Carb Gels

I have just gone through my plan from 1st January until 12th April 2009 and have calculated that my projected mileage is 664 miles from those 11 weeks I will have to do:

1. 11 runs of 16 miles or more
2. 9 of which are 22 miles or more
3. 7 of which are 24 miles or more
4. 4 of which are 26 miles or more
5. 2 of which are over 30 miles in length

You can now see why when I went to the running shop today I bought 20 carb gels. The guy behind the counter commented "Are you sure Sir? Only ultrarunners buy that kind of quantity!" I agreed, smiled and went on my way with my box. :-)

Brock Rock

I was out for a quick run around a 10 km route I do when I can't be bothered to think of a new one. It takes me down a quiet woodland road devoid of traffic and people when I stopped to take an annoying stone out of my shoe when I heard a rustle and snort from the bushes and leaves to my left. Looking over to noise, I nearly fell on my backside when I saw a black and white face staing at me with two glaring yellow eyes!!! I have to admit, I did peg off a bit sharpish :-)

Just Let Me Run

There I sat on Thursday evening, still logged onto work trying to get a [censored] server to back up and had already done 2 hours overtime that day, I had got back in view of going for a run and then to do a bit of IT wizardry for work and had found that the train was delayed and some [censored] idiot had decided to put his 50" plasma TV on the train with him, on a trolley in the latter end of the rush hour and grumbled when people pushed past him and when I got home I found the family had left my food on the stove and the cat had eaten half of it and I was too late to go for a run and I was still logged on awaiting the back up to finish at 9.30 pm so that I could press the button that makes the wheels go around and I still hadn't had a chance to do an easy run because I was really hacked off that I had to do it in my own time because somebody hadn't done their job properly whilst I was on a training course for the past three days and I still hadn't gone out for my run that night and I really wanted to and had found my teenage daughters had used all the hot water up and I still hadn't been for my run yet and the back up hadn't quite finished. All I wanted to do was go for a run so I was ready for the BIG race next week but work had got in the way again and I was so stressed out I decided to write with no commas or proper grammar as I was getting really miffed because all I wanted to do was GO FOR A RUN.

Lights in the Night

It was club night tonight and I was in two minds, drive or run there, I chose the latter. Weather was a little chilly so I wore my black lycra leggings, my black OMM kamleika smock and black gloves....I thought people would shout "All because the lady loves Milk Tray" :-)

I was behind time and left the house later than normal so decided to cut through some woods with a lovely open area and as would luck have it I still had my head torch in my smock inner pocket.

Donning my torch I started through the woods and up ahead I saw a torch beam, then another and yet another....jeez,, there were dog walkers in the woods, in the pitch dark! As I ran past one of them then shined their 1000 candel lamp in my eyes, half blinding me and squealed "oohhh you scared me".....you and me both girly, you and me both. I have to say, I bet I was more scary, after all, she probably only saw my head appearing from the dark!

Bursas

I had to laugh tonight, I innocently posted the image you can see in The short runs are adding up in a web forum to say how I had spent 15 minutes of my life that evening when I received a post from a lovely lady who lives down North who said:

Hmmmmm, very interesting bump on your left knee Jezza, Looks like a bursa to me, and a lesser sized one on your Right knee. Sorry, just can't help myself

Now I am in a complete tizzy, online dictionary's state:

Bursa: A fluid-filled sac that is located in areas where friction is likely to occur, then minimises the friction; for example between a tendon and a bone.

I have been standing in front of the mirror and asked my wife "She says I have bursas, bursas she said what am I to do bursas for God's sake"

Seriously, though, I have no worries but isn't it funny how an off the cuff comment could cause a person to panic?

Far from the madding crowd

I went up to the University in London today to deliver my weekly lecture and was amazed to see a runner trying to battle through the crowds of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road and failing miserably. Why in God's name did he think it was a good idea to go down one of the busiest, most crowded streets in London?

It didn't particularly help that nobody got out of his way....top tip if you are reading this blog, buddy......use the side streets if you have to run in London.

