So  not a lot of training done this week, having to take a week off from any activity following the eye surgery. I was finally able to do some jogging on Saturday. Apparently jogging only needs a week but racing needs 2, not sure what the distinction is, so I went for a 8km jog following my usual route through Lloyd park up to Addington hills and back again. Pace was ok, I wasn’t going to push it so maintained a steady pace at about 6min per km.

Sundays run again was an easy paced  run, but I had company with my brother joining me. He appears to have caught the running bug and has signed up for the Tough Mudder in May, a 12 mile assault course which has allsorts of obsticles, such as crawling through nettles and electric wires (sounds fun!!). It was going to be a shorter run, as I wasn’t sure how far he had covered so far but we ended up doing about 9.5km, which was good and he kept up with the pace and did really well, now all he has to do it run that again and avoid 10,000 volts 🙂

Training next week will consist of more running and a return to the gym (Greens keep emailing and texting me to see if I am ok, as I haven’t been in ages!)

I am still fundraising for the Special Care Unit, my Just Giving page is http://www.justgiving.com/AnthonyClark2012 or you can follow the link on my blog.

If this sounds like fun ‘Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses, half a million inspiring participants, and more than $2 million dollars raised for the Wounded Warrior Project, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world.‘ then follow this link to get some info: http://toughmudder.com/

Bit of a gap since my last weekly update, but normal service should resume from now on. Rather than summerise all the runs in this period I am going to just focus on yesterdays run, my first Marathon.

A lovely sunny day for a run, I knew I wanted to go long and with the intention to hit the magic 42.19km, or 26.3 miles. As it was a hot day (for the time of year) and I was unsupported I would have to carry all the fluids and nutrition I would need for the run, so with that in mind I had 2 litres of water in a hydration bladder, 400ml of electrolyte drink in a bottle on the shoulder strap, both on the OMM Ultra Pack. I was also wearing my Salomon waist pack with another 400ml bottle, giving me just under 3 litres of fluid which I hoped would last me. I also was carrying an energy gel, some Cliff Shots and a pack of Jelly babies so I felt I had enough to keep me going.

Armed with a camera to capture some of the journey, and a very loose idea of where I wanted to go I set off at 08:25. I followed my standard route via Lloyd Park, Addington Hills down into Addington, then heading up Featherbed Lane to get to the trail that leads up to Warlingham.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got to the end of the trail that runs through the Golf course and rather than my usual turn right, I decided to head left towards…well I wasn’t sure. At this point I was over the hour and had started to mannage my pace and mix in more walking, given it was my first Marathon I was intending to do, and that I am training for the Ultra I wasn’t too concerned over timing it was more about making sure that the distance was done.

There road I was travelling down was long, and just seemed to go on forever. That and it being lane with no path meant I was on constant lookout for what I soon came to realise the biggest risk, cyclists. Cars are ok, you can hear them coming so if one is behind you there is ample time to move out the way with bikes, no chance, silent up until you start hearing a faint noise of tyre on road and on this road travelling super quick I was on constant alert to avoid getting a bike up the arse.

Once I got to the end of the deathtrap of a road, I realised where I was and started heading to Titsey Hill as I knew there was a good trail that I could take, I was at about 18km when I arrived so the 6km route was the clear winner as I needed to get the mileage in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This trail starts off as a nice downhill followed by it levelling out for a about a km, before another downhill. Obviously what goes down must come up  and I wasn’t disappointed, it was hardwork! I was starting to feel the hills more and more so it wasn’t welcome, but one I got it out the way I knew it was a fairly level run back into Warlingham. As time wasn’t at the forefront of my mind and despite all the fluids I had onboard was starting to crave more carbs I was going to head into Botley Hill Farm to get a pint of orange and lemonade ( a decision I had made on the Titsey trail). To my disappointment the pub was closed and my craving went unfulfilled. That said I was running low on fluids so had a stop at Aid Station Sainsburys to get a bottle of water to put in the hydration pack (on a side note, why to people on a self checkout decide to to a trolly full of scanning!!!).

Sainsburys was the 30km mark (18miles) and generally this is considered to be the point where the body starts to suffer, most commonly known as ‘The Wall’. As I had never experienced this before I was uncertain how I would be effected, I would like to say I didn’t notice anything and just carried on but that would be a lie. The first thing I noticed was the feeling of sickness, I wanted to throw up, I knew I had to keep eating and drinking but I just couldn’t, every stride started to become harder and harder, with me focusing on a point ahead, such as a tree, and telling myself to get there then I could walk for a bit. This feeling carried on for about 3 miles (3 painful miles) but after that I bizzarly started to feel better. When I was on the home straight around 24 miles I was just giggling to myself as I ran because I knew I was going to do it.

The feeling of hitting the distance was amazing, and one I will want to repeat. More so it was a mental achievement, I know I can do this distance so the challenge of the Ultra seems that little bit more manageable. I did have a lessons learnt from this training day, hydration. I thought I drank loads, I had to top up my water at the shops, yet I only had to pee once, and it was not the pee of a well hydrated individual coming out the colour of lucozade. This is a concern, you get your hydration wrong your stuffed and is somthing I am going to look into in more detail with a structured plan for my long runs probably being necessary.

