All Time Ultramarathon Finishes

One day when I'm too old to shuffle more than a few yards i'll look back on these....

Races (Upcoming)

28/4/2012 Highland Fling 53

6/5/2012 Three Forts 27 

3/6/2012 Comrades 56

24/6/2012 West Highland Way Race 95

31/8/2012 UTMB 104

29/9/2012 Spartathlon 153

12/1/2013 Country to Capital 45

2/2/2013 Rocky Raccoon 100

Results (Historic)

4/2/2012 Rocky Raccoon 100  20:19:53

14/1/2012 Country to Capital 45  6:00:10 

22/10/2011 Caesars Camp 50  10:30:29

20/8/2011 Leadville 100  26:29:00

25/6/2011 Western States 100  28:25:00

15/1/2011 Country to Capital 45  7:09:00

28/11/2010 Gatliff 50km  5:21:00

9/10/2010 Caesars Camp 100  27:11:00

12/7/2010 Badwater 135  39:19:00

20/6/2010 South Downs Way Challenge Day 3 35  6:14:00

19/6/2010 South Downs Way Challenge Day 2 35  6:01:00

2/5/2010 Three Forts 27  3:13:24 (1st Place)

13/2/2010 London Ultra 50km  4:25:00

24/1/2010 Winter Tanners 30  5:08:00

16/1/2010 Country to Capital 45  8:06:00

25/10/2009 Sahara Race 250km  35:55:50

20/9/2009 London to Brighton 56  11:01:00

6/6/2009 Old Dominion 100  24:58:00

3/5/2009 Three Forts 27  3:52:21

7/2/2009 Rocky Raccoon 100  22:54:32

17/1/2009 Thames Path 50  7:49:17

24/11/2008 The Last Desert: Antarctica  73.94km (2nd Place)

5/10/2008 London to Brighton 56  11:40:00

31/3/2008 Atacama Crossing 250km  37:21:19 

17/2/2008 Draycote Water 35  5:22:40

19/1/2008 Thames Path 50  8:24:00

16/6/2007 Gobi March 250km  47:21:01

6/4/2006 Marathon Des Sables 212km  43:04:57

28/1/2006 Tring To Town 45  10:34:00

PBs

26.2 miles: Washington National 20/3/2010  2:58:07
50 miles: Thames Path 50 17/1/2009  7:49:17
100 miles: Rocky Raccoon 100 4/2/2012  20:19:53

Week Ending 22nd April

Monday: 6 miles 0:55
Tuesday: 11 miles Hours
Wednesday: 12 miles 1:50
Thursday: 6 miles 1:00
Friday: zippo
Saturday: 2 miles 0:16
Sunday: 17 miles 3:10

Total: 54 miles 9 hours

Awful weeks training. Completely trashed my calves running a road half marathon in a pair of new balance minimus last Sunday after i turned up to the race without my road shoes. Shouldn't have started but held on to a whimper of hope that I could complete the entire thing. Running up on my forefeet without any training in them with the added impact of moving at pace (6:30p/m) on road completely smashed my calves to bits.

Mondays run was a shuffle. Tuesday was all walking. Wednesday felt ok until the last few miles when my calves began screaming at me again (bonked pretty hard too for some reason). Thursday I had to actually turn around and go home and Friday I had a sports massage to sort the problem out. Todays run was a slow amble around the Ashridge Boundary Trail with Keith Godden over at ultramarathonrunning.com, a really nice gentle conversational outing.

So coming into the Highland Fling next Saturday the plan is to do pretty much nothing except try and heal up and get some rest. I don't seem to be firing on all cyclinders. Counting back from Wednesday I managed 80 miles in 6 days and the half marathon in 1:26 did take a little something out maybe. That's higher mileage than I've been doing so who knows.