The smell of Sunday pubs

Out running this afternoon I had the misfortune to run past two really lovely country pubs, one the Blacksmith's Arm in Cudham, Kent. Now I have never been in it but have run and driven past it on a number of occasions but today was different .As I ran past and peered through the window I could see all the punters sitting around the warm fire, supping a favourite beverage and eating but it was the smell, that glorious smell of Sunday Roast wafting around the outside of the pub.

I sometimes wonder what people think as I traipse past them in my full kit with headtorch, today they must have been wondering "Where is that drowned rat going?" What I thought as I passed was " I must take the family out for a pub lunch soon" as all I had was a carb gel!!!!

and there it remained

The plan was a 6.00am wake up call, a leisurely breakfast, a good few glugs of a sport drink ready to drive to Michael's to meet up with George to start running at 7.00am to do 24 miles. Like a good little ultra runner I got up as planned turned on the toaster and then went for my morning constitutional and whilst I sat there I heard the tell tale sound of water, no not me reader, outside the house ;-)

My kit lay in a pile in the living room calling for me to run and on looking out of the window I saw the driveway was awash with water and it was absolutely pouring down, a louder calling came from my lovely warm duvet, the duvet won....sorry guys we must swap mobile numbers.

I also have to admit, I am training for a night run, maybe I should have my last long Long run in the evening just so I get my body aware of what it has to do...this was one of the factors that helped the duvet decision this morning....honest :-)

Saying that, it looks like I still have 24 miles to do today.....can't wait.

The short runs are adding up!

The long runs are really taking their toll on my legs at the moment, looking forward to my taper next week but tonight, I went for a run to blow away the cobwebs of the week's work in preparation for the weekend. My legs were really achy tonight and when I stopped outside my house I felt they were really going to cramp up So I filled up the old "sit down" bath with cold water and stood in it for 15 minutes.....bleeding 'eck did it hurt, but boy, do my legs feel good now I couldn't resist taking this picture:

Is this classified as carb-loading?

Just asking

The longer the run...

...the shorter I sleep!

This weekend heralds the last long Long Run until I run The Moonlight Challenge. This weekend we are running a training run of 24 miles, hopefully off road, mostly trail with just a few hills to give a little challenge for us.

This means we are meeting for 7.00am and will run for about 4 hours and 30 minutes (possibly a bit more)

Oh well, I chose the sport, I can have a lie in on Saturday morning

The Compton Challenge

It seems like when one is about to finish, another starts!!

George and I have really got the ultrarunning bug now and we have decided to run The Compton Downland Challenge a fine little run of 40 miles. It is presented very well as it comprises 2 loops of 20 miles in the form of a figure of 8. Everyone runs the lower loop and at 19.5 miles the 20 milers are peeled off to complete their race and the 40 milers are given the opportunity to continue or bail out. Doing that is like dangling a bacon sandwich in front of the face of a starving man the temptation must be so great.
The next idea George has come up with is the 50 mile challenge, or the 8 lap version of the Moonlight Challenge I am doing in February, we'll see. Tactics will be discussed on our final long run on Sunday until we start the next series of training plans and final decisions are made before the forms are sent off.

Ooh my aching pins!

This picture was sent to me via email this morning and I smiled to myself when I realised it fitted perfectly how I felt on my training run last night. That run last Sunday took more out of me than I thought and I set off for a short warm up of about 4 miles to the club and realised at about 3 miles that my legs were aching where they never ached before. You know what the weird this is, I still went off and ran 7 miles with the club.......still aching, every shallow bump felt like the stickman on the left but I enjoyed every mile of it.

Who let the dogs out?

As the weekend of the 7th and 8th February approaches George and I have been hitting the trails hard over recent weeks. We are getting excited about the prospect of doing another ultra and luckily as they are on the same weekend we are both running the same distance "Long Runs" on Sundays this month and it has been a really worthwhile exercise. Today's challenge involved a 23 mile trail run using the local OS map taking us away from our usual haunts. The main reason was to see how good (or bad) we were running off the map in preparation for the L2B in September. At one particular junction we were met with a conundrum, the map said 3 paths joining, the actual route presented us with only 2!! We were in the right place but we decided on the right hand path, the waypoints helped us but then we found ourselves in the middle of a large field, close cropped lawn....yes lawn! We made our way to some out buildings and then it started!
Bark, woof, BaaRk
Just one single owner to the said bark, then two, then four until a whole outhouse seemed to erupt into a rapturous cacophony of dog barks, we continued on laughing that we better get out when we found ourselves in a courtyard surrounded by yet another 3 kennel outhouses which set the occupants into a similar outpouring of canine voice, the noise was incredible. A lady came out of one outhouse looking really perplexed as to why there was such an uproar......and there stood George and I looking rather sheepish and gushing apologies, we were quickly pointed to the gate, told to turn right and take the "correct" footpath

