.  The session was 12 x 450m reps with a two minute turnaround.  My quickest was 1min 16s and slowest 1min 23s.  So I was getting on average about 40s recovery between each which felt comfortable.  Some of the slower members of the group must have been lucky to be getting 30s recovery so it must have been a tough session for them.  Enjoyed tonight but quads still felt heavy from the Deerstalker and mile reps from the night before.

Got home to Celtic losing 1-0 to Barca.  Out of the champions league 4-2 on aggregate. :-(

Knightswood Mile Reps

Back to the dreaded mile reps tonight.  My quads are still on fire from the Deerstalkers on Saturday and the attempt to try to stay upright in road shoes.  Debbie and I actually sat in the car longer before starting than the session lasted.

The reps were all slower than the last time I did them but I managed 5 of them and cut the recovery to 2 minutes.  I think that for half marathons and above that it is a better session to go that bit slower and try to increase the amount.

Felt good when I finished and felt like it wouldn't take much to increase the amount.

The splits were: 5:12, 5:18, 5:19, 5:14, 5:16

Just wanted to add to my blog... congratulations to Pacepusher and Brian Mc for breaking their half marathon PB's at the weekend.  I just hope that I can follow suit this weekend.

Oh how the mighty (deerstalker) have fallen

It wasn't long ago that road running was the be all and end all in for me.  Trails and hills were for hillwalkers and ramblers and the roads were the domain of marathoners and 10kers. This slowly changed.  First I started to train on trails.  More so to give my legs a rest from the tarmac.  Then came the Devils and I had found what I truly enjoy.  Ultra running off road.  Everyone is friendly.  It's all more relaxed and to me it is a much sterner test of what your body can do and put up with.  There is another type of running that is gaining popularity nowadays.  Adventure running.  Sure I had tried this before running Hellrunner in Milngavie last year.  What they had promised was that I would get wet and muddy.  There was a couple of bits that were muddy but mostly it was trail running with none of the river crossings that they had promised.  So it was time to try another adventure race.  The Mighty Deerstalker.  Yet again they promised that you would get wet.  I didn't believe them.  They promised we would be running in the dark.  I didn't believe them.  They promised an assault course.  And still I didn't believe them.  They promised I would be cold.  I believed that.  Its March in the Southern Uplands.

Debbie and I arrived in Inverleithen in plenty of time.  The B&B that Debbie had booked was amazing.  A lovely house with excellent views of the OMG!!!! the course?  As Debbie and I looked up the hill behind the guest house we could see what looked like ants making their way slowly to the top.  Except they weren't ants.  Dressed in skin tight lycra and deerstalker hats it could only be the easy Deerstalker.  The 5km version of the Deerstalker for kids, novices and southern softies was already running.  The first section of the Mighty Deerstalker, our race, follows the same route as its sibling up what looked like an incredibly high hill.

Anyway it was about now that I made the first of my mistakes of the day.  seeing that the hill was covered in trails and thinking back to the Hellrunner I decided to wear my roadshoes for the race.  oops.

We left for the start of the race which was just a short drive from the B&B.  We parked the car at a large carpark and started to walk to registration which we guessed was just around the corner.  It was a lot further and by the time we registered it was only 20 minutes to the start.  Only problem was our gear was still in the car.  So I volunteered, or perhaps I was told, to get the car and bring it closer to the Start/Finish.  By the time I did this and then found Debbie again it was nearly 5.  After all the running about I was knackered and not really in any mood for the race.

It was a really nice bright evening and this is when I made my second mistake.  The race is 10km long.  I should be able to walk that distance and still get back while it is still twilight.  I don't need a head torch.  And so I left it.  Debbie forgot to lift hers and so for a 3rd or maybe 4th time I sprinted back to the car to get it for her.  I think by this time I had already ran 10k.

This was when I made my 3rd mistake.  As I said before Hellrunner didn't even get my feet wet.  I should be able to run this deerstalker race with my car remote.  If anything looks deep I can hold it in the air.

At the start line I felt uneasy.  Not only was I one of the only people in running gear but also the only one in shorts, roadshoes and not sporting a headtorch.  Do I have time to run back to the car again? No.  We were off and immediately I dropped back from the front line to half way back as all the novices sprinted to a line of hay bails that we had to jump over.  Within 200m I was in 3rd position.  Good choice the road shoes as I easily caught the lead group.

Then I saw it.  The first water feature.  It looked at least knee deep so to be on the safe side I decided to take my car remote out of my pocket and hold it in the air.  I was in first position as I jumped in and straight under.  Completely soaking from head to toe.  My remote was soaking as I put it back in my pocket.  Oh well I tried.  Perhaps its water resistant.  Next up there was a steep muddy hill.  I couldn't get any traction in my road shoes as I dropped to 3rd, 4th, 5th, and then 6th position.  Onto trails I managed to catch back up and kept within a group of 3 not far off from the leaders.  This was when we made a fatal mistake.  Instead of taking a left turn down from the top of the hill we took a right turn and went even higher up the hill.  Once we realised our mistake we came back down and ended up behind a large group of runners with no way of passing them.  As we got to the bottom of the hill someone called out to the guy in front "You're in 60th mate, well done"  1st to 61st position in 20 minutes.  Great.

As we reached back into the village I remembered that the map had a long straight section.  Good.  A road. I should be able to catch some people up now.  Wrong.  The road was a river and we had to run 300m up that river.  My legs were numb, my feet were number and there was a real unpleasant stabbing pain between my legs.  I felt sorry for a chap that I passed that only looked like he was 5ft 5.  The water nearly reaching his head.

