Having a think again last night about next July. I am sorely tempted to have another crack at Badwater but that will depend on whether I get in to Hardrock through the lottery (they span the same weekend). I stumbled upon this video which shows just how incredible a course this is. Also how incredibly hard it is. And therein lies the twin appeal. I think everyone accepts that this is the hardest 'traditional' 100 out there with the possible exception of Barkley.
This dude is quite obviously a hero.
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Friday, 29 April 2011
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Want to run vs Want to race
When I first started out in this game called running I didn't really have any specific goals other than to train for and complete the Marathon Des Sables. Jim and I entered the MdS back in early 2005 and before hand I had run a total of zero miles in the preceeding 3 or 4 years. Literally nothing. The sole aim was simply to get to the finish line. It was and is for many, enough to get to the finish line of one major league race like the MdS and then sit back and reflect on it for a long time.
For me the period of reflection lasted about 4 months, after which time I was beginning to suffer the same feeling of emptiness that many experience after committing such a huge part of your life to one event for 12 months or more. I didn't run a single race of any distance between the MdS in March 2006 and the Gobi March in late June 2007. The aim for the Gobi was once again, simply to get to the finish line.
I am a competitive person by nature, something that I'm not ashamed of as it has certainly driven me to succeed at things I otherwise wouldn't have bothered with. It isn't a streak which comes through very often in day to day life but during a race it does rear it's head. I find it very difficult to throttle back and watch others disappear into the distance, no matter how great a runner they are. Of course there are always runners who are better, stronger, faster on the day or in general and in those cases as long as I've gone as hard as I can that's fine.
During the MdS in 2006, I raced off ahead of Jim on both the first and second days, unneccesarily and actually I owe a huge amount to Jim's patience and incredible good naturedness not to have got annoyed with me in those circumstances. We hadn't always trained together but we had entered together and intended to finish together and I made the mistake of getting carried away in the 'race' and burying myself to the point where I was almost unable to start the third day due to all kinds of heat related problems from going too hard. We finished every other stage together. The Gobi was a little different, we were together for 2 days but Jim hadn't had the chance to train as much as he'd have liked, traveling around the world during the lead up and I once again felt good so pushed on ahead for the final 3 stages. I think I knew when I came back from China that things had changed for me and that actually I wanted to 1. go on and complete the 4Deserts Series but 2. to try and be competitive and actually race the others.
The injury I picked up at Rocky Raccoon back in the first week of February is as painful now as it was then. It is most probably a stress fracture which largely healed before I put too much pressure on it too soon and exacerbated the problem. I'm going to have other tests to prove or disprove this theory but as far as the cycle of events has played out, that is what it is.
I keep an eye out on the blogs of the top ultramarathon runners particularly in the States as that is where I have focused a lot of my time and effort in the past 2 years (Badwater, Rocky Raccoon, Old Dominion) and about the only time I can actually draw upon a parallel between myself and Anton Krupicka is right now. He seems to have picked up the exact same injury in the same race and been out of action for the same amount of time as I have. He had one or two bigger training weeks (small for him, big for me) as I did before the diagnosis was firmly presented. He is back to running 5 miles a day, I am not yet but I hope I'm not too far behind him.
He has made it clear that until he is fit and ready to race and compete at his highest level, that is to say winning and breaking course records, he won't toe any start line.
Aside from the 4Deserts series up to this point, I haven't been able to/ attempted to be competitive in ultras. I would call competitive top 10 only and in deep fields ie. 100 plus. I have had various issues during each one of the 100 milers I've run and Badwater was an all out slog to the finish. I look back on each of them with great satisfaction at finishing. That was my sole aim going to each one. Finish Rocky as my first 100, finish Old Dominion a much harder race so that I qualified for Badwater, finish Badwater because it is hard enough on it's own the first time and finish at Caesars Camp to avenge my 50 mile DNF there in 2007.
I am now faced with starting all of my A races this year with a major injury. The best I can hope for is that my shin heals that my cross training gets me to the startline of each, able to get through them and battle out for a finish one by one. It is highly likely that the only running I'll have done between February and Comrades is a week of stunted mileage in the middle when my leg briefly healed enough to let me do 4 x 1:30 runs.
If I was Anton right now I'd be cashing in my flights for vouchers and trying to roll my entires to 2012. The thing is I am still early enough in my running life that I can at least try to finish these events and particularly as it won't be easy for me to get in to some of them again. Anton can always qualify for Western States in the future or get a sponsors slot if that fails. I will have to go through that unbearable lottery again and maybe wait another 1/5/10 years to get a chance to race there.
So come what may I'll be at Comrades and I'll be at Western States. They will be ugly, difficult struggles but ultimately the basic goal whenever I get to the startline of an ultra is to finish. I consider them to be enough of a challenge to take satisfaction from simply finishing. I will look back on them, much as I do on Badwater and the other 100s and think, I could have done so much better.... Ultimately though who really knows or cares what the difference is between running a race like that in 29 hours, 39 hours or 59 hours? A handful of people can relate to what that means.
Hopefully in the future I will get the chance to go back and actually race these events and see just how well I can do. I am nowhere near my potential yet in ultras, I'm quite sure of that. For me, right now though, it is about having the chance to experience each of these incredible races once and chose which I go back and do again in the future. Would I go back and do Rocky Raccoon again? Maybe. Old Dominion? Maybe. Badwater? Definitely.
For me the period of reflection lasted about 4 months, after which time I was beginning to suffer the same feeling of emptiness that many experience after committing such a huge part of your life to one event for 12 months or more. I didn't run a single race of any distance between the MdS in March 2006 and the Gobi March in late June 2007. The aim for the Gobi was once again, simply to get to the finish line.
I am a competitive person by nature, something that I'm not ashamed of as it has certainly driven me to succeed at things I otherwise wouldn't have bothered with. It isn't a streak which comes through very often in day to day life but during a race it does rear it's head. I find it very difficult to throttle back and watch others disappear into the distance, no matter how great a runner they are. Of course there are always runners who are better, stronger, faster on the day or in general and in those cases as long as I've gone as hard as I can that's fine.
During the MdS in 2006, I raced off ahead of Jim on both the first and second days, unneccesarily and actually I owe a huge amount to Jim's patience and incredible good naturedness not to have got annoyed with me in those circumstances. We hadn't always trained together but we had entered together and intended to finish together and I made the mistake of getting carried away in the 'race' and burying myself to the point where I was almost unable to start the third day due to all kinds of heat related problems from going too hard. We finished every other stage together. The Gobi was a little different, we were together for 2 days but Jim hadn't had the chance to train as much as he'd have liked, traveling around the world during the lead up and I once again felt good so pushed on ahead for the final 3 stages. I think I knew when I came back from China that things had changed for me and that actually I wanted to 1. go on and complete the 4Deserts Series but 2. to try and be competitive and actually race the others.
The injury I picked up at Rocky Raccoon back in the first week of February is as painful now as it was then. It is most probably a stress fracture which largely healed before I put too much pressure on it too soon and exacerbated the problem. I'm going to have other tests to prove or disprove this theory but as far as the cycle of events has played out, that is what it is.
I keep an eye out on the blogs of the top ultramarathon runners particularly in the States as that is where I have focused a lot of my time and effort in the past 2 years (Badwater, Rocky Raccoon, Old Dominion) and about the only time I can actually draw upon a parallel between myself and Anton Krupicka is right now. He seems to have picked up the exact same injury in the same race and been out of action for the same amount of time as I have. He had one or two bigger training weeks (small for him, big for me) as I did before the diagnosis was firmly presented. He is back to running 5 miles a day, I am not yet but I hope I'm not too far behind him.
He has made it clear that until he is fit and ready to race and compete at his highest level, that is to say winning and breaking course records, he won't toe any start line.
Aside from the 4Deserts series up to this point, I haven't been able to/ attempted to be competitive in ultras. I would call competitive top 10 only and in deep fields ie. 100 plus. I have had various issues during each one of the 100 milers I've run and Badwater was an all out slog to the finish. I look back on each of them with great satisfaction at finishing. That was my sole aim going to each one. Finish Rocky as my first 100, finish Old Dominion a much harder race so that I qualified for Badwater, finish Badwater because it is hard enough on it's own the first time and finish at Caesars Camp to avenge my 50 mile DNF there in 2007.
I am now faced with starting all of my A races this year with a major injury. The best I can hope for is that my shin heals that my cross training gets me to the startline of each, able to get through them and battle out for a finish one by one. It is highly likely that the only running I'll have done between February and Comrades is a week of stunted mileage in the middle when my leg briefly healed enough to let me do 4 x 1:30 runs.
If I was Anton right now I'd be cashing in my flights for vouchers and trying to roll my entires to 2012. The thing is I am still early enough in my running life that I can at least try to finish these events and particularly as it won't be easy for me to get in to some of them again. Anton can always qualify for Western States in the future or get a sponsors slot if that fails. I will have to go through that unbearable lottery again and maybe wait another 1/5/10 years to get a chance to race there.
So come what may I'll be at Comrades and I'll be at Western States. They will be ugly, difficult struggles but ultimately the basic goal whenever I get to the startline of an ultra is to finish. I consider them to be enough of a challenge to take satisfaction from simply finishing. I will look back on them, much as I do on Badwater and the other 100s and think, I could have done so much better.... Ultimately though who really knows or cares what the difference is between running a race like that in 29 hours, 39 hours or 59 hours? A handful of people can relate to what that means.
Hopefully in the future I will get the chance to go back and actually race these events and see just how well I can do. I am nowhere near my potential yet in ultras, I'm quite sure of that. For me, right now though, it is about having the chance to experience each of these incredible races once and chose which I go back and do again in the future. Would I go back and do Rocky Raccoon again? Maybe. Old Dominion? Maybe. Badwater? Definitely.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Buying Kit
Well my shin is still as sore as ever. It's fast approaching the point where I'm just not going to be able to get any training in for Comrades at all. The question then becomes should I not run a hilly 54 mile road race and save myself for Western States and the Grand Slam or just give it a crack and see what happens. I'm not making that decision yet but I'm preparing myself for having to do so. Man this year really has SUCKED so far for me. I am trying to stay positive after all what doesn't kill you just makes you stronger and in this case it has really just amped up my desire to go out there and run everything going.
On the Centurion front we've been extremely busy designing the buckle/ t shirt/ start & finish banners and this week finally purchasing all of the equipment we'll need for the NDW events in August. I can tell you that 19 full size (including 10 double steel framed) gazebos weigh a considerable amount and won't fit in one car. Buying that many awnings plus countless collapsable chairs led most of the staff at our local retailer asking the question of where our street party was being held as it's the Royal Wedding this Friday in the UK.
We're approaching 50% full in the marathon now and entries continue to trickle along for the NDW100 and 50, the 50 is lagging a little behind and it's hard to say why but I have a feeling we will see a few more entries coming through between now and race day in all distances. The TP100 entries continue to rise way ahead of my best estimates reaching 40 today. Considering we have a 200 runner limit if things carry on I can see us having to turn disappointed runners away. Nevertheless it's fantastic to receive such great support so early on in the life of these events so thanks again to everyone who has thrown their hat in the ring. Everything that it is possible to do to make the weekend as enjoyable as possible for you is being done.
Back to the stationary bike trainer for me. 2 and half hours on it last night was about all I could handle in one sitting.
On the Centurion front we've been extremely busy designing the buckle/ t shirt/ start & finish banners and this week finally purchasing all of the equipment we'll need for the NDW events in August. I can tell you that 19 full size (including 10 double steel framed) gazebos weigh a considerable amount and won't fit in one car. Buying that many awnings plus countless collapsable chairs led most of the staff at our local retailer asking the question of where our street party was being held as it's the Royal Wedding this Friday in the UK.
We're approaching 50% full in the marathon now and entries continue to trickle along for the NDW100 and 50, the 50 is lagging a little behind and it's hard to say why but I have a feeling we will see a few more entries coming through between now and race day in all distances. The TP100 entries continue to rise way ahead of my best estimates reaching 40 today. Considering we have a 200 runner limit if things carry on I can see us having to turn disappointed runners away. Nevertheless it's fantastic to receive such great support so early on in the life of these events so thanks again to everyone who has thrown their hat in the ring. Everything that it is possible to do to make the weekend as enjoyable as possible for you is being done.
Back to the stationary bike trainer for me. 2 and half hours on it last night was about all I could handle in one sitting.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Weekend of Successes
Congratulations to everyone who ran the London Marathon or Oner today. As usual my friend Martin Gaunt put in the best time of anyone I know, 2:43, at London a little off his PB of 2:35 a couple of years ago but he is so consistent with these incredible performances. First time marathoning friends all finished in times ranging from 3:50 to 6:02. Very proud of them all (particularly the ones I coached through it!!!!).
My own personal woes are back. The shin pain is worse than ever this evening after another 1:30 jog around the Thames Path and Battersea Park. As a result I am signing off for a while, there is very little point in continuing to hope that things will be ok, I need to get my head down plug away at it and take stock of the situation. I don't know yet whether I'm back to square one or just set back a couple of weeks. For now I'll keep things going on here with reference to ultra news and Centurion races and pray that I'm back in time to put some of my thoughts down before Comrades.