Tired

Heard on the trail today, just as we were about to complete a gruelling 23.2 mile off and on road run.
"To think, if we were doing the London to Brighton, we would have about another 33 miles to go!"
Thanks George, you know how to cheer a guy up!!!

The Scream...

...or how to have a little fun when you are on a long run!!!

Yes I know it is a dirty trick, but it always amazes me about the number of people who walk along a dark road, cutting across woodland wearing an Ipod totally oblivious to what is going on around them.

Tonight I went for a 10 mile tempo run and was travelling at a reasonable pace of sub-8 min/mile when up ahead of me I saw a young man walking in the same direction as me, hoody up over his head, the strutting gait of a teenager and as I approached it was obvious he hadn't heard me, the pavement was narrowing so I stepped into the road and passed him. It was hilarious, he actually screamed, almost squeaking, leapt about 12 inches into the air and gasped some monosyllabic profanity to anyone who cared to hear. I have to admit, I burst out laughing, turned my head and waved shouting "Sorry mate!"....my pace increased to sub-7.30 min/mile for a little bit just in case. That little incident kept me smiling for about 2 miles....I can't wait until tomorrow's 10 miler, it is such a good sport.

New Shoes

Well the Sales are upon us and the first pay day of the year came and went. Injuries started to happen and my old Mizuno Inspire 4's have done 490 miles, time for some new ones.

Had my first 8 mile(ish) run in them tonight, I ran to the club and then had my pyramid training. Isn't it nice when you have a fresh pair of shoes to run in, it felt like my feet were floating and my poor old battered metatarsal hadn't realised what had hit it. Not too much pain after the run tonight, I have a feeling it is slowly getting better, let's hope that is the case.

Pyramid Running

Nope, not running up and down a pyramid but pyramid training at the club, YYUUKK.

Billed as:

"This is a ‘hill reps’ training session, undertaken in pairs, each one numbered one or two.

There is firstly a ‘half mile’ warm-up run to the start, with a half mile cool down run back to the club house, after the session finishes.)

Just to remind you what we do when running pyramids, the number one in each pair start by running hard up to a lamp post about 100 yards up the hill, and when this is reached, turn round and jog back to the start, where their partner number two repeats this process.

Upon number two returning to the start, the number one then goes to the further lamp post about 150 yards up the hill, and when their number two partner has done the same, the number one runs to the third lamp post about 250 yards up the hill, which is then repeated by the number two. Returning to the second lamppost, and finally the first, completes the set. So the set sequence is 1,2,3,2,1.

The set is then repeated and continued until c. 40 minutes of running is completed, and the end of the session is called. You will therefore be running for 20 minutes, and resting for the other 20 minutes. It does sound easy, but I can assure you that you'll be working hard!

Personally I am not looking forward to it, the guy organising is very experienced but doing it in the dark, on roads with 50-60 people is asking for an accident. I may just go for an "easy" run as I am still a bit sore after my 22 miler on Sunday. If I don't, I may go just for the company.

New bottle

Used my new bottles today, well one of them, it is a bit bigger than my old, mouse nibbled ones. Cheap bottles from Science in Sport, found them in the local mountaineering store going for £4.00, got 15% club discount as well. SiS sell them cheap so you buy their very expensive sports supplements, personally I can't stand their additives, to me, it tastes like liquid sherbert.

