Update

Just over 2 months to go before the race. The last 2 years have flown by and it's all starting feel very imminent. I've started to get organised with buying kit and making sure I've sorted out all of my appointments for ecg testing and vaccinations etc. I've paid the final instalment of just over £1600 and have received my race number 913. The training's going okay although it was difficult for a few weeks when I had the snow and ice to contend with but I managed to keep going with a few sessions on the treadmill and rower as well as some pretty hardcore runs through deep snow on Hankley Common.
On New years Day I went with James to run in the Box Hill Knacker Cracker 10k. It was particularly muddy and slippery this year so my time was a little down on last year but overall I was satisfied. My next event is the Punchbowl Marathon which is a 30 mile run organised by the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA). It takes place in a couple of weeks and will be a good test of my endurance over fairly hilly off road terrain.

A GRIM weekend

December 5th and 6th the GRIM Challenge took place on the army vehicle testing land at Aldershot. It's an 8 mile multi-terrain race which involves running through waist deep water, clambering through camouflage netting and running up and down steep sandy hills.

Last year I took a small video camera with me and filmed the race from a competitors point of view and posted the footage on YouTube. A few months later I was contacted by Michael McGrath, the head of a Muscular Dystrophy charity, and asked to film the 'Muscle Warriors' team at the 2009 event. The result of my efforts can be seen here..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPXaJqQBj0M

And on the following day I took part in the Sunday race and managed to knock 4 minutes off my personal best.

Athens Marathon

Two weeks after the Snowdonia Marathon and I was off to Greece for the Athens Classic Marathon. It was warm and sunny in Athens when we arrived on Saturday but the following morning we awoke to the sound of heavy rain. The race started in the town of Marathon at 9am which meant catching a bus from the centre of Athens at 6:30am.

The weather at the start was pretty miserable but at least it was fairly cool for running.

The route from Marathon to the Panathinaikon Stadium in Athens follows the coast for the first 10k before heading inland and uphill for the next 20k and then dropping down to the finish.

I completed the race in 4hrs 45' 23" having found it a lot tougher than I'd expected. The fact that I'd run a marathon two weeks earlier (and a tough one at that) must have had an effect on my energy levels so I was fairly happy with my efforts in Athens.

Next year's race is the 2500th anniversary of the battle of Marathon so I may be tempted to go back for another attempt at the classic course.

Snowdonia Marathon 2009

Well it was back to North Wales for another crack at the Snowdonia Marathon. Last year the weather was terrible - 90mph winds, driving rain and cold. This year it was marginally better -70mph winds, driving rain and milder temperatures.

I was aiming to get round in under 4 hours but it actually took me 4hrs 26' 24". I wasn't too disappointed with my time though because the conditions were pretty bad and i did knock about 40 minutes off my 2008 time. So the target for next year is sub 4 hours.

Here's a video of the race as seen from the runner's perspective. Sorry if it's a bit unsteady but I think it captures the essence of the event.

an up and down week....

On a positive note, the training is still going well. There are just two weeks to go before we make the journey to Wales for the Snowdonia Marathon and four weeks before flying out to Greece for the Athens Marathon.

To that end I've been building up the weekly mileage over the last few months and am currently averaging just over fifty miles per week.

Last weekend I went out with James for a 20 mile training run which took us from home to the other side of Aldershot where we picked up the Basingstoke canal towpath. We ran alongside the canal for about five or six miles, passing through Fleet and out into the countryside towards Odiham. We then followed the narrow lanes through Crondall and Dippenhall before returning to Farnham in a pretty good time of two hours and fifty six minutes. Both of us felt good all the way round the course and neither of us suffered much in the way of aches and pains over the following days, so we both took a good positive boost from our efforts.

And talking of aches and pains - I've had a very unpleasant time of it over the last week and a half thanks to some severe tooth pain caused by a root canal filling coming out and leaving an exposed nerve. Not only that, but it turns out that I also had a abscess under the affected tooth!

Several nights spent trying to sleep through the agonising pain and overdosing on ibruprofen and paracetamol left me pretty miserable and desperate to get something done about it asap. Luckily, I managed to see a dentist on Tuesday thanks to someone else cancelling their appointment. The news from Ms Van der Bilt was not good however. The tooth was 'not viable' and would have to come out! I was back at 2pm on Thursday for the extraction. I won't go into details of the procedure because it wasn't very pleasant but I guess it was worth it in the end as I'm now virtually free of pain - it's just a bit sore now from all the yanking and tugging that was required to get the tooth out!

Anyhow, I was sufficiently recovered to get out on a 14 mile x-country run today in the bright Autumn sunshine. That'll probably be my last long run before Snowdon, so look forward to a couple of weeks tapering down now.

