WHW Training Run - Beinglas to Kingshouse

Beinglas Farm to Kingshouse

1st March 2009

Distance : 31.54 miles
Time : 4 hours 37 minutes
Pace : 8:48 / mile

I had been looking forward to this run all week but I guess that everyone does. Even work seems to suffer as I prepared and worked out what I would like to try/learn from this months training run.
It felt like months since my last one and it near enough was. I had missed the January one and had instead ran with JK on a fantastic run from Drymen to Beinglas but also because of the way dates clashed their was no February run. The bonus with that is that there are two March runs.
February’s training didn’t suffer and I still managed to run 200 miles. Not as good as my January which topped 285 miles.

So by Friday I had a list of what I wanted to do.

Change my watch to display Average Pace
Too often on a run I have been trying to base the pace on what I am running at that moment. This doesn’t work on the WHW. There are too many ups and downs and too many high and low point. This time I was going to base it on an average of the entire run and try to keep it steady

Attempt to run as many hills as I can
After running with JK last month I learnt that you can run up most hills as long as I keep my breathing rate down. Okay sometimes the run is more like walking pace but I have found that it makes me less lazy and therefor instead of just walking every hill I actually make an attempt to run it

Keep to an average 10 min/mile (6 miles per hour)
I am trying to work out what my Fling pace should be and so I wanted to try this and see how I got on.

Start practicing with new support team
Debbie is now part of my support and has very kindly offered to support me on these long training runs. I think that this will be invaluable training for both of us.

Stick to the Energy Drink and Gels for fuel
During the race last year I stuck to energy drink and gels for most of the race. 500ml of energy drink and one lucozade gel per hour seems to work for me. Soup and weetabix gives me some savory at checkpoints.

Beinglas to Derrydarroch
Distance 3.75 miles
Time 35:29
Pace 9:29

As usual I was late. Debbie managed to have the baby, herself and everything a support team required and still be waiting on me. I only had to get myself ready. A shower, a good dab of Glide anti-chaffing gunge and breakfast was all I had to do.
We arrived at the Drovers Inn to sea of luminous jackets disappearing towards Beinglas Farm. Damn I thought. I missed the group photo.

Group photo minus me (Photo from John Kynaston’s Blog)

I quickly said my byes to Debbie and Cairn and then I was off. By the time the group had reached the West Highland Way at Beinglas I had caught the stragglers. Strangely enough it was Neal and Thomas who are usually way out in front rather than propping up the rear.
I spoke with Neal. It was the usual running chat as we sounded each other out “I don’t feel good” and Neal replies “I only slept 2 hours” To be honest he had been up most of the night due to his neighbours keeping him up all night having a party. Neal swears that they have a copy of his training plan. Perhaps I should own up to posting it too them. ;-) I then caught Thomas. I haven’t seen Thomas for ages and I was really looking forward to talking to him on this run. But he stopped to tie his shoe lace and I didn’t see him again until the end. We both have different ways of training. Tom starts conservatively and finishes very strong. Today I wanted to keep a steady pace. I spoke to John for a bit and congratulated him on his new job and then I caught up with Sharon and Davie. Before long I was with the lead group.
I didn’t mean to be here so quickly but the average pace was sitting at my 10 minute mile plan and so I stayed at it.
I felt comfortable running up the hills taking it easy and making sure that I didn’t struggle for breath.
Before long we were at Derrydarroch where I met Debbie and Cairn. I felt great but the pace had picked up so for the next section I tried to hold back.

​Arriving at Derrydaroch

Derrydaroch to A82 crossover
Distance 0.93 miles
Time 10.24
Pace 11.08

I am not really sure why I recorded this as a separate section but I did

A82 crossover to Auchentyre
Distance 5.42 miles
Time 50:30
Pace 9:19

I left Debbie and straight away ran up the steep hill from the road. I had never felt so light going up here and quickly started to catch back up with Gavin. We spoke together for a bit and on his excellent run last year. We then spoke about plans for this training run and for this years race. The section at Crianlarich seemed muddier than usual or perhaps I just didn’t want to dirty my new trainers in the cow shit. My new trainers were so far so good. A bit slippy on some of the rocks but very comfy. I spoke with Joe from Bella on the way to Auchentyre. For some reason it felt very easy and a lot shorter than usual.
When we reached Auchentyre I met Debbie and gave her my bottle and picked up a gel while the rest of the group ran on. This gave me a chance to run without my bottle for a while.