800 mls is a bit large for a winter run so I carried 500 mls of Nuun. Yum, yum Orange Nuun with orange flavoured carb gel. As they say, each to their own :-)

The eyes

Night running, WOW, what a buzz, dangerous as hell but what fun! I went for a planned 22 miler today around the High Elms and Keston and decided to start my run at 2:30 pm which would give me a good 14-15 miles on the trail in the daylight and then planned to have the last 5-6 miles on trail in the dark. It seems my planned worked and I had a great run. I saw sheep, scared a few horses with my new head torch and generally got muddy and cold. Foot held out but I felt I may have hit the wall at about 19 miles which wasn't very nice as I was stuck in the middle of a large wood with not a street light or light from the moon anywhere around me. The wall episode has worried me a little but I woke up this morning with pains in my back and had a real tummy upset. I am probably a bit under the weather, let's hope that is the issue and nothing more serious. I know these particular woods pretty well and have traipsed the main LOOP path many a time but jeepers how it is really easy to get disorientated and trying to get clues in a 6 foot circle is very hard. I nearly came a cropper in the woodland area as the mud was freezing over again and it was ankle turning, hip twisting stuff. What is really spooky are the eyes, YES the EYES wwwoooohhhhhooooo. As you look around, my head torch kept catching EYES and with the wind blowing hard and foxes howling in the near distance all I could see were the eyes!!!!!

Moonlight Challenge Course Preview

Just remember it has to be run round 5 times

New Head Torch

I have made the big plunge and coughed up for a head torch, not the greatest expenditure or ground breaking piece of kit but what a minefield of different ones ranging in price from roughly £10 to £80!!! This wattage, aluminium casing, "As used by Fred Blogs, the mountain climber", rubber coated this, ruggerdised that.

I am only doing this one Moonlight Challenge race as a one off for the moment so I wasn't planning to spend loads of money so went for the cheap end of the market and got a Silverpoint Ozone II Dynamo, not because I am an eco-warrior but I just couldn't face the idea of forking out on another set of AAA batteries at £5 a go.

No instructions per se, but it does say 1 minutes cranking provides 40 minutes light on 1 LED or 90 minutes on 3 LEDs. A full charge provides 4 hours on 3 LEDs, so it looks like a good option for my race as I have a feeling I won't have it on that much once I get my night sight.

I just have to remember to go gently when putting it on, I have already whacked my nose with it twice.

Deep Freeze

Nope, not the weather but the cold gel that runners rub into their aching and hurting joints and muscles.

Contents:
Racemic Menthol 2%
Isopropyl alcohol
Carbomer
Triethanolamine (85%)
Methyl Hydroxybenzoate E218
Propyl Hydroxybenzoate E216
Patent Blue V E131
Purified Water

All nice and soothing, smells pleasant, nothing overbearing

So why the hell did my cat walk over to me tonight sniff my foot which I had just smeared Deep Freeze over, sniff it and then BITE my foot?

Back in the saddle...

...and it feels great!

The counter has started running, as I have, with my first 6.2 mile set piece around the local area. The roads were treacherous under foot as the compacted snow left over from Monday was still holding fast to the untreated roads. Met a couple from the running club passing in the opposite direction and had a brief chat but it was about -1 ° centigrade where we were getting cold and the fog was really down making visibility about 100 yards. It really was quite dangerous with some car drivers speeding way too fast for the conditions so I was a bit reluctant to push the pace along the quieter roads. Still pleased as I completed the run about 45 seconds longer that a normal easy run. Foot felt OK so it looks like I am going for a longer one tomorrow.

What is today's picture I hear you ask? That dear reader is what Kent looks like at 8.00pm at night in the fog.

The Compton Challenge

I was just having a look around the interweb thingy and this little beauty caught my eye and I thought I would add it here in case anyone is interested:

40 mile Compton Challenge hosted by the Compton Harriers. I have seen some good write ups about it. I was in the process of mapping it this evening but got a call out from work so most of it was sat in front of a PC fixing servers instead of doing fun things.

It comprises two separate loops in a figure of 8, both of them 20 miles in length. The race appears to have the 20 mile and 40 mile runners starting together, the 20 milers do their loop and the 40 milers carry on. A cunning little "mental" number in my opinion as you would need a lot of discipline not to hurtle off with the 20 milers and then find you are wasted at the cross over point. I have a feeling figure of 8's are a real crack as you have to get through the concept of watching people finish as you continue for some of the same.

