Less than 4 weeks to go to the Atacama Crossing 2010.
I'm still working through my mental approach issues. I'll let you know how that goes as it improves. Thanks for all the emails and comments from last weeks post. One way to help myself, is to ensure I'm fully prepared in other areas. I'm happy with my fitness. I had a lighter recovery week last week. A 3 mile flatout on Tuesday, as posted about previously, then two 5 miles runs to work, with a backpack. I rested at the weekend but will catchup and do my long run tonight after work (12 miles probably), no doubt starting and finishing in very dark coldness - it's chilly again here in the UK. I got my weeks mixed up - last wekeend wasn't the Anglezarke Amble which I said I wasn't going to do. Turns out it is this weekend coming. So, I've entered. I decided to risk it, since I'll get worried I'll lose my fitness if I don't do a decent distance before the Atacama Crossing. The AA is 24 miles long, bleak, and pretty hilly - getting on for 4000ft of ascent. It basically consists of moor, moor and more moor...oh and hills. I'l be doing a couple of 11 milers mid week too. This time next week I'll begin to taper for the event.
I'm considering some Hypoxic training over the next few weeks after reading one competitor used it last year (maybe more?). It's using a bike or treadmill wearing an oxygen mask, simulating the required altitude. I spoke to a place in London and it turns out that quite a few other Atacama Crossing competitors are already doing it, sufficient enough numbers that they have organised a special programme and price anyway. Essentially, it's 2 supervised intro sessions (2 x £45), then unlimited use of the exercise facility for the next month (£200). I don't live nearby enough to use it every day (optimal), but I could probably get 3 sessions in a week for the next month (better than nothing?). I'm going to speak to them this week and read around the subject to see if there is any research papers to say it actually works. If you happen to know already, please let me know if it's worth it. Obviously nothing beats those guys I read who are getting out to Chile a week or two early to properly acclimitise, but I can't take a month off work! Failing that, I'll walk around with a pair of socks in my mouth for month, as that pretty realistically simulates running at that altitude - I'll let you decde if I'm joking or not.
The other area I can ensure I'm fully prep'd on is my kit. I've more or less finalised my kit now, and my food. Standing on the start line of day 1 my backpack should weigh a little under 7kg, then I will have water ration on top of that. My backpack weight with all equipment contents will be 3.2kg, and my food will be almost 3.8kg (after breakfast is eaten before the start); so 7kg.
What am I taking?
I thought it might be useful to post them for anyone still pondering any equipment choices. These are just my thoughts. I'm not saying my choices are perfect (or even half right!), but I know what worked for me last time and it's mostly the same choices as last year (and tried and test in other deserts) - but this year stripped down to even more to bare essentials really. I've hyperlinked as many items as I could to make it easy for you to see what I am using. Pretty much all itmes I found I could now source at the cheapest prices (I compared a few websites for price and range being the bargain hunter that I am!) from RTPs new online store. I've hyperlinked the UK store website, but all the same items you can get from their international store as well I imagine. The delivery was very cheap and fast; a flat rate £3.50 and came by Fed-Ex courier the next day, so full marks to RTP for that. Last year I had to shop around for my kit and food from about 10 different online stores and paid 10 delivery charges, so this has saved me the hassle, as well as money. My sleeping bag and down vest were from PHDesigns in the UK; a well known supplier to desert competitors, as well as Arctic ones. The other items you can buy more or less anywhere.
750g - Backpack - OMM Classic Marathon 32L Backpack (includes a whistle and tiny sleeping mat)
15g - Backpack LED - Flashing LED Safety Light
60g (30gx2)Drinks System - OMM I-Gamy Bottle Holster x 2
160g (80gx2)Drinks System - OMM Ultra Bottle (500ml) x 2
100g - Drinks System - SIS 1 x 1000ml water Bottle
- Total drinks capacity of 2 litre as per requirement.
66g - Torch - Petzl Tikka 2 with 3x Lithium batteries
30g - Backup Torch - Black Diamond Ion
50g - Space blanket
7g - 20 safety pins
200g - Blister Kit + pain relief meds
40g - Compass - Silva
26g - Knife - 4 Deserts SwissCard
15g - Medicated Lip Balm; Sun Block, 0.15 oz, SPF 30
376g – Ultralight down Sleeping Bag +8C rated (clothes must be worn to supplement this)
230g - Sleeping Mat - Therm-A-Rest Prolite – extra small to use with backpack sleeping mat
200g - Thermarest compressible Pillow – priceless!
70g - Hand Cleansing Alcohol gel
79g - P20 once a day suncream – ½ bottle decanted
10g - Light My Fire Spork
2g - 6 x disposable earplugs
10g - Chlorine Tablets
50g – 14x wet wipes
10g – toilet paper
Clothes
Wearing this - Eye Protection – Oakleys
Wearing this - Railriders Adventure Top (inc patches)
Wearing this - Skins Sport Long Tights – day and night
Wearing this - Helly Hansen Seamless boxer shorts
Wearing this - Running Shoes – New Balance MT840
Wearing this - RaidLight Stop-Run Gaiters
Wearing this – Nike Running Cushioned socks
Wearing this – Asics socks (over the Nikes)
Wearing this - Outdoor Research Sun Runner Cap
140g - Montane Featherlite Marathon Jacket – evenings and asleep
40g - Icebreaker Pocket 200 – evenings and asleep
36g - Hilly Gloves - evenings
40g (2x20g) - Nike Running Cushioned socks x 2 - spare
40g – Asics socks - spare
150g – Helly Hansen LIFA – evenings and asleep
150g - Ultra Lightweight down vest – evening and asleep
So all that lot, plus a few minor items weighs around 3.2kg
Food - My daily menu is more or less the same, with different flavours of electrolyte, snack bars and evening meals. As follows:
111g - Cereals and powdered milk 418 kcal
50g - SIS PSP22 carb drink (breakfast) 187 kcal
123g - Nuts bar 212 kcal x 3(41g) (636 kcal total)
26g - Peperami 126 kcal
150g - SIS - Go Electrolyte 175 kcal x 3(50g) (525 kcal total)
50g - SIS Rego recovery powder 175 kcal
133g - Evening Meal – Mountain House Chicken Tikka 592 kcal
12g - Vacuum sealed in a vac bag
1 day total - 660g - 2659 kcal
The long stage food menu has more snack bars and electrolyte. There is less food on the rest day and final stage. Giving a grand total of, for food: 3799g, 15259kcal For many people, this won't be enough food. I'm quite a light frame, about 64kg, so I can get by on this amount.
So, all of these things are to keep my mind busy and make me happy in the knowledge that I have prepared as well as I can. The mental prep continues.
Have a good week.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
46 mile ultra training run
Physically, I am ready.
Last week I did my three mile flat out session on Tuesday as I mentioned in my last post, and some work in the gym afterwards. This week I did 15 mins at 13.8kph, then upped it by 0.2 every minute after, and ran the last 30 secs at 15kph. I covered 4.68km in 20 minutes. I need to cover 4.82km (3 miles), so I am near yet far. I worked out I have to run an average 14.5mph for 20 mins to get that target, so I am going to have to either just do that exactly, or start slower (like I am doing) and massively overcompensate in the later minutes. I think I am going to try the steady approach. I’ll run the first 15 mins at 14 or 14.2 next week and see how I get on. This has become a “must do now”. Overall that target is 6:40 minute miles average, which would be 12 seconds per mile faster than I ever remember doing it previously over 3 miles. I’d take that as a guarantee I’m fitter than ever before.
On Wednesday and Thursday I completed two 7 mile road runs, deliberately doing a few miles less than planned because of the increased distance I would tackle on Saturday. I did my gym session on Thursday as planned too. Now that just left the ultra distance training session.
It’s been probably 18 months (the Kalahari 2008) since I last tackled a distance over 40 miles. So, it would be fair to say there were a few nerves, a few worries, some nagging doubts. Could I still do it, I asked myself. It was a gamble. If I completed it, then I get the ultimate confidence booster going into the event; that I can tackle the long day distance that I will face in Chile. If I failed, for whatever reason, then it would just make the possibility of failure in Chile all the more real. It’s a mental strength thing. It’s unlikely in Chile that I’m going to get unlucky and get sick again, like last year, so really the success should lie in my own fitness. The problem is that it’s not just your physical fitness that is tested. These races are more about mental strength that anything else. It’s your own belief in yourself that you can succeed that is the difference between completing and not. Every day out there I am going to feel hot, short of oxygen and generally pretty rough. My mind will be screaming at me to throw in the towel. It’s a feeling that you get more used to, you push through and hopefully succeed. More of this later, back to the ultra training run.
So, I carefully planned a 50 miles route that would take me to “a hill” that I can see on the horizon from a nearby hill to my home. I looked at local maps and determined that the hill was the one on which Beeston Castle, near Tarporley in Cheshire was atop. I planned my route to mostly avoid the road, using major footpaths, canal tow paths and lesser footpaths and fields where necessary. It would be a full moon, so hopefully there would be enough light for me to find my way as I would start out around 4am. I transferred the map and route onto my PDA, and charged an extra battery. I filled 2.5litres of electrolyte, tested it was flowing, packed plenty of warm clothes as it would be -3 to 0C all day. I weighed my pack 5.5kg – perfect. The kind of weight I would expect to be carrying on the long day in Chile. I went to bed early, slept quite well and got up at 3:45. I ate some breakfast, had some tea and got ready. By the time all of this was done, and I had taken my PDA off charge, having to reset it because it had hung, it was almost 4:30am when I started. It was dark, but clear, with the promised full moon providing some extra light.
I didn’t need to look at my PDA for the first 8 miles, as I knew the way. I ran up the hill outside my house and then over the field to stand by the Wedgwood Monument, a needle monolith that marks the highest point near me, and one where in daylight I can spot my “hill”. Of course all I could see were streetlights in patches for 30 miles in every direction with darkness in between. I paused for a second, just a mile into the route, contemplating the 45+ miles ahead of me. Those worries crept in again as I kicked off down the hill and set on my way. I had deliberately chosen as flat a route as possible, again emulating much of the long day across the salt flats and plains of the Atacama basin. The route would only have around 2000ft of ascent and no serious hills to tackle, other that the one I had already climbed, and some steady inclines along the way. About 2 miles later I tried to take a drink from my camelback; nothing came through. What? I had checked the flow. I looked at the tube and felt it; it has hard, frozen solid in the sub zero temperatures. A problem this early on wasn’t a good omen I thought, especially not for someone worrying about their ability to complete the distance even in perfect conditions. I remembered watching a programme about Everest and the climbed had to keep the drinking tubes in their jackets, near their skin and body heat to ensure the tube did not freeze. I pushed the cold tube down inside my jacket, next to my chest and ran on. 10 minutes later it had thawed and I could drink again. I left the tube out, only for it to refreeze in minutes. It was obviously colder than I thought I put the tube back against my skin, and there it would stay in between sips.
So, for the first 8 miles I ran over some fields, past a few farms, and then a long road. I knew where every stile was, every fence, it was all very familiar. Then I got to 7.7 miles, the limit of where I could remember the route from memory and took out my PDA, installed with Memory Map and GPS guided. My route was missing. The nice red line that I had drawn on the map had vanished. I quickly realised that when the PDA had hung it had not properly saved the route. It had been there, I had checked it, but it had been wiped when the PDA was reset even though the map itself remained. I was cursing that something could go wrong so early, yet too far away from home to do anything about. I would have to try and remember the route and draw it onto the map now. I had studied the route in some detail, so it took but a few minutes to redraw it. Crisis over and I continued, now using the PDA to navigate. I soon turned off the main road and into a field, it was waterlogged, so I soon got my feet wet. Next it was up over a footbridge over a train line and then which way? I had GPS but it was so dark that I could not see the stile in the next field. I had to run across and search around to find it. This was no good, it was costing me time. The same happened in the next field, and I ended up to my ankles in nasty silage in the darkness. My head torch did not give enough light that I could navigate across the fields. I knew right away that this was not going to be sustainable. I could not stumble way in the darkness, searching the hedges for the stiles until it got light, about 7:30am.