Running as the sun rises.....

Here are some photos from this morning's run..

This is why I get out of bed at 6am!

Tempos, hills and intervals....

I'm attempting to increase my pace with a view to getting under 4 hours for the Snowdonia Marathon and sub 3:30 for the Athens. So, as well as regular long runs - 15 miles last Saturday - I've also been throwing in plenty of sessions designed to improve my speed. These include hill-sprint sessions at the Devil's Jumps, tempo runs of about 10k on Hankley Common and interval training at the military running track in Aldershot. And all of this seems to be doing some good because I'm starting to notice a gradual improvement in my overall pace.

I'm also increasing my monthly distance and for the first time I exceeded 200 miles, which is a bit of a mile-stone. I'll have to careful not to pick up any injuries though as there are only about 8 weeks to go before the Snowdonia Marathon and it'd be a shame to injure myself now through overtraining.

West Cork

We had a great 3 week holiday at the cottage in Union Hall. Jenny and I spent the first couple of weeks alone and were then joined by James and Richard for the last week and by Jess for the final few days. The weather was really good apart from a couple of days of rain and we made good use of the boat with plenty of waterskiing and trips to Sherkin Island. We also made good use of the windsurfer and kayak.
On the running front, I kept up the training with daily 7 mile runs through the West Cork countryside. Jenny came with me for all but one or two runs and managed to cope really well with the hilly course. We also hiked up Hungry Hill on the Beara Peninsular with James and Rich.
So al in all a very relaxing few weeks despite all the physical activities!
Now back at work but maintaining the training momentum with some good sessions over the last week or so including hill training at the Devil's Jumps (new pb of 1'38" for the sprint to the summit) and 26k around Hankley Common last Saturday. I also smashed my 10k rowing time and got under 40' for the first time.

Gibbet Hill 10k

It was off to Haslemere last week for another go at the Gibbet Hill 10k race which, as the name suggests, is a hilly course starting in Wey Hill and climbing to the top of Gibett Hill and back down again. I was joined for the race by James and his mate Tom, who was doing his first race having only started running a couple of weeks beforehand.
I was aiming to try to beat my record of 49'21", which I'd set two years ago.
It's a pretty informal race but with a high percentage of local running club members taking part it can be quite competetive. And so it was a short walk to the start, a few words from the starter and we were off.
The first mile or so took us along a quiet road which climbed out of the residential area and into the countryside before a marshall signalled for us to turn onto a bridleway and the start of a serious climb to the viewpoint at the top of Gibett Hill. By this time I'd left James and Tom to their own race and tried to make my way through the field of runners, many of whom had started at a strong pace but were struggling with the climb through the forest.
The top of the climb came at about three and a half miles after which the next mile and a half was pretty flat. As I approached the final mile back down to the finish I noted that I'd been running for just over 40 minutes and was in with a very good chance of beating my pb. So I pushed hard and virtually spinted down the road towards the finish. Somehow the last mile and a bit took over 8 minutes but I still managed to cross the finish line having knocked 50 seconds off my pb. Job done.

Back to the training...

Since the Picnic I've been back running regularly over at Hankley Common. I've also been trying to mix things up a bit with visits to the gym, cycling (road and off-road) and swimming. The gym sessions are designed to increase my upper body strength - in particular my arms. I was surprised at how much my arms were aching after the Picnic marathon - running up hills requires good strength in the the arms and shoulders. I've also been back on the rower for some longish sessions. My latest efforts produced a 40'52 10k and a 5k in 20'13. I need to get under 40' and 20' respectively and also test myself over 2000m.

The Picnic...

was no picnic. It was damned hard. I got very bad cramp at the 18 mile point and was very close to pulling out - mainly because I was at the bottom of 200 odd steep steps and every time I tried to lift a leg up to place my foot on the next step my legs cramped up completely. Eventually I managed to sidle up the side of the steps thus avoiding having to raise my legs too high and temporarily holding the cramp at bay. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the top though and when I did I tripped over a root and fell to the ground at which point the cramps came back with a vengeance. I couldn't even stand up, it was that bad. I had to crawl along the ground to a nearby tree and haul myself up using the lower branches for support. The rest of the race - the next 8 miles - was spent trying to overcome the frequent cramp attacks which were particularly viscous on the up-hills - of which there were many!

I finally finished, to my great relief, in 6 hrs 23 mins. I was 80th out of about 120 starters many of whom dropped out at the half-way point.

I'm planning to have another attempt at the Picnic when it's run again in 2011 - hopefully I'll be able knock a few minutes off my time (maybe even get under 6 hours) and next time I'll be carrying some electrolyt drink with me which should help with the cramp problems.