Big love to all of you reveling in post race pride tonight, thoroughly deserved from all quarters!!!!
My own personal woes are back. The shin pain is worse than ever this evening after another 1:30 jog around the Thames Path and Battersea Park. As a result I am signing off for a while, there is very little point in continuing to hope that things will be ok, I need to get my head down plug away at it and take stock of the situation. I don't know yet whether I'm back to square one or just set back a couple of weeks. For now I'll keep things going on here with reference to ultra news and Centurion races and pray that I'm back in time to put some of my thoughts down before Comrades.
Big love to all of you reveling in post race pride tonight, thoroughly deserved from all quarters!!!!
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Working Hard
It's been a long week and I'm coming out of it with mixed emotions. Running wise my shin is painful when I apply pressure to it, feels exactly the same way in that respect as the stress fracture did before the 6 weeks out. The crucial thing is, though, that it doesn't hurt when I run. Whilst that situation continues I will continue to train. On the home front we had a very stressful and scary time this week when Lisa, my fiance, was caught up in some riots in the Ugandan city of Gulu where she was doing a teaching exchange with a local school. Hearing gun shots going off (rubber bullets and tear gas canisters) in the background when you're on the phone to your loved one who is trapped in a hotel bathroom 1000s of miles away and being totally helpless is not the greatest feeling in the world. Thankfully she is on her way home in the morning in one piece and with some stories to tell.
As mentioned a few posts ago I decided in the wake of Rocky Raccoon 100, (or rather 76 for me) to enlist some professional help. The person I turned to was Lisa Smith-Batchen. She has been mentoring me through what has been undoubtedly the hardest time I've gone through in my years of running, keeping my fitness up through creative and varied non-impact training progams. Lisa diagnosed my injury from the other side of the atlantic where she is based, before my physio could with me on the table in front of him. It was Lisa who told me that I needed to get an MRI, what to do with regards getting a cast and just how much training I could continue to do despite being immobile in terms of time on my feet.
My best racing results have come from sticking religiously to a training program. The best example was my 5th place finish in the Atacama Desert where I felt great almost the entire time. Lisa sends me a daily regimen to follow for up to 14 days in advance. I like to think of it as putting up a whole raft of little challenges and then knocking them down one by one. My training before Lisa was all running. Literally nothing else. Running as obviously been off the agenda for our first 2 months together, but Lisa is now re-introducing it very gradually, first through walk/ run sessions and today for the first time in 10 days since the cast came off, a solid 1:30 run.
I am putting myself entirely in Lisa's hands and so far it's been the best decision I've made in a long time. The sessions pop up and I attack them all way way harder than I would have before. I've come to realise that I wasn't actually pushing myself that hard when training in the past. I mean that's relative, I pushed very hard occasionally but rarely right to my limit and there were way too many sessions that were just junk miles.
This past month I have really pushed myself regularly. Whether it's on the stair machine, a spinning class (which I'd never been too before Lisa), on the bike or the elliptical, I'm hitting them all hard. I'm not really doing sessions where I am going less than 80% and regularly I am getting my HR up into the mid 180s which is toward the upper end of my range.
When I got the all clear to try a run on Thursday night, I did so a bit too hard. I couldn't resist finding out where my fitness lay after all that time on the bike with no running. Lisa asked me to walk 1 minute in every 15, so a total of 4 minutes in the first hour. I hit the hour hard and tried to keep a tempo up at my marathon pace of last year, 6:45 miling, and managed it without really being in that much difficulty. I covered just under 9 miles in the hour and did so including those walking breaks. Could I have held it for 3 hours/ 26.2 miles? Probably not but at least I know I have some pace. The next day I was able to train just as hard on alternative machines in the gym so my endurance is ok too.
My running style is erratic and uncomfortable. It isn't coming back to me very quickly. I feel like I haven't found my stride yet and that if I push too hard like Thursday nights session, I could land myself back in trouble. So I'll stick to the advice and keep plugging away one day at a time.
I would be lying if I said I felt confident this summer and particularly Comrades which is first up, but I put my total faith in Lisa to get me there in one piece and in the best shape possible. Will it be the best shape of my life? Probably not but the fact that I think there is even a chance of that is testament only to Lisa's knowledge, expertise and management of my own expectations.
Every week I e mail her another stupid question about when I can at least do a marathon just as training, or what time should I be trying to run at Western States or can I do this event or that. The answers come back quick and tell me what deep down I already know. Be patient and it will be ok.
So tentatively I take my first steps back to full recovery. If the pain in my shin when I touch it would just go away I would probably be about the happiest person in the world right now.
I've decided to put this one on the list for 2013 - the 350 mile version with a view to having a crack at the 1000 in 2014. Nothing like a bit of long term planning. These videos have totally inspired me. Mike Curiak has done an incredible job here. I love the idea of returning to life's basic elements out on the trail, on my own, on the way to Nome. I saw a few days ago that Geoff Roes signed up for the 350 mile in 2012 (he hails from Alaska) and that will no doubt cause the popularity of the event to soar. It is great to see our sport grow but it is somewhat frustrating not to necessarily be able to do the races you want. I would be happier if this one stayed away from lotteries and other potential reasons for exclusion. The more choice there is in events out there, the more options people will get away from the one or two signature races. I like that our sport keeps growing outwards in range of events as well as upwards in terms of number of entrants. I guess Centurion Running is just another small part of that process.
 |
| April 14th riots in Kampala and Gulu, Uganda (c/o of www.theresolve.org) |
As mentioned a few posts ago I decided in the wake of Rocky Raccoon 100, (or rather 76 for me) to enlist some professional help. The person I turned to was Lisa Smith-Batchen. She has been mentoring me through what has been undoubtedly the hardest time I've gone through in my years of running, keeping my fitness up through creative and varied non-impact training progams. Lisa diagnosed my injury from the other side of the atlantic where she is based, before my physio could with me on the table in front of him. It was Lisa who told me that I needed to get an MRI, what to do with regards getting a cast and just how much training I could continue to do despite being immobile in terms of time on my feet.
My best racing results have come from sticking religiously to a training program. The best example was my 5th place finish in the Atacama Desert where I felt great almost the entire time. Lisa sends me a daily regimen to follow for up to 14 days in advance. I like to think of it as putting up a whole raft of little challenges and then knocking them down one by one. My training before Lisa was all running. Literally nothing else. Running as obviously been off the agenda for our first 2 months together, but Lisa is now re-introducing it very gradually, first through walk/ run sessions and today for the first time in 10 days since the cast came off, a solid 1:30 run.
I am putting myself entirely in Lisa's hands and so far it's been the best decision I've made in a long time. The sessions pop up and I attack them all way way harder than I would have before. I've come to realise that I wasn't actually pushing myself that hard when training in the past. I mean that's relative, I pushed very hard occasionally but rarely right to my limit and there were way too many sessions that were just junk miles.
This past month I have really pushed myself regularly. Whether it's on the stair machine, a spinning class (which I'd never been too before Lisa), on the bike or the elliptical, I'm hitting them all hard. I'm not really doing sessions where I am going less than 80% and regularly I am getting my HR up into the mid 180s which is toward the upper end of my range.
When I got the all clear to try a run on Thursday night, I did so a bit too hard. I couldn't resist finding out where my fitness lay after all that time on the bike with no running. Lisa asked me to walk 1 minute in every 15, so a total of 4 minutes in the first hour. I hit the hour hard and tried to keep a tempo up at my marathon pace of last year, 6:45 miling, and managed it without really being in that much difficulty. I covered just under 9 miles in the hour and did so including those walking breaks. Could I have held it for 3 hours/ 26.2 miles? Probably not but at least I know I have some pace. The next day I was able to train just as hard on alternative machines in the gym so my endurance is ok too.
My running style is erratic and uncomfortable. It isn't coming back to me very quickly. I feel like I haven't found my stride yet and that if I push too hard like Thursday nights session, I could land myself back in trouble. So I'll stick to the advice and keep plugging away one day at a time.
I would be lying if I said I felt confident this summer and particularly Comrades which is first up, but I put my total faith in Lisa to get me there in one piece and in the best shape possible. Will it be the best shape of my life? Probably not but the fact that I think there is even a chance of that is testament only to Lisa's knowledge, expertise and management of my own expectations.
 |
| Comrades Marathon |
Every week I e mail her another stupid question about when I can at least do a marathon just as training, or what time should I be trying to run at Western States or can I do this event or that. The answers come back quick and tell me what deep down I already know. Be patient and it will be ok.
So tentatively I take my first steps back to full recovery. If the pain in my shin when I touch it would just go away I would probably be about the happiest person in the world right now.
I've decided to put this one on the list for 2013 - the 350 mile version with a view to having a crack at the 1000 in 2014. Nothing like a bit of long term planning. These videos have totally inspired me. Mike Curiak has done an incredible job here. I love the idea of returning to life's basic elements out on the trail, on my own, on the way to Nome. I saw a few days ago that Geoff Roes signed up for the 350 mile in 2012 (he hails from Alaska) and that will no doubt cause the popularity of the event to soar. It is great to see our sport grow but it is somewhat frustrating not to necessarily be able to do the races you want. I would be happier if this one stayed away from lotteries and other potential reasons for exclusion. The more choice there is in events out there, the more options people will get away from the one or two signature races. I like that our sport keeps growing outwards in range of events as well as upwards in terms of number of entrants. I guess Centurion Running is just another small part of that process.
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Major Changes
This week I quit my day job to go and live the dream. I plan to invest the summer making the first Centurion Event on the North Downs Way all it can be and making sure I get proper rest between each race in the Grand Slam. 7 weeks from now all I'll have to worry about is running 456 miles over 5 races and 15 weeks. We're moving out of London and all I can say is thank GOD. I am sick of it and I always used to love this city so I hope a part of that comes back.
Today I ran for the first time in 6 weeks. On Monday morning I went in to see my old friend Joe who works at the English Institute for Sport treating English Olympic Athletes. The guys ran some tests on my fracture, first with ultra sound and then with X Rays. The news came back positive, the break looks to have healed. From Thursday on I commenced walking without the aircast. This afternoon I was cleared to do an hour and a half on my feet alternating three minutes walking with two minutes running.
I can start to look forward now, albeit the recovery process is not finished yet. My training at the moment is an equal rotation of cycling, spinning, elliptical, stair master, swimming and walking. As the weeks roll by the blend will stat to include more running but I won't be putting any distance back for at least another week. Having been through a few rounds already this year I won't be rushing back.
I feel pretty fit, though not dangerous. I've packed in as much training time with the cast on as I would have done with it off. Some of the sessions have been much harder than I would usually have made them and I think that's just vented frustration but I have enjoyed trying to MAX OUT on the HR.
Badwater Redux
The best thing about finishing races is being able to look back on them and wince. I hadn't ever seen these shots form Badwater before, they were on a camera in the car which my buddy Rich used to shoot some extra shots as and when the mood struck. Looking over them now it's obvious he managed to capture just how painful a journey that 39 hours was because I wasn't aware of the camera being there. I haven't forgotten it and I don't expect I ever will. WHAT a race this is, I will go back one day and make it right, albeit I am very proud of finishing that monster.
 Early Pit Stop |
 |
| On the road to Furnace Creek Mile 17 |
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| Stovepipe Mile 42: 8 hours 28 to this point, totally ruined my race by starting too quick. |
 |
| I spent most of the Darwin to Lone Pine section (mile 90 - 122) going less than 2mph. The chaffing I suffered was horrific and turned the race into an almight slog. When I stopped to meet the crew was the only respite I could get from the burning blistered skin. I sat down twice for less than 5 minutes for fear of not getting going again. |
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| Lone Pine. 13 miles and 5000 feet to climb. Head down, one foot in front of the other. |
Saturday, 2 April 2011
The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning
Most of the comments regarding my attempt at the slam are along the lines of 'you're injured so how are you going to run.' It's ok I'm almost ready with the greatest comeback since Lazarus.
The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning Award is handed to any runner who finishes all 4 of the oldest 100 mile trail races in the USA in any one year. The races are spread out over an 11 week period from the last weekend in June to the second weekend in September. The 4 races that comprise the slam are Western States 100 mile Endurance Run, Vermont 100, Leadville Trail 100 and Wasatch Front 100. All 4 races are 100 miles in length and as those familiar with them will know are all 'mountain races' each involving varying significant degrees of climb and descent.
25th June - Western States begins at Squaw Valley Ski Resort, previous host of the winter olympic games. The course goes immediately 4 miles directly up a mountain and over emigrant pass before spitting runners out on on to a roller coaster ride of snow covered ski slopes and hot canyons, arriving in Auburn and finishing on Placer High School athletics track there after 100 miles of running and 18000 feet of climbing. The race day temps regularly exceed 100 degrees in the canyons but start off below freezing in the resort early in the morning. 30 hour cut off.
