Triple Thursday Taper

STONEYMOLLAN RUN

As I am not able to go to training with Garscube tonight I thought that it would be a good idea to do one of my old favourites.  My Stoneymollan run.  A great 7.5 mile run over the hills behind my house.  I woke up early thinking that this may be the chance to try out my new head torch that hadn't yet been tested outside the dark bathroom.  With the clocks still to go forward, at 6am the sun already looked like it had been up for a couple of hours and so that put that idea on the back burner. 

The idea of doing this run was to take it easy as I have the big WHW run on Saturday and this was meant to be a taper day.  However 20 minutes into the run it looked like I was finally going to beat the one hour mark for this run.  A long standing goal for a long time.  And so I was upping the pace yet again.  My record attempt wasn't being helped by the fact that I startled a dog walker whose dogs tried to attack me.  One even trying to take a bite.  The owner warned me "There is another dog in the field further on, but don't worry it has a muzzle"  Joy.  Luckily it must have been smaller because I didn't see it.

Onto the run and into the snow.  Good day for ankle socks and the numbing freezing pain in them was weird even although my feet were nice, warm and cosy.  From the top there was fantastic views of Ben Lomond.  No time to enjoy though and glad to be going back down hill.  The pace picking up and I was flying through Balloch but hit a low point by Christie Park.  A look at my watch soon gave me the energy needed and I finished strong.

7.52 mi 57:52 @ 7:42min/mi.  Elev +281m - 279m

Woohoo.  New record and finally beat the 1hour mark

 

RAPID RECOVERY

Feeling on a high from this morning I decided to go for a recovery run before Mountain Rescue.  Bad Idea.  Why do I always try to squeeze the most out of a day.  I had 30 minutes to do 4.5 miles.

Only point of note was getting hit by a car.  No-ones fault.  He looked one way and I ran the other.  He was probably doing all of 4 miles /hr.  It hurt my hand more than anything.

4.66mi in 29.22 @ 6.18 / mi

 

MOUNTAIN RESCUE

I was getting tired by now and 12 miles of hard running was taking affect.  Not to worry.  It was GPS / Map reading training tonight and that meant an easy night of wandering around a wood.  Wrong.  To make things more fun they decided an orienteering course would be fun.  So it was on with the running shoes again.  Andy Birnie who is in the team is also a runner with Bellahouston Road Runners with similar times to me and we were warned not to team up.  We ignored this and teamed up.  Good news though I could test my head torch.  And what a head torch it is.  A few people in the team I am sure will have one next time we meet up.  It's a Petzl Myro XP and I have posted about it before.  One word. Fab.  Not sure of the distances but Andy and me finished in 29 minutes.  31 minutes quicker than the 2nd place.  There was a prize for the winners but because Andy and I weren't allowed to team up we got disqualified.  Oh well.

 

So today I must have done nearly 15 miles of running.  So much for the taper.

To Hells (Angels) and back

Today I probably decided whether directly or indirectly that the London marathon would not be more important than the West Highland Way Race.  Okay that is a bit of a lie.  The West Highland Way Race has always been the more important but I was thinking that I could run a good marathon as well.  But today I decided for sure that London will not be THE marathon of the year.  And how did I know this?  Well it is 3 weeks until the marathon and this should be a marathon specific last long run.  Instead I decided to run part of the WHW.

I have done today's run before.  5 weeks ago.  The run is one of my favourites.  A 27 mile run from my house in Alexandria onto the Balloch Horseshoe then onto the cycle track that joins to the WHW at Drymen.  Then you take the WHW to Milngavie before running through to Bearsden to Anniesland and then taking Great Western Road to Glasgow.

Today I decided to take the bumbag to see how that would perform.  Two 600 mls water bottles, one with energy drink and one with water.  A sachet of energy drink to make another bottle up at the tap at the Carbeth Huts. A couple of raisin bars and since it was Easter a few mini cream eggs.

The run started fine but I had to keep adjusting the bumbag.  The rucksack is definitely the more comfier of the two.  I just can't get used to running with 1200 mls on my hips.  So this is what it is like to have love handles.  Accessing the bumbag is annoying too.  The more I think about it the more I am starting to want to run the WHW with as little as possible.  Have the support team meet me as often as they can and on longer sections use the rucksac.