I made my way across farmland, spooking a herd of cows who decided to stampede, luckily away from me. I emerged onto the main road, and looked at my map. There was no choice, I was going to have to use a road route, at least until it got light. It was going to be slightly shorter, and harder underfoot (I was in trail shoes) but this was the only option . The last 20 minutes had raised my slightly sensitive stress levels at the moment, and to be back on the road with all the streetlights and intermittent houses was comforting in a way. I ran along feeling better already, heading through Brough and Shavington near Crewe and then on towards Nantwich, eating up the miles and happy that I could still remember the LDS; the long distance shuffle - a running pace whith a backpack that doesn’t feel like you are running. It’s slow and sustainable, perhaps running at 5.5mph. I took this photo as it started to get a little lighter.
I got to Nantwich town centre and people setting up their market stalls gave me directions to the public toilets where I could go to the loo and also refill my water. I hadn’t used it all, but I would top it up, unsure when I could get any more en-route. I had done 16 miles at this point, and after this brief stop I was off again heading West out of Nantwich and into a small village called Acton. Just as I came through Acton dawn broke behind me
Simultaneously ahead of my I glimpsed my “hill” for the first time, the dawn sun lighting it up; something quite poetic about that. I could now switch back to my original route, so straight away headed off the road and onto footpath. Here I took the photo I always take when I am in the desert, the 60ft shadow shot.
With any luck I won’t be taking this shot in the long day of the Atacama, I will be in bed well before!
Here another shot taken from the same place and time, back towards sunrise.
I headed over the fields and then rejoined the road for a while before back over the fields to Bunbury. It was getting colder, there was a heavy frost on the already rock hard fields. I emerged from the fields into a small country lane on the outskirts of Bunbury to a light covering of snow, as pictured.
Still, the day was clear, it was going to be sunny, but it was going to stay freezing cold all day. I headed into Bunbury, and began a steady descent out of it, then crossed the main road to this road sign. Almost there...
So, I was almost there. I headed across the busy road and into the country lane which would take me towards the castle. I stopped and took this shot of the castle.
Rather than continue on the road, I decided to head straight across the field towards it. I stopped about quarter of a mile short at a fence boundary and looked down at my watch. 24 miles done. It seemed like a sensible place to stop and return. I knew you had to pay to go to the top of Beeston Castle, and it was just reaching the hill I was always aiming for. It’s not a big hill or serious climb anyway. I took these two photos. Beeston Castle and then Peckforton Castle which is on the smaller opposite hill.
I had been snacking on muesli bars as I had been running. I made sure I ate at least once an hour, even when I didn’t feel hungry. I had run every step of the way so far. I decided that I would walk back towards the main road, about ¾ of a mile away and take on a lot of food, to fuel me properly for the run back. I wasn’t tired, I felt good, but the brief walk would allow me to stock up and kick off for home at a good pace. I ate some crisps, another muesli bar and drank plenty of water. As soon as I got back to the main road again, I kicked off, ran back through Bunbury and back over the fields reversing my route. I ran along at my easy pace, just zoning out, eating up more miles, eating food as I went, just taking one shot as I crossed the Shropshire Union Canal.
I didn’t stop running until I got to Nantwich again, having run 32 miles. I stopped in the same public toilets, in what was now a very busy town centre. I got more than a few strange looks as I made my way through the town centre. Annoyingly, my camelback clogged after I had just refilled it. I didn’t want to waste time with it, so I walked into a nearby petrol station and bought 2 bottles of Lucozade Sport (a litre), which I hoped would see me through the remaining 15 miles back. I drank one of these fairly quickly as I walked, clearing the town centre, then ran on again. By 38 miles I was starting to feel a little tired. All the hard ground was taking it’s toll on my knees and ankles. Where possible I would run on a grass verge, but that seemed to hurt just as much, and I would be glad to get back on hard ground. Seconds later I would wish for soft ground again, and so it continued as I headed back through Shavington and Brough.
I got to the place that earlier I had realised my route had not been transferred onto my PDA. I knew I had 7.7 miles left. I took a conscious walking break of perhaps half a mile, walking up a gentle hill and then ran again. It was getting harder now and by 42 miles my legs were pretty heavy. It’s unfortunate that there it is all uphill from this point. I flipped between running and walking the hills. I walked the last steep hill on the road, and then ran the final less steep hill back up toward the Wedgewood Monument where I had stood in darkness that morning, worrying if I was capable of it.
I was a mile from home, it was all downhill from here. I climbed up the steps to the monument a little triumphantly, hummed the Rocky theme tune but no crowd of cheering children appeared and touched the stone. I took towards the horizon and saw “the hill” 23 miles away. It’s the small dot, almost exactly dead centre.
Today more than any other time ever, I felt like an Ultra athlete. I had run more than ever over this kind of distance. I walked a couple of times to eat and then on the hills towards the end. Apart from that I ran it with my backpack all the way. I stepped down from the monument, and got some sharp pain my right leg. I was worried about it for a few minutes, but it seems fine. I think it was my body relaxing, knowing that home was near. I ran the last mile down the hill to my house, feeling tired, a little rough, but happy. Final stats: 46 miles, 1900ft of ascent, 9hrs 40 minutes, 4.8mph average. No blisters, not even a hotspot, not a mark on my feet. I had worn a brand new pair of untested shoes, which should go against all advice (never try out new things on bif events!); However, they are an updated model of the ones I wore in the Kalahari where my feet also stayed near perfect. I'll be using my New Balance 840's in Chile then.
Here is the route I actually did, running right to left, and back.
That should have given me the mental boost I needed. It did, for about 5 minutes...
I was supposed to do the Anglezark Amble this weekend, but read that I was supposed to enter in advance. No online entry and no entry on the day. Maybe I could get a postal entry in, but it’s about 25 miles and it’s mostly boggy moorland and hills. Nothing like the Atacama terrain and now as the event approaches I start to worry about getting injured. Turning an ankle on rough moor. I’ve made a decision not to do it. The distance isn’t a challenge for me, so the event is more risk than benefit. I am going to visit my uncle and get some more chiropractic treatment at the weekend instead. I may do another 20 miler the weekend after instead.
So...
Physically I am ready... Mentally, I am struggling at the moment.
For a lot of reasons; self doubt - I worry about the altitude, I worry about getting sick again, I worry about the temperature. Most of all I just worry that my mind will let me down. Convince me I am dying when I am not, and I throw in the towel and fail. Failing is the worst fear. The slightest problem on the event can set off self doubt, your morale goes and it’s the end of the world. Right now, the slightest problems here at home are causing me to worry. Recently parting ways with my girlfriend hasn’t helped matters at all, plus long weeks of work, too much travel and no rest at weekends, and bad sleep means that it feels like I never stop. I’m doing everything with my foot to the floor, and stress is having its effect.
I know my fitness isn’t in question. I will doubtless be physically fitter than some others taking part. I am fit enough to tackle any distance in the Atacama, easily. All of this should be improving my mental strength, but it’s not right now. This isn’t the right attitude to be going the hardest race of my life with. I need to gain the single focus and will to succeed because it’s only my mind that will stop me out there, and the mind is far more powerful in these events than miles under the belt. I’m not sure what I can do to improve things right now. Nothing is going right. I’m trying to type with a burned hand, plastered in cream, which I just scalded with boiling water, trying to make myself a cup of soothing herbal tea to chill me out. I’d laugh at the irony of that under normal circumstances. Somehow I missed the cup and poured the fresh boiling water all over my hand. You have those days when things go wrong. At the moment, that’s every day.
Last week I did my three mile flat out session on Tuesday as I mentioned in my last post, and some work in the gym afterwards. This week I did 15 mins at 13.8kph, then upped it by 0.2 every minute after, and ran the last 30 secs at 15kph. I covered 4.68km in 20 minutes. I need to cover 4.82km (3 miles), so I am near yet far. I worked out I have to run an average 14.5mph for 20 mins to get that target, so I am going to have to either just do that exactly, or start slower (like I am doing) and massively overcompensate in the later minutes. I think I am going to try the steady approach. I’ll run the first 15 mins at 14 or 14.2 next week and see how I get on. This has become a “must do now”. Overall that target is 6:40 minute miles average, which would be 12 seconds per mile faster than I ever remember doing it previously over 3 miles. I’d take that as a guarantee I’m fitter than ever before.
On Wednesday and Thursday I completed two 7 mile road runs, deliberately doing a few miles less than planned because of the increased distance I would tackle on Saturday. I did my gym session on Thursday as planned too. Now that just left the ultra distance training session.
It’s been probably 18 months (the Kalahari 2008) since I last tackled a distance over 40 miles. So, it would be fair to say there were a few nerves, a few worries, some nagging doubts. Could I still do it, I asked myself. It was a gamble. If I completed it, then I get the ultimate confidence booster going into the event; that I can tackle the long day distance that I will face in Chile. If I failed, for whatever reason, then it would just make the possibility of failure in Chile all the more real. It’s a mental strength thing. It’s unlikely in Chile that I’m going to get unlucky and get sick again, like last year, so really the success should lie in my own fitness. The problem is that it’s not just your physical fitness that is tested. These races are more about mental strength that anything else. It’s your own belief in yourself that you can succeed that is the difference between completing and not. Every day out there I am going to feel hot, short of oxygen and generally pretty rough. My mind will be screaming at me to throw in the towel. It’s a feeling that you get more used to, you push through and hopefully succeed. More of this later, back to the ultra training run.
So, I carefully planned a 50 miles route that would take me to “a hill” that I can see on the horizon from a nearby hill to my home. I looked at local maps and determined that the hill was the one on which Beeston Castle, near Tarporley in Cheshire was atop. I planned my route to mostly avoid the road, using major footpaths, canal tow paths and lesser footpaths and fields where necessary. It would be a full moon, so hopefully there would be enough light for me to find my way as I would start out around 4am. I transferred the map and route onto my PDA, and charged an extra battery. I filled 2.5litres of electrolyte, tested it was flowing, packed plenty of warm clothes as it would be -3 to 0C all day. I weighed my pack 5.5kg – perfect. The kind of weight I would expect to be carrying on the long day in Chile. I went to bed early, slept quite well and got up at 3:45. I ate some breakfast, had some tea and got ready. By the time all of this was done, and I had taken my PDA off charge, having to reset it because it had hung, it was almost 4:30am when I started. It was dark, but clear, with the promised full moon providing some extra light.
I didn’t need to look at my PDA for the first 8 miles, as I knew the way. I ran up the hill outside my house and then over the field to stand by the Wedgwood Monument, a needle monolith that marks the highest point near me, and one where in daylight I can spot my “hill”. Of course all I could see were streetlights in patches for 30 miles in every direction with darkness in between. I paused for a second, just a mile into the route, contemplating the 45+ miles ahead of me. Those worries crept in again as I kicked off down the hill and set on my way. I had deliberately chosen as flat a route as possible, again emulating much of the long day across the salt flats and plains of the Atacama basin. The route would only have around 2000ft of ascent and no serious hills to tackle, other that the one I had already climbed, and some steady inclines along the way. About 2 miles later I tried to take a drink from my camelback; nothing came through. What? I had checked the flow. I looked at the tube and felt it; it has hard, frozen solid in the sub zero temperatures. A problem this early on wasn’t a good omen I thought, especially not for someone worrying about their ability to complete the distance even in perfect conditions. I remembered watching a programme about Everest and the climbed had to keep the drinking tubes in their jackets, near their skin and body heat to ensure the tube did not freeze. I pushed the cold tube down inside my jacket, next to my chest and ran on. 10 minutes later it had thawed and I could drink again. I left the tube out, only for it to refreeze in minutes. It was obviously colder than I thought I put the tube back against my skin, and there it would stay in between sips.