16th July - Vermont is the 'easiest' boasting 'only' 14150 feet of gain over the course of the 100 miles. This race is unique in that it runs concurrently with a horse race. I will try not to get kicked or trampled. 30 hour cut off.
20th August - Leadville. 100 miles at serious altitude this one is on the extreme end of the spectrum. The entire race is conducted at altitudes of between 9200 and 12600 feet. This year they are welcoming 700 runners to the start line on and out and back course which takes in 15000 feet of climb and travels up and down Handies Peak in the Colorado Rockies twice. 30 hour cut off.
9th September - Wasatch Front. The best is saved till last. On the scale of 100s this is right up there at the very top with over 26900 feet of climb. The climbs are severe and regular. If I get to this point I will try not to use all of the 36 hours on offer to complete it but figure I may need them. This race place just outside of Salt Lake City Utah.
Afterwards I get to go to Las Vegas for a stag do. Stan Jensen manages a little page on the Grand Slam here and the list of those running all 4 in 2011 is here (19 so far!).
I really can't wait to get this journey started but obviously I have a LONG way to go before my fracture allows me to get back to running shape (my fitness is still good after 15 hours in the gym this week).
I have Comrades before the Slam plus a few smaller local marathons which will be used as training runs.
The biggest issue with the Slam is going to be recovery and handling the flying to and from the US repeatedly. It will be an incredible adventure and I look forward to every minute of it.
Which one am I most scared of? Not Western States. I am going in to that one with all the excitement and energy of Badwater last year. It is a race I have always wanted to run and means so much to the ultra running community especially in the States that it is without doubt tight at the top of my list of races to run. Vermont I am looking forward to but being the most moderate in terms of average altitude and climb I will try to simply get through this one within the cut offs and save as much as possible for the next two. Leadville scares me the most because of the altitude. The level of climb is pretty big at 15000+feet it is the equivalent of Caesars Camp 100 which I ran in October so I know what to expect but I have only 5 days to acclimatise which isn't enough. I've heard plenty of advice that says either get there 3 weeks early or get there the day before. We'll just see how it works out I guess. Lastly Wasatch Front comes only 19 days after Leadville so I will need to recover as quickly and as fully as possible. I have no doubt I will be feeling this one in the legs before I even start and with 27000 feet of gain will be the hardest 100 I'll have ever done. Nothing like saving the best till last.
There are other factors which could prevent this dream from becoming a reality. Obviously I could get injured or suffer from hydration/ stomach problems/ blisters whatever else that usually stop a runner in his or her tracks but I am also conscious of other things much further from my control. 4 years ago Grand Slammers were prevented from completing the set by forest fires in California (Western States was cancelled). With the fact that I am making 4 return journeys there could be any one of a number of international issues which could lead to problems, I'm thinking more specifically about the Icelandic Volcano incident of 2009. All things considered there is a very high chance I won't be able to complete all 4, I have to go in to each race as it comes, take the rough with the smooth, keep putting one foot in front of the other and just get it done. Simple.
I will have a rest afterwards. Hopefully I can look back on it all with a glowing appreciation of having seen first hand some of America's most incredible mountain scenery from fully west to east coast and having had the chance to experience 4 of the greatest running races currently on offer. I plan to take my time, take a lot of photos and treat it with the level of gratitude that being able to experience something like this, deserves.
The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning Award is handed to any runner who finishes all 4 of the oldest 100 mile trail races in the USA in any one year. The races are spread out over an 11 week period from the last weekend in June to the second weekend in September. The 4 races that comprise the slam are Western States 100 mile Endurance Run, Vermont 100, Leadville Trail 100 and Wasatch Front 100. All 4 races are 100 miles in length and as those familiar with them will know are all 'mountain races' each involving varying significant degrees of climb and descent.
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| Keith Kniplings altitude comparison of the 4 Grand Slam 100s |
16th July - Vermont is the 'easiest' boasting 'only' 14150 feet of gain over the course of the 100 miles. This race is unique in that it runs concurrently with a horse race. I will try not to get kicked or trampled. 30 hour cut off.
20th August - Leadville. 100 miles at serious altitude this one is on the extreme end of the spectrum. The entire race is conducted at altitudes of between 9200 and 12600 feet. This year they are welcoming 700 runners to the start line on and out and back course which takes in 15000 feet of climb and travels up and down Handies Peak in the Colorado Rockies twice. 30 hour cut off.
9th September - Wasatch Front. The best is saved till last. On the scale of 100s this is right up there at the very top with over 26900 feet of climb. The climbs are severe and regular. If I get to this point I will try not to use all of the 36 hours on offer to complete it but figure I may need them. This race place just outside of Salt Lake City Utah.
Afterwards I get to go to Las Vegas for a stag do. Stan Jensen manages a little page on the Grand Slam here and the list of those running all 4 in 2011 is here (19 so far!).
I really can't wait to get this journey started but obviously I have a LONG way to go before my fracture allows me to get back to running shape (my fitness is still good after 15 hours in the gym this week).
I have Comrades before the Slam plus a few smaller local marathons which will be used as training runs.
The biggest issue with the Slam is going to be recovery and handling the flying to and from the US repeatedly. It will be an incredible adventure and I look forward to every minute of it.
Which one am I most scared of? Not Western States. I am going in to that one with all the excitement and energy of Badwater last year. It is a race I have always wanted to run and means so much to the ultra running community especially in the States that it is without doubt tight at the top of my list of races to run. Vermont I am looking forward to but being the most moderate in terms of average altitude and climb I will try to simply get through this one within the cut offs and save as much as possible for the next two. Leadville scares me the most because of the altitude. The level of climb is pretty big at 15000+feet it is the equivalent of Caesars Camp 100 which I ran in October so I know what to expect but I have only 5 days to acclimatise which isn't enough. I've heard plenty of advice that says either get there 3 weeks early or get there the day before. We'll just see how it works out I guess. Lastly Wasatch Front comes only 19 days after Leadville so I will need to recover as quickly and as fully as possible. I have no doubt I will be feeling this one in the legs before I even start and with 27000 feet of gain will be the hardest 100 I'll have ever done. Nothing like saving the best till last.
There are other factors which could prevent this dream from becoming a reality. Obviously I could get injured or suffer from hydration/ stomach problems/ blisters whatever else that usually stop a runner in his or her tracks but I am also conscious of other things much further from my control. 4 years ago Grand Slammers were prevented from completing the set by forest fires in California (Western States was cancelled). With the fact that I am making 4 return journeys there could be any one of a number of international issues which could lead to problems, I'm thinking more specifically about the Icelandic Volcano incident of 2009. All things considered there is a very high chance I won't be able to complete all 4, I have to go in to each race as it comes, take the rough with the smooth, keep putting one foot in front of the other and just get it done. Simple.
I will have a rest afterwards. Hopefully I can look back on it all with a glowing appreciation of having seen first hand some of America's most incredible mountain scenery from fully west to east coast and having had the chance to experience 4 of the greatest running races currently on offer. I plan to take my time, take a lot of photos and treat it with the level of gratitude that being able to experience something like this, deserves.
Monday, 21 March 2011
My withered leg
There was a significant shock tonight. I took my cast off and half of my lower left leg has disappeared. A bit scary, but I've looked at the Western States course and it snakes slightly from right to left therefore it should suit my lopsidedness.
Coming back to the post yesterday, I have neglected to get involved with triathlon since my little birthday sojourn at the Cowman half Iron distance tri a few years ago. I have actually entered 2 Ironman races in the interim but been unable to race both times. The tri world is such a different beast to ultra running. It's expensive, it requires a shed load of equipment, the equipment makes a tangible difference to your performance, it's EVEN harder to get into the big races than the world of ultras primarily because it is a recognised televised sport with full time paid professionals. I'm not going to go on about it in any more but I actually own a half decent trek road bike, albeit it is probably now considered an antique or at least retro with its discovery channel logos from the 2006 UCI racing season. I also have a wetsuit which I've raced in the once. I can't breath in it but at least I float. And I have some pretty nice trainers with only a few hundred miles on them....
So it's just a question of when. Obviously I'm not entering anything less than a half IM distance as I can't be bothered to get wet and cold for less than that. I'll probably leave it until after the Grand Slam but to be honest the major problem is more finding a race I can get in to at this 'late stage' without incurring a massive flight and entry fee cost. Ironman UK is slap bang in the middle of the slam and Ironman Wales is the same weekend as Wasatch so both off the cards. On the Half Ironman IM70.3 front I'm actually IN Vegas for the 70.3 World Champs so will be there to watch. Ireland 70.3 I am away for. I see two options, Italy 70.3 or France 70.3. Neither are great timing wise. I've looked at some of the other races, double, triple, quintuple and deca Iron events (I'm not joking) but they all clash and I think I should maybe try a normal Ironman before I try and pull out 10 back to back.
So will it be another year of no swimming? I am determined not to get in the pool until I next have to swim at a triathlon. Certainly I have hated every minute of cycling in the gym but my quads are now enormous (ly average sized)
Coming back to the post yesterday, I have neglected to get involved with triathlon since my little birthday sojourn at the Cowman half Iron distance tri a few years ago. I have actually entered 2 Ironman races in the interim but been unable to race both times. The tri world is such a different beast to ultra running. It's expensive, it requires a shed load of equipment, the equipment makes a tangible difference to your performance, it's EVEN harder to get into the big races than the world of ultras primarily because it is a recognised televised sport with full time paid professionals. I'm not going to go on about it in any more but I actually own a half decent trek road bike, albeit it is probably now considered an antique or at least retro with its discovery channel logos from the 2006 UCI racing season. I also have a wetsuit which I've raced in the once. I can't breath in it but at least I float. And I have some pretty nice trainers with only a few hundred miles on them....
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| Riding the circumference of Puerto Rico in 2008 in BVI national colours |
So will it be another year of no swimming? I am determined not to get in the pool until I next have to swim at a triathlon. Certainly I have hated every minute of cycling in the gym but my quads are now enormous (ly average sized)
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Weekly Summary March 14th - 21st
We've had an incredible reaction to the Thames Path 100. In our first week of opening for registrations we've had 16 sign ups, which, bearing in mind the race is a just under a year away, is a phenomenal response. Finally we've also managed to get some traction with the UTMB organisers to get the races listed as official qualifiers. Fingers crossed we will get our answers next week.
Injury wise I feel like I'm mending. My fracture is pain free and the pain i've had in my shin bone under pressure has abated. I'm still at least 3 weeks from being able to resume light running but I'm staying sane and positive. This week I've cycled exactly 240 miles over 8 different sessions, between 45 minutes and just under 3 hours in length. Average pace has been good, just over 21mph for the lot. So I'm getting some decent exercise time in despite wearing having the cast on throughout.
Makes me think I should sign up to a full length one of these and take the opportunity to put this enforced riding to good use....
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Coach & the Slam
Every day I get up and cycle to work. I work all day, then I go to the gym and sit on an exercise bike for between 90 and 120 minutes and push at a minimum of 20mph and a maximum of about 22mph. I get my HR up to between 140 and 155 during that time depending on how hot it is in the gym that day. Then I get on my bike and cycle home. Every day. At the weekend I get up and go the gym, then I cycle for between 90 and 120 minutes and then cycle home again. The only real difference between me and a cyclist is that through necessity I do all of this with a cast on my leg. It is fair to say the attention I've drawn falls mostly into the 'are you kidding me do you not want to get better you have a broken leg' category. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't trust in the person telling me that this is what I should and can be doing.
Very recently I decided that I had taken my own running career as far as I could on my own. I had a pretty good run of things. I managed to navigate my way through some hard races without too many major difficulties. I broke 3 hours for a marathon and actually won a couple of awards in desert races for finishing in the top 5 plus a bona fide hard trail ultra win with a field of 200 people so I guess I reached a pretty good standard. By no means spectacular but still I was pretty pleased.
Ever since Badwater it has felt like the wheels have come off. I was a wreck of a human being for 2 months afterwards. I started UTMB and got pulled early in the race along with all of the other runners which in hindsight was a blessing in disguise because I was ill and struggling after just 4 or 5 hours. I had a shocking race at CC100 and finished on nothing but sheer stubbornness. Then I had a break, a couple of small ultras and ramped up my training again for RR100. The whole of the last 3 months I have been teetering on the brink of disaster and so far this year I've suffered two, DNFing at Rocky Raccoon and then picking up this stress fracture. What it showed me was that I'd taken it as far as I could on my own. If I wanted to carry on finishing really hard races I could probably do it without help. But I feel like there is at least some potential to do better than that. I don't think I'll ever run a 2:40 marathon or a sub16 hour 100 mile race or be anywhere near competitive at the bigger ultras but I would like to at least do myself justice and do as well as I can. In the end I will go back to just running things to finish them and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's all I've pretty much ever done and I love that about our sport. However whilst I have another couple of years to push myself as hard as i can I am going to give it a crack.