Tapering for the Picnic

The Picnic Marathon is only 4 days away now so I've had my last run until Saturday's race. I started last week with a long Sunday run of around 14 miles and then took it easy on the running front with a few morning runs, a couple of swims and a 30 minute session on the rower. At the weekend I just did a 4 mile run with Jenny and then an 8 miler on Sunday. I've been using my Mizunos for most of my runs over the last couple of weeks because I think that at 850 miles the New Balance shoes are beginning to lose a bit of cushioning and I was noticing some soreness in my achilles and underneath my heel. That seems to have cleared up now so it looks as though I'll be starting the Picnic free of injury. The only slight concern is that the forecast is for very warm weather on the day of the race so I'll need to take plenty of water + electrolytes to ward off the cramps!

Turbo X trail race...

On Sunday I took part in the first of this year's Turbo X races at Bracknell. I was ill-prepared for the race having been out for two runs and a mountain bike ride the day before. In theory you're supposed to rest the day before such an event but nevermind, I just got carried away.
The weather on the day of the race was very warm and sunny. The course was pretty tough with loads of hills and of course the mandatory muddy bogs to wade through. Having had such little rain recently it was a surprise to find just how wet and muddy some parts of the course were. It was all good fun though and a good way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday morning. I finished the race in 1 hr 56 - the distance was said to be between 10 and 12 miles.
It took me almost as long to rinse the mud out of my kit when I got home. And I must remember not to wear a white running top at these events in the future!
Check out the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P22Z65wTWCs

Speechless..

Whether or not it was the drenching and cold bath from last weekend, or just bad luck, but I developed a sore throat and cough during the following week and felt pretty rough when I awoke on Thursday morning. So I decided to have a rest from running for a couple of days. The following morning matters were even worse and I had completely lost my voice. The first time that's ever happened to me! It was pretty weird being at work and not being able to communicate with anyone apart from through little messages on post-it notes. Friday night I ventured down to the Spotted Cow in the hope that a couple of pints of beers would loosen up my larynx but it was not to be. Luckily, though, I woke up on Saturday morning with a partially restored voice which I took to mean I was on the mend. I'd planned a long weekend run of 20 miles or so but decided to allow myself time to recover properly and opted for back to back runs of 8.5 miles on Saturday and the same on Sunday. I also went out mountain biking with Jenny on Sunday evening. The weather over both days was brilliant, 25 c and hardly a cloud in the sky - a definite improvement on the previous weekend.

Drenched...

I'm keeping up the regular weekday runs which are between 4 and 6 miles daily but trying to get out on a long-ish run every weekend. This Sunday I set off with Jenny for a circuit of Hankley Common and then ran home via Frensham Pond, Bourne Woods and the North Downs Way. And it absolutely poured with rain for the first hour and a half. I was completely soaked and was past caring about getting any wetter so enjoyed myself splashing through the middle of the deepest, muddiest puddles I could find!
I'd more or less resigned myself to running the whole way in the rain but the sun did come out eventually and I started to dry off and warm up a bit as I crossed Frensham Common.
After 10 miles or so I was running along the Tilford Reeds bridleway when I heard voices behind me about 200m back. I realised that the voices were undoubtedly those of the 'Farnham Runners' out on their regular Sunday club run. I didn't want to be overtaken by them so upped my pace a bit. After a few minutes I could tell that they were still behind me but not gaining on me any more. By now the competitive streak was coming out in me so I upped my pace a bit more and the voices soon drifted off into the distance. And that was the last I heard from the Farnham Runners! The rest of the run went okay and I managed to get home in under two and a half hours. Total distance was 14.3 miles.
Unfortunately our central heating boiler was broken so I was forced to have a post- run cold bath! Brrrrr! Good for getting rid of the lactic acid though (so I'm told) and sure enough I was free of aching muscles this morning so maybe it does work.