Back to the run I was starting to feel tired by the Carbeth Huts.  I stopped for a break and to refill my bottle and have a bite to eat and then set off again.  Within half a mile I met Mike Thomson and was glad to stop again for a chat.  By Milngavie I was struggling, big time.  I think that it must have been the ultra from last week.  Well I hope that was what was to blame.  In Bearsden the worst thing happened as my calf started to cramp.  It had been annoying me since Wuthering Hike and now was starting to pack in.  After some stretching it was good enough to go on albeit a little more carefully

When I reached Anniesland it felt like I was running in the London Marathon.  There was crowds of people all over the place all the way along GWR.  It was the Glasgow Easter Run and there was 7000 bikers delivering Easter eggs to Yorkhill Hospital.  This made it difficult to run and a lot of weaving in and out of crowds.  Not great for the calf.

GLASGOW YORKHILL EASTER EGG RUN

Debbie met me at the end of the run.  One look at her face told me straight away that I had overdone it today.  I survived unscathed and unhurt but I have to be careful.  Last time I pulled my calf it took a good few months for it to be 100% again.  If I had pulled it today it could have affected not only the WHW but the London Marathon and the Islands Peaks race.  As everyone says on the training runs for the WHW race, half of the battle is getting to the start line.  A wise warning from the experts and something us race virgins have to heed.

Weight a minute

 

Debbie had decided that today she wanted to run a long run at a faster pace as part of her marathon training and drive into town so she could have some flatter streets.   I am not so keen in running around the streets of Glasgow so I decided to take advantage and run from my house in Alexandria to town.  I am also not too keen on the A82 either so I decided on a new route.

The start was in Alexandria.  Onto the Balloch Horseshoe and follow the cycle route out towards Drymen. Then onto the West Highland Way to Milngavie and then a wee run into Glasgow City Centre to meet Debbie.  Only thing was that it works out as 27 miles.  Oh well, I'll take my time.

For such a long run I decided it was time to take the bra-pack out.  This pack is really good.  It's comfy, light and doesn't cause your top to ride up.  Pity that the bottle tastes like TCP.  This is the second time I have used it and even after a washing by Debbie and my normal extra strong energy drink it still has a TCP taste.  I am giving it one more chance before swapping the bottle with my trusty Platypus.

My new run was fantastic.  Being the first half decent weekend day of the year there was loads of people out on the cycle track and the WHW.  Lots of second glances at my bra-pack and I am sure that some teenage girls shouted something cheeky at my new fashion accessory which was drowned out by Alice in Chains on my IPod.  I finished the 27 miles in 3 hrs 30 mins but it was in fact only 3hrs 12 mins because I had stopped for 18 mins to talk to people, eat and enjoy the view etc.  I am really pleased with the time as I really didn't push hard although I was knackered by the end of it.

As everyone knows when you are on a long run your mind begins to wonder.  I had read recently that if you loose 150g from your footwear this will make you 5s per mile faster or 2min 11s faster in a marathon.  This is 8 minutes faster on the West Highland Way.  So weight a minute.  Maybe if I lose more weight off my body I could shave even more time.  Maybe not as much as the foot wear but still.  We have all heard of the Naked Rambler so how about the Naked Ultra Runner.  It's summer so not that cold and I'll be running far faster than the midges now that I have lost some weight.  Hair.  That must weigh something.  I will get it all shaved off.  Yes even those dodgy areas.  And it will make an excellent disguise when I appear in the newspapers for running about the hills naked.  What else could I lose weight with?  Skin!! Yes I could borrow Debbies exfoliating shower gel and if I use enough from now until June that must make me lighter.  Perhaps a bit redder but there must be a lot of weight in 4 or 5 layers of skin.  My Garmin weighs tonnes so its a gonner too and then there are the normal weight lose things. Eat less, colonic irragation.  Yeah Debbie makes me watch some pile of cr@p on TV.  Toenails, so overrated.  Part of your intestine.  Not needed.  Hey I could even make money by selling a kidney.  Who says that I am not committed to this race.

So if you happen to be on the West Highland Way on the 21st June then say hi to me.  I am the naked, red, bald, skinny guy being arrested while still high on diet pills and medication.

Thank god I only ran 27 miles.  Any further and I would have been imagining hacking off fingers.