So that led me to contacting my new coach Lisa Smith-Batchen. I'm not going to write any more about Lisa now than to say I'm three weeks in under her wing, I've spent two of that three weeks injured and yet she's already changed the way I view everything about training and what I want out of racing. I set myself some pretty ambitious goals to give to Lisa and she feels I can achieve them. It will take time for me to get to some of them because of having to sit it out for 6 - 8 weeks with this fracture but I have total confidence that once I'm back in the game, I will be back better than ever. It is Lisa who picked out that I had a stress fracture by just talking to me from the other side of the atlantic when my physio couldn't even do it with me on the table. Lisa told me in no uncertain terms to get a scan immediately, which threw up the fracture and has subsequently given me what I need to keep my mind in the game, stay reasonably fit and get healthy again without rushing and causing longer term problems. I put my total faith and trust in her. If Lisa says cycle, I cycle. If people in the gym look at me like I have a mental issue that's fine. I'll just keep getting on that bike and visualising the first big climb out of Squaw Valley at the start of Western States.
That goal became all the more real today when my application for the Grand Slam went through and my name joined the short list of others going for all 4 100 milers this summer. A lay off from running was the last thing I needed right now but it has only fed my hunger to succeed in completing something not many other people have done or get the chance to do.
Very recently I decided that I had taken my own running career as far as I could on my own. I had a pretty good run of things. I managed to navigate my way through some hard races without too many major difficulties. I broke 3 hours for a marathon and actually won a couple of awards in desert races for finishing in the top 5 plus a bona fide hard trail ultra win with a field of 200 people so I guess I reached a pretty good standard. By no means spectacular but still I was pretty pleased.
Ever since Badwater it has felt like the wheels have come off. I was a wreck of a human being for 2 months afterwards. I started UTMB and got pulled early in the race along with all of the other runners which in hindsight was a blessing in disguise because I was ill and struggling after just 4 or 5 hours. I had a shocking race at CC100 and finished on nothing but sheer stubbornness. Then I had a break, a couple of small ultras and ramped up my training again for RR100. The whole of the last 3 months I have been teetering on the brink of disaster and so far this year I've suffered two, DNFing at Rocky Raccoon and then picking up this stress fracture. What it showed me was that I'd taken it as far as I could on my own. If I wanted to carry on finishing really hard races I could probably do it without help. But I feel like there is at least some potential to do better than that. I don't think I'll ever run a 2:40 marathon or a sub16 hour 100 mile race or be anywhere near competitive at the bigger ultras but I would like to at least do myself justice and do as well as I can. In the end I will go back to just running things to finish them and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's all I've pretty much ever done and I love that about our sport. However whilst I have another couple of years to push myself as hard as i can I am going to give it a crack.
So that led me to contacting my new coach Lisa Smith-Batchen. I'm not going to write any more about Lisa now than to say I'm three weeks in under her wing, I've spent two of that three weeks injured and yet she's already changed the way I view everything about training and what I want out of racing. I set myself some pretty ambitious goals to give to Lisa and she feels I can achieve them. It will take time for me to get to some of them because of having to sit it out for 6 - 8 weeks with this fracture but I have total confidence that once I'm back in the game, I will be back better than ever. It is Lisa who picked out that I had a stress fracture by just talking to me from the other side of the atlantic when my physio couldn't even do it with me on the table. Lisa told me in no uncertain terms to get a scan immediately, which threw up the fracture and has subsequently given me what I need to keep my mind in the game, stay reasonably fit and get healthy again without rushing and causing longer term problems. I put my total faith and trust in her. If Lisa says cycle, I cycle. If people in the gym look at me like I have a mental issue that's fine. I'll just keep getting on that bike and visualising the first big climb out of Squaw Valley at the start of Western States.
That goal became all the more real today when my application for the Grand Slam went through and my name joined the short list of others going for all 4 100 milers this summer. A lay off from running was the last thing I needed right now but it has only fed my hunger to succeed in completing something not many other people have done or get the chance to do.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Thames Path 100
Al and I finally got our act together and launched the new website this week. It is so much better than the previous one in terms of communicating the details of each race to potential runners and allowing them to stay in touch with race news and progress.
As part and parcel of that we sent registrations live for the Thames Path 100 at the same time. A 100 mile non stop run from Richmond in London to Oxford.
We have worked very hard to make sure we don't clash with any existing race dates and particularly to stay clear of the excellent races put on by Go Beyond (Country to Capital 45 mile and Thames Trot 50 mile) always in Jan and early Feb each year. A big part of that is that selfishly I intend to keep running those races myself every year!!!!
We have worked very hard to make sure we don't clash with any existing race dates and particularly to stay clear of the excellent races put on by Go Beyond (Country to Capital 45 mile and Thames Trot 50 mile) always in Jan and early Feb each year. A big part of that is that selfishly I intend to keep running those races myself every year!!!!
In the end I went for the first week of March. My frustration as a runner is that there are no early season long ultra courses available in the UK. As such I have flown to the States twice to run Rocky Raccoon because I like to race often and stay fit rather than have a big gap over Christmas. It gave me that early season opportunity to get a good 100 mile trail run under my belt. For experienced runners it will also provide a gauge of where they are in terms of fitness and of how difficult some of the longer or more challenging 100 mile plus races are going to be for them during the true long ultra race season of May to September. The TP100 will form an excellent platform for major races across the summer. I include in the category of major races: GUCR, WHW, Badwater, Spartathlon, Lakeland 100, UTMB, Western States, Leadville, Hardrock etc etc.
It is always going to be a balancing act putting on new events. We will always incur some criticism for either clashing with existing race dates or putting races on, on courses or national trails that are already covered by existing events. In my opinion there is room for 3 things:
1. An early season long course.
2. A race that offers first time 100 milers a chance to complete the distance under the simplest possible conditions, after all the distance itself is enough of a challenge.
3. Another 100 mile option to UK runners at an affordable price.
I'm sure also, as per the NDW100, that we will receive a backlash against the cost of the TP100 entry, which I have set at £85. The cost is £85 for two reasons. 1. That is the minimum I have worked out we can charge runners and not lose money. That is based on reaching a certain reasonable but optimistic number of entries which I will keep to myself bearing in mind we are including buckles for all finishers, easily the most expensive part of staging this race but crucial in my eyes, to give people something they can take away and be proud of apart from the sheer pleasure of simply finishing and having the memory of doing so. 2. Because I personally consider £85 for a 100 mile/ 30 hour fully supported marshaled and marked race with proper medical back up, good value for money. The cheapest 100 I have entered to date is Rocky Raccoon and the early entry cost for that is $130, or, you guessed it..... £85.
The cost has always been the most difficult thing to get right for me. I am extremely confident I or rather we as a team can give people an awesome race day experience, because frankly I intend to put on my ideal race as a runner, leaving as little as possible and preferably nothing to chance. Things will go wrong in our first events but the mistakes will be minimal and there will be plenty of capable people around on race day to ensure that we correct any mistakes swiftly and properly. I guess I feel a little vindicated in our costings given that we are up to 57 runners for the NDW races, 5 months from race date, and the fact that 6 people signed up within 24 hours of the TP100 going live, 12 months prior to race date.
Last thing to be aware of really is limiting numbers in case the races turn out to be so popular that we get out of control. I have put reasonable limits on all the races, a number that I feel we can properly manage in our first year. There has to be an element of 'testing the water' and in my eyes to unleash 100s of runners on to new race courses, is irresponsible. This after all is not Western States which I understand will have 1400 volunteers this year for under 400 of us runners. Insane.
So thanks to those who have supported us already and I promise we will do everything that we physically can to blow you away before, during and after race day.
For those that follow the misery of my running career at the moment, I am currently spending between 2 and 3 hours a day cycling in the gym, wearing a cast on my left foot. Im not joking. Some of the looks I've been getting are priceless. It is mind numbing and not in the least bit enjoyable but hopefully I can retain some level of fitness for the Grand Slam. There is one bonus, I get to watch a shed load of TV ( mounted to the bike frame). Today I watched 3 back to back episodes of Jamie Oliver cooking tapas on Channel 4, whilst burning 1100 calories. I have to wear this thing for between 4 and 8 weeks. Oh JOY!!!!!
Sunday, 6 March 2011
The Scan
It's official I'm out of Umstead 100 and looking at 6 - 8 weeks off of running. I am not very good at reading scans but allegedly you can see from the below on the right hand leg (my left leg), next to the oval shape and under the darker line on the edge of the bone there is a stress fracture. Will be becoming a spinning junkie in the meantime in an attempt to remain fit enough to tackle Comrades and then 4 x 100 milers in the space of 11 weeks this summer. Obviously Centurion Running will benefit somewhat also.
8 weeks from the 1st March which was the last run is the 25th April 2011. Wow that seems a long way off....
8 weeks from the 1st March which was the last run is the 25th April 2011. Wow that seems a long way off....
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| MRI Scan Wednesday 2nd March 2011. |
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Stress Fracture
Well I had the MRI on Wednesday night which was an interesting experience in itself. I hadn't had one for about 11 years and the machines have certainly gotten a lot quieter in that time. I actually fell asleep lying down listening to the clunking of the cylindrical behemoth.
I got the results back on Thursday afternoon with a pretty abrupt e mail from the doctor stating quite simply that I did indeed have a stress fracture of the left tibia. As discussed in previous posts it was obvious something was pretty badly wrong ever since Rocky Raccoon, but I hadn't expected to find out I had been running on a broken leg for 3 weeks.
It's hard to state exactly where I go from here because I don't have the full prognosis yet. Obviously I need to let this heal and any impact will prevent it from doing so. That means I won't be able to run for what is my book an awfully long time. I've had to abandon all short-mid term racing plans including Umstead. It is possible I may need surgery but the physio talked to me on Friday night and said that was unlikely. I'll find out soon if I need an air boot to help keep the weight off of the bone whilst I'm going about daily life.
On the bright side I can continue to cross train so I will do that as much as I can and try to retain the fitness I have built up over the last couple of months and try to get well in time for Comrades (3 months away) but more importantly the Grand Slam (4 months away).
It really does suck not being able to run. It's been 4 days and I'm already fidgeting. I want to do everything possible to assist the healing of the fracture but the reality is there is little I can do except rest. It doesn't hurt just walking around, there is more of an itchy sensation from deep within my leg which is a little perturbing but at least I'm not immobile.
On a much happier note the Centurion website is all but done and we will be launching it later tonight so check it out from Sunday 6th onwards www.centurionrunning.com . We are adding forums and a lot more detail on the individual races themselves including where and when the 2nd 100 mile trail race which will be held on the Thames Path in March 2012. The North Downs Races are proving popular and we passed 50 entrants this week. The entries into the 50 have increased to 8 but still lag well behind the 100 (21) and the marathon (24). We are still over 5 months from race day so if the interest levels continue I will have to think about limiting the numbers to make sure we have a sustainable race in our first year which is extremely important.
I read Anthony Kiedis' autobiography again this week. RHCP a class act for 25 years. My top 2 below Yertle the Turtle and Don't Forget Me. John Frusciante at his best at 4:00 in the first one.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Hope
For a while now I've been living in hope that the injury I sustained to my shin as a secondary issue at Rocky Raccoon isn't as bad as it may appear. There is a difference between hope and denial here and I would consider myself not to have ventured over to the much more dangerous area of denial.
For the past couple of weeks each time I've commenced running the pain in my shin has varied between mild and excruciating. The calf feels as tight as a drum and a particular point in the tibia is extremely sore leading to shooting pains in my leg with each foot strike and push off. At times the pain has almost completely subsided. Plenty of times in the last fortnight I've run for half an hour in a hobbling fashion only for the leg to loosen up as it gets warm and for the pain to die right down. It's meant I haven't been able to do any fast running but that I have been able to get in some decent slower mid length runs (12 - 16 miles). I have added a lot of bike, spinning and strider machine to my weekly regime all of which have been pain free and are helping me build all round strength.
Nevertheless every night I go to bed hoping that I will wake up in the morning to find the physios work and my stretching, icing etc will have brought the pain down to a lower more manageable level and that I can resume running freely and properly. Today my shin was screaming at me as I got on the treadmill for a short test run of 20 ish minutes. I got off and went back to the physio tonight.
The prognosis is not good. Best case I have chronic shin splints which will take a couple of weeks no running to get over. Worst case I have a stress fracture that will put me out for up to 3 months. On Wednesday night I will get an MRI to determine what state the damage is at. Until this point I have followed the advice of the physio 100% and he has always managed to get me back on my feet quickly and without further problems. This time I think even he has conceded the problem goes deeper than he had thought and than I had hoped.
So I have resigned myself to the worst possible fate of having to be off running for a considerable length of time, a longer break than I've had since the MdS in 2006. In that case anything better is a bonus. Relinquishing hope that things are ok when really they're not is actually a weight off of my mind. I have decided that my body knows best and that when the pain is how it is something is clearly badly wrong. If I can cross train in the meantime I will have a hope of keeping some of my half decent fitness levels. If not well then I'm going to have a hell of a job to get ready in time for Comrades and the Grand Slam. Umstead in 5 weeks looks to be a pipe dream right now.
