Another Day

I have had a stomach ache for part of the day and as I had no running commitments erred on the side of caution and enjoyed a lie in. Feeling guilty for most of the day that I hadn't been on a "long" run I ventured out tonight in view of cracking out 13 miles but how wrong I was.

It soon came apparent that things were not quite right with the "drainage in the bottom field" so a quick detour and I found myself eventually running just 7 miles...not a problem but it would have been nice to get 60 miles in this week. I'll do it next week as my last big week before I slowly taper off to Crawley.

Countdown to Crawley

Remember to click on the Just Giving link on the right to sponsor me for the Prostate Cancer Charity

Running Stance

So the mileage is picking up and I have completed the first 20 miles for this weekend and now 48.6 miles for the week. Naturally by legs are getting tired and it was obvious at about 14 miles into my run today that I had to adjust my pace and running style.

This first came apparent about 2 weeks ago as I ventured onto the track to adjust my body to "flat" runs. I told George I was going to try my new ultra stance and run a couple of miles to see how I felt. The change over was incredible as I moved my style from lifting off at the toe to running from mid-foot, instantly I felt the strain move away from my thighs and calves. It could almost be called armchair running, a lovely methodical, relaxed style that will take a few more miles to perfect but I am really happy with the result.

New torch

Outstanding value at only £2.50! I found this little baby at Millets camping store, amazingly at that price it is almost cheaper than the 3 AAA batteries that come with it.

It has 9 white LEDs that create the light beam and light weight, ruggedised casing means it is ideal for trail running and its small size means it is easy to tie it to my backpack shoulder strap so I can run hands free at night time without resorting to my headtorch when running country lanes and woods.

At this price I will get one to point backwards and put a red filter on it.

One for the trail

As a move away from opera I now have one for hard, lonely, up hill trails. This will get the blood pumping. Play it LOUD.

40 miles

That is the plan for this weekend, one of the few back-to-backs I am doing as I prepare for Crawley on 10th April. It looks like it will be a road/trail run with George in the morning, I have yet to look up a route yet but by the looks of the rain today it will be a muddy one :-)

Sunday will be a little less adventurous but I will make up the add or subtract miles to the run depending how far we run on the Saturday. It will be a little less tiring as I will be doing it on the local track.

Prostate Cancer

Please sponsor me for this worthwhile charity by either clicking the Just Giving widget on the right or via the link below.

The Prostate Cancer Charity

I will be posting more information in the next few weeks to tell me how it is going. If you want to be part of my challenge in Crawley, UK please email me at jezza@magicforest.co.uk

Temptation

Here is a challenge for all you "It's Lent and I have given XXXXX up" I had to run past the local bakers this evening, not your little street corner one but a big factory......yaarrhhh they must have just baked 10 ovens of hot cross buns and the neighbourhood smelt delicious. My old tummy was rumbling by the end my 10 miler tonight.

The Big 500

Good to see that the plans are working and I have just passed my first 500 miles for this year.

The have been a wet, cold, windy 500 miles but still a great 500 miles.

Turn Back

I helped out at the club meet tonight by being time recorder and admin for the monthly 5 km time trial, a job I quite enjoy in a silly way. I had already run there, a distance of about 5 kilometres and then had plans to run another10 km after.

When it was time to run home I got about 1 km up the road and then thought to myself "Why bother, the training plans say 10 km for tonight, ease off Jerry, go home and rest" and that is what I did, those few kilometres would have been no benefit, in fact the rest did me more good.

Faversham is off

News just through tells me that there is no Faversham 6 hour ultra this year.

I am a little disappointed as I had planned to make this a target race this year and trash my 37.2 mile personal best. There is still a chance it may happen but I am not holding my breath.

So with that I have a loose sail flapping and now looking for a medium term target to ease me into August and take of the Ridgeway

Motionless

"The shorter the run, the longer the warm up." These are words I use to hear when talking about training; I never really believed it until today whilst at the track.

I arrived at the track at just gone 9.00 am and was really pleased to see no one was there, this meant I was able to do some clockwise running and then when people arrived I would switch back to the usual way. As previously reported, I was planning to do 50 laps so I went about the task, when I was 23 laps into it another runner appeared and I called to him that I would be only doing 2 more laps and then reverting to the anti-clockwise, he thumbed up and then I saw him run one gentle lap.

