I'm really excited to be joining Brett and Claire from WhyRun for their Quantock Hills training weekend on 17th-19th May. They have a super location in a beautiful part of Somerset where you can really re-connect yourself with nature. A great way to get back into running after a spring marathon or springboard for a summer of running. I will be doing a training workshop on saturday morning and plan to arrive on Friday evening to be around to chat about training, racing and all things outdoors and active.
Places are going fast so give Brett or Claire a call on 07713 446744.
Answer - it depends !
Back in the days when I was a track runner 2 hours was a long run and I really knew about it for a few days after completing one. But like all training, you get used to it over time and by the time I moved up to the marathon 2 hours was just a normal endurance run and I needed to run 2 hr 45 for it to feel long 'again'.
Where is this post going, well ultimately it could end up with making a case for 6 day racing actually being speedwork for a 1000 mile race but thats going to take a lot of typing to get there. So lets stick at 50 miles being a long way because that is as far as I managed last weekend at the UK 100km championships (left with Dave Mitchinson in the early stages. photo: Davy Johnson).
Those early hours were really enjoyable. The 7am start with a hard frost
on the ground, dawn light and a quiet, empty North Inch Park alongside
which runs the river Tay, tidal and still at that time. And as the race
started to unfold so the park came alive around us. From the first peek
of sunshine at 8am, the early morning dog walkers and joggers and the
gradual thawing of the frost. And as the tide turned the river started
to pick up moment, football players emerged for their sunday kickabout
and folks walked round the park working up an appetite for sunday lunch.
While we kept running. Round and round the 2.3km loop.
For the first time as a runner the distance beat me with my legs finally giving up at about 82km. Not the feared marathon runners wall, or dehydration. Just a bunch of muscle fibres that had done 20,000 repetitions on each leg and were done, well and truly done ! It was a somewhat surreal and humbling experience being reduced to a shuffle as runners started to unlap themselves, my earlier relaxed bouncy stride totally evaporated.
And for those of you who have experienced it in a marathon you know will know what its all about. As the muscles start to tire the legs feel heavy, in my case it was quads and adductors and over a period of time you just stop bouncing off the road and every impact leaves you closer to the tarmac.
This feeling started just before 60km when I had 4 hours of running on the clock. Pace was solid, running consistently around 6.30 miles and I had been getting plenty of drinks and food into me - in fact one of the consequences of the slower than marathon running and very cold morning was the need to stop and pee every hour or so, something I have never experienced in a race.
The slide started with soreness in the quads and a noticeably less bouncy stride. Within a couple of laps I was running slower though still going OK when GB 24 hour runner Robbie Britton caught me and kept me company for a lap or so. He explained that this was likely to be a temporary blip and that I should be prepared to walk a lap if necessary, get some food into me and stretch out the stiffness. Armed with such sound advice when the wheels came off a couple of laps later (left) I did just that. Walked the rest of the lap, had a massage and stretch, got some more food and a hot drink into me and jumped off the massage table ready for renewed battle. Hmm, not so good after all.
Making the most of things meant alternating walking and shuffling then trying a different recovery strategy at the end of each lap. Coffee, fail. Flat coke, fail. Assisted squats, fail. Massage again, fail. Not very encouraging. But still being the 3rd England counter the message from team managent was clear - stay out there ! So I obliged, for 3 1/2 hours in which I covered a meagre 21km. By that time I had been passed by Dave who was going significantly faster than me even though he didn't seem to be enjoying himself too much either. At one point I was even reduced to running backwards out of curiosity about the condition of my hamstrings and depressingly I was faster going backwards than forwards.
And then the moment of truth. 34 laps done and I decided to sit down, never to get up again depsite the best efforts of Robbie (who had by now finished his 50km race that he was using as a 'sharpener' for the World 24 hour champs). In my mind I had covered 50 miles and more, the longest I had ever run by far and my body was done for the day. Up at the front of the race experienced ultra runner Craig Holgate ran through the field to take the UK title and finish second overall behind Irelands Dan Doherty. I need to get some quads like his !
Finally I've got a few minutes to write about last Saturday's Southern Cross Country at Parliament Hill.
Pre-race much of the talk was about whether the orginal event shoudl have postponed from January because of the weather and what effect it would have on the strength of the fields. Without having visited the course on the originally race days its hard to say whether postponement was the right decision, however getting the race back on even with reduced fields was definitely a good call - once races miss a year its very easy to miss more and slide into oblivion.