Good luck to everyone taking part in the Atacama Crossing starting this weekend. In the meantime to those reading who are also injured out there, rest up and heal up good and proper. I am going to try to that's for sure.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Heroes
There are a lot of people in the ultra-running world to look up to. A lot of them are listed in my blog roll down the bottom right hand side of this page. Some of them train obscene amounts and achieve incredibly fast race results. Some of them train a lot less and are even faster still. Some of them have been running for 10 or 20 years and performing at the top for a good proportion of that. They are all incredibly impressive athletes which help to inspire me and many others to go a little bit further, making what would otherwise seem to be impossible seem suddenly human.
Of all of those people the one that I look up to the most is Marshall Ulrich and although a lot of people have heard of Marsh and his exploits over the years I think he's about to become a whole lot better known in the near future with the release of his film and long awaited book. The reason I look up to Marsh more than anybody else is because of Badwater last year. Marsh raced the Gobi March in 2007, my second desert and that was the first and only other time I had the pleasure of meeting him, even then Jim and I really just admired from afar as he made seemingly light work of the course. His demeanour exuded total relaxed control of the race, respect for all of the other racers and for the environment, local people and the opportunity we were all fortunate enough to have, to run in such a remote location.
At Badwater Marsh started about 4 hours ahead of me and had a difficult first section of the course. I passed him on the way up Townes Pass maybe 50 or 60 miles into the race and he was dragging his feet along like he was out for a stroll in the park. He was clearly having a difficult time but made sure to tell Frank and I what a great job we were doing and to keep it up which gave me a huge boost. He then stormed down the hill into Panamint and overtook me leaving me for dust (he was 59 at the time of the race). I carried straight on where he took some time to tend to blisters and made his way on when he was ready. Right at the top of Mount Whitney Portals about 2 miles from the finish Marsh came past me again with a slap on the back and words of congratulations we're almost there you're doing awesome. That meant an awful lot coming from him. Even then he had a smile on his face and was pretty much on his own just doing his own thing at his own pace, totally unconcerned about anything else.
The reality is i'm not sure I can really begin to list some of the things he's achieved as there have been so many but I will certainly be buying a copy of his book. He recently mentioned he has only in the last year or so felt he was qualified to put his experiences down on paper which may just be the craziest thing I've ever heard. When he passed me at the top of the last hill at Badwater it was on his way to his 22nd finish on that course which has included a number of wins (5 i think). he has run Leadville 13 times. He was one of the first people to race and finish the Grand Slam and did so in astounding times. He raced all of the eco challenge adventure races before they came to an end, climbed the 7 summits including Everest in a calender year (he also ran Badwater just a few days later) and has completed over 100 races of 100 miles in length.
Have a look at the video trailer and read a little about him if even you feel like you need a little inspiration.
http://www.marshallulrich.com/
Of all of those people the one that I look up to the most is Marshall Ulrich and although a lot of people have heard of Marsh and his exploits over the years I think he's about to become a whole lot better known in the near future with the release of his film and long awaited book. The reason I look up to Marsh more than anybody else is because of Badwater last year. Marsh raced the Gobi March in 2007, my second desert and that was the first and only other time I had the pleasure of meeting him, even then Jim and I really just admired from afar as he made seemingly light work of the course. His demeanour exuded total relaxed control of the race, respect for all of the other racers and for the environment, local people and the opportunity we were all fortunate enough to have, to run in such a remote location.
At Badwater Marsh started about 4 hours ahead of me and had a difficult first section of the course. I passed him on the way up Townes Pass maybe 50 or 60 miles into the race and he was dragging his feet along like he was out for a stroll in the park. He was clearly having a difficult time but made sure to tell Frank and I what a great job we were doing and to keep it up which gave me a huge boost. He then stormed down the hill into Panamint and overtook me leaving me for dust (he was 59 at the time of the race). I carried straight on where he took some time to tend to blisters and made his way on when he was ready. Right at the top of Mount Whitney Portals about 2 miles from the finish Marsh came past me again with a slap on the back and words of congratulations we're almost there you're doing awesome. That meant an awful lot coming from him. Even then he had a smile on his face and was pretty much on his own just doing his own thing at his own pace, totally unconcerned about anything else.
The reality is i'm not sure I can really begin to list some of the things he's achieved as there have been so many but I will certainly be buying a copy of his book. He recently mentioned he has only in the last year or so felt he was qualified to put his experiences down on paper which may just be the craziest thing I've ever heard. When he passed me at the top of the last hill at Badwater it was on his way to his 22nd finish on that course which has included a number of wins (5 i think). he has run Leadville 13 times. He was one of the first people to race and finish the Grand Slam and did so in astounding times. He raced all of the eco challenge adventure races before they came to an end, climbed the 7 summits including Everest in a calender year (he also ran Badwater just a few days later) and has completed over 100 races of 100 miles in length.
Have a look at the video trailer and read a little about him if even you feel like you need a little inspiration.
http://www.marshallulrich.com/
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Weekly Summary Feb 14 - 20
Monday - 4 miles 40 minutes
Tuesday - 4 miles 45 minutes
Wednesday - Rest/ Physio
Thursday - 4 miles 28 minutes
Friday - 4 miles 28 minutes & 20 minutes Strider
Saturday - 8.7 miles 1 hour 11 minutes
Sunday - 14.6 miles 2 hours 4 minutes
Total - 42 miles 5 hours 58 minutes
This week began horribly and got a lot better. Saturday was the first day I've been able to walk around since the race without pain in one or other part of my legs. I've had ice on my knee and shin on and off for about 2 hours of each day and spent a lot of time stretching both legs out. Saturday evening I managed just over an hour and today I ventured out for 2 but was baked by 90 minutes and struggled the last 5 or 6 miles. The 76 miles are still clearly taking their toll but I'm pretty familiar with this process. After a week of total rest and the problems I had in the early part of this week I'm pretty pleased how the last few days have panned out. A painful physio session paid huge dividends again mid week and turned me back around from a hobbling wreck to a functioning runner again in the space of 48 hours.
6 weeks until the next 100....
Tuesday - 4 miles 45 minutes
Wednesday - Rest/ Physio
Thursday - 4 miles 28 minutes
Friday - 4 miles 28 minutes & 20 minutes Strider
Saturday - 8.7 miles 1 hour 11 minutes
Sunday - 14.6 miles 2 hours 4 minutes
Total - 42 miles 5 hours 58 minutes
This week began horribly and got a lot better. Saturday was the first day I've been able to walk around since the race without pain in one or other part of my legs. I've had ice on my knee and shin on and off for about 2 hours of each day and spent a lot of time stretching both legs out. Saturday evening I managed just over an hour and today I ventured out for 2 but was baked by 90 minutes and struggled the last 5 or 6 miles. The 76 miles are still clearly taking their toll but I'm pretty familiar with this process. After a week of total rest and the problems I had in the early part of this week I'm pretty pleased how the last few days have panned out. A painful physio session paid huge dividends again mid week and turned me back around from a hobbling wreck to a functioning runner again in the space of 48 hours.
6 weeks until the next 100....
Sunday, 13 February 2011
Rehabilitation
I had a great week this week, lacking nothing but my beloved running. I took the opportunity to rest as much as I could, catch up with people and stay off of my feet and knee as much as possible. I saw the physio twice in the week and heeded the advice I was given, don't run but the overall prognosis was way WAY more positive than I was even optimistically hoping for.
On the massage table yesterday my shin splints felt better, my feet, whilst still sore when I apply pressure, are causing no problems when I walk around but my knees were both pretty sore. I have iced, stretched elevated all week long and this evening I felt strong enough to spend 30 minutes on my feet, about 20 minutes running and 10 walking.
This week I will ease back in slowly with cross training, swimming and some very light experimental running. I know I won't be able to get over the disaster that was Rocky Raccoon until I cross the finish line at Umstead 100 in 7 weeks time so I have decided just to get on with it and dive back into focusing on that from now until then. As mentioned in a previous post I do need to tell myself that out of 6 more goal races this year, this one is the 6th most important but it is essential I have a good race there to get my year back on track before the big races kick in beginning with Comrades in late May. As such if my training goes to plan in the next week or so of gradual build up then I will drop back in to a couple of longer runs the week after and finish off running the majority of the course/ planning the second 100 miler in the Centurion series which I'll be putting on in March 2012. After that I have some pretty cool weekends planned with races on some of my favourite trails and some shorter local ones which will give me a chance to push up my leg speed. All in all if things go to plan I am aiming to fit in a few 50ks and a couple of marathons in the 6 weeks leading up to April 2nd. If I stay positive and sensible the physio believes that it should be possible.
I haven't really said much to anyone up to this point about my DNF at RR100 other than reflecting on it in the race report on this blog. The fact is my opinions on DNFs are a little controversial and hence probably better kept to myself. I received a lot of good wishes from friends, family and particularly runners after Rocky, but the underlying fact is I failed to finish a race and in my book that's not really acceptable unless you literally have to be dragged off of the course. Undoubtedly my decision to drop was the right one but given that hypothetically, although traveling excruciatingly slowly, I 'could' have finished with 15 hours left on the clock, I'm very far from delighted with the outcome. Of course I went to run a PB/ to see how fast I could run 100 miles and not just to finish at any cost given that I'd done that there once before but that doesn't make the decision any less 'right'. It's an area I don't really want to get in to as I say as frankly it's done and dusted and it affects no-one but myself. If you're interested in the debate over DNF-ing have a look at this post from AJW which kicked up a bit of a storm (if you're a real geek read through the comments which is where this subject gets interesting) http://ajwsblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/dnfs.html
On the massage table yesterday my shin splints felt better, my feet, whilst still sore when I apply pressure, are causing no problems when I walk around but my knees were both pretty sore. I have iced, stretched elevated all week long and this evening I felt strong enough to spend 30 minutes on my feet, about 20 minutes running and 10 walking.
This week I will ease back in slowly with cross training, swimming and some very light experimental running. I know I won't be able to get over the disaster that was Rocky Raccoon until I cross the finish line at Umstead 100 in 7 weeks time so I have decided just to get on with it and dive back into focusing on that from now until then. As mentioned in a previous post I do need to tell myself that out of 6 more goal races this year, this one is the 6th most important but it is essential I have a good race there to get my year back on track before the big races kick in beginning with Comrades in late May. As such if my training goes to plan in the next week or so of gradual build up then I will drop back in to a couple of longer runs the week after and finish off running the majority of the course/ planning the second 100 miler in the Centurion series which I'll be putting on in March 2012. After that I have some pretty cool weekends planned with races on some of my favourite trails and some shorter local ones which will give me a chance to push up my leg speed. All in all if things go to plan I am aiming to fit in a few 50ks and a couple of marathons in the 6 weeks leading up to April 2nd. If I stay positive and sensible the physio believes that it should be possible.
I haven't really said much to anyone up to this point about my DNF at RR100 other than reflecting on it in the race report on this blog. The fact is my opinions on DNFs are a little controversial and hence probably better kept to myself. I received a lot of good wishes from friends, family and particularly runners after Rocky, but the underlying fact is I failed to finish a race and in my book that's not really acceptable unless you literally have to be dragged off of the course. Undoubtedly my decision to drop was the right one but given that hypothetically, although traveling excruciatingly slowly, I 'could' have finished with 15 hours left on the clock, I'm very far from delighted with the outcome. Of course I went to run a PB/ to see how fast I could run 100 miles and not just to finish at any cost given that I'd done that there once before but that doesn't make the decision any less 'right'. It's an area I don't really want to get in to as I say as frankly it's done and dusted and it affects no-one but myself. If you're interested in the debate over DNF-ing have a look at this post from AJW which kicked up a bit of a storm (if you're a real geek read through the comments which is where this subject gets interesting) http://ajwsblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/dnfs.html
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
The Day After/ Wasatch Lottery
My leg feels significantly less swollen today. Decided to see the physio tomorrow to give the general swelling an extra 24 hours to reduce enough for him to be able to give me a steer on the level of damage I've caused. I am hoping for a prognosis of under 4 weeks before I can commence build up again but that may be a little hopeful.
What I do know is that my hunger to get stuck in to Umstead in 8 weeks time is pretty huge. I cannot abide DNFs. This wasn't my first, in fact I have DNFd two other ultras before, both due to debilitating injury, but that was a first for 100 miles and my first since August 2007. Mentally rather than rock my confidence it's just made me more resolute about my strategy and goals for Umstead. Of course I have to get healthy again first and it will be about being patient to allow a full recovery before I get into it.
I see I wasn't lucky enough to be drawn in the Wasatch 100 lottery but am guaranteed a place as a Grand Slam runner should I complete Western States, Vermont and Leadville. Some big names did get drawn including Tony Krupicka and Karl Meltzer who both also toed the line at RR100 last weekend. I think both those guys are also doing UTMB which is a mere 13 days prior to Wasatch so they will have 7 days less than me to recover from an even more mountainous 100. Fair play to them for throwing their names in for both. Also running are two Brits, Nicole and Ryan Brown and it will be great to share some British company at another one of the major US 100s this year.