He then went about stretching , sitting down, standing up, stretching and the next time I saw him run was when I was on my 38^th lap for 200 metres, then stretch for some time, sit down, change his shoes and then jog 400 metres at my 45^th lap! In the time I had run 5.5 miles he had run/jogged 600 metres, incredible!

Big 50

Not an impossible task but certainly a new one that I have yet to try as I carry on my training for my Crawley race in April.

Tomorrow sees me run to the track and then do 50 laps around it. It just doesn't seem very much when you say 50 laps but in fact it is 20,000 metres or 12.4 miles! When said like that you begin to realise the numbers soon add up.

So tomorrow's objectives are to smash the 60 mile per week glass ceiling, a real psychological barrier.

Snooze time

Too much work, too much over time, too much running, not enough rest something had to snap and that thing was me. I had to work at the College today, 6 hours of "up front" lecturing left me exhausted after the event of the past week which saw me fall asleep on the train and then when I got home fall into a deep luxurious sleep on the sofa for 90 minutes...glorious, but it just shows my body needed it. More big runs tomorrow, this time on the track.

Crazy

I am used to seeing weird sights whilst on my long runs but tonight's one was one of my favourites. I was eight miles into a twenty mile road run and had just dipped off the main road and was descending quite steeply. I heard the sound of a car behind me moving over the loose uneven surface and so stepped aside to let it past and as I continued I heard a quiet 2 stroke engine coming up at speed and then "Get out the way, move over, move over" It was a young male voice so I stepped aside again, stopped and looked around.

I couldn't believe my eyes but as I stood there a golf buggy with 2 lads in hoods on the seats, one on the front bumper and as it passed 2 more hanging off the back waving with a cheery wave.

Don't get me wrong I do not condone such behaviour but the sheer cheek of these lads just made me grin.

New shoes

Hard to believe I have had to buy another new pair of running shoes, my latest pair are only 18 weeks old and have run in excess of 520 miles in them, so time for a change. I can no longer get my favourite Mizuno Wave Inspire 4 so have now moved back to the Mizuno Wave Riders series.

They are all white, shiny and smell new...I just need a muddy puddle, I mean, it is just not natural to have running shoes that colour :-)

What made the purchase so much sweeter was when the shop assistant showed them to me I said "Wow they have gone up in price!", without a blink he said "ten percent off for you today"

Clockwise

Great run tonight after yesterday's "little wobble", I arrived at the track and dumped my bag in the groundsman's hut and went about the task of fixing my pace. I settled immediately into 2:10 mins/lap and am really chuffed to find after that this is my set ultra pace. My plan was to run 30 laps, 15 laps anti-clockwise and if I could get away with it, 15 clockwise.

On Wednesday evening the track is vacated by 8.00 pm and I am left to myself so I happily went about my run. I am beginning to enjoy my track time, my pace is fixed, I run the line between lane 1 & 2 and I can just drift away, roll on Sunday...but first Friday.

Idiot

"Remind yourself that by finishing the marathon, you'll be among the 0.1 per cent of Britons who go the distance"

(Runner's World Magazine p23 April 2010)

That statistic amazed me 0.1% of Britons have run a marathon at one time in their life time, that is a measly 62,041 people. My reckoning is a large proportion of that figure do it once and once only for either charity or "things to do before I die" types. What I want to know is how many Britons have run above that distance, I would say not many. I like the idea that I am "A special idiot" thank you Alan Cabelly

The full quote

“Any idiot can run a marathon - it takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultramarathon.” - Alan Cabelly

All Stop

Felt a bit sore today which can only be the heavy schedule last week and my long run on Sunday. I planned to go out for a run with the club tonight and do about 11-12 miles, 2.5 miles to and back with a 6 mile with the group.

It soon became apparent that all was not well in the Jerry camp when about 4 miles into the group run my legs began to ache and I became out of breath, I think I had hit my limit for the night and so when I was about a mile from home I bowed out and waved the gang goodbye. Normally I would feel down about this drop out but I am more than happy, I would rather stop now than have carried on and injured myself.

Change of Plans

I have had a look over my plans until April 2010 and have noticed a change in behaviour that I have to vector in. When my current plan was put in place I was not contracted to work on the next few Saturdays and also my request for carrying over my leave to the new year was turned down meaning I have every Friday off until April.

The common sense answer was to review my plans and fit in back-to-backs where I can. Where I cannot to fit in a long run of 20+ miles to keep the "running on tired legs" concept working and do these on Friday morning or evening dependent on how I feel.