So, for the first 8 miles I ran over some fields, past a few farms, and then a long road. I knew where every stile was, every fence, it was all very familiar. Then I got to 7.7 miles, the limit of where I could remember the route from memory and took out my PDA, installed with Memory Map and GPS guided. My route was missing. The nice red line that I had drawn on the map had vanished. I quickly realised that when the PDA had hung it had not properly saved the route. It had been there, I had checked it, but it had been wiped when the PDA was reset even though the map itself remained. I was cursing that something could go wrong so early, yet too far away from home to do anything about. I would have to try and remember the route and draw it onto the map now. I had studied the route in some detail, so it took but a few minutes to redraw it. Crisis over and I continued, now using the PDA to navigate. I soon turned off the main road and into a field, it was waterlogged, so I soon got my feet wet. Next it was up over a footbridge over a train line and then which way? I had GPS but it was so dark that I could not see the stile in the next field. I had to run across and search around to find it. This was no good, it was costing me time. The same happened in the next field, and I ended up to my ankles in nasty silage in the darkness. My head torch did not give enough light that I could navigate across the fields. I knew right away that this was not going to be sustainable. I could not stumble way in the darkness, searching the hedges for the stiles until it got light, about 7:30am.
I made my way across farmland, spooking a herd of cows who decided to stampede, luckily away from me. I emerged onto the main road, and looked at my map. There was no choice, I was going to have to use a road route, at least until it got light. It was going to be slightly shorter, and harder underfoot (I was in trail shoes) but this was the only option . The last 20 minutes had raised my slightly sensitive stress levels at the moment, and to be back on the road with all the streetlights and intermittent houses was comforting in a way. I ran along feeling better already, heading through Brough and Shavington near Crewe and then on towards Nantwich, eating up the miles and happy that I could still remember the LDS; the long distance shuffle - a running pace whith a backpack that doesn’t feel like you are running. It’s slow and sustainable, perhaps running at 5.5mph. I took this photo as it started to get a little lighter.
I got to Nantwich town centre and people setting up their market stalls gave me directions to the public toilets where I could go to the loo and also refill my water. I hadn’t used it all, but I would top it up, unsure when I could get any more en-route. I had done 16 miles at this point, and after this brief stop I was off again heading West out of Nantwich and into a small village called Acton. Just as I came through Acton dawn broke behind me
Simultaneously ahead of my I glimpsed my “hill” for the first time, the dawn sun lighting it up; something quite poetic about that. I could now switch back to my original route, so straight away headed off the road and onto footpath. Here I took the photo I always take when I am in the desert, the 60ft shadow shot.
With any luck I won’t be taking this shot in the long day of the Atacama, I will be in bed well before!
Here another shot taken from the same place and time, back towards sunrise.
I headed over the fields and then rejoined the road for a while before back over the fields to Bunbury. It was getting colder, there was a heavy frost on the already rock hard fields. I emerged from the fields into a small country lane on the outskirts of Bunbury to a light covering of snow, as pictured.
Still, the day was clear, it was going to be sunny, but it was going to stay freezing cold all day. I headed into Bunbury, and began a steady descent out of it, then crossed the main road to this road sign. Almost there...
So, I was almost there. I headed across the busy road and into the country lane which would take me towards the castle. I stopped and took this shot of the castle.
Rather than continue on the road, I decided to head straight across the field towards it. I stopped about quarter of a mile short at a fence boundary and looked down at my watch. 24 miles done. It seemed like a sensible place to stop and return. I knew you had to pay to go to the top of Beeston Castle, and it was just reaching the hill I was always aiming for. It’s not a big hill or serious climb anyway. I took these two photos. Beeston Castle and then Peckforton Castle which is on the smaller opposite hill.
I had been snacking on muesli bars as I had been running. I made sure I ate at least once an hour, even when I didn’t feel hungry. I had run every step of the way so far. I decided that I would walk back towards the main road, about ¾ of a mile away and take on a lot of food, to fuel me properly for the run back. I wasn’t tired, I felt good, but the brief walk would allow me to stock up and kick off for home at a good pace. I ate some crisps, another muesli bar and drank plenty of water. As soon as I got back to the main road again, I kicked off, ran back through Bunbury and back over the fields reversing my route. I ran along at my easy pace, just zoning out, eating up more miles, eating food as I went, just taking one shot as I crossed the Shropshire Union Canal.
I didn’t stop running until I got to Nantwich again, having run 32 miles. I stopped in the same public toilets, in what was now a very busy town centre. I got more than a few strange looks as I made my way through the town centre. Annoyingly, my camelback clogged after I had just refilled it. I didn’t want to waste time with it, so I walked into a nearby petrol station and bought 2 bottles of Lucozade Sport (a litre), which I hoped would see me through the remaining 15 miles back. I drank one of these fairly quickly as I walked, clearing the town centre, then ran on again. By 38 miles I was starting to feel a little tired. All the hard ground was taking it’s toll on my knees and ankles. Where possible I would run on a grass verge, but that seemed to hurt just as much, and I would be glad to get back on hard ground. Seconds later I would wish for soft ground again, and so it continued as I headed back through Shavington and Brough.
I got to the place that earlier I had realised my route had not been transferred onto my PDA. I knew I had 7.7 miles left. I took a conscious walking break of perhaps half a mile, walking up a gentle hill and then ran again. It was getting harder now and by 42 miles my legs were pretty heavy. It’s unfortunate that there it is all uphill from this point. I flipped between running and walking the hills. I walked the last steep hill on the road, and then ran the final less steep hill back up toward the Wedgewood Monument where I had stood in darkness that morning, worrying if I was capable of it.
I was a mile from home, it was all downhill from here. I climbed up the steps to the monument a little triumphantly, hummed the Rocky theme tune but no crowd of cheering children appeared and touched the stone. I took towards the horizon and saw “the hill” 23 miles away. It’s the small dot, almost exactly dead centre.
Today more than any other time ever, I felt like an Ultra athlete. I had run more than ever over this kind of distance. I walked a couple of times to eat and then on the hills towards the end. Apart from that I ran it with my backpack all the way. I stepped down from the monument, and got some sharp pain my right leg. I was worried about it for a few minutes, but it seems fine. I think it was my body relaxing, knowing that home was near. I ran the last mile down the hill to my house, feeling tired, a little rough, but happy. Final stats: 46 miles, 1900ft of ascent, 9hrs 40 minutes, 4.8mph average. No blisters, not even a hotspot, not a mark on my feet. I had worn a brand new pair of untested shoes, which should go against all advice (never try out new things on bif events!); However, they are an updated model of the ones I wore in the Kalahari where my feet also stayed near perfect. I'll be using my New Balance 840's in Chile then.
Here is the route I actually did, running right to left, and back.
That should have given me the mental boost I needed. It did, for about 5 minutes...
I was supposed to do the Anglezark Amble this weekend, but read that I was supposed to enter in advance. No online entry and no entry on the day. Maybe I could get a postal entry in, but it’s about 25 miles and it’s mostly boggy moorland and hills. Nothing like the Atacama terrain and now as the event approaches I start to worry about getting injured. Turning an ankle on rough moor. I’ve made a decision not to do it. The distance isn’t a challenge for me, so the event is more risk than benefit. I am going to visit my uncle and get some more chiropractic treatment at the weekend instead. I may do another 20 miler the weekend after instead.
So...
Physically I am ready... Mentally, I am struggling at the moment.
For a lot of reasons; self doubt - I worry about the altitude, I worry about getting sick again, I worry about the temperature. Most of all I just worry that my mind will let me down. Convince me I am dying when I am not, and I throw in the towel and fail. Failing is the worst fear. The slightest problem on the event can set off self doubt, your morale goes and it’s the end of the world. Right now, the slightest problems here at home are causing me to worry. Recently parting ways with my girlfriend hasn’t helped matters at all, plus long weeks of work, too much travel and no rest at weekends, and bad sleep means that it feels like I never stop. I’m doing everything with my foot to the floor, and stress is having its effect.
I know my fitness isn’t in question. I will doubtless be physically fitter than some others taking part. I am fit enough to tackle any distance in the Atacama, easily. All of this should be improving my mental strength, but it’s not right now. This isn’t the right attitude to be going the hardest race of my life with. I need to gain the single focus and will to succeed because it’s only my mind that will stop me out there, and the mind is far more powerful in these events than miles under the belt. I’m not sure what I can do to improve things right now. Nothing is going right. I’m trying to type with a burned hand, plastered in cream, which I just scalded with boiling water, trying to make myself a cup of soothing herbal tea to chill me out. I’d laugh at the irony of that under normal circumstances. Somehow I missed the cup and poured the fresh boiling water all over my hand. You have those days when things go wrong. At the moment, that’s every day.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
The Hebden
Ahead of last weekend’s event, all of my training went to plan. On Tuesday I did a 20 minute flat out speed session on the treadmill, then spent some time stretching in the gym afterwards. I’ve been suffering from very tight ITB and illiopsoas muscles, so I’ve been trying to stretch them a little more.
I’m gradually increasing my speed each week. I covered 4.5km in 20 minutes last week. My aim is to cover 3 miles in that time; which is 4.82km in 20 minutes. Might not sound like I have much to gain, but I’m not really a fast runner, so I thought sure I’d find it tough. This afternoon I ran at 13.6km per hour for 15 minutes, then increased it by 0.2kph every minute (and sometime half minute) until running the last minute at 15kph. I covered 4.6km in 20 minutes today. Come 4 weeks time, I need to be averaging over 14kph for the whole 20 minutes to beat my target time. If I can do that then I can definitely say I’ll be at my fittest ever. I'm well on course to do that and maybe more I think.
On Wednesday I ran back from the London office to where I was staying, doing a 10 mile route. I run Wednesday at a tempo pace; not flat out of course, since I can’t hold that kind of pace for 10 miles, but rather about 80%. I averaged a little under 8.5 minute miles, with almost 500ft ascent. It’s a gradual climb all the way to Hampstead, with no downhill whatsoever. This isn’t too bad when you factor in all of the traffic and road crossing in central London. I then set off at 6:15am the following morning to reverse the route, but not knowing my way around London very well I took a wrong turn and added an additional mile onto the route. I did about 11 miles, and ran in with a backpack of around 3-4kg. I ran it at an easy pace, just getting used to carrying weight again.
On Thursday night I did my usual strength and stability workout, and rested on Friday ahead of the weekend event.
I drove to Mytholmroyd, only just arriving as all of the 300+ people taking part were filtering outside for the start (half runners, half walkers, pretty much a straight 50/50 split I believe). I quickly registered and dashed back outside as everyone was disappearing along the road, and then onto a path besides the railway line for the first mile, which is totally flat. Below is the route map and rollercoaster hill profile as you can see.