Congratulations to everyone who finished Thames Trot, Pilgrims or Rocky Raccoon this weekend, there were some stellar performances out there although I have to say I don't think anything will come close to Ians somehow!
What I do know is that my hunger to get stuck in to Umstead in 8 weeks time is pretty huge. I cannot abide DNFs. This wasn't my first, in fact I have DNFd two other ultras before, both due to debilitating injury, but that was a first for 100 miles and my first since August 2007. Mentally rather than rock my confidence it's just made me more resolute about my strategy and goals for Umstead. Of course I have to get healthy again first and it will be about being patient to allow a full recovery before I get into it.
I see I wasn't lucky enough to be drawn in the Wasatch 100 lottery but am guaranteed a place as a Grand Slam runner should I complete Western States, Vermont and Leadville. Some big names did get drawn including Tony Krupicka and Karl Meltzer who both also toed the line at RR100 last weekend. I think both those guys are also doing UTMB which is a mere 13 days prior to Wasatch so they will have 7 days less than me to recover from an even more mountainous 100. Fair play to them for throwing their names in for both. Also running are two Brits, Nicole and Ryan Brown and it will be great to share some British company at another one of the major US 100s this year.
Congratulations to everyone who finished Thames Trot, Pilgrims or Rocky Raccoon this weekend, there were some stellar performances out there although I have to say I don't think anything will come close to Ians somehow!
Monday, 7 February 2011
Rocky Raccoon 100: DNF
Arrived back from Houston this morning and sadly I had no internet access from my Hunstville Motel Room hence the delay in posting any kind of news on here.
The journey out to Houston was as uneventful as I could have hoped for. The 10 hour flight went like a dream with no interruptions and I managed to get some good rest spread out across three seats in the very back row of the plane. The new airline formed out of the merger between Continental and United has left behind probably the best carrier service I've flown with for a very long time. We were told on taking off that the weather in Houston was horrendous with mixed freezing snow and rain icing up the runway. About an hour before landing the pilot let us know that the storm was sufficiently far south for us to land without issue and that hiatus was actually enough time for me to collect the hire car and make the hour drive up I45 to Huntsville where the race is held. I hit the sack straight away not wanting to change my body clock as per the last time I was there for the race. The idea of that being that given the 6 hour time difference if I got to bed at 6pm and woke up at 3am, I would time things perfectly for race morning when we would start at 6am.
I got up at 3am on Friday and went outside to make the drive over the I45 to Wal Mart and stock up on supplies. Unfortunately the entire car was engulfed in a quarter of an inch of ice. It had been blown on by freezing cold winds and was rock hard so it took me literally half an hour to get moving. The roads hadn't been gritted so were extremely slippery. When I turned up at Wal Mart obviously there wasn't a soul in sight but this is America and it was a 24 hour store. I went inside and spent an hour cruising around buying tortillas, turkey, cheese, chips, fruit, bagels, water etc etc most of which were for the race. I spent the rest of the day watching tv in the room waiting for Ian to arrive and for the pre race meeting to start. Ian got in around 2pm and we hit the streets of Huntsville for a 3 mile - ish slow run just to loosen up before the morning.
We got to registration and the race briefing was in full flow, so we snuck around the side and checked in to collect our race numbers and swag bags. At this point Ian met up with his crew for the race, Paul and Meredith Terranova and we spent some time out in the hall with Meredith chatting about different races and his plan of action for the morning. Ian has been running at the top level for a while now. In the lead up to the race we spoke a lot about the speed the other guys in the field had vs his own success on road in particular and how this course might suit him better. Knowing what happened now makes this post from a few weeks ago a little more pertinent!!!! http://runthroughtime.blogspot.com/2011/01/11-days-to-go.html
Meredith and Paul were obviously extremely accomplished runners, Paul recently finishing 2nd just behind Ian in TNF50km in December. They had also had success in pacing runners to success on this course helping 4 previous runners to wins with some breaking CR's in the process. After a massive pasta dinner I left my drop bag with supplies for the Dam Road aid station at mile 6.5/ 12.5 and head back to the hotel for the night.
I got up at 3am for the race with a good nights sleep under my belt. Having run this one before and having done a number of races significantly more challenging since I didn't have pre match nerves. I knew I was capable of running the time that I wanted as long as things went to plan and I really didn't have any other pressures on me than that. If it all worked out then great and I would have the pleasure of watching some of the greats in the sport battle it out up the front of the field due to the lapped format.
I got to the start at 4:45am and it was 23 degrees F outside or minus 5 centigrade in English money. I jumped out of the car and checked my name off of the list and after 5 minutes outside I was freezing cold and shivering. Not a nice start to the morning. I stayed in the warm until 5:54am and then jogged over to the start, switched on my headlamp and joined the Ian a row back from the front. I looked at the line of runners in front of us and left to right picked out Tony Krupicka, Scott Jurek, Hal Koerner, Karl Meltzer a couple of unknown guys and Zach Gingerich on the right. Ian looked ready with his camelbak on and we wished each other good luck before Joe the RD set us on our way at exactly 6am.
The pace at the beginning was slower than I'd expected. I say that with the exception of Zach who sprinted away down the 100 yard straight and wide trail from the start/ finish line. He was out of sight within 30 seconds and that was kind of a shock to see as I imagine it was for all of the other guys. As we got into the first little section of narrower trail the lead guys began to pull away and I was running in maybe 20th spot with a group of 4 guys running together. As we spread out even a few yards it became apparent that my head torch was pitifully weak. I'd changed down from my heavy duty Petzl to a smaller model as I knew I'd only need it for about 45 minutes but it did nothing to cut through the pitch black of the woods. I tripped a few times on the prominent roots and nearly crashed into a tree by one of the many boardwalks in the first 2 miles or so. Neverthless I made good time to the nature centre at mile 3.1 in about 25 minutes and as we got on to the trail to the Dam Road Station at mile 6.5 the sun began to come up and reveal a beautiful day on the trails. The rest of the first 20 mile loop just disappeared in a flash and I was back to the 2 mile out and back section to the start in about 2:45 or so. At that point I knew I would see the front runners coming back past me and sure enough there was Zach running at mile 21.7/ 18.3 for me which put him on roughly 3:05 marathon pace. A couple of minutes later, Ian came past and I gave him some words of encouragement. Directly behind him were Scott, Hal, Anton, Karl, Mike Wolfe and a couple of other guys all running together. Scott was the only one to exchange words as we went past and I kind of guessed that figured as they were all working so hard. I hit 20 miles in 3:02 in 30th spot.
My pacing strategy was simple and was to go 20 hours split down as Loop 1: 3 hours. Loop 2: 3:30. Loop 3: 3:30. Loop 4: 4:30. Loop 5: 5 hours. At 4 mph for the last loop I knew I'd have plenty of fat in there to push towards my best case target of 18 hours. I knew that would be enough for top 20 even with the strength of the field in question and I felt it was achievable before hand.
For loop 2 I grabbed a handheld bottle and some more gels and made good speed out of the gate. I'd run the whole of the first loop including all of the 'bumps' (not really long enough to call them hills). It would be wrong to describe this course as flat as there are some minor undulations which amount to about 5500 feet over 100 miles but you just wouldn't find a trail flatter than this unless you look at canal towpaths which clearly offer the fastest possible terrain, short of road, on which to run. Loop 2 I began to speed hike some of the slightly longer shallow inclines to conserve energy. The heat came up a bit and I hit the marathon point in about 4:05 which was spot on. As I made it out to the 50km point I could feel the ITB in my right leg, ever present in all of my training, tighten up particularly on the downhill sections and it certainly put the fear in to me a little. I tried to protect it where I could but with shin splints in my left leg in the run up to the race also, it was really about balancing the whole situation so that neither became my undoing. I felt a little like I was running on a knife edge and that either could cause a big issue at any time. Still I made decent progress on lap 2 and came back in to the start finish in 6:32, 2 minutes off of target pace and still in exactly 30th place.
Loop 3 I intended to continue running as much of as possible. My legs felt a little weary but as is natural after 40 miles of running and everything else was running as smooth as I could have possibly hoped. I allowed myself to start to think about how many problems with injury and illness I'd suffered in the 12 week build up to this race and how I had always hoped that things would just come together on race day and that the big guy upstairs would allow me to travel the course without any single problem coming to a head. I power hiked the inclines, made it through the 50 mile point in 8:09, stayed sensible with my nutrition and hydration, taking on lots of enduralytes as the heat came up a little towards the low 60s and made good progress back to the 100km mark in 10:27 about 3 minutes up on my plan. By this point, Ian had already come past me on his 4th lap and looked fantastic, flowing freely and easily in a bouncing fashion right down the track. He had a lead now and clearly was out to push that lead rather than sit back and try and hold it.
Loop 4 began in daylight but quickly descended into darkness so I had my torch and a second layer ready. I started to hike a lot more of the trail and knowing that I had 4 hours 30 for this loop I could afford to conserve a lot of energy and have a faster last lap as a result. As I went through 65 miles or so, Ian came barrelling back down the trail past me with Meredith and we had a shouted conversation whereby he informed me he was running a half an hour under CR pace for a 12:45 projected finishing time. I was pretty much speechless. He was obviously going to stamp his name into the record books and put his name on the map of world ultra running. I tried not to get too distracted in his success as I was aware I had a big job left to do myself. I pressed on through Dam Road and on the long lonely ATV trail up to the 70 mile Far Point timing mat which I reached almost bang on 12:30 still pacing perfectly. As I head up the single track from mile 70 to 72 I could feel my leg tightening but nothing worse than I'd had all day. The temperature had dropped massively, around 20 degrees in the space of only an hour and a half and I could feel the cold starting to get in to me so I pushed the pace a little out on the dam and into the aid station at mile 73. I grabbed a large cup of mashed potato which I'd been eating all day and was frankly a revelation and made my way out of there without stopping. At that point I had spent a maximum of 30 seconds at any one aid station all day so hadn't wasted any extra time. As I got on to a section of slightly steeper descent at around mile 74 my right knee pretty much gave way. Anyone who has had ITB issues in the past will know that feeling, when you're running along with no issue and all of a sudden it feels like someone has jammed their thumb right into the side of your kneecap and it almost makes it feel like the leg will collapse. I gathered myself quickly and tried to walk through it but it pretty much seized up and the flex I'd had in it to that stage went entirely to the point where it was locked pretty much straight. I knew I had 2 miles to the aid station so figured I would walk it in and try and shake it off over that time.
This section of trail is a jeep road which undulates down the far side of the park on really easy and very runnable packed sand. I was, however, reduced to an absolutely crippling hobble, striding with my left leg and swinging my right around like a club foot, placing as little pressure on the knee as possible and taking all my weight back on to my left as soon as I physically could. I carried on for maybe half an hour in that fashion with my head down just plugging away. As the knee became tighter and tighter I could feel the ITB stretching across the knee and literally creaking as i held it in place. The temperature was back down to single figures and I knew that wasn't helping the situation. That jeep road became an absolute bastard and I was reduced to going tree to tree for the 2 miles. I managed to make it in to the aid station at mile 76.2 in just over 15 hours. When I worked back I realised it had taken me over 2 hours to cover 3 miles and that had been with a pretty good pace for the first mile of that. I knew my race was out of the window at that point and that I couldn't shake this problem off. I had two choices, continute on and with 15 hours left in the race, hope that my leg eased up a bit to allow me to continue at the previous pace of just over a mile an hour and finish the last 24 in time, or call it a day.
I went back to Rocky Raccoon this year for one reason, to see how fast I could run 100 miles. That would seem to be a little pointless to some people but in the 3 previous attempts at the distance, all of which ended in success but ultimately included long stretches of walking and struggling, I felt I hadn't really had the race I was capable of. In 2009 in my first 100 miler I'd run the course in a very respectable 22:54. When I worked out the average pace I'd need to complete the remaining 24 miles in, I knew it was impossible for me to better that time albeit I was, even with the 2 hours of crawling along, way way ahead of my 2009 splits. I actually left the 76.2 mile point and made my way down the trail back to the start finish. Around 5 minutes in I'd only made a couple of hundred yards at the most and could still see the lights behind me. I stood still felt my knee which was severely inflamed and thought screw this. It wasn't even that difficult a decision. I knew I would hate myself for DNFing a race but I came to the realisation that 1. I have another opportunity to run a decent 100 mile time at Umstead in under 2 months time and that having managed to get into Western States this year and the Grand Slam, this race paled into insignificance versus those things. If I did lasting damage by battling out the rest of the course I would be inconsolable. I turned around and made my way back to the aid station and that was that. 76 miles of very hard work and 12 weeks of training undone in under 3 hours.
That for me exemplifies the massive gulf between 50 miles/ 100km races and 100 miles. That last 40 miles of a 100 is a totally different level to any other running. Of course the longer you are on your feet, the greater the opportunity there is for something to go wrong. The last 40 miles of a 100 will, for most people, involve a huge amount of walking. Given that, you end up being on your feet for the same time again as the initial 60 miles might have taken. When it gets dark and cold and you're whole body is depleted and in pain it is easy to make mistakes like forgetting to eat and drink or take on salt, or, in my case here, get injured by being sloppy with your gait/ tripping over etc etc.