Auchentyre to Tyndrum
Distance 2.72 miles
Time 20:54
Pace 7:41

I caught up with the rest of the group but felt very comfortable. Before long I had left them behind. I was now on my own and wouldn’t see anyone else from the 9am group until the end of the run. I had a very fast section here but as I was feeling good I just went with the flow. Because I was feeling good I decided to change my goal from an average of 10 min mile to 9 min mile
The rain was heavier and cold but I still ran with just my t-shirt on. At Tyndrum I met Debbie again and grabbed a bottle of energy juice and then off again. I was keeping the breaks to a minimum.

Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy
Distance 6.67 miles
Time 49:50
Pace 7:28

I ran up most of the hill out of Tyndrum only taking a break to drink some juice. I now started to overtake some of the people that left at 8:30. Davie Hall commenting that he felt good until he saw me. Again I felt very comfortable apart from my chaffed nipples. At Bridge of Orchy Debbie laughed at my white t-shirt that was now covered in blood.

Bridge of Orchy to Victoria Bridge
Distance 2.84 miles
Time 28:35
Pace 10:03

I ran up the hill over to Victoria Bridge only taking a gel to keep me company on this section. I felt very comfortable. I couldn’t believe that it would be this easy to run up this hill and I actually thought that running may be easier than walking this hill. At Victoria Bridge I had some soup and decided to take my bumbag for the next section with some more food and my bottle in it.

Victoria Bridge to Kingshouse
Distance 9.20 miles
Time 1:21:56
Pace 8:55

Again I wanted to run up the hill and over Rannoch Moor. Straight away it was far harder. I decided I should take some walking breaks and ate when I did. After about 20 minutes I was back running at a good pace but still I was finding the hills hard and having to walk them. I thought back to the hill out of Bridge of Orchy. Although it was easy at the time I probably tired my legs out a bit too much. I walked up most of the last hill and although my average for the whole run was bang on the 9 min/mile I ran the downhill faster and so my average decreased. At the end I felt quite tired but within 10 minutes I was okay.
Before long everyone else had finished and all seemed to have a great run. Ian seemed over the moon with his run and looked like he had just jogged 2 or 3 miles. John finished but was tired after fighting a cold all week as well. In the pub I found out that Sharon had had a fall and had to cut the run short. She seemed okay in the pub but I have since found out that she has cracked some ribs. Hopefully she will be better for the Glasgow/Edinburgh race in 2 weeks. Thomas, Silke and Neal all had good runs with Silke running a fab time from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy.

So how did my run go....
Here is my aims and conclusions.

Change my watch to display Average Pace
This worked fantastically. The watch seems to help more when you are judging pace across the whole run and not just at that present time. I suppose though if the run was going bad that this might not be so good but for today it was great.

Attempt to run as many hills as I can
Until Rannoch Moor I ran nearly all the hills and felt great doing it. I have to admit that this has a positive advantage in that it makes you feel great to easily conquer hills but also it makes me far less lazy. Before in runs like this every hill would be an excuse to walk. Now I try to run them all as long as breathing isn’t affected. I must make sure that I don’t over do it though and then end up struggling at the end of the run.

Keep to an average 10 min/mile (6 miles per hour)
This aim was perhaps too easy. Increasing it to 9 min/mile made sense half way during the run. Still doable but not as easy.

Start practicing with new support team
I just want to say thank you very much to Debbie and Cairn for their help today. They did a great job and it really helps to get used to how we all gel.

Stick to the Energy Drink and Gels for fuel
Again worked great. I feel light and full of energy. The soup as well at Victoria Bridge was great too.

This was probably my best run on the West Highland Way performance wise so the training up until now must be going well. Last year at this point I was also feeling great but after this run things went downhill due to the amount of races I was doing. This time with less races I am hoping not to peak too soon. I did miss the chat though and this felt a bit like a normal Sunday training run. I really enjoy meeting up with all my friends and I missed that today.