The route had undergone a late change, making it almost 0.5 a mile shorter; this was due to very deep lingering snow drifts on one part of the course. I was a little behind, so I tried to make up a little time on the flat first mile, knowing that there is then a bottleneck. There is quite a steep climb which is on a single file path, which more or less everyone including me slows to walk. You certainly get to know what your lungs are for quite early in the race with The Hebden. The climb continues for a few miles, though much less steeply after the initial ascent of about a mile or so. Then comes a welcome descent, some of which is on the road before another small climb to up checkpoint 1. This photo is a few miles into the run, heading up towards the building on The Hebden race logo. It’s a mill of some kind, but I’m not sure what for. Cotton maybe? I’m sure a local will let me know!
In my haste to get ready in the morning I had poured some electrolyte into a camelback in my rucksack, but had not tested it, and only realised when I started running that it had clogged up. I didn’t want to waste time unblocking it as I ran, so I just left it and carried it all the way round; totally unused. Very annoying! As a result I had to rely on taking a cup of two of water or orange juice at the checkpoints as I went, as well as the odd snack. I did carry a few snacks myself, but I had eaten a good breakfast and a pot of rice pudding in the car just before the start, so felt fairly well fuelled. I carried the rucksack I will be using in the Atacama Crossing with 3kg of weight from start to finish. This coming weekend, I’ll increase it to 5kg.
After the first checkpoint, there is a gradual descent over fields and footpath, and then a small climb along a forest track alongside a river. The track eventually goes down to a river where some stepping stones take you over the river and then the route climbs gradually through the woods, then up a field-side track to checkpoint 2. It was quite foggy up on the fields by checkpoint 2, and I did try and take a few photos, which don’t really do justice to how nice it looked. It was fairly cold, with a few lingering snow drifts along the field boundary’s, and a light ground frost as well.
The Hebden route is really just a rollercoaster ride. It’s either heading up, or heading down; only the first and last mile are flat. After checkpoint 2, the route goes over another small stream and then descends into checkpoint 3, where I grabbed another cup or water and some Stollen before heading straight back out. I was in and out of all of the checkpoints in under a minute. After checkpoint three the route crosses a railway line and road and then there is a long climb, initially walking as pictured.
Normally you get great views as you climb up in the rough direction of the Stoodley Pike Monument, but today it was just fog. I got fleeting glimpses of the monument as I climbed, but failed to capture a decent photo. I think the climb is around 1000ft, it gets easier to run it as you get nearer the top. There is a mile long gentle climb and then descent before you hit rough steps cut into a hill. It descends into a wood, a section which is always enjoy as it’s very much like the terrain I run on when at home. I can descend pretty fast on this ground; enjoying springing over the twisted roots, leaping and sliding over the big patches of mud. Some people kindly let me past as I dashed through the woods, really enjoying myself. I exited the woods at CP4 and then headed straight back up again through more fields and woods, some of which was route marked thankfully, as the navigation can be a little tricky. I had caught up a large group of people over the last few miles and was having a chat with a few of them as I made my way through the next section of woods, and then a short sharp climb to CP5. It was after CP5 that the route change was made, and we were directed along a road, avoiding the area which had too much snow, to rejoin the original route about a mile later.
I had caught up a girl who I recognised from one desert race, then she told me it was last year’s Atacama Crossing! I remembered her then! Too many faces and deserts to remember! We ran in fairly close proximity for the remainder of the race, helping each other out with the navigation. CP5 to CP6 is always a little longer than I remember, and even after CP6 which is probably less than 2 miles from the end, the navigation is still a little tricky. A few time the footpaths cut right across peoples gardens, and you keep questioning if you are really on the right route, even though you know you are.
We speeded up a little over that last couple of miles and finished in 4hrs 28 mins. The route was 21.5 miles long this year. I’ll have to check on the elevation but I think around 4000ft. I was running about 12 min miles average, and was pleased to finish half an hour faster than last year. I was in need of the knee operation last year of course. A big thank you to all of the organisers and volunteers at the checkpoints and the events centre. There was a meal available at the finish, as well as hot and cold drinks. Unusually for me I struggled to eat, so just settled for some hot tea before driving over to Sheffield to see my uncle, who is a chiropractor. He spent 2 hours sorting me out! I have had a lot of stomach pain from tight IS muscles and hip and knee pain from my ITB. My uncle massaged then released by back. Worked on my IS muscle, which is a pretty painful process, essentially involving pressing several fingers deep into your stomach. He did a lot of work on my IT band which again was really sore. I got a full MOT, and despite a few bruises, now feel a lot better. I really needed that session ahead of the big one this coming weekend.
A change of plan means I have planned a new ‘rough’ route from my house. When I stand on high ground about a mile from my house I always seen a hill in the distance. It is easy to spot because the surrounding area is very flat, and then this almost perfect circular hill rising up from nothing. I’ve decided I am going to run to it next week. Small problem is I can’t really figure out from the map exactly which hill it is or how far away it is! My suspicion is that it is either the hill on which Beeston Castle sits, or it is one of the Peckforton Hills in Cheshire. If it is Beeston Castle, then an out and back route is going to be in excess of 50 miles. It seems like a nice idea right now, but I may not think that whilst en-route next weekend. I plan to start in pitch darkness about 4am on Saturday morning, and run all day. I have no idea how long it will take, since I don’t know how far it is. I hope it will take no more than 12 or 13 hours but that really is a guess. I will take a 5kg pack and include a similar amount/kind of snacks that I will use on the long day of the Atacama Crossing which will likely be 45-50 miles too Because of the increased distance on Saturday, I won’t do two 11 milers in this midweek. I will scale those back a few miles, to maybe about 7 each way I think. So this is it, the big mileage week. If I can get through this then It will be technically all downhill (in terms of distance), but I still have lots of miles to cover and some events too. I'm really happy with my progress so far, let's hope it continues.
Final news, the race distances for this years race have been announced today.
Stage 1 - 35km - Navigation by Rock (starts about 3000m altitude probably)
Stage 2 - 42km - The Slot Canyons (lots of river crossings basically!)
Stage 3 - 40km - Atacamenos Trail
stage 4 - 43km - The Infamous Saltflats (this is the killer day I think)
Stage 5 - 74km - The Long March (effectively the last stage)
Stage 6 - 16km - The Final Footsteps to San Pedro (in comparison to the rest, a fun run!)
4deserts have today posted a link to a Google map of the Atacama course, which can be found on their website here. I have created the same map in Google Earth, which you can find here. Make sure you choose the 2010 file. Just before you get your hopes up, if you are taking part, the course map is only a very rough approximation. The checkpoints and camps are pretty accurate, but the paths between them are not the nice straight lines you see, it's all twists, turns, ascent and descent, wide arcs and switchback paths between the CPs. I recognise some elements from last year, so I know we are all in for a treat as the scenery is amazing.
Have a good week!
I’m gradually increasing my speed each week. I covered 4.5km in 20 minutes last week. My aim is to cover 3 miles in that time; which is 4.82km in 20 minutes. Might not sound like I have much to gain, but I’m not really a fast runner, so I thought sure I’d find it tough. This afternoon I ran at 13.6km per hour for 15 minutes, then increased it by 0.2kph every minute (and sometime half minute) until running the last minute at 15kph. I covered 4.6km in 20 minutes today. Come 4 weeks time, I need to be averaging over 14kph for the whole 20 minutes to beat my target time. If I can do that then I can definitely say I’ll be at my fittest ever. I'm well on course to do that and maybe more I think.
On Wednesday I ran back from the London office to where I was staying, doing a 10 mile route. I run Wednesday at a tempo pace; not flat out of course, since I can’t hold that kind of pace for 10 miles, but rather about 80%. I averaged a little under 8.5 minute miles, with almost 500ft ascent. It’s a gradual climb all the way to Hampstead, with no downhill whatsoever. This isn’t too bad when you factor in all of the traffic and road crossing in central London. I then set off at 6:15am the following morning to reverse the route, but not knowing my way around London very well I took a wrong turn and added an additional mile onto the route. I did about 11 miles, and ran in with a backpack of around 3-4kg. I ran it at an easy pace, just getting used to carrying weight again.
On Thursday night I did my usual strength and stability workout, and rested on Friday ahead of the weekend event.
I drove to Mytholmroyd, only just arriving as all of the 300+ people taking part were filtering outside for the start (half runners, half walkers, pretty much a straight 50/50 split I believe). I quickly registered and dashed back outside as everyone was disappearing along the road, and then onto a path besides the railway line for the first mile, which is totally flat. Below is the route map and rollercoaster hill profile as you can see.
The route had undergone a late change, making it almost 0.5 a mile shorter; this was due to very deep lingering snow drifts on one part of the course. I was a little behind, so I tried to make up a little time on the flat first mile, knowing that there is then a bottleneck. There is quite a steep climb which is on a single file path, which more or less everyone including me slows to walk. You certainly get to know what your lungs are for quite early in the race with The Hebden. The climb continues for a few miles, though much less steeply after the initial ascent of about a mile or so. Then comes a welcome descent, some of which is on the road before another small climb to up checkpoint 1. This photo is a few miles into the run, heading up towards the building on The Hebden race logo. It’s a mill of some kind, but I’m not sure what for. Cotton maybe? I’m sure a local will let me know!
In my haste to get ready in the morning I had poured some electrolyte into a camelback in my rucksack, but had not tested it, and only realised when I started running that it had clogged up. I didn’t want to waste time unblocking it as I ran, so I just left it and carried it all the way round; totally unused. Very annoying! As a result I had to rely on taking a cup of two of water or orange juice at the checkpoints as I went, as well as the odd snack. I did carry a few snacks myself, but I had eaten a good breakfast and a pot of rice pudding in the car just before the start, so felt fairly well fuelled. I carried the rucksack I will be using in the Atacama Crossing with 3kg of weight from start to finish. This coming weekend, I’ll increase it to 5kg.
After the first checkpoint, there is a gradual descent over fields and footpath, and then a small climb along a forest track alongside a river. The track eventually goes down to a river where some stepping stones take you over the river and then the route climbs gradually through the woods, then up a field-side track to checkpoint 2. It was quite foggy up on the fields by checkpoint 2, and I did try and take a few photos, which don’t really do justice to how nice it looked. It was fairly cold, with a few lingering snow drifts along the field boundary’s, and a light ground frost as well.
The Hebden route is really just a rollercoaster ride. It’s either heading up, or heading down; only the first and last mile are flat. After checkpoint 2, the route goes over another small stream and then descends into checkpoint 3, where I grabbed another cup or water and some Stollen before heading straight back out. I was in and out of all of the checkpoints in under a minute. After checkpoint three the route crosses a railway line and road and then there is a long climb, initially walking as pictured.
Normally you get great views as you climb up in the rough direction of the Stoodley Pike Monument, but today it was just fog. I got fleeting glimpses of the monument as I climbed, but failed to capture a decent photo. I think the climb is around 1000ft, it gets easier to run it as you get nearer the top. There is a mile long gentle climb and then descent before you hit rough steps cut into a hill. It descends into a wood, a section which is always enjoy as it’s very much like the terrain I run on when at home. I can descend pretty fast on this ground; enjoying springing over the twisted roots, leaping and sliding over the big patches of mud. Some people kindly let me past as I dashed through the woods, really enjoying myself. I exited the woods at CP4 and then headed straight back up again through more fields and woods, some of which was route marked thankfully, as the navigation can be a little tricky. I had caught up a large group of people over the last few miles and was having a chat with a few of them as I made my way through the next section of woods, and then a short sharp climb to CP5. It was after CP5 that the route change was made, and we were directed along a road, avoiding the area which had too much snow, to rejoin the original route about a mile later.