I hitched a lift back to the start line with one of the volunteers and dragged my leg the 20 yards or so into the start finish tent where I found Ian sitting in a chair surrounded by ultra running legends and admirers alike. He had finished in a time of 12:44 and in the process set the fastest ever time for trail 100 miles on US soil. Tony Krupicka and Hal Koerner had come in shortly after him in 13:18 and 13:24 respectively, both also astonishingly quick times. Ian was humble but obviously elated and after about an hour of sitting around everyone dispersed and head back to their respective hotels.
When I got up the next morning my leg felt dreadful. Negotiating stairs was almost impossible, but we jumped in the car and went back to the start finish to watch some of the last runners come home. There is something really special about watching people who have been out battling their inner demons for 28/29/30 hours finally cross that finishing line. It's a moment you don't forget in a hurry and obviously from my perspective I had huge pangs of regret for not struggling on round to finish. At the same time I also felt what I can only describe was almost pride in myself for not being as stubborn as usual and going on to cause long term damage to prove a point I had proved many times before.
Having spent a little time there we head over to the post race breakfast where Ian recieved many contgratulations for his stellar performance. Watching him sign autographs was kind of surreal and I know he felt the same way, but this is a big and growing community and all of a sudden he had gone from a recognised name albeit on a kind of unknown level, to stardom, overnight. I felt delighted for him that he'd achieved something truly special and that he was about to start getting the kind of support and respect he had probably deserved for some time. It's going to be seriously exciting to watch him race in the future.
For me the question is how long will be off my feet. On top of the knee I have some serious plantar fasciis going on in my right foot and an exacerbated shin split problem in my left leg. I have 8 weeks to umstead so whilst it was no bad bad thing to have got in a 76 mile training run, if I'm out of action fo 6 - 8 weeks it will make Umstead a race too soon. I will travel there irrespective as I have pre paid for flights and entry but as to what capacity I'll be in, racing 100, running 50 or pacing pete for a lap or two who knows. As for Rocky Raccoon you can never say never but I doubt I'll be back. Finishing it once ticks the box and this years DNF doesn't detract from that at all. I still had an awesome time and am pretty sure that if my knee had lasted the course I would have been able to pocket a time somewhere between 18:30 and 19:30 which would have made it a successful start to the year. Still you roll with the punches and in ultra running you will get KO'd occasionally. Hey after all Scott Jurek dropped at 60 miles so I feel my decision was kind of validated by his ;)
Until next time....
The journey out to Houston was as uneventful as I could have hoped for. The 10 hour flight went like a dream with no interruptions and I managed to get some good rest spread out across three seats in the very back row of the plane. The new airline formed out of the merger between Continental and United has left behind probably the best carrier service I've flown with for a very long time. We were told on taking off that the weather in Houston was horrendous with mixed freezing snow and rain icing up the runway. About an hour before landing the pilot let us know that the storm was sufficiently far south for us to land without issue and that hiatus was actually enough time for me to collect the hire car and make the hour drive up I45 to Huntsville where the race is held. I hit the sack straight away not wanting to change my body clock as per the last time I was there for the race. The idea of that being that given the 6 hour time difference if I got to bed at 6pm and woke up at 3am, I would time things perfectly for race morning when we would start at 6am.
I got up at 3am on Friday and went outside to make the drive over the I45 to Wal Mart and stock up on supplies. Unfortunately the entire car was engulfed in a quarter of an inch of ice. It had been blown on by freezing cold winds and was rock hard so it took me literally half an hour to get moving. The roads hadn't been gritted so were extremely slippery. When I turned up at Wal Mart obviously there wasn't a soul in sight but this is America and it was a 24 hour store. I went inside and spent an hour cruising around buying tortillas, turkey, cheese, chips, fruit, bagels, water etc etc most of which were for the race. I spent the rest of the day watching tv in the room waiting for Ian to arrive and for the pre race meeting to start. Ian got in around 2pm and we hit the streets of Huntsville for a 3 mile - ish slow run just to loosen up before the morning.
We got to registration and the race briefing was in full flow, so we snuck around the side and checked in to collect our race numbers and swag bags. At this point Ian met up with his crew for the race, Paul and Meredith Terranova and we spent some time out in the hall with Meredith chatting about different races and his plan of action for the morning. Ian has been running at the top level for a while now. In the lead up to the race we spoke a lot about the speed the other guys in the field had vs his own success on road in particular and how this course might suit him better. Knowing what happened now makes this post from a few weeks ago a little more pertinent!!!! http://runthroughtime.blogspot.com/2011/01/11-days-to-go.html
Meredith and Paul were obviously extremely accomplished runners, Paul recently finishing 2nd just behind Ian in TNF50km in December. They had also had success in pacing runners to success on this course helping 4 previous runners to wins with some breaking CR's in the process. After a massive pasta dinner I left my drop bag with supplies for the Dam Road aid station at mile 6.5/ 12.5 and head back to the hotel for the night.
I got up at 3am for the race with a good nights sleep under my belt. Having run this one before and having done a number of races significantly more challenging since I didn't have pre match nerves. I knew I was capable of running the time that I wanted as long as things went to plan and I really didn't have any other pressures on me than that. If it all worked out then great and I would have the pleasure of watching some of the greats in the sport battle it out up the front of the field due to the lapped format.
I got to the start at 4:45am and it was 23 degrees F outside or minus 5 centigrade in English money. I jumped out of the car and checked my name off of the list and after 5 minutes outside I was freezing cold and shivering. Not a nice start to the morning. I stayed in the warm until 5:54am and then jogged over to the start, switched on my headlamp and joined the Ian a row back from the front. I looked at the line of runners in front of us and left to right picked out Tony Krupicka, Scott Jurek, Hal Koerner, Karl Meltzer a couple of unknown guys and Zach Gingerich on the right. Ian looked ready with his camelbak on and we wished each other good luck before Joe the RD set us on our way at exactly 6am.
The pace at the beginning was slower than I'd expected. I say that with the exception of Zach who sprinted away down the 100 yard straight and wide trail from the start/ finish line. He was out of sight within 30 seconds and that was kind of a shock to see as I imagine it was for all of the other guys. As we got into the first little section of narrower trail the lead guys began to pull away and I was running in maybe 20th spot with a group of 4 guys running together. As we spread out even a few yards it became apparent that my head torch was pitifully weak. I'd changed down from my heavy duty Petzl to a smaller model as I knew I'd only need it for about 45 minutes but it did nothing to cut through the pitch black of the woods. I tripped a few times on the prominent roots and nearly crashed into a tree by one of the many boardwalks in the first 2 miles or so. Neverthless I made good time to the nature centre at mile 3.1 in about 25 minutes and as we got on to the trail to the Dam Road Station at mile 6.5 the sun began to come up and reveal a beautiful day on the trails. The rest of the first 20 mile loop just disappeared in a flash and I was back to the 2 mile out and back section to the start in about 2:45 or so. At that point I knew I would see the front runners coming back past me and sure enough there was Zach running at mile 21.7/ 18.3 for me which put him on roughly 3:05 marathon pace. A couple of minutes later, Ian came past and I gave him some words of encouragement. Directly behind him were Scott, Hal, Anton, Karl, Mike Wolfe and a couple of other guys all running together. Scott was the only one to exchange words as we went past and I kind of guessed that figured as they were all working so hard. I hit 20 miles in 3:02 in 30th spot.
My pacing strategy was simple and was to go 20 hours split down as Loop 1: 3 hours. Loop 2: 3:30. Loop 3: 3:30. Loop 4: 4:30. Loop 5: 5 hours. At 4 mph for the last loop I knew I'd have plenty of fat in there to push towards my best case target of 18 hours. I knew that would be enough for top 20 even with the strength of the field in question and I felt it was achievable before hand.
For loop 2 I grabbed a handheld bottle and some more gels and made good speed out of the gate. I'd run the whole of the first loop including all of the 'bumps' (not really long enough to call them hills). It would be wrong to describe this course as flat as there are some minor undulations which amount to about 5500 feet over 100 miles but you just wouldn't find a trail flatter than this unless you look at canal towpaths which clearly offer the fastest possible terrain, short of road, on which to run. Loop 2 I began to speed hike some of the slightly longer shallow inclines to conserve energy. The heat came up a bit and I hit the marathon point in about 4:05 which was spot on. As I made it out to the 50km point I could feel the ITB in my right leg, ever present in all of my training, tighten up particularly on the downhill sections and it certainly put the fear in to me a little. I tried to protect it where I could but with shin splints in my left leg in the run up to the race also, it was really about balancing the whole situation so that neither became my undoing. I felt a little like I was running on a knife edge and that either could cause a big issue at any time. Still I made decent progress on lap 2 and came back in to the start finish in 6:32, 2 minutes off of target pace and still in exactly 30th place.
Loop 3 I intended to continue running as much of as possible. My legs felt a little weary but as is natural after 40 miles of running and everything else was running as smooth as I could have possibly hoped. I allowed myself to start to think about how many problems with injury and illness I'd suffered in the 12 week build up to this race and how I had always hoped that things would just come together on race day and that the big guy upstairs would allow me to travel the course without any single problem coming to a head. I power hiked the inclines, made it through the 50 mile point in 8:09, stayed sensible with my nutrition and hydration, taking on lots of enduralytes as the heat came up a little towards the low 60s and made good progress back to the 100km mark in 10:27 about 3 minutes up on my plan. By this point, Ian had already come past me on his 4th lap and looked fantastic, flowing freely and easily in a bouncing fashion right down the track. He had a lead now and clearly was out to push that lead rather than sit back and try and hold it.
Loop 4 began in daylight but quickly descended into darkness so I had my torch and a second layer ready. I started to hike a lot more of the trail and knowing that I had 4 hours 30 for this loop I could afford to conserve a lot of energy and have a faster last lap as a result. As I went through 65 miles or so, Ian came barrelling back down the trail past me with Meredith and we had a shouted conversation whereby he informed me he was running a half an hour under CR pace for a 12:45 projected finishing time. I was pretty much speechless. He was obviously going to stamp his name into the record books and put his name on the map of world ultra running. I tried not to get too distracted in his success as I was aware I had a big job left to do myself. I pressed on through Dam Road and on the long lonely ATV trail up to the 70 mile Far Point timing mat which I reached almost bang on 12:30 still pacing perfectly. As I head up the single track from mile 70 to 72 I could feel my leg tightening but nothing worse than I'd had all day. The temperature had dropped massively, around 20 degrees in the space of only an hour and a half and I could feel the cold starting to get in to me so I pushed the pace a little out on the dam and into the aid station at mile 73. I grabbed a large cup of mashed potato which I'd been eating all day and was frankly a revelation and made my way out of there without stopping. At that point I had spent a maximum of 30 seconds at any one aid station all day so hadn't wasted any extra time. As I got on to a section of slightly steeper descent at around mile 74 my right knee pretty much gave way. Anyone who has had ITB issues in the past will know that feeling, when you're running along with no issue and all of a sudden it feels like someone has jammed their thumb right into the side of your kneecap and it almost makes it feel like the leg will collapse. I gathered myself quickly and tried to walk through it but it pretty much seized up and the flex I'd had in it to that stage went entirely to the point where it was locked pretty much straight. I knew I had 2 miles to the aid station so figured I would walk it in and try and shake it off over that time.
This section of trail is a jeep road which undulates down the far side of the park on really easy and very runnable packed sand. I was, however, reduced to an absolutely crippling hobble, striding with my left leg and swinging my right around like a club foot, placing as little pressure on the knee as possible and taking all my weight back on to my left as soon as I physically could. I carried on for maybe half an hour in that fashion with my head down just plugging away. As the knee became tighter and tighter I could feel the ITB stretching across the knee and literally creaking as i held it in place. The temperature was back down to single figures and I knew that wasn't helping the situation. That jeep road became an absolute bastard and I was reduced to going tree to tree for the 2 miles. I managed to make it in to the aid station at mile 76.2 in just over 15 hours. When I worked back I realised it had taken me over 2 hours to cover 3 miles and that had been with a pretty good pace for the first mile of that. I knew my race was out of the window at that point and that I couldn't shake this problem off. I had two choices, continute on and with 15 hours left in the race, hope that my leg eased up a bit to allow me to continue at the previous pace of just over a mile an hour and finish the last 24 in time, or call it a day.
