So this was the first week of the 3 week taper and actually I ended up doing less running than planned throughout the week. Tuesday was within plan at a 4 mile run.

As the weather was pretty poor Wednesday morning I opted to trust the weather man and went to run in the evening, the plan being to do a 5 miler. As I started off it started to rain and proceeded to rain some more, meaning that I cut the run short with a 5.11km run. On the plus side though as I was keen to get home I ended up setting a PB at 23:36 which I was quite pleased with, particularly given that I have done very little speed work with all the distance training.

Thursday again I planned to run in the morning but the rain put me off, the afternoon came and it was still raining so I took the decision to take an impromptu rest day.

Saturday was a reduced distance long run at  12 miles across the North Downs. I had ordered some new running gear for the Trail Marathon Wales so had these out to test.

I have bought some Gore trail shorts, Underarmour top and Compressisport calf guards. Obviously I didn’t want to run all new gear on the actual race in case of any unexpected discomfort and I am pleased to say all items performed admirably particularly the shorts (or as I say, passed the bollocks test). The calf guards still need more testing as I still had a bit of tightness when running, but this could be due to a lack of stretching on my part (something which I am aiming to rectify), a few more runs and I should have an idea if the calf compression can be used on runs or just for post runs.

Total distance: 19.42 miles; Total Time: 3:07:52;  Average Pace: 09:40/mi; Total calories: 2627

With the Trail Marathon Wales just over 3 weeks away, this week was the last opportunity to get the long runs in before a 3 week taper. Tuesday and Thursday I ran an early in the morning and managed to get 8 miles in apiece, not massively quick but miles in the legs none the less. Saturday was the last really long run, a 20 miler both on road and trail.

The distance wasn’t the only aspect of training that I was focusing on, I was also trying out different nutrition types (gels etc) during the run to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t work . Changing from my normal Torq gels I had purchased a Powerbar Carb Bar for before, Powerbar Gels x2 for during and Sports Beans (one with and one without caffeine) x2. I also had 625ml of Electrolyte water, 625ml of normal squash and 1.25litre of water.

All that seems quite a lot to carry for a run, but given that on the 20 mile run I burn up to 2700 calories, all the above only equates to replacing about 700 calories. The week before I did a run in blistering heat, 19 miles in total and only had (along with the above fluids) 1 gel and a pack of Haribo and I can honestly say I really felt it, so in my mind carrying too much was preferable to not enough.

The weather was not nearly as nice and was a lot cooler which was no bad thing. Focusing on the nutrition I had the Carb bar before the run, it is Banana Punch flavour, nice texture. I did feel like I had more energy starting out so things were going well, the plan was to have a gel 45 mins in, a pack of beans 1hr 30, another gel 45 mins after that and the caffeine beans 30 mins after that. The gels I won’t be using again, they really don’t sit well in my stomach and leave a sick feeling after.

The beans however, yum! I will be getting a couple of packs of these for the Marathon and will have them on the Ultra as well. Very tasty and the caffeine hit did wonders as my energy levels dipped on the later half of the run.

I am not looking forward to the taper, it seems counter productive to do less and I want to keep training, but I know the reasons why and will stick to it and ignore the urge to throw in another long run.

Total distance: 37.39 miles, Total Time: 06:22:22, Total Calories: 4967

Firstly, I am a bit late in posting this week. I try to keep to logging things on the Sunday but with the Denbies and the general duties of fatherhood the day ran away with me.

So, the week of the Denbies was a pretty sedate one, Tuesday was a 5 mile run around the block. Wednesday I was unable to run so Thursday I did an 8 mile and Friday was a 3 mile run tapering into the Sunday, the day of the Denbies

Being a 10am start and not too far away we were able to have a reasonable start, Gareth picking me up about 8am (I had already been up 2 hours to help with feeding the boys). I was actually feeling quite nervous about this run, which surprised me as it was set to be fairly straightforward. A couple of people from work had said that they would be there and I think that little bit of pressure to not be at the back of the field was playing on my mind.

Upon arriving we were marshalled into a parking space, we then headed to race control to get our numbers. The race is organised by Events to Live and from first impressions they were putting on a good show, they had a small shop there with running gear on sale with some heavily discounted Gore Jackets and other items (Gareth caving in and getting a jacket, I stayed strong!!). Race numbers acquired we hung around until the 10am start.

Race kicked off to a 1.5 mile uphill along a road, this levelled out and we continued along another road, finally getting to the North Downs Way at about mile 4-5ish. I think this must have carried on for a few miles then back to the road. The route was an out and back, heading out from race start then looping around and back onto the same road we had run up at the start, except now a downhill.

Despite the excellent organisation, friendly marshalls and nice views I wouldn’t do the race again. Simple reason is there was just too much road running and not enough trail.

In addition to the runs this week I have got myself a new treat, a Salomon Advanced Skin S-Lab 5, I haven’t used it yet but will give a review next update.

Total Distance Run: 26.54 Miles, Average Pace: 08:49/mi, Total Time: 03:54:09