I had caught up a girl who I recognised from one desert race, then she told me it was last year’s Atacama Crossing! I remembered her then! Too many faces and deserts to remember! We ran in fairly close proximity for the remainder of the race, helping each other out with the navigation. CP5 to CP6 is always a little longer than I remember, and even after CP6 which is probably less than 2 miles from the end, the navigation is still a little tricky. A few time the footpaths cut right across peoples gardens, and you keep questioning if you are really on the right route, even though you know you are.
We speeded up a little over that last couple of miles and finished in 4hrs 28 mins. The route was 21.5 miles long this year. I’ll have to check on the elevation but I think around 4000ft. I was running about 12 min miles average, and was pleased to finish half an hour faster than last year. I was in need of the knee operation last year of course. A big thank you to all of the organisers and volunteers at the checkpoints and the events centre. There was a meal available at the finish, as well as hot and cold drinks. Unusually for me I struggled to eat, so just settled for some hot tea before driving over to Sheffield to see my uncle, who is a chiropractor. He spent 2 hours sorting me out! I have had a lot of stomach pain from tight IS muscles and hip and knee pain from my ITB. My uncle massaged then released by back. Worked on my IS muscle, which is a pretty painful process, essentially involving pressing several fingers deep into your stomach. He did a lot of work on my IT band which again was really sore. I got a full MOT, and despite a few bruises, now feel a lot better. I really needed that session ahead of the big one this coming weekend.
A change of plan means I have planned a new ‘rough’ route from my house. When I stand on high ground about a mile from my house I always seen a hill in the distance. It is easy to spot because the surrounding area is very flat, and then this almost perfect circular hill rising up from nothing. I’ve decided I am going to run to it next week. Small problem is I can’t really figure out from the map exactly which hill it is or how far away it is! My suspicion is that it is either the hill on which Beeston Castle sits, or it is one of the Peckforton Hills in Cheshire. If it is Beeston Castle, then an out and back route is going to be in excess of 50 miles. It seems like a nice idea right now, but I may not think that whilst en-route next weekend. I plan to start in pitch darkness about 4am on Saturday morning, and run all day. I have no idea how long it will take, since I don’t know how far it is. I hope it will take no more than 12 or 13 hours but that really is a guess. I will take a 5kg pack and include a similar amount/kind of snacks that I will use on the long day of the Atacama Crossing which will likely be 45-50 miles too Because of the increased distance on Saturday, I won’t do two 11 milers in this midweek. I will scale those back a few miles, to maybe about 7 each way I think. So this is it, the big mileage week. If I can get through this then It will be technically all downhill (in terms of distance), but I still have lots of miles to cover and some events too. I'm really happy with my progress so far, let's hope it continues.
Final news, the race distances for this years race have been announced today.
Stage 1 - 35km - Navigation by Rock (starts about 3000m altitude probably)
Stage 2 - 42km - The Slot Canyons (lots of river crossings basically!)
Stage 3 - 40km - Atacamenos Trail
stage 4 - 43km - The Infamous Saltflats (this is the killer day I think)
Stage 5 - 74km - The Long March (effectively the last stage)
Stage 6 - 16km - The Final Footsteps to San Pedro (in comparison to the rest, a fun run!)
4deserts have today posted a link to a Google map of the Atacama course, which can be found on their website here. I have created the same map in Google Earth, which you can find here. Make sure you choose the 2010 file. Just before you get your hopes up, if you are taking part, the course map is only a very rough approximation. The checkpoints and camps are pretty accurate, but the paths between them are not the nice straight lines you see, it's all twists, turns, ascent and descent, wide arcs and switchback paths between the CPs. I recognise some elements from last year, so I know we are all in for a treat as the scenery is amazing.
Have a good week!
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
The big thaw and recovery week?
This week was supposed to be a recovery week. However, I’ve still managed to rack up about 35 miles, so it’s not really lived to the aim!
It started well, in that whilst working away from home on Tuesday I ran my 3 mile speed session. My GPS didn’t record the time, as I managed to stop the clock after the first mile by accident. Still it felt a reasonable enough pace, nothing that quick, but I’d guess about 7:20 min miles. On Wednesday I got a little lost and ended up running 7 miles instead of 8. However, I got equally lost the following morning and ended up running almost 9 miles instead of 8, so that all balanced out. All of those runs were on the road, through what was the big thaw that is now taking place. The roads and paths were still icy, but much of it was turning to slush. The run in on Thursday morning was carrying a reasonably lightweight pack of a few kg.
On Saturday my gf and I decided to do a walk in the Peak District around the Roaches area. You can see our route map below.
Someone had forgotten to tell the area that a thaw was taking place, so on the lower ground most fields were fairly clear, but the higher we got the snow got deeper, and at the fields boundaries there were some pretty big snow drifts of up to about 4 or 5ft in height. It was also very foggy, as you will see.
The first part of the route descended slightly and was through fields. The snow was patchy here.
We made pretty good time, but as we began to climb and hit more snow things slowed down.
I’d forgotten how tiring it is to walk through snow that is about 6 inches deep or more. So, my nice gently walk turned into more of an expedition as it got colder and foggier in addition to the more challenging terrain.
This wasn’t helped by us deciding to deliberately staying close to the field walls where the snow was deeper. I of course decided to ridge walk the deepest drifts for fun; this invariably involved sinking up to my thighs in snow!
Eventually we began the climb to the trig point at Roach End. There was no thaw whatsoever here. The snow was everywhere, still thick and icy and it was much colder. It had taken us longer than anticipated to get to this point of the walk, and as a result the light was beginning to fade. We took a few photos at the top, which is around 500m if memory serves. Normally there are great views over Staffordshire, Derbyshire and further afield but not today, just fog.
We started to walk along the ridge which has a cliff on one side, popular with climbers in better weather). In the fading light, fog and snow it was very difficult to find the path. We only went about 200m along the top when I decided it wasn’t a good idea to continue. It was only around 1.5 miles along the ridge and down, but from a safety perspective, and the possibility of injuring myself at a time when my training is hitting the peak, it didn’t seem sensible to go stumbling along a snow covered ridge in the dark and fog. We returned to the trig point and descended the way we came. The snow thinning out a little as we got lower down.
We reached the road which runs below and parallel to the ridge, and which had been cleared by a snowplough. We were both feeling a little cold, as it was well below zero with the height and wind. So, we decided to run the last 2 miles back to the car along the road. So, less than 20 minutes later we were back at the car just as it was getting dark. We had made a good call. Progress along the top would undoubtedly have been much slower and descended down from the ridge can be a little treacherous even in much better conditions. We stopped at the nearby Three Horseshoes pub on the way back for some tea/coffee before heading back home. We had covered 8 miles and 1550ft of ascent.
The following day I had a 10 mile steady run planned, but we had arranged to visit a work colleague of my girlfriends; a couple who are both very good ultra distance runners . The girls went out for a run first, and the boys went out afterwards. They live in a lovely part of Shropshire at the foot of a 1000ft climb. It is about 2.5 miles from their house to the top, which is a pretty good height gain for a run in such a short space of time. The guy I was running with is a far more accomplished runner than me, and well practiced at stile hurdling. He literally plants one hand and hurdles the entire stile, whilst I step over it as walkers do. I must try harder! I soon found out what my lungs were for as the climb rose through the fields and woods. He certainly didn’t run anywhere near the limits of his ability, as I puffed my way up the hill behind him. Still it was a more or less non-stop run, just punctuated by a couple of stiles or gates to get through. I can see how he is as fit as he is, if he climbs that hill in every run, which I understand he more or less does! There was still a lot of snow on the hill, up to about 6 inches on most of the top, deeper drifts in places. Once on the top, we ran at a much better pace, though I still have to practice my snow running as I just can’t cross the ground quite as quick. We got to the Beacon at the top, where I took this photo. This doesn’t do any justice to the amount of snow that was up there underfoot!
We then headed down slightly on the snowy paths. It was lucky dip as to if your feet went 4 inches or a foot through the snow with every step. We headed back up to another hill and beacon, and he pointed out some swallow holes (left over from mine works) which had been hidden and snow covered. A few days previous, one of his neighbours had fallen in one, going right in and into the water beneath, and really struggled to get out. Dropping into icy cold water whilst on the top of a hill in sub-arctic temperatures must have been a pretty frightening experience. It got down as low as -17 there last week apparently!
We then descended and headed along a forest track, all of which was snow covered still, then eventually met the path that we had ascended on, and headed back down and back to the house. I’m not entirely of the route that we took, so I have taken my best guess, which is shown below.
I think we were out running for an hour and 20 mins or so; so my best guess is that it was about 9 miles, and took in just over 1500ft of ascent. I really enjoyed the run, even though my recovery week plans were not quite as restful as I intended!
The next few weeks are my big miles weeks. 46 miles this week, including an event; The Hebden on Saturday. I've done the race twice previously. It's around 23 miles with over 4000ft of ascent. I'm looking forward to the challenge once again. almost 70 miles the week after, including a 44 miles run from Wolverhampton to Newcastle in Staffordshire. Then a recovery week of 30 miles, followed by 49 miles the week after, including another event; The Anglezark Amble which is also supposed to be tough. It's going to be an interesting few weeks of challenging training. I need to remain injury free and use these last few big weeks to boost my endurance, before I work on my speed and overall fitness in the final few weeks before the Atacama Crossing 2010.
Have a good week!
It started well, in that whilst working away from home on Tuesday I ran my 3 mile speed session. My GPS didn’t record the time, as I managed to stop the clock after the first mile by accident. Still it felt a reasonable enough pace, nothing that quick, but I’d guess about 7:20 min miles. On Wednesday I got a little lost and ended up running 7 miles instead of 8. However, I got equally lost the following morning and ended up running almost 9 miles instead of 8, so that all balanced out. All of those runs were on the road, through what was the big thaw that is now taking place. The roads and paths were still icy, but much of it was turning to slush. The run in on Thursday morning was carrying a reasonably lightweight pack of a few kg.
On Saturday my gf and I decided to do a walk in the Peak District around the Roaches area. You can see our route map below.
Someone had forgotten to tell the area that a thaw was taking place, so on the lower ground most fields were fairly clear, but the higher we got the snow got deeper, and at the fields boundaries there were some pretty big snow drifts of up to about 4 or 5ft in height. It was also very foggy, as you will see.
The first part of the route descended slightly and was through fields. The snow was patchy here.
We made pretty good time, but as we began to climb and hit more snow things slowed down.
I’d forgotten how tiring it is to walk through snow that is about 6 inches deep or more. So, my nice gently walk turned into more of an expedition as it got colder and foggier in addition to the more challenging terrain.
This wasn’t helped by us deciding to deliberately staying close to the field walls where the snow was deeper. I of course decided to ridge walk the deepest drifts for fun; this invariably involved sinking up to my thighs in snow!
Eventually we began the climb to the trig point at Roach End. There was no thaw whatsoever here. The snow was everywhere, still thick and icy and it was much colder. It had taken us longer than anticipated to get to this point of the walk, and as a result the light was beginning to fade. We took a few photos at the top, which is around 500m if memory serves. Normally there are great views over Staffordshire, Derbyshire and further afield but not today, just fog.
We started to walk along the ridge which has a cliff on one side, popular with climbers in better weather). In the fading light, fog and snow it was very difficult to find the path. We only went about 200m along the top when I decided it wasn’t a good idea to continue. It was only around 1.5 miles along the ridge and down, but from a safety perspective, and the possibility of injuring myself at a time when my training is hitting the peak, it didn’t seem sensible to go stumbling along a snow covered ridge in the dark and fog. We returned to the trig point and descended the way we came. The snow thinning out a little as we got lower down.