I still wasn't really catching many people by now and I was starting to tire with the effort of trying not to slip at every muddy bit.  Luckily the next hill was a scree slope.  Unlucky for everyone else but seeing as I used to do loads of hillwalking I had the technique for getting up.  I started to pass a lot of tired people and as I reached the top I turned to see hundreds of lights behind me.  Everyone had their head torches on and it was getting dark.  Really dark.

I really struggled to get through the last parts of the race as I couldn't see a thing and had to rely on catching people with torches and running with them until we caught someone else and then running with them.  Another few river crossings, a really steep slope that had a rope to help you down but I couldn't see and so jumped down it and a tunnel full of what looked and smelled like sewage.  Finally I was getting close to the end.  Spent another 5 minutes lost before finally the finish was in sight.

After 9.6 miles I was at the end and an official told me I was in 30th position.  Not bad but I had been stupid in under estimating the event and should have had the right gear.  Okay a lot of the course was badly marked and I was amazed that nobody broke anything. But that is how this sort of race is meant to be.  I will be better prepared next time.

Before Debbie finished I thought that it would be a good idea to go to the car and get some dry clothing for us both.  I ran back to the car (again) but the remote didn't work.  Debbie finished and we both sat shivering beside the car as I tried with numb fingers to dry the remote out enough to allow us to open it.  Finally we got it open but the car was now stuck in the field and we had to get 3 of the car park attendants to help push it out.

Finally we were back to the B&B to get showered and have a wee night out.

The next morning though the remote didn't work again and so we spent 30 minutes drying it with a hairdryer.  We had met 3 lads that are training for the Marathon des Sables next year.  It sounded like excellent fun and we chatted for 2 hours about running, ultras, food etc. 

Blackpool Rocks

BLACKPOOL HALF MARATHON RESULTS

Well actually it doesn't. But the half marathon does.

Debbie and I left Glasgow early on Saturday afternoon for the drive down south.  It was pouring with rain and very windy and I was thinking I had made the right choice not to do the nationals cross-country like everyone else was doing.  Arriving in Blackpool the wind was stronger and strange enough colder.  Maybe the XC was a better idea.  We checked into our B&B, The New World Hotel, and the worlds smallest hotel room tastefully decorated in safari prints.  At least it had a sea view although you couldn't see through the manky windows at the manky weather.  Now I really was wishing I was in my pink house (Debbie decorated) and the XC.  Time to eat.  Blackpool isn't the best place to go for a romantic meal with your wife.  Sure if I was 15 then the countless McDonalds and KFC's would be fine and dandy but not with a wife and a half marathon the next day.  We found a great wee Italian restaurant and had a great feed before an early night. Maybe things were looking up.

The next morning they certainly were.  We had a great breakfast at the hotel and the weather seemed to be easing.  Against my better judgement I had a bacon sandwich.

The race started at 11am and after a quick good luck to Debs we were off.  I was in the second front row at the beginning but within 10 seconds of the gun I must have dropped to 50th position but within minutes I was up to a top 10 position.  The route was up and down the seafront in one small loop and two larger loops.  A boring route but mostly flat although it was still windy.  As usual I was running far too fast in the first couple of miles but I soon settled down.  At about the 10 mile mark I noticed that I may be onto a PB if I could just pick up the pace for the last 3 miles.  The only thing was that the last two miles are into the wind with a horrible 180 degrees turn just 100m from the finish.  I didn't succeed and finished in 10th position in 1:17:09. 16 seconds behind my PB but my third fastest half time.  Quite happy as it was only a week after the 31 mile long run.  Debbie did even better.  Taking two and a half minutes off her PB in a time of 1:43:46.

5:29,5:42,5:52,5:55,5:58,6:12,6:09,5:58,5:55,5:56,5:58,6:13,5:40

YOU HAD TO DODGE WAVES ON THE COURSE

Because I was so happy with my skins shorts last week I decided that since I get more issues with my calves than anything else that I would reward myself with a pair of skins sox.  I would never ever wear them outside and they are just for recovery.

 

AHH RECOVERY TIME IN MY SLIPPERS

Thursday Training (Jog, Run, Sprint, Die)

I was looking forward to tonight.  A nice easy 5/6 mile run with the club.  My recovery week had been going great so far and I looked forward to the short run.  What a pity that none of the other guys in my pack felt the same and there was near enough a full turn out.  It was good to see Alex was back again after being off for what felt like months with the cold.  I think that he was probably verging on manflu and so I fully support his decision in taking the extended time off.  I hope that he had all the care and attention from a good woman to help nurse him back from deaths door.

The first mile of the run started nice and easy at 7:19/mi by which time Ali was warmed up and starting to push the pace.  I elected to stay with him tonight and it quickly ended up just the two of us.  I was struggling a bit on the uphills but luckily for me Ali was slowing down for them and letting me catch up.  Damn.  Although I know it is good for me to push there is sometimes you just want to take it easy.

Sprinting at 5:47/mi pace towards the end where Alex was already.  His manflu had reered it's ugly head again and he had cut the run short.  He really is a trooper.  I just hope that he isn't off again.  It's his turn to stay with Ali next week.

5.74mi in 36:03min @ 6:17 /mi

7:17, 6:31, 6:03, 5:47, 6:08, 4:14 (only 0.74mi)

Blow away those cobwebs

Just a little short run to blow away the cobwebs before the Garscube Committee meeting.  Not feeling any issues from the run on Saturday so I ended up pushing it a bit towards the end.

5miles in 33:31 @ 6:42/mi

7:00, 7:05, 6:41, 6:20, 6:23.