I am not necessarily going to do it this year as I have enough on my plate and this is on Easter weekend so have to leave my options open for the family.

-4 ° centigrade

Got a text tonight from the running club:

"Happy New Year to you all. Bad news I'm afraid, no club run tonight, just too cold. Sorry for the late notice"

I sniggered to myself, what a load of big girls blouses, the lot of them, it was just a month ago that my buddy G and I were running the Doyen of the Downs at -4 ° centigrade, cracking ice with our heels and running in the marshes to the north of Arundel.

It is only now that I am beginning to really take on board the enormity of our accomplishment and the true grit we and our fellow competitors showed in finishing that fine race. Take a look at the photos on Extreme Running website and just look at the beautiful haw frost and the smiles and look of the runners competing...not a blouse in sight

An epiphany on Epiphany

As we near the end of the sordid tale of the damaged foot I wanted to share with you the great news of yesterday about the old plate not being broken I decided to try walking with just one crutch today. I was told to continue the bandage, a sock and I put on my trusty old and retired Mizuno Waverider 11 shoes and went on my way. By 10.00 am I had cast aside my left crutch and was tapping around much to the amusement of my colleagues on just one. However, I still had this nasty ache on the top of the foot, a real digging sensation just at the site of the original knock.

When I got home tonight I jumped at the chance of yanking off my shoe, my sock and then the bandage and was shocked to see that I had a massive indentation where the bandage had been. I had an idea that the bandage was probably the cuplrit of some of the tenderness I have been having so decided to leave it off for an hour so my foot looked normal and then put my sock and shoes back on. It was an epiphany, had the bandage been the reason for my soreness? Well reader all I can say is I have driven my car tonight to Cotswolds to look for replacement bottles and a head torch for the Moonlight Challenge and then gone off to Sainsbury for some cider and a packet of nuts. My foot feels great, consider the crutches placed in the understair cupboard (for the mice to eat) and I will just take a walking cane tomorrow, mainly for affectation than anything else :-)

Why the ballerina Jerry? Well it was a nice picture and I was just wondering if I could do it now!

Use the force

On my way to work today I was standing on the station in the bitter wind and snow thinking how worse could it get when my mobile phone rang "Gggrrrrr, it must be work again" I exclaimed, this was the third time this morning! Looking at my phone and dropping my crutch for the second time today I saw "Number Withheld" written across the screen.

Me "Hello, Jerry speaking"
Them " Hello Jerry, it's the Doctor here"
Me " Oh hello Doctor, how are you?"
Doc " Great, I have just got verbal confirmation that your foot is not broken"
Me " Brilliant news, what now?"
Doc "Four more days on the crutches, see how you feel but don't run straight away, see how you feel first!"

So there we have it, no broken metatarsal, foot still a bit sore and a waist that is just telling my trousers that it is a little too big. I am so pleased, this means with a little gentle running in, I will be up for the Moonlight Challenge in February.

Watch the run counter on the right, I have a feeling it is going to start counting soon.

A Mischief of Mice who lost their bottle

What are you going on about Jerry? Swallowed a thesaurus again?

No dear reader, I have not but I thought the title was apt for this mouse tail (sic) ..hee hee.

No, I am actually rather miffed, I was under orders tonight to clear up my running kit from the understairs cupboard as I was not using it at the moment and to get it bagged up and if dirty put in the wash basket.

Going to my sports bag, I pulled out my tri-band with a race number still attached when I saw a pile of red chaff, touching them I found they were rubber and then it dawned on me, they were the remnants of the nipples of my North Face 500 ml bottles. Fearing the worst, I pulled the bottles out of the bag and there we had, two completely ruined water bottles, the nipples nibbled down to the plastic. If you click on the picture on the left you will just be able to make out the ruined tops. Thankfully the weather is cool and I am off running for a little while.

All I can say is that every cloud has a silver lining, what luck I found them now and not the night before a race.

Off now to find a mouse trap, that cat of ours is useless.

The Doctor will see you now!