We reached the road which runs below and parallel to the ridge, and which had been cleared by a snowplough. We were both feeling a little cold, as it was well below zero with the height and wind. So, we decided to run the last 2 miles back to the car along the road. So, less than 20 minutes later we were back at the car just as it was getting dark. We had made a good call. Progress along the top would undoubtedly have been much slower and descended down from the ridge can be a little treacherous even in much better conditions. We stopped at the nearby Three Horseshoes pub on the way back for some tea/coffee before heading back home. We had covered 8 miles and 1550ft of ascent.
The following day I had a 10 mile steady run planned, but we had arranged to visit a work colleague of my girlfriends; a couple who are both very good ultra distance runners . The girls went out for a run first, and the boys went out afterwards. They live in a lovely part of Shropshire at the foot of a 1000ft climb. It is about 2.5 miles from their house to the top, which is a pretty good height gain for a run in such a short space of time. The guy I was running with is a far more accomplished runner than me, and well practiced at stile hurdling. He literally plants one hand and hurdles the entire stile, whilst I step over it as walkers do. I must try harder! I soon found out what my lungs were for as the climb rose through the fields and woods. He certainly didn’t run anywhere near the limits of his ability, as I puffed my way up the hill behind him. Still it was a more or less non-stop run, just punctuated by a couple of stiles or gates to get through. I can see how he is as fit as he is, if he climbs that hill in every run, which I understand he more or less does! There was still a lot of snow on the hill, up to about 6 inches on most of the top, deeper drifts in places. Once on the top, we ran at a much better pace, though I still have to practice my snow running as I just can’t cross the ground quite as quick. We got to the Beacon at the top, where I took this photo. This doesn’t do any justice to the amount of snow that was up there underfoot!
We then headed down slightly on the snowy paths. It was lucky dip as to if your feet went 4 inches or a foot through the snow with every step. We headed back up to another hill and beacon, and he pointed out some swallow holes (left over from mine works) which had been hidden and snow covered. A few days previous, one of his neighbours had fallen in one, going right in and into the water beneath, and really struggled to get out. Dropping into icy cold water whilst on the top of a hill in sub-arctic temperatures must have been a pretty frightening experience. It got down as low as -17 there last week apparently!
We then descended and headed along a forest track, all of which was snow covered still, then eventually met the path that we had ascended on, and headed back down and back to the house. I’m not entirely of the route that we took, so I have taken my best guess, which is shown below.
I think we were out running for an hour and 20 mins or so; so my best guess is that it was about 9 miles, and took in just over 1500ft of ascent. I really enjoyed the run, even though my recovery week plans were not quite as restful as I intended!
The next few weeks are my big miles weeks. 46 miles this week, including an event; The Hebden on Saturday. I've done the race twice previously. It's around 23 miles with over 4000ft of ascent. I'm looking forward to the challenge once again. almost 70 miles the week after, including a 44 miles run from Wolverhampton to Newcastle in Staffordshire. Then a recovery week of 30 miles, followed by 49 miles the week after, including another event; The Anglezark Amble which is also supposed to be tough. It's going to be an interesting few weeks of challenging training. I need to remain injury free and use these last few big weeks to boost my endurance, before I work on my speed and overall fitness in the final few weeks before the Atacama Crossing 2010.
Have a good week!
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Cool Running
The cold snap continues in the UK. There has been snow on the ground accross the whole country for over a week now, and temperatures have been remaining below zero during the day. I was working away in London for some of the week, so running on some unfamiliar territory.
Fortunately I am a member of a national chain of Gym's, so I could do my speed work on the treadmill. There is snow and ice all over the roads and pavements, so running at real speed just isn't very easy outside. Over the next 6 weeks I will aim to build up my speed and fitness by doing more speed work. Tuesday's session is a 5 minute warm up then a 20 minute flat out run. At the moment the clock runs out before I reach 3 miles, but over the next few weeks I should hit 3 miles and maybe a little further. Trying to beat last week’s time is my measure of fitness.
On Wednesday I ran back from the office in central London to Camden where I was staying. However, that would just have been a few miles in a straight line, so I had to be creative with the route, as I needed to do 10 miles. I work near Waterloo, by the London Eye, so I joined the River Thames path and ran along to Chelsea and headed North at Battersea Bridge. I ran up to Hyde Park, right around the edge it (it's closed at dusk and I was running after 6pm) then ran along Oxford Street then up and around Regents Park and into Camden. It was a cold and icy run. I wore a Helly Hansen base layer, an under armour cold gear top, and a lightweight Pertex windproof jacket, plus a hat and gloves too. I wore some new Under Armour trail shoes to give me some much needed grip on the slippery pavements. I wasn't sure of the way, but tried to recall it from the Google Map of the route I had created. A couple of times I took out my phone and looked at the GPS just to be sure I was on the right route. Oxford Street looked nice as all of the Christmas lights were still up. I certainly needed all those layers of clothes, as it was about -5C. The ground was of course pretty slippy, and did slow me down. I try to run Wednesday’s session at a tempo pace. Not flat out, but certainly putting a good effort in. I couldn't run the 10 miles anyway near the kind of speed I would do in dry conditions, and also the constant road crossings in Central London slowed me down. Nevertheless I did it in under an hour and a half, so that was good enough.
12 hours later, and I was up at 6am to run 10 miles back into work, but at a steadier pace and with a backpack of clothes, towel, wash kit etc. I intended to run the same route in reverse, but being unfamiliar with London I managed to turn myself round 180 degrees somewhere, and found myself running back the way I had just come (somewhere near Hyde Park)! So, then realising I had added some extra distance on, I cut through Hyde Park itself and headed straight for Waterloo, passing Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament on the way. Here is a shot I snapped as I passed.
The footpaths around there and most of the major shopping roads were all more of less clear of ice, but further out the ice and snow persists still. It was more luck than judgement that the route ended up being just a fraction over 10 miles by the time I got to the office. At lunchtime I had a sports massage from a therapist who visits the office, which is very useful. He spent 40 minutes on my IS (stomach), gluts, and ITB (all right side), which is still giving me some problems. It was a pretty painful session, but I did feel better afterwards.
Normally I would go to the gym on a Thursday night, but my gf had come down and we went to see a show in London, the Misanthrope with Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley; I confess Keira was the main attraction for me! Really enjoyed the play.
I came back home on Friday and on Saturday Morning I planned myself a 20 mile route. There was more snow back at home on the ground, so I put my fell shoes on which have even more grip that my trail shoes; they have 6mm studs. I ran up to a local monument atop a hill where lots of kids were sledging, pictured.
So, standing at the top, there is a very steep slope for about 30m, then it shoots back uphill for about 5m, before the slope downhill continues. Needless to say it was snow covered and very slippery. The kids asked if I wanted a sledge as I was about to run down it. I just went for it, and ran down as fast as I could. A little too fast, making it to the bottom ok, but carrying so much speed on the slippy ground that I made it down ok, but had too much downward momentum and stumbled and fell as the ground began to rise again. Much to the amusement and cheers of the kids! I put up my hands to wave to them in an embarrassed acknowledgement, picked myself up and continued. I picked up a nice bruise on my shin for my trouble, but otherwise got away with it.
I took a few other photos from near the top, as seen below. Very pretty, and very chilly as you can imagine, sub zero all day. It was -4 at my house, and quite a bit colder up on the hills and in the wind.
My route continued on familiar paths for the first 7 miles and then there was a section in the middle that I did not know, so I had saved the route on Google Maps, so I could access it on my iphone. This went well until the battery ran out because the GPS uses so much juice. Also I realised that I had uploaded the wrong route. I had put a 22 mile route on, which I had subsequently gone and shortened to 20, but not uploaded it. So I was in the middle of a 22 mile route, and now lost (I took a photo to commemorate the incident :) ). I had set off after midday, so the light was already beginning to fade.
I followed an abandoned railway line which lead me to a road and then used my sense of direction to get me to the village of Madeley. There I asked directions to use the footpaths, rather than the road route, which I knew. I was literally making the route up as I went along, trying to trim it back down to 20 miles. I had only packed a litre of water which ran out about 5 miles before I got home. Amazing how much water I drank in the freezing cold conditions. I didn't really pack enough food either, so was pretty low on energy towards the end. I walked a mile long hill on a road at the 15 mile mark, but other than that ran the rest of the route, which included a few short sharp climbs. I got home, feeling pretty shattered to be honest, because of not taking along food. I ended up doing 21 miles, and around 2000ft of ascent. Getting lost, found, and directed as well as the brief walk meant it took me 4 hours and 20 minutes, but considering the icy frozen ground it wasn't too bad.
Forcing myself to even start the run took some willpower. The last thing you want to do is leave a nice warm house and run 20 miles through the snow in sub zero temperatures. There was never any doubt that I'd actually do it though. It's one of those times where I think to myself, if you don't do the run then you don't deserve to finish the Atacama Crossing. It's mental training as much as physical. Suffering during training, helps you dig deep and get through the tough times in the actual ultra distance races.
So, 44 miles covered last week. I have a recovery week scheduled this week. This means reduced distances, just before my final few weeks of high mileage, tough training and events. Work have not yet given me the green light to take part in the Atacama Crossing yet. I'm pushing for an answer again this week.
Have a good week.
Fortunately I am a member of a national chain of Gym's, so I could do my speed work on the treadmill. There is snow and ice all over the roads and pavements, so running at real speed just isn't very easy outside. Over the next 6 weeks I will aim to build up my speed and fitness by doing more speed work. Tuesday's session is a 5 minute warm up then a 20 minute flat out run. At the moment the clock runs out before I reach 3 miles, but over the next few weeks I should hit 3 miles and maybe a little further. Trying to beat last week’s time is my measure of fitness.
On Wednesday I ran back from the office in central London to Camden where I was staying. However, that would just have been a few miles in a straight line, so I had to be creative with the route, as I needed to do 10 miles. I work near Waterloo, by the London Eye, so I joined the River Thames path and ran along to Chelsea and headed North at Battersea Bridge. I ran up to Hyde Park, right around the edge it (it's closed at dusk and I was running after 6pm) then ran along Oxford Street then up and around Regents Park and into Camden. It was a cold and icy run. I wore a Helly Hansen base layer, an under armour cold gear top, and a lightweight Pertex windproof jacket, plus a hat and gloves too. I wore some new Under Armour trail shoes to give me some much needed grip on the slippery pavements. I wasn't sure of the way, but tried to recall it from the Google Map of the route I had created. A couple of times I took out my phone and looked at the GPS just to be sure I was on the right route. Oxford Street looked nice as all of the Christmas lights were still up. I certainly needed all those layers of clothes, as it was about -5C. The ground was of course pretty slippy, and did slow me down. I try to run Wednesday’s session at a tempo pace. Not flat out, but certainly putting a good effort in. I couldn't run the 10 miles anyway near the kind of speed I would do in dry conditions, and also the constant road crossings in Central London slowed me down. Nevertheless I did it in under an hour and a half, so that was good enough.
12 hours later, and I was up at 6am to run 10 miles back into work, but at a steadier pace and with a backpack of clothes, towel, wash kit etc. I intended to run the same route in reverse, but being unfamiliar with London I managed to turn myself round 180 degrees somewhere, and found myself running back the way I had just come (somewhere near Hyde Park)! So, then realising I had added some extra distance on, I cut through Hyde Park itself and headed straight for Waterloo, passing Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament on the way. Here is a shot I snapped as I passed.
The footpaths around there and most of the major shopping roads were all more of less clear of ice, but further out the ice and snow persists still. It was more luck than judgement that the route ended up being just a fraction over 10 miles by the time I got to the office. At lunchtime I had a sports massage from a therapist who visits the office, which is very useful. He spent 40 minutes on my IS (stomach), gluts, and ITB (all right side), which is still giving me some problems. It was a pretty painful session, but I did feel better afterwards.