North Downs Way 23 Miler

With the Picnic Marathon looming on the horizon I decided it was time to test myself on a longer run of 20 miles plus, and what better test than to have another go at a stretch of the North Downs Way path which runs from Dorking to Farnham, a distance of 23.5 miles. So I packed my rucksack with energy bars and a couple of bottles of water, made up a new playlist for the i-pod and set off on bright, sunny Saturday morning. I got a lift to Guildford station from where I caught the 8:48am train to Dorking Deepdene. After a very relaxing 15 minute train ride I was strolling up the London Road out of Dorking and after about a mile I was at the point where I could pick up the North Downs Way. So I started the stopwatch, switched on my i-pod and to the sound of Lykke Li's 'I'm Good, I'm Gone' I set off up the path leading to the top of the North Downs.
After a few miles I was to encounter the first of many groups of teenagers out on a days hike, carrying large rucksacks and bedrolls. It must have been a Duke of Edinburgh Awards day or something. As for my rucksack, it was getting a bit annoying. I had a water bottle jammed into the bottle holder at the side of the pack and I'd stuffed another one into the main compartment for later. Unfortunately it was soon bouncing around the inside of the bag and banging into the small of my back with every step I took. So I retrieved it from inside my rucksack and opted to carry it the rest of the way. The leg from Dorking to Newland's corner is about 8 or nine miles and seemed to go on forever but the occasional view across to Leith Hill made it less monotonous. Once I'd passed the cafe at Newland's corner and countless more groups of young D of E hikers, I dropped down into the valley and immediately up a sandy path to St Martha on the Hill, a church which stands on the top of a wooded hill with fantastic views across Surrey. From there it was mainly downhill to Guildford and after crossing the River Wey I was soon heading out towards the village of Puttenham. This was to be the fourth time that I'd attempted this run and on the past three times I'd always taken over 5 hours to get back to Farnham. So I was keen to get below 5 hours for the first time. As I jogged through Puttenham I realised that I was making good time and providing I kept running and didn't slow too much, I'd get in under my target time. So I munched on an energy bar (the first of the run) and battled on. By now I was starting to feel a bit achey. I wasn't so much tired but my back was getting a bit stiff and my hips were aching a bit too. As I approached Farnham Golf Course I stopped briefly for a stretch to loosen my back up a bit. That seemed to help somewhat and I was soon back on my way and with just two miles to run I knew that I was definitely going to get back within the 5 hour limit I'd set myself. As it was , I completed the run in 4 hours 49 minutes. The next time I'm aiming for a sub 4 hours 30 which I think is do-able.

Cross training

Well, I ended up having a light weekend as far as running went with a 5 miler on Friday and a couple of 4 mile runs on Saturday and Sunday but I did get out for some good mountain biking sessions. It was good to do something different and about time I the Marin out for a blast. The weather was perfect for cycling - not too hot but plenty of sun - and the trails were dry after the recent spell without rain.
The only drawback with the warmer weather is that the Adders are starting to come out of hibernation and are ready to pounce on any unsuspecting runners who happen to disturb them! I heard one slithering off into the heather as I ran past on Saturday and some dog walkers warned us that they'd seen one on a nearby trail that we were about to run on. I guess I should be more concerned about Jackson getting bitten as Adder bites can often be fatal to dogs. How do you train dogs not to go near snakes?

Longer runs

I'm still increasing my long weekend runs and am now up to about 14+ miles. I'm planning to do a slightly shorter one this weekend and then attempt the Dorking to Farnham 20 miler next Saturday. If I can manage that okay then I'll feel in with a realistic chance of completing the Picnic Marathon in June.
Everything's organised for the Athens Marathon in November. I'll be flying out with Julian (a colleague from work) on the Saturday morning, doing the race on Sunday and then flying home on Monday evening. That'll give us a chance to get in a few beers on Sunday night and do some sight seeing on the Monday!

High mileage...

It looks like I'm going to be hitting the 150 mile/month target this month. I put that down to doing more long runs and also having less rest days. I know that I'm supposed to have a rest day every week to let the body recover and avoid injuries but the way things have been working out I've just felt like going out running every day. The only exception being last Monday when I had some sort of 24 hour bug or maybe a mild dose of sunstroke. Or maybe it was just my body telling me to take a rest. But I was back to normal by Tuesday and have put in some good training sessions this week. Today I went for a run with Jenny and then a 1600m swim at the Garrison pool. My first swim for ages and I really enjoyed it so will try to make time for more swim sessions.

Skyline 10k

Had a great race this morning.

The Trionium Skyline 10k http://www.trionium.com/skyline/ starts at Denbies Vineyard near Dorking. The race is organised by Dr Rob McCaffrey, who also puts on a number of other running events in the Dorking area. This was to be the inaugural Skyline 10k race but the course record of 45'11" had already been set by Dr Rob himself on a solo jaunt a few weeks ago!!
The first 2k is up a steep track onto the North Downs. Then it's a further 3k along flat-ish trails until the 5k mark, at which point you turn around and run back to the start. The weather was fantastic and the views amazing. My race plan was to just try to pick off as many runners on the initial climb as I could and then really go for it on the flat section, knowing that I'd have the luxury of a 2k downhill finish. Everything went pretty much according to plan and I came in a respectable 39th place out of 169 runners. My time was 48'49" which means I was averaging about 7:52/mile. Not bad for a hilly x-country run!
The rest of the day I spent on other activities including some lawn mowing, weeding, table tennis and finally a hard game of squash with Richard.
I think I've overdone it a bit today though or maybe had too much sun because I'm feeling a bit shivery and tired now, so it's off to bed early tonight.