Can I run?
I arrived at St. Mary's, Sidcup A & E department at 8.50 am this morning ready for a review on my foot. It sounds ridiculous but I felt I was standing at the start line of the Nine Edges 20 mile Endurance run last September, I think you'll know the feeling, you know you can do it but you still have that nervous apprehension gnawing away at your gut. The clock ticked and the reception staff had their last sip of coffee before the shutters were pushed up and three of us limped and tottered towards the counter. A big man, built like a scaffolder narrowly beat me but only because he jumped queues and nearly tripped on my crutch. Never mind, if he was that agile I expected he would be triaged to a lower position then me.

I sat down and had a good read of my new book Minority Report by Philip K. Dick and was just getting into it when I was called in by the Doctor.

It appears our illustrious NHS was unable to get a consultant to see my X Rays, something to do with Christmas and New Year holidays! Written across my notes in bold, capitalised letters were the words RUNNING ENTHUSIAST and scribbled to the right "16 miles, on bad foot!", I laughed to myself, "Was I that obvious when I turned up last week?"

So there it is, no consultant to confirm anything, a GP apologising that she prefers to over-diagnose, which I am truly grateful, and that I had to carry on wearing my bandage. At least the Doctor has agreed that wearing my old running shoes is a good idea as they offer great support in the arch and allows me to walk "correctly" and stops me over compensating.

So no running for me for another week, as Philip K. Dick wrote this is a Minority Report

Quote

Runners just do it - they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first. ~Author Unknown

A Picnic it is not

The Picnic at Box Hill, Dorking
I have finally got used to the white lie that race organisers always slip in, the word undulating! Organisers think it clever to put that word in but it is a matter of opinion. I have heard of marathons being described as undulating but when you map it, it has a gradient of 1%. Come on keep it real organisers, that's all I ask.

Here is one my challenge for 2009 amongst others that I will cover later on this month. Here we have The Picnic a wonderfully described race:

"A run for really very exceptionally hearty man fellows and lady fellows, entirely on rough tracks, and including superb views over the North Downs, the Mole Gap, Denbies Vineyard, and Dorking."

This is a great race, created by a runner for runners, the course is a tough downland run up and down the hillside of the notorious Box Hill in Dorking, Surrey. The route, shown on the left is an out and back one that is approximately 13.1 miles and when I did it last year, it near wasted me even though I trained, hill trained, distance trained and did even more hill training. That race was the Munro, billed as the "Hardest half" with a accrued rise of 3,000 feet. Wait for it, The Picnic is the Munro twice over and I will have to run an accrued height of 6,000 feet...Yes, extreme running, welcome to my world, I can't wait. Keep watching as I blog my training over the next few weeks.

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry

..or, with all the good will in the World, it does go wrong!

I had the greatest year of my running life in 2008, after competing in my first ultramarathon of 30 miles around the South Downs Way near Arundel on 7th December 2008 I was geared up for more of the same.

In late December, I finally posted my application for a 32.5 mile Moonlight Challenge near to Margate, I had great plans and had even set up a training plan. So on 28th December I set off with my buddies on a 17 mile out and back to Greenwich.

At 7.45 am we stepped off and took a short cut through a woodland path on our way to Greenwich, as we strided off I clumped my right foot on a branch, "Ow shit that hurt!" I exclaimed. We continued and the general feeling was just a bit of a dull pain in my foot but it was only at mile 16 did I really feel as though something was not quite right as the pain increased just beyond comfortable.

On returning home, I took off my running shoe and .......boy did it hurt. A quick visit to A&E confirmed what I had a suspected, a fracture of the 1st metatarsal in my right foot.

Well that is the 2009 plan up in the air and I am limping around on a pair of crutches awaiting the diagnosis from the Doctor on Sunday 4th January 2009.

I went out today with just one crutch and a training shoe and it felt great, the shoe giving me some support. I'll mention it to the Doctor tomorrow and just hope they don't put in a plaster cast, I'll be beside myself if I am going to be confined to an armchair for 6 weeks and say goodbye to my February race. Wish me luck.

The blog of an ultramarathon runner

What is an Ultramarathon?

An ultramarathon (also called ultra distance) is any sporting event involving running longer that the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres or 26.2188 miles.

In general, there are two distances commonly run of 50 km and 100 km but now the sport is entering the mainstream organisers are now creating some great runs including nocturnal, multi-stage events, mountain races and trail versions