Normally I would go to the gym on a Thursday night, but my gf had come down and we went to see a show in London, the Misanthrope with Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley; I confess Keira was the main attraction for me! Really enjoyed the play.
I came back home on Friday and on Saturday Morning I planned myself a 20 mile route. There was more snow back at home on the ground, so I put my fell shoes on which have even more grip that my trail shoes; they have 6mm studs. I ran up to a local monument atop a hill where lots of kids were sledging, pictured.
So, standing at the top, there is a very steep slope for about 30m, then it shoots back uphill for about 5m, before the slope downhill continues. Needless to say it was snow covered and very slippery. The kids asked if I wanted a sledge as I was about to run down it. I just went for it, and ran down as fast as I could. A little too fast, making it to the bottom ok, but carrying so much speed on the slippy ground that I made it down ok, but had too much downward momentum and stumbled and fell as the ground began to rise again. Much to the amusement and cheers of the kids! I put up my hands to wave to them in an embarrassed acknowledgement, picked myself up and continued. I picked up a nice bruise on my shin for my trouble, but otherwise got away with it.
I took a few other photos from near the top, as seen below. Very pretty, and very chilly as you can imagine, sub zero all day. It was -4 at my house, and quite a bit colder up on the hills and in the wind.
My route continued on familiar paths for the first 7 miles and then there was a section in the middle that I did not know, so I had saved the route on Google Maps, so I could access it on my iphone. This went well until the battery ran out because the GPS uses so much juice. Also I realised that I had uploaded the wrong route. I had put a 22 mile route on, which I had subsequently gone and shortened to 20, but not uploaded it. So I was in the middle of a 22 mile route, and now lost (I took a photo to commemorate the incident :) ). I had set off after midday, so the light was already beginning to fade.
I followed an abandoned railway line which lead me to a road and then used my sense of direction to get me to the village of Madeley. There I asked directions to use the footpaths, rather than the road route, which I knew. I was literally making the route up as I went along, trying to trim it back down to 20 miles. I had only packed a litre of water which ran out about 5 miles before I got home. Amazing how much water I drank in the freezing cold conditions. I didn't really pack enough food either, so was pretty low on energy towards the end. I walked a mile long hill on a road at the 15 mile mark, but other than that ran the rest of the route, which included a few short sharp climbs. I got home, feeling pretty shattered to be honest, because of not taking along food. I ended up doing 21 miles, and around 2000ft of ascent. Getting lost, found, and directed as well as the brief walk meant it took me 4 hours and 20 minutes, but considering the icy frozen ground it wasn't too bad.
Forcing myself to even start the run took some willpower. The last thing you want to do is leave a nice warm house and run 20 miles through the snow in sub zero temperatures. There was never any doubt that I'd actually do it though. It's one of those times where I think to myself, if you don't do the run then you don't deserve to finish the Atacama Crossing. It's mental training as much as physical. Suffering during training, helps you dig deep and get through the tough times in the actual ultra distance races.
So, 44 miles covered last week. I have a recovery week scheduled this week. This means reduced distances, just before my final few weeks of high mileage, tough training and events. Work have not yet given me the green light to take part in the Atacama Crossing yet. I'm pushing for an answer again this week.
Have a good week.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
8 weeks to the Atacama Crossing 2010
Hope you all had an enjoyable holiday season. I didn’t hit quite all of my training sessions over the holidays, but I did enough to keep me going and now I feel ready for the final 8 weeks before the Atacama Crossing. Not far away is it, just 8 weeks? It’s crept up from nowhere. I will know for certain today or tomorrow if my employer will give me the time off for the race. I hope so.
I ran on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas day. I then ran midweek once, and did 15 miles on Sunday just gone. Every one of those sessions involved running in some degree of snow or ice. We are in the middle of more cold weather in the UK. Morning temperatures where I live have been around -5 have remained mostly sub zero all day. So, plenty of cold runs to encourage me to run faster to maintain body heat!
Speaking of faster runs, from this week I will pick up the speed sessions again. I find these most beneficial to increasing my fitness overall and not just improving my speed. I have swapped around the days of my training sessions, so now I will be taking Monday off, doing a flat out (100%) 3 mile speed session on a Tuesday, followed by the gym. On Wednesday I run home from work, doing a tempo run at about 80-90% effort. I then run back to work about 10 hours later at a gentler pace. Both of those sessions are 10 miles long this week, so it means late arriving home about 8pm, and leaving again about 6:15am to give me time to get to work and get a shower before starting. Given the freezing temperatures in the morning, I imagine these sessions are going to feel pretty tough when I first set out. This weekend coming I have a 20 mile training run planned. Some friends are doing the Cannock Chase run that I did last year but it’s only 15 miles, so much as I’d like to do it, it doesn’t really fit in with my plan. I like sticking to my plan; I think it gives the mental confidence to know you’ve done what you set out to do. I am also likely to go out for a walk on Sunday too. I’ll probably take a 5kg pack for this session.
I am doing The Hebden; a 23 mile race around Calderdale, in the 3rd week of January, then a week later I have come up with the idea of doing my own ultra distance preparation. I plan to run from Wolverhampton back to my home in Newcastle-under-lyme. The route I have picked is 44 miles long (subject to any route changes I make), and only has 9 miles of quiet country roads (the minimum I could work manage), the rest is 100% trail of fields and forest. I plan to set off about 5am in the morning and try and cover the distance within 12 hours. There will be a lot of stile-hopping and slow terrain, and I will be carrying a reasonable weight pack, hence the slow sounding target. I’m not going to get the opportunity to reccie the route, so the course may be even slower than I imagine, especially if this cold weather continues and its snow covered. I am looking to get this distance under my belt as a final confidence booster for the long stage of the Atacama, which will likely be a similar mileage. After that I have one or two more events in the subsequent weeks before I taper off in the last 2 weeks before going to Chile.
Speaking of pack weight, I am currently still on course for a 7kg pack (+1.5l of water) on the start line of day 1 of the Atacama Crossing. I don’t think I can get this down any further without some serious compromises on warmth, comfort or food quantity, so this will likely be my starting weight. I’m packing 4.2kg of food for around 15,500 calories. I have 1.2kg of mandatory equipment, and the rest is optional kit; mostly consisting of clothes and sleeping equipment.
I have around 2500kcal per day for my meals which is slightly less than I took before, but should be sufficient. I note one change from last year is that we must provide a dehydrated meal for the night. before the race. I think this is a good call from the organisers. It puts your entire nutrition and food hygiene strategy in your own hands.
I still have a few things to consider and some things I take may change, but all being well, this time next week I will be telling you that I am officially entered into the race, as I only have a provisional entry right now. Let’s hope so.
Have a good week!
I ran on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas day. I then ran midweek once, and did 15 miles on Sunday just gone. Every one of those sessions involved running in some degree of snow or ice. We are in the middle of more cold weather in the UK. Morning temperatures where I live have been around -5 have remained mostly sub zero all day. So, plenty of cold runs to encourage me to run faster to maintain body heat!
Speaking of faster runs, from this week I will pick up the speed sessions again. I find these most beneficial to increasing my fitness overall and not just improving my speed. I have swapped around the days of my training sessions, so now I will be taking Monday off, doing a flat out (100%) 3 mile speed session on a Tuesday, followed by the gym. On Wednesday I run home from work, doing a tempo run at about 80-90% effort. I then run back to work about 10 hours later at a gentler pace. Both of those sessions are 10 miles long this week, so it means late arriving home about 8pm, and leaving again about 6:15am to give me time to get to work and get a shower before starting. Given the freezing temperatures in the morning, I imagine these sessions are going to feel pretty tough when I first set out. This weekend coming I have a 20 mile training run planned. Some friends are doing the Cannock Chase run that I did last year but it’s only 15 miles, so much as I’d like to do it, it doesn’t really fit in with my plan. I like sticking to my plan; I think it gives the mental confidence to know you’ve done what you set out to do. I am also likely to go out for a walk on Sunday too. I’ll probably take a 5kg pack for this session.
I am doing The Hebden; a 23 mile race around Calderdale, in the 3rd week of January, then a week later I have come up with the idea of doing my own ultra distance preparation. I plan to run from Wolverhampton back to my home in Newcastle-under-lyme. The route I have picked is 44 miles long (subject to any route changes I make), and only has 9 miles of quiet country roads (the minimum I could work manage), the rest is 100% trail of fields and forest. I plan to set off about 5am in the morning and try and cover the distance within 12 hours. There will be a lot of stile-hopping and slow terrain, and I will be carrying a reasonable weight pack, hence the slow sounding target. I’m not going to get the opportunity to reccie the route, so the course may be even slower than I imagine, especially if this cold weather continues and its snow covered. I am looking to get this distance under my belt as a final confidence booster for the long stage of the Atacama, which will likely be a similar mileage. After that I have one or two more events in the subsequent weeks before I taper off in the last 2 weeks before going to Chile.
Speaking of pack weight, I am currently still on course for a 7kg pack (+1.5l of water) on the start line of day 1 of the Atacama Crossing. I don’t think I can get this down any further without some serious compromises on warmth, comfort or food quantity, so this will likely be my starting weight. I’m packing 4.2kg of food for around 15,500 calories. I have 1.2kg of mandatory equipment, and the rest is optional kit; mostly consisting of clothes and sleeping equipment.
I have around 2500kcal per day for my meals which is slightly less than I took before, but should be sufficient. I note one change from last year is that we must provide a dehydrated meal for the night. before the race. I think this is a good call from the organisers. It puts your entire nutrition and food hygiene strategy in your own hands.
I still have a few things to consider and some things I take may change, but all being well, this time next week I will be telling you that I am officially entered into the race, as I only have a provisional entry right now. Let’s hope so.
Have a good week!
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Stiperstones Seasonal Saunter
Been a few weeks since my last post. I went on holiday for 5 days to New York, which was very cold indeed upon arrival, about -10 with wind chill, the pilot said. Had a nice few days sightseeing and shopping there. I won't bore you with all the photo's, just one of Times Square with a Coca Cola Santa on the board.
Got back a couple of days before the Stiperstones Seasonal Saunter having not run at all for about 10 days. I was working in London for a few days before going to New York and again in London as soon as I got back (straight off the plane!). So, as a result I couldn't pack all my running gear as I had limited room in my case.
My gf drove me to the start of the Stiperstones event, which is in Shropshire, very close to the border with Wales. The village is amusingly called Snailbeach. I'd be interested to know how that got it's name, since it's nowhere near the coast! Upon arrival we had to bring a wrapped present (max value £1) to put in the bran tub. When you finished the event, you got to dip in and get a present out. Lots of people had Santa hats on etc; all very festive. It was a very relaxed event. It wasn't timed, and you could start any time you like between 8:30 and 9:00. There was some hot drinks and snacks available to eat at the time, and friendly staff on hand to dish them out. I hadn't got my GPS with me, so I was navigating totally off the written instructions and map. Thankfully both were excellent and I only made one navigation mistake all day. As a result, I haven't got my usual OS map screen grab to show you, but I did put together this approximation of the course in Google Maps. I did have it available to call upon my iPhone in case I got very lost, but I didn't need it and I wouldn't have been able to make use of it anyway, as you will read.