I went back to Rocky Raccoon this year for one reason, to see how fast I could run 100 miles. That would seem to be a little pointless to some people but in the 3 previous attempts at the distance, all of which ended in success but ultimately included long stretches of walking and struggling, I felt I hadn't really had the race I was capable of. In 2009 in my first 100 miler I'd run the course in a very respectable 22:54. When I worked out the average pace I'd need to complete the remaining 24 miles in, I knew it was impossible for me to better that time albeit I was, even with the 2 hours of crawling along, way way ahead of my 2009 splits. I actually left the 76.2 mile point and made my way down the trail back to the start finish. Around 5 minutes in I'd only made a couple of hundred yards at the most and could still see the lights behind me. I stood still felt my knee which was severely inflamed and thought screw this. It wasn't even that difficult a decision. I knew I would hate myself for DNFing a race but I came to the realisation that 1. I have another opportunity to run a decent 100 mile time at Umstead in under 2 months time and that having managed to get into Western States this year and the Grand Slam, this race paled into insignificance versus those things. If I did lasting damage by battling out the rest of the course I would be inconsolable. I turned around and made my way back to the aid station and that was that. 76 miles of very hard work and 12 weeks of training undone in under 3 hours.
That for me exemplifies the massive gulf between 50 miles/ 100km races and 100 miles. That last 40 miles of a 100 is a totally different level to any other running. Of course the longer you are on your feet, the greater the opportunity there is for something to go wrong. The last 40 miles of a 100 will, for most people, involve a huge amount of walking. Given that, you end up being on your feet for the same time again as the initial 60 miles might have taken. When it gets dark and cold and you're whole body is depleted and in pain it is easy to make mistakes like forgetting to eat and drink or take on salt, or, in my case here, get injured by being sloppy with your gait/ tripping over etc etc.
I hitched a lift back to the start line with one of the volunteers and dragged my leg the 20 yards or so into the start finish tent where I found Ian sitting in a chair surrounded by ultra running legends and admirers alike. He had finished in a time of 12:44 and in the process set the fastest ever time for trail 100 miles on US soil. Tony Krupicka and Hal Koerner had come in shortly after him in 13:18 and 13:24 respectively, both also astonishingly quick times. Ian was humble but obviously elated and after about an hour of sitting around everyone dispersed and head back to their respective hotels.
When I got up the next morning my leg felt dreadful. Negotiating stairs was almost impossible, but we jumped in the car and went back to the start finish to watch some of the last runners come home. There is something really special about watching people who have been out battling their inner demons for 28/29/30 hours finally cross that finishing line. It's a moment you don't forget in a hurry and obviously from my perspective I had huge pangs of regret for not struggling on round to finish. At the same time I also felt what I can only describe was almost pride in myself for not being as stubborn as usual and going on to cause long term damage to prove a point I had proved many times before.
Having spent a little time there we head over to the post race breakfast where Ian recieved many contgratulations for his stellar performance. Watching him sign autographs was kind of surreal and I know he felt the same way, but this is a big and growing community and all of a sudden he had gone from a recognised name albeit on a kind of unknown level, to stardom, overnight. I felt delighted for him that he'd achieved something truly special and that he was about to start getting the kind of support and respect he had probably deserved for some time. It's going to be seriously exciting to watch him race in the future.
For me the question is how long will be off my feet. On top of the knee I have some serious plantar fasciis going on in my right foot and an exacerbated shin split problem in my left leg. I have 8 weeks to umstead so whilst it was no bad bad thing to have got in a 76 mile training run, if I'm out of action fo 6 - 8 weeks it will make Umstead a race too soon. I will travel there irrespective as I have pre paid for flights and entry but as to what capacity I'll be in, racing 100, running 50 or pacing pete for a lap or two who knows. As for Rocky Raccoon you can never say never but I doubt I'll be back. Finishing it once ticks the box and this years DNF doesn't detract from that at all. I still had an awesome time and am pretty sure that if my knee had lasted the course I would have been able to pocket a time somewhere between 18:30 and 19:30 which would have made it a successful start to the year. Still you roll with the punches and in ultra running you will get KO'd occasionally. Hey after all Scott Jurek dropped at 60 miles so I feel my decision was kind of validated by his ;)
Until next time....
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
3 Days to Go
Fly tomorrow 11:40am to Houston with Continental Airlines. The last time I got on a plane I was off the back of a 3 day drinking session and had a major panic attack. I will try not to do the same tomorrow but I am anxious to say the least.
Have spent a lot of today visualising the race. I think it's fair to say having run this in 2009 that I know what to expect, but the reality is 100 miles is such a long way that at some point something will inevitably go wrong, it's just about how you cope with it. I want to run the first 60 miles the way I ran the first 42 at Badwater. Just in a nice comfortable zone where I don't push the pace but keep it moderate and steady and the time just flies by. I have a pacing plan but I'm not going to put it on here because I don't want to jinx an already finely balanced situation. Last time I ran 22:54 and that was with a significant delay at the 80 mile aid station and a massive amount of walking on lap 5 from mile 80 in to the finish. It won't take much of an improvement this year to annihilate that time.
Hope to update tomorrow from Motel 6 off the side of the interstate running from Houston up to Huntsville, Texas. It is forecast to snow there tomorrow so I've had to pack all of my cold weather gear. A slightly interesting turn of events to say the least!!!!
Have spent a lot of today visualising the race. I think it's fair to say having run this in 2009 that I know what to expect, but the reality is 100 miles is such a long way that at some point something will inevitably go wrong, it's just about how you cope with it. I want to run the first 60 miles the way I ran the first 42 at Badwater. Just in a nice comfortable zone where I don't push the pace but keep it moderate and steady and the time just flies by. I have a pacing plan but I'm not going to put it on here because I don't want to jinx an already finely balanced situation. Last time I ran 22:54 and that was with a significant delay at the 80 mile aid station and a massive amount of walking on lap 5 from mile 80 in to the finish. It won't take much of an improvement this year to annihilate that time.
Hope to update tomorrow from Motel 6 off the side of the interstate running from Houston up to Huntsville, Texas. It is forecast to snow there tomorrow so I've had to pack all of my cold weather gear. A slightly interesting turn of events to say the least!!!!
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
4 Days to Go
pm: 4 miles.
I fly on Thursday morning so I will fit one more short run in tomorrow and then get my stuff together for the journey. Heathrow to Houston. Houston to Huntsville and Huntsville to the State Park where it will all go down on Saturday morning.
I've enjoyed watching this a couple of times in the past. Look foward to running the course in August.
I fly on Thursday morning so I will fit one more short run in tomorrow and then get my stuff together for the journey. Heathrow to Houston. Houston to Huntsville and Huntsville to the State Park where it will all go down on Saturday morning.
I've enjoyed watching this a couple of times in the past. Look foward to running the course in August.
Monday, 31 January 2011
5 Days to Go
pm: 5 miles easy.
Can feel I have a shin splint in my left leg so will get a sports massage tomorrow to iron that out. Don't need THAT getting any worse right now!!!!
Can feel I have a shin splint in my left leg so will get a sports massage tomorrow to iron that out. Don't need THAT getting any worse right now!!!!
Battersea Park tonight
Sunday, 30 January 2011
6 Days to Go: 5 Step Plan
Last night I got 10 hours sleep, ate two good sized meals and did what I needed to do, rest after a long working week. This afternoon my plan was to split up a slightly longer run into two parts, a shorter faster 4 mile effort and a slower more relaxing 6 mile easy run. I pushed the 4 miles in at 6:30 pace just to get a gauge on how my fitness stands going into next weekend. That is significantly slower than I'd usually do tempo runs because at this stage I don't need to be doing all out efforts, but it didn't feel as relaxed as I'd hoped it would. When I'm back from RR100 I'm going to commit to doing a few shorter local races to try and maintain some speedwork. I do actually enjoy racing and I guess if I get a little smarter about how I train rather than just bashing out miles I might do ok at a few of them.
That would be quite a departure from my current ethos. In my running career I have run 5km once, 10km twice, one half marathon, one 16 miler and 53 races of marathon or longer. My last less than marathon distance race was in May 2008 and consequently I set all my PBs, 5km (19:30), 10km (39:24), half (1:26:04) and full marathon (2:58:07) at the same marathon in Washington last year.
My goal pretty much since I started running has been to enter long, hard races for three reasons: 1. they give me an opportunity to go to incredible places and meet incredible people 2. to find out which races truly blow me away and which don't, so I'll know what I am missing when I can't race as much as I do now and go back year after year to my one or two favourite events and 3. to see if I had the stones to get through anything that's put in front of me. I guess I'm about half of the way down that path now in terms of number of races but more like two thirds in terms of timeframe. The plan has taken on five pretty distinct separate stages.
Step 1 was simply to finish the Marathon Des Sables. Once Jim and I had finished that and the Gobi March, Step 2 was finishing the 4Deserts series. With that done I felt like I'd done enough desert/ multi day races (that and that they cost me every penny I could save) and started to focus on the major single stage events. Step 3 was initiating myself to 100 milers in order to qualify for Badwater (I needed 2 to qualify but you now need 3). I finished RR100 and OD100 and got selected for Badwater which was always my dream race. When a few other things went awry last year I got a chance to run and finish CC100 in October which was a bonus. So I guess with 3 x 100s and Badwater out of the way and with no DNFs I can move on to Step 4: Mountain 100s. RR100 and Umstead are in every way warm up races for this summer, being relatively flat. Western States is the jewel in the crown, my A race for this year, but I will have to have one eye on Vermont, Leadville and Wasatch at all times during it because the whole lot could unravel with one mistake. Step 4 is really a year long goal for 2011, run and finish the Grand Slam plus get a couple of other 100s under my belt and Comrades which I am really excited about also. That really just leaves Step 5 and that is tackle 5 races which are arguably all harder than anything I will have done yet (Badwater aside): HURT, Hardrock, Spartathlon, UTMB (strike 3) and Arrowhead/ Yukon Arctic.
(Step 6 is Barkley. I'll show up on the startline for that if 1. I'm unlucky enough to get picked and 2. I've run everything else and can face up to the utter misery of it).
I read an interview today, with an old school ultra runner out in the States who still enters multi day lapped events and runs 40 miles every other day. His comment was that while you're young, you should stick to shorter distances and get into ultra's only as you get older and inevitably, slower. As much as I love long hard stuff he is right and I do want to do a little more shorter distance racing while my legs still go round pretty fast....
Tonight my run was out and back along the Thames Path from Battersea Park in a loop up and over Wandsworth Bridge and back. Considering we are 3 miles from the geographical centre of London we're pretty lucky to have a run like this so close. I get out down there 3 - 4 times per week but it's unbeatable at night. I'll post some photos that I took later on.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
7 Days to Go
For the first time in a long time, no single part of me legs hurts when I go up and down the stairs. It's a nice feeling not to have to walk in a specific way to accommodate an issue. Both my knees feel stronger as a result of a massive reduction in training volume. I will carry on running every day until race day but low mileage. It's been a rocky road of injury and illness to rocky raccoon but inevitably it just depends on how I'm feeling on the day itself as to how it turns out. At least when it has come down to the final run in I've managed to shake off the issues that have plagued the last few weeks.
We are in the process of redesigning the Centurion Running Website at the moment. It seems a little early in the day to give it a complete overhaul, however I really want to have a function on there that allows friends and family to track runners progress during the race and see photos and video as it happens. We used Wordpress to create the current site and it is awesome as a start up, I mean I think what we created for a total cost of about £150 is pretty good actually (bearing in mind it took a hell of a lot of time from myself but more importantly the designer, my good friend Al, to get right) but creating it from scratch will give us the ability to change the framework exactly as we want it. So far we have had 35 runners sign up across all 3 distances and I know of a lot more out there looking to sign up in the near future. So pleased at the support we are receiving the first year and a lot of that is undoubtedly down to the good word being put out there by people like James Adams amongst many others. It's nice to feel part of a real community and bar one or two people on the runners world forum (one in particular who really got my goat), the feedback we've had has been tremendous. There is no way, of course, that we can please everybody but I did and do still feel that there is a vast body of runners out there who will benefit from this race and others like it being brought into existence in the UK. We have British runners right at the top of the ultra running scene at the moment racing all over the world and if more races like the NDW100/ 50 take shape, marked courses with full support ie race conditions, there will be a lot more behind them.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
10 Days to Go
pm: 5 miles.
Starting to get some real energy back now and my legs feel stronger. Had to suppress running longer again today. Trying to be as sensible as I physically can be and remind myself it's not actually going to help at this stage putting in long runs. The old adage states it is far better to get to to the start line over rested than over trained. I try to stick to that principal. Everything is in place for the trip now and I'm starting to get pretty excited. It's going to be a game of two halves. Run steady and smooth for the first 3 laps (100km), eat, drink and prevent chaffing. Then run steady and smooth for 2 more. If I smash into a brick wall again for any reason I'll just have to suffer it out in muted frustration. I hope the ultra gods are with me.
Starting to get some real energy back now and my legs feel stronger. Had to suppress running longer again today. Trying to be as sensible as I physically can be and remind myself it's not actually going to help at this stage putting in long runs. The old adage states it is far better to get to to the start line over rested than over trained. I try to stick to that principal. Everything is in place for the trip now and I'm starting to get pretty excited. It's going to be a game of two halves. Run steady and smooth for the first 3 laps (100km), eat, drink and prevent chaffing. Then run steady and smooth for 2 more. If I smash into a brick wall again for any reason I'll just have to suffer it out in muted frustration. I hope the ultra gods are with me.
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