am: 4 miles: 29 minutes
pm: 6 miles: 45 minutes
Less is more has been a big part of my belief system for about 15 years. I've never really owned much/ any 'stuff' and went through a period in my middle teenage years of throwing pretty much everything I had accumulated up to that point, away. This drove Mum crazy I guess it didn't really make any sense. Well 15 years later and everything I own still fits into one cupboard at my parents house and a pretty small cloth wardrobe in our room at Battersea. On top of pretty much minimal amount of clothing and some CDs the only thing Ive accumulated in recent years is a bunch of medals/ race numbers and some running shoes (about 25 pairs) plus thankfully a few buckles which are now on the wall. I realise that my philosophy hasn't really changed. More stuff means more to think about, more hassle, more to lose etc etc.
Each day I get up put on some shorts and a t shirt and run to work where most of my clothes live. Then at the end of the day I get changed back into the running gear and head home whichever way I feel like going. When I left work this evening in a the late summer sun I thought about the fact that I don't need any more 'stuff' to survive and be happy. Pretty much all my efforts go into trying to travel as much as possible and finish the races I so desperately want to run. That has gone from a list of 100s of marathons to about 8 ultras.
I also thought how great it was that I can train for a 100 mile race with total belief that I can finish and feel comfortable knocking out good quality mileage rather than cramming in as much as possible. Badwater was all about more is king. Caesars Camp has been about less, higher quality mileage.
There are people out there running 200 miles a week+. There are people out there running 80 miles a week and beating them over the highest level. Sometimes mileage is king. Sometimes less is more.....
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Monday 20 September 2010
Sunday 19th September
pm: 25 miles: 4 hours 30
Long and slow again because I was map reading for large chunks of it. Unfortunately map reading through the streets of north west london as I ran from Battersea to Radlett.
Weekly Total: 83 Miles.
Long and slow again because I was map reading for large chunks of it. Unfortunately map reading through the streets of north west london as I ran from Battersea to Radlett.
Weekly Total: 83 Miles.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Wednesday 15th
pm: 1hr 58: 14 miles
Nice easy run 2 laps of Hyde Park with Pete. Felt good tonight absolutely no issues and the first time I felt like Ive had bundles of pace in my legs almost since Badwater. I guess I must be over that car crash by now....
Nice easy run 2 laps of Hyde Park with Pete. Felt good tonight absolutely no issues and the first time I felt like Ive had bundles of pace in my legs almost since Badwater. I guess I must be over that car crash by now....
Tuesday 14 September 2010
2011 Race Schedule
January: Country to Capital 45 mile. Repeat of this year.
February: Thames Trot 50 mile. Want to really nail a 50 miler as good as I know I can. 7hrs49 to beat.
March: Eco Trail De Paris 50 mile. Finish by running up the Eiffel Tower. Awesome.
April: Umstead 100 mile. Heading to North Carolina with Pete for his first 100. I hope to just have a solid run and maybe if all comes good i'll go under 20 hours for 100.
May: Comrades 56 mile. South Africa. No intro needed for this one. Will be with Lisa for the week leading up to it during her half term.
June: Western States 100 mile. California. Please please please please please etc etc.
August: Leadville 100 mile. Colorado. Im not going back to UTMB in 2011 now, I have a wedding to attend. Shame but I can live with missing it for a 3rd year in a row. Probably more excited about running Leadville to be honest.
So thats it. So many choices but I want to give myself time to train right and race properly rather than cramming them all in and running pointless marathons every weekend.
The year kind of hinges on Western States entry for me. If I get in that and Leadville will be my A races. If not then I may switch to Vermont instead and Im relaxed about that also.
Ive binned Hardrock for a time when Im actually qualified rather than crossing my fingers and writing essays to get in.
Monday 13 September 2010
Monday 13th September
pm 4 miles 35 easy minutes
Just an easy run home today. Back to normal mileage tomorrow. Needed this though I slept pretty rough on Sunday night and probably wanted a day off after the longer one yesterday.
I read an interview with Jamie Donaldson today where she talked about her prep for Badwater being 4 - 6 weeks of 200 miles + per week. Thats what I did yesterday (50km) ie. 5 miles more than a marathon, every day of the week for a month and a half. I would like someone to explain to me how that is possible with a job (Jamie is a primary school teacher). I have found that when I run exactly half that for a few weeks in a row (ie 100 mile weeks or 14-15 miles per day) I can't really function properly at work and am knackered all week long. Pretty sure thats big mountain miles as well and not just flat road runs which is what i do most of the time. Wow.