For those unfamiliar with the Southern its a throw back to the old days when championship cross country races were 9 miles. In recent years the international 12km standard has been adopted for our regional and national championships but the Southern stuck with the old 9 miles - one of the few occasions when failing to move with the times is a good thing ! This makes it a real test, especially as the hilly course can get pretty muddy in places.
On the start line I was having some good banter with Ben Noad and a few of the other more 'experienced' runners at the expense of the low mileage/interval trained runners who were about to suffer for their lack of real endurance. Whilst club mate Frank Tickner put on a demonstration at the front of the race I had probably my best XC race for years as I worked my way through the field from about 50th at the top of the first hill to 30th after 1 lap, 19th after 2 laps and eventually into 14th place a stones throw behind my old sparring partner Huw Lobb who had a good day in 13th place as he also prepares for a spring ultra marathon.
The trick on a course like this is to manage your effort, saving energy through the mud and big hills so that you can use on the faster parts of the course. And of course controlling yourself on the first of 3 big laps so you have something left for the last lap otherwise you can easily find yourself treading water in the thick mud in those closing miles.
Reflecting on what has contributed to a better than usual performance 2 things stuck out for me. I've been doing more longer hilly runs this winter as I gear up for my first 100km race in the spring and that definitely gave me a strength in my legs that has been missing since my last full marathon buid up in 2009. And the second thing has been getting to grips with cross-country skiing this winter which seems to have had a positive impact on my glute and hip flexor strength and mobilty enabling me to run through the mud like I could 20 years ago - more on the cross country skiing in a future post.
And if you are reading this having also run on Saturday and your legs are still tired then you are not alone ! While I felt great at the finish its fair to say that my legs have been pretty battered all week and are only just starting to feel right again. Looking forward to nice supercompensation from the effort :-)
Long live the 9 mile Southern at Parliament Hill !
In the absence of any official results on the SEAA website here is a link to the results on the Milton Keynes site.
Loved this race as always, Hampstead Heatrh at its testing best !
Us runners love our beer and for a couple of decades now the brewers have been trying to come up with an alcohol free beer that actually tastes like real beer. So here is a quick review of the current best efforts for those of you looking for something lighter.
First up is Beck's Blue. Available in packs of 275ml bottles this is one of the most popular alcohol free beers available and made by removing the alcohol after the beer has been brewed out. The taste can best be described as a bit metallic and while its definitely recognisable as a lager it is definitely on the thin side. I found this beer was at its best when very served very cold and its refreshing for a post training run tipple.
Next up is Cobra Zero. Packs of four for this one and nice sized bottles that look good in the fridge. This is the marmite of beers in more ways than one ! It has a similar yeasty taste and apparently that is down to the brewing process. The fermentation is stopped almost as soon as it is started, hence the yeasty flavour. I tried this beer cold, at room temperature and very cold indeed but nothing I could do made it palatable for me. Even pairing it with a fiery curry failed to disguise the taste. Not my favourite and no doubt some folks will love it.
Last in the test was Erdinger Alkohol Frei. Getting hold of it was much trickier than for the market leaders and its only available in UK in a 500ml bottle. This is a version of Erdinger's Weissbier and a very good job they have made of it too. It looks like a weissbier and the taste is remarkably close to that of the standard product. The extra body of a weissbier probably off sets the lack of alcohol ensuring that the beer isn't thin or tinny. It goes well with food or just own its own, chilled. The one caveat with this one is that it does actually contain a miniscule 0.4% alcohol so may not be suitable for the teetoal !
And the winner ....
Erdinger Alkohol Frei - prost !
One of my favourite marathon runners announced his retirement today. Felix Limo had a purple patch from 2004-06 winning several of the marathon majors. We first met at Amsterdam in 2003 when both making our marathon debuts - his considerably faster than mine ! He was changing on the peg across from mine in the old Olympic stadium and was happy to exchange a few friendly words before heading out onto the track for the start. He came second in 2:06:42 that day, narrowly beaten by William Kispang who I vividly remember devouring the most enormous breakfast on race morning: bacon, sausage, eggs, fried potatos, the works. He waddled away from the table with a belly looking like he was heavil pregnant with twins. And then three hours later 2.06, unbelievable.
My other meeting with Felix was at London 2006 (left) . He had blown away the field to win in 2.06 on a wet day defeating amongst others Haile G. We were sitting at the back of the bus on our way to the river boat to get back to the Tower hotel and he was chatting away without a care in the world, talking about life back home and how he would be relaxing after his marathon win.
Just a very polite, modest guy and good company.