Anyway, summary of the 2 weeks in distance, time and calories followed my some more pics

Distance: 98.32km, Time: 9hrs 55mins, Calories: 8,205

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the week started out with a 20km run on the Monday, the missed long run from the Sunday before. Seemed I made a good decision as the weather was had vastly improved over the Sunday and it was actually quite pleasant out, apart from the wind which made going a a bit tough in places, especially as I got more elevation.

Tuesday I ran in the evening, changing my normal routine of running first thing in the morning before work. It was a fairly straight forward road loop, which appeared to be a good choice as I think I set one of my fastest 7km runs at 0:34:23.

Wednesday was another evening run, this time with Gareth and Kirsty straight after work, a nice recovery run with some hill sprints thrown in for fun. Thursday was just under 10km, with Friday being a day off as I had the Asics Trailman on the Saturday.

Obviously Saturday was the Trailman (I have written a seperate review of the race) and Sunday was a couple of hours of Squash in the morning with a cheeky 8km run in the afternoon (it was far to sunny to pass up the opportunity).

What I have become aware of this week is the difficulty of running seperate races in-between my longer term training for the NDW50, as really this week should have been more of a taper for the Trailman, which I didn’t really do due to the necessity of getting the miles on the legs. I think I paid for this on the actual race, so this is somthing I am going to have to bare in mind with the other races that are booked before August.

Total Distance Run: 65.44km, Total Time: 6:16:19, Total Calories: 5514

On a side note, I can now see the red on my trainers again (yay).

The week started out well, Monday was a rest day following the weekends training (and the lay in was most appreciated). Tuesday was when the fun began with a 10km run in the morning, it was also Tuesday when I realised that i was about 12km off completing a total of 200km for the month. I wasn’t sure if I would be running both Wednesday and Thursday so I wanted to ensure that i hit the magic number, and did a 5km run Tuesday evening as well. I was quite pleased with the pace of that run, the only problem being that when it came to Wednesday morning by legs were dead and the 7km that morning was unpleasant, but carried on with the 200km ticking over and me achieving the most distance run in a month.

I decided Thursday should be a “rest” day and so didn’t run, instead doing a weight workout on my legs. Now you would think that running would mean that my leg muscles are pretty used to being worked, well it seems that was proved wrong. You know when you have overdone things when you need to lower yourself into a seat with your arms!! The aches didn’t relent for Saturday, so a long run was not looking like a good idea. Part of me thinks I probably should have just pushed on and done it anyway but with the legs aching and the late night (read Guiness) I opted out and just completed a 10km run instead, still off road and got some good hills in. Sunday was Squash, where a few of us play for a couple of hours. Only won a couple of games and Steve (my Squash nemesis) seems to be pulling a lead on the games front, with him winning 4 to my 2.

With the long run being missed this Saturday, I may move it to the Monday although I will see what the weather is like first

Total distance run: 32.57km, Total Time: 2:58:53, Total Calories: 2790

Started well this week, ran a 10km run on the Monday which, although no off roading involved was enjoyable. Tuesday was a 7km run but was feeling a little bit ropey, nose was starting to get blocked and breathing was a little ragged. Woke up on Wednesday with the intention to run to the gym, but was in no condition to do so so had a lay in instead. This continued to Friday where guilt for not running or going to the gym was taking over, so a run to and from and a quick workout was in order.

Saturday is the usual day for my long runs, and despite a nose that seemed to have an infinate amount of snot i decided to carry on. Was a great day for it, and i wanted to test my new OMM I-Gamy for my backpack as well. Usual route taken, from Croydon to Addington hills, then down to Addington and up Featherbed lane, picking up a trail that takes me up the hill to Warlingham. Generally this route is all up hill on the way out, and when heading back home it tends to be downhill. Still using the 5:1 method, basically run for an hour then switch to 5 mins run 1 min walk, finding a good technique as the 1 min walk encourages you to take on fluid and nutrition (a must for an Ultra). In the end it was about 25km, slowly increasing the distance. I will carry on at the 25km distance for a couple more sessions then increase it to 30km.

Sundays run was excellent fun. Got up nice and early to go an meet Gareth, then headed to Boxhill for a training run that he had mapped. Started well, nice gentle decent, then slight ascent which was all fine. Then, the longest downhill which seemed to go on forever (and was not gentle). Eventually we arrived at the stepping stones at the base of Box Hill, with the intention of going on around then back up, but we picked up a trail, ran for a bit and the trail promptly ended. Rather than go back there was a scramble up the hill (no trail to follow) which was a full feet and hands job.

We found our way back to a clear bridleway and headed back to the car, what was supposed to be a 10km run ended up being 15km, however it was great fun and i would do the same route again (minus the scramble).

Total Distance Run: 65.45km. Total Time: 7hr 3mins. Total Calories: 5450