Just an easy run home today. Back to normal mileage tomorrow. Needed this though I slept pretty rough on Sunday night and probably wanted a day off after the longer one yesterday.
I read an interview with Jamie Donaldson today where she talked about her prep for Badwater being 4 - 6 weeks of 200 miles + per week. Thats what I did yesterday (50km) ie. 5 miles more than a marathon, every day of the week for a month and a half. I would like someone to explain to me how that is possible with a job (Jamie is a primary school teacher). I have found that when I run exactly half that for a few weeks in a row (ie 100 mile weeks or 14-15 miles per day) I can't really function properly at work and am knackered all week long. Pretty sure thats big mountain miles as well and not just flat road runs which is what i do most of the time. Wow.
Sunday 12 September 2010
Sunday 12th September
pm: 50km. 5 hours 2 mins.
Fairly solid run out to Syon Park down the Thames Path and back. Hot today and felt it towards the end but only drained two bottles of water in that time. Planned 9:30 miles all the way to get used to Caesars Camp 100 pace. Have a feeling that even that could be a stretch with the hills on the course. Legs felt pretty comfortable, probably would have been ok up to about 50 miles but not quite as strong as I'd have liked them to be ie. pre Badwater conditioning when back to back 35 milers felt a lot easier each day than this did.
This week I got a letter through the post form London Marathon letting me know that after 4 years of missing out on spots through the lottery, I actually qualified for a good for age place with my 2:58 at Washington. Then I realised that the letter had been sat in the postroom at work for 3 weeks and I missed the deadline. Typical.
Fairly solid run out to Syon Park down the Thames Path and back. Hot today and felt it towards the end but only drained two bottles of water in that time. Planned 9:30 miles all the way to get used to Caesars Camp 100 pace. Have a feeling that even that could be a stretch with the hills on the course. Legs felt pretty comfortable, probably would have been ok up to about 50 miles but not quite as strong as I'd have liked them to be ie. pre Badwater conditioning when back to back 35 milers felt a lot easier each day than this did.
This week I got a letter through the post form London Marathon letting me know that after 4 years of missing out on spots through the lottery, I actually qualified for a good for age place with my 2:58 at Washington. Then I realised that the letter had been sat in the postroom at work for 3 weeks and I missed the deadline. Typical.
Wednesday 8 September 2010
Wednesday 8th September
am: 30 minutes
pm: 30 minutes
Total: 8 miles
Total: 8 miles
Two pretty average runs where I didn't feel great for either, nowhere near 100% so kept it short tonight. Got a slot at the Umstead 100 miler for April. Another one on the list for 2011.
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Tuesday 7th
am: 30 minutes. great morning again.
pm: 1 hour 10. 30 minutes down to Blackfriars with Rusty and back up the Thames Path to Battersea.
Total: 12 miles.
Todays revelation is that there is still a race on this planet I'm not qualified to get in too. over the years more and more races have put strict entry criteria probably to limit the number of applicants in a vastly growing sport but also to make sure people are qualified for what they're getting themselves in to. Examples: Most 100s you need to have finished a 50 mile race or longer in under the cut off. Badwater you need to have run 2 x 100 mile nonstop races in under the cut offs.
My race plans next year are all sorted apart from 2 US 100's which have lotteries because they are so oversubscribed. Last year I missed out on one of them in the lottery, so did Frank. The other race is the Hardrock 100. With 68,000ft of elevation change over the 100 mile course and an average elevation above the treeline at 8000ft+ it is probably the hardest 100 miler in the world (bar Barkley maybe). Anyway there is a list of about 10 races you must have completed one of, to be eligible to apply for entry even in to the lottery. UTMB is one of those and my plan was to finish that and go for a spot at Hardrock next year. Well thats out of the window. I wrote to the Race Director and he needs to see a 500 word document explaining why I feel Im qualified to compete, given that 8 of the 10 qualifiers are in the States and aren't very accesible to me. This is the option open to international runners. We'll see how it turns out but I think my chances are slim. I love that there are still so many monumental challenges out there, my only fear is that I may wait years and years to get to have a crack at some of them. Still I fully endorse Hardrocks entry procedure. Frankly its more like a 48 hour mountain climb than a run. In fact I might start hiking instead.
Bestival in 3 days. Wow the training is going down the pan for a while.
pm: 1 hour 10. 30 minutes down to Blackfriars with Rusty and back up the Thames Path to Battersea.
Total: 12 miles.
