Week 27/06/11 Training

After last Saturdays DNF at the Malvern Midsummer Marathon, I decided to have a couple of rest days and then take it easy for the week with a view to getting in a decent quality long run at the weekend.

During the week I had a few lunchtime outings and a couple of morning runs to work. Covering about 30 miles. More recently I've been at the 50+ mile mark by the end of Friday. I was making a notable effort to reduce the number of double sessions and save something for the weekend.

I'd been mulling over nutrition and hydration most of the week and trying to figure out a strategy to get them right. When on Friday I had an email from the winner of this years Malvern Hills Ultra, Darryl Carter ( http://darrylcartertri.wordpress.com/ ). Totally off his own back he decided to contact me and offer some advice. I can't thank him enough.

I put to practice his suggestions on a planned 3 hour run this weekend. Pace wasn't really important. I just wanted to get out there for 3 hours, and keep it under 10 minute miles. It went fantastic, Darryl's suggestions of making sure I get 200/300 cals an hour and about 800ml of hydration an hour seems to have been spot on for me.

I went slightly quicker than planned and ended up back home having done 17.5 miles in 2:43, not setting the world on fire, but was manageable and felt easy even with over 1500ft of climbing and some tricky trails. This was a positive run for me, and I felt like I had hours left in the tank.

I think when I race next I'm going to have to play close attention to nutrition, I'm obviously not one of these people that can just wing it. I have to be planned and focus on it from the off, none of this waiting for an hour like I have done in the past.

The only downside to the run this wekend was, I took a bit of a tumble. I have no idea what kind of brain fart moment I was experiencing but I caught my left leg on a stinger and tried to adjust my footing to lessen the contact, instead I rolled my right ankle and smashed to the ground, hitting my left knee. Luckily, amazingly, no damage was done. Just a slightly stiff ankle the following day.

Going forward I think I will stick to 30-40 miles during the week and try and get in an 18-22 miler every weekend. This still keeps the weekly mileage relatively high but helps me make sure I get the important longer run in.

Lessons from two DNF's

I figured I need to start trying to address why, even with decent training my last two races have seen me not make the finish. Having never run a marathon before I got to mile 45 of the 52 mile malvern hills ultra and just last weekend I only made it 20 miles into the malvern midsummer marathon.

I suppose in someways I have yet to build up the kind of endurance I want, I have been running about 2 years now and only more seriously for the last year. It was perhaps a little suicidal to jump straight into a 50+ miler. Looking back, I find it remarkable I made it as far as I did.

I expected too finish last weekends malvern midsummer marathon strongly and to not finish at all was a bit of a blow. Ive been trying to figure out where I need to make changes and what I need to improve but only really have one answer. More long runs.

Even though I have regularly logged 50/60/70 mile weeks my longest runs have only been around the 13-15 mark, with one 18 miler. This obviously isnt long enough for me. I need to go longer, 20/22 so that I experience the same problems I get in a race and learn to overcome them. Maybe then I can resolve the nutrition, hydration problems that have led to sickness and headaches.

Messing about with nutrition and hydration will help but only if I do so on appropriately long runs. Ive made it a goal to make sure I get in at least a 20 miler every 2 weeks, even better if I can make it a hilly trail 20 miler. I also want to make sure I can get a shorter long run in the day after.

Ultimately, I think only miles and time on feet will help me find the answers to my problems.

Malvern Midsummer Marathon

Muddy shoes

So, I dnf'd again. I seem to have issues when racing even though my training has gone well. The day started off well, we left the house in plenty of time and arrived at the start nice and early. It had rained heavily overnight but by the time I was on the start line it was brightening and warming up.

In non dramtical fashion the race organiser shouted go and we were off. The start and first 4 miles or so saw about 1500ft of climbing. Most people were walking some of the steepest sections and it seemed the sensible thing to do, as there was no way of running past anyway. At this point I was feeling great on the flat and downhills. I enjoyed flying down the hills but didnt have the greatest control, I tweaked my left ankle a little but didnt seem to be left with any problems.

After getting a little lost I got to the first checkpoint and filled up my hand held bottle. I really wanted to drop a layer of clothing here as I was feeling really hot but for some reason never did. The section to the next checkpoint at mile 13 was pretty uneventful, although it did feel much harder than it should of. By the time I got to the checkpoint I was feeling pretty depressed about how difficult everything felt.

The section to the next checkpoint at 19.2 miles was pretty tough for me. It was just difficult to run, there were seriously muddy areas, overgrown areas, fords and crops to contend with. Super sharp grass seeds kept finding there way into my socks and sticking in my feet. I was feeling pretty miserable and at about mile 16 I got a splitting headache and I pretty much decided to drop out at the next checkpoint.

So that was that really 20 miles in 3:58 and 1500ft or so of climbing. Not a bad training run but it didnt go anywhere near like I expected, its been another blow to the confidence and I obviously need to think about the cause of my headache. It was pretty warm yesterday so I dont know if I could have been dehydrated. I drank 400ml between the start and checkpoint 1, 400ml between checkpoint 1 and 2 and another 900ml before I dropped, so in total 1700ml over 4 hours with a temperature at about 25/77. I dont know if that was enough or too much. 500ml was energy drink and mistakenly only used 400ml as nuun.

When I got back home I was keen to follow some of the western states 100 on twitter, there was some great coverage and it was awe inspiring to hear some of the stories. Its that kind of dedication, focus and determination that I find infectious and it was enough to perk me up a little and too make me look ahead.

Week 20/06/2011 training

This weeks training has been pretty light, I am tapering a little for the Malvern midsummer marathon. My usual run to work and run at lunch time was replaced with just a lunch time run.

Im feeling pretty fresh and rested for the marathon, Im looking forward to it now. The only problem is I have tight hamstrings at the moment. I think the intensity of last weeks 70 miles has taken its toll a little.

Still, I am going to give it a go. It was only ever intended to be a long training run and give some guidance about pace for future marathons so its not like I will be smashing it. Im also using it as a chance to test nutrition stuff and just to get out there and race, it should be fun. Its going to be hard to run fast anyway, as I will be looking at the map and making sure I dont get lost. Hopefully the fact that its a long distance walkers event will leave me with a trail of walkers to follow, especially since they set off an hour before runners.

Its a great chance to get back to the Malvern hills as well, running them previously has been a real pleasure and at only a fiver entry fee its well worth it.

This weekend sees the 38th running of the Western States 100, so I can let my imagination run wild and imagine what it must be like run there. As I run through the Malvern hills, I will be thinking of all the runners at WS100 and wishing them all good luck. Maybe someday, I could be there?

Anyway,.Having written this, I'm off to have a nice carby meal and to prepare my stuff for in the morning. Hopefully the weather will be decent and a fun day will be ahead. Ill do a little race report after the event.

Good luck to anyone else running/racing this weekend.