So far under Joe's tuition my weekly mileages have been:

Week 1: 78 miles
Week 2: 82 miles
Week 3: 40 miles
Week 4: 28 miles
Week 5: 50 miles
Week 6: 54 miles

Typically inconsistent. Life (wedding and honeymoon) and that calf niggle got in the way. Still it's not the end of the world and I hope I can have another C2C style performance when I was averaging 60 mpw for 5 weeks coming in to it.

Joe Grant

In the last month I've stepped my mileage back up again in preparation for the heart of the racing season. I've felt much more relaxed about my own running coming in to 2012, because of the way my 2011 season panned out with injury blighting me seemingly at every turn. I decided to take a much more laid back approach through December and try to tune up enough to have fun at the standard opening 2 races of my running season: Country To Capital 45 and Rocky Raccoon 100. 

For December and much of January before a low level taper for the 100, I just ran for runnings sake, enjoying being out on my feet and not having to worry about an injury flaring up. Running in the English winter has it's low moments, particularly when the mud becomes thicker than soup in the fields, but it's also incredibly beautiful. Each mile run up until Rocky was at a super slow speed and almost every mile of the 400 I ran as prep was on trail. 

Both races went well up until the final quarter of Rocky, but that was ok and I had a great time out in the US with Ian and we'll both be back to race in 2013. It proved to me that I can get moving at a decent clip off of largely base mileage and I've certainly noticed this year that having a much longer and bigger base from cumulative distance running is starting to pay dividends. 

The miles are building back up again at the moment but the major difference is that I'm running to a plan set by a new coach - Joe Grant. Joe is an Englishman living in exile in the US and has an extremely low key and intuitive approach to running. I've really enjoyed the consistency of running 6/ 7 days a week on average this year but more than anything I've enjoyed running without the pressure of a garmin, schedule or a distance pre-arranged before I've even left the house. 

Reading Joe's blog I started to feel that he could bring a bit more structure to my miles but allow me the freedom to continue to run as I pleased. I knew he would also be encouraging with a pretty crazy racing schedule. Most importantly though, I wanted his input into building in longer distance self supported efforts which fit neither a training or racing moniker. I made it clear to Joe that sometime in 2012 I wanted to have a crack at both the South Downs Way in it's entirity as well as longer self supported efforts on both the Beacons Way and South Upland Way. 

More recently I've taken to running more without a watch and with as little kit as possible. I think it's easy to end up carrying more than you need and certainly at C2C with just a rainjacket, handheld bottle and 20 gels I went super light and had a great day. I used the same plan at RR100 to good effect. 

The opportunity to run the SDW as an unsupported effort has come around a lot quicker than expected. Neil Bryant and I both had 'holes' (read 2 weeks free either side) in our schedules for mid-May and so 4 weeks today we'll be setting out from Eastbourne in the hopes of reaching Winchester in one push. I am finding myself more excited about this one run than I am about any race I have coming up. Maybe a sign of where things are headed...

I think racing is important and certainly I enjoy it almost every time I toe a start line but longer self supported efforts and actually appreciating the environment/ terrain a little more are becoming much much more important factors in my outlook on the sport. 

Another Day on the SDW

12 miles, 800 feet climb - Ditchling Beacon to Southease. Started in a cloud, finished in beautiful sunshine.

It's Back

I genuinely don't believe the good people over on the Centurion Running website want to read this stuff so I'm back posting my old training/ racing logs again.

I am pumped right now about the upcoming few weeks. Firstly to see how the marathon goes this Sunday and secondly to get a good 50 under my belt for the summer at the Highland Fling.

Most of all though I am totally inspired to get out there with Neil Bryant and run 100 miles on the South Downs Way for no other reason than that we can. Will we 'DNF' it? Possibly but again who cares. This time I am out there just for the journey and that is really exciting right now.

Neil is, I believe, right now one of the strongest ultra runners in the UK. He has a very bright future at the really long stuff and it'll be great to see him powering over the downs first hand.

Today: 13 miles 1:59.

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