Todays revelation is that there is still a race on this planet I'm not qualified to get in too. over the years more and more races have put strict entry criteria probably to limit the number of applicants in a vastly growing sport but also to make sure people are qualified for what they're getting themselves in to. Examples: Most 100s you need to have finished a 50 mile race or longer in under the cut off. Badwater you need to have run 2 x 100 mile nonstop races in under the cut offs.
My race plans next year are all sorted apart from 2 US 100's which have lotteries because they are so oversubscribed. Last year I missed out on one of them in the lottery, so did Frank. The other race is the Hardrock 100. With 68,000ft of elevation change over the 100 mile course and an average elevation above the treeline at 8000ft+ it is probably the hardest 100 miler in the world (bar Barkley maybe). Anyway there is a list of about 10 races you must have completed one of, to be eligible to apply for entry even in to the lottery. UTMB is one of those and my plan was to finish that and go for a spot at Hardrock next year. Well thats out of the window. I wrote to the Race Director and he needs to see a 500 word document explaining why I feel Im qualified to compete, given that 8 of the 10 qualifiers are in the States and aren't very accesible to me. This is the option open to international runners. We'll see how it turns out but I think my chances are slim. I love that there are still so many monumental challenges out there, my only fear is that I may wait years and years to get to have a crack at some of them. Still I fully endorse Hardrocks entry procedure. Frankly its more like a 48 hour mountain climb than a run. In fact I might start hiking instead.
Bestival in 3 days. Wow the training is going down the pan for a while.
Monday 6 September 2010
Monday 6th
am: 30 minutes nice warm up felt better than usual (still can't run early in the day as well as I'd like).
pm: 1 hr 10 round Hyde Park in 7:30 miles with Webbo. Ran into Alasdair from RTP in town on business, then back down to Battersea Park for a loop before home. Bit tight in my left calf so much shorter tonight than I'd planned.
Sunday 5 September 2010
Marathon Count
In the past I've had a few people ask me how many marathons I've done. Climbing up the Le Charme with James Adams in the UTMB a fortnight ago we got talking about him running his 100th marathon at the beginning of 2011. James is firmly in the camp of 'a number is just a number' rather than having made it an intention to get to 100 marathons, he has turned to simply running the races he wants to run and watching them add up (or not) as a result.
This got me to thinking about how many I'd done and what actually counts and I came to the realisation that my outlook on it had changed massively in the past 12 months.
I don't actually know anyone personally in the UK who has run 100 marathons but there are a lot. There is a significant group of runners on the UK circuit trying to run as many official marathon length races as possible. I don't think I've ever run a UK road race without seeing members of the 100 marathon club running in their club vests with a degree of pride and rightly so, it is an impressive achievement.
Something I struggle with now though is the idea of racing every week literally up and down the length of the country, simply to get your 'number' up. There is so much chat at the start of the countless uninspiring road marathons there are to choose from nowadays (Luton, Wolverhampton, Leicester etc etc) about how many races someone has done and where they will be for the next few weeks. For those people it is a community. Marathons have become their weekly/ fortnightly/ monthly catch up with friends and an opportunity to get in a run and tick another one off of the list. Honestly I can see why they would want to do it, after all there is always a sense of achievement when you finish a marathon whether you've done 1 or 1000 plus if you are running with friends then of course its much more enjoyable than doing a training run on your own for 4 hours. However travelling all weekend and spending £100s to go and start a race in October on a sodden road around suburban ring roads is now utterly pointless to me. It wasn't a couple of years ago.
From the time we ran the Marathon Des Sables in 2006, through to the Gobi March over 1 year later, I ran zero marathons or races of any length. It didn't even cross my mind to enter one. Id run one, i'd proved to myself i could do it and I didn't care about it. When I finished the Gobi however I realised that when people spoke to me about running they always asked me what my best marathon time was. I wasn't happy with my time so I started running to try and get it down (probably the most boring thing I've ever trained for). Then people started asking me how many i'd run and I realised I could only actually say 2 or 3 and again I was met with an 'oh I thought you were a serious runner'. Well it took me over a year to wonder why I was bothered about any of this. Its all totally irrelevant. About 90% of people won't know the difference or care even the slightest bit whether your marathon PB is 3 hours 52 or 2 hours 58. They won't care whether you've run 10 marathons or 100. And to the other 10%, the numbers do have meaning but honestly who actually cares? Last year I went through periods of running races for the sake of it, I didn't travel particularly far to run any one race but I spent a long time working out where I could squeeze a pointless regional road marathon in just to add '1' to the list rather than going somewhere I loved training and fitting it in around the 100 other important things that the pointless race overtook.