We've had a cold snap in the last week or so in the UK, and it was around 0C and colder at times during the run. The course was mostly footpaths and fields. The fields were frost covered and "hard as iron" as the Christmas carol goes; especially tricky on the fields where the cows had been, as the hoof prints were all rock solid and made for a good workout for your ankles! The course starts with a long uphill, mostly on road which had turned to ice in place. In several places on the course, where we were on minor country roads, whole sections had turned to ice; 10's of metres at a time, which were tricky to cross. In a car they would have been really dangerous I imagine. My car would have had no chance on those roads. It's rear wheel drive, so there is no weight under the drive wheels, meaning it goes nowhere on even a slight incline on the ice. I took a couple of photo's after the descent from the first hill, in the early morning sunshine.
The route then headed into the small village of Habberly before heading South.
Much as I like my iPhone, it takes crappy photo's in comparison to my last Nokia and Sony phones. It's the latest iPhone model and still the camera is dreadful. It's terrible in low light, it doesn't have a flash either, and it really struggles to take sharp images anytime. Oh, and has one final fatal flaw. I have only a couple more pictures to show you because it was so cold the iPhone touch screen stopped working. The phone itself was fine, but the touch screen would not respond. Ok this isn't flaw unique to the iPhone (all touch screens), but when your "take photo" is a touch screen button, and not an actual button, you are stuffed!
I took these photos just nearing the top of the second climb. One photo looking back down behind me, the other just ahead to the summit.
It was then a jog down some of those quiet country lanes, with a little tentative walking over the icy stretches. Next was the last of 3 climbs in the first half of the course. This is where I made a mistake. Me and a chap I happened to be running near saw people on higher ground above us. Half way up the climb the instructions said to go straight through a gate. The other side of it was an electric fence. The chap convinced me that it was the wrong way and we should continue climbing to the top of the hill (pictured below) and not contour around it which is what we should have done.
I tried to take other photo's after that one, but the screen had stopped working.
We got to the top of the hill and sceptical I got out my compass. I took a bearing and said we are off course. We climbed over a barbed wire fence and headed over the where we both agreed we should be going. We started to head downhill and saw the runners who had been quite a ways behind us, all just ahead, so we knew we had lost time but at least were back on course. It was all steady downhill or flat for the next 3 miles to the first and only checkpoint at the half way stage. I suffered from a bad stomach again, and have determined this is caused by over-tight muscles in the stomach. Can't remember the name of the muscles. They are like a web over your stomach around to your back. Anyway, if they get very tight they can cause you to, well, simulate the effects of an upset stomach and need to toilet. Now I know what is causing this I can stop it happening.
I just grabbed a piece of sponge roll at the CP and left straight away, so 10 seconds later and I was back on my way. I had reached that point in 1:49 despite the navigation screw up. I headed out on my own for the next few miles, so had to navigate it all myself; there was no one to follow. The route headed up the next hill past a farm where the instructions were a little vague, and a few other caught we up as I stood still wondering which way to go. One of the others had GPS, so he quickly resolved the question. There were a group of about 6 or 7 of us all in close proximity for the next few miles. I didn't trust the GPS instructions the other chap had, and headed a different way at one stage, one for the group of them to come back and join the right path later on. You can't place all your faith in GPS, as I have learned in the past! This time, the route description turned out to be more useful than following a line on a screen.
We got fairly close to a winter partridge shoot; slightly unnerving with shotguns going off nearby, but we all escaped un-peppered!
There was an amazing house with a great view. My iPhone screen had warmed up after some emergency skin on skin treatment, but sadly I mistook the lens being fogged for the screen being fogged so the only other pictures I took all came out like this.
All fogged up.. oh well.
I'd loosely teamed up with another guy who turned out to be very interesting. So we chatted as we ran. He was a fell runner who had done the Bob Graham Round and was on his 3rd Paddy Buckley Round attempt. If you don't know what either are, find them on the UK map of my website.
The next section was a very long gradient, some of which we walked. The lack of miles in my legs (and the New York Pizza and Cheesecake!) in the last two weeks I certainly noticed, as I would usually have run it all. I was surprised that the route didn't take us over the actual Stiperstones themselves, but rather around them. This is understand is due to the very rocky ground around them. Some people did apparently go over them instead, which I wish I would have done as well.
We reached the summit of the climb by the Stiperstones and enjoyed great views all around, and into Wales. It had been a very cold but beautifully clear day; perfect winter running conditions. We couldn't have asked for a better day really. The last couple of miles were all downhill and back into Snailbeach. The route I recorded to be 19 miles, with about 3200ft of ascent. It took me 4 hours and 5 minutes, so that is around 4.5 mph average. Not too bad, but my form was definitely off a little. I won some scented (chocolate) candles in the bran tub, and sat down to the very well bite to eat. I had a jacket potato and a little chocolate cake afterwards. Thank you very much to the organisers and helpers. Another amazing value for money, and really well organised and staffed LDWA event. Other event organisers should go along and take notes!
Caught up with my friends Anne and Vaughan at finish, and probably stayed for almost an hour having a chat, while I waited for my gf to come and collect me. Her car windscreen wipers have blown a fuse as they had frozen up when she tried to use them, so she had to wait for roadside repair.
I went for a 10k run a couple of days ago, and I'll be running tonight (Christmas Eve), and I always do an early morning run on Christmas Day (I suspect it's subconscious; anticipating the calories of the Christmas dinner to come!). I hope to do an event on New Years Day as well.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Got back a couple of days before the Stiperstones Seasonal Saunter having not run at all for about 10 days. I was working in London for a few days before going to New York and again in London as soon as I got back (straight off the plane!). So, as a result I couldn't pack all my running gear as I had limited room in my case.
My gf drove me to the start of the Stiperstones event, which is in Shropshire, very close to the border with Wales. The village is amusingly called Snailbeach. I'd be interested to know how that got it's name, since it's nowhere near the coast! Upon arrival we had to bring a wrapped present (max value £1) to put in the bran tub. When you finished the event, you got to dip in and get a present out. Lots of people had Santa hats on etc; all very festive. It was a very relaxed event. It wasn't timed, and you could start any time you like between 8:30 and 9:00. There was some hot drinks and snacks available to eat at the time, and friendly staff on hand to dish them out. I hadn't got my GPS with me, so I was navigating totally off the written instructions and map. Thankfully both were excellent and I only made one navigation mistake all day. As a result, I haven't got my usual OS map screen grab to show you, but I did put together this approximation of the course in Google Maps. I did have it available to call upon my iPhone in case I got very lost, but I didn't need it and I wouldn't have been able to make use of it anyway, as you will read.
We've had a cold snap in the last week or so in the UK, and it was around 0C and colder at times during the run. The course was mostly footpaths and fields. The fields were frost covered and "hard as iron" as the Christmas carol goes; especially tricky on the fields where the cows had been, as the hoof prints were all rock solid and made for a good workout for your ankles! The course starts with a long uphill, mostly on road which had turned to ice in place. In several places on the course, where we were on minor country roads, whole sections had turned to ice; 10's of metres at a time, which were tricky to cross. In a car they would have been really dangerous I imagine. My car would have had no chance on those roads. It's rear wheel drive, so there is no weight under the drive wheels, meaning it goes nowhere on even a slight incline on the ice. I took a couple of photo's after the descent from the first hill, in the early morning sunshine.
The route then headed into the small village of Habberly before heading South.
Much as I like my iPhone, it takes crappy photo's in comparison to my last Nokia and Sony phones. It's the latest iPhone model and still the camera is dreadful. It's terrible in low light, it doesn't have a flash either, and it really struggles to take sharp images anytime. Oh, and has one final fatal flaw. I have only a couple more pictures to show you because it was so cold the iPhone touch screen stopped working. The phone itself was fine, but the touch screen would not respond. Ok this isn't flaw unique to the iPhone (all touch screens), but when your "take photo" is a touch screen button, and not an actual button, you are stuffed!
I took these photos just nearing the top of the second climb. One photo looking back down behind me, the other just ahead to the summit.
It was then a jog down some of those quiet country lanes, with a little tentative walking over the icy stretches. Next was the last of 3 climbs in the first half of the course. This is where I made a mistake. Me and a chap I happened to be running near saw people on higher ground above us. Half way up the climb the instructions said to go straight through a gate. The other side of it was an electric fence. The chap convinced me that it was the wrong way and we should continue climbing to the top of the hill (pictured below) and not contour around it which is what we should have done.
I tried to take other photo's after that one, but the screen had stopped working.
We got to the top of the hill and sceptical I got out my compass. I took a bearing and said we are off course. We climbed over a barbed wire fence and headed over the where we both agreed we should be going. We started to head downhill and saw the runners who had been quite a ways behind us, all just ahead, so we knew we had lost time but at least were back on course. It was all steady downhill or flat for the next 3 miles to the first and only checkpoint at the half way stage. I suffered from a bad stomach again, and have determined this is caused by over-tight muscles in the stomach. Can't remember the name of the muscles. They are like a web over your stomach around to your back. Anyway, if they get very tight they can cause you to, well, simulate the effects of an upset stomach and need to toilet. Now I know what is causing this I can stop it happening.
I just grabbed a piece of sponge roll at the CP and left straight away, so 10 seconds later and I was back on my way. I had reached that point in 1:49 despite the navigation screw up. I headed out on my own for the next few miles, so had to navigate it all myself; there was no one to follow. The route headed up the next hill past a farm where the instructions were a little vague, and a few other caught we up as I stood still wondering which way to go. One of the others had GPS, so he quickly resolved the question. There were a group of about 6 or 7 of us all in close proximity for the next few miles. I didn't trust the GPS instructions the other chap had, and headed a different way at one stage, one for the group of them to come back and join the right path later on. You can't place all your faith in GPS, as I have learned in the past! This time, the route description turned out to be more useful than following a line on a screen.
We got fairly close to a winter partridge shoot; slightly unnerving with shotguns going off nearby, but we all escaped un-peppered!
There was an amazing house with a great view. My iPhone screen had warmed up after some emergency skin on skin treatment, but sadly I mistook the lens being fogged for the screen being fogged so the only other pictures I took all came out like this.
All fogged up.. oh well.
I'd loosely teamed up with another guy who turned out to be very interesting. So we chatted as we ran. He was a fell runner who had done the Bob Graham Round and was on his 3rd Paddy Buckley Round attempt. If you don't know what either are, find them on the UK map of my website.
The next section was a very long gradient, some of which we walked. The lack of miles in my legs (and the New York Pizza and Cheesecake!) in the last two weeks I certainly noticed, as I would usually have run it all. I was surprised that the route didn't take us over the actual Stiperstones themselves, but rather around them. This is understand is due to the very rocky ground around them. Some people did apparently go over them instead, which I wish I would have done as well.
We reached the summit of the climb by the Stiperstones and enjoyed great views all around, and into Wales. It had been a very cold but beautifully clear day; perfect winter running conditions. We couldn't have asked for a better day really. The last couple of miles were all downhill and back into Snailbeach. The route I recorded to be 19 miles, with about 3200ft of ascent. It took me 4 hours and 5 minutes, so that is around 4.5 mph average. Not too bad, but my form was definitely off a little. I won some scented (chocolate) candles in the bran tub, and sat down to the very well bite to eat. I had a jacket potato and a little chocolate cake afterwards. Thank you very much to the organisers and helpers. Another amazing value for money, and really well organised and staffed LDWA event. Other event organisers should go along and take notes!
Caught up with my friends Anne and Vaughan at finish, and probably stayed for almost an hour having a chat, while I waited for my gf to come and collect me. Her car windscreen wipers have blown a fuse as they had frozen up when she tried to use them, so she had to wait for roadside repair.
I went for a 10k run a couple of days ago, and I'll be running tonight (Christmas Eve), and I always do an early morning run on Christmas Day (I suspect it's subconscious; anticipating the calories of the Christmas dinner to come!). I hope to do an event on New Years Day as well.
Happy Christmas everyone!
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