Certainly right now I can't see myself running any other crappy road marathons in the UK, ever. The exception being if its within a few miles of home and Im running with a friend. I reckon that will bring me out at around 2 or 3 per year. In contrast I will continue to run as many races offering epic tests of endurance, incredible scenery or just huge experiences as possible and Im still as PUMPED as ever to get out there and do that. I've had next years races planned out in my mind for a while and I'm entered into about 70% of them already, now its about waiting for the lotteries again to see which of the big boy 100 milers I get places....
So totally hypocritically after saying I don't care, yesterday I counted how many marathons according to standard 100 marathon club t's and c's which frankly are utterly ridiculous (eg. you only get to count 1 for any race ie. Badwater is 1 marathon not 5, desert races you can only include runs that are exactly 26.2 miles or longer etc etc) I've run and the answer is exactly 50. How about that. I would trade every single road marathon Ive ever run for any one of my desert medals but I'm not complaining about reaching 50 it seems ironic that I passed a milestone at Badwater and didn't realise it after being 'into it' last year. Maybe I'll reach 100 in a few years time, more likely I'll reach it in about 4 - 5 given that out of 10 races entered for next year and all but 1 of them is over 45 miles and thats the way I think it'll probably stay for a good while....
This got me to thinking about how many I'd done and what actually counts and I came to the realisation that my outlook on it had changed massively in the past 12 months.
I don't actually know anyone personally in the UK who has run 100 marathons but there are a lot. There is a significant group of runners on the UK circuit trying to run as many official marathon length races as possible. I don't think I've ever run a UK road race without seeing members of the 100 marathon club running in their club vests with a degree of pride and rightly so, it is an impressive achievement.
Something I struggle with now though is the idea of racing every week literally up and down the length of the country, simply to get your 'number' up. There is so much chat at the start of the countless uninspiring road marathons there are to choose from nowadays (Luton, Wolverhampton, Leicester etc etc) about how many races someone has done and where they will be for the next few weeks. For those people it is a community. Marathons have become their weekly/ fortnightly/ monthly catch up with friends and an opportunity to get in a run and tick another one off of the list. Honestly I can see why they would want to do it, after all there is always a sense of achievement when you finish a marathon whether you've done 1 or 1000 plus if you are running with friends then of course its much more enjoyable than doing a training run on your own for 4 hours. However travelling all weekend and spending £100s to go and start a race in October on a sodden road around suburban ring roads is now utterly pointless to me. It wasn't a couple of years ago.
From the time we ran the Marathon Des Sables in 2006, through to the Gobi March over 1 year later, I ran zero marathons or races of any length. It didn't even cross my mind to enter one. Id run one, i'd proved to myself i could do it and I didn't care about it. When I finished the Gobi however I realised that when people spoke to me about running they always asked me what my best marathon time was. I wasn't happy with my time so I started running to try and get it down (probably the most boring thing I've ever trained for). Then people started asking me how many i'd run and I realised I could only actually say 2 or 3 and again I was met with an 'oh I thought you were a serious runner'. Well it took me over a year to wonder why I was bothered about any of this. Its all totally irrelevant. About 90% of people won't know the difference or care even the slightest bit whether your marathon PB is 3 hours 52 or 2 hours 58. They won't care whether you've run 10 marathons or 100. And to the other 10%, the numbers do have meaning but honestly who actually cares? Last year I went through periods of running races for the sake of it, I didn't travel particularly far to run any one race but I spent a long time working out where I could squeeze a pointless regional road marathon in just to add '1' to the list rather than going somewhere I loved training and fitting it in around the 100 other important things that the pointless race overtook.
Certainly right now I can't see myself running any other crappy road marathons in the UK, ever. The exception being if its within a few miles of home and Im running with a friend. I reckon that will bring me out at around 2 or 3 per year. In contrast I will continue to run as many races offering epic tests of endurance, incredible scenery or just huge experiences as possible and Im still as PUMPED as ever to get out there and do that. I've had next years races planned out in my mind for a while and I'm entered into about 70% of them already, now its about waiting for the lotteries again to see which of the big boy 100 milers I get places....
So totally hypocritically after saying I don't care, yesterday I counted how many marathons according to standard 100 marathon club t's and c's which frankly are utterly ridiculous (eg. you only get to count 1 for any race ie. Badwater is 1 marathon not 5, desert races you can only include runs that are exactly 26.2 miles or longer etc etc) I've run and the answer is exactly 50. How about that. I would trade every single road marathon Ive ever run for any one of my desert medals but I'm not complaining about reaching 50 it seems ironic that I passed a milestone at Badwater and didn't realise it after being 'into it' last year. Maybe I'll reach 100 in a few years time, more likely I'll reach it in about 4 - 5 given that out of 10 races entered for next year and all but 1 of them is over 45 miles and thats the way I think it'll probably stay for a good while....
| Date | Title | Distance | Unit | Outcome |
| 12/07/2010 | Badwater | 135 | miles | 39:19:00 |
| 20/06/2010 | South Downs Way Challenge Day 3 | 35 | miles | 06:14:00 |
| 19/06/2010 | South Downs Way Challenge Day 2 | 35 | miles | 06:01:00 |
| 12/06/2010 | South Downs Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:44:00 |
| 08/05/2010 | Orpington Marafun | 26.2 | miles | 03:20:55 |
| 02/05/2010 | Three Forts Marathon | 27 | miles | 03:13:24 |
| 25/04/2010 | Shakespeare Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:12:23 |
| 28/03/2010 | Jurassic Coast Challenge - Day 3 | 26.2 | miles | 05:48:00 |
| 27/03/2010 | Jurassic Coast Challenge - Day 2 | 26.2 | miles | 05:04:39 |
| 26/03/2010 | Jurassic Coast Challenge - Day 1 | 26.2 | miles | 04:49:00 |
| 20/03/2010 | Washington DC - National Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 02:58:07 |
| 07/03/2010 | Steyning Stinger Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 05:55:00 |
| 13/02/2010 | The London Ultra 50K | 50 | km | 04:25:00 |
| 24/01/2010 | Winter Tanners 30 | 30 | miles | 05:08:00 |
| 16/01/2010 | Country to Capital | 45 | miles | 08:06:00 |
| 03/01/2010 | Stansted Stagger Rescheduled Date | 26.2 | miles | 03:59:00 |
| 29/10/2009 | Sahara Race - Stage 5 | 54 | miles | 12:20:50 |
| 27/10/2009 | Sahara Race - Stage 3 | 26.4 | miles | 06:31:26 |
| 26/10/2009 | Sahara Race - Stage 2 | 27 | miles | 06:24:05 |
| 11/10/2009 | Leicester Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:26:14 |
| 20/09/2009 | London to Brighton Trail Run | 56 | miles | 11:02:00 |
| 06/09/2009 | Kent Coastal Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:37:00 |
| 28/06/2009 | Herts Hobble Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 04:28:12 |
| 06/06/2009 | Old Dominion 100 | 100 | miles | 24:58:00 |
| 10/05/2009 | Halstead Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:44:30 |
| 03/05/2009 | Three Forts Marathon | 27 | miles | 03:52:21 |
| 26/04/2009 | Valley & Views | 26.2 | miles | 04:23:32 |
| 19/04/2009 | Bungay Black Dog Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:09:11 |
| 01/03/2009 | Steyning Stinger Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:46:30 |
| 07/02/2009 | Rocky Raccoon 100 | 100 | miles | 22:54:32 |
| 17/01/2009 | Thames Path Ultra | 50 | miles | 07:49:17 |
| 19/10/2008 | Amsterdam Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:18:23 |
| 05/10/2008 | London to Brighton Trail Run | 56 | miles | 11:40:00 |
| 07/09/2008 | Wolverhampton marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:26:01 |
| 14/06/2008 | South Downs Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:42:04 |
| 11/05/2008 | Halstead Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:33:27 |
| 04/04/2008 | Atacama Crossing - Stage 5 | 45.4 | miles | 11:51:57 |
| 03/04/2008 | Atacama Crossing - Stage 4 | 26.4 | miles | 07:02:20 |
| 01/04/2008 | Atacama Crossing - Stage 2 | 26.2 | miles | 06:08:42 |
| 17/02/2008 | Draycote Water 35 | 35 | miles | 05:22:40 |
| 19/01/2008 | Thames Path Ultra | 50 | miles | 08:24:00 |
| 02/12/2007 | Luton Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:38:29 |
| 27/10/2007 | Snowdonia Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:37:11 |
| 16/09/2007 | Robin Hood Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:28:07 |
| 21/06/2007 | Gobi March - Stage 5 | 49.1 | miles | 15:03:11 |
| 20/06/2007 | Gobi March - Stage 4 | 29.3 | miles | 08:30:05 |
| 14/04/2006 | 21e MdS - Stage 5 | 26.2 | miles | 08:20:49 |
| 12/04/2006 | 21e MdS - Stage 4 | 44.4 | miles | 14:06:52 |
| 28/01/2006 | Tring2Town | 45 | miles | 10:34:00 |
| 04/12/2005 | Luton Marathon | 26.2 | miles